March 12, 2025 • 47 mins
On a Wednesday edition of The Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show; Doug talks about the legacy of Tiger Woods as the golf super star may be calling it quits in the wake of his recent achilles injury.
Doug welcomes Robert Morris head basketball coach Andrew Toole onto the show to talk about his team winning the Horizon League championship and winning a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
In "The Midway", Doug and the crew talk about the popularity or lack of popularity of college basketball.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
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America Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sputs Radio com It to
(00:25):
you from the tyrat dot com studios ty rack dot com.
We'll help you get there. Unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free road ass protection. Over ten thousand recommends dollars ti
rat dot com. It's the way tire buying should be. Hey,
welcome in. Uh. This is a hard one because Dan
(00:53):
is doing Covino and Rich all week right, and like
Dan Byers our resident golf guy. But I do think
that this is a really, really interesting discussion to have.
So Tiger Woods, who was announced yesterday he'd torn his
achilles tendon. I believe that's his second Achilles tenant and
tear in his career. The first was when he had
(01:15):
also torn his acl and he won the US Open
on the extra playoff day against rock O mediate right, like,
how good is my golf knowledge there? I don't know
the year, Damn, we know the year, dam we know
each hole. But I do remember that he was playing
with a torn crew and apparently later we found out
(01:35):
it was a it was a torn Achilles tendant as well,
anyway towards Achilles tendon. And you're gonna have everybody in
their brother going saying what I said when he had
the last car accident, which is, yeah, that's that's probably it, right,
that's probably it. And so what happens is and you
get to your forties and your fifties, and I'm sure
(01:57):
when your sixties and seventies even more so is people
who watched their entire career, and when that career comes
to an end or they start to look older, it's
like inevitably at that moment you go like, God, I
feel way older. I feel like ten years older today
than I did yesterday. And males have that. I think
the answer is yes, but I look at this thing
(02:24):
completely differently. So I want you to think back to
before tiger Woods existed in your brain as a golf savant. So, Sam,
you're not quite old enough to do this. Maybe a
little bit, But I know, Jason, you are, I loo
(02:44):
is as well. Buyers sort is as well, and I am,
which is we're old enough to remember when golf wasn't
a thing. Golf was guys in ugly pants at country
club that we didn't get into, playing courses we didn't
care about, with traditions we didn't know, nor did we
(03:07):
invest in learning about. That was golf pre Tiger Woods.
Like I remember when Payne Stewart won, and I remember
when he tragically died, and Payne Stuart and everybody didn't
wear knickers back then, right, it was still kind of
clever to wear knickers, But the fact that he wore
knickers was like, yeah, that's a golf thing. Like why
(03:29):
would any human being on earth wear that at any
point in time in their life? Like baseball players only
wear baseball pants because those are baseball pants and you
have to Why would you wear knickers when you can,
you know, I guess wear slacks and a nice little polo.
That's how we perceived golf. That's what golf was. Golf
is elitist, elitist, elitist. If you grew up, and I've
(03:53):
come to learn it's a little bit different, especially in
the Midwest. Now living in the Midwest where in Wisconsin
you have you're a football, basketball, or hockey guy, right
and then summer you're either out in the water or
you're fishing, or you're playing golf. It's generally it like
(04:17):
I would say, high high percentage in the Midwest, and
even in Oklahoma where I've lived there a good number
of years. People love, love golf. But for those of
us who grew up lower, middle income, bigger cities sports guys,
golf wasn't discussed in mainstream sports then the way it
(04:38):
is now. Why Eldrick tiger Woods, he just changed everything.
Nike was never a player in golf, and I know
they're not with him now in golf, but that was
all tiger Woods. Like literally he made golf cool. He
made Nike golf cool, and so in it addition to
(05:02):
in addition to finding our you know, kind of what's
the word I'm looking for, in addition to learning about golf,
just the ability to watch golf, talk about golf and
not have it be some kind of foreign like golf
on TV might as well have been hockey on TV.
(05:22):
In my house, Every once in a while, you put
it on when there was something big happening and you
felt completely lost by it. I don't know these guys' names.
I don't know a thing about him. I don't know
this course. All that changed with Tiger. And so then
when you when he suffers an Achilles ten and tear,
and then you start to go through the litany of
injuries and his lack of competitiveness, and you realize his
(05:44):
professional career is effectively over. You start to take stock
of it. And for some people they think, okay, is
golf in a good place or a bad place? You know,
you got two kind of competing tours. There's no Tiger
Woods in terms of dominance or dynamic personality, and there
doesn't appear to be one in the horizon. But instead
of looking at that, the way I look at it
(06:05):
when I take stock is how amazing is it that
one guy can make golf both relevant and cool all
at the same time. And that's what he did. And
you know, now he's almost like a Frankenstein type character
with all of the different work he's had to have done.
He's was it Joan Rivers who used to do the
(06:28):
daytime talk and she had so much plastic surgery done? Like,
is she most known for plastic surgery? Jay Stu? Who
would be most known for plexic surgery? Where you're like,
those lips aren't real, those boobs aren't real, that butt
not real, that hair appears to be enhanced, the eyes different,
the face different. Who would that be?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I think she's the pioneer. Yeah, I think she was
one of the first. There's been much worse examples since,
but I think she was kind of out in front
of them.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Right. It feels like as an athlete, that's where Tiger
is now, right Like, I don't know if this is
the same Achilles a different one. He's torn up his knee,
he had the car accident, He's had multiple back surgeries.
I mean that poor guy, right Like, it almost feels
like he goes and calls his doctor and his doctors
like again again again, let me ask you, Jay Stu,
(07:20):
because again, you're much more and he grew up for
people to know, Tiger Woods grew up fairly close to
where Jay Stu grew up, right got north central Orange County.
When I say Tiger Woods and the idea of Tiger
Woods not playing golf ever again or professional golf ever again,
(07:41):
do you look forward, do you think current or do
you think of the whole story in what what's happened
with his career?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, like you, I think I saw there before and
the after on this, and I think that I just
think of like the I don't even know what the
word as the revolutionary impact he had. Is that a
word evolutionary?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Would it be evolutionary revolutionary?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And in it I automatically think of Kaitlyn Clark and
I again, I want to be like the solo voice
on this and maybe you can co sign on this.
I want to convince women's basketball fans that Kaitlyn Clark
is the Tiger Woods of your sport. She's a unicorn.
She's a one of a kind. You're never going to
see it again. You better take advantage of it while
(08:30):
it lasts. That's kind of how I felt about Tiger
Like that. Golf, I think did a great job of
taking full advantage of what he had to offer. There
was some rough things up front. That fuzzy Zeller comment
early was regrettable, but I think after a while people
started to get in wine right. Because there was some
(08:51):
some pushback early from the the uh, the old golfer
but I think people started to fall in WI. It's
like this guy's literally not literally but raising all boats
with us tide and I'm not going to fight it.
And I think women's basketball has a lesson to learn there.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, it's interesting because in many ways, you know, we
were looking at at what topics to talk about today? Right,
we were trying to kick around, like do we talk
about you know, Cooper Cup and Cooper Cup can be
released by the Rams, right, and again, he hasn't had
the same effect as either the two that we mentioned,
(09:27):
but it's pretty obvious. Do I think he has more
football in him? I hope he does because I like
him and I think he's a stud. And again, if
we say the quiet part out loud, which is like,
he was the best wide receiver in the league and
he wasn't a white guy who was a slot wide receiver,
like he was a legit number one wide receiver, and
(09:50):
he'd overcome all of these things order to make him
into that. And then he and I don't want to
say single handedly, but as an offensive weapon, he was
the only weapon that Matt Stafford used on the game
winning drive in the Super Bowl against Cinctandy Bengals at
so far right that did happen like he had the
most it. Maybe he wasn't long lived, it's in his
(10:10):
own way. It's like a Priest Holmes type of short lived,
unbelievable career, best in his craft. And then maybe his
body has fallen apart here, you know, with the multiple
knee injuries. But I do think there's something remarkable about
a guy who can now. He hasn't brought Cooper Cup
didn't bring attention to the NFL, not nearly the Pied
(10:32):
Piper the way that you're talking about Caitlin Clark or
Tiger Woods. But I would say has broke through a
bunch of stereotypes in the NFL, that'd be fair, and
made what was previously seemed as not likely or impossible
into possible. But the other part to it is the
when there there's a point in time in which your
(10:53):
body just says I'm done. Right, my body just says
I'm done. But I like the Caitlin Clark is the
Tiger Woods of the WNBA, I do. I do, And
there's a lot of similarities there with people pushing back
against it and people pushed it back against Tiger Right
(11:14):
then remember they tiger rized courses as well. And what
I bet will happen, which is what you're talking about,
Jase two, is if you ask anybody in golf now,
they'll say, the reason that we don't have another tiger
Woods is there's so many good young golfers. And there's
so many good young golfers because twenty years ago they
were all watching that dude dominate and he made golf cool.
(11:37):
And all of those country club kids or borderline country
club kids, and all those parents of like, why am
I going to have my kid go out and play
basketball when he has no chance? Why am I going
to have him play out and play football when he
has no chance? When all he's got to do is
take golf lessons, play golf, and if he can get
some steel, will if you will, maybe he can compete.
(11:58):
And there's a litany of souper super talented golfers between
the ages of you know, twenty and thirty five. That
the type of depth of golf talent we've never seen.
He made golf cool. I don't know if Caitlin Clark
makes it cool, but it's definitely gonna make it cool
to a ton of young women and here's the other
(12:19):
here's the other thing they're doing. This is a big one. Okay.
The WNBA was known as a gay league, right, it
was a gay and it was a lesbian league. That's
what's always been seen. And I think this is one
of the things. All credit Angel Reese. She's not the
only one. What's the young woman who signed with the
woman who signed with the Pacers, the Pacers, the fever
(12:43):
attractive blonde she had all her press stuff for yesterday,
Sophie Cunningham, right, and then all of a sudden, now
it's like, wait a second, we're actually beautiful women who
play basketball, which is great because whether it brings up
audience or not, that doesn't matter. What it does is
(13:03):
and I can't remember which former basketball players said this,
you guys can probably google it, which is like, hey,
I wasn't sending my kid to play basketball because yeah,
I didn't want to be around those lifestyles. If you
go to a high school volleyball urnament AU volleyball tournament.
I know. So my buddies are ex NBA players, ex
(13:25):
college players, and they be like, dude, you want to
know where all of their all their daughters play. They
all play volleyball. And one reason they all play volleyball
is there was always the there's always been the perception
that it's not really a league for head sexual women.
It's not really somewhere that they feel comfortable, they belong.
I think she's changing that. I think that's part of
(13:46):
why there are such pushback against her. But I think
she's changing that. I think Angel Reice is changing that
for the better, for the better. So to your point,
I'm going to agree with you because and look, mad
Sid Avenue agrees with you. Look at when you watch
NBA games, many of the people on those ads now
(14:06):
are women, are female and female basketball players. So I'm
with that. For you, Sam, what do you think of
when you when you think of the idea of Tiger
Woods being done?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Well, yeah, I mean how old is how old is
Tiger now as late forties, early fifties. I mean, golfers,
golfers tend to just like their their championships tend to
kind of He's golfers tend to, even when they stay healthy,
they tend to kind of do their championships dissipate as
they get older. You know, maybe you could make an
(14:38):
exception for like Phil Mickelson or something, or even Tiger
when he came back and won the Masters after some
surgeries and injuries. But yeah, he's listen, I don't know
if Tiger Woods swings a golf club again like his yeah,
I don't know, he might just fall into pieces like
a like a Jenga a you know, a Jenga game
or something. He's it's time, it's time. And if he's
(15:00):
in pain playing like why why you know, I get it,
he wants to keep playing. But even golfers at forty
nine are honestly, they're out there making checks, finishing, you know,
in the twenties at a tournament or championship. So it's
time for him to go. And we all see it.
Have for him to go, I mean retire, that's what
(15:20):
I mean. Yeah, yeah, just but and yeah, it's just
he's if this is your second torn achilles and all
the other stuff. I mean, golf golf, golf swing effects
your entire body, and you really need that power and
you need that precision. And I don't think he has
it anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
No, No, I mean, like, look, can you play golf
the rest of your life all banged up? Yeah? The
back makes it really hard and.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
His back has been an issue. Yeah, and I don't
I don't know he's gonna only be doing maybe putt
putt in the future. I mean, I don't know if
he's even gonna be able to No, like golf, he
won't play, yeah, full swing into it. But I'm sure
he'll play some golf for leisure. But yeah, it's at
this point it's tough just to eat.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Show in the game. So I guess here's the question
you can answer on social media when you hear the
Tiger Woods probably never plays professional golf again, like real
competitive professional golf again. What what what comes to your mind? Again? Look,
there's a percentage of people that will always be the
salacious Tiger car accident right around Thanksgiving week and all
(16:26):
that happened and all that stuff. That'll be part of it.
But what comes to your mind. For me, it's Tiger
made golf cool. Golf was way dorkier than baseball ever
would be. Uh it was. It was even more country
(16:46):
club than tennis wes back then. And I think that's
the power of what he's been able to do. And
I will co sign with what Jase Dos saying in
regards to to Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
This is the best of the Done Dot Leaf Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Doug gott Leep show. You're on Fox Sports Radio. We'll
get to Tyre's Halbert and I want to discuss this.
What was the stat you had, Jaysu, we were talking
before the show about iPhones versus androids. It's like, seventy
percent of the world is actually more Android.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Let's see, so seventy percent No, no, let's back up.
Android has seventy percent of the market share worldwide, okay,
and iPhones have fifty six percent of the market share
in the United States. In other words, Android is soccer
(17:42):
embraced by most of the world and iPhone is the
NFL embraced here. Yeah, but it gives Americans this like
this weird, twisted, deceiving thing where they think iPhones are
the greatest and why isn't everbody else on board when
in fact the numbers are the opposite. More Android users
(18:05):
worldwide than iPhone.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What if the iPhone is the metric system, I mean,
the iPhone.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Is the that's that's good.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's good is that the Android is the metric system.
What do we call it the future? It's the future? Oh, miles.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
No, Like our system here has its own name. It's
like called like the common I don't even know. But yeah,
it's not the metric system.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Do we know what that's called iload? Do you know
what that's called.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
The non metric system. I'm just thinking thinking, Hey, Saquon
Barkley ran for one hundred and twelve meters on Sunday.
It just doesn't you can't put that into perspective.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh, it's called the imperial system or the US customary system.
Although we do we use yard, we use like in sports,
we use weird ways of determining length, like yards, Like
a yard is what three and a half feet or something?
Speaker 1 (18:57):
No, yard is three feet, three yards?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Three feet? Okay, but not to get too far away
from my point the listener right now.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Hey, hold on, before we get too far away from
the point, Before you get to your point. That was
a funny moment.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, I didn't know he was accurate.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Think on yards. It's like, no, a meter is that executive?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Oh right, right?
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Okay? See straight yet feet a meter is like three
and a half feet or something could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
We don't know. Go ahead, Jase too, I'm sorry Okay,
I thought he lost his train of thought. My point
is like, look, you don't have to share. Jason is
very concerned. First he knows I'm I'm I Android shame
(19:45):
him all the time. Yeah, Second, possble I have a
group chat with him and the thing pops up green.
You're like, are you blocking me? Like no, I'm just Android.
Like it just doesn't feel good.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
The worst thing is when you send a message and
it says could not sense, and then you send it,
you hit it again, says and then someone with an
iPhone gets something four or five times, like the same
gift four times.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Or a picture, especially when it's a picture.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, I I find this to be really hard when
I'm flying on a plane and they give you the
free messaging, but free messaging, I messaging doesn't work when
you have an Android. Uh, let's let's let's come back
to this, or maybe we'll ask our next quest about
It's Doug Gotlieb Show Fox Sports Radio live from the
tyrack dot Com studios. Andy Tooles our guest. Okay, and
(20:30):
he's the head coach of Robert Morris. Robert Morris won
our league and won the conference tournament championship. They'll get
ready for the NCAA Championship NCAA tournament upcoming, So the
champions of the regular and postseason the rise in league,
Andy joins us now on the Doug Gottlieb Show on
Fox Sports Radio. You're I've texted you before. You're an
iPhone guy. Number of staff members who are motorole? Who
(20:55):
are who are Android zero? Is there anything worse on
Earth than when you're in a group chat and there's
always one guy who's got the Android.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
There's probably something, but I can't think of it right now.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
How are you?
Speaker 6 (21:11):
What?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
What is it like in a day after you win
a conference tournament championship?
Speaker 6 (21:19):
It's amazing. I mean you're just kind of sitting floating.
You know, you're just literally, you know, obviously getting a
lot of well wishes, text messages, preferably I messages, you know,
phone calls. You know, your team is just in unbelievable spirits.
You know, guys, we just got back to Pittsburgh and
you know, they're laughing, joking on the back of the bus.
(21:40):
You know, they're doing all the different stuff on social media,
and you know, it's just amazing. I mean, not much
could go wrong today. After you win a championship.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Last night, all right, compare and contrast that to last year. Okay,
last year, this time, you guys were ten and twenty two. Okay,
what are those? What was that bus ride back like
the last year's Horizon Late Tournament?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It was.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
It was miserable. But the one thing that I would
say about it was, you know, when you go through
a season like that, you automatically get some clarity on now,
this is our chance to start fixing it. Right, how
do we fix it? What do we need to address,
what we have to do with our roster, how can
we improve? And so as much as you're disappointed in
how your team played, when the season is over, there's
(22:27):
like new life because it's okay, now we can fix this.
Now we can do something to make it better, to
put the kind of product on the court that we
want to have. And so as soon as we knew
our season was over last year and we lost last
year at prdue for Wayne in the in the opening round,
and we weren't very competitive and it was frustrating as hell,
but it's like, okay, now let's fix it. And you know,
(22:48):
we got fortunate and we hit on some guys, and
those guys they bought into what we were, what we
were talking about, and they came together as a group,
and obviously great things happened.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
When was the point that you knew this season that
you had, you know, something, something different, something special, because
it wasn't like you guys were killing in the non
conference right When did you know like we might have
something here?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
So we won a couple of close games in early January.
We won a triple overtime game right at the end
of December against Northern Kentucky. We went at Oakland in
the first week of January, and I thought like, okay,
I didn't I didn't necessarily anticipate us going to Oakland
and winning the game, and so I started to think, Okay,
maybe there's something to this. And then when we won
(23:33):
at Cleveland State, we played a great last thirty minutes
of that game, I thought, Okay, we're we're going to
be involved in this. How this thing gets sorted out?
Like someone's going to have to beat us here in
order for us, you know, to end our season, and
not that other teams couldn't have done it, because you know,
you know how good the league is top to bottom,
and how competitive each and every game is. But when
(23:56):
we beat Cleveland State at Cleveland State, I saw our
guys just kind of go to a little but a
different level of trusting each other, a little different level
of activity and urgency. And I thought that those were
some of the things that we had been missing that
we could that could get us over the top.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah, you go back to was it was it twenty
fifteen when you made the NCAA Tournament. I think it's
like every five years, right, because you should have been
You would have made it in the COVID year as well,
but but twenty fifteen that you were one of the
first coaches to lose your lose your best players to
transferring up right, And for people don't know what transferring
(24:33):
up is means kid has a really good back then
you were the best team in the NEEC and then
you know, you lose a kid to the Big East
or to one of the power back then power five
conference schools. Now you've seen more. This is kind of
it's kind of like a regular thing, a normal thing.
But like that team, you know your two best players,
(24:53):
I think we're under we're like freshman and sophomore. Wasn't
Rodney Pryor and Marquise Reid, Like your your two best
players like freshman and sophomore at the time, what reason.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
Was the freshman Read was a freshman and Prior was
a junior, but he had two years to play, so
and we lost reed to Clemson directly after that NCAA tournament.
We played them in a by game earlier that year,
and then Rodney came back and we ended up losing
him the Georgetown the next year and he led the
Big East of scoring.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, I mean, so for people who don't understand how
hard is to this level, even back then before the
transfer portal, this is a challenge to hold on to
guys like you get like I recruit you, I saw
you when other guys didn't. I gave you opportunity, and
then they're still gone.
Speaker 7 (25:34):
Right.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
The only the only thing that's good about it now
is that you at least have an opportunity to try
to get somebody back, because back then you were trying
to replace them with a high school kid or a
juco kid, and you had no idea if that guy
was going to be able to be, you know, near
the level of the guy you lost, Right, how do
you replace a fifteen point scorer. You think you just
struck gold because you have a freshman that's averaging fifteen
a game. How are you going to find another freshman
(25:57):
that's going to come in the next year in average
fifteen a game that doesn't happened too often. So you
were like you were completely shattered. Now now you can,
in the least go into the portal and say, all right,
this guy averaged ten points a game Division one, or
he averaged twelve points a game or whatever, and we
think he's had some experience and he might be able
to help us, you know, kind of stem the loss
of the of the good player that just left us.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
See, I don't think you guys had the best individual talent. Again,
you guys have talent. I thought the pieces fit together
really well. What's that like to try and you said
you had to fix it? You know what's that like
to try and put together in terms of pieces that
fit and they mesh so well?
Speaker 6 (26:38):
Yeah, and some of this is you know, this is
more art and science, right, So sometimes you just kind
of get fortunate and everybody kind of fits together. But
things we knew we needed to address was our ability
to defend I mean, last year, we just were and
in all the years I've been more fifteen years, we've
always been a good defensive team. We were so bad
a year ago, and so we knew we needed to
(27:00):
get a little more athletic. We knew we needed to
have a little more of an edge. A lot of
my better teams have played with an edge. We did
not play with an edge last year. And so going
out and trying to find some guys that can help
us protect the rim, Guys that could guard in space,
Guys that could kind of handle some of the physicality
in this league. And so you know, when we got
a Mario Dickerson and his ability to you know, become
defensive Player of the Year and block shots, or josh
(27:22):
amajofo At you know, six foot four, two hundred and
five pounds, you know, that can guard multiple positions on
the perimeter, Cam Woods who can guard big small you know.
So we were looking for some guys that would be
able to really bolster our defensive side of the ball
with the ability to make some plays. And we got
some guys that can make plays and con junctually being
able to guard.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
You know, you guys had that you hosted the I
think it's a quarter final at home, and yeah, min
and rot Moor is they got a beautiful, essentially brand
new arena, right, it's a couple of years old. It's
it's beautiful. But you guys won the league and yet
you had to go to Indy. Now, you won the
conference tournament, you survived that credible semi final against Oakland.
(28:03):
But now, having been through it with the NEC and
been through it with the Horizon, what are your thoughts
on home sites versus neutral sites for conference championships at
this level.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
I might be a little biased today, but I will
say that some of the greatest environments I've been in,
and we've played in rout and we've played in the
Dean Dome, and we've played in McHale, and we've played
at mattiew r. We've played in a lot of places
across the country. Some of those semi final and final
conference tournament atmosphere that we've played in on campus sites
(28:36):
have been electric. I mean, you can't even hear yourself, thinks,
you can't even communicate to the bench sometimes it's so loud.
I mean, people are right on top of you. And
we've been in four thousand seed arenas. We've been in
two thousands arenas, and there's an energy in that building
that is our guys. Some of our past players talk
(28:57):
about some of those experiences and some of those road
winds to conference tournaments in the most hostile of environment,
like it was the greatest thing they've ever been a
part of. And so those are pretty pretty neat places
when you have the student body out, the community out,
the opposing team brings fans and they're trying to fight
the other two thousand people that are there, and it's
just every possession, every pass, every shot is multiplied by ten.
(29:22):
The important to send the energy that's involved.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
In see I just think and to take that a
step further. Andy Tooles our guests. He's the head coach
of Robert Morris. The Colonials won the Horizon League regular
season and postseason tournament. They're going the NCAA tournament. They'll
see where they're going on Sunday Selection Sunday this Doug
Gottlib Show, Fox Sports Radio. I would just say like,
and actually, this is interesting. I called your first four
(29:46):
game right that year, you guys were in the first four,
but then the nightcap was Boise against Dayton in Dayton,
and why while it wasn't particularly if fair to poise,
it's inarguably the greatest atmosphere you've ever seen at a
first flour And my argument is, like, what makes college
(30:08):
basketball great is home court advantage. And since we take
it sort of out of play in the NCAA tournament,
why we take it out of play in the mid
major level to get into the NCAA tournament?
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 6 (30:21):
It does? And I also think that now that you
don't get the automatic bit to the NIT, what is
the value of the regular season And if you now
have a situation where you've worked to earn that home
court advantage throughout the duration of your time in the
conference tournament, that puts so much importance on each and
every regular season game. Because when we won the regular
(30:43):
season at IU Indy, it was kind of like, Okay,
this is awesome. Our guys celebrated, we were excited, but like,
we didn't really have We didn't really get a reward
from that, you know what I mean? Yeah, we played
at seven o'clock in the semifinals instead of nine point thirty,
but we're still on a neutral site. And I don't
get me wrong. The horizonally did a great job. The
experience was awesome, first class all the way. But what's
(31:07):
the reward for being the regular season champ? Can you
host that stuff in your building and then create you know,
maybe a sizeable home court advantage as you go into
the most important games of your year.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Most important question would ask you do you own ties?
Or because you wear suits with no tie? Right, do
you actually you own a bunch of ties.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
I have a bunch of ties.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So what's tell me the thought in the in the
in the habitatrey, it's just.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Not as comfortable wearing the tie.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
So why not go Why not?
Speaker 6 (31:40):
Why it's all restrictive?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Okay, why not go quarter zip? Everybody want everybody's pushing
for the quartership. Coach go quarterszip? Everybody goes quarters zip?
Why not go quarter zip?
Speaker 6 (31:49):
My my whole staff goes quarterszip. And I don't care
what they wear. I just feel like a little superstition.
You know, our our COVID years when we were re quorters
have been one of our best, and so you know,
I wanted to get back to where maybe you know,
I'm respecting the game a little bit with the way
I dress fair.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Enough, fair enough, last thing, Andy, I appreciate your time.
Look hard business. You guys switched leagues you hadn't seen
some success. Obviously, we know how this thing goes. Right.
When you're struggling, people are out for you. What's that
going to be like for you Sunday when you see
Robert Morris in the NCAA Tournament, understanding all you and
your program have accomplished and turned this thing around.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
That's the best feeling in the world. I mean, hearing
your name called on selections Sunday, I mean, there's no
feeling like it. There'll be a lot of satisfaction from me.
I know that. You know there were some you know,
tough conversations that happened last spring and some tough decisions
that needed to be made. And you know, to be
able to see in one calendar year that you're you've
won a championship and you're going to the NCAA tournament
(32:49):
is there's gonna be a lot of emotions for me
for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, listen, it's well deserved. Obviously. I have nothing but
respectful what you guys have done and how you guys play,
Stay healthy, get right and go out and win another
game for the Horizon League in the tournament. Thanks for me,
our guest, appreciate Doug all Right. That's Andy Toole, who
is the head coach of the Colonials of Robert Moore.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh what but you Doug got them show? Fox Sports
Radio coming to you from the tyret dot com studios
tyret dot com where we get there on matched selection,
fast free shipping, free road has protection over ten thousand
recommended sellars ti right dot com. It's the way tire
buying should be. So every Wednesday, Wednesday is hump day.
(33:41):
What what one of the better commercials in the last
twenty five years? What? What day is it? Huh? What
day is it? Every Wednesday is hump date. It's the
middle of the week. Our show is in the middle
of your day. This is really it's in the middle
of our show. We do it three hours of You're like, no,
we do too. No, we do an hour podcast that
(34:02):
you can download that podcast or every download podcast. Just
type in Doug Gottlieb and follow rate review, subscribe all
those things, and you can get our podcast and take
the show and the bonus podcast hour with you wherever
you go. Uh But every Wednesday we get to a
topic that we'd like to banter around. Sometimes it's sports,
(34:23):
sometimes it's not. We call it the Midway. It's not
getting the.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Middle with you.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's time for the middle the Midway Snug Gottlieb Show
here on Fox Sports Radio. Uh okay, So I heard
(34:49):
Bruce Pearl say something. We have the sound of that right.
Uh So. Bruce Pearl's head coach at Auburn. By the way,
it's a good friend of mine and my friends there
in Wisconsin flying out in Nashville. They're going to see
him in the SEC tournament. And BP, who's coach of
one of the top ranked teams in the country. They've
(35:10):
been number one this year. Jani Brew maybe the national
player of the year. He had this to say about
the popularity this.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
Sport, interest in our game and the college game has
never been better. This is a tremendous regular season in
college basketball, just even just the SEC. How many ranked
teams against ranked teams, and then how many of those
games delivered Like the last two Saturdays in the SEC
Alabama Tennessee overtime, Auburn Alabama overtime, and the ratings are
really good.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
I read a little bit about what's going on with
the NBA, but I couldn't tell you why some of
those numbers are down. But our numbers have never been stronger.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Okay, So Bruce Pearl, super talent head coach is coaching
the final four. Maybe we'll coach in the final four again.
Has won a national championship of the Division two level.
Bruce Pearl says, Hey, it's never been more popular college basketball.
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I thought that's a good area for discussion, right because
you guys have I'm sure followed you've never followed the
Horizon League before, right before me, And I don't know
if it's popularity as much as interest in our program
has never been higher. But what I'm cautious of doing
is not being narrow in my scope, being wider in
(36:25):
my scope. Let me start with you, Iowa, Sam, do
you think I will just get better about your question?
Is is college basketball more or less popular than it's
ever been? Sam?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yeah, I don't have the numbers in front of me.
I don't know what the ratings say I'm going to
say that maybe the men's basketball has rebounded after Kaitlyn
Clark moved on to the WNBA.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Wow, he said rebounded. Look at that. Look at that.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
I didn't even mean to do that. Wow just so
clever and crafty just subconsciously comes right out of me.
I think the SEC being so stacked this year, with
like what nine teams ranked at one point, even like
half the conference was ranked is ranked. There's a lot
of If you're in that SEC bubble, you might think
that college basketball has never been bigger. And I'm as
(37:17):
Steele Ryan Berschinger Ryan Berschinger's opinion that maybe because the
NBA has sort of suffered in popularity this year or
so we perceive that Bruce might think that college basketball
has taken over some of that popularity. I think all
those might come into play.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
But I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I really don't know what the numbers say in terms
of ratings. But when you say that a game delivers
and that the crowds are you know, you've packed the auditorium,
you've packed the arena, I don't know if that actually
means that the ratings are higher. I think that SEC
sports fans are very passionate, and they have a lot
of fervor for their sports, especially men's and women's basketball
(38:00):
and football and baseball. But I don't know if that
actually translates to the rest of the country watching The product.
May be great, the arenas may be packed, it might
be a lot of ranked teams, but I'm not sure
if that translates to someone in North Dakota watching Auburn
versus Alabama.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
All Right, what say you, Jay Stut.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I don't buy it. I don't think it's it's more
popular than ever. I mean, I grew up in the eighties,
so it's like, I don't know if it'll ever get
better than like late eighties Big East stuff. And you know,
we all were like very interested in the NBA Draft
because we had known these players, and I think that
(38:45):
that's an extension of college basketball. I think we're still
in that pocket of we haven't really gotten to know players,
and we certainly haven't been able to identify players with
teams because they float around. They'll have that three weeks
of popularity in March, and then they're forgotten about once
(39:08):
the NBA Draft comes around. It's just like, so if
we're just going by the eye test and someone like
me who comes through sports content every single morning for
my job. College basketball does not rise to the level
of national conversation, and I think it did at one
point it has through the years. So based on that barometer,
(39:32):
I would say I disagree with Bruce Pearl.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
I love this was not a pearl of wisdom by Bruce.
College basketball is no longer a national sport during the
regular season. It only becomes a national sport during the
NCAA tournament. I remember, Jase, do you mentioned the eighties.
(40:00):
In the nineties, college basketball non conference regular season matchups
were even big news nationally When you'd have a U
n l V playing somebody, When you would have Duke
and Michigan.
Speaker 8 (40:15):
Meeting during the week, you you talk about Duke and
Mike Kichewsky and right Williams and Michigan Michigan with the
coach by job By.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
No, that's all right. Someday I'd like to have him
have a conversation with Lou Holtz, but that might be
a little uh, it.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Might take a little too much.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Watch watch what you ask for, what.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
You wish for? I can't. Let's the midway.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Would you talk, Dick?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It was my fuck, do it? I asked for two?
Is six point two? Is six point?
Speaker 6 (40:51):
Right?
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (40:53):
The reason why you watched a Wake Forest U n
C game and February you talk about because you just
watched four years of George Lynch and Rodney Rogers. Absolutely,
you knew the players on the team, yes.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
Year after year, and you you don't bet Okay, in
the last five years or ten years, you didn't have
that because of all the one and donees, and now
you don't have that identity because even if they're staying
in Collins, are going to five programs in five years.
I mean as recently as you know, the early two thousands,
we had a great regular season story with remember Adam
(41:32):
Morrison and JJ Reddick having a scoring duel, both averaging
thirty a game during the regular season and everybody hating
on JJ Reddick ause he played for Duke and he
was villainous back then. I mean, that was a great
regular season storyline back then. But we just don't have
that anymore at all.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
But Cooper Flag, he does help and do being good.
You know, whenever your blue Bloods are good, it does help,
I think drive some interest from the casual fan. Cooper
Flag helps maybe a hurting hurt situation. I have found
some numbers here. This is from I believe the reputable
Sports Business Journal, and it's a title. This is from
(42:10):
February tenth of this year. Is a longer college football playoff?
Hurting college basketball? Sports Business Journal says men's college basketball
viewership was reportedly down twenty one percent across the sport
heading into January of this year, while women's college basketball
was down thirty eight percent. Some of that, they say
is attributable to Caitlin Clark's move to WNBA.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Some of it.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
So we're seeing we're seeing viewership down for both men's
and women's college basketball. Will I did see another article
though that the Big Ten women's basketball tournament did about
half the size in terms of viewership compared to last
year when his Nebraska Iowa versus this year when is
UCLA USC But it still did pretty well, with about
(42:54):
one point four to four million people watching as opposed
to about three point zero nine million something like that.
So it's down, but it's still there's maybe some interest
still from the casual fan who kind of clinged on
when Kaitlyn Clark was in the women's college basketball I
know we're talking men's basketball here, though I'll give you.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
My thoughts here. Okay, the Kaitlin Clark thing I think
really skewed things. Yes, absolutely, And as I told you,
and I think it's gonna happen here in the NCAA tournament,
that Cooper Flag deal will kind of write the ship. Plus,
if you remember, last year's men's Final Four was on TNT,
this year it's back on CBS. The numbers are way
higher when it's on CBS. On network television is when
(43:32):
it's on cable. That's just a reality to it. I
do think that Bruce is making the mistake of the
SEC has become the best college basketball conference, and they
finally gotten to where, not at all places, but at
most of them, they're starting to match again on a
different scale, the fervor of football with the fervor of basketball.
(43:52):
And the reason they're good is because they've hired good coaches,
because they they spend a lot of money, and they
go get good players because they have a lot of money.
But it's the old never mistaken activity for achievement. Let's
not mistaken because in your world, your conference, that everything
is super proper. I think the expansion of the Big
Ten has helped on some level with the with you know,
(44:13):
the West Coast schools where you have alums of those schools,
you know, going to see a new arenas they'd never
seen before. There's still a kind of a oh, this
is kind of interesting. On the other hand, we have
completely killed like, what's the best rivalry in college basketball
this year? What is it? What was the big game
to watch? And Bruce is right, it's probably Alabama Auburn. Yeah,
(44:37):
but it's really hard for a mainstream fan to go, like, wait,
to Alabama Auburn's the biggest basketball that's not I'm used
to Duke Carolina. I'm used to Arizona Ucla, I'm used
to Indiana Purdue. I'm used to a lot of things,
and this is this isn't it so again? I think
Bruce is talking about his own league, his own experiences,
and there's three hundred and sixty four teams out there.
(44:59):
I think most fans are experiencing what what Jase do
is experiencing, which is I don't know who plays for who,
and I don't know any of these coaches anymore, so
I don't really know what I'm watching. It makes it
harder to bet on, harder to watch, hard to cheer.
Just as I don't think he's.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
Correct, I will I will say that when we go
back now to network television for putting on the tournament
and especially the final four, it helps a lot. And
when I go into like a Buffalo Wild Wings or
any big you know, sports bar, it's it's so, it's
just it's such a special time of year. You can
feel people excited about it. And brackets have always been
(45:35):
kind of a way of like gambling with your buddies,
and now there's even more opportunities to fill out brackets
and you know, bet on these games in certain ways
and pools and prizes, and I think that definitely helps.
Just there's more and more ways like having a personal
stake on the games, and I mean brackets just go
back in time is just kind of the most popular
way to do that.
Speaker 5 (45:54):
I have a provocative hot take esque statement, go, this
is gonna sound crazy, but in terms of national cultural impact,
I think the first two days of the NCAA tournament
is presently more significant than the final four. Is discuss.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
That's interesting. There's I mean, people get arsting so frenetic
about that first weekend because there's so much going on,
there's upsets, and we get to the final four teams,
you're kind of like, Okay, this is what it is.
It's set. But yeah, that first weekend is just total
chaos and euphoria for a lot of people, including myself.
(46:33):
It's like you can't watch all the games. It's like
there's so much going on. There's fomo, there's fomo in fault,
and then you start to whittle down the field.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Anyone else's that's the midway. The midway, all right? I
thought you enjoyed that feel pretty to get your I
guess the question for social media is really simple. Do
you care more or less about college basketball than you
ever had? Do you pay attention more or less than
you ever have? And don't you can't link the NCAA
(47:06):
tournament because it's popular. It's actually different than it used
to be. But I'm gonna go with Bruce's a little
bit prisoner of the moment and prison the fact that
the league he's in now has suddenly propelled in popularity.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Box Sports Radio.
Find your local station for the Doug Gottlieb Show at
Box sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
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America Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sputs Radio com It to
(00:25):
you from the tyrat dot com studios ty rack dot com.
We'll help you get there. Unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free road ass protection. Over ten thousand recommends dollars ti
rat dot com. It's the way tire buying should be. Hey,
welcome in. Uh. This is a hard one because Dan
(00:53):
is doing Covino and Rich all week right, and like
Dan Byers our resident golf guy. But I do think
that this is a really, really interesting discussion to have.
So Tiger Woods, who was announced yesterday he'd torn his
achilles tendon. I believe that's his second Achilles tenant and
tear in his career. The first was when he had
(01:15):
also torn his acl and he won the US Open
on the extra playoff day against rock O mediate right, like,
how good is my golf knowledge there? I don't know
the year, Damn, we know the year, dam we know
each hole. But I do remember that he was playing
with a torn crew and apparently later we found out
(01:35):
it was a it was a torn Achilles tendant as well,
anyway towards Achilles tendon. And you're gonna have everybody in
their brother going saying what I said when he had
the last car accident, which is, yeah, that's that's probably it, right,
that's probably it. And so what happens is and you
get to your forties and your fifties, and I'm sure
(01:57):
when your sixties and seventies even more so is people
who watched their entire career, and when that career comes
to an end or they start to look older, it's
like inevitably at that moment you go like, God, I
feel way older. I feel like ten years older today
than I did yesterday. And males have that. I think
the answer is yes, but I look at this thing
(02:24):
completely differently. So I want you to think back to
before tiger Woods existed in your brain as a golf savant. So, Sam,
you're not quite old enough to do this. Maybe a
little bit, But I know, Jason, you are, I loo
(02:44):
is as well. Buyers sort is as well, and I am,
which is we're old enough to remember when golf wasn't
a thing. Golf was guys in ugly pants at country
club that we didn't get into, playing courses we didn't
care about, with traditions we didn't know, nor did we
(03:07):
invest in learning about. That was golf pre Tiger Woods.
Like I remember when Payne Stewart won, and I remember
when he tragically died, and Payne Stuart and everybody didn't
wear knickers back then, right, it was still kind of
clever to wear knickers, But the fact that he wore
knickers was like, yeah, that's a golf thing. Like why
(03:29):
would any human being on earth wear that at any
point in time in their life? Like baseball players only
wear baseball pants because those are baseball pants and you
have to Why would you wear knickers when you can,
you know, I guess wear slacks and a nice little polo.
That's how we perceived golf. That's what golf was. Golf
is elitist, elitist, elitist. If you grew up, and I've
(03:53):
come to learn it's a little bit different, especially in
the Midwest. Now living in the Midwest where in Wisconsin
you have you're a football, basketball, or hockey guy, right
and then summer you're either out in the water or
you're fishing, or you're playing golf. It's generally it like
(04:17):
I would say, high high percentage in the Midwest, and
even in Oklahoma where I've lived there a good number
of years. People love, love golf. But for those of
us who grew up lower, middle income, bigger cities sports guys,
golf wasn't discussed in mainstream sports then the way it
(04:38):
is now. Why Eldrick tiger Woods, he just changed everything.
Nike was never a player in golf, and I know
they're not with him now in golf, but that was
all tiger Woods. Like literally he made golf cool. He
made Nike golf cool, and so in it addition to
(05:02):
in addition to finding our you know, kind of what's
the word I'm looking for, in addition to learning about golf,
just the ability to watch golf, talk about golf and
not have it be some kind of foreign like golf
on TV might as well have been hockey on TV.
(05:22):
In my house, Every once in a while, you put
it on when there was something big happening and you
felt completely lost by it. I don't know these guys' names.
I don't know a thing about him. I don't know
this course. All that changed with Tiger. And so then
when you when he suffers an Achilles ten and tear,
and then you start to go through the litany of
injuries and his lack of competitiveness, and you realize his
(05:44):
professional career is effectively over. You start to take stock
of it. And for some people they think, okay, is
golf in a good place or a bad place? You know,
you got two kind of competing tours. There's no Tiger
Woods in terms of dominance or dynamic personality, and there
doesn't appear to be one in the horizon. But instead
of looking at that, the way I look at it
(06:05):
when I take stock is how amazing is it that
one guy can make golf both relevant and cool all
at the same time. And that's what he did. And
you know, now he's almost like a Frankenstein type character
with all of the different work he's had to have done.
He's was it Joan Rivers who used to do the
(06:28):
daytime talk and she had so much plastic surgery done? Like,
is she most known for plastic surgery? Jay Stu? Who
would be most known for plexic surgery? Where you're like,
those lips aren't real, those boobs aren't real, that butt
not real, that hair appears to be enhanced, the eyes different,
the face different. Who would that be?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I think she's the pioneer. Yeah, I think she was
one of the first. There's been much worse examples since,
but I think she was kind of out in front
of them.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Right. It feels like as an athlete, that's where Tiger
is now, right Like, I don't know if this is
the same Achilles a different one. He's torn up his knee,
he had the car accident, He's had multiple back surgeries.
I mean that poor guy, right Like, it almost feels
like he goes and calls his doctor and his doctors
like again again again, let me ask you, Jay Stu,
(07:20):
because again, you're much more and he grew up for
people to know, Tiger Woods grew up fairly close to
where Jay Stu grew up, right got north central Orange County.
When I say Tiger Woods and the idea of Tiger
Woods not playing golf ever again or professional golf ever again,
(07:41):
do you look forward, do you think current or do
you think of the whole story in what what's happened
with his career?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, like you, I think I saw there before and
the after on this, and I think that I just
think of like the I don't even know what the
word as the revolutionary impact he had. Is that a
word evolutionary?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Would it be evolutionary revolutionary?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And in it I automatically think of Kaitlyn Clark and
I again, I want to be like the solo voice
on this and maybe you can co sign on this.
I want to convince women's basketball fans that Kaitlyn Clark
is the Tiger Woods of your sport. She's a unicorn.
She's a one of a kind. You're never going to
see it again. You better take advantage of it while
(08:30):
it lasts. That's kind of how I felt about Tiger
Like that. Golf, I think did a great job of
taking full advantage of what he had to offer. There
was some rough things up front. That fuzzy Zeller comment
early was regrettable, but I think after a while people
started to get in wine right. Because there was some
(08:51):
some pushback early from the the uh, the old golfer
but I think people started to fall in WI. It's
like this guy's literally not literally but raising all boats
with us tide and I'm not going to fight it.
And I think women's basketball has a lesson to learn there.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, it's interesting because in many ways, you know, we
were looking at at what topics to talk about today? Right,
we were trying to kick around, like do we talk
about you know, Cooper Cup and Cooper Cup can be
released by the Rams, right, and again, he hasn't had
the same effect as either the two that we mentioned,
(09:27):
but it's pretty obvious. Do I think he has more
football in him? I hope he does because I like
him and I think he's a stud. And again, if
we say the quiet part out loud, which is like,
he was the best wide receiver in the league and
he wasn't a white guy who was a slot wide receiver,
like he was a legit number one wide receiver, and
(09:50):
he'd overcome all of these things order to make him
into that. And then he and I don't want to
say single handedly, but as an offensive weapon, he was
the only weapon that Matt Stafford used on the game
winning drive in the Super Bowl against Cinctandy Bengals at
so far right that did happen like he had the
most it. Maybe he wasn't long lived, it's in his
(10:10):
own way. It's like a Priest Holmes type of short lived,
unbelievable career, best in his craft. And then maybe his
body has fallen apart here, you know, with the multiple
knee injuries. But I do think there's something remarkable about
a guy who can now. He hasn't brought Cooper Cup
didn't bring attention to the NFL, not nearly the Pied
(10:32):
Piper the way that you're talking about Caitlin Clark or
Tiger Woods. But I would say has broke through a
bunch of stereotypes in the NFL, that'd be fair, and
made what was previously seemed as not likely or impossible
into possible. But the other part to it is the
when there there's a point in time in which your
(10:53):
body just says I'm done. Right, my body just says
I'm done. But I like the Caitlin Clark is the
Tiger Woods of the WNBA, I do. I do, And
there's a lot of similarities there with people pushing back
against it and people pushed it back against Tiger Right
(11:14):
then remember they tiger rized courses as well. And what
I bet will happen, which is what you're talking about,
Jase two, is if you ask anybody in golf now,
they'll say, the reason that we don't have another tiger
Woods is there's so many good young golfers. And there's
so many good young golfers because twenty years ago they
were all watching that dude dominate and he made golf cool.
(11:37):
And all of those country club kids or borderline country
club kids, and all those parents of like, why am
I going to have my kid go out and play
basketball when he has no chance? Why am I going
to have him play out and play football when he
has no chance? When all he's got to do is
take golf lessons, play golf, and if he can get
some steel, will if you will, maybe he can compete.
(11:58):
And there's a litany of souper super talented golfers between
the ages of you know, twenty and thirty five. That
the type of depth of golf talent we've never seen.
He made golf cool. I don't know if Caitlin Clark
makes it cool, but it's definitely gonna make it cool
to a ton of young women and here's the other
(12:19):
here's the other thing they're doing. This is a big one. Okay.
The WNBA was known as a gay league, right, it
was a gay and it was a lesbian league. That's
what's always been seen. And I think this is one
of the things. All credit Angel Reese. She's not the
only one. What's the young woman who signed with the
woman who signed with the Pacers, the Pacers, the fever
(12:43):
attractive blonde she had all her press stuff for yesterday,
Sophie Cunningham, right, and then all of a sudden, now
it's like, wait a second, we're actually beautiful women who
play basketball, which is great because whether it brings up
audience or not, that doesn't matter. What it does is
(13:03):
and I can't remember which former basketball players said this,
you guys can probably google it, which is like, hey,
I wasn't sending my kid to play basketball because yeah,
I didn't want to be around those lifestyles. If you
go to a high school volleyball urnament AU volleyball tournament.
I know. So my buddies are ex NBA players, ex
(13:25):
college players, and they be like, dude, you want to
know where all of their all their daughters play. They
all play volleyball. And one reason they all play volleyball
is there was always the there's always been the perception
that it's not really a league for head sexual women.
It's not really somewhere that they feel comfortable, they belong.
I think she's changing that. I think that's part of
(13:46):
why there are such pushback against her. But I think
she's changing that. I think Angel Reice is changing that
for the better, for the better. So to your point,
I'm going to agree with you because and look, mad
Sid Avenue agrees with you. Look at when you watch
NBA games, many of the people on those ads now
(14:06):
are women, are female and female basketball players. So I'm
with that. For you, Sam, what do you think of
when you when you think of the idea of Tiger
Woods being done?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Well, yeah, I mean how old is how old is
Tiger now as late forties, early fifties. I mean, golfers,
golfers tend to just like their their championships tend to
kind of He's golfers tend to, even when they stay healthy,
they tend to kind of do their championships dissipate as
they get older. You know, maybe you could make an
(14:38):
exception for like Phil Mickelson or something, or even Tiger
when he came back and won the Masters after some
surgeries and injuries. But yeah, he's listen, I don't know
if Tiger Woods swings a golf club again like his yeah,
I don't know, he might just fall into pieces like
a like a Jenga a you know, a Jenga game
or something. He's it's time, it's time. And if he's
(15:00):
in pain playing like why why you know, I get it,
he wants to keep playing. But even golfers at forty
nine are honestly, they're out there making checks, finishing, you know,
in the twenties at a tournament or championship. So it's
time for him to go. And we all see it.
Have for him to go, I mean retire, that's what
(15:20):
I mean. Yeah, yeah, just but and yeah, it's just
he's if this is your second torn achilles and all
the other stuff. I mean, golf golf, golf swing effects
your entire body, and you really need that power and
you need that precision. And I don't think he has
it anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
No, No, I mean, like, look, can you play golf
the rest of your life all banged up? Yeah? The
back makes it really hard and.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
His back has been an issue. Yeah, and I don't
I don't know he's gonna only be doing maybe putt
putt in the future. I mean, I don't know if
he's even gonna be able to No, like golf, he
won't play, yeah, full swing into it. But I'm sure
he'll play some golf for leisure. But yeah, it's at
this point it's tough just to eat.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Show in the game. So I guess here's the question
you can answer on social media when you hear the
Tiger Woods probably never plays professional golf again, like real
competitive professional golf again. What what what comes to your mind? Again? Look,
there's a percentage of people that will always be the
salacious Tiger car accident right around Thanksgiving week and all
(16:26):
that happened and all that stuff. That'll be part of it.
But what comes to your mind. For me, it's Tiger
made golf cool. Golf was way dorkier than baseball ever
would be. Uh it was. It was even more country
(16:46):
club than tennis wes back then. And I think that's
the power of what he's been able to do. And
I will co sign with what Jase Dos saying in
regards to to Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
This is the best of the Done Dot Leaf Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Doug gott Leep show. You're on Fox Sports Radio. We'll
get to Tyre's Halbert and I want to discuss this.
What was the stat you had, Jaysu, we were talking
before the show about iPhones versus androids. It's like, seventy
percent of the world is actually more Android.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Let's see, so seventy percent No, no, let's back up.
Android has seventy percent of the market share worldwide, okay,
and iPhones have fifty six percent of the market share
in the United States. In other words, Android is soccer
(17:42):
embraced by most of the world and iPhone is the
NFL embraced here. Yeah, but it gives Americans this like
this weird, twisted, deceiving thing where they think iPhones are
the greatest and why isn't everbody else on board when
in fact the numbers are the opposite. More Android users
(18:05):
worldwide than iPhone.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What if the iPhone is the metric system, I mean,
the iPhone.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Is the that's that's good.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's good is that the Android is the metric system.
What do we call it the future? It's the future? Oh, miles.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
No, Like our system here has its own name. It's
like called like the common I don't even know. But yeah,
it's not the metric system.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Do we know what that's called iload? Do you know
what that's called.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
The non metric system. I'm just thinking thinking, Hey, Saquon
Barkley ran for one hundred and twelve meters on Sunday.
It just doesn't you can't put that into perspective.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh, it's called the imperial system or the US customary system.
Although we do we use yard, we use like in sports,
we use weird ways of determining length, like yards, Like
a yard is what three and a half feet or something?
Speaker 1 (18:57):
No, yard is three feet, three yards?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Three feet? Okay, but not to get too far away
from my point the listener right now.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Hey, hold on, before we get too far away from
the point, Before you get to your point. That was
a funny moment.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, I didn't know he was accurate.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Think on yards. It's like, no, a meter is that executive?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Oh right, right?
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Okay? See straight yet feet a meter is like three
and a half feet or something could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
We don't know. Go ahead, Jase too, I'm sorry Okay,
I thought he lost his train of thought. My point
is like, look, you don't have to share. Jason is
very concerned. First he knows I'm I'm I Android shame
(19:45):
him all the time. Yeah, Second, possble I have a
group chat with him and the thing pops up green.
You're like, are you blocking me? Like no, I'm just Android.
Like it just doesn't feel good.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
The worst thing is when you send a message and
it says could not sense, and then you send it,
you hit it again, says and then someone with an
iPhone gets something four or five times, like the same
gift four times.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Or a picture, especially when it's a picture.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, I I find this to be really hard when
I'm flying on a plane and they give you the
free messaging, but free messaging, I messaging doesn't work when
you have an Android. Uh, let's let's let's come back
to this, or maybe we'll ask our next quest about
It's Doug Gotlieb Show Fox Sports Radio live from the
tyrack dot Com studios. Andy Tooles our guest. Okay, and
(20:30):
he's the head coach of Robert Morris. Robert Morris won
our league and won the conference tournament championship. They'll get
ready for the NCAA Championship NCAA tournament upcoming, So the
champions of the regular and postseason the rise in league,
Andy joins us now on the Doug Gottlieb Show on
Fox Sports Radio. You're I've texted you before. You're an
iPhone guy. Number of staff members who are motorole? Who
(20:55):
are who are Android zero? Is there anything worse on
Earth than when you're in a group chat and there's
always one guy who's got the Android.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
There's probably something, but I can't think of it right now.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
How are you?
Speaker 6 (21:11):
What?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
What is it like in a day after you win
a conference tournament championship?
Speaker 6 (21:19):
It's amazing. I mean you're just kind of sitting floating.
You know, you're just literally, you know, obviously getting a
lot of well wishes, text messages, preferably I messages, you know,
phone calls. You know, your team is just in unbelievable spirits.
You know, guys, we just got back to Pittsburgh and
you know, they're laughing, joking on the back of the bus.
(21:40):
You know, they're doing all the different stuff on social media,
and you know, it's just amazing. I mean, not much
could go wrong today. After you win a championship.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Last night, all right, compare and contrast that to last year. Okay,
last year, this time, you guys were ten and twenty two. Okay,
what are those? What was that bus ride back like
the last year's Horizon Late Tournament?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It was.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
It was miserable. But the one thing that I would
say about it was, you know, when you go through
a season like that, you automatically get some clarity on now,
this is our chance to start fixing it. Right, how
do we fix it? What do we need to address,
what we have to do with our roster, how can
we improve? And so as much as you're disappointed in
how your team played, when the season is over, there's
(22:27):
like new life because it's okay, now we can fix this.
Now we can do something to make it better, to
put the kind of product on the court that we
want to have. And so as soon as we knew
our season was over last year and we lost last
year at prdue for Wayne in the in the opening round,
and we weren't very competitive and it was frustrating as hell,
but it's like, okay, now let's fix it. And you know,
(22:48):
we got fortunate and we hit on some guys, and
those guys they bought into what we were, what we
were talking about, and they came together as a group,
and obviously great things happened.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
When was the point that you knew this season that
you had, you know, something, something different, something special, because
it wasn't like you guys were killing in the non
conference right When did you know like we might have
something here?
Speaker 6 (23:12):
So we won a couple of close games in early January.
We won a triple overtime game right at the end
of December against Northern Kentucky. We went at Oakland in
the first week of January, and I thought like, okay,
I didn't I didn't necessarily anticipate us going to Oakland
and winning the game, and so I started to think, Okay,
maybe there's something to this. And then when we won
(23:33):
at Cleveland State, we played a great last thirty minutes
of that game, I thought, Okay, we're we're going to
be involved in this. How this thing gets sorted out?
Like someone's going to have to beat us here in
order for us, you know, to end our season, and
not that other teams couldn't have done it, because you know,
you know how good the league is top to bottom,
and how competitive each and every game is. But when
(23:56):
we beat Cleveland State at Cleveland State, I saw our
guys just kind of go to a little but a
different level of trusting each other, a little different level
of activity and urgency. And I thought that those were
some of the things that we had been missing that
we could that could get us over the top.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah, you go back to was it was it twenty
fifteen when you made the NCAA Tournament. I think it's
like every five years, right, because you should have been
You would have made it in the COVID year as well,
but but twenty fifteen that you were one of the
first coaches to lose your lose your best players to
transferring up right, And for people don't know what transferring
(24:33):
up is means kid has a really good back then
you were the best team in the NEEC and then
you know, you lose a kid to the Big East
or to one of the power back then power five
conference schools. Now you've seen more. This is kind of
it's kind of like a regular thing, a normal thing.
But like that team, you know your two best players,
(24:53):
I think we're under we're like freshman and sophomore. Wasn't
Rodney Pryor and Marquise Reid, Like your your two best
players like freshman and sophomore at the time, what reason.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
Was the freshman Read was a freshman and Prior was
a junior, but he had two years to play, so
and we lost reed to Clemson directly after that NCAA tournament.
We played them in a by game earlier that year,
and then Rodney came back and we ended up losing
him the Georgetown the next year and he led the
Big East of scoring.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, I mean, so for people who don't understand how
hard is to this level, even back then before the
transfer portal, this is a challenge to hold on to
guys like you get like I recruit you, I saw
you when other guys didn't. I gave you opportunity, and
then they're still gone.
Speaker 7 (25:34):
Right.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
The only the only thing that's good about it now
is that you at least have an opportunity to try
to get somebody back, because back then you were trying
to replace them with a high school kid or a
juco kid, and you had no idea if that guy
was going to be able to be, you know, near
the level of the guy you lost, Right, how do
you replace a fifteen point scorer. You think you just
struck gold because you have a freshman that's averaging fifteen
a game. How are you going to find another freshman
(25:57):
that's going to come in the next year in average
fifteen a game that doesn't happened too often. So you
were like you were completely shattered. Now now you can,
in the least go into the portal and say, all right,
this guy averaged ten points a game Division one, or
he averaged twelve points a game or whatever, and we
think he's had some experience and he might be able
to help us, you know, kind of stem the loss
of the of the good player that just left us.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
See, I don't think you guys had the best individual talent. Again,
you guys have talent. I thought the pieces fit together
really well. What's that like to try and you said
you had to fix it? You know what's that like
to try and put together in terms of pieces that
fit and they mesh so well?
Speaker 6 (26:38):
Yeah, and some of this is you know, this is
more art and science, right, So sometimes you just kind
of get fortunate and everybody kind of fits together. But
things we knew we needed to address was our ability
to defend I mean, last year, we just were and
in all the years I've been more fifteen years, we've
always been a good defensive team. We were so bad
a year ago, and so we knew we needed to
(27:00):
get a little more athletic. We knew we needed to
have a little more of an edge. A lot of
my better teams have played with an edge. We did
not play with an edge last year. And so going
out and trying to find some guys that can help
us protect the rim, Guys that could guard in space,
Guys that could kind of handle some of the physicality
in this league. And so you know, when we got
a Mario Dickerson and his ability to you know, become
defensive Player of the Year and block shots, or josh
(27:22):
amajofo At you know, six foot four, two hundred and
five pounds, you know, that can guard multiple positions on
the perimeter, Cam Woods who can guard big small you know.
So we were looking for some guys that would be
able to really bolster our defensive side of the ball
with the ability to make some plays. And we got
some guys that can make plays and con junctually being
able to guard.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
You know, you guys had that you hosted the I
think it's a quarter final at home, and yeah, min
and rot Moor is they got a beautiful, essentially brand
new arena, right, it's a couple of years old. It's
it's beautiful. But you guys won the league and yet
you had to go to Indy. Now, you won the
conference tournament, you survived that credible semi final against Oakland.
(28:03):
But now, having been through it with the NEC and
been through it with the Horizon, what are your thoughts
on home sites versus neutral sites for conference championships at
this level.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
I might be a little biased today, but I will
say that some of the greatest environments I've been in,
and we've played in rout and we've played in the
Dean Dome, and we've played in McHale, and we've played
at mattiew r. We've played in a lot of places
across the country. Some of those semi final and final
conference tournament atmosphere that we've played in on campus sites
(28:36):
have been electric. I mean, you can't even hear yourself, thinks,
you can't even communicate to the bench sometimes it's so loud.
I mean, people are right on top of you. And
we've been in four thousand seed arenas. We've been in
two thousands arenas, and there's an energy in that building
that is our guys. Some of our past players talk
(28:57):
about some of those experiences and some of those road
winds to conference tournaments in the most hostile of environment,
like it was the greatest thing they've ever been a
part of. And so those are pretty pretty neat places
when you have the student body out, the community out,
the opposing team brings fans and they're trying to fight
the other two thousand people that are there, and it's
just every possession, every pass, every shot is multiplied by ten.
(29:22):
The important to send the energy that's involved.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
In see I just think and to take that a
step further. Andy Tooles our guests. He's the head coach
of Robert Morris. The Colonials won the Horizon League regular
season and postseason tournament. They're going the NCAA tournament. They'll
see where they're going on Sunday Selection Sunday this Doug
Gottlib Show, Fox Sports Radio. I would just say like,
and actually, this is interesting. I called your first four
(29:46):
game right that year, you guys were in the first four,
but then the nightcap was Boise against Dayton in Dayton,
and why while it wasn't particularly if fair to poise,
it's inarguably the greatest atmosphere you've ever seen at a
first flour And my argument is, like, what makes college
(30:08):
basketball great is home court advantage. And since we take
it sort of out of play in the NCAA tournament,
why we take it out of play in the mid
major level to get into the NCAA tournament?
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 6 (30:21):
It does? And I also think that now that you
don't get the automatic bit to the NIT, what is
the value of the regular season And if you now
have a situation where you've worked to earn that home
court advantage throughout the duration of your time in the
conference tournament, that puts so much importance on each and
every regular season game. Because when we won the regular
(30:43):
season at IU Indy, it was kind of like, Okay,
this is awesome. Our guys celebrated, we were excited, but like,
we didn't really have We didn't really get a reward
from that, you know what I mean? Yeah, we played
at seven o'clock in the semifinals instead of nine point thirty,
but we're still on a neutral site. And I don't
get me wrong. The horizonally did a great job. The
experience was awesome, first class all the way. But what's
(31:07):
the reward for being the regular season champ? Can you
host that stuff in your building and then create you know,
maybe a sizeable home court advantage as you go into
the most important games of your year.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Most important question would ask you do you own ties?
Or because you wear suits with no tie? Right, do
you actually you own a bunch of ties.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
I have a bunch of ties.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So what's tell me the thought in the in the
in the habitatrey, it's just.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
Not as comfortable wearing the tie.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
So why not go Why not?
Speaker 6 (31:40):
Why it's all restrictive?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Okay, why not go quarter zip? Everybody want everybody's pushing
for the quartership. Coach go quarterszip? Everybody goes quarters zip?
Why not go quarter zip?
Speaker 6 (31:49):
My my whole staff goes quarterszip. And I don't care
what they wear. I just feel like a little superstition.
You know, our our COVID years when we were re quorters
have been one of our best, and so you know,
I wanted to get back to where maybe you know,
I'm respecting the game a little bit with the way
I dress fair.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Enough, fair enough, last thing, Andy, I appreciate your time.
Look hard business. You guys switched leagues you hadn't seen
some success. Obviously, we know how this thing goes. Right.
When you're struggling, people are out for you. What's that
going to be like for you Sunday when you see
Robert Morris in the NCAA Tournament, understanding all you and
your program have accomplished and turned this thing around.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
That's the best feeling in the world. I mean, hearing
your name called on selections Sunday, I mean, there's no
feeling like it. There'll be a lot of satisfaction from me.
I know that. You know there were some you know,
tough conversations that happened last spring and some tough decisions
that needed to be made. And you know, to be
able to see in one calendar year that you're you've
won a championship and you're going to the NCAA tournament
(32:49):
is there's gonna be a lot of emotions for me
for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, listen, it's well deserved. Obviously. I have nothing but
respectful what you guys have done and how you guys play,
Stay healthy, get right and go out and win another
game for the Horizon League in the tournament. Thanks for me,
our guest, appreciate Doug all Right. That's Andy Toole, who
is the head coach of the Colonials of Robert Moore.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh what but you Doug got them show? Fox Sports
Radio coming to you from the tyret dot com studios
tyret dot com where we get there on matched selection,
fast free shipping, free road has protection over ten thousand
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buying should be. So every Wednesday, Wednesday is hump day.
(33:41):
What what one of the better commercials in the last
twenty five years? What? What day is it? Huh? What
day is it? Every Wednesday is hump date. It's the
middle of the week. Our show is in the middle
of your day. This is really it's in the middle
of our show. We do it three hours of You're like, no,
we do too. No, we do an hour podcast that
(34:02):
you can download that podcast or every download podcast. Just
type in Doug Gottlieb and follow rate review, subscribe all
those things, and you can get our podcast and take
the show and the bonus podcast hour with you wherever
you go. Uh But every Wednesday we get to a
topic that we'd like to banter around. Sometimes it's sports,
(34:23):
sometimes it's not. We call it the Midway. It's not
getting the.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Middle with you.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It's time for the middle the Midway Snug Gottlieb Show
here on Fox Sports Radio. Uh okay, So I heard
(34:49):
Bruce Pearl say something. We have the sound of that right.
Uh So. Bruce Pearl's head coach at Auburn. By the way,
it's a good friend of mine and my friends there
in Wisconsin flying out in Nashville. They're going to see
him in the SEC tournament. And BP, who's coach of
one of the top ranked teams in the country. They've
(35:10):
been number one this year. Jani Brew maybe the national
player of the year. He had this to say about
the popularity this.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
Sport, interest in our game and the college game has
never been better. This is a tremendous regular season in
college basketball, just even just the SEC. How many ranked
teams against ranked teams, and then how many of those
games delivered Like the last two Saturdays in the SEC
Alabama Tennessee overtime, Auburn Alabama overtime, and the ratings are
really good.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
I read a little bit about what's going on with
the NBA, but I couldn't tell you why some of
those numbers are down. But our numbers have never been stronger.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Okay, So Bruce Pearl, super talent head coach is coaching
the final four. Maybe we'll coach in the final four again.
Has won a national championship of the Division two level.
Bruce Pearl says, Hey, it's never been more popular college basketball.
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I thought that's a good area for discussion, right because
you guys have I'm sure followed you've never followed the
Horizon League before, right before me, And I don't know
if it's popularity as much as interest in our program
has never been higher. But what I'm cautious of doing
is not being narrow in my scope, being wider in
(36:25):
my scope. Let me start with you, Iowa, Sam, do
you think I will just get better about your question?
Is is college basketball more or less popular than it's
ever been? Sam?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yeah, I don't have the numbers in front of me.
I don't know what the ratings say I'm going to
say that maybe the men's basketball has rebounded after Kaitlyn
Clark moved on to the WNBA.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Wow, he said rebounded. Look at that. Look at that.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
I didn't even mean to do that. Wow just so
clever and crafty just subconsciously comes right out of me.
I think the SEC being so stacked this year, with
like what nine teams ranked at one point, even like
half the conference was ranked is ranked. There's a lot
of If you're in that SEC bubble, you might think
that college basketball has never been bigger. And I'm as
(37:17):
Steele Ryan Berschinger Ryan Berschinger's opinion that maybe because the
NBA has sort of suffered in popularity this year or
so we perceive that Bruce might think that college basketball
has taken over some of that popularity. I think all
those might come into play.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
But I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I really don't know what the numbers say in terms
of ratings. But when you say that a game delivers
and that the crowds are you know, you've packed the auditorium,
you've packed the arena, I don't know if that actually
means that the ratings are higher. I think that SEC
sports fans are very passionate, and they have a lot
of fervor for their sports, especially men's and women's basketball
(38:00):
and football and baseball. But I don't know if that
actually translates to the rest of the country watching The product.
May be great, the arenas may be packed, it might
be a lot of ranked teams, but I'm not sure
if that translates to someone in North Dakota watching Auburn
versus Alabama.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
All Right, what say you, Jay Stut.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I don't buy it. I don't think it's it's more
popular than ever. I mean, I grew up in the eighties,
so it's like, I don't know if it'll ever get
better than like late eighties Big East stuff. And you know,
we all were like very interested in the NBA Draft
because we had known these players, and I think that
(38:45):
that's an extension of college basketball. I think we're still
in that pocket of we haven't really gotten to know players,
and we certainly haven't been able to identify players with
teams because they float around. They'll have that three weeks
of popularity in March, and then they're forgotten about once
(39:08):
the NBA Draft comes around. It's just like, so if
we're just going by the eye test and someone like
me who comes through sports content every single morning for
my job. College basketball does not rise to the level
of national conversation, and I think it did at one
point it has through the years. So based on that barometer,
(39:32):
I would say I disagree with Bruce Pearl.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
I love this was not a pearl of wisdom by Bruce.
College basketball is no longer a national sport during the
regular season. It only becomes a national sport during the
NCAA tournament. I remember, Jase, do you mentioned the eighties.
(40:00):
In the nineties, college basketball non conference regular season matchups
were even big news nationally When you'd have a U
n l V playing somebody, When you would have Duke
and Michigan.
Speaker 8 (40:15):
Meeting during the week, you you talk about Duke and
Mike Kichewsky and right Williams and Michigan Michigan with the
coach by job By.
Speaker 5 (40:26):
No, that's all right. Someday I'd like to have him
have a conversation with Lou Holtz, but that might be
a little uh, it.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Might take a little too much.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Watch watch what you ask for, what.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
You wish for? I can't. Let's the midway.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Would you talk, Dick?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It was my fuck, do it? I asked for two?
Is six point two? Is six point?
Speaker 6 (40:51):
Right?
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (40:53):
The reason why you watched a Wake Forest U n
C game and February you talk about because you just
watched four years of George Lynch and Rodney Rogers. Absolutely,
you knew the players on the team, yes.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
Year after year, and you you don't bet Okay, in
the last five years or ten years, you didn't have
that because of all the one and donees, and now
you don't have that identity because even if they're staying
in Collins, are going to five programs in five years.
I mean as recently as you know, the early two thousands,
we had a great regular season story with remember Adam
(41:32):
Morrison and JJ Reddick having a scoring duel, both averaging
thirty a game during the regular season and everybody hating
on JJ Reddick ause he played for Duke and he
was villainous back then. I mean, that was a great
regular season storyline back then. But we just don't have
that anymore at all.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
But Cooper Flag, he does help and do being good.
You know, whenever your blue Bloods are good, it does help,
I think drive some interest from the casual fan. Cooper
Flag helps maybe a hurting hurt situation. I have found
some numbers here. This is from I believe the reputable
Sports Business Journal, and it's a title. This is from
(42:10):
February tenth of this year. Is a longer college football playoff?
Hurting college basketball? Sports Business Journal says men's college basketball
viewership was reportedly down twenty one percent across the sport
heading into January of this year, while women's college basketball
was down thirty eight percent. Some of that, they say
is attributable to Caitlin Clark's move to WNBA.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Some of it.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
So we're seeing we're seeing viewership down for both men's
and women's college basketball. Will I did see another article
though that the Big Ten women's basketball tournament did about
half the size in terms of viewership compared to last
year when his Nebraska Iowa versus this year when is
UCLA USC But it still did pretty well, with about
(42:54):
one point four to four million people watching as opposed
to about three point zero nine million something like that.
So it's down, but it's still there's maybe some interest
still from the casual fan who kind of clinged on
when Kaitlyn Clark was in the women's college basketball I
know we're talking men's basketball here, though I'll give you.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
My thoughts here. Okay, the Kaitlin Clark thing I think
really skewed things. Yes, absolutely, And as I told you,
and I think it's gonna happen here in the NCAA tournament,
that Cooper Flag deal will kind of write the ship. Plus,
if you remember, last year's men's Final Four was on TNT,
this year it's back on CBS. The numbers are way
higher when it's on CBS. On network television is when
(43:32):
it's on cable. That's just a reality to it. I
do think that Bruce is making the mistake of the
SEC has become the best college basketball conference, and they
finally gotten to where, not at all places, but at
most of them, they're starting to match again on a
different scale, the fervor of football with the fervor of basketball.
(43:52):
And the reason they're good is because they've hired good coaches,
because they they spend a lot of money, and they
go get good players because they have a lot of money.
But it's the old never mistaken activity for achievement. Let's
not mistaken because in your world, your conference, that everything
is super proper. I think the expansion of the Big
Ten has helped on some level with the with you know,
(44:13):
the West Coast schools where you have alums of those schools,
you know, going to see a new arenas they'd never
seen before. There's still a kind of a oh, this
is kind of interesting. On the other hand, we have
completely killed like, what's the best rivalry in college basketball
this year? What is it? What was the big game
to watch? And Bruce is right, it's probably Alabama Auburn. Yeah,
(44:37):
but it's really hard for a mainstream fan to go, like, wait,
to Alabama Auburn's the biggest basketball that's not I'm used
to Duke Carolina. I'm used to Arizona Ucla, I'm used
to Indiana Purdue. I'm used to a lot of things,
and this is this isn't it so again? I think
Bruce is talking about his own league, his own experiences,
and there's three hundred and sixty four teams out there.
(44:59):
I think most fans are experiencing what what Jase do
is experiencing, which is I don't know who plays for who,
and I don't know any of these coaches anymore, so
I don't really know what I'm watching. It makes it
harder to bet on, harder to watch, hard to cheer.
Just as I don't think he's.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
Correct, I will I will say that when we go
back now to network television for putting on the tournament
and especially the final four, it helps a lot. And
when I go into like a Buffalo Wild Wings or
any big you know, sports bar, it's it's so, it's
just it's such a special time of year. You can
feel people excited about it. And brackets have always been
(45:35):
kind of a way of like gambling with your buddies,
and now there's even more opportunities to fill out brackets
and you know, bet on these games in certain ways
and pools and prizes, and I think that definitely helps.
Just there's more and more ways like having a personal
stake on the games, and I mean brackets just go
back in time is just kind of the most popular
way to do that.
Speaker 5 (45:54):
I have a provocative hot take esque statement, go, this
is gonna sound crazy, but in terms of national cultural impact,
I think the first two days of the NCAA tournament
is presently more significant than the final four. Is discuss.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
That's interesting. There's I mean, people get arsting so frenetic
about that first weekend because there's so much going on,
there's upsets, and we get to the final four teams,
you're kind of like, Okay, this is what it is.
It's set. But yeah, that first weekend is just total
chaos and euphoria for a lot of people, including myself.
(46:33):
It's like you can't watch all the games. It's like
there's so much going on. There's fomo, there's fomo in fault,
and then you start to whittle down the field.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Anyone else's that's the midway. The midway, all right? I
thought you enjoyed that feel pretty to get your I
guess the question for social media is really simple. Do
you care more or less about college basketball than you
ever had? Do you pay attention more or less than
you ever have? And don't you can't link the NCAA
(47:06):
tournament because it's popular. It's actually different than it used
to be. But I'm gonna go with Bruce's a little
bit prisoner of the moment and prison the fact that
the league he's in now has suddenly propelled in popularity.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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