Should The Chargers Pay Austin Ekeler? (Hour 3)

The week continuing is the Zach Gilp Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. My next guest has been the head coach of the Baylor Bears with their men's basketball team since 2003. He cut down the nets, winning it all in 2021 in the NCAA tournament and now he's the recipient of the 2023 Athletes in Action John Wooden Keys to Life Award.

For more information visit keys to life.us and that is the head coach of Baylor in Scott Drew. Coach, first off congratulations. Appreciate the time. How are you? Well thank you very much. It's great to be on your show and I got a question for you. Do you like Della Sandros or Chubbies Philly cheesesteak better?

Wow you did some. I'm a Della Sandros guy so that's why I'm asking. Well I know the owners of Della Sandros so I'm a Della Sandros guy. Okay.

Unbiasedly Della Sandros is the better cheesesteak. How about that coach doing a little research from my college days back when I was Temple Owl. Hey by the way what's your best Matt Rule story before we go on? Wow so you you know a lot about me then.

My best Matt Rule. You know what probably when I was at a practice of his he did like these 5 30 a.m coach Chaney style type of practices and coach I'll be honest with you I was probably hung over coming out of my fraternity house waking up early to go to this practice and he said to me you have to watch Hassan Redick 58. I had no clue the heck he was and now we all know what Hassan Redick's gone on to do in the NFL. Yeah I can tell you that's impressive you were there for the 5 30 practice.

I think I would have showed up a little late after stretching. Yeah as a college student I don't know how the players ended up navigating through those practices. So coach Rule's done a great job there and everywhere he's been. Well coach what does this mean to you? Obviously we all know the importance that coach John Wooden has had on this sport to win this award named after him.

What does it mean to you? Well first of all anytime you have your name associated with coach Wooden you know it's a great honor and you're extremely humbled and grateful. At the same time we call them team awards at Baylor because we know that it takes a team to win. You have to have great coaches, great staff administration and obviously players.

So very very excited about that and I love what the breakfast is about, what the whole event stands for. When you look back at this season I know you guys wanted to obviously go further in the NCAA tournament. You're just coming off the loss to to Creighton which has been an exceptional basketball team. How do you kind of reflect on the season that you guys just had? Well you know in the NCAA tournament everybody is upset except for one team and we've been blessed to be that one team and that's a heck of a feeling.

At the same time every tournament there's highs and there's lows and with us we played a good first game. Second game Creighton beat us so you look back on the year we were the ninth overall seed. Going into the year we were the winningest power five program in the country in the last three years. I think we might be first or second now and then one of three or four teams to be a top three seed in the last three or four years. So a lot of consistency. Come tournament time anything can happen and that's why it's called March Madness. If they wanted the best teams to win it'd be three out of five or four out of seven but in a one game 40 minute time period with 18 to 23 year olds you don't know what's going to happen.

So you want to be at your best. Creighton was better than us. They set an NCAA record 22 free throws in a row. Tied the record with Fordham in 1971. So the record was good enough to stand for over 50 years so they really played well and earned the victory and coach McDermott does a great job.

Like you said you've been on both sides of it. You've had the highest of highs in this sport winning the NCAA championship a few years ago and you guys just had a dominant run. All these years later coach Scott Drew but what's the lasting memory that you always hold on to with that group of guys that you won a championship with? Well just being able to celebrate with them not just the championship game but the whole time in the bubble. I mean we're the only team never win the NCAA tournament in a bubble so we got the blueprint for that I guess. But really when our coaching staff reflected back the time we spent with them at meals and in our team room that was probably the the best because we had a great group and part of the reason we won was a big reason they loved one another and teams that after a couple weeks in the bubble wanted to get away from each other you knew they weren't going to win. They were ready to go home but we were like it's a blessing every game we wanted to stay in the bubble.

So just those relationships and the last a lifetime. As far as great memories I think my first one was the 25th anniversary. This year my brothers shot to beat Ole Miss Valparaiso and it was one of those aha moments when they asked well what does your players think of that and I started thinking that was 25 years ago none of our guys were born then so man I'm getting old. So for you when you win a national championship obviously everyone praises the job that you did at your program and we know the work that went into it when you had to take over the circumstances you did back in 2003. Now it's like bizarre because whenever a big job opens up I always see your name especially now in the gambling world like right at the top of the odds.

Is it bizarre to you when people ask you why haven't you left it and what is the reason why you've always wanted to remain a failure? So they have gambling stuff on that too huh? Yeah you could gamble on anything tonight. Well unfortunately for Vegas because they usually don't know what they're talking about so they lost some money if they bet on me because this year 20 here but I've really been blessed at Baylor to be able to be at a place where I've had two unbelievable athletic directors and Matt Rhodes our current athletic director is one athletic director of the year a couple times he's the one that hired Matt Rule. I mean he's an unbelievable person to work under and for and our president Linda Livingstone and her husband Brad played college basketball at Oklahoma State. They're unbelievable leaders for the university and and great for the coaches because they really understand college athletics so when you're in a place that you like the leadership you like the community you love what the school stands for we're the largest Baptist school in the nation denominations don't matter but we get to prepare champions for life and that's spiritual it's academic it's character formation along with athletic and to see our players play professionally and then be successful husbands and fathers and have careers after that and be able to be a part of that that's what makes coaching so fun. Just wondering since we started this conversation you bring it up Matt Rule obviously there's been a lot of good coaches at Baylor, Kim Mulkey as well I was joking around with Dave Veranda after one of the Big 12 championship coach you won you're allowed to smile now and not be so serious on the sideline what do you kind of learn from someone in a different sport like a like a Dave Veranda or women's basketball in a Kim Mulkey you had a long relationship with? Well the great thing is there's so many outstanding coaches and leaders that have that have come through Baylor and you can learn from watching practices just how they conduct things you watch how they run their programs I know our head coaches meetings we share different ideas and that's been very educational for me but what what you love being in a smaller school like this is you spend a lot of time with people and when you spend those times where you're able to pick their brain there's a lot of things I've taken from all different sorts of coaches that have been successful at Baylor and that could be spiritual academic advice could be character team building to to running competitive drills and their philosophy on on eating sleeping and whatnot so thanks for asking Coach Rule basketball coaches football coaches always spend a lot of time together and I spent time with him and learned from him and was cheering hard for him in the NFL hopefully we don't ever play Nebraska Dave Rand is a an outstanding coach someone that is one of the smartest people in the profession and I can tell you that just how he runs their program it's it's really impressive how detail oriented he is and obviously coach Mulkey won a couple championships here and ran an outstanding program as did other sports that have been ranked number one or won national championships here so you obviously know Jerome Tang very well he was worked with you all the way since you guys started at Baylor at 2003 how has he been able to do what we're seeing out of his Kansas State basketball program because coach March is all about special stories this is just truly remarkable stories what he what he's done in year one well first coach Tang and I were together for 19 years and and he loves to eat as much as I do now I think he likes chubbings a little bit but we got to knock some sense into him all right we got to keep working on him but but I can tell you that there was no surprise for me that he was going to be as successful as he's been obviously you can't predict when you're going to win national coach of the year and he should win that and he's got my vote and what's great about the staffs that I've been able to work with at bay where we all learned from each other and coach Driscoll was the first one to leave that north uh Florida and did a great job early on there and um their program uh continues to evolve and he's a great leader of men and um coach McCaslin uh has won and been in the tournament and won in the tournament coach mills at oral roberts been in the tournament won in the tournament and then coach Tang uh already in the sweet 16 hoping uh we see him in houston in the final four wrapping up with scott drew ucla ganzaga you've seen both of those programs this year we all remember the last time they met in ncaa tournament i can't wait for that matchup coming up later in the week coach well there's a lot of matchups you can't wait for uh and that's what makes march madness march madness whenever you think that there's a game that's going to be boring or uh that's an easy win those are usually where the upsets occur so uh again that's why it's so hard to i mean you think about it every year after the first weekend nobody's got a perfect bracket that's i i mean that just tells you how hard there's over five million brackets filled out and zero perfect after the first weekend again this year i mean that's that's that's the parity and how hard it is to win in this tournament well the parity is such a neat thing because now it's three straight years of 15 taken down to two we've seen two sixteens now beat a one it really makes you feel like any school has a shot to win a game in this tournament now one one hundred percent and um there's so many good basketball players so many good coaches so many good programs with the covid year um at the end of the day i always tell our freshmen what 13 year old has beaten you and i mean 18 year olds are going against 23 year olds i mean the playing field is level last thing i want to feel this level last thing i'll ask you just inside your conference rodney terry had to take over during some tough circumstances texas hasn't missed a beat just as a coach scott drew what impressed you about what coach terry's been able to do uh well first he's in the big 12 so uh big 12 we stick together right now and hopefully they win a championship while they're in the big 12 when they go to the sec we won't cheer for them anymore but uh uh the one thing that uh coach terry has done is uh the team uh once coach beard left stayed together and continued to improve and get better because teams that uh don't improve throughout the year are done playing and they've gotten better uh um we split with them this year and i thought uh um uh just what he's been able to do and not miss a beat uh it's a great staff they have and they put together a great roster so uh it's fun to watch well he's a della sanders man playing him yeah right he's a della sanders man he's a national champion he's also the 2023 winner of the coach winning keys to life award he is scott drew coach great to reconnect you appreciate the time thank you appreciate you and we like recruiting out there and we like eating out there so we'll be back anytime you're in the new york filiary let me know thanks so much coach there he is scott drew joining us on the zach gilb show on cbs sports radio how about that hickey he came prepared with cheese steak and matt rule facts about yours truly that was impressive i am very impressed now you know it's you rarely see the coach doing the homework the other way usually it's you know the interviewer doing the homework not the interviewee very impressive there by coach when he led me off with della sandros or chubbies i was like oh wow this impressive there by coach drew that's what you expect out of a championship winning coach and we know though the great job that he's done at baler with the circumstances that he had to take over in 2003 and then to see where that program is and then two years ago winning the national championship just a marvelous job that he's done and he's always one of those names whenever a big job opens that his name gets thrown out there and he's not left yet and i think it would take a special job for him to leave with what he's built at baler okay we'll take a timeout when we come on back we'll do a little bit more on austin eckler and we'll delve into another pretty big story as well and that is the reaction of nick saben and how it relates to nato so we'll get into all that when the zack gilb show continues in five minutes you're listening to the zack gilb show all righty so we haven't really heard much movement on the austin eckler front and austin eckler was doing an interview with chris long on the green light podcast and right now the situation is the chargers are not willing or they have not met a good number on a contract extension for austin eckler we know how important he is to the success of the chargers so we asked for permission to seek a trade the chargers granted him that permission hickey from everything that i've read so far it seems like nothing's really moved on that front so i don't know what the demands are of austin eckler he definitely deserves a raise of what he's currently getting right now but you just saw brandon cooks get traded again for basically nothing there hasn't really been much movement i know these are receivers diondre hopkins as well we haven't heard much on that front and austin eckler is an incredible playmaker he does not he's not someone that has a lot of wear and tear on that body and he's really taken the lead by storm the last three years i don't want to say this is surprising because it's the nature of the position and a lot of teams that win go running back by committee now but the fact that we've reached a stalemate really in the austin eckler negotiations and no one's really bit on the outside and then the alternative is okay you're negotiating with the chargers but if another team doesn't bite you really don't really have much of a leg to stand on and you don't really have much leverage it seems like we we've reached a dead-end period and then all all of a sudden austin eckler is doing an interview where i don't know what he's trying to accomplish he's very transparent he's been very kind to us before but you're truly clearly trying to maybe pick up the intensity or pick up the interest from the talks from some of those other teams i think at this point in part because the free agency class was so bad that i think a lot of teams were not really that interested in making a lot of moves i think we'll see more teams being active in trades and acquisitions and talking to guys like austin eckler and lamar jackson draft time yeah that's really where i think now that you get to the draft you see how the board unfolds now okay that's the second pick gonna get traded for let's say austin eckler maybe first who knows we'll see i think that's when we'll kind of get intensity picked up because really right now there's no reason for any team to kind of rush to either meet the demands of the chargers or even austin eckler and last year you also got to remember a player like aj brown who got traded on draft night and then they figured out the contract shortly after that but you if you know you're trading for austin eckler you have to have some idea of what he wants and when you make that deal unless it's really nothing what you're trading up to get you got to know what he's wanting and in the ballpark of what he's wanting and you have to be willing to do that if you're bringing him in because i think a lot of people would assume whoever trades for austin eckler they're giving him a restructure a modification or just a brand new contract you know from basically it's an entirety of the situation and if you're the chargers and you're okay with trading them you're giving up a guy that has been a touchdown machine the last two years i think it's what 38 touchdowns last two years so you could argue no one's been more productive from a running back perspective you would also proper value i get the running back has been devalued but if you're going to trade austin eckler you better get second round pick at least well it's devalued by some teams i don't think the chargers can't devalue him because outside of justin herbert on the offensive side of the ball he is their most valuable player he is that good and especially in some of these big games too how many times will we talk about him getting like two or three touchdowns in some of those big games and mike williams keenan allen both injury prone i i get it you you found a way to to bring back mike williams last year when a lot of us thought he was going to go somewhere else keenan allen restructured that contract when a lot of people thought he was on his way out so they have prioritized keeping keenan allen and mike williams you can't pay everybody but i do think it would be a bad decision by the chargers when you have a window to win and you have a window to strike now you can't also argue like i did yesterday lorenzo neil you have a window here but you do have the chiefs right in your way and it's going to be very tough but you got to go for it and if you get rid of austin eckler i do think that makes your team worse and i would not be messing with that right now on the offensive side of the ball where at least you know that's working well for you and brandon sale eventually has to fix his defense and make sure that defense gets moving in in a better direction and this just reiterates why so many teams and so many people always talk about winning on that rookie contract because i think you can put two and two together okay they're they don't want to pay austin eckler justin herbert's extension eligible i would expect a contract extension some point this off season i would say the two are tied hand in hand or one i see with the other and you know what it makes me think of too cincinnati and cincinnati has more elite talent you know joe burrow is going to get the bag just like justin herbert's going to get the bag i don't know what's going on with joe mixon but you look at the receivers there jamar chase is better than keenan allen and mike williams t higgins can be a number one wide receiver on a lot of other teams in the nfl you have tyler boyd who's your third wide receiver right now if we're already seeing these problems pop up with the chargers and austin eckler may or may not be the odd guy out what happens with the bangles in the next two years and how these contracts are figured out really could dictate this the future success and how dominant the bangles can be where you know they're going to pay burrow and chase and i know right duke toby made it clear t higgins isn't going anywhere but you could have that same energy when it comes to the point of figuring out that contract when t higgins is going to get a you would think command the pretty top dollar and that's the thing it's i mean you would think jamar chase would get about 30 million dollars a year when his contract is up because that's what tarry kill got and he's one of the best receivers in the nfl so he is on that level and joe burrow is going to reset the market somewhere whether he takes him a home steal and spreads it out over 10 years and keeps you know the bangles eligible whether it's a shorter term deal like what dak prescott did and go four or five years and get back on the market at age 28 29 or i guess he's a little older 29 30 um i would guess joe burrow would go more than homes route a lot of money but over a very long period of time so the cap it's not that big and you are able to retain most of the team out all the team more players than you would if you just go and say i'm just going to max it out and get as much as i can and with these void years there's ways to maneuver around it but if i'm the bangles i think i have to keep burrow chase and higgins and i feel really good long term that they'll be able to keep burrow and chase i think higgins is the wild card because does he eventually want to be that number one wide receiver somewhere else and what is the cost for t higgins i think are going to be two big answers to how long they're going to be able to keep that trifecta together and the chiefs just showed you you could pay two elite guys it's really hard to pay three you kept travis kelsey you kept patrick homes when it comes to tara kell they said we can't afford you let's listen up to austin eckler he says he holds no ill will towards the chargers this is courtesy of the green light pod i think it's actually really important to kind of put out there that it's not like oh i hate the chargers and i need to get out of this organization and and i need to leave like that's that's couldn't be further from the truth like i would like to stay if if it was under the right circumstances it was put out there that the chargers kind of put a block on the talks of extension and so i was like okay well if if if you don't see me in your long-term future right now then give us opportunity to go talk talk and see if someone else might um so that's how i see it it literally has no i nothing to do with the the relationship like like i've made a great relationship there like grown there that's where i was that's where i started right and so i want to be there um but on the right terms so where are the talks with the other teams that's the thing for me and we had so many running backs whether it's smaller deals like um a rashad penny or dionte foreman or david montgomery this year that get deals or if it's more lucrative like a mile sanders or whatever it may be that have been handed out already in a position now that's usually viewed as by more by running back by committee like even the bills they just brought in damian harris i'd rather have austin eckler than damian harris but that take them out of the austin eckler market or are the bills just not in the market because we sat here and we said mccaffrey they didn't elect to do that even with the brandon bean connection they didn't get that deal done so is austin eckler even in play if it's not austin eckler i think the dolphins could be interested but that may be a long shot with the moves that they've made recently in terms of contracts and i looked at the odds i saw the broncos are the third highest odds but you really don't want to do that deal in division that does close the gap a little bit when you look at the broncos and the charges when you're chasing for that two spot so hickey it's kind of like you're in a a weird waiting spot right now with austin eckler again i think there's any motivation right now for teams to you know try to get a deal done also too i think a lot of teams right now scouting for the draft so you're worried about you know draft prospects are you worried about right now in austin eckler maybe see how the board goes maybe if you are a team that's eyeing bijan robinson he gets taken before you think okay now pivot austin eckler like i just think at this point there's just a lot going on where no one's focusing right now on austin eckler specifically i think again a month from now we'll kind of see the attention and the the the market kind of ratchet up this is lorenzo neil who says the chargers need to keep austin eckler this was of course an hour show the zack gilb show last night right here on cbs sports radio i mean come on look what the guy's doing for this team you know as far as touchdown machine so you look at it yes there are some guys that you can't replace i get it but austin eckler is the offensive guy to me that's been consistent kean and you know i had some injuries kelan you know kean and i was a good receiver love the guys possession receiver but to me like you said herbert needs austin eckler because he is that security blanket and that safety blanket that justin herbert needs it's a very fair point you know how reliable eckler's been and how much he's produced this is nothing against mike williams and kean and alan but they miss games and when they're only getting older i know mike williams is is not an old man but you would expect that to continue to pop up to be a problem i would not mess up outside of herbert your most consistent piece on the offensive side of the ball and i would find a way to figure out this relationship and austin eckler basically even said it it's not me hitting the chargers relationships not over he just wants to get paid now how flexible will he be in those contract talks that's big but the charges also have to be flexible too because he even said it negotiations have pretty much been cut off and have been tabled on the talks of a contract extension and this is that kelp show on cbs sports radio we will take a break the man that is leading one of the best stories in college basketball jerome tang with the kansas state basketball program was picked to finish last before the season started in his first year on the job in the big 12 they're now in the sweet 16 he's going to stop by when we come on back planning a wedding can be intimidating but finding the perfect suit shouldn't be indochino makes it easy to get a fully customized suit right from home with dozens of high thread count fabrics patterns and colors to choose from indochino lets you fine tune every detail and design a suit tailored perfectly to your body and your personality set up your measurement profile on indochino's website and choose fabric and customizations without leaving the house or book a showroom appointment and let indochino's dedicated style guides help you and your wedding party look flawless for the big day their experts have been dressing grooms and groomsmen since 2007 and with suits starting at just 4.99 and fitted shirts at 89 indochino is bespoke without the premium price tag get a wedding suit as unique as you with indochino go to indochino.com and use code podcast to get 10 off any purchase of 3.99 or more that's i-n-d-o-c-h-i-n-o.com promo code podcast you're listening to the zach geld show there's the inbound they get it to fiero high arc and three at the buzzer and it's over k-state beats kentucky 75 to 69 the team from the little apple is headed to the big apple to play in the sweet 16 you're listening to the zach geld show we continue this is at geld show coast to coast on cbs sports radio how about the story of the wildcats of kansas state just unbelievable before the year picked to finish last in the big 12 and now they're going to be dancing coming up on thursday night in the sweet 16 at madison square garden up against tom mizzo michigan state the head coach at kansas state is your own tang in his first year and he's kind enough to join us right now on the zach geld show on cbs sports radio coach first off congratulations i would ask you how you're doing but i think i know the answer to that one hey zach thank you for having me on you're absolutely right doing wonderful we're in new york city right now and you know very very excited to be here how do you process going to the sweet 16 you've had a few days after the kentucky game just how do you process it coach what your group has accomplished uh well you know you're obviously excited about what's been accomplished but there's still so much more work to do and so um we took a brief time to celebrate it you know together and uh you know and uh enjoy uh what's been accomplished but then it's about getting refocused and uh realizing that you know we had we have other goals that we want to accomplish and so to do that we've got to get locked in and get the laser focus that the guys had in order to to get to this point how do you explain coach your team's success this year and you're number one man great chemistry and crazy faith you know um we we say all the time that you know what people call crazy one day they'll call faith another and for us we call it crazy faith and just a faith in each other a faith in the god that we serve you know just just a faith that in our hard work and that if we trust and believe each other and you know to just stay together and work every day to get one percent better that we we could be where we're at and i can't tell you at the beginning of the year that we thought we'd be here but i i thought we could be an nca tournament team and then once you get into the tournament anything can happen so when did you know that hey this group is probably better than what people were talking about them before the year well i knew we were better than i i said to myself when they picked us last in the big 12 i said well they're going to be 10 teams in the big 12 to go to the nca tournament because i thought i knew what an nca tournament team looked like looked like from my time at payless and i i thought we had that and so i just just meant that our league was really really good um you know when we went to the caymans and we won those three games in three days that said a lot about our toughness and our resilience and you know just the chemistry that we had um and then the the road trip to open the big 12 when we went 12 when we went to texas and to baylor and won those two big games you know that that um really raised the bar for what we could accomplish this year this is your first year at kansas state we know the nature of the sport a lot of transfers moving in and out of the program it's never easy to build trust when we're talking about a coach with uh with players how did you build that trust what seemed to be very quickly here in your number one well i i try to be real transparent in recruiting and you know um if you tell kids the truth and they they don't come you can live with it it's um and when you tell them the truth and they come and you keep your word then they can live with that too and so uh so we just try to be really honest in recruiting because kids have the right to go wherever they want to go now it's i mean it's free agency and if you lie to them they're going to be out the door and so uh we just laid out to them tell them they got to get better we try to find guys who have winning dna's they've won in high school or college and uh because guys who have won before they understand that there's a sacrifice that has to take place for you team to win and well we felt like we put the right set of guys together jerome tang here with us kansas state thursday night at madison square garden up against michigan state we always talk about culture coach and a lot of times people don't explain their culture so what is the culture of your program when you're talking to these recruits and they ask you what can you what can i expect if i go and uh and commit to kansas state well man uh you know i my faith is extremely important to me and you know jesus came to serve and so i i see that uh leadership the service and my job is to serve and love our guys and that when they leave here they know that they were loved and they were cared for um you know we we tell our guys we want to uh do things out of a motive of love uh not out of a motive of hate and too many people talk about guys people who didn't believe in them you know and that motivates them we want to we want to be motivated by the people that believe in them and there's a second thing so we're going to play with love and we're going to play with joy and joy for me means jesus first other seconds yourself last and finally a guy's going to know they're going to get to play with freedom you know if you come in and you work hard and you put in the time in the gym on game day you're going to be able to play free and be yourself and so we try to keep it simple and it's hard right basketball is a very simple game but it's hard to do simple and so we just try to do simple a little bit better you had to wait a long time for this opportunity coach your own tang you have bailer from 2003 up until last year when you took this job at kansas state did you ever doubt that you would become a head coach one day with how long you had to wait yeah you know you obviously um i have doubts uh but you know probably about four or five years ago i just told the lord i said god if you just want me to be an assistant coach for the rest of my life i'm good with it because i felt i had the best job in america and and if you want me to get out of coaching all together and do something totally different i was good with that and i think when i resolved myself to the fact that a head coach title didn't define me as a man uh but my my faith in christ and and the way that i impact people's life that that's what does and uh you know i was able to relax and become a better person hopefully a better husband father and a better coach and so i was really more prepared for this opportunity came along uh because of that and and during that time god blessed me to be able to win two big 12 championships in the national championship so i wouldn't change that the way i got here and how long it took for anything we all know waiting stinks and i'm a very impatient person coach but i do think when you have to wait longer than than you should have when you finally get that opportunity it motivates you i think a little bit more to to prove people wrong and what they were missing out on for all those years you know i like i said i try to tell our guys let's not prove people wrong let's prove people right and it's the people that i've had a lot of people that believed in me and uh they felt like i deserved the opportunity a long time ago and and those are the people that i'm hoping that you know i'm validating their thoughts and their compliments and their belief in me not invalidating those who maybe didn't well we had scott drew on who i know is one of your biggest supporters and you guys have a very close relationship and earlier he told me you should win the national coach of the year when you hear that what does that mean to you it means that i had a guy who was went from being you know a colleague to a boss and a colleague to being a friend and a brother that did a great job of helping prepare me for this opportunity it means that i coach really really good players who you know had a great season and it means i have the best staff in america because they they do an unbelievable job and make me look really good so i always say it's a team a staff and a coaching tree uh uh honor right now and it just speaks volume of who scott drew is as a person how did you guys initially link up at baylor man he got the job at baylor and somebody that knew me and knew him uh called him about me and uh he told him he already knew he was going to hire and and then he spoke to someone else and they mentioned my name and they spoke to someone else and they mentioned my name and so after hearing my name three times he thought let me do a little research on this and uh then uh i reached out to him because he had a foreign kid that had committed to him and at the time the prep school the private school i coached that we had i-20 we brought in foreign kids and so i reached out to him about that young man coming over from africa and we got to talking and he asked me about meeting with him and i refused to meet with him and whenever you tell scott drew no it just drives him crazy so he did everything in his power to make sure that we got to meet and um you know and then uh thanks my dad told him to come have dinner with me and he came to my house and met my wife and my son who was two at the time and uh you know and then felt comfortable offering me the job and now the rest is history coach before we let your own Jerome Tang here with us in his first year in the sweet 16 kansas state will play michigan state coming up thursday evening at madison square garden i want to ask you about some of your players we all remember the scary situation in 2020 with kiante johnson when he collapsed during a game at florida and now he's with your program and he's having a sensational season can you just just discuss what you've seen from kiante this year and just your relationship with him that you know obviously the stuff that everybody's seen the numbers he's put up and big shots he's made and everybody sees that and and that's been wonderful and so thankful that he's been able to play the game that he loves again and uh you know be able to pursue his onto the nba uh but what i've been most impressed with is what he does off the court with his teammates the time he spends with them how how he's such a great teammate i tell you he's just an unbelievable human being and a pleasure to coach and i i can't i can't brag on him enough on on what he does i mean from he spends time with our walk on he goes to school and reads the kids he uh you know spends time in the community and and every day he's extremely thankful for the opportunity he's been given and and we're just blessed to be around him the first thing i realized about marquis dole when i watch him he has tremendous grit and heart how do you kind of look back at what you guys have been able to do together this year with marquis oh he is he's big heart super competitive right and just has this some people say it's a chip we say it's a boulder on his shoulder and uh just i mean i i absolutely love coaching him because he's got a world of confidence and there's nothing on the court he doesn't think he can't do in this uh i mean like i i love watching them play post defense because people everybody in america tries to post them up and you just can't do it he's just i mean he's gonna fight you like he'll follow you before he lets you post them up and and that kind of competitiveness man you can win with and so thankful that he's my point guard i saw after the game coach calipari after he did a number on kentucky called in that little kid i guess marquis now has talked with coach cal uh what what happened there and had you kind of react to that one after coach cal called in that little kid yeah you know um you know i i heard the comment and initially you were a little taken back by it i i all the cred in the world to coach calipari because he realized that uh maybe what he said was offensive uh you know maybe you know calling a little kid was his term of endearment you know because he has a little point guard inside your wheeler also that um and so it was probably for him a term of endearment where somebody else might have taken it as an insult and but coach cal reached out to him and apologized and talked to him so it just shows what a great human being coach calipari is and why he's such a great coach and so successful before we let you run jerome teng is having a remarkable year one at kansas state michigan state coming up thursday night at madison square garden the world's most famous arena you always know that coaches those teams are going to come prepared what stands out to you the most with michigan state well you know they've got the coaches little toughness about a man they they're gonna fight you for every inch they're gonna bump every cut they're gonna i mean like they can test everything and uh just really get after you the two guards uh and then they're really good and and how the kid is shooting like 90 from three in the last five games out he doesn't look like he misses and they're just they have really they're really embodied who we all have known tom is going to be over all these years just really tough really smart play together and um and i'm a huge fan of comments will always have been he's always been really kind to me when i was an assistant and just awesome to be able to you know stand across from and our teams compete against each other you know i told somebody the other day you know i i really wish it was me and coach you though playing one-on-one you know that i wouldn't i wouldn't do a free throw contest with him though i've seen him shoot free throws he doesn't miss and so but you know it's gonna be our teams playing against each other so that that's gonna be a lot better for everybody i love that answer well coach continue success uh it's been awesome watching your team good luck the rest of the way and enjoy this coming up on thursday i'd appreciate you doing this hey thanks a lot and go cats great stuff there with your own tank that has to be one of the best stories in college basketball this like you just look at this tawny princeton being a sweet 16 probably does top it just because there are 15 but for kansas state i know that there are three in the tawny but to be predicted to finish in last place in the big 12 before the start of the year and then be here that's that's just really special and you know i kind of realized during that conversation when it's a new coach that comes in and now in this landscape hickey of the transfer portal and how common it is for players to leave i think coaching now in college basketball is more important than ever not only to get guys to stay or attract new guys in but to build the chemistry when you could have guys that have a lot of experiences coming into a program and that to me and getting those guys to stay and having someone genuine like your own tang i think helps ease that process where you get a success story like this in in year number one oh yeah because it's not about just adding the players it's also like making them and having them mesh together and playing you know cohesive basketball it's a lot easier said than done and don't get me wrong i'm not playing a small violin here for guys like roy williams and coach k and j right but i understand now why they get out of the game even when you feel like they could keep on coaching because even though it's adapting with the times and some guys are up for it like coach jim lyra nega who made that clear when he joined this before the first round of the ncaa tournament there's a lot more now on your plate where if you have all that money you probably think okay i'm good i had enough time to wrap it up