Does San Diego State Have A Shot? (Hour 3)

Hour number three of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Let's get to five questions, five answers.

We do this every Monday and Friday on the show. And we call it Onsides, Offsides, so let's not even waste five more seconds. Hot-tay-kicky or maybe hack-tay-kicky?

Hit it! Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports. Which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on? Offside, defense number 69.

It's Onsides, Offsides with Zach Gelb on CBS Sports Radio. Alright, what do you got? Alright, tonight Zach San Diego State looks to win their first national championship in program history role. UConn attempts to win their fifth since 1999. Blue blood baby, how about them Huskies?

The drive for five. The Huskies so far in their five wins have blown the doors off everyone. They have averaged their average margin of victory so far in these five games, 20.6 points per game. Now the Aztecs have been defensive stalwarts so far but do face their toughest hat to date. UConn is currently favored by seven and a half points.

So Onsides are offside Zach, UConn will win and cover the seven and a half point spread. As Shaka Smart was saying, they're just so tough to defend because of how deep they are. Like Hawkins is sensational, then you have Sanogo down low who's just a force to be reckoned with.

If he needs a breather, if he gets in foul trouble, you got Clingan coming off the bench. Then you got the West Coast kid as well who's pretty damn good a young player. It's just this team is ridiculous and they're so deep and their only losses this year have been in the biggies. And they went on that dominant start to start the year that they went on a little bit of a hiccup. But after that, it's kind of weird hickey that this team didn't get more love heading into the tournament.

I know it's easy to say now, but I think a lot of people were just caught up in the lack of tournament success recently. And even if it's like for a two, three year period, you develop kind of that tag of, okay, until you do it, I'm going to bet against you. And so far, that's come back to just burn everyone when it comes to UConn.

And that and same yours truly. I've been thinking that same logic. Eventually it's got to come back down. Eventually they can't play this well for four, five, six games on our own for five games. And really four and a half, you know, four games and then the half against Iona, they've done so. They've absolutely done so.

And it's pretty much been the entire season. Like you look back, they started off the year 14-0. Then I know they went through a rough patch where they were 16-6. But then after that, after that loss to Xavier on January 31st, they only had two losses after that.

To Creighton in the Big East, we know how good Creighton is. Before the year they were picked to win the whole, the entire Big East. And they lost by three. And then they lost to two in the Big East tournament to Marquette. So ever since that loss on January 25th to Xavier, where it was only 82-79, they have won every game but two. And the two games they lost by a combined five points. So outside of that little stretch, from December 31st to January 25th, that was their only down period this year in college basketball.

So yeah, tonight, hey, we all know how great San Diego State is defensively. I don't think they have the offense to beat UConn. Seven and a half is a big number, but when you look at the way that UConn has played in this tourney. Where they beat Iona 87-63, they beat St. Mary's 70-55, they beat Arkansas 88-65, Gonzaga 82-54, Miami 72-59. I think UConn's winning tonight and I think they're covering the seven and a half.

I will go onsides. And by the way, that avalanche of UConn. Like you mentioned Iona and St. Mary's game where they got out to slow starts and in the second half they were just out of this world. In Arkansas, they hit you right in the mouth at the beginning of the game. That's the toughest part with this UConn team because even if they don't look elite, you know in the back of your mind eventually that avalanche is coming with UConn. It's kind of like Deion Sanders when he walked into Colorado.

I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming. That's UConn. You eventually know that that team is going to hit you in the mouth and they're going to knock you out. Even if it's like a fight where you're eight rounds in and you look like you have them on the ropes, you better deliver the knockout punch.

Because if you let them get off out of that corner, fight off the ropes and eventually start to jab back, they will knock you on your ass. And I don't think San Diego State can out-duel them for 40 minutes and even more if it does go into overtime. And what concerns me about San Diego State, you just saw Miami. Miami played horribly in that first half against Texas and then came back, got the victory to put themselves in the Final Four. Then they got blown out, blown out by UConn the other night. I look at a team like San Diego State, they just did what Miami did to Texas, coming on back and beating FAU. Can they find the way to survive early against UConn because Miami was not able to.

So I'll go onsides there. UConn's going to win the game and they're going to cover the seven and a half. So the men's championship will go on later tonight.

The women's championship was decided yesterday as LSU won their first women's basketball title in school history. With 9.9 million viewers. 9.9 million viewers. Record breaker. A massive, massive audience for that big game.

And unfortunately, all 9.9 million saw the game end in controversy. Tigers star Angel Reese at the end of the game did flash the John Cena, you can't see me. You gotta say that right.

It's the, you can't see me. So I'm not a WWE guy, so I'll leave that for you. So I'm not a WWE guy either because I grew up. But, um, if Taz was working here, I still wouldn't say that.

Holy cow. And Taz and I, I was like the only person Taz liked around here. The only one requested by Taz to fill in with him when Moose was out.

Well, hopefully he never hears this audio. But when I was growing up, I was a huge WWE fan. My two favorite, my three favorite wrestlers growing up. John Cena was one, Batista was two, and then Rey Mysterio with the 619 kick. That was number three for me. So it was my three favorite wrestlers growing up. And when John Cena did the, you can't see me. That was awesome. Angel Reese did do the, you can't see me.

Towards Iowa star, Kaitlin Clark. People's ears just got chopped off like they're Van Gogh. Well, I mean, anyone does it that's not John Cena.

They're going to butcher it. So he's perfected it. I clearly have not. I thought I did a good job. It was solid.

And now also I've never heard it, so I can't compare. You can't see me. Boom. There you go.

Boom. I just did the move. You can't see it because we're on the radio. But we're not like all the other shows that have TV deals and YouTube deals and all that.

We're just the true radio guys here. And the move did look good. So for the audience of one that you did it for, I appreciate it.

And again, for not knowing the move, it looked good to me. At first I'm like, audience of one? What a jackass hickey is.

I'm like, oh, because no one else could physically see us. That's right. That is right. Besides Kaplan. I know Kaplan is somewhere here on one of these one, two, three, four, five, six cameras, seven, seven cameras that are in front of me.

Always watching. Kaplan's always watching. He's like big brother. That he is. He is the big brother at CBS Sports Radio.

I'm watching you Kaplan somewhere. So not only did Angel Reese do the John Cena move, she also pointed out her ring finger to indicate LSU was about to get some new jewelry all in the face of, again, Iowa star Kaitlin Clark. And this sparked a massive, massive debate, massive controversy of whether Reese was classless in her celebration. After the game, Clark said she had no problem with the celebration as well. Onsides or offsides, you, Zach, have a problem with Angel Reese taunting Kaitlin Clark. Did I think it was a little bit excessive?

Sure. And I know, right, there's history with Kaitlin Clark doing the you can't see me first. And I guess Angel Reese was disrespected or felt as if she shouldn't have done that.

And then she wanted to throw a back in her face. That's part of sports. But overall, I don't have a big problem with this. The only part that I thought was a little like over the line was just following her for a while. Like if you want to do it at first and walk away, that's fine. But overall, it was showing emotion. You may not like it, but I can't sit here and be up in arms and freaking out and going furious about this. Like so many people are that really don't care about the game and are watching their first women's game for the entire season. So I don't have a huge problem with this.

So I will go offsides when you ask me that. The only thing I would say is, you know, you could do the celebration, do the ring finger point and all that. You don't have to follow Kaitlin Clark around. It was like she was trying to have Kaitlin Clark acknowledge her.

And sometimes that's the best when someone's going after you where you just kind of just smile or laugh at them and that infuriates them even more. But Angel Reese gets the last laugh because she has what Kaitlin Clark wanted. And that was the ring that she'll eventually get in her finger. You know, it's more ridiculous that is getting zero attention because of this new controversy that should actually get actual warranted ridiculous takes. Are you talking about the other video?

No. What other video? Oh, you didn't see the video of the other LSU player who they I guess they were interviewing her.

Maybe when the final four started or maybe this was the the tournament started. Alexis Morris and she was saying, oh, the one person I'm excited to meet here is and maybe the script for the national championship is is Kaitlin Clark. And then as she's saying that and she even said, I don't usually say I'm excited to meet players. Kaitlin Clark walks by and they had a little embrace. I thought that was a really cool moment between the two. Oh, I did not see that.

No, that is cool. I was going to say the quote unquote disrespect LSU felt because there was a video of Kaitlin Clark going back to Friday night when she basically threw like, you know, kind of waved off and South Carolina player who is at the three point line wide open because South Carolina doesn't shoot threes. And LSU tried to basically say, I feel disrespected that Kaitlin Clark thought she could guard someone like that. I'm going to take that as motivation going into Sunday, which is ridiculous, which is absolutely absurd, which is actually laughable. The fact that you're going to try to have that bullet to bore material start and not realize it's part of the game plan.

And oh, by the way, work to perfection and work to perfection. I saw Inja Reese was on Instagram live and she and she said to one of her teammates, yeah, Kaitlin Clark wasn't doing the wave off tonight. Now, we all know athletes.

They find the little things to get them motivated and maybe more so than they need to. I didn't have a problem with Kaitlin Clark doing that. Just like I don't really have a big deal with what Inja Reese did after the game.

But I will agree with you. When coaches and players try to like pump up, oh, we root for the teams in our conference. Could you ever imagine, let's say Michigan, Ohio State, Blake Corum gets a big touchdown and he saw early in the year someone did something to Marvin Harrison Jr. And then in that moment when Michigan wins it all, he does the celebration back to basically say, yeah, I did that for my brothers at Ohio State. Big 10 pride. Like what are we doing here?

I know you have friends in the conference, but what are we doing? You're right. That's a good job that you bring that up. Because when I heard that part, I'm like, OK, are you really that annoyed with what Kaitlin Clark did that you're doing it to kind of get revenge for South Carolina? That doesn't make sense to me. Stupid.

Absolutely stupid. Let's continue with women's basketball because Kim Mulkey did complete one of the most impressive turnarounds in sports. She scares me. Like if I was a grandchild of Kim Mulkey, I would do everything Kim Mulkey says. She is a very intimidating person. And I remember Matt Ruhle told me this story where they asked when he was at Baylor to use the gym so the coaches could run like the football coaches could run a pickup game. And Kim Mulkey, I guess her office is on the balcony. And she got out on the balcony and said, you guys better start playing some defense or I'm yanking you off the court.

And then all of a sudden the coaches started playing defense. She's a very intimidating person. Not a coincidence that wherever she goes, they win because she is doing something right including...

I would just start sprinting if I played for her because I would just assume I would do something wrong and I'd have to get on the line and just start sprinting as if it was a miracle. Yeah, she's no nonsense and that helps take a doormat of a program to national championship heights in just two short years. Now if you look at the NFL, because Kim Mulkey did this in year two at LSU, there are eight head coaches going into 2023 that will enter year number two, including Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins, Kevin O'Connell, the Vikings, Todd Bowles. Is this a football question? This is a football question. Is this Kim Mulkey?

Yes. She won a national title in year number two at LSU for a team that was a long ways away from winning a championship. So if you look at the NFL in terms of year two coaches, Bowles with the Bucks, Josh McDaniels, the Raiders, Brian Davol, the Giants, Matt Eberfluss with the Bears, Doug Peterson with the Jags, Dennis Allen of the Saints, all eight of those coaches entering year number two. So if Kim Mulkey did it at LSU, onsides or offsides, of these eight coaches listed, Doug Peterson is the coach most likely to win the Super Bowl in 2023. So McDaniel, O'Connell, Todd Bowles, McDaniels, Davol, Eberfluss, Dougie P, and Dennis Allen. Why'd you laugh so much on Josh McDaniel?

Because there's no shot in hell this guy's going from zero to hero. Yeah, it is Doug Peterson. O'Connell as long as Kirk Cousins is their quarterback, they're not going to win a Super Bowl. Like McDaniel, I can't trust his quarterback and Tuatunga by Loa. Todd Bowles, without Brady, that franchise is going to crumble.

McDaniel's, I agree with you, no shot. Davol took a nice step in year one, but I don't think they're close to winning a Super Bowl. Eberfluss and the Bears, they've improved but they're not ready. Dennis Allen, I don't trust Derek Carr in a big game, so yeah, it's got to be Doug Peterson. They'll win that division, they'll be a double digit win team. Trevor Lawrence now in year number three, really year number two after the disaster of Urban Meyer in year number one. They're adding Calvin Ridley.

Yeah, out of those eight teams with Doug Peterson's Super Bowl winning experience as a coach, I think they'd be the most likely out of those eight to win the Super Bowl in 2023. Onsides. The Dallas Mavericks have an extremely tough decision to make. Tank the rest of the year or try to make the play-in tournament. Now Sham Sharani is reporting that Dallas is considering shutting down both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

Poor guy Kyrie for the final three games of the season. Now Dallas is currently in 11th place, one game out of the plane but basically in order to make the play-in tournament, they need to win out and need either the Thunder, Lakers or Timberwolves to lose out and then they will get at least a tenth seed and keep their season alive. Now why the ability or why the thought of tanking comes into play the last three games is that they do owe the Knicks a first round pick that is top 10 protected so they are in the top 10 and they keep that first round pick for this upcoming year. Onsides or offsides, the Mavericks should tank the rest of the season in order to keep their first round pick. Can I give you my fan analysis and then my talk show host analysis?

Sure. The fan analysis is you should go all out for it because solely based off one thing, you know Kyrie would love to tank these final three games so he could start his vacation early. I don't want to see Kyrie start his vacation early so therefore I want them to play. Now my actual answer here is I do think that they should tank because they're not going to be in this position you would think again to potentially get a top 10 pick and even if you do make the play-in tournament, I don't think you're going all that far because this team has been a disaster this year and it's not even a lock that you'll make the play-in tournament anyway. So I would say yeah, even though this is, tanking is a weird word for me here because I think tanking is like intentionally trying to lose like half your season or your entire season.

For the last three games, I think tank gets a little sensationalized here but I would say that if that's the question the Mavs should tank the rest of the season to keep their first round pick, I would go onsides on that one. And finally, Hard Knocks team selection is down to four teams, Jets, Bears, Commanders, and Saints. New York eventually will have their new quarterback in Aaron Rodgers where the Bears do have DJ Moore and now a boatload of picks and which will be a big season for their quarterback and Justin Fields. The Saints do welcome a new quarterback Derek Carr to town while Washington could have new ownership take over and who knows what could happen from there. So onsides or offsides, of those four teams, Jets, Bears, Commander, Saints, up for Hard Knocks. The Jets are the team you most want to see this year. It's offsides. Even though they're going to have Rodgers and probably Odell, I want to see the Commanders because Hard Knocks has gotten stale.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Hickey. I don't think we've ever seen an ownership change go down on Hard Knocks. Like we've seen almost everything that could happen in the coaching world and then also with players. I would just love to see how they are going to handle that ownership change.

It may be nerdy, it may be boring, but that would excite me the most. If I am making this list, I would go Commanders 1, Jets 2, Bears 3, Saints 4. But I would think the team that does get on is actually the Bears.

I think it will end up being the Bears, but personally I'd rather see the Commanders and Jets, and I would go Commanders over the Jets. But how, like an ownership change, if that's the way that goes down on Hard Knocks, that would be fascinating. What would they, I guess, what would they broadcast? The new owner coming into the team, or maybe if it takes a delay. I don't think they would trash Schneider publicly, but maybe there's some things behind the scenes. I already see Jason Wright is already talking how they expect this to go down and they don't see why it wouldn't. So I'd just be curious if there is a hiccup in that.

What happens? Like at this point, I've heard and seen everything from Aaron Rodgers. Like I don't need to see any more Aaron Rodgers than the time that's allotted to. I guess I'll ask this, if it's sold within the next month, which is what a lot of people are saying is going to happen, if it goes down in May, does that change your answer to the question? No, because I'd like to, I'd like to know more about the new ownership group and then maybe some people in the organization with Dan Schneider no longer there speak a little bit more truthfully when the camera gets in front of them.

So I would want it to be the Commanders. Alrighty, Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show.

You can think around the auto parts for all your car care needs, get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. We've been talking about the interaction at the end of the game between Angel Reese from LSU and then also Caitlin Clark from Iowa. And I think a lot of this is just a great overreaction when it comes to a lot of people and their takes in the last 24 hours after the game did end.

But I'll say this, this may be the dumbest take of them all. This is from Jill Biden, the first lady. I know we'll have the champions come to the White House. We always do. So we hope LSU will come, she said.

This is via the Associated Press. But you know, I'm going to tell Joe, I think Iowa should come too because they played such a good game. Now the team that loses in the national championship game, we have to invite to the White House.

It's like we just give participation trophies out to everyone now. And don't get me wrong, Iowa went on a remarkable run. Caitlin Clark, she brought so many viewers to the TV set.

We saw 9.9 million people tuning in during the national championship game. Give her all the flowers, all the praise in the world. People compare her to Steph Curry. She's a joy to watch. But now we have to invite her team to the White House because of the great game that they played in the national championship game.

Like give me a break. You know, did LSU not shoot 54% from the field, 65% almost from three? And oh yeah, LSU had 11 more rebounds. Don't get me wrong, Iowa had a great season, but they did not play a great championship game. They lost by 17 points.

Now offensively, their numbers were fine, but defensively they were atrocious. So Hickey, I know we don't usually get political on this show and we usually stay out of that stuff. But what a joke this is.

The first lady of the United States saying, yeah, I'm going to tell my husband, the president, Joe Biden, and I think Iowa should get an invite to the White House as well. I'm sorry. That does not make sense to me. Ridiculous. I would agree with that. Now, if you want to separately in a different time, maybe the summertime, invite Caitlin Clark to recognize her greatness.

Absolutely. Caitlin Clark herself, the individual player was tremendous. She was the face of women's basketball this season. She lifted, literally almost by herself, basically Iowa to the national title game. You want to bring her, give her a medal of freedom? I don't know what you would give, recognize her in some way.

Okay, no problem. You can't bring Iowa to the White House. You can't bring Caitlin Clark to the White House anytime near LSU is going to be there. Spread it out, bring Caitlin Clark on Tuesday in June, bring her over there, recognize her great season. I think recognition for her great season is warranted.

She's a great player. Can't bring Iowa to the team. You cannot bring the second place team. It hasn't been done before.

This should not be a new trend starting now. You know, I also heard from a few years ago, they're going to bring the Atlanta Falcons to the White House because they played three great quarters in the Super Bowl before choking a 28 to three lead. Like, is this what we're going to do now that they played a great game? Those Atlanta Falcons. What about the Eagles this past year?

Oh yeah. Played really well against the Chiefs. Eagles are up 10 at halftime. We got to invite the Eagles to the White House now. A few years ago, no one would go to the White House now.

You may have both teams going to the White House. The naughty McDonalds. Oh, remember the LSU?

Oh yeah. So you know what, I mean, do you keep tradition? And when LSU champions come to the White House, Big Macs and Double Fries. With a lot of dancing too. The LSU football players did a lot of dancing.

A lot of TikToks that day. Those are great. No doubt about it. 8-5-2-1-2. 4 CBS. 8-5-5-2-1-2.

42-27. Earlier, we were talking about this report that maybe, and this is from things that Jeff, not Jeff Darlington, Daniel Jeremiah was hearing, that he's been hearing speculation about Las Vegas with the Raiders and Tennessee with the Titans. Could be moving up to the third overall pick to select a quarterback. Let's go to Jay in Alaska, who is our big time Raiders fan who calls us all the time. Jay, what's happening? Hey, how you doing? How you doing, how you doing? Now Jay, this is Jay in Alaska, the Raiders fan, correct Amundo?

Yes, it is. Okay. I don't know if you know this Jay, a few weeks ago, we had a big Raiders topic. I forget what it was. And a Jay in Alaska called in and I thought it was you for the first 30 minutes, for the first 30 seconds. And then it was you. So there's another Jay in Alaska that calls this show and he does tweet us a lot. So I figured out who it was, but usually when I see Jay in Alaska on the phone lines, I just assume it's you. Well, you know, there's a lot of people try to impersonate me, but you know, there's only one me. I'm the original.

And no one could replicate you. That is for sure. Hey man, I'm, I'm, I'm feeling good because at least I don't have to boycott the season because they didn't freaking get Tom Brady. Thank God that guy retired. You should be kissing Tom Brady's feet if he's, if he wanted to save your organization. No, I, I cannot stand that guy.

I will not ever. You should be like Rex Ryan with the feet if Brady elected to go to that loser Raiders organization. Well, you know, I know him a clown boy will not do the right thing.

Uh, Zach, I know he won't. Well, you changed his name. He's the clown boy. You used to call him McIdiot. Well, he's a McClown boy. He's a clown. He's a, it's the clown show. How do you get rid of Darren Waller?

How do you, how are you trying to get rid of Hunter Renfro? I mean, you had players in place that were actually producing in the, and you just, and unless they get Darnell Washington in the draft, he's a clown. I mean, he's an idiot.

I'm sorry. And you know, what they should do is go out and get the number one D tackle in the league. Jalen Carter, no matter what his record is, put him in the, in there next to Max Crosby to that defensive defense and then go get Lyle Stone Hickey, go get Jake Hayner in the third round, develop that kid and let him, and let him be a, you know, your starter down the road, but they won't, they'll go jump up and get, you know, Richardson or Levis and it'll be a complete disaster. And the only good thing about that is at least McClown boy will get fired because the team will be terrible next year and then they'll, we'll finally get rid of that loser. But you know, they never do what they need to do and do the smart thing. So you fully expect them, even though you don't want them to Jay, to move up, you know, that they'll move into that three spot and select either Richardson or Levis.

Oh yeah. And they'll probably give up like five picks and to move up and do something totally stupid in the team will be a bunch of has been no good over the Hill, washed up fricking expatriate players. It's, it's ridiculous. That's all we do is hire, Hey, let's get Amir Abdullah way past his prime. Let's get Joachim Johnson way past his prime, Brandon Bolden way past his prime. Let's get everybody that's past their prime. They used to play for the Patriots that now suck and let's put them on the Raiders. Well, if I can, if I can hope to give you some positivity, at least Jacoby Myers has already thrown a touchdown pass for your team. So there's one.

Yeah. Well, I mean, he was the only move that they've made so far that I think is somewhat. But that's the thing, Jen, if they bring in Jacoby Myers, which they already did, I thought, okay, you would lose Renfro. Like that would then make sense to me to then trade Waller.

And now you still have Renfro and who knows what's going to happen. It doesn't seem like the Raiders got that much better this off season. Like pick your poison with Garoppolo Carr.

It doesn't really matter to me. Carr, I guess is a healthier quarterback. So I would slightly want him maybe more, but then Garoppolo wins more. But then to lose Waller on top of that and only add in Jacoby Myers, that doesn't make sense to me. Well, and, and tell me how this makes sense. Keelan Cole, who didn't do Jack last year, he was hurt all year and you, you bring him back, but you get rid of Mac Collins, one of the most highly producing guys on the team.

That doesn't make any sense. I mean, Matt Collins is your beat. And they got the kid from the skins.

He's a big kid and hopefully he can be that Matt Collins guy. But I mean, come on. They just, they just blew the team up basically to get their guys.

And it's just stupid. All right, Jay, hang in there. We appreciate it. You know what? I can't fault them for getting rid of Matt Collins, Hickey, because when I saw him come to our studios and two years ago, I met Matt Collins at an event, really nice guy. And I've interviewed him before because he used to, he got drafted by the Eagles coming out of UNC. But a year ago when he came in studio with no shoes on, I thought that was weird. And then I saw him at radio row inside the convention center. I thought it was like all shtick, but he's not wearing shoes.

I get it. He's had a good last few seasons. I can't have Matt Collins on my team if he's walking around with no shoes on. Spreading athlete's foot. Can't have that. Also next thing you know, like, you know, Jimmy G's foot now is itchy.

Max Crosby's foot is like burning and you wonder who brought it into locker room. Now, Ack, I know you're a pretty clean person. No, actually, that's a misnomer.

Really? I'm a slob. Yeah. But you, everyone thinks that like you're very clean.

Well, they think wrong. Are you a hoarder? No. Well, yeah, kind of.

You know, I mean, you go through my basement. Yeah. I still have my hockey helmet from 1972.

The Walt Kachuk autographed model. Now, I don't know what the proper word here is for you. A germaphobe? Is that the right word? Yeah. I just don't like sitting in other people's filth. Which is fair. Yeah. Just you want to sit in your own filth.

Yeah, exactly. But you would never walk around New York City or a convention center at the Super Bowl this past year in Arizona with no shoes on. No. It's not good. It hurts the feet.

Especially for someone that needs his feet, too. Yes. And it's also just disgusting. It's dirty. Yeah. There's got to be some decorum. There you go. The official Ack ruling. I don't know. Whenever I see Matt Collins, I think of you.

Thank you. Because everyone says Ack's the cleanest person here. He's like a germaphobe. But I'm filthy. You are filthy.

But it's just your own filth. Yeah. Ask Kenny Albert. He lived with me for four years. Oh, in college? Yeah. Was he a clean roommate? He was organized.

But you were a slob. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I know where everything is. Like, you know, underneath that corned beef sandwich that's been there for three weeks. Oh, no! No, I know. I'm not that bad. But I do know, like, you know, on the left side, in the middle of the pile, there's, you know, there's my tax return from, you know, 1987.

So you're a mess, but just an organized mess. I know where, yeah. I know where, that's why when people clean, you know, it drives me crazy.

Like, where was that tax return? I know it was here. There you go. Alrighty. Well, I don't know how we're going to recover from that. We'll do the news brief next.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Alright, let's start things off with Danny Hurley, the coach of the UConn Huskies looking to have the program win their fifth national championship tonight. He says being a big favorite, as they're currently a 7.5 point favorite against San Diego State, that game does tip off at 9.20 p.m. Eastern, 6.20 p.m. Pacific, is not a good thing. The heavy favorites haven't fared very well in this one.

So I don't really, we're just going to try to, you know, ignore that tag. So I understand past history, but you look at this UConn team, they remind me a lot. Like Villanova, the second, well it ended up being the third Villanova championship, but the second under Jay Wright, with how dominant they were in that tourney, and then also Baylor from a few years ago with Scott Drew, they didn't really have to break a sweat. Are you concerned, Tiki, about UConn being a big favorite? Because you look back at the last two matchups, everyone was picking them to beat Gonzaga, besides you and I. Everyone was picking them to beat Miami besides you and I.

And now it's like, all right, they're in the championship game outside of like three weeks in the season. They really haven't had to break much of a sweat, and they really have that, you know, outside of that little rough patch of adversity, they've been a phenomenal team. I can't pick against them. I cannot pick against them tonight, and if you maybe put a bet down on the game, I would lay the seven and a half points.

I would agree. Let me ask you this question. If they lose, let's play this game. Disaster. It's the biggest disappointment in a championship game.

I was just putting it on the spot, I have an idea. Let me see if there's any other teams that you can think of. Biggest disappointment in a championship game? I would say since the 07 Patriots.

That far? No, I racked my brain quick, but I mean, no one gave the Giants a shot in that game, rightfully so. Like, you try to think of like, you know, when you get like, there's been upsets in the playoffs. The Patriots were better than the UConn were, clearly, the Patriots were undefeated that year. Right, but you look at how UConn has ripped through everybody, like, they have blown everybody out.

No team is on there, you know, has been in their class so far. So you look at how dominant they've been in these five games. And you're saying just in the championship game?

Yes. I was gonna say, we had a 16 beat a one, like in terms of the championship, like an actual championship game where so many people thought, oh, this team is going to win for sure. We've had plenty of split discussions where this year, Chiefs Eagles, like there's people on both sides thinking that that team could win. I feel like you rarely get to a game that is so one sided of no chances other team is going to win. And then we see it happen in the championship game. Yeah, because like, I'm just thinking when there was some surprise, like when Clemson beat Alabama, I don't think anyone was shocked by that. Just because the year before it was with that thrill of a game. When the Patriots lost to the Eagles in the Super Bowl with Nick Foles, I picked the Eagles to win. I'm a Patriot fan.

Yeah, I'm going through it. I think you may be right. Because no one's given San Diego State a shot in this game tonight. And that's where that like, it's not where I'm not saying the UConn, UConn and OSM Patriots the same, but it's like in terms of confidence of winning tonight, you, if they lose this game, it is one of the most colossal L's like you could, we could see from a team that's that close. Well, some would say heading into the Final Four even. Yeah.

Oh yeah. I know we gave Miami a lot of credit, but even John Fanta was saying, it seems like this is UConn and everybody else when he was at the Final Four to start this, you know, to end last week. Did you hear Dan Hurley in the locker room after the game?

No, what did he say? He said, yeah, I'm not even going to celebrate. We knew we were going to win this game.

As soon as he walked in, goes, all right, fellas, tonight's over, it's over. That was how confident they were going into that game. And also can Bob Sr crack a smile if they win tonight? I love Bob Hurley Sr. But you got to give me a smile if your son wins at all.

They blew out Miami. We couldn't even get a little smile there from the coach. And you know, classic coach, it's never over till it's over. You're always going panicking about what happens until I think when the streamers come down, you'll see Bob Sr smile.

Yeah. I remember a few years ago in Rolly Massamino, the late great coach was in the stands when you had the Chris Jenkins shot. His face was priceless afterwards.

It was one of those images that you always remember. I would say it's not even a smile that you see from Bob Hurley Sr. tonight, assuming UConn wins. I think it's got to be a lot of tears. I think it's going to be tears of joy coming from Bob Hurley Sr. tonight. Let's hear Danny Hurley saying that San Diego State's veteran presence and physicality will pose challenges.

They're physical. They're an older team. I think, I don't know if I read that there's five, they've got an older team than like five NBA teams, you know, so you're, or at least I saw that graphic during an NCAA game. They play great defense San Diego State, Hickey. I just, with how many pieces UConn has, I just don't see how San Diego State's going to score more points than UConn tonight, unless everyone on UConn is just in ridiculous foul trouble. And that's the thing too, this game, it's not only the fact that, you know, cause you got San Diego State's defense, okay, maybe they can slow down UConn, but UConn's defense has just been as good as their offense. So it's like, okay, if San Diego State's defense actually plays a good game and let's say they slow UConn down and the game's in the fifties, can you actually trust San Diego State to get to 50 with how UConn's been playing defense?

It's tough to get there. What's your score prediction tonight, if I had to put you on the spot here? I will say 73-59. Wow, we're pretty close. I'm going 76-58, UConn.

And I don't usually predict a score to be that wide of a margin, but I'm feeling 76-58, the Huskies. Let's hear Danny Hurley on how his team's been able to blow everyone out in this tournament. Going like plus nine on the glass, playing elite defense, and then having a lot of answers on offense, there's nowhere where we're weak as a team, and we're deep.

They are deep. And Sanogo goes out of the game when he's playing great, Clingan comes in, you just can't stop this team. Let's hear Brian Dutcher, who's done a great job building up this program with Steve Fisher and has taken it over, I think since 2017. Coach Dutch says the Aztecs have built a special program. If you're winning games with kids that don't graduate and bad kids, no one's going to feel good about that. But if you have kids with good grades and graduate and good citizens, you don't win.

No one's going to like that either. So we've been able to put a program together. We have all those things. We have really good kids that are really good citizens and are really good basketball players. So it's important to be a good citizen and be a good basketball player, but Hickey, if people win a championship with a bunch of one and dones, as we've seen before, I don't think anyone's like, ah, got to send back that championship. It was one and done. Who really cares? I like how he's honest.

You can have great kids. You don't win. You're getting fired still. Lamont Butler, with the game-winning shot at the buzzer, this is from Saturday, discusses what he was able to do on the court. Dutch decided not to call a timeout at the end. It was about seven seconds left when we got the ball, and he told me just to go downhill and try to get something at the rim, but they did a good job cutting me off.

Once I looked up, it was two seconds left, so I knew I had to make a shot, and I got to a shot that I'm comfortable with, and one drill pull up, and I'm just glad I went in. Let's go to Angel Reese of LSU, national champion, and why she taunted Kaitlyn Clark at the end of the championship game. The narrative, I don't fit. The narrative, I don't fit in the box that y'all want me to be in. I'm too hood. I'm too ghetto. Y'all told me that all year, but when other people do it, y'all don't say nothing.

So this was for the girls that looked like me that's going to speak up on what they believe in. It's unapologetically you, and that's what I did it for tonight. This was bigger than me tonight.

It was bigger than me. Twitter is going to go in a rage every time, and I mean, I'm happy. I feel like I've helped grow women's basketball this year.

I'm super happy and excited. So I respect that answer, but then I also heard another answer, Hickey, that you brought up, that she did it for her fellow members of the SEC after the way that Kaitlyn Clark was basically saying she's not going to guard them when South Carolina was refusing to shoot a three-point shot. Like that to me, I don't really buy that. That part of the answer.

I know it wasn't said in that clip, but we've seen the clip of it being said, and I use this analogy before I'll bring it again. Blake Corum defeats some team in the national championship game, let's just say, and maybe OSU was disrespected or they thought to be disrespected the way there is. Blake Corum going to say, oh, Marvin Harrison Jr., I celebrate it for you. No, because Michigan hates Ohio State. I'm not saying I'll have to have friends in conference at other schools, but I don't think you do that to Kaitlyn Clark, which I didn't really have a big problem with it.

It got a little excessive when you're following around, but I didn't have a big problem with it for other, I understand doing it for people that don't look like you, that look like you, that get, unfortunately, these things said about them. That part of the answer I respect, but to say it was to do it to the way that Kaitlyn Clark disrespected the rest of the SEC, like that part, I rolled my eyes out a little bit. It's just also just stupid, because you don't really realize the game plan. Cats are going to can't shoot threes. They're not going to guard the three. They, LSU can. Kaitlyn Clark's game plan and Iowa's game plan on that game on Friday versus Sunday, two different things. Let's get to Kaitlyn Clark on if she noticed Angel Reese Tauntinger at the end of the game.

Honestly, I have no idea. I was just trying to get to the handshake line and shake hands and be grateful that my team was in that position. That's all you can do is hold your head high, be proud of what you did, and all the credit in the world to LSU. They were tremendous. They deserve it. They had a tremendous season. Kim Wolke coached them so, so well. She's one of the best basketball coaches of all time, and it shows.

She only said really kind things to me in the handshake line, so I'm very grateful for that too, but honestly, I have no idea. Let me be clear about this. I think a lot of this has been an overreaction on both sides. If all Angel Reese did was just do the you can't see me and point to the finger for like five seconds, that's fine. I just think where some people get a little bit annoyed about is how long it did go on. But outside of that, I don't think there's really much to freak out about with this. Zach Gilp's show CBS Sports Radio, Shocking Smart next.