February 25, 2020 • 48 mins
Pac-12 Networks’ Mike Yam and Don MacLean discuss the Pac-12 teams on the NCAA Tournament Bubble and which teams might be dancing in March (3:53). They look at remaining schedules and wonder if Oregon’s last three games at home could lead to them winning the regular season conference championship (8:54). Mike and Don break down UCLA’s turnaround (16:13) and show how the lack of consistency among the top teams has led to the current standings (20:50).
Mike and Don also talk about what Sean Miller’s message to his team should be after Arizona’s heartbreaking loss to Oregon (28:55) and predict which teams will get byes in the Pac-12 Tournament (32:25). On “Storytime with Don MacLean” Don talks about what translates from one level of basketball to the next (35:38) and how stats are only part of the equation. Finally Mike and Don break down the NBA prospects of UCLA forward Chris Smith (41:42), and how he has all the tools to have a career at the next level.
Mike and Don also talk about what Sean Miller’s message to his team should be after Arizona’s heartbreaking loss to Oregon (28:55) and predict which teams will get byes in the Pac-12 Tournament (32:25). On “Storytime with Don MacLean” Don talks about what translates from one level of basketball to the next (35:38) and how stats are only part of the equation. Finally Mike and Don break down the NBA prospects of UCLA forward Chris Smith (41:42), and how he has all the tools to have a career at the next level.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Ah, Jill, rap the ball, baby, Let's go. This is
Inside the Pack twelve podcast. Puton a pair of your headphones and fall
back gets into some ballcasts having theball chat about the best conference in the
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(00:24):
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is old and young Pack twelve legendsand the lums that analysis we go farm
(00:45):
be on the stores to take youfrom conference play all the way to the
Final four with some hoop kind ofswords, just walking you through the game.
I hit your host Mike Gamming theboard dumb acclaim, Hey talk to
him six for four for four Nowwelcome to a brand new edition of the
podcast. There is so much toget to Mike, Amon don McLean with
(01:07):
you. Mccronin is going to bestopping by the show on tomorrow's podcast we'll
get you a little bit of apreview looking forward to that. Oh yeah,
because Ucla and a SU all ofa sudden making some really loud noise.
I actually cannot get overdone that we'retalking about the Bruins not only for
a top four seed but also potentiallyan NC double A tournament spot there.
Starting to get into that conversation.Still a lot of work to be done,
(01:32):
so we'll do all of that stuffhere, but I should just say
hello to you. How are you, sir? Yeah, I'm good.
And just when you thought that ourleague couldn't get more interesting than it's been,
it becomes more interesting. And youknow, I guess what I was
thinking about it over the weekend andafter the weekend was, you know,
last year at this time, wewere looking around at each other, going,
man, we just didn't do enoughin the non con. So there's
(01:53):
not a ton of interesting things goingon. You know, Oregon had become
interesting by this point last year whenthey started their run, but overall,
it was just kind of like,man, hopefully we get three teams in
where it looks like two, whereasnow you have a team like UCLA coming
from a way behind. And whybecause the conference as a whole was better
(02:15):
this year. The non con wasbetter, and we knew it. And
that's why we were so excited tostart conference play was that there was opportunities
for everyone, and you're seeing thatplay out again. A team like UCLA,
who was dead to rights, wasn'tplaying for anything. They get hot,
win nine and eleven five in arow, and here we are.
You just said it. They're inline to get a top four see in
(02:37):
Vegas and potentially if they keep going, get themselves into the NCAA tournament.
Absolutely wild. I started the podcastsaying six for four, now five for
four. What I meant by thatwas last week when we were doing the
show, we felt like there weresix teams playing for four spots, those
top four seeds in Vegas, whichwould mean a first round by which really
is crucial. Despite the fact withColorado did a couple of years ago what
(02:59):
Oregon did last year, which iswin four straight, really difficult to do
that. Now we're looking at fiveteams legitimately playing for those four spots.
I did make reference to mccrona onceagain. Get you that preview coming up
here. Don you got a storynot to mention you have some analysis,
a next level guy maybe in thisleague that we haven't talked a ton about
(03:22):
that's still to come here on thisedition of the podcast. Cannot thank everyone
enough for continuing to listen, subscribingto this podcast. Not to mention running
some of those reviews on Apple podcastor wherever you get your podcast certainly really
helpful for us. Not to mentionif you see it on social media,
just continue to spread it. I'mgoing to go reverse order here, and
(03:43):
I don't know. I almost feelbad for SC. And this makes me
sound like an apologist coming up withexcuses, but Stanford and se were those
teams that were in the mix.Stanford now all of a sudden doing something
that I'll be quite honest with you, I didn't think they could do,
just based off of the evidence ofa season which has come up with a
road sweep, only the fifth roadsweep now that we've had in conference play.
(04:05):
SC on the other hand, Ifelt good about their chances. But
you know, this team is reallysick, and I know people will say,
oh, you know that that happens. You got to fight through it.
Whekosovic barely plays the other night,and then on top of that,
Jonah Matthews had to leave the gameto actually, you know, throw up.
I mean that this is talk aboutbad timing, but I think big
(04:26):
picture, don I'm less concerned aboutSC getting a four seed top four seed,
because that doesn't look like it's goingto happen for him. They'd have
to win out to even get tothirteen wins. I don't think that happens.
I'm just worried about their chances forthe NC Double A tournament because that
was an opportunity over the weekend toreally bolster that resume. Well, it's
interesting. Both Stanford and USC areright there. I mean, they are
squarely on the bubble. They bothhave seven losses in conference. Then we
(04:50):
have three teams with five losses,and then you have Arizona State with four
losses, and so you wonder ifif anybody's gonna lose enough for them to
get back in the hunt. They'renot technically out of it. It just
doesn't seem likely that either those twoteams can get into the top four in
(05:12):
Vegas. And maybe it doesn't matter, you know, maybe what they do
need is an extra game for theirtournament resume. You know, listen Washington's
net is still in the sixties,so it would be a neutral game in
Vegas. That could be a goodwin if you're the five seed play in
Washington in Las Vegas. But Ithink what superseeds a seating in Vegas is
(05:34):
the NCAA Tournament obviously, and theystill got They still have chances to improve
themselves, especially USC. They havethe Arizonas coming to town this week and
then they finish at home against UCLA. Stanford has the Mountain Schools this week,
so they can really help themselves athome, especially if they can beat
(05:55):
Colorado. And they're eighteen net ranking, so there's still a lot of work
to do. They still have theystill have work to do, but there's
opportunity. And again what I setoff the top, this didn't happen last
year. They might have been deadto rights if this was a situation last
year. But still opportunities to improvetheir resume, and I think they will
and I think both Stanford and USCare gonna get in the NHA tournament.
(06:19):
Glad you bring that up as Washingtonas a good win for a lot of
these teams in terms of that netranking. I'm actually trying to pull this
up real quick as we as wego through it as of yesterday. So
I'll take a look here in asecond. We're doing this podcast on a
Monday, but Washington was sitting witha net ranking of sixty four. I
(06:40):
think it went down a little bit. I think it's now seventy seventies something
along those lines. But the pointis Washington right now kind of needs to
stay in that conversation. You know, that's seventy five range because remember,
Don, there's some other teams rightnow in this conference that's relying on that
win as a Q one victory tohelp their resume, because that matters for
(07:01):
seating for some other teams. Imean, at Washington at their play top
seventy five, that would wipe outa lot if if if Washington dips below
that seventy five net, it's goingto wipe out a lot of Q one
wins for teams in our league.Um, and you just wonder what the
what the outcome of that will be. So, yes, Washington, I
think everybody in our league wants Washington. They beat Cal on Saturday, they
(07:29):
want them to keep winning to finishthe regular season for sure. And just
keep in mind here, so rightnow, the net ranking are just give
it to me. It's sixty five. So Oregon's got got the win against
them, Colorado has got to winagainst them, Arizona, ASU, USC,
and Stanford. I pick those teamsout because those are the ones that
are thinking about the tournament. Soif you're a bubble team and right now
(07:51):
I think ASU has played themselves intothe tournament. Again, that's just something
to keep in mind here. ButI want to get your take on those
five teams that are playing for thefour spots in Vegas, that top four
here. Um, let's let's startat the top here, because Arizona State,
you know there, they're in solepossession right now a first place a
couple weeks of the season. Now, I think the one thing for them,
(08:15):
which is Donna. At first,I was like, oh, maybe
that's an advantage. I actually agreewith you because a week ago you said
it's a disadvantage. Now that extragame, they got four games still left
to be played, and you compareit to a team like, um,
I don't know Oregon, right Oregan'sgot three in Oregon get to play three,
all three at home where they're stillundefeated so far this season. This
is not this is not a layupright now for ASU to win this thing,
(08:37):
and I think you and I arestill on the same page. Thirteen
is the number we think to winthis conference. So they get three out
of the out of those four,they'll sit at their team. But I
think Oregan's got a great shot tobe there as well. At thirteen and
five. Oregon has Oregan stayed attheir place, and then they have the
Bay Area schools, So of everybodyfinishing this thing, I think they have
(09:01):
the easiest path. Arizona State's agame up in the lost column, but
they have to come to the Lasfor UCLA in an nca tournament hungry USC
team. Hopefully they get healthy bythen, but then they have the Washington's
at home. So to me,if you're looking at both, yes,
Arizona States still got a loss togive, but they're not looking for a
(09:24):
tie. They want to win thething out right, So let's see if
Arizona State can rip off four ina row. They've won seven in a
row coming into this weekend. Butwe're going to talk about UCLA and how
well they're playing, and then you'regoing to get a hungry USC team next
weekend, So challenging remainder of schedulefor ASU, but the way they've been
(09:45):
playing, obviously it can be done. I'm just thinking about Alonzo Virtue,
by the way, I think atthis point has already kind of solidified himself
as a sixth Man of the Yearjust based off of this stretch of games
averaging better than twenty points. Youand I've talked about who that's secondary player
needs to be for Oregon, asyou know, has that guy in Verge
(10:05):
with Remy Martin Now Peyton Pritchard's sodamn good. He goes for high thirty
eight the other night on the roadagainst Sarrazoil, which how great was that
game? That might have been myfavorite game of the year so far in
the league. I mean, justspectacular. I know Remi's come on here
in Arizona State's doing great, Butif you go into mcale and drop a
thirty eight piece on him when youneed it and in that environment, you
(10:28):
have to have that game if youhave any thought of winning the regular season
title. I mean that that sealedhis MVP award on Saturday night. But
getting back to the issue, Ithink it is Verge and having that secondary
guy Mike. But to me,it's overall just their overall shooting percentage.
Edwards has been much better in conferenceplay than he was in the non con.
(10:52):
I just think in general their offenselooks better. I still think they
get a little stagnant and it's onepass shoot it up there. But when
their ball movements right and they're makingshots, they're tough because their defense has
been really good all year there there, you can't say one thing about how
they've been defensively, and especially withtheir their overall lack of size, They've
competed on the backboard enough to wingames. But I think just now they're
(11:18):
they're more comfortable looking on offense.They're getting it for more than just Remy,
and that's why they've been able towin seven in a row. Just
in case anyone's trying to figure thisout, if Arizona State wins three out
of four, they'll be thirteen tofive. If Oregon goes and wins three
games at home to finish out theyear, they'll also be thirteen and five.
Now, Oregon, U see Land, Colorado all sit at ten and
(11:41):
five, so there is a chancewe have multiple tiebreakers and those types of
things. Just for argument's sake,I'll give the two scenarios here. If
Arizona State and Oregon both finish atthirteen and five because they split, it
will be record win percentage against thenext highest team in the standings. So
I promise, I just don't knowwho that's going to be. When you
(12:03):
have three four teams also in thatmix, and if there's a three way
tie at the top, there wassome confusion. I do have clarity on
it. Now, win percentage amongthe three teams against the against the next
highest seeded team. Does that makesense that I explain that correctly. Yeah.
Yeah, So basically we're not goingto know who what the seating is
(12:26):
for Vegas because they'll all be coregular season champions. But now it comes
down to who seated where in Vegas, and we probably won't know that until
the last Saturday of the regular season, which I believe is March seventh.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah,which, by the way, also a
really good distinction that you just made. You can have co champs or try
(12:46):
champs or quad champs like those areall possibilities. It just then the seating
in Vegas just goes basically because rememberone of the things I hate that's come
up on this podcast this year isthat the conference tournament champion is considered the
conference champion. I feel like theregular season champion should be the conference champion,
(13:07):
but that's not the case. Sowell, the only the only reason
why the tournament this year, thetournament champ might make more sense is because
there can only be one team that'sright. So so this year we'll give
him a pass. But next year, yes, let's let's get the legislation
going to get the regular season champto be the conference champ. I'm with
you, man, because you're justtrying to navigate this. This league is
(13:28):
really hard, especially in a yearlike this season. All right, you
gave me your analysis on a SU. I want to focus a little bit
more on Oregon before we get toUCLA Colorado in Arizona. The Ducks right
now a little disappointed with the lossthat they suffered in Tempe. I just
feel like they consistently in conference play. Dot has spotted the opponents in the
(13:50):
first half constantly. It feels liketrying to have to rely on Payton Pritchard
late, and he's bailed him outnumerous times. I think the difference between
the a SU game in the Arizonagame is our good buddy. Yogi Roth
uses this phrase all the time.Mission minded. Oregon looked like, yo,
we're ready and we're coming out ofthe gate. There wasn't this big
swing where they needed this huge runin the second half to go and win,
(14:11):
like they were handling business. Theycame to play in that one.
But that's what bothers me, andthat's what we've been talking about this entire
season. Yam, why do youhave to and this isn't just Oregon,
this is everybody. Why do youhave to lose at Arizona State to get
mission minded? Why can't you bemission minded getting on the plane in Eugene
flying to Tempe. That's what Idon't understand is why do you have to
(14:33):
have adversity to get your best inthe next game? Why when you have
a great game, is there dropoff the following game. I don't understand
this lack of consistency. And that'swhy a few podcasts ago my thought was
on, you know, how importantis the game to you individually and collectively?
And if it was, you'd probablybe a little more consistent because it
means so much to you, notonly in your individual performance, but your
(14:56):
team's wins and losses, and toyou and I've said all year, we
think Oregan's the best team in theleague. But why can't we say that
because of inconsistency, Not that anything'schanged or you know, guys aren't as
good as we thought they were oranything we've changed that thought, because they've
been inconsistent and five losses for Organsabout two or three more than I thought
they would have this year at thispoint in the season. And so we'll
(15:22):
see if they can finish. Theyhave the best opportunity. We already talked
about it. They have three homegames. They win all three. Worst
case, they're probably going to geta share of the regular season title.
Maybe not, maybe Arizona State doesrun the table. But if they don't
win it or get a share ofit, it's going to be because of
their lack of consistency game to game. I mean, really, what this
(15:43):
thing hinges on in my mind?And I don't want to put words in
your mouth because of the log jamat the top, but Oregon, you
and I agree, have the havethe best chance to get to thirteen wins.
Asu. You know, here's theother thing, Like Asus on the
road against the LA schools, likeif they split there, like, yeah,
they're they're in the mix because theyclose out at home against the Washington
schools and presumably should win those basketballgames. But here's the other thing,
(16:08):
as US playing UCLA, and Ididn't think Ucla was going to come up
with the road sweep. I thoughtthey could split. I didn't. I
thought they'd get Utah and they wouldn'tgo and get Colorado. But they did.
And Tiger Campell's been terrific, Chrismt'sbeen awesome. Cody Riley's another guy
you can insert into that conversation aswell. I don't I mean even in
veas you lose that game, likeall of a sudden, you got to
start thinking like UCLA's got a realchance to tie, we're going to get
(16:32):
to thirteen wins. Well, youclas And I can't wait to talk to
Mick because you clas like thing haschanged in the sense that I was there
for the Washington State game on Februarythirteen, so that was what a week
and a half ago, and itwas it was about we're doing things better,
but Mick talking about we're still tryingto build the program. Yes,
(16:56):
We've played well for a couple ofgames here, but now it's like they're
playing for something. Now they're playingto not only get a top four seed
in Vegas, they're now in theconversation to get in the NCAA tournament if
they continue to keep winning, andso like they're motivated. This is a
different game for ASU than it wasthree weeks ago. Like if this scenario
had played out an ASU had gottenhot but UCLA hadn't. Maybe you don't
(17:19):
get UCLA's best shot, maybe youget a good shot from them. But
now this game on Thursday nights forfirst place, you are getting UCLA's best
shot Thursday night, and so ArizonaState has got to take on that shot.
And then two days later you're takenon a usc USC team that's playing
for their tournament lives now NCAA tournamentlives. And so are you are you
(17:42):
a good enough team? Are youa strong enough mentally team to take on
both of those challenges in a seventytwo hour window, We're we're going to
find out a lot about SU andwhether they got if they got that kind
of thing to win this regular season. Outright, you're gonna ask mccron and
(18:02):
that question, because I think that'sa great topic when we get him on
the podcast once again. That onewill be released on Wednesday. Mccron is
going to spend some time with us. From what you've seen, do you
think they have that mental makeup?Arizona Stater or CLA, Sorry, I
think you Cela. What's happened withthem is if they finally turned the corner
(18:23):
at some point, and we'll askMick when he thinks it was. But
what happens is is when you turnthe corner and you start winning, now
you keep it, keeps building inbuilding and building because you're having success.
Now you're being asked to do somethingcompletely different than you've been asked to do
previously until Mick cronin got there.But then you get it, and then
once you get it and start winning, it just starts to snowball. And
(18:47):
it's snowballing for them right now,five in a row. Defensively, they're
way more locked in. They're lockedin on the defensive game plan, and
I think offensively they figured out somerole definition on that side, Like Tiger
Campbell all the sudd and is playinglike a guy that we thought he would
be being a top hundred kid comingout of high school. Unfortunately sat out
all last year. And that's theother thing. Yeah, I'm like everyone,
(19:11):
you know, when you have anACL or whatever injury, it is
not everybody recovers at the same rate, and not everybody recovers mentally at the
same rate. You know, whenyou miss a year of basketball. Some
guys jump right back into it,some don't. It's obviously taking Tiger a
little bit more time, but Ifeel like he's got it now. And
when your point guards got it andhe's playing with confidence, that kind of
(19:33):
rubs off on everybody else. Andso a lot of really good things happening
for UCLA, and I have afeeling they're going to be ready for the
challenge on Thursday night and that thisextra incentive they now have. It was
purely just about trying to do whatMick cronan wanted him to do. Now,
it's about what mccronin wants him todo. But also we're playing for
something now, and that's pretty powerfulstuff. Colorado. After the loss against
(19:59):
UCLA, we played some of thecomments from Tad Boyle on impactwelve network.
You could sense the disappointment and guysare gonna get disappointed after a loss,
and I understand that, but youcould feel like, hey, we actually
didn't get overly outplayed. It wasn'tlike they blew the doors off of us.
(20:19):
In terms of UCLA, I justwonder, I don't know necessarily,
like in these crucial moments when youstart forecasting how good a team is,
Like, I don't really know whereCEU is. They've had a really great
season. Maybe UCLA is that good. I don't know. I just don't
(20:40):
I don't know where they are rightnow because two weeks ago, don you
and I were going, hey,maybe after they beat Oregon or you're thinking
yourself, hey boy, like theymight be the team to beat right now.
Well, let's go back to thatconsistency thing. And usually when you
have a young team, there's inconsistency, and like on the road, there's
inconsistency. We're seeing that with Utahthis year, where they're really good at
(21:00):
home, not very good on theroad. But when you're tad boiled and
you bring back ninety five percent ofyour team, you expect there to be
less inconsistency. And so I thinkthe disappointment, Yeah, he's disappointed.
They lost, But if I hadto guess, I would say he's also
disappointed because their margin for inconsistency shouldhave been less than everybody else because of
(21:22):
their experience, and so they findthemselves now with five losses in a tight
race where if I'm looking at it, with the most experienced team in the
league, like, if it's justabout being consistent, we should be above
that and be leading the conference.And I'm sure that's what Tad's thinking that
man. You know, we're notrelying on freshmen here to carry us.
(21:45):
We're relying on guys that have beenthrough this. We shouldn't be inconsistent,
but they have been. But let'ssee how they finish. How they finish
out not an easy trip this week. You got a motivated Stanford team that
you have next Saturday or Sunday,and you got cal So Colorado to me,
we'll see how much they want towin this regular season title. They
win both and come down to theBay Area for road sweep. I think
(22:07):
you're right about what Tad Boyle isthinking, because when we had him on
this podcast a couple weeks ago,I remember he had referenced some of those
nonconference losses, and you could hearit in his voice. I think he
might have even said, like,I felt like we should have won one.
Some of those games look other thanthe Kansas one, because he admitted,
hey, we just got outplayed andthey were the better basketball team.
But the Northern ire one is prettygood. Yeah, no joke, right,
(22:30):
seriously, But I think that's thething which makes all of this crazy.
When you go back to a fewweeks ago. They lost against Oregon
and then they beat Oregon State onthat road trip, and when they lost
to Oregon, we were trying tofigure out, hey, like what does
this really mean in the standings.They get that win and against Oregon State,
and then you go, all right, we'll look at the rest of
the schedule here, and really Ishould rewind it. Go back to the
(22:53):
Stanford win. They sweep the BayArea schools, and then you looked at
the remaining schedule and you said toyourself, well, Colorado's got a bunch
of road games to finish this thingout, you know, in their last
eight, so seven of eight itlooks like I'm a counting this upright,
six seven eight. Yeah, Sothey had all these road games and now
all of a sudden, winning acow's not easy. We've seen that.
(23:14):
Stanford all of a sudden looks likethey got some swag coming off as they
have to play for their NCAA tournamentlives, like, I don't know if
Colorado gets and then you t howto close out? Do they win two
out of these three on the road. Well, to me, somebody's getting
to thirteen. So if they wantat least to share, they got to
(23:37):
win all three. Like between ArizonaState, Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA,
one of those four teams is winningthirteen conference games. So if Colorado
wants at least to share, they'regonna have to They're gonna have to go
three in a row on the road. And I'm sure you know Tad's brought
that to their attention and challenging themto do it. Hey, you guys,
(24:00):
most experienced team coming back in theleague. If any team in our
league should be able to handle athree game road trip to finish the year
for a share of the conference title, it's you guys. Let's go do
it. They should win all threeof those games. Like they're a better
basketball team than cal They're better basketballteam than Utah And then not for nothing.
If you want to claim that youare the team to beat in the
(24:22):
conference or can make a run inthe NCLABA Tournament, you gotta get a
road win against Stanford. I mean, yeah, looking, yeah. The
hard part, yam, is youknow what's in front of you in taking
it game by game, like yougot to just take it one at a
time. Yes, you have towin three, but like, let's go
cal first and then we go Stanfordand then we go Utah. And if
(24:45):
we do it, then maybe weget ourselves a share, or maybe nobody
does it. I mean, withhow this thing's gone, maybe maybe we
have a five team tie at twelveand six. There's a parliament at this
point, man. And then there'spart of me that says the national media
would just be crushing this league ifthat happened. So I hope that doesn't
(25:06):
happen, just so I don't haveto worry about going on radio shows and
you don't have to do the samething defending the league and the quality of
basketball that's being played here. Youknow what though, real quick though,
yeah, I think we're passed thatas a league this year. Like I
think everybody's recognized how competitive our conferencehas been how competitive they were in November
and December. So I think,you know, I think the last year
(25:27):
wasn't good, but I'm just sayingthis year, I think we've risen above
that narrative and that yes, yeswe don't have any top heavy teams at
the top, because we if wedid go five teams at twelve and six,
But I think they recognize overall ourconferences so much better that we just
kind of cannibalized each other as theseason went on. There's a part of
(25:48):
me that believes you, and there'sa part of me that says that's a
small circle of people who pay attentionto what's happening on the West Coast.
Look, the committee, the committeeis gonna put I still think it's it's
five teams that are going to bein the tournament. So you get five
teams in, the problem is done. Even when you get teams in like
they did, it was a threeor seven teams. Was that three years
(26:10):
ago? Four years ago? Inblanking right now? Everyone was twenty sixteen,
right, yeah, I think fouryears ago. So god, it's
been that long, right, Soteams didn't really make a run, And
to me, that's gonna be themark right now? Can one of these
five teams really make a run?And I think depending on who you ask,
there's a lot of people who reallylike this Arizona basketball team. I
(26:32):
was thinking about you as miss freethrow after miss free throw happens at home
at mcale against Oregon ten of twentyone they finished in that game. Josh
Green late missus two. He's aseventy eight percent free throw shooter. Coloco,
he's not. He shoots forty percentfrom the lot, Like I wasn't
expecting him. Yeah, you know, but Mike, there's seventy four percent
(26:55):
free throw shooting team. As ateam, they year in and year out,
they are seventy two, seventy three, seventy four in that range every
single year. Sean Miller and hisstaff spend a lot of time on free
throw shooting. And so you justsee the magnitude of the game, the
magnitude of the moment, the pressurebecause they're a good foul shooting team and
free throw shooting costs them that gameon Saturday night against Orion, Okay,
(27:18):
how do you explain it? Becauseit's at home, Like if you said
to me, they're at Matthew Night, they shoot ten to twenty one from
the line, critical moments at thestrip that it can win you a basketball
game, and say, oh,okay, I'm kind to get it,
but at home done well, letme give you this. Yeah, And
I may be a little bit different, and you know, I mean,
I don't like to talk about myself, but I think this can be a
(27:40):
good example. Yeah. I wasa very very good free throw shooter,
good free throw shooter, shot ninetytwo as a senior. And so the
put put the question you're asking,is it at home? Is it easier
to make free throws than on theroad? I would say, in that
moment, trying to close out ahigh level game with first place in the
(28:00):
conference on the line, national game, lots of stuff in that moment.
Would it have mattered had they shothim at Matthew Night versus McHale. I'm
saying from my own experience, No, you're either up for that challenge or
you're not. No matter where itis, it doesn't make it any easier
that you're at home, because themoments still the moment, the stakes are
still the stakes. You know youhave to make them at home, just
(28:22):
like you know you would have tomake them on the road, the noise
and the people yelling does nothing.If you're a good free throw shooter,
all those thundersticks and the yelling,that does nothing. If you're locked in
on your target. Doesn't matter ifyour home or on the road. I
think what's more interesting to talk aboutis who's up for that situation, and
(28:42):
you can kind of tell who isand who isn't if it becomes a trend.
And so you know, for me, it didn't matter that it was
at McHale. It could have beenon the road and miss free throws.
Is there something that you would pointto for Arizona right now over the next
few days that Schumer should be saying, could be saying to his basketball team,
(29:04):
Well, he was on the podcastwith us. He's never had three
freshmen leading the team. I don'tknow, being Hoddle, do you incur
like, I don't know what youdo? Well, the one thing you
don't want to talk about is thefree throws. You know that, then
that just exacerbates it, and nowit does become a thing, and you're
freaking out every time a game isclose late and you got to make him.
Um, you know what do youwhat do you talk about? With
(29:26):
Pritchard. I mean, the guysthe best player in the league. He's
been doing it all year. He'sbeen hitting game winners all year. He's
been you know, what do youdo? Um? So those are the
two things the game came down to. They only lost a game by one,
right and overtime. So Pritchard doesn'tgo for thirty eight and they make
seventeen instead of ten at the foulline, they win the game in either
(29:48):
scenario. So I don't think there'sthere should be any panic on the Arizona
side, just a little bit ofdisappointment that you could have been in the
driver's seat in the conference had youfound a way to win that game.
Kind of feels like the difference betweena team that can basically win the conference,
like Sean has talked about that margin, and you're right, like maybe
if you have some upperclassmen, andmaybe I'm just reading too much into this,
(30:11):
but you're right, they hit seventeenfree throws instead of just the ten,
they're probably winning that basketball game.There were some moments though, like
You're sitting there going, hey,can Pitcher continue to carry this team?
And you're right, you probably justtip the cap and you go, hey,
best player in the league, bestplayer on the floor. He single
handedly won them that basketball game,and probably in the process you can start
putting his name on the Player ofthe Ear Trophy because he was that good
(30:33):
and how meaningful that game was onthe road for him. I just I
don't know, Like how it's likeColorado. You sit there and you go
upper classmen, consistency. I shouldknow what I'm going to get for them
Arizona. I look at the talent, but I also look at the inconsistency,
and I say freshmen, and Ijust say, hey, is this
a team that can win in Vegas? Of course they can, you know,
(30:56):
will they? I have no idea. I just I don't know what
to if you said to me pickthese best teams. I just I think
there's flaws in all of them rightnow in the which is probably fair.
And I'm sure each coach could tellyou their teams flaw and they've probably been
spending you know, practice time tryingto fix those flaws as we get deeper
(31:19):
into the season. Um, butI think when you do have some flaws,
they're easy to expose. And maybethat's why you know we have a
four loss team. Leading our conferencein a bunch of five loss teams because
they have some flaws that get exposedin in that brings inconsistency. I mean,
(31:41):
that's the best way I can sayit is that we keep waiting.
Well, here's a great example,waiting for one of the upper teams to
get consistent. Well, Arizona Statewasn't one of the upper teams, but
they got consistent. They won sevenin our own guess what, they're alone
in first place in the conference.UCLA was nowhere to be found. You
know, three weeks ago, they'veripped off nine eleven, five in a
(32:02):
row. They're now in the conversation. So it's like the Organs in the
Arizonas in the Colorados of the worldhave been near the top of the entire
time, but they're in consistency hasn'thasn't allowed them to separate from the other
teams. And now you get twoteams in ASU and UCLA that have gotten
consistent, and they're the ones thatwe're talking about the most. Who's your
(32:23):
top four in Vegas? Man,you don't even have to give me the
order because at this point, Imean, who even knows. I'm gonna
say a su organ just because Ithink that one loss, even though they
have one more game, they haveone more loss to give Arizona State,
(32:45):
so I think it keeps them inthe top four. And then I think
it's Arizona Colorado WHOA. Okay,I just and not to take anything away
from UCLA, but you just wonderhow long they can keep this going.
And they have two big games thisweekend, and can they win both?
You know? For a team Andthis isn't criticism, this is just how
(33:07):
their season's gone. A team thatloses to Hobstra and cal State Fullerton earlier
in the year at home, andI know they've improved, and I know
they've mixed them great work with theseguys, but can we rely on them
to beat Arizona State on Thursday andcome back two days later in beat Arizona.
(33:28):
Not saying they can't, but justbased on how this year's gone,
can they do it? We're gonnafind out. I like your four.
I'm gonna swap out UCLA and Arizonathough, wow, I'll put the Bruins
in there. And here's why Idid not. Road wins have been almost
impossible to come by this season.Road sweeps certainly right. I mean,
(33:51):
we had a couple over the weekend, which is kind of wild when you
think about the lack of success teamshave had on the road. I was
not fully a believer on this UCLAteam because of some of the things that
you just referenced. But to goand be Tad's team and Boulder, I'm
in now, I'll maybe that's thekiss of death because I've been in on
some team so far this season ithasn't worked out great. For the one
(34:14):
thing that I'm sure Mick will tellus Mike when we have m on is
you know, the longer this goesalong for UCLA and I think the same
can be said for for Arizona State, and I'm sure that coaching staffs fighting
in as well. What happens whenyou get hot, everybody starts patting you
on the back, yeah, andtelling me how great you are, and
(34:35):
so are you? Are you goingto stay disciplined to doing the things that
got you to where we're talking aboutyou now? And can you keep going
with it? That's that's the scarypart is once you start having a lot
of success, you start feeling prettygood about yourselves. Are you willing to
still do all the things that youdid to get you to this spot.
So we'll see, we'll see.It's going to be interesting. I have
(34:55):
a feeling that that Colorado group's gonnagonna because of the UCLA loss, is
going to have a great week ofpractice and come out ready to play.
And it wouldn't be surprised if theyswept the barrier. And then I'll probably
come down to whether they can winat Utah, who's been so good at
home this year. He's handling business. Here's what I do know, you
and I are going to have ablast in Vegas trying to figure out who's
(35:16):
going to win this tournament. Ofcourse, we'll have complete coverage on PAC
twelve network. Also, Ashley Adamson, Mary Murphy, you're going to be
in Vegas the week prior for thewomen's tournament. That thing is shaken up,
shaken out to be absolutely spectacular fortickets because, believe me, you're
gonna want to see some of thesegames in person. It's an awesome event.
Pactash twelve dot com Slash Tickets Storytimewith Don McClean. All right,
(35:45):
Don, enlightened me. What dowe got storytime for this week? Well,
I had an interesting week last week. I was in Seattle for Stanford
at Washington and then I had aClipper game on Saturday, and ironically enough,
I got asked pretty much the samequestion as it pertains to why if
a guy and I think we've coveredthis a little bit, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna roll this into a story. Why is a guy that's averaging twenty
(36:07):
points a game at one level nota prospect at the next level? Meaning
why is he not if he's incollege an NBA prospect, wife he's in
high school? Is he not acollege you know, a high D one
prospect? And it comes down tomeasurables and size, really, And I
played with a guy in high schoolby the name as Sean Dlatte who was
six five. But he was sixfive when he was in like seventh grade,
(36:28):
so he was an early maturing kidthat never grew after eighth grade.
But he was really good, nota great athlete, but a very skilled,
good shooter, really good in thepaint with his footwork and his ability
to score. And so we wereon the same high school team in as
sophomores. We only played at athree year high school. As sophomores,
I think I averaged twenty one andhe averaged like eighteen. And then the
(36:52):
next year I average, I thinktwenty five and he averaged twenty. And
nobody could figure out why I wasbeing recruited by you know, Duke and
North Carolina and UCLA and those typesof schools, and he was he was
getting very little, if any Divisionone interest. And so I answered the
question the same way every time.It said he was six to five and
I was six to nine, andthat if we were similar players, which
(37:15):
we were in terms of skill,six nine guy is high division high major
Division one, six five isn't.He was basically a six five undersized power
forward. And so he ended upgoing to junior college and went to Eastern
played at Eastern Washington for two yearsand then transferred out of there because he
wasn't playing much. But I justsaid that that thought was on my brain
(37:37):
because I got asked it literally theStanford UDUB game and then the Clipper game
Saturday, of how guys project fromone level to the next, And if
a guy's really successful, that doesn'tensure that he's, you know, going
to be a high major player atthe college level. Or an NBA player
coming from college. Philip, We'vehad the exact opposite two, where you
(37:59):
have small dollar guards who then allof a sudden have success at the college
level that you don't necessarily anticipating.Sometimes they're transfer kids, right like,
because they they fall into the categorythat you're just describing where you don't think
they really can compete at a highlevel, and all of a sudden they
want to break out. The best. The best example of that, Mike
is like Russell Westbrook. Yeah,like, what do he average is sophomore
(38:22):
year at UCLA, like nine pointsa game? And he was the fourth
pick in the draft. It's like, people are at how is Russell Westbrook
the fourth pick in the draft whenhe averaged nine points a game at UCLA?
It's because of the measurables and whatNBA people saw from him athletically.
So I was I'm trying to answerthe question of the guy that averages twenty
that doesn't translate to the next level. But you're right, there's so many
(38:45):
guys where you're like, well,wait a second, he only averaged eight
points in five rebounds. How didhe get drafted in the first round?
Well, he got drafted because ofhis size and his measurables done. You
probably get asked this a million timesor just conversations because I know you're so
involved with your boys and coaching them, so you're around a lot of youth
basketball. What do you say tothe parents that think their kid is going
(39:09):
to be the next great basketball player. Well, I try and explain to
them that we don't want to killthe kid's desire to play and be good
at it. But what I dotell parents if they push me on it.
And I'm not saying this to bragand I'm not saying it, but
it's a great example and maybe ARIIcan look up how long how long the
(39:31):
County of Ventura has been around.Ventura County is where we kind of live.
We live in I live in Westlake, Village of Googling as we speak,
which is in Ventura County, kAnd this is what I say to
parents, and it hits them likea ton of bricks. I say to
them, there has been one playerin the history of Ventura County high school
(39:52):
basketball that's played in the NBA,and you're looking at them, one in
the history, not of the cityof the county. In southern California.
That's actually shocking to me. That'sactually a great in Ventura County, not
southern California. Ventura County. Okay, so well, how about I'll take
it a step further. The statein general has had a ton of talent,
(40:15):
because we're not also talking about Idon't know not to pick on a
school in the in the South orthe Midwest, but you know, there's
there's certain states that typically put outa ton of athletes at the Division one
level. California is one of them. Yeah. Yeah, well this county
in particular, but I think ithits home to these parents because they obviously
(40:37):
live in Ventura County and you cansee their their brains start to work,
like wow, the history of VenturaCounty, I bet you. Ventura County
has been around for a while.It has been eighteen seventy three. Done
eighteen seventy three, Well, youknow, the early nineteen hundreds is when
the NBA was at its all timehighest exactly. But you know what I'm
(40:59):
saying, it's you know, it'sI never And that's why I love doing
what I do with my club basketballprogram is I try and keep the spirit
alive for them and dream whatever youwant to dream. It's going to take
a lot of work because I don'twant him to quantify it for themselves.
Say you know what, I'm probablygoing to be a six foot player.
(41:19):
That's whatever. I'm just gonna giveup on it, because that's if you
love the game. You love thegame, and you just keep working to
try and get better and hopefully nobodytells you that you're not going to accomplish
something. You mister positivity Don McLain, I can't try anyone's spirit. Playing
in the league certainly really difficult.There's one guy actually playing at a school
in California who's probably got those dreams. Then that backed twelve to the NBA.
(41:50):
All right, So let's talk aboutChris Smith from UCLA, And there
was a lot of chatter about himtwo years ago when he was a freshman
at UCLA because of what I wasjust talking about. The measurables. He
looks the part all of six nine, good length, he's a good runner,
good jumper. He looks like anNBA wing, he really does.
But then so there's a lot ofchatter about him because he wasn't really highly
(42:13):
regarded coming out of high school,like he wasn't a McDonald's kid or anything,
but everybody saw this upside of whathe could be. And he had
an okay freshman year, and theneverybody's like, all right, well he's
going to turn it on this yeara sophomore year because he just just because
he has all these tools. Youknow, his jumper looks good. There's
nothing about looking at Chris Smith thatyou would say, man, I need
(42:37):
to change that. Nothing. Yeah, which is not You don't hear that
very often. And so sophomore yearnot much again. And so now you
get NBA people that I talked toall the time saying, you know,
is basketball important to this kid?And that's the one thing in me doing
pre draft for as long as Ihave, I get asked that question about
(42:59):
all my players every single year,not sometimes every year. These NBA teams
want to know if basketball a ifyou love the game, is it important
to you? Do you work hardat it? Do you want to be
an NBA player? Do you havethe desire to be not a good player
a great player? So now thosequestions have come into play with Chris Smith.
(43:19):
But I also knew that Mick Cronanin his personality and how he coaches,
wasn't going to let Chris Smith offthe hook, And so he's getting
it out of him this year.And Chris Smith is way more dynamic.
He's doing more things offensively, He'saffecting the game more both offensively and defensively.
And when you watch him now playingwith more purpose and a little more,
will you see these measurables in thistalent that everybody saw his freshman year
(43:45):
starting to come out. So he'sstarting to gain a little momentum. But
I will go back to what Ijust said because I think it's going to
come up again for him. Andwe don't know if he's coming out this
year or not, but if hedoes, that question is going to come
right back. Why did it takea new head coach coach to get it
out of you? Why aren't youa self starter? Why couldn't you have
done it on your own when SteveAlford was there? And I think that's
(44:06):
a fair question because you're seeing itnow, you're seeing more from him,
But you also now know how MickCronin is and how demanding he is,
and he's gotten it out of him. So it'll be fascinating to watch the
journey of Chris Smith to the NBAand how much NBA people are going to
look at him and say, man, with those tools, you should be
(44:29):
a dominant college basketball player. Forwhatever reason you haven't been, maybe you
can become one at the next level. All right, take me through some
of those individual skills. Then onthe floor, like, what is he
actually doing that's that can make himsuccessful in the NBA. Well, he
can hand so he's all a six. He's a prototypical NBA wing mike.
(44:50):
He's six to nine. He canhandle it, he can shoot it,
he can rebound it, he candefend it, like he can do it
all. It's just he didn't playwith enough sense of urgency. Is first
couple of years. Now he's startingto play with emergency and so his numbers
are going up. But that butthat's what kind of makes you mad about
it. It's like there's nothing inyour game. Put it this way,
(45:12):
you would rather have a player thatyou would say, you know what,
that jumper is broken, but wecan fix that, versus a kid that
has desire issues or what seems likedesire issues, Like that's going to hurt
you more than if your SHOT's notthe best looking shot in the world,
and so we'll see how it playsout for Chris Smith. But a talented,
talented kid, a good kid,and I think he's gonna get his
(45:35):
chance to play in the NBA.Let's see if with what he's learned at
UCLA, will he take advantage ofit and make himself a long time NBA
player. All right, Well,Chris Smith is going to be a major
topic of conversation as well as whythis team is having success when we talk
to mccronin, who is going tobe a guest on Wednesday's edition of the
podcast. Here's a sneak peek atthat conversation. If we do the things
(45:59):
that we know we're capable of,the result will be what we wanted to
be. And we are in onegame tournaments. I mean, we are
in a one game tournament and nowsomebody, you know, somebody told us
Leonard he had us on the nextfour hours. You know, none of
that stuff matters if you win whenyou're in a quality league. In our
last three opponents were all tournament teams. You just gotta win. You know.
(46:22):
Back in the day, people talkingabout my my RPI high. Back
in the days of the RPI andthe Big East. I'd laugh if it
doesn't matter. The RP doesn't matter. You're when you're playing tournament teams all
the time. If you win games, you're gonna make the tournament. There's
you know with us, we're playingthe teams we play to finish the year.
We win. If we win,if we win three games, we're
(46:43):
a lock. We go from noteven on the board to the lock lick
if you win those games. Sothis is just trying to focus on winning.
Thursday, Oh, really insightful andthoughtful conversation with the head coach of
the UCLA Bruins. Believe me,you're gonna want to hear the entire interview.
It is dropping Wednesday, don Youand I do these guest interviews every
(47:05):
single Wednesday on the podcast on Tuesdays. We go through what just transpired in
the league and what's about to happen. Always appreciate all you guys continuing to
listen to the show, sharing iton social media if you rate and review,
it will certainly help out some ofthe metrics for us, which we
would greatly appreciate. Don always ablast working with you. Where are you
at this? Always man you're notwith me, I know in studio which
(47:28):
games. I have a good backto back utadd Stanford on Wednesday and then
I have as U at UCLA onThursday. So looking forward to those two
games. Yeah, he can catchboth of those games on PAC twelve Network
with Don and it is a wildfinish down the stretch. On the women's
side, Ashley Adamson and Mary Murphyhave you covered on the inside PAC twelve
(47:49):
Women's Basketball Podcast. Had an opportunityto see Sabrina speak Monday morning at Kobe's
memorial service, and I actually spentsome time with Sabrina over the weekend.
She happened to be here at ourstudios. Told me she was a little
nervous was going to be going offat prompter, but I thought she absolutely
crushed it. So I know Ashleyand Mary will be discussing that on their
podcast as well. Thanks again everyonefor listening.
Ah, Jill, rap the ball, baby, Let's go. This is
Inside the Pack twelve podcast. Puton a pair of your headphones and fall
back gets into some ballcasts having theball chat about the best conference in the
nation all facts is truly for thehoop bluffers. Get who running and then
(00:24):
gunn and then't get in buggers.How about we discussed at the Trojan's Husky
Ducks to Cardinal Ben, the cookBears, Beaver's Son, Devil's Cats,
influence the Buffalos and youths I won'tever forget, got insight, opinions,
and plenty of special guests, coachesand players. Be right as an Inside
is old and young Pack twelve legendsand the lums that analysis we go farm
(00:45):
be on the stores to take youfrom conference play all the way to the
Final four with some hoop kind ofswords, just walking you through the game.
I hit your host Mike Gamming theboard dumb acclaim, Hey talk to
him six for four for four Nowwelcome to a brand new edition of the
podcast. There is so much toget to Mike, Amon don McLean with
(01:07):
you. Mccronin is going to bestopping by the show on tomorrow's podcast we'll
get you a little bit of apreview looking forward to that. Oh yeah,
because Ucla and a SU all ofa sudden making some really loud noise.
I actually cannot get overdone that we'retalking about the Bruins not only for
a top four seed but also potentiallyan NC double A tournament spot there.
Starting to get into that conversation.Still a lot of work to be done,
(01:32):
so we'll do all of that stuffhere, but I should just say
hello to you. How are you, sir? Yeah, I'm good.
And just when you thought that ourleague couldn't get more interesting than it's been,
it becomes more interesting. And youknow, I guess what I was
thinking about it over the weekend andafter the weekend was, you know,
last year at this time, wewere looking around at each other, going,
man, we just didn't do enoughin the non con. So there's
(01:53):
not a ton of interesting things goingon. You know, Oregon had become
interesting by this point last year whenthey started their run, but overall,
it was just kind of like,man, hopefully we get three teams in
where it looks like two, whereasnow you have a team like UCLA coming
from a way behind. And whybecause the conference as a whole was better
(02:15):
this year. The non con wasbetter, and we knew it. And
that's why we were so excited tostart conference play was that there was opportunities
for everyone, and you're seeing thatplay out again. A team like UCLA,
who was dead to rights, wasn'tplaying for anything. They get hot,
win nine and eleven five in arow, and here we are.
You just said it. They're inline to get a top four see in
(02:37):
Vegas and potentially if they keep going, get themselves into the NCAA tournament.
Absolutely wild. I started the podcastsaying six for four, now five for
four. What I meant by thatwas last week when we were doing the
show, we felt like there weresix teams playing for four spots, those
top four seeds in Vegas, whichwould mean a first round by which really
is crucial. Despite the fact withColorado did a couple of years ago what
(02:59):
Oregon did last year, which iswin four straight, really difficult to do
that. Now we're looking at fiveteams legitimately playing for those four spots.
I did make reference to mccrona onceagain. Get you that preview coming up
here. Don you got a storynot to mention you have some analysis,
a next level guy maybe in thisleague that we haven't talked a ton about
(03:22):
that's still to come here on thisedition of the podcast. Cannot thank everyone
enough for continuing to listen, subscribingto this podcast. Not to mention running
some of those reviews on Apple podcastor wherever you get your podcast certainly really
helpful for us. Not to mentionif you see it on social media,
just continue to spread it. I'mgoing to go reverse order here, and
(03:43):
I don't know. I almost feelbad for SC. And this makes me
sound like an apologist coming up withexcuses, but Stanford and se were those
teams that were in the mix.Stanford now all of a sudden doing something
that I'll be quite honest with you, I didn't think they could do,
just based off of the evidence ofa season which has come up with a
road sweep, only the fifth roadsweep now that we've had in conference play.
(04:05):
SC on the other hand, Ifelt good about their chances. But
you know, this team is reallysick, and I know people will say,
oh, you know that that happens. You got to fight through it.
Whekosovic barely plays the other night,and then on top of that,
Jonah Matthews had to leave the gameto actually, you know, throw up.
I mean that this is talk aboutbad timing, but I think big
(04:26):
picture, don I'm less concerned aboutSC getting a four seed top four seed,
because that doesn't look like it's goingto happen for him. They'd have
to win out to even get tothirteen wins. I don't think that happens.
I'm just worried about their chances forthe NC Double A tournament because that
was an opportunity over the weekend toreally bolster that resume. Well, it's
interesting. Both Stanford and USC areright there. I mean, they are
squarely on the bubble. They bothhave seven losses in conference. Then we
(04:50):
have three teams with five losses,and then you have Arizona State with four
losses, and so you wonder ifif anybody's gonna lose enough for them to
get back in the hunt. They'renot technically out of it. It just
doesn't seem likely that either those twoteams can get into the top four in
(05:12):
Vegas. And maybe it doesn't matter, you know, maybe what they do
need is an extra game for theirtournament resume. You know, listen Washington's
net is still in the sixties,so it would be a neutral game in
Vegas. That could be a goodwin if you're the five seed play in
Washington in Las Vegas. But Ithink what superseeds a seating in Vegas is
(05:34):
the NCAA Tournament obviously, and theystill got They still have chances to improve
themselves, especially USC. They havethe Arizonas coming to town this week and
then they finish at home against UCLA. Stanford has the Mountain Schools this week,
so they can really help themselves athome, especially if they can beat
(05:55):
Colorado. And they're eighteen net ranking, so there's still a lot of work
to do. They still have theystill have work to do, but there's
opportunity. And again what I setoff the top, this didn't happen last
year. They might have been deadto rights if this was a situation last
year. But still opportunities to improvetheir resume, and I think they will
and I think both Stanford and USCare gonna get in the NHA tournament.
(06:19):
Glad you bring that up as Washingtonas a good win for a lot of
these teams in terms of that netranking. I'm actually trying to pull this
up real quick as we as wego through it as of yesterday. So
I'll take a look here in asecond. We're doing this podcast on a
Monday, but Washington was sitting witha net ranking of sixty four. I
(06:40):
think it went down a little bit. I think it's now seventy seventies something
along those lines. But the pointis Washington right now kind of needs to
stay in that conversation. You know, that's seventy five range because remember,
Don, there's some other teams rightnow in this conference that's relying on that
win as a Q one victory tohelp their resume, because that matters for
(07:01):
seating for some other teams. Imean, at Washington at their play top
seventy five, that would wipe outa lot if if if Washington dips below
that seventy five net, it's goingto wipe out a lot of Q one
wins for teams in our league.Um, and you just wonder what the
what the outcome of that will be. So, yes, Washington, I
think everybody in our league wants Washington. They beat Cal on Saturday, they
(07:29):
want them to keep winning to finishthe regular season for sure. And just
keep in mind here, so rightnow, the net ranking are just give
it to me. It's sixty five. So Oregon's got got the win against
them, Colorado has got to winagainst them, Arizona, ASU, USC,
and Stanford. I pick those teamsout because those are the ones that
are thinking about the tournament. Soif you're a bubble team and right now
(07:51):
I think ASU has played themselves intothe tournament. Again, that's just something
to keep in mind here. ButI want to get your take on those
five teams that are playing for thefour spots in Vegas, that top four
here. Um, let's let's startat the top here, because Arizona State,
you know there, they're in solepossession right now a first place a
couple weeks of the season. Now, I think the one thing for them,
(08:15):
which is Donna. At first,I was like, oh, maybe
that's an advantage. I actually agreewith you because a week ago you said
it's a disadvantage. Now that extragame, they got four games still left
to be played, and you compareit to a team like, um,
I don't know Oregon, right Oregan'sgot three in Oregon get to play three,
all three at home where they're stillundefeated so far this season. This
is not this is not a layupright now for ASU to win this thing,
(08:37):
and I think you and I arestill on the same page. Thirteen
is the number we think to winthis conference. So they get three out
of the out of those four,they'll sit at their team. But I
think Oregan's got a great shot tobe there as well. At thirteen and
five. Oregon has Oregan stayed attheir place, and then they have the
Bay Area schools, So of everybodyfinishing this thing, I think they have
(09:01):
the easiest path. Arizona State's agame up in the lost column, but
they have to come to the Lasfor UCLA in an nca tournament hungry USC
team. Hopefully they get healthy bythen, but then they have the Washington's
at home. So to me,if you're looking at both, yes,
Arizona States still got a loss togive, but they're not looking for a
(09:24):
tie. They want to win thething out right, So let's see if
Arizona State can rip off four ina row. They've won seven in a
row coming into this weekend. Butwe're going to talk about UCLA and how
well they're playing, and then you'regoing to get a hungry USC team next
weekend, So challenging remainder of schedulefor ASU, but the way they've been
(09:45):
playing, obviously it can be done. I'm just thinking about Alonzo Virtue,
by the way, I think atthis point has already kind of solidified himself
as a sixth Man of the Yearjust based off of this stretch of games
averaging better than twenty points. Youand I've talked about who that's secondary player
needs to be for Oregon, asyou know, has that guy in Verge
(10:05):
with Remy Martin Now Peyton Pritchard's sodamn good. He goes for high thirty
eight the other night on the roadagainst Sarrazoil, which how great was that
game? That might have been myfavorite game of the year so far in
the league. I mean, justspectacular. I know Remi's come on here
in Arizona State's doing great, Butif you go into mcale and drop a
thirty eight piece on him when youneed it and in that environment, you
(10:28):
have to have that game if youhave any thought of winning the regular season
title. I mean that that sealedhis MVP award on Saturday night. But
getting back to the issue, Ithink it is Verge and having that secondary
guy Mike. But to me,it's overall just their overall shooting percentage.
Edwards has been much better in conferenceplay than he was in the non con.
(10:52):
I just think in general their offenselooks better. I still think they
get a little stagnant and it's onepass shoot it up there. But when
their ball movements right and they're makingshots, they're tough because their defense has
been really good all year there there, you can't say one thing about how
they've been defensively, and especially withtheir their overall lack of size, They've
competed on the backboard enough to wingames. But I think just now they're
(11:18):
they're more comfortable looking on offense.They're getting it for more than just Remy,
and that's why they've been able towin seven in a row. Just
in case anyone's trying to figure thisout, if Arizona State wins three out
of four, they'll be thirteen tofive. If Oregon goes and wins three
games at home to finish out theyear, they'll also be thirteen and five.
Now, Oregon, U see Land, Colorado all sit at ten and
(11:41):
five, so there is a chancewe have multiple tiebreakers and those types of
things. Just for argument's sake,I'll give the two scenarios here. If
Arizona State and Oregon both finish atthirteen and five because they split, it
will be record win percentage against thenext highest team in the standings. So
I promise, I just don't knowwho that's going to be. When you
(12:03):
have three four teams also in thatmix, and if there's a three way
tie at the top, there wassome confusion. I do have clarity on
it. Now, win percentage amongthe three teams against the against the next
highest seeded team. Does that makesense that I explain that correctly. Yeah.
Yeah, So basically we're not goingto know who what the seating is
(12:26):
for Vegas because they'll all be coregular season champions. But now it comes
down to who seated where in Vegas, and we probably won't know that until
the last Saturday of the regular season, which I believe is March seventh.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah,which, by the way, also a
really good distinction that you just made. You can have co champs or try
(12:46):
champs or quad champs like those areall possibilities. It just then the seating
in Vegas just goes basically because rememberone of the things I hate that's come
up on this podcast this year isthat the conference tournament champion is considered the
conference champion. I feel like theregular season champion should be the conference champion,
(13:07):
but that's not the case. Sowell, the only the only reason
why the tournament this year, thetournament champ might make more sense is because
there can only be one team that'sright. So so this year we'll give
him a pass. But next year, yes, let's let's get the legislation
going to get the regular season champto be the conference champ. I'm with
you, man, because you're justtrying to navigate this. This league is
(13:28):
really hard, especially in a yearlike this season. All right, you
gave me your analysis on a SU. I want to focus a little bit
more on Oregon before we get toUCLA Colorado in Arizona. The Ducks right
now a little disappointed with the lossthat they suffered in Tempe. I just
feel like they consistently in conference play. Dot has spotted the opponents in the
(13:50):
first half constantly. It feels liketrying to have to rely on Payton Pritchard
late, and he's bailed him outnumerous times. I think the difference between
the a SU game in the Arizonagame is our good buddy. Yogi Roth
uses this phrase all the time.Mission minded. Oregon looked like, yo,
we're ready and we're coming out ofthe gate. There wasn't this big
swing where they needed this huge runin the second half to go and win,
(14:11):
like they were handling business. Theycame to play in that one.
But that's what bothers me, andthat's what we've been talking about this entire
season. Yam, why do youhave to and this isn't just Oregon,
this is everybody. Why do youhave to lose at Arizona State to get
mission minded? Why can't you bemission minded getting on the plane in Eugene
flying to Tempe. That's what Idon't understand is why do you have to
(14:33):
have adversity to get your best inthe next game? Why when you have
a great game, is there dropoff the following game. I don't understand
this lack of consistency. And that'swhy a few podcasts ago my thought was
on, you know, how importantis the game to you individually and collectively?
And if it was, you'd probablybe a little more consistent because it
means so much to you, notonly in your individual performance, but your
(14:56):
team's wins and losses, and toyou and I've said all year, we
think Oregan's the best team in theleague. But why can't we say that
because of inconsistency, Not that anything'schanged or you know, guys aren't as
good as we thought they were oranything we've changed that thought, because they've
been inconsistent and five losses for Organsabout two or three more than I thought
they would have this year at thispoint in the season. And so we'll
(15:22):
see if they can finish. Theyhave the best opportunity. We already talked
about it. They have three homegames. They win all three. Worst
case, they're probably going to geta share of the regular season title.
Maybe not, maybe Arizona State doesrun the table. But if they don't
win it or get a share ofit, it's going to be because of
their lack of consistency game to game. I mean, really, what this
(15:43):
thing hinges on in my mind?And I don't want to put words in
your mouth because of the log jamat the top, but Oregon, you
and I agree, have the havethe best chance to get to thirteen wins.
Asu. You know, here's theother thing, Like Asus on the
road against the LA schools, likeif they split there, like, yeah,
they're they're in the mix because theyclose out at home against the Washington
schools and presumably should win those basketballgames. But here's the other thing,
(16:08):
as US playing UCLA, and Ididn't think Ucla was going to come up
with the road sweep. I thoughtthey could split. I didn't. I
thought they'd get Utah and they wouldn'tgo and get Colorado. But they did.
And Tiger Campell's been terrific, Chrismt'sbeen awesome. Cody Riley's another guy
you can insert into that conversation aswell. I don't I mean even in
veas you lose that game, likeall of a sudden, you got to
start thinking like UCLA's got a realchance to tie, we're going to get
(16:32):
to thirteen wins. Well, youclas And I can't wait to talk to
Mick because you clas like thing haschanged in the sense that I was there
for the Washington State game on Februarythirteen, so that was what a week
and a half ago, and itwas it was about we're doing things better,
but Mick talking about we're still tryingto build the program. Yes,
(16:56):
We've played well for a couple ofgames here, but now it's like they're
playing for something. Now they're playingto not only get a top four seed
in Vegas, they're now in theconversation to get in the NCAA tournament if
they continue to keep winning, andso like they're motivated. This is a
different game for ASU than it wasthree weeks ago. Like if this scenario
had played out an ASU had gottenhot but UCLA hadn't. Maybe you don't
(17:19):
get UCLA's best shot, maybe youget a good shot from them. But
now this game on Thursday nights forfirst place, you are getting UCLA's best
shot Thursday night, and so ArizonaState has got to take on that shot.
And then two days later you're takenon a usc USC team that's playing
for their tournament lives now NCAA tournamentlives. And so are you are you
(17:42):
a good enough team? Are youa strong enough mentally team to take on
both of those challenges in a seventytwo hour window, We're we're going to
find out a lot about SU andwhether they got if they got that kind
of thing to win this regular season. Outright, you're gonna ask mccron and
(18:02):
that question, because I think that'sa great topic when we get him on
the podcast once again. That onewill be released on Wednesday. Mccron is
going to spend some time with us. From what you've seen, do you
think they have that mental makeup?Arizona Stater or CLA, Sorry, I
think you Cela. What's happened withthem is if they finally turned the corner
(18:23):
at some point, and we'll askMick when he thinks it was. But
what happens is is when you turnthe corner and you start winning, now
you keep it, keeps building inbuilding and building because you're having success.
Now you're being asked to do somethingcompletely different than you've been asked to do
previously until Mick cronin got there.But then you get it, and then
once you get it and start winning, it just starts to snowball. And
(18:47):
it's snowballing for them right now,five in a row. Defensively, they're
way more locked in. They're lockedin on the defensive game plan, and
I think offensively they figured out somerole definition on that side, Like Tiger
Campbell all the sudd and is playinglike a guy that we thought he would
be being a top hundred kid comingout of high school. Unfortunately sat out
all last year. And that's theother thing. Yeah, I'm like everyone,
(19:11):
you know, when you have anACL or whatever injury, it is
not everybody recovers at the same rate, and not everybody recovers mentally at the
same rate. You know, whenyou miss a year of basketball. Some
guys jump right back into it,some don't. It's obviously taking Tiger a
little bit more time, but Ifeel like he's got it now. And
when your point guards got it andhe's playing with confidence, that kind of
(19:33):
rubs off on everybody else. Andso a lot of really good things happening
for UCLA, and I have afeeling they're going to be ready for the
challenge on Thursday night and that thisextra incentive they now have. It was
purely just about trying to do whatMick cronan wanted him to do. Now,
it's about what mccronin wants him todo. But also we're playing for
something now, and that's pretty powerfulstuff. Colorado. After the loss against
(19:59):
UCLA, we played some of thecomments from Tad Boyle on impactwelve network.
You could sense the disappointment and guysare gonna get disappointed after a loss,
and I understand that, but youcould feel like, hey, we actually
didn't get overly outplayed. It wasn'tlike they blew the doors off of us.
(20:19):
In terms of UCLA, I justwonder, I don't know necessarily,
like in these crucial moments when youstart forecasting how good a team is,
Like, I don't really know whereCEU is. They've had a really great
season. Maybe UCLA is that good. I don't know. I just don't
(20:40):
I don't know where they are rightnow because two weeks ago, don you
and I were going, hey,maybe after they beat Oregon or you're thinking
yourself, hey boy, like theymight be the team to beat right now.
Well, let's go back to thatconsistency thing. And usually when you
have a young team, there's inconsistency, and like on the road, there's
inconsistency. We're seeing that with Utahthis year, where they're really good at
(21:00):
home, not very good on theroad. But when you're tad boiled and
you bring back ninety five percent ofyour team, you expect there to be
less inconsistency. And so I thinkthe disappointment, Yeah, he's disappointed.
They lost, But if I hadto guess, I would say he's also
disappointed because their margin for inconsistency shouldhave been less than everybody else because of
(21:22):
their experience, and so they findthemselves now with five losses in a tight
race where if I'm looking at it, with the most experienced team in the
league, like, if it's justabout being consistent, we should be above
that and be leading the conference.And I'm sure that's what Tad's thinking that
man. You know, we're notrelying on freshmen here to carry us.
(21:45):
We're relying on guys that have beenthrough this. We shouldn't be inconsistent,
but they have been. But let'ssee how they finish. How they finish
out not an easy trip this week. You got a motivated Stanford team that
you have next Saturday or Sunday,and you got cal So Colorado to me,
we'll see how much they want towin this regular season title. They
win both and come down to theBay Area for road sweep. I think
(22:07):
you're right about what Tad Boyle isthinking, because when we had him on
this podcast a couple weeks ago,I remember he had referenced some of those
nonconference losses, and you could hearit in his voice. I think he
might have even said, like,I felt like we should have won one.
Some of those games look other thanthe Kansas one, because he admitted,
hey, we just got outplayed andthey were the better basketball team.
But the Northern ire one is prettygood. Yeah, no joke, right,
(22:30):
seriously, But I think that's thething which makes all of this crazy.
When you go back to a fewweeks ago. They lost against Oregon
and then they beat Oregon State onthat road trip, and when they lost
to Oregon, we were trying tofigure out, hey, like what does
this really mean in the standings.They get that win and against Oregon State,
and then you go, all right, we'll look at the rest of
the schedule here, and really Ishould rewind it. Go back to the
(22:53):
Stanford win. They sweep the BayArea schools, and then you looked at
the remaining schedule and you said toyourself, well, Colorado's got a bunch
of road games to finish this thingout, you know, in their last
eight, so seven of eight itlooks like I'm a counting this upright,
six seven eight. Yeah, Sothey had all these road games and now
all of a sudden, winning acow's not easy. We've seen that.
(23:14):
Stanford all of a sudden looks likethey got some swag coming off as they
have to play for their NCAA tournamentlives, like, I don't know if
Colorado gets and then you t howto close out? Do they win two
out of these three on the road. Well, to me, somebody's getting
to thirteen. So if they wantat least to share, they got to
(23:37):
win all three. Like between ArizonaState, Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA,
one of those four teams is winningthirteen conference games. So if Colorado
wants at least to share, they'regonna have to They're gonna have to go
three in a row on the road. And I'm sure you know Tad's brought
that to their attention and challenging themto do it. Hey, you guys,
(24:00):
most experienced team coming back in theleague. If any team in our
league should be able to handle athree game road trip to finish the year
for a share of the conference title, it's you guys. Let's go do
it. They should win all threeof those games. Like they're a better
basketball team than cal They're better basketballteam than Utah And then not for nothing.
If you want to claim that youare the team to beat in the
(24:22):
conference or can make a run inthe NCLABA Tournament, you gotta get a
road win against Stanford. I mean, yeah, looking, yeah. The
hard part, yam, is youknow what's in front of you in taking
it game by game, like yougot to just take it one at a
time. Yes, you have towin three, but like, let's go
cal first and then we go Stanfordand then we go Utah. And if
(24:45):
we do it, then maybe weget ourselves a share, or maybe nobody
does it. I mean, withhow this thing's gone, maybe maybe we
have a five team tie at twelveand six. There's a parliament at this
point, man. And then there'spart of me that says the national media
would just be crushing this league ifthat happened. So I hope that doesn't
(25:06):
happen, just so I don't haveto worry about going on radio shows and
you don't have to do the samething defending the league and the quality of
basketball that's being played here. Youknow what though, real quick though,
yeah, I think we're passed thatas a league this year. Like I
think everybody's recognized how competitive our conferencehas been how competitive they were in November
and December. So I think,you know, I think the last year
(25:27):
wasn't good, but I'm just sayingthis year, I think we've risen above
that narrative and that yes, yeswe don't have any top heavy teams at
the top, because we if wedid go five teams at twelve and six,
But I think they recognize overall ourconferences so much better that we just
kind of cannibalized each other as theseason went on. There's a part of
(25:48):
me that believes you, and there'sa part of me that says that's a
small circle of people who pay attentionto what's happening on the West Coast.
Look, the committee, the committeeis gonna put I still think it's it's
five teams that are going to bein the tournament. So you get five
teams in, the problem is done. Even when you get teams in like
they did, it was a threeor seven teams. Was that three years
(26:10):
ago? Four years ago? Inblanking right now? Everyone was twenty sixteen,
right, yeah, I think fouryears ago. So god, it's
been that long, right, Soteams didn't really make a run, And
to me, that's gonna be themark right now? Can one of these
five teams really make a run?And I think depending on who you ask,
there's a lot of people who reallylike this Arizona basketball team. I
(26:32):
was thinking about you as miss freethrow after miss free throw happens at home
at mcale against Oregon ten of twentyone they finished in that game. Josh
Green late missus two. He's aseventy eight percent free throw shooter. Coloco,
he's not. He shoots forty percentfrom the lot, Like I wasn't
expecting him. Yeah, you know, but Mike, there's seventy four percent
(26:55):
free throw shooting team. As ateam, they year in and year out,
they are seventy two, seventy three, seventy four in that range every
single year. Sean Miller and hisstaff spend a lot of time on free
throw shooting. And so you justsee the magnitude of the game, the
magnitude of the moment, the pressurebecause they're a good foul shooting team and
free throw shooting costs them that gameon Saturday night against Orion, Okay,
(27:18):
how do you explain it? Becauseit's at home, Like if you said
to me, they're at Matthew Night, they shoot ten to twenty one from
the line, critical moments at thestrip that it can win you a basketball
game, and say, oh,okay, I'm kind to get it,
but at home done well, letme give you this. Yeah, And
I may be a little bit different, and you know, I mean,
I don't like to talk about myself, but I think this can be a
(27:40):
good example. Yeah. I wasa very very good free throw shooter,
good free throw shooter, shot ninetytwo as a senior. And so the
put put the question you're asking,is it at home? Is it easier
to make free throws than on theroad? I would say, in that
moment, trying to close out ahigh level game with first place in the
(28:00):
conference on the line, national game, lots of stuff in that moment.
Would it have mattered had they shothim at Matthew Night versus McHale. I'm
saying from my own experience, No, you're either up for that challenge or
you're not. No matter where itis, it doesn't make it any easier
that you're at home, because themoments still the moment, the stakes are
still the stakes. You know youhave to make them at home, just
(28:22):
like you know you would have tomake them on the road, the noise
and the people yelling does nothing.If you're a good free throw shooter,
all those thundersticks and the yelling,that does nothing. If you're locked in
on your target. Doesn't matter ifyour home or on the road. I
think what's more interesting to talk aboutis who's up for that situation, and
(28:42):
you can kind of tell who isand who isn't if it becomes a trend.
And so you know, for me, it didn't matter that it was
at McHale. It could have beenon the road and miss free throws.
Is there something that you would pointto for Arizona right now over the next
few days that Schumer should be saying, could be saying to his basketball team,
(29:04):
Well, he was on the podcastwith us. He's never had three
freshmen leading the team. I don'tknow, being Hoddle, do you incur
like, I don't know what youdo? Well, the one thing you
don't want to talk about is thefree throws. You know that, then
that just exacerbates it, and nowit does become a thing, and you're
freaking out every time a game isclose late and you got to make him.
Um, you know what do youwhat do you talk about? With
(29:26):
Pritchard. I mean, the guysthe best player in the league. He's
been doing it all year. He'sbeen hitting game winners all year. He's
been you know, what do youdo? Um? So those are the
two things the game came down to. They only lost a game by one,
right and overtime. So Pritchard doesn'tgo for thirty eight and they make
seventeen instead of ten at the foulline, they win the game in either
(29:48):
scenario. So I don't think there'sthere should be any panic on the Arizona
side, just a little bit ofdisappointment that you could have been in the
driver's seat in the conference had youfound a way to win that game.
Kind of feels like the difference betweena team that can basically win the conference,
like Sean has talked about that margin, and you're right, like maybe
if you have some upperclassmen, andmaybe I'm just reading too much into this,
(30:11):
but you're right, they hit seventeenfree throws instead of just the ten,
they're probably winning that basketball game.There were some moments though, like
You're sitting there going, hey,can Pitcher continue to carry this team?
And you're right, you probably justtip the cap and you go, hey,
best player in the league, bestplayer on the floor. He single
handedly won them that basketball game,and probably in the process you can start
putting his name on the Player ofthe Ear Trophy because he was that good
(30:33):
and how meaningful that game was onthe road for him. I just I
don't know, Like how it's likeColorado. You sit there and you go
upper classmen, consistency. I shouldknow what I'm going to get for them
Arizona. I look at the talent, but I also look at the inconsistency,
and I say freshmen, and Ijust say, hey, is this
a team that can win in Vegas? Of course they can, you know,
(30:56):
will they? I have no idea. I just I don't know what
to if you said to me pickthese best teams. I just I think
there's flaws in all of them rightnow in the which is probably fair.
And I'm sure each coach could tellyou their teams flaw and they've probably been
spending you know, practice time tryingto fix those flaws as we get deeper
(31:19):
into the season. Um, butI think when you do have some flaws,
they're easy to expose. And maybethat's why you know we have a
four loss team. Leading our conferencein a bunch of five loss teams because
they have some flaws that get exposedin in that brings inconsistency. I mean,
(31:41):
that's the best way I can sayit is that we keep waiting.
Well, here's a great example,waiting for one of the upper teams to
get consistent. Well, Arizona Statewasn't one of the upper teams, but
they got consistent. They won sevenin our own guess what, they're alone
in first place in the conference.UCLA was nowhere to be found. You
know, three weeks ago, they'veripped off nine eleven, five in a
(32:02):
row. They're now in the conversation. So it's like the Organs in the
Arizonas in the Colorados of the worldhave been near the top of the entire
time, but they're in consistency hasn'thasn't allowed them to separate from the other
teams. And now you get twoteams in ASU and UCLA that have gotten
consistent, and they're the ones thatwe're talking about the most. Who's your
(32:23):
top four in Vegas? Man,you don't even have to give me the
order because at this point, Imean, who even knows. I'm gonna
say a su organ just because Ithink that one loss, even though they
have one more game, they haveone more loss to give Arizona State,
(32:45):
so I think it keeps them inthe top four. And then I think
it's Arizona Colorado WHOA. Okay,I just and not to take anything away
from UCLA, but you just wonderhow long they can keep this going.
And they have two big games thisweekend, and can they win both?
You know? For a team Andthis isn't criticism, this is just how
(33:07):
their season's gone. A team thatloses to Hobstra and cal State Fullerton earlier
in the year at home, andI know they've improved, and I know
they've mixed them great work with theseguys, but can we rely on them
to beat Arizona State on Thursday andcome back two days later in beat Arizona.
(33:28):
Not saying they can't, but justbased on how this year's gone,
can they do it? We're gonnafind out. I like your four.
I'm gonna swap out UCLA and Arizonathough, wow, I'll put the Bruins
in there. And here's why Idid not. Road wins have been almost
impossible to come by this season.Road sweeps certainly right. I mean,
(33:51):
we had a couple over the weekend, which is kind of wild when you
think about the lack of success teamshave had on the road. I was
not fully a believer on this UCLAteam because of some of the things that
you just referenced. But to goand be Tad's team and Boulder, I'm
in now, I'll maybe that's thekiss of death because I've been in on
some team so far this season ithasn't worked out great. For the one
(34:14):
thing that I'm sure Mick will tellus Mike when we have m on is
you know, the longer this goesalong for UCLA and I think the same
can be said for for Arizona State, and I'm sure that coaching staffs fighting
in as well. What happens whenyou get hot, everybody starts patting you
on the back, yeah, andtelling me how great you are, and
(34:35):
so are you? Are you goingto stay disciplined to doing the things that
got you to where we're talking aboutyou now? And can you keep going
with it? That's that's the scarypart is once you start having a lot
of success, you start feeling prettygood about yourselves. Are you willing to
still do all the things that youdid to get you to this spot.
So we'll see, we'll see.It's going to be interesting. I have
(34:55):
a feeling that that Colorado group's gonnagonna because of the UCLA loss, is
going to have a great week ofpractice and come out ready to play.
And it wouldn't be surprised if theyswept the barrier. And then I'll probably
come down to whether they can winat Utah, who's been so good at
home this year. He's handling business. Here's what I do know, you
and I are going to have ablast in Vegas trying to figure out who's
(35:16):
going to win this tournament. Ofcourse, we'll have complete coverage on PAC
twelve network. Also, Ashley Adamson, Mary Murphy, you're going to be
in Vegas the week prior for thewomen's tournament. That thing is shaken up,
shaken out to be absolutely spectacular fortickets because, believe me, you're
gonna want to see some of thesegames in person. It's an awesome event.
Pactash twelve dot com Slash Tickets Storytimewith Don McClean. All right,
(35:45):
Don, enlightened me. What dowe got storytime for this week? Well,
I had an interesting week last week. I was in Seattle for Stanford
at Washington and then I had aClipper game on Saturday, and ironically enough,
I got asked pretty much the samequestion as it pertains to why if
a guy and I think we've coveredthis a little bit, but I'm gonna
I'm gonna roll this into a story. Why is a guy that's averaging twenty
(36:07):
points a game at one level nota prospect at the next level? Meaning
why is he not if he's incollege an NBA prospect, wife he's in
high school? Is he not acollege you know, a high D one
prospect? And it comes down tomeasurables and size, really, And I
played with a guy in high schoolby the name as Sean Dlatte who was
six five. But he was sixfive when he was in like seventh grade,
(36:28):
so he was an early maturing kidthat never grew after eighth grade.
But he was really good, nota great athlete, but a very skilled,
good shooter, really good in thepaint with his footwork and his ability
to score. And so we wereon the same high school team in as
sophomores. We only played at athree year high school. As sophomores,
I think I averaged twenty one andhe averaged like eighteen. And then the
(36:52):
next year I average, I thinktwenty five and he averaged twenty. And
nobody could figure out why I wasbeing recruited by you know, Duke and
North Carolina and UCLA and those typesof schools, and he was he was
getting very little, if any Divisionone interest. And so I answered the
question the same way every time.It said he was six to five and
I was six to nine, andthat if we were similar players, which
(37:15):
we were in terms of skill,six nine guy is high division high major
Division one, six five isn't.He was basically a six five undersized power
forward. And so he ended upgoing to junior college and went to Eastern
played at Eastern Washington for two yearsand then transferred out of there because he
wasn't playing much. But I justsaid that that thought was on my brain
(37:37):
because I got asked it literally theStanford UDUB game and then the Clipper game
Saturday, of how guys project fromone level to the next, And if
a guy's really successful, that doesn'tensure that he's, you know, going
to be a high major player atthe college level. Or an NBA player
coming from college. Philip, We'vehad the exact opposite two, where you
(37:59):
have small dollar guards who then allof a sudden have success at the college
level that you don't necessarily anticipating.Sometimes they're transfer kids, right like,
because they they fall into the categorythat you're just describing where you don't think
they really can compete at a highlevel, and all of a sudden they
want to break out. The best. The best example of that, Mike
is like Russell Westbrook. Yeah,like, what do he average is sophomore
(38:22):
year at UCLA, like nine pointsa game? And he was the fourth
pick in the draft. It's like, people are at how is Russell Westbrook
the fourth pick in the draft whenhe averaged nine points a game at UCLA?
It's because of the measurables and whatNBA people saw from him athletically.
So I was I'm trying to answerthe question of the guy that averages twenty
that doesn't translate to the next level. But you're right, there's so many
(38:45):
guys where you're like, well,wait a second, he only averaged eight
points in five rebounds. How didhe get drafted in the first round?
Well, he got drafted because ofhis size and his measurables done. You
probably get asked this a million timesor just conversations because I know you're so
involved with your boys and coaching them, so you're around a lot of youth
basketball. What do you say tothe parents that think their kid is going
(39:09):
to be the next great basketball player. Well, I try and explain to
them that we don't want to killthe kid's desire to play and be good
at it. But what I dotell parents if they push me on it.
And I'm not saying this to bragand I'm not saying it, but
it's a great example and maybe ARIIcan look up how long how long the
(39:31):
County of Ventura has been around.Ventura County is where we kind of live.
We live in I live in Westlake, Village of Googling as we speak,
which is in Ventura County, kAnd this is what I say to
parents, and it hits them likea ton of bricks. I say to
them, there has been one playerin the history of Ventura County high school
(39:52):
basketball that's played in the NBA,and you're looking at them, one in
the history, not of the cityof the county. In southern California.
That's actually shocking to me. That'sactually a great in Ventura County, not
southern California. Ventura County. Okay, so well, how about I'll take
it a step further. The statein general has had a ton of talent,
(40:15):
because we're not also talking about Idon't know not to pick on a
school in the in the South orthe Midwest, but you know, there's
there's certain states that typically put outa ton of athletes at the Division one
level. California is one of them. Yeah. Yeah, well this county
in particular, but I think ithits home to these parents because they obviously
(40:37):
live in Ventura County and you cansee their their brains start to work,
like wow, the history of VenturaCounty, I bet you. Ventura County
has been around for a while.It has been eighteen seventy three. Done
eighteen seventy three, Well, youknow, the early nineteen hundreds is when
the NBA was at its all timehighest exactly. But you know what I'm
(40:59):
saying, it's you know, it'sI never And that's why I love doing
what I do with my club basketballprogram is I try and keep the spirit
alive for them and dream whatever youwant to dream. It's going to take
a lot of work because I don'twant him to quantify it for themselves.
Say you know what, I'm probablygoing to be a six foot player.
(41:19):
That's whatever. I'm just gonna giveup on it, because that's if you
love the game. You love thegame, and you just keep working to
try and get better and hopefully nobodytells you that you're not going to accomplish
something. You mister positivity Don McLain, I can't try anyone's spirit. Playing
in the league certainly really difficult.There's one guy actually playing at a school
in California who's probably got those dreams. Then that backed twelve to the NBA.
(41:50):
All right, So let's talk aboutChris Smith from UCLA, And there
was a lot of chatter about himtwo years ago when he was a freshman
at UCLA because of what I wasjust talking about. The measurables. He
looks the part all of six nine, good length, he's a good runner,
good jumper. He looks like anNBA wing, he really does.
But then so there's a lot ofchatter about him because he wasn't really highly
(42:13):
regarded coming out of high school,like he wasn't a McDonald's kid or anything,
but everybody saw this upside of whathe could be. And he had
an okay freshman year, and theneverybody's like, all right, well he's
going to turn it on this yeara sophomore year because he just just because
he has all these tools. Youknow, his jumper looks good. There's
nothing about looking at Chris Smith thatyou would say, man, I need
(42:37):
to change that. Nothing. Yeah, which is not You don't hear that
very often. And so sophomore yearnot much again. And so now you
get NBA people that I talked toall the time saying, you know,
is basketball important to this kid?And that's the one thing in me doing
pre draft for as long as Ihave, I get asked that question about
(42:59):
all my players every single year,not sometimes every year. These NBA teams
want to know if basketball a ifyou love the game, is it important
to you? Do you work hardat it? Do you want to be
an NBA player? Do you havethe desire to be not a good player
a great player? So now thosequestions have come into play with Chris Smith.
(43:19):
But I also knew that Mick Cronanin his personality and how he coaches,
wasn't going to let Chris Smith offthe hook, And so he's getting
it out of him this year.And Chris Smith is way more dynamic.
He's doing more things offensively, He'saffecting the game more both offensively and defensively.
And when you watch him now playingwith more purpose and a little more,
will you see these measurables in thistalent that everybody saw his freshman year
(43:45):
starting to come out. So he'sstarting to gain a little momentum. But
I will go back to what Ijust said because I think it's going to
come up again for him. Andwe don't know if he's coming out this
year or not, but if hedoes, that question is going to come
right back. Why did it takea new head coach coach to get it
out of you? Why aren't youa self starter? Why couldn't you have
done it on your own when SteveAlford was there? And I think that's
(44:06):
a fair question because you're seeing itnow, you're seeing more from him,
But you also now know how MickCronin is and how demanding he is,
and he's gotten it out of him. So it'll be fascinating to watch the
journey of Chris Smith to the NBAand how much NBA people are going to
look at him and say, man, with those tools, you should be
(44:29):
a dominant college basketball player. Forwhatever reason you haven't been, maybe you
can become one at the next level. All right, take me through some
of those individual skills. Then onthe floor, like, what is he
actually doing that's that can make himsuccessful in the NBA. Well, he
can hand so he's all a six. He's a prototypical NBA wing mike.
(44:50):
He's six to nine. He canhandle it, he can shoot it,
he can rebound it, he candefend it, like he can do it
all. It's just he didn't playwith enough sense of urgency. Is first
couple of years. Now he's startingto play with emergency and so his numbers
are going up. But that butthat's what kind of makes you mad about
it. It's like there's nothing inyour game. Put it this way,
(45:12):
you would rather have a player thatyou would say, you know what,
that jumper is broken, but wecan fix that, versus a kid that
has desire issues or what seems likedesire issues, Like that's going to hurt
you more than if your SHOT's notthe best looking shot in the world,
and so we'll see how it playsout for Chris Smith. But a talented,
talented kid, a good kid,and I think he's gonna get his
(45:35):
chance to play in the NBA.Let's see if with what he's learned at
UCLA, will he take advantage ofit and make himself a long time NBA
player. All right, Well,Chris Smith is going to be a major
topic of conversation as well as whythis team is having success when we talk
to mccronin, who is going tobe a guest on Wednesday's edition of the
podcast. Here's a sneak peek atthat conversation. If we do the things
(45:59):
that we know we're capable of,the result will be what we wanted to
be. And we are in onegame tournaments. I mean, we are
in a one game tournament and nowsomebody, you know, somebody told us
Leonard he had us on the nextfour hours. You know, none of
that stuff matters if you win whenyou're in a quality league. In our
last three opponents were all tournament teams. You just gotta win. You know.
(46:22):
Back in the day, people talkingabout my my RPI high. Back
in the days of the RPI andthe Big East. I'd laugh if it
doesn't matter. The RP doesn't matter. You're when you're playing tournament teams all
the time. If you win games, you're gonna make the tournament. There's
you know with us, we're playingthe teams we play to finish the year.
We win. If we win,if we win three games, we're
(46:43):
a lock. We go from noteven on the board to the lock lick
if you win those games. Sothis is just trying to focus on winning.
Thursday, Oh, really insightful andthoughtful conversation with the head coach of
the UCLA Bruins. Believe me,you're gonna want to hear the entire interview.
It is dropping Wednesday, don Youand I do these guest interviews every
(47:05):
single Wednesday on the podcast on Tuesdays. We go through what just transpired in
the league and what's about to happen. Always appreciate all you guys continuing to
listen to the show, sharing iton social media if you rate and review,
it will certainly help out some ofthe metrics for us, which we
would greatly appreciate. Don always ablast working with you. Where are you
at this? Always man you're notwith me, I know in studio which
(47:28):
games. I have a good backto back utadd Stanford on Wednesday and then
I have as U at UCLA onThursday. So looking forward to those two
games. Yeah, he can catchboth of those games on PAC twelve Network
with Don and it is a wildfinish down the stretch. On the women's
side, Ashley Adamson and Mary Murphyhave you covered on the inside PAC twelve
(47:49):
Women's Basketball Podcast. Had an opportunityto see Sabrina speak Monday morning at Kobe's
memorial service, and I actually spentsome time with Sabrina over the weekend.
She happened to be here at ourstudios. Told me she was a little
nervous was going to be going offat prompter, but I thought she absolutely
crushed it. So I know Ashleyand Mary will be discussing that on their
podcast as well. Thanks again everyonefor listening.
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