March 25, 2025 • 17 mins
Jon Wilner of The San Jose Mercury News and Wilner Hotline joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about Troy Taylor being fired by Stanford plus the NCAA Tourney including the Big Ten performance, Arizona-Duke, Gonzaga, and the lack of Cinderellas.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for a weekly PAC twelve conversation with San
Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by
Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have
the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.
UW had some of the largest selection of Sunnix gear
anywhere in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right, boys and goes here we go. Get ready
for cracking hockey at.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Calgary pregame five thirty, face off at six, coming up
right here on ninety three three KJRFM. But before we
do that, big day for Simply Seattle, they unveiled their
brand new U Village store and.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Cal Rally was over there.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
As a matter of fact, you might still be there
right now, by the way, So great day to have
cal Riley swinging by the store. Whatever you have your
eyes on with simply Seattle dot com, be sure and
use code kJ R fifteen to check out for fifteen
percent off anything at simply Seattle dot com. Here he
is the Pope of the pack, the big ten baron.
Our buddy from the San Jose Mercury News, Johnny Wilner, John,
(00:59):
How are you man?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Uh, pretty busy actually in the last couple hours.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Thanks, Yeah, no doubt, man. What was a quiet Tuesday
has kind of exploded. And let's first of all start
with I guess the news of the day in your region.
Troy Taylor, Stanford head football coach, just got fired by
a general manager, Andrew Luck.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
What happened, Well, this is the result of multiple investigations
into Taylor's behavior becoming public thanks to ESPN last week.
Stamford wasn't gonna fire Tailor after the two investigations. It
was like inappropriate conduct towards female staff members. But they
(01:41):
did fire him after that went public. And so that
you know that piece of it is interesting enough. But
the other dynamic here is that the football GM is
the one doing it. Andrew Luck was hired in December.
He reports directly to the president. There is no athletic
director who resigned at Bernard. You're resigned last month. Luck
(02:04):
fired the football coach. And I don't know that that
would happen in most other places, but it is an
indication of the role that the GM, I think is
evolving into at a lot of schools. It's a fairly
significant role.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
No question.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
I mean, we're seeing it everywhere in college football now.
But John, I'm a little bit confused when it comes
to March madness. You know, Twitter is a place of
NonStop complaints. They're complaining about no cinderellas, they're complaining about
no upsets, they're complaining about not a lot of close games.
And yet look at the ratings you tweeted it out
earlier today, I mean record breaking television ratings. So maybe
(02:45):
explain that, you know, disassociation a little bit between the two.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Well, people will watch, even though they complain, It seems
like they will watch. I also wonder if the ratings
themselves are just more accurate. Nielsen has over the years
done a better job capturing the out of home market,
and it's possible that there's not that many more people
watching than we're doing it two or three years ago.
(03:12):
But Nielsen is capturing them, and it's it's rating system
a little bit better. But I also a big look.
You know, people tuned in to watch the blue bloods,
whether there's cinderellas or upsets or not. And you know
this is a year where you got Kansas, Kentucky, Duke,
North Carolina, U CLA. All the big names pretty much
(03:35):
made the tournament this year, and CBS certainly did a
good job of getting Duke in Kentucky in prime windows
on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
John, let me go back to the Stanford thing just
for a quick second, because there's a ton of stuff
to cover with the tournament here. But John Wilner is
with us again San Jose Mercury and News courtesy of
our pals. That's simply Seattle when it comes to the
Stanford head coaching job. I mean, look, obviously it's not
as a track of now as it was when Jim
Harbaugh and David Shaw were there. You know, the travels,
(04:04):
insane and the acc but both those guys prove that
this is a good job. You can win at Stanford
and win a lot. So what kind of candidate do
you think they'll be looking for? Have you heard any
rumors about who could take that gig?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I haven't heard any rumors yet. And one thing they
might do is a point an acting coach to get
through the twenty twenty five season, which I think would
actually be smart because they can't afford to screw it
up with a quick hire and the other pieces. There's
so much uncertainty, you know out there over the house settlements.
What is it going to take to compete financially? I
(04:40):
think Stanford needs to figure out what it's willing to
do and what it wants to be before it actually
hires a head coach, because this is a school where
the academic mission remains incredibly important. They have been laid
on nil. They can barely get transfers in and I
think that they need. If they can figure that stuff out,
(05:03):
they'll have a better chance of landing a good coach.
It's not like most other jobs, and there's so much
change going on that I think they're better off late.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
And to be honest, well, when it comes to Stanford,
I gotta be honest with you, John, Stanford and Cal
have fallen off the face of the planet for me,
as just as just a a West Coast football fan.
Is that kind of the you think the sentiment for
most casual West Coast football fans?
Speaker 4 (05:30):
No question, Stanford Cal in football and in men's basketball
have fallen off, and a lot of it has to
do with poor leadership to the universities, both Central Campus
and athletics, bad hires. Some of it has to do
with college sports evolving in a way that is more
(05:51):
challenging for schools like Stanford and Cal. You know, they're
not the only ones that have struggled initially with the
transfers and and I well, but it's everything is more
difficult for certain types of schools these days. When you
add in poor leadership, then it's that much more difficult.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, no doubt. Well, John Wilner's with us.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
And going back to basketball, I feel like we kind
of Arizona det a gratitude for dispatching of the Oregon
Ducks in the in the second round over the weekend,
but now they get to face Duke. I mean, obviously
you covered this team a long time on the West
coast in the Pac twelve. The Cats are getting Dick
and I are cut kind of both surprised a little
bit by the spread they're getting eight and a half
(06:34):
against Duke. What do you think of that Arizona Duke
game in the Sweet sixteen?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
I saw nine and a half a day or two ago,
So that's interesting. I think it seems like a lot
until you know, you kind of drill down on Duke
and you see what they did to Baylor the other day, right,
I mean the other number one seeds, Florida struggled, Auburn
struggled a little Huge obviously struggled, and Duke just plowed Baylor.
(07:03):
The thing about the Blue Devils is as good as
Cooper Flag is. They got two other guys that are
projected for the lottery, and none of those three lottery
picks led Duke in scoring against Baylor. It was Tyresee
Proctor who had like twenty five points. He's not even
a lottery pick. So they are just loaded. I know
(07:23):
a lot of people in basketball who think Duke is
on another level than everybody else. And I think that
the line is set partly because Duke always generates a
lot of interest among betters, just because they're such a
popular program. But yeah, it's a lot of points, and
if Caleb Loff has a good game, it could be close.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Yeah, that's one that it's tough to bet on, John,
because I could I could equally see it being a
one point game as I could a twenty point game,
And so the line's kind of right right in the
middle of that. John Wilner joining us, you know, the
Big ten. You know, there's some people that wondered if
they should have gotten more ts in the tournament have
felt a little thin to me, But how do you
(08:03):
evaluate their performance thus far? Through the first four days.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well was record breaking. They're the first conference ever to
win its first nine games in a single NCAA tournament.
I think the Wisconsin loss at BYU ended the streak.
But you know, if you're the Big Ten and you
get eight teams in and you got what four in
the sweet sixteen, that's pretty good. I think it's the
(08:27):
same rate as the SEC fifty percent. So I think
the Big Ten's done very well. I don't know about
getting whether there should have been more in. If you
start to look through the resumes of the teams that
got left out, you can kind of see why they were.
But I think if you're asking, you know, Big Ten administrators,
(08:48):
they probably thrilled with how things have gone so far,
and they got a great chance. Look, Purdue is playing
Houston in Indianapolis right now. If you're Houston, you can't
be very happy about that right position. But Produce got
a great chance. It's like going to be a home
game for them against the number one seed.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, John Wilders with us on the radio show, and
John Gonzaga losing a hard fought game to Houston as
well over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Their Sweet sixteenth streak has come to an end.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And you wrote a couple of days ago that what's
next for Gonzaga is a five year audition for the
next era.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Explain what you mean by that.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Well, we talked about what's going to happen in football,
you know, in the twenty thirties, with either a super
League forming or another round of realignment and expansion. But
I think basketball is going to be part of that,
right And so if you're Gonzaga, you want to stay
at the level you've been as a national brand that
(09:45):
generates TV ratings, sells out opposing arenas, and is an
attractive for basketball program for a new Big twelve or
some kind of expanded combination of the ACCU. Don't know
what it's going to be, but I do know that
if Gonzaga falls back somehow in the era of revenue sharing,
(10:08):
it's gonna make it that much more difficult when the
twenty thirties hit, and you want to be in the
game in the twenty thirties, whether it's football or men's basketball.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Could they survive as the basketball version of Notre Dame
and just be an independent and just schedule fifteen marquee
games a year and you know, fill out the rest
with you know, quad four teams.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
They probably could. I mean I have to think about
the scheduling aspect of that, right, I mean Notre Dame
had to do a deal with the ACC to get
five games every year in football because it's so hard
to schedule once conference play begins. Yeah, and that would
be my concern for Gonzaga too. You're talking about Commers
plays roughly two thirds of your thirty game schedule, So
(10:55):
starting in January, February, early March as an independent, could
they get enough quality games when everybody else is playing
in conference? That would be a big question. But in
terms of the brand, yeah, I mean you could see
how they might think about that. For sure. I happen
to think the PAC twelve two point zero is gonna
be pretty good in basketball, and that the Zags will
(11:18):
be in position when the twenty thirties hit to make
the jump into whatever you know, iteration of college basketball
comes next.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, Well, John Willers with us and John Wana throw
a curveball at you. I don't know how much women's
basketball you've been covering. But man, this Juju Watkins torn
ACL for USC. This steels like a big fricking deal.
Man for the women's tournament, best player in college basketball
tearing her ACL, She's done for the year. How big
a blow was this to the women's tournament to not
(11:47):
have Juju Watkins the rest of the way.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I mean, think about what was like when Cooper Flag
rolled his ankle in the ACC tournament and for a
little while we didn't know, so if the best player
in the men's game was going to be available for
March Madness, it's kind of the same thing, except we
know she's out for the duration of the tournament. It's
a huge deal. Now, the women's game tournament has done
(12:13):
well in the ratings. I just saw a report. It's
not what it was last year with Capton Clark, but
it is up over The ratings are up over twenty
twenty three, so that's a good sign. We'll see if
watkins injury has an impact on that. But it feels
terrible for her and for USC, And it's like if
Cooper Flagg had gotten hurt.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Absolutely, John is the chalk that we're seeing advanced to
the Sweet sixteen this year. Partially a result of nil
or is it kind of a one year fluke and
we can't establish a trend yet because we haven't had
enough time.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, kind of a small sample sized thing. I think
that's part of it. I think it's not only an IL.
I think the transfer portals part of it as well.
I think conference realignment is part of it. But certainly
it is a concerning snapshot of what things could be.
And I get back to selection Sunday because that's really
(13:09):
what frames everything. And you know, you had the SEC
and Big Ten accounting for twenty of the thirty seven
at large bids, the non school at large bids to
the non power for football conferences, there were only like eight,
which is down from previous years. So there's less There
(13:29):
are fewer of those mid major teams getting in the tournament,
and so that would thereby lead to fewer of them advancing.
And to me, that's a concerning trend if you're looking
out over the course of the next five years, because
those are the schools that bring the event. It's magic,
and if there's fewer of them getting in, that's troubling.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
John Wilders with us on the radio show, and John
the next time we speak, Husky spring football will be underway.
As a matter of fact, one week from today, Washington's
going to be right smack in the middle of their
first Husky football spring practice practice on April first, and
the portal opens.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Two weeks after that.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So two things, What would be your number one thing
that we would be keeping an eye on for you
for Husky spring football since you can't get up here
to cover every day because you're down there in the
Bay Area. And then number two, how much damage should
we expect Washington or any team really for that matter,
to make in the spring portal when it opens up
in about three and a half weeks from now.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
I think that you know, most of the kids, the
good kids are accounted for with new schools, But there's
there's always a few kind of diamonds in the rough
that you can come up with in spring practice. It
just depends on the quality of the connections that your
coaches have to the lower levels and and to the
people who are, you know, making personnel decisions. But if
(14:53):
i'm if I'm looking at U dubbed spring ball, it's
all about the offensive line of me. And that's kind
of the way it was spring too. But it's that
just tells you how important that unit is and how
much we you know, the disadvantage Washington was at in
the Big ten, especially up front. To me, that's what
(15:14):
it's all about, is the line.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
What's the latestness burgeoning spring rivalry between Deon Sanders, Colorado
and Syracuse? Are we going to Are we going to
see Syracuse Colorado part one here coming up in a
month or so?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I hope we do. I think it's a good idea
to have spring exhibitions. Why not? I mean, gosh, they're
gonna be paying players. Why not have teams play spring exhibitions? Right?
I mean, there's no rules anymore, and it fits in
with the broader calendar. And we've talked about this, right,
why not just have a different type of spring practice.
(15:49):
Make it OTAs or something in the in the spring
that's not the traditional month of March or month of April.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
That opens up the calendar for so much other stuff
that college football could do.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I think it'd be awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Again, I'm just imagining a hate filled exhibition between U
dub and Oregon or U dub and and and Wazoo.
I mean, like like a Drago Apollo creed match for
charity where hopefully nobody dies like they did in Rocky
four when Apollo, you know, kick the bucket because Drago
kicked his face in. But I think it'd be awesome
to have something like that down the road where fans
(16:23):
could really get behind that. I think it'd be great
for college football and great for the region. Hey man,
great stuff. Enjoy it and we will talk in a week. Man,
we'll see it. Pali, all right, you bet, John Wilner
with us. All right, you're ready for some cracking hockey.
Baby Flames and cracking Flames need this. They're four points
out of a wild card spot. The cracking really need it.
(16:44):
They need some wins and a lot of help, by
the way, UH to make the playoffs. So let's get
out of here. We got Flames, we got cracking from Calgary.
Pregame coming up next, face off at six. We'll see
you tomorrow at three o'clock. Florio Petros and Larry Stone
courtesy of the Ram making his two though twenty five
debut talking Mariton baseball.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's it for us to enjoy the game. We'll see
tomorrow with three Bye
It's time for a weekly PAC twelve conversation with San
Jose Mercury News reporter John Wilner, brought to you by
Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com have
the most amazing collection of all things Seattle Seahawks gear.
UW had some of the largest selection of Sunnix gear
anywhere in the world. Learn more at simply Seattle dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right, boys and goes here we go. Get ready
for cracking hockey at.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Calgary pregame five thirty, face off at six, coming up
right here on ninety three three KJRFM. But before we
do that, big day for Simply Seattle, they unveiled their
brand new U Village store and.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Cal Rally was over there.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
As a matter of fact, you might still be there
right now, by the way, So great day to have
cal Riley swinging by the store. Whatever you have your
eyes on with simply Seattle dot com, be sure and
use code kJ R fifteen to check out for fifteen
percent off anything at simply Seattle dot com. Here he
is the Pope of the pack, the big ten baron.
Our buddy from the San Jose Mercury News, Johnny Wilner, John,
(00:59):
How are you man?
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Uh, pretty busy actually in the last couple hours.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Thanks, Yeah, no doubt, man. What was a quiet Tuesday
has kind of exploded. And let's first of all start
with I guess the news of the day in your region.
Troy Taylor, Stanford head football coach, just got fired by
a general manager, Andrew Luck.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
What happened, Well, this is the result of multiple investigations
into Taylor's behavior becoming public thanks to ESPN last week.
Stamford wasn't gonna fire Tailor after the two investigations. It
was like inappropriate conduct towards female staff members. But they
(01:41):
did fire him after that went public. And so that
you know that piece of it is interesting enough. But
the other dynamic here is that the football GM is
the one doing it. Andrew Luck was hired in December.
He reports directly to the president. There is no athletic
director who resigned at Bernard. You're resigned last month. Luck
(02:04):
fired the football coach. And I don't know that that
would happen in most other places, but it is an
indication of the role that the GM, I think is
evolving into at a lot of schools. It's a fairly
significant role.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
No question.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
I mean, we're seeing it everywhere in college football now.
But John, I'm a little bit confused when it comes
to March madness. You know, Twitter is a place of
NonStop complaints. They're complaining about no cinderellas, they're complaining about
no upsets, they're complaining about not a lot of close games.
And yet look at the ratings you tweeted it out
earlier today, I mean record breaking television ratings. So maybe
(02:45):
explain that, you know, disassociation a little bit between the two.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Well, people will watch, even though they complain, It seems
like they will watch. I also wonder if the ratings
themselves are just more accurate. Nielsen has over the years
done a better job capturing the out of home market,
and it's possible that there's not that many more people
watching than we're doing it two or three years ago.
(03:12):
But Nielsen is capturing them, and it's it's rating system
a little bit better. But I also a big look.
You know, people tuned in to watch the blue bloods,
whether there's cinderellas or upsets or not. And you know
this is a year where you got Kansas, Kentucky, Duke,
North Carolina, U CLA. All the big names pretty much
(03:35):
made the tournament this year, and CBS certainly did a
good job of getting Duke in Kentucky in prime windows
on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
John, let me go back to the Stanford thing just
for a quick second, because there's a ton of stuff
to cover with the tournament here. But John Wilner is
with us again San Jose Mercury and News courtesy of
our pals. That's simply Seattle when it comes to the
Stanford head coaching job. I mean, look, obviously it's not
as a track of now as it was when Jim
Harbaugh and David Shaw were there. You know, the travels,
(04:04):
insane and the acc but both those guys prove that
this is a good job. You can win at Stanford
and win a lot. So what kind of candidate do
you think they'll be looking for? Have you heard any
rumors about who could take that gig?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I haven't heard any rumors yet. And one thing they
might do is a point an acting coach to get
through the twenty twenty five season, which I think would
actually be smart because they can't afford to screw it
up with a quick hire and the other pieces. There's
so much uncertainty, you know out there over the house settlements.
What is it going to take to compete financially? I
(04:40):
think Stanford needs to figure out what it's willing to
do and what it wants to be before it actually
hires a head coach, because this is a school where
the academic mission remains incredibly important. They have been laid
on nil. They can barely get transfers in and I
think that they need. If they can figure that stuff out,
(05:03):
they'll have a better chance of landing a good coach.
It's not like most other jobs, and there's so much
change going on that I think they're better off late.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
And to be honest, well, when it comes to Stanford,
I gotta be honest with you, John, Stanford and Cal
have fallen off the face of the planet for me,
as just as just a a West Coast football fan.
Is that kind of the you think the sentiment for
most casual West Coast football fans?
Speaker 4 (05:30):
No question, Stanford Cal in football and in men's basketball
have fallen off, and a lot of it has to
do with poor leadership to the universities, both Central Campus
and athletics, bad hires. Some of it has to do
with college sports evolving in a way that is more
(05:51):
challenging for schools like Stanford and Cal. You know, they're
not the only ones that have struggled initially with the
transfers and and I well, but it's everything is more
difficult for certain types of schools these days. When you
add in poor leadership, then it's that much more difficult.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, no doubt. Well, John Wilner's with us.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
And going back to basketball, I feel like we kind
of Arizona det a gratitude for dispatching of the Oregon
Ducks in the in the second round over the weekend,
but now they get to face Duke. I mean, obviously
you covered this team a long time on the West
coast in the Pac twelve. The Cats are getting Dick
and I are cut kind of both surprised a little
bit by the spread they're getting eight and a half
(06:34):
against Duke. What do you think of that Arizona Duke
game in the Sweet sixteen?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
I saw nine and a half a day or two ago,
So that's interesting. I think it seems like a lot
until you know, you kind of drill down on Duke
and you see what they did to Baylor the other day, right,
I mean the other number one seeds, Florida struggled, Auburn
struggled a little Huge obviously struggled, and Duke just plowed Baylor.
(07:03):
The thing about the Blue Devils is as good as
Cooper Flag is. They got two other guys that are
projected for the lottery, and none of those three lottery
picks led Duke in scoring against Baylor. It was Tyresee
Proctor who had like twenty five points. He's not even
a lottery pick. So they are just loaded. I know
(07:23):
a lot of people in basketball who think Duke is
on another level than everybody else. And I think that
the line is set partly because Duke always generates a
lot of interest among betters, just because they're such a
popular program. But yeah, it's a lot of points, and
if Caleb Loff has a good game, it could be close.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Yeah, that's one that it's tough to bet on, John,
because I could I could equally see it being a
one point game as I could a twenty point game,
And so the line's kind of right right in the
middle of that. John Wilner joining us, you know, the
Big ten. You know, there's some people that wondered if
they should have gotten more ts in the tournament have
felt a little thin to me, But how do you
(08:03):
evaluate their performance thus far? Through the first four days.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Well was record breaking. They're the first conference ever to
win its first nine games in a single NCAA tournament.
I think the Wisconsin loss at BYU ended the streak.
But you know, if you're the Big Ten and you
get eight teams in and you got what four in
the sweet sixteen, that's pretty good. I think it's the
(08:27):
same rate as the SEC fifty percent. So I think
the Big Ten's done very well. I don't know about
getting whether there should have been more in. If you
start to look through the resumes of the teams that
got left out, you can kind of see why they were.
But I think if you're asking, you know, Big Ten administrators,
(08:48):
they probably thrilled with how things have gone so far,
and they got a great chance. Look, Purdue is playing
Houston in Indianapolis right now. If you're Houston, you can't
be very happy about that right position. But Produce got
a great chance. It's like going to be a home
game for them against the number one seed.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, John Wilders with us on the radio show, and
John Gonzaga losing a hard fought game to Houston as
well over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Their Sweet sixteenth streak has come to an end.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And you wrote a couple of days ago that what's
next for Gonzaga is a five year audition for the
next era.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Explain what you mean by that.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Well, we talked about what's going to happen in football,
you know, in the twenty thirties, with either a super
League forming or another round of realignment and expansion. But
I think basketball is going to be part of that,
right And so if you're Gonzaga, you want to stay
at the level you've been as a national brand that
(09:45):
generates TV ratings, sells out opposing arenas, and is an
attractive for basketball program for a new Big twelve or
some kind of expanded combination of the ACCU. Don't know
what it's going to be, but I do know that
if Gonzaga falls back somehow in the era of revenue sharing,
(10:08):
it's gonna make it that much more difficult when the
twenty thirties hit, and you want to be in the
game in the twenty thirties, whether it's football or men's basketball.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Could they survive as the basketball version of Notre Dame
and just be an independent and just schedule fifteen marquee
games a year and you know, fill out the rest
with you know, quad four teams.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
They probably could. I mean I have to think about
the scheduling aspect of that, right, I mean Notre Dame
had to do a deal with the ACC to get
five games every year in football because it's so hard
to schedule once conference play begins. Yeah, and that would
be my concern for Gonzaga too. You're talking about Commers
plays roughly two thirds of your thirty game schedule, So
(10:55):
starting in January, February, early March as an independent, could
they get enough quality games when everybody else is playing
in conference? That would be a big question. But in
terms of the brand, yeah, I mean you could see
how they might think about that. For sure. I happen
to think the PAC twelve two point zero is gonna
be pretty good in basketball, and that the Zags will
(11:18):
be in position when the twenty thirties hit to make
the jump into whatever you know, iteration of college basketball
comes next.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, Well, John Willers with us and John Wana throw
a curveball at you. I don't know how much women's
basketball you've been covering. But man, this Juju Watkins torn
ACL for USC. This steels like a big fricking deal.
Man for the women's tournament, best player in college basketball
tearing her ACL, She's done for the year. How big
a blow was this to the women's tournament to not
(11:47):
have Juju Watkins the rest of the way.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I mean, think about what was like when Cooper Flag
rolled his ankle in the ACC tournament and for a
little while we didn't know, so if the best player
in the men's game was going to be available for
March Madness, it's kind of the same thing, except we
know she's out for the duration of the tournament. It's
a huge deal. Now, the women's game tournament has done
(12:13):
well in the ratings. I just saw a report. It's
not what it was last year with Capton Clark, but
it is up over The ratings are up over twenty
twenty three, so that's a good sign. We'll see if
watkins injury has an impact on that. But it feels
terrible for her and for USC, And it's like if
Cooper Flagg had gotten hurt.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Absolutely, John is the chalk that we're seeing advanced to
the Sweet sixteen this year. Partially a result of nil
or is it kind of a one year fluke and
we can't establish a trend yet because we haven't had
enough time.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, kind of a small sample sized thing. I think
that's part of it. I think it's not only an IL.
I think the transfer portals part of it as well.
I think conference realignment is part of it. But certainly
it is a concerning snapshot of what things could be.
And I get back to selection Sunday because that's really
(13:09):
what frames everything. And you know, you had the SEC
and Big Ten accounting for twenty of the thirty seven
at large bids, the non school at large bids to
the non power for football conferences, there were only like eight,
which is down from previous years. So there's less There
(13:29):
are fewer of those mid major teams getting in the tournament,
and so that would thereby lead to fewer of them advancing.
And to me, that's a concerning trend if you're looking
out over the course of the next five years, because
those are the schools that bring the event. It's magic,
and if there's fewer of them getting in, that's troubling.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
John Wilders with us on the radio show, and John
the next time we speak, Husky spring football will be underway.
As a matter of fact, one week from today, Washington's
going to be right smack in the middle of their
first Husky football spring practice practice on April first, and
the portal opens.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Two weeks after that.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So two things, What would be your number one thing
that we would be keeping an eye on for you
for Husky spring football since you can't get up here
to cover every day because you're down there in the
Bay Area. And then number two, how much damage should
we expect Washington or any team really for that matter,
to make in the spring portal when it opens up
in about three and a half weeks from now.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
I think that you know, most of the kids, the
good kids are accounted for with new schools, But there's
there's always a few kind of diamonds in the rough
that you can come up with in spring practice. It
just depends on the quality of the connections that your
coaches have to the lower levels and and to the
people who are, you know, making personnel decisions. But if
(14:53):
i'm if I'm looking at U dubbed spring ball, it's
all about the offensive line of me. And that's kind
of the way it was spring too. But it's that
just tells you how important that unit is and how
much we you know, the disadvantage Washington was at in
the Big ten, especially up front. To me, that's what
(15:14):
it's all about, is the line.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
What's the latestness burgeoning spring rivalry between Deon Sanders, Colorado
and Syracuse? Are we going to Are we going to
see Syracuse Colorado part one here coming up in a
month or so?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I hope we do. I think it's a good idea
to have spring exhibitions. Why not? I mean, gosh, they're
gonna be paying players. Why not have teams play spring exhibitions? Right?
I mean, there's no rules anymore, and it fits in
with the broader calendar. And we've talked about this, right,
why not just have a different type of spring practice.
(15:49):
Make it OTAs or something in the in the spring
that's not the traditional month of March or month of April.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
That opens up the calendar for so much other stuff
that college football could do.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I think it'd be awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Again, I'm just imagining a hate filled exhibition between U
dub and Oregon or U dub and and and Wazoo.
I mean, like like a Drago Apollo creed match for
charity where hopefully nobody dies like they did in Rocky
four when Apollo, you know, kick the bucket because Drago
kicked his face in. But I think it'd be awesome
to have something like that down the road where fans
(16:23):
could really get behind that. I think it'd be great
for college football and great for the region. Hey man,
great stuff. Enjoy it and we will talk in a week. Man,
we'll see it. Pali, all right, you bet, John Wilner
with us. All right, you're ready for some cracking hockey.
Baby Flames and cracking Flames need this. They're four points
out of a wild card spot. The cracking really need it.
(16:44):
They need some wins and a lot of help, by
the way, UH to make the playoffs. So let's get
out of here. We got Flames, we got cracking from Calgary.
Pregame coming up next, face off at six. We'll see
you tomorrow at three o'clock. Florio Petros and Larry Stone
courtesy of the Ram making his two though twenty five
debut talking Mariton baseball.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's it for us to enjoy the game. We'll see
tomorrow with three Bye
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