December 17, 2025 • 15 mins
Former Indiana head coach Tom Crean joined JMV to talk Big Ten basketball!
Support the show: https://1075thefan.com/the-ride-with-jmv/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Andy Mooyone Automotive Group Potline, friend of the show
(00:02):
of the former Hoo's Your Coach from ESPN also does
the NBA with the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tom Crane is joining us. Hello Tom, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I'm good? How about you?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We have yet to talk about, certainly here recently, the
accomplishments of this Hoo's Your football program, what they did
of the Big Ten title game for Ando Mendoza winning
the Heisman. You spent so much time in Bloomington, obviously
as a part of the basketball program and building that,
rebuilding that and putting that in place. What have you
thought about the exploits of Signetti in two years and accomplishments,
(00:35):
as you well know, being a part of that fabric
for the amount of time that you were, it was
a foregone conclusion that nothing like that were to ever happen.
Yet the last two years have been incredible.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Well, I think it was. It was a perfect storm
in a couple of ways. I mean, credit Scott Dolson
and his team with looking into different people.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
The search firm.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Chad Chaplin, who's there who I know Indiana works with,
is a football guy and not one of those guys
that is caught up in the names and the stars.
He understands football at a high level. And I think
what happened is Scott did his research and he listened,
and he ended up getting a guy that was not
(01:19):
only a peer winner and it went everywhere he had been,
that could also bring some very accomplished player in his eyes,
even though maybe the rest of the country didn't know
they were that good. And in this day and age,
when you can hit like that and get a guy
that has got an outstanding plan and it's got a
track record, i've not success, but a huge success. And
(01:42):
then the fact that he can bring guys that can
play at this level. So not only do you get
the guys that can play here from James Madison, but
you get a guy that can look beyond the analytics,
look beyond the measurements, look beyond the statistics, and find
guys that could really play football.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
And I think it's incredible.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And I think you go back to last year and
realize that the year that they had was so much
because he made the right choices not only on his
guys but in the portal and they had to have
hit it probably well over ninety five percent success rate
in the portal, which is absolutely unheard of, especially for
(02:24):
a first year coach. And so he took last year's
success and just made it better and was able to
recruit the success this year with Fernando Mendoza, because that's
a big thing too, right, he had the success of Indiana, well,
now people saw Indiana as a different type of football
program where things could be accomplished nationally. And he's just
(02:45):
done an incredible job. And I just think I don't
think he leaves anything to chance. I don't think he
hires any weak links, and I think he understands quickly
how to build out a success but cut his losses quickly.
And I think he's has done a phenomenal job and
it's absolutely proven to be one of the best coaches
in college football because he's also got one of the
(03:05):
best staffs in college football.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, and not only one of the best staffs, tom,
but also staff retention is so important and he has
that and that just simply put, doesn't often happen really
in anything we're talking about, whether it's football or basketball.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Well, absolutely, but especially in football, and especially when you
have success at a place like Indiana. Because Kevin Wilson
was losing good coaches left and right, and people forget that.
You know, it was a different time and it was
different money strength. So Kevin could lose a Dale McColl,
he could lose different guys the bigger paydays somewhere else. Well,
(03:42):
now that's not happening in India, and that's a credit
to I think when credits Pam w and Scott Dolton,
I think he really means it because he knows those
people are behind it to him and building this thing.
And it's one thing to want to do it and
to be able to do it as a coach, but
you have got to have the You've got to have
(04:02):
the infrastructure behind you. And I think the word alignment
gets over used so much that in Indiana you can
never take it for granted. And there is no question
that they have alignment right now. And it hasn't been
there in a long time, but it is there now.
It is a parent that it's there. And I think
Kurt Signetti knows exactly how to keep it all together.
(04:26):
And I think he's another one of those guys. It's
an organizer, you know. I don't ever hear you don't
ever hear their name with being in some crazy ballpark.
Figure your money on a guy that's not like a
bona fide guy, and there's a lot of that right now,
especially in the quarterback market.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So for him to hit on.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
The quarterback market the way he did the last couple
of years, and knowing that he'll probably do it again,
that's that's pretty significant stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
But I mean, he's got a team of not.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Only excellent coaches, but the retention of evaluators that know
exactly what works for Kurt Signetti, and I think that
is just you can't put a value on that.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It is Tom Crane of ESPN.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
He's kind of enough to join us on the anymore
on the motive group plotline, I want to shift some
gears to basketball. I want to get to Purdue because
next up for Purdue Auburn. And you know, obviously Matt
Painter has attacked the pre Big ten or I guess
it's not pre Big ten any longer if you have
Big Ten games now under your belt. But you know
what I mean, as far as the schedule before January,
he's always kind of attacked that, really testing this group,
(05:31):
no matter the veteran presence he has right now or
even when this crew was younger. Do you like how
they go about scheduling to find out what they have
and try to build it into January in February obviously
as a springboard into March.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Absolutely, when you have the kind of team that he has, Absolutely,
because you're legitimately planned for a Big Ten championship and
an NCAA championship, and you have that, you have the
team that can play those kind of games. And I
think they've shown that. Obviously they didn't have a very
good game against Iowa State. They they did go in
(06:09):
and beat Alabama and it wasn't as close as the
score indicated to me. And I think he's done a
great job with that. And this is basically we recruit
replaced the Crossroads Classic right the game he's playing with Auburn. Yeah, yeah,
And I think that's a good sign because Auburn's got
they've got.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Some guys that can really score, uh and they got
the hot Betifford is one of the better, I think.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
One of the better combination guards in the country. They've
got Key Shawn Hall, who has scored a ton of points.
Last year in the Big Twelve at Central Florida scored
a ton of points now, but they're they're they're missing
some things. They're not a very good passing team. And
I mean, I think they're Auburn. I think they'll be
able to score against Auburn. I think Auburn's got really
(06:54):
good talented guys and and I think they play really
hard and they do good things defensively. But the way
Matt plays will bother that team. And so I think
that's what the NCAA tournament is like, because that's what
the big tennis like. There's always something, especially this year
more than ever, there's always flaws in a team that
(07:14):
if you really understand how to attack them, and I
should not even say flaws, but things that aren't strengths
and they're not their best drends, you can attack them.
But I think Map's done a great job of that
for a long time. I did the Michigan State Toledo
game last night at the Brethren Senator for Peacock. Michigan
State has got a team like that that can attack
(07:35):
you in weak areas because the things that they're really
good at, like the fast break and rebounding and coming
out of timeouts and executing their offense.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's not going away.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Well, they can also find some things to disrupt you,
and I think Michigan's got that because of the length.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And so when you talk about teams like that.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Illinois has that. And you're pour due great. The scheduling
is great because you're going to win enough and your
seat's going to be high enough unless the bottom balls
out with injuries and you've got unreal experience when you
go into the tournament.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I want to give you a couple of looks at
two teams before I let you go here, Tom in
the Big Ten. One is Dusty May and Michigan, and
they have been riding rough shot over everybody so far.
And the job Fred Hoiberg is doing at Nebraska at
eleven and and oh and really the legitimacy is to
me a bit parallel. And I say that because it
(08:30):
seems like that they're very comfortable as coaches going to
their bench and getting a high level of production. Only
in Michigan that's something we've seen before, and in Nebraska
this is all like new right now.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Well, yeah, I'll start with Michigan. Pretty much.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Anymore, in this day and age, you've got to have
a legit age. And if you have a legit nine
and I don't mean just nine players. I mean when
it gets past one through six, at seven and eight
and even nine, there's not big drop off when they
come in the game. And I think Michigan has that.
They have that up front where you really have to
have it. Florida had that last year and they Sam
(09:09):
Alexis was a team who's in Indiana. Obviously michah handlock
and came back late, but they had a front line
of guys that are.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Going to play in the NBA. And so when you
have that, you have an advantage.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Michigan has that their guards have improved. I think the
thing is going to be great about the Big Ten
for fans is it's going to be It's certainly not
going to be one where somebody is just going to
take advantage. I don't see anybody running roughshot over the league,
even mis Michigan. Because the other day of Faral Pain
from Maryland doesn't get hurt. He got hurt in the
side of that game. It only played fifteen minutes and
(09:43):
Maryland had a very.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Good lead at points and times in the game.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
I think Maryland beats Michigan that day because they had
a great game plan against Michigan.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
They spread their big men outs, they.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Ran their offense higher, they pulled the dey Mara, who's
I think given up. I think teams are shooting thirty
six percent.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The rim, which is unreal.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
When he's in the game, right, Like, that's got to
be as top as there isn't a country. But when
you pull him out and you put him into pick
and roll coverages or get him away from the perimeter,
when you pull those guys out, it changes the game.
And I just think those are the kind of things
we're going to see inside of the league. But they've
got the talent, the coaching. I think they have the shooting,
(10:22):
though I'm not totally certain on that, And if they
can figure out how to win different styles of games
defensively when they're big skin pulled out, they'll be really good.
Nebraska has mastered with Fred how to have the most
shooters on the floor all right, and rink Mask, who
played his career early on at Bradley, played a year
(10:43):
at Nebraska, got hurt red shirted last year and is
now one of the most ersatile big men in the country.
He's this big, a nightmare for matchup coach for guys
trying to figure out how they're going to coach against him,
as there isn't a big ten because he's he's a
five man.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
That could post. He's pretty good driver. He can pass it.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
But he can really shoot it. And Tom Vizzel's got
one of those type of guys in Jackson Cohler, though,
I think grig Mass is stronger to do a little
more of the post that what Fred has done is
is I think Fred can beat you different ways and
if they get some confidence on the road.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Certainly winning at Illinois.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
The other day was a big confidence builder for them
the way they want it. But they have great spacing,
they have real movement, they guard you their physical and
a lot of times he can keep four shooters minimum
on the floor. You know, I always wanted to do
that in Indiana. Our best teams could have four shooters
minimum on the floor and our best games because then,
(11:42):
jamb you're not reliant on your place. Now you can
play to your concepts and your spacing and you keep
you can keep the defense moving around because your bigs
can play different ways. And now Michigan has that in
Yaxel Lennenborg, like he's the first team All American type.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Guy right now.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
But Nebraska has that, and they have that coming off
the bench as well. So Nebraska, and I should have
mentioned them earlier. They've got to be in the same
breath as the best seeds in.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
The Big Ten.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Hey, quickly, before I'll let you go here, Tom, does
it seem like to you that we have an ordinate
amount of blowouts so far in this college basketball season?
Because it seems like I see more twenty five and
thirty point games then And maybe it's because I'm living
in the moment, but that's what it seems like so
far with me.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
A lot of blowouts this season, no.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Matter if you're talking top twenty five teams matching up
or if you have kind of a not a lack
of balance, I guess in a matchup, it seems like
there are a lot of blowouts this season at this point.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Well, I don't know what.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I don't know what I would call the scientific reason,
but I'm going to tell you what my belief is
in that. And I think it's been coming for a
while and this is just my belief. A human dynamics
and younger people right now, sometimes when they get down
ten or they get down twelve, they can let go
quickly and not believe that they could come back. When
(13:03):
you get a team that can be down ten with
four minutes to go, that even if you didn't win,
they believe they could come back and they gave you
every effort to come back, you're going to have a
good team, but there are too many teams in the
country that are not.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And it's not indicative of a coach as much. It's
this indicative of society.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
A lot of times in that when you get down,
and especially when you haven't been together and you haven't
shared adversity together, you know where you've gone through it
year after year. Because the world of basketball has changed
so much, it is really really easy to give in
and just try to get through it rather than digging
in and trying to do everything you can do to.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Get to scratch out that win. And I was.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Feeling it even my last couple of years at Georgia,
because it's really really easy to go through the motions
down ten, twelve or fourteen and let it turn into
mid twenties than it is to just get down, get
the loose balls, get the fifty to fifties, have a
group of guys that believe they can come back stretch
three stops in a row or three scores in a row,
(14:10):
and all of a sudden with two minutes to go
at six point game now too many times or two
minutes to go, it's a twenty six point game. And
I do think it's something you got to fight every
day and build into your team as a coach and
rehearse it and situational practices and be cognizant of it
because new day and age where you're not keeping your
(14:31):
team together and you're bringing in a lot of new
people every year.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Man, they're not used to it.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
And I think it starts at an earlier age, but
it definitely gets felt in college. We could talk about
that in the NBA. Same thing happens in the NBA
because they know they're going to play the next night. Yeah,
it's if it's a tough way to live, I'm reality
it is.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And I'm glad you noticed that too, because it doesn't
matter if you're talking about a top ten team or
you know one team that's you know, from a mid
to a high major. It seems like that we have
a lot of blowouts going on out there right now.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Those are really good reasons with Tom Creane.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
He's on the Anymore Automotive Group potline ESPN Peacock as
of last night, and just does a great job in
breaking down stuff for us.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Tom. I appreciate it as always. We will do this
again soon.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
If we don't talk before Christmas, you and the family
have a very merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
You two.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
And stay healthy when you're playing pickup basketball on campus now,
no tour basel next year.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I just played health. I played last night. I played
last night at Cina Grove until eleven o'clock. Buddy, good
for you.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Hell everybody, all your listeners back there. Merry Christmas and
happy Holidays for all of that too.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So thanks, we'll do Tom, Thank you very much
On Andy Mooyone Automotive Group Potline, friend of the show
(00:02):
of the former Hoo's Your Coach from ESPN also does
the NBA with the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tom Crane is joining us. Hello Tom, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
I'm good? How about you?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
We have yet to talk about, certainly here recently, the
accomplishments of this Hoo's Your football program, what they did
of the Big Ten title game for Ando Mendoza winning
the Heisman. You spent so much time in Bloomington, obviously
as a part of the basketball program and building that,
rebuilding that and putting that in place. What have you
thought about the exploits of Signetti in two years and accomplishments,
(00:35):
as you well know, being a part of that fabric
for the amount of time that you were, it was
a foregone conclusion that nothing like that were to ever happen.
Yet the last two years have been incredible.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Well, I think it was. It was a perfect storm
in a couple of ways. I mean, credit Scott Dolson
and his team with looking into different people.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
The search firm.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Chad Chaplin, who's there who I know Indiana works with,
is a football guy and not one of those guys
that is caught up in the names and the stars.
He understands football at a high level. And I think
what happened is Scott did his research and he listened,
and he ended up getting a guy that was not
(01:19):
only a peer winner and it went everywhere he had been,
that could also bring some very accomplished player in his eyes,
even though maybe the rest of the country didn't know
they were that good. And in this day and age,
when you can hit like that and get a guy
that has got an outstanding plan and it's got a
track record, i've not success, but a huge success. And
(01:42):
then the fact that he can bring guys that can
play at this level. So not only do you get
the guys that can play here from James Madison, but
you get a guy that can look beyond the analytics,
look beyond the measurements, look beyond the statistics, and find
guys that could really play football.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
And I think it's incredible.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And I think you go back to last year and
realize that the year that they had was so much
because he made the right choices not only on his
guys but in the portal and they had to have
hit it probably well over ninety five percent success rate
in the portal, which is absolutely unheard of, especially for
(02:24):
a first year coach. And so he took last year's
success and just made it better and was able to
recruit the success this year with Fernando Mendoza, because that's
a big thing too, right, he had the success of Indiana, well,
now people saw Indiana as a different type of football
program where things could be accomplished nationally. And he's just
(02:45):
done an incredible job. And I just think I don't
think he leaves anything to chance. I don't think he
hires any weak links, and I think he understands quickly
how to build out a success but cut his losses quickly.
And I think he's has done a phenomenal job and
it's absolutely proven to be one of the best coaches
in college football because he's also got one of the
(03:05):
best staffs in college football.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, and not only one of the best staffs, tom,
but also staff retention is so important and he has
that and that just simply put, doesn't often happen really
in anything we're talking about, whether it's football or basketball.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Well, absolutely, but especially in football, and especially when you
have success at a place like Indiana. Because Kevin Wilson
was losing good coaches left and right, and people forget that.
You know, it was a different time and it was
different money strength. So Kevin could lose a Dale McColl,
he could lose different guys the bigger paydays somewhere else. Well,
(03:42):
now that's not happening in India, and that's a credit
to I think when credits Pam w and Scott Dolton,
I think he really means it because he knows those
people are behind it to him and building this thing.
And it's one thing to want to do it and
to be able to do it as a coach, but
you have got to have the You've got to have
(04:02):
the infrastructure behind you. And I think the word alignment
gets over used so much that in Indiana you can
never take it for granted. And there is no question
that they have alignment right now. And it hasn't been
there in a long time, but it is there now.
It is a parent that it's there. And I think
Kurt Signetti knows exactly how to keep it all together.
(04:26):
And I think he's another one of those guys. It's
an organizer, you know. I don't ever hear you don't
ever hear their name with being in some crazy ballpark.
Figure your money on a guy that's not like a
bona fide guy, and there's a lot of that right now,
especially in the quarterback market.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So for him to hit on.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
The quarterback market the way he did the last couple
of years, and knowing that he'll probably do it again,
that's that's pretty significant stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
But I mean, he's got a team of not.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Only excellent coaches, but the retention of evaluators that know
exactly what works for Kurt Signetti, and I think that
is just you can't put a value on that.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It is Tom Crane of ESPN.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
He's kind of enough to join us on the anymore
on the motive group plotline, I want to shift some
gears to basketball. I want to get to Purdue because
next up for Purdue Auburn. And you know, obviously Matt
Painter has attacked the pre Big ten or I guess
it's not pre Big ten any longer if you have
Big Ten games now under your belt. But you know
what I mean, as far as the schedule before January,
he's always kind of attacked that, really testing this group,
(05:31):
no matter the veteran presence he has right now or
even when this crew was younger. Do you like how
they go about scheduling to find out what they have
and try to build it into January in February obviously
as a springboard into March.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Absolutely, when you have the kind of team that he has, Absolutely,
because you're legitimately planned for a Big Ten championship and
an NCAA championship, and you have that, you have the
team that can play those kind of games. And I
think they've shown that. Obviously they didn't have a very
good game against Iowa State. They they did go in
(06:09):
and beat Alabama and it wasn't as close as the
score indicated to me. And I think he's done a
great job with that. And this is basically we recruit
replaced the Crossroads Classic right the game he's playing with Auburn. Yeah, yeah,
And I think that's a good sign because Auburn's got
they've got.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Some guys that can really score, uh and they got
the hot Betifford is one of the better, I think.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
One of the better combination guards in the country. They've
got Key Shawn Hall, who has scored a ton of points.
Last year in the Big Twelve at Central Florida scored
a ton of points now, but they're they're they're missing
some things. They're not a very good passing team. And
I mean, I think they're Auburn. I think they'll be
able to score against Auburn. I think Auburn's got really
(06:54):
good talented guys and and I think they play really
hard and they do good things defensively. But the way
Matt plays will bother that team. And so I think
that's what the NCAA tournament is like, because that's what
the big tennis like. There's always something, especially this year
more than ever, there's always flaws in a team that
(07:14):
if you really understand how to attack them, and I
should not even say flaws, but things that aren't strengths
and they're not their best drends, you can attack them.
But I think Map's done a great job of that
for a long time. I did the Michigan State Toledo
game last night at the Brethren Senator for Peacock. Michigan
State has got a team like that that can attack
(07:35):
you in weak areas because the things that they're really
good at, like the fast break and rebounding and coming
out of timeouts and executing their offense.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
That's not going away.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Well, they can also find some things to disrupt you,
and I think Michigan's got that because of the length.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And so when you talk about teams like that.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Illinois has that. And you're pour due great. The scheduling
is great because you're going to win enough and your
seat's going to be high enough unless the bottom balls
out with injuries and you've got unreal experience when you
go into the tournament.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I want to give you a couple of looks at
two teams before I let you go here, Tom in
the Big Ten. One is Dusty May and Michigan, and
they have been riding rough shot over everybody so far.
And the job Fred Hoiberg is doing at Nebraska at
eleven and and oh and really the legitimacy is to
me a bit parallel. And I say that because it
(08:30):
seems like that they're very comfortable as coaches going to
their bench and getting a high level of production. Only
in Michigan that's something we've seen before, and in Nebraska
this is all like new right now.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Well, yeah, I'll start with Michigan. Pretty much.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Anymore, in this day and age, you've got to have
a legit age. And if you have a legit nine
and I don't mean just nine players. I mean when
it gets past one through six, at seven and eight
and even nine, there's not big drop off when they
come in the game. And I think Michigan has that.
They have that up front where you really have to
have it. Florida had that last year and they Sam
(09:09):
Alexis was a team who's in Indiana. Obviously michah handlock
and came back late, but they had a front line
of guys that are.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Going to play in the NBA. And so when you
have that, you have an advantage.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Michigan has that their guards have improved. I think the
thing is going to be great about the Big Ten
for fans is it's going to be It's certainly not
going to be one where somebody is just going to
take advantage. I don't see anybody running roughshot over the league,
even mis Michigan. Because the other day of Faral Pain
from Maryland doesn't get hurt. He got hurt in the
side of that game. It only played fifteen minutes and
(09:43):
Maryland had a very.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Good lead at points and times in the game.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
I think Maryland beats Michigan that day because they had
a great game plan against Michigan.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
They spread their big men outs, they.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Ran their offense higher, they pulled the dey Mara, who's
I think given up. I think teams are shooting thirty
six percent.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
The rim, which is unreal.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
When he's in the game, right, Like, that's got to
be as top as there isn't a country. But when
you pull him out and you put him into pick
and roll coverages or get him away from the perimeter,
when you pull those guys out, it changes the game.
And I just think those are the kind of things
we're going to see inside of the league. But they've
got the talent, the coaching. I think they have the shooting,
(10:22):
though I'm not totally certain on that, And if they
can figure out how to win different styles of games
defensively when they're big skin pulled out, they'll be really good.
Nebraska has mastered with Fred how to have the most
shooters on the floor all right, and rink Mask, who
played his career early on at Bradley, played a year
(10:43):
at Nebraska, got hurt red shirted last year and is
now one of the most ersatile big men in the country.
He's this big, a nightmare for matchup coach for guys
trying to figure out how they're going to coach against him,
as there isn't a big ten because he's he's a
five man.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
That could post. He's pretty good driver. He can pass it.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
But he can really shoot it. And Tom Vizzel's got
one of those type of guys in Jackson Cohler, though,
I think grig Mass is stronger to do a little
more of the post that what Fred has done is
is I think Fred can beat you different ways and
if they get some confidence on the road.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Certainly winning at Illinois.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
The other day was a big confidence builder for them
the way they want it. But they have great spacing,
they have real movement, they guard you their physical and
a lot of times he can keep four shooters minimum
on the floor. You know, I always wanted to do
that in Indiana. Our best teams could have four shooters
minimum on the floor and our best games because then,
(11:42):
jamb you're not reliant on your place. Now you can
play to your concepts and your spacing and you keep
you can keep the defense moving around because your bigs
can play different ways. And now Michigan has that in
Yaxel Lennenborg, like he's the first team All American type.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Guy right now.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
But Nebraska has that, and they have that coming off
the bench as well. So Nebraska, and I should have
mentioned them earlier. They've got to be in the same
breath as the best seeds in.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
The Big Ten.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Hey, quickly, before I'll let you go here, Tom, does
it seem like to you that we have an ordinate
amount of blowouts so far in this college basketball season?
Because it seems like I see more twenty five and
thirty point games then And maybe it's because I'm living
in the moment, but that's what it seems like so
far with me.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
A lot of blowouts this season, no.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Matter if you're talking top twenty five teams matching up
or if you have kind of a not a lack
of balance, I guess in a matchup, it seems like
there are a lot of blowouts this season at this point.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Well, I don't know what.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I don't know what I would call the scientific reason,
but I'm going to tell you what my belief is
in that. And I think it's been coming for a
while and this is just my belief. A human dynamics
and younger people right now, sometimes when they get down
ten or they get down twelve, they can let go
quickly and not believe that they could come back. When
(13:03):
you get a team that can be down ten with
four minutes to go, that even if you didn't win,
they believe they could come back and they gave you
every effort to come back, you're going to have a
good team, but there are too many teams in the
country that are not.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And it's not indicative of a coach as much. It's
this indicative of society.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
A lot of times in that when you get down,
and especially when you haven't been together and you haven't
shared adversity together, you know where you've gone through it
year after year. Because the world of basketball has changed
so much, it is really really easy to give in
and just try to get through it rather than digging
in and trying to do everything you can do to.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Get to scratch out that win. And I was.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Feeling it even my last couple of years at Georgia,
because it's really really easy to go through the motions
down ten, twelve or fourteen and let it turn into
mid twenties than it is to just get down, get
the loose balls, get the fifty to fifties, have a
group of guys that believe they can come back stretch
three stops in a row or three scores in a row,
(14:10):
and all of a sudden with two minutes to go
at six point game now too many times or two
minutes to go, it's a twenty six point game. And
I do think it's something you got to fight every
day and build into your team as a coach and
rehearse it and situational practices and be cognizant of it
because new day and age where you're not keeping your
(14:31):
team together and you're bringing in a lot of new
people every year.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Man, they're not used to it.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
And I think it starts at an earlier age, but
it definitely gets felt in college. We could talk about
that in the NBA. Same thing happens in the NBA
because they know they're going to play the next night. Yeah,
it's if it's a tough way to live, I'm reality
it is.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And I'm glad you noticed that too, because it doesn't
matter if you're talking about a top ten team or
you know one team that's you know, from a mid
to a high major. It seems like that we have
a lot of blowouts going on out there right now.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Those are really good reasons with Tom Creane.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
He's on the Anymore Automotive Group potline ESPN Peacock as
of last night, and just does a great job in
breaking down stuff for us.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Tom. I appreciate it as always. We will do this
again soon.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
If we don't talk before Christmas, you and the family
have a very merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
You two.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
And stay healthy when you're playing pickup basketball on campus now,
no tour basel next year.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I just played health. I played last night. I played
last night at Cina Grove until eleven o'clock. Buddy, good
for you.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Hell everybody, all your listeners back there. Merry Christmas and
happy Holidays for all of that too.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So thanks, we'll do Tom, Thank you very much
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.