QB’s with Most Pressure this weekend (Hour 1)

Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app and of course streaming on YouTube. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got a loaded show for you today. John Rothstein from CBS Sports, college basketball insider, going to stop by 40 minutes from now. We will debut a new segment called Winkler Wednesdays which will be each and every Wednesday right here on CBS Sports Radio on the Zach Gelb show with Bart Winkler who hosts our 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern Time show on many of these same CBS Sports Radio affiliates. And then Drew Tranquil, the linebacker for the Kansas City, how about those Chiefs, going to stop by at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific. Got Stuart Kovacs and Moist Mike rock and roll with me as we'll take you up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific.

And I was actually startled today by Moist Mike. So, Stu, let me just ask you this and I'll lay it out there for the listening audience. We are doing a show dinner after the show tonight. We are going to a very good steakhouse in New York City called Wolfgang's which has a phenomenal porterhouse that you can share for the table. You get a bunch of thick cut bacon as well. I'm sure we'll get some like lobster mac and cheese, some cream spinach, things like that.

There's a lot of good sides that you typically get at a steakhouse. I don't know about you, Stu, but when I'm gearing up to eat like a fat pig at a steakhouse, which we'll do tonight after the show, I don't like to eat a lot during the day. Like all I had today was a peanut butter protein bar and a large cup of coffee from Starbucks. So I understand that's not a lot of food. Like I'm not saying people should do that when they're getting ready to go to a steakhouse. Maybe if you want to have a salad or something light like a peanut butter sandwich, something along those lines, but something rather light. I walked into the studio and what I saw from Sampter, it would usually be a great order, but today it was repulsive. I'll get to that in a second.

But I just want to make sure that we're in lockstep here, Stu. What did you have to eat today? Are you a breakfast guy? I feel like you're not a breakfast guy. I'm not a breakfast guy. So what did you have for lunch? So I kind of went the same route as you today.

I had my medium coffee from Dunkin Donuts and then I had my energy bar around one 130. Wow. So Stu and I are really the same person. And I think both of that probably has to pertain to Stu and I used to be a little extra heftier, a little extra husky. And I think when you lose a good amount of weight like Stu and I have, that mentally when you're going to eat a big gluttonous meal, like internally, you then feel like crap afterwards, even though it's a delicious meal.

So you don't want to feel extra crappy by having two enormous meals. So I go to Sampter and I walk into the newsroom today and usually the newsroom smells like crap. We got a bunch of people. Cleanliness and hygiene is not an expertise around here. I don't know how many people in our newsroom wear deodorant. Like each and every day before I come in here, I spray some cologne on myself. I spray some deodorant under the armpits.

Like I am a clean human being. But usually the newsroom smells like crap. It smells like a locker room. Today, the newsroom smelled just absolutely delicious.

It was delightful. And I saw Sampter was chowing down on a chicken cutlet sandwich and I don't know what else was on it. But there's a certain smell when you put a chicken cutlet on a sandwich and you get it from a deli and it just made an unbelievable smell resonate throughout the office.

So I appreciate Sampter making what is usually our CBS Sports Radio locker room not smell like an actual locker room and make it smell good. But I am in awe and I'm actually somewhat impressed that Michael Sampter is able to eat a full chicken cutlet sandwich and then it's not like we're eating at 8 p.m. Eastern, 8.30 p.m. We're going to dinner at 6.30. So that steak is going to be in your mouth no later than 7 p.m. Eastern.

That is a quick turnaround. So I give you credit but I also thought it was gluttonous and somewhat repulsive as well. Well, let me just clarify. I didn't have the full sandwich. I had one half of it. A big sandwich though. Yeah, it was on a hoagie on like a hero bun.

I had a half. Lettuce tomato? Lettuce tomato, Russian dressing, little chicken cutlet. I was going to guess Chipotle mayo.

That's what I was smelling for some reason. All Russian, all day. So I only had half and then maybe like one bite of the second piece. However, with that being said, there is an important scientific realization of stretching the stomach. When you're going out for a big meal, I used to make this mistake before Thanksgiving.

But it says Joe Rogan's podcast now. Before Thanksgiving, I used to always make this mistake. I'm not going to eat for like whatever until I actually have to eat for Thanksgiving. And then I would like have a few bites and like, man, I'm already full. Because your stomach, the more you don't eat, your stomach shrinks. And so therefore, when you try to put a lot of food into your stomach... Buddy, my stomach ain't shrinking. It's scientific.

It's biology. Your stomach will shrink. Now, it might still be larger than the average human stomach, but it's smaller than it normally would be. So what you have to do is just kind of warm it up. Warm it up.

I think that was like the nicest insult he ever did. I didn't say fat. I just, you know, you're a larger than average sized man.

I'm a big dude. Now, I go to the gym an hour a day and I was on the elliptical for an hour. Now, when you work out, when you go for a run, when you do the elliptical, do you stretch the muscles a little bit? Absolutely. Not every day. Right.

But I will make sure two or three times a week. So in my gym in my apartment, there is also like two different rooms adjacent to the gym. One room is like a children's playroom. So if you're working out, you could dump your kid off in there and they could have fun and play with a bunch of toys.

So they have that. And then the other, it's kind of like a yoga ballet room. So I will go into the yoga and ballet room because they have a bunch of mats and it's it's like isolated and no one's really ever in there. And I will then stretch after. I should probably do it before my workout, but I stretch after my my workout about two or three days a week.

I mean, I understand stretching after your workout, but to avoid injury, it is usually best to stretch before your workout to kind of loosen up your muscles. And that was all I'm doing. I was just stretching out my stomach, loosening up my muscle, getting ready for the big meal.

And here's the other part. Our reservations for six thirty. We're not eating at six thirty. We get there at six thirty.

We're going to have a drink. We're going to order our food. We probably order the food around six forty five.

Right. By the time the waiter comes around, we put the order in. It's six forty five. The food doesn't come out till seven, seven fifteen. So we're not eating until seven, seven thirty at the very earliest. So, you know, I've got myself five, five and a half hours stretched out my stomach with a half a sandwich.

I'm good. Did you have breakfast this morning? Did you have breakfast? No. I mean, I had a couple of almonds, but not a couple of almonds.

Yeah. I mean, that's usually what I do in the morning. Have a little bit of protein, a few almonds, some nuts just to kind of get the day going.

Maybe like a little an orange or something. But that's usually very small. I'm actually impressed because if if we just put a photo out of the three of us who had the largest meal of the day, I think people would rank it. Me being one, Stu being two and then Samtor being three.

And Samtor actually is the one that has ate more food today than Stu and I combined. Now, here's another question. What do you do with the other, what, three? What did you have a half left of the sandwich around? What do you do with the other half the sandwich? Well, there's this great invention that is very recent.

And if you haven't heard of it yet, then I don't I don't blame you. Yeah, it's called a refrigerator, right? You throw your food into a refrigerator. Yeah, but you're going to the refrigerator is here.

Yes. So then are you going to take it to the steakhouse or are you just going to leave it here? I also work every day of the week, so I'll be back here again tomorrow. You leave food here in the work fridge. That's risky. That's a major no no from me. Now I know why you're like kind of sick all the time.

How on earth? Well, because there's there's probably things growing in that fridge that I can't even that is not a clean fridge. I actually make it a make a point of cleaning it.

Yeah, I would not. I put food in there all the time. That is a communal fridge. I would not trust everyone that uses that fridge here in this office. Also, being here at one point at late night hours for two years working 2 to 6 a.m. Eastern Time, I would not be shocked if the late night creatures that work here end up going into the fridge and eating your sandwich. I will say this.

I've had chargers and various other headphones taken out of my desk before never had something, but I've never had anyone eat my food yet before. Yeah. Well, that's because James Graceffa no longer works here. Or Ben Horowitz.

Oh man, I miss that guy. Because, Samter, so Samter has a desk here, but it's not like labeled like Samter's desk or Moist Mike's desk. So it's rather in the open. Now, Samter does have like, I don't know, like a little file cabinet that if you put stuff in there, no one will go into that cabinet and take the snacks. Because I have noticed Samter has a lot of snacks. In theory, to Stu's point, he's saying is not on mic, but he's right.

In theory, people don't go through it, but people do. Yeah. Well, I will tell you this. I have gone through your desk before to get some Trader Joe's snacks that you have brought in because they're very, very tasty. I bring in the best snacks. But there are some times where you will not intentionally, I don't think, but you will leave the snacks out on your desk or like on top of the ledge right by your desk. And once that happens, you are basically like putting the Twinkie out there.

And we're all trying to catch like a wild animal or something. And that Twinkie will get devoured. I do want you to understand that when there is a snack on the desk or especially on the ledge.

You're done with it? No, those are snacks that I can't stand and I want to just get rid of. So I put them on the ledge for everyone else to suffer through. Good company guy. Because people then look at it and be like, all right, Samter is either being very generous or he just was very forgetful with the snacks that he has left out. It's win-win.

I don't want it, but I'm going to look like the good guy by giving it to you. Gotcha. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Real quickly, this is one of my mind to start the show. Lamar Jackson and Brock Purdy. I can guarantee you as we sit here on a Wednesday of Conference Championship Week. That when we get into the studio on Monday, the first segment will either be about Lamar Jackson or Brock Purdy. That's the two biggest storylines heading into Conference Championship Weekend, whether the analysis and commentary is fair or not.

That's a different different topic of conversation. But with Lamar Jackson, he wins the game. People will say, Lamar is now going to be winning two MVPs. Lamar has now got his team to a Super Bowl. He will start to get the praise that is long overdue, where the only reason there's been criticism of Lamar Jackson has been because he's been so great in the regular season. But then in the postseason, even though it's not a large sample size, up until the other week, he was one and three in the postseason.

So you're talking about four games. There's been that Giannis kind of relationship with Lamar where the conversation has been, he's so great, but the only flaw is he hasn't won a championship. So there will start to be a lot of national praise for Lamar Jackson if he does win this game up against the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.

However, if he loses, you will get everyone that will say, see, I told you so. And the people that say, see, I told you so, there's no way that you're ever going to connect and change their mind until Lamar actually wins a Super Bowl. You know, some guy tweeted me today, I don't know if he's listening to someone else and he thought it was me or he just confused what I said, but he's like, your Josh Allen take is embarrassing.

My only Josh Allen take this week has been, I think Josh Allen is a top four quarterback in the league and Josh Allen played a good game but had a bad finish up against Kansas City. And then that tweeter brought up Lamar Jackson to me and how I would never say the same about Lamar Jackson. I'm like, buddy, you just don't know what you're talking about because I have tweets, I have takes, even going back to 2021, it was 2022 where I put this out where I made that comparison to Lamar and Giannis and my exact words were, Lamar's the top 10 quarterback in the sport and I absolutely think that he could win a Super Bowl. But there is no doubt about it, win or lose on Monday, we're talking about Lamar Jackson.

And the same as Brock Purdy. The only difference is, even if Brock Purdy wins, it's going to be how he wins to determine how far the praise is going to go, because the 49ers are Super Bowl or bus. They've been Super Bowl or bus the last few years, and Jimmy G could only take them so far once was to a Super Bowl, but he didn't get the job done with a 10 point lead and seven and a half to play. So for Brock Purdy, if he goes and throws three or four touchdown passes and they win the game through the air, maybe we don't have the game manager conversation coming up on Monday. Now, the whole thing's relevant anyway, because all you care about if you're a 49ers fan is when the damn game who cares how you win the damn game. But there will still be a conversation about Brock Purdy, where if he wins, I think it depends how he wins to garner how much praise he's going to get. But if he loses, you know what's going to happen, especially with how quick Kyle Shanahan is to pull the rug out from underneath his quarterback. There will be speculation, fair or not. And I don't think it's fair with what Brock Purdy has done this year where people will say, can the 49ers do better at quarterbacking? Can they go get someone else this offseason? And when we get into that conversation, I thought it was very interesting that it was Brock Purdy in an ESPN article last week that he was the one to bring up that the team pursued Tom Brady this past offseason.

Why did Tom Brady pass up on the 49ers? Well, we'll discuss that when we return. It's the Zach Gelb show off and running on a very busy Wednesday edition. John Rothstein going to join us 25 minutes from now.

We'll have Bart Winkler and Winkler Wednesdays at 4.40 p.m. Eastern and then at 5.20 p.m. Eastern. He's playing in the AFC title game this weekend. Drew Tranquil from the Kansas City Chiefs. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I love Jim Harbaugh. I'm getting tired, though, of the Jim Harbaugh watch. I feel as if there's a new report at least once a week that Michigan has offered some deal to Jim Harbaugh, and there's a stipulation or a point of contention in the deal.

Then it appeared yesterday that the Chargers were going to get it done with Jim Harbaugh, and I don't know what came out of that. And now you hear that there was one report that he was going to Atlanta for a second interview, and now that interview is not going to happen today. You never know with these coaching searches where the information is coming from. Like you know who the reporters are, but you don't know who their sources are. And when it comes to coaching searches, is this information getting leaked by the Harbaugh camp? Is it getting leaked by the teams?

You don't know what the benefit is to leak this information and where the source is, so I'm just tired of the speculation. I'm tired of where is he going to go? Like, let's just make a decision. Los Angeles, you should offer him the job. Michigan, you should give him whatever he wants. Atlanta, you want to get into the mix too and do a second interview.

Make an offer. This guy is just a spectacular and masterful coach in college and the NFL. There's no reason why Michigan shouldn't want Jim Harbaugh anymore and do it on his terms, and there's no reason why most of these NFL teams that still have vacancies shouldn't want Jim Harbaugh as well.

This seems like it should be a lot less complex than what it is and it should be simpler, and I'm just tired. I have Jim Harbaugh fatigued now when it comes on the speculation on where he's going to be coaching next year. I still sit in the firm belief that he is going to be an NFL head coach, but if he does not become an NFL head coach again this offseason, I don't think it's going to happen again because then that would be three hiring cycles when his stock has only gotten better and better and better where he hasn't gotten a job.

Ultimately, I do believe he'll take the NFL job this year and he'll get an NFL job this year and it'll be different than the prior two offseasons, but I am tapping out and I am just tired of the endless speculation and the endless reporting regarding Jim Harbaugh. So I think pro football talk with our pals Mike Florio and company, they did a really good job, and I got to ask this question to Samter, and Samter has been in this business for a long time. So we never know necessarily why certain stories decide to pop off when they do.

Like there has been times where I have put stuff out there and then like a month later it will get picked up from somewhere and the views will like double or triple or whatever. So last week ESPN, they released this article about Brock Purdy and I guess pro football talk did some digging in the article and this was not in the headline. This was not early in the article. I guess it was just kind of buried middle somewhere in the article according to pro football talk and it was this tidbit where it said earlier in the offseason Niners coach Kyle Shanahan sat down with Purdy and assured him that he was healthy. He would be the starter unless Tom Brady wanted to play one more season for his hometown Niners. That meant so much to me Purdy said, I remembered him saying, if we can't, if we can get Tom Brady we're going to try to get him and I was like, yeah, he's the goat, I get it.

But something deep down inside of me was sort of like dude, I just showed you that I could play well in the system. And we were one game away from the Super Bowl, more than anything I was like, okay, now let's go. That is wild to me, Santa, how you know that anytime you have something with Tom Brady's name in it, especially with this playing future or teams that were interested or a team that was interested and it's been speculated forever. Brady and the 49ers whether the reporter had that information and went to Brock Purdy or Brock Purdy just revealed it in the interview with the reporter. It is kind of crazy that that wasn't the main headline. And that wasn't the main thing that came out of this article because this article was released last week. And like January 16, I think it was. And it wasn't until the other day where people started to pick up on this, where you just had a what they tried to make it be an irrelevant storyline, which is thrown in the middle. But that's a very relevant storyline.

And I don't even know anything else. I did not read the article, full disclosure. I don't know anything else that was said in this article, because the only time I've heard this article be referenced was more than a week later when people started to pick up about the middle of that article where Tom Brady, I guess, had interest from the 49ers. And I don't know how far it did go, but clearly Brady got approached. And he said no, because at least in the Brock Purdy thing, unless this is just a boss trying to motivate a player a little bit more, he said, hey, you're going to be our quarterback unless Tom Brady doesn't want to be there. But it is weird that that wasn't the main takeaway. And that wasn't the main feature, at least when it was thrown out there by ESPN.

It's kind of crazy. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, the whole Tom Brady situation, we've seen all the ins and the outs and the ups and the downs. And he's going to have one of the more complicated, like not complicated, but just one of the more unique legacies just for what he's done and how he's done and for how long he did it and where he did it with who he did it with when he left, why he didn't come back. Maybe being an owner, Tom Brady might go down as one of the most influential figures in football history.

Oh, absolutely. I think he's the greatest quarterback of all time. I think most people with a brain right now think he is the greatest quarterback of all time. But with all that being said, the most impressive thing with Tom Brady is how long he was able to win.

And here's also the other compelling part to it. Let's say that did go down and let's say Brady said yes and Brady is playing for the Niners right now. There's no doubting the quarterback position.

And that's the crazy part. Brady is now 46 years old. And Tom Brady, if he was actually afforded the opportunity and wanted to play, which clearly he didn't, or maybe he wasn't lying when he was a guy who's about to come out of retirement and my friends threw me a surprise retirement party. And I kind of just realized, hey, you can't retire, come back, retire and then come back again after the second time. The friends thought that this was legit and that this was actually real because the first time Brady retired, no one thought that that was the end of Tom Brady.

But the second time, a lot of people did. But once your friends saw you a surprise retirement party, Brady could do whatever he wants. But I do kind of feel as if that would have been awkward that if he did elect to come back. But Brady absolutely could have won a Super Bowl this year at the age of 46 with the 49ers. And not that Brady needs to add anything else to his legacy, but if you just want to continue to distance and distance yourself from not only being the best quarterback, but then the best player in NFL history, because that's like up for debate to see the best player in NFL history. But just in terms of being the best quarterback he is, you go and you landed in San Francisco for four for one year and you win a Super Bowl. You would then have won six in New England. You then would have won one in Tampa. And you also would have won one potentially in San Francisco.

It would be like, how much more perfect do you need this resume to be? Well, and the two things I'll say to that. One, when he went to Tampa, the expectations of him winning a Super Bowl weren't really there. Oh, they were low.

They were very low. Even in that season, if you recall, I know it ended with Brady winning the Super Bowl. There were many weeks where people were saying, see, Brady needed Bill a lot more than what we thought. There was a lot of that conversation. Hundred percent. And of course, Bill was getting into the playoffs with Mac Jones that year.

But early on, like even when he... The following year, I think. Was it the following year? Yeah, because it was 2020.

Yeah, that's right. But Bill had like seven wins that year with Cam and really nothing around Cam. So Brady went there. The expectation for winning in Tampa wasn't really there. So when he won, he was like, gosh, he's just amazing.

Yeah. Had he gone to San Francisco, it was Super Bowl or bust. And if he didn't win this year as the 49ers quarterback, then all bets are off. Then it's like, well, Tom Brady isn't... Maybe Tom Brady isn't the guy. Maybe Tom Brady is on the downward flight.

I don't think there's anything negative Tom Brady could have... Any reaction about Tom Brady if he kept on playing. Not to his goat-ness, but we look at his last year in Tampa, right? We all know that the Bucks underachieved. They didn't do very well. They struggled in the regular season, kind of squeaked into the playoffs because the division sucked. And they didn't go nearly as far as they were hoping to get as he had gotten in previous years.

Yeah, they lost the walk-around. Right. His previous two years in Tampa, 4,600 yards, 40 touchdowns. That was in 16 games. 5,300 yards, 43 touchdowns.

And in his last year, he had 25 touchdowns in 17 games, 4,600 yards. At what point do we say, okay, listen, maybe the Bucks were the problem. Maybe it was something to do with Chris Godwin being hurt. Or maybe Mike Evans was on a downward slope.

Maybe Gronk was on a downward slope. Maybe Tom Brady realized, like, maybe I just don't have it the way I used to. And so him walking away was also him saying, if I go to the 49ers with the expectations as they are, me knowing that I'm not the guy that I used to be. That I had a bad year.

That the Bucks were bad, not just because of everything around me, because maybe I'm not as good as I used to be. Maybe he realized that it's a no-win situation for him in San Fran and he wasn't going to be able to do what the expectations were going to be expecting him to do. So we talk about Brock Purdy, a lot of people saying being a game manager. All Tom Brady would need to be would be a game manager.

That's all he would need to be. Even Tom Brady at, let's say, even if you wanted to say he was finally reaching his decline, would still be a better game manager than what, like, 98% of the league or something like that? And let's be real about the last year in Tampa, because I said this after the last year in New England.

The only time Tom Brady gets beat is when he doesn't have protection. And that offensive line was decimated last year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then he would be going to San Francisco, playing with one of the greatest left tackles of all time in a great offensive line in San Francisco.

And you get Christian McCaffrey, who you can hand the ball off to, and then the weapons of Deebo and Kittle and Ayuk. The 49ers would be better, and they could win the Super Bowl this year. And this is no knock on Brock Purdy, this is just an obvious take. The 49ers who were out of this world for times this year would even be more out of this world with Tom Brady at quarterback this year. And you saw it in 2019 to 2020. Brady won a Super Bowl again right when he got a better offensive line. The offensive line was dog bleep at the end of New England. And at the end in Tampa, the offensive line was dog bleep. So you'd be going to San Francisco where there's not many warts on that roster or flaws in that roster.

Brady absolutely would have kicked ass, and they would have been the overwhelming favorite heading into the season to not only win the NFC, but also to win the Super Bowl. Alrighty, this is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio, ticket timeout. We're going to connect with Jon Rothstein on the other side, talk some college hoops. But first up, with the latest CBS Sports Radio update, here's the act man, Rich Ackerman. Alrighty, this is the Zach Gelb Show, coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Now joining us, one of the best college basketball insiders around.

They are friends at CBS Sports, and also on behalf of FanDuel, America's number one sports book, is of course Jon Rothstein. Jon, I know it's been a while, but appreciate the time as always. How you been, my friend? Great, Zach. Always good to be with you, buddy.

Thanks so much for coming on. Let me start you off with UNC. So two years ago, we know they got to the national championship game and they lost. Last year, they took a little bit of a step back. This was a big year for Hubert Davis at UNC with the Tar Heels. Why has he been able to get it right so far as we get closer and closer to March?

You know, there's a number of reasons, Zach. I think one of the biggest is rhythm and chemistry. And this is not a slight on Caleb Love, who's having a great year at Arizona, who's on one of the best teams in the country. But we are seeing right now a higher usage and a bigger focal point being made for RJ Davis, who has separated himself unequivocally as the best point guard in college basketball. One of the ironic things, if you want to look historically for North Carolina, North Carolina has not had a guard who was a first team All-American since Joseph Forte in the 2000-2001 season. Other players in North Carolina's program have been second and third team All-Americans. Ray Felton, Rashad McCants, Ty Lawson, and Kendall Marshall. But nobody since Joe Forte has been a first team All-American. That is going to change this season with RJ Davis.

I know Kentucky lost last night to South Carolina. What do you think the ceiling is for John Calipari's squad this year? Extremely high. As high as any team in college basketball.

But the irony to me is this. When we have seen John Calipari have his best teams at Kentucky, and even his best teams at Memphis, they have been elite defensively. Think about 2012 when he won a national title with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis.

Think about 2015 when we had the 38-1 team that was anchored by Willie Cauley-Stein. This Kentucky team is at its best when it outscores you. This Kentucky team has firepower for days, but this Kentucky team also struggles defensively, so it's kind of like that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza was always doing the opposite.

This is the opposite of what has always made John Calipari successful. A great offensive team that struggles defensively. Talking to John Rothstein right now, who do you think is the best team in the country with what you've seen so far? Connecticut's the best team in the country as of right now.

I do think there's a couple of teams that have separated themselves at the top. Connecticut, Purdue, North Carolina. But Connecticut, you have to remember, handedly beat North Carolina in December and just looks crisper, sharper, more effective than any other team in the sport. And I think when you look at things right now, we have to remember that the three best players on last year's team that won a national championship at UConn, Adama Sanogo, Jordan Hawkins, and Andre Jackson, are no longer a member of the Huskies program, and UConn also lost a very key reserve in Joey Calcutta. So I think if you're asking me right now, January, who's the national coach of the year?

It's Dan Hurley, seven days a week and twice on Sunday. And it's crazy with what he's done, because you win a championship, naturally you're going to probably regress the next year to be this hot out of the gate and to be the number one team in the country right now. I know he didn't need another endorsement to understand how he's this good of a coach, but it's really impressive what they've done this year. What Dan Hurley is doing at UConn is Calhoun-esque.

That is the best way to describe it. Now, for as great as Jim Calhoun was, three national championships, four Final Fours, a whopping 17 Big East regular season and tournament titles combined, one thing that UConn has not done in its storied history is reach the Final Four in back-to-back seasons. Dan Hurley can accomplish that this year.

And I want to point this out. Every single game in college basketball matters. And you know I tweet that when I reference certain teams who go up or down daily in the net. But every single game matters, especially if you're one of the teams who is vying to be a high seed in the NCAA tournament. For UConn it matters more, and this is why. If you look at the makeup of the regional sites in this year's NCAA tournament, the East region this year is set to play first and second round games at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn and then Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games at TD Garden in Boston.

What does that mean? Once UConn, if it's the number one seed in the East, finishes the regular season, it would go to the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden. It would then, again if it's the top seed in the East, go to the Barclay Center in Brooklyn.

And then if it were to win there, it would go to TD Garden in Boston. That is an easy trip for Dan Hurley to play, a max seven postseason games before the Final Four, up and down 95. And yes, UConn, if it's the number one seed in the East, could get back to the Final Four for the first time in program history without getting on a plane. Talking to Jon Rothstein right now, so we all remember what happened when Virginia was a one and lost to a 16 seed.

The next year, they won it all. What do you think the chapter is going to be with Purdue, with what has happened a year ago and a lot of their early round exits from the tourney? Purdue's season will not truly start until the first game of the NCAA tournament, and the only way for Purdue to truly exercise its demons from last year, when it lost to Fairleigh Dickinson and the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament, is to get to the Final Four in Arizona.

Anything less will be a disappointment to Matt Painter, to Gene Cady, to the Boilers players, to the Boilers alumni, and they have the team to get to a Final Four. And it's not just Zach Eady, it is not just Braden Smith. The guy for Purdue that has reached another level the last couple of weeks is Southern Illinois grad transfer Lance Jones. He's averaging over 19 points a game in his last couple of games.

He was brought in to help add quickness and versatility defensively on the perimeter. Lance Jones is giving Purdue offense. If Lance Jones continues to play like he is right now, Purdue will be in the Final Four for the first time since 1980. Jon Rothstein here with us. It's always tough to win your bracket pool, especially when a lot of people just end up watching in March and filling out their brackets in March. So right now as January is coming to a close, who are some teams that you have on your radar that we may be talking about a lot more when we get deep into March?

It's a great question. I love Richard Patino's team at New Mexico. That's a team in a program that hasn't been in the NCAA tournament since 2014. But if you study this program, if you watch this basketball team, they have a perimeter troika in Donovan Dent, Jalen House, and Jamal Mashburn Jr. That's one of the top perimeters in college basketball.

Not just the Mountain West in college basketball. Richard Patino also has a freshman in JT Toppin who's one of the best front court players in the country that not a lot of people know about. And I firmly believe if that troika that I referenced, Dent, Mashburn Jr., and Jalen House played for Villanova, played for Miami, program synonymous with elite perimeter players, we would be talking about New Mexico as having obviously a team that is in a situation where it could go far in the NCAA tournament. And if New Mexico's guards, which I referenced, played for Villanova or played for Miami, you would be hearing them referenced as the best backcourt in the country, at least in an arguable sense on a regular basis.

Jon Rothstein here with us. We know FAU is still in the top 25. They're down to 22 now. Returned basically almost their entire roster from last year with Dusty May that went to the Final Four.

It's tough when you go on that run to have success again the next season. How much of a player do you think FAU will be in this year's NCAA tournament? I think they'll be a player.

I think they'll be dangerous. It all comes down to matchups in the NCAA tournament. And we have to also remember the margin of error that exists for these teams that get the benefit of the doubt. And I'm not taking anything away from Florida Atlantic and what it accomplished last year. But Florida Atlantic was fortunate to beat Memphis by a slim margin in the round of 32. Florida Atlantic then did not have to play top-seeded Purdue in the round of 32. It had to play Fairleigh Dickinson to get to the Sweet 16. It gets to the Sweet 16. Who does it play? Tennessee. Who didn't Tennessee have available?

Zakai Ziegler, its starting point guard. And then Florida Atlantic obviously beat a very good Kansas State team in the Elite Eight. So this reminds me a little bit of when Eric Musselman had that team at Nevada with Cody and Caleb Martin.

And they went to the transfer portal and they added reinforcements. But it's not the identical thing to Purdue. But it's similar in the sense that we almost don't feel like the season's going to start for Florida Atlantic until it gets into the NCAA tournament to see if it can replicate the success. But the good thing for Florida Atlantic is it has the resume to get there. And that's because of the work that the Owls did during the non-conference portion of the schedule. Beating Arizona. Beating Butler. Beating Texas A&M. And beating Virginia Tech. But Zak, you know as well as I do, this is only January. Yeah, and we've got a long way still to go to get to March.

Jon Rothstein here with us. So in college football we had Nick Saban walk away a few weeks ago. We know the last few years, right?

Jay Wright walked away. You had Coach K retire. Roy Williams retire as well. Is there an older coach now or maybe a coach that has that legendary status right now? Whether it's a Calipari, an Izzo or whoever. Bill Self, you're kind of monitoring to say, hmm, maybe this person hangs it up a little bit closer than what we anticipated.

You know, I think you're always monitoring. But somebody told me a long time ago, never speculate on speculation. To be a college basketball coach in today's climate with the transfer portal, with name, image and likeness, it's a lot more time consuming to be a head coach in college basketball than it was 10, 15 years ago. But a lot of these guys, and you know this, Zak, they don't do other things.

They don't have other things that they would want to necessarily immerse themselves in. I've, you know, talked to Tom Izzo about this. I've talked to Bill Self about this.

You know, Tom Izzo is somebody who I could never see entertaining retirement. Bill Self told me in a conversation I had with him a couple of weeks ago that because of what he went through health-wise, recently, he has never been more appreciative just to go to work every day and go to practice. Because remember, he couldn't coach last year in the NCAA tournament. And I spent some time in Miami in the preseason with Jim Larranaga. And you know, Miami's put together a terrific recruiting class. But I asked him flat out, could you imagine a life without coaching?

And he told me absolutely not. And that's somebody who, again, took his second program to a Final Four last spring. And I think, Zak, in a lot of ways, coaching for these guys and the adrenaline that comes with success and winning is like a drug. I asked Jim Larranaga, what do you think about now that he got in Miami to a Final Four? Because he always used to tell me, after he took George Mason to a Final Four, all he thought about was going back to another Final Four. He said to me, it's real simple, winning a national championship.

That's what I think about. He is Jon Rothstein, great college basketball insider for CBS Sports. He joins us on behalf of FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Jon, always great to catch up with you. Thank you. Thanks, Zak.

We sleep in May. You got it. There he is, Jon Rothstein joining us on CBS Sports Radio. It's time to Ask the Pros, where you, the listener, gets to ask us a question. And it's brought to you by our friends at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zak Gelb using the hashtag Ask the Pros. Be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly 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. Spectacular college basketball conversation right there with Jon Rothstein. We'll take a time out here on CBS Sports Radio. Still to come, in about 45 minutes from now, we will debut Winkler Wednesdays with our pal Bart Winkler, who will join us each and every Wednesday right here on CBS Sports Radio. You can listen to Bart's show Monday through Friday from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern.

Be a good company guy here. Many of the same CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM Channel 158, and the free Odyssey app. So Bart Winkler coming up in about 40, 45 minutes from now, and then Drew Tranquil from the Kansas City Chiefs.

Started his career with the Chargers, now is in year one with Kansas City, and he's going to have a big role this Sunday up against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. He'll stop by in the final hour of the show at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific. But when we come on back, the Hall of Fame results came out yesterday in Cooperstown, and there's still one thing that annoys me about the Hall of Fame voters. We'll talk about that when we return.