Joe, how are you? I'm doing great, JR. How are you?
I'm very well. Thank you again for taking the time to come on through and join us. We got four number ones here. This is the first time we've seen this since 2008. Are you surprised that the best of the best came through and that there are no surprises?
Um, no. Although, you know, you figure maybe one of the twos or threes gets through, you know, obviously, I mean, you don't expect all one because like you said, I mean, since CD began in 1979, we've had that one time that was in in our way, which of course ended with the wild title game with Kansas coming back to beat Memphis in that game. But Mario Chalmers three, but you know, you expect, I'm not surprised it's a chalky tournament. And I do think that there's the possibility of that becomes more the norm.
Some people are freaking out about that. I don't think that we've lost Cinderella altogether, but I think that, you know, there are some, some, I think there are some things that are going to make it more difficult. I mean, I think it's, it's hard not to see those, but yeah, I mean, the fact that we have all ones, you don't expect that in a given year, but I will say, I mean, these ones are just, I mean, they were so impressive. They are, I think the clear four best teams, you know, only one of those four elite eight games Jr was really, really a great game, Michigan, Michigan state, I mean, I guess with Auburn, but really the one great game was Texas tech Florida. And you know, if you go with the Ken Palm ratings, which he's been doing since 96 97, these four teams are among the 10 most efficient teams since that time since the 96 97 seasons. So this really is a loaded final four. No doubt about that.
Joe Rex wrote here with us from the athletic. When you talk about being loaded, Duke was a favorite to get here from the onset and from the get go. Any changes in your mindset after having seen them play even on a quote unquote bad game, but still all around great game from Cooper flag.
Yeah. I like them more than I did before the tournament. The hard part with Duke for me, Jared was like, they just didn't, they didn't have a lot of great games this year because the ACC was so down. They lost the one game at Clemson. They weren't in a lot of close games. So even though the collection of talent was impressive and they did some good things in that league, they beat Auburn, you know, they, they lost a couple of tough ones in there too. But I, you know, I, I was very curious to see if they'd be as dominant in this tournament as at times they have looked and they've just been tremendous Cooper flag.
Like you said, he has a down game of 16 and eight, you know, and three assists or whatever, and all over the place as a defender. But what you, what you've seen from Duke to me is mile watch and, and, uh, and Knipple and Proctor. I mean, those three guys are just in their different ways, uh, are, are just right now playing at such a high level. And then you have, you know, see on James and you have, uh, and you have, um, you know, Mason Gillis coming off the bench, so much depth length talent. And I just think John Shire has done a tremendous job to what they did against Alabama and Mark Sears after Alabama put one 13 on BYU. You kind of figured they wouldn't have the same kind of shooting night, but I just thought Duke's plan was tremendous. So yeah, I just, I think Duke is the favorite. I think Duke is the best team and it's going to take a tremendous effort from someone to knock them out. Well, the team that they're going to take on Houston is, is the best defensive team in the country. I think Duke is putting up about 91 a game. Meanwhile, you got Houston holding teams to about, you know, 56. We know that they're going to go out there and try to knock down those threes. How can Houston overcome this? So they're going to have to have an Alabama-like historical performance and not Alabama in the loss, but the victory?
Yeah. I'm so excited for this game, Jr. It's, uh, it's, it's just a tremendous, and I, I almost not to discount the SEC. The SEC has had an incredible year and they've got the other two teams and I think that they've backed up their dominant season, but I almost look at Duke Houston as a national championship game. Like you said, Houston, the best defense Duke, the best offense, and it's, you know, watching what Houston did to Tennessee yesterday. Tennessee is not, you know, Tennessee is also an elite defensive team, not, not a great offensive team, but still it's like, you're talking about a team that's like 17th in efficiency in the country and set some very good games offensively.
And it just couldn't do anything against that team. Very different situation going against Duke, but I think if they can figure out Cooper flag, which I know that's, you know, easier said than done. That's the one matchup that I think is kind of an issue for Houston, but the way they help the length and, and you know, they're so strong too, you know, they're so strong. They're so great at getting in the gaps and just contesting everything and being so physical.
So I think that they're going to have the pace more the way they want it. And of course you would also expect in San Antonio, one of those two SEC teams is going to win. So their fans will be there cheering for Duke to lose, right? And then you got what you would think would be all the, all the Houston fans in San Antonio.
So I think there are some factors that could really make this a classic. Joe Rexroad is joining us from the athletic. You talk about those two SEC teams. We saw a historic season out of the SEC from probably the best conference performance ever. When it comes down to college basketball.
Yeah, we got Auburn and Florida who are left here. Why do you think that was the case this year? Is it a matter of the kind of the football programs having money being able to help out?
Why do you think this is the case? Well, this is kind of an almost decade long story for the SEC. You know, they hired Mike Tring easy to come in and, you know, formally the big East to help them kind of just figure out basketball. You know, if you remember, Jr. 10 years ago, SEC was getting like three programs and it was Kentucky. Kentucky was great under John Calipari. And then, you know, Florida was kind of down Billy Donovan left and they just really had nothing going on.
So they did a lot of things. But the biggest thing was you guys have got to invest more and you got to hire better coaches. And so you see so you see Auburn, you know, gets. I think we might have dropped thinking we might have lost Joe there. And I think Joe's gone. Did Joe drop off or did I fall off the face of the earth? Oh, boy. I think Jay might have fallen off the face of the earth. Oh, here he is.
Hey, Joe, you there? Hey, yeah, I don't know what happened there. Sorry about that. No, it's all good. Sometimes I'm known to talk too much and I get the boot. So I had to think about that for a second.
Go ahead, Joe. Yeah, I was just saying the SEC, you know, they they they really went through a they really went through a league wide examination of why basketball is so bad. And they came away with you got to invest more money, you got to hire better coaches. So you've got Bruce Pearl at Auburn and Rick Barnes at Tennessee and you got Chris Beard at Ole Miss. And, you know, Mike White is I mean, there's a lot of good coaches.
And now you have Tom Golden, of course, at Florida, NATO. I mean, there's a lot of really good hires that have happened. And so I think to your point, yeah, I mean, money is a big part of it. I think that, you know, these these schools have a ton of money.
They have the resources. We know that, you know, the collectives and, you know, paying players, you got to have you got to be able to be competitive in that way. But I also think it's very good coaching. And then you've just had some teams that have been able to stay old, like Auburn, you know, very old team that have stayed together, you know. And you think about even before this, they're like those Villanova teams that had all those old players who played several years together. You know, that's what we're of a certain age where, you know, we remember college basketball teams when they would kind of grow together and get better year after year.
And it's obviously a lot different now. But when you can get that and some of these SEC teams have had that dynamic, then you obviously will benefit from that, too. So, you know, I think this is the culmination. I don't know that this continues at this level. I think it'll be a very good league. You think about it moving forward. You know, they've got revenue sharing and some of these other leagues don't have football, so they don't have football to worry about.
Whereas the SEC, like the SEC football teams are going to get their cut, you know, the biggest cut of the revenue sharing. So does that make it go down a little bit moving forward? It'll be interesting to see. But do you think at any point in time that we'll get a little bit more stability?
Of course, the transfer portal and NIL is not going anywhere. But can we get to a point where we can get a coach in for four or five years, 10 years and get some players to stick around for a couple of years as well? It can't be the everybody move around every year. It can't be that way, right? Yeah. Well, I think that I think one big thing there is can you get to the point where it is more like you have multi-year contracts, you know? I mean, and I think that then you get into labor and collective bargaining, which some people really don't want.
But I mean, that to me is how you get that stability. I mean, you still do have some programs. You know, Purdue was in the Sweet 16. They had all their players who started with the program. Like, you know, we're all the starters were Purdue guys who started Purdue, Michigan State, four of their five were players who started me say there are still some programs who have more. I mean, Houston, most of Houston has been there the whole time, you know? So you do have that some. But to your point, you've also got some of these.
I mean, you know, like Florida and some of these other schools that are really good have just been it's been very much built by the portal. But yeah, I think it was I think it's better for the game at some point and for fandom to be able to have some consistency to know what year after year. You're the some of the same guys you're rooting for. I think that would be I think for the big picture of the sport.
It's important to find that stability one way or the other. Yeah, sign sign me up. I'm gonna be paying attention to the games on Saturday. I'm gonna be watching obviously on Monday like you. I'm looking at Duke to walk away as champs and I think one guy who won't be moving away from his job at any point is John Shire. Joe, I don't see him going anywhere else was there for him to go, right?
Well, exactly. You talk about a big task trying to follow my chef's kid Duke and I got to say, you know, I covered the Tennessee Duke game a couple years ago in the sweet 16 when they lost. It's like man, this is just such a tough job to try to follow.
She's chef ski, you know, but then they get to then the Elite eight last year. They lose NC State and you know, DJ Burns and that kind of, you know, Cinderella run for them. But for him to just keep getting better each year to have this team as it's awfully impressive.
I mean, look you have advantages at Duke that you could argue no other place has or at least a very small number of schools can claim right, but it's still can't be easy at all to follow your mentor and arguably the best coach or certainly one of the best two or three coaches of all time. So you got to be impressed with what he's done and without a shadow of a doubt. Hey Joe, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. We'll see what takes place over the weekend and on Monday.
Where can people follow you and all of your work? Well, thanks. Yeah at Joe Rex Road on X and you know, the athletic.com is where all of our coverage is and I'll be in a lot of us will be down to the in San Antonio this weekend providing coverage and no doubt about it. Hey, enjoy some of that good old food down there. Bring some back up if you pass through Atlanta on the way to Tennessee bring bring some back. Okay. Alright, I got you. Thanks JR.
