The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Doug Gottlieb on Baylor Winning Its First Men's Title, Plus Life Advice 

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on Baylor’s blowout win over Gonzaga in the men's NCAA title game and the simplistic beauty of the NCAA tournament (2:15). He then brings on Doug Gottlieb of Fox Sports to talk about why Baylor was so overwhelming, how Scott Drew built the program, and how he sees guys like Jalen Suggs, Cade Cunningham, and Evan Mobley projecting to the NBA (15:45). Then Ryen closes the show with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (48:15).  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

help us understand like it's as a point guard for you what that's like when the other team isn't just trying to be aggressive but it's actually aggressive and working where they're just clogging you up as soon as you cross half court and you can't even get in any of your stuff yeah i mean look the way to beat that is what i thought jalen tried to do at several points in the game, which is you just got to spread them out and drive them. You can't run offense. And I thought Drew Timmy looked like a guy – like that's like a – that was like an AAU, I'm going to coach this weekend. And that's probably going to happen to my guys at some point

because I don't have everybody I need. And you'll play like a legit AAU team and they just full court man-to-man press you and there's nothing you can do it just isn't you know like I'll find the weak link defensively and attack that guy and they're just for Baylor there wasn't a weak link national champs Baylor we're gonna break it down with Doug Gottlieb and a little open that has to do with a 1996 nomination. Doesn't make any sense right now, but it will when you hear it. And Life Advice is back.

Good to be back. I love the tournament. I really do. And as somebody that, you know, as I've stated a bunch of times, you know, kind of gets caught back up with college basketball. I just don't really have. I know kids love saying bandwidth because it sounds so smart. Just a quick aside. For whatever reason, Fyre Festival came up again. We did not spend enough time talking about one of the guys involved with Fyre Fest being named M. David. Yes, capital letter M and then David. And that was his first name. So shout out to him because that's incredible. And I think we should remind ourselves of that every now and then. So anyway, back to the tournament. I love the product.

It's one of the few things in sports where if you were to explain it to somebody who didn't know anything about it, and I think about that a lot. I may do a bigger kind of open on this one day because it's something I've been kind of, I don't know, not notes, but mental notes on. Because here's the thing. Let me back up a bit. but mental notes on. Because here's the thing. Let me back up a bit. If you were to explain college football to somebody that didn't know anything

about college football, and said, well, how does it work? You're like, well, you know, there's teams all over the country. There's like 100 and plus teams. Well, how many of them are good? Well, you know, the power conferences are really the good ones.

And there's a scattering of other teams that aren't in the power five that maybe have a chance to win. And they're like, well, do they ever play for the championship? You're like, not really. So are they not eligible? Well, they are eligible, but they're not really eligible. You would have to be like really good the previous year and then be really good that next year to kind of be bought into by the people putting together.

And then they'd be like, what do you mean people? Don't they just play each other? And we're like, no, there's a group of people. It's like a committee. Well, how big is the committee? It's like 12, it's 13 people. Who are they? Well, some are former coaches. So don't they just vote for their own teams or conferences? Yeah, probably, but they're not supposed to. And then who else is in it?

Well, former media members, and they try to balance it out. Sometimes it'll be a weird name here or there. And then they kind of just vote on who's going to play. Like, wait, they just vote. A room of people votes on who's going to play for a championship. Do people like it? No, people definitely don't like it, but they used to do it with people in a computer. Well, did they like that? No, I think they, I don't know. I thought they hated that. And they definitely hated it before because before you used to just play the entire season and the best teams didn't even play each other a lot. Really?

Well, what would they do? Well, they named like two champions. They named two. Was everybody cool with that? No, not really. Like, so how does it work? Well, yeah. I mean, now they sort of play and it's only like four teams.

Like they only have four of the hundred teams play each other for a chance to win the championship? Yeah. And people are okay. No, I'm telling you people aren't okay with it. I'm a huge F1 guy now. We all know that. As I've learned about F1, I mean, I've been a huge F1 guy now for probably,

I don't know, 12, 13 days. But learning about that sport, I'm like, wait, guys are just pumped to go from like eighth place to fifth and not win and not take a podium? You're like, yeah, it's really hard. Like, what do you mean it's really hard? Well, because Mercedes is the best and they just win all the time. But why are they the best?

Well, they spend the most money on their car and their cars are just better than everybody else's. Like, so everybody else knows they're going to lose? Like, yeah, pretty much. I mean, unless somebody crashes. else's like so everybody else knows they're gonna lose like yeah pretty much i mean unless somebody crashes i mean every now and then somebody will win from one of the other teams but there's 20 guys in each race 10 teams two racers each team i'm just smashing you over the head with f1 knowledge and some of our hardcore f1 guys i get it you know this is remedial for you i apologize but yeah the people in the back and the teams that don't have enough funding they're just sort of

pumped to like move up a couple spots. Like, wait, I thought if you're not first, you're last. Nope. Not an F1. Like there'll be a driver of the race that starts 12th and finishes fifth. And they're like driver of the race moved up seven spots. Cause if you don't get the poll, you're kind of screwed. Like, and everybody's just okay with this.

And they just cheer on a guy that moves up a couple spots. Yeah. So the reason I bring up all that stuff is because the tournament is the easiest to explain. And it's why it's the best product. And it's why at the end of this, not after a college football season, certainly, or some of the NBA debates that we have where we go, all right, this team won. But what does it mean historically? I think football we have an easier time with because everybody just seems to be on the same page there. Baseball keeps expanding the playoffs.

I'll admit, gun to my head, I think I've forgotten how many teams are eligible. But you know me. I'll get locked back into baseball here soon. But with basketball, you're like, yeah, you know, there's 300 and something teams. They play this tournament. It should be 64 teams. It shouldn't be 68. They shouldn't expand it.

But other than those minor resistance that I have to it, I'm like, yeah, everybody just plays each other. Single elimination, win six games, you win the title. And everybody's pretty cool with it. And looking at last night's game, as much as I've appreciated watching Gonzaga all season long, at the times you'd watch Suggs, you're just like, okay, this team is deep. They can beat you different ways. Nobody was beating Baylor last night. No one. Baylor was incredible. Yes, and I'm going to share this with our audience here. It's going to be our little joke.

We'll all get to laugh about it together. Every time a team wins a title, I'm just going to ask if that's the greatest team of all time because that's exactly what happens on TV shows the next day. They're like, all right, what do we do topic-wise? We're like, all right, Baylor, great win. Best team of all time? Like, I don't know, probably not. But last night, I don't think anybody was beating that Baylor team. Think about the start of it.

First of all, they didn't miss any shots. Gonzaga hit their second three, I think 12, 13 minutes to go in the second half. They were one for nine while Baylor, I think was like plus 24 and three point shooting. On top of that, Baylor was getting all these offensive rebounds. I think they had six to start the game. Suggs had his second foul immediately. That really didn't have that much to do with it. And honestly, if you're being totally unbiased with this deal, it felt like there were a lot of calls late where they were trying to get Gonzaga caught back up into the game. So it's hitting all your threes. The other team doesn't hit any. Getting offensive boards. Every single player being able to kind of create their own offense other than some of the bigs there for Baylor which is what's been

so much fun about Baylor is that they can actually go iso and it's not awful to watch it's great to watch because all those dudes are so strong and then on top of it it's the defensive pressure by Baylor where they wake you up like all of a sudden whoa wait like I just got the ball I'm 30 feet away from the hoop and a guy is already in my shorts. There's nothing I, like, wait a minute. Can you guys just back off for a second? Let us set up the offense that we're run.

And it's like, nope, we're Baylor and we're not going to let you do that. So when you add all those things up, I think it was, yeah, it was the three-point shooting. It was the offensive rebound stuff. And then the points off turnover, you had Baylor, I think it was 13 zip to start that

game. So yeah, there were, there were a couple moments there. There was a run there at the end of the first half. I'm like, okay, Gonzaga is going to, they were awful to start here, but let's see what happens. And then I remember, I think it's 67 51. I just went, all right, I'm out. I'm like, there's no part of me that now is watching this, wondering if Gonzaga can close

the gap. And I'm going to make a transition in the comp here because Grant Hill at one point and announcers always do this and this is this is not a critique of Grant Hill at all but Grant I think at one point it got to 11 again and he goes yeah you never know you know you never know. Stop here. Bucket there. Stop here. You're like, nah, this thing's over. I had just finished a book by Michael Lewis that he wrote back in the mid nineties called losers. I think originally it was called trail fever and it's been rebranded as losers. And it was the chase for the Republican nomination in 1996 going up against Clinton, who was obviously going for re-election.

And it's the first group of primary caucuses that I ever really cared about. I don't know why I liked it. Not because I was a political science major, because I do think it's hilarious when people argue a point and they're like, yeah, but look, I was a French lit major. So actually, if you're a French lit major, you probably do know that topic pretty well post-college. Although I love that line in Groundhog Day. It's like, what did you study? It's like, oh, French poetry. Oh, my God, what an incredible waste of time. And he's like, all right, let me adjust that move. I won't say that a second time.

But a lot of us that have majors, I would never, ever get into a debate about politics with somebody and then be like, well, you know, I was a political science major. Because I don't remember anything, barely any of it. was a political science major because i don't remember anything i barely any of it okay but i do remember loving all of the primary stuff because it felt like the ncaa tournament of people all right it just it felt like it was the seeding of human beings and we would just watch to see if they could survive in advance the difference is in the basketball tournament you survive and advance. The difference is in the basketball tournament, you survive in advance. And in real life with politics, you're like, no, you guys were eliminated two weeks ago, but you keep showing up to these games, which actually makes it kind of funny in itself. And the reason I bring up the book and the entire topic is because, you know, here's Grant saying,

all right, you never know. You never know. Okay, fine. But there's also another result that we have after Baylor wins this game is you've had Arkansas fans going, well, look at our box score. You know, you never know. You have UCLA fans saying, oh, well, look, I know this at the very least. UCLA would have given him a better game than Gonzaga. How do you know this? You don't know any of this stuff. But the difference is, is you're so close to your thing that you think that.

Look, I remember being like that. I remember watching One Shining Moment and being mad if St. John's felt like they got left out. And a lot of times they didn't do well enough in the tournament to get more of a run in One Shining Moment. But they'd be like, why did Georgia Tech get two clips? And they didn't even get out of the Sweet 16. And that, like, come on, you know, I would care about that stuff the same way you care

about that stuff all the time. But I think it's a huge mistake to start sitting there because you're so close to it by saying, well, I'm an Arkansas fan. I'm a UCLA fan. They would, you know, who knows? You never know. You know, you get in that game once. Here's what I know. No one in college basketball was going to beat the version of Baylor that we saw last night.

And that's how impressed I was with Baylor. There was a candidate in 1996 named Maury Taylor. He was a businessman in Detroit. And he was just kind of like an out there guy. And for some of you, you're just going to be too young to remember any of the Ross Perot stuff, but it felt like this kind of outsider, but he didn't even come close to getting to the levels of notoriety where Ross Perot was legitimately like in the race and getting, getting votes. But this Maury Taylor cat is going around to Iowa. He's meeting pig farmers. He's going to New Hampshire. He's telling people he's going to do the four year deal, which McCain did by the way, which is always like a sign of desperation for any presidential candidates. Like, you know what? I'm just going to do four years. It gets so weird for Maury who was actually pretty likable in the book.

So I'm not just trashing him and just like all politicians be like, oh, these guys. Maury at one point was like, I'll get it done in two years. He's like, I'm not talking about I don't want reelection in four years. I'm going to get it done in two years.

And his people that are around him, and it wasn't as crazy for a guy like Maury Taylor as it was for like a Bob Dole or Steve Forbes even back then, where Lewis perfectly describes all of these young men in blue suits that surround the potential candidate. He calls them rented strangers, these people that are around him all the time, spreading the message, but doing it only selfishly, hoping they've attached themselves to the horse that can win this thing, and then they have a job in D.C., or they jump ship immediately as soon as the candidate has no chance.

And Maury Taylor starts talking to Lewis. He goes, you know, we get out there. Because I'm telling you, the turnouts have been great. The message is being received. People have been real positive. I feel pretty good about this. I think we're going to be able to pull this thing off. Taylor got 1% of the vote in both Iowa and New Hampshire. 1%. We're talking like

a couple thousand votes based on how that part of the political race for nomination works. And the reason he thought he had a chance is because he was only seeing what was exposed to him. He's showing up to the rallies going, look, we got another 1500 people here. They like the message. Look at all those people with signs that were all paid for. Hey, hold the sign. All right, cool. Here, here's 20 bucks. When you're that close to it, you have no real option other than to think, Hey, this is working because think of it this way. The person that actually takes time out of their day to show up to support you at some kind of rally, like they want to be there, but that's not the sample size that you should be using. And so whenever I think about any fan base talking about Baylor and what they saw last

night and going, well, Gonzaga was bad. My team would be better. Yeah. You're a lot closer to it, but I also think you're lying to yourself a little bit too. but I also think you're lying to yourself a little bit too. Doug Gottlieb, a guy I've known a long time as good on college hoops as anyone hosted Doug Gottlieb show three to six Eastern every day, Fox sports radio. I did a little bit at the, at the beginning,

just in how, how impressed I was with Baylor. What did you see? What happened last night? I mean, just a complete ass kicking. I didn't, I don't, there's a, there's a, there's a layers to it. I mean, just a complete ass-kicking. I didn't... There's layers to it.

The easy thing is like, hey, Baylor is just too athletic and too good for Gonzaga. And that'd be fair. I think there's other parts to it which could have made it a more competitive game. And I don't like the way that Gonzaga chose to play against Baylor defensively. In fairness to them, it worked for them for whatever, 30 games.

I thought they got off to a terrible start. I thought they were sped up. Jalen Suggs getting two fouls hurt them. Like all of those things. And I'll be honest with you, I think UCLA beat them last night as well. You have to have experienced that sort of turnaround when you're that age. And we're programmed like, well, it's like NBA. You get a day off, you're fine. Like, no, dude.

You've been staying in a hotel for three weeks a month. And you're not used to playing a game at the UCLA level. And then you do Zooms afterwards, get home, like two in the morning, you grab some food, you get up, and now you've got to prep for the biggest game of your life. Meanwhile, the other team was done like six hours before, seven hours before,

and their game was over at the half. So I think there's other factors, but the biggest thing was, I do Baylor's legit, man. I mean, they just, they're old, they're athletic, they just they're old they're athletic they play together they're connected they play hard um they kind of have the perfect mix of number of guys they have enough depth but not so much depth that guys are pissed they're not getting their shots they can play big they can play small like they're awesome and they just kicked their ass it was

it was there was like one spot in the second half when it got to nine where it kind of got to be competitive, and Mark Vidal got away with the moving screen, and they hit two quick buckets and went from like nine to 14, and that was that. I mean, that game, that was a non-competitive basketball game. No, that's a good point because there are always moments because Gonzaga's been so good and they are so talented

that you're like, okay, well, can they find a way? And then Butler would hit another three and you just go, all right. So what's it like when you're playing? And the thing that I always notice is I go, they're coming out so far on these guys. Gonzaga's like getting swallowed up. Like Gonzaga's almost asking to be like, hey, can you guys just relax so we can get set up here?

And help us understand like as a point guard for you, what that's like when the other team isn't just trying to be like, hey, can you guys just relax so we can get set up here? Help us understand, as a point guard for you, what that's like when the other team isn't just trying to be aggressive, but it's actually aggressive and working, where they're just clogging you up as soon as you cross half court, and you can't even get into any of your stuff. Yeah, I mean, look, the way to beat that is what I thought Jalen tried to do at several points in the game, which is you just got to spread them out and drive them. You can't run offense.

And I thought Drew Timmy looked like a guy – like that's like a – that was like an AAU, I'm going to coach this weekend. And that's probably going to happen to my guys at some point because I don't have everybody I need. And you'll play like a legit AAU team. And they just full court man-to-man press you. And there's nothing you can do. It just isn't, you know?

Like, oh, find the weak link defensively and attack that guy. And they're just, for Baylor, there wasn't a weak link. I thought there is one part that, like, it's not just their on-ball defense was suffocating. They were leaving. They had a man in rotation off a Yai, and he was kind of lost as to what they did. They were all kind of lost. Drew Timmy's calling for the ball, like, give me the ball, give me the ball.

Like, bro, we can't get you the ball. You know, Suggs is being pressured. He's got to penetrate, but he's worried about getting a charge. The game was, you know, Kispert just could not get a step on those guys. And Yai was open at times, but he's not facing to the corner and they're not finding him on skip passes. And then he's trying to screen and he's just kind of in the way. So in addition to playing against five guys that are more athletic overall,

not every guy is more athletic than Jalen Suggs. And, but, but there are five or more athletic than Jalen Suggs. But their five or more athletic than your five was actually kind of four on five, like offensively. So it feels even worse. And there's a drill that when I was in college, we used to do all the time, which is five on six. You play one of these teams. I remember we were getting ready to play Georgetown out of Notre Dame. You play five on six. You're like, yo, five on six?

Like, yeah, because that's what it actually feels like. And that's what it was like last night. Five on six. You're like, where did that other guy come from? Hold on, ref. Can we get a count here? Like, no, they got five dudes. Like, no fucking way.

Who's that other guy? It's like, that's just them. So that's what it feels like. It feels like they have another guy. And, you know, you're like, try to attack the mismatch. And one time you get a step then there's another guy and then oh yeah by the way then offensively like Baylor's was crazy disciplined as much as it looks a little chaotic they were crazy disciplined in all they want to do is get

let's get Drew Timmy on a switch and then like that's the that's actually the worst feeling right when you're like hold on wait one guy cleared out now another guy could holy shit they're just gonna take me every time down the court that's exactly what happened you can't you can't hide and gunzaga just couldn't hide their dude their dude who couldn't guard and they couldn't get open and it frustrates you and so you and you know and then you're not fresh, you're not sharp, and then you get into foul trouble, and you look up at the score, and you're like, oh, my God. It was 11-1.

They had scored one point in the first stanza, the first four minutes of the game. One fucking point. And it was 11-1, and it felt like 30-1. I just can't imagine being Gonzaga sitting there going like, this is a different level. It was just a different level. Talk to me about Davion Mitchell

because Davion came over from Auburn and you saw improvement with the shooting from the first year to the second year. Then this year, the numbers are incredible. But to have a guy that's that tough, I mean, to have somebody like that, if you're Coach Drew, to go, he's never afraid of anyone, never afraid of it.

He is comfortable in the most uncomfortable things. I thought his game against Villanova with his defense where he's like, no, actually, I'm just going to win this game by being tougher than all you guys. And this shit's over. I fell in love with that kid during the tournament. He's awesome. He's awesome. It is crazy that the school he left, you know, was one crazy call away from playing for national championship two years ago,

and then he goes and wins the national championship with Baylor. He's amazing, and I think it's interesting. He wears, you know, 45, like another Mitchell and there's, there's some similarities there in their toughness and their ability to drive. And, you know, he's added to his game, kind of those, those new age, like sidesteps, you know, where you go through your legs and you step to the side to create more space. And when you have the type of first step he has, he has a ridiculous first step. You're like, okay, I can play off this guy. And then he goes through his legs and sidesteps.

Then there's like three yards in between you and him. So now he has free space to shoot the basketball. I mean, what I love about him is I think he understands he's going to make, he won a championship based upon it. And he's going to make money based upon if you can just guard somebody, if you can just, Hey, I'm going to guard somebody.

You're going to make a lot of money. You're going to make a lot of, all these kids that are working on one on cone shit. You can guard somebody the way Davion Mitchell can and enjoy it and, and take them out of their game. And then, Oh yeah, by the way,

now he's become a really solid offensive player. Yeah. I mean, what's, what's not to love. Like they have a bunch of guys like that, you know, that are, that play to their strengths and hide their weaknesses and have improved over time. And they have a great cult. You know, I, I, I love the way we've cut, we've covered some of this Baylor story, but when Scott first got the job, so he used to, he's called me every year and offered to pay me, like, tell me how much you cost.

You come down here, I'll get a speaking engagement for you, and then I'll pay you to just evaluate my team. So one of the first years I went down there, and I'm not the only guy, he does it for lots of guys, but he just, he likes other people's opinions on what he's doing and he's not going to take everything you say, but he'll take copious notes and then he'll, you know, you'll, you'll say, he'll say like, watch this game, tell me what you think. And I'm like, ah, I really didn't like the under 12 ATO. Like, what was that?

And then he'll text you like before game game watch today's ATOs you know anyway so he had me come down there and his plan he might when he got the job like it was the worst shit show you can ever imagine right literally had a player kill another player and they were talented but weren't any good like remember

this is the Baylor story the two best players they were 14 and 14 the year before Dotson shot Denny. But their two best players, one went to Mississippi State, became SEC Player of the Year. The other one went to Oklahoma State and became Big 12 Player of the Year. They had talent. They were just a dysfunctional mess. So he gets down there.

And what he did was he opened it up. And I think he has like 30 managers. This is true. So they have a basketball facility that the players all have a code to. Right. They get in there. You go in. He's like, oh, the guys are working out.

Like, are you guys working them out? No. Who's working them out? We have managers. How many? We got like 30. Two managers for every player. So that guys, they only want guys.

You're going to Waco, Texas. There ain't shit to do in Waco, Texas. Now there's not a lot to do in most of these college towns, but especially Waco, you know, biggest afterschool in the country. And you go down there and those guys get after it, get after it. And look, they've done a great job of finding dudes that want to come to El Waco and get better. And you got to, it's the hardest thing in recruiting now is now you're taking, okay, so now I got to take somebody else's recruit and got to figure out like, is he coming here because he wants to get better? Is he coming here because he ain't got anywhere else to go?

Right? So they took like Flagler from Presbyterian. Do you know how hard that is to get a guy who averages that many points that, Hey, listen, you come here, you might start, you might not. But if you all those points you scored at Presbyterian, they don't mean shit to us. You gotta be able to guard and fit in and he's done it. But Davion Mitchell's a guy who, yeah, he, he like figured it out. Like, Hey,

the way to get on the court is to be able to just guard, just take the life out of somebody else. And go back and it's just like, look, I think Gonzaga was gassed last night. I still don't think they win if they're fresh. But go and look at Villanova and Wisconsin and Gonzaga, where they all have in common. They're the lowest turnover teams in the country, right? Those three. And then look at the stats of when they played Baylor. And Baylor, they're not pressing. They're not running and jumping. There's no tricks to what they're doing. They just get out and say, we're going to fucking guard you. And then we're going

to rotate. And their closeouts are unbelievable. Their energy was ridiculous. And so, and, and that all starts at the point. And that's what Davion Mitchell does. He just like, you cross mid court, you're like, Oh God, we got to go against these guys again. And they're, they're just, they're tremendous. And they, the other part is they're like connected. Like sometimes, you know, you'll see some teams, you drive in, big guy comes to help, you kick off and like, hey, somebody's supposed to help the helper, and they start pointing at each other going down the court. None of that with Baylor. None of it. You score, they get morally offended that you scored,

and then the next time down, they guard you harder, which is the sign of a great team. I did not hit it off with Scott drew when we had him in studio years ago um so he did not he did not reach out to me for any evaluation because i'll never forget i don't know if you're gonna agree or disagree with me he definitely disagreed with me but i said you know hey i watch you guys all the time because they always had these guys they'd always have this collection of like six eight to six ten motherfuckers that looked like they probably got 30 every aau game

because they could dribble you know and i'm not saying every guy had handle but like perry jones is the poster boy for all this but like quincy miller you know quincy ac cory jefferson um you know motley more recently and these guys could you know like most of these guys actually were pretty good players too so i'm not i'm not dogging them, but I was like, Hey coach, when I watch you, you seem to get stuck offensively in big moments where it's like, okay, bail us out with your size and your athleticism. And Drew gave me this look where his quote was, well, you know, Ryan, you know, we're fourth in offensive efficiency in the country.

And we were number one in the big 12 in offensive efficiency the last two years. And the, but the look on his face was go fuck yourself. He was really nice in the country and we were number one in the big 12 in offensive efficiency the last two years and the but the look on his face was go fuck yourself he was really nice in the quote but his face was go fuck yourself and i still thought i was right because i was like i don't care about the efficiency numbers because you guys get stuck all the time and now to see them smaller and drive and do what they do it's kind of funny because those other guys are the guys everybody would want. And yet this version of what they're doing now is borderline unstoppable

because all those guys can handle and shoot where the other guys couldn't really shoot and were kind of just huge athletic specimens. There's two things that you nailed in your evaluation. One, and this is where, like, yeah, I work with Seth Davis. I like him a lot, but he likes and this is where, like, yeah, I work with Seth Davis. I like him a lot, but he likes to do the whole like,

oh, tough day for the Scott Drew can't coach crowd. Like, look, he's been there 18 years. He wasn't a very good coach when he got there. He wasn't nearly as good a coach in terms he's gotten better. Like part of their culture is not just about the play.

And Scott will tell you this. He may not admit it in open mic or whatever, but he would tell you like, look, part of the reason he took that job was it's completely different caliber of athlete, style of basketball than they had played. Remember when they're at Valpo, they're recruiting international kids, right?

They got all these six, nine guys with, you know, the symbol for Boron at the end of their name. Right. And they're just spacing you and shooting and they're just better than, but you come down to Baylor and it was, it's a completely different. So he, he had to learn how to coach. And they used to run that bullshit one, three, one, because they had all this length like, Hey, we don't have to teach him how to play man and really help.

And we just use our length. The problem is that like the one, three, one, if you know, it's coming and you're a really good coach, like it's over and self would kick their ass every year. Right. And then offensively, it was a little bit of a mess. And then I think also some of the guys he took, right? Like he took guys that went to Baylor because had they gone to Texas, they'd be role players. They go to Baylor. They can be the dude, right? The problem is they all wanted to be the dude.'re like yeah that's you're really you're there's a reason that texas thought you were a role guy so now i agree one they've gotten smaller and they've gotten but he's gotten better like he didn't run all these they run really good stuff these atos like they didn't run that early on they didn't have this sort of defense. And part of it is also Jerome Tang, who's his top assistant, could be a mid-major,

high-major head coach right now. The only reason he didn't leave and take a job was they pay him so much money. Those two are big time. But they've also gotten way better. They weren't this good of coaches 10 years ago. But they don't sit there and go like, Hey, all my stuff is genius. All my stuff is brilliant. They, they listen, they learn, they evolve, they get better. And that, you know, he's a better coach now. So you're right. They didn't run shit. They just tried to out-athlete you. And, and then they, and then every year, like, why does Bill Self beat them? Like, cause Bill Self is an amazing coach and he's got equal or slightly better talent. This is not rocket, it's not rocket science

and he's got to get better. And Scottie did, like he did. And I agree with you. Like they used to just like, oh God, here we go. Close game. Somebody is going to just try and, Lacey Darius Dunn is going to fire up some shitty shot. Right?

And maybe it goes in and maybe it doesn't. And now it's like, now they're executing, they're cutting, they're pointing, they're talking. So, uh, I, I think, I think if, if Scott, if the microphone was off and you were talking with Scott, he would tell you like, look, every year I've tried to add something to it. He's a far better coach and they found far better. And that's the other thing that's happened in this tournament is if you can't figure out that you don't have guards, okay. Dudes that can guard people that can take people off the dribble, preferably in the six, two to six, four variety so that they can spend a little bit of time defending inside. You can't figure it. That's why the big 10 went home. Cause most of those big 10 teams,

guards are shitty, right? They're just not crazy athletic. And somebody gets in them, and they're like, oh, my God, I don't know what to do with myself. And the other part is guards get away with fouling more than big guys do. If you're a guard and you swipe and steal the ball, 50% of the time you're going to get away with it. Big guy, every time you swipe and steal a ball, they call you for a foul. It's happened since we were seven years old. So I think there's a bunch of layers to it, but you nailed it that they weren't particularly fun to watch. He wasn't as good a coach. They didn't have perfect personnel for how you want to play and they fixed it. It took them 18 years, but they slowly got

better and they were without question the best team this year. My favorite part of that interview was it was so awkward and then he left and then Van Pelt and I were just sitting there and Scott was like, that went well. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. I was like, look, I still think they get stuck sometimes. So I don't care what the efficiency numbers are, but they were, they were really good. And the thing is, is on the other side, I was never a guy being like, oh, this guy sucks. He can't coach. He can't coach. Uh, I just don't just don't there's no version of me that would ever be so dismissive of the guys that have done this their entire lives me just sitting at home never playing in a game anyone ever cared about being like yeah this guy doesn't know what he's doing i mean i think there's nba stuff that happens where it's

it's beyond where the coach just gives into the player so much where you just go like okay so you're just gonna let all these guys do all this stuff. But when it comes to just like calling up stuff, yeah, I'm more like a coach needs to move on if you're just hearing everybody's tuned the guy out and he's stale, not because I think I would run better plays while I'm sitting at home. All right, let me leave you with this because it's the last thing here as far as the pros.

Suggs, certainly with the UCLA game, and you know how it works out, the draft part of this becomes much more of a national conversation in a very short amount of time with people that have watched maybe a couple games and not all 30 plus. But your school, Oklahoma State, has a kid in Cade Cunningham. When I talk to teams, because I did this with Bill on Sunday, he's like, I like Suggs more than Cade

Cunningham. And I go, I can understand why, but I'm telling you right now, there's not one team I've talked to that would take Suggs over Cunningham. You go I can understand why but I'm telling you right now there's not one team I've talked to that would take Suggs over Cunningham you've watched all of them give me your just quick breakdown on as far as anyone in this draft class like why you like him or why you're hesitant on anyone

well I love I love all three of the top college kids right let's start with Cade Cunningham. I agree with you. I think he goes first. One, he's bigger, okay?

Yeah. I mean, look, it just helps. It doesn't mean you have to be 70, but being 6'6", 6'7", and be able to do all those things, it allows you positional versatility, defensive versatility. All the things he can do are made easier.

Even if he's not a Jalen Green freak athlete, he's athletic enough to do everything he needs to do. I think like Jalen, he makes everybody better. But I also think there's a little bit of more maturity and pace, smarter pace to how he plays. I just think he's a better shooter and as good or better, like, passer within the half court. Jalen's a creative passer and unbelievable advance at advancing the basketball and a freak athlete. I would go Cade ahead of

him. I think Cade is Penny Hardaway is the comp that I like to use. Like not a blur that goes by you, not, you know, not a pogo stick, but will dunk on you. You know, not Steph Curry, but can make shots. Not LeBron, but can really pass out of the post. Just does it all. And like to do what he did at Oklahoma State and to be as beloved as he is by his teammates, that's big. That's really hard because when you come in and you're the savior and you're 19 years old,

it's a hard thing to do. And I think he has that personality in him. Evan Mobley, I like a lot, a lot. I think there's a space, though, between, to me, there's a space between the top two Suggs and Cade and Mobley and maybe even Jalen Green a little bit, just because I think he's more prospect. And the other part that gives me a little bit of pause, and I'm wondering if you put him behind Jalen Green I don't know if he totally loves it I'm not saying like he only plays basketball at basketball practice but like all the stories of him growing up was his brother was all about it and he just kind of was along

for the ride and he just had more talent and now like you know the light bulb's gone on the last couple years now he's a hard worker but he can defend the rim he can shoot he's, he's a hard worker, but he can defend the rim. He can shoot. Uh, I can pass. He's not a complete douche. Like he's not, he's a good kid, like legit good. These are legit good kids, dudes. Um, I, I like him a great deal, but I think there's a space there just because he's a good athlete, but laterally he's gotta be better. And look

for calling it like it is drew Drew Timmy saw him and said, I'm going to kick his ass. And Drew Timmy kicked his ass. So I think he's really good. I don't think he's as impactful immediately or maybe even long-term as much as Jalen Green is. I mean, Jalen Suggs is. Suggs I love.

Everybody Gonzaga was like, hey, don't tell anybody, but he really is not very good shooter, but he shot the ball well this year. Right. So like a lot of the, the, the old GU guys are all around the program and they weren't hating on him, but they were just like, I don't think he's as good a shooter as his numbers, you know? And then he'll make some shots like, well, maybe I'm wrong. And then they go and watch practice. Like not that good a shooter. make some shots like well maybe i'm wrong and then they go and watch practice like not that good a shooter so i i think the jason kidd comp is better than people because people like well he's jason kidd with a jump shot like yeah okay um but i mean he's a he's a yeah i mean this in a positive

he's a bitch man like that yeah yeah yeah football he football tough. I thought he got sped up last night. He'll guard. He gets like, good luck guarding him downhill. He's so good. And then there's Jalen Green, who it's like the perfect comp. If you were to ask a guy on the street today, what do you think of Jalen Sucks? Oh, I like him. He hit that big shot against UCLA.

Right? What do you think about Jalen Green? Never heard of him. Right? Whereas Jalen Green, like Mr. Overtime, freak athlete, and I like that he's played against men. My issue with Jalen Green is, like, he hasn't really played on a basketball team. You know, he's played in AU,

he's played on a high school team, but it's always been about him. And so I guess the question, when you go to the NBA, like, hey, you're going from being always being the best guy, like even as G league selecting, like he's the guy. And I, I, he, I, he's not like a LeBron type of takeover player. I don't think right away in the NBA. And so can he fit into the,

can he fit into the pecking order? Will he guard? And then the big question for him is, can he shoot? And he's shown that he can really, really shoot. He's improved. So to me, it's Cade one, Suggs two,

depends on positional, if you need a big, and then I would do Jalen Green or Evan Mobley three, and then the Jonathan Kugel. Dominga. Yeah. Yeah.

Those are, those are, those are the, those are the five, but yes, I, uh, you know, I'm, I'm more interested, like, like people were like, Hey, drew Timmy's a first round traffic. And I watched last night. I'm like, I don't know how that guy plays in the NBA. You know, like I don't know how he guards anybody. I just don't like, I don't think people have a healthy respect for how good these guys are and how they'll

just, oh, you can't guard anybody? We're going to chase you out of the NBA. No, look, Timmy will get a look. He's incredibly talented. His scoring against UCLA using both hands back to the basket, old school shit, you just don't even see anymore. It's all really, really impressive.

But he's slight. His shoulders are small. If he's getting bigger, I don't know where he's putting impressive. But he's slight. His shoulders are small. Like, he's not – if he's getting bigger, I don't know where he's putting it. And he's not that big. Whereas, you know, I look at Suggs. He already has the NBA body. And even if he gets sped up, what I loved about him is when shit got really tough in the second half, he's like, all right, I got this.

Yeah. Because I was – That's good. That's a lost cause because of the match matchups you know he it's tough because he's such a good aggressive scorer when things are right but against Baylor it was clear it was another level for him so then he kind of disappeared and Suggs was like all right well you know if I'm the guy that has to fix this I'll go ahead and fix this but I'm gonna leave you with this I love what you said about Evan Mobley because when you watch his older brother Isaiah Isaiah is the one that

seems to have a little bit more of that switch that good switch that edge but in fairness to evan that can also be the product of the older brother younger brother deal or the younger brother i mean these kids are still so young that it's like okay evan at times i'll admit he's clearly more talented it can look a little more apprehensive but i'm wondering am i I only comparing his apprehension to his brother? Who is, who is the big brother of their whole lives and putting his arm around him and doing all that kind of stuff. So it's definitely something I've noticed,

but I'm always trying to be fair because I, you know, I, I just hate, I just hate with the bigs how often it's just all these guys, every big guy hates playing basketball. I mean, that's the old adage.

Everybody said it. It's definitely true with plenty of big guys but i don't like it as an assumption about any next really talented seven foot guy mo bamba it seems pretty clear basketball is not exactly like his passion uh i think i think we have enough data on that but we say it about all guys all the time you know i know and and i And I, he's not Mo Bamba. It's just the, the dynamic you point out is a, is one that the people like us, we care about and pay attention to. It's not just, he's a little brother, his big brother's playing basketball with him. And then his dad's a coach. Like that's a weird,

it's a weird dynamic where you're you're kind of always slotted in that little brother kind of role. It's just weird to kind of try and break out of it during a college season. So he's not Mo Bamba. He's not a, I'm only going to show up at practice. I'm just telling you the background of what everybody said, which is, look, the light switch has gone on and he wants to work out. He wants to be great, but he just, he's not at like,

like we started talking about Davion Mitchell. Like there's a dude who, Hey, if you want to find him, go over the facility. That's where he is. Or he's not at like, like we started talking about Davion Mitchell. Like there's a dude who, hey, if you want to find him, go over to the facility. That's where he is, or he's in the way for him. Like there's just a different level of almost psychotic nature

that these guys want to be great. And I don't know if Evan has had that as long as others have. And that's one of, that's one of the very few knocks against him. Doug Gottlieb, the Doug Gottlieb Show. Again, Fox Sports Radio, 3 to 6 Eastern. This was terrific, man.

It was great catching up. Talk to you soon. Love the backsplash. See ya. Thanks. Okay, now it's time for the State Farm Surprisingly Great segment of the week. Getting great car and home insurance from State Farm

at a surprisingly great rate. That's like getting Joseph Osai, linebacker, Texas, in the late second round of the NFL draft. We'll get to him in a second. But State Farm agents provide personal service, so you can customize your insurance to fit your needs. Like a GM putting together their very own roster, you need a team that supports you, and State Farm's got a great one.

In addition to agents, the award-winning mobile app helps manage coverage, pay bills, file claims, and more. With a great price and even greater service, State Farm goes from strength to strength. Choose insurance that always brings its A-game. When you want the real deal, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. The player I'm going with here that could be surprisingly great is Joseph Osai, linebacker out of Texas. 6'4", about 250, ran it at 4'6". If I want to start with the negatives, I can get that out of the way and say,

all right, I don't know if he's going to turn and run with guys. I'm not saying he's the quickest twitch muscle player. It's not a burner 40, but he makes plays every time I watch Texas play football. I've seen him in person. Obviously, I've seen him on TV a bunch. And whenever you're looking at Big 12 defensive players, you know the draft record hasn't been great because there just hasn't been a ton of personnel.

But there's also just elements of these offenses where they spread you out, they get the ball out quick, where there's just the pass rushers. They're not going to make the same impact in these games. I can tell you from watching all the Big 12 games, for the most part, there aren't a long list of players where I felt like at least edge guys are on the line, where I felt like these guys were dominating just because of the way they play football.

And when I watched Osai, I always felt like he was around the ball and he was always giving you that second effort and that's where the positives start to roll in. Forget the other stuff. There are so many plays that break down and it's up to you to figure out a way to get to the quarterback, to get to the ball carrier, and Osai does that. Look at the Oklahoma game.

There's a play where he forces a fumble and he forced three of them this last year where it looks like the play's over. He's not even close to being in it and he fights his whole way back to get back up, get the running back from behind, force out the fumble. And that's what he does. So I think you can line him up in a bunch of different places.

I felt like he was one of those second gear guys that just as a football player, still learning the position. I'm not telling you he's perfect. I'm not telling you he's physically the most gifted player, but he's somebody that just fights the entire game. And if he ends up going late second, late third, maybe you have something there. So Joseph Osai could be your State Farm surprisingly great player of the strap. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. LifeAdviceRR at gmail.com. A couple here that I really like. But I'm going to get to this one first to try to help out a little bit. We had our guy check in saying, all right, quick question.

I'm headed to Cancun at the end of the month. Any advice or help on the COVID testing to get back would be very much appreciated. So I don't get stranded in Mexico for a couple of weeks. Some people would love to get stranded in Mexico. That realization kicked in at some point, Kyle, where I was like, you know, I probably could have packed a mic and a task cam just in case I didn't want to get stuck there. Um, as, as nice as it was in Tulum, I didn't, I didn't want to live there for two weeks with no basketball because when I first checked in guys, I go, wait, no TV. And the guy was like, welcome to Tulum. We have no TVs in any of the resorts here in Tulum. I was like, none of them, none of them have a TV.

I don't know if I'm buying that. I bet you there's some places here that have TVs, but it was good for me because I can't remember the last time I didn't watch NBA for three straight nights while the NBA season was going on. Yes, there have been three straight nights. I've not watched NBA out of the season, but during the season to consciously be like, I'm not going to watch the NBA for three straight days, which I definitely needed, especially this season. I don't know. I can't even tell you when the last time in my life that would have happened. I don't even know. I'm not sure.

Well, yeah, probably when I was really young. But anyway, getting out, though, is the key thing here. So I'm going to give you some tips on some of this travel. And a lot of this could change. You know, vaccination numbers continue to go up. But, you know, the mask part of it, I think is going to be a big part of still going through. The weird thing about the mask deal is like

getting mad at people that don't have a mask. And then it's like, wait, what if the guy's vaccinated? So I'm just not super into policing everybody else. And I'm really not into policing everybody from my phone. I think there's better ways to spend your time. So let's try to help you out here. All right. So I'm an awful traveler in the sense that I'll be like,

hey, I'm going to go here tomorrow. And then I'll be at that place and have a ticket out. And I'll be like, you know what? I'm good. I'm out of here. I'm going to go somewhere else now for a couple of days. And it's cool. And it's a freedom.

And it's probably why I go by myself all the time. And in this case, leaving, I go, you know what? I'm going to get out here Friday so I can be ready to go and get caught back up on nba stuff because i knew i was doing the pill uh the the pod with bill on sunday so for the most part it was all masked down there um other than when i worked out at an outside outside place so i'll admit i'll admit to that i got tested on the way in. And then what you do through the hotel is you ask them, okay, I need to get my test out of there. And this is where it gets a little tricky.

So with the hotel, make sure they set up your test for you because there's testing sites all over the place. It's crazy. It's like people are selling pina coladas and little bike stands. There's these just trailers parked on the side of the road all over the place being like rapid COVID tests, you know, antigen and all these different options. And obviously you have to get the right one. So I got one going in. I didn't need it to go in, which I didn't realize. Um, cause no one ever asked for it at least, but I went ahead and got it. And then on the way out, I was worried that the car wasn't going to be able to come and pick me up because I paid for a cab round trip from Cancun to Tulum. the guy's like, oh, it's cheaper. Don't do that.

It's sort of cheaper, but it's way more convenient. And we're talking like 10 bucks cheaper. It's not significantly cheaper. It's way more convenient for you to be able to just get in a taxi and go to wherever you're going to get back to the airport at Cancun. If you're just staying in Cancun, you're fine. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff. But I mean, it's expensive. It's expensive from Cancun to Tulum in a cab because I don't know, it was like 170 bucks because it can take like two hours depending on traffic. And it can be even way worse if you're hitting at the wrong time. As I was leaving, coming in was brutal because there's really one road into the entire resort area. So I've taken my test.

They told me I'd have the results by a certain time. Take your test the day before you're flying back. Don't take the test the morning of like I did because it was potentially going to get a little weird that if I had tested positive, then I wasn't going to be able to get on the flight. I was going to be stuck quarantining in Cancun the entire time while I was in a car getting an email saying, hey, you actually are not going to be able to get on the flight. I was going to be stuck quarantining in Cancun the entire time while I was in a car getting an email saying,

hey, you actually are not going to be able to get on this flight. So whatever. I'm in the clear. I don't have it. I get to the airport. They drop me off at the wrong terminal. You have to have your paperwork filled out, all the normal stuff you need for international travel,

but then you also need to fill out a questionnaire on an app, and then you also have to have proof of the test so they can see that results come back, that you're good to go. So when I got dropped off at the wrong terminal, after I paid somebody to kind of walk me through the entire area, and I would emphasize that it's worth it to give a guy 10 bucks to make sure you're going in the right direction. The difference was I got worked for the 10 bucks because the guy saw me getting out of the taxi. And honestly, is any of this interesting? I'm going to ask you guys in the middle of this, because now as I keep going, I'm kind of talking, going, I don't think this is really life advice. I think this is boring

trip recap. It sounds like you're almost out of there. Well, here's where it gets interesting. So I get to the right terminal and the guy's like, no, no, you're at the wrong terminal. 20 bucks to the go to the right terminal. I go, like, no, no, you're at the wrong terminal. 20 bucks to go to the right terminal. I go, there's no way. There's four terminals. There's no way I'm going to be wrong. I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. I grab somebody else.

I go, hey, look at this ticket. He's like, yeah, you're right over there. And I look at the guy like looking at the 20 bucks deal and he just sort of shrugs and walks away. I was like, cool. You were actually going to take 20 bucks from me to drive me to the wrong terminal after I've already been at the wrong one. Get up to the front. The lady there, and look, there can be this arrogance as an American where you think there's going to be more people that can speak English to help you through and travel, but you're in Cancun, you're in Mexico City, it's not as common as you would think. And so the woman behind the

counter could barely speak English and she was telling me that I'd only paid for the first leg of the trip. I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. None. And so she held, she gave me the first, cause I had a connection just to get out of there. She gave me the first ticket. She didn't give me the second ticket and my baggage claim after the bag had been checked in and held it to be like, no, you need to go back to the front of our gate and pay for the rest of the ticket. And she's like dangling it being like, I'm not giving this to you. I was like, okay. I was like, all right, this is, this is working out. So I go back over there. The guy starts writing down on a piece of paper, how much more I owe. I go, Hey, look, I'm sorry. I know we don't understand each other, but there's no way that Delta would allow me to book a flight

and on an app and then pay for it. But then I didn't really pay for it. Like, come on, they didn't, they didn't just open up for business yesterday. So then she just comes over and she's like, Hey, sorry, my mistake. Like, all right, cool, cool mistake. Then you get to this other like river of people to this little end of, of, of access. And you can't, you can't get through it until you show that you filled out this questionnaire and then you have your passport and you have your ticket and all this. And nobody knows what the hell's going on because there's like one person. And I went up, got it wrong, got turned to the back. And then everybody's just looking at their phones, clueless.

Nobody knows who to ask. No one's in charge. No one's helping anyone. And I go, I think I have this right. I just sort of hit refresh, held the tickets and just was like power walk. And she's like, yeah, you're good. Then when you get to the actual check-in to get your carry on stuff, to go through security, which we all understand that process just to pass time. I like to pick somebody else that I'm going to go up against. So I'll be like, all right, I'm going to take lane four and you're gonna be in lane one we were

entering at the same time let's see who wins and I thought I had a really good chance at lane four because there was a local guy that kind of went out amigo when he pointed here I was like okay this guy's got a vest a badge he knows what's up he's telling me to go lane four I always think you want to go wide on the entrance lanes because human nature is just kind of follow the herd in front of you and you just stay there I'm'm like, no, no. Walking away further actually means I'm going to get through the line a little bit quicker. All right, let's pick out a guy. I pick out this huge red headed man with a massive, massive walking stick. So I don't know what the hell his program was, but I go, all right, I'm not going to lose sight of him. And we're going through it. And I'm like,

I'm already like four guys behind him. Now I'm doing rapid counting, trying to figure out like who's in front of me. I get really competitive about it because if I lose it, that could set me off for about an hour, which seems like a problem, but we'll worry about that later. And as I'm going through the line, I'm like, I'm losing him. This sucks. And then I put my hand on like a turn area and I go, all right, now I have gum, fresh, wet gum on my hand. That sucks. And now I'm trying to get the gum off my hand, but I don't want to touch it with my other hand. And then I don't want to wipe it on my shoe because then I have gum on my shoe the rest of the time. But I also don't want to be completely inconsiderate so that now there's gum somewhere else. And as I'm trying to just smack gum out of the air off of my hand and it's going on and on, I'm like, all right, somebody's definitely going to tape this because I look like an idiot right now.

So I've already lost a walking stick guy. I've got gum on my hand. And then when I finally do get up to the area to take out your bags and everything, a little guy's about to cut me. And I was like, nope, amigo. Nah. And he's like, all right, yeah, fair. And then right as I get up, I've got a water bottle. But as we all know, most airports, there's a receptacle immediately as you get to the x-ray to dump the last bits. And I've gotten everything through. I'm chugging some water. And the woman is like TSA style. No, back of line.

You have to throw that water out. And I'm going, no. I'm like, what do you mean throw it out in the back of the line? Like there's got to be a garbage can here somewhere, right? And I know I sound like I might be one of those. I actually am not this person when I travel. But it just wasn't happening for me. It just wasn't happening for me, people.

I don't know what to tell you. So I look around and there's a garbage can about 10 feet away. And I'm like, just chuck it, make the shot. Don't go to the back of the line and start over. And I take a deep breath and it was one of those ones with a metal lid. So it just landed, smashed at the top of the metal lid, spun around ton bucket is good through the x-ray back in la a few hours later so i felt it was one of the best athletic feats of my life in recent not the best thing i've ever done but it after all of that it was a nice way to feel good about myself again yeah don't don't want to clank that one there was a lot of pressure there was a lot of pressure. There was a lot of pressure. So, I feel,

all I can tell you is get the test the day before you're leaving so you have the results and there's no anxiety about getting them in time for your flight that day. Even though it'll say like, hey, day of is fine. Don't do that. And give yourself plenty of time.

I'm more of a get to the airport an hour before guy. International travel, it's like mandatory some places, two hours. There's a story of one place wouldn't let me get on a plane like nine years ago, which sucked because then they were telling me I might be stuck in the country for like another four days, which I definitely, I don't think ESPN was going to be thrilled with

that. But yeah, so that was a lot there. It was sort of a story. I love to pick a guy in another line though and see how you do. But it sucks when you lose. So there you go. All right, let's actually do some life advice because that went on a little too long. We got our man Bill checking in.

This is, I love what he did here. This is a completely, no one's done this before for life advice, and I'm really thrilled about it. All right, Rosillo and Kyle. Thought you would enjoy this one. I'm moving to a new apartment in philly with four friends from penn state so this is five dudes we're going five wide penn state guys the apartment layout is attached he attached the apartment blueprint okay this is nice um i don't understand wait is it five guys here because we get got a four-bedroom deal. Maybe he meant to say all four of us from Penn State.

That's my guess here. All right, apartment 2,700 square feetage. Four beds, four and a half baths. Two bedrooms on either side of the living area and kitchen in the middle. You pick one of the other bedrooms, not near the living area. Living area and kitchen are the middle. You pick one of the other bedrooms, not near the living area. Living area and kitchen are entirely one room, 1,250 square feet, 50 feet long by 25 feet wide.

Room is shaped like a rectangle. No island in kitchen. The wall opposite the kitchen is entirely windows. Half bath is tucked away amongst bedrooms on right side. That's the other reason why you don't want to have a bedroom near the living area, because that means every time you have people over that bathroom is going to be the hot zone. All right. So just giving you a little advice, you want to try to stay away from the communal bathroom, but you guys are so young here. I actually think you're too young for this apartment. So what we're saying here is that on this, this main floor plan, it's one of those big open deals where the living area, you know, wait, we got two living areas.

Oh, aha, this is crazy. So the kitchen is in the middle of this long run. So think of like one floor where it's just one long run of kitchen, dining, living area, but they have a kitchen in the middle and then living areas off to the side, which would be a dining room and then would be a living room.

Okay. All right. I hope everybody's following along. So we'd love to hear both you or any listeners ideas of what they would do with this insane amount of space in the living area. Currently, we're debating one side to be huge huge sectional, five TVs hung up. Setup would be like the number five on a die. This guy's very descriptive. Terrific job here. Ten-foot floating island in front of the kitchen, and then on the opposite side have a 12-foot

dining table with benches. However, one of my roommates wants to put a sectional on the opposite side of the room with another set of TVs, then move the dining table into the middle. I personally don't like this idea because why would we have two separate chill areas? I also enjoy having a dance area while hosting in the dining room table. It would constantly be in the way.

All right, so let me rephrase that sentence. I also enjoy having a dance area while hosting, and the dining room table would constantly be in the way. We're all doing well professionally, all 26 and single. So we want to live this last experience up before buying houses. You guys, your head is absolutely in the right place here. I do have friends, one group that stayed in San Francisco. We call them the chefs.

And I think they made it until their mid-30s renting just a sick house in downtown San Francisco. And then finally they had to give up and move on and become adults. So I love this. Okay. Dining room table, Kyle, immediately in agreement with you here. Don't get a dining room table. You know what you're going to do with it? Put shit on it. And it's just going to sit there. It's going to be coats. It's going to be mail. And you're going to look at this and go, wow, I got this in April and now it's it's going to be male and you're going to look at this and go, wow, I got this in April and now it's

2024 February, you know, like you're just not going to, everybody wants to do that. And I know you guys, you know, it's really cool. You get this nice place. You're all doing pretty well. You want to go full restoration hardware and all the little stuff and all of it. And I kind of get it. And it's kind of cool if you're the more grown up, younger guys on the block and you're inviting some friends over and you meet some women and you're like hey why don't you sit down on our dining table and all that kind of stuff it's kind of cool but you just said you want a dance area so you're not having fucking dinners there so and on top of that you're going to be eating subs in front of your five tvs the entire time so a dining room area is going to be nothing but a waste of space and storage that isn't efficient

storage because it's going to be shit on the table all the time. Trust me on this one. So that's the easiest fix of all of it. Kyle. Word. I agree. I think have room for activities, dude. Screw the dining

room table. Get a poker table, man. Get a card table. Get the green felt on that shit. Card table activities. Okay, and you can move the card table away. The other guy wants a double chill area. How do you feel about that, Kyle? I actually don't think that's a problem.

Especially if there's like a little rift. I mean, there's four guys. If there's a little, it's like, I'llift i mean there's four guys you know if there's a little it's like you go i'll go to chill area a and just fucking cool out over there and you just stay here with b i don't hate it i gotta tell you i don't hate it but if you're putting five tvs in chill area a even i would tell you a chill area B with more televisions seems excessive maybe it's one television and that's

like where you play the Xbox because if you're playing Xbox while in the middle of everybody's like college basketball Saturday and there's like four games I can see how that's a fucking problem really you don't think so if there's like five tvs and four of them are games and there's one guy playing xbox with his buddy from back home like just playing call of duty just cursing up a storm you don't think those guys are gonna be like dude what are you doing does that happen

a lot i don't know i only had one tv can't you just go into the bedroom or something i guess although then it's like do I want to sit on my bed and play video games with my buddy from home? I don't know. I would think in most scenarios you'd be like, hey, no Call of Duty

while Penn State's on. You know? Like we've... Everybody here wants to drink and watch the game because that's what we're doing. So why are you, you know,

racking up kills? Well, if there's two areas, who gives a shit, right? Yeah, so that's an argument for chill area B. I had so many TVs put in the new house that even the TV guy was like, you know, I might want to add

one more in the garage because I'm working out here and then in the morning, you know, college football, Saturdays, football, pregame stuff. Although I don't watch a lot of pregame stuff. I just like maybe it would make sense

to just kind of have something on, you know, in case something goes a little bit longer. And you know, I was kicking off at 9am out here, America needs farmers. And then the guy was like, yeah,

I think you're good. The guy who installed my TVs told me that's enough, which I was like, that's weird. Normally businesses don't tell you, Hey, I don't want to, I don't want to give you any more business, but he shut me off.

He just was like, hey, it's last call, man. It's been last call for half an hour. No more TVs for you. I think it's a little excessive, but I think we're in agreement here. We're both very much anti dining table. I don't know if Saruti wants to chime in on this one.

I don't understand the dance area in the middle. Is that going to be a useful thing to have in the area? You're just going to start playing music and No, I think I don't understand the dance area in the middle. Is that like that's going to be a useful thing to have in the area? Like you're going to start playing music and people start dancing. I don't that's unfamiliar to me. I just would never do that. I am 100% with Kyle

and against the guy writing in because I kind of love the split entertainment area idea because you're right. If you got a guy playing FIFA or Call of Duty, I don't want that guy while I'm watching like,

you know, Roma or Everton or something, I'm watching my games on the weekend. Those need to be separated 100%. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I was a big U-couch guy. I was big multiple seating. I always wanted to be able to fit a lot of bodies. And the irony is I never have anyone over anywhere ever ever like never at this house

Connecticut there was nobody to come over Boston I don't think I wanted anybody to come over um because just in case I remember when I first moved to Manhattan Beach there was a couple guys that like came by to check out the place it was, this is going to be awesome to be watching football here every Sunday. And I was like, what? No, I was like, that's not,

what do you mean? What, what, where did you get that information? I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to, no,

I sit here and take notes by myself. I don't, I want you guys over here. You guys going to bring over a bunch of bud lights and just let it go? Like, no, sorry. All right,

here we go. Cop neighbor. Okay. Here's our guy checking in 6'6 225 pretty skilled athlete but weak as shit all right he has a hundred pound 11 month old polar bear of a puppy a great pyrenees poodle mix huh what's that look like can we get it on that i don't even know what that would look like i I take him on walks through our neighborhood twice a day. We live in Bend, Oregon. Shout out to Blockbuster. Maybe the most dog-friendly city in America. Eight out of ten houses on our block at least own one dog.

All right, so I didn't know Bend is also a big video rental place, but also a dog spot. Bend is nice. This morning when I was walking the dog, he stopped to pee as he does half a dozen times each morning. It happened to be right in front of one of those no dog poop signs in my neighbor's front yard. Three houses down the street from ours, a man comes out, begins yelling all caps at me for how disrespectful it is. He says things like, grow the fuck up. And that is hella disrespectful.

Wait, a grown man said hella? I've never been a fan of the term hella. I think it could be a West Coast thing. I'll let it go here, but it's a little bit of a warning. He also said, quote, be a fucking good community member. He also tells me that he has multiple times watched me in a security camera, stop right there and let my dog pee in his yard. All right. So that's why he's so worked up. He's seen you do this before. His wife also came out and began yelling things at me. This goes on for a few minutes to make things better. He's a police officer who happens to work out at my gym. And the gym is not some 10,000 square foot planet fitness. It's a small CrossFit hit type gym with classes of five to 10

people. My wife and I regularly work out with him and his wife. They've always been sweet up to this point. So they, you guys all know each other. And he was that mean. Your dog is pissing on his lawn a ton, is my guess. And he just finally snapped. My response initially while he was yelling F-bombs at me in his front porch at 7.30 a.m. was to let him know that I'm not intentionally trying to have my dog pee there and that I would try from now on to not let it happen. I always err on the side of kindness and letting things go. I'm not a confrontational person, but I do kind of wish I would have thrown some of his words back at him, especially the God. Oh, I meant gosh. I would say I'm a pretty good community member. As if having a nice front lawn makes you a better member of the community than the way you treat your neighbor. Yeah, look, it's pretty clear here with you and your wife are doing these things.

You guys are giving back the community in a big way. All right, my question is this. Even though I have a feeling you might side with my police officer neighbor, why should I do this? Oh, that's because I'm the anti-dog guy, right? Oh, by the way, when I did come back, just gone just a couple of days, garbage can, new record of amount of dog shit in my garbage can. Like I opened it up to throw some stuff out of my car and it just absolute stink fumes. People are listening, man. That's a good sign. Yeah. People are listening. Like, Hey, make sure you can chuck all your dog shit in rossillo's bin um but you know what i i kind of i kind of get it i don't like it but i kind of get it i'm not going to start

monitoring security footage here uh i did for the one that happened out front but that was that was you know really that was on the dog and the dog and i'm not going to talk to the dog about it okay all right so do i guy wants to know how to handle this was he right to lay into me we still going to see that? We're still going to see him multiple times a week around the neighborhood of the gym. Do I pretend nothing ever happened and walk the dog on the other side of the street from now? Or do I confront the way he handled the situation? Or maybe you don't think I have grounds to. What I really wanted to do was sarcastically kill him with kindness and go back to the house, grab a bucket of soap and water, some yellow rubber gloves and go scrub their sidewalk so they could watch that in a security camera maybe that leaves a note saying i'll try harder on now to be oh he's doing the capitalization non-capitalization thing be a better community member our guy's locked in how old is he again oh we don't know i've now believed that anytime anyone does the lower upper you know letter deal that it's usually bad content but here i kind of get your point my dog's freaking 100 pound polar bear i can't control where he decides to stop at a diamond whiz thanks love the pod okay the dog part's tough because it's not like he's going number two he's going number one and the dogs are just going to pee i mean it's science they're dogs

they're not you can't reason with them so i kind of feel for you on this one right and i don't think i'd get super mad about the dog pee thing but it's chances are it feels like a lot of stuff if you think this guy bought a sign and he likes rules he's a cop um you know he's he probably there's probably a lot of pent-up that you were the recipient of that isn't all on you, right? But he didn't have to say that kind of stuff to you. The be a good community member is not even like a cool comeback. And then the hella thing, I'll let slide now. What I think I would do here, and maybe, I don't know, I think a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this one, but I would go up to him and I would say, hey, look,

you lost your shit on me. I have a couple of things to up to him and I would say, hey, look, you lost your shit on me. I have a couple of things to say to you. I want you to hear them out. And if we're cool after that, great. And if you're not, we're not going to be cool. And so at least you know where we're staying because you feel like you let this guy lay into you because you're not confrontational. That's bugging you a little bit. I think that's happened to a lot of us in life where I remember I was in a pickup basketball game. I was in my mid twenties. I'd moved to a new town and, you know, I was getting pissed the way this guy was playing and he wasn't that good.

And he was, he was trying to like hack me a little bit. And so I, I just kind of kept giving him looks and I was sick of it. And he finally was like, all right, let's fucking go. You and me outside. And I didn't want to fight him because it was like a new place. And, you know, obviously I could have lost too, cause that would have sucked. But I was like, oh, you know, I, I kind of just, I rolled and was like, you can't guard me. So that's why you're losing your shit. And

I'm just letting you know that I'm sick of it. And now you want to fight me cause you can't guard me. And he just, he couldn't let it go. He couldn't let it go on and on and on, you know, and he was letting me have it cause I was new. And then new people were looking at me like, how is he going to respond? I just didn't feel super comfortable. I'd barely been in this town. I didn't fight him. I regretted it immediately the next day. For probably a month, which is psychotic,

for about a month, I was really mad at myself. I was like, you should have just done it. You should have just done it. You should have just done it. You should have just done it. If you lose, you lose. But if you win and you're the new guy in town. And look, for whatever reason, it's been 19 years and I still think about it sometimes. So don't do that.

I would go up to him, not in any attacking mode. And I would just be real simple. Be like, all right, look, I know how frustrated you are. And I can't understand all the different things that you've gone through to get to the point of having a sign and ready to go and looking at security cams. And I'm going to promise that I'm going to do my best and I'll go on the other side of the street. You know what I mean? I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure that happens because that bothers you that much for you to treat me that way and talk to me that way. But don't ever talk to me that way again,

because I am a good member of the community and we're going to see each other all the time. So I understand where you're coming from, but understand where I'm coming from, that even if you're a police officer or whatever, like that was your one time to talk to me that way. And you're never going to do that to talk to me that way. And you're never going to do that to me again. All right. And if we're cool and honestly, as a cop, he might

actually respect a little bit, but you never know. Like I know some people are going to be listening to like, Oh, every cop sucks and all that kind of, that's just not true. Um, but if he's a super hothead, he may, he may not like it, but at least it'll make you feel better about it instead of just thinking about it and never doing anything ever, right? Because I think that's the worst of all of the options here. You don't want to be in a situation where you're letting this do and you're mad at yourself and you almost question your own manhood, which can be a weird thing, but let's be honest, we do it at times. I would just be really cool. You don't have to be mean. You don't have to be tough guy about it. You can just go straight up

like, hey, I get where you're coming from. Obviously, this has happened to you a lot. And that's my bad. And I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again. But I don't appreciate you talking to me like that. And I'm just telling you right now, don't ever say that to me again. And I hope I hope my wife and I see you at the gym and everything's cool. And I bet you it works.

I bet it does. Unless this cop absolutely sucks. And then, you know, look, I'm just a guy with a podcast trying to figure people out through email. So I'm not going to be right all the time. Okay, it's good to be back. We'll be back on Thursday. And we'll talk to you then. Please subscribe.

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