Gottlieb - All Ball - with Aaron Torres

on how um we seem. Sometimes you can be in denial over over different things, like you know, you can be in denial over, uh, why Duke is on national TV in college basketball so much? Or or maybe not just Duke, but Duke, Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Syracuse, Um, those are the schools that that rate. That's why they're on TV so much. UM and so it's it's not it doesn't work the other way around. It's not a not

there on TV so much, that's why they rate. They rate, that's why they're on TV so much, period, end of the period stop so UM. I do think that sometimes people people question why are the Red Sox and Yankees always on TV because they rate. That's it. There's there's no other reason to it that more people will watch.

And when you're in television and television program which I am not okay, I'm on the production side, but the programming side, the only thing they care about is what two teams can we put on TV that get the most eyeballs, That makes everybody more money. And so when you look at the NBA schedule, it's fascinating to see the Lakers schedule and maybe more than anything, how everyone

else in the league reacts. I went through it on my radio show, The Doug Gotlip Show is daily three to six Eastern time UH twelve to three Pacific, Fox sport Trader dot Com, I Heart Radio app series x M A E three for the first two hours. You can also down load the podcast daily. I went through it and um, almost every team's website I went to wherever, almost every team's Twitter handle I went to. I would say, here the Grizzlies, here's the Memphis Grizzlies schedules, including two

games with the Lakers. Find out when Lebron James comes to town. Like Lebron James is literally the biggest show on Earth now. Um, he is in Los Angeles. He is doing the Nike Who Labron James Nike Hoops Academy. He also had his first couple of workouts at the Lakers practic facility. But this is also a week to which week in which excuse me, uh, it was announced he's got a Netflix show, He's got an HBO show, a Showtime show, a CBS show. There's other shows as well.

And I think the question for Lebron is not does he not love basketball? I think I don't think that's close. I think he loves basketball. I don't think I know he loves basket. But when you come to l A and you have, you can have everything. I look at it at last as at l A As. Have you ever been to a really nice restaurant. I'll give an example, restaurant called the Peninsula. There's Peninsula in New York, in LA in Chicago. I'm sure there's others, you know worldwide.

It's very high enching. And a dear friend of mine, whenever he has time and it wants to have breakfast, invites me to breakfast at the Peninsula Hotel, which is right across the street actually from the Beverly Hills Hilton. So I want may like like a block and a half away from Beverly Hills Hilton centrally located not far from the Fox lot Um. It's a cool spot and it's kind of quiet, quaint, little outdoor area which some suns, some shade. It's great. I had breakfast there earlier this week.

They actually have a buffet. But when you go to a really good buffet, or you gonna go to bad buffet um like, compare a we used to have Western Citizlan and Oklahma State, or a Golden Corral or a Sizzler. Compare that buffet to a buffet at a high end place. You go to a buffet at a high end place and they have a guy who makes incredible omelets, right if somebody else will make you any kind of juice.

You don't just get coffee. You can get cappuccino, You can get a latte, you can get it with almond milk, with soy milk, or you can get regular coffee, any kind of tea you ef you want it, and then you go through the actual buffet and everything is magnificent. And what you end up doing is sometimes is you get so much stuff because you're used to you're trained to the whole. Like man, when we were basketball players and we go to Las Vegas and we'd stay at

Circus Circus and we go through the buffet. You're just trying to fill up with a bunch stuff because the food wasn't that good, but you just got a bunch, so you're really full and you'd burn through it anyway, instead of just getting a great piece of avocado toasts and having a capit chino to where you feel like

you're full but not full. Right, you feel really good and you really got to enjoy that avocado toast with the poach egged on top, just so instead you just had a smorgers board of stuff and you eat, you like it, and it's fine, but you don't really appreciate it, and it it loses its it loses the quality that you're actually getting in a place like the Peninsula Hotel or you know, the top end restaurant. That's what Lebron James was running the risk up here. Lebrons in l

a and he can do anything he wants. You know, it's got two houses. He doesn't have to movie's redoing his house kids are going to be in private school, and there's lots of time in the day. You know, you practice for you work out for two two and a half hours a day, right, you come in, you get your body work done, you do your weight lifting, you do your stret your training, you know you're stretch.

Everything takes an hour. Then you get an hour maybe on the court, maybe a little bit longer, maybe a little bit less, depending and in the off season, that's that's pretty good. You don't need to do a ton. The most of those guys don't do a ton more So, now you have what do you have twenty hours left in your day? You sleep six to eight hours a night. Tonight you're working on um. Now you're working on fourteen hours potentially left in your day, fourteen hours at most

and twelve hours maybe at least. You got twelve hours left. And even if you go out to dinner and you've got to lunch and you chew up an hour, that's a ton of time. And even if you spend time with your family, that's a ton of time. So it's not like this is gonna these are gonna be time suckers. To be a producer of a show, on CBS. It's a game show. To be a producer of of, you know, a baller's type of show. To be a producer of the documentary, you're the one that's gonna run where it's

more than an athlete. These they don't individually take up time, but if you do end up having a full plate and you lose track of that avocado toast which used to be basketball. See he used to be in Cleveland, which you just throw a bunch of things on the plate because it makes everything tastes better. Now this is all high end stuff and as much as you could do a buffet, that's not the way to really enjoy a meal. Sit down, take your time, enjoy a meal.

So I guess my only fear with Lebron is everybody their whole life has said I want to do l a and he has the power to do so. And every website you go to, every Twitter handle you go to, everyone in the NBA has fired up about the Lakers. Already a draw with Lebron, a draw come to town. Everyone the legal benefit from it. But what's fasting, what's gonna be fascinating to me is the pace in southern California is so much faster than anywhere else I've ever been.

Maybe New York is the only other place, but l A is the paces crazy pass it. There are other time suckers, not just your kids and your wife, but travel. He's gonna live in Brentwood, and this time at the right time of day. What is it twenty minutes to the facility the wrong time of day? It's an hour. It's an hour. So I'll be faster to see though, if there's just too many things on his plate in year one because he's got a there's got to be some sort of meeting of the minds between his style

and Luke Walton style. There has to be an evident what is it? I think it's like eleven of the first fourteen games cans playoff teams. They have the second, they travel the second most miles Portland's the most miles there, the second the Clippers of the third part of that is location based, but they're flying Oliver tim Buck two. They're everybody's biggest game, and he's got a lot on

his plate. So am I do? I think? Do I totally agree with Charles Barkley with the idea that Lebron has gotta moved on from trying to be a great basketball player and is simply worried about being a mogul. No, but do I think he wants to be a mogile? I do. And the first year of making a transition to southern California, I've done it twice, and not even in l A. I'm in Orange County, which is much slower than Los Angeles. It's fast, it's fast, and it takes a while too. It takes a while to play

catch up. Now he's a megastar, and I guess you could say this has been his entire professional life, has been going from one town car to the next, you know, and people pulling him in a million direction, different directions. But I would tell you, and most people in Los Angeles tell you, this place is different. The speed is different, the amount of poll is different, and it is a you have. You have a buffet to which you can do. You can go hiking, you can go skiing, you can

go water skiing and go surfing. You can hang at the beach. You can go to a nice Hollywood dinner, you go to a Malibu dinner. You can go out with family and go with friends. You can go out with dignitaries. You can go out with celebrities. You have all these things. This is the highest and buffet you can find. But you might be smarter to just have a piece of avocado toast and a really good cup

of coffee. I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is all ball. The other part that's interesting to me with the Lakers, a lot of people are calling out their roster rightfully, so there are some pieces that are head scratchers. Um. But I've explained in previous podcasts that this was not a blank slate. It was not as easy as hey, it's Lebron, let's go pick out some dream team of pieces. Guys have to be free agents, so there has to be

able to be of a trade and made. In this case, you needed guys that were willing to sign a one year deal because they want to keep themselves flexible for next year's free agency bonanza, as well as maintaining all these young players. Here's the part that no one's talking about we'll talk about here is it's like the Duke basketball effect, or let's just call it the Lebron effect.

As I told you to start, if you go to anybody's Twitter handle, in the NBA, there will there will be a mention of when the date when Lebron comes to town. Because it's everybody's biggest game. It's Alabama football,

Kentucky Duke basketball, it's everybody's biggest game. And for all those Lakers, the young ones that we all think can be good players, from brand Ingram to Kyle Kuzman to a Josh Hard to Alonzo Ball, how do those guys play in one, real NBA games that matter, in two, in real NBA games that matter against teams that are loaded for bear in the past, the past couple of years. It's it's not that people, It's not like the guys went out drinking the night before the Lakers came to town.

But it's closer to the truth than they were getting in bed with their milk and cookies. Know, when le Bronze coming to town, you're not just playing on a team that's capable of making the playoffs in a much more talented conference in the Eastern Conference. You're doing so with Lebron James, who is everyone's biggest game. And how the young Lakers adjust to that is as in interesting is anything else things you can get away within any

NBA game. You can't get away within the big games, and as it's shaping up, most every game early on the season is going to be a big game for the young Lakers because they're not only trying to prove to Lebron and to the staff that they can play at a high level. They gotta prove themselves. And when you don't see immediate success, and they may not because it's their first year together, when you don't seek occasional success, there is at least a possibility that you lose your

that you lose your your mojo. Um, you lose your confidence, which is kind of your mojo. You lose your confidence, and you lose your confidence around Lebron James. He won't believe in you, he won't give you the ball, they won't play it. It's gonna be a really interesting to see how this Laker thing works out. All right, then, let's get into the changes in college basketball. Aaron Torres will be our guest to work for Fox Sports, written for the Athletic as well as other their sites. Um,

I'm fascinated by the amount of immediate negativity. It's like you didn't even read through all the RULD change, Like now they still don't get it because Condoleeza Rice was on the was on the the commission board. All right. I didn't think that the Condoleeza Rice thing made sense. I would have liked more a you guys, but hey, at the end of the day, if what comes out of it is they tweaked the recruiting schedule a little bit. They change where you're gonna go see players some whatever.

Guys can come back to school even after they've been drafted like that, Um, you can be wrapped by an agent while you're still in school and he can meet with you legally and buy your dinner and by your parents dinner and fly them up and give them travel just to have that dinner. Like the idea is to cut out agents that are of ill repute. That's the idea that the legal certified agents can act like legals certified ations. Do I think this makes sense? And yes?

Do I think it fixes every problem? No? Does it create new problems? I can't say so as of yet. And I also don't love that everybody's operating on an assumption that the NBA is going to lower the age limit and let guys come straight out of high school I wasn't a good idea, then it's not a good idea now. But that's what's assumed, and that's why they created this a. If you have an elite players status, then you could have an agent in high school. What's

an elite player? We don't know. We're not handling it. Let's pass it off to USA Basketball. Not a strong look, but I think you understand there. My point is the the n c A couldn't not do anything, but any sort of massive wholesale change changes too much, so as slow push towards a different sort of summer camp look, a slow push towards a different sort of way of viewing athletes, and how we cut out the shady oh Man. And meanwhile a relative change in the transfer rule, which

I don't like but does create player movement. Also, there's the players can come back and they must be on full scholarship, but only if they stay two years in college. I like that. The idea of encouraging guys to stay in school more or welcome them back even when they try and go out and get a job in the NBA are all good things. As far as the spring and summer calendar, I don't love it. I don't know why there is a need for regulation. I think you just do one open month, you know, And I think

assistant coaches can be on the road all year. That's what their job is, to go out whenever. You know, if you're around a kid too much, the kid's gonna get creeped out by anyway. But this is the path they've chosen to go by. And I can't think of anyone rule which is so terrible, so awful, that it's going to completely change the support. I do think that takes place if guys come straight out of high school

and go to pros. The reason is all of these basketball coaches, all these executives and in in at the n c A, who will tell you, hey, listen, the college baseball model. You know what happens. If you have the college baseball model and basketball, you have college baseball fun sport, grade sport, well coached, completely irrelevant. In the National Sports Blast, let's welcome to Aaron Torres, who um

my colleague at Fox Sports Radio. Check out his radio show eight to ten Pacific time, Saturday nights on Fox Sports Radio. You can also read his work in The Athletic Fall on Twitter at Aaron I think it's Aaron underscore torres At. Aaron underscore Torres, a college football college basketball writer, wrote something called One and Fun just does a really good job. Plus he loves to cover the

recruiting scene. And Aaron, I'm wondering your initial reaction when you saw what the n has decided to do with some of their new rules. Yeah, I think you know, Doug, My reaction was, frankly, very similar to I think everybody else here. It's the middle of the week, middle of the day, everybody's running around. You see these big, bold headlines. Players can now have agents, Undrafted players can return to college, and you think, oh my god, this is a landmark day.

Everything has changed. Everything we knew no longer exists. And then you read the fine friend and you see that some of the rules really, frankly aren't all that they are kind of made out to be in that big headline. Uh, you know, look, I do think there was some some

important change as far as the recruiting calendar. I know that not everybody in college basketball is necessarily happy with it, and a lot of change, you know, an important change was made as far as kind of the enforcement process at the n C a level as far as the way that investigations are going to be done and what kind of information can be used. So it was an

interesting day Wednesday. But I think I speak for a lot of people who cover college basketball when I say that the initial headlines, Uh, sir, they didn't live up to what you expected once you dug into him a little bit. You know, it's funny you mentioned the enforcement. They're outsourcing their enforcement, right, which is which is a

great idea. Like of all the things people have crushed them for, the fact that they have a handed enforcement is something that leaves you open um, open to criticism. And look what's happened with the NFL with Roger Goodell being judge jury executioner, right, and if you appeal you you appeal to Roger Goodell. Like somehow this has gotten lost The people haven't pointed out even Mike de course

you wrote a nice article. He didn't even point out that they are outsourcing most of the enforcement procedure and most of and some of the investigation part of enforcement. I think it's a really good thing, don't do you Yeah,

I do. And you know, look, at the end of the day, I think what what people have to remember is that all of these rules, whether you like him, whether you don't like them, whether you agree with the n c A whether you don't, they were all put in place because the n c A felt like there were things that they needed to get under control. Uh, after everything that came out with the FBI process that you know last fall, and so say what you want

about the other stuff. This is a direct reflection of what happened with the FBI, where you have all of these schools in all of this trouble. But it's frankly stuff that the n c A in the past, as of previous to Wednesday, they couldn't punished the school for us. So if you have an FBI wire tap or you have a you know, an FBI information that nobody else has access to, there's no way that the n c A is going to be able to get access to that information. And as of a week ago, we were

asking can Arizona really be punished? Can usc really be punished? What about Louisville with Brian Bowen. Well, now all of that information is usable under the new n c A jurisdictions, So will it curb cheating? I mean, I think all of us that cover the sport know that if a guy wants to bend the rules or break the rules, he's gonna do it. But in theory, um, you know, it makes it a little bit harder. It makes it a little bit easier for the n c A to

actually hand down punishment if you are caught. And oh, by the way, some of the new um you know, the new verbiage and in the n c A handbook about what can be punishable and how long the punishment can be has changed as well. So I think from that perspective, and I agree with you, Doug, I think

it's gotten a lot lost in the shuffle. Is this idea that that the punishment process has changed, and again this is a reflection of what happened with the FBI, And in theory it should go it in theory, it uh. In theory, it should help Aaron Torres joining us. Okay, what about there is this growing assumption that the NBA is gonna change back to allowing players to go to

the NBA Draft straight out of high school. That that's the big thing that I think people are are misreading or not reading the fine print is the the elite prospect thing through people for a loop. What's an elite prospect?

You know that's to be determined, Um, but it's if you read it, it's like, hey, look, if and when the NBA goes back to you can come straight out of high school, then the elite prospects can be represented by an agent, and then if you decide to go to college, well then you have to cease to have a relationship or a working relationship with with that agent. Um. What's your level of belief that they are in fact gonna do away with the one and done? Yeah, something

you and I talked about a little bit earlier today, Doug. Um. You know, look, it seems like if you read the tea leaves, and I think only really Adam Silver and his closest confidence really have a great idea of what their plan is. But it seems like they keep moving this thing back. I mean, when when Adam Silver says there's growing sentiment that we want to change it, everyone thinks, oh my god, maybe it will be in effect as early as next year, twenty nineteen. Then you hear the

earliest it would be as earlier this week. When all this stuff comes out, John Calipari says, hey, I've been hearing it won't happen until two And I you know, I think, I know you stand on this, dug, But I think the reality is while Adam Silver wants to win kind of the pr war as far as letting kids get to this league as early as they can make as much money as they can, I think that the people on the ground, the people with boots on the ground at the NBA level, the scouts, the front

office execs, I think they don't want they I don't think they're interested in evaluating high school kids going to a gym where maybe there's only one guy on the court that not only has the professional future, but it has a college future. I don't think they want that. I think they want that extra year where a kid has to go to college, has to compete against older competition, has to compete against players his own age, his own

skill set, his own strength, all of that stuff. And maybe I'm crazy, but but from everything I hear, and I'm sure it's probably much the same for you, I don't think most people in the NBA are really in a in a rush to change this rule the way that I think maybe the general public thinks that they might be. Yeah, I've I've always thought that Adam Silver

is a little bit overreactive to to Twitter narrative. Right, Twitter said, right, Whereas like, look, the G League is getting better, it's an option for players straight out of high school, but the best option still remains go to one of these historic programs. I even like what the

n c I did. Obviously, I think the best, the best, the thing that everybody likes, but we don't have maybe the best foresight and how it's gonna work out is that you can go to you know, declare for if you go through the process correctly, declare for the draft, don't get drafted, you can come back to school. Like I like that. Um, I would also point out I really like that. It's kind of always been a rule,

but now it's kind of set in. Hey, if you stay for two years, anytime you come back, if you go to the pros, anytime you come back, you're automatically on full scholarship. Like I think that is awesome, Like creating more creating a reason to hang around and a way to come back even when you thought you weren't going to come back. Like, I think all that stuff is good. Now we do realize that guys that declare for the draft. Coach thinks he's gone. He recruits it

up a player you got thirteen scholarships. What happens if you're over the limit? What happens to the players who? I mean? Like, look, if you decided to come back, is that player who's gonna play your position? Is he gonna leave like that? It's a little bit trickier than people think. But I do, actually, I do actually like that stuff. I just I don't really understand this push for the nun and done. I read Steve Kerrs article when he was working for Turner and he was saying, Hey,

we need more time in college. It gives us a great because because they're they're they're more mature, they've had to answer to somebody, They've had to be around a team. This is a man's world. It's a professional, it's a job. They need some time away from however they grew up, to grow up on their own before they become a pro. I agree with that, but it feels like Adam Silver is going along with his Twitter narrative. No, I totally agree.

I totally agree, and I think that there's so much value to college um and it's it's on the court, it's off the court. Um, even if we're talking strictly from a basketball perspective. First of all, by the way, every single guy that has been forced to go to college kind of quote unquote forced, I'm using quotation Mark has talked about how beneficial it was. Look Kevin Durant, for whatever he has become the social media pariah that

he's become over the last year or two. Like I've heard him say, that year at Texas changed me as a person. I'm more mature. I you know, I entered the league, you know, with the more open mind. I had met people of Texas. I had interacted with people of Texas that I would have never interacted with if I hadn't spent that one year in college. It made me a better person. I've heard Anthony Davis say the same.

But then you also look at them the court stuff, and I actually think these coaches, for all the criticism that they get, they do look pretty good job of taking that eighteen year old kid out of high school and prepackaging him and having them ready for the NBA. For the NBA a year later. Um, you know, look, you've been in these facilities I've been in these facilities. I'm sure, Uh you know a lot of media people that are talking about this feel the same way. Is that you go to what you c l A. You

go to in Arizona. They have a couple of meals prepared for them every day. They're working with world class strength and conditioning coaches. They are they are basically it really is almost a junior NBA. And the way that frankly, even though being in the G League get professional, it's not the same Riding a bus in odd in Utah is not the same as flying charter from Durham, North Carolina to wherever the heck duke is playing their next game.

And so I'm with you, and I think the thing you bring up about Adam Silver replying to the Twitter narrative, I totally agree. And I think we're seeing this because look, you know, I can think back to when this FBI thing happened. I can think back to when he went on with our buddy Colin Calhood a year ago and

said that he was ready to make this change. Oh, I watched the Ben Simmons documentary and these kids are not this is this rule is not having the effect that it was supposed to get all of a sudden, here we are one you know where where you removed from the FBI stuff, and it seems like they're keeps being this push to move it back, move it back, move it back. And I think it's a reflection of like I said, the people that actually have to make these decisions, the people whose jobs are on the line

as GMS coaches, front office people. They don't want to be dropping a seventeen year old on on high school, even if it's only one year Duke or Arizona in North Carolina. There really is a benefit to it in the evaluation process, no question, Yeah, no question. I mean, um, you and I have talked and you broughtup treyvon Duval where where you know, if you go back to high school,

he's a he's probably a top pick. But now we saw him for a year, we understand that, in addition to his inability to shoot, he didn't really run a team or create shots for others the way that a guy like that should. And he's gonna have to fight his way here with the Bucks with a with a two way, two way contract. He is technically a professional, but not nearly what he would have been had he not been exposed a bit of Duke for the most part, though we helped. It helps build guys brands. They gotta

show up on time. They got to balance stuff with school, which is like it's it's like real life, only it's not, and provides him a grade safe in it. You and I, You and I cam leately agree on on that one. Um, All right, well, one last thing before before we bid, before we bid ad um the Duke incoming class the Kentucky incoming class. UM. Comparing contrast the two For people who haven't who don't understand, just these are two loaded classes that I have to play right away. Compare contrast

the two. Yeah, it's weird because, Um, first of all, I think the top of Duke's class is unquestionably better. They have arguably the three best players in this class. R J. Barrett, Kim Reddish and Zion Williamson. Who's the player that everybody knows, whether you're a college basketball fan, high school basketball fan, or not. But to be perfectly honest, man, you know, I've seen all those guys that are all kind of wings. None of them really shoot the ball

that well. And I'm really curious as to how all of those guys work together. Unquestionably, those three are probably the three most talented players, I mean into college basketball this year. I really have doubts that it's gonna work together even the same way. That was that for you saying no, I was gonna say even with even with was it Tyler Jones, tyas Jones's brother as a point guard? Doesn't that doesn't that help mitigate some of those issues? It does? It does, But I you know, I don't know.

I just I think back, and I know I know what your argument would be is that two years ago, when they had Grayson now and Luke Tannard and Jayson Tatum, they didn't have that traditional point guard like Track Jones. I get that argument. I just don't know. It's just I don't want to do the whole cliche one ball

a bunch of guys thing. I just don't know how it works Outlook, Coach k Has and his recruiting pitch, I think, quite frankly, was hey, look man, I had Lebron, Katie and Carmelo on the same team at one point. We figured out a way to make it work. Yeah, But I mean, like that's that's that you had so much better play. Like, look, I do think, well, here, here's here's the thing. Like I think, I think the

Trade Jones thing makes it work. It's it's interesting. So the Nike Basketball Academy has taken place in Thousand Oaks. I talked to NBA assistant GM last night and he's like, man, those college games were so bad. And I was like, why do you think they were so bad? And he's like, because there's no point guard. It's like when you have no point guard, you have all wings. It just it doesn't work. And I was like, exactly, so what you're describing,

which I I get. You know, you got r J. Barrett, Camraddish and design, but you know you put Zion at the four and you put a real point guard out there, couldn't it then work? It could? Yeah, I mean the problem is that outside of r J. Barrett, none of them are very good shooters either. So that to me is I just I don't know if it could work. It could work. But the other thing with Duke, they have no real depth, They have no returning experience like last year with Grace and Now and at least Grace

now And was a fourth year guy. This year. I mean four, you know, four freshmen that are gonna be asked to carry that load from day one. Look, you know, look, I think it's going to be Duke is gonna be what they've been the last couple of years, where I don't know that I would pick them. I don't know that I picked them over Virginia or North Carolina that both returned a bunch of players in the A c C in the regular season. But when you get to the tournament and you throw that ball up, you know,

it's about having to use a duck Gottli totermam. It's about having dudes, you know, and they are gonna have dudes. So uh, you know, that is the gifts and the curse of college basketball is that sometimes the regular season isn't as important as we wanted to be. So look, if you're telling me, would I be surprised if they

win the national championship next year? Absolutely not. I just think it's one of those deals that that I do think there's gonna be some speed bumps along the way, maybe even more than people would expect with the recruiting class like that. What about Kentucky's recruiting class? Uh? Different

group of guys. You know, the the cool thing about Kentucky is they're playing these nationally televised games in the Bahamas as we speak here, uh in the middle of August, and you're getting a feel for for who those guys are and what they're capable of. I don't think any of them has the long term potential of of what the Duke guys do. I think the good thing for Kentucky is they actually have some vets. I mean, look re Travins Grant transfer from from Stanford fifth year senior

to Time Pact twelve All Conference pick PJ. Washington. I think he probably would have been drafted if he stayed in the draft this past season. Um comes back as a sophomore. Nick Richards looks unbelievable, which is something I never thought i'd say. Um, but I don't think any of the freshmen are as good. I will say this though, I don't know how much you've got to watch the first couple of games here, Doug. They got a kid, Tyler Hero from Wisconsin. I mean I saw him like

three months ago at the Nike Hoops Summit. I didn't think he was gonna be like this. He's been by far the best players, and I think it's gonna be interesting. I think Kentucky's got more depth, more experience, but those front end guys that Duke certainly are pretty darned good and hero remember what was gonna go to was going to go to Wisconsin and change his mind and ends up going to Kentucky. And and he is uh very athletic uh and and he can look he can shoot

and score or something that they that they've missed. I will be I'm intrigued to see, um, I'm intrigued to see if he'll guardeny buddy, and I'm intrigued to see, like if his shot selection is really good once they get to real basketball games. But he does give, he does give them. You know, a white kid was some swagger that's absolutely completely unafraid. And he does appear to have a much more refined perimeter game than some others and something that Kentucky hasn't had in a couple of years.

And that actually, at some point we'll get into this once we get coach to college basketball season. I like some of what Wisconsin brings back. Someone was injured last year and someone was really young. But I do wonder with with Marquette now getting in state recruits, with Kentucky stealing away hero with Minnesota keeping kids home, Like how long?

How sustainable the Wisconsin thing is because this is you know, they built a fence up and then they were able to get it, go into Minnesota and and get kids during bows regime, um, and and occasionally getting kids out of Chicago. I mean, like, look, Frank Kaminsky was going to go to Northwestern if not for the fact that, um what's his name, what's the former Northwestern coach? Why am I forgetting? Uh? Yeah, Bill Carmony No showed on his campus visit. He they brought him into Bill Carmony's

office and he wasn't there. He was he you know, he was like out like playing golf, like he was just not a not a recruiter. Yeah, no, So that's I mean, he wanted I think his mom went there like he wanted to go Northwestern. The point was he used to be all getting in Chicago, used to be all getting in Minnesota. You spill bill of fence around

around all the kids in Wisconsin. Now, look, maybe they can because the Wisconsin they can red shirt guys and they can bring guys along slowly and they got such an incredible program. Maybe it works anyway, but no one's ever done without players. And when your recruiting basses shrinking up because of the challenges of Richard Patino and Kentucky and Marquette, wo Joe is doing a great job. And I do think Chris Collins is a good job in Northwestern I think that changes things. But that may be

a discussion for another day. Um Uh I look, I I think that the your perspective of the n c A thing is is is pretty much right on. And the other thing is that nothing they would have done would have been received with open arms. Right, But if we if we if we simply said, hey, they made it easier for kids to come back after being drafted. Do you like that? Yes? I do. They changed recruiting calendar, all right. I'm like, look, it's changed a million times over.

I don't think they perfected it. I'm not sure it needed to be changed. Whatever, that's something they felt like they were compelled to do. I think they created greater access to legal access to agents for players while they're in school for more information and an easier way for them to come back to school. And they took away some of their enforcement powers and enforcement duties. Like I actually kind of think they did a decent job. They

do a great job. They completely fixed the system, No, but we also agree, you and I would agree the system wasn't totally broken. That was more perception than reality, and so by not completely having an upheaval of a system that most people believe wasn't completely broken. I don't think they did a terrible job. No, how much you I'm with you, And like I said earlier, obviously you see those big sweeping headlines and you don't see all

the caveats in between. But look, my kind of big picture takeaway is you gotta start somewhere, right and so like if so, we haven't even talked about the recruiting stuff, and frankly, I think the average fan it would probably bore them two tears. But like at the end of the day, they've They've changed a couple of the events over the course of the season. I think coaches aren't crazy about it, but again it's it's part of it

is about public perception. But too, they made this edict they want to get sneaker money out of or try to limit the sneaker influence in in high school athletics and in recruiting, and so they changed the schedule a little bit. Everyone there's, oh, this is the worst thing ever, And like, look, like you said, I don't think it's perfect.

But you know, the more that I peel back this stuff, the more that I kind of realized, like, sometimes you just gotta start somewhere, And like you said, like it doesn't have to be perfect, Like we don't have to have all the answers today, and even if we did, no matter what you do, people are still gonna be upset about it. And so I used kind of the recruiting example just as an example of is it the perfect answer? No, does it piss a lot of people off? Yes?

But did it do the purpose that it was intended, which is sort of kind of take away a little bit of the power of the sneaker companies without completely redoing the whole structure of the system. It did. And so to me, I'm with you, is is And you know, this is something that people who follow my work, people who know me. I think the n c A in general gets a pretty bad rap. I think it's a vast majority of kids that come through college athletics male female, uh,

non revenue revenue, Like they got it pretty good. Like if you're you know, if you if you're an athlete at a Big ten school, like you're living a pretty good life even though there's uh, you know, maybe five kids on campus that are going to be able to make a living doing whatever uh it is that they play as a sport. And I'm with you, is like, we don't have to have all the answers today, but it was clear that they wanted to make change. They put condo leads or rights in charge of this commission.

And and yeah, like I was the guy banging the druma on Wednesday, what is all this? But the more that I peel it back, it's like, dude, sometimes you just gotta start somewhere and and and this is what it is. And it's going to continue to be tweaked over the coming years. And I'm guessing that it probably isn't the same a few years from now that it is now. But it's okay. Like I said, you gotta

starts somewhere, right, Nothing is forever. And you know, first first part to fixing a problem is admitting there is a problem. I don't know how big the problem is. But they admit there's a problem, trying to fix it and it doesn't work. Like these rules are not set in stone. These are not the the tablets came come down from Mount Sinai. They're written in paper. Their amendments, they can be amended. Aaron, great stuff is always appreciate

your spirit and joining us so much here. Can't wait to hear your radio show, which is eight o'clock at night on the Pacific Coast time on Saturday night at eleven o'clock at night on the East Coast time. You can also listen to it at Fox Sports Radio dot com run Serious XM channel three. Aaron Torres, Aaron, thanks so much, appreciate does all right? That's been all ball. I'm Doug Gottlieb. Hope you enjoyed. I encourage you to listen to my radio show three to six Eastern time,

noon to three Pacific. You listen on Fox Sports Trader, the I Heart Radio app for Serious XM channel eight three in the meantime. Subscribe, download and rate us. Don't forget to rate us. I appreciate you listening. We'll get back to more storytelling next week.