Speaker 1: It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day. Now, here's Nick coffee.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: So for those of you that are interested and able
Speaker 3: to make it up to Lexington tomorrow to see the
Speaker 3: team have their open practice, it will start at let's see,
Speaker 3: let me make sure I get this correct. So here
Speaker 3: we go. Well, the press conferences that I can tell
Speaker 3: you when they start, Louisville will have Pat Kelsey from
Speaker 3: eleven twenty to eleven thirty five tomorrow morning, and then
Speaker 3: let's see, I'm trying to see when they're doing the
Speaker 3: player Yeah, I'm sorry, let me back up. Eleven oh
Speaker 3: five is when it's going to start for Louisville. That's
Speaker 3: when they're going to have the Louisville players available. And
Speaker 3: then Pat Kelsey will talk from eleven twenty to eleven
Speaker 3: thirty five. So basically eleven am till about eleven thirty
Speaker 3: ish was when we'll hear from coach Kelsey. And I'm
Speaker 3: not sure if it's certain players. I'm really and it's
Speaker 3: kind of crazy. I don't really remember how they do it.
Speaker 3: I know there's more players available for the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 3: Press conferences than there is typically, but you know, as
Speaker 3: far as how many, I'm not totally sure. Now as
Speaker 3: far as let's see practice time, so let's see this
Speaker 3: is open to well, I may be lied to you
Speaker 3: because I know they had open practices the last time
Speaker 3: that I went to cover rate INSTABA tournament, but I
Speaker 3: don't know if that was based off of the host
Speaker 3: that was in Des Moines, Iowa, which by the way,
Speaker 3: Drake was the host, and there was an open practice
Speaker 3: for fans. But when I'm looking at here the practice schedule,
Speaker 3: it just says that it's open to the media, and
Speaker 3: Louisville's will be tomorrow right after the press conferences, from
Speaker 3: eleven forty five to twelve twenty five, So maybe there's
Speaker 3: I guess there's not an open practice for fans to
Speaker 3: watch it, and I'll double check on that. But anyways,
Speaker 3: with this being such a short trip, I would imagine
Speaker 3: that you know, you're not having to stay overnight or anything.
Speaker 3: Therefore you're probably just gonna if you're gonna go, you're
Speaker 3: gonna just drive up on Thursday morning and then of
Speaker 3: course come back after the game and hopefully make your
Speaker 3: way back to Lexington on Saturday all right, it's coffee
Speaker 3: and company. We are feel about Thornton's here on Sports
Speaker 3: Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you hanging out with us, Nick Coffee.
Speaker 3: That's me the tribal chief, Austin Montgomery alongside today. And
Speaker 3: when it comes to this home court advantage that you
Speaker 3: should have to an extent on Thursday, I hate talking
Speaker 3: attendance turn out because I can never win, right, because
Speaker 3: if you give any honest thoughts on it, you have
Speaker 3: some folks that will tell you that it's terrible and
Speaker 3: it's a huge issue. You need to acknowledge it. And
Speaker 3: then if you do actually express some concern and question,
Speaker 3: I guess maybe why there isn't a big crowd, then
Speaker 3: you're being negative. So I've learned long ago that the
Speaker 3: whole conversation about attendance turnout it's really not that interesting,
Speaker 3: and it usually, you know, puts me in a spot
Speaker 3: to where I you know, I can't win. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna make an exception here because I feel like you're
Speaker 3: gonna need a good amount of fans there, and I
Speaker 3: think there's no scenario where Louisville doesn't have more presence
Speaker 3: than their opponents in these games. If they even get
Speaker 3: to a second game. I mean, Creighton's gonna have fans, which,
Speaker 3: by the way, Creighton has a way bigger basketball fan
Speaker 3: base than people realize. And I'm sure some of them
Speaker 3: will be here, I mean, because they have a fan
Speaker 3: base that's passionate enough to where they make the even
Speaker 3: though it's not close. They're in Omaha, Nebraska, that's far away.
Speaker 3: But they'll have some fans here too. But Louisville should
Speaker 3: clearly have more. But what I don't know, and I
Speaker 3: can't like I could totally see it being one extreme
Speaker 3: or the other, which maybe that means it's probably gonna
Speaker 3: be in the middle, because I wouldn't be shocked if
Speaker 3: it's you know, painted red as they say, because again,
Speaker 3: like this team has been so fun to watch, Louisville
Speaker 3: fans are way way into it in a way that
Speaker 3: like I forgot how awesome it was. I mean, even
Speaker 3: last week postseason play acc tournament, being able to play
Speaker 3: three straight days, it just, you know, I could feel
Speaker 3: the sense of you know, camaraderie, family feel among the
Speaker 3: fan base because we haven't really been first of all,
Speaker 3: we have been good in a long time, and you're
Speaker 3: playing games that matter and it was just fun. So
Speaker 3: with that said, if there is a great turnout to
Speaker 3: where it's not twenty two thousand people there, you know,
Speaker 3: I think that that wouldn't shock me. We're talking, you know,
Speaker 3: if Louisville's got way more fans than Creighton, and even
Speaker 3: when Creighton's playing, well, you still hear and see way
Speaker 3: more Red, that wouldn't be a shocker at all. But
Speaker 3: then again, it's Thursday at twelve fifteen, and I just like,
Speaker 3: I also can't say I'm going to be stunned if
Speaker 3: Louisville has an advantage, but it's not what some people
Speaker 3: are expecting. And I don't know, maybe everybody's expecting a
Speaker 3: different level of you know, fanfare. I just don't really know,
Speaker 3: Cause again I'm not going if you can't make it
Speaker 3: because it's at twelve fifteen on a Thursday and you're
Speaker 3: not able to just you know, drop what you're doing,
Speaker 3: get off work. I mean, people have lives, they and
Speaker 3: it's not really about like do you prioritize Sometimes it's
Speaker 3: just you can't make it work, like you know you
Speaker 3: aren't gonna be able to do it. I mean, if
Speaker 3: you go to the game at twelve fifteen, I mean,
Speaker 3: your kids aren't out of school, like maybe you are
Speaker 3: in charge of gain like, so again not to say
Speaker 3: it'd be impossible for you to make arrangements to be
Speaker 3: able to get there, but I also can see, you know,
Speaker 3: there being plenty of people that would go, but they
Speaker 3: just had a tough time making it work. Now, Saturday,
Speaker 3: if they're able to get past Creighton, I mean that
Speaker 3: I think will be a huge Louisville crowd because that's
Speaker 3: a much easier thing to get to. It's Auburn the
Speaker 3: number and overall seed, it's a quick trip up the road, Like,
Speaker 3: I mean, that'll be that if it is Louisville and Auburn,
Speaker 3: Louisville could sell it out and Auburn would still have
Speaker 3: a good chance of winning because they're that good. But
Speaker 3: if we're building up to Louisville, like if we're doing
Speaker 3: the press conference on Friday in between games to get
Speaker 3: set for Saturday and it's Louisville going up against Auburn,
Speaker 3: Bruce Pearl, I think will rightfully bitch and moan about
Speaker 3: having to play Louisville as an eight seed in Ropperena
Speaker 3: because it is insane. I mean, if you think about
Speaker 3: I've been much more focused on Louisville just being an
Speaker 3: eight seed and getting shafted in that regard. But you
Speaker 3: could make the case that the bigger great could be
Speaker 3: from Auburn just because quite literally, this will be a
Speaker 3: road game for them if that's who ends up there,
Speaker 3: it being Louisville. Now again, maybe it's not because again
Speaker 3: Crayton's good team Wolves is gonna have to get past
Speaker 3: them first. But I mean, by the way, Rick Beteen,
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys saw this or not.
Speaker 3: He was talking about he was asked about the.
Speaker 2: Where.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're playing in Providence, Rhode Island, which is not
Speaker 3: far from New York, right, So that's you know, Rix
Speaker 3: teams not having to go too far from New York City.
Speaker 3: And he was asked about that given his team like
Speaker 3: an advantage, and he did he I'll let you guys
Speaker 3: here for yourself. But he essentially said it won't be
Speaker 3: that much of an advantage. But however, basically saying he
Speaker 3: feels for he feels for for Doug McDermott and Creighton, Well, Cad, you.
Speaker 2: Guys go to Providence. They're one of the few fan
Speaker 2: bases in the dagest that do.
Speaker 1: You applause when you get into us. Just the fact
Speaker 1: that it's closet enough for New York Saint John's fans
Speaker 1: at top of the plus the local Rhode.
Speaker 4: Island fans probably going rooting Bree and Runey for Saint John's.
Speaker 2: How big a plus is that you?
Speaker 5: I think in the NCAA tournament it's not much of
Speaker 5: a factor. I think, now, a Louisville in Lexington, because
Speaker 5: I've done that as a Loville coach, going to Lexington
Speaker 5: where we had twelve thousand people, that's a big factor.
Speaker 3: But this is not as big attact then, So he's right.
Speaker 3: I remember when Louisville went to Lexington the first game.
Speaker 3: It was a sixteen seed and it was I mean
Speaker 3: it was North Carolina A and T and there were
Speaker 3: clear Louisville fans there and it was a Thursday, but
Speaker 3: it was in the evening, so it's easier to go
Speaker 3: like it's such an if this game was at night,
Speaker 3: totally different situation, Like I don't want to complain about
Speaker 3: Actually I have complained, but I don't want to act
Speaker 3: as if there's no benefit in having Lexington as the
Speaker 3: host city because because true, there is but am I
Speaker 3: the only one that's like, yeah, but it knew it
Speaker 3: on Thursday. It's not as big of a benefit as
Speaker 3: people are making it out to be. I mean, maybe
Speaker 3: I'm underestimating the amount of people that will go, because again,
Speaker 3: they'll do whatever they can to get there because it's
Speaker 3: the tournament, it's winter go home and you love this team.
Speaker 3: And I hope that's the case.
Speaker 4: I just you know, college kids still aren't on spring break,
Speaker 4: are they. I have no clue, okay, because I wonder
Speaker 4: if that I'm sure that will make a big difference
Speaker 4: to you.
Speaker 3: And look, I don't think you're gonna see It's like,
Speaker 3: for example, whenever louisll played in Des Moines, I can
Speaker 3: tell you what happened. Louisville was a seventh seed, Minnesota
Speaker 3: was a ten and there's not a whole lot to
Speaker 3: do in Des Moines, Iowa. And and it was actually
Speaker 3: a pretty nice city. What are those places I'll pa
Speaker 3: never go back to a rare trip to where you know,
Speaker 3: there had to be a reason to go there, And
Speaker 3: it was because the NAA Tournament was there and that's
Speaker 3: where Louisville played, So I had no expectation. It was
Speaker 3: really just you know, probably and I knew going in
Speaker 3: there's probably the only time I'll ever be here. So
Speaker 3: it exceeded expectations because they were low. But like that
Speaker 3: city gets to host because they they do love basketball
Speaker 3: to where there were a lot of people and it's
Speaker 3: a thing to where in Des Moines if they're hosting,
Speaker 3: the people go. If you're not a fan of either
Speaker 3: team and you just know that there's games going on,
Speaker 3: they will sell tickets to people who aren't traveling, and
Speaker 3: that's what the NUBABA cares about. They want to sell tickets.
Speaker 3: So what happened is that Louisville despite being the you know,
Speaker 3: a slight favorite. I mean we're talking seven to ten,
Speaker 3: not two and fifteen, but Minnesota started making shots. They
Speaker 3: brought some fans as well because it wasn't quite as
Speaker 3: far for them, and Louisville didn't bring hardly any fans
Speaker 3: because again, you know, it was it was far away,
Speaker 3: really far away, and that team didn't quite didn't quite
Speaker 3: you know. I mean Louisville had support back then, trust me,
Speaker 3: but it was just different. So anyways, there were more
Speaker 3: Minnesota fans there than Louisville, and then those that showed
Speaker 3: up that didn't really have any rooting interest. I think
Speaker 3: it's human nature. You find yourself pulling for the underdog,
Speaker 3: and Minnesota was the underdog. It wasn't David versu Goliath,
Speaker 3: but you ended up not in like a road environment,
Speaker 3: but you ended up in a You ended up in
Speaker 3: a situation where there were clearly more cheers for the
Speaker 3: other team than you, And you know, to say that
Speaker 3: had a factor in the game, I don't know. I
Speaker 3: think what happened is Louisville was offensively challenged that year
Speaker 3: at times and played guys a lot of minutes, and Minnesota,
Speaker 3: who'd been a really you know, suspect team, offensively with
Speaker 3: no good shooters, they got hot and Richard Patino ended,
Speaker 3: I mean, he's the last guy that sent you home,
Speaker 3: and that is I've heard other people mention it, but
Speaker 3: I feel like it would be a bigger talking point
Speaker 3: than it's been that the last time Louisville played in
Speaker 3: the tournament, they also played in the very first game,
Speaker 3: and that's just like I think, even I could be wrong,
Speaker 3: but I kind of feel like, even if it's not
Speaker 3: in a like, even if you feel good about your seed,
Speaker 3: like even if you're in like the five to twelve
Speaker 3: game or or the six to eleven game. I mean,
Speaker 3: I just think the first game of the tournament. Nobody
Speaker 3: wants that, right.
Speaker 2: That's always an uneasy feeling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe if you are a underdog, like if you're
Speaker 3: a big underdog, maybe you hope that you can come
Speaker 3: out more loose because you've got nothing to lose. And
Speaker 3: maybe you'll hope that the favorite, the better team than you,
Speaker 3: is tight and you could take advantage of it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: playing the first game would just would just suck all
Speaker 3: the way around. And I mean there's nothing you can
Speaker 3: do about it, so you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 3: And again, I believe that this I believe that this
Speaker 3: team is has all throughout the entire season. And it's
Speaker 3: not even just about like their wins and losses. It's
Speaker 3: just they've never got too high or too low to
Speaker 3: where I've I believe Pat Kelsey's the kind of guy
Speaker 3: that will be able to have these guys taking the
Speaker 3: floor on Thursday with no emotion about their seed and
Speaker 3: feeling like they were wronged. I think they're going to
Speaker 3: be focused and they're gonna be ready to play. They're
Speaker 3: gonna be ready for Craigon. And don't mean they're gonna win,
Speaker 3: because Craion's gonna be a tough out. But I just
Speaker 3: hope that there's a there's a good amount of fans there,
Speaker 3: and there will be. I mean again, it's not like
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a no show. I just I've had
Speaker 3: a hard time not letting it out there until now
Speaker 3: as I'm doing it on the show. I just I
Speaker 3: think some are expecting it to be, you know, fifteen
Speaker 3: thousand Louisville fans there tomorrow, and I just don't or
Speaker 3: a Thursday, I should say, And I just I don't
Speaker 3: think that's gonna be the case. But again, I could
Speaker 3: be wrong. I could be wrong. All Right, we'll let
Speaker 3: you hear some more sound coming up here a little
Speaker 3: bit later on, because I talked about it earlier, this
Speaker 3: this ACC Network feature. I guess we'll call it that
Speaker 3: about Pat Kelsey and how he got this whole thing started.
Speaker 3: In fact, i'll play it for you guys coming up
Speaker 3: when we get back from our next break, because it's
Speaker 3: about two minutes long, and it's just a it's just
Speaker 3: a really good behind the scenes, you know story. I
Speaker 3: guess about how it all came together about how when
Speaker 3: when these guys first met, you know, there was a
Speaker 3: process as far as what they did to get to
Speaker 3: know each other, open up with one another. And and
Speaker 3: it's gonna sound corny, but this is this is what
Speaker 3: they had to love each other and they certainly it
Speaker 3: seems as if they have developed a real strong connection
Speaker 3: because I can't tell these guys that never played together
Speaker 3: until this year when I watched them play. All right,
Speaker 3: real quick, before we get to our break, want to
Speaker 3: shout out to the text line five h two four
Speaker 3: three eight ninety seventy three is the number if you
Speaker 3: guys want to text in on the Ellen and Federal
Speaker 3: Credit Union text line. This text mentions the the ACC
Speaker 3: is five and four over the Big East this year,
Speaker 3: So take I don't even know which games those were,
Speaker 3: to be honest with you, but for all to talk
Speaker 3: about Louisville's league being such an issue for them, and again,
Speaker 3: the a SEC did stink this year, I can't act
Speaker 3: like it didn't. At least you know, you have a
Speaker 3: winning record against this conference and Creighton's in the same situation,
Speaker 3: right they finished second in their league. But you don't
Speaker 3: know is that because they're pretty good, and I think
Speaker 3: they are pretty good or is it more so just
Speaker 3: because you know the league was what it was, So
Speaker 3: I think that's a weird way where these two teams
Speaker 3: are kind of compared well as far as how they
Speaker 3: enter the tournament. They both finished second in two leagues
Speaker 3: that used to be known for dominating the sport of
Speaker 3: college basketball. These two runner ups in their league are
Speaker 3: in the eight to nine game wild. Speaking of Wild,
Speaker 3: there's a stat about the SEC when it comes to hoops.
Speaker 3: I'll get to that right here on the other side
Speaker 3: because it'll really put in perspective what this league has
Speaker 3: turned into in regards to basketball. Stick around, it's coffee
Speaker 3: and Company. We hear fuel about Thornton's right here on
Speaker 3: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll see how good the ACC. I'm sorry, the
Speaker 3: SEC is in the NCAA tournament. Right in college basketball,
Speaker 3: we all know that if it doesn't play out for
Speaker 3: you in mar than really everything you did before then
Speaker 3: doesn't matter. I Mean, it sounds crazy and unfair and stupid,
Speaker 3: but it is what kind of makes college basketball special.
Speaker 3: Every sport, the postseason means more because that's when you know,
Speaker 3: you find out if you could make a run and
Speaker 3: maybe win the whole thing, win a championship, super Bowl,
Speaker 3: you know, all that kind of stuff. But because they
Speaker 3: put sixty eight teams in, you can have a phenomenal season.
Speaker 3: But if you fall short, it usually means if you
Speaker 3: had that great season, that you fell short early to
Speaker 3: a team that wasn't supposed to be nearly as good
Speaker 3: as you. And that can really put a sour taste
Speaker 3: in your mouth for what that whole season was. And
Speaker 3: I don't want to sound dramatic, but it can kind
Speaker 3: of ruin it. I mean, that sounds like silly, and
Speaker 3: you know it would be foolish, just like to tell
Speaker 3: a great team who got upset in the tournament that
Speaker 3: everything that they did didn't matter at all. But college
Speaker 3: basketball sickos kind of you it that way. It's not personal,
Speaker 3: it's just college basketball is all about the big dance.
Speaker 3: You work so hard in the regular season, by the way,
Speaker 3: is important, because well I thought it was. Sometimes we
Speaker 3: don't really seem to get any value from what you
Speaker 3: do in the regular season when it comes to the
Speaker 3: selection committee or you don't really get punished for what
Speaker 3: you do in the regular season, like North Carolina. So anyways,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry if that's like the third time I've just
Speaker 3: kind of stopped midpoint to just bitch again. And I'll
Speaker 3: try to stop because it gets you know, we're over that,
Speaker 3: we're past that, we're on to Creighton. But anyways, the SEC,
Speaker 3: even if they do flame out on the tournament, which
Speaker 3: would be hard to do because they have fourteen teams
Speaker 3: in right, I mean, just by you know, the pure
Speaker 3: number of teams they have here, the chance of them
Speaker 3: having like a bunch of really early exits just seems unlikely.
Speaker 3: But anyways, even if they fall short, and let's just say,
Speaker 3: because I don't think this is a crazy prediction, to
Speaker 3: be honest with you, like I I mean, maybe this
Speaker 3: is me just being like a you know, an insecure hater,
Speaker 3: Like maybe I don't even realize I'm being a hater
Speaker 3: when I say this, but like, it wouldn't shock me
Speaker 3: if you get to the Final four and there's only
Speaker 3: one SEC team, or if you get to the Elite
Speaker 3: eight there's only two SEC teams, just because you know
Speaker 3: they're beaten up. And even though the league is great
Speaker 3: the best league in college basketball deservedly, so doesn't mean
Speaker 3: you can't lose to it. Like for example, like let
Speaker 3: me try to find like Missouri, Missouri's gonna play Drake
Speaker 3: Drake's thirty and three. They could easily lose that game.
Speaker 3: They're good, Missouri got a six seed because of what
Speaker 3: they did in a great league. But you know they're vulnerable.
Speaker 3: So this is not in any way like a knock
Speaker 3: on the SEC as if they weren't, they weren't worthy
Speaker 3: of getting the amount of teams they got in. I mean,
Speaker 3: you could have the conversation and I may not disagree
Speaker 3: with you if you're somebody that does think that maybe
Speaker 3: they got a little too much love. But nonetheless they
Speaker 3: proved it in the non conference portion of the schedule,
Speaker 3: which that's when that matters, because then when you beat
Speaker 3: up on each other in league play, you get that
Speaker 3: benefit of the doubt, right. I mean, again, we've talked
Speaker 3: about some of the examples. Look how bad Oklahoma was.
Speaker 3: They got a non seed in the tournament. They were awful,
Speaker 3: and SEC played they beat any good SEC team.
Speaker 4: I don't think they did, No, they just came particularly
Speaker 4: close to Kentucky, tol yeah, so there's that.
Speaker 3: But then you know what they did in the non
Speaker 3: conference They won the Maui Invitational and not that invitation
Speaker 3: of the Battle for Atlantis. They beat Louisville, who was
Speaker 3: the second best team in the ACC, and they also
Speaker 3: beat Michigan, who is the second best team in the
Speaker 3: Big Ten, who won the Big Ten tournament. So you know,
Speaker 3: like that's a great to me, that's like the best example.
Speaker 3: And then again the whole like that doesn't necessarily prove
Speaker 3: that Oklahoma would be the second best team in the
Speaker 3: ACC or the Big Ten, but like when you have
Speaker 3: those opportunities to kind of see where you stand against
Speaker 3: other conferences, that that's where you really again you earn
Speaker 3: the benefit of the doubt. So I mean, I'm not
Speaker 3: predicting any major upset just yet from the SEC, but
Speaker 3: you know, if they end up having a really really
Speaker 3: unsuccessful trip to the tournament, like throughout this tournament, a
Speaker 3: lot of people will say, well, it was overrated, the
Speaker 3: committee got it wrong, they gave too much love, and
Speaker 3: we'll never know that's the reality, but we'll never or no,
Speaker 3: was it that they were overrated or was it that
Speaker 3: they were just as good as we thought? But man,
Speaker 3: they ran out of gas. They had to play each
Speaker 3: other each night for two and a half months, and man,
Speaker 3: that just takes a lot out of you. So regardless,
Speaker 3: we'll never know, and I have no problem in admitting,
Speaker 3: regardless of what happens in the tournament, I believe the
Speaker 3: SEC is insanely loaded in basketball and I don't see
Speaker 3: that changing anytime soon. And what's happened here is that
Speaker 3: we've seen I believe, the biggest transformation from a power
Speaker 3: conference in any sport, with the SEC being what it
Speaker 3: is today compared to what it was ten years ago.
Speaker 3: So I forgot about this, and I'm glad some Louisville
Speaker 3: fans have kind of, you know, reminded me of this,
Speaker 3: because obviously that's all Kentucky fans have talked about all years,
Speaker 3: the ACC stinking I mean, Kentucky Louisville attendance and ACC's
Speaker 3: you know, value. That's really been the biggest focus of
Speaker 3: Kentucky fans this season, despite Mark Pope having a really
Speaker 3: good debut year, right, I mean, they've just been a test.
Speaker 3: They want us to know that the ACC isn't a
Speaker 3: great league, and we appreciate you guys letting us know that,
Speaker 3: so you know the SEC what it was ten years
Speaker 3: ago will blow your mind. And Kentucky used to Kentucky
Speaker 3: used to dominate that league, and because you know why
Speaker 3: they were good. I mean when cow was rolling in
Speaker 3: the early years. It wasn't just because they played. But
Speaker 3: if I remember the conversations, thinking like if they got
Speaker 3: passed Louisville in that December game, if they get passed
Speaker 3: Florida in early January, right then they're gonna probably run
Speaker 3: the table because they don't play anybody that's any good. Yeah,
Speaker 3: didn't mean they weren't good, but like, that's just what
Speaker 3: the league was.
Speaker 4: As a as an habitual Kentucky hate watcher, it was
Speaker 4: always rough watching that, especially during those years because I mean,
Speaker 4: obviously it was when they were the most chesty butt. Oh,
Speaker 4: we had every reason to be, but they were going
Speaker 4: up against a weak ass SEC. And our point was
Speaker 4: always when they were hate watching us and we would lose.
Speaker 2: The roles were completely flit. We used to dominant.
Speaker 3: We used to be able to say it must be
Speaker 3: nice to have Georgia coming into rupt, must be nice
Speaker 3: for Vandy and Kevin Stallings bomb ass.
Speaker 2: Tuesday. Yeah, so easy, dub.
Speaker 3: It really completely flipped because Louisville in the Big East
Speaker 3: and in the early days of the ACC it was
Speaker 3: a it was a monster. And the SEC, I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't even know if some of these fans out
Speaker 3: there knew they had a basketball team. I mean, by
Speaker 3: the way, here's how it trend here's how it changed.
Speaker 3: They got a ton of money from the SEC network launching,
Speaker 3: and they had more in they had inventory they had
Speaker 3: to fill, so they needed basketball to be better it
Speaker 3: had They had to invest in it because there's gonna
Speaker 3: be a ton of games on the SEC network and
Speaker 3: if nobody cares about basketball and nobody's watching, it's not
Speaker 3: a good It's not a good arrangement for ESPN, who
Speaker 3: just paid you a bunch of money for your network rights.
Speaker 3: So they they have one of these spring meetings and
Speaker 3: they told these athletic directors, hey, you have got to
Speaker 3: invest in basketball. You have to go out and you know,
Speaker 3: make this a priority to be better. And man, they
Speaker 3: use that money wisely because you've got some of the
Speaker 3: best coaches in the country in the SEC. And again
Speaker 3: they're the best conference in the sport right now and
Speaker 3: I'm not sure it's particularly close, but listen to this.
Speaker 3: Kentucky this year three see the tournament. Their record twenty
Speaker 3: two and eleven overall, ten and eight twenty thirteen, Kentucky's
Speaker 3: record twenty one and eleven overall, twelve and six in
Speaker 3: the SEC, and they missed the tournament. I mean that
Speaker 3: should tell you what the league used to be. Because
Speaker 3: Kentucky went twelve and six in their conference and didn't
Speaker 3: make the tournament. They weren't even actually on the bubble.
Speaker 3: I don't think that was the year Nolands Noel got hurt,
Speaker 3: but they still went twelve and six. I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: And what used to really stand out Austin about those
Speaker 3: years of Kentucky in the SEC, when like they clearly
Speaker 3: didn't care about basketball and they weren't good, was that
Speaker 3: because it was kind of like, I mean, the teams
Speaker 3: that weren't good would actually at times play their best
Speaker 3: against Kentucky because is wh is we don't like to
Speaker 3: tell them this. Kentucky is a big draw. I mean,
Speaker 3: Louisville is too to an extent, but like when Kentucky's
Speaker 3: in town on the SEC for basketball, it is a
Speaker 3: bigger draw. They just mean they're they're one of the
Speaker 3: premiere programs in the history of the sport. It's like that,
Speaker 3: that's true, and that's why some teams would play better
Speaker 3: because man, they've got a bigger crowd on their home floor,
Speaker 3: because here we go. There'd even be games where you
Speaker 3: could tell teams were playing well because they were rough,
Speaker 3: and they'd be on the road and be playing out
Speaker 3: of their mind because they're locked in. They realize this
Speaker 3: is a big opportunity here, we're playing Kentucky, probably gonna
Speaker 3: be on national television, and man, like clockwork, those teams
Speaker 3: would clockwork, sorry, gotch. These teams would be in position
Speaker 3: to pull off the unthinkable, and man they would. They
Speaker 3: would impressively find ways to crap their pants. And how
Speaker 3: many times did you remember?
Speaker 2: Do you remember?
Speaker 3: Because I hate watching Kentucky as well, but they like
Speaker 3: the teams with cousins, the team, the team that they
Speaker 3: had even with like in fifteen, some teams that weren't
Speaker 3: good would challenge them, especially on the road, and you
Speaker 3: would think, they're down six with fifty ffty seconds left,
Speaker 3: this is gonna happen. Nope, crap into the pants like
Speaker 3: they just get too tight. And it was because not
Speaker 3: only was Kentucky the best team in that league, and
Speaker 3: it wasn't close. They were like the NBA team within
Speaker 3: their own conference, to where everybody in that league was
Speaker 3: wide eyed and just couldn't believe we got Caliperi And now,
Speaker 3: I mean Kentucky still does well of course in the league,
Speaker 3: but there's big name coaches like you know that. That's
Speaker 3: what really really stood out in the final years of
Speaker 3: Calipari and Lexington is that he used to run that league.
Speaker 3: He used to quite literally have a hold of that
Speaker 3: league like nobody else did elsewhere, No coach really had
Speaker 3: the presence and just the arrogance, justifiably so, because who
Speaker 3: was he competing against, right like Billy Donovan had left,
Speaker 3: I mean who else, Like who were the good coaches
Speaker 3: in the early days of the SEC. I can't I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: the early days of calip Parry, Like, I don't know
Speaker 3: who it was. Now. I mean, you've got guys who
Speaker 3: you know, this ain't their first rodeo. You got Bruce Pearl,
Speaker 3: got Rick Barnes, You've got I mean this coaches that
Speaker 3: aren't big names like you know for decades now, but
Speaker 3: like Todd Golden's a hell of a coach. Florida. He's
Speaker 3: gonna he's gonna be really successful there. I mean, Buzz
Speaker 3: Williams has shown no matter where he goes he can
Speaker 3: be he can be successful. I feel like I'm blanking
Speaker 3: on some other big names too. You remember Calip Perry
Speaker 3: still there, He's at Arkansas now, you know?
Speaker 4: Do you remember the was it in ESPN? It wasn't
Speaker 4: at thirty for thirty? Was it where they had uh?
Speaker 4: Where they did it on Kentucky and Cali PERI though
Speaker 4: at the one and done one? I think of one
Speaker 4: and not done. I can't I can't remember what it was,
Speaker 4: but like I think the closing clip was him saying,
Speaker 4: We're gonna come to your city, Oh yeah, and we're
Speaker 4: gonna beat you.
Speaker 3: We're gonna come to your town. We're gonna beat your team.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And ever since that, Nick, it feels like it hasn't
Speaker 4: felt the same.
Speaker 2: Oh I was like twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: I think like nobody's gonna be shocked about Cali Perry
Speaker 3: and his arrogance because that's really kind of always been
Speaker 3: part of you know him, And to be fair, he
Speaker 3: has had a run within the sport and he's really
Speaker 3: overall been good enough to where he's justifiably arrogant, but
Speaker 3: he's clearly lost his fastball seemingly. I mean, they Arkansas
Speaker 3: made the tournament, but I mean it wasn't like they
Speaker 3: had a good year. And you know, I'll still be
Speaker 3: shocked if Cal ever does big things and at Arkansas.
Speaker 3: But anyways, I mean, he he would say things that
Speaker 3: I think would surprise people to hear them now, Like
Speaker 3: at the time it was just Cal doing cal things
Speaker 3: because he was on top of the world. But like,
Speaker 3: I mean, he would it wouldn't just like something you
Speaker 3: would hear that he said, meaning like it was something
Speaker 3: you know, word of mouth, Like he would say things
Speaker 3: like we'll take any player we want, and like again
Speaker 3: he kind of did, right, But also you don't hear
Speaker 3: people say that. I mean, that's just that's just crazy.
Speaker 3: But again he was on top and clearly those teams
Speaker 3: were great. But also another factor in those teams where
Speaker 3: that they didn't really have any Like I don't really
Speaker 3: remember when the when the SEC got really good. It
Speaker 3: certainly happened in the last few years, maybe even a
Speaker 3: little bit further than that, but I mean in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: that was when Kentucky that was the last time they
Speaker 3: were like elite good. Right, of course that team was really, really,
Speaker 3: really good. But twenty fifteen sec Like, I want, is
Speaker 3: this gonna show? Who makes I've got it pulled up
Speaker 3: here on Sports Reference. I'm not even sure if it's
Speaker 3: gonna show.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So in two thousand and sixteen, only three teams made
Speaker 3: the tournament. I mean, think about that now again, that
Speaker 3: wasn't that was? That was nine years ago? You had
Speaker 3: Kentucky thirteen and five. They were the regular season champ
Speaker 3: in the conference champ because the tiebreaker. Texas A and
Speaker 3: M had a good year? Was that? I think that
Speaker 3: was year Kennedy was still there? Is that his name? Kennedy?
Speaker 3: I remember who was it that coached them that year? Yeah,
Speaker 3: Billy Kennedy. And then you had Vandy make the tournament somehow.
Speaker 3: I don't know how they made it, but they did.
Speaker 3: They finished nineteen and fourteen. Is that like a I
Speaker 3: don't know. I mean, was that Kevin Stallings? I guess
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 2: I guess it was. Yeah, they were.
Speaker 3: They were nineteen and fourteen, eleven and seven, and somehow
Speaker 3: they made the tournament. I don't know how that would
Speaker 3: have happened, but that you know, that was twenty that
Speaker 3: was fifteen sixteen. Let's go back to the previous year.
Speaker 3: And again, this is not to like, this is not
Speaker 3: at all to say, well, what Kentucky did during these
Speaker 3: these years doesn't mean anything. I'm just pointing out it's
Speaker 3: insane how this league not only did it used to
Speaker 3: not be valued as a basketball league, used to suck,
Speaker 3: and now it's put together. I believe, as far as
Speaker 3: the regular season, the best regular season we've ever seen,
Speaker 3: as far as I mean, they had fourteen teams and
Speaker 3: they broke a record. All right, So in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 3: Kentucky was, of course elite. Arkansas made the tournament, and
Speaker 3: LSU made the tournament, Georgia made the tournament, and Miss
Speaker 3: and Old Miss made the tournament. But it doesn't look
Speaker 3: like any of those teams won a game. So in
Speaker 3: the round of thirty two, it was just Kentucky. So
Speaker 3: I'm trying to start, I'm trying to track when it
Speaker 3: actually got rolled in a little bit. So in sixteen seventeen,
Speaker 3: that was that was the year that Florida was really good.
Speaker 3: Arkansas was good again, but not like elite. Kentucky of
Speaker 3: course was the best. They went sixteen and two, uh,
Speaker 3: South Carolina. That's the year they randomly got in and
Speaker 3: made a Final four, which is crazy. And then so
Speaker 3: I wouldn't even have I wouldn't have be I would
Speaker 3: not have even say that was when it really started rolling.
Speaker 2: But here we go.
Speaker 3: In twenty eighteen is when it really there was a
Speaker 3: real breakthrough because Bruce Pearl had his first really good
Speaker 3: year at Auburn and they ended up did they make
Speaker 3: it only did they go to I'm not sure how
Speaker 3: far they went. Was that is eighteen the year that
Speaker 3: they lost in the final fourd to Virginia.
Speaker 2: I think it was.
Speaker 3: Auburn because Bruce Purs only made one Final four and
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it was that Auburn team, but I
Speaker 3: could be wrong. Maybe it was nineteen. But again that, yes,
Speaker 3: in eighteen is when it broke through because you had
Speaker 3: you had Auburn and Bruce Pearl Tennessee with Rick Barnes Florida.
Speaker 3: I guess Billy was still there. No, I'm sorry, Mike
Speaker 3: White was still Mike White was the guy at that time.
Speaker 3: That was That was early on, and then of course
Speaker 3: Kentucky Arkansas with it with Anderson. Yeah, I mean they
Speaker 3: had they had let's see, they had eight teams in
Speaker 3: the tournament in twenty eighteen, so I'm gonna say that
Speaker 3: was the year that it like really broke through. And
Speaker 3: then the next year they ended up having seven. So yeah,
Speaker 3: about seven years ago is whenever it really made a
Speaker 3: jump as a league. Yeah, and to see where it
Speaker 3: is now, I mean, it's it's it's crazy, dude.
Speaker 4: Before that was an absolute cesspool. I mean, I'm looking
Speaker 4: back and at Johnny Jones with lsu D White at Florida.
Speaker 4: I completely forgot about Andy Kennedy and Mark Marshall Henderson.
Speaker 4: Oh dude, Andy and Frank. I forgot about Frank Martin
Speaker 4: coach in South Carolina.
Speaker 3: So the year that Kentucky ended up missing the tournament
Speaker 3: and going to the NIIT in twenty thirteen, and that's
Speaker 3: really what got this conversation started, because again, this is
Speaker 3: just a crazy thing to see, and I want to
Speaker 3: give credit. It was one of the writers for KSR.
Speaker 3: Daniel Hager who put it out there that in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3: But those just not joining us. Why we're talking about
Speaker 3: in twenty thirteen, Kentucky went twenty three, I'm sorry, twenty
Speaker 3: one and eleven twelve and six in their league, they
Speaker 3: weren't even on the bubble, and then in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: This year they went twenty two and eleven, ten and
Speaker 3: eight in league play, and they're a three seed the
Speaker 3: NAA Tournament. I just feel like that stat specifically is
Speaker 3: one that really just kind of put some perspective the
Speaker 3: leaps that this league has made in that amount of time.
Speaker 3: And it's not like we're talking just a couple of years.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's crazy to think about it, but that
Speaker 3: was twelve.
Speaker 2: Years ago, Ben Howland.
Speaker 3: Mississippi forgot about him because they had some other Like
Speaker 3: I thought Frank Martin would do well there, and he
Speaker 3: did make that fluky random final four, but that overall
Speaker 3: tenure was not successful. You know, Missouri hired a couple
Speaker 3: of different coaches Conzo Martin that didn't work out. You
Speaker 3: know who else I feel like that was. There were coaches.
Speaker 2: Highed Avery Johnson at Alabama, oh Man, and.
Speaker 3: These were guys that not only you know, like they
Speaker 3: were supposed to be good and they weren't. And now
Speaker 3: you've got I mean, and by the way, that is
Speaker 3: the biggest that is the biggest factor in this rise
Speaker 3: is because they've been able to hire really really good coaches,
Speaker 3: and they've now. I mean, if you'd have told me
Speaker 3: ten years ago, maybe not even that long ago, that
Speaker 3: the SEC for basketball would be able to keep their
Speaker 3: elite coaches despite nearly every every school in that conference
Speaker 3: prioritizes football way more right, you'll always be second fiddles.
Speaker 2: What we always used to joke about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, outside of Kentucky, and I believe Tennessee clearly they're
Speaker 3: always going to be fooball school. But they will support
Speaker 3: basketball when it's really good. Florida won back to back
Speaker 3: national championships, couldn't sell it out, so you know, Auburn
Speaker 3: has a good support, but like they don't have a
Speaker 3: huge arena. Like it's just different. And even if they
Speaker 3: love their basketball team, most of them would tell you, yeah,
Speaker 3: football is not even it's not even close. Football comes first.
Speaker 3: So I would have just assumed that was always going
Speaker 3: to be a factor to where coaches wouldn't really want that.
Speaker 3: They would want to be top dog. They would want
Speaker 3: to know that the program that their leading is going
Speaker 3: to get the most resources, it's going to be valued
Speaker 3: the most, and it's gonna and it's gonna mean the most,
Speaker 3: but now, man, you're getting paid enough money in the
Speaker 3: SEC you don't care. And the league has made such
Speaker 3: an improvement that despite football still being what it's known
Speaker 3: for with most of these schools and really the league overall,
Speaker 3: it's still getting when it comes to college basketball pub
Speaker 3: the SEC clearly gets a lot of love. They got
Speaker 3: fourteen teams in, so it is wild to see the
Speaker 3: jump that it's made. And I don't I'm sure others
Speaker 3: aren't as interested in this as I am, but now
Speaker 3: that I'm kind of going down the rabbit hole. And
Speaker 3: you go back to that year Kentucky missed the tournament,
Speaker 3: Ole miss made it with Marshall Henderson, Florida made it
Speaker 3: and they were really good, and that's who Louisville beating
Speaker 3: the elite eight. I think it was yeah, that I
Speaker 3: know that was the year. That was the year before,
Speaker 3: it was a year before, Yeah, and then Missouri made
Speaker 3: it somehow. But you go back to the year that
Speaker 3: Kentucky won the national championship at twenty twelve, I mean,
Speaker 3: you had Florida get in, Vandy got in, and I
Speaker 3: guess Bama got in. So and again it's one thing
Speaker 3: to like mean, getting teams in means a lot for
Speaker 3: your league, but they have I mean a lot of
Speaker 3: the for the most part, outside of Kentucky in the
Speaker 3: occasional Florida. When we're talking about this previous world of
Speaker 3: SEC hoops, anybody else that got in outside of those
Speaker 3: two teams was just barely and lucky to be in.
Speaker 3: Now you've got I mean, look at the I mean,
Speaker 3: the current bracket has two to one seeds from the SEC.
Speaker 3: And let's see, is it two or yeah? Two one
Speaker 3: seeds from the SEC and how many two seeds is it? Yeah,
Speaker 3: so they've got four of the top yet, so basically
Speaker 3: four of the top eight are or SEC when it
Speaker 3: comes to the seed Lions, and that's not a real surprise.
Speaker 3: And then you look at the three line, I mean,
Speaker 3: and you've got you've got a Kentucky team that I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't mean. I just I'm trying to sound like
Speaker 3: a hater when it comes to Kentucky, but I just
Speaker 3: I think with their injury situation, I just it's hard
Speaker 3: for me to they're deserving of the seed they got.
Speaker 3: I can't really dispute it because the wins they have
Speaker 3: they do matter, but they're not like their ceiling is
Speaker 3: not nearly what it was then because they don't have
Speaker 3: Jackson Robinson and Lama. Butler sounds like he's gonna play,
Speaker 3: but I think he's been given the green light to
Speaker 3: play for like the last six weeks or a month,
Speaker 3: and anytime he does play, he gets hurt again and
Speaker 3: then doesn't come back. So I mean, hopefully it doesn't
Speaker 3: happen again, but I just you know, who knows anytime
Speaker 3: Pope's been in a position where you feel like they've
Speaker 3: run out of gas. And it was a great first year,
Speaker 3: but the injuries got them, and you know they're just
Speaker 3: playing too good a teams. They always surprise you, so
Speaker 3: maybe they do that this year. But man, the sec
Speaker 3: is is. I mean, it's crazy to see what that
Speaker 3: league has become. All right, quick break, I mentioned that sound.
Speaker 3: I wanted you guys do hear. I'm gonna save it
Speaker 3: for our five o'clock crowd because we won't have a
Speaker 3: whole lot of time to get to it, and I
Speaker 3: feel like it's better to play it than the five anyway,
Speaker 3: because that's that's the I mean, that's the the ian.
Speaker 3: Every hour is valuable on the show. We give every
Speaker 3: every bit of energy and effort into every second, regardless
Speaker 3: if it's three, four o'clock, five o'clock, whatever, But five
Speaker 3: o'clock's when most people are listening, because that's when people
Speaker 3: are ending their day. So we'll save it for that
Speaker 3: and keep it rolling along right here on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1: Ninety Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's
Speaker 1: on Sports Talk seven nine days.
Speaker 3: So the Iowa coaching search in the Indiana coaching search
Speaker 3: heating up now. I haven't checked to see if there's
Speaker 3: any kind of an update in regards to this whole thing,
Speaker 3: because I haven't really paid much attention since the show started.
Speaker 3: But we got you got two guys that apparently are
Speaker 3: top candidates, it seems, for both Indiana and Iowa, and
Speaker 3: they both happen to be Iowa Iowa natives. You've got
Speaker 3: Darien DeVries, that the head coach of West Virginia who
Speaker 3: has apparently emerged as the top candidate in Indiana. That
Speaker 3: is That's and again, you don't know what to expect
Speaker 3: when it comes to or you don't know what to
Speaker 3: believe as far as what's out there when it comes
Speaker 3: to coaching searches. I think we learned that last year,
Speaker 3: but he's at West Virginia. Was it Drake for a
Speaker 3: long time. One year at WVU and did a pretty
Speaker 3: good job. Obviously lost his best player's son early in
Speaker 3: the year, and they still I think did enough to
Speaker 3: get in the tournament, only they were left out. And
Speaker 3: he's been successful at both. I mean, it's not a
Speaker 3: long time track of success at a West Virginia, but
Speaker 3: certainly a guy that probably should have got an opportunity
Speaker 3: out of Drake than he did. But apparently Indiana is
Speaker 3: really close to maybe making him the guy, which would
Speaker 3: be tough for West Virginia because only one year, and
Speaker 3: I mean, you get screwed by the committee and then
Speaker 3: your coach leaves after one year. That would be a really,
Speaker 3: really tough tough thing for West Virginia. But you know,
Speaker 3: couldn't have it to a better group of fans, right
Speaker 3: Their fan base just all collass just great, great, great
Speaker 3: human beings. And then obviously the other name is Ben McCollum,
Speaker 3: who we've talked about quite a bit here because he
Speaker 3: finally got his opportunity at a D one school and
Speaker 3: it was at Drake where Devrees left because he ended
Speaker 3: up going to West Virginia and then in his first
Speaker 3: season been McCallum was phenomenal at Drake. And I mean again,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to to to to check and see who
Speaker 3: I wonder who would be the most likely to have
Speaker 3: the latest on this. I would say, I'll do this.
Speaker 3: When it comes to Jeff Goodman, I'll at least give
Speaker 3: him the McIntyre, not him get I'll I'll give up.
Speaker 3: I'll give Goodman the benefit of doubt because he probably
Speaker 3: wouldn't float something out there if he didn't know if
Speaker 3: it was for sure the truth or not. So when
Speaker 3: it comes to the latest that I saw is that
Speaker 3: that Indiana is close to making it devrees and therefore
Speaker 3: another Iowa, and it have been McCullum could be going
Speaker 3: right back to Iowa, which I guess Drake, you know
Speaker 3: Drakes and Omaha, not no Drakes and des Moines, not
Speaker 3: in in Iowa. Anyways, McCollum is from Iowa. And as
Speaker 3: soon as McCaffrey was fired or looked like he was
Speaker 3: maybe going to be fired or they were going to
Speaker 3: try to force him out, there was already talk that McCollum,
Speaker 3: who would be I think worthy of the Indiana job
Speaker 3: or the Virginia job that they may not be able
Speaker 3: to get him because if Iowa opens up, he would
Speaker 3: want to go there. I don't know if that's true
Speaker 3: or not. But if Divres ends up at Indiana and
Speaker 3: and and I'm not saying Divres, you know, should be
Speaker 3: a candidate at Virginia or the other ACC jobs that
Speaker 3: were open, but man, McCullum not going to Indiana or
Speaker 3: Virginia and ending up at Iowa, it kind of feels
Speaker 3: like that would be a big time win for Iowa
Speaker 3: because I know the conference affiliation stuff matters now, but
Speaker 3: you wouldn't typically think Iowa would not. You wouldn't think
Speaker 3: that Iowa would be able to land. And again, if
Speaker 3: if Indiana is choosing Devrees over McCollum, then that's their choice.
Speaker 3: But I don't know. I just think both those guys
Speaker 3: are good coaches, especially McCollum, and I thought him being
Speaker 3: in the ACC would be a really good start to
Speaker 3: get this thing turned around. But sounds like it'll be
Speaker 3: Indiana or it'll be it'll be Iowa. After just one
Speaker 3: year at Drake and the whole, the whole of Brad
Speaker 3: Brown Well to IU thing. I mean, he was reportedly
Speaker 3: a candidate. There was interest on both sides, but I
Speaker 3: just I mean, he's he's done well in the last
Speaker 3: couple of years, but like he's also had way more
Speaker 3: years where he wasn't very good. Like him, even him
Speaker 3: still being at Virginia, I think is I'm not Virginia
Speaker 3: at Clemson is is kind of a surprise, because you know,
Speaker 3: he was at he got hired in twenty eleven and
Speaker 3: he made the tournament that year. He didn't make another
Speaker 3: tournament until twenty eighteen, and then he didn't make another
Speaker 3: tournament until twenty twenty one, and then last year he
Speaker 3: made the tournament for the first time in four years,
Speaker 3: and he broke through and made the Elite eight. But
Speaker 3: you got to remember he lost to Kenny Payne with
Speaker 3: a team that went fourteen and six in the ACC
Speaker 3: twenty three and eleven and missed the tournament, and then
Speaker 3: lost to Morehead State in the first round of the
Speaker 3: Niit so like there's way when the ACC two things,
Speaker 3: when the ACC was a lot better, even like a
Speaker 3: little bit better, not even when it was in his prime,
Speaker 3: but when the ACC was better. I mean, Brad brown
Speaker 3: Well was lucky to have a job, and then the
Speaker 3: league got you know, the league got worse substantially, and
Speaker 3: he has then kind of broke through. Like there's way
Speaker 3: more of him being a very average coach at best
Speaker 3: at Clemson than there is him being great. And know,
Speaker 3: by the way, when he was considered to be good
Speaker 3: the last two years he has gone twenty nine and
Speaker 3: eleven in the league. But let's be real, the league
Speaker 3: is not now what it used to be. So anybody
Speaker 3: wanting Brad brown Well, like, you could do worse. But
Speaker 3: Indiana if they would have made that move, who knows,
Speaker 3: maybe I'd be wrong and it would have worked out great,
Speaker 3: but it also would have been like, Okay, now I
Speaker 3: know why Indiana is never going to be what they
Speaker 3: once were because no matter what, despite having all the
Speaker 3: money and all the resources and a huge fan base
Speaker 3: and all the history and tradition, they just can't seem
Speaker 3: to hire coaches because I just don't think Brad brown
Speaker 3: Well would have done well there. But it sounds like
Speaker 3: he's not. I megan when I watched Brad burnamall coach
Speaker 3: last week in the ACC Tournament. I mean, again, he's
Speaker 3: been better than you know, Louisville last couple of years
Speaker 3: as far as his team overall, but Louisville, I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know. Pat Kelsey sweeping him this year I
Speaker 3: think says more of a Pat than anything else. But also,
Speaker 3: like I don't know, if you're Indiana, you could not
Speaker 3: have been enthused by that higher if that was going
Speaker 3: to be what it is. And I haven't heard anything
Speaker 3: recently on the will Waite stuff, but I hope he
Speaker 3: ends up at NC State because that'll be a good
Speaker 3: coach added the league. And that's how you get a
Speaker 3: turned around. All right. We got to run one more
Speaker 3: hour to go, stick around, a lot more to get
Speaker 3: into and I mean it a lot before we wrap
Speaker 3: it up, So keep it lock right here on Sports
Speaker 3: Talk seven ninety