Sirianni Under Massive Pressure (Hour 1)

Hey Mel, Bri here. Gotta work from home today because the whole family caught a nasty- Daddy! Hey, Mikey!

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You could 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. We got a whole lot to do today, rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific, and we have an action packed guest list for you. Darren DeVries going to stop by, the men's head basketball coach of the Drake Bulldogs.

They're going back to the NCAA tournament, winning the Missouri Valley once again. He'll stop by 40 minutes from now. Coming up at 4.20 p.m. Eastern, 1.20 p.m. Pacific will be Amon Green, the former Packers running back with all the news about the Green Bay Packers in the last 24 to 48 hours, with Josh Jacobs signing in Green Bay, and then winding up seeing Aaron Jones getting cut and landing with the Minnesota Vikings. And then to kick off the final hour of the show, Cornelius Johnson, the former Michigan-wide receiver, the national champion, and now getting set for the NFL Draft, is going to stop by.

We'll see where he lands coming up at the end of the month in April. So a whole lot to do today, but first we start off with really a conversation about pressure. And there's so many times when we look at the NFL calendar and you see quarterbacks and you see head coaches and that's where all of our energy and that's where most of our conversation gets wrapped up in, where most of the times coming off a big football Sunday on that Monday show, we are leading the show talking about a quarterback that succeeded or failed or a head coach that succeeded or failed. So let's now look at with basically a day and a half of free agency in the books. And I know technically free agency doesn't start until tomorrow when the new league year gets underway at 4 p.m. Eastern, but you do have free agency getting underway already with the legal tampering window that did open up yesterday. And you know that most of these deals are pretty much done.

They just can't become official until Wednesday. And often or here and there, there are times where you see a player agree to terms, agree to a framework of a deal. And then in the 11th hour, right when the new league year is about to start, they change their mind. Like you saw it yesterday in the reporting with Will Lutz. At first he was going to the Jacksonville Jaguars and now he's going back to the Denver Broncos.

So that happens from time to time. But taking pretty much the lay of the land for what it's worth and where we're at right now, I don't think there is any quarterback or coach that is under more pressure entering the 2024 season than Nick Sirianni being the coach under the most pressure and Deshaun Watson being the quarterback under the most pressure. Let me start with the Philadelphia Eagles and their head coach. The Eagles last year started off ten and one. And then down the stretch, they lost six out of their seven final games. This was one of the worst collapses that you'll ever see by an NFL franchise to be in the Super Bowl one year. And then the following year, even though they weren't humming and they weren't blowing people out, they were at a ten and one start coming off a Super Bowl loss.

That is not easy to do. And then when you saw the final two months of the season, that was as lethargic of a performance that you can remember from a team in a seven game stretch. So entering this off season, and I've been a big, big advocate of this, there's been a lot of doom and gloom with the Philadelphia Eagles.

And the way that we viewed the Eagles at the end of the season was we know they have the talent. We know there's talented players, but the head coach doesn't have control of his locker room. And Nick Sirianni was put out to that podium, was put out at that press conference and was literally asked by the media, well, you're getting rid of your offensive coordinator. You're getting rid of your defensive coordinator. You're not calling the plays on either side of the ball.

So what do you actually do? Like Nick Sirianni at the end of the season, he was emasculated and it was by his own team because they're basically telling you at the end of the season that he was a puppet. And Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie like to control the owner and the general manager, and they're not going to move on from Nick Sirianni.

And I could see both sides of it. Like I was a proponent of getting rid of Nick Sirianni. I think that's a team that could win a Super Bowl. However, the Eagles were like, well, in three years, he's made the playoffs three times and he also got to a Super Bowl.

So he's deserving of another opportunity, but that's how bad, and that's just how rancid of a taste that you had in your mouth at the end of the Eagle season, that it was fair to advocate for Nick Sirianni getting fired. So I even said this about a week and a half ago, I had a tough time seeing myself buy back in on the Eagles before the start of the season. And I did not see a road for the Eagles to really get back to that team that was 10 and one of the team that was in the Super Bowl outplaying the Chiefs for three quarters, which was a full season ago. Like I had a tough time envisioning me buying back in on the Eagles and I still have my concerns. When you look at the defensive side of the ball, yeah, it's good that they got huffed, but they're probably going to lose sweat and maybe they keep Hassan Redick and there's still problems in the secondary.

We'll see what they do. But on the offensive side of the ball, the Eagles bolstered their offense. Sure, you lose Jason Kelce. That's an enormous loss, but you still have a very good offensive line, if not a top five offensive line in the leagues.

They'll even without Jason Kelce, who was the first Ballot Hall of Famer. And then from a firepower standpoint on offense, you have Jalen Hurts where there's pressure on him, but you got to think Jalen Hurts is not going to be as bad as what Jalen Hurts displayed towards the end of the season. You have a great one, two punch at wide receiver in A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith.

You have a solid tight end in Dallas, Goddard, and now you add an explosive running back in Saquon Barkley in a league where we diminish the running back position. However, the Eagles made a move that not only took away and kind of stabbed their division rival in the back, but it also distanced themselves in my view from the rest of the NFC East because the Cowboys, they said they're all in. What are the Cowboys done? Is this microphone on? Testing one, two, three.

Testing one, two, three. Like do the Cowboys know that the off season has started? Because it's tough for me to hear Jerry Jones say that we're all in, which you knew was a dog and pony show. And then when the first two days of legal tampering window do open before tomorrow's free agency officially commencing, the Cowboys made like one move and no one even knows the player that they even signed. So it's an irrelevant move. So I do think with adding Saquon, the Eagles are now back to being the team to beat in the NFC East.

And I'll even take it a step further. I'm now starting to feel a little bit more optimistic about the Eagles heading into this season because they have an abundance of talent. But with all that being said, it does not take the pressure off of Nick Sirianni because if the Eagles wanted to, they could have got Bill Belichick in this building. They could have got Pete Carroll in this building. They could have agreed to a deal with Mike Rabel. They could have landed maybe a Jim Harbaugh.

All four of those guys were available. Now Harbaugh's with the Chargers, but the other three guys are still available. Rabel doesn't have a job. Belichick doesn't have a job.

And Pete Carroll doesn't have a head coaching job. So the Eagles are telling you that Sirianni can still work. They're also telling you that Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie can control that team, which they failed to do so in the final two months of the season. And when I look at this Eagles roster, the reason why there's so much pressure on Sirianni is because NFC is open. They still have one of the more talented rosters in the NFL, and this is a team that it's Super Bowl or bust. Anything short of hoisting that Lombardi trophy this year for the Philadelphia Eagles, the season's a failure. And this team has enough talent to get to a Super Bowl and hoist the Lombardi trophy.

But can you find a way to get out of your own way in the locker room? And can Nick Sirianni still be a players coach, but a players coach that actually has control of his team and not just a doormat? And that's the question that still remains unanswered because you can't look at this Eagles roster and you can't say to me that this team isn't a top five talented team in the NFL. But you can have, even with three years of going to the playoffs, an enormous amount of questions and an enormous amount of doubts with this head football coach. So I don't think and you could define pressure in many ways. Pressure to lose your job, pressure to win. Pressure gets defined in many different ways.

It's a very ambiguous term. But when we look at all the coaches, all 32 coaches in the NFL, I don't think there's a coach that's under more pressure than Nick Sirianni. And bolstering that offense yesterday by adding Saquon Barkley puts even more pressure on him because you can't use the excuse that this team doesn't have enough talent. Now, when we get to quarterbacks, there is not a quarterback under more pressure this year than Deshaun Watson. Because the last time we've seen Deshaun Watson be on the borderline cusp of becoming an elite quarterback, you know, being one of those quarterbacks that you look at, you go, I can't name more than seven or eight better quarterbacks in the NFL was in 2020. And that was the last season that we saw Deshaun Watson really fully on a field. And his team was garbage, right? He didn't have DeAndre Hopkins anymore. He was starting to check out of Houston.

We knew more was going to happen off the field or we didn't know more was going to happen off the field. But what we were looking at already was Deshaun Watson was already starting to lose trust with the franchise and the more nasty things and more than football obviously started to develop. But in that 2020 season, even though his team was trash, Deshaun Watson's numbers were fantastic. Then ever since then, in that moment, he was out the entire 2021 season.

He only got to play six games or he's very rusty in 2022. And last year, outside of one game before the injury, there wasn't a moment really where you were like, wow, the Browns trading all those picks for Deshaun Watson and giving him a fully guaranteed contract was worth it. And in this off season, you already had a talented team, right? You know, the Browns have a good offensive line. You're getting Nick Chubb back after another serious injury, but you're getting him back. You have a phenomenal defense that is led by Myles Garrett. And in the wide receiving room you have Njoku at tight end and then you have Omari Cooper who's criminally underrated and is a number one wide receiver in this league.

You just added Jerry Judy and now that's going to bump Elijah Moore who's a solid wide receiver down to a number three wide receiver. So the Browns are a team that you can't say, oh, they're not doing right by their quarterback. And Kevin Stefanski coached his ass off this past season without Deshaun Watson. They made Joe Flacco look like elite Joe Flacco once again. And oh yeah, by the way, the Browns today said basically goodbye to Joe Flacco because they're bringing in Jamis Winston, go eat a dub, to be the back of quarterback. So now I look at Deshaun Watson and there's no room for excuses, right? We are now several years away from the last time you were a good borderline great quarterback in this league.

Now you have to stay healthy. Now the rust has to be knocked off and you have to start to show that you are deserving because you're going to get the money either way, but show to everyone else that you're deserving of the picks that that franchise invested in you and the contract that they invested in you as well. And I don't sit here with a ton of confidence and believe in Deshaun Watson anymore individually like the way that I did three, four, five years ago.

Like I'll never forget. I don't know how everyone gets hijacked by Patrick Mahomes and how the Chicago Bears didn't take Patrick Mahomes. No one knew Patrick Mahomes was going to be that quarterback back when the Chiefs traded up to go get him.

But I remember sitting in Philadelphia and sitting at the NFL draft that year, which was in the city of brotherly love. And I was irate that the bears took Mitch Trubisky because I was like, what did you see from Mitch Trubisky that you would think he's a better quarterback and going to be a better pro quarterback than Deshaun Watson. So I once believed in Deshaun Watson. Now I don't, but this is going to come down to Deshaun Watson, the individual, because the team around him thrived last year without him.

And this team got even better this off season and you're getting chubbed back. The quarterback now is to step up and deliver. So I don't think there's a coach under more pressure entering next season than Nick Sirianni.

And I don't think there's a quarterback under more pressure next season than Deshaun Watson. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27, who is a coach and a quarterback that is under an enormous amount of pressure entering this 2024 NFL season. Sam, do you got a name or two with the QB or the coach?

I mean, I've got like eight names on each side of the, of the argument that are under more pressure than the two guys that you can't give me eight. I can give you like six or seven, eight quarterbacks and eight coaches or four quarterbacks and four coach. I got like nine quarterbacks and I got like five or six coaches. So do this, give me your two best coaches, the two best coaches, which may be the two worst coaches under the most pressure entering this season. More than Nick Sirianni. Far and away, Sean McDermott.

Sean McDermott is under the most pressure by far because now, so not only is his job on the line, but there's so much more on the line as well. He keeps coming up short. Sirianni went to the super bowl two years ago and started out 10 and one last year.

It crumbled and they lost one and done in the playoffs, but at least there was that blip of positivity. Sean McDermott keeps, he can't even sniff what Sirianni has done. He can't even sniff it and he has the quarterback and he has the roster and there's been no excuses at this point. Now they got rid of the offensive coordinator. There's no excuses. Sean McDermott's not only coaching for his job, but there's so many, so much more on the line.

Two things. I'm not going to say you're wrong, but I still don't even know. And I was someone last year that week one, I was calling for Sean McDermott to get fired. So it's not like I haven't had that energy, but I don't think the bills have that energy because the Pagula family who are newer owners, but they know that this franchise for like 20 years didn't make the playoffs.

McDermott gets there. All they do is make the post season. I think they're afraid to move on from something that has been good, but something that hasn't been great. Like to build standards, this has been a great run, but to most NFL fans, they're like, okay, you got to a certain spot. You've been in the upper echelon of teams, but you haven't advanced it more forward than, than where you were a few years ago.

If anything, you've kind of stayed the same or even have regressed. And also the relationship with Brandon Bean, as long as Brandon Bean is the general manager with their relationship, going back to Carolina, I don't think Brandon Bean's going to have a head coach that isn't Sean McDermott, but it is a fair name. I will not, I will not debate that McDermott should be under a ton of pressure.

I just don't know if he will be, especially with a lot of the changes and the roster just being kind of reconfigured with the Buffalo bills. Give me one more coach in the same division, Mike McCarthy, because Mike McCarthy has been there a lot longer and failed a lot more often than Sirianni has. Again, Sirianni lost in the super bowl, could have won it on par and then had that one bad half of season. Sirianni's only had really one, one bad half season.

It was a, it was a bad start. The first five or six games. Remember he did that flower analogy in year one, then they finished strong. Then in year two, they were awesome in year three, good 10 and one start.

And then one of the worst choke jobs in NFL history. Totally get it. No, those are two fair names.

I think they're all in the same kind of realm. And I've got others also that we can discuss another time. I love you, but I don't need to be here until 40 after the hour before we take our first break.

I don't need acts saying to me, Hey chief, you're a little bit late to that update. If we break at 40 and I'll give you three quarterbacks quickly in the same vein, Dak and Allen, cause we're looking at the bills and the Cowboys and Tua, they have way more pressure than Deshaun Watson. So Dak Prescott, I'm going to say no, because I already know what Dak Prescott is. Josh Allen is the third best quarterback in football and, and they've taken away short. Yeah, but he plays well in those games.

And then the, who was the last one? Tua. See, I would not extend to a two was in the final year of his deal. I would not extend them, but here's the thing is getting paid no matter what Tua is playing for his career.

Yeah. But I don't think Tua could ever be a great quarterback. I just think he's good. Watson already got the deal. Watson. They already traded all that draft capital for like, I think Watson should be a better quarterback than Tua, but we haven't seen good slash great Deshaun Watson in at least three seasons now, like every excuses out the book, out the door, like, all right, you came back, it was six games.

Now you came back, you got hurt and now it's your number three in Cleveland, but it's really feels like you're number one because you barely played. I don't, I will not waver on the quarterback. The coach, I think it's more open than the quarterback, but to me that's not even close. I don't think there's any quarterback in the NFL that even is in the same realm of pressure that Deshaun Watson has on him because of the anomaly of the deal that he just got this, you know, two, two, two or three NFL off seasons ago, eight, five, five, two, one, two, four CBS eight, five, five, two and two 42 27. We'll take a break. When we come on back, the Ravens now have a new King, King Henry. How will the partnership of Lamar Jackson and King Henry work and are the Ravens prime to go to a Super Bowl?

Finally, we'll get to that next. When the whole family comes together to watch the game, nobody wants to miss a second of the action to run to the grocery store. With Instacart, you can get all your weekly groceries in as fast as an hour. Less time shopping means more game time. Let's go visit instacart.com to get free delivery on your first three orders offer valid for a limited time $10 minimum per order.

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Visit Carvana.com to finance your next car financing subject to credit. All right, this is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. So Derek Henry is off to the Baltimore Ravens on a two year deal.

I absolutely love that move. My only gripe with Derek Henry is leaving Tennessee is about two or three years too late. Like I'll never forget when we were at the NFL draft and it was when it was in Las Vegas and it's the first round coverage and we find out that Tennessee and the Eagles made a trade and you had AJ Brown who they did not want to pay and they said, we're going to trade AJ Brown for a first round pick. And I said, that's a massive mistake by the general manager at the time, John Robinson. I said it was going to cost him his job.

It ended up doing so. And not only that, if Derek Henry cares about winning a championship, he would be the next player to get traded because he would request a trade. Now, Derek Henry had an extremely successful run. It's been one of the more dominant running backs that we've seen in a while with what he was able to do after a slow start in Tennessee. And then it got really crazy with just how physical and how bruising of a running back that he is.

Now he's a little bit older, but I still think he could be a highly efficient player for probably two more seasons. And he goes to a Baltimore Ravens team, which it's a perfect match for two reasons. Number one is just the look and the appeal like Derek Henry.

I've already seen the photo shops. He looks so tough in the Baltimore Ravens uniform. Like you put that purple on a big running back.

I don't know. Maybe it's just because I liked Jamal Lewis growing up as a kid as a running back. There's just something about that. When you think of the Ravens, you think of running the football and then you also just think of tough linebackers and tough defensive play, whether that was Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed, right? You just think iconic defense. And then you think of physical running backs and you just think of a tough team. Everything Derek Henry is kind of embodies what the Baltimore Ravens have been during their, their franchise. So that's number one, but number two, why I'm very optimistic on the Saquon Barkley deal. It's a similar reason why I'm very optimistic on the Derek Henry deal, because for the most part, the jets are, excuse me, the Eagles and the Ravens have something that's so tough to stop. And I know in the post season, it didn't work for Baltimore.

And I know down the stretch for the Eagles, it did not work. But you look at the last few years in football, when Lamar Jackson is healthy, it's not like he's had a lot of great weapons and a lot of great weapons at his arsenal. He really has it like who's the best wide receiver recently that's been there in Baltimore and maybe Zay Flowers this past year, but they don't usually have great wide receivers and the running backs have been kind of running back by committee. It's whoever's been able to stay healthy and look at the way that Lamar Jackson in the regular season has just been so dominant. Lamar Jackson put that team on his back to win two MVP awards. And I know that there's a post season concerns, but now you add such a physical bruising back and a bulldozer in Derrick Henry, that's a big time move.

Even though Henry may only have two more good slash really great years left in his body. But when you line up now, forget about the first 80 yards of the field. When you get into the red zone, usually you just think, okay, Jalen Hurts for the Eagles is going to run the ball. Lamar Jackson for the Ravens going to run the ball. But now you have the potential threat and the creativity of two of the top, what, five or seven running backs in the league in Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley. From a matchup perspective, that is just an absolute nightmare for defensive coordinators because you could think, all right, Lamar is going to run the football or Jalen Hurts is going to run the football. And then in Philadelphia, they can flip it out on an RPO to Saquon Barkley and he could just beat you to the pylon. And if you want to stack the box and you think, okay, Lamar's going to run to the left. You can hand the ball to Derrick Henry to the right. And you know, he has no problem dragging two or three defenders. So just from a mental preparation standpoint, you get into the red zone and you're just like, who do I try to take away? Is it the quarterback or is it the running back? And just when you think you have one, they could get the ball to the other.

So I can't wait to see that creativity. But with all that being said, even though I'm optimistic about Derrick Henry going to Baltimore, there is still the Patrick Mahomes tax and there's still that prevailing thought of, well, if the Ravens couldn't do it last year, what makes me think they're going to do it in future seasons? Because last year the NFL was as open as it's been in a while. You had home field advantage. The chiefs didn't even play well offensively in that AFC championship game and in the big stage or offense, it stalled, it failed, it broke down.

It was terrible. So yes, you could be optimistic and you could be excited about the Henry signing and it will produce some big moments in the regular season, but let's see if there's any change come post season time. And I still have an eyebrow raised if the Ravens are going to ever be able to get it together in the post season because you look at the AFC, I still think the bangles when Joe borrows healthy is the best team in that division. And you know, they made a great move, taken Geno stone away yesterday from the Ravens with seven interceptions this past year.

And not only that, it's like, okay, there's still that guy, Patrick Mahomes that still rules the AFC and he's been vulnerable the last two years and it still hasn't been good enough for anybody else to go take the baton and prevent Mahomes from winning a championship or back to back championships. So yesterday, Saquon Barkley, he signs with the Philadelphia Eagles. Tiki Barber was doing his show live on WFAN and this has now blown up and Saquon Barkley, let me just preface it by saying this, you got to stop being so sensitive. You know, you read the quotes and you go, wow, Tiki said Saquon is dead to me.

But then when you actually hear them, I kind of just scoff at the notion that this has become such a big controversy and this has dominated the media landscape in the last 24 hours. Here's Tiki Barber on the fan. The fact that Saquon would even contemplate going to play for that team in Philadelphia is insulting. Do not go to the Philadelphia Eagles because if you do that appreciation and respect and reverence that we all have for you, Saquon, will be lost. It'll be gone. You're going to turn into one of those people that we hate. Your jersey at 2-6 that we see all over the stadium, it won't be worn anymore. It'll be gone.

It'll be burned in some cases. I'm looking at him. He's dead to us now. Yeah, say it. Because he won't say it. You're dead to us Saquon.

There's one dead to me. That's really such a big deal. People are losing their minds over Tiki Barber just having fun on his radio show. And I understand Giants fans shouldn't be happy that Saquon Barkley's going to Philadelphia.

But your front office had multiple chances to keep him. So it goes both ways. But I don't think anything that Tiki Barber said right there was out of line. And I saw the reaction from Saquon Barkley yesterday.

It's so abundantly clear that he just read the quote and the quote could be interpreted in many different ways that I could understand it. But when you listen to it, I kind of just laugh that this has even turned into a controversy. We'll get into more of that conversation later on in the show. Drake is going back to the NCAA tournament back to back seasons. Coach Darren DeVries is going to join us on the other side as they have won their conference once again. So we get closer and closer to March Madness getting underway. The brackets going to be out coming up on Sunday. We can't wait for that.

But of course, let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update with the act man, Rich Ackerman. Old Man Winter here. If I had it my way, it would stay winter all year long. Short days, windchill, black ice and a good polar vortex.

Heaven. Wait, is it getting warm in here? Your cold snap is over, Old Man Winter. Spring has arrived.

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Jim Costa with Mike Valenny. We shift the focus from football to college hoops. Playing that system that's not a system but sure plays like a system leading up to the tournament. We're looking for that value with the daily dimes.

We look for the gross lines. Getting us ready for the tournament where we're going to break down all the matchups and have an eye on some future place to this time of year, baby search cash the ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Drake is going back to back years to the NCAA tournament. I was watching their championship game up against Indiana State this past weekend, and their head coach is Darren DeVries is kind enough to join us right now as they get set to see where their name is going to get called and what seed they're going to get coming up on Sunday. Coach, first and foremost, congratulations. Appreciate the time and thanks so much for doing this. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Appreciate it. So how do you kind of put this into words back to back years going to the NCAA tournament? This group win another Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship when you were walking off the court and I had a few days to kind of process it.

Just what comes to mind? I think the best part is we get this whole week to enjoy it. That's the advantage of having your tournament week before everybody else is that nobody prepare for we just get to sit and watch games and and be a fan this week as as we get closer and closer to selection Sunday. But obviously a great feeling, you know, being able to do it again this year with a, you know, 10 new guys on our roster compared to last year where you had guys that have been with us for a long time. So kind of two different unique teams that were able to to accomplish it.

But right now it's sit back and relax. But the guys that did return, you know, you always wonder when you have such a successful season, if you're going to be able to replicate it, maybe with some success guys get complacent with the players that did return. Why wasn't that the case for your squad? Well, I think we had great leadership with Darnell Brody and then Tucker debris. So those those two that played a lot of minutes important minutes for us last year, and then we had three or other four other guys to that contributed last year on last year's team. So they had that experience as well, coming into the year, and I thought they did a great job of, you know, getting the all the new guys kind of up to speed on the way we like to do things.

And as the year went on, you could see them growing more and more together each day. Darren debris here with us his squad gonna be playing in the NCAA tournament next week. He's the head coach of Drake back to back, Missouri Valley conference championships.

So now you've had sustained success, right? This is your third time going to be playing the NCAA tournament as a head coach, just how did you guys kind of built this thing, not only to move it in the right direction, but to sustain that success just wondering. I think it all starts in your locker room. And we have great, great players, great personalities in there. You know, they all, you know, believe in one another and what what we're trying to do, I think that's important for any team. It's not just the starters, it's everybody in that locker room that has to be on the same page and connected towards, you know, trying to continue to achieve higher level of success. And they've done a great job of maintaining that last six years. I could tell that you really enjoy coaching your son Tucker, who's the star of the team. Sometimes I talk to coaches and they're like, that experience coaching my son didn't go as I envisioned it. Other guys absolutely love it.

How has the experience been? I even see the smile on your face. I know it means so much, not only you, but also your family. Yeah, I absolutely loved it.

I know Tucker has as well. It's, it's one of those things when you're in this profession, you miss a lot of things when they're growing up, you know, weekend tournaments and things because you're recruiting or having your own games. But now I get to do something a lot of a lot of parents can only dream of doing. And that's, you know, getting to interact with your son on a daily basis in college. You know, normally you just get you get a call, maybe a few word answers. But I get I get to sit down and have lunch with him every day.

And, you know, the trips, the travel, the games, you know, what an awesome experience. Now, usually you have good scouting reports, but they did bring it up on the broadcast that you thought Tucker at first was going to be a walk on. And that's who used to tell tell the old staff at Creighton. So what happened with the scouting report of your own kid back in the day? Yeah, I might I might have misevaluated that one. I think I was basing it solely off of his genetics like he had no chance because of me.

So that's, that's where the evaluation came from. I was I was blaming it on my own genetics that there's no way he would he would get to this level. You know, I'm not comparing myself, obviously, to to a basketball player, but my dad when I first who was in the radio business, he said to me, Don't get involved in this business.

You don't want to do that. Was there at all any skepticism from you? You know, I know it's probably a coach's dream to be able to coach their son and develop, you know, your own kid. But was there ever any doubt when your son wanted to play a lot of basketball and maybe just trying to humble him a little bit and put some limitations on him?

No, not really. I think it's just something that we our whole family actually just just love love the sport, love, love to compete. And it's been such a fun process, you know, watch him grow up and obviously getting to coach him. When did you start to realize? Okay, maybe the scouting report wasn't so great.

I have something special here. I think between his sophomore and junior year to let myself off the hook. He did grow four inches after the valuation.

So you got to factor that in. But now that I think that's when he kind of started to make his jump that I maybe needed to reassess my evaluation skills. Darren DeVries here with us the head coach of Drake, you know, a lot of people parachute into the sport this time of the year. From a foreign abroad surface, everyone's going to talk about you. Everyone's going to talk about your son. What else do you want people to know about this year's version of Drake's basketball team? I think when you watch him just watch how much fun they have and how hard they play. I think that says a lot about, you know, what we have going as a program and the type of guys that we have and how much they just love competing. And that's what it's supposed to be about. That's what we try to do is have fun with it every day. And, you know, hopefully success comes with it.

And that certainly helps put more smiles on the faces. Now, how do you kind of react? We always try to wonder where you guys are going to be placed. You guys play in a very good conference.

You just won the conference. I saw Lenardi had you guys as a 10 seed. Do you think that's like about right?

That's about fair. That's what you guys are expecting when Selection Sunday rolls around. Yeah, I think we're right in there in that 10-11 seed somewhere in there. And, you know, once you get in, it's just it's not really about what seed you are. It's you got to go play well now.

And so whenever that, you know, pops up on that screen Sunday night, you get to work and hopefully on that Thursday or Friday, we can go put together a good 40 minutes. Just wondering how much has previous experience for you actually matter when that ball tips up in the air, they throw that ball up in the air on Thursday and Friday, like throw all your stops at Creighton and then what you've done so far in the NCAA tournament at Drake. How much does that at all help you as a coach as you get set to coach another tourney? I think it helps a lot.

I think for our players to the ones that played in it last year. But as a coach, having been through it as an assistant and a head coach, I think it helps with your mindset of making sure that you don't get too wrapped up into, you know, the moment and forget to play. And that it sounds like, oh, that's that's crazy.

But it's easy to do. You know, you got, you know, friends and family and everybody talking about how great you are and all these things. And then the game comes and it's like, oh, we got we got to play the way we played all year. If we want to try to advance and to make sure that you got the right mindset coming into that game. And you know this when you're the underdog, if you have a good start and you're within striking distance or you had the lead at halftime, then all the pressure goes on to the other team and the entire building most of the time.

It's you know, majority of it is a neutral crowd, then the building starts to go with the underdog. So is there anything without knowing the opponent right now that you're going to play that you could do this week before selection Sunday happens to kind of make sure that your team's ready to go coming up on Thursday or Friday? Yeah, I don't know if there's a lot we can do in terms of game prep, but I think it's more about us just staying sharp, making sure you maintain your your edge that you that you have that's helped make you successful.

But outside of that, it's you know, there's not a lot you're not putting in a whole new offense or defense or anything like that. So it's just staying sharp and try not to get anybody hurt, you know, between now and then to the last thing I'll ask you coach Darren DeVries from the Drake basketball team. They're going to be in the NCAA tournament once again next week. You were an assistant for a long time when you got this job years ago. Why did you know or why did you think that this was the right fit for you and your family to be able to now have this run and have the success that we've seen the last few seasons? Yeah, I saw a lot of similarities between Drake and Creighton, a school I was at for almost 20 years and just thought there was a blueprint there that we could try and follow and you know, thankfully that we've had a lot of support here as well. That's kind of rally behind it over the course of these last six years and that's given us a chance to be successful.

Well coach Darren DeVries. Good luck coming up next week. We'll be excited to hear and see when your name is going to get called coming up on Sunday. Thanks so much for doing this. Awesome.

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Jim Costa with Mike Valenny. We shift the focus from football to college hoops. Play in that system that's not a system but sure plays like a system leading up to the tournament. We're looking for that value with the daily dimes. We look for the gross lines. Getting us ready for the tournament where we're going to break down all the matchups and have an eye on some future plays too. This time of year, baby. Search cash the ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.