March 29, 2025 • 58 mins
Arkansas Head Men’s Basketball Coach John Calipari discusses navigating the transfer portal, and breaks down how the SEC has evolved into the best conference in college basketball. Michigan State Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Izzo drops by as he is getting his squad ready to face Ole Miss in the Sweet Sixteen. Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey talks with Dan about how well the SEC has done in men's basketball this year and how they're keeping the regional conference mentality to stay strong in a nationalizing world of college athletics. And NBA legend Charles Barkley joins Dan to discuss the continuing battle between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith, plus weighs in on the NCAA Tournament and his Auburn Tigers.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
John Caliperi Hall of Famer, Beat Kansas Beat Saint. John's
got Texas Tech coming up this Thursday. Back on the show,
back in the sweet sixteen, Look who is Look who
proved he could still coach? Congratulations there John, Thank you
Dan Patrick.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
That's the ugliest top I've seen in the Wow. It
befits you though, So it's it's it's good.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well what's uglier? Your sport coat from this weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Or like.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
That sport coat?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hey, you won with it. It looks a whole lot
better when you win. And this is this is a
gift from Adam Sandler.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
This is Yeah, you're out hitting golf bolls.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
But do you would you would you think it's in
the bag to go this weekend?
Speaker 4 (00:52):
That's sport coat.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Yeah, it's in the bag.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Okay, I'll travel with it.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Okay. And when you're done with it, maybe you could
send it to the man cav I.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Will, I'll deliver it to the cabin in Maine. Okay,
I'll hand deliver it.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Are you an underdog?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, yeah, I'm fine with that. Like look, most of
my career was should and Wooden can't won't. I mean
we've been the underdog. You remember you match, You came
up and did some games, you went on the court,
shot airballs and you know some of the stuff there,
and the Memphis the same thing. And you know, we
(01:31):
had a pretty good run at Kentucky and there was
that eight nine year period where yeah we were the one.
But you know, most of my career I've been that
and so I'm fine in that role. I'm comfortable in
the role. I'm just trying to make sure my team
is comfortable in that role.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I was going to ask you, are you telling them
it's nobody believed in US, US against the world. No,
none of them.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
No, I'm just saying we're the underdog, and every time
they play in those kind of games, they play well.
I think, look, we're at that point in the year.
The whole thing is how do I get them to
have that mindset that we had against Saint John's Because look,
there's two things happened. We went two for nineteen from
(02:21):
the three and gave up twenty eight offensive rebounds.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
But still one we played to win.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Don't matter what happens, don't matter they got a rebound
just keep playing, and we keep them in that attitude
and that mindset. It doesn't mean you're going to win,
but it gives you a good chance to win.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
How do you keep the relationship or whatever with Patino
out of going into a game, coaching a game and
making it about the game, that it's not about you
against Rick?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
If you went through the year we went through when
we were zero to five, when we were one and six,
and they said they got no chance of making the
NCAA tournament. When you're playing games, you're not worried about
the other coach, you're about survival. I wasn't worried about
match and went no chess game. I wasn't he out coaching.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I didn't care.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It was about let's just win because what these kids
went through, they deserved good to happen. Because they came together.
They became one heartbeat, and well, what did you do?
What did I do? They knew if they didn't come together,
they were gonna lose every game, and they figured this,
you know what, I'm so worried about myself. If I
(03:39):
worry about the team more than myself, maybe it's easier.
And they found out it was easier.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
How do you balance coaching right now and the transfer
portal all in the same week of preparing and transfer
portal starts today.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, we yesterday was a kind of long day, got
a lot of film work done, got practice plans prepared,
the staff meetings where we were doing everything, and then
in the end I said, all right, let's let's talk now.
Before you can figure out portal, don't you have to
(04:19):
know who's coming back and who's leaving. So I don't
know of anybody in these sixteen teams that is sitting
down with players and say are you coming back? Or
you can put your name into portal with you know.
So it's just difficult right now. But we've got names
and you know. And what I would say with anybody listening,
(04:41):
if you want to get better, if you want to
be challenged, if you want to really play with good players,
be coached as though you've already gotten there to be
hugged and challenged and make you uncomfortable, and then you
come with me, you come to Arkansas. But right now
we're not on the phone with anybody yet my staff.
(05:04):
Maybe I shouldn't say that. My staff may be, but
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
When will you be open or paying more attention to
the portal yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
If there's a young man that we know is really
really good and he wants to do this and wants
to talk to me, he won't believe this.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I probably get on the phone with.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Them and say, hey, let's do this. But short of that,
it's probably mostly staff.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
My hope is that we have a group We have
some guys that won't be back because they're graduated out
or they're going to you know, put their name in
the draft and all that, but there is another grouping
of players who are really good that probably need more
time that we do that. We already have three guys
(05:53):
freshmen signed. And I'm going to say this again and
I said it after I'm still recruiting freshmen. I'll recruit
the best freshmen. And as you saw last game, three
of them played a lot of minutes. But I can't
recruit seven or eight freshmen. So we got one more
freshman we're trying to get. We've got three one that
(06:16):
you know, they're they're all really good, okay, but we're
trying to get one more and then who comes back,
and then probably a couple of transfers, and that'll be
our team.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Is the SEC of football conference or a basketball conference.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
You're trying to get me in trouble.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Last time I said something like that stuff, people went nuts.
And then you find out that you know they're investing
in what they want.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So I look it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I told our baseball coach, who's there were number one
in the country, and you know right there, they're gonna
win a.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
College World Series.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Every game they played every weekend, and they knew they
could win or lose. What about the football you want
to say, Vandy, Well we got Vandy. Yeah, go play Vandy,
Go play them. Now, well we could play Mississippi. Yeah,
go play Mississippi, play Arkansas, Tennessee, and you get beat.
I mean that's what happens. Well it's now basketball the
(07:20):
same way, and its top to bottom. Our bottom two
teams would have figured finished in the top half of
most leagues.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
They were that good.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But they got into this league and they started It
was like Oklahoma when thirteen and oh beat people did it.
Got in the league and couldn't win early. We were
owing five to start, and I knew we weren't bad.
I wasn't sure, but we were owing five and we
survived it. And now it looks as though how many
(07:55):
SEC teams are in the sweet sixteen?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You don't know people seven? Okay, yeah, you underestimate me.
And that's when you make a mission.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Always under it.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yes you have, and I've always overestimated you. Uh finish this.
We will make the final four.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
If the other team doesn't make twenty threees.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's it.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Well, don't screw it up. Now you got this far.
You got to go further than Kentucky, don't you.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No, not worried about them. This is what's happened for us.
This season has been the most rewarding season. I've had
seasons where we won more games and won national titles
and final fours and Elite eights. I've had all those,
But what this team has been through to survive it,
(08:55):
it's been as rewarding as any season. It talks a
lot about the character of these kids, how they were
raised that they could withstand the onslaught Dan. These kids,
all of them have pianos on their backs because of Nil. Well,
they're paid, they should do this, and they're trying to
(09:17):
live up to expectations. It's a piano. Families are involved
more than ever before why nil? And then social media
and you know what the worst is for the kids
talk radio. I mean, all that stuff is out there
that they got to deal with, and then the expectations
(09:38):
are winning pianos on their backs.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Good to talk to you, Thanks Danny.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I need to know the cabin. Do you have a
studio in the cabin in case you want to do
it up there?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes? I knew it.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I knew it.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Do you let your guys come up and stay? They
got to go to a hotel.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
No, they don't get invited. It's like, thank you. Right,
you're very selfish.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
But you know what's great, You've been consistent.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Your whole life. Thank you, Thank you, coach.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 6 (10:25):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
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Speaker 7 (10:30):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm
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Speaker 6 (10:37):
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Speaker 7 (10:39):
We talk about everything, life, sports, relationships, what's going on
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Speaker 6 (10:43):
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Speaker 7 (10:52):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
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Speaker 6 (10:58):
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Speaker 7 (11:14):
And if you miss any of the live show, just
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Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's Covino and Rich sixteen times to the Sweet sixteen
his yearly visit with The Dan Patrick Show. He is
Hall of Famer Tom Izzo joining us on the program.
What's your schedule today?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
My schedule. I got in here about seven seven thirty
and had a little film work, answered some Texas and
then talk to my staff about what we're going to
do in practice and get a press conference in a
little bit, some our staff meeting and then practice. That's
my day.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
How's the voice?
Speaker 5 (11:55):
It's great?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Great.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Get a little sleep. I got a little sleep last
night for the first time night before. Not much. But
it's the same as every other coach, and just I'm
a little older than some of them.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
The balance of coaching this week and the transfer portal,
how do you focus on one when you need to
and the other one when you need to?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah, you know, I'm putting everything towards my team. I
owe them to that. I think you know, recruiting is
very important. The transfer portal to me isn't as important yet,
but recruiting is very important. And yet my old boss
used to have a theory says, problem with young assistants.
They spend so much time getting the next player they
(12:37):
forget to take care of the one they got. And
I think there's some validity to that. You know, there's
a happy medium. My happy medium when you get to
the sweet sixteen and on is you know, you don't
always get here. So everything's going to be from my team,
the players on my team. We'll let everybody else worry
about the transfer portal. Hopefully winning helps somebody, even though
(12:58):
you and I know it doesn't. It's all out the
money now. But that's okay too.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
But help me with the philosophy of recruiting, because you
don't have many want of don's like Jason Richardson was
a one and done. I don't do you go at
you know, do you try to go after the one
and donners or do you have that philosophy of I'll
take the guy who might stay here three or four years.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
No, I'd love to have Jaron Jackson, Miles Bridges, you know,
where guys Gary Harris that were one in two years
and done. And you know, you got to have some
those kind of talented players, you know, to do that.
But no, I don't shy away from that at all.
It's just they're not as easy to get. You know,
for the most part, A lot of those programs, you know,
(13:43):
Duke and Kentucky has had more of those kind of players.
Maybe Kansas some, but I don't think there's as many
programs as you think there are that are getting those
kind of players.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
How do you coach differently in March than November?
Speaker 5 (14:00):
You know, I don't think I coached that much differently.
I just think that there's kind of a culture and
a feel here that when it comes to February, everybody
knows the NCAA tournament. We've had some success in it,
and I think I think the players that come here
expect everything to be ratcheted up a little bit as
(14:21):
you get to the end of the year, and it's exciting.
It's not a you know, like my players after we
won on Sunday, the first thing they said in the
locker room, because usually we give them Monday off is
let's practice Monday. That came from the players, you know,
so they know what time of year it is and
they know what they got to do.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Is Michigan State a football school or a basketball school.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
It's a football school, which I think ninety percent of
these schools are. You know, we all I have such
a great relationship with all the football guys here. I've
always had a great relationship with them because I realized
that they're still making seventy percent the money. What I
think is unique about Michigan State, and there's a couple
of schools that have this, is we've been pretty successful
(15:08):
in both you know, nine years ago we both went
to a Final four. Those are what's really exciting about
schools like this.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Ever coached against a coach that you don't like, Like.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Sure, sure you do, even though I get along with
most of the coaches, But there's coaches I wouldn't say,
don't like. Maybe I didn't respect as much because of
things that were going on. Now that's changed now because
we don't have any rules anymore. So you know, it's
easier now I can like everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Okay, but if you know such, so are we talking
about if somebody was cheating, Like you're going to face
somebody and you know they were cheating, that's when you
have that I don't respect you.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
That's what I have privately. I don't share that publicly
very often. But I mean, but.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
What's it like in the handshake line? You don't walk
by and go cheater and then just good game, good game,
good game, cheater, good game, good game.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Yeah. I don't do that at all. I think I
respect every coach I go against because even the guys
that I thought were doing stuff back in the day,
I know how hard these jobs are. And Judge used
to say the game makes fools of us all.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Well, that there's.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Some truth to that.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
When's the last time you ask Magic Johnson to help
you with the recruit.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
I'll ask them all the time, but I really don't
have to ask him. You know, he's always tweeting out
something or he's saying something. And you know, now they're
actually allowed to help you legally. Yeah, if you come
to campus and they get there. It used to be where,
you know, if you had a football game and just
happened that magic, seats.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Were behind the recruits.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
But now you can sit them right with them as
long as they're on campus. But you know, Magic's been great.
I mean a lot of the former players that I
coached have been great with it, and it helps when
you have But Jason Richardson, Jace Richardson, the son of
a player that's getting good, I'm going for grandsons.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Thought, now, yeah, how much longer you got these coaches
who are saying I can't, I don't want to do
it anymore. You know, it's the transfer portal, nil, And
it's just not the way it once was. So what's
motivating you to continue to do this stubbornness?
Speaker 5 (17:24):
To be honestly, it's total stubbornness. I still love what
I do. I don't like what has gone on. I
don't think anybody does, to be very honest with you,
and you know, some say it, some don't say it.
But right now I've taken a better, better stance with myself.
For a couple of years, I was on all those
committees and I just kind of gotten off where I
(17:47):
don't worry about my team and not worry about all
the things that I can't control. And unfortunately, nobody can
control what's going on right now. There is no control.
That saddens me for our profession, but it is what
it is. So I went in Rome do like the Romans.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
You know, it sounded like a grumpy old man, get
off my lawn. Where you were talking about playing games
after ten o'clock on the West coast in the tournament.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
It was rumpy. I just think it's very difficult to
do that. You know, we do, Dan, I don't know
what you did at Dayton, but we do go to
school here too. You know, we are a student athlete.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, we never did that at Dayton.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
I know, I know, I understand that. But when you
get back at three in the morning, now you got
to prep. It's just more difficult. I understand that TV
pays the bills. I love all the TV people, so
I got no problem. But it does get to wear
on you sitting there all day and that it's one
part I'd like to see changed a little bit, but
it is what it is. So I don't think I
(18:53):
sounded grumpy about it. I expressed my opinion, but you
express your opinion all the time.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I'm grumpy. Yeah, I'm gonna get off my laune guy.
I think this had to do with your bedtime, and
that's what you were bothered by.
Speaker 8 (19:05):
Now, I don't go to sleep now, listen with the
Transford Portal, you don't go to sleep ever you got
you gotta go over and sit with your players, make
sure nobody's flying it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Do you have your phone on vibrate?
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
By your bed?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay after midnight?
Speaker 5 (19:27):
Oh yeah, all the time. I mean, you never know
what's gonna happen. You know, there's a lot of things
that happened.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
But but if you had to bail somebody out of
jail or anything like that, Have I had to in
the past.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
There's things like that that happen. Yeah, you know, sometimes
it's not always for bad things. You know, parking tickets
and he gets picked up or something. But yeah, any
coach that tells you they don't have their phone on
at night or they sleep probably lying to you.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Single best player you ever coached against was.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Ah Boy. You know. When I was an assistant, Shack
we played against. I played against grand Hill. I thought
was one of the greatest players. But boy, that's a
loaded question. And I'm not saying that against anybody. They're
just man when you're at this level. He played against
a lot of great players.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
What was the scouting report on Shack?
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Really big? I was just a ga back then. That
was in my early days. And uh, I remember telling
jud boy, that guy's a big guy, you know, but
he was good.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
He was good.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I like Shack, but you knew who was so good?
Was Chris Jackson?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
He was. He was good more more my size too.
That's why I should like, I love more.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But he was I mean, imagine him in today's game.
He would he would break you off the I mean
off the dribble crossover. And he was so quick with
that jumper.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah, he could shoot it from long range, so he
probably would fit in since the three is more prevalent now.
I don't even think the three had just come in then.
It was right around that time, because I know we
had Scott Skyles and we didn't have a three point
shot then that was in eighty six.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Now, help me, is the story true about Scott Skiles
and John Thompson?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
The it was actually it was in Dayton.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yet at the tournament, right, Yeah, there.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Was nothing bad with John Thompson, but they really got
after him the first half, and I think Scott was
zero for nine and I just remember that halftime. He
was sitting in there and we're playing Georgetown, and I
mean he was seeding, you know, and he played really
good the second half we won. So you know, Scott
(21:46):
had a tendency to talk stuff. But tell you what,
he was a help player.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Did he did he say to Thompson while dribbling the
ball to John on the sidelines, why didn't you get
somebody bleeping out here who can guard me?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Guard me? Yes, you know, I didn't hear it. I
heard it, but I do believe it. I do believe it.
It was. It was one of the things that Scott
was he was good at. But he backed up what
he said, So you got to give him credit there.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Great to talk to you again. I'll talk to you
next year at this time, right, you and I'm still.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Going to be here.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I will be were you to be in a transfer portal?
Speaker 5 (22:27):
Are you going somewhere else?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I got three more years? Do you have three more years?
Speaker 5 (22:31):
I got seven?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You're gonna be there seven more years? No?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I got seven on my contract?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, but you guys don't live up to those contracts.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
You live up the years.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yes, I'm my boss.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You know what, my money because I do enjoy you're
You're crazy in your own way, but so am I.
Someday when we're done, we'll play golf and get along.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I would like to play one on one with you
in basketbare you go. I'm going to slap the floor
just to let you know I'm gonna lock you down. Coach,
you can bring in Steve Mariyuci if you want to.
I don't care.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
I'm breaking Mooch.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
He didn't scare me. Mooch doesn't scare me either.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
Well. I appreciate you having me on Dan and you
have a good rest of the tournament. I'll try to
do the same.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
All right, Coach. That's Tom is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
He's the SEC Commissioner. He's Greg sank Back on the show. Commissioner,
thanks for joining us. When did the SEC first start
to focus its resources maybe on making the Conference of
basketball powerhouse? Was there you know a moment where you said,
why don't we just take the headlines in other months?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Well, yeah, I.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
Can speak to when it became really raw for me,
and it was March of twenty sixteen. That was the
end of my first basketballs and as the SEC's commissioner,
and we had three teams selected to the NCAA Tournament
on the men's side that Dan, that was the fourth
time that had happened in the prior ten years. So
(24:10):
it's not like we had a great trend going, but
when you're in the commissioner's share, that moment was pretty
raw and we had to do some things differently from
our end in the conference office.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Okay, but what was the plan that you put in place?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, a couple of things.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
One, we had had some consulting relationships where we really
weren't talking about the right things. You remember the old RPI,
which is now the net. We would spend an ordinate
amount of time trying to figure out how to game
the RPI and scheduling. We weren't talking about hiring the
right people. We weren't talking about facilities, we weren't talking
about recruiting. The day after that selection, Sunday, I transitioned
(24:52):
away from one advisor and I brought Mike Trangiesi in
the next day. And what Mike did is help us
talk about the right things. The other bonus with Trangeesi
and I grew up outside Syracuse, New York, so watch
the Big East form was like when Mike said you're
good at basketball to the media, you were automatically.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Good at basketball. But one of the things he did
was he.
Speaker 9 (25:13):
Talked to our ads as they were going through the
hiring of coaches, and not tell them too to hire
who to hire, but talk to them about perhaps who
not the hire, who may not be ready for the
stage that we have. Those kind of conversations became much
more relevant. We had some other tweaks we needed to make,
but that was a big part of the conversation.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Did you take the same approach to football at any
point where you guys have been successful winning titles, but
now with more teams in the playoffs, and is there
any a different shift in philosophy.
Speaker 9 (25:48):
You know the reality of this job. And a long
time ago I was Southland Conference commissioner. I was like
way off Broadway. You never called me for an interview,
so I never had the opportunity. I made a decision
that every day in that role, you had to think
about football one way or another. And I think the
reality of the Southeastern Conference is football is dominant on
(26:09):
a daily basis.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
We have twenty one other sports.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
But we also have to recognize the conversation allocation, the
time allocation, so football is a bit more natural. Do
we talk about issues, Absolutely, We're talking about scheduling in
the conference, we talk about non conference scheduling, we talk
about CFP impacts.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's daily.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
We had to be a little bit more intentional on
the basketball front ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Are you in favor of more teams qualifying for more
to Maendness, Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 9 (26:42):
In favor of fully exploring that. I think there's advantages
to doing so. Given there's more Division one members right now,
there's one less conference. But what we're doing is excluding
from participation some of the top fifty teams. And I
think when you look last year at North Carolina State
(27:02):
on eleven seed makes it to the final four, You've
had two or three teams playing Dayton that have made
it to the Final four or made it into the
Elite eight and Sweet sixteen. What that tells me is
there's a competitive balance at the high end, and we
have to think about providing access.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Now.
Speaker 9 (27:19):
I wouldn't just run to expand for the sake of expansion.
I've never put a number on it. I think and
I've been clear that it needs to be fully explored,
and I'm pleased at the NCAA leadership and the committees
involved are doing so.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I'm talking to Greg Sanki, SEC Commissioner. I'm more concerned
about transfer portal and nil with college football or college basketball.
Speaker 9 (27:40):
I think both are are relevant. You know, I watched
the rhetoric right now, Dan, and I mean, we forget
that we've just seen coaches transfer, right We've seen head
coaches leave a program last week to go to another program.
I've had in my league. I've had it in my
league a year ago where a coach leaves Program A
(28:03):
and the SEC to go to Program B. That's reality.
The commentary about young people doing the same thing needs
to be in the context that the adults have that advantage.
Now there needs to be an orderly process. So when
you watch coaches move, it's a pretty tight timeframe. There
are anomalies to that, and I think we need to
tighten up the time frame. Don't forget, like three or
(28:25):
four years ago, the transfer portal was opened three hundred
and sixty five days a year. It's been narrowed, it's
been moved back a week. Plenty of opining that we
shouldn't have the transfer portal open during the NCA tournament.
I'll give you that, but I also know there's a
lot of backroom conversations that take place, and at least
right now with the portal open, everything's on the table.
(28:46):
If somebody is looking to leave, they go in the
portal and it's known and people can deal with that.
It makes it busy for sixteen teams, and I'm empathetic there,
but we ought to just think contextually about what happened
big picture in the game. Quick the nil front we've got,
we're going to see in a week and a half,
the outcome of a lawsuit settlement and whether that provides
(29:09):
meaningful oversight of third party name, image, and likeness activity,
it can be a much healthier environment.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
What if we cap the number of transfer portal players
that you can bring in, or like I'm just trying
to everybody you know says we have a problem. I
just haven't heard solutions here. How can we make this
better for all involved?
Speaker 9 (29:30):
Yeah, we've talked about solutions. So I think some of
you have to go back. There used to be an
NCAA limit on the number of entering team members in
a year or over two years. The basketball community really
ended up railing against that. Miles Brand was the president,
but that came in. We go right back to that
(29:50):
and create some continuity. I do think you have to
remember that we have had attorneys general in states file
lawsuits over transfer policies, even common sense transfer policies. We
also have to remember the NCAA has a habit of
being asked for waivers and granting waivers, which I think
magnifies the problem. So if we came to a point
(30:11):
where he said, hey, the rules are the rules, here's
the timeframe you can engage in certain behavior and there
are no waivers and there are.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
No lawsuits out of those waves. That'd be idyllic for
us compared to where we.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Are now twelve teams in the college football Playoffs. When
do we go to fourteen?
Speaker 4 (30:28):
We'll see not this season. It's a topic of conversation.
Speaker 9 (30:32):
My view is it took us a heck of a
long time to just get to twelve. I think twelve
was a success by all accounts. You saw continuing interest
through the playoff. We actually took a deeper dive as
a CFT management committee. So that's like gobblelygook for the
commissioners and the Notre Dame ad. Looking at an analysis
(30:54):
of viewership throughout the playoff, a lot of positive stories.
You would hear this like year over year comparison of
a particular game being down. That didn't tell the full story.
So I think it was the right time to expand.
I think it worked well. I think we learned a lot.
We've got some work to do before the twenty five
season to make some adjustments. I think the bracketing where
(31:18):
we had these seeds that got moved into the top
four and people lost home games, I'd like to see
that change.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
I think that's immediate.
Speaker 9 (31:27):
I do think there's some relevance to thinking about expanding
the number, whether it stays at twelve or fourteen. I
think even sixteen's a relevant conversation in advance of the
twenty sixth season. That doesn't mean we just go there,
but like that NCAA tournament expansion, we should be looking
at what are the impacts and what are the opportunities.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Give me an alternative to the selection committees.
Speaker 9 (31:53):
Well, we had the old BCS computer anchorings, remember those days,
and everybody said, you know, how can we have computers
making these decisions?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
We need people?
Speaker 9 (32:01):
And what we have now is how can we let
people make these decisions?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
We need computers.
Speaker 9 (32:06):
So it's the full on pendulum swing. Maybe there's something
in the middle where the combination of a committee and
better informed data help support decisions. What I do think
is really important from a Southeastern Conference perspective is the
number on the left hand side of wins and losses
the most important or the right hand side. And what
(32:29):
happened last year and maybe the last couple of years causes,
at least among my athletics directors, the question of we
need to lose fewer games. That creates thinking about non
conference scheduling that kind of dumbs it down.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
I don't think that's good for the game.
Speaker 9 (32:46):
I don't think Nebraska canceling the Tennessee series is good
for college football. And the citation was that members of
the CFP Selection Committee said, well, it won't hurt.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
You that much for dropping the game. I think that's problematic.
Speaker 9 (33:01):
I tend to think we should play nine conference games,
but to get there we have to have more clarity
on the CFP selection process. So in answer to your
direct question, there's likely a balance that can be struck
between the human thought process and the analytics. We know
(33:22):
that people didn't like just analytics, and now they're trending
towards we just don't like humanity as much as we
thought we did.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
So where's the middle ground? Is another one of those work.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Would you be in favor of a College Football Scheduling czar?
Speaker 9 (33:38):
Some of these outside ideas have said that I'd welcome
a conference commissioner having more authority over just deciding conference
and non conference schedules. I don't think the culture of
college football lends itself to csurs. I probably said to
you like the Russian czar thing didn't work out very
well over time, and remember like the eighties, drug are
(34:00):
and we still have problems. So I don't think just
identifying that one mechanism solves the problems. I'd welcome if
people said, hey, you go set my conference schedule, picked
the number of games in this league and our non
conference opponents.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I'd pursue that in a different way.
Speaker 9 (34:18):
But that's not something that resonates within a room of
athletics directors and that football coach is quite the same
way it does on a.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Zoom with you.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
One other item, and this is off topic with football
and basketball, but it does relate to it. Can we
can you see where we separate college football college basketball,
and then you have these other sports that we don't
want to lose. They're not revenue producing but softball and
lacrosse and soccer, and we make them regional so they're
(34:48):
not flying. You know, Cal and Stanford aren't flying cross
country for wrestling or volleyball. That we make this regional,
so you know, your budget is not at stake here
and you can still keep these smaller uh you know sports,
Olympic sports.
Speaker 9 (35:07):
Maybe I don't know what kind of awards you give
for genius decision making. But I think you just gave
me a gold star because we are a regional conference
and for example last week, well you.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Guys are, yeah, but college college sports is not.
Speaker 9 (35:22):
Well, that's because others made different decisions and they have
to to live with those decisions.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, you're running college sports to me, So it's why
I'm asking you know that that that's I'm making you
the college football not z are. You're you're running college sports.
Why don't we let these other sports, smaller sports, non
revenue producing, stay regional while football and basketball if you
want them going cross country, great.
Speaker 9 (35:50):
Again, I'm gonna I'm gonna hold the Southeastern Conference up.
Was the bright shining example of decision making. And here's
a why I actually think I'm not gonna speak to
everybody else. They made their decisions for different reasons. What
I've made those decisions. I think you can look at
what we've done and say, now, they wouldn't have done
the same thing. We had a pack stadium for LSU
(36:11):
at Texas last week in baseball packed, we had a
pack stadium for Auburn or Texas and softball I think
those build on each other. I think those build on
each other. So your question kind of the foundation was
take football and basketball. I think if you're going to
do something in basketball, you're doing it for men's and
women's basketball. We have to acknowledge that. And I'm going
(36:33):
to have baseball programs first round draft picks in baseball
who say, wait a second, I play in front of
more people for conference baseball games, and my basketball team
plays in front of it.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
And I'm going to.
Speaker 9 (36:45):
Sign an eight figure contract with a signing bonus. That's enormous, right,
Why don't I deserve the same treatment as my basketball
colleagues men or women. I think there are distinctions that
can be made, but I think some of that has
to play on decision making. So for the Southeastern Conference,
I think what we do in football has great meaning
and what we do in basketball, and you saw it
(37:07):
with our environments in basketball this past year. I think
what we do in football and basketball plays out in
baseball and softball and meaningful ways. I think people want
to be in those environments. If you want to spend
your time preparing, learning and competing, not on airplanes, you're
going to come and challenge yourself here at the highest level.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
That's my recruiting pitch.
Speaker 9 (37:29):
Others may have to make different decisions because I think
you've seen with these coast to coast conferences people opining about, Hey,
maybe we need a central hub for competition so we're
not flying all over the place. I think they're probably
all learning from this first year as they go. But
I really like the way we've configured ourselves because it
meets the exact question that you've asked me on a
(37:51):
sport by sport basis.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
He's the former Great Commissioner from the Southland Conference. He's
Greg SANKI great to talk to you again, enjoy the
rest of the good to visit with you again.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I certainly hope I do.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Thank you, Greg.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAPP.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
He's one of the faces of CBS's March to Madness
San Antonio The Road to San Antonio Hall of Famer
Charles Barkley back on the show, What do you see?
Who do you see? When you look at Cooper Flag?
Speaker 10 (38:31):
I see Cooper Flag. I see he's a terrific young player.
He looks amazing on television. Can't wait to see him
in the NBA. I hate doing that. I hate when
guys on television try to compare to first But to
say he's already somebody in the NBA is being unfair
of that person in the NBA. What's scared of Dan
(38:51):
that kids should be a senior in high school? Now,
that would be unfair. That would be if he played
hot school. That would be unfair. Some of the passes
he was making last night where it's incredible, But I
think we do a disservice to a lot of these guys,
Like I think Michael Jordan has killed more people than
(39:12):
the plague. You know, well, they're this guy's the next
for Michael Jordan. I'm like, you don't turn out to
be Michael Jordan. This kid is really talented, he's really smart.
I can't wait to meet him. Seems like a really
nice kid because he because he could have had in
what in my day we called a big head. He
was the best high school player in the country. He
(39:33):
came in with all the pressure on him, and he's
lived up to the hype. He hasn't had any missteps.
You know, people out to get you when you're famous,
that's when you are eight seventeen, eighteen year old kid.
But I'm not going to compare. I'm not, first of all,
be a disservice to me to compare him to a
great NBA player. But man, he's a pleasure to watch.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
What about skills, like not necessarily saying that he is
that player, but like I see a little bit of
Kevin Durant with mid range jumper, Like he can shoot
the three. So he's not Kevin Durant, but I do
see You know, everybody's gonna jump right to Larry Bird.
Well that's not fair to Bird and it's not fair
(40:16):
to Cooper Flat. But with tendencies or their.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Game, tell you this.
Speaker 10 (40:21):
I thought he dominated the game last night with his passing.
You know, he scored a good amount of points, but
his passing was the difference in the game, and every
time they needed something he made to play. His ability
to off the dribble is incredible. It was incredible to
watch because you know, I've been studying a lot of tape,
but now when you see these guys in big moments
(40:45):
like that was probably that was probably their first big moment.
That was the first team they played like, oh, they
got a chance of losing this game, and he stepped up.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Man was it was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Who else is stood out in this tournament if you
look at them at the next level playing in the NBA.
Speaker 10 (41:05):
Well, the kid from Florida, Clayton, I don't. I just
need to know what his size is, you know, because
you know all these guys, because if he's big enough,
he gonna be a hell of a pro player, because
he's a terrific college player. Uh, the kid Brent at
Nelson at Alabama, I think he's now. I'm really looking
forward to that matchup with him and Cooper because let
(41:26):
me tell you something, that Nelson kid at Alabama is
terrific and Cooper that's gonna be a great matchup. I
cannot wait to watch that matchup. Jani Broom at Auburn
has been fantastic all year. I can't wait to watch
that game. Michigan State is the most interesting team. They
probably got about three or four guys who are gonna
(41:46):
play in the NBA who don't look like great college players.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
They're really really good players.
Speaker 10 (41:52):
They don't they just they don't jump off the screen
like Cooper and those guys do. But Michigan State their
team is like, man, they gonna have three or four
guys who I think are gonna play in the pros.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You start to look at the model now in college basketball.
I don't know if it's just this year, but you're
seeing less freshmen aside from Duke have an impact in
March Madness. It's a lot of guys who are older.
Transfer portal. Do you think that that is the next wave,
that that's where a lot of teams are going to
say that's the blueprint.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
Well, it's already out of hand with the transfer portal. Dan.
Speaker 10 (42:30):
First of all, let me just say this, the NCAA,
they are the most stupid, idiotic people jackass is in
the world. Like they've already ruined college sports with this
nil thing. And I'm not against players making money. It's
just honor as a wild wild West right now. But
(42:50):
to have to transfer a portal in the middle of
March Madness got to be one of the stupidest things
that I've ever seen in my life. Just when you
think they can't get any more stupid, they trump themselves
and had a transport portal in the middle of March madness.
And I think what you're seeing now is it's just
(43:14):
free agency. Every year, the smaller schools are gonna get
less and less important because if you're a smaller player,
they just gonna cherry pick you every year, like if
you went to a lower amid major. If you have
a good year, they're coming to get you because they
gonna be able to pay more. So I don't know
(43:34):
how this thing't gonna turn out. I just think the
NCAA has screwed this thing up so much. I don't
know how you put the toothpaste back into two. I've
said this before. I think in two to three or
four years, we're gonna have twenty five programs and that's it.
And in listening and I hear guys talking about a
(43:54):
salary cap. The big schools ain't gonna go for those
salary cap. They have the most money. Why would the
Dodgers want a salary cap. The Dodgers don't want a
salary cap. You see all those other teams winding in baseball,
and I'm like, is it unfair what the Dodgers doing.
I think it's one hundred percent unfair what they're doing.
But they don't if I'm a football school like Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia,
(44:20):
Ohio State, Michigan, I don't want a cap. I can
pay the most money and get the best players.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
The difference between the college game and the NBA game
watching it which one is better to watch?
Speaker 10 (44:33):
In your opinion, I think the college game is better
to watch because you know, they're not just out there.
They don't even look for twos anymore. In the NBA,
they don't even look for twos. They'll say, Hey, we're
gonna come to the gym. We're gonna jack up the
most threes. If we hit them, we're gonna win. We
(44:54):
missed them, We're gonna say we didn't make enough shots tonight,
we didn't make enough threes. But when they make them,
it looks great. I'm like, yeah, it does look great
if you make them, but that's the problem. If you're
not making them. Everybody says, man, y'all just shoot a
lot of threes and it don't go in.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
But we got a lot of great players in the NBA.
Speaker 10 (45:16):
You know, I've been very critical of some other people,
not like what Shay Gilgers Alexander is doing this year.
Speaker 4 (45:23):
Is incredible.
Speaker 10 (45:25):
I mean, you know, last year people thought it was
a fluke when the Thunder had the best record in
the NBA. Now they doubled down, like, nah, we are
the best team in the NBA. They went out and
plugged a couple of holes they had with Caruso and Hartenstein.
What the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing this year's fled out incredible.
(45:46):
I mean the Cleveland Cavaliers, like, I think they can
beat the Boston Center. There's three teams they win in
the championship, the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Cows. That's it.
Everybody's just playing. They get just getting a pasting trophy.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
The Lakers chances, you're.
Speaker 10 (46:06):
They got zero chance. I told you that a month ago.
People went crazy. People went crazy when they had like
two good weeks. You know, Dan, anytime you make a grade,
you get a bump. They got a Luca bump. Now
they've got there where they are. Uh you know, but
I was like, no, the Lakers are not contenders. It
drives me crazy. They won some games, and uh, they
(46:29):
were gonna get a bump. You get Lucas gonna get
a bump. Same thing when Jimmy Butler got a bump
when he went to the Warriors. But it's okay, s
World and probably Denver's probably the second best team in
the West. Uh But listen, they're all playing for second place.
Nobody can beat the Thunder. I don't see anybody beating
the Thunder.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
He's Charles Barkley, the Hall of Famer. Who had a
better week Lebron James or Steven A. Smith?
Speaker 4 (46:55):
They both had an awful week. They both had an
awful week.
Speaker 10 (47:00):
Lebron he's too big to be that type of bully
to bully stephen A and to bully Brian Windhorse. Brian
Woodhurst is a sweet person man. He's just trying to
do his thing. And I've always liked Lebron, but him
being a bully it turned me off.
Speaker 5 (47:22):
Dan.
Speaker 10 (47:24):
But I will say that stephen A, the way he
reacted was so lame and weak, and Steve stephen A
is a good dude man.
Speaker 4 (47:36):
For him to.
Speaker 10 (47:37):
React Lebron, like I say, I blame him for starting
a bullying going on Pat show, just bullying people because
you know, Lebron, he's a control free he knows everything
he's doing. He knows everything he's doing. He knew when
he walked up to stephen A what he was doing.
But the way stephen A reacted going on Gibbeth's podcast
(47:59):
talking to and I said, come on, man, you're better
than that. So there's only there's only losers there in
this scenario us as the sports media, you got the
biggest star in the game. You probably got the biggest
star on television. And they both look bad in my opinion,
(48:19):
and what bothers me the most, they both good dudes. Wait,
I don't mind people who are an asshole looking bad.
I don't mind that at all. They deserve it. But
stephen A is a good dude and Lebron is good dude.
But they both look really bad this week. They both
had a bad week. To answer your question, Lebron started
(48:41):
it and stephen A, I'm not sure what he was
trying to do. He just made it worse and worse
and worse. And then I saw the thing last night
we had to come out and apologize with. Then Lebron
didn't go to Kobe's memorial. I'm like, dude, what the
hell are you doing?
Speaker 5 (48:57):
Well?
Speaker 2 (48:57):
They did as you know what they're doing. They both
get attention, they like attention.
Speaker 10 (49:03):
Then the one thing you can always say about me.
I ain't never had personal attacks on people. I've criticized people.
That's part of our job telling the truth. It can
never be personal.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
But are you searching for attention?
Speaker 10 (49:19):
No, they are, Yeah, but it's not good attention. Then
see the problem. Okay, that's a great thing you made.
In my day, any publicity was good publicity, remember that
old saying. But the problem now is when you put
BS out there now every time Dick and Harry and
(49:44):
Louise got an opinion, and they're gonna make it worse.
That's the problem with today. Like I say, and I
hate to talk about my day and my old day. Yeah,
you got publicity good to bad. It was actually probably.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
A good thing.
Speaker 10 (50:00):
But the problem is every food idiot and jackads got
an opinion now because they got a computer. And that's
what made this whole thing so bad. Because a lot
lebron haters are on fire right now. The stephen A
haters are on fire right now. You can never give
(50:21):
BS to the world because those people they got no
life then they I told you these people who live
with their parents, they live in the basement, They don't
have a job. All they do is sit around and
click and talk about people on their computer.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
That's all they do.
Speaker 10 (50:41):
And the problem is stephen A is a good dude
and Lebron's a good dude, and you're gonna have foods
and idiots talking bad about them, and that's the thing
that sucks. But Lebron pissed me off if they went
and Brian went horse because Brin went horse as a
good person.
Speaker 5 (50:55):
Man.
Speaker 10 (50:56):
I don't know him really really well, but I think
he got a pair. He's just trying to do his job.
He probably he's out here catching strays, you know. You
know what Lebron reminded me of remembering The Godfather. After
Appatino left the funeral, he says, we killed everybody today.
We settled all the family business. That's what Lebron did
(51:18):
when he went on Pat McAfee's show. He's like, when
he's sitting my man down, he says, I settled all
the family business to day, I killed everybody. That's what
when I was watching it, when I saw the replay,
I was laughing at it. I said, Oh, this is
right out of the Godfather. He says, I settled all
the family business today, And I'm like, come on, man,
(51:39):
stop taking shots at steven A and Brian win.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Hars Well, how would you do you think everybody on
the Lakers is fine? What Lebron did for his son.
Speaker 10 (51:49):
That's a great question. I don't think that matters. He
did it that kid. I wish him nothing but the best.
He should be in the G league getting better as
a player. He should have been in a G league
all year. I think it was a great story for
(52:10):
them to go into court together, but he should be
in a G league there. You don't get better sitting
on the bitch.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I agree. I wanted him to stay another year in
college if he was going, he needed to play after
the health scares freshman year. But you know, this is
where the problem started with Lebron and stephen A. Or
the most recent one is that you had Tyrese Maxi
torching Bronni during a game and steven A came on
(52:38):
the next day and it was like it was Lebron's fault.
He was telling Lebron how to be a dad a father.
Speaker 10 (52:45):
Well, I think you can interpret it like that. I
think what Steve like I say, I don't know. I'm
not gonna speak for steven A. I'm almost only going
to speak for myself. I think what he was really
trying to say, Hey, don't put that kid out there
with them NBA grown man. Send him to the G League.
We can get better as a player. You can interpret
it in.
Speaker 4 (53:05):
A way you want to.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
JJ Reddick put him in the game. Do you think
Lebron goes Hey put him in on ty Tyree, Smaxy, Torches,
just about everybody who guards him.
Speaker 10 (53:14):
Yeah, But like I say, they shouldn't have put him
in that situation. He should have been in the G
League all seasons.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
I agree. I agree, But that's where that's the trigger.
If you start talking about Lebron is a father, that's different.
You know that's not I can be critical of Bronny
in his game, yeah, but I.
Speaker 10 (53:32):
Can't listen man, Lebron's a Oh I should And I said,
I don't know what kind of fauther Lebron Lebron seem.
But first of all, I've always said that the difference
between Michael Jordan Kobe the three best basketball players I've
ever seen are Michael Jordans, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James.
Those are the three best basketball players I've ever seen.
I said A difference between those first two guys. Nobody
(53:54):
ever said they were nice guys. They gonna kill your
ass and nothing you can do about it. They gonna
kill you and stomp on your grave. Lebron might stomp
on you, but he gonna apologize for it. He's a
nice man. That's the difference. Lebron is a nice guy.
That's why I don't like. I didn't like the fact
because he really came off as a bully in this
(54:17):
entire thing, and that's not who he is.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Yeah, but stephen A, he should have said, JJ reddick,
don't put Ronnie James.
Speaker 10 (54:26):
What's what stephen A should have did? They say, Hey,
Lebron came to me and said this, this, this, I'm
gonna respect that he came to me as a father.
That should have been the end of it. When stephen
A went on the other podcast as a tough guy,
(54:47):
that's I think what triggered Lebron.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Again, do you think he would have gotten into a
fight if Lebron put his hands on stephen A. Stephen
A he said he was going to be throwing punches, and.
Speaker 10 (55:00):
I think sometimes, okay, let me get an example. I
don't think I can beat Shaq in a fight, but
when he touched me in front of twenty thousand people,
I'm gonna swing. If a grown man touched you in
front of a crowd, you one hundred percent, even if
(55:22):
you're gonna get your ass kicked. Like when Shaq did that,
I had to make a spit second decision. Man, there's
twenty thousand people saw him put hands on me. I
got to swing. There's times. First of all, I'm not
gonna doone and fighting. Anybody fighting past twenty five is
a loser anyway. Okay, that's not the way. Any grown
(55:45):
person who fights you just a loser. But in certain scenarios,
like if somebody touch if Lebron touches that dude in
front of a crowd, even if, like if he gonna
kick his ass, you gotta defend yourself to let those
twenty thousand people know you ain't no punk.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
No, you can't throw punches at a game.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
So you're gonna let another man hit you.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
I've said he you're.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Gonna let another man hit you in front of twenty.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Tron Lebron's not hitting stephen A.
Speaker 4 (56:19):
Smith. Yeah, it was so steven. They shouldn't have said it.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
I know, but he says, if he puts his hands
on me.
Speaker 10 (56:25):
That's what see, that's why, this is why screwing up.
All stephen A had to say was Lebron came to
me and said, don't talk about my son. Don't talk
about my son. That would have been the end of it.
But like I said, he goes on Gibber's podcast talking
uh tough and everything. Then he goes on his podcast
(56:49):
talking tough, and I think that triggered Lebron.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, well all hell.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
All he had to do is say, hey, you know what, Lebron.
Speaker 5 (56:56):
Came to me.
Speaker 4 (56:58):
He didn't swing on me. He enemy man the man
and said stop. Stop stop.
Speaker 10 (57:04):
If if steven A had a left right there, we
wouldn't even be having.
Speaker 4 (57:10):
Now we're going on week three.
Speaker 2 (57:14):
How long would the fight last between steven and Lebron.
Speaker 10 (57:18):
I hope somebody gets to steven A and say, yo, man,
stop it.
Speaker 5 (57:25):
Dan.
Speaker 10 (57:26):
You do know the number one rule of sports businesses,
don't become the story.
Speaker 4 (57:33):
That's rude. Number one.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
We're well past that. That that that's the old days.
That Yeah, that's not the way it is anymore.
Speaker 4 (57:41):
I understand that, But you never as a reporter.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
I know you never Yeah, you know, I know, I know.
I'm old school. Don't put your hands on me. I'll
swing at you. You got to, especially in a crowd.
In a crowd, then can you ought to emmatically.
Speaker 5 (58:00):
Have to fight out?
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Okay? All right, have fun tonight, all right, all
Speaker 4 (58:04):
Right, brother wardale Eagle, y'all all right,
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
John Caliperi Hall of Famer, Beat Kansas Beat Saint. John's
got Texas Tech coming up this Thursday. Back on the show,
back in the sweet sixteen, Look who is Look who
proved he could still coach? Congratulations there John, Thank you
Dan Patrick.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
That's the ugliest top I've seen in the Wow. It
befits you though, So it's it's it's good.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well what's uglier? Your sport coat from this weekend?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Or like.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
That sport coat?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hey, you won with it. It looks a whole lot
better when you win. And this is this is a
gift from Adam Sandler.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
This is Yeah, you're out hitting golf bolls.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
But do you would you would you think it's in
the bag to go this weekend?
Speaker 4 (00:52):
That's sport coat.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Yeah, it's in the bag.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Okay, I'll travel with it.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Okay. And when you're done with it, maybe you could
send it to the man cav I.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Will, I'll deliver it to the cabin in Maine. Okay,
I'll hand deliver it.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Are you an underdog?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, yeah, I'm fine with that. Like look, most of
my career was should and Wooden can't won't. I mean
we've been the underdog. You remember you match, You came
up and did some games, you went on the court,
shot airballs and you know some of the stuff there,
and the Memphis the same thing. And you know, we
(01:31):
had a pretty good run at Kentucky and there was
that eight nine year period where yeah we were the one.
But you know, most of my career I've been that
and so I'm fine in that role. I'm comfortable in
the role. I'm just trying to make sure my team
is comfortable in that role.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I was going to ask you, are you telling them
it's nobody believed in US, US against the world. No,
none of them.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
No, I'm just saying we're the underdog, and every time
they play in those kind of games, they play well.
I think, look, we're at that point in the year.
The whole thing is how do I get them to
have that mindset that we had against Saint John's Because look,
there's two things happened. We went two for nineteen from
(02:21):
the three and gave up twenty eight offensive rebounds.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
But still one we played to win.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Don't matter what happens, don't matter they got a rebound
just keep playing, and we keep them in that attitude
and that mindset. It doesn't mean you're going to win,
but it gives you a good chance to win.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
How do you keep the relationship or whatever with Patino
out of going into a game, coaching a game and
making it about the game, that it's not about you
against Rick?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
If you went through the year we went through when
we were zero to five, when we were one and six,
and they said they got no chance of making the
NCAA tournament. When you're playing games, you're not worried about
the other coach, you're about survival. I wasn't worried about
match and went no chess game. I wasn't he out coaching.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I didn't care.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It was about let's just win because what these kids
went through, they deserved good to happen. Because they came together.
They became one heartbeat, and well, what did you do?
What did I do? They knew if they didn't come together,
they were gonna lose every game, and they figured this,
you know what, I'm so worried about myself. If I
(03:39):
worry about the team more than myself, maybe it's easier.
And they found out it was easier.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
How do you balance coaching right now and the transfer
portal all in the same week of preparing and transfer
portal starts today.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, we yesterday was a kind of long day, got
a lot of film work done, got practice plans prepared,
the staff meetings where we were doing everything, and then
in the end I said, all right, let's let's talk now.
Before you can figure out portal, don't you have to
(04:19):
know who's coming back and who's leaving. So I don't
know of anybody in these sixteen teams that is sitting
down with players and say are you coming back? Or
you can put your name into portal with you know.
So it's just difficult right now. But we've got names
and you know. And what I would say with anybody listening,
(04:41):
if you want to get better, if you want to
be challenged, if you want to really play with good players,
be coached as though you've already gotten there to be
hugged and challenged and make you uncomfortable, and then you
come with me, you come to Arkansas. But right now
we're not on the phone with anybody yet my staff.
(05:04):
Maybe I shouldn't say that. My staff may be, but
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
When will you be open or paying more attention to
the portal yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
If there's a young man that we know is really
really good and he wants to do this and wants
to talk to me, he won't believe this.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I probably get on the phone with.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Them and say, hey, let's do this. But short of that,
it's probably mostly staff.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
My hope is that we have a group We have
some guys that won't be back because they're graduated out
or they're going to you know, put their name in
the draft and all that, but there is another grouping
of players who are really good that probably need more
time that we do that. We already have three guys
(05:53):
freshmen signed. And I'm going to say this again and
I said it after I'm still recruiting freshmen. I'll recruit
the best freshmen. And as you saw last game, three
of them played a lot of minutes. But I can't
recruit seven or eight freshmen. So we got one more
freshman we're trying to get. We've got three one that
(06:16):
you know, they're they're all really good, okay, but we're
trying to get one more and then who comes back,
and then probably a couple of transfers, and that'll be
our team.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Is the SEC of football conference or a basketball conference.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
You're trying to get me in trouble.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Last time I said something like that stuff, people went nuts.
And then you find out that you know they're investing
in what they want.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So I look it.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I told our baseball coach, who's there were number one
in the country, and you know right there, they're gonna
win a.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
College World Series.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Every game they played every weekend, and they knew they
could win or lose. What about the football you want
to say, Vandy, Well we got Vandy. Yeah, go play Vandy,
Go play them. Now, well we could play Mississippi. Yeah,
go play Mississippi, play Arkansas, Tennessee, and you get beat.
I mean that's what happens. Well it's now basketball the
(07:20):
same way, and its top to bottom. Our bottom two
teams would have figured finished in the top half of
most leagues.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
They were that good.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But they got into this league and they started It
was like Oklahoma when thirteen and oh beat people did it.
Got in the league and couldn't win early. We were
owing five to start, and I knew we weren't bad.
I wasn't sure, but we were owing five and we
survived it. And now it looks as though how many
(07:55):
SEC teams are in the sweet sixteen?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You don't know people seven? Okay, yeah, you underestimate me.
And that's when you make a mission.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Always under it.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yes you have, and I've always overestimated you. Uh finish this.
We will make the final four.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
If the other team doesn't make twenty threees.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's it.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Well, don't screw it up. Now you got this far.
You got to go further than Kentucky, don't you.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
No, not worried about them. This is what's happened for us.
This season has been the most rewarding season. I've had
seasons where we won more games and won national titles
and final fours and Elite eights. I've had all those,
But what this team has been through to survive it,
(08:55):
it's been as rewarding as any season. It talks a
lot about the character of these kids, how they were
raised that they could withstand the onslaught Dan. These kids,
all of them have pianos on their backs because of Nil. Well,
they're paid, they should do this, and they're trying to
(09:17):
live up to expectations. It's a piano. Families are involved
more than ever before why nil? And then social media
and you know what the worst is for the kids
talk radio. I mean, all that stuff is out there
that they got to deal with, and then the expectations
(09:38):
are winning pianos on their backs.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Good to talk to you, Thanks Danny.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I need to know the cabin. Do you have a
studio in the cabin in case you want to do
it up there?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes? I knew it.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I knew it.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Do you let your guys come up and stay? They
got to go to a hotel.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
No, they don't get invited. It's like, thank you. Right,
you're very selfish.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
But you know what's great, You've been consistent.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Your whole life. Thank you, Thank you, coach.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm
Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
of course the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
We talk about everything, life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well, other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something, right,
So check us out.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls,
chop it up. As they say, I'd say the most
interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive
show on planetar. Be sure to check out Covino and
Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app
from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
And if you miss any of the live show, just
search Covin on Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and
of course on social media.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's Covino and Rich sixteen times to the Sweet sixteen
his yearly visit with The Dan Patrick Show. He is
Hall of Famer Tom Izzo joining us on the program.
What's your schedule today?
Speaker 5 (11:34):
My schedule. I got in here about seven seven thirty
and had a little film work, answered some Texas and
then talk to my staff about what we're going to
do in practice and get a press conference in a
little bit, some our staff meeting and then practice. That's
my day.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
How's the voice?
Speaker 5 (11:55):
It's great?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Great.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Get a little sleep. I got a little sleep last
night for the first time night before. Not much. But
it's the same as every other coach, and just I'm
a little older than some of them.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
The balance of coaching this week and the transfer portal,
how do you focus on one when you need to
and the other one when you need to?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah, you know, I'm putting everything towards my team. I
owe them to that. I think you know, recruiting is
very important. The transfer portal to me isn't as important yet,
but recruiting is very important. And yet my old boss
used to have a theory says, problem with young assistants.
They spend so much time getting the next player they
(12:37):
forget to take care of the one they got. And
I think there's some validity to that. You know, there's
a happy medium. My happy medium when you get to
the sweet sixteen and on is you know, you don't
always get here. So everything's going to be from my team,
the players on my team. We'll let everybody else worry
about the transfer portal. Hopefully winning helps somebody, even though
(12:58):
you and I know it doesn't. It's all out the
money now. But that's okay too.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
But help me with the philosophy of recruiting, because you
don't have many want of don's like Jason Richardson was
a one and done. I don't do you go at
you know, do you try to go after the one
and donners or do you have that philosophy of I'll
take the guy who might stay here three or four years.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
No, I'd love to have Jaron Jackson, Miles Bridges, you know,
where guys Gary Harris that were one in two years
and done. And you know, you got to have some
those kind of talented players, you know, to do that.
But no, I don't shy away from that at all.
It's just they're not as easy to get. You know,
for the most part, A lot of those programs, you know,
(13:43):
Duke and Kentucky has had more of those kind of players.
Maybe Kansas some, but I don't think there's as many
programs as you think there are that are getting those
kind of players.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
How do you coach differently in March than November?
Speaker 5 (14:00):
You know, I don't think I coached that much differently.
I just think that there's kind of a culture and
a feel here that when it comes to February, everybody
knows the NCAA tournament. We've had some success in it,
and I think I think the players that come here
expect everything to be ratcheted up a little bit as
(14:21):
you get to the end of the year, and it's exciting.
It's not a you know, like my players after we
won on Sunday, the first thing they said in the
locker room, because usually we give them Monday off is
let's practice Monday. That came from the players, you know,
so they know what time of year it is and
they know what they got to do.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Is Michigan State a football school or a basketball school.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
It's a football school, which I think ninety percent of
these schools are. You know, we all I have such
a great relationship with all the football guys here. I've
always had a great relationship with them because I realized
that they're still making seventy percent the money. What I
think is unique about Michigan State, and there's a couple
of schools that have this, is we've been pretty successful
(15:08):
in both you know, nine years ago we both went
to a Final four. Those are what's really exciting about
schools like this.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Ever coached against a coach that you don't like, Like.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Sure, sure you do, even though I get along with
most of the coaches, But there's coaches I wouldn't say,
don't like. Maybe I didn't respect as much because of
things that were going on. Now that's changed now because
we don't have any rules anymore. So you know, it's
easier now I can like everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Okay, but if you know such, so are we talking
about if somebody was cheating, Like you're going to face
somebody and you know they were cheating, that's when you
have that I don't respect you.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
That's what I have privately. I don't share that publicly
very often. But I mean, but.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
What's it like in the handshake line? You don't walk
by and go cheater and then just good game, good game,
good game, cheater, good game, good game.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Yeah. I don't do that at all. I think I
respect every coach I go against because even the guys
that I thought were doing stuff back in the day,
I know how hard these jobs are. And Judge used
to say the game makes fools of us all.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Well, that there's.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Some truth to that.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
When's the last time you ask Magic Johnson to help
you with the recruit.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
I'll ask them all the time, but I really don't
have to ask him. You know, he's always tweeting out
something or he's saying something. And you know, now they're
actually allowed to help you legally. Yeah, if you come
to campus and they get there. It used to be where,
you know, if you had a football game and just
happened that magic, seats.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Were behind the recruits.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
But now you can sit them right with them as
long as they're on campus. But you know, Magic's been great.
I mean a lot of the former players that I
coached have been great with it, and it helps when
you have But Jason Richardson, Jace Richardson, the son of
a player that's getting good, I'm going for grandsons.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Thought, now, yeah, how much longer you got these coaches
who are saying I can't, I don't want to do
it anymore. You know, it's the transfer portal, nil, And
it's just not the way it once was. So what's
motivating you to continue to do this stubbornness?
Speaker 5 (17:24):
To be honestly, it's total stubbornness. I still love what
I do. I don't like what has gone on. I
don't think anybody does, to be very honest with you,
and you know, some say it, some don't say it.
But right now I've taken a better, better stance with myself.
For a couple of years, I was on all those
committees and I just kind of gotten off where I
(17:47):
don't worry about my team and not worry about all
the things that I can't control. And unfortunately, nobody can
control what's going on right now. There is no control.
That saddens me for our profession, but it is what
it is. So I went in Rome do like the Romans.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
You know, it sounded like a grumpy old man, get
off my lawn. Where you were talking about playing games
after ten o'clock on the West coast in the tournament.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
It was rumpy. I just think it's very difficult to
do that. You know, we do, Dan, I don't know
what you did at Dayton, but we do go to
school here too. You know, we are a student athlete.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, we never did that at Dayton.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
I know, I know, I understand that. But when you
get back at three in the morning, now you got
to prep. It's just more difficult. I understand that TV
pays the bills. I love all the TV people, so
I got no problem. But it does get to wear
on you sitting there all day and that it's one
part I'd like to see changed a little bit, but
it is what it is. So I don't think I
(18:53):
sounded grumpy about it. I expressed my opinion, but you
express your opinion all the time.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I'm grumpy. Yeah, I'm gonna get off my laune guy.
I think this had to do with your bedtime, and
that's what you were bothered by.
Speaker 8 (19:05):
Now, I don't go to sleep now, listen with the
Transford Portal, you don't go to sleep ever you got
you gotta go over and sit with your players, make
sure nobody's flying it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Do you have your phone on vibrate?
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
By your bed?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Okay after midnight?
Speaker 5 (19:27):
Oh yeah, all the time. I mean, you never know
what's gonna happen. You know, there's a lot of things
that happened.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
But but if you had to bail somebody out of
jail or anything like that, Have I had to in
the past.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
There's things like that that happen. Yeah, you know, sometimes
it's not always for bad things. You know, parking tickets
and he gets picked up or something. But yeah, any
coach that tells you they don't have their phone on
at night or they sleep probably lying to you.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Single best player you ever coached against was.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Ah Boy. You know. When I was an assistant, Shack
we played against. I played against grand Hill. I thought
was one of the greatest players. But boy, that's a
loaded question. And I'm not saying that against anybody. They're
just man when you're at this level. He played against
a lot of great players.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
What was the scouting report on Shack?
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Really big? I was just a ga back then. That
was in my early days. And uh, I remember telling
jud boy, that guy's a big guy, you know, but
he was good.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
He was good.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I like Shack, but you knew who was so good?
Was Chris Jackson?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
He was. He was good more more my size too.
That's why I should like, I love more.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
But he was I mean, imagine him in today's game.
He would he would break you off the I mean
off the dribble crossover. And he was so quick with
that jumper.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Yeah, he could shoot it from long range, so he
probably would fit in since the three is more prevalent now.
I don't even think the three had just come in then.
It was right around that time, because I know we
had Scott Skyles and we didn't have a three point
shot then that was in eighty six.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Now, help me, is the story true about Scott Skiles
and John Thompson?
Speaker 5 (21:21):
The it was actually it was in Dayton.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yet at the tournament, right, Yeah, there.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Was nothing bad with John Thompson, but they really got
after him the first half, and I think Scott was
zero for nine and I just remember that halftime. He
was sitting in there and we're playing Georgetown, and I
mean he was seeding, you know, and he played really
good the second half we won. So you know, Scott
(21:46):
had a tendency to talk stuff. But tell you what,
he was a help player.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Did he did he say to Thompson while dribbling the
ball to John on the sidelines, why didn't you get
somebody bleeping out here who can guard me?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Guard me? Yes, you know, I didn't hear it. I
heard it, but I do believe it. I do believe it.
It was. It was one of the things that Scott
was he was good at. But he backed up what
he said, So you got to give him credit there.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Great to talk to you again. I'll talk to you
next year at this time, right, you and I'm still.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Going to be here.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I will be were you to be in a transfer portal?
Speaker 5 (22:27):
Are you going somewhere else?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I got three more years? Do you have three more years?
Speaker 5 (22:31):
I got seven?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You're gonna be there seven more years? No?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I got seven on my contract?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, but you guys don't live up to those contracts.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
You live up the years.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yes, I'm my boss.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You know what, my money because I do enjoy you're
You're crazy in your own way, but so am I.
Someday when we're done, we'll play golf and get along.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I would like to play one on one with you
in basketbare you go. I'm going to slap the floor
just to let you know I'm gonna lock you down. Coach,
you can bring in Steve Mariyuci if you want to.
I don't care.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
I'm breaking Mooch.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
He didn't scare me. Mooch doesn't scare me either.
Speaker 5 (23:10):
Well. I appreciate you having me on Dan and you
have a good rest of the tournament. I'll try to
do the same.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
All right, Coach. That's Tom is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
He's the SEC Commissioner. He's Greg sank Back on the show. Commissioner,
thanks for joining us. When did the SEC first start
to focus its resources maybe on making the Conference of
basketball powerhouse? Was there you know a moment where you said,
why don't we just take the headlines in other months?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Well, yeah, I.
Speaker 9 (23:50):
Can speak to when it became really raw for me,
and it was March of twenty sixteen. That was the
end of my first basketballs and as the SEC's commissioner,
and we had three teams selected to the NCAA Tournament
on the men's side that Dan, that was the fourth
time that had happened in the prior ten years. So
(24:10):
it's not like we had a great trend going, but
when you're in the commissioner's share, that moment was pretty
raw and we had to do some things differently from
our end in the conference office.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Okay, but what was the plan that you put in place?
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah, a couple of things.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
One, we had had some consulting relationships where we really
weren't talking about the right things. You remember the old RPI,
which is now the net. We would spend an ordinate
amount of time trying to figure out how to game
the RPI and scheduling. We weren't talking about hiring the
right people. We weren't talking about facilities, we weren't talking
about recruiting. The day after that selection, Sunday, I transitioned
(24:52):
away from one advisor and I brought Mike Trangiesi in
the next day. And what Mike did is help us
talk about the right things. The other bonus with Trangeesi
and I grew up outside Syracuse, New York, so watch
the Big East form was like when Mike said you're
good at basketball to the media, you were automatically.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Good at basketball. But one of the things he did
was he.
Speaker 9 (25:13):
Talked to our ads as they were going through the
hiring of coaches, and not tell them too to hire
who to hire, but talk to them about perhaps who
not the hire, who may not be ready for the
stage that we have. Those kind of conversations became much
more relevant. We had some other tweaks we needed to make,
but that was a big part of the conversation.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Did you take the same approach to football at any
point where you guys have been successful winning titles, but
now with more teams in the playoffs, and is there
any a different shift in philosophy.
Speaker 9 (25:48):
You know the reality of this job. And a long
time ago I was Southland Conference commissioner. I was like
way off Broadway. You never called me for an interview,
so I never had the opportunity. I made a decision
that every day in that role, you had to think
about football one way or another. And I think the
reality of the Southeastern Conference is football is dominant on
(26:09):
a daily basis.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
We have twenty one other sports.
Speaker 9 (26:12):
But we also have to recognize the conversation allocation, the
time allocation, so football is a bit more natural. Do
we talk about issues, Absolutely, We're talking about scheduling in
the conference, we talk about non conference scheduling, we talk
about CFP impacts.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's daily.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
We had to be a little bit more intentional on
the basketball front ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Are you in favor of more teams qualifying for more
to Maendness, Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 9 (26:42):
In favor of fully exploring that. I think there's advantages
to doing so. Given there's more Division one members right now,
there's one less conference. But what we're doing is excluding
from participation some of the top fifty teams. And I
think when you look last year at North Carolina State
(27:02):
on eleven seed makes it to the final four, You've
had two or three teams playing Dayton that have made
it to the Final four or made it into the
Elite eight and Sweet sixteen. What that tells me is
there's a competitive balance at the high end, and we
have to think about providing access.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Now.
Speaker 9 (27:19):
I wouldn't just run to expand for the sake of expansion.
I've never put a number on it. I think and
I've been clear that it needs to be fully explored,
and I'm pleased at the NCAA leadership and the committees
involved are doing so.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I'm talking to Greg Sanki, SEC Commissioner. I'm more concerned
about transfer portal and nil with college football or college basketball.
Speaker 9 (27:40):
I think both are are relevant. You know, I watched
the rhetoric right now, Dan, and I mean, we forget
that we've just seen coaches transfer, right We've seen head
coaches leave a program last week to go to another program.
I've had in my league. I've had it in my
league a year ago where a coach leaves Program A
(28:03):
and the SEC to go to Program B. That's reality.
The commentary about young people doing the same thing needs
to be in the context that the adults have that advantage.
Now there needs to be an orderly process. So when
you watch coaches move, it's a pretty tight timeframe. There
are anomalies to that, and I think we need to
tighten up the time frame. Don't forget, like three or
(28:25):
four years ago, the transfer portal was opened three hundred
and sixty five days a year. It's been narrowed, it's
been moved back a week. Plenty of opining that we
shouldn't have the transfer portal open during the NCA tournament.
I'll give you that, but I also know there's a
lot of backroom conversations that take place, and at least
right now with the portal open, everything's on the table.
(28:46):
If somebody is looking to leave, they go in the
portal and it's known and people can deal with that.
It makes it busy for sixteen teams, and I'm empathetic there,
but we ought to just think contextually about what happened
big picture in the game. Quick the nil front we've got,
we're going to see in a week and a half,
the outcome of a lawsuit settlement and whether that provides
(29:09):
meaningful oversight of third party name, image, and likeness activity,
it can be a much healthier environment.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
What if we cap the number of transfer portal players
that you can bring in, or like I'm just trying
to everybody you know says we have a problem. I
just haven't heard solutions here. How can we make this
better for all involved?
Speaker 9 (29:30):
Yeah, we've talked about solutions. So I think some of
you have to go back. There used to be an
NCAA limit on the number of entering team members in
a year or over two years. The basketball community really
ended up railing against that. Miles Brand was the president,
but that came in. We go right back to that
(29:50):
and create some continuity. I do think you have to
remember that we have had attorneys general in states file
lawsuits over transfer policies, even common sense transfer policies. We
also have to remember the NCAA has a habit of
being asked for waivers and granting waivers, which I think
magnifies the problem. So if we came to a point
(30:11):
where he said, hey, the rules are the rules, here's
the timeframe you can engage in certain behavior and there
are no waivers and there are.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
No lawsuits out of those waves. That'd be idyllic for
us compared to where we.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Are now twelve teams in the college football Playoffs. When
do we go to fourteen?
Speaker 4 (30:28):
We'll see not this season. It's a topic of conversation.
Speaker 9 (30:32):
My view is it took us a heck of a
long time to just get to twelve. I think twelve
was a success by all accounts. You saw continuing interest
through the playoff. We actually took a deeper dive as
a CFT management committee. So that's like gobblelygook for the
commissioners and the Notre Dame ad. Looking at an analysis
(30:54):
of viewership throughout the playoff, a lot of positive stories.
You would hear this like year over year comparison of
a particular game being down. That didn't tell the full story.
So I think it was the right time to expand.
I think it worked well. I think we learned a lot.
We've got some work to do before the twenty five
season to make some adjustments. I think the bracketing where
(31:18):
we had these seeds that got moved into the top
four and people lost home games, I'd like to see
that change.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
I think that's immediate.
Speaker 9 (31:27):
I do think there's some relevance to thinking about expanding
the number, whether it stays at twelve or fourteen. I
think even sixteen's a relevant conversation in advance of the
twenty sixth season. That doesn't mean we just go there,
but like that NCAA tournament expansion, we should be looking
at what are the impacts and what are the opportunities.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Give me an alternative to the selection committees.
Speaker 9 (31:53):
Well, we had the old BCS computer anchorings, remember those days,
and everybody said, you know, how can we have computers
making these decisions?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
We need people?
Speaker 9 (32:01):
And what we have now is how can we let
people make these decisions?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
We need computers.
Speaker 9 (32:06):
So it's the full on pendulum swing. Maybe there's something
in the middle where the combination of a committee and
better informed data help support decisions. What I do think
is really important from a Southeastern Conference perspective is the
number on the left hand side of wins and losses
the most important or the right hand side. And what
(32:29):
happened last year and maybe the last couple of years causes,
at least among my athletics directors, the question of we
need to lose fewer games. That creates thinking about non
conference scheduling that kind of dumbs it down.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
I don't think that's good for the game.
Speaker 9 (32:46):
I don't think Nebraska canceling the Tennessee series is good
for college football. And the citation was that members of
the CFP Selection Committee said, well, it won't hurt.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
You that much for dropping the game. I think that's problematic.
Speaker 9 (33:01):
I tend to think we should play nine conference games,
but to get there we have to have more clarity
on the CFP selection process. So in answer to your
direct question, there's likely a balance that can be struck
between the human thought process and the analytics. We know
(33:22):
that people didn't like just analytics, and now they're trending
towards we just don't like humanity as much as we
thought we did.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
So where's the middle ground? Is another one of those work.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Would you be in favor of a College Football Scheduling czar?
Speaker 9 (33:38):
Some of these outside ideas have said that I'd welcome
a conference commissioner having more authority over just deciding conference
and non conference schedules. I don't think the culture of
college football lends itself to csurs. I probably said to
you like the Russian czar thing didn't work out very
well over time, and remember like the eighties, drug are
(34:00):
and we still have problems. So I don't think just
identifying that one mechanism solves the problems. I'd welcome if
people said, hey, you go set my conference schedule, picked
the number of games in this league and our non
conference opponents.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I'd pursue that in a different way.
Speaker 9 (34:18):
But that's not something that resonates within a room of
athletics directors and that football coach is quite the same
way it does on a.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Zoom with you.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
One other item, and this is off topic with football
and basketball, but it does relate to it. Can we
can you see where we separate college football college basketball,
and then you have these other sports that we don't
want to lose. They're not revenue producing but softball and
lacrosse and soccer, and we make them regional so they're
(34:48):
not flying. You know, Cal and Stanford aren't flying cross
country for wrestling or volleyball. That we make this regional,
so you know, your budget is not at stake here
and you can still keep these smaller uh you know sports,
Olympic sports.
Speaker 9 (35:07):
Maybe I don't know what kind of awards you give
for genius decision making. But I think you just gave
me a gold star because we are a regional conference
and for example last week, well you.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Guys are, yeah, but college college sports is not.
Speaker 9 (35:22):
Well, that's because others made different decisions and they have
to to live with those decisions.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, you're running college sports to me, So it's why
I'm asking you know that that that's I'm making you
the college football not z are. You're you're running college sports.
Why don't we let these other sports, smaller sports, non
revenue producing, stay regional while football and basketball if you
want them going cross country, great.
Speaker 9 (35:50):
Again, I'm gonna I'm gonna hold the Southeastern Conference up.
Was the bright shining example of decision making. And here's
a why I actually think I'm not gonna speak to
everybody else. They made their decisions for different reasons. What
I've made those decisions. I think you can look at
what we've done and say, now, they wouldn't have done
the same thing. We had a pack stadium for LSU
(36:11):
at Texas last week in baseball packed, we had a
pack stadium for Auburn or Texas and softball I think
those build on each other. I think those build on
each other. So your question kind of the foundation was
take football and basketball. I think if you're going to
do something in basketball, you're doing it for men's and
women's basketball. We have to acknowledge that. And I'm going
(36:33):
to have baseball programs first round draft picks in baseball
who say, wait a second, I play in front of
more people for conference baseball games, and my basketball team
plays in front of it.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
And I'm going to.
Speaker 9 (36:45):
Sign an eight figure contract with a signing bonus. That's enormous, right,
Why don't I deserve the same treatment as my basketball
colleagues men or women. I think there are distinctions that
can be made, but I think some of that has
to play on decision making. So for the Southeastern Conference,
I think what we do in football has great meaning
and what we do in basketball, and you saw it
(37:07):
with our environments in basketball this past year. I think
what we do in football and basketball plays out in
baseball and softball and meaningful ways. I think people want
to be in those environments. If you want to spend
your time preparing, learning and competing, not on airplanes, you're
going to come and challenge yourself here at the highest level.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
That's my recruiting pitch.
Speaker 9 (37:29):
Others may have to make different decisions because I think
you've seen with these coast to coast conferences people opining about, Hey,
maybe we need a central hub for competition so we're
not flying all over the place. I think they're probably
all learning from this first year as they go. But
I really like the way we've configured ourselves because it
meets the exact question that you've asked me on a
(37:51):
sport by sport basis.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
He's the former Great Commissioner from the Southland Conference. He's
Greg SANKI great to talk to you again, enjoy the
rest of the good to visit with you again.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I certainly hope I do.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Thank you, Greg.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAPP.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
He's one of the faces of CBS's March to Madness
San Antonio The Road to San Antonio Hall of Famer
Charles Barkley back on the show, What do you see?
Who do you see? When you look at Cooper Flag?
Speaker 10 (38:31):
I see Cooper Flag. I see he's a terrific young player.
He looks amazing on television. Can't wait to see him
in the NBA. I hate doing that. I hate when
guys on television try to compare to first But to
say he's already somebody in the NBA is being unfair
of that person in the NBA. What's scared of Dan
(38:51):
that kids should be a senior in high school? Now,
that would be unfair. That would be if he played
hot school. That would be unfair. Some of the passes
he was making last night where it's incredible, But I
think we do a disservice to a lot of these guys,
Like I think Michael Jordan has killed more people than
(39:12):
the plague. You know, well, they're this guy's the next
for Michael Jordan. I'm like, you don't turn out to
be Michael Jordan. This kid is really talented, he's really smart.
I can't wait to meet him. Seems like a really
nice kid because he because he could have had in
what in my day we called a big head. He
was the best high school player in the country. He
(39:33):
came in with all the pressure on him, and he's
lived up to the hype. He hasn't had any missteps.
You know, people out to get you when you're famous,
that's when you are eight seventeen, eighteen year old kid.
But I'm not going to compare. I'm not, first of all,
be a disservice to me to compare him to a
great NBA player. But man, he's a pleasure to watch.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
What about skills, like not necessarily saying that he is
that player, but like I see a little bit of
Kevin Durant with mid range jumper, Like he can shoot
the three. So he's not Kevin Durant, but I do
see You know, everybody's gonna jump right to Larry Bird.
Well that's not fair to Bird and it's not fair
(40:16):
to Cooper Flat. But with tendencies or their.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Game, tell you this.
Speaker 10 (40:21):
I thought he dominated the game last night with his passing.
You know, he scored a good amount of points, but
his passing was the difference in the game, and every
time they needed something he made to play. His ability
to off the dribble is incredible. It was incredible to
watch because you know, I've been studying a lot of tape,
but now when you see these guys in big moments
(40:45):
like that was probably that was probably their first big moment.
That was the first team they played like, oh, they
got a chance of losing this game, and he stepped up.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Man was it was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Who else is stood out in this tournament if you
look at them at the next level playing in the NBA.
Speaker 10 (41:05):
Well, the kid from Florida, Clayton, I don't. I just
need to know what his size is, you know, because
you know all these guys, because if he's big enough,
he gonna be a hell of a pro player, because
he's a terrific college player. Uh, the kid Brent at
Nelson at Alabama, I think he's now. I'm really looking
forward to that matchup with him and Cooper because let
(41:26):
me tell you something, that Nelson kid at Alabama is
terrific and Cooper that's gonna be a great matchup. I
cannot wait to watch that matchup. Jani Broom at Auburn
has been fantastic all year. I can't wait to watch
that game. Michigan State is the most interesting team. They
probably got about three or four guys who are gonna
(41:46):
play in the NBA who don't look like great college players.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
They're really really good players.
Speaker 10 (41:52):
They don't they just they don't jump off the screen
like Cooper and those guys do. But Michigan State their
team is like, man, they gonna have three or four
guys who I think are gonna play in the pros.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You start to look at the model now in college basketball.
I don't know if it's just this year, but you're
seeing less freshmen aside from Duke have an impact in
March Madness. It's a lot of guys who are older.
Transfer portal. Do you think that that is the next wave,
that that's where a lot of teams are going to
say that's the blueprint.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
Well, it's already out of hand with the transfer portal. Dan.
Speaker 10 (42:30):
First of all, let me just say this, the NCAA,
they are the most stupid, idiotic people jackass is in
the world. Like they've already ruined college sports with this
nil thing. And I'm not against players making money. It's
just honor as a wild wild West right now. But
(42:50):
to have to transfer a portal in the middle of
March Madness got to be one of the stupidest things
that I've ever seen in my life. Just when you
think they can't get any more stupid, they trump themselves
and had a transport portal in the middle of March madness.
And I think what you're seeing now is it's just
(43:14):
free agency. Every year, the smaller schools are gonna get
less and less important because if you're a smaller player,
they just gonna cherry pick you every year, like if
you went to a lower amid major. If you have
a good year, they're coming to get you because they
gonna be able to pay more. So I don't know
(43:34):
how this thing't gonna turn out. I just think the
NCAA has screwed this thing up so much. I don't
know how you put the toothpaste back into two. I've
said this before. I think in two to three or
four years, we're gonna have twenty five programs and that's it.
And in listening and I hear guys talking about a
(43:54):
salary cap. The big schools ain't gonna go for those
salary cap. They have the most money. Why would the
Dodgers want a salary cap. The Dodgers don't want a
salary cap. You see all those other teams winding in baseball,
and I'm like, is it unfair what the Dodgers doing.
I think it's one hundred percent unfair what they're doing.
But they don't if I'm a football school like Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia,
(44:20):
Ohio State, Michigan, I don't want a cap. I can
pay the most money and get the best players.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
The difference between the college game and the NBA game
watching it which one is better to watch?
Speaker 10 (44:33):
In your opinion, I think the college game is better
to watch because you know, they're not just out there.
They don't even look for twos anymore. In the NBA,
they don't even look for twos. They'll say, Hey, we're
gonna come to the gym. We're gonna jack up the
most threes. If we hit them, we're gonna win. We
(44:54):
missed them, We're gonna say we didn't make enough shots tonight,
we didn't make enough threes. But when they make them,
it looks great. I'm like, yeah, it does look great
if you make them, but that's the problem. If you're
not making them. Everybody says, man, y'all just shoot a
lot of threes and it don't go in.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
But we got a lot of great players in the NBA.
Speaker 10 (45:16):
You know, I've been very critical of some other people,
not like what Shay Gilgers Alexander is doing this year.
Speaker 4 (45:23):
Is incredible.
Speaker 10 (45:25):
I mean, you know, last year people thought it was
a fluke when the Thunder had the best record in
the NBA. Now they doubled down, like, nah, we are
the best team in the NBA. They went out and
plugged a couple of holes they had with Caruso and Hartenstein.
What the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing this year's fled out incredible.
(45:46):
I mean the Cleveland Cavaliers, like, I think they can
beat the Boston Center. There's three teams they win in
the championship, the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Cows. That's it.
Everybody's just playing. They get just getting a pasting trophy.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
The Lakers chances, you're.
Speaker 10 (46:06):
They got zero chance. I told you that a month ago.
People went crazy. People went crazy when they had like
two good weeks. You know, Dan, anytime you make a grade,
you get a bump. They got a Luca bump. Now
they've got there where they are. Uh you know, but
I was like, no, the Lakers are not contenders. It
drives me crazy. They won some games, and uh, they
(46:29):
were gonna get a bump. You get Lucas gonna get
a bump. Same thing when Jimmy Butler got a bump
when he went to the Warriors. But it's okay, s
World and probably Denver's probably the second best team in
the West. Uh But listen, they're all playing for second place.
Nobody can beat the Thunder. I don't see anybody beating
the Thunder.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
He's Charles Barkley, the Hall of Famer. Who had a
better week Lebron James or Steven A. Smith?
Speaker 4 (46:55):
They both had an awful week. They both had an
awful week.
Speaker 10 (47:00):
Lebron he's too big to be that type of bully
to bully stephen A and to bully Brian Windhorse. Brian
Woodhurst is a sweet person man. He's just trying to
do his thing. And I've always liked Lebron, but him
being a bully it turned me off.
Speaker 5 (47:22):
Dan.
Speaker 10 (47:24):
But I will say that stephen A, the way he
reacted was so lame and weak, and Steve stephen A
is a good dude man.
Speaker 4 (47:36):
For him to.
Speaker 10 (47:37):
React Lebron, like I say, I blame him for starting
a bullying going on Pat show, just bullying people because
you know, Lebron, he's a control free he knows everything
he's doing. He knows everything he's doing. He knew when
he walked up to stephen A what he was doing.
But the way stephen A reacted going on Gibbeth's podcast
(47:59):
talking to and I said, come on, man, you're better
than that. So there's only there's only losers there in
this scenario us as the sports media, you got the
biggest star in the game. You probably got the biggest
star on television. And they both look bad in my opinion,
(48:19):
and what bothers me the most, they both good dudes. Wait,
I don't mind people who are an asshole looking bad.
I don't mind that at all. They deserve it. But
stephen A is a good dude and Lebron is good dude.
But they both look really bad this week. They both
had a bad week. To answer your question, Lebron started
(48:41):
it and stephen A, I'm not sure what he was
trying to do. He just made it worse and worse
and worse. And then I saw the thing last night
we had to come out and apologize with. Then Lebron
didn't go to Kobe's memorial. I'm like, dude, what the
hell are you doing?
Speaker 5 (48:57):
Well?
Speaker 2 (48:57):
They did as you know what they're doing. They both
get attention, they like attention.
Speaker 10 (49:03):
Then the one thing you can always say about me.
I ain't never had personal attacks on people. I've criticized people.
That's part of our job telling the truth. It can
never be personal.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
But are you searching for attention?
Speaker 10 (49:19):
No, they are, Yeah, but it's not good attention. Then
see the problem. Okay, that's a great thing you made.
In my day, any publicity was good publicity, remember that
old saying. But the problem now is when you put
BS out there now every time Dick and Harry and
(49:44):
Louise got an opinion, and they're gonna make it worse.
That's the problem with today. Like I say, and I
hate to talk about my day and my old day. Yeah,
you got publicity good to bad. It was actually probably.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
A good thing.
Speaker 10 (50:00):
But the problem is every food idiot and jackads got
an opinion now because they got a computer. And that's
what made this whole thing so bad. Because a lot
lebron haters are on fire right now. The stephen A
haters are on fire right now. You can never give
(50:21):
BS to the world because those people they got no
life then they I told you these people who live
with their parents, they live in the basement, They don't
have a job. All they do is sit around and
click and talk about people on their computer.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
That's all they do.
Speaker 10 (50:41):
And the problem is stephen A is a good dude
and Lebron's a good dude, and you're gonna have foods
and idiots talking bad about them, and that's the thing
that sucks. But Lebron pissed me off if they went
and Brian went horse because Brin went horse as a
good person.
Speaker 5 (50:55):
Man.
Speaker 10 (50:56):
I don't know him really really well, but I think
he got a pair. He's just trying to do his job.
He probably he's out here catching strays, you know. You
know what Lebron reminded me of remembering The Godfather. After
Appatino left the funeral, he says, we killed everybody today.
We settled all the family business. That's what Lebron did
(51:18):
when he went on Pat McAfee's show. He's like, when
he's sitting my man down, he says, I settled all
the family business to day, I killed everybody. That's what
when I was watching it, when I saw the replay,
I was laughing at it. I said, Oh, this is
right out of the Godfather. He says, I settled all
the family business today, And I'm like, come on, man,
(51:39):
stop taking shots at steven A and Brian win.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Hars Well, how would you do you think everybody on
the Lakers is fine? What Lebron did for his son.
Speaker 10 (51:49):
That's a great question. I don't think that matters. He
did it that kid. I wish him nothing but the best.
He should be in the G league getting better as
a player. He should have been in a G league
all year. I think it was a great story for
(52:10):
them to go into court together, but he should be
in a G league there. You don't get better sitting
on the bitch.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I agree. I wanted him to stay another year in
college if he was going, he needed to play after
the health scares freshman year. But you know, this is
where the problem started with Lebron and stephen A. Or
the most recent one is that you had Tyrese Maxi
torching Bronni during a game and steven A came on
(52:38):
the next day and it was like it was Lebron's fault.
He was telling Lebron how to be a dad a father.
Speaker 10 (52:45):
Well, I think you can interpret it like that. I
think what Steve like I say, I don't know. I'm
not gonna speak for steven A. I'm almost only going
to speak for myself. I think what he was really
trying to say, Hey, don't put that kid out there
with them NBA grown man. Send him to the G League.
We can get better as a player. You can interpret
it in.
Speaker 4 (53:05):
A way you want to.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
JJ Reddick put him in the game. Do you think
Lebron goes Hey put him in on ty Tyree, Smaxy, Torches,
just about everybody who guards him.
Speaker 10 (53:14):
Yeah, But like I say, they shouldn't have put him
in that situation. He should have been in the G
League all seasons.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
I agree. I agree, But that's where that's the trigger.
If you start talking about Lebron is a father, that's different.
You know that's not I can be critical of Bronny
in his game, yeah, but I.
Speaker 10 (53:32):
Can't listen man, Lebron's a Oh I should And I said,
I don't know what kind of fauther Lebron Lebron seem.
But first of all, I've always said that the difference
between Michael Jordan Kobe the three best basketball players I've
ever seen are Michael Jordans, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James.
Those are the three best basketball players I've ever seen.
I said A difference between those first two guys. Nobody
(53:54):
ever said they were nice guys. They gonna kill your
ass and nothing you can do about it. They gonna
kill you and stomp on your grave. Lebron might stomp
on you, but he gonna apologize for it. He's a
nice man. That's the difference. Lebron is a nice guy.
That's why I don't like. I didn't like the fact
because he really came off as a bully in this
(54:17):
entire thing, and that's not who he is.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Yeah, but stephen A, he should have said, JJ reddick,
don't put Ronnie James.
Speaker 10 (54:26):
What's what stephen A should have did? They say, Hey,
Lebron came to me and said this, this, this, I'm
gonna respect that he came to me as a father.
That should have been the end of it. When stephen
A went on the other podcast as a tough guy,
(54:47):
that's I think what triggered Lebron.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Again, do you think he would have gotten into a
fight if Lebron put his hands on stephen A. Stephen
A he said he was going to be throwing punches, and.
Speaker 10 (55:00):
I think sometimes, okay, let me get an example. I
don't think I can beat Shaq in a fight, but
when he touched me in front of twenty thousand people,
I'm gonna swing. If a grown man touched you in
front of a crowd, you one hundred percent, even if
(55:22):
you're gonna get your ass kicked. Like when Shaq did that,
I had to make a spit second decision. Man, there's
twenty thousand people saw him put hands on me. I
got to swing. There's times. First of all, I'm not
gonna doone and fighting. Anybody fighting past twenty five is
a loser anyway. Okay, that's not the way. Any grown
(55:45):
person who fights you just a loser. But in certain scenarios,
like if somebody touch if Lebron touches that dude in
front of a crowd, even if, like if he gonna
kick his ass, you gotta defend yourself to let those
twenty thousand people know you ain't no punk.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
No, you can't throw punches at a game.
Speaker 4 (56:11):
So you're gonna let another man hit you.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
I've said he you're.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Gonna let another man hit you in front of twenty.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Tron Lebron's not hitting stephen A.
Speaker 4 (56:19):
Smith. Yeah, it was so steven. They shouldn't have said it.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
I know, but he says, if he puts his hands
on me.
Speaker 10 (56:25):
That's what see, that's why, this is why screwing up.
All stephen A had to say was Lebron came to
me and said, don't talk about my son. Don't talk
about my son. That would have been the end of it.
But like I said, he goes on Gibber's podcast talking
uh tough and everything. Then he goes on his podcast
(56:49):
talking tough, and I think that triggered Lebron.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, well all hell.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
All he had to do is say, hey, you know what, Lebron.
Speaker 5 (56:56):
Came to me.
Speaker 4 (56:58):
He didn't swing on me. He enemy man the man
and said stop. Stop stop.
Speaker 10 (57:04):
If if steven A had a left right there, we
wouldn't even be having.
Speaker 4 (57:10):
Now we're going on week three.
Speaker 2 (57:14):
How long would the fight last between steven and Lebron.
Speaker 10 (57:18):
I hope somebody gets to steven A and say, yo, man,
stop it.
Speaker 5 (57:25):
Dan.
Speaker 10 (57:26):
You do know the number one rule of sports businesses,
don't become the story.
Speaker 4 (57:33):
That's rude. Number one.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
We're well past that. That that that's the old days.
That Yeah, that's not the way it is anymore.
Speaker 4 (57:41):
I understand that, But you never as a reporter.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
I know you never Yeah, you know, I know, I know.
I'm old school. Don't put your hands on me. I'll
swing at you. You got to, especially in a crowd.
In a crowd, then can you ought to emmatically.
Speaker 5 (58:00):
Have to fight out?
Speaker 2 (58:02):
Okay? All right, have fun tonight, all right, all
Speaker 4 (58:04):
Right, brother wardale Eagle, y'all all right,
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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