Matt Norlander (38:51)
Let's get to the real stuff. I know you haven't had time to read it, but I will, but. Tommy Lloyd, BC Boys fan. So I, I want to say I learned this from Tommy, like 2017 or 2018. And like that he was like a real, real, real fan. He was like, beastie Boys and Beck, those are my two go to's. And I was like, okay, that's cool. So we, we traded notes over the years and I was like, I want to write about this one day. So flash forward to this year. And they were really good. I saw him win at BYU when I was out there in January. And afterward I got to talk and I'm like, there's gonna have to be a Tommy Lloyd feature in the works, how you've been able to do this at Arizona. And he was like, nope, not gonna happen. He's being a little bashful. I was like, well, you don't really have control over that. Like if you're a good team, I'm going to have to write a feature on you. He's like, nah, nah, you got to make it about the players. I go, what if I write about how much you're obsessed with the Beastie Boys? And in a beat he goes, all right, you're on. So I knew it had to be done. Fortunately, they got to the Final Four, was able to do it. Josh can link it in the description. Afterward, he told me stories about flying to San Francisco. Didn't have a hotel room. He said he slept on a bus. I don't even know how he pulled that off. This is when he was in college. The Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996. Keep in mind he's living in Washington State at the time. Went to the Gorge, saw them and. And smashed some pumpkins. I actually did. I did it. I was fact checking a lot of stuff. He told me the show that he saw in 96 at the Gorge on the Lollapalooza tour was a two. It was a two nighter. And on night one, the Beastie Boys open and Smashing Pumpkins closed. But on night two, the Pumpkins open and the Beastie Boys were second. Well, the majority of the crowd that was there was all about the Beasties. It was so bad that you can actually look this up up. Billy Corgan hated the crowd, tried to break his guitar, got visibly angry and was carried off the stage by a roadie. Now, as Tommy told the story back to me. Like, everyone's chanting Beasties. So the start. The set starts early. And then I got a long quote in the story about just being there. And they play Sabotage to close the set and the lights go out when the. When the song kind of hits that, that, that. That lull before the baseline comes back in. And he said, once Adrock got on the mic and scream coming out of that hit on Sabotage, all the lights in the place went up. He said that was a drug. And he loved the Beast at that point, but, like, he was hooked forever for life. I just love the fact that he is so dedicated to this band. They were. They were blaring it in here during. During open practice. Earlier, I talked with Iron Eagle. He may or may not mix in a B.C. a very sly Beasties reference on the Saturday broadcast. We'll see if we get there. So that's nothing to do with the game, but I. I really appreciated me giving the time. And then last night, when I really thought to kind of tie it to the start of the podcast, so there was this, like, private Arizona party for staffers, family members, some select boosters and all that. And he said I could go because Mixmaster Mike, who was, you know, part of the Beasties for the second half of their existence and who is an awesome, awesome dude, he performed at it, and he said, you can come along and you can. You can grab what you need for your story. And that was cool to see, but, you know, Tommy gave a little. A quick little speech and was just saying, you know, like, I absolutely love being the Arizona coach. Thank you all for coming. I can't tell you how much this night means to me. Let's go kick some ass on Saturday. And in that moment, that's when I was like, I think we have crossed the threshold here. I think he's gonna. He's gonna stick around. And so anyway, there's a lot of that's detailed in the story. As for the game, I was really thinking about it earlier today. Like, I'm just so thrilled that we have a matchup. GP with this level of teams, every season is a universe unto itself. I get all that. But in the context of the seasons right now, Michigan and Illinois are two of the three most efficient teams going into a Final four in history. The only team that was better in the context of drone season from an efficiency standpoint at Pen Palm was the 98.99 Duke team that lost a Yukon in the title game. I hope they bring out the best in Each other. I think Arizona's ability to get body moving up and down the floor. Okay. Getting to the paint, I think that will be huge. I think the game's gonna be decided in the final minutes. I was told that the Michigan staff is aware that I picked Arizona, and my name has been slandered in the locker room. Literally, I was referenced and saying, matt Nolander doesn't think you guys can keep it competitive, which is an absolute. It's just a disaster. I never said this.
