The Kevin Sheehan Show - Terps Out; On Willard Watch

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

Kevin opened with Maryland's Sweet 16 loss to Florida and the Kevin Willard situation. Nats, Caps, Wizards, Smell Test picks, and Sweet 16 all a part of the show too.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. That was great effort there by Rice to get on the glass. You're going to need your guards in this one to help him rebound. And Gillespie hits their first three of the night.

He is an outstanding shooter. That was from the first half of the game last night. And then came the second half. Maryland's season is over, but what the hell comes next? The show's presenting sponsor as always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation, Windonation.com, if you need new windows. So, fellow Terps, guess what Uncle Kevin has in his hands?

Uncle Kevin's got a glass that is half full. Yeah, I'm already in bounceback mode. No time for wallowing. Who are we going to get? Buzz Williams from Texas A&M? I've seen that rumor swirling around today. I've got some suggestions. I'll get to those at some point during this show today.

I am solo today, fired up, had a guest booked, but they had to back out at the last minute. But that's fine. Maryland's season ended with a thud last night, but I'm not pouting about it. Not that a sweet 16 trip is good enough for me, it's not, but I'm not just going to solely focus on last night's game and the strange circumstances of the week leading up to the game last night

with the coaching situation. I really enjoyed watching this team this year, start to finish. It was an exciting journey to be on as a fan, plenty of memories that will be tarnished a bit by how, how it all ended. But this was a hell of a team, man, a fun team to watch. They were really good. Florida was just better. I will do a quick game recap in the next segment. But I really liked this team and felt from, I don't know, about mid to late January, that this team had deep into the tournament potential. You know, I came in here one day. I think it was after they had

beaten Illinois and Indiana back to back. It may have been a little bit later. And I said, Maryland's got final four potential. They didn't make it to the final four. They ran into a buzzsaw last night, that's for sure. Look, and as far as the coaching situation goes, I'm more glass half full on that today as well. Sure, you know, even as Kevin Willard would appear to become the first Maryland coach in my lifetime

to leave Maryland for a different job, That's never happened before. All right. If it does actually happen, it is not happened as of now. We are projecting. You know, Lefty, if you recall, was run off after the Lenn-Bias tragedy. Bob Wade was fired. Gary Williams retired.

Mark Turgeon quit hasn't coached since, didn't leave to go somewhere else. If Kevin Willard does leave for Villanova, first coach at Maryland in my lifetime to leave Maryland for someplace else. But I actually think something really good might come out of it. This is part of my glass-half-full approach to at least the first part of this show. Hear me out. So, for starters, let's assume that Kevin Willard is gone. I think that's a fairly safe bet, but who knows? It hasn't happened yet, but we are going to proceed as if he is leaving and taking the Villanova job. You know, he talked last night in his press conference afterwards.

It certainly sounded more like he was on his way out. I do believe just as a point of what I believe to be fact, that as of at least late yesterday afternoon, the school was still very much attempting to keep him. but I think the odds that he is gone are pretty high. Now, the glass half full on this part, his replacement, whomever that might be, and I will throw some names out in a bit, might benefit from how, bear with me, how Kevin Willard handled this past week.

Not that, you know, he meant to do this, but if what he brought to everyone's attention, the way basketball is viewed is treated at Maryland, if the university, the athletic department, the eventual new athletic director, if they provide the next coach with what I believe they were willing to provide Kevin Willard in terms of overall compensation, rev share dollars for basketball to pay players, and I believe that the response to Kevin outing the school last week and the athletic department was, you know, prompted a response that included a top 10 salary increase, a top tier revenue share deal so that he had the kind of money that he was looking for to pay players that he wanted.

if the school's response to what's happened the last week and the threat of him leaving changed the mindset to at least recognizing that Maryland sports fans care about basketball more than anything else and that it needs more attention, it needs more resources, then maybe the next coach at Maryland ends up being the beneficiary of what Kevin Willard ended up getting the university to understand and commit to. There it is.

Glass half full. Willard's week leads to the university coming to the table with a top 10 salary, with a top tier rev share for paying players, with an understanding and a commitment to basketball, with an understanding that the next athletic director needs to be more basketball friendly, glass half full, next coach might have a much better situation and a more legitimate chance to compete at the highest levels of the sport more consistently.

I think there's a legitimate chance. It works out that way. I had a conversation with multiple people yesterday close to the situation from the school's side. You know, the unpleasantness of this week, I think, stirred up enough of a hornet's nest that the powers that be now have to do something about it. You know, this last week has been wild. from this perspective, for me and I bet others as well, there's just been so much activity in terms of conversations that, you know, some of which I've actually brought to the show directly, some of which have been sort of off the record or for background purposes. You know, I do that a lot, so I don't sound like half an idiot when I'm on the air that I have

some sense, you know, as to what's going on, especially in. situations like this. You know, it's not comparable necessarily to the days, weeks, and months leading up to the sale of the football team by Dan Snyder. That was insane activity during those days. I mean, it was wild. And my job is not as a reporter, as many of you know, but I do talk to a lot of people, and occasionally I have things that are usable.

But this has been a crazy week. And I know it's not for everybody. I know not all of you care. I get that. I do. Fortunately, we're not competing with like a major skin story right now. If this had happened during draft week, it would have been different. And by the way, we would have handled it in a much kind of less volume way.

But one of the things that I have been told, borderline lines. lectured on, but in a very nice way, is something that I kind of talked about on yesterday's show. And that is that, you know, people like me and fans of, you know, teams, college teams in particular, you know, just think that that university is all about those teams and that that's what everybody is consumed with. And, you know, somebody mentioned to me the other day, they said, Do you know how much, you know, the school president has on his plate every day? Do you know how many people, you know, around the university don't even know the basketball teams playing in the Sweet 16? Do you know how great this school is?

And I get it. Like, Maryland has become, you know, in recent years, more than just recent years, you know, the last 20-so years, an outstanding university. not just an outstanding public university. U.S. News and World Report in 2025 this year, Maryland is 44th in the country among all universities, private and public. They're 17th among all public universities. Forbes has Maryland ranked 34th among all universities. The school is one of the biggest research universities.

They rank 16th in the country. The school's academic profile has become a much bigger part of the way people see the University of Maryland than maybe the way they used to see it. It's like they used to see it as basketball, the Voo, and Lidos. You know, that's not totally serious, but the basketball program was a big part of why people knew the University of Maryland. It's not as much anymore. And, you know, I've been reminded of that by somebody a couple of times this week. And I pushed back a little bit, and I said, look, I get it. I understand that a high-end academic institution, which Maryland has become, is front-facing.

It is. But there are still many, many people that know Maryland or, you know, other. big sports schools that have big time sports because of the success when they have it of their sports teams. Men's basketball has been a part of the front face of this university for a long time. And when it's good and it has been much better than football has over the last half century, when it's been really good,

it impacts the school in many positive ways. You know, it increases the interest in the school, which then increases the number of applications you get to the school, which means the school then becomes, you know, more discerning about who gets accepted, and that, you know, increases. Look, the 2002 National Championship did a hell of a lot for the University of Maryland. That was basketball. But I do get it, that this, you know, I'm not putting it on the same level of Stanford or Duke or UVA, you know, but Maryland has reached that tier right below it, and it's impressive. And I know that those people out there do a lot of stuff that makes that school worth what it is. And, you know,

couldn't care less about these conversations about sports and don't really think that this is an embarrassing situation. But again, you know, they should consider this to be a big point. of the way people view the school. Because it is. You know, it may not be what it was, but it's still, you know, a big deal. But anyway, I digress. You know, glass half full Kev today, it is possible that the Maryland basketball job because of what's happened over the last week will be a better job for the next guy.

Now, while I am sort of in look-ahead mode, I'm going to stay in the moment. for just a few minutes. Because I think the reaction to Kevin Willard has been extreme and too extreme. Now, don't get me wrong, if he leaves after implying and saying that he would stay if the school gave him what he wanted, that's a bad look. And as I said yesterday with Tommy, you know, he's going to go down for many as a villain. You know, if he ends up leaving for Villanova after saying that he would stay if he got what he wanted. I think that last week when this started, you know, with his press conference,

you know, kind of airing all of that, you know, dirty laundry, so to speak, I liked it. You know, I thought, well, finally, he's bringing light to some of the issues that the previous coach and the coach before him have had. But my belief at the time, or at least my hope at the time, was that he was doing it because he thought he could leverage the situation of, by the way, being in the tournament and Villanova being interested so that his current job here would become a better one for him, not for somebody else. So I haven't, and I won't if he takes the Nova job, think anything other than he should have handled it differently. With that understood, though, oh my God, the reaction to him.

from Maryland basketball fans, completely unhinged. This from many in the fan base who wanted him gone as recently as January. You know, he's got to go. He can't win on the road. He can't win close games. This was a big hiring mistake. They blew it again. Who are we going to get when this season is over? Really, for those of you who don't know. That's what was going on. That was the conversation about Kevin Willard among many in the fan base just two months ago. And many didn't even really buy into the notion that he had done a great job this year until they beat Colorado State last week in the tournament. Putting that press conference last Thursday to the side, okay, and just focusing on basketball,

if he had never said what he said last Thursday, if he had never been a candidate for the Villanova job, if Derek Queen doesn't make that shot on Sunday to beat Colorado State and put the Terps into the second weekend of the tournament, the Sweet 16, many fans would have continued to say, Willard sucks, he's got to go. But Queen made that shot. And then it was like, oh, ho, ho, if he leaves, we're screwed.

I mean, understand this. Understand what it has been. Two months ago, they wanted him gone. I didn't, okay? I actually have thought that he's, I thought he's, I think he's a good coach. And I, you know, I wasn't thrilled with the way the season started conference-wise in early January when they went out to Washington and lost, went out to Oregon and lost. It did seem like perhaps at one and three in league play that we were headed for another disappointing season,

and the fans were killing him. Again, he didn't handle the last week well. Even though he said, and you'll hear it, because I will play some of the sound from the press conference last night, that he wouldn't have done anything differently. He was asked, would you have done anything differently this past week? And he said, no. but the fans that are now crushing him to an unhealthy extreme wanted him gone two months ago and if he had lost to Colorado State would have wanted him out as well.

I'm sure many of you, but maybe not all of you, have seen the hysteria, the ugliness, the mean attacks, the threatening attacks on Willard this week, and especially after last night's game. I'll just give you a sample of some of what I've pulled from my correspondence. Randall in Silver Spring writes Kevin, I hope you destroy Kevin Willard today after that shameful press conference tonight. He meant last night. This is the worst exit of a major division coach.

I think he was meant to say major division one coach that I've ever seen. This came from Joe. I think Joe was writing from Calvert County. Kevin, even if he wants to come back, I don't want him back. The damage he's done with his backstabbing and dishonesty is too much to take. Good riddance and good luck Villanova. And then in capital letters, traitor. This from GPO.

Willard shouldn't be allowed on the team playing. They shouldn't have let him coach last night. He's a traitor and a thief. He stole last night from his players, his coaches, and the fans that backed him. That's rich. I added that. He played the team and the fans like a fiddle, and he did it with a smirk on his face. F him.

I could go on and on. All right? They just keep coming. The attacks on Willard via social media for those. of you who haven't seen them are vicious. There were booze last night from fans lined up in the team hotel to send them off to the arena. There were people booing him. Now there were a lot of people, you know, handshaking with him, but there were booze. He got asked about that. It's an ugly situation. And when I say that,

it's ugly all the way around. Everybody's shoulders some of this. It's starting. It's with the inadequacies of the athletic department in school as it relates to its support of its supposed big-time basketball program. Kevin himself created a distraction this week that he shouldn't have unless he had a sincere interest in staying. And let me just add, again, as of now, as of the recording of this podcast, he hasn't left. Most of you wouldn't take him back anyway. I mean, ridiculous.

And the lack of support of fans, many of whom are going off on him right now, went off on him two months ago and then said a few days ago, we're screwed if he leaves. But a lot of those people, they attended games this year dressed as empty seats. You don't think the program looks second rate when the place is half or maybe two-thirds full for a conference game in February? I'm part of that. I admit it. I don't go to nearly as many games as I once did.

I have the same excuses that many of you do. You know, start times are too early. The traffic's horrific. The opponents aren't, you know, as sexy as they once were. But I am there for the one to two games of the season that are huge. You know, kind of reminds me of the kind of Catholic that I have turned. turned into. I think they call us seeing-in-ears. You know, the people that just basically go to church

on Christmas and Easter, see-in-ears. That's about it, though. You know, as huge a fan as I am, I pretty much just go to the, you know, one, two, three games a year that are big, you know, the Michigan State game this year. There was another tweet that I wanted to read. where is it oh here it is Kevin

it's Nick something Kevin big terp fan here this circus could only happen to us it is us how embarrassing yeah you know I hear you on that I actually kind of felt the same way during the course of this last week

like you know it's so Maryland like it's a unique thing it's just us no it isn't you only have to basically Google you know fans upset that coach leaves. I mean, in the college sports realm, this happens a lot where a coach up and leaves, you know, and doesn't handle it the right way. I mean, Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma

for USC, I found this. First of all, traitor signs all over Norman. You know, message boards, tweets like comparing Lincoln Riley to Satan. Who's worse? Lincoln Riley or Satan? Oklahoma fans believe it's Lincoln Riley. And they list five reasons why Lincoln Riley's worse than Satan. I mean, they skewered him for leaving Oklahoma for USC. They killed Brian Kelly in South Bend. Notre Dame fans all over the country did for going to LSU.

Lane Kiffin had one season at Tennessee before he left for USC. He had death threats. He had fans that physically confronted him. This is not that unique. It just isn't. Coaches, players are leaving now all the time. Coaches leave all the time. And sometimes, you know, they leave and fans are pissed off.

So it's not just so Maryland. Again, let me be clear. I hope I've been clear yesterday and today. If he ends up going to Nova, I don't like the way he handled the last week. I don't think he should have, you know, essentially said or implied, I'll stay if I get what I want. I just want this job and I want the chance to compete at the highest levels. You know, if there was some level of this has been a done deal and he went through this last week, Yeah, I don't love that. I don't love that at all. I did want to play some of the sound from last night. And what I did is I just, you know, basically edited it together rather than going through each soundbite one at a time.

I took the crux of what really mattered from each of his sound bites in his press conference last night. And I put him together. Here it is. I don't know what I'm doing. I'll just be honest with you. I haven't talked to my agent. I haven't talked to my wife. I made a promise to this team that I was going to just focus on this team, and that's all I've done. So I haven't talked to anybody. I have an agent.

I'm sure he's talking to people because that's what agents like to do. But, you know, I don't know. Right now, my biggest concerns in life right now, you know, I don't know who my boss is going to be, and I don't know who we're going to hire. And that's as in today's day and age, that worries me a little bit just to be, I'm just being honest. This is going to be a family decision. This is, I love college park. I love, I love Maryland, you know, but there's when you're at this point in your career and you're looking at things, I have to take everything into consideration about what's going to moving forward. I understand fans are going to be

pissed because I'm in limbo and this and that. I get it. Like, I'm, kind of pissed to be honest with you because I didn't expect to be in this situation. Kevin, I know you mentioned, you know, earlier, you can't control Twitter, can't control the media, but looking over the past week, do you wish you approached anything differently? Not at all. So that last answer about not regretting the way the last week was handled, I know pissed a lot of people off. And, you know, in addition to the possibility that he is going to leave and he, you know, talked about staying if he got everything from the athletic department.

I think it created this shitstorm that stole some of the joy from this Sweet 16 week into the Sweet 16 game last night. I was fired up watching the game last night. I really wanted them to win, but I understand why, you know, it took some of the joy out of it for many Maryland fans. Let me just say this in closing before I just mentioned a couple of names on possible replacements. Boy, this show will look really silly if he ends up staying. I do want him to stay.

I still want him to stay. I think he's a good coach. I am not going to, I think there's a lot about the last week that we don't know. I think there's a lot about his situation and what's been going on behind the scenes that we don't know. Certainly, I think it's a possibility that this has been in the works for a while. And that is unfortunate, really, because of him, you know, putting essentially the university on notice as if to say, you know, meet my demands and I'll stay. If you don't, I'm gone. If this was preordained, it's not a good look.

I totally agree with all of that. But there's a lot we don't know about all of this. a lot we don't know, especially from his end. There's been a lot of stuff that we've learned from sort of the school's end over the last few days, not as much from his end other than him stating that he wanted to still be the coach at Maryland if he got what he was asking for. Yeah, I've certainly heard from a lot of you that say that you can't possibly take him back now, even if he wants to come back. Why? Because there was some sort of major character flaw revealed here.

Look, like I said, there is a lot of blame to go around for what ended up happening this week, a lot. And I think he's a good coach. I think he's a really good coach. And it's the same way I felt about Mark. I know Mark was a really good coach. And I think you have to be careful about what you wish for. I said the same thing about Mark when, you know, he left and people were celebrating to a certain extent a lot of the fans were. And I said, be careful what you wish for. I get it.

March wasn't great with Mark, but we were in the tournament basically every year with him. We had good regular seasons pretty much with him every year. we had a chance in March, just didn't get it done in March. And I understood that point. I always understood that point. You know, it had grown stale to a certain degree. Kevin's been here three years, and he just went to the first Sweet 16 in the three years, and the first for the program in nine years, and they had a losing season last year.

But I would still say, be careful. Be careful what you wish for. It can get worse. There are a lot of places where they think they can do a lot better, and then all of a sudden it isn't much better. Now, if they do have to replace him, I would back the truck up for Chris Beard at Ole Miss, period. He would be my guy.

I would back the truck up and I would give him whatever he wanted. And especially if this job has now become a better job inside the program, I think it would still be a better job than Ole Miss. I know it's the SEC. I think his buyout is significant. I think he's a phenomenal basketball coach. He's also a former Under Armour guy, Texas Tech, when he took Texas Tech to the championship game when they lost to Virginia. I would think about him.

I would think about a guy like Billy Donovan if he gets sick of the NBA at any point. I know Buzz Williams, the Texas A&M coach, is a name that's flying around today. Apparently things aren't great for him in college station. Man, that's big money down there. That's energy, gas, oil money, A&M pays. You know, a guy like Shaka's smart, but, you know, he's home right now. He's from Madison, but he's coaching in Milwaukee. But maybe things aren't going well for him there either.

You know, I would swing big. I would think big and I would try to swing big. It's been kind of a theory of mine here recently, like this offseason for the skins, like the drafts in recent years. I wanted them to hire Patino three years ago. I didn't want Kevin Willard. He was not my first choice. I thought Kevin Willard was a really good coach at Seton Hall, even though he hadn't advanced past the first weekend. But in watching them, I always felt like his teams were tough and they were well coached. But I wanted Rick Patino. But no, you couldn't, you know, bring Rick Patino and all that baggage to come. college park, you know, three years ago. Well, now baggage doesn't matter. And Chris Beards got some,

even though they were just allegations that were, you know, dropped domestic, you know, situation with his wife or girlfriend. I forget what it was at Texas, but that's why Texas moved on from him. I would think big. And if the situation with a new AD is going to be more basketball friendly and they're willing to up the pay and up the rev share and paying for players. It's the Big Ten, it's Maryland, it's a fertile recruiting area. I would think big. I would not, look, if it ends up being Dwayne Simpkins or ends up being Tony Skin, I'm a Maryland person, I'm going to be supportive, and I'm going to be behind that guy. I just question whether or not two years as a college head coach at AU is, you know, the next step is Maryland.

Look, thinking outside the box, if they want to think outside the box, and, you know, they do their research and Dwayne is ready for that. You know, I like Dwayne. I had him on the show a couple weeks ago. He's done a terrific job. He's been a big part of, you know, the basketball scene here going back to his days at D'Matha as a point guard at Maryland. He'd have Maryland's best interest at heart.

He's an alum. A lot of that would be attractive. Tony Skin was on Willard's staff. He knows Maryland here in College Park in year one when they went to the tournament and won a game before losing to Bama in the second round. But I would think big first. I would think big. And I saw John Calipari's name. He's not coming to Maryland unless he just wants out of Fayetteville.

But they've got Walmart money down there. Anyway, all right. I'll give you a quick recap of the game, and then we'll talk about some of the other things that happened in D.C. sports last night when we come back after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, whether you are a do-it-yourselfer or you're like me, you have somebody do it for you most of the time. Clogged gutters are easy to forget. They're annoying to clean, and they can grow into a big problem. There's an easier way to clean your gutters and avoid the costly damage that can, comes from clogged gutters. The answer is leaf filter. An investment leaf filter is an investment engineered to protect your whole home. Clogged gutters aren't just a nuisance. They can cause

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86690 Nation, windownation.com. So, I want to recap the game, and I will also give you a smell test for the games tonight in this segment, and then we'll do some of the other stuff that happened around

DC Sports yesterday in the final segment. By the way, I'm getting to this podcast a little bit later in the afternoon. I had something to do after the radio show, and the Terps, the Lady Terps, are hanging in there in the first half against South Carolina. They are 17 and a half point underdogs in their Sweet 16 game against South Carolina. And it's a one-point Terps lead here in the first half. that wouldn't change the conversation completely, but I know it would make a lot of people happy.

I'm rooting for them. Brenda was on the radio show with me earlier this week. She's great. All right. The game last night. Look, the bottom line is Florida was better. They just were better. Florida beat Maryland 87 to 71.

They were much better than Maryland in the second half. were just better period. Maryland didn't play well, but Florida didn't play great either. You know, they didn't have the services of one of their better players at 100% for the whole game. Condon, their big guy, rolled an ankle in the first half. He missed a bunch of the game, and when he came back, he was not 100%, nowhere near it. Maryland was a great team this year. They really were, and they were fun to watch, and they proved, you know, that they were a really good team getting to the Sweet 16. And maybe, you know, if Florida, a team that many picked to win the whole thing, wasn't the matchup in the Sweet 16 and another team was, maybe they would have done better.

Maybe they'd still be playing. But they were nowhere near good enough last night. And honestly, I don't know that if they played this Florida team 10 times, they would win more than two of them. Florida had won 11 in a row coming in. Their margin of victory was 14 points during that 11-game winning streak. They're really good, really good. I talked all week long about what Maryland had to do in this game to have a chance,

and they didn't do it. They had had a recent issue with rebounding. They had been crushed on the boards against Michigan in the Big Ten semifinals. They gave up 13 offensive rebounds against Grand Canyon. They gave up 13 offensive rebounds against a small Colorado state team on Sunday. Last night they faced a team who was one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation, and they got annihilated on the glass. 42 to 20.

It was 47 to 18, I think it was, against Michigan. 42 to 20, Florida out rebounded Maryland last night. They had 15 offensive rebounds. Nothing else really mattered. Everything else was secondary to this. They got crushed on the glass game over. Now, in that first half, Florida kept Maryland in the game with 13 turnovers. A lot of them unforced.

Both teams were sloppy in the first half. Maryland turned it over a bunch as well. Maryland trailed by 11, then led by 3, and then they went into the breakdown 2. I thought they had a shot. You know, Gillespie had 15 in the first half. They went inside to Reese early. I didn't think they went inside enough throughout, especially when Condon left the game. But, yeah, the bottom line was Florida took shots.

When they stopped turning it over, they got shots up on the glass, and then when they missed, they got the rebound and they got shots again. And they took a two-point halftime lead, extended it to 10. Maryland got it back to six or seven, I think, at one point. but you could tell especially when Gillespie picked up his fourth foul, they were done. You know, Florida shot it well from behind the arc. They didn't even need their best player to go off last night. Walter Clayton Jr. had 13 points.

He needed 23 against Yukon, all of them to beat Yukon on Sunday. He is really good. Like he's going to be a spectacular pro. He's got such a quick release and he is deadly as a shooter. There is a lot of Steph Curry in him. That's the comp that people have made. He's a little, I don't know, a little bit taller, maybe more athletic than Steph was. But they made 11-3s, Florida did.

I personally don't think that the drama of the coaching situation played into the game last night. I don't know for sure. But again, after watching Florida last night, I don't know that if, you know, everything had been smooth going into that game that they would have won. I'll tell you one big factor in the game last night. And again, I don't even know if this would have made the difference had he had a better game, but Seltin Miguel had the worst game of his one-year Maryland career. He was 0 for 7, 0 for 3 from behind the arc, zero points. He also missed two free throws. And this guy was big for them. Maryland had a lot of their games, all five of their starters and double figures. They had four

players and double figures, but Seltin Miguel, zero. He averaged 12 a game. If he hit his average, it would have been a more competitive game. If he had knocked down some of those shots, and Kevin Willard ran some plays for him early in the second half to get him going, and he just couldn't knock it down. Maryland had a great play that they ran at the end of the first half to get Rodney Rice a wide open three that was just off where Maryland would have had the lead at halftime. But Miguel's bad night really came at a bad time. It wasn't the reason they lost. Rebounding was the reason they lost. But yeah, I mean, this was a guy that had come up so big for them, you know, all season long. Sometimes they're leading scores. Sometimes the reason they won. You certainly didn't expect a goose egg from any of their starters last night. And that's what he had last night. Oh for seven. Loved watching him play this year. A really painful. way for the season to end for him.

That's pretty much it. I mean, there wasn't a lot to it. First half sloppy. Maryland down 11 came back, led by three. I thought they were in it, but it was clear as day in the second half when Florida stopped turning the ball over that they were the superior team. They were the deeper team, the superior team. and they're going to be tough to beat. They'll play Texas Tech in the Elite 8.

All right, let's give you my smell test picks for tonight. Didn't do so well last night. O and 2 last night now 9-9 and 1 for the tournament. Ole Miss plus 3 and a half and Auburn minus 9. Those are the two plays. I'm not going to go into detail as to why. You know, when you lose, when you're on a 1 in 5 cold, streak. You just hate even giving these picks out. But you got to stick with the philosophy. Stick

with what's gotten you there, you know, while you lifted all them weights. All right, we'll finish up with the Nats yesterday, the Caps, the Wizards yesterday, and a few other things after these words from a few of our sponsors. Playing and a mess. Yeah, you'll take the strike out there. A quick in a That is 14 in a row retired by McKenzie Gore. That the voice of Bob Carpenter, who is calling games this year for the final time, his 20th season, as the voice of the Nats on Masson. The Nats lost on opening day to the Phillies 7 to 3 in 10 innings, but McKenzie Gore, their starter, was Lights Out. This segment of the show is brought you by My Bookie. If you want to bet the tournament, my recommendation is mybooky.ag.

Use my promo code. They'll give you a cash bonus, and you're off and running. Now, my bookie's different than a lot of the places out there. Some of you are betting for the first time or are new betters, and you're being taken advantage of by some of the newer books paying minus 115, minus 120, minus 125, minus 130, and more on straight bet losses. No, don't do that. My bookie's old school.

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Use it as a comparison shopping point for point spreads, totals, money lines, prop bet pricing, etc. use my promo code and take the free money that they give you upon initial signup. MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin, D.C. So, the Nats went down in the opener to Philadelphia 7 to 3, but my God, McKenzie Gore threw 13 strikeouts in six innings, allowed one hit, no runs, and didn't walk a batter. It was the most dominant strikeout performance on opening day ever by a Nats pitcher.

He threw 93 pitches in six innings but did not give up but one base runner the entire time he was in there. He was incredible. He is their number one. Let's hope he continues to develop into a true ace. Bryce Harper got booed yesterday and he promptly got to. up in the seventh down 1-0 and homered to tie the game. The Nats and the Phillies don't play tonight. They'll play tomorrow afternoon in their second game of the year at Nats Park. The caps lost last night to Minnesota 4 to 2, but did you see the end of this game? So the caps,

no goals for Ovechkin in the game. So he is currently still at number 889. at this point, five away from tying, six away from breaking. But at the end of this game, Minnesota goaltender and backup goaltender at this point, Mark Andre Fleury, forever in Pittsburgh was with Vegas when the Caps played the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup final. He is in his final season, and before Ovechkin and the Capitals got into the tunnel to walk off the ice at the end of the game. Ovechkin stopped some of the players and said, wait a minute, come back here. And they went out to mid-ice and they shook Mark Andre

Florey's hand and gave him a hug. Apparently he has been getting this kind of response around the league all year. He's apparently one of the most popular players in the league. and Ovechkin over the years has had quite the rivalry. 28 goals in 47 games against Mark Andre Fleury, many of those, obviously, when he was in Pittsburgh. And the Caps and Alex Ovechkin leading the way showed their respect to Mark Andre Fleury. Seems like that kind of stuff only happens in hockey.

And then we had the Wizards last night. The Wizards lost to Indiana 162 to 109. It was the worst defeat in bullets slash wizards history. The biggest margin of defeat, you had to go back to 1971 when the bullets were in Baltimore, and they lost to the Bucks by 52 points, 151 to 99. The center for the Milwaukee Bucks at that time was a young, Lou Al-Sinder, who would eventually become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But here's the thing about this game last night.

The Pacers scored 162. They got to 162 with just over two minutes to go. And then they intentionally took shot-clock violations on their final three possessions of the game and decided not to score again. Like a CYO mercy rule. I think that's more insulting. than scoring. These are professional players. Play it out, man. Less than 24 seconds left fine. But, you know, they started at a minute 25 somewhere around there. Three straight possessions.

They took intentional shot clock violations. That's crazy. Anyway, 162 to 109 in a game in which they made 27 out of 47. from behind the arc. The other sweet 16 games last night, Duke beat Arizona 100 to 93, an all-time performance by Cooper Flagg, who went for 30 points, six rebounds, seven assists, also had three blocks and a steel in the game. He became the first player in the tournament since 85 to go for 35 and 5. This guy's amazing.

I've now watched more of Cooper Flag in the last month, month and a half than I had in the first three months of the season combined. What I love about his game is it's all around, it's unselfish, and it's high, high IQ. And he is much more athletic than the way he plays. But he is so skilled and takes it over when it needs to be taken over, scoring-wise, but is as good of a playmaker as he is. is a score. And then how about Bama last night, setting the NCAA tournament record for three pointers in a game? Alabama went 25 of 51 from behind the arc. 51 of their 66 field goal attempts were three point attempts. They beat BYU 113 to 88. Mark Sears, what a smooth player. 10 of 16 from behind the arc, 34 points.

Bama and Duke in the Elite 8 on Saturday night. That is going to be spectacular. The other game, Arkansas blew a 13-point lead with just under five minutes to go and lost an overtime to Texas Tech by two. That's a bad loss, man. They were in control of that game. Great season for Calipari in his first game. They started 0 and 5 in the SEC.

They turned it around. and they were really close to getting to the Elite 8, but they couldn't finish off. Texas Tech, who's had a lot of success in the tournament. A lot of it with Chris Beard, but here they are again in the Elite 8. But Saturday, tomorrow is Elite 8 games. Texas Tech, Florida, early, when I say early,

the 6 o'clock start, and then Bamma Duke at about 845. The total in that game is 175. Duke's like a six and a half point favorite. One last thing. I was going to save this until Tuesday, but I'll just mention it. Tommy's prediction on the Maryland Florida game was 87 to 72. The final score was 87 to 71. Of course, he's taking victory laps. He forgets about, you know, Grand Canyon beating Maryland, but he almost nailed it

In fact, Deshawn Harris Smith got fouled to make it 87-71 for an old-fashioned three-point play opportunity and he missed the free throw. If he had made it, the final score would have been 87 to 72 because Florida just ran out the clock on their last possession. So in case I forget, not that he won't remind me of it on Tuesday, I did want to mention that Tommy nearly got the score. Perfectly. All right. for the day. All this conversation about Kevin Willard, and he hasn't left yet. And as of the recording of this podcast, there's nothing definitive, nothing that's been reported, that's definite.

So, you know, we do a lot of projecting. We do a lot of hypothetical. We do a lot of premature. And sometimes we come back and we're like, that was kind of a waste of time. but it certainly seems like he's on his way out. And again, if the school continues to press to try to keep him here, I am for that. I think he's a good coach. And I think there's a lot about the last week that we don't know completely in terms of the details.

So we'll see. I would guess, though, by the time we are here on my time. Monday doing a show that there's some resolution to it. That would be my guess. All right, done for the day. Enjoy the hoops over the weekend back on Monday.