It's time for Coffee and Company. Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety
Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we are get
off our show, idiots. The kids are playing or trail off. The
countries are screwing it up. Gold Play inter Murals, Brother, gold Play
inn Murals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not.
Who's the kid here? Who's the kid here? Are you kidding me?
Now? Here's Nick Coffee. I can't give many examples, but I feel
like every now and then there is a massive development story within college basketball in
the offseason that nobody seems to have seen coming. Again, I can't give
you any any examples, but I just feel like this has happened before.
But maybe I'm wrong. And what I'm referring to is the big news that
the Los Angeles Lakers are apparently all in on making Yukon head coach Danny Hurley
their next head coach. And when I say all in, I mean they
that's who they want. They're gonna make him a big offer. I guess
the offer hasn't been made just yet, but I saw it this morning.
I got up at about it was about seven o'clock. I suppose I woke
up not on my own, but my son. He needed more milk,
so I had to get up and uh after I got him his bottle.
And yes, he's a four year old and still times wakes up want in
a bottle. We gotta we gotta shake that. He did give up the
passivefire, like that's gone. So that's one thing we've we've done that you
know is a sign of him growing. But the bottle is still something that
you know, and what makes it bad is that, like it's not uncommon
for a kid to want some milk before they go to bed or at night,
but he has to have it in a bottle like he's a baby,
which you know, we got we got to move on for them. But
nonetheless, when I'm walking back to to to give him his bottle, I
got my phone out, pop it open, and I see Danny Hurley is
in play for the uh Laker's job. And I see that it is from
a blue check and it is from an account that you know, I'm familiar
with woj But it's the second time in the last two weeks where I saw
Woje tweet something and just assumed it has to be fake, because right now
you can easily just from just just when you were, when you're on the
timeline, you see that appear, rather it be because you follow or somebody
retweets it, or it's in that you know, for you section where they'll
show you some stuff that they think you might want to see on the algorithm,
but you know, maybe you don't follow set accounts, So I just
assume, you know, hey, despite looking like woj saying the name is
Adrian woljen Rowski and it having a blue check, once I click on the
profile, I'm sure at that point it'll show me that this is somebody that
you know, has a couple hundred followers that just tried to troll people.
Then you see six point three million followers and you realize that's the real Woach.
So it wasn't, you know, something that I just couldn't believe,
like what it's more of, like where'd that come from? Because all of
the attention was on JJ Reddick, and even JJ Reddick has I think either
been misled that he really is going to be the guy for the Lakers or
he's like working with them to just totally throw people off to where they would
have never expected it to be. Danny Hurley, so big news, no
doubt. All right, it is Coffee and Company. We are fueled by
Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you guys hanging out with us,
Nick Coffee. That's me the company man, mister John all alongside today.
You got six more hours here on the air, and then you're out
of here for vacation. That's true. You get excited. I am excited.
I think I haven't told you where I'm going for extravagant place, but
we're going to the mid Atlantic. We're going to coastal Delaware. Oh cool,
Yeah, man, that's an area of the country I've never I've never
been in, and I can't you know, there's a lot of places that
I can't necessarily give a good pitch as to why I'd like to be there,
but just I like to experience different areas, different regions of the country
that you know that I've never been to before. Right, I don't know
what I'm getting into, rights, That's exactly what how I go about doing
this. I've said before that we like to we want to try to go
somewhere different on vacation each and every year, and this is where we're going
this time. Man. That's cool, good stuff there, because I there's
pockets of the country I've never been to that I really want to at least
just experience. It's not like I want to take a week and go visit
and you know, doing whole vacation. But I've never I've never been to
Texas other than other than in an airport, and I don't know. I
just feel like Texas is kind of its own country within this country. That
would make sense. And you know, Austin's probably the place I would go
if I just decided take a trip to Texas, because apparently that's a fun,
lively spot. You know. Dallas and Houston. I don't really have
any interest in going and hanging out there because those are huge cities and I,
you know, I don't really know what I would do there other than
just be in a big city. I've been to those airports, and then
I've been to the Northeast, but never that area there like Delaware, New
England, yeah, New Gyna, yeah. But the area of the country
that I don't know if I'll ever go, but I would love to,
and I've always wanted to go. There is the Pacific Northwest, Oregon,
Washington, even you know Canada if you go a little further north. But
you know, I don't have any reason to go there, and I know
for sure I'm not gonna be able to convince my wife to ever go there,
because that's the exact type opposite place that she would ever want to go,
and you know, adventure. She's not a big out west mountainous type
person. Rain and cold, that's what she thinks of the of the Pacific
Northwest. But I'm telling her if we go in like the summer, that's
not always the case. But yeah, I have a friend who lives in
Seattle, so maybe that would be my way of getting there. At some
point. Maybe he ends up, you know, staying there for good.
He's been there a few years now. I'm not sure if he plans on
staying forever, but you know, if he ends up raising a family there,
maybe that's my Maybe that's my out to make a trip. And I
don't have to take her. I mean I would take her, but again
she doesn't. She don't want to just kind of pack up the car one
day and do what you said you've all know and say, hey, we're
going for two weeks. I'm telling you I'm gonna do it. I mean,
I won't even like ask her. I'm just gonna say, hey,
here's what I'm doing. You're welcome to come with me if you'd like.
And that's gonna be my my drive across the country by forty. If I
haven't done it, then you know, I'm I'm pathetic, and I just
yeah, hold me to it. I don't have that. I got five
years left, Yeah, I'll I'll be thirty six and uh, in fact,
a month, a month from tomorrow, So yeah, I got five
years to make it happen. I think I can. I think I can
pull it off. But we'll see. Only time will tell. All Right,
So let's get into this this uh, this big piece of news that
really doesn't relate to us. But when it comes to college basketball, there's
one man that has dominated this sport in the last couple of years, and
I don't believe there's any sign of him stopping, unless, of course,
he leaves college basketball to go to the and coach the Lakers. So at
times I felt, my, I you know, I'm sure this is probably
something you guys are going to say, well, hey, that's like every
day for you man. When talking about Yukon during their second consecutive championship run
after they cut down the nets this past season, I felt like I wasn't
really articulating and putting into words how I really felt about Dan Hurley because I
am so impressed with him. I think he is an absolutely phenomenal leader.
And I mean, at the end of the day, when it comes to
coaching, there's different styles, there's different approaches. You know, you want
to be yourself and everybody has their own personality, philosophy. You know,
you can be a variety of you know, there's layers to being a coach
and there's a lot of different ways to do it. And there's many successful
sometimes all time and great coaches that have clearly done it differently than most.
But at the end of the day, a coach is a leader and people
lead in different ways. To me, Dan Hearly is a phenomenal leader.
He's a phenomenal basketball mind, and I think what you see is what you
get, And it took a little while for it to really break through,
right. He was successful at Rhode Island for Rhode Island. But at Yukon,
you know, it took him a little bit of time. And if
this is a clip that I saw, I'm not gonna play for him.
I just gonna reference it. But there was a clip of Danny Hurley once
he got to Yukon, when they were slowly trying to, you know,
get back to where they once were, and you know, he made the
comment, and I'm paraphrasing here that you better get us now. And at
the time, if I was listening to that live, I would have thought,
Okay, yeah, that's what That's what a lot of coaches would say.
But he meant it and he followed through on that. Because now within
a few years at Yukon, he has implemented a system. I mean,
their program is on top of the sport and it's not dependent upon once in
a lifetime talent or even once in a four or five year time frame talent.
I don't think Yukon has many super talented dudes on these last two teams.
I don't, I really don't. I think some of the guys that
are going to get drafted are gonna get drafted where they are because this draft
is really weak. That's not a knock on them. You need talent and
he has that. But Danny Hurley once guys who are going to compete,
guys who are going to buy in, and of course guys who do have
talent, and then he develops. I mean there are guys who I think
via the portal with maybe a year or two left, they've they've developed under
him late in their career because that's what he really specializes in. So I
don't want him to leave Yukon. I don't. Some people say, well,
get him the hell out of here. He's going to dominate the sport,
and you know, I hear that. I wouldn't want to run into
Danny Hurley if i'm you know, Pat Kelcey in a couple of years,
because you know, even if you're rolling like Yukon, they're not slowing down
if he's still there. But I really really think he is the you know,
the future of coaching in basketball, and I assume that would be at
the college level, but at the pro level. I still think he could
be super successful. I do. We'll never know, And coaching Lebron is
kind of different than coaching anybody else, and really any other team that doesn't
have a Lebron because Lebron is kind of a guy who really does whatever he
wants. He's successfully gotten every coach he's played for fired seemingly, and the
one guy that he couldn't get fired that still is around in Miami is Spolster,
who I believe is one of the best coaches in the NBA. So
we'll see if he ends up even going to Yukon. Maybe he does decide
I'm sorry to the Lakers. Maybe he does decide to stay at Yukon.
But I mean, I wouldn't even say like I'm a big I mean,
I'm not not a fan, but I can't act as if like I root
for Hurley, Like I don't watch Yukon play and think like, Wow,
they're so good. I hope they keep it rolling. I just have a
lot of respect as a college basketball fan and a basketball dorc myself, because
I think he is I think he's brilliant, And maybe a part of it
for me personally is that I didn't see that beforehand. He's been around coached
the low major, if you can call it that, like the bottom of
D one he was at either was it Wagner, I think it was then
he ended up at Rhode Island, did fine there, but they weren't you
know, they weren't elite. And then at Yukon it was a slow build.
But I think what he did is he showed that he has the acumen
as far as basketball. He is a leader, and he can sell and
recruit and he can identify the type of players that he knows will fit with
what he wants to do. And Yukon's a program that does have great resources.
Maybe not to the likes of a Kentucky, Carolina, Kansas or something
like that, but Yukon is in my opinion, certainly a blue blood now
with what they've done. So this is a really good coach that took a
good program, a really good program for that matter, with good resources,
and it took him a little time, but he has it rolling to a
point where if he stays at Yukon, it's unheard of and it's improbable,
extremely hard to do. But if he stayed at Yukon and they won two
more back to back, could you sit back and say that you're completely shocked.
I don't know if you could. I mean, unless they did it
in weird fashion where they were like a bubble team got in and then won
it. But I really liked Dan Hurley a lot as a coach, and
I think if he stays at Yukon or you go to the Lakers, I
think he's going to have success. So here's wojes this morning on a show
that I got to be honest with you, I always forget the name of
it. ESPN in the Morning has done a lot of different things since they
moved on from Mike and Mike, but woj was on this morning and it's
called what is it called Unsportsmanlike? Does that sound right? Don? I
was gonna say get Up or is that something else? So I think get
Up is what they moved on from. Like they got rid of get Up
and now have a different crew that is actually, I'll be honest with you,
actually think as far as the sports radio in general, I actually think
this is a good show. But it doesn't have the names right. It's
not it's not Greeny, it's not you know, it's not. Even Jay
Williams was on there quite a bit. I mean they Keishawn Johnson I think
did so they now have names that a lot of people probably aren't even familiar
with. Evan Cohen, Chris Canty, and there's another I guess contributor to
the show. So whenever I catch it on television, like if it's on
you know, in the morning's on ESPN, like I think, I think
they do a pretty good job. They're just not big. They're just not
big names like you used to see. But anyways, this was on on
sportsmanlike radio. This is Woj as he was, I guess breaking the news,
and I don't know if people care, so I won't spend a ton
of time on it, but later I may discuss the Shams Cherania Adrian wolj
Narowski dynamic here because he was a former protegee. I mean I think Woj
had Shams under his under his wing, and then Shams kind of branched off,
did his own thing and still does well for himself. But it's Shams
that has been running with it for a while now that it's JJ Reddick,
and it sounds like he was, you know, completely off. I mean,
you never know, but there are some that believe that even if they
don't get hurtly, they're not going to hire JJ Reddick, which would be
a tough l for Shams to take. And I would love to know did
JJ Reddick get misled or is he in on it just messing with people,
because I could see him just you know, being that guy to just kind
of make people think yeah, because he was on with uh, there was
a there's a a Draftking show, which by the way, is terrible.
It's Mike Golick and his son and it's just the coin. It's just soap.
I mean, I shouldn't say that because I'm sure people say the same
thing about my show, and I'm sure you know, those guys are doing
a lot better than I am in this business that is sports media. But
it's just so corny. But he was on with him yesterday. JJ Reddick
was and he was doing like the little smirk kind of like hint is if
like he was already the Lakers coach and he's just gonna wait until after the
finals whenever, you know, he does his one and only if he goes
to the Lakers, it'd be his one and only time being a part of
the broadcast team for the NBA Finals. But I don't get the sense that
he's going anywhere. I think he's gonna stay in. You know, we'll
never know, because why would he come out and say it. If he
was like if he was like you know, let on and he was just
he was used as like a smoke screen. But either way, I don't
think it's gonna be j Reddick. But here's Wojes this morning describing the situation
here and really laying out what LA finds interesting and intriguing about Dan Hurley because
I actually think, to be honest with you, the days of going and
getting a really successful college coach and thinking they're gonna do it in the NBA,
Like, it doesn't feel as if that's the trend the NBA would be
heading in right now. But when you're Dan Hurley and you've been that impressive,
and again you're doing it because you can coach ball, not because you're
out there putting together the best roster you can buy, I mean that's impressive.
So here again, this is WoDES this morning discussing and I guess this
is when he really broke the news. The Lakers over the next few days
are in a full court press to convince Dan Hurley to come to LA.
He has told them that he wants to hear them out and think the Lakers
Rob Polenka, they want to put a program in place. In LA.
They don't want to just have coach to coach. They want to put a
program in for the long term. They want Dan Hurley's player development program.
The NBA is changing. You can't in LA anymore just trade three or four
first round picks to bring in a star player and think you can have a
roster that can win. That is how they got Anthony Davis. But you
are seeing you have to draft well, you have to develop your young players.
And in LA, I think the belief is always you're going to be
able to get the star player who finds his way to LA, but you're
gonna have to grow your young players. And the idea of Bronnie James and
the Lakers they have the fifty fifth pick. Who better potentially than Dan Hurley
to be the development coach to lead his growth than the coach who's you know,
really dominated the college sport. You talk about, you know, h
x'es and o acumen player development. You know, there's been more than one
NBA coach who has said to me in recent months talking about even as they're
watching tape on Yukon for Donovan Klingon or Stephan Kassel, or others. They
talk about the sophistication of Yukon's offense, and I've had more than one coach
say this would really translate to our league. And certainly Rob Polenka has recognized
that. And from day one of this Lakers search, guys, it has
been Dan Hurley. Now they've interviewed other candidates. They don't know whether they
can get Dan Hurley. So they have certainly interviewed other candidates, they have
talked to other others, but there has been one focus of this search,
and that's Yukon's coach, the Lake. So I mean, not knowing if
they can get him is I think a real question. But I do find
it funny that there are folks out there saying, well, I mean,
come on, he's not leaving Yukon. He turned down Kentucky, which,
by the way, did he ever like everybody's talking about Hurley to the NBA,
I mean, did he ever take Kentucky? Said they were going to
make him say no? Do they ever do it? They ever get the
official like message from a carrier that you told him, hey, here's your
official no like. It was very odd, but it's the freaking Lakers,
right, And I know, there's a lot of baggage with Lebron and all
that, and it could be a mess. But if you're wired as a
basketball guy, a competitor, and you've got a chance to go coach the
Los Angeles Lakers after you just won back to back national championships in college but
really nothing to prove at the college level, I mean, I guess it's
just denial of Yukon fans thinking that, like, no, he won't leave
us. I mean, he might not, but if he did, nobody
should be surprised. It is one of those things though, where if he
did deny the Lakers, it doesn't make you think that Dan Hurley probably I
mean, unless something crazy happens, will be with Yukon for the rest of
his career. Totally agree, Totally agree, And look, I understand the
obvious you know, cons if you're doing pros and cons to the situation.
If if you're looking at Dan Hurley, because coaching Lebron wouldn't be fun coaching
Lebron while his son is also on the team. Yikes. Hell, even
just knowing that if you go to the Lakers, Lebron is going to dictate
if they draft his side, like that's just that's that's an environment that a
lot of people would would be hesitant to go towards. But again, we're
talking about the Lakers, and we're talking about, you know, a chance
to to you know, probably make a lot of money, right. I
mean, clearly he's gonna get paid a lot. But what nobody seems to
think about And I times am as guilty as this of anybody. But when
you talk about okay, you know, there's this challenge, there's that challenge,
you know, would it be the right fit? Would I be really
cut out for LA media? Would I be really cut out to talk to
pros who make more money than me and be on them and really coach them
hard like I do College players like those are all legitimate things that any rational
person would think about. People in Dan Hurley's position aren't rational, normal average
joes that consider, you know what, I might get a pay bump,
but man, I got a pretty cush job over here. These dudes are
in this spot winning back to back national championships because they are competitive as hell,
and there's no scenario They look at those challenges, those potential cons and
think, yeah, I can't overcome that. They think that they'll break.
It's not a worry to them, right, Like it's Charlie Strong. Charlie
Strong again nowhere near accomplished as a college football coach like Dan Hurley. But
when Charlie Strong was going to go to Texas and he did, myself and
a lot of others thought, man, that'd be a terrible fit. Man.
He would not do well there. That would not make sense. That
would be a mare scenario, especially if he doesn't win at a high level.
I think Charlie ever thought about that. No, this is a guy
who worked his ass off throughout his entire career, waiting forever to become a
head coach. Loueill gave him the opportunity and within four years Texas at that
time was viewed as one of the best jobs in the country. They wanted
him. So like, you know, you think, like, no,
I am. I have such a belief in myself, in my profession and
what I do that yes, despite those being some potential challenges, I'm going
to be able to thrive despite those challenges because that's how you're wired as a
competitor. So like, if he doesn't go to LA I don't think it's
going to be because he's worried that he wouldn't win. If Dan Hurley thought
he couldn't win as a coach at certain spots, I don't think he would
be as successful as he's been in recent years. Now, what I think
is kind of odd. We'll get to a breaking just a minute, But
what I think is kind of odd is that the way this has been put
out publicly. I kind of feel like this is one of those things that
typically, like if Dan Hurley, if you'd have told me a month ago
that Dan Hurley was going to be the coach of the Lakers, I would
have said that it didn't drag out during the NBA Finals. It was a
situation where you just found out they're hiring him and he's gone. Well now,
he met with his team earlier today, told them that he was you
know, told them that he was gonna keep be honest with them and be
transparent, didn't want to hide anything, told them he has been talking to
the Lakers and he just wanted them to know that. And then right now
it's still business as usual. So that to me is just awkward, Like
and I think the longer it's just kind of out there to where they're working
on a big offer. They're preparing a big offer, and everybody knows that
he might leave Yukon. I think that could make it to where maybe he
ends up like deciding to just stay, but the Lakers are going to have
to offer him a lot of money, like and I mean probably making Like
who's the highest paid NBA coach in the league. I wouldn't even be able
to guess because they're all so expendable now, right, Like, the longest
active coach in the NBA is Greg Popovich, I think right behind him,
actually not right behind him, but the second longest coach in the NBA active
as far as tenure is Eric Spolster at Miami. After that, I wouldn't
even be able to guess who has coached in the NBA at the same because
there's dudes who've been in the NBA for what twelve straight years? They coach
four teams because it's a retread league. Steve Kerr appears to be the highest
paid coach at thirty five million. Well not a year, right, I
mean, that's not possible. It makes that a year, But Popovich's sixteen
mil, Spolster's fifteen and again I don't know. This is by a year.
I'm trying to figure out what There's no way that a coach would make
that much in a year, but again I don't know. It is Golden
State though, yeah so Greg so, yeah per year. The highest paid
coach per year right now is Popovich sixteen million year, Spolster fifteen mil MANI
Williams thirteen mil who coaches the Pistons and they suck, and then Steve Kerr
is at nine point five million, So you know, they'd probably have to
put a salary in that price range. And will they do it? Probably
because of the Lakers they can, and for those worried about like Lebron,
like Lebron. And this is where the Internet is very useful in these kind
of situations because there's a lot of Internet sluice out there that probably didn't even
have to look that hard to find some clips of Dan Hurley interviews where he's
hinting that he really loves the NBA. No nobody paid attention, nobody really
thought much of it, but he said in interviews that he wants to be
in the NBA someday. And this is before he won back to back titles.
I believe, and also Lebron. Lebron's been flirting with Hurley on social
media. Never saw that coming, Like, I wouldn't be shocked if,
like, as soon as they fired Darvin Ham. That was his name,
right, Darvin Ham, they ended up like Lebron told him go get Hurley
and they've been working on it like that wouldn't shock me at all. All
right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side. We were
loaded today, a lot of stuff to get into, so stick with us.
Do you remember the task I gave you for today's show, John,
If you don't think about it during the break, okay, you'll remember,
all right, keep it locked right here at Sports Talks ninety. You know,
for those who are thinking that maybe Hurley's doing this to like leverage something,
what would he be leveraging like he's already told Kentucky. No, In
fact, I'm not even really sure if he told him though he just never
really you know, returned their call or whatnot. And in all seriousness,
Kentucky's job is I think, and it pains me to say it, but
I think you could make the case that Kentucky's the best job in college basketball.
There's not a big difference between Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas in my
opinion as far as the top jobs. So, I mean, he's not
he's not gonna float the Lakers out there to get more money from Yukon.
I mean, and if he does, I mean, and it works,
than good on him. But Yukon doesn't have the money to pay him what
colleges would pay him unless they got real you know, unless they just you
know, got real desperate, which they probably would, because that's how I
mean, we're talking about a guy who's went back to back national championships.
In fact, I know this isn't realistic and it was probably a bad joke,
But like I think Yukon on the state of Connecticut, on behalf of
Yukon Basketball, would like implement attacks for everybody in the state to go towards
making sure they can afford to keep Dan Hurley. That's how much they love
him. So I think he's going to the Lakers. I just think it's
now it's now just down to what offer they give him. Like, I
can't imagine they're going to throw something at him that is not substantially attractive,
especially compared to what he's making at Yukon. The amount of dominoes that will
fall if he jumps to the Lakers over these next couple of months will be
absolutely insane. I've got a prediction. I think that if he goes to
the Lakers, there's no in between one or two things happens utter chaos,
meaning all those dudes from Yukon become available in the portal and everybody's scrambling to
go get some of them. You'll see dudes who are committed to I don't
know, let's just say there's a guy committed to Creighton or or I don't
know, give me, give me a run of the mill, top fifteen
team, John just you know, let's go with Houston. Maybe, yeah,
Houston. Let's just say Houston. You know, there's a guy that
is in a good spot at Houston who joined their program this offseason from the
portal, and now he's aware that Calvin Sampson's going after one of these Yukon
players. Well then he leaves, you know, he you know, he
ends up bailing and at that point, you know, somebody else could go
get this guy who was going to commit to Houston, but now he's available
again, and he wouldn't have to re enter the portal. It all comes
down to have you enrolled in school. Yet, that's what it all comes
down to, because they're like Louisville right now, they have I believe eleven
or maybe ten of the thirteen scholarship players they've added. They're all here and
in school, meaning that if they were going to leave, they would have
to enter the transfer portal. Now, if you've committed somewhere and you haven't
signed anything, and you have not enrolled in school and they've not officially announced
you, it's just your word, like you're not having you're you're still in
the portal. You just haven't you know, you haven't at you know,
in fact, there's nothing that ties you to that place unless you've you know,
unless you've actually signed something or enrolled in school. Because when you enroll
in school, that's when you actually have to go through the process of entering
the portal. And what's crazy is that if you've already taken money, you
know, through an il, but you haven't enrolled in school, you could
bail and not owe anybody any money. Because that's just the way it's structured
right now, which again is not really structured. It's a complete free for
all. So I think it's either going to be that chaos a lot of
moving pieces. This late. I say this late, I guess it's you
know, still relatively early into the off season, but usually by June more
often than not annually, when you get to June sixth, there's very little
movement that could really like usually by now you feel like you know who is
on everybody's team and what it's gonna you know, and what the roster's gonna
look like. So it's either going to be that or they hire Luke Murray
and promote him from within, and there's not much shake up at all.
There's no big coach leaving another job, because that's another that's another part of
the chaos. Right. And by the way, have you heard the name
being floated out there to replace Danny Hurley by Jeff Goodman. You're not fishing
for a Tom Crean, are you. No, Hell, I don't.
I don't understand this, not only because I don't really to me off the
top, it doesn't seem like a great fit, but also Jeff Goodman,
who again, like I think, is as connected as anybody in college basketball,
but we also kind of know who Jeff Goodman's guys are right, like
we know which coaches that he like. He loves Bill self, he loves
Pat Kelsey. Now Pat Kelsey's not in the upper rechelan of coaches right now
as far as like name brands, but you know, he has coaches that
he's you know, always been pretty high on, and we all know coaches
that he doesn't really like very much, including you know, Mike Woodson,
Woodson, Patino cal Perry. Like you know. So, Jeff's really really
connected and has done a great job covering this sport, probably as good as
anybody. But I would have never expected him to be openly campaigning to where
he's doing it because he's paid to do it, or he's doing it because
somebody told him to, or he just was a low key Bruce Pearl fan
that I did not realize. I've never heard. I've never heard Jeff advocate
Bruce Pearl to get hired by anybody in fact, in fact, I feel
like he's mocked Auburn for paying him what they've paid him. And he's the
one who I believe and I could be wrong on this, but Bruce Pearl,
I don't think he was ever going to leave Auburn this offseason, but
he kind of was maybe wanting them to think there was a chance he could
do that because what Bruce Pearl wanted Auburn to do. And they've already done
a lot for him. They've given him more money. He got a big
raise whenever Chris Mack walked away because he was able to convince them that Louisville
was going to go after him. And he also got new facilities. I
don't know if they're complete or if they're still in the process of being put
together, but Auburn's given him a lot, only for him to lose to
Yale this year in the first round. But he also wanted them to make
his son the coach in waiting, which they weren't gonna do, and they
haven't done it yet. So I am very shocked to see that Jeff Goodman
is campaigning pretty aggressively for Bruce Pearl to take over for Danny Hurley if in
fact he does go to the Lakers. I mean, I think Bruce Pearl's
a really good coach. I could see him having success anywhere. But to
me, that just is random, like I would have like. To me,
that just doesn't seem like a fit, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Bruce Pearl is the kind of
guy you really can't see coaching outside of the SEC for some reason or maybe
the Big twelve. No, I think you're right. I think SEC.
You know, even though like his brand like is not. I mean,
you just know if you know about his background and sort of his his you
know him as a person like, it just doesn't to me. He doesn't
scream SEC. But he's been in Tennessee and he's been at Auburn. Those
are the two coaches, the two places we know that he's coached, and
he really seems to despite being I think an outsider of the Southeastern region,
he seems to really embrace everything that comes with the SEC. So yeah,
this is from Jeff Goodman earlier this afternoon. If Dan Hurley leaves you ucon
for the Lakers, the guy I would target his auburns. Bruce Pearl grew
up in New England and has the personality to follow. Dan Hurley can coach
and recruit and his buy out as reasonable. So since when this is buyout
reasonable? Dan like Bruce Pearl. I mean, last I checked his buyout
was why he never got mentioned for any job that opened up, including Kentucky
and Louisville. He clearly is good enough to coach both programs. He's more
accomplished than both of the coaches that the schools around here high. That's not
an insult to them, that's just a fact. And I think it makes
sense as to why both athletic directors wanted to go in a direction similar to
what you got in Dan Hurley. Now no clue, nobody has a clue,
and it's a stretch to even expect either of these guys, Kelsey and
Pope to do anything like Dan Hurley just did. But that is the path,
right. You were at a low major, end up at kind of
a mid major Rhode Island, and then UKN takes a chance on you and
then you break through. I mean, you could make the case that like
Kelsey was at Winthrop, one there goes to Charleston higher mid major, when's
there now is at louis Let's se if you can make it happen. Mark
Pope Utah Valley State never even heard of him, but he made him relatively
good for who they were gets the job at BYU. They were kind of
a mid major and then they ended up in the Big twelve for a year
and they were successful enough. And now he's at Kentucky. So you know,
I just I know nobody cares, but knowing Jeff a little bit like
I do, this is just weird to me because I don't, you know,
I don't know why he would be out there openly campaigning for Bruce Pearl
as if like he's a Yukon fan or he's a Bruce Pearl fan. And
look, Bruce Pearl would take the job, there's no doubt about it.
But yeah, for those just now joining us, that is the big news
today. The Lakers, I guess, have been since day one when their
job opened up. They've been pursuing Dan Hurley and Wojes broke the news earlier
today, and now I guess we wait to see what offer they throw at
him and if he decides to take it, and I believe that he will.
I mean, you think he'll stay at Yukon. I mean I feel
because if he what do you need to know if you're not gonna you know
the circumstance, especially if they've been talking to him since day one, he
knows what they're going to offer him, like he knows what they want to
do as far as letting him develop players, And I'm sure they've discussed obvious
questions that like people like me would have just as you know, a curious
basketball fan. Are they telling him they're going to have to draft lebronni right.
I feel like that's the biggest tipping point for whether or not Dan Hurley
takes the Lakers job. If he's if he's okay with working with Lebron and
really just welcomes it, I think. But if he wasn't, we'd already
know, and he wouldn't be they would this wouldn't be public. Yeah,
that's probably so far past that that clearly he's not worried about that. I
mean, he probably is, but not to the point where he'd say no,
because if if it was a contingency upon anything with Lebron or his son,
it wouldn't be broken by WOJ At this point, it would Danny Hurley
probably would have already told him not interested, because I don't want to get
in that mess, which if he did say that, like I would understand
because it does Lebron's one of the best players of all time. But what
coach attached to him? Do people feel good about right, Like at times
you feel like he's won in spite of his coach. Spolstra did a good
job, and but Lebron wanted him gone and pat Riley said no, pat
really stood up to Lebron like most won't. So like pat rally would not
draft Bronnie James if Lebron is still in Miami because he's he's not an idiot
because they can win without him, right, And you know he stood up
to him. But I think with like, here's this goes back to what
I was talking aout a little bit earlier, John, where guys that are
wired that way as competitors. I think Dan Hurley probably has such a belief
in himself and it's justifiable given what he's accomplished, that he'll be the guy
that really wins and thrives with Lebron, because look, Lebron wins, He's
won titles, but like he'll be the guy they're like, wow, look
at this duo Hurley. It's it's like Phil Jackson and George. Like I
don't know if he's I don't know if he's thinking that, but like I
don't think he's scared about Lebron. I'll say this, and this is probably
kind of a weird take because I feel like if you're a team of a
power program like a Louisville or Kentucky or an Indiana, it benefits you if
Dan Hurley isn't in the college game. But I also don't really want to
see Dan Hurley leave the college. I don't either. I'm with you,
which is which is it's a weird kind of tearing. I guess, yeah,
two sides. I mean, Yukon being good, it's not one of
those programs where you feel like, well, you know what college basketball is
better when Yukon's good. Like, actually, I think that's a lie about
a lot of programs. But you know, I think the way they were
able to quickly rebuild back to championship caliber, you know, success, it
still happened. Like so if he leaves, it's still there's still proof out
there that you can, you know, hire the right guy with a program
that has all the resources you'd need and you know, essentially do the damn
thing win two championships back to back. But I don't know, I just
feel like that's a good storyline within college. I don't. I don't think
it was ever going to turn into where the sport is boring because Yukon's so
good. Now if they win four or five in a row, different conversation.
But I actually think it's good to have a goliath, and they became
the goliath. And if you remember in previous years, nobody really there wasn't
one. I mean, I mean, yeah, you had Villanova win two
out of three, right, But like you know, I think college basketball
tends to get more national attention in coverage when there is a team that is
viewed to do something that rarely ever happens, and that's what Yukon did.
They won back to back championships and that hadn't happened in a long time,
and there'd be a lot of more. And again maybe some people don't care,
and I don't know why I care. I just love college basketball so
much. If it's getting a lot of attention nationally, you know, that
makes me happy. And if well, if they're back next year with her,
like it'll be something that nationally it is checked in on. Not that
they're going to go undefeated, but like, can they do the unthinkable?
Can Yukon win three in a row, and you know, I think that's
good for college basketball. It's not good for you know, us if our
teams make a run and have to run into him. Right, But I
think he's going to go to the Lakers. You think you think that's what
happens. I think so you've convinced me. Yeah, I mean, I
just feel like to be at this point, it's weird for me to think
that he'd just say no at this I think if he was gonna say no,
he would have already told him no. But then again, I said
this earlier. The longer it's out there, you know, because I don't
I would imagine nobody at Yukon knew this was happening, But now they do.
Maybe they've got a chance to not, you know, pay him more
money than the Lakers, but make him feel bad about leaving. I don't
know. All right, we'll come back on the other side again. I
gave John a task yesterday because he's been just on fire with randomly just guessing
things when I put him on the spot, things that like nobody would be
able to just guess, and he did. So now we're gonna have him
guess the total score tonight between the Mavericks and the Celtics in Game one of
the Finals, and we're gonna bet on it. That's right, Coffee and
Company rolling along here on a Thursday afternoon. Thanks for hanging out with us.
Certainly appreciate it. All right, So tonight we've got Game one of
the NBA Finals, and I will tell you it's gonna take probably a wager,
or in fact, the type of wager I'm gonna make tonight really won't
it does. It won't matter who wins or loses. But I think I'm
gonna need to watch it and let emotions take over for me to figure out
who I want to win, because I don't like either of these teams.
I don't like the Celtics at all. And it's not because you know,
they beat the Pacers. It's just I've never been I don't know what it
is. I just don't like the Celtics. I respect their brand and of
course their history, but I just I'm not a Celtics guy. In the
MAVs, I don't really care. I don't have much of a strong feeling
one way or the other. But I'm kind of starting to not like be
a big fan of Luca. I think he's great. I think he's super
talented, but I don't know. I'm getting to the point where I kind
of, in turn, maybe it's just me getting older, being more conservative
and you know, boring, but like really really cocky dudes just kind of
you know, I found myself rooting against them, and I think that's kind
of what Luke has turned into. But then again, like his arrogance,
I think is justified because he's super, super talented. I don't like Kyrie,
never have and I do find it funny how with Kyrie Irving, there's
some that look at this as like some redemption story, so good for him,
as if he's been through a lot of adversity. Any adversity, if
you want to call it that, for Kyrie Irving was his own doing.
I mean, there was a tweet that I retweeted that ended up it was
from a smaller account, but it ended up getting five point six million impressions,
and it's because it's so true. There was an NBA central account that
is super popular that posted a picture of Kyrie celebrating after they won the West
and says, happy for this guy if, like, you know, he
really deserves this and this this response was so fitting and perfect. Whole world
treating Kyrie like he beat cancer. This playoff run has been hilarious. He
was just an a hole for five years, and that's just flat out what
it was. He was an a hole. He was a jerk. He
I think at times didn't even really believe a lot of what he was running
with. But he liked the attention that he got from it. He was
so obsessed with wanting people to think, well, he's so much more than
just a basketball or which he is. Means a human being. And I'm
sure he's a bright guy. But like the way he carried himself in Boston,
the way he carried himself in Brooklyn was such a like, I'm so
intellectually on a different level than you guys, you just wouldn't understand. Like
he was just a I couldn't stand him. He's a super talented player,
but like, I don't like Kyrie. So I find myself thinking, well,
maybe I'll end up pulling for the Celtics, but I don't know.
I really don't know which team I'm going to root for, but I'm going
to bet and that'll give me some interest at least in watching. But you
have it. Do you have a preference here on either of these teams?
Not really. I mean, obviously the Mark Cuban connection with Indiana with there
you go works. But that works. That's at least something interest. That's
at least something, right, Yeah, all right, So give me the
total score of both teams, just you know, throw a number one eighteen
to eighteen. All right, So he's going don't know the spring or I
don't know any of the betting odds whatever, the over unders, so I'm
curious where we're gonna find. So we're we're taking the over tonight because the
total has set it two sixteen and a half. Oh my gosh. So
we're going to eighteen and uh, we'll hope for points. Regardless of who
wins. We're going to root for points and let's hope it happens. I'm
not making John wager on this, but I'm gonna do it because you know,
at least, even if I lose, who cares, it's not gonna
be much money and at least gives me something to root for tonight, which
again is points. Another bet I'm probably gonna take. I'm not gonna parlay
them, but these will be two different side bets. I'm gonna take the
over in PJ Washington points over eleven and a half. He's over in eight
straight games against the Celtic and his ten and oher on the over in his
career when he plays twenty eight plus minutes. He's been getting more and more
minutes because he's actually played really well in the playoffs. So I don't know,
this has become sort of like a very popular pick. Like it's not
like I just thought of it. I've been following others that are doing a
lot of props in the playoffs and having success, and it's one of those
where a lot of folks are saying, wow, it's only at eleven and
a half. In fact, I think it actually started at nine and a
half. But it could turn into where it's one of two things. Everybody's
gonna get rich on it or not rich but you know win and think like
wow, what a gift from the books, or it'll be one of those
where you think like, yeah, they clearly knew we were all going to
be suckers and take it, but they knew something we didn't. Yeah,
over tonight over one sixteen and a half in the total, and then I'm
going to take the over eleven and a half points for PJ. Washington.
All right, two more hours to go. We got to talk about Coleman
Hawkins because I mean, I'm still of the belief that Louisvill's in good shape
and can make it happen. But I think both him and Pat Kelcey are
toying with us a little bit. Which, hey, if they're just having
fun and it all works out, that's fine. But pack Kelsey said something
in its conversation today with Kent Spencer of WHS eleven that you know, has
me not worried, but just sort of curious. Okay, is this all
real? Like is he really visiting? Is this really happening or is it
just you know, a hoax. I'd stick with us right here on Sports
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