The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - ESPN Plus Broadcaster Reid Gettys Joins The Show

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

ESPN Plus Broadcaster Reed Gettys Joins The Show 

Let's ask my friend, Reed Geddish, who's on the line with us now from San Antonio. Reed, I don't want to give you an answer for you, but when you played and your teammates played, I fell in love with college basketball with Faisama Jamma. So as I know the ending didn't go away that you wanted to, I'll never forget those times. That's when I fell in love with college basketball. You had the greatest time of your life as a young adult. So while the new memories that are being made, hopefully tonight will be everlasting for us, I'm not going to forget about the great times the 80s.

I don't think you and your teammates will either. You know, it's interesting, Matt, because I've had a lot of people say, oh, does this, you know, does this erase the loss and does this? And the answer is, no, this has got nothing to do with it. You know, man, last night in the stands, you know, my family, we were talking to Otis Birdsong and the teams he played on and Sweet Lou Dunbar, and then Akeem comes in. And this is about, you know, one thing I agree about with which callers,

just said. I mean, this is, this is undoubtedly the golden age of Houston basketball. And what Kelvin has done over the last, you know, he's talking about a storybook ending in 11 years, but the last seven years have been, you know, everyone throws around the word unprecedented a lot. It's been unprecedented. The number of sweet 16s, you know, consecutive sweet 16s, and the fact this is our second final four, you know, in a handful of years, it's absolutely remarkable. and what Kelvin has done an exceedingly great job at is making all of us feel like we're part of this program. So I guarantee it.

If you ask Sweet Lou or you ask Otis or you ask anybody, we feel a part of this team and this program and these kids, and these kids will be remembered after that game Saturday. These kids will be remembered by U of H fans 45 years from now. your son's going to have a radio show, you know, and Joanne Roberts is going to be talking, you know, about this team and this run and that game. And it's just, I've never seen anything like that game Saturday. I just kept looking at my wife and son going, I don't even know what I just saw. Yeah.

I can't play it back in my mind and put it together. Yeah, I'll be brutally honest with you. I was in San Francisco with a bunch of Rockets people who said, hey, let's go watch. a game together and they could tell what was Duke's biggest lead 14 I had some of it just kind of 14 with 9 minutes to go and 9 with 6 minutes to go and 6

with 30s I mean it was just unbelievable um and I don't know if it was that the Cougars woke up or Duke didn't practice a normal inbound's play there are strange things about practices reading you've been a part of it as a coach as an instructor

as a player that the mundane things that you go through and practice, you're like, why are we doing this over and over again? I felt like there were some things, attention to detail, that Kelvin put into play with his kids throughout the course of the year, that a lot of schools, and I'll frankly put Duke in the mix, weren't prepared for on Saturday night. Yeah, let me tell you something. It was the greatest X and O game plan by Duke maybe I've ever seen in a college basketball game. They absolutely eliminated every strength we had. There was not. one single on the ball screen where they put their ball handler in a pressure situation where they

were getting blitzed and double team. And not one single time did they throw the ball to the post with his back to the basket. Those are the two things that we are the absolute best at. They did not do it a single time. Where they got caught was, guess what we haven't done maybe all year is full court press. There's no way for them to have talked about it. There's no way for them to have prepared about it. And man, did they pucker when they couldn't get that ball in bounds? You know, golly, it was just, it was awesome. And, you know, we were in the car yesterday. My wife and son and I talking about how happy we were for Jojo. That the lasting memory, you know, wasn't the fact that he got over-excited and slapped the ball out of the end-bounder's

hands. Then he turns around and blocks a shot and gets the put-back dunk. Yeah. It's just unbelievable. I forgot to bring that up. When do you ever see a technical foul assessed like that? I mean, first of all, it was the right call. I'm not begrudging to call, but, man, strange things in front of 40,000 people need in big dome stadiums make you do crazy things. You know, it's funny.

I haven't seen that call in probably 20 years. But when I was, you know, Coach Lewis had me in a position where I was the designated inbounder, I always stuck the ball out over the line to give the guys. I had a chance to slap it out of my hands. While you're watching the play develop, you know, pump fake or stick it out there and see if you can get him to react and slap it. And Jojo is just such a bundle of electricity. You know, I just, I was so happy that that wasn't,

that wasn't his takeaway memory. All right. When did you get to the game, how much do you, the Florida games you see in person? Were you there for both games or just come for the second one? No, yeah, no. We saw all of it. And I mentioned this to Fran Fras.

with us a little bit ago. That's a Florida basketball team, and I haven't watched a lot of them, because I don't really focus on anything except my cougars when it comes to college groups, but I did see them in the tournament. Their final 10 minutes of games, and I'm talking about three and four in the games in this tournament, they become a different basketball team. I don't know if they implode like Duke did two nights ago. So maybe you don't want to let it be in a situation where you fall behind by that

because that's a squad that can put up 10 straight points at about a two-minute stretch. Well, they were unbelievable. And, you know, look, Cooper Flagg was undoubtedly player of the year, and the Genide Broome kid from Auburn was right there. But if Walter Clayton Jr. wasn't like fractions of a vote behind those guys, he is unbelievable. And then Aberdeen, their shooting guard and Martin, here's the deal I'll say about this team. Duke made me incredibly nervous because of our inability to match up well with a team that a team. attacks from the high post. This game's strength on strength.

And yes, they have, you know, four, seven footers, but those guys aren't difference makers. The Halk kid is really good that comes off the bench. But this is about perimeter on perimeter. And I'll put our perimeter defenders up against anybody in the country. I can't, the kid at A&M, Anderson Jr., Wade Taylor. Wade Taylor, the only guard. Only guard in the last 10 years I've seen that almost beat us.

He got 41 against this. Other than that, I can't remember us getting beat by a perimeter-oriented team. Well, I don't want to wait this long. Yeah. I don't want to wait this long until seeing Emmanuel Sharp hit those jumpers. I need a quick start for you, Zan. I need Sharp to find this shot. And again, it just felt like, and I could see it in Kelvin's face,

it was like, I'm not coaching. Who is this team I'm coming? coaching out there because the first eight minutes looked like they completely were shell-shocked by the entire experience. Well, I don't know about that as much as it highlights the importance of what Milos using it has developed into. He picked up his style trouble and we played what, how many minutes, at least 12 minutes, maybe 14 minutes in the first half without Milos.

And then he comes in the second half and I was concerned. A lot of times kids sit that long and they don't come out. and play, and he came out on fire. So I don't know. Who knows? It's an incredible... Let me just tell you something. In all my years around U of H,

I have never, ever seen anything approach. The fans and the excitement, the number of fans, the pure joy. It's almost indescribable what was going on in the stands during that game. Well, friend, I don't know where I'm sitting, but if I find you, I'll buy you some fried food. Are you okay with that? I'm good with that.

Hey, listen, let me tell you one quick story. My sweet wife just came out dressed for the game. She has on her bag a polka-dotted handkerchief. How great is that? You know, I tell you something. I know you've been married a long time, but y'all are still freaks, and I think that's so hot that you guys are having that kind of romanticism in your life this late in your life. Oh, my gosh.

I just, you know, nothing she could have done. I tear it up, and she goes, oh, my gosh, are you emotional? I said, yes, I am. So that's the greatest thing I've ever seen. Taking a polka-dotted handkerchief into a national championship game is pretty great. Well, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad the miss is here. Your kids are here.

Like I said, I don't know if I'll see you. There's only about 25,000 of us in the building tonight, so I don't know where we're going to say. Everybody's going to be. Well, Saturday, we hugged all 20,000, so I'm sure we'll find you. Okay. Thank you, friend, for all your time coming on. I look forward to finding you somehow somewhere tonight. Okay, brother.

Talk to you later. Talk to you later. That's Reed Geddes, a friend of the show. Great broadcaster for ESPN Plus on the Cougar broadcast. 11.