The Kevin Sheehan Show - Terps Out Too Early?

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

Kevin opens with Maryland's season-ending loss to LSU. He also gets into why they didn't go further and what comes next. Jeff Ermann (InsideMDSports) was a guest on the show and gave his thoughts on Mark Turgeon's season and future. Kevin discussed Colt McCoy, Doug Williams, and a potential replacement for the NFL onside kick. He also talked Duke-UCF, Virginia, and the rest of the bracket. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here. This show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation.com and tell them that we told you to call. I'm going to get to a few Redskins stories actually here in a little bit. I'm going to start with Maryland, obviously. I'll get to the Colt McCoy story and the story about the frustration right now at Redskins Park. about Doug Williams. If you're not following that story and you still hold out hope that the Redskins will one day figure out how to be functional rather than dysfunctional,

then you need to hear this story. And I'll get to that after I close out Maryland's basketball season here in a moment. The Duke UCF game yesterday, wow. You know, actually Aaron the tournament, which had had very few memorable games going into yesterday. Maryland played in two of the most exciting games going into yesterday.

Yeah, I think one of the excitement index has the two Maryland games, as two is the top three games. Yeah, I mean, the Belmont game and the LSU game, but the Duke UCF game was unbelievable. And really yesterday also, the Iowa comeback from 25 down against Tennessee to force overtime was incredible too, because that looked so unlikely if you had watched the first 15 to 20 minutes of that game. It was a good weekend for the smell test. Four and three on Friday. Four and O Saturday. I tweeted

them out. Hopefully you got my four and O Saturday, one and one yesterday. So, you know, an overall nine and four weekend to go with the one and four start. So 10 and eight right now overall. You know, not terrible. The smell test produces winners. More winners than losers. Not always like overwhelming amounts of winners, but, you know, the weekend had to be good if you followed the picks. Nine and four, you'll take any weekend at any point during any season of the year. No Duke conspiracy, by the way, from me on the Duke UCF game. I don't think that was a Duke ref game. I didn't think personally it was a blatant push in the back by Barrett before the, you know,

on the missed Zion free throw. But you know what? Maybe I just, Aaron, don't hate Duke like I used to now that I'm in the Big Ten. You're a Big Ten guy now? I don't have those same passions anymore. As some of you know, I am passionate about Maryland basketball. You know, it's the Redskins, the Wizards, and Maryland basketball for me. That's really the list.

I mean, I love Maryland football. Don't get me wrong. And I like the Nats. I root for the Nats. And I guarantee you that if I'd grown up with the Nats instead of going 34 years of my life without a baseball team in D.C., I'd be a diehard baseball and Nats fan. I'm a fan. It's just not at the same levels of the teams that I grew up being a fan of. The Redskins, the Wizards, Maryland basketball, in particular Maryland football, too. The Caps thing, it was cool to watch. It was, but most of you know this. I just have never had, for whatever reason, I think it's just because I'm not a big hockey guy. I just haven't had that passion for the Caps over the years, but I enjoyed last year. And I'm actually looking forward to the NHL playoffs this year. I love playoff hockey. And the Caps, I think, have a chance to defy the Caps. I think have a chance to defy. and their title, even though Tampa's had this incredible regular season, and they've won the two

games against the Caps so far. I don't think the Caps would be that much of an underdog against Tampa. But maybe I'm nuts. Same thing as last year. Tampa was a fairly heavy favor going in. The Caps going into the playoffs didn't really have a chance. They kind of limped in there. Right. And they went on in one. Anyway, I, Saturday was, Saturday hurt. The Maryland lost to LSU hurt. It hurt badly. I sometimes can't believe that I still get wrapped up into things like this. It shouldn't be that important. And it certainly isn't compared to, I guess, you know, what some people would call, you know, things that really matter.

But God was that a soul crusher? Aaron, that hurt. That was one of those where it took a while to get out of my seat when it was over. You know, being a Maryland basketball fan isn't easy. It's not, it has not been easy over the years. years, right? I mean, were you crushed? How long did it take you to recover? It was a while. I think I sat there for, I probably sat there, I turned off the TV immediately, and I think I sat there on the couch for about 20 minutes. I then showered for about 40 minutes, just kind of sat there. Then I pulled out

the whiskey for a while. It was really, you know, there have been more than a few of those abrupt endings to seasons in Maryland basketball history. You know, it wasn't Corey Lucius' dagger at the buzzer, all right? For a lot of reasons. For a lot of reasons. Gravis being perhaps the single biggest reason. Gravis, the four years, you have the thought that it was actually a final four team. Like, even if they won yesterday, we were kind of assuming they'd be knocked out.

That's right. Elite eight at worst. Yeah, I mean. Or at that best, I mean. And even though Maryland in that Corey Lucius, you know, soul crushing loss too, they were only a four seat. I think there was a sense that Maryland had a chance to make a deep, deep run in that tournament. And then the bracket opened up.

They would have been the favorite to get to the final four. And the fact that at Corey Lucius, they had the lead. Yeah, and they had the lead. True, rather than the game being tied. It wasn't Duke's 22-point comeback in the final four. It wasn't that. Now, the thing about that one is there was a sense of just being happy to be there because it was Maryland's first final four ever.

but it was because it was Duke and because they had blown this big lead and because they had already the year before blown another big lead in a much shorter period of time, that one was painful. It wasn't, for those of you old enough to remember. It wasn't Kenny DeNard undercutting Buck Williams in the ACC tournament final against Duke

when it was an obvious undercut and Buck Williams should have been going to the free throw line to win the game. And it wasn't the 1974 ACC final for those of you old enough to remember that, the one that ended Maryland's season when Maryland was no worse, no worse than the third best team in the country and couldn't go to the tournament. But you can now add the LSU second round loss and Tremont Waters to the list. That was Saturday, you know. It wasn't just about

the loss itself on Saturday. It was really about the lost opportunity. We all know what we missed out on later this week. That's what really hurts about this one. It was a loss, it was a chance to go to the Sweet 16, yes, but it was a little bit more than that in that if Maryland had played a Capital One Arena on Friday night in the Sweet 16 game against Michigan State with a chance to advance to an Elite 8 game against Duke, the scene would have been amazing. Tickets were already, my son was following this, I wasn't, but tickets were already skyrocketing in the aftermarket after they beat Belmont. before the LSU game, you couldn't get into the building for less than $800. And that was a single seat in the rafters. What an environment that would have been. You know, Zion Williamson and Duke are a big draw, no doubt.

I guarantee you that CBS and TNT and whoever's covering the rest of this thing and the regional itself and the aftermarket ticket sellers are thrilled that UCF didn't get that last bucket to go in yesterday. Because Zion Williamson and Duke are a draw. but if Maryland had made it to Capital One arena, it would have been an unreal scene. But instead, it was a last second loss to LSU in the round of 32, which ended their season. A season that overall was a good season, but if we're being fair, it wasn't a great season. Not for the fan base. You know, the coach and the team can describe it in any way they want,

and a casual sports fan can describe it to me in a way that they believe is more realistic and I'm delusional. These are all things of perspective. I understand that. And I'm not saying that the team shouldn't be proud of the accomplishment of getting to the tournament and winning a game. But my sense of it is, Aaron, that many in the fan base would describe this as a good season. Some of you even less than that. But I would describe it as a good season, not a great one. And I'll get to that in more detail in a few minutes because I want to talk about the game itself. But it was a good season. Not a great one. The loss on Saturday was depressing, and yet it was inspiring at the same time, because for about an hour in the second half, Maryland showed this toughness and this resilience

down 15 when you thought the game was over. When TURG got teed up, they couldn't get a shot to fall. You know, at one point in the first half, they were eight for 33 from the floor, but down 15, they fought back. And this, you know, often maligned coach. made the right strategic moves that paid off big time. The biggest being that he went to his zone with LSU up double digits, and LSU promptly went cold. It was a gamble. LSU's got good shooters, all right?

This wasn't the game at Minnesota early in the year when he went to the zone, and Minnesota didn't have many good shooters on the team except for the freshman Kalsher. LSU's got some shooters, so it was a bit of a gamble. They could have gotten blown out even further with the zone, They could have hit a couple of shots early, and he would have had to get out of the zone. But he tried something because nothing else seemed to be working. Really, they were struggling and they were down mostly because of their offense. But they let their offense affect their defense.

Get to that in a few minutes too. But he went to that move, and it was a great strategic move. You know, the comeback was from 15 down with 15 minutes left to up three with five minutes left. So in a 10-minute period, they changed. the game, and there was an 18-point swing. The players and the coach that all of you were cursing out for much of the first half in the early part of the second half were in that moment to be appreciated for this incredible comeback. You know, Anthony Cowan looked like a mental mess through the first 25 minutes of the game after going three for 18 against Belmont.

And then out of nowhere, he hits two massive threes, gets two steals, in a minute and a half, and all of a sudden they're back in this game, and he was back in the game. But anyway, as good as the comeback was, as inspiring as it was, and inspiring may be a fluffy way of describing it for those that aren't Maryland fans. I understand that, but it was. I mean, all of us that really are into this passionately were going nuts during that process. Get another stop.

Get to the free throw line. Knock down another shot. It was huge. huge, but they weren't able to close it out. Waters, who's a great player, was headed to Georgetown, backed out of that commitment with JT3 was fired. Waters then went to LSU. He was able to snake his way to the rim,

bank home the game winner with 1.6 seconds left. LSU moves on, Maryland goes home, and there was a lot to this game, and I'm going to get to that right now, and I'll come back with some overall thoughts on the season and the state of the program here in a moment. But I'll do the recap like, you know, I've done the football recaps with what I liked, what I didn't like in a few additional observations. Pay attention. He's Kevin's Game Day.

All right. What I liked about the game from a Maryland perspective is I loved Jalen Stick Smith. He was confident. He was a force on both ends. He just flat out played great in both games of this tournament. And I said before the Belmont game, Aaron, you can back me up on this. I said to those of you, who were frustrated with sticks. Too bad because their best games this year were the games in which he played well. And he needed to play well in the tournament for them to do well. They needed him. And he delivered against Belmont and even more so against LSU.

He had five blocked shots in the game. He really should have been credited with six, but the last one was called a foul despite it being a clean break. By the way, you're not going to hear me complains. about the officiating. They didn't lose because of the officiating. And, you know, the Maryland thing of complaining about the refs all the time, I'm over it. They didn't lose that game because of the officiating. Waters didn't travel on that game winner. You're out of your mind if you think that should have been called traveling. It never gets called. He did have a clean block on what was a

huge play with about, you know, a minute 50 or so left. Sticks miss some key free throws. That did not help the cause. And he missed some open threes early before hitting the big one late. Some of you don't want him taking those shots. I do. I've been saying all year, I never cared once that he was taking open threes. I would have encouraged Sticks to take those open threes. It made Maryland a dynamic team that he could step out beyond the three point line and stroke it. He's got a good stroke. Turgeon believed it too all year long. I heard him mention it before that Sticks has a green light to shoot that because he's got a great shooting stroke. And when he makes him, it really opened up the paint even more.

Anyway, I think that's another thing you give Turg credit for. He encouraged those guys to keep shooting, Cowan to keep shooting, Sticks to keep shooting, Ayala to keep shooting, and Sticks hit the game tying three. He was good at the rim on offense, he was outstanding on defense, which hasn't been the case all year long with him. He's young. He's thin. God, I hope he doesn't leave, Aaron. He has clear and obvious NBA future potential.

And he improved and played well late. He was mocked as a first rounder before the season started, so the NBA knows him well. Most of us who watched him all year long thought it was obvious that he needed to come back, and I still feel that way. You two? I agree, but all it takes is one team.

If one team promises if he's there in the first... Again, I'm of the mindset. If you're promised a first round pick, you go. Well, I think if you're promised after a freshman year of being a lottery pick, you go. If you feel like one year will change your status from being picked 25 to 30 to 5 to 10, you come back. You know, it may not be obvious to NBA scouts who will probably get a look at him at some of these NBA camps. but he does need some work, you know, but he is. This is my feeling.

I actually think that he will be viewed in terms of future potential, not now, but future potential, as a better prospect than Bruno Fernando. I hope he comes back, and if he does, Maryland, even without Bruno Fernando, who is more likely than not going to go into the NBA draft, I think Maryland comes back as a top 15, worst case, top 20 team, preseason next year and a chance to compete for a Big Ten title. I mean, I don't think they'd be picked any worse than third or fourth next year if he comes back. All right, next thing on my list of things I liked. The comeback. You know, they looked done at 4631 with 15 and a half to go. Terge got teed up. He was frustrated with Bruno Fernando in particular at that point. So was I. I thought Bruno came out

too passively in this game. Cowan was a mess. It just looked like it was over. You know, on some level, they didn't get behind because they were a much worse team. They got behind because they could not make a shot. They couldn't make a shot. Bruno was too passive. They looked dead. Well, you know what? They had some juice left.

They roared back. Turgeon went zone. By the way, and I didn't mention this three minutes ago or whatever it was, I didn't think it was a great move in the moment to go zone. I didn't hate it because I thought he needed to change something up, but I didn't think it was going to work. I just thought LSU had good enough shooters and good enough players and a guy like Waters that it wasn't going to be some sort of silver bullet answer.

You know, like, oh, look what we found. But you know what? Look what they found. It totally changed the game. Also on my good list from this game is Turgeon. You know, the moves that he made, I thought he coached well in this tournament. There are a couple of nits to pick. All right, there are.

But overall, I personally think that he coached well. Doesn't mean I think they had a great season. I think they had a good season. It doesn't mean that I'm not disappointed that they lost on Saturday. And it doesn't mean that I think they got beat by an obviously better team, which I don't think was the case on Saturday. I thought these teams were dead even. I really think talent for talent, these teams were dead even.

In fact, I would, after watching the two play, I would suggest to you that if they play 10 times, Maryland might win six out of the 10, but it would be no worse than five. But I still feel like Turgeon coached well over the weekend. I have no major issues. Again, a few nits to pick, and I'll get to those in a moment. But I think, you know, one of the things that's obvious to me and has been obvious with him as a coach over the years is that he's positive with his players. and his players respond to that. And I think one of the reasons they were never out of it

is he kept telling Cowan to keep shooting. I bet he told Iala, keep shooting. I bet he told Stick Smith, if you've got an open three again, don't turn it down. I think he's positive. I think he stayed positive. I don't think he panicked, and I don't think the team panicked. He made the change defensively.

He ran some good stuff, got good looks throughout this game. The set that resulted in the game-tying three was great out of the timeout. You know, the knit that some of you would pick, I wouldn't, that he went man to man on the final possession. I think most coaches would go man to man on the final possession no matter how well zone worked. I don't think you're prepared to give up an open look to decide the game. Most coaches, and I talked to Gary Williams after the game, I said, would you have stayed zone or gone man? And he said, nope, he did the right thing going man.

I think a lot of coaches felt that way. Spinarkel predicted it coming out of the huddle. Sponarkle said, I think they're going to switch their defense. Wouldn't be surprised if they go man here. I felt the same way, too. The debate was not whether or not they should have fouled, by the way. I heard people on Twitter suggesting, oh, Marilyn Blew it, they should have fouled. Did you know what the score was?

The score was tied. They weren't losing the game. You don't foul in that situation unless there's a real, you know, unique set of circumstances. Yeah, like Ethan Haps on the floor. And oh, by the way, everybody else on their team is shooting 60% right now. I mean, I get the theory behind it that honestly in that situation, I kind of would have rather had the ball in the hands,

but it's something that no coach in any level of basketball would ever call. Of course not. They have good free throw shooters, and as a team, they were shooting 28% in the second half. The odds are, in your favor on that final possession, that if you don't commit a foul, you're going to overtime. That's what the percentage is favored. If you fouled, then you're going to be behind.

The percentages, the odds were you would be behind. Yes, with the ball, but you'd be behind. And by the way, even though Marilyn came back, you know what Maryland was shooting in the second half? They only shot 39%. So the chances were that you were going to be behind on at least one made free throw, and the chances on the other end were that you wouldn't score.

How stupid are some of you? Fowl. They blew it because they didn't foul. Dumb. I, unfortunately, at the very end, going man-to-man, sticks didn't play the ball screen well. Bottom line, you know, he didn't hedge out hard. He didn't push waters out hard.

He didn't make waters throw it to the screener. or do something else. He gave him a sliver of space to allow him to penetrate and get to the rim. Anyway, also on my good list, Aaron Wiggins, end of the first half. He basically saved them by himself in the moment. Game would have been a 15 plus point deficit at the half, but his two threes, three in total in the first half, but the two threes at the end of the half cut the 15 point lead to nine. That was huge. Also, I'm going to throw Daryl Moresell on the things that I like the list. I'm a big, fan, if you've listened to the podcast or listen to me on radio even last year, I just like Daryl Morsell. He has the toughness that I think Turgeon likes too. I didn't think it was one of his

better defensive games. I think he struggled with waters at times. But, you know, when they needed something, he gave them something. He gave him a three in the first half when they really needed it, needed it. He gave him a drive to the rim, a couple of them. I just like Daryl Morsell. What I didn't like? Well, they're shooting, clearly. know, they finished the first half 10 for 35, one for 10 on their, I'm sorry, yeah, 10 for 35, but they, before the final two shots by Wiggins, they were eight for 33 in the first half, one for their first 10 on three-pointers. And they missed shots in every way imaginable. Point blank Aaron at the rim, right at the rim, you know, or open threes. They had open shots. You know what? The first half of the game,

being down nine in terms of analysis was simple. Maryland shot 10 for 35 on open shots primarily, and LSU was 15 of 30. Maryland ran some good offense, got some good shots. I think I was right about it being easier for them to run offense when they got out of the Big Ten. I think we saw that in both games. They had many more open shots out of their half-court offense against Belmont and LSU than they had in the last. last month in the Big Ten.

But there was a lid on the bucket in the first half, which is why they were down nine, and then 15 early in the second half. Wiggins saved them in the first half. But even in the second half, when they came back, it's not like they shot great in the second half. They were 11 for 28 in the second half, 39%. Ayala, I think, was the real hurtful shooter in this game.

He had open threes throughout. seven of them, and he made one of them, and he is their second best three-point shooter during the course of the season. If he makes his average, which was, what did he shoot? Close to 40% from the three-point line this year. Certainly high 30s. If he shoots his average, Marilyn wins the game, I mean, based on the math. I mean, context would have changed if he had knocked down some of those. He had the open three with 50 seconds to go for a 67-64 lead, and he missed it. That was one of the better passes by Bruno in the game. He did not handle the post play offensively very well. But Ayala, one for seven from behind the arc. Their second best three-point

shooter, one-for-seven on threes. That was a big thing in this game, because again, almost all of the threes he took were wide-open looks. On my things I didn't like list, Bruno was too passive, nearly missed the shot at the rim that went in late to give him the lead. Do you remember the play I'm talking about? He had an easy layup, decided not to dunk in, he almost missed that layup. I didn't think he handled the double or the fake double teams well, not just Saturday, but over the last several games. He was too inconsistent, too passive offensively.

He rebounded, yeah, but, you know, LSU missed almost everything they looked at in the second half. There were plenty of opportunities. It just looked too much to me at times over the last, I don't know, seven, eight games that Bruno Fernando was playing to stay out of foul trouble. It was like, I don't want to get in foul trouble. I got to be careful offensively because I'll get called for a charge if I go really hard. Defensively, I got to be a little bit more careful. I can't pick up stupid fouls.

How much of that was him? How much of that was turgene? Because you saw him, you know, he picked up his third foul with, was it like 930? left in the game and Tertin immediately pulled him out, even though three fouls with 930 left in the game is not foul trouble. I agree with you on that. I agree. I don't know if my perception of him playing more passively down the stretch this season, because as I put it, it looked like he was playing, it looked like he was playing to stay out of foul trouble. I don't know how much of that had to do with him or the coach. I don't know. But Bruno Fernando,

was not the force that he was at times early and mid-season down the stretch. He had moments, but it wasn't consistent. And then the last thing on my list of things that I didn't like was just the final sequence. You can't allow penetration from their point guard on a ball screen. Waters is really good. They didn't play the ball screen well. Sticks didn't. They gave him some space.

They gave him a sliver of room to get through. I didn't think he traveled. That never gets called, as I mentioned. He made a very good move, made a good shot, and gave him the lead with 1.6 seconds left. Sticks was really upset after the game, and I know that part of it was because he didn't play that ball screen. Well, he didn't. He didn't. And they had just gone to man to man after being in his own for 12, 14 minutes, whatever it was, 15 minutes. And then the last thing is the final 1.6 seconds.

They had no plan for it, none. By the way, one quick thing, do you know that after sticks hit the three to make it 67, 67? Maryland from the bench, I believe, was screaming for them to drop back into the zone. And I thought before LSU called the timeout, you could see that Maryland was setting up in the zone. So LSU's timeout gave Maryland the opportunity to switch their defense. Again, I did not have a problem with that. I know a lot of coaches, high school, college, that aren't going to sit in a zone with a one-point lead or in a tie game. No matter what kind of team they are.

I do. I've seen that before. Duke played zone at the end. Yesterday, that was very interesting. No, I'm thinking about the wrong thing. Iowa, my fault. That's not Duke, not Duke. Duke was not in a zone at the end.

I got confused. Iowa stayed in a zone on the final possession of regulation against Tennessee. That's what I was thinking of. 1.6 seconds left. You can be critical of me being critical of this. That's fine because they seem to be in shock and disappointed and they didn't have a time out left. But you've got to have a plan.

With 19 seconds left, LSU holding the ball in a tie game, you have to have a plan in the event that they score and there's still time left on the clock. Most teams that I know practice a lot of situational stuff, under 10 seconds, under 5 seconds, under 3 seconds, from half court, from full court, whatever. Maryland did not, if they had a plan, they didn't execute the plan because basically the game was over with 1.6 seconds left,

and that bothers me. You know, I just, Iala heaving up a 75-footer is not a, good play. It's not a good plan. And that wasn't the plan. I don't think they had a plan. If they did, the players just didn't execute it. Four players barely moved until Ayala moved to get open and then threw up the 75-foot prayer. 1.6 seconds gives you a chance from your baseline, you know, underneath the opponent's basket to throw a pass down the court. You can, you're allowed to do that. You're allowed to try to throw the ball somewhere near half court. And then by the way, somebody catches it, they can probably take a dribble before firing up a 40-footer. Yeah, I would have

rather had a 40-footer than a 75-footer. That's just me. Sorry. I was upset that they didn't really react very well to LSU's go-ahead bucket. It was not the game winner at that point. It was the go-ahead basket at that point because there was still, there were still 1.6 seconds left on the clock. There was time for something other than what they did. A few final observations. There was an obvious goaltending on LSU offensive goaltending in the first half that they completely missed. That's been a theme with LSU this year. Missing offensive goaltending calls against them. They beat Kentucky at Rupp Arena with an obvious offensive goaltending that was not a reviewable play, believe it or not. There was a play early in the game.

game where the ball's hanging clearly on the rim in the cylinder and it was tipped in and it wasn't called. It was another slow start for Maryland. God, they had a lot of those this year. Didn't they earn? A lot of slow starts this year. And it hurt them in the first half. But I wouldn't put this particular slow start in the same category as some of those Big Ten slow starts, you know, where they scored 18 points, 20 points and a half. They just didn't make shots. They ran decent offense, although they did let their missed shots affect their defense in the first half. I was going to say about that first half and it kind of goes into both things. Someone was pointing out, I think it was someone at the game,

and then someone picked up on it. I was following someone from Vegas. That rim was tight the entire tournament. Yes, on that end. Yes. I mean, yeah, because LSU went cold in the second half. LSU did something that you don't see a lot of college teams do for whatever reason. And to be honest with you, I think this is a debate.

thing, especially in college where shooting percentages are typically or can be lower. The ability to score easily can be lower. LSU went for the two-for-one at 64-64. When Maryland, at 64-64, at 64-64-6-4, all right, it was after the Iala miss. Bruno made a nice past I-A-A-A. He missed an open three with 50 seconds or so left. and you saw immediately the bench, LSU bench, give their signal for a two for one. And they got it. They got the long three with 38 seconds left or whatever. They went two for one.

You see it in the NBA all the time? You don't see it in college all the time. Look, if you're going to take a terrible shot just for the purposes of getting a two for one, that's not good either. But they got an open three. It was a contested three, actually. Morsell got a hand in May's face. But he knocked down that three, and they had a 67-64 lead.

Officiating, again, was not the issue in my particular opinion. I know a lot of Maryland fans were really up in arms about the travel that wasn't called or sticks his block. It was a clean block. If you go back about a minute and a half earlier, Morsell raped Naz Reed on the arm on a miss shot at the rim. And they didn't call it. So these things, it was not an officiating situation. And the last thing I'll just say is LSU was good. They weren't any better than Maryland.

They had talent. Maryland had talent. I didn't personally feel that Maryland lost to an obviously better team. That was my view. Now, all right, I want to get to a couple of final thoughts on Turgeon, the program, et cetera. Put a bow on this season. Because after today, except for, you know, NBA, mock draft, you know, Runo sticks, or if there's a big story, which I do not anticipate their being.

This is going to probably be it for Maryland basketball for a while. Turgeon coached a good game, in my opinion. I thought he coached two good games in the tournament. But the scoreboard says a second round loss with Sweet 16 talent, in my view. That's what it says. You can feel both. You know, you can feel that he coached well Thursday and Saturday, and you can also feel that they didn't go far enough.

this year based on their talent. Were they better than LSU? I don't know that they were, they were better. They weren't worse. They were a two and a half point underdog. I mean, if you thought they were a big underdog, they were two and a half point underdog in the game. They were only, you know, to be fair, they were only a three point favorite over Belmont. Belmont was a good team. So based on that and based on their seating being a six seat, I guess they got exactly to where they were supposed to get, which is the second round loss. But, Aaron, that doesn't account for the following. Did they have enough talent this year to win more games and earn higher than a six-seed?

I think the answer to that is yes. Definitively. You know, so if they're not a six-seed, but they're a three-seed, then they're favored and they're seeded to get to the Sweet 16, and their chances, at least theoretically on paper, are better. I mean, match-ups are everything, and sometimes you can be a three-seed and have a terrible match-up with a six, whereas if you were six, you may have had a match-up with a three that was more favorable. Actually, I think it was a good matchup for Maryland on Saturday. I really do.

They had two bad, what I would call, scheduling losses this year that hurt them. Seton Hall, there was too long of a layoff before playing that kind of game. And then the Illinois thing, where they sold the Illinois game to Madison Square Garden, was beyond stupid. And it cost them. It cost them more likely than not one seat. More likely than not, it cost them a top four seed in the Big Ten tournament. actually that's almost definite, which would have meant the double buy.

And I think it costs them at least one seed line in the NCAA tournament. Cannot give away home games to Madison Square Garden against conference foes. If you want to give away a home game in November against Radford or Longwood or, you know, Coppin State, do it. Not against Illinois in January. Can't do that. Big mistake, cost them a seed line. Did their grinded out low possession style limit their potential this year? The Terps were 313th in the country out of 353 teams in possessions per game.

That's a fact, right? I didn't make that up. 313th out of 353 teams in possessions per game. They were a low possession team. Their pace of play was too slow too often, in my opinion. Many teams in their league played that way. There were very good defensive teams in the Big Ten that often led to a slower grind-it-out game. On some level, I think it prepared the Big Ten teams well for this tournament.

Look, the Big Ten was 7 and 1 in round one. They've got three teams into the Sweet 16. They've done well in this tournament. Big Ten is shown pretty well in this tournament. The Terps were a six-seat. I thought personally in early January, I was watching a team capable of being much higher than a six-seat. If they had won more games, they would have been seated higher,

and perhaps they would have been still playing. So you can say he coached well in this tournament and that they had a good season, but you also have to acknowledge that they had, this is a matter of opinion, did they have talent that should have produced a better-than-six-seed regular season, a better-than-one-and-done in the Big Ten tournament? I think the answer is yes. The team was young. They played in an awesome league this year.

One of the best top to bottom I've seen. Lots of you mocked me about talking about how tough the Big Ten was this year. I think you're now after the first weekend of the tournament. I think you're able to see just how good it was. Bottom line, they made the tournament. Hooray. They beat Belmont. Hooray.

They lost to LSU and are home before the second week of the tournament. the second weekend of the tournament, with a team that looked like to me that they were a second weekend team. Not a national championship team, not a Final Four team, not an elite eight team, but I thought they had top 16 talent and ability.

And by the way, I would throw into that that they didn't have a lot of, you know, extenuating circumstances, like a terrible coaching staff or a team that had, you know, a player that was super flawed, it's super talented. This was just a solid top 15 type of team this year, talent-wise. It was.

So on that level, if you believe that to be true, then the season wasn't a great season, because they're home now. Again, congratulations. They went to the tournament. They won a game. It was a good season. It wasn't a great season. That's my opinion. I don't want Mark Turgeon gone. I'm not one of those fans. I don't believe he's a terrible coach at all. I have been constructively critical of more than anything else, the pace of play with what I thought to be talent that could have played differently. But that's easier said than done sitting on the outside looking,

you know, sitting on the outside trying to come to the determination that they're playing the wrong way. I'm not a practice. I don't have to game plan for Michigan and Michigan State. Purdue. You know, these were good teams, but it was a brutal loss. A brutal loss. All right. Long open there.

Let me tell you real quickly. What do you want to say? I want to give you a chance. I just kind of going off what you said last time, I don't think Mark Turchin is a terrible coach. I do think we're getting to a point where we're eight years in on this thing. We realize who Mark Turgent is as a coach. where, just hypothetical, obviously it's off the top of your head.

It's hard to say this. Where would you rank him as a college coach right now, like amongst the scale? Top 40, top 50, higher than that? I mean, there are 353 Division 1 coaches. He's certainly in the top 50. Top 50. And I guess, and I would probably put it. I mean, you're asking me, I don't have the list in front of me,

and I'm not doing an analysis or watching, you know, games. But our fan base thinks he, he's one of the worst 50. And I agree with you. That's not true. I agree with you. I think that he's probably in that 40 to 50 range. Again, I haven't done the list either.

I kind of started to do one and then I realized it was ridiculous to do that. 40 to 50 range. The question is, if we believe that Maryland is the top 20, top 25 program, should there be a coach there that's in that 40 to 50 range? And I think that's where a lot of the frustration, there's somewhere there's the completely irrational side who do think he's a terrible, terrible coach. then there's some people who I do view think are rational who say this is who Mark Turgeon is should Maryland expect better.

Let me just say, because the only way for me to truly do this is to compare it to the teams that I watch all the time and have been watching for several years, which unfortunately for many of us means that I'm evaluating it based on the Big Ten coaches. There are three coaches who are in my mind's eye, obviously better. Izzo, Painter, and B-Line. After that, Turgeon's in the discussion with the other 11 coaches in the Big Ten for the fourth best. I'm not saying that I'd put him at four. I'm just saying that there's nobody that's obviously better than him after that.

Now, do I like Archie Miller? I liked Archie Miller at Dayton. I think Archie Miller is a good coach, and I think he's going to win big at Indiana. Hasn't happened in the first two years. Do I like the guy at Rutgers? yeah, I think actually he can coach. I think the guy Penn State Chambers can coach. I think the coaching in the Big Ten is really good, really good.

And I'm not saying, by the way, for those of you that are, you know, long-time ACC fans, that the ACC coaching was any worse. I'm just saying that to be honest with you, I thought we were taking a step down in league when we went to the Big Ten. I really did. And I think over time, the ACC's results have been better than the Big Ten's results in college basketball. The ACC's been a better league over the years.

But one thing that has continually, consistently impressed me is just how well-coached the teams were. And this league this year was brutally tough, brutally tough. And I think, you know, the first round of the tournament with, you know, teams like Iowa and Minnesota and Ohio State as double-digit-seeded teams, right? Ohio State was, was Minnesota was a 10. What was Iowa, 10? Yes. Three double-digit-seated teams. all won games out of the Big Ten.

You know, but you guys that think he is a terrible coach are insane. He's not a terrible coach. Could they do better as a completely different conversation? I will say this, Aaron, I think you'd be taking a risk at this point that you could do obviously better. I think you'd be taking a risk, but I think there are, you know, I hate this because obviously anything can change in this season. I think we know what Turchin's ceiling is. I don't, so my, I know that we're going so long on Maryland, but sorry. It's the NCAA tournament.

This is what matters to me today and to Aaron today and to many of you out there. For those of you who will tweet me and say, enough Maryland basketball, understand that on days like today, we have a lot of people tuning in to hear us talk about this. So, you know, give it a rest for a day. We'll be back to, I'm going to talk about Redskins here in a moment. We're going to talk about some of the NFL. stuff in the league meeting stuff here in a moment. But I think that something my brother said to me is in play here.

And I'm going to tell you what he said. He is a diehard two and an alum too. And we're texting throughout and then talked afterwards. And he said, I feel like this may be the beginning of a bit of a run, a turgeon run. And I'm not willing to give up on it. He said they played hard this year. young, that may not have been an excuse for late in the season, but it was an excuse for some of their inconsistency during the season. And he liked the way they played, and he likes the

team that's coming back, which, again, should be a preseason top 15 to top 20 team. Depends who leaves? Yeah, I mean, if Sticks comes back and Bruno leaves, it's a top 15, top 20 preseason team, a team that will definitely be a tournament team, a team that should be, again, I think like this year's team, a team that should be a top four seed when all is said and done by the time we get to next March. You know, we got to check out what happens. Who knows? Maybe one of these Mitchell twins will be a dominant big guy and replace Bruno and will be even better next year. Who knows? But they should be a good team. And then, you know, you still have some freshman players that are going to come

back as juniors two years from now be a lot better. You know, Iala, Wiggins. You know, you've got young players. Morsell would be a senior at that point. You've got another recruiting class to come this year, next year. He does have something going on here. It's four tournaments in five years. Unfortunately, it's one postseason win in the last three. So, Belmont, you know, South Dakota State, Hawaii, Valparaiso. I know, that's it. By the way, you were wrong about your stat that they had never beaten a double-digit team under Turgeon in the postseason. They beat Duke in the ACC tournament, who was a single-digit seed. Okay.

I guess I was thinking about starting a big 10-5. I meant to tell you that a few weeks ago because I mentioned it to Van Pelt and he goes, no, that's not true. We beat Duke. Okay. Because we beat Duke twice that year, remember. And then had Carolina on the ropes in the ACC C semis. I guess we'll start in Big Ten-Fi.

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follow jeff on twitter at jeff underscore irman jeff of course has covered maryland sports Maryland basketball, Maryland football, every game, every media avail for years now, 15 to be factual. He's been there. And Aaron and I were talking earlier. This was another Maryland gut punch loss. You know, it was one of those that I'm sitting there and you're feeling great about the comeback and you're thinking about D.C. in Capital One Arena and Sweet 16, and then it's over.

You know, not just the game, but this season. You know, similar to Corey Lucius and a lot of other, you know, painful losses over the years. Where do you put this one in terms of how you felt afterwards? Yeah, this one's up there. You know, it's not obviously Corey Lucius. No, it's not. It wasn't a buzzer-beater. And you didn't have the, well, you did have a big comeback, but you didn't have that,

the Gravis Fasquez-Eas-Engineered, unbelievable comeback, and that obviously the path in front of them cleared out that year, so they could have easily made the final four. But, you know, I think when you add in the pretext to this one, which is that, you know, Maryland really hasn't had a lot of success at a high level for some time, and this was your opportunity to finally do it. You had a chance to actually play in D.C. and dream about being one-win away from playing Duke. You know, it's a pretty big gut punch. I think for Maryland fans at this point, it's kind of like, it's got to be the opposite of watching a movie,

you know, where you know that the good guy is going to win in the end. instead you're just kind of waiting for that dagger to come. You know, I mean, one sweet 16 in the last 15 years, it's felt like a very real chance to get to another one and maybe for Turgeon, turn over a new leaf, and as we all know, it just fell a couple seconds short. All right, let's talk about Turgent here for a moment. What did you think before Thursday, before the Belmont game,

that he needed to do, that the team needed to do, to create some optimism in the program, some optimism for him. And then ultimately, did he achieve that last weekend? I think it depends on which category of fan you are. If you're more of the either casual or glass, half-fold kind of fan, then he did it by getting a sixth seed, having a solid regular season, winning a game, and almost winning second game in the tournament

with a really young team. that's a big part of the picture, obviously, how young they were. For probably a bigger part of the fan base, though, you really needed to cross that sweet 16 threshold. With some of them, you probably needed to get to an elite aid, and they would have celebrated that, but still begrudgingly. So it really depends on who you are. I think they had a solid season, you know.

It wasn't an amazing season, but considering how young they were, you know, most people didn't have them in the tournament before the year. They had a good season. On the other hand, you lose the first game in the big season, 10 tournament to a really underman Nebraska team. That was a really bad loss. Beat Belmont by two and then losing the next round, you're not going to raise a banner for that. So it really just depends on your perspective on things. Yeah, I think that that is the right answer. I got into quite a debate actually yesterday

because Saturday night, although I had plans, I decided to cancel them. I just was not up to going out after that. And it's so ridiculous that we take this stuff so seriously. but this is the team that I do take seriously this and perhaps the Redskins. But I sort of felt what you just said. I thought it was a good season, but it was far from a great season, and it's okay to feel that way. But your perspective on what Maryland basketball should be really drives how you feel.

I feel that this should be a team that makes more than one Sweet 16 every five years. I just think it should be. I think it should be a team that legitimately competes for a final four once out of every five years. If you don't feel that Maryland basketball has that potential, then you're probably pleased as punch that they made the tournament, that they finished in the top five in the Big Ten, and they won a game in the tournament. But that's not where I am? So I would ask you, where are you on this? And what do you think is reasonable in terms of what the expectations for Maryland basketball should be year and year out?

or maybe take it over like a five-year period. That's the way I did it. Well, first off, I mean, I agree with you that the potential of the program is to go to Sweet 16 semi-regularly compete for final fours here and there, always be in the mix in the conference. So that's always been the potential that the problem is that that's not really what it's consistently been over time. So, you know, people who are non-Meralans who don't see up close the potential, all the recruiting talents, the talent in this area of recruits, the fans support, the facilities, and they might think that that's misguided and just based on the history

other than those stretches under Gary and lefty, you know, it hasn't been that. It should be that whether, so that's more of a potential thing than a proven background thing. But, you know, it should at least be going, they should be going to the tournament pretty much every year. They should be able to consistently win some games in the tournament, you know. They should be able to win, compete in the Big Ten, obviously, and in the Big Ten tournament, which they haven't done.

So it should be more than it's been, and not just on Turgeon's behalf also on this last, you know, that last stretch with Gary was underwhelming, too, especially considering what he had accomplished. So I think this season is kind of viewed in the prism of all of that, whereas normally people would say, yeah, we were young, you know, we had a good season. Nobody expected us to get to the tournament and, you know, whatever.

But people are so impatient at this point. point because they've fallen so short of those kind of that potential and those expectations that you mentioned, then this season is, you know, it's not viewed the same way. It's still a disappointment because they're still not breaking through to where everybody thinks they should be. You know, now you've got one sweet 16 and eight years under Turgeon. You know, you still haven't beaten a major team in the tournament. So, you know, it's really almost like no man's land.

He hasn't done a bad job, but at the same time, You know, people want to be great. They want to be in the national conversation. And, you know, it's really not, it hasn't reached that point. All right. Few more, and I'll let you run. First of all, Turgeon, is there any chance that he doesn't come back, whether it be he finds something else better or they decide, you know, at Maryland to move on from him? Yeah, you know, I don't think that they will fire him based on the contract. He has four more years worth about $10 million, every cent of it guaranteed. And then, you know, obviously he's coming off a year where you made the tournament,

won a game with the young team, so that's not a situation. Typically where you fire a guy, whether, you know, Damon Evans tells him to go listen to what else is out there or whether Turgeon kind of feels the heat from the fans, which undoubtedly he does at this point. You know, it's overwhelming on social media. I see it on our Facebook page under every article, and you see it under the official Maryland. You know, that's got to get to him. You know, he seems stressed out. So the situation where you're kind of trying to beat the posse out of town, as they say,

and look at a Nebraska or an Alabama or one of these other jobs, it opens up. And, you know, just if you feel like you've reached that breaking point here where it's not necessarily going to get better, that wouldn't absolutely shock me. It's something to keep an eye on, but there's no definitive word, and I don't see them firing him. So, long story short. You know, it's definitely worth keeping tabs on. It just, I guess, depends on, you know, what the message is from the administration

and whether Turgeon feels like it's kind of irreparable at this time and kind of like in a relationship where, you know, it's time for divorce. Does he feel like it's at that point or not? So, you know, it's worth keeping tabs on. You know, it's interesting because I personally think that much of the fan base has no idea what they're talking about. he's not a bad coach. But at the same time, I hear the same thing. But on one hand, I hope he doesn't want to go because I think it's more important for him

to realize, hey, these expectations, however delusional they may be from at least some in the fan base, are better than no expectations, which, by the way, is what Nebraska would be for basketball or Texas A&M was for basketball. And yeah, that's an easy position to be in. know, because there aren't any expectations, and it's a distance third to spring football in those two places. But he's in a place where the fan base does care, and I hope he also realizes that on some level, it has underachieved a little bit. It doesn't mean that he's a bad coach, but that the results haven't been what, anywhere near what the potential is. I mean,

I don't know that that's really debatable. I mean, the results of one postseason win, in the last three seasons is not anywhere near what Maryland basketball's potential is. But Nebraska specifically, first of all, have they fired Tim Miles? I don't think they've officially fired. I know they played in the NIT last night and lost, so I think that that one seems to be a foregone conclusion, but I don't think he's officially been fired yet. Interesting.

I mean, that would be the place. I hope it doesn't happen personally. Apparently his father lives in Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, too. Yes. That's been something that's been mentioned, but, you know, that's just speculation. Right. Agreed. All right.

Bruno, is he gone, definitely? He's gone until you hear otherwise, which I don't think you'll hear. You know, obviously, he had one foot out the door last year. No one was going to pick him in the first round, or maybe even the second round now. He just seems to me to be a first round lock, maybe a top 15 guy if he shows well at the combine. So he obviously is a guy, a unique guy, who really loves school, who lives and breathes Maryland, even though he's only been there a couple years. So, you know, you can hope that maybe he thinks if I come back, it'll, you know,

we'll have a chance to win it all and it'll help my coach and all these things. But, you know, that's a dream scenario. I think he's gone. You think he's hurt himself at all with some of the games that he's had here over the last, you know, eight to ten games, which at times have been less impressive than he was earlier in the year? I don't think so because when you talk to scouts, usually they feel like they watch a guy throughout his career and they know what he is regardless of individual performances, they know what the potential is. So I don't think so, and I also think there's some things he hasn't been able to show.

He's got a pretty nice jumper. Yes, he does. He hasn't been able to shoot much in college. He can handle the ball a little bit. So, you know, I think that once he gets in that combined situation where they're doing the athletic testing, he's obviously a physical freak. I don't see his stock really falling. The question is, where do you see him playing on the next level?

He's a little bit of a 4-slash-5 tweener, but otherwise, you know, I don't think he's hurt himself. What about sticks in the last two games in particular where he really, he played exceptionally well? We know what his skill level is. We know where they thought he would be before the season started in terms of a potential, you know, mid to late first round pick. Do you think his stock has risen, and do you think he'd consider it? I think it helped his stock, but I still think he's going to come back, most likely. You know, his parents are, you know, they understand the whole situation.

They're not the type to push their kid out to make some money. They've said all along that they want him to stay for four years, which obviously is not happening. But I think he knows he needs another year to get strut. But, you know, that all comes with the same caveat as always that if he shows up at the combine, which I'm sure he will. And has a great day or has a few really good individual workouts. I mean, you look at Kevin Hutter this time last year, no one was talking about him.

He wasn't even wanting to go to the Combine until his dad talked him into it. Next thing you know, he has a great day and some good workouts, and he's the 19th pick. So you never know for sure. My sense is that sticks will likely be back. And, you know, you just, if you're a Maryland fan, I guess selfishly, you hope he doesn't pull a Hurt her and just impressed people in those workouts. If he comes back in Bruno leaves, which I think is the betting favorite right now,

and I hope it's no worse than that. What kind of team do they have next year? I think it's solid, you know, top 20 preseason team. You have a ton of depth, assuming Callan comes back, which he should. You never know, but they have a lot of depth at guard, obviously now more experienced there, and Wiggins is a guy who should be a really solid player next year.

Darryl Moresell improved as the year went on. I see Eric Iala. You've got a ton of depth there. Front court is the biggest question. Sticks could be a star. Otherwise, you have nobody who's shown they can score. You're going to rely on a three freshmen coming in, the Mitchell Twins and Dante Scott,

who's actually, I think, a really underrated prospect, 6'7 kid from Philadelphia, who I think should be ready to help right away. So, you know, it's kind of the same song of dance. are going to be young again, except for Cowan and Morsell, for the most part, freshmen and sophomores again. But that's, you know, that's the landscape anyways in college basketball. So, long story short, they should be a, you know, top four-ish big 10 team next year,

even if Bruno leaves, I think. Yeah, I think that's right. I think if Sticks comes back, I was thinking that this is a, you know, top 15 to top 20 preseason team and somewhere in that top three to four in the Big Ten. And if Bruno came back, this would be a preseason top 10 team. easy. And probably, if not the favorite, one of the two favorites to win the Big Ten, but I don't think that's going to happen. Thanks. Always appreciate catching up with you. Follow Jeff on Twitter at Jeff underscore Erman. He's a great follow on Twitter, and nobody covers Maryland

Sports like he does at Maryland 247 Sports.com. Thanks so much. Appreciate it as always. Thanks for having me, Kevin. All right, thanks to Jeff Herman. That'll probably do it for Maryland basketball for a while. I want you to consider launch workplaces in Bethesda if you live in that area and you need a new office or office solution or a co-working desk. Launch workplaces in Bethesda is a beautiful new space with fully furnished offices, conference rooms, co-working desks, high-speed internet, complimentary drinks, a cafe, free parking and lots of it and 24-7 access. You can get more work done today by moving your office to launch workplaces. Call today for a free two-day trial, 240-8667-14, 24-8-67-14,

or go to launchworkplaces.com today. By the way, they've got places throughout the area, so just go to launchworkplaces.com, and you can find out where there are other locations are. All right, there was some Redskins news over the weekend. I want to touch on two particular stories. One was the news that came out, And I believe that giving Tark El Bashir from the athletic credit for this is the right way to go.

I didn't spend a lot of time researching it, but that's where I saw it first, where he reported that Colt McCoy had been recently spotted on crutches. And so when people heard that, they're like, wait. So he was apparently ready to play the Philadelphia game if they needed it, you know, after losing to Tennessee the week before. if they had beaten Tennessee, Colt McCoy apparently was ready to go, and now all of a sudden he's still on crutches. Well, it turns out, and I think Tarek followed up on this story too, that he had another surgery on his right leg, the right leg that he broke in that December game against Philadelphia, but Tarek reported that the procedure was more of preventative maintenance than anything else,

and that Colt McCoy is expected to be ready when the off-season program begins. So if you're a Colt McCoy fan and you think that he's the answer, then you're happy about that. So they've got Case Keenham, and I think they're going to try to make a move for another quarterback at some point, if circumstances dictate it, meaning there's a quarterback there that they really like and that it's not overly expensive to get that quarterback. Anyway, Colt McCoy, if you read about the crutches thing, Tark is saying preventative maintenance will be ready for offseason activity. Then there was this. A lot of discussion, I think on 1067 the fan.

I didn't hear it, but I believe that Grant Paulson and Craig Hoffman discussed what I'm about to talk about here on 1067 the fan last week, maybe Friday. So I want to give them proper credit without knowing specifically what they talked about. But apparently this is where this conversation emanated from. About two weeks ago, I played you a soundbite on the podcast from Doug Williams. This was Doug Williams at the Combine? No, this was at the Landon Collins Press. I'm sorry, at the Landon Collins Press conference. Yes, duh.

It was right after the Landing Collins Press conference, there was this media scrum with Doug Williams. And Chris Russell from 1067 the fan asked the following question, and two weeks ago we played it for you, or a week and a half ago, whenever it was, we played it for you, and told you to listen to Doug's answer very carefully. Just as a follow-up, if I could piggy back off that, I've always been taught that in personnel acquisition,

you try to find players that fit the scheme and what the coaches ideally want. So you're kind of saying that you guys in personnel are just identifying talent and then not worrying as much about the scheme. I think that's what people think that, you know, because we're not in the room with the scheme. So I don't know exactly what the scheme is, more than what we see.

But I think athletic ability and the play of a player should fit in the scheme you put him in. If you look at it from that standpoint, you know, it's some guys that we had on the board that we'd say he can only play in the box because he might not can run, but he's tough as nails. But a guy like this, you know, we didn't put him in the box. We put him as a safety that he can play wherever you put him. You know, it all depends on how you use it. But, you know, I tell people all the time, whether it's the receiver,

whether the running back, no matter what, we don't scheme them up. So these Doug Williams' words from a week and a half, two weeks ago, whenever it was, are now apparently, or did apparently get him in trouble. I played them because they were in direct conflict with what Jay Gruden had asked at the end of the season, which is that personnel and coaching be more in sync, be more together, be more on the same page. I'm paraphrasing, but we remember when Jay said that. Tommy made a big deal out of it, and he was right to make a big deal out of it

because it was an indication that Jay was a bit frustrated with the fact that personnel and coaching weren't necessarily in sync, not on the same page, that players were being added without the understanding of what the coaches necessarily wanted. It's not totally unique in an organization for it to run that way. There are organizations in the NFL where personnel picks players, coaches, coach players. And they're not totally in sync. But you know what? I think the winning organizations are pretty much in sync. They're not going to draft a 3-4 outside linebacker when their scheme is a 4-3. And Doug's words were probably not necessarily accurate. And apparently they weren't.

1067, it was Grant or Craig. I'm going to give them both credit for it. I don't know who specifically reported this. So I'll give them both credit for it. Reported that the organization was not happy with what Doug said, not happy at all, that they didn't agree with what Doug said. People at the park, and I'm sure those people are, Bruce Allen, and Kyle Smith and Eric Schaefer, and the scouts, and the coaches, even though Jay Gruden said it and referred to it,

but this was probably something that they felt he spoke to inaccurately. and what I would say to them is it's your fault if he speaks inaccurately. You're either not letting him in the meetings where there is obvious conversation between personnel and coaches or you're not sharing key pieces of information about how the organization is run. And yet you're asking him to be at times here recently your public face. your public spokesperson. Doug Williams is a franchise icon. He's beloved by the long-time fan base.

Even those that have checked out, you know, those that have checked out and aren't paying for anything and aren't watching games or going to games, they still love Doug Williams. And the Ruben Foster situation, putting him out there to shovel their shit on Ruben Foster, was an abomination.

It was wrong. Bruce Allen should have been out there, or Dan Snyder should have been out there for that Ruben Foster press conference. And what happened? Well, Doug messed up. Not intentionally. Not intentionally at all. But he messed up, and then they made him go out and apologize for it.

So they asked him to shovel their shit. He got their shoes dirty, and then he had to apologize for it. This is, you know, part and parcel. This is part of the root cause of what. some of us have gotten to the point where it's like it would be a miracle if they won. They need a miracle to win. They're so dysfunctional out there. Why is Doug Williams talking if he's not truly a decision maker?

Why is he the front of, in the face, in the voice, in so many of these press conferences and media scrums and on issues that he has nothing to do with and isn't even in the no on some of this? Well, the answer is easy. Well, because Dan's a recluse and Bruce knows how much everybody hates his guts. Well, it's time to man up and not put Doug into that position anymore. It's not fair to him. Wouldn't surprise me if Doug not only realizes it's not fair, but is getting sick and tired of being the guy that's asked to do their deeds publicly when he hasn't had one voice in any of it, or a minor voice in any of it. Wouldn't surprise me if Doug's look to move on from this organization and just hasn't had the chance yet. I, like Doug Williams, who doesn't that knows him?

He is a kind person. He has been put at times by management in this organization into very difficult situations that he is. shouldn't have been put into. Yeah, they're mad. They're mad because the reaction to what he said was, look at them. And I said it here. Look at them. Get on the goddamn same page.

And what they're saying is, we're much more on the same page than Doug saying. Why are you saying that, Doug? Well, why don't you tell Doug that you're on the same page? Let him get involved in being on the same page. and if you really, really aren't, if Doug should have known and didn't, then don't have him out there conducting press conferences or media scrums.

Have the person that knows every detail about what's going on and has every reason for every question, every answer for every question that you want put out there. Have that person out speaking on your behalf. Not somebody that doesn't have the answers that you want. All right.

We'll finish up with just a couple of quick things. First of all, the performance by Carson Edwards on Saturday night was unbelievable. Did you see the 42 that he put up? No. It was a show. I watched that game. That was one of the games on Saturday night that sort of got me back into watching basketball. You weren't there yet?

I wasn't there yet until Sunday. So I watched the Purdue Villanova game and Carson Edwards and Ryan Klein, by the way, but Carson Edwards, who can go six for 27 on one night, and then, you know, 15 for 24 the next night, was in one of those 15 for 24 nights. I think he went 12 for 21. I've had 42 points. The honest is the best performance scoring-wise of the tournament. But the 42, some of it came at the end of the game, Aaron, when they were up by 25, and Matt Painter, who's one of my favorites, still had him in the game. And he got a bunch of free throws late. But he put on a shooting display from range, man.

I mean, some of these threes, he was nine for 16 from behind the arc. 12 of 21 from the floor, 9 of 16 from behind the arc, 9 of 9 from the free throw line, 42 points, 6 rebounds in the game. One assist, but six rebounds in the game. Some of the bombs that he hit the nine threes were 25 to 30 footers. I mean, they weren't anywhere near the line. They were so far beyond it. He's got a quick release.

Why is he being mocked out or not in the first round? He's a junior. You know that, right? He could come back next year. Yeah. It's funny to watch Purdue play because they are not going to overwhelm you with physical talent. You know, they've got a couple of athletes. Don't get me wrong.

You know, Noel Eastern's a pretty damn good athlete. But, you know, then they got guys like Ryan Klein and harms and Iphers. and you're like, how are these guys beating anybody? They're good. I think they've got a chance to beat Tennessee in the Sweet 16. We talked about the Duke game. A couple of the other games from the weekend that I wanted to mention, man, did Florida State look impressive?

Again, another game that I was still like you, you know, in despondent mode after the Maryland loss, but John Morant apparently before the game said, get used to me, I'm going to be around for a while. No, not so much. Florida State, man. have some athletes and they laid the wood to Murray State winning by near 30 in that game. One of the most impressive teams of the weekend, and I think we have to really watch,

this is going to be an interesting Sweet 16 game to me because it's two very well-coached teams and two exceptional defensive teams who also take care of the ball, and that is Texas Tech. Texas Tech beat a good Buffalo team by 20. This has been a good team this year, and they play Michigan in the Sweet 16, also a good team. Two great defensive teams, two teams that I believe after the first weekend of this tournament. I picked Michigan to get to the final four, but I think the winner of that game is going to the final four and will beat either Gonzaga or Florida State. I do. I have no problem. I mean, I've been saying from basically all season along that I thought that, you know, you had the very tippy top with like Duke and UNC,

but then Texas Tech was in that next tier along with Michigan State and Michigan and Tennessee probably. I thought they were one of the top eight or nine teams in the country. They're fantastic. I still think Gonzaga's the best team in the country, so I wouldn't pick that, but it wouldn't shock me at all. Yeah, I just think they are really good teams that play both ends of the floor really, really well. I wanted to mention Virginia as well, because when we left you, it was Friday, and they had yet to play Gardner Webb.

I don't know if there was a more pressure-packed moment in this tournament than them being down 14 to Gardner Webb in the first half, a 16-1 game. I mean, anybody that was watching that, we all, I think, felt the same thing, and that is, oh, my God, this might be on the verge of happening again. And if it did happen, it would have been a program changer. I truly believe that. I don't know if it would have been a program changer or not, but there would have been a lot of questions being asked about the style of play and the style of coaching with Tony Bennett and whether or not it was conducive to a one-and-done situation. And yes, they'll continue to have great regular seasons,

but they are too vulnerable in low-possession games to much lesser teams. The interesting part of that game is Gardner Webb was pretty good. You know, UMBC last year wasn't one of these Stinko 16 seeds, but Gardner Webb was making shots. They had a 14-point lead in the first half. They had a six-point lead at the half, and I can only imagine the pressure that Tony Bennett and his staff, and even those players felt going into that halftime.

Now, they got a little bit of a run towards the end of the first half. If they had gone in down 14, like it was 30 to 16, I think it was, with like five and a half to go, maybe six minutes to go, somewhere around there. The lead was 14 with, you know, not a lot of time left in the first half. And so there was a strong possibility of Virginia going into the half down double digits at that point. But they made a run and they cut it to six at halftime. And I think that may have maybe given them a chance to breathe. a little bit at halftime. But can you imagine if they'd gone in down double digits at the half and hadn't made

a run? I don't know that they would have recovered. But they went on, they played brilliantly in the second half, Blue Gardner Webb out in the second half, won the game by 15, didn't cover. I did not cover in that game. And then played a very good game yesterday against Oklahoma, a really, really good game against Oklahoma. And they are in the Sweet 16 against Oregon.

who really looked good against Wisconsin to start with. The only Big Ten team not to win a game in this tournament was Wisconsin. Wisconsin went ice cold in that game. Kenny Wooten is a freak. Yeah. What a shot blocker. What a finisher. The point guard can really shoot it.

Oregon's not going to be easy for Virginia. What's Virginia favored by? I've not looked at any point spreads. I'm going to guess eight or nine. think that was the case. I saw it earlier this morning. I can't remember exactly what it was, but yeah, it was in that eight, nine range, I think. Um, I was dead wrong about the University of Washington. Of course, Tommy will, seven and a half. Seven and a half. That's not that big. Yeah. It's not the, uh, biggest spread of the weekend. Duke, uh, is eight over Virginia Tech.

They're eight over Virginia Tech. Yeah, they're playing them after losing to them, but they lost to them without Zion. Um, we'll look at the lines. in more detailed tomorrow. But I was dead wrong about Washington in the first round. I thought they were the worst team that I had seen this year. They were a good defensive team. They beat Utah State, who was not a team that could run half-court offense. And then Washington promptly got blown out by North Carolina yesterday. Auburn's been impressive in this tournament after barely escaping New Mexico State. At one point, they had a 30-something point lead over Kansas in that game that they won by 14. Houston's been impressive

and they're well-coached by Kelvin Sampson. The Kentucky Wofford game, I didn't even watch it. That was shortly after the Maryland game. But they survived Wofford. By the way, that line was five and a half and they got two free throws late to cover. Virginia Tech is into the Sweet 16 against Duke.

That's one of the two games in D.C. Michigan State against LSU being the other one. My bracket right now, I had Michigan State, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina. So my final four is still alive. Yours is two, I'm assuming. Because chalk is, you know, there's a lot of chalk. Yeah, I mean, we've been saying that this year that like the top 12 teams or so are so much better than everybody else.

Yeah. I mean, so in the east you've got one, two, three, four, right? Yes. In the west, you've got one, two, three, four in terms of seating. In the south, you've got one, two, three, twelve. but Oregon's hardly a 12. And then in the Midwest, you've got one, two, three, five. Auburn's a five.

And I think we all felt that Kansas was a bit overseeded as a four. So a lot of chalk into the Sweet 16. I think I may have had Tennessee in the elite eight. I would switch that now. I like Purdue to win that game. I think Virginia is vulnerable against Oregon. I hope they win. I'm rooting for Virginia.

I'm rooting for the Big Ten teams, actually, but I'm also rooting for Virginia. Michigan State, I just love the way Izzo coaches, and I love the way that they play. They destroyed Minnesota. I think they're going to destroy LSU. What's that line? The LSU minus six. Yeah, six. All right, that's probably.

You want to guess on the over-under for Texas Tech, Michigan? 129. Yeah, 127. Yeah. Look, a lot of Maryland games have been in the 120s and 1 30s over the last couple of months. Anyway, that's it. What else do we have for today? I don't think anything else. I mean, he's a force. He is an absolute force. And when he was on the bench in foul trouble, it definitely hurt them. I think more important to UCF's performance was the performance by Aubrey Dawkins, who was fearless, as was the team in playing Duke, which is precisely why they had a legitimate chance and maybe should have won the game. Dawkins was incredible in that performance. He went for

32, Zion went for 32, Johnny Dawkins against his former coach and mentor. It was everything the tournament hadn't provided as of or up to that point, which was a real memorable, dramatic moment. And it did. I mean, we will remember how, you know, if Duke goes on to win this tournament, and I'm not predicting it, I think they're vulnerable.

I don't think that they are as good and as much of a slam dunk to win this thing as many, most of you do. But if they go on to win this tournament, we'll know that they survived a game in which they, you know, the dunk that would have put them up six errand, the 2-1-1 fast break dunk

that was missed was a crucial play in the game. and then you had, of course, the missed free throw and the weak attempt to box out, even with a little bit of a push-off. I don't think it was a massive or blatant push by Barrett, but when he missed that free throw, and I don't think he charged on that three-point play.

But you've got to secure the rebound in that spot. You have to secure the rebound, and the fact that the initial shot and then the tip followed didn't go in at the horn was nearly impossible that it didn't go in. It's amazing that it didn't go in because nine times out of ten, either that first shot hangs on the rim and drops

or the tip goes in easily, and neither did. There is, by the way, one quick thing with the league meetings in Arizona, and I did have this on my list of things to talk about. This issue of the fourth and 15, apparently it passed the competition committee seven to one, but John Mara is very much against the fourth and 15 option to an on-side

kick, which is what this AAF, is that the league? Yes, the AAF. It's what the AAF uses in replacement of an on sides kick. I'm all for it. Actually, they use fourth and 12, I believe. They use fourth and they don't have kickoffs. Yeah, so I'm all for it. I think it makes

total sense considering that they've legislated the chance to recover an onside kick out of the game pretty much. It's almost impossible. Apparently, John Marrows against it. And here's the thing. And he made some sort of comment of what are we, the arena football league? you know, why would we do that? Are we the Arena Football League? Well, you've legislated

through safety precaution the chances of recovering an onsides kick pretty much out of the game. So now you've got a game in which if you trail by two scores late in a game, you're not giving a team the same chance they used to have of winning. It's still not a great chance. I'd like to see the chance exist that if you're down 10 with three minutes to go and you score a touchdown, with 48 seconds left, I'd like to see there at least be a 1 in 5 chance of you getting the ball back and having a chance to tie the game.

And to me, the onside kick, with the new rules on the onside kick, means it's more like a 1 in, you know, it's less than 1 in 10. It's more like a 7 to 8% probability of recovering that onside kick. I think that's what the numbers were at the end of the year. I could be wrong.

It was right around 1 and 10. right around 10%, give or take, a percent or take or two. Anyway, I like the rule. I think the NFL should go to that rule. All right, that's it. Sorry for getting it out late. Enjoy it. Back tomorrow with Tommy.