Golden Nugget (Hour 2)

Alrighty, hour number two of our radio program. We do continue at his Zach Gelb show on sports radio. Mike Morrell gonna stop by as his team is off to the NCAA tournament as we will chat with the UNC Asheville coach coming up 20 minutes from now at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. Dane Belton from the Giants, their safety, who just wrapped up his rookie season, will join us in studio and then at 9 20 p.m. Eastern, 6 20 p.m. Pacific. Only one QB carousel today. And we will chat it up with Tommy Curran who does a great job covering the Patriots.

So I gotta get to two things. One is injury news. We were on the air last night where we saw the video of Kevin Durant falling and slipping in pregame warmups. He continued his warmup then goes to locker room, supposed to be his whole debut in front of the fans for the Phoenix Suns and then he's out for the game and did not play last night.

So there was multiple reports. Like at first, Hickey was playing doctor on the radio and he's like, ah, it doesn't look that bad. And then 30 seconds later, he's like, oh, I just saw a different angle. This looks bad. His ankle completely rolled. Adrian Wojnarowski and I guess Hickey, this is good news because earlier in the day, a lot of people were talking about how he could potentially be out for the rest of the regular season. But Woj is reporting that the Suns Kevin Durant, who had a left ankle injury, is expected to miss two to three weeks. Now, you never know with NBA players' injuries.

Like in hockey, it's upper body, lower body, and you never really know the extent of the injury. But whenever you get a range, and it's a short range of only two to three weeks, it always feels like it could be more than that, where whatever the range is given for an NBA player. And we've seen Durant before, right?

He's not gonna miss that much time and then he ends up missing more time than you would expect. But really, Hickey, ever since the end in Golden State, Kevin Durant has missed a lot of games. And I know he had a really bad injury, had the Achilles injury, and we know that there was an injury prior to that, and he got himself back on the court. And then you had the major Achilles injury, because he was trying to gut it out and go win an NBA championship. But you look at Durant, and it's kind of crazy how excellent he's still been able to play, because there were some people that were like, oh, an Achilles injury that late in your career, you never know if you're gonna be able to get back to that certain level.

He has been phenomenal when he's on the court, but he's not on the court a lot. Like 32 games in 2020, 2021. That was the COVID year and come back from injury. Then in 2021, 2022, he played 55 games.

This year, he has only played in 42 games so far as well. So we've seen KD go through a bunch of injuries. And I really do think where you look at LeBron, right? LeBron James for so many years would play all those games.

And that was like one thing. There's a lot of things to praise LeBron about, but something that I would love to praise LeBron about is he really never did cater to load management. You look at LeBron ever since going to LA, he has not been able to stay on the court. And he's had constant injuries for a guy that was this indestructible force for so many years. And his level of play is still at an all time high, but you're starting to see this constant injuries pop up. But for this one, Hickey, it's so bizarre because it looks like he just slips on the court and then he rolls the ankle, but it adds on to the injuries that just keep on piling up on his body as of late. It's a shame because he is insanely talented when he's on the court. But like you just mentioned now, really since that last year in Golden State when he unfortunately popped the Achilles, he's had a really tough time of staying healthy, consistently being on the court.

And now again, just call it a freak accident. That's what it was yesterday when you roll your ankle out two to three weeks. But now it's two. Okay, he played at that point, it's like three or four games at the Suns.

Three. And now two to three weeks, you're pushing towards the end of the season. There's not a lot of time left. And we'll see if he's even back in three weeks.

And now if he is back in three weeks, you have a very short window to get your chemistry going and get ready for the playoffs. It's brutal. It is absolutely brutal for the Suns. And don't get me wrong, they have the most talented team on paper in the Western Conference. And maybe you could even argue the entire NBA, but you saw in Brooklyn when Kyrie Irving was doing whatever he was doing, and then KD was dealing with injuries. They were never able to all come together and get those times, get those reps. And I think this is the dangerous part about the NBA now.

We pay so much attention to load management because it's so unavoidable. And you see a player like Kawhi Leonard miss 20-something games when he was with the Raptors, and they win a championship. And you also know we always, in a lot of situations, kind of devalue the NBA regular season for certain teams. You go, oh, it doesn't matter, just get in the dance. And once you're in the dance, you got a chance to go home with the prom queen. Not that you need to play 80-something games every year. I would love if players did that.

But being able to build that chemistry and have that cohesion is very important. And let's just say he only misses three weeks. Alright, let's say it is three weeks.

So injury happened last night. One week, two weeks, three weeks. That means he'd be coming back on March 29th. After that, you have one, two, three, four, five, six games. So you're basically got a little preseason before you go into the postseason.

But let's even say it's only two weeks. So that means he would be back on the 22nd. That means you only get to play one, or they come back to the 22nd dance of Lakers.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. So you'd be going into the playoffs with the three that you already played. Fourteen games. Fourteen games with your new team.

Now I know that Bridges is no longer there. You still got CP3, you still got DeAndre Ayton, you still got Devin Booker. But when you bring in a player to the caliber of Kevin Durant, that is your best player.

And you have to, in a weird way, figure how to work him in and then also work with him. And they're really not going to have that time. If there's one setback here, Hickey, where he has to then miss another week, we may not see him again until the postseason. Or maybe the final two games of the year, and then how many other players are you resting?

And how many other guys, right, are going to get hurt or just going to need their required time off as you gear up for the postseason? Because you know what the standard is for the Suns. It doesn't matter what their seed is. If you have everyone healthy, and even if you don't, we've seen that team get to the finals two years ago. The goal is going to be to win a championship. In a Western Conference where I really don't know what to expect coming up this postseason. Well, that's one of the good things for the Suns ahead.

They have going for them, if you want to look at it from a positive, which I am an optimist. The Western Conference this year kind of feels like the NFC, where you got some good teams, there's not a lot of great teams. And you really don't know who's going to get to the Super Bowl, where not that the East is loaded, but you got the Bucks, you got the Celtics. And those are the two top heavy teams, and we'll see if the Sixers can ever get their damn act together come postseason time.

But you look at the Western Conference, not saying that the Eastern Conference is the AFC, but the Western Conference kind of gives me NFC vibes from this past year in the NFL. And you look too, part of the reason why the West is wide open is because almost everyone is dealing with some sort of injury to one of their important players. Luka Dotchus just gets hurt last night, don't know the extent, but does that look great? Obviously, John Marin right now is away from the team with his own personal issues, so missed the next four games. Who knows if and when he will return this season? That's obviously a big off the court question. And also, who knows how the locker room welcomes him back? Also very true. Because you read there was a meeting, and then he goes out on Instagram Live talking about kind of how to behave on the road or whatever the meeting was about in regards to going out.

And then the next thing you know, he goes out and he has a gun on Instagram Live. Questions about them, the Warriors have had injury issues all season long, they've not gotten their chemistry going whatsoever. The Clippers, you can't rely on them to stay healthy with Kawhi and Paul George, so it's just like you look around, obviously it's not ideal, obviously you don't want Kevin Durant to be injured. The only thing going for the Suns right now in terms of keeping them alive is just outside of the Nuggets. Everyone else, and the Kings as well, everyone else is dealing with some sort of injury and still trying to kind of get their team gelling in the right way.

No one feels like they're peaking right now where it's a runaway train, and it kind of feels like everyone is lumped together. And again, that's good if you can get Katie back and healthy, you still have a chance. And there's really, except right now, no buzzsaw that's developed, which is the only kind of good thing for the Suns when you hear this injury by Kevin Durant, and you're going to miss still the next two to three weeks.

And Luka Doncic, by the way, the MRI did come back clean, but it's still ambiguous on what the timeline is going to be for a return. The team that's got to get to the Finals this year in the West, it's Denver. Denver has to. Denver has major Milwaukee Bucks vibes from a few years ago where you have a guy that's now won the MVP back to back times. You know, Nicole Jokic is going to win it for the third straight time, and they just have not been able to get over that hump and get to the NBA Finals. And we eventually did see, right, that year when Milwaukee won the championship, the regular season, you never said ooh and ah about the Milwaukee Bucks, even though they were a good team, because you knew at the end of the day what were you going to do postseason time. For Denver, it's a lot of, yeah, we've seen them be great in the regular season. We've seen Nicole Jokic win MVPs before in this league, but we haven't seen them get to the Finals. And obviously, they had injuries. Jamal Murray, they were cruising that direction, I thought, and then Murray had the leg injury up against the Golden State Warriors.

You always got to have concerns about Michael Porter Jr. You got Aaron Gordon there as well. There's no reason why this team shouldn't be in the NBA Finals this year. They are clearly the best team in the Western Conference, but they do make you say, yeah, but, because until you see it, some people believe that it just won't happen. So I'm really hoping, actually, Hickey, I would love to see, and I don't know if this would be sexy nationally, but I think it would be sexy, give me a Bucks-Nuggets Finals. I would love to see the Milwaukee Bucks with Giannis Antetokounmpo, closer Chris Middleton, and Drew Holliday's having a great season go up against the Denver Nuggets, and I just hope, and if they do get there, you would think that they're healthy, that the Nuggets are healthy throughout this postseason run.

That might break the internet. If Nicole Jokic plays well, outplays Giannis, and the Nuggets win a title, there's a lot of hate on Nicole Jokic. I would love to hear the spin zone on Nicole Jokic and what they're going to say about why he's still not good and worthy of winning three MVPs in a row, so that would break the internet. Anyone that says that should just shut up, because we heard the same thing about Giannis. Oh, Giannis can't win a championship on his own. Oh, Giannis, he's just good in the regular season, not the postseason. He needs to go somewhere else to win, and Giannis Antetokounmpo gave the middle finger to everybody, and he won the championship, then went to Chick-fil-A and got the 50 Nuggets. So, I'm sorry for Nicole Jokic. She wins a championship.

I don't want to hear from anybody else, because you have nothing. If you take three guesses, or actually, let me ask you this. The three teams that you want to see get to the NBA Finals out of the Western Conference, and then I'll ask you the three teams that you would pick if I put a gun to your head to get to the NBA Finals. The three teams that I want to see, Nuggets, Kings, and I'll still go the Golden State Warriors. Nuggets, Kings, Golden State Warriors are the teams that I want to see get to the NBA Finals out of the West.

Who are the teams that you want to see? I'll go Suns, Nuggets, Clippers. Suns, Nuggets, Clippers. I also feel bad about leaving the Timberwolves out, because I like Anthony Edwards a lot.

I just don't think they're ready. Now, if I put a gun to your head, the three teams that you think are your three best bets out of the West to get to the NBA Finals? Suns, Nuggets, Warriors. Suns, Nuggets, Warriors. Gotcha. I would probably say that I can't argue that.

I can't. Suns, Nuggets, and Warriors. Yeah. You give the Warriors the benefit of the doubt. The Nuggets have been the best team in the Western Conference. It's not even close. And even with the reps not being there for Phoenix, you look at the talent.

I can't say that there's another team that comes to mind. I really can't. I think there's a chip on the clipper shoulders a little bit, but I think there's just too much inconsistencies there as well.

There's also a big problem in the guy of Russell Westbrook. There you go. Just say that. Whoa. He just cursed. Wow. He just dropped it. You know what?

Can I take a break yet or am I not in the clear to do that? Not in the clear just yet. I need about 30 more seconds for that. I'm shocked. I really am shocked. Me too.

You don't usually curse a lot. And you dropped the bomb right there. Wow.

I guess the guys down the hall are rubbing off on you. You know, I felt it coming I guess for the last few weeks. That was shocking to say the least. You know what I'm so surprised about?

The one time you cursed, it's not directed at me. It's about a player. Russell Westbrook really annoys you that much? I mean, a little bit. Just in terms of what the clipper said they were going to do with the plan of bringing him in.

And now he's basically, he's starting, he's finishing games. It's going to terribly. No, I don't know why that just elicited such a strong response.

I don't know. I'm crying. My apologies.

Geez, potty mouth hickey. We are now in the clear if you want to go to break. But yes, I apologize.

Wow. All right. You got to give me 10 push ups. I think you have to give 10 push ups. That's fair.

I'll do them in the break here. I don't mind. Actually 10 push ups isn't tough for you. You did like what? 40 over the summer?

44, but who's counting? Yeah, my mom did question your form though. She didn't like the form. I would disagree with the form. I thought my form was pristine, but I think the video does not lie. Gotcha.

Oh, a lot of people commented on the form. But anyway, we will take a break. We will come on back.

We'll see what other curse word Hickey does drop today. But UNC's Asheville's head coach Mike Morrell is going to join us on the other side as they're going to the NCAA tournament from four wins. His first year as the head coach now in year number five. They're dancing next week. So we'll talk to coach next.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. We continue this Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio March Madness. We're right around the corner for the NCAA tournament conference championships being handed out left and right. And the Bulldogs of UNC Asheville are dancing as Big South champions.

And now joining us is their head coach in Mike Morrell. Coach, first off, congratulations. Appreciate the time. I would ask you how you're doing, but I think I know the answer to that one. Yeah, man, I'm doing well. Not much else to, as you said, no other way to put it, man. It's been a great week.

I appreciate you having me on. Has it sunk in yet? Have you been able to process it that your squad is off to the NCAA tournament next week? You know, yesterday, for whatever reason, it kind of started to sink in. Those first two days were a little bit of a blur, especially with the way our championship game ended. But, you know, thankfully, man, we're on spring break right now. We were able to give the guys a few days off and the staff got a few days off. So it's been a little bit of a whirlwind, but it kind of started to sink in and we got our guys back today.

So it's slowly but surely it is, but sometimes I'm still pinching myself a little bit. Well, you know what was on the line and the pressure that was at the task of your team to be down by 14 in the second half. Either you're going to come back and go to the NCAA tournament or you won't. The fact that you guys were able to accomplish that, just what does it say about the toughness of your basketball team that we saw in those final seven minutes? Just a lot of poise, you know, and we were fortunate. I say fortunate now, we didn't know we were fortunate at the time.

We had had a couple of similar experiences. We were down 10 with about four to go at UCF opening game of the season and came back and won. And we're down nine at the last media, Gardner Webb, about a month and a half ago and were able to come back and win. So I think they gave us some confidence, you know, in the moment that we could do it.

And then, you know, Tejon Jones kind of willed us to the win there late with, you know, his offensive performance. And man, it was, you know, somebody asked, you know, what do you remember about the last seven and a half minutes? Not a hell of a lot, honestly, man, I don't remember much.

That's awesome. So you were relieved and celebrating obviously afterwards. What were you thinking about, Coach, when you were walking off the court after all that mayhem that did go down? Truthfully, I was just trying to find – I felt – I was just trying to find somebody to hug. I'm like, somebody give me a hug, man.

Like, where's everybody at? I kind of felt myself, like, I don't know, I kind of went through the handshake line because the coach at Campbell is, you know, is a friend. And, you know, Chuck kind of wanted to go through that. And then I'm kind of at the end of that handshake line on my way, I'm kind of by myself down here.

But I start moving down to the other end. I needed some love, man, and I had nobody there to give me any love because I kind of went through the handshake line. But, man, it was a special experience. And, you know, we won four games my first year here.

You know, I'm in my fifth season now. So there was a lot of work and a lot of effort that went into that moment. And, you know, when I finally got down to the other end with the guys, man, it was an emotional experience for sure. Well, Coach, if you want to fly out my producer and yours truly to the NCAA tournament, if you guys pull off the upset, we'll be there to hug you. There's no doubt about that. Yeah, man, at that point, man, I was just looking for somebody to put my hands on, man.

I was a happy camper, no doubt. So you talked about how this is your fifth year now as the head basketball coach at UNC Asheville. You guys are off to the NCAA tournament that first year.

You guys are four and 27, like you just said. Now looking back at it five years later, what did that four and 27 year really teach you as a head coach? Man, it taught me everything. You know, it was humbling.

You know, I was an assistant for Shocker Smart at the University of Texas. You know, you don't leave a great job like that, you know, in your mind to go win four games your first year. But I'll be honest with you, man, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me and honestly to our team.

Taejon Jones was the only person even in the program that's still here. It was just me and him. And so to watch him in that last seven and a half minutes go off the way he did was just kind of storybook. But I learned a lot, man. I learned that we, you know, one, we got to get better and two, that I got to get better.

And, you know, it was, again, a very humbling experience. And we were able to get to 15 wins the next year. But I really believe we were able to have the success that we had this year because we failed and came up short so many times. We just had a resilient group who just wouldn't take no for an answer. And, you know, the guys, you know, a lot's made on our team about Drew Pember and Taejon Jones.

But, man, it was everybody else who kind of came to the rescue when we needed it most, which is that's what team is. But you got to trust your process. You also got to adjust. That's what the best coaches do. But naturally, and I think sometimes people are afraid to admit it, sometimes you doubt yourself.

I'm just wondering, did you ever doubt yourself after that four-win season about making that transition from being an assistant to then being in the big chair on the sideline as the head coach? Absolutely, man. I go through that. I go through that now, man. You know, I mean, you know, the old adage of, you know, you're either humble or you're about to be humbled.

And, you know, that was me. And, you know, you get humbled. And everybody, you know, I say everybody, when you're an assistant coach, man, it's easy to sit over there, you know, two feet over and say, man, I'd do it this way and I'd do it this way and I'd do it this way. And you get two feet in the fire and it's like, oh, I understand why Coach Smart did some of the things that he did. You know, I find myself anytime I'm talking to coaches these days, coach, man, you know, I'm sorry.

I should have been better for you. And, you know, you have that perspective. But you don't really get it until you're there and, you know, until you're a head coach. And so, yeah, man, I had a lot of self-doubt and, you know, fought a lot of battles with myself just about is this the right thing to do?

Did I make the right decision? But I've had really, really good support here from our administration, but much as anything from our players. And, you know, again, Taejon Jones has had as much to do with this turnaround as I have. And that's really cool to go through this with him.

What did you guys talk about, you and Taejon Jones, after the game with the journey that you guys have been through? Well, he chose to come back here for his sixth year. So he's getting his second degree. And, you know, it was more just he didn't have to do that.

We talked about it, you know, and talked about was that what's best for him? And he wanted another go. And, you know, he's the all-time leading scorer here. He's played more games than any player in Big South history. He's played more minutes than any player in Big South history. And so he's got all the awards individually that he could have. But that was what he did. He didn't have a ring.

He hadn't gotten the chance to cut a net down. And that's what we talked about. It wasn't as much talk as it was I finally got the hug I really wanted. And you probably had a tear in your eye, right, when you see him climb that ladder and cut down the nets. Oh, yeah. I was a goober, man. I was all over the place. He was actually talking to a TV station. And I was just like, man, you know what, I ain't worried about that camera. That's awesome. So I kind of interrupted that particular interview because that was five years coming, man.

That's awesome. Mike Morrell here with us, the head coach at UNC Asheville, off to the NCAA tournament as Big South champs. Drew Pember comes over from Tennessee last year, 15.7 points per game, 6.6 rebounds.

This year, 21.2 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game. How has he been able to fit into what you guys were building and how have you even seen him grow from year one at your program to year number two? Yeah, he's made a lot of growth.

And, you know, I tell people this all the time. The best thing about Drew Pember is how good of a person he is. He's just as humble. I mean, he's the best player on our team and you would never know it in how he acts.

He's just as humble as any – as the 13th man. And I think that's what, you know, allows him to be very, very good in the fact that guys love playing with him. He leads the country in free throw makes and he leads the country in free throw attempts. Guys do a really good job of supporting him, especially offensively. And we have good shooting on the court and better shooting than we had last year.

And I think it's helped space before for him to attack even more this year. And he's just grown. He's grown physically. He's, you know, he's grown mentally. He's one of the smartest players I've ever coached. And when you culminate all that together with 6'11 and all the skill that he has, it's just, you know, frankly, he's just a unicorn in a lot of ways and all the different things that he can do. And he's definitely, you know, obviously been the single biggest addition that we've had here at UNC Asheville in my time.

It's good to see Shaka Smart having success again now at Marquette. Wonderful what he did at VCU. You were there for that ride. Just how did you guys link up and how do you reflect on that relationship?

Oh, it's everything to me, man. We actually worked at Clemson in 2007 and 2008 together. I was a graduate assistant coach. I was an assistant coach for Oliver Purnell.

And, you know, we just quickly just bonded over work. And, you know, I learned very, very quickly that he was a special person. He was a special coach. He was just unlike anybody I had ever been around in terms of how he fought and how he just worked.

And so I'm like, listen, I need to learn from this guy. And so, you know, when he went to VCU and after a couple of years, I got there in his third year after the final four run and then went on to Texas with him. It's just, you know, obviously, you know, to put it in the most simplistic of terms, I just wouldn't be here without him in any way, shape or form. I've worked with him at three different schools. I just think he's the best man in Marquette. And he has just an unbelievable marriage in terms of what he values, what they value. And, you know, his team is just – you won't talk about fun to watch. So, man, it's everything to me.

And, you know, to say that I, you know, am a product of him is something I'm really, really proud of. Well, you'll find out on Sunday where you guys are going to be going, who you're going to be playing, what the seed is going to be. When that ball tips up in the air, whenever you open up on – depending on the day of the tourney, on that Thursday or Friday, what do you think is going to be going through your mind, Coach? I hope nothing really different.

You know, I hope it's very similar, although nothing will be similar and I know that. But, you know, just try to, you know, understand that, you know, it's still 40 minutes and, you know, I'm not sure we're going to need to do the Hoosiers thing where we measure the basket and see if it's ten feet. But, you know, I think for us it's just try to be as consistent, you know, as we can possibly be knowing that whatever team we draw is going to be the best team we've seen all year. But then also have belief that, you know, if we're the best version of ourselves, that's enough. And so do our best to do that. And, man, also along the ride really, really enjoy it because that NCAA tournament, man, is hard to get to. And this will be my tenth one, obviously, first time as a head coach, but it's been a while since I've been there. So we're going to enjoy it, too.

Could you imagine if you guys get Marquette in the first round? No, I don't even want to think about it. So I'm deflecting that question in every way, shape, and form. My mom even said something about it after the game. I'm like, why would you even put that out into the universe? Like, don't even do that. But, you know. Well, Larry Brown once told me it's no fun coaching up against friends. It's not.

It's not. You know, Bob Ritchie is one of my closest friends, and, you know, obviously it's his first time going to the NCAA tournament, too. And we worked together at Charleston Southern, and we had to play each other the first year. And after that, we're like, we ain't never doing that again.

That sucked. So now we just scrimmage and yell at each other from the opposing side where there's nobody in the gym that can tell any difference. So that's what we do now.

That's a lot more fun. Well, Coach, first off, congratulations to your program. We really appreciate learning more about your squad. And good luck, and hopefully you guys have a nice run here coming up next week.

Hey, thanks so much. Appreciate you having me on. Good stuff with Mike Morales. His team is now off to the NCAA tournament. So a heck of a job with UNC Asheville.

This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. And, Hickey, this curse that you had by mistake earlier, got a lot of texts, a lot of texts that are piling on into my phone. And I actually have now created a poll question, and I asked three people what their guesses are. After I got a few texts, heard Hickey had a boo-boo, I texted three people, and they're guessing what you cursed about, and so far no one has actually guessed it correctly.

Want me to give you the options here? Well, that means they weren't listening. Are you spreading the word? Are you telling everyone I'm dropping words I shouldn't say on the radio? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jeez.

100%. I see how it's going. I will definitely say blind poll, no one will ever get it right, because it makes truly no sense if I'm going to drop a curse word that it's going to be about this particular person or this particular subject. So the poll question was, I texted three people here.

I love how I started that off. Yeah, a lot of people are reaching out about Hickey cursing. It was dumb, so therefore they would never be able to hear it. Good job, Hickey, you caught me there in my line. I wrote, Hickey, just by mistake, dropped an F-bomb. What do you think it was about? A, was annoyed Penn State basketball had a bad defensive play against Illinois in their conference tourney? B, called Russell Westbrook that bleeping guy? C, told me to bleep off because I was making fun of his podcast?

Or D, was yelling at a caller who was making fun of Andrew Luck's time with the Indianapolis Colts? You want to take a guess, Hickey, who the three people were that I reached out to here to get their guesses? Sean Marash, 100% for one. He is one. The other two you may be mad about. Stu Kovacs. Nope.

Spike Eskin. That is one. That would be another.

Oh, wow. How did I know that was coming? Let's let the boss know in case maybe they're in the bathroom during that one second they had a brain fart.

Maybe they missed it. But now, just to make sure, let's also text them to say, hey, by the way, this is what's going on at the station. David usually listens all the time, but David is sick right now. He's under the weather, which is perfect for me to drop a bomb, I should say. Sure, the poor guy's not looking and Hickey's going rogue. He may have an S-storm going on in his bathroom. I just had an S-storm on the air. So I texted David, hey, how do you feel? He's like, not great, but thanks for asking.

I got something to cheer you up. Here's a poll question. And then I was wondering if I was going to reach out to Spike.

I was thinking of maybe going to someone else, but I feel like that would be right up Spike's alley. Because it's so unlike you. Like, if I would have just put out a poll question, who cursed on CBS Sports Radio today? You would have been the last guess, Hickey. No one would have thought it was you.

Actually, maybe act first. They were the ones you least suspect. Yeah, so real quickly, and then we got to get to the break. Mraz said it was definitely Penn State basketball. That was wrong. Mayernik said it was also Penn State basketball. And then Spike said it was definitely A. Everyone was shocked when it was B. Again, it makes no sense.

It makes no, especially when they finished the half-two of 11, but that's a different story. So were you just trying to say freaking and you said the other word when you said, oh, I can't stand that freaking guy? Well, you know, I do kind of talk like that. I will say off the air with some friends and just kind of say, oh, you know, that guy, but not, you know, insert something else and just kind of almost just kind of forgot where I was for a second.

Just like, oh, super casual, that guy, Russell Westbrook. Whoops. And then just, yeah, like I said, just time and place.

I did not know where I was. The Giannotti effect is rubbing off on you. He dropped the A word down there, and now you're dropping the F bomb all over the place. Different context, but absolutely definitely the same. Just a tad different.

I think his is a little bit more serious than yours. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio, a juicy bleeping quote from Nick Saban next. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. So, you know, when you sometimes see a quote online and now we're kind of programmed because we've had so many like ball sack sports types of stories or onion stories that people get duped by, you go, oh, that can't be a real quote.

That's got to be one of those parody sites. So today I saw a Nick Saban quote about comparing Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson and some people saying Anthony Richardson should now be the first overall pick in the draft and he should be drafted ahead of Bryce Young. So this was the quote that Saban actually said to AL.com. And, Hickey, I legitimately thought that this was a fake quote at first, but now I really respect, I have a lot of respect for Nick Saban to begin with, but I respect him even more because he went to bat for his player and in some way, in a lot of ways, took a shot at another player. So this was the quote. We've all seen the 6'4", 225 pound guy that could throw it like a bazooka but can't make the choices and decisions, he can't distribute the ball, he can't throw it accurately, Saban said according to AL.com.

So who's the better bet? I'm going on history, production, performance, and Bryce Young's done it about as well as anybody. I still kind of feel like that's a fake quote, Hickey, but good on Saban. Going out there and defending his guy and I'm surprised that he trashed another player to defend his guy. That does not seem very Saban-like, who usually doesn't give anyone anything when it comes to talking to the media. The rat poison that he loves to call the media, but look, I respect him defending his guy, I think he's 100% right, I hope Chris Ballard is listening, I hope no one else is listening because again, the stupidity of the hand-wringing about Bryce Young's size, Nick Saban I think is absolutely telling the truth. You look at a guy, what he's able to accomplish, he does everything well, the biggest knock is his frame, and now with that being a concern of everything else he does really well, we're going to hype up a guy whose frame is unbelievable, Anthony Richardson, the guy's made it in a lab, but when it comes to actually playing football, sure goes with almost everything.

Watch Florida this year, one really good game, one really bad game, one really good throw, one terrible throw, mechanics are sloppy, accuracy is a question mark, he's indecisive, can't read a defense, there's a lot there, so it's almost funny that body type, body size now is becoming one of the bigger talking points or bigger scouting points than actual what you see from September to December each fall. Now let me just make one correction, because I like to make sure that we source these things correctly, because there's a lot of times, right, that we have something go viral and people, they never source it correctly. It was actually on an Odyssey show. It was via Stephen A. Smith's No Mercy podcast. So the website I was reading on said AL.com, and then in this article, let me just say, it may not be directly Anthony Richardson, you may throw Will Leviss in the conversation as well, because in this article from the Sporting News, it says, because in praising Young on Stephen A. Smith's No Mercy podcast Wednesday, Saban appeared to take a shot at one or two of the top quarterbacks in the NFL draft, Anthony Richardson and Will Leviss. Saban didn't mention the Florida and Kentucky quarterbacks by name, but did imply that Young would be better than a toolsie quarterback who struggles with accuracy, and then that went on to the quote. It was transcribed by AL.com's Mike Rodak and the quote was once again, we've all seen the 6'4", 225-pound guy that can throw it like a bazooka, but he can't make the choice in decisions, he can't distribute the ball, he can't throw it accurately. Saban did say, so who's the better bet? I'm going on history, production, performance, and Bryce Young's done it about as well as anybody.

So that is from Stephen A. Smith's No Mercy podcast right here under the Odyssey umbrella. So you look back at the Alabama football schedule this past year, and obviously those are two SEC quarterbacks, but did they play both this year? I believe neither.

Neither? Yeah, didn't play Kentucky, did not play Florida. They played Florida two years ago when Richardson was kind of more of a feature, kind of like Trey Lance here, a few plays, package plays, but it was still Emory Jones as the full-time starter.

Okay. So it's just, obviously they'll see them and know about them, but that wasn't the case. And I'm just looking at the 2021 schedule real quickly. They did not play Kentucky that year either.

So I think it's a quote that, here's the thing to me about this. If people are making the case about Bryce Young's size as why you shouldn't draft him, the quarterback then that you should be talking about drafting is CJ Stroud. And I don't think CJ Stroud is getting enough praise. And it's weird because most of the season, I said CJ Stroud was just a good quarterback. And then I love how he told me he was going to, he's more athletic than what people give him credit for.

And he was going to show that soon. And he did that in the Georgia game. I feel like if you're going to say, don't take Bryce Young, that the quarterback that you need to go to is CJ Stroud. And for whatever the reasons are, it feels like everyone's starting to pivot to Anthony Richardson as that next guy. Which is why Nick Saban's 100% right. You see a guy blow it up at the combine. It doesn't mean that's going to translate to Sundays.

No, it is absolutely stupid. There's no doubt about that. Also, we'll get into this later. Nick Saban did talk about potential retirement as well. So we'll get into that quote later on in the show, as you've seen in other sports, right? Coach K walks away. You've seen Roy Williams walk away recently, Jay Wright. And the other day, Jim Boeheim. We'll tell you later on in the show what Nick Saban had to say about retirement. When we come on back, Dane Belton's going to join us. Just wrapped up his rookie season with the Giants in studio.