Nuggets Shockingly Fire Head Coach Michael Malone (Hour 1)

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.

I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. What a Tuesday it's been.

What a 24 hours it's been. We got Florida coming back to win the national championship after it looked like Houston had them locked down. And then, I mean, out in Denver, Colorado, Mike Malone, head coach of the Denver Nuggets, he didn't get locked down.

He got kicked out of the building in addition to their general manager Calvin Booth. So we got a lot to get into. There's going to be a lot of basketball talk, the good, the bad. And unfortunately for somebody like Calvin Sampson, the head head coach of the Houston Cougars, yeah, it is going to be a lot of pain and ugly there. We got a lot of guests who are going to come by and chat it up with us.

How about this? Next hour, we're going to have a chat with someone who played for the Florida Gators the last time they won two national championships. We're going to be joined by Corey Brewer.

Yeah, not only did he win a championship, two of them in college for the Gators, he won a national championship or an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks and now he's coaching. We'll have a chat with Corey Brewer next hour, later on in the show to kind of break down all this craziness going on in Denver. We're going to be joined by Vinny Benedetto from the Denver Gazette.

That'll be a great conversation. And in about 20 minutes from now, Michael Attula, he'll be right here back with us from the field of 68, covers all things college basketball to wrap up what we just witnessed in the tournament last night. And man, I hope Calvin Sampson, I hope that man had a good night's sleep. I hope he had a drink.

I hope he had an amazing breakfast. What do you do when you got the championship in the palm of your hands after 36 years and then it just evaporates in the final minutes? We'll talk more about that. Listen, if you want to be a part of the show, you can do that too. The phone number here is 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me online everywhere at JR Sport Brief. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City.

And thank you again to you. If you're not here, there is no show. Thank you for tuning in on the free Odyssey app. Your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate is Sirius XM375 and a smart speaker if you have one.

Just ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. What a night last night. What a day today. Hickey, how are you, man? You good? Doing well, JR.

Doing well, yeah. Wow, I thought we talked a lot of college basketball. Really fun game last night. A great Final Four. And man, I don't know what it is with NBA coaches and getting fired here basically as close to the playoffs as possible.

But wow, what a day we've had is right. Right, the Denver Nuggets got like three games left in a regular season. They've lost four straight games. They're 11 and 13 since the All-Star break.

They're three and seven in their last 10. You got Jamal Murray, who's running around on a bum hamstring. A matter of fact, he's not running anywhere.

He's not playing because of his hamstring. And then he started off the season basically being a bum. I mean, he was a bum last year, last summer. And then also playing for Team Canada.

Jamal Murray has been out to lunch, A, since he got a new contract. And then also since the Denver Nuggets won a championship only two seasons ago. And so it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter how long you've coached in the NBA. It doesn't matter what you've accomplished. It doesn't matter.

You too can get the boot. Hickey brought it up. Hickey, you actually let me know. I was standing in one of the aisles in CVS and I'm getting ready to walk out the store and you hit me and I'm like, what? What are you talking about?

And then I found out. Listen to this courtesy of CBS Sports HQ. Breaking NBA news. The Nuggets have fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth, according to ESPN. This comes not even two full seasons after Malone led the Nuggets to their first and only NBA NBA championship. And right now the Nuggets are right there in the middle of a crowded playoff race in the West. They've lost four straight games, but still hold the fourth seed, but only a half game out of potentially falling all the way into the play-in tournament. Malone coached the Nuggets for nearly 10 seasons.

He won almost 60% of his games with six playoff appearances. ESPN reports that David Adelman is going to take over as interim coach David Adelman, the son of Rick Adelman, longtime coach of the Portland Trailblazers. Well, this isn't Luka Doncic being traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers late on a Saturday night.

This ain't what this is, but this is, this is mind boggling. When you think about someone who just won a championship is widely recognized as one of the best head coaches in the entire NBA. He is coaching the best active player, the most efficient player, a future hall of famer in the NBA, a three-time NBA MVP, an NBA champion, and they won a title two years ago. It's crazy to think that Mike Malone would get the boot.

We learned about that first. And then about 10 or 15 minutes later, we learned that the general manager Calvin Booth also got the boot. So it wasn't, hey, the GM is sitting around going, I can't stand this coach. The team is on a losing streak right now.

He's not utilizing my play. None of this makes sense because, A, they're not healthy. We know about all the championship caliber talent, the guys, the others, whatever the hell they want to call them, the role players. We know about the dudes who didn't get new contracts, whether it's because of financial reasons or they just received deals that they couldn't turn down or Bruce Brown and Contavious Caldwell Pope is now in obscurity playing for the Orlando Magic.

We've seen all of that happen. And we know it's tough to keep a championship team together unless you want to pay out your backside for it. OK, Golden State Warriors are not afraid of throwing around money. They just brought in Jimmy Butler. I mean, they're probably the most valuable sports franchise in the NBA outside of the Lakers.

Come on. They're not afraid and afraid to throw around money. The Boston Celtics, I'm pretty sure sooner than later, things are going to get dicey out there. They're going to be pretty much owned by a new group sooner than later.

Are they still going to be handing out all these contracts or eventually they're going to rip apart Tatum and Brown? Well, the Denver Nuggets won their championship two years ago. The Kroenke family owns them, the same people who own the Los Angeles Rams.

I believe they also own Arsenal and the European Premier League for soccer. And they just was like, hey, we got to get rid of a guy. And so when I heard that the coach got fired, I went, what the hell is this about? They hate his guts. You know, Mike Malone can be very blunt. He could be very straightforward. He could be no holds barred.

Maybe he just rubs folks the wrong way. And then they got rid of the GM. And then it was apparent in the reports that you heard that these two guys couldn't stand each other, that Michael Malone wasn't a fan of the roster and who he was working with.

And then Calvin Booth was just like, hey, you got to play my young guys. Kentavious is gone. Bruce is gone. Jeff Green, old man is gone.

You got to play my guys. And so they beefed. And I guess from an ownership perspective and why the hell you would do this at the end of the season as they were in the tailspin, as they're going into the playoffs, as Jamal Murray is hurt, as you're not bringing in any new players. Where the hell is the turnaround? So basically, everybody in Denver hates each other and they decided to pull the plug because it was easier just to pull the plug now than deal with some pain. Well, maybe if we fire everybody, maybe we can we can have more success in the postseason.

No. The Denver Nuggets are cooked this year. There is no turnaround. There sure as hell is no championship. They're probably going to fall into the playing.

And it doesn't matter if they they stick around or fall. They win enough and they don't have the horses. We knew this already. They're going to go and maybe compete because of Jokic. Maybe this guy can go and have more 60 point triple doubles.

Oh my God, it's crazy. He did that. And a loss no less.

Maybe you'll have another, I don't know, 30-20-20 game. He's the whole team. And now the Denver Nuggets, they're jeopardizing this guy's prime, which is embarrassing. It's one thing to understand, hey, we got to take a step back because we can't do this financially or we don't want to do it financially. I think most people are understanding of that. But not developing the future players and then deciding to fire the coach and the GM because they hate each other.

Just at this moment seems like a bad idea. That's not to say that things don't get fixed over the summer into the next season or the season after that. But Jokic is just 30 years old.

Why do you want to rock the boat that much? If you don't like Calvin Booth, who, by the way, didn't necessarily really construct the finalized version of the, well, he finished up the team. Tim Connolly, who's now the GM for Minnesota, he constructed the championship team.

And then Calvin Booth went ahead and put his finishing touches on it after Connolly left for Minnesota. Wouldn't you want to have some stability? Wouldn't you want to keep on Mike Malone, who just won a championship two years ago and is the only head coach that Jokic is known here in the United States of America? The Denver Nuggets are playing with fire and they could get burned. And that's not to say, you know, Jokic is going to wake up and demand a trade request.

He doesn't come across as the type. It's not like Jokic is just going to go, oh, woe is me. That guy's just going to show up to work. He's going to think about his horses and he's going to take his behind right back to Serbia.

That's it. We've heard this man talk about playing in the NBA as his job. The man won a championship two years ago and said, I'm just doing my job. Who likes their job?

They're probably lying if they like their job. That came out of Jokic's mouth. He might like Mike Malone. He might be disappointed that he's gone. But I think this dude is just going to show up to work and do his job.

And it may stink because it's probably going to come in a losing effort. I just hope that the Nuggets haven't screwed this up. And in the NBA, hey, everything is there for the taking. We got dummies born every day.

We got billionaires who just blow things up every day. Go ask the Dallas Mavericks fans. And now you can go ahead and ask the fans of the Nuggets. Did you need to fire the GM and the coach? That just comes across as silly. Especially as the regular season is basically done. Who does this?

Nobody. We haven't seen a coach fired this late since Hubie Brown in the 80s. He was on a losing team. He was coaching a losing team at the time. The Denver Nuggets have a record of 47 and 32. And if Nicole Jokic wasn't on that team, the Denver Nuggets would be in the in the lottery.

This is embarrassing. One of the greatest players that has ever picked up a basketball in the NBA is being subjected to garbage from the top malpractice from the cronkeys. And then they had the nerve to put out this statement to justify firing both Malone and Calvin Booth.

Listen to this. Josh Kroenke. This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully. And we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA championship. Now, that is that's as dumb as hearing that we needed to get rid of Luka Doncic to compete now and into the future. And Luka just took them to the NBA finals less than a year ago. Who by the way, Luka will be back in Dallas tomorrow. I'm sure he will put up every shot imaginable and he will be doing a lot of staring at the Mavs group.

But we'll get into that later in the show. Nothing will top Luka Doncic being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers this season. But this statement right here by firing Mike Malone and getting rid of the general manager is going to help them potentially win a championship in 2025. The Denver Nuggets have as good of a chance of winning a championship this year as I do. And I just sit here in the studio and talk about basketball.

They actually go out there and play. This is embarrassing. And if I'm Jokic, his checks are still going to cash. He's still going to be one of the greatest ever one of the greatest big men ever. This is just beyond embarrassing. And you just thought the NBA was done, which is getting ready for the postseason.

Uh-uh. Shout out to the Denver Nuggets for showing a different idiot with billions of dollars is just born and walking around every day. Maybe you're a billionaire.

You become clueless to the normal things in life. I don't know, like shooting a basketball or managing a team. There's some kid in his bedroom right now playing 2K who has a better idea at running the team than the Nuggets. Don't tell that to Woody Johnson of the Jets. Apparently his son, well, he said his son doesn't run the team using video games, but the Nuggets can do better.

Let's put it that way. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Oh, what a tough day for Michael Malone. What a tough day for Kelvin Sampson losing that national championship last night, the University of Houston. We are going to take a break and we're going to talk some more basketball. We're going to talk some football as well and more rumors about your door and his draft stock. I told you Corey Brewer, this man is going to join us next hour. Former Florida Gator.

He'll be here. We're going to have a chat with Vinnie Benedetto from the Denver Gazette to have a better understanding of what's going on in Colorado. And in five minutes, we're going to be joined by Mike LaTula to talk about what we saw last night. Another Florida comeback. Yeah, the Gators, they're national champions.

They listened to one shining moment and they cried for good reasons. We'll talk about the good cries and the bad ones on the other side. The college basketball season is over. Mike LaTula will be here on the other side.

We're just getting started. It's the JR Sport Reshow Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.

It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, we talked about the wild news earlier today, this afternoon that Michael Malone gone as the new head coach. Well, not the new head coach.

He's now the old head coach of the Denver Nuggets. We'll get more into that as the show continues on. I told you later on in the show, we'll be joined by Vinnie Benedetto from the Denver Gazette. We'll come through and get his thoughts on wasn't something widely known. The fact that the GM Calvin Booth and the head coach Michael Malone, these guys apparently could not stand each other. And I told you next hour, Corey Brewer is going to join us former Florida Gator, two time national champ, NBA champion. So looking forward to having that conversation next hour. And ultimately, we'll have a chat with Mike LaTula from the field of 68 to take a look at to take a look at the conclusion of the college basketball season, which is done.

And unfortunately for Houston, the Cougars, it ended in terrible fashion. And matter of fact, joining us right now is Mike LaTula from the field of 68. Mike, how are you, man? I'm doing well. How are you doing?

I'm very well appreciate the time. Not the the conclusion that I thought we would even have with these two teams. What are your thoughts on the tournament overall before we drill down into what we saw last night? Yeah, I thought there was a lot of a lot of talk around the type of tournament that it was, you know, not as many Cinderella's as I think people thought. But I thought it was more than made up for in the final four. I thought those three games were tremendous. I thought it was super high level just from a, you know, from a gameplay standpoint, from a competitiveness standpoint. And to me, when it comes to a championship game, when it comes to a title game of Final Four, that's all I want to see.

I know the basketball itself is not going to be perfect. But as long as guys are competing and playing at a high level, that's that's that's what I always look for. And I thought this I thought this of this Final Four did that I was down there in San Antonio and one of the best host cities I think there is in the in the country. And, and what a Final Four it was. It was a crazy Final Four. We saw a lot of comebacks.

We saw comebacks on Saturday, we saw a comeback last night. The Gators, they were the comeback kids. I mean, they're fully deserving of the national championship that they won. But it didn't matter who they took on whether it's Texas Tech or Auburn, UConn last night, they just got the job done.

What does that say about a coach like Todd Golden, who kind of moves his team that way, especially given his age? Yeah, I think he's instilled a belief in that team. And there were plenty of times throughout the season, I remember earlier in the season, they got down by I think, 25 in the first half of Georgia, ended up cutting that game, or maybe taking the lead in that game in the second half, they just, they did it all year. And part of it is just because they have with their personnel, they're able to reach such elite peaks on both the offensive and defensive end. And when when that happens at the same time during a game, that's when you have those those crazy runs that they go on the second, you know, the runs that they went on in the second half yesterday, we saw them come back into UConn, we saw them, you know, come back in in the final four game against Auburn.

So they had they had done that all year, it felt like in different spots, and they have the personnel to do it. And man, their defense down the stretch I thought was was outstanding. We look at Houston as the the pinnacle of defense, it feels like in the last, you know, probably five minutes that game, Florida looked as good as anybody in the country on that end.

Michael Atulip is here with us on the JR Sport Reef show. Well, Mike, back in college, whether Illinois or Wright State, you played ball, you were a guard. We saw the guards for Houston, the ball was just going all over the place, the execution was off. Do you think last night it was a matter of nerves and kind of closing the door?

I think, I don't know if it was nerves. I think there's probably a little bit of that you're playing on the biggest stage in, you know, in college basketball, and L.J. Cryer had been there before now is a little bit different, because you remember when when Baylor, when Baylor won it, it was the COVID year. So there, it wasn't a full arena and Lucas Oil Stadium where they're where they're playing that game in Indian. And so I think that was probably new for him. Usain certainly hasn't played on that stage before. Emmanuel Sharp certainly hasn't played on that stage before.

So you definitely have that factored in. And, you know, when you have to deal with nerves and you have to deal with with a defense and physicality and the length that Florida has, that can sometimes be the recipe from a, you know, from whether it's from shooting the basketball or just taking care of the basketball. And then in late game, I just thought their execution wasn't as sharp as we've seen it throughout the season with with Houston. The last play in particular, there's just a lot of timing aspects on that play, even just the initial entry pass all the way down to I thought both of their bigs whipping on their screens and not allowing Sharp to get a shot off. I mean, it's 19 seconds left down to an international championship.

You want, come hell or high water, you want to be able to get a shot off. And the fact that it didn't happen last night, I think is maybe something Kelvin Sampson, it's probably keeping Kelvin Sampson up. Certainly last night, maybe these subsequent nights. Oh my God, I think he's gonna be up for quite a while. Mike Letulip is here with us, used to play in our college basketball analyst for the field of 68. When you think about how the landscape has changed in college basketball, you mentioned Kelvin Sampson.

He's 69 years old right now. How much longer do you think he could just, I don't want to say roll the ball out there and teach these guys, but he he's closer to the end than he is to the beginning. He is and I the interesting thing is, is his son kind of being the coach and waiting because you could, you could say maybe Kelvin Sampson is going to coach another nine, eight, nine years and go all the way until he's 77, 78 years old. But there's probably going to be a point in time, whether it's two, three, four years from now where he wants to finally hand the reins over to his son, because you know, you want to maybe enjoy watching him at some point and you go sit into the stands and kick your feet up and not have to worry about all the stress that comes up being a high, high major college basketball coach these days, transfer portal and NIL.

That's, that's probably how I see him doing it. I don't see him going for another decade, but certainly he's going to, he's going to want some revenge I'd imagine after last night and then after these next few years, he'll probably want to sit in the bleachers and watch his son take over. On the opposite end, we see Todd Golden, third youngest coach to ever win a national championship and with all the NIL changes and transfer portal, et cetera, that you just mentioned, how much, how's the runway look for him? I mean, Florida hasn't won a title since 06, 07. Here we are 20 years later almost and you know, things are, things are very different.

The landscape has changed. It has changed and it's changed from the standpoint of there's a lot of young coaches being hired and you know, John Shire was, was the one hosting that trophy last night. He's 37 years old. You know, Jay, Jay Lucas is a guy that was on that Duke staff that got hired over at, uh, over at Miami.

He's 36 years old. So where there's this, there's, there's this trend throughout college basketball where, uh, the, the Jim Laronegas and, and, uh, the guys that have Jim Bayhimes, those guys are, as they phase out of college basketball, they're going with more of a younger crop of, of talented coaches and, and, and Todd Golden, John Shire, those guys are right at the top of the list. And I think there's, uh, what they have in common is that they played and there's still, I think, a connection that resonates with the players nowadays. And they, they kind of understand they've been in those shoes and it's not like you have a coach that played in the seventies and there's just, this is a totally different game now, whether it's three point shot, uh, the, the different rules that the college basketball has now, uh, the landscape off the court, they, they get that. So I think that's part of what you're seeing.

And I don't think it's an aberration. I think you're going to see more of it as the years go on. Mike Letulip is here with us on the JR sport re-show coast to coast on the infinity sports network. As someone that America has gotten much more familiar with over the past several weeks is Walter Clayton Jr. We saw that he was held scoreless to begin the half, begin the game yesterday, had 11 points total all in the second half. And apparently of course his draft stock has kind of risen. What have you seen in his game? How do you believe he would translate over into the next level? Yeah, I think these combo guards that are able to facilitate, you know, we saw the seven assists last night. Uh, he obviously has the ability to shoot it.

I think it definitely translates. I think he, he's definitely crept his way up these mock drafts. He was out of the pretty much off the mock, mock drafts entirely two months ago. And you saw him creep into the second round. Now you hear his name being thrown around in the, in the late first round. Is he going to creep up to that mid, mid first round? I think, uh, that remains to be seen for him. I always tell, I mean, people have to realize the college basketball season is one thing, and then you go and you, you do NBA workouts, you do workouts with these teams, and then you get an invite to the combine.

You got to perform at the combine and then you got to go to summer league. There's a lot of boxes that have to be checked for these guys. And I do think too that for Clayton, uh, when you look at how he projects, I mean, everybody's the Steph Curry talks, Steph Curry's my favorite player. And, uh, Steph is just in his own category. I don't think that's really fair to Walter Clayton to put that type of comparison on him. A guy that I look at that I could kind of see Walter turning into is like a Bryn Forbes. If you remember Bryn Forbes, I mean, he's a guy who was at Michigan state really, really dead eye shooter, but we saw once he got into the summer league with the San Antonio Spurs, like, man, he's got a lot of game off the bounce. And I think people know that about Clayton, but I do think there's with all the playmakers that are on current NBA teams, he's going to have to find a path.

And maybe that's just as, Hey, I'm a catch and shoot guy, or I'm a guy that can make shots off a movement depending on the system that I'm in. So I think there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a place for him. I know he's only, he's probably six, two, six, three, but, uh, we, we've seen it time again.

I think Bryn Forbes was six to 200 pounds. So they, they comp similarly in, in, in that, in that sense. And he was a part of that, that Milwaukee bucks team that won, won a title in 2021. So, uh, I'll be curious to see how he projects. I think he's a little bit, he's, he's shiftier and has more bursts. And I think people give him credit for, you know, and, and like, I just saw his ability to, to, to really attack the top foot and get downhill, uh, and, and explode at the rim. Um, he's not like a high, high level athlete, but I think it's enough to be able to create some separation. So I think he's, I think he ends up somewhere probably in that like 18 to 25 range would be my guess. And in this draft, that's pretty dang good.

Oh, let me ask you, Mike, Michael, a tulip is here with us from the field of, uh, 68. We know one guy's not going to have that problem. He's going to be selected number one overall.

And that's, that's Cooper flag. Uh, what can, what can we expect? Is there any type of comp that's in the NBA that we've seen? We didn't see him in a championship last night, unfortunately. Uh, what do you think he'll look like on the next level?

Really good. I think he's going to look really good. And, and I think why these NBA general managers are salivating over it over him is he has all the tools and that's into that type of guy.

You can plug and play no matter what the system is. And, and, you know, he's not going to be a guy that is a 28, a game guy in the NBA, but I think, I think he has a chance to be a multi-time or a perennial all-star in the league because of how tools he, he is. And, and, you know, a couple of comps that come to mind, there's, there's certain times where, uh, you know, if you guys remember Andre Karolinko, uh, who, who was an all star, AK 47, he's, you know, how good he was on the defensive end, how good he was as a slasher and getting downhill.

Uh, it could step out a little bit. You see different flashes of different guys in his game. I mean, there's, there's some Karolinko there. Uh, there's, there's times where you see him, uh, kind of flying through the air where it kind of looks like Kevin Garnett. Uh, and then you also have, uh, I think, uh, you know, some of the, some of the game off the balance and some of the pull ups, there's some Jason Tatum there too. I mean, you can go, there's a lot of guys that you can comp him to, and he may not hit the peaks of a Jason Tatum.

He may not hit the peaks of a Kevin Garnett, but all those tools, I think make him valuable for any team that's going to draft. Well, Mike, when we look ahead to next season, we know Duke got a lot of attention. They were the favorites. We know the transfer portal. We had more than a thousand students hit it. I know AJ, the banister is going to be running wild at BYU.

What is an early preview on something we should pay attention to between now and September, October, November? Yeah, I think it's, it's how much retention they can get from this Houston Cougars team. Uh, Emmanuel Sharp still has eligibility. Joseph Tugler still has eligibility. They have an unbelievable recruiting class coming in as well, but that's, it's notable with Houston because you look back at this national championship game the first time since I think I saw 1989 or 1982 that, uh, no freshmen played.

So it's, it's, uh, I don't think, you know, Kelvin Sampson is not really used to that. So we'll see how that works. You know, a few other teams that I think are going to be in the mix there, Purdue, if they can get Braden Smith back, which it seems like they are, they're going to get Trey cough and red back. Uh, Purdue is going to be really good. Purdue is going to be, I think, a preseason top five team Louisville's another team that's done really, really well.

And in the portal, uh, Yukon's done really well in the portal, Michigan, Kentucky. I mean, there's, there's all the usual suspects I think are going to be back at the top, but particularly I look at Louisville and the type of turnaround that they've had and what, what Pat Kelsey has done with that program. We'll see if Rick Pitino can keep the excitement there.

And in, uh, you know, in, in Madison square garden in New York city, uh, it's going to be really fun and, and we'll see what teams can win the retention game. Because when you look at who was in the national championship, it was guys that had multi years, multiple years in the program. Houston had multi-year guys, Florida had multi-year guys, Auburn had multi-year guys, even across the elite eight. That's what you saw kind of went out here in March. So who ends up winning the retention game? That's the question. Oh, we know that the name of the game is retention. He got so many players moving and shaking, going whenever they want, even on the women's side. We see even South Carolina picking up recruits from, from FSU. So it's the name of the game right now.

Hey Mike, thank you so much for your time, for your expertise. Did you take one deep breath after the game was over last night? Are you kind of going to relax a little bit?

I don't know. I'm kind of, I'm kind of in a malaise a little bit after, after that season, it was, uh, you know, one of the most enjoyable seasons I think I've seen and for it to culminate with that type of final four, it was, yeah, I had to kind of walk around and take a breath after that game. Uh, just, just the way it ended.

Uh, I thought it was a fitting, a fitting end to this season. So, um, all good. I'll rest and recuperate here. And then, you know, whenever you guys want to have me back on, I'll be happy to join. Hey, thank you, Mike. We appreciate the time.

Please inform everybody where they can follow you. And then also the field of 68. Yeah. Uh, on X at let's cool up underscore Mike. That's where you'll, you'll find most of my content, uh, are, are after dark shows for fuel.

68 will be, uh, we'll pick back up here, uh, later in the off season and yeah, that's pretty much it. X is X is where you'll find me. I looked up underscore Mike and that's where most of my, most of my content is. Hey Mike and enjoy yourself. And I guess what, uh, I guess this is as close to an off season as it is, Mike. So we appreciate it.

We'll catch you down the line. Absolutely. I appreciate you guys.

No doubt about it. That Michael to look former college basketball player fighting a line nine and then also the college basketball analyst for the field of 68 is the Jr sport re show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We are going to take a break and when we come back on the other side, we're going to have a, we're going to have a chat. You know what? We'll keep chatting it up about college basketball. And matter of fact, let's take a listen to some of the individuals that we just discussed. Calvin Samson, not feeling the best. You got Walter Clayton. We'll hear from some of the participants last night on the other side of the break, we'll get more into the Denver nuggets, what they got going on. Should do a Sanders.

We got so much more to do. It's the Jr sport re show on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the Jr sport brief. It is the Jr sport re show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network.

Thank you so much to Michael. A tulip for joining us in the last break to break down what we saw last night in the national championship game of which Florida ended up being victorious over the Houston Cougars. That was, I was just waiting. I was sitting down, I'm watching the end of the game.

I get home after I get off the air and I'm like, okay, how's this going to go? Is Houston just going to kind of put their foot on their necks and call it a day or answer was no. Turnover after turnover, after turnover, after turnover, no shots. It was just, it was a sad way, a sad situation for Houston to end their season. And we'll get into Kelvin Sampson, 36 years coaching. You have this close to a national championship and then within a blink of an eye, it's all gone. And for Todd golden, he's 39 years old.

And I'm not going to say this is sports, not the grand scheme of life, but man, it can really not seem fair. Like Todd golden has been there for what, two, three years now, the man was just investigated for potential, you know, sexual harassment, you know, sending the photos to a woman and what have you. There was, the investigation was closed. Okay. I didn't investigate. Don't ask me. I don't know the details, but the fact is this guy just showed up. He's 39 years old and now he's a national champion.

Oh, how the cookie crumbles, right? If Kelvin Sampson could have only been so lucky at 39 years old, golden is the third youngest coach to walk away with the national championship. Jimmy V did it in 83 with NC state may beat the Houston Cougars. And then we also saw everybody's favorite chair throwing curse throwing also great coach Bobby Knight.

Now he did it at 35 years old over at Indiana. And this is what Todd golden had to say yesterday about being the youngest guy. So when a national championship here, I'm just a piece of this puzzle, you know, I've been able to put together incredible staff and recruit great student athletes over these last three years. And, you know, we've stayed the course all year and worked really hard and, you know, my best answer is I'm just really proud, you know, I'm proud to be the head coach of Florida.

I'm proud of the way our players performed and I'm proud of the way our staff prepared our guys to become national champions. And we all know that winning is the best deodorant for a terrible situation. Come on, we just talked about Michael Malone and Calvin booth with the Denver Nuggets and you know how Michael Malone was fired and also Calvin booth was fired and these two guys couldn't stand each other. I'm sure maybe possibly when they won the NBA championship two years ago.

Maybe they hated each other then. But they ended up winning. Winning is the best deodorant for sports team.

It covers up all of the stink. I just told you about the investigation into Todd golden that was pretty much closed in January of this year. And so now that he's a national champion, I mean this does that get bandied about? Hey, nobody cares. A matter of fact, Florida's athletic director Scott Strickland, he talked about Todd golden just still winning despite all of the quote unquote distractions.

This is what he told WESH2. Todd's always been honest and I trust him and really he deserves a lot of credit just for the way he was able to focus, block out distractions. Don't worry about things you can't control. Don't worry about what people are saying, whether they're true or not. And just control the things that are within your power to control. And he deserves a ton of credit for the way he managed that.

And obviously having an experienced team and a great staff around him allowed him to do that. Oh, Hickey, I don't know if I'd even bring that up, man. I mean, he didn't go all in on details. Hey, he was accused of being a pervert.

He didn't go all that in, but why even bother? You know, just pat the guy on the back and keep that if it's so quiet, just leave it alone, right? Yeah, feels kind of creepy, honestly, like just thinking about that.

But yeah, no, I would agree with you on that in that sense. Yeah. Why, why, why bring that up? You're celebrating the title and you, oh, he, he won despite the distractions of him being allegedly a sexual harasser.

I mean, what else can I say? I said it. And he was obviously, the investigation was closed. So it doesn't mean he didn't do anything. Didn't mean that she didn't do anything. We don't know.

I wasn't there. I'm on my damn business. Anyway, Todd Golden didn't stop there. You think about yet another comeback against UConn and Texas Tech and Auburn and last night, 12 points down against Houston. Todd Golden says the reason we bounced back is because everybody talks about their defense, but we shut them down. We've gotten a lot of credit for our offense because we've been so explosive all year and been one of, if not the top two offenses in America all year. But we've been a top 10 defense all year also. And we've been able to stand up against really good offensive teams and find a way to get stops.

I thought Houston got the better of us in the first half, but it was really just a disparity in the turnover count. We had nine, I think they had two in the first half. And as I look here, we had four in the second and they had seven. And our defense won us a game tonight. We got nine straight stops at one point in the middle of the second half. To your point, we held them scoreless the last 220 and Walter, great closeout and Condo, great hustle play to win the game. And that's what made this team special all year is that we could win different ways and we show that again tonight.

Yeah, well, they're natural champs and he's gonna, I'm not gonna say down in Gainesville, this guy's gonna go out there and just walk on water. We don't know. We know in the NBA, you could win a championship today and they'll fire you next year. Okay. I mean, this isn't the first case and in college basketball, there's certainly a, well, there is a lot of uncertainty.

I should say transfer portal, NIL, it's just the wild, wild West. And so the last time we saw Florida win a national championship was 2007. They went back to back.

Oh, six Oh seven. Here we are in 2025. They no guarantee that they'll even be back here next year.

Look at how many times they had to overcome double digit deficits. You know what? In about 30 minutes, we'll have a chat with someone who was on those two championship teams for the Florida Gators. His name is Corey Brewer. And so we'll have that chat with Corey and next hour, I want to get his thoughts on what the Gators did and the difference between what he did and his experience versus what he saw last night. And there's just a lot to discuss with Corey Brewer.

And so we'll do that in about 30 minutes from now. And when we come back, I want to talk more coaching because yeah, Michael Malone is sad and in Utah or excuse me, in Colorado, Kelvin Sampson, he's just sad in Houston. I think people are sad in Utah anyway. Have you seen a jazz? They suck.

We got a lot to do. It's the JR sport re-show coast to coast the infinity sports network.