The Kevin Sheehan Show - Draft Hypocrisy + Gary Williams

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Kevin opened with Caps, Nats, and a response to an emailer who thinks Kevin's approach to draft content is hypocritical. Hall of Fame coach Gary Williams jumped on to talk NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 plus a look back to 25 years ago when Maryland went to its first Final 4.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Our listeners get the Harry’s Plus Trial Set for only $10 at https://www.Harrys.com/[INSERT CODE]  #Harryspod For all your garden needs: fastgrowingtrees.com/sheehan 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. Ovechkin, behind the defense, court the empty goal. Yes, sir.

Under Ovechkin, career hat trick number 34. Joe Beninati last night with the call in Salt Lake City to Great Eighths, the 34th hat trick is now the fourth most in NHL history. It was also the two. 21st different franchise he's had a hat trick against. That is an NHL record. The show's presenting sponsor is always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com. If you need new windows, mention my name, and Window Nation will come out and give you a fast, free in-home estimate. The Caps won the game against the Utah Mammoth to keep their very faint playoff hopes alive.

Of course, Alex Ovechkin is headed to the Hall of Fame one day. Gary Williams, he's already in the Hall of Fame, and the coach will join me on the show in the next segment to talk not only NCAA tournament suite 16 and looking ahead to the Elite 8 games, but we'll go back 25 years ago nearly to the day when Maryland won its first ever Elite 8 game to get to its first ever Final 4. I will finish up the show with two more smell test picks for tonight's Sweet 16 games, 2-0 last night with Arizona and Illinois, 16 and 8 now for the tournament.

The Nats got a win on opening day yesterday at Wrigley, 10 to 4 the final, a big offensive day by nearly everybody, except James Wood, who in the lead-off spot went 0 for 5 with four strikeouts, Three home runs by the Nats on a blustery day in the windy city. Young, Weimer, and House all went yard in the opener. Cade Cavalli's anticipated start was Soso. He struck out five but gave up two earned runs and three hits in just three and two thirds. The Nats and Cubs off tonight back at it tomorrow.

The NCAA tournament's four Sweet 16 games last night were pretty good. good, especially the first two. Purdue winning with seven-tenths of a second left on a tip-in by Trey Kaufman-Renn, 79-77 over Texas, and Iowa coming back to beat Nebraska in an all Big Ten Sweet 16 game in the South region 77 to 71. There was an unbelievable sequence in that Iowa Nebraska game, something that doesn't happen very often, if ever, Nebraska, on a key defensive sequence with under a minute to go in the game, had four defensive players on the court. I will talk to Gary Williams about whether or not that's ever happened in a game that he's coached.

But Iowa moves on with Ben McCollum. My God, is he a good coach? They are really, really outdistencing their talent at this point. but they will face Illinois in an all Big Ten South region final in Houston. Illinois went into Houston and beat Houston 65 to 55. I thought Keaton Wogler, their freshman point guard 6-6, had 46 in a game earlier this year at Purdue. The stat line may not show it 13 points on 4 or 14 from the floor, but I thought he did a phenomenal job controlling the pace and really controlling the game.

He had 12 rebounds in the game from the point guard spot. And then Arizona looked apart last night, destroying Arkansas 109 to 88. I think a lot of people now believe Arizona is the best team in the drawoff. They didn't already. They looked so good. Calipari after the game said Arizona is so good. He knew it going in and said it was a bad matchup for them. Arizona will play Purdue in the West Region final tomorrow night.

Right after Arizona went final, I texted a group of friends of mine that all love to dabble in wagering on games. The same way I kind of wager on games, we're always looking for kind of the contrarian play. And I just said, the whole world's going to be on Arizona almost no matter what the number is. But if that number's under seven, they're going to hammer Arizona, and I'm going to have Purdue for the limit. I promise you right now, the lines at six, Purdue's going to be a smell test pick tomorrow. At Kevin Sheen, D.C. to get the smell test picks over the weekend. But I give Purdue a shot against Arizona for sure. But four good games.

It was really interesting. the Texas Purdue game, which was the first to go last night. And they separate these games, the start times, by about 30 minutes. The game did not have its first TV timeout. Literally, a whistle did not blow until about the 1028 mark. And then they doubled up, the under 16 and the under 12. But then there were significant delays with replay on what was maybe a flagrant, maybe not at the beginning of the second half.

And the other early game, Iowa and Nebraska, caught up to it. So both of those games ended almost simultaneously. Actually, the Texas Purdue game, which was the first to start, was the last to finish. And then the two late games tipped off almost at the same time. You don't want that. You want some separation. Hopefully we'll get that tonight. But those games are great.

And of course, tonight we get the two capital one, Chinatown, D. games, East Region, St. John's Duke, followed by Michigan State and Yukon. I mean, looking forward to watching both of those. And then Alabama, Michigan, and Tennessee, Iowa State in the Midwest region. I've enjoyed this tournament, even though I was kind of lukewarm going into it. I think it's been really good. The teams, the players, there have been super impressive performances, some really good coaching other than Fred Hoyberg, who's a really good coach. But what happened last night to him and Nebraska was a shame. This from Decker, who writes about the NFL draft. Kevin, I can't believe how much draft content you provide, considering you think it's totally up to chance.

I really love all of it and enjoyed your guests the other day, but it's funny to me that you talk so much about it and put so many, as you say, experts on the show for their opinions, and yet you don't think anybody is an expert on the draft. Sorry, but it seems hypocritical. Thank you, Decker, for that. You know, it is a bit hypocritical in the sense that I do on one hand say that the draft is a total crapshoot that few, if any, really get it right a majority of the time, including the teams that get paid to do it. but on the other hand, I do have opinions on it and I put people on and yes, do bill them

sometimes as draft experts, maybe experts is the wrong way to bill the guests that I have on. Maybe draft analysts are the way to go on our guests here. Analyst is better because nobody is an expert on the draft. I mean, nobody is. and it's true, man. I think the draft really is just entertainment. It's super important, obviously, to the construction of an NFL roster, and you look back to teams that get more right tend to be better teams.

I honestly just don't think a lot of the analysis, including some of the people that I put on this show, is proof positive of anything, anything. Again, the teams get it wrong, two-thirds of the time. And then there's us. I mean, we don't have 50, 60, 70, 75% of the information that the teams have. I mean, we don't know anything about these individuals personally, unless there's been big write-ups about the players. And that's a big part of the evaluation.

I don't know, this time of year, Decker, it's really just for fun. It is just for fun. I think when we talk about games in the fall as fans, describing what we think we saw or what we think we will see prior to a game, that conversation to me lands much closer to the truth than any of the conversations that we're having right now about the NFL draft. But I think it's fun nonetheless. I think for me, the thing that is definitely true.

And I forget who said this a few weeks ago, but I did cite it. I remember it was a well-known college football person, I think. But as a big college football fan, and I promise you, I like Saturdays as much, if not, a little bit more than Sundays. But it's so easy this time of year for college football fans to spot the people who did not watch much college football. at all. I hear it. I watch it all the time. I'm like, that dude didn't watch college football this year. When you spot somebody like that and then they act like their opinion is gold and it shouldn't be anyway, even if they did watch a lot of college football, I tend to kind of roll my eyes towards those people. Now, I, oh, you know who it was? It was Lewis Riddick who said something to the effect of, you know,

it's so obvious this time of year that so many NFL guys didn't watch much college football. And Lewis Riddick not only watches a lot of college football, but he calls college games every week. I actually think Lewis Riddick is very good. I didn't used to think that. But the more and more in recent years, I think he's a really good draft analyst, not an expert, but analyst. because he really, you know, watches college football. But, yeah, but he was right, and I think I'm right. You know, even people that I know that I hear talking about the draft, and I know they don't watch college football,

and they're not even interested in it. And look, the bottom line is that even, you know, people that would like to watch a lot of college football, some of those people just can't. You know, their business, their job is the NFL during football season. and they're focused on the NFL, and many times they're traveling on Saturdays to and from, you know, their NFL city. But I get it, Decker, you know, and you have a point. You do. The bottom line is, though, that even though we don't know much about it, we love to talk about it, and we love to hear so-called experts talk about it as well. I think there are two types of conversations this time of year about the draft that I like. I like the guy.

who has immersed himself in it. Like, it's his thing. You know, like Kuyper was the first to make the NFL draft his thing. And now we have hundreds of those people. But, you know, dozens, I would say, that do it professionally and perhaps generate revenue doing it. And these are people that this is their job. This is what they're doing.

They are immersed year round in NFL draft talk. like the guy I had on on Wednesday, Beaumarshanti. I've had him on for four or five straight years. That's what he does. The draft is his thing. He's a part of the NFL draft content industry. So when I have guys like him on, at least they have a sense of who should go where

and which teams might be going in which directions. So I do like having some of those people on, especially when they're entertaining. You know, this is this time of year about, entertainment. And so it's always, I mean, if you're looking sort of inside baseball or into how the sausage is made, I think this time of the year, I'd rather have somebody who's entertaining than somebody who maybe people think actually knows what they're talking about. Because again, I don't think there are a lot of people that really are going to get anywhere near a majority

of this stuff. Right. I also love football people. You know, Charlie Kemp, Cassarly this time of year. Jay Gruden this time of year. Scott McLuhan. I have Scott McLuhan on after the draft. He doesn't typically do anything before the draft, but I'll reach out to Scott again. I think I've had him on for three or four straight years after the draft. But guys that have done it before, those are always solid conversations. And by the way, they'll be the first to tell you, man, it's hard. Like, we're just trying to get, you know, a couple out of each draft that end up being, you know, significant contributors. But, but Decker, we've got a month, less than a month now, less than a month to sort of do this.

So Grin and Barrett, even though whatever happens from April 23rd through April 25th, I think those are the dates, won't actually be something we can score for like three years. Three years. All right, let's get to Gary Williams and talk some hoops. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, I introduced you last month to a product called Mando, a product I received for the first time, about three months ago, I guess. I'm a huge fan, and I am a customer now.

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So we will talk about some of these games and look ahead to the Elite 8 and find out who Gary likes. and doesn't like moving forward. But, you know, I had you actually on radio about a month ago. It is now, believe it or not, 25 years since the first Final Four team, which was, you know, an incredible season. I know I've told you this before, but for me, the most emotional for me as a lifelong turp

and as a lifelong fan wasn't the national championship game. It was the Stanford game in the Elite 8. in Anaheim to get to the first Final Four, which we're coming up on right now, 25 years ago, almost to the day. And I'm wondering if you kind of felt similarly about that. You knew we had had great teams, you had had great teams, Lefty had had great teams, but this program had never been to a Final Four. It had been ranked number two more than any school without being ranked number one. There were teams that were favored to get to the Final Four. Did you, feel it like I think a lot of Maryland fans felt that it was incredibly emotional in the

moment to actually know that we were finally going to a final four? That's exactly right. I mean, I'm a lifetime chirp too. I started here when I was 18 years old as a student and, you know, just watching all left these teams, you need some breaks along the way. You really do, you know, watching this tournament, you know, a team tips the ball in with 0.4 seconds left. I mean, that's nice. The kid worked hard to get position and all that, but the ball came off where he was, you know, and so that those things, you know,

you just shake your head when they go against you after a few times. But that game against Stanford was interesting because they were the number one seat on the West and the NCAA had once again sent us out west and we had to beat Stanford on basically a home court out there. And we were able to do that, but, you know, we had a very resilient team that that year wasn't completely smooth. You know, some strange things happened that year in terms of us, you know, not finishing some games, and we had to get it back together.

And when we did, we were really good. And, you know, like you said, emotionally, that was more emotional than winning a national championship, believe it or not. I do believe it, and I felt the same way, and I think a lot of Maryland basketball fans of a certain age, you know, 25 years ago, felt the same way as well, because there were a lot of, you know, fan scars from a lot of teams that we thought should have gotten there that didn't. But it was an incredible moment. And of course, a week later was the final four game in Minneapolis against Duke.

We are coming up on the actual 25-year anniversary of that game. You've talked about that game many times in the past with me and many others. But here we are 25 years later, a quarter of a century later. Give me your thoughts of that day and maybe something we don't know about that game. I think the big thing is, you know, you need to, To really be good consistently, you need the help of a great administration for your university plus the athletic administration. And we, unlike some teams, we had to come back from Anaheim, California, to college park, and then go out to Minneapolis, which I wasn't happy about. But, you know, the powers that be were worried about, you know, how much class you want to miss, you know, that type of thing.

We made that haul. And then we got up 22. We weren't 22 better than Duke. I knew that. I knew they'd make a run. They had it to 12, I think, at halftime, which, you know, I still thought we were in really good shape. But the second half, the officiating changed in terms of it became anything. You could do anything you wanted defensively, basically holding the guys.

You know, a couple of our guys got tackled, a couple loose balls. they didn't go for the ball. They just, you know, got our guy out of the way. And, you know, you had to deal with that. And to Duke's credit, they took advantage of it. You know, they just went after, which all good teams do. And we still had a shot to win. And then the ultimate was, I guess it was Boozer and Lonnie Baxter.

Boozer, the father now the twins. You know, how about the fact that twins are going to make a lot more money or are making a lot more money than Boozer did when he played professional? Exactly. Right. But that's a game that I'll never forget because we lost the game. You know, whatever happened, we lost that game. And I was very concerned that we'd be too happy about getting to a Final Four.

And, you know, just kind of mail it in the next year because we had most of those guys back. But we worked really hard in the offseason. And, you know, we had great leadership. When you have a back court like Juan Dixon and St. Steve Blake and Drew Nicholas, those three guys. They're not only really good basketball players, but people, you know, and I'm saying, you know, I've been fortunate I coached a lot of really good players, but, you know, the combination of being the type of people they were,

plus their ability to play basketball, that wasn't going to happen. We were going to go after it in 2002, and we did. You know, we just went after, and we didn't have any easy way to go. when we got to the NCAA tournament, we went against a lot of blue bloods to win that championship. That, of course, was the fourth of the four games against Duke played that season, a memorable season in ACC history because of the four meetings, and all four of them were memorable. But you've told me before that it was probably the least memorable of the four games

that was the best game. The first game was, of course, the Gone and 54 seconds game, 10-point lead blown in regulation. Blake fouled out probably shouldn't have. That impacted the end of regulation. Duke wins in overtime. The second game was Shane Batti, a senior night, and Juan Dixon went off,

and Maryland won that game by 10 or 11 at Cameron Indoor. We had the final four game. But the ACC tournament game that was back and forth, and Nate James won with a tip in before Juan had a shot from half court that nearly went in. You have told me before that was the highest quality game of the four that year, right? Yeah, I really believe that neither team is going to back off. And it's great in a game like that at that level, the ACC tournament semifinal, to see two teams play like that, because sometimes the pressure,

takes away from the quality of the game because it means so much. And by then, we had a lot of respect for each other in 2001. We really did. We knew it would be a war, and we went after it. And it was a great game. Mike and I, Mike Sheski and I talked walking off the court and saying that this is, you know, this is college basketball. This is the way it should be.

Yeah. You know, I think there's a 30 for 30. there somewhere down the road about what Maryland and Duke were as rivals during that stretch of the late 1990s into the mid, you know, to late 2000s. But I'll leave that up to somebody else. But I do want to finish with this in terms of the past. How much have we missed as a program not having rivals, not having a true rival, not having multiple rivals that we play every year? How much has that hurt the program? How much have we missed it?

Well, I think the tradition of Maryland basketball, they were a founding partner of the ACC. And, you know, looking back at that whole thing, I guess it was 2014 when Maryland went into the Big Ten, we were in debt $20 million. Athletic partners in debt $20 million. And you look around the country what some of these state schools do for their flagship school like the University of Maryland College Park is. And $20 million isn't a big thing when you look at the total budget of the state or whatever, especially if it meant that we could continue to do what we did, which was playing the ACC. But also, remember, while that was going along with Maryland going to the Big Ten,

The ACC was breaking up the Big East, basically, taking all their football schools. And we were told before we went to the Big Ten that our travel partner, in other words, just the one team we would definitely play twice each year, was going to be Pittsburgh. Right. You know, we don't have a lot in common with Pittsburgh. You know, there's no rivalry there at all. And so it wasn't one way. You know, it was a two-way street.

But I always felt that, you know, it's easy to look back at anything. But we could have very easily stayed in the ACC, you know, and, you know, the way it worked out, sure, it's taken a long time. But I'll tell you what, as soon as we get the program where we're really good, there'll be some rivals, believe me. Because you look at the, you know, the NCAA tournament this year, the Big Ten is really a good basketball conference now. the Big Ten having a whale of a tournament, six in the suite 16, five still left after last night,

guaranteed to have at least one in the final four because Iowa plays Illinois in a regional final tomorrow night. And it's possible they could end up with four in the final four, something that has never happened with any league. And thanks for reminding me that Pitt was going to be our chief crossover rival. there at the end of the days in the ACC as the ACC started to expand as well. We'll get to these Sweet 16 games and beyond, but I do want to ask you now that this Maryland basketball season is over, and you know this, this was the worst season record-wise of my lifetime and really felt worse at times because of the point differential in some of the losses. I thought they played super hard for Buzz all year long,

but man, they were just outmatched so many times this year. So looking ahead to next year, give, you know, Maryland basketball fans a reason to be optimistic about Buzz Williams year two. Well, I think, you know, Buzz has proven Heatham, Buzz Williams has proven he can coach. I mean, he's coached in three major conferences before, coming to Maryland. He knows what he's doing. The problem Buzz had was he got the job really late. The athletic department was in chaos because David Evans had left and his top assistant had left to go to SMU.

And so when he came in, there wasn't a lot of support there because of that. And so I think since Jim Smith has come in, he's done a good job in settling things down and establishing an athletic department that just doesn't want to run as an athletic department, but wants Maryland, you know, obviously football and basketball and revenue sports, to be very successful. And he's working hard to make that. So that's all plus for Buzz that he has somebody in there that's not afraid, you know, to say, you know, we want to be great, you know,

we're going to change things, we're going to make this happen. So Buzz gets the job. He's late with the job. He's hired before the athletic director is hired, which is a difficult situation because, you know, you need some guidance there as you start, you know, your program. And, you know, we had some money.

There was some money in the NIL. And the problem was there was no players on the roster. So it's not just getting three really good players, like most schools try to do in basketball. We had to get 12 guys who could play. We had nobody. We couldn't practice with the way things were. So I think that really heard buzz. He took some kids that he probably had more time to do it.

He wouldn't have taken. But put somebody else in that situation to see what they do. You know, that wasn't, that's about a tough situation. you get into. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, you know, this year we all feel. I'm sure Buzz feels that we're going to be pretty good next year. And I

think he feels that way. And, you know, the transfer portal's coming up right after the NCAA tournament ends up. And that'll be interesting because I think we've got some really good young players coming in, keeping a couple really good players. Plus, if we can get a couple

22, 23-year-olds out of the transfer portal, that's a pretty good combination. Meryl fans listening right now, just if you don't know, the reports are that Pharrell Payne and Andre Mills will be coming back next year. That's huge. What did you think of Mills? He seems like a guy that you would have loved to have coached. Yeah, he puts his heart on the floor. You know, like I think you can't be a good player without doing that first. And then, you know, just to watch him during the year as he got better. It was great to see. And I'll tell you what, he didn't back off anybody.

I went to quite a few of the games. And, you know, you could just see in his eyes, see one of the wins. And you have that attitude. And I think that's going to be the key thing is to get rid of whatever this year was mentally. It's just everything is about next year. It doesn't matter now this past year. What matters is how good can we be next year. And I think we as Maryland fans have to do a good job of that because, you know, the support, you know, it's such a fine line.

And when you're in a league like the Big Ten, like you're seeing this year in the incidentally tournament and how well they're playing, you have to have everything right. You can't have negativity all over the place and all that all the time. You can't have, you know, people in the athletic department not happy, you know, all that stuff. You have to have everybody positive leading towards the same way. And there's no guarantees that, you know, you're going to win, but you can't win unless you have everything in place. And I think we have a chance to do that this coming season. All right.

Let's talk about this tournament and the games that were played last night and the games that are coming up tonight and beyond. We'll do that with Gary Williams as we continue after these words from a few of our sponsors. Did you know that fast-growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and plants and over 2 million happy customers? They have all the plants your yard and home needs, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and house plants, all grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy. It's like your local nursery, but anywhere you live, but with more plants than you'll find anywhere else.

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Fastgrowingtrees.com code Sheean. Now's the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Use Sheean, S-H-E-E-H-A-N to save today. Offers valid for a limited time, terms and conditions may apply. John Sturge, DeMarcus, Lawrence. Look at this pass. Oh, my goodness.

Fulgaris! Well, that was a major defensive breakdown there. Wait a minute. I think Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor. They did. Rink masks. is not on the floor. Nebraska, that is a major breakdown.

They didn't even have five guys on the floor when Iowa was inbounding. You can't match up like that. No, it's hard to play four against five in that sport. That was Stan Van Gundy with Robbie Hummel last night on the call of Nebraska, Iowa. That play came with 58 seconds to go. Nebraska trailing by three and they're in a full court press but with only four players

on the floor. They gave up a dunk and a foul. It was a three-point play. They fell behind by six and it was pretty much game over. We continue with Carrie Williams. Have you ever seen or been a part of anything like that? That bothered me a little bit. If you're watching a game pretty close

and you can't tell on television, but when you're in the arena, watching the game, you see the referees count a lot of times before they give the ball to the inbounder. In other words, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four five,

okay, we're good, we can start, but I can give the ball of the kid to bring it in. They didn't do that. Plus, the coach at Nebraska is really good. He's done an incredible job with that team. You know, Nebraska had never won an NCAA tournament game until this year, and, you know, for that to happen.

My question is, every program now has seven, eight assistants on the sideline. What are they doing? You know, did they miss something? Did all eight guys, all eight assistants not see that? You know, it's like, come on, you got to be, you got to be kidding me. And I really felt bad for Nebraska. I'll tell you what, the Iowa, that's an amazing team. When they came in, I was at the game when they played Maryland.

I didn't think they were very good. I thought they were okay. But watching them, the thing I've seen, seen is you don't want to be in a game with them in the last two minutes of the game, whether you're up one, down one, whatever the situation is, you don't want to be there because they don't make any mistakes offensively or defensively. And they're not the most talented team in the tournament, that's for sure. But the way, if they can keep the game close, and I think their coach, Iowa's coach,

certainly makes a living, has made a living before he came to Iowa on keeping games close with their style of play. And, you know, they're really tough. So if you're going to beat Iowa, you've got to get them early. And it looks like it's Iowa, Illinois. So that should be interesting. How good is that guy McCollum? Well, he's done whatever you can't do any more than he's done.

I know. He's won at every level. You know, I think that's a good example of modern day where you bring guys with you, just like the Indiana football coach did. And they know your system. They can help you with your new players. You know, hey, this guy's okay.

You know, he might get on you a little bit, but, you know, he knows how to coach. You know, we can win if we do it his way. And I think that's, Iowa's a pretty good example that, you know, it's just, it's incredible what Iowa has done that year because if you give them an eye test, You know, like they come out from warmups, whatever. Right.

You're looking down the other end and thinking that, you know, seeing all these athletes down the other end, and you're thinking, wow, Iowa's got no shot. But they're pretty good. Yeah, Iowa gets Illinois in the elite eight. What'd you make of Illinois's win over Houston? I mean, I think a lot of coaches were rooting for Kelvin Sampson to finally get a title,

but they were pretty much handled by Illinois. Yeah, I was rooting for Houston. I've known Kelvin for 30 years. He's one of the good people in the business. And he's going through some tough times, and he's come back and created a really good program at Houston. Illinois is, I think you catch them on a night where they're really playing well,

and they're as good as anybody. They've had games where they haven't played well, given the people in their team. But they're one of those different teams where they have quite a few of the international players. and they seem to play well together. They've done a great job, and they're another big team that spaces and shoots the three.

You know, I guess that's modern college basketball now. And, you know, Houston, nobody's going to play better defense in Houston, and Houston couldn't contain them for most of the game. I mean, it was 14 to 14. I was flipping back and split in the many games, and I thought I had put it on freeze or something when I went back in a game. Yeah. It was still 14 to 14 there in the first half.

It was like eight minutes to go or something like that in the first half. By the way, speaking of all of their Eastern European players, I mean, Yassikovych was probably one of the first from over in that part of Europe to come over and play in college. I know there were a few of them, but how did you find him? He came over to a high school in Pennsylvania. and Billy Hall and my assistant coach at the time, unfortunately was passed, but he went up there and, you know, a couple tournaments go, you know, just see who's there or whatever, especially back then.

It was a little different recruiting. And he kept telling me about this guy that he really played hard. He really knows the game and all that. And I went up his own play, and he was really good. I mean, Samarovic Jetskavich really won a lot of big games for us. helped us win big games during his career. And, you know, his coaching career has been outstanding. He's been coaching the year in Europe, which is hard to do several times.

And he was a great international player. He did play in the NBA for a couple of years. Yeah, for the Pacers. He signed the NBA contract. Didn't play much, but he played. And, you know, I think he's very content. He's got a family now. And probably if any of those European teams, like Greece, Spain,

teams at that top leg in Europe, if they could get him to coach, they'd go after and get them. Do you stay in touch with him? Not much, but, you know, once in a while, you know, something comes up and we'll text back and and forth, but, you know, he was really well-liked, and he was a flat-out sniper. In other words, he was open. It was over. He could really shoot it. And, you know, having a guy like that, like a Drew Nicholas-type play.

player that you can't make a mistake against him defensively. Yeah, no, he had some big, big shots and big moments. Speaking of that, back to Purdue last night and there went over Texas, how much do you like Brayton Smith? He seems like a Gary guy, too, the point guard at Purdue. Yeah, I'm on the committee to pick the Bob Coozy Award, which goes to the outstanding point guard in the country. And we just had a meeting yesterday, in fact.

and he was one of the five finalists, and, you know, he certainly deserves it. And that's what you need. You know, you just need a guy that, I'm not saying it's great to be passed first all the time because of a point guard nowadays, if he doesn't make his shot when he's open, it really hurts the team.

But, you know, this guy, you know, to sit, I mean, just the idea that he has the most assist of any guard in the country, ever. Ever. You know, it's just incredible. And by the way, Steve Blake is the last time I checked is sixth on that list. I know.

Some people seem to keep that a secret for whatever reason. Yeah. So it's so interesting that you bring him up because I was talking to somebody about Braden Smith not that long ago. And I said he reminds me of maybe just a slightly shorter version of Steve Blake. he's long-armed. Blake was always underrated as a defender,

and he had those long arms, and he was, you know, he was a badass competitor, and Braden Smith's the same way. And I kind of see some Blake and Braden Smith, am I off?

No, not at all. I mean, the thing about that, if you can get that into your point guard, you know, he'd do a lot of nasty things to win a game for you. You know,

I mean, he'd call people, you know, if they came down to that, to win a game. I think Smith had that, and Steve Blake obviously had that too for us. And just real quick, the amazing thing about Steve Blake is he played 13 years in the NBA and didn't average in double figure his points during his career at Maryland.

That's probably my fault for not getting him enough shots, which he reminds me, whatever I say. Well, you did have a couple of other guys that could really score. Yeah, and I said, hey, Steve, come on, how to work out. You know, it worked out pretty well. And he knew. And here's the other thing, and I think, you know, Purdue's Guy Smith is the same way. Steve knew, like, what it would take for us to win.

It wouldn't take Steve Blake getting 20 for us to win. That wasn't going to decide it. But if Juan Dixon couldn't get 20 a game, that would probably decide in a big game whether we'd win or not. And so we'd work a lot on how to get guys the ball because obviously teams would try to cover Dixon and you know you have to do some things to get them open and Juan was really smart at getting open

but when you're great you're only open for a couple seconds or maybe a split second so that ball has to be there in the shooting pocket where you can catch and shoot and that's what Steve Blake was and that's what carried him through the 13 seasons in the NBA. Blake currently seventh all-time

on the NCAA men's all-time assist number. number one, Hurley's number two, Corchiani, three, Ed Cota. So three ACCC players there, then Jason Brickman, Keith Jennings, and then Steve Blake,

is ahead of Sherman Douglas, who of course is from here. Do you give Purdue a chance tomorrow night against Arizona? Yeah, I'd give them a chance, but they have to play better than they did against Texas. That's not going to cut it.

You know, you can't, You have to take advantage in a game like that against, you know, somebody as good as Arizona. There's going to be about 10 minutes out of the 40, say, where you can gain the edge in a game and get a little bit of a lead. But those other 30 minutes, you better be playing well also just to stay there where you can take advantage. And how when Arizona, you know, any team has a couple minutes during the game where you don't play well, well, you've got to be ready to go in that situation, but you've got to play really well to stay with Arizona. It comes after you.

I mean, they come after you with their offense. Everybody talks about defense all the time. They remind me of Michigan State a little bit, and that ball gets down court real quick after you score. You think you score, you're happy, you're jogging back, and all of a sudden, the ball's at the foul line, you know, against you. It's coming right after you.

And Arizona does a great job. Plus, I think they really have an advantage in this tournament. because they don't depend on the three-point shot. They'll take it, but they don't depend on it. They want to get that interim jump shot. They want to get fouled. That was a big factor in their game last night. They got to the free throw line quite a bit, and that's their game.

You know, Tommy Floyd's done a great job of putting a system in that's really difficult to play against. It's one that players love to play in because they're always attacking. When you coached against teams that played fast like Michigan State does, and for you probably in the ACC, it was North Carolina because as much as anybody in the ACC during those days, they loved to take the ball out of the net after a made bucket and come right back after you. But was there something specific in practice that you would do to prepare for that? what we did before practice against North Carolina, especially with Dean Smith and Roy Williams, is when we would go in five on five in practice and going full court, when the first team would score,

the second team didn't have to take the ball out of bounds. They just got it out of the net and went, just to try to duplicate how quick Carolina could get the ball down court. And that was the one thing we did, I think, that helped us a lot more. we played Carolina in terms of having to get back. Interesting. You know, I was thinking just about the Tony Bennett, Virginia teams, Gary, where basically he just said, we don't care about offensive rebounds.

We're not sending, you know, additional players to the glass. We are going to make sure that we have everybody back on defense, and when you get the ball, you're going to have to face a set defense. And, you know, there's so many different ways to do it, I guess. obviously if you're a really good offensive rebounding team and you had some of those teams and you were always on the attack as a coach, but just lots of ways to do it. It all depends on your team. You know, Virginia, obviously, Tony Bennett is very successful.

But, you know, the other part of that is if you are a good offensive rebounding team, then maybe Michigan State or Carolina can't leak out like they normally do because they're worried about you going to the offensive class. So there's always two sides of an issue, and there's more than one way to play it. And I think a good comparison would be how we played and how Virginia played it. And I think both are effective. Are you a believer that Arizona is the best team left in this tournament? Yes, I am.

Now, my only hedge on that is they start to refresh it. And each game you play from here and out, the pressure builds. I don't care how many you games you play or how much NIL money you're getting. That's a different thing that you haven't experienced yet. And

we'll see. So far, you haven't even noticed. You wouldn't even notice that Arizona had freshmen if you didn't know that. And so, can they continue to just go after it and play their game? So it'll be interesting.

St. John's or Duke tonight? I like Duke. given the fact who they played, the Big East was really down this year. When you look at it, you know, Connecticut, St. John's

going over was third. I mean, there's not, I mean, if you look at who St. John's played the last two months of the season, all conference games, their only games were games with Connecticut that really had any really big impact.

And I just think Duke's, you know, when Duke big Michigan here in D.C. That's only about a month ago. And, you know, they played. They came and played. And I think Boozer is a good leader on the court. He does so many things for them that, you know,

you're going to die with his reputation, his ability. And he plays, like, there's been recently, there's been a couple halves where he's only made foul shots first half. he hasn't had a field goal because the other team's defenses are so worried about him. But in the meantime, he's a good enough passer and a good enough team player that he gets guys to open, guys get easy shots, that type of thing. And then all of a sudden, he's a factor in the second half. And I just think Duke, with their size, will bother St. Johns.

St. John's is one of those teams where if they shoot it, they're really good. But if they don't shoot it, they don't have a lot of ways to beat you. and I think Duke can still beat you with their defense. I really believe that, so I would take Duke. I kind of feel like I've already talked to you about this, but I don't know if it was on the air or off the air. But I hated the Duke Michigan game during the regular season at Capital One Arena

for both Maryland and Georgetown in particular. I thought the focus on two outside of the DMV teams playing in D.C. was just not good for college basketball in this town. And I know it was a well-attended game, and it was a great game. But I think when we talked about this, and I don't think it was on the air, I think you agreed with me, right? Oh, without a doubt. You know, and the local TV people,

they come on 11 o'clock news and talk about the best game in D.C. this year. And like, it's true. But, you know, we're down right now as a group in basketball. Congratulations to Howard going to the end civil A. That's a great thing for them and the school and all that. But we need Georgetown to get better. We need Maryland to get better. We need George Mason to get better.

You know, George Mason, we need them to, you know, Skins is doing a great job of building a program, and we need that. You know, because people always talk about what a great college basketball. all town, D.C. is, well, we've got to prove it now. You know, we've got to make some changes, and hopefully it'll get back. Yeah. Alabama or Michigan tonight? I just like Michigan. You know, I think that they went through a little lull there during the regular season,

but everything's on the line now, and you don't have to worry about them getting ready to play. because they're so big and they shoot it so well that I just think Michigan is going to be really tough for Alabama to handle tonight. But I'll tell you one thing about Alabama. They're going to play. I mean, they don't care. They're just going to come out firing,

and Michigan better not think they can outscore Alabama. Michigan's still going to have to play some defense to win that game. Could you ever see yourself coaching a team that takes 45 threes a game like NATO's his team did the other day against Texas. I mean, that's hard to believe. You know, everything you taught like in transition about, you know, don't take bad shots in transition. Half those threes are in transition or more. Right. And a lot of them, they're one on three.

You know, they're one offensive player with a ball versus three guys trying to get back on defense. and that ball's going up. And to their credit, they've been very successful with it. So there's a lot of ways to play the game. And, you know, that's, players love playing that way,

I guarantee you. And they're going to be loose coming into the game tonight. So I think, Alabama's thinking, the only way we can win this game is to take 45-frees, and hopefully we shoot out of our minds

and, you know, make 42% of them. Then we have a chance to win the game. And I think, they're going to stick with the way they played all year and just come after Michigan. All right. You've spent a lot of time with me, and Gary's voice is because of some of the allergies and the pollen in the air. I was having that yesterday.

But I do want to ask you about, is a warm weather, Kevin. I know you're not. You don't spend enough time in warm weather climates during the winter. I know. You got to figure that one out. better if I did. Yeah. Izzo versus Hurley tonight.

Yeah, I think, I hope they get after it. You know, I know Tom iso better than I know Hurley, but I don't think Tom's going to like it a lot if Hurley's up there, you know, half court in the referee's face, all that stuff. So that could be a little sideshow that, you know, I think it'll be fun for everybody to watch. I just look at the Michigan State. They've done a great job this year.

I don't think this is his most talented team. Right. But he's had, Michigan State is the last Big Ten team to win the national championship in 2000. They don't count us because we were in the ACC. But, you know, I think Yizzo kind of feels like he's not going to get

too many more chances and he's going to have him ready to play. And, you know, Tom has so much experience that, you know, you look at Yukon, they won two national championships recently. you know, so they know how to get it done. I just think, given, you know, how Izzo likes to play and Yukon struggles scoring once in a while,

and I think I'd go with Michigan State in this game. All right. Last one, because Jimmy P. was on with me last week, and he actually picked Iowa State to win the whole tournament. Do you feel as good about them as he does? You know, I think for me, I have a problem believing Iowa State's that good, and they've done a great job. They play a tough team. My old assistant coach, Rick Barnes, when I was to Ohio State at Tennessee, it has those guys ready to play.

But I think you would have to take, I would take Iowa State in that game if I was, you know, picking a team. And, you know, Iowa State's been through it. You know, the Big 12 obviously is really good. and, you know, I think Iowa State, in my mind, can win that game tonight because Tennessee hasn't been as consistent as a lot of Rick Borenches Tennessee teams have been usually. And so I just think Iowa State is one of those teams that Tennessee's not going to be able to have physical. Iowa State. Iowa State's right there in terms of that. And I think Tennessee does that to a lot of teams. They just overwhelm you with how physical they all.

so I would think Ohio State can get that game. Great job. Thanks for doing this, Gary. As always, enjoy the hoops this weekend. Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate it. Hall of Famer, Gary Williams, everybody. I'll finish up with my smell test picks after these words from a few of our sponsors. Sweet 16 picks for tonight coming up here momentarily. Let me first mention that the Smell Test football season or March Madness is brought to you by,

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That makes me 16 and 8 on the tournament so far. So 66.66%. 66.66 repeating, if you remember, your fraction and decimal math. That's a pretty good rate through 24 games, picking up where football season left off. So two games tonight where the public is clearly on one side. And we'll start with the first game at Capital One. St. John's and Rick Petino, a clear-cut public favorite tonight in China. town. I like Duke laying the six and a half. It seems like a big number for the public to lay. That's

why they like the dog. Remember, in the NCAA tournament, the public does enjoy playing underdogs more than they do in, you know, the NFL or in college football during the fall because this tournament has sort of a reputation for big upsets. And St. John, certainly with Rick Petino at the helm, is a crowd favorite. So I'll take Duke and lay the six and a half. And then in the last game tonight, I like Tennessee, plus now four and a half. There are some four and a halves out there. So I'll take the four and a half with Tennessee.

And former TURP point guard, Jacoby Gillespie, he's been outstanding in this tournament. Look, I was on Kentucky. That's one of the eight losses that I have getting the short number last week against Iowa State. and that wasn't even close. Iowa State's really good. And people believe that Iowa State is really good, which is why they think this number looks pretty short. It's actually jumped up a little bit,

which has me a little bit concerned. But my data from last night was major, major anti-public side. Major sportsbook need will be Tennessee in this game. So those are the two plays. Duke laying six and a half and Tennessee plus three and a half. Check my Twitter for the Elite Eight picks tomorrow and on Sunday at Kevin Sheehan, D.C. I'll put those picks out in advance of the games. The games don't start until 6 o'clock tomorrow night.

So the picks will be out probably mid to late afternoon. And then the same for Sunday a little bit earlier because I think the first. first game on Sunday starts at 3 o'clock somewhere around there. But I'll have them out via Twitter, via X in plenty of time. At Kevin Shee in D.C. for the weekend picks. All right, that is it for the day. Enjoy the weekend back on Monday.