March 29, 2023 • 50 mins
On the Wednesday edition of The Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: Doug discusses the latest in the Lamar Jackson situation where Falcons owner Arthur Blank basically explained why his team will not pursue Lamar at his asking price, and Lamar getting defensive on Twitter about his injuries.
In this week's version of "The Midway", Doug and the crew discuss the de-evolution of sports talk and the role Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless played in that.
UConn Head Basketball Coach Dan Hurley joins Doug to talk about his team's journey to the Final Four.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
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Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Hope you're having a great day.
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tire buying should be welcome in m guys. Uh. We
we discussed a lot of things in the pre show
meetings and emails and text chains, and here's what we
(01:11):
landed on. I want to have a conversation in the
midway in regards to Stephen A. Smith and Dan Lebertard,
Dan Stephen a appeared on Dan Lebertard's show, and Dan said,
I hate what you've done to sports media. We're gonna
have that discussion. Okay, so everybody, just in one hour,
we'll have that discussion. We'll play the sound for you
(01:33):
and then we'll just talk. Let us talk. But let's
as the lamar turns. So you got a bunch of
different things here. Let's start with a lot of people
have said, hey, why not the Atlanta Falcons. Arthur Blank
is an owner who is very well liked. There is
(01:58):
the thought that you know, because he's Mike Vick two
point zero without any of the off the field nonsense, right,
And when I say out the field nonsense, we can
let's be honest. Off the field nonsense was dog fighting,
and Mike Vick now is one of the most respected
(02:19):
former players in the history of the NFL. Truly is
like you ask NFL dudes, because we all grew up
watching him like it was I was in college same time.
We all grew up watching him and just marveled at
his talent and when it all fell apart and then
he putting it back together, and how he's owned it
and moved on all those things like Mike Vick. But like, look,
when he was in Atlanta, it was a mess. He
(02:40):
didn't work hard in terms of studying his playbook, and
he had too much other stuff going on. And Lamar
hasn't had any sort of issues none. So a lot
of people have said that, Well, the Falcons to this
point have showed no interest. Arthur Blank, their owners said,
there's no question that Jackson is one of the top
quarterbacks in league, but it was a different player in
(03:02):
a different time last offseason. Blank also questioned Jackson's durability.
Looking at it objectively, I'd say there's some concern over
how long he can play his style of game. This
is what he said to Josh Kendall of the Athletic
Hopefully a long time, but he missed five or six
games each of the last two years. Every game counts
in our business. Okay. So I'm going to go in
(03:26):
in a second into all the different things working against him.
And you have these you have writers and people on
social media and people on television who are so obnoxious
that they simply want to pick Deshaun Watson. First of all,
Deshaun Watson's contract is bad. Okay, we all understand that
(03:47):
it's not a good contract. It was a ridiculous trade
and a ridiculous contract, and no one was anywhere near
that stratosphere. And the only reason they did so, the
Browns did so was out of sheer desperation. That's what
happens when you get into a bidding war. Sometimes somebody
will go like ten thousand and like, we're just at
(04:08):
three okay, going once, going twice sold. That's kind of
what happened there. And I understand the precedents. We've actually
covered this for a good year and a half that Hey,
he has no outfield issues like Deshan. He hasn't suffered.
He hasn't suffered injury ACLS. Deshan suffered two Like, I
(04:30):
get it. They neither has been particularly great in the playoffs.
Deshan doesn't have an MVP. Lots of stuff. The problem
with it is if it was true precedent, and by precedent,
I mean like we see in the legal definition where
that's the law and everything falls afterwards. Is because of
that law, Kyler Murray signed afterwards, it wasn't fully guaranteed.
(04:55):
Aaron Rodgers signed afterwards, it was not fully guaranteed. Like
Russell Wilsons, I'm a new contract afterwards, it was not
fully guaranteed, so it's not actually precedent setting even if
it did set some sort of precedent that this actually
is out there. So Lamar Jackson took to Twitter this morning,
(05:16):
Let's get real, I have a one PCL. I'd rather
have a one PCL than go out there and play
horrible forcing myself to put guy put my guys in
a bad situation. Now that's selfish of me. Jackson tweeted
last night, I don't remember me sitting out, sitting out
(05:38):
on my guys week one versus the Jets, to week
twelve versus the Broncos. How come y'all all of a
sudden say I sit out because of the money in
which I've gotten hurt anytime within that time frame we
could know the Super Bowl had been on my mind
since April twenty eighteen. I don't know. As I've said,
you can't have it both ways. Either you sat out
(05:59):
because you on a new contract, or you didn't, or
you sat out because you were legitimately hurt. And if
you're legitimately hurt, while then you missed fifteen games over
the past two seasons, including the end of the past
two seasons. If you're legit hurt, then you're legit hurt.
And what Arthur Blank is saying is keep in mind,
(06:19):
we all know that we react to the present and
to the future based upon our past. Okay, so Arthur
Blank had Mike Vick right. The Mike Vick thing didn't
fall apart just with the dog fighting. The Mike Vick
thing started to fall apart when he got hurt in
(06:39):
I think it was a preseason game. So he's had
a running quarterback that previously got hurt. He also is
in the same division as the Carolina Panthers. And what
happened to Cam Newton? He won MVP and he was
never the same since. Why because he took a savage beat.
(07:00):
And if you want to say, hey, well, he's different
than Lamar Jackson because Lamar is much quicker, he avoids contact,
you're right. But he's also much smaller than Cam Newton,
who's a gigantic human being. And he doesn't run the
football as much as as he never ran the football
as much as Lamar's running it, but in in his
(07:21):
and then they were in the bidding war for Deshaun
Watson last year, they knew what the landscape was, like,
they knew it was it was, it became a bid
and they were trying to trying to get him. And
I'm guessing that last year the reason they didn't get
Deshaun was they never thought of going to five years
guarantee because they thought it was crazy. Why because he
(07:43):
has a history of injuries and he's seen running quarterbacks
get hurt. And Deshaun's a lot less of a runner
than Mike Vick was, than Lamar is, than Cam Newton.
Like that's these are just realities, just realities. So what
people who support Lamar Jackson, they have this incredibly screwed
(08:07):
up way of looking at it where they think that
owners or gms, if they save, if they don't give
a fourth or a fifth year fully guaranteed, somehow that
money goes back into the pocket of the owner, back
into the pocket of the general manager. Like none of
that is true. The reality is that if you sign
(08:29):
a deal where it's three years fully guaranteed, and we
talked about this yesterday, the reality is most of these
deals they're not going to get They can't get ready
after to year four because there's too big a cap hit.
They just can't. And if they do, you go out
and sign a new deal. But if you're any good,
they have to rework your contract during it so they
avoid that massive contract cap hit and kick it down
(08:49):
the road. So what you're asking Arthur Blank, for example,
to do, is hey, because he's Lamar Jackson. Even though
you live through the mic vic thing and he got hurt,
forget about all that. Even though you've watched the Cam
Newton thing and he got hurt and he got beat
up and he wasn't nearly the same. Forget all about that.
(09:11):
Even though you obviously did not bid at the level
of the Cleveland Browns and that's why they got Deshaun Watson,
and everybody agrees that's a terrible contract. Forget all about that.
And because social media and media and former players and
current players think this is what like, No, it's not.
Arthur Blank is a billionaire. He ain't get to be
(09:33):
a billionaire by going like, I know this is a
really bad business deal, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
And oh yeah, by the way, what no one has
said outside of this here show is okay. Part of
Here's where Lamar is caught it's not just in the
five year guaranteed contract in that money, okay, it's those
(09:55):
big contract quarterbacks. Those big contract quarterbacks. You can only
go and get those guys if you have a ready
made Super Bowl team. And by the way, generally they
don't work this free agency, and this would be something
he's not actually a free agent. Also something that's not
really discussed, like the Ravens actually want him back. The
(10:17):
Texans and Deshaun Watson, they were not. That was not
coming back. That was over, okay. But in order to
build a franchise in terms of its talent, you have
to do that with a rookie a quarterback, or a
rookie deal or a minimum deal, because it's the only
(10:40):
way in which you can put money to other places.
So you build up the overall talent, and then if
that rookie quarterback is good enough, then you give him
the big contract, and then you figure out who can
we keep, who can we not keep. We kind of
go through this cycle all over again, only you do
what Kansas City's doing, where you have to kill it
in the draft. As you got a quarterback making such
(11:01):
a gigantic portion of the salary cap, so the teams
that Lamar could actually like. So the Atlanta Falcons would
be insane to trade for Lamar Jackson, not because he's
not better than Desmond River, but because they're not winning
a super Bowl. They're not doing anything. They don't have
(11:23):
good enough talent. They were, in anybody's conversation, the least
talented team in the league. Would they be better with Lamar? Yeah,
but they couldn't actually ever get good because the amount
of money he's making. But Lamar is trying to have
it both ways, right, trying to have it both ways.
He's trying to have it. Hey, I would never sit
(11:44):
out on my guys just because of money. Okay, so
then you've been hurt. Well no, no, I've got injury prone.
I don't. Yeah, yeah, you kind of are. Kind of are.
This is the best of the dub Guy Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. What I want you Doug Got
(12:08):
Leap Show, Fox Sport TRADEO. Hope you're having a great day.
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way tire buying should be welcome. Man, hope be having
a great day. It's a Wednesday, technically the middle of
our show, the middle of our day, hopefully the middle
(12:30):
of yours. Let's do something we called the midway, the Midworthy.
It's not getting the middle, it's time for getting the
middle of the Midworthy. So I'm gonna I'll own this
one because I chose the topic. Here's the topic, Dan Buyer,
(12:57):
j stu. We've been doing this thing combined mind seventy
plus years. Is that right? Hella? Sure? Okay? So stephen A.
Smith was a guest on let Dan Leviotard Show, and
the Midway just CNL is some sort of open forum
discussion we do the middle of every week. Sometimes that's
(13:17):
through a sports sometimes it doesn't. Dan Leviotard said this
in regards to stephen A and Skip Bayliss and the
role they've played in modern day sports talk. I hate
what you two have done to sports television. You can
say that all you want to. I would say, who
the hell are you? To sit up there and say
me and him? What about you? What the hell were
you living under a rock? I'm teaching at that Miami
(13:38):
you you are part of it too. I'm talking. I'm
talking about all the imitators that you have birthed, all
of the all of the imitators that are all over
the place thinking without the journalism credentials, that the point
of all this is to turn it into an argument
on television. Well, I would take on bridget what you're
(13:58):
saying in this regard, Dan, and those people who don't
have a journalism background, who don't exercise journalistic ethics, and beyond,
how are we responsible for that when our background is
based on that. Skip Baylist was a journalist for decades.
(14:22):
I was a journalist for decades. We came, we come
on television, and those ethics are applicable. The fact of
the matter is is that when I take a position,
it's the same kind of position I would take write
in a column. The difference is instead of writing eight
hundred words and being limited to that space, I get
to talk for a few minutes on each subject. Okay,
(14:49):
I'll share mine in a second, Dan Bayer, I haven't
heard your thoughts on this. Go ahead. I almost have
a question of where do you want me to start? Like, okay, well,
then then you know, I will start. Okay, first of all, um,
I liked at first where Lebotard was going, and then
(15:09):
he he whisked out. He whisked out because he started
by saying I hate what you two have done, and
then he goes all the imitators as if they're the
real deal. They're not part of the problem, right bear sure, Okay,
that I mean, just like, look, if you're gonna go there,
(15:30):
go there, don't go halfway and go like, oh, it's
not you, it's the it's the imitators of you. Now
for stephen A, the I'm a journalist. Really, what you're
doing is journalism. And oh yeah, by the way, there
have been plenty of things in which you know, you've
misspoken or misstead or said or just just didn't do
(15:52):
or didn't you know, like come on, and if it
was if what they were doing was from a journalistic
background and somehow that put them beyond reproach. Why is
Skip Bayless calling Chris boss Chrissy Bosh, which first of all,
callin dudes names of females. Obviously that's gone the way
of the dodos. But didn't Jim Rome try that, like
Jay STW what was that twenty five years ago. Yeah,
(16:15):
so not only is it bad theater and bad practice,
but it's a bad imitation. So now, on the other hand,
I actually my push my pushback if I was Steven
A would be completely different. What do you matter about
(16:36):
We've we've we've created a niche which previously didn't exist.
And by the way, like in all these other industries,
you age out, you age out, especially you know it's
males you age out. Its Skip Bayles in his seventies.
It's resurrected his career. And there are others, you know,
(16:58):
I mean Mad Dog Russo. Granted he's still very successful
on satellite radio and MLBtv, but not mainstream. This is
brought him back in the mainstream, I mean stephen A.
Smith like that. You know, you can make the case.
This is not make the case. This has made his career.
Was he apologizing for or what does he need to
(17:18):
apologize for? So, like, look, do I think a lot
of its hack, yes? Do I think it's bad, yes?
Do I think it puts you in a really the word.
The part that I don't like is stephen A at
least goes to the games. Now most of the games
he goes to he's being paid to cover right for
the NBA. Skip, doesn't you're there, so you're not You're
(17:40):
studio gangsters. You're not out there in the real world.
And I love some of the discussions they have. They're
really high highs. There's just a really low lows as well.
All right now, Dan, you go ahead, mid perfect because
you know the Levatard point of the imitators. I think
that's a part of it. But I don't blame stephen
(18:01):
A for doing this. If this is what got stephen
A and has allowed him to make his name, and
his point that he has said prior is that there
were other shows prior to this. Just because stephen A
did it better than everyone else, stephen A shouldn't be blamed. Um.
(18:21):
I also think, and if you're gonna blame anybody, blame
the people who put it on the air. Blame the
executives that say this is the you know, this is
this is the guy, this is the show that we want.
I know, like everybody's got different tastes in in you know,
sports talk show hosts and different shows that they like.
(18:45):
Some are good, some are bad. But you know, if
if someone's really bad and they're trying their best. Whose
fault is it? Is it their fault that that they're
bad or that somebody is allowing them to have the
opportunity to do it three times a day for you
to listen like, And so that's where I like come
down on it is I don't blame stephen A for it.
(19:06):
I think that there's a lack of creativity and they
think that there's copycats everywhere and it's the easy thing
to do. ESPN is doing there's oh guess what, well,
we need to do that, and we need to do
what they're doing, and we need to have our own
version of it, but we're just gonna make it just
a little bit different. But it's essentially going to be
the same thing. And so that's where I put a
(19:27):
lot of the blame. I don't blame stephen A. I
don't blame Skip Bayliss for it, considering that they seem
to be the best to do what they do. Okay,
go ahead, jay st Yeah, No, I come at it
from a different angle here. I think that there I
think there needs to be some culpability from stephen A
(19:47):
in this response that we played, like to me and
I watch almost every day. I consume way too much
debate TV. So to me, stephen A makes mistakes. He's
made a lot of, like real embarrassing mistakes. Stephen A
has said things that just are not true as well.
(20:08):
And I know, just because I know people in the
business and I know kind of what the process is,
a lot of those mistakes have nothing to do with journalism.
They have to do with being lazy, not putting the
work in, not putting the prep in. And those aren't
quote unquote journalistic ethics. Those are just you get paid
(20:29):
a whole lot of money and sometimes you just want
to mail it in. I watch stephen A mail in
segments all the time, and I guess he's earned the
right to do that. But those segments when he's just
talking out of his backside, when he's just going off
on something that you know he doesn't believe. That is
what Lebotard has a problem with, because you see Skip
(20:51):
doing it, and you see stephen A doing it, and
all of these younger broadcasters who want to make a
name for themselves think that is the way to get
this done, and they copy those. So I just think
it when you fall back on your right quote unquote
journalistic integrity. That's such a cop out. Maybe you started
out a journalist, but now you're a provocateur who talks
(21:14):
out of his ass for a living. There might be
some substance to what you have to say. But I
I hate the complete denial here by stephen A. But
what I do think as well is what LeBatard was
getting to. And there's kind of like this de evolution
of sports talk because of this format and because you
(21:35):
think you have to have a hot take or an
outrageous thing to say about something to be interesting. In
other words, just doing the homework and having something interesting
to say about something based on your homework and your
own thoughts is not enough, So you need to make
it up. So when I was at ed ESPN, the
(21:56):
kingmaker for these shows, I'll leave his name out of it,
the kingmaker for the shows. I if you remember there
is Numbers Never Lie. Do you guys remember Numbers Never
Lie was actually a really good concept. It just they
didn't have the right people in place at the time.
This was right about my departure. This in twenty twelve
(22:18):
and the first Take thing had taken off. Remember first
Take was part of first and it was first and
ten right part of Cold Pizza, and then it was
a segment that there were segments that had been made
into a show, so then they had Then they started
to create numbers Never Lie and numbers Never Lie. The
idea was, hey, what are the actual what's the actual
(22:39):
data say? And then we'll discuss with the data nerd
and with some former athlete, maybe a coach as well.
I love that show. Michael Smith, who's now moved on right,
and it ended up becoming him and Jamal Hill's show,
and then they put them on Sports Center. I liked
that show and it became a little bit more of
a debate. It became a debate show at the end,
or maybe their discussion show, which is kind of some
(23:00):
sort of quasi debate. But what was told to me
at the time was, Hey, the world needs villains. You
need to go full villain. And I knew that was like,
you know, it's like do the skip Bayless thing. And
I just said, like, here's the deal. If I'm a villain,
it's an involuntary response. I am only going to be me.
(23:23):
I don't I don't want to get into kid. If
I want to be an actor, I'll go in acting.
I talk about sports. I'm a sports guy. I grew
up into sports house. I've played, I played a really
high level sports covered it, I know people in it.
I love it. That's all that I'm about. And so
I didn't do the villain thing, and I guarantee that's
why I didn't get a show of that type. And
(23:45):
yet I actually think I'm really good in those shows
because though i'm I'm actually a debating specialist and I'm
really I also like sometimes I'm not willing to do
I don't do the hot take thing, like if I
say something that is seen as a hot ta, because
I actually believe it and there's a logic behind it,
and I'm willing usually to hear somebody else out even
if they're wrong. But I also would tell you that
(24:09):
I'm not sure like Lebotard, Okay, he does basically he
tries to do the what Dan Patrick does. And there's
obviously been other radio shows like that where you do
kind of you know, it's just a bunch of dudes
talking about something. Right, Hey see, it's basically copying Howard Stern. Right,
(24:30):
everybody's copying Howard Stern, and imitation is the most sincere
form of flattering. But Dan hasn't been great for the media.
I don't think because he is a journalist. But he
was like woke before woke was cool. And he's super
super defender of the players even when they're at clearly
(24:55):
at fault. It's it's not about him, it's about his background.
It's like, you know, a certain level of accountabill we
have to have as human beings that is missing. But
the difference would be that Dan and an look. Dan
refused to when he was at ESPN Radio. He refused
to do the hey, dude, play the hits and it
(25:17):
was it was interesting to me, and that I think
his show would have been way more successful, would have
lasted way longer, could have killed it if they had
the same sorts of discussions instead of making fun of
people who talk about the things that matter to everybody,
just talking about the things that matter to everybody, and
if you want to make fun of them, make fun
of them. But instead they're making fun of everybody else
(25:39):
and then talking about whatever the hell they want to
talk about, which violates the number one rule of national
sports television, national sports trading, which is don't talk about
what you want to talk about talk about what everybody
else wants to talk about anyway. Sorry. I also think
that programming for television is very difficult. And the shows
(26:01):
that that we are talking like Levitard Show, Um, you know,
I know it's streamed, it's not on ESPN, but it's
it's different to take a three hour show like The Herd.
Colin Coward put it on Fox Sports one, and that's
the show. There is no you know, it's Colin's show
that you hear on Fox Sports Radio, but you also
(26:23):
can see it on Fox Sports one. You know, that's
different than programming a television show, right like right to
come up to come up with you know, however long
first take it. I don't even know how long. I
don't watch it, but that can't necessarily be easy, which
is why I also think you see a spawn of
(26:44):
shows that try to do that, and whether you like
first take or don't like first take, also don't live
up to that level if you will. Well, he did
to the He did have the scripted show with highly
Questionable before the the Dan. Yeah, yeah, you know, but
I think I think in that in that regard, it
(27:05):
kind of shows maybe where Dan's coming from different angle
and that he always seemed to get the stick at
a ESPN, like whenever he would do one of the
things that he thought was something that like like when
he when he gave his his Hall of Baseball Hall
of Fame vote to dead Spen, Like he got punished
for that every time he should something to get should
But again, like this is the this is the Lebotard thing,
(27:26):
Like you're a journalist, yet you don't want to do
journalistic things, and then you question other people's journalistic integrity. Look, look,
I'll just tell you because you weren't there, and you
don't you don't know that level. Like Dan Lebertard was
given the keys to the kingdom there. Hey, I mean
he just was like please don't please don't think that
he somehow was he is a victim in this thing, Okay,
(27:49):
you know Dan, It had Dan, Like look at all
of us in our generation, and I think this is
a big thing and not necessarily a generation, but more
Jays do me and and Buyer is our kids are
going through. Our kids are fighting everything with teachers and
anything with society because it's the reflection of us. And
(28:09):
like our generation is like we pushed back on authority.
That's that's been a big it's all generations have, but
especially our generation and then our kids kind of doubly so.
Um but uh like let's not get too far afield,
Like he's so you talk about programming. Do you know
(28:30):
how they came up with this concept? Why it'll all
work by you want to take a shot? Um, No,
my mind's not there right now. That's okay. Yeah. So
I mean remember two thousand and eight until two thousand
and eleven, two twelve. What was going on in our
country two thousand and eight twenty twelve. Yes, um, gosh,
(28:53):
greatest recession, greatest recession of our lifetimes. I was in market, Yes, collapse.
Do you know what they found that people did not
give up? Who are out of work? What's up? Cable television?
This is before the era of cord cutting. Okay, cable television.
I was there. They did studies, yes, but they're like, look,
they'll cut off anything, just not their cable, like that's
(29:15):
their outlet. And so you had an excessive number of
dudes at home across a multitude of racist right, and
basically all they tried to capture was the essence of
barbershop talk. And like I actually think that that Steven
A would do himself justice if he if he eliminated
(29:37):
that whole idea of I'm a journalist, because what he
could say, which would be which would be much more real.
It is like, look what We've been able to capture
as long as I've been doing this is two guys
sitting around talking about the topics, arguing about the topics today,
which happens in you know, a pool hall, somebody's living room,
a barbershop, at a poker table, whatever, Like this is real.
(30:00):
This is and yeah, we'll say some stupid stuff that
doesn't make any sense, we'll call people names, well, we'll
do whatever. We'll we'll make fun of different things because
we're guys and that's what we do. And sometimes we
talk out of our rectum. That's what dudes do. And
it's been really successful because people relate to our sides
or our perspective. That's a better argument than you know,
(30:22):
other people try and do this, but they can't because
I'm a journalist. Like that sounds not only arrogant, but
so far a field from reality. It's it's the mid words, troublesome, wall,
you think buyer, yeah's just I think we could go
on forty more minutes. I know that's what we honestly
feel like, completely underwhelmed for what I provided, because I
think there's so much more to say. Okay, well, how
(30:44):
about you know, if you want to join us in
the pod tomorrow, we could do it on the pod.
We could do a lot longer. You could. People apparently
listen to the pod, so we could. We could do that.
It's called in the bonus, So we'll drop that at
the top of next hour. This show is brought to
you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy, affordable to
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(31:06):
dot Com. I'll say this like I'll end this discussion
with this little, short, little aside. I don't think they
have anything to apologize for. I don't because I think
you know, we're placing the blame at the wrong places.
Right If if what Jason says is true where he
(31:29):
ain't working hard enough in certain spots, Okay, that's up
to a boss. That's up to somebody to hold him accountable.
You know, that's up for other people to point that out,
and like I said, like if if the super pro
player arguments, which I think for Lebatar, like I don't
think it does him justice. I get you've got great
(31:50):
relationships with guys, but they just they they they hit
such a shallow note to me because it's obvious you're
doing it to curry favor with the athletes that you
want to hang out with. But it's also that they've
worked for these guys. These guys are ridiculously wealthy, ridiculously successful.
So any of us being critical of them, hey, the
reality of their job is that they've gotten good reviews.
(32:13):
Otherwise they wouldn't be making this much money. That's the reality,
ideal in realities, not in takes. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports radio dot com and
within the iHeartRadio app. Let's welcome him in. He's the
head coach of the Yukon Huskies. They're the favorite to
(32:35):
win the national title, and he joins us year in
the Doug Gottlich Show on Fox Sports Radio. You know,
with so many of these teams coach they're they're like
brand new every year, right, and so it does take
a lot of teams a sense a while to get
a sense for just how good they actually are not
can be coming into the year. What do you think
(32:56):
of your group? I thought in the summer, Doug, I
wasn't I was just hoping that we would be an
NCAA tournament team. You know, summer practices, you know, so
many new pieces, and obviously us the reach of a
(33:18):
high level was contingent upon like Jordan Hawkins making that
huge jump, Andre Jackson being able to play like a
you know, an MBA wing level player, cling and making
the huge impact. I think, you know, we had a
close scrimmage Virginia early and you know, we played really
(33:41):
really well. We played like a one possession versus one
possession game versus them in a secret scrimmage, and I
think we had maybe two starters out but Hawkins Shop
thirty in the scrimmage and Snoga as a monster, And
even though it was just a close scrimmage, I thought,
you know, we showed a high level of play. And
then obviously Pete AI League crushed it. It's interesting. I
(34:04):
talked to a couple of coaches who played against you
earlier in the year and and all of them said, well,
that's that's the best team i've I've seen and um,
and it was kind of universal from other coaches, like, look,
there's a lot of other good teams, but ukin may
well be the best. And look, I understand your league
(34:25):
is always harder, people know you better, and your league
is unique not just in how good it is, but
also some leagues everybody plays the same style. That's not
the Big East. There's there's a bunch of different styles
and different kind of coaching backgrounds. What happened in the
middle of the year when you're ranked number one in
the country and then suddenly you guys struggle a little
bit to close games. Yeah, I just think it's you know,
(34:47):
it's it's never really one thing. I think it's you know,
it was part you get away from your identity, um,
you know, for which for us is always centering around
being the hardest playing team, making winning every effort, play,
play a high level defense. I think our defense dropped
from like top fifteen top twenty two, you know, I
(35:11):
think it dropped twenty five spots within a two week span. Um.
And then I think from a leadership standpoint, I you know,
I got distracted um, you know, by battling with the officials,
and I was obviously frustrated and not leading in a
way that was putting us in the best position to
(35:34):
you know, to keep our poise and to execute and
win games. And and then the league is tough, man,
it's a it's a tough league. And we played a
very very difficult stretch of games on the road that
we're on top of each other going Tuesday. If you're
going to Providence and then going to Marquette in a
three out of four game stretch would be tough on
(35:56):
any team in the country. So how'd you get them back?
How do you how did you get back on track?
How'd you get the team back on track? It just
helped us that there was you know, I saw our
high end. I think we all had that hope and
belief and who we could be because of the level
(36:17):
that we were able to play at in November and December. Um,
you know, we were able to I think throw January away.
I'd love to tell you that I took like a
the calendar sheet and lit it on fire in front
of the team and said, hey, let's bury January. But
(36:39):
you know, the way we started to play in February
gave us the confidence I think, you know, the Marquette
game at home, they were maybe the hottest team in
the country and we beat them, you know, very very soundly,
which I think got our confidence back, and really hard
(36:59):
matchup for them. We've since then, we really are only
two losses where one possession games at Creighton and Marquette
at that MSG. Yeah, and Marquete's a hard matchup for
you guys in terms of how they play and stylistically. Um,
what's happened at halftime of your tournament games? Because I mean, uh,
(37:22):
it's it wasn't just forty three twenty two in the
second half of the Gonzaga game, I mean just throdeling people,
was one seventy seven one oh seven? As what? You
guys outscored opponents in the second half in all four
nc adrium I own a games close, then all of
a sudden, you come out of halftime. Is it what?
What adjustments? What do you say? What's happening that you
(37:44):
guys are just completely blowing away opponents in the second
half of these games? Yeah? I think we play I'd
love to say, and I'm like the genius of halftime adjustments.
But I just think it has to do with we
play with a relentlessness in terms of our effort, how
hard we play, what we're a deep team. Um, So
(38:08):
I think that we eventually kind of break opponents down
just by wearing on him. I think defenses get worse
versus Hawkins in the second half. I think it's one
thing to be able to chase him around effectively for
the first twenty minutes, but you know, in the second half,
he finds those openings and then you know, we go
(38:30):
on these big runs. Um You know, when when you're
watching the game, or at least when I'm watching the game,
you know, like your whole kind of life, career, everything
that you've been through is in is in my mind.
Like I'm just and it's like so many people like
so happy for you, right, Like you're just so incredibly
(38:51):
happy for all your hard work, all your your ability
to push through all the bs of the past, you know,
and and and do this for for an incredible basketball program.
But what about you when you're on the sidelines and
you're looking up and you know you're up thirty in
Gonzaga and you're running them out of the gym and
you know you're going to the final four, your brothers there,
your dad's there, PJA, who coachy recruit you to? Seeing
(39:13):
halls there? Like it is it? Are you able to
have that that moment while it's happening to understand all
these things that have happened. Not at the time, I'm
I'm I'm not a normal Like you know, we're not
normal people, right. The people that want to be that
(39:33):
are coaches and players like you or me and and
spend their whole life in this competitive fire and mindset.
So like these things, I wanted to stay the PJ
like in Albany in Vegas that I probably should have said,
and I had ample opportunities, but like I didn't say it,
(39:55):
Like like I coach, I'm sorry. I was like such
a mess and I got to I couldn't help you
more how And I wish I could like look around
and enjoy the journey more. But that's just not how
I'm wired. My mindset just very quickly turned to like
(40:15):
Miami Texas, what times that game tomorrow? Uh? You do
do we have ten games downloaded on each and put
them all on my iPad? Uh? You know we are
who we are? Uh? Maybe in the summer when I'm
at the Jersey Shore, I'll enjoy it all right, Um,
you have been more zen on the sideline though. I
like you've been. You've been. I mean, you get your
(40:37):
arms crossed and you're just kind of it seems like
you're enjoying it. What's what's actually going on up there
when you're as you're because your your demeanor is different,
as you said, like, look, you were getting into it
with with revs and that's been daldbacks. What what what
is going on? What? What? What's going on upstairs while
you're watching all this take place? It's a it's a
(40:58):
great team or played great. Um, if you really look
back years five and six at Rhode Island when I
when I had great teams there, I was pretty I
was pretty relaxed. I just kind of coached a game.
Obviously coach with passion still, but I wasn't really maniacal
like like I could be at times when I'm living
(41:22):
and dying and fighting for every point foul. When you
know that your margins are slim, when you feel like
you have a strong team, the margins aren't a slim
you know, so you're you're more accepting of a call
or a misshot and I think, Um, you know, for me,
it's like everything this time of year is automatic, Like
(41:44):
we've been at this for a long time. Our players
know what to do, they know their role. I'm just
managing the game and making sure that we have the
right game plan, the game script. You know, there's there's
gonna be a lot of people that take the construct
of like Miami and say, well, well, that's how you
compete in this new world of college basketball. Your team
(42:06):
you do. I mean, you have a you have a transfer,
you have a kid who's in the portal coaching change
was made so it wasn't like he was a guy
at a high level program. But it's for the most part,
these are guys that you recruited. Um, in your mind,
is your model sustainable in this new world? Great question. Uh,
(42:30):
We're going to find out probably next season, because I
don't see a straying from doing it this way. It's
the way, it's the way I want to do it.
You know, will always supplement the homegrown, young talented players
that we can really mold. Um. You know, I just
(42:53):
love getting a guy at eighteen and being their college
coach and you promising a family that I'm going to
take their young man and get them across the finish
line to achieve their you know, their goals, and so
you know, Doug, I want to recruit them. I want
to have a mix, but a majority of my program
(43:15):
I want to have recruited out of high school and
help them developed and maybe take some lumps early on
in their career. Put then you know, all be sitting
in a position like this in March, like we have
Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson and Donasonogo Donovan cling and
that's to Alex Caraban, that's the way we want to
do it. Um, Okay, how do you how do you
(43:38):
manage all this stuff? Right? Like this is you got
your you had to manage your owne like all the
ticker requests, all the radio interviews, but for them, you know,
with social media, everything has to have exploded in terms
of people wanting something from them, time, attention. How do
you how do you get how do you manage all
this as you get ready for the final four. I'm
(44:03):
ripped him yesterday and we practiced, and we practiced pretty hard,
and I think the way that we work the way
that we practice, my intensity um, you know what, what
what our staff demands, I think it doesn't lend itself
to complacency. So the best thing that happened for us
(44:28):
is getting on this bus to the plane to get
to Houston, getting a hotel together where it's where it's
just us. Get these guys heads added the phone. They've
been swimming around in dopamine. Now they did it during
the weekend. We brought him back to reality Monday and
Tuesday by getting these guys ready to play. You know,
(44:48):
what's going to be our hardest game of the year
versus Miami team that that's as good as Gonzaga was offensively.
You know that Miami's gotten much, I think, much better
perimeter weapons. They don't ever drew Timmy, but they've got
four guys right now in the perimeter that are playing
at a high level and a hard de Garden. What
(45:12):
that would it mean to you? Because I mean, look,
when when I played against you, I just remember I thought, God,
I thought it had to be hard to be you,
right like your brother went back to the titles, right,
I mean, I just I just I was like, you know,
it's hard enough being me. I did not want to
be you. You and Kevin You and Kevin Willard that year.
I just I was like, man, I don't want to
(45:32):
be those guys. But considering all that, have you have
you thought about it? What would be like to cut
down the nets on Monday night? I just I haven't
let myself gone there. I'm looking out at the wall
in the practice facility with the ninety nine or four, eleven,
(45:52):
fourteen National Championship banners, and you can't help but think,
what would it be like to have your own hanging
in here? But it feels so far away, you know,
because once once you pop on that tape of your opponent,
you know, like that fear hits you of everything that
(46:15):
could go wrong in that next game. And I think
that like that fearful respect that you have for your opponent,
especially when you're as paranoid as I am as a
coach and everything that's happened in my career, I just
I don't take anything for granted, you know, Like I've
I've had a lot of I failed a lot in
(46:36):
this business and hasn't been a joy ride. So you'll
never catch me thinking ahead basketball. Nothing's really come easy.
So I'm just took to some Miami Okay, how about this?
What is it about Yukon Because you know you're the
third coach to take them to the Final four, and
(46:59):
I mean, I look, I don't think any of it happens,
not just if you're not in charge, but if you
guys don't rejoin the Big East. I just I don't
think it. I don't think it happens. Um. What is
it about Yukon though, that has had had been able
to to to have these different waves of success? Because
you know, there are plenty of other programs which have
(47:19):
had shots of success and can never get Georgetown hasn't
figured it out since the mid nineties, right, I mean
you kind of go through these these different but you're
talking about thirty years of sustained success, which which the
only blip was before you got there. What is it
about Yukon's program? No, it's all it's all Geno and
(47:40):
and coach Calhoun. Not its sweet what those two. But
you took it over, like, let's not undersell it. Let's
not undersell it. You took you took it over. It
wasn't in a good place. No, it was bad. It
was bad. But but but like you know, Doug, it's
like it was not before those guys got here. They
(48:02):
obviously built this incredible brand and and broke through and
attracted the right type of people. Obviously, you've got resources here,
You've got a crazy fan base, so their social media
it's crazy, the hysteria that they create. But but in
(48:22):
places it's about It's about the people that are coaching.
It's about the players that those people coaching could attract.
You know, like this is about like ray On, these coaches,
but like those coaches are they got Rebecca Lobo and
Sue Bird and Ray Allen and Rip Hamilton and Ben
Gordon and all these guys to come here. And I
(48:45):
was able to get this great staff that attracted Jordan
Hawkins and Andre Jackson. But it's the people. It's it's
not you know, it's not buildings, it's not stories. Connecticut
is nice, it's a great place to run a program.
There's not a lot of distractions that probably helps. All Right,
last thing, I know your your time is valuable and
(49:06):
I appreciate it. Um you mentioned that fear. Okay, so
what's let me in. What's the biggest fear that you
have that you as you as you get rid for
these games? I would say, um, just specifically, you know,
getting just how your players are going to respond when
they when they get to Houston. You know, playing in
(49:30):
the first second round MSG Biggies tournament. There's a great
training ground, Sweet sixteen, Elite eight, you know, great training grounds,
but there's nothing like playing in the final four. Big
you know, football stadium, big dome, you know, the bigness
of everything. You know, can we continue to just keep
(49:50):
it at the level that we've been playing it at, um,
you know, in the moments, just not too big for us. Well, listen, man,
I'm I'm incredibly happy for your success, for your family success,
and of course for your staff. Appreciate your time, look
forward to seeing in Houston, and we'll see you Monday
night when you got that net around your neck. Love it, Dougnes.
(50:11):
It's awesome to be all with you, my friend,
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gotlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
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(00:22):
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Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Hope you're having a great day.
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Unmatched selection, fast free shipping over is this right? Ten
(00:46):
thousand recommend installers, It's a lot of installers. There's a
lot of things been installed diirect dot com the way
tire buying should be welcome in m guys. Uh. We
we discussed a lot of things in the pre show
meetings and emails and text chains, and here's what we
(01:11):
landed on. I want to have a conversation in the
midway in regards to Stephen A. Smith and Dan Lebertard,
Dan Stephen a appeared on Dan Lebertard's show, and Dan said,
I hate what you've done to sports media. We're gonna
have that discussion. Okay, so everybody, just in one hour,
we'll have that discussion. We'll play the sound for you
(01:33):
and then we'll just talk. Let us talk. But let's
as the lamar turns. So you got a bunch of
different things here. Let's start with a lot of people
have said, hey, why not the Atlanta Falcons. Arthur Blank
is an owner who is very well liked. There is
(01:58):
the thought that you know, because he's Mike Vick two
point zero without any of the off the field nonsense, right,
And when I say out the field nonsense, we can
let's be honest. Off the field nonsense was dog fighting,
and Mike Vick now is one of the most respected
(02:19):
former players in the history of the NFL. Truly is
like you ask NFL dudes, because we all grew up
watching him like it was I was in college same time.
We all grew up watching him and just marveled at
his talent and when it all fell apart and then
he putting it back together, and how he's owned it
and moved on all those things like Mike Vick. But like, look,
when he was in Atlanta, it was a mess. He
(02:40):
didn't work hard in terms of studying his playbook, and
he had too much other stuff going on. And Lamar
hasn't had any sort of issues none. So a lot
of people have said that, Well, the Falcons to this
point have showed no interest. Arthur Blank, their owners said,
there's no question that Jackson is one of the top
quarterbacks in league, but it was a different player in
(03:02):
a different time last offseason. Blank also questioned Jackson's durability.
Looking at it objectively, I'd say there's some concern over
how long he can play his style of game. This
is what he said to Josh Kendall of the Athletic
Hopefully a long time, but he missed five or six
games each of the last two years. Every game counts
in our business. Okay. So I'm going to go in
(03:26):
in a second into all the different things working against him.
And you have these you have writers and people on
social media and people on television who are so obnoxious
that they simply want to pick Deshaun Watson. First of all,
Deshaun Watson's contract is bad. Okay, we all understand that
(03:47):
it's not a good contract. It was a ridiculous trade
and a ridiculous contract, and no one was anywhere near
that stratosphere. And the only reason they did so, the
Browns did so was out of sheer desperation. That's what
happens when you get into a bidding war. Sometimes somebody
will go like ten thousand and like, we're just at
(04:08):
three okay, going once, going twice sold. That's kind of
what happened there. And I understand the precedents. We've actually
covered this for a good year and a half that Hey,
he has no outfield issues like Deshan. He hasn't suffered.
He hasn't suffered injury ACLS. Deshan suffered two Like, I
(04:30):
get it. They neither has been particularly great in the playoffs.
Deshan doesn't have an MVP. Lots of stuff. The problem
with it is if it was true precedent, and by precedent,
I mean like we see in the legal definition where
that's the law and everything falls afterwards. Is because of
that law, Kyler Murray signed afterwards, it wasn't fully guaranteed.
(04:55):
Aaron Rodgers signed afterwards, it was not fully guaranteed. Like
Russell Wilsons, I'm a new contract afterwards, it was not
fully guaranteed, so it's not actually precedent setting even if
it did set some sort of precedent that this actually
is out there. So Lamar Jackson took to Twitter this morning,
(05:16):
Let's get real, I have a one PCL. I'd rather
have a one PCL than go out there and play
horrible forcing myself to put guy put my guys in
a bad situation. Now that's selfish of me. Jackson tweeted
last night, I don't remember me sitting out, sitting out
(05:38):
on my guys week one versus the Jets, to week
twelve versus the Broncos. How come y'all all of a
sudden say I sit out because of the money in
which I've gotten hurt anytime within that time frame we
could know the Super Bowl had been on my mind
since April twenty eighteen. I don't know. As I've said,
you can't have it both ways. Either you sat out
(05:59):
because you on a new contract, or you didn't, or
you sat out because you were legitimately hurt. And if
you're legitimately hurt, while then you missed fifteen games over
the past two seasons, including the end of the past
two seasons. If you're legit hurt, then you're legit hurt.
And what Arthur Blank is saying is keep in mind,
(06:19):
we all know that we react to the present and
to the future based upon our past. Okay, so Arthur
Blank had Mike Vick right. The Mike Vick thing didn't
fall apart just with the dog fighting. The Mike Vick
thing started to fall apart when he got hurt in
(06:39):
I think it was a preseason game. So he's had
a running quarterback that previously got hurt. He also is
in the same division as the Carolina Panthers. And what
happened to Cam Newton? He won MVP and he was
never the same since. Why because he took a savage beat.
(07:00):
And if you want to say, hey, well, he's different
than Lamar Jackson because Lamar is much quicker, he avoids contact,
you're right. But he's also much smaller than Cam Newton,
who's a gigantic human being. And he doesn't run the
football as much as as he never ran the football
as much as Lamar's running it, but in in his
(07:21):
and then they were in the bidding war for Deshaun
Watson last year, they knew what the landscape was, like,
they knew it was it was, it became a bid
and they were trying to trying to get him. And
I'm guessing that last year the reason they didn't get
Deshaun was they never thought of going to five years
guarantee because they thought it was crazy. Why because he
(07:43):
has a history of injuries and he's seen running quarterbacks
get hurt. And Deshaun's a lot less of a runner
than Mike Vick was, than Lamar is, than Cam Newton.
Like that's these are just realities, just realities. So what
people who support Lamar Jackson, they have this incredibly screwed
(08:07):
up way of looking at it where they think that
owners or gms, if they save, if they don't give
a fourth or a fifth year fully guaranteed, somehow that
money goes back into the pocket of the owner, back
into the pocket of the general manager. Like none of
that is true. The reality is that if you sign
(08:29):
a deal where it's three years fully guaranteed, and we
talked about this yesterday, the reality is most of these
deals they're not going to get They can't get ready
after to year four because there's too big a cap hit.
They just can't. And if they do, you go out
and sign a new deal. But if you're any good,
they have to rework your contract during it so they
avoid that massive contract cap hit and kick it down
(08:49):
the road. So what you're asking Arthur Blank, for example,
to do, is hey, because he's Lamar Jackson. Even though
you live through the mic vic thing and he got hurt,
forget about all that. Even though you've watched the Cam
Newton thing and he got hurt and he got beat
up and he wasn't nearly the same. Forget all about that.
(09:11):
Even though you obviously did not bid at the level
of the Cleveland Browns and that's why they got Deshaun Watson,
and everybody agrees that's a terrible contract. Forget all about that.
And because social media and media and former players and
current players think this is what like, No, it's not.
Arthur Blank is a billionaire. He ain't get to be
(09:33):
a billionaire by going like, I know this is a
really bad business deal, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
And oh yeah, by the way, what no one has
said outside of this here show is okay. Part of
Here's where Lamar is caught it's not just in the
five year guaranteed contract in that money, okay, it's those
(09:55):
big contract quarterbacks. Those big contract quarterbacks. You can only
go and get those guys if you have a ready
made Super Bowl team. And by the way, generally they
don't work this free agency, and this would be something
he's not actually a free agent. Also something that's not
really discussed, like the Ravens actually want him back. The
(10:17):
Texans and Deshaun Watson, they were not. That was not
coming back. That was over, okay. But in order to
build a franchise in terms of its talent, you have
to do that with a rookie a quarterback, or a
rookie deal or a minimum deal, because it's the only
(10:40):
way in which you can put money to other places.
So you build up the overall talent, and then if
that rookie quarterback is good enough, then you give him
the big contract, and then you figure out who can
we keep, who can we not keep. We kind of
go through this cycle all over again, only you do
what Kansas City's doing, where you have to kill it
in the draft. As you got a quarterback making such
(11:01):
a gigantic portion of the salary cap, so the teams
that Lamar could actually like. So the Atlanta Falcons would
be insane to trade for Lamar Jackson, not because he's
not better than Desmond River, but because they're not winning
a super Bowl. They're not doing anything. They don't have
(11:23):
good enough talent. They were, in anybody's conversation, the least
talented team in the league. Would they be better with Lamar? Yeah,
but they couldn't actually ever get good because the amount
of money he's making. But Lamar is trying to have
it both ways, right, trying to have it both ways.
He's trying to have it. Hey, I would never sit
(11:44):
out on my guys just because of money. Okay, so
then you've been hurt. Well no, no, I've got injury prone.
I don't. Yeah, yeah, you kind of are. Kind of are.
This is the best of the dub Guy Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. What I want you Doug Got
(12:08):
Leap Show, Fox Sport TRADEO. Hope you're having a great day.
The Doug Got Lip Show is a broadcasting live on
the tirect dot com studios tirect dot com. Well you
get there. Unmatched selection fast free shipping. Free road has
a protection over ten thousand recommended dollars. Tirect dot COM's
way tire buying should be welcome. Man, hope be having
a great day. It's a Wednesday, technically the middle of
our show, the middle of our day, hopefully the middle
(12:30):
of yours. Let's do something we called the midway, the Midworthy.
It's not getting the middle, it's time for getting the
middle of the Midworthy. So I'm gonna I'll own this
one because I chose the topic. Here's the topic, Dan Buyer,
(12:57):
j stu. We've been doing this thing combined mind seventy
plus years. Is that right? Hella? Sure? Okay? So stephen A.
Smith was a guest on let Dan Leviotard Show, and
the Midway just CNL is some sort of open forum
discussion we do the middle of every week. Sometimes that's
(13:17):
through a sports sometimes it doesn't. Dan Leviotard said this
in regards to stephen A and Skip Bayliss and the
role they've played in modern day sports talk. I hate
what you two have done to sports television. You can
say that all you want to. I would say, who
the hell are you? To sit up there and say
me and him? What about you? What the hell were
you living under a rock? I'm teaching at that Miami
(13:38):
you you are part of it too. I'm talking. I'm
talking about all the imitators that you have birthed, all
of the all of the imitators that are all over
the place thinking without the journalism credentials, that the point
of all this is to turn it into an argument
on television. Well, I would take on bridget what you're
(13:58):
saying in this regard, Dan, and those people who don't
have a journalism background, who don't exercise journalistic ethics, and beyond,
how are we responsible for that when our background is
based on that. Skip Baylist was a journalist for decades.
(14:22):
I was a journalist for decades. We came, we come
on television, and those ethics are applicable. The fact of
the matter is is that when I take a position,
it's the same kind of position I would take write
in a column. The difference is instead of writing eight
hundred words and being limited to that space, I get
to talk for a few minutes on each subject. Okay,
(14:49):
I'll share mine in a second, Dan Bayer, I haven't
heard your thoughts on this. Go ahead. I almost have
a question of where do you want me to start? Like, okay, well,
then then you know, I will start. Okay, first of all, um,
I liked at first where Lebotard was going, and then
(15:09):
he he whisked out. He whisked out because he started
by saying I hate what you two have done, and
then he goes all the imitators as if they're the
real deal. They're not part of the problem, right bear sure, Okay,
that I mean, just like, look, if you're gonna go there,
(15:30):
go there, don't go halfway and go like, oh, it's
not you, it's the it's the imitators of you. Now
for stephen A, the I'm a journalist. Really, what you're
doing is journalism. And oh yeah, by the way, there
have been plenty of things in which you know, you've
misspoken or misstead or said or just just didn't do
(15:52):
or didn't you know, like come on, and if it
was if what they were doing was from a journalistic
background and somehow that put them beyond reproach. Why is
Skip Bayless calling Chris boss Chrissy Bosh, which first of all,
callin dudes names of females. Obviously that's gone the way
of the dodos. But didn't Jim Rome try that, like
Jay STW what was that twenty five years ago. Yeah,
(16:15):
so not only is it bad theater and bad practice,
but it's a bad imitation. So now, on the other hand,
I actually my push my pushback if I was Steven
A would be completely different. What do you matter about
(16:36):
We've we've we've created a niche which previously didn't exist.
And by the way, like in all these other industries,
you age out, you age out, especially you know it's
males you age out. Its Skip Bayles in his seventies.
It's resurrected his career. And there are others, you know,
(16:58):
I mean Mad Dog Russo. Granted he's still very successful
on satellite radio and MLBtv, but not mainstream. This is
brought him back in the mainstream, I mean stephen A.
Smith like that. You know, you can make the case.
This is not make the case. This has made his career.
Was he apologizing for or what does he need to
(17:18):
apologize for? So, like, look, do I think a lot
of its hack, yes? Do I think it's bad, yes?
Do I think it puts you in a really the word.
The part that I don't like is stephen A at
least goes to the games. Now most of the games
he goes to he's being paid to cover right for
the NBA. Skip, doesn't you're there, so you're not You're
(17:40):
studio gangsters. You're not out there in the real world.
And I love some of the discussions they have. They're
really high highs. There's just a really low lows as well.
All right now, Dan, you go ahead, mid perfect because
you know the Levatard point of the imitators. I think
that's a part of it. But I don't blame stephen
(18:01):
A for doing this. If this is what got stephen
A and has allowed him to make his name, and
his point that he has said prior is that there
were other shows prior to this. Just because stephen A
did it better than everyone else, stephen A shouldn't be blamed. Um.
(18:21):
I also think, and if you're gonna blame anybody, blame
the people who put it on the air. Blame the
executives that say this is the you know, this is
this is the guy, this is the show that we want.
I know, like everybody's got different tastes in in you know,
sports talk show hosts and different shows that they like.
(18:45):
Some are good, some are bad. But you know, if
if someone's really bad and they're trying their best. Whose
fault is it? Is it their fault that that they're
bad or that somebody is allowing them to have the
opportunity to do it three times a day for you
to listen like, And so that's where I like come
down on it is I don't blame stephen A for it.
(19:06):
I think that there's a lack of creativity and they
think that there's copycats everywhere and it's the easy thing
to do. ESPN is doing there's oh guess what, well,
we need to do that, and we need to do
what they're doing, and we need to have our own
version of it, but we're just gonna make it just
a little bit different. But it's essentially going to be
the same thing. And so that's where I put a
(19:27):
lot of the blame. I don't blame stephen A. I
don't blame Skip Bayliss for it, considering that they seem
to be the best to do what they do. Okay,
go ahead, jay st Yeah, No, I come at it
from a different angle here. I think that there I
think there needs to be some culpability from stephen A
(19:47):
in this response that we played, like to me and
I watch almost every day. I consume way too much
debate TV. So to me, stephen A makes mistakes. He's
made a lot of, like real embarrassing mistakes. Stephen A
has said things that just are not true as well.
(20:08):
And I know, just because I know people in the
business and I know kind of what the process is,
a lot of those mistakes have nothing to do with journalism.
They have to do with being lazy, not putting the
work in, not putting the prep in. And those aren't
quote unquote journalistic ethics. Those are just you get paid
(20:29):
a whole lot of money and sometimes you just want
to mail it in. I watch stephen A mail in
segments all the time, and I guess he's earned the
right to do that. But those segments when he's just
talking out of his backside, when he's just going off
on something that you know he doesn't believe. That is
what Lebotard has a problem with, because you see Skip
(20:51):
doing it, and you see stephen A doing it, and
all of these younger broadcasters who want to make a
name for themselves think that is the way to get
this done, and they copy those. So I just think
it when you fall back on your right quote unquote
journalistic integrity. That's such a cop out. Maybe you started
out a journalist, but now you're a provocateur who talks
(21:14):
out of his ass for a living. There might be
some substance to what you have to say. But I
I hate the complete denial here by stephen A. But
what I do think as well is what LeBatard was
getting to. And there's kind of like this de evolution
of sports talk because of this format and because you
(21:35):
think you have to have a hot take or an
outrageous thing to say about something to be interesting. In
other words, just doing the homework and having something interesting
to say about something based on your homework and your
own thoughts is not enough, So you need to make
it up. So when I was at ed ESPN, the
(21:56):
kingmaker for these shows, I'll leave his name out of it,
the kingmaker for the shows. I if you remember there
is Numbers Never Lie. Do you guys remember Numbers Never
Lie was actually a really good concept. It just they
didn't have the right people in place at the time.
This was right about my departure. This in twenty twelve
(22:18):
and the first Take thing had taken off. Remember first
Take was part of first and it was first and
ten right part of Cold Pizza, and then it was
a segment that there were segments that had been made
into a show, so then they had Then they started
to create numbers Never Lie and numbers Never Lie. The
idea was, hey, what are the actual what's the actual
(22:39):
data say? And then we'll discuss with the data nerd
and with some former athlete, maybe a coach as well.
I love that show. Michael Smith, who's now moved on right,
and it ended up becoming him and Jamal Hill's show,
and then they put them on Sports Center. I liked
that show and it became a little bit more of
a debate. It became a debate show at the end,
or maybe their discussion show, which is kind of some
(23:00):
sort of quasi debate. But what was told to me
at the time was, Hey, the world needs villains. You
need to go full villain. And I knew that was like,
you know, it's like do the skip Bayless thing. And
I just said, like, here's the deal. If I'm a villain,
it's an involuntary response. I am only going to be me.
(23:23):
I don't I don't want to get into kid. If
I want to be an actor, I'll go in acting.
I talk about sports. I'm a sports guy. I grew
up into sports house. I've played, I played a really
high level sports covered it, I know people in it.
I love it. That's all that I'm about. And so
I didn't do the villain thing, and I guarantee that's
why I didn't get a show of that type. And
(23:45):
yet I actually think I'm really good in those shows
because though i'm I'm actually a debating specialist and I'm
really I also like sometimes I'm not willing to do
I don't do the hot take thing, like if I
say something that is seen as a hot ta, because
I actually believe it and there's a logic behind it,
and I'm willing usually to hear somebody else out even
if they're wrong. But I also would tell you that
(24:09):
I'm not sure like Lebotard, Okay, he does basically he
tries to do the what Dan Patrick does. And there's
obviously been other radio shows like that where you do
kind of you know, it's just a bunch of dudes
talking about something. Right, Hey see, it's basically copying Howard Stern. Right,
(24:30):
everybody's copying Howard Stern, and imitation is the most sincere
form of flattering. But Dan hasn't been great for the media.
I don't think because he is a journalist. But he
was like woke before woke was cool. And he's super
super defender of the players even when they're at clearly
(24:55):
at fault. It's it's not about him, it's about his background.
It's like, you know, a certain level of accountabill we
have to have as human beings that is missing. But
the difference would be that Dan and an look. Dan
refused to when he was at ESPN Radio. He refused
to do the hey, dude, play the hits and it
(25:17):
was it was interesting to me, and that I think
his show would have been way more successful, would have
lasted way longer, could have killed it if they had
the same sorts of discussions instead of making fun of
people who talk about the things that matter to everybody,
just talking about the things that matter to everybody, and
if you want to make fun of them, make fun
of them. But instead they're making fun of everybody else
(25:39):
and then talking about whatever the hell they want to
talk about, which violates the number one rule of national
sports television, national sports trading, which is don't talk about
what you want to talk about talk about what everybody
else wants to talk about anyway. Sorry. I also think
that programming for television is very difficult. And the shows
(26:01):
that that we are talking like Levitard Show, Um, you know,
I know it's streamed, it's not on ESPN, but it's
it's different to take a three hour show like The Herd.
Colin Coward put it on Fox Sports one, and that's
the show. There is no you know, it's Colin's show
that you hear on Fox Sports Radio, but you also
(26:23):
can see it on Fox Sports one. You know, that's
different than programming a television show, right like right to
come up to come up with you know, however long
first take it. I don't even know how long. I
don't watch it, but that can't necessarily be easy, which
is why I also think you see a spawn of
(26:44):
shows that try to do that, and whether you like
first take or don't like first take, also don't live
up to that level if you will. Well, he did
to the He did have the scripted show with highly
Questionable before the the Dan. Yeah, yeah, you know, but
I think I think in that in that regard, it
(27:05):
kind of shows maybe where Dan's coming from different angle
and that he always seemed to get the stick at
a ESPN, like whenever he would do one of the
things that he thought was something that like like when
he when he gave his his Hall of Baseball Hall
of Fame vote to dead Spen, Like he got punished
for that every time he should something to get should
But again, like this is the this is the Lebotard thing,
(27:26):
Like you're a journalist, yet you don't want to do
journalistic things, and then you question other people's journalistic integrity. Look, look,
I'll just tell you because you weren't there, and you
don't you don't know that level. Like Dan Lebertard was
given the keys to the kingdom there. Hey, I mean
he just was like please don't please don't think that
he somehow was he is a victim in this thing, Okay,
(27:49):
you know Dan, It had Dan, Like look at all
of us in our generation, and I think this is
a big thing and not necessarily a generation, but more
Jays do me and and Buyer is our kids are
going through. Our kids are fighting everything with teachers and
anything with society because it's the reflection of us. And
(28:09):
like our generation is like we pushed back on authority.
That's that's been a big it's all generations have, but
especially our generation and then our kids kind of doubly so.
Um but uh like let's not get too far afield,
Like he's so you talk about programming. Do you know
(28:30):
how they came up with this concept? Why it'll all
work by you want to take a shot? Um, No,
my mind's not there right now. That's okay. Yeah. So
I mean remember two thousand and eight until two thousand
and eleven, two twelve. What was going on in our
country two thousand and eight twenty twelve. Yes, um, gosh,
(28:53):
greatest recession, greatest recession of our lifetimes. I was in market, Yes, collapse.
Do you know what they found that people did not
give up? Who are out of work? What's up? Cable television?
This is before the era of cord cutting. Okay, cable television.
I was there. They did studies, yes, but they're like, look,
they'll cut off anything, just not their cable, like that's
(29:15):
their outlet. And so you had an excessive number of
dudes at home across a multitude of racist right, and
basically all they tried to capture was the essence of
barbershop talk. And like I actually think that that Steven
A would do himself justice if he if he eliminated
(29:37):
that whole idea of I'm a journalist, because what he
could say, which would be which would be much more real.
It is like, look what We've been able to capture
as long as I've been doing this is two guys
sitting around talking about the topics, arguing about the topics today,
which happens in you know, a pool hall, somebody's living room,
a barbershop, at a poker table, whatever, Like this is real.
(30:00):
This is and yeah, we'll say some stupid stuff that
doesn't make any sense, we'll call people names, well, we'll
do whatever. We'll we'll make fun of different things because
we're guys and that's what we do. And sometimes we
talk out of our rectum. That's what dudes do. And
it's been really successful because people relate to our sides
or our perspective. That's a better argument than you know,
(30:22):
other people try and do this, but they can't because
I'm a journalist. Like that sounds not only arrogant, but
so far a field from reality. It's it's the mid words, troublesome, wall,
you think buyer, yeah's just I think we could go
on forty more minutes. I know that's what we honestly
feel like, completely underwhelmed for what I provided, because I
think there's so much more to say. Okay, well, how
(30:44):
about you know, if you want to join us in
the pod tomorrow, we could do it on the pod.
We could do a lot longer. You could. People apparently
listen to the pod, so we could. We could do that.
It's called in the bonus, So we'll drop that at
the top of next hour. This show is brought to
you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy, affordable to
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(31:06):
dot Com. I'll say this like I'll end this discussion
with this little, short, little aside. I don't think they
have anything to apologize for. I don't because I think
you know, we're placing the blame at the wrong places.
Right If if what Jason says is true where he
(31:29):
ain't working hard enough in certain spots, Okay, that's up
to a boss. That's up to somebody to hold him accountable.
You know, that's up for other people to point that out,
and like I said, like if if the super pro
player arguments, which I think for Lebatar, like I don't
think it does him justice. I get you've got great
(31:50):
relationships with guys, but they just they they they hit
such a shallow note to me because it's obvious you're
doing it to curry favor with the athletes that you
want to hang out with. But it's also that they've
worked for these guys. These guys are ridiculously wealthy, ridiculously successful.
So any of us being critical of them, hey, the
reality of their job is that they've gotten good reviews.
(32:13):
Otherwise they wouldn't be making this much money. That's the reality,
ideal in realities, not in takes. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports radio dot com and
within the iHeartRadio app. Let's welcome him in. He's the
head coach of the Yukon Huskies. They're the favorite to
(32:35):
win the national title, and he joins us year in
the Doug Gottlich Show on Fox Sports Radio. You know,
with so many of these teams coach they're they're like
brand new every year, right, and so it does take
a lot of teams a sense a while to get
a sense for just how good they actually are not
can be coming into the year. What do you think
(32:56):
of your group? I thought in the summer, Doug, I
wasn't I was just hoping that we would be an
NCAA tournament team. You know, summer practices, you know, so
many new pieces, and obviously us the reach of a
(33:18):
high level was contingent upon like Jordan Hawkins making that
huge jump, Andre Jackson being able to play like a
you know, an MBA wing level player, cling and making
the huge impact. I think, you know, we had a
close scrimmage Virginia early and you know, we played really
(33:41):
really well. We played like a one possession versus one
possession game versus them in a secret scrimmage, and I
think we had maybe two starters out but Hawkins Shop
thirty in the scrimmage and Snoga as a monster, And
even though it was just a close scrimmage, I thought,
you know, we showed a high level of play. And
then obviously Pete AI League crushed it. It's interesting. I
(34:04):
talked to a couple of coaches who played against you
earlier in the year and and all of them said, well,
that's that's the best team i've I've seen and um,
and it was kind of universal from other coaches, like, look,
there's a lot of other good teams, but ukin may
well be the best. And look, I understand your league
(34:25):
is always harder, people know you better, and your league
is unique not just in how good it is, but
also some leagues everybody plays the same style. That's not
the Big East. There's there's a bunch of different styles
and different kind of coaching backgrounds. What happened in the
middle of the year when you're ranked number one in
the country and then suddenly you guys struggle a little
bit to close games. Yeah, I just think it's you know,
(34:47):
it's it's never really one thing. I think it's you know,
it was part you get away from your identity, um,
you know, for which for us is always centering around
being the hardest playing team, making winning every effort, play,
play a high level defense. I think our defense dropped
from like top fifteen top twenty two, you know, I
(35:11):
think it dropped twenty five spots within a two week span. Um.
And then I think from a leadership standpoint, I you know,
I got distracted um, you know, by battling with the officials,
and I was obviously frustrated and not leading in a
way that was putting us in the best position to
(35:34):
you know, to keep our poise and to execute and
win games. And and then the league is tough, man,
it's a it's a tough league. And we played a
very very difficult stretch of games on the road that
we're on top of each other going Tuesday. If you're
going to Providence and then going to Marquette in a
three out of four game stretch would be tough on
(35:56):
any team in the country. So how'd you get them back?
How do you how did you get back on track?
How'd you get the team back on track? It just
helped us that there was you know, I saw our
high end. I think we all had that hope and
belief and who we could be because of the level
(36:17):
that we were able to play at in November and December. Um,
you know, we were able to I think throw January away.
I'd love to tell you that I took like a
the calendar sheet and lit it on fire in front
of the team and said, hey, let's bury January. But
(36:39):
you know, the way we started to play in February
gave us the confidence I think, you know, the Marquette
game at home, they were maybe the hottest team in
the country and we beat them, you know, very very soundly,
which I think got our confidence back, and really hard
(36:59):
matchup for them. We've since then, we really are only
two losses where one possession games at Creighton and Marquette
at that MSG. Yeah, and Marquete's a hard matchup for
you guys in terms of how they play and stylistically. Um,
what's happened at halftime of your tournament games? Because I mean, uh,
(37:22):
it's it wasn't just forty three twenty two in the
second half of the Gonzaga game, I mean just throdeling people,
was one seventy seven one oh seven? As what? You
guys outscored opponents in the second half in all four
nc adrium I own a games close, then all of
a sudden, you come out of halftime. Is it what?
What adjustments? What do you say? What's happening that you
(37:44):
guys are just completely blowing away opponents in the second
half of these games? Yeah? I think we play I'd
love to say, and I'm like the genius of halftime adjustments.
But I just think it has to do with we
play with a relentlessness in terms of our effort, how
hard we play, what we're a deep team. Um, So
(38:08):
I think that we eventually kind of break opponents down
just by wearing on him. I think defenses get worse
versus Hawkins in the second half. I think it's one
thing to be able to chase him around effectively for
the first twenty minutes, but you know, in the second half,
he finds those openings and then you know, we go
(38:30):
on these big runs. Um You know, when when you're
watching the game, or at least when I'm watching the game,
you know, like your whole kind of life, career, everything
that you've been through is in is in my mind.
Like I'm just and it's like so many people like
so happy for you, right, Like you're just so incredibly
(38:51):
happy for all your hard work, all your your ability
to push through all the bs of the past, you know,
and and and do this for for an incredible basketball program.
But what about you when you're on the sidelines and
you're looking up and you know you're up thirty in
Gonzaga and you're running them out of the gym and
you know you're going to the final four, your brothers there,
your dad's there, PJA, who coachy recruit you to? Seeing
(39:13):
halls there? Like it is it? Are you able to
have that that moment while it's happening to understand all
these things that have happened. Not at the time, I'm
I'm I'm not a normal Like you know, we're not
normal people, right. The people that want to be that
(39:33):
are coaches and players like you or me and and
spend their whole life in this competitive fire and mindset.
So like these things, I wanted to stay the PJ
like in Albany in Vegas that I probably should have said,
and I had ample opportunities, but like I didn't say it,
(39:55):
Like like I coach, I'm sorry. I was like such
a mess and I got to I couldn't help you
more how And I wish I could like look around
and enjoy the journey more. But that's just not how
I'm wired. My mindset just very quickly turned to like
(40:15):
Miami Texas, what times that game tomorrow? Uh? You do
do we have ten games downloaded on each and put
them all on my iPad? Uh? You know we are
who we are? Uh? Maybe in the summer when I'm
at the Jersey Shore, I'll enjoy it all right, Um,
you have been more zen on the sideline though. I
like you've been. You've been. I mean, you get your
(40:37):
arms crossed and you're just kind of it seems like
you're enjoying it. What's what's actually going on up there
when you're as you're because your your demeanor is different,
as you said, like, look, you were getting into it
with with revs and that's been daldbacks. What what what
is going on? What? What? What's going on upstairs while
you're watching all this take place? It's a it's a
(40:58):
great team or played great. Um, if you really look
back years five and six at Rhode Island when I
when I had great teams there, I was pretty I
was pretty relaxed. I just kind of coached a game.
Obviously coach with passion still, but I wasn't really maniacal
like like I could be at times when I'm living
(41:22):
and dying and fighting for every point foul. When you
know that your margins are slim, when you feel like
you have a strong team, the margins aren't a slim
you know, so you're you're more accepting of a call
or a misshot and I think, Um, you know, for me,
it's like everything this time of year is automatic, Like
(41:44):
we've been at this for a long time. Our players
know what to do, they know their role. I'm just
managing the game and making sure that we have the
right game plan, the game script. You know, there's there's
gonna be a lot of people that take the construct
of like Miami and say, well, well, that's how you
compete in this new world of college basketball. Your team
(42:06):
you do. I mean, you have a you have a transfer,
you have a kid who's in the portal coaching change
was made so it wasn't like he was a guy
at a high level program. But it's for the most part,
these are guys that you recruited. Um, in your mind,
is your model sustainable in this new world? Great question. Uh,
(42:30):
We're going to find out probably next season, because I
don't see a straying from doing it this way. It's
the way, it's the way I want to do it.
You know, will always supplement the homegrown, young talented players
that we can really mold. Um. You know, I just
(42:53):
love getting a guy at eighteen and being their college
coach and you promising a family that I'm going to
take their young man and get them across the finish
line to achieve their you know, their goals, and so
you know, Doug, I want to recruit them. I want
to have a mix, but a majority of my program
(43:15):
I want to have recruited out of high school and
help them developed and maybe take some lumps early on
in their career. Put then you know, all be sitting
in a position like this in March, like we have
Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson and Donasonogo Donovan cling and
that's to Alex Caraban, that's the way we want to
do it. Um, Okay, how do you how do you
(43:38):
manage all this stuff? Right? Like this is you got
your you had to manage your owne like all the
ticker requests, all the radio interviews, but for them, you know,
with social media, everything has to have exploded in terms
of people wanting something from them, time, attention. How do
you how do you get how do you manage all
this as you get ready for the final four. I'm
(44:03):
ripped him yesterday and we practiced, and we practiced pretty hard,
and I think the way that we work the way
that we practice, my intensity um, you know what, what
what our staff demands, I think it doesn't lend itself
to complacency. So the best thing that happened for us
(44:28):
is getting on this bus to the plane to get
to Houston, getting a hotel together where it's where it's
just us. Get these guys heads added the phone. They've
been swimming around in dopamine. Now they did it during
the weekend. We brought him back to reality Monday and
Tuesday by getting these guys ready to play. You know,
(44:48):
what's going to be our hardest game of the year
versus Miami team that that's as good as Gonzaga was offensively.
You know that Miami's gotten much, I think, much better
perimeter weapons. They don't ever drew Timmy, but they've got
four guys right now in the perimeter that are playing
at a high level and a hard de Garden. What
(45:12):
that would it mean to you? Because I mean, look,
when when I played against you, I just remember I thought, God,
I thought it had to be hard to be you,
right like your brother went back to the titles, right,
I mean, I just I just I was like, you know,
it's hard enough being me. I did not want to
be you. You and Kevin You and Kevin Willard that year.
I just I was like, man, I don't want to
(45:32):
be those guys. But considering all that, have you have
you thought about it? What would be like to cut
down the nets on Monday night? I just I haven't
let myself gone there. I'm looking out at the wall
in the practice facility with the ninety nine or four, eleven,
(45:52):
fourteen National Championship banners, and you can't help but think,
what would it be like to have your own hanging
in here? But it feels so far away, you know,
because once once you pop on that tape of your opponent,
you know, like that fear hits you of everything that
(46:15):
could go wrong in that next game. And I think
that like that fearful respect that you have for your opponent,
especially when you're as paranoid as I am as a
coach and everything that's happened in my career, I just
I don't take anything for granted, you know, Like I've
I've had a lot of I failed a lot in
(46:36):
this business and hasn't been a joy ride. So you'll
never catch me thinking ahead basketball. Nothing's really come easy.
So I'm just took to some Miami Okay, how about this?
What is it about Yukon Because you know you're the
third coach to take them to the Final four, and
(46:59):
I mean, I look, I don't think any of it happens,
not just if you're not in charge, but if you
guys don't rejoin the Big East. I just I don't
think it. I don't think it happens. Um. What is
it about Yukon though, that has had had been able
to to to have these different waves of success? Because
you know, there are plenty of other programs which have
(47:19):
had shots of success and can never get Georgetown hasn't
figured it out since the mid nineties, right, I mean
you kind of go through these these different but you're
talking about thirty years of sustained success, which which the
only blip was before you got there. What is it
about Yukon's program? No, it's all it's all Geno and
(47:40):
and coach Calhoun. Not its sweet what those two. But
you took it over, like, let's not undersell it. Let's
not undersell it. You took you took it over. It
wasn't in a good place. No, it was bad. It
was bad. But but but like you know, Doug, it's
like it was not before those guys got here. They
(48:02):
obviously built this incredible brand and and broke through and
attracted the right type of people. Obviously, you've got resources here,
You've got a crazy fan base, so their social media
it's crazy, the hysteria that they create. But but in
(48:22):
places it's about It's about the people that are coaching.
It's about the players that those people coaching could attract.
You know, like this is about like ray On, these coaches,
but like those coaches are they got Rebecca Lobo and
Sue Bird and Ray Allen and Rip Hamilton and Ben
Gordon and all these guys to come here. And I
(48:45):
was able to get this great staff that attracted Jordan
Hawkins and Andre Jackson. But it's the people. It's it's
not you know, it's not buildings, it's not stories. Connecticut
is nice, it's a great place to run a program.
There's not a lot of distractions that probably helps. All Right,
last thing, I know your your time is valuable and
(49:06):
I appreciate it. Um you mentioned that fear. Okay, so
what's let me in. What's the biggest fear that you
have that you as you as you get rid for
these games? I would say, um, just specifically, you know,
getting just how your players are going to respond when
they when they get to Houston. You know, playing in
(49:30):
the first second round MSG Biggies tournament. There's a great
training ground, Sweet sixteen, Elite eight, you know, great training grounds,
but there's nothing like playing in the final four. Big
you know, football stadium, big dome, you know, the bigness
of everything. You know, can we continue to just keep
(49:50):
it at the level that we've been playing it at, um,
you know, in the moments, just not too big for us. Well, listen, man,
I'm I'm incredibly happy for your success, for your family success,
and of course for your staff. Appreciate your time, look
forward to seeing in Houston, and we'll see you Monday
night when you got that net around your neck. Love it, Dougnes.
(50:11):
It's awesome to be all with you, my friend,
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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