4-4-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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That's BetterHELP.com slash positive. One shining moment, made up of many shining moments actually, and we now have a national champion in men's college basketball to rival what we saw in the women's game. Two completely different stories, two very different journeys, and yet you know how much I love the elements of redemption and the elements of history. And we have both of those in both men's and women's college basketball. But it is the final night of college hoops, so we will send it off with much fanfare in grand style. Congratulations to UConn Men's Basketball on its championship run for the ages. Six games won by an average of 20 points. Only a handful of schools have ever done that along the path to a national championship. It's also the last time for Jim Nantz, who was one of the most iconic broadcasting voices and styles of this generation.

So our question tonight revolves around Jim. We can talk, we will talk, about UConn, about San Diego State, certainly about the record viewers that showed up for the women's national championship. As we kind of bask in the afterglow of both the Final Fours in Dallas and in Houston, it was a good run. It was a good tournament on both sides.

It was a fun month of March, obviously culminating early in April as it always does. There's been a lot of conversation about the transfer portal and NIL and how it affects college sports. But honestly, the tournament, as wide open as it was for many people, I think in the same situation as me and my family in our brackets, where once we got past the Elite Eight, we didn't even have any more points that we could generate. But isn't that why we love this tournament?

Because it's truly wide open. Three first-timers in the men's Final Four, a first-time winner on the women's side, some moments that we'll never forget, some new stars that maybe we'll see at the next level, and a lot of potential for the future. Once again, I believe that March Madness is unrivaled when it comes to its format. There is no better format. It doesn't need to be bloated. It doesn't need to expand. In my opinion, I know when we spoke with Jim Lauren Yaga, he said that he believed the tournament and the sport would be better suited if it expanded. But I don't think that's the case.

With respect to him, I disagree. I love the tournament the way that it is. I love the format. If you didn't check out our video on YouTube, we were capitalizing on the energy and the excitement and the fever of March Madness. And we put together a new stairway to Seven Series in which we walked up the staircase and named the best post-seasons in sports, most compelling post-seasons in sports. Certainly, March Madness has been able to for years, and I know there's been a bit of expansion with the first four and with the 68 teams.

They've shot down expanding beyond it multiple times. It's something that the NCAA revisits every now and then. You know the theory in major sports, even though technically college basketball is not a pro sport, the major theory in sports is the bigger, the badder, the more money. And ultimately it does come down to money.

It seems as though the powers that be, the governing bodies as well as the networks, the broadcast partners, the sponsors can never quite get enough. But I love it the way it is. I have loved it the way that it is for 30 years. Absolutely love it.

Wouldn't change it. And once again, when it's over, I think, wow, that was fun. That was three weeks of joy over the sport, three weeks of moments that cause your mouth to drop open. We got buzzer beaters, including one in the final four. Stories. We got smiles and joy and moments that these young men and women have dreamt about for a lifetime.

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. And we got to be along for the ride, which is awesome. So I am OK with it being done because we've got a really busy April ahead of us. But I'm also really grateful that for three weeks we are all in and we had an awesome tournament here on the show going back to Selection Sunday and the various schools that we connected with, the coaches that we spoke to, the player interview specifically that we did four of them. Probably the best we've done ever on this show in a decade of covering March Madness on After Hours. So grateful for producer J and the various schools that we worked with.

Gonzaga, Baylor, Princeton, Furman. I'm trying to think of who I missed. Who am I missing out? Oh, what was the other school that we Drake? Well, yeah, I mentioned Jim Lauren Yaga earlier, but Drake, to be sure, we just were able to tell some really good stories and then to watch how it played out was awesome. I do not know who won our family bracket.

I think it might have been my mom's husband. I just know it was really funny because we were done. None of us had any stake in the final four because we didn't have any teams. None of us, our entire family. There's 12 of us that participate in the bracket and none of us had any of the teams in the final four. How funny is that?

I don't know if that's the case for any of you. I have not looked at the After Hours bracket challenge, but we will do that tonight because we've got to determine A, who won, who gets the After Hours swag, and we'll take top three. And then, in addition, Jay and I had our own personal wager and I don't know who won.

Jay's smiling at me. I don't know if he knows, but he actually had teams in the final four. I don't remember if I had any of them. I don't think I did. I didn't have any of them. Remember, I had all my final four intact. No, you had all your Elite Eight, right?

Yeah, right. And then my Elite Eight and then they all lost. Well, but you had more of them. You had more points that you could accumulate. I was kind of at a cap. I hit a ceiling. I'll be stunned if you did not win.

I don't know. You had a nice lead on me going into that before I had some teams left. Right, but you had 19 more points that you could have gotten. I don't think I got any of them, though. No, you did. Remember, Kansas State won in the Elite Eight, so you had that one.

I did get that one, yeah. You had some good ones, so I would be shocked if you weren't the winner for now the second year in a row, which is par for the course with the brackets, right? The more you know, the less likely you are to win a bracket. So we'll check out our After Hours Bracket Challenge. So deep breath, post-college basketball, but full speed ahead into what is the Masters. The Masters starts in just over 48 hours from now, which is, I know, one of your favorite events of the springtime. We are in the last week of the NBA regular season. We're in the last two weeks of the NHL regular season, and obviously into the first full week of Major League Baseball.

We're going to get to that. A lot of fun stuff. Just spicy from the golf world. You thought that the Liv versus PGA rivalry, the debate might die down. And it may be a less tumultuous year, I would say, for the PGA, because you're not likely to see as many players bolting for the Liv tour.

Maybe one or two. I wouldn't be surprised if we still had a few surprises. But at the same time, it's not going to be en masse the way it was last year. So it's probably not quite as dramatic. And yet you are going to see these two tournaments and the two philosophies that clash at the majors.

We've got the war of words that continues as well, which I think is just funny. A lot of bark and maybe no bite. But still, the bark is good for radio. We're all about bark here on the radio without bark. Let it go.

Let it go. Speaking of bark and the Huskies, that wasn't even on purpose. Wait, can I just tell you something really funny?

Speaking of dogs. I forgot my coffee in my car. And I had to go back down and get it. And I was in the elevator with a man named Mario who works at one of our local stations here. So if you don't know, CBS Sports Radio headquarters are in Lower Manhattan.

And as part of this complex where we work, it's really two floors of a building. But as part of this area where we work, there are seven other local radio stations. New York stations. We're not a New York station, obviously. We're not even on in New York most of the time. But we work in the same area. We share a newsroom with our New York affiliate.

We've also got a bunch of news stations, music stations. And so I don't know what station he works for. I just know that as we were riding down the elevator, he mentioned we were talking about our schedules and how he's now on early, no, he's now on late nights.

I'm obviously overnight. And so he said something about how this is better for my dog. So right away I was really interested, right? And so I asked him, turns out we both have dogs that have Australian Shepherd blood. His is more of a mix. And mine is, you know, just two breeds. But his is more of a mix. And he actually said, did you know Australians have dingo in them?

Dingo as in the wild animal dingo. And I said, no, I didn't know that. And he said, go to the website, embark DNA.

Embark as in roof, roof, embark. And they actually will do your dog's DNA. Am I the only one that feels like that's just off the deep end a little bit?

That's a bit overkill. I don't really care what my dog is. She's Australian. She's golden.

If she's something else, does it matter? I can't imagine paying for my dog's DNA. I'm on it right now. It looks like there's different options. A free, which you don't really get that much. So what does that mean? It's not accurate.

You got a free, a pro and a premium edition. No, no, I don't. She's a dog.

I love her dearly and she's beautiful. And I can see the characteristics of both of her breeds. But he says you'd be surprised what other blood dogs carry along with them. Where they come from.

Yeah, a mutt is a mutt and I'm okay with my dog being unknown in terms of her DNA. Embark. It is clever though. It is clever.

I'll give it to him. But embark. What's the one for humans? Ancestry.com or something like that.

I have no idea. I don't care about that either. But I definitely don't care about paying for it for a dog. I'm sure if you drew our bloodlines all the way back generations, we're all related to famous people. We're all connected somehow to historical figures.

Obviously, we go all the way back to Adam and Eve. But I just don't care beyond that. Anyway, so that was kind of funny. It was a little bit of enlightenment for me. Also on tonight's show, many of you have asked. I promised to share tonight the baking date from last Friday. I couldn't do it last night.

We had too much to do. And I know I owe you a story. You're going to laugh, of course, because I can't ever do anything the right way.

I can't ever do anything in a typical conventional way. I've always got something always goes wrong. And tonight, because something went wrong with my baking, I don't even think I told Bob this. Because something went wrong with my baking, Jay gets to be my guinea pig.

Are you ready, Jay? Just think about it for a second. Before you answer, very carefully think about the fact that I'm asking you to try the results of a baking faux pas. I wouldn't call it a disaster. I didn't blow anything up. So I think disasters are reserved for fires. I didn't have a fire.

But this was not. I was supposed to be teaching Bob how to bake a particular recipe, a recipe I have baked 15 times if I baked it once. And I had to do a pivot because I didn't have all the ingredients like a dummy. And so I ended up making it with something that it wasn't supposed to be made with. So all I'm saying is before you agree to be my guinea pig, just know that this could, it could be really bad. You may want to spit it out into a napkin. I don't think I would do that.

I was excited and now I'm getting a little more weary and I don't know, trepidatious of the guinea pig. But I think I'm okay. I'm okay if you spit it out.

I'm not going to be offended. In fact, I demand that you are honest with me. If you're not honest with me, we cannot be friends. I would never spit it out. I'll never share my baked goods with you again if you're not honest with me.

It's just rude to spit it out. I would let you know that I didn't care for that as much as other things you might have given me. Would you? Would you really? Because I feel like you're too nice for that.

I don't know. I might. I can read your facial expressions like a book though. And so the thing is you're going to be looking at me while you're eating it. We're going to do this on the air. It's like practice for chubby bunny, by the way.

But we're, uh, yeah, I can see Jay's face. So he's not allowed to hide from me while he's trying the baking recipe gone wrong. So you keep putting it as like gone wrong where like now I'm going in with like... You've never given me something that tastes bad before. Ever? There's never been anything that you didn't really like.

Honestly, no. Your baking is pretty top notch. Thank you, Jay.

I think you get that from everybody too. Thank you, Jay. No, actually Boomer one time ate one of my baked goods and was like, this is crap.

And I'm like, I swear to you. He was like, he was like, what happened to the cookies? Because it was a, it was a bar, not a cookie.

Chocolate chips only belong in cookies. I don't know where he got that from. Yeah, he did. But it was, yeah, he was harsh. I think it was one of those mornings where he was just, he was being loud and, you know, boisterous. Well, that's not right. Yeah, no, it was pretty, it was pretty mean. He ripped it on the air.

It was awful. Anyway. He's trying to make the guy some cookies. Seriously, I'm very careful these days. I just kind of leave him in his office.

And if he eats them, he eats them, but I don't ask him what he thinks of them anymore. So, all right. So we got two things going here. Well, we have lots of things going. But the rest of this hour, we have two things going.

We are going to crown UConn the men's basketball national champion. And we're also going to start to say farewell to our friend Jim Nantz. Hello, friends. Thankfully, he's still doing the Masters.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I would love for you to find me on Twitter, A-LOL Radio. By the way, on Twitter, my blue check mark is hanging tough. I don't know what's happening here, but neither our show account nor my personal account has yet lost its blue check mark.

Does it matter? No, because no one's going to imitate me or pretend to be me. I'm pretty sure that if you check out my Twitter, you know what's me and what's not. I guess that applies to frequent peeps.

Maybe not to new peeps, but the blue check mark is still there. Facebook is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We're going to put up a show question here momentarily. We're just glad that you are with us because, as I mentioned, we reconvene each night and we get to catch up. I look forward to it.

I know that you do, too. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Hawkins will try a three on the right wing and he'll hit it. Being pushed back by the defense, Hawkins a fadeaway three and UConn with a 26-14 lead. Jackson looks to push, leaving it behind for Newton.

Deep three on the right wing, got it. Newton with a three, 33-17. The Huskies' largest lead coming up on four to play in the first. To the other end, Trammell's shot won't go. Challenged by Newton and he couldn't get the roll.

Jackson will leave it for Calcaterra, three on the right wing, got it. Missed layup, transition three, 16-point UConn lead. 36-20. Everything coming up UConn right now. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. It was midway through the first half with the UConn Huskies on not just a drive, with the push, the aggressiveness, the ability to score from all five positions and to bring us off the bench. It was really that stretch where they flexed their muscles offensively, but I got to tell you, the defense was just as impressive. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio coming up in 15 minutes. We will head to Houston and we will check in with David Cobb, who is covering the Final Four and covers college basketball for CBS Sports.

In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, and you can also find our Facebook page. The UConn Huskies held the Aztecs of San Diego State without a field goal for 11-plus minutes in the first half. That is nigh impossible to recover from. Give the Aztecs credit because they rallied to pull within five points with five minutes to go in this game. But a lot of times, we see this in sports, it takes every last ounce of energy to come back from a deficit the way that they did. It was not the NBA, right? This is college basketball.

It's a little more down to earth, a little more defense. And in doing what they did to climb back in and pull within five, they kind of ran out of gas. And it was really then at that point another 9-0 run that put it out of reach for San Diego State. But it was this initial run in the first half in which the Aztecs missed 14 straight shots. And UConn held them scoreless from the field for 11-plus minutes. And then this is something else that really stood out to me, the rebounding. At times, it was all four or five Huskies on the court that were boxing out of rebounding. They fought, they scratched, they clawed for every single board.

They took nothing for granted. They end up with a rebound margin of 40-34. And they were able to capitalize on their aggressiveness around the glass, both ends of the court, but really defensive, to limit what San Diego State could do with each of its offensive possessions.

It was essentially one and done, almost the entire first half. UConn smothered San Diego State on the glass in that first half while it was putting together this run. Kevin Kugler with the call on the Westwood One NCAA radio network. Again, as the Aztecs pulled within five points, UConn answered with a 9-0 run that essentially ended that threat. Rebound to Hurley for UConn, and how fitting.

The coach's son is going to dribble out his dad's championship. 76-59, every dog has his day, and this day belongs to the Huskies. UConn has its fifth national championship in school history. 76-59, UConn men's basketball national champions. UConn with its fifth, I think last night I said sixth on accident, so I apologize for that. It's fifth national title in 24 years, actually. Three under Jim Calhoun, one with Kevin Ollie when he first took over for Coach Calhoun, and then of course that didn't work, they had to pivot again, and Dan Hurley ends up with this job.

It comes from a Blue Blood family in Jersey City as he roundly shouted out his hometown on the postgame podium. This was an iconic moment for UConn basketball for this reason. Even though San Diego State pulled within five late in this game, they end up winning by a wide margin. In six games, the Huskies were able to trounce their opponents by an average 20 points. It was a dominant tournament run for Dan Hurley and his Huskies.

The group just had a lot of confidence from how we played for a majority of the season, and then when you have the type of leaders like Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo, they kept this team together, got us back on track, and we knew we were the best team in the tournament going in, and we just had to play to our level. First tournament title for UConn since 2014, and so that was Shabazz Napier, if I remember right, and then the one before that was Kemba Walker. What year was that?

2011. 2011, okay, so they won two in the span of four seasons, and then they had to wait. They hadn't even gotten to a final four until this point again, and a lot of the transition again is what was taking place for UConn behind the scenes, trying to get the right fit in the wake of the retirement of the Hall of Famer.

So yeah, to take nothing away from Kevin Ollie, Dan Hurley is the guy that has kind of reloaded this program and turned it into a basketball power. They did not lose a game outside the Big East this season. So the only losses they had were in conference. They started out, what, 15-0 this season before they ran into the resistance in their own conference.

And so yeah, it's been a really impressive run for them in the tournament, but if you go back to the beginning of the season, you could see that the potential was there, even though they did end up as a fourth seed. Adama Sanogo is from the country of Mali, and so when he was interviewed on TV on CBS, he was asked about his family and his friends being up. Strange hours for them in Africa, but they had to be awake. They had to watch. He won the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award.

He had 17 points, 10 rebounds in the championship game, but he averaged roughly 20 and 10 over the course of the tournament. And man, a lot of fun to watch. A big guy, but great footwork and soft hands. I know for sure they were watching this game.

I know for sure they were proud of me, you know. There's a lot of African players, like Malian played in college, you know. Me being able to have a chance to play in the Final Four, I definitely think I'm a member of my family probably, and it's something that I will never forget in my life. That 9-0 run that ended the threat in the second half was sparked by Jordan Hawkins. Wasn't he also the one that missed the thunderous dunk?

Yeah, that was him. So what a moment. I wish we had the play-by-play, but actually more than that, Jay, if you want to put the big missed dunk up, it was early in the second half, and the look on his face, and just in general, it was, what did you call it, a Jordan-esque move? Jay and I actually were on the phone when it happened. It was this Michael Jordan-esque move that he made to get away from the defense and takes off. He launches and then could have slammed it home with authority.

Instead, it ends up going off the back of the iron. So you have it? Oh, okay. It's not on my sheet, so you're telling me you have another one? I don't have the play. He talks about it in cut 12. Who does? Dan Hurley? Yeah. Oh, no, I got you.

It's fine. We don't need to hear him talk about it. So two incredible moments for Jordan Hawkins, one where he misses the dunk and another one where he has the three, a big three that sparks their run, and obviously that was critical for them. He finishes up with 16 points, four rebounds, but it was a moment where they kind of had that gut check, right? They had to be able to step up and take control of a game that had kind of gotten away from them. We're a great defensive team. When we can get stops like that and get out in transition, that really impacts our game.

It really impacts the game. So just holding on to that stretch, I think that was really big for us. Obviously a dream come true for all of us, part of the program. We sold a vision. I sold a vision to David Benelich and President Herbst and President Radenka and the university that I could put together a special group of people, a coaching staff, and unbelievable players like this.

So it feels great to come through. Congratulations to Dan Hurley. We'll hear more from him as well as the UConn Huskies who capture their fifth national title in men's basketball.

And we'll also hear from Brian Dutcher. What a run for the Aztecs of San Diego State. Obviously a couple of their seniors, well-documented, are in their mid-20s, but this was why they returned to school.

This is why they stayed in school. Really incredible moment with Matt Bradley as he talks about making the decision to stay in school when he felt like through COVID and through everything that happened that he might as well just give up and get a job. So it's a neat moment for that school as well and how it will boost their recruiting and help their college basketball program moving forward, but it hurts at this particular moment. We will head to Houston next, and we'll talk to David Cobb who covers college basketball for CBS Sports.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. A little confetti toss for Dan Hurley. The guys have a loss. We're at a loss. We're at a loss for sure. The GOAT has remembered it. One thing I learned through all of this is everybody has a dream and everybody has a story to tell.

Just try to find that story. Be kind. You've told it better than most, let me tell you.

Can I tell you one other thing? I mean this, not to try to play off hello friends, but to you, everybody in the college game, my CBS family, my family, all the viewers, thank you for being my friend. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Wow, that voice, Jim Nantz, his final championship game for CBS Sports, his last Final Four, his last NCAA tournament, and it's been an honor. I feel the same way about Jim as I did about Vince Scully and being able to follow his career and hear him in the tail end of his career. So congratulations to Jim Nantz and thank you to Jim Nantz, one of the most iconic broadcasting voices in history. One shining moment certainly features Jim Nantz now in the books as UConn is able to capture its fifth national title in men's college basketball. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. And now in Houston, we're excited to welcome David Cobb, who's been working feverishly in the wake of this Final Four and this championship, and he works for CBS Sports.

And I saw some of the photos that you put up, David, on Twitter. You had a pretty sweet seat there, not that far from Jim Nantz. So how would you describe his impact or how will you remember Jim Nantz and his impact on this event? Well, yeah, I'm 30 years old, and I can't remember a Final Four without Jim Nantz on the call. So to be there just a few seats away from him tonight, as he called his final game, was surreal. And one of the things that I'll always remember about this Final Four in Houston, UConn's run, absolutely memorable, phenomenal. Jim Nantz signing off to me feels the same way, an iconic voice not only in college basketball across all sports. And the good thing is that we'll get to hear him again in just a few days at Augusta National. So it's not goodbye forever, but it's goodbye from college basketball and the game is better because of the impact that he had on it. Agreed. And so, yes, we love Jim Nantz, and there's not a voice out there that is more versatile than his.

He can do anything in broadcasting and do it at the highest level. So, David, inside the arena there at NRG Stadium, you have this kind of wave initially for San Diego State, taking an early lead only to see UConn rally and then hold the Aztec scoreless for 11-plus minutes from the field. Then you've got San Diego State chipping away around half, pulling within five points.

How would you describe the atmosphere inside NRG as we get these waves and these various runs by each of the teams? Yeah, just an incredible showing from the San Diego State fan base. You don't always associate Mountain West schools with having huge fan bases and just incredible support halfway around the country, right?

But the Aztecs showed up and they were loud tonight. I'm actually on the court now, and I just went and looked. There is, in fact, not a lid on the basket that they played on during the first half, but obviously UConn's defense was tremendous for a long, long stretch there in the first half, and their fans responded to that and rallied behind that. That's the sign of an intelligent basketball fan base when they appreciate things other than scoring, when they appreciate things other than three-point shooting and dunking the basketball.

And the UConn fan base, they appreciate good defense, and there was a lot of really good defense from UConn in that first half tonight. The Final Four that I attended at NRG was in 2017 between North Carolina and then Villanova, who had the Chris Jenkins buzzer beater. Going back to the national semifinals, what did it sound like in NRG when Lamont Butler hit the buzzer beater to put the Aztecs into the championship? Wow, just incredible. What a scene, what a moment.

Everything blacks out when that happens. It's just such a roar. It's almost indescribable. I thought right as that play began to pull out my phone and videotape it, that's one of 1,000 shots or more of that shot from within this arena. Obviously the San Diego State fans and Lamont Butler and that team, they will remember that shot forever.

But just like the Jalen Suggs buzzer beater to take down UCLA in the bubble year, you just don't quite get the same historical impact on a play like that when it doesn't ultimately lead to the team winning the national title. Nonetheless, an incredible moment and one of those types of images that will live on from this Final Four in Houston this year. David Cobb is with us from NRG, apparently standing on the court. What's happening inside the stadium right now? Well, there are a lot of maintenance folks taking down the court, but the podium is still here. In fact, I'll walk up the steps right now and stand on the podium where Dan Hurley and the Huskies stood just a few hours ago.

But there are still media hard at work in the workroom, which I wanted to leave there and give them a quiet space to work. But I was just able to finish up my story on Adama Sanogo, who tonight etched his name in UConn lore, and that will be up online in a few hours. But it will be 3 a.m. on the East Coast by the time we get out of here tonight. 3 a.m. UConn time for sure. David covers college basketball for CBS Sports.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. We now know that he is standing on the championship podium where Sanogo earned the most outstanding player award for this tournament, averaging roughly 20 points and 10 rebounds in these six games. That is his story.

What is so special about his story, David? Well, the fact that he didn't begin playing basketball until age 12. This is a young man from Mali, from the other side of the world, who now a decade later is held in the same esteem as players like Richard Hamilton, Kimba Walker, Emeka Okafor, Shabazz Napier, these other UConn legends. Adama Sanogo took his place among those greats tonight.

Don't take my word for it, I spoke with Ray Allen, with Rudy Gay in the UConn locker room after the game. That's the way they characterized what Adama Sanogo accomplished for UConn in this NCAA tournament. He was the rock, the foundation for them throughout this six-game run in the tournament. He was legendary. This was a deep team. Heck, they might have been able to win it without him, but he is the reason why they were so dominant.

There's really no debate over that. Why ultimately did Dan Hurley fit what UConn men's basketball was looking for? Why ultimately is he the right guy for this job? Well, he's just a junkie.

He's a total hoops head, absolutely eats, lives, and breathes all things basketball. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he's up right now worrying about next year's roster. I hope he's enjoying this one a little bit. He certainly should.

He deserves to. But it's no surprise. If you go and look at his background, of course his father, Bob Hurley, is the legendary former high school coach in New Jersey. His brother is the head coach at Arizona State. Basketball is life, and that fits UConn, because at UConn there is no greater basketball school in America when you consider the immense success that Geno Auriemma and the women's program there have had. And the men's program as well.

I thought it was fitting. Alex Caravan, the red shirt freshman forward in the locker room tonight, brought up the women's team and said, between what they have accomplished and what we have accomplished, there is no better basketball school in America. Dan Hurley fits that because of how much of a basketball man he is from a basketball family. Tonight we saw a coordination of a new coaching star in the college basketball ranks. It kind of ups the ante for Geno. I know he was without his best player this year, but they don't make the Final Four for the first time in a long time.

Meanwhile, the men go on to win the title. It's kind of a nice little rivalry renewed there, friendly rivalry among the Huskies. Yes, yes, and he was on the court tonight in UConn apparel, held court actually with some of the media here after the game. He was very much in support of Dan Hurley, and I know dating back, way back, there was maybe sometimes some tension there between those programs.

None of that, none of that now. He was here and had a smile on his face from ear to ear as these UConn players were celebrating their title tonight. David, I have about 90 seconds to go. I remember when I was there at NRG for the last Final Four that the celebrities were out. Michael Jordan was probably the most famous that I got close to, was able to get a photo, just happened to be right place, right time. Who were a few of the celebs or famous people that you saw in the arena? Absolutely, Bill Murray here tonight.

His son, Luke Murray, is an assistant on this UConn staff, has been with Hurley for years and years, dating back to Wagner and Rhode Island. And so Bill Murray, I thought it was a really cool scene, and I tweeted a picture of this. You had Luke Murray climbing the ladder to cut down the net with his son there on the ladder with him, and then off in the background taking a photo of the moment was Bill Murray. And he was just another proud parent in that moment. That's how it was on this court and on this platform tonight. And that's how those UConn legends were, Rudy Gay and Ray Allen in that locker room. They were just like proud older brothers tonight.

Even these stars and these names that we know, they just become fans in some ways in these cool moments. So what do you do now that college basketball has done, David? We've got to rank the transfer portal players for next season. We've got to get started on that.

So hopefully we'll sleep a little bit, but there is no rest for the weary these days in college basketball. Well, I appreciate a couple of minutes. And yes, check out that photo on David's Twitter, at David W. Cobb, C-O-B-B.

You can clearly see proud father and grandfather Bill Murray taking a photo at the base of the ladder as his son is cutting his piece of the net. David covering college hoops and college football for CBS Sports. We're glad to connect with you for the first time. We'll have you on again. Thanks so much. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's kind of neat to think about where he is right now, standing on the court at NRG as they're breaking it down, of course, returning it to football stadium status. But I have come to appreciate having stadiums for these college basketball national championships because it's in an atmosphere unlike any other. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.