# Prime Cuts - SGA Is A “Midrange Maven”, KD Trade, NBA Draft, College Football

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 28 Jun 2025, 45 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/df8a686b-1f68-43ea-9df2-b30a005be1be/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin’s top takes of the week! First, Colin is joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight”! They break down SGA’s game and explain why he is one of the best midrange scorers the league has ever seen (3:30), and react to Kevin Durant being traded to the Houston Rockets, explain why Houston won the trade, and make their predictions for how each team will benefit (11:00). Then, Colin is joined by Ryen Russillo, host of the Ryen Russillo podcast at The Ringer! They review the NBA Draft and discuss why the talent entering the draft the past two years has been far more NBA ready after a twenty year drought (30:00).They point to NIL, conference realignment and the transfer portal being a boon for the quality of college sports (47:00). Finally, they discuss former college coaches like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer transitioning into broadcasting and why they’re so good on TV (57:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume #Herd See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume at the end of the season. There's only
[0:04] Speaker 1: one team that can call themselves NBA champs, only one
[0:07] Speaker 1: player that can call themselves the number one pick in
[0:09] Speaker 1: the NFL draft. Well, there's only one electric suv worthy
[0:12] Speaker 1: of the title, the Ultimate, the all Electric BMWIX. What
[0:17] Speaker 1: I love about the IX is that it delivers legendary
[0:19] Speaker 1: BMW performance. I've had several while It's sleek design exudes
[0:24] Speaker 1: innovative style from the inside out, not to mention how
[0:27] Speaker 1: much space and utility it provides. Over seventy five cubic
[0:31] Speaker 1: feet of cargo space. The IX is completely changing the
[0:35] Speaker 1: game with an all electric suv. The greatest legends of
[0:38] Speaker 1: sports never compromise any part of the game, So why
[0:40] Speaker 1: would you settle for anything less from your suv? After all,
[0:43] Speaker 1: there's only one ultimate, the BMWIX. Everything you love about
[0:48] Speaker 1: the ultimate driving machine electrified BMW And you know, I
[0:55] Speaker 1: was thinking about this as you were talking about SJA SGA. Usually,
[1:01] Speaker 1: let's say, for instance, Shaq wasn't hitting his free throws,
[1:05] Speaker 1: he still had all time power. If Kobe and mj
[1:08] Speaker 1: weren't hitting their jumper, they could go vertical Magic Johnson
[1:13] Speaker 1: struggling from the field he just had a size advantage,
[1:16] Speaker 1: he'd back you down. Sga is not a vertical player.
[1:21] Speaker 1: So if he's off and he's off center, he doesn't
[1:26] Speaker 1: have power, he doesn't have speed, he doesn't have he's
[1:30] Speaker 1: not he's not you know, he's strong for his size.
[1:33] Speaker 1: He's not a vertical player. He is a mid range maven.
[1:37] Speaker 1: Like he is all time stuff. And so you know
[1:39] Speaker 1: I've said before is he's an all time scorer. But
[1:44] Speaker 1: he doesn't feel like he's in the Curry class where
[1:47] Speaker 1: you're like, wow, I've never seen a human like Caitlin
[1:51] Speaker 1: Clark's got some of that. You're like, I've never seen that, right, Sga,
[1:55] Speaker 1: I've seen it Alex English, Kiki Vandaway. He's just better
[1:59] Speaker 1: at it. And so I do think you know, when
[2:02] Speaker 1: you play better teams and you can get it off
[2:04] Speaker 1: his game. He has a very centralized game. He's tremendous
[2:08] Speaker 1: at it. But I think we both admit he needs
[2:10] Speaker 1: a friendly whistle, and because he's so gifted, he almost
[2:14] Speaker 1: always gets it. It's not like the Harden whistle, which
[2:17] Speaker 1: is like it feels illegal. That's not it. It's like
[2:21] Speaker 1: that feels unstoppable. Is different than it feels illegal, but
[2:26] Speaker 1: you know he is. I love him. I love his maturity.
[2:30] Speaker 1: He's just a smart, hard working kid. He's impossible not
[2:33] Speaker 1: to root for. I know everybody doesn't like, you know,
[2:35] Speaker 1: all the flopping, but I have a hard time not
[2:39] Speaker 1: rooting for guys who are more mature than their age,
[2:44] Speaker 1: with completely refined games where I can see the work ethic,
[2:48] Speaker 1: I can see the years you've toiled in a gym.
[2:51] Speaker 1: That to me as a grinder, like, I love that
[2:55] Speaker 1: kind of basketball, and I think that's what he embodies.
[2:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's fascinating because at his age, you know,
[3:02] Speaker 2: being twenty six, he's kind of in this weird role
[3:06] Speaker 2: that's reminiscent of some of the roles that you've seen
[3:08] Speaker 2: guys like Tom Brady and Lebron be in where they're
[3:11] Speaker 2: the elder statesman in the locker room. He's the elder
[3:13] Speaker 2: statesman in the locker room at twenty six years old.
[3:16] Speaker 2: It's such a bizarre dynamic. But to like, for if
[3:20] Speaker 2: he was an immature player at twenty six, this whole
[3:24] Speaker 2: thing could fall apart because of the youth in that
[3:26] Speaker 2: locker room, and he just brings that veteran presence. This
[3:30] Speaker 2: is the perfect time for us to get into the
[3:32] Speaker 2: Microsoft bit, and I'm gonna kick it back to you.
[3:34] Speaker 2: So welcome to course correction, brought to you guys by Microsoft.
[3:37] Speaker 2: Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, and
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[4:10] Speaker 2: this week is the twenty twenty five NBA Finals MVP.
[4:14] Speaker 2: It is now official Shake Gil just Alexander Colin. I
[4:18] Speaker 2: was thinking about a cool way to frame this segment,
[4:22] Speaker 2: and all I could think about is, like you mentioned
[4:24] Speaker 2: with the Washington Bullets roster, you know everything for me,
[4:27] Speaker 2: as I'm talking about all time greats is kind of
[4:30] Speaker 2: played through this lens of when I started really following
[4:32] Speaker 2: the league closely, which for me was in the like
[4:34] Speaker 2: around two thousand and five, two thousand and six. You've
[4:37] Speaker 2: been watching a lot of NBA basketball for a really
[4:40] Speaker 2: long time. You've seen a lot of stars come through
[4:43] Speaker 2: the league, as young players leave the league as vets.
[4:46] Speaker 2: What has been like your first impression of Shay Gil
[4:49] Speaker 2: just Alexander as a playoff performer in the NBA.
[4:54] Speaker 1: That if I go back to Kareem and the skyhook,
[4:59] Speaker 1: which was unstoppable, unblockable, and he mastered a shot. I'd
[5:03] Speaker 1: never seen a player master a shot when I first
[5:06] Speaker 1: watched Kareem, I can remember as a kid in my
[5:08] Speaker 1: backyard doing it like nobody else shot the hook. Michael
[5:12] Speaker 1: Jordan's mid range game. If you look at a lot
[5:15] Speaker 1: of the great players beyond just scores, they are the
[5:20] Speaker 1: master of their domain. Like I do what I do,
[5:23] Speaker 1: and they're all different looking. There was no other There
[5:27] Speaker 1: was no other Kareem, you know there David Thompson was
[5:31] Speaker 1: a little Michael, but Michael's mid range game he had
[5:34] Speaker 1: three or four stock moves, you know, Tim Duncan. The
[5:39] Speaker 1: great fundamental is that a lot of the all time
[5:42] Speaker 1: great players, and I've said this about Mahomes can be boring.
[5:48] Speaker 1: They have mastered what they do frustratingly so. And I
[5:54] Speaker 1: look at a player who knows exactly what he is,
[5:57] Speaker 1: but more importantly, he knows what he's not and he
[6:01] Speaker 1: leans into all of his skills, and I think when
[6:07] Speaker 1: you watch them play, they can be uneven offensively. The
[6:10] Speaker 1: greatest thing I can say about SGA, he's their clear
[6:14] Speaker 1: dominant number one score. So when you play them, I
[6:17] Speaker 1: don't have to pick Tony Parker Duncan Manu. It's like
[6:21] Speaker 1: stop him and people can't. And that to me is
[6:26] Speaker 1: a fastball like that you know you can beat them.
[6:31] Speaker 1: And Jay Dubb can have thirty two, or Check could
[6:34] Speaker 1: have twenty four, or Lou Dort hits five threes, but
[6:37] Speaker 1: the numbers are if he gets to the free throw line,
[6:40] Speaker 1: they win. Everybody in the league knows it and they
[6:43] Speaker 1: can't stop him. Like that is precision, That is mastering
[6:48] Speaker 1: a craft, and I just I just have great respect
[6:51] Speaker 1: for that.
[6:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, the Duncan cop is super fascinating to me because
[6:55] Speaker 2: Shay doesn't have some super demonstrative personality on the court.
[7:00] Speaker 2: He lacks a vertical element to his game. There's nothing
[7:03] Speaker 2: that like like people who play a lot of basketball,
[7:06] Speaker 2: Like I've stolen little bits of footwork and moves from
[7:10] Speaker 2: him that I think are useful moves for young players
[7:12] Speaker 2: to work on. He's he's brought his own little kind
[7:14] Speaker 2: of unique flare to the two guard position, just like
[7:16] Speaker 2: Harden did, just like Wade did, just like Kobe did,
[7:19] Speaker 2: just like MJ did. He's got his own like kind
[7:21] Speaker 2: of unique take on it. But similar to Duncan, even
[7:25] Speaker 2: if there wasn't that you know, overwhelming optical appeal, it's
[7:29] Speaker 2: just surgically effective. And no matter what happened in this
[7:33] Speaker 2: playoff run, the most reliable play type out there was
[7:36] Speaker 2: give the ball to Shay at the nail and he's
[7:39] Speaker 2: probably going to either draw foul or get to a
[7:41] Speaker 2: mid range jump shot that he can hit about fifty
[7:43] Speaker 2: five percent of the time. And you know, you know, Colin,
[7:45] Speaker 2: it has not been a perfect NBA Finals for him.
[7:48] Speaker 2: He had some rough games. But here's the thing. Just
[7:51] Speaker 2: about every star struggles in their first NBA finals. Lebron
[7:54] Speaker 2: struggled in his first two NBA finals. It is an
[7:57] Speaker 2: impossible stage to be to be I shouldn't sy it's
[7:59] Speaker 2: in hospible. It's a very difficult stage to perform well
[8:02] Speaker 2: in and to his credit, every single moment in this
[8:05] Speaker 2: series where things could have gone south. So like Game two,
[8:08] Speaker 2: you're down one zero, you lose.
[8:09] Speaker 3: That game.
[8:10] Speaker 2: Series is probably over. Game four, you're down to one,
[8:13] Speaker 2: you lose.
[8:13] Speaker 3: That game.
[8:13] Speaker 2: Series is probably over. Game five to to two, you
[8:16] Speaker 2: lose that game. Series is probably over. In Game seven,
[8:19] Speaker 2: series tied. If you lose that game, obviously the series
[8:22] Speaker 2: is over. In every one of those games, I thought
[8:25] Speaker 2: he was awesome. This is actually a hilarious stat Colin.
[8:28] Speaker 2: In the four games where I thought he played poorly,
[8:30] Speaker 2: which was Game one, Game three, Game four, in Game six,
[8:35] Speaker 2: in those games he combined for just nine assists. Okay,
[8:39] Speaker 2: just nine in those four games. In the other three games,
[8:43] Speaker 2: in game two, in game five, and in game seven,
[8:46] Speaker 2: he had thirty thirty assists. He averaged ten in those
[8:50] Speaker 2: three games. And if you watched those games from the start,
[8:54] Speaker 2: just surgical and precise with the way he was navigating
[8:57] Speaker 2: the late double teams, help at the rim, making the
[9:01] Speaker 2: kickouts to three point shooters, the role man, whether it's
[9:04] Speaker 2: Hartenstein er Chet, I thought Shay, to his credit, every
[9:08] Speaker 2: time the team needed him to be great in the series,
[9:11] Speaker 2: he was great. And I think that is the stereotypical
[9:13] Speaker 2: Finals MVP performance. I thought he thoroughly deserved it, and
[9:17] Speaker 2: most players don't even do this well in their first
[9:19] Speaker 2: time around.
[9:20] Speaker 1: Well my first impression the Suns were three and seventeen.
[9:24] Speaker 1: When Katie didn't play this year, they stump it wasn't him.
[9:28] Speaker 1: He still get a bucket. If he's a leader in Houston,
[9:31] Speaker 1: it doesn't work. If you need a bucket in Houston,
[9:33] Speaker 1: it works. And I think today you have to look
[9:36] Speaker 1: at the Rockets. My take is he's gonna give you
[9:39] Speaker 1: about sixty five games in the regular season. If we
[9:41] Speaker 1: get two healthy years, then everybody's going to watch Houston
[9:44] Speaker 1: via for the NBA Championship and feel like they dominated
[9:47] Speaker 1: the trade. It is, however, a very good draft, So
[9:51] Speaker 1: Phoenix gets the number two ten pick. Well, many people
[9:55] Speaker 1: are theorizing there are twelve players in this draft, the
[9:58] Speaker 1: top twelve players who are All Star potential, So if
[10:01] Speaker 1: they stay at ten or move up to six or eight,
[10:04] Speaker 1: they're getting a potentially really good player, probably with more
[10:07] Speaker 1: than one year in college. And again, I don't think
[10:12] Speaker 1: anybody will ever unlock Jalen Green, like I think he's
[10:16] Speaker 1: the classic, doesn't have a defined game never probably will,
[10:20] Speaker 1: but we can't deny that he can drop thirty in
[10:23] Speaker 1: any given moment, that he's wildly talented. I don't like
[10:27] Speaker 1: his game, but I'm not going to deny that he's
[10:30] Speaker 1: you know, long, twitchy, fast, very good transition player. He's
[10:35] Speaker 1: just and that there are a lot of these guys
[10:38] Speaker 1: in the NBA. You know, they come in and they're talented,
[10:41] Speaker 1: and maybe either they don't work on their game, or
[10:43] Speaker 1: they don't get the right coaching, or they just they
[10:46] Speaker 1: probably have so much talent from sixth grade on that
[10:50] Speaker 1: they never really there's no catalyst for them to like
[10:54] Speaker 1: really burrow down on a specialized you know, not everybody
[10:57] Speaker 1: is just driven as MJ. Right, I'm reading the Caitlin
[11:01] Speaker 1: Clark book. I mean, that girl's she is MJ. She's obsessed,
[11:06] Speaker 1: and it's just like, not everybody's like that. Some people
[11:08] Speaker 1: are just talented. And so between Aman Thompson and Shangoon's
[11:13] Speaker 1: Beautiful Touch, Kevin Durant and a series of four or
[11:17] Speaker 1: five very good young players, and I think Adokah is
[11:20] Speaker 1: a very good coach, that's a real team. But I
[11:24] Speaker 1: think it's easy to look at Phoenix and just go. Well,
[11:28] Speaker 1: they got Green's productive. Dylan Brooks is a very good
[11:32] Speaker 1: small forward defender can give you seventeen a night. You
[11:35] Speaker 1: got the number ten pick, You got a bunch of
[11:37] Speaker 1: second round picks, which you can turn those into things.
[11:40] Speaker 1: Phoenix wanted her a little bit of a reboot. They
[11:42] Speaker 1: got it. But people on the internet are like, oh,
[11:46] Speaker 1: Houston dominated. If Katie got hurt in game thirty six,
[11:49] Speaker 1: it wouldn't feel like Houston dominated.
[11:51] Speaker 3: Right.
[11:51] Speaker 1: They're not bringing him there to be a foundational piece.
[11:54] Speaker 1: They're bringing him in to get a bucket like. He
[11:58] Speaker 1: will not be the leader is shen Goon will still
[12:01] Speaker 1: be this I think the centerpiece of the team. Aman
[12:04] Speaker 1: Thompson will be your best athlete and your defensive stopper.
[12:07] Speaker 1: He's going to be a bucket guy. So that's why
[12:11] Speaker 1: I think it works. He's still one of the top
[12:15] Speaker 1: twenty three, twenty six best players in the league. I
[12:18] Speaker 1: would argue, I mean, I was on the plane when
[12:21] Speaker 1: I was flying in today, I started writing now numbers
[12:24] Speaker 1: and I got to like twenty one. I'm like, he's
[12:28] Speaker 1: in that space. And again, Phoenix was terrible when he
[12:31] Speaker 1: didn't play. So that's my long winded answer. On. I
[12:34] Speaker 1: think Houston will look like they won the trade, but
[12:37] Speaker 1: Phoenix got assets too.
[12:39] Speaker 2: I think that what happened in Phoenix is a sign that, like, yeah, KD,
[12:44] Speaker 2: Steph Lebron, these guys, they're not floor razors anymore. At
[12:48] Speaker 2: their age, They're not going to turn a bad roster
[12:50] Speaker 2: into a fifty win team the way that twenty seven
[12:53] Speaker 2: year old Nikola Jokic could.
[12:54] Speaker 3: Like That goes without saying I don't.
[12:56] Speaker 2: I do think though, that KD has been dramatically under
[13:00] Speaker 2: rated because he's been on such a poor roster. Yes,
[13:02] Speaker 2: I put this together for you, Colin. This is three
[13:04] Speaker 2: stats to show that Kevin Durant is still one of
[13:07] Speaker 2: the very best players in the NBA. He was the
[13:09] Speaker 2: best jump shooter in the world this year. Among fifty
[13:12] Speaker 2: eight players in the NBA to take at least five
[13:13] Speaker 2: hundred jump shots, Kadi was the only player in the
[13:16] Speaker 2: league to make over half of them, and he in
[13:18] Speaker 2: second place was Shay who made forty five percent. And
[13:21] Speaker 2: if you waited it for threes, his one point two
[13:23] Speaker 2: to two points per shot was still number one in
[13:25] Speaker 2: the NBA number two. He was the only player in
[13:27] Speaker 2: the NBA last year to make at least two hundred
[13:29] Speaker 2: pull up jump shots, meaning off the dribble, while making
[13:32] Speaker 2: more than half of them in three He was far
[13:35] Speaker 2: and away the best isolation player in the world last year.
[13:37] Speaker 2: Out of the ten players ran at least two hundred
[13:39] Speaker 2: fifty ISOs. His one point one to six points per
[13:42] Speaker 2: possession including passes ranked number one in the league, a
[13:45] Speaker 2: full six points per one hundred possessions, ahead of Shay
[13:48] Speaker 2: who was in second place. I think he is when
[13:50] Speaker 2: it comes to refined offensive skill, he is still one
[13:54] Speaker 2: of the very best players in the league. I would
[13:56] Speaker 2: put him in that six to fifteen range, depending on it.
[14:00] Speaker 3: We haven't seen him.
[14:00] Speaker 2: Play enough high leverage basketball lately to see where he
[14:02] Speaker 2: really lands in there, but I think he's still in
[14:04] Speaker 2: that range. And if you ask me what the Rockets
[14:07] Speaker 2: issue was, this is a deep team with a load
[14:11] Speaker 2: of big, physical athletes. If you ask me what their
[14:13] Speaker 2: one week at weakness was, it's refined offensive skill. And
[14:17] Speaker 2: that's what Kad comes into address. We were just talking
[14:19] Speaker 2: about this with Desmond Baine in the Orlando Magic the
[14:21] Speaker 2: other day. When you take a bunch of big athletes,
[14:24] Speaker 2: the kind of struggle with spacing and you bring in
[14:26] Speaker 2: a guy who like, just run him off a screen
[14:29] Speaker 2: and he's automatically going to pull two defenders out thirty
[14:31] Speaker 2: feet from the basket and unlocks a world of possibilities
[14:35] Speaker 2: on the short role A men Thompson will be an
[14:38] Speaker 2: amazing short role player. You know that thing that Draymond
[14:40] Speaker 2: Green did for Steph where Steph would come off of
[14:42] Speaker 2: Draymond to take two players and then Draymond would go
[14:45] Speaker 2: right down the middle of the floor and make the
[14:47] Speaker 2: play that broke the defense down. That is a thing
[14:49] Speaker 2: that Amen Thompson has been unable to do in Houston
[14:52] Speaker 2: because they just don't generate many of those opportunities because
[14:54] Speaker 2: none of their shooters are good enough. KD will unlock
[14:58] Speaker 2: that part of Amn Thompson's game. It is not a
[15:00] Speaker 2: perfect roster. I was writing down all the names on
[15:02] Speaker 2: the roster today. They're a little light on ball handling,
[15:05] Speaker 2: but that sort of thing they can get. You know
[15:07] Speaker 2: what's so funny, Colin, I remember when the Sun signed
[15:10] Speaker 2: Highest Jones last summer. I was like, why you already
[15:13] Speaker 2: have this redundancy of all these dudes who can dribble
[15:16] Speaker 2: and you're just not athletic enough and you're not good
[15:18] Speaker 2: enough on defense, Like you need athletes and dudes that
[15:20] Speaker 2: can like like beat up people in these physical environments.
[15:23] Speaker 2: You know who could really use highest Jones Houston, like,
[15:27] Speaker 2: I think they should call I think Kevin Durant should
[15:29] Speaker 2: call up Highs tomorrow and be like, hey, dude, come
[15:31] Speaker 2: with me.
[15:32] Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I think Phoenix. I wish Phoenix would
[15:34] Speaker 1: have gotten actually a size. I think Phoenix needs size,
[15:38] Speaker 1: and I think Houston needs a ball handler. And our
[15:41] Speaker 1: takeaway when we watch Golden State beat Houston, we were like, God.
[15:44] Speaker 3: They're so bad in the AF court offense.
[15:46] Speaker 1: If you stop shn good, it's over right, like it's
[15:49] Speaker 1: just and so you and I talked about this. He
[15:51] Speaker 1: was a perfect fit there. I thought he worked in
[15:53] Speaker 1: New York because of Jalen Brunson's you know, has the
[15:56] Speaker 1: ball a lot in his hands. I thought he would
[15:58] Speaker 1: work with that offense, whereas Cat can kind of. I
[16:03] Speaker 1: always felt like Cat and Brunson were playing you know,
[16:05] Speaker 1: your turn, my turn, your turn, my turn. Kd's kind
[16:08] Speaker 1: of like I'll sit in I did it with Russ Westbrook.
[16:10] Speaker 1: I'll sit in the corner. Get it to me eventually.
[16:12] Speaker 1: So I think he fits really, really well and I
[16:16] Speaker 1: think they have the coach.
[16:17] Speaker 3: I think.
[16:19] Speaker 1: Again, it's so hard to judge Houston because so much
[16:22] Speaker 1: of their roster is young. I like feel like everybody's
[16:25] Speaker 1: in the fourth inning. Like, I mean, Amen Thompson could
[16:28] Speaker 1: take a big leap. I mean, shn Goon's the only
[16:31] Speaker 1: one where I look at him and I think, oh
[16:32] Speaker 1: that again. I used this word a lot. But that's
[16:34] Speaker 1: a defined and refined offensive game. He's got European touch,
[16:39] Speaker 1: like he has a game. A lot of their players,
[16:42] Speaker 1: I feel like they're just in early innings. I don't
[16:44] Speaker 1: know what they are. So Aman Thompson's obviously defensively defined.
[16:49] Speaker 1: He's so strong and athletic and aggressive. But KD gives
[16:53] Speaker 1: them refinement. This is a second offensive player. I know
[16:57] Speaker 1: exactly what I'm getting. And that's that goes back to
[17:00] Speaker 1: a little Oklahoma city. One of the reasons Indiana gave
[17:05] Speaker 1: OKC problems. Siakam has an offensive half court game, Halliburton does, TJ.
[17:11] Speaker 1: McConnell does. Like, that's three guys, even Obi Toppen. When
[17:15] Speaker 1: he hits threes, You're like, he's athletic and hit threes.
[17:18] Speaker 1: They had guys that they Rick Carlile knew, Okay, this
[17:21] Speaker 1: is what this player does with Houston. Houston's like a
[17:24] Speaker 1: younger OKC. I'm just not sure what everybody is like.
[17:28] Speaker 1: I just need more guys than I go into a
[17:29] Speaker 1: game and go, yeah, I'm going to get twenty fourth
[17:31] Speaker 1: to night from KD and I can draw two or
[17:33] Speaker 1: three plays for him. So Houston to me is early
[17:36] Speaker 1: innings they could end up being. They could end up
[17:38] Speaker 1: looking at If you told me next year a team
[17:40] Speaker 1: explodes in the West and ends up winning by seven
[17:43] Speaker 1: point eight points, I would guess Houston because they have
[17:46] Speaker 1: so many players that are just going to springboard to
[17:49] Speaker 1: another level here in the next fifty to one hundred
[17:52] Speaker 1: basketball games.
[17:53] Speaker 2: No, I totally agree. I think they have massive upside.
[17:55] Speaker 2: I think they could very easily be the second best
[17:57] Speaker 2: team in the West and the biggest threat to the
[17:59] Speaker 2: thunder new this year. I think that's absolutely on the table.
[18:01] Speaker 2: They match up well with OKC too, because they have
[18:03] Speaker 2: all the big physical size. The ball handling will be
[18:05] Speaker 2: the weakness, as we saw with Indiana. Even Oklahoma City
[18:08] Speaker 2: struggled because of their lack of depth and ball handling
[18:10] Speaker 2: against Indiana's ball pressure. But the youth the thing that
[18:14] Speaker 2: you're talking about in terms of the wide range of
[18:16] Speaker 2: outcomes is super interesting because as I was breaking down
[18:18] Speaker 2: their depth chart today, I'm looking at it and I'm like, Okay,
[18:21] Speaker 2: Fred van Vliet, legit point guard. You know, Shane gun center,
[18:24] Speaker 2: Kd's your four, Amen, Thompson. I think defensively functions as
[18:28] Speaker 2: either a two or three, so that could be either.
[18:33] Speaker 2: But then it's like Jabari Smith Jr. Is kind of
[18:35] Speaker 2: a four. He plays basically the same position as Kadie.
[18:38] Speaker 2: I don't think he moves his feet well enough to
[18:39] Speaker 2: be a three. Cam Whittmore could be one of those guys.
[18:43] Speaker 2: Reed Shepherd could be one of those guys, but like
[18:46] Speaker 2: who knows. And here's the other thing to call it.
[18:48] Speaker 2: Houston gave up one first round draft pick in this deal.
[18:51] Speaker 2: They still have a boat load of first round draft
[18:54] Speaker 2: picks at their disposal, so they're high. They're like a
[18:57] Speaker 2: high likelihood for like a we bring this team into
[19:00] Speaker 2: we watch him for twenty games, and we go, oh,
[19:02] Speaker 2: here are the two things we're missing.
[19:04] Speaker 1: Exactly right, Let's go get what we need to get.
[19:06] Speaker 2: Like they are, they're extremely well equipped heading into this
[19:09] Speaker 2: next season.
[19:10] Speaker 1: That's where Houston won the trade, they didn't have to
[19:13] Speaker 1: give up another first round pick. That that's where they
[19:16] Speaker 1: won the trade. It's not just KD because my guess
[19:19] Speaker 1: is because of their depth, they won't play Kadi more
[19:22] Speaker 1: than like sixty to sixty five games. They want him
[19:24] Speaker 1: for the postseason. There's no reason to play him seventy
[19:27] Speaker 1: five eighty games. Because they also know if you're in
[19:30] Speaker 1: the West, Jason, you know you're going to be in
[19:33] Speaker 1: long series. So there's no you know you're going to
[19:36] Speaker 1: be in six game series.
[19:37] Speaker 3: In the West.
[19:37] Speaker 1: It's not like the East where you kind of feel
[19:39] Speaker 1: like if Aliberton comes back next year, they're just certain
[19:42] Speaker 1: you're gonna win a lot of series really quickly. You're
[19:45] Speaker 1: gonna have long series in the West, no reason to
[19:49] Speaker 1: have you know, I want KD going into the playoffs,
[19:52] Speaker 1: you know, off about a two games and nine day stretch,
[19:55] Speaker 1: healthy and ready to go. And I think you have
[19:58] Speaker 1: to think about that as a GM with an older
[19:59] Speaker 1: play in the West, if you have a Steph a KD,
[20:02] Speaker 1: all these series are long series.
[20:04] Speaker 2: If they get a couple more ball handlers, like that's
[20:06] Speaker 2: the thing, Like if they get a Tyas Jones, if
[20:08] Speaker 2: they get you know, one other guy of that ILK,
[20:11] Speaker 2: then they will be able to rest Kde not just
[20:13] Speaker 2: for the regular season, but even in the postseason. Like
[20:15] Speaker 2: we saw, Houston give themselves a really good chance to
[20:18] Speaker 2: win games even without high level offensive skill because they
[20:21] Speaker 2: just go, here's Tarry Eason and and Amen Thompson and
[20:24] Speaker 2: we're picking up full court and you're turning the ball
[20:27] Speaker 2: over now and it's a mess. Like they are able,
[20:31] Speaker 2: like they are able to prevent the redundancy that Phoenix had,
[20:35] Speaker 2: where you have a bunch of guys who do.
[20:37] Speaker 3: The same thing.
[20:38] Speaker 2: On Houston, what KD does is so specialized for them
[20:42] Speaker 2: that they kind of have an identity separate, separate from him,
[20:45] Speaker 2: so they will be able to win games without him.
[20:47] Speaker 2: They will be able to carry the load so that
[20:49] Speaker 2: he can come in and lift them over the top.
[20:51] Speaker 2: I think it's a I think it's a fantastic on
[20:54] Speaker 2: paper basketball fit. It'll be ugly sometimes, Kadie's gonna have
[20:57] Speaker 2: some nights where maybe the statistical performance isn't there because
[21:00] Speaker 2: it's ugly. They can't space the floor as well for him,
[21:02] Speaker 2: But they will in turn do the same thing to
[21:05] Speaker 2: the other team. So to buy Kevin that margin for
[21:08] Speaker 2: air before we get out of here tonight, Coln, I
[21:10] Speaker 2: didn't want to run this by you because I've seen
[21:12] Speaker 2: a lot of victory lapping criticism. You know, let's just
[21:18] Speaker 2: say the Phoenix Suns have been the butt of the
[21:20] Speaker 2: joke today because they took McHale Bridges and Cam Johnson
[21:24] Speaker 2: and Chris Paul and they turned him into basically Bradley
[21:31] Speaker 2: Beal and Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green in one first
[21:35] Speaker 2: round pick. I get that it looks bad. Here's where
[21:39] Speaker 2: this is where my brain went this morning. They made
[21:43] Speaker 2: it to the finals a year where because of COVID
[21:47] Speaker 2: everyone was hurt, and we had a tray Young Hawks
[21:51] Speaker 2: team in the conference finals, a Paul George Clippers team
[21:55] Speaker 2: with an injured Kawhi in the conference finals, and that
[21:58] Speaker 2: Son's team. And by the way, they ran into Giannis,
[22:01] Speaker 2: and Giannis beat them four straight times for the title.
[22:04] Speaker 2: So they weren't good enough. Then the next year they
[22:07] Speaker 2: kind of have a great regular season and Luca like
[22:10] Speaker 2: embarrasses them, like embarrasses them for the world to see.
[22:14] Speaker 2: In the second round, they weren't good enough, so they
[22:18] Speaker 2: made an aggressive trade. They went and got Kevin Durant.
[22:22] Speaker 2: Every one of us would have done the same thing.
[22:24] Speaker 2: At that point in time. It was Kevin Durant and
[22:26] Speaker 2: we had just seen him be so amazing for Brooklyn
[22:29] Speaker 2: in those couple of previous playoff runs. Even the Chris
[22:32] Speaker 2: Paul thing that I would argue they should have used
[22:34] Speaker 2: Chris Paul's salary as a vehicle with which to bring
[22:37] Speaker 2: in more size and athleticism. But you're like Chris Paul
[22:41] Speaker 2: for Bradley Beal, Like, I mean, come on right, you
[22:44] Speaker 2: could talk yourself into it.
[22:46] Speaker 3: Again.
[22:46] Speaker 2: It wasn't perfect. There were mistakes. There are certain things
[22:48] Speaker 2: I would have done differently. But now we're on the
[22:50] Speaker 2: other side of this and it's like self awareness. We're
[22:52] Speaker 2: not good enough. We just missed the playoffs in the
[22:54] Speaker 2: Western Conference, like Katie misses a few games and we
[22:58] Speaker 2: completely fall apart. I understand it looks bad when you
[23:01] Speaker 2: zoom out, but to me, what happened to Phoenix is
[23:04] Speaker 2: just what happens when you get aggressive and it doesn't work.
[23:15] Speaker 1: So I said today on the show, I said, listen,
[23:18] Speaker 1: I'm not going to come in hot on the draft
[23:21] Speaker 1: because it's a projection draft. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I mean,
[23:25] Speaker 1: I just I said, I think Cooper. Flag's really good.
[23:28] Speaker 1: I think he's a more aggressive, better defender right now
[23:30] Speaker 1: at this point than Tatum. I said, I think.
[23:32] Speaker 3: He's really good.
[23:33] Speaker 1: He's not good as Tatum, he's really good. The kid
[23:36] Speaker 1: from Baylor. He's a disruptor defensively, looks like he's going
[23:39] Speaker 1: one thousand miles an hour. I'm like, that's an NBA athlete.
[23:42] Speaker 1: Is he going to score a lot?
[23:44] Speaker 3: I don't know.
[23:44] Speaker 1: I thought the Spurs did pretty well. What I do
[23:49] Speaker 1: think and I've talked about this a lot, and I
[23:51] Speaker 1: want your reaction. I've been on this now for about
[23:53] Speaker 1: two months. There was about a twenty year period. So
[23:57] Speaker 1: you and I grew up with the Big East, and
[24:00] Speaker 1: if you were a great player in the biggiest Pearl
[24:02] Speaker 1: Washington sort of an exception, or if you're a great team,
[24:06] Speaker 1: you were going to be an NBA player. Youwing was
[24:09] Speaker 1: going to be great in the NBA. I mean, just
[24:10] Speaker 1: the way it was. There was about a twenty year
[24:13] Speaker 1: one in college basketball when the G League happened. Guys
[24:16] Speaker 1: went to Europe, played one year of college where like
[24:20] Speaker 1: Doug McDermott was the college player of the Year, Tyler
[24:23] Speaker 1: Hansborough was you go to the pros and they were
[24:26] Speaker 1: rotational guys. And then two years ago I watched Yukon
[24:29] Speaker 1: and I went, oh, shit, there's seven NBA players. They
[24:32] Speaker 1: have NBA length, They are great. These are great players.
[24:35] Speaker 1: And I thought, oh, that team could play with you
[24:38] Speaker 1: and LV and Duke. That is a real team. And
[24:42] Speaker 1: the reason it happened was guys are staying maybe a
[24:45] Speaker 1: year longer with an IL. Now American universities are poaching
[24:50] Speaker 1: European players. I honestly feel like the last two years
[24:53] Speaker 1: when I've watched college, we had a twenty year period.
[24:57] Speaker 1: We were trying to pretend the sport was good. And
[25:00] Speaker 1: Jay Billis said, this their day. NBA guys don't miss
[25:04] Speaker 1: open shots. Like it's just the seven foot guy shoots
[25:07] Speaker 1: better than the six to two guy in college. And
[25:10] Speaker 1: I do feel like the NIL for all the bitching
[25:12] Speaker 1: about it. Rick Bettino said, this here day, it's kind
[25:16] Speaker 1: of made the G League irrelevant. Shit, I watched the
[25:18] Speaker 1: playoffs Indiana, Oklahoma City. You no G League guys, I
[25:21] Speaker 1: mean a men. Thompson's one of the only G League
[25:23] Speaker 1: unite guys. It's like the second two year college guys,
[25:27] Speaker 1: three year college guys che holmgrun one year probably should
[25:30] Speaker 1: have stayed a second because his offensive games hit and miss.
[25:33] Speaker 1: But I do feel like the last two years I've
[25:36] Speaker 1: watched college and I think this will help the draft
[25:38] Speaker 1: Ryan because it won't all be Euros. It'll even the
[25:41] Speaker 1: Euros are coming and playing now at Texas, They're coming
[25:44] Speaker 1: to play at Connecticut. I feel like college basketball was
[25:47] Speaker 1: kind of unwatchable for twenty years and people kept saying, Oh,
[25:51] Speaker 1: it's great. It wasn't it was diluted, it was bad.
[25:55] Speaker 1: In the last two years, I've been glued to March
[25:57] Speaker 1: Madness and it's just more NBA dudes.
[25:59] Speaker 4: College basketball is a weird spot because, you know, growing up,
[26:02] Speaker 4: I probably would rather watch Big.
[26:03] Speaker 3: Monday than NBA.
[26:05] Speaker 4: You know, back when it was the Big East, and
[26:07] Speaker 4: then you know, it was packed ten teams that were
[26:12] Speaker 4: loaded with NBA players, you know, going back to those
[26:14] Speaker 4: UCLA squads, remember Washington State loving that team that year.
[26:19] Speaker 4: Robbie cal Gill, Well, I guess you want to talk
[26:22] Speaker 4: about the NBA guys, So shout out to Robbie. But
[26:25] Speaker 4: I I'm I'm with you because I think I even remember,
[26:29] Speaker 4: like you and gottlieb arguing it a bit about it
[26:32] Speaker 4: being like, hey, look, college basketball is largely irrelevant up
[26:35] Speaker 4: until we get to March, and with everything feeling like
[26:39] Speaker 4: it has to be an event, which I think Silver's
[26:41] Speaker 4: doing with the NBA, it's like, hey, we've got the
[26:43] Speaker 4: n season tournament.
[26:44] Speaker 3: We've got plan like we have more.
[26:46] Speaker 4: Almost like specialty events that we can partner in different ways,
[26:49] Speaker 4: Like we're kind of just titling some of the same stuff.
[26:52] Speaker 3: But you know, if this means more revenue, then that's
[26:54] Speaker 3: the game.
[26:55] Speaker 4: And even though like I've talked about baseball with this
[26:58] Speaker 4: being like, hey, be really happier this utibly successful local
[27:01] Speaker 4: market thing, and that your playoffs are an incredible product
[27:04] Speaker 4: and you just hope that you have enough storylines to
[27:07] Speaker 4: carry over that secondary interest. The tournament doesn't necessarily need
[27:13] Speaker 4: all these crazy storylines because the event itself is still
[27:15] Speaker 4: one of the greatest sporting events in the world. But
[27:19] Speaker 4: your right to point out like whether it was ignite.
[27:21] Speaker 4: You know with Scoop, they had Dyson, they had Hardy,
[27:25] Speaker 4: Jalen Green, Kaminga, and then you had the amen usre
[27:30] Speaker 4: Thompson deal with overtime. I think, yeah, it felt it
[27:35] Speaker 4: was starting to feel like, Okay, this is like even
[27:38] Speaker 4: more tenuous for a product that was already really struggling
[27:42] Speaker 4: with its regular season in college basketball. So I think
[27:45] Speaker 4: the tournament has always been something everybody's always going to
[27:47] Speaker 4: care about because it's basically like a football version of
[27:50] Speaker 4: gambling in a different sport where it's just so much
[27:53] Speaker 4: fun and you almost feel left out of American society
[27:55] Speaker 4: if you're not in the tournament. I don't know that
[27:57] Speaker 4: they're ever going to recover any of that stuff from
[28:00] Speaker 4: the regular season. But the draft trends of what was
[28:03] Speaker 4: happening with guys circumventing college because of the compensation going
[28:08] Speaker 4: to New Zealand, you know, playing in the Australian League
[28:10] Speaker 4: and then come back here like it hurt yeh draft
[28:13] Speaker 4: wise for you to have eight what college guys before
[28:17] Speaker 4: s singay well S and Gay went eleventh, so well, no,
[28:22] Speaker 4: Colin went well you went eleventh.
[28:26] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and the other guy went ninth to Toronto
[28:33] Speaker 5: and even jag or Demon you know he comes from Russia,
[28:37] Speaker 5: but he's at BYU because of the nil stuff.
[28:39] Speaker 3: Whatever it was. And I don't I don't know all of.
[28:42] Speaker 4: A sudden if everybody's going to be prioritizing regular season
[28:44] Speaker 4: college basketball over the NBA. But there was something that
[28:49] Speaker 4: was incredibly fearful as these other alternatives that the NIL
[28:53] Speaker 4: has helped college basketball solve in the short term.
[28:57] Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I just I watched the draft last and
[29:00] Speaker 1: I watched the yukon a couple of years ago, and
[29:02] Speaker 1: I watched March Madness, and I'm like, ohkay, I'm back
[29:04] Speaker 1: into the sport. Like and I've always been sort of
[29:07] Speaker 1: loyal to the number. Like I stopped talking college football
[29:12] Speaker 1: for about ten years because it was Alabama Clemson in
[29:16] Speaker 1: Georgia and I felt like nobody Denver West gives a
[29:19] Speaker 1: you know what. And I remember when the Pac twelve
[29:23] Speaker 1: sort of when USC decided we're going in Ucla. I
[29:26] Speaker 1: got a call. I was in Turks and Kkos with
[29:27] Speaker 1: my family and Eric Shanks called me and said, just
[29:30] Speaker 1: want to give you a heads up. This is going
[29:31] Speaker 1: to be announced in about three hours. I was in
[29:33] Speaker 1: an airport and I couldn't tell anybody, but I started
[29:35] Speaker 1: doing some social and having our staff get ready for it.
[29:38] Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, oh, I can talk college I
[29:41] Speaker 1: can talk college football again, you know, like, oh, USC
[29:45] Speaker 1: is going to a conference. And then and then there
[29:47] Speaker 1: was a lot of talk even then about Washington Oregon
[29:49] Speaker 1: getting in. I'm like, Okay, that's a real conference that
[29:52] Speaker 1: they'll be able to compete. They'll get some Midwest kids,
[29:55] Speaker 1: they'll get Big ten money, they'll be more fortified because
[29:58] Speaker 1: the PAC twelve was paying at thirty million year, big tens.
[30:01] Speaker 1: Pania seventy USC was complaining to me, it's like, we
[30:04] Speaker 1: can't compete with anybody. We have the money, and so
[30:08] Speaker 1: like I feel like, you know, I just follow what
[30:14] Speaker 1: the audience is following. And I would see those numbers
[30:16] Speaker 1: for Alabama couldn't sell off some home games. I would
[30:18] Speaker 1: see some of those numbers, and it was like people
[30:21] Speaker 1: were getting tired of it. I was getting tired of it.
[30:24] Speaker 3: So Alabama, though, I don't know, I'm going back on that.
[30:26] Speaker 4: Alabama was an incredibly spoilt fan base to the point
[30:29] Speaker 4: where SABAN had a beg fans for day games to
[30:31] Speaker 4: come in on some of those lower level matchups because
[30:35] Speaker 4: they just suspected a national championship every time. I mean,
[30:37] Speaker 4: it's the only campus that I'd ever been to when
[30:39] Speaker 4: I used to travel a college game day because I
[30:40] Speaker 4: did the radio part of it along with TV, where
[30:43] Speaker 4: it was the only it was the only campus that'd
[30:45] Speaker 4: be like, oh, game Bays here again. Whatever, you know,
[30:48] Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna sleep in you know, every other place.
[30:51] Speaker 4: It's like a not even a national holiday because you
[30:53] Speaker 4: know it might not ever be coming back. So as
[30:55] Speaker 4: you say that, though, like, let's be honest, would you
[30:58] Speaker 4: have avoided talking college football based on some numbers if
[31:01] Speaker 4: you were still at ESPN because I sensed an SEC
[31:05] Speaker 4: mid ten shift there, buddy when you started, when you started, uh,
[31:10] Speaker 4: we get somewhere else.
[31:13] Speaker 1: No, well, no, I would. I would say this is
[31:17] Speaker 1: that Klatt is a big notice and so yeah, so
[31:23] Speaker 1: I'm I was always I said this for years. SEC
[31:25] Speaker 1: is the best. They went on recruiting day, they went
[31:28] Speaker 1: on Draft Day, they went on Saturday. That's the best.
[31:31] Speaker 1: I don't want to hear it, but I did notice
[31:34] Speaker 1: about four years ago and when the NIL started, and
[31:37] Speaker 1: there's a lot of money in those big ten schools.
[31:39] Speaker 1: Those are sixty thousand student body. A lot of those
[31:42] Speaker 1: graduates do very well. I started noticing like four years ago.
[31:46] Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, people are poaching Georgia and Bama and
[31:49] Speaker 1: they don't like I think Nick Saban realized, like before
[31:52] Speaker 1: Texas came in it's like, oh shit, Texas is bigger
[31:54] Speaker 1: than Alabama. Texas looked better than Alabama. So about four
[31:58] Speaker 1: years ago I started saying and then it was it
[32:01] Speaker 1: was the Harbaugh team before they won. I'm like, yeah,
[32:05] Speaker 1: I think that's they're as good as Georgia. Like I'm
[32:08] Speaker 1: watching the Saturday and I'm like, they got like ten
[32:10] Speaker 1: NFL guys, you know all over the field. Georgia maybe
[32:14] Speaker 1: has twelve. So I do think about four years ago,
[32:17] Speaker 1: I just watched the games and it's like, you know,
[32:20] Speaker 1: when I first started watching Caitlyn Clark, I was just like, well, shit,
[32:23] Speaker 1: she's shooting from thirty three feet. That doesn't even make it.
[32:25] Speaker 1: I mean, the line's twenty two. So I tend to
[32:28] Speaker 1: trust my eyes. And when the Big Ten, when Harbaugh's
[32:31] Speaker 1: team the year before they won, I was like, oh
[32:34] Speaker 1: they caught up. At least the top of the Big
[32:36] Speaker 1: ten's as good as the top as the SEC.
[32:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard this.
[32:39] Speaker 4: I actually think people are like more unfair and how
[32:43] Speaker 4: they critique the SEC than it is about being pro
[32:46] Speaker 4: sec because I just see a lot of media members
[32:48] Speaker 4: that all have Big Ten backgrounds that have been like
[32:52] Speaker 4: incredibly celebratory about what's happened the last couple of years.
[32:55] Speaker 3: Now I've heard the nil theory.
[32:57] Speaker 4: I think Saban would have figured it out if he
[32:59] Speaker 4: was motivated to figure it out, but.
[33:00] Speaker 3: He may have been right.
[33:03] Speaker 4: You've been there since two thousand and nine or no,
[33:05] Speaker 4: two thousand and seven, excuse me, two thousand and seven,
[33:07] Speaker 4: that first year where they lost to Louisiana Monroe. So
[33:13] Speaker 4: now I'm trying to remember if I have that year right.
[33:15] Speaker 4: I feel like I feel like I'm messing up a
[33:17] Speaker 4: year because I would have been on college game day
[33:19] Speaker 4: for Tumberville Iron Bowl they got smoked. I think that
[33:21] Speaker 4: would have been two thousand and eight. So anyway, I
[33:25] Speaker 4: gotta look that up.
[33:28] Speaker 3: I need I need more results, I need more parody.
[33:30] Speaker 3: I mean I need more.
[33:31] Speaker 4: Balance because you know, the people that didn't like the
[33:33] Speaker 4: SEC still didn't like the SEC when they had seven
[33:36] Speaker 4: different national or excuse me, seven national.
[33:38] Speaker 3: Championships in a row.
[33:40] Speaker 4: You could run through four or five programs, You're like, Okay,
[33:42] Speaker 4: they could win a national championship. They're playing for a
[33:44] Speaker 4: national championship. It didn't feel like the other conferences could
[33:48] Speaker 4: be that deep. Certainly the Big Ten is in the
[33:49] Speaker 4: conversation now, especially when you add a team like Oregon,
[33:52] Speaker 4: you could say, hey, you're also adding Washington, who plays
[33:54] Speaker 4: in a national championship two years ago, so that puts
[33:56] Speaker 4: them on the probable list, even if that is probably
[33:59] Speaker 4: more of an aberration for that program and just having
[34:01] Speaker 4: an incredible year where everything kind.
[34:03] Speaker 3: Of came together.
[34:04] Speaker 4: So you might be entirely right about the balance of
[34:09] Speaker 4: it flattening out the top here a little bit. But
[34:13] Speaker 4: I guess for the people that I know hated the
[34:15] Speaker 4: SEC so much, they were still arguing against the conference
[34:18] Speaker 4: when they were winning all these titles. And so now
[34:20] Speaker 4: if the standard is that, yeah, I wasn't one standards
[34:23] Speaker 4: that the Big I was won back to back with
[34:25] Speaker 4: two different teams the first time in eighty years, then
[34:29] Speaker 4: the thing that you said didn't even matter when they
[34:32] Speaker 4: were winning is now the thing that matters the most,
[34:35] Speaker 4: because you could also you could also just say, hey,
[34:38] Speaker 4: the SEC had an awful quarterback year. So maybe there
[34:41] Speaker 4: is this shift, a shift that's long overdue. You know,
[34:43] Speaker 4: sports are cyclical. Maybe the Big ten's about to have
[34:46] Speaker 4: this incredible run. But it's very hard for me to
[34:50] Speaker 4: say that because of the national championship results and look
[34:53] Speaker 4: Tennessee looked just fucking frigid against Ohio State that looked
[34:58] Speaker 4: like a football team that was not interested in competing,
[35:02] Speaker 4: and they get trucked.
[35:03] Speaker 3: Yeah, in that game.
[35:07] Speaker 4: I just have a hard time on like the people
[35:08] Speaker 4: that do this for a living, that are on the
[35:10] Speaker 4: evaluation side, they're like, that's still the best.
[35:12] Speaker 3: Conference, Like are you like, what's what's going on?
[35:15] Speaker 1: I think the sixth best team I think I think
[35:19] Speaker 1: I will say this year, I think about the sixth
[35:22] Speaker 1: best team in the Big Ten will be Washington and
[35:25] Speaker 1: I think the sixth best team in the SEC could
[35:28] Speaker 1: be Oklahoma. And so that to me is where about
[35:31] Speaker 1: I think about where we're at. I think I think
[35:33] Speaker 1: they're both and if they played, it's a go either
[35:36] Speaker 1: way game. Whoever is at home wins because I think
[35:39] Speaker 1: Penn State's gonna win it. I have I picked. I
[35:43] Speaker 1: remember when Ohio State lost to Michigan, I said, my
[35:45] Speaker 1: favorite part about college football is Ohio State's going to
[35:48] Speaker 1: lose as a twenty point favorite in their last big
[35:51] Speaker 1: game and they're going to get into the tournament. And
[35:53] Speaker 1: by the way, Kansas City the year they won the
[35:55] Speaker 1: Super Bowl two years ago, got beat by Oakland in
[35:57] Speaker 1: like weeks sixteen or Las Vegas, and I'm like, yeah,
[36:01] Speaker 1: they should be in the playoffs. I don't care, just
[36:04] Speaker 1: like putting the best teams in. I got Penn State
[36:06] Speaker 1: winning it. Singleton's amazing, Drew Aller is getting better. I
[36:09] Speaker 1: think that the best backfield by a mile in college sports.
[36:12] Speaker 4: Just to clean it up, it was two thousand and
[36:13] Speaker 4: eight Iron Bowl, Tubberville did get smoked and that was
[36:17] Speaker 4: his last season, so that's I remember just being down
[36:19] Speaker 4: there for that. But Saban had already been there obviously
[36:23] Speaker 4: the previous year when he had the bad record and
[36:25] Speaker 4: people were like, is this guy really going to be
[36:26] Speaker 4: that good?
[36:27] Speaker 1: He's really good on TV by the way.
[36:29] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think he you know, I think he wants to.
[36:34] Speaker 4: He takes it really seriously. Yes, yeah, like he's he's
[36:38] Speaker 4: in you know, I know a couple of guys that
[36:40] Speaker 4: are really close with him, that are with them all
[36:42] Speaker 4: the time when they're on the road, and he is
[36:46] Speaker 4: like adamant about making sure the stuff that he's talking about,
[36:51] Speaker 4: like he's he's not just out there like he cares,
[36:54] Speaker 4: he actually cares, like what are we doing similar they
[36:58] Speaker 4: doing it? Which actually makes the most sense. Ever, if
[37:00] Speaker 4: you know anything about the guy where I remember this
[37:03] Speaker 4: story because I've been down there a bunch of different times,
[37:05] Speaker 4: and I really loved I just have so much respect
[37:08] Speaker 4: for Saban.
[37:08] Speaker 3: I've loved interviewing him. I always hated any.
[37:10] Speaker 4: Belichick comp because I was like, Belichick is not interesting,
[37:14] Speaker 4: Like he goes out of his way to not be interesting,
[37:15] Speaker 4: and that's like the game he's playing, and Saban is
[37:19] Speaker 4: really thoughtful, and for whatever reason, people try to like
[37:21] Speaker 4: lump them in because they were both successful.
[37:23] Speaker 3: And had kind of this tip it.
[37:24] Speaker 4: They're not the same guy, and I think the world
[37:29] Speaker 4: the Saban and it seems like whatever he's going to do,
[37:34] Speaker 4: he wants to make sure, like, Okay, what's what's the
[37:36] Speaker 4: best possible way for us to go ahead and do it?
[37:37] Speaker 3: Which is exactly the way he runs a football program.
[37:40] Speaker 1: Well, well yeah, that's when Urban Meyer is a friend
[37:43] Speaker 1: of mine and like Urban watches film? Did I ever
[37:45] Speaker 1: tell you my Urban? And that's when Urban comes on
[37:48] Speaker 1: the show, Mine like I will talk to him before
[37:51] Speaker 1: the break, I'm like, have you wont he will have
[37:53] Speaker 1: watched film? I never forget Years ago when LSU played
[37:57] Speaker 1: Ohio State, Jim Trussell was the coach, and I saw
[38:01] Speaker 1: Urban I can tell this story now. I saw Urban
[38:03] Speaker 1: in I think he was at Florida or was leaving
[38:07] Speaker 1: or I forget what it was, but I think he
[38:09] Speaker 1: was at Florida at the time again.
[38:12] Speaker 3: Because they just was he the National championship the year before.
[38:17] Speaker 1: Yep, and they were LSU was playing Ohio State, and
[38:20] Speaker 1: I caught him in the hallway. He went on for
[38:23] Speaker 1: about eight minutes. He literally described the game. He said,
[38:27] Speaker 1: Ohio State will move the ball early. Mo Clorette had
[38:30] Speaker 1: a big run early, I think for a touchdown. He said, Ultimately,
[38:34] Speaker 1: LSU's got about twice as many good receivers, twice as
[38:37] Speaker 1: many good running backs. They'll wear them down, they'll pull
[38:39] Speaker 1: away in the second half, and they'll win by like fourteen.
[38:42] Speaker 1: And he went like for eight to ten minutes. He literally,
[38:45] Speaker 1: I mean he'd watched film for both teams. He literally
[38:49] Speaker 1: he recited the game. So I took that and went
[38:52] Speaker 1: on the game and talked about the game, basically using
[38:55] Speaker 1: all of his stuff and say, hey, listen, I just
[38:57] Speaker 1: talked to somebody I trust. Blah blah blah. It made
[38:59] Speaker 1: me sound so small, but he I liked these ex
[39:02] Speaker 1: coaches because a lot of times. I mean, Sable will
[39:04] Speaker 1: watch film before that Saturday show. Urban will go and
[39:07] Speaker 1: watch film and break it down like a coach, and
[39:10] Speaker 1: it's and they're so freed, right, there's no pressure. They're
[39:14] Speaker 1: watching film now without an agenda not to protect anything.
[39:19] Speaker 1: And I think both those guys provide something that film
[39:24] Speaker 1: knowledge that's really valuable to me as a consumer.
[39:27] Speaker 4: Yeah, so LSU wanted, you know seven when they had
[39:29] Speaker 4: the second loss.
[39:30] Speaker 3: Remember that was the year in two thousand and seven
[39:32] Speaker 3: where UCF Boston College or ranked number two West Virginia if.
[39:36] Speaker 4: They'd beaten Pitt. It's still one of my favorite college
[39:39] Speaker 4: football years ever because whenever you go through any like
[39:41] Speaker 4: the research packets for the upcoming weekend, it'll be like,
[39:43] Speaker 4: this is the last time. The last time this happened
[39:45] Speaker 4: was in two thousand and seven, because like two thousand
[39:47] Speaker 4: and seven was a free for all, and even though
[39:48] Speaker 4: LSU had that second loss, they're like, look, we're just
[39:51] Speaker 4: going to vote this team back in. I remember Trussell
[39:53] Speaker 4: after the fact saying that was a game. When we
[39:56] Speaker 4: were preparing for it, we knew we had no chance.
[39:58] Speaker 4: And then they lose to Ohio State eight. Excuse me,
[40:02] Speaker 4: Ohastate loses the flora the next year, and that was
[40:06] Speaker 4: the thing.
[40:06] Speaker 3: Like, this is the Big ten argument. This is the
[40:08] Speaker 3: pro big ten argument.
[40:09] Speaker 4: That for years we were conditioned, like remember the Alabama
[40:13] Speaker 4: Michigan State games where you were just go jesus.
[40:16] Speaker 1: Oh, thirty four nothing or thirty five seven.
[40:19] Speaker 4: Isn't happening as much anymore, okay. And that's not just
[40:23] Speaker 4: about the Michigan and Ohio state national championships, and I
[40:25] Speaker 4: think they're kind of like further, the point is that
[40:29] Speaker 4: we may be on the cusp of this thing that
[40:34] Speaker 4: like is real. It's just so hard for me to
[40:36] Speaker 4: think that, like there's going to be another region.
[40:38] Speaker 1: Why though, So here's my take on this. Alabama's doing
[40:43] Speaker 1: car washes and bake sales, and Ohio State's not big
[40:47] Speaker 1: ten schools. Most SEC schools are smaller schools. I think
[40:51] Speaker 1: Auburn's like is it sixteen eighteen thousand? Wisconsino are like
[40:57] Speaker 1: small cities, man, I mean it's nuts. And they all
[41:01] Speaker 1: those graduates go all across the America and they go
[41:04] Speaker 1: to New York in LA and they make a bunch
[41:05] Speaker 1: of money and they give it back. It's much easier
[41:09] Speaker 1: for these big ten schools. I mean, USC is now
[41:13] Speaker 1: spending twenty million dollars innil. They're twenty twenty six class.
[41:17] Speaker 1: They just went and bought this insane class. And that's
[41:21] Speaker 1: just because of NIL. That's not because they suddenly figured
[41:23] Speaker 1: out how to recruit. They've got money. And so now
[41:26] Speaker 1: the big ten's got Seattle, Los Angeles, Columbus. You know
[41:32] Speaker 1: these are massive. I mean, Penn State's got Philadelphia and
[41:36] Speaker 1: New York graduates everywhere. SCC is a lot of small towns,
[41:42] Speaker 1: and I just don't think the NIL money. I mean,
[41:45] Speaker 1: I just don't think they have the NIL money in
[41:47] Speaker 1: most instance. So I think Georgia does, but I don't
[41:48] Speaker 1: think a lot of teams do. George is also closest
[41:51] Speaker 1: to the biggest city in the South, Atlanta. Well there's
[41:55] Speaker 1: more money, more attorneys, more doctors, more you know, venture
[41:59] Speaker 1: capitalists in Atlanta in the South, and they're Georgia.
[42:02] Speaker 3: I do think sometimes too, You'll have.
[42:06] Speaker 4: You know, it's a very human nature thing, but you
[42:08] Speaker 4: become motivated by something that you don't think you can
[42:12] Speaker 4: get as opposed to expecting it, right, I mean it's
[42:14] Speaker 4: the King of the Mountain.
[42:16] Speaker 3: Analogy here where you know, as Georgia.
[42:19] Speaker 4: Is motivated to spend when they put together these these runs,
[42:22] Speaker 4: like what if Alabama's not in the playoff for ten years?
[42:25] Speaker 4: What do you think, like what do you think that
[42:26] Speaker 4: nil is going to be like or whatever? You know,
[42:29] Speaker 4: like Ohio State after losing to Michigan before the season,
[42:33] Speaker 4: and it's still This is one of the things I
[42:35] Speaker 4: think with college football that even though people love the expansion,
[42:38] Speaker 4: I don't. It's more of a reflection of how much
[42:40] Speaker 4: I hate the realignment. I've already done these rants far
[42:42] Speaker 4: too many times. But I'm watching your network and it's
[42:45] Speaker 4: Ohio State Michigan and the broadcast is like this is
[42:48] Speaker 4: for everything, and it's like, yeah, except it isn't because
[42:50] Speaker 4: Ohio State's going to lose this and then win a
[42:52] Speaker 4: national championship and I will forever miss that that is
[42:56] Speaker 4: not on the line. But yes, it doesn't ruin my
[42:59] Speaker 4: enjoyment of this incredible rivalry and what was like an ugly, awesome,
[43:03] Speaker 4: just a brutal game and you know, the emotions that
[43:06] Speaker 4: game are just like they're on the TV screens.
[43:08] Speaker 3: It's a fucking awesome product.
[43:11] Speaker 4: But when I think about, you know, how State this
[43:17] Speaker 4: past offseason and grabbing Caleb downs as soon as savings.
[43:21] Speaker 3: Out of there, going to get Will Howard, which you.
[43:23] Speaker 4: Know at the time, remember like the summer, it was
[43:25] Speaker 4: a bit of an argument like, hey, well if he
[43:27] Speaker 4: was that special, like why is this guy leaving k
[43:29] Speaker 4: State and all these things, and it just works and
[43:31] Speaker 4: we knew that it was supposedly this twenty million dollar program.
[43:34] Speaker 3: Is this about?
[43:35] Speaker 4: Ohio States should always be able to fund all this
[43:36] Speaker 4: stuff if you name the top blue blood programs, the
[43:39] Speaker 4: places where it matters the most. I don't know that
[43:40] Speaker 4: this is ever going to be an issue, but there
[43:42] Speaker 4: is something about that void. There is something about feeling
[43:45] Speaker 4: like this is bullshit that motivates you in a way
[43:48] Speaker 4: that's that's just hard to replicate when you're used to
[43:51] Speaker 4: all the success. So I think that's what will probably
[43:54] Speaker 4: happen amongst the top schools.
[43:56] Speaker 3: It's just a matter of like, how many.
[43:57] Speaker 4: Of these top programs do you think will have access
[44:01] Speaker 4: to maybe a spending spree and look, apparently now we
[44:05] Speaker 4: have a cap at twenty million for an entire academic department. Yeah,
[44:09] Speaker 4: good luck figuring that one out. Good luck being the
[44:11] Speaker 4: tennis coach, you know, like, hey, she really like this
[44:16] Speaker 4: kid from Choate. You're like, yeah, well we our guy
[44:19] Speaker 4: needs a six defensive back.
[44:23] Speaker 3: So sorry, Yeah, that thing a bit of a circus.
[44:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, well I told you it was only gonna take
[44:29] Speaker 1: thirty minutes, but that's not We can't talk for thirty
[44:31] Speaker 1: This fucking thing's already gone an hour.
[44:33] Speaker 3: Sorry. I didn't mean to do that.
[44:34] Speaker 1: I really didn't. I want to. I know you're busy.
[44:36] Speaker 1: I know you got to do like sixteen local hits
[44:40] Speaker 1: and spoken it's available.
[44:42] Speaker 3: Are the Sonics coming back? So well? No, man, I
[44:46] Speaker 3: just love love talking to you. Know how I feel
[44:47] Speaker 3: about you. So whatever you need, same here, all right, buddy,
[44:52] Speaker 3: appreciate it.

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