February 23, 2026 • 21 mins
Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News and Fox Sports joins Dick Fain and Hugh Millen to talk about the possibility of NCAA Tournament expansion, Mick Cronin’s not-so-great week for UCLA, Arizona’s year without hitting threes, and the state of Dawgs basketball.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's time for the latest on the madness of March.
Here's Hall of Fame college basketball writer for The Sporting
News and Fox Sports lead bracketologist Mike Decorsi, brought to
you by Northwest Handling Systems. From forklifts to pellet racks,
conveyors to loading duck equipment, we sell, rent and service
all your warehousing needs. Request a quote today at NWHS
(00:23):
dot com or give us a call at four two
five two five five zero five hundred. Now with Mike
de Corsi, here's SAFTI and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Dick Hey, Welcome back Sports Radio ninety three point three
KJRFM Softian Dick without the soft one Today. Hubrey love
Millin is in in time to talk a little college
basketball with our yearly guest, our hall of famer from
The Sporting News, Lead Sports Fox Sports Bracketologists, brought to
you by Northwest Handling Systems. Our friend Mike Decorsi is back. Mike,
(00:54):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I am great? Dick? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm great? It is great to talk to you. This
is episode one of eights. We'll talk to you each
week throughout the conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament, and
we'll wrap it up with the with the Final four, Mike,
and you know, we got to see something fun this
weekend that I don't know was unprecedented or not, but
it's certainly nothing I can remember. You talk about a
(01:18):
final four in late February. That's what we got with
Houston and Arizona and Michigan and Duke. So what did
you take away from those two big blockbuster games we
had this weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Well, it's interesting that you that you pose it that way,
because one of the fascinating things about the Michigan Duke
game for me was trying to figure out what it
meant because both of those teams will would have to
do basically the opposite of who they are. They're not
gonna lose a bunch of games, so they're gonna be
(01:50):
one seeds. They're both tremendous and so but neither does
number one overall seed mean anything. When one team wants
to be in the East the other team wants to
be in the with it really doesn't mean much, right,
And so it didn't mean that number one in the polls.
I have told people for decades I cover college basketball
(02:11):
for a living and never look at the polls. I
don't care what happens in those So I'm trying to
figure out what it means, and what it meant in
the end was I had actually had a conversation with
the Duke staffer last week for a show that I
do on FS one called Big Time Hoops, and they
were talking about encouraging their perimeter players to be more
(02:31):
aggressive while still maintaining high quality of shot, but me
more aggressive as perimeter shooters because they player like Caleb
Foster wasn't doing that enough, even though he shoots a
very high percentage. And then he came out and busted
a couple right in the first half. So they're listening.
So you saw that on the one side, and on
the other side, Michigan realized this is exactly not what
(02:54):
to do if we play in another big game or
when we play in another big game, because their front
performance was so stagnant and so antithetical to who they've
been most of this year, and I think they learned
that that the game had gotten a little easy for
them even against high level Big ten opponents. They were
just toying with them, and it showed when they played
(03:16):
that do came okay, like this is going to be
hard this is not go. If we win this thing,
it's going to be hard. Mike.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
When you talk about how there's some question to how
much it means, I guess you know, we've recently had
this discussion about college football and how many teams should
be in the college football playoff, and for the top teams,
you kind of lessen the impact of these games. I mean,
when I was in college, the NCAA tournament had thirty
two teams, and of course there were sixteen before that
(03:45):
and all. But I mean, do you have a thought
about that about the right number. Certainly you haven't thought
about college basketball, but as college football tries to find
the you know, thread the needle, find the optimum number,
do you have any thoughts in those regards?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, I, in the in the basketball tournament, I have
been very staunch about not further expanding. I was kind
of the way I ultimately went with the with the
sixty eight which happened in twenty ten, was I, I
know what the horror was on the other side, which
was in order at that point in order to make
(04:22):
the money they had been making from CBS, which at
that point didn't have a bunch of money in the bank.
I guess in the piggy bank. And so they didn't
think they could write the seven hundred million dollars a
year check. And ESPN said, Okay, we'll do that if
you give us ninety six. And I'm like, no, nobody
wanted that. And so Turner comes along and says, okay,
(04:44):
we'll go halfers or whatever the actual arrangement is, and
ultimately they decided to go to sixty eight in that
in that negotiation, and I'm like, okay, so four more
teams doesn't bother me, and but let's not go beyond that.
And esaa's now Charlie Baker is pushing for more, and
I invite Charlie, and I'm serious about this, come sit
(05:06):
with me while I do my brackets and see what
is on the other side of the sixty eighth line
and try to justify to me it's bad. The expansion
it's bad. And so that's my feeling about that. And Hugh,
I think that the I like the twelve, I could
probably live with sixteen. I don't see any reason at
(05:27):
all for twenty four. There aren't twenty four teams that
could win it. There aren't twenty four teams that could
even reach the final four. So why bother did?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Do you think we're gonna get more of these big
non conference matchups like we did with Michigan and Duke
in late February. I remember I used to back in
the day, we'd get like Gonzaga playing Memphis or playing
Louisville in February, but we weren't. We weren't getting the
power We weren't getting the Power four schools against the
Power four schools like we did in Michigan and Duke.
(05:58):
Is this gonna be something that the conference can missioners
are going to try to schedule for eyeball purposes and
maybe even in a neutral site like we had in
DC this weekend.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
What's interesting about is I think Duke did this in
reaction to the fact that their conference, once once the
gold standard of college basketball, the ACC has really declined
and now it's bounced back a fair amount that last
year it was a disaster, right, I mean, they should
have had they should have I don't know how many
ultimately got four bids they think, and they should have
(06:28):
only had three. And this year they're probably going to
get eight, maybe at the outside nine and so it's better,
but it's they're still not getting the level of competition
that they need to get sharp, and that's why Michigan
was perfectly timed for them, and it was the perfect
choice of opponent because Michigan had been so good. But
I think I know ESPN has come out and say
(06:50):
they want more of these. It had always been television driven,
and as CBS got more removed from regular season college basketball,
even though there's still the home of the tournament, they're
not as involved in regular season college basketball as they
once were. They much rather show golf, and so as
a result, these games started waned and it just was
(07:12):
basically play your conference. Gonzaga did it for the same
reason the Duke had changed to this. Yeah, they get
really good tests when they play Saint Mary's and this
year with Santa Clara and when they had BYU, they
would get them from that, but it just weren't common enough.
So playing when Memphis was really good, playing them in
February was good for the zag just to remind them
(07:34):
what's out there in March. And so I think that
it's a little bit different. In the major conferences, there
really would just be an eyeball thing, because like if
you're in the Big twelve or the Big ten. You
don't need to be reminded what's out there. It might
help you to freshen yourself a little bit, to maybe
see things through against an opponent that hasn't seen a
(07:57):
lot of you, but it's not like you need to test.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Right, Mike DECURSI with us and Mike, Well, we're talking
about those those two big games we discussed. I think
UCLA coming from twenty three points down against number ten
Illinois quite a week in Brentwood with Mick Cronan and
everything that transpired there at the very least surly possibly unprofessional.
(08:24):
What was your take on that whole incident and then
how it may have impacted the Bruins this weekend and
moving forward.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, let me preface this by saying that I have
known Mick for thirty years and like him a lot.
And I mean he was on the staff at Cincinnati
when I came in from Memphis to cover the Bearcats
for four years, and so I know him as well
as I know just about any coach in college basketball.
(08:56):
And I didn't like what he did with the ejecting
his own player. I thought it would have been sufficient
to just say you know he misinterpreted the play, and
what had happened four or five days earlier was that
there had been a really seriously untoward play in Providence
versus Saint John's, which led to a three game suspension
(09:18):
for the player who inflicted that foul on a drive
on a breakaway, and it happened to Saint John's, a
player from Saint John's who happened to be coached by
Rick Patino, who happens to be a mentor of Mix,
and I think that probably impacted how he viewed the situation.
But even in that, if he was mad and he
(09:40):
thought it was flagrant beyond or dirty or whatever, he
should have just pointed to the end of the bench
and said, you know, you're done and we'll see at
the end of the night. He didn't need to have
him taken out of the game. I think I think
he was frustrated by the performance, and rightfully so. The
performance was abysmal at Michigan State, way below even This
is not a great team. By It's a much better
(10:01):
team than they showed in that game, and I think
he was frustrated by that and that that played into it.
I didn't have a huge problem with the reporter exchange,
because I've been on the other end of those, and
I mean some of the people that did it to me.
One of the persons that did it to me, Chuck
Tanner a long time ago, a manager for the Pirates,
(10:21):
is considered to be like the nicest person who's ever
worn a baseball uniform, and and it's right he is.
It was, and so I didn't necessarily have a problem
with mixed exchange there, but I didn't think he handled
the player right. I was glad he apologized, and I
think that that probably helped them get invigorated when they
got behind, and I think they were they were willing
(10:44):
to play for each other and play for him, and
that that victory might be the difference in them getting
into the NC.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Double As our friends in Northwest Handling System brings you,
Mike the COURSEI this is episode one of eight throughout
the college basketball March Madness NWHS dot com Crown fok lists,
palette racking, loading doc equipment request a quote at NWHS
dot com. Mike, we talked about the Michigan duke side
(11:12):
of that big doubleheader.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
How about Arizona.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Here's an unreal Wildcat stat You may or may not
have seen this. Arizona now has three wins this season
against top five teams when they hit three or fewer
three pointers. The rest of college basketball in the last
five years has two. So Arizona has done it three
(11:34):
times in one year. College basketball has done it twice
in the last five years. So can Arizona win a
title in this day and age without hitting three pointers?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's pretty rare they are there. I didn't even know
I was out. I'll confess this to you. I just
looked this up. They are three hundred and sixty third
in terms of the number of their field goal attempts
that are three pointers. They just don't even know there
were three hundred and sixty three teams. I thought it
was sixty one. That tells you a lot, right, It
(12:08):
is pretty uncommon for you to win it while being
that inactive from three point range. At UCLA, I remember
in ninety five and so like we're going thirty thirty
one years back, hit four total three pointers at the
Final Four with the O'Bannon brothers and one. They had
two on Saturday and two on Monday night. And that's
(12:29):
the last time I can remember anything like that happening.
So it is a challenge, and I think their best
version of this team has Braden Burry's making more than that,
making more, you know, making more than the number that
you just cited just himself, he should be able to
do that, and then adding in Jayden Bradley, who's a
(12:50):
thirty seven per cent shooter, should be able to get more.
Anthony del Orso was just an absolutely fabulous shooter in
the past, a guy that teams feared when he would
get the ball deep. A year ago shot forty one percent.
He's off this year, only shooting thirty two. And that's
a problem because it limits the like, why is he
(13:13):
on the floor kind of deal, Like we put him
out there because he makes shots, and he's pretty dynamic
and can guard a little bit, but he's really out
there to make shots and those aren't dropping this year
and it is having an impact. But he ever gets
it back and all of a sudden they become even
more dangerous as a team, and they.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Are well, I'm sure that there's many basketball purists that are,
you know, relishing the idea of trying to get the
ball into the paint close to the rim and also
knock down the jumper from the elbow, right, So I
guess that's a throwback in some circum in some sense, right,
But you know which leads me to my question for you, Mike.
(13:54):
This is episode one of your twenty twenty six series.
Here kind of, let's say, yell of the helicopter rather
up up a few thousand feet and just kind of
look down on college basketball. Well, with all the changes
in college sports, with the nil with the transferring, what
have you give us your view, your vision of the
(14:15):
state of the union that's kind of been up as well,
the state of human union of college basketball.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It seems like this has been true for a while now.
The relative attractiveness or the relative competitive level of the
sport is dependent on the freshmen, because if they're terrific,
then it makes it invigorates the competition to another level.
But I think we might be a little less dependent
(14:41):
on that than we used to be because the flood
of players who were leaving because they couldn't make any
money in college or not enough, they would go and
play in the GLI for thirty eight grand People talk
about all this cheating that was happening in college hoops
in the past, right, why were literally scores of players
(15:03):
leaving to go make thirty grand in the G League
if so much money was flowing under the table the players,
because they were leaving every school in America to go
to take their shot at the NBA when a lot
or most of them weren't ready for the NBA. But
it was just like, I got to go make some
money play in this game, so let's go. And now
(15:25):
that there's a significant amount of money to be paid
to the players to stay, you got guys suing to
get back. There are multiple players now trying to sue
or successfully suing to get more eligibility. And you know,
is the five year to five years to play four?
Is that going to hold up? And all this stuff
(15:45):
and that, so that has invigorated the competition as well.
This is the deepest freshman class, I believe since nineteen
seventy nine. I wrote about this a week ago when
seventy nine had Ralph Sampson, Isaiah Thomas, James Worthy, and
Dominique Wilkins, all Hall of famers, and then a huge
(16:07):
army of terrific players behind that. And and we've had
some really good groups since the ninety five with KG
and Paul Pierce and uh and uh and as well
as the two Carolina guys Vince Carter Anton Jamison Uh
and then eight we had Kevin Love and Derek Derreck
Rose and some others OJ Mayo. But this is so,
(16:30):
this is such a deep freshman class. You've got just
I believe this. On the Sporting News All America Team,
we will have the highest percentage of freshmen in our
history on on the All America Team. And we have.
We were we were ahead of the curve in terms
of naming freshmen to our All America Team. It was
(16:51):
pretty rare before Carmelo Anthony came along and we put
him on our first team and no one else did.
It's fairly common now, but we've never had this number.
I suspect we could have a third of our fifteen
players be freshmen. Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Do you think all of them become NBA players next year?
I mean the NBA certainly hope. So that's why we
have all this tanking problem in the NBA right now,
because there's all these players that they want, But are
they going to get burned? I mean, are maybe three
four five of the top ten freshmen going to stay
in school next year because of the money they can make.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So I think when you get to that level, a
top ten in the NBA, in the NBA, even the lottery,
I think the question is more players that are because
of the abundance of talent in this class in terms
of how much of the of the top ten to
(17:45):
top fifteen, top twenty they will consume. I think that
that more upper classmen that have the option might stick around.
I think a guy like Trey McKinney at Michigan, who's
until Saturday. If you watch only Sat, believe me he's great,
but he was. He really struggled on Saturday against Duke.
But he's a kind of guy that would probably be
(18:08):
the thirteenth or fourteenth freshman to go this year. Why
not stick around? Next year's class not as good, right,
and you can be top ten. I think there will
be a few of those, but for the most part,
all these great freshmen that we're seeing, they'll take up.
I've seen projections of thirteen of the top sixteen players
in the draft being college freshman, and that wouldn't surprise
(18:32):
me at all.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Before I let you go, Mike, I remember having a
conversation with Softy about three months ago, and we were
talking about, you know, scheduling, you know for the college
basketball season, where like, hey, we got to it's gonna
be really cool. We hope we get Mike de Corsi
back because we're going to be able to talk about
a college basketball team that is right, if not on
the bubble, already in the NCAA tournament in the University
(18:56):
of Washington. That was our conversation we had off maybe
on the air in like November. And here we are,
and the University of Washington is basically exactly where they've
been most of the last ten years. What do you
make of what's happened here on Mottlake with a pretty
talented yet very very injured basketball team this year with
(19:16):
Danny sprinkling year two.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
The injuries have obviously had a huge impact on what
they've been able to accomplish. And it's really a shame
when you have a great player like Hanna Steinbach there
and he's been very productive and very energized, and you'd
think that that would have done it more, that they
would be a better team than they've been. But unfortunately,
(19:43):
with all the injuries, it's been hard to be have
great continuity. I mean you've got out of your first
eight scorers, I think there's three that have played twenty
seven games. It's just impossible to nownavigate that. You can try,
but I mean and and I don't know what it
(20:05):
would be. I mean, like they're like the Maryland game
on Saturday, they should have won the game with what
they had out there, and they've had a few of those.
You're disappointed they've.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Got three Their last three losses are four to three
and four.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, that those there's some of those games you'd think,
especially a team like Maryland not a great team. And
I know I believe that one was on the road. Uh,
that's one you'd feel like, boy, you had a chance
there and you let it get away. I don't think
it would change the the the nature of this season
if you get it, but you'd feel better if you had.
(20:39):
But it's there's just very few teams that have sustained
the degree of injury that this team has had. And
you know, I think the future, I think the future
would say again, I mean, he's been hurt too, JJ Mandiquett,
But a couple more JJ Mandiquitts would be a good
thing to have a few more friends like I mean
(21:01):
bringing Hanness because he's a great talent and he's obviously
almost certain to go after this year to the NBA.
Of course you bring him in. But a few more
Zooms and a few more JJ's guys like that that
you're going to have around for a little while. I
think that that would be a helpful thing because it
obviously depends on the patience level of your fan base
(21:24):
and your administration. But I still believe that to build
a successful program, you need to have guys that are
going to be there for a while.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, Mike, it is so great to have you back,
and by the fact, we won't be talking about the
Huskies much and down the stretch, but you know what,
we're used to that because every year we've had you,
we really haven't talked about the Huskies. Stress.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
So Mike will talk to you next week.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Thanks so much, Thanks guys, Becky, thanks Mike, Mike.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The course you brought to you by our friends at
Northwest Handling Systems. More of you coming up next on
ninety three point three KJRFM.
It's time for the latest on the madness of March.
Here's Hall of Fame college basketball writer for The Sporting
News and Fox Sports lead bracketologist Mike Decorsi, brought to
you by Northwest Handling Systems. From forklifts to pellet racks,
conveyors to loading duck equipment, we sell, rent and service
all your warehousing needs. Request a quote today at NWHS
(00:23):
dot com or give us a call at four two
five two five five zero five hundred. Now with Mike
de Corsi, here's SAFTI and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Dick Hey, Welcome back Sports Radio ninety three point three
KJRFM Softian Dick without the soft one Today. Hubrey love
Millin is in in time to talk a little college
basketball with our yearly guest, our hall of famer from
The Sporting News, Lead Sports Fox Sports Bracketologists, brought to
you by Northwest Handling Systems. Our friend Mike Decorsi is back. Mike,
(00:54):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I am great? Dick? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm great? It is great to talk to you. This
is episode one of eights. We'll talk to you each
week throughout the conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament, and
we'll wrap it up with the with the Final four, Mike,
and you know, we got to see something fun this
weekend that I don't know was unprecedented or not, but
it's certainly nothing I can remember. You talk about a
(01:18):
final four in late February. That's what we got with
Houston and Arizona and Michigan and Duke. So what did
you take away from those two big blockbuster games we
had this weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Well, it's interesting that you that you pose it that way,
because one of the fascinating things about the Michigan Duke
game for me was trying to figure out what it
meant because both of those teams will would have to
do basically the opposite of who they are. They're not
gonna lose a bunch of games, so they're gonna be
(01:50):
one seeds. They're both tremendous and so but neither does
number one overall seed mean anything. When one team wants
to be in the East the other team wants to
be in the with it really doesn't mean much, right,
And so it didn't mean that number one in the polls.
I have told people for decades I cover college basketball
(02:11):
for a living and never look at the polls. I
don't care what happens in those So I'm trying to
figure out what it means, and what it meant in
the end was I had actually had a conversation with
the Duke staffer last week for a show that I
do on FS one called Big Time Hoops, and they
were talking about encouraging their perimeter players to be more
(02:31):
aggressive while still maintaining high quality of shot, but me
more aggressive as perimeter shooters because they player like Caleb
Foster wasn't doing that enough, even though he shoots a
very high percentage. And then he came out and busted
a couple right in the first half. So they're listening.
So you saw that on the one side, and on
the other side, Michigan realized this is exactly not what
(02:54):
to do if we play in another big game or
when we play in another big game, because their front
performance was so stagnant and so antithetical to who they've
been most of this year, and I think they learned
that that the game had gotten a little easy for
them even against high level Big ten opponents. They were
just toying with them, and it showed when they played
(03:16):
that do came okay, like this is going to be
hard this is not go. If we win this thing,
it's going to be hard. Mike.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
When you talk about how there's some question to how
much it means, I guess you know, we've recently had
this discussion about college football and how many teams should
be in the college football playoff, and for the top teams,
you kind of lessen the impact of these games. I mean,
when I was in college, the NCAA tournament had thirty
two teams, and of course there were sixteen before that
(03:45):
and all. But I mean, do you have a thought
about that about the right number. Certainly you haven't thought
about college basketball, but as college football tries to find
the you know, thread the needle, find the optimum number,
do you have any thoughts in those regards?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, I, in the in the basketball tournament, I have
been very staunch about not further expanding. I was kind
of the way I ultimately went with the with the
sixty eight which happened in twenty ten, was I, I
know what the horror was on the other side, which
was in order at that point in order to make
(04:22):
the money they had been making from CBS, which at
that point didn't have a bunch of money in the bank.
I guess in the piggy bank. And so they didn't
think they could write the seven hundred million dollars a
year check. And ESPN said, Okay, we'll do that if
you give us ninety six. And I'm like, no, nobody
wanted that. And so Turner comes along and says, okay,
(04:44):
we'll go halfers or whatever the actual arrangement is, and
ultimately they decided to go to sixty eight in that
in that negotiation, and I'm like, okay, so four more
teams doesn't bother me, and but let's not go beyond that.
And esaa's now Charlie Baker is pushing for more, and
I invite Charlie, and I'm serious about this, come sit
(05:06):
with me while I do my brackets and see what
is on the other side of the sixty eighth line
and try to justify to me it's bad. The expansion
it's bad. And so that's my feeling about that. And Hugh,
I think that the I like the twelve, I could
probably live with sixteen. I don't see any reason at
(05:27):
all for twenty four. There aren't twenty four teams that
could win it. There aren't twenty four teams that could
even reach the final four. So why bother did?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Do you think we're gonna get more of these big
non conference matchups like we did with Michigan and Duke
in late February. I remember I used to back in
the day, we'd get like Gonzaga playing Memphis or playing
Louisville in February, but we weren't. We weren't getting the
power We weren't getting the Power four schools against the
Power four schools like we did in Michigan and Duke.
(05:58):
Is this gonna be something that the conference can missioners
are going to try to schedule for eyeball purposes and
maybe even in a neutral site like we had in
DC this weekend.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
What's interesting about is I think Duke did this in
reaction to the fact that their conference, once once the
gold standard of college basketball, the ACC has really declined
and now it's bounced back a fair amount that last
year it was a disaster, right, I mean, they should
have had they should have I don't know how many
ultimately got four bids they think, and they should have
(06:28):
only had three. And this year they're probably going to
get eight, maybe at the outside nine and so it's better,
but it's they're still not getting the level of competition
that they need to get sharp, and that's why Michigan
was perfectly timed for them, and it was the perfect
choice of opponent because Michigan had been so good. But
I think I know ESPN has come out and say
(06:50):
they want more of these. It had always been television driven,
and as CBS got more removed from regular season college basketball,
even though there's still the home of the tournament, they're
not as involved in regular season college basketball as they
once were. They much rather show golf, and so as
a result, these games started waned and it just was
(07:12):
basically play your conference. Gonzaga did it for the same
reason the Duke had changed to this. Yeah, they get
really good tests when they play Saint Mary's and this
year with Santa Clara and when they had BYU, they
would get them from that, but it just weren't common enough.
So playing when Memphis was really good, playing them in
February was good for the zag just to remind them
(07:34):
what's out there in March. And so I think that
it's a little bit different. In the major conferences, there
really would just be an eyeball thing, because like if
you're in the Big twelve or the Big ten. You
don't need to be reminded what's out there. It might
help you to freshen yourself a little bit, to maybe
see things through against an opponent that hasn't seen a
(07:57):
lot of you, but it's not like you need to test.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Right, Mike DECURSI with us and Mike, Well, we're talking
about those those two big games we discussed. I think
UCLA coming from twenty three points down against number ten
Illinois quite a week in Brentwood with Mick Cronan and
everything that transpired there at the very least surly possibly unprofessional.
(08:24):
What was your take on that whole incident and then
how it may have impacted the Bruins this weekend and
moving forward.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Well, let me preface this by saying that I have
known Mick for thirty years and like him a lot.
And I mean he was on the staff at Cincinnati
when I came in from Memphis to cover the Bearcats
for four years, and so I know him as well
as I know just about any coach in college basketball.
(08:56):
And I didn't like what he did with the ejecting
his own player. I thought it would have been sufficient
to just say you know he misinterpreted the play, and
what had happened four or five days earlier was that
there had been a really seriously untoward play in Providence
versus Saint John's, which led to a three game suspension
(09:18):
for the player who inflicted that foul on a drive
on a breakaway, and it happened to Saint John's, a
player from Saint John's who happened to be coached by
Rick Patino, who happens to be a mentor of Mix,
and I think that probably impacted how he viewed the situation.
But even in that, if he was mad and he
(09:40):
thought it was flagrant beyond or dirty or whatever, he
should have just pointed to the end of the bench
and said, you know, you're done and we'll see at
the end of the night. He didn't need to have
him taken out of the game. I think I think
he was frustrated by the performance, and rightfully so. The
performance was abysmal at Michigan State, way below even This
is not a great team. By It's a much better
(10:01):
team than they showed in that game, and I think
he was frustrated by that and that that played into it.
I didn't have a huge problem with the reporter exchange,
because I've been on the other end of those, and
I mean some of the people that did it to me.
One of the persons that did it to me, Chuck
Tanner a long time ago, a manager for the Pirates,
(10:21):
is considered to be like the nicest person who's ever
worn a baseball uniform, and and it's right he is.
It was, and so I didn't necessarily have a problem
with mixed exchange there, but I didn't think he handled
the player right. I was glad he apologized, and I
think that that probably helped them get invigorated when they
got behind, and I think they were they were willing
(10:44):
to play for each other and play for him, and
that that victory might be the difference in them getting
into the NC.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Double As our friends in Northwest Handling System brings you,
Mike the COURSEI this is episode one of eight throughout
the college basketball March Madness NWHS dot com Crown fok lists,
palette racking, loading doc equipment request a quote at NWHS
dot com. Mike, we talked about the Michigan duke side
(11:12):
of that big doubleheader.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
How about Arizona.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Here's an unreal Wildcat stat You may or may not
have seen this. Arizona now has three wins this season
against top five teams when they hit three or fewer
three pointers. The rest of college basketball in the last
five years has two. So Arizona has done it three
(11:34):
times in one year. College basketball has done it twice
in the last five years. So can Arizona win a
title in this day and age without hitting three pointers?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's pretty rare they are there. I didn't even know
I was out. I'll confess this to you. I just
looked this up. They are three hundred and sixty third
in terms of the number of their field goal attempts
that are three pointers. They just don't even know there
were three hundred and sixty three teams. I thought it
was sixty one. That tells you a lot, right, It
(12:08):
is pretty uncommon for you to win it while being
that inactive from three point range. At UCLA, I remember
in ninety five and so like we're going thirty thirty
one years back, hit four total three pointers at the
Final Four with the O'Bannon brothers and one. They had
two on Saturday and two on Monday night. And that's
(12:29):
the last time I can remember anything like that happening.
So it is a challenge, and I think their best
version of this team has Braden Burry's making more than that,
making more, you know, making more than the number that
you just cited just himself, he should be able to
do that, and then adding in Jayden Bradley, who's a
(12:50):
thirty seven per cent shooter, should be able to get more.
Anthony del Orso was just an absolutely fabulous shooter in
the past, a guy that teams feared when he would
get the ball deep. A year ago shot forty one percent.
He's off this year, only shooting thirty two. And that's
a problem because it limits the like, why is he
(13:13):
on the floor kind of deal, Like we put him
out there because he makes shots, and he's pretty dynamic
and can guard a little bit, but he's really out
there to make shots and those aren't dropping this year
and it is having an impact. But he ever gets
it back and all of a sudden they become even
more dangerous as a team, and they.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Are well, I'm sure that there's many basketball purists that are,
you know, relishing the idea of trying to get the
ball into the paint close to the rim and also
knock down the jumper from the elbow, right, So I
guess that's a throwback in some circum in some sense, right,
But you know which leads me to my question for you, Mike.
(13:54):
This is episode one of your twenty twenty six series.
Here kind of, let's say, yell of the helicopter rather
up up a few thousand feet and just kind of
look down on college basketball. Well, with all the changes
in college sports, with the nil with the transferring, what
have you give us your view, your vision of the
(14:15):
state of the union that's kind of been up as well,
the state of human union of college basketball.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
It seems like this has been true for a while now.
The relative attractiveness or the relative competitive level of the
sport is dependent on the freshmen, because if they're terrific,
then it makes it invigorates the competition to another level.
But I think we might be a little less dependent
(14:41):
on that than we used to be because the flood
of players who were leaving because they couldn't make any
money in college or not enough, they would go and
play in the GLI for thirty eight grand People talk
about all this cheating that was happening in college hoops
in the past, right, why were literally scores of players
(15:03):
leaving to go make thirty grand in the G League
if so much money was flowing under the table the players,
because they were leaving every school in America to go
to take their shot at the NBA when a lot
or most of them weren't ready for the NBA. But
it was just like, I got to go make some
money play in this game, so let's go. And now
(15:25):
that there's a significant amount of money to be paid
to the players to stay, you got guys suing to
get back. There are multiple players now trying to sue
or successfully suing to get more eligibility. And you know,
is the five year to five years to play four?
Is that going to hold up? And all this stuff
(15:45):
and that, so that has invigorated the competition as well.
This is the deepest freshman class, I believe since nineteen
seventy nine. I wrote about this a week ago when
seventy nine had Ralph Sampson, Isaiah Thomas, James Worthy, and
Dominique Wilkins, all Hall of famers, and then a huge
(16:07):
army of terrific players behind that. And and we've had
some really good groups since the ninety five with KG
and Paul Pierce and uh and uh and as well
as the two Carolina guys Vince Carter Anton Jamison Uh
and then eight we had Kevin Love and Derek Derreck
Rose and some others OJ Mayo. But this is so,
(16:30):
this is such a deep freshman class. You've got just
I believe this. On the Sporting News All America Team,
we will have the highest percentage of freshmen in our
history on on the All America Team. And we have.
We were we were ahead of the curve in terms
of naming freshmen to our All America Team. It was
(16:51):
pretty rare before Carmelo Anthony came along and we put
him on our first team and no one else did.
It's fairly common now, but we've never had this number.
I suspect we could have a third of our fifteen
players be freshmen. Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Do you think all of them become NBA players next year?
I mean the NBA certainly hope. So that's why we
have all this tanking problem in the NBA right now,
because there's all these players that they want, But are
they going to get burned? I mean, are maybe three
four five of the top ten freshmen going to stay
in school next year because of the money they can make.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So I think when you get to that level, a
top ten in the NBA, in the NBA, even the lottery,
I think the question is more players that are because
of the abundance of talent in this class in terms
of how much of the of the top ten to
(17:45):
top fifteen, top twenty they will consume. I think that
that more upper classmen that have the option might stick around.
I think a guy like Trey McKinney at Michigan, who's
until Saturday. If you watch only Sat, believe me he's great,
but he was. He really struggled on Saturday against Duke.
But he's a kind of guy that would probably be
(18:08):
the thirteenth or fourteenth freshman to go this year. Why
not stick around? Next year's class not as good, right,
and you can be top ten. I think there will
be a few of those, but for the most part,
all these great freshmen that we're seeing, they'll take up.
I've seen projections of thirteen of the top sixteen players
in the draft being college freshman, and that wouldn't surprise
(18:32):
me at all.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Before I let you go, Mike, I remember having a
conversation with Softy about three months ago, and we were
talking about, you know, scheduling, you know for the college
basketball season, where like, hey, we got to it's gonna
be really cool. We hope we get Mike de Corsi
back because we're going to be able to talk about
a college basketball team that is right, if not on
the bubble, already in the NCAA tournament in the University
(18:56):
of Washington. That was our conversation we had off maybe
on the air in like November. And here we are,
and the University of Washington is basically exactly where they've
been most of the last ten years. What do you
make of what's happened here on Mottlake with a pretty
talented yet very very injured basketball team this year with
(19:16):
Danny sprinkling year two.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
The injuries have obviously had a huge impact on what
they've been able to accomplish. And it's really a shame
when you have a great player like Hanna Steinbach there
and he's been very productive and very energized, and you'd
think that that would have done it more, that they
would be a better team than they've been. But unfortunately,
(19:43):
with all the injuries, it's been hard to be have
great continuity. I mean you've got out of your first
eight scorers, I think there's three that have played twenty
seven games. It's just impossible to nownavigate that. You can try,
but I mean and and I don't know what it
(20:05):
would be. I mean, like they're like the Maryland game
on Saturday, they should have won the game with what
they had out there, and they've had a few of those.
You're disappointed they've.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Got three Their last three losses are four to three
and four.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, that those there's some of those games you'd think,
especially a team like Maryland not a great team. And
I know I believe that one was on the road. Uh,
that's one you'd feel like, boy, you had a chance
there and you let it get away. I don't think
it would change the the the nature of this season
if you get it, but you'd feel better if you had.
(20:39):
But it's there's just very few teams that have sustained
the degree of injury that this team has had. And
you know, I think the future, I think the future
would say again, I mean, he's been hurt too, JJ Mandiquett,
But a couple more JJ Mandiquitts would be a good
thing to have a few more friends like I mean
(21:01):
bringing Hanness because he's a great talent and he's obviously
almost certain to go after this year to the NBA.
Of course you bring him in. But a few more
Zooms and a few more JJ's guys like that that
you're going to have around for a little while. I
think that that would be a helpful thing because it
obviously depends on the patience level of your fan base
(21:24):
and your administration. But I still believe that to build
a successful program, you need to have guys that are
going to be there for a while.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, Mike, it is so great to have you back,
and by the fact, we won't be talking about the
Huskies much and down the stretch, but you know what,
we're used to that because every year we've had you,
we really haven't talked about the Huskies. Stress.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
So Mike will talk to you next week.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Thanks so much, Thanks guys, Becky, thanks Mike, Mike.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
The course you brought to you by our friends at
Northwest Handling Systems. More of you coming up next on
ninety three point three KJRFM.
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