Latest / NY's Sports Loud Mouth (VIDEO) / Final Four preview: Will UCONN, ILLINOIS, ARIZONA or MICHIGAN win it all?

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Final Four preview: Will UCONN, ILLINOIS, ARIZONA or MICHIGAN win it all? · NY's Sports Loud Mouth (VIDEO)

• 0:00
  The Mets lose their star closer. They lose their star closer.
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  The Mets are in a bad spot right now.
• 0:11
  I've never seen a Ranger team quit before the Olympics.
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  We're going to be looking at Aaron Judge and saying that he
• 0:17
  can't win the big game, Michael Jordan said.
• 0:19
  I played 82 games. You don't see LeBron doing that,
• 0:23
  but Jack Hughes did after getting his teeth knocked out
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  and played every single shift he got back in the game.
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  I do not understand the weather and I always come into this when
• 2:37
  it comes to shows. And it's not just this one, the
• 2:40
  weekend crunch over the weekend. I don't know if it's going to be
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  a summer day, a spring day, a fall day or a winter day.
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  And, and the reason why is right now it's 46°.
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  The other day it was 72. New York weather just goes from
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  one thing to another and it's raining today.
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  So everybody said it was bad weather and they think rains,
• 3:01
  bad weather. I think more likely snow 12
• 3:04
  inches, 16 inches or even at one point this year we had 30
• 3:09
  inches. It's, it's been crazy.
• 3:11
  It's been a crazy year when it comes to weather.
• 3:13
  And we're only four months in. My 44th birthday is the 29th of
• 3:18
  this month and I'm wondering what is it going to be?
• 3:21
  Is it going to be a rainy day? Is it going to be a cold breezy
• 3:24
  day? I actually a couple of years ago
• 3:27
  had a snowy April 29th birthday. So it doesn't make any sense.
• 3:32
  And, and here's another thing for all the fans that drive or
• 3:36
  have been here on Long Island on 347, this is the worst highway
• 3:41
  in New York. It's worse than the L i.e., It's
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  worse, worse than the southern state, the northern state, you
• 3:46
  name it, it's worse. 135I I don't get it.
• 3:50
  Every single day they're doing something with the traffic
• 3:53
  lights, some kind of road work. It just never ends.
• 3:57
  When is this ever going to end? They're using too many tax money
• 4:02
  out there. And, and I, I wonder where our
• 4:04
  taxes are going because over the last couple of years, it seems
• 4:08
  like our taxes are going up when it comes to housing.
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  Even our landlords, if you have, if you're renting a place,
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  they're raising the rent because they say the taxes are going up.
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  So it, it, it's ridiculous. I'm not going to be political on
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  this, but there's got to be something done.
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  I, I know you live in Georgia. What is it over there as far as
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  taxes are concerned? Is it as bad as it is?
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  Isn't it? Isn't it?
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  It's not as bad as I was, probably almost half of what you
• 4:37
  guys are paying. No, that's probably why you
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  moved there. I mean, you lived here in New
• 4:40
  York for a significant amount of time.
• 4:43
  I actually did. You live in New Jersey or New
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  York? New Jersey.
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  New Jersey. Long Park, Florida baby.
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  Did you live in a condo or did you live in a house?
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  No, I lived in the condo. It was no need for me to buy
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  house up there. I was only going to be there for
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  the season. Right.
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  And, and how long have you lived in Georgia?
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  What? What is it like over there in
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  Georgia? Where?
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  You're living like 3. This is my third going on 4th
• 5:05
  year. It's beautiful man.
• 5:07
  In southern hospitality, weather, it's nice.
• 5:09
  I think we was in 75 today, you know, not to brag.
• 5:13
  It was a good time. It's a good time down here, man.
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  You know, everybody loves each other.
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  We really had no issues. A lot of good food.
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  So you got to stay working out. That's about it.
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  But I thought of that. It's pretty, you know,
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  traditional, you know, nothing major, nothing different.
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  Not too high, not too low. My friend, my friend Ray
• 5:31
  actually lived in Georgia before he moved back here in New York.
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  He got a divorce and his wife, they were cops.
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  They're retired cops. They moved out to Georgia
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  because she wanted to move out closer to our family and he and
• 5:44
  it's warmer there. It's it's better to raise a
• 5:46
  family. They winded up never having any
• 5:48
  children. They had a couple of dogs and he
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  said that it was just so boring over there.
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  He he lived right next to next to the airport over there in
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  Georgia, so. Yeah, that's not not necessarily
• 6:00
  a primetime real estate. Yeah, Yeah, it could.
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  It could be a lot of city people is what I call Northerners.
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  You know, you guys are city people.
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  They get bored down here because everything is slow.
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  City. I live in Long Island, New York.
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  I don't know if you call this city.
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  What they would call Long Island country up there, but this city
• 6:19
  compared to anything down. Here, that's what it is.
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  Over here. This is like a country place to
• 6:23
  live and there's more rural than there is city life.
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  But the towns are beautiful and you get a chance to have the
• 6:32
  best of both worlds. You have beautiful beaches here
• 6:34
  on Long Island, wonderful wineries and great restaurants,
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  so you can't complain about the food over here.
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  And I know you're not going to say New York is one of the best
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  places when it comes to food, but I absolutely adore it.
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  The first game of the Final Four will feature UConn facing off
• 6:51
  facing off with Illinois in a rematch of the Elite 8 in 2024.
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  The rebounding battle will key in this game with UConn center
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  Terrace Reed Junior averaging 13.7 rebounds per game in the
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  tournament against an Illinois team that was 10th in rebounds
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  per game and 7th in rebounds margin during the season.
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  These two teams both have guards projected to be top 15 NBA Draft
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  picks with Keaton Waggler for Illinois and Braylon Mullins for
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  U Conn. The second matchup will feature
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  a Battle of #1 seeds, with Arizona taking on Michigan.
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  Arizona has made 55.2% of their two point baskets this
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  tournament, while Michigan has only allowed their opponents to
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  shoot 44.2% on 2 pointers. Both of these teams dominated in
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  their regions, with Arizona winning by an average of 20.5
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  points per game and Michigan winning by an average of 22.7
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  points per game. Well ladies and gentlemen,
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  there's there's a lot of big pictures in this Final four.
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  It includes 4 major programs with deep tournament histories
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  and the Cinderella team. Only two number one seeds in
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  Arizona and Michigan made it, breaking last year's trend when
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  all of them were number ones. The match up Illinois versus
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  UConn was a surprise. Illinois first Final Four in 21
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  years, 21 years. Illinois is making their first
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  Final Four since 2005. The program has only one
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  national title appearance ever. They were the 2005 runner up.
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  This is just the sixth Final Four in school history.
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  Illinois is one in four all time in the nationals in in the
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  national semi finals. They have 50 NCAA tournament
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  wins, lowest of the four teams. They have never won a national
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  championship. They're chasing their first
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  national championship. And who are they facing?
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  A-Team that's dominated the last five years with a coach that is
• 9:32
  very outspoken, a coach that doesn't hide behind the mic.
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  He doesn't hide behind the camera.
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  He smiles at the camera and he attacks.
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  He might even eat the mic if you give him a chance to.
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  And Danny Hurley, this is a modern dynasty right now.
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  And if they win their third title in five years, this is one
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  of the greatest runs any coach, any team, any program has ever
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  had. UConn is making their third
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  Final Four in four years. They have already owned multiple
• 10:08
  national champions in the modern era.
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  They have knocked out top seed Duke with a second a couple of
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  seconds left. Not even .4 seconds left in the
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  game by Braille and Mullins. They're a dynasty.
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  They got a chance. Now, if they knock off Illinois,
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  which is predicted they will, they have a chance to do
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  something. Not many teams can say they have
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  done. Not many coaches can say that
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  they have done when you talk about the Lakers trying to pitch
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  Danny Hurley an opportunity to come to Lakertown and build a
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  dynasty with the Lakers. Something that the Lakers
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  haven't done since Phil Jackson, a guy that's been successful in
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  the NCAA. Izzo was the guy that held and
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  told Danny Hurley to stay here. You have a better chance now to
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  become the face of the NCAA. College basketball U Conn has
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  had many greats that have come through this program might never
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  be anywhere close to a guy like Danny Hurley.
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  He comes from a family of a brother that's won two national
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  championships with Duke. A father that has won 2728 state
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  championships in New Jersey, kept the school open for so many
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  years when they were going broke.
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  A family of success. And UConn is a program in the
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  Big East that's always flourished.
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  Always when you look at organizations, not just when it
• 12:04
  comes to college and programs, organizations like the Yankees,
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  organizations like the Patriots, teams that have found a way to
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  transition decade after decade, coach after coach into winning.
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  UConn is one of those organizations, one of those
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  programs that you can compare to those teams that have been
• 12:29
  successful. And when you look at success,
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  you always need a top end coach. Look at the Yankees of the 90s,
• 12:37
  Joe Torre. Look at the teams that have
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  succeeded over the years, wherever they have been.
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  Look at the Green Bay Packers, Lombardi, Bill Belichick.
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  With the Patriots. You have to have a Ying to your
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  Yang. And as good as Yukon has been
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  decade after decade, coach after coach, player after player, you
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  need a face, you need a spark. And Danny Hurley is that guy.
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  And I look at all the coaches that are still in this
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  tournament. The biggest name is Danny
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  Hurley. You can't argue that when you
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  look at Arizona, Michigan and even Illinois success stories,
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  there are two number ones. UConn was not a number one this
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  year. They were a number 2.
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  And if there was any team as a #2 coming out of that East
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  region, it was UConn. That's why I had them going to
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  the national championship because of the fact that I
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  didn't trust John Shire. As we saw last Sunday, we
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  understand what it takes to win close games, be a championship
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  competitive team and that's UConn.
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  And then you look at the other teams, there's a lot of history
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  with these teams. Arizona reached their first
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  Final Four in 2001. Freshman star, LED team by best
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  start in school history. Won big, Won the Big 12 in the
• 14:03
  regular season plus the tournament titles.
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  Broke program, win streak record.
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  Arizona is chasing their first title since 1997, which by the
• 14:16
  way, I remember in 1997 I had Arizona winning the whole thing,
• 14:21
  which nobody did. I think they beat Kentucky, if
• 14:24
  I'm not mistaken. They beat somebody.
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  It was somebody. A very big program.
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  I can't remember. It was a long time ago.
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  And then there's Michigan. Always a good basketball
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  program. Always, they've always been in
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  the big stage. Michigan is back to the Final
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  Four for the first time since 2018, one of the most historical
• 14:49
  programs in NCAA history. Everybody remembers the Fab 5,
• 14:55
  the legacy over there. Jalen, we all know that team.
• 15:00
  We we understand what these guys, you know, after they they
• 15:03
  retired from NCAA, some of them went to the NBA and became very
• 15:07
  successful. One guy doesn't know or thought
• 15:13
  that he had a time out left and that cost, I believe Michigan a
• 15:16
  national championship. You know what I'm talking about
• 15:19
  Mr. Chris Webber. But you look at this team and
• 15:26
  you look at the the success from program to program, year from
• 15:32
  year, and you look at national championships.
• 15:34
  I don't know if you can quote A-Team by a national
• 15:36
  championship, but you can quote A-Team by what this team can do
• 15:41
  against elite teams. And what Michigan did this year
• 15:45
  was successfully one of the most elite runs we have seen a team
• 15:50
  have in NCAA history. Think about this.
• 15:55
  The average win total for this team was 20 or more points.
• 16:00
  Think about that. This team dominated offensively
• 16:04
  all season long. Everybody keeps talking about
• 16:05
  Arizona and what Arizona did. Michigan was doing so many
• 16:10
  things at a high clip, so many games at a high clip.
• 16:12
  We haven't seen a team do this as as far as a Michigan team in
• 16:16
  a significant amount of time. Even the 2018 Michigan
• 16:20
  Wolverines didn't do this, didn't have this kind of run.
• 16:24
  Offensively, it's been an impressive, impressive year for
• 16:29
  the Michigan Wolverines. With all the backlash from the
• 16:33
  football program. We all know what happened with
• 16:35
  the coach. We all know what happened with a
• 16:40
  coach that decided to walk away from a program to go to the NFL
• 16:44
  two years ago after winning a national championship, after the
• 16:48
  whole backlash of stealing signs.
• 16:52
  This is a program. This is the school that never
• 16:56
  says die. Think about that.
• 16:57
  It's not just a football program.
• 17:01
  This is a good basketball program, a great hockey program,
• 17:05
  a successful program, right straight through the board.
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  And when you think of about national championships and
• 17:14
  winning national championships and you think about think about
• 17:17
  success stories like Duke and Kansas and Kentucky, St.
• 17:24
  John's, who's never won a national championship, I just
• 17:26
  had to add them. UConn, Michigan's right there
• 17:31
  with some of the elite, elite college programs in NCAA
• 17:36
  basketball history. And again, I this is not what
• 17:43
  you call a pretty Final Four. It really isn't.
• 17:47
  I mean, Arizona and Michigan should be there.
• 17:49
  They've had successful seasons. UConn, they were up and down all
• 17:52
  season long. They had problems winning and
• 17:55
  knocking off St. John's in the Big East.
• 17:57
  They had problems in the Big East, but against teams outside
• 18:01
  of their region, they were good. But again, when games are close,
• 18:11
  who you going to trust? Are you going to trust any one
• 18:15
  of these teams when they're calling the time out and a coach
• 18:18
  is going to sit down with them and call a play, draw up a play
• 18:22
  and make sure that they put their players in the right
• 18:25
  position to hit a shot to win a game?
• 18:29
  And that's why I go back to U Conn, I go back to Danny Hurley.
• 18:35
  Not only does his team believe in him and his personality here,
• 18:41
  he's not afraid to shy away from it.
• 18:44
  He will go out there to the media and say I'm the best.
• 18:48
  Do we remember what happened last year during the the what is
• 18:52
  it round of 32 when they got knocked out?
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  What did he say to the referee, Speedy?
• 18:57
  What did he say when he was running to the referee?
• 18:59
  A lot of F bombs. But what did he say about
• 19:02
  himself? That he's the best coach in the
• 19:04
  effing world. He pretty much told him I'm the
• 19:07
  best coach in the world, I'm the best in the NCAA.
• 19:12
  He was not afraid to shy away from that.
• 19:15
  And you look at that, everybody says that's conceitedness and
• 19:17
  that's ego. Yeah, you have to have an ego
• 19:20
  when you're an elite head coach. You're going to tell me right
• 19:23
  now, Lombardi didn't believe that.
• 19:25
  Bill Belichick didn't believe that any of these guys that have
• 19:28
  been successful everywhere they've gone or not even
• 19:31
  everywhere they've gone when they became an elite coach,
• 19:34
  winning the first national championship or championship.
• 19:38
  Jamie Hurley is not afraid or shy away from saying that
• 19:41
  because he comes from a family of winning.
• 19:46
  Winning is everything in professional sports.
• 19:49
  Nobody wants to come in 2nd. And that goes to how many times
• 19:53
  I've taken shots saying our man, Mr. Coach Fish, he loves Kyle
• 19:59
  Shanahan, loves him success, the best offensive mind in the NFL,
• 20:05
  La La La La la, blah, blah blah blah blah.
• 20:07
  What does he want as a head coach?
• 20:10
  What does he want? He's choked back-to-back times
• 20:14
  against Kansas City in the second-half, having a lead
• 20:19
  because he stopped doing things that has given him success.
• 20:24
  Danny Hurley is not one of those coaches.
• 20:26
  When he finds a way to attack somebody and he knows that
• 20:31
  they're bleeding, he is going to make sure that he's going to
• 20:34
  keep cutting them until they bleed to death.
• 20:37
  He is not going to patch them up or give them an opportunity to
• 20:40
  find a way to put band aids on it so they can crawl all the way
• 20:45
  through the end of the game. He's not going to do that.
• 20:47
  When he smells blood, he's going to attack it.
• 20:49
  Those are the guys that you want to be your leader, the
• 20:55
  foundation of your program. Bill Belichick found ways.
• 20:59
  Everybody said he was a cheater. Oh, he cheated.
• 21:02
  He cheated, He cheated. How did he cheat?
• 21:05
  He found ways in the rule book that were ways to win, and even
• 21:11
  though they weren't illegal in the rule book, a lot of coaches
• 21:15
  said that most coaches wouldn't do that because in their eyes
• 21:20
  that is a form of cheating. But he never says it's cheating
• 21:24
  in the rule book. And how about this?
• 21:25
  I remember when Purdue was in a national championship against
• 21:28
  UConn. What did Danny Hurley do
• 21:31
  throughout the game? He got it to Zach Edie's ears.
• 21:34
  He got into his head and that bothered Zach Edie throughout
• 21:38
  that game. Zach Edie did not play at a top
• 21:42
  level in that national championship.
• 21:44
  Maybe it was Danny Hurley or maybe it was just his defense
• 21:47
  pushing them into positions. And Danny Hurley is one of the
• 21:51
  best. And going into a second-half of
• 21:54
  a game and finding ways to beat their best options, What did
• 22:00
  Bill Belichick do as a champion? He find a way to knock off your
• 22:04
  best talent, your best offensive option.
• 22:06
  And those second or third tier guys have to beat you.
• 22:09
  That's the only way you're going to beat them.
• 22:12
  That's the same thing Danny Hurley does.
• 22:14
  And you notice, and I'll say this, championship coaches find
• 22:19
  a way to beat good teams. It doesn't matter how elite you
• 22:22
  are. Peyton Manning was an elite
• 22:24
  quarterback. He was an elite who had his
• 22:28
  number, Bill Belichick, not in the playoffs, but throughout
• 22:32
  their careers. Bill Belichick had a winning
• 22:34
  record against Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning was three and two
• 22:38
  against Tom Brady in his career in the playoffs, but in a
• 22:42
  regular season, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick absolutely
• 22:45
  dominated Peyton Manning. And that's because when you play
• 22:50
  somebody enough or you know how to read strengths to weaknesses
• 22:55
  on teams and honestly attacking teams the way these great
• 23:01
  coaches do, there is no rhyme or reason on how these guys are so
• 23:06
  great, but the fact that they understand the game better than
• 23:09
  everybody else does. Yeah, it's one of those Dan
• 23:12
  Hurley collaborations that you're seeing with this Yukon
• 23:16
  team has not played the whole complete game yet, but they Dan
• 23:18
  Hurley has gotten his team's always going in the second-half.
• 23:21
  And that's where you see the UCLA game, they were not
• 23:24
  shooting very well from the free throw line.
• 23:26
  The Duke game we talked about, they shot horribly from three.
• 23:28
  And it just shows that Dan Hurley will not be able to
• 23:31
  adjust to any team imaginable. There's enough balance on this
• 23:33
  Yukon team to beat any of these teams left for sure, because
• 23:37
  because the depth that they have.
• 23:39
  You mentioned the bench depth wasn't as good against Duke, but
• 23:42
  they have enough of it overall, enough rotation to make it work.
• 23:44
  And Harley has enough bold, bold ways to make that kind of
• 23:48
  adjustment to any scheme, any possibility that he comes out
• 23:53
  with, even against a team as loaded as Duke.
• 23:56
  Arizona and Michigan are the best teams left and talent wise,
• 23:59
  they're right there with a team like Duke.
• 24:01
  But Yukon already did it to Duke.
• 24:02
  Like what? Couldn't they do it to anyone
• 24:04
  else at this point? Now again, they have to play a
• 24:05
  full complete game. Mention the Martin's victory at
• 24:07
  Michigan 22, Arizona 20 and Illinois is in the double digits
• 24:10
  as well. They've dominated every game so
• 24:12
  far this tournament as well, but the quality of the teams that
• 24:16
  UConn has also played has also still been very strong too.
• 24:18
  Michigan State, though, you were saying when we were out how bad
• 24:22
  they played in the second-half of that game.
• 24:23
  Like they do have to avoid bad stretches like that, but if
• 24:26
  there's any team that has the adversity to do it, it would be
• 24:28
  them. I'm curious to see if a younger
• 24:30
  team like Arizona would be able to handle.
• 24:31
  That Are you going to trust Tommy Lloyd?
• 24:33
  Are you going to trust Dusty May or even Brad Underwood over a
• 24:38
  Danny Hurley now? Danny Early is not going to play
• 24:40
  all these guys. Danny Early has to go 1st
• 24:42
  through Brad Underwood. Are you going to trust Brad
• 24:44
  Underwood if the game is close, when there's two minutes left of
• 24:47
  the game against a guy that has found a way to win 32 national
• 24:52
  championships and has a chance to go to his third championship
• 24:56
  in five years? I'm betting on Danny Hurley
• 24:58
  against any one of these guys. Tommy Lloyd's never been here.
• 25:02
  Dusty Mays never been here. That's the difference.
• 25:06
  Yeah, Brad Underwood, I'm with going to Illinois now.
• 25:09
  I want to reference that their defense has been very impressive
• 25:12
  and they've been doing well without having to shoot the
• 25:15
  three as much as they usually do in the regular season.
• 25:17
  Now, they did well shooting the three when they played Houston
• 25:19
  when they needed to, but that was still a more inside game.
• 25:22
  They made a lot of free throws. And I think they have to make
• 25:25
  sure that they just don't play into that same comfortable
• 25:28
  identity because, you know, UConn is going to try to take
• 25:30
  away somebody. When it came to shooting the
• 25:31
  threes, one of the biggest keys to them to coming back against
• 25:34
  Duke the way they did was taking out the guards.
• 25:36
  That did very well for Duke and other games in that tournament.
• 25:38
  Guys like Evans, guys like Caleb Foster.
• 25:41
  Now Frost was playing hurt, obviously.
• 25:42
  Duke choked. No, I know.
• 25:44
  I'm just saying I'm just. Saying game plan.
• 25:45
  You keep saying that they did. They choked.
• 25:48
  They. Made absolutely.
• 25:49
  They made a terrible mistake, but they were 15.
• 25:53
  They were all 15 going into the half.
• 25:56
  How do you make necessary adjustments though?
• 25:57
  Yeah, you true. Yeah, I mean, you're up 15
• 26:00
  again. And yes, UCONN's a national
• 26:01
  champion, champion team. This is a national champion
• 26:05
  coach Danny Hurley. You're not going to attack
• 26:09
  something when when you see a team and and see a coach come
• 26:12
  back from a lead like that. But Danny Hurley is a guy that
• 26:16
  when he finds a way to get back and he squeezed.
• 26:18
  And if you know the whole story of that game, in a second-half,
• 26:21
  especially a second-half, Duke slowly but surely lost the lead.
• 26:26
  And then they were putting up points.
• 26:27
  And it wasn't because of their can't.
• 26:28
  It wasn't because of Cam Boozer, wasn't because of their their
• 26:31
  star player on the reason why he couldn't hit an open shot.
• 26:34
  He couldn't hit a shot. It was the secondary players
• 26:37
  that weren't doing enough in the game.
• 26:39
  The guys that were hurt. They brought these guys back in
• 26:42
  and they expected them to at least give them something off
• 26:45
  the bench and in in in an Elite 8 where you expect to win that
• 26:49
  game. You're the number one seed.
• 26:51
  You're expected to maybe make that run to the final more like
• 26:53
  you did last year after you choked against Houston and and
• 26:57
  and Shire you you understand why I don't like Shire.
• 27:00
  Shire doesn't win big games. He falls in this hole, a deep,
• 27:06
  deep hole. He doesn't know how to make the
• 27:09
  right call, the right play at the tail end of the game.
• 27:11
  You could be up 8, you could be up 10, you could be up 12.
• 27:14
  It doesn't matter how much you're up when it comes to Coach
• 27:17
  Shire, because Shire to me was candid handed a team, really
• 27:22
  much breastfed this team. And the reason why?
• 27:27
  Because Coach Gay thought that this guy was going to be the
• 27:30
  answer of Duke basketball. Coach Gay hasn't won a national
• 27:33
  championship since when Speedy. 2015. 2015 How long is that
• 27:37
  speedy? That's. 11 years, that's eleven
• 27:41
  years. That's a long time for a program
• 27:43
  that's been successful. Coach K, you can argue one of
• 27:46
  the top three programs, one of the top three coaches in NCAA
• 27:50
  history, one of the best coaches in history in sports, and he
• 27:54
  hands his reins to Shire, a guy that has won.
• 27:58
  Yeah, he won a national championship out as a player.
• 28:01
  Did he play well in the national championship?
• 28:03
  He was. Throughout that tournament, he
• 28:04
  was up and down. No, I'm not taking shots at
• 28:07
  Shire. I don't know who he is as as a
• 28:09
  person. I I don't know him personally.
• 28:11
  I know he's a loser. He's a loser.
• 28:16
  He's just an elite 8. He's a loser, dude.
• 28:19
  You could be an Elite 8. You could be in the Sweet 16
• 28:22
  every single year because you have a great recruiting class.
• 28:24
  You got to win the big game. Quite look at look at his track
• 28:27
  record in the Elite 8 though, if you're.
• 28:29
  Judging, no, they lost to an 11 C state conference.
• 28:32
  Yeah, yeah, I'm with you, but I'm saying to make it deep into
• 28:34
  the conference, that's you got to be able to coach a little bit
• 28:37
  like I'm not saying so I think his biggest issue is he just get
• 28:40
  complacent with whatever style that he has created a must to do
• 28:44
  Blue Devils and what they run like they he'd never make an
• 28:46
  adjustment. It's like the triangle offense.
• 28:48
  It's like running the triangle offense.
• 28:50
  You're either going to win by 30 or get blown out by 30 because
• 28:52
  if if the shot ain't going and I think that's what he did.
• 28:55
  He fell asleep, fell asleep at the wheel.
• 28:57
  He was up. He had a lead.
• 28:59
  Campusa, the Boozer kid was having his way in the pain, but
• 29:02
  I do think that that there was a couple, two, there was a 2
• 29:05
  offensive file charge, charge 'cause that I think changed the
• 29:09
  trajectory of the game. That's what gave you kind of
• 29:13
  hope that they can actually come back.
• 29:14
  And I think Hurley capitalized off that that and then press it.
• 29:19
  Once he did that, there was 2 adjustments and great coaches
• 29:22
  make adjustment. That's the difference.
• 29:23
  That's a lost talent in in in the leagues right now, Houston.
• 29:27
  Did the same thing. Houston did the same thing to
• 29:29
  Duke last year. They pressed at the tail end of
• 29:31
  the game. They forced Duke to to not be
• 29:34
  able to inbound the ball. That was the big problem.
• 29:37
  Everybody was making jokes. There were memes all over the
• 29:39
  Internet after Duke lost in the Final four.
• 29:42
  It was a joke. And do you think that Shire
• 29:44
  would have figured it out, would have understood what he needed
• 29:47
  to do going into this game? You were kicking the crap out of
• 29:51
  UConn in the first half. All you had to do was somewhat
• 29:54
  be competent offensively and you knock off UConn.
• 29:57
  UConn wasn't the same team they have been when they've won
• 30:00
  national championships, back-to-back national
• 30:03
  championships. They're they have a lot, a lot
• 30:05
  of young players and and players like Braille and Mullins, who
• 30:08
  was not playing well in that game, not playing well and
• 30:11
  shooting the ball very well. Now, I don't know what Mullins
• 30:13
  is going to do at the at the end of this season.
• 30:15
  If they get knocked out in the Final Four, they win a national
• 30:18
  championship. Does he come back?
• 30:20
  Who knows? Is he is he thought about being
• 30:23
  a first round talent. Yeah.
• 30:24
  But I, if I was Mullins, I'd play another year in college
• 30:27
  basketball, make some NIL money. There's no rush to go into the
• 30:30
  NBA right now. You're going to get many.
• 30:32
  You're going to get another opportunity next year, maybe
• 30:34
  being a higher seed, higher player in the draft and getting
• 30:37
  more money that. Where's?
• 30:39
  He projected. I don't know he's.
• 30:40
  He's a 16 to 20 I've. Seen he's a first round talent.
• 30:43
  But oh, good go. No.
• 30:45
  Why would you tell him to stay? Because he can.
• 30:48
  He could be a top ten pick and make more money.
• 30:50
  Not guaranteed. No, it's not guaranteed, but
• 30:53
  this is a harder draft. This is one of the great drafts
• 30:55
  we've seen since 2003, 2004, as you heard Dan Purcell say.
• 31:00
  Next year you think he got more momentum.
• 31:01
  You you think he'll have more momentum next year than he do
• 31:04
  now. A. 100% think about this, if
• 31:06
  they win a national championship this year and he comes back and
• 31:09
  wins another one next year and takes his.
• 31:10
  Team to fight? Yeah, that ain't happening.
• 31:13
  They have a better recruiting class next year.
• 31:15
  Danny Early has a better recruiting class coming in next
• 31:18
  year. So yeah, it could happen.
• 31:21
  To that, UConn is the one team where you have to like throw all
• 31:24
  the patterns out the window. So I have Michigan winning it
• 31:27
  all, but UConn is not one of those teams just because they
• 31:29
  haven't played a complete game yet.
• 31:30
  You could still doubt just based on their track.
• 31:32
  Record. You cannot, you know.
• 31:33
  You can't doubt Danny, they don't think that so if they win
• 31:37
  this year, it would be like out of this world so to.
• 31:40
  Yeah, it would be the hardest. Path they've had yeah, a hard
• 31:44
  task really. I think they yeah, I feel like
• 31:46
  they got they had a little there was a little sluggers last game
• 31:49
  versus Duke as. Well, I'm not going to.
• 31:50
  Count impacted their shooting and whatever, I'm not going to
• 31:53
  count the real thing. I'm not counting Danny Hurley.
• 31:59
  No, he's a great coach. Danny Hurley has found a way to
• 32:02
  get back to the Final Four. He's done it three times in five
• 32:05
  years. How many coaches could say that
• 32:07
  they've done that before? I think it's pretty incredible
• 32:09
  just the fact that he's here. So do I think that Danny Hurley
• 32:13
  can't get back here next year with a better recruiting class
• 32:15
  and a better team? 100% because he coaches the
• 32:19
  right way. He finds, he knows that these
• 32:22
  games are going to come to one shot or the last shot of the
• 32:25
  game and he's done it time in and time again that he's found
• 32:29
  ways to win these close games. So am I going to argue that
• 32:32
  Danny Hurley next year it with a brilliant Mullins and whoever he
• 32:36
  brings in in his recruiting class?
• 32:39
  So how many Portal guys is he going to bring in because he
• 32:41
  brought a couple of them this year.
• 32:42
  How many, how many guys are going to want to come and play
• 32:45
  for Danny Hurley knowing that he's won, I don't know, three
• 32:48
  national championships in five years?
• 32:51
  He's got to have his pick. That's what happens when you're
• 32:54
  a good coach. They want to go to the guy
• 32:56
  that's going to give him a best chance to win, give him the
• 32:58
  best, you know, best eyes to be seen to buy an NBA team.
• 33:02
  So I think Danny early and and again, out of all these coaches,
• 33:07
  all four of these coaches that I've mentioned, and like I said,
• 33:10
  Underwood, May and Lloyd, Danny Hurley probably plays the most
• 33:16
  NBA style type of game. That's the way he plays.
• 33:20
  He plays defense to offense. He plays pressure defense and he
• 33:24
  wants his guys to move the ball around the perimeter.
• 33:27
  They win. UConn wins because they share
• 33:29
  the ball. It's not it's not isolation.
• 33:32
  It's not one-dimensional basketball like you played with
• 33:35
  Cam Boozer. Arizona plays that game too.
• 33:37
  But I worry about Arizona and their defense.
• 33:40
  Is Arizona going to play at a high, high level against a
• 33:43
  Michigan team that likes to score by a clip?
• 33:45
  Michigan's dangerous because if you would ask me right now, out
• 33:48
  of all four teams, they are the best overall team out of all
• 33:52
  four teams because they play both defense and offense at a
• 33:56
  very high level and they can score with threes.
• 33:59
  They can go inside dominating the pain.
• 34:01
  They're good rebounding team. I don't think there's any
• 34:04
  argument out of all four of these teams, they have the most
• 34:07
  talent. But when it comes to close
• 34:11
  games, and most of these games are going to be close, you're
• 34:13
  going to bet on the coach. I'm going to bet the advantage
• 34:17
  goes to U Conn throughout this rest of this tournament in the
• 34:20
  Final Four, because I believe that Danny Hurley, if the game
• 34:23
  is close, five points, 4 points, 3 points, he's gonna find a way
• 34:27
  to get this game close. close enough that if you need to hit a
• 34:31
  game-winning shot or shot that can send them into overtime and
• 34:34
  give them the momentum, he's the guy I'm going to bet on.
• 34:37
  Q You mentioned coaches getting complacent.
• 34:38
  Too. And that's why I think Michigan
• 34:41
  compared to Arizona and Illinois have a better chance where they
• 34:43
  they can win in so many different ways.
• 34:45
  Like they didn't have an obvious weakness.
• 34:46
  The way they play like Arizona we know does not shoot a lot of
• 34:49
  threes. They don't want to have to play
• 34:50
  a transition game if they don't have to.
• 34:52
  Michigan, you saw play a really good transition game when they
• 34:54
  destroyed Tennessee and even in the second-half the previous
• 34:57
  round too against Alabama, they once they got it going on the
• 35:00
  transition game, it was very strong.
• 35:02
  And Illinois, we'll see if they get tested it with something
• 35:05
  with their defense, with a team like UConn that could shoot some
• 35:08
  threes but could also play insight with, like you said,
• 35:10
  Terrace Reed playing as well as he did.
• 35:12
  They all could shoot the three, yeah.
• 35:13
  Every one of these teams can shoot the three at a high clip.
• 35:16
  We see what Michigan could do. Michigan is is by far the best
• 35:20
  shooting team out of all these teams and they have big guys
• 35:23
  that could shoot threes. As well, which I think that's
• 35:25
  the advantage that I wonder match up with Arizona that have
• 35:28
  the a lot of these quicker guards if they're going to be
• 35:30
  able to take advantage of. And you saw Purdue even in the
• 35:32
  first half when they played Arizona, try to dupe them into
• 35:35
  shooting threes, which they weren't as comfortable with.
• 35:37
  And I think you're going to see Michigan a lot of those same
• 35:38
  kind of things with defensive players like lengthwise that are
• 35:42
  a little bit better than Purdue's overall, because Purdue
• 35:44
  did have trouble with jump shooting teams throughout the
• 35:46
  regular season. Michigan did not.
• 35:48
  And that's why I think that that's that you brought up with
• 35:50
  44% shooting inside is going to be a big key.
• 35:53
  Arizona don't like shooting the three.
• 35:54
  Right. And I think you're going to see
• 35:55
  Michigan. Force their hands with that kind
• 35:57
  of thing. And that's why I'm saying Tommy
• 36:00
  Lloyd is a coaching QA. You mentioned you're getting
• 36:03
  complacent. I don't think he's really been
• 36:05
  testing at having to change his style of game yet outside of
• 36:08
  that 1/2 time adjustment with Purdue, where I think Michigan
• 36:10
  and Dusty May who did it with in the Final Four with FAU, maybe
• 36:14
  it has a nine seed with a very different team.
• 36:16
  And now you get a more talented team with all those NIL money
• 36:18
  with Michigan can definitely make a difference in that
• 36:20
  tournament. I think there's a lot of
• 36:22
  pressure. On Michigan, because Michigan
• 36:25
  has a chance to do something they haven't done since 2018
• 36:28
  And, and honestly they have been the best overall team all season
• 36:33
  long. And, and to see two number ones
• 36:35
  get into the final four, it's, it's not something that we
• 36:38
  haven't seen before. Cause four number one teams went
• 36:40
  to the went to the final four and two went to the national
• 36:43
  championship last year. So it's not crazy to think, but
• 36:46
  a lot of people, including me didn't think that they were
• 36:49
  going to be more than one number one seed to get into the final
• 36:53
  four. I was wrong about that.
• 36:55
  But what's incredible about these two teams is they might be
• 36:59
  the two best offensive teams going into this tournament.
• 37:02
  One has more of a strength getting inside the paint and
• 37:05
  dominating in the paint because they got speed guys and a great
• 37:09
  guard and and Michigan, who's a great overall shooting team that
• 37:13
  can use so many strengths and beat teams by so many
• 37:17
  weaknesses. That's the difference between
• 37:19
  both teams. Who do I think has the advantage
• 37:21
  in this game? Michigan.
• 37:22
  But Arizona has done a time and time again this year.
• 37:26
  They have found ways to win and and they also find ways.
• 37:29
  Even against Purdue, they were down by 6 or 7 points going into
• 37:32
  the second-half and what did they do?
• 37:34
  They made sure in the starting of the second-half they started
• 37:37
  to pick up the pace, play more dominant basketball, getting
• 37:41
  inside, making, making teams, making teams chase, Purdue
• 37:46
  chase. As soon as they took the lead in
• 37:48
  that game, Purdue couldn't get back into the game because
• 37:51
  Arizona is so much faster around the perimeter and they can get
• 37:55
  out of clip to the free throw line.
• 37:57
  And I'm and that's another thing that I've noticed in this
• 37:59
  tournament that I haven't seen that much in in years past.
• 38:03
  These teams throughout the tournament had problems shooting
• 38:05
  free throws. All of them.
• 38:07
  All of them have had problems shooting free throws.
• 38:10
  We saw it with Duke, we saw it with Saint John's.
• 38:12
  We've seen it with UConn. In some of the rounds, these
• 38:14
  teams have had problems shooting free throws.
• 38:17
  If this happens in the Final Four, those free throws can cost
• 38:20
  these teams a national championship because these games
• 38:22
  are going to be close. Both games are going to be
• 38:24
  close. Nobody's going to believe that
• 38:26
  UConn is just going to run all over Illinois, especially what
• 38:29
  they did to Iowa. So yeah, and Illinois gets a ton
• 38:32
  of. Offensive rebounds too, and
• 38:34
  they've made their free throws off of those offensive rebounds
• 38:36
  in a lot of the games that I thought they didn't have as much
• 38:39
  of A size advantage. They have that one.
• 38:40
  I believe he's a Spanish kid, center of the seven footer.
• 38:44
  But beyond that, they're no more for their guard play.
• 38:46
  Like you said with Waggler, that's going to be probably a
• 38:48
  top ten, top 12 NBA draft pick and a team that's very potent
• 38:51
  shooting threes. But you know U Conn's going to
• 38:53
  try to take that away and same kind of thing with Michigan.
• 38:56
  Michigan has two very big guys that rotate in, one of them in
• 38:59
  Mahara got in a foul trouble against 10 Tennessee and they
• 39:01
  still overcame it the way they did, which was very impressive.
• 39:04
  And Arizona's got 2 international guys that rotate
• 39:07
  in coming off the one start and one come off the bench and they
• 39:10
  can get the offensive rebounds. All those chances that you get,
• 39:13
  you might be able to get offensive rebounding
• 39:14
  opportunities for foul shots as well.
• 39:16
  So yeah, those those three teams making their free throws
• 39:18
  continuing and everybody keeps giving Mullins.
• 39:20
  All the credit for the win. Reid was the only player on
• 39:23
  UConn that had a really good game again soon.
• 39:27
  He was the best player on the court.
• 39:28
  For both teams, even he was even better than Cam Booster, even
• 39:32
  though Cam Booster had four, I think four or three more points
• 39:34
  than him. I mean, what Reid did throughout
• 39:37
  the game defensively and offensively was great.
• 39:41
  And they he kept UConn by himself in the game because a
• 39:44
  lot of their secondary offensive players did not have very good
• 39:47
  games. And and that again, when you
• 39:50
  have a player that can play at a high level and just keep the
• 39:52
  game closed, all it takes is one shot or two shots to help you
• 39:56
  win that game. And that's the thing, I will bet
• 39:59
  that Danny Hurley has a game plan in the second-half if
• 40:03
  they're down by Illinois or Illinois is shooting the ball
• 40:05
  very well that he's going to press around the perimeter.
• 40:08
  Illinois has shot the ball very well throughout this tournament.
• 40:10
  They won by a game-winning shot. This is a team that can shoot
• 40:14
  around the perimeter. And everybody keeps talking
• 40:16
  about Yukon. They they've shot the ball very
• 40:18
  well in this tournament too. But there are parts in these
• 40:21
  games in a 5 minute or 4 minutes then where you guys have
• 40:25
  problems putting the ball in the net.
• 40:26
  And, and they can't do that in this tournament.
• 40:28
  They can't do that in the Final Four because these teams are
• 40:31
  going to, like I said, Danny Hurley, as good as he is and as
• 40:34
  much as he can smell blood when his team is starting to
• 40:38
  pulverize or beat up the team and scoring 5 or 6 shots by a
• 40:42
  clip. I do believe that teams like
• 40:45
  Illinois, they believe in themselves Now they can find,
• 40:48
  they know that if they keep the game close, they can beat, they
• 40:52
  can beat UConn, a national championship team.
• 40:54
  They can beat anybody because these games always come down to
• 40:58
  a minute left, a minute and 30 seconds left.
• 41:01
  Who's going to hit the free throws?
• 41:02
  Who's going to make the right foul?
• 41:03
  Who's going to put the right guy on the line?
• 41:05
  That's where these championship teams are built.
• 41:10
  And that's about it on that. I I mean, my argument here is
• 41:13
  when you look at this tournament, I, I always believe
• 41:16
  that I'm going to bet on the coach that's been here before
• 41:19
  and it's done it every single time.
• 41:21
  And that's why I think, and most people, if you're a betting man,
• 41:25
  Vegas doesn't have you come winning the national champion.
• 41:27
  They don't. Yeah, I say Vegas.
• 41:29
  Guy Illinois winning, so everybody ain't on the same page
• 41:32
  and and I'm going to tell you this right now.
• 41:34
  Don't bet against Danny Hurley. Do not bet against him because
• 41:39
  time and time again this man, he wasn't a great basketball
• 41:43
  player. He really wasn't.
• 41:44
  What he did for Providence, he was horrible.
• 41:46
  He was a laughing stock. I was very surprised that he
• 41:49
  moved up in the rankings at the head coach because he wasn't a
• 41:52
  great player. He wasn't Bobby and and a lot of
• 41:55
  questions to compare his skill and or his call coaching to his
• 41:59
  father. Or did you really think that he
• 42:01
  was going to develop into a coach of this magnitude a
• 42:05
  success story both Hurley's one as a player 12 national
• 42:08
  championships and now Danny is 1/2 as a coach.
• 42:12
  If he wins his third, he breaks Bobby Hurley.
• 42:15
  He he becomes maybe the more likely name in Hurley, in the
• 42:21
  Hurley family, when you talk, his father won 28 state
• 42:25
  championships. They're not national
• 42:26
  championships. That's different.
• 42:28
  So it's it's incredible. It's an.
• 42:32
  Incredible story. The Hurley family, when you talk
• 42:34
  about fathers and sons credited for guys that have been national
• 42:39
  championships or success stories in coaching or players, this
• 42:43
  might be a family of success that we might not be able to
• 42:47
  compare to in 10 years from now because Bobby still has a chance
• 42:50
  to be a coach and a successful coach.
• 42:52
  If he wins the national championship as a head coach,
• 42:54
  that's three championships, 2 as a player and one as a coach.
• 42:57
  I mean this could be the greatest family of coaches and
• 43:02
  playoffs players that has ever been put together.
• 43:05
  So it's it's a great story and I'm rooting for Danny Hurley
• 43:08
  because they're Big East guys. It's right over here in the
• 43:10
  tri-state. I know there's not a lot of
• 43:12
  UConn fan fans over here in in Long Island, more Saint John
• 43:16
  fans or a Stony Brook fans or posture fans, but this is an
• 43:22
  incredible story. You only root for guys that are
• 43:25
  close to the tri-state and and hope for the best for those
• 43:28
  teams. Thank you to all the fans on all
• 43:29
  the social medias, especially Spotify and Apple for
• 43:32
  downloading us and and following us on all their social medias.
• 43:34
  Thank you to everybody on Instagram, Twitter X whatever it
• 43:38
  is, TikTok, YouTube, our YouTube, our new YouTube channel
• 43:42
  has almost 100 subscribers in and about it went.
• 43:46
  It jumped very, very, very, very quickly.
• 43:48
  So thank you to all the fans. Keep tuning in.
• 43:50
  Tell your friends to follow us on all our social medias and we
• 43:53
  will be back next week. Check out the week in crunch,
• 43:56
  which will air on Saturday at 7:00 PM with me and speedy.
• 44:00
  We'll go over all the all the New York sports coverage and and
• 44:04
  it's it's a great show. So definitely TuneIn and check
• 44:07
  us out Speedy, what do we have on or what is what is up for
• 44:11
  next week for our guests? Nothing yet.
• 44:13
  Okay, so. We'll, we'll, we'll make an.
• 44:15
  Announcement over the weekend or early next week before Monday.
• 44:19
  So I, I just want to thank again everybody that works so hard on
• 44:23
  the back end, all our interns, all the guys, all, everybody, I
• 44:27
  mean, including my own. I mean, I'm a little out there
• 44:30
  and tired. I've dealt with a lot of
• 44:33
  sickness over the last couple weeks.
• 44:34
  Just happy that I'm healing up and feeling better.
• 44:37
  And I'm definitely not playing cornhole with Mr. Weber.
• 44:40
  So I'll stay away from that, ladies and gentlemen.
• 44:43
  Anyways, that's it for our show. Goodnight, farewell, goodbye It.
• 44:47
  It is the worldwide sports radio network.
• 44:50
  Radio Network.