Takes

Midweek college basketball is better than the NBA

That's why I love college basketball so much, especially this time of year where every game feels so important... there's nothing like these college basketball games, a midweek game where the crowd and you get true home court advantage. And it feels like there's big, big time stakes.

The current college basketball season is the best in a long time because the top of the rankings is loaded with juggernauts.

This might be the best college basketball season we're having right now in a long, long time. It is so loaded at the top. There are, you go eight deep of teams that feel like they are like juggernauts.

Duke cannot just lose a basketball game; they always have to make it about a larger issue like player safety.

I just love when Duke loses. They can't just lose, they have to make it about something... It has to be something bigger than just basketball. It has to be, you know, teaching kids to become men or unsportsmanlike or this or that or the other. Just lose the fucking game. You lost the game, you choked.

NIL has improved the quality of college basketball by keeping talented players in school longer.

I would make the counter argument for basketball specifically the fact that we have NIL and guys get paid. You have some super, super talented guys playing in college basketball now... some guys who are staying a little bit longer 'cause it's, you know, they can make more money playing college basketball.

The NCAA Tournament is the most fair tournament in sports

My Hot Seat is Joel Klatt. He said that the NCAA tournament is a joke. ... Most unfair tournament in all sports? It's the most fair.

The 'Players Era' tournament is ruining the tradition of Feast Week college basketball

The players era fucking sucks. There's not even a real tournament... They've taken away and no one's in the stands there. Feast Week used to mean something, man.

Alabama is officially a basketball school now

It was an interesting year. It's, we, we got a lot of spoiled Alabama fans... I hate what's going on in, in NCAA sports right now with the, the NIL and the transferring... But, you know, we're a basketball school now.

Houston was uncomfortable not playing from behind in the title game

I think that Houston was uncomfortable not playing from behind. I feel like Houston had had to lead the whole game and they were like, wait, we're, we're usually the ones that are, that are coming back at the last minute.

The 2025 Final Four will be remembered as the Final Four of Chokes

I think it'll be remembered as the, the final four of chokes. [Cooper Flagg] choked. [Kelvin Sampson]... this would've been 800. Brutal.

The Florida championship win means college basketball is alive and well

It turns out that the only thing that we could say after the tournament was over if Duke had won: NIL ruined college basketball. And since Florida won and they didn't have freshmen, it's college basketball alive and well.

Cooper Flagg does not have the clutch gene

I agree with Skip Bayless and Big Cat in that Cooper Flagg probably doesn't have the clutch gene. If I'm drafting number one in the NBA draft and I'm, I don't know, the Utah Jazz, I I would pass on 'em. Yeah, I would. And let whoever is picking after take them. Like, 'cause you're not gonna win with 'em.

Coach K is secretly happy that Duke lost because it protects his legacy

If we had true serum Coach K's happy. He doesn't want the next guy to win a title in his third year... John Scheyer, the, the, the school has not dropped off in terms of a level of basketball. But what Coach K has done to win titles gets magnified even more of. That's really hard to do because John Scheyer couldn't do it with one of the best analytically best teams of all time.

Houston is a team of wolves led by a wolf

Houston is just a bunch of wolves, man led by a wolf... the way they get after it, you, you can't prepare for it. It's like a pass rush that just the quarterback is gonna be rattled and it kills, it kills your transition offensive game because it's hard for you to even run on them because getting a defensive rebound feels like survival.

Maryland basketball is currently a stepping stone job.

And here's what sucks for Maryland is that Maryland should not be a stepping stone job. No. Maryland should be a job that a guy should want to stay at for a long time. But as of right now, guess what the reality is? It's a stepping stone job.

College basketball is a Ponzi scheme

I was gonna say it's college basketball. A Ponzi scheme. Mm. Because the tournament starts. Just wait. Did not Great Matchups round of 32. Gonna be great. Round of 32's not great, just wait. Good. So sweet 16. Sweet 16 happens. Oh, that sucked. But just wait. This is the best Elite eight you've ever seen. The Elite eight sucks. But just wait. The final four, we're kicking the can down the road.

Houston is the biggest 'Cinderella' of the Final Four

I have Houston one, then I had Florida two... [Houston] because they've never won a national title. They don't have any legacy in basketball outside of Charles Barkley. And obviously what Bruce Pearl's done, I think they would be the second Cinderella. Florida still has, you know, they, they back to back national titles.

NIL has ruined college basketball

I just NIL ruined college basketball. I don't wanna be a hater, but it it... I just want madness. I don't care if, if the games are good, I wouldn't care. But yeah, the, I want good games.

College basketball should implement a salary ladder to discourage transfers

A freshman gets 50 K from the school. A sophomore gets 75, a junior gets a hundred. If you transfer, you go back to freshman salary. So like, there is a, you could still transfer, you can still do whatever you want, but you don't get to climb the ladder of, of what the school can pay you.

I am worried about Kevin Willard's tenure at Villanova

I'm worried about [Kevin Willard's] tenure at Villanova. That's a past, we're worried about the future. And Kevin Willard to Villanova... that's what I care about. I'm worried about that.

Sportsmanship should stop at the Little League level

The sportsmanship stops at Little League. That's really what it is. Like when people are like, oh, you gotta win class. You gotta do the—that shit is not for high level college basketball, high level pro sports. I don't care. I want bad losers. I want people who are, who crash out when they lose.

Annual free agency in college sports is detrimental

I'm pro players getting money, I'm anti-free agency every single year. 'Cause that's just stupid. It doesn't exist in any other sport. So I don't know, there's a lot that's going on, but... I think it's just kind of the new reality.

The Big East is for basketball while the SEC is for football

Big East is college basketball. SEC's football... when you're watching SEC basketball fans, you know, you're only thinking in the back of your head... they don't care about this. Like they care about football.

Texas Tech is officially a basketball school

Here's the Texas Tech, maybe a basketball school stat... They have gone to four Sweet 16s over the last seven tournaments with three different coaches. Pretty impressive. To do it with three different coaches in that short of amount of time. That's culture.

Will Wade being honest about leaving for NC State is better than coaches who lie

I'd rather will Wade be transparent about it. Yeah. It's awkward that he took a new job before his team even played in the tournament... I'd rather have the Will Wade where you're just upfront about it and saying, yeah, I'm talking to NC State. Oh yep. I got a new job.

The NCAA selection committee accidentally swapped Memphis and Louisville

Memphis, I am choosing to believe this because it is crazy... people are saying that the committee, they accidentally swapped him. Louisville has a better net RPI, KenPom, T-Rank and higher in the ESPN BPI rankings in every category. But Memphis is the higher seeded team. I choose to believe that too because it makes no sense other than they just accidentally messed it up.

North Carolina's inclusion in the tournament is the most egregious committee decision ever

I thought North Carolina, at no point in the season did they look like an NCAA tournament team. They, they, yeah. They, their, their, their highs weren't very high. Their lows were pretty damn low. And I was, I was stunned. I was, in all the years of, you know, that's how the bracket works. It comes out, we, we lose our minds about teams that got in that didn't deserve it. We, we feel bad for the teams that were left out. This is the most egregious example that I've ever seen.

It's disrespectful to make UConn an 8-seed after back-to-back titles

I gotta admit, it's disrespectful that UConn is an 8-seed, Mark, because they won, I don't know if you know this, they won the last two national championships... and now you're just relegating them to an 8. You're throwing 'em out like the trash. Gimme a fucking break.

Dan Hurley is an asshole, but he is important to the college basketball ecosystem

Dan Hurley's an asshole and I think that's fair... Dan Hurley is the heel... I think it's great for the sport if [Duke and Hurley] make it there... I would've been upset if college basketball lost him [to the Lakers].

Cooper Flagg's hype is actually lower than it should be given his dominance

I think Cooper Flagg has had, I, I don't, I, for some reason he, the, the hype is somehow there, but it's also, I feel like it's not as great as it should be for this kid. 'Cause he is unfucking believable. He had an, an insane amount of hype coming in. He's delivered on all of it. He leads Duke in every single category.

The NCAA Tournament bracket reveal is the best non-sporting sporting event of the year

I actually think that this is the best non-sporting, sporting event of the year. I think that bracket reveal is the best sporting event that does not actually contain sports of the year. Oh, it's, it's incredible.

UNC getting into the tournament over West Virginia and Indiana is a result of committee member Bubba Cunningham being the UNC AD

UNC got into the tournament with one quad, one win. And Bubba Cunningham, who is part of the selection committee is also the ad at UNC. What I would say to that is that doesn't fucking matter at all [that he recused himself] because you spend an entire weekend hanging out with this people... Everyone in that room has to decide on UNC and then have him come back in the room and he's gonna be like, so how we looking?

The NCAA selection committee stopped working on Friday night

The committee. It's very clear they stopped working on Friday night. Maybe that's why Leonard's been sleeping because it makes no sense that UNC is in this tournament. It makes no sense that Michigan got a five. It makes no sense that Louisville got an eight.

UNC getting into the tournament is the biggest miscarriage of justice in 20 years

This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in all my years covering college basketball... North Carolina was one and 12 against quad one opponents. That is just a fact of life... My heart breaks for West Virginia, it breaks for Indiana that North Carolina got this opportunity instead of them.

Automatic Qualifiers (AQs) should always play on Thursday/Friday, while at-large teams play in the First Four

I think if you're good enough to get an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament, you deserve to partake in the Thursday and Friday of the first week... put the last eight at large teams in the first four, it would reward these programs again at the lower level and give them the NCAA tournament experience.

NC State was right to fire Kevin Keatts because his Final Four run was a fluke

I saw NC State fired their coach off of a Final Four appearance. Everyone was like, how can you do this? Maybe because it was the fluke Final four. No, I mean it was an incredible run. No, nothing to take away from NC State. But if Virginia had fouled up three in the ACC tournament, he would've been fired last year.

Expanding the NCAA tournament too much will water it down and hurt the TV product in the second round

I worry if they expand it too much. You know, we have already, it's tough because we have Cinderella... the more you expand it, the more those kind of things happen. Which you guys all like the first day, right? But TV doesn't like it the second round. No. So it's always fun and exciting for you guys. And meanwhile I'm sitting home ready to, you know, whatever.

You cannot win big in college basketball with high school kids anymore

I I don't think you can win and win big with high school kids. Huh? I don't, I really don't believe it. I wish it was true now. Good recruiting. I I think New York is more attractive away from New York than in New York. I agree that as somebody who used to live in New York.

The NCAA 20-hour rule for practice is 'absurd' in the NIL era

The ncaa, I've always said this about them, they are never proactive. They're always reactive. The fact that we have a 20 hour rule right now is, is absurd. Now, we don't spend 20 hours now this part of the season because we don't want to get injured. But in the beginning, in the summertime, they give you five hours a week. That's crazy.

Indiana should immediately hire Chris Beard without interviewing anyone else

If I was the ad at Indiana, I would immediately not even interview anybody else and hire one of the premier coaches in all of college basketball. And that's Chris Beard from Ole Miss. I wouldn't even think about another person. He's perfect for that job. He's a tough, hard-nosed coach. He's a superstar top three coach in my estimation.

Kentucky fans should boo Coach Cal when he returns

Coach Cal going back to Kentucky... Drop his nuts on Kentucky. That sucked for Kentucky fans. You boom him. You can celebrate him when time has passed and he's not coaching in the SEC anymore. You boo him when he comes back right now. Agreed. He's a league rival.

College basketball needs 'asshole' coaches like Dan Hurley to be interesting.

College basketball needs asshole coaches. That's what it was built on... I need a coach K, I need a like as much as I hate Coach K, he has that that like, ah, I hate him. I wanna root against him. Dan Hurley is that if you hate him, that's good for college basketball. So I want him to do whatever he wants to do.

Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune is a worse coach than Nick Sirianni

I will not say a bad word about Nick Sirianni for the rest of the year... You don't have to watch Kyle Neptune coach basketball. [He is worse than Sirianni] without question. They lose to everyone. He has more... seven [losses to teams above 100 on KenPom] to two for four times as many years.

Duke and John Scheyer failed as a 'Brotherhood' by not stopping the Kyle Filipowski grooming

Duke, do something. I mean, it's, let's proud Duke. Why wouldn't you... they clearly didn't say it strong enough. They cared more about getting points and rebounds out of the guy than his own mental health wellbeing. The brotherhood means nothing. The brotherhood is essentially the brotherhood until you get groomed as a high schooler and then gets snatched up and then have your girlfriend excommunicate your family.

Expanding the NCAA Tournament to 72 or 76 teams is going to suck

The NCAA's trying to move the tournament to an expanded field. This is gonna suck. Yeah. So 72 to 76 team tournament plans is what they're trying to do... 64 teams is perfect. They just don't need to add more bubble teams. You never remember 'em.

The only way to defend DJ Burns is to pull the chair out from under him

The, if you're not a giant, the only way that you can defend him is something that Duke tried to do one time tonight that never went back to it. Where you just back away from him. As he's putting that, he pull the chair, you pull the chair out and then he gets outta control. That's the only way that you can stop him because you can't push back against him.

Alabama football fans would trade a basketball national championship for a win over Georgia

I mean there will be some Alabama basketball fans that will say that we're crazy for this. But I think that if you polled the entire Alabama fan base. Yeah. I mean football just is king there. ... win against Georgia. That might be, but yeah, they just have, there's something about having it all.

UConn's historic season hasn't been covered enough by national media

Our season hasn't been covered in, in my mind and the, you know, national media enough, you know, this is a team that's done historic stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah. I mean, if we were at Duke or Kentucky or Kansas, they would lead SportsCenter with it and it would be the biggest story in sports.

The majority of players in the transfer portal will end up losing out long-term

At the end of the day, the majority of kids players I think are gonna lose out. Now, there'll be a few that it works out for, but the majority... we're gonna have over 2000 in the portal. And guys are now doing it two and three and even four times. Where are they gonna have to go back to later on? ... I honestly believe that, I think a lot of players are gonna make bad decisions and not learn how to fight through sometimes.

The Big East should have had more teams in the NCAA tournament.

Big East also undefeated. Six and oh Big East. Probably should put more teams in from the Big East.

Dana Altman is the most underrated coach in America

Dana Altman my most underrated coach in America. I love how he coaches basketball. Dana Altman and the Oregon Ducks... Fun fact, Dana Altman is now 8-0 in first round NCAA tournaments. He is such a good coach and he has them overachieving every single year.