Canes vs Senators tonight!

UConn was absolutely dominant. And again, I said this yesterday, Kevin Kugler, he's got the catchphrase ready.

I mean, whether it's organic or not, it just seems right. Every dog has his day. This is the fifth day, by the way, for the University of Connecticut Huskies in the last 24 tournaments, 25 years, 24 tournaments. We did not have one in 2020. So fifth title, most of anybody, any school since 1999. We'll talk about that. Yes, of course, they are a blue blood program.

Every this is the conversation going on. Of course they are. Mike Ticorsi of the Sporting News was on with us yesterday. It's not just that they've got five titles. You look at the players that have gone through there. There are a ton of NBA stars that went through Connecticut, a ton. So, yes, they're absolutely a blue blood program.

And I see this because we have TVs on the studio. Yeah. Molly Karam is apparently a UConn grad.

Did not know that. You know who else is a UConn grad? Who? I believe Ron Polillo. OK. You have no idea who that is. I do not. Arnold Horshak.

I think I got to look that up. But every year in the past, I have done a bracket where we pick out a random alum from each school and we match them up. OK.

I'm pretty sure that I have used Ron Polillo, Arnold Horshak before. So, again, you don't even know that. You didn't watch Welcome Back, you're way too young for that. So people my age who watched Welcome Back Kotter, John Travolta, by the way, Vinny Barbarino.

Yeah, what a great show. But, yeah, Horshak was never mind. Forget it. I'm just I'm way too old.

I'm surprised anybody under the age of 40 pays attention to this. All right. We should start.

We got a lot to do. Shout out pollen. All right.

Sorry. Gosh, it's gross. Even with rain, it's still just it's worse after the rain. It's worse after the rain. It's good during the rain. It's worse after.

All right. One of the most dominating NCAA tournament performances ever. UConn flicked away San Diego State last night.

Seventy six fifty nine. The game I thought the game was decided in the middle of the first half. I don't care what San Diego State was going to do. They weren't they had no answer for UConn's defense. I thought it was a defensive win for the Huskies. It is the Huskies fifth title since nineteen ninety nine. Third different coach to win a title. It's the most in that 24 year span. We'll we'll throw a question out there for T-shirts, whatever coffee mugs. The multiple winners over that period of time will do that a little bit later on.

So give you plenty of time to Google. Here's head coach for the for the Huskies, Dan Hurley on another one for UConn. I'm just mostly proud of the way that we've done it and with the type of people that we've done it the way we, you know, recruit young players, develop young players. You know, we do it without cheating. We do it without without lying. You know, it's truly been building a program and a culture.

You know, I'm lucky I have the best coaching staff in the country that attracts these incredible, you know, types of players. I mean, I would assume that every coach sits up there and says, we do it without we do it the right way. Like, OK, I don't was you kind of accused of anything? I don't I don't really know.

A little bit of shade. It seemed like maybe was maybe was you guys who just want a title. You guys are cheaters.

Anyway, they do that. I mean, they've got a great team. One of the players, Tristan Newton, was a three year player at ECU. He averaged almost 18 points and five assists last year as a junior and averaged a lot fewer points and less assists this year with Connecticut.

But I bet he traded the points and assists for the title he's just got. Also, Naheem Malin was a player at Virginia Tech for a while before going to Yukon. So those guys were both featured in their rotation.

Newton was a starter. So so good for them. But here's where they won. Here's where Yukon won the game. I thought the Aztecs made their first three shots, two of them from three point range for their first five. And it was like a 10 for game, I think at that point. And then the offense went away by disappeared, completely disappeared. They were scoreless for six minutes and 10 seconds.

No points for six minutes and 10 seconds. I think the next time they scored, it was might have been 24 to 10 with the next time they scored. And they they made a smattering of free throws. And then Lamar Butler, who was the hero of the national semifinal with the shot that beat FAU, he made a three pointer with 351 left in the first half. That was their first field goal.

Twelve minutes and forty three seconds after the last one. San Diego State's great defensive team. The fact that they were still theoretically in the game at that point speaks to the fact that they play good defense. Yeah. But you can't go twelve forty three between field goals.

No, you just can't. To me, that the game was over right there, especially since everything that San Diego State was trying to do was like a fistfight. They just couldn't. And I'm not using that term figure.

Literally, I'm using it figuratively. Connecticut's defense was too good. Too good. Here's Jay Billis on Yukon's response to everything. It was a game that was incredibly physical.

Everything was difficult. Yukon turned it over at times and San Diego State made a run in the second half, but they had an answer for everything. And I thought Andre Jackson Jr., some of the passes that he made in transition, dropping the ball back. He did it to Jordan Hawkins for a three.

Joey Calcaterra. And to have a guy like that, that you can plug into anything, like the ultimate utility guy and the way they protected the lane, protected the rim. You know, San Diego State had to pitch a shutout every time they were on defense.

And you can't do that for forty minutes. They just couldn't find ways to score, but you have to give credit to Yukon's defense. Although, I thought Yukon won the game on defense more than anything. Didn't I say that? I like hearing Jay Billis agree with me. I like that. It's like he heard you.

Look, the real, I mean, Yukon plays good defense all over the floor, but San Diego State had a lot of shots in the lane that they could not finish because of Adama Sanogo, who's a great story, by the way. He's Muslim and was, this is Ramadan. So he's been fasting all day. Now, once the sun goes down, he can eat something, but you're not going to have a full meal two hours before tip off.

Pretty sure you need some cardio. So, yeah, he has been, I mean, that's very difficult to play through. Donovan Clingan, also Alex Caravan, all those guys around the rim were very, very difficult. I think Caravan had three blocks, they had six blocks as a team, but there are a lot more altered shots than that. And I thought Connecticut did a great job of defending without fouling.

I know Danny Hurley was complaining about the physical nature of the game because that's the way San Diego State plays. It didn't seem to really bother Connecticut all that much. All right. Are they a blue blood, Seth Greenberg? They're at the very top of blue bloods right now.

You know, they're in that conversation. Think of this since 99, they have more, Kentucky has one national championship. Kansas has two, Carolina and Duke have three at peace.

All right. UConn has five, has five in that same timeframe. Overall, they have more national championships than Kansas. Connecticut, obviously the great architect, the GOAT, Jim Calhoun, what he created, Danny Hurley now, and they're going to be around for a while.

This isn't a one-off. This team's going to compete for national championship pretty much as long as he's there. I mean, I can't say the Seth Greenberg is wrong.

He also gave you the answer, some of the answers to the question. Seth does not get a t-shirt though. No t-shirts for Seth. UNC, Duke and Kansas are all off the board. So, so there you go. Look, they haven't been as consistent as the other blue blood programs. They just haven't, but because they have plenty of years where they have not gotten to the NCAA tournament in that span and they have flamed out early in the NCAA tournament before, but they are five for five in title games.

Seems good. And they have been to the sweet 16 nine times and they have a better than 500 record of converting it. When they get to the second weekend, they are five and four.

Can't hate that. No, they are, uh, they are legit great as a program. And we talked about this with Mike, the course yesterday, going back into the big East has helped that league has become with additions of the Creighton's and Marquette's and Butler's of the world, which are not even close to being in the East, Milwaukee, Omaha, Indianapolis. They are not in the East, but it's okay. With all of that, they have really created a great basketball conference.

If St. John's, if Georgetown can get back to being, I'm just going to say respectable because that's what I believe. The goal should be first. I disagree with Mike, Mike to Corsey about this. I don't think it's going to be easy at all. Rick Pitino is great as he is. That is a challenge to return St. John's to prominence to prominence. I'm not talking about just being decent. Rick Pitino is talking about like cutting nets down.

Good luck. Same thing with Ed Cooley at Georgetown. Providence was a good program when he was there. Villanova was obviously great. So, but they also have a new coach. It's no longer J. Wright. So anyway, and I don't believe they made the NCAA tournament this year. It's not going to be easy for that league, for those programs to really restore, but Connecticut's been absolutely awesome.

All right. So the first lady, Jill Biden, said something after the LSU win over Iowa that I am not a fan of. And let's let you hear what she said. So I know we'll have the champions come to to the White House. We always do. So, you know, we'll have LSU come. But you know what?

I'm going to tell Joe, I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game. So right. So winners and losers, that's sportsmanship. No, no, no.

It kind of loses its flair if everybody. I don't know. No.

Yeah. Caitlin Clark is great, right? Caitlin Clark is great. She was I think she was the best player in March. I'd argue that against anybody. She was the best player in March, regardless of gender.

But White House trips are for championship teams. Now, if you wanted to honor Caitlin Clark for some other reason, like she's taking NIL. She has a bunch of NIL deals, one of which she has refused money for, for a I think it's a food bank where she's doing commercials like all this stuff they they offered to pay her.

She wouldn't take the money. If you want to give Caitlin Clark some award for having doing that or having a very affordable skills basketball camp in Iowa, she's doing that in the summer. Yeah. Right.

If you want to give her an award for something like that. OK, that's fine. Separate issue. I'm not advocating for it, but if you wanted to do that. But. I don't understand why suddenly, because Iowa was fun. Why are we breaking with that tradition? The championship team goes to the White House. It's just that simple. This is not the participation trophy conversation, by the way. Right. Because if we were going to do that, well, let's bring all teams, all 68, however many teams there were in the women's tournament. I don't think they've. Have they gone to first four yet? I don't.

I apologize for not knowing that. Bring all the teams in the tournament to the White House. And we're doing that. Sure. Look.

In a way, this is sort of also disrespectful to LSU. What are we doing? Like what I would did, what Caitlin Clark did. Awesome. Brilliant fun. That basketball game, by the way, was watched by almost 10 million people. Wow.

You know what has never happened in the United States? That many people watching a Stanley Cup finals game. Oh, really? Yes. That being a Stanley Cup.

Wow. Well, 10 million people is by miles the most watched women's game ever. It beat the elite eight, three out of the four elite eight games in the men's field. It beat them.

This was a man. More people watch the women's championship game than watch the Daytona 500 this year. Yeah. But it was an incredible show and we should just leave it at that. Can we do that? Can we just leave it at that?

All right. Canes host the senators tonight at PNC Arena with a chance to potentially all but end the Metropolitan Division race. Nothing mathematical can happen tonight. The Hurricanes have a three point lead in the division. The Devils are at home to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins need to win. The Devils are trying to keep pace with Carolina. They're also trying to keep the Rangers off their necks. The Rangers are off until tomorrow, I believe. I think the Rangers played. I think the Rangers played a lightning tomorrow. So the Devils also need to win Pittsburgh.

A lot of teams need to win. If the Hurricanes win and somehow the Devils lose in regulation, it becomes a five point bulge and it lowers the magic number for the Hurricanes to four, four points that they get on their own would wrap up the Metropolitan Division. But the magic number also works with how many points your opponent or the team chasing you doesn't get. And the Hurricanes are also dangerously close to wrapping up home ice advantage in the first round, at least. The Rangers don't play tonight, so they can't lose the opportunity to get points. But the Hurricanes can lower their magic number to three to wrap up home ice advantage if they get to one hundred and nine points because the Rangers can only get to one hundred and eleven. So I that might have confused people.

I don't know if it did or not, but if it confused you, I do apologize. All right. So one more thing before we get to our break. Jay Williams is going to join us in the first hour today. The national championship game was last night.

He was in Houston. So we have we didn't talk a ton about football yesterday. There's a couple of football items for us. So it was suggested to Mike Greenberg of ESPN, who will be with us, I believe, next Friday on the show. Yes, it was suggested to Mike Greenberg that the Jets might go for a quarterback in the first round of the NFL draft, which is, I believe, three weeks from Thursday.

And Mike didn't handle that suggestion. Well, let me just respond to that with a question. Sure, you're going to have Aaron Rodgers and you're going to draft a quarterback in the first round. What could go wrong?

Oh, yeah, everything. This is the worst idea I've ever heard of my life. Are you out of your mind? I want this man expelled not only from this conversation, but from all football conversations that are ever to come. Aaron Rodgers is going to lose his mind at the Jets draft and hooker. And you're in for this. You've made your bed.

Sleep in it. Aaron Rodgers is the essence of easily aggrieved. I can't even I can't even sit like this. You want the Jets to take a quarterback in the first round now? We're just finally going to get Rodgers. You're going to piss him off before the whole thing even starts. He's going to be mad. He's going to be frustrated. This is a disaster.

I'm going to fight Damian. Wow. Whoever made that suggestion is right, by the way.

I mean, seriously, they're right. Whoever made that suggestion at best, Aaron Rodgers is two years and everybody knows it, including Rodgers. And honestly, it might be one year. So would I make that pick without explaining it to Rodgers first? No. You're not you're not trading for Aaron Rodgers and then drafting his competition.

Yeah. I can't wait to talk to Greenie about this next week. I mean, but but that's what that's what they should have done. And honestly, if the communication were better between the Packers and Rodgers at the time, that's what they could have told Aaron then. But the communication was crap. And when they drafted Jordan Love, Aaron was like, what the hell is this?

Aaron was coming off a pretty average year for him. But that would be smart business, having the next guy ready. So you didn't have to play him in year one and risk destroying his confidence or ruining his ability to play.

I don't know if you do it at number 13. But I definitely do it in the second round. Yeah, if if the Jets keep there. This is why the other part of this conversation, and let me play this from Mike Tannenbaum, I who I think made the suggestion he either he or or Damian Woody or both made the suggestion that they draft a quarterback.

Here's Tannenbaum on when this deal needs to get done. From the Jets standpoint, you would like to have the trade done by the draft. So you have Aaron Rodgers in the building with your new offensive coordinator and Nathaniel Hackett and all these young skill players because again, the alternative and jet fans including yourself don't want to hear this name. But if they go out to OTAs with Zach Wilson, all these other players are gonna look at him like here we go again. So yes, greedy, we don't want to bring up Zach Wilson.

But until Aaron Rodgers is in the building, that's your QB one. So but here's the important part of this is if we don't get it done by the draft from a jet perspective, then if I'm the Packers, I'm waiting till after because from a packer perspective, you can then move $25 million into 2024. I think they could wait till after June anyway to execute a deal. Everybody knows the deal is going to get done. Yeah, everyone. The whole world knows that Aaron Rodgers is gonna be the quarterback for the Jets next year. So now we're just talking about like, it's just time.

Yeah. If I'm the Jets, man, just draft draft who you want to draft. If you and if you push all the draft picks that you're sending back to Green Bay, if you move them to start next year, even better, even better because theoretically speaking of Rogers makes you really good. That first round pick you can part with sure because they'll be 28 pick in the draft.

Who knows? And Jet fans are not always rational. So we'll just put it that way. Jet fans are not always. That's why I left. That's why I left the Jets. I couldn't deal with irrational people.

Your blood pressure. I couldn't deal with irrational people. I was way too rational as a Jets fan. I've been accused of not being a real Jets fan because I was real. I was too, too, too rational about things.