The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Gary Parrish of CBS Sports Joins Matt to Talk College Hoops

Episode Date: January 10, 2020

College Basketball Analyst Gary Parrish joins Matt to talk College Basketball

This is the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. All right, there is a special event coming to the University of Houston, and we'll tell you more about that right now, with a gentleman who is probably considered one of the best college basketball writers in the country. It has been for quite some time. Gary Parrish from CBS Sports is with us here on the Matt Thomas show to talk some big-picture college basketball, maybe a little bit on the Cougars.

Gary, it's Matt. How are things, and thanks for joining us this afternoon. are great. I appreciate your kind words, and thank you for having me on. All right. Please explain the fight for literacy, which is something that has been near and dear to your heart for quite some time. Yeah, we'll get to talking basketball here in a minute. But first things first, on Wednesday, when Houston hosts SMU and American Appetka Conference basketball game, you're going to notice that Kelvin and his staff are going to be wearing green ties and green lapel pins, and that is to bring awareness to the Coaching for Literacy Foundation, which works with sports teams, players, businesses and fans nationwide to generate awareness about the importance of literacy.

Because as crazy as it sounds, it's true. 65% of American fourth graders cannot read on grade level. It's surprising, but it's true, even in a country as advanced as ours. And studies show that if you cannot read properly, you're more likely to struggle to get a job, more likely to live in poverty, more likely to commit crimes. It's all connected. And that's what coaching for literacy is designed to try. to change. And all sorts of college basketball staff around this country have joined it and been a part of it. Virginia, UCLA, Memphis, on down the line. Kelvin and his staff are great to be involved in. The money raised connected to this game is going to help children in the Houston area via the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. So that's the other great thing. They don't raise money in Houston and then spend it in L.A. or raise money.

money in Detroit and then spend it in New York. If the money is raised on a on a, and via a game in Houston, that money is going to be reinvested into the Houston community. And I'm going to assume Gary, because our audience is pretty good in social media, the hashtag fight for literacy is on all the different social platform. Is that correct? That's correct. And then people can also, if you just want to check the website, coaching for literacy.org, coaching for literacy.org. You can learn more about it. And you'll see the Houston logo on the homepage. Click on that, all the information. right there. Okay, Gary, let's get to the Houston Cougars. I'm an alum, and so I have an extremely vested interest in their success. Two and O in conference play, they went to Hawaii and won a tournament

and beat Washington in the national in that final there. How do you size up Calvin Samson's team? A lot of departures from last year, but some guys growing up right now and helping the cause. As long as Kelvin was going to be on the sideline, they were going to be fine. He really is one of the great college basketball coaches in this country. Wherever he's been, he's won. And it's why I thought it was brilliant of Houston to hire him when the school did. And also brilliant to do what you had to do to keep him after last season because there are a handful of guys in this sport where it almost doesn't matter

who's on the roster. They're going to figure out a way to have a competitive, if not very good team, year in and year out. And Kelvin's track record backs that up. So I know some people rolled their eyes a little bit when Houston was made a co-favorant in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll with Memphis. But if you look up right now, you know, Houston's ahead of Memphis in most of the computers. Houston's obviously off to a two and O start in the league. Memphis doesn't have that.

If you're telling me that Houston wins the AA's regular season title and gets a high seat in the NCAA tournament, it wouldn't surprise me. and it is largely due to the guy on the sideline. Gary Parrish, CBS Sports with us here on the Matt Thomas show. And again, Coachingfor Literacy.org, the big event coming up Wednesday when the Cougars in SMU play. And I'm going to be really honest with that, Gary, because we can be that way with each other. We're not a great basketball town college-wise. And I think a lot of it is because the Cougars have gone so long in between the deep tournament run.

So I want to talk very big picture. Penny Hardaway routinely in the short time he's been the coach of the Memphis Tigers has had this national. top five recruiting class, including a young man and who's now longer with the team. Let me ask you, and I don't know if you guys are buddies or not, we know he can recruit. Can Penny coach these amazing kids he's grabbing and get him to top 25 on a regular basis

and get him deep in tournaments? I do think so. Listen, after what happened last night on national television, it's a totally reasonable question. They did not play well. They did not look good. But I will say, you mentioned James Wiseman, who quit the team before Christmas just focused strictly on the NBA draft.

That means Memphis lost its best player because he only played three games, but in those three games, he was awesome and had the highest player efficiency rating in the entire country. It's not just that Memphis lost a projected top five pick. Memphis lost maybe the guy who would have been the best player in all of college basketball had he continued to play. So you take him off the court, everything is different. And now they're having to play,

basically with their power forward at center, you know, it's just the entire dynamics of the roster change. But if you go back and look last year at their preseason computer numbers and then look at the postseason computer numbers, they outperformed the expectation. That was largely due to Penny coaching, an unheralded roster that Tubby Smith left in, but doing a good job with the unheralded roster that he was forced to deal with. Now he has a much more talented roster but still missing the best player. And the computer numbers are still better at this moment than they were in the preseason. So I'm not going to sit there and try to tell you he's the next Chris Beard or Tony Bennett

in terms of just exing and owing other people to death. But I do think he is a good enough coach and his staff is a good enough staff that if they continue to recruit at a high level, they will continue to have teams at a high level. Final question for you, Gary. How hot is Shaka's seat in Austin, Texas right now? It's getting that way. And I'll tell you, this is one of the things that I've been surprised by, the fact that he cannot get that thing operating at a high level. They've had good teams, but it's never had a great team.

He obviously hasn't broken through in the NCAA tournament and went on another deep run like he did once upon a time at VCU. And I do think if this continues to go the wrong way, and he's going to in the Big Club right now. And that's a league where it's hard to make up ground because almost everybody is good. They'll be asking big questions about him come March at the end of this season. And it doesn't help him at all that there's another guy in the state of Texas with a worst job doing better. And that's Chris Beard at Texas Tech. So it's not only that Shaka's seat his heart, it's hot. It's that the possible next Texas coach is just right down the road and really, really operating at a high level.

Gary, remind folks about Wednesday very quickly before we get to the time out here and what you'd like for them to do in support of the coaches for literacy this week. Yeah, if you can just go on your phone or computer to coaching for literacy.org, coaching for literacy.org. Find the Houston Cougars logo. Click on that and all of the information is there. And if you want to text the donation, you can do that to Cougars for Lits. you text Cougars 4-lit to 7-1-7-77- That's Cougars 4-Lit to 7-1-7-7. And I really appreciate you having me on to let me bring some attention to that. We're going to bother you next time come tournament time when you're really, really busy. You understand this, right? I owe you one and I'll be here for you, I promise.

Thanks, Gary. Gary Parrish from CBS Sports. Thanks for the time, friend. All right, one of the best basketball, college basketball writers, and obviously when we get to March Madness time, he's going to say, I'm super busy. But we're going to get him on and talk some big time college basketball.