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Graydon Prescott 0:17
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live. Sports prep live, where we unbox the bike and talk excellent in athletics.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another edition, another episode of sports prep live. I'm your host. Graydon Prescott, it's March, and March is arguably the best time of year to be a radio show host like myself, especially a sports radio show host. And why is that? It's because it's March Madness, and the Madness has gone a little bit beyond the tournament that everybody knows as March Madness, the NCAA tournament. The Madness has also come to the basketball team at UNLV, who unfortunately did not qualify for any postseason tournaments. There's been some madness going on there, so I have a lot to cover today. Obviously, I got my guy, KB with me, very usual. We got to start with UNLV. Now last week on the air, we had a bonus episode for those of you who haven't checked that out, be sure to check it out. It's not gonna air, but it is on Apple Music Spotify, wherever you find your podcasts. Now, back to the main point in our episode that aired last week, we spent 29 minutes and 48 seconds discussing UNLV firing of Kevin Kruger. Yes, we went into the details of it. We talked about why this may have transpired. We talked about his why he was hired, what they need to look for in their next head coach, and unfortunately, not even 24 hours after the recording of that show, we found out some information about the transfer portal layer transfers. And I received a phone call from a trustworthy source, and I was told DJ Thomas a big topic of discussion on the show. Make sure we praise him a lot of his game. He's entering the transfer portal. Yep, he's leaving UNLV, as is Junior Jaden Henley, two of the top players on the UNLV basketball team

K.B. 2:37
and and I would say, DJ, has he? DJ has some, some healthy looking options at his disposal. I think I saw in the research, UCLA. I think I saw Houston. I think I saw San Diego State. DJ is gonna have his pick of the Yeah, correct, correct. He's gonna have his

Both 2:57
letter. If

K.B. 2:58
you know athletic director Harper, you know he's he's got his new coach search going on right now. Coaching search going on right now. I don't know if he's close to a decision, but the impending opening this past weekend, the impending opening of the transport portal, which did open today, creates another pressure point for him, because you need a coach on staff to have a conversation with these players to see if you can convince one or more of them to stay. You know, I kind of interrupted you there. You did mention DJ Thomas Jayden Henley, who else may be leading the

Graydon Prescott 3:32
program. Yeah, we got, we got starter, and we talked about him last week. Rob Whaley, he's gonna, he's likely going to be on his way out. Isaiah Cottrell, red red shirt. Freshman James Evans, yes. And senior Jalen Bedford, he is going to receive his extra year of eligibility, and he will likely enter the transfer portal. And then also freshmen commit Mason Britain out of Coronavirus. High School, Las Vegas high school, right. Committed. Decommitted. So they have lost a grand total of eight players in the last one. Wow, 34567, players in the last week. And that's if other commit. I haven't heard of any other commits who have decommitted. Well, believe you me, this is more than enough. Yeah, seven people in the span of a week. So UNLV has got some problems, and they are going to need to, they're going to need to find a head coach that is a good recruiter who has experience recruiting, not just in the Las Vegas Valley area, but all around the country. Yes, and they need someone who's going to be able to convince at least maybe two of these seven guys to stick around, to stick around. They've got a tough road ahead

K.B. 4:54
of them. And, I mean, that was a nice lead in they may just have a person. Person in mind who could do some of those things, a person who is well respected in and around the program, a person has some experience with the program, a person who is a great recruiter and a person who, right now is in the NCAA Tournament and his team is kicking butt and taking names now he is the lead associate head coach at Florida, I believe gentleman by the name of Carlin Hartman. Carlin Hartman, who was an associate, or who is an associate head coach at Florida. And so we know how tough Laurie is right now. They came in as a number one seed. Carlin actually spent what 2020 year, the season 2021 through 2022 on UNLV staff as a top assistant to Krueger before being recruited by Florida. He was he had five years, I believe, as an assistant under Kevin's dad, LON KRUGER, at Oklahoma, and he has a real solid reputation as a developmental coach and as a recruiter. So there may be an answer to the prayers, the collective prayers that are going on in UNLV basketball, in and around UNLV basketball, the alumni, all that sorts of fun stuff, there may be an answer to those prayers, but there hasn't been any definitive answer. So we don't know. We just We just know that that's a name that's bubbling up. It's a name that I think the alumni and the the current players will respect, those of them that have been around a couple of years. They know him, or they're from the Las Vegas area. They KNOW HIM basketball camps and all that sorts of fun stuff. So he's familiar to these guys. So if anyone has an opportunity or a chance to convince some of these guys to stick around if he should be named the head coach, I believe it would be coach Hartman.

Graydon Prescott 6:46
Yeah, I completely agree with that. I actually did not think of that pull. That's a great pull for who they could look to hire as a head coach. I think that makes a lot of sense. Now, as for n i L with UNLV, they've already had some n, i l problems in the athletic world. Last year, well covered on this show with Matthew saluka, their basketball team has not had those same problems, luckily, but they did spend north of a million dollars on their roster for the past two seasons. Yes, and Jalen Hill and DJ Thomas were both earning six figure payouts, right? So they're gonna need to put some money into recruiting, and

K.B. 7:31
we're probably underpaid. I know. I know DJ. I think he DJ, DJ could be making he earned 200 last year, and I think he doubled that and earned 400 this season. DJ, next season could be making seven Yeah, he's he's probably even at 400,000 I think he's underpaid. He is an outstanding player, which is why, as you said, he's going to have a plethora of options at his disposal if he does end up transferring. He's got some really good programs that would love to have him walk through the door and become a part of their their basketball and

Graydon Prescott 8:01
I think especially if they're going after someone from a program like Florida right now, that coach is going to want that n i l budget, they're going to want to know the number, and they're going to want it to be higher than a million, a lot higher, a lot higher than a million dollars, because you can't get some of the best recruits in the country with a million dollars anymore. I mean, Aj de mans to that bar is going through the roof now, correct heading to BYU, one player, $7 million so $1 million for whole team isn't going it's absolutely nothing. They're gonna need to rates. They're gonna need to raise that budget, and I hope they do, because that will that's the key to unlocking some of the better recruits, some of your three stars, some of your four stars, sure. And even a five star, you send enough money. Adam, BYU is not, historically, he was not expected to get. AJ, Dave, answer, right? AJ, davan still was supposed to go to Alabama, right? Houston,

K.B. 8:56
do? North Carolina? Yeah. Kentucky. Blue Chip program, not,

Graydon Prescott 8:59
not BYU, but $7 million makes a big difference, right? For one year, man, UNLV is gonna need to make some moves like that. And

K.B. 9:09
you know, UNLV is in an enviable position in that you are in a major market college basketball, Oh, yeah. Or sports town, right? Brigham Young is not correct? Yeah. So you know, of course, you're not New York, you're not Los Angeles, you're not Chicago, Miami, but there's, there's a few others that may be above you, but not a ton. No, no, you're not Dallas, but you're right in that you're probably coming in there right after that group your cities. You're eight to 11 correct in the country. So, you know, there are corporations that are headquartered here. Obviously, the entertainment industry, in terms of gaming, is headquartered here. Growing Sports City, absolutely great population, like you said, a great sport city. You know, they've got professional hockey here, they've got professional women's basketball here, they've got professional. National Football,

Graydon Prescott 10:00
yeah, and championships to back it up. Correct, correct. So there

K.B. 10:04
is money in Las Vegas. And I think if there is an Achilles, Achilles heel that maybe athletic director Harper was thinking about with respect to Kruger, it's obviously, hey, you have to make NCAA tournaments. You got to get to the point of March Madness. But what helps you get there. And that landscape changed really quickly over the last few years, and I think it was hard for a lot of coaches and a lot of administrations to get a grasp of it is, as you mentioned, the N i L, the N i l platform. So you have to have either yourself or someone dedicated to going out there and marshaling those resources so that you can have the conversations with the top four and five recruits in the country, right? Maybe they choose you. Maybe they don't, but the reason that you lose them shouldn't be money, not, not when you come from a town like Las Vegas, because we are swimming in it. Yeah. And I think that is I'm, you know, I was doing my own research looking at the reporting of Mike Ramallah from Las Vegas Sun, who is outstanding. We need to have him on the show. He does excellent reporting. He keeps the city abreast of what's going on with respect to any number of sports, but certainly UNLV basketball, you know, so shout out to him. You really want to do a deep dive on what's going on with UNLV, the head coaching search and all that sorts of fun stuff. Please check out the Articles of Mike Ramallah from The Las Vegas Sun, but in his reporting, you get a sense that Eric Harper really understands that this next coach that comes in is going to have to dedicate time to going out there and marshaling those resources, creating Those relationships with the corporations that are headquartered here, even the local dealerships and things of that nature, where they have a lot of money to spend, you're going to have to go out there and glad handle a little bit. You're going to have to go out there and press the palms a little bit to make sure that those resources are there so that you can do the best job that you can in terms of putting together a really good basketball club. And I think that is probably the Achilles heel that that coach Krueger had, is that he didn't dedicate enough time to that, or dedicate a person to doing that job. And that came back to bite him in the end, because you really weren't getting those five star recruits that were looking at UNLV. And that needs to happen. UNLV is a good school, good school. They got, obviously, championship pedigree, we got to get back to that. All

Graydon Prescott 12:24
right. Well, that's enough on UNLV for right now. There's not much else really that can be said. But what there is a lot to be said for is March Madness. This is what I think everybody has been waiting for. We'll start on the men's side, because primarily this is a show that focuses on highlighting women's basketball, and we don't get as much of a chance to talk about men's basketball, but the men's tournament has been pretty good so far. So I'm just gonna list the quote, unquote upsets, if you may. Number Nine Creighton in the first round. They beat Louisville number eight by 14 points. I picked Louisville to win that game. Okay, sadly, number 10 Mexico defeated or New Mexico defeated Marquette. I got that one right. I did say New Mexico would win Colorado State beat Memphis, 12 versus five by eight points. I actually thought Memphis would win that game, especially from how they started the year. And then Drake, number 11 played number six, Missouri, one by 10.

K.B. 13:30
Drake has been punching above its weight for quite some time now. The coach that they have there who came out of, I think, like Northwest Missouri State or something like that. I could be wrong, but it was some division two school where he won a lot. I think his record is somewhat like 400 and something, maybe 425 to like 92 so this guy wins, and he wins a lot, and actually that program and that coach has made news here recently, because I believe the University of Iowa just hired the head coach of Drake, 43 years old. I think he's got a birthday coming up in April, so he'll soon be 44 but still a young guy. But he wins a lot. He brought some division two players into that Drake program, inserted them as starters, and man, did they go on a tear. Drake has been playing excellent basketball. You didn't expect them to go too far in market madness, but the fact that they made it, the fact that they won their opening game, their winning record over this last season, they've been phenomenal. So this is going to be, I believe, a really good hire by the University of Iowa after getting rid of their previous coach, Mac free, yeah.

Graydon Prescott 14:40
And then three, three upsets left Arkansas number 10 over Kansas. That one, I picked Arkansas to win that game as well. Baylor over Mississippi State, a nine versus eight again, I think I had Mississippi State winning this one. It was a three point game, so I'm not too mad about that. And then the. Upset at the tournament was McNeese defeating Clemson, right, right? And, you know, Clemson just played a really bad game. So I don't really have much Clemson,

K.B. 15:11
if I am not mistaken, Clemson is one of the few teams maybe this year to beat Duke, yeah, with Cooper flag on the floor. So it is a little shocking that this number five seed goes down to McNeese and one of the games that you alluded to just a minute ago, I was not surprised. Even though Arkansas was ranked number 10. I think that was almost kind of a head fake

Graydon Prescott 15:33
most people, I think most people who watch the games picked selected.

K.B. 15:40
I would agree. I would agree, Kansas just hasn't been the Kansas of old. They just haven't seen like they got on the same page this year. I don't know if it's, you know, Coach Self, or if it's the team, but they just haven't seemed like the Kansas of old. So I'm not surprised at all, and I wouldn't even call it an upset. Arkansas is playing really good basketball. I'm not surprised at all that Arkansas beat Kansas. And I agree with you. I bet you, even though Kansas was the higher seed, higher meaning lower, I bet you, more people in their their brackets probably chose Arkansas to win that game than they did Kansas.

Graydon Prescott 16:15
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then we moved to the second round, 16 games, obviously in the round of 32 Auburn had a scare against Creighton, but they got it done. Michigan, number five beat number four, Texas, A and M I think that was probably that's a good win for Michigan. Yeah, it's a big one. That's a good win for them. And then something that kind of shocked me, but not really because of how they reeled towards the end of the season, Ole Miss defeated Iowa state. State, yeah, so yeah, rough, rough. Go for Iowa State rather

K.B. 16:50
handily, 9178 I'm not sure what was going on there. I would not have expected that. Yeah, I would have thought that. You know, bracket pickers, most people would have selected Iowa State to win that game. Present company included. So that one was surprised, not that old, Mr. Scrubs, but Iowa State had just been playing really good basketball. They kind of fell off towards the end of the year, still an outstanding record, but you would have thought that this would have been kind of a cake walk for them in terms of advancing in the tournament. Yeah.

Graydon Prescott 17:18
So then after that, we had Florida escaping, escaping, might I add Yukon and that game? I want to get back to that in a minute, because it had some controversy. Yes, then Michigan State beat New Mexico, and you had Maryland one point win over Colorado State, Derek Queen did not travel Arkansas beat St John's. So that was a big one, because St John's was a two seed. Rick pantino and John

K.B. 17:49
there's some controversy around that game.

Graydon Prescott 17:52
Yeah, they the Red Storm. St John's went two for 22, on three. So I really don't there's not much else to say, other than you shoot 9% on threes, you're not going to win the game. Texas Tech beat Drake by 13 points. Duke smashed Baylor. Arizona kind of took care of Oregon, wire to wire. It was a four point win, but they had control of the game. BYU led Wisconsin the entire game and won by two points, but Wisconsin never led. Alabama got rid of St Mary's by 14 points. Houston beat Gonzaga by five. Purdue beat McNeese by 14, but that was a wire to wire 20 point game. Yeah, that was expected. And then Kentucky beat Illinois by nine, and Tennessee beat UCLA by nine as well. That's where we're at in the men's tournament. So the sweet 16 is Tennessee, Kentucky, Houston, Purdue, Alabama, BYU, and then it is Duke, Arizona, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Florida, Maryland and Michigan State, Ole Miss in Auburn, Michigan, that's the sweet 16 overall. I think out of the 16 teams, I got 12 or 13 correct in my bracket, so I'm pretty happy with that. You know, not a bad showing. But back to the Florida and and UConn, yeah, DAN

K.B. 19:22
HURLEY, where are you taking me with this?

Graydon Prescott 19:24
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not, let's not just call out DAN HURLEY real right right away. Because if you go back and look at the stats from that game, look at the free throw count, this the disparity. Yeah, yes, it's, it wasn't exactly an equitable free throw shooting game, and they lost the game by two points.

K.B. 19:44
That is true, but and you hear that argument a lot, and sometimes there is legitimacy to the disparity argument on free throws or the disparity argument on fouls, and then sometimes it is a reflection of. How teams played. So if one team is being more aggressive, if more if one team is is getting their points in the paint, if they're going downhill more, it stands to reason that that team is going to shoot more free throws. Now, how many three point shots? Did you say that UConn took three point shots? Yes, I that was St John's. Okay, that was St John's. You can, you know, UConn has a flame thrower. You can a couple of them. In fact, Yukon took 29 threes. Okay, 29 threes. Do we know how many they made of those? 29 eight, okay, that's sub par, right? Not great. That's, that's subpar. And you know, if the other team, though, I'm not sure you know what the other team shot in terms of threes, but I do know their pains in the point. I do know they were getting downhill, and that matters, and it matters on the margins. And when we say on the margins, that means you could get to a point in a game towards the end of the game where two, three, 4.5, point win or a loss becomes the difference. And so if a team is getting to the free throw line and you're not because you're out there shooting threes, and some of them were ill advised. I watched the end of that game. Some of the threes that UConn took toward the end of that game were ill advised. They were people that were shooting threes that maybe shouldn't have been shooting at three people that should be shooting them. You know, like a Liam MC Liam McNeely weren't getting open shots because there was a little too much dribbling going on. So I know DAN HURLEY came out cursed out the referees. He said some things in the tunnel. I think he said to Baylor that hopefully they don't effing treat you like they effing treated us, talking about the referees, but he's got to be better. When you go back and you look at tape, when you are removed from the immediacy of this moment, you had a little bit of time to reflect. You might say, hey, we could have made more threes. We could have gone downhill more we could have had more paints in the point or, yeah, more points in the paint. We could have played better defense at certain intervals during the game, there are a lot of reasons you lose by two or three points. There are a lot of reasons that you can look at and not as the culprit for why you lost that game, other than a free throw disparity. Because what that tells me is, even though you didn't shoot well from long distance, you even though you didn't get the points in the paint that maybe you should have, or you should have, or you weren't, you weren't getting downhill as much as you should have, you're still a good enough team that even though, in spite of all of those negatives, you win by a hair or you lose by a hair. So what happens if you iron out those wrinkles? UConn is a better team. They should have won this game. I'm sure it busted a lot of brackets. Florida's the number one seed? I agree. I agree. I take that back, not busted brackets. But I'm sure there are a lot of people that chose UConn to win that game. More probably chose Florida, but UConn is a strong program. They are a two time defending national champion. There are a lot of people that expected them to win this game in spite of Florida being a number one seed. So do what you need to do to get done. What you need to get done the outcome that you're looking for, and the outcome was obviously coming out victorious and playing against a team like Florida, you just couldn't do the things that you did. You just can't be out there launching threes if you're not making them. And so I think that has more to do with why you lost. You missed 23 pointers, and I don't know how many offensive rebounds you got off of those missed shots. So that usually goes to the defense. You missed 23 pointers. It'd be interesting to know how many points they converted off of of those missed three pointers. So DAN HURLEY came out breathing fire crying in the press conference. I get it. He loves his team. You don't want to go out like this. You were trying to do something that's never been done since the days of UCLA and and Lu Alcindor, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, interesting story. I saw him this weekend, but since those days, you're trying to do a three beat, and it didn't happen. But the reason you didn't advance is not because of the referees stop it. All right,

Graydon Prescott 23:57
all right, in the last few minutes, let's talk about the women's side of things. Women's tournaments don't usually have as many upsets in the first round. You got Indiana beating Utah, but that's a nine eight, and I picked Indiana to win that game anyways. Mississippi State beat California, again, nine eight. That was a toss up. I actually, I actually picked California, but it is what it is. South Dakota State beat Oklahoma State. I actually think this was the most shocking of the first round. I did not expect South Dakota State to get out of the first round. Oregon beat Vanderbilt. I picked Oregon to win the game. Oregon has a good women's program. Historically, they know what they're doing, and deja Kelly is nice. Other than that, that's the upset. Everything

K.B. 24:47
kind of went according to plan. Yeah, yep,

Graydon Prescott 24:49
those are the upset. No seed lower than a seven, or higher than a seven, I guess you could say lost the game. None whatsoever, right? Uh, we get to the second round. UCLA, they beat Richmond, uh, by 17 points. Lauren bet 30. Ole Miss beat Baylor. That was a big one. I picked Ole Miss to win the game. I'm very happy about that. Sure, sure. Then we got LSU, Florida State. That game is tonight. Probably going to be over by the time this show wraps up, but they should be playing right now. NC State, uh, defeated Michigan State by 44 Wow, 34 Yeah,

K.B. 25:31
that that was now they are a number two seed, but still, but still, wow, yes, you don't expect that. That's a big point disparity, yes,

Graydon Prescott 25:38
um, and then you had USC and Mississippi State. This one will tip off at 7pm so right as the show is concluding, and then Kansas State beat Kentucky. That was a heartbreaker. Kentucky had chances, and

K.B. 25:52
it was a five and 4c Kentucky had their chance. They did that last shot by Georgia, a more. I'm a big fan of hers. I thought it was going to drop. It didn't. Rolled around the road, around the rim, and then, and then rolled off. And then it was, I think it was like, she shot it with like, two seconds left. So there was just no opportunity to do anything if that shot did not drop, it did not drop. A crushing loss for Kentucky. Now, again, this is a number five seed versus a number four seed. Yeah, but Kenny Brooks, who came over from West Virginia, he brought Georgia a more with him. Outstanding coach. Georgia. A more is tough. She's a pit bull, little undersized, but great basketball. IQ ferocious. I did dropped 18 points in this game. Clara strock strat dropped 22 points for Kentucky, but then someone from Kansas State tomorrow, Poindexter, dropped 24 points. It was a great game, wire to wire. I did think Kentucky was going to win this game. They were the lower seed, a four versus a five. Again, Kansas State is no slouch, but that was a heartbreaker that was tough to see. And

Graydon Prescott 27:01
then Oklahoma just wrapped up beating Iowa by 4034 right? 62 don't expect

K.B. 27:07
that. Jan Jensen's got to do a better job. Yeah, you don't expect that.

Graydon Prescott 27:11
And then you got UConn playing South Dakota State games going on right now. South Carolina Beat Indiana by 11. Indiana gave them a run for their money. So I gotta give I gotta give them. And Maryland is playing Alabama right now. North Carolina and West Virginia playing right now. There's a lot of games going on around around the six o'clock hour on Monday here today. And then finally, Duke beat Oregon, and that's it for today. At least Texas beat Illinois, Tennessee beat Ohio State, Notre Dame beat Michigan, TCU beat Louisville and Haley van Lith, revenge game. Wow, against her coach. That was a big one. What I'm looking forward to most now, HVL is put on a show is TCU versus Notre Dame. I have no clue who's winning that game? None whatsoever. And I'm very excited for what's coming in the sweet six.

K.B. 28:06
I think Notre Dame will get it, but I will not be surprised another pit bull, Haley van Lee's in a spot where she has been able to shine Louisville was was okay for her. LSU was a dud. Yeah, she just didn't fit that program very well. Mulkey did not utilize her in the way that I think she expected to be utilized. TCU, she has really found a home. She has found her rhythm. She is playing great basketball. The frogs are what, like 28 and three or something like that. Just an incredible record behind her leadership. So, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen with this matchup with Notre Dame. I do expect Notre Dame to win, Hannah, Hidalgo miles. I mean, those two are a problem, yep, but I do expect it to be a dog fight, yep,

Graydon Prescott 28:53
all right. Well, after today, we will know the sweet 16 is set, and those games will tip off Friday and continue through Saturday, and then the Elite Eight will be Sunday and Monday. So we got a lot of basketball coming up, and there's going to be some active basketball going on when we get back next week. Thank you everybody for tuning into this episode of sports prep live. I'm your host, Graydon Prescott, and we will see you all next week. Thank you everybody. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm Graydon Prescott, and don't forget to catch all of our episodes on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports prep live. Thank you.