April 2, 2025 • 36 mins
This week on the Daly Dose, following a week off, we're back on the Dose with the latest NCAA bracket pool standings and a recap of what we learned over spring break!
In the NFL, the New York Giants will have the most fascinating quarterback room in the league, and the New England Patriots made a free agent signing that we love!
The Memphis Grizzlies made a surprise move, Lebron James and Stephen A. Smith are having a very public feud, and the NBA keeps losing players to injury despite all of their load management.
Major League Baseball began their season in Japan, there are now discussions about having a team overseas and we have a suggestion that would be great for everyone!
Then we dive into what we have learned in the NCAA Tournament so far. We analyze the officiating, whether or not the No. 1 seeds dominating is a trend and which conference has been the most dominant.We make our predictions for the Final Four games and who will win the National Championship on Monday.
Finally, with Duke’s Cooper Flagg having such a dominant freshman season, our Daly Dose Top 5 counts down the Top 5 greatest freshmen seasons in NCAA Tournament history!
In the NFL, the New York Giants will have the most fascinating quarterback room in the league, and the New England Patriots made a free agent signing that we love!
The Memphis Grizzlies made a surprise move, Lebron James and Stephen A. Smith are having a very public feud, and the NBA keeps losing players to injury despite all of their load management.
Major League Baseball began their season in Japan, there are now discussions about having a team overseas and we have a suggestion that would be great for everyone!
Then we dive into what we have learned in the NCAA Tournament so far. We analyze the officiating, whether or not the No. 1 seeds dominating is a trend and which conference has been the most dominant.We make our predictions for the Final Four games and who will win the National Championship on Monday.
Finally, with Duke’s Cooper Flagg having such a dominant freshman season, our Daly Dose Top 5 counts down the Top 5 greatest freshmen seasons in NCAA Tournament history!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Please. Day, April second, twenty twenty five, you are listening
to the Daily Do Sports podcast and I am your host,
Clinton Daily, coming to you from my high ceed to
here in Denver, Colorado, and we are back for another
week of talking sports with a dose of common sense. Hey,
Happy Wednesday. Do you hope you had a good weekend?
Hope your week is off to a strong start. I
(00:27):
hope you, your family, your friends are all staying strong
and healthy right now, and I especially hope that you
didn't fall for any of those dumb April Fools jokes yesterday. Yes,
it is already April, and on April first, we know
we're gonna have some of those dummies on social media
(00:48):
trying to lib out some fake trades that your favorite
team made or something just completely stupid that when you
hear it, you're like, there's no way that really happened. Sorry,
Dallas Maverickspan, that wasn't actually a shot at you. I
didn't even think about that. You thought it was April
Fool's back when and then you found out that actually
(01:10):
did take place. My bad on that, man, That's just me.
And yes, we are back this week after taking a
short break a week ago, went out to California last week,
went out and saw some family, hung out a little
bit for spring break, and really just took a week
and kind of did nothing but watch a lot of
college hoop. And you know, it's funny because the NCAA tournament,
(01:35):
which we will be discussing at length today, Hey, this
year it has not been full of the Cinderella stories.
It has not been full of the upsets that we
have seen so many times. And I'll be very honest,
there are times that I struggled with the game itself.
Did players play softy defense? They have horrible shot selection,
(01:59):
horror play and ball movement at times. And yet even
without the upsets, even without the Cinderella teams this year,
there are still so many great games. There are still
so many fun type finishes that I just find myself
watching game after game after game. It doesn't matter who's playing,
I'm still watching because once again, even without the upsets,
(02:21):
even without the Cinderellas, March Madness just always lives up
to the hype. And I know it's a little different
this year, but it's still lived up to the hype.
Speaking of March Madness, our Daily Those Sports podcast bracket
is now down to the final three games, and right
now I'm going to give you the current standings. No,
(02:43):
I'm not gonna read all, just gonna read the top
five or so right now. K D three two, three,
five nine. Whoever that is is in first place, and
whoever that is crushed it. They're hitting like ninety four
percent of their picks. I have no idea who KD is, though,
I'll be honest. If you know, let me know, because
(03:04):
I don't know who that is. Katie has Duke winning
it all. Defending champion Billy Oh is in second place,
just ten points back from KDE. Billy Oh also has
Duke twenty points back. We have a tie for third place.
We have t Farren, who has Florida winning the title,
and then we've got Lulu. Of course she has Duke
(03:24):
winning the title, as Lulu always does every year, but
she's right there in the thick of it as well.
And then Stroudy is another twenty points back. He is
eyed for fifth place. I should say, with someone who
didn't bother the name their their racket and it's just
ESPN blah blah blah blah blah. I don't know who
that is so well done. Stroudy doing well for a
(03:45):
kid who I know is not a big college hoops fan.
Might have to have Stroudy and sometime to talk hockey,
but I know he's not a big college hoops fan.
But remember this, Remember we still have three games left.
It's not just getting the final. I mean, like I said,
Tee Farron has Florida winning it, Lulu has Duke winning.
I believe Stroudi has Duke winning in as well. But
(04:06):
there's those other two games that are gonna weigh heavily here.
We've got three games left. Just getting the final won't
pick it. You can earn a few more points in
those two semifinal games on Saturday evening. This is once
again it happens every year when we do this Daily
Dose Bracket. It is coming down to the wire and
it is going to be close. I will be announcing
(04:27):
the winner of the Dally Dose Bracket Challenge next week
here on the DOSK. Hey remember you should be stopping
by Dailydosports dot com every single week. You can see
what new things we have going on over there. We've
got links to the podcast, We've got links to new
articles every week, so make sure you are checking not
out every single week. You can also email the podcast
at Dailydosports at gmail dot com. We hear from listeners
(04:50):
now and then, and you can pick up Daily Dose
gear over at dayodosports dot com. We've got t shirts,
we've got hoodies, we've got sweatshirts, we've got hats, We've
got a lot of things over there. You can get
them with a few different logos of the Daily Dose
on them and you can pick them in whatever color
you want. So make sure you stop by dailydoorsports dot
com every week. Hey, Today on the Dose, we are
going to be discussing some of the things that we
(05:11):
have learned over the last week or so in the
world of sports. You know, we've seen some stories in
the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, and of course
the NCAA Tournament. We will also have a brief Final
four and National Championship preview today on the Dose, and
we will have a Daily Dose Top five for you today.
Are we witnessing history this year in the NCAA Tournament?
(05:34):
Have to stick around for that might not be quite
as much history as you would think. So it's going
to be a jam packed edition of the Daily Dose
and let's start off with what we have learned on
the week that we were off. And let's begin in
the NFL, where we learned that the New York Giants
are probably going to be truly awful, and also that
(05:56):
it would really be phenomenal if they would agree to
be on HBO's hard knocks, because after giving quarterback Daniel
Jones that one hundred and sixty million dollar contract just
back in twenty twenty three, it wasn't that long ago,
and then we saw that go so wrong they ended
up cutting him. Well, the Giants have now decided to
(06:17):
not just have one terrible quarterback, but they want to
have a quarterback room full of terrible quarterbacks. Sure, they
already had terrible Tommy DeVito on the roster, but now
they have decided to bring in both Jameis Winston and
Russell Wilson. Holy cow, what in the world are they doing? Hey,
(06:37):
a little free advice to the New York Giants front office.
NFL draft is coming. My advice to you, you had
better draft Colorado wide receiver slash defensive back Travis Hunter
with that number three overall pick because they're gonna need
him to play both ways. When those guys throw like
(06:58):
thirty interceptions this year, and he has to go make
tackles to avoid pick sixes. After playing wide receiver, you're
going to need that guy. He's gonna have to play
both ways for the Giants as well. We also learned
that while the New England Patriots are beginning that long
process of rebuilding, well that process might take a little
time because players as free agents don't seem to really
(07:22):
want to go they're all that much. Last week, the
Patriots signed often maligned wide receiver Stefan Diggs to a
four year deal worth sixty three and a half million dollars. Really, one,
I'm not fully sure that Diggs is the player he
used to be. Two, he does now have a history
(07:43):
of being a bit of a problem in the locker room.
And lastly, the price tag is just too high and
it's way too high to sign him and then pair
him with a young quarterback like Drake May. What's it
gonna do with Drake May? He's been telling everybody what
to do. He was telling Josh Allen what to do.
What's it going to do with Drake Bay? Over Paying
(08:05):
in free agency is a sure sign people don't want
to come there. Hey, this move would concern me quite
a bit if I'm a Patriots fan, But since I'm
not a Patriots fan, I actually love this move if
I'm being honest. Being over to the NBA, we learned
that the Memphis Grizzlies are desperate because with just nine
(08:25):
games remaining, last week, they decided to fire their head coach,
Taylor Jenkins, as well as a few members of his
coaching staff. Now this is weird because the Grizzlies had
a forty four and twenty nine record. They were in
fifth place in the West and honestly just a few
games back from like being in second place. They're on
(08:45):
their way to clinching their fourth guaranteed playoff birth in
five years in the Western Conference. And keep in mind
their best player, their most electrifying player, John Moran. He's
missed like a third of the season for getting in trouble,
getting suspended a number of injuries back, shoulder, five hip, knee, foot, hamstring.
(09:07):
But somehow Jenkins has done a pretty good job of
developing that young talent. They start two rookies on that team. However,
ownership says Jenkins wasn't beating quality teams enough they didn't
like his offense, they were gonna do it anyways in
the offseason, so they just said, hey, let's just make
a move. But now it just seems crazy. Nine games
(09:31):
left in the season. I mean, this is kind of unprecedented, right,
I mean, I guess unless we count that whole situation
with the Celtics and Emadoka, But I mean that was
a different situation because Udoka was trying to hook up
with female employees in the offices of the Celtics. Have
you seen Taylor Jenkins. He's not trying to hook up
(09:54):
with anybody. He's just trying to hook his belt on
either side of his pants. Don't know. This seems like
a really, really strange move to happen right now. We
also learned that while he might not be the goat
of the NBA, Lebron James might be the goat of
pettiness as his beef with ESPN personality Steven A. Smith
has hit the peak of absurdity. Get this. The former
(10:19):
face of First Take, steven A Smith lil Feller, was
like five to seven. Now he says he'd sock the
six to eight Lakers giant if Lebron ever dared touch him. Yeah,
no joke. Don't believe me. You can go read the
article on Daily del Sports that came out this week,
just came out yesterday. Daily does have some information on this.
(10:41):
This saga continues as Smith and Lebron keep trading jabs
in the national media. And even if it's just like
fifteen seconds in the public spotlight, you know steven A
is gonna run with this now. This all started back
in early March when Lebron confronted Smith at a Lakers
home game because Smith had criticized his son, Bronnie James
(11:02):
said he was an under developed player, he wasn't ready
to play in the NBA. Okay, well, where's the lie.
Steven A Smith is right, So Lebron confronted him. They
have some words whatever. Then Lebron went on a podcast
and ripped stephen A again. Then stephen A was feeling brave.
Here is the quote from steven A. Smith. My issue
(11:23):
is with Lebron James. I just want to say for
the record, Lebron James is full of it and in
this particular instance, as it pertains to his son, he
is a liar. And he went on national television and
he lied again. But when he said what he had
to say, I was in no position to give any
kind of retort without making a scene. Then wait for it,
(11:43):
because it's gonna get better. I would have got my
blank kicked because had that man put his hands on me,
I would have immediately swung on him, immediately that I'm
not going to tolerate. Okay, this is all fake right,
Like this is right out of a I don't know
pro wrestling interview with Mean Jeane. These two clowns need
(12:05):
to shut up or start throwing hands. I'm not buying
any of this. I think it's all bs. One last
story in the NBA, we learned that for all the
load management in the NBA doesn't really seem to be
helping all that much. As we had another superstar who
has not done for a while, Milwaukee Buckstar Damian Lillard
has been diagnosed with deep fain thrombosis, also known as
(12:28):
a blood clot in his right calf that is going
to sideline him indefinitely. Now Lord is thirty four, He's
already on blood thinning medication and he went through a
series of meetings with specialists, but they say, hey, we've
got to take our time We've got to figure out
what's going on here. Lollard is not done indefinitely, but
(12:49):
think about this. Now Lillard is gone. The San Antonio
Spurs have already shut down big man Victor Webbin Yama
back in February because he was diagnosed with a deep
vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. Hyrie Irving is that
Jade Nivy, Gary Payton, Second Brandon Clark, Jante Murray, Jalen Sucks,
Mo Wagner, Paul George dearon Fox. It's almost as if
(13:12):
all this sitting out isn't really helping these guys stay
healthy at all. Let's move over to Major League Baseball,
where we've learned that the twenty twenty five Major League
Baseball season has started. Actually, I'm not really sure has
it started. I think it started. See, I'm not really
sure when it started, because it wasn't actually on this
(13:35):
side of a planet. The defending World Series champion Los
Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs held the first game
of the season in Tokyo, Japan, as they are trying
to build up the game more overseas you know, they
are even having talks in Major League Baseball that they
might want to add a team full time overseas. That
(13:58):
would be interesting, wouldn't it. Team Maybe in Japan, team
in Asia somewhere, maybe a team you know down in
South America somewhere. We know some of the players that
have done there. And you know what, I've got an
idea for this team overseas. You might not like it,
but I've got an idea. Right now, on the daily Dose,
I would like to make an announcement, I personally would
(14:19):
like to nominate my Colorado Rockies to go anywhere else
on the plane, you know what, anywhere else in the
Solar System and have their team there. I don't care where.
I don't care if it's in Japan. I don't care
if it's in China. I don't care if it's in Russia.
I don't care if it's in London. I don't care
if it's in Brazil. I don't care where it is.
So long as it takes them somewhere away from me.
(14:44):
That is all I care about. If that happens, Hey,
I'm all good with Major League Baseball getting a team overseas.
Just make sure you take this one because I don't
want it. Let's finish off are what have we learned?
Segment this week in the NCAA tournament where the final
four is now set, And the first thing that I
(15:04):
have learned is that as fun as the games have
been and we have seen great performances, we have seen
crazy comebacks. Well, we also learned, or at least we're
reminded of again, officiating basketball at any level is really tough.
And man, has that been apparent in this tournament because
(15:26):
the officiating has been tough to watch and as usual,
there's a reason. I'm not gonna sit here and call
these guys out and say, hey, you're just bad at
your job, although we have seen some of that. But
here's the problem. Kind of like in the NFL, these
guys are being set up to fail because think about it,
we have the instant replay stuff, which I get, Hey,
(15:48):
make sure he got the shot off in time. That's
pretty simple. Here's the thing, though, we don't need every
single play reviewed over and over and over and over
and by by the way, here's the problem. As painful
as that is to watch and as horrible as that
is for everyone watching the game, whether you're in attendance
or on TV, it's slow, It breaks the game up,
(16:11):
It causes all these breaks and games, and it just
makes it choppy. And as a coach, I can't even
imagine dealing with that. But here's where it's worse. Knowing
the replay is there actually allows the refs to be
a little bit sloppy because they know this is going
to get reviewed. Who cares. All I have to do
(16:32):
is throw my hand up, make the call. We'll go
over to the broadcast booth and review it and we'll
get it right. But what I call on the floor
doesn't matter. As a result, we have sloppy officiating. These
guys don't try to get it right. They don't even
particularly care about getting it right. There are a number
of times goaltending, particularly, they'll throw their hand up. They'll
(16:55):
say I called something, let's go look at a review.
But sometimes you didn't need to call anything. What it's
doing is creating sloppy officiating, and this tournament has been very,
very sloppy. I have not liked the officiating, and some
of that could be corrected, of course. Maybe the biggest
thing that we have learned this year is that Chalk
(17:15):
has ruled for the first time since two thousand and eight,
just a second time in history ever all four number
one seeds have advanced to the final four. Doesn't happen.
We warn here on the dose against picking that way
because we know it doesn't happen. But here's the question
that I have, and I'm a little worried about the answer.
(17:38):
Is this trend permanent? Is this a direction that we
are headed in college basketball? Are the rich just getting
richer and the poor just falling further behind? And pretty
soon we're gonna end up with like thirty semi pro
teams and everyone else just has to go play inner murals. Brother,
go play inner murals. Brother, Man. I hope not. And
(18:01):
I know, Hey, it happened back in two thousand and eight,
it happens again in twenty twenty five. That's not exactly
a trend. But I'm hoping that's not where this is going.
But unfortunately, my gut tells me it might be. Now.
Having said that, these four number one seeds we knew
going in they were very very good. They have weaknesses,
but they were very very good. Maybe it's just four
(18:21):
great teams this year. Maybe that's what it is. But
I'm really worried that we might be seeing less and
less Cinderella type teams because what was giving those mid
majors advantages to come in and knock off the blue
bloods was the fact that they were keeping players for
three or four years. Well, now with that transfer portal,
they go transfer to the blue blood program and the
(18:42):
mid majors don't have anyone left. That is my concern,
and that would be a bummer if that happens, because
I would miss that Cinderella aspect of the tournament. Having
said that the tournament has been good, we did also
learn that the Southeastern Conference, which got the most tournament
bids of any conference in turn history. Oh yeah, they
(19:02):
were pretty legit. It wasn't fake. Hey, the SEC got
fourteen teams selected to the Big Dance. Well, you knew
some of them were going to bow out. Some of
them were underdogs from the beginning. But the SEC had
seven of them make the Sweet sixteen. That's not bad.
They had four make the only eight and they now
have two in the final four. Here's what's crazy. Those
(19:26):
two play each other. So as good as the SEC
has been this year, are they going to be able
to hold up the trophy at the end? And if not,
is it a letdown. It kind of feels like it
might be a little bit of a letdown if the
SEC doesn't actually win it all. Okay, so let's take
a very brief look at the final four teams and
(19:48):
how they got to this point. The overall number one
seed Auburn Tigers have advanced to the Final four for
the second time in school history, the last time being
back in twenty nineteen. In the tournament so far, the
Tigers have beaten Alabama State, Creighton, Michigan, and on Sunday
they held off a very scrappy Michigan State squad. The Tigers,
(20:09):
of course, are led by big man Jenni Broome, who
actually had to leave the game on Sunday after hyper
extending what looked like both his knee and his elbow
at the same time. But I'll give Auburn this. They
have depth, and don't forget they have the best resume
in regular season history ever. With the teams they beat
(20:30):
this year, they've got a combo of shooting and rebounding.
It makes them very dangerous. Now, broom did come back
in the game against Michigan State, but I'm not sure
how he's going to be going forward. I want to
see how he's going to be on Saturday night in
the final four. The number two overall seed of the
tournament is the Duke Blue Devils, who have been absolutely
(20:51):
dominant lately. Head coach John Shire has the Blue Devils
playing so well right now. They blew up Saint Mary's
in the opening round, they dominated Baylor, they had to
hold on a little bit against Arizona, and then they
blew out Alabama on Saturday night. Now, Duke has won
their four games in this tournament so far by an
(21:11):
average of nearly twenty four points per game. Now, one
thing about Duke, this is the biggest team in the
country and you can see it on TV. They are massive.
I thought, maybe Alabama can hang around, maybe they can
score with him, maybe they can shoot. Oh no, they couldn't.
Duke was too big. They forced Alabama to settle for
(21:35):
contested shots over bigger guys. And here's the disturbing part
for me, Cooper Flag in that game against Alabama, he
really wasn't that great and they still rolled to a
twenty point win. Hey, that's bad news for everyone else.
Right now, the Duke Blue Levels look like the best
team in the country. The third number one seed to
(21:55):
the tournament was the Houston Cougars, and they have also
been very impressed. The Cougars whipped Southern Illinois Edwardsville in
the first round, then they outlast a Gonzaga. They scraped
past Purdue in the sweet sixteen. By the way, that
was a game with some atrocious officiating, but whatever. And
then on Sunday they faced the Tennessee Volunteers in the
(22:17):
Elite and we knew the Houston Cougars can play tough,
physical defense. That's what they do under head coach Calvin Samson.
That game against Tennessee on Sunday, oh, they took it
to another level. They absolutely smothered Tennessee. They jumped on
him early, they never let them get steady, and then
(22:37):
they knocked him out by nineteen in the end. This
group is so tough defensively, and their offense is much
better than it has ever been under Sampson in the past.
I really like the way Houston is playing. The final
number one seed is the Florida Gators, who are insanely talented,
but they also maybe have been the shakiest of the
(22:59):
number one now. The Gators blew out Norfolk State in
their opener, they had to come back and survive against
Yukon in the final seconds, and then they were a
little bit better beating Maryland than the Sweet sixteen. But
on Saturday against Texas Tech, Florida was absolutely dead in
the water. Texas Tech was shooting the lights out. Florida
(23:19):
was in trouble. Florida trailed seventy three sixty four, down
nine with just over three minutes to play, and then
point guard Walter Clayton Junior went off. He had ten
of his thirty points in the final four minutes. He
assisted on two big three point plays by Thomas hawk Hey.
(23:41):
Clayton was sensational. He made two huge three pointers in
the final two minutes of that game, including the one
that gave Florida the lead at the end. And you know,
he hadn't played that well early on in the game,
but he came on late and head coach Todd Golden
leaned on Clayton to get the job done at the end.
But here was the key for me. And you might
(24:02):
not have noticed this. Did you notice how early Todd
Golden began fouling Texas Tech. He started fouling their big guys,
and then Tech choked at the free throw line. Now,
as bad as that was, because now you're trading possessions
and you're getting the ball back without them scoring because
they couldn't get stops against Tech, here was the worst part.
(24:22):
You could feel Tech get tight. Hey, their final possession,
they had a wide open three from one of their
best players on top of the key, and what do
you do? It flanked it? Why maybe because he had
just clanked some free throws earlier. He's not a bad shooter.
And yet Florida going to that fouling early seemed like
(24:46):
it might have kind of shook Texas Tech and Florida survived. Okay,
So now in the Final four on Saturday, we will
have the Auburn Tigers facing those Florida Gators in a
rematch of the SEC game that they played back in
February that saw Florida beat Auburn at Auburn. That game
honestly probably helps Auburn a little bit because they can
(25:08):
look to counter what Florida did the first time. They
can make some adjustments. I expect Auburn to be a
pain here. Here's my concern, is Deny Broom really gonna
be helpy if he's not. That's a problem because Florida
is a pretty good rebounding team. Can broom raised that
right arm? And more importantly, if they shoot that thing
(25:29):
up and numbing up, is he gonna have any touch
on the ball with that right arm. The key for
Florida is can they take care of the ball. They
turn it over way too much. They are so sloppy
with the basketball, and as good a rebounding team as
they can be, they don't always really dedicate themselves to it.
If they go out and take care of the ball,
if they go out and rebound, I think, once again,
(25:50):
I think they're gonna be a headache for Robert. I
will take Florida in a very tight game. I don't
feel super confident about it because the Gators do silly things,
but I'll take Florida to beat Auburn. The second game
will feature the two teams that right now have been
the most impressive to me throughout this tournament, and that
is the Houston Cougars and their defense facing the Duke
(26:13):
Blue Devils and that offense. Hey, I really like what
Houston is doing at both ends of the floor, honestly,
and I can't wait to see how their defensive pressure
is going to affect Duke because Duke has not seen
pressure like that before, not this year. It's very different.
Here's my concern. Duke has that size, and when you're
(26:36):
trying to pressure guys that are bigger than you, if
they can just look over that pressure and find an
open man, yeah, they're going to attack you. That scares
me a little bit. I think Duke is playing the
best of anyone remaining. I will take Duke to advance
past Houston, which leads us to our final on Monday Night,
(26:56):
which I am predicting is going to be Florida versus Duke.
And again, I just wish Florida was a little more
responsible with the basketball. Those turnovers scare me because if
you turn it over against Duke, they will make you
pay for it. Now, having said that, I really like
Walter Clinton Jr. I don't think he's gonna go quietly.
(27:17):
I just don't know that his supporting cast will be
enough to help him beat the Blue Devils. I'm going
to say John Shire gets his first national championship, Cooper
Flag will be the top pick of the NBA draft,
and Duke will get their sixth championship in school history.
But hey, I'd be happy to be wrong now as
(27:39):
we do so many weeks here at the Daily, does
we need to get over to our daily dose Top five,
Like we just talked about freshman feet Im Cooper, Flag
and the Duke Blue Devils have been highly impressive this season. Hey,
they rolled to a thirty five and three record this
year and if now all the way to the final
(28:01):
four and Flag has been phenomenal. He's currently averaging nineteen
points a game, eight rebounds a game, and five assists
per game. And if Duke does roll to the title,
this eighteen year old kid that is supposed to actually
still be in high school, he's gonna be on a
list of some of the greatest freshman seasons in NCUBA history.
(28:23):
But who else would be on that list? Today? Our
Daily those Top five is counting down the greatest freshman
seasons in NCAA tournament history. But remember this one keyp
Freshmen were not allowed to play until the early seventies.
Guys like Kareem and Will and Bill Walton, a lot
of great players they weren't allowed to play as a freshman.
(28:46):
That would have been interesting to see if they had
but they didn't. Let's start off at number five and
we go back to a guy that ended up being
the greatest player in the history of basketball, But back
in nineteen eighty two, he was just known as Mike.
He wasn't even the greatest player on his own team.
That title on North Carolina went to James Worthy, and
(29:10):
then second was maybe Sam Perkins, and then there was
a kid named Mike. He was just a freshman, a
very talented freshman, and that talent began to show itself
more and more as the tar Heels season progressed. After
going thirty two and two, the tar Heels were a
number one seed, and while freshman Michael Jordan struggled a
(29:31):
little bit in the first two games against James Madison
in Alabama, he started to show flashes. In the Elite Eight,
he dropped fifteen on Villanova, then he scored eighteen on
Houston in the Final Four. But in the title game
against Georgetown, Jordan really stepped up. He scored sixteen points,
including the game winning jumper from the wing to give
(29:54):
North Carolina the lead with just seconds left in the clock. Hey,
Michael Jordan wasn't a star yet, but he was clearly
on his way. He averaged thirteen points a game in
the NCAA tournament, and he delivered a title to head
coach Dean Smith. Michael Jordan's freshman year comes in today
at number five. We arrive at number four and we
(30:15):
go back to another freshman that really wasn't the star
of their team, but he ended up playing a significant role,
especially in that NCUBA tournament, because UCLA's nineteen to ninety
five national title would not have been possible without a
hometown freshman by the name of Toby Bailey. He earned
(30:35):
a spot on the All Tournament team as a result,
And yes, he wasn't the greatest player on that team
because the UCLA had Ed Obannon and Charles Obannon, they
had Tyus Edney. But in the postseason, Bailey was a
pretty key contributor. In the Elite against Connecticut, Bailey scored
twenty six and pulled down nine rebounds, and then in
(30:58):
the championship game against the Arkansas Razorbacks, once again, Bailey
stepped up with twenty six points and another nine rebounds,
and the Bruins won their first national championship since the seventies.
But they wouldn't have won it without a freshman by
the name of Toby Bailey, and he comes in today
at number four. We reached number three on our list
(31:19):
of greatest freshman seasons in March Madness, and now we
reach guys that weren't just like key contributors, they were
actually the best players on their team as freshmen. After
eight straight solid seasons in the NCAA Tournament, the Louisville
Cardinals had missed the tournament completely in nineteen eighty five,
but head coach Danny Crumb he was putting together from talent.
(31:43):
Billy Thompson and Milt Wagner were seniors, and then Crumb
pulled a big man from Savannah, Georgia by the name
of Purvis Ellison. As a freshman at Louisville, Ellison earned
the nickname Never Nervous Purvis because he had some clutch games,
including a national championship game against Duke that Louisville won
(32:07):
seventy two to sixty nine, and Never Nervous Purpose dropped
twenty five and had eleven rebounds. Overall, in the tournament,
he averaged fifteen and a half points a game, ten
rebounds a game, and two blocks a game. He led
Louisville all the way to the championship. Purvos Ellison lands
on our list today at number three. So we are
(32:28):
now at the number two greatest March Madness by a freshman.
And again we have a guy that arrived on campus
in Lexington, Kentucky and immediately became the guy. Because back
in twenty twelve, head coach John Calipari had a few
solid upperclassmen, guys like Deron Lamb and Terrence Jones, but
(32:50):
then he signed a big man named Anthony Davis, and
ad immediately became the man. He paired him with another
big freshman by the name of Michael Kidd Gilchrist, and
the Wildcats rolled to a thirty eight and two record.
And Davis wasn't just a contributor. He racked up all
the accolades Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player, SEC Player of
(33:13):
the Year. He carried Kentucky to the twenty twelve National Championship.
He averaged fourteen points a game, twelve rebounds a game,
and nearly five blocks per game as the Wildcats beat
Kansas in the title game. Davis wasn't the best scorer,
but he was a really good defender and his defense
(33:34):
his rim protection and his rebounding made him a monster
at both ends. Anthony Davis comes in today on our
list at number two. So we reached the number one
March Madness run by a freshman, and we go back
to the year two thousand and three where a freshman
did something that, to be honest, we all kind about
(33:55):
maybe it was never gonna happen. Because he won a
national champion for Jim Beaheim and the Syracuse Orange Carmelo
Anthony averaged twenty two points a game and ten rebounds
a game. He shot forty eight percent from three point
land in the tournament. And then look at what he
actually did. In the tournament opening round against Manhattan he
(34:16):
had seventeen okay. Then in the round of thirty two
against Oklahoma State, he had thirteen Okay, not great, but
now he's getting warmer. In the sweet sixteen against Auburn,
he scored eighteen. He dropped twenty on Oklahoma. In the
Elite eight, he scored thirty three against Texas in the
Final four, and then put up twenty to ten against
(34:37):
Nick Collison, Kirk Heinrich, Keith Langford, Wayne Simmons and the
Kansas Jayhawks in the National Championship Game, as Syracuse knocked
off the Jayhawks and gave Beheim his only title of
his career. Now, the run at Cooper Flag is on
this season is incredible, but as you can see, he's
(34:57):
got some pretty stout competition for the best rash season ever. Also,
I know there's currently a lot of talk about how
Flag's game will transition to the NBA, and I think
his skills should be a nice fit. Plus, he's got
that kind of attitude. It seems like he's just a
kid that's gonna work his butt off. But as you
can see from this list, having one of the greatest
freshman seasons ever doesn't guarantee the NBA greatness. Our list
(35:22):
of five today had a wide mix from go to
a cup of coffee in the league, Cooper Flag will
still have to go prove he can do this in
the NBA. Hey, next week in the Dose, we will
be breaking down the Final four and the National Championship,
and of course we'll be keeping you up all that
is going on in the world of sports. So make
sure you check out theodos and make sure you let
(35:42):
a friend know to do the same. Hen't want to
say thank you to each and every one of you
for listening to the Do Dose every week. Thank you
for the emails, thank you for the text, thank you
for the tweets. But more than anything, thank you for
sharing the show, for sharing the videos, and for sharing
the articles. We absolutely love it when you do that.
I have said thank you to Jesp. Could not do
any of this without you. I will see you on
next Wednesday. Have a great week. Everybody got play Inner Murals. Brother,
Please. Day, April second, twenty twenty five, you are listening
to the Daily Do Sports podcast and I am your host,
Clinton Daily, coming to you from my high ceed to
here in Denver, Colorado, and we are back for another
week of talking sports with a dose of common sense. Hey,
Happy Wednesday. Do you hope you had a good weekend?
Hope your week is off to a strong start. I
(00:27):
hope you, your family, your friends are all staying strong
and healthy right now, and I especially hope that you
didn't fall for any of those dumb April Fools jokes yesterday. Yes,
it is already April, and on April first, we know
we're gonna have some of those dummies on social media
(00:48):
trying to lib out some fake trades that your favorite
team made or something just completely stupid that when you
hear it, you're like, there's no way that really happened. Sorry,
Dallas Maverickspan, that wasn't actually a shot at you. I
didn't even think about that. You thought it was April
Fool's back when and then you found out that actually
(01:10):
did take place. My bad on that, man, That's just me.
And yes, we are back this week after taking a
short break a week ago, went out to California last week,
went out and saw some family, hung out a little
bit for spring break, and really just took a week
and kind of did nothing but watch a lot of
college hoop. And you know, it's funny because the NCAA tournament,
(01:35):
which we will be discussing at length today, Hey, this
year it has not been full of the Cinderella stories.
It has not been full of the upsets that we
have seen so many times. And I'll be very honest,
there are times that I struggled with the game itself.
Did players play softy defense? They have horrible shot selection,
(01:59):
horror play and ball movement at times. And yet even
without the upsets, even without the Cinderella teams this year,
there are still so many great games. There are still
so many fun type finishes that I just find myself
watching game after game after game. It doesn't matter who's playing,
I'm still watching because once again, even without the upsets,
(02:21):
even without the Cinderellas, March Madness just always lives up
to the hype. And I know it's a little different
this year, but it's still lived up to the hype.
Speaking of March Madness, our Daily Those Sports podcast bracket
is now down to the final three games, and right
now I'm going to give you the current standings. No,
(02:43):
I'm not gonna read all, just gonna read the top
five or so right now. K D three two, three,
five nine. Whoever that is is in first place, and
whoever that is crushed it. They're hitting like ninety four
percent of their picks. I have no idea who KD is, though,
I'll be honest. If you know, let me know, because
(03:04):
I don't know who that is. Katie has Duke winning
it all. Defending champion Billy Oh is in second place,
just ten points back from KDE. Billy Oh also has
Duke twenty points back. We have a tie for third place.
We have t Farren, who has Florida winning the title,
and then we've got Lulu. Of course she has Duke
(03:24):
winning the title, as Lulu always does every year, but
she's right there in the thick of it as well.
And then Stroudy is another twenty points back. He is
eyed for fifth place. I should say, with someone who
didn't bother the name their their racket and it's just
ESPN blah blah blah blah blah. I don't know who
that is so well done. Stroudy doing well for a
(03:45):
kid who I know is not a big college hoops fan.
Might have to have Stroudy and sometime to talk hockey,
but I know he's not a big college hoops fan.
But remember this, Remember we still have three games left.
It's not just getting the final. I mean, like I said,
Tee Farron has Florida winning it, Lulu has Duke winning.
I believe Stroudi has Duke winning in as well. But
(04:06):
there's those other two games that are gonna weigh heavily here.
We've got three games left. Just getting the final won't
pick it. You can earn a few more points in
those two semifinal games on Saturday evening. This is once
again it happens every year when we do this Daily
Dose Bracket. It is coming down to the wire and
it is going to be close. I will be announcing
(04:27):
the winner of the Dally Dose Bracket Challenge next week
here on the DOSK. Hey remember you should be stopping
by Dailydosports dot com every single week. You can see
what new things we have going on over there. We've
got links to the podcast, We've got links to new
articles every week, so make sure you are checking not
out every single week. You can also email the podcast
at Dailydosports at gmail dot com. We hear from listeners
(04:50):
now and then, and you can pick up Daily Dose
gear over at dayodosports dot com. We've got t shirts,
we've got hoodies, we've got sweatshirts, we've got hats, We've
got a lot of things over there. You can get
them with a few different logos of the Daily Dose
on them and you can pick them in whatever color
you want. So make sure you stop by dailydoorsports dot
com every week. Hey, Today on the Dose, we are
going to be discussing some of the things that we
(05:11):
have learned over the last week or so in the
world of sports. You know, we've seen some stories in
the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, and of course
the NCAA Tournament. We will also have a brief Final
four and National Championship preview today on the Dose, and
we will have a Daily Dose Top five for you today.
Are we witnessing history this year in the NCAA Tournament?
(05:34):
Have to stick around for that might not be quite
as much history as you would think. So it's going
to be a jam packed edition of the Daily Dose
and let's start off with what we have learned on
the week that we were off. And let's begin in
the NFL, where we learned that the New York Giants
are probably going to be truly awful, and also that
(05:56):
it would really be phenomenal if they would agree to
be on HBO's hard knocks, because after giving quarterback Daniel
Jones that one hundred and sixty million dollar contract just
back in twenty twenty three, it wasn't that long ago,
and then we saw that go so wrong they ended
up cutting him. Well, the Giants have now decided to
(06:17):
not just have one terrible quarterback, but they want to
have a quarterback room full of terrible quarterbacks. Sure, they
already had terrible Tommy DeVito on the roster, but now
they have decided to bring in both Jameis Winston and
Russell Wilson. Holy cow, what in the world are they doing? Hey,
(06:37):
a little free advice to the New York Giants front office.
NFL draft is coming. My advice to you, you had
better draft Colorado wide receiver slash defensive back Travis Hunter
with that number three overall pick because they're gonna need
him to play both ways. When those guys throw like
(06:58):
thirty interceptions this year, and he has to go make
tackles to avoid pick sixes. After playing wide receiver, you're
going to need that guy. He's gonna have to play
both ways for the Giants as well. We also learned
that while the New England Patriots are beginning that long
process of rebuilding, well that process might take a little
time because players as free agents don't seem to really
(07:22):
want to go they're all that much. Last week, the
Patriots signed often maligned wide receiver Stefan Diggs to a
four year deal worth sixty three and a half million dollars. Really, one,
I'm not fully sure that Diggs is the player he
used to be. Two, he does now have a history
(07:43):
of being a bit of a problem in the locker room.
And lastly, the price tag is just too high and
it's way too high to sign him and then pair
him with a young quarterback like Drake May. What's it
gonna do with Drake May? He's been telling everybody what
to do. He was telling Josh Allen what to do.
What's it going to do with Drake Bay? Over Paying
(08:05):
in free agency is a sure sign people don't want
to come there. Hey, this move would concern me quite
a bit if I'm a Patriots fan, But since I'm
not a Patriots fan, I actually love this move if
I'm being honest. Being over to the NBA, we learned
that the Memphis Grizzlies are desperate because with just nine
(08:25):
games remaining, last week, they decided to fire their head coach,
Taylor Jenkins, as well as a few members of his
coaching staff. Now this is weird because the Grizzlies had
a forty four and twenty nine record. They were in
fifth place in the West and honestly just a few
games back from like being in second place. They're on
(08:45):
their way to clinching their fourth guaranteed playoff birth in
five years in the Western Conference. And keep in mind
their best player, their most electrifying player, John Moran. He's
missed like a third of the season for getting in trouble,
getting suspended a number of injuries back, shoulder, five hip, knee, foot, hamstring.
(09:07):
But somehow Jenkins has done a pretty good job of
developing that young talent. They start two rookies on that team. However,
ownership says Jenkins wasn't beating quality teams enough they didn't
like his offense, they were gonna do it anyways in
the offseason, so they just said, hey, let's just make
a move. But now it just seems crazy. Nine games
(09:31):
left in the season. I mean, this is kind of unprecedented, right,
I mean, I guess unless we count that whole situation
with the Celtics and Emadoka, But I mean that was
a different situation because Udoka was trying to hook up
with female employees in the offices of the Celtics. Have
you seen Taylor Jenkins. He's not trying to hook up
(09:54):
with anybody. He's just trying to hook his belt on
either side of his pants. Don't know. This seems like
a really, really strange move to happen right now. We
also learned that while he might not be the goat
of the NBA, Lebron James might be the goat of
pettiness as his beef with ESPN personality Steven A. Smith
has hit the peak of absurdity. Get this. The former
(10:19):
face of First Take, steven A Smith lil Feller, was
like five to seven. Now he says he'd sock the
six to eight Lakers giant if Lebron ever dared touch him. Yeah,
no joke. Don't believe me. You can go read the
article on Daily del Sports that came out this week,
just came out yesterday. Daily does have some information on this.
(10:41):
This saga continues as Smith and Lebron keep trading jabs
in the national media. And even if it's just like
fifteen seconds in the public spotlight, you know steven A
is gonna run with this now. This all started back
in early March when Lebron confronted Smith at a Lakers
home game because Smith had criticized his son, Bronnie James
(11:02):
said he was an under developed player, he wasn't ready
to play in the NBA. Okay, well, where's the lie.
Steven A Smith is right, So Lebron confronted him. They
have some words whatever. Then Lebron went on a podcast
and ripped stephen A again. Then stephen A was feeling brave.
Here is the quote from steven A. Smith. My issue
(11:23):
is with Lebron James. I just want to say for
the record, Lebron James is full of it and in
this particular instance, as it pertains to his son, he
is a liar. And he went on national television and
he lied again. But when he said what he had
to say, I was in no position to give any
kind of retort without making a scene. Then wait for it,
(11:43):
because it's gonna get better. I would have got my
blank kicked because had that man put his hands on me,
I would have immediately swung on him, immediately that I'm
not going to tolerate. Okay, this is all fake right,
Like this is right out of a I don't know
pro wrestling interview with Mean Jeane. These two clowns need
(12:05):
to shut up or start throwing hands. I'm not buying
any of this. I think it's all bs. One last
story in the NBA, we learned that for all the
load management in the NBA doesn't really seem to be
helping all that much. As we had another superstar who
has not done for a while, Milwaukee Buckstar Damian Lillard
has been diagnosed with deep fain thrombosis, also known as
(12:28):
a blood clot in his right calf that is going
to sideline him indefinitely. Now Lord is thirty four, He's
already on blood thinning medication and he went through a
series of meetings with specialists, but they say, hey, we've
got to take our time We've got to figure out
what's going on here. Lollard is not done indefinitely, but
(12:49):
think about this. Now Lillard is gone. The San Antonio
Spurs have already shut down big man Victor Webbin Yama
back in February because he was diagnosed with a deep
vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. Hyrie Irving is that
Jade Nivy, Gary Payton, Second Brandon Clark, Jante Murray, Jalen Sucks,
Mo Wagner, Paul George dearon Fox. It's almost as if
(13:12):
all this sitting out isn't really helping these guys stay
healthy at all. Let's move over to Major League Baseball,
where we've learned that the twenty twenty five Major League
Baseball season has started. Actually, I'm not really sure has
it started. I think it started. See, I'm not really
sure when it started, because it wasn't actually on this
(13:35):
side of a planet. The defending World Series champion Los
Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs held the first game
of the season in Tokyo, Japan, as they are trying
to build up the game more overseas you know, they
are even having talks in Major League Baseball that they
might want to add a team full time overseas. That
(13:58):
would be interesting, wouldn't it. Team Maybe in Japan, team
in Asia somewhere, maybe a team you know down in
South America somewhere. We know some of the players that
have done there. And you know what, I've got an
idea for this team overseas. You might not like it,
but I've got an idea. Right now, on the daily Dose,
I would like to make an announcement, I personally would
(14:19):
like to nominate my Colorado Rockies to go anywhere else
on the plane, you know what, anywhere else in the
Solar System and have their team there. I don't care where.
I don't care if it's in Japan. I don't care
if it's in China. I don't care if it's in Russia.
I don't care if it's in London. I don't care
if it's in Brazil. I don't care where it is.
So long as it takes them somewhere away from me.
(14:44):
That is all I care about. If that happens, Hey,
I'm all good with Major League Baseball getting a team overseas.
Just make sure you take this one because I don't
want it. Let's finish off are what have we learned?
Segment this week in the NCAA tournament where the final
four is now set, And the first thing that I
(15:04):
have learned is that as fun as the games have
been and we have seen great performances, we have seen
crazy comebacks. Well, we also learned, or at least we're
reminded of again, officiating basketball at any level is really tough.
And man, has that been apparent in this tournament because
(15:26):
the officiating has been tough to watch and as usual,
there's a reason. I'm not gonna sit here and call
these guys out and say, hey, you're just bad at
your job, although we have seen some of that. But
here's the problem. Kind of like in the NFL, these
guys are being set up to fail because think about it,
we have the instant replay stuff, which I get, Hey,
(15:48):
make sure he got the shot off in time. That's
pretty simple. Here's the thing, though, we don't need every
single play reviewed over and over and over and over
and by by the way, here's the problem. As painful
as that is to watch and as horrible as that
is for everyone watching the game, whether you're in attendance
or on TV, it's slow, It breaks the game up,
(16:11):
It causes all these breaks and games, and it just
makes it choppy. And as a coach, I can't even
imagine dealing with that. But here's where it's worse. Knowing
the replay is there actually allows the refs to be
a little bit sloppy because they know this is going
to get reviewed. Who cares. All I have to do
(16:32):
is throw my hand up, make the call. We'll go
over to the broadcast booth and review it and we'll
get it right. But what I call on the floor
doesn't matter. As a result, we have sloppy officiating. These
guys don't try to get it right. They don't even
particularly care about getting it right. There are a number
of times goaltending, particularly, they'll throw their hand up. They'll
(16:55):
say I called something, let's go look at a review.
But sometimes you didn't need to call anything. What it's
doing is creating sloppy officiating, and this tournament has been very,
very sloppy. I have not liked the officiating, and some
of that could be corrected, of course. Maybe the biggest
thing that we have learned this year is that Chalk
(17:15):
has ruled for the first time since two thousand and eight,
just a second time in history ever all four number
one seeds have advanced to the final four. Doesn't happen.
We warn here on the dose against picking that way
because we know it doesn't happen. But here's the question
that I have, and I'm a little worried about the answer.
(17:38):
Is this trend permanent? Is this a direction that we
are headed in college basketball? Are the rich just getting
richer and the poor just falling further behind? And pretty
soon we're gonna end up with like thirty semi pro
teams and everyone else just has to go play inner murals. Brother,
go play inner murals. Brother, Man. I hope not. And
(18:01):
I know, Hey, it happened back in two thousand and eight,
it happens again in twenty twenty five. That's not exactly
a trend. But I'm hoping that's not where this is going.
But unfortunately, my gut tells me it might be. Now.
Having said that, these four number one seeds we knew
going in they were very very good. They have weaknesses,
but they were very very good. Maybe it's just four
(18:21):
great teams this year. Maybe that's what it is. But
I'm really worried that we might be seeing less and
less Cinderella type teams because what was giving those mid
majors advantages to come in and knock off the blue
bloods was the fact that they were keeping players for
three or four years. Well, now with that transfer portal,
they go transfer to the blue blood program and the
(18:42):
mid majors don't have anyone left. That is my concern,
and that would be a bummer if that happens, because
I would miss that Cinderella aspect of the tournament. Having
said that the tournament has been good, we did also
learn that the Southeastern Conference, which got the most tournament
bids of any conference in turn history. Oh yeah, they
(19:02):
were pretty legit. It wasn't fake. Hey, the SEC got
fourteen teams selected to the Big Dance. Well, you knew
some of them were going to bow out. Some of
them were underdogs from the beginning. But the SEC had
seven of them make the Sweet sixteen. That's not bad.
They had four make the only eight and they now
have two in the final four. Here's what's crazy. Those
(19:26):
two play each other. So as good as the SEC
has been this year, are they going to be able
to hold up the trophy at the end? And if not,
is it a letdown. It kind of feels like it
might be a little bit of a letdown if the
SEC doesn't actually win it all. Okay, so let's take
a very brief look at the final four teams and
(19:48):
how they got to this point. The overall number one
seed Auburn Tigers have advanced to the Final four for
the second time in school history, the last time being
back in twenty nineteen. In the tournament so far, the
Tigers have beaten Alabama State, Creighton, Michigan, and on Sunday
they held off a very scrappy Michigan State squad. The Tigers,
(20:09):
of course, are led by big man Jenni Broome, who
actually had to leave the game on Sunday after hyper
extending what looked like both his knee and his elbow
at the same time. But I'll give Auburn this. They
have depth, and don't forget they have the best resume
in regular season history ever. With the teams they beat
(20:30):
this year, they've got a combo of shooting and rebounding.
It makes them very dangerous. Now, broom did come back
in the game against Michigan State, but I'm not sure
how he's going to be going forward. I want to
see how he's going to be on Saturday night in
the final four. The number two overall seed of the
tournament is the Duke Blue Devils, who have been absolutely
(20:51):
dominant lately. Head coach John Shire has the Blue Devils
playing so well right now. They blew up Saint Mary's
in the opening round, they dominated Baylor, they had to
hold on a little bit against Arizona, and then they
blew out Alabama on Saturday night. Now, Duke has won
their four games in this tournament so far by an
(21:11):
average of nearly twenty four points per game. Now, one
thing about Duke, this is the biggest team in the
country and you can see it on TV. They are massive.
I thought, maybe Alabama can hang around, maybe they can
score with him, maybe they can shoot. Oh no, they couldn't.
Duke was too big. They forced Alabama to settle for
(21:35):
contested shots over bigger guys. And here's the disturbing part
for me, Cooper Flag in that game against Alabama, he
really wasn't that great and they still rolled to a
twenty point win. Hey, that's bad news for everyone else.
Right now, the Duke Blue Levels look like the best
team in the country. The third number one seed to
(21:55):
the tournament was the Houston Cougars, and they have also
been very impressed. The Cougars whipped Southern Illinois Edwardsville in
the first round, then they outlast a Gonzaga. They scraped
past Purdue in the sweet sixteen. By the way, that
was a game with some atrocious officiating, but whatever. And
then on Sunday they faced the Tennessee Volunteers in the
(22:17):
Elite and we knew the Houston Cougars can play tough,
physical defense. That's what they do under head coach Calvin Samson.
That game against Tennessee on Sunday, oh, they took it
to another level. They absolutely smothered Tennessee. They jumped on
him early, they never let them get steady, and then
(22:37):
they knocked him out by nineteen in the end. This
group is so tough defensively, and their offense is much
better than it has ever been under Sampson in the past.
I really like the way Houston is playing. The final
number one seed is the Florida Gators, who are insanely talented,
but they also maybe have been the shakiest of the
(22:59):
number one now. The Gators blew out Norfolk State in
their opener, they had to come back and survive against
Yukon in the final seconds, and then they were a
little bit better beating Maryland than the Sweet sixteen. But
on Saturday against Texas Tech, Florida was absolutely dead in
the water. Texas Tech was shooting the lights out. Florida
(23:19):
was in trouble. Florida trailed seventy three sixty four, down
nine with just over three minutes to play, and then
point guard Walter Clayton Junior went off. He had ten
of his thirty points in the final four minutes. He
assisted on two big three point plays by Thomas hawk Hey.
(23:41):
Clayton was sensational. He made two huge three pointers in
the final two minutes of that game, including the one
that gave Florida the lead at the end. And you know,
he hadn't played that well early on in the game,
but he came on late and head coach Todd Golden
leaned on Clayton to get the job done at the end.
But here was the key for me. And you might
(24:02):
not have noticed this. Did you notice how early Todd
Golden began fouling Texas Tech. He started fouling their big guys,
and then Tech choked at the free throw line. Now,
as bad as that was, because now you're trading possessions
and you're getting the ball back without them scoring because
they couldn't get stops against Tech, here was the worst part.
(24:22):
You could feel Tech get tight. Hey, their final possession,
they had a wide open three from one of their
best players on top of the key, and what do
you do? It flanked it? Why maybe because he had
just clanked some free throws earlier. He's not a bad shooter.
And yet Florida going to that fouling early seemed like
(24:46):
it might have kind of shook Texas Tech and Florida survived. Okay,
So now in the Final four on Saturday, we will
have the Auburn Tigers facing those Florida Gators in a
rematch of the SEC game that they played back in
February that saw Florida beat Auburn at Auburn. That game
honestly probably helps Auburn a little bit because they can
(25:08):
look to counter what Florida did the first time. They
can make some adjustments. I expect Auburn to be a
pain here. Here's my concern, is Deny Broom really gonna
be helpy if he's not. That's a problem because Florida
is a pretty good rebounding team. Can broom raised that
right arm? And more importantly, if they shoot that thing
(25:29):
up and numbing up, is he gonna have any touch
on the ball with that right arm. The key for
Florida is can they take care of the ball. They
turn it over way too much. They are so sloppy
with the basketball, and as good a rebounding team as
they can be, they don't always really dedicate themselves to it.
If they go out and take care of the ball,
if they go out and rebound, I think, once again,
(25:50):
I think they're gonna be a headache for Robert. I
will take Florida in a very tight game. I don't
feel super confident about it because the Gators do silly things,
but I'll take Florida to beat Auburn. The second game
will feature the two teams that right now have been
the most impressive to me throughout this tournament, and that
is the Houston Cougars and their defense facing the Duke
(26:13):
Blue Devils and that offense. Hey, I really like what
Houston is doing at both ends of the floor, honestly,
and I can't wait to see how their defensive pressure
is going to affect Duke because Duke has not seen
pressure like that before, not this year. It's very different.
Here's my concern. Duke has that size, and when you're
(26:36):
trying to pressure guys that are bigger than you, if
they can just look over that pressure and find an
open man, yeah, they're going to attack you. That scares
me a little bit. I think Duke is playing the
best of anyone remaining. I will take Duke to advance
past Houston, which leads us to our final on Monday Night,
(26:56):
which I am predicting is going to be Florida versus Duke.
And again, I just wish Florida was a little more
responsible with the basketball. Those turnovers scare me because if
you turn it over against Duke, they will make you
pay for it. Now, having said that, I really like
Walter Clinton Jr. I don't think he's gonna go quietly.
(27:17):
I just don't know that his supporting cast will be
enough to help him beat the Blue Devils. I'm going
to say John Shire gets his first national championship, Cooper
Flag will be the top pick of the NBA draft,
and Duke will get their sixth championship in school history.
But hey, I'd be happy to be wrong now as
(27:39):
we do so many weeks here at the Daily, does
we need to get over to our daily dose Top five,
Like we just talked about freshman feet Im Cooper, Flag
and the Duke Blue Devils have been highly impressive this season. Hey,
they rolled to a thirty five and three record this
year and if now all the way to the final
(28:01):
four and Flag has been phenomenal. He's currently averaging nineteen
points a game, eight rebounds a game, and five assists
per game. And if Duke does roll to the title,
this eighteen year old kid that is supposed to actually
still be in high school, he's gonna be on a
list of some of the greatest freshman seasons in NCUBA history.
(28:23):
But who else would be on that list? Today? Our
Daily those Top five is counting down the greatest freshman
seasons in NCAA tournament history. But remember this one keyp
Freshmen were not allowed to play until the early seventies.
Guys like Kareem and Will and Bill Walton, a lot
of great players they weren't allowed to play as a freshman.
(28:46):
That would have been interesting to see if they had
but they didn't. Let's start off at number five and
we go back to a guy that ended up being
the greatest player in the history of basketball, But back
in nineteen eighty two, he was just known as Mike.
He wasn't even the greatest player on his own team.
That title on North Carolina went to James Worthy, and
(29:10):
then second was maybe Sam Perkins, and then there was
a kid named Mike. He was just a freshman, a
very talented freshman, and that talent began to show itself
more and more as the tar Heels season progressed. After
going thirty two and two, the tar Heels were a
number one seed, and while freshman Michael Jordan struggled a
(29:31):
little bit in the first two games against James Madison
in Alabama, he started to show flashes. In the Elite Eight,
he dropped fifteen on Villanova, then he scored eighteen on
Houston in the Final Four. But in the title game
against Georgetown, Jordan really stepped up. He scored sixteen points,
including the game winning jumper from the wing to give
(29:54):
North Carolina the lead with just seconds left in the clock. Hey,
Michael Jordan wasn't a star yet, but he was clearly
on his way. He averaged thirteen points a game in
the NCAA tournament, and he delivered a title to head
coach Dean Smith. Michael Jordan's freshman year comes in today
at number five. We arrive at number four and we
(30:15):
go back to another freshman that really wasn't the star
of their team, but he ended up playing a significant role,
especially in that NCUBA tournament, because UCLA's nineteen to ninety
five national title would not have been possible without a
hometown freshman by the name of Toby Bailey. He earned
(30:35):
a spot on the All Tournament team as a result,
And yes, he wasn't the greatest player on that team
because the UCLA had Ed Obannon and Charles Obannon, they
had Tyus Edney. But in the postseason, Bailey was a
pretty key contributor. In the Elite against Connecticut, Bailey scored
twenty six and pulled down nine rebounds, and then in
(30:58):
the championship game against the Arkansas Razorbacks, once again, Bailey
stepped up with twenty six points and another nine rebounds,
and the Bruins won their first national championship since the seventies.
But they wouldn't have won it without a freshman by
the name of Toby Bailey, and he comes in today
at number four. We reached number three on our list
(31:19):
of greatest freshman seasons in March Madness, and now we
reach guys that weren't just like key contributors, they were
actually the best players on their team as freshmen. After
eight straight solid seasons in the NCAA Tournament, the Louisville
Cardinals had missed the tournament completely in nineteen eighty five,
but head coach Danny Crumb he was putting together from talent.
(31:43):
Billy Thompson and Milt Wagner were seniors, and then Crumb
pulled a big man from Savannah, Georgia by the name
of Purvis Ellison. As a freshman at Louisville, Ellison earned
the nickname Never Nervous Purvis because he had some clutch games,
including a national championship game against Duke that Louisville won
(32:07):
seventy two to sixty nine, and Never Nervous Purpose dropped
twenty five and had eleven rebounds. Overall, in the tournament,
he averaged fifteen and a half points a game, ten
rebounds a game, and two blocks a game. He led
Louisville all the way to the championship. Purvos Ellison lands
on our list today at number three. So we are
(32:28):
now at the number two greatest March Madness by a freshman.
And again we have a guy that arrived on campus
in Lexington, Kentucky and immediately became the guy. Because back
in twenty twelve, head coach John Calipari had a few
solid upperclassmen, guys like Deron Lamb and Terrence Jones, but
(32:50):
then he signed a big man named Anthony Davis, and
ad immediately became the man. He paired him with another
big freshman by the name of Michael Kidd Gilchrist, and
the Wildcats rolled to a thirty eight and two record.
And Davis wasn't just a contributor. He racked up all
the accolades Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player, SEC Player of
(33:13):
the Year. He carried Kentucky to the twenty twelve National Championship.
He averaged fourteen points a game, twelve rebounds a game,
and nearly five blocks per game as the Wildcats beat
Kansas in the title game. Davis wasn't the best scorer,
but he was a really good defender and his defense
(33:34):
his rim protection and his rebounding made him a monster
at both ends. Anthony Davis comes in today on our
list at number two. So we reached the number one
March Madness run by a freshman, and we go back
to the year two thousand and three where a freshman
did something that, to be honest, we all kind about
(33:55):
maybe it was never gonna happen. Because he won a
national champion for Jim Beaheim and the Syracuse Orange Carmelo
Anthony averaged twenty two points a game and ten rebounds
a game. He shot forty eight percent from three point
land in the tournament. And then look at what he
actually did. In the tournament opening round against Manhattan he
(34:16):
had seventeen okay. Then in the round of thirty two
against Oklahoma State, he had thirteen Okay, not great, but
now he's getting warmer. In the sweet sixteen against Auburn,
he scored eighteen. He dropped twenty on Oklahoma. In the
Elite eight, he scored thirty three against Texas in the
Final four, and then put up twenty to ten against
(34:37):
Nick Collison, Kirk Heinrich, Keith Langford, Wayne Simmons and the
Kansas Jayhawks in the National Championship Game, as Syracuse knocked
off the Jayhawks and gave Beheim his only title of
his career. Now, the run at Cooper Flag is on
this season is incredible, but as you can see, he's
(34:57):
got some pretty stout competition for the best rash season ever. Also,
I know there's currently a lot of talk about how
Flag's game will transition to the NBA, and I think
his skills should be a nice fit. Plus, he's got
that kind of attitude. It seems like he's just a
kid that's gonna work his butt off. But as you
can see from this list, having one of the greatest
freshman seasons ever doesn't guarantee the NBA greatness. Our list
(35:22):
of five today had a wide mix from go to
a cup of coffee in the league, Cooper Flag will
still have to go prove he can do this in
the NBA. Hey, next week in the Dose, we will
be breaking down the Final four and the National Championship,
and of course we'll be keeping you up all that
is going on in the world of sports. So make
sure you check out theodos and make sure you let
(35:42):
a friend know to do the same. Hen't want to
say thank you to each and every one of you
for listening to the Do Dose every week. Thank you
for the emails, thank you for the text, thank you
for the tweets. But more than anything, thank you for
sharing the show, for sharing the videos, and for sharing
the articles. We absolutely love it when you do that.
I have said thank you to Jesp. Could not do
any of this without you. I will see you on
next Wednesday. Have a great week. Everybody got play Inner Murals. Brother,
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