John, how are you?
I'm good. I'm just retaining a little relevance because college basketball still matters. For a lot of folks out there, it just started a couple weeks ago. So good time for college troops and we're digging it.
Absolutely. I guess if in that type of way, we only got a few more weeks before we get down to San Antonio. Well, let's talk about what we're going to see in about an hour from now. We're going to see the launch of the Sweet Sixteen. We got BYU in Alabama. We got Arizona in Duke.
Even closer. This is a one I'm really looking forward to. We got Maryland and Florida.
So many storylines there. Duke plays tonight and then we got Arkansas and Texas Tech. What game are you looking forward to the most tonight? I would say between Maryland and Florida, I do think that's going to be just a fun, intriguing matchup. Kind of hodgepodge of guards, but the young bigs from Maryland could be interested against that Florida.
I think the whole team is a front line. They're so long. I don't think people realize how long Florida is and that just kind of adds to the disruption that they can bring upon the game in terms of getting hands in passing lanes. Just making it difficult.
Forces you to kind of adjust to them throughout the course of the game. I've got to say that the game that I think anybody who likes, you know, puppies, lollipops, ice cream and scoring is going to be paying attention to BYU, Alabama. Like it's just going to be fun. And frankly, I think that's what college basketball needs, right? It's been there's been so much negativity about pay for play, the portal, mercenaries, free agency, whatever you want to call it. And it just hasn't been positive for college hoops, right? Coaches taking jobs, coaches getting fired. No one really knows what their team's going to look like next year.
I just think the overall narrative around the game has been negative. And the reality is there's been some good basketball being played and BYU has been a great story, right? Mark Pope goes to Kentucky and I love what he's doing at Kentucky. But BYU picks right up where they've been. They've got one of the best recruits in, you know, basically the highest paid recruitment history college basketball coming in next year, at least the amount of money that we know about because now business is above the table.
So there's a ton of excitement there. They play a free-flowing, free-wielding type of basketball. And that is just like their opponent in Alabama.
So when you're setting up match-ups, you couldn't ask for a better match-up. And frankly, I think Wisconsin, the way they're playing with, with Tanji being the player that he is, it could have been a good game, but nothing like what you'll see with BYU and Alabama. Both teams are going to look to score a hundred plus points. And I struggle to think either team's going to try to take the air out of the ball. There's just no way.
So I think that one's going to be up and down. The other one's going to be Duke, Arizona, because it's, you know, we want to, we want to see how good this Duke team really is. It's a shame. You know, Malik Brown is such a terrific defender. And while it doesn't kill them, right, losing him, it definitely doesn't allow them to truly see their potential. And I think what's sad is when you have such great players, like a Cooper flag, a continental, right? These are guys that are just, we now know are not going to be there next year.
And the college basketball, I grew up with, I knew I was going to see Cooper flag, Conca dimple, and then my watch and all these other guys, they were going to play with the Boozer twins next year. And they might play together again, the year after that, like we almost have this idea that we need to see them achieve at a ridiculously high level in a short period of time. And I think it's a fair expectation given how good they actually are. But I think it also allows Arizona to play freely. I don't think Arizona is going to come in with any expectations other than let's just go ball.
And I think that makes them really dangerous. And yes, Duke is good, both ends of the ball, they're really good. But Arizona is a unique matchup, too. And it wouldn't shock me to see Arizona beat Duke.
John Crispin is here with us covers all things college basketball as an analyst for Westwood one, you talk about Arizona knocking off potentially knocking off do they got a player who has a little experience in doing so in another uniform. And Mr. Caleb love, he has to he may not be a game winner. But he has to fill up the the scoreboard if they're going to have any chance now. Yeah, I think he does. And he does. But he just needs to be here's the thing like, you could score a lot of port points and dominate a game.
Or you could just be the most aggressive guy on the floor and watch the entire game flow through you. And I think he's got the ability to do that. The one thing he's never really done is develop a total playmakers game.
Right? We think of guys like Caleb love is like, well, he's a great sport he is. But as you go in college, you have to you have to learn how to move the game, not just move the ball, not just score, you got to move the game with your abilities. He's shown it at times. But sometimes his aggressiveness kind of puts him in a bad spot where he'll keep firing when he doesn't have it or he doesn't get to the basket as much as he could when he gets to the basket, and relies on an opponent's need to run them off the three point line to take step back jumpers away. When he starts getting to the rim, he can get to the free throw line. That's when you start to dictate the game a little bit. So I think it's yes about he's got to have a big night.
But we could define that in a variety of ways. I just think he has to be highly impactful. And he needs to he needs to play well enough to have gravity on the floor to the point where there's a little bit of an imbalance with a really balanced defense, where you can start to shade an extra guy his way it may open up the floor for everybody else. So a great game for Caleb love may be him being the biggest decoy on the floor. And that would have a big effect. And I certainly think it would help Arizona. And john, let me let me ask you this will go to another team starting with the letter A, we got Arkansas, led by coach coach cow, new jacket, new color scheme, new everything, taking on Texas Tech, what do you think about john's chances of moving on to the next level the elite eight?
Well, I think if it was November, December, we just said, Yeah, I could totally see that. But this is a team that struggled to find itself. And I think the biggest issue is arguably the best player he's got has not been the best player on the floor, john l. Davis, you know, a guy who was so good at FAU, I mean, off the charts good was impossible from a scout standpoint, there was not one thing you could focus on to slow Davis down. Yet here at Arkansas, he just hasn't found out how to be that guy.
He hasn't found out how to really impact the game the way he did at FAU. But I think as a team, they've started to really figure it out. And I think that's like DJ Wagner is playing some of the best basketball he's played in his career.
It's almost like he just kind of kicked off the training wheels physically looks better. And those are guys that have kind of, you know, elevated this team. But I still believe a guy like john l. Davis needs to be the best player on the floor. He's got the most experience at this level. He's played in final fours.
He also has played for a coach and dusty May before he got here to Arkansas, who played an incredibly fluid style of basketball. And that's what the tournament really does. Yeah, it's physical, it's tough. But these aren't, these aren't familiar opponents. Like these are teams that don't really know who you are until you step up against them.
And then it's up to whoever's got to adjust has to adjust. And then however, that team adjust, you have to have a counter. So I think guys like Davis have that, that fluidity in their game, to be more impactful in this type of situation. Yeah, Texas Tech is like, they shocked me a lot, too. There are times when I watch them, and I'm like, that's a really competitive team. And then there are other times where I go, they're gonna struggle to score. And then there's other times I'm like, yeah, that's a really good team. The problem is that inconsistency, right? And I think we've seen that at times with Texas Tech, but they will turn this thing into a grind.
They do show a willingness to score. I think this is probably of all the matchups in the sweet 16, the least talked about the least sexy on paper. And I don't really know why. And I think part of it is how lost his luster, no way, something and it's not anything he did or didn't do. They leave it in Kentucky, what happened?
He may have left a little in Kentucky. But I also think that the whole scope of the narrative of college basketball, it's become a it's like a it's a, what do you call it? Like other stuff you watch on TV or reality show.
It's a show. Yeah, college basketball has become a reality show winning before the coaches were the reality shows. His postgame presser was the reality show, the thing, the antics, the type of players he's able to get.
The coaches had all the focus. I think there's so much focus on players right now that cows I don't know if he's not forgotten, obviously. But he's he's not in the same light as it used to be. And I think that is because there's so much more focused on the players and how much they're getting and who's going to be in the portal. It may be good for us in the end, because as a college basketball guy, you know, that final four happens, and we're pretty much done. It's football season at that point. But with all this transfer portal and free agency, because that's what it is, it's full on pay for play, you got you got 1920 year olds asking for $2 million to transfer.
Like this is a different world. So this offseason is going to be wild, but I think it does it. I think it takes a lot of focus away from good coaches. And it's putting it on the drama surrounding the game.
Westwood One College basketball analyst John Crispin is here with us. You talk about the drama early. You mentioned NIL and transfer portal and the attention that all of this has received instead of the action on the court. With all the changes that have taken place and are likely to continue taking place. Do you think this is this is temporary?
Is there going to be a lassoing of the portal and the movement and what have you? Is this kind of temporary? You think are we in a wild, wild west for a long time? John Crispin Yeah, no, it's it's temporary because it won't last another five years, right? Coaches are now going to only last two years.
There's zero stability. And when I say like, and sometimes in a way, it's romanticized in the past when you say my college basketball was better. Well, it's because I knew what team I was watching next year. And I got excited about it over the offseason. We have people that now follow me maybe follow the portal as fans, but for the most part, they just show up in October and go, Who's our team? It's not the same. And you know what, you don't see those guys on campus the way you used to.
You don't know from year to year who you're getting behind. And I think we've taken for granted that it is not the globe that made college basketball big. It's local communities, right? It's local people getting excited about what, what they're going to go support and who they're going to go support and who they're going to see in town and who they're going to see on campus. And whether those players are going to be in the community coming to birthday parties, all those little things that even the likes of Magic Johnson did Larry Bird did Michael Jordan did some of the best in the game.
They did that stuff. And that's what grew the game to the point where it has the value that it has. Now, I'm also nuanced enough to say, look, the game has so much value. It's no longer amateur sports doesn't mean we need to change the definition. We need to accept that it's no longer amateur sports. Amateur sports are when you pay to play.
Like now there's so much money going around where you're making billions of dollars. There has to be some sort of deal in place where the players can be a part of that. But at the same time, just giving this NIL, which Oh, by the way, if I hear one more coach say, Oh, what, uh, what's our NIL going to be like?
I'm like, that's the dumbest thing in the world. That's not NIL. NIL is someone profiting off their name, image and likeness, not you offering a kid $2 million. That's pay for play.
That's, that's a budget for hired mercenaries. So let's just be real with what it is the way it's going right now, where we thought it was going to be a one-time transfer rule. Well, that might be the case if you have somebody to enforce rules, but frankly, the NCAA was neutered by Congress. Yeah. And they have no power over anything.
So, so we know full well, that was never going to be enforceable. So now it's the wild West, where you've got guys at six different schools, five different schools, you guys in school for six years playing for four different programs. I mean, they're mercenaries and I don't fault the kids for that, but I fought just I fought poor leadership for not seeing ahead. Cause ultimately in business, that's what you got to do. You got to play scenarios out and you say, how can we get ahead of this?
What are things that what are things that we can do to not sacrifice what's great, but also acknowledge where it's gone, right? Players should be able to be compensated and no question NIL should be a part of that. They should literally be able to go out and make money off the name, image and likeness, but the coaches and the school should have nothing to do with that unless you want contracts. And what I would say is look at the European model, look at the old CBA model in the European model, there's a buyout because you're investing in someone you're making them better.
You should not even pay the money back. You should have to pay the school to now take that player because that school invested more than you know, into that kid, that coach invested more than you know, into that kid. And so the players should get money, but at the same time, we're really taking a lot of value from people. And we're also hurting incoming freshmen. Why would I recruit an incoming freshmen if he's going to play a year and then go get paid elsewhere, or I'm not going to be able to afford them for a second year.
So you got incoming freshmen that aren't getting recruited. So it's, it's really hurting the game. We have to fix it, or it's, it's going to fade away because there are a lot of other options out there for entertainment. And when sports becomes valuable, it's because it's entertainment, no longer sport. And that's fine. We accept that it's become entertainment, but we have to figure out a good way to stabilize it.
John, final question for you. Given everything that we've just discussed, and also your thought that Arizona could certainly knock off Duke. Do you favor Duke to win it all? Or is there another team?
I do favor Duke to win it all still. Uh, I think they're like, I've seen them in person quite a few times and as skilled as they are as, as polished as that program is as a whole. And that, that starts with coach gay, right? That John Shire really is, has built on some, some good, something, a lot of things different, but what he's maintained is that whole culture of, of elitism.
And I don't say that in a bad way. I say that they are perfect in every way, the way you're, you're greeted by the people that take your tickets. So the, the ushers in the stands, like everyone is, is in some way, respectful to the brand that is Duke basketball. There's all that you feel that, and then you see great talent, but what jumps out off the, off the charts is, is just the length all over the floor.
It is so disruptive. So passing lanes that you think are up and get closed rebounds that you thought you had are picked up by somebody else. Like Duke has the ability to influence the game in every possible way. And Cooper flag is by far the best player in college basketball.
Like you can say most valuable to his team, whatever I make that argument's fine. This is one of the most skilled guys that I will tell you that, that the best things Cooper flag does are the things you don't even see. It's all the little things. And I think, I think that'll, that'll show more and more as we get closer to the final four. Hey, well, we're going to get there sooner than later.
We got to get through this 16 first. Hey, John, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you? All of your work with Westwood One and elsewhere? Yeah, look, I'm, I'm on ESPN and TV wise throughout the course of the year. I am on Twitter.
I think I'm John Crispin, ESPN. I just don't really do it. I just, I've gotten to the point where I, I read everything. I'm like the, the guy who just shows up on Twitter to read, but I never really respond. That's mostly because most of it's negative.
You know, when you call games for a living, the losing team fan base is not going to like you. We've accepted that. It's your fault, right? It's your fault.
Of course it's your fault. It's totally, I bought that and I'm biased, of course. Yeah. Yeah.
What else is new? Hey, John, I appreciate the time and the insight. And I love the idea that you shared as well about how we can corral this, uh, this whole bouncing around.
Let's just call it that in college basketball. Thank you, John. Hey, my pleasure. Enjoy the games.
