← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
EOCBB on CBSSN: One last look back at the E8; our first preview of a great F4; UNC coaching search
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Ion College Basketball is presented by Shipt. With Shipt, you can order same day delivery for everything you need for game day, groceries, decor and so much more from local stores. Download the app or order now@shipt.com that's s h ipt.com ion college basketball is also presented by Domino's. Best deal ever. Right now you can get any pizza with any toppings for one great price at Domino's. Let me say that again. Any pizza, any toppings for one great price. It really is their best deal ever.
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Hey there. I am Gary Parish. Welcome back to the I Own College Basketball podcast here on CBS Sports Network where we sometimes discuss camel fighting dodo birds and leaky black Matt. Norlander is here with me. And as you surely know by now, the 2026 Final Four is it is set. UConn Illinois advance from the left side of the bracket. Arizona, Michigan emerged from the right to seed three seed, one seed, one seed. All Americans on every team, first round NBA draft picks on every team. So Norlander, now that we've got a couple of days to, you know, let things settle in our mind, you tell me how good is this specific final for best of all time? Great, but not quite that good or disappointing. In part because you really wanted Duke and the reigning champs Florida to get to Indianapolis.
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No, I am. I love that we've only had two four, all four one seeds make a final four ever. Like we had no. 8, we had it last year. It's cool when it happens, but to me it's more special if we only get it say every 17, 18, 20 years. So I'm good with not all 41 seeds getting there. This is pretty, pretty, pretty good. Two ones on the right side, that's an incredible matchup. And then you've got the idea that we have Yukon back here again going for a third national title in a four year span. Maybe one of the more under discussed talking points in the past couple of weeks is the talking point a year ago with Yukon going for the three peak. Can they do it? It's so hard to do. And then they couldn't do it and they didn't get it done. 3 out of 4 also ridiculous. And, and, and it's something that we've only seen, you know, a handful, not even a handful of times, just a couple of times ever in the history of the sport. But they're two wins away from pulling it off. So we've got some historic matchups on, on tap. You know, Michigan and Arizona. From an efficiency margin standpoint, these Are two of the five or six most efficient teams within the context of their seasons in Ken Palm history, There's the second time we've ever had a semifinal where both teams going in have a plus 20 points per game difference in the tournament. Cincinnati And Cal in 1960 was the only other time this happened. So they've been like, extraordinarily dominant, like unusually dominant. And on the left side, you know, in addition to UConn and all that's come with that, you've got Illinois snapping a drought, Arizona and Illinois snapping droughts in general. I think that's tremendous. And Illinois is, you know, the number one offense in the sports, the tallest team in the sport. It's got a bunch of guys who look like they could be extras in a John Wick movie. I think there's just so much appeal to this Final Four. I can't wait to get on the ground in India. You and I will both be flying in on Wednesday and we're doing a network show today, so we got to be much tighter. But believe me, if they gave us, you know, two hours of Runway to talk about and hype up this Final Four, we'd have more than enough to get to. This is an excellent four group of national semifinalists. And I do think we're going to have two awesome games on Saturday. And that's reflected obviously in the lines going into Saturday night.
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You also look like you could be an extra in a John Wick movie, if we're telling.
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I appreciate that. Hey, as someone who went, I was on the steps in Paris in October where that they had that epic scene and John Wick 4. I take that as a compliment.
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Oh, I went to Paris this off season. I got it. We all, we all know you went to Paris this off season. So, hey, it's four of the top nine teams at Ken Palm and we do have a local component. I know that when people thought about a home team in Indianapolis, mostly associated that with Purdue. But Illinois is only about a two hour drive. And from my experience of being at the Final four, more than 20 of them now, it is more enjoyable when you do have that fan base that can, you know, drive over if they want to wake up on Saturday and just they didn't have to plan for this three weeks ago. They can be overwhelmed with the experience of advancing to the Final Four and then realize, oh, wow, we can drive there, let's do it. But so I imagine you walk around downtown Indianapolis, you're going to see a lot of a line I from, from Start to finish.
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Yeah. Well, Big Ten in general, like Illinois, Michigan, the fan bases, the location, massive alumni bases. I'm guessing Illinois, although Michigan's got a huge fan base, I will say Illinois, by virtue of the drought being ended, will be the most prominent fan base on the ground. They're narrowly beating out Michigan and then the Arizona Yukon one. It will be, it will be intriguing. Yukon fans, this is getting to be old hat to a certain extent. Like they've been, they've been there, done that. They're not the, they're not the team expected to win the national title among the four here, obviously. But Arizona fans have waited for 25 years to get back there. It's going to be. I, I mentioned this earlier today on hq I covering the sport year over year and getting to see fan bases, coaching staffs, head coaches achieve something they work their whole lives for. Like Brad Underwood is the third oldest coach to ever finally break through and make a Final Four. The only ones older were Beau Ryan when he did it, and then Brian Dutcher just four, three years ago with, with San Diego State. There's the only two coaches that waited longer in their life to finally, as a head coach, make it to their first Final Four. I love seeing that. I love that Arizona fans finally get to experience this again. And it's awesome for UConn fans, but again, like, they've been the most successful program over the past three decades in college basketball. And Michigan, which only has one national title, but was in the Final Four multiple times under John beIN, like they should be excited as well, but particularly, and Dusty May's already gotten there and Dan Hurley's already gotten there. And so I just, I love that part of it as well. So there's, there's so much to talk about, to sell to market with this Final Four. We've had an awesome season and the optimist in me really wants to believe that at minimum one of the national semis on Saturday is going to be good. And then we should hopefully, hopefully get a really competitive final game next Monday night.
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All right, we're going to dive into each individual matchup in the next segment, but before we do that, I want to ask you this. I noted that these are four of the top nine teams at Ken Palm last season, I believe heading into the Final Four, it was the top four, all four number one seats. After one season of this, I understood people saying, let's wait and see, but now it's two years of kind of the same thing. Is this where the sport is at now because of transfer waivers, because of nil because of rev shore revenue revenue sharing. Are we done with the George Mason Loyola Chicago stories? If not forever, will they be more uncommon than maybe they had been over the past 20 years or so?
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So you're specifically asking are we almost definitely done with a team from a with a mid major making it all the way to the Final Four?
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ACC, Big 12, Big 10, SEC, Big east, put them over here. Are we basically done with anybody else other than maybe Gonzaga here or there actually marching all the way through the bracket?
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Yeah, that new PAC12 coming to life will be an interesting I think that league's going to be pretty solid, but I don't know if it'll be high major interesting. That's just as you bring this up like be interested to see how the PAC12 forms in the greater context and landscape of the sport over the next half decade. I don't think we're done now. Keep in mind 1985 is when the tournament expanded to 64 teams. We went more than 20 years without getting a mid major to the Final Four. We have we're three years removed from two of them being in there. So no, I don't think we're done yet and I don't want to believe that we are. If it takes another seven, eight years, then it takes another seven, eight years. But from George Mason in 2006 until FAU and to a lesser extent San Diego State in 2023, we had what, seven, eight examples of teams breaking through and getting there. GP, VCU, Butler, back to back, Loyola, Chicago, Wichita State. I think we can and we'll get there again. But we're obviously in the midst of a pretty significant sea change that's going to essentially last the better part of a decade before we get to some sort of somewhat stability. But I think, I think we'll get there again. I just don't know if it'll happen next year or the year after.
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I would never say never just because you end up looking silly when you speak in absolutes. But I do think it's going to be more infrequent than it has been in recent years. It's going to be more difficult than in this range of time where we were getting the George Mason, Loyola, Chicago Butler stories. It will be more difficult for programs like that from leagues like those leagues to bounce to the final weekend of the season, I believe going forward based off of rev share and nil and transfer waivers. But we can argue about that another day when we come back. Let's dive into the national semifinals game by game. What makes you Illinois interesting? What makes Michigan Arizona interesting? I'm going to ask Norlander both of those questions next. This is the Ion College Basketball Podcast. We're on CBS Sports Network.
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You've got an Illinois team that has been better and more efficient at scoring than any team in the country. This Illinois group, I think one the biggest thing about Illinois being a danger to win the national title that has not been discussed enough is this team was at one point was 20 and three once we got to the early part of February and then it lost three, three out of five. And all of those losses came in overtime by three to Michigan State by two to Wisconsin by one, you know, out west against UCLA and then they lost to Michigan. So they got to a point where they were 22 and 7. Their prospects seem to be a little more undetermined. But since then the only other loss also came in overtime against Wisconsin. I know they've got a three next to their name. This is the number four team at Ken Palm, right? And the size between Keaton Wagler, who hello, look around is the best freshman remaining in this final four. I think I would say that you've obviously got two really good ones playing there at Arizona. There's a relatively recently famous one playing at UConn. But Wagler from the start of the season to now has been the best freshman. So how does he play on a stage like this and how much do they run through him? How much does you know players that Illinois fans know but nationally might not have as big of a of a profile. David Mirkovich, does he step up in this spot? Do either of the V sit brothers, are they the guys that that can handle terrorist Reed in this spot? Terrace Reed has been outstanding. He was the most outstanding player in the East Region, how does he play going up in this particular game? And, and for UConn, you know, a team that is more defensive oriented, you know, Illinois is number one in offensive efficiency. It's, it's 20th at Campoma on the defensive end. It was actually 30th to start the tournament. So it helps us numbers a lot there by virtue of getting there with four double digit wins. Yukon's the inverse, not quite, but they've got the number nine in defense or number 28 in offense there. Caravan, with his experience on this stage, I think it's interesting. Solo Ball had a better game as of late. They probably need him to step up, score 15 plus points in this game. Silas Demery, not 100% but still giving it a go and really impressive there. And then we see how Mullens handles going back home and playing in front of. I don't even know how many people he knows are going to be at that, at that game on Saturday. So that's a very brief initial kind of 10,000 foot overview. I think it's a fantastic national semi. And, and I'm, I'm interested to see how UConn's experience as a coaching staff in this spot is a factor or is not a factor against an Illinois team that was a preseason chic top 10 kind of group. They went over to the Balkans, they brought some big boys over there from over there and they've, they've been a very, very impressive team for the majority of the season.
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You mentioned Illinois's offense is the top rated offense in the country. It's also unusual. I talked to David Cobb and Tom Fornelli about this after the Alliani punched their ticket to the Final Four because In that Elite 8 game, all of the stuff that I'm about to tell you like showed up in that box score as well. So Illinois's got the best offense in the country according to Kinpa, and yet they have that. Despite shooting just 34.8% from 3 and just 57.9% from 2, they rank 128th in the country in 3 point field goal percentage and 22nd in the country in 2 point field goal percentage. So how can you rank in those places in those categories and have the quote best offense in the country? The explanation is they don't turn it over. They're ranked 10th in the country in offensive turnover percentage at 13.2%. And that's Keaton Wagler. And if you want to know why, he's in position to maybe be a top five pick almost certainly not dropping out of the top 10. It's because of in part that number. He is a 6 foot 6 jumbo lead guard who shoots above 40% from 3 and really takes care of the ball, processes things very well and takes care of the ball. So Illinois doesn't shoot it great from three and they're not one of the top 20 teams from two, but they're one of the very best at taking care of the ball. So they're not going to give you extra possessions and then they're going to create extra possessions. On the offensive glass, their offensive rebounding percentage is 39.5. That ranks third in the country. And then free throw percentage is 78%, ranked 16th in the country. So how do they have the most efficient offense in the country despite not shooting well from 3 or really 2? They don't turn it over. They offensive rebound like crazy and they make 78% of their free throws. Interesting offense. It's fun to watch. And Wagler being the head of the whole thing has been absolutely fabulous. And if you heard Brett Underwood talk about him after the Elite Eight win, he was like, you could see a lot of this stuff but the idea that you could see any of this coming like this. No, nobody saw this coming. He was ranked 150th in his high school class. His story is well documented, I think mostly known at this point, but he's just another, you know, it's you. There's never been a Final Four team that didn't have an awesome story connected to it. You almost got to by definition. And for Illinois there's a lot of awesome stories, but the Wagner one is for me, tip top.
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Yeah, I, it's basically unprecedented and I am interested to see like is he about to have. He's had some really amazing moments, like incredible moments this season. Some outstanding like some absurd games against top shelf competition. Are we five days away from him doing something that is going to put him in the pantheon of like all time Final Four performances? I don't know. He's. He has showed the, the flash and potential to do that this season, but he is number one on that scouting report. And Illinois can beat you from the foul line with those bigs. It's going to be a, I do think it's going to be a bruiser of a game against Yukon. I'm pretty, I'm pretty intrigued and fascinated by that. On the other side. I mean, come on now. Michigan, Arizona, like I'll toss it right back to you before I give you some on on my end. But this I understand. Like, some people are saying, like, that's the real national championship. That's not how this works. UConn and Illinois can win the title. Okay? They are not. They are not overmatched, even close. Michigan, Arizona have been absurd. They've been so good this whole season. I like the fact that we are guaranteed getting the game. Like, if they were on opposite sides, yeah, that would. They would both be favored. But there's no guarantee we get the game now. We at least get the game. And the fact that we get the game with these teams looking as dominant as they have is a really special treat. What are your thoughts on
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is not the national championship game, but it is a game featuring the two best teams in the country. There's a distinction there. And so I'm with you. I'm. I'm not gonna listen to anybody say things like, and the title will be decided Saturday night, because that's not true. First off, if you don't think Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies can win another national championship, you haven't been paying attention. And this Illinois team, again is fourth at kinpom right now. So don't be misled by the three next to their name. This is one of the four best teams in the country at this point, and that's why they're favored over UConn despite being the worst seeded team. Beyond that, I know Arizona looks unbeatable, Michigan looks unbeatable. But Duke was the number one overall seed in this tournament, and UConn just beat them. I know how Arizona looks. I know how Michigan looks. Houston was a team a lot of people picked to win the national championship was playing inside the Toyota center, and that team got knocked out, you know, in this bracket. So Illinois and UConn are absolutely capable of winning two games to cut nets on Monday night. But it is true. The two best teams in the country are playing on Saturday. And I've gone back and forth on this. Like, literally, I've picked them both, depending on who ask.
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Yes, you have.
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And I've seen somebody describe it. That there's a. Because it's. It's number one and number two at King Palm. But I've seen somebody else describe it with some additional numbers that say this should be being described as an all time great national semifinal, like a generational national semifinal. And maybe we haven't quite gotten to that point yet because, you know, Michigan's got at least three future NBA players, but none of them are going to be picked in the top five. And Arizona's got maybe three or four NBA players, but none of them are going to be picked in the top three or four. And so maybe we're missing that a little bit. But this Michigan team and this Arizona team, your Big Ten champion, your Big 12 champ, there's a lot of numbers to support the idea that we've had very few national semifinals with two teams of this caliber. And this is should be considered among among the very best matchups we've ever seen at this stage in the bracket.
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Yeah, I've said this, I said this on Sunday on set with you. If Michigan and Arizona bring out the best in each other and they play to their potential, we will have one of the best games in the tournament this decade. You have rarities in terms of just how dominant these teams have been. It's the first time a tournament game has featured two teams that have outscored their opponents by at least 650 points in that season since Kansas and Memphis played in the title game in 08. GP was in the building when that happened. You've got the big man matchup with Adai Mara and Mo Crevas. Couple of seven to seven, two just towers. That is phenomenal. In fact, I think this is, I think when when Edie went up against clinging a couple years ago, that was the only other time I think I got this in my notes. GP yeah, here it is clinging and Edie and now Mara and Crevis are the only two times in the past 50 years when the starting matchups in a Final Four or title game feature two players at least 7ft tall. So that you got, you got that element to it. You've got Michigan that has been just completely dominant against some insanely good competition this season. Arizona has 14 wins over ranked teams this season. That's more than any team in a season ever. That what this Arizona team did it. It's got the rare feature where you could tell me it's co op Jaden Bradley, Braden buries. You could tell me it's Crevis. Yvonne Karchenkov looks like he's a four year veteran and he is a freshman as well. Any of those guys and Anthony Del Orso coming off the bench or Toby Iwaka coming off the bench. Any of those seven guys could be the most important player for Arizona in this game. And sometimes when that's true, like it could be any one of five or six guys, a team might have a ceiling. That's not the case with Arizona. It's not their top four offense, top two defense and yet on the other side, Michigan, the number one defense in the country and a top five offense. They've been outstanding. It will be a battle in the paint. It's a phenomenal game and I love the fact that we get it, just the fact that we get this game. And I hope it lives up to the hype. It is rightfully so. The marquee event on Saturday night in Indianapolis and, and I just, I hope it delivers. I really, really do. I, I don't, I couldn't tell you how it will unfold other than if they're at their best and they bring out the best in each other. It is going to be an all time classic.
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8:49pm Eastern is the scheduled tip time. You'll be able to watch it on tbs. When we come back, I want to circle back to UConn because it's now been, I don't know, about 48 hours since Kaden Boozer turned it over and Braylon Mullins sank that long three pointer in the final second to push UConn past Duke. Braylon Mullins is now a household name. He was on the Today show this week. Meantime, John Shire has been turned into a meme. We'll revisit that all time classic. We'll do it next. It's the Iron College Basketball Podcast. We're on CBS Sports Network. Protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks. March is here. And if you've ever followed the tournament, you know one thing, the only predictable thing is the chaos. Upsets, buzzer beaters, Cinderella runs. It's the best kind of unpredictable. And that's exactly why DraftKings Sportsbook, the number one sportsbook for live betting, is built for March. The tournament is unexpected, rewards are guaranteed. And DraftKings Sportsbook is delivering some of the most generous rewards in the market. What I like about DraftKings, it is the live betting. With DraftKings, the number one sportsbook for live betting, you're not betting on what might happen later. You're betting on what's happening right now. While the game unfolds, momentum shifts, big plays, last second drama. You can get in on the action as it happens. And if you're new to DraftKings, it's the perfect time to jump in. Just bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now and use code I. That's code I. Eye to turn five bucks into 200 in bonus bets instantly in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- Gambler or 1-800-MY-SET-NEW, CALL 877-8-HOPE NY or text Hope NY, CT call 888 78-97777 or visit ccpg.org on behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas. Wager Text Pass through May apply in Illinois 21 in most states. Void in Ontario, restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com promos Limited time offer.
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Welcome back to the I Own College Basketball Podcast. We're here on CBS Sports Network. It's now been nearly 48 hours since Kaden Boozer turned it over in the final 10 seconds. Then Braylon Mullen sank a long three pointer and in the final second to push UConn past Duke in an all time classic elite eight game. Over the past couple of days, Braylon Mullins has become a household name. He's been on the Today Show, Norlander. Now that you've had some time to let things settle, give me your two days after the fact take on Braylon Mullins ripping Duke's heart out and becoming a March Madness legend.
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Yeah, it's the kind of play that is going to settle into among the best winning shots in the history of the tournament. I don't Know where it ranks. I've been too busy to. I would actually love to be able to sit down and kind of chart that out, but don't have the time right now. Find me in the middle of May, I guess. But to me in, in the aftermath Parish, this one feels like one of the 10 biggest shots in the history of the tournament. Because it was to go to the Final Four because it was in comeback fashion, because it was, it wasn't a buzzer beater. There was time on the clock. If it was a buzzer beater, all the more. But it was not. The buzzer was not beaten. For all intents and purposes it was, but there was what point 3.4 on the clock when that, when that shot just perfect swish through the net there. And by the way, they have changed the official distance of this shot. When we did the pot on, on Sunday night, it was, we were told it was 35ft. They have officially changed this to a 33 foot shot which is still nonetheless the fourth. Yeah. You know, fourth longest winning shot in NCAA tournament history. Mullins is the second freshman with a game winning field goal in the final two seconds in the elite eight or eight or elite eight or later. You say that three times fast. Jalen Suggs obviously from 37 in the 2021 final four in Indianapolis is where we're going. And then Mullins, the local kid, I just love the fact that he hit the shot. Send him to Indianapolis. He went to high school like 25 minutes from downtown Indianapolis. That's incredible. So on the Yukon end of it, it's been, it's been awesome to kind of watch all, all the, the Yukon fan reactions. Our reaction, our reactions on the hq set for an all time March moment that oh, by the way, kind of saved the weekend because the Elite 8, the other three games were all not close in the end. All double digit margins, all that stuff. So the fact that we got this game and this ending, just the latest, you know, epic closer to this event which delivers every single year.
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Yeah. And you know that, that, that shot also obviously pushes UConn to Indianapolis rather than Duke. And I don't know that one's necessarily better than the other in terms of brands, although I know Duke is a massive brand. But like Dan Hurley is at this point kind of the most famous person connected to the sport of college basketball in a lot of ways.
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Like is he more famous than Rick Patino? Is he more famous than Rick Patino?
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I don't know. I don't, I don't Even. Yeah, I know.
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I good for the big Easter in the same conference, though. I just. And then I just popped in my head. That's all.
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I don't know how to distinguish between the two, but how about this? A random person who doesn't follow college basketball closely is more likely to bump into Dan Hurley content than they are Rick Patino content or anybody else content in the year 2026.
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I think that's fair.
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Maybe. Maybe this is why it's in my head. I. As I'm traveling home yesterday, I get a text message from a buddy of mine that I haven't heard from in, like, a year. And the text message was just as simple as this. And I'm just quoting. I'm just quoting. But it was like, lol. Dan Hurley is a psychopath. Okay, so I was correct, people, right?
- [32:02]
A
Because, like, there's also like, just. Let's. Let's. Let's dive in this real quick here, because we really didn't talk about on the Sunday show, but it had legs and understandably had legs. So the buzzer. The near buzzer beater Mullins, his march moment happens, and then Roger Ayers, who is as respected and liked as quite literally any ref in the country. It's actually a shock that he's not working the Final Four, but he's worked so many of them. Ayers is walking over to Hurley essentially, to say, to communicate, hey, Dan, this is not. There's still time on the clock. I got to go review it. But as he's walking, there's bodies on the floor. Hurley's out of his mind. His jacket's half off. And, like, they. They meet. I mean. I mean, only Dan Hurley. Like, there's a lot of people that had real issues with this, and I understand that, but the only context that I would ask is go watch the way that Ayers approaches Hurley, and they almost. They, like, accidentally, like, Eskimo kiss, and I don't know. And people wanted the technical there, and I get that, but you got to understand that Ayers, he's a. He's a looser official. He, like, he jokes with the coaches. And so I could well be wrong about this. And for people that, hey, Hurley, they don't want to hear this. I don't know if it was any other official, if Hurley would have done. Would have done that, but it was almost like, Roger, can you just believe what happened? The moment is insane. Like, he should not have done it. But the more I watched that, I've watched that almost as much as I'VE watched Mullens and ShotGP. It's just straight. It's ridiculous. I don't know what was going through his mind there, but we had to at least talk about it here on the Tuesday show.
- [33:28]
B
It's ridiculous. I agree. Only him. Only Dan would only.
- [33:34]
A
Can you imagine if Shire did that?
- [33:37]
B
No. Like, who would be the funniest coach doing that? Who would be the funniest coach? Herbs and deck.
- [33:48]
A
I mean, you go down the list. Think about, think about, like, Matt Painter, Mark Few. Like, just imagine any other coach doing what Hurley did. You can't do it. It's only Hurley. Gosh.
- [33:59]
B
He's the only one who would do it. And yet when I first saw it, I think the first, the first, the first viewing, you're like, what is he doing? That gets that?
- [34:09]
A
Yes.
- [34:09]
B
All right. And then after that, it just got progressively funnier to me.
- [34:14]
A
Yes.
- [34:14]
B
Like, I, I, and I. I do think the context matters. Like any other coach, that wouldn't work. Perhaps any other official with any other coach, maybe it goes down differently. But in that moment, it felt, it just felt. It looked hilarious to me. Whenever Dan actually does cross the line, and I think he crossed the line, I'll stand up and say it.
- [34:37]
A
Sure.
- [34:37]
B
And then he. And, you know, I'll. You know, I'll say it. And then, and then he could not care. And it'll be fine. But, like, I didn't think this was anything except funny. I thought it was funny. It makes.
- [34:48]
A
We thought it was. Was justifiable if the Big east would have suspended Hurley for the first game of the Big east tournament after he had a. An antagonistic encounter with an official that the official said that he never made contact with the loss at Marquette. That's. That's that 100%. And then you have this here. I think Ayers was trying to get close to Hurley because it's noisy as hell. Like, everyone's going nuts, and he's trying to go over and say, hey, game's not over. I got to check the clock here. And as he's doing that, Hurley's just. He, he is not within his own body in that moment. I agree with you. Like, I get it. A lot of people don't like Hurley. I get that. And when he, and when he steps over the line, we're going to call him out on it. The more I watch this, the, the funnier it gets, the funny. And you got to see Ayers approach him. That's the other part of it. You got to see that he's Intentionally trying to get close to Hurley. And so as Hurley turns his body, suddenly they find themselves forehead to forehead. It's ridiculous. It honestly like I just. Only that coach. Only him. Only him.
- [35:43]
B
What it looked like to me. And maybe this is only a me thing or me and my friends on the golf course thing, but like I have a friend that I can visualize in my group who if he were to sink a 14 foot birdie putt, he would walk over to me and get forehead to forehead with me and do that. Like that. That's what it looked like to me. The type of thing, I'll put a name on it. The type of thing my friend Chris Vernon would do if he wanted to sing.
- [36:09]
A
You can just say it. Everyone knew. Yes, everyone that knows. That would be the deal.
- [36:13]
B
Everybody knows. That's exactly what he would do. And when I saw Dan do that, that's exact. That is what came into my head. All right, real quick, on the other side of all the Braylon Mullins, Dan Hurley stuff, is John Shire becoming a meme? He's a meme now. I've noted that, that I think national championships are in his future. Rick Patino has tweeted championships are in his future, but in his present he's getting beat up because for the fourth straight year his team's been eliminated in the NCAA tournament as a favorite. For the second straight year it happened after having a double digit lead in the second half. Is all of this beating, verbal or online beating that John Shire is taking, is it, is it fair?
- [37:01]
A
No, some of it's not fair, some, but some of it's just online meme culture. So like that's just going to happen. And you know, Shire actually was one of the earliest subjects of meme culture back when he played and Shire face was a thing. So this actually, I mean like in all, like that was a thing when he played. He's aware of it, like, you know, that's what it is. But so it's apropos, not the right word, but how interesting that you know, all these years later now with. And like what do you expect to do? Like he's, he's watching a play in a game dissolve right in front of his face. Like it is what it is. But you take the Duke job and you get all the benefits that come with it, the recruiting advantages, that is, you know, top three job in the sport. You can make the case it's the best job in the sport with all of the built in things that come with it. But that also means that if you do not win the NCAA tournament, not just that, but if you lose in a way that is embarrassing or historic, then it's going to lead to a lot of backlash. And this in particular, like the loss on its own. Like let's say they had been defeated soundly in the Final Four against Houston, but it wasn't a collapse where they couldn't score a bucket for the majority of the final 10 minutes of the game or they didn't lose and to NC State, but they lost to say, Houston the year before in the Sweet 16 because remember, Houston had an injury and that helped Duke move along there. Those would have been bad, but, you know, they wouldn't have had this attached to it. There have now been three exits from the tournament and three consecutive years for Shire and Duke that have made him and his program ripe for, you know, online mockery. And, and a lot of what drives interest in college basketball is people love to see Duke lose. They, it doesn't matter how, but if it loses in a way where it's a pratfall or it's, it just, it spills soup all over itself, so to speak, then, then that's going to help drive interest in the sport. Scheiders are some of the, the blame, but not all of it. We have more, you know, kind of grading his, his career to this point. Four years in overall and he's done an incredible job for the most part all around. But the tournament's the tournament and if you are the CEO and your teams are failing like this in a high profile fashion, then yes, some of the blame falls on you.
- [39:12]
B
The tournament is the tournament. These losses, particularly the last three, especially the last one, are really bad. And that's the thing that I would, that would prevent me from giving him an A plus grade through four years. But I did over@cbssports.com go with a minus. And the reason is because. I'll just list some facts and then we'll move on. He's 124 and 25 through four seasons as a head coach with two ACC regular season titles and three ACC tournament titles. Nobody's ever won more games through four years than that. He's one of only three coaches to ever make three Elite Eights before turning 40. The others are Bob Knight and Dean Smith. He did coach in the 2025 Final Four, so he's already made a Final Four. His winning percentage of.832 is higher than the winning percentage Coach K posted at Duke. And K is widely regarded as the goat of college basketball coaching. So I know he's now been to three elite eights and he has no national championships, but he's been to three Elite Eights. At the age of 38, I think John Caliperi was in like his eighth Elite Eight before he finally won a national championship. For Bill Self, I believe it was four before he finally won a national championship. These things tend to take time and given the way the loss to UConn unfolded after last season's loss to Houston unfolded, I understand the oh my God, he's wasting all these opportunities, but broadly speaking, if you just compare him to basically any other coach in the history of the sport, he's ahead of schedule. He's ahead of schedule. And if he keeps building teams like this, I genuinely believe he'll eventually get the national championship that some people think he already should have had and perhaps he already should have had. But the past three years, at least he's built teams that were good enough to do it. They just didn't for a variety of reasons. But if you keep building teams consistently that are good enough to do it, eventually most coaches, they do.
- [41:14]
A
I just want to add one small thing that almost no one's talked about and I don't know if it would have changed it at all. Maybe it doesn't make Boozer as dominant of a player. You know, if not for an incredible two week stretch last spring in pre draft workouts, Cedric Coward would have gone to Duke. Yes, instead he turned into a lottery pick. Damesar would not have been at Duke otherwise and who knows how that would have played out. But I think it's reasonable to project that Cedric Cowardly could have quite easily been an all American level player. And had that happened, maybe Duke season goes differently again. Maybe Cam Boozer isn't the national player of the year if that happens. But it's just one thing that I couldn't help but notice as all this played out and Kaden Boozer found himself on the floor at the end of the game and they dealt with the injury to Caleb Foster and all this stuff, it's ifs, ands or buts. He. Coward did what he needed to do. He's in the NBA playing for, for Memphis there. But had he, had he returned to college, there's a real chance he would have been one of the, you know, 20 to 25 best players in the sport and played for Duke and, and that team would have been even better than it was.
- [42:11]
B
Obviously nobody's ever going to feel bad about Duke and its roster, but it is true. In back to back years I was told at least that Duke was going to add a transfer portal wing that got pushed into the NBA draft and then selected by the Grizzlies. Two years ago it was Jalen Wells out of Washington State and then it was Cedric Coward out of Washington State. They were both, if they didn't stay in the draft going to Duke and they both ended up being members of the Memphis Grizzlies. And they're both impressive young men. I'm nice to call them. I'm happy to call them co workers and and colleagues and and neighbors. When we come back, we're going to break away from the Final Four Focus on the Coaching Carousel what is the latest at North Carolina? Is Billy Donovan returning to college basketball? I'm going to ask Norlando those questions next. This is the I Own College Basketball podcast, CBS Sports Network. Welcome back to the Ion College Basketball podcast on CBS Sports Network. And before we dive into the coaching carousel, let me remind you to follow the Kansas Jayhawks and the Michigan Wolverines throughout the 202526 season in Made for March, a new four part docu series featuring unprecedented off court access. New episodes drop April 4th on CBS and Paramount plus okay Nordlander, yes, we've still got three games to play in this season, but we never wait for the season to actually finish before we start hiring firing coaches in this sport. So with that in mind, it's now been seven days since North Carolina moved on from Hubert Davis. What is the latest at UNC
- [43:51]
A
has it? I didn't realize it had been seven days. Oh my gosh. Days time. What do they mean Latest is that they're waiting this out like quite literally all of their primary candidates. I'm of the understanding that Tommy Lloyd is the top choice, the top pick, the most desired candidate, although the margins are slim, than Dusty May and Billy Donovan. But Tommy Lloyd and Dusty Mayer are going to coach against each other on Saturday. In fact, I know you don't have the answer to this, but have we had this before? When's the last time two coaches were squaring off against each other in the Final Four? While both coaches were acknowledged in the general public as the top candidates for a vacant job elsewhere. Have we ever had this? I don't know. But that is the case right now. And there's no indication that Tommy Lloyd or Dusty May are favoring North Carolina over Arizona. Neither of them have publicly outright come out and shot down the possibility there. That's smart leveraging. Like what do you Expect them to say in that kind of situation, like, why would they? They have all the power, they have all the leverage. Why would you not do this? Right? So I understand it from that point. And then Billy Donovan still, you know, exists as a potential candidate, but also I've been told, like, he's going to coach out the season with the Bulls. So if Tommy Lloyd stays at Arizona and Dusty May stays at Michigan, and I can see both those scenarios playing out, can Carolina, will Carolina just say, okay, we're going to sit put while the portal opens and then hopefully Billy Donovan will tell us yes. And if we can get him to say yes and come back to college, then we can get him on board. But the only other key context of this with GP is that it seems like a minimum of 8 and potentially 10 NBA jobs are going to come open here. And as was laid out to me by a source on Monday, there are not 10 names that make sense to fill all of these openings at the NBA level. The point being, if Billy Donovan wants to coach in the NBA again next season, he will have a job waiting for him. That will happen. So does Billy want to continue on in the environment that he has been coaching at for more than a decade now, or does he want to step back and go back to college, albeit at one of the best jobs in the sport, but into an environment that he has never had to work in before? He's worked in college. He hasn't worked in the Nil and Portal era. That's different than working at the NBA level. They're not the same. So Carolina sits and waits and I'm talking to here on a Tuesday afternoon, I would venture to say we are at least, at least seven days away from knowing who the next coach at Carolina will be. And it could be, well, two weeks beyond, you know, a week beyond that. So we sit and wait.
- [46:13]
B
Just to answer your question, if you do not lure a Tommy Lloyd or a Dusty May, and honestly, every game they win makes that more complicated. Like if you want to hire a Tommy Lloyd out of Arizona, it's easier if he loses in the round of 32 than it is for him to continue to coach into the Final Four, it just becomes a harder thing to leave. The. The bit, the bigger the accomplishment gets. Doesn't mean you can't. It's just it complicates everything, not to mention draws it out a little bit. But if you can't get a Tommy Lloyd or a Dusty May, if the question is, do you wait on Billy Donovan? The answer is yes. Yes. The Bull season will be over on April 12. If you have to wait till April 13, you wait for Billy Donovan before you move on to secondary candidates. And I know you said that the way you said it. I would just, I think clarify a little bit more. You don't actually have to wait until April 13th to sit down and figure out if Billy Donovan is going to take your job. You can know whether Billy Donovan taking your job after the season's over before. Well, before the season' over. You could probably know that right now if you wanted to know that right now. So if you're waiting, you're not waiting to get an answer. You're just waiting for him to get done with his season with the Bulls and then you're following through with the things you've already worked on. So interesting situation. A lot of moving parts as always. We'll keep you updated as you need to be updated. When we come back. One more segment to go. Who's going to win the national semifinals? We'll take some guesses next. I own College Basketball Podcast. We're on CBS Sports Network. Welcome back to the Ion College Basketball Podcast. Couple minutes left for Hand things off to HQ Spotlight. I'll be on that show too. I'll see you over there in just a minute. Norlander. We've said a lot of things over the past hour but we haven't made predictions predicted for us. Who wins UConn, Illinois and why.
- [48:04]
A
I will go UConn over Illinois. UConn leads the all time series 4 to 1. They they beat him earlier this season. Keep that in mind. They beat him in the tournament two years ago. Feels like a toss up. I'll rely on the coaching experience. Dan Hurley, that's the entire staff. Like there's no changeover from the title teams. So that in addition to Caravan, Braylon, Mullen, Silas, Demery, Terrace Reed's been a beast. I'll say the defense beats the offense in that situation. But I got to be clear, I am not overly confident about this. But I'll go Huskies to win that one.
- [48:34]
B
I also will take Yukon over Illinois. I also do not feel confident. Feels like a total coin flip of a game for me. Could go either way but I'll pencil the Huskies into Monday. Who wins? Arizona. Michigan.
- [48:47]
A
Why? Oh my God. I will go Arizona over Michigan in a classic. Give us a classic please. Why? Because I think Arizona's size and its superior ability in the paint at both ends by narrow margins wins out. But toss up of all toss ups. I just saw Tommy Lloyd in his Wildcats there. I've seen him multiple. I saw him win at BYU, I saw him in UConn, I saw him win in the in the Big 12 tournament and now I just saw him win in the West Regional. So I will go with Wildcats narrowly.
- [49:19]
B
Like I said on Sunday night, there is no combination of teams playing Monday that would be surprising to me. But I will take UConn from the left side, Michigan from the right. Let's call that a show. Shouts to Devin Downey, Chester, S.C. terry Teagle legend Hulk Larnell. Thank you guys for watching the Ion College Basketball podcast. We'll be back on Friday live from Indianapolis. Paramount podcasts. Pluto tv has thousands of free movies and tv shows. If I'm lying, I'm dying.
- [49:58]
A
Like dream girls, spongebob squarepants and ghosts free. This is my day. Huzzah. Pluto tv stream now pay never.