Seth Greenberg, Former College Basketball Head Coach

Alright, here we continue. This is that Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. The final four is set. FAU, the Owls out of Florida Atlantic going up against San Diego State. You also have UConn taking on Miami. And now joining us to chat all things March Madness is a man that was a head coach at Long Beach State, South Florida, and Virginia Tech. Now you can see his face all over your television for college basketball coverage on ESPN.

And that, of course, is the coach in Seth Greenberg. Coach, appreciate the time. How you been? Daggie, what's going on, man? You're a big shot. I'm just honored to be asked. Well, I appreciate you coming on and what a crazy last two weeks of college basketball, Coach. Let me start you off with Creighton, San Diego State, the foul call at the end. How would you process that if you were still on the sidelines and let's say you were on the Creighton side of things?

I'm not having anybody's experience. I don't know. I mean, look, I mean, it was a hard call.

I mean, here's my thing, Jack. Was it a foul? Probably was a foul. Hand on the hip. Was it a foul in relation to how the game was officiated for 39 minutes and 58 seconds? No, it wasn't. There were dozens of drives where guys tried to go straight life in a basket and guys rode them out and it wasn't a foul.

That's a hand on the hip. That's just what it is. You know, one thing I told a bunch of officials today, they got a bunch of text messages last night and they said something interesting. They said you sometimes you don't have to officiate absolutes. Time and score situation over time is your friend. A foul was redefined in that game. There were twenty two fouls in that game, the fewest of the whole weekend. There were 17 free throw shots. That foul finally put the San Diego State in the bonus. I'm not taking it to the San Diego State because I love their team.

I love Dutch. I love how hard they play. I love how they compete.

But you can't. It's like almost I'm going to do a baseball analogy. You have a strike zone for eight innings, a nice inning, all of a sudden tricks can't happen. I'm a 100 percent agreement with you because you're right with the way that that game was officiated. It seemed totally different at the end than what it was for the entirety of the game. I look back at it, you know, you use baseball now, you use a football analogy, the Super Bowl this year.

Could you make the case it was holding? Could you make the case the foul? Yes, but through the first 58 minutes of that Super Bowl this year, that wasn't being called to hold at the end with James Bradbury.

Yeah, and that's exactly it. You've got all coaches want down deep is consistency. Now, look, I thought Mack handled that thing great.

I thought the talk burner handled it great. And rightfully so. Paying respect to the team that won. It was a hard-fought game, two good teams. In the end, San Diego State imposed an identity on the game.

That's just really what happened. And that was the difference in the game. Talking to Seth Greenberg, you talked about how much you like Dutch at San Diego State, Brian Dutcher. We know what Steve Fisher started and what he did continue there.

And now they're in the final four. What makes him such a good coach? Guys play for him. He knows exactly who he is. He's comfortable in his own skin. There's a standard of how they play there. He recruits to it.

He's not afraid to go into the portal and get guys that have to buy in. Playing hard is never an option. It's a constant. And then they've gotten better offensively. They're very simple offensively. But there's a really good job of attacking certain matchups, which I thought he did a good job of yesterday. And you could see this team has great trust.

Seth Greenberg here with us. For Jim Larranago and what he accomplished at George Mason, taking them to a final four, it's nearly impossible other than winning a championship to top what he did all those years ago. But I feel like nationally, Larranago, everyone remembers him from George Mason, but what he's done with Miami is unbelievable. And coach, getting him to a final four, I think makes him now a lock to be in the Hall of Fame one day. Yeah, I think 100 percent, Zach. I totally agree with you. You know, what he's done is he empowers.

He doesn't enable. He gives him a lot of freedom offensively that people think defensively. And look, that guy John Lewis isn't a bad guy to have in your back pocket either, let's be honest. But his ability to coach and his ability to get guys to believe in each other and trust each other and respect each other, maybe the best in the country and have fun doing it. Like, here's the thing, Zach, think about this final four.

No McDonald's, all Americans. No one and none. Only one real freshman is having an impact on the team. And that's Donovan Clean.

All right. Every team has an impact transfer, whether it's Tristan Newton, whether it's Vladislav Golden, whether it's packing or near or whether it's, you know, tomorrow or any number of sending the same transfers. That's the economy of college basketball today. Do you think this final four and my answer to this question is yes, it's good for college basketball. But I hear some people saying today when you have San Diego State, FAU, Miami and Yukon, that isn't good for the sport. Well, it's good for a year.

I'm not sure it's good every year. I do think we're going to see teams get older. And I think the portal impacts that. I also think we're going to see teams like FAU that quite honestly, they probably ended up getting some guys that fell through the cracks.

These people were living in the portal. And they were able to develop players. So, look, last year we had Duke Carolina, you know, Kansas and going over.

Couldn't get any more blue. So, you know what? This year, maybe it's feeding, maybe it's matchups.

Maybe it's a lot of things. I think it's good for the game. It's good for the intrigue. It's going to be the all time lowest rated semifinal game probably in a long time. But, you know, we've seen it before. We've seen Butler and VCU. We've seen Loyola.

We've seen George Mason. We just haven't seen, you know, the number of non-blue bloods. Now, UConn is a blue blood. So, people, there is a blue blood in the Final Four. Since 99, four national championships.

That's a blue blood. Seth Greenberg here with us. When you get back to that Texas-Miami game, what stood out to you in that second half once Texas had that big lead? And while they weren't able to hold on to it at the end, did the Miami made that that dominant statement towards the final two minutes? It sounds silly, Zach, but when Norchett O'Mear went out, Miami went small. But when they went small, they become more disruptive defensively. And when they went small, they created some matchups. When they went small, Long had the ball in a better attacking position with more guys that could make a shot on the floor.

And then obviously bring back O'Mear in and that guy just gobbles up every rebound. And then I thought that Texas lost their identity and lost themselves. Gave them 50 points in the second half. That's not Texas basketball. Texas basketball is getting stops.

They lost their way in terms of being who they are and how they win. And then I thought that the patience, the presence, the poise of Jim Larridega and the way he leads enabled it to happen. Rodney Terry did a really good job with Texas this year in tough circumstances, replacing Chris Beard today. He gets that five-year deal from Texas. What is the long-term vision in your mind of Texas basketball with Coach Terry now? I think he's doing a great job. I'm really happy for him. Head coach of two different places.

Loved Texas. Came back. Left the head coaching job.

Approved a recruiter. An experienced head coach. It's not going to be easy.

They're going to be roadblocks and detours. That's just the way it is. But I'm happy for him. It's a good message. Because he took over a very difficult situation with a group of players that loved their former coach.

And had a great culture. Now he's got to maintain the culture and I think he will because he lives the culture. Seth Greenberg here with us. If you're Jim Larridega at Miami, what do you emphasize to your basketball team before they get ready to play UConn? Coach, every game that UConn's played, they've just gone on one mega run in one half.

Whether it's the second or the first, doesn't matter. They've been able to find the way this tourney. Yeah, they're average-witted by 22%. They're shooting 42% in the three-point line. They're dominating the glass. They've got the best maybe inside player left in the tournament. Sanogo, the best jump shooter. The best blend player. And Caravan and the most difficult to prepare for in Andre Jackson because he does stuff you can't really prepare for. Jim's not reinventing himself.

You're not reinventing yourself. Alright? You're going to spread him out. The matchup of the whole semifinals is Jordan Miller and Andre Jackson. One thing about Connecticut, they actually have a matchup on Jordan Miller. Own the tempo, spread him out, be in gaps, deny Jordan Hawkins the basketball, and everyone else play straight up. And then basically run on opportunity, but if not, you've got to move the ball and move people. Because you're not going to just high ball screen to death, although they'll put Sanogo in a bunch of ball screens. You're not going to high spread ball screen to death this Connecticut team.

But be yourself, man. You've got shot makers on that court. You've got a tough dude in Ruga Poplar that has the ability to really, really make it hard for a Jordan Hawkins coming off those screens with size and athleticism. And you've got resilience.

So we're not reinventing ourselves. We've played great teams. We'll impose our identity on the game with our toughness, our maturity, our physicality, and our shot making. Do you think the winner of UConn Miami will end up winning the national championship? Yeah, I do. I do. I mean, it's easy to say now, but I do. I just think that UConn is playing at a level.

Now, they can pick a bad day to have a bad day. You can. But you look at top 10 in the offensive defensive efficiency, you look at the number of different guys that can make a play, you look at 14 feet of post guy, you look at their offensive rebounding ability, you look at the ability to run and play ahead of the defense, they're going to be a really hard team to beat. So you lean UConn right now over Miami, but how much do you think?

Oh, I'm not big on lines. I'd probably say five. Which would be a close game, the way that UConn is playing to this thorny coach. Yeah, you're right, because you obviously win by 22 points a game. You know, Jordan Hoggins can't disappear in the first half, and I don't think he won't. I just think that Andre Jackson is the most under talked about, as well as Caravan, as well as their bench. Joey California knocking down jumpers.

I think he always got a role with his toughness. Clingan obviously has a role with the ability to play behind Shinogo and give him a guy that runs the court, who protects the rim and just really plays winning basketball. Danny's done a great job because he hasn't been seduced by having a play like everyone else. It would be easy to try to be seduced by playing a bunch of spread ball screens, playing four out. No, they move Shinogo all over the court. They run Hawkins from one side to the other.

They reverse the basketball. They're not seduced by having to fit it in playing like everyone else. And that's the thing that I'm really impressed with. When you play to your strengths, that's the most important thing. Seth Greenberg, when you look at the story of FAU and what Dusty May has done, what stands out about this story, the Owls out of FAU the most to you? Well, he did a great job evaluating. Number one, he got them to trust them and love each other and believe in each other and respect each other. He is playing a system that fits his personnel.

Vadislav Golden is a difference maker, as is I think it's Rosado the other big. And they play without fear. They expect to be there. They've won 31. Four games?

How many games have they won? When you win that many games, you're walking out there and you're thinking you are the blank, the baddest blank on the court. Like, those dudes expect to win. And I love how even if they're struggling, they know in their minds, hey, it's just a matter of time. And that's Dusty basically filling them with confidence.

So, look, they play hard to sell. The one thing people don't realize is what a good rebounding team they are. They rebounded quickness and how relentless they are defensively. They are really disruptive defensively.

They've got a little bit of that VCU in them. Will he be a rock star, Dusty May? I've been impressed by him. Everyone's been impressed by him. But will he be a rock star when he gets that big job? Yeah, look, he's a very, very good coach. He's a really good guy. He's got a great presence about him.

He reminds me a lot of Mike White. A rock star to so many things that, you know, look, I mean, here's the deal. There's so many things out of your control. What's your NIL situation? What's your admissions situation? What's your university's commitment?

Can you keep your local players home? I mean, there's so many things that are going through. But what he's done and the way he's carried himself, he's been terrific.

So impressive. You know what's surprising to me? And I know that you don't have, right, the level blue bloods that we did last year. But these last two weeks, Coach, I think have been the most entertaining two weeks that I've ever seen in the NCAA tournament. That's why I'm surprised a little bit that some people are down on this Final Four just with how good the last two weeks has been. Yeah, you take Connecticut out. It's been ridiculous because Connecticut just, you know, bum rush guys. Here's the deal. You know how you'll figure it out on Saturday at whatever, six o'clock when the first game pitch.

What's the rating going to be? Because the casual fan, you, me, basketball junkies all over loving it. Will the casual fan turn it on? And you don't think the answer to that is yes? I don't know.

I don't live in that world. I'm just a fine basketball coach talking ball. Seth Greenberg, appreciate the time as always. Good to catch up with you. All right, man. You're the best. Appreciate you.