March 25, 2025 • 19 mins
Tony and Austin talk with Justin Williams about Xavier, the NCAA tournament, and the state of college athletics, on ESPN 1530!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
East co Subs. Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
(00:04):
spontered in part by Penn Station East Coast Subs, handcrafted
hot grilled subs, fresh cut fries, and lemonade. It's all
about good taste. Penn Station East Coast Subs order online today.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome back. It is the third and final hour of
the Tuesday edition of Cincy three to sixty. Thanks to
our friends at Penn Station. Thank you for following along.
Thank you for listening along as well. Let's dive right
in U from the Athletic covering college football, covering college basketball,
a good friend of the show here. Glad to have
him back, Glad to be able to talk to him
(00:42):
for a few minutes today. Justin Williams joining us right now.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hi, Justin, Hey Tony, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm good?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
How are you? I'm doing great? Great time of year
college basketball? You know, baseball's right around the corner. Some
Bengals news here and there, Xaviers, you know, running it
back maybe again for a second time, playing to cover.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
How difficult is this time of the year. You're you're
covering college basketball and here we are, you know, in
years past, you're looking ahead to the Sweet sixteen, you're
you're diving into all the storylines of the Sweet sixteen.
In today's world of college basketball, that's not till Thursday.
The portal opens yesterday, and you just have this huge
influx of players entering the transfer portal like we've never
(01:30):
seen before. It It is more and more like the
wild Wild West every time we talk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, I was in Cleveland for the for the first
two rounds last weekend and New Mexico was there, coached
by Richard Patino, and at some point during the weekend,
you know, we were talking about just this kind of
crazy schedule, and Richard Patino referred to the portal opening
Monday as the dumbest possible thing. And I think there's
a lot of people, whether coaches or just you know,
(01:57):
stakeholders in college basketball that definitely agree with them. It
feels kind of ridiculous that we're basically halfway through the
National Championship run, like the most exciting time for college basketball,
and there's literally players on teams that are still in
this tournament who have gone in the portal.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Obviously, is there a fix for it? Can you push
back the portal opening date? Why has that not been
done to this point? And are you surprised even at
the amount of numbers that we've seen already go into
the portal this year?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised by the numbers. It
feels like this is what happens every year more and more,
whether it's football or basketball, that you know, players more
and more are just kind of testing those waters. I do.
It does not make sense, you know, in football it
doesn't make sense either. It's like crammed into December and
it's in the middle of bowl season and all that
kind of stuff. But at least they can say heate
(02:52):
at the end of the semester. We want players to
be able to transfer before a new semester starts in
a couple of weeks in January. As much as we've
kind of gotten away from, you know, the academic side
of it, there's at least a justification. I'm not really
sure what it is with basketball, because it's not like
school is over yet and and the new semesters are starting.
If they push it back to the end of the tournament,
(03:13):
there'd still be a chance for players to enter the
portal and transfer before you know a new semester starts
at school, So that one does not make sense to
me at all, but it just seems like this is
the way we're going. I do wonder with all this
kind of revenue sharing and house settlement stuff coming up
as we further rip away this facade of academia that's
(03:34):
attested to college sports, is maybe we're going to stop
like trying to cram everything into the academic calendar.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Outside of outside of like the actual timing and the
academic calendar. Do you think that the portal and nil
and how they are connected overall is a good thing
for the actual product of college athletics.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
The thing that I actually think, and this is kind
of a classic college sports thing where they might have
had something right and then screwed it up. I liked
the rule, which was short lived, where you could go
into the portal and transfer immediately once and then if
you did it a second time, you had to sit
out a here, and that made a bunch of news
here locally because of these Van Diego and Cincinnati was
kind of at the forefront of changing that. But I
(04:18):
think a lot of coaches like that, whether players liked
it or not, I don't know, but I do think
there was something that made sense of all right, you
can transfer as many times as you want, but you
can only do it once and do it immediately. Otherwise
you kind of have to sit out. It wasn't a
perfect situation because you have you know, coaches leave or
personal things. I get all that, but it felt like
(04:38):
we were closer to it, feeling right there, and you
know it just that didn't last very long. In general, Yes,
like I think in IL is good. I think the
transfer portal is good. I think the problem that college
sports has always railed against her, at least for the
past couple of decades, is they're still trying to like
hold on to this amateurism model, and in football and
(04:58):
in men's basketball and honestly in women's basketball increasingly, it
just doesn't make sense because how much money's involved, and
so you know where we don't have the time on
SINCEY three to sixty to kind of address or fix
all those issues. But I think it's more of like
trying to cram the old way into this new world,
which is causing all these issues.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
From the tournament itself, when we see the teams that
are in the sweet sixteen. There's been a lot of
conversation this week about the portal and Nil it's ruining
college hoops because you don't get the Cinderella stories. I
look at this week's matchups coming up, and I think
they are awesome home run matchups. Do you fall into
(05:37):
that sentiment or do you disagree in the fact that
this way is ruining the college tournament?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, I mean definitely, like it felt a little bit
lacking that first week and that we didn't have any
fifteen or fourteen seeds kind of pulling this big upset.
The fact that I think what Arkansas is a ten
seed is the lowest seed we have, you know, an
SEC team in the sweet say that that is a
little bit of a bummer. I am not quite yet
(06:05):
ready to sound the alarm on like this is the
way it's always gonna be now because of NIL and
because of the transfer portal. I mean, you know, I
saw Robert Morris almost beat or at least take Alabama
to the wire in Cleveland last weekend. Like it could
just be this is a one year blip. We're still
just two years removed from Fairleigh Dickinson beating Zach eating
(06:27):
Purdue as a sixteen seed. So now if two or
three years from now, like what, we're having the same
conversation again each March, then yeah, maybe we can start
to say like this has changed it. And maybe this
is just wishle thinking, but I'm kind of like, all right,
maybe this is just a year where there it was
really chalky. There weren't a lot of upsets, and you know,
the optimist excite of that is what you said, is
(06:47):
that you actually get some some really kind of high
wattage matchups here on the second and third weekend. And
so I'm gonna I'm gonna choose to kind of lean
into that and be excited about that as as opposed
to sounding the death rattle for college basketball in March.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I want to get into the coaching side of things.
As you look at the Sweet sixteen matchups, is there
a matchup that that stands apart at the top for
you up to this point?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Good question. I think like b Yu Bama, you know,
that has a chance to be like a one twenty
five to one twenty four final score. Those two teams
are you know, really good offensely. I'm more just like
the teams that are really interesting to me this time
of year. Like I'm fascinated by Houston part of it
because I you know, follow the Big Twelve and they
(07:32):
played Cincinnati so much going back to the AAC. Like
that's a team that has been really close under Kelvin Stampson,
but they've kind of been banged up or had injuries,
and so I'm curious, I can they now get over
that that hump, get back to a Final four, but
maybe even win a championship, you know, back back home
in Texas and then just like you know, all the
talk this year has been about the SEC dominance and
(07:54):
so what they have fourteen teams, I think half of
them made it to the Sweet sixteen. And it's funny
like Alabama, Auburn, you know, UK is a little bit different,
maybe even like Tennessee's a little bit different. But these
schools that have been so football focused throughout history. You know,
Alabama went to a Final four last year. I think
Auburn went a couple of years ago, and they have
(08:15):
a chance now, Like you know, are these schools that
maybe haven't had as much success in football or Alabama
where you're moving on from Vick Saban, like how are
they going to handle maybe not being at the top
in football, but all of a sudden they're like one
of the best basketball teams in the country. I'm a
little bit curious to see, like, you know, if this
sec dominance continues, or if it becomes like a Duke
(08:38):
Cooper flag love fest, which maybe wouldn't be most exciting
for me, but like, there's gonna be a ton of
attention this turns into Cooper flag and Duke going to
the championship.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There's obviously the coaching aspect of this as well. You know,
the coaches that are in the sweet sixteen, the list
of them is impressive, but it's also the coaches that
are now taking new jobs and the different ways in
which coaches go about taking those jobs. I know you
wrote about this on the Athletic, but I was taken
back and I was extremely impressed watching the process of
(09:10):
Will Wade at McNee State because it was just this
level of honesty that I don't think we're used to
hearing from a coach, and the things he said of
he essentially used McNee State, they used him the players.
It was kind of this open door policy, but the
honesty of Will Wade. Do you think others will follow
that path and could that talk about maybe a change
(09:32):
going forward with college coaches.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I hope so. I love the way Will Wade talked
about it. You know, I don't love the situation that
him and some of these other coaches are put in
where because of the portal and when it's opening and
wanting to make changes as quickly as possible, that all
this stuff kind of happens right away, or you know,
like you'r McCollum at Drake and you go to the
second round and have, you know, a great season and
(09:56):
then basically come home in the next day you're the
IOWA coach, Like it would be a little bit better,
same with the portal if we could maybe fix the
timeline there. But while we can, if this is the situation,
the timeframe that we're in. Yeah, let's be honest about it.
I mean, this happens in football too. You have these
situations where there's clearly an interest and there's clearly some
kind of discussion going on, and all these coaches just
(10:18):
you know, get up in front of a microphone and
lie or deny something that everyone, you know, especially in
the industry, kind of knows and is talking about behind
the scenes. What's the point of that? So I love that.
Will Wade was like, yeah, I was honest with my
players and now I'm gonna be honest with you guys.
And because of the way players can move now, like
some of these players are gonna come up me to
empty State or some of them are going to go
on the portal and going to make more money because
(10:39):
of what we've done here. I asked NATO's about it
in Cleveland, the Alabama coach, and it was kind of
wondering if some coaches would punt on that question. He
was like, no, I love it, like I love that
if stuff's out there, let's be honest about it. So
I hope, whether it's basketball or football, if we're going
to kind of be stuck to this schedule, that we
can at least be a little bit more open and
honest about it when we're talking about these changes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Locally, Uh, that that really wasn't the case. Sean Miller,
days after losing to Illinois, after beating Texas is now
the head coach at Texas and for so many locally,
I think surprised by this because it was the second
goal round and Xavier essentially giving him that that opportunity.
(11:20):
Let's just start there, because you you covered Cincinnati sports
for a long time. Were you surprised initially in hearing
the news that Sean Miller would be the next coach
of Texas.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
A little bit when it started to pick up? And
you know, Sean Miller's had a lot of success. He's
obviously had success as he came back to Xavier, but
this is a team that barely snuck into the tournament
and you know, played one of those those first four games,
and so it does make you wonder, like, all right,
if you know, if if Texas didn't get in and
they moved on from Rodney Terry, or if Texas loses
in the first four and and they move on, like,
(11:55):
you know, are they still going to Sean Miller if
Xavier did miss out on the NCAA tournaments? I know,
it seems like that, you know, Chrystal Kanti Viad there
was kind of set on it. But yeah, you know,
I know this was his third year for a second
round here at Xavier, but it just felt like when
he came back, it was one of those situations where
it's like, all right, you know, now I'm kind of
back to say, and not that he owed anything to
(12:16):
Xavier that way, but I think the fan base kind
of viewed it that way, and so I was a
little bit surprised when it feels like so quickly this
time around, he was here and then gone again.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I think it's also interesting now because as things shift,
justin that the conversation turns to uh, Chris Mack being
the guy, or at least the guy that's being targeted.
I wonder in today's college basketball, of everything that we've
outlined since we've been talking for the last couple of minutes,
when you look at the portal and the timing of
(12:45):
the portal, how much does that change for a university?
And maybe Chris Mack was always going to be the guy,
or there's always the top candidate for Xavier, but does
it change his schools thinking on how they're going to
go about the process, knowing that they don't want to
be behind in the portal, knowing that they got to
name a coach, and maybe you go back to someone
who you're familiar with instead of doing the whole long
(13:07):
coaching surge. Do you think that plays a role in this?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, definitely, like you said, you know, the portal open Monday.
They need to get someone in as soon as possible.
They're already losing some of their own players at the portal,
and you know, let's not you know, try and live
off the fact that donors and boosters play a huge
role in these hirings, right, And so a lot of
these donors and boosters were around when Chris Mack was
here before, And it's kind of similar to the same
(13:31):
reason they brought Sean Miller back, that there is some
familiarity there and Chris Mack had success. So in that sense,
it does make sense to me that they would kind
of hone in on him with such a shortened timeline.
It is a little you know, I covered the Bearcats
and there's still like this contingent of UC fans who
you know, always want to bring Bob Huggins back. It's
(13:53):
like a little bit comical to me. That day was
just like, yeah, you know, we'll do that thing where
we bring Sean Miller back, and then you know, we'll
Chris mackpack. And if it ends up being that way,
I don't know that it'll be a bad decision. I
just think it's a little bit funny. It ends up
that way, and then you know you're always going to
have those navior fans who are now in their guard
like Chris mac gonna leave us again too. Like it
(14:13):
opens up a whole you know, list of weird possibilities.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
You talked about earlier, justin the settlements and like revenue sharing.
I think that's coming this summer, right, and can you
kind of explain what that is and the impact it
might have when it comes to the athletic departments handling
some of the payments to the players.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, this is everyone's like, I know, college football playoff
is exciting and March Madness is exciting, but nothing compares
to the House Settlement and revenue sharing college sports. It's
it's it's a gas I do. So. The final settlement
hearing is April seventh for this House Settlement to get approved.
I still think it's most likely to get approved, probably
(14:57):
not on the seventh, probably like a couple of days after.
But basically what the that means is starting July first,
schools can share revenue directly with with athletes. They can
basically directly pay players, and it's like each school can
pay up to twenty million per year across all sports.
So yeah, it's it's it's kind of like nil plus
(15:17):
instead of money going through collective or outside deals, which
can still happen, now it's you know, hey, if you
want to come play for the University of Cincinnati, you're
going to come play for Xavier basketball. The university is
you know, paying you directly to come do that. And
so it's it's, you know, just kind of a whole
new world that we've been inching towards in college sports.
(15:39):
But like we said, it just kind of totally changes
the way that it's always done. And it's going to
totally change the way these schools budget and spend their
money and invest in sports, whether that's football and basketball
that are kind of the traditional revenue sports, or whether
it's like swimming and track and field and some of
the Olympic sports, and it's going to look a lot different.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Does that justin help the term I hear the term
a lot locally donor fatigue of you know, knocking on
the same doors trying to raise money and what that
looks like if the team isn't producing success on the field.
Does that help from a donor fatigue standpoint that that
creates still a competitive level for a lot of these schools.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
No, Unfortunately, I don't think though, because for a lot
of schools they're having to find you know, quote unquote
fine twenty million dollars in their budget every year to
pay out to these athletes. Now, maybe if you're a
higher state, that's not as big of an ask as
you know, a Big twelve or a Big East team,
but they're going to have to kind of reorient their
budgets and a big part of that is still going
(16:39):
to be fundraising and what donors can do. And then
there's still you know, going to be NIL possibilities on
top of that. So maybe it has a little bit
of like you know, leveling the playing field because you know,
people don't have to go through the collectives or the
NIL they can kind of go directly to the players.
But it's still going to be you know, the Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon,
(17:04):
you know, the teams that we're spending the most in
NIL or were had the biggest budgets before NIL payments, like,
they're still gonna be the ones at the top of
the sport. Now just add the whole nother financial you
know element to all of this.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
This is uh. This has been phenomenal, Justin. So good
to UH to catch up with you. Love everything that
you got going on. What's the easiest way for listeners
to follow along with everything from a college basketball college
football standpoint that you have going on?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Hey, I'm on X at Williams Underscore Justin and then
you know, great time to subscribe to The Athletic if
you're not already. I'm heading to Atlanta tomorrow for the
for the second weekend, and we'll have coverage from from
all over the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Love it, love it.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Are you gonna go to the like the world of Coke?
Are you going to go to the College Football Hall
of Fame?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Like?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Are you gonna do touristy stuff in Atlanta?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I'll do what whatever is made available, you know, in
between games, I'm there for any Magic City. Perhaps I'd
probably fit in a little bit better at the coach
Football of Magic City, but look, you know, I don't
want I don't want to take anything off the table.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I love it, Justin, Thanks so much for your time, man.
Always appreciate UH catching up and look forward to talking again.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
So yep, great talking that.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Is Justin Williams A man.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
What a blow up?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
What I mean?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
That guy? Unbelievable. It all started here? Hath it did
it all started here? He he has us to think
small start man pretty much, uh, all his career success.
You're welcome, as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
When we get back, we have some Red's news that
made a roster move. Here, we solidify a few things.
We'll also recap our pole question revive Fitnessystems dot com
poll question. Go vote on it if you haven't already.
It is about to expire, so you don't have a
lot of time, and I think we'll have some time
for some phone calls as well.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Phone line open five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty at centy three sixty thanks to Penn Station on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, Lowegar.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
There was some booing of the team last night when
it comes to sports. He's got something to say for
just natural byproducts and plenty of it of poor play
Loegar today at three on ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm an
old school Joe
East co Subs. Cincy three sixty about Cincinnati from Cincinnati,
(00:04):
spontered in part by Penn Station East Coast Subs, handcrafted
hot grilled subs, fresh cut fries, and lemonade. It's all
about good taste. Penn Station East Coast Subs order online today.
This is ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome back. It is the third and final hour of
the Tuesday edition of Cincy three to sixty. Thanks to
our friends at Penn Station. Thank you for following along.
Thank you for listening along as well. Let's dive right
in U from the Athletic covering college football, covering college basketball,
a good friend of the show here. Glad to have
him back, Glad to be able to talk to him
(00:42):
for a few minutes today. Justin Williams joining us right now.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hi, Justin, Hey Tony, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm good?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
How are you? I'm doing great? Great time of year
college basketball? You know, baseball's right around the corner. Some
Bengals news here and there, Xaviers, you know, running it
back maybe again for a second time, playing to cover.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
How difficult is this time of the year. You're you're
covering college basketball and here we are, you know, in
years past, you're looking ahead to the Sweet sixteen, you're
you're diving into all the storylines of the Sweet sixteen.
In today's world of college basketball, that's not till Thursday.
The portal opens yesterday, and you just have this huge
influx of players entering the transfer portal like we've never
(01:30):
seen before. It It is more and more like the
wild Wild West every time we talk about it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, I was in Cleveland for the for the first
two rounds last weekend and New Mexico was there, coached
by Richard Patino, and at some point during the weekend,
you know, we were talking about just this kind of
crazy schedule, and Richard Patino referred to the portal opening
Monday as the dumbest possible thing. And I think there's
a lot of people, whether coaches or just you know,
(01:57):
stakeholders in college basketball that definitely agree with them. It
feels kind of ridiculous that we're basically halfway through the
National Championship run, like the most exciting time for college basketball,
and there's literally players on teams that are still in
this tournament who have gone in the portal.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Obviously, is there a fix for it? Can you push
back the portal opening date? Why has that not been
done to this point? And are you surprised even at
the amount of numbers that we've seen already go into
the portal this year?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised by the numbers. It
feels like this is what happens every year more and more,
whether it's football or basketball, that you know, players more
and more are just kind of testing those waters. I do.
It does not make sense, you know, in football it
doesn't make sense either. It's like crammed into December and
it's in the middle of bowl season and all that
kind of stuff. But at least they can say heate
(02:52):
at the end of the semester. We want players to
be able to transfer before a new semester starts in
a couple of weeks in January. As much as we've
kind of gotten away from, you know, the academic side
of it, there's at least a justification. I'm not really
sure what it is with basketball, because it's not like
school is over yet and and the new semesters are starting.
If they push it back to the end of the tournament,
(03:13):
there'd still be a chance for players to enter the
portal and transfer before you know a new semester starts
at school, So that one does not make sense to
me at all, but it just seems like this is
the way we're going. I do wonder with all this
kind of revenue sharing and house settlement stuff coming up
as we further rip away this facade of academia that's
(03:34):
attested to college sports, is maybe we're going to stop
like trying to cram everything into the academic calendar.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Outside of outside of like the actual timing and the
academic calendar. Do you think that the portal and nil
and how they are connected overall is a good thing
for the actual product of college athletics.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
The thing that I actually think, and this is kind
of a classic college sports thing where they might have
had something right and then screwed it up. I liked
the rule, which was short lived, where you could go
into the portal and transfer immediately once and then if
you did it a second time, you had to sit
out a here, and that made a bunch of news
here locally because of these Van Diego and Cincinnati was
kind of at the forefront of changing that. But I
(04:18):
think a lot of coaches like that, whether players liked
it or not, I don't know, but I do think
there was something that made sense of all right, you
can transfer as many times as you want, but you
can only do it once and do it immediately. Otherwise
you kind of have to sit out. It wasn't a
perfect situation because you have you know, coaches leave or
personal things. I get all that, but it felt like
(04:38):
we were closer to it, feeling right there, and you
know it just that didn't last very long. In general, Yes,
like I think in IL is good. I think the
transfer portal is good. I think the problem that college
sports has always railed against her, at least for the
past couple of decades, is they're still trying to like
hold on to this amateurism model, and in football and
(04:58):
in men's basketball and honestly in women's basketball increasingly, it
just doesn't make sense because how much money's involved, and
so you know where we don't have the time on
SINCEY three to sixty to kind of address or fix
all those issues. But I think it's more of like
trying to cram the old way into this new world,
which is causing all these issues.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
From the tournament itself, when we see the teams that
are in the sweet sixteen. There's been a lot of
conversation this week about the portal and Nil it's ruining
college hoops because you don't get the Cinderella stories. I
look at this week's matchups coming up, and I think
they are awesome home run matchups. Do you fall into
(05:37):
that sentiment or do you disagree in the fact that
this way is ruining the college tournament?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, I mean definitely, like it felt a little bit
lacking that first week and that we didn't have any
fifteen or fourteen seeds kind of pulling this big upset.
The fact that I think what Arkansas is a ten
seed is the lowest seed we have, you know, an
SEC team in the sweet say that that is a
little bit of a bummer. I am not quite yet
(06:05):
ready to sound the alarm on like this is the
way it's always gonna be now because of NIL and
because of the transfer portal. I mean, you know, I
saw Robert Morris almost beat or at least take Alabama
to the wire in Cleveland last weekend. Like it could
just be this is a one year blip. We're still
just two years removed from Fairleigh Dickinson beating Zach eating
(06:27):
Purdue as a sixteen seed. So now if two or
three years from now, like what, we're having the same
conversation again each March, then yeah, maybe we can start
to say like this has changed it. And maybe this
is just wishle thinking, but I'm kind of like, all right,
maybe this is just a year where there it was
really chalky. There weren't a lot of upsets, and you know,
the optimist excite of that is what you said, is
(06:47):
that you actually get some some really kind of high
wattage matchups here on the second and third weekend. And
so I'm gonna I'm gonna choose to kind of lean
into that and be excited about that as as opposed
to sounding the death rattle for college basketball in March.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I want to get into the coaching side of things.
As you look at the Sweet sixteen matchups, is there
a matchup that that stands apart at the top for
you up to this point?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Good question. I think like b Yu Bama, you know,
that has a chance to be like a one twenty
five to one twenty four final score. Those two teams
are you know, really good offensely. I'm more just like
the teams that are really interesting to me this time
of year. Like I'm fascinated by Houston part of it
because I you know, follow the Big Twelve and they
(07:32):
played Cincinnati so much going back to the AAC. Like
that's a team that has been really close under Kelvin Stampson,
but they've kind of been banged up or had injuries,
and so I'm curious, I can they now get over
that that hump, get back to a Final four, but
maybe even win a championship, you know, back back home
in Texas and then just like you know, all the
talk this year has been about the SEC dominance and
(07:54):
so what they have fourteen teams, I think half of
them made it to the Sweet sixteen. And it's funny
like Alabama, Auburn, you know, UK is a little bit different,
maybe even like Tennessee's a little bit different. But these
schools that have been so football focused throughout history. You know,
Alabama went to a Final four last year. I think
Auburn went a couple of years ago, and they have
(08:15):
a chance now, Like you know, are these schools that
maybe haven't had as much success in football or Alabama
where you're moving on from Vick Saban, like how are
they going to handle maybe not being at the top
in football, but all of a sudden they're like one
of the best basketball teams in the country. I'm a
little bit curious to see, like, you know, if this
sec dominance continues, or if it becomes like a Duke
(08:38):
Cooper flag love fest, which maybe wouldn't be most exciting
for me, but like, there's gonna be a ton of
attention this turns into Cooper flag and Duke going to
the championship.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
There's obviously the coaching aspect of this as well. You know,
the coaches that are in the sweet sixteen, the list
of them is impressive, but it's also the coaches that
are now taking new jobs and the different ways in
which coaches go about taking those jobs. I know you
wrote about this on the Athletic, but I was taken
back and I was extremely impressed watching the process of
(09:10):
Will Wade at McNee State because it was just this
level of honesty that I don't think we're used to
hearing from a coach, and the things he said of
he essentially used McNee State, they used him the players.
It was kind of this open door policy, but the
honesty of Will Wade. Do you think others will follow
that path and could that talk about maybe a change
(09:32):
going forward with college coaches.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I hope so. I love the way Will Wade talked
about it. You know, I don't love the situation that
him and some of these other coaches are put in
where because of the portal and when it's opening and
wanting to make changes as quickly as possible, that all
this stuff kind of happens right away, or you know,
like you'r McCollum at Drake and you go to the
second round and have, you know, a great season and
(09:56):
then basically come home in the next day you're the
IOWA coach, Like it would be a little bit better,
same with the portal if we could maybe fix the
timeline there. But while we can, if this is the situation,
the timeframe that we're in. Yeah, let's be honest about it.
I mean, this happens in football too. You have these
situations where there's clearly an interest and there's clearly some
kind of discussion going on, and all these coaches just
(10:18):
you know, get up in front of a microphone and
lie or deny something that everyone, you know, especially in
the industry, kind of knows and is talking about behind
the scenes. What's the point of that? So I love that.
Will Wade was like, yeah, I was honest with my
players and now I'm gonna be honest with you guys.
And because of the way players can move now, like
some of these players are gonna come up me to
empty State or some of them are going to go
on the portal and going to make more money because
(10:39):
of what we've done here. I asked NATO's about it
in Cleveland, the Alabama coach, and it was kind of
wondering if some coaches would punt on that question. He
was like, no, I love it, like I love that
if stuff's out there, let's be honest about it. So
I hope, whether it's basketball or football, if we're going
to kind of be stuck to this schedule, that we
can at least be a little bit more open and
honest about it when we're talking about these changes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Locally, Uh, that that really wasn't the case. Sean Miller,
days after losing to Illinois, after beating Texas is now
the head coach at Texas and for so many locally,
I think surprised by this because it was the second
goal round and Xavier essentially giving him that that opportunity.
(11:20):
Let's just start there, because you you covered Cincinnati sports
for a long time. Were you surprised initially in hearing
the news that Sean Miller would be the next coach
of Texas.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
A little bit when it started to pick up? And
you know, Sean Miller's had a lot of success. He's
obviously had success as he came back to Xavier, but
this is a team that barely snuck into the tournament
and you know, played one of those those first four games,
and so it does make you wonder, like, all right,
if you know, if if Texas didn't get in and
they moved on from Rodney Terry, or if Texas loses
in the first four and and they move on, like,
(11:55):
you know, are they still going to Sean Miller if
Xavier did miss out on the NCAA tournaments? I know,
it seems like that, you know, Chrystal Kanti Viad there
was kind of set on it. But yeah, you know,
I know this was his third year for a second
round here at Xavier, but it just felt like when
he came back, it was one of those situations where
it's like, all right, you know, now I'm kind of
back to say, and not that he owed anything to
(12:16):
Xavier that way, but I think the fan base kind
of viewed it that way, and so I was a
little bit surprised when it feels like so quickly this
time around, he was here and then gone again.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
I think it's also interesting now because as things shift,
justin that the conversation turns to uh, Chris Mack being
the guy, or at least the guy that's being targeted.
I wonder in today's college basketball, of everything that we've
outlined since we've been talking for the last couple of minutes,
when you look at the portal and the timing of
(12:45):
the portal, how much does that change for a university?
And maybe Chris Mack was always going to be the guy,
or there's always the top candidate for Xavier, but does
it change his schools thinking on how they're going to
go about the process, knowing that they don't want to
be behind in the portal, knowing that they got to
name a coach, and maybe you go back to someone
who you're familiar with instead of doing the whole long
(13:07):
coaching surge. Do you think that plays a role in this?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, definitely, like you said, you know, the portal open Monday.
They need to get someone in as soon as possible.
They're already losing some of their own players at the portal,
and you know, let's not you know, try and live
off the fact that donors and boosters play a huge
role in these hirings, right, And so a lot of
these donors and boosters were around when Chris Mack was
here before, And it's kind of similar to the same
(13:31):
reason they brought Sean Miller back, that there is some
familiarity there and Chris Mack had success. So in that sense,
it does make sense to me that they would kind
of hone in on him with such a shortened timeline.
It is a little you know, I covered the Bearcats
and there's still like this contingent of UC fans who
you know, always want to bring Bob Huggins back. It's
(13:53):
like a little bit comical to me. That day was
just like, yeah, you know, we'll do that thing where
we bring Sean Miller back, and then you know, we'll
Chris mackpack. And if it ends up being that way,
I don't know that it'll be a bad decision. I
just think it's a little bit funny. It ends up
that way, and then you know you're always going to
have those navior fans who are now in their guard
like Chris mac gonna leave us again too. Like it
(14:13):
opens up a whole you know, list of weird possibilities.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
You talked about earlier, justin the settlements and like revenue sharing.
I think that's coming this summer, right, and can you
kind of explain what that is and the impact it
might have when it comes to the athletic departments handling
some of the payments to the players.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, this is everyone's like, I know, college football playoff
is exciting and March Madness is exciting, but nothing compares
to the House Settlement and revenue sharing college sports. It's
it's it's a gas I do. So. The final settlement
hearing is April seventh for this House Settlement to get approved.
I still think it's most likely to get approved, probably
(14:57):
not on the seventh, probably like a couple of days after.
But basically what the that means is starting July first,
schools can share revenue directly with with athletes. They can
basically directly pay players, and it's like each school can
pay up to twenty million per year across all sports.
So yeah, it's it's it's kind of like nil plus
(15:17):
instead of money going through collective or outside deals, which
can still happen, now it's you know, hey, if you
want to come play for the University of Cincinnati, you're
going to come play for Xavier basketball. The university is
you know, paying you directly to come do that. And
so it's it's, you know, just kind of a whole
new world that we've been inching towards in college sports.
(15:39):
But like we said, it just kind of totally changes
the way that it's always done. And it's going to
totally change the way these schools budget and spend their
money and invest in sports, whether that's football and basketball
that are kind of the traditional revenue sports, or whether
it's like swimming and track and field and some of
the Olympic sports, and it's going to look a lot different.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Does that justin help the term I hear the term
a lot locally donor fatigue of you know, knocking on
the same doors trying to raise money and what that
looks like if the team isn't producing success on the field.
Does that help from a donor fatigue standpoint that that
creates still a competitive level for a lot of these schools.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
No, Unfortunately, I don't think though, because for a lot
of schools they're having to find you know, quote unquote
fine twenty million dollars in their budget every year to
pay out to these athletes. Now, maybe if you're a
higher state, that's not as big of an ask as
you know, a Big twelve or a Big East team,
but they're going to have to kind of reorient their
budgets and a big part of that is still going
(16:39):
to be fundraising and what donors can do. And then
there's still you know, going to be NIL possibilities on
top of that. So maybe it has a little bit
of like you know, leveling the playing field because you know,
people don't have to go through the collectives or the
NIL they can kind of go directly to the players.
But it's still going to be you know, the Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon,
(17:04):
you know, the teams that we're spending the most in
NIL or were had the biggest budgets before NIL payments, like,
they're still gonna be the ones at the top of
the sport. Now just add the whole nother financial you
know element to all of this.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
This is uh. This has been phenomenal, Justin. So good
to UH to catch up with you. Love everything that
you got going on. What's the easiest way for listeners
to follow along with everything from a college basketball college
football standpoint that you have going on?
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Hey, I'm on X at Williams Underscore Justin and then
you know, great time to subscribe to The Athletic if
you're not already. I'm heading to Atlanta tomorrow for the
for the second weekend, and we'll have coverage from from
all over the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Love it, love it.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Are you gonna go to the like the world of Coke?
Are you going to go to the College Football Hall
of Fame?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Like?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Are you gonna do touristy stuff in Atlanta?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
I'll do what whatever is made available, you know, in
between games, I'm there for any Magic City. Perhaps I'd
probably fit in a little bit better at the coach
Football of Magic City, but look, you know, I don't
want I don't want to take anything off the table.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I love it, Justin, Thanks so much for your time, man.
Always appreciate UH catching up and look forward to talking again.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
So yep, great talking that.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Is Justin Williams A man.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
What a blow up?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
What I mean?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
That guy? Unbelievable. It all started here? Hath it did
it all started here? He he has us to think
small start man pretty much, uh, all his career success.
You're welcome, as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
When we get back, we have some Red's news that
made a roster move. Here, we solidify a few things.
We'll also recap our pole question revive Fitnessystems dot com
poll question. Go vote on it if you haven't already.
It is about to expire, so you don't have a
lot of time, and I think we'll have some time
for some phone calls as well.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Phone line open five one, three, seven, four nine, fifteen
thirty at centy three sixty thanks to Penn Station on
ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station, Lowegar.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
There was some booing of the team last night when
it comes to sports. He's got something to say for
just natural byproducts and plenty of it of poor play
Loegar today at three on ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm an
old school Joe
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