On today’s episode, Jason is joined by ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla for a lengthy hoops conversation. During the interview, Fraschilla discusses the idea of expanding the NCAA Tournament, which teams he thinks are most likely to cut down the nets in March, which under-the-radar teams could make some noise in the tournament, whether Darryn Peterson's inconsistent availability at Kansas could impact his NBA Draft stock, whether guys like Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa have any real shot to get selected first overall, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Straight Fire Fan, It's me Jason McIntire,
Straight Boyer for Monday, March the ninth. Quick programming note
no heard today. We are off for World Baseball Classics,
so we get a short week, which basically just means
more time to grind away on March madness. Oh, I
(00:31):
love it so much. Championship week is always fun. A
lot of gambling opportunities. We'll have some on the pod,
more on that site that I created, and whatever leftovers
are all on Instagram. It was a good weekend, really
strong weekend. Actually got in a little workout, got some
shots up. It's a big playoff basketball week for your boy.
(00:55):
Semi finals two days this week in two different leagues.
Nervous we could lose both, we could. You just never
know who's gonna show up. Guys get called to work dinners.
It's yeah, you don't really care. But what you do
care about is today's guest Fran for Schilla, a real
legend in the industry, who's a coach, he's an announcer
and just knows college basketball as well as anyone out there.
(01:17):
So I think you're gonna like his takes on March Madness,
a couple of Sleepers, cam Boozer comparisons. It's all deadly,
it's gonna be great. Before we dive into fran for Schilla,
I figure I will go a couple of minutes on
I guess the only big story that I saw on
Sunday in sports besides the Trent McDuffie huge contract that
(01:39):
the Rams gave him. I don't know. I can't get
over this Lakers win over the Knicks. So one could argue, hey, Jay,
come on nixt they were, they were clearly not locked in.
I don't know how that's the case. But the Knicks
basically get beat wire to wire by the Lakers. Is
(02:00):
not really that close. The Knicks were in Denver Friday, pummeled,
and I mean pummeled the Nuggets, who were on a
back to back against the Lakers. They beat them one
forty two to one oh three. Yes, Jokic played, Yes,
Jamal Murray played the Lakers. Sorry, the Knicks beat the
Nuggets in Denver by thirty nine unbelievable performance. But again,
(02:24):
the Nuggets were gassed from the night before against the Lakers. Right,
so then the Knicks come I guess, you know, maybe
they get the La flu or the La fever or
whatever it is. Friday night. I'm sure after Denver they
wanted to quickly touch down in La and they just
did not look good at all. But here's the interesting thing,
and I'm not making a thing. I'm not not doing
making it a thing. Lebron ruled out with I think
(02:47):
they were calling it foot arthritis or something. And as
soon as you see that, you're like, oh, Lakers are
freaking cooked. And they just came out and Luca and
Reeves led the way. Luca with thirty five basically was unguardable,
Austin Reeves twenty five, Luke Canard twelve Lakers shot a
great hit, fifteen threes, Nicks could not throw it in
the ocean, fell behind, and they just never saw that fight.
(03:11):
This is despite Marcus Smart shooting one of ten zero
five from three Lakers, not getting much from the Rava
or Jackson Hayes, who was over three. It was basically
the Luca and Reeves show, and the Lakers actually played defense.
Now what's interesting is they started Ruey for Lebron and
you're like, oh, well, they know they have a short
bench Maxi kleeber back ten minutes, a lot of cardio.
One steal and that's it. But a good rebound from
(03:34):
the Lakers after that, tough, tough Nuggets lost again. You
don't want to overreact to any one game, but like that,
teeth kicking in by the by the Knicks is bad.
And the way Jason Tatum has looked in I guess
we'll call it two games. He was much better against
the Calves than he was in the first one, where
he missed a bunch of shots. But he's still scored
and the team's all excited. Celtics are looking good, and
(03:57):
I wonder if the Knicks are a little shaken having
seen the Tatum return. I mean, they look good. The
Caves are an afterthought now they're at the four spot.
But in the West, it's interesting. The Lakers tied now
tied with the Nuggets. They had a back to back
After the Nuggets game, they whooped the Pacers, and then
(04:18):
this win over the next ties them with the Nuggets.
They are one game back of the Rockets and Timberwolves.
I'm recording this intro Sunday evening and the Rockets are
currently getting smacked around by the Spurs man. The spread
Spurs team is nasty. But listen, I know we want
to overreact every Lakers lost, Folks, it ain't over yet.
(04:40):
It's not there's a whorld where they get up to
that three seed. I mean, I'm not saying he's definitely
gonna happen, but I'm ruling nothing out. Obviously you need
Luca locked in and no more goofy technicals. But what
he's playing like he played yesterday, I don't see why
the Lakers can't can't make a run at that three seed.
So coming up for the thirty nine and twenty five Lakers,
it's funny the way you talk about him. You think
(05:01):
this team was like tanking huge week Tuesday home against
the Timberwolves. That is a big one. They're chasing Minnesota.
They need that, then Chicago, then Denver, and then a
massive road trip Houston, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Detroit, Indy. I honestly,
that Minnesota game will probably set the tone for everything.
(05:22):
The Minnesota and the Denver game. So Minnesota National TV
on Tuesday, Denver National TV on Saturday, at Houston, Monday
game on Peacock, and then on Wednesday in ESPN game
on Houston. So you're gonna get a big, healthy dose
of the Lakers here in the next week. All right,
without further ado, let's get to our guest college basketball analyst, Franfriscilla.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. Jason likes to think he knows everything when
it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I know what sports fans want, but for.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Everything he doesn't, he knows the guy who does.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
All right, let's welcome back to straight Fire, one of
the great voices in college basketball. He's been all over
the Big Twelve, which some could argue is pushing the
Big Ten for best conference in the country. Fran for Scilla,
college basketball legend. Frand, how are you man?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I'm outstanding. I would say the top of the Big
Twelve is the best conference in basketball. Last year, the SEC, Jason,
as you know, was like, yes, it was kind of historic,
really almost like a confluence of incredible events. All the
fifty year guys, you know, Jenni Brew Mark Sears. There
were so many guys, COVID guys. But obviously there's some
(06:52):
great teams at the top of the Big ten. But
this Big twelve this year, don't forget now. One of
the two things that have happened to the Big twelve
in the last three weeks is no JT. Top and
no Richie Saunders. Yeah, and so you know you could
talk about, well, what happened to BYU, what happened to
Texas Tech? Well, you lose basically an All American and
JT Top and who you know was right there, probably
(07:12):
top three national player of the year with Boozer and
then Richie Saunders, who's a great player, could have been
a first round pick BYU lost him and that that
was a big that was like cutting your heart out.
So yeah, but it's been a.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Get to de Bonsa in a minute. Can he pull
off a Danny Manning type run Danny and the Miracles.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
They had a good flourish to end this season. I
want to start big picture, Fran. Yeah, So the tournament
sixty eight teams. Weirdly, there's been a lot of expansion talk.
We know college football is more everything, right, they want
to push the twenty four teams, sixteen, whatever the number
is gonna be. Where are you on expanding the NCAA
tournament from sixty eight to I don't know ninety six what.
(07:51):
I don't even know what numbers they're talking about.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I definitely don't want ninety six. I think ninety six
would be ridiculous, it really would, you know, I think
sixty eight really good. Right now, I've said seventy two.
You know, maybe maybe you add four more games in
Dayton something like that play in Then the other argument is,
why should the automatic conference champions, even at the mid
(08:17):
and low major level, Why did they have to play
in Dayton? Why don't we put the as we say
in Brooklyn? Why not put why don't we put the
drek in Dayton? You know it's.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Auburn young Pearls Auburn team. Maybe I know they're on
the bubble, but yeah, no, no, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Go ahead, Yeah they're drek. I mean there's a perfect example.
I mean, God bless them, but come on, man, fifteen losses.
I know they played a tough schedule, but I would
rather reward that, you know, a really good mid major
team like in Miami, of Ohio who's automatically in. Don't
even ask me, they're in. I mean that's a that's
a given. So but I think I think right now
(08:55):
we're kind of If you told me seventy two and
that would be it, I'd be fine with it. But
there's no question that there's a lot of mediocrity from
the power five ye that are trying to fight their
way in that. I don't think we need and ruin
a tournament.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, so Auburn last year was amazing. My guy Pettiford
returns to school. I'm assuming he didn't get a first
round grade. I love that guy. I thought I would
won him as my NBA point guard. Frand I know
we're talking about Auburn. We don't even need to waste
the time. But I love Pettiford's game. He hasn't gotten
better this year. I mean from three, I don't. I'm
almost feeling like he's going to be a four year guy,
or he's going to depart and go to Europe and
(09:32):
try to make money or something.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, you know, I saw like the best game he's
ever played. It was a second game of his career.
He dropped like twenty one on a great Houston team
on the road in his second game of his college career.
He had some other good, really good games Jason after that,
but yeah, twenty one in your second game against a
defense like Houston, he was incredible. And I know a
lot of the people around him from Jersey, and honestly,
(09:57):
I just don't like his game anymore, you know, And
I don't think he brings it every night, And you know,
I feel bad for him because I don't think he
knows that he doesn't know that happens a lot guys
think they know and they don't really know. And I
know he's had some good games down on a stretch,
but as far as NBA now, I don't hear a
lot of buzz. In fact, he's either gonna have to
(10:17):
go back to Auburn or maybe he'll be unhappy with Auburn,
like a lot of kids are at different schools and
try to go to greener pastors make more money or whatever.
But I was kind of disappointed, and I thought he'd
have a big year because I thought he was a
pro too.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, all right, let's get to what teams that actually matter.
So friend, I see it as there's a clear top
four in whatever order you want, Arizona, Florida, Duke, Michigan,
and then there's another good, really good too in Illinois, Houston,
and after that. I gotta be honest, I don't trust
a lot of the three seeds. Would you agree that
there's a pretty clear top four?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yes, yeah, I think so. I love those teams on
a given In a given week during the season, I've
said Duke's the best team in the country. Then another
week I go Arizona is the best team, and really
the same thing with Well, what's interesting about Florida because
they kind of went under the radar a little after
losing to you know, they lost right away to Arizona.
(11:14):
We kind of figured out how good Arizona could be
that night. CoA Pete had thirty that night, Jade Bradley
had twenty three, and so they kind of went under
the radar for a while. Now they've smoked the SEC
and those guards are playing well. Thing about the thing
about Arizona that people forgot is we knew they had
a great front line, but nobody knew they had three
(11:35):
NBA players in the backcourt. All three of those guys
that played in the league this year, So they figured
out with the guards, they got Bookie flanned and the
kid leave from Princeton who have started to play better.
That you put them with that amazing front line and
you got something special. Now the interesting thing about let
(11:55):
me think now, I say three of the four teams
have dominant front lines Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and then Duke's
got a dominant you know, I wouldn't say dominant frontline,
but cam Boozer's dominant and Malik Brown is really good.
So you know, all those teams have something similar in common.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, it shifted. It seems like it shifted from guard
play to do you have size? Can you get a
million offensive rebounds?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
All?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I think all four of those teams are like top
twenty and offensive rebounds. Let me go on Arizona because
I remember you had to call for Arizona Houston, and
I think you had this. You were the first to
put me onto the stat that Arizona shoots the fewest
threes in the country, Like literally there three hundred and
sixty third or three hundred sixty five. However many right
down at the bottom right, and I look at that,
I'm like, that's insane. But you were a coach. You know,
(12:42):
sometimes when everybody's digging, you got a zag. And I
kind of love what Arizona's doing.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. There's a big discussion now
about whether we should go to four quarters on the
men's side, And I'm on the rules committee, right, the
NCAA rules committee, And so I asked Tommy Lloyd about it,
and he goes, I don't want four quarters. I want
teams in the bonus. I want to get in a
bonus for ten minutes to go because we're pounded people
and I want to go to the foul line. But
(13:09):
I would say it's akin to having a great offensive
line and great running backs, and you still have a
great quarterback, but he doesn't have to throw all the time.
I mean, Braydon Burry's can shoot the three. They've got
guys that can make the three. It just so happens
that Tommy Lloyd going back to his Gonzaga days with
Mark Few think about it, Sabonis Karnowski, Timmy, you know,
(13:32):
I mean, I can go on and on with all
those big monsters that they've had, and Gonzaga used to
pound people and they're still pounding people with Graham Ike.
So I think that's just Tommy's philosophy that listen, we'll
we'll shoot the three, but let's just pulverize people first.
And I like it because as a coach, you want
to destroy somebody's will as an opponent, and there's no
(13:54):
better way to destroy somebody's will than to just pound
it inside and say you can't stop us. And they've
got three guys on that front line that they rotate,
a walk of Krevas and the great freshman Coe Pete.
They pulverize people. I think it's pretty smart.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, let me ask though, everybody's a little concerned. Hey,
who if they're having an off night? From three, they
go two of twelve, they don't shoot a lot and
the opponent gets hot and it's thirteen fourteen threes. Arizona's vulnerable.
Do you buy that? I mean, we haven't totally seen
them succumb to a team that went nuclear from three Kansas.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Well, let me didn't do it yet. Let me tell you,
I mean you better, You better make twelve threes on
them because you're not gonna beat them playing traditionally. Here's
the problem. They're also great defensively. Yeah, you know what
I mean, Like Jadon Bradley is as good on the
ball as there is in the country. He's right there
with the best on ball defenders. This kid Kart Schenkov,
(14:50):
who's like the super glue guy. He should be in
a James Bond movie. I told him that he didn't
know who James Bond was, so I said, never mind,
never mind. You know, I didn't even want to tell
them Google because he might not know Google. But no,
like he looks like that, like robotic, I'm gonna choke you,
kill you kind of guy. And he's six seven and
he's only nineteen. But no, and then Crevass is a
(15:12):
great defender at the rim, Jason, so you could press
out on the three point mine with those guys. So
you better be really lucky and have Arizona have a
bad night for them to give up twelve threes, because
I don't think you're gonna get that very often.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I don't think they get the hype of Michigan
or Duke. Obviously east of the Mississippi, everybody you know
lots those teams. But to me, I love Arizona, man.
I think this team is nasty. The one thing you
mentioned I'm not even going to try to pronounce the
James Bond guy, but Crevas this set up. He's kind
of a trend. Illinois did it obviously, Arizona a lot
of European guys coming in and being like, oh, these
(15:47):
guys can play instantly because oh, look, they've been playing
professionally since they were like fifteen sixteen years old. The
Luka Doncic model. Do you see this expanding? I mean,
all of a sudden, it's more lucrative for these guys
to come to Arizona, get an edge education or whatever.
And oh, by the way, here's two million dollars as
it supposed to play internationally.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Completely different. I'm guessing now it's just a guess. When
he played on his professional teams, and they have a
club system, so you got the main club, which is
the pro team, and then you got the second club,
which is mainly the younger guys like eighteen to twenty two,
kind of like a college team. Those guys might be
making twenty five grand, you know. Yeah, yeah, there's no
(16:29):
more Ricky Rubio's and Dontices and those guys. Like, if
you think about it, my job at ESPN, well, they
took me off the draft. You know this because woj
came and brought his guys. And I don't watch the
draft anymore because and I know we do it, it's ESPN,
but it bores me, so I don't pay attention. But
these kids now are coming to these these international kids Lithuania, Serbia,
(16:53):
you know, France because of Nil. Now the agents are
now shipping them to the United States to play NCAA.
Aren't really there aren't that. I couldn't even tell you,
like who the top five international guys are in this
draft because the guys I really like have already come
to college. You know Krebos for example, seven foot two,
and remember he broke his foot last year, so we
(17:14):
didn't really see him much. He only played like the
first four weeks of the season. But yes, there's more
international guys coming over, and they come over with a
healthy knowledge of the fundamentals because they all go they
come in the club system. They're taught out to dribble,
pass and shoot. His young players and they're having a
huge impact. Illinois's doing it, for example, with all the
(17:35):
Serbian guys, and you know, certainly Tommy Lloyd, who's got
a better connection to international guys than him. He's the
guy that did it all against Zaga all those years, right,
and now he's got a German at small forward. He's
got a crebas To Lithuanian at the center spot. He's
got a kid from the Aristota's going to be a
good player. The eighth man, another freshman, he's from the Netherlands.
(17:58):
Got a couple of African kids who are wait in
their turn. Tommy knows what he's doing. When it comes
to international guys.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
There's a kid in Virginia Tech from Greece. I mean,
it's you're starting to see pockets of it.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
But you're right.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Illinois and Arizona have gone all in. And it's crazy
that you say that. So, Frank, the NBA, when it
takes European guys, it takes a few years. Right, It's
not as exciting when who I forgot the guy who
went to Washington and the Atlanta Resa Shay and these guys.
It's not exciting when the Euros come to college basketball
as freshmen. They're high impact players immediately.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, they are because that's the age group. You know,
Like you bring reesa Say over for example, or al
Or Sarrow from Washington Sar, that was his name. Yet, Yeah,
Sar comes over and he's only nineteen. I mean if
Sar and Resa Shay Sars, Sar's brother, actually, Olivier Sar
actually finished at Kentucky playing for cal Perry. Wasn't bad,
(18:50):
not quite NBA. I might have played in the NBA
A cup of coffee. But yeah, these kids now they're
coming to college instead of going to the NBA. They're
they're I would say, they're not all dominant players, but
they're all really good players because they're playing with their
age group. Reesa Schek comes over, he's nineteen and he's
playing with grown men, and even though he's played tough, Yeah,
(19:12):
it's tough. It's tough, and there's the adjustment. You know,
for every Dodgers, there's ten guys that just need time.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, or who are any man? I think one of
your most iconic sayings two years away from being two
years away is that did I get that right?
Speaker 3 (19:26):
You got it right? Yeah? I should have copyrighted it.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Should Did that guy make the league? By the way,
is he still Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Bruno played in the league four or five years. He's
had a good he's had a good career. I think
he's in Serbia right now, plays on the brun Bruno
Caboco Bruno plays on the Brazilian national team. He's probably
thirty two now, and.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Has it been that long while? Yeah, I mean that
was that was just when you said that, it instantly
went viral. Really a class I know, I know, I
don't think it was killing the guy. You're you're speaking
facts that he was. He was multiple years away.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, but he's had a he's had a good career.
He's probably made good money, yeah an NBA money, got
good money.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Solid, Yeah, for sure. All Right, So Duke Michigan Arizona,
Florida is I want to love Illinois and I did
love them and they got their butts kicked at home
by Michigan. That was kind of a wake up call.
I guess I thought they bounced back. Do you think
they're a legit final fourteen?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah? I think anybody who we think can get to
the Elite A can get to the Final four. Because
you know, I said this during the Big twelve season.
You know what the and just to digress for a second,
what the Big Twelve did, and it was sad because
of those two injuries. Is all the best teams at
the top of the league played each other in February,
so it was almost like the Western Conference playoffs in
the NBA. You had Arizona play in Houston, you had
(20:40):
Houston play in Iowa State. You had Kansas going on Arizona,
Houston going to Kansas. And so to answer your question
about Illinois, you know, if it's a seven game series
with Michigan, Michigan's gonna win four games to one, four
games to two. But that's not how it works. You know,
if Illinois gets the right matchup on a given night,
and like you said, team hit twelve threes and they're
(21:01):
capable of it, or Keaton Woggler goes nuts or some
of those international kids and Colin Boswell plays well, they
can get to the final four. You know, I always
say can get to a final four? Ukon to certainly
get to a final four? Really I think so, yeah,
I do.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I mean, wait, let me go back to Illinois for
a sec. Striyakovic, the son of Pegia is listen. I
know you hear a lot of stuff. You can't say everything.
So I like this kid's game when I saw him
at CAOL last year. Right, So he starts to Stanford,
then goes to cal then goes to Illinois, and he
came into the season as like the guy on Illinois,
and then something's going on. Late in the season. He
did not play in two games, and then the Michigan
(21:38):
game was alarming. He barely played and he didn't score,
and I was like, what is he? Is he in
his own head? Is he not happy that he's no
longer the guy? Have you heard anything on Striyakovic?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
And no, No, I mean, you know, the biggest thing there.
First of all, it's interesting. He's a really good player.
It's this is so about bizarre. He does so many
things well except you can't shoot, which is Dad was
one of my all time great NBA probably one of
the best shooters in the last twenty five years. So no,
but I think Woggler's hurt his season, Soyokovic's, you know,
(22:11):
And because wagog came out of nowhere. You know, it's
amazing to me that Woggo got out of Kansas City
and didn't go to Ku or Miszoo. And you know,
that's amazing because he's going to be a one and
done And so I haven't heard anything, but you know,
he's an incomplete player. I love his I love it
early in the year when he was playing well. I
love his toughness, his tenacity, gets to the rim well.
(22:34):
But he's not a great shooter. So I don't know.
Brad Underwood, who I know pretty well, is like, uh,
he doesn't mess around. Man. If you're not bringing it,
or you're if your body language is bad, or you're
not all together with the team, you could be in trouble.
So I don't know exactly, but I know that he's
not been as big a factor as he was early
(22:54):
in the year.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
So I turned my nose up. When you're like, yeah,
Yukon can make can make the final four? Ioas Ta,
I just I don't mean to diminish those teams. But
Fran like the gap in per Kenpom. The net rating
between say, like an Iowa State and a Saint John's
is not that big, but I feel the gap between
like Arizona and Iowa State, it feels massive. I don't
(23:16):
feel like they could like Iowa State could hang with Michigan,
but could Arkansas hang with I always say I feel
like it. Maybe I don't know. Am I wrong?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
No, you're not wrong, But remember what we're talking about.
You're talking about one and done games. So yeah, if
we if we had the four that we talked about
in Indianapolis, we'd all be doing handstands because we all
think that's the best four team, right, and so that
would excite me no end as a fan. But I
know enough about we know you do too. You know
(23:45):
that anything can happen. And when you look at I'm
trying to think of another team, like I'll give you
I'll give you a fly a dark horse. Virginia Virginia Quae. Yeah,
the two big you know, they're like, what are they
twenty five and three years something? You know, but there were.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Four losses, but yeah, they're really twenty seven and four.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, twenty seven and four. You know what I'm just saying,
Like teams like that, they played one game. Like, here's
what I always say. In a thirty five game season,
you play five games over your head. I don't care
who you are, you could be lu Illinois. There's gonna
be five games where everything goes right. You make seventeen threes, yeah, ball,
(24:24):
the ball bounces three times, it drops in, you know,
those things happen, And then five games where you play lousy,
and the other twenty five is who your team is.
The great teams win games when they play lousy, and
sometimes a great team plays like you know, Illinois plays
Alcorn State, They're gonna win by thirty five forty, but
(24:45):
that that night they hit seventeen threes they win by fifty. Yeah,
you say, why couldn't we save this from Michigan? And
so if you have one of those five games and
you're thirty five where it doesn't go well, you know,
the algorithm whatever they call it, igorithms are off. Yeah,
any of those teams, Like listen, I did the Michigan
TCU game. We now TCU turned out to be better
(25:08):
than we thought. The Jamie Dixon's done a great job,
he asked, Michigan should have lost that game. TCU beat Florida.
So all I'm saying is in a one game, when
you get good teams like Saint John's, Yukon, Iowa, State
of Carolina. Although now with Wilson, I would I would
I would have been that if I knew Wilson was
(25:30):
coming back, that would be another one of those teams.
But no, I think if you you look at those
other twelve teams after the top four. There's a couple,
there's a team or two there that could make a
magical run to the final four because you know, one
one done situation, you you have you catch Michigan or
Arizona on a bad day.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, I'm just looking at the Virginia roster. The kid
from Belgium, twenty three years old freshman, I know, not bad.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (26:09):
So another team somewhat dangerous because of the three pointers, Wisconsin.
Have you done any of their games? What are your
thoughts on Wisconsin? They don't defend at all. Greg Gard
has had a lot of March issues, but anytime you
could take down they want at Purdue. I think they've
eat Michigan and they want one other good win. That
was amazing, Oh Illinois on the road, I mean those
(26:31):
are those are huge wins, but they're contingent on threes.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, I haven't seen that much. I know John Blackwell
is a heck of a player, and I love Greg Guard.
I can't really give you. I've been so locked in
for the most part to you know, Big twelve. The
last couple of months, I'll turn them on. And I
always root for Greg guard because he had a tall
order replacing bo Ryan. It's right, and a lot of
(26:55):
people who aren't sure whether Greg could be the guy,
and he's proven to be the guy. So I can't
really give you. What I can tell you from a
distance is Wisconsin's like in Iowa State, and a Saint
John's or a you know, a Yukon. And by the way,
when everybody was bitching about Saint John's not having a
point guard like two and a half months ago, and
(27:17):
that was Rick's fault. That's Rick Patino's fault because he
said we could win without a point guard and then
they started struggling a little bit. It always dawns on
me that Rick is one of the best coaches of
all time. So now you mean to tell me, you know,
in a let's say the second weekend of the tournament.
Let's assume Saint John's gets by the first weekend. You
(27:37):
mean to tell me, in a four team tournament that
Rick Patino can't get his team ready to win two
more games and get to a final four.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, they got to get out of that first weekend.
I'm looking at the Ken pondstats one hundred eighty six
to threes, two hundred and ninth and two's one hundred
ninetieth and free throws. I mean, they just can't shoot.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
That scares me, well, it does me too, But there's
certain guys that figure out ways to win.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, so let's see they're what like they're looking at it.
Maybe a three seed here?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, three four?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I mean, I guess give them a three seed, give
them a three seed, right, and then give him a
win over the sixth seed, just for argument's sake, and
now it's a you know, what is it going to
be a three versus two? Who?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, that's the problem that I think that you know,
if you if you draw Illinois that that's a tall order.
Houston would be a difficult one. I think Michigan State's
a week two. I'm sorry. I know the ISO fans
are strong, and I don't think Yukon's a great two either.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, yeah, well, I'm what what I think you're discounting,
And I don't disagree talent wise, but what I'm not
discounting is, like Danny Hurley, look, at they did last year.
They weren't they weren't any good compared to the two
championship teams, and yet there were one play away from
beating the national champion. That's right. Yeah, So again when
I get back to one and done, I'm not arguing
(29:01):
with the talent wise, but we know how chalk works.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So this bracket has Saint John's is a five facing
Yale and then Alabama in the second round.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Harvard's gonna beat Yale next weekend. I'm joking.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Absolutely, You're kind of connected there.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Huh. Harvard finished ten and four and they played Yale
twice and they're one point up on Yale in two
great games. So I'll be pulling for Harvard, but you know,
we'll see. But anyway, I get your point now, I
just I just all I'm saying is there are four
tremendous teams, and then I see teams that on a
given night. Can you know, like there's there are nights
(29:40):
where Mam Chilovich makes seven threes and they play the
stifling defense that they're capable of. That I was taking
it to an elite eight and then upset a team
that is better than them on paper. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
No, that's a great point. But last year, so the
top four seeds went sixteen or no. Early the Elite
A was one versus two, one versus two, one versus two,
and one versus three. The other three was Texas Tech
after Saint Johnson's. But like I just it was really chalky.
So maybe that's why we are just thinking, yeah, tchalk again.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Well, I wouldn't. I wouldn't bet against those four teams
because they are playing great. I mean Michigan, you know,
I mean, gosh, I look at it, and I saw
them in person, Like I said, they should have lost
the TCU. But it's funny. When I talked to Dusty
made that day of the game, spent some time with him,
he said. I said to him, boy, you got a
lot of talent. And it was early like third game
(30:34):
I think, and he said, we got a lot of ingredients,
but I don't know how to cook the meal yet,
you know. And so he's obviously put together like a
michell a Michelin, like he's going to get a Micheline
award because he's figured out how to cook the meal. Now,
remember they lost Kison.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
That's a big one.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Not a yeah, I would say not a killer, killer loss,
but still a big piece in some ways. Kaison was
playing better than Cado.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Was a one of these hype New York City guys, right,
Jersey kid.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, Cado, Cado is a kid. No Is Cason's a
Florida kid.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah Cado, I meant sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like I.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Like Elliet Cadou, but Cason was a security blanket because
Caddot can be really turnover pro hu and so anyway,
but when I saw those guys in person, they're massive.
When I watch Arizona, don't forget Arizona. They had they
they went through two weeks where they played without Pete
and Aristote, so this great eight man rotation was six
(31:32):
and now that they're back to eight, I think they're
as good as anybody in the country. And and don't
forget Duke's hurt.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Now, uh yeah, what happened to the center. I didn't
even know he was out against UNC. Yeah that was
yeah gone.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
But yeah, and I'm from what Shire said, he's not
going to play Foster or Big Pat next week at all.
In the in the a SEC tournament, He's he's keeping
them out. So again that's a little bit of a
you know question more because like Arizona went through it
in mid February all of a sudden, Duke's going through it.
(32:07):
And listen, if Texas Tech had JT. Topp and what's
Christian Anderson and those great guards, would be a whole
different story. So total, Yeah, that's why I say. Also,
you got to be lucky too. You know Shed got
hurt a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Ago, and again I remember brutal.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So that's what we're not factoring in. I think, would
I want you to factor in? And you can't factor
it in when you put your bracket together? Is coaching
and then the luck of the injuries and bad breaks.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, you do a lot of Big twelve. So we
got to talk about Darren Peterson here. I know you
know him probably as well as anybody. You're tight with
Bill self, So say whatever you can. But like, should
we be worried about that? Was he dogging it?
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Do you think?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
I mean, he's playing a lot of minutes now, but
that was after everything got really loud. I think he's
the best player in the country when he when he's playing.
I like to bance a lot, but I had to
head it. I don't know if you called that game.
It felt like Peterson got the him. It was that fog.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
But yeah, yeah, I didn't do that game. Jay and
Dan Schulman to that game. But I've seen him both
like multiple multiple times on this on a semi on
a semi inside which I am, but don't know everything
about Darren. I would say number one, he's a great kid.
I think there was a caution from outside of the program,
(33:24):
so you can you can figure that out, family agent,
et cetera about certain things that he dealt with, cramps,
hamstring that made the family a little hesitant. Every time
I've been around him, he seems to be a happy,
go lucky kid, great teammate, et cetera. I would say this,
I love his talent. I love his talent. He's a
(33:45):
bucket natural scorer. But you're not doing your due diligence
if you're in any of those NBA teams in the
top three or four, if you're and it's going to
come down to the combine the medicals, because if you're
going to make him the facier your franchise and he's
gonna go to a mediocre, a bad team, obviously, you
(34:06):
just don't want to go to your owner and say,
we're paying this guy thirty six million guaranteed first pick
in the draft. But oh, by the way, he's going
going to play fifty to sixty games, So you got
to do your homework and everything could be cleared up
by the by the combine in Chicago. But I have concerns,
teams have concerns. But to your point, when he's played,
(34:28):
you know a lot of minutes like he did yeh
twenty seven points of twenty nine minutes yesterday, he scores
so effortlessly. A j has had an amazing year, and
he may be the safer pick.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yes, you know, he may be not a consolation prize
by any stretch.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
No, No, And I'm going to tell you about this
draft because you know you'll have me back on early
jer Yeah. Yeah. And I say this jokingly, but like
this is a draft where there is a lot of
consolation prizes. I mean, shake, Gilles Alexander went eleventh, Steph
was taken after Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio, remember that, right,
Jaylen Brunson went thirty fourth. We can go on and
(35:03):
on and on, right, And what I'm saying is Braden
Burry's could be the best player in his draft going
seventh eighth. Darius Acuff could be Dame Loward. We don't know.
Here's a great one about Caleb Wilson. This is why
I love this kid. Don't worry about the surgeries. He's
gonna be fine. When they played Kansas and beat Kansas
at home, like the third game of the season, they
(35:25):
asked Caleb Wilson about playing with against Darreon Peterson and
he said, yeah, I was on them. I was on
the West McDonald's team with him. He never passed me
the ball and that told me something. That told me
something about the kid, Like nothing against Darren, but that
told me this kid has got a chip. So you know,
you look at a Cuff and Flemings and you know,
(35:48):
you go down the line six, seven, eight, first eight picks,
somebody one of those other guys could end up being
the best player in this draft. That's how it usually works.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, So Burry's is interesting because I don't you know,
they have so many good players every night, it's like
a different leading scorer. Yeah, but I don't think of
him as like a foundational guy. I didn't think top ten.
You're saying, like, wow, top ten.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Let me tell you everything. Here's the thing about Bury's
and I keep a you know, I talked to everybody
on their staff, all their players, every game. I had
somebody tell me last week because the first five games
of his career at Arizona, he everye eight points a game.
In the last thirty twenty five games, he's averaging like
eighteen or nineteen. And I had a couple of people
(36:33):
tell me from the day he came on campus last summer,
everybody knew he was the best talent, best player. And
he's proven that. And I'm the guy that said, they've
got eight starters every night, eight starters, eight starters. But
he has grown on me and he really reminds me
like Jamal Murray was the seventh pick. Okay, Jamal Wurrs.
(36:56):
Murray's won an NBA title. Remember Cal didn't start Jamal
Murray or you know, like Booker Murray, Shay Gills, Alexander
Child put them in witness protection program at Kentucky he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
right and then and they're great players. And I'm half
joking about that, but Braden Burry's is the real deal.
He's he's really good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
So Jaden Bradley is the senior. They have similar games.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Would you say, I mean.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Burry's a bet can shoot a.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Better No, No, Jayden Bradley is the ultimate consummate, old school,
four year college point guard, right, and he'll play in
the league. He's going to be a backup point guard
for twelve years in the league. He'll make a lot
of money. But Burry's is the most talented. Bradley's the
MVP of that team, and Burry's is the go to
(37:43):
guy man. He scores like he breathes, and he'll be
in the top ten when it's all said and done.
But remember Booker didn't start. Yeah, no, no, for sure,
and look what Booker is doing in the league.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Wasn't Who's the Tyrese Maxey? Was he? He didn't? I
mean he started?
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, I remember Tyler Julis started over. Maybe Booker came
off un yes, little, Yeah, Tyler's now at Arkansas as
an assistant coach. But so Cal had his way of
doing it and it worked out great. Remember Cal will
tell you he's got four billion dollars worth of NBA contracts.
You know that he's responsible for him and.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
The Flemings from from Houston he's kind of petered out here.
I don't know if he's wearing down or people are
figuring him out. I mean, there's some good small point
guard Flemings a cuff. Uh, there's one other space.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Bristian Anderson is really good from Anderson.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
And Texas Tech is good yet. But where are you
on Flemings?
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Really? Why? I think what happened at the end of
the year, because you know, the league has got a
bunch of great coaches is to your point, the way
to wear him out on offense is to go at
him on defense. And because Houston switches a lot like Arizona,
for example, Karl Schenkov, my the the evil guy from
the James Bond movies. Yeah, they they they they they
(38:55):
put him in like we call it, you know, the
NBA calls it mismatch hunting, right unt hunt mismatches And
they switched Flemings onto kart Chenkov. And I love Kingston.
He's gonna be a terrific player, but defensively right now,
he's got to get bigger and stronger. He's got no
chest density, which you have to have in the NBA
(39:15):
or people go through you like paper mache. Offensively, it's
not going to be an issue. Spacing is Spacing is
going to be great for him. He's gonna have a
lot of it in the league. But he'll have to
get bigger and stronger. He's just a baby. And I
don't mean that pejoratively.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, would he stay in school or definitely.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Problem, No, got to come out. It's too high a pick.
I mean, if he's not the fifth pick, he'll be
the sixth or seventh at the at the at the worst.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Who, knowing what you know, would you take Flemings or
Berry's if you needed a point guard.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, Burry's is going to be is a two guard too.
He can score, He's a buckets.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
But there's no positions anymore in the league, right brad
Bury's is not.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Going to make everybody you know, Like Flemings can get
it up the floor and dice, slice and dice defenses,
where Burry's the slight dices you with the scoring. He
scores at every level he can. And he's just a really,
really good offensive player. And Mike comp for him. I
said it earlier. If he turns out to be Joe
Jamal Murray and you were what's your favorite NBA team,
(40:15):
you know.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I mean, I'm a Knicks Lakers guy, which is all right,
So you.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Know, let's say that, let's say the Knicks got Burry's
and I said, hey, he's going to be exactly like
Jamal Murray.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
You'd be excatic, of coursemal Murray, That's what I mean. Now, Weirdly,
I think he's only made one All Star team. But
All Star teams is a terrible nation.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Why I know it's well, I remember he's in the
West with you know, hard in those guys.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
And yeah, by the way, I'm just curious. Do you
watch much NBA anymore, Frann or not?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Really?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Not now? I mean I will when the season ends. Yeah,
you know, I've watched a few. I've got a son
that's in the league coaching, and so I watched their
team on occasion. But no, And I'll tell you this
the hardest, the hardest part about the NBA draft For
all that, and there's a there's a draft and industrial
complex going on right now. Major everybody on Twitter's got
(41:00):
a mock draft. And I poop pooted for a while,
and then I thought I was being snobbish, you know,
because I've been around the game forty five years. But
the problem with all the mock drafts. And I don't
mean this, Naga. I don't want to sound negative, Nelly,
but if you're not watching three to four NBA games
live a month, it's two different languages. Yeah, it's a
(41:21):
difference between I think I told you this years ago,
Spanish and Portuguese, two different languages. They sound alike, two
different languages. Like the spacing in the NBA. Remember when
Luka Donci said it's so much easier for me to
score in the NBA than in the EuroLeague. And what
he was saying was there's so much space in the
NBA because you're always surrounded by good players and you've
(41:41):
got to account for guys that can make threes, whereas
in college they can shrink the floor, which they do
on AJ Debonsa most nights. Yeah, so Aj is gonna
have a lot of space in the NBA and do
what he's doing at even in another level when he
you know, when he figures it all out. The first
couple of years, all.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Right, last one, frand I know you got a busy schedule.
So Cameron Boozer is a perplexing NBA comp Cowherd is
trying to push Chris Webber, which is interesting. Weber obviously
more athletic. I said, Sibonis demonta Sabonis. Someone was trying
to tell me, Tim Duncan, I don't know what to
do with Boozer. He doesn't wow you with the athleticism.
(42:20):
But man, he does everything and he's eighteen and a
half years old. He does everything wrong.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Well, you know when I saw yok at you at eighteen,
I did see him at eighteen. Oh, he didn't wow
me with his athleticism.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
I mean, Dodgach just sneaky athletic, but he didn't wow
me with his speed and quickness. You know, I think
Cam Boozer, listen, he could be the best player in
the draft. We don't know. You remember, you know there
was a there was a Hollywood producer named William Goldman,
and he did Butch Cassidy and The Sun Dance Kid.
He had all these famous movies from the seventies, sixty
seventies and eighties, and someone asked him, like, what makes
(42:55):
the Hollywood hit? He goes, nobody knows anything. Well, he
was basically saying, is you know a lot of times
it's just a crapshoot. And when it comes to NFL
NBA draft, same thing. Personally, I think Cam Boozer's twenty
and ten from the day he steps on an NBA court,
and then I think someday he could be twenty five
and fifteen. I just think he's not failing, and he's
(43:17):
a better passer and three point shooter than people realize.
And yeah, he plays it below the rim, but you know,
like I said, there's a lot of guys in the
league that get it done below the rim.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Well, he goes to the Kings, though, he'll probably fail,
right because.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Well, I mean, you know, there's certain cultures that you
don't want a good player to go to. Honestly, Yeah,
I don't want to. I don't want to sabotage the Kings, but.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
No, no, but that's the reality. Like if they get
Darren Peterson, Peterson is probably gonna be pissed, and so
is his camp, you know. I mean, unfortunately, they just
mess everything up there. The owner, you know, I don't
they just make a lot of bad decisions their roster
right now, Like what are they doing? I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Yeah, I have to be careful because I have a
son in the league. And you know, I don't want
to disparage any team, but I would say there are
a handful of teams that you'd hope a guy and
get drafted too, and like those it was no human nature,
you know. I mean, there are some really good tax accounts,
and then are some guys that are gonna get you
put in jail, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
All right, we'll go out on that one.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Tell me as a Boozer fan, yeah, I like him
a lot.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Man, I too love him, I don't. I don't know,
Like the NBA compass what everybody wants. Tim Duncan said
forty years and was awesome and was twenty and ten
better than that.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
I think back old school Karl Alone, you know a
little bit, Carmelone.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, I mean, listen, he looked he wasn't the best
player on the court against Michigan. I thought that was
jacksonburg Uh, Jaxelllendeborg. I thought he was the best player.
But then down the stretch, who wins it? Boozer's clutch
doing everything, passing, scoring, rebounding.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Yeah, and I saw a Boozer put like thirty in
an ex officient game. Against a Tennessee front line that
really looked like the Tennessee Titans front line. Wow, he
you know, like a para and a bunch of guys.
And I was there and I saw him get thirty
or twenty eight, and I'm like, man, you can't stop
this guy, even though, you know, I gotta remind people
(45:05):
what a New York phone book used to look like. Yeah,
because they don't have phone books anymore or phone booths,
but he he could have. He can't even if he
can't jump over to New York phone book. Look it up, folks. Yeah,
he just gets things.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Done, just makes it happen.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
Yeah, all right, like Jokic, like Jokic.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah yeah. So obviously Fran had an amazing coaching career.
Now he's great announcer, draft analyst. I love your work, Fran.
We'll have you back before the draft sounds good.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Always a pleasure, Jason, love talking hoop with you.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Straight Fire Fan, It's me Jason McIntire,
Straight Boyer for Monday, March the ninth. Quick programming note
no heard today. We are off for World Baseball Classics,
so we get a short week, which basically just means
more time to grind away on March madness. Oh, I
(00:31):
love it so much. Championship week is always fun. A
lot of gambling opportunities. We'll have some on the pod,
more on that site that I created, and whatever leftovers
are all on Instagram. It was a good weekend, really
strong weekend. Actually got in a little workout, got some
shots up. It's a big playoff basketball week for your boy.
(00:55):
Semi finals two days this week in two different leagues.
Nervous we could lose both, we could. You just never
know who's gonna show up. Guys get called to work dinners.
It's yeah, you don't really care. But what you do
care about is today's guest Fran for Schilla, a real
legend in the industry, who's a coach, he's an announcer
and just knows college basketball as well as anyone out there.
(01:17):
So I think you're gonna like his takes on March Madness,
a couple of Sleepers, cam Boozer comparisons. It's all deadly,
it's gonna be great. Before we dive into fran for Schilla,
I figure I will go a couple of minutes on
I guess the only big story that I saw on
Sunday in sports besides the Trent McDuffie huge contract that
(01:39):
the Rams gave him. I don't know. I can't get
over this Lakers win over the Knicks. So one could argue, hey, Jay,
come on nixt they were, they were clearly not locked in.
I don't know how that's the case. But the Knicks
basically get beat wire to wire by the Lakers. Is
(02:00):
not really that close. The Knicks were in Denver Friday, pummeled,
and I mean pummeled the Nuggets, who were on a
back to back against the Lakers. They beat them one
forty two to one oh three. Yes, Jokic played, Yes,
Jamal Murray played the Lakers. Sorry, the Knicks beat the
Nuggets in Denver by thirty nine unbelievable performance. But again,
(02:24):
the Nuggets were gassed from the night before against the Lakers. Right,
so then the Knicks come I guess, you know, maybe
they get the La flu or the La fever or
whatever it is. Friday night. I'm sure after Denver they
wanted to quickly touch down in La and they just
did not look good at all. But here's the interesting thing,
and I'm not making a thing. I'm not not doing
making it a thing. Lebron ruled out with I think
(02:47):
they were calling it foot arthritis or something. And as
soon as you see that, you're like, oh, Lakers are
freaking cooked. And they just came out and Luca and
Reeves led the way. Luca with thirty five basically was unguardable,
Austin Reeves twenty five, Luke Canard twelve Lakers shot a
great hit, fifteen threes, Nicks could not throw it in
the ocean, fell behind, and they just never saw that fight.
(03:11):
This is despite Marcus Smart shooting one of ten zero
five from three Lakers, not getting much from the Rava
or Jackson Hayes, who was over three. It was basically
the Luca and Reeves show, and the Lakers actually played defense.
Now what's interesting is they started Ruey for Lebron and
you're like, oh, well, they know they have a short
bench Maxi kleeber back ten minutes, a lot of cardio.
One steal and that's it. But a good rebound from
(03:34):
the Lakers after that, tough, tough Nuggets lost again. You
don't want to overreact to any one game, but like that,
teeth kicking in by the by the Knicks is bad.
And the way Jason Tatum has looked in I guess
we'll call it two games. He was much better against
the Calves than he was in the first one, where
he missed a bunch of shots. But he's still scored
and the team's all excited. Celtics are looking good, and
(03:57):
I wonder if the Knicks are a little shaken having
seen the Tatum return. I mean, they look good. The
Caves are an afterthought now they're at the four spot.
But in the West, it's interesting. The Lakers tied now
tied with the Nuggets. They had a back to back
After the Nuggets game, they whooped the Pacers, and then
(04:18):
this win over the next ties them with the Nuggets.
They are one game back of the Rockets and Timberwolves.
I'm recording this intro Sunday evening and the Rockets are
currently getting smacked around by the Spurs man. The spread
Spurs team is nasty. But listen, I know we want
to overreact every Lakers lost, Folks, it ain't over yet.
(04:40):
It's not there's a whorld where they get up to
that three seed. I mean, I'm not saying he's definitely
gonna happen, but I'm ruling nothing out. Obviously you need
Luca locked in and no more goofy technicals. But what
he's playing like he played yesterday, I don't see why
the Lakers can't can't make a run at that three seed.
So coming up for the thirty nine and twenty five Lakers,
it's funny the way you talk about him. You think
(05:01):
this team was like tanking huge week Tuesday home against
the Timberwolves. That is a big one. They're chasing Minnesota.
They need that, then Chicago, then Denver, and then a
massive road trip Houston, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Detroit, Indy. I honestly,
that Minnesota game will probably set the tone for everything.
(05:22):
The Minnesota and the Denver game. So Minnesota National TV
on Tuesday, Denver National TV on Saturday, at Houston, Monday
game on Peacock, and then on Wednesday in ESPN game
on Houston. So you're gonna get a big, healthy dose
of the Lakers here in the next week. All right,
without further ado, let's get to our guest college basketball analyst, Franfriscilla.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live. Jason likes to think he knows everything when
it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I know what sports fans want, but for.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Everything he doesn't, he knows the guy who does.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
All right, let's welcome back to straight Fire, one of
the great voices in college basketball. He's been all over
the Big Twelve, which some could argue is pushing the
Big Ten for best conference in the country. Fran for Scilla,
college basketball legend. Frand, how are you man?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I'm outstanding. I would say the top of the Big
Twelve is the best conference in basketball. Last year, the SEC, Jason,
as you know, was like, yes, it was kind of historic,
really almost like a confluence of incredible events. All the
fifty year guys, you know, Jenni Brew Mark Sears. There
were so many guys, COVID guys. But obviously there's some
(06:52):
great teams at the top of the Big ten. But
this Big twelve this year, don't forget now. One of
the two things that have happened to the Big twelve
in the last three weeks is no JT. Top and
no Richie Saunders. Yeah, and so you know you could
talk about, well, what happened to BYU, what happened to
Texas Tech? Well, you lose basically an All American and
JT Top and who you know was right there, probably
(07:12):
top three national player of the year with Boozer and
then Richie Saunders, who's a great player, could have been
a first round pick BYU lost him and that that
was a big that was like cutting your heart out.
So yeah, but it's been a.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Get to de Bonsa in a minute. Can he pull
off a Danny Manning type run Danny and the Miracles.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
They had a good flourish to end this season. I
want to start big picture, Fran. Yeah, So the tournament
sixty eight teams. Weirdly, there's been a lot of expansion talk.
We know college football is more everything, right, they want
to push the twenty four teams, sixteen, whatever the number
is gonna be. Where are you on expanding the NCAA
tournament from sixty eight to I don't know ninety six what.
(07:51):
I don't even know what numbers they're talking about.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I definitely don't want ninety six. I think ninety six
would be ridiculous, it really would, you know, I think
sixty eight really good. Right now, I've said seventy two.
You know, maybe maybe you add four more games in
Dayton something like that play in Then the other argument is,
why should the automatic conference champions, even at the mid
(08:17):
and low major level, Why did they have to play
in Dayton? Why don't we put the as we say
in Brooklyn? Why not put why don't we put the
drek in Dayton? You know it's.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Auburn young Pearls Auburn team. Maybe I know they're on
the bubble, but yeah, no, no, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Go ahead, Yeah they're drek. I mean there's a perfect example.
I mean, God bless them, but come on, man, fifteen losses.
I know they played a tough schedule, but I would
rather reward that, you know, a really good mid major
team like in Miami, of Ohio who's automatically in. Don't
even ask me, they're in. I mean that's a that's
a given. So but I think I think right now
(08:55):
we're kind of If you told me seventy two and
that would be it, I'd be fine with it. But
there's no question that there's a lot of mediocrity from
the power five ye that are trying to fight their
way in that. I don't think we need and ruin
a tournament.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, so Auburn last year was amazing. My guy Pettiford
returns to school. I'm assuming he didn't get a first
round grade. I love that guy. I thought I would
won him as my NBA point guard. Frand I know
we're talking about Auburn. We don't even need to waste
the time. But I love Pettiford's game. He hasn't gotten
better this year. I mean from three, I don't. I'm
almost feeling like he's going to be a four year guy,
or he's going to depart and go to Europe and
(09:32):
try to make money or something.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, you know, I saw like the best game he's
ever played. It was a second game of his career.
He dropped like twenty one on a great Houston team
on the road in his second game of his college career.
He had some other good, really good games Jason after that,
but yeah, twenty one in your second game against a
defense like Houston, he was incredible. And I know a
lot of the people around him from Jersey, and honestly,
(09:57):
I just don't like his game anymore, you know, And
I don't think he brings it every night, And you know,
I feel bad for him because I don't think he
knows that he doesn't know that happens a lot guys
think they know and they don't really know. And I
know he's had some good games down on a stretch,
but as far as NBA now, I don't hear a
lot of buzz. In fact, he's either gonna have to
(10:17):
go back to Auburn or maybe he'll be unhappy with Auburn,
like a lot of kids are at different schools and
try to go to greener pastors make more money or whatever.
But I was kind of disappointed, and I thought he'd
have a big year because I thought he was a
pro too.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, all right, let's get to what teams that actually matter.
So friend, I see it as there's a clear top
four in whatever order you want, Arizona, Florida, Duke, Michigan,
and then there's another good, really good too in Illinois, Houston,
and after that. I gotta be honest, I don't trust
a lot of the three seeds. Would you agree that
there's a pretty clear top four?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yes, yeah, I think so. I love those teams on
a given In a given week during the season, I've
said Duke's the best team in the country. Then another
week I go Arizona is the best team, and really
the same thing with Well, what's interesting about Florida because
they kind of went under the radar a little after
losing to you know, they lost right away to Arizona.
(11:14):
We kind of figured out how good Arizona could be
that night. CoA Pete had thirty that night, Jade Bradley
had twenty three, and so they kind of went under
the radar for a while. Now they've smoked the SEC
and those guards are playing well. Thing about the thing
about Arizona that people forgot is we knew they had
a great front line, but nobody knew they had three
(11:35):
NBA players in the backcourt. All three of those guys
that played in the league this year, So they figured
out with the guards, they got Bookie flanned and the
kid leave from Princeton who have started to play better.
That you put them with that amazing front line and
you got something special. Now the interesting thing about let
(11:55):
me think now, I say three of the four teams
have dominant front lines Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and then Duke's
got a dominant you know, I wouldn't say dominant frontline,
but cam Boozer's dominant and Malik Brown is really good.
So you know, all those teams have something similar in common.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, it shifted. It seems like it shifted from guard
play to do you have size? Can you get a
million offensive rebounds?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
All?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I think all four of those teams are like top
twenty and offensive rebounds. Let me go on Arizona because
I remember you had to call for Arizona Houston, and
I think you had this. You were the first to
put me onto the stat that Arizona shoots the fewest
threes in the country, Like literally there three hundred and
sixty third or three hundred sixty five. However many right
down at the bottom right, and I look at that,
I'm like, that's insane. But you were a coach. You know,
(12:42):
sometimes when everybody's digging, you got a zag. And I
kind of love what Arizona's doing.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. There's a big discussion now
about whether we should go to four quarters on the
men's side, And I'm on the rules committee, right, the
NCAA rules committee, And so I asked Tommy Lloyd about it,
and he goes, I don't want four quarters. I want
teams in the bonus. I want to get in a
bonus for ten minutes to go because we're pounded people
and I want to go to the foul line. But
(13:09):
I would say it's akin to having a great offensive
line and great running backs, and you still have a
great quarterback, but he doesn't have to throw all the time.
I mean, Braydon Burry's can shoot the three. They've got
guys that can make the three. It just so happens
that Tommy Lloyd going back to his Gonzaga days with
Mark Few think about it, Sabonis Karnowski, Timmy, you know,
(13:32):
I mean, I can go on and on with all
those big monsters that they've had, and Gonzaga used to
pound people and they're still pounding people with Graham Ike.
So I think that's just Tommy's philosophy that listen, we'll
we'll shoot the three, but let's just pulverize people first.
And I like it because as a coach, you want
to destroy somebody's will as an opponent, and there's no
(13:54):
better way to destroy somebody's will than to just pound
it inside and say you can't stop us. And they've
got three guys on that front line that they rotate,
a walk of Krevas and the great freshman Coe Pete.
They pulverize people. I think it's pretty smart.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, let me ask though, everybody's a little concerned. Hey,
who if they're having an off night? From three, they
go two of twelve, they don't shoot a lot and
the opponent gets hot and it's thirteen fourteen threes. Arizona's vulnerable.
Do you buy that? I mean, we haven't totally seen
them succumb to a team that went nuclear from three Kansas.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Well, let me didn't do it yet. Let me tell you,
I mean you better, You better make twelve threes on
them because you're not gonna beat them playing traditionally. Here's
the problem. They're also great defensively. Yeah, you know what
I mean, Like Jadon Bradley is as good on the
ball as there is in the country. He's right there
with the best on ball defenders. This kid Kart Schenkov,
(14:50):
who's like the super glue guy. He should be in
a James Bond movie. I told him that he didn't
know who James Bond was, so I said, never mind,
never mind. You know, I didn't even want to tell
them Google because he might not know Google. But no,
like he looks like that, like robotic, I'm gonna choke you,
kill you kind of guy. And he's six seven and
he's only nineteen. But no, and then Crevass is a
(15:12):
great defender at the rim, Jason, so you could press
out on the three point mine with those guys. So
you better be really lucky and have Arizona have a
bad night for them to give up twelve threes, because
I don't think you're gonna get that very often.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I don't think they get the hype of Michigan
or Duke. Obviously east of the Mississippi, everybody you know
lots those teams. But to me, I love Arizona, man.
I think this team is nasty. The one thing you
mentioned I'm not even going to try to pronounce the
James Bond guy, but Crevas this set up. He's kind
of a trend. Illinois did it obviously, Arizona a lot
of European guys coming in and being like, oh, these
(15:47):
guys can play instantly because oh, look, they've been playing
professionally since they were like fifteen sixteen years old. The
Luka Doncic model. Do you see this expanding? I mean,
all of a sudden, it's more lucrative for these guys
to come to Arizona, get an edge education or whatever.
And oh, by the way, here's two million dollars as
it supposed to play internationally.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Completely different. I'm guessing now it's just a guess. When
he played on his professional teams, and they have a
club system, so you got the main club, which is
the pro team, and then you got the second club,
which is mainly the younger guys like eighteen to twenty two,
kind of like a college team. Those guys might be
making twenty five grand, you know. Yeah, yeah, there's no
(16:29):
more Ricky Rubio's and Dontices and those guys. Like, if
you think about it, my job at ESPN, well, they
took me off the draft. You know this because woj
came and brought his guys. And I don't watch the
draft anymore because and I know we do it, it's ESPN,
but it bores me, so I don't pay attention. But
these kids now are coming to these these international kids Lithuania, Serbia,
(16:53):
you know, France because of Nil. Now the agents are
now shipping them to the United States to play NCAA.
Aren't really there aren't that. I couldn't even tell you,
like who the top five international guys are in this
draft because the guys I really like have already come
to college. You know Krebos for example, seven foot two,
and remember he broke his foot last year, so we
(17:14):
didn't really see him much. He only played like the
first four weeks of the season. But yes, there's more
international guys coming over, and they come over with a
healthy knowledge of the fundamentals because they all go they
come in the club system. They're taught out to dribble,
pass and shoot. His young players and they're having a
huge impact. Illinois's doing it, for example, with all the
(17:35):
Serbian guys, and you know, certainly Tommy Lloyd, who's got
a better connection to international guys than him. He's the
guy that did it all against Zaga all those years, right,
and now he's got a German at small forward. He's
got a crebas To Lithuanian at the center spot. He's
got a kid from the Aristota's going to be a
good player. The eighth man, another freshman, he's from the Netherlands.
(17:58):
Got a couple of African kids who are wait in
their turn. Tommy knows what he's doing. When it comes
to international guys.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
There's a kid in Virginia Tech from Greece. I mean,
it's you're starting to see pockets of it.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
But you're right.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Illinois and Arizona have gone all in. And it's crazy
that you say that. So, Frank, the NBA, when it
takes European guys, it takes a few years. Right, It's
not as exciting when who I forgot the guy who
went to Washington and the Atlanta Resa Shay and these guys.
It's not exciting when the Euros come to college basketball
as freshmen. They're high impact players immediately.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, they are because that's the age group. You know,
Like you bring reesa Say over for example, or al
Or Sarrow from Washington Sar, that was his name. Yet, Yeah,
Sar comes over and he's only nineteen. I mean if
Sar and Resa Shay Sars, Sar's brother, actually, Olivier Sar
actually finished at Kentucky playing for cal Perry. Wasn't bad,
(18:50):
not quite NBA. I might have played in the NBA
A cup of coffee. But yeah, these kids now they're
coming to college instead of going to the NBA. They're
they're I would say, they're not all dominant players, but
they're all really good players because they're playing with their
age group. Reesa Schek comes over, he's nineteen and he's
playing with grown men, and even though he's played tough, Yeah,
(19:12):
it's tough. It's tough, and there's the adjustment. You know,
for every Dodgers, there's ten guys that just need time.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, or who are any man? I think one of
your most iconic sayings two years away from being two
years away is that did I get that right?
Speaker 3 (19:26):
You got it right? Yeah? I should have copyrighted it.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Should Did that guy make the league? By the way,
is he still Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Bruno played in the league four or five years. He's
had a good he's had a good career. I think
he's in Serbia right now, plays on the brun Bruno
Caboco Bruno plays on the Brazilian national team. He's probably
thirty two now, and.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Has it been that long while? Yeah, I mean that
was that was just when you said that, it instantly
went viral. Really a class I know, I know, I
don't think it was killing the guy. You're you're speaking
facts that he was. He was multiple years away.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, but he's had a he's had a good career.
He's probably made good money, yeah an NBA money, got
good money.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Solid, Yeah, for sure. All Right, So Duke Michigan Arizona,
Florida is I want to love Illinois and I did
love them and they got their butts kicked at home
by Michigan. That was kind of a wake up call.
I guess I thought they bounced back. Do you think
they're a legit final fourteen?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah? I think anybody who we think can get to
the Elite A can get to the Final four. Because
you know, I said this during the Big twelve season.
You know what the and just to digress for a second,
what the Big Twelve did, and it was sad because
of those two injuries. Is all the best teams at
the top of the league played each other in February,
so it was almost like the Western Conference playoffs in
the NBA. You had Arizona play in Houston, you had
(20:40):
Houston play in Iowa State. You had Kansas going on Arizona,
Houston going to Kansas. And so to answer your question
about Illinois, you know, if it's a seven game series
with Michigan, Michigan's gonna win four games to one, four
games to two. But that's not how it works. You know,
if Illinois gets the right matchup on a given night,
and like you said, team hit twelve threes and they're
(21:01):
capable of it, or Keaton Woggler goes nuts or some
of those international kids and Colin Boswell plays well, they
can get to the final four. You know, I always
say can get to a final four? Ukon to certainly
get to a final four? Really I think so, yeah,
I do.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I mean, wait, let me go back to Illinois for
a sec. Striyakovic, the son of Pegia is listen. I
know you hear a lot of stuff. You can't say everything.
So I like this kid's game when I saw him
at CAOL last year. Right, So he starts to Stanford,
then goes to cal then goes to Illinois, and he
came into the season as like the guy on Illinois,
and then something's going on. Late in the season. He
did not play in two games, and then the Michigan
(21:38):
game was alarming. He barely played and he didn't score,
and I was like, what is he? Is he in
his own head? Is he not happy that he's no
longer the guy? Have you heard anything on Striyakovic?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
And no, No, I mean, you know, the biggest thing there.
First of all, it's interesting. He's a really good player.
It's this is so about bizarre. He does so many
things well except you can't shoot, which is Dad was
one of my all time great NBA probably one of
the best shooters in the last twenty five years. So no,
but I think Woggler's hurt his season, Soyokovic's, you know,
(22:11):
And because wagog came out of nowhere. You know, it's
amazing to me that Woggo got out of Kansas City
and didn't go to Ku or Miszoo. And you know,
that's amazing because he's going to be a one and
done And so I haven't heard anything, but you know,
he's an incomplete player. I love his I love it
early in the year when he was playing well. I
love his toughness, his tenacity, gets to the rim well.
(22:34):
But he's not a great shooter. So I don't know.
Brad Underwood, who I know pretty well, is like, uh,
he doesn't mess around. Man. If you're not bringing it,
or you're if your body language is bad, or you're
not all together with the team, you could be in trouble.
So I don't know exactly, but I know that he's
not been as big a factor as he was early
(22:54):
in the year.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
So I turned my nose up. When you're like, yeah,
Yukon can make can make the final four? Ioas Ta,
I just I don't mean to diminish those teams. But
Fran like the gap in per Kenpom. The net rating
between say, like an Iowa State and a Saint John's
is not that big, but I feel the gap between
like Arizona and Iowa State, it feels massive. I don't
(23:16):
feel like they could like Iowa State could hang with Michigan,
but could Arkansas hang with I always say I feel
like it. Maybe I don't know. Am I wrong?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
No, you're not wrong, But remember what we're talking about.
You're talking about one and done games. So yeah, if
we if we had the four that we talked about
in Indianapolis, we'd all be doing handstands because we all
think that's the best four team, right, and so that
would excite me no end as a fan. But I
know enough about we know you do too. You know
(23:45):
that anything can happen. And when you look at I'm
trying to think of another team, like I'll give you
I'll give you a fly a dark horse. Virginia Virginia Quae. Yeah,
the two big you know, they're like, what are they
twenty five and three years something? You know, but there were.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Four losses, but yeah, they're really twenty seven and four.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, twenty seven and four. You know what I'm just saying,
Like teams like that, they played one game. Like, here's
what I always say. In a thirty five game season,
you play five games over your head. I don't care
who you are, you could be lu Illinois. There's gonna
be five games where everything goes right. You make seventeen threes, yeah, ball,
(24:24):
the ball bounces three times, it drops in, you know,
those things happen, And then five games where you play lousy,
and the other twenty five is who your team is.
The great teams win games when they play lousy, and
sometimes a great team plays like you know, Illinois plays
Alcorn State, They're gonna win by thirty five forty, but
(24:45):
that that night they hit seventeen threes they win by fifty. Yeah,
you say, why couldn't we save this from Michigan? And
so if you have one of those five games and
you're thirty five where it doesn't go well, you know,
the algorithm whatever they call it, igorithms are off. Yeah,
any of those teams, Like listen, I did the Michigan
TCU game. We now TCU turned out to be better
(25:08):
than we thought. The Jamie Dixon's done a great job,
he asked, Michigan should have lost that game. TCU beat Florida.
So all I'm saying is in a one game, when
you get good teams like Saint John's, Yukon, Iowa, State
of Carolina. Although now with Wilson, I would I would
I would have been that if I knew Wilson was
(25:30):
coming back, that would be another one of those teams.
But no, I think if you you look at those
other twelve teams after the top four. There's a couple,
there's a team or two there that could make a
magical run to the final four because you know, one
one done situation, you you have you catch Michigan or
Arizona on a bad day.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, I'm just looking at the Virginia roster. The kid
from Belgium, twenty three years old freshman, I know, not bad.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So another team somewhat dangerous because of the three pointers, Wisconsin.
Have you done any of their games? What are your
thoughts on Wisconsin? They don't defend at all. Greg Gard
has had a lot of March issues, but anytime you
could take down they want at Purdue. I think they've
eat Michigan and they want one other good win. That
was amazing, Oh Illinois on the road, I mean those
(26:31):
are those are huge wins, but they're contingent on threes.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, I haven't seen that much. I know John Blackwell
is a heck of a player, and I love Greg Guard.
I can't really give you. I've been so locked in
for the most part to you know, Big twelve. The
last couple of months, I'll turn them on. And I
always root for Greg guard because he had a tall
order replacing bo Ryan. It's right, and a lot of
(26:55):
people who aren't sure whether Greg could be the guy,
and he's proven to be the guy. So I can't
really give you. What I can tell you from a
distance is Wisconsin's like in Iowa State, and a Saint
John's or a you know, a Yukon. And by the way,
when everybody was bitching about Saint John's not having a
point guard like two and a half months ago, and
(27:17):
that was Rick's fault. That's Rick Patino's fault because he
said we could win without a point guard and then
they started struggling a little bit. It always dawns on
me that Rick is one of the best coaches of
all time. So now you mean to tell me, you know,
in a let's say the second weekend of the tournament.
Let's assume Saint John's gets by the first weekend. You
(27:37):
mean to tell me, in a four team tournament that
Rick Patino can't get his team ready to win two
more games and get to a final four.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, they got to get out of that first weekend.
I'm looking at the Ken pondstats one hundred eighty six
to threes, two hundred and ninth and two's one hundred
ninetieth and free throws. I mean, they just can't shoot.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
That scares me, well, it does me too, But there's
certain guys that figure out ways to win.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, so let's see they're what like they're looking at it.
Maybe a three seed here?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, three four?
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I mean, I guess give them a three seed, give
them a three seed, right, and then give him a
win over the sixth seed, just for argument's sake, and
now it's a you know, what is it going to
be a three versus two? Who?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, that's the problem that I think that you know,
if you if you draw Illinois that that's a tall order.
Houston would be a difficult one. I think Michigan State's
a week two. I'm sorry. I know the ISO fans
are strong, and I don't think Yukon's a great two either.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, yeah, well, I'm what what I think you're discounting,
And I don't disagree talent wise, but what I'm not
discounting is, like Danny Hurley, look, at they did last year.
They weren't they weren't any good compared to the two
championship teams, and yet there were one play away from
beating the national champion. That's right. Yeah, So again when
I get back to one and done, I'm not arguing
(29:01):
with the talent wise, but we know how chalk works.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
So this bracket has Saint John's is a five facing
Yale and then Alabama in the second round.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Harvard's gonna beat Yale next weekend. I'm joking.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Absolutely, You're kind of connected there.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Huh. Harvard finished ten and four and they played Yale
twice and they're one point up on Yale in two
great games. So I'll be pulling for Harvard, but you know,
we'll see. But anyway, I get your point now, I
just I just all I'm saying is there are four
tremendous teams, and then I see teams that on a
given night. Can you know, like there's there are nights
(29:40):
where Mam Chilovich makes seven threes and they play the
stifling defense that they're capable of. That I was taking
it to an elite eight and then upset a team
that is better than them on paper. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
No, that's a great point. But last year, so the
top four seeds went sixteen or no. Early the Elite
A was one versus two, one versus two, one versus two,
and one versus three. The other three was Texas Tech
after Saint Johnson's. But like I just it was really chalky.
So maybe that's why we are just thinking, yeah, tchalk again.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Well, I wouldn't. I wouldn't bet against those four teams
because they are playing great. I mean Michigan, you know,
I mean, gosh, I look at it, and I saw
them in person, Like I said, they should have lost
the TCU. But it's funny. When I talked to Dusty
made that day of the game, spent some time with him,
he said. I said to him, boy, you got a
lot of talent. And it was early like third game
(30:34):
I think, and he said, we got a lot of ingredients,
but I don't know how to cook the meal yet,
you know. And so he's obviously put together like a
michell a Michelin, like he's going to get a Micheline
award because he's figured out how to cook the meal. Now,
remember they lost Kison.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
That's a big one.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Not a yeah, I would say not a killer, killer loss,
but still a big piece in some ways. Kaison was
playing better than Cado.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Was a one of these hype New York City guys, right,
Jersey kid.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, Cado, Cado is a kid. No Is Cason's a
Florida kid.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah Cado, I meant sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like I.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Like Elliet Cadou, but Cason was a security blanket because
Caddot can be really turnover pro hu and so anyway,
but when I saw those guys in person, they're massive.
When I watch Arizona, don't forget Arizona. They had they
they went through two weeks where they played without Pete
and Aristote, so this great eight man rotation was six
(31:32):
and now that they're back to eight, I think they're
as good as anybody in the country. And and don't
forget Duke's hurt.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Now, uh yeah, what happened to the center. I didn't
even know he was out against UNC. Yeah that was
yeah gone.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
But yeah, and I'm from what Shire said, he's not
going to play Foster or Big Pat next week at all.
In the in the a SEC tournament, He's he's keeping
them out. So again that's a little bit of a
you know question more because like Arizona went through it
in mid February all of a sudden, Duke's going through it.
(32:07):
And listen, if Texas Tech had JT. Topp and what's
Christian Anderson and those great guards, would be a whole
different story. So total, Yeah, that's why I say. Also,
you got to be lucky too. You know Shed got
hurt a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Ago, and again I remember brutal.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
So that's what we're not factoring in. I think, would
I want you to factor in? And you can't factor
it in when you put your bracket together? Is coaching
and then the luck of the injuries and bad breaks.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, you do a lot of Big twelve. So we
got to talk about Darren Peterson here. I know you
know him probably as well as anybody. You're tight with
Bill self, So say whatever you can. But like, should
we be worried about that? Was he dogging it?
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Do you think?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
I mean, he's playing a lot of minutes now, but
that was after everything got really loud. I think he's
the best player in the country when he when he's playing.
I like to bance a lot, but I had to
head it. I don't know if you called that game.
It felt like Peterson got the him. It was that fog.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
But yeah, yeah, I didn't do that game. Jay and
Dan Schulman to that game. But I've seen him both
like multiple multiple times on this on a semi on
a semi inside which I am, but don't know everything
about Darren. I would say number one, he's a great kid.
I think there was a caution from outside of the program,
(33:24):
so you can you can figure that out, family agent,
et cetera about certain things that he dealt with, cramps,
hamstring that made the family a little hesitant. Every time
I've been around him, he seems to be a happy,
go lucky kid, great teammate, et cetera. I would say this,
I love his talent. I love his talent. He's a
(33:45):
bucket natural scorer. But you're not doing your due diligence
if you're in any of those NBA teams in the
top three or four, if you're and it's going to
come down to the combine the medicals, because if you're
going to make him the facier your franchise and he's
gonna go to a mediocre, a bad team, obviously, you
(34:06):
just don't want to go to your owner and say,
we're paying this guy thirty six million guaranteed first pick
in the draft. But oh, by the way, he's going
going to play fifty to sixty games, So you got
to do your homework and everything could be cleared up
by the by the combine in Chicago. But I have concerns,
teams have concerns. But to your point, when he's played,
(34:28):
you know a lot of minutes like he did yeh
twenty seven points of twenty nine minutes yesterday, he scores
so effortlessly. A j has had an amazing year, and
he may be the safer pick.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yes, you know, he may be not a consolation prize
by any stretch.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
No, No, And I'm going to tell you about this
draft because you know you'll have me back on early
jer Yeah. Yeah. And I say this jokingly, but like
this is a draft where there is a lot of
consolation prizes. I mean, shake, Gilles Alexander went eleventh, Steph
was taken after Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio, remember that, right,
Jaylen Brunson went thirty fourth. We can go on and
(35:03):
on and on, right, And what I'm saying is Braden
Burry's could be the best player in his draft going
seventh eighth. Darius Acuff could be Dame Loward. We don't know.
Here's a great one about Caleb Wilson. This is why
I love this kid. Don't worry about the surgeries. He's
gonna be fine. When they played Kansas and beat Kansas
at home, like the third game of the season, they
(35:25):
asked Caleb Wilson about playing with against Darreon Peterson and
he said, yeah, I was on them. I was on
the West McDonald's team with him. He never passed me
the ball and that told me something. That told me
something about the kid, Like nothing against Darren, but that
told me this kid has got a chip. So you know,
you look at a Cuff and Flemings and you know,
(35:48):
you go down the line six, seven, eight, first eight picks,
somebody one of those other guys could end up being
the best player in this draft. That's how it usually works.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, So Burry's is interesting because I don't you know,
they have so many good players every night, it's like
a different leading scorer. Yeah, but I don't think of
him as like a foundational guy. I didn't think top ten.
You're saying, like, wow, top ten.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Let me tell you everything. Here's the thing about Bury's
and I keep a you know, I talked to everybody
on their staff, all their players, every game. I had
somebody tell me last week because the first five games
of his career at Arizona, he everye eight points a game.
In the last thirty twenty five games, he's averaging like
eighteen or nineteen. And I had a couple of people
(36:33):
tell me from the day he came on campus last summer,
everybody knew he was the best talent, best player. And
he's proven that. And I'm the guy that said, they've
got eight starters every night, eight starters, eight starters. But
he has grown on me and he really reminds me
like Jamal Murray was the seventh pick. Okay, Jamal Wurrs.
(36:56):
Murray's won an NBA title. Remember Cal didn't start Jamal
Murray or you know, like Booker Murray, Shay Gills, Alexander
Child put them in witness protection program at Kentucky he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
right and then and they're great players. And I'm half
joking about that, but Braden Burry's is the real deal.
He's he's really good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
So Jaden Bradley is the senior. They have similar games.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Would you say, I mean.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Burry's a bet can shoot a.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Better No, No, Jayden Bradley is the ultimate consummate, old school,
four year college point guard, right, and he'll play in
the league. He's going to be a backup point guard
for twelve years in the league. He'll make a lot
of money. But Burry's is the most talented. Bradley's the
MVP of that team, and Burry's is the go to
(37:43):
guy man. He scores like he breathes, and he'll be
in the top ten when it's all said and done.
But remember Booker didn't start. Yeah, no, no, for sure,
and look what Booker is doing in the league.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Wasn't Who's the Tyrese Maxey? Was he? He didn't? I
mean he started?
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, I remember Tyler Julis started over. Maybe Booker came
off un yes, little, Yeah, Tyler's now at Arkansas as
an assistant coach. But so Cal had his way of
doing it and it worked out great. Remember Cal will
tell you he's got four billion dollars worth of NBA contracts.
You know that he's responsible for him and.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
The Flemings from from Houston he's kind of petered out here.
I don't know if he's wearing down or people are
figuring him out. I mean, there's some good small point
guard Flemings a cuff. Uh, there's one other space.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Bristian Anderson is really good from Anderson.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
And Texas Tech is good yet. But where are you
on Flemings?
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Really? Why? I think what happened at the end of
the year, because you know, the league has got a
bunch of great coaches is to your point, the way
to wear him out on offense is to go at
him on defense. And because Houston switches a lot like Arizona,
for example, Karl Schenkov, my the the evil guy from
the James Bond movies. Yeah, they they they they they
(38:55):
put him in like we call it, you know, the
NBA calls it mismatch hunting, right unt hunt mismatches And
they switched Flemings onto kart Chenkov. And I love Kingston.
He's gonna be a terrific player, but defensively right now,
he's got to get bigger and stronger. He's got no
chest density, which you have to have in the NBA
(39:15):
or people go through you like paper mache. Offensively, it's
not going to be an issue. Spacing is Spacing is
going to be great for him. He's gonna have a
lot of it in the league. But he'll have to
get bigger and stronger. He's just a baby. And I
don't mean that pejoratively.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, would he stay in school or definitely.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
Problem, No, got to come out. It's too high a pick.
I mean, if he's not the fifth pick, he'll be
the sixth or seventh at the at the at the worst.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Who, knowing what you know, would you take Flemings or
Berry's if you needed a point guard.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, Burry's is going to be is a two guard too.
He can score, He's a buckets.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
But there's no positions anymore in the league, right brad
Bury's is not.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Going to make everybody you know, Like Flemings can get
it up the floor and dice, slice and dice defenses,
where Burry's the slight dices you with the scoring. He
scores at every level he can. And he's just a really,
really good offensive player. And Mike comp for him. I
said it earlier. If he turns out to be Joe
Jamal Murray and you were what's your favorite NBA team,
(40:15):
you know.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I mean, I'm a Knicks Lakers guy, which is all right,
So you.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Know, let's say that, let's say the Knicks got Burry's
and I said, hey, he's going to be exactly like
Jamal Murray.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
You'd be excatic, of coursemal Murray, That's what I mean. Now, Weirdly,
I think he's only made one All Star team. But
All Star teams is a terrible nation.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Why I know it's well, I remember he's in the
West with you know, hard in those guys.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
And yeah, by the way, I'm just curious. Do you
watch much NBA anymore, Frann or not?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Really?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Not now? I mean I will when the season ends. Yeah,
you know, I've watched a few. I've got a son
that's in the league coaching, and so I watched their
team on occasion. But no, And I'll tell you this
the hardest, the hardest part about the NBA draft For
all that, and there's a there's a draft and industrial
complex going on right now. Major everybody on Twitter's got
(41:00):
a mock draft. And I poop pooted for a while,
and then I thought I was being snobbish, you know,
because I've been around the game forty five years. But
the problem with all the mock drafts. And I don't
mean this, Naga. I don't want to sound negative, Nelly,
but if you're not watching three to four NBA games
live a month, it's two different languages. Yeah, it's a
(41:21):
difference between I think I told you this years ago,
Spanish and Portuguese, two different languages. They sound alike, two
different languages. Like the spacing in the NBA. Remember when
Luka Donci said it's so much easier for me to
score in the NBA than in the EuroLeague. And what
he was saying was there's so much space in the
NBA because you're always surrounded by good players and you've
(41:41):
got to account for guys that can make threes, whereas
in college they can shrink the floor, which they do
on AJ Debonsa most nights. Yeah, so Aj is gonna
have a lot of space in the NBA and do
what he's doing at even in another level when he
you know, when he figures it all out. The first
couple of years, all.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Right, last one, frand I know you got a busy schedule.
So Cameron Boozer is a perplexing NBA comp Cowherd is
trying to push Chris Webber, which is interesting. Weber obviously
more athletic. I said, Sibonis demonta Sabonis. Someone was trying
to tell me, Tim Duncan, I don't know what to
do with Boozer. He doesn't wow you with the athleticism.
(42:20):
But man, he does everything and he's eighteen and a
half years old. He does everything wrong.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Well, you know when I saw yok at you at eighteen,
I did see him at eighteen. Oh, he didn't wow
me with his athleticism.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
I mean, Dodgach just sneaky athletic, but he didn't wow
me with his speed and quickness. You know, I think
Cam Boozer, listen, he could be the best player in
the draft. We don't know. You remember, you know there
was a there was a Hollywood producer named William Goldman,
and he did Butch Cassidy and The Sun Dance Kid.
He had all these famous movies from the seventies, sixty
seventies and eighties, and someone asked him, like, what makes
(42:55):
the Hollywood hit? He goes, nobody knows anything. Well, he
was basically saying, is you know a lot of times
it's just a crapshoot. And when it comes to NFL
NBA draft, same thing. Personally, I think Cam Boozer's twenty
and ten from the day he steps on an NBA court,
and then I think someday he could be twenty five
and fifteen. I just think he's not failing, and he's
(43:17):
a better passer and three point shooter than people realize.
And yeah, he plays it below the rim, but you know,
like I said, there's a lot of guys in the
league that get it done below the rim.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Well, he goes to the Kings, though, he'll probably fail,
right because.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Well, I mean, you know, there's certain cultures that you
don't want a good player to go to. Honestly, Yeah,
I don't want to. I don't want to sabotage the Kings, but.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
No, no, but that's the reality. Like if they get
Darren Peterson, Peterson is probably gonna be pissed, and so
is his camp, you know. I mean, unfortunately, they just
mess everything up there. The owner, you know, I don't
they just make a lot of bad decisions their roster
right now, Like what are they doing? I have no idea.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Yeah, I have to be careful because I have a
son in the league. And you know, I don't want
to disparage any team, but I would say there are
a handful of teams that you'd hope a guy and
get drafted too, and like those it was no human nature,
you know. I mean, there are some really good tax accounts,
and then are some guys that are gonna get you
put in jail, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
All right, we'll go out on that one.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Tell me as a Boozer fan, yeah, I like him
a lot.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Man, I too love him, I don't. I don't know,
Like the NBA compass what everybody wants. Tim Duncan said
forty years and was awesome and was twenty and ten
better than that.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
I think back old school Karl Alone, you know a
little bit, Carmelone.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yeah, I mean, listen, he looked he wasn't the best
player on the court against Michigan. I thought that was
jacksonburg Uh, Jaxelllendeborg. I thought he was the best player.
But then down the stretch, who wins it? Boozer's clutch
doing everything, passing, scoring, rebounding.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Yeah, and I saw a Boozer put like thirty in
an ex officient game. Against a Tennessee front line that
really looked like the Tennessee Titans front line. Wow, he
you know, like a para and a bunch of guys.
And I was there and I saw him get thirty
or twenty eight, and I'm like, man, you can't stop
this guy, even though, you know, I gotta remind people
(45:05):
what a New York phone book used to look like. Yeah,
because they don't have phone books anymore or phone booths,
but he he could have. He can't even if he
can't jump over to New York phone book. Look it up, folks. Yeah,
he just gets things.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Done, just makes it happen.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
Yeah, all right, like Jokic, like Jokic.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah yeah. So obviously Fran had an amazing coaching career.
Now he's great announcer, draft analyst. I love your work, Fran.
We'll have you back before the draft sounds good.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Always a pleasure, Jason, love talking hoop with you.
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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