You know when you're locked in, focused and fearless. Your vision narrows, you can't look away. Every assist, every stop, every logo three. From beyond! And the logo.
Every did you see? See that moment? You can! What records are going to be broken this season? All of it.
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Now, on with the show. Yeah. Live from Plymouth, Michigan. Can the Wolverines survive in advance? This is the Rich Eisen Show.
Michigan, the men's basketball national champions. The Rich Eisen Show. In this hour, Michigan basketball head coach Mike Boynton Jr. Michigan basketballs Trey McKinney and Elliot Cadeau. Plus, latest news and more.
And now, it's Rich Eisen.
Well, hey everybody, welcome to this edition of the Rich Eisen Show. I am sitting here live in the state of Michigan at the site of the fourth annual Champions Circle Golf Classic. In support of all Michigan athletics and many of the Michigan athletes here on this campus. And the featured guest of the fourth annual Champion Circle Golf Classic is none other than Kyle Wittingham, the football head coach, who will be joining us on this program in hour number two, ahead of his wide receiver, Andrew Marsh, ahead of two of his running backs, Jordan Marshall, and Savion Hyder, who was the number one recruit at the position this past offseason. And we've also got Bryce Underwood, his quarterback, John.
Pardon me, John Henry Daly, his edge rusher that he brought from Utah. They're all going to be sitting down here on this show talking about not just the upcoming season of Michigan football, but the state of college athletics as a whole. There's also you on this program as well. 844-204-Rich is the number to dial. My guys are back in the studio.
Chris Brockman and TJ Jefferson, along with Mike Del Tufo, are all sitting in their positions. Guys, I'm here. You're there. I'm in Michigan. You're in Los Angeles, California.
Yes. And, you know, it's going to be an easy one for you today. You're going to smoke them if you got them because I'm going to be conducting a lot of interviews here. But it's good to see you guys. How are you?
Great to see you, man. Enjoy the day, man. What an afternoon of shows and guests that we have here. I love it. Yeah, I'm hoping to get in a few holes potentially.
I'm dressed in my running man golf gear right now. I see your Sixers jersey. I see your Sixers jersey. I want to talk about that in a second, but first things first, TJ, is, you know, as you know, the Philadelphia 76ers got LeBron James in their mix. And I had my fun with you guys last week on Friday when I zoomed in waiting for some shopping to be done.
Did you get that peacoat? I did not get a pea coat. I did get a belt, though. I'll show it to you when I get back. No, none of that.
No, no. But at any rate, as you know, I was pointing out, though, that great that you have LeBron. I have. The championship is being a Knick fan. You do, you do.
And as you know, as you know, I was talking about how this might be the greatest run I've ever had as a basketball fan on planet Earth because as the Knicks were winning it all, Susie had just coached Taylor to a championship in the Goldie League, the youth basketball league that Taylor plays in and that Susie coaches in. And that came after Michigan won it all on the college basketball world for the first time since I was on this campus in 1989 as a junior. And. Look what I've got here to my left, everybody. Oh, yeah.
Look at this baby. Oh, yeah. That's a net. Wow. That's a championship trophy.
I've got it right here on the show. You can see the mic flag with our show logo is perfectly positioned to be in the frame. That was a nice chance. And. Later on in this hour, and I know again the Champion Circle golf event is featuring Kyle Whittingham, the new head coach of Michigan football.
But the Champion Circle supports more than 150 Michigan student athletes across 29 varsity sports through things like athlete marketing, group licensing, merchandise, collectibles, premium experiences, corporate partnerships, internships, and career development. Of course, there is the matter of name, image, and likeness cash as well. But the Champion Circle, through athlete marketing and licensing businesses and college athletics, helps raise money.
So the first hour of this show. Is going to feature our first guest in 15 minutes' time. The new head coach of Michigan basketball, Mike Boynton, is going to stop by. I've never met him. I can't wait to literally hug him.
And then Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKinney are both showing up together to finish up our number one of this program. And as you know, Elliot Cadeau was the most outstanding player of the final four, and Trey McKinney's three is what finally put a nail in UConn's coffin in the national championship game.
So I've got that going for me, which is nice. Which is nice, to use the Caddyshack phrase.
So now that I've gotten that out and I've gotten the flex of having the national championship men's basketball trophy with the net that was cut down in Indianapolis sitting right here, now that I've got. That out of the way. Let's talk about LeBron. LeBron James. LeBron Greens.
So let me start with this, Chris. 23. Look at that jersey with the crown and the shirt. He brought his crown with him? Look at that.
Look at that. King James's jersey. I mean, lame. How is that lame? Why is that lame?
Why is that lame? What's lame about it? There's nothing lame about it. He's got a guy who's got a crown. Oh, cool.
Well, his name is King James. That's not his name. His name is King James. He's King James. He's on Twitter X in.
To many people, he's king. Yeah, cool. You know what I mean? I don't blame him for bringing the crown, even though for people my age, Del Tufo, it looks like maybe he can't believe it's not butter, you know, going there in Philadelphia right there. But I don't blame the Sixers for flexing like this, man.
Yeah, why wouldn't you? Here's a few things that I did not mention when I was on the show Friday. That'd be what I want to mention.
Now, well, I did say that to you on Friday. I did say that. I'm just joking.
Okay. And I did also, you know, take a look at it from a Knicks fan perspective that, you know, That it's going to be Knicks and Sixers now instead of Knicks and five, but And how it's going to be an interesting development to see LeBron and Madison Square Garden multiple times and going to TD Garden. And then Boston goes there, and the Knicks go there, and it's just going to be. Great old school Northeastern basketball. But um writ large What does this mean for the entire NBA?
in terms of winning it all for the Philadelphia 76ers. And how do they put it together? How quickly do they put it together? How quickly does Nick Nurse get everyone buying into what he's selling? Obviously, Joel Mbead's health is a massive massive Part of all this, and that is a Major question mark we won't know the answer to, right?
Just don't know. But the Philadelphia 76ers absolutely are now in the running to win the East. They're absolutely in the running to win the whole damn thing if they can put it all together and get enough health out of everybody. And see what happens in the long run.
So that's where I want to turn to you, Chris, and say: where are the Sixers in their odds right now? Yeah, we were talking about this on Friday when it happened. The Sixers have the fourth best title odds. Oklahoma City and San Antonio are each plus 260. Uh the Knicks are nine to one.
The Sixers are 10 to 1. Yeah. And then A little bit of a gap, and then the Celtics are 14 to 1, and the Raptors are 20 to 1. That's your top six.
Well, that's if Kawhi is able to play for the team. Yeah, that's if Kauhai, I think. And then Denver 22-1. Detroit and Minnesota 25-1. Wow, the Lakers aren't even there.
Wow. Oh, the Lakers are way down. 45 to 1. They have about the same odds as the Pacers. Yeah.
Wow. And that's the other thing I'm thinking: I would have loved to have had a GoPro. on Rob Polinka's face. Or anybody else in that organization's face when they saw the amount of money LeBron signed. With for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Now, they were probably having their eyes peeled keenly to see how it would all work. At this late stage of the game with salary caps and things of that nature and aprons. But don't you think if he had gone back to the Lakers or stayed put with the Lakers, He would have made multiples? of what he's currently allowing the Sixers to pay him? Don't you think he would also write Never give a hometown discount to the Lakers over the last several years either.
Yeah, I agree. And I don't know if it's just circumstances here that he just knew that if he wasn't going back to the Lakers, this is what the finances were going to be. And obviously, finances don't really mean anything when you've got enough cash to have a place in New York City. That's another thing I'm eager to see if this is, in fact, true, if he's going to commute. A la Kobe back in the day, towards the end parts of his career, if he's going to commute, because again, Orange County to Los Angeles is.
Almost as far in terms of as the, not as the crow flies of New York to Philadelphia, but in terms of using ground transportation, which Kobe did not do. I think I'm just keen to see how all this works out.
Sorry, TJ? I'm sorry, Rich. I was going to say, I think a better comp would actually be J.J. Reddick. in LeBron because JJ willingly played for the Sixers he lived in Brooklyn.
And so he would make The commute from Brooklyn to I guess. I'm sure he's going to have to have a spot in Philadelphia. But the bottom line is him going to Philadelphia was a bit of a surprise. I always thought it was going to be Miami. And if not, Miami, I thought it would be Golden State because it would be geographically better and located to where his current base of operations is from in Los Angeles.
But he. I I don't know. I'll ask this of you, Chris. Is the key to this whole thing. The fact that LeBron wound up in Philadelphia at the end of the day.
Thanks to the Boston Celtics tapping on the Jalen Brown. Yeah, I think it's so funny. And flipping him to Philadelphia. You've seen a couple of tweets about it. It's like the Celtics basically traded Jalen Brown and LeBron James for Paul George and two number ones.
Like. Cool. It seems like Anywhere that Jalen Brown ended up going, LeBron probably would have gone there because that would have been the best basketball spot to try to win a championship. You know, if Golden State was in on Jalen Brown, LeBron probably ends up in Golden State. It's just funny that Giannis wasn't enough to lure LeBron, but a guy like Jalen Brown and the situation that they've got going on at Philly with Maxie and Edgecombe and obviously Embiid, if he can be.
There you go.
Now you're naming all the names. Because again, you know, the question is: if you look at Miami and there's Giannis and there's Wiggins and there's the rest of the team at the end of the day. But does that stack up? Yeah, not enough shooting. Does that stack up with what the Sixers can bring to bear with slashers and scorers like Maxie and Edgecomb and Brown with a monster in the middle that went healthy is as dominant a center as we've seen in this league in a long time?
But there's the when healthy guy. That's the problem. And just wait, man. Chris, you're going to just love watching the Philadelphia 76ers play when a guy who is an all-time great scorer. The number of records that LeBron has that may never be broken are too many to mention.
But one thing that's not in the books is the guy who's never committed a foul in his career.
Now he's going to play with a guy who's always on the floor because he's always been fouled and is complaining to the referees all the time with his 7-foot 90 frame on the ground, like he's one of those balloons outside of a car dealership. Uh sometimes Shea G Shea Gildish Alexander's like I'm I'm embarrassed by that sort of behavior. Like, what do you think? How tough is it going to be to watch the Philadelphia 76? It's going to be tough for you this year.
More famous. By the way, this is the sort of mixing up I would have had if I was physically there on Friday instead of Seth Rollins. A couple of Jalen Brown points, which is really interesting. Remember when Jalen Brown was spotted during Summer League saying that Bronny can't play in the league? That's funny because now Bronnie's probably going to be a teammate at some point, right?
You got to figure Philly's going to go get Bronnie James. Nope. Also, Jalen Brown had such a problem being a 1B in Boston, and now he's the third or fourth option. Like, that's interesting. Categorically, can't wait for Philly's first three-game losing streak, and LeBron passive aggressively throws shade at his teammates on Twitter.
What's going to happen when Jalen Brown goes live on Twitch and starts slagging on Nick Nursk? I can't wait for all of it. All those things he said ain't going to happen. Isn't it going to happen? Who plays more?
What's more likely on a Monday, Rich? Look, he wants to get new feelings about this. If we start right now, taking point right now, who plays more games in their Philadelphia career? LeBron James or Joelle Embiid? Ooh, what does that even mean?
Like. Neither of them can stay healthy. Oh, LeBron was really hurt. LeBron has missed some time in his last couple of seasons. LeBron has been as healthy of a player as he's supported as forever.
LeBron has missed time. It's more than a mid slander. Just saying. All right. By the way, that one I can hear you with that.
LeBron James. 31 is the first time. If the LeBron James. He's the guy that you acquired. If the LeBron James from last year, towards the end of last year, the guy who is part of a Lakers team that dominated, what, in March?
Because everybody played the appropriate amount of minutes or the appropriate amount of time together, and they were all healthy. If that guy shows up and works in with a healthy Maxie Edgecombe, Brown, and Embiid, and if that guy shows up in the playoffs where he needs to win a game at some point, like he did for the Lakers in the first round, again, I know you don't hang banners for first-round series, but he was a man by himself. Playing out of his skull. If that guy shows up in Philadelphia, this is a major problem for the rest of the league. It is.
But the bottom line is the two of you guys going against each other all year long. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. And the best part about it is football's right around the corner, too. This is nothing new, though.
He and I have been doing this tango since you put me in this seat.
Now, the thing is, he's always had an upper hand. I'm not going to lie about that. Like, the Celtics have always been able to get over on the Sixers. He's always said the Sixers should trade MB just because he didn't want to have to deal with them anymore.
So, yeah, we've been doing this for a while, but now I feel like we finally have the better team.
So, it's going to be even more fun this year. Wow, this is going to be good. Self-defense goes further. This is the sort of stuff I would have stirred up. I can't wait.
This is going to be awesome. We're going to end up putting something on this. All of it. Just wait till Boston trades for Steph Kirk. Steph Curry wants to go to LeBron James, and we all know that, right?
So Steph is going to be a 6 or 2 at some point. I'm just going to throw that out. Oh, wait till the Celtics trade for Steph Curry has just been said. I hope that gets aggregated and winds up on Steph Curry's Instagram stories. He and I had this argument this morning for about 10 minutes.
The best place for Steph to win a title is not in Golden State, it's in Boston. Steph Curry loves LeBron James. I've got a national championship now head coach of Michigan basketball that was a great set to join us in a moment. I am live right now from the state of Michigan at the fourth annual Champions Circle Golf Classic featuring Kyle Whittingham, who's going to join us at the top of hour number two to talk about what's going on with him here at this school. As you know, Ward Manuel, the longtime athletic director here, who was one of Beauchamp Beckler's players when I was here, is stepping down as athletic director at the end of this coming season.
What does Kyle Whittingham think about now? Change already for him here after he has been the change, if you will. In the football program for the past few months, and he has yet to even coach a game. Bryce Underwood, the quarterback of Michigan from last year, getting set for a year two. What will he have to say when he joins us in our number three?
Please stay tuned for all of that. For the moment, though, get into the Hyundai Getaway Sales event and get away with the deals so right. It almost feels wrong. Right now, you can get great deals on our most popular models, including our adventure-ready SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe or Santa Fe hybrid and the Tucson or Tucson hybrid. Plus, there's our bold and stylish Elantra loaded with the latest tech or go all-electric with the Ionic 5 or Ionic 9.
Get down right now to your local Hyundai dealer and get away with a deal you'll love during the Hyundai Getaway Sales event. Visit HyundaiUSA.com for details. Mike Boynton is the head coach of Michigan basketball, and Mike Boynton Jr. is joining us next. Uh The Rich Isis Show Podcast.
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My first guest here at this Champions Circle golf event is the new head coach of Michigan basketball. Mike Boynton Jr. is here on the program. You're a New Yorker, so you might understand this reference. I think your tenure as interim coach lasted almost as long as Bill Belichick's reign as New York Jets head coach.
Yeah, I'm a Giants fan. I hate to admit that, but my dad is a Jets fan. We both have shared each other's misery the last decade or so. It's been that way.
So, walk me through: how did you meet Dusty May for the first time? Wow. We got to go back about a little more than 10 years. Dusty and I've. He's a little bit older than I am, but we kind of came up in the business around the same time, similar past, worked for many different people.
And he landed in Rustin, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, as an assistant coach around the same time that I landed in Nacogdoches, Texas. I can actually say the word now. I couldn't before I moved there. As an assistant for Brad Underwood as Stephen F. Austin.
And our teams were both really successful low to mid-major type programs that always had a hard time scheduling opponents, always tried to recruit a little bit above our puncher's weight, if you will. And so we found ourselves in a lot of the same places a lot of times. We actually shared an official visit with one kid one time. There was no way to fly from Rustin to Nacogdoshis. And so I think we met at like a casino to exchange the kid.
He was finishing his visit at Louisiana Tech and coming to Stephen F. Austin. So there were just these moments that we would interact with one another. And then we had a couple people that we had both worked together with, but just obviously had never worked together between the two of us. And so we always, I think, admired each other from afar and watched each other's past.
And I think once this opportunity arose two years ago, we both thought it would be a great opportunity for us to work together and do ultimately what we did. It was have a ton of success. And you were basically what your main. Role was the defensive side of things. Yeah, Michigan, yeah.
And, you know, defense was number 12 in the country after being, I think, in the hundreds the year before we got here. Yes. And then this year we were the number one defense in the country, which is obviously a nice fella in the capital team. I got to tell you, just, and I told this to Dusty. You know, when he was the coach, that watching the team this year, you could play any style you wanted.
Sometimes it was based on what others might have been dictating. Sure. But this team did the dictating most of the time. Most of the time. If you needed transition, you got that.
If you needed half court, you got that. If you needed the rebounding to start the transition, you got that. If you wanted to play fast, you wanted to play slow. You wanted to do whatever the heck you wanted. The roster was there.
The teamwork was there. And the thing that is amazing, and you mentioned, you know, in our TV-only segment, is that this trophy that's sitting here between us right now, that the revisionist history is that you guys didn't lose a game or do anything. To me, the most amazing accomplishment, not just obviously the wins and losses, this trophy exists, was the ability to play like you played together forever. Absolutely. And the team was kind of thrown together.
Through a portal and through through Um also uh recruiting, obviously, with Trey, just as one and Elliott being another one who came from from North Carolina and Yaxel and Mores and you know a Daimara. Um How the hell did you guys do that? I give a lot of the credit to those new guys being able to adjust to Michigan and us having the flexibility we had, to the three guys who weren't mentioned yet. And those were guys who were on the Michigan team the year before. Correct.
Will Cheddar, Mari Burnett, and Roddy Gale. Right. Because all three as seniors could have wanted more for themselves in their senior year. more minutes, more money, more shots, more opportunity to maybe get to the NBA. And they were all committed to sacrificing a little bit of those things so that we could win.
They knew that Yaks would get a lot of the media attention. I mean, he asked for it most of the time. And that we had this 7-4 guy who people were always going to be really intrigued by. And Elliott, as the point guard, would generate a lot of attention. But those guys never batted an eye about those things because they really wanted to win.
They wanted to win for Michigan. And I think that's the thing that ultimately shone through the season. And so, even when difficult moments arose, they were able to connect with that one common goal and say, this is what we came here for. And they s kept that the focus of the season.
Well, obv obviously you and Dusty were selling something. You know, but was it tough behind the scenes? The Vegas tournament, for instance, right? In in in the late 25. You eviscerated everybody.
Like, and it looked like I was talking to my youngest son, who is my Michigan watching buddy. I'm like, these guys look like they've played together for five years. And it was basically not even five months at that point in time. Yeah, we had more solutions than most people could present problems for. That's how I like to put it.
So, usually, if they try to say, hey, we're going to try to speed them up, well, we could play that way, and maybe they couldn't play that way as long as they thought they would. And if they wanted to play in half court, like Yukon, quite frankly, slowed the game down, made it sort of an ugly national championship game because that was their way to have a chance to win.
Well, we could play that way and be better at that than they were. But again, it was about the team understanding that in a slower game, this is how we're going to play. We're going to play through our posts a little bit more. In a more up-tempo game, we may shoot more threes and have more possessions where Elliott's got the ball in his hands. And for each guy on the court and on the team to be okay with any style, because it was going to.
Give us the best chance to win that night was the thing that I think Dusty mastered: getting every person in our program to buy into their role and the ability to sacrifice what was necessary of them for the greater good of the team. All right, let's talk about you a little bit here, even though I know coaches don't usually like that. Mike Boyden Jr. here on The Rich Eisen Show. When did you first get a whiff that the Dallas Mavericks had entered the chat here?
It was probably Sunday evening, the night before. Dusty, I think, had already gotten back from talking to him about the opportunity. And he asked me, He said, Hey, you know, I think this may be something that happens. If you could get this job, I'd like to help you. If not, maybe there's an opportunity to go with him.
And so that was the first time. The problem was it was Father's Day. And I spent most of the day with my children and wife. How old are they? I have a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter.
Okay, so it's Father's Day in here. You get a call. You get dinner. And then I take this conversation back to the dinner table. And everybody in my house is like, what are you talking about?
Right. Because, you know, Dusty's names come up for pretty much every job, probably including yours this spring. He couldn't handle this. But other things may be not. North Carolina or Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls, all these jobs.
And so kind of anytime his name comes up, you're just kind of like, all right, it's another job. He's going to be a candidate for every job. We just have to accept it. But the next morning, it became real pretty quickly upon seeing an alert on my phone from Shams that he had accepted the job. That's how you found out for real.
That it was official. Yeah, yeah.
So you got an indication from Dusty the night before this could happen, and you might be the successor if I can help with that. I would like to. If this happens, then you go to the dinner table of Father's Day night, let your family know, you go to sleep, you wake up, and Sham's alert tells you. Yeah, the funny twist of this is that on Monday morning when I wake up, assuming that I'm still an assistant coach at Michigan, I took my son to the Dusty Mae basketball camp in Crysal Arena. Was Dusty there?
Dusty wasn't there when camp opened. And that was the next side that maybe there was a little bit more to the story than I understood the night before.
So, wow. Yeah, it changed pretty quick. But again, Dusty's deserving of this opportunity. Yes. You know, within the program, we're all really happy for him.
As coaches, we understand these are difficult decisions to make. And I know sometimes people think they're selfish, but you get to make decisions for yourself and your family. And he's given everything he was supposed to give to Michigan in two years that he could have. And so, you know, I'm a Knicks fan at heart, but I like the Pistons because I coached Cade. Sure.
And now I'm going to root for Dallas as often as they're not playing with those other two teams.
Well, I mean, you said a lot that I want to follow up on right here. Because I, listen, I love the guy. Having met him just a handful of times, this trophy helps, you know. But, you know, in the world of having to re-recruit your team every year at the NIL and the portal, and there's no off time, you know, where you, or you can go to the NBA, there's an offseason. There's actual rules that with a governing body called the NBA front office, you know, like, so I understand why.
Cooper flag also doesn't suck to be that phrase. Kyrie. But what about there's another one, right? We could go on and on. But how about you?
Obviously, again, this is not your first rodeo. You just mentioned you coached Cade. That was at Oklahoma State. Cade Cunningham, who is somebody who could run for mayor in any town in the state right now, certainly in Detroit.
So it's not your first rodeo. Does this not wear on you? I mean, or the idea that now you're going to be the one handling all this NIL portal stuff and constantly have these moments? I try not to view things in a negative light. I'm a fairly optimistic person.
Sure. This is a big job, though. And I understand the gravity of it, considering now the expectation is you go 38 and 2 and you win all your games by 35 points. You cut down three out of four nets. Good one.
Good one. You know, I understand that. That's a part of it. But at the same time, I feel confident. We've got a really talented group led by two guards.
Guard play is the name of the game at every level. We've got probably the best backcourt in the country, in my opinion. We've got a really good front court. And then we've got some young guys who people may not know as much about now. Go for it.
Land on me here. Yeah, Quinn Costello, Brandon McCoy's freshman, McDonald's All-Americans, rookie Leibird, Oscar Goodman, guys who've been in our program who understand what it takes to get to this level, just haven't been a part of it on the court as much.
So I feel confident. Confident in the roster, and now putting a staff together that I believe can keep the standard where it is. That there should be no expectation drop-off of the Michigan basketball fans. Not at all. Not at all.
Okay. And what do you bring to the equation that might be different? Just a different voice. I'm a little bit taller. My complexion is a little darker.
But no, I mean, we'll do things a lot the way we have the last two years. Sure. I mean, I'm not the smartest person in the room, but when I think about how this team should play, it was recruited to play a certain way. And I've watched for two years a wild level of success in a day and age where you have to be adaptable. Yes.
And so a lot of what we've done, we'll continue to do. There'll be some tweaks because we won't have quite the depth on our front court that we did last year. It's almost impossible to. We had three of those guys picking the top 12 of the NBA. But we're still going to be good enough to compete at the top of the conference and on a national level.
Yeah, Yaxel's already making his presence known, not just in the summer league, but I, speaking on behalf of all Michigan Wolverines, just love how he's gone a dream on being a Michigan stater and how Michigan beat Michigan State last year. And I am. Loving that.
Well, he loves this place. He leaned into it as much as any person could for a year. Right. And he will always represent the Michigan basketball family and the university at large. But Yaks had a great growing experience at Michigan.
He showed up very unconfident a year ago. It'd be hard to believe that. But last June, it took a while for us to get him to believe that he could be the type of player that he ultimately became. And a lot of it has to do with the guys he played with that helped him realize his potential and the success on the course.
So we're excited for him. We believe in what we continue to have moving forward. And I'm excited to coach this group. I'm excited to watch it, to be honest with you. And just before I let you go, I'm going to say the same thing to Kyle, Coach Whittingham, when he shows up in about 20 minutes to kick off our second hour here.
Man, are you taking this job over at a very crucial period? Yeah. You know, obviously the success that's been had, but the success that could continue. Sure. And the success of the project.
Program that Michigan fans have not seen. Again, I was a junior in high school, in college here on the campus when this last existed due to the basketball team. And obviously, you're taking over under different circumstances why the job was open to Kyle, right? But it's still the same thing where there's a lot of flux and you have to keep players and you have to keep momentum going. And it looks like so far, obviously, you did a well enough job.
They removed the interim tag before he even coached the game.
So far, you know, it was a lot of work. The reason I didn't join your show before is because that's what I was doing, trying to keep this roster together. Sure. And I thank you for the invite. This is an awesome opportunity for us to be on this stage with as much as you represent.
Thank you for saying that. And so it's a great opportunity. We're glad to represent the Block M all over the world. My first week on the job, and I'll leave you with this. Sure.
I learned the power of Michigan. I went to Argentina to watch Trey McKinney play in a FIBA event. I took off from Detroit. Yeah. And I landed in JFK for my connection, and I saw a Michigan hat in the airport, at JFK Airport.
When I landed in Buenos Aires Airport in Argentina, I saw a Michigan hat in the airport. Yeah, you did. And flying back, I saw a Michigan hat in the airport in London.
So I know the power and the brand and reach of this place, and I look forward to representing it. And I look forward to watching it as well. Thank you so much. Greatly appreciated. Thank you.
You didn't say you had the best backcourt in America because both Elliott Cadeau and Trey McKinney are standing right over there, did you? I did not, but I'm glad they're here, and I hope they understand what it takes.
Well, I'm excited to meet them and thank them personally for making me a very happy man, and thank you for helping make this exist as well. Thank you. That is none other than Mike Boynton Jr., the new head coach of Michigan basketball. When we come back here from this Champions Circle event, two national champions, Elliot Cadill and Trey McKinney, next. The Rich Heisen Show, the podcast.
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Trey McKinney and Elliot Cadeau, national champions, are here on the Rich Eisen Show.
So let's just jump into it here. Um when when you want it all. Did you have any sense at all? Any sense at all that Dusty Mae might be on a radar screen of an NBA team. At all, Elliott?
Um no. To be honest, I didn't really expect anything. I thought, you know it, like, I thought he was gonna gonna come back, we were gonna run it back, try to win another national championship. And the news kind of came out of the blue. But in that moment, no, I definitely didn't expect him to leave.
Did Trey anything would you agree with that or do you have any sense of that at all? No, I agree. I I feel like, you know, the plan was for, you know, me and Elliot to come back and Be the featured, you know, back court on the team and, you know, try to lead us to another national championship. But It was definitely out of the blue. And I mean, but we're we're happy for him.
Well, and I'm and I'm and I'm glad that you're still here, obviously. Speaking as a as a Michigan fan, did you get the sense that Yaks and Morres and Dai were gone too? Did you get the sense that that was pretty much going to happen? Yeah, for sure. I think we all knew that they would.
Enter the draft because you know we kind of had a sense that they would get picked as high as they did. Right. And then, so again, just when I found out that Dusty was gone, I immediately thought of the two of you guys. And I kept refreshing my feed to see what you guys thought. What were you, Trey, thinking?
When you heard that Dusty was Was going to the NBA. What did you think of? I mean, I was definitely kind of upset, but. I think oh there was just a level of of uncertainty with everybody in the room. I mean, I didn't know what was going on, Elliot didn't know what was going on, like the whole team didn't know what was going on.
And I think the biggest thing for me, Elliot, was just to try to calm the team down, you know. Knowing that we really didn't know what was going on or what was going to happen later in that day.
So I think we just did a really good job of just trying to keep the team together. Yeah, just keeping the team team together. You want to add a little bit to that for me? Yeah, I feel like, as one of the leaders of the team, me and Trey talked about it. We were kind of just.
Our main focus was to keep the team together. We both talked about it the day it happened. We both kinda Told each other that we wanted to stay here.
So it was our job to keep the. To help coach keep the roster together, and we just try to do that day by day. How much was it helpful for you guys that Mike Boynton Jr. is getting the gig? Did that help for you?
Yeah, for sure. That helped for me. Just like. On, like, a comfortability standpoint, like, I was very comfortable with him. I have a good relationship with him, and you know, it's not.
Somebody that I don't know, somebody that I don't trust, coming in and trying to coach me.
So I felt like that was definitely the best option to keep. Coach there. How about you, Trey? Yeah, I mean, Coach Mike, he recruited me here, and, you know. He was the guy that was mentioned he flew down to Argentina to watch you.
Yeah, he was the main recruiter in my recruitment.
So it was obviously a no-brainer for me. But I think Coach Dussey bring he recruited a really good staff in Michigan and the people we left behind, you know, they could have took the reins and did a really good job with the program.
So I think it was a no-brainer for them to be able to keep him and I think if they would have, you know, looked elsewhere, it probably Would have gone a different way. Yeah, where you might not be sitting here right next to me right now, is what you're saying. And the same thing with you. I mean, let's be honest, right? I mean, that's the way the world works these days.
You know, and I think there's unfair pressure that gets put on athletes like the two of you. I mean, you know, when coaches can do obviously what Dusty just did and he has every right to do. But it's your right to also not want to do it here anymore. And I just love the fact that you guys are here. And so, what would you say to those of us in the fan base that are nervous?
that you know obviously what what what just happened And here comes a guy that we're not familiar with, his coaching style in any way, shape, or form. How is it gonna? Roll on, do you think? I think Coach Mike was a really big. part of us winning that national championship and How sell, if you don't mind me finding out.
He was like the head assistant coach, so he pretty much. made all the subs. He pretty much You know, did did other things that were really like impactful to us winning and you know like I feel like all the practices so far with Coach Mike have been the same feel, same as last year, very, very similar to last year, if not the exact same. And I think. He have a he'll have a similar role as Dusty and I feel like will be the same as last year.
What about you, Trey? Yeah, I think I'm I mean I feel like it's just a a different voice. Um We're going to run a lot of the same stuff we did last year. I mean, we had more of a free-flowing offense, and he definitely had a really big part, like Elliot said. construct constructed the the subs and He did most of our defense and stuff like that and you know his voice was there throughout last year and that season.
So he definitely had a great impact on our team. When did you know last year was special, Elliott? Um, I kinda knew since like the beginning, like When the whole team got together for the first time, um I knew we were going to be really good when, like, it was hard for me to find out who the starting five was going to be. Like, I had, like. Three different ways you could go with the starting five, and it would be an elite starting five.
So that's when I knew we had a good team because we had like eight starters. Yeah. I mean, the number of times though, I mean, I know you didn't start, right? You wound up finishing, though. You know, like that, that happened quite a bit, and obviously when LJ went down, things You know, kind of got reordered.
But when did you realize that your first year at Michigan could wind up with a trophy like this, Trey? Yeah, I mean, I never Had the dream of, you know, winning a national championship. I never thought that would happen that quick, right. I think in the summer we just everybody was so individually talented and We knew if we could come together as one and become a team and do whatever it takes to win as a team that. you know, we could do anything and we put our minds to, so Definitely I would say in the summer when we had those very hard practices and Everybody was just showing what they could do on the floor.
And You know, Coach Boynton and Dusty mentioned as well, getting everybody to understand the collective. more than the individual How difficult was that? from your perspective. I felt like it was really easy. Like, I think the coaches knew what they were doing in the recruiting.
They went in the transfer portal. And they grab kids with the same mindset. Yeah. And. Everybody Not one person on the team really had an ego, so it was like Everybody just when when coach was mentioning for us all to come together, everybody immediately understood it.
Man came together.
Okay. And you know um Good. people are going to be having a target. on the University of Michigan next year because you guys have this and they want this. For sure.
And they think that maybe because of all the changes, it's going to be ripe for the plucking. Your answer to anybody who thinks that, Trey McKinney, is what? I mean they can target us as much as they want. I feel like we have a really talented team and I don't think there will be that big of a gap between last year and this year. I mean, I think we're the goal is a national championship and it's nothing less than that.
What's your answer to that? Um I feel like People targeting us is a good thing for us is going to force us. to be better in practice every day would be on our tent toes every day and just work harder. And I feel like that would help. Help us.
Yeah, okay.
Well, I look forward to watching it get done. You guys are not playing golf today, is that correct? No, I'm not playing golf. You are not golfers? You do not play golf, or you have yet to play golf?
Is that what it is? I think I just need to learn. I haven't learned yet.
So once I learn, I feel like I'll play it.
Okay, so you just need a little push, is what you're saying. Oh, okay. What about you, Trey? No? Um, my swimming is getting better, but, you know, I'm not really a I like watching it, but anybody from the team actually playing out here today?
Is anybody good to stick? I know JP is playing.
Okay. I don't know how good he is, but I know he's playing. I mean. How big are his golf clubs going to be? I don't know.
Extra. Just take some legs off a ladder and just put some sort of a nine-iron head on the top of it. Let them go. Fantastic. Elliot, Cadeau, and Trey McKinney here on the Rich Eisen Show to wrap up our number one.
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Kyle Whittingham, the football coach around these parts. The Rich Eisen Show Podcast. Mm-hmm.
