How are you, Matt? Great, JR. How you doing, man? Happy Friday.
Listen, man, I try to make every day feel like a Friday. How you doing? You good?
I'm good. I love the Sweet 16. You know, the Sweet 16 is, you know, you got the Thursday-Friday games, four games in a row that are usually awesome. It's been a weird tournament, though, I got to say that. It's certainly been an odd, mostly non-upset year. We almost saw Texas Tech lose last night to Arkansas, which would have been obviously the biggest one yet.
Oh, my God. Yeah, but actually, Arkansas beat St. John's. It's probably bigger, but yeah, it's been an interesting year. You know, all these theories about now with NIL, you know, sort of taking all the good players from the mid-majors, is that kind of a thing, and will that happen in the future? I don't know.
It's certainly something to keep an eye on, and this year it's been chalk everywhere. Well, Matt, let me ask you about the team that you played for, and I guess who they lost to last night. We saw Duke beat Arizona, and as much firepower, especially with Caleb Love that they kept throwing at Duke, Duke just had him at arm's length because of all the talent that they had.
What do you think about what they'll be able to do going forward? A lot of people's favorite, mine included, the win at all. You know, I saw Duke play Arizona, you know, back in November in McHale Center. I went to that game November 22nd. They handled Arizona by 14, and I was interested to see last night because Arizona's gotten a lot better. They've been, you know, measurably better. I think Arizona with the right matchups could have been a Final Four team, but Duke, when I started doing my brackets, to me they were the best team in the nation.
They've been the best team in the nation since day one when I saw them in McHale. They just are so good at everything, and I thought the thing that last night that really was the issue for me was going 11 and 19 from three. They just didn't miss any shots, and, you know, Arizona I felt could have beat them. Caleb Love had an amazing last couple months of the season capped off by last night. But, you know, Arizona could have beat them, but Duke had to have their, you know, their B game at least or B minus or even C plus.
They played their A game, and it's just, it's so hard to beat them, and I'll tell you, they didn't even have, you know, I'll get his name wrong, the freshman Malawatch, I believe. You know, he only played 24 minutes because he was in foul trouble. He's an incredible rim protector, so Arizona got some points when he was out. And, but even with him in foul trouble, they had Knipple in foul trouble. They had foul trouble last night. Their other sub fouled out with five fouls.
It just didn't matter. They were just too good at every facet of the game. Their defense, their offense is the best in the country. You know, their defense is, you know, top whatever three or four right now, and I just, I just think they're better than everyone.
Matt Muehlbach is here with us, covers all things college basketball for Fox and ESPN. When you think about what we'll see going for, we got another slate of four games tonight. And we know up next for Duke is Alabama. They popped all those threes last night.
Mark Sears lost his mind 30 points on threes. Who do you think has the best chance of unseating Duke? Who do you think they'll face off against? You know, I do wonder, can a team like Auburn that has the offensive firepower and the athleticism, can a team like Houston that has the defensive firepower? I think Houston would have a chance.
I really do. You know, of course, like I said, if Duke, it's like Tiger Woods. If Duke plays their A game with Tiger back in the day, no one beats Tiger. No one's beaten Duke if they have their A game.
But, you know, it's six games, and typically you're not going to play your A game for six straight games. You know, Duke played their A game against Baylor a week ago. They played their A game last night against Arizona, and I thought it was even probably A minus.
I think they could do better because of the foul trouble. But if they play their A game, no one beats them. I do think Auburn, because of that firepower, like I said on both, and I'm pretty sure if I'm not mistaken, I think Duke already played Auburn this year. In fact, they played them at home, beat them by six. So I think I like the fact, too, a team like Auburn that would play them a second time, have a chance to look at tape and say, hey, how can we fix things?
I think Bruce Pearl would do a great job of that. And like I said, I think Houston would do, I love Kelvin Sampson. I just, I played against him back in the day when he was at Washington State. He's an awesome guy. He's an awesome coach.
I could see Houston with that number one ranked defense in the country, slowing them down a bit. Well, you know, it's not a shock, Matt. You take a look at the teams that got here, even though last night, John Calipari lost. He's in his first year. Patino gone.
He got knocked off by him. You know, he got deep in his first or second year, I should say, with St. John's. There's still something to say about having a name brand coach. We got Tom Izzo, who we'll see tonight just in a matter of minutes against Ole Miss. With all of these changes that are taking place and conversations around NIL and the transfer portal, what does it mean to have kind of a stalwart as a coach who's not going to be moved?
Well, and I just mentioned, you know, I think it's incredible. I think the continuity has such an impact and has such a, as even with players moving, you look at a guy like Kelvin Sampson and he's created culture that a lot of his guys have stayed. You know, he's been lucky and fortunate because of their culture and his relationships. Tommy Lloyd was talking about my old team, Arizona. He's done a really good job keeping players. And I think the continuity piece, if you can create continuity in this world of no continuity and transient nature of the movement, you've got a huge upper hand.
You know, I think that culture kind of wins the day. And I really think too, like nowadays, you know, teams that have high IQs, they know how to play and you just think of teams that you try to throw together. It's just not that easy if you can have guys that really understand how to play. I mentioned that Houston team. What Houston, you know, in the past few years, Houston's been a dog on defense, man. They're savage on defense, but they haven't been able to shoot it. And they're number one in the nation right now, three point percentage, which blew me away. They really they've got some guys that can shoot it. They've recruited some guys. They've worked on that. That's been a key for them. So now you've got the number one defense in the country. You got a team that shoots it well from three. That's what it's going to take to beat a team like Duke or Auburn in this thing.
But yeah, I don't know where it's going. J.R., I mean, I wonder, I think for me, it may take something where we have where we have almost a union, right? And we have we make the players, you know, we put them under contract and have employment agreements because I know people have complained about it. But, you know, we have coaches that that can, of course, complain. It's hard on them.
I get why they complain about it. But coaches can leave if they can leave. Why can't players leave? You know, like players should have the same rights. And so I really support player rights. But I also understand that we don't want to hurt the brand more than it's hurt, because I I see fans now that that struggle with following teams because they don't get used to the, you know, a guy like, you know, that you can watch for three straight years, four straight years and really become attached to them. Well, final question for you on that note, I mean, last night, everybody knew seemingly that the Kevin Willard kind of has one foot on out the door and he's getting booed by the home fans before he even gets to the arena. I mean, should there be some type of restriction on coaches or buyouts enough? Like, how does that alter things? Or if you correct things from the player side, the coaches will fall in line a little bit.
I don't know. I actually think to your point, that last one, I think if you if you have some some some guardrails and they are employees, I think you could have a situation where coaches then feel a little bit more stable. You're always going to have coaches that move and leave and get up and go.
It's just the nature of the business. Right. We've we've developed that. It's we've seen it in the pro sports.
You're seeing college sports. It's always going to be there. Yeah.
I don't think we're getting away from that. And no doubt about that. Well, man, I know based on what you said, you're going to be locked in real hardcore in Purdue and Houston tonight.
Right. Is that the game of the night for you? The game of the night is the first one. I think Mississippi is going to give Michigan State a run in that first game. I think I really believe that, you know, a lot of people have Michigan State. I think I have Michigan State going to the Final Four.
If I have to look at my bracket, I'm trying to think on that which side they are. But I think they're going to I think Mississippi is going to give them some that that that coach is incredible for Mississippi. I think they're going to be very well prepared, obviously. So is Tom Izzo. But I think that's going to be I'm really looking forward to that game.
Yeah, we'll see what Chris Beard does. We're only about about 20 minutes away from a tip on that. And if there were two of me, I'd be right down at the game because it's literally just a couple of blocks from me, Matt. So it is OK.
Here in Atlanta, I will watch on one of the screens in front of me while people cheer like crazy people down the block. So got to get it right. You can. Hey, Matt, you're a busy guy. I appreciate the time.
Where can people follow and keep up with you and all of your work? Yeah, you mentioned it. Thanks for having me on. I'm on Fox, F.S.
one ESPN. You know, I'm I'll be there next year. My games are done for the season. And I'm hoping to be back.
I do the last summer. I did the basketball tournament, the TBT. Nice. And that was on Fox, F.S. one, F.S.
two. And I'll tell you what, I even did the game where we covered your team from Atlanta, right outside of Atlanta. And they had, you know, that's that's the tournament where the winner and the team, the team that wins, get some money, man.
A million bucks. They play for the dough. And we had your we had your Atlanta squad right outside of Atlanta. Those guys were fun, man. They were athletic. They had a good squad.
And it was fun representing the Atlanta area. And well, let me ask you this. What's your jump shot look like? Is that three still water, Matt? What's your three looking like?
The three looks good. The legs don't look good right now. The legs are legs are a little legs, a little wobbly, man. Legs are wobbly. I don't worry about that Achilles once you get a little older. But the jumpers there, I look, you line me up.
I get a ball with no one on me. I'm OK. All right. There you have it. Well, Matt, thank you so much. Enjoy the basketball. We'll catch you on down the line. OK, thanks. I appreciate that.
