April 10, 2024 • 41 mins
More college athletes are deciding to stay in school because of NIL
John Calipari is officially out as the Kentucky head coach
Guest: Ethan Strauss
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
All right, here we go, Hour two. It's the Herd.
Wherever you may be and however you may be listening.
Thanks for making us part of your day. Best coaching
college basketball is certainly an argument. Dan Hurley last hour,
and before we get to Ethan Strauss, who does remarkable
work substack and podcast, he's going to talk about House
of Strauss is what it's called. I'm a diehard. He's
(00:46):
going to talk about Caitlin Clark, the rise of women's basketball.
By the way, men's basketball did not get the women's number,
but men's college basketball had a very good tournament as well.
It was the rise of college basketball, which on the
men's side feels like sort of a lighter, diminished, diluted
product since one and done when he took over the
sport about ten fifteen years ago. So we'll get to
(01:08):
that in a second.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
J Mac.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So you and I remember that dynasty, of which, for
the record, Ethan Strauss wrote that book The Victory Machine,
The Making and Unmaking of the World Champion Warriors Dynasty. Right, Oh,
so he knows all about it.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
KD had that year about twenty was at nineteen when
he was fighting through all those injuries, and then they
got him back. He had a bunch of injuries lower body,
you know, injuries. They got him back into the playoffs.
He tore his achilles and that was the beginning of
the end of KD. So I just want you to
think about because what was happening before that. He was
bristling a little, There were some personality conflicts. There was
(01:45):
a lot of pressure now to win another championship, sort
of like Iyanus who this year has had several lower
body injuries. They rush him back. He got injured last
night just walking up the floor. And you only get
to be Superman so long in this league. Okay, he
(02:05):
gave us eight years of the Cape where he was
never hurt. So this year and last year, Giannis is
getting banged up like KD. He's got a title like KD.
Feel like they're forcing him back. And remember this team
maybe a two seed in the East. They're fifteen and
fourteen against the West, and they're trying to get titles.
So I'm gonna throw it out there. They've given up
(02:26):
their first round picks either because of pickswaps or they
had to get Dame or Drew Holliday, so they don't
really have first round picks. And it's an old roster
where Bobby Portis is the kid and he's twenty nine.
So let me ask you again. The Sixers get embid.
They're not beating Boston. The Sixers get embid. I take
the Sixers. They hopefully get the Caves. They don't want Miami.
(02:48):
So it does it look like a little like KD
where we perceive it nice guy as sending player, gets
a title or two, and then there's pressure, his personality
a little snippy, not necessarily comfortable, you're hearing things. They
rush him back in a very pivotal year, gets hurt,
(03:10):
and it all changes.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, there's probably something there. I just and Strauss can
talk about it at length. But I'm sure the Kevin
Durant angle that he couldn't deal with was he went
to a team that had beaten him the year before,
and it wasn't quote unquote his team. They were Steph
Curry's team Truck. And Kat has those rabbit ears where
he hears and reads my Instagram stuff and he has issues.
(03:35):
I don't know that Yannis is live fans.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I would say, Yannis hears things too. Oh remember when
he came Greece. He's a good kid. He just he
see him at McDonald's on the ig. He's one of
the people. And then he gets coaches fired and another
and they moved Drew Holiday the Hail Mary for Dame.
I like Jiannis, but he's now been westernized. He wants titles.
(04:00):
They have no first round picks. It's an old roster.
How do you do a reboot? Nobody wants old, average
expensive guys. The only way out to get more titles
for Jannis to me is leave. This roster needs remaking.
They don't have the picks. Who are they gonna move
outside of Jannis to get anybody. Nobody's given anything up
for Bobby portis older Dame, So I mean you're you're
(04:22):
you're in that you're trapped.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I would agree, Yeah, he needs to get out to win.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And if they get bounced early by Philly or Miami,
then it gets louder.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Def Cone one for sure in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Listen, the Warriors will take him. You can have five
first round picks and Jonathan kaminga my.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Nicks have them, can put together a better package.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, I think if I was New York, I would
go all in and.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Then you go runs Anernobi and Janni's as like a
big three.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
No, I don't disagree with it all right. He wrote
The Victory Machine, The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty.
House of Strauss is his pod cast aerodyite, smart, self aware.
We love Ethan Strauss, so let's let's so let's go
to that. Because you were covering that Warriors team and
there was there was you could feel it before it happened.
(05:12):
Draymond first of all, is confrontational. Kd's not. So that
wasn't perfect. Kerr can use volume. He can be confrontational.
So before do you remember that twenty nineteen year did
you feel like they were there was pressure and they
were rushing Katie back a little.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
I felt like they were. I felt like he wanted
to come back. Because if you remember Colin, what happened
when he was out. Certainly they wanted him to return,
but the Warriors just got more beloved without him. It
was what so many basketball fans wanted. They wanted a
team where it didn't feel stacked, where it didn't feel decadent.
(05:52):
And I believe if they had pulled it off and
they had won without him, which they still could have
done potentially if not for Clay Thompson tearing his ACL,
it would have been a bit of a mark against him.
So there was this external pressure. I know you would disagree.
I know you would say that we're full of it,
that he just wanted to return, because he wanted to return,
(06:12):
but there was a lot of outside noise and it's
very difficult to know what the right decision should have been.
But it did not feel like the right decision, even
if when he had just drained a bunch of three
pointers and the Warriors were up on the Raptors in
his return game, a championship felt so inevitable. And man,
I've never seen a stadium more despondent than that Toronto
(06:33):
crowd at that moment before it all came undone for
the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So we both watched women's college basketball now. I've made
the argument that the ratings were massive in eighty three,
but the quality of the product was not as good.
So when Cheryl Miller jettison college basketball, it went back
to being really a second class citizen compared to other
basketball like NBA men's college basketball. But the quality of
(06:56):
women's basketball now is very good. Generation of young ladies
being encouraged to be athletes. The system is better, the
play is significantly better, but it is a phenomenon. Caitlin
Clark is a phenom, and phenoms like Tiger and MJ
trees don't grow to the sky. I think it will
come down. Let's start with this, though, Ethan, because this
(07:18):
is the kind of thought piece that you specialize in.
Why did we see such a massive surge this year
with Caitlin.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Well, I think they were in the right position for
it to happen. It was it was Caitlyn Clark. What
did you say that It wasn't that she was riding
a wave or they were riding a wave. She was
the wave. I mean, it's incredible those final four games,
the one that featured her got twice as many viewers
as the other one against it, So there's a huge
component of it being her. But if you look at
(07:52):
women's college basketball, it's been very stable in its viewership,
where the final gets around five million, six million for
years and years and years, as a lot of other
properties and leagues are declining a popularity. I think it
has an advantage over some of these other leagues. One
of them is the familiarity factor where the women stay
(08:13):
four years because the salaries in the WNBA are comparatively meager,
and then we get used to them and they become
these brands. And that's something that you don't even see
certainly as much in the men's college game because of
one and done. But also obviously in the NBA in
the player empowerment era, where we've seen so many guys
Kyrie Irving, what teams he on, James Harden bouncing around,
(08:36):
Kawhi Leonard, they're all men without a country. And then
speaking of country, Colin, I think this is the most
underrated factor in my opinion. I think it's underrated because
the people who make decisions, executives, they're not the most
nationalist people. They travel a lot, their passports are well used,
but a lot of people in the United States, the country, nationhood.
(08:57):
These things matter to them, and these play and women's
college basketball are by and large from America, and there
are trade offs. It's no slight. It's not Jogic's fault
that he's a prodigy and he's from Eastern Europe. But
there's a barrier of entry. It's harder to get to
know him, yeah, for the American customer than it is
to get to know Caitlin Clark. So I think those factors,
(09:18):
the familiarity factor and also just the American factor, those
are two that are differentiating it and helping it have
this huge moment with Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, no, we largely agree. It's you know, it's interesting
how NIL and the transfer portal were seen as sort
of enemies of college sports. I would argue I saw
a story today where the Ravens general manager, the Baltimore
raven GM Eric Acosta, said the NIL is actually going
to keep college players in college longer. And I thought,
(09:49):
what a win for college football that NFL guys are
going to stay in college. And I think, actually, and
this is the way the world works. Change freaks people out,
and so our initial reaction to changes.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Whoa whoa, whoa whoa I don't like.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I can remember when the speed limit changing was a
national discussion for a year and a half. And so
when you look at the transfer portal in the NIL,
could you argue the NIL will save college basketball, not
hurt it.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
I think you could certainly argue that you want it
maybe to be a little less player empowerment esque in
the NBA. You don't want guys changed in teams all
the time. But I think the payment, the payment I
think has been good. I think it's professionalized it. I
think a lot of people, as you were saying, were
freaked out about the whole thing and it was all
going to come unraveled. It's been the opposite. Nobody calling
(10:44):
five years ago would have predicted this college football boom.
I don't think anybody was saying, you know, the sport
of the future, it's college football, and yet it seems
to be happening, even with the dissolution of all these
conferences and things people hold dear. They're really into it,
and I think there's professionalization for whatever reason, has worked
for college football. It's worked for women's basketball, and I
(11:05):
do think it's worked for men's basketball as well. I
think the narrative is a little bit off. Yeah, the
women's game got viewed more than the men's game. It
means something. But then again, the men's game was on
cable TV, the women's game was on network TV.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think college basketball right now it's fine, and it
might be in a good spot currently to grow and
to harness some of this new world order that they've
created with Nil.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know, Michael Jordan, smartly or not, was a political
whereas Lebron, and maybe it's a cultural change or just
his personality. He was very reticent to go into politics.
If you read early book Jeff Benedict, a book Don Lebron,
he didn't want to go into politics, and then the
Trump stuff happened that he did. But he's a little
(11:49):
more political, more willing to engage in racial discussions, and
because that's polarizing, he'll never be quite as popular or worshiped,
I believe as MJ. Although I think he basically as
a basketball player, does virtually everything better or at a
higher level. And it's interesting. So there's this polarized Magic
wasn't polarizing. I don't think doctor J was. MJ wasn't.
(12:11):
Shaq wasn't lebron Is, and so when his son announces
he may enter the NBA draft, there's pushback. And my
argument this week is you ever seen a plumbing truck.
They always say Johnson and Sons, this is what we do.
When I started a business, I leaned into friends and
people I knew. I'm not bothered in the weakest draft
(12:31):
in years taking Brownie. If you're the Lakers at fifty five,
an athletic young guy who can shoot a little, how
do you think it'll play if it happens. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I think that's a great point, by the way, and
I think the media hasn't exactly been honest. And this
is gonna be the theme of our discussion Colin is
trade offs.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
You can internationalize your game, as the NBA and MLB
have and get more popular around the world, but the
trade off is maybe Americans aren't gonna like it as much.
You can be political, maybe that's what you fervently believe
and you feel like it's your moral duty, but the
tradeoff is you might not be as popular. I don't
think the media has been honest about it, and that's
a factor we didn't even mention with Caitlyn Clark where
(13:13):
she's been tapped, dancing through a rainstorm without getting wet,
being a neutral party and not commenting on anything, particularly fraud,
and it seems like there's a hunger for that out
there and a lot of people want that kind of thing.
Lebron wasn't that exactly. He got into the culture war
at a very heightened time, and I think even worse
than that, this is a subtle point. I just don't
(13:35):
think he was very good at it. I think that
other people who got into that space just seemed like
they were more authentic and they had more to say,
and it almost seemed like it was a way of
trying to leap frog Mike by being more important and
being more like Ali. And this is what I heard
from people around Nike, and it seemed like a marketing ploy.
And so not only did you have people offended because
they're just going to be offended on the basis of politics,
(13:57):
there was an aspect of fakeness to it. And then
it leads to what you're talking about, which is people
start getting mad at you for things that ordinarily they
might shrug off and not care about, such as your
son being a second round or whatever, and joining the team. Look,
it's weird. I don't think it's any occasion to be
angry about it. I just think it's a very odd
story if his son isn't up to the NBA level
(14:18):
and he's on an NBA team. But it certainly doesn't
morally offend me.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I want to go back finally, because you're really good
at Kevin Durant, and Kevin would get upset with you.
But I always feel like Kevin actually is paying you
respect when he acknowledges you, because that means he read
you and he's not brushing you off. And Durant has
often said he likes to go into battles on Twitter.
He likes to connect with people. And so last night
(14:45):
the Sons were down thirty five to four at home.
That's like a high school mismatch. And years ago when
people got into this, KD is better than Lebron, I
said time out. I said to me, Lebron is foundational,
whereas you know, KD is just a beautiful new kitchen.
They're both great, But one guy I can build completely
(15:06):
around offense, defense, coaching, leadership, calling it home leader on
the plane. Another guy is just a shot maker. The
Phoenix story for both Jmack and I, we both whiffed
on it. Did you have a sense that, despite Booker
and Beal and KD, did you have a sense it
wouldn't be as rosy as many of us projected it
(15:29):
would be.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
It's funny in a way, it's even rosier than I
thought it would be. I thought it would be far
more contentious and there would be a lot more drama.
In a way, it just seems like there's not a
lot of drama. The encore product is what's disappointing out there.
And yeah, it's one of these mercenary squads. And this
gets into the broader conversation about the NBA. Not only
(15:54):
do the organic the organic teams, the drafted corps, that's
what people want to see. I also think that's typically
what's better. You know, there are exceptions, we can find them,
but the Sun's squad it just feels a little bit
too much like pickup basketball.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Nobody held a gun to my head. And as for
any sort of prediction on the Suns, but I would
say that I am not surprised by the difficulties they're having,
and if anything, they've exceeded expectations in certain respects, such
as Kevin Durant's level of play at this age. Yeah,
after the injuries, it's incredible. But it's no surprise to
(16:33):
me that the whole is not greater than the sum
of its parts. I think that was almost guaranteed. And
this whole thing came together.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So it's called House of Strauss. Google it, look it up.
I am a listener regularly, always engaging, very thoughtful. We
love bringing him on. Ethan Strauss, who is a guy
that never stops working or thinking. And it's good seeing
you again, my man.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Oh, it's excellent seeing you Colin.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Thanks so much, Ethan Strauss. It's interesting sometimes we believe
that all great athletes are great leaders, and I always
felt like Jeter had great leadership skills. A rob was
just a great athlete. Doesn't mean he couldn't lead, but
it never felt quite natural or organic to him. May
have been if you went and looked at how they
were raised their families. Jeter came from a very formidable background.
(17:23):
Maybe that helped. Same with you know, I do think
it matters. Peyton Manning's one of the great leaders of
all time. Dad played in the NFL very close family.
Some of that stuff I think really matters. But like
not all great players are great leaders. They can just
get your buckets. And I always felt KD is that
it's not a criticism, it's a reality. And he doesn't
(17:43):
you know, maybe he doesn't even watch me, but he
does dm J Mack. But do you also what do
they call that?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
You tag him?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You bet? When I talk about him on the podcast,
you tag him, and you don't give a quick preview
for everybody. And then within like thirty minutes, Katie's like,
what the hell are you talking about? The food? You know,
he actually told me I looked like a drama major.
I was like, I'm never acted in anything, but I
love sports.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Well, I saw the picture of you with two earrings,
just relaxed.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
That was, you know, it was like drama man years
ago in college.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
In college, by the way, of course, yeah, I thought, well,
you got to look the part. You were hirable at
that point.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Listen, I went to spring break with the family last
week spring break in college. I can still vividly remember,
like ten hours of you came.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Back shockingly disappointed with vacation.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I don't want to talk about I'm no vacation was fine.
There was a certain individual there who's famous and a
you know, an idiot, and I'm just disappointed that I
had to like almost share a hot tub with this clown.
So but overall it was it was a good, good vacation.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's going to agree.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Don't say that stuff on air. Come on, I got
way too many people who, well, we know the audience
is growing for the show, but I got a lot
of family members who listened. And I don't need to
answer these questions.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Okay, you put it off one more Heard The Herd
streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week
within the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or
on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
By the way, we were talking about this with Ethan Strauss.
Eric DeCosta, the GM of the Baltimore Ravens, said, the
NIL and the NCAA rule changes mean more draftable players
are staying in college. That is really good for college football.
That means guys that could play in the NFL will
stay in college, so you get quality, better product more.
(19:28):
I mean, if more guys in college, if Zach Eatie
was coming back for another year of college, that would
be a big win. For college basketball. Caitlin Clark coming back.
She was good enough last year to play in the WNBA.
Then she comes back and dominates the sport another year.
So college football, and this is sort of a cautionary tale.
Don't overreact to stuff like just don't overreact. As a
(19:48):
general rule, the last twelve months of college football have
been great for the sport. Texas Oklahoma going from the
smaller profile of the Big twelve Join us, the bigger
profile of the SEC is great for the sport. USC Washington,
Oregon ucla smaller profile, PAC twelve dissolving into the Big
(20:11):
ten a much bigger profile, great for the sport. Four
team playoff about to be a twelve team playoff. Even
the transfer portal ooh bad for the sport. About eight
to ten guys per team transfer. You have eighty five scholarships,
seventy five guys stay the bottom line. It does allow
big brands like an LSU to rebuild more quickly than
(20:35):
years previous. That's a good sign. The NIL is now
becoming good news. Everybody's fearful of change college football. According
to the people at this network that are paid to
predict the ratings, they're telling me next year is going
to be up ten to fifteen percent. Now Michigan won't
be as good. Ohio State, though, will be better. Maybe
(20:59):
Oklahoma's not as good, Texas should be better, maybe Washington's
not as good, Oregon USC should be better. So it's
you know, everybody, nobody likes change, and everybody freaks out.
But if you really look at the nil, the transfer portal,
the playoff pack twelve's top four brands moving into the
(21:21):
Big ten, Texas, Oklahoma moving into the SEC, these are
not killing college football, which many of you claimed. They
are going to elevate it by ten to fifteen percent
minimum in the ratings. By the way, the women's ratings.
As Ethan Strauss said, why did they go up? Continuity?
(21:41):
Big brands story like Texas and Sark This year Sark
got close. Here comes Sark again. That's going to be
a big story. All right, take a deep breath. Everything
new isn't bad. College football's had a great twelve months
(22:01):
and you're gonna see it pop by Labor Day. J
Mack with the news, No, no, no, turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
This is the herd Line news.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Let's start with somebody who left college football for the pros.
Jim Harbaugh. He is now with the Chargers, and according
to a pretty cool report, he's bringing some college tactics
with him, so Colin. Apparently, Jim Harbaugh's made some changes
to the Chargers locker room, adding each player's recruiting level
from high school to their name plates, ranging from unranked
(22:32):
to five star. The pushback has been that this is
only gonna work in college, just won't work in the
pros where guys make a lot of money. But Harball
has been with the Niners before. I just like different
and change and anything Harball's doing that wasn't what his
predecessors were doing for me is a big one.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
We know Stalley struggle and wouldn't that work at the
pro level? To college? Are players not inspired or driven?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well, you know that whole theory that the you can
do the raw ross stuff in college that works to
get teenagers in twenty one year olds all excited. That
don't work with twenty five year olds. They want to
be shown the money in.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The college football. Increasingly, guys want to be shown the money.
So college football the NBA looks like a different sport
than college basket.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
By the way, that's a great point. Did you see
that Purdue game Perdue, Connecticut. That was not what the
Warriors and Lakers were playing. That's a totally different game.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
College baseball doesn't look anything close to Major League Baseball,
which is highly international. College football in the NFL are
very similar, many of the same offenses, many of the
same schemes. Because you stay in college for three and
four years, you walk into the NFL and are immediately productive.
When you watch Texas play Washington or you watch, you know,
(23:42):
Alabama play Michigan, you're looking at twenty guys they're going
to play in the NFL the next year. In college basketball,
we're not sure Zach een he's gonna get drafted in
the first round. So the truth is, the stronger or
closer your college system looks compared visa B to your
pro system or pro league, the more popular it is
(24:02):
in college football. Stuff that works at college works in
the NFL. Andy Reid steals stuff from college all the time.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, well, plays are one thing. Letting the whole locker
room know, hey, this guy was a five star. Imagine listen,
how's a guy like Bosa gonna handle some of this
like a five star? One of the highs paid and.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Dude stop being sold hurt. Well, I'm we'll see.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I think Harba's gonna rankle some people. This is not
gonna be for everyone, right, you know this, but this
is New sheriff in Town.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
On the NBA. Players get rankled, players get removed. The
coach runs the show. Successful NFL coaches run the show.
Mike Tomlin's running it in Pittsburgh. It's not the players.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So Doc Rivers takes over in Milwaukee. Fire fist. Yeah,
that's not working.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Don it doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Jim Marball comes in. He's had a lot of success everywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I've seen his contract. Have you mean you've read it online?
They moved off Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. They're not
moving off Harball.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Let's heading into the draft here. Next story. A lot
of noise that the Giants are going to draft a
quarterback at six, so they're bringing in guys, they're talking
to guys. But according to friend of the show Albert Breer,
he spoke to Giants GM Joe Shane, who says New
York is not locked into drafting a quarterback as they
have many other needs. If the quarterbacks go one to four,
(25:19):
that We're getting the second best position player, not a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's I was told by an NFL person Friday or
Saturday that the New York Giants, more than any team
in the top ten, had the most situational draft. That
if Drake may or Jaden Daniels falls to them, they
suspect the Giants would take them. If both are gobbled
(25:46):
up and Marvin Harrison fell, oh they would take him.
They need a receiver. Also, if the top two receivers
and the two quarterbacks they like are gone or three,
they will move down potentially, right, he said, the New
York Giants are gonna be patient and just watch the
first five picks in front of them. They have not
(26:08):
he was told this in the room in New York.
They have not made a decision. They are open to anything.
It's all circumstance based, which for the Giants, which have
multiple needs, is the way to approach this draft.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
So here's how I viewed this colin. A lot of
this this is the silly season, smoke screen season, right.
A lot of rumors or this person said this a
source here, this is the GM coming out and saying
quotes like you don't see that a lot. I wonder
I'm gonna bounce this off you. A lot of quarterbacks
smoke around the Giants. Daniel Jones, What the heck is
(26:42):
going on here? I'm injured for one year and they
want to move Do you think there's a little job
of appeasing Daniel Jones? Here? Heye, we invested in you.
Don't listen all this stuff about a quarterback. We're gonna
handle the draft like grown adults. We're not just gonna reward.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
What do you do on the Giants?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
What would you do?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
It was either the one who gave Davia.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Well, I would move I would move back and get
a quarterback. I think you could move back and still
get Bonnicks or Michael Pennock.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Sure, but who's trading up for Joe Alt or Romadu?
I don't know that you trade up for Romadu?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
All Right, I.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Don't know the Giants are in a great spot, but
I do think that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
They have three needs. They have three to four needs
just on offense.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Well, did you see the report that Darren Waller now
may just retire, apparently he wants to go into music.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well, if you even consider that, I'm moving on at
tight end, I would draft another tight end.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I mean, so now you got another need. I mean,
they got needs all over it.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
If I considered acting, if I started talking about acting,
Fox should probably find another home.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I've been talking about screenplays for a while.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well different, you can do that at home. That's different
than like going to acting class.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
By spare time.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
Yeah yeah, all right.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Final story is, let's go to your one of your
favorite players in the league. Jalen Brunson drop forty five
last night here, forty point game, and the NIXT went
over the balls with the win. The Knicks are in
third in the East.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
What a great thader his because they don't have This
team is a lot of just guys and Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Now that Randall's out, Yeah, it's kind of a bummer
Randalls out because we know this ceiling is limited without him.
But this is Brunson's tenth forty point game of the season.
Joining Bernard King and Patrick Ewing, is the only Knicks
players with multiple streaks of forty point games in the season.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I told you when I went and saw him a
Friday in Chicago. When you go to NBA games, you
do notice little things that you wouldn't notice watching on TV.
He is even quicker in person. You can't stand in
front of him. He is so. He's got great, great
finishing package, great handles, excellent first step. He is really
(28:48):
clever in.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Person, easy to root for. I'm surprised were joining Bernard
King and Patrick Ewing. No Carmelo Anthony Huh.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Bernard King arguably second most underrated player in league history
after Gus Williams. Gus Williams and Bernard Williams.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Great settled down?
Speaker 3 (29:06):
What oh?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
He was unbelievable player.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I man Jalen Brunston and Gus Williams. Don't you dare
say Gus?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Come on, Gus Williams won a title for two years.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
The best player on that team. I don't know if
I was.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Gus Williams was the best player on that team. Shelton,
John Johnson, Marvin when.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
The modern erwards? Did they have three pointers back there?
Come on? Was there a shot clock guy?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Lennie Wilkins, Wally Walker, coach Downtown, Freddie Brown?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Oh, I know that name.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah. And by the way the ball went through the net,
it wasn't a basket, It wasn't a peach basket.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
It was a net geez, the Knicks aren't the biggest
threat to the Celtics in the.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
East, right, No, but Brunson's fantastic fun. Okay, if I
gave you the four, okay, I'm gonna give you the
five biggest stars in Nick's history. No, I'm going to
give it, and then you give me in order.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Sorry, don't give me four because Patrick Ewings in there.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Walt Fraser and Walt Walt Fraser, who was better than Monroe?
I'm not gonna do Willis Reied, Walt Fraser, Ewing, Mellow
and Jalen Brunson. Wait a minute, who are they give
me in order? Jeremy lynts he was good for an hour?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
The trust will come on.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Okay, I'm trying. I'm saying there's another Glarry Johnson was
I'm talking the foremost. And so if I said Fraser, Ewing,
Mellow and Brunton in order, I would go Ewing, Brunson, Fraser, Melon,
What about Bernard King? Let's do five?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Then, I mean just hyping up there.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I love Bernard King's game was great?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
How about this? Trent Tucker?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Gosh, Okay, so what would you do? You know?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Tell you I love Mellow? I was the biggest Mellow
fan when he was at Syracuse. Didn't love what happened
with the Knicks, so I would have him later in
the time.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I think ewing has to be one into just a
force of nature. After that, Bernard King was the best
pure score to meet Mellow. Mellow left so many points.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
He didn't make anyone else better.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
That ever hurt the most. But I gotta tell you something,
Jayleen Brunson now.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Fronts and over Mellow for me.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Absolutely yeah, Sorry Trout Tucker.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
It's funny the NBA, like former players love Carmelo. They
think he's like the I saw video. Some guys like
Carmelo Anthony is a better score than KD.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
And that's why players aren't general managers. Players love a
lot of play. You know, they're into a lot of guys.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthey, that's who they love.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
J Mack with the news.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the
Herd Line. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern non a em Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern. But here's the thing, we
never have enough time to get to everything we want
to get.
Speaker 6 (31:54):
To, and that's why we have a brand new podcast
called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun
in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, you blubber list me.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Well, you know what it's called over promise. You should
be good at it because you've been over promising women
for years.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Well, it's a Covino and Rich after show and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Well, if you don't get enough.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Covino and Rich, make sure you check out over Promised
and also Uncensored by the way, so maybe we'll go
at it even a little harder. It's gonna be the
best after show podcast of all time.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
There you go, over Promising, and remember you could see
on YouTube, but definitely join us listen over promised with
Cavino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Saturday on FS one, a bitter rivalry is brewing in
the lone Star State. Now Corey Seeger and the reigning
champion Rangers battle Jose Alf dub and the Astros. It
all begins at four eastern on FS one.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Best coach arb Ubley in college basketball college sports is
Dan Hurley at Yukon. He'll join us next hour. So
John Calipari is officially out at Kentucky his choosing, although
nobody in the you know, booster or athletic departments probably
losing sleep. He was very successful early, not as successful
as many thought he should be, but he was successful.
(33:24):
You know, if you go back through the years, I've
always had sort of a mantra, It's not about being right,
it's about getting it right. So if I find new information,
I've got new opinions. But there have been a five
or six athletes that I have gone against the grain
of public sentiment. Y'all love Carmelo Anthony, and I'd said
from the very beginning, he's not a winning player. I's right,
(33:45):
He's not a winning player. I said, Johnny Manziel, who
was on SKIP today, I said, that's that's not an
NFL quarterback. Nick Saban said he was. I said he's
not Tim Tebow. The country went bananas, they went nuts,
they went crazy. I said, it's never gonna last. You know,
Baker Mayfield I thought was a draftable quarterback. He was
a reach. I wouldn't have drafted him because I thought
(34:07):
he wasn't ready for the NFL kind of the maturity stuff.
But he's a he's a good football player. But I
thought he was a reach at number one and it
would sort of unravel, his personality would unravel. And I
was right. Russell Westbrook when he was winning MVP, I said,
that's all stats. He doesn't make teammates better. He's hard
to play with. So I think eventually, on the five
(34:28):
or six or seven times that I've been against the grain,
I think mostly overwhelmingly I've been right. I've had bad days,
bad segments. I've been wrong individually on stuff, but I
spent a lot of time on all those athletes. Somebody
else I've pushed back on his John Calipari in recent years,
I called it John Calapanzi. It feels like a scheme.
And the reason I said that was is that when
(34:51):
there's a fine line between salesmen and coach in college sports,
every coach, every level softball, you got to be a
salesman because the players are selecting you. You're not drafting them.
Coach k Dan Hurley, Bill Self, Jay Wright, Tom Izzol,
They've all got to sell. But at their core their
(35:12):
coaches seventy five percent and salesman twenty five percent. I
felt with Calipari the scales were the opposite. Everything was
a sales job, every press conference, pregame, postgame, losing, and
I really felt strongly about my position about five years
ago when I thought he couldn't even get his sales
pitch right because he was struggling in the tournament, he
(35:34):
started down playing it. Hey, I'm not here just to win.
Winning is not why i'm here. I'm here to make
these kids rich. Excuse me, No, Nick Saban made the
money because he won titles. When you lose, when you're
not a great coach, you're fine, and you're a salesman
(35:55):
and you can't get the sales pitch right. You know,
it's not about March. It is completely That's why you're
leaving a better job for lesser job. If you were
winning in March, you wouldn't be leaving. It's about winning
in March. Stop projecting that you're making kids rich. You're
a pit stop in their life. They'd get rich without you.
(36:16):
You can be better than other coaches. But when he
got the sales pitch wrong, then I knew he was
in trouble because that was always a strength. He had
a pitch. He had a pitch, and now he's leaving
a great job for an okay job. Arkansas basketball is
you know, Radar barely picks it up. It is what
(36:38):
it is. It's okay, it's not top ten, it's not
top fifteen. You know, it is what it is. And John,
who's no dummy, who's not a terrible coach, who is
an elite recruiter. Although I would argue is he developing
players or just recruiting? You can argue both sides. Here
was his pitch on Lee Kentucky.
Speaker 7 (37:02):
This is a dream job. It was my dream job.
The last few weeks, we've come to realize that this
program probably needs to hear another voice, and the fans
need to hear another voice. We've loved it here, but
(37:24):
we think it's time for us to step away.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
For the record, he will succeed at Arkansas. He will
win at Arkansas. He'll land top recruits at Arkansas. There's
a lot of money in Arkansas. There's a lot two
or three major corporations.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
There are a lot.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Got three mega boosters in Arkansas. Two you've heard of,
one you haven't. The one you haven't had a falling
out with Musselman, the previous coach he ended up at USC.
So that's why Musselman left. It wasn't because he wasn't
winning or wasn't a great coach. He had a falling
out with one of the big basketball boosters. And John
can schmooze, he can recruit, it'll be great, he'll win games.
(38:01):
But again, the reason the great coach is like Saban
Dabo Sweeney, the reason they endure and last because they're
more coach than sales guy. It is okay after you
lose a game to say this hurts. I'm paid to
win in March and I'm losing to Saint Peter's. This
(38:22):
is totally on me. It was a bad coaching job.
No need to project, no need to say it's I
feel bad for the kids. Hey, don't you feel bad
for you because you're gonna get heat from your athletic
director and your boosters. It's bad for you, not the kids.
The kids are gonna go all on to the NBA
and get rich. You losing in March is not bad
for the kids. It's bad for you. And it's okay
to say that. It's okay to show pain, it's okay
(38:44):
to hurt, it's okay to lose, but acknowledge it. Don't
come up with sales pitch. Eight minutes later in the
postgame press conference, I'm not anti Calipari, but I think
he tips the scales on the salesman stuff to the
coach stuff. And if you want to endure at any
level of college coaching, coaching is number one. Salesmanship has
to be it does. Pete Carroll could sell, Mac Brown
(39:07):
could sell. Pete was a great coach, and to this
point at USC, all these years later, they've never found
a coach as good as Pete Carroll, all these years later, Sark, Kiffin,
Lincoln Riley not bad coaches. They've never found another Pete.
They could all sell. Pete may have been the best
at selling, but he was also the best coach. All right,
Jay Mac, I'm not being too harsh. I don't think
(39:30):
i'm being but but you know, on this one, about
six years ago, I stopped buying all the ESPN fluff
on Calipari and said, this thing ain't working. This shtick
ain't working, and it's more stick than it is structure.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
If we're ranking nicknames, you know, I love a good
rank Calipanzi maybe number one that you've ever come up with.
I don't know if that was yours or you got
that from a sorcer or somebody that every time you
say it, I laugh over here, and I'm sure you
see me laughing. I just think it's funny.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
He will win at Arkansas? Win what games?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well, I would hope he would win some games. What
you know, what does that matter?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
He'll get into the tournament and win. He'll win games.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Can he get to a final four?
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Nope? Damn? All right, And by the way, Alabama now
has a great coach.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Nis is good. I don't want to go overboard. All right,
how much time do we have a minute?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
We have a minute left?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Go ahead, let me ask masters is this weekend? You know,
I'm a big college basketball gambler. It's over now, nothing
to gamble on. But the Masters is here and I
got invited to some pools where you invest in golfers?
Do you do you have any golf on who I'm
just kidding. I know who he is. But that's somebody
you think has a shot.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Well need the world's best golfer.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Now that's the problem. I'm so locked in on hoops.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
You you are going to bet on stuff you don't follow.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
No, I'll go to trusted people that I know who
follow golf and bet on golf.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I have a friend that bets on golf, and I'll
trust him.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
He says, Rom.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Well, it's his favorite golfer and he's great.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
So is this your son that's his favorite golfriend?
Speaker 7 (41:02):
Jo?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
No, no, oh, of course I'll want. NBA season wraps
up Sunday, playing starts Tuesday. Hey, I can get you
some of my tickets next week if you want. He
had the old binnocks up last night. He was text
messaging me. They could barely transmit through to my phone.
He was so far away
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
All right, here we go, Hour two. It's the Herd.
Wherever you may be and however you may be listening.
Thanks for making us part of your day. Best coaching
college basketball is certainly an argument. Dan Hurley last hour,
and before we get to Ethan Strauss, who does remarkable
work substack and podcast, he's going to talk about House
of Strauss is what it's called. I'm a diehard. He's
(00:46):
going to talk about Caitlin Clark, the rise of women's basketball.
By the way, men's basketball did not get the women's number,
but men's college basketball had a very good tournament as well.
It was the rise of college basketball, which on the
men's side feels like sort of a lighter, diminished, diluted
product since one and done when he took over the
sport about ten fifteen years ago. So we'll get to
(01:08):
that in a second.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
J Mac.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So you and I remember that dynasty, of which, for
the record, Ethan Strauss wrote that book The Victory Machine,
The Making and Unmaking of the World Champion Warriors Dynasty. Right, Oh,
so he knows all about it.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
KD had that year about twenty was at nineteen when
he was fighting through all those injuries, and then they
got him back. He had a bunch of injuries lower body,
you know, injuries. They got him back into the playoffs.
He tore his achilles and that was the beginning of
the end of KD. So I just want you to
think about because what was happening before that. He was
bristling a little, There were some personality conflicts. There was
(01:45):
a lot of pressure now to win another championship, sort
of like Iyanus who this year has had several lower
body injuries. They rush him back. He got injured last
night just walking up the floor. And you only get
to be Superman so long in this league. Okay, he
(02:05):
gave us eight years of the Cape where he was
never hurt. So this year and last year, Giannis is
getting banged up like KD. He's got a title like KD.
Feel like they're forcing him back. And remember this team
maybe a two seed in the East. They're fifteen and
fourteen against the West, and they're trying to get titles.
So I'm gonna throw it out there. They've given up
(02:26):
their first round picks either because of pickswaps or they
had to get Dame or Drew Holliday, so they don't
really have first round picks. And it's an old roster
where Bobby Portis is the kid and he's twenty nine.
So let me ask you again. The Sixers get embid.
They're not beating Boston. The Sixers get embid. I take
the Sixers. They hopefully get the Caves. They don't want Miami.
(02:48):
So it does it look like a little like KD
where we perceive it nice guy as sending player, gets
a title or two, and then there's pressure, his personality
a little snippy, not necessarily comfortable, you're hearing things. They
rush him back in a very pivotal year, gets hurt,
(03:10):
and it all changes.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, there's probably something there. I just and Strauss can
talk about it at length. But I'm sure the Kevin
Durant angle that he couldn't deal with was he went
to a team that had beaten him the year before,
and it wasn't quote unquote his team. They were Steph
Curry's team Truck. And Kat has those rabbit ears where
he hears and reads my Instagram stuff and he has issues.
(03:35):
I don't know that Yannis is live fans.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I would say, Yannis hears things too. Oh remember when
he came Greece. He's a good kid. He just he
see him at McDonald's on the ig. He's one of
the people. And then he gets coaches fired and another
and they moved Drew Holiday the Hail Mary for Dame.
I like Jiannis, but he's now been westernized. He wants titles.
(04:00):
They have no first round picks. It's an old roster.
How do you do a reboot? Nobody wants old, average
expensive guys. The only way out to get more titles
for Jannis to me is leave. This roster needs remaking.
They don't have the picks. Who are they gonna move
outside of Jannis to get anybody. Nobody's given anything up
for Bobby portis older Dame, So I mean you're you're
(04:22):
you're in that you're trapped.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I would agree, Yeah, he needs to get out to win.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And if they get bounced early by Philly or Miami,
then it gets louder.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Def Cone one for sure in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Listen, the Warriors will take him. You can have five
first round picks and Jonathan kaminga my.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Nicks have them, can put together a better package.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
No, I think if I was New York, I would
go all in and.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Then you go runs Anernobi and Janni's as like a
big three.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
No, I don't disagree with it all right. He wrote
The Victory Machine, The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty.
House of Strauss is his pod cast aerodyite, smart, self aware.
We love Ethan Strauss, so let's let's so let's go
to that. Because you were covering that Warriors team and
there was there was you could feel it before it happened.
(05:12):
Draymond first of all, is confrontational. Kd's not. So that
wasn't perfect. Kerr can use volume. He can be confrontational.
So before do you remember that twenty nineteen year did
you feel like they were there was pressure and they
were rushing Katie back a little.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
I felt like they were. I felt like he wanted
to come back. Because if you remember Colin, what happened
when he was out. Certainly they wanted him to return,
but the Warriors just got more beloved without him. It
was what so many basketball fans wanted. They wanted a
team where it didn't feel stacked, where it didn't feel decadent.
(05:52):
And I believe if they had pulled it off and
they had won without him, which they still could have
done potentially if not for Clay Thompson tearing his ACL,
it would have been a bit of a mark against him.
So there was this external pressure. I know you would disagree.
I know you would say that we're full of it,
that he just wanted to return, because he wanted to return,
(06:12):
but there was a lot of outside noise and it's
very difficult to know what the right decision should have been.
But it did not feel like the right decision, even
if when he had just drained a bunch of three
pointers and the Warriors were up on the Raptors in
his return game, a championship felt so inevitable. And man,
I've never seen a stadium more despondent than that Toronto
(06:33):
crowd at that moment before it all came undone for
the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So we both watched women's college basketball now. I've made
the argument that the ratings were massive in eighty three,
but the quality of the product was not as good.
So when Cheryl Miller jettison college basketball, it went back
to being really a second class citizen compared to other
basketball like NBA men's college basketball. But the quality of
(06:56):
women's basketball now is very good. Generation of young ladies
being encouraged to be athletes. The system is better, the
play is significantly better, but it is a phenomenon. Caitlin
Clark is a phenom, and phenoms like Tiger and MJ
trees don't grow to the sky. I think it will
come down. Let's start with this, though, Ethan, because this
(07:18):
is the kind of thought piece that you specialize in.
Why did we see such a massive surge this year
with Caitlin.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
Well, I think they were in the right position for
it to happen. It was it was Caitlyn Clark. What
did you say that It wasn't that she was riding
a wave or they were riding a wave. She was
the wave. I mean, it's incredible those final four games,
the one that featured her got twice as many viewers
as the other one against it, So there's a huge
component of it being her. But if you look at
(07:52):
women's college basketball, it's been very stable in its viewership,
where the final gets around five million, six million for
years and years and years, as a lot of other
properties and leagues are declining a popularity. I think it
has an advantage over some of these other leagues. One
of them is the familiarity factor where the women stay
(08:13):
four years because the salaries in the WNBA are comparatively meager,
and then we get used to them and they become
these brands. And that's something that you don't even see
certainly as much in the men's college game because of
one and done. But also obviously in the NBA in
the player empowerment era, where we've seen so many guys
Kyrie Irving, what teams he on, James Harden bouncing around,
(08:36):
Kawhi Leonard, they're all men without a country. And then
speaking of country, Colin, I think this is the most
underrated factor in my opinion. I think it's underrated because
the people who make decisions, executives, they're not the most
nationalist people. They travel a lot, their passports are well used,
but a lot of people in the United States, the country, nationhood.
(08:57):
These things matter to them, and these play and women's
college basketball are by and large from America, and there
are trade offs. It's no slight. It's not Jogic's fault
that he's a prodigy and he's from Eastern Europe. But
there's a barrier of entry. It's harder to get to
know him, yeah, for the American customer than it is
to get to know Caitlin Clark. So I think those factors,
(09:18):
the familiarity factor and also just the American factor, those
are two that are differentiating it and helping it have
this huge moment with Kaitlyn Clark.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, no, we largely agree. It's you know, it's interesting
how NIL and the transfer portal were seen as sort
of enemies of college sports. I would argue I saw
a story today where the Ravens general manager, the Baltimore
raven GM Eric Acosta, said the NIL is actually going
to keep college players in college longer. And I thought,
(09:49):
what a win for college football that NFL guys are
going to stay in college. And I think, actually, and
this is the way the world works. Change freaks people out,
and so our initial reaction to changes.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Whoa whoa, whoa whoa I don't like.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I can remember when the speed limit changing was a
national discussion for a year and a half. And so
when you look at the transfer portal in the NIL,
could you argue the NIL will save college basketball, not
hurt it.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
I think you could certainly argue that you want it
maybe to be a little less player empowerment esque in
the NBA. You don't want guys changed in teams all
the time. But I think the payment, the payment I
think has been good. I think it's professionalized it. I
think a lot of people, as you were saying, were
freaked out about the whole thing and it was all
going to come unraveled. It's been the opposite. Nobody calling
(10:44):
five years ago would have predicted this college football boom.
I don't think anybody was saying, you know, the sport
of the future, it's college football, and yet it seems
to be happening, even with the dissolution of all these
conferences and things people hold dear. They're really into it,
and I think there's professionalization for whatever reason, has worked
for college football. It's worked for women's basketball, and I
(11:05):
do think it's worked for men's basketball as well. I
think the narrative is a little bit off. Yeah, the
women's game got viewed more than the men's game. It
means something. But then again, the men's game was on
cable TV, the women's game was on network TV.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think college basketball right now it's fine, and it
might be in a good spot currently to grow and
to harness some of this new world order that they've
created with Nil.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know, Michael Jordan, smartly or not, was a political
whereas Lebron, and maybe it's a cultural change or just
his personality. He was very reticent to go into politics.
If you read early book Jeff Benedict, a book Don Lebron,
he didn't want to go into politics, and then the
Trump stuff happened that he did. But he's a little
(11:49):
more political, more willing to engage in racial discussions, and
because that's polarizing, he'll never be quite as popular or worshiped,
I believe as MJ. Although I think he basically as
a basketball player, does virtually everything better or at a
higher level. And it's interesting. So there's this polarized Magic
wasn't polarizing. I don't think doctor J was. MJ wasn't.
(12:11):
Shaq wasn't lebron Is, and so when his son announces
he may enter the NBA draft, there's pushback. And my
argument this week is you ever seen a plumbing truck.
They always say Johnson and Sons, this is what we do.
When I started a business, I leaned into friends and
people I knew. I'm not bothered in the weakest draft
(12:31):
in years taking Brownie. If you're the Lakers at fifty five,
an athletic young guy who can shoot a little, how
do you think it'll play if it happens. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
I think that's a great point, by the way, and
I think the media hasn't exactly been honest. And this
is gonna be the theme of our discussion Colin is
trade offs.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
You can internationalize your game, as the NBA and MLB
have and get more popular around the world, but the
trade off is maybe Americans aren't gonna like it as much.
You can be political, maybe that's what you fervently believe
and you feel like it's your moral duty, but the
tradeoff is you might not be as popular. I don't
think the media has been honest about it, and that's
a factor we didn't even mention with Caitlyn Clark where
(13:13):
she's been tapped, dancing through a rainstorm without getting wet,
being a neutral party and not commenting on anything, particularly fraud,
and it seems like there's a hunger for that out
there and a lot of people want that kind of thing.
Lebron wasn't that exactly. He got into the culture war
at a very heightened time, and I think even worse
than that, this is a subtle point. I just don't
(13:35):
think he was very good at it. I think that
other people who got into that space just seemed like
they were more authentic and they had more to say,
and it almost seemed like it was a way of
trying to leap frog Mike by being more important and
being more like Ali. And this is what I heard
from people around Nike, and it seemed like a marketing ploy.
And so not only did you have people offended because
they're just going to be offended on the basis of politics,
(13:57):
there was an aspect of fakeness to it. And then
it leads to what you're talking about, which is people
start getting mad at you for things that ordinarily they
might shrug off and not care about, such as your
son being a second round or whatever, and joining the team. Look,
it's weird. I don't think it's any occasion to be
angry about it. I just think it's a very odd
story if his son isn't up to the NBA level
(14:18):
and he's on an NBA team. But it certainly doesn't
morally offend me.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I want to go back finally, because you're really good
at Kevin Durant, and Kevin would get upset with you.
But I always feel like Kevin actually is paying you
respect when he acknowledges you, because that means he read
you and he's not brushing you off. And Durant has
often said he likes to go into battles on Twitter.
He likes to connect with people. And so last night
(14:45):
the Sons were down thirty five to four at home.
That's like a high school mismatch. And years ago when
people got into this, KD is better than Lebron, I
said time out. I said to me, Lebron is foundational,
whereas you know, KD is just a beautiful new kitchen.
They're both great, But one guy I can build completely
(15:06):
around offense, defense, coaching, leadership, calling it home leader on
the plane. Another guy is just a shot maker. The
Phoenix story for both Jmack and I, we both whiffed
on it. Did you have a sense that, despite Booker
and Beal and KD, did you have a sense it
wouldn't be as rosy as many of us projected it
(15:29):
would be.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
It's funny in a way, it's even rosier than I
thought it would be. I thought it would be far
more contentious and there would be a lot more drama.
In a way, it just seems like there's not a
lot of drama. The encore product is what's disappointing out there.
And yeah, it's one of these mercenary squads. And this
gets into the broader conversation about the NBA. Not only
(15:54):
do the organic the organic teams, the drafted corps, that's
what people want to see. I also think that's typically
what's better. You know, there are exceptions, we can find them,
but the Sun's squad it just feels a little bit
too much like pickup basketball.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Nobody held a gun to my head. And as for
any sort of prediction on the Suns, but I would
say that I am not surprised by the difficulties they're having,
and if anything, they've exceeded expectations in certain respects, such
as Kevin Durant's level of play at this age. Yeah,
after the injuries, it's incredible. But it's no surprise to
(16:33):
me that the whole is not greater than the sum
of its parts. I think that was almost guaranteed. And
this whole thing came together.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So it's called House of Strauss. Google it, look it up.
I am a listener regularly, always engaging, very thoughtful. We
love bringing him on. Ethan Strauss, who is a guy
that never stops working or thinking. And it's good seeing
you again, my man.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Oh, it's excellent seeing you Colin.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Thanks so much, Ethan Strauss. It's interesting sometimes we believe
that all great athletes are great leaders, and I always
felt like Jeter had great leadership skills. A rob was
just a great athlete. Doesn't mean he couldn't lead, but
it never felt quite natural or organic to him. May
have been if you went and looked at how they
were raised their families. Jeter came from a very formidable background.
(17:23):
Maybe that helped. Same with you know, I do think
it matters. Peyton Manning's one of the great leaders of
all time. Dad played in the NFL very close family.
Some of that stuff I think really matters. But like
not all great players are great leaders. They can just
get your buckets. And I always felt KD is that
it's not a criticism, it's a reality. And he doesn't
(17:43):
you know, maybe he doesn't even watch me, but he
does dm J Mack. But do you also what do
they call that?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
You tag him?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You bet? When I talk about him on the podcast,
you tag him, and you don't give a quick preview
for everybody. And then within like thirty minutes, Katie's like,
what the hell are you talking about? The food? You know,
he actually told me I looked like a drama major.
I was like, I'm never acted in anything, but I
love sports.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Well, I saw the picture of you with two earrings,
just relaxed.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
That was, you know, it was like drama man years
ago in college.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
In college, by the way, of course, yeah, I thought, well,
you got to look the part. You were hirable at
that point.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Listen, I went to spring break with the family last
week spring break in college. I can still vividly remember,
like ten hours of you came.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Back shockingly disappointed with vacation.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
I don't want to talk about I'm no vacation was fine.
There was a certain individual there who's famous and a
you know, an idiot, and I'm just disappointed that I
had to like almost share a hot tub with this clown.
So but overall it was it was a good, good vacation.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's going to agree.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Don't say that stuff on air. Come on, I got
way too many people who, well, we know the audience
is growing for the show, but I got a lot
of family members who listened. And I don't need to
answer these questions.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Okay, you put it off one more Heard The Herd
streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week
within the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or
on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
By the way, we were talking about this with Ethan Strauss.
Eric DeCosta, the GM of the Baltimore Ravens, said, the
NIL and the NCAA rule changes mean more draftable players
are staying in college. That is really good for college football.
That means guys that could play in the NFL will
stay in college, so you get quality, better product more.
(19:28):
I mean, if more guys in college, if Zach Eatie
was coming back for another year of college, that would
be a big win. For college basketball. Caitlin Clark coming back.
She was good enough last year to play in the WNBA.
Then she comes back and dominates the sport another year.
So college football, and this is sort of a cautionary tale.
Don't overreact to stuff like just don't overreact. As a
(19:48):
general rule, the last twelve months of college football have
been great for the sport. Texas Oklahoma going from the
smaller profile of the Big twelve Join us, the bigger
profile of the SEC is great for the sport. USC Washington,
Oregon ucla smaller profile, PAC twelve dissolving into the Big
(20:11):
ten a much bigger profile, great for the sport. Four
team playoff about to be a twelve team playoff. Even
the transfer portal ooh bad for the sport. About eight
to ten guys per team transfer. You have eighty five scholarships,
seventy five guys stay the bottom line. It does allow
big brands like an LSU to rebuild more quickly than
(20:35):
years previous. That's a good sign. The NIL is now
becoming good news. Everybody's fearful of change college football. According
to the people at this network that are paid to
predict the ratings, they're telling me next year is going
to be up ten to fifteen percent. Now Michigan won't
be as good. Ohio State, though, will be better. Maybe
(20:59):
Oklahoma's not as good, Texas should be better, maybe Washington's
not as good, Oregon USC should be better. So it's
you know, everybody, nobody likes change, and everybody freaks out.
But if you really look at the nil, the transfer portal,
the playoff pack twelve's top four brands moving into the
(21:21):
Big ten, Texas, Oklahoma moving into the SEC, these are
not killing college football, which many of you claimed. They
are going to elevate it by ten to fifteen percent
minimum in the ratings. By the way, the women's ratings.
As Ethan Strauss said, why did they go up? Continuity?
(21:41):
Big brands story like Texas and Sark This year Sark
got close. Here comes Sark again. That's going to be
a big story. All right, take a deep breath. Everything
new isn't bad. College football's had a great twelve months
(22:01):
and you're gonna see it pop by Labor Day. J
Mack with the news, No, no, no, turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
This is the herd Line news.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Let's start with somebody who left college football for the pros.
Jim Harbaugh. He is now with the Chargers, and according
to a pretty cool report, he's bringing some college tactics
with him, so Colin. Apparently, Jim Harbaugh's made some changes
to the Chargers locker room, adding each player's recruiting level
from high school to their name plates, ranging from unranked
(22:32):
to five star. The pushback has been that this is
only gonna work in college, just won't work in the
pros where guys make a lot of money. But Harball
has been with the Niners before. I just like different
and change and anything Harball's doing that wasn't what his
predecessors were doing for me is a big one.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
We know Stalley struggle and wouldn't that work at the
pro level? To college? Are players not inspired or driven?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well, you know that whole theory that the you can
do the raw ross stuff in college that works to
get teenagers in twenty one year olds all excited. That
don't work with twenty five year olds. They want to
be shown the money in.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The college football. Increasingly, guys want to be shown the money.
So college football the NBA looks like a different sport
than college basket.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
By the way, that's a great point. Did you see
that Purdue game Perdue, Connecticut. That was not what the
Warriors and Lakers were playing. That's a totally different game.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
College baseball doesn't look anything close to Major League Baseball,
which is highly international. College football in the NFL are
very similar, many of the same offenses, many of the
same schemes. Because you stay in college for three and
four years, you walk into the NFL and are immediately productive.
When you watch Texas play Washington or you watch, you know,
(23:42):
Alabama play Michigan, you're looking at twenty guys they're going
to play in the NFL the next year. In college basketball,
we're not sure Zach een he's gonna get drafted in
the first round. So the truth is, the stronger or
closer your college system looks compared visa B to your
pro system or pro league, the more popular it is
(24:02):
in college football. Stuff that works at college works in
the NFL. Andy Reid steals stuff from college all the time.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, well, plays are one thing. Letting the whole locker
room know, hey, this guy was a five star. Imagine listen,
how's a guy like Bosa gonna handle some of this
like a five star? One of the highs paid and.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Dude stop being sold hurt. Well, I'm we'll see.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I think Harba's gonna rankle some people. This is not
gonna be for everyone, right, you know this, but this
is New sheriff in Town.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
On the NBA. Players get rankled, players get removed. The
coach runs the show. Successful NFL coaches run the show.
Mike Tomlin's running it in Pittsburgh. It's not the players.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So Doc Rivers takes over in Milwaukee. Fire fist. Yeah,
that's not working.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Don it doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Jim Marball comes in. He's had a lot of success everywhere.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I've seen his contract. Have you mean you've read it online?
They moved off Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. They're not
moving off Harball.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Let's heading into the draft here. Next story. A lot
of noise that the Giants are going to draft a
quarterback at six, so they're bringing in guys, they're talking
to guys. But according to friend of the show Albert Breer,
he spoke to Giants GM Joe Shane, who says New
York is not locked into drafting a quarterback as they
have many other needs. If the quarterbacks go one to four,
(25:19):
that We're getting the second best position player, not a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's I was told by an NFL person Friday or
Saturday that the New York Giants, more than any team
in the top ten, had the most situational draft. That
if Drake may or Jaden Daniels falls to them, they
suspect the Giants would take them. If both are gobbled
(25:46):
up and Marvin Harrison fell, oh they would take him.
They need a receiver. Also, if the top two receivers
and the two quarterbacks they like are gone or three,
they will move down potentially, right, he said, the New
York Giants are gonna be patient and just watch the
first five picks in front of them. They have not
(26:08):
he was told this in the room in New York.
They have not made a decision. They are open to anything.
It's all circumstance based, which for the Giants, which have
multiple needs, is the way to approach this draft.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
So here's how I viewed this colin. A lot of
this this is the silly season, smoke screen season, right.
A lot of rumors or this person said this a
source here, this is the GM coming out and saying
quotes like you don't see that a lot. I wonder
I'm gonna bounce this off you. A lot of quarterbacks
smoke around the Giants. Daniel Jones, What the heck is
(26:42):
going on here? I'm injured for one year and they
want to move Do you think there's a little job
of appeasing Daniel Jones? Here? Heye, we invested in you.
Don't listen all this stuff about a quarterback. We're gonna
handle the draft like grown adults. We're not just gonna reward.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
What do you do on the Giants?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
What would you do?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
It was either the one who gave Davia.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Well, I would move I would move back and get
a quarterback. I think you could move back and still
get Bonnicks or Michael Pennock.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Sure, but who's trading up for Joe Alt or Romadu?
I don't know that you trade up for Romadu?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
All Right, I.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Don't know the Giants are in a great spot, but
I do think that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
They have three needs. They have three to four needs
just on offense.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Well, did you see the report that Darren Waller now
may just retire, apparently he wants to go into music.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well, if you even consider that, I'm moving on at
tight end, I would draft another tight end.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I mean, so now you got another need. I mean,
they got needs all over it.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
If I considered acting, if I started talking about acting,
Fox should probably find another home.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I've been talking about screenplays for a while.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well different, you can do that at home. That's different
than like going to acting class.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
By spare time.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
Yeah yeah, all right.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Final story is, let's go to your one of your
favorite players in the league. Jalen Brunson drop forty five
last night here, forty point game, and the NIXT went
over the balls with the win. The Knicks are in
third in the East.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
What a great thader his because they don't have This
team is a lot of just guys and Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Now that Randall's out, Yeah, it's kind of a bummer
Randalls out because we know this ceiling is limited without him.
But this is Brunson's tenth forty point game of the season.
Joining Bernard King and Patrick Ewing, is the only Knicks
players with multiple streaks of forty point games in the season.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I told you when I went and saw him a
Friday in Chicago. When you go to NBA games, you
do notice little things that you wouldn't notice watching on TV.
He is even quicker in person. You can't stand in
front of him. He is so. He's got great, great
finishing package, great handles, excellent first step. He is really
(28:48):
clever in.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Person, easy to root for. I'm surprised were joining Bernard
King and Patrick Ewing. No Carmelo Anthony Huh.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Bernard King arguably second most underrated player in league history
after Gus Williams. Gus Williams and Bernard Williams.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Great settled down?
Speaker 3 (29:06):
What oh?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
He was unbelievable player.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I man Jalen Brunston and Gus Williams. Don't you dare
say Gus?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Come on, Gus Williams won a title for two years.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
The best player on that team. I don't know if
I was.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Gus Williams was the best player on that team. Shelton,
John Johnson, Marvin when.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
The modern erwards? Did they have three pointers back there?
Come on? Was there a shot clock guy?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Lennie Wilkins, Wally Walker, coach Downtown, Freddie Brown?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Oh, I know that name.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah. And by the way the ball went through the net,
it wasn't a basket, It wasn't a peach basket.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
It was a net geez, the Knicks aren't the biggest
threat to the Celtics in the.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
East, right, No, but Brunson's fantastic fun. Okay, if I
gave you the four, okay, I'm gonna give you the
five biggest stars in Nick's history. No, I'm going to
give it, and then you give me in order.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Sorry, don't give me four because Patrick Ewings in there.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Walt Fraser and Walt Walt Fraser, who was better than Monroe?
I'm not gonna do Willis Reied, Walt Fraser, Ewing, Mellow
and Jalen Brunson. Wait a minute, who are they give
me in order? Jeremy lynts he was good for an hour?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
The trust will come on.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Okay, I'm trying. I'm saying there's another Glarry Johnson was
I'm talking the foremost. And so if I said Fraser, Ewing,
Mellow and Brunton in order, I would go Ewing, Brunson, Fraser, Melon,
What about Bernard King? Let's do five?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Then, I mean just hyping up there.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I love Bernard King's game was great?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
How about this? Trent Tucker?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Gosh, Okay, so what would you do? You know?
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Tell you I love Mellow? I was the biggest Mellow
fan when he was at Syracuse. Didn't love what happened
with the Knicks, so I would have him later in
the time.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I think ewing has to be one into just a
force of nature. After that, Bernard King was the best
pure score to meet Mellow. Mellow left so many points.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
He didn't make anyone else better.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
That ever hurt the most. But I gotta tell you something,
Jayleen Brunson now.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Fronts and over Mellow for me.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Absolutely yeah, Sorry Trout Tucker.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
It's funny the NBA, like former players love Carmelo. They
think he's like the I saw video. Some guys like
Carmelo Anthony is a better score than KD.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
And that's why players aren't general managers. Players love a
lot of play. You know, they're into a lot of guys.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthey, that's who they love.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
J Mack with the news.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the
Herd Line. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Herd weekdays and Noone Eastern non a em Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern. But here's the thing, we
never have enough time to get to everything we want
to get.
Speaker 6 (31:54):
To, and that's why we have a brand new podcast
called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun
in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, you blubber list me.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
Well, you know what it's called over promise. You should
be good at it because you've been over promising women
for years.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Well, it's a Covino and Rich after show and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Well, if you don't get enough.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Covino and Rich, make sure you check out over Promised
and also Uncensored by the way, so maybe we'll go
at it even a little harder. It's gonna be the
best after show podcast of all time.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
There you go, over Promising, and remember you could see
on YouTube, but definitely join us listen over promised with
Cavino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Saturday on FS one, a bitter rivalry is brewing in
the lone Star State. Now Corey Seeger and the reigning
champion Rangers battle Jose Alf dub and the Astros. It
all begins at four eastern on FS one.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Best coach arb Ubley in college basketball college sports is
Dan Hurley at Yukon. He'll join us next hour. So
John Calipari is officially out at Kentucky his choosing, although
nobody in the you know, booster or athletic departments probably
losing sleep. He was very successful early, not as successful
as many thought he should be, but he was successful.
(33:24):
You know, if you go back through the years, I've
always had sort of a mantra, It's not about being right,
it's about getting it right. So if I find new information,
I've got new opinions. But there have been a five
or six athletes that I have gone against the grain
of public sentiment. Y'all love Carmelo Anthony, and I'd said
from the very beginning, he's not a winning player. I's right,
(33:45):
He's not a winning player. I said, Johnny Manziel, who
was on SKIP today, I said, that's that's not an
NFL quarterback. Nick Saban said he was. I said he's
not Tim Tebow. The country went bananas, they went nuts,
they went crazy. I said, it's never gonna last. You know,
Baker Mayfield I thought was a draftable quarterback. He was
a reach. I wouldn't have drafted him because I thought
(34:07):
he wasn't ready for the NFL kind of the maturity stuff.
But he's a he's a good football player. But I
thought he was a reach at number one and it
would sort of unravel, his personality would unravel. And I
was right. Russell Westbrook when he was winning MVP, I said,
that's all stats. He doesn't make teammates better. He's hard
to play with. So I think eventually, on the five
(34:28):
or six or seven times that I've been against the grain,
I think mostly overwhelmingly I've been right. I've had bad days,
bad segments. I've been wrong individually on stuff, but I
spent a lot of time on all those athletes. Somebody
else I've pushed back on his John Calipari in recent years,
I called it John Calapanzi. It feels like a scheme.
And the reason I said that was is that when
(34:51):
there's a fine line between salesmen and coach in college sports,
every coach, every level softball, you got to be a
salesman because the players are selecting you. You're not drafting them.
Coach k Dan Hurley, Bill Self, Jay Wright, Tom Izzol,
They've all got to sell. But at their core their
(35:12):
coaches seventy five percent and salesman twenty five percent. I
felt with Calipari the scales were the opposite. Everything was
a sales job, every press conference, pregame, postgame, losing, and
I really felt strongly about my position about five years
ago when I thought he couldn't even get his sales
pitch right because he was struggling in the tournament, he
(35:34):
started down playing it. Hey, I'm not here just to win.
Winning is not why i'm here. I'm here to make
these kids rich. Excuse me, No, Nick Saban made the
money because he won titles. When you lose, when you're
not a great coach, you're fine, and you're a salesman
(35:55):
and you can't get the sales pitch right. You know,
it's not about March. It is completely That's why you're
leaving a better job for lesser job. If you were
winning in March, you wouldn't be leaving. It's about winning
in March. Stop projecting that you're making kids rich. You're
a pit stop in their life. They'd get rich without you.
(36:16):
You can be better than other coaches. But when he
got the sales pitch wrong, then I knew he was
in trouble because that was always a strength. He had
a pitch. He had a pitch, and now he's leaving
a great job for an okay job. Arkansas basketball is
you know, Radar barely picks it up. It is what
(36:38):
it is. It's okay, it's not top ten, it's not
top fifteen. You know, it is what it is. And John,
who's no dummy, who's not a terrible coach, who is
an elite recruiter. Although I would argue is he developing
players or just recruiting? You can argue both sides. Here
was his pitch on Lee Kentucky.
Speaker 7 (37:02):
This is a dream job. It was my dream job.
The last few weeks, we've come to realize that this
program probably needs to hear another voice, and the fans
need to hear another voice. We've loved it here, but
(37:24):
we think it's time for us to step away.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
For the record, he will succeed at Arkansas. He will
win at Arkansas. He'll land top recruits at Arkansas. There's
a lot of money in Arkansas. There's a lot two
or three major corporations.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
There are a lot.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Got three mega boosters in Arkansas. Two you've heard of,
one you haven't. The one you haven't had a falling
out with Musselman, the previous coach he ended up at USC.
So that's why Musselman left. It wasn't because he wasn't
winning or wasn't a great coach. He had a falling
out with one of the big basketball boosters. And John
can schmooze, he can recruit, it'll be great, he'll win games.
(38:01):
But again, the reason the great coach is like Saban
Dabo Sweeney, the reason they endure and last because they're
more coach than sales guy. It is okay after you
lose a game to say this hurts. I'm paid to
win in March and I'm losing to Saint Peter's. This
(38:22):
is totally on me. It was a bad coaching job.
No need to project, no need to say it's I
feel bad for the kids. Hey, don't you feel bad
for you because you're gonna get heat from your athletic
director and your boosters. It's bad for you, not the kids.
The kids are gonna go all on to the NBA
and get rich. You losing in March is not bad
for the kids. It's bad for you. And it's okay
to say that. It's okay to show pain, it's okay
(38:44):
to hurt, it's okay to lose, but acknowledge it. Don't
come up with sales pitch. Eight minutes later in the
postgame press conference, I'm not anti Calipari, but I think
he tips the scales on the salesman stuff to the
coach stuff. And if you want to endure at any
level of college coaching, coaching is number one. Salesmanship has
to be it does. Pete Carroll could sell, Mac Brown
(39:07):
could sell. Pete was a great coach, and to this
point at USC, all these years later, they've never found
a coach as good as Pete Carroll, all these years later, Sark, Kiffin,
Lincoln Riley not bad coaches. They've never found another Pete.
They could all sell. Pete may have been the best
at selling, but he was also the best coach. All right,
Jay Mac, I'm not being too harsh. I don't think
(39:30):
i'm being but but you know, on this one, about
six years ago, I stopped buying all the ESPN fluff
on Calipari and said, this thing ain't working. This shtick
ain't working, and it's more stick than it is structure.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
If we're ranking nicknames, you know, I love a good
rank Calipanzi maybe number one that you've ever come up with.
I don't know if that was yours or you got
that from a sorcer or somebody that every time you
say it, I laugh over here, and I'm sure you
see me laughing. I just think it's funny.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
He will win at Arkansas? Win what games?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well, I would hope he would win some games. What
you know, what does that matter?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
He'll get into the tournament and win. He'll win games.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Can he get to a final four?
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Nope? Damn? All right, And by the way, Alabama now
has a great coach.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Nis is good. I don't want to go overboard. All right,
how much time do we have a minute?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
We have a minute left?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Go ahead, let me ask masters is this weekend? You know,
I'm a big college basketball gambler. It's over now, nothing
to gamble on. But the Masters is here and I
got invited to some pools where you invest in golfers?
Do you do you have any golf on who I'm
just kidding. I know who he is. But that's somebody
you think has a shot.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Well need the world's best golfer.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Now that's the problem. I'm so locked in on hoops.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
You you are going to bet on stuff you don't follow.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
No, I'll go to trusted people that I know who
follow golf and bet on golf.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I have a friend that bets on golf, and I'll
trust him.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
He says, Rom.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Well, it's his favorite golfer and he's great.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
So is this your son that's his favorite golfriend?
Speaker 7 (41:02):
Jo?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
No, no, oh, of course I'll want. NBA season wraps
up Sunday, playing starts Tuesday. Hey, I can get you
some of my tickets next week if you want. He
had the old binnocks up last night. He was text
messaging me. They could barely transmit through to my phone.
He was so far away
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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