Is UConn a blue blood?

All right, sir. Your thoughts on the new blue blood, Yukon's fifth national championship. What do you think?

I don't know, Adam. I've always thought they'd been a blue blood, you know? I guess when I came into college in 1999, that was the year that William Avery and Elton brand and Corey McGatty and Tragen Langdon, all those guys were on that miraculous run. And I got a chance to play in the Nike Hoop Summit, which was in Tampa. I got a chance to attend the final four game.

And I saw that team that I had been recruited to buy Yukon with, you know, Khalid Alameen and, you know, and their squad and how talented they were with Jake Bosco and Kevin Freeman. And I mean, the fact that they've won five national championships since then in the past 23, I mean, that's more than what Duke has won. That's one of what North Carolina's won. I was wondering what Kansas has won, Villanova. So, you know, it's been little gaps between there. Yeah, but I've always thought they've been the cream of the crop and obviously being the Big East now that they're back in the Big East.

I think the footprint for the Big East is even more powerful. Well, honestly, when Jim Calhoun took over in the late 80s from pretty much right away, maybe two years into Jim Calhoun's career. And I lived I grew up in the similar area to you. You were in Plainfield.

I basically was in Montclair. So I'm from that area and I grew up watching Big East basketball. They were good going back to like the early 90s. So it's not just from the time they won the title. We don't start the era in 99.

It starts probably in like 1990. They've been good. This is like 40 some odd, almost 40 years of basketball excellence.

So I agree they are a blue blood. They belong because eras change anyway, but they belong with the best of all time based on what they've done. Not only that, but three different coaches is just absolutely incredible. Your thoughts on Danny Hurley and what he has not only what he has done, but what he is as a coach. You know, I Danny to me is I've known Danny since the St. Anthony days. You know, I, I kind of grew up and I have a picture. I was laughing with the guys. I just saw Seth Greenberg.

I had a picture at home of myself with Danny and Bobby Hurley when I was seven years old at the Pocono invitational camp when they were both in college. Right. And I remember I did a range drill and my range, I got hot for some reason, Adam. And you know, Danny's range went back to like the NBA three point line. Bobby went like a step behind NBA three point line.

I found myself a half court keeping it up because that's what my range was. Right. And we kind of laughed at that picture all but together, all with being from Jersey, obviously Bobby and I playing at Duke and you know, uh, Danny obviously, you know, playing at Rutgers. And the thing that's been crazy about it is he he's always been like the third child. You know, everybody spoke about Bob Hurley, senior hall of fame, or one of the best coaches high school basketball has ever seen.

Bobby went on to be two time, you know, NCAA champion, a high draft pick, and obviously had an injury. And Dan has just been the guy that's been grinding it out, you know, St. Benedict's and, you know, obviously Wagner college and URI, you know, very, very passionate. And to see him at this point now where he's learned so much about himself, but to see him finally be recognized as not one of the guys, but the guy for his family, it just sent chills down my spine last night. Cause I, I know how hard he's worked for it and uh, how much he's put into it and just watching the relationship to me off out.

I'm like, I love that kind of stuff. Like that is Jersey city style basketball in your face, passionate, you know, pushing you to the limits, holding you accountable. And that's what Dan Hurley truly epitomizes to me as a coach.

No, it's funny. Um, I'm going to draw a comparison to, uh, to Jeff Caple here. I've always thought that Jeff was basically his, from his dad's coaching tree, even though we obviously coached with coach K, um, I've always thought that the real influence for Jeff and obviously there's obviously a lot of influence from, uh, from Mike Cieszewski, but, uh, it really is an extension of the way his dad coached. And in a way, I think Danny is kind of an extension, maybe a calmer version of the way his dad coached. Agreed.

Agreed. I have calmer can be questioned. Well, he's calm now. He seemed calm. Well, I guess when you're winning every game by double digits, I guess he could be calm, but he's, I think he made an effort to become calmer. I mean, he had a scowl in his face last night when they're three minutes up to go in the game and they're up 13.

I'm like, Danny, you're about to win the game, but like, that's also who this guy is, right? It doesn't matter if they're up 20 or if they're up by three or if they're down by 10, you're going to get a guy coaching the same intensity regardless. Take me back to 2001. Cause the comparison, not the comparison between the teams has made, but Yukon is now one of five teams ever to win each NCAA tournament game by double digits. You were the second team to do it in 2001, Michigan state, the previous year in 2000, you guys in 2001, when you have that kind of confidence as a team, what is that like in the locker room and on the floor? Well, I mean, we didn't have it as easy as these guys. I mean, we were down 22 points from Maryland, a team that we had, you know, seen four times already.

You know, that was our fourth time during the final four. So I think that was a little bit more of a challenge for us, but it's, I don't know, sometimes there are feelings and I it's funny, Adam, you know, the two years we didn't win it. I didn't have that feeling, but the year we won it, I had that feeling. Um, my, my last year I had that feeling, I thought the way we lost the IU, you know, there was no doubt. I thought we were the best team in the tournament, but I don't know myself in your just felt as if we had something special and different. Now you never know that it's truly going to culminate to winning six games in a row, right?

How difficult that is in these one game tournaments. Um, but there is a sensation of at our best there was nothing anybody can do, you know? And I, and I think that's what we kind of saw with Yukon last night. Like as much as we respected San Diego state, like you couldn't tell me like from a, like a raw, odd perspective that if you can't play that their best, they were better than San Diego state and there's nothing to do about it. And, uh, that's, that's the feeling that I've gotten watching them compete through the road. They've taken to win the whole thing over the last couple of weeks, San Diego state made their first three shots and I guess four of their first five and then went 10 some minutes before their next field goal.

That was pretty much the game right there. You know what I, what we didn't see though, we didn't have is this constant discussion about, uh, being disrespectful and taunting and the John Cena, I can't see how silly of a cut of a, why we know why it happens because people will took to social media and didn't like angel Reese, uh, being, uh, you know, taunting, big trash talking at the end of the game. And even if it did maybe get a little bit more, cause she kind of got up in a Caitlin Clark's face a little bit. I still don't care. I still think it's just fine.

And she taunts Clark taunts also. Um, I hated that that was the conversation after the game, not that we just watched a phenomenal basketball game played by great players. Yeah. I think the, um, the ladder of what you just mentioned was what I wanted to take away to be, but I will say this, Adam, what a place we are in, you know, uh, today we've had multiple conversations around whether Caitlin Clark and Iowa, uh, should attend the white house cause Joe Biden floated it out there.

And I said, you know what? I hope Caitlin Clark gracefully, uh, declined, um, couldn't agree more, but the fact that we're having these conversations about the women's game more so than the men's game today goes to show you the direction in which the women's game is. Caitlin Clark's coming back to school.

Angel Reese is coming back to school. Page Becker's is coming back for Yukon. So we keep talking about how Yukon might be the blue with the blue blood, you know, in, in the last 20 years. I mean, how, how about that team? They weren't even mentioned and Gina Ariana, what they've been able to accomplish in page, like she was a story of college basketball. So we have these characters now that are blazing their own path that are the most recognizable characters in all of college basketball, men and women. So the fact that the women's game from a guy who has two daughters, like I'm so happy that we've been having these conversations because regardless of whether people see it as negative or positive, like it is at the forefront of conversations and it is relevant and it deserves to be with the styles that we just witnessed.

Here's another thing about women's sports that I, I mentioned earlier, but this is something that is important. The NWSL just expanded. They added a team and it'll be in the Bay area of California. And the, the buy-in was four times what the buy-in was for, I think it was Kansas city last year. $53 million is the buy-in there. And it was just over, I think 13 million to get Kansas city a year ago. That's the explosion of women's sports.

The women's Euro did it. 9.9 million people watched the, the championship game Sunday night, which was more than the average of Thursday night football, NFL football on Amazon prime. I mean, Adam, look at this. I'm gonna tell you, like after I got hurt three years removed, I was training in Carson, California.

It's about 20 minutes, 25 minutes south of Redondo, or most of Manhattan beach. Right. And off the four or five. And I was staying at a holiday and express and my trainer was like, anybody want Jada, you know, anybody have extra room? And I ended up renting a room with Abby Wambach for a year. And when I tell you it was at that juncture, like in 2004, 2005, I was like, Oh my God, Abby Wambach is massive.

Oh my goodness. Women's national soccer is the bomb. It's the place to be like what? And just watching it, even like marrying my wife who played soccer at high U and seeing the way women's soccer has gone over the last 20 years. And now seeing that translate to people like Sue bird and mega Rapinoe, having your own content engine called together and seeing them build out content around people like Caitlin Clark and page backers and angel Reese. It just goes to show you that that is going to be the future of sports. And I, I cannot be happier at where the WNBA is, where we are women's sports. And, but we still have a lot more work to do, but they have people that who are like Toby Bryant, Kyrie Irving, some of the biggest LeBron James and the biggest players in the world are supporting them because we want to see them win.

And it's incredible to see in real time. There's no question about it. Sue bird, one of my all time favorite players to watch at any level. She is just a dynamite player. There's a little bit, I mean, they're not identical players.

She's probably Caitlin. Clark's probably more Diana Taurasi than she is Sue bird, but she can certainly play. Let me ask you this question real quick before we let Jay Williams go the NBA and the players association have a new collective bargaining agreement and the age limit is staying.

I'm kind of torn about this cause I think it's unfair to tell an 18 year old kid. He can't play in a league, but I think I know why the NBA is doing it. The G league has been pretty successful for them. Well, you got the G league, you got overtime elite, you got the business of college basketball.

Uh, that is starting to pick up steam, especially with NIL. Um, I guess the college basketball going more to a two year contract type of style. I, you know, I, I get torn because I'll say I went there to be a freedom of choice and opportunity, but you know, Adam, I had a hard time adjusting to the league at 21 years old.

Uh, and I had been through three years of college. There is, um, there is a lifestyle and there are a set of challenges that I think is very difficult for young people to manage and handle. Um, and when you're talking about young people who are impressionable, I used to be adamantly against that, but I found myself as they get older, spending a lot more time with young people, seeing the challenges that they have as they're trying to build their brands, as they're trying to deal with social media, as I try to deal with a sense of self and responsibility to make the right decisions, um, that it's really, really difficult to live in the public eye. So there's a major part of me that is starting to say, yeah, I agree to a degree with what the NBA is doing. Um, because I think that world is something that people say, yeah, everybody should have the right, but when you get there, man, um, it's a tough place to find a sense of self when you are somebody, when you're not really prepared to be somebody as much as we applaud the, uh, the stories of success, there are five or six other stories of failures that we don't mention, or we don't talk about. Uh, so I, I, I hear what you're saying, but I'm also like leaning more towards the league and their decision to do that. Yeah, no, it's good for business to have, uh, more mature players, better players, uh, not to mention that they're, they become ready-made stars, uh, when they're there, the longer they spend time, uh, in a different realm, uh, they become ready-made stars. I think there's a business aspect of this and there is a, uh, uh, you know, a growing up process, even though, again, I lean towards freedom, I think as you do, uh, but I totally understand why the NBA is doing this. All right. Safe trip back from Houston.