The Herd with Colin CowherdDoug talks to Drake head coach Ben McCollum about their upset win over 6-seed Missouri
Najee Harris takes another shot at Steelers
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What Up. Welcome in this and the Herd wherever you may be in however you may be making this part of your day. Thanks so much. I'm Doug Otley in for Colin Cowhard. It's the second ay of the NCAA Tournament. It may be decision day for Aaron Rodgers. We're getting closer and closer to the rest of Major League Baseball season, getting it away and hopefully where you are, it's as nice as the weather where I am because spring has arrived, and wow is it? Is it nice? I know we had that midweek well mini blizzard running through the northern Midwest. Outside of that, some some nice weather along the way. Welcome in and thanks so much for joining me. Colin is back on Monday. There are some similarities to Aaron Rodgers, as you just heard from Dan Byer, who works with me on my show, that Doug Gottlieb Show, which broadcast daily three to five Eastern twelve to Pacific Fox Sports Radio.
iHeart Ready.
Ap Dan reported that Or said, the report is out that Aaron Rodgers is visiting the Pittsburgh Steelers facility. And it's kind of interesting, right in college basketball, the portal opens on Monday, and and I don't know how many of you know this, but now there are lots of players that thought going into the season like this is it, this is my last year. I'm done. I'm There are six year seniors, seventh year seniors, whatever, like hah, I'm done. And then there was a ruling with a the quarterback of Vanderbilt who went to junior college and I believe one of the years in junior college they didn't have a season because of COVID whatever. Anyway, he got an extra year. So now there's a blanket ruling where if you played junior college or any I A NAIA basketball, you get an extra year. So there are lots of guys who like thought they were that they were done. They're like, hey, you know what, I might go do this again, and they'll like Aaron Rodgers go and have a visit, and uh, and maybe you know they won't sign with Pittsburgh Steelers, but they'll sign with your team. I bring it up because our next guest is the head coach of the Drake Bulldogs. He won four national championships at the Division two level, and I think in the summer his one of his star shooters, Mitch Muscari, was going into the private sector, like he was gonna go work for a living. And well, let's just let coach McCullum tell the story. Drake Bulldogs win the Missouri Valley regular season, win their conference tournament championship. They're thirty one and three. Then they take down Missouri yesterday. Now they get ready to take on Texas Tech grit McCaslin, who ironically told us just last hour they scrimmaged Drake in the secret scrimmage earlier this year, and now they play each other in the second round the NCAA tournament. And coach McCullum joins us on Fox Sports Radio, Ben, how are you.
I'm great? How about yourself, Doug, I'm.
Not a not as good as you, not with your team, Okay, So help tell this story here, right, you get the Drake job, and Mscari was already working or was gonna go work.
What happened, Yeah, he was gonna go work.
You know. I got the Drake job, and.
I obviously had three coming with and I thought Mitch was done and he had a really good financial job in Chicago. He never ended up starting it though, but he was going to start it, you know, within the next couple of months of graduation from from Northwest Missouri State and the last day he put his name in the portal, and I think he just did it, you know, just kind of making sure that, you know, if he wanted to he could, he could play again. And I was like, ohoner, what are you thinking? So I called him, I'm like, well, do you want to play? He's like, I don't know. I was just kind of thinking about it. I said, well, if you want to do that, let's just do it here. And he said okay, And so he thought about it for a while and then eventually just you know, decided, hey, this is this is something that I want to do. It was a tough It was a tough decision for him because I couldn't give him a lot of advice because I knew I had something to gain from it, and so you know, when kids trust you with advice and you have something to gain in the process, you know, you just can't really, you know, say you should do this, but he should do it, and obviously he ended up doing it, which has been great.
What's it like to take this group and many of them you mentioned you had three now four coming with from the Division two level. What's it like to go through this where everybody falls back on the story, Hey, their division two guys when you're take them down, go back to the preseason, when you win in Charleston, you beat k State, you beat Vandy, what what is what is that like for you? When when you have a group of guys that you've been with at the Division two level to play so well at this.
Level, you know, it's been it's been a blast. You know. I think.
I think the thing for for me in particular, when you take this job, it's it's it is a lonely feeling when.
You take over a job at this level and you don't have.
A lot of players, like it's very lonely. And when you're able to take three or four of your guys, four of your guys with you and show up day one and at least you know you've got guys that are you know, essential in your foxhole right in. Guys they're going to fight for what the program means and fight for your culture and fight for the effort and.
That sort of thing. And so it was a big deal to get them.
Obviously, it was a big deal to get everybody though, and a lot of those guys came on just blind faith, you know where It's like they didn't have to come to Drake for an unproven at Division one, Division two guy, and they did. And so obviously it became, you know, everybody together, everybody connected, and it.
Was fun.
Starts, you know, we when we prepare for you guys who were like, holy cal, this is the best guy we've seen all year. And granted we're the Rizon League, but we played Oaklham State, we played Ohio State, we played Providence and he's a special player. When did you first see Starts play in high school?
When he was a junior.
When he was a junior, he made the state championship, I believe, and lost in the state title game, and no one really was recruiting him at the Division one level, and I didn't understand why. But so then we chose to recruit him at the Division two level, and I thought at that point, I'm like, this kid is no brainer mid major. You know, we're going to steal another one.
You know.
Obviously now he's probably you know, fringe NBA, and I think eventually.
He's probably going to be an NBA player, you know, when it's all.
Said and done.
He just had such a good demeanor.
He's an elite passer, He's an unselfish person. He's an unselfish player, you know, and he listens and wants to be good.
He just he just gets it.
And so it certainly helps that he's on our team. And and you know, it also helps that we coached him for two years. You know, I coached him for two seasons prior, and so that that really benefited us as well.
No, no, out, was there any special hitch in his gidea up because it was Missouri?
No, not not really, I think Kansas State. It wasn't. It was just the NCAA tournament.
Was probably he was excited about because, you know, to be quite honest, it's like, uh, you know, I had another guard Trevor Hudgens for a while.
Well, you know, like and everybody's like, we why didn't ky State offer? Why? Kid?
Because he wasn't good enough for kse State right away? Right, that's why they didn't.
Right if you if you saw him when he was sixteen, you would have said he's not not good enough. You know, I had that.
I don't know that.
Yeah, I don't. I don't, like, I don't know if I can. I can't say. Obviously, guys names whatever. I don't know inportal, not in portal. But yeah, we played against a guy this year who lit us up at the Division two level and they were, you know after the game, like why didn't you offer him? Like I wasn't here and when I got here, he wasn't in the portals, Like, I don't know what you're like. We do ask things of people, which are it which are unfair?
Do you?
Does I think everyone knows that if you can coach at the Division two level, you can coach division one level. Bruce Pearl's proved that. You've proved that others have as well. Does this change in your mind the perception of recruiting Division two players to transfer up to the Division one level.
No, it probably does, but that's because people don't think for themselves times, you know, I mean it's like, oh, D two players are great, Let's everybody go get twenty five D two players, because there's a recency biased already to it, and so it's I don't know, like I think too often, you know, in college coaching and even hiring coaches and stuff like that, there becomes a biased to you know, all of a sudden because a D two guy has success, every D two guy can have success, and that's just not that's just not the case. Or you know, a few you know, on an AI guy can be just good, a JUCO guy can be just as good. And same concept for players, like just because some Division two guys have success doesn't necessarily mean that every D two guy is going to have success, but it does mean that you can find good players anywhere, and you just kind of have to trust your own eye on some of those things.
And in today's society, it's it's.
A lot more difficult to trust your own eye, just because social media and all those different things that are like, you know, even when we took this job, and you know, there's probably fifty to fifty split where you know, fifty percent of fans would be like, and I can't wait to watch these guys.
I think they'll be great.
And then there's another fifty percent that was like, I can't believe they're taking d two guys and they're going to be awful.
And so you just can't listen to that noise. You just got to trust yourself. And that's that's.
What we did, and you know, we got a little lucky to you know, where just those guys showed up and competed and as the heck of a run and still continues to be that.
Ben McCollum, head coach, Drake. The Bulldogs are thirty one and three and they take on Texas Tech the Red Raiders, who they faced in a sec scrimmage. How much can you take from the secret scrimmage in getting ready for a second NCAA tournament.
Game, Man, I don't know.
I don't know, because they're I mean, they're just so well coached, you know, I just think they're you know, they've got obviously hired one of my others. Uh, he's got he's got Grant, who's one of my close friends. Who's got Linda, who I talk to about every day. Uh, he's got Luke who actually played for me, Luke Barnwell, the chokey more Kobe, Who's who's the ac who's So it's like their whole staff is really close to me, and so I'm not sure how much you can take from that, you know, Uh, I don't think either of.
Us really totally prepared for.
It, if that makes sense, meaning you know those scrimmages, it's better that I think a lot of people try to win those scrimmages. Obviously you always want to win everything you do, but more importantly you want to you want to see what works, see what lineups work. And so I'm not sure how much you can actually take from that scrimmage.
Yes, I wish you would have told me that I tried to win my scrimmage. And then I was like at the end of us, like, why did I try to win my scrimmage? Well, I was trying to show, you know, a group of young guys, build them confidence in what we were doing, and have one more point than an opponent. But again, these are just learning lessons as you only learned by but by doing. Ben McCullum joining us, who is the Drake Drake head coach. Okay, So you went from turning down lots of jobs that didn't fit. Why did Drake fit?
A couple of reasons.
One, I really liked the athletic director, Brian Harden. I thought he had a good vision for the program. Two, it was you know, close to home probably you know, a Midwest guy doesn't mean I, you know, would never live in any other place in the country. But you know, initially, just that first jump, I wanted to make sure that it was also beneficial for my family to get closer to family.
And then you know, it was just the right time.
You know, I started to notice that I started to notice that I was I wasn't choosing to come back to Northwest. I was choosing to not take jobs. And I think when you start to trend that direction, I think that probably gives you the indication that it's probably time to come out of your comfort zone a little bit and you know, just see what you could do.
And and then.
You know, they were super patient in the process.
Drake was. You know, I think that a lot of these schools.
When they hire, which I understand, you know, they they offer you the job the next day, you got to decide and it's not really the nature of me. And so it's my greatest strength and greatest weakness is my patience. But you know, sometimes it's just is what it is. And this one just worked out perfect, and you know, I got put in a good position and very thankful for it.
Okay, So with that though, now comes autation. There's other jobs available. How do you handle that?
Right?
Will Wade is like, Hey, I'm taking a state like that's that's happening, and people are like, whoa wait, that's that's weird. How are you handling the now speculation about what could be next for you?
Yeah, you know, the same way I've done it for years. I really try not to. My personality doesn't allow me to have a divided heart, if that makes sense, and so I think some people can can multitask. And do you know what Will Wade is take a job and still focus on his team and still focus on everything else associated with it. I'm just different in a personality. It doesn't make me right, doesn't make him wrong. It's just how I do things. And so my attention and my kids know that my attention is on them and making sure that you know, we're at our best and that I fight for what they are and again, has it hurt me in the past, It absolutely has, but it's helped me.
Create a level of loyalty.
With the people surrounding the program because it's like, I know, I know where his heart is at, like I know where it's at, you.
Know, regardless of you know, all these things.
And speculation and stuff like that is you know, I'm making sure that I fight for Drake and fight for these kids and fight for these players. And you know that's what I've done for seven eight years and approved it and I'll continue to do it the same way.
All right.
Most important question is when did you start the white shirt solid tie?
Look A long time ago.
I probably, gosh, I bet twenty sixteen, probably somewhere in that range, because I know I had at twenty seventeen because that was our first national championship.
Probably twenty sixteen, maybe even earlier.
You know, I used to wear just different color ties, different colored shirts, you know, different everything. And then I was like, man, I don't even want to make a decision because we got to make ten thousand decisions in the game.
So I was just.
You know, I was always that's fascinated by Billy Donovan and and they just wore a white shirt.
So I just wore a white shirt.
And you don't, Okay, So so then the follow then the follow up is is that the same blue tie or there multiple blue ties that that that that look alike?
It is the same blue tie, always the same blue tie. Yep, it says the same whole year.
How do you not get a spot? How do you not get anything on it? I get coffee on it, something else.
Yeah, it's it's it's used.
Now, it's it's man, that's the beauty of it.
What do you see?
This? A bunch of scrappers.
Now, that's what we do. So it's not.
There's there's no there's no backup tie. There's there's no backup tie.
No no, heck, no no backup players either.
No.
We we just the ties is who we are as a team.
Man.
We're not perfect, and you know sometimes we're bruised and battered, but we're always fighting. So that's pretty good. I just made that up. So but no, it's the same time all the time.
Well, listen, I appreciate that when I got we got we had a check for my coaching clinic that I was able to watch over on the other sideline. I had no doubt what would happen yesterday. I'm really interested in what happens tomorrow. We wish you the best of luck and we'll talk to soon. Thanks so much for joining.
Us, Yes, thanks for having me on all right.
Appreciate its Ben Mccollumy's the head coach of the Drake Bulldogs. He's won four national titles at the Division two level. In his first year at Division one, they are thirty one and three on the year. Coming up next in the Herd, I'm Doug gotlibin for Colin. Guess who took another shot at the Pittsburgh Steelers. You'll find out next in.
The Hurt one More Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Doug Gottliebin for Collins, I heard Fox Sports Radio iHeartRadio app two Steelers stories at the same time. Jerry Dulocke, who covers the team, reports that Aaron Rodgers is visiting the Steelers' training facility. As we told you yesterday, that tracks in timing and location So Naji Harris is now a former Steeler, right, Naji Hearris said this about the Pittsburgh Steelers offense when he was a Steeler.
It was just a team where you know, we lost Ben, we lost a lot of old line. We just didn't know anything on offense. Really, we didn't have identity. We had a young guy come to that quarterback. You know, I was young, the team was young, and I really didn't have nobody to almost learn from the offensive side. I think the the veteran guy on that team was like a two to three year vet and asked me nothing, you know what I mean, Like he still learned himself. And I'm coming in and you know, I'm just trying to look for people to to, you know, pick their brain off of. And it was just defensive guys. So I'll go to the defensive guys to talk to him. But you know, it wouldn't be too much. They could tell me about an offensive thing, you know what I mean. So it was interesting years there. I'll just say that, yeah.
I mean, so he they were too young and didn't have an offensive culture. And look, if you're Aaron Rodgers, like a that's actually has to I think make you even more drawn to pittsforgh, Like, how could that be be more drawn to Pittsburgh? Like what Aaron doesn't work well with is somebody else's system and somebody else's kind of rigidity. I don't think he will deal well with rigid people. Does that mean that it's going to be Aaron's way or the highway? No, again, this is just a guess. But the difference between the Steelers and the Jets and their approaches. The Jets made it clear and made it public that if Aaron wanted to come back, he would have to give up, you know, the mcaffee thing.
Now.
I don't know for a fact if Tomlin will make him give up the McAfee thing, but my guess is they will, but they'll never make it public, right, There'll be some sort of like, hey, look, you can go pop on here a couple times in the offseason if you take the gig here, But like, what are we doing. It's Tuesday, it's your day off, Like, get away from it, get away from the media. Like if you want to be here for a year, let's just try and go with a foot bucket. Let's just try and go one foot bucket and no one understands this more than me. Right, I host the national radio show. I coach a college basketball team, and we didn't play well in year one. We weren't good enough in year one. Nobody cares about injuries or having too many younger players or any of that, or getting the job two months after the portal had opened, like, no, nobody actually cares. So optics do. But in this particular case, if it's one last year and you've done the two years of macafee's show and football, and wouldn't it be interesting, right, because didn't we have Cam Hayward and he said, do you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler? Not have be a Pittsburgh Steeler? That did happen, right, We did play that. He said that on his own podcast. The point is, he said on his own podcast. People only want to pick out these things when something's not going well. When it goes well, nobody says like, oh, hey, by the way, he's got a podcast. Does does Cam Hayward have to give up his podcast?
Right?
Here's here's Cam Hayward two days ago.
I ain't doing that or darkness darkness treat retreat. I don't mean any of that crap, like, either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don't. That's that's simple. That's the pitch. If you want me to recruit, that's the recruiting pitch. You know, Pittsburgh Steelers. If you want to be part of it, so be it. If you don't, no, no skirt on my back.
Yeah.
But the point of it is now just like, hey, you know what, are goot off the pot? That's part of it. But it's also doesn't he have a don't have a podcast of wasone? Doesn't he have a podcast zone? I don't think that Najie Harris is saying anything that most people didn't know they were a ruddless ship. You can't have that much youth, that much inexperience, even if there are guys who athletically are past their prime. We just talked to We just talked to Ben McCullum, who's the head coach of Drake. What did he say about the players that he has, Like, hey, I had to have some guys. He's got older guys. Benjamin Starts, Ben Stirtz, who's their best player. This is his third year playing for his coach. So you don't have to.
Do.
You have to go and teach everything, sure, but you don't have to teach everything two or three or four times. And you don't have to how people act and react when adversity strikes, when lineups get screwed up, when whatever happens. You know, so much of coaching is about teaching guys to push through adversity, but specifically how you view them pushing through adversity collectively. You can't do that when you have all young guys and they've never experienced that before. They can't draw on both positive and negative memories of the past interesting days in Pittsburgh. And it'll be interesting to see if Aaron Rodgers can write that ship and give them an offensive identity. All right, let's get to some of the other news. Here's Ryan Music with the news.
This is the herd Line News.
All right, Doug, on that quick point there, quick point here on that Aaron Rodgers news. So, as you pointed out, Jerry du Lac, covering the Steelers for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, initially put out the report about Rogers. He has followed that up with a bit more information he has he has posted on his Twitter or ex whatever you want to call it. Sources have cautioned a commitment from Rogers may not come today if at all. Just visiting with coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar con.
Hey, I'm just hanging out, hey man. Other than I was in Pittsburgh and.
I happened to find myself in the neighborhood. Yeah, and was just wondering what you guys were up to.
What is it is pitt pitt University of Pittsburgh. Correct, it's the Tower of Learning, the Tower of Learning or Talent of not what is it? They have this big tower. I think it's called the Tower of Learning. I don't know. Somebody will somebody will hit us up on the grammar.
Cathedral of Learning. Oh sorry, no, that's.
I don't think it's a Cathedral of Learning.
The University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning. So it is at a University of Pittsburgh website Cathedral of Learning, the Cathedral of Learning. If this is what you're referring to, Yeah, okay.
It's a big, big building on campus. I was just I love the you know, he's a big architecture.
Guy.
I love the architecture Cathedral Learning, And I just happened upon your practice building, and I just thought, hey, what if, why not I'll just stop by.
Hey how about you? How about me? We just chat?
All right?
So that's the latest. Aaron Rodgers is in Pittsburgh. Aaron Rodgers is meeting with people of the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. No decision considered imminent, may not get a decision at all. So the uh cloud of murky information surrounding Aaron Rodgers continues.
All right.
A quick update also as well. Let's talk some March madness. Of course, we have halftime Baylor five point lead over Mississippi State halftime, Robert Morris keeping it close with number two seed Alabama for already to thirty six. Those two games are in half, and we just tipped off fourteen seed lipscumb taken on three seed Iowa States Bobby Moe.
We lost to bib Mo twice. We're up seventeen. The first time we played them down three starters and they had a twenty eight nothing run. I was like, man, what what just happened?
Yeah?
That?
Uh, I mean, if you saw it'd be like, I don't know, is.
That a life comes at you quick kind of thing?
Or it did?
It did Okay.
I mean we missed I think seven shots at the rim during that time and just snowballed on you, like, what what are we doing here?
Okay, well, you know, listen, no need, no need to pick up scabs. Let's move on from it.
We pick we scabs will continue to be picked.
Okay, listen, hey, you taking that upon yourself. I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. All Right, here we go. Let's head on some news items here. NFL football, the consensus is cam Ward's going to be the first quarterback taken in the upcoming NFL draft. A lot of questions about where Shador Sanders will end up landing. Well, what Sanders does know is that his pocket pass skill set will set him up for success in the future.
I mean it always worked in the league. Look at the history of the league. Not everybody was, you know, big time runners back then, back in the day. So he got the greatest quarterback ever. Tim Brady ain't run too much. So I feel like the best thing for me is to play from the pocket, and that's what I'm most comfortable. And now the difference is is I'm able to adjust to my team, so if I need to be if I need to, you know, take different type of drops, if I need to be able to get a little bit more active, then then I'm able to do that and to judge my game.
I mean, he brings up a great point. You know, we love the big time, dynamic quarterbacks, but it sort of feels like, I mean, Jalen Hurts is about the only true dual threat quarterback that we've seen win a Super Bowl in recent memory. Obviously, Cam Newton got close, and you know, today's quarterback like a Patrick Mahomes, is pocket passer who can run when the team necessitates. But these dual threat quarterbacks that we become enamored with haven't necessarily been the ones winning Lombardi Trophies.
Oh, I totally agree with that. He's absolutely right. What's interesting about Shdor Sanders is if he wasn't Dion Sanders kid, you wouldn't think he's a great athlete. And he's not sure Yeah, yeah, he's He's kind of Ben Roethlisberger like in that he he will he'll take a hit, he'll hold the ball longer and you know, maybe a little bit too long. And Ben was a was a big old you know, mean Ben was a tight end up until his senior year in high school. So Sor Sanders is a really good athlete. He's just not an elite level runner. It's just I think people think, well, he's Dion's son, so he's got to be super fast, and that's not actually the case. Like is he faster than like you and me, Like, yeah, he's a great athletes a quarterback, but is he a is see Lamar Jackson? Is he no?
Yeah?
And I think ultimately that's sort of and you don't have to be sure.
You don't have to be that's the knock on Labar, right, And Lamar has improved from the pocket? Is he good enough from the pocket to.
Win it off?
Right?
And I think that's ultimately sort of why a lot of the consensus is people are landing on cam Ward right now. Is his raw skill set and athleticism has a higher end than what we've seen from Shador. And to what Shoudour was saying there in that interview on the NFL network is he's like, Hey, I mean I am athletic, but I just get it done from the pocket. So certainly going to be interesting to see exactly where Shador falls A lot of range between Hey, he could be taken second to Oh no, he's in a free fall down the draft board. We'll say. In the NFL, here, Doug, the Eagles are keeping their all pro linebacker Zach Bond, resigning the breakout star after their Super Bowl win. Well Bond, after getting his new deal to stay in Philadelphia, he thinks they're just getting started. Here's what he had to say. I think about what we did in year one, with so many new pieces, coaches and players included, I'm really excited to build on what we did last year. You see this Eagles team as a sort of a potential back to back type of championship team.
I don't know that. You know they've lost a lot of pieces.
Now.
Last time they lost pieces, but they also lost both coordinators. That not the case this year. Well they did. They lost an offensive coordinator right to the went to their Land Saints. But it's I correct, so, but defensive coordinator remains the same. The answer is no, only in that if if we use history as our guide, sure of course we as history as our guide. Do they did?
They did?
They draft for this and they have a lot of young pieces. Yes, they still have Saquon Barkley absolutely. I'll also point this out, Okay, the the argument against signing a Saquon Barkley to a long term deal with the Giants or any of these other running backs wasn't about year one. It was about years two and especially year three, that running backs are like pick your favorite foreign car, are they always in the shop? And you know, Philadelphia didn't have to, but they did double down on Saquon Barkley because he performed at such a great level, which I think will change the running back market towards the future. But that still doesn't answer the question, can guys can a running back like that stay healthy after having it essentially a two thousand yard season and then a Super Bowl winning postseason. Sure?
I mean, look, it's obviously well documented now what the forty nine ers have been dealing with with Christian McCaffrey, and you know, he's built a little different than Saquon. Saquon, I guess you would say, is obviously a little bit of a thicker running back, although they do have a lot of some not a lot of the same skill set, but some definite overlap. And you know, unfortunately for Christian, the story of his career was early in Carolina, he had those back to back seasons where he was just an absolute workhorse and super productive, and then he was injured for two seasons after that and then moved got traded to forty nine. Ers has had two productive or had like a half season of production in San Francisco and then had that huge season where they went to the Super Bowl, and then he was hurt again this entire year. So to your point, there is always going to be concerns outside of like a Derrick Henry who seemingly despite how many times you give him the rock, he's just going to somehow get stronger, some type of like aberration. But yeah, definitely some concerns that if you give a guy that many touches year after year, at some point you might expect that there could be some injury regression coming. We'll wrap up with this Doug. Former Panthers and Commander's head coach Ron Rivera has a new gig. He is being named the general manager for Cal Football. Welcome to college Sports in twenty twenty five. This also comes on the heels of Stanford make an injured Luck their GM of the football team, and Steph Curry taking on a role with his alma mater at Davidson. So I'm just kind of curious to run this by you, as a current head coach in college athletics, what do you make of these programs bringing in sort of general managers and obviously sort of a top down structure resembling that of the pro models we've seen.
Well, it's I think it's needed because it's a lot. I mean, I'm I'm technically the general manager and head coach program so between nil budgeting, you know, I actually have to do it all. We just don't have the resources for that. You don't need to pay Stephen Curry for it. I think it's it's it's honestly fascinating. Now Ajril Wargnowski actually does the work with Saint Bonaventry helps them in recruiting, identifying players, and in raising you and budgeting all that other stuff. I don't think STEP's a figurehead, but I think he's a figurehead, meaning like in and at time to be watching kids, right, he does. He's got his own camp. Obviously he has the under Armour connection. And you know, I'm not sure if they're paying him or if he's donating or how it's all working. I also just think it's a great reminder to people, like what year did Steph Curry play at Davidson? W Take guess what years? What year did he finished playing at Davidson.
Fit wasn't it like twenty ten or something like that or two thousand and nine?
You know, I mean Tooey, do you know what what year? Because remember the NCAA tournament year was his sophomore year. His junior year, they made the NIT they didn't make it, and then he left early for the NBA. And some idiot went on ESPN and was like, yeah, I don't know if he's ready at Oh that idiot was me. Anyway, The point is that Steph Curry played at Davidson a long time ago, right, A long time ago. You're talking about a guy who is college status. Right, two thousand and nine was the last year. This is twenty twenty five. So as much as we all know he played Davidson, I remember when they beat Georgetown the tournament. I remember all that stuff. Current college kids not as much, and so this I do think helps reinvigorate. I know a couple I know a player who went into the transfer portal yesterday I asked somebody about, Hey, what about this guy, and they're like, yeah, Stephen Curry's already gonna he went to Steph Curry's camps. He's all about Steph Curry's going to days. So I think that's really a little bit more what this particular.
One is about.
Don't you feel old? That's right? Music with the news.
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the Heard Line News.
What were you doing in two thousand and nine?
Ryan?
Just make me feel really really old in two.
Thousand if you would like to know, that was my senior year of high school.
There you go.
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Doug Gotliabit for Collins. I heard Fox Sports Radio iHeartRadio app. So last night the Lakers basically played their bench and uh, you know, like almost like Quasichi League roster.
Again.
What happens when you state that is instinctively people go, oh, can I do that? God, you're a hater? Like, let's not call him Doug a Doug, You're a hater. Okay, let me let me read you their starting lineup, okay, Gabe Vincent, Okay, it was technically their backup point guard. I know he started the Miami Heat team that went to the NBA Finals, but let's just be honest. Jordan Goodwin, Hey Jackson, Hayes, Dalton Connect and Markkeith Morris. Up the bench was Cam Reddish, Trey Jamison, Shake Milton, Alex Lynn, and Bronnie James. That was the entirety of players. The only Laker who dressed that did not play was Christian Coloco, who of course has played at Arizona right the young big guy. So it was or, you know, if you want to do in Major League Baseball terms, a bullpen day, it's bullpen day. So Brownie had seventeen points last night, shot the bow well two or four from three, seven to ten, from the line, seven to ten, from overall, hit a free throw, ends up with seventeen to five three, did have four assists. Was a minus thirty six, but hey, Shake Milton, who's you know started for the Philadelphia seventy six ers. He was a minus thirty seven, so he wasn't the only one that was a big minus. They got beat one eighteen to eighty nine, so kind of like empty calories. Those are empty stats, but let's not kid ourselves. Those are far and away his best stats and his the most minutes that he's played in the NBA. So he's trended upwards in the G League, and that's his first trend upwards in the NBA. Here's his head coach JJ Reddick after the game.
You know, we've obviously monitored him in the G and I feel like he's, you know, in those sort of endgame situations when he's gotten a chance to play with us, he's he's been really good. So not surprised by tonight. And I think his confidence is growing because you mentioned the word comfort. That's that's certainly there for him. And I think the next step is is, you know, becoming like like an elite conditioned athlete, because when he does that with his physical tools and just his like burst and his handle, and you know, we think he's going to be an above average to really good NBA shooter.
Yeah, that that doesn't sound it. There's a bunch of compliments there, but there was also something there that I heard that didn't sound like a compliment. When he gets into elite physical condition, that's a very very nice political way of saying, hey, imagine if he was in shape. Now, in fairness to Bronnie, played thirty minutes last night. I mean he never played thirty minutes or come close in the NBA. And when you played thirty minutes and you're not used to playing that much, you're going to be guessed. But when your coach says, hey, when you get into elite physical condition, now the other part he's like, well, he's been good for us. When when was that moment in endgame when he's been good for you? You know, he played sixteen minutes, fifteen minutes and twelve minutes. That's the most he's played all year, and up until yesterday he had the second lowest field goal percentage of anybody.
In the NBA.
It's an important distinction. It's like when people say, oh, they said Jalen Hurts couldn't throw or Lamar Jackson couldn't throw, Like nobody said they can't. It's not like they It's not like Tim Tebow that used to throw ground balls to people. It's non spirals. Was he trying to spike that or was he trying to throw that one for a first down? That's not what we're saying. Well, you're saying, you're comparing. It's like Shador Sanderson, you're comparing. All right, can you throw like Mahomes? Can you throw like Kirk Cousins? Can you throw like Aaron Rodgers? Can you throw like Josh Allen? Can you throw like you know? It's a the The evawl is quite different. But when you say, hey, he's got it when he gets once he gets into elite physical condition, that means he's not he's not in great shape. I would push back on JJ on whether or not he can be an elite shooter when he's never been a lead shooter at any level ever before. So no, I'm not going to take back my evaw But yes, it's pretty obvious that he's still has confidence and he's improving. That's the half wayale meet chat. Can older coaches still hang? Let's discuss next in the hurd
