From My Perspective
From my perspective is the latest sports podcast from Mixed Vibez Media. Deion and Mr. Bell gives you the honest and raw sports takes from the everyday fan. We say what everyone is thinking in a entertaining form. We will have guest and other members of the Mixed Vibez team. Also reporters who are associated with the teams you love. Welcome to the Team.
From My Perspective
UFL First Impressions Plus NBA Debates And Final Four Picks
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We bounce from spring football to hoops arguments, starting with early UFL takeaways and ending with Final Four picks that could wreck our brackets. We also go headfirst into Wade vs Harden, then zoom out to ask what “Hall of Fame” should really mean when names like Amar’e and Doc Rivers hit the finalist list.
• First-week UFL reactions and what looked legit
• Why offensive line and quarterback play stand out in spring football
• What the UFL needs to survive long term through TV and repetition
• Why an NFL partnership could turn the UFL into a true development league
• Dwyane Wade vs James Harden through skills, defense, and playoff trust
• Pat Beverley’s comments and why Wade finally responds
• Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame finalists and the pushback on Amar’e Stoudemire
• Doc Rivers’ broader case through coaching and impact on the game
• Mark Few’s Gonzaga run and what “Hall of Fame worthy” looks like
• Women’s Final Four feels like the UConn Invitational again
• Men’s Final Four fallout from Duke’s collapse and UConn’s composure
• Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, and UConn predictions plus North Carolina coaching rumors
• Our bracket challenge standings and what needs to happen to win
Go ahead and hit that like button, go ahead and subscribe, leave a comment section in the comments and tell us. Yes or no, Amari Steinmeier. Is he a Hall of Famer? Yes or no in the comment section.
https://mixed-vibez-drip.printify.me/
Welcome And Subscribe
SPEAKER_00Welcome, welcome, welcome back to another episode of From My Perspective. I'm your boy Dion coming to you with another episode. Thank you guys again for joining us. Go ahead and hit that like button. Go ahead and subscribe if you haven't subscribed. Look back at the numbers. Like 65% of y'all ain't subscribed for some reason. Go ahead and subscribe for us so we can get into that notification section of your phone whenever we drop. But again, I'm your boy Dion, and y'all know I'm joined by the man, the myth, the legend himself, Captain Hater. Q, how you doing?
SPEAKER_01Man, what to do, what it is, right now the bass is your boy, Mr. Bell. Say your name up on this. I might not with you the mouth. What's up, Dion?
SPEAKER_00What's up? How you doing, man? I'm doing good. Uh, how you doing? I'm good.
SPEAKER_01I can't complain. Uh self-promotion. If y'all wrestling fans, uh search respectfully you're wrong, you're wrong. Me and my boy Joe, we got some stuff dropping this week. First episode actually drops this week. So we're going to be ranking top 10 attitude errors of wrestlers. So yeah.
UFL Debut And Louisville Kings
SPEAKER_00Well, I can tell you top two is probably Stone Cold and I rock. But I'm gonna let y'all get to that list. I'm gonna let them listen to it whenever it drops. But let's talk about some. There's a lot of stuff going on, but we're gonna talk about some local stuff and some new stuff. We got spring football. And the UFL nowadays, you know, had a couple new teams. One team being the Louisville Kings. Uh, we had our first home game, they didn't win. But I did tune into the game. I'm sure you tuned into the game as well. And I tuned into a couple other games. It's not the NFL, but it's still football, and you can tell it's still football. But one thing that I've that I've learned from watching, I don't want to say minor league football, but not the NFL level football, usually the offensive line are net nowhere near as good as they are at the NFL level. But it's still football. They got a little couple of gimmicks with the four-pointers if you get a 60-yard field goal and that and that. Another thing, the kickers, they're not as good as the NFL players are either. But it's still good, good football. We uh fortunately watched the Louisville Kings lose against the Birmingham Stylus, who I'm a sports gambler myself, they're the favorite to win at all. So the close loss is not doesn't look as bad because that's the favorite, but nonetheless, they did lose. But what was your thoughts on the first week of the UFL?
SPEAKER_01Um, you gave a real positive spin on it. You know what I'm saying? They're the favorites to win, so a close loss, you know, a moral victory, as some would say it. All I saw, I ain't gonna say all I saw. Let me rephrase that. All I remember was seeing that interception and then at the end to make Louva lose the game. Um, you you talking about offensive line play with like lower level football, minor league football, whatever. Also, quarterback play is really hard to find. I feel like like the the talent, I'm not the talent, the skill positions, your receivers, your running backs, even your corners, maybe even your linebackers and your safeties or whatever. It's so so much depth in those in the NFL that you could probably find some of those to fill out a UFL roster of some talented dudes. Quarterback play like all his line play, you ain't gonna be able to, it's gonna be hard to find that level. Because if they was that level, they would be somebody's backup.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01Whatever the case may be. But watching the game, I was flipping back and forth because I talked about pre-part March Madness was on. So I was flipping back, I was like, I was flipping back and forth, but I was I was excited to watch the game because it did give me like a sense of pride, like, hey, that's my team. You know what I mean? Like that's gonna be my team. That's they in the city. I'm gonna make it down there to a game. But that that interception, I then I was sitting here watching the game. I was laying, I was laying in the bed, man. And I I seen it, I felt it when he let the ball go. I said, uh-uh, uh-uh. And then I was right. He threw that interception, I turned, I threw the remote and turned over. And all I think was, man, that's some little right there. If that ain't some little right there, be right there, be right there. You ain't gotta do too much. Somebody did too much, and that's how you lose the game. If that ain't some little stuff right there.
SPEAKER_00That was an awful read by Jason Bean. Like, I don't even know where he saw. Even a good ball placement, it wasn't, it wouldn't have got dead way wanted to do because the man was double coverage. You have multiple timeouts, you didn't need the big play. Go home, go, go, win a go home play right there. I don't know why he did it, but he did it. And like you said, that's lower-level quarterback play right there. That's not trying to poo-poo on the man, but why you're not in NFL? That's not that's plays like that gets NFL players cut into insurance or like Jason Mead in the UFL. But hopefully he can learn from his mistake. Hopefully, Chris, uh Coach Redman can coach him up, teach him some things, and he can get better throughout the seasons. But it's eight teams in the UFL. So far, what you've seen, I know you watched the Louis one maybe looked at some other teams. You think they're gonna stick with A? You think they're gonna um move up a little bit?
SPEAKER_01I know the um, I wish I could remember his name off the top of my head, but he wants to expand the league. He wants to add, he wants to have more teams. Did I I hope I got this number right? He wants to be up to like in the 20s, by 30, by 2033 or 34, or something like that. He wants to have a big number. I don't know if we're gonna get that far, but a solid 12 to 16 over the next couple years, gradually, I think will be good for the league. I think they do have to continue to find uh good markets for the league. Like I just saw before we started recording the Columbus crew. Um I hope their name is the crew, but Aviators. Aviators, I think if they play at the crew or something like that, it might be the soccer team. But anyway, they adding they're adding more seats because of because of uh fan anticipation for their first home game because they're getting their first home game this week because they also was one of the new teams. So I think the league, I think the league is going to continue to strive, you know, St. Louis, they sell them out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that that doesn't surprise me, man. They lost their team back.
SPEAKER_01They put 30,000 in there every every week.
SPEAKER_00Man, they love those football.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah, I uh I think the league, I think the league is going to continue to grow. Hope they do get in the part. The best thing for them is to get in a partnership with the NFL.
SPEAKER_00I think uh I agree. If they could basically turn it into legit modern leagues, and if they can get teams to basically sponsor and they'll send players down there, try to get them some devo because a lot of times some players they're not good because they don't get reps.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Trey Lance, he was a talented player, he just didn't get no reps. Anthony Richardson, he could be he could do some wonders in the UFL, get him some reps, because that's his issue. He had a lot of reps. Sometimes you just need to get a player to get some reps before you move up to the FL. If they could get to a point where they get 32 UFL teams and each team has their Murder League team, that would be ideal. That'll be a long time from them. If I was the UFL president, that would be my goal. Like as soon as I get to enough teams, hey, the team closest to you as your team, you send some, you send some plays down. They might even expand the NFL draft from seven rounds back to what it used to be when it was like 15, 20 rounds. I ain't gonna watch it, but they'll do it just to have uh fill out these UFL rosters.
SPEAKER_01Man, a 20-round NFL draft would be crazy. Hell, there used to be what I think 11 rounds in the NBA, and I'm like, yeah, bro, y'all only roster 12. Who we what are we doing, G. But yeah, no, I uh I'm gonna continue to watch the UFL because I saw I'm that guy where I like I watch sports regardless of what it is. You you um Saturday morning, you might catch me in here watching uh African uh basketball league. So you know what I'm saying? So I'm gonna be that guy. So I'm going to watch the UFL. They did they did good numbers on Fox. They had they they peak was 1.4 million views. So they did good numbers. The U, not the UFL, the Lou, the Louis Vuitton game, I think, uh topped out at around 700,000 or whatever. But you know, that's good compared to other things going on Friday night. Uh, so I think what's gonna continue to save the UFL is TV contracts, is people, is people watching the game, and then it has to the thing about those type of leagues, it's gonna have to be repetition, it's gonna have to continue. You have to do it each year in and out, in and out, in and out. If you think you're gonna come in and make a quick flip, you're not going to, you're going to take some losses. I think they did a smart thing by going to smaller stadiums, so it's more appeasing on the eyes. Because if you cut on a game and you're looking at this 50,000 C stadium, and you could if you could see 90% of it's empty, you're gonna you're gonna cut it off because there ain't nobody else taking it serious. But if you move into a 15,000 seat stadium and you selling out, you sell 13 to 14,000, somebody cut the TV on, they're more intrigued to watch it because it's uh you know, it looks it looks like a big deal, it looks important. Hell, I was at bowling this past Tuesday and I seen two, three Louva King shirts, so it's catching momentum. Make me want one.
Wade Vs Harden Debate
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I need them to sell some jerseys. I'm a big jersey guy, I want a jersey, but yeah, I'm I'm excited to see how far it goes. Like I said, I'm gonna start catching some more games. Definitely gonna get out there. Don't know when. It was a little cold last week, but hey, they were so sold out crowd for the first game. So is after you lose, I'm a little interested to see what the home crowd would be like for the next home game because after the loss is kind of tough, they probably won't sell out, but hopefully they still get a good amount of people. And I'm wounded for it. I don't want us to lose our team. Hopefully, we keep them. But let's we gotta move on to probably the topic of the past couple weeks. Now, this is a topic that has you know flooded around every couple months. You hear it. Uh James Harden do some crazy stuff in the game. He gets compared to Dwayne Wade, but the the debate hit its all-time high here recently, mostly because Pat Beverly, the former defense former NBA player, great defender, he spoke on it and he claimed James Harden is better. And Dwayne Wade has finally put his thoughts into the matter. Still no word from James Harden. I don't know if we'll ever hear James Harden opinion on it. Maybe after he retires, he might say something. But Dwayne Wade, for the first time, he said something and basically said I'm better than James Harden without basically saying it like that. Uh I'm probably not the right person because I'm not gonna be biased. I'm gonna be super biased. Dwayne Wade is better than James Harden. I'm just gonna call it Spain Spain. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. But I am super biased. Only thing from my perspective, James Harden does better is shoot the ball better. He's a little bit, he's probably a better passer by James Wade.
SPEAKER_01I know about D Dion. Me and you, me and you both, I D Way guys. We both D Way guys. He's not a little bit better of a passer than D Wade.
SPEAKER_00So, question for you. If Dwayne Wade played the point guard, do you do you don't think he could I don't think he could play point guard?
SPEAKER_01Okay. James Harden can play point guard. D. Wade can't play point guard. Now okay. Let's be real. Skill level. We're talking just skill level of the talent you can do with the basketball. James Harden has more skills with the basketball than Dwayne Wade does. Who's the better player? I think Dwayne Wade's the better player. Because Dwayne Wade has proven I can get to the championship and I can win by myself. Because I know everybody's gonna point to I'm not talking about the LeBron and Boshers. I'm talking about the A-year with Shaq. That wasn't Shaq that was by her ball on the Kobe with the three P.
SPEAKER_00That team, that team had a lot of good players, but a lot of players on the downhole, like Jason Williams, Gary Payton, the buzz on. It had a lot of good players, but it was a lot of players that was past their prime and on the decline. They were still good, but Wade carried that team.
SPEAKER_01Wade carried that team and Wade proved that I can I can I can be the yeah, everybody hop on my back and we I'm gonna take us dirt. I'm not gonna I don't know if I want to say the word choke, but I'm not going to have struggles in the playoff series when my team needs me the most. Is that the polite? Is that the is that the the political way of saying that? He we know James Harden has some struggles in the playoffs when it's time to put up a shut up. We know that. Dwayne Wade's proven that he doesn't have that. He doesn't, he doesn't possess that ability of shrinking in the moment. So that's why I say Dwayne Wade's the better player. He also plays defense better, without question. Dwayne Wade is the better player, but I think James Harden does have the better skills with the basketball because he can shoot. He can also get to the basket, and he's a better passer than Dwayne Wade. But I feel Dwayne Wade, if I'm Dwayne Wade and I'm looking at Patrick Beverly, and you telling me that James Harden is better. First off, bro, who is you? Who I'm I'm NBA 75. I'm a Hall of Famer. You got kicked off your own podcast. If I'm Dwayne, if I'm Dwayne Wade, I'll look at that. Look at it like that. You know what I mean? And don't get me wrong, I respect what Pat Bever does in the podcast space because he's kind of he is kind of entertaining. But if I'm Dwayne Wade, I'm looking at Patrick Beverly like, bro, you're not you not in my you're not in my league. You ain't in my you're not my caliber. You had to go overseas to get yours. I bought that as soon as I got to the league. So I'm happy Dwayne Wade said his piece. Man, Pat Bell, I had a better three-point percentage than you. Stop. Stop it. Stop, Pat Bell. Stop.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because basically Pat Bad basically said Wade isn't that great because he didn't shoot that great from the three-point line. Wade was in an area where they weren't shooting threes like that, man. They was getting to the hole. Mm-hmm. That was the thing. Wade got to the hole better than most players. So, hey, call this way this way. But Wade's better than James Hard. Wade is the number three shooting guard of all time. He's the best shot blocking guard of all time. He's got the most blocks of any guard of all time. He's got the most dunks of anybody 6'4 and under. So he's hey, he's that dude. And if his knees didn't fail him, we might even be talking about him in a whole different level of stratosphere.
SPEAKER_01If he didn't get hurt and Chris Bosch never got hurt, them two probably could have still won another championship. They because both of them at at that because they still was in their primes, they just had injury concerns or or you know um blood clause in Chris Bosch's case. They both both of them still could have had had another five, six year careers if health wasn't health was better.
SPEAKER_00So and probably Chris Bosch probably took the biggest hit legacy-wise, maybe yes. Of the three. Yeah, but he he was a dog for the Raptors. And then he had to go to Miami was third felt, and he was a very important piece for the Miami Heat, but he was the forgotten guy.
SPEAKER_01And that yeah, with Chris Chris, like you said, Chris Bosch had a second step back. Dwayne Wade did too at some as in that second season. But the entire time, Chris Bosch took a step back to let the you know, the perimeter, the wings get they get their shots off. How can I say this? I'm gonna be a Captain Hater moment for a moment. It took Chris Bosch taking a step back and Dwayne Wade showing him how to do it. They made LeBron the person that he is. I'm just gonna say that. That's my Captain Hater moment. You know what I'm wrong? I've always I'm always gonna say that. LeBron had to go to Miami to become the person that he was because they taught him how to win. Dwayne Wade taught him how to win in the work ethic, it's all as well as Pat Rowley. Chris Bosch had to take a step back. Will LeBron still have been great? Yes, LeBron was gonna be great. Yeah, he's the as far as we talked, like I talked about with skills with James Harden. He's the most skilled basketball player of all time. That's without question. Anybody that's debating that is they losing their dang on mind. Skill-wise, LeBron James is by far the best. But I the mentality of it, the work ethic of it, he had to go to Miami to get. And I don't think it's nothing wrong with saying that. I don't, it's that's no discredit to LeBron or what he was or what he could have been without. I think he he needed that. Everybody has to go through their phases to become what they are, right? And I always do that to give the uh D way more credit because he deserves more credit in the world.
SPEAKER_00Definitely deserves more credit because like I don't know. I guess people just forget, people just remember him from the Big Three era where he took the step back. I guess that's what it is. But they forget, man, 06 to 2002, that was he was that boy, and I've claimed, I've always claimed that that 08 MVP belongs in his crib, but it's in LeBron's crib right now.
SPEAKER_01LeBron also got a rookie of the year that should have been in Carmelo's career, but it's conversation for another day.
Hall Of Fame Finalists Debate
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you are not wrong. But uh, we'll see it. This debate is not going away. It's been on Twitter for the past week and a half to two weeks. It's gonna keep going. But we got some more basketball news we got to get to, and that is the almost to NBA, the basketball hall of fame finalists is like a list of 21 people that was uh listed. But the highlights, the headlines, Amari Steinemaier, Kennis Parker, Elena Deladon, and Doc Rivers. Blake Griffin is also on that list, but it's like a list of 21 people. Mark Few for Gonzaga's head coach. A lot of people, uh, but I feel like two people have gotten some criticism about being Hall of Famers, and that's Amari Steinmeyer and Doc Rivers. I know you've seen the list of 21 people, but how you feel about Amari Steinman and Doc Rivers? I feel like everyone else is very valid. I have nothing against them. And I mean, I don't have much against Doc Rivers being the Hall of Famer. Amari Stodemart was a little bit interesting, especially when you consider basketball hall of fame, considers everything he did from high school in the professional level, and his high school career wasn't interesting considering he bounced around. He only played two of his four seasons, and he only had one really, really good year in Florida, became Mr. Florida basketball and stuff. But it's interesting that he's a Hall of Famer.
SPEAKER_01Interesting is the correct terminology. Uh Dion. I like Amari Stodman. He's a good basketball, he's a really great basketball player. But is he a Hall of Fame? Amari. At what point? Did you ever look at Amari Stodeman and was like, he's the leader of that team? Or he's the engine for that team.
SPEAKER_00Uh when he first got traded, well, was he got traded or didn't he? He signed free agent to New York. When he was in New York, when before Carmelo got there. He was he was that he was that man. I know he was that man.
SPEAKER_01He was bowling out. That was what, like six months?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Then when Carmelo got there, he took that step back.
SPEAKER_01He took that step back too. Listen, and I know, I know, I know. The Naismith Hall of Fame is different. It's like you said, it takes in takes into consideration your college career, your pro career, your high school career, whatever the case may be. And it takes all that into consideration, but Olympic career too. Olympic career as well. He don't have a college career to speak on. You already talked about his high school career. I don't think Amari Stodamart is a Hall of Fame. And I don't really, no disrespect. I don't even think he's borderline. But I also know in the basketball hall of fame, Nismith, that's Naismith, sorry. Nay Smith Hall of Fame, everybody get in. So it's not that surprising that he got in, but it's kind of like, should you, are you really uh and I don't think he is, and that's no shade to him, even though that's shade. I just don't think he's a Hall of Fame.
SPEAKER_00So quite question for you, do you think the NBA needs to separate themselves and make their own Hall of Fame?
SPEAKER_01I think they I think it would be a good idea, but I also think it's gonna hurt the uh Nasmith Hall of Fame. Yeah, you're right. So it would to keep that Hall of That Hall of Fame relevant, you kind of don't you kind of need to not have a separate NBA Hall of Fame. But in situations like this, why is Omar Stadama getting in? Like you say, the people complaining about Doc getting in. Doc has a great win-loss record. I know he only got one championship, but he also was a player. So when you and then he also was a broadcaster and really good at that, too. So you add on all his contributions to the game, Doc Rivers is gonna be a Hall of Fame. Candace Parker, let's be real.
SPEAKER_00Candace Parker for me should have been in there years ago, for real.
SPEAKER_01She should have been in there as soon as she retired. But I, you know, they gotta wait the years or whatever. I can't speak for you, but for me, the reason I started really watching women's basketball was Angel McCarthy, Carter, and Candace Parker. Those are the reasons why I started watching women's basketball. So Candace Parker getting in, should have been here. You know, they should have broken the rules to her as soon as soon as she retired. Hey, you ready? Come on over here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or you know what I'm saying? We ain't really gotta, we ain't gotta wait this process out. Um, same thing for a little uh Ellen Ellen.
SPEAKER_00I can't even Elena Deladon.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Dela Dye. I can say the last name, Dela Dye. I can't I mean you slipped it up on the first one. I remember watching her. She could have gone to UConn, but she went to Delaware. She was cold. You hear me? Cold on that basketball court, and she did the same thing in the pros. Don't surprise me that she got in. Um can we? This is a captain hater moment, but we talked about Zaga last week and then how they can't get over the hunger. But Mark Fuel keep getting them there, so is keep getting them there Hall of Fame worthy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, he's not he's not in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, I don't think. I could be wrong. But I feel like if you're in the Nay Smith basketball hall of fame, you probably should be in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, too.
SPEAKER_01You should. You you should, but I don't know they they rules and regulations or whatever. But I'm saying he ain't no one on one.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we're gonna talk about that here in a little bit, but it's it's supposed to be extremely hard to win a national championship in basketball. It is extremely, I'm not supposed to, it is extremely hard. There's a few coaches again. We're gonna talk about one that seems to be breaking the mold.
SPEAKER_01He's a great coach. I'm not I'm not trying to discredit him as a coach, I'm just saying, I'm just questioning him. Yeah, is it too soon to put him in? Like he's still coaching. Like, is it too soon to put him in? Saying, hey, yeah, you know, you already Hall of Fame credentials. Like you said, it's hard. It's hard to it's hard to win a championship, it's hard to get to the final four. It's hard, it's hard. It's hard to win them six games in a row, you know what I mean? But um, I'm just I'm just questioning.
SPEAKER_00He is 63 years old, been at Gonzaga for what, 20 something years?
SPEAKER_01He is 20-something, yeah. I can get behind him more than I can get behind Amari Stadabond.
SPEAKER_00So, question though, that does it say is it anything to you, does it hold any way to you that he brought basically literally a mid-major to a they're they're they're in the tournament every year, they're talked about every year. They're basically they're not a blue blood, but when you think of college basketball, Gonzaga comes up on that list as their top 25 pretty much every year. And they're they're mid- they're in the mid-majors. Now they will be in the Pac-12, which that's still a mid-major major, but he brought a mid-major to like a not blue blood, but they are a very respectable college basketball program year in year for the last 20 years. They've been to 2016s, Elite Eights, and Final Fours, National Championship games. He just ain't he just ain't cut down the final nets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he he's been there for 24 years, 688 and 135. That is 836 win percentage. That's what's an 84% win percentage. Like you said, he did build the program.
SPEAKER_00Like, does that say because it's kind of like how I feel about Kirk Signetti. Well, I got him home. My coaches told the pole. He brought a no-name team to another. No, Kirk Signetti, he he he got him. We got him one. I can't we can't say that about Mark Fhew, but and it took it took Kirk Cinetti two years. But Mark Few's been trying for 24 years, so but still, he brought a mid-major program to a team that when you see on your schedule, oh, it's it's gonna be a game. This ain't gonna be no slouch.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're right. And I look he made he was called year twice. Okay, like I said, I can get behind him more than I can get behind Amari Sademar. You make an excellent point. He brought a school in Washington, which is called he brought a school in Washington to Gonzaga. Then everybody knows it's a house, Gonzaga is a household name. So you you're right. I wasn't saying he wasn't, I was just questioning it. Mari Steidemar? Come on, bro.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it might like back to Mars. It's just so interesting. And I when I was seeing that he was a um Hall of Fame, Hall of a finalist for the Hall of Fame, I let I literally looked him up and see what what's what's Samari Steidelmeyer's uh the career like. I looked on basic, you know, Wikipedia. I didn't realize that the stuff he went through at the high school level. Like he he he didn't he didn't really start playing basketball until he was 14 for one. And he moved from looking in uh he moved from Florida to North Carolina. He barely played, he played of the four seasons, he played two. Some of them because he was academically ineligible and some transfer issues. But again, his senior year, he averaged 29 points, 15 boards, six blocks, two steals game. It was a McDonald's All-American. He played in the McDonald's All-American game, and he was Mr. Basketball in Florida. An incredible senior year that got him drafted ninth overall. But it's just one year. And he had a solid NBA career with the Suns. Had a you said a great six months with the New York Knicks. Carmelo came, he took a back step, and he got hurt. After he got hurt, he wasn't the same. Yeah, he wasn't, he wasn't ever the same again. After he got hurt.
SPEAKER_01Damn, man. I feel like I don't want to be Captain Hate of the whole pie. You know, I did the LeBron shot, you know, I don't want to be that guy, but I just I just don't. When I I watched Amari play, and he was super, he was a freak athlete. You know what I mean? But he didn't just, I don't know, he ain't pop off the screen like that. No, like I said, he's a great player. He's like, he's a ring of honor player. Like he's he should get his stuff should get retired in Phoenix. His his numbers should get uh honored in New York. Like I'm not saying like he's I'm I don't want it to make it sound like I'm saying he's a scrub.
SPEAKER_00He's definitely not a scrub.
SPEAKER_01I don't want it to sound like I'm saying Martin Stademai is a scrub. He's definitely not a scrub, but it are is he definitely a Hall of Famer? I think that's my question. Is he definitely a Hall of Famer? And I'm not for sure about that. But again, that you know, the Nick Smith, Nate Smith Hall of Fame, he let everybody in.
SPEAKER_00So let me just go through some of his accolades one more time. USA Today, all USA basketball first team in 2002. He was uh the number one high school player in the country in 2002. Uh he did he did uh commit to Memphis, but he also obviously decommitted to go to NBA draft. Florida Mr. Basketball, Rising Star Challenge MVP in 2004, NBA rookie first team in 2003. Uh he was an all-NBA second team one, two, three, four times, all NBA first team one time, uh, NBA All-Star in 2005 and from 2007 to 2011. So we said uh five seasons. Uh he was the NBA rookie of the year in 2003. Uh, I did see a stat that he had the most points scored by a rookie with 38, but LeBron came and snatched that the next year.
SPEAKER_01So that's probably yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Amarstyle Hall of Fame, but congratulations to him. I mean, you you're probably not in our personal Hall of Fame, but you're still a very good player, and you was a treat to watch, especially those first couple months in New York before Carmelo got there, and you was the number one option. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, for sure. He did his thing in New York, he did his thing in Phoenix. I'm not never one type of, like I said, he's definitely not a screw up, just not sure he's a hall of fame.
Women’s Final Four And UConn
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, let's go ahead and move over to the final fours. Both men and women's final four has been set. We're gonna start out with the women. Uh, the script writers, I guess they just hit copy and paste. It's the exact same Final Four as last year, and all number one teams have made it. It'll be UConn versus South Carolina, and then it'll be UCLA versus Texas. Um rematch with Yukon, South Carolina, I believe. Uh, UConn won that game. Question for UQ Um Is there a reason we shouldn't just hand Yukon the trophy right now?
SPEAKER_01Uh uh. Dion, you know, I'm still calling it the UConn invitation. So I don't. Sarah Strong won uh player of the year as a sophomore. She's a sophomore. I I just knew she was a Julia. I just knew she was a Julia. She just won it as a sophomore. That means she ain't gonna do nothing but continuously get better. South Carolina's going to give them a game, I feel like. And when I say game, like it's gonna be within eight to twelve.
SPEAKER_00Oh, one other thing. All these teams that made to the final four, none of them played a game that was less than 10 points. Everybody beat their opponents at least by 10.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because you know, women's basketball is the top seeds. Like, I knew my women's basketball bracket was gonna be wrong when I had some upsets in there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I had a little too many upsets in there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man. With the women's basketball, I'm in like the 20th and 40th percentile just because I had a handful of upsets, not even a lot, I had a handful of upsets, but women's basketball, the number one sees typically they all make it or a number two or in her. But I don't see, I hope I'm wrong. I just don't foresee nobody giving a UConn a game. That's just because that's how dominant UConn looks this year. UConn looks extremely dominant. I'm not saying it's like one of their best teams ever because they have a strong history of having a bunch of Hall of Fame worthy, great players. But I don't I don't have faith in South Carolina beating them. I also don't have faith with UCLA beating them. Texas, if out of the three that's out of the four three that's left, that's not UConn. I feel like Texas has the best chance to beat them.
SPEAKER_00But what when you say best chance, give me a percentage.
SPEAKER_0112% chance. I would give I would give South Carolina like an eight, no shade to UCLA. I wanna give them like a bull. So yeah, no, I I give Texas the best chance to uh beat them really because of um Damn, I don't wanna Booker. I can't remember her first name, but Booker that plays for Texas. I can't remember her first name, but she had she has the game. Basketball can be affected by one person more than any other sport, it can be affected by one person. She does have the game that were if she won't if she decides I'm gonna get busy versus Yukon, she has that game to do it.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, man, man. Yeah, oh shoot. Yeah, I'm looking at I'm looking at these teams, man. I'm just it's gotta be Yukon, right? Yeah, it's Yukon.
SPEAKER_01You know what I mean? Yeah Madison Booker, that's the name. Thank you. I had to I had to Google it. I was it was gonna bother me. Madison Booker has the game, she has the ability to take over a game and draft Texas to a victory. Like I said, I it's only a 12% chance, but that 12% is because of her and her ability on the court. I still think you can win. And I think you're gonna win by double digits in both games.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's credit to Gino, a class of 2006, Nay Smith Hall of Fame. He was in the Hall of Fame 20 years ago, and he's just been winning months. They they steadily add stuff to his plaque every year because he just keeps on winning. Obviously, him, Pat Summit, Don State. She's on the come up, but she ain't Gino at the moment.
SPEAKER_01No, Gino has had them in the final. Gino has had them in the final for 14 of the last 15 years. Yeah, I was gonna say, and one of them wasn't even wasn't it COVID? The one time he wasn't in the final four.
SPEAKER_00No, they don't count COVID. That was it wasn't called, it was a year they wasn't in it. It was the it was the because COVID didn't have it happen.
SPEAKER_01They because COVID they didn't play the turning.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was that one they didn't even count that, but there was the one with Caitlin Clark, LSU, and two other teams, they didn't make that so but they made pretty much 14 of the last 15 final fours, which is crazy. Like, dang.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because then the men, because I looked at the stat and they was talking about Yukon men or women have been in the final four every year. And I was like, really? The Yukon women has been in the final four every year, and they had some years where both was in there, and then that one year that the women wasn't, the men was. I get it, but let's let's give the credit to the women, really.
Men’s Final Four And Coaching Rumors
SPEAKER_00That was like 2022, 2023, the last something like that. But that was they've been there 14 of the last 15 years, not counting COVID when nobody went, but that's that's super ridiculous. But we got UConn and the Yukon Infitational to win it all. Let's move on to the men's final four. And uh before we talk about the specific teams in the final four, we gotta talk about our League Eight game. Duke uh choked away a 19-point lead in UConn, ended up losing to Yukon pretty much at the buzzard off of a turnover by uh Caden Blueser. I know he's hurting. I know John Coach Snyder is he's hurting. I watched that, I watched that game and I my mouth jaw was on the floor. Couldn't believe it. But Dan Hurley got his team in the final four again. What was your reaction to that, to those last moments of that game?
SPEAKER_01Well, you can see that UConn was never UConn never gave up. You can see that even when UConn was down, you you can see that they never gave up. You know, teams blow leads. You know what I'm saying? Whoa, whoa. They blew a 23-point lead in the first round. Teams below leads, you know what I mean? But so you like saying you watch UConn, they never gave up on the city, they never gave up. They try to play keep away with the ball. He didn't they talk about face, like face the defense in the make a play. He just grabbed, he he got the ball and then got up in the air. The other thing they always say is have a plan before you get up in that air. Because once you get up in that air, ain't nothing you can do. When you try to throw the ball over the hands of the defense, and then of course the turnover happened. At that point, you might as well. I don't want to beat the dead horse. He probably should have just let him foul foul him, and then the game would have been over.
SPEAKER_00Because if that was 10 seconds on the clock, they didn't have to pass half court.
SPEAKER_01You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. But by the time you y'all already, this is the third pass once he got to that boozer. So at that point, just man, go ahead and let him fly you, go to the free throw line, make your free throw shots or whatever the case might be. But jumping in the earth and trying to throw the ball over the stretched out arms of the defender is going to be hard to do. But I don't, like I said, I know he hurt, I know he's sick, but I don't wanna beat the dead horse. No, no, no, no, no, no. I feel weird doing it on an 18-year-old kid. I can say Mary's not a mind the Hall of Famer. He's grown, he be alright.
SPEAKER_00Uh let's let's talk about the teams in the final four. UConn goes is gonna play Illinois on Saturday, both games on Saturday. Arizona plays Michigan. Um before we before we talk about who's gonna win it all, I think we have to have a conversation by Dan Hurley. Uh he won back-to-back championships. He's got his team in the final four yet again. He was a former coach of Rhode Island. Where is this guy? No, we we we said it with Mark Few. It's hard to win a national championship. But this man has won back to back and has been to the final four multiple times, did it again. Is he is he gonna is he working his way into a GOAT conversation? No, he ain't there yet?
SPEAKER_01John Wooden still exists.
SPEAKER_00Okay, uh yeah. I'm just asking if he's in the country. We say his name when we talk about goats. We obviously we always you know Rick Martino.
SPEAKER_01I've first heard we don't say Rick K name in. We'll we don't say Calhoun's name and we get another UConn head coach. We don't say Kay or Roy Williams, we don't say those names, we always point to Wood. Okay. So it's not no disrespect or to discredit, you know, Hurley, but no, not yet. I don't, I think it'd be if putting him in that go conversation now would be too is a rush to is a rush to judgment when and also forgetting the past. We know what John Wooden did.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Mind you, times was different. I understand that, but when you gotta measure measure John Wooden up against what the times of his situation was. Yeah, no, John Wooden's still the goal.
SPEAKER_00All right, all right, so I don't disagree with you with that. Uh, but in terms of who we think is gonna win, uh, I do think UConn will beat Illinois, but from my perspective, I think the Arizona versus Michigan game, that's the national championship game. The winning that game is winning it all. I know you have Arizona winning it all, that's how I see it.
SPEAKER_01You know what's crazy though? I was listening, I was listening to Jay Billis, though. And he made a very interesting point. The U kind of Michigan game is gonna be a fight.
SPEAKER_00What you mean, Arizona Michigan, you mean?
SPEAKER_01I meant yeah, Arizona. Michigan. My shit, my bad. Arizona Michigan is getting is going to be a fight. They might not have it in them to go at it again two days later. Good point. Before I heard Jake Billy say that, I I would have had the same thing. You, you know what I'm saying? Like, hey, them is the two, them is the two better best teams. Whoever wins that's gonna win the next one. But listen to him talk, he made an interesting point because he pointed out, I want to say it was it was a UK team, I can't remember what year it was, but they they had a fight in that final four game. So when they got to the championship game, they ain't had nothing left in them. So yeah, I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm sold on Arizona or Michigan because of the simple fact the fight they're gonna have. Also, the other reason I'm not sold on Arizona is because they had coach keep getting asked about North Carolina job.
SPEAKER_00And it was an it was an interesting thing that came out here recently, too.
SPEAKER_01He ain't never said no. He keeps saying I'm focused on the job that I'm currently having that I'm doing. So that sounds like if North Carolina called, I'm going.
SPEAKER_00So it was also a quote, or I don't know if it's a quote, but an article basically came out and said North Carolina is waiting till the final four ends to hire their person, which screams our coach is coaching in the final four. Mm-hmm. So how do you leak real quick? I know No, if you win a championship at a school, you should not leave that school.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say if you win a championship at Arizona, why would you go take the North Carolina job? I recruit I I just proved I could do it here. Why would I not run it back here? Um but if you would you you got I know North Carolina's North Carolina. But would you leave Arizona because Arizona is a historic program as well? I know it's not North Carolina, right? That's different. But it's if North Carolina's here, Arizona's in that next tier.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01Would you leave Arizona to go to North Carolina? And I'm in the final four, and North Carolina ain't.
SPEAKER_00Only reason why I would if I got close ties to North Carolina or I'm from the East Coast, would rather be in the East Coast than the West Coast, because you you winning.
SPEAKER_01I was thinking the bag. I think it had to be.
SPEAKER_00No, or I mean the bag would if the bag is crazy, but I feel like Arizona can at least come. How much bigger does the bag have to be for you to leave? It gotta be a couple mil bigger.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say we we gotta start at least three mil bigger. Nah, I say, yeah, no, three mil. Because I was about to say like two.
SPEAKER_00My my thought probably at five five mil bigger. That was my first thought.
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah. I mean, I don't know if that's yeah. If you give me five million more than here, then I gotta go. Yeah, if you're giving me three million more, I think I'll go two million more because it's Arizona, it'd be different if it was Kansas State. You know what I mean? No shade to Karen's, no shade to Kansas State. I know I just threw y'all under the bus, no disrespect. But that's not the same caliber, Kansas State's not the same caliber of caliber of job as Arizona. So I don't think that's just an easy, you know, oh no, man. Especially because again, I'm in the final for Yan Aim. It Hubert Davis, I understand why he got fired, but I also couldn't understand understand why you kept him. Because it wasn't like he did a bad job. Yeah, and I get it, he he he blew a lead. But we we talked about blown leads in this whole March Madness. It happens because people shoot too many daggone threes, now don't nobody attack the basket. That's why you blow your leads, because everybody's just get so happy behind that three-point line. But like a I don't know if I'm leaving Arizona for North Carolina unless the bag is better. Because, like we said, ties, but you don't have no ties for North Carolina. Like the the program, North Carolina, now, like his personal life or whatever the case may be. I don't know that. But as far as the actual program of North Carolina, he don't have no ties to there.
SPEAKER_00So well, it does look like North Carolina is willing to throw the bag at their coach. They even stop talks of a new arena or and or renovating the DM Dome. Cause that that that pretty much says we can't spend that money right now on a new arena when we we about to drop a bag on the coach.
SPEAKER_01So you gotta pay out, you gotta pay out Hubert Davis, and then you gotta pay for this, uh pay the new coach. Um if I it's a name that I don't think do we talk about Billy Donovan?
SPEAKER_00We talked about it. Because the don't come out of fans that I know they want Billy Donovan. Uh fans of that team in blue, won't down the down the street, they want Billy Donovan. A lot of college schools want Billy Donovan.
SPEAKER_01I don't think he had a let's be real, he had many opportunities to go take that job in UK. He turns them down a couple times. He played there and he turned them down a couple times. It's I don't know why. Maybe it might just be timing, but there's a reason why he keeps turning the UK job down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know he hates recruiting, but he's going back to college. I don't see it because I feel like he's tired of they're not even in the playing tournament this year, are they? Nope. I mean, that's where they've been at all the for that sure.
SPEAKER_01Chicago. Yeah, but no, I'm not too sure. They actually decided to take it.
Bracket Pool Update And Picks
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but uh yeah, uh, but speaking of the men's tournament, before we give our predictions of who we think will win, uh the from our perspective uh tournament is coming down to the wire. There is one, two, three, four, five, six people with still chances to win it. Uh, the guy with the highest chance to win it with a 22.8% chance is sports picks 229. Uh next uh C2 C23 Luke Edge, you have an 18.2% chance. Josh, I'm assuming it's uh the Josh.
SPEAKER_01It is Josh, yes.
SPEAKER_00He got a 16.9% chance. Uh DJ, one of my friends, he has a 14.8%. Uh ESPN 29256-10226. I hope you are going to give us your uh social media if you win, but you have a 13.8% chance. And uh Foreign Ball Sports Picks 8, you have a 13.5% chance. Uh optimal brackets, the guy that was in first the whole time. He got 0% chance. I'm sorry, guys. I just had a tournament go sometimes, though. But we got a couple people still in the winning. Uh, but it's crazy. The guy that's ranked 24th has the highest percent chance to win. All he needs is Illinois to win it all. If Illinois wins it all, he's the winner. Everybody else, y'all got a couple other stuff y'all need. But hey, I'm looking forward to seeing how this thing goes, but I'm going with you, Q. I'm assuming that you're not gonna change, but I'm going with Arizona.
SPEAKER_01I got Arizona. I got Arizona beating Michigan. I got I'm gonna have to pick Illinois to be UConn. I'm not confident about that at all, but I'm gonna pick Illinois to be UConn, but then I'm still gonna stick where Arizona.
SPEAKER_00I got I got UConn being Illinois, Arizona beat Michigan, and Arizona winning it all. I like playing. So yeah, uh, Final Four's here. I'm excited for it a little bit. I'm gonna watch it, but I don't know. Some I feel like there's no Cinderellas, Lou was not in it, kind of like not into it as much. But I'm still watching because I like sports.
SPEAKER_01By the final four times, Cinderella's for the most part is gone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Majority of the time. Don't get me wrong. We ever once in a while we have like a George Mason or whatever the case may be, but for the most part, Cinderellas is normally gone by this time.
SPEAKER_00So but um before we get out of here, you know, I want to ask you, as a if you was an AD, your head coach Tommy Lloyd for Arizona, he wins the national championship and he dips off to North Carolina. How are you handling that?
SPEAKER_01Uh Billy Donovan, what you doing? And I'm gonna pay you more. I'm gonna pay because I'm petty, like because I'm petty. I'm gonna pay you a dollar more than whatever he's getting paid over.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Interesting.
SPEAKER_01I'm just I'm just interested. In your recruiting budget, it's gonna go up.
Closing Thoughts And Listener Question
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, you win the national championship. That's a lot more money to your budget. A lot more money to your budget. But that'll do it for another episode of from our perspective. I'm glad you guys could join us again. Again, I do appreciate every single one of the people that did sign up for our bracket this year. We had 40 some people this year. We finished with like 30 something last year, and we had like 49 this year, next year. Hopefully, we can get into the 50s, 60s, 70s, maybe one of these years we'll get to the hundreds. Uh, I was looking at the um Nightcap bracket, they had like a thousand and some people in there. So maybe one day we get there. Maybe. Rangers crossed. But we'll see. But thank you again. Go ahead, hit that like button, go ahead and subscribe, leave a comment section in the comments and tell us. Yes or no, Amari Steinmeier. Is he a Hall of Famer? Again, remember, this is not NBA Hall of Fame, it's the Nay Smith Basketball Hall of Fame. It counts everything from high school Olympics and the NBA. Is he a Hall of Famer in your book? Yes or no in the comment section. Like, subscribe. Uh Wade is a lot better than James Harden. Stop the disrespect. Q, go ahead, take us home.
SPEAKER_01A lot is crazy, but I'm gonna let you have it. A lot is crazy. But y'all know the bass. It's your boy, Mr. Bell. I can't say your name on this I might not with you to my. We see y'all on the next one. Peace.