← Eye On College Basketball
Eye On College Basketball
Will widespread reaction to Baylor adding a former NBA pick lead to actual rule changes in 2026? Weekend preview: Sparty-‘Skers, UK-Bama, AJ Dybantsa vs. PJ Haggerty
01:23:17
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- [00:00]
Gary Parrish
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- [01:19]
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- [02:15]
Matt Norlander
Hey there, I am Gary Parish. Welcome back CBS Sports. I own college basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting Dodo birds. Leaky Black Matt Norlander is here with me. If you watch it on YouTube, be Brandon Davies smash. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports Eye on College Basketball podcast, please do that wherever you subscribe to podcasts like Apple and Spotify, let's get into it. Let me start by wishing everybody a happy new year. It's 2026, Norlander. I trust you had a happy New Year. I spent mine in the woods. How was your new year?
- [02:46]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, actually, can we. It was good. Hung out at home, did the whole thing. Well, I thought the wife was going to cash out at about 10:20. She rallied, made it to midnight. Love to see it. You look a few days ahead of the pace of me right, right now, my man, because I got my, I got my, my ski weekend coming up in a week and I'm going to be in a lodge in a log cabin with plenty of wood around me. Are you scoping out where I'm going? Where are you right now? For anyone watching, Paris is not. He's not at his Memphis studio. He's not in a hotel in New York City. No, he's not his home studio. He looks like he might be in the woods of Vermont right now. Where are you?
- [03:22]
Matt Norlander
I'm in the, I'm in the woods of Georgia. I'm in a. I'm in a mountain. I'm a mountain man. Right now. I'm at, I'm at Lookout Mountain. I'm in the middle of the woods. This is outrageous. So here's the whole story, the quickest version I can give you. So I told you, I think I told you. Our oldest son lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee now with his, with his girlfriend. And they came home for Christmas and our middle guy, his birthday is December 27th. And we said, yo, man, what do you want for your birthday? You can do anything you want for your birthday. We'll give you the best 12 year old birthday party you ever had. What do you want to do? And he said, all I would like to do is when Aiden and Julie go back home, I would like to go back to Chattanooga with them and just like spend a few days with them. I said, all right, let me talk to your older brother about that. He said, you know what, It'll be perfect. And so they did that. Then we got to go pick, we got to go pick him up because I don't want to ask my oldest son to drive back home to bring home his little brother. So I said, all right, we'll come pick him up around New Year's or something. And then my wife, she suggests, she said, well, why don't we just stay there, get a place in the, like, you know, in the mountains. Let's just get a Place in the mountains for New Year's. We'll spend New Year's in the mountains. I said, all right. I never done that before. I spent New Year's a lot of different places. I never done this before, but it does sound kind of sweet. I think I talked to you about. We had stayed in the mountains one time for Christmas, and it was just. It felt the right way. And I was like, okay, I can get my mind wrapped around that feeling. Let's do that. So I went and. And I started looking for houses in the mountains. Lookout Mountains, specifically. Right. And I found one. Oh, buddy. It was great. And I secured it from a company called Itrip Chattanooga. Itrip Chattanooga. They were wonderful. And they were like, G.P. you want to stay here? I said, I do want to stay here. Look at this game room. Look at all of this stuff. And I said, I'll book it. And they said, give me your credit card. I said, here's my credit card. And they sent me a confirmation and everything. And then I realized, man, this place is kind of big. This is kind of crazy. There's only six of us total. We should. We should invite some friends and try to make a great New Year's for them. It's not too far of a drive. Maybe other people would like to stay in the woods for New Year's. So I started inviting people. I was like, man, we got enough rooms. You should come bring your kids. And I was like, you should come bring your kids. And I've started. I'm starting to. It's getting good. I'm getting excited. And then, man, you ain't gonna believe what happened. Roughly. Roughly 24 hours from checking in. We're on our way. We're ready to go.
- [05:43]
Gary Parrish
Yeah.
- [05:44]
Matt Norlander
I got an email from I Trip Chattanooga. You know what they said? They said, you're canceled. I said, what do you mean I'm canceled? They said, we're sorry, but you're. You can't stay at this place that you rented. I said, I gave you my credit card. They said, I know. I said, you sent me a confirmation. They said, I know. They double. They double booked me before.
- [06:03]
Gary Parrish
I got double booked about 10 years ago. Going to, I think, o chemo. And so it's like five. You can keep going. It's like five of us, guys. Okay. I might have talked about this on the show. So we get there, we. We unpack. We're starting to cook dinner. And then, like. And this was 10 years ago, so I'm like, early 30s. Like, six college sophomores pull up to the house, like, this is ours.
- [06:27]
Matt Norlander
I was like, I remember the story. I remember you telling the story.
- [06:31]
Gary Parrish
So I've lived that life. I think we sent. I'm almost positive we sent them packing and they had to go, and the owner had to figure out. So I've. I've lived in that space before. Continue. Continue the story.
- [06:42]
Matt Norlander
Right. So they sent me an email, and that's pretty crushing because I had already been. Looked like it. You know, I had been hours on the Internet looking for this place. Then I finally found it and had this amazing game room, and I just had this idea. I was like, man, we'll watch all the playoff games in there, and then I'll do the I Own college basketball podcast from there. It's gonna be perfect. And then they sent me that email and they crushed me. And I said, listen, did I do something wrong? What's the problem? And they acknowledged that it was their mistake, which I appreciate, because I try to teach my children about that. Like, hey, sometimes you're gonna mess up. Raise your hand and say, I messed up. They did that. How are we gonna resolve this? And they were like, we apologize. And I said, cool, what are we gonna do now? And they were like, we're real sorry. And I said, I'm homeless now. I don't have a place to stay. So I started looking for other places. And. And at the last minute, I found this place. And it's outrageous. It's an outrageous place to stay. But they let us bring our little Luca. And so we loaded Luka up in the car and we drove over here, and we had the. Me and my wife and my three boys and my oldest son's girlfriend and our little dog, and we spent all of New Year's here out in the woods, and we've been out in the hot tub, and I've. I'm basically Marty supreme at ping pong at this point. They got multiple ping pong tables. Really? Multiple ping pong?
- [08:04]
Gary Parrish
Why are you in the. For anyone listening, which is the majority of people, obviously, that intake this podcast. For everyone watching, they see. They can see the. The mountains of Georgia behind you. I promise we're going to get right to the conversation, but I am. We logged on to do this podcast. I didn't know where the hell Parrish was. I need an explanation. Why aren't you in a game room? Why aren't you in a ping pong room? Is this your best setup?
- [08:22]
Matt Norlander
This is. This is a large dining room. It's like a cafeteria. You could. You could feed 30 people in this room. No problem.
- [08:29]
Gary Parrish
Sounds like you've got a house that can sleep 40 people, and there's seven of you there right now. Is that about right?
- [08:34]
Matt Norlander
There's six of us, and, yes, it could sleep about 40. This is the place you rent if you're having a family reunion. And we don't have that much family. We just had. There's nothing. There was nothing available. I want to be clear. They canceled on me less than 24 hours from new Year's Eve. There's nothing available. So I had to. I had to do what I had to do. The. The. I could have gone to the pool house or the guest house.
- [08:58]
Gary Parrish
Sorry, what?
- [09:00]
Matt Norlander
I could have gone to the pool house or the guest house. Instead, I set up in the cafeteria, and the. The. The family is somewhere there in here. This is outrageous. I acknowledge up front it's outrageous, but it's been. It's been sweet. We got to watch the Ole Miss Rebels win a playoff game last night. Yeah.
- [09:14]
Gary Parrish
How about that? That almost backfired on you on Twitter, by the way.
- [09:18]
Matt Norlander
What did I do?
- [09:20]
Gary Parrish
Tweeted, blow them out. And then they came. Look at the Memphis guy.
- [09:25]
Matt Norlander
Suddenly, oh, Ole Miss.
- [09:27]
Gary Parrish
That's my team. Let's go there. I know you're.
- [09:30]
Matt Norlander
I'm a lifelong Mississippi resident. My wife is an Ole Miss alum. My oldest son, also Ole Miss, went to Ole Miss. And so we have. And. And all of our friends, like, we probably knew 50 people who were at that game last night. Half my little guys, baseball team, like, they went to the game last night. That was that. And then we're going to get to basketball stuff, I promise. But that is. That is why it. Whether or not somebody can win a national championship, like, theoretically, whether they're good enough to do it. It's why that's so beside the point. That is a lifelong memory last night for. For Ole Miss fans, for Ole Miss grads, like, wherever this goes next. And at this point, like, why not dream of anything? Like, if you can beat that team, you can beat anybody. The Athletic, I think, had a poll of actual college coaches. Suddenly, everybody wants to interview college coaches anonymously. I wonder where they. I wonder where they got that idea. So the Athletic had one. They interviewed, like, you know, 25, 30 college football coaches, and they were like, hey, who's going to win this thing? And basically everybody said. It was like, 90% of the respondents said either Ohio State or Georgia. So what do they know? And if you're Ole Miss, there's like, hey, all the Smart coaches said it was going to be one of these two teams. One of them's gone. The other one's also gone because we eliminated them. Let's go do the whole thing. But regardless of whether they do the whole thing, you got that. You got last night. You'll have last night forever. And yeah, I mean, I like for me personally, like January 1st, just sitting here with everybody and getting to experience that. That was a, that was a. I, I know all my days of 20, 26 aren't going to be good, but that was a fun one last night.
- [11:14]
Gary Parrish
I've got good optimism for you, for me, for the pod. Who knows what awaits over the next 365 days on this show. GP's opening up as a mountain man for college football. I'd say a refreshing change of pace. You will not have Ohio State, Alabama or Georgia playing for the national title in the final game of the season. I think that's pretty cool. That's pretty fun. We are obviously live here on a, on a Friday, January 2nd. To me, the most this day has no. You know how some days just don't have a feel. You're on vacation or the holidays hit when January 2nd happens to land on a Friday, I don't. It doesn't feel like a Friday to me. Doesn't feel like a Sunday, doesn't feel like a Tuesday. This day has no feel. And yet here we are all the same. We got plenty of interesting games. College basketball's conference season has now revved up. But before we get to that, I didn't know if we'd be here today, but we are. And that is the fact that the James Najee situation at Baylor and the reaction that it produced and prompted even since we taped our previous show has been pretty widespread. I had Dan Hurley hit me up and give me a kind of a lengthy, impassioned quote. Caliperi went viral with his post game press conference situation. Matt Painter spoke on this. Tom Izzo, obviously before he talked to Scott, Drew had a quote that was widely shared. And then I talked to Scott. I wrote a story again. I have lost track of all my days. It's Friday now. I think that story was up on Monday. I've completely forgotten, but kind of got Scott's side of the whole thing. We talked about a little bit on our year in review show because GP had this in his top 10 stories of the year. But even since then, the president of the ncaa, Charlie Baker has put out a statement. So we're going to get to the games There's a lot to preview, but frankly we need an A block. And also this is still, this is still a story carrying a lot of weight. And, and I think it was in part perish because of the fact that we didn't have a lot of games. We had this burst of news. Nashi's not the only one, by the way. I talked to Porter. Moser quoted him, he had, he has this Russian center literally arrived on campus on Christmas and played two days later. Okay, so he wasn't an NBA draft pick. But fundamentally what Drew and Baylor did was only different because Najee was thought highly enough to be the 31st pick in the draft, but played a few summer league games, then went back to playing internationally, never signed a two way, never earned an NBA salary, and that's why he's able and eligible to play. This is obviously fired up all of college basketball. And when it rises to the level, like if you really want to peek behind the scenes, like most people, the NCAA for the most part, like for Christmas this week, they have the holiday off. So when it rises to the level that the president has to put out a statement specifically addressing this, I think some of the Trenton flower stuff that was out there and saying no player that has any kind of NBA contract will be eligible to play in college basketball. You can see some of the statement that Bakers had. Josh has put it back up on the screen, by the way. Thanks for coming back to the show, Josh. We appreciate you. Take it wherever you want, Parrish, but there's obviously a couple avenues that we got to hit on here. Yeah.
- [14:12]
Matt Norlander
If you would have asked me Monday, are we going to open with this on Friday, I would have said maybe, but I don't think so because it'll probably be old news by then and I guess by definition it is. But the reaction of it has lasted. The reaction to it has lasted. And where it goes from here is obviously among the biggest questions in in college basketball right now, in part because of the lack of games heading into this weekend. So like you said, you know, James Najee is, is presumably going to make history the this weekend. Baylor at T TCU, 2pm Eastern TNT Barring a surprise, he will become the first professional basketball player who was actually selected in an NBA draft to come to college and participate in an NCAA Division 1 men's basketball game. And obviously we both talked to people within the sport about this. The reaction has been pretty overwhelmingly in one direction. Whether it's Tom Izzo, John Calipari or Dan Hurley, coaches don't seem comfortable with this and people are starting to ask big questions about where does it go from here. Like, I know you talked to Scott Drew. He's the man who did this. I do find it hilarious on some level that early in Scott's career coaches were mad at him because of the rules they thought he was breaking. Now they're mad at him while acknowledging he's following the rules.
- [15:56]
Gary Parrish
I don't even necessarily think they're mad at him. And I'm, I'm not. I know you understand.
- [16:00]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [16:01]
Gary Parrish
And on that note, you know, I reached out to some on record, some on background. There was only one coach that really had something of an issue with Scott doing it. Most others were like, it's within the rules. I can't get mad at him for it. But I hate that this is where the sport is right now. And I don't think the coaches are wrong for, for having that belief. And the idea that you just, that you're just bringing over 21 year old pros at the Christmas break to, to level up. Scott's entirely within his right to do so. I'm not even faulting him for doing it. Baylor TCU is going to have, I don't know, it's going to have a bump in the ratings because of this. And by the way, I actually texted Scott before we went on the air here. We'll see if he hits me back before we get finished. He told me earlier this week that he was expecting Naji to be on the floor for this game, but it could be two minutes, it could be 10 minutes. It won't be serious minutes. So just keep that in mind as well. Like they need him. They hope that he can grow into a real player. But as to how effective he's going to be, that's, that's. I have no idea. And I'm actually waiting for Scott to confirm he'll be on the floor. If he hits me before the show's over, I'll let you know.
- [17:04]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. The idea that he's going to shake up the sport on the court is not a likely right assumption, but he has shaken up the sport in all the other ways that you can do it. And the way you framed it is the more accurate way to frame it. The way I framed it. Funny.
- [17:25]
Gary Parrish
It is enjoyable.
- [17:26]
Matt Norlander
Like, yes, like, you must be Scott Drew. Like, yo, I remember when I was young and all of you thought I was cheating and then they investigated me and they really didn't find anything. And now I'm just like all of you acknowledge I'm following the rules. And now you're frustrated again, like, what do you want from me? Oh, by the way, in the middle, I won a national championship, so. But I gather as well, they're not actually mad at Scott. They're just frustrated that this has happened. Like. Like, really, this is where we're at. Not mad at who did it, but, like, mad that it could be done. I think maybe is. That is an accurate way to put it. I know some have pointed out that the 30th pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft is currently playing at Kansas State. Yeah. And has been all season. And so some have, like, asked the. The, I guess, very obvious question, hey, like, why. Why is everybody so mad about this?
- [18:20]
Gary Parrish
Eligibility rules are different technically, but nevertheless, we do have a former MWMA pick. But, yes. Yeah, you're leading the way down to that. But, yeah, the rules are different for men's and women's basketball.
- [18:29]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. Okay, so a, the rules are different, and B, like, nobody knew. Like, that's the main. It's like, bro, we had no idea. Like, I promise you, Tom Izzo had no idea. Any idea.
- [18:42]
Gary Parrish
I didn't have any idea until Scott Drew told me when I called to interview him for this story. I was like, well, I'll be damned.
- [18:47]
Matt Norlander
Right.
- [18:47]
Gary Parrish
Right. By the way, credit to Andy Katz. He did get to Drew first, and for Seth Davis's hoops HQ site had a really good story. So he got this out there first and he had that detail as well. But, yes, no one had any idea that the second.
- [18:59]
Matt Norlander
Secondly, so that if you're asking the question from an honest place, you're mad about this, why weren't you mad about that? Nobody knew. Okay. We. None of us knew anything about that. So this. This story put that on our radar. And so now here we are. And I. I guess, you know, Charlie Baker tried to. The NCAA president put it into this dialogue by releasing a statement, but the problem with his statement is it could theoretically be challenged in court. And we. We don't know if the rules as he portrayed them. Yeah. In a tweet would actually hold up in court. So here we are again.
- [19:43]
Gary Parrish
Well, yeah.
- [19:44]
Matt Norlander
Happy New Year again.
- [19:47]
Gary Parrish
Well, again, for you and my purposes here, I said this on a. On a halftime show that we taped for CBS Sports Network, which, by the way, I watched. Did you watch any of those that we taped? Did you happen to. I watched one. I, I. Not that I thought that they were bad.
- [20:02]
Matt Norlander
I've been in the mountains, man.
- [20:03]
Gary Parrish
I watched. I was like that was a. That was a good. That was a good little shot we had there. I'm glad that we did that. I didn't see the one. We talked about our New Year's resolutions on our CBS Sports halftime network shows, but I did say on one of them that I wasn't. I was done predicting what makes you eligible or ineligible to play college basketball in 2026. I'm done predicting that. So having said that, I'm going to read real quick what Baker said earlier this week. If you did not see the statement quote the NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student athletes who have signed an MBA contract, including a two way contract. As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising discretion in applying the actual and necessary expenses by law to ensure that prospective student athlet experience in American basketball leagues are not at a disadvantage compared to their international counterparts. Rules have long permitted schools to enroll and play individuals with no prior collegiate experience mid year. Excuse me. While the NCAA has prevailed on the vast majority of eligibility related lawsuits, recent outlier decisions in joining the NCAA on a nationwide basis from enforcing rules that have been on the books for decades without even having a trial are wildly destabilizing. I will be working with D1 leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball from these misguided attempts to destroy this American institution. End quote. That is Charlie Baker. That is a pretty forceful quote. I did think it notable that he actually tagged the NBA's official account in making this statement. I don't have this as direct information. I can only surmise that Charlie Baker and Adam Silver have had a conversation or two this week. The higher, the higher ups of both those respective organizations. I don't think either the NBA or the NCAA want this in general. I think the one thing that's been too under discussed in all of this is the fact that NBA teams shouldn't want this either. You own the players rights. You wouldn't want to have your guy. Theoretically, if we went to a world where a two way player was trying to go back to college, who's to say that the NBA would even allow that to happen if you own the players, right? So I think that part of it has not been discussed nearly enough. You can make the case that if a player that's in that awkward position of okay, I'm on an NBA contract, I've played in three games this season, but I think that if I go back to college I can make $600,000 more, I guess Theoretically, it feels like loser material to me, Paris. Like you're that close to the doorstep of playing in the NBA and you're going to say, no, I'm going to double back and go to college. I don't even know if we're going to have this situation play out, because are we gonna. Gonna have the right kind of player that can actually do it? Trenton Flowers has been reported to maybe be exploring it, but Baker's statement was direct. I don't know if we get a player that challenges it in 2026, and I don't know if that happens if we get another kind of trial lawsuit that would truly just rip down every single barrier. Because if this did get tested, Baker's statement, it's not going to get decided in two, three months time. Like that's something that would drag out and drag out and drag out. And the player in question might be able to get an injunction and test it anyway, I suppose. But I do think that neither side is, Is looking for this to happen, wants it to happen, wants to avoid it entirely. So the NBA side of this as well, I think we should at least pay attention to and, and the wants and needs of its teams and its owners, its general managers of these rosters. I don't think that can be understated.
- [23:30]
Matt Norlander
So you bring up Trenton Flowers. For people who are unfamiliar, this is a young man who has actually played in eight NBA games, six for the Clippers, two for the Bulls in the regular season. It has been reported that he's interested in playing college basketball and that a variety of schools are interested in maybe enrolling him to play college basketball. Then that got walked back a little bit. I saw some, like, Twitter, like, correction content thing.
- [23:58]
Gary Parrish
Right? Well, I, I also, yeah, I ref. I. There were like six schools that were named in that, that all that I either found or some found me and said, hey, we have never talked to this player. We haven't talked to his agent. They haven't found us. Don't know, don't know why we're in the report.
- [24:10]
Matt Norlander
I, I told you, you can't believe everything on the Internet. I've been trying to talk to you about this guy.
- [24:14]
Gary Parrish
Told you, let's be real.
- [24:16]
Matt Norlander
I think we've been telling you that you gotta, you gotta know who you're reading and who you can trust these days. Man, the Internet's a wild place. And, you know, they don't make you take any kind of test to start a Twitter account. You could just put anything you want to out there. So you Know, somebody's putting whatever they wanted to out there. And then it got pushed back a little bit. But. But here's my point. Let's say for the sake of the conversation, Trenton Flowers announces a commitment to some school and the NCAA says, no, no, no, no, no. You read Charlie Baker's tweet, you can't play college basketball. You actually had an NBA contract. You've played eight times in NBA regular season games. You read Charlie Baker's tweet, you can't play no college basketball. So then they say, okay, let's do this court thing again. I know how much you guys love being in court. Let's go back to court. And now the NCAA has to argue why undrafted Trenton Flowers, clearly professional player, is ineligible while drafted. James Najee, clearly professional player is eligible. Is it because Flowers played in this professional league but not that professional league legally? What is the difference? Here we go again.
- [25:34]
Gary Parrish
Yep. No doubt. And I. But there is. I mean, the tangible difference is they were both, as an NBA draft day, they were select or not selected based on the potential of what they might or might not be. James Najee was never proven to be good enough to step foot and play on an NBA in an NBA game where Trenton Flowers did. I think there is a tangible difference there. And the NBA is fairly objectively, by far, it's not even close, the best basketball league in the world. There is a massive gap, and the euroleague's coming along just fine. And that gap closes year by year by year, but it's still not close. And not a lawyer not going to play one on the podcast. Have no idea if this would work. I do think in a courtroom, you would obviously see the ncaa, maybe even with the NBA on its side in this case, saying, no, there is a real difference when you go professional. These. These rules have been in place for decades. At this point, when you play in the National Basketball association, that is a tangible, definitive, irreversible step to your professional status. And we do not want people in that league coming back to play college. That would be their case. I don't know if it would win or not, but to me, it's a very logical case to make. I think once you actually play in an NBA game, going back and play college basketball seems a bridge too far. Do you agree or disagree?
- [26:58]
Matt Norlander
I agree fundamentally, but I don't know if I agree legally. And no, I'm not a lawyer, but I would be interested in hearing lawyers argue that. I would be interested in hearing a lawyer argue. My client, Trenton Flowers, has played in this professional basketball league, barely. And you're telling me he's not allowed to play college basketball because of that? All of these other people have played in, in professional basketball leagues as well. Why are they eligible and he's not eligible? Is it simply because he played in this league and this is the one professional league that's off limits to everybody else? To everybody? You can play in all these other professional leagues and make all this other money, but. But you can't play in this professional league. Is that what you're arguing again? I'd like to, I'd like to hear the lawyers argue that back and forth and hear a judge. And hear a judge weigh in. Because. I, I don't know. I, I don't know. They used to tell us, because you can say things like this has been long established. All the stuff that we are now completely flying past has been long established. The, the, the, the rule, what they once told us, the standard was, was Ennis Cantor, if you're Ennis Cantor or anything like in his. Cantor, you cannot play college basketball. We have flown so far past that. Anybody right now trying to argue they know clearly where the line is, legally or otherwise is just. They're outraged. It's just, Just a ridiculous point to make. Even if you're Charlie Baker, you like. I do appreciate him, like, putting his heels down, you know, 10 toes down. This is where we.
- [28:41]
Gary Parrish
No, I do. I'm glad that he, if you'd asked me, will he have a statement before today, I would have said no chance. But the fact that it rose to this level, that he actually did, and it was not, it was not vacillating, as you said, 10 toes down. I actually, I actually do appreciate that. Whether it proves to be stupid or not, it remains to be seen. But I'm glad that they actually did it.
- [28:59]
Matt Norlander
I, I am, too. So let me, let me make sure I make that point.
- [29:01]
Gary Parrish
What.
- [29:01]
Matt Norlander
The point I'm. Larger point I'm trying to make is if it gets challenged, I don't know if it holds up. But, but as, as always, perhaps we'll. We'll see. Let me ask you about this. I do love that this story has sparked a real conversation and on some level, outrage. It's got John Calipari going for seven minutes. It's got Tom Izzo going for five. It's got Dan Hurley leaving you audio messages. I like that it started this conversation and that it's created some semblance of outrage about where the sport is at. So if we're actually looking for, like, the quickest slash, best fix to, to the identified problem of a college basketball program enrolling somebody who was selected in NBA draft. That's what everybody says they're upset about. John Calipera. You see him right there? He went on and on. The rules are the rules. If you've been in a draft and you've been selected, you can't play college basketball, period. Okay, fine. If that's where most people seem to be, and it does seem to be the place where most people are at, why not just hold each other accountable? If you're a college coach, John Calipari, Tom Izzo, Dan Hurley, name the other 362, you just say, we're not doing it, period. We don't even need the rule. We just don't enroll people who have ever been selected in NBA draft, period. It's done. End of conversation. Like universities do more or less decide not to recruit players, you know, with certain circumstances connected to them. This will be an extreme example, but play along. You'll get the point. Universities aren't going to recruit somebody who's charged with murder. It doesn't matter if they're innocent until proven guilty and out on bail. All of which could be possible. You just say, yeah, we're not recruiting that player because of this thing. Right? It's an extreme example. I understand, but you get the point. It's not written anywhere. It's not agreed to. It's just something nobody does. Even if theoretically you could, why couldn't this be the same thing? John Calipari was clear. If you're drafted, you shouldn't be allowed to play college basketball. We'll just make it where we're not going to recruit anybody who's ever been drafted across the board. And, and know if you're a coach and you do it, you will be shamed by your peers. You'll be shamed by your colleagues. John Caliperi will hold a press conference to talk specifically about you. Tom Izza will hold a press conference to talk specifically about you. Dan Hurley will hold a press conference specifically about you. Like all of these guys say they care about college athletics and what's best for college basketball. Prove it. Why do you need a rule? If you could just hold everybody accountable and say, this is something we're not going to do.
- [31:57]
Gary Parrish
Again, I'm not a lawyer. I think what? Because I think that I was clear.
- [32:01]
Matt Norlander
Don't put it in writing. Don't say it out loud. We're not going to do that.
- [32:07]
Gary Parrish
Is still conspiracy to restrain Trade. Which might be in violation of the Sherman act. And you could. That could bring on even more law if. If a player thought they had a proper avenue to go and play college basketball and couldn't find a single program. First of all, this is weird. So out there right now.
- [32:22]
Matt Norlander
All right, you ready? Whatever the NFL did with Colin Kaepernick, do that. Do that with anybody who's ever been selected in a dress.
- [32:30]
Gary Parrish
It's like a winning strategy.
- [32:32]
Matt Norlander
I. You get the point.
- [32:33]
Gary Parrish
I do get the point.
- [32:34]
Matt Norlander
Just say we're not.
- [32:36]
Gary Parrish
I can't believe I'm hearing this.
- [32:37]
Matt Norlander
If this is the problem that I'm.
- [32:39]
Gary Parrish
Hearing this from Gary Parish, and I think you're going devil's advocate here, but also the idea that you're going to ask and trust college basketball coaches to. To all side on one side of an issue and say, okay, no one go and cheat or go and break that rule.
- [32:53]
Matt Norlander
Everyone we're gonna have. I know. Will wait.
- [32:56]
Gary Parrish
This will never happen.
- [32:58]
Matt Norlander
I know. I know. We've got a Will Wade problem. All right? Will Wade will go out and try to buy every draft pick who's ever been picked just to prove a point. All right, I acknowledge that. And again, I acknowledge everything you're saying. I acknowledge. I'm just saying every coach this week who has spoken about this publicly.
- [33:18]
Gary Parrish
Yeah.
- [33:18]
Matt Norlander
Says they don't like it, then don't do it. If you don't like it, don't do it. And if all of you don't do it, then it doesn't get done. Way oversimplification. I've told you that. But that is. That's. That's one way to. That's one way to address it, at least. Regardless, I like that it sparked this conversation.
- [33:39]
Gary Parrish
Me, too.
- [33:40]
Matt Norlander
Another fix that everybody throws out all the time is, well, this is sort of where we're at until we get a cba. This is where we're at until we collectively bargain. Our buddy Seth Davis seems to think that collective. Collective bargaining in college athletics just isn't possible. Lawyers who work in the space have suggested they don't agree with that sentiment. I trust all of those people are smarter than me, Seth Davis, and all of the lawyers. Right. So I won't spend any more time on that debate. I guess I would just say this if we're looking for an actual solution, like, if we finally reach the point where we say, hey, this is crazy. We got to do something. Because that. That. That does seem to be the sentiment coming from most coaches mouths this week who have spoken about it. Publicly. This is crazy. We need to do something about it. We need to get our sport back. Right? Rick Pitino said, the sport I love and been involved with for, you know, decades, it no longer exists. Perhaps hyperbolic, but he said it or tweeted it. So if everybody feels that way, and that's the sentiment I'm left with this week, forget Congress and forget whether collective bargaining is realistic or not. Again, I'll let Seth Davis and the lawyers argue about that. Here's what you do. You get the people who say they care about college sports and who have the power to do something about it. You get them in a room with the lawyers who understand this space and also care about it. You get them, you pull them into the room, too, and you start talking and you say, hey, we are now a professional sport. We have to act like it. Other professional sports leagues figure out a way to exist with revenue sharing and real rules that can be enforced. How do we do it? We're tired of complaining all the time. We're tired of waiting on Congress. We're tired of brainstorming which results in nothing. Get the room of lawyers, get the room of powerful people and figure out a way to make this work. Until we get to that point or some semblance of that point, all we've got is bitching non stop and confusion non stop. I would prefer to be done with the confusion, be done with the complaining, and have a system that works, whatever it looks like, a legal system that works. Regardless of whether a CBA is a realistic option or not, there's something out there that works. There's a system that works. Get the powerful people and the attorneys in a room and figure it out.
- [36:33]
Gary Parrish
You would think that the past week or so of this is actually going to catalyze folks to do that. Now. The way these things go so often is that we're in the middle of a season, so we can't, you know, coach. Your coaches are going to want to be represented in that kind of meeting, and they should. We can't do it in the middle of the season, so you got to wait until, say, the final four or in the weeks after the final Four. And so we'll see how much of an issue this remains in terms of its front burner status two, three, four months from now. I'd agree with you. Maybe at the end of this pod, Josh, we'll talk. I'll toss in so you can hear. I shared what Dan Hurley told me, but if you listen to what he says, too, I think it's got a certain level of impact. I'll put that in on the audio version at the end of the show. It's about 2:45. It's just too long to play in the middle of a pod here with me and GP Sitting here talking. But for our audio only listeners, we'll tag that at the end so you can hear what, what Hurley had to say. Because a lot of what he said and the way he said it is kind of reflected in the case that GP just made right there. We're 35 minutes into this show. I think it might be time to talk some ball.
- [37:36]
Matt Norlander
Let's get a word from our partners and then we will do the final four. One presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Oh, it's time for the final four. And one presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Josh welcome back to the Ion College Basketball Podcast. Get in my ear. Update us on these records. Tell me how good I am at this.
- [37:59]
Josh
Good morning, gentlemen. Happy to, happy to be back.
- [38:03]
Gary Parrish
Who's the new guy?
- [38:07]
Josh
Records.
- [38:08]
Matt Norlander
I don't mean to interrupt, but could you soften your tone a little bit?
- [38:10]
Josh
No, I don't, I don't think I can. You know, I listened to last week's Final Four and one and listen to you ask Debo about, about the records and he, he didn't seem that cooperative either. So I might, I might have to take that route.
- [38:25]
Matt Norlander
I felt like he was playing hard to get. I felt like he was playing hard to get a little bit. And you know what? This isn't something I thought I needed. I'm. It's not something I thought I needed. I thought just like, you know, nada or Norland or anybody could just like, tell me what the records are. I don't care. But then you did it a very specific way. And I don't know, man, that's a nice little Friday morning treat, if you know what I'm saying.
- [38:47]
Josh
I, I actually, I have the, the, the clip of me saying that. So maybe I'll load it into Streamyard for next week and we'll just play.
- [38:56]
Gary Parrish
It over and over again.
- [38:58]
Matt Norlander
Like, send it to me so I can just have it like in my phone.
- [39:01]
Gary Parrish
That makes that comfortable. I have no idea how we did last week.
- [39:05]
Matt Norlander
Me neither. I have no, I have no games.
- [39:09]
Gary Parrish
We did other than the K State didn't cover. Didn't cover and didn't win by 22 plus. And so the program should have been folded. Lo and behold, they didn't do that. And they're going to be in this week's final form.
- [39:17]
Matt Norlander
I, I, I tell Josh in a, In a, in a soft tone to tell me how good I am at this, but I have no idea if I'm actually good at this. So we're going to learn this together. Am I good at this?
- [39:27]
Josh
You and Norlander are very average at this.
- [39:30]
Gary Parrish
Yeah.
- [39:31]
Matt Norlander
I asked them. That was probably the case.
- [39:33]
Josh
Parish, 20, 19 and 1. Norlander, 19, 20 and 1.
- [39:38]
Matt Norlander
That sounds like I'm winning.
- [39:39]
Josh
You are, I suppose. But last week, you were not. Two and three for gp, three and two for Matt. And the games, they're. They're much better this week.
- [39:50]
Gary Parrish
Thank you.
- [39:50]
Matt Norlander
I blame, I blame I Trip Chattanooga for that. You don't, you don't know what they did.
- [39:57]
Gary Parrish
We got to get to the games. But no vrbo, no Airbnb, Just.
- [40:01]
Matt Norlander
It was in, in the spirit of full transparency, it was. I tripped Chattanooga through Airbnb.
- [40:07]
Gary Parrish
Okay?
- [40:08]
Matt Norlander
So Airbnb, they were phenomenal. I want to be clear about that. I tripped Chattanooga. They broke my heart. I said, how are we gonna fix. They were like, Mr. Parrish, we're so sorry. I said, hey, man, things happen. It's no big deal. What we gonna do now? And they were like, man, we're so sorry. And I was like, I got it. I appreciate you saying that, but now what? Where do I. Where do I live? And they were like, man, I hope you accept our apology. And I was like, that's cool, but where am I going to sleep? And they were like. And that was it. They just sort of left me there. I said, I got a podcast to do on Friday morning. Where am I going to?
- [40:44]
Gary Parrish
King of the Castle. King of the castle. What's game one?
- [40:48]
Matt Norlander
Game one, Friday, 7pm Eastern. It's number 24, USC at number two, Michigan, inside the Ray Jackson Center. Sure, you can watch it on Peacock. This is outrageous.
- [41:01]
Gary Parrish
This is outrageous.
- [41:02]
Matt Norlander
This.
- [41:02]
Gary Parrish
This number still, right? I looked at this number. I said, there's no way.
- [41:06]
Matt Norlander
Michigan -22 and a half. Just so you understand what's happening here.
- [41:10]
Gary Parrish
Ranked on ranked game.
- [41:12]
Matt Norlander
It's a ranked on rank game. And the numbers. 22 and a half. 22 and a half. A half. By the way, I know you can't trust the Internet, but I went to AI Overview.
- [41:22]
Gary Parrish
No.
- [41:23]
Matt Norlander
And it said. I said, who's the least famous? I said, I want to start the new year off right. Who's the least famous member of the Fab Five? I want to make them more famous. And it said, ray Jackson. Clear.
- [41:33]
Gary Parrish
I think that's Fair.
- [41:35]
Matt Norlander
It is fair, but it's not on the show. Not on this show. No way. Double bird to Chris Weber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard and Jimmy King. We honor Ray Jackson. Around here, it's the Ray Jackson center where Michigan is favored by 22 and a half points. Now some of this, I wrote about this in the top 25 and 1. The takeaway could be. Well, yeah, it's a ranked. On ranked matchup, but it shouldn't be. USC is yet 12 and 1, but zero wins over top 45 Kimpam teams and a loss to unranked Washington. The real problem here is that USC shouldn't be ranked at all.
- [42:05]
Gary Parrish
Well, yeah. Also doesn't have its faster Sagamis player as well, but.
- [42:10]
Matt Norlander
Right, okay. I don't have USC in the top 25 of one. All right, so, so I get that point. But officially, AP poll, it is a ranked on rank matchup. And the byproduct here is that the, the real, the real explanation for. How do you get this, this number? It's because Michigan is 12. 0 with nine wins by at least 25 points. They, they, they beat Gonzaga by 40. They beat Auburn by 30. Michigan to this point has played exactly two teams at the the AP Pole and beat them by an average of 35 points. So I get it not every day, but lots of days because Michigan's been number one in the top 25 and one, even though Arizona's number one. You'll get some people every day. They'll call you stupid, they'll call you bald, they call you fat, they call you a lot of stuff.
- [42:55]
Gary Parrish
None of that happens to me.
- [42:58]
Matt Norlander
Man. That's a good point. You've, you've never been called short, fat or bald?
- [43:04]
Gary Parrish
Nope.
- [43:05]
Matt Norlander
That's a wild thing to think about.
- [43:08]
Gary Parrish
That's completely normal.
- [43:09]
Matt Norlander
I get called that every day by my kids. That's amazing.
- [43:16]
Gary Parrish
Gotta say, I can't relate, like to.
- [43:19]
Matt Norlander
Be called short, fat or bald. And I, I don't know what it's like not to be called short, fat or bald. So every once in a while they'll be like, hey, shorty, fatty, baldy, you're stupid too, because you don't have Arizona ranked number one. And like, I don't have an issue with anybody ranking Arizona number one. But the idea that it takes a stupid person to rank Michigan number one, that's not true because Michigan would be favored over any team in the country, including Arizona, on a neutral court and they're 22 and a half point favorites over a ranked team later tonight. On Peacock. Woohoo.
- [43:50]
Gary Parrish
All right. Michigan 120 for the first time 6 since 2018-19. They were 17 and oh that season. USC 12 and 1. It's best 13 game start since it started. 130 and 2122 under former coach Andy Enfield. We'll get to SMU before we get to the end of the final 4 and 1. USC is on a 15 game losing streak against top two opponents in the AP top 25. The last time USC won a game over a number one or number two team was in 2000 against Arizona. It's not gonna. It's not happening on Friday either. Going back to last season, Michigan 6 and 1 in this last seven games against ranked opponents and you mentioned the the big ones already. On average, Michigan beating teams through 12 games by 30.3 points. On average. It has already won seven games by 40 or more points. That is the most in a single season in the history of the Big Ten. And Michigan is a third of the way through this season. It's outrageous. Michigan ranks first in point differential in the entire sport. It is second in overall field goal percentage 53.6%. It is first in field goal percentage. Defense teams are shooting 34.6% from the field against the Wolverines this season. That's the worst in the entire country. And defensive rebounds per game for Michigan, number one in college basketball, 33.4 defensive rebounds per game. Not even the offensive ones. USC, really good at getting to the foul line. Leads all of D1. 22.9 free throws per game. Excuse me, made per game. 31.2 attempted per game. Some of that is senior ezra Ossar who's fifth nationally in foul drawn rate. He averages 9.3 foul shots taken per game. The problem is he shoots less than 63%. He'd be a 20 point per game guy if he was making a few more of these. As it is, he's averaging 17 a game along with Chad Baker Mazzara who's done well for himself. I don't know if he's an all American yet, but I think he's knocking on the door. 21 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists. He's had a nice season. The number is so huge. I mean I could prove to be an idiot. In short, in short time here, gp I will take, I will take USC to cover. I'm not confident about it. 22 and a half in a ranked on rank game is nuts. I'd actually love to know the last time we had a ranked on rank matchup. With a line this big, I haven't. I. Has it ever happened?
- [46:13]
Matt Norlander
I tried to look it up, and I was just. I just ran.
- [46:17]
Gary Parrish
I'd ask our research team to go dig this up if I wouldn't be stunned if this is the biggest spread ever past 20 years. I don't know. It's wild.
- [46:26]
Matt Norlander
Give me.
- [46:27]
Gary Parrish
Give me the Trojans to cover.
- [46:28]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, it's. I actually, like, tried to look that up. I mean, when I say tried to look it up, I. I mean, I thought about it, and then I. And then I went, man, this is gonna be a hard thing to figure out. So I just left it there. But, yeah, massive number. I. You know me. I root for the top 25. And 1. The only way to keep Arizona fans from calling me short ball and stupid and fat is for Michigan to blow out usc. So let's light. And that probably won't do it, but it'll help. It'll help. So let's lay the 22 and a half with Michigan game two, Friday night.
- [46:59]
Gary Parrish
Chat saying, I'm not sold on Michigan.
- [47:02]
Matt Norlander
Literally.
- [47:02]
Gary Parrish
What else could they entirely do? Whatever. Keep going.
- [47:05]
Matt Norlander
There was. I. I saw yesterday, like, there was somebody on Twitter after Indiana won, like, just beat the cross.
- [47:12]
Gary Parrish
You know, I'm not sold on the Hoosiers in football yet.
- [47:15]
Matt Norlander
They were like, you know what? All right, if there were any skeptics out there, now, they have to be gone. I'm like, who is skeptical about Indiana? They've been beating everybody's brains in for two years. What are we talking? They. They, like, they've got the best. Perhaps the best coach in the history of organized sports. He might be. No, like, I mean, you talk to Tom Fornelli about it, they know more about it than I do. But from where I'm sitting in the woods, this guy, Kurt Signetti might be the best coach in the history of organized sports.
- [47:44]
Gary Parrish
I'm about. I'm about ready to declare he's the best coach in the history of Indiana. I mean, from the same podcast that's telling you Mick Cronin is the best coach in UCLA history.
- [47:52]
Matt Norlander
Oh, I don't think there's any doubt.
- [47:54]
Gary Parrish
What argument is there against it at this point?
- [47:56]
Matt Norlander
I don't think there's any. But that was the thing. It was like, if you. If you're skeptical about Indiana, it was like, Indiana beat Oregon, Indiana beat Ohio State, and now you're sold because they just beat a mediocre Alabama team. What? So. So, yeah, if you're not sold right now, there are two things at the very bare minimum, two things you should be sold on in college athletics. And one of them is Indiana football. The other one's Michigan basketball. All right, game two, Friday, 9:00pm Eastern. Oh, man. Oh, buddy. We gonna gather around the television in the woods again tonight. It's number nine, Michigan State at number 13. Nebraska inside Pinnacle Bank. You can watch it on Peacock. Nebraska minus two and a half. To be clear, I know we nickname all of the arenas during the final Four and one, but Pinnacle bank is Pinnacle Bank.
- [48:55]
Gary Parrish
Correct.
- [48:56]
Matt Norlander
You don't play around with Pinnacle Bank. You don't play around with greatness. This is the game of the weekend, I think.
- [49:02]
Gary Parrish
You don't just walk into Pinnacle bank.
- [49:04]
Matt Norlander
And trying to tell people for years. It took a minute. It took a minute for it to become true. But you know, we're here now.
- [49:13]
Gary Parrish
Michigan State's gonna walk in the Pinnacle Bank.
- [49:15]
Matt Norlander
What the.
- [49:16]
Gary Parrish
Give me the Spartans.
- [49:17]
Matt Norlander
Are you crazy?
- [49:19]
Gary Parrish
Great up. Straight up Michigan State. I'll give you a few nuggets regardless, but I went with the pick right off the top. Not to cover Sparty. Straight up Nebraska 13 0. Best start in school history. Longest Division 1 winning streak active in the country. 17 straight. Nebraska is one of six unbeaten still remaining, by the way, in college hoops. We've reached January 2nd and we still got six teams without a scar. It's pretty cool. This is only the second ranked on rank game that Nebraska's ever played at home. The other One was in 91 against Kansas. The Cornhuskers won that game. Nebraska sits at 13th in the AP Top 25, which did not refresh this week. If you're an AP voter, you got the week off.
- [49:59]
Matt Norlander
Does that ever happen?
- [50:00]
Gary Parrish
Like, I know, I, I, I don't know. I, I, I feel like it always updates every year, every week. But there weren't any game like there's the Diamond Head Classic got killed. That's another MGE that died. Yes. And so I don't know, but there wasn't an AP top 25 this week. So Nebraska's been sitting there at 13 for two weeks in a row.
- [50:19]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, like, I, I mean, I just kept checking the AP pole. I just sitting out in the WOODS Checking the AP pole never refreshes. I'm updating the top 25 in one everybody day. No games, no nothing. Just, just updating every morning. Just writing 300 words of nonsense every morning. No change. It's pretty much it.
- [50:38]
Gary Parrish
That's pretty much it. You were the AP pole.
- [50:41]
Matt Norlander
For all intents, I'm the as far as I'm concerned. I'm the ap. This is the game of the weekend.
- [50:45]
Gary Parrish
As far as I'm concerned.
- [50:46]
Matt Norlander
Michigan State, huge fright. Tom Izzo. Yes, Tom Izzo. Mad as hell about James Naji marching his Spartans into the mecca of college basketball. Basketball. Pinnacle Bank.
- [50:57]
Gary Parrish
MSU has won 12 of its last 13 games against Nebraska. Now, Nebraska won back to back games last season against top 10 teams and they were at home. They beat Purdue and Wisconsin when both those teams were ranked in the top 10 last season. And so now this carries over to this season. If Nebraska wins tonight, it will be the first time in the history of the program that it has won three consecutive games against top 10 teams. You know when those opportunities were provided, regardless of whether they were in the same year or not. Keep an eye on Rink Mast. He's such a good player for Nebraska, but him and Price Sanford are actually both at 16 and a half points exactly per game. Jeremy Fear is number two in the country in assist per game. He's an awesome player. But 10 toes down, Sparty's going to walk into Pinnacle Bank.
- [51:38]
Matt Norlander
No, that is out. That's a wild thing to say. We're supposed to be the official podcast of Pinnacle Bank. Like I'm surprised we don't have a Pinnacle bank sponsorship at this point. Point.
- [51:49]
Gary Parrish
What do you want from me? I.
- [51:51]
Matt Norlander
Loyalty. I would appreciate a little.
- [51:54]
Gary Parrish
I've never claimed, I've never claimed that you don't just walk in the Pinnacle Bank. I've seen.
- [52:00]
Matt Norlander
That's why, that's, that's why your name doesn't get to be on the banner. When we get a banner inside Pinnacle bank, your name doesn't get to be on it. You can take a picture with me under it. But your name doesn't get you not a believer. You're a non believer. It circles back to the scripture, I think.
- [52:15]
Gary Parrish
So you've got Nebraska to win and to cover.
- [52:17]
Matt Norlander
Yes. Straight up. Probably a blowout.
- [52:19]
Gary Parrish
Straight up. Could be. They don't cover. Are they winning and covering? What are they doing?
- [52:22]
Matt Norlander
Yes, they're winning. They're covering. They're blowing them out. It's a double digit victory. You don't just walk in the Pinnacle Bank. I've been saying it for years. I said it. I said it before it was even true. Now it's true.
- [52:34]
Gary Parrish
Okay. I like when you disagree.
- [52:37]
Matt Norlander
You're a non believer. It's disappointing.
- [52:40]
Gary Parrish
How are you going to react if Michigan State wins this game by like 8?
- [52:43]
Matt Norlander
Not gonna react at all. Okay, I'm gonna be blacked. Out in the woods, who cares? Hey, I promise you, I'm not gonna care at all, okay? I'm gonna be sitting here in the middle of the wood, blacked out. It's not gonna matter to me.
- [53:00]
Gary Parrish
Not as much fun for the show, but fair enough. What's game three?
- [53:03]
Matt Norlander
Game three, Saturday, noon, Eastern. Kentucky at number 14, Alabama inside the line, Latrell Spreewell Coliseum. Watch it on ESPN. Ken Palm has it.
- [53:15]
Gary Parrish
Alabama -5 Bama fans officially hoop season football portal open today, by the way. So I'm sure they're more invested in that than that than they are.
- [53:28]
Matt Norlander
They're looking. They're looking. Oh, buddy, man, we gotta get these James Madison and two lanes in Alabama's out of these playoffs. I mean, I don't know if y' all like watching lopsided beatdowns, but gets a little boring for me. We got to do something about these James Madison's and these Alabamas.
- [53:47]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, you hate to see it there. You said Bama's -5 in this game.
- [53:51]
Matt Norlander
That's what Kim Pom says, not me.
- [53:54]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, this is the only time these two are scheduled to meet this season. Kind of a bummer. I was thinking we'd have two Kentucky Alabama games because going into the season they were projected to be two of the three best teams. But I think they've got the schedule rotation determined three, four years in advance, so they weren't going to adjust that. Whatever. Jalen Lowe did not play in Kentucky's winning against Bellarmine, which came after the St. John's win in the CBS Sports Classic. I would think that he's going to again come off the bench here. You'd think they'd need him in this kind of game. Alabama has the advantage in the backcourt, unquestionably. Kentucky could, should maybe will have the advantage up front. I would think so. I mean Alabama is not good when it comes to rebounding. You got quaintance back. We'll see if he starts or if he doesn't. Apparently Pope said he might play him a little bit at the 4 as opposed to the 5. We'll see him and diabate together. We'll see what that means. But I think, I would think a JQ double double might be in the offing here. Can Kentucky slow down Alabama's guards? It's a big spot for Ortega away I think on both ends. See how he can play, how effective he can be in this one. Alabama is not good at turning teams over. It's one of the worst in the sec. I think that's important for Kentucky in this kind of spot because it's going to be in Alabama's home joint. I think UK will have his chances. That number is annoying because it feels like Alabama wins by five. I. I'll say, I'll say, I'll say Alabama wins and covers, but with great hesitation. But yeah, give me the Tide minus five.
- [55:29]
Matt Norlander
Big game in Latrell Spreewell Coliseum for you youngins out there. Latrell Spiral he was. He was Stefan Diggs before Stefan Diggs was even old enough to know he might need both a bucket and a mop someday. Choked his coach in a practice 68 game suspension. Yep, that was in 1997. Jalen Lowe, I think, is the story here. Like you mentioned, didn't play against Bellarmine, but that seemed to be more precautionary than anything else. Here's a quote from Mark Pope. I'll read it to you. He said, we're trying to limit his contact and exposure so much in practice that the thinking behind that is like. And by the way, this is a quote about why they plan to keep bringing him off the bench. And I got it from Wyatt Huff. He's the co host of the Breaking Blue podcast. So Mark Pope said, we're trying to limit his contact. Jalen loves contact and exposure so much in practice that the thinking behind that is like, let's protect the integrity of the group that we have, getting most of the reps in practice to actually be able to go perform on the court just to give some continuity. And I like this because I like it when coaches do this. Mark Pope acknowledged, like, I don't know if that's the right thing to do, but like it's what we're doing right now and I'm explaining to you why we're doing it. But like I don't know if it's the right thing to do and I don't know if we'll continue to do it. Anyway, the quote continues, that might not be the right answer. We're going to kind of explore that as we go. It also gives you a chance to maybe extend his healthy window, which we're hoping is going to be the entire season. But not being the headline guy at the beginning of a scout, end quote. So based off everything Mark said when I was at the CBS Sports class and they beat St. John's and then additionally said after the more recent win, Jalen Lowe is never going to be right. He's going, this is going to be a thing. He's going to try to play through it. They're going to try to limit his exposure to contact in practices, but they seem to understand that at any moment he could get popped just like he got popped in the CBS Sports Classic. And he could have to leave the game for its entirety or for some lesser period of time. So for Kentucky fans, this is just going to be a keep your fingers crossed type of thing basically every game. But I do expect him to be on the court at some point on Saturday. Let's say he checks in with 1607 left in the first half.
- [57:53]
Gary Parrish
Okay, who you got?
- [57:55]
Matt Norlander
Alabama minus the five.
- [57:57]
Gary Parrish
You? Me both. What's game four?
- [57:59]
Matt Norlander
Saturday, 1:30pm Eastern. It's number 10, BYU at Kansas State inside the Marquis Noel Coliseum. You can watch it on cbs. It's America's most watched network. It's the Network of Stars. Kim Pom has it. BYU -8.
- [58:17]
Gary Parrish
This is BYU's first road game of the season. Trivia time. Okay, how many cities can you name that BYU has played neutral site games in this season? Don't look at the schedule. Do it off the top of your head.
- [58:27]
Matt Norlander
Salt Lake.
- [58:28]
Gary Parrish
Ding. Correct.
- [58:29]
Matt Norlander
Boston. What else do they do? Las Vegas 3. Salt Lake, Boston. Las Vegas 2 more. Sioux Falls. That's a damn shame. Where else have they been? The Garden?
- [58:53]
Gary Parrish
Four out of five.
- [58:53]
Matt Norlander
So that's New York and Boston. Salt Lake, New York, Las Vegas. These dudes love a neutral court, don't they? I'm go Phoenix, Arizona.
- [59:05]
Gary Parrish
One more guess. I referenced it on I think the most recent podcast.
- [59:11]
Matt Norlander
Lookout Mountain.
- [59:15]
Gary Parrish
Lake Buena Vista, Florida is technically the place.
- [59:17]
Matt Norlander
But if you'd given me Disney World.
- [59:19]
Gary Parrish
Yes, I would have given you that. But you didn't get it. So close. So close. Yeah. No road games yet until until Saturday here for byu. Octagon of Doom. Kansas State won four of its last five times they've played a top ten opponent at Bramwidge. Keep an eye on that. Most recently was the win came in 2024 against Iowa State. Kansas State is a weird team, man. They started five and oh, they went 04 and then are four and oh in their last four. But then they played maybe the bottom three team and all college basketball and couldn't win by more than 22. We'll see when K State lost four in a row from November 21st to December 6th, that was the first time they had lost four straight since 1965. This the the must see aspect of this and I'm talking about this on CBS Sports HQ later today. You've got two of the three best Scorers in college hoops right now. Debance and Haggerty. Debance is at 23.1 points per game. Hagerty's at 22.9. Cameron Boozer leads the nation narrowly at 23.3 overall. BYU is looking for its first 10 game winning streak since the era of Jimmer. More of us shouts to Brandon Davies. That team started 21. That was the last time a BYU team won 10 in a row. If BYU wins on Saturday on CBS, it will have 10 consecutive victories. Kansas State likes to get out and run. This could be a really fun game. I really and one Kansas City's got the talent like I. We better get a good one on cbs. Both of these teams can go. We'll see if Debancer who is this will be announced I think in about an hour or so. Edu Da Bance is the USBWA National High Major player of the month for December to serve in. So coming off an incredible December for himself. But it's not just him, obviously. The Bansa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright GP they're combining to average 57.9 points per game. We'll see if they can keep that clip going in the second half of the season. But over the past seven years, only one trio averaged more points per game for an entire season. Can you name that trio?
- [61:22]
Matt Norlander
Yes.
- [61:23]
Gary Parrish
Okay, give it to me.
- [61:24]
Matt Norlander
Yes, I can give it to him. It's. It's Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish.
- [61:30]
Gary Parrish
Let's go. Come on, dude. Let's go.
- [61:32]
Matt Norlander
How did I know that you think. You think it's because I'm a genius?
- [61:37]
Gary Parrish
Come on, Duke, how did you know? Come on, come on.
- [61:41]
Matt Norlander
I was reading something about Cam Reddish last night and it popped in my head. That's the truth.
- [61:46]
Gary Parrish
That's good stuff out of you. 20. 58.7 points per game. That trio right now to Banta Saunders, right. 57.9. They could break that record. In the past seven years, Hagerty is the only player. Oh, I got one more for you.
- [61:57]
Matt Norlander
One more Chip, let's go. Come on. I'm on a roll. Bring it to me.
- [62:02]
Gary Parrish
He's the only player in the country averaging 22 plus points, 5 plus rebounds and 4.5 plus assists per game. Who's the last player to hit all of those averages for an entire season? Okay, it's a player that you are familiar with.
- [62:16]
Matt Norlander
I'm familiar with all players.
- [62:18]
Gary Parrish
Definitely not the case.
- [62:21]
Matt Norlander
Is it James Najee?
- [62:24]
Gary Parrish
I have a James Najee update. Scott Drew detects me. He's Going to play will be a slow process. Texting the offensive defense. I didn't give me a minute, but I would. I blind guesses. Now he's on the floor for like seven minutes. He is going to play tomorrow, though.
- [62:37]
Matt Norlander
Text him back. Text him back. This, this, and nothing but this. Okay.
- [62:41]
Gary Parrish
Okay.
- [62:42]
Matt Norlander
You're ruining college basketball.
- [62:43]
Gary Parrish
Stop. I'm not texting. I asked if you could give me. I'm not text. You text him that. You text him that.
- [62:56]
Matt Norlander
I'm gonna text him right now. I'm gonna say.
- [62:58]
Gary Parrish
I want you to do it.
- [62:59]
Matt Norlander
Yeah. I'm gonna text him. I'm gonna say, how do you go from the road to joy to ruining college basketball?
- [63:05]
Gary Parrish
You should. You should text him. You text him.
- [63:08]
Matt Norlander
Scott, Drew, I want you to look in the mirror and tell me how you went from the front road to joy to ruining college basketball.
- [63:17]
Gary Parrish
I'm gonna. We're gonna keep this hot.
- [63:18]
Matt Norlander
This man turned down Kentucky, Louisville and then said, you know what I'm doing next? You know what I'm doing next. I'm gonna ruin college basketball.
- [63:28]
Gary Parrish
The pl. The most recent player. If you're playing along at home waiting for the answer, the average 22 plus.
- [63:33]
Matt Norlander
I forgot.
- [63:33]
Gary Parrish
I forgot we were talking 5 plus rebounds, 4.5 assists in a season. For a full season season.
- [63:38]
Matt Norlander
Michael Beasley. I swear to God I was gonna say John Morant.
- [63:42]
Gary Parrish
You didn't.
- [63:43]
Matt Norlander
I didn't. I swear to God I was gonna say John Moran. I didn't think he had the points.
- [63:49]
Gary Parrish
He did. He was.
- [63:51]
Matt Norlander
That's a shame.
- [63:52]
Gary Parrish
He was a good player. This is a brutal start for case date. By the way. Its first five Big 12 opponents are combined 55 and seven. That's the Big 12 for you. I'll pick this game. BYU minus eight. Kansas State couldn't cover the 22 against the Monroe Warhawks. They're going to show up games on cbs. We're getting a good one. Ema. Ema K State covers.
- [64:21]
Matt Norlander
You mentioned Devon says December. Some numbers on it. He averaged 27.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists while shooting 79.5% from the field. I think we mentioned this on a previous podcast. Optus stats said he's the only Division 1 player in the last 30 seasons to play at least five games in a calendar month and finish them with averages of 25/ points, 5/ rebounds, 5/plus assists while shooting better than 65% from the field and going undefeated. I know that's a lot of weird lines to draw, but like, you know, take it up with Optus stats. I'm a believer in BYU as a final four contender, national championship contender, but I'm also a building truster. You know that about me. Octagon of doom. Eight points. That's too much. Give me, give me P.J. haggerty, whose numbers are up across the board. He's been terrific. But ksu is still 76 at KenPom. Projected right now by that computer computer to finish 6 and 12 in the big 12. I think they show up. I don't think they win the game, but I think they keep it close. I'll take Kansas State plus the eight.
- [65:27]
Gary Parrish
And if they win the. This is like we're gonna get to the next game here in 17 seconds. But this is a crucial game for Kansas State. You have an opportunity here. The schedule is so tough to start off in league play. Game is on your home floor. Big time spot, high profile game. America's most monster network. In all seriousness, take care of this and maybe you can get something going. We'll see. And one Saturday.
- [65:46]
Matt Norlander
Yep.
- [65:47]
Gary Parrish
Two 15 Eastern on the CW. Number 12 North Carolina at 11. And two SMU on John Concac Court. That is back to back seasons in which John Concac has gotten love because Duke at SMU was it last season was the season before. I know I, I know I invoke Concac. I know I did that recently. They're gonna get the, the N1 here. One of the mix up. Give it a little more conference love. Arkansas, Tennessee is the best remaining game. We'll get to that in just a second. But we'll give some ACC love because smu, we'll see. Ken Palm's got the line ponies minus one Parrish.
- [66:26]
Matt Norlander
I like this SMU story. It. It's wild to think about where this program was. Like when I was a. A newspaper reporter slash beat writer. This was just a nothing Conference USA program and they bought their way into a power conference and now they're doing power conference stuff they've been reputable for. You know, they've had big seasons in football in recent years and, and, and now they've got a, a basketball team that is on the verge of maybe being ranked. A win over North Carolina here might do it. I'll take sw. I'll lay the point SMU at home. You don't identify as a building truster and then just abandon it when it, when it comes to SMU. So let's go SMU minus the one.
- [67:19]
Gary Parrish
Good game. That's why I made it the N1 UNC beating teams by almost 19 points on average. You've got a really big physical Carolina team. Hubert Davis on the hot seat now. Caleb Wilson's been top three freshmen in the country. 19.8 points, 11.2 rebounds. Him and Vsar these are practically a double double guy as well. 65 points, 9.4 boards. That's Trimble's back. You know he's averaging 15 a game. He's only played five games but having him back in the lineup obviously is big time. Carolina wants to play near the rim, dominate the glass. If SMU gets into foul trouble at home, it's going to be over. The heels can go reliably nine deep and SMU is essentially a six man rotation at best. It's the here's the ironic thing about the Mustangs. They're the third oldest team in terms of D1 experience per Kentom in the entire country. Okay? But despite having all of that experience, all of that age, they've got the least amount of depth of any high major team. In fact the number two team is Baylor which is why Scott Drew guys, James Najee, Andy Enfield doesn't need it, doesn't need a pro to come in, but he's just not playing his older guys. They've got five guys who average double figures in scoring. Boopy Miller, booby back to back podventions, 19.9 points a game. Jerome Pierre 18.7. BJ Edwards who's had some really nice moments, 13 and a half. Corey Washington and then Samit Yigi Toglu 11.5 points per game. They have had at least four double figure scores in 12 of their 13 games this season and they've had five guys for double figures six times. So they've got one of the better starting fives in the country in terms of production. But I don't get why they don't they've got all this experience, they don't go deeper. They may need to do that in this game. Similar to what we mentioned with BYU and its lack of travel. SMU went 112 in non league but it's played 9 of those games at home. Like it hasn't really been tested away from home. It gets this one at home. You take the ponies, I will take Carolina in this spot. Caleb Wilson has been outstanding. This is a sneaky, sneaky good game here and I wanted to wanted to get some because I don't we'll see if SMU is indeed for real and then Carolina, if you can go on the road and win this one you know, ACC could be very competitive at the top. These are the games you might need to try and steal and pick off if you're going to, you know, vie for Duke for the ACC title.
- [69:37]
Matt Norlander
Freshman class, perhaps the best in the history of the sport. Coming into the season, the big three was A.J. devonsa, Darren Peterson and Cameron Boozer. Obviously, Darren Peterson hasn't played much, only four times through 13 games. Kansas at UCF this weekend. I think we're assuming he's going to try to play, but yes, yes, he's gonna play.
- [70:01]
Gary Parrish
I got, I got your rundown here.
- [70:04]
Matt Norlander
Here's what I was gonna say. And then, and then we'll get through the rundown and then we get. Coming to the end of the season, it was like Cameron Boozer, Darren Peterson, A.J. deBonsa. And that's still true from a draft perspective, I think, but from a college basketball impact perspective, it is Cameron Boozer, A.J. deBonta and Caleb Wilson. Caleb Wilson, top three freshmen, like you said, currently fifth in the Ken Palm Player of the Year standings.
- [70:29]
Gary Parrish
He's been outstanding and I think that he has a chance of. The only thing that is keeping Caleb Wilson outside the conversation for the number one pick is he doesn't have a perimeter game right. Right now at this point, I think that's, that's really, it really is the only thing because his motor, his battery, his playmaking ability, his instincts, basically as good as any of the freshmen we've mentioned. He's a ton of fun. Here's.
- [70:51]
Matt Norlander
Let me, let me correct myself real quick for somebody else has to do it. He's fourth right now in the Kim Pom Player of the year standings. In order, it's Cameron Boozer, Joshua Jefferson at Iowa State who's been one of the, the real stories of this season. AJ DeBonsa, Caleb Wilson at 4 and then Yaxel Lindenborg at Michigan is at 5.
- [71:08]
Gary Parrish
Man, I really hope we've. Last year we had the broom flag. It'd be lovely if we genuinely got like a four player race building out for national player of the year. We got to get, you know, deep into January before we know if that's really the case. All right, your others to know. As we get back into the swing of things, league play is upon us. We've had some already earlier this week, obviously had the best game of the week was Virginia, Virginia Tech playing the best game in the history of that rivalry triple overtime. But now everyone's back into the fold and we've got a big slate, particularly on Saturday. Friday, the One other one that I'd note is Louisville is on the road at Stanford, which just lost 47 to 40. It was one of those things I doubt you were watching Mountain man, but I had the game on. The. The Louisville, sorry, the. The Notre Dame Stanford game and it ended 47 40. But I was doing something else. I can't remember, but it was on. And I'm thinking it's going into half and then I see them throw to the studio and it's like Seth Greenberg and it says finals like 47 40. The game is over. It's disgusting. It's gross. We'll see if Stanford can keep Louisville under, say 60 points. I have my doubts, but they are on. They're on the road Friday night. That's the only other, I think, semi notable game. We've got some other stuff, but nothing too pressing. Saturday Tennessee at Arkansas by far the best game that we didn't put in the Final Four and one we had a dribble handoff go up on Thursday with New Year's resolutions. GP wrote about Peterson. For me, it was, you know, let's see if we can that let Nate Amet loose all the more for Tennessee. He's been the one top 10 prospect that hasn't popped. If he's been good, he hasn't popped necessarily. We'll see if that comes to be the case here. Arkansas at home. That's a 3 o' clock eastern tip on ESPN2 on Saturday. Really quality game there. Kansas at UCF2 Eastern on Peacock. Bill Self has indicated that Darren Peterson is going to play in that game. He said barring any setbacks, there shouldn't be any setbacks. He's expected to play in this one. And let's hope all the Peterson injury stuff is in 2025 and never to return as far as he is a college player. Other games to know Virginia at NC State. That's an 11am ESPN2 tip. On Saturday, Will Wade had some. Don't ask him about our buddy Joe Ovius, who does the OG podcast, does a great job. He I was took my kids skiing earlier this week and he texted me something about Wade and I had no context. I was, I was. It was a no, no context text because I was. I was out in the slopes with my little guy. And then so after the day was done, I was like, all right, well let's see what he did. He's just going, well, Will Wade is in like he was talking to this reporter as if he was in like year six. And it was, it was weird. I'm not saying it was bad. I was entertained by it. But quite clearly, unbeknownst to me, Will Wade has been taking questions about Darren Williams by the week and he has had it. He's done with it. Stop asking about Darren Williams.
- [73:57]
Matt Norlander
Yeah, so that was a funny Will's like been the if Dan Hurley was the star of press conferences last season and he still is really good at.
- [74:04]
Gary Parrish
Him and Cronin, they're going head to head Hurley. Yes.
- [74:08]
Matt Norlander
But like we got to throw Will in there. Like it like must see press conferences. Dan Hurley, Mick Cronen, Will Wade. I think that's our top three right now.
- [74:15]
Gary Parrish
Yeah, they're. I know. Hey fellas, keep bringing it on. That's what I want to see. No doubt about it. Auburn plays at Georgia One Eastern SEC Network on Saturday. Georgia to this point 12 and one extremely quiet 12 and one played an awful non conference schedule, which is why we haven't heard more about it now you open up against Auburn and then they got two road ones after that. They follow up with Florida on Tuesday. We'll talk about that one on the Sunday show. But it's a game we're tuning into. Purdue plays at Wisconsin. The Badgers are nine and four and you know it's by no means the same thing as K State, but a couple of teams that have had let down non cons they open up their league play with some really good opponents but they get the games on their home floors. So Wisconsin, can you do something? 8 Eastern Primetime Game on Fox. Keep an eye out there. Peacock's got another one. UCLA at Iowa. Mick Cronin hopping on a plane and switching time zones for the first time this season. We'll see if that produces any press conference moments there. I detailed this recently on the site as well. UCLA to start 2026 at Iowa at Wisconsin Quickie back home from Maryland at Penn State at Ohio State for the first five on the road. But you'd rather have it to start January as opposed to say end February with it. But UCLA at Iowa was another good one on Saturday as well. Houston at Cincinnati keep an eye on but that's the majority of it. Then Sunday there's only one Creighton at Seton Hall. That's really the the game of the most prominence. I guess Creighton has actually started to turn around. GP1 four in a row. Seaton hall meanwhile is 12 and two just won at Marquette on Tuesday night. Pirates. I don't know if they'll be I would think they'll be Ranked. I would rank them if they can beat Creighton at home. That is a noon tip on Sunday on Peacock.
- [76:00]
Matt Norlander
All right. I think. Is that a show? I think that's a show.
- [76:02]
Gary Parrish
That's a show. But a couple things. We got to figure out what we're doing next show. And then Josh did run a poll. 81 of the people on the YouTube live chat have a problem with James Najee playing hoops. 19 didn't. So I wanted to pass that along.
- [76:17]
Matt Norlander
Take a screen grab of that, send it to Scott Drew. Look what he's doing to the sport. How do you go from a road to joy to this?
- [76:23]
Gary Parrish
Exactly.
- [76:25]
Matt Norlander
It might be time to do some soul searching.
- [76:27]
Gary Parrish
Your son's situation is. Is incredible right now. Your shade and son.
- [76:32]
Matt Norlander
I know.
- [76:33]
Gary Parrish
Coming through the window. It's wonderful started.
- [76:36]
Matt Norlander
Oh, it's nice outside.
- [76:38]
Gary Parrish
Are you gonna.
- [76:39]
Matt Norlander
I'm gonna go for a little. I'm gonna go for a little stroll down by the water.
- [76:42]
Gary Parrish
There we go. I love to see that. What is. What's the travel situation? Sunday show.
- [76:47]
Matt Norlander
Yeah.
- [76:48]
Gary Parrish
Bears kick off at 425 against the Lions. So we either got to finish before that game starts or we got to go after that game finishes.
- [76:57]
Matt Norlander
I'm gonna. I'm gonna say we might need to go after that game finishes.
- [77:01]
Gary Parrish
Okay.
- [77:04]
Matt Norlander
But I can also go before that. I'm going home Saturday. So we're staying here one more night. I'm gonna be a man of the mountains one more night. Night.
- [77:12]
Gary Parrish
Okay.
- [77:13]
Matt Norlander
Just sort of take in. Take in the woods and. And then. And then. And then travel back home on. On Saturday.
- [77:21]
Gary Parrish
You plan any Bonnie Ver while you're in the woods right now?
- [77:23]
Matt Norlander
No, I should. I should put on one of those Taylor Swift albums if you want a Folklore. I feel like this is perfect for folklore.
- [77:31]
Gary Parrish
You know, it's. It's good Fleet Foxes music. That's what you should be doing.
- [77:34]
Matt Norlander
Instead. We've been mostly just listening to Jia.
- [77:38]
Gary Parrish
Okay.
- [77:41]
Matt Norlander
I. I think. I think. I think I'm gonna destroy my family in paintball today.
- [77:45]
Gary Parrish
Oh, there we go. That's good stuff. I like to hear that.
- [77:48]
Matt Norlander
I've been challenged to paintball. Nobody can defeat me in ping pong around there. I'm like the Marty supreme of Lookout Mountain.
- [77:55]
Gary Parrish
Earlier you said that you're saying that there's another house on the property, though.
- [77:59]
Matt Norlander
There's two more.
- [78:00]
Gary Parrish
All right. I want you to take a picture of one of them and just send it to me and I'm gonna put it in the no contact preview. Okay. Just a Picture of the house and we'll make that happen. That's a show.
- [78:08]
Matt Norlander
Okay. That's the show. Let's get out of here. Shouts to Devin Doughty. Shouts to Chester, S.C. terry Teagle. He's a legend. I tripped Chattanooga. You broke my heart, man. We made it work, but you broke my heart. Huck Larnell. Thank you guys once again for watching listening to the I Own College Basketball podcast. If you're not subscribed, please go subscribe Anywhere you subscribe to podcasts like Apple and Spotify, there's more of us than there are of them. That should be reflected in the comments. Do that. We will talk to you again real soon. Till then, take care.
- [78:46]
Matt
Matt. Here's the best I could do for you. Yeah, I would just say, you know, I just. Just with, with the players, you know, obviously with all the G leagues, I just had no idea that that was even an option. I thought it was actually a joke when I saw it. I just assumed that, you know, when you, when you stay in the draft or you get drafted, that you forego your college eligibility. I was not aware of the loopholes in it. Loopholes, excuse me.
- [79:23]
Gary Parrish
And.
- [79:25]
Matt
Yeah, I mean, I don't. My biggest thing I would say is, listen, players. Player empowerment's great. Players have to do, you know, what they can to, you know, to make sure that they're doing what's in their best interest. They're taking advantage of those opportunities. Opportunities. Now with Nil and the Portal, I think coaches are obviously always going to do what's in their best interest. If they can grab a player from somewhere, it's going. It's gone on forever. Coaches have cheated in recruiting for years. They've paid players. I mean, the coaches are going to find ways to make their team the best they can be. But I would say my biggest thing is, like, who's who. Who's looking out for the. The shield, the college basketball. Like who. Who's protecting college basketball, like, the most, you know, one of the most special things we have in sports, college basketball, March Madness, second biggest annual sporting event every year. We need a commissioner. You know, we need rules, we need guidelines. The frustrating part is, you know, we all are willing to adapt and, you know, and, and play this new game in this new era of, I guess, college sports or whether it's the G League. I don't know what we're in exactly right now, but it's a frustrating game to play when you don't know the rules and relationships. Rules are being made up as you go, and there's no communication and there's no leadership. So I think just college basketball needs a commissioner, a Godell, a David Stern, somebody that's going to make decisions and start making moves that are in the best interest of college basketball, not just having coaches and players do what's in the best interest of them.
- [81:31]
Matt Norlander
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