LeBron Needed The Heat (Hour 2)

Cat lovers, listen up. Meet Felix, the pet insurance brand made just for cats.

Our cats don't really have nine lives, but a lot can happen in the one they do. Felix's whisker-to-tail protection covers accidents, illness, emergency care, exam fees, and so much more. Visit felixcatinsurance.com to learn more about their customizable coverage for felines. Sorry, no dogs allowed. That's felixcatinsurance.com. Get it meow. Insurance is underwritten by Independence American Insurance Company and produced by Independence Pet Group. Pre-existing conditions are not covered.

Visit felixcatinsurance.com for all terms and limitations. Ew. Gotta get rid of this old Backstreet Boys t-shirt. Tell me why. Because it stinks, boys. Tell me why. I've washed it so many times, but the odor won't come out.

Tell me why. No, you tell me why I can't get rid of this odor. Have you tried Downy Rinse & Refresh? It doesn't just cover up odors. It helps remove them. Wow, it worked, guys. Yeah. Downy Rinse & Refresh removes more odor in one wash than the leading value detergent in three washes.

Find it wherever you buy laundry products. How we doing now? Number two of our radio program. That's right. It is the Zach Gelb Show on this Tuesday on CBS Sports Radio.

You can always give me a follow on Twitter and Instagram and interact with the show at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. And by the way, the defensive player of the week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who proudly serves the armed forces, DOD veterans, and their families. Their members are the mission.

Learn more at Navy federal.org. How about this week's player who is Colts defensive back, Kenny Moore, the second in Sunday's 27 to 13 win over the Panthers. Moore had eight tackles and two interceptions, both of which he returned for touchdowns.

One was for 49 yards and the other was for 66 yards. John Rothstein going to join us coming up. We'll talk a little college basketball with him at 4 20 p.m. Eastern, 20 minutes from now. It was just announced that Bill Self has received a lifetime contract at Kansas. Now I've always wondered this, Samter and Mike, excuse me, Samter and Stu. I always call Samter like 3000 different nicknames now.

So I'm just going to mess up the names when I just go to you guys out of nowhere. But what does like a lifetime contract mean in terms of what happens if there's a day where Kansas says Bill Self is no longer the best person for the job? I wonder what the legal lingo is to try to get out of a lifetime contract because as I said to end last segment, Samter, a lifetime contract suggests that you are tied to that coach forever. So as long as Bill Self wants to coach at Kansas. I have no idea what it means. I hope that it means that he'll have nine more scandals and they won't do anything about it. And lifetime contract means that he'll be 116 years old coaching Kansas sitting in a wheelchair on the sideline ala you know Sister Jean or something.

I don't know what that means. I don't know what the hell lifetime contract means for a coach. I've seen it for like shoe companies, right? Like LeBron has a lifetime. I've seen it for coaches before too. I'm pretty sure Calipari has a lifetime deal at Kentucky. Yeah, 2019 he signed it. And people said he was on the hot seat. How could you in the hot seat if you have a lifetime contract?

It makes no sense to me. By the way, do you know how old Sister Jean is by the way? You take a guess. 103? Pretty close.

Stu, you want to take a guess here? I'm going to say 101. She is 104.

Oh, August of 20, uh, August 21st, 1919 was when she was born. Yeah. That's crazy. She's a hundred. She just turned 104 in August.

That's crazy. I was not expecting a Sister Jean reference. So when you said that, I'm like, how old is Sister Jean actually?

So hope she's, uh, hope the sister's doing well. That's all I'll say on that one. Um, so John Rothstein will join us coming up in about 20 minutes and then James Bradbury in an hour 20 from the eight and one Philadelphia Eagles, but let's not wait any further. Let's update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We get to a news brief. Time for your daily news brief.

We get you caught up on the rumors reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Let's go to Robert Salo, the coach of the JTS jets, jets, jets on his offense. If you even want to call that an offense versus the Los Angeles Chargers. Today was not good, obviously. And like I said, we just never gave ourselves a chance.

A lot of self-inflicted wounds, um, moving the bar early felt like, um, you know, we had a good little change up, uh, kind of going tempo and, uh, thought, thought that was, uh, having positive, uh, uh, results. But, uh, like I said, you get two turnovers in the first quarter, uh, when you move the ball to their territory, it's, uh, never a good thing. He wanted to say the offense sucks. I have zero confidence in the offense. We need Aaron Rogers back and we'll probably see where we are next year.

I know Rogers after the game last night told, uh, Derwin James that he'll be back in a few weeks, but I still don't believe that. But you look at the jets, their defense is really damn good. Offensively though, their line is horrible.

Zach Wilson stinks and Nathaniel Hackett without Aaron Rogers is nothing. So you go around. What else is Salah supposed to say where I'm sure fans want him to light into and tear into his offense. But then if you have offensive players tune you out and this offense is already this bad, can it actually get worse if people aren't all on the same page? Cause that's tough. Cause Salah is a defensive minded guy, even though he is the head coach.

So you got to cater to both sides, all three sides of the football. But that defense has to hate the offense right now because they know with this offense, this team will do absolutely nothing this year. Going to the jets, best offensive player, Garrett Wilson, here's him talking about the offensive struggles. And, you know, it's getting to the point where it's disappointing. You know, I hate coming off the field, looking at our defense in the eyes and, you know, knowing that we got to send them back out there after three and now, you know, them boys are my dogs and they come out and, and ball, they put us in a great position. It's time for us to start returning the flavor, man.

It's time, you know, we got to figure it out. That's good on Garrett Wilson because Robert Salah is going to get just destroyed for the way that he talked about the offense after the game last night. And it's a tough spot because you're managing the entire team and you're not managing to appease, you know, us in the media or your fan base as well. But for Garrett Wilson to basically say, it's go time.

We got to change things offensively and it's disappointing. I respect that because a lot of times players don't take accountability. He's one of the best players on the jet.

So he takes accountability, even though he knows down deep. It doesn't matter what he says or what he does this year. Cause as long as Zach Wilson is the quarterback of that offensive line remains the same. It doesn't matter who you have at running back. Cause they have a good running back in Breeze Hall. It doesn't matter who you have a wide receiver, like a stud, a young stud in Garrett Wilson.

You can't do anything with the way that this quarterback and this offensive line is looking like these days. I will say though, Zach Wilson was terrible, but there were times when he was moving the ball. First drive, second drive of the game, Garrett Wilson fumble, third drive of the game fumble. Like they were moving the ball. They were getting the ball downfield. He was making good throws and then penalty and turnovers and bad decisions. And there were a couple of plays where I love Garrett Wilson as a former jet fan, but as a fan of football, I appreciate Garrett Wilson. He didn't look great yesterday. There were a few balls that went his way that he should have caught that he dropped. A few shots down the sideline that he ran a bad route or just didn't catch a ball that he should have caught. If he wants to be an elite receiver, I know that it's not always fair to put it on his shoulders.

But let's look at this from a human standpoint. This is a kid that's in his second year in the league. He had a great season last year with a quarterback who's incompetent. And I'm not saying he's going to be perfect, but think about this mentally. He goes from everyone saying he's going to have 16, 17, 1,800 yards with the great Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers is comparing him to 17, the other 17 he played with in Devante Adams and four plays into the season.

It's up. Here's the Zach Wilson fellow again. I can't expect the best version out of Garrett Wilson this year because it's probably not fair to assume someone's mental state, but mentally that has to be very tough on a person when you are basically going to a five-star restaurant and then you get kicked out four seconds into the meal and they go, okay, go back to the two-star restaurant and you know what they're serving at the five-star restaurant.

So that's the tough part. And that's why I just don't think anyone on the jets right now on the offensive side of the ball is capable of having a great season because everyone has to deal with the thought of, wow, what could have been if we had Aaron Rodgers? Here is Chase Young.

He got traded to the 49ers on what stands out with the 49ers after spending his first few years of his career with the Washington commanders. Culture. I see why they win.

Just the details of each play, the details of my assignment, much more greater. So I see why they win. Oh, it's not breaking news.

It's not, you know, earth-shattering news. You went to an organization that had the worst culture maybe ever with Daniel Snyder being the owner. And I know they just got Josh Harrison. There's optimism, but they already declined your fifth-year option before the start of the season. I'm sure Chase Young had one foot in, one foot out with all the injuries that he suffered too.

He probably just wanted a fresh start. And you go from a team that's been viewed as the outhouse to now a team that's been in the penthouse in the NFL circle for the last few years. Here is Jamar Chase on what he's doing to get back healthy for the Cincinnati Bengals. All I can do is pray, pray, pray. You know what I'm saying? Like I keep saying, be a good teammate and be there for those guys and try to get healthy.

That's the only thing I can do right now. You know what I'm saying? Everybody counting on me to be healthy. That's a scary part too about the Bengals. They're just hitting their stride.

Like, they stumbled out of the gate. Joe Burrow was dealing with an injury. We've seen what they did the last two weeks, taking care of the 49ers easy-peasy, taking care of the Buffalo Bills pretty easy-peasy as well.

And they're not even at a full go. And Jamar Chase kind of said this before the start of the season. Joe Burrow just has to be healthy by the postseason. Same goes for Jamar Chase as well. So I would be careful here because I do believe the Bengals are going to the playoffs.

I do believe the Bengals are going to the Super Bowl this year. You just got to make sure that your top guys are healthy. And that's something that sometimes you just can't control. Here is Sam Howell on his future as commander's quarterback. Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, I want to be the quarterback here for a really long time, but, you know, at the end of the day, you know, how I'm going to get to that point is, you know, taking it one day at a time and doing everything that I can on a day-to-day basis.

And, you know, that's what I'll continue to try to do. So Sam Howell has been fine this year. He's been good. He's solid.

I'm intrigued to see what he does the rest of the way. And I think he should be the team starter next year. It'd be one thing if they were picking in the top 10 or the top five and they had a chance to maybe go get a Caleb Williams or a Drake May or a Michael Penix Jr., but there's a lot of holes on that team.

And right now they're four and five. They could move up that draft board. Right now, if the season ended today, they would be the 12th overall pick, but I think they'll win enough games where they're going to use that first round draft pick to go elsewhere. And they'll look to complete the rest of the roster or fill up the rest of the roster. And then next year is really the make or break year for Sam Howell.

This is Adam Schefter on the Pat McAfee Show with Daniel Jones out for the year. Tommy DeVito is up for the Giants. Tarod Taylor is still hurt. Are the Giants looking for a quarterback?

I think this team right now goes right back into the quarterback market. On Saturday night, they had Joe Shane. They had two other front office individuals at the Michael Penix Caleb Williams showdown.

That was even before Daniel Jones got hurt. Like the Giants had three reps at the game. Now their season right now is worst case scenario.

It's time to start looking ahead. The people in the building would never admit this or acknowledge this, but the best thing they can do is lose games right. Yeah, and they're already scouting. Even before the injury, you had Joe Shane at that Washington USC game where Caleb Williams is going up against Michael Penix Jr. The Giants did add a quarterback today. That was Jacob Eason, the former Washington and Georgia quarterback who going into that 2020 draft.

I remember talking to Jacob Eason. Some people were predicting him to go like second or third round. He ended up going in the fourth round by the Indianapolis Colts and he's bounced around a bunch of teams.

So I can't go all crazy about the Giants adding Jacob Eason. And I did see today, is there still a part of the poster around the studio that Carson Wentz, he who shall not be named Voldemort, did sign with the Los Angeles Rams. So Carson Wentz has finally found a new home. We'll see if he gets on the field. Last week, Matthew Stafford was not healthy enough to play. Some encouraging news I read in the last 24-48 hours about Matthew Stafford, that it's not supposed to be long term.

He's expecting to be back sooner rather than later. But then the move today is signing Carson Wentz. So very confusing to say the least on in terms of what's going to happen with the Rams quarterback situation. Let's go to Arthur Smith. Bijan Robinson has not been used accurately so far this season.

Here's Arthur Smith on that usage. He played a lot of snaps yesterday, Josh, and sometimes his impact away from the ball, you know, can open things up. For any rookie, the seasons are long. You're going to have ebbs and flows. He still has a huge impact on the game over 700 yards.

You're still looking for ways and know it's a long journey. So we'll see how the second half season goes. But he's been a huge part of our offense.

Continue to, he'll continue to be. The thing I don't get here is I read a stat today that Bijan Robinson's only had one carry inside the five yard line. Arthur Smith has just been very disappointing this year because he thought that Desmond Ritter needed to be used as more than just a game manager and you have this weapon in Bijan Robinson and you're just not using him correctly. Here is coach prime Deion Sanders. He stopped by the Dan Patrick show today and was asked about if there's any interest in coaching in the NFL. He's denied any interest in the past. No, no, not whatsoever. I don't think I'm built for the NFL. I appreciate the game so much.

When I see a guy getting paid millions and millions and millions of dollars and he has no respect for the game, does not want to excel and exceed expectations of the game, I'm going to have a true problem. What if it's a package deal with you and Chidoor? Don't forget Shiloh. They're going to come out the same year, next year. Okay. I don't know.

I don't know. I haven't thought, man, I'm trying to win a game. I'm not thinking down the street that far. I haven't thought like that.

That's a great thought process though. No, no chance that I'll ever be coaching the NFL. How about if you are a package deal with your sons? Ah, you know, that's a little bit intriguing and that's the only way that I think it would happen, but then you have to guarantee that you're going to be able to draft your door Sanders and Shiloh Sanders.

I don't know how you make that guarantee because what happens is some team swoops in front of you to go get him. I do believe Coach Prime though, for the most part saying that he doesn't have interest in the NFL. Here is LeBron James talking about his son, Bronny, who we all know had an unfortunate heart issue over the summer. USC did play last night.

They won their first game of the season, taking care of Kansas State 82 to 69. Here is LeBron James on the update of Bronny's health. Things are going in the right direction with Bronny's progress. He's doing rehab every week. He gets to do more and more and more. We have a big moment at the end of this month to see how we can continue to go forward. If he's cleared, then we'll be not too long away from him being back on the floor and back with his teammates and practicing.

That's incredible and nothing but the best to Bronny James, who unfortunately suffered cardiac arrest this summer. Finally, let's go to James Harden and his first game with the Clippers. I feel kind of weird out there but you know just not really having a preseason game or an opportunity to participate in a pool training camp.

None of that. It was just out there just basically winging it. Nah, the last few years you've basically been winging it.

You go to the strip club, not always in the best shape. All you do is focus on going to the strip club and the basketball focus isn't always there for one James Harden. So, congratulations on getting back to the basketball court and they did lose to the Knicks last night and James Harden in that game had 17 points. 6 of 9 from the field, 2 of 4 from 3 and I just don't think that team will be any good this year. I know we got to get to John Rothstein.

Just real quickly, I want to add one more here for fun. Here's the Koli Jokic telling reporters not to ask questions. Listen up.

Actually, I can just talk because I know what you're going to ask. You ready guys? Yes, Julian was really good today. Yes, we feel really confident with Colin playing with us. Yes, third quarter was really amazing for us. We didn't have a focus in the first half. That's where we won the game, of course.

Yeah, when you're a two-time MVP, you're a world champion, a finals MVP and the best player in the sport right now and you're 7-1, you conduct your own press conference and I'm sure he hit it right on the head in terms of all the questions reporters would ask. All right, we'll take a break here on the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. College basketball season is back and Michigan State go down last night.

A top five team in the country to James Madison. We will tip off the college basketball season with one of the best insiders there is covering the sport, John Rothstein, when we return in five minutes. Alrighty, we continue this Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. I love FanDuel. You should love FanDuel. John Rothstein, of course, loves FanDuel and John Rothstein joins us right now to tip off the college basketball season.

He is college basketball's hungriest insider joining us on the Zach Gelb Show, brought to you by FanDuel. John, appreciate the time. Thanks so much. How are you? Great, Zach. Always good to be with you, buddy.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So, you never know what happens when the ball gets thrown up into the air to start off a new season. Just what an effort last night by James Madison, surprising everybody, taking down Michigan State as a top five team.

What was your reaction to it? College basketball is where the unexpected becomes the ordinary. And we saw that obviously again at the highest level. I think that when you really look at things from where teams were projected in the preseason, Michigan State was voted fourth in the Associated Press preseason top 25, a poll that I'm a member of. I voted the Spartans fourth as well. And then we saw a team, James Madison, who was picked to win the Sunbelt. So it wasn't like they were a non-factor as a mid-major in terms of their projections. And James Madison was still good enough to go to East Lansing and win the game. And I think this is the big thing that really makes college basketball so compelling because one of the things that I think we look at is the one thing that you always tend to lean to in this movement, obviously, with immediate eligibility for players and the lack of player retention now at an all-time high in college basketball is you lean towards teams that bring everybody back of significance to have a leg up. Michigan State brings back everybody of significance from last year's team that went to the Sweet 16 except Joey Hauser and the Spartans still were not able to beat a James Madison team that is picked to be one of the best in the Sunbelt.

So this to me is what makes the sport so compelling. It goes back to what we talked about Zach in the spring with Fairleigh Dickinson. Fairleigh Dickinson, remember, was not good enough under Tobin Anderson to earn an automatic qualifier out of the Northeast Conference. Merrimack was, but because of that transition rule, Merrimack was not eligible to play in the NCAA tournament.

Merrimack then steps out of the way. Fairleigh Dickinson plays a very good game against Texas Southern in the first four and then goes and beats Purdue in the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament. And look, I want to make this clear. Analytics are a great thing. They're a tremendous resource.

I'm sure you use them for all sports that you cover because you do a general talk show. But Fairleigh Dickinson was, I believe, finally last season ranked when all the Ken Pom analytics came out at 265. But they were still good enough one time to beat Purdue, who was dominant in the Big Ten, dominant, obviously, with the national player of the year and dominant enough to win both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. And they were still on one day bad enough to fall victim to a team that completely earned a victory but finished the season, according to, you know, the analytics website KenPom.com ranked at 265.

Remember, Zach, it's not anarchy. It's just college basketball. The great John Rothstein here with us while college basketball season is now officially back. You mentioned Purdue. The last time we saw a 16 seed go take down a one seed, it was Virginia and UMBC. We know Virginia did go on to win the national championship the following season. What do you think Purdue has the potential of doing this year?

They got the potential to do that, Zach. And I think the one thing you marvel at with Purdue, how about the way they hit the ground running against Sanford last night? 29 assists on 34 made field goals. Nobody on Purdue took more than nine shots.

They've done a good job adding a little bit more bounce on the perimeter with guys like Miles Coleman and Lance Jones and also Cameron Heide. But the bottom line is this. The story is not written yet for Purdue.

And I talked about this with Matt Painter last week. The story can still be bookended with a Final Four appearance for the first time for the Boilers since 1980. But any time you look at it, it's 1980. But anything less than an appearance in the Final Four will not allow Purdue to truly exercise its demons.

This is a fan base. Remember that in 2018 had a team good enough to go to the Final Four. What happens in the round of 32?

Isaac Haas suffers an elbow injury. We all remember what happened in 2019 when Purdue in the Elite Eight had Virginia beat at the KFC Yum Center, but lost to the Cavs in overtime. 21, you lose to North Texas in the round of 64. 22, you lose to St. Peter's in the Sweet 16. 23, you are the recipient of the biggest upset in the history of the tournament. Purdue fans, their alumni, everybody associated with that program over the last half decade has been taken to the gates of hell. We'll see if they find heaven in 2024.

What a way to put it. John Rothstein here with us. Let's get to Duke. Last year, first year without Coach K as the head honcho. John Shire got better as the season did progress, just got rewarded with the six-year extension, which is a wonderful world that we live in after one year. Duke right now has the second best team in the country in the AP poll. When you look at Duke, how confident are you, regardless of what the contract says, that John Shire is the right guy to replace Coach Mike Krzyzewski? Well, he's shown it so far. I thought John Shire did an excellent job last year in his first year as head coach, and he's assembled in his second season, the best roster in college basketball.

And I don't think that's up for debate, but I also want to point this out. Just because you are recruiting a certain caliber of player does not mean that you're automatically going to have the team that's going to advance the furthest in the NCAA tournament. Let's look back at Duke last year.

All the players that right now are in Durham that are back for another season, Tyrese Proctor, Jeremy Roach, Mark Mitchell, Ryan Young, Kyle Zwiepowski, they were on that team, plus Derek Lively, plus Dereek Whitehead. Who did Duke lose to in the NCAA tournament? Tennessee. Who did Tennessee not have in the NCAA tournament?

Zaki Ziegler, its starting point guard. And just because of the size, the physicality, the hard-nosed mentality of Rick Barnes, and really the collective will, Tennessee didn't just beat Duke in the NCAA tournament. They bullied Duke, 65-52.

It was not a single digit loss for the Blue Devils. When you get to the topic of replacing a legend, we just talked about Coach K getting replaced by John Shire. We've also seen the end of Jay Wright and Roy Williams as well. As you now get into your number three with Hubert Davis, and then your number two for Kyle Neptune, how do you look at both the Tar Heels and Villanova? You know, sometimes in college basketball, more so than any other sport, we sometimes let the performances in the NCAA tournament dictate what we're going to think about certain teams the following year. North Carolina a year ago returned four starters from a team that went to the national title game at a 15-point lead on Kansas at the half, but wound up losing in 2022.

Why wouldn't we vote them number one in the country to start last season? They missed the NCAA tournament. This year, you have a scenario with Florida Atlantic where they nearly lost to Memphis in the NCAA tournament, beat the Tigers, then go through Fairleigh Dickinson, then go through Tennessee without its point guard, go to the Final Four, should have beaten Kansas in San Diego State. I think because of all that returns, you have to rank those teams high in the preseason with the understanding that they were the byproduct of a great run, not necessarily a great season. For Hubert Davis in North Carolina, they have to have a season where they're entering the NCAA tournament as a threat to advance.

I think that's within the reach of this team. RJ Davis and Armando Bacott are bona fide All-Americans. Elliot Cadeau, the talented freshman, the best passing point guard that North Carolina has had since Kendall Marshall. And as far as Kyle Neptune goes, look, Jay Wright is probably as difficult a guy to follow as there is in sports, not just for what he did for Villanova basketball, but what he did for Villanova as a brand, as a university. Now with that said, Kyle Neptune deserves the benefit of the doubt because, yes, he went 17 and 17 last season in his first year as Villanova's head coach, but Cam Whitmore did not start the season healthy. Villanova played 34 times last season. Justin Moore, an All-American candidate and a Big East Player of the Year candidate for the upcoming season, only played in 13 of those games. Justin Moore is healthy for the full season. Forget about Cam Whitmore.

Villanova is comfortably in the NCAA tournament. John Rothstein here with us on behalf of FanDuel. You had the story today that Kansas has amended the lifetime contract for Bill Self, making him the highest paid coach in college basketball. He's 60.

You now have the amended lifetime contract. How much longer do you think he actually wants to coach for? You know, we always wonder with these coaches, how long are they going to do it? But then we look at a scenario where you ask yourself, well, these guys have been coaches for 40 years and these guys are competitors because they were initially great players at the highest level of college sports or high school sports. What are they going to do if they're not coaching?

Some transition to broadcasting, as Jay Wright obviously has done in the CBS family, as well as with Warner Brothers Discovery. But at the same time, you know, these guys are coaches. We saw Mike Krzyzewski coach well into his 70s. I've had a lot of conversations with Tom Izzo about this. I don't know what these guys would do if they weren't coaching.

And one thing I've learned, even though I'm only 40, blank pages are never a good thing. Idle time is truly the devil's worship. Let's get to Rick Pitino. A lot of excitement around the St. John's program with him becoming the head coach. However long this lasts, when it's all said and done for Pitino at St. John's, how do you think we're talking about what he accomplished with the Johnnies? With tremendous success, with his presence elevating St. John's back to being a national brand? You know, people have to remember St. John's has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2000.

That is the longest active drought among teams that are currently in the Big East. Rick Pitino has won at Providence, took the Friars to the Final Four, won national championships at Kentucky and Louisville respectively. But the big thing that people need to remember when it comes to Rick Pitino is this.

He has not always needed the best talent to win at the highest level. And I tell people about this all the time because to me this was the most underrated coaching job that he did in his career. And a lot of people forget about it because Louisville that year lost to Morehead State in the NCAA tournaments round of 64. Louisville that year, 2010-2011 season, remember that was the year where the Big East got 11 of the 16 teams in the conference into the NCAA tournament. The same year that UConn won the national championship with Kemba Walker, who was Jim Calvin's third. Louisville that year started Peyton Seba as a sophomore, started Preston Knowles who was a very good college player, Chris Smith who transferred from Manhattan, Kyle Couric as an undersized power forward, and Terrence Jennings at the five. Louisville that year wins 25 games, gets a high seed in the NCAA tournament, was a four seed in the NCAA tournament, went to the Big East tournament title game, lost to UConn. But Rick Pitino in that Big East, where 11 of the 16 teams made the NCAA tournament, was still able to squeeze 25 wins out of that group. And Zach, that set the table for what happened the next two years, because in 2012 Louisville went to a Final Four, lost to Anthony Davis in Kentucky, and then in 2013 they won the whole thing with Seba and Russ Smith. But those players, Russ Smith, players like that, turned out to be fantastic players.

But a big reason why was the player development that was instilled in them by Rick Pitino. John Rothstein, by the way, what are your expectations for Kentucky this year? I expect Kentucky to be built more in the fabric of a vintage John Calipari team. John Calipari has, you know, really gotten away, I think, from the transfer portal.

I think he went to the transfer portal the past two years and it didn't have the same feel in terms of the way that the roster was put together. And we've got some good players at Kentucky through the transfer portal, but this to me has the feel of a vintage Calipari recruiting class. Robert Dillingham, DJ Wagner, Justin Edwards, a young man who, when I was doing the Iverson Classic last spring for CBS, I felt was the top prospect in this class, along with Isaiah Collier. I think Kentucky is going to be better late than it is early, but during tournament time, I think this is a team that definitely has the potential to reach the second weekend and do some damage.

And, you know, Zach, one of the interesting things, you know, I've been covering the sport now close to 20 years at the national level. The SEC has transitioned as a conference, and this is what I mean by that. For so long, it was Kentucky when Calipari was at Kentucky and Billy Donovan was in Florida. It was Kentucky and Florida and everybody else. Now, all of a sudden, it's a league with great volume.

Absolutely. Tennessee has become a team that's a known commodity under Rick Barnes. Tennessee's averaged 24 wins a year. Yeah, the last six years. Arkansas, Alabama's had good teams under NATO.

It's all Vernon Bruce Pearl, a very consistent product. Buzz Williams is a Texas A&M. I don't know if the SEC is the best conference in college basketball, but I do know this. The SEC has a chance to push for the most representation in the 2024 NCAA tournament among power conference teams. Wouldn't shock me if eight or nine are right there on Selection Sunday. Well, give me a team or two, John Rothstein, that you're hot on that some people aren't really talking about entering this season. Five Dark Horse candidates right now for the 2024 Final Four.

When I say Dark Horse, I want to make sure that they're off the radar. St. Mary's out of the West Coast Conference. Gales haven't been back to the NCAA tournament second weekend since 2010. Great young guard in Aiden Mahaney. They also have another player who I think is going to make a big jump in Augustus Marshallonis, the son of Sarunas Marshallonis. But remember, St. Mary's played UConn in the round of 32.

A big portion of that nucleus is back. I mentioned Texas A&M. Texas A&M, again, made the NCAA tournament last year.

Wade Taylor, the fourth All-American candidate. Returning starters include Tyrese Radford and Henry Coleman. Julius Marble right now currently suspended, not a part of the team.

That's something to monitor. But A&M right now actively with three starters back and obviously a coach in Buzz Williams that has taken multiple programs, Marquette and Virginia Tech, to the Sweet 16. Why not Memphis? Penny Hardaway has gotten away from taking, obviously, the talented freshman like Precious Ochoa, like James Wiseman, players in that mold, and now has put together a roster loaded with transfers.

Zach, last night when Memphis opened the 23-24 college basketball season, as of last night, the average age in Memphis's starting five was 23 years old. That's three Final Four Dark Horses, two more. One played last night in Las Vegas, it's USC, simply because of the perimeter pop that this team has with Isaiah Collier, with Boogie Ellis, and a player in Kobe Johnson, who I firmly believe will be, to the Trojans this season, what Jalen Clark was for UCLA a year ago. He will be the best perimeter defender in the Pac-12. And I wrap it up with Illinois. Illinois is a team who I felt never had good chemistry last year. Brad Underwood went to the transfer portal, wanted to get older, did so by adding Southern Illinois grad transfer Marcus Domask and also Justin Harmon from Utah Valley. Illinois is playing now with great positional size and great depth, and with multiple players in the starting lineup, Terrence Shannon Jr., Ty Rogers, Marcus Domask, who we talked about, and Luke Goody, who was hurt at the start of last season but finally got healthy towards the end, who stand 6'6 or taller.

I think right now, Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin are right behind Purdue and Michigan State at the top of the Big Ten. Last thing for John Rothstein, I know LeBron James gave an encouraging update last night on Bronny James. I still don't know when he's going to come back, but when he does get on a basketball court, what are you hearing about the type of player that he could be in the college game this year?

I saw Bronny James in practice. Obviously, he could be a really nice piece to USC's depth. You know, USC though needs to obviously, you know, make sure that he's obviously in the best mental state. That's the most important thing for him beyond basketball, but I think you're looking at USC right now as a team that pound for pound, inch for inch, has the most complete perimeter in the sport.

I wrote about this today. Isaiah Collier looked the part last night of a first team All-American of a lottery pick. Boogie Ellis, again to me, was the guy I thought was the Pac-12 preseason player of the year, and I'll say it again, Colby Johnson will be to USC this year what Jalen Clark was to UCLA last year. He's the great John Rothstein on behalf of FanDuel.

Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. John, happy college basketball season. Thanks so much for doing this. Thanks, Zach.

We'll sleep in May. There you go, the great John Rothstein with us on CBS Sports Radio. Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update in with the act man, Rich Ackerman. This portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial, stuck in a timeshare and won out.

Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at wesleyfinancialgroup.com. So, two things. We'll get back to the college football playoff rankings that have come out tonight.

A new rankings will be unveiled at 7 p.m. Eastern. I'll give you some thoughts looking into that, but first, I did see LeBron James on his return to Miami. I did have some quotes last night. He said, I think I would still be at this level no matter if I would have came here or not, said Lakers star LeBron James now in his 21st season. Let's not get it twisted. The four years I was here, it was amazing. I loved everything about it. Loved this franchise. The franchise is top tier. It's one of the best franchises in the world, but as far as my career, my career was going to be my career as far as individual because I know how much I put into the game and I know how much I strive to be as great as I could be.

But as far as what I was able to learn here was second to none, that's for sure. So one thing on this, I understand where LeBron is coming from in terms of regardless of where I would have gone, what I control individually, I know I would have been great, but I do think it's fair to wonder, would we look at LeBron as either the greatest or second greatest player of all time, depending where you fall in that debate. And we're not doing that debate today because I absolutely hate it because it just turns into ridiculous screaming, oh, LeBron's great. Michael Jordan sucks or Michael Jordan's the best and LeBron James sucks.

And there's no having an actual dialogue and conversation about it. It's ridiculous how you put one person down to build another person up and make it seem as if one of those guys are a bum and the other is just like this untouchable when we all know both of them are untouchables and neither are bums, but that's what the conversation and the discourse turns into. But I do think it's safe to ask if LeBron never did go to Miami, would he have four championships because LeBron in Cleveland, the first time the teams were awful. Like when they got to that NBA finals up against the Spurs, his first NBA finals appearance, you had like Daniel Booby Gibson as one of the second or third best players on that team. So he left Cleveland knowing he had to go somewhere else to win a championship. He wins two championships in Miami and then loses two other times in the NBA finals, had his worst individual moment ever as a pro with that series up against the Dallas Mavericks and then loses the second time around up against the San Antonio Spurs with him just being in Miami. So he gets two championships in Miami. Then he goes back to Cleveland, wins his most important championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but all the years in Cleveland, it only produced one championship. And I don't mean only in a bad way because that championship meant the world to Cleveland, it meant the world to LeBron James. Then he goes to Stu's Lakers and he's only won one championship. To be fair, many people thought he was never going to win one championship when going to LA, so he did win a championship. But unless you are Magic Johnson, I don't think anyone's picking the Lakers to go to the NBA finals this year because you can't trust the duo of LeBron and AD, especially since ever going to LA, you've had LeBron's body, I don't want to say break down, but he started to suffer injuries and missed games, which he used to never do.

And Anthony Davis, like every other fourth day, finds a way to get hurt. So you look at that and you say, individually, you would have gone on to accomplish what you did regardless of where you are, but we know how this is viewed. It's different what you think compared to how we view it because we all know championships are the utmost importance in these dopey goat debates. And if you didn't go to Miami, I can't sit here and say you would have won two championships in Cleveland. I can't sit here and say that you would have won two championships in LA. Maybe you would have just won one in Cleveland, or you would have just won one in Los Angeles. So I think he needed to go to Miami to win his first two championships and win his first NBA championship, but also to win multiple championships.

And who knows, right? They assembled a team that was LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. That was the vision. If he would have stayed in Cleveland, are you getting the big stars to Cleveland? Maybe you got one other star. Now you had Kyrie, but maybe you got one other star, but I don't think you're getting multiple stars to form a big three in Cleveland. And could he have gone elsewhere? Or then what was the destination outside of Miami that you would have gone to?

There's been reports that him and Mella were going to team up, other things like that. So yes, I do think you needed to go to Miami, not to be great. We all know that you're a great player, but to win more championships, you needed to go to Miami because other than that, you may have just won the one championship in Cleveland and the one championship in LA. And if you only had two championships, it would have been viewed as a disappointment with the greatness that you possess on the basketball court, arguably being the greatest basketball player of all time. Sam, to your thoughts on these comments by LeBron. Well, I think it's interesting because he's almost talking about it like he had to go to Miami and he didn't, you know, things were, but he basically equated it going to college Miami, like grow up before the past, but, but there were other options for him. Like you forget the bulls were a big option.

The Knicks were a big option with the bulls at Derrick Rose, pre-injury, I believe Joe Kim, Noah, the Knicks, Amari Stoudemire. Is he winning a championship, any of those spots? And like Miami's great.

Don't get me wrong, right? It's it's a, it's a fantastic city. It's a big market. New York is the garden. He even talks about the garden as a visiting player. How many times the players just like to go to visit there, right? When was the last time a big star signed with New York? It was Carmelo Anthony via trade, but the Knicks have had problems getting big time superstars there. Now, LeBron's there. I think someone else joins him, but I can't say it leads necessarily to a championship.