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Should Ohio State Basketball Have Tried To Hire John Calipari? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, April ninth, I'm your host,
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  tom Or the Akron game in one hundred and forty four days, the game
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  against Michigan in two hundred and thirty five days. Okay, confession time.
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  I got to tell you twenty four hours ago. I was not expecting to
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  be leading today's show with Arkansas basketball. But here we are. What a
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  time to be alive. John Calipari maybe now officially former by the time you
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  hear this, Kentucky basketball coach reportedly heading for Arkansas. Why are we talking
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  about this on this show? Well, report for Matt Norlander of CBS Sports
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  on Sunday night said, quote Caler Perry privately expressed significant slash serious interest in
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  the Ohio State job, but the timing wasn't right, per source. So
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  timing is always right to have Tony Gerderman at bucka Huddle dot Com on to
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  talk about this kind of thing. Tony, this is a really fascinating one
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  because I've seen people whose opinions I really respect on things talk about how this
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  was a massive swing and amiss for Ohio State. I don't necessarily think I
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  agree with that, but I'm interested. We haven't really talked about it,
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  so maybe we're going to get to you know, hashtag embrace debate here today
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  or maybe not. But your thoughts on the possibility of John Calipari potential or
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  at least formerly potential Ohio State future basketball coach. You say that it was
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  maybe a swing and a miss. I'm not even sure Ohio State was ever
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  in a batter's box on this. Expressing interest privately is not the same as
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  Ohio State declining to offer or not offering enough. So I think I think
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  that all needs to be clarified more. And what kind of talks were there
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  were you know, were these preliminary and it's like, now we're not going
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  to be able to match that number, and so I would like to know
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  exactly how close it got before I really really get outraged. As it standstime,
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  we can just we can be on a prespice of outrage or or just
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  discussed this in real terms. I think let's start with the numbers here,
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  because I feel like it's amateur athletics, Tony. We have to start with
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  the money, because that's what everyone starts with these days. With the amateur
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  athletics. It is to me. I think this whole conversation is driven by
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  the money. Because Jeff Goodman, from a field of sixty eight, he
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  has been really on top of a lot of the details here. You get
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  the sense that probably a lot of this is getting leaked directly to him.
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  So I guess the first question is the buyout. There was a report that
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  you know, the buyout was the sticking point for Ohio State. And then
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  then Goodman said, if Kentucky had fired Calipari, it would voted more than
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  thirty two million dollars. But if Calipari leaves for another job, he doesn't
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  owe Kentucky anything. You know, that's probably being leaked from Calipari's side,
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  based on the fact all the other stuff that he's got there, you know,
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  on Calipari's contract that we'll get to in a minute. So maybe that's
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  calipari spend. Maybe he'll owe Kentucky a buyout. But you know, as
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  you were saying on the huddle board persented by Jeff Ruby Steak House a bucket
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  huddle dot Com on Monday morning, with the way things had gone for Calipari
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  at Kentucky in recent years, Kentucky might be very happy to just give them,
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  give him a laurel and hardy handshake and send him on his way.
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  Yeah, I think that was the case. I think if there was no
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  thirty three or thirty two million dollars ode on the contract, he probably would
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  have been fired. And this is the same guy who has as many NCAA
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  tournament wins over the last four years as Chris Holtman. So when you put
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  those two things together, it's like pretty pretty disturbing or surprising. They both
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  coaches have lost the first round game as the number two seed in the last
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  four years, so there's some falling short there. And Kentucky just lost another
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  first round er first round game is a three seed this past season. So
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  you look at the result Bolts these past few years, and Kentucky was not
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  happy and the I don't think. I think you just get to a point
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  where it's like it's better for all parties to just start new problem is and
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  not to be age. Just Calipari is sixty five years old. He's always
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  seemed like a young guy because he's always been like maybe just surrounded by young
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  guys, you know, with the recruiting, the ones and duns, but
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  you know, looking back at his his Wikipedia page like yesterday, and I
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  had forgotten a completely forgot about as like eight years at Memphis or whatever,
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  because I I remember from UMass way back, you know, thirty years ago,
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  and then a stint in the NBA that didn't work out, I think
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  with the nets, and then it's just like he's been at Kentucky forever.
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  I had completely forgotten about the the Memphis thing. And so he's been around
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  for a very long time, been incredibly successful Hall of Famer. But twenty
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  three and ten, this past year, twenty two and twelve, the year
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  before that nine to sixteen COVID year, I don't know that you can really
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  hold anybody the year after the COVID year. So I just the results have
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  been blackluster. I think this he would have been a better hire, a
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  more noteworthy higher than Jake Diebler, but I don't know that it was an
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  option, and I don't know that he would have been a better high before
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  you know, at what cost and for how long he's going to make.
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  Apparently like eight million dollars at Arkansas, he's never getting that. At Ohio
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  State, the nil aspect of and they're talking about five million dollars per year
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  in IL, he's never getting that. At Ohio State, Ryan Day is
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  begging and pleading for thirteen million dollars a year for the football team. So
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  the basketball team's not getting more than a third of that. And you're talking
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  about Ohio State, who has done some very good things with the N and
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  L, but they weren't able to hold on to a thirteen point per game
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  score in Roddy Gale. So just two different worlds I think in terms of
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  the the commitment or the resources. And it's been John Calipari. One of
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  his good friends is John Tyson from the Tyson Family Chicken people, and you
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  know he's got plenty of money. They've got the Walmart money out there.
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  So I just I think it's it's weird to stay like oh Why State just
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  can't compete with Arkansas. I think in this situation, how much would would
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  Calipari have to say no to from from Arkansas to say yes to Ohio State.
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  Yeah, and we can dive into those numbers for in a minute.
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  But I do think and I'm gonna be careful with my words here, but
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  use my eyebrows to communicate what I'm saying. Tony, Does it seem to
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  you as if John Calipari's maybe fall off with the postseason results may have coincided
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  neatly with the legalization of NIL across the sport of basketball and maybe more players
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  and more teams being able to monetize their name, image and likeness in a
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  way that maybe they couldn't legally before. Do you think there might be a
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  correlation between those two things. I think if you were to do math,
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  maybe the math might add up. But with NIL being legalized in July of
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  twenty twenty one, and that's when you know, so that the first class
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  would be like the twenty twenty two recruiting class since nil has been a thing.
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  As I said before, Kentucky went twenty two and twelve the first year,
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  twenty three and ten. The next year, lost in the first round,
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  this past year, lost in the second round the year before that.
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  So gosh, it's like everybody is now able to pay players or players can
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  get paid. So it sure seems coincidental or matter of fact or the reason
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  behind I don't know, whatever term you want to use. It is hinky?
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  Is that another can we say it's hinky that this is happening. This
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  may be a correlation does not equal causation thing, and who knows, he
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  may go to Arkansas and win the NCAA Tournament next year. We'll see.
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  The trend line there has certainly not been great. The postseason results have looked
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  extremely Holtman esque, which you know, the regular season results have been better.
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  Sure, but you know, when Chris Holtman was not getting Ohio State
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  to the sweet sixteen, even though after good regular seasons, people are saying,
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  why can't you get to the sweet sixteen? John Calipari's last week Sweet
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  sixteen was in twenty and nineteen, which is a hot minute back. So
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  that's one thing. I think the money piece of this yere is really the
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  big thing. Because we talked about the numbers that Jeff Goodman report seven and
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  a half to eight million dollars a year. Ohio State just functionally a pain
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  Jake Diebler two and a half million dollar year. They're paying Chris Haltan three
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  and a half million dollars a year. So okay, let's say you can
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  conjure four extra million dollars a year out of thin air. I don't know
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  what Ohio State's nil budget is it's certainly not anywhere in the neighborhood of five
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  million dollars a year for basketball. So let's just we're just gonna say it's
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  two and a half million dollars a year, just to make the math real
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  easy here. So it's half of what Calipari is getting. Okay, So
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  you're gonna pull two and a half million dollars a year for nil, and
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  you're gonna pull an extra four million dollars a year for coach salary even if
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  there's no buyout involved. That's six and a half million dollars. That's functionally
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  half of the college additional additional basketball money. That's functionally half of what the
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  football NIL number that sort of has been floating around there is feels like Tony
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  to me. And I know there are people who are Ohio State basketball fans,
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  even more so than Ohio State football fans. I know these people exist.
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  Also have access to the traffic numbers on our articles and our YouTube videos,
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  so I know the level of interest in Ohio State football versus Ohio State
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  basketball broadly across the fan base. I have a sneaking suspicion that in the
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  fourth quarter in n Arbor in November of twenty fifteen, if Ohio State and
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  Michigan are tied, Ohio State fans are going to be much more concerned with
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  whether HILLB. Downs is out there on the field for Ohio State and Jeremiah
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  Smith is out there on the field than who the Ohio State basketball coaches.
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  I think I'm going to say ninety eight percent of Ohio State basket Ohio State
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  fans in that moment are going to be saying, I'm glad that these football
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  players are here and are not thinking I wonder who the Ohio State basketball coach
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  is right now? Yeah, Or I'm you sign a you Land a transfer
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  guard from USC instead of a Caleb Downs, And it's like, what would
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  his name be? Well, and actually, I would just just through a
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  school out there anybody. It could be anybody, literally, and the vast,
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  vast majority of people won't care in terms of that guard or that center
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  or whatever, because if the high state defense is giving up a touchdown,
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  it's like if they knew that it could have been either this guy or this
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  football person. If you put a poll on Twitter, you put a poll
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  anywhere, you have a you know, Nielsen call up and ask people Ohio
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  State fans, would you rather have an All American safety or an All American
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  shooting guard? What do you think those numbers are going to be? And
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  it's going to be lopsided in terms of the Ohio State football program, and
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  so that's where the things have to be allocated. Now at Arkansas, I
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  think Calipari should do just fine at Arkansas. I think it's going to be
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  interesting to watch him change his thing in terms of the one and done stuff,
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  because that's not been as effective. He's not been to the Final four
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  since twenty fifteen. I don't know if people realize that it's it's been a
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  hotter minute than just the Sweet sixteen. But with that reported five million dollars
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  a year nil packaged thing, I could see them instead of going one and
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  done, it's going to be a different type of one and done. It's
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  going to be the guys with the veterans with one year left that have you
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  know, our fifteen point of game scorers at Ohio State or Kentucky, and
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  they want to go and kind of build these maybe super teams of veterans and
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  you're not just relying on youth, which leads to early exits. In the
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  NCAA tournament, So I think it'll be interesting to see how they developed that.
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  But the money aspect is just I think Arkansas is sort of better equipped
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  because they don't have to worry about football as much. They don't have to
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  keep ten NFL draft picks from leaving for the NFL in football, so they
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  can they can kind of do different things with their anile stuff, Whereas if
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  you let JT. Twemlow, I'll go so that you can keep Roddy Gaale.
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  I mean, I don't think that's a winning proposition for what Ohiostate wants
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  to do. And I think, you know, Ohio State football is not
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  going to turn into Arkansas football if they spend that decided to spend this kind
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  of money on basketball. But if Ohio State took football, took one step
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  back towards being Arkansas football, I think people would have a Chernobyl level meltdown
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  over that. And you know that that would look like a nine and three
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  season, not they don't have to go seven and five. If they went
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  nine and three, you know, Katie bar the door on what the fan
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  base mood would be like in that moment, So you know, it feels
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  like this is just a great you know, and a great object lesson in
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  the fact that there is not an unlimited amount of money and you can only
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  spend it one time. And unless you have someone who is going to come
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  in off the sidelines, who has no interest in football and is only going
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  to support basketball and has a huge checkbook to write a ten million dollar checkie
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  year check, or even a six million dollar year check, it's going to
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  come at the expense of something else. And that something else is probably football.
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  And you know, I know, I know what Ohio State fans are
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  saying right now about John Kellapari. We also know what you guys actually are
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  watching and talking about and reading about and all that kind of stuff, and
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  it is football, football, football, football, football, football, basketball,
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  and back to football. So it's this, you know, and Tony,
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  I guess finally, my last question on this is I had a phrase
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  in my mind when I looked at Calipari's recent results and I looked at you
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  know, hey, getting out of town and going somewhere and now you're the
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  conquering hero again. And then in the new place, Tony, I'm just
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  going to say the phrase basketball, Jimbo and ask you to react to that.
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  There is some some of that, the Jimbo Fisher leaving and going to
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  Texas A and m as as you said, a conquering hero and then eventually
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  that not working out there again. I I he has to adapt, and
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  I think he'll have the freedom to do that. But now there's also gonna
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  be a ton of pressure. Now Arkansas is not just some podunk. I
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  mean, they've been a basket college basketball power for a long time. But
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  it ebbs and flows, and I think you know, there are people there
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  that are used to being one of the top programs in the nation, and
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  so they now will expect to be there. And if you're not, then
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  all the chicken in the world, tom won't keep you safe at night,
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  as the saying goes. As the saying goes, if you've heard it once,
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  you've heard it a million times, all the chicken in the world won't
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  keep you safe. So there you go. A show we didn't expect to
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  be starting, followed by ending with a phrase we didn't expect to be coining.
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  Look forward on T shirts around all over Central Ohio very soon. So
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  thank you guys all for joining us. We'll be back to football on tomorrow's
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  show. I'm pretty sure unless something else crazy happens, but counting down the
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  days till the Ohios d Spring Game on Saturday could be forecast. Looks really
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  nice for Saturday last time, I think it was sixty five and sunny on
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  Saturday for the spring game kickoff at noon TV on Fox. We will be
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  there covering it all at bucke huddle dot com. Should have all sorts of
• 16:22
  pre and post game coverage as well as all sorts of coverage of the game
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  and all the fun things we get to learn all for you at buckeyehuddle dot
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  com and at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. That'll do it for today.
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  Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
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  talk to you tomorrow.