Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Ari Temkin on March Madness, BYU's early exit mean year was a disappointment (?), Reaction to how Whitt's departure played out + more
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: YouTube to a Sean o'connells show for the Murdoch Chevrolet
- 0:09Speaker 1: Studio of ESPN seven hundred and one AM.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Sean o'connells show here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two.
- 0:21Speaker 1: One FM, efforting a conversation with our friend Ari Tempkin
- 0:27Speaker 1: Big twelve Insider tune in Radio Big Twelve today.
- 0:33Speaker 2: The conference.
- 0:35Speaker 1: We talked about, you know how the Big Twelve conference
- 0:40Speaker 1: in basketball is either the best or in the conversation
- 0:45Speaker 1: for the best basketball conference in all the land. And uh,
- 0:49Speaker 1: the Big Ten has in this particular in CAA tournament,
- 0:52Speaker 1: they have staked their claim pretty emphatically as well. Arizona
- 0:59Speaker 1: moved on against the Aggies, well fought Aggies. Good job
- 1:03Speaker 1: to Utah State Jared Calhoun. Stay please, I know it's unlikely,
- 1:08Speaker 1: but Utah State, in a valiant effort, still ends up
- 1:14Speaker 1: losing by twelve to the number one seed Arizona. Which,
- 1:17Speaker 1: if you're looking at this from a Big twelve lens,
- 1:19Speaker 1: you're happy to see Arizona still involved. You're happy to
- 1:22Speaker 1: see Iowa State and Houston still involved. And the Big Ten,
- 1:27Speaker 1: who is you know, stood atop the college football world
- 1:31Speaker 1: in recent years, is now probably gonna get even more cocky,
- 1:38Speaker 1: even more arrogant, even more Dare I say obnoxious, because
- 1:44Speaker 1: they're looking really, really good in this.
- 1:49Speaker 2: NCAA tournament as well.
- 1:52Speaker 1: If there's a single if there's a single Cinderella to
- 1:55Speaker 1: be talked about, I don't think we can talk about
- 1:59Speaker 1: Iowa being a nine seed Cinderella. But if there's anything
- 2:02Speaker 1: that you're still clinging to as a fan who only
- 2:05Speaker 1: likes March Madness because of Cinderella stories, the Big ten
- 2:09Speaker 1: has given you some of that.
- 2:10Speaker 2: Also, I guess.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Texas, sorry, you don't ever get to be a Cinderella
- 2:15Speaker 1: and anything anyway. Ari Tempkin joins us now here on
- 2:18Speaker 1: the Sean O'Connell show. All right, welcome, how are you sir?
- 2:23Speaker 1: How are you good man? I appreciate you jumping back on.
- 2:25Speaker 1: I've been gone for a couple of weeks, and hell
- 2:29Speaker 1: of a time to be gone. I'll tell you now
- 2:31Speaker 1: that we're starting this March Badness situation and seeing where
- 2:35Speaker 1: the Big twelve conference is at. Have there been any
- 2:37Speaker 1: results or any I guess absences in this second round
- 2:42Speaker 1: or in this third round the Sweet sixteen that are
- 2:44Speaker 1: surprising to you from a Big twelve perspective.
- 2:48Speaker 3: No, Actually, you know, I think if you would have
- 2:51Speaker 3: told me a month ago this is where we'd be
- 2:52Speaker 3: in the Sweet sixteen, I probably would have been surprised.
- 2:54Speaker 3: But I think given where the season ended the Big
- 2:57Speaker 3: Twelve tournament, you know, these were the three best teams
- 3:00Speaker 3: in the league, and I don't know that there's much
- 3:02Speaker 3: of an argument to be made for it. So, you know,
- 3:05Speaker 3: it would have been nice for maybe a surprise team,
- 3:07Speaker 3: you know, like an Iowa or a Texas in the
- 3:09Speaker 3: SEC and the Big Ten, respectively, to make it through.
- 3:12Speaker 3: And you know, I think with the injuries to Texas
- 3:14Speaker 3: Tech that I was obviously too much to overcome, and
- 3:16Speaker 3: you know, can't just had their own internal strife, the
- 3:18Speaker 3: injuries with BYU. No, I'm not surprised at all that
- 3:21Speaker 3: this is where we are with these three teams.
- 3:23Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up BYU because you know, we
- 3:26Speaker 1: we speculated that this was a possibility weeks and weeks
- 3:29Speaker 1: ago that like, they had some significant injuries that were
- 3:33Speaker 1: really starting to slow things down, and this was a
- 3:36Speaker 1: big money roster that looked like you know, even before
- 3:39Speaker 1: we got to Big Twelve conference play tournament play, they
- 3:43Speaker 1: probably weren't going to fulfill the promise that we were
- 3:46Speaker 1: all buying in on, at least locally buying in on
- 3:49Speaker 1: when the year started. And they're not the only team
- 3:53Speaker 1: in the country, the only program in the country that
- 3:55Speaker 1: has to process that, but they're the one that people
- 3:57Speaker 1: here care most about, either because they hate watch them
- 4:00Speaker 1: or because they love watching them in Salt Lake City.
- 4:03Speaker 1: So is there going to be any big picture evaluation,
- 4:07Speaker 1: any any change, any alteration of recruiting behavior and nil
- 4:13Speaker 1: behavior because of how it did not work out for
- 4:16Speaker 1: BYU this year. For injuries are always a valid reason
- 4:19Speaker 1: to underperform, but it doesn't make you feel much better
- 4:21Speaker 1: in the moment, right And.
- 4:24Speaker 4: Look, I mean, you know, I think the reality see
- 4:27Speaker 4: is you know, injuries and the Saunders injury in particular
- 4:31Speaker 4: is a huge issue for this team. But I think
- 4:33Speaker 4: there are some definite big picture takeaways from BYU from
- 4:37Speaker 4: a program standpoint, that are probably as important, if not
- 4:40Speaker 4: more important, than the Saunders injury. The Saunders injury, you know,
- 4:44Speaker 4: completely derailed any possibility of a surprise run for this
- 4:47Speaker 4: team based on you know what there what their matchups
- 4:51Speaker 4: could have been. But like it also would have glossed
- 4:54Speaker 4: over what I think are pretty impactful parts about how
- 4:59Speaker 4: they're built. And you know, you could start one with
- 5:01Speaker 4: depth and two with defense. You know, even before the
- 5:04Speaker 4: Saunders injury, this was not a team that had any depths.
- 5:07Speaker 4: I mean, they were in the three hundred and fifties
- 5:10Speaker 4: in bench scoring in bench minutes. Then obviously didn't change
- 5:14Speaker 4: with the Saunders injury, and you thought, maybe, you know,
- 5:16Speaker 4: this would empower some people and would help to you know,
- 5:20Speaker 4: put them in a better position, a better light, but
- 5:22Speaker 4: that obviously didn't happen. So I think as Kevin Young,
- 5:25Speaker 4: you know, encounters this offseason, one of the most important
- 5:28Speaker 4: things he can do is one, try to build a
- 5:30Speaker 4: roster with greater depth, because you're you know, you look
- 5:33Speaker 4: at Arizona, you look at Houston. I mean, those are
- 5:35Speaker 4: two teams. It's not just that they're really good at
- 5:37Speaker 4: the top. They're really good, you know, one through twelve
- 5:40Speaker 4: on their roster, and they're getting guys who maybe didn't
- 5:43Speaker 4: contribute as much throughout the season that have become impactful
- 5:46Speaker 4: players once to get into postseason play. The other thing
- 5:48Speaker 4: is defense, and you know this isn't anything new. Last
- 5:51Speaker 4: year they didn't have a very good defense you know,
- 5:53Speaker 4: I would say beyond the obvious that Saunders. You know,
- 5:57Speaker 4: their defense took a nose guy without Saunders, and I
- 6:00Speaker 4: mean he was at a point where he was averaging
- 6:02Speaker 4: over two steals per game, So you know, they didn't
- 6:04Speaker 4: have a good defense even with Saunders playing, But once
- 6:07Speaker 4: he left, their defense just took a nose dive. And
- 6:09Speaker 4: I think, you know, you look at them compared to Houston.
- 6:12Speaker 4: I know I brought this up, but like they're just
- 6:14Speaker 4: not a physical team. They're not built like that. They're
- 6:17Speaker 4: more finesse. I would hope that from an identity standpoint,
- 6:21Speaker 4: you know, they build this offseason knowing that they've got
- 6:23Speaker 4: to be one more physical and two you know they've
- 6:26Speaker 4: got to be better on defense. You just cannot be
- 6:28Speaker 4: that good on offense and completely neglect the defensive end.
- 6:32Speaker 4: You know, look, I mean even Purdue and Illinois are
- 6:34Speaker 4: two teams that are very good offensively, but they're still
- 6:37Speaker 4: top fifty in defense. You know, you don't have to
- 6:39Speaker 4: be great defensively. You just can't be in the one
- 6:41Speaker 4: hundreds of the two hundreds.
- 6:45Speaker 1: If you had to put your eggs in the basket
- 6:47Speaker 1: of in one of the remaining Big twelve teams. Who
- 6:49Speaker 1: would you choose as we head to the Sweet sixteen.
- 6:54Speaker 4: Yeah, Arizona. You know, look, I thought Arizona would play
- 6:57Speaker 4: Duke in the National Championship. Final four was Arizona, Duke,
- 7:02Speaker 4: Michigan and Illinois. The funny thing about that is, you know,
- 7:06Speaker 4: now I would take Houston over Illinois and amend my
- 7:09Speaker 4: final four to be you know, Duke, Houston, Arizona, and Michigan.
- 7:14Speaker 4: But look, I think Arizona they're so good even you know,
- 7:18Speaker 4: they haven't played that good this postseason so far, and
- 7:21Speaker 4: yet despite that, they've still had you know, two pretty
- 7:24Speaker 4: lopsided victories. They just have so much depth and they
- 7:27Speaker 4: can beat you in so many different ways. You know,
- 7:28Speaker 4: we still have an even seen Anthony del Arso go
- 7:30Speaker 4: off in the tournament. You know, this is a guy
- 7:32Speaker 4: that can can get you twenty or twenty two, and
- 7:35Speaker 4: we've seen that over the course of the regular season.
- 7:37Speaker 4: So I just think inside outside, point guard, play, experience, defense,
- 7:43Speaker 4: you know, depth, Arizona checked a lot of the boxes.
- 7:45Speaker 4: I think Arizona wins the National Championship.
- 7:48Speaker 1: The handwringing that started a few years ago continues. It
- 7:51Speaker 1: has maybe extra allowed this year about the fact that,
- 7:54Speaker 1: you know, the nil and the transfer portal situation, as
- 7:58Speaker 1: in some people's mind, effectively killed Ininderella because it's harder
- 8:02Speaker 1: now to maintain you know, your roster, your development of
- 8:06Speaker 1: players that get overlooked by those power teams, they get
- 8:10Speaker 1: now to transfer to power teams, they get paid more
- 8:12Speaker 1: by power teams. Is it enough of a problem that
- 8:15Speaker 1: the NCAA will try to find a solution.
- 8:18Speaker 2: We'll try to find a way to address it.
- 8:22Speaker 4: It's an interesting question. See, I mean I would say
- 8:24Speaker 4: the short answer, no, I don't. And I think you know,
- 8:28Speaker 4: as as you were talking about this when I was
- 8:30Speaker 4: coming on, you know, there's a few ways to look
- 8:32Speaker 4: at this. So I mean I would start number one
- 8:35Speaker 4: with you know, what are the implications of it? So
- 8:38Speaker 4: for me, one of the biggest implications of this, which
- 8:41Speaker 4: maybe is not being as heralded as a story, is
- 8:44Speaker 4: the idea of you know, you're really killing the feeder
- 8:47Speaker 4: system for coaches. You know, coaches long would have deep
- 8:52Speaker 4: runs into the postseason from the mid major level and
- 8:54Speaker 4: then that would allow them to graduate and get hot,
- 8:56Speaker 4: bigger jobs at the Power four. So, you know, for one,
- 9:00Speaker 4: and we've seen coaches do it. We haven't seen players
- 9:03Speaker 4: do it as much. Not players are doing it and
- 9:04Speaker 4: people don't like it. The coach they've done it for
- 9:06Speaker 4: a long time. But the other part to that too
- 9:08Speaker 4: is you know, what does this mean for the you know,
- 9:10Speaker 4: the the mid major losing coaches? And then two where
- 9:14Speaker 4: are all the good coaches coming from? So I still think,
- 9:16Speaker 4: you know, we'll still get mid major coaches that will
- 9:19Speaker 4: move up, but I think it's harder to do, especially
- 9:22Speaker 4: given you know, they're not going to have the same
- 9:24Speaker 4: successes that they used to have in terms of getting
- 9:26Speaker 4: to the sweet sixteen. But this is also not exactly new.
- 9:29Speaker 4: It was newer last year than it is this year.
- 9:32Speaker 4: You know, I think I I've mentioned this before, but
- 9:35Speaker 4: you know, oh see, heading into the postseason, there were
- 9:38Speaker 4: three teams that were plus thirty five in the Ken
- 9:41Speaker 4: Palm Net efficiency rate. What does that mean? Well, they
- 9:45Speaker 4: they are plus thirty five in terms of what they
- 9:48Speaker 4: score out of one hundred possessions and what they give
- 9:51Speaker 4: up out of a hundred presents. Is basically the difference
- 9:53Speaker 4: between points per game and points given up per game
- 9:55Speaker 4: for for all intensive purposes. Okay, so plus thirty five.
- 9:58Speaker 4: So before last ye seed, there had only been five
- 10:03Speaker 4: teams that had done that between nineteen ninety eight when
- 10:06Speaker 4: Ken Pump started that stat and twenty twenty four five
- 10:09Speaker 4: total teams. All five of those teams made the final four.
- 10:13Speaker 4: Last year, all four to one seeds were plus thirty
- 10:16Speaker 4: five heading into the tournament, So now it's nine for
- 10:19Speaker 4: nine and this year, three the top three to one
- 10:23Speaker 4: seeds who are still in it, we're all plus thirty five.
- 10:27Speaker 4: So teams plus thirty five in the net rating before
- 10:30Speaker 4: the tournament starts are looking to go a perfect a
- 10:33Speaker 4: twelve for twelve of making the final four being plus
- 10:37Speaker 4: thirty five before the tournament starts. And again that number
- 10:40Speaker 4: was plus was five five for five before last year's tournament,
- 10:45Speaker 4: so it will be seven for seven last two years,
- 10:48Speaker 4: which goes to show you that really, in the last
- 10:49Speaker 4: two years, parody has been killed at the top of
- 10:52Speaker 4: the sport is way better than it's been and maybe
- 10:55Speaker 4: the biggest surprise about that is how much NI on
- 10:58Speaker 4: the transit portal have made parody more prevalent in football
- 11:02Speaker 4: but less prevalent in basketball.
- 11:04Speaker 1: All right, Tim Gunner guest here on the Sean O'Connell show,
- 11:06Speaker 1: Big Twelve Insiders tune in radios Big twelve today. We're
- 11:11Speaker 1: looking at some uncertainty round Bill self at Kansas. North
- 11:15Speaker 1: Carolina might be debating some things. I haven't hear seen
- 11:18Speaker 1: the latest if there's been an update on that. Are
- 11:21Speaker 1: we going to have a couple of blue blood jobs
- 11:22Speaker 1: open potentially?
- 11:26Speaker 4: Yeah? I think so. I mean, I'm not certain about Kansas,
- 11:28Speaker 4: but it certainly feels like that's gonna be the case
- 11:30Speaker 4: for Hubert Davis in North Carolina. Is they've really underperformed
- 11:34Speaker 4: basically every year since he took over, not including the
- 11:38Speaker 4: year they lost to Kansas in the National Championship at
- 11:40Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, when Davis was in year one and
- 11:43Speaker 4: had basically Roy Williams's players. I think with self, basically
- 11:48Speaker 4: since winning that championship, Kansas has been one or two
- 11:51Speaker 4: and done in the tournament, you know, without making it
- 11:54Speaker 4: to the second weekend. And you know, he might look
- 11:56Speaker 4: at that and think what a spoiled fan base. And
- 11:58Speaker 4: I get it as a fan of that team an alumnus,
- 12:02Speaker 4: But when you look at their rosters, the money they spend,
- 12:05Speaker 4: the investment that they're able to make, and the talent
- 12:08Speaker 4: that they have and their output, especially at offense, they've
- 12:11Speaker 4: been hugely disappointing, especially this season. You know, you could
- 12:15Speaker 4: have chalked up the last couple of years to you know,
- 12:17Speaker 4: a stale program with lots of players that have been
- 12:20Speaker 4: around for a long time. But you know, oh see,
- 12:22Speaker 4: they've basically have been fiftieth or worse in Ken Palm
- 12:25Speaker 4: offense every year since winning the title in twenty twenty two.
- 12:28Speaker 4: They've been in the hundreds and three point shooting really
- 12:31Speaker 4: every year since twenty eighteen, so they're not really a
- 12:34Speaker 4: modern type team in terms of offense and three point shooting.
- 12:38Speaker 4: Self has also missed time every year since winning the
- 12:41Speaker 4: national title in twenty two. He had, you know that
- 12:44Speaker 4: the heart attack at twenty three. He's missed games in
- 12:46Speaker 4: twenty four, and then he missed games again this season
- 12:50Speaker 4: due to the same thing. So you know, I'm assuming
- 12:52Speaker 4: he's going to evaluate his health. You know, notice that
- 12:54Speaker 4: he's missing time, that he's you know, spending time away
- 12:57Speaker 4: from his family, and that his heart is not getting
- 12:58Speaker 4: any better. And obviously, if you coach at this level,
- 13:01Speaker 4: that's not really conducive to your heart and heart health.
- 13:05Speaker 4: So you know, we'll see. I mean, he's a legend
- 13:08Speaker 4: he's won. He won seventeen Big Twelve titles, he went
- 13:11Speaker 4: to four final fours, won two national championships. He's one
- 13:13Speaker 4: of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport,
- 13:15Speaker 4: and certainly one of the great coaches in the history
- 13:17Speaker 4: of the story program at KU. But I also think
- 13:20Speaker 4: that if he evaluates the whole picture of this thing
- 13:23Speaker 4: and knows how much time he's taken off, how this
- 13:25Speaker 4: is not a great, you know, profession for your heart,
- 13:28Speaker 4: that I think he will also step aside.
- 13:32Speaker 1: So, even in the throes of March madness. I started
- 13:35Speaker 1: the show today talking about Utah football because they're in springball,
- 13:39Speaker 1: of course, but also some public information's requests came through Friday,
- 13:44Speaker 1: some stories broke. We got to see emails back and
- 13:47Speaker 1: forth between Kyle Whittingham's representation and the athletic department at
- 13:51Speaker 1: the University of Utah. Learned some more details on a big,
- 13:54Speaker 1: fat payout that he's getting even as he coaches at Michigan,
- 13:57Speaker 1: And to me, it makes what was already kind of
- 14:00Speaker 1: an awkward and maybe.
- 14:01Speaker 2: Ugly situation definitively uglier.
- 14:04Speaker 1: Your thoughts on the new information regarding Kyle Whittingham's.
- 14:08Speaker 4: Exit, Yeah, I mean, I could not have put it
- 14:13Speaker 4: any better. You know, it's it's really interesting because you've
- 14:17Speaker 4: got the hard feelings internally, right, like the feelings between Utah,
- 14:20Speaker 4: the feelings between Whittingham. But how is a fan supposed
- 14:23Speaker 4: to feel? You know, that's the part that I think
- 14:26Speaker 4: is probably lost at all this from the administration side,
- 14:29Speaker 4: from the Kyle Whittingham side, is you know, here's a
- 14:31Speaker 4: guy that was an absolute legend at the university. I
- 14:35Speaker 4: mean he when you think about the Whittingham name and
- 14:38Speaker 4: how long it's been associated with the program, and how
- 14:40Speaker 4: much defensively that you know, the Whittingham has been involved.
- 14:44Speaker 4: And you know, I can't imagine the confusion that Utah
- 14:47Speaker 4: fans have right now in terms of, you know, what
- 14:50Speaker 4: side to take, Who's good who's bad? Like, you know,
- 14:52Speaker 4: we live in a world where it's really easy to
- 14:55Speaker 4: pick out who the good guys the bad guys are
- 14:57Speaker 4: from the movies we watch and the shows we watch,
- 15:00Speaker 4: and yet real life is a lot more difficult than that,
- 15:02Speaker 4: and it's not as cut and dry. In some ways,
- 15:05Speaker 4: you tas the bad guy, in some ways you taus
- 15:07Speaker 4: the good guy. And you know, I think you could
- 15:09Speaker 4: say the same thing about Whittingham. In some ways, Whittingham
- 15:12Speaker 4: is you know, is innocent and the victim of all this.
- 15:14Speaker 4: I think in some ways Whittingham is guilty and not
- 15:16Speaker 4: a victim of any of this. So, you know, I
- 15:19Speaker 4: think that's again sort of the way life is and
- 15:21Speaker 4: not exactly how we see it in Disney movies. I
- 15:23Speaker 4: think it's extremely disappointing the way that it was handled
- 15:26Speaker 4: on both sides. I think, you know, it's funny because
- 15:30Speaker 4: we just talked about Bill self. You know, in a
- 15:32Speaker 4: year when Roy Williams leaves and all Kansas fans are
- 15:36Speaker 4: all upset about Roy Williams leaving, you know, they forgot
- 15:39Speaker 4: about that pretty quickly because of how good Bill's self
- 15:41Speaker 4: was immediately. And I think the same is true for Utah.
- 15:45Speaker 4: Like some of these hard feelings, some mad of these
- 15:47Speaker 4: you know, confused feelings can all just be rectified by
- 15:50Speaker 4: a successful season and start to Morgan Scalley, I have
- 15:53Speaker 4: no reason to think that it won't be successful. So yeah,
- 15:57Speaker 4: I mean, I think you're right, Like, there's got to
- 15:59Speaker 4: be a lot of confusion, especially from Utah fans, over
- 16:01Speaker 4: how to feel about this, especially as more and more
- 16:03Speaker 4: information comes to light. It maybe if Utah fans were
- 16:06Speaker 4: leaning more on the side got Whittingham, this helped make
- 16:09Speaker 4: Utah look a little bit more, you know, a little
- 16:13Speaker 4: bit better, and maybe the same is true for Whittingham.
- 16:16Speaker 4: The reality is it look like you wanted to continue
- 16:18Speaker 4: coaching and Utah was not going to provide an environment
- 16:21Speaker 4: for him to do so. So you know, he did
- 16:23Speaker 4: what he was able to do, which is, you know,
- 16:26Speaker 4: leverage that to get a great job at Michigan, and
- 16:28Speaker 4: Utah is still paying for it. So you know, again
- 16:31Speaker 4: I see both sides to it. It sucks, but at
- 16:35Speaker 4: the end of the day, this is sort of the
- 16:36Speaker 4: nature of the beast in this sport, Allri.
- 16:40Speaker 1: It's always great here and freving me. Thanks for jumping
- 16:42Speaker 1: back on Man Talk soon.
- 16:44Speaker 4: Welcome back, brother, Take care Ari
- 16:47Speaker 1: Teenkin Big twelve Insider Big twelve Today he hosts that
- 16:52Speaker 1: on tune In Radio.