Jon Crispin, Westwood One & ESPN College Basketball Analyst

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Happy to join. No doubt about it. There's a lot of people as we know that are directing their attention towards the March Madness tournament. But before we get there, what are your thoughts on what took place this past Saturday out at Wake?

Well look I'm I think I'm maybe I'm contrarian in some ways but I also think I'm a bit of a logician when it comes to things that happen. And in our sport what we do really well is overreact. Like we do that. Like earlier this season Kansas looked good and we're like there's not a team better than Kansas. They might win it all. They're gonna win it all. Final four bounds and then they lost. And then it was like but Arizona. Arizona looks as good as anybody.

It's Purdue. Like we overreact everything. I mean how many times have we had a little scuffle in a handshake line and it turns out that we go we just need to do away with the handshakes. And it's like really? How about being adult right?

There's a there's a better first step than just do away with it because recently something happened. And I look at court storming and first I got to put it into context. Storming the court is a bunch of people who are excited that that a win happened against somebody you're not supposed to win. That's a good thing. It's fun. But it's also something that gets people to want to go to games right?

If you're a student you want to have reasons to go. If if we're not being honest with the reality that college basketball is down. Like viewership is down. People in attendance it's down. So if that's the case and there's this kind of waning interest in the game we need to do a better job of giving people reasons to want to be there. Reasons gonna say hey maybe there'll be an upset we can storm the court.

If that's what gets you there and I'm sure there was a few people in that Wake Forest crowd that that's all they wanted then great. But what what's the logical next step? The logical next step is saying all right you've got 70 you know yellow coat security guards whatever they are ushers you know in the in the arena to just stand there while the the Roman mob just piles through them.

Why don't you take 10 to 15 of your best your most experienced security guards ushers whatever they are and say look what a court storming situation your job is to get the opposing players to safety. That is your sole purpose. Your job is to be there with them. Your job is to be around them.

Your job is to witness anything that happens to them because I want you to report on it. Right like a bouncer right give these players a bouncer if that's the case they're already down on the floor they're prepared for the court storm they're just not going to do anything about it. So instead of doing away with something that I do think is it's fun for students it again connects students to college basketball at a time where there's a lot of other things that people could be doing just like like sitting at home and looking at tiktok or playing sport night or God knows what else is popular these days like I just think we should be careful not to overreact and be a little bit more I don't know calculated about it right let's actually say look we like this it's a fun thing good for them they beat a team that they're not supposed to be and oh by the way it's Duke anybody who beats Duke wants to storm the court even if Duke isn't even ranked so I just I think there are better ways to go about it instead of being so absolute with everything and say like let's just do away with it let's let's be a little bit more calculated and consider the fact that we like the fan engagement we just don't like when it becomes an issue well there are ways to keep it from being an issue as opposed to just doing away with it completely. John Crispin is here with us Westwood one covers all things college basketball well John I feel like that the no fun police because it didn't take this incident for me not that necessarily be a fan of it well let me ask you this that's your thought process on on what they could do what do you think is likely over these next several weeks months or years ahead I even know your mark is saying all the commissioners we're gonna get together and figure something out what do you think is likely to happen as a result? You know what that sounds like it sounds like the federal government that just got caught doing something right which Lord knows with the you know thick one you know it's like oh no bad press we're all gonna meet and figure this out it's like well you didn't think about this before so you're only meeting to figure this out to appease someone right who is that someone is it Duke is it John Shire is it Kyle Philipowski or is it just the mass of people that are sharing opinions on this like at some point I mean that's what we did with NIL it's what we did with the transfer portal it's not like we were ahead of that issue no we were behind it like everything else it is is you know cover your own you know what I mean that that's really what this is oh we're gonna make sure we get this right well if you really care to get anything right you would be ahead of it you would say hey you know what we've noticed player safety is becoming an issue what about Kaitlyn Clark right we forget about Kaitlyn Clark that got hit now all of a sudden it's another player at all you might get hurt so we have to we're going to address this right now I feel like that's very lame and indicative of who we are in society as opposed to saying look this isn't right we should work towards something that makes sense we wait till something happens and then says oh wait we're gonna get on this because this is a serious issue I feel like that's lame I really do I feel like that's lame and very reactive it's no different than us as analysts you know I'm in the studio at ESPN you know Purdue wins five in a row is produced unbeatable no stop being reactive you know the reality is there are a lot of variables to everything there are a lot of variables to a team being good and being good consistently and sustainably and there's a lot of variables to something as simple and silly as a court storming right there's a lot of things you should consider and what's gonna end up happening is you're gonna put a a bad band-aid over it over something that really didn't need a band-aid in the first place it just needed attention right it's just a scrape it doesn't need a band-aid just put some aquifer on it like hey look this is an issue but this is how we're gonna go about it because we do like scorching and I think court storm is fun for these kids as the kids that storm the courts the greatest thing in the world for them and I don't think you want to take that away I just don't trust anybody who any reactionary way has to get together with all the presidents and commissioners and we're gonna discuss this because it's a real issue it's like but this has been something that you should have considered a long time ago and the only reason you're doing it now is to save face so I look for leadership not not followership because that sounds like a bunch of followers yeah that I would definitely agree with you on John Crispin to see with us from Westwood one when you think about action on the court it seems like over the past week a lot of the stories that we've had have dealt with Rick Pitino losing his mind we've seen yeah we've seen Yukon lose to Creighton and we had this nonsense over the weekend what's actually going on on the court and what can we look forward to over the next few weeks as people really start dialing in well that's that last part you just mentioned start dialing in I think I've been waiting for that all season right that's that's been the biggest challenge in this new era with transfer portal and name image and likenesses is finding this continuity to be able to find sustainability and consistency we usually talk about culture and identity well it's really hard to have culture without consistency and it's really hard to have consistency with a new team every other year and and a new different payroll every year which completely changes the dynamics of these guys so I do think what we're going to continue to see is what we've seen it's a lot of inconsistency for reasons known and unknown there's a lot of things beneath the surface that we just don't know right that the dynamics of social dynamics of a team to players really like each other two coaches even like their teams I think that was evident with Rick Petito it's like do you really like your team I mean I call games in the American at times that I got a lot of FAU in Memphis penny frustrated with his team and you sit there goes like well well because you just you brought them in you didn't recruit them it's a big difference and I think the world is different in that sense right now so we're dealing with instability we're dealing with this inconsistency but there are a lot of teams out there I say 20 teams that could win a national championship if they just put it together for the right amount of games I mean it's it's that wild we talked about parity I don't know if it's parity or if it's potential right parity is like everyone's pretty much the same it's like no no everyone has the potential to be really good but they also have the potential to be pretty bad I mean that's the Yukon at Creighton Creighton makes a lot of shots Yukon can't figure it out they have the potential to be bad just like they have the potential to be really good and while that's frustrating at times for the game of basketball NCAA tournaments gonna be wild and anybody that that puts you know more than a few bucks on the line it's crazy because I think we've learned in previous years like you know predict the unpredictable this year you know times that by a hundred well John let me ask you this we know that Houston is sitting at the top of the rankings right now yeah everybody crows about the defense that the Calvin Sampson employs would you say that in a couple of weeks that they will still be the odds-on favorite as we move into the tournament and selection Sunday you know it's hard to say because the Big 12 so good it's their first year in the Big 12 and they're one of those teams where it's like some teams when you move to a conference you really have to adjust to the conference you have to adapt to it in a wedding Maryland went through that when coming to the Big Ten in a Rutgers in a way Nebraska in a way like they move conferences you there's there's an adjustment period for Houston they have such a strong culture and identity with what they do defensively but it's really more so their toughness like their collective toughness it's something that everyone else has to adjust to and and I think that's why Houston's consistently good is if they're not changing for anybody they're forcing you to level up against them so I'd have a tough time thinking that they're not going to be in the mix will they win the Big 12 and win the Big 12 tournament I who knows I mean it's really still wide open and and it doesn't mean that you're you're playing the best teams of the Big 12 like you could be playing the top five teams of the bottom five teams in the Big 12 and still lose some games it's just the way it is in college basketball but once we get to the NCAA tournament I do think Houston is you know at least a second weekend team I think they know how to score you got LJ choir and Jamal shed I mean those two guys alone you've got guard play that that allows them to win at a high level you go back to the Calvin Sampson teams you know years ago I what was his name gray that lost in Michigan on that buzzer beater that was a final four level team they had great guard play they could score it they were still tough they still defended but they could score it this team can so if they continue to kind of explore scoring opportunities while being who they are defensively and in that regards to that toughness yeah they should be one of those teams that you're talking about as a legitimate final four contender any team that you feel has yet to peak here as we go towards the tournament John all of them I mean I could even even Houston like they're there's they're slow at times when they could be a little faster which means they could get games in the 80s but they keep them in the 60s right I think Carolina is one of those teams you look at Armando Baycott and RJ Davis like there's two really experienced guys but the other thing is their program guys right they've they've been around this program they've been around the institution they've been around the community so they understand the value of winning at North Carolina and I think that's one thing that jumps out to me that I can see a late-season run from the other ones Arizona I think Arizona's is one of the most dangerous teams in the country and the best thing that happened to them is they've struggled right they've they've struggled a little bit and they've they've faltered but you're gonna get that sense of urgency late in the season and once the NCAA tournament starts it's a new season you know they're no longer going to be in the Pac-12 next year so it's a weird year right now kind of a purgatory year so so I think Arizona is one of those teams if they find it at the right time you could be looking at national championship good Arizona okay well we don't gotta wait too much longer to figure out what these seedings are gonna look like in a couple of days or a couple of weeks I should say and then we're all going to be firmly entrenched in March Madness as we move towards the week of the 17th selection Sunday we know the tournament gets going first for there's also been word now about an expansion of the tournament do we really need the widen it anymore no I heard my boy Jay will in studio or maybe it's game day talking about that it's over 90 some teams and I'm just like for what like and here's the irony the same people that are asking for an expanded field are the ones that are saying that you know the the end stays evil and and they're just sucking the money out of everything I the only reason you expand the tournament is for money right and if that's something you're gonna do maybe just to pay players then you're gonna lose the interest in the tournament people people aren't really going to be as interested in it because you're gonna have teams that everyone knows aren't really that good in the field and you end up watering down what is a very competitive field and when I say very competitive look at the 16 seeds that have won right look at the 15 seeds 14 seeds 13 seeds and then even the FA use of the world last year I believe they were an 8 or a 9 seed I mean those teams are capable of getting to a Final Four I just think if we expand the field you're bringing in what I would just consider inferior teams that still have the capability of upsetting someone but probably don't have the capability of sustaining that high level long enough otherwise they would have made the feel of 64 so I just I feel like once again we we kind of take talking points and we roll with it but the reality is you'd be welcoming teams that barely have a winning record just to make more money and at some point the whole narrative and rhetoric that is like this evil NCA it's gonna look even worse if we do that so I like the competitive field that we have I'm sure back when it was 32 people were you know going crazy when they moved it to 64 so you know we don't really I guess we don't really like too much change and there's been a lot of it in college basketball yeah tons and tons I hope that what they don't expand the field well John thank you for taking the time to hop on with us and and share your thoughts and give us some just a perspective as to what we can expect as well over the next couple of weeks where can people follow you and your work is you're on air yeah I'm on air I'm on air with ESPN do a little studio do a lot of a lot of games I can actually have UVA at Duke this Saturday at six o'clock that'll be a good one be interested to see what what Duke team shows up and how healthy they are it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting but I also do the tournament for Westwood one I'll be doing the American athletic tournament down in that Fort Worth for for ESPN but then once once that uh once that selection so starts man I'm getting ready I'm not sure where I'm going yet but I'll be someplace with Westwood one for the NCAA tournament so it's a fun fun month and a half or so and then I'll take a breath and play some golf bags all packed and ready well thank you John look forward to chatting with you on down the line okay all right you got it thank you Dana Carvey and David Spade here you might know our podcast fly on the wall we decided to spin off called super fly and it's fun it's just two of us riffing on current events pop culture when I looked up the flight when that door flew off these people were dead silent everyone just quiet I don't think I could contain it I think that's free rein to wail on your call but in that situation hey I don't want to be a pest was there a door listen to and follow super fly on the 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