March 31, 2025 • 37 mins
In the third hour, Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain chat with Mike DeCourcy about the Final Four ahead, Duke’s chances to win it all, and the women’s tournament, then talk about the Cooper Flagg vs. Larry Bird debate plus texts reacting to Dick’s NBA takes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for the latest on the madness of March.
Here's Hall of Fame college basketball writer for The Sporting
News and Fox Sports lead bracketologist, Mike Decorsi, brought to
you by Northwest Handling Systems. From forklifts to pellet res
conveyors to loading duck equipment, we sell, rent and service
all your warehouse he needs. Request a quote today at
(00:22):
NWHS dot com or give us a call at four
two five two five five zero five hundred. Now with
Mike DECURSI, here's Softy and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
All right, boser girls back here at the Emerald quink
a CINL come by on Saturday, watch the final four
here in the Sports Book National Championship Game on Monday night.
But before all that, had a chance to talk to one
of the best in the business, Sporting News, Big Ten
Network Hall of Famer, at least in our book.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
From our friends at Northwest Handling Systems, we just say
we give it up for our pal, Mike Decorsi talking
some college basketball.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Michael, Happy Monday. How are you man?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I am doing well, guys, how are you good?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Very good?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Before we get to the final four and what you
think is going to happen this weekend. Why don't you
just give us your thoughts of what you saw from
the Elite eight. Couple of good games, Texas Tech, Florida,
Michigan State, Auburn, but Man, Houston and Duke just putting
on a friggin show this weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
My friend, what'd you make of the weekend that was
in college basketball?
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
I think that I think in retrospect that we underrated
the four top teams. I think we I mean, the
number one seeds all that we all knew they deserved it,
But I don't think that we really appreciated how really
amazing these teams were during the regular season. You look
back now and how did you get four number one seeds? Well,
(01:42):
in two thousand and eight, it was so obvious because
there was so many great players Kevin Love and Russell
Westbrook at UCLA, and Carolina had Tyler Hansboro and the
crew that won in two thousand and nine, and Kansas
had five NBA players including Brandon Rush, and every team
that was there, Emphis had Derek Rose, and every team
that was there had this obvious talent. And it's a
(02:04):
little bit less so with this group, but their their
accomplishments are amazing. I mean, Auburn had sixteen I think
regular season Quad one wins, and Houston went through a
very strong Big Twelve with a nineteen to one record,
that ten ten to zero on the on the Big
twelve road, Dude one, it's acc games by an average
(02:27):
of twenty two points. It's not a very good act.
Twenty two points. It came in a major conference is amazing,
and so all these things should have pointed us a
little bit more toward the gathering of one seeds that
we see now.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
And yet, Mike, the internet is all about complaints and
all of those cinderellas. There's no darkers as winnings. But
you know what, in my opinion, God blessed Jim Larrenega
and Sister Jean. But I don't want George Mason and
Loyola Chicago in my final four. This is the final
four I want.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I want the four best teams in college basketball.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
How about you?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I One of the things that in discussing this today
is that I've pointed out that in twenty twenty three
you talked to just about those unusual events, But in
twenty twenty three, we had one three seed Yukon and
they were they were a championship and obvious championship contender.
I had them in my title game that year. I
(03:26):
knew they were going. They were they were coming. And
then we had Florida Atlantic and San Diego State and
Miami and we and I had to. I felt compelled
to write a column that Saturday or Friday or Saturday
saying please still watch. It's still gonna be fun.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah it's not, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And now people like, well where all the Cinderellas, Well,
you didn't watch when they were there in twenty three.
I mean, it still was a big event, but it
wasn't the kind of numbers that the Final Four usually
does because it wasn't these types of teams. And so
I think that you're going to see that the public
will respond over over this weekend and Monday night next
week to the presence of true greatness. And you know,
(04:11):
I've heard a lot of this, Uh the word chalk
used to describe this Final Four, and it's used as
a pejorative as, oh, gosh, you know, it's the it's
all those good teams. Well, why would we complain about
the fact that we have four legitimately great teams, all
thirty plus win teams, all conference champions, loaded with all
(04:33):
America players. Why would we complain about that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, you would complain about it if you like the
Cinderella story, obviously, And I mean, let's face it, guys,
some of the great images in the history of March
madness are of Cinderella's winning, right.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Jimmy tournament.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, Jimmy Valvano running around
looking for someone to hug it. Villanova winning as an
eight seed back in the day. If I'm not mistaken,
weren't they weren't Cinderella's. I mean they weren't.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
No, no, no. NC State had Thoroughblae Bailey played a
dozen years in the air. What seed was?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
What seed was NC State in that tournament that in
your what seed?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Don't remember what? I honestly, I think they were six,
but I'm not sure. But I will tell you this,
they were a sixth seed because Derek Whittenberg broke his.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Arm nine games. But but time out, just for a second.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So we can agree or disagree on our our preferences, right,
like the preferences to have the best teams in college basketball.
But you guys also both understand why some people are
turned off by this because they do like the possibility
of the Cinderella and they're not getting it.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I understand that. But but what happens when you get
a Cinderella to this stage is you don't get great
games times. We didn't have great game when George Mason
got to the Final four. It was a really cool
story until the fall went in the air. Uh, and
then it was like, okay, that that didn't work out.
And so that's that's usually what happens if they get
(06:04):
to this level. Now, we had a great game between
San Diego State and Miami, but I can tell you
right now that I am not Although I don't have
any problem with gambling sports gambling as when done in moderation,
I don't bet on college basketball because I consider it
would be a conflict. And but if I did, I
mean I would have bet the whole house on Yukon
(06:24):
winning the national championship. But whatever odds there were, I
would have. I would have tripled my money or quadrupled
my money, whatever the money line said. Going into that,
I knew they were gonna win. There was no way
they weren't winning that championship because the other three teams
weren't championship material.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Right right, And now you have four teams I would
argue four teams that are that are championship material. Let's
talk about those four teams. Are you moved based upon
what you thought of these four to one seeds two
weeks ago when this whole thing started versus what you've
seen in these first four games from them. Are you
moved one direction or another by any one of the teams,
(07:00):
either positively or negatively.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Well, I will say that I've had kick Duke at
the start, and I still feel good about that pick.
But I know that their semi final is going to
be excruciating, that it's going to be hard. Now, that
doesn't necessarily mean they don't win by a decent margin.
I'm not sure. It depends on how things close, but
(07:23):
it's it's not going to be any fun for them.
That Houston the way I wrote about it today, I said,
Houston makes you wish that you'd spent the afternoon at
the movies instead of coming to play ball. That they
make it so miserable. Wow, they are so good at that.
It's one of the best defensive teams of this century,
and I brought up the stats to sort of illustrate
(07:47):
that based on their margin, their adjusted defensive margin versus
the best adjusted offensive margin in that particular year, because
they give up eighty eight points per one hundred possessions.
That's a good number, it's a great number, but there
are lots of number, lots of teams that did better
than that earlier in earlier years of this century. However,
(08:07):
those years were really hard to score in because you
could jump in front of an offensive player fall down
and say, oh I got a charge, or you could
bump a cutter and so they couldn't complete the play
and all those sorts of things you can't do now.
And so it's easier to score now, but it's not
easier to score when Houston's on the floor.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So I saw a tweet I think it was from you, Dick,
and you were retweeting Skip Bayless if I'm not mistaken. Yes, yeah,
who said that Cooper Flag could be better than Larry Bird.
And the first thing I thought of, well, that's a
lot of pressure to put on a kid. First of all,
Larry Bird won three straight MVPs for crying out loud
in the NBA. But do you agree with that that
we are watching Mike that kind of player that one
(08:48):
day will be looked at in that kind of regard.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I think he's the best American basketball prospect since at
least Anthony Davis. And that was thirteen years ago, Okay now,
and it may go further than that. I don't like
the Bird comparison because I don't think there are anything alike.
I think there's only one similarity there. Well too, you
could count the height, but they're really much different players.
(09:12):
Cooper is an extraordinary athlete above you know, in terms
of run, jump and that sort of thing. Larry was not.
Larry was an extraordinary athlete in terms of hand eye
coordination and all of that, but he didn't play above
the rim. He didn't block shots much. They're much different players.
I think Cooper Flag's ability to process the game, to
(09:37):
know what his team needs to defend and to play offense.
The other thing is Bird. Now, of course we don't
we're judging Cooper Flag as a freshman versus Bird as
a fifty year senior. But Cooper is not a He's
a very good shooter right now. He is not a
great shooter. Bird by the time he became a sensation,
(09:57):
was an astonishing shooter, so that's changed as well. They're
just very much different players. But we don't produce a
lot of Cooper Flags. Nobody does, and we've produced fewer
such players over the last eight to ten years than
we used to. We used to produce a special, special
(10:18):
player on the average about once every five years, and
it's not like that any longer.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Mike, I don't know if you're big on the IG
on Instagram, but I I saw a story where there
are five college basketball players right now with a million
or more Instagram followers. The top four are all women
and Cooper Flags the fifth. Is that good bad? Or
does de you lean either way for men's basketball when
(10:46):
the top four are women.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
I don't think it's bad for men's basketball. I think
it's great for women's basketball. I think it's wonderful that
Juju and Page Becker's and whoever the other two are.
To be honest with you, it's probably the young woman
Notre Dame, you see. I think it's wonderful that that's
the case now. And I will tell you that I
(11:08):
don't love that their tournament conflicts with the tournament that
I'm paid to cover because I can watch less of
it than I want. But I have made more time
for their tournament in the last couple of years than
I used to. In all honesty, I used to try
to get to see the final four games if I could,
the championship game, but it so often conflicts with my work.
(11:32):
But last year with Caitlin Clark and now with the
with the terrific team at UCLA, and obviously it's a
shame what happened to Juju, But I'm I'm I'm much
more engaged with the women's game now. I wish I
had more time to fully engage with it, or that
they played it in a different slightly different schedule than
(11:52):
they do. But I think that they have made a
compelling case for we are worth watching, and I think
that's phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
So all this hubbub and I'm blamed people who are
feeling like this Mike about the transfer portal opening up
during the tournament. Now we got all this potential coaching movement, right,
I mean, Kevin Willard maybe taken off to go to Villanova.
There's rumors about nat Oates leaving Alabama to go to Maryland.
Although I'm not sure why he would do that, to
be totally honest, He's got a pretty good thing going
(12:22):
at Bama.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
What do you make of those two specific situations?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And should people be as upset about coaches moving during
the tournament as they are players?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Why aren't they? Why aren't they? That's what I don't understand,
And and I think that there are ways to handle it.
And I didn't care for the juvenile aspect of how
the NC State change with Will Wade was handled. And
I mean I should I should have I should point
out I mean relative to Will, I don't think that
sc State did anything untoward. They just went out and
(12:55):
hired a coach. It was the way Will handled it.
And I didn't, you know, I didn't like the way
Keavin handled his departure from Maryland either, because look, you
got leverage. Use the leverage, fine, but it's not something
that you bring into the public sphere if you because
that's not help in your case and you're never winning
that way. So one of two things happened. He totally
misplayed his hand, or they had already told him you're
(13:17):
not getting what you ask what you're asking for, and
he decided to punish them for that by making this
complaints public. I don't know which of those two things happened,
but he didn't seriously put it all out there thinking
it was going to happen. There's no way. I do
think that it's wrong for people to complain about the
players changing jobs when coaches changed jobs and have done
(13:42):
so routinely. I mean, I still remember two thousand and
nine when I lived in Cincinnati and the Bearcats had
their first ever undefeated regular football season, missed the College
the BCS playoff game by an inch a second when
Texas was able to pull out a late win. There,
undefeated season was going to Sugar Bawl, and Brian Kelly
(14:02):
wasn't going with him. The middle of note of December,
he goes to Notre Dame. And that's that's been in
place for more than fifteen years, and yet we're still
complaining about the players and not the coaches.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Mike fascinating Final four coaches. You've got two young guys
that haven't paid their NCAA tournament dues yet, and John
Schneier and Todd Golden, and then you've got two grizzled
vets that absolutely are due a national championship. But you
can only have one Softie likes to play. If you
can only have one game, you can only have one.
Bruce Pearl wins his first title or Kelvin Sampson wins
(14:36):
his first title.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Which do you pick?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Well, I've known Kelvin for longer and have always had
a great relationship with him, and I really respect how
he operates. I know his family as well, and and
and he the way he runs his program is the
way you'd want your program run. It's a it's a
very h you know, it's just a great at sphere.
(15:00):
He gets the most out of his players. And this
is not to say that Bruce isn't extraordinary.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
He really is.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
There are certain aspects of the game. He's the best
I've ever seen. Defending baseline out of bounds. I've never
seen anybody better at it than he is. And that's
been true from his days at Milwaukee all the way
through Tennessee. It was probably true at Southern Indiana when
he was winning d two titles there. He's phenomenal at it.
But you know, I thought Kelvin got a bad rap
(15:27):
when when he left Indiana. He got really harsh treatment.
And it's nice to see him getting this as chapter two.
Whether they win it or not, he's done an extraordinary job.
He was named the Sporting News Coach of the Year
for the performance this season, and he's more than verified
the selection we made.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Mike de COURSI with us, so who cuts down the nets?
I mean we will talk again on next Monday, after
the title game's over. But the time we talk, we's
gonna We're gonna have a champion. Who's who's cutting down Monday?
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Yeah. I had Duke at the start of the tournament
of If you look, and I think I've mentioned this
to you guys before. If I haven't, shame on me.
But the difference between Duke and the other three teams
is that when you look at past champions the last
forty years or so, nearly forty years back to nineteen
back through nineteen eighty eight, there has been an at
(16:22):
least one first round pick on every single champion, at
least one, if not more. Now Florida may have some.
Thomas Hawk has been phenomenal and it's starting to get
a little bit of interest if he sticks around another year. Condon,
they're one of their other big guys, has marginal interest,
although he hasn't helped himself with his performance today, so
there may be it's a hot Pediphrad Auburn. Maybe he's
(16:46):
a special player, maybe develops into that, but we know
Duke has those guys. They got three guys are gonna
be taken in the top ten of this draft. And
those guys are I think are the difference makers in
this tournament, whether it's A or Flag or Continental or
come on, malawatch. Even Isaiah Evans off the bench I
think is going to be a first rounder at some point.
(17:08):
They've got great depth they have. They are not the
best defensive team here, that's Houston, but they are an
extraordinary defensive team and they are the best offensive team.
I think everything says them, so it'll be it'll be
interesting to watch because even though everything says them, as
I mentioned, they have to survive Saturday to even get
to Monday, and Saturday is going to be hard.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Would you take them or the field if you could
have the other?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Oh wow, see now you're asking me to break forty
years or nearly forty years of precedent. But I get
three great teams to rely upon, I think I would
probably go with the field. If that were the case.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yes, yeah, got you.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, Mike, I just want to ask you just before
you go, uh, we're white. We're watching some developing news
coming out of Washington. Nothing really big yet, you know,
Frank Keepnong's coming back, Zoom Diallo's coming back, some of
Makay Mason's in the portal today for Washington. So so far,
the recruiting class is intact and we're waiting to kind
of see what kind of damage they can do in
the portal. But Washington, before we just wrap this up,
(18:11):
finishing dead last in the Big ten, what is a
realistic jump you think for Danny Sprinklin, you're number two
that Husky fan should expect after he gets his hands
on a full offseason as the Husky coach.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, well, I mean I think that it's hard to
say what you can expect, but which you can hope
for is that with the guys you mentioned coming back,
both of those players, very good players, very good prospects.
It wasn't a great team this year, but I'll tell
you what, for a not great team, they didn't get
rolled over the way bad teams in tough leagues have
(18:46):
in the past. They didn't even get rolled over like
South Carolina did in the SEC. So there's some promise
in that group, and I think that it all sort
of depends on who they are able to bring in
this spring. But I think that if they could make
the middle of the of the conference, if they could
climb up to somewhere between nine and twelve from from
(19:09):
where they were this year, I think you would see
you would start to believe that things were going in
the right direction. Now, remember that's generally a pretty big
leap because this has been a very strong league, but
it also could be a very for lack of a
better word, lucrative leap, because if you can get to
that level in this league, you are you are a
contender for a tournament. Doesn't mean you're in if you're
(19:32):
a contender. So, uh, you want to see you want
to see them get to you know, and you know,
some more scoring, some more perimeter scoring, uh maybe a
little bit more uh, you know, efficient point guard play.
And if they can do those two things, you know,
I think they're obviously they need to get the center
play to the high level at both ends of the
(19:53):
floor that they didn't quite have what they thought they
would this season.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Mike, you're the man. Great stuff. Enjoy the weekend and
we'll talk on Monday before the title game.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Buddy, preciate pal Okay, guys, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
You bet big thanks to our friends at Northwest Handling Systems.
Every week, Mike de Corsi joining us on the radio show.
All Right, we're gonna break. We got a lot more
to get to, including cracking hockey. Baby little you make
the call at six Right here on ninety three three KJRFM.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
You're listening to the exclusive home of the Huskies, the
kracking and march madness. Now back to Softie and did
proudly brought to you by Emerald quen Casino on Sports
Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
All right, big thanks to Mike de Corsi for joining
us on the radio show. Final four set for Saturday
from San Antonio. Mark James will be there, I believe,
Thursday and Friday. If you're stuck in the car on
Saturday Game one Auburn Florida, we'll have that on both
FM and AM.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You think people by now know.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
What we say FM and AM we mean this station
at nine fifty AI, I would hope. So Okay, my
life two and a half year. Oh, the day it
was the day Russell Wilson got sent to Denver. Is
the day that we made the Is that right?
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Because you remember Rich Moore's idea was we were gonna
wait to make the move, and he's like, you know what,
the audience is massive right now, Russell Wilson just got traded.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Let's do it right now? You remember that? Yeah? Yeah,
it was same damn day. What was the date on that?
Speaker 5 (21:22):
It was May something?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
What was the date on the day?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
God?
Speaker 5 (21:25):
What March was March?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I think it was March? Yeah, yeah, March of twenty
twenty four? Is that right?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
No?
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Are you sure?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Twenty twenty?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
I thought it's been three years, March twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Can somebody please use Google?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Tell us what day was Russell Wilson March eighth of
twenty twenty two ago?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
So? Yeah, three years ago?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So that's the day we made the switch to FM.
Was March eighth of twenty twenty two. I'll always remember
because it was the day that Russell Wilson got traded.
So how long did it take people to figure out
we were over here? I think there's people that still
have no idea to.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Be honest with it, right, if you still have you're
not trying it this.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Hey, our guy Bruce that comes over here every day,
My buddy, know who I am.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
For crying out loud?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Anyway, I saw you responded to a tweet that Skip
Bayless sent out over the weekend saying that Cooper Flag
could be better than Larry Bird. Right, yeah, Now there's
a lot of players that could be dot dot dot
that don't turn out to be dot dot dot.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So my first reaction when I saw Skip Bayless say
that I always saw it as you sent it out,
was well, first of all, Larry Bird won three straight MVPs.
Larry Bird is generally regarded as a top ten player
of all time in the history of basketball. I went
and looked up some of his numbers. You know, he
finished in the top two with the MVP like eight
years in.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
A row in the NBA. I mean, he was the man.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yes, So we're saying that Cooper Flag has the potential,
he has that kind of ability, or that you would
bet he's better than Larry Bird when.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
I just think people were ripping Skip Bayless, and there's
lots of reasons ripski Sure, I just didn't think that
this was one of the reasons to rip Skip Bayless
because if there's anybody in the course, he said it,
in the best American prospect at least since Anthony Davis,
and I would say he's way more complete than Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Anthony Davis panned out to be what you thought he
would be, never won an MVP, and now he's been
on three different teams in his career.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Yeah, I think injuries have hampered him and and that's
where you're gonna get with the big guys, right with
the seven footers, that the injury thing, and I think
Wemby is on that track as well. As much as
I love Wemby, I just don't know how much a
seven foot two body that looks like that is going
to be able to withstand a decade plus in the NBA.
I just I just don't know. I hope he does,
(23:44):
but he's already out this year and without even an injury.
It's like a blood clot instead of an actual physical
structural injury. But I just think if there's anybody who
can do it, Cooper Flag to me is the most
complete college basketball player I've seen, and I don't even
know in how long. I really don't know because Lebron
never played in college, Kobe never played in college, and
(24:08):
Cooper Flag has got everything it takes to be a
top twenty player all time. So if that's if that's
the case, then I think you can absolutely say what
Skip Bayles says is he could be as good as
Larry Bird. If you've got a baseline of a guy
that potentially could be a top twenty player in NBA history, sure,
then I don't think it's ludicrous to say he could
(24:30):
be as good as.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Larry broll better or better than better as I mean
he again, he's got to be a multiple time MVP
to even be in that conversation, and I mean, he
looks pretty damn good to me for being eighteen years old.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
That's the thing, because we didn't know Larry and tell
him was twenty one.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Right, I mean nobody.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
And that's the other part of it is that all
these guys will get a little bit of a head
start because they'll playing an extra couple two three years
in the NBA. I think did Larry Bird play four
years in college? I think he did play four years
in college minimum three.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
I know that, But when Larry Bird was Cooper Flag agent, right,
he wasn't getting looks from the best schools in basketball.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Nobody knew who he was back then, exactly right. I
mean there's a reason why they call him the hick
from French liberals. Just three years of college. Yeah, what
made Larry Bird different?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And this is the argument that we always have when
it comes to Michael Jordan and Lebron James. I don't
hear and maybe Cooper Flagg deserves this kind of chatter.
People looked at Larry Bird and that people that played
him thought he wanted to rip your head off and
crap down your neck yep, like a killer. And that's
what they said about Michael Jordan. I don't hear that
(25:35):
kind of talk about Lebron James. And he is just
an assassin that will look at you like he's a psychotic.
Is the way Larry Bird and Michael Jordan used to
look at people. And maybe Cooper Flagg does. I got
no idea.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I don't think we have heard that for anybody, right
since Kobe Bryant, nobody plays that twenty years ago. I
just don't think you're going to have that today.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Which is why it's hard to compare eras very hard.
It is.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
What gets me is I don't understand why in football
we are so okay as fans to say the goat
is at certain positions are players that are playing right now?
Like we have no problem saying players in the twenty
twenties are better than players in the eighties and nineties,
(26:21):
and yet we are so hesitant in basketball. There is
something about the basketball star between Magic and Kobe, that
era that is so for lack of a better term,
magical to people that there's no way we could possibly
have today's stars be as good as those are. Why
(26:42):
are we so willing to do it in football? And
we're not.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Willing to So you're saying in football, when people typically
say who the goat is, it's got to be somebody
playing today.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Is that correct?
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, it's like the next great Tom Brady. Then it's
Patrick Mahomes. It's like the running backs, quarterback, the wide receivers,
like nobody has any issue comparing like a Calvin Johnson
to it, Jerry Rice and then like a justin I know,
just thought Trrison Jamar Chase are going to be compared
to those guys in another five years.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, I mean, to me, the best running back I
ever saw is Barry Sanders. Me too, He's the best
running back ever seen. Me too, and he played forty
thirty years ago. I know Jerry Rice best wide receivers.
Some folks still think Joe Montana or John Elway are
the best quarterback.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
They ever saw.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Is it maybe because because.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It's the quarterback thing you're thinking about it? I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
Is it maybe because we haven't had NBA basketball in
eighteen years and so people have just have have eighteen
years of just lack of knowledge of the NBA.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Oh yeah, but that their last.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
NBA memory was twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
But Dick, then that would mean everybody around the country
things like that when they don't. Charles Barkley scoffs at
the idea of Lebron being better at MJ. He's watching
basketball for twenty years. I mean, if the only market
in the country that thought that Jordan was better than
Lebron was in Seattle, right, But I would understand that.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I'm not talking just about Jordan and Lebron, Like look
at look at for example, let's look at yo, the
joker right right, The joker is the greatest center skill
wise in the history of the game. And there's not
even a close second. And yet I know a lot
of people here going, WHOA wait a second, we can't compare, Like,
(28:18):
look at those great centers we've had in the past,
Bill Walton and Kareem I'm Bill Jabbari, Bill Russell and
Will chand like you can't.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
How could you say?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Because he is?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
He just is?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Watch him play?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Is he just? None of those guys is.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Because he's a better shooter, He runs the floor, he's
a better passer, and the guy averages nine assists and
thirteen rebounds a game along with his twenty seven So
I understand what you're saying. But when you say the
joker just is the best center of all time compared
to Kareem, Bill, Will Chamberlain, Bill Russell, what does he
do that those other guys didn't do? With the first
(28:52):
thing I think of as the outside shot, he's got
a much better shot than those handles.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Those guys lived in the paint. He he lives on
the entire court.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Right When you think when you when you think skill
in basketball, you think three things. You think shot, pass,
and handle. There is not one of those centers I
just mentioned. Okay, well, Bill Walton would come close in
the passing. But other than that, there is not one
of those centers that I just mentioned that are the
top five centers in the history of the NBA until
(29:21):
now that can even hold a candle to what the
here's this?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Okay, but here's here's the problem with the skills and
eras thing. Everybody always says things like if if, if
give me a center, if Kareem abdul Jabbar played in
today's NBA, he'd be chewed up and spit out. Okay,
if Kareem abdul Jabbar played in today's NBA, he would
have been born forty years later, right, and he would
have also benefited from human evolutions, and he would have
(29:46):
had who knows what kildevel, who knows what he would
have had at his disposal if he was born forty
years later. If Michael Jordan was born thirty years later
and he was doing in the eighties what he was doing,
and that he takes a all of that skill and
that mentality along with the benefit of evolution, faster, bigger, stronger,
(30:06):
the whole thing, what would he be doing? Think about
Babe Ruth's baseline in nineteen thirty and what he could
do if he was born in nineteen ninety, and what
he would have been all about. So that conversation just
drives me nuts, unless you really want to live in
a world where we put people on a time machine
and just transport them well and see what they're all about.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
I can only speak to basketball, and I've been coaching
long enough that I coached before. We used to make
big guy's skill players. So when we had a big
guy twenty five years ago, you'd stick his ass on
the block, of course totally, and you teach him post moves,
and you'd teach him to rebound. Now you've got a
big guy, like a high school player that's six six,
(30:46):
you don't stick his ass on the block anymore. You
give him a basketball and you say you're going to
be a guard that can also post up, and you
teach him to shoot, You teach him to run the floor,
you teach him to handle. And that's why we got
all these guys between sixty six and six eleve they're
now eighteen years old that handle like and shoot like guard.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
How often have I asked you what are centers and
what are point guard's gonna look like in thirty years
from now, when you're eighty years.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Old, he looked like Wenby.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
You'd be watching a seven foot point guard, you might
be honestly, you see that little fifty five for Duke
by the way, you're the kid they bring it off
the bench. I mean that that kid looks like every
point guard in the forties and fifties, and now look
at him now they're gigantic. But I mean to me,
I don't think that every NFL player playing today is
the goat.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
I still think.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Jerry Rice is the greatest receiver. I think Barry Sanders
is the best running back I ever saw. If he
would have stayed healthy, Bo Jackson would have been the
best running back I ever saw. The best offensive lineman
I ever saw was probably Walter Jones. To be honest
with you, the best guard may have been a guy
like John Hannah. I just don't know about the offensive lineman.
I think the quarterback situation is it's different, and it's
(31:50):
just different for Brady because the guy won seven titles.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Man, you know, I mean what Joe Montana did.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
John Elway his arm that he had wide receivers used
to complain about how hard l we would throw the
ball because their hands were hurting when practices and games
were over. So I can make a lot of arguments
for guys that played in the eighties and nineties that
they're better compared to their peers than guys that are
going I just feel like.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
The NBA players from forty years ago are more sacred
and you can't touch them like he can. In baseball,
everybody's saying show he's the best players is Baby Ruth,
and nobody has.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
An issue with that well, because he's doing things that
nobody's done since Babe Ruth period.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
You're listening to the exclusive home of the Huskies, the
Kracking and March Madness. Now back to Softie and Did
proudly brought to you by Emerald Queen Casino on Sports
Radio ninety three point three kJ r f M.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
All right, we're back here on a Monday night from
the Emerald Queen Casino. Don't forget big place, great place
in three you know, but let me stro over again
three two and one. Don't forget back here at the
Ameral Queen Casino for the Final Four on Saturday. Great
place to watch the Final Four in the Sportsbook on Saturday.
First game is like five or something like that. It's
(33:01):
always some weird time whatever. Auburn Florida Game one duke
in Houston coming up in game two on Saturday. Watch
watch all the action here at the Emerald Queen. Yeah,
three oh nine. Can somebody explain to me why they
do that three oh nine tip off for game one?
Five forty nine tip off for game two?
Speaker 5 (33:20):
It's always been like that. I don't know. I think
maybe the pregame show starts it's at six eastern, so
they tip off nine minutes after the So they did
a nine minute pregame show. I mean the pregame show
starts wable before that. Actually they in arena pregame show.
You know it starts at what's with the threeho nine tip?
But who knows anything at nine minutes past the hour
(33:42):
or in nine minutes?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And what the hell is that? Why not three oh eight?
Why not three eleven and fifty five seconds? The hell
are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Man?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
A lot of texts, by the way, coming in on
the NBA thing that you were talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I'll just read them to you.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
I guess, can I can?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I just think everybody thinks you're stupid. Everybody they don't
want to.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Everybody thinks you're a Moron's pretty much what the text
message is say. Oh, come on, Faine, you're saying that
rebounding and playing defense are not scales. Boy, talk about
an offensive bias. Bill Russell could shut down the joker.
Will Chamberlain would freaking wear him out with his raw strength.
And oh yeah, let's not forget that that Chamberlain never
fouled out of a game. Is that not a skill
of the recency bias is showing bro.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Okay, bro.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Let's let's go. Let's go five out, Okay, five out offense.
Nobody in the paint jokers got it at the top
of the key and he is being guarded by Wilt Chamberlain.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That the nineteen fifties version of Wilt Chambers saying Wilt
Chamberlain that was born forty years.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
He's not saying that. He's saying that Wilt Chamberlain, Bill
Russell would break Nikole jokicic. Nikola Jokic would cross over
Wilt Chamberlain, step back, hit a three in his eye
and would never have to post up once.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I don't I don't think that anybody can win any
argument when you say that a human being that was
born fifty years after another human being, and we're talking
about athletics, would not always have an advantage over somebody.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
That's what the texts.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
The amount of people and how much bigger and faster
and stronger humans have become in a half a century
is ridiculous. Like, have you guys been to like London
or Europe and gone to a church, yes, or like
you walk up to the top and the ceiling is
like four feet high because people were like three foot
eight back then. I mean seriously, dude, Like this conversation
(35:32):
that we have about comparing a guy in the fifties
to a guy that's playing in twenty twenty five, No,
the joker would smoke Wilt Chamberlain course, because he was
born seventy years later. Again, now we can just talk about, Hey,
if we took a guy with that skill set, that DNA,
that natural ability, and then fast forward seventy years and
(35:54):
he pops out with all those athletic abilities we talk about,
it might be a little bit of a different story.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Two six, I completely disagree.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
With Dick sticking a big man in the post analogy
forty years ago, Magic Johnson was a six to nine
point guard.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, that was like one guy. That one guy.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Okay, that's why it was so special exactly because nobody
else was doing it.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Uh, let's see what else. Uh how about the NBA.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Is Oh, you're gonna love this one. This is right
up your ally. The NBA is also a lot more
soft today. Dick does not take that into account. The
joker had not been able to handle the physicality of
that era, says the nine to seven one.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
It sounds like somebody that doesn't watch him play.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I mean that there's certain buzzwords Jackson that I know
will set him off and callably. The NBA soft today
is one of them.
Speaker 5 (36:45):
We have, Dick, go ahead, I meant fire that call
the NBA soft one. Don't understand that the rules are
different now than they were thirty years ago. They have
opened up. The rules have opened up the offense. The
players haven't gotten softer. The rules have opened up the
(37:07):
offense to allow them not to have to play Charles
Oakley Rick Mahorn basketball, because why would you play that
type of basketball if you didn't have to play that
type of basketball.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
There are plenty of tough guys in the NBA right now,
with that, we're gonna break
It's time for the latest on the madness of March.
Here's Hall of Fame college basketball writer for The Sporting
News and Fox Sports lead bracketologist, Mike Decorsi, brought to
you by Northwest Handling Systems. From forklifts to pellet res
conveyors to loading duck equipment, we sell, rent and service
all your warehouse he needs. Request a quote today at
(00:22):
NWHS dot com or give us a call at four
two five two five five zero five hundred. Now with
Mike DECURSI, here's Softy and Dick.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
All right, boser girls back here at the Emerald quink
a CINL come by on Saturday, watch the final four
here in the Sports Book National Championship Game on Monday night.
But before all that, had a chance to talk to one
of the best in the business, Sporting News, Big Ten
Network Hall of Famer, at least in our book.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
From our friends at Northwest Handling Systems, we just say
we give it up for our pal, Mike Decorsi talking
some college basketball.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Michael, Happy Monday. How are you man?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I am doing well, guys, how are you good?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Very good?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Before we get to the final four and what you
think is going to happen this weekend. Why don't you
just give us your thoughts of what you saw from
the Elite eight. Couple of good games, Texas Tech, Florida,
Michigan State, Auburn, but Man, Houston and Duke just putting
on a friggin show this weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
My friend, what'd you make of the weekend that was
in college basketball?
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
I think that I think in retrospect that we underrated
the four top teams. I think we I mean, the
number one seeds all that we all knew they deserved it,
But I don't think that we really appreciated how really
amazing these teams were during the regular season. You look
back now and how did you get four number one seeds? Well,
(01:42):
in two thousand and eight, it was so obvious because
there was so many great players Kevin Love and Russell
Westbrook at UCLA, and Carolina had Tyler Hansboro and the
crew that won in two thousand and nine, and Kansas
had five NBA players including Brandon Rush, and every team
that was there, Emphis had Derek Rose, and every team
that was there had this obvious talent. And it's a
(02:04):
little bit less so with this group, but their their
accomplishments are amazing. I mean, Auburn had sixteen I think
regular season Quad one wins, and Houston went through a
very strong Big Twelve with a nineteen to one record,
that ten ten to zero on the on the Big
twelve road, Dude one, it's acc games by an average
(02:27):
of twenty two points. It's not a very good act.
Twenty two points. It came in a major conference is amazing,
and so all these things should have pointed us a
little bit more toward the gathering of one seeds that
we see now.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
And yet, Mike, the internet is all about complaints and
all of those cinderellas. There's no darkers as winnings. But
you know what, in my opinion, God blessed Jim Larrenega
and Sister Jean. But I don't want George Mason and
Loyola Chicago in my final four. This is the final
four I want.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
I want the four best teams in college basketball.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
How about you?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
I One of the things that in discussing this today
is that I've pointed out that in twenty twenty three
you talked to just about those unusual events, But in
twenty twenty three, we had one three seed Yukon and
they were they were a championship and obvious championship contender.
I had them in my title game that year. I
(03:26):
knew they were going. They were they were coming. And
then we had Florida Atlantic and San Diego State and
Miami and we and I had to. I felt compelled
to write a column that Saturday or Friday or Saturday
saying please still watch. It's still gonna be fun.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah it's not, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And now people like, well where all the Cinderellas, Well,
you didn't watch when they were there in twenty three.
I mean, it still was a big event, but it
wasn't the kind of numbers that the Final Four usually
does because it wasn't these types of teams. And so
I think that you're going to see that the public
will respond over over this weekend and Monday night next
week to the presence of true greatness. And you know,
(04:11):
I've heard a lot of this, Uh the word chalk
used to describe this Final Four, and it's used as
a pejorative as, oh, gosh, you know, it's the it's
all those good teams. Well, why would we complain about
the fact that we have four legitimately great teams, all
thirty plus win teams, all conference champions, loaded with all
(04:33):
America players. Why would we complain about that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, you would complain about it if you like the
Cinderella story, obviously, And I mean, let's face it, guys,
some of the great images in the history of March
madness are of Cinderella's winning, right.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Jimmy tournament.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, Jimmy Valvano running around
looking for someone to hug it. Villanova winning as an
eight seed back in the day. If I'm not mistaken,
weren't they weren't Cinderella's. I mean they weren't.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
No, no, no. NC State had Thoroughblae Bailey played a
dozen years in the air. What seed was?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
What seed was NC State in that tournament that in
your what seed?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Don't remember what? I honestly, I think they were six,
but I'm not sure. But I will tell you this,
they were a sixth seed because Derek Whittenberg broke his.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Arm nine games. But but time out, just for a second.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So we can agree or disagree on our our preferences, right,
like the preferences to have the best teams in college basketball.
But you guys also both understand why some people are
turned off by this because they do like the possibility
of the Cinderella and they're not getting it.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I understand that. But but what happens when you get
a Cinderella to this stage is you don't get great
games times. We didn't have great game when George Mason
got to the Final four. It was a really cool
story until the fall went in the air. Uh, and
then it was like, okay, that that didn't work out.
And so that's that's usually what happens if they get
(06:04):
to this level. Now, we had a great game between
San Diego State and Miami, but I can tell you
right now that I am not Although I don't have
any problem with gambling sports gambling as when done in moderation,
I don't bet on college basketball because I consider it
would be a conflict. And but if I did, I
mean I would have bet the whole house on Yukon
(06:24):
winning the national championship. But whatever odds there were, I
would have. I would have tripled my money or quadrupled
my money, whatever the money line said. Going into that,
I knew they were gonna win. There was no way
they weren't winning that championship because the other three teams
weren't championship material.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Right right, And now you have four teams I would
argue four teams that are that are championship material. Let's
talk about those four teams. Are you moved based upon
what you thought of these four to one seeds two
weeks ago when this whole thing started versus what you've
seen in these first four games from them. Are you
moved one direction or another by any one of the teams,
(07:00):
either positively or negatively.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Well, I will say that I've had kick Duke at
the start, and I still feel good about that pick.
But I know that their semi final is going to
be excruciating, that it's going to be hard. Now, that
doesn't necessarily mean they don't win by a decent margin.
I'm not sure. It depends on how things close, but
(07:23):
it's it's not going to be any fun for them.
That Houston the way I wrote about it today, I said,
Houston makes you wish that you'd spent the afternoon at
the movies instead of coming to play ball. That they
make it so miserable. Wow, they are so good at that.
It's one of the best defensive teams of this century,
and I brought up the stats to sort of illustrate
(07:47):
that based on their margin, their adjusted defensive margin versus
the best adjusted offensive margin in that particular year, because
they give up eighty eight points per one hundred possessions.
That's a good number, it's a great number, but there
are lots of number, lots of teams that did better
than that earlier in earlier years of this century. However,
(08:07):
those years were really hard to score in because you
could jump in front of an offensive player fall down
and say, oh I got a charge, or you could
bump a cutter and so they couldn't complete the play
and all those sorts of things you can't do now.
And so it's easier to score now, but it's not
easier to score when Houston's on the floor.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
So I saw a tweet I think it was from you, Dick,
and you were retweeting Skip Bayless if I'm not mistaken. Yes, yeah,
who said that Cooper Flag could be better than Larry Bird.
And the first thing I thought of, well, that's a
lot of pressure to put on a kid. First of all,
Larry Bird won three straight MVPs for crying out loud
in the NBA. But do you agree with that that
we are watching Mike that kind of player that one
(08:48):
day will be looked at in that kind of regard.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I think he's the best American basketball prospect since at
least Anthony Davis. And that was thirteen years ago, Okay now,
and it may go further than that. I don't like
the Bird comparison because I don't think there are anything alike.
I think there's only one similarity there. Well too, you
could count the height, but they're really much different players.
(09:12):
Cooper is an extraordinary athlete above you know, in terms
of run, jump and that sort of thing. Larry was not.
Larry was an extraordinary athlete in terms of hand eye
coordination and all of that, but he didn't play above
the rim. He didn't block shots much. They're much different players.
I think Cooper Flag's ability to process the game, to
(09:37):
know what his team needs to defend and to play offense.
The other thing is Bird. Now, of course we don't
we're judging Cooper Flag as a freshman versus Bird as
a fifty year senior. But Cooper is not a He's
a very good shooter right now. He is not a
great shooter. Bird by the time he became a sensation,
(09:57):
was an astonishing shooter, so that's changed as well. They're
just very much different players. But we don't produce a
lot of Cooper Flags. Nobody does, and we've produced fewer
such players over the last eight to ten years than
we used to. We used to produce a special, special
(10:18):
player on the average about once every five years, and
it's not like that any longer.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Mike, I don't know if you're big on the IG
on Instagram, but I I saw a story where there
are five college basketball players right now with a million
or more Instagram followers. The top four are all women
and Cooper Flags the fifth. Is that good bad? Or
does de you lean either way for men's basketball when
(10:46):
the top four are women.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
I don't think it's bad for men's basketball. I think
it's great for women's basketball. I think it's wonderful that
Juju and Page Becker's and whoever the other two are.
To be honest with you, it's probably the young woman
Notre Dame, you see. I think it's wonderful that that's
the case now. And I will tell you that I
(11:08):
don't love that their tournament conflicts with the tournament that
I'm paid to cover because I can watch less of
it than I want. But I have made more time
for their tournament in the last couple of years than
I used to. In all honesty, I used to try
to get to see the final four games if I could,
the championship game, but it so often conflicts with my work.
(11:32):
But last year with Caitlin Clark and now with the
with the terrific team at UCLA, and obviously it's a
shame what happened to Juju, But I'm I'm I'm much
more engaged with the women's game now. I wish I
had more time to fully engage with it, or that
they played it in a different slightly different schedule than
(11:52):
they do. But I think that they have made a
compelling case for we are worth watching, and I think
that's phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
So all this hubbub and I'm blamed people who are
feeling like this Mike about the transfer portal opening up
during the tournament. Now we got all this potential coaching movement, right,
I mean, Kevin Willard maybe taken off to go to Villanova.
There's rumors about nat Oates leaving Alabama to go to Maryland.
Although I'm not sure why he would do that, to
be totally honest, He's got a pretty good thing going
(12:22):
at Bama.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
What do you make of those two specific situations?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And should people be as upset about coaches moving during
the tournament as they are players?
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Why aren't they? Why aren't they? That's what I don't understand,
And and I think that there are ways to handle it.
And I didn't care for the juvenile aspect of how
the NC State change with Will Wade was handled. And
I mean I should I should have I should point
out I mean relative to Will, I don't think that
sc State did anything untoward. They just went out and
(12:55):
hired a coach. It was the way Will handled it.
And I didn't, you know, I didn't like the way
Keavin handled his departure from Maryland either, because look, you
got leverage. Use the leverage, fine, but it's not something
that you bring into the public sphere if you because
that's not help in your case and you're never winning
that way. So one of two things happened. He totally
misplayed his hand, or they had already told him you're
(13:17):
not getting what you ask what you're asking for, and
he decided to punish them for that by making this
complaints public. I don't know which of those two things happened,
but he didn't seriously put it all out there thinking
it was going to happen. There's no way. I do
think that it's wrong for people to complain about the
players changing jobs when coaches changed jobs and have done
(13:42):
so routinely. I mean, I still remember two thousand and
nine when I lived in Cincinnati and the Bearcats had
their first ever undefeated regular football season, missed the College
the BCS playoff game by an inch a second when
Texas was able to pull out a late win. There,
undefeated season was going to Sugar Bawl, and Brian Kelly
(14:02):
wasn't going with him. The middle of note of December,
he goes to Notre Dame. And that's that's been in
place for more than fifteen years, and yet we're still
complaining about the players and not the coaches.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
Mike fascinating Final four coaches. You've got two young guys
that haven't paid their NCAA tournament dues yet, and John
Schneier and Todd Golden, and then you've got two grizzled
vets that absolutely are due a national championship. But you
can only have one Softie likes to play. If you
can only have one game, you can only have one.
Bruce Pearl wins his first title or Kelvin Sampson wins
(14:36):
his first title.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Which do you pick?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Well, I've known Kelvin for longer and have always had
a great relationship with him, and I really respect how
he operates. I know his family as well, and and
and he the way he runs his program is the
way you'd want your program run. It's a it's a
very h you know, it's just a great at sphere.
(15:00):
He gets the most out of his players. And this
is not to say that Bruce isn't extraordinary.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
He really is.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
There are certain aspects of the game. He's the best
I've ever seen. Defending baseline out of bounds. I've never
seen anybody better at it than he is. And that's
been true from his days at Milwaukee all the way
through Tennessee. It was probably true at Southern Indiana when
he was winning d two titles there. He's phenomenal at it.
But you know, I thought Kelvin got a bad rap
(15:27):
when when he left Indiana. He got really harsh treatment.
And it's nice to see him getting this as chapter two.
Whether they win it or not, he's done an extraordinary job.
He was named the Sporting News Coach of the Year
for the performance this season, and he's more than verified
the selection we made.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Mike de COURSI with us, so who cuts down the nets?
I mean we will talk again on next Monday, after
the title game's over. But the time we talk, we's
gonna We're gonna have a champion. Who's who's cutting down Monday?
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Yeah. I had Duke at the start of the tournament
of If you look, and I think I've mentioned this
to you guys before. If I haven't, shame on me.
But the difference between Duke and the other three teams
is that when you look at past champions the last
forty years or so, nearly forty years back to nineteen
back through nineteen eighty eight, there has been an at
(16:22):
least one first round pick on every single champion, at
least one, if not more. Now Florida may have some.
Thomas Hawk has been phenomenal and it's starting to get
a little bit of interest if he sticks around another year. Condon,
they're one of their other big guys, has marginal interest,
although he hasn't helped himself with his performance today, so
there may be it's a hot Pediphrad Auburn. Maybe he's
(16:46):
a special player, maybe develops into that, but we know
Duke has those guys. They got three guys are gonna
be taken in the top ten of this draft. And
those guys are I think are the difference makers in
this tournament, whether it's A or Flag or Continental or
come on, malawatch. Even Isaiah Evans off the bench I
think is going to be a first rounder at some point.
(17:08):
They've got great depth they have. They are not the
best defensive team here, that's Houston, but they are an
extraordinary defensive team and they are the best offensive team.
I think everything says them, so it'll be it'll be
interesting to watch because even though everything says them, as
I mentioned, they have to survive Saturday to even get
to Monday, and Saturday is going to be hard.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Would you take them or the field if you could
have the other?
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Oh wow, see now you're asking me to break forty
years or nearly forty years of precedent. But I get
three great teams to rely upon, I think I would
probably go with the field. If that were the case.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yes, yeah, got you.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, Mike, I just want to ask you just before
you go, uh, we're white. We're watching some developing news
coming out of Washington. Nothing really big yet, you know,
Frank Keepnong's coming back, Zoom Diallo's coming back, some of
Makay Mason's in the portal today for Washington. So so far,
the recruiting class is intact and we're waiting to kind
of see what kind of damage they can do in
the portal. But Washington, before we just wrap this up,
(18:11):
finishing dead last in the Big ten, what is a
realistic jump you think for Danny Sprinklin, you're number two
that Husky fan should expect after he gets his hands
on a full offseason as the Husky coach.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, well, I mean I think that it's hard to
say what you can expect, but which you can hope
for is that with the guys you mentioned coming back,
both of those players, very good players, very good prospects.
It wasn't a great team this year, but I'll tell
you what, for a not great team, they didn't get
rolled over the way bad teams in tough leagues have
(18:46):
in the past. They didn't even get rolled over like
South Carolina did in the SEC. So there's some promise
in that group, and I think that it all sort
of depends on who they are able to bring in
this spring. But I think that if they could make
the middle of the of the conference, if they could
climb up to somewhere between nine and twelve from from
(19:09):
where they were this year, I think you would see
you would start to believe that things were going in
the right direction. Now, remember that's generally a pretty big
leap because this has been a very strong league, but
it also could be a very for lack of a
better word, lucrative leap, because if you can get to
that level in this league, you are you are a
contender for a tournament. Doesn't mean you're in if you're
(19:32):
a contender. So, uh, you want to see you want
to see them get to you know, and you know,
some more scoring, some more perimeter scoring, uh maybe a
little bit more uh, you know, efficient point guard play.
And if they can do those two things, you know,
I think they're obviously they need to get the center
play to the high level at both ends of the
(19:53):
floor that they didn't quite have what they thought they
would this season.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Mike, you're the man. Great stuff. Enjoy the weekend and
we'll talk on Monday before the title game.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Buddy, preciate pal Okay, guys, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
You bet big thanks to our friends at Northwest Handling Systems.
Every week, Mike de Corsi joining us on the radio show.
All Right, we're gonna break. We got a lot more
to get to, including cracking hockey. Baby little you make
the call at six Right here on ninety three three KJRFM.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
You're listening to the exclusive home of the Huskies, the
kracking and march madness. Now back to Softie and did
proudly brought to you by Emerald quen Casino on Sports
Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
All right, big thanks to Mike de Corsi for joining
us on the radio show. Final four set for Saturday
from San Antonio. Mark James will be there, I believe,
Thursday and Friday. If you're stuck in the car on
Saturday Game one Auburn Florida, we'll have that on both
FM and AM.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You think people by now know.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
What we say FM and AM we mean this station
at nine fifty AI, I would hope. So Okay, my
life two and a half year. Oh, the day it
was the day Russell Wilson got sent to Denver. Is
the day that we made the Is that right?
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Because you remember Rich Moore's idea was we were gonna
wait to make the move, and he's like, you know what,
the audience is massive right now, Russell Wilson just got traded.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Let's do it right now? You remember that? Yeah? Yeah,
it was same damn day. What was the date on that?
Speaker 5 (21:22):
It was May something?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
What was the date on the day?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
God?
Speaker 5 (21:25):
What March was March?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I think it was March? Yeah, yeah, March of twenty
twenty four? Is that right?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
No?
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Are you sure?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Twenty twenty?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
I thought it's been three years, March twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Can somebody please use Google?
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Tell us what day was Russell Wilson March eighth of
twenty twenty two ago?
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
So? Yeah, three years ago?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
So that's the day we made the switch to FM.
Was March eighth of twenty twenty two. I'll always remember
because it was the day that Russell Wilson got traded.
So how long did it take people to figure out
we were over here? I think there's people that still
have no idea to.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Be honest with it, right, if you still have you're
not trying it this.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Hey, our guy Bruce that comes over here every day,
My buddy, know who I am.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
For crying out loud?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Anyway, I saw you responded to a tweet that Skip
Bayless sent out over the weekend saying that Cooper Flag
could be better than Larry Bird. Right, yeah, Now there's
a lot of players that could be dot dot dot
that don't turn out to be dot dot dot.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
So my first reaction when I saw Skip Bayless say
that I always saw it as you sent it out,
was well, first of all, Larry Bird won three straight MVPs.
Larry Bird is generally regarded as a top ten player
of all time in the history of basketball. I went
and looked up some of his numbers. You know, he
finished in the top two with the MVP like eight
years in.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
A row in the NBA. I mean, he was the man.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yes, So we're saying that Cooper Flag has the potential,
he has that kind of ability, or that you would
bet he's better than Larry Bird when.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
I just think people were ripping Skip Bayless, and there's
lots of reasons ripski Sure, I just didn't think that
this was one of the reasons to rip Skip Bayless
because if there's anybody in the course, he said it,
in the best American prospect at least since Anthony Davis,
and I would say he's way more complete than Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Anthony Davis panned out to be what you thought he
would be, never won an MVP, and now he's been
on three different teams in his career.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Yeah, I think injuries have hampered him and and that's
where you're gonna get with the big guys, right with
the seven footers, that the injury thing, and I think
Wemby is on that track as well. As much as
I love Wemby, I just don't know how much a
seven foot two body that looks like that is going
to be able to withstand a decade plus in the NBA.
I just I just don't know. I hope he does,
(23:44):
but he's already out this year and without even an injury.
It's like a blood clot instead of an actual physical
structural injury. But I just think if there's anybody who
can do it, Cooper Flag to me is the most
complete college basketball player I've seen, and I don't even
know in how long. I really don't know because Lebron
never played in college, Kobe never played in college, and
(24:08):
Cooper Flag has got everything it takes to be a
top twenty player all time. So if that's if that's
the case, then I think you can absolutely say what
Skip Bayles says is he could be as good as
Larry Bird. If you've got a baseline of a guy
that potentially could be a top twenty player in NBA history, sure,
then I don't think it's ludicrous to say he could
(24:30):
be as good as.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Larry broll better or better than better as I mean
he again, he's got to be a multiple time MVP
to even be in that conversation, and I mean, he
looks pretty damn good to me for being eighteen years old.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
That's the thing, because we didn't know Larry and tell
him was twenty one.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Right, I mean nobody.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
And that's the other part of it is that all
these guys will get a little bit of a head
start because they'll playing an extra couple two three years
in the NBA. I think did Larry Bird play four
years in college? I think he did play four years
in college minimum three.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
I know that, But when Larry Bird was Cooper Flag agent, right,
he wasn't getting looks from the best schools in basketball.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Nobody knew who he was back then, exactly right. I
mean there's a reason why they call him the hick
from French liberals. Just three years of college. Yeah, what
made Larry Bird different?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And this is the argument that we always have when
it comes to Michael Jordan and Lebron James. I don't
hear and maybe Cooper Flagg deserves this kind of chatter.
People looked at Larry Bird and that people that played
him thought he wanted to rip your head off and
crap down your neck yep, like a killer. And that's
what they said about Michael Jordan. I don't hear that
(25:35):
kind of talk about Lebron James. And he is just
an assassin that will look at you like he's a psychotic.
Is the way Larry Bird and Michael Jordan used to
look at people. And maybe Cooper Flagg does. I got
no idea.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I don't think we have heard that for anybody, right
since Kobe Bryant, nobody plays that twenty years ago. I
just don't think you're going to have that today.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Which is why it's hard to compare eras very hard.
It is.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
What gets me is I don't understand why in football
we are so okay as fans to say the goat
is at certain positions are players that are playing right now?
Like we have no problem saying players in the twenty
twenties are better than players in the eighties and nineties,
(26:21):
and yet we are so hesitant in basketball. There is
something about the basketball star between Magic and Kobe, that
era that is so for lack of a better term,
magical to people that there's no way we could possibly
have today's stars be as good as those are. Why
(26:42):
are we so willing to do it in football? And
we're not.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Willing to So you're saying in football, when people typically
say who the goat is, it's got to be somebody
playing today.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Is that correct?
Speaker 5 (26:52):
Yeah, it's like the next great Tom Brady. Then it's
Patrick Mahomes. It's like the running backs, quarterback, the wide receivers,
like nobody has any issue comparing like a Calvin Johnson
to it, Jerry Rice and then like a justin I know,
just thought Trrison Jamar Chase are going to be compared
to those guys in another five years.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, I mean, to me, the best running back I
ever saw is Barry Sanders. Me too, He's the best
running back ever seen. Me too, and he played forty
thirty years ago. I know Jerry Rice best wide receivers.
Some folks still think Joe Montana or John Elway are
the best quarterback.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
They ever saw.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Is it maybe because because.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It's the quarterback thing you're thinking about it? I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
Is it maybe because we haven't had NBA basketball in
eighteen years and so people have just have have eighteen
years of just lack of knowledge of the NBA.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Oh yeah, but that their last.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
NBA memory was twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
But Dick, then that would mean everybody around the country
things like that when they don't. Charles Barkley scoffs at
the idea of Lebron being better at MJ. He's watching
basketball for twenty years. I mean, if the only market
in the country that thought that Jordan was better than
Lebron was in Seattle, right, But I would understand that.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I'm not talking just about Jordan and Lebron, Like look
at look at for example, let's look at yo, the
joker right right, The joker is the greatest center skill
wise in the history of the game. And there's not
even a close second. And yet I know a lot
of people here going, WHOA wait a second, we can't compare, Like,
(28:18):
look at those great centers we've had in the past,
Bill Walton and Kareem I'm Bill Jabbari, Bill Russell and
Will chand like you can't.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
How could you say?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Because he is?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
He just is?
Speaker 5 (28:28):
Watch him play?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Is he just? None of those guys is.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Because he's a better shooter, He runs the floor, he's
a better passer, and the guy averages nine assists and
thirteen rebounds a game along with his twenty seven So
I understand what you're saying. But when you say the
joker just is the best center of all time compared
to Kareem, Bill, Will Chamberlain, Bill Russell, what does he
do that those other guys didn't do? With the first
(28:52):
thing I think of as the outside shot, he's got
a much better shot than those handles.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Those guys lived in the paint. He he lives on
the entire court.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Right When you think when you when you think skill
in basketball, you think three things. You think shot, pass,
and handle. There is not one of those centers I
just mentioned. Okay, well, Bill Walton would come close in
the passing. But other than that, there is not one
of those centers that I just mentioned that are the
top five centers in the history of the NBA until
(29:21):
now that can even hold a candle to what the
here's this?
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Okay, but here's here's the problem with the skills and
eras thing. Everybody always says things like if if, if
give me a center, if Kareem abdul Jabbar played in
today's NBA, he'd be chewed up and spit out. Okay,
if Kareem abdul Jabbar played in today's NBA, he would
have been born forty years later, right, and he would
have also benefited from human evolutions, and he would have
(29:46):
had who knows what kildevel, who knows what he would
have had at his disposal if he was born forty
years later. If Michael Jordan was born thirty years later
and he was doing in the eighties what he was doing,
and that he takes a all of that skill and
that mentality along with the benefit of evolution, faster, bigger, stronger,
(30:06):
the whole thing, what would he be doing? Think about
Babe Ruth's baseline in nineteen thirty and what he could
do if he was born in nineteen ninety, and what
he would have been all about. So that conversation just
drives me nuts, unless you really want to live in
a world where we put people on a time machine
and just transport them well and see what they're all about.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
I can only speak to basketball, and I've been coaching
long enough that I coached before. We used to make
big guy's skill players. So when we had a big
guy twenty five years ago, you'd stick his ass on
the block, of course totally, and you teach him post moves,
and you'd teach him to rebound. Now you've got a
big guy, like a high school player that's six six,
(30:46):
you don't stick his ass on the block anymore. You
give him a basketball and you say you're going to
be a guard that can also post up, and you
teach him to shoot, You teach him to run the floor,
you teach him to handle. And that's why we got
all these guys between sixty six and six eleve they're
now eighteen years old that handle like and shoot like guard.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
How often have I asked you what are centers and
what are point guard's gonna look like in thirty years
from now, when you're eighty years.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Old, he looked like Wenby.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
You'd be watching a seven foot point guard, you might
be honestly, you see that little fifty five for Duke
by the way, you're the kid they bring it off
the bench. I mean that that kid looks like every
point guard in the forties and fifties, and now look
at him now they're gigantic. But I mean to me,
I don't think that every NFL player playing today is
the goat.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
I still think.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Jerry Rice is the greatest receiver. I think Barry Sanders
is the best running back I ever saw. If he
would have stayed healthy, Bo Jackson would have been the
best running back I ever saw. The best offensive lineman
I ever saw was probably Walter Jones. To be honest
with you, the best guard may have been a guy
like John Hannah. I just don't know about the offensive lineman.
I think the quarterback situation is it's different, and it's
(31:50):
just different for Brady because the guy won seven titles.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Man, you know, I mean what Joe Montana did.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
John Elway his arm that he had wide receivers used
to complain about how hard l we would throw the
ball because their hands were hurting when practices and games
were over. So I can make a lot of arguments
for guys that played in the eighties and nineties that
they're better compared to their peers than guys that are
going I just feel like.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
The NBA players from forty years ago are more sacred
and you can't touch them like he can. In baseball,
everybody's saying show he's the best players is Baby Ruth,
and nobody has.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
An issue with that well, because he's doing things that
nobody's done since Babe Ruth period.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
You're listening to the exclusive home of the Huskies, the
Kracking and March Madness. Now back to Softie and Did
proudly brought to you by Emerald Queen Casino on Sports
Radio ninety three point three kJ r f M.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
All right, we're back here on a Monday night from
the Emerald Queen Casino. Don't forget big place, great place
in three you know, but let me stro over again
three two and one. Don't forget back here at the
Ameral Queen Casino for the Final Four on Saturday. Great
place to watch the Final Four in the Sportsbook on Saturday.
First game is like five or something like that. It's
(33:01):
always some weird time whatever. Auburn Florida Game one duke
in Houston coming up in game two on Saturday. Watch
watch all the action here at the Emerald Queen. Yeah,
three oh nine. Can somebody explain to me why they
do that three oh nine tip off for game one?
Five forty nine tip off for game two?
Speaker 5 (33:20):
It's always been like that. I don't know. I think
maybe the pregame show starts it's at six eastern, so
they tip off nine minutes after the So they did
a nine minute pregame show. I mean the pregame show
starts wable before that. Actually they in arena pregame show.
You know it starts at what's with the threeho nine tip?
But who knows anything at nine minutes past the hour
(33:42):
or in nine minutes?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
And what the hell is that? Why not three oh eight?
Why not three eleven and fifty five seconds? The hell
are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Man?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
A lot of texts, by the way, coming in on
the NBA thing that you were talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I'll just read them to you.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
I guess, can I can?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I just think everybody thinks you're stupid. Everybody they don't
want to.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Everybody thinks you're a Moron's pretty much what the text
message is say. Oh, come on, Faine, you're saying that
rebounding and playing defense are not scales. Boy, talk about
an offensive bias. Bill Russell could shut down the joker.
Will Chamberlain would freaking wear him out with his raw strength.
And oh yeah, let's not forget that that Chamberlain never
fouled out of a game. Is that not a skill
of the recency bias is showing bro.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Okay, bro.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Let's let's go. Let's go five out, Okay, five out offense.
Nobody in the paint jokers got it at the top
of the key and he is being guarded by Wilt Chamberlain.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
That the nineteen fifties version of Wilt Chambers saying Wilt
Chamberlain that was born forty years.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
He's not saying that. He's saying that Wilt Chamberlain, Bill
Russell would break Nikole jokicic. Nikola Jokic would cross over
Wilt Chamberlain, step back, hit a three in his eye
and would never have to post up once.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I don't I don't think that anybody can win any
argument when you say that a human being that was
born fifty years after another human being, and we're talking
about athletics, would not always have an advantage over somebody.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
That's what the texts.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
The amount of people and how much bigger and faster
and stronger humans have become in a half a century
is ridiculous. Like, have you guys been to like London
or Europe and gone to a church, yes, or like
you walk up to the top and the ceiling is
like four feet high because people were like three foot
eight back then. I mean seriously, dude, Like this conversation
(35:32):
that we have about comparing a guy in the fifties
to a guy that's playing in twenty twenty five, No,
the joker would smoke Wilt Chamberlain course, because he was
born seventy years later. Again, now we can just talk about, Hey,
if we took a guy with that skill set, that DNA,
that natural ability, and then fast forward seventy years and
(35:54):
he pops out with all those athletic abilities we talk about,
it might be a little bit of a different story.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Two six, I completely disagree.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
With Dick sticking a big man in the post analogy
forty years ago, Magic Johnson was a six to nine
point guard.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, that was like one guy. That one guy.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Okay, that's why it was so special exactly because nobody
else was doing it.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Uh, let's see what else. Uh how about the NBA.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Is Oh, you're gonna love this one. This is right
up your ally. The NBA is also a lot more
soft today. Dick does not take that into account. The
joker had not been able to handle the physicality of
that era, says the nine to seven one.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
It sounds like somebody that doesn't watch him play.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I mean that there's certain buzzwords Jackson that I know
will set him off and callably. The NBA soft today
is one of them.
Speaker 5 (36:45):
We have, Dick, go ahead, I meant fire that call
the NBA soft one. Don't understand that the rules are
different now than they were thirty years ago. They have
opened up. The rules have opened up the offense. The
players haven't gotten softer. The rules have opened up the
(37:07):
offense to allow them not to have to play Charles
Oakley Rick Mahorn basketball, because why would you play that
type of basketball if you didn't have to play that
type of basketball.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
There are plenty of tough guys in the NBA right now,
with that, we're gonna break
Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain News
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