The Kevin Sheehan Show - Terry Is Top 15 + Ed Cooley

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Kevin opened with Terry McLaurin making a "Wide Receiver Top 15" list. Kevin discussed the latest Instagram post from Brandon Aiyuk and the Commanders' front office changes. He previewed tonight's NBA Draft and gave his opinion on the Wizards' projected pick at #2, Alex Sarr. Georgetown basketball head coach Ed Cooley was a guest with his thoughts on the Maryland-Georgetown rivalry resuming in 2025.  Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is to Wind Donation. Give them a call at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mentioned my name for a free, no obligation in-home estimate.

One guest on the show today, Georgetown basketball coach, Ed Cooley, will be on with me in the final segment of the podcast. today. That off the news yesterday that Maryland and Georgetown will begin playing regularly in the year 2025. Ed Cooley in the final segment. Before that, I will preview to a certain extent as much as you can the NBA draft tonight. I'll talk about the player that the Wizards are projected to take in most mock drafts. Number two overall, Alex Saar, and give you a few other players that I like that will be drafted sometime during the first round tonight. I'm going to start with one of those lists that comes out in the month of June and sometimes July until

training camp begins. But this one is a topic that has been certainly one discussed by many of us as it relates to our team recently. And that is the top 20 wide. receivers in the NFL. This list compiled and put together, it's more of a rankings, if you will, by Jordan Dijani at CBSports.com. And I'm going to go through it, and then we're going to talk about Brandon Ayuk just a bit, because he did put something on Instagram yesterday. That was interesting.

But where does Terry McClureen land on this list? Where does Brandon Ayuk land on this list? land on this list. Again, this is a subjective list. This is a matter of one person's opinion. Jordan's been covering the league for years. We've had Jordan on the radio show several times. I think I've even had them on the podcast once or twice. And again, take it for what it is worth. But this is the second time we've done this in the last week. And one of the reasons I'm doing it is just to illustrate rate what I think most NFL writers and analysts believe about Brandon Ayuk and then Terry McClorn as comparables. I have said, and some of you have pushed back vehemently, that I believe

Iyuk is the better player. Not by a lot, but I think Brandon Ayuk is the better player. I don't think he's going to be a Washington commander in 2024. I don't. The bottom line is I don't see the 49ers trading somebody of his talent. They are on the verge once again of competing for and potentially winning a Super Bowl. And the chances of them doing that without IUC, I think, are less than the chances of them doing it with IUC. And I just can't imagine that at the end of the day, they're going to trade him for a second or a third round pick or a combination of mid-round picks. when they are trying to win a Super Bowl. But anyway, back to Jordan DeJonni's list.

Number one on this list, Justin Jefferson. Really hard to argue that Justin Jefferson isn't, you know, one, two, or three on the list of the best receivers. Jefferson is just sensational. It's going to be interesting to see without you know who being his quarterback, Kirk Cousins, for those of you who don't know Galdi's references, reference to Kirk Cousins as you know who. You know, let's see what happens with Sam Darnold in J.J. McCarthy.

But Jefferson is special. Tyree Kill is two on this list. I would say in terms of the most feared players that don't play quarterback, Hill is still number one in terms of keeping a defensive coordinator up at night. Number three on this list for Jordan Dijani is C.D. Lamb. Look, he had a monster, 23, 135 catches, 1749 yards, 12 touchdowns. I mean, he was great last year. I did not see that coming.

I'm still not someone that I think would put C.D. Lamb into the class of Jefferson or Hill or Chase in particular. But Jordan DeJani has C.D. Lam number 3. Number four is Jamar Chase. Number five is A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown is, you know, that, to me, that big, strong, physical receiver that can actually take over a game. I think he has that kind of an ability. You know, he's not easy when he doesn't get the ball, but how many receivers are?

Amon Rae St. Brown, number six on this list. I remember a couple of years ago we were talking about Amonra St. Brown, and I'm like, this guy is going to be special. He is going to be in that top 15, top 10 discussion before we know it. He's number six on this list. Devante Adams, number seven on this list. We're only two years removed from thinking of Devante Adams as the best receiver in the league. It does matter who your quarterback is.

With Aaron Rogers, he's the best receiver in the league. your second best at worst. He's seven now. And then at number eight on this list of the top 20 receivers in the NFL, per CBS sports is Jordan Dejani. Number eight, Brandon Ayyuk. I know a lot of you don't follow the league as much as you just follow the team. Brandon Ayuk is a star receiver. He has led the league last year among receivers with 70 or more receptions in yards per reception at 17.9 yards per.

He's an outstanding route runner. He's terrific after the catch. He can block. Dejani writes about IUC. He had a career year in 2023, 75 pass catches for 1,342 yards. and seven touchdowns while the 49ers made the Super Bowl. Iyuk's 17.9 yards per reception ranked second in the NFL. Again, he ranked first in the NFL among receivers over 70 catches.

He caught 14 of 20 passes thrown both outside the numbers and with 15 plus air yards last season, which was the best rate of any NFL player over the last four years. Ayuk is one of the best players in the league at getting open, and he had the highest percentage of receptions for first downs or touchdowns last year at 81.3%. So he's got him eight on this list, followed by Stefan Diggs, who is now playing with Houston at nine, and then Garrett Wilson at 10. Look, Wilson's monster year is dependent on Aaron Rogers, quarterback for 17 games, or the better part of a full season in New York. But he is a spectacular talent. Mike Evans is 11. Puka Nakua, 12. It's interesting when you're injured and you miss a lot of games or you don't have the kind of year that people expect, you drop. I mean, Cooper Cup would have been in the top five last year, and Puka Nakua comes in 12. on a list entering 2024.

DJ Moore is 13. Jalen Waddle is 14. Look, Jaden Waddle is, you know, a ridiculous deep threat. You know, he's three years into his career. By the way, like Terry McCorn, has exceeded 1,000 receiving yards in each of those first three seasons. He led the league last year at 18.1 yards per reception. Actually, not last year, but in 2022. Last year, not as much.

I like Waddle, but he is one spot ahead of the number 15 receiver in the league per this list, Terry McLaren. I'm going to get to what Jordan Dijani wrote about Terry here in a moment. but Cooper Cup follows Terry. Debo Samuels at 17, Devante Smith 18, Nico Collins 19, and Damari Cooper at 20. I actually think there are receivers after Terry that could easily be thought of in front of Terry,

like Debo Samuel, like actually Nico Collins. but I actually think that Terry should be in front of Jalen Waddle and maybe Pooka Nakuwa. But he's 15 on this list compared to Brandon Ayuk at number eight. On the list that I had last week, and I'm forgetting right now who put that list together, I think it was NFL.com. Terry was at 19 and Brandon Ayuk was at 9. Actually, I think it was the pro football focus projected receiver rank. for 2024. But here's what Dejani wrote about Terry McLorne, because it's very, very complimentary.

McLorne may be the most underrated wide receiver in the NFL. He is one of just six players to record 900 plus receptions in each of his five seasons joining Hall of Fame talents such as Mike Evans, AJ Green, Randy Moss, and Jerry Rice. And he's accomplished this historical. quarterback, he's accomplished this with historic quarterback turnover. The Ohio State product has crossed 1,000 receiving yards in each of the last four seasons and already ranks eighth in franchise history in receiving yards. If Jaden Daniels turns out to be a star quarterback, don't be shocked if McLaren explodes in 2024.

Look, this is pretty much right around where I would have Terry. We've talked about this. To me, he is in that this year now, and I know the previous years, he was closer to 10 than he was 15. I think now he's closer to 15 than he is at 10. But I'll say this, as I've said it many times. I think he's a really good receiver, and we might think much differently of Terry McLorn had he had an actual legitimate NFL quarterback to play with during the course of his career. but again back to iuk he's special i think he is so brandon iuk tweet uh instagramed out excuse me yesterday uh with you know this was in the wake of the adam schuster report that washington and san francisco

had talked trade uh with brandon iuk and that washington had interest but then decided not to do the deal. And yesterday, Ayyuk wrote on Instagram, quote, but I thought the Niners was never trying to trade me, close quote. You know, the one thing about Ayuk during the last few weeks, I think he's been too public for me anyway. You know, I'd prefer a guy like that to, you know, handle his business privately. But he has been out there on Instagram and posting the video conversation to TikTok that he and Jaden Daniels had. And, you know, he's clearly frustrated. He is disgruntled right now. And so they're going to have to figure something out in San Francisco. And we talked about this yesterday. Look, you know, if Washington really has interest, and I think

they should, if, you know, Brandon Ayuk is the kind of person that they want in their locker room. and Adam Peters certainly will have a good feel for that. But, you know, Washington waiting and it getting closer to or even getting into camp with IUC potentially not reporting, you know, puts the acquire at an advantage, not the team trading, because that team trading then could be in desperation mode. You know, Brandon Ayuk, for those that don't know, and I'm not. sure that when we were having this conversation yesterday or the day before, I explained this well enough. Brandon Ayuk is in his upcoming fifth season in the NFL, and he's playing on that fifth year option, which San Francisco picked up after drafting him in the first round.

They picked up his fifth year option. He was the number 25 overall selection in 2020 out of Arizona State. They picked up the fifth year option, and he will. make this year $14.12 million after making just $3.9 million last year. So, well, that was the cap hit. The actual base salary was $2.3 million in the fourth year of his rookie deal. He is through four years of his rookie contract, but he is going to play on the fifth year option this year if he plays for the 49ers. And really the 49ers have, you know, the options that they have here with Ayuk,

if he's truly potentially tradable because they can't, you know, hammer out an agreement, they could trade him, they could choose to extend his contract, or they could force him to play out the final season of his rookie deal, which is this fifth-year option deal. I mean, those are their options. And by the way, if he plays out that fifth year option year this year, they could franchise tag him next year. Now, could there be another hybrid kind of an agreement between the two parties

where maybe IUC comes in, plays his fifth year option at 14 plus million, and the team commits to not using the franchise tag on him at the end of next year? Maybe. But, you know, the teams have all of the leverage in these situations. The players have very little. Is he going to get fined all the while giving up the biggest paycheck of his young career? I think he'll end up playing in San Francisco this year on an extended deal that may not be exactly what he wants, but will still end up being close to top five money.

That's my guess. More commanders talk here in the opening segment. I'm sure most of you by now saw the news. of the front office continuing to be molded in the vision of new general manager Adam Peters. The big news really yesterday announced by the team is that the team is moving on from Eugene Shen, the senior VP of football strategy, a guy hired to great fanfare back in October, a great media fair too. People were absolutely convinced that this was a home run hire. Shen had been part of the Baltimore Ravens organization. Can't go wrong there. I mean, I think a lot of

people were far too sure that they had landed on like some brilliant analytics guy. And Josh Harris, a big analytics guy in his other organizations, did want to make an early analytics hire. And he brought somebody in who had been with Jacksonville, had been in Baltimore, had not stuck for a long period of time in those organizations, but the team announced as part of a broad front office shakeup that they are, quote, transitioning out, closed quote, Eugene Shen from the organization. And when they use the term transitioning out,

the reason is that it looks like he will have an opportunity to work for Harris and David Blitzer, the Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment Company, company, that's the group that owns the 76ers, the devil's, a soccer team or two, etc. So it sounds like they're going to move him out of the football team and into some of their other businesses, but clearly he's not somebody that Adam Peters is super impressed with. Remember, Peters brought in recently, essentially the guy that is going to replace Eugene Chen, and that man is Brandon Sossna.

He's a big-time executive thought to be around the league. They got him from Detroit last month. He will have the title of Senior Vice President of Football Operations. He will also be the club's lead contract negotiator and oversee other departments, including health and performance and football administration. So there you go. Sassna is essentially the replacement for Shen and is a real indication, not that I thought anything other than Adam Peters is in charge here.

This is Adam Peters football operation, period. Josh Harris just hired Eugene Chen in October, you know, to great fanfare, to great media fair in many cases. And Adam Peters said, no, not my guy. This is my guy. And Josh Harris said, fine. Adam Peters is calling the shots. Now, I'm not saying that Josh Harris doesn't have input, that Josh Harris isn't there asking questions, as an owner should,

but Adam Peters is building out the front office the way he wants to build out the front office. You know, and it started, by the way, with what was the most urgent after his hiring, which was to hire a new head coach and have that head coach build out a staff. And then to gear up for free agency and the draft, et cetera. Now that we've gotten through the draft and through free agency, we're seeing the organization that he wants and Eugene Chen's not going to be a part of it. Of course they still have an analytics group and it's Sassina that's essentially heading it up. Doug Drury, who's been there for a while now.

was a part of actually game day communication with the head coach Ron Rivera. Doug's a super smart guy. He got promoted and is sticking around as the manager of football research and development. They've got two other jobs in analytics where the job listings are out there. They've been posted and so they still have more hires to come. There was more on the shake-up to the front office. and I wanted to mention that Rob Rogers, who was hired by Ron Rivera and was really in charge of contracts, salary cap, management, etc. With Sassana in the organization, Rob Rogers is sticking around, but he is losing, you know, a layer off of his title.

He was senior vice president of football administration. Now he's just VP of football administration. The team also hired Chris White, who came from Chicago, to be their assistant director of pro scouting. Doug Williams has a new position in the organization. He has left the business side of the organization, where he was an advisor to Jason Wright for the past three years. and he's back in football operations as senior advisor to the GM. So they're keeping Doug Williams in the organization, but moving them back to the football side of the operation.

Meantime, they brought in Senior Director of Team Support and Advancement, Dylan Thompson, who they hired recently from Houston. And also I wanted to mention that Sean D. Barbieri, who is the PR guy for all of us, And I've mentioned in recent years how much better they are in PR. Not going to mention names in terms of the people who were there running it before Sean, but it was a bit of a cluster, you know what, for a long period of time. Sean's been really, really good to deal with for all of us in the media.

And he was promoted to vice president of football communications. and at 30 years old, that makes him one of the youngest VPs in the NFL. Sean is really solid. Jared Carrier, who works for Sean, he got promoted to manager of football communications. So, you know, Samantha, they've got a bunch of people in that area that we deal with primarily in terms of professionally that got promoted as well. So lots of changes to the organization. Look, most of these are not names that are ever known by fans of the team. Not that announcements like this don't happen with other teams.

But, you know, I can remember a conversation I had with someone involved in the new group. I think this is something I've shared with all of you. I've had a conversation with Josh Harris shortly after he took control of the team. I think I was one of probably several people that they reached out to to have a conversation. And one of the things I remember him bringing up and me suggesting is, you know, in most NFL cities, they know the owner, the general manager, the coach, and the players. And this organization for too long, there have essentially been too many people vying for the attention of the public. and many of those people have nothing to do and have had nothing to do with the actual football team. And he and others there, I think, have agreed with that.

But anyway, yeah, Shen, the big part of that news, big hire, when I say big hire, I suggested at the time, I have no idea whether or not this is a good hire or not. and I have no idea whether or not he'll have a significant role in the organization. I will tell you, and I will tell you this because I was told this, in the discussion of Jaden Daniels leading up to the draft, we had talked about some of the analytics criticisms of Daniels, things like pressure to sack percentage, things like the lack of intermediate throws. and I pushed back on those two gripes in particular because I thought there was a lot of context around it.

I'm not going to get into the detail again. I think most of you know some of the things that I talked about. But I will tell you that those things with the people that are still remaining in analytics were never issues with really anybody in analytics there, Shen or anybody else. They saw a lot of context to some of those concerns as well when it came to Daniels. If anything were a concern about Jaden Daniels to anybody in the organization because this was a unified decision. This was football people. This was analytics people. From what I was told, and I've already shared this with you,

everybody was on board and super excited about Jaden Daniels as the quarterback that they would take at number two. The only concern was really his frame, you know, which is something that we've talked about a lot, and whether or not he could keep himself from getting and taking some of the hits that he took at LSU. but obviously they feel like they can coach that out of him and look, whatever. They did it and they love it and we'll see how it works out. Can't pat yourself on the back yet front office for Jaden Daniels or for any of these other hires because no games have been played. By the way, speaking of Jaden Daniels, you know the early to mid-July,

Spees, which I have to be honest with you, I don't think I've ever watched once, not start to finish anyway. It's the one night in July where there's no sports. It's like pretty much the only night of the year where there's not a basketball game, football game, hockey game, or baseball game. It's during the All-Star break, and they have the SB Awards. Well, Jaden Daniels is up for male college athlete of the year. It's him. It's him. It's Zach Eady, the center from Purdue. It's some Clemson soccer player. And then it's Pat Kavanaugh, the Notre Dame lacrosse player.

Notre Dame won back-to-back national championships in lacrosse with him, and I believe his brother last year who may have graduated. But anyway, all right. I'm going to talk some NBA draft next. And Ed Cooley after that, we'll get to all of it right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, guys, the NBA draft. finals are over, but we've got a summer of baseball ahead of us. Football season will be here before we know it. And look, some of you, including me, are watching more of the WNBA than we've

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they also have all of the NFL futures bets. They've got the week one line. lines up. I've mentioned that before. Washington currently a four-point underdog against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday, September 8th at 425 p.m. The totals 41.5. By the way, the biggest week one line at My Bookie, Cincinnati, a nine-point favorite against the New England Patriots. You know, remember, Washington plays Cincinnati on Monday night football. in week three. So if they, let's just say they split against Tampa in the Giants in the first two games, they'll still be a pretty big dog, I would think, at Cincinnati in week three,

unless they look really good in their first two games against Tampa and the Giants. The Patriots, you know, are down there among the early power rankings lists. They're down there 30, 31, 32. As we've talked about is sitting there pretty much in that same range as well, maybe a little bit higher. That week three game against Cincinnati on Monday night football is an interesting one because three of their first four games are on the road. And you would look at it at the four games, the Bucks, the Giants at home at Cincinnati, the Cardinals on the road. And you would say, well, the Cardinals probably are the team that is the easiest of the four, if not the Giants. but they'll have to play the Cardinals on a short week after playing the Bengals on Monday night football.

Who do the Cardinals play in week three? Who's their lead-up game to Washington? They play the Lions. They play the Lions in a late Sunday afternoon game in Arizona on the Sunday before Washington comes to town. They actually have three home games after opening up the season at Buffalo. Then they play the Rams, the Lions, and the Lions. Washington all at home. MyBooky.ag promo code Kevin, D.C. The NBA draft is tonight. They've broken it into two nights, round one tonight, round two tomorrow night. Look, the NBA draft is not the

NFL draft, obviously. First of all, it's the biggest role of the dice draft there is. Two-thirds of these players will never be meaningful contributors. Many will be out of the league within five years, playing elsewhere or not playing at all. And the odds of really hitting on a significant difference-making kind of a player are long, no matter where you're picking. Now, you know, number one picks overall when they're really obvious, like Wembe was last year, like Zion was a few years ago. And even Zion, you know, the results I think are coming,

but there have been injuries and there's been weight issues, et cetera. but Washington has number two and number 26 tonight in the NBA draft. This is going to be, you know, essentially the second year of about a four-year stretch of drafts. You know, the 20-23 draft they drafted Balala, Kula Bali, in the first round. This year's draft at number two. Next year's draft, they're probably going to be in the top three. And then the 2026 draft. You know, it's going to be like four drafts in a row.

that will tell the tale as to whether or not they are a team that's winning 50-plus games in 2028, 2029. You got to wait for it, but all of these recent champions have been homegrown, Boston, Denver, etc. The number one seed in the west was Oklahoma City. Now they did acquire Shea Gilges Alexander, but this is the way you build an NBA franchise now. It's got to be done through the draft. and there is some good fortune required. Things like you're picking really high

when there's a really great player available. Or you had four or five players that you had really close and you picked the one that turned out to be Yonis or turned out to be Yokic in the second round. Everybody seems to have Washington taking Alex Saar. The 7-foot-1-inch center that is French played recently in Perth, Australia. The Atlanta Hawks picked number one overall.

They did not get a workout with Saar, and most people think they're going to select Rissachet, another French player. So I did spend some time last night early this morning watching a lot of highlights primarily of the players that I've never seen before, the foreign players and the G-League players, because I do watch enough college basketball to have a sense on guys like Reed Shepard and Stefan Castle and, you know, Donovan Klingin

and Dalton Connect, etc. But I did watch a lot of SAR, and I got to tell you that if they pick Alex Sar, I will be totally fine with it. The write-up Sun-Sar from all of the NBA draft analysts have been pretty consistent. You know, the pluses are that he is a rim-protecting center with his size, with his wingspan, and then the limitations are offensively.

He's not, you know, quite there yet. So for me and watching him, defensively, I see the rim protection as a five as a center. I also see the ability for him to guard on the perimeter. He is, he's got good feet. he's athletic. He's certainly long. I don't think he's got to play as a stretch five or stretch four defender. I don't think he's got to play underneath screens or drop coverage.

I think he's a guy that can really move and probably can switch. He definitely has shot blocking ability. So I see the things that people have talked about with respect to his defensive potential. I actually think he's got offensive potential. He's got a really solid stroke. There's nothing wrong with it mechanically. It's not awkward. When he shoots threes, it's a great-looking stroke.

It's very possible that his percentage is low from behind the arc because he just isn't confident yet. He's got years here to develop. I think his touch around the rim, I think his ability to put the ball on the floor and create. I saw real potential in SAR offensively. I don't know

anything about what Alex Sarr is personally, the intangibles, but I wouldn't be a nitpicker of his offensive skill level. I think it looked pretty obvious to me that

he's got it. And it just is going to take some time. You know, I've heard comps to guys like Mowbly or Derek Lively. He's definitely a finisher offensively, you know, whether it's an offensive rebound put back in dunk or a lob at the rim. I mean, he's, you know, the funny thing is that a lot of the write-ups were that he's so explosive and athletic. He's athletic.

I don't see him as like the most athletic or most explosive. I thought Lively at times was, you know, like Gafford, just such a finisher around the rim. with explosion, with length, with size, with power, not so much for lively quite yet. I don't see that, but I see his size and his length being a major factor in being able to finish. You know, he's not a short-armed seven-foot-one kid. I liked him a lot.

If they pick him, I'll feel very good about it and excited to watch the growth, you know, with Kulibali, with Denny Avdia. and to see other things that they might do in this draft. There are a couple of other players that really kind of stood out to me in watching more tape or in the case of some of them, you know, having the ability to watch them in college during the course of the year. The first player that I wanted to mention is Rob Dillingham, the freshman point guard at Kentucky.

I actually loved his game during the season. season. And I remember a couple of times watching Kentucky saying, I think he's going to be a great pro. Now, he is small. He's 6-1. He's 170 pounds roughly. But he can shoot it. He can score. He can handle. To me, he's like, you know, he's got Kyrie Irving kind of skill. Now, that's, you know, I'm exaggerating a little bit because Kyrie Irving in terms of ball handling and scoring ability is up there all time. But Dillingham plays a little bit like Tray Young. I think he's got a quick release. He's able to really create space to get his shot off. He's very clever around the rim. I know that there's a lot of concern about him defensively and at his size, but I see a guy that in three or four years

could be a big time scoring point guard. I've seen him projected anywhere from 7 to 15. He's not going to be there for the Wizards, their second pick in the first round, number 26 overall. And they're not going to use number two overall. But if Washington had gotten like the fourth pick in the draft, I would have considered Dillingham. I love Rob Dillingham. I think, again, I don't know anything about him personally and whether or not the intangibles are there. But I think this is a guy that is going to be a big time creator and a big time scorer at that position as a small player. You know, I had people reach out to me when I talked about this on radio saying he's Tyrese

Maxie. I think Maxie's a little bit bigger and a little bit more explosive maybe, but Dillingham, I like a lot. I also like, and it was actually a guest that I had on radio maybe a couple of days ago, maybe last week talking about the draft. and I went and watched a lot of highlights on Ron Holland, who played in the G League. And the reason I went and watched him specifically is because my guest said that he might be the best competitor in the draft. And I'm telling you, this dude has a motor.

He is a 6'7-inch wing. And he is just relentless as a defender. I mean, a lot of the highlights you see is him getting steals or jumping on the floor for a 50-50 ball. I just loved his competitiveness. I also think offensively he's more skilled than maybe he's getting credit for. Ron Holland, just a name to keep an eye on. He's another 18-year-old and came out of high school, I think, in Texas, played in the G-League on a bad team too. I mean, he was playing on a bad G-League team in his effort every night.

was ridiculous. I liked him a lot. I liked Tristan De Silva, in part because I liked watching that Colorado team this year, coached by Tad Boyle, who's an outstanding college coach, and I thought De Silva was the real mature player. Colorado had a bit of a run there. They played Boise early in the first four. Then in maybe the game of the tournament beat Florida in the true first round, 102 to 100, before losing in the second round to Marquette, who was the two-seat overall. De Silva's older, though. He's 23 years old. He's 6-8-220.

A lot of people don't like older players. That's fine. I'm just telling you, I think he can play. And he is high, high IQ. He can be the screener in pick and roll. He can be the ball handler and the score and the creator in pick and roll. He defends. He's just a really smart, solid player who just can do a lot of things. And I think he's going to find himself, you know, in that, you know, 10 to 15 range.

And somebody's going to get themselves a super high IQ kind of a guy. He isn't the exact same as a player a few years ago that I really enjoyed watching at a Tennessee, by the way. and that was, I'm now blanking on Grant Williams. Grant Williams, I loved coming out of Tennessee. He was a late first round pick. And I just thought, you know, he was like a 6-7, 230 kind of a high IQ player. I see Tristan De Silva the same way. A little bit sleeker in build, but I think he's going to play for somebody and play a lot.

Grant Williams was younger when he came out of Tennessee. And remember, he got traded off that Boston team that just won the title. He was with Dallas. He was part of the big trade with Charlotte for PJ Washington, and that was a huge acquisition for Dallas. I like Dalton Connect out of Tennessee. I know a lot of you watched him play a lot. He has a chance to be a big, big-time scorer.

I'd also keep an eye on Bud Karen. Grington out of Pitt. You know, he is potentially a guy that could be available in that 26 range for the Wizards. I doubt it, though. He played at Pitt this past season. A Baltimore kid, tough, 6-4-195, you know, scored, assisted, rebounded, did everything for Pitt this past season. Look out for, you know, somebody like him at 26 if he's there. But yeah, those are some of the players that kind of stood out to me as far as tonight in the first 15 picks.

And then there's a name for you maybe at 26. And I don't think to Silva would make it to 26. But NBA draft, who the hell knows? We say that about the NFL draft, but the NBA draft is an even bigger crapshoot. All right. Ed Cooley, the head coach of Georgetown, next right after these words, from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And with that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast.

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So schedule that fast, no obligation, in-home estimate with the pros at. Windonation. Don't miss your chance to save 86690 Nation or Windonation.com. Jumping on with me right now is the head basketball coach at Georgetown University, Ed Cooley, who along with his university and the University of Maryland yesterday announced that they will start playing each other in men's basketball on a regular basis beginning in 2025. Coach, thanks so much for making time. for me today. We will get to the Maryland-Georgetown thing, which is huge news for the area and for basketball fans in the area. But I wanted to ask you, it's been just over a year that you've been down here in D.C. and the DMV. I think if my memory serves me correctly,

you mentioned when you took the job that your daughter, I think it is, lives down here as well. But tell me about your first year living in the DMV. Living in the DMV, you know, being from New England, and it's totally different type of living. It's wonderful people here. The food here is terrific. My daughter being a Georgetown grad and now being a neighbor of mine, I should say, as she's no longer the neighbor in our home, that's been exciting, getting them meet and engaged with different alum, supporters, faculty, staff, students.

It's really been a fun transition, and we're excited about where we're going. what we're trying to do to reestablish Georgetown basketball to become one of the nation's best organization in the country. I mean, I know New England's got some great basketball, and Providence has so much tradition. But what have you made of just how important basketball is in the DMV? Well, part of the reason why we're on the phone today is the district, the DMV, the talent level here is second to none nationally.

You know, the high school, the grassroots programs, You know, the youth programs are just phenomenal. And I think if we can tap into that, all of the local colleges, we should be able to compete for championships year in and year out as we establish and reestablish what we're trying to do. Yeah, basketball is so important. I think the community is really salivating for us to take a big jump. Hopefully that is in the making.

I can feel it in the stores we go in. I can feel it when we're at Capital One. I can feel it in conversation with high school AAU coaches and trainers. Hopefully, you know, people don't like to hear the word patient, but I think with patience comes prosperity and success. So before you tell us from your perspective how all of this came together, and I had Kevin on the show earlier today, do you know the history of sort of Maryland and Georgetown

and not playing for all of these years? I mean, there were the Gavit games in 15 and 16 that Mark and JT3 committed to, and there have been a couple of tournament matchups. But are you familiar how controversial a subject this was for a long period of time here in the area? You know, I heard stories about it. I'm a little naive. Quite frankly, I don't give a damn about it. If you really want me to be honest.

Yeah. That was then. This is now, it's a new time, it's a new era, it's a new place in college basketball. I think it's a great thing. You know, those coaches were at the institution, Big John and JT3 and Patrick, if they didn't feel, and the coaches at Maryland when they were there, lefty and, you know, Jerry and if they didn't feel it fit, what their model was, that was their prerogative. but Kevin and I, I would say yet Kevin and I,

feel that it's something that is engaging. I think it's something that it will be an event versus a game. I think it's something where prospective student-athletes that we're going to recruit will actually be heavily involved and heavily engaged in those games when they come for the visits to our colleges and university. And I think it's great for college basketball that early in the season. You know, to have that level game,

sold out crowds, energized crowds. You know, you'll have red on one side. You have grain blue on the other side. You have people with incredible language, people, incredible passion. I just think it's great for the game of basketball. And we being the guardians of the game, being some of the older coaches or more wiser coaches in the country, I just think it's great for our game and more importantly, great for this DNP region. Did you say incredible language?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, there will be creative language. language, I'm sure. You know, in mentioning that, you know, it will be used as kind of a recruiting tool. I mean, you know, Maryland and Georgetown very often are recruiting the same players. But I am curious, you know, in this day and age of portal, of NIL, do you have to teach players the importance of games like these? And I'm not even talking about Maryland, although there will be a significance to that

game. But for Georgetown, the continuation of the Syracuse game over all of these years after Syracuse left the Big East, is that a big deal with the, you know, kind of giving them the knowledge of that? Or is that just for old heads like me who have been, you know, fans of the sport and fans of the sport in this town for so long? But do you think they get it? I think the parents get it. I think the grandparents get it. I think the aunts and uncles get it. Today's kid,

today's young man and today's young woman, they didn't grow up with that. I don't feel in the last 15 to 20 years, they grew up with that anxiety of why aren't we playing, we should be playing. They didn't grow up in the Hoy of paranoia days. They didn't grow up in the days of Len Bias and, you know, Lonnie Baxter.

I mean, they didn't grow up in that era. Yeah. They've heard about it, but they haven't felt it. They haven't witnessed it. So what I'd like to do is move forward and create a different energy, a different vibe, a different rivalry that is not talked about why we didn't play in the past, but we're just excited to play. And I think that's going to be the current day narrative for today's kids. The old school people will say it's about time we played or why haven't we done this again. trying to get to a why on anything is none of anybody's business number one right everybody wants

to get to the why why don't we get to where we're trying to go and start from there and i think that's the best place to be because that's the only place where we can be that's just the way i think and i think you know both kevin and i upon taking the job we talked about it and i said kevin i need a little bit of time to get my feet on the ground here in the dmc given this new landscape of NIL and transfer portal, I'm going to go through a transition of not having the same team for two years. So why don't we try to start in year through?

Kevin wanted to start this year, and I told him go to hell. I really did. Why? Because of scheduling, or because you didn't have the team you wanted yet? I didn't have the team I wanted you. I had three people on a roster when he wanted to schedule the game.

And I told him not like, you know, like me playing against Scotty Shuffler right now and 18 whole map. I got no shot. Right? Yeah. Right. So, you know, Kevin and I have known each other. We've been coaching against each other from our Mac days, right?

Going back to Fairfield and I owner, obviously the years we've spent that Providence in Seaton Hall. And, you know, I think he's one of the better minds in all of college basketball. I think he's creative. I think he's dynamic with his approach. And I just think it'll be great for our area. I think it would be fantastic to know that that's a savior date, whether it's on the weekend.

And we'll probably try to make it a Saturday game probably. You know, so, you know, people could kind of get a little lathered up with cookies and milk and come to the game. You know, with the language. Yeah, you're with the language, right? Yeah. But I just, as you can tell, I'm excited about the game. I know a fan base. I know our faculty staff and our students will be excited about it.

And I'm pretty sure over there in Turk Nation, they'll be just as excited as we are. I love, and I've had you on the show before. I love how direct you are. With that said, for those of us that have lived here and lived through the not playing, I do have one more question about that. And I am looking forward to the future and having this be a big part. I've always said this should be a top five even higher, you know, sports date on the calendar in this city. But I'm just curious, was it a challenge at all at Georgetown with anybody that does live in the past to make this happen?

If you want my true transparency, it's not about what they want. It's how I'm going to run the organization. So I'll be very, I'll be very, very respectful of tradition and legacy of which we spoke about a lot. And I continue to say that this is just a different time. They didn't hire me here to stay status quo. That to me is, yeah, I mean, do what I respect what they say and what their feelings are? sure. Do I agree with them? No. It's really that simple to me. I'm always going to respect the legacy and tradition of Georgetown basketball, former players, former coaches, former managers, former

ADs, you know, whomever walked on the hilltop, they have my utmost respect. Times have changed, and we need to evolve with that change. If we don't evolve, we will die. By the way, you mentioned it, and Saturday would be a great day. I said this to Kevin earlier, You can't play this game no matter what the TV money is on a Sunday during football season. I don't know if anybody's mentioned that to you. As big of a basketball town as this is, Sundays during the NFL season are for the football team. And by the way, the Baltimore football team as well, because there's a big part of the Maryland fan base that are Ravens fans. Has anybody emphasized, you know, steering clear of Sundays during the football season for this particular?

matchup. I mean, I've heard that just being the coach here with respect to just scheduling. Yeah. But I can tell you what, if TV comes in and says they're paying Maryland and Georgetown X, y'all are in trouble because this is a business decision as well. So I love you, man. I love the fans. I mean, we got to do what we got to do to want our organizations as well. You know what I'm I don't think it'll be on a Sunday, though. I highly feel that. Yeah.

television comes in, that's kind of what pays our bills and how we get things done at the college and universities and salary-wise. So, you know, I don't think it'll be a Sunday. We'll do everything we can. We'll be attractive enough for it to be one of the highlight games on a Saturday night. I can appreciate you not wanting anyone to tell you how to run your business, but from an attendance and a TV viewership standpoint, everybody will benefit from not going head to head with the NFL. on a Sunday in early to mid-November. But look, it'll pencil out the way it pencils out. I hope you're right. I hope it's a Saturday early in the season,

late afternoon, early evening, where we all have a chance to have, you know, some milk and cookies and get creative with our language before the game starts. Bob and brother, I love that. You know, I don't know if there'll be chocolate chips cookies. I don't know if they'll have a little bourbon in the cookie dough. I don't know if it'll be, you know, oatmeal raisin with a little bit of different frosting on it.

Who knows, brother? Yeah, exactly. Well, let me just say the 15 and 16 games, the atmospheres were insane. And you should, unless you play at Sundays and take the big TV money, you'll sell out this game every year. I did want to ask you just about your team in general. You've had an active offseason. What does next year look like? you know it is our goal to make a big jump you know it is our goal to you know continue to show growth

and development to play at a great pace to become a better defensive team to become a better ball handling shooting scoring team to continue to advance the organization toward progress you know I like the pieces that we added and I'm pretty sure we'll be on the horn again as we talk about it as we get closer to the season I like what we've been working with, obviously having the summer to work with them, we get to see exactly what we can do before we stop implementing, you know, strategy. But I do like the guys we recruited. I think our staff did a really good job, and I'm excited about it's future holds. It's great to catch up with you. I'm glad this has come together. It'll be great for the area. I appreciate the time.

Best of luck next year. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Ed Cooley, the head coach of the Georgetown Hoy is. Good to catch up with him. Very nice of him to give us some time. Those of you who have listened to me talk college hoops over the years, especially when it comes to my favorite coaches, know what a big fan of Ed Cooley I've been. When the Maryland job came available in the wake of Mark Turgeon leaving,

he was at the top of my list. Georgetown got themselves a really good coach. He will do well. at Georgetown. And it'd be great if not only Maryland and Georgetown played every year, but both of the teams were really good. You know, when this game wasn't played for all of those years, you know, you go back to the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s, you're talking about games that would have featured, you know, plenty of top 10, top 15, top 20 matchups. You know, even if both teams aren't at the same level right from the jump when this thing starts.

It will still generate a significant audience locally for sure. And again, they got to play this game on Saturday. I think that's what Kevin is thinking, and I think that's what Georgetown's thinking. Yeah, a Saturday night, early November, perfect. Gives you all day to get lathered up as he talked about. and you don't have to deal with the week-day traffic. So there you go. All right.

That's it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Tommy. For the first time in 42 years, it's Georgetown at Maryland. They've only three times the last three decades. Mike Torrico along with Dan Dockett, their neighbors, they're close by. There's a bit of a rivalry. Dan, for game two of the year. There's so much buildup for this game.

It's shocking how firing up this area is in this matchup.