Arnie Spanier and Jason Martin talk Michigan's domination of Arizona, UCONN going back to the National Championship, and more!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
What's going on? Everybody? It is a holiday weekend. Aeron Torres,
it's his holiday just because he always goes to the
NCAA Final four. He may join us in the third
hour of this show where chatting with him, see if
he's gonna be finished up with his duties in Indianapolish.
Speaking of finished up Arizona, they can go ahead and

(00:31):
send the old flights home.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
I'm Jason Martin Arnie Spaniers with me.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Arnie Spanier, who went to the University of Arizona graduated.
Now I gotta say you and your frat brothers, Arnie. Yes,
probably good that you guys didn't go.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
As we're live in the Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
I'm not talking tonight. I don't want to talk tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, Arizona can't talk like this is. Let me here's
the problem. Like this stinks because I feared we might
get this. And I don't mean one way or the
other because this was such an awesome matchup on paper.
So often it ends up being something like this. And look,

(01:12):
Michigan has been insanely dominant. You're old enough to remember this, Arnie,
But I remember an Arizona team that went to the
Final four back in nineteen eighty eight that lost to Oklahoma. Yeah,
and then Oklahoma then went on to lose to Danny
and the Miracles in that championship game. My dad had
it on videotape. I watched that final. I can't even

(01:34):
tell you how many times, but I watched that Final
four too, and that Arizona team had I think Steve
Kerr and Sean Elliott. Like it was a loaded team.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah, absolutely loaded team.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
They got beat by twenty in that game by Oklahoma,
and it was again, it was supposed to be this
heavyweight fight. This one felt like I mean this. You
had the guys on the broadcast before him and saying
that they've been more excited for this than any matchup
that they had ever covered in the tournament and all this,
it was all the talk all week long, and within

(02:10):
about five or six minutes, you realize real quick, if
something didn't change, this was a gigantic mismatch. And unfortunately
for Arizona, as there's still you know, over ten minutes
left in this game. It's basically a thirty point game,
and I'm not even sure it's that close.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, you know, that's what makes this tough that you
know the game was over in the first like five
minutes of the game, if it even was that. But
that's what makes this tough. I I mean, first of all,
I'm a bigger fan than you guys. I always said
that the playing so you don't understand the pain that
this will cause.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Meep, I hate that for you, man, I'm not going
to try and rub it in like yeah, for Arizona fans,
this is yeah, this is just straight up heartbreak.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
It is. And I don't want this loss that we
have here to Michigan overtake what we've accomplished this year.
I mean we only had two losses, won the Texas
Tech in overtime when they had top and on the team,
and won the Kansas which was on the road. Otherwise,
it's been a phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal year. Unfortunately, Michigan a

(03:19):
much much better team. And I just don't want this
to you know, you know, people say, oh, Arizona was overrated,
or Arizona this they won the Big Twelve championship, they
won the Big Twelve conference, so it has just been
a dream year. They got to the final four. It's
been unbelievable. They get to keep their coach. He's gonna

(03:42):
be around. They've got a great recruited class come again.
So I mean, yes, it does hurt, but there's good
things in the future for Arizona. I'm wondering how many
of the guys are gonna end up coming back because
of a loss like this. It's gonna be interesting to
see what happens there.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, you know, the thing that's interesting about Arizona is
they're just.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Not made.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
To play against Michigan when you really look at it,
because they're not a team that thrives on the outside.
They don't just three point shoot you to death. They're
not a great jump shooting team. They like to bang
down low, they like to be physical with you, force
the issue. You can't do that against Michigan. That's why
Monday could be a little different because Yukon loves taking threes,

(04:27):
They love standing out there and doing that, and then
Reid can be there to try and get those rebounds.
Difference here is you've got seven to four Mara, who
is just an absolute monster on the glass, and it's
just a defensive force. I just this Michigan team, the
way they have looked in this tournament. I think Iron
Eagle gave the stat they're a plus twenty two point
five point differential in this tournament.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
That's preposterous.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, to be going into.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
A national title game and some of the games that
they have played and the teams that they've played, including
this Arizona team, who I mean, they've absolutely rubbed them.
I mean they've they've just blown them out, even saying
it disrespectfully, They've just absolutely mauled them.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
This reminds me of un l V when they were better,
yes than everybody else, but they lost one time in
the finals. So you have to go ahead, excuse me,
you have to make sure. If you're Michigan, you have
to finish this office. Like I said, you could have Yukon.
They're gonna be about a five and half point favorite
over Yukon. For money, I would assume ride around there.

(05:32):
I'm maybe I'm off on that, but that's that's my guess.
Remember with the injury that they'll have to what Luxembourg,
that's going.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
To go ahead, to Belgium, to Belgium, Lindenborg, Lindenborg, I'm sorry,
that's gonna that's gonna go ahead and.

Speaker 4 (05:51):
Hurt the line a little bit, maybe a couple of points.
To be honest with you, Ja mart So I'm saying
about five and a half six, Why you think it's
gonna be different?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I felt like it might be more than that. But yeah,
I mean you could be right. You certainly know Line
is way better than me. But either way, like if
Michigan looks the way that they've looked in this last
couple of rounds, I mean, Connecticut's got no chance either.
But nobody is beating this team the way that they
play now. Now, Linda borg I was surprised he came
out in the second half, and then Tracy Wolfson said

(06:22):
on the broadcast that you know, they the trainers had
cleared him and so they left it up to him
as to whether or not he wanted to come back in,
and he did. And in my head, I'm just like, well,
I mean, the player is almost always gonna want to
go back in, right right.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
I mean I don't think I would chance now I
wouldn't either.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, I don't thought. I think he's done now. I
mean I see him on the bike right now, right
on the shot. But I don't know if I'm I mean,
we've seen guys come back in try to and then
all of a sudden, an mcl spraying becomes an Achilles
and then you know you're done, Like you're gonna need
him on Monday. I don't think you need him to
beat Arizona tonight.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
If I would have told you that Caudo started the
at halftime was gonna be two out of sixteen or
fourteen fourteen, excuse me, and their best player was in
the locker room Bury with two fouls and a serious injury.
You said, oh my, oh my, Arizona is looking real

(07:17):
good for the second half. But unfortunately Arizona just never
got it going. Burris never got it going.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
You know, he just Burdi's has been bad and sad
and Jade and Bradley just can't stay on the floor
because he picked up out especially like what were you doing?
Like and don't you put your hand out when Cadell
was trying to get past you?

Speaker 4 (07:37):
With that, He's got a lot, he has a habit
of doing that a lot too. I've always surprised that
he hasn't picked up more offensive fouls than he had
during the year. So he gets away with that Mokkrebos
does the same thing too, very physical, uh, Toby, you could.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Almost call him, you could almost call him for a
charge virtually every time he turns to the basket, because
when he's got the ball in his hands and add
his size, he leans forward to create space. And I
think that officials have just kind of gotten used to
how he plays and so they don't call it. But
anytime you call it, you could justify it because of

(08:15):
how physical he plays.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
And I think what makes the whole thing worse the
cherry on top of the Sunday I guess for just
bitterness is that Dave Portinoy is going to be happy,
So I you know that that kind of yeah, that man,
that that's gonna eat me up alive. I saw him
on Twitter. He's at the game. So you're lucky. I see.
I'm glad I didn't go to the game with my

(08:37):
fraternity brothers. What a waste of money that would have been.
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well maybe maybe. I mean, honestly, Arizona could potentially just
blame you guys because you didn't come. Oh yeah, they
did not have the you know, they did not have
their rabbit's foot, essentially because Keg and Resin and the
boys as well.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
They're texting right now on the phone. Said I'm disappointed. Yeah,
it's not going well. But I told my wife if
I'm not gonna go, I'll just save the money and
we'll go to Hawaii or something like that. We'll take
an so.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Well, I mean, I think that's a that's gonna be
a nice parting gift.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's all I'm gonna get out
of this. It's it's not been pretty. And you know,
I bet you get far superior. I I'm wondering, you know,
how this team is going to be next year. Also,
didn't they get some commit at that time?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
They got to commit at halftime on the Fab five broadcast.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
I'm sorry. I didn't know his name, but I didn't.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Even know there was a FAB five broadcast.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I didn't about it.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
I'm sorry. There was a concert going on my TV,
so I don't know what between games. Oh good, my bad.
I'm sorry. Concerts and just just too much going on there.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, so we'll go ahead and do this now because
I sent this message to you guys. Yeah, as it
was happening when the Chainsmokers hit the stage for a
four song performance between games. I'm just like, do we
need this? Do we need like an hour between these
two games when they're being played in prime time?

Speaker 4 (10:07):
I thought it was a half hour between games. I
didn't know it was it gonna be.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Bad me either? Me either.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
I thought the exact same thing.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
And in my head, I'm just like, I mean, how
long are you asking children to stay up to watch
your you know? And this was the marquee performance. Not
everything needs to be the Super Bowl? Fellas, Like, it
is eleven, it's past eleven on the East Coast, it's
a holiday weekend, it's Easter Sunday tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Yeah, but it's not about the kids. This isn't about
people that are under well, it should be years old.
This is about college students in college vans.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I guess when I was up. Let's just when I
grew up. I remember watching this before I was ten
years old. Like I said, I mean, I maybe things
have changed and maybe kids just don't care anymore. But
I just why was it?

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Why is it not on a Friday Sunday? You want
to explain that to me?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Well, because the women are right, Well, you can move
that around.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
I mean that's I.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Mean, you could, but well it's always been the Saturday
and then Monday night is Championship Monday, which I mean,
I don't know why you wouldn't do the Championship on
Sunday except that that Monday night just became kind of
it was just so unique because there was no postseason
college basketball that took place on Mondays, and so it
was just that one game would take place on Monday.

(11:28):
Nothing else during the tournament took place on Monday. You
had that whole center stage on Monday Prime Time, which
was a pretty solid piece of real estate for CBS
or whoever controlled the rights at the time, and so
I think that it just kind of stuck there in
the Final four being on Saturday. I do generally like
Friday is the worst sport, the worst television night possible basically,

(11:52):
but Sunday is obviously really good, especially if you can
get a game seven or something like that. So a
championship game on a Sunday would usually be a good thing,
right right, Yeah, Even so, it's just kind of like,
I just we don't need fifty minutes and a concert
and multiple music artists and like gimmicks with the turner

(12:15):
crew and all this other stuff like.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
That was bad.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
There's just no need for all this, Man, what do
you question there were Yes, was not very good.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Nate Smith knows Smith that thing.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, yeah, like they're trying a little bit too hard,
Like there's no need for all this, Like we had
one game, give us a reasonable amount of time, and
get the second one out there. There's no reason for
an hour or however long it was. It was close
to an hour if it wasn't an hour between the
first and second game, Like, there's no reason to have
to fill that kind of time. And the fans.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
I can't imagine that they needed that much of a
rest either.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
I'm surprised they went ahead and did that. I thought that,
you know, maybe we're just gonna get more you know,
breakdown and more you know, highlights from earlier in the
tournament and stuff like that. I was unprepared for that.
I'm just saying, oh do I I don't need this concert.
I actually muted it and did some stuff getting ready

(13:13):
for the show, you know before I actually paid attention
to that.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
To keep showing Mark Few yeah in the crowd, like
he just one of Tommy Lloyd's best friends of course
Tommy was his you know, his assistant kind of twenty
years to have his for years and years and years.
And I know I Few got put into the Hall
of Fame, right, But maybe stop showing him because he
doesn't look very happy. No, well he looks sad because

(13:40):
his best friend is getting embarrassed on national television.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
Well he always looks like that, to be honest with you.
He always has that sour puss look on his face.
But you're right there. They're very good friends. As a
matter of fact, that was the rumor is that Few
was good friends with the North Carolina crew Roy Williams,
and that's why Tommy Woyd was the favorite to take
over the North Carolina job. But thank goodness, he decided

(14:06):
to go ahead and stay in two side. As a
I think he also has a great recruiting class coming in.
Two guys that are in the top ten. I believe
in those rankings. Whatever you want to say about those.
So I think that what are we doing, Michigan, What
are we doing?

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Linda borg is coming back into the game with seven
to ten left, Michigan up twenty.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
Okay, they're just.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
They're just asking for it. I'm here to tell you
you're just asking for it.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Well, you don't have a bad ankle, then, as far
as I'm concerned, when you're coming back into a game
up by twenty.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
I mean sitting, they're gingerly walking. You can see gingerly
walking on it. Maybe he doesn't want it to get
too stiff, but I mean, you've got two days. This
is just Do they think that you were you were
begging for disaster right now?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
I'm gonna say they think this is some comeback because
they cut it down the nineteen. I wouldn't have get
him back into the court unless it was like ten
or less.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, and it's I don't think it's going to get
to that point. But yeah, again, there is no need
for him to be on the floor at all right now.
And hopefully everything's gonna be fine, but you just this
is a major risk.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
In my opinion, I'm actually shocked, especially because it's such
a short turnaround for Monday's game. Either he feels a
lot better or they're you know, they're a little bit
worried about this, which I can't believe they are because
they're up by twenty one. So yeah, I ain't gotta
worried about it.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
They can't be worried about this game right now.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, they have to get him out immediately. I don't
know why you would chance this. And you're right, he
is walking gingerly. You could tell how bad he was
heart when he went into the locker room for crying
out loud. Yeah, I mean this right there and then
I don't think he should have come back in this
game based on what happened.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
They were by sixty at that time. I mean, sometimes
you got to save the player from himself. I don't
think that they asked him to go back into the game.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
What do you think he put himself back in.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
I don't know, but I mean he was on the bike,
he's riding the bike. He's your best player and you
don't need him in this game. And he's got an
MCL spray. Now, I don't know how serious it is,
but they've got him back out here on the floor
to do what exactly? What are you trying to prove?

Speaker 5 (16:11):
What?

Speaker 4 (16:12):
To win? By thirty? By the way, does guess does
he have one more game as a coach in Michigan?
Is he still being rumored for the North Carolina job
or no, that's gone, By the way.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
I think that's gone. I think that's gone.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, that commit and everything, the commit that they announced
the halftime and all that. I think he's the number
eleven player in the country, five star guard, So I mean,
I doubt that that is in play for Dusty May.
One thing I did see was that Dusty May's last
time here in the Final four was with that nine

(16:45):
ceed FAU team, right, and San Diego State hit that
buzzer beat or prayer and knocked them out in that game.
And the team that he would have played is Dan
Hurley's yukon team, And looks like now he's going to
play Dan Hurley's shoot on team in a championship this
time around. But just I'm baffled that twenty three is

(17:08):
on the floor from Michigan. So we'll come back, we'll continue.
This game will be nearing its close. Unfortunately, there's not
much to break down no about this game.

Speaker 6 (17:17):
Now.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
We are going to talk a good bit about the
first game and there's a lot more to get to.
They just showed.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Uh was that Bogdanovich that they just showed.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
I can't remember. I always say when I see him. Now,
all I think of is Lurch and that's a Charles
Barkley thing. He called him Lurch back in the day,
and so I don't want to get his name wrong,
but I think that was his bobon Or.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
By the way, you don't even have to be a
good coach anymore to be successful. You just need a
bunch of nil money, right, I mean, yeah, that's what
it's all about. I could, I could be a great
coach if you just give me a boatload event il money.
I can be off players do no.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, So Linda Board just sat down, so we'll come back.
We'll address this and what you just said. I want
to talk about more as well, because that's another text
I said about the state of college athletics and where
it is headed. So we probably can have that discussion.
We'll do that. On the other side, we are live
in the Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
He's Ernie Spanier. I am Jason Martin.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio Home.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.

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Speaker 2 (18:53):
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(19:15):
Countdown presented by bet MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning,
right here on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart App. Well,
all we have to do is finish the last two
thirty four to give you a final. Michigan I think
has scored ninety in every game in this tournament. They're
at the line to do that right now. They're up
eighty eight, sixty eight to thirty four, remaining a date

(19:38):
with Yukon on Monday night. As Yukon one by nine
over Illinois. Yukon graduate Aaron Torres has confirmed that he
will indeed come on live from Indianapol. I don't want
to show.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
I don't want him to be appy.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
You know, we were so close to the Arnie versus
Torres national title game and it's been robbed. I feel robbed,
quite frankly.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
I feel rob that's for sure, and I don't want
them to be happy. So now I got a root
for Michigan, but I don't want Portnoyd to be happy.
So either way, it's it's gonna suck.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah. Well, like I said, I'm not gonna revel in it.
Not that I mean I was not that I was
pulling against Arizona, but I'm not gonna do any more
than I have to to do my job. But I
will say this. Tell me if this was necessary.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Yeah, the March Madness Live.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
If you get the text updates from the tournament, you know,
they'll send kind of the notifications to your phone tell
you what's happening. Well, they sent something over the last
five minutes or no, actually there were seven thirty three
left in the game. The screenshot that I'm seeing from
the athletic. It says Michigan up twenty one, Arizona has
seven thirty three to make a run. Let's see if

(20:49):
they can make it happen. And it's pointing to the game, right,
and so you hit that and they'll take you to
the deal. But the title of the notification is Wildcats
getting waxed. That's the official March Madness notification for March
Madness Live. Did they need to stick the knife in

(21:09):
any further, Arnie? Do we need to say the word
waxed any official notification is being said. I'm not saying
it's it's a lie, right, I'm not saying it's inaccurate.
It's just was that necessary? Do you feel that's a
little bit much? No?

Speaker 4 (21:23):
Not really. We were getting waxed. And there's so anti
West Coast biased anyway, so.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Oh, okay, there is. Okay, See, I wanted to set
you up. The whole reason I did that was to
set you up to go crazy, and then you didn't
do it, but then you got there. Now, okay, there
it is. That's right. The East Coast bias.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
Well, you know, and you saw how many championships are
won by the West Coast and what two thousand. I
think it was one, and that was Arizona. So unfortunately
it's they didn't have to put that in there, but
they like sticking into it, sticking it to Arizona. So
that's what they did, and now they could make Arizona

(22:05):
try to look bad, and they were bad. We're down
by seventeen and wasn't even that close, to be honest
with you, Jason, we watched the whole game and it
was like a twenty plus blowout. They could have picked
the score that they wanted to. So congratulations to Michigan,
but I don't know. I wish you could end up
in a tie. I just I hate that it's Michigan and Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Prevos just missed and missed an alley. You don't get
spend that guy for Arizona. That would have cut into fifteen.
As I mean, at this point, Michigan's just trying to
dribble out the rest of them.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
I'm trying to see what Burris was shooting today. He
was four out of sixteen. That's just not going to
get get it done. We were twelve out of twenty
seven from the three point line. Excuse me, that was Michigan.
They were twelve out of twenty seven. We were six
to seventeen, So that's pretty typical for Arizona at thirty.
But it was it was just all Michigan in this

(23:03):
so what we.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Were talking about the West Coast and in the last
time the Big ten won the championship with Michigan State
and that was right around the turn of the century.
What was the That was the Mateen Cleeves Mopete team,
I believe, and I remember hearing that stat at the
beginning of the tournament. I was like, what about the
Trey Burke Michigan. Oh, yeah, they had to take those
banners down. Remember that the Michigan Louisville game, because that's

(23:26):
the one I thought, well, you, well, Michigan won a
halful of years ago, would be Laton No, no, no, no, no,
that that game was never played. We didn't witness that.
We didn't witness that tournament. And that was a great
tournament and Burke.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Hit some incredible shots, uh for Michigan in that tournament.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
But and then I was trying to think. I was like, well,
other teams got there, didn't they what they did? But
they didn't win. Well, they got there five and got killed.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Didn't they beat Seaton Hall Michigan.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Michigan be Seton Hall. That was the Glenn Rice team,
the Glenn Rice team in eighty nine beating Seaton Hall
in overtime.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
I think that Seaton Hall team has Sean Rastburt on it.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
It had mistaken the kid, the guy from Australia. I'm
seeing Carlossimo was still there at the time.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yeah, that was a great shooter. I can't remember his name,
but he was on that Seaton Hall team.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah, I think Seton Hall, like a lot of people
thought Seat Hall would win that game, but Glenn Rice
just went.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
Because Andrew Gaze or something like that.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
I bet you Steve de Sager knows. Let's go out.
Let's go out there. Let's talk to Steve de Sager,
who can tell us how bad Arizona has been.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Crushed in this game along with other things.

Speaker 4 (24:32):
Steve, you're reading this part of the show.

Speaker 8 (24:36):
It was most definitely Andrew Gase. He played for Australia.

Speaker 9 (24:42):
I have read that.

Speaker 8 (24:44):
The last school west of the Mississippi River to win
the National championship Kansas a few years ago. And also
remember Kansas had an overtime classic against Memphis two thousand eight.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, that was the Derrick Rose m hmm free.

Speaker 8 (25:01):
Throw ending Mario Chalmers sending it. Yes, Yeah, Arizona had
the overtime game nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
I was at that game.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Mile that was the Miles Simon game right.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
Against Yeah, against Kentucky.

Speaker 9 (25:13):
You are correct.

Speaker 8 (25:14):
Also about the Michigan Louisville final. That was twenty thirteen.
Louisville did beat Trey Burke. I looked it up. He
had twenty four points that night. And then, of course
apparently that never happened because of all the problems at Louisville.
It gets vacated. It doesn't make Michigan the champion. So

(25:34):
I guess Bill self is the answer to the trivia
question as far as the Western US. But Michigan, my goodness,
we're in the final seconds here. Mercifully, Michigan is gonna
beat Arizona at the Final four in just a moment.
And Michigan was up sixteen at the half, which is
one of the five largest semi final.

Speaker 9 (25:52):
Leads since nineteen eighty.

Speaker 8 (25:55):
Kansas, when they blew out Dwayne Wade and Marquette over
twenty years ago, had a twenty nine nine point halftime lead.
Kansas on the way to the final two thousand and eight,
was up seventeen at the half against North Carolina.

Speaker 9 (26:07):
This has just gone.

Speaker 8 (26:08):
Final with Michigan eliminating Arizona, even though All American Yakxel
Lendeborg with the knee and the ankle problems and the
two early fouls, barely played in this game. Eleven points
in fourteen minutes for him final Wolverine's ninety one seventy three.
Arizona was in the Final four for the first time
in twenty five years.

Speaker 9 (26:28):
Illinois was in the Final four.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
We'll be back. We'll be back. Put that in your update.

Speaker 9 (26:35):
We only put facts in the update.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Put that in your update.

Speaker 9 (26:39):
Illinois was in the Final four for the.

Speaker 8 (26:40):
First time in over twenty years, and it was a
short stay. Thirty four percent shooting for the Eliina. Connecticut
shoots thirty five percent and wins seventy one sixty two.
So Illinois's fewest points in a game over the last
three seasons are all matchups. Again, it's Yukon sixty two

(27:02):
in tonight's game. They scored sixty one early in the season,
losing in a neutral court against Yukon and a couple
of years ago when Connecticut ripped him in a regional final.
Illinois had fifty two on that night. Championship is Monday
night Women's title game Sunday. In the NBA regular season
ends April twelfth. The Lakers Austin Reeves could miss four

(27:24):
to six weeks, reportedly with an oblique entry two, and
teammate Lukadancic is out with a Grade two hamstring strain.
Detroit one tonight at Philadelphia to clinch the one seed
in the East. Miami won fifty two to one thirty
six over Washington. Wizard's record now seventeen and sixty. The
Spurs had won eleven straight but lost in overtime. Today

(27:45):
at Denver, won thirty six one thirty four forty points
for Nicolo Jokic. Nuggets have won eight in a row.
Among those into the Basketball Hall of Fame today coaches
Doc Rivers and Mark Few among the fifteen NHL contest
Pittsburgh nine to four winner over Florida, which has been
eliminated from playoff consideration. The LA Kings won in overtime

(28:06):
seven to six against Toronto for LA a record thirty
first game to go to overtime this season. Major League Soccer.
Miami opening a new stadium tonight, tied Austin to two,
Lionel Messi with an early goal. As for late night baseball,
the Mets are just won nine to nothing at the Giants.
That is a final. So now just the game in
Anaheim is still going. Bottom of the seventh. The Angels

(28:28):
are actually leading one nothing over the Seattle Mariners. Cubs
at Cleveland rained out doubleheader on Sunday wins for Arizona
and Philadelphia. Yankees got three in the bottom of the
eighth to beat Miami nine to seven. Dodgers won ten
to five at Washington, but Mookie Betts of La left
early with a sore back.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
We are live in the Fox Sports radio studios.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
We do have a final. As I'm looking at Michigan
players talking and now Dusty May talking, I don't know
what to say, Arnie. It just uh, I mean, everything
Michigan did work tonight, but they just looked like a
far better team to me on the floor. I don't know,
if you play this ten times, if you have one

(29:12):
of those discussions where it's like, well, maybe Michigan just
looks like a terrible matchup for Arizona, maybe just a
terrible matchup for anybody.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
My first question is, and I'm sorry because we were
doing the show, so I didn't get to watch the
whole game at the end. Did the Fab five get
into the game? Was the way they're cheering and giving
them props? Did they score? Did I did I miss something? Jason?
Did they actually get into the game? Is I'm starting
to get sick with the whole Fab five. Let's show that.

(29:39):
Let's give them props, I you know, because that was
one hundred years ago.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Did they play today? Go back to ninety two? Go YouTube?
Can we get them YouTube to ninety two final? That'll
make you feel.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
Better, just you know, come on, now, you're taking away
from these guys, is what you're doing, Mike. More people
worried about the Fab Five then these guys had played
in the championship. So I'm a little shocked at that,
to be honest, I.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Mean, weirdly enough, a lot of people actually remember that
these guys played at Michigan. These guys that are playing
right now, you're not really gonna remember very much because
they had a cup of coffee at Michigan, put on
a Jersey.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
College sports has changed a lot.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
You're one hundred percent right. People remember the whole Fab five,
but they won't remember this team. But unfortunately, this is
one of the best teams they could have probably given
the Fab Five a good run for the money.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
To be honest, Yeah, I mean, who knows what any
of these guys doing the pros. We'll find out, But
like in terms of just household names, like there was
this really tall guy that played there, Zach heat know,
that was Purdue. That was a couple of years ago.
He lost in the final. Like it's just it's just weird,
you know, Dusty May his whole team, Like there was

(30:55):
just a time when college basketball you just knew these rosters.
And it's just worse some wor some worse. Now he's
just transfers and everything.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Yeah, but is it gonna be worse and worse and worse?
Where now kids are fighting to get back in the college,
to get that fifth year, sixth year, seventh year.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
But it's transfer. But the problem is they just transfer,
They just go to the other school where they can
get more money there or a different opportunity there. I mean,
Lindenborg was a UAB last year you can't fault him
for one to go somewhere better than that. But he's
twenty three years old, and you know, he goes to
Michigan for this final year and well he's really good
and now he's on a great team with a bunch

(31:33):
of other talented people, so he can really show out
even more so than that. But like, nobody's gonna say
Lindenborg bleeds Michigan blue or something like that because he
just got there, Like he hasn't played his whole career there.
This might just be old man or semi old man
yelling at the clouds, but that's just kind of how
it feels to me. It's just it's just not how

(31:55):
it was. It's never going to be that way again,
and that's just kind of unfortunate at this point. Yeah,
you really are just rooting for the name on the
front of the jersey, which.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
Is what it's always been about college. By the way,
the line is out, according to we got a tweet
from Viva las Vicki put out the line that the
total is one forty four and a half.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
See, I would have thought it had been in the seven.
I'll just say this before you say it. I think
it'd be seven or eight.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
And figure you're good. You're right there, Michigan seven and
a half.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
See that's okay. See when you said five and a half,
I thought it had to have been a little bigger
than that.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
But it sounds a little large to me. I bet
you you cod money comes in. Well, no, I take
that back. I was gonna say, I bet you co
money comes in right away. I shouldn't be so sure
about that. Well, we'll see what happens, because once they
put us post those lines, it moves immediately. So we'll
see what happens.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
So we have not talked about maybe the biggest story
in college basketball isn't a team that's playing right now.
It's a job that is open right now in Chapel
Hill and what is going to happen there. We know
what Tommy Lloyd is gonna do. He's gonna stay at Arizona,
right But you and c from what we've heard, they
haven't really done much else, which tells you something about

(33:11):
the coaches that are still involved here tonight and the
ones that are involved on Monday. Might one of them
be the real target? We'll discuss that. On the other side,
we may have to push the Greg McElroy story, but
we're gonna get there because Greg McElroy has decided that
the moon landings are not real. I was like, what

(33:36):
was it April first? On his showdown in Birmingham.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
Even though it was Friday, it was April He cap
for Corny one or something.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
You know, he believed that this week happened, but he
did not believe it happened at any other time. So
maybe we'll jump into that a little bit later on,
but we'll go to Chapelhill and find out what's happening
with that job. On the flip side, we still got
Yukon and Illinois to break down on the first game tonight.
And hey, nice to see an actual host in the

(34:05):
chair in the studio or I guess live in Indy.
It's nice to have Ernie Johnson. There is there's a
skill set that goes with that job that it seems
like had been forgotten at times during this tournament. We'll
discuss all that when we come back. He's Arney Spaniard.
I'm Jason Martin live for the Fox Sports Radio studios.

(34:28):
We have a championship game. It'll be Michigan and Connecticut.
Michigan ninety one seventy three over Arizona was not that close,
and Connecticut outlasts and Illinois comeback to win by nine.
U n C. North Carolina Chapel Hill does not have
a head coach right now, Arnie Spanier. Yeah, but we

(34:51):
expect it's gonna happen soon because the transfer portal opens
on the twelfth. I believe it. I believe it is
Tommy Lloyd. They're extending him at Arizona. He's gonna stay
put there. He actually put that to bed in advance
of the Final four game, so it was not really
that any kind of a distraction by the time they

(35:12):
got to the game, but almost kind of wish that
he had left it out there, because then you might
have an excuse for what happened tonight. But unfortunately the
excuse was just Michigan was far superior in this game.
But you've still got Danny Hurley, right, and you've got
Dusty May I think Ward Manual. According to a few
different reports, they're open to extending him and then Dan Hurley.

(35:34):
Let's say he wins Monday. I mean, that's gonna be
quite the challenge against this Michigan team. But that'd be
three to four years. Like, I don't know why you'd leave.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
I don't think. Look, I don't think Dan Hurley's going
to leave. He didn't take the Waker job. If he
was ever going to leave, I think the Waker job
would have been it. He's comfortable. I think he's gonna
be at Yukon for a wife, so you can forget
about that. You know a year about Billy Donovan. They
can't talk to him until the twelfth, so I think
that's gonna be out in their timeframe. I think that
hurts them. I don't think does. He may will leave Michigan,

(36:05):
especially for the fact that they're gonna be in the
championship game now. I think he's gonna be happy there
for a long long time. Bobby used this to get
a contract extension and all kinds of extra money, So
I think they're gonna have to start fresh. You have
to start the.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
I'm sorry the twelve when I said the twelfth, Yeah,
you were talking about Donovan's Tuesday. The transfer a Portland open,
so like they really need somebody in place where they're
gonna fall behind relatively quickly. I don't know that they
can get that done because I don't think Dusty May
is gonna leave. I think he could use it to
get a get more money, right because we've seen that before.

(36:43):
Of course, you know Tommy Thelwitz getting any getting an extension.
Dan Hurley, I just I think he's kind of, you know,
in maybe the best place in college basketball right now,
one of them. I understand what the Carolina job is.
I grew up in that area. I grew up in
North Carolina, and so I get it, but it's not
quite the same as it once was, like you kind

(37:03):
of have to bring it back. It sort of reminds me.
I think I made the comparison of Michigan before hardball,
but I think Oklahoma is another good comparison because Oklahoma football,
it's just they've just always been synonymous with winning for
such a long period of time. But then they did
have a drop off and they kind of had to
fight their way back to get towards the top after

(37:27):
Bob Stoops left, it hasn't been quite as easy. And
then they get Lincoln Riley, they get close, but they
can't win a championship. And then of course they've got
bread ventables. Right now, Carolina now post Roy Williams still
trying to find the sauce. Hubert got to the championship
game that first year, but that was not a good
North Carolina team. That was a team that got hot
in the tournament and ended up getting to the title

(37:49):
game and losing on that classic Shaw may or that
classic Jenkins three for Villanova. But like the Carolina job,
is it gonna be better than the Michigan job? I
don't think so, because I think the Big Ten is
where you want to be right now in college.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
You may know the new coach better than anybody else,
even though he's not in Vanderbilt anymore. But yeah, talking
about Jerry Stackhouse, who's part of the North Carolina family.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Well, no, I mean Jerry Stackhouse was kind of a
failure at Vanderbilt.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
Yeah, but he's part of the North Carolina family and
five Yeah, he's.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Definitely part of the fam. But I mean he's not
at Vanderbilt now, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Right, No, I understand, but he's coaching Toronto and Memphis
and Golden State and five years in Vanderbilt. He's gently
got the you know, coaching chopped for it, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah. I mean if he's in the mix and Carolina's
in trouble. He was seventy and ninety two at Vanderbilt
in five years, Jeff Goodman, I'm looking at his stat
right now. He was twenty eight and sixty in the SEC.
Like this Vanderbilt team this year was ranked most of
the year, didn't that point?

Speaker 4 (39:03):
I don't know, you know better than we do.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
I mean, they've gone through the NCAA Tourney both years
after he left. They had Kevin Stallings prior, and Kevin
Stallings was a guy who had the team there more
often than not despite his personality. But like Stackhouse, to me,
Carolina needs, they need a big swing and a big win.

(39:27):
And I'm not sure stack House is at in twenty
twenty six. If I'm a Carolina fan, I'm not so
sure because I don't see the track record as a
head coach for him. But I you know, I mean,
they're gonna have to hire somebody, and if they're trying
to get one of these big names out of one
of these big programs, they can't really offer anymore that
much more than what these guys have. And the best

(39:49):
thing that they can happen for a lot of these
guys that they realize that is they'll use U n
C as leverage to get hired, to get more money
where they're already happy. So you know, I don't know,
like is Mark for you out there? Is he Is
it now the time to try and poach him from Gonzaga?
You know, I don't know that he would leave either,
even though I don't think Gonzaga is ever gonna be
what it once was. But I think it's gonna be

(40:11):
fascinating to see what happens with the UNC job. But
we know Tommy Lloyd is not going there, and then
Tommy Lloyd is also not going to the championship game.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
I hate to say that, Arnie, we'll come back.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
We'll recap the first game we haven't gotten to talk
about that much, and start previewing Monday nights championship game.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Live for the Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
I'm Jason Martin. He is Arnie Spanier. Aeron Torres is
live at the Final four. We'll check in with him
in the third hour. I was watching the highlights of
the victorious Yukon Huskies defeating Illinois in the first game
earlier tonight, which felt like it was played like seven
hours ago because of the full Chainsmokers concert we got
between the two games, right right, But you know, I

(40:57):
was watching that and I was thinking, I know they
wouldn't field this way, but I'm wonder if.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
It's anybody on that on that Connecticut team.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
It's just like, man, I do not really want us
to I don't want the embarrassment of what might happen
to us Monday night. Like that's how good Michigan looked. Obviously,
Connecticut is a different animal than Arizona, to totally different team.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
They're built there shots, yes, yes, that is true.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Like again, all indicators tell you Michigan is going to
win and Monday is not going to be all that
interesting either. But I don't know, Like Connecticut is a
pretty scrappy, tough team, uh, And I mean they have
the they have the kind of DNA of Danny Early
And he kind of said that after the game, he said,

(41:42):
you know, we're fighters. We're not just showing up to
throw the ball around. You know, we were there for
a fight. We want to prolong our season, we want
to go win a championship. And he's going to have them.
He's going to have them mentally like prepared to go
out for a war. I just don't know that they
have the horses to beat Michigan. And if look now,
if Lindenborg is hampered and is not able to go

(42:06):
or is in any way, you know, not close to
one hundred percent or something like that, then that changes things.
And the guard play is going to be far different
between Yukon and what Arizona put out there, especially with
Burry's being off and then Bradley getting early fouls and
just not being able to stay on the floor, so

(42:27):
he never had his imprint on the game. But Cadota,
I don't think he's going to be able to run
quite as wild against Yukon's guards on the outside. And
the Yukon team likes to take distant shots, and that's
the one thing Michigan will give you, So if they're
making those shots, that could make it a little bit
more interesting as well.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
That was another thing for Arizona.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
I think they were twenty nine, if seventy one or
something like that from the field in the game. The
stats were very, very ugly. They only had five assists
in the entire basketball game. Like just an incredible performance by.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Me just on the win that Arizona had over Connecticut.
Reid and Mullins I don't think played in that game,
so you know, it's a whole different situation. Obviously, Yes,
if they go ahead and play in that one, Connecticut
will not go ahead and be in a close game
if they shoot one for eighteen from three point range

(43:20):
like they did for Duke before coming alive, because if
they go one for eighteen from three point range, there'll
be no comeback. They'll be so far buried like Michigan
did the Arizona There'll be a twenty seven point game,
and hitting three or four three pointers at the end
of the game is not going to mount the comeback.
So obviously they can't get to that type of starter

(43:42):
hit that type of three pointer. I do think it's
going to be Michigan. I think Michigan is just too
strong and too tough. Even with the with the injuries,
I still think I would lay the seven and a half,
probably go with the other because Michigan will push the
pace a lot.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Arizona never led in this game.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Nope, this the team hadn't lost Arnie since Valentine's Day yep.
And I want to say their biggest deficit of the
entire season was seven points and that was at halftime deficit.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
And they were done by ten or twelve in a game,
but at halftime it was seven.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, so twenty two assists of five in favor of Michigan.
Right in this game, Arizona had the rebounding advantage. I think,
probably largely a lot of garbage rebounds in the second
half three points twelve to twenty seven for Michigan six
of seventeen, so they made twice as many threes. Now
they took ten more, but they could. And then just

(44:42):
from field goals, Arizona I gave them too much credit.
They were twenty six of seventy one from the field,
Michigan thirty three of sixty nine, so just about fifty
percent for the Wolverines. I mean, this was supposed to
be the heavyweight fight of one seeds, and one team
clearly looked like a one any other one. I'm not
saying they got exposed and this is just who they were,

(45:02):
but this was very It was as dominant as you're
gonna see. Quite Frank, I'm one really good Arizona team.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
I'm wondering who's going to come back for Arizona. I mean,
we know that Bradley's a senior, so he has gone,
but there's a lot of other questions. Waka is also
a senior.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
But I can see Burry's coming back because there's some
things in his game that this may have exposed.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Or would you see now, if you're a top fifteen
pick in the NBA draft, then do you really should
you come back? I would probably say no. Now, Pete
Cola Pete's another story. He had dropped before the season.
He was gonna reject it, be a top ten. Now
you're looking at the bottom half of the first round.

(45:47):
Safe me with Mo Creevas, he's like a last pick
in the first round. But if he comes back, he
could maybe be a top ten pick. So maybe Cola
Pete comes back, Mo Creevas comes back, Vodkarte Jenkoff comes back.
That's a pretty good three. I don't think Brandon Burry's
comes back at when it's all said and done.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Yeah, he may not. I mean again, you're right. I mean,
if he's a lottery pick or close to a lottery pick,
if this doesn't hurt him in terms of what they
project him to be, right, then I mean, how much
better are you going to improve yourself at that point
in time. But you look at you talk about Pete
like he I don't next year, is he going to
develop a jumper? Is he going to develop a shot?

(46:31):
Because that's kind of the knock on him for the
most part is he doesn't have a mid range jump shot.
He doesn't have some of those skills in his bag,
and so when he runs up against size on the inside,
he can get banged around. And that's pretty much exactly
what you saw against Michigan. He had nothing to offer
essentially in that game offensively for Arizona. So there's still

(46:54):
some holes there. But I don't know that you learn
a jump shot coming back for a year.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
He's been around the bucket. He has a little you know,
a little jumper within the in the lane, and he's
you know, he has to work on a three point shot?
Is what would he really has to work on. To
be honest with you, I think he ends up coming
back when it's all said and done. He has his
family has a lot of athletes in it. Matter of fact,
his brother plays in the NFL. I don't think, you know,

(47:21):
he's driven by money. He could make fine at the
University of Arizona. I think he comes back for another year,
considering we have two great guys coming in also.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah, and again if it helps that your coach is
going to stick around, you know, Tommy Lloyd's sticking around,
Like do you feel like you.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Have unfinished business that you can.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Actually still attain next year?

Speaker 5 (47:44):
Right? Right?

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Based on the guys that you just mentioned that are
coming in, and if if all those guys talk to
each other, right and they kind of see where they
are in the NBA. But it's just like, well, we
can come back. We're gonna make money here as well,
and you know we're not exactly top of the first
round material or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
What's it going to hurt to come back for another year?

Speaker 2 (48:05):
You know? Now it's an easier decision to make to
stay if you are mid to late first round, because
you're still going to be able to make money on campus.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
So they can plays badly win the transfer portal too.
I think they're looking at the kid from Colorado who
a lot of people want. So there's a lot of
names out there. Arizona won't be lacking for Tallent. I
just don't know if Cola Pete's gonna want to come
back considering he's going to be a first round pick.
He had a great game against Florida, but that was
the first game he had a middle stretch there that

(48:36):
he was just average. He played okay in the tournament.
I think you could use another year coming back, to
be honest.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah, I mean I think that that's that statement is
probably true for a lot of guys that end up going.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
Well the top five picks, and it's just draft they're
all going to be phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Yes, well, I mean they should, they should be somebody probably.
I mean, chances are they won't all hit, but just
on talent, you would think so. I'm still I gotta say, man,
I'm still worried about Peterson. I'm a little bit worried
about Peterson just with everything happened during the course of

(49:13):
the season and even just how ball dominant he feels
like he has to be at all times. It seems
like he just wanted to hold onto the ball forever
rather than get other guys involved. In a lot of plays,
I saw just Kansas players waiting for him to do something.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
So I think the Bands. I think the Bands is
the next thing. I think Bryant. I love him so
he would probably be my first pick. To be honest
with you, I've got questions about Boozer. I think half
his points this year come from being bully ball, and
you're not going to play bully ball in the NBA.
That's not going to work. So I'm wondering how he's

(49:53):
going to be compared to, you know, some of the
other guys. But I like the bands from BYU. He
my favorite. Yeah, he would. He would be my number
one pick. I love a cuff from Arkansas, I mean,
a score, just everything, so give me him. I love
Caleb Wilson, I do like Peterson. He would certainly be

(50:15):
in my top five. And you know the kid from Illinois, Waggler.
I don't know if i'd have him in my top
six or seven. I looked up at one mock draft.
They had Brayden Burry's the number seventh pick.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yeah, man, that's true. Then there's no reason for him
to come back off.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
Right, right. So that's that's why I'm thinking he he'll
end up going to the NBA. That's I mean, look,
I would love for him to come back, but when
you're as high as the seventh pick they had Yax,
so Lennenborg going in with the sixteenth pick to give
you perspective, you know, and who's going to be ware?

(50:52):
So again, I think Burds is gone and I think
CoA Pete As I look now, they had Mo Creevas
of Coo beat and they didn't have Coopete until number
twenty five to the New York Knicks.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
So considering, you know, last year you had the all
blue Blood Final four and then this year Star Studied
Final Four, a lot of future NBA players playing amongst
these four teams.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Obviously, does this come across.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
As you look back on it, Arnie? Is it kind
of a disappointing night overall? And I know it's kind
of hard for you because you're so close to the
Arizona side, but taking that out of the equation, just
as a sports fan, these two games kind of leave
you wanting a little bit or do you? Yeah, of
course satisfied. I'm I'm I'm a little disappointed with what
we got.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Oh well, you could be more than a little disappointed. Yeah,
it's disappointing you. You want to get close games, you
want to get buzzer beaters. I mean, after what we saw,
would you kind of Duke, you wanted more of the same.
I think people kind of built up the Arizona Michigan
won a little bit more than obviously this should have
been on the final Yeah right, I mean, yeah, we're disappointed,

(52:02):
but it's still you know, it's still been a pretty
good tournament. You got the big names in there. Unfortunately
Duke wasn't able to make it to the to the
final four, but just still had four good teams, So
I think it was pretty good. I understand the disappointment
of not having a close game, but not every game
could be close.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, that's true, and you're gonna get blowouts from Tom
and Tom again. For some reason, I kind of thought
this might happen, and it certainly did. I mean it really,
you know, at one point, Michigan was up thirty in
this game. They don't win it by thirty, but you know,
those last handful of minutes they had pulled everybody out
of the game, and it just kind of was what
it was. I mean, at one point, you know, Arizona

(52:43):
had a chance to cut it to fifteen and blew
Analey you dunked. There were a couple of occasions. I
think the difference between the two games. At least for me,
was that in that first game, even as Illinois got
it down to four, right, there was really never a
moment where I thought they were gonna win. I was
just irritated with Connecticut for letting them make it close,

(53:06):
because it just felt like, well, Connecticut is a better
team between these two, and with due respect to Illinois,
I don't want to see them win this game at
this point because I just don't want to see whatever
that matchup is going to look like on Monday. I
think Yukon deserves to win this game, but like Illinois
was pesky enough, Like credit to them for that, but

(53:26):
that game was not particularly dramatic or interesting because even
as close as it got, it didn't feel like Connecticut
was really threatened.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
I would agree with you on that one. Yeah, they
did cut it the four, but I think they came
right back hit a three pointer. The league did get
back down the five at one point, but then it
got back up and then they pulled away after that.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
So yeah, I was.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
Never really worried that Illinois was going to win the game,
but you never know when they were gonna have like
those fantastic finishes, like yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Well look Connecticut coming back against Duke, and you know,
we've seen in this tournament twenty point leads not hold
multiple times, so I mean, obviously, and yeah, one.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
Of them looking for a coach.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, So, I mean, those kinds of things
can happen, but it just you never felt that way
like it was early on. Connecticut had it, it was
eighteen to nine, and then Illinois got on one of
the two kind of runs that they had in this game.
They had one there in the first half to take
a twenty two to twenty one lead, and they had

(54:33):
one in the second half. But even when they took
the lead, I still was waiting for the other shoot
to drop, and it did. Connecticut was just more complete.
They were able to do kind of what they wanted.
They were able to hit the glass more consistently, and
they made their shots and Illinois missed a lot of shots. Now,
both of those two teams played pretty good defense, so
it was more of a rock fight than what you

(54:55):
were anticipating in the in the second game, where you
thought it was going to be high flying and up
and down. I think Arizona would have liked to have
slowed the pace down and Michigan just wouldn't let it.
It wouldn't allow it. Like when Michigan got out started
running Arizona. Just I just don't think that they even
when they had their foot on the gas pedal Arny,
I just don't think they wanted to play the way

(55:17):
Michigan forced them to play.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
No, I agree with your one hundred percent. You know,
I thought that maybe the fast pace would have hurt Arizona.
They did want to slow it down a little bit,
and unfortunately that just never happened. It just it never
got to that point. Arizona did have it down to
nine and missed a couple of shots. But when you're
down by thirty points, you were you're never you know,

(55:41):
you can't just look at one little thing like that,
You're you're pretty much done. And that's what happened in
this one. It was just too fast for Arizona. Plus
Bradley with the fouls, it just added up to a disaster.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
We'll predict it in the final segment of the show
that'll be at the end of next hour. We'll also
have Yukon Alum Aaron whereas who we know on this
show quite frequently as he is the regular co host
with me on this program. He'll call us from Indianapolis
and tell us what he feels about what he saw
and what the general consensus among the media was, especially

(56:14):
after that second game, how it all played out. But
I don't know if you know this, but Yukon is
playing for the championship on Monday. But they're not going
to be playing for the championship in women's basketball. But
they're still the story of women's basketball because of Gino
Rima's act.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
We'll jump into that on the other side.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
By the way, be sure to subscribe to the Fox
Sports Radio YouTube channel.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
You'll see our best videos from all of our shows,
and you don't have to stop there. Hit the thumbs
up icon comment let us know whose takes you like
and even whose takes you don't like. Plank will be
okay if you don't like his takes. I'm trying to
be nice to Arnie tonight. I mean, what happened to
Arizona folks. We usually would have said whose takes you
don't like? Obviously at stinking genius one, but no, just

(57:06):
search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and subscribe. We'll talk
Geno versus Dawn when we come back here Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 3 (57:28):
We're live in the Fox Sports Radio studios.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
He is Arnie Spanier. I'm Jason Martin.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
He's at Stinking Genius One.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I'm at JMAR Radio. During a break just because the
TBS coverage finally ended there showing like a sneak of
the Anthony Davis version of Impractical Jokers or Honked or
whatever like that, and right now he is playing a
practical joke on Jared Vanderbilt with help from DiAngelo Russell.

(57:57):
Oh really, it's actually pretty good.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Why wasn't this on CBS? Why didn't they have the
game on CBS?

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Well, I think it's on multiple networks. I can't see
CBS because there's a contract dispute between Mike and Michael
and Scripts, so like all of the Scripts channels are gone,
so luckily I don't know if it's on TBS or
not quite frankly, but like the title game last year
I think was on TBS, so like they seem to

(58:23):
be running everything on TBS. Now that's that's where we've
gotten to. Where is the Women's Championship going to be ESPN?
I assume ABC Sunday Afternoon joint.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
I think it's ESPN, but I'm not sure I could
look that up for you real quick though.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
But so it's gonna be yukon against.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
Who await on both, y lb on both. If you
if you had money on either the men or the
women making the championship game in college basketball this year,
the bet would have been the women, not the men.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
But it's going to be South Carolina and UCLA.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Arnie and I think South Carolina's like a three point favorite,
three and a half point favorite, whatever. But it was
the meeting between Geno Arima and Dawn Staley after the
game that got all the talk. And now look, Gino
has now apologized, yeah to South Carolina. I'll read this
statement here in a minute. But so South Carolina beats

(59:27):
Connecticut and it wasn't It was sixty two to forty eight,
and then it just became a shouting match kind of
instigated by Arima and Stayley's sort of halfway being held
back or whatever. It got kind of ugly and then
Gino had some words I think afterwards, like with Holly
Row on the sidelines or like it got way out

(59:48):
of hand. And then the post game wasn't good either,
and so Gino's now apologized. But what did you make
of this in the moment, Like are you a big
time Gino? Guys? It's just on this is just kind
of expected to agree.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
I think these coaches have gotten out of hand, whether
it's Gino or it's you know, the hurly Bobby Danny whoever,
a lot of these coaches get out of hand on
the sideline, you know. Steve kerr One said I would
never talk to a person in public like I do
a referee. I would never ever talk to a person

(01:00:24):
like that, you know what I mean. But yeah, yeah,
you know, we're just we're just wide open to that.
What I thought this was was Gino taken away from
a good victory from South Carolina and maybe trying to
take away some deflection from.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
His own team.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
I thought he was out of wine, especially that he
had to wait three seconds for some stupid minutes, three minutes,
three minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Excuse me, there's a pregame handshake between coaches.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
I don't even know if that's wait three minutes, she
didn't come out there, Okay, big deal, you know what?
And he made us think about it. He should have
apologized her. He didn't use her by name.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
So yeah, see, I was gonna make that point. But
before we do it, let's set the stage in case
people didn't hear it. At least we can. We have
some of the audio from what was going on there.
So here is Geno in a rant that he has
now apologized for. Let's hear from Coach Arima on the
eve of the incident that did not go very well

(01:01:23):
for him.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Well, coach, a kind of wild turn of events.

Speaker 10 (01:01:26):
Sarah Strong's jersey is split right down the middle.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
I saw you speaking to the reps about it.

Speaker 10 (01:01:30):
What the message did you try to convey here?

Speaker 5 (01:01:33):
Right?

Speaker 11 (01:01:33):
There were six founds called that quarter, all of them
against us, and they've been beating it out of our
guys down there the entire game. I'm not making excuses
because we haven't been able to make a shot, but
this is ridiculous. Their coach rants and raves on the
sideline and calls the referee some names you don't want
to hear. And now we get six to zero, and
I got a kid with a rip jersey and they go,

(01:01:55):
I didn't see it. Come on, man, it's for the
national championship.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
So I get that he's passionate right there, right, but
in the moment, he also just loses his head and
starts like issuing public dirty laundry. Basically that Dawn Staley
uses some foul language towards referees, which I guess would
make her like I don't know virtually every other basketball coach.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
Breaking news coach doesn't like officiating. Yeah I ever heard
that before? Oh my good.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Yeah, I don't think all of them. I don't think
all of them watched their tongues either. I have a
feeling that that's not not out of bounds for coaching.
There and then just you know, drops the S bomb too.
And this is just a sideline interview with Holly Road
during the game. Like I get that he's like his
point about the fowls would have been made better if

(01:02:45):
he had just left on stay out of it, Like
there was no that didn't enhance the point at all.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
So but he was frustrated. He took it out on her.
He was frustrated after the game. During the game. As
team wasn't making shots that agree eight chance to go
and win the championship, it didn't happen. I'm sure they
wanted to go as far as the men's team. That
didn't happen, and Gino was was out of hand. That's

(01:03:12):
there's really nothing you could say or you know, defend him.
He was just out of hand. And I'm glad he apologized,
but he should have done a better job of apologizing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
So the one that he should have apologized to, he
never called by name. And I wanted a statement to
you in a moment. But here is what Dawn Staley
had to say when she was asked about the altercation
with Gino ari Ema the end of the game. What's
wrong on the sideline right now?

Speaker 10 (01:03:37):
I have no idea, but I'm gonna let you know this.
I'm of integrity. I'm of integrity. So if I did
something wrong to Gino, I had no idea what I did.
I guess he thought I didn't shake his hand at
the beginning of the game.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
I didn't know.

Speaker 10 (01:03:53):
I went down there at pregame shook everybody on his
staff's hand.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I don't know why he came.

Speaker 10 (01:03:58):
After the game, but hey, so times get heated.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
We move on. Honestly, pretty good from her.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
Right, she took everybody's hand, So where was he? I mean,
you know, making this stuff up to be honest, Well,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
I will say that the three minute thing, like her
reaction to is like I guess he said, I didn't
shake his hand, like if it was some kind of
just automatic accepted rule. The way she said it seemed
like she didn't know the rule, like she was just
like yeah, I mean I went down up and down
his you know, his staff line and shook all their
hands and stuff like that. Maybe I missed him, but

(01:04:34):
apparently like whatever he thought was supposed to happen and
said was a regular thing, maybe it wasn't such a
regular thing. But even if it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
Was, like get over Gino, dude, get over yeah, like
get over some stupid handshake before the game. But yet
you're complaining about the officiating dropping s bombs on TV.
Just he's just looking for a reason. And like I said,
these coaches have gotten out of hand. You would never
say is stuff like that. They're a normal person that

(01:05:03):
you do with referees. They they've treated referees like garbage
and I don't think I could ever go ahead and
you know, do a job like that. You should, I
think you'd be good. I think you should be a
replacement NFL ref this year. Make yourself somebody on the
side there, Jason.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Dude, they're making like three hundred and fifty a year.
A yeah, I saw the NFL officials and make a
three hundred and fifty g a year, and a lot
of them their day jobs are like attorneys like Gino
Jean Stereotor.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Yeah, this attorney was a licensed attorney.

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
And hockey well attorney. Yeah he was.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, Like I mean that these dudes
have solid day jobs. One of the guys in my congregation,
as a matter of fact, today college referee.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
What I don't erstand just real quick on that is
they're going to take the college refs and try to
move them up. But anybody who's in a Power five
conference will not, you know, cross the line or hurt
their integrity, and then they're gonna have to look outside
of college to regular people. I'm surprised they don't look
at If you're looking for regular job odd people, you
should really look at talk show hosts. To watch a

(01:06:03):
lot of sporting events, and I'm a lot of football
and probably know the rules better than a lot of
other people.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Yeah, so one other point then we'll get to do
Yeah to Steve for all the latest in sports. The
uh just here's how it sounded at the end, because
those were the two things that were happening in game.
Now at the end, we have kind of the call
as it was happening on the floor when the altercation happened.
Let's let's hear that as well. Be one final in

(01:06:32):
down here the officials will hold the players. Now, Don
and Gino getting into it a little bit on the
sideline as Gino has to.

Speaker 5 (01:06:41):
Be held back and Don and Gino that's part of
what makes this rivalry.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Such a compelling one. As they exchanged words of center court,
here's the statement from Gino. There's no excuse for how
I handled the end of the game versus South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (01:07:03):
It's unlike what I do and what our standard is
here at Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
I want to apologize to the staff and the team
at South Carolina was uncalled for and how I reacted.
The story should be how well South Carolina played, and
I don't want my actions to detract from that. I've
had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely
want to apologize to them. End quote. So here's the problem.
It's like he.

Speaker 3 (01:07:25):
Went out of his way not to say Dawn's name exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:07:28):
Like didn't seem that way, of course it does. It
seems like, yeah, still bitter about it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Like he's saying it was a great relationship with their staff.
Who's on the staff the coaches? Yeah, that you're taking
hide And look, there's some things Dawn Staley said through
the years that have really rubbed me the wrong way,
Like she's you know, she's not the most likable human beings. Okay,
but in this case, he's a thousand percent wrong, like

(01:07:53):
in every way. And even in this statement, it's like
he can't It's like he's doing it through gritted teeth
because he can't just say, yeah, I shouldn't have said
that about made him apologize exactly because it had all
the hallmarks of trying to get every note. But at
the same time, he just would not say Don Staley's name,
somebody that Harney Spaniers should apologize to on a frequent

(01:08:14):
basis because of I'm sure the conduct that he puts
forth on Sundays is Steve de Sager. We go to
Steve de.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
Sager right now, who has been harmed for years.

Speaker 9 (01:08:24):
Yeah, Arne would say no harm, no foul.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 8 (01:08:28):
By the way, Don Staley got into the Hall of
Fame again today because the Team USA as a group
from the nineteen ninety six including Olympics, the team was
voted in to the Hall of Fame, which would include
the roster of Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Swoops and Don
Staley and.

Speaker 9 (01:08:46):
The rest that were on that she was already in.

Speaker 8 (01:08:49):
And you asked about the Final Four with the TV,
it's every other year these two networks switch back and forth.
CBS has Final Four in the odd numbered years, it's
on Cable the even numbered years. So I looked it
up a couple years ago when Yukon won the final
against Purdue, was about fifteen million viewers. Last year with
a good game, close game, eighteen million viewers. With the

(01:09:11):
Florida win over Houston. Tonight, we had Yukon and Michigan
advancing to Monday Night's finale.

Speaker 9 (01:09:19):
Now Illinois was.

Speaker 8 (01:09:20):
The loser seventy one sixty two to Yukon, and the
Ilini were in their third Final four since nineteen eighty nine,
first time in over twenty years since they lost the
two thousand and five championship game against the Tar Heels.
Connecticut's Alex Caraban played his one hundred and fiftieth college
game tonight, and Monday night would be his one hundred

(01:09:41):
and fiftieth start for Yukon. And then Michigan ripped Arizona
ninety one to seventy three for a one seed. To
lose that badly in an NCAA tournament game has not
happened since Virginia was upset in the first round twenty
eighteen against UMBC. So Michigan's favored for night. A team

(01:10:02):
from the Big Ten has not won the men's basketball
title since two thousand and There was a great stat
from Associated Press tonight. They looked at a list of
all the programs that have been to the Final four
at least three times in history all time. Best record
in national Semifinals well, Yukon now seven to one in
SEMIS and Michigan now eight and one in semis all time.

(01:10:26):
They will meet on Monday. The women's title game is Sunday,
South Carolina. You may have heard of Dawn Staley goes
up against UCLA South Carolina, just upset Number one Yukon
in the Semis. There were three NBA games tonight, including
a Detroit win at Philadelphia one sixteen to ninety three.
The Pistons clinched the number one seed in the East

(01:10:47):
for the first time in nearly twenty years. Joel Embii
to the Sixers, did not play due to injury management.
He was held out on Wednesday as well, even though
he says he wants to play. Another Lakers injury reported today,
Austin Reeves could miss four to six weeks with an
oblique injury. Grade two teammate Luka Doncic is out with
a Grade two hamstring strain. Steph Curry of Golden State

(01:11:08):
was expected to practice today and return to play tomorrow.
He's missed twenty seven games with the bad knee. The
NBA regular season ends April twelfth. Minnesota's Anthony Edwards is
questionable for Sunday with his knee injury. He's missed seven
of the last nine games. He did play Friday, but
shot three of fifteen from the floor. Among the fifteen
NHL games, LA won in overtime seven to six against

(01:11:31):
Toronto for the La Kings, a record thirty first game
to go to overtime for this year. Montreal had a
shootout one at New Jersey for to three, Tampa Bay
and Carolina each one, Washington six to two over Buffalo,
victories for Colorado and Minnesota, and the Pittsburgh Penguins won
nine to four over Florida that eliminates Florida from playoff

(01:11:51):
consideration in Major League Soccer. Miami, opening its new stadium,
tied Austin two to two Lionel Messi in early goal.
LAFC won six thing against Orlando Dallas, a four nothing
winner at DC. NASCAR's Cup Series is off this Easter
weekend and next weekend. NASCAR's on FS one again from Bristol, Tennessee,
and an amazing finish to the late ballgame in Anaheim.

(01:12:14):
The Angels got a leadoff homer and wound up winning
the game one nothing against Seattle because right fielder Joe
Adell robbed three home runs above the wall during the game,
including one late in the game where he actually went
over the wall and into the stands and held on
to the ball and it counted as an out after

(01:12:35):
video review. Apparently last year. The outfielder that was best
at robbing home runs robbed four for the whole season.
Oh my goodness, Joe Adele robbed three in one game
against the Mariners.

Speaker 9 (01:12:47):
Tonight, back to you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Nice, nice, Thank you, Steve. We will have much more
from Steve Disager coming up in the next segment. One
final point on Gino and Dawn.

Speaker 4 (01:12:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Do you think would have been a dust up at
the end of this game if Connecticut had won it
sixty two to forty eight. I don't think so. I
think she's we have heard about the handshake, right right right.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
I don't think that would have been an issue. He
wouldn't have said anything. I think winning cures all ills.
That's what would have happened in this case. We would
never heard about it at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
No, I would think so, just a bad look all
the way around. I agree, Yeah, just an unfortunate moment. Look,
I don't hate are Emma like I think he's one
of those kind of forces in sports. That's good because
you can root against him, but you also always respect
the teams that he's going to bring out there and
stuff like this. But not one of his better moments
here with the iHeart Radio app. You can stream us

(01:13:44):
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(01:14:05):
pop up at the top of your screen and you
won't miss any of the shows. The iHeart Radio app
is rolling and you can catch all the FSR content
right there for you in the iHeartRadio app. When we
come back, Steve Disager with the segment. I have no
idea how many stats and from what sports they will be,

(01:14:26):
but that's coming to you now. Stay locked in. He's
Aarny Spanier. I'm Jason Martin. This is Fox Sports Saturday.
We're live in the Fox Sports Radio studios. It's Fox
Sports Saturday. He's Ernie Spanier. I am Jason Martin. Final segment,
Hour number two. We go to our good friend, basically

(01:14:47):
the Walking Encyclopedia himself, Steve Disager for the segment, Steve,
What's happening? What do you mean not true? I did well.

Speaker 8 (01:14:55):
I have good research skills, I don't know them all.
I have, you know, file cabinets to look through. But
we did find the video of what we were talking about,
the incredible right field evening in Anaheim tonight. This is
how it sounded on Mariner's TV. Aaron Goldsmith on the
play by play. It's ninth inning, deep fly ball to right.
Mariners are down one nothing in the ninth to the

(01:15:17):
Angels into.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
The corner and shot down, having the night of his life.

Speaker 9 (01:15:29):
That's correct.

Speaker 8 (01:15:30):
He robs a third home run of the evening and
the Angels wind up winning one nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
Truly incredible.

Speaker 8 (01:15:39):
Michigan stopped Arizona at the final four ninety one seventy
three tonight. That means in these last two rounds it's
a martian of victory of fifty one for the Wolverines.
You'd have to go back to the nineteen sixties in
March Madness to have scoring margins this deep into the
tournament for any team in back to back games. So

(01:15:59):
now it's a matchup in the final Monday Night of Yukon,
which has never lost to March Madness Final six to
zero best of anyone, and Michigan, whose mark is the
worst for any team in the National Championship that has
made at least four appearances in the final, one in
six in the championship game for Michigan, and no team

(01:16:20):
has ever lost the NCAA Tournament final seven times. And
I'm glad you mentioned earlier, Jason about the Oklahoma team
nineteen eighty eight that made the final, lost the high
scoring game to Danny Manning in Kansas. That was an
entertaining Oklahoma team, and in fact, they had a record
going into tonight most points scored in the NCAA Tournament

(01:16:43):
going into the finals four to seventy three total. Michigan
has scored four to seventy two this year in the
tournament going into the tisday on that team Oklahoma, though.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
Now that Oklahoma team was Stacy King and Mookie Blaylock.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
Okay, that team was.

Speaker 8 (01:17:02):
I think it was fifty to fifty at halftime in
the final as well. So Arizona loses badly to Michigan,
there's no other way to put it. Even though Michigan's
All American was barely on the floor because of knee
and ankle injuries, Arizona has not had a loss by
this margin in over two years, and it's been almost
two years since they literally never led in a game,

(01:17:25):
and this was a matchup of one seeds in the tournament.
This ties for the largest margin to victory in any
NCAA tournament game between one seeds.

Speaker 4 (01:17:34):
We get it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
We get it, and we.

Speaker 8 (01:17:36):
Had seating for almost fifty years in the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 9 (01:17:41):
It's an incredible result.

Speaker 8 (01:17:42):
I mentioned earlier that Florida in hockey was eliminated from
the postseason with its nine to four loss to Pittsburgh.
This is the team that had won back to back
titles and then will miss the playoffs entirely. Now Statsink said,
that's the only team in the four major sports this
century that's won back to back and then missed the

(01:18:03):
playoffs entirely the following season. And more of note the
Buffalo Sabers due to a different result in the league tonight,
they clinched the spot in the playoffs, so they end
a fourteen year postseason drought, which means the New York
Jets have the longest current non playoff streak in all
of North American pro sports, fifteen straight seasons without going

(01:18:27):
to the playoffs. As for the Basketball Hall of Fame,
the announcement was official today. I mentioned the Women's Committee
voted in the nineteen ninety six US women's team as
a whole and trim. It comes in August. For referee
Joey Crawford. Also in the Hall Mike D'Antoni as a contributor.
Coaches Mark Few and Doc Rivers are in the players

(01:18:48):
Amari Stodemeyer, Candace Parker, Shamiko Holds Claw and Elena Deladon
all Hall of famers as of today. To baseball, one
of the Fox games tonight was going to be Cubs
at Cleveland. It was rained out doubleheader on Sunday. His
game in Kansas City last night reigned out, so they
played two Brewers and Royals split the two. The Dodgers

(01:19:08):
won again in Washington, ten to five, but Mookie Betts
in La left early with a sore back. Freddie Freeman
had four RBIs the win to Tyler Glass. Now nine
strikeouts in six innings, but the Yankees are seven and one.
They got three runs bottom of the eighth to beat
Miami nine to seven. Great start to the year for
gen Carlos Stanton a late two run single tonight, Andy

(01:19:28):
scored on a pass ball the Red Sox. Meanwhile, our
two and six closer Eraldus Chapman gave up a run
in the ninth. Padres three to two to the win
at Fenway Pack and it was Pittsburgh over Baltimore three
to two with a run in the eighth and a
run in the ninth. The Orioles new closer Ryan Helsley
takes the l Mets did not have Juan Soto tonight
out with the strained calf. Nine nothing Mets win at

(01:19:50):
San Francisco Giants had just three hits and three airs.
Atlanta was six and two. Arizona beat him two to
one with two unearned runs in the se and each
team had just four hits in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
Back to you, Thank you, Steve. We'll talk to Steve
again to the third hour. We'll also talk to Aaron
Torres from Indianapolis, get his thoughts on the final four
up close and personal. We'll reset how we got to
Monday Night's championship game when we come back as well.
And uh, well, happy Easter if you're on the East Coast,
as we'll all be celebrating here pretty soon. Third hour

(01:20:24):
of the program is next Welcome back or Welcome in,
depending we are live here in the Fox Sports Radio studios.
Third hour of our program, it's usually Toura's and Martin
Torres is in Indianapolis. Quick as usually is every year,
attend in the Final four, and so we do this show.
I think it was you and I that had Alex
Caravan on a couple of years ago when Connecticut was

(01:20:48):
in the final because.

Speaker 4 (01:20:49):
My twelve years.

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
And Caravan's been there forever.

Speaker 4 (01:20:54):
Can I just read you something that Cavid real Quick
on the Twitter says, just think of Genia zarn. I know,
I don't know your buddy's name, the supposed Jinks, which
is from my for Thurnay days, but it doesn't matter.
You're the Jinx. Why did you take this damn shift?
You know better every time you're on our cat suck.

(01:21:15):
Come on, man, I can't believe you agreed to take
this shift. Yeah. When I used to work on this
shift before you, Arizona would be on like every Saturday
night in football and we would just lose and lose
and lose. So it was like a commonplace that every
time I worked Saturday night, my team would lose. I

(01:21:36):
thought the game would be over. But the game was
over by the time we got on the air, you
know what I mean. So it really didn't make put Jason.

Speaker 2 (01:21:43):
You know, yeah, nothing had changed. You could have left
the stadium and still come and like host it remotely
from Indianapolis by the time that we got on because
we knew what was going down at that point in time. Hey,
look like I said that earlier. Man, if I'm an
Arizona fan right now listening to the broadcast, I'm thinking
to myself, due, why did you do this to us?

(01:22:04):
Because there's got to be some Look, it's all about
assessing blame at this point.

Speaker 4 (01:22:08):
Yes, it really is somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
And if you don't want to give Michigan credit, which
you should, just do that. But if you want something else,
just to help you out, Arnie Spaniard can easily be
the scapegoat. Absolutely shove him off the cliff if need be,
do what you need to do, zone a fan. I
don't think that there is a soul out in California,
and there's certainly not one here in Nashville that would

(01:22:32):
have a problem with you just laying it all at
the feet of Army.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
And the boss said, you know if you don't want to,
I can understand. You want to watch a game. I go, No, no,
I go, the game will be over.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
I go.

Speaker 4 (01:22:42):
What better plays to be then on the air after
Arizona beats Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Of course I want to be said that out loud.
I'd have told me you were going to say that
before the tournament. I would have picked against Arizona.

Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
M I taxed it back to the boss, so he's like, oh, great, Yeah,
I'm glad you're doing it. That's awesome, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:59):
Yeah, I actually thought it because I knew. I knew
Aaron would be off, but I thought to myself, I
was like, I might have somebody completely different or just
asked to do this thing solo, which I've done before, right,
because you might be going with your fraternity buddies. But
I'm glad if if you guys had gone and this
game have played out exactly very mad, how dreadful with

(01:23:21):
that event, it.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
Would have been horrible. It'd be good to get with
the guys. But we don't have to go to that event.
We really will have fun when we get back and
go to Tucson or something like that. But if we
would have gotten the Indianapolis and wasted all that money.
But you see my fraternity brothers, they're rich as now,
so they don't care about.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
Wasting any money.

Speaker 4 (01:23:38):
You know, doesn't bother them. But it would just have
been the hassle of getting the Indianapolis and then being disappointed,
never having you really never cheered. We got down ten
to one and really had nothing to cheer about, even
though it was twenty seven to twenty one. I believe
twenty nine twenty three at one point, but we really
had nothing to cheer about.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
It was just a terrible game from that point on.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
Yeah, you were saying, I mean not coming was a
good idea. I mean that kind of what Arizona chose
to do is.

Speaker 4 (01:24:08):
Just wow, I'm gonna have to take my wife on
a vacation now. So I saved the money from going
to Indianapolis, so I'll take her to Hawaii or something
like that. I'll have to figure that out.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
So Tommy Lloyd agrees to the new deal with Arizona,
the extension there.

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
So you got some good news, Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:24:25):
Tommy Lloyd, that is sticking around.

Speaker 4 (01:24:27):
Goodness.

Speaker 2 (01:24:28):
Ninety one seventy three is the final all the stats
that would matter at the time that they would matter,
were just incredibly in favor of Michigan. I think that
twenty two to five assists number is one that is
going to stick out for a very very long time.
And the other game, Yukon seventy one, Illinois sixty two,

(01:24:48):
and it was about as that's about kind of what
that game played out to be. At times. Illinois pulled
it closer, but it felt like Connecticut was around ten
points better than them, certainly on Saturday night and maybe
just overall as a basketball team, but uh, as a
Final Four experience, it'll be I'll be curious to see
what the numbers look like, because I feel like they

(01:25:08):
have to have dropped off a cliff fairly early in
the second half. Once you realize that the twenty point
comeback that you've seen a few times in this tournament,
this one's not coming. It became maybe an easier early
night for a lot of folks, especially on the East Coast,
as it was getting a little bit later in the
evening thanks to like a ninety minute Chainsmokers. By the way,

(01:25:30):
every time I mentioned it, I add thirty minutes to
the right.

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
I see the three hour concert.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
It ends out how long the show is.

Speaker 4 (01:25:38):
Yeah, I think if you took a vote, most people
were like, come on, man, we don't need this. This
is no not like the Super Bowl. You get the
next game going. It used to be back in the day,
it was twenty minutes after. Yeah, it was final, but
then you know, you have to clear out the stadium
so you can get the you know, the two teams
that are playing, so you get the crowds down low

(01:25:58):
and everybody getting all excited. But it'd be about twenty
twenty five minutes and then you'd start the next game up.
They changed out somehow. I don't know when that changed
me out.

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:07):
I mean, now we're playing these gigantic buildings and stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
I mean we used to play in like the Kemper
Arena and like smaller venues for the Championship. Not bad venues,
but just you know, twenty thousand seed arenas and stuff,
and now you're playing in giant football stadiums. Everything changes.
So maybe the logistics are tougher, but it seems like
we should be getting more efficient, not less efficient, when
we're doing things like this, and our attention spans in

(01:26:33):
this society have never been worse thanks to YouTube and
social media and scrolling and everything that we interact with
and all this kind of stuff. So subjecting us to
that during the break between the two games, I wonder
if people were just like, you know what, I think,
I'm done, and you know what.

Speaker 4 (01:26:50):
Jasan New was a guy in Arizona fam who went
with a buddy to put up pictures of his seats.
You know, at the game. It was so far up.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
Yeah, anything.

Speaker 4 (01:27:03):
I thought it was a joke to begin with, and
then I coicked on the picture, you know, and you
know how you do with the iPhone. You have to
take your fingers and make it bigger, and make it bigger.
I'm like, no, he's really that high up. I go.
I could never And it was like on the side
of the basket. You're not even in center court. I go,
that's horrible. I go, you can't even see. They look

(01:27:26):
like ants. I go, you know, with all the great
TVs we all have now fifty sixty seventy one hundred
inch you know, high depth, this deaf clear color, it's
not even worth it. I mean, my goodness, those I
would have been horrible. And that was Those seats were
like four hundred dollars. It was ridiculous how far up
he was. That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
Yeah, I mean, look like in a football stadium, you
have to think the dimensions of a basketball court, right,
there's some just seats in there that are absolutely atrocious,
that are not worth anything at all, just so like
the only reason you do it is just so you
can be there, right, Like you don't even see it.
You're either watching on the screen that's hanging from the ceiling.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
Yes, right, right right, or.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
Like or you just kind of give up on it.
And it's like you went to the concert and somebody
stood up the entire time, and so you just had
to listen to it and say, yeah, I was there
for the Eagles and Rod Stewart last night.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
Are you're watching around that? I hope you get a
better seat or something.

Speaker 2 (01:28:25):
I guess, yeah, exactly. Like again, in a twenty eighteen
thousand Seed arena, even the stuff up top is not bad, like, yes,
it's it's not ideal, but it's not terrible. But in
a seventy thousand Ceed Arena, eighty thousand Seed Arena, sixty
five thousand ced area, stuff like this, there's some seats

(01:28:45):
that it's just like, dude, you got ripped off if
you actually wanted to see the game, if you just
wanted to be part of the experience.

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
Rights your team was in it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
Okay, but clearly, the best way to watch a sporting
event in twenty twenty six, unless you have the money
for the primo seats in one of these big buildings
at least, is to stay at home with your snacks
and your stuff, or go to a friend's house that
has a palm theater or something like that. But go
into these venues and paying one thousand dollars to park

(01:29:15):
and then coming in and all that other stuff, like, no,
that's for the birds. I mean, you couldn't even see
the chain smokers from up there.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
I did. I just want you to I want you
to understand something. It's funny that you mentioned, is just
stay at home with your own snacks and watch it.
There was an article I was I was filling it
on Thursday, I think Thursday or Tuesday or whatever with
a harmon, And there was an article we talked about
where it says six out of ten sports fans admit

(01:29:42):
that they don't they skip watching games. Was they can't
afford it, They can't afford it on TV anymore. Yes,
because it's it's you gotta you have like ten channels
to watch every game in the NFL. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
Yeah, it is. It is. It's like six seven hundred
dollars worth of streaming services just to watch the Yankees
this year, if you wanted to watch all of their games.
I think I saw that article pop up. I think
it was Andrew Marshawn wrote that article.

Speaker 4 (01:30:09):
And that's without the red zone red zone or you
don't want to follow a team or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
Yeah. Again, like everybody wants a piece of the pie
on the streaming empire. So the NFL has spread between
four different networks, the NBA is spread between it seems
like every network that's ever existed. Major League Baseball is
all over creation. Like, yeah, you've priced out people, and
at the same time, you've also TechEd out people because
a lot of the elderly sports fans, they if it's

(01:30:36):
not on their cable service, they kind of don't know
how to access it. And that's how he's speaking ill
of them. It's just a lot of them didn't like
my parents. When my dad was still alive, I would
have to set up all that stuff for him right
exactly because he just wasn't. He used to be tech savvy,
but once you hit about fifty, that's kind of where
your tech sunk is for most people. Oh my apologies.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
You know, sometimes you're like, hey, I do wonder I go.
Do I have all the channels heading into this football season?
Do I have this? Does that? The Amazon Prime? Uh?
The NFL network? Do I Did I sign up for
the red Zone? You know, I got to make sure
I do the list to make sure I have every
possible channel, otherwise I go crazy when it's when it's how.

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
Are you feeling about the studio work as CBS during
this tournament?

Speaker 4 (01:31:26):
Which one which is well?

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
I mean obviously you had Ernie Johnson and Kellogg and
Buce Burrow and I Charles.

Speaker 4 (01:31:34):
Let's stick with that one real quick. I like Ernie
and nothing against the guys. But I do have to say,
first of all, how many young people, if this is
for the young people, the young college people and the
people in their thirty how many people know who Clark
Kellogg is. I'm just curious.

Speaker 2 (01:31:50):
No, I mean, there's always going to be an analyst.
I mean Clark Kellogg's been there forever. Like if you
watch the tournament, Clark Kellogg gives great insight.

Speaker 4 (01:31:58):
Don't you want to go?

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
And he used to be and yeah, well he was
also played by play guy or he was the color
guy for the championship around for however long that was
five years or so. I'm not bothered by that. I mean,
who are you going to put on there? You put
Seth Davis on there. But I've just been good at
times that back in the day, Mike Francessa used to

(01:32:20):
actually be on the CBS coverage during the NCAA used to.

Speaker 4 (01:32:24):
Be on the CBS turbage, you know. And like I said,
if you want to get younger, do people know who
Clark is? Look, Charles Barkley really doesn't follow college basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Now, but he's just like him.

Speaker 4 (01:32:37):
He's a personality, you know. I like Kenny uh and
certainly he brings a lot also, So you know, I
think they do a good job. But you know, there
is questions. I think on the second team people kind
of wondering about them.

Speaker 2 (01:32:53):
Well, I mean, my biggest thing was this is nothing
against Nate Burlison as it relates to like his talent
on television, right because I mean, he's been a good analyst.
He does good work in the mornings, even I don't
watch morning the morning news magazines or any of that
kind of stuff. I don't watch that stuff. But obviously
he's impressed some people doing that. So this is not

(01:33:15):
speaking to his talent level. But he's not Greg Gumbel, right,
and they were apparently they gave him this opportunity because
they wanted to kind of test out whether or not
he could replace James Brown long term on NFL coverage,
and because James is getting up up in years and
he's probably getting to the point where he doesn't need

(01:33:36):
it anymore, wants to finish his life, probably in a
quieter way, and that's fine, and Nate might who knows,
But I will just say this, like this just didn't work.
And it's not because Nate couldn't do it in the NFL.
It's just why is Nate Burlison in the studio like
hosting this kind of weird roundtable studio of Like, there

(01:34:01):
is a skill set that goes into being Ernie Johnson.
That's why there's not a lot of them. When you
see Ernie back at the Final four, you're like, oh,
thank goodness, Like, you know somebody that does this, that
knows how to pass the baton that hard.

Speaker 4 (01:34:17):
Let's not make it a brain surgery.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
Come on, I don't know, man, And there's a lot
of people that do it badly. I'm not saying that
it's impossible to do, but it's harder than you think
based on the people that get jobs doing.

Speaker 4 (01:34:30):
It, right. No, I understand. I look and and nothing
against Nate Burrows, and I just don't think he was
like an aplause I would probably give like a B
minus if I'm giving him a grade out there.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
Well, one thing is like he was dressing for he
was dressing to be noticed. Well, it's just kind of like, dude,
you're the host, just just just be kind of that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:52):
I'm okay with that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
I don't know a lot of guys, actual main hosts.

Speaker 4 (01:34:56):
You know a lot of guys dressing, especially in the
NFL round table where like Jimmy Johnson, where's the nicest
suit zaver for griding out loud? That guy's mister bling,
mister FLA. For my goodness, man, Again, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:35:09):
I know that the coverage got kind of mixed reviews
with all that, but there was just some weird stuff
about him. It's just like I kind of missed. I
also thought there were too many people, Like I don't
know if the roundtables need to be so deep. I
don't know that we need a wide screen to fit
five guys on there. It's like we could probably thin
that out a bit, even if I like all the

(01:35:29):
people involved. I like Kellogg. I think he cares a
lot about college hoops. That's something that they desperately need,
right right, Well, course they don't have like a Jay
Billis or somebody, because you know, Espiano ands those guys.

Speaker 4 (01:35:42):
But doy you mention that Jason just tweeted in said
I missed the experience of coach right this tournament.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
Yeah, he was great and sneak a genius is correct.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
Kenny and Charles don't follow the game a time, no,
so they add nothing to the conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
No, I mean, what's funny about Kenny Smith is I
like Kenny's analysis. I've always like Kenny on TV, But
Kenny is always the guy who's like, this guy reminds
me of a young Hassan white Side. I heard that
on Saturday, like everybody is, here's who he reminds me
of in the NBA. It's like great, but that's not
really relevant right now, Like that, that doesn't mean anything.

(01:36:17):
This is not an NBA draft cast, like this is
not a comparison cast. But that's like his analysis almost
always takes you there, or when I played on great teams,
when I played with the Keem Elijah Wan. But dude,
where is Theekeem Elijah Wan. He's not out there right now.
That's not that's not helpful. I'll tell you what is helpful, though,
I wouldness support from Indianapolis. When we come back. Our

(01:36:39):
friend will call him friend of the programs named Torres
and Martin, Aaron Torres. He will join us from Indianapolis
where he's covering the Final four and tell us what
he saw and maybe even what he heard, because I
have to immediate I have to imagine anybody that he
spoke to, or even if he just overheard played Fly
on the Wall during some conversations after that second game. Uh,

(01:37:02):
that had to turn some heads. So we'll talk to
Aaron Torres on the other side. We are live in
the Fox Sports radio studios. This is Fox Sports Saturday.
He's Ernie Spanier. I'm Jason Martin back in the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
Here you're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:37:21):
Five in the Fox Sports Radio studios. He's Ernie Spanier.
I'm Jason Martin. This is Fox Sports Saturday Monday Night.
It will be Michigan the number one seed against the
number two seed, the Yukon Huskies, who defeated Illinois seventy
one to sixty two. A Yukon grad joins us right now.
You may know him from Torres and Martin. That's the

(01:37:43):
name of this program. Usually he's the Torres. I'm the Martin.
Aaron Torres is live in Indianapolis, where he's covered in
the Final fours. He does every single year. Aaron, what's happening.

Speaker 5 (01:37:55):
Well, the pleasure to join you guys and Arnie. I'm sorry, buddy, No.

Speaker 4 (01:38:03):
You're not. No, you're not You're not You're not sorry.

Speaker 5 (01:38:07):
I just can, I asked him. Great, this is like
a great sports talk radio topic that I was thinking about.
Arizona did a school record for win, first Big twelve
regular season title, first Big Fall Tournament title, first Final
four and twenty five years in arguably the best regular
season in school history. Can you look back on this

(01:38:28):
season as a success given the way that it ended.

Speaker 4 (01:38:32):
Yeah, you know I was. I said, this is Jason,
and I said one yes, because of the reasons that
you mentioned out there. We had a very young team.
We played a murderous schedule. We only had two losses.
One came in overtime, one came on the road against Kansas,
against two very good clubs out there. We had a
good tournament until the end there where we played in Michigan. Yes,

(01:38:53):
we got clover. There's no ifans or butts about it.
I would have loved for it at least to be
close by halftime. But it was a very successful year.
I mean, I'll remember this year was a really good team.
Unfortunately we just didn't get to the finals.

Speaker 5 (01:39:09):
Maybe maybe it's more can you remember it fondly because
it's like just the way that it ended. And by
the way, I will rarely admit I was the cockiest
yukon fan on planet Earth at you know, eight forty
five Eastern time, and I, you know, I'm wondering if
if I'm you know, if I'm walking the same plank

(01:39:29):
to the same fate on Monday night. But it was
an interesting conversation. We're kind of have it leaving the arena,
just given how it ended, you know, how an Arizona
fan would remember the league.

Speaker 4 (01:39:40):
How was the crowd out there? Was it mostly Illinois fans?
I heard there were a lot of Illinois fans that
made the truck down there.

Speaker 5 (01:39:47):
Yeah, you know, there were a ton of Illinois fans.
I will tell you the first game, it was actually
really fun because they you know, first of all, the
first half they didn't like how the game was being officiated. Now,
the second half was kind of a train wreck from
an officiating perspective. I thought Illinois got a lot of calls, there,
a lot of ticky text stuff, especially after Hurley kind

(01:40:07):
of got into the reps. Is about nine to ten
minutes to go. But it was fun because, you know,
the Illinois fans really did not appreciate Dan Hurley. And obviously,
you guys know Dan Hurley well enough to know that
he absolutely embraced you know, Jason new worked in wrestling,
the guy that comes out, you know, the you know,
the guy that comes out to the booze and you know,

(01:40:29):
puts his ear to the crowd, almost like how Roger
Candell kind of embraces the booze at the NFL Draft.
It's like Hurley loves that and feeds off of it,
and so that, more than anything already is what made
Tonight's so fun is the Illinois fans viscerally frustrated with
Dan Hurley, Dan Hurley eating it up. Incredible atmosphere as

(01:40:52):
all these final fours are, but I will definitely say
it was a lot of Illinois fans. If we do
have any Yukon or Michigan fans listening, I think you're
gonna be a lot good tickets available after Illinois long style.

Speaker 2 (01:41:03):
Yeah, you know, I I told Arnie this, and I
said I wasn't going to revel in this, even though
I'd picked Arizona to win it all. Aaron, I also,
this thing felt like just disheartening and demoralizing if you're
an Arizona fan, like watching this, especially with the hype
all week long, and even us saying this felt like
the de facto championship game and he kind of hated

(01:41:25):
that it was being played in the semi finals. What
was the discourse in any conversations you had following the
game or maybe even during the game when you saw
how it was going to go, Like, did we realize Michigan.
Was this good? Like, what were people saying about this?
Because this was one of the most dominant performances against

(01:41:46):
a really good team that I've seen in a very
long time.

Speaker 5 (01:41:50):
Yeah, going's one, you know, Michigan in person, maybe the
most impressive combination of baseline just incredible talent with all
of the fundamentals that you need as well. Like it
was crazy the cutting and the spacing and the back
cutting and the you know, there was one play I
just vividly remember where some guy was kind of cutting

(01:42:13):
across the lane. He caught a pass and then catches
it and immediately shoots over a hard chest pass into
the corner for a wide open free And might sound stupid,
but like those are the things that you're taught, like
in the first grade. Is like when you when you
pass the ball, you passed it, you really put the
mustard on it. And so they are incredible to watch

(01:42:33):
in person. And yeah, I don't even really remember the question,
to be honest, but it was as good as I
thought they would be. It was better as far as
far as the discourse. Yeah, you know, listen and and
I really already I do. I do feel terrible for
you man. But you know, I think what I would
say about it was my perspective on it was this

(01:42:54):
was just the next step for Arizona. I was at
there opening night game against Florida of the defending champs
in Vegas. They weren't underdog there, won the game, won
the game at Yukon when they were an underdog, won
the game against Houston. Everybody gave up on them in
halftime against Purdue, they win that one, and it's just
like this just felt like the natural next step of

(01:43:16):
you break the Final four first and now you're an
underdog yet again as the number one team that's the
Big Twelve champions, right, So that's where I felt like
it was. And then of course it goes to the
complete opposite direction. But to your point, Jmar, that to
me was the discourse. But it just felt like the
next evolution and the team that has been doubted all
year doing it one more time, setting up a rematch

(01:43:37):
with Yukon, and it very obviously did not go that way.

Speaker 4 (01:43:41):
And remember, now Purdue did beat Michigan, Arizona bee Purdue,
but take that for what it's worth. Were you surprised
that Lennon Borg came back into the game with eight
minutes left in Michigan up by twenty. I'm like, what's
going on here? This guy's got the bad foot, the
bad ankle, the bad knee. Why did he even come
back into the game. They say anything about that or what.

Speaker 5 (01:44:00):
So I didn't go to the Michigan media availability because
I did my show right after. But Arnie and Jason,
do you guys know this from covering games in person,
is like, sometimes stuff happened and the audience at home
actually has a better perception of what the reality of
what's going on is then we in the stadium do.

(01:44:22):
And all I saw was I actually was right underneath
the best when he went down, and I vividly saw
his face when he was hitting the ground, and I
was like, oh, he's hurt, and the guy next to
me was like, no, he's fine. And then he got
up and he did the walk and all that, and
then we saw him go to the locker room, and
you know, I just was wondering, are they going to
have to do this without him?

Speaker 4 (01:44:42):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:44:42):
There was a point where it did it matter? And
then he started second half. He's back on the court.
So Arnie, you guys, honestly probably a better perspective on
what happened what was reported all of that, than I do,
because I just can't give you a good answer on
what happened with that situation. We got to him.

Speaker 2 (01:44:58):
Yeah, so we had a he had a MCL sprain,
and they left it up to him. He was cleared
and they left it up to him. He was going
to go back in the game, and he said I
have to, and so he came back in, and then
he came back in a second time. And my only
thinking on that was, well, when is the player, unless
it's Darren Peterson gonna say I'm not going in, Like

(01:45:21):
in that situation, you gotta well, I don't know. I mean,
he didn't get hurt. So we're kind of looking at
hypotheticals here. But we've seen a lot of indicators where
guys have come back when they're tweaking something else and
then they overcompensate and they end up ripping an achilles
or something else like that. So it definitely surprised me
in a game where they were that dominant, Like if

(01:45:41):
it was close, you could maybe see it, but then
being up twenty and him being in the game, it
just seemed unnecessary.

Speaker 5 (01:45:49):
Like I said, you guys would have better perspective on
that than he didn't seem to be moving weird or anything.
It'll be interesting, Like if they don't win on Monday
and he play well, it will absolutely be a conversation.
But I trust Dusty May to you know, know, his
guys blow enough. You know, to your point, Jimard, every
athlete is gonna want to play. But but I I

(01:46:11):
don't know that if Dusty May thinks that he's ready
to go, even in the blowout win, that I have
a problem with him saying, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:46:19):
Who's the who's the front runner for the North Carolina John.

Speaker 2 (01:46:22):
That's exactly what I was about to ask. He's like,
what's the what's the conversation surrounding Chapel Hill right now?

Speaker 5 (01:46:29):
I would say Billy Donovan? And if North Carolina waits, Uh,
If North Carolina waits, I would say, it's still Billy Donovan.
The big thing is, guys, that you notice is that
basically that the issue with that is is that.

Speaker 2 (01:46:53):
On Tuesday.

Speaker 5 (01:46:54):
Yeah, and so that to me is a big X factor.
So funny, right before I got a vote, you guy
that was literally asking somebody about that and you know.
The things that I would say is when when they
fired Hubert Davis because the Mortal opened so late this year,
you kind of felt like, Okay, you got some wiggle
room to make the higher. But when you clearly spend
time courting Tommy Lloyd. How serious he was about the job,

(01:47:16):
only he knows, but they've spent a lot of time
courting Tommy Lloyd. And now all of a sudden you
look up in the portal opens and essentially seventy two
hours from now, you've got to make some decisions. I
still think if you can get Billy Donovan, you wait
the extra week the portal, does it close for three weeks,
there will be more good players to go in. You
are North Carolina. That's a question of North Carolina can answer.

(01:47:40):
But my guest gets in fact that my guest is
in fact that if they're willing to wait, I do
think he did. I'll say this real quick. I'm reveling.
I've heard Nick says on him he actually would come back.
I just think you're in such a dead end play
at Chicago. You're not going anywhere. You guys know, you're
six or seven, whatever it is. I just don't think

(01:48:01):
that that's situation that you know, it's not built for
the long term, so you know, I'll be quick. But
this isn't the you know, Butler job, Like this is
freaking North Carolina. If you have the opportunity to take it,
I just think you have to. But all we're reporting
is he will not He's not gonna pull a body
patrimo and leave with a couple of games left, leave

(01:48:21):
with a couple of games up. So what do you have?

Speaker 2 (01:48:23):
Yeah, so do you have Michigan winning or can you
even admit that as a Yukon.

Speaker 5 (01:48:28):
Fan, you know, yeah, listen. As the Yukon guy, I
will tell you I love my husband. I will say
like it. You know what kind of sucks is the
X vector is still always going to be again early.
But it's like us makes Dusty May knows what he's

(01:48:49):
doing too, you know, like like it's one of those
you know, if it was a different coach that maybe
was getting buy more on power than anything else, I
might feel different. But Dusty May is so good dramatically
and he's got the work is Listen, this is seven
and a half point spread. I saw it. It's hard
for me to talk myself and you got the The other
thing too, is that it's specifically it's a bad matchup

(01:49:12):
for Yukon because they don't have a brother dealt in.
I think that's the biggest variable, It's the biggest. Next
factor is Taris Reid's amazing. He's playing the best basketball
of his career. But I think we too, you know,
I don't know if the dress the portal open is
the dress portal before the game. I'm helping to get
another Terris reed Er to to start the game. But

(01:49:34):
miship that stuff. Matchup, they're so good, even as the
Yukon guy. I said it, and I mean it is.
I think you know, Yukon maybe headed for the same
fate as Office Span here. They're already creator there at
the Wildcats on. But what'll happened on Monday time?

Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
All right?

Speaker 5 (01:49:48):
Eric?

Speaker 2 (01:49:48):
Enjoy it? Well, I'm sure we'll recap it together a
week from a week from today. Brother, appreciate you go
get yourself some rest before Monday.

Speaker 5 (01:49:59):
Yes, oh no, listen, I got to rest up. The
team needs me, so I gotta be ready. I gotta
be at full strength. It's gonna take everything I got
to help the Husky. I get the victory. But it
was fun. Guys, Arnie, thanks for hopping on. I am
sorry about your about your wildcats, but her twenty six,
twenty seven that the year.

Speaker 4 (01:50:17):
Maybe next year, Okay, I don't know who I'm rooting for,
so I'm hoping for a tie on Monday. We'll see
what happens.

Speaker 5 (01:50:24):
You're room for you on here, Connecticut Native. Now you
and Dan Early brother and elbow, Yeah exactly. You can
wine on the porch. You and Gino just yelling at everybody,
the two old guys yelling at everybody. It's okay, Connecticut.

Speaker 3 (01:50:38):
Happened all right, there it is.

Speaker 2 (01:50:41):
That's all right. That's Aaron Torres out there.

Speaker 4 (01:50:46):
Geez.

Speaker 2 (01:50:46):
Yeah. I was about to say he was like in
the middle of the Gino ari Ama Dawn Staley brawl
or something like that. Like that was a there was
a lot going on there. I thought he might have
been ordering some fast food at one point during that
in the conversation. But he sounds defeated. But the game
is still going to be played on Monday, and stranger
things have happened. Let's go to Steve Sega one final

(01:51:09):
time and catch a look at what's happening in a
Sports State.

Speaker 9 (01:51:12):
Sounded like he was at the victory party for Monday's chance.

Speaker 2 (01:51:15):
Now, perhaps he might want to, but he might want
to avoid that one.

Speaker 8 (01:51:19):
Well, Illinois was in the final four for the first
time in over twenty years. But it's Yukon going to
the men's final Monday night. After eliminating the Iliini seventy
one sixty two, Connecticut shot just thirty five percent from
the floor. Illinois at the Final four shot thirty four percent.
Illinois only had three assists as a team. This Yukon
club that came back to eliminate Duke Lass Sunday on

(01:51:42):
a last second three right after that turnover at mid court.
Final four is in Indianapolis this weekend, Attendant seventy two
thousand to night, and then the next three years it'll
be at Detroit and then Las Vegas and then back
at Indy twenty twenty nine the Big Football Stadium, says
you mentioned. Michigan was average ninety five points a game
in this tournament, most by a team en route to

(01:52:05):
the Final four since nineteen ninety three Kentucky. Michigan scores
a mere ninety one in beating Arizona ninety one seventy
three tonight Center at Dai Mara twenty six points. Wildcats
shot thirty seven percent from the floor. Arizona coach Tommy
Lloyd has the new five year contract he's staying, but
Michigan led twenty six to ten early. Arizona had more

(01:52:25):
turnovers than field goals made at the time. The Michigan
lead late first half was forty eight to thirty and
All American Yaxel Lindeborg finished with only fourteen minutes on
the court eleven points due to knee and ankle injuries.
Arizona was in the final four for the first time
in twenty five years. This is a Michigan team that
just blitz Tennessee last Sunday, including a twenty one nothing

(01:52:47):
run first half of that game. A reminder, the final
of the Crown Basketball Tournament is Sunday on Fox TV
from Las Vegas. In the Saturday semifinals, Oklahoma defeated Baylor,
then West Virginia beat Crayton. The NIT final Sunday Auburn
against Tulsa. The women's title game Sunday, South Carolina against
a UCLA team that has only one loss season. It

(01:53:07):
was early season against Texas. UCLA just beat Texas in
an ugly semifinal. South Carolina upset Number one Yukon in
the semis. Connecticut had won fifty four straight three NBA
games on the Saturday schedule. In Denver, forty points for
Nikola Jokic and thirteen assists and no turnovers. Denver won
it's eighth straight and overtime win against San Antonio one

(01:53:29):
thirty six one thirty four. Spurs had won eleven straight
victor women Yama. In defeat thirty four points, eighteen rebounds,
five blocks. Wemby had seven assists just one turnover, still
his Spurs in the last thirty games twenty seven and three.
On the other end of things, Washington they lost one
fifty two to one thirty six at Miami. Wizard's records

(01:53:53):
seventeen and sixty. A year ago, they lost sixty four games.
They had sixty seven losses the season before that. At
the moment, they've lost five in a row. Only about
a week left in the regular season. Pistons tonight clinched
the number one seed in the East for the first
time in nearly twenty years with a victory at Philadelphia
one sixteen to ninety three. The Lakers Austin Reeves could

(01:54:13):
miss four to six weeks with an oblique injury. Grade
two Steph Curry was due to practice today and returned
to play tomorrow after missing twenty seven games with a
knee injury. Among those into the Basketball Hall of Fame
today coaches Doc Rivers and Mark Few. Among the fifteen
NHL games, LA won seven to sixteen overtime against Toronto,
LA's record thirty first game to go to overtime this season.

(01:54:36):
And in the UFL Orlando nineteen nine over Louisville. I
know you were waiting for that Major League soccer. It
was Miami opening a new stadium and tying Austin to
to Lionel Messi with an early goal LAFC six nothing
over Orlando. A reminder, NASCAR's Cup Series is off this
Easter weekend, and the late ballgame in Anaheim went to
the Angels one nothing over Seattle on a leadoff homer.

(01:54:59):
Rightfield Joe Adell robbed three home runs above the wall,
and according to the stats since he entered the league
in twenty twenty, this is ten total home run robberies.
He has tied for the most among any major league
outfielder in that span back to you.

Speaker 2 (01:55:18):
Thank you, Steve heavy Easter to you and is that
are you celebrating it by being with this gentleman again? Yeah, tomorrow.

Speaker 8 (01:55:25):
I'm not sure you would call that for celebrating, but yes, absolutely,
I didn't give them the night off.

Speaker 9 (01:55:30):
You were here tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
Do you ever give him the night off?

Speaker 4 (01:55:34):
No, Once in a while they'll be nice and give
him the night off.

Speaker 2 (01:55:37):
Everyone Arizona had the night off.

Speaker 9 (01:55:39):
Oh, he gave them the night off.

Speaker 4 (01:55:41):
Yes, ouch, Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:55:43):
I had to throw that one out there.

Speaker 4 (01:55:44):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:55:44):
Yeah. Time we will come back. We will pick and
predict Monday Night's game. Do we see a pathway for
the fighting Danny Hurleys to get their third championship in
four years? Or are we just waiting for this Michigan
team to be crowned with the greatness that we have
seen during the course of this tournament. We'll come back

(01:56:06):
and debate and discuss. He's Ernie Spanier and Jason Martin.

Speaker 6 (01:56:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 3 (01:56:24):
Welcome back Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
I'm Jason Martin. He's Arny Spanier. If you miss any
today's show, catch the podcasts. Just search Fox Sports Radio
wherever you get your podcasts. Right after the show, this show,
this podcast is going to be posted. Be sure to
follow rated five stars, even provide a review. If you can,
just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast,

(01:56:46):
you'll find today's full show posted right after we get
off the air. This was not one in which we
were like at the edge of our seats coming on
the air because there was a game on that was
super dramatic and super important. Now there was a game
on that was super important, but aren't he Unfortunately it
was not dramatic. Michigan dominated Arizona, Connecticut was too strong

(01:57:09):
for Illinois. That sets up our matchup for Monday night.
So how does Aaron Torres avoid the same fate as
your wildcast. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:57:22):
I don't think he's going to as much as Connecticut
is certainly playing some good basketball. Let's be honest, They're
very lucky to pull out that duke victory. Probably should
never have been in that situation. I don't think they're
going to be able to keep up with Michigan, especially
the interior. I think Michigan will score early and often.

(01:57:45):
I'm curious to see, you know, the you know how
bad the injury is for Michigan with Lennenborg. But overall
I could see like a fifteen point victory for Mission Michigan,
like eighty six seventy one something to that effect.

Speaker 2 (01:58:07):
So you're still thinking, so yeah, I mean you could
certainly be right. I mean, nobody's been able to stop
them so far. Yukon's gonna play decent defense. And then
are they gonna are they going to kind of limit
the number of possessions because they're an outside shooting team,
because they're willing to do that, because they've got multiple
guys that will do it, and Reid can be underneath

(01:58:28):
to try and clean it up. Although it's gonna be
tough amongst the trees of Michigan as well. But if
they can shoot the three effectively in the game and
get the guards out of their comfort zone for Michigan
where they're not going to defend as well on the perimeter, yeah,
does that give them a better chance? I mean, I
the only reason I know that I know what I

(01:58:49):
would a chance at all? Go ahead?

Speaker 4 (01:58:50):
You know what, I would if I was gonna stop
Michigan and I didn't see the first half, and I
know this sounds crazy, I'd watch the first half of
Michigan an hour with fifty to forty six, it was
a four point lead for Michigan at halftime.

Speaker 2 (01:59:05):
Can we ask how is it that Howard did that?

Speaker 4 (01:59:08):
I have no idea. I'd have to rewatch that first
half and see how they came up with that. And
now were they able to think lost by twenty twenty
one points, but fifty to forty six, how did they
keep close in the first half. I'd probably watch that
over a couple of times. To be honest, Well, I
mean they might.

Speaker 2 (01:59:24):
I mean, I'll tell you what, like the reason why
you give Connecticut a chance other than just the fact
that sports can be crazy, is I mean, Danny Hurley
knows and I know Aaron said Dusty Mate's really good.
But Danny Hurley's got a couple of these titles. He's
been in this moment, and he's won in these games,
and he is going to put the chip on the
shoulder of that team something fierce going into Monday night.

(01:59:46):
He's gonna say we're counted completely out of this thing,
and he's a master.

Speaker 4 (01:59:50):
Of that, right, right, And if they can hit their threes,
we'll see what happens. But they can't start one for
eighteen like they did against Duke, because there'll be no
comeback at that point. It'll be too far buried.

Speaker 2 (02:00:01):
Yeah, so it's a seven and a half point game.
I would take that all day if I were a gambler.
I'm not. I'm against it on mini grounds, but uh,
I mean it's very possible. This is another twenty point game.
I hope not. I want there to be a good
title game. The final four was kind of disappointing overall.
But sorry for your wild Cats. I'm sure you'll still
be thank you. You'll still be talking about it. It's

(02:00:23):
always good to have you on here, though, Brother. Enjoy
the rest of your Easter. Everybody else, enjoy the rest
of your Easter. We'll be back next week. We'll get
Torres his thoughts a lot from the

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Arnie Spanier and Jason Martin talk Michigan's domination of Arizona, UCONN going back to the National Championship, and more!