The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Coach Fran Fraschilla Joins The Show Before NCAA Championship

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Coach Fran Fraschilla Joins The Show Before NCAA Championship 

It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We come to you from San Antonio tonight. The Houston Cougars hopefully will win their first ever national championship. And our next guest is a man who knows the University of Houston program as well as anybody in the nation. Respected former coach, longtime ESPN broadcaster. It did the Big 12 package this year. Coach Franfis Shella is with us on the show. Coach, thank you very much for joining us.

How many games did you want up doing at the University of Houston this year? Oh, boy. I'd probably say in a neighborhood of 10, Matt. Last year it was a lot as well. And, of course, because of my friendship with Coach Sampson and his staff, I try to get to see them in September and October, watch a couple practices. Then the season gets underway.

I did that Auburn game to start the year. That was the second game of the season. And what I always do is I try to get there a day or two early and watch practice and hang out. And I really get to know the kids. And, you know, I'm not pulling. I guess I am pulling for them. I can't lie.

Todd Golden's a friend. If Florida wins, I'll be excited for them. But just my relationship with Houston and Kelvin, it'll be fun if the Cubs can pull this off. Fern, I wanted you to explain to the audience because I see it a little bit with, before I get to my rocket season, I get to do some of the non-conference games. Yeah. Coach Sampson isn't built for everybody. His practices aren't built for everybody.

The people that he brings in the program. And, friend, he brings up the term culture. and that's really an often used term in sports, but what he really means, I want you to take the audience into that culture that doesn't necessarily mean that every top 10 national player in this country is going to say the University of Houston's the right fit for me. Well, it's a great point, Matt.

I guess the best way to describe it is you could walk into any 10 minutes of a Houston practice, any 10 minutes, and know what the program is about. You know, beginning and middle, you know, Whatever it is, everything's done at a high level of intensity. There's no faces. There's no bad body language. He's recruited great kids. The majority of those kids are from great families. And in order to go to Houston, it's old school. You know, you've got to check your ego at the door. If you have talent and talent enough to play at the next level, he's proven that you'll get there,

whether it's a sasser, grimes, shed, etc. but if you're just a kid that's going to be a really good college player and you're willing to check the ego at the door, work hard every single day. The best way to put it, and I'll, you know, I'll let you talk. I don't mean to monopolize, but... Take as much as you want, friend. No, man, I asked him last year. I said, what happens?

You know, I coached, and we all have bad practices. I said to him last year, what happens when you have a bad practice? And he looked at me sternly and said, we don't have bad practices. I don't allow it. And that's rare. Their program is rare. Their culture is rare in this modern age.

If you go there, which is what excites me about the three All-Americans from high school they're getting next year, all three of those players chose used to knowing that even if they have NBA ability, and they all do, that for at least a year, maybe it'll take two in a couple cases or three that they know they're going to be pushed to their limit to be the best player they can be. And ultimately, it helps everybody involved with the program. And as I said, a perfect example is Jamal Shed, who probably has a freshman and sophomore. There's not anybody that thought he would be an NBA player. And now the rest is history. Fran Faschella with us here on the Matt Thomas show, Ross, Coach. I don't, I mentioned this the very first segment of my show.

Duke doesn't do what Duke did on Saturday night. That was not like, because my family is full of Duke fans, and my audience knows this. My oldest son, his name is Cameron. My wife, who I met at the University of Houston, Fran, rooted for Duke on Saturday. She goes, look, I've been to fans since I was five years old. She was born away. That Duke basketball team in the last five minutes was a five-minute stretch

that anybody in this country never saw from the Blue Devils. Well, I'll tell you, Ross, it's interesting you say that, because I thought for the first 30 minutes, they were the rare team this year that bullied the Cougars. And by the way, I was with Coach Shire and Cooper Flagg yesterday as he received the Naismith Award yesterday morning. I host it every year. And it was a classy gesture that before they took off for Durham that they showed up to get his award, that was cool.

But I felt during the game that Duke for 30 minutes made Houston play poorly. You guys know early in the game, Houston Miss Layups, golden opportunity. Defensively, they were not sharp. They weren't crashing the offensive glass. And so the irony of this, it wasn't like a back-and-forth game. It was a 30 minutes of Duke dominating a team that doesn't usually physically get dominated. And then, of course, it all turns around in the final five minutes. And I think you just have to, you know, certainly Duke hurt their chances with some inexperience, indecision, no question that I know John Shire is going to, you know, rue.

the last five minutes and over things he could have done better. But on the other hand, what we saw from Houston was typical Houston Cougar, never quit. We work hard every single day for these moments. We know how to play from ahead. We know how to play from behind. And if you're going to beat us, you're going to have to beat us over 40 minutes and not 35. And that really was a difference in the game. Frank Fishella with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

which you have, I'm on how much you've watched Florida this year. You obviously were in San Antonio on Saturday. Give me a thumbnail sketch of them as a whole. Forgetting about who you root for or who you don't root for. I think their last five minutes of games really starting since the SEC tournament, they turn into a different basketball team, a team that can shoot lights out when necessary. Well, you're right.

I would say this. They're a very good team with a transcendent player. and I think what Walter Clayton Jr. is doing right now could end up being historic. If Florida is to win and Walter Clayton Jr. has any near where the kind of games he's played in his tournament, we're going to be talking about him with the greats in the history of the NCAA tournament. You know, Carmelo's freshman year certainly, you know, comes to mind the great Bill Walton teams of the 70s. You know, is 21 to 22 against Memphis State. I'm old enough to remember that game.

So they have, Houston has to stop or slow down Walter Clayton because he's just been incredible. Other than him, they're a really solid team. Veteran backcourt along with Will Richard, four bigs up front that can all play. Terrific young coach.

They play hard. So there's certainly a challenge. You don't get to the national championship game without two great teams. and I think that's what we have tonight. For a let you run, you have such a great perspective on the sport. And look, I love college basketball. I grew up as a kid watching Faislamma Jam.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to have Reed Geddes drawing me in about 20 minutes here. But let me ask you about, look, everybody has their own little anecdotes, thoughts, beliefs about the transfer portal in NIL. So let's fast forward five years, coach. You'll be still doing games with Buk, Shambi on ESPN and whatnot. Time of where college basketball is going to be in five years. This is an honest answer. I have no idea. I have no idea. We are all down here in San Antonio, coaches, administrators, you know, media. And I got to, first of all, I'm not a get off my lawn guy. I think the NIL and the ability of players, especially at the high level, to take advantage of name, image and likeness and partake of some of the, let's say, profits of,

college football and basketball is important. The transfer portal, important, but not to the point where the best way to describe it is if you were coming down to home stretch of the second round of the NBA playoffs, and every single player in the NBA during the second round of the playoffs become an unrestricted free agent, we would have chaos. And I put a tweet out this morning that Colin Gillespie, who's one of the best guards in college basketball in the last decade from Villanova, is making $580,000 right now playing for the Phoenix Suns.

There's no way that next year 500 college players, not named Cooper Flagg, by the way, just good players, good starters on power conference teams, should be making more money than him. That's just, you can say free market all you want, but that in itself is unsustainable. So free market to an extent, yes, but not at the expense of ruining

and really maybe destroying college athletics. And again, I know it sounds like it sounds like dark and gloomy, but I don't think that kind of model is sustainable. And here's the bottom line. We don't really have a model right now. There is no model. And so I'm hoping that somebody, and I don't know who it is, because there's nobody really that's had the courage to take the bull by the horns, whether it's NCAA presidents or college conference commissioners. we're in a completely unknown charted waters, and I honestly don't know how this is going to end.

And I know it sounds gloom and doom, but it's what everybody's talking about down here. No question about it. Fran, it's been an honor to have you on my radio program. I thank you very much. If you ever want to come call a University of Houston versus Lamar game, you know where to find me in like early November. So if you can come to an ESPN Plus game, I'd be honored to work with you.

Thank you for the time. And look forward to talking with you soon. Yeah, thank you, Matt. Anytime I get to Houston, watch the coogs it's a cool day absolutely coach fran thank you very much frank furshilla joining us here on the matt thomas show with rossart