Mike DeCourcy, Sportingnews.com, tells Adam what he CAN’T do on his own show but Adam disagrees.

Last night was a good night. It was a great night, I thought, for college basketball. And we had four historic heritage programs and two great games. These are the types of games that need to start not just with those four schools. And I realize we don't have unlimited heritage programs. But this is the way college basketball needs to start.

If they want traction in November, they need this. And last night, it was, I thought the first game was better played than the second game. The second game was 30% rugby. But holy cow, that was entertaining basketball. And Mike DeCorcy of the Sporting News was privileged enough to be there. That's a good night.

And there's a number of things I want to talk to you about within both games. But just your thoughts on that being the perfect way to start a season and we need more of it. Well, you have to remember, Adam, we used to have that as the opening day. And I'm not exactly sure why college basketball pushed its opening to November 7th.

I don't really know what the mechanics of that were. Even for me, that's early. Yes, I could like I could watch college hoops in July and that felt early. So I thought last night was an ideal time to open the season as well as having the Champions Classic on the first day of the season is perfect to introduce college basketball, reintroduce college basketball to the public. For me, I'm not bothered that it wasn't great the first week. Because if you don't want to watch, no one's making you it's not legally binding.

And if you do, it's there. So I saw some of last week's games, some of them were worthwhile. I saw I watched a few that were just by games just because I need to be familiar with those teams for some of the obligations I have. It's if you're a Kentucky fan, you get a chance to see Kentucky.

Nothing wrong with that. I do think that the Champions Classic is a wonderful event. I've been at every one except the one that was impacted by the pandemic in 2021. And I think it absolutely should continue.

I know they've re-upped for another three years. I think it's great for college basketball, great for the four teams involved. We've seen many of those teams go on to the Final Four. I think we've had two or three go on. Kentucky in 12, Duke in 15, Kansas last year go on to win the championship. So I think it's been terrific.

Look, I love it. But here's the thing, because college basketball, like anything else, is a TV show. And the sport has a hard time getting traction in November and December and January. And, you know, what we like to joke about here is that the season doesn't start until Duke and Carolina play their first game against each other, which even there, even in Carolina. Come on.

No, no, no. I mean, I kind of think that that's for a lot of people, that's the truth. It's like the golf season doesn't start until the Masters. And we've got three and a half months of golf before the Masters.

So it's they need more of these. And we do have some and obviously some of these tournaments which are about to start, you know, whether it's Atlantis or Maui, you know. They're all at the same time, so it's a glut, which is in a way OK, but we just need more of these matchups.

And then once we've gotten these, then we can play our, you know, six or seven by games. But last night was so much fun. But let me ask you about the second game first. How many charges were called in the first half of that game? This is the worst.

I can't believe we're doing this still. Yeah, well, in that game, though, guys were taken on their own defenders and doing it. I mean, there wasn't a lot of help charging go along. No, but but but none of them were charges except the last one in the first half. I mean, I will say that I did die because of the glory of the event, the double overtime.

I did not see as much of the first half of the second game as I would have liked. But when I did get to the court and get did get to concentrate on the game, I saw a lot of guys going over the balling over their own guy. And just that is the definition of out of control. And so many people in college basketball or around college basketball talk about being the worst thing that can happen is to be out of control. Right.

That's the worst thing that can happen is to be inert. Too often last night. I do think that neither, although both teams, all four teams, both games, none of the teams was really tip top shape. Oh, they were a lot closer to their game than the officials were man. Yes, that first game was it was a it was a it was a real effort officiating wise for those guys to keep a straight face.

They really struggled. Mike, of course, of the Sporting News, who was there for the for the two games last night to the end of Kentucky, Michigan State, before I ask you about more about Duke, Kansas. And I know that you were you were wishing that they would allow teams to advance the ball to half court. I'm saying this facetiously because I know how much you hate that. But you had another great example of why that's a bad rule. I like I like it for the NBA. I would not like it for college basketball. Michigan State runs the full court play, which ultimately leads to a dunk, which does it send us to a second overtime?

It does. But I was OK with it because that play that was one of the greatest plays I have ever seen script. I mean, I assume that was the way it was drawn up to get a dunk on a move from the basically the wing to the goal.

But from underneath your own basket, Tom Izzo was really good late in that game. He's a master of set set circumstances, set plays, out of bounds plays. Just say set pieces. We're both soccer fans at pieces. There you go.

That is anybody and always has been. And, you know, it's funny how these things ebb and flow. Ten years ago or so, he was too structured.

You can't have that much structure. And now it's like, man, he's really good at out of bounds plays and dead ball situations. It just the game moves sometimes. And it emphasizes different coaches, strengths and weaknesses.

But that was that was a work of art. And that's why I just laugh. I mean, I still get when I made sure to point out on Twitter when when Kentucky had the ball with about three and a half seconds left at the end of regulation, that if this were the NBA, we'd have that stupid time out. And I still get people defending it. And it just blows my mind like you can actually have any defense for that stupid role at all. It's ridiculous if they can run a set like they ran. Whereas Kentucky got the ball to their best ball handler and their fat, you know, their strongest guard, and he gave it up.

Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be. You either succeed or fail, or the time runs out on you. And in Kentucky's case, they failed. Michigan State's case, they succeeded. That's, that's what makes it brilliant. Nobody needed a head start.

Oh, gosh, you fell behind. So we need to give you a boost up, even though you're the best athletes on the planet. It's absurd. Again, I like the rule for the NBA. I would not. You can't do that.

I do. I can. I can do what I want. But you can't do that. I can do what I want. No, you can't.

You can't, you can't flip a baby like that. That's, come on, man. You're too good for that.

Oh, wow. See, that puts a lot of pressure on me. That's, that's very condescending, Mike DeCorcy.

You're too good for that. You've got to take a stand. All right, then, then, then you're not going to be, you're not going to like it. I like advancing the ball to half court, but, um, but I like, I like the, the college game. I wish the college game was timed like the NBA game. I don't, we don't need to play 48 minutes, but I wish it was four quarters. That's, you know, I always tell people who defend the halves that we don't play halves. We play four minute McNuggets. We don't play halves. They get, every four minutes they stop. That's so, no, we're not playing halves. It just looks like that on the scoreboard.

All right. A couple of, we only have a couple of more minutes left with Mike DeCorcy of the Sporting News, at TSN Mike on Twitter, where you can find all his, his slamming the advancing the ball to half court, uh, after a made basket and a timeout. The, what'd you think of, of Duke?

Obviously they are so far from a finished product. So many new players, one guy's barely played in Derek Lively, uh, and one guy who hasn't played yet in Derek Whitehead. Uh, so what, what did you think of what you saw from them last night?

I, I saw great promise. Uh, I, first off, Tyrese Proctor, uh, one of the, one of the, if you look at the point guard history of guys who advanced their graduation to come into college, I mean, it's really bad. It starts, uh, you know, at Duke with Derek Thornton, uh, and it goes on from there. There's three or four guys since then, none of them succeeded. All of them have transferred. Derek, uh, transferred multiple times.

Uh, it just, it hasn't worked. Tyrese is going to be very good. It's just a question of him getting comfortable, uh, with being off the ball a lot of the time, having the ability to attack and the, uh, uh, the authority to attack, but the ball's not always with him because you've got a, a veteran point guard and Jeremy Roach. I think having a player like Roach to bring all this together is underrated.

I love that kid. I, a year ago, I didn't think he was good enough and he stuck that in my face and everyone else's face. We doubted him throughout last year's tournament and he did it again last night. He walks onto the floor with six or seven pros between his team and the other team, uh, not pros, but first round lottery projection picks.

And then he turns out to be the best, the best or the second best player in every game he plays. So I think he'll, he'll get all that together. When you get lively, uh, for full-time minutes and he understands his role, uh, I think he and Filipowski are really going to be a handful. Uh, I, I had my doubts about Filipowski when I came into the arena last night and he was struggling a little bit to change ends, got a little bit winded.

Um, and then in the second half, when he should have been a lot winded, he was kicking everybody's tail. I thought, I thought there, there are some really good pieces. I think Filipowski is going to be dynamite. I think he already is good. Um, I wanted, I I'm looking forward to seeing him and lively play together a lot. Cause I think they will. Uh, and I mean, I love Mark Mitchell, but real quick, I mean, and I have people followed me on Twitter actually, as I was tweeting last night, I was thinking, I hope Mike's not seeing any of these, uh, because I was 14 years old, uh, tweeting about, uh, the guy won the game for Kansas, um, who I'm not going to say his name because I'm going to start laughing.

Um, but I mean, Kansas has a nice team. Yeah. Great. Exactly. You have to say both first and last names. Otherwise, uh, now I'm going to stop. I'm going to, I'm just going to chuckle. Um, Kansas is pretty impressive.

I loved, I really liked that team. Yeah. They've got a lot going for them. Jaylin Wilson is a player you don't find on the mock drafts. And I don't understand this. He's six eight. He handles it. He passes, he shoots. He's a, at least a B plus athlete. I, you don't find them on the mock drafts.

Why? Cause he's played a couple of years of college hoops. They did the same thing a year ago with Ochaya Bajie. Wasn't anywhere near the Bach drafts in. And then the first round's actually held and he's right in the square in the middle of it. I think Jaylin Wilson is terrific.

Uh, great. Dick gives them two guys, uh, on the perimeter who can attack and shoot. Uh, he, he, he did not have his touch last night, Grady. Uh, but eventually he made the biggest shot of the game and they've got into on Harris, a point guard who has won a national championship knows how that works. They're not as good in the, in the, in the low post as they were a year ago with McCormick. Uh, but they still have the ability to defend the rim. It's, it's going to be a very good team. Not like, not like last year's, but, uh, they'll, they'll be, they'll be around deep into March. Uh, they're, I, I think they're very good. Um, it's a really good team. Uh, you're great.

Mike to Corsey of the sporting news at TSN Mike on Twitter. Uh, next time we talk, we will talk world cup. Gotcha. Okay. All right. I know we're all excited. Uh, it starts on Monday. Thank you, sir. Thanks, Adam. Mike to Corsey of the sporting news.