Best of the Odd Couple

Chris and Rob take St. John’s university to task for hiring the highly controversial Rick Pitino to be their next head coach  and debate whether or not these new-look Los Angeles Lakers have shown enough to warrant LeBron James coming back to the team before he’s fully healthy. Plus, former University of Oregon head coach and Pac-12 Network college basketball coach Ernie Kent swings by discuss all the upsets we’ve seen so far in the NCAA Tournament, why he’s so high on Houston and UCLA, the controversial hiring of Rick Pitino at St. John’s and much more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from seven
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(00:22):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Russo and Rod Harker. Rick Pettino hired to be
the head coach of the Saint John's men's basketball program.
This is what six years after he was fired by

(00:46):
Louisville for a scandal. All right, now, I mean, let's
just it just is what it is. He uh, the
FBI found out that they found him guilty in a
bribery scandal and that's just one of them. So he
was fired by Louisville. Robbie was kind of thought that, well,

(01:09):
I mean, he's had a lot of chances. That was
probably his last one. And then he got hired by Iona,
did a did a good job there. They got into
the tournament even though they just got beat and now
Louisville hire team, and your panties are in a bunch

(01:32):
about this. They are, Chris, and I'm officially you know,
I'm from Jamaica Queen's right, yes, yes, yes, just like
your wife. Yes, Jamaica Queens. And that's the home of
Saint John's, which was when I lived on one hundred
and sixty ninth Street in Jamaica, Chris. It was within
walking distance Saint John's from my co op apartment, so

(01:56):
I'm familiar with Saint John's. I covered Saint John's, and
right here, right now, I'm officially renaming Saint John's University
to Shame John's. It is now Shame John's University. Really,
Saint Rick Pettino, I get it. He's from New York.

(02:19):
I get it. He can coach basketball. But to turn
your head from all that Rick Pettino has done, Chris,
he has so much baggage. Spirit Airlines were charging five
thousand dollars to check the bags everywhere he went. There

(02:43):
was scandal he had there was a situation where call
girls were coming into the basketball dorm. Chris, Well, let
me let me go over a few of the things
you're you're alluding to, because again it was a little
while ago, so some of our listeners might not be aware. Okay.
The Louisville situation was where a federal bribery investigation alleged

(03:09):
that an executive from Adidas, which sponsored Louisville at the time,
agreed to funnel one hundred thousand dollars to the family
of five star recruit Brian Bowen in exchange for Bowen's
signature with Louisville. Okay, Patina Patino was identified robbing documents

(03:29):
related to the investigation as a person who played a
role in navigating the money to bowing He, of course,
you know, said he was ignorant of it, and did
he eventually admit what he admitted something, but you can
get to that in a minute. But then before that,
what you're talking about is one of his assistants was

(03:54):
hiring prostitutes and strippers to entertain recruits on a fish visits.
And somehow Patino, you know, kind of got out of that.
But the the assistance took all of the took the
hit rob and and this this guy was a grad assistant.
Chris making no money, but he's boy, he's paying for

(04:16):
for hookers and prostitutes to come on campus. Come on,
and you're not doing that without the head man. Come on.
First of all, to your point, you probably don't have
the money. You don't have that money. Secondly, if you
are doing that, think if you if you do that
and the head coach has no idea the house, you

(04:37):
would be crazy. Number one, he might not you. You
don't know if he's in agreement with that, you're not
gonna risk or something like that. But without him knowing,
And how does that benefit him, Chris, that only benefits
the head coach, benefit him, right, it doesn't even make sense.
And then don't forget about the two thousand and three

(04:59):
where the wife of an equipment manager there Chris at Louisville.
His wife got sent to jail, was charged with extortion
of a Rick Petino. You know why, because she was
trying to blackmail Rick Pettino. Back in two thousand and three,
the two had a relationship. Under the table of an
Italian restaurant, this woman became pregnant. Pettino paid three thousand

(05:24):
dollars for her to have an abortion. At the time, Chris,
she was not married to the equipment manager at the time,
but he also was paid an undisclosed amount of money
to marry her. And the incident got even uglier when
she accused Petino of rape and all kinds of stuff
and stated that Pettino lasted only fifteen seconds. But and

(05:46):
this whole mess, And here's the other part, Chris, I
own to win the out. I'm just reading what they brought.
Where did that come round? That's in the story. But
here's the other part. I owner gave him, Chris. They've
bent over backwards. People called in favors to get him
the job out of Iona, right, Rick Patua. Petino promised

(06:08):
to keep his nose clean. He's not going anywhere. He
just wants to coach again. As soon as things got
good for him, He's out of there and leaving Iona
on the lurch to get back to what he still wants,
which is a big time program. And Saint John's is
way bigger than Iona. Shame shame on Iona for allowing

(06:30):
this guy to use them. Shame on Shay John's for
going this route. Chris, Why I get it. Saint John's
hasn't been anything. They weren't anything when when Luke Carterseca
was the coach, they had four NBA players including Mark
Jackson and Chris Mullen and Walter Berry and Bill Wennington. Chris,

(06:51):
I could go on and on and on, and they
didn't win a championship and they they they failed to
make the tournament. I think Steve de Seka just said
three times in the last twelve or fifteen years, Chris,
they're bad, Friendchise. I'm about brad program. But but the
soup to this because they're going for a name and
Rick Pattino, who just should If you're a parent, you

(07:13):
gotta wonder about this guy and his baggage. And if
university you don't care about what what he's done. Chris
for real, Rob, I don't know if you saw Chris
Rocks latest Yeah I didn't see it, Yeah, and he
talked about Will Smith, the slapping and more stuff. But
it was called selective outrage, and Rob, this is an

(07:37):
example of selective outrage. And there has always been selective
outrage in this country and there is today. And one
thing Rob that's always upset me about the college situation,
particularly in football and basketball, is that when kids remember,
when kids that guy Bruce Brown, the play Ryan Brown,

(08:00):
whatever his name was, that you know he was shamed.
Brian Bowen, the kid that was gonna get the money.
He never even really got a chance to to, you know,
further his basketball career. Um, he was shamed. And for
so long they've shamed the kids. Think about Michigan, the

(08:20):
five five, Rob, it's about the kids as if they're
they're they're shamed, right, I mean, obviously those guys weren't
on to have They're fine as far as their careers.
But I'm saying, is there any record of them at Michigan, No,
making the Final four two years in a row. Now
they erased all of that. They want to shame the kids.
But yet when a coach does this stuff, he gets

(08:42):
job after job a job. And it's the same thing
with the transference. Now coaches are complaining about the portal
and kids can leave and there's no continuity and it's
not fair, but coaches do it all the time. And
I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna be honest. I just
think our country in general, there's a lot of character.
Like I mean, Rob, let's just keep it real. You

(09:03):
can go up to the highest political offices in our
country and you see people with no character, people with
scandals galore, both parties, Democrat, Republican, and they get away
with it, and they and This is an example obviously
at a much lower level, but it's selective outrage, and

(09:28):
people like to jump on the kids and jump on
the you know, the young men, young athletes for not
exhibiting character in certain certain situations. But you will hire
a guy like this who, obviously, time after time after time,
has exhibited poor moral character, no doubt, Shame John's, Shame

(09:52):
John's University. That's what you've done. You've shamed your university
by by kneeling and bending because you think you're gonna
win an NCAA tournament, Chris, or some championship. That's what
they care more about, rather than setting an example for
college age kids to say no, you can't just do anything,

(10:13):
and we're not gonna turn our heads to this. Shame
on Saint John's and those people for hiring Rick Patino
and one other thing, Chris. Real quick, tomorrow you will
not be arrested and the handcuffs and fingerprinted tomorrow will you?
In New York because they're getting ready. I just want
to make sure, uh no, okay, I just here's a
big name guy might be arrested tomorrow. I just want

(10:34):
to make sure it's not fun. Quick quickly, Rob I
was talking to a guy who that works an NBA
to day long time executive, and he has a background
in law, and he was saying that, you know, in
their training in law, there are several reasons you create laws, right,
but one of them is to serve as a deterrent. Okay,

(10:59):
and we were talking about the John Moran situation. But Rob,
that's the thing, like a law or a punishment, I
should say, is also supposed to serve as a deterrent.
So when you do the type of things that Patino
has done and you get punished severely for it, it
will deter you know other people, others don't do that.

(11:21):
But when you get rewarded time after time, where's the deterrent.
There is no deterrent. There is none. You could do
whatever you want. There'll be somebody there, Chris, who's gonna
reach back and pull you up. That's what they do
for those guys. Rick Patino's hands are dirty, and yet
they still shook his hands and gave him a deal,

(11:41):
Chris that he didn't deserve. There are plenty other basketball
called Rick Potino's in his seventies enough, seventy years old.
That's another thing. Like seven first of all, he should
be chilling and the universe. You're hiring a seventy year
old man. I'm sorry, how good is he gonna be?
At seventy? Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
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(12:01):
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(12:24):
Join us as we team up to expound on everything
we're covering. Hearing and Jason. Listen to This League Uncut
with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. The Los
Angeles Lakers and rob You went to their game Friday
against the Dallas Mavericks. They lost a heartbreaker on a

(12:48):
three pointer at the buzzer by Maxi Kleiba and no
Luca don Of course, they're without Lebron James, but still
that's a game you gotta win. They did to care
of business last night, beating New Orlando magic behind Austin
Reeves career high thirty five points. Yeah, it wasn't that

(13:08):
impressive When I looked and I saw that he had
forty free throws. Yeah, he had sixteen, but he was
getting to the law though. I mean, I give him
cit for eighteen free throws. I was just like, Wow,
that's a lot. That's all I'm saying. I'm not just
did you just said it wasn't that impressive. Eighteen free throws.
We've seen that before, the same guys, you know, get

(13:31):
to the because he was only he was like nine
for fourteen from the field. I was like, I looked.
I just was looking through the box score because I
was like, wow, thirty five points and I wanted to
see where they came from. So that was yeah. Yeah,
but really good game by him in a game they
needed to win. I ride right now. They're the tenth seed,
but it's so jammed. Um, they're just a game and

(13:53):
a half out of six. That's Dallas, And had they
beaten Dallas robed, they would have the same record and
so that was a big loss. That was a big loss. Yeah,
or they ain't be a half game back. Well, no,
they'd be thirty six and thirty six and Dallas with
Dallas now has a tiebreaker Chris Soul. So that's the
other bad thing about that loss. Dallas has the tiebreaker,

(14:14):
so they finished with the best same record, Dallas gets
to nod Because look, I haven't thought that the Lakers
are gonna get the top or the sixth seed. The
benefit of course they're getting the sixth seed is that
you avoid the play in and like we talked about
last week Robbed, the format of the NC Double A tournament,
it just and we're gonna get into this, I mean,

(14:36):
it just lends itself to upsets, and you saw a
ton of them over this first weekend. Two number one
seeds beaten, and so that's why you want to avoid
the playing. Granted, it can be two games for the
you know, the team with the higher seed has to
lose twice, but still anything can happen in a one

(14:58):
or two game format, just like you saw Friday night,
rob a last second shot like that that a game
you've kind of led the whole way could in your season.
And so uh, they want to avoid that if possible,
But I don't think they will. But I do think
they'll make the playing although rob they're tied with Utah

(15:19):
at number eleven. They have the tiebreak, I believe right
now over the Jazz. That's why they're in tienth. But uh,
they it's it's it's a chat, it's a tough no
no Lebron. The report from Chris Haines is that it's
far fetched, was that I was not realistic. I'm sorry

(15:39):
that he's gonna returnish this season, like right, And of
course Darvin Ham, the head coach, said they do anticipate
him coming back. So here's what I want to They
want to sell hope too. You don't want to. You
don't want to the players just be like, all he's done,
he's not playing, you know what I mean? Well, the
players should, I mean to me, if I'm a player,
that doesn't affect me, No, I I mean obviously, I

(16:01):
you know, obviously we all know that they need Lebron
even have a hope of winning the championship or probably
even a series. But if I'm a player, whether he's
coming back or not, I'm still playing just as hard
to just get in the tournament. You know, right now,
they don't have the advantage. They've only played Utah once

(16:21):
and Utah won that game, so they would not have
the advantage. They've played more games. That's why they're listed
as tenth right now over the Jazz. So but go ahead,
you let me let me ask you this. Do you
think that they have played well enough the Lakers without Lebron?
So let's say Rob the last week of the season,

(16:42):
he could play, but he you know, he's still hurt,
he's still damaged. Do you think they but they need
him to play to get into the playoffs? No? Do
you think they've shown enough for him where he should
do that? Absolutely not. And here's the reason why I
don't think this team is going to compete for a championship.

(17:04):
I think Lebron and ye, you're rushing back a guy
in season twenty like, I just don't. I don't. I
don't look at that team as, oh, yeah, for sure,
if Lebron players, you got a chance to make a
run and get to the fire. I don't believe in
that in this team, even with Lebron being out this
long and coming back, I just wouldn't risk it at

(17:25):
this age. I would like to regroup and try to
give it a run next year with a healthy Lebron
and I know Chris him trying to stay healthy along
a time, that's a part of it. But I'm not
trying to rush back a veteran player like that with
with a chance of doing more damage. That's just me
this team. I'm not that big onnest Toe. Well. Look,

(17:49):
if he's hurt, legitimately he's one of the greatest players
to ever played a game. I don't rush him back.
But if he's not one hundred and can play and
he's willing to play, like I let him. Look at
this stage, you know, Lebron's thirty eight years old, in

(18:10):
his twentieth year. If he doesn't want to come back
because he's not one hundred percent, I'm cool with that. Right.
We got him under contract, you know, for the future.
So I get that. But if if if he's okay,
he's not one hundred percent, but he can play and
he wants to play, I'm letting him play because I

(18:31):
do think ROB that one. I agree they're not the
favorites in the West, but I Rob. In my twenty
seven years of covering the NBA, I can't remember I
may be missing a year, but I can't remember a

(18:52):
year where a conference was so wide open, so wide open.
And while the Lakers may not be the av it
in the West, I mean, I just don't. I can't
sit there and say they don't have a chance. Let's
let's I'm gonna go back down the line. Denver poor
defensive team at best mediocre. They've lost five of their

(19:16):
last seven. I get it, it's a bad stretch that happens.
But the reason it's happening is because their defense is
a troches And even when they were winning, the defense
was that best middle of the pack. They're not scaring anybody.
Sacramento playing great, you mentioned it earlier, probably playing the
best right now in the West. We've never seen rob

(19:39):
a team come out of nowhere like this, unless you know,
you added a star or two, and they didn't do that.
They just got a new coach. They missed the playoffs
the last sixteen years. I believe we've never seen the
team do that and then go all the way to
the final. So I don't think they can win the West.
Memphis obviously has issues. Maybe j'all come back and he'll

(20:03):
be on fire and they'll take off. Okay, but maybe
maybe he won't, or maybe they won't play well. Maybe
that this will you know, mess up the chemistry or whatever. Phoenix,
They're gonna have Kevin Durant from me, I don't know,
six seven games together to going into the playoffs and
get this, they might meet this next team, the Clippers.

(20:27):
Rob If I'm Phoenix, the one team I definitely don't
want to see in the first round is the Clippers.
The Clippers, we know injuries always a possibility with them.
Russell Westbrook, how are they using him correctly? They had
won three straight where he didn't close in the fourth,
and now they played him in the fourth the last

(20:49):
game and they lost, and he took the blame recently
for a loss they got questioned Dallas route no defense,
horrible defense, worse than Denvers and Kyrie and Luca haven't
played much together. Golden State can't win on the road
like those are. I'm not even gonna go through the
rest because okay, see Minnesota are not contenders. And then

(21:11):
you got the Lakers who have questions as well. So
I'm looking at that west right, if I'm Lebron, and
that team, look right, they got shooting, they've got defense,
they fit together now with all the trades. If I'm
Lebron and I'm I'm able to play. I am believing

(21:34):
we have a shot, and people might call it far fetched,
but let's play and see. Let's see where the ball bounces.
Because here's the thing, Rob, And again you alluded to this.
Who's to say he's gonna be healthy next year? I mean, Rob,
how many times have you said, here's Lebron's time with
the Lakers. The first year he plays fifty five games,

(21:56):
he's hurt. Was this growing? I believe? Second year he
plays essentially the whole season because it was, you know,
shortened season, but they had locker months off, four months off,
they won the championship. The next year he only plays
forty five, forty five games. The next year he only
plays fifty six games, and this year he's only played

(22:16):
forty seven. Rob, you don't get healthier as you get older,
and so there's no guarantee he's gonna be able to
play more than half of next season. So I would
go for Again, I wouldn't put him out there, and
I wouldn't go out there if I'm lebrin, if I'm
really in harm's way, But if I think I can
play through it, it's just some pain. Then I would

(22:39):
go out there. Yeah, I just I'm just not as
high on this team. I know it's better than what
they had, but I'm just not that high on this
team when I look at it, and you know, you
can make a case and question all the other teams there,
but you could do the same exact thing with the
Lakers in question. Yeah, absolutely, they got the same questions.
But I mean, this is it like the East Boston. Yeah,

(23:02):
they've been slumping, but you know what they're gonna be, Milwaukee,
you know what they're going to be. Philly is playing great,
like Rob They're legitimate questions about the Lakers and everybody else.
So I would put him out there if he's able,
and take my chances. I don't expect them to get

(23:22):
out of the West, but I'm certainly not fully writing
them off eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight
seven seven nine six. I'm fully writing him off the
way I rode off Tom Brady in the Bucks. That's
what I think of twenty twelve, Shi, because you rode
off Brady and this shiar when they played the rote

(23:44):
off the Lakers already, you said they're not gonna make
the play, right, I'm sticking with that. I'm talking about
right now. They're in the player, Okay, right now, this
season ain't over. There like a game and a half
from not even being in the player, you know, from
being right in the playoffs. But I'm sorry, I don't
think you're gonna be right about that. All right, we'll see.
I mean there's like ten games like you wrote off

(24:04):
Aaron Rodgers getting traded. No, I'm talking about did you
tooting your horse? I'm just talking about the same bring
you down. And now I'm just trying to tell you
the same way I said when when everybody was picking
the Cowboy, I mean picking Tom Brady, and it was
the same kind of thing, and like, oh don't count
out tom Brady. And I looked at that team all year.
That's all I'm talking about is I never bought in
the Tampa Bay and I don't and I don't buy

(24:27):
into the Lakers. 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 iHeart
Radio app. Search f SR to listen live. Our next guest,
former Oregon head coach now PAC twelve network college basketball analysts.
We welcome in Ernie Kent, Ernie. Welcome to the s

(24:50):
Chris rob By, you guys doing doing great? Weird great
set up. Well let's start there, because I is it
great for the PAC twelve. I mean Arizona is out.
We thought to Eddie House earlier, we thought he might
be excited as an Arizona State alum, and he said, nah,
that makes the conference look bad. So what are your

(25:10):
thoughts on that? Well, it's bad at the route Arizona.
It's kind of an up and down on the road
all year. They're great at home because they've had a
great crowd, and I was really worried about them running
up against the wrong team in US, but really thought
they'd be ready to play because it's the NC dumb
Lay Tournament and it sounds like again they kind of
gave a performance like they've done a few times being

(25:31):
on the road and not really focused in Arizona State.
As another story, I thought for sure they're gonna be
able to close out that game because they're a team
that plays with reckless, abandoned they make tough shots, that
played great defense, they had athleticism. They were my team
in the conference. I thought, can make a surprise you run. Unfortunately,
they lose a game the last couple of minutes that
cost the conference big time. How about a school like Purdue,

(25:54):
number one seed, they went down as well. A lot
of people were saying they really weren't that good. Is
that the way we, you know, try to justify it
or did they just choke? Well, I'm all justify it
another way, because I think you see this all through
the tournament, and certainly with the fourteen of the sixteen

(26:15):
teams left, you know, people thought it was a bad thing,
the portal in the NIL. I think it's kind of
left what the playing field a little bit. Because you've
always talked about We've always talked about that guy's a
great coach, that guy's a great coach, that guy's a
great coach. Well, there's a lot of great coaches out there,
but the teams has got the better. Players tend have
dominated college basketballs off the years, particularly at this time

(26:37):
of year, and I just think players are more spread
out now and everybody can coach. The coaches at this
level can coach. There's nobody that knows more than anybody else.
And we all kind of begged barrow and steel from
each other and again, I just think they got caught
by a well coached team that didn't fear anybody and
went after them and they weren't ready to play and

(26:58):
end up getting beat. And that can happen. That happened
a lot of teams. Look at Virginia, happened to them
again as well as all as another team. Do you
also think that with I mean, let's face it, the
best for the most part, players who are college age
are in the NBA nowadays, and you even have a few,
you know, going to the G League and overtime and
leading things like that, and so a lot of the

(27:21):
mid majors they keep their guys three and four years
and they may not be quite as talented as like
these super freshmen and blue Chippers, but they may be smarter,
you know, because they've played longer. They may have better
chemistry together as a team. Do you I think those
are factors why you see some of these nine blue

(27:42):
Bloods and maybe even mid majors with the shot really
to go deep or maybe even win it at some point.
Well that's one percent, because again the portal in NIL
has guys jumping all over the place and jumping the
different teams, So therefore you hit it right on the head. Also,
you have a group that stayed together that can run
their third and fourth option on offense, that are more

(28:05):
settled in on defense where they don't break down. They
can defend you nine out of ten possessions. Everybody's where
they need to be. A team that is reloaded through
the portal. It's almost become like junior college programs where
we don't teach as much because guys are so new
and the in and out of the door so fast,
and maybe you're limited, and you really focus on getting
teams to play hard, play smart, and play together. For

(28:26):
here comes that well coach team veteran players, Hello, UCLA.
I don't think thee of the out of seventy six
top level conference schools, they're the only one that didn't
have transfers coming to the program, and that therefore they
got great leadership. Tiger Campbell hotmy Hawcats. But you've got
some mid majors that have that same type of leadership

(28:46):
because they have stayed together and they don't fear. They
don't fear any other teams anymore. What do you think
that Princeton Obviously they beat Arizona, they now they beat
number seventy Sea Missouri. They face Creighton, who's a a team,
but they're a sixth seat, Like, they're not unbeatable, you
can't you can imagine Princeton getting by them. Do you

(29:06):
give Princeton, like how deep do you think they could
go in this thing? I think Princeton is one of
those teams that have caught fired and they play extremely smart,
extremely hard from minute amount of energy they play together,
and they're on them. They're on a role right now.
Now can they be beat it? Whether they go deeper?
Where you're coming up against the Creton team that for

(29:27):
years coach mdermick, they shoot the ball. All of this
teams have been great scoring teams and they defend you two,
but they really get up and down spread the floor.
They play with a freedom that gives them an opportunity
to shoot it. So they're running up against the team
in Creton now that can flat out shot the ball
all over the floor. So he might be and may
not frunt up agains the team that's been limited before
and some of their uger wins. You can maybe shut

(29:50):
down a guy or two, but this is gonna be
a difficult contest with them. Can they win it if
Creton doesn't show up to play, You bet they can.
But I would think coming down the stretch, with all
the defeats we've had and we've seen, I would be
highly surprised if the coach did not have his team
ready to play, with so many examples around them about
what happens if you don't come ready to play. How
can a mid major, smaller school win the championship in

(30:13):
college basketball? I mean, we know that we've seen a
couple get there, but they've never been able to win.
Is this maybe the year? It's all about matchups and
if you hit the right team at the right time,
it can surely happen. Imagine if Butler was playing this
year with that great team they had when when Brad
Stevens was there. That's the mid major. You've got examples

(30:36):
like that, but you don't I don't think you can
say they can't do it. Well, they haven't done it yet.
Yeah I'm not just meaning they haven't. Yeah, yeah, it
just hasn't been done yet. But I never want to
say anybody can't do You just never know. Maybe this
is the year of the team's left and I don't
know what your pick was going in, but who do
you feel like kind of has that upper hand at

(30:57):
this point, they are the favorite. My pick on in
was Houston and it was Ucla. I thought those are
two teams because I thought Calvin had done a great
job with this team all year long. They had some
injuries later and those guys can kind of come back
and play through those injuries which they started to His
last games are in his team as a defensive jaggon

(31:17):
out there rebounding machine. They can score if they played tough.
And they got a tough game with Miami because Miami
similar and they're they're physically going to play tough and
play hard as well too Ucla and they got a
tough matchup with Gonzaga. They kind of marry each other too.
This is a very skilled, experienced team. Tyler Campbell dumped
and turned the ball over. He makes shots, made big shots.

(31:39):
You got you got a honey hot cast that is
extremely well and that has played well through this whole thing.
He matches up with Teami very well. But this team
Ucla played defense and they're very good offensively and they
have good pieces all over the floor. So those were
my two. But here comes to Alabama, a team nobody
really talked about maybe early on, but another team I

(32:00):
can score and they defend you, And that to me,
it's the combination right there, teams that can score the
ball but can defend also, particularly when you talk about
last two or three minutes of the game, where of
corcial that you get stops. Rob and I have talked
about how, you know, with college basketball, the regular season
just isn't as big as it used to be. Obviously,

(32:23):
the hardcore fans and the lums watch the regular season,
but it seems like it kind of all comes down
to the tournament for most casual fans, and this year
so far it's been the highest rated you know, first
weekend ever. Do you think because we kind of entered
thinking there's kind of a problem. Yes, the tournament is hot,

(32:44):
but until then, college basketball is kind of on the
back burner where you remember it's as we do years
decades ago, college basketball was rivaling the NBA in terms
of popularity and things like that. Where what do you
think of the state college basketball at this particular time.
You know, I sat in a meeting with TNT in Atlanta.

(33:07):
I've been twelve years ago. I was on the board
of the NABC, and the talk in that meeting was
about with football, basketball, baseball, college football, college basketball. As
a fan, where do you spend your money. You can't
afford to go to all those different games, all those disinvents,
but the prices are so high now and everybody's trying

(33:28):
to get creative how to get more people to watch
their games. And then all of a sudden, you see
where the NBA has changed, and more freedomble movement, there's
more storing, there's more dumps, more three, not as many five.
They changed the game and as a fan, I like
it better that way than the days it was a
slug defensive, slowdown type of game. College basketball has always

(33:48):
been a game that I think has been up temple.
And with the new style of play that everybody wants
to get up and down the floor now spreads the floor,
shoot three, put you in ball screens. It's created another
level of excitement as well. And with the transfer portal,
that's hurt Power's basketball since that you don't get to
see your guys go from pressor the seniors. But on

(34:09):
the other side of it, like you talked about, it's
allowed bits majors to step up and play well and
be exciting because they can play with the Grigger boys
as well too. So I think the state of college
basketball it's headed a deposit direction where they have to
figure out those is where we go with the portal
in the NIL because what's next for the nil revenue
shary some of the big TV contractors that the next

(34:30):
thing that's sooner app was gonna want and want to
people nobody knows. This seems like there's no parameters on
it right now, and we've got to get in under wraps,
I think. So it doesn't take the game and a director.
We don't want it to go in. One last thing,
did Saint John's call you before they gave Rick Pottino
that golden parachute? Hey, Rick Rick Patino, Well, he's a
New Yorker. I think he'll be great back there. So

(34:53):
they made the right choice in that and going after
him and everything I thought it's cooling to hire at
Georgetown was because he's another guy that I don't think
it's got enough credit for what he's done At top
of us, he is a great, I mean great basketball coach,
Chase care of his kids, cares about his kids, make
them act the right way in the community and get
them to play hard and coaches them up. He is

(35:13):
also going to do a great job at Georgetown, all right,
all right, Rick Pettino has too much baggage. I don't
know if he could even get on a plane to
go to New York with all that baggage. But I
would be remiss to not talk about, you know, your
coaching chains that took place at Kansas State and your
coaching chain that took place at Texas and with a

(35:34):
great job Rodney carry has done and Texas and everything
I'm turning that program around. When they went through some
adversity there, those two teams have played really well and
I'd be remiss not to mention those two guys. Two
first three guys have done incredible job. All right. That's
Ernie Kent, PAC twelve Network College Basketball analysts. Ernie, thanks

(35:54):
for joining the Eye Couple. Appreciate it. You're beat. Guys
have a