Who gets fired for drafting Trae Young? + Sweet 16 picks

what we're going to do today. Um. Obviously, Lebron James's coach, Tyron Lou, has taken a leave of absence, having been a contemporary of Tyron Lou about the same age he did cross me up in college one time when Nebraska came into our place and beat us just a devastating losses. Nebraska is sucked on the road anyway. First, a quick get well to Tylu and look, this is what I said at my radio show, and I kind of mean it.

I don't blame Lebron James for Tyron Lou getting sick, but whatever has happened to his health has been mm hmm exacerbated. What a great word. Exacerbated is has been exacerbated by the stress that he has been under, not just coaching the NBA but coaching Lebron James and what

could very well be his last season in Cleveland. So doesn't it stand to reason that had Lebron, you know, not allowed Kyrie Irving to voice his desire to trade publicly, to be traded publicly, and he like, look, we could say, well I was done once it came out that he wanted to be trade Like, No, that's not necessarily. There are women that want to divorce and the dude comes

back flowers in hands on bended knee. I'll go to therapy whatever you need, babe, and you find a way to work it out, and maybe you don't stay together for life, but you stay together and try and work it out for a year or two, which is all really you needed in Cleveland. Hey, let's just try and figure this out for a year and then you can go your way. I can go my way, and the Calves can be the better off because of a trade

where they get rid of both of us. Right. Um, this this also could have the health problems could have not been exacerbated. Had Lebron James that started the year said Hey, I'm staying in Cleveland, don't worry about it, and nothing else you here matters. This is my home. This will always be my home. He didn't. He didn't stop David Griffin from being fired, and you can say to yourself, well, what could Lebron really do you mean

to tell me that? Lebron James goes into Dan Gilbert and says, whatever you do, don't fire David Griffin, don't fire a Griff, or else I won't play for you ever. Again, that might be a bluff, but it's a strong bluff. So the point is that you can't help when Tyron lou gets sick or Tyron lose not sleeping and Tyron lose having health issues. But you could help those stress kind of buttons from not being pressed had he not been so passive or even passive aggressive instead been the

leader that he purports himself to be. All that said, it's going to be absolutely fascinating this year to see what happens with the Calves in the NBA playoffs. Now we have Trey Young who's declared for the NBA Draft, DeAndre Ayton's going to the NBA draft, Michael Porter Jr. Only Played essentially two games, He's going to the NBA Draft, and Marvin Bagley is kind of the only big time one and done non Kentucky player. More Bomba likely going

to the draft. Colin Sexton. Of course, he said he wants to get a four point out, but expectations are heat go to the draft. The most interesting one, I think, without any question is Trey Young. And normally, normally the cases with freshman they don't shoot well, but you look at their stats and they get progressively better. That's I mean, we've seen the Kentucky guys. Not not that the Kentucky guys shot well in the first game of the n

c A tournament, but generally freshman don't shoot well. They have to learn the speed of the game, everybody's speed of the game. It's more the percentage of percentage of possessions in which they play at their peak level in terms of intensity. The thing about Trey Young is his his shooting performances obviously got worse, and the numbers since let's just take since February are atrocious, and so he's

getting ready for the NBA Draft. Of course, a lot of you like to troll me the way that SportsCenter once trold me that was fun that I was not an employee for ESPN for like two years and somebody somebody in sports that is working their Twitter handle put out kind of a hybridized version of what I said on when the day he declared. Here's the tweet that Sports Center sent out. This was awesome, right, this is April two nine, Steph Curry declared for the NBA draft.

Doug Gottlieb says he doesn't have the upside of Rubio, Jennings, Flynn, Patty Mills, Jeff Tigue allmore athletic, and in all honesty, it was that was accurate. I thought Ricky Rubio could develop more as a shooter. Now has he been hurt by the knee injury. Yeah, But the big thing was Ricky Rubio, for the life couldn't shoot the basketball and Steph Curry could. That will open up the court for

Steph Curry's game. Brandon Jennings, I thought he was more athletic than I. Don't think that's an art that's arguable. Johnny Flynn, the Johnny Flynn thing is interesting because obviously he went before Steph Curry. The flaw on the Johnny Flynn thing is when we look back and say, well,

Johnny Flynn sucked. I actually think I thought Johnny Flynn could have been the next Kevin Johnson, but he was drafted by the Timberwolves and put it into the triangle, and if you're a ball screen point guard, the triangle is not for you. Additionally, he had a devastating I think hip injury to which his career was shortened. Patty Mills would be the one guy that I probably overrated coming out, and he's been a really good pro, but I I thought he would be a little bit better.

Initially took him a while and he figured it out and become kind of a life versus for But I would have thought. I thought Patty Mills was going to be a Jamal Crawford type, you know. I thought he would be a high double digit score off the bench um and Jeff t I think has had a really good career. He just hasn't been Steph Curry, so look ill knowingly admittedly a guy who I likened. I thought Steph Curry would have a Jeff hornessec like career. That's

what I thought. I could play some point so very good too, very good shooter. I didn't think he was athletic enough to get into a defense, and I thought they had struggled to hide him defensively. And Horn was actually a pretty good defender back in the day, but it was it was different because you could grab guys, you could hand check them, you could hide things a little bit more, whereas nowadays he gets so spread out and you can't hand check, and everybody switches every screen.

It's really hard to hide a guy. Um point being that, when I talk about Trey Young and I likened him to Steph Curry coming out, or how everybody wants to liken him to Steph Curry, there are some that'll be like, yo, you don't know who you talk about. You missed on Stephan Curry. And that's fair. It's fair. I didn't think he would be a two time m v P. I'm not sure anybody actually thought he would be a two time MVP, let alone a perennial All Star. But that's okay.

I'll own that one as long as I'm allowed to own the fact that I didn't think Derrick Williams was a top ten, top fifteen pick when he came out of Arizona. You know, you go back and the hits are greater than the misses. So look, I've said I think Bagley should go one over eighton and I understand that you need big guys now, especially ones that can stay out in the floor in versatile lineups, one because he can shoot, and two because he can move his feet and defend. But I think Bagley is just a

more versatile player offensively. And uh, he's a little bit younger. And no, he doesn't have the body right now of Eton, may never have the body of Aden, but there's still a little bit more physical development to take place. I'll put out a draft board as soon as the season

is done, and I think it's interesting. But the thing about Trey is because his game is styled after Steph that when I tell you somebody's going to get fired drafting Trey Young, there will be a percentage of people who read the headline from this podcast and think, well, what does Gottlieb know he missed on Trey Young? Luck?

All right, you go back to the draft, which had Chris Paul and Darren Williams, and I thought at the time the league was changing, evolving, and I thought that the draft should have the Atlanta Hawks for the Milwaukee Bucks should have taken Chris Paul Darry Williams one and two. So um, look again, I've I've missed on picks, missed on guys. The weird part about the Steph Curry one is remembers like, wow, you had them ready below Johnny

Flynn and Ricky Rubio. Yes, so the Timberwolves obviously they missed um, but I didn't have Hashima beat going number two overall, and he becomes the biggest bust of that draft. Brandon Jennings went a couple of picks behind him, and Jennings I don't think ever developed into that player. I had drew Holiday higher than others. And what's become a guard dominant league. You sit there and you want to You watch Trey Young and you you want Trey Young

to be Steph Curry, but he's not. He's not. Now this is really hard because Trey is only a freshman. Steph played three years before coming out and obviously had more refinement in his game. Remember Steph played the first two years off the basketball for the most part with Davidson and played the point guard his junior year, and that's when he blew up and had had the type of season we saw Trey half right, and he had you and four point seven rebounds and two point eight

assists during his sophomore year. During his junior year, that's when he explode. That's when he had, you know, forty four in a loss to Oklahoma. That's when he had scored at least twenty five points in seven in straight games. You know, he averaged shot thirty eight percent from three percentages actually went down his junior year. So there's a couple of different layers to the Trey Young conversation. I think it's a mistake for him to come out. I

think that he could develop. He could average as many or more points or fewer points, shoot a lower percentage overall, and still be as well or or better regarded. The first thing is defensively. Remember Trey Young is smaller than Steph Curry. He's smaller than Steph Curry. Step is a legit six three ish and he obviously had to add a ton of strength. And step is still a guy that they hied defensively. Now they hied him defensively because

he's a better athlete than Trey. Trey could improve his athleticism. He's a little bit bigger than Trey. I don't think Trey is gonna grow anymore. But I wouldn't put it past anybody to squeeze out another half inch or an inch at this stage in his development, and he's a better finisher, although not the greatest finisher, but he's an incredible finisher at the rim for a guy his size and considering he's not a go in and dunk on you with two hands sort of guys. So there's a

bunch of different layers to it. But Trade doesn't play any defense on the basketball. He's not really an active defender off the basketball, and the numbers in the second half of the season are really really bad when teams locked in on him and he is he's not a product necessarily as much of the system as much as he's a product of just dominating the basketball tray. Young for the year shot from three, that's not great, that's

not great. But when you go and look at the player splits and you say, all right, in February he shot thirty six percent from three. Yikes. In March for three yikes. Look, once you get to February on and you're shooting mid twenties from three, when defenders are locking in on you and your averages plummet from thirty a game to game in the last two months of the season. That's not the kind of progression. And so I understand why Ray Young, his dad is having him go from

being a collegiate player just one season go pro. You know your name is hot now, But I don't think his name would cool off. I really don't, especially if he refines his all around game in order for Tray to be Tray. He's not a blended guy. He's not a guy you can just say, Hey, you know, I want you to blend in. I want you to play against better competition for a shorter period of time and be more efficient to come off the bench. If you're gonna drave him in a lottery, you're gonna want to

start him at some point. And I just think this is going to be bad. I think there's a lot more gimmer to him then there is step to him. He's not the athlete stuff is. He's not, at least at this point, the shooter that stuff is. He's a he's a good passer. He might be as natural a pastor as Steff is. He's a lot more he's he's very right hand dominant. Of course, a lot of that can be worked out, and he can be made to be a better athlete, although I'm not sure Love be

a great athlete. So I think because of expectations, the attention that will be paid to him, the amount of time he has to have the basketball in his hands in order to be effective, I think it's more probable than not that there's some early struggles in his career and that will cause whoever drafts him, they'll draft him higher than he should be drafted because of his name. Now, maybe he goes to a place like Orlando and we don't pay attention to him for his first couple of

years and he develops into a good pro. But I can think of a ten to twelve guys to which I'm absolutely positively sure will be pros and be six men two starters in this league that I would take ahead of him, and then I have a group of ten or twelve others that I think fit in better as role players. So, uh, look, I've never been a huge Michael Porter guy, but I think he'll go somewhere

six through ten. Mo Bamba. I don't think there's any way in which you pass on Mobamba because of the upside with the length and the way basketball is being played. It's a little surprising to me that he didn't have a better year that Texas hasn't been a little bit better since since Shaka took over. Although one of the big issues with Shaka is, you know, he's always played with undersized guys, with guys that were lightly recruited, guys that were tougher than a two dollar steak. You get

to Texas and they get these regal big guys. Well, it's you can't play havoc when you have, you know, a six ft nine Dylanosikowski and a seven ft Mo Bamba, like that's really hard to pick up and play. And he has to had depth of ards, but he just doesn't have the junkyard dogs he had previously. And it's gonna be fascinating to see how Texas does he kind of refocus his recruiting instead of going after top fifty,

top twenty five guys. Does he just go and get the best athletes in the state of Texas and gets after it and and plays havoc or does he try and refine his style which is what he's he's seemingly done and coaching away in which he hasn't coached since becoming a head coach. But I think obviously bomba eighton Luka done and then my personal favorite, Marvin Bagley. Those are the guys that are going to fill out the top five, along with Colin Sexton, who undoubtedly to me

is the first point guard off the board. He's he can play both ends defensively, offensively. He's not the pastor of Steph Curry. He's not the pastor Trey Young. You're not the shooter shotmaker of Trey. But even though so, shooting is held in incredibly high regard at the NBA level, you also have to be able to get off your shot. You have to be able to guard your position, you have to be able to switch on to bigger players. With that in mind, let's get to some of our

special guests who join us now on All Ball. Let's welcome in CBS Sports College Basketball's and former head coach of Villanova Manhattan U mask Uh Steve Lappas joins us here on All Ball, the Doug Gottlieb Podcast, Just Talking Basketball Lap. You were in Nashville, incredible site, unbelievable games, and on Sunday you had two I don't know if you call them comebacks or choke jobs. I guess depends on what side. Uh. Let's let's start with Cincinnati um,

Cincinnati a twenty two point lead. That's a choke job more than a comeback. I guess you were there. It's so much different when you're there. What happened? You know what? It's one of those games, I'm telling you. With eleven minutes to go, we were on a TV break and I told Caline, so this thing is so over. I can't tell you. The body language of the VATA was bad. They just picked up technical files. They were a complete mess. They only had five guys. Uh. Caleb Martin's ankle was

sorry at his sneak. I'm like, this thing is over, and I gotta tell you, I have no idea. You know a lot of a lot of types of the points of one thing in a game. I couldn't point to one thing to say how this thing started. But I will say this, with five minutes to go in the game, when Jared Cumberland picked up his fourth and Mick Cronan kept him in the game and he found out like thirty seconds later, that's when they were ubated. At that point, so it had started to turn on

no questions, but that's when it really turned. And you know the stuff, You've seen it many times when the team is especially how the higher seeded team starts to go south and an NTA tournament game, it's hard to stop. And they definitely panicked at the end, no doubt. No, the Cumberland fouled out. And and here's what I pointed

out watching the a C Championship game in person. I was calling the radio and I said, like, they really only have four guys, you know, they try and hide the fact that don't really have a point guard, that Justin Jennifer can't score, and Kane Broom's really kind of more of a mid major low major kid, you know. And and so they're they're top four guys are really good, and then they hide the fact that I'm a point guard. They have no backup. Biggs. You had an experience like

this one, didn't you in the n c A tournament. Yeah, but not not. We never had a leg like this. In other words, we were you know, we we had a couple of games in the n c A tournament, like with Old Dominion in particularly, we were up five six the whole game and at the end point ended up losing the game. So we but we I felt the pressure, There's no question you feel the pressure if you're if you're a two seed and you're playing with team that's an eight, nine ten eleven Sea and you're

five per four minutes ago, you feel the pressure. And uh so we never had a big league like that, but you definitely know that there's Keith, no question. All right, let's go to Xavier. Xavier wasn't up twenty two. They were up twelve um in the second part of the second half. What went so wrong for x You of them,

I felt different about it. I felt like they were in control, but I didn't think like that it was over and I think we we're What what went wrong for them is they can and I don't know if you've had a chance to see Foreign State live, see them live, Like you say, look at these guys. I mean athletic, big, strong guys that can make plays, guys that can get into you defensively for But the problem for them is they didn't do it for a long period of time, but they certainly could do it for

five minutes. And that's what they did in that game. They got into Xavier for five minutes was what happened to be the last five minutes of the game, and they were with near shot, and that was the thing about them. You know, they were close enough where if they could put on one of their great spurts that they're capable of, that they could win the game. And that's what they did the last five minutes of the game, six minutes. Xavier, who was one of the best offensive

teams all a year, was awful. And I think Trade barn Blewett is a good player. I think he got exposed a little bit. And I don't think if everydy talked about guaranteed NBA guy whatever, he couldn't. He can't create his own shot. He's not a great athlete, and I think that Florida's State really exposed that a little bit. And then you know, mature, filled out and mature regally. He's their best player in terms of being able to

do something on his own, especially in transition. So I think that you know, again the floodgates open, but that Florida State team they can play defense when they want to know, no question, they're they're one of the great airport teams. You see in the airport, You're like, man, who are those beautiful who are those guys? A couple a couple of quick ones, um as I know you're going to getting ready to call the Division two National Championship.

You saw Texas in person, what's your impression of Mo Bamba? Ah, he's very raw offensively, he's very weak. Uh So he's got a lot of work to do on his body. He's got a work, a lot of work to do on his offensive game. And you know, like I used to tell my big guys, you can't if you want to. If you want to get eight ten shots in the game, he's gotta post up forty times, which means you almost have to try to get the bad every possession in a game if you want to get yourself sixteen points.

So if there's a play where the balls on this side of the floor and you decided to stand on the other side of the floor and not work hard and duck in and post, guess what, you're not gonna get what you want. And that's what I saw bomb By. I called it out of times in the game that there were many many times in the game where he

didn't even try to pos stuff. So he's kind of a lot of work to do in terms of playing harder in my opinion, And he's got a lot of work to go on his body physically because he's weak right now. He's got Is he talented, yes? Is this guy potentially can he be a really good player at the next level, Yes, but he's not there right now. He will get man handed the next year. In my opinion,

why hasn't it hit yet for uh? For that coaching staff, well, I think they had a little harder luck this year when you think about well, the hard luck was more what happens to for Andrew Jones before the kids got leukemia. So you hate to say because you're you're more concerned about him and his sickness that you are about the team. But if you're gonna look at that part, not having

Andrew Jones really hurt with their second leading scorer all year. Uh, and then the what happened at the end of the year with the kid Eric Davis not being eligible because of all the stuff that came out about potential agents and stuff. So and I and I also think Shaka made his bones playing that style, and I guess he has found that he can't play that style at this level. So I think there's an adjustment their style wise. But I also think he had some tough luck this year.

But more I'm more concerned about Andrew Jones's health than about what it did to the Shaka's team. But if we're going to talk about it, it definitely hurt the team, no question. You have a suspension of one of your one of your wing players, and then you lose another one to to leukemia. That's that's that's totally fair. Um, you and I have both said, man, Villanova shoots too many threes, and yet gosh, they made a bunch of

threes in their second in their second round win. We look at how the tournament is kind of sha changing and evolving in the brackets are opening up. Has this become their tournament to win? I don't think there's any question. I'm telling you they're gonna have a tough time this week. But but you know, Bob Hogan's I think he's gonna have to make an adjustice. He's gonna come out and press these guys big broke and uh and and not

because of Jalen Bronx. Yeah. The thing that beats pressure, as you know, is having guys to throw the ball up the court too. When you get doubled in the back court. That's the thing that hurts pressure and Villanova has too many playmakers up there. But getting back to what he says, absolutely the way they're playing right now, and you know what, let's say this, Yes they made up. They made a ton of three has been against Alabama.

You know what I was most impressed with. But I thought their hair court defense was tremendous in that game. I think they're getting better defense foot lap. Great stuff. As always, get on your plane and thanks much for jus on all. Chris Beer joins us on the Doug Gottli Show. Christ how are you doing good? Dog? Good? Hear your voice man like likewise, Um, what's this been like this year as opposed to the Arkansas? A little good question. Um, you know, every journey is different, every

team is different. Uh. The common thing is just so like happy just to be still hooping. You know that sixteen teams left and we get to practice today. We get to be around our guys like at the core of it, you know, like that that's what it's all about. And I know it's such a big deal, but the bottom lineage you get to play again, you get to practice again, you get to you know, get on your guys one more time. It's fun to play in Dallas in front of so many alums, but to play such

a hard fought game in round one. What what was it like to come out and play Florida in the second round. He know, it's a lot, a lot, a lot like back to backs in the Big Twelve. Um, we thought Stephen f Austin was a like like a Big twelve team. I would agree with you. Uh, they're really good. And it's not just about this team, it's about the tradition. And you know, there was guys on the court there that had won in SA tournament games. We don't have anybody on our team that it one

an into a tournament game. So um, I thought that game actually helped us bet Florida. You know, I don't know if we win the second game if we don't have a really tough game in the first one. And basically the Stephen Foston game, I would agree that it was like a one possession game. So it was Perdue's waiting. And I'm sure the last team Perdue ever wants to see is when you coach, because that was when you were in Arkansas, Little Rock, that was the team that

you took down. I know there you know there's a lot of similar pieces, right that the seniors were all on that team. How much of what you want to do is in any way similar to what you want to do last time he took one. Uh yeah, definitely similarities to me, because produce is gonna be, you know, a team that has great size and great bigs and whether Hose plays or not, which I think you will, you know we're gonna have to figure out a way to contend with that, both on offense and defense. I

think to two different games. Though. I don't think anybody Indiana scared of me, but you know, I'm glad. I think they're glad that Josh Hagen's Roger Woods aren't gonna be playing plus Um, but you know I won't score basket Friday night, but um, you know our players have to do that. But I think, you know, all these games in the tournament or all have little subplots and cool things and stuff, and I think this is just another example. But we've had so much respect for Matt Painter.

I mean, I tell people that's all the time. It's very easy for me to describe Matt like he's the exact same guy today. To me, that he was when he was an assistant in southern Illinois. You know, like we were drinking draft beer in the back of some bar now, you know, I mean, I guess it's Heineken now and in the front bar. But he's still the same guy. And he's been unbelievable to me. And then I tell guys to like, you know, your true character

comes out in adversity and all that that's true. I mean, that's such an accurate statement. And when we were fortunate enough at Little Rock to win that game, I mean, let's be honest, we got lucky down the stretch. We were really fortunate that thing had to go exactly the way it did for us to win. He talked about a great this guy. I mean, like I'll never forget it.

Like when you go to the press conference after the game, the tournament is a holding area, and so we got we literally crossed again, and Matt's like the same and he's just like the same guy that congratulated me, took time out to talk to our guys, Hagan's and Roger. I've had so much respect for him on the basketball side and also as a person. You know, there's I think there's complicting narratives, Chris. I think there's a narrative from people in my business that cover the sport and fans,

and there's a narrative kind of inside the sports. There's all this talk about about guys that do it the wrong way, and for whatever reason, there's not enough I don't know, affirmation of the success for guys that do it the right way. You know, Like, look when you it's almost like the it's like professional lawyer, Like there's there's millions of really good lawyers out there. But when you say like you're a lawyer, like, uh, you just

say you're a basketball coach. Al right, Like because of because of the scandal that has kind of put a cloud over the sport, it feels like suddenly that becomes a bad word. But I look at your growth as a professional from Incarnent Word to Abilene Christian to North Texas to Fort Scott to Seminal State to McMurray to Angelo State, two Little Rock Uh to Tech, and I'm like, look, this is what the sport is about. Do it the

right way. Coach ball, get guys to play hard, win games and have a cold beer afterwards and tell stories about it, Right, like what what's your sense of the conflicting narratives in how the sport is viewed and how the sport is actually practiced. Yeah, well stated verbalize that perfect. I think you know what they it comes to minds. I think, like you know, its controversy and like spicy stuff is what sells and not the good articles. But it's also just like a pureness to like, you know,

a lot of the good parts of our game. And like my girlfriend Randy, she watches a lot of these like uh reality shows, and like i'd be lying to you if I didn't tell you. Sometimes I'll sit down and kind of it engaged room, like the housewives and stuff. And if you look on there, I mean every one of those uh women have something going on. I mean none of them are just like happily married. Everything's rocking around.

I mean it's like, you know, it's like just like the spicy stuff sells, you know, the stuff is kind of on the dark side. That's what people kind of it's what entertains people. But I would agree with you to me, like I'd like to watch the reality show of like a couple of people that are married and doing it the right way and you know, because I think there's beauty and that too. I mean, like for me, that's where real happiness comes from. And I would tell

you that in basketball too. I mean to me, I've been on all sides of it, you know, like I've been like a junior college coach. I saw everybody coming and recruit our players. Now I've competed at all these different levels, and I'm telling you that most guys are doing it right. I mean, most of us are out there trying to, you know, get it done. I mean, um and and I put produced program right there, like Matt Painter recruited our players and we've recruited against him.

Um and so I would tell you that he's one of the best coaches in our game, that that just does everything everything right. Keen Evans is an absolute star. He's had an incredible season. Obviously, you inherited him from from Tubby staff. Uh what about him from a guy who watches him every day, watches every tape, coaches every game. What about Keen Evans impresses even you? Probably the consistency, um.

You know, he's always been a talented guy, um, but certainly last year to get himself in the category as a junior, where's an All Big twelve player? To me, that equals consistency. Like just the other day when I had the ballots in front of me and you're trying to pick the players, every one of them is a all conference talent. So what I do is I blot the stat sheets and I start really thinking about it,

and I just look at consistency um. You know, Like to me, way to Kansas State was an All conference player in our league because how consistent he is. There's other guys as talent his way, but Way, to me, he's a first team All Conference guy because as it is, consistency um. And I would say the same thing with Keenan, Like what he's been able to do now this year. He's getting the best team's defender, he's getting game plans, but he's still you know, he's able to make plays

on both ends the floor. And and to me, ultimately, you know, I've never been in the NBA, and I hope bill, but I would I would assume the consistency is a big, big part of it too, with an eighty something game season, And to me, that's why I think Keenan Evans is an NBA player you know that there's your story. At some point, your storyould be a great like thirty for thirty right because you were going to be the coach at UNLV. Then the Texas Tech

thing came open. And for people who don't know, you know, you're divorced out of three girls and they live now driving distance away from Texas Tech. It just kind of this is this is like one for you for now. Texas Tech isn't a destination job for a lot of people on Earth, but for you, it absolutely is. It makes it different to to achieve success and maybe sustainable success at tech for you? Is that that that fair? Yeah? Absolutely?

I think, uh, you know, like there's different programs and players and coaches having success right now, and I think that success will lead places in different directions and human beings in different directions. For us, we just want this to set success to continue to lead us to that last Monday night and certainly this year that would be awesome and everything has to go right for something like that to happen. But hey, you know, we got a chance.

We're want of sixteen teams left. We'll take our odds, but ultimately want the success that we have this year to kind of spring borders to the next year in the year after, and you know, it's about recruiting. At this level, it's about players, and then ultimately it's just about you. I think it's about tradition to it's like, uh, you know, we just want to be one of those teams it's not known for the Sweet sixteen several years ago. We want to be a team that you know, gets

to this point. Like I told the guys this morning, like you know, they're not having a party right now in Lawrence, Kansas, or in Durham, North Carolina, or in Lexington, Kentucky, because they're in the Sweet sixteen. You know, they're getting prepared for the next game. Their parties happened at the Final four. So you know, as much as we all kind of want to have a little moment right now, I mean, let's let's keep this thing rolling and then we'll see if we can't, you know, get ourselves in

the class of those kinds of schools. That's what we want to do. We want to be just like Keenan Evans has become consistent. We want to be consistent with

our program. But how do you do that. I talked with Matt Painter about this, and I actually talked with Jay right both on this show about it and that j when he went to the Final four the first time, he said, look what we got into homes we couldn't get into We had the top recruiting class in the country, but all of a sudden, we weren't getting our type

of guys. Matt Painter said the same thing. You go back a couple of years ago when they struggled, they you know, they had to get their type of guys, and they've refocused and that's how they've they've gotten so good. How do you balance the fact that because now Texas Tech is back on the national map and you know, you look, you got two stud freshmen, But how do you continue to get your type of guys even if

you can get maybe higher, higher rated recruits. Yeah, I think to yourself, and we'll always be that here and getting guys you know, the love basketball. I want to be. Oh don't want to play team basketball, but certainly to get in that next, you know kind of category of players like we like we did with Zaire and Jared Cooler. Um.

You know, I'm not I'm not complaining about that. We want to coach the best players, but we always want to get guys that fit our culture too, And I think that exists because I, you know, again kind of what we're talking about earlier with the you know, the kind of the controversy seals um. You know, obviously, I think in the top Hunter top deal, you're gonna get your guys that are kind of looking for more of

a me situation. And maybe I'm naive, like maybe I don't know, but I still think the majority of guys want to be coached. The majority guys want to be on good teams. The majority guys want to play unselfish basketball. And I really believe that, and I think it the best players that I've coached. You know, andre Emmett was an NBA players other him is one of the best team players I've ever been around. Great teammate. We had

Marshall Henderson here in Texas Tech. I recruited him and he was sitting out here and then when we got fired, he transferred. But you know, with everything with Marshall Henderson, I promise you this, he was a great team He wanted to be coached, and I'm sure Annie Kennedy would tell you the same thing. So we're looking forward and we're enjoying recruiting success right now because of our team success. But at the end of the day, we'll always be who we are and get guys that fit all right.

Last thing, if you have that Final four party, okay, that means you get to the Final four. Now we can have a celebration. What what what local establishment in Lubbock would you call the watering hole of choice of Chris Pierre. Well, first we got to hang out in San Antonio on the way home for that. When we're gonna go to the Minger Hotel, the Minger Bar in Hotel. Gary P. Nunn has got a song about it tradition.

It's it's a big time google that one entertain you. Uh. Then when we get back to Lubbock, you know, again, although we'll probably be getting invites from all the people, we gotta stay true to ourselves. Um, we gotta go over to four where we've been doing some postgame Uh, you know, situations with our team this year, and the guys over the Lantern have been great to me. It's

where I eat late at night. Um. And then there might be another one or two, but just kind of hesitates starting to mention and you know then you pist. Somebody go yeah, I understand, and and are you Heineken? Now like really did you go? Do you go Heineken on me? I would say a painter might be not me? Not me? You are what well? I mean above BA Like, if I have a choice between a draft beer and a bottle, I'm going to draft. It's just me Chris Pier draft beer at four Love of Texas Minger Hotel

in San in San Antonio. Hopefully we'll we'll have that beer in San Antonio with you guys playing there. Uh. Safe travels to um to Boston. I know, I know Boston not necessarily normally your cup of tea. But good people up there up above the Mason Dixon. We'll talk to it. Okay, Welcome to my brother Greg. Greg Gottlieb is an assistant head coach assistant. Greg gotliber is an assistant coach at Oregon State. He's previously been at cal Berkeley for six years. Was at Sandy State for eight years?

Was that sack State for two years? Was it cow Poli saying it's subissful? For two years? I can't hold on to a job at this damn problem anyway, he joins us, What up, dude? How goes it? It goes? Well? All right, here's what I want in terms of your insight.

You're gonna have to defend the honor of the Pack twelve. Uh, You're going to have to give me your honest assessment of the little things that you've seen in the n c A tournament from a completely inside the actual sport perspective that the rest of us that just cover the sport or fans think they know about the sport. And then I want to talk about how recruiting actually works. All right, So that's kind of the premise of of you entering joining us here on all ball. Let's start

with the Pack twelve. What went so wrong for the for the league? Well, um, good question. You know, I think you know that I've been in the league now for eleven years. I've seen I've seen it at its at best and you know at what it's quote unquote or so, what I can tell you is, really the games are hard to win, no matter how good the

perception is of the league. Um, last year the league was considered really good, but really there was four teams at the bottom that really struggled and everybody at the top was they were able to beat him some now side you get separation. That's what you really need in the league as you need separation. Um. I also think in our league, if you look historically speaking, we have we have more teams and how guys move on to

the NBA than any other league in the country. So now you're you're talking about a lot of young teams early on in preseason only that's when you seem to get judged the most. You can't really do a whole lot of tang hole file in the league. It's kind of already set. Yeah, And part of it is I think there's a success assumption that only the top teams deal with guys thinking about moving on. But the truth is that like, look, you guys, you should have been

better than five when you were sixteen and sixteen. Is that your final record? I think yeah. And you guys lead I think all but one game in the second half. You lead all but one game in the Pact twelve of and even the one the ones once you lost. I mean, you're I think you're better than your record. Just struggle to close games. But even with your team, there's the there are guys that are thinking about, you know,

can I get to the NBA Draft? Whereas I think the perception is you only deal with that in Kentucky or Caroline or Duke or Arizona, et cetera, as opposed to in fact is every team is actually dealing with it to a certain extent. Fair, no question, There's no question about that. There's you know, kids forget that there's only sixty draft spots and they're going to take something

from overseas. And when you mentioned you know of a kid who you know is a really good player doesn't make it, they always think they're going to be the exception, not the rule. My brother Greg, Greg got Lee from Oregon State joining us here on the All Ball Podcast. Um, how surprised were you to see Arizona go down? Maybe not just lose, but the way in which they lost. Um, you know, obviously I was surprised. I would have picked Arizona to win. I think they got a heck of

a team. Um, you know we lost to him, uh twice this year at their place. I think we were up five was five minutes ago and lost and then we lost it over time at home. You know, as has proven They're not the only team that you know, we got to one seeds that are out right. You know it can happen the Syracuse film. You've seen it regular season. I remember you guys, Um, you were down a guy, but you got stopped pretty good in New York City. Uh, a couple years later you played there.

When you're a cow. What's the right way to beat it? Well, I think the first thing is, Um, you know, you're gonna have to make some adjustments because when you you're gonna put together a game plan for what you want to do. But you can't duplicate the fact that they have so much length and athleticism. And I think you've talked about that before. You know, are recruiting to have those kind of guys, especially on the back line there, and but I just did anyone talks about playing through

the high post, uh, where we usually had success. When you're playing through the high post, is uh put a guy in there who not only can shoot the ball there, but he's gotta be able to attack and finish at the rim. And when you start doing that, they'll collapse the other front court players and then you gotta you gotta relocate your shooters so into the corners and then really get the defense stretched out. The other thing people have done a lot of is running a little more

of a two guard front. Traditionally, the traditional school of thought as if people defensively they go with the two guard front, you go with on one man front and vice versa. But in this scenario, I think it kind of sometimes UM gets them playing almost in a matched up man then. So those are some things we've done in the past, but we never beat Syracuse. Uh. We had a lot. We had some competitive games, but we never could beat them. And we had some really good

games with Washington. We were two and one against Washington, but they were all barn Burners. The two games we won, we're in both in overtime and then we go on to fight two at their place. So a lot of respect for them, and I think it's a great uh because it forces a lot of teams. So you've got to come up with something that you don't normally do offensively. You can't can't do what you've been doing for thirty games. UM. I want to ask you about Tony Bennett. Um like

a coach to coach. You watch what he's done at Virginia you know what he did at Wazoo. You know that style so well? Uh? Is that pace of play? Is the way in which Virginia plays is that ultimately flawed and will keep them from winning it all? You know, it's funny. Uh. First thing I would say is the coke analogy. You know. I mean, if you're Tony Bennett, you know poke, you know why why do you need

to do coke working? You know? I mean I think you're looking at the teams that you're talking about that you gotta be they're beating in league play, and those game to me harder to win then conference tournament games generally. I mean, then nt A tournament games just because they know you're their personnel so well, they know each other so well, those are hard games to win. Um, And I think it's pretty effective. I would I would say, you know, U M b uh, you see played phenomenal.

They got a little bit of a lightning in a bottle as well. You know, I just think they kind of broke the game open by hitting a bunch of threes. Uh, and that really changed the game. Okay, I wanted to ask you about about recruiting. This also is probably just one other thing Yeah, it's also possible that maybe the reason that they're a sixteen seed be to one was because maybe they weren't a sixteen seed. Is that possible.

I mean, maybe they were worthy of a thirteen or fourteen or even a fifteen, but maybe they weren't really a sixteen and and that might be the one of the reasons why the first time I went off to the sixteen. You know, but Ford Atlantic, Afflorida National flori Atlantic beat us in our place. We had an that's a much bigger upset, by the way than here. Only only give people for people don't know we had We won eighty one consecutive nonconference home games these are guarantee games,

and played Florid Atlantic. They won five or six games. There's actually it's actually I'm glad you brought that up. They won five or six games that year. This is in nineteen. I think they won five or six games. One of them was at our place in the GALLAGHERI Arena, sold out. We had just we we went to Hawaii.

We beat Marquette in Hawaii back to back nights, won that tournament, came back home, played TCU, who's ranked top twenty in the country, beat them at our place and we're going out to play u C l A on the weekend, and we played Florida Atlantic in a bye game, and we only had four eligible guards on the roster, and Glenn and Alexander's McDonald's all American at all time. Lane Scordon State of Texas was eligible at semester like three games later he was gonna be eligible. So we

only exchange had four guard guards on the roster. And they came into our place and they ran a little flex and then at the end of the shot clock they give it to whoever our center was guarding and go one four flat, you know, or the wey go high ball screen and then they throw it back to the center. And their center was, you know, a wing, you know, six ft four, six ft five, And we were up a couple of points at the half, and then you know, I gotta I gotta technical foul after

turn over the bucket. We got down seven, fought all the fought all the way back to like tying the game, and we we gotta stop first, we gotta stop. And they threw in the post and Alex Webber kicked the ball. It reset it all the way back to thirty five, we get another stop, we get a rebound. Joe Atkins

are to guard, rebounds the basketball. I'm standing at the hash mark for an outlet pass, and he instead of just passing it, he dribbles the ball twice and one of their players falls down trying to run back on defense. It hits off his foot, rolls underneath their basket, and one of the big guys that wasn't back on defense picks it up and lays it in and they beat us by two points. Like that, to me was a

way bigger up considering Virginia. And here's the similarity. They didn't have DeAndre Hunter, who's their most versatile kind of three four hybrid player, and you know U NBC is playing small ball, spreads them out, finds the mismatches a taxas mismatches, shoots twelve of twenty four as you point out, from three point range, catches a heater, and ends up pulling what's what's deemed to be the greatest upset in

n c A tournament history. Now Virginia without DeAndre Hunter, and remember they didn't play a true double round robin schedule in the A c C. I don't know if they would have been a one seed, but they weren't a one seed as they were comprised that day. UNBC had lost early in the year to Albany by forty. Um, so, I I guess there is sixteen, but maybe closer to a fifteen if you actually look at their personnel or

a fourteen, And yeah, it's a little bit closer. But sixteen beating a one is still something we hadn't seen before, no question. But you know, again, this is a I guess that's the beauty of the NK Tournament. But um, you know, even going back to Arizona, I mean Arizona Buffalo, those fifteen for thirty from three, I mean, I uh, if you look up this year, I don't know how many teams hit fifteen threes in a game, especially fift

team for thirty from three and lost. You know. And so sometimes, like I said, a team gets lightning in a bottle and they make shots that they don't uh normally make. But that's what makes the tournament so great, you know. They the committee has changed their criteria year to year, They've changed a lot of other things. To you, it definitely makes it hard for coaches if you're trying to plan an event, I guess and say, hey, we're scheduling based on these kinds of things. Um. But at

the same time, I know the committee is trying their best. Uh, it's not. It's not the same people every time and then, and I know they're trying to evolve as well to make it a great Tournament's still lack of a tournament. But but both those teams, Arizona Virginia, they'll be back. They're just they just will. So his history tells us as much. Okay, I want to ask you about recruiting. You've been in this thing for twenty years. What's it really like? Let's here's here's one Alan krap Okay, he's

an NBA player. He's from Los Angeles. First time you saw Alan krabbin the gym was ware. It was at a tournament when he was just finishing his sophomore year of high school. Okay, So how does it work? You see him play and you write down notes and think, I'm gonna send this kid a letter. Do you go see his a U coach, his high school coach? What what? What? What do you what do you do next? Well? I didn't see him first, you know, I think sometimes that happened.

You get every kid is different. In this scenario, I had heard about him and one of some other kids that were young prospects, and we knew we were going to have five h kids in that class. We had five, UM, I guess that we had five sophomores that would just finish up their sophomore year. UM, when Mike Montgomery first got the job in the spring, and so I knew two years down the line we got we got a big class to field. So I started recruit you know,

looking at UH. We'll get lists and different recruiting services and things like that and calling different people. And Allen played for UH, Mike Lynch at Price High School, and UM, he had a previous kid that we had recruited, but we didn't. We didn't do it nonetheless. And UH, but I built a relationship with his coach and UH and and sometimes some of it is evaluation, some some of it. You know, you have a what I call an army of people that you trust that you build up relationships with.

And this at Price High School. UM, he's outlets out high school, but he was incredible at UM forecasting the potential of some of his kids. You know, he ended up having three or four other really good UM college players after Allen as well, and he was just spot on in terms of projecting where they would be. And uh, you know, Allan was six two or six three at the time, but his dad played a couple of nine and he knew his mom as well, and he had

a chance to grow. He could really shoot. We had a junior day, junior day with his mom and uh, and then we saw him play a couple of times in the fall, and then he committed Christmas Day of his junior year. UM so and the rest of the history. Okay, so so then so the question becomes like, what has what's the percentage of times in which somebody has that

asked and somebody asked to be taken care of financially? Hey, can what do we get when we get to when we get to campus at core Vallis, Ord Santego State or at cal How often have you been proposed proposition for money? Um, I don't think it happens as much

as people think. I think, Uh, you can kind of set the tone with how you present yourself from the start and think for us, that's how we've approached everything is we talk about character and how important it is and recruiting the right kids and uh, but it'll happen

from time to time. But you know, I think the thing you have to do, Um, you know, if you're a coach and you're put in that situation, you've gotta be willing to walk away from a kid like that, you know, and um, because those are as bad news necessarily for me at least, I've just never subscribe to it. And uh so you know, I think sometimes you get some people that fish for that with their hands, but I mean people or appreciate it, people that are genuinely

honest and sin. That's just kind of the kids that we try and recruit. Think as you get older too and coaching, you realize character is such a huge part of the kids you're recruiting, and so I think, you know, some of that speaks to their character as well. So okay, give me a give me a is it? Can you count on two hands? Is it a like? And and I mean have you known this twenty plus year? So

I'd say it's probably been more than two hands. But you know, the kids that you kind of at least the rumors are that maybe that that they're looking for something you just kind of don't even put yourself in that position. You know, you don't recruit everybody. You know, your kids that you know you can get regardless of situation. So if you feel like, for one reason or other

you can't get them, you gotta move on. When you've been proposition, how they ask um, you know it would be it's start with something small, like if kids coming up for an unofficial visits, they'd say, hey, you know coaching, you know, will you take care of us we get up there? You know, can you help us get up there? That kind of thing. That would be something They're always

gonna start with something small. They're never gonna start off with hey, I need in an envelope, but it will be something small like that, and you just shut it down right away, and and then and then you find out if that's what or or does that cause you to want to shut down right away? Like I don't know how other people do their their business, but you don't. We don't have there's no funny business in our program. So you know, we gotta we do things the right way.

And you know, so sometimes people just look to see if what they can Yet you know that's just happens. I think it happens in any profession, in any I don't think it's just basketball, but that's kinds of things happened. Yeah, all right, man, Well listen, I appreciate you giving us this insight. It's great, so awesome. And I know you're on your way to go and seeing a couple of high school kids and offering them hundreds of thousands of kidding,

totally kidding. All right, So that's all ball. The Doug Gottlieb Show Basketball Only Podcast Continua download it, continua listen. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me quickly give you my picks for the Sweet sixteen and we'll see what happens with the Elite eight. Kansas State has taken on Kentucky. I think if Dean Wade plays this, Kansas a Kansas State team that I think will win the game. Um, they have very good guard play. Barry Brown is a lights out shooter. Again, this is if Dean Wade places

and he said it was chance he plays. Wade is a stretch for it. They just have more skill than Kentucky. And yes, Bruce Weber has been maligned as a coach it's a very good basketball coach. He's evolved his style. It's not necessarily shot of Kentucky. I like this Kentucky team and what Calipari has done. I just don't think they have enough offense to beat Case State. Louis Chicago taken on Nevada, but Porter Moser has done an amazing job. But they were dead to rights beaten uh By Tennessee

Tennessee more more athletic. This is a Nevada team that doesn't have a bunch of depth. I don't think the depth affects them. I think Nevada wins that game and one game depth doesn't really affect unless you get into foul trouble. On the other hand, Nevada was down twenty two for a reason, but a completely different level of athlete, style of athlete. You've got the small ball of lot of Chicago and frankly Nevada playing without a point guard. Um,

but I like Nevada to win that game. Florida State taking on good Zaga. I respect this Florida State team. They've been all over the map though in terms of their performances, and I think good Zaga a little bit too much skill, a little bit more refined. Michigan TEXTA, A and M is fascinating because Michigan plays small and A and M plays big, And I've learned that small usually beats big. But I also think that sometimes better players win the game. Ah, this is a hard one.

I'll go with A and M to win. To win. Billy Kennedy kind of underrated coach. Not that John Beelin is not as good as anybody who's ever done it. Nova taken on West Virginia. West Virginias should scare Villanova on the boards. But outside of that, Villanova because NAT can't standerneath the basket and block shots. They invert their offense. Big playing outside, Jalen Brunson playing inside. I really like this matchup for Villanova, just too much offense. Texas Tech Perdue.

I think the athleticism of Texas Tech matches up very well with Purdue produced struggles to make jump shots against athletic teams that can switch their screens. I take Texas Tech to take on Villanova in the Elite Eight. Kansas taken on Clemson. I have learned you don't doubt, you don't doubt. Kansas comeson was really impressive against Auburn, but Auburn essentially with without three starters from the start of the season. That's the Kansas team that seems to be

getting better and better and more and more confident. Playing in a home away from home in Omaha, I'm gonna take Ku. Syracuse taken on Duke. We've seen this game in the year. I do think that Duke has too much. It's the it's the it's the matchups that win this thing. And Duke shoots the ball so well from three from so many different positions. I don't think that. And look, this is a Duke team that's not perfect. They're not great defensively, but team that and and percentage wise, they're

not great from three. Outside of Gary Trent. I know Wendell Carter shoots a good percentage, but he's not a high volume three point shooter, but they can hit you from three. Guys and Trayvon Duval even though he can't, he he's a sound enough ball Hammler. The big issue with this Duke team has been their defense. Right, It's been basketball, but against Syracuse, you don't have to be great defensively because Syracuse struggles to score case in point.

They only scored forty four last time they played due so I think it's a bad matchup for for for Syracuse. I like Duke to win. So there's my Uh, those are all my picks, right, Yeah? So Duke, Kansas Tech, Nova, k State, Nevada, Gonzaga, and I'm gonna go with A and M, which what I would deem an upset. I haven't seen their numbers in Vegas. Thanks for downloading the All Ball podcast, a great part of the Herd podcast network. I'm Doug gotwo