March 27, 2025 • 38 mins
On today's episode, Jason talks all things NCAA Tournament with ESPN College Basketball Analyst Jay Bilas. Bilas dives into the key storylines of this year's tournament, giving his thoughts on the high ratings of the first weekend and the impacts of the transfer portal and coaching movement on the depth of the tournament field. Bilas delivers in-depth analysis on the biggest Sweet Sixteen matchups. Plus, Jason makes sense of the biggest takeaways from LeBron's stop on The Pat McAfee Show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up? Straight Fire Family, It's me Jason McIntyre.
Straight Fire for Thursday, March twenty seventh. It's Sweet sixteen day,
Ladies and gentlemen today and Maniana Sweet sixteen. I'm very
fired up, as you know. We've talked about it all
week and to celebrate the Sweet sixteen, a special guest,
(00:31):
my main man, Jay billis former duke player, current ESPN analyst.
He has done the Biggies Tournament, the a SEC Tournament,
the SEC Tournament this year. He's done everything. Ja billis outstanding.
I've known him for a while. I texted my buddy
in Arizona about this, and you know, I sent him
the video because then we're posting him on YouTube. He
(00:52):
kind of dresses them up and I pay him because
he's talented, and he's like, you got Jay Billis in
all caps. I was like, dude, I've known Billis for
like fifteen years now. He's a nice guy.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I just and I'm not like flexing that I text him.
He just is a good dude. He's normal. I got
to spend a day with him at the Big East
Tournament way back. This must have been g'z two thousand
and ten, I don't know, eleven, something like that. Him
and Raftery walking from the bill you know, they had
their pregame meeting and then we'd walk over to the
shoot around and walking in the streets with Billison Raftery
(01:22):
was hilarious because everybody's, oh my gosh, Pello's raftory onions,
just screaming stuff. It was hilarious. It was a great day. Anyways,
you guys will enjoy that. Before we get to j Bill,
it's just a couple of quick words as there were,
shall we say a few things that went down a
few things on the NBA front on Wednesday. Okay, now listen,
(01:44):
you guys, don't I like Lebron. I feel like he's
a goat. I think the goat discussion ended when he
went to the Lakers and won his third title or sorry,
he won a championship with a third different team. That's
just unbelievable. Everywhere he goes he's competing and winning championships
is incredible. I have him as the goat. It's fine,
you don't. That's that's cool too. I get it. I'm
a big Lebron guy. I thought a lot of what
(02:04):
he said he went on. So the Lakers were in
Indiana yesterday and he took the opportunity to go on
Pat McAfee show, and best I can tell, it wasn't
when the TV show was on, but it was like
I guess, like in the extra hour they're online, so
you know, you can say bad words and stuff, and
(02:25):
some of the video because I saw Lebron was cursing,
which is whatever, but it was kind of no holds barred.
He went after a lot of people, I namely Stephen A. Smith,
which some of that stuff was hilarious. I'll be honest,
you know, listen, unlike a lot of dopes in this
country who are like, I'm with this guy. He does
no wrong, He's perfect. Blah blah blah. Listen, I call
it like I see it. Okay, I like Lebron a lot.
(02:49):
I thought what he said about Windhors was out of pocket.
And I challenge anyone if Windhors has ever said he's
Lebron's best friend or any nonsense close to that. Show
me the clip.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I consume him a lot of Windhorse content. I feel
like I don't mind pulling back the curtain, but I
feel I only listen to two guys talk about the NBA.
That's it. That's it. It's Windhorst and Zachlo, and Zachlo
doesn't do it anymore. So I listen to Brian Windhorse podcast.
That's it. If he writes something, I read it. He's
plugged in. He doesn't reveal everything he has. You know,
(03:20):
Shams is great, but all he's just a news guy,
a middleman. They tell him the news that he puts
it out there, which is great. You know, you've got
to be connected to get that. But I don't feel
like I get any deep penetrating analysis from him. And
he's got to be careful what he says because he
wants to break the news. So you know, Windhors is
in a totally different boat. And I know Bill Simmons
and does good stuff, I'm sure, and Roussillo, I just
(03:42):
you know, I feel like I give me Windhorst, you know,
so I consume all Windhorse stuff. And yes, he's been
around Lebron for twenty five plus years, covering from in
high school. Obviously two things can be true. One he
does didn't know the real Lebron, And I would say,
(04:03):
unless you're in Lebron's inner circle. You don't know the
real Lebron. And even then it's like, do you really
know him? Okay, Like people have probably known Lebron for
twenty five years, I would say they know Lebron. So
Windhorse knows Lebron, but he doesn't really know him. Does
that make sense? And at the same time, he knows
Lebron better than I would say any other journalist because
(04:24):
he's been around him and in his orbit and covering
him and his crew, his manager, everything about him. He's
been around him for twenty five years. Of course he
knows Lebron. Well, that's undeniable. Is Lebron probably irked about
some of the stuff he says? Sure? Is he probably
wrong on some stuff?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Who's right about everything?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Guys?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Chef Terra ain't right about everything. He covers the NFL
as closely as anybody. Rappaport's not right about everything. Come on,
Woach is my guy? He was never right about nobody's
ever right about everything. So I just thought it was
out of pocket for him to go after Windhorse where
it gets interesting now, I didn't put this on social
med because I don't want to get involved in that nonsense.
(05:03):
But step back. Stop laughing at Lebron's comments about steven
A and all this stuff, and oh, do you have
a relationship with Jordan? Just step back from all that.
I can't remember the last time Lebron went on anything
associated with the Worldwide Leader, can you? Hm? Lebron not
(05:25):
only went on ESPN, but he then unloaded on a
couple people who are ESPN employees. That's unheard of. Why
would that happen? I do insert your Windhorse meme here.
It was almost as if somebody had a couple scores
to settle and decided, you know, I don't want to
(05:45):
be the guy taking shots at these guys. Let me
let Lebron do it. Hey, Lebron, you're in town, You're
in Indiana. Come on, Bro, come on over to the show,
so say whatever you want. We know McAfee and steven A.
Smith don't have a good relationship. That blew out. I
didn't know if him and Windhorse had beef, but we
know mcavi's planted his flag with another ESPN guy who
(06:06):
covers the NBA. And like I'm just saying, it was
very strange to see on ESPN airwaves the most popular
athlete on the planet, I think that's safe to say. Lebron, sorry,
let me say, let me rephrase that in America. On
the planet it's messy. But the most popular athlete in
America going on ESPN airwaves and bashing the hell out
(06:27):
of ESPN employees. That doesn't happen by accident. Okay. I
think somebody had some scores to settle and he used
Lebron as his guy to deliver those scores. That was
my read on it. You feel free to disagree. I'm
not going to get into this online with anybody. It
just felt very strange that it all went down, And
(06:49):
again I thought, you know, I thought it was interesting
for sure. I consumed the clips that I saw online.
I didn't you watch the full thing. But and then
Lebron went out and had pretty much a bad game
till the final seconds when he tipped in a Luca
miss with like one tenth of a second left and
the Lakers stole a one point win over the Pacers.
Lakers did not cover in the first quarter because they
gave up i think a nine to nothing run to
(07:11):
end the first Then they went on like a fifteen
nothing run to start the second. Whacky game it was
nice to have Ruy Hachimoa back four threes during Phinny
Smith played well. Lebron did not. I wonder if he
was in his head after just absolutely shit posting everyone
at ESPN. I thought that was interesting. Luca thirty four points,
seven boards, seven assists. I mean, it was a master
(07:33):
class by the Lakers pulling out that win. They played
the Bulls tonight. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that
they They're not gonna play anybody, right, because guess what,
they have a massive game Saturday night in Memphis. The
Grizzlies are currently tied with the Lakers for the fourth spot.
(07:55):
That fourth spot would mean home court advantage, and the
winner of that would then face Okac. I'm telling you
you want the three. Both of them are a game
back of Denver, who got Jokic back last night and
he had a triple double. Houston continues to be toured.
Everybody wants that three seed. That is enormous. I think
the Lakers rest their horses against the Bulls because that
Memphis game is absolutely must win to date, probably the
(08:19):
biggest game of the season for the Lakers. Then they
get the then they get the Rockets Monday. I'm trying
to go to that game. I don't know if that
will materialize, but anyways, just sart to quickly talk about
that before we get to our guest, the Great Jabillis
from ESPN.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
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. You know, Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports. I know what sports
(08:54):
fans want, but for everything he doesn't. He knows a
guy who does.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy. All right, let's welcome back
to straight fire, first time in a couple of years.
He's so busy, you know, he's on TV all the time.
He's just a superstar when it comes to sports media.
A Duke legend, J billis j how are you man?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I don't know Duke legend. That's going to give you
some letters from people who actually accomplished something.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Come on, man, you were in the prime of Duke
when they were just building up the program back way
back in the eighties, and now you're watching a pretty
darn stacked Duke team. J I mean, this is about
as good as it gets. Huh.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah. The thing that gets me Jason about Duke is
their length and depth. But they have incredible size, and
you know, look, when you have the best player in
the country and the presumptive number one pick in the draft,
that's that's plenty. But they got so much around him,
and they're not even one hundred percent without Malik Brown.
So if they ever get him back, you know, it's
(09:57):
going to be hard to imagine that. You know what
they can get beat by. You know, Houston can beat them.
There are teams that can beat them, but Florida is
their only near equal in my view.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Interesting, I want to turn back the clock real quick
on Duke. So I was looking to the last meeting
with Arizona and they had started Caleb Foster. I believe
he's this superstar kid who was a big time five
star recruit. They started him in that game, and I'm
not exactly sure what happened, but he's been supplanted in
the starting lineup and I believe they've only lost one
(10:30):
game since the change. Any insight into what happened there.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I don't think it was anything other than one of
the transfers they brought in. Seon James, who was at Tulane,
is the better fit with the starting unit and playing
more minutes, because he's got tremendous size and length and
defensive ability, and he's a really you know, he's a
bigger guard, and he's a very low error you know,
(10:58):
get to the rim type of player, and he's he's
just frankly been better. That doesn't mean Caleb's not really good,
but when you've got that many options, you know, I
was at that game. I did the game for ESPN,
and I was stunned that that they held If I
remember right, they held Arizona under sixty points fifty five yep,
(11:19):
And I was I left there going, you got to
be a kidding me. I mean, they were so good defensively,
and you know, I'm sure Arizona could have played better,
and they're way better now than they were then. But
I think Duke is too. It was just the defensive
prowess of that team that really sort of stood out.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Everybody's falling in love with the Caleb love versus Duke.
He obviously started for North Carolina. If he gets hot
it could be a problem for what do you anticipate
them doing defensively against him, any changes significantly or.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Now I mean, I think the fact that they can
put athletic size and length on him, it can be
really difficult to deal with. Like, as you know, Caleb
Love is is kind of a wild card. You know,
he can he can be an ace, go out and
get you thirty uh. And there have been times he's
kind of been the joker of the deck where he's
(12:10):
took He's taken some shots where you're going, what are
you doing? And he doesn't stop like he'll he'll keep shooting,
and when he's in a bad spot, he can shoot
you out of it. But it's not that often that happens.
I think he only had eight points in that game
against I remember, right, yep. But to me, like the
Caleb Love that's the giant killer and the best you know,
(12:34):
sort of the best guard, the best version of himself
is the one that's getting to the foul line more
often than not. And when because he's he's strong and athletic,
and when he takes the ball into the lane, he
can really get into your body and get to the
free throw line and that kind of balances out when
he wants to be just the three point shooter. I
don't think he's as good and uh, and they got
(12:54):
to find a way, and it's difficult against Duke, but
they got to find a way to get out and transition.
They cannot play a half court game against Duke for
forty minutes. They got they got to play ahead of
that defense. If they got to grind it out for
forty against that set defense, that's gonna be a problem
for Arizona and really for most anybody.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, so you're right. Love was three for thirteen in
that game, only took two foul shots, three turnovers. You know,
not his best effort, but you know he's a boombust guy.
Like you said, let me quickly zoom out, Jay macro
big picture. I saw that the ratings for the first
two rounds were a hyacince nineteen ninety three, and I
was like, early nineties. Let me look, oh, bab five.
(13:32):
That was the Chris Weber team that went up against
North Carolina the Faithful Time Out. Now, obviously that was
in the championship, not the first two rounds. But I'm
just curious. You know, I'm a big college basketball, Honk,
and you're you're at the top of the food chain
when it comes to college hoops. What do you think
has driven the surge in interest these first two rounds.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I don't really know, Jason. I don't really understand how
ratings work. Honestly. I know that there are big brands
that matter. So in my experience over the years, when
you've got when you've got Kentucky, you've got Duke, you've
got North Carolina, some of these, some of these brands,
the ratings are consistently higher, and the tournament is an odd,
(14:15):
odd thing. There's a narrative out there, and I do
think it's a narrative rather than a fact that what
drives interest is Cinderella and uh and upsets and all
that stuff. And I've never believed that to be true.
I don't. I think there's data behind it that I
could point to, but I don't have it at my
(14:36):
fingertips to sound all smart and everything, but I think,
you know, I don't know exactly when this bracket stuff
got so crazy, where everybody filling out a bracket, including
your grandmother who's never seen a game or stuff like that,
where that got to be such an issue. But it's
funny people say, well, you know, god, this year, I'm
(14:58):
hearing a lot of now after the Sweet Sixteen was
finished and we have the sixteen teams that, well, that's
the end of college basketball. It's the death of the
mid major and we don't have Cinderella anymore. Like, what
are you guys talking about? One data point doesn't make
a trend. It's one year. And when people say this
is the first time since twenty seventeen this has happened
and it's only happened five times in the last fifty,
(15:21):
well that means it's happened before. Yeah, and that was
before nil and that was before the portal. Like relax,
if we get three or four years in a row
of this, then then we can start talking about it.
But to your point about the ratings being up, it
kind of goes against the theory that upsets and that's
what drives ratings. The big brands drive ratings. And you know,
(15:45):
most of the time when some Cinderella wins, they lose
the next game. Most of the time when they lose
the next game, they get blown out. And it's no
big deal. It's great, there's nothing wrong with it. But
you know, now we've got six really good teams here,
and if you go buy all the analytics, I think
(16:06):
the lowest rated team in the Sweet sixteen is rated
like thirtieth in the Kenpalm dot Com ratings, which is Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Arkansas thirty six.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yep. You know everybody else is in the top twenty,
give or take. And you know, so we're looking at
at sort of the best teams that the field can offer.
And I do think that's going to drive more interest,
not only in seeing good basketball, which I'm not sure
fans care about as much as I do, because you know,
(16:37):
I think the average fan doesn't know the difference in
any sport between a good game and a close game.
But when they get a good game that is a
close game, you can't get anything better than that. And
I think we're going to have that in the Sweet
sixteen and the Elite eight and beyond. I think we're
going to have great, you know, great and compelling games
and matchups and big brands that I think will drive
(16:58):
ratings for CBS.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, totally agree on your point on Cinderella. I tried
to make the case that Cinderella might be dead. I
don't think it's bad for the tournament, but only because
right now, if you're at a low major and you
have a game or two that's good in the tournament
or in championship week, you're getting noticed and the second
the portal opens, you're jumping chip. So this idea that
like Steph Curry stayed three years at Davidson, or VCU
(17:23):
went to the Final four with Shaka Smart, or George
Mason made a run. I don't know you look at
the final four makeup. I don't know if you've seen
this chart j but like they broke down where all
the starters are from, and you can't tell some of
these teams that, like you could tell Duke and Purdue
because they've got a lot of homegrown freshman guys, but
most of the teams are a hodgepodge of let me
get that guy from FAU after their run. And I
(17:45):
just wonder. I don't think it's bad for the sport.
I think it's actually kind of good. And there's a
lot there. But if anything jumped out of you, I'm
curious your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
It does. There are a few things. So the transfer
portal works both ways, so you have the really good
major player that was under recruited. Take jan I Broome
of Offer right there with Cooper flag for National Player
of the Year. He's from the state of Florida. He
was under recruited out of high school. People didn't think
he was that good. He goes to Morehead State, he's
Rookie of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference and
(18:15):
he's played. Then he becomes Player of the Year and
defensive Player of the year. So because he was under recruited,
do people really think he's obligated to stay there and
play in anonymity for four years? The answer to that
is clearly no. When anybody who's coaching, you know, the
coach at at Morehead State left and went to a
better job, So you know, I think people get the
(18:37):
whole American way of that. But you also have a
number of players that went to big places, Power five schools,
didn't play as much and they transferred down. So McNeese State,
coached by Will Wade this year, is now at n
C State. So the coach's portal always opened. He had
players that were from Power five schools on his on
(18:57):
his roster. You know, Kader Copeland is from Syracuse, and
I go down the list of players that played somewhere else.
So it works both ways. But when people say, okay,
to your point, it sometimes it is true that a
player has a great tournament, then all of a sudden
he'll be at a big shot school, which I think
is his right honestly to do that if that school
(19:19):
wants him. But like think of Florida Atlantic. So Cinderella
is dead, right, but it only died this year because
she was alive two years ago.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Two years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, Florida Lantic went to the final four, right in
twenty twenty three. Yeah, every player on that roster came
back the next year. Every player why did they leave?
As Dusty May went to Michigan, so he took the bag,
went to Michigan, he took lad Golden went with him.
Elijah Martin went to Florida still in the tournament, and
(19:52):
John L. Davis went to Arkansas, still in the tournament.
So who do we blame there? Like, you know, it's
it's just the way the it's the way it goes,
And I don't have a problem with any of it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I agree totally.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Now, sorry, go ahead, I guess my point, my long
winded point is Cinderella didn't die. It's still out there.
And like Drake won this year, McNeice won, Saint Mary's won,
Gonzaga won. You know, you go down the list of
teams that won this year, they didn't happen to win
a second round game, although Colorado State it took a
buzzer beater by Maryland to keep them out sixteen. Otherwise
(20:26):
we'd have a Cinderella. And so then the last point
is people say, oh, man, you know, sixteen teams, four conferences,
it's all over now, all major conference. You go on,
wait a minute, now the school portal's open too. Two
years ago, Houston's in the American BYU's in the West
Coast Conference, and Arizona's in the PAC twelve. We had
(20:49):
the same field two years ago, seven different conferences. Does
that make everybody feel better? It's a good point. It's
the same grouping. And two years ago BU was considered
a cute little mid major you know that had some
older players because they went on missions and all that stuff.
And now they are another power conference team that's taking
(21:10):
off the world. Yet come on, man, like, let's let's
get some perspective here.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, no, those are great points. It's interesting the two
teams you mentioned Drake, their coach left their star he's
headed to Iowa. It sounds like Bennett Start's. And then
there was another team that, oh, well, wait at me.
He's now at NC State. It sounds like he's going
to be bringing some guys. So you know those those
were great stories, but they're not going to do it
again next year. You just got to find the new team. Now,
(21:36):
let me ask. I don't know this is a little dense,
but the whole revenue sharing deal I read about it
in the Athletic It sounds like there's a world where
the A ten and the Big East actually benefit a
lot because they don't have to revenue share with football.
Have you looked into this at all, because it sounds like,
you know, WOJ is obviously now at Saint Bonaventure and
(21:57):
it looks like they're hitting the portal pretty hard. What
do you make of all this?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Well, it is true that there are schools out there,
Big East schools, A ten, some others that don't have
big time football. So football is going to take of
the revenue sharing money and it can be up to
like I think it's twenty two percent of revenue whatever.
So we're talking like twenty two million dollars give or
take that that schools can have available for revenue share
(22:25):
given their budgets. So the Lion's share of that is
going to go to football, and that's fine. They can
do it however they want. If they want to have
a better basketball program and they're willing to do football
for less, go ahead. Yeah, I don't have any problem
with whatever they do. But they'll figure out a way
to pay these players, like either through collectives or whatever.
(22:46):
It's not going to stop at whatever this settlement revenue
number is. It's just not And what was it, Jason
five years ago, everybody was saying, Hey, where's the money
going to come from. We're not going to be able
to pay we can't do things going to be It
shows they want to have good teams, they want to
be competitive, and they're willing to put their money where
their mouth is on on athletes the most, with all
(23:08):
due respect to staff, and they're they're sort of their
athletic department. The most important thing in winning is the
players on the field or on the court. That's the
most important thing. And what we're going to see in
the future is whatever the numbers are these these athletic
departments are going to lean up and they're going to
(23:29):
start putting their resources where it matters, and that's going
to be on the field and on the court. And
coaches are still going to make a lot of money.
They may not make as much as they would have otherwise.
You know, we're going to start seeing they're going to go,
we don't need to pay you as much. We got
to you know, we got to pay Cooper Flag. Yeah,
you know we got we we have right now before
(23:51):
like all this stuff came in with revenue sharing, just
that discussion. I mean, you had strength coaches for football
teams making over a million dollars a year. Really, you know,
I'll do it for half that and tell hey, lift
that weight. You know, it's I don't mean to take
I don't mean to take away from what they do.
That's a serious job. But come on, man, like you
don't need to be doing that. They had the money
(24:11):
and they did it, and they're not going to keep
doing that to that level. They're going to start getting
more reasonable with what they pay people in those positions
and how many people they have, and they'll really get
reasonable when private equity whenever they take the private equity
money because private equity is going to come in and say, look,
now you're messing with our revenue stream. You don't need
(24:32):
all these people like the There are twice as many
suits in the team picture as there are people in uniform.
You don't need that. Let's start. Let's start doing this
in an efficient manner that's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
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.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
All right, let's drill down on the games real quick.
So let's just do a quick game. We got to
pick an upset or two in the Sweet sixteen. I'll
let you go first. Card is yours simply by point spread?
Is there an underdog you like in the Sweet sixteen
to win out right?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I like Ole Miss, uh, Michigan. I'm not saying it's
going to happen, but I would not be surprised the
Ole Miss win because they're they're good, and they've played
teams like Michigan State throughout the year. Michigan State doesn't
shoot it great, but they do other things really really well.
And if they do shoot it, which they're capable of,
(25:34):
that makes them doubly hard to beat. But ole Miss
doesn't turn it over very often. The one thing they
don't do consistently that Michigan State does is Ole Miss
doesn't rebound at the same level that Michigan State does.
But they they're athletic, they defend, and they have seen
teams as good as Michigan State a lot in the
Southeastern Conference. They're not going to be They're not going
(25:54):
to sweat that. And then their their point guard, Sean
Padula has played really well. He's at forty points his
first two games. You played really efficiently, So I wouldn't
be surprised to see an upset there. You know, I
don't see one in you know, the Houston Purdue game
or I think the best game, the most entertaining game
is going to be by U Alabama.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Oh that was my pick. Yeah, well wait, let me
back up just real quick. So you mentioned Houston Purdue.
You know, you've played a lot of games, You've been
in a lot of arenas Purdue is going to be
playing in Indianapolis. Is that a big edge?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
No edge?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
What do you make of that? Because I know it's
a football stadium Lucas Oil. I haven't been in Lucas
Oil when it's been configured for basketball, but Houston's already
occasionally a spotty shooting team from three with Crier and Milos.
Any thoughts on that one.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I don't think it's going to be that big of
a deal. I think it's helpful to Purdue to feel comfortable,
and they're certainly going to have more fans in there
because of the proximity. It's only, you know, ninety minutes
or so one hundred miles to West Lafayette from Indy,
So I think it's going to be helpful. I don't
think it's going to carry the day given the strength
(27:04):
and athleticism that Houston brings to the table, and I
think you just identified it with the shooting, like Houston
is just as good defensively and on the glass as
they've been in the last several years. I think they
were final four last team last year, absent Jamal Shed
getting hurt against Duke. If he didn't get hurt, I
think they were in the final four beating you know,
they would have beat Duke, They would have beat NC
State in my view, But this year, you know, having
(27:27):
l J. Pryor, I mean, he just had thirty and
I think he's the only player in NCAA history've scored
thirty points in an NCAA tournament game for two different teams.
He did it for Banter and now he's done it
for Houston. And Emmanuel Sharp is another long range bucket getter,
and Milos Uzan has really helped at the point because
he can score and distribute. So I think they're legit.
(27:51):
Can they get beat yeah, but I don't think they will.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So you mentioned Alabama, b YU, Obviously it's going to
be a high scoring, off defensive game for whatever reason.
And again, I know Alabama went to the Final four
last year, but Nate Oates has had a couple clunkers
in the sweet sixteen and a lot of factors are
playing those games. But if anything, it feels like they've
been leaking will in my opinion for the last month.
And I don't I like this b YU squad. They
(28:17):
almost choked it away against Wisconsin, but I don't know.
Can they win out right?
Speaker 3 (28:21):
You think b YU? Yeah, oh yeah they can because
they could really score and uh and they play fast
and there it's kind of a mirror image a little bit.
There's a there are minor differences in the offenses they run,
but they basically both want to get it down the
floor and shoot it pretty quick. You know, Nate Oates
wants to get it down the floor and shoot it
(28:41):
quick because the more passes they make and more chances
they have to turn it over. I'd rather he'd rather
get a shot than a turnover. But the only the
only thing, Like I hear what you're saying. I do
think they've had some issues over the past several games.
But but I kind of look at their schedule like
I did their They lost to Florida one of the
last games of the regular season in Tuscaloosa, but they
(29:04):
played well enough to beat ninety five percent of Division
One in that game. But they played Florida. Yeah, and
so and that that's probably true of a number of
the games they played down the stretch because their schedule
is backloaded. I think the last six games they played,
they played all teams ranked in the top twenty. Yeah,
(29:24):
anybody they played that wasn't ranked. And that's unprecedented. I've
never well, I shouldn't say un precedented, it's unprecedented for me,
I've never seen it before, and there was a lot
of kind of unprecedented that regard in that regard in
the league. But the one thing that like I don't
in all my years of basketball, one thing I've never
been able to figure out, predict or get a feel for,
(29:46):
is when a hot streak starts and won one ends.
So Mark Sears, even though he's been putting up decent numbers,
has not shot the ball well from three over his
last six games or so. I think he's five for
thirty five from three, and that's not him and I
just don't see that continuing. And now that Grant Nelson
(30:07):
appears to be healthy after that knee thing he had
in the SEC Tournament against Florida, they were down forty
seven forty five at halftime and he didn't play in
the second half and they got run. When he's in there,
they're different because he can drive it. He you know,
he's their best shot blocker, he's their best rebounder. He's
their kind of hard hat guy. You know, they have
(30:30):
this hard hat of work. He's kind of their hard
hat guy that does a lot of the dirty work
for him. So if he's healthy, I give them a
really good chance to win, And I think they can
give Duke a hard chance, a hard game just because
of the way they play and the teams they've played against, Like,
they can get up and down the floor, so they're
they're they're not going to grind it out against Duke's
(30:50):
half court defense. They're going to get it down and
shoot it. And they've got they've got athletes, and they
can make it tough on them.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Should I be worried? You mentioned Sears five for thirty five,
Maybe he'll regress of being a solid shooter. What about Proctor?
For Duke, he is on an unprecedent. I mean, shit,
missed like the last four games. But I think you
called the a SEC tournament. I think the first two
games he was like, oh for ten or.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Something, Yeah, I did the SEC tournament. This is the
first time on SEC.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
That's right, you did SEC.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, this was the first time in a long time.
I didn't do Dan Schulman and I didn't do the ACC.
I did the Big East for a long time, but
it's always been either the Big East Tournament of the
ACC for me. So this was a you know, on
on one hand, he kind of felt jeez, I hate
to miss this. But on the other hand, you're watching
these SEC games going like, how could this be any better?
(31:35):
Uh So it's a little bit of an odd feeling.
But Proctor has had a great year. I didn't think
he had a good year last year for him. Uh
and and I think that got under his skin a
little bit. And he's been much better this year. And
he's he's always been kind of a catch and shoot guy,
but this year the ball he hasn't had to worry
about ball handling responsibilities. Though he can rip and around
(31:57):
with the rebound it, he'll bring it up, but he
he's not responsible for the point guard stuff, so he
can just work off the ball. And I think the
last two games he's like thirteen for sixteen from three
and he's averaging twenty two. I mean, the last guy
I think to put up you know, Cooper Flags put
up some Grand Hill numbers across the board in the tournament,
(32:18):
but you know, this is beyond like thirteen for sixteen
from three. I don't care who they're playing. That's beyond
even JJ Reddick numbers for shooting.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, we'll wrap up with this one. Tennessee, Kentucky it's
round three, Jay, and listen, I'm not trying to be
mean here, but Rick Barnes has had a history of
struggles in March, and obviously a lot of factors that
play injuries, what have you. A lot of people are
making this whole argument. It's real tough to beat a
team three times. You know, I don't know if Kentucky
(32:50):
can do it, But then you've got Rick Barnes on
the other side. And where do you standing on this game?
It feels like a genuine coin toss to me.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I think it is a coin toss. It's kind of confounding.
I did one of the games between Tennessee and Kentucky,
the one at rough and Kentucky had beaten Tennessee a
little bit earlier at Tennessee when if I remember right,
like Tennessee jacked up like forty two or forty three
threes and a little bit uncharacteristic, but most of them
(33:19):
were actually pretty good open shots. But what what was
surprising to me was that that Kentucky was able to
shoot in both those games. Kentucky shot fifty percent from
the field and three in each of the games. Nobody
else has done that to Tennessee all year long. Tennessee
is the number, you know, sort of the number one
field goal percentage defense in the country at like thirty
(33:41):
eight percent. And for Kentucky to do that, the one
thing that that Tennessee does that not like Auburn, is
different when they played Kentucky, Auburn will switch a lot
of stuff and Tennessee likes to stay with their own.
They switch on an emergency basis. But I do think
that that plays pretty well for Kentucky at times for
(34:02):
running their offense. They can initiate offense all over the floor,
in part because they're a big guy. Maray Williams are
transferred in from Drexel, and it's just kind of stunning
to me that they haven't been able to kind of
put the clamps on Kentucky's offense in those two games.
And if to me, if Tennessee, like I think they
can get good performances out of Chaslin Ear and Zekai
(34:25):
Ziggler and Jordan Gainey and all that, I think to
win they have to have their big guys play better,
like Igor milichiit Junior and Felix ack Park. They have
put numbers on the board. They can't just get eight
rebounds and four points or something. They got to do better.
And they know those guys are like more screeners and
the kind of screener scorer action. But they've got to
be more aggressive, especially militic, because he can shoot it.
(34:47):
He can really stretch the floor as long as he
stays out of foul trouble. He's another weapon out.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
There as a coach. Do you know if you're on
Rick Barnes staff and he's a guys, what do we
do different this time? Can you say, hey, we're switching
every screen. I know we haven't done that all year.
It's not in our DNA. We're doing that because let's see,
we've got to change something. Do you think that's something
Barnes would consider?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I I maybe I doubt they'll change too much because
it's kind of this is who they are thing, oh boy,
and they're they're they're good at it. Like Kentucky has
been the only team that's done this. It is not
like they haven't played really good teams. Like remember they
played they played Florida three three times, but the first
two times they've played them, I mean, who could figure
(35:28):
those games out? Like Florida beat the brakes off them.
One time, they beat them by like thirty, Yes, and
then Tennessee turns around shorthanded and beats them by twenty.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Who could have who could have predicted? Like the unpredictability
of that was was stunning to me. But it's not
that I would change anything. I think they have to
score more efficiently, like, you know, obviously letting somebody shoot
fifty percent when you're that good defensively as bothersome. But
but I still think their their offense is a big
(35:59):
key to how they play. I think they played better
all of you know, most teams do you know, when
you're putting the ball to the basket, everything looks rosier.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, it's almost that weapons. I think you're right. So
they shot three for eighteen against Kentucky from three in
the second meeting and the first one they were and
this is stunning, eleven for forty five. Yeah, essentially Kentucky
saying take all the threes you want, we don't trust
you as shooters were fine.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, I mean, and Kentucky's actually been really good defending
the three point line, like they've been better. Kentucky has
been better over the last ten games or so defensively,
like their defensive numbers are up kind of near the
top defense. They're not at the top defensive team level,
but they're getting closer to it. And that was not
(36:43):
true for a good part of the season. They were
kind of easy to score on. They were just really
hard to stop. And they've been much better defensively. Part
of that Samari Williams has been a better rimp protector.
And then they have Lamont Butler getting healthier and he's
at the point of attack, so that you know that
battle between him and Zechaiziegler is going to be really good.
(37:05):
But really, if you can slow down Chaslnier is the
whole key. Like he's averaging twenty three twenty four points
a game in the tournament at twenty nine in their
first game, and he can do that the only you know,
Rick has done a great job of finding these guys.
Like I saw Chaz airplay at North Florida. I didn't
think he was as good, honestly, but I've seen I'd
(37:27):
seen Dalton connect at Northern Colorado. I didn't think he
was that good. Not that I didn't think he was
that good, but that I didn't think he was as
good as he was at Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Like I didn't sec Player of the Year to see that.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Coming, top ten draft pick. All that, But the difference
between Connect, like if if Lanier has nineteen points in
the first half and last year Dalton Connect at nineteen,
Dalton Connect wonted forty and Lanier wants to make the
right play like, no, man, go get forty. Yeah, you
(38:02):
open things up for everybody else. And I think he's
getting better at that, But I don't think it's it's
a natural thing for him to, you know, look to
bury somebody and look to get forty. But he's got
he's gotten better at that. He's much more aggressive I
think now than he was a month ago or two
months ago.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I'm sure that was your mindset back in the day,
right against never nervous Purvis and all those guys.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Mine was just to get through the forty minutes forty points.
That was a forty points for me. It was a
four game stretch, all right.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
The great J billis espn J continued success. Love your
work and keep up the great analysis.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
But man, right back at you, thanks for having me
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up? Straight Fire Family, It's me Jason McIntyre.
Straight Fire for Thursday, March twenty seventh. It's Sweet sixteen day,
Ladies and gentlemen today and Maniana Sweet sixteen. I'm very
fired up, as you know. We've talked about it all
week and to celebrate the Sweet sixteen, a special guest,
(00:31):
my main man, Jay billis former duke player, current ESPN analyst.
He has done the Biggies Tournament, the a SEC Tournament,
the SEC Tournament this year. He's done everything. Ja billis outstanding.
I've known him for a while. I texted my buddy
in Arizona about this, and you know, I sent him
the video because then we're posting him on YouTube. He
(00:52):
kind of dresses them up and I pay him because
he's talented, and he's like, you got Jay Billis in
all caps. I was like, dude, I've known Billis for
like fifteen years now. He's a nice guy.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I just and I'm not like flexing that I text him.
He just is a good dude. He's normal. I got
to spend a day with him at the Big East
Tournament way back. This must have been g'z two thousand
and ten, I don't know, eleven, something like that. Him
and Raftery walking from the bill you know, they had
their pregame meeting and then we'd walk over to the
shoot around and walking in the streets with Billison Raftery
(01:22):
was hilarious because everybody's, oh my gosh, Pello's raftory onions,
just screaming stuff. It was hilarious. It was a great day. Anyways,
you guys will enjoy that. Before we get to j Bill,
it's just a couple of quick words as there were,
shall we say a few things that went down a
few things on the NBA front on Wednesday. Okay, now listen,
(01:44):
you guys, don't I like Lebron. I feel like he's
a goat. I think the goat discussion ended when he
went to the Lakers and won his third title or sorry,
he won a championship with a third different team. That's
just unbelievable. Everywhere he goes he's competing and winning championships
is incredible. I have him as the goat. It's fine,
you don't. That's that's cool too. I get it. I'm
a big Lebron guy. I thought a lot of what
(02:04):
he said he went on. So the Lakers were in
Indiana yesterday and he took the opportunity to go on
Pat McAfee show, and best I can tell, it wasn't
when the TV show was on, but it was like
I guess, like in the extra hour they're online, so
you know, you can say bad words and stuff, and
(02:25):
some of the video because I saw Lebron was cursing,
which is whatever, but it was kind of no holds barred.
He went after a lot of people, I namely Stephen A. Smith,
which some of that stuff was hilarious. I'll be honest,
you know, listen, unlike a lot of dopes in this
country who are like, I'm with this guy. He does
no wrong, He's perfect. Blah blah blah. Listen, I call
it like I see it. Okay, I like Lebron a lot.
(02:49):
I thought what he said about Windhors was out of pocket.
And I challenge anyone if Windhors has ever said he's
Lebron's best friend or any nonsense close to that. Show
me the clip.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I consume him a lot of Windhorse content. I feel
like I don't mind pulling back the curtain, but I
feel I only listen to two guys talk about the NBA.
That's it. That's it. It's Windhorst and Zachlo, and Zachlo
doesn't do it anymore. So I listen to Brian Windhorse podcast.
That's it. If he writes something, I read it. He's
plugged in. He doesn't reveal everything he has. You know,
(03:20):
Shams is great, but all he's just a news guy,
a middleman. They tell him the news that he puts
it out there, which is great. You know, you've got
to be connected to get that. But I don't feel
like I get any deep penetrating analysis from him. And
he's got to be careful what he says because he
wants to break the news. So you know, Windhors is
in a totally different boat. And I know Bill Simmons
and does good stuff, I'm sure, and Roussillo, I just
(03:42):
you know, I feel like I give me Windhorst, you know,
so I consume all Windhorse stuff. And yes, he's been
around Lebron for twenty five plus years, covering from in
high school. Obviously two things can be true. One he
does didn't know the real Lebron, And I would say,
(04:03):
unless you're in Lebron's inner circle. You don't know the
real Lebron. And even then it's like, do you really
know him? Okay, Like people have probably known Lebron for
twenty five years, I would say they know Lebron. So
Windhorse knows Lebron, but he doesn't really know him. Does
that make sense? And at the same time, he knows
Lebron better than I would say any other journalist because
(04:24):
he's been around him and in his orbit and covering
him and his crew, his manager, everything about him. He's
been around him for twenty five years. Of course he
knows Lebron. Well, that's undeniable. Is Lebron probably irked about
some of the stuff he says? Sure? Is he probably
wrong on some stuff?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Who's right about everything?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Guys?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Chef Terra ain't right about everything. He covers the NFL
as closely as anybody. Rappaport's not right about everything. Come on,
Woach is my guy? He was never right about nobody's
ever right about everything. So I just thought it was
out of pocket for him to go after Windhorse where
it gets interesting now, I didn't put this on social
med because I don't want to get involved in that nonsense.
(05:03):
But step back. Stop laughing at Lebron's comments about steven
A and all this stuff, and oh, do you have
a relationship with Jordan? Just step back from all that.
I can't remember the last time Lebron went on anything
associated with the Worldwide Leader, can you? Hm? Lebron not
(05:25):
only went on ESPN, but he then unloaded on a
couple people who are ESPN employees. That's unheard of. Why
would that happen? I do insert your Windhorse meme here.
It was almost as if somebody had a couple scores
to settle and decided, you know, I don't want to
(05:45):
be the guy taking shots at these guys. Let me
let Lebron do it. Hey, Lebron, you're in town, You're
in Indiana. Come on, Bro, come on over to the show,
so say whatever you want. We know McAfee and steven A.
Smith don't have a good relationship. That blew out. I
didn't know if him and Windhorse had beef, but we
know mcavi's planted his flag with another ESPN guy who
(06:06):
covers the NBA. And like I'm just saying, it was
very strange to see on ESPN airwaves the most popular
athlete on the planet, I think that's safe to say. Lebron, sorry,
let me say, let me rephrase that in America. On
the planet it's messy. But the most popular athlete in
America going on ESPN airwaves and bashing the hell out
(06:27):
of ESPN employees. That doesn't happen by accident. Okay. I
think somebody had some scores to settle and he used
Lebron as his guy to deliver those scores. That was
my read on it. You feel free to disagree. I'm
not going to get into this online with anybody. It
just felt very strange that it all went down, And
(06:49):
again I thought, you know, I thought it was interesting
for sure. I consumed the clips that I saw online.
I didn't you watch the full thing. But and then
Lebron went out and had pretty much a bad game
till the final seconds when he tipped in a Luca
miss with like one tenth of a second left and
the Lakers stole a one point win over the Pacers.
Lakers did not cover in the first quarter because they
gave up i think a nine to nothing run to
(07:11):
end the first Then they went on like a fifteen
nothing run to start the second. Whacky game it was
nice to have Ruy Hachimoa back four threes during Phinny
Smith played well. Lebron did not. I wonder if he
was in his head after just absolutely shit posting everyone
at ESPN. I thought that was interesting. Luca thirty four points,
seven boards, seven assists. I mean, it was a master
(07:33):
class by the Lakers pulling out that win. They played
the Bulls tonight. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that
they They're not gonna play anybody, right, because guess what,
they have a massive game Saturday night in Memphis. The
Grizzlies are currently tied with the Lakers for the fourth spot.
(07:55):
That fourth spot would mean home court advantage, and the
winner of that would then face Okac. I'm telling you
you want the three. Both of them are a game
back of Denver, who got Jokic back last night and
he had a triple double. Houston continues to be toured.
Everybody wants that three seed. That is enormous. I think
the Lakers rest their horses against the Bulls because that
Memphis game is absolutely must win to date, probably the
(08:19):
biggest game of the season for the Lakers. Then they
get the then they get the Rockets Monday. I'm trying
to go to that game. I don't know if that
will materialize, but anyways, just sart to quickly talk about
that before we get to our guest, the Great Jabillis
from ESPN.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
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. You know, Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports. I know what sports
(08:54):
fans want, but for everything he doesn't. He knows a
guy who does.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy. All right, let's welcome back
to straight fire, first time in a couple of years.
He's so busy, you know, he's on TV all the time.
He's just a superstar when it comes to sports media.
A Duke legend, J billis j how are you man?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I don't know Duke legend. That's going to give you
some letters from people who actually accomplished something.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Come on, man, you were in the prime of Duke
when they were just building up the program back way
back in the eighties, and now you're watching a pretty
darn stacked Duke team. J I mean, this is about
as good as it gets. Huh.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah. The thing that gets me Jason about Duke is
their length and depth. But they have incredible size, and
you know, look, when you have the best player in
the country and the presumptive number one pick in the draft,
that's that's plenty. But they got so much around him,
and they're not even one hundred percent without Malik Brown.
So if they ever get him back, you know, it's
(09:57):
going to be hard to imagine that. You know what
they can get beat by. You know, Houston can beat them.
There are teams that can beat them, but Florida is
their only near equal in my view.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Interesting, I want to turn back the clock real quick
on Duke. So I was looking to the last meeting
with Arizona and they had started Caleb Foster. I believe
he's this superstar kid who was a big time five
star recruit. They started him in that game, and I'm
not exactly sure what happened, but he's been supplanted in
the starting lineup and I believe they've only lost one
(10:30):
game since the change. Any insight into what happened there.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I don't think it was anything other than one of
the transfers they brought in. Seon James, who was at Tulane,
is the better fit with the starting unit and playing
more minutes, because he's got tremendous size and length and
defensive ability, and he's a really you know, he's a
bigger guard, and he's a very low error you know,
(10:58):
get to the rim type of player, and he's he's
just frankly been better. That doesn't mean Caleb's not really good,
but when you've got that many options, you know, I
was at that game. I did the game for ESPN,
and I was stunned that that they held If I
remember right, they held Arizona under sixty points fifty five yep,
(11:19):
And I was I left there going, you got to
be a kidding me. I mean, they were so good defensively,
and you know, I'm sure Arizona could have played better,
and they're way better now than they were then. But
I think Duke is too. It was just the defensive
prowess of that team that really sort of stood out.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Everybody's falling in love with the Caleb love versus Duke.
He obviously started for North Carolina. If he gets hot
it could be a problem for what do you anticipate
them doing defensively against him, any changes significantly or.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Now I mean, I think the fact that they can
put athletic size and length on him, it can be
really difficult to deal with. Like, as you know, Caleb
Love is is kind of a wild card. You know,
he can he can be an ace, go out and
get you thirty uh. And there have been times he's
kind of been the joker of the deck where he's
(12:10):
took He's taken some shots where you're going, what are
you doing? And he doesn't stop like he'll he'll keep shooting,
and when he's in a bad spot, he can shoot
you out of it. But it's not that often that happens.
I think he only had eight points in that game
against I remember, right, yep. But to me, like the
Caleb Love that's the giant killer and the best you know,
(12:34):
sort of the best guard, the best version of himself
is the one that's getting to the foul line more
often than not. And when because he's he's strong and athletic,
and when he takes the ball into the lane, he
can really get into your body and get to the
free throw line and that kind of balances out when
he wants to be just the three point shooter. I
don't think he's as good and uh, and they got
(12:54):
to find a way, and it's difficult against Duke, but
they got to find a way to get out and transition.
They cannot play a half court game against Duke for
forty minutes. They got they got to play ahead of
that defense. If they got to grind it out for
forty against that set defense, that's gonna be a problem
for Arizona and really for most anybody.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, so you're right. Love was three for thirteen in
that game, only took two foul shots, three turnovers. You know,
not his best effort, but you know he's a boombust guy.
Like you said, let me quickly zoom out, Jay macro
big picture. I saw that the ratings for the first
two rounds were a hyacince nineteen ninety three, and I
was like, early nineties. Let me look, oh, bab five.
(13:32):
That was the Chris Weber team that went up against
North Carolina the Faithful Time Out. Now, obviously that was
in the championship, not the first two rounds. But I'm
just curious. You know, I'm a big college basketball, Honk,
and you're you're at the top of the food chain
when it comes to college hoops. What do you think
has driven the surge in interest these first two rounds.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I don't really know, Jason. I don't really understand how
ratings work. Honestly. I know that there are big brands
that matter. So in my experience over the years, when
you've got when you've got Kentucky, you've got Duke, you've
got North Carolina, some of these, some of these brands,
the ratings are consistently higher, and the tournament is an odd,
(14:15):
odd thing. There's a narrative out there, and I do
think it's a narrative rather than a fact that what
drives interest is Cinderella and uh and upsets and all
that stuff. And I've never believed that to be true.
I don't. I think there's data behind it that I
could point to, but I don't have it at my
(14:36):
fingertips to sound all smart and everything, but I think,
you know, I don't know exactly when this bracket stuff
got so crazy, where everybody filling out a bracket, including
your grandmother who's never seen a game or stuff like that,
where that got to be such an issue. But it's
funny people say, well, you know, god, this year, I'm
(14:58):
hearing a lot of now after the Sweet Sixteen was
finished and we have the sixteen teams that, well, that's
the end of college basketball. It's the death of the
mid major and we don't have Cinderella anymore. Like, what
are you guys talking about? One data point doesn't make
a trend. It's one year. And when people say this
is the first time since twenty seventeen this has happened
and it's only happened five times in the last fifty,
(15:21):
well that means it's happened before. Yeah, and that was
before nil and that was before the portal. Like relax,
if we get three or four years in a row
of this, then then we can start talking about it.
But to your point about the ratings being up, it
kind of goes against the theory that upsets and that's
what drives ratings. The big brands drive ratings. And you know,
(15:45):
most of the time when some Cinderella wins, they lose
the next game. Most of the time when they lose
the next game, they get blown out. And it's no
big deal. It's great, there's nothing wrong with it. But
you know, now we've got six really good teams here,
and if you go buy all the analytics, I think
(16:06):
the lowest rated team in the Sweet sixteen is rated
like thirtieth in the Kenpalm dot Com ratings, which is Arkansas.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Arkansas thirty six.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Yep. You know everybody else is in the top twenty,
give or take. And you know, so we're looking at
at sort of the best teams that the field can offer.
And I do think that's going to drive more interest,
not only in seeing good basketball, which I'm not sure
fans care about as much as I do, because you know,
(16:37):
I think the average fan doesn't know the difference in
any sport between a good game and a close game.
But when they get a good game that is a
close game, you can't get anything better than that. And
I think we're going to have that in the Sweet
sixteen and the Elite eight and beyond. I think we're
going to have great, you know, great and compelling games
and matchups and big brands that I think will drive
(16:58):
ratings for CBS.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, totally agree on your point on Cinderella. I tried
to make the case that Cinderella might be dead. I
don't think it's bad for the tournament, but only because
right now, if you're at a low major and you
have a game or two that's good in the tournament
or in championship week, you're getting noticed and the second
the portal opens, you're jumping chip. So this idea that
like Steph Curry stayed three years at Davidson, or VCU
(17:23):
went to the Final four with Shaka Smart, or George
Mason made a run. I don't know you look at
the final four makeup. I don't know if you've seen
this chart j but like they broke down where all
the starters are from, and you can't tell some of
these teams that, like you could tell Duke and Purdue
because they've got a lot of homegrown freshman guys, but
most of the teams are a hodgepodge of let me
get that guy from FAU after their run. And I
(17:45):
just wonder. I don't think it's bad for the sport.
I think it's actually kind of good. And there's a
lot there. But if anything jumped out of you, I'm
curious your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
It does. There are a few things. So the transfer
portal works both ways, so you have the really good
major player that was under recruited. Take jan I Broome
of Offer right there with Cooper flag for National Player
of the Year. He's from the state of Florida. He
was under recruited out of high school. People didn't think
he was that good. He goes to Morehead State, he's
Rookie of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference and
(18:15):
he's played. Then he becomes Player of the Year and
defensive Player of the year. So because he was under recruited,
do people really think he's obligated to stay there and
play in anonymity for four years? The answer to that
is clearly no. When anybody who's coaching, you know, the
coach at at Morehead State left and went to a
better job, So you know, I think people get the
(18:37):
whole American way of that. But you also have a
number of players that went to big places, Power five schools,
didn't play as much and they transferred down. So McNeese State,
coached by Will Wade this year, is now at n
C State. So the coach's portal always opened. He had
players that were from Power five schools on his on
(18:57):
his roster. You know, Kader Copeland is from Syracuse, and
I go down the list of players that played somewhere else.
So it works both ways. But when people say, okay,
to your point, it sometimes it is true that a
player has a great tournament, then all of a sudden
he'll be at a big shot school, which I think
is his right honestly to do that if that school
(19:19):
wants him. But like think of Florida Atlantic. So Cinderella
is dead, right, but it only died this year because
she was alive two years ago.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Two years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, Florida Lantic went to the final four, right in
twenty twenty three. Yeah, every player on that roster came
back the next year. Every player why did they leave?
As Dusty May went to Michigan, so he took the bag,
went to Michigan, he took lad Golden went with him.
Elijah Martin went to Florida still in the tournament, and
(19:52):
John L. Davis went to Arkansas, still in the tournament.
So who do we blame there? Like, you know, it's
it's just the way the it's the way it goes,
And I don't have a problem with any of it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I agree totally.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Now, sorry, go ahead, I guess my point, my long
winded point is Cinderella didn't die. It's still out there.
And like Drake won this year, McNeice won, Saint Mary's won,
Gonzaga won. You know, you go down the list of
teams that won this year, they didn't happen to win
a second round game, although Colorado State it took a
buzzer beater by Maryland to keep them out sixteen. Otherwise
(20:26):
we'd have a Cinderella. And so then the last point
is people say, oh, man, you know, sixteen teams, four conferences,
it's all over now, all major conference. You go on,
wait a minute, now the school portal's open too. Two
years ago, Houston's in the American BYU's in the West
Coast Conference, and Arizona's in the PAC twelve. We had
(20:49):
the same field two years ago, seven different conferences. Does
that make everybody feel better? It's a good point. It's
the same grouping. And two years ago BU was considered
a cute little mid major you know that had some
older players because they went on missions and all that stuff.
And now they are another power conference team that's taking
(21:10):
off the world. Yet come on, man, like, let's let's
get some perspective here.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, no, those are great points. It's interesting the two
teams you mentioned Drake, their coach left their star he's
headed to Iowa. It sounds like Bennett Start's. And then
there was another team that, oh, well, wait at me.
He's now at NC State. It sounds like he's going
to be bringing some guys. So you know those those
were great stories, but they're not going to do it
again next year. You just got to find the new team. Now,
(21:36):
let me ask. I don't know this is a little dense,
but the whole revenue sharing deal I read about it
in the Athletic It sounds like there's a world where
the A ten and the Big East actually benefit a
lot because they don't have to revenue share with football.
Have you looked into this at all, because it sounds like,
you know, WOJ is obviously now at Saint Bonaventure and
(21:57):
it looks like they're hitting the portal pretty hard. What
do you make of all this?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Well, it is true that there are schools out there,
Big East schools, A ten, some others that don't have
big time football. So football is going to take of
the revenue sharing money and it can be up to
like I think it's twenty two percent of revenue whatever.
So we're talking like twenty two million dollars give or
take that that schools can have available for revenue share
(22:25):
given their budgets. So the Lion's share of that is
going to go to football, and that's fine. They can
do it however they want. If they want to have
a better basketball program and they're willing to do football
for less, go ahead. Yeah, I don't have any problem
with whatever they do. But they'll figure out a way
to pay these players, like either through collectives or whatever.
(22:46):
It's not going to stop at whatever this settlement revenue
number is. It's just not And what was it, Jason
five years ago, everybody was saying, Hey, where's the money
going to come from. We're not going to be able
to pay we can't do things going to be It
shows they want to have good teams, they want to
be competitive, and they're willing to put their money where
their mouth is on on athletes the most, with all
(23:08):
due respect to staff, and they're they're sort of their
athletic department. The most important thing in winning is the
players on the field or on the court. That's the
most important thing. And what we're going to see in
the future is whatever the numbers are these these athletic
departments are going to lean up and they're going to
(23:29):
start putting their resources where it matters, and that's going
to be on the field and on the court. And
coaches are still going to make a lot of money.
They may not make as much as they would have otherwise.
You know, we're going to start seeing they're going to go,
we don't need to pay you as much. We got
to you know, we got to pay Cooper Flag. Yeah,
you know we got we we have right now before
(23:51):
like all this stuff came in with revenue sharing, just
that discussion. I mean, you had strength coaches for football
teams making over a million dollars a year. Really, you know,
I'll do it for half that and tell hey, lift
that weight. You know, it's I don't mean to take
I don't mean to take away from what they do.
That's a serious job. But come on, man, like you
don't need to be doing that. They had the money
(24:11):
and they did it, and they're not going to keep
doing that to that level. They're going to start getting
more reasonable with what they pay people in those positions
and how many people they have, and they'll really get
reasonable when private equity whenever they take the private equity
money because private equity is going to come in and say, look,
now you're messing with our revenue stream. You don't need
(24:32):
all these people like the There are twice as many
suits in the team picture as there are people in uniform.
You don't need that. Let's start. Let's start doing this
in an efficient manner that's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (24:56):
All right, let's drill down on the games real quick.
So let's just do a quick game. We got to
pick an upset or two in the Sweet sixteen. I'll
let you go first. Card is yours simply by point spread?
Is there an underdog you like in the Sweet sixteen
to win out right?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I like Ole Miss, uh, Michigan. I'm not saying it's
going to happen, but I would not be surprised the
Ole Miss win because they're they're good, and they've played
teams like Michigan State throughout the year. Michigan State doesn't
shoot it great, but they do other things really really well.
And if they do shoot it, which they're capable of,
(25:34):
that makes them doubly hard to beat. But ole Miss
doesn't turn it over very often. The one thing they
don't do consistently that Michigan State does is Ole Miss
doesn't rebound at the same level that Michigan State does.
But they they're athletic, they defend, and they have seen
teams as good as Michigan State a lot in the
Southeastern Conference. They're not going to be They're not going
(25:54):
to sweat that. And then their their point guard, Sean
Padula has played really well. He's at forty points his
first two games. You played really efficiently, So I wouldn't
be surprised to see an upset there. You know, I
don't see one in you know, the Houston Purdue game
or I think the best game, the most entertaining game
is going to be by U Alabama.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Oh that was my pick. Yeah, well wait, let me
back up just real quick. So you mentioned Houston Purdue.
You know, you've played a lot of games, You've been
in a lot of arenas Purdue is going to be
playing in Indianapolis. Is that a big edge?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
No edge?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
What do you make of that? Because I know it's
a football stadium Lucas Oil. I haven't been in Lucas
Oil when it's been configured for basketball, but Houston's already
occasionally a spotty shooting team from three with Crier and Milos.
Any thoughts on that one.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
I don't think it's going to be that big of
a deal. I think it's helpful to Purdue to feel comfortable,
and they're certainly going to have more fans in there
because of the proximity. It's only, you know, ninety minutes
or so one hundred miles to West Lafayette from Indy,
So I think it's going to be helpful. I don't
think it's going to carry the day given the strength
(27:04):
and athleticism that Houston brings to the table, and I
think you just identified it with the shooting, like Houston
is just as good defensively and on the glass as
they've been in the last several years. I think they
were final four last team last year, absent Jamal Shed
getting hurt against Duke. If he didn't get hurt, I
think they were in the final four beating you know,
they would have beat Duke, They would have beat NC
State in my view, But this year, you know, having
(27:27):
l J. Pryor, I mean, he just had thirty and
I think he's the only player in NCAA history've scored
thirty points in an NCAA tournament game for two different teams.
He did it for Banter and now he's done it
for Houston. And Emmanuel Sharp is another long range bucket getter,
and Milos Uzan has really helped at the point because
he can score and distribute. So I think they're legit.
(27:51):
Can they get beat yeah, but I don't think they will.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
So you mentioned Alabama, b YU, Obviously it's going to
be a high scoring, off defensive game for whatever reason.
And again, I know Alabama went to the Final four
last year, but Nate Oates has had a couple clunkers
in the sweet sixteen and a lot of factors are
playing those games. But if anything, it feels like they've
been leaking will in my opinion for the last month.
And I don't I like this b YU squad. They
(28:17):
almost choked it away against Wisconsin, but I don't know.
Can they win out right?
Speaker 3 (28:21):
You think b YU? Yeah, oh yeah they can because
they could really score and uh and they play fast
and there it's kind of a mirror image a little bit.
There's a there are minor differences in the offenses they run,
but they basically both want to get it down the
floor and shoot it pretty quick. You know, Nate Oates
wants to get it down the floor and shoot it
(28:41):
quick because the more passes they make and more chances
they have to turn it over. I'd rather he'd rather
get a shot than a turnover. But the only the
only thing, Like I hear what you're saying. I do
think they've had some issues over the past several games.
But but I kind of look at their schedule like
I did their They lost to Florida one of the
last games of the regular season in Tuscaloosa, but they
(29:04):
played well enough to beat ninety five percent of Division
One in that game. But they played Florida. Yeah, and
so and that that's probably true of a number of
the games they played down the stretch because their schedule
is backloaded. I think the last six games they played,
they played all teams ranked in the top twenty. Yeah,
(29:24):
anybody they played that wasn't ranked. And that's unprecedented. I've
never well, I shouldn't say un precedented, it's unprecedented for me,
I've never seen it before, and there was a lot
of kind of unprecedented that regard in that regard in
the league. But the one thing that like I don't
in all my years of basketball, one thing I've never
been able to figure out, predict or get a feel for,
(29:46):
is when a hot streak starts and won one ends.
So Mark Sears, even though he's been putting up decent numbers,
has not shot the ball well from three over his
last six games or so. I think he's five for
thirty five from three, and that's not him and I
just don't see that continuing. And now that Grant Nelson
(30:07):
appears to be healthy after that knee thing he had
in the SEC Tournament against Florida, they were down forty
seven forty five at halftime and he didn't play in
the second half and they got run. When he's in there,
they're different because he can drive it. He you know,
he's their best shot blocker, he's their best rebounder. He's
their kind of hard hat guy. You know, they have
(30:30):
this hard hat of work. He's kind of their hard
hat guy that does a lot of the dirty work
for him. So if he's healthy, I give them a
really good chance to win, And I think they can
give Duke a hard chance, a hard game just because
of the way they play and the teams they've played against, Like,
they can get up and down the floor, so they're
they're they're not going to grind it out against Duke's
(30:50):
half court defense. They're going to get it down and
shoot it. And they've got they've got athletes, and they
can make it tough on them.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Should I be worried? You mentioned Sears five for thirty five,
Maybe he'll regress of being a solid shooter. What about Proctor?
For Duke, he is on an unprecedent. I mean, shit,
missed like the last four games. But I think you
called the a SEC tournament. I think the first two
games he was like, oh for ten or.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Something, Yeah, I did the SEC tournament. This is the
first time on SEC.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
That's right, you did SEC.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, this was the first time in a long time.
I didn't do Dan Schulman and I didn't do the ACC.
I did the Big East for a long time, but
it's always been either the Big East Tournament of the
ACC for me. So this was a you know, on
on one hand, he kind of felt jeez, I hate
to miss this. But on the other hand, you're watching
these SEC games going like, how could this be any better?
(31:35):
Uh So it's a little bit of an odd feeling.
But Proctor has had a great year. I didn't think
he had a good year last year for him. Uh
and and I think that got under his skin a
little bit. And he's been much better this year. And
he's he's always been kind of a catch and shoot guy,
but this year the ball he hasn't had to worry
about ball handling responsibilities. Though he can rip and around
(31:57):
with the rebound it, he'll bring it up, but he
he's not responsible for the point guard stuff, so he
can just work off the ball. And I think the
last two games he's like thirteen for sixteen from three
and he's averaging twenty two. I mean, the last guy
I think to put up you know, Cooper Flags put
up some Grand Hill numbers across the board in the tournament,
(32:18):
but you know, this is beyond like thirteen for sixteen
from three. I don't care who they're playing. That's beyond
even JJ Reddick numbers for shooting.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, we'll wrap up with this one. Tennessee, Kentucky it's
round three, Jay, and listen, I'm not trying to be
mean here, but Rick Barnes has had a history of
struggles in March, and obviously a lot of factors that
play injuries, what have you. A lot of people are
making this whole argument. It's real tough to beat a
team three times. You know, I don't know if Kentucky
(32:50):
can do it, But then you've got Rick Barnes on
the other side. And where do you standing on this game?
It feels like a genuine coin toss to me.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I think it is a coin toss. It's kind of confounding.
I did one of the games between Tennessee and Kentucky,
the one at rough and Kentucky had beaten Tennessee a
little bit earlier at Tennessee when if I remember right,
like Tennessee jacked up like forty two or forty three
threes and a little bit uncharacteristic, but most of them
(33:19):
were actually pretty good open shots. But what what was
surprising to me was that that Kentucky was able to
shoot in both those games. Kentucky shot fifty percent from
the field and three in each of the games. Nobody
else has done that to Tennessee all year long. Tennessee
is the number, you know, sort of the number one
field goal percentage defense in the country at like thirty
(33:41):
eight percent. And for Kentucky to do that, the one
thing that that Tennessee does that not like Auburn, is
different when they played Kentucky, Auburn will switch a lot
of stuff and Tennessee likes to stay with their own.
They switch on an emergency basis. But I do think
that that plays pretty well for Kentucky at times for
(34:02):
running their offense. They can initiate offense all over the floor,
in part because they're a big guy. Maray Williams are
transferred in from Drexel, and it's just kind of stunning
to me that they haven't been able to kind of
put the clamps on Kentucky's offense in those two games.
And if to me, if Tennessee, like I think they
can get good performances out of Chaslin Ear and Zekai
(34:25):
Ziggler and Jordan Gainey and all that, I think to
win they have to have their big guys play better,
like Igor milichiit Junior and Felix ack Park. They have
put numbers on the board. They can't just get eight
rebounds and four points or something. They got to do better.
And they know those guys are like more screeners and
the kind of screener scorer action. But they've got to
be more aggressive, especially militic, because he can shoot it.
(34:47):
He can really stretch the floor as long as he
stays out of foul trouble. He's another weapon out.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
There as a coach. Do you know if you're on
Rick Barnes staff and he's a guys, what do we
do different this time? Can you say, hey, we're switching
every screen. I know we haven't done that all year.
It's not in our DNA. We're doing that because let's see,
we've got to change something. Do you think that's something
Barnes would consider?
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I I maybe I doubt they'll change too much because
it's kind of this is who they are thing, oh boy,
and they're they're they're good at it. Like Kentucky has
been the only team that's done this. It is not
like they haven't played really good teams. Like remember they
played they played Florida three three times, but the first
two times they've played them, I mean, who could figure
(35:28):
those games out? Like Florida beat the brakes off them.
One time, they beat them by like thirty, Yes, and
then Tennessee turns around shorthanded and beats them by twenty.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Who could have who could have predicted? Like the unpredictability
of that was was stunning to me. But it's not
that I would change anything. I think they have to
score more efficiently, like, you know, obviously letting somebody shoot
fifty percent when you're that good defensively as bothersome. But
but I still think their their offense is a big
(35:59):
key to how they play. I think they played better
all of you know, most teams do you know, when
you're putting the ball to the basket, everything looks rosier.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, it's almost that weapons. I think you're right. So
they shot three for eighteen against Kentucky from three in
the second meeting and the first one they were and
this is stunning, eleven for forty five. Yeah, essentially Kentucky
saying take all the threes you want, we don't trust
you as shooters were fine.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Yeah, I mean, and Kentucky's actually been really good defending
the three point line, like they've been better. Kentucky has
been better over the last ten games or so defensively,
like their defensive numbers are up kind of near the
top defense. They're not at the top defensive team level,
but they're getting closer to it. And that was not
(36:43):
true for a good part of the season. They were
kind of easy to score on. They were just really
hard to stop. And they've been much better defensively. Part
of that Samari Williams has been a better rimp protector.
And then they have Lamont Butler getting healthier and he's
at the point of attack, so that you know that
battle between him and Zechaiziegler is going to be really good.
(37:05):
But really, if you can slow down Chaslnier is the
whole key. Like he's averaging twenty three twenty four points
a game in the tournament at twenty nine in their
first game, and he can do that the only you know,
Rick has done a great job of finding these guys.
Like I saw Chaz airplay at North Florida. I didn't
think he was as good, honestly, but I've seen I'd
(37:27):
seen Dalton connect at Northern Colorado. I didn't think he
was that good. Not that I didn't think he was
that good, but that I didn't think he was as
good as he was at Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Like I didn't sec Player of the Year to see that.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Coming, top ten draft pick. All that, But the difference
between Connect, like if if Lanier has nineteen points in
the first half and last year Dalton Connect at nineteen,
Dalton Connect wonted forty and Lanier wants to make the
right play like, no, man, go get forty. Yeah, you
(38:02):
open things up for everybody else. And I think he's
getting better at that, But I don't think it's it's
a natural thing for him to, you know, look to
bury somebody and look to get forty. But he's got
he's gotten better at that. He's much more aggressive I
think now than he was a month ago or two
months ago.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I'm sure that was your mindset back in the day,
right against never nervous Purvis and all those guys.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Mine was just to get through the forty minutes forty points.
That was a forty points for me. It was a
four game stretch, all right.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
The great J billis espn J continued success. Love your
work and keep up the great analysis.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
But man, right back at you, thanks for having me
Host
Jason McIntyre
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!