The Kevin Sheehan Show - Reading Between Team Brass Lines

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Kevin opened with the odds on Washington picking Notre Dame RB Jeremyiah Love at #7 in the first round of the NFL Draft. Ben Standig jumped on to read between the lines of what Josh Harris, Adam Peters, and Dan Quinn revealed in Phoenix earlier this week. American University Head Basketball Coach Duane Simpkins joined Kevin to preview the Final 4 but also go down memory lane on his days playing at Maryland in the 90s.   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. Today's show completely edited. So if you came looking for an unedited segment or two, like yesterday, you're not going to find it on today's show. Today's show smooth, start to finish, he says, with fingers crossed.

Today's show includes two guests. Ben Standing will join me next segment. Ben is just back from Arizona, site of league meetings, and we'll find out from Ben if he learned anything from Adam Peters or Dan Quinn or even Josh Harris. Following Ben, American University's head basketball coach and former Maryland point guard during the early Gary Williams days in College Park, Dwayne Simpkins will be my guest. Dwayne will preview the final four, but we will definitely go down memory lane. with Dwayne. Dwayne played in some big games and hit one huge shot in particular to open up his

sophomore season. The show's presenting sponsor is always, Window Nation 86690 Nation, windownation.com if you need new windows. So dozens of emails and tweets on yesterday's open to the show, the unedited version of the show, from Sean. I prefer unedited Kevin, L-M-A-O, laughing my ass off. From Gerald, O-M-G, oh my God. I was laughing so hard. From Shake and Bake 53, we love you, Kev. When it becomes a drag, like it clearly has become L-O-L,

just remember that your radio and pods are therapy for many of us. That was very nice, shake and bake. And by the way, it's therapy for me too. Just not every day. And yesterday was one of those days. So if you missed yesterday's first version of the show, and I don't know why I went back and edited the show after I learned that we left something in there that shouldn't have been in there.

And many of you told me that. And I got texts from friends saying, you may want to go back and listen to the beginning of the show. And I just went back and edited it out and put a new version of the show. I could have left it. It was pretty benign for the most part. Put it this way. There are days where I would have been sprinting to put a cleaner version of the show out had I left in some of the segments that I've done in particular with Tom.

But anyway, if you missed it, the first two and a half minutes of the show yesterday that I meant to edit out but didn't for some reason. I was complaining to Tommy about how tired I was yesterday and how I don't like sports right now. Oops. Yes, I said that. I said, I just don't like sports right now. This from Jake C. Jake C writes, Kevin, I don't like sports this time of the year either, but I still love listening to the show, especially when Tom is on. I probably should have saved this for tomorrow.

when Tom is on, although I can read it to him when he's on tomorrow. He loves when I read emails that are nice to him. I don't really even consider the show Jake C. writes a sports show when Tom is on with you. Not sure others feel the same way, but keep doing what you're doing because it's part of my daily ritual. So there is some truth to what I said. I don't love sports this time of year. As much as I do during football season. I think most of you probably feel the same way. But for me, this time of year, spring with free agency into the draft, it's just not the same as talking about games and talking about seasons that you're in the

middle of. You know, the draft in particular for me is just so much about speculation and reckless speculation. And yeah, look, I'm a big college football fan. And it's not that I, you know, despise talking about the draft. I do it a ton. And even during college football season, you know, we'll talk about players and how they project to the next level. But for me, like, I think I've learned over the years, and I know I've talked about this before.

But if we went back and listened to our draft conversations or even the draft conversations I have with so-called draft experts, it's not that they would be, cringe-worthy because they can be very entertaining. They're just filled, though, with things that we are and were wrong about. Not just us. I mean, the teams that do this and are getting paid millions of dollars to do this, they get it wrong so much. And I guess just after so many years of kind of understanding that draft talk among us and people like us and even people,

people that obsess over the draft and have even created a business around doing, you know, draft talk or draft writing. It's just, it's the thing we are most wrong about, you know, that and trade compensation. I mean, I do enjoy draft night. It's fun. It's a very entertaining television show for sure. The next few weeks leading up to it, though, you know, like every year. I'll do my best. We'll put people on. And look, some of those conversations, whether they turn out to be right or wrong and most of the time wrong,

it doesn't mean that they're not either a informative, especially when it comes to team needs and where players are projected to go. And I like putting guys on this time of year that are entertaining. You know, yeah, it's great to have the guy that, you know, the public believes is the true expert on the draft. Daniel Jeremiah or Mel Kiper, Todd McShay. And I've had some of those guys on the show before. But I like also having somebody who can be entertaining simultaneously

because look, this part of the calendar, it really is more about, you know, entertainment than it is about accuracy. One more tweet, this one from Cal. So you don't like sports, no problem. I love when you and Tom talk about movies and television shows even better. By the way, I need a recommendation for a current TV show that people like. I have not, football season's usually tough. Afterwards, I look for shows.

I'm up for that right now, definitely. I actually just finished reading a book. I'm not a huge book reader. I don't know, maybe two or three a year. But the book that I just literally could not put down and went through was the book about the 1929 stock market crash. The author is Sorkin, S-O-R-K-I-N. It's called 1929 Inside the Greatest Market Crash in U.S. history, the one that led to the Depression, and then eventually we were in World War II, which

ended the Depression for all intents and purposes. But it's very good. A friend of mine, like a month ago, said, you've got to read this. I just finished it, and you're going to love it. And I did. But I don't know. I love watching games more than anything else. I've shared that with all of you before. And I watched one last night, in fact. I watched Portland play the Clippers last night, not just because I'm a huge Kauai Leonard fan, and I have a future wager on the Clippers to make the playoffs and win a playoff series. But they were playing Portland. Portland is led by Denny Avdia, the former wizard.

If you didn't know this about Denny Avdia, he is turned into a star. He was in the All-Star game this year. Now, he's not going to be the best player in the NBA. He's probably not going to be a top five, top 10 player, but he is a legitimate perennial, all-star level player. And I never liked the Wizards trading him. The Wizards traded him for Malcolm Brogden and a first-round pick that became Bubb Carrington. And a future first-round pick in 2029, not 1929, 2029.

that draft will be 100 years, actually not quite 100 years, because it'll be in June, but it'll be 100 years since the great market crash of 1929. A lot of black days leading up to that Black Thursday, Black Friday, Black Monday. Those were some horrible days in this country and around the world. But anyway, back to Denny Avdia. I never liked that trade. I always felt like he was the one of the players that they had drafted that had a chance to become an All-Star. I said that from the beginning that, or not the beginning, not when they drafted him because I didn't know anything about him when they drafted him.

But after watching him for a year or two, I'm like, that's the dude that could really end up being a great player. And he has become that in Portland. He had 28 and 12 and 6 last night, I think. Yeah, I never loved that trade. And I had Will Dawkins, the Wizards GM on the show. I've had him on a couple of times over the last year or two. And I think it was maybe not last time, but the time before it, I asked him about whether or not there were any regrets on Denny Avdia,

because it must have been this year because he had started to really play well. And he said basically that it didn't match up, that he didn't match up with their timeline to, contend that, you know, they were drafting 19 and 20-year-olds, and he was 23, all of 23. He's all of 25 now, just turned it a few months ago. I don't know. He'd be on, I think he'd be the best player on the team right now and have the best future. I mean, you know, Tray Young, Anthony Davis, but in terms of being, he would have been older than a lot of their super young players, but man, I mean, he's not even in his prime yet, and he's an all-star.

Thanks for the feedback on yesterday's Edit Blunder. Even those of you who weren't super fond of it, although really I don't think I had one email or tweet that was super negative about the Edit Blunder. All right. So I wanted to get to just one thing specifically before we get to Ben. And that is that the NFL during these league meetings over the last couple of days, they announced that there will be no more Monday night double headers.

Now, most of the Monday nights where you had two games, they weren't actual double headers. They were staggered starts. There were some that were double headers, you know, a seven o'clock start and a 10-15 start. But most of them were just two games, staggered starts, a seven o'clock kick, an 8.30 kick, and, you know, they'd be, you know, a half off of each other. I liked them. I thought it was great to have two games on Monday night. But the league isn't going to do it.

And the reason most are speculating isn't that, you know, it didn't increase ratings by a lot. It was more about a new package that the NFL will sell to a streaming service. You know, a Hulu or somebody else who maybe doesn't have the NFL. And they'll take those five games, you know, that they played five double-headers or five Monday nights with two games. So they'll take the five games back, package them together, and sell them, and give somebody, you know, Thanksgiving Eve, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, the three Christmas

day games, you're going to get that this year. Christmas is on a Friday. And maybe a Saturday night, you know, late in the season, something like that. And it'll be another big revenue hall for the league. But, yeah, you know, John Orand, I think, mentioned this to us not that long ago that the league was leaning in the direction of eliminating the Monday night doubleheaders. So when we get this schedule in about six weeks, no Monday night football doubleheaders, but expect to see a Wednesday night Thanksgiving Eve game as part of a packaged, you know, stream of games. somebody that probably doesn't have the NFL right now. By the way, something else that came out of the league meetings,

the league now defines a short week as four days of rest, so like Sunday to Thursday, or like Christmas a few years ago when they had a Wednesday, or Saturday to Wednesday. And the reason they now define a short week as four days versus five, is that you can only play a maximum of two short-week games per season for each of the 32 teams. Well, Christmas is on a Friday this year.

So they want to be able to put the games that they want on Christmas Day, triple header on Friday. Sunday to Friday won't be construed, won't be looked at as a short week, which means even if the team's already played two Thursday night games, they might still be placed on Christmas Day. That was something that came out of the league meetings. A couple of rule changes. They're kind of minor, to be honest with you. Now, the big one is that the league is going to allow New York to correct missed calls.

if they get to the point where they're using replacement referees to start this season. So you'll have that. And then the other rule is that you can on side kick whenever you want, you still have to announce, obviously. And remember the loophole with the 15-yard accepted penalty on the kickoff after a PAT, where the team says, no, I'll take that 15 yards in the kickoff, and they were kicking off from the 50-yard line, and intentionally kicking the ball out of bounds,

and the league's now eliminating that possibility. And what happened was, is teams figured out that when you kick the ball out of bounds, the rule isn't that the team, the receiving team starts at the 40. The rule is that the ball gets advanced 25 yards from where it was kicked, and then the receiving team starts from that spot. So from the 35-yard line, the normal spot of kickoff, if it goes out of bounds, 25 yards is the 40-yard line. But if you accepted a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff and you're kicking off from the 50, well, that's what teams figured out.

They kicked it out of bounds, and the 15-yard penalty, excuse me, the 25-yard advance from the kick-off spot moved the ball to the 25. So teams started at the 25 rather than the 40 or the 35, you know, after, you know, a touchback, as an example. And far short of the average starting field position in 2025. So there you go. Some rule changes, the Monday night doubleheaders. One last thing here in the opening segment before I get to Ben. So I think most people think that Jeremiah Love is going to go either. to Tennessee at number four, as we do some draft talk here,

but this is more about projecting what teams will do. Tennessee at number four, maybe the Giants at five, although there's a lot of sunny styles and Caleb Downs for John Harbaugh's first pick as the Giants coach. But a lot of people think it's really Tennessee at four or Washington at seven. well, my bookie has odds now on each of the top seven draft picks. And Jeremiah Love, to Tennessee with the fourth overall pick, is plus 124. So a pretty sizable favorite to be picked by Tennessee.

But to Washington at number seven, well, guess who? favorite is Jeremiah Love at plus 165. So there you go. Interesting, right, that Jeremiah Love is the favorite to go to Tennessee at 4, but then when you get to 7 is also the favorite. And by the way, close with Rubin Bain and Carnell Tate. but still, the odds favor Tennessee or Washington for Jeremiah Love. Most of you know my view on this. I'm not a big Jeremiah Love at number seven guy. I like Jeremiah Love a lot. I don't think he's worthy of the number seven pick in the draft.

If you told me they were going to draft an offensive player, I'd prefer it to be Tate to love. Let me just see if I can find this one. because I saved it. This was from Keld. I don't know what that's short for. Keld wrote, Shean thinks Tate over love.

He's lost his mind. He's an idiot. Okay. Again, draft talk, right? Nobody knows which of those two players is going to end up becoming the best player for sure. Yeah, I like Tate over Love at 7, in part just because of the value of a wide receiver at 7

versus a running back at 7. You know, having a wide receiver on a rookie deal is much more valuable than having a running back on a rookie deal. Now, what you really want is you want the best player possible. You want a great player. At number 7, you've got to land, you know, a player that is. not only a contributor, but is a starter and more, you know, it doesn't always happen,

but you'd really like to land not only, you know, a pro bowler perennial, but a perennial all pro and a true A plus blue chipper at number seven. I personally think David Bailey would be my wish at seven, but if it was an offensive player, I'd prefer Tate over love. If you want to bet on draft props, my bookie's got all of them. Just go to mybooky.ag or mybooky.com. Use my promo code, DC Reload, D-C-R-E-L-O-A-D, and My-Booky will give you a 50% cash bonus.

That's 50% of whatever you deposit added to your account for you to wager with. It's yours. You just have to use my promo code, DC Reload. way I'm just looking at Fernando Mendoza's odds. He's minus 100,000 to go number one overall to the Raiders. Yeah, that's the one. This draft is, you know, we're going to talk a lot about the draft, all right? And even if, you know, we're wrong.

But this draft, in terms of predicting the players and where they'll go, it's really because of the lack of quarterbacks and maybe the lack of just perceived great players, but it's hard to figure out after number one. It really is going to be kind of an exciting night because I think there will be a lot of surprises. But maybe I'm wrong on that. All right, Ben standing next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, how about a barbershop quality shave from the comfort of your own home?

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This segment of the show brought you by Window Nation. My favorite part of the spring, opening up the windows at night and sleeping with that fresh air swirling around the room. Not everybody can do it, though. Some of you have trouble just opening up your windows. Plus, they leak and they need to be repainted. Well, my guys at Window Nation can help. During their more you buy, the more you save sale,

you can save up to 50% off and get 0% interest for five years. Invest in your home. Enjoy springtime. Sleep well at night with brand new windows and now's the time to do it before the summer heat arrives. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to windownation.com for your fast free in-home estimate. Again, 86690 Nation, windownation.com. Joining me right now is my good friend Ben Standig. Last Man Standing is his substack. Last Man Standig is his podcast. I urge you to consume both. The substack is totally worth it. It's a few

bucks a month. And honestly, right now, I'm not sure anybody covers the team deeper and more consistently than Ben does with always, I think, a really sharp, uh, take on just the football of all of it. At Ben Standing on X on Twitter. So Ben was out in Phoenix and he is back. And so I will start off with the following question. What did you learn from those few days out in Phoenix? Yeah.

Let me just tell me. Let me just let everybody in on the joke because before we started to record and I did edit. that part out today, unlike yesterday. You were just, you were mentioning, like, you know, you went all the way out there and these guys just don't say anything. Like they, you know, you don't get much from Adam Peters. You get a lot of long-winded answers from Dan Quinn, but what do you really get? Josh Harris spoke for the first time, so we were certainly interested in that. But were there any sort of for you, you know, medium-sized

takeaways from Phoenix Monday and Tuesday. Well, to that end, if you didn't know anything about the three individuals and you had to guess which one is in charge, it's not just because we're asking Harris about ownership stuff, it's because

he was free to say whatever he wanted that you could tell that, whereas the other two, Quinn has two bosses and Peters has a has a boss. So they have to wrap up everything they say in a way that does not screw up process, the organization, whatever. Harris, like he brought up,

we had to ask about Jayden Daniels and the flag football thing. Harris brought it up on his own. The idea that like, well, yeah, I'd be lying about it, I wasn't nervous. You know, so stuff like that is that funny. When you have the much back to back to back to back the way we did. Okay. No, I was going to say,

I don't think the two of us learned anything about the flag football comments because we both knew they were on pins and needs. needles, but I'm glad they said it for everybody that, you know, told people like you and me, you guys are being ridiculous. It's flag football. Nobody cares.

He's not going to get hurt. It's fine. Well, the organization was definitely nervous about it, for sure. Oh, yeah, I mean, to the point that Harris said, hey, he's an adult. Yeah, you know, I trust him. You're like, well, wait a minute. As an adult, you got to trust them. That's like saying, hey, Kevin, when your kids is driving cross-country, well,

you're an adult, I got to trust them. Okay, you know, like, sure, but that's not a normal, like, thought for, you know, if you're talking about a football player. Right. But, hey, it is what it is. On the, so on the football side of the world, you know, what did we learn? You know, to the end that they're very couched in what they say. You know, you really do have to read a lot.

between the lines. It's not like Adam Peters came out and said, hey, like, you know, we were fortunate. At the end of the year, he came out and said, well, one position we know we have to work on is pass rusher, right? And sure enough, they went and hit that. We don't get that very often that were to that direct. And we didn't get that. We didn't get that here. Either he was asked about the running back situation, you know, in terms of drafting one at seven, both, you know, would you want, would you consider doing that? What about the economics of it. And, you know, again, the answer is not necessarily straightforward, but, you know, he basically said, look, obviously you have to pay attention to the money, right? The idea that if Jeremiah Love was the seventh pick in the draft, he would be the 14th highest paid running back off the bat.

And, you know, is that necessarily good value? Right. On the other hand, if the guy is a stud, you know, who gives a crap, you worry about second contracts later, and this is a, the draft where you have not just the running back, but you've got a safety and scaled down, an off-ball linebacker in a sunny style guy who play non-traditional positions that everybody's projecting to go high because they may be like the three best players in the draft. And, you know, he didn't elite, you know, he didn't rule that and he didn't say anything to me that said that what he would, that the idea of them taking one is nonsense. Now, he did mention the thing with the running back is that, as we all know, that you kind of

get, you can kind of find them all over the place. Right. It specifically said, like, we took one in the seventh round last year, and that worked out pretty well. And I think that's always going to have to be in the back of my mind through this process, too, are they really going to take a running back when, A, they necessarily need one, and B, you know, the value aspect of it. So I thought some of that was interesting.

We can get to some of the reading between the line stuff. Some things that Quinn said, if you want, but I don't know. Off the top of head, I thought that was the most. interesting aspect that we obviously didn't get really anywhere on the Tatarbiotic thing, which in and of itself is interesting that they just couldn't come out and give us a real answer of any way, shape, performance to why they did what they did. Which is, you know, the only sort of makes it worse when I've moved on myself with it, but, you know, I think they could have given a better answer as to why they did it,

and they didn't do that. So that was interesting just in terms of like that's just a little confusing scenario and obviously they have to figure out a center. Dan Quinn to me made it pretty clear they're going to get somebody else, whether that's the draft or free agency. He made it pretty clear that position is not cemented at all. So for anybody who's like, well, it can't be your Salagready. Well, okay, let's wait and see what happens. Yeah, Tommy yesterday on the show was

frustrated and mystified as to why Adam Peters in particular couldn't answer the question as to why Tyler Beaudish was let go. Why do you think they're having a difficult time answering it? I mean, do you have an educated, you know, guess or a hunch as to why this went down? Yeah, I mean, look, you know, go Octum's Razor here. Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one. And if they thought he was meeting their level of expectations when it came to his performance, you know, as a blocker,

as a, you know, a guy who's got a call at the line calls, all those kinds of things, then I don't think, you know, the $8 million, you know, in salary and the cap charge and all that would be a huge deal, but they clearly didn't, I believe, they don't, didn't think he was up to snuff. And I know everybody's going, well, look, the Chargers were willing to pay him a good contract, essentially the same one in the broad strokes that he signed here in 2024.

Well, that's their problem. Like, I don't know what the Charger situation is. I mean, they may be, like, the whole thing with the Chargers the last few years has been they have to do a better job of past protecting. for Justin Herbert, so maybe their level of desperation was different. And I'm sure Washington wouldn't say the Otis was garbage or anything, but for them, it just wasn't working out. My guess also was like they may have gone to him and said,

hey, we'd like you to do a restructure in some capacity, which maybe instead of having some sort of a pay cut or just, you know, whatever the extended terms might be, just not for him not worth it. And they were like, well, this is where we're at. because they obviously did that with Aligretti. And, you know, it may just be that they were like, man, we're, you know, we'll lose this. We'll keep you for this.

But if not, you know, we're going to shove off. So that's the best I can kind of come up with right now. Yeah, I tend to agree with that, that there may have been an opportunity for him to come back for lesser money. And he chose not to. But what's interesting to me is, you know, if that's the way it played out, they knew there was a possibility they were going to lose him. So what was the plan? Because it seems to me that Allegrety and Julian Good Jones is not what they had planned on doing.

That was not Plan A. What do you think Plan A and maybe Plan B were before they got to Allegretti and Julian Good Jones? Yes. So Quinn's answer shows about the, the, supposed battle that would happen right now. So that, you know, he was just saying words to say words. Julian Good Jones, look, he may be a, he may be worthy of a guy being on a roster, but he's played one NFL game, but he's 29 years old.

He's been here for a few years just on the practice squad. There's no chance. I mean, look, people improve in life, but you'd have to make a massive improvement to go from a guy can't make their 53 to being the starting center. So that says to me that they know there needs to be more done. Quinn also went out of the way to say in no way, shape, or form is that position cemented. You know, we kept asking questions about the audience. I don't think he loved that after about the first one.

And then this came up. So they clearly are going to bring in more help. I think obviously they made a run entire Lyndon mom. It's been reported and heard as much. So there was that. But then, you know, that's obviously the higher end. There were other guys out there. more in the fiatish range

and I don't know if they tried to make a play for them but they didn't get anybody if they did and I don't know that they tried and so you know I think they're comfortable saying okay look if everything falls apart we have Allegretti we're good with that we'll figure out some depth

but this is also a draft that has some pretty good depths at that position based on you know the very talent evaluate evaluators you read and hear yeah I mean these things so

yeah go ahead sorry Yeah, so like in the third, the problem for them is not having that fourth round pick is kind of key. The third round pick feels like it might be a little high to take a center, but if they wait to the fifth, then they all might be gone. So I think that part's tricky, but still, you know, they have the opportunity to get somebody in this draft. Yeah. Like, I think Plan A may have been Linderbom, and the price just went wild, and they didn't see that the price would go that wild. and I don't know, maybe Aligretti was plan B. Who knows?

We'll be interesting. All right, you said, you know, you can read between the lines on some of the things that Dan Quinn said. So go ahead. Tell me where the lines were read for you. Right. Well, one, like I said, was about the center situation, and I touched on this in the new mock draft that I have up on the site that I didn't give them a center, but I highlighted at the end of the third round pick that, okay, just to be clear,

I'm really thinking of a center here, but, you know, it just doesn't look at, you know, the various public boards and hearing things. I just didn't seem like that was the case. But that was one aspect that draft me seems pretty plausible. The other one had to do with the receiver. Again, this is doing the best he can to try to read between the lines. He's asked, Dan Quinn's asked about the receiver class, right? Now, I have no idea what is he, what he looked at, who he's considered, what their plan is, and all that. But he starts off with, even though the conversation for all of us has largely been,

who are they going to get to be opposite Terry McLaren on the outside, Dan Quinn's answer starts with, you know, there's a lot of interesting slot guys out there who can, you know, they can run this route, they can run that route, they're able to, you know, make moves over the middle. You know, and he got sort of excited about that. He then said, and there's also, you know, some burners and some big guys. but he started with the slot as opposed to the other thing. And I guess, you know, look, I'm sure he's prepared for whatever questions it might be coming his way, of course. Like that's part of the job with the PR staff.

But it felt to me like this was top of mind for him. And, you know, as we're sitting here looking at the board, right, you got Carnel Tate's more of the classic outside receiver. And then you have right on his heels, Mackay Lemon from USC, who is much more of that. slot guy, he's been compared favorably to Amon Ross, St. Brown, the Lions receiver, who, of course, also largely plays in the slot, and he was with the Ben Johnson offense, that we think David Blow is about to emulate. David Blow was also in Detroit at that point. So, again, I don't know that if they would take him at seven.

Yeah, I mean, Amon Ra was, I think, a fourth, third or fourth rounder. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, he famously listed all the receivers were picked ahead of him, including Diombe Brown, at the time, and that was like a big thing for him. So, sure, I mean, you know, why that was the case for him, I don't recall why he wasn't viewed favorably, but also look, the world has changed, right? We've seen the slot become a lot more valuable positions,

you know, Jackson Smith and Gigba, Fukunakua, like this has become much more of a of a way to take advantage of a defense as opposed, to sort of just being, you know, the small guy who's got some quits that you can put out there and see what he can do. So maybe that's had something to do with if, you know, Michael Lemon's going to get picked, and he's typically being viewed somewhere like in the top 15, that could be interesting. So, again, I don't know that that's enough to say he's going to that he's the pick at seven

or that he's the pick at all. But when they're saying nothing, I thought that was notable that he started, his head went straight to the flawed guys as opposed to the outside guys. Man, there are some really good slot receivers in this draft. The guy that I love is Zachariah Branch from Georgia, and I don't know that he would make it to round three, but there are some interesting, you know, guys that fit that mold. That is interesting to me,

and I wonder if he's focused on that because the expectation is that Brandon Ayuk will fill the outside role. Well, that's the other part of it, right? sure. Like when I contemplated this, I'm like, okay, look, sure, you can take Carlis-Tate and I get all the positive reasons for doing it, and cool, cool. But if the Brindade thing is real, then Carnal Tate would make no sense, at least for this year. But Mackay Lemon certainly would. To have McCorn, IEuc, again, we'll ignore the off-the-field stuff and just focus on a healthy player. That, with Lemon coming from the flight, I mean,

like this guy, of all the receivers his class, he averaged, he leaves them all with yards per, targeted like 3.3, and typically history shows that anybody with over three yards in that stat in college turned out to be a pretty good pro. So I think there's a lot of reason why he would make sense, but particularly if they already think that a brand I juke is going to be

the guy on the other side. So yeah, that's why the other reason why I think Lemon is, you know, thicker, interesting. And look, at the bottom line, we can talk about all the positions that they need. They still need the other stuff. I've been harping on this for a while now. Why not help your quarterback?

He has not had a ton of weapons around him in his first two seasons. The first year he did great, but it was, you know, as we know, a lot of smoke and mirrors. The last year, this all the injuries didn't help, but he still didn't have a lot of the pieces. And now, if you could add that, again, a healthy Iyuk, and a guy like Lemon, I mean, that would be pretty significant, not to mention, you know, a kick a conk,

was not Zach Earth, but it gives you that yard after the catch aspect as well. So, you know, this would easily be the best group of weapons you would have around him if that actually came through. Tell me about who's going to be the green dot on defense. Who's going to be the, you know, more likely than not, you know, the Bobby Wagner replacement and the guy that's communicating with Durante Jones? Yeah, no, this was the question I asked Dan Quinn first because I guess it was top of mind for me. after some other things went off the board.

And because to me, if we know who the green dot guy is, it could very well tell us what the actual formation is going to look like. So as an example, if it's Jordan McGee, right, which is what we've all been discussing for the last year or so, okay, cool. Well, you still have Lulu and you still have Chanel. Those guys are not going to sit, right? So that would infer, okay, you're going to have three linebackers,

at least on the field. Now one of the edge guys drops back as like sort of the, fourth, you know, guy, and then the other edge stays on the line, that type of deal. Or if it's not that, if it's not McGee, but it's more Channal or Louvre or a safety, which Dan Quinn said he's done in the past, now all of a sudden you're looking at Channal and Louvo on the inside with O'A and Chase on essentially as the edge guys outside linebackers with three big linemen up front, which feels like that's more where they're going.

So that's why I think this is a really interesting topic beyond just the fact of who's actually going to do it. Now, did Dan Quintel of who was going to do it? Of course not. Are they still shifting it out? I think so. I mean, he basically said, look, it comes down to who's going to be on the field of most, which is obviously the whole point, right? Bobby Wagner essentially played every single play.

If you look at it from that perspective, you know, Frankie Louvre, maybe more or less played every single play here the last two years. So that could make sense. I just don't see him. Like, to me, you need more of a real. and React guy. He's a React guy. I don't see that that makes a ton of sense. One thing, of course, that's fun about the league meetings is all the head coaches are available to ask questions. So I won't point. I did go over to Andy Reid. It's asked about Leo Cheneal

and just said, hey, I know he did do it for you, but you think he could be a green dot guy. And he said, well, not only is he, you know, a hulking guy really, really strong, but that he's really smart, like, you know, book smart, like he's got a lot of like going on up there. So he thinks he could do it. They didn't need him to. So I think that's a possibility. The other possibility is,

again, if you look at the safety, okay, you first have to know who's playing. Right. We don't quite know that. We can assume Nick Cross and Harris. Okay, so Nick Cross played almost every play with the Colts.

Now, I have somebody familiar with him. I asked Shane, Shane Steichen was there as well. I asked him that. He said, yeah, he thinks he could do it. Okay.

But I also asked somebody else familiar with Cross's game. And they were like, I don't think he's that guy. I don't think that's where they would use him. So you mention Will Harris. If Will Harris is going to be the other full-time safety over Kwan Martin, then, yeah, that would make a lot of sense. I mean, Quinn also emphasized that, yeah, there's one guy who's getting the calls in,

but you basically have two communication hubs. You have the front seven and then the secondary. So you really have to have multiple people, you know, passing the nose so long. so it's not really all on one guy per se. But, yeah, in theory, one guy is going to be out there all the time, and that's how to make this work the most, you know, seamless. So, yeah, if Will Harris really is out there the most,

then I could see that happening, or do they think Chanel could be? Again, to me, Chanel and Louvre were guys, I weren't reacting, not reading, when that was, of course, Bobby Wagner's superpower, as I think Quinn might say, He could just, you know, he could assess exactly what was about to happen no matter what. That's why he was able to offset some limitations with speed, you know. But, yeah, so I think that's what they're looking at.

Now, of course, there's also the, well, what if they draft funny styles, right? He was, that's what he did in college. What if they drafts, Cagle Downs, you know, his intellect is like one of his great strength. So, you know, you can't rule those things out either, but right now, that, I guess, I guess, would be, he mentioned losing specifically, specifically. I just don't know if I see that. But Lou Vuonel, Will Harris, it's probably one of those guys that's my best guess. All right. A quick break, and we'll come back with Ben's new mock draft version 7.0,

right after these words from a few of our sponsors. You get a chance to rate and review this show, and you haven't done it already. It's really helpful. It's really easy to do on Apple and Spotify. Five stars is what they allow you to rate this show if you think it deserves it. That's the best case for us. Also follow the podcast. Just hit the plus button or the follow button. We continue with Ben Standing who has mock draft 7.0 out. And I know that each one of these mocks, you know, kind of takes into consideration different, you know, contexts so that you can kind of play around with it. Your final, final mock draft, the one that will get submitted for contest purposes, will come,

win on Wednesday, April 22nd? Yeah, pretty much, yeah, I want to get that Wednesday, for sure. And also, you know, look, we've got more information needs to come out right now, just across the board. Everything is very speculative. If you look at mock draft, so many picks are just copycat it all over the place. The same player is going to the same team. So, you know, and like one thing that Adam Peter said to us, I think was truthful,

just as of reading him, his body language and all, what he was asked about, you know, trying to gauge what's going to happen in the front of Washington. And you're like, honestly, I have no idea. Right. And I think that's a fair answer because, again, the top of this draft is just not considered to be particularly strong, therefore, after you get past Fernando and those at one, it leads more towards the eye of the beholder than just like,

well, obviously this guy is all that. So, yeah, so it's a challenge to figure that he's going to be there. I did. I don't know what thought he made it out, but I said to him, hey, you know, in 2024, after you guys took Jayden, he told me he told me he knew he was the guy two and three months out earlier, even if you weren't going to tell up anything. You know who's, independent of what the other teams might do, do you know right now who you want? He just said one word, no.

So I tried. Yeah, I mean, that's a great way to enter that. Of course, they had number two instead of number seven. So look. You can say I want player X. Whether he's there, we'll see if I want that guy. All right. Well, let's get to your mock draft 7.0.

And I know that you've had some fun with some of these previous versions where you've played with it a little bit. You know, and a couple of them you've said, well, let's focus in on a tradeback possibility and what those might look like. So is there something like that? that in play with this particular mock of yours? Mostly just, you know, based on what things were just said at the owner's meeting and, you know, try to get engaged for what might be happening. I'll say to talk to, you know, other people covering other teams or, you know, do you listen to what some of these coaches have to say or others?

And, again, they're all pretty good at couching their responses. But from that, try to do it, you know, from that perspective, and then, you know, just try to make sense from there, you know, what I thought. All right. So what did you think for Washington at 7? Well, you know, we talk about they need another receiver, more size of cornerback, the center, all those things. I think the number one thing they need most of all is more picks.

And that was my focus. I was trying to think like, okay, well, you know, it's easy just to say trade down and, you make up your own trade and who cares. But I'm really trying to figure out, like, okay, what would happen? So Peter's also saying, you know, there's going to be a lot of trade. He didn't. He said that, right. Which is totally completely fair.

We've all been saying the exact same thing. So the question is, what would be another trigger for somebody? And the one I've come up with, I think it makes a lot of sense, even though on certain level it goes against every principle I have and most people have. and that is not just draft being back high, but actually trading up for one. So when I'm doing it straight up, no trade, Jeremiah loves to be keeps kind of falling to Washington. I get the tendency could take him it for, who knows,

but like, you know, the economics of it just don't make a ton of sense to do that. Now, I'm not seven, not that far back, but, you know, at some point you can't, you can't let Talib go by. Now, if he's on the board, if Jeremiah loves on the board, and the Rams call you, the Rams are thinking, okay, our motto has been F them picks.

Right. And this could be the last year we have with Matthew Stafford. You know, like, we'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow, and the Rams are obviously shown that they can be very capable, even if they don't have the ton of picks.

So, but if you get, what do the Rams have last year? I don't know, but you have Fukunakua, Devonte Adams, that's really good. Akira Williams is a good running back,

of course. but he's not like a dynamic guy, and I think they need another dynamic piece where they'd like to get one. So I think that Rams trading up for Jeremiah, I love, despite all the reasons why I would never say trade up for a running back, I actually think kind of makes sense for them,

and it would give Washington in this scenario, they would drop back to 13, which is the Rams pick, but then also pick up a second and a future pick next year is the way I gained that because the Brains already traded away a lot of picks this year to get Trent McDuffie from the keeps. And so I also think from Washington's perspective like that,

you know, they can still get, you know, you ask before like how many guys do they really think, do they really like sort of at the top? This is not a draft that viewed as having a ton of guys who are great out of first round picks. I feel like 13 might be getting to the outer limit. So I think there's still a reasonable chance that they get somebody,

there that they like and um you know i don't know if i said keep going in terms of the one i would pick but like that sort of the that sort of the gist as to what uh what i did right well we're not going to give your entire mock draft away we're going to make people uh subscribe to ben substack so you can not only get the seven point oh version which is out right now and was put out earlier today but you can get the versions that are still to come between now and draft night. And Ben is a multi-time mock draft champion. But after the trade that you proposed for Washington here in this version, you have them selecting Mackay Lemon, the wide receiver from USC. Yeah, for the reasons that we just, you know, kind of went through.

Like I said, my high on my own supply of reading Dan Clinton, maybe, but that's kind of where I went with, all right, well, if I'm sort of looking at that correctly, I mean, again, Jeremiah Love and McCoy Lemon are different players, of course. You know, Jeremiah Love is a true burner. McCoy Lemon is not that guy, but he knows how to create openings like a lot of these really good slot guys do.

And, again, ignoring the IUC aspect of it, you know, I just think that that would be a pretty good weapon for them. But on top of it, now you're getting an extra pick in the top 100 this year. And I have them getting a fourth round pick. Next year, if the Rams had a fourth rounder this year, I would have probably said that goes to Washington also based on the rate chart value. But since they didn't, I was like, all right, well, cool, the 20-27 draft is considered to be pretty strong

and, you know, want to push it back to next year and get an extra pick to have some fun there. So, yeah, I think to me, you know, look, I'm again, you're, you're, you're becoming fluent in Dan Quinn. This is your, you know, this is part of your job as somebody on the beat. look, even for us, you know, we try to, you know, listen very carefully and see how they handle the questions and see if we can read between the lines on these guys. And the big takeaway here today on what you read between several lines with the head coach is slot receiver. So why not trade back to the Rams who do have Kyron Williams and

Notre Dame back who's been pretty good? Let them do. what they do, which is just basically get rid of all their draft picks and move up for Jeremiah Love and Washington moves back and takes Mackay Lemon. I also said obviously I'm not the Rams reporter, but if you look at their situation,

again, Tar-Rulins is really good. He's just not the most explosive guy and they still have Blake Quorum also. But Jacksonville, you know, his, Kyron Williams' O.C. is rookie year with Liam Cohen, now the head coach of Jacksonville,

Jackson is a lost Travis E-TN or A-CAN, I guess, this off-season. They didn't find Chris Rodriguez, but right now Chris Rodriguez and what the kid for Virginia Tech, Tudel? Yeah, Tooten. Yeah, look, that's their running back. I mean, no, who knows? Maybe that for them is Corey Croskey, Merritt, and Rashad White. But, you know, if you could get Rashad, get Tyrone, and the Jags have 11 picks,

and I think they have like five or six between, they don't have the first, but they have like five or six we're like 50 and 100 and something like that, 110. Like, they're, they're going to be had. The Rams could get them back. Anyway, that's their problem. But I don't like to just do it.

We'll make a trade and then ignore that, well, now what? Now you have both of these guys that doesn't make any sense. So I don't like doing that. But that's why I try to play it out with a little bit more for the RAM. So, yeah. And also, look, again,

if, again, if there's no trades, I think if he's there, I think these guys probably have to take them. But again, like they don't really need it. I'd like to see what Bill can do with a full year. You just got in Rashad White and getting the extra picks, you know, for all the things that they still need, I think it would be a big deal. Great job. Everybody, if you want the rest of his mock draft 7.0,

go to at Ben Standing and link to his substack and become a subscriber. Talk to you later. Thanks as always. Thanks, Kevin. Ben Standing, everybody. Always one of my favorites is, I think at this point you all know. Up next, American University's head basketball coach, Dwayne Simpkins, will jump on with me. He will tell us what he thinks about the final four, but we'll go down memory lane a bit from his days. in college park. That's next after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Let's see if the angles his way to the right side to try to get two. Smith. Simpkins with the ball. Simpkins makes the move. Sikkins and South. Sipkins got it. 3.5 seconds left. Remember the shot? The game clock stopped. Here comes Millen. He didn't get it off. Maryland pulls off the upside of 15th ranked Georgetown. in overtime, Maryland 84, and Georgetown 83. Oh, what a big win for Gary Williams. What a terrific win for him. All the way back in November of 1993, at what was then it was called U.S. Air Arena.

Of course, it was the old Capitol Center in Landover. And that shot by my guest, Dwayne Simpkins, handed Gary Williams his first signature win at Maryland. A memorable game in the history of Maryland basketball. That was Maryland versus Georgetown for the first time in 12 years. That rivalry had gone dormant but was resurrected on that particular day. The day after Thanksgiving in November of 1993, Dwayne is the head basketball coach at American University. He's done a great job there for the last three years. Of course, Dwayne started at Damatha, played for the great Morgan Wooten before coming to Maryland. He is a DMV basketball lifer, no question about that.

We'll get to the final four, but we've got to go down memory lane a little bit with you on the show. So how many times do you get asked? How often do you get asked about that shot in that game? I'm blessed, man, to obviously still be in a DMV. And, you know, I come across people on a regular basis. You know, once every two weeks or something like that, maybe. But it's just really cool. It's even cool as when I'm away from home or not out of town.

I'm recruiting or whatever. And, you know, could run into an Uber driver. Could run into someone in the airport. And they mentioned how, you know, they became, you know, whether it be college basketball fans or in particular fans of the Maryland. and church basketball program by that game. So that's always really cool. It was such an interesting game because it introduced all of us to Joe Smith and Keith Booth, but nobody knew what Joe Smith was going to be, and that was his very first game.

And Gary's told me many times, we knew what was coming. Jimmy P's told me many times. We saw it in practice. When did you get, when did you know? What do you remember? Because that was sophomore year. You know, you guys were off probation and you open with Georgetown and it's Joe Smith and Keith's debut. It's you and X-Rehip and, and of course, Johnny Rhodes' second year. So what do you remember about when you guys knew Joe Smith was going to be special? I could tell you, it was, it was a Sunday night. It was our very first time playing pickup ball as a team. when everybody was on campus. And many people may not remember, but there was a guy by the name of Nemnia Petrovich.

And Nemia was going to be, he was the incumbent starting center because, you know, he played the year before and he had good size, European, he played like European basketball and, you know, stretch the court and everything, good hands, good figure, good IQ. But that night, Joe destroyed Nimia. I mean, completely destroyed him. And, you know, I'll fast forward the very next day. I'm coming out of class. I get back to my suite.

guys like come up to me hey man you heard about nimmie i'm like nah what's wrong he all right he said yeah nemi is transfer and so that was really knew joe was special too and he said no i'm going to go somewhere else and play but yeah we knew joe was special from day one that's that's a great story you know um i'm sure you get this maybe on social media but as as a maryland guy and as a maryland you know alum and fan i get all the videos that are sent out by social media teams at Maryland with, you know, on this date, back in whatever. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah.

And last week, it was like, you know, the anniversary of that second win in the 94 tournament over UMass. You guys were a 10-seed, beat St. Louis in the first round, and then got the two-seed. You know, UMass in the second round, the UMass team that had Lou Roe and Marcus Can. Ambie and was coached by Calipari. And I retweeted that highlight, and I said, this was the We're Back game. As much as the Georgetown game was kind of a kickoff to, okay, we're going to be good again, that was the day.

It was like Maryland basketball is back. We're back in the Sweet 16. What do you remember about that tournament and that game against UMass in particular? You know, if you go back that year, this was early in the season, early in the non-conference. We actually played you, man, in Springfield, Mass. I forgot the name of the tournament. And, like, they beat us.

I mean, it wasn't like, you know, we lost. They beat us. And they were talking trash at the end of the game. You know, Dante Bright, who was one of their star players, McDonald's All-American. Myself, Dante and Keith all played A.U ball together. So Keith was just like, I mean, Dante was mouthing off. Like, I was just like, man, just a bad feeling. So fast forward, Selection Sunday.

when our name comes up and we see that we're not only in the same bracket, but like we could potentially play them the second day, the second game. Oh, man, like there was already some fuel to the fire with that. So I give them credit because they were up. They were up pretty big during that game in Wichita. And we just continue to chip away. And I specifically remember, I think the game-changing play or shot for us, Mario Lucas hit a big time three game.

It was by a shot, like it was a terrible shot. Well, he took a lot of terrible shots. Shots. No, he did. He did. But that one was a terrible one, but it was so big. It built that momentum going into it, man. And I think that game just gave us so much confidence for, you know, the rest of the tournament,

but in particular for the following season to know, like, hey, man, like, we can be very, very good. Yeah, I've asked Gary about Mario Lucas at times. I'm like, that dude checked in shooting. Like, he literally was at the score's table. And once he checked in, he was like, I'm over. open. And that was him, man. He was not afraid to fire it. No, no, no, no. Mario, sometimes you have to check a man in practice. Like, Mario, that's not a good shot. But Mario had a ton of confidence, man. His thing was, hey, man, I'm bringing something

to the table. When you guys bring me in off the bench, I'm bringing something to the table. You knew what you're going to get out of it. He made it or missed it. You know he was going to put the ball up from three. Yeah. That win over UMass. The second half was unbelievable. and you guys ended up losing in the Sweet 16 to the Fab 5 minus Weber. Weber had gone, but the rest of them were there. Jalen Rose was there, Juan Howard was there, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, they were all there. And, you know, it was a competitive game that Michigan won. And then the next year was, you know, was a year where we were ranked in the top 10 the entire year

and went in as a two-seed, I think. And, you know, that was, that was Gary says about that Sweet 16 lost to Yukon, that everybody was, I think, sick for that game? Was that the deal? Like, no one felt well or something about that particular game? I think, yeah, a couple guys were sick and everything, man, but I just, I just remember, like, the first four minutes of that game, you know, and we were a high-scoring team. I want to say it was us in Carolina that was, you know, top five in the country out of the ACC and scoring and everything. And we played with pretty good speed. and I just remember the very first TV timeout

we come to the bench. You can see in everybody's eyes, it's like, yo, these dudes are faster than us. Like, they played really, really fast. And, you know, they had Kevin Ali, and they had, you know, Ray Island was on that team.

They had five guys that ended up making the NBA. And, you know, it was a bad matchup for us. It really was. And, you know, it's funny, I go back and I think about what could have been in that year. And we had a terrible game, terrible loss at Georgia Tech. in the early in conference play.

And I firmly believe we don't lose that game. And we turn around, we end up beating North Carolina who was ranked number one the following week. But I firmly believe if we win that game and we do everything else that we were supposed to do, Ossetian maybe a little bit different. And maybe we don't face a team like Yukon until maybe, you know, the elite eight or something like that.

But, you know, Hansi's 2020. Well, you know, that game against North Carolina when they were number one, that that was as lit as Cole Fieldhouse has ever been. That night was a special night for sure. And then look, you know, I've asked Gary about this game too many times, but I know I haven't asked you about it, but, you know, the Steve Nash game, the next year,

you know, this is your final year and your final chance to play in the NCAA tournament. You guys draw Santa Clara in the first round of the tournament. I think Gary always, blames Billy Hahn's scout or Jimmy's scout. I forget which one it was. But no, what did you guys know about Steve Nash? And when did you figure out he was really good? Well, I figured out after the game, I looked at the stash. He like, damn, he had a triple double, you know?

Yeah. He didn't go into the game. He was talented and everything. But, you know, it's like, hey, we're with Maryland from the ECC, we've been to two sweet 16s, you know. So I'm not saying that we overlooked him at all, but like, he was a special player. I mean, hell, he's in a hall of fame, you know, so a very good player. And the other thing, too, that that year, I think, and this is something that I take with me now as a coach and understanding how every single year, you got a different team, no matter how many guys are coming back.

It's a completely different team. And for us, I thought that we struggled that entire year to make up for Joe Smith's presence. You know, I think everybody subconsciously felt like, oh, 20 points and 10 rebounds and two blocks are going out the door. And I think everybody felt the pressure to, like, try to have to make up for it to some degree. Yeah. And, you know, I just don't think that we maximize our potential. I put a lot of that on myself, man, as a point guard of the team.

I'm sure Gary who feel, will probably feel the same way as a coach. But, you know, I felt that year, I think we struggled with trying to find our identity and try to make up for the fact that Joe wasn't there. What's your favorite all-time game that you were a part of at Maryland? The Carolina game is right up there. that's got to be I would say that's probably ahead of the Georgetown game quite honestly

you know selfishly I made the winning shot game winning shot but for us to be down I think we're down 16 points in the first half right and Colfield house like you said it I've never it's always been wild in there and loud but that particular nightmare was just on a completely different level

the game down in Cameron when we beat we beat Duke you know coach Williams unfortunately was at home I think he had he had the flu or it was something. He was in a bad tape. Nimonia. Yeah, he had to sub in. And, yeah, he had pneumonia.

And Billy Hahn had to sub in, man, and to get a game-winning basket on the court of Cameron indoor stadium. You know, that was pretty awesome, too. All right. Dwayne is the coach at AU. A.U had a decent season. Of course, last year you guys made it to the tournament, and then you lost your best player, unfortunately,

in that first game. to injury, but tell me how it's going at AU. I mean, you've had some decent teams. Yeah, yeah, we've been a fortunate, man, we've got some high character kids coming from great families. You know,

the student body has been really, really good. Last year, in particular, man, we made that run and we won like seven or eight games in a row, and you can just start to see the momentum, just picking up, picking up, and, you know, someone showed me some pictures and videos of our championship game that we hosted last year against Navy.

and to see the line of people all going from Bender Arena all the way up to Massachusetts Avenue, man. You know, the school hasn't had that in quite some time. So it's great, man, to be a part of that. I feel really, really proud of the fact that we've done a really good job with our retention. You know, this year, I mean, knock on wood, we're still not through the woods yet. But right now we have every single person coming back from last year's team, you know, a team that features six freshmen. You know, our leading score was a freshman.

and he's a higher level player. There's no doubt about it. But he values the education that he's going to get here. He values his role on our team. And I think it speaks to our culture, not just with him, but all the guys in our program. That's something that I'm really proud of. And I take a lot of – I stick my chest out a little bit because we work very diligently, my staff, my staff and I, man, just making sure that these guys are being poured into every single day.

Every day is not easy. I think we tell those guys that when we recruit them. And, you know, we try to identify guys that for them, it's – It's cool they get some money, and we'll try to take care of them with NIL and everything, but they're not coming here solely for the money. And from a recruitment standpoint, I think that's where we've done a pretty good job. We try to stay away from those guys. If they're coming through the door already with the aisle on, how much can I get paid?

Like, this is not the type of care for us. He could be a good player. He could be very productive somewhere else, but he's not going to be for us. Yeah, that's the challenge with, you know, that level, right? the Patriot Leagues of the world is once you land on somebody great, I mean, that's incredible that you had so many freshmen and you have a really good freshman and he's coming back. That speaks really highly of you.

I mean, that's a real testament to you and your staff because I'm sure there were, you know, opportunities. And you guys were, you know, you played well. Oh, yeah. You had a, it was basically a buzzer beater that you got beat on against, against BU, against Boston in the quarterfinals of the, Patriot League Championship. And you finished in the middle of the pack for the most part with a super young team.

So that's got to be encouraging that you get that kid back and you got a shot next year. No, it is. It is. And, you know, it's also important to me. You never need basketball guys that work in mysterious ways. I mean, we had three kids that were out with season and injuries. And every single one of those kids could have started for us. You know, two of them were slated to start for us.

So we didn't have them. If they were here this year, who knows? Maybe we're losing guys to the portal because I firmly believe, just like the one freshman that I mentioned, Matt and Collins, I mean, he led us from scoring rebounds and assists and blocks. And I don't think he's as productive from a statistical standpoint if we are whole. And so with those guys being out, maybe it allowed for us to get a fresh reset. And now we're in position to bring everybody back from that team

and make the look of run next year in the Patriotel. Dwayne Simpkins is 32 and 22 in the Patriot League as a head coach in three years at AU, 54 and 45 overall. And, you know, he's been grinding at this thing for a while. And I know there are a lot of people that really think you're doing a phenomenal job and are excited for, you know, what your future has in terms of coaching. A point guard from the beginning. And he got a chance to play for Morgan Wooten and Gary Williams.

Not bad. All right. Let's talk about the tournament. I'm sorry? I'll just say two of the best, two of the best to ever put a wist around their neck. No doubt. All right, let's talk final four. First of all, let's just go backwards and talk about the Yukon Duke game.

Tell me from a coaching perspective what Duke didn't do correctly on that final offensive possession where they turned it over and lost on a 35-footer at the buzzer. man it's I find it amazing it's almost comical to hear the number of people who are like replaying it 10 different times and saying they should have done that

they should have did this and dude if you have not been that position where the bullets are flying and like you don't have a timeout and like everything is bang bang bang I mean it's difficult you know people saying hey

you know booze should have just held the ball well guess what if he held the ball and he gets tired of you con's got possession So, like, scratch that off. I hear so many people say that, like, no, he couldn't just cover the ball up because it's a jump ball. You kind of gets it. He does the right thing. He's got two people kind of on him.

He gets the ball. I think to Saar, and Saar hits the open man, you know, Caden Boozer. And if there's anything that I would say in that position, as a point guard me personally, you know, I'm shoot, I shot 80, 485 percent from free-ball line. I get that ball. I'm going to dribble it. I'm going to dribble it, but I'm not going to pass it. Like, you've got to come fake the ball off me, but more times than that, you're probably going to file me.

There's anything that I would say, I wish you would do differently, and this is what we preach to our guys. We have a saying, fake a pass and make a pass. Like, if he gets that ball out of his hands cleanly, he fakes it and gets it out of his hands, it's a ball game. And everybody's talking about what you kind of should have done to put themselves in position to win. So I'm very empathetic, man, to players and coaches in that position, man, because it, it, everything is going so fast. and, you know, in that situation, you're hoping that things fall the way that they're supposed to, but, you know, that's not the great way the game of basketball works all the time. That's a really good answer.

All right, and you were an excellent free-throw shooter and looked to get fouled. I remember a lot of those games. You wanted the ball in your hands, and you wanted to be the guy at the free throw line, and you made a lot of big-time clutch free throws during your time at Maryland. Well, Kevin, I had to. I had to, man, because, you know, I had guys that shot all. the damn balls, you know, between Joe and Pete, Johnny, and X. Like, I might have shot six times that game.

I'm just like, hey, keep it close so I can make some free throws and double figures. Yeah. Some of your big games, you had double-digit free throws, which was perfect. But you also were such a good ball handler. There weren't turnovers at the end, so they had to foul you. All right, let's get to these matchups. Yukon and Illinois. Who do you like and why?

I like Illinois. man, they've got such great positional size. They're a tremendous offensive rebounding team, one of the best in the country. And like I say, with the positional size, man, they're going to pose a ton of problems for Yukon. You know, the big fellow in the middle is a very good player. But they get smaller caravan. It's got good length. But in terms of the girth and size, he's going to have to guard some guys who are in the post a little bit.

and the kid, Keaton Wagler, at the point guard position, man, like he can make shots and he can pass the basketball, he can facilitate. I just think from a holistic perspective, you know, they just got, they have too many weapons. And, again, their position of size, I think, may overwhelm UCon. But don't, I'm not going to discount or count Yukon out, man, from the toughness. I mean, all the things they've gone through this year, they get blown out in the Biggie's championship to St. John's. they're down, what, 19 points this weekend. You can never count a Danny Hurley-led team at all. Dwayne, does anybody run more stuff and maybe have a thicker playbook than Danny Hurley? You know, I would say the only person in the past that I've seen the two guys, Mark Schmidt,

who just stepped down this year at St. Bonaventure. Whenever I was at, I was at Mason, I always had to scout against St. Bonaventure. And you talk about somebody, man, who had an extensive playbook. And it's like, not only did he have numerous plays, but he had numerous wrinkles and numerous options off of these things. And it made it so that instead of having 15 plays, it was almost like 50 or 60 plays. And then Bob Hoffman, who used to be the coach at Mercer, when I was at University Green'sboro, I always had to scout against his Mercer teams. You're talking about a tactical, like, I mean, he's a clinician, man, from an offensive perspective.

And Mike Young's another one, too, who's at Virginia Tech. He was in the same league at the time at Wofford. Those coaches, man, they will, they would dice you up. But, like, Hurley does a really good job. If you really watch it, and I've done it for the past couple years and looking at the offense and everything, it's more simplistic than you think. What he does is he layers, in our coaching profession, we call layering offense where, like, you may have these six or seven plays,

but out of these six or seven different plays, each one of them may start in a different look. You know, it could start with an Iverson cut. They may start in a box cut, but it's the same play. But it gives a perception and the illusion that it's a completely different play. But I love the all-ball movement. I love the all-ball screening. There's not a lot of wasted dribbling and just random ball screens that you see a lot in college basketball, and definitely in high school and AAU.

So he does a really, really good job. All right. So you like Illinois. Are the two best teams, Michigan and Arizona, and who do you like in that one? Hands-down. Yeah, hands-down. I think those are two best teams. I got Arizona.

I think it's going to be a high-scoring game. I think it's going to be a very physical game. Arizona has always been good, man, year and year out. What Tommy Lloyd has done this year, I think, to help elevate his program and this particular team, their physicality, you know, everybody looks and sees West Coast teams, and they think they're going to be a little bit more softer, they're going to be more skill.

He has done a great job of combining the skill and toughness. They're a very good defensive team. They've got a very good positional strength, positional size. And the one thing that they do more than anybody else, they truly play inside out. They're kind of bludging you around the basket. And I think when the game slows down like it is, at this point in the season, if they can make free throws, they're going to have a really, really good chance of winning this whole thing. Do you have a view, you know, you're a D.C. guy, and I don't know how closely you're following the Wizards rebuild,

but they're going to end up with a very high pick in the upcoming draft. And, you know, it's DeBonsa from BYU and Peterson from Kansas and Cam Boozer and Acuff and Amen and all of these guys. Did you watch enough to have a strong opinion on who you hope the Wizards end up getting? I mean, DeBanza is a, he's a generational talent, you know, with that kind of size and left and fluidity to handle the basketball, he's a pretty solid defense. I think if you got a chance to get a kid like that, you've got to do it. Darren Peterson, I watched him earlier in the season. I watched him late in the season, too, but obviously there's some health stuff there. But if he is healthy, man, it's very difficult to possibly pass him up as well.

Those two in particular, and then Caleb Wilson and North Carolina, a lot of people don't talk about him enough. I think he is another one almost in that DeBonsta conversation with that position of size and length. I mean, it's everything that the NBA is predicated on right now. And another kid is pretty interesting. The kid, Acuff, like, I think he's born, like, maybe six or seven years too late. From a positional size, I think it's going to, people are going to, it's going to be like a, kind of a check against him to some degree because he's, I think they're listening to whatever, 6-3 or whatever.

They're looking for point guards at a 6-4, 6-5-66 now, you know. But he is, he's a tough, he's a tough cover, really tough. demeanor to him. It looks like a winner. But you can't go wrong with any of those guys. But if you have me, if you put a gun on my head and say, hey, you got AJ DeBonska as your potential number one pick, I would take him. All right. Last one, because there are a lot of Maryland basketball fans that listen to this show. So what was your thoughts on this past season, which was, you know, record-wise, the worst of any of our lifetimes? And, you know, give people a reason to be optimistic about next year and beyond?

You know, this is a different day and age, man, with the transfer portal, and, you know, I don't, I hear people say, hey, well, you know, Buzz got the job, you know, kind of late. Like, I don't think you can use that. You know, the guy at Texas A&M, he ended up going to 2016-16. Right.

There are a number of coaches that got a little bit later. What it comes down to is that you've got to get the right ones. You know, you have a, people feel to realize, like, you just can't randomly go get, let's go get all these top fly. guys and everything from a budgetary standpoint when you're talking about your roster construction, there's a cap. You know, it's no different than being in the NBA. Like, you may have two max guys and you've got to fill in the roster with the other ones. You know, two things

got to happen. One, you've got to stay healthy. You know, if the big kid proff doesn't get hurt, you know, I'm not saying they're going to be a tournament team, but they won't be as bad if it were this year. And then secondly, it's a roll of the dice, man. You really got to be conscious of the pieces that you are constructing to make up the whole of your team, if certain pieces just don't fit, and I think that there were a lot of pieces that didn't quite fit. You know, I don't think they had a point guard. I don't think they had shooting ability. You know, these things, these boxes got to, they got to be checked, you know, and especially in the Big Ten. And that's the other thing I would give, I would get Buzz some grace with is like,

first time here, Maryland, first time coaching against Big Ten competition. Every league has a different, you know, makeup has a different cadence to it. I think, you know, him going through this full year, I think it's going to give him some more experience to be armed with to, A, put the roster together the way that it probably should be that he may want it to be, and then to be able to execute night in and night out in the Big Ten. Thanks for doing this, Dwayne. Really enjoyed it. Love having you on and really rooting for you. I know a lot of people in town are best of luck next year. Take care. Enjoy the final four this weekend. Thanks so much, Kevin. All the best to you, man. Dwayne Simpkins, everybody. I could certainly

see Dwayne somewhere in a few years after winning the Patriot League in a tournament game, you know, a first four game maybe getting into the main draw, but he is an excellent coach, is doing a great job, and it was fun to catch up with him. All right, done for the day, back tomorrow with Tommy.