Best of The Herd

Published Mar 28, 2025, 7:43 PM

Doug Gottlieb in for Colin

Thoughts on Alabama's win over BYU and the news ways versus the old 

The Dodgers win again while the Angels look pathetic 

 

Guest: Richard Pitino 

 

#douggottliebshow

Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.

This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio.

The Herd. Wherever you may be listening and however you may be making this part of your day. Thanks so much. I'm Doug gottli In for Colin Cowherd, and for the next couple of hours, I want to talk to sports with you from Poway to Escondido and everywhere in between. This is the Herd. What a night last night in college basketball? You know, it's always fascinating to me, and we can get to I I've just so many things kind of going through my mind as I'm watching watching college basketball last night, But the main thing is that I just I sit here and say to myself self, why do people insist on spreading lies about how things used to be? There's two different sides to it, right, and I fully understand that you're listening to Collins Show, and you're you watch sports television, you listen to sports radio, and first whatever reason, everything either has to be the best of the worst. Even look, I love Colin, that's my guy. Okay, but I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you some just ask you if you think that I watched Cooper Flag last night. He's incredible. And anybody says, well, you know, he's a college basketball player. You're a college basketball coach. You can't talk about a current college basketball player. Now, that's only if for some reason, I was going to recruit Cooper Flag. And there is less than zero percent chance that Cooper Flag is coming to Green Bay. Listen. I love my job and I love what we're building here. Had a couple of really talented kids on campus trying to recruit him, but that didn't happen. Right, So, Cooper Flag is amazing. There's nothing about him that resembles Larry Bird to me. I don't know where that conversation went. And if Cooper Flag is going to be the best dukie ever in the NBA, which is what Colin said yesterday, Greg Towey, that is what he said yesterday. Correct, I heard it in the promo. I just want to make sure that I did not mishear it in any way.

Correct.

Okay, there's a current dukie in the NBA who is a nine time All Star. He's been on the NBA Second Team once, two time NBA Third Team, he was the Rookie of the Year. He's won an NBA championship, and I most want to point out he's hit the big shot to win an NBA championship. Are you familiar with who I'm talking about? That's Kyrie Irving. You're like, wait, Kyrie Le mean yeah, Okay, so that's a lot, right, that would be a ton to say he's better than Kyrie Irving. And again, like, this kid is the great White Hope. He's an American born, white basketball player who's unbelievable. Okay, is he better than a six time NBA All Star who's only twenty seven meeting By the time he's done, he'll be like a thirteen time nball Star, three time All NBA First Team and he won an NBA championship. That would be Jason Tatum. So I understand that we get to we're watching and you're like Cooper flag has ever been as good or maybe even better than possibly advertised. He's a freak, right, He's a power point guard. He can handle, he can pass, he can shoot, he is a three level score. I love him. But before we go, he's gonna be the colt. Is gonna be the greatest dukie ever. Like I know, we operate on this assumption that Grant Hill was likely to be the best dukie ever. Unfortunately, injuries befell him. Is that right? Is that befell him? I don't know if that's actually a word, but it is for now. The reality is who that's a big ask for kid, big, big, big asque for a player. Okay, so let's get to what really matters. I love the discussion about how basketball used to be. Neither of these things are true. You know how we always sometimes will say both of these things can in fact be true. Neither of these things are true in that Jannis and Tennecoupo would not score two hundred and fifty points in any sort of NBA game if he played in the seventies or eighties. I just it's one thing to say, hey, the athletes are better and more skilled now than they've ever been, and we've evolved as players. Where previously in his life Jannis would have been he would have been a center in the NBA or a power forward, and now he's essentially a point guard, so he would not have scored two or fourt And you cannot tell me that watching Alabama make twenty five of fifty one threes that you yearned for the mid range. Man, I just miss old basketball. I don't, and I played older basketball. I watched it again. I'm not saying those guys aren't great. Matter of fact, the thing that absolutely positively pisses me off about guys like JJ Reddick is JJ Reddick acts always like, well, Larry Bird's not one of the great three point shoters all time, bowl It wasn't considered a great shot, but when he shot the ball, he was the best at doing it for a star player. So if al Horford can go from making ten threes his first six years in the NBA to being a high level three point shooter, do you think Larry Effingberd, who won the three point shooting contest with a shooting shirt on, shooting jacket on and told everybody which one he guys are coming in second? Do you think he couldn't have been an elite three point shooter. Again, the idea that Giannis would have scored two hundred fot the arrogance of Lebron, the arrogance of JJ to act like those guys couldn't. What's the kid's term level up? Come on, dude, like Brook Lopez can shoot threes, but Michael Jordan and Chris Mullen and and Larry Bird couldn't. Of course they could. On the other hand, I will side with the new generation and think all of you people, and I will say, you people who insist the mid range, where's the mid range? I don't like watching new age basketball? Okay, So here's what you do. I want you to go to baseball people and go, why don't you bunt anymore? Why don't you bunt? Or hey, let's just let's just go back to all the inefficient methods of doing anything right. All the interfestionis instead of group emails, let's and write out notes to everyone. By the way, part of my job as a basketball coach is I do write thank you notes. My hand gets so tired. You want to talk about suburban grit, my ability to sign autographs and write notes on a regular basis. I almost feel like I'm an arthritic old man, but really it's just my hand. I can, I can, I can text and tweet and do whatever for days. I can talk on the phone for hours. You asked me to write two thank you notes. I'm like, I feel like I got carpal tunnel. But would anybody like to go back to the days of handwritten everything? No? No, hey, here's what I want you to do. Let's go back to the days of landlines and no call waiting. You remember when you got the first time you got party line? Okay, listen, cover up your mouth, don't be breathing. I'll ask her if she likes you. Right, you're all a bunch of it will and newer doesn't always mean better, but it definitely means more efficient. Right, More efficient is everything in business. Don't work harder, work smarter. And then there's the complete misconception of well, it's a shot that's closer to the basket, so you gotta make it at a better rate. Let me ask you something, Do you guys know what the an elbow? The elbow jump shot is an elbow jump shot. The elbow is where the lane line that's where the guys stand. You know, where a lane line is right and the free throw line come together right that spot. Some people call it the short seventeen. Some people call it the elbow. I don't know what else it's called. I've always been told it's the elbow, but I've heard some people say short seventeen. It's a seventeen foot shot from there, and nobody stands on the actual elbow. So a seventeen to nineteen foot shot. In the NBA, the best players in the world, and I'm talking about from Kobe Bryant to Kevin Durant, but the current best NBA players, Kevin Durant, DeMar Derosen, who's the best mid range shooter in the NBA. Put it all in, all the NBA players, do you know what they shoot from the elbow from seventeen to nineteen feet? Thirty seven percent is the number? Is that an efficient shot? No, if you're going to shoot a shot inside the lane, an efficient shot is over that of fifty percent as opposed to thirty three percent being the barrier for a three point shot. How do they know, Well, because they do math. Now it doesn't mean it's just like sports radio. Right there, is gray. It doesn't mean you never take an open mid range shot. It doesn't mean you only but for the most part, ninety five percent. I mean really that there's actually a different percentile, right. But if you watched last night against Alabama, and I'll grant you they were unbelievably efficient. They shot at a rate that you I have never seen before collectively as a team at a game of that level. It was like Pleasantville. Do you remember the first part of Pleasantville when it was black and white right before one color and every shot went in. That's what it had to feel like. If you're like BYU. By was like, dude, we're actually pretty good and we have no ability to stop Mark Sears and the Crimson Tide. But I'd love mid range guy to be like they should have.

I didn't enjoy watching that I won mid range jump shots. I yearned for the days of Kazzie Russell dribbling and backing a guy down and shooting a finger roll from seventeen feet.

Go back and watch old NCAA tournament games. Go back and watch old NBA games. Now. Of course, it's not true that Yiannis would score two hundred fifty points because back in the seventies you would have a power forward and lane and a center in the lane. There wasn't space to just back guys down, and the game was officiated differently as well. And again, if we put if we put him back, then do all the former players get the diet and the weight training that he gets now and flying on private private planes and sleeping in cryo chambers so he takes care of his body? Of course not. Even then, the bodies were big and strong. Imagine if they live modern day weights. Like, are we comparing comparables? The rules are different, the offense are different, the bodies are different, everything's different. And yet we're saying, hey, if you have parachute in Yannis now against them, then with whose rules he scores two hundred and fifty. No, that's laughably embarrassing to say. But on the other hand, let's not act like the inefficiencies of the past are something that should draw us in and make us yearn for it in the future. Just not nobody wants to handwrite notes anymore. They just don't. I mean, look, not everybody apparently in Washington can handle the old group text. But generally a group text gets things done quite well, thank you very much. Right, I'm Doug Gottliebin for Collin. This is the Herd Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. This is and in case you missed it, this was Lebron earlier this week on McAfee talking about Giannis.

You're trying to tell me Giannas wouldn't be able to play an NBA game in the seventies hit hit He wouldn't be able to do Jannis answer the Koupo would have two hundred and fifty points in a game in a seventy's and fifty uh two hundred and fifty points.

Come on, dude. And by the way, Lebron, in your effort to settle scores and like, we can get into why that conversation even happened. But he'd scored two hundred fifty points. Right, there's two other guys in the lane. There aren't guys standing outside three point line because there was no three point line. The real world doesn't have all or nothing. It has a lot of gray. It's not that Jannis would have stunk or he would have scored two hundred and fifty points. The truth is way more towards the middle. And while I know Jannis would I mean again, he looks like a smaller Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt Chamberlain was an unbelievable athlete. Oscar Robertson was an unbelievable athlete. The three point line had not been introduced, let alone guys being told these are better shots because of analytics. So which is it? No, we just say these things to make make us feel better, either about the past game or the current game. The reality is, if you watched Alabama play last night, there isn't a single solitary, non mouth breathing human being that goes you know, I know they made twenty five to fifty one threes, but I just I just wanted them to take you know, a MIDI fade away, a La Kobe mid range. No, No math works, it just does, right, math works, It just does. Sometimes it defies the normal thought press of human beings. I'm watching that earthquake in Thailand earlier today, and you're looking at buildings swaying and not coming down or whatever, despite it's like a seven point seven. And then you look at some of these old buildings built in the nineteen twenties, nineteen thirties, where they thought the more cement, the better, right, because common logic would would lead you to believe that the heavier the building, the less likely it is to crumble. Correct. Yeah, well ask anybody in La. Those buildings are light. Those buildings sway. If there's an earthquake, they're gonna move like seven or eight feet, which, again the video tells me, don't ever get on a rooftop pool ever ever, period. Stop. I don't. I don't care the likelo of an earthquake. If there's a if you're on a fiftieth floor building and there's a bunch of supermodels out there, or they're in bikinis, I ain't getting that pool. I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna watch them behind the windows because I just saw that video. But math works, It explains it. It makes it easy, it makes it more efficient. They found that lighter and oftentimes less materials move okay with the earthquake. I understand you think a shot closer to the basket is a better shot, right, that's common life, like, Well, the closer I get, the more likely I am to make it. Yes, But when they give you another point for being two or three steps back further, it's actually better to be two step three sets back first, unless you're right at the rim where you have a higher percentage of making it and you can get fouled, which gives you even more efficiency. Any of these people, and that includes my friend Charles Barkley, who tells me they yearn for the old olden days are just simply trying to pat themselves in the back over how great they were, and they were great in a different era. Stop doing it. If you watch Alabama, you're like, that was pretty cool. Speaking of pretty cool, Coming up next in The Herd, I'm Doug Gottlieb feeling for Colin Richard Pattino. He builds New Mexico into a winter and now he's in the same league as his dad. What is the process like of coaching while negotiations are happening with your agent? And how much do you know? When do you know? We'll ask it all to him? That's up coming next in the Hurt.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon eastern nin am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Doug Gottliebin, Pro Collins The Herd Fox Sports Radio iHeartRadio app. Some of you may hurt. I'm also a head coach now in Division one basketball Green Bay. So just like every other coach, I'm in portal combat mode. Pooral combat Yeah, and in something that makes absolutely no sense. Basketball's portal open Monday, and yet we still have basketball games being played on my television. And it's not just the NCAA tournament. There's the the CBI just finished. Congrats to Illinois State. I don't know, but there's the NIT which is still ongoing. And there's the other one, the Crown that's on Fox Sports one. I have no idea who's even going to play for those teams because so many of those kids have entered either real portal or the dark portal, which is or the pre portally, which is like pre boarding. How do you board a plane before you board a plane, I'm not really sure anyway. To help us kind of figure it out, and to celebrate whose new job is the now new head coach of Xavier, who is also the sitting Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. He coached the Lobos to the Mountain West Conference regular season championship this year. So now formerly of New Mexico now Xavier is Richard Patino and he joins us in the herd on Fox Sports Radio. Richard, how are you.

Doing good, Dougs? How are you?

I'm great, man, I'm great. You know. It's interesting, h we talked after you lost your job in Minnesota and then you get a chance to go to a place like New Mexico. What was the experience like last time you switched jobs going from Minnesota to New Mexico in terms of kind of onboarding and getting that thing going.

Yeah, I would say substantially different, right, emotional on both sides of it. But I think more than anything, new opportunities. You know, I learned from both, you know, New Mexico. I didn't have a great feel for the area by any means, and spent eight years of you know, really enjoyed Minnesota, but was looking forward to it, you know, So learned a lot in both and just get better and better, you know. And I think Xavier is a great opportunity and excited about it. So, but you know, all the moving and you got kids and all that can be very stressful for everybody. So trying to put together a roster, trying to figure out moving and transitioning and all that. But it's a great opportunity.

Okay, so now you're killing it in New Mexico. You guys have an unbelievable following Donovan Dent, an unbelievable player that's been with you for a couple of years, and you're going to the NCAA tournament, and yet there's all this. You know, all of a sudden, the Xavier job comes open because Sean Miller, even though he was coaching against Texas, it seemed like everybody in the business knew he was leaving for Texas. What's that like to manage all that, right, because again, you're managing your roster, the potential for your future roster in New Mexico, there's whispers about this other job. Okay, and then you got to figure out my wife, kid's family, all that stuff and potentially moving and oh yeah, by the way, you had your team playing in the NCAA tournament. How'd you manage all that?

You know, it's a lot. I know the coaches are bad guys. I know a good friend of mine, Kevin Willer, is dealing with it right now. Whether you could say handle it differently or whatever, I don't know. But coaches are being put in a tough spot. I mean not that I want people to feel sorry for us by any means, but schools are starting earlier and earlier because of the portal. You know, and people reach out. Doesn't mean that you're interviewing by any means, or you're spending the whole day away from your program, but you certainly want to see what you know these people are talking about. For the Xavier experience, it really all happened after the season. Now, I had some other kind of balls in the air, so to speak, but I was not going to leave New Mexico unless it felt right. And you know, when Xavier reached out, that was one like, Okay, I can be back closer to my family, I can be in the Big East, which I truly believe with this new model of not sharing rev share with football is an advantage. I loved the Big East. I grew up with it, so it felt right. It really did. So you know, it's all the rumors and all that. Some of it's true, some of it was not, but it wasn't real hard to lock in on the season and just you know, just just stay in the moment more than anything.

Okay, So now you take over a new job at Xavier, this is your fourth job, right, fourth job that you've had. What's the process like now as opposed to the other three? Right, there wasn't the full portal when you got to New Mexico. There wasn't any of this when you got to Minnesota. And obviously when you get to FIU, what's the process like now for you?

Yeah, I mean way different as it pertains to recruiting. I don't even know if it's call recruiting anymore. I mean it's just you know, FIU, there was no transfer deal, so you really really were trying to establish a culture and not even worry about wins and losses. And we got some good transfers that we liked. Sitting out Minnesota was the traditional recruiting New Mexico. When I got here, you weren't allowed to go recruiting because of the pandemic, so we added a bunch of players off a zooms. But those last three years where we really excelled. We're an I own transfer portal, so we've got a body of work in the new profession that we're in of even Okay, Donovanan is the number one transfer in the country right now.

JT.

Topping is the number one in the country out of our program go to Texas Tech. So I think we have a body of work of we have one in this deal. We've got some really good players that we've recruited and developed. But it's all about right now. It's about zooms. It's about putting together your staff, you know. So we've got it seems daunting because you're really taking over a new roster, but everybody's going to have to deal with this right now. So it's about kind of spending your money wisely and evaluating properly and you know, just just turning over every stone, so to speak, and figure it out.

Yeah, it's super interesting. You mentioned that you don't have to revenue share with football, but you also don't have maybe the revenue or possibly the reach of football. Okay, and we're watching we're watching the haves and the have nuts, right, like you being a part of it. Like we're not even in the ballpark, right and the Mountain West is kind of in that curious has been really successful, is you know, New Mexico incredibly well supported. But there's always going to be a difference between New Mexico and the Big East and then a chasm between New Mexico and the SEC and Big Ten. Where do you think the Big East settles in regards to the comparison NIO wise of how much you have in the bank.

It's really really difficult to figure that out. You know. I did have conversations with some schools with football and just trying. Everybody has no idea what the future holds. I think the Big East is in an amazing position of strength because they don't have a cap. You know that nobody is spending twenty point five million on men's basketball or women's basketball, right, so you know, the growth opportunities for all of these programs are no football, I think are phenomenal and that was appealing. That was one of the main factors of why I took the job, was because we got to build rosters and it's it's way more transactional now than it ever is, and who knows what it'll change. But I think the Big East, Yeah, you know, if they cap men's basketball at the power for level at three and a half million or whatever, and then they say that they're going to really crack down on the deals, the nil deals, I think the Big East is in a great position of strength. But it's it's like anything else, it's about continue to grow and invest in your program because if you don't, you're gonna get left behind.

It's one thing to compete against your dad once a year, it's a whole other thing to recruit against or you know, portal against your dad, right and then coach against your dad, you know, twice a year. And obviously Saint John's he flipped that thing in year two and they they seem to be on a different level and io wise than some of the other teams in the East. Have you thought about what this is going to be like, you know, it's only.

Really a thing when with media. You know, it's not traditional recruiting anymore. I don't care what anybody says. It's just not so it's maybe not as emotional like it used to be back in the old days when we started. I just think it's about, you know, how we're going to invest as we're going against my dad. Like listen, he's a young seventy two, but who knows how much longer he goes, you know, and I just want him to be happy when we play him two times a year. Like I understand the hoopla that's going to go with it, and that's fine, but we're both going to try to beat each other. It's no real difference. So that was not even a little bit of I didn't even think about it when taking this job.

Will you ever get him in a quarter zip? You know so many coaches have gone to the quarter zip. He still wears those beautiful suits. Will you ever get him in the courterzip?

Yeah, I'm not happy about that. That's the only thing that I don't like about the Big East is I know that my dad does it. I know that there's another one that wears suits in that league as well that we got to get him out of. So who knows. If Kevin Willard goes to Villanova, he wears suits as well, so we'll see. You know, that's something I'm going to band together and fight with because I love the quarters up.

Richard Pertino, head coach of ex Xavior, the new head coach. He's the reigning Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, coaching the Lobos in New Mexico to the Mountain West championship this season. He joins us in the Hurdum Doug Gotlink filling in for Colin. You know again, I don't know if you find this interesting. Body. I'm watching Alabama play last night. They make twenty five out of fifty one threes, and I'm thinking of your dad, right because your dad, when he got to Providence, he was the first one to really really embrace the three point shot. And yet you have so many people who sit there and I feel like they say that they just tell lies, Like, man, I wish I missed the old days, the mid ry pull up and guys backing people down, like I don't know, like you got the mix of old school and new school with your dad, but your dad was the first of the truly new school. When you watch Alabama shoot fifty one threes, what do you think?

You know? It's interesting because obviously they've really dove right in with the three point shot. I understand the value of offensive rebounding opportunities. Obviously threes are worth more than two. But I don't know if I want to shoot a million of them if I'm shooting like twenty eight percent from them, So I kind of think every team is different. That was fascinating to watch last night, for sure, to see that many threes. You know, so it's obviously working, But I've never seen that many threes taken into It seems to try to be evolving into a more NBA model more than anything.

Yeah, it really does. We circle back to the nil. What is it like to be coaching and to think to your there's that deflating feeling of hey, look I got my guys prepped, we're really good, but that other team has two x three X of the money we have and the reality is, more times than not, we're just not going to be as good. That's that's part of why everybody's moving up players and coaches and otherwise. Fair.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely a concern of the have separating from the have nots. Somebody's always going to have more money than you. You've just got to do a very very good job of spending wisely. Not easy, right, but you know, you've got to really really evaluate how you're going to spend it. It's like pro sports, and it's not going to change until I don't know if Congress or whoever figures this out, because it's going to be hard to kind of limit their money. So you know, I mean, we've beaten teams this year who had more money than we did. We've lost the teams who had less money than we did, so we're just trying to take it year by year. I always tell the players, like, our goal is certainly to win championships, but we want to increase your value. And we certainly did that with a lot of players in our program, and we were able to win.

Okay, most important question is you did the perfect job of leaving. You had the note on social media, you had the quotes, you had the video, you had all the different right messages. Plus you stayed through it through the full cycle. You know, you stay four years like all right, kind of runs. Of course, you won the league and then you're out. All good. Did you say goodbye to Snake before you left?

I did not say goodbye to Snake. You only normally see Snake on game day. But I'll have to reach out to them. Yeah, I mean it is emotional. I think the time is right, you know, I think we did a lot of great things. You know, my daughter's going to go into high school, so the timing there is really good. And you know, the uncertainty of the Mountain West was certainly a concern, and I just think in a very very unstable profession. The Big Yeast is about a stable of the conferences you're going to get right now.

Yeah, well, listen, you left it better than you found it. You left an incredible shape. Xavier is a great place at Cintas Center is it's not the pit, but it's still an incredible home court. And obviously the Big East is an unbelievable conference. Hey man, congrats on the new gig. Congrats on an amazing season, and best of luck here in portal season.

All right, thank you for having me appreciate it.

All right, that's Richard Pertino, the new head coach of x That's Xavier, the Musketeers right in the Queens city of Cincinnati. And no, we didn't do the proverbial skyline Chile sort of yuckty yuck sort of thing. No, we did not. We not do that. We could have done greaters ice cream, right, oh, greats ice really really really good.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Eastern nan am Pacific.

Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David, and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.

You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio App.

Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.

We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world.

We have a lot of fun talking about the story behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss.

And the fact that we've been friends for the last twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something, right.

So check us out. We like to get you involved, to take your phone calls, chop it up. As they say, I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive show on planetar. Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you miss any of the live show, just search Covin on Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social media that's Covino and Rich.

Doug Gottliebit for Collins. I heard Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. I'm gonna do a stephen A Smith correction. Lakers are up five, so you don't file when you're up five, it's you're up six, then you foul. That makes it even worse. Said, why would you if Lebron James leave a shooter in the corner and try and help a teammate out right, You don't do that. You switch and you keep the guy in front, and you make them take a cut tested shot, and then you don't turn the basketball over. Yesterday was Opening Day in Major League Baseball. Just baseball in kind of a curious place because in terms of overall talent wise, it's amazing how many young players are blowing up. The athleticism is back in the game, the games are shorter, they're better. I think baseball, honestly, in terms of play isn't a great place. I don't know if it's not too late where so many think baseball is boring and it is actually the past time. But whatever, baseball, you know, leaving ESPN at the end of this year, it's just in a weird place. I think we can all kind of admit that. But it was opening Day, and this is you know, like opening Day part D if you will, because obviously the Dodgers and the Cubs had Opening Day of their own going back to Japan, and that was like a week ago, right. So now you have teams playing a bunch of baseball games, and yesterday I thought was the perfect embodiment of things that track. What do you what do I mean by that? The Dodgers moved themselves to three and oh. On the year they won two in Japan, and yesterday they won well because, among other things, they had show, Hey, Otani.

They stay out toward right field.

There's a jet stream there for show.

If he wants it.

On three to two, he swings.

And goes the opposite field, left field, drifting back toward the loaf. That's gone.

That's on AM five seventy, the Dodgers Radio network.

Yeah.

So, on one hand, you had the Dodgers Blake Snell, who, of course, uh I think he's one. He's want to Si young. Of course, he pitched Game seven against the Dodgers back in the COVID World Series. You know, Blake Snell wins his first game as a Dodger, they get a save. They moved to three and oh, Right, the Dodgers are playing serious competitive baseball games. Then you have the Angels and you know, full disclosure, I grew up in Orange, California and Orange in the City of Orange in Orange County. The Angels on opening Day against the White Sox, who were far and away the worst team in baseball last year, not only are down eight nothing and lose eight to one, but they actually used a position player to pitch late in the game, like the idea that I'm that forty five minutes apart. The Dodgers win their home opener and the Angels now he lose, but lose to the White Sox and throw out a position player day one. That's the most Angels thing ever. Right? Oh yeah, and by the way, the guy that hit the three run home run for the Dodgers, he used to be an Angel, right. That is salt in the wound YEP that tracks. That definitely tracks. This is The Herd on Fox Sports Radio. I'm Doug Gottlieb filling in for Colin. Coming up next Lebron and Steven A. Smith. Will the beef go Away? We'll discuss next on The Herd Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.

One More Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you like.

What up? Welcome in. This is the Herd wherever you may be and however you may make this part of your day. Thanks so much. I'm Doug gottlieb In for Colin Cowherd on for the next couple of hours, I want to talk sports.

What are they?

We got the Sweet sixteen? Continuing on four, I have moved forward. I want a performance from A Baba and Florida and Texas Tech, and I love Duke and the Dookies and look, I mean, I can I understand what Colin has been saying about people didn't really love the Cinderella's not everybody knows what they love, but they do. They like the David versus Goliath. They like the Again, it doesn't mean that it was always great basketball with when you had one one division state tournaments like you used to have back in Indiana. Obviously that's when myle and high school, or even when you had two or three divisions. But when you have like fifteen divisions and everybody's the state champion, you're like, come on, like, what are we actually doing here? And I use that because Cinderella not really having much of a fight it's one thing. If it's one thing, if you have you have high powered teams that can pay the best players to come aboard, it's a whole other thing. If the high power teams to sit there and go like, hey, let's go watch the mid majors play, and then every guy they get that's pretty good. When they get to be twenty three, twenty four and they get a year or get an extra year, then we'll we'll pay him to sit on the bench. Like. That's just the reality of it. So to people who don't understand what's happened in college basketball, you have you have teams that have literally thirty x the money of others, forty x the money of others competing in an NCAA tournament game. If you look at my bracket, it is nearly flawless. And it's because all I did when I picked my bracket as a current sitting college basketball coachkay, I put no money on it, right, I just went to Fox Sports Trade dot Com. My boss is like, you gotta do it, all right, Well, I'll do it. I just said, hey, who's got more nil? And then obviously once it gets to be sort of equal in nil, then I don't know it just done matchups. I picked a couple. But you're like, man, how boring you picked for one seed. He's like, yeah, they got more money than the other teams. Duh, and they got really good coaches. Because what the SEC did about I don't know, probably started about eight, nine, ten years ago, was first they got serious about basketball. That's serious about basketball. Auburn hired Bruce Pearl. Obviously you look at Tennessee and they go and you know, you hire a guy who I think everybody respects, everybody respects and as much as as much as maybe he hasn't won an NCAA championship, He's only been to one Final four. Rick Barnes hell of a coach, right, I mean you go on Rick Barnes, you have John Caliperi, you kind of go through the list. Like even before that, when Arkansas had Eric Mussel, like Musk was had it rolling at Nevada, they went out and spent a bunch of money on coaches, a bunch of money on facilities, a bunch of money on all the support staff. And then once you got to where you could spend your money on players, they went all in. I like in what's happened to the sec in basketball of what's happened when Barry Bonds was on steroids? Right, Like, think about it. Sammy Sosa was a platoon guy who went on the juice and became a prodigious home run hitter. Obviously he couldn't sustain it. He wasn't the world's greatest hitter, but he was an unbelievable weapon because he was clearly on steroids. It can also prolong great careers. Roger Clemens, Right, you take a Roger Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers, but he started to fade, and then all of a sudden he started juicing up. And we saw what happened in Toronto and after he left Toronto, or into Toronto, and then when he came back down into the continue contiguous fifty states and what he did late in his career. Right, it elongates your career. But then you give Barry Bonds, who was already a Hall of Famer, like one of the great hitters of any generation, he started to fade too. You give a great hitter the best drugs, and guess what, he becomes the best hitter we've ever ever ever seen. He doesn't get tired, his body doesn't break down. And yeah, he had seventy seven home runs. He probably would have had ninety if they pitched to him. That's what happened to the SEC. They were already all in on basketball. You already had Kentucky right now. You give the conference that that has that is in proximity to many of the best athletes, and they were already trending in the way of being the best basketball conference. But what's happened? How did we go from Syracuse and Louisville and North Carolina and look, North Carolina spent a lot of money this year, but all this historic acc what pitt? What happened to those teams? And how they get left in the dust by old miss the hair Cris Beard And they got a huge money, so they did both. They spent that money on coaches on facilities, and now they spend it on players. It's Barry Bonds on steroids. Yeah, duh. You know what happened to Michigan, right, Michigan got a great coach in Dusty May, and then they opened up their wallets and they went out and bought a really good team. You combined a really good coach and a really good team with a really good facilities at a really good school, and guess what, they're awesome. Duh, wasn't that hard? And Colin can say whatever he wants. But everyone's memory of the final four may be memories of whomever in the past. Right. You may not think the Butler run because they were a top ten team, but the Butler Butler will never be in the final four again in this current climate, because it's not that you have to beat one team that has even Butler, now one team that has Saint Butler's. I don't know what they're in I l is let's say a million like you go against five million dollars, six million dollars, seven million dollar teams in three consecutive rounds. You're not going to the likelihood of winning is nominal at best. And you used to be able to compete because you'd have they'd have younger players, you'd have older players, and you'd be able to have a cohesion. You don't have that anymore. So again, we may say, hey, it's the times have changed. They have this is the current landscape, but you can't possibly say that you like it more. In the early rounds of the tournament, because the early rounds of the tournament were about Vermont beating Syracuse, were about Middle Tennessee State pulling upset East Tennessee State, Keith mister Jennings Harold the show Arsenal at Weaber State beating beating North Carolina, Kent State getting to an Elite eight with Trevor Huffman as their point guard. Like you name it, Steph Curry, I don't care how good Steph Curry. Like Steph Curry as good as he is. Right his last year at Davidson, he would have been at one of the ACC or SEC schools. Like, well, he comes from money, Like do you think no matter what Steph Curry is the current GM of Davidson's program. They just lost their best player to the portal. Why because what's the most they can pay him? A couple hundred thousand dollars? Great, he can make a million or more playing at one of the big boys and as a college player if you if you know, hey, I'm never gonna make a million dollars playing basketball. Ever, most kids will taken All right, Let's get to the the story of the week, which is Lebron James and steven A. Smith I'm Doug Gollibin for colling this is the hurt on Fox Sports Radio. I I don't know how much you guys listen to my show, and I got to never assume is the rule in sports radio. So the fact that I've said this before, if you listen to me on a daily basis, I don't apologize. It is my job to iterate and reiterate myself. I don't understand why Lebron did this. I just don't like the I've been quiet my whole career and I'm gonna body slam Brian Winhurst because he got his first job, you know, he first got his breakthrough job because of whatever was assumed about his relationship with Lebron. What is the win? What was won by Lebron James calling out Stephen A. Smith for what do you say his Taylor Swift Tour? Which it's a great line, clearly a prepared line, but a really good line. What was won by him saying, hey, Giannis would have had two hundred and fifty points, Like what exactly was accomplished? All it gave was some sort of credence or some sort of amplification. What a great word, right, amplification, I'm gonna win scrabbled night kids, amplification of what steven A was saying. Yeah, of course, steven A exposed himself as not like dude. If Lebron James would have put his hands on would have put his hands on me, we would have thrown down, like, stop it, embarrassing yourself. You're embarrassing yourself. In addition to being ten years older than Lebron James, he's six eight, two hundred and sixty pounds. Stop it. There's nothing worse than a fake tough guy. And then, of course he said Lebron wasn't at Kobe's funeral. He's like my bad. Earlier today he said Nolan richardson, God rest his soul. Nol rich is a former head coach of Arkansas. They won a national championship. No, rich is very much alive. And well, yeah, did he expose stephen A as being a guy who is riding the coattails of Lebron James? Of who Stevin A actually is? And did steven A expose himself as a guy who does not do the homework, He just does the performance. Of course, but what's the winning it for Lebron pointing out other people's flaws, like it may feel good in the moment, but why have you had to at the end of the day, Like you're Lebron James, they're not. You scored more points than anyone in the history of the NBA. You're not gonna there's no fight. You're gonna win with people who believe, like myself, that Michael Jordan was the better all time player. There's no there's no fight anything you do just reiterates it. Right two nights ago they win on a tip in in Indy. He doesn't play particularly well offensively. But if you're was it what do they call him? Lebron sexuals? You're a Lebron sexual you're like see the goat. And if you're not, if you're a Lebron hater, you're like, yeah, well that's why he doesn't take the game winning shot. But what what what was Lebron's need to say? I didn't sign with Nike because they had Michael Jordan. I signed with Nike because they offered more money ninety million dollars or actually he didn't say more money, he just said I got ninety million dollars. Where again, Pat McAfee, if it was a normal interview. The follow up was what was the Adidas offer? Because if you signed for less money with Nike than you did with the Adidas, well then why did you sign with Nike or Nike better? I think the answer would be yeah, but twenty million dollars better? Or was it because of Jordan's legacy? Why did you wear number twenty three? Duh? But again, what is what is the actual win? Here's Charles Barkley with Dan Patrick earlier today on Fox Sports Radio.

Lebron he's too big to be that type of bully to bully steven A and to bully Bron Winhorse Brian Woodhorst is a sweet person man. He's just trying to do his thing. And I've always liked Lebron, but him being a bully it turned me off.

Dan.

But I will say that steven A, the way he reacted was so lame and weak. Lebron, like I say, I blamed him for starting a bullying going on past show, just bullying people. But the way stephen A react that going on Gibbeth's podcast, talking tough and I come on, man, you're better than that. So there's only there's only losers.

In this scenario, correct, correct, tell you a story real quick, okay, And I'm not Lebron James. A matter of fact, I'm the opposite Lebron James. Even when I worked on ESPN covering college basketball. But a lesson that I learned a long time ago. I was doing halftime of the ACC Tournament and Mike's chefsy Coach K was the coach of Duke, and I think they were playing Maryland at the time, and at halftime, they interviewed Chris Collins, who's now Northwestern's head coach, was then the associate head coach, and they come to us in studio, and I immediately said, and Duke was like, losing by two points, Why do we hear from Chris Collins? Because everybody at that point in time, I think only CBS would get Coach K. At halftime. I remember, it's two questions, what do you think the first half? Coach? What are you gonna do the second half? Thanks coach, right, that's all you really ask. But they're down two points and the silent reporter goes to Chris Collins, and Chris Collins gives two really good answers, and they come back to studio, and I said, like, why why are we hearing from an assistant coach not from coach K. And there's a guy named Scott Reese and Scott was our host of the time. Scott's like, well, what's the matter with that? And I was like, well, because when you go into the locker room, unless it's that assistant scout, you don't hear from all the other assistants. The assistants Mace make suggestions, but the head coach makes the substitutions, makes the final decisions. And oh yeah, by the way, he's Mike freaking Skryzewski. He's coach of Team USA basketball. He's the most successful modern day basketball coach in the history of the sport. Yeah, I'd like to ask him two questions, or you have to, like, I'm not going to do the interview if we can't hear from Coach K. So we get done with the segment, we go to break and there's a head phone behind me and the man that hired me at ESPN is a guy named Dan Steer. Dan Steer's nickname is the Vision because the Vision sees things other people do not. So the Vision calls me and he says, uh, what the f are you doing? I was like, I just did halftime vision, Like what why are you calling out Duke and calling out coach K for not doing an interview? We was already pre agreed that we're I was like, I understand, but like, why win Coach K? Like Coach K, we want to hear from coach K. And he asked me the same question I would ask Lebron James, what's the win? What was the win in what you just said? And does this is the squeeze worth the juice? What was the win? What was the win in? Lebron James going on McAfee like, if it was to tweak steven A. Smith, instead of confronting him at the Laker game, he should have pretended like he doesn't exist at the Laker game, right, giving credence And I've said this back when I was doing halftime of games, when Beheim would call me out, when any other coach, when the Big Ten commissioner would called me out a long time ago, by giving credence to the things I say. And also instead of and here's where I will credit Lebron that he didn't assassinate stephen A's character. He just assassinated his takes, right, did he fib about it? Sure?

Right?

He can't take constructive criticism of Brownie James because all I've offered up is constructive criticism of Bronnie James, and he tweeted at me, so he clearly can't take it. But the easiest if you want somebody to go away, and you're somebody super powerful, pretend like they don't exist, and instead lebron fed the beast, fed the beast

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

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