Colin Cowherd Podcast - INSTANT REACTION: UConn Wins National Championship, Best Candidates To Replace John Calipari

thousand clients. Those are real numbers. They've been fighting for the people for over thirty five years. If you're injured, go to Fourthepeople dot Com, slash Colin or Pound five to nine. Check out America's largest injury law firm. That's Morgan and Morgan. Winning the NCAA Tournament is hard. Working with Morgan and Morgan is easy. I had said, I watched Yukon three times in the regular season. I said, They're not only the best team I've saw in college basketball,

they are easily the best team I saw in college basketball. Listen, there's just not many teams in the last twenty years that look like this. In the last twenty five years, Yukon has won six titles. They are now inevitable. The last team in college basketball that I remember feeling this way about, and I think Yukon is better than this team. Was that what twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen Villanova team where

you had Jalen Brunson, Eric Pascal, Mikhale Bridges. I don't think they had this team's size or this team's depth, but you had Jay Wright, three NBA players. They were really really good, and it was Villanova. So like Yukon, they're tough, East Coast physical. I like the refs letting

them play. I mean, the first thing that jumped out to me in this game, and Jay Wright, who's an excellent broadcaster, pointed it out, is that with Klingen, they weren't double teaming Zach Eaty, so Zach Edy was making tough shots, but they weren't allowing. And this is good coaching by Dan Hurley. They just didn't give Purdue any three point looks, so their guards weren't doing anything, so it was a mismatch. Early Yukon's guards were getting theirs

lots of open looks. In fact, the only thing Yukon did not do well tonight was hit its open threes, they were okay, they hit some, not all of them. Other than that, Yukon does not lose when they lead it half. It was thirty six thirty and they were

forty seven to zero. And like the Golden State Warriors, well coached teams come out in that first five or six minutes of the second half and you can tell they've made changes, alterations, and Yukon came out and I felt at halftime, I thought Purdue's gonna go on one of these eight to zho ten ozer runs, which is virtually impossible against Yukon because they're so good defensively A and B. They get so many second chance offensive rebound

points even when they miss shots, and they get good looks. Yukon does not get bad looks their ball screening, their movement. They come down and get great looks almost every time down the floor, and if they miss, they get second chance opportunities. So it's hard to go in a run with Yukon, and that's what Yukon does. Yukon's defense makes your even makes tough. Zach Edie made a lot of shots in the first half, but if you go back and look at the last four or five minutes of

the first half, Zach Edie looked a little gassed. He looked tired. He was having to work for his shots, and they weren't double teaming. But they're so physical. And I said this on FS one today, I said, Zach Edie's the big, but Clinging's a seven footer and everywhere else on the floor, Yukon has a size advantage. So it just kind of felt inevitable. And Yukon games all look the same. It's like they're a heavyweight fighter. First

couple of rounds, they feel you out. But I think over time it's really difficult to match their size, their depth and their physicality. And Dan Hurley has said it, they just wear your ass out. Yukon just wears you out. And at one point their guards had a twenty nine to twelve advantage, So you know, I think what you're looking at is the best college basketball program men's are

women's right now in the last twenty five years. For a while it was Yukon women now at South Carolina women, But for the last twenty five years, at least in the men's game, Yukon has pulled away from Michigan State Kansas, Duke Carolina Villanova, and I don't see him slowing down with Hurley. He's got another ten years minimum to coach. I think it's funny. He's intense, but unlike a John Calipari and I'll get to that in about five minutes. He's got some self awareness. He's got a sense of humor.

You know, he can be a salesman. I'm sure on the recruiting trail, but they just coach. Yukon's really well coached. I really feel they remind me of of Villanova with Jay Wright. The difference is I think Yukon recruits at a higher level. Jay Wright made a living out of three star guys playing and developing into NBA players. You know, Yukon'll go out and get four and five star guys. What you're looking They didn't. I didn't think Yukon shot

the ball particularly well. They missed a lot of open threes. But there's I mean everything about Yukon. They're coaching their size, their movement, their tenacity, their offensive rebounding Situationally. The other thing is, and I always feel about this about teams. The great teams like make it look pretty effortless Michael Jordan made it look like he's six ' six. It's not the biggest guy on the floor, the best pier shooter. Why does he get always get great looks? Yukon gets

really good looks. Their guards, highly experienced, beat you off the dribble, break you down. Then they have like math advantages going to the basket. They can lob to biggs to finish, they go to the corner. They just come down in three out of four times they get great looks, and again when they miss, they get second chance opportunities. There's just nothing else out like it. And the other thing is is that the culture. When when Dan Hurley was on my show, it was a couple of mondays ago,

he said something was really point. He said, Yukon attracts serious people and that was the New England Patriots dynasty. Maybe it's the cold weather. You know, I don't know what it is in the Northeast, but not a lot of bs like Yukon stores Connecticut. You're going there for basketball, You're going there to be coached. You know, a lot of these programs out there, you know, like Kentucky basketball was a lot of sizzle and not a lot of

steak under Calipari. You know what I mean. It was a lot of look at what our guys make in the NBA and look at the recruiting. But in the end, it was it was just accumulating rankings. It wasn't about building great teams the last five or six years. Yukon is the opposite of Kentucky. It's not about the coach and the suits and the salary, and it's self awareness. It's building teams. It's tenacity, it's accountability. I just I like everything about Yukon basketball. It's old school and you

don't have a ton of size in college basketball. So Zach Ede is a handful.

thought about it for about an hour this morning. I was going back and forth and I'm like, what am I doing here? What's going to happen, is zakied He's gonna get his twenty something points, But in the end, you're going to get so many offensive rebounds from Yukon, They're going to control the glass outside of edy. I mean, if you really think about this game, Purdue did what they wanted to do. They got both of Yukon's bigs in a foul trouble, and Yukon couldn't hit open threes.

I mean, it kind of went their way, and they still like they were absolutely outclassed. After Newton hit that three at the start of the second half and it was thirty nine thirty, I just didn't feel at that point it was over. They weren't getting Purdue wasn't getting enough good open looks on threes. You can tell this in sporting events. It doesn't matter what sport it is, but you notice a lot in football where team's getting first downs, albeit barely. They're just getting over the chain,

they're barely moving the sticks. They're having to work for every first down, and over the course of time, you got to get some easy stuff. Yukon gets good looks, a lot of open looks, and they didn't hit all of them, and they still won. Going away, way to go Yukon. You know, I've said this before, there's so much movement in college basketball between the portal and transferring and guys leaving early for leagues. I really like what Yukon stands for. It's you know, I was there for

ten to eleven years, went to games. Everybody I knew was a Yukon fan. My daughter had a coach when she was playing basketball for a few years, and even the way they coached, you know, my daughter's like, you know, the sixth grade basketball, seventh grade basketball, even the way that team coached, hard practices, all out effort physicality. I used to love going to my daughter's practices because just how hard they practice and how precise and detailed they were,

and it's just it's an accountability. They're principled, and I like, in a world of transferring and getting mine, Yukon stands for all this stuff that I think is really important. There's a value set of standards for Hurly, his dad, his brother and him just an incredibly to me, an incredibly likable program. They play hard, they play clean, and I give the officials. I'm going to give them some a tip of the cap. We see this a lot

in championship games or championship fights. Officials back off and let you play. That game was really really physical in the first half, and the referees let him play. Now, eventually, Edi creates so much contact. You know, he gets a friendly whistle from time to time, but he creates so much contact that they're inevitably invariably their fouls. And you know, Yukon's bigs got into foul trouble, but it could have been. They could have been in foul trouble much sooner. But

the refs let them play. You know, let the bigs play, let them battle on the glass. Effort wins, depth, winds, length wins, and that's where Yukon's at. I also want to congratulations to the Huskies and Purdue. Good to see a Big ten team. I think it's going to get a monster number even though it wasn't a close game. You know, the Northeast is watching. I hate that it's a nine to twenty Eastern tip off for college sports, especially you know, for years and years, Monday Night football

started really late. I never loved that. But when I lived out East, one of the things I pined for was moving back west so I could watch games at a reasonable hour. So I don't mind doing this right now as I look at mine, so it's eight forty three where I'm at, but you know it's almost night on the East Coast. People have to work tomorrow. Don't love that. The NBA season is in full swing, coming down the stretch. Then we move right into the playoffs

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good looking, confident guy has it. But I mean what he's coaching the Chicago Bulls and they got a couple of first round picks. I think this year it's not a very deep draft. Some good international players at the top, that's about it. But he makes six to six and a half million in the NBA. I would take that over eight to eight and a half million over college basketball. Better travel, better hotels, better players, better coaching, more big league stuff. It's nothing against the SEC, but I don't

want to be hanging out in Starksville. I don't want to be hanging out in Auburn. If I can hang out you know, New York, Boston, bigger cities live in Chicago. To me, it's a better life, it's better coaching. I don't have to deal with Dean's the NCAA school presidents, the ad Klingy needy boosters, nil transfer portal. I don't think college basketball. I think you can do it right or better, but I don't think it's as much fun. That's why Jay Wright's got ten years left and went

to television. Jay Wright to me, he'll be good at anything he does because of his commitment and his attention to detail. But Jay Wright would probably rather be coaching in college. But I don't think it's designed for quality of life in the NBA. Is you can have a life coaching in the NBA, and Chicago is not in the near future going to be a title threat. They've got a bunch of guys, good guys, not great guys. But I would hire Billy Donovan in a second, and

I think he would win more than Calipari would. But I just don't think it's as good a job. I mean, I know that it sounds out of touch with college sports, but you ask people that have coached in the NBA, You ask people that have coached in college. You know, in college it's a coach's sports, so you have a lot of power, but you got to deal with a lot of nonsense stuff you didn't have to deal with

even five years ago. NBA it's about basketball. I mean, most NBA coaches I know have a good relationship with a front office. Sometimes you get a zany owner. Most of the time you don't. You know, it's not like the NFL that's so high profile that owners. You know, all your friends love the NFL. Sometimes NFL owners, you know, they want to impose their power on a franchise. There's

occasionally a bad NBA owner. But you know, the general managers, the executives in the league I talked to, they have space, they have some control. They don't feel they have a helicopter parent over them. And I think Billy Donovan in Chicago is respected, is liked, he's a great coach. I could never figure this out years ago when I would hear and I would hear sort of random stuff about Billy Donovan and OKC because he couldn't make you know, KD and Westbrook and Harden. Well we now know Harden's

a flake. Westbrook is talented, but never could really shoot like you'd like a guard to shoot. Sometimes tough to play with. And Katie's a different cat. So you know, it was for years and years, we'll wear all the championships. Well, now you look ten years later and it's like, that's why it didn't get championships. You had Lebron and the heat Many dynasty, you have the Warriors dynasty. That's why I didn't win championships. So Klipari, I think he a

little bit of a victim of his early success. But he makes the mistake that a lot of people do, and that is he is not able to shift to a second gear. You're not gonna win championships. You're not gonna beat Purdue. You're not gonna beat Yukon when you've got a bunch of freshmen. He's not gonna do it. I mean Yukon's guards. How many games do those guys have combined? Mick cronin, UCLA basketball coach on my show today,

I forget the number. It was insane. It's like the two guards between the two of them had you know, three hundred games or something like that of experience. You're not beating that with a bunch of freshmen. So Yukon does it right. I think other programs do it right. Carolina's got older teams and I think they do a good job. You know, at Carolina realizing you can get the occasional four and five star guy, but Villanova Carolina. If you really want to win at this level, the

sport has changed. One and done had its moment. It's over defense used to run the NFL. It's over all right, instant reaction. Yukon rolls six titles and twenty five years, they have officially pulled away from even the top programs in men's college basketball. The volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment, rate and review