SportsPrep Live

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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 excellence in athletics.

Graydon Prescott 0:36
Welcome, Welcome to Season Seven of sports prep live. I'm your host, graden Prescott, and today I'm here with my man. KB, Yep, yeah, back in the house. Nothing like a good tradition having my guy. KB, on the show. Appreciate that, and we are here to discuss a little bit of everything. It has been more than a month since we have been on the Yes, yes. With the first semester coming to an end. Students are back on campus at UNLV, which means sports prep live is back in session, and we have a lot to cover. UNLV, we'll start there. UNLV, we'll talk about football, right? So Dan Mullen arrived in Las Vegas one year ago in this this year, he took his team to 10 victories. They reached the Mountain West championship, qualified for a bowl game, unfortunately, did not win the Mountain West championship, but he installed an offense that fit the roster and played fast and the engine of all of it. Anthony colandrea, yes, who was gone?

K.B. 1:34
He is, yeah, man, this transform portal thing is a nightmare to contend with. Like you said, 10 games came in after Hajj, Malik Williams, who came in after, and he probably should have been starting over him, but Matt saluka, yeah, and condrea comes in and runs this offense, does an excellent job. Shout out to coach Mullen from bringing him in, for bringing him in. But then in a surprise to probably a lot of people. Sometimes when the transport portal is when it comes into play, I think it's a surprise to no one, but here, I was really surprised to hear that he is

Graydon Prescott 2:14
up and out, yeah, and he publicly stated, I'm not making my decision based on based on money. I'm making my decision based on my future. And you would think that a team that qualifies for a bowl game, he wins Conference Player of the Year, threw for 23 touchdowns, rushed for another 10, had 650 rushing yards, almost 3500 passing yards. It's fantastic season. You would think you would run it back for another year, but this is modern college sports, and it's just the way it is. You know, two weeks after making that statement, he's already back in the transfer portal. And this is just one case of the recent transfer portal and the way that college sport is changing, right? It's not just the portal itself, like it's a leverage that the portal has created back backdoor conversations that nobody may know about, right? And an offer that UNLV probably couldn't match. We don't know exactly the details of said offer, correct? I guarantee you, Anthony Cal Andrea is getting about an amount of money having won a conference player of the year,

K.B. 3:13
even though it has nothing to do with money, quote, unquote, yes, yes,

Graydon Prescott 3:17
that a, he couldn't pass up and B, UNLV couldn't match you can't blame him for going after the probably life changing sums of money, but this is just the way that the college atmosphere has changed.

K.B. 3:30
And I think for you know the rebels, for UNLV, I know that you're going to be talking in the coming weeks to AD. Eric Harper, yeah. And so maybe you guys can get into it then. But he is just getting their n, i l program up and running right. And so UNLV is kind of at a disadvantage. Even though, you know, this is a large metropolitan area, they're a little behind the eight ball, correct, correct. And there's just been so much movement, so much has happened in such a short period of time. It's understandable that it's it's hard to get your system up and running, with respect to n, i L, and I think Had that been in place, because it is coming, I've heard some really good things about what UNLV has, has in the the works. Some of the things that have happened. They signed an $11 million deal recently, and there's more in the works. But again, they were just a little bit late getting to where they needed to be to be competitive for top quarterbacks, and he's probably in the middle tier of top quarterbacks. He put up some really great numbers. He was impressive. We saw him in a number of games. It's sad to see him go, yeah, and they may take a hit as a consequence of him leaving, but I do know that coach Mullen is a good recruiter, and so you know, I'm waiting with bated breath to see who he. Brings in to replace Anthony. Yeah.

Graydon Prescott 5:04
Now this is a lot different. Before we the listeners of sports prep live go making comparisons. This is much different than what sluka did. Correct. He's leaving in good faith. Yes, he completed his season. He, you know, he took the team to a bowl game. He won the conference player of the year. He didn't leave halfway through the season for money. What he's doing is completely normal, if you're gonna do it. This is the way to the way to do it, yeah. So what? What Cal Andrea is doing, it's completely normal. And again, this is a UNLV problem. It's, it's about, this is nationwide, yeah, it's about how the system works now, and especially in the two major collegiate sports, basketball and football, correct? You know, most decisions have been made before players even enter the portal, but the opening that the portal has created has made this atmosphere where you can't even build a team and think about next year like everybody who is at a level where a school can make an offer that that player can then accept. No player is guaranteed to be at a team for more than one year, right? You look at a guy like Carson Beck, right? He was at Georgia, and Georgia goes almost to the national championship, correct, correct. And then he goes to Miami, yeah. You know you look at guys like Rob Wright over at BYU. Rob Wright BYU and I L a lot of money. Yes, a lot of money.

K.B. 6:28
And who would have thought that Brigham Young could be a top 10 National Basketball Team All because of the signing of AJ demance and a reported seven or $8 million they paid him.

Graydon Prescott 6:43
And I'm gonna be honest, he's worth it. I'm gonna be completely honest with you, I think that number is closer to seven figures or eight figures. Yeah, it very well could be. I think it's a very well could be. I think the 7 $8 million may be a conservative, a conservative, yeah, I'm thinking it's probably closer to 12, $13 million AJ, Dave Manson is worth every penny, and he is. He is, but that's neither here nor there. The College, the collegiate sport landscape, has changed. The window doesn't create these options though the transfer window, it's exposing them like interest doesn't mean intent anymore. Calls from coaches don't mean offers like timing matters more than a resume, sure, it's based off of the type of season that a player may have or the potential that a coach or a program sees in them. So using Colin Draya for as an example, he had a fantastic season, right? Right? He was a player of the year. And now, you know, he does all that, and now he's a player who a college that either could be a little bit better in sports than UNLV right now, could be a little bit worse, but he's a player that a college can look at and say, That's a guy that he's added

K.B. 7:52
to that yes, yeah, he can add to, you know, our offense, or he can add to this team. And that is the blessing and the curse of signing someone of that caliber. And, you know, it leads me to believe that right now, there is a lot of movement. There's a lot of transition. I'm wondering if, in the not too distant future, they're going to kind of put golden handcuffs on some of these players so that it's more contractual that if you leave, you give up they need to and x, you know, X amount of money. So if I'm signing you to come to my school and I'm giving you three or $4 million a year, you leave. There may be a caller. There may be a callback. And say, hey, a callback meaning a financial instrument where I get some of that money that I've given you, if not all of it. I give it back because I gave it to you for the opportunity to come here, have you as a player in our program, and by leaving the program, you create a lot of disarray, and the school has to pick up the pieces. The player doesn't right, the player is moving on to a new situation. Oftentimes a little bit more money is at play, or could be a lot more money. So I'm thinking now that to kind of counterbalance all of this activity within the transition portal, all of this this activity within the portal, I'm thinking that that schools may have to start thinking about, all right, we need an iron clad contract, because now we have to pay you right as professionals, we need an ironclad contract that says this is my clawback mechanism in the event that you leave our program high and dry.

Graydon Prescott 9:27
I also think that the NCAA needs to put in some restrictions for transfer portals, and when we get to basketball, I'll talk a little bit more about it. And something that Coach Cal former Kentucky, legendary coach, and now lacosha, Arkansas, he said a few things, sure, sure, during our hiatus that really resonated with me and stuck with me, and I'll bring those up to you in a minute. But you know the way you're describing the transfer portal now, it's almost as if it's literally just a free agency, like right a professional sports free agency, where. With no contracts, no protection, it's just constant movement. There's no stability, and promises don't mean anything anymore. It's all about money, and there's nothing really that factors into it other than the amount of dollar that a school can pay. It's not about the prestige anymore. You see that with AJ, Dave mans to going to a BYU. He didn't, he didn't go to Duke. He didn't go to North.

K.B. 10:24
He doesn't meet him. Yeah, he doesn't need Duke,

Graydon Prescott 10:27
especially the players. And I actually think it's less important for the people that I'm about to name, or the type of player that I'm about to name, than it is for the regular college athlete who is still a much higher level of athlete than 99% sure, sure, sure, but I'm talking about the guys who aren't on the fast track to the professionals. Right? Where sports it may be where

K.B. 10:49
Duke being on your resume does matter, or North Carolina or Kansas does.

Graydon Prescott 10:54
It wouldn't have mattered where Caleb Williams went to school, correct? It doesn't matter where AJ. Dave man says going to school, even though he's at Duke. Cameron Boozer, it doesn't matter if he would have gone to Middle Tennessee, he would still be a top three pick in the NBA Draft next year. Yes, that doesn't matter. But what about the guys who aren't on the fast track to play professional sports?

K.B. 11:15
What about the guys that may have to be in school, two, three, maybe even four years before they get an opportunity to go to the

Graydon Prescott 11:20
league and like, the way that the college landscape is working now, it's almost ripping the futures out of people's like they're they're treating it like they're guaranteed to go professional in their sport. And I'll bring up the coach cow point now, he basically said the NCAA needs to lay down some restrictions. Sure you get one free transfer. That's reasonable. You get one free transfer, no penalty. You can go wherever you want. But he thinks guys playing at four schools in four years, or three schools in four years, where now, when you get done playing your sport, you have no real connections, because you you haven't stayed anywhere. You got no loyalty, you got no school. That's like, Oh, this guy was with us for the whole time. You got to go out and get a job and get it, you know, get a letter of recommendation for somebody, and you got nobody, because you've been four places that you've been hopping around. Yeah, right. So now you got no loyalty from anybody, and you're just screwed, right? That was coach Cal's point, and he, he also spoke about, again, we'll get to it, the professional kind of rolling back into college? Yes, yes, but we'll get to that. But I think there's something to be said for that, and I do agree that the NCAA needs to put down some restrictions on the transfer portal, because it's, it's, it's reached a point where now it's just a free for all, and there's a school can't even plan for the future anymore.

K.B. 12:43
I think it's going to be hard, independent of legislation, for the schools to do that, or for the NCAA to do that. However, again, going back to my point of a few moments ago, what they can do is say, All right, well, if you want to come to this program, if you want to come to this program, and we're going to pay you X amount of dollars, yeah, then we're going to paper up. You're going to get the dollars that you want, whether they're $3 million a year, $6 million a year, and if you're, you know, a hyper blue chip athlete, maybe that's $10 million but if you leave, there's a claw back mechanism, and maybe that's punitive. You give up that $10 million a year, and then you get to go wherever you're going to go. And maybe there is even a measure within that contract where, okay, if you go, you've given up $10 million you're going to sign some place that's going to give you $13 million you have to give us a 10% gratuity, right? They've got to figure out something, because the money changes behavior, and that's what's led to this, this whole fiasco, money will change behavior. It can change behavior in the affirmative, or it can change behavior in the negative, meaning, it can lead a player to leave a program and affirmatively go somewhere else. It can prevent a player from leaving, because, hey, I know I'm going to have this financial penalty. I don't think the NCAA can stop players from moving, yeah, but what they can do is say, All right, if you're going to move, it's going to cost us both. We're going to lose the talent, but you're going to lose some of that money that we had to pay out. Yeah? And I think that's really the only fair way that I see right now. There could be other ways that I haven't thought about, but I think that's probably the most meaningful where you don't need the legislation, you don't have to get Congress involved, but you can paper up and say, Hey, if you're going to leave, it's going to cost you.

Graydon Prescott 14:33
Yeah, it's great in Prescott here on Sports prep live, and today we are discussing primarily the transfer portal and the landscape in modern collegiate sports. And then we're going to talk a little bit about UNLV basketball teams over the past month that we have missed. So we're going to transition now to to basketball. Sure the transfer portal in basketball used to open Dave. During March Madness, coaches had to interview players while games were still being right, right, while a national champion was still up in the air. So trust rosters, excuse me, were being reshaped like before the champion was even decided, sure, and the NCAA finally stepped in over the past month, where now the portal opens after the tournament, and you only have 15 days to enter. So it at least tightens the window that players can enter. Yes, yes, um, it compresses the pressure, I guess you could say, but it doesn't really stop anything major. It just gives players a tighter window. And I don't know, I don't see the immediate value in that decision. I see the value in not having the transfer portal open during March Madness, so that there's no distraction,

K.B. 15:53
distraction, right? But I think that's where the NCAA does have a little bit more autonomy, right? Where they can say, all right, well, this is going to be the window, and maybe that should apply to both players and coaches, because you know what Lane Kiffin did recently being hired at LSU, and the whole debacle of him taking coaches and bringing them on to LSU, but left some of them there with, what's it? Mississippi, Mississippi State, the football team that a lot went a lot further than most people thought they were going to so some of the staff that he was going to bring with him, he was in this position where they probably didn't think that team would go as far as it did. It ended up going basically down to if there was a Final Four, yeah. Ole Miss, yes, Ole Miss, that's it.

Graydon Prescott 16:41
And almost was in the national Sure, sure. There were 20 seconds away from the National

K.B. 16:47
Champion, and there was one coach who was allowed to coach all the way up to that final game that they played, and then he pulled him from that final game because he needed that coach to focus on recruiting. So again, they need to clean this up, both with respect to players and respect to coaches. It's a little bit harder not to give coaches that autonomy, but you do, you should have a window where, if we're in the the college football playoffs, there's there can be offers, but they can't really be any movement. If you are a coach, and your team is in the CFP, so that the teams that are in there, they have some visibility on who their staff is going to be, who their coach is going to be, until after the season is over. So I think that, yes, the NCAA needs to get a handle on this, both in football and in basketball, because this is really the only place, these are the only two sports where we really see this problem popping.

Graydon Prescott 17:42
Do you agree with the notion now that in those two major sports, without n i l money, a school can no longer compete? Do you agree with that notion? Because the way I see,

K.B. 17:53
I would say yes, I think it's true. I think it's more true in basketball than it is than it is in football, yeah?

Graydon Prescott 18:01
Because I was gonna say in football, like, it's pretty obvious that the most expensive roster in the country was Ohio State, yeah, this past year. And by far the best team in the country was not Ohio State.

K.B. 18:14
But, you know, there's no parallel to AJ davenson In football, not currently, no correct? That's what I mean. It's harder in football. So if you take the number one quarterback in high school

Graydon Prescott 18:26
football, well the crazy thing is, AJ, Dave bandsta might go third in the NBA Draft.

K.B. 18:31
I'd be shocked if he went third. I know there's some other players out there who are doing the darn thing. I would be shocked if he went third. But that's not the point that I'm making. The point that I'm making is in football that is much harder. So if you come out and you're the AJ daventa of high school football, right, whether that is a quarterback, and usually it is, or it could be a defensive back, as it was with the gentleman from Hunter, out of Colorado, Travis Travis Hunter, yes, where you are universally recognized as that guy, he's that dude. He's him. You're You're very rarely going to see that person go to say, I don't know you and I, which is, you know, University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, right? That's not going to happen in college football the way that it could and does in college basketball, because the other pieces to your to you excelling are so important, right? Yeah, you really have to have those other pieces around you. As an elite high school football player, a five star football player coming in and wanting to help you, know, wanting to lead up a program, you just have to have those other pieces. So I see it being less of a problem in the in football than I do in basketball, where it can be one player can really change the dynamic and the fortunes of a team, and that team could be a team that you just would never expect, like BYU, to be in the top 10 in the nation. Yeah, because of one player and the people that he attracts to come. With him

Graydon Prescott 20:00
and again, to this point, I think Greg guard put it best. Coaches are becoming more CEOs of their programs than they are coaches. Yeah, like, it's not even about coaching a team of amateur athletes to be successful anymore. It's it's really about having the correct amount of money and having the right employees to make a system work, sure, sure. I mean, that's literally how it's working, especially in basketball.

K.B. 20:27
Now, it's funny you say that. I mean, I know you know who this is, and maybe a lot of listeners won't. Some of our our older listeners will, you know, in today's sports environment, and specifically basketball, Bobby Knight is not possible, right, right? Yeah, Bobby Knight could not exist throwing chairs in today, right, right, in today's basketball and so. But there was something to that kind of expertise that you were getting. I mean, he knew basketball, right? He was a little domineering, and could be, you know, a little physical more than than I'm sure a lot of people would be comfortable with, yeah, but no one ever questioned whether or not he knew his basketball, and he didn't have a lot of players that didn't want to play under him. Could, could a Bobby Knight exist today? And I think the answer is categorically no, because of the transport portal. Yeah.

Graydon Prescott 21:25
And I think as we wind down the show here, I think one topic that we really need to talk about is the former pros and hold back culture and now who's having to pay the price for it, especially the younger guys who are now having to pay the price for it. I'm talking about the people who graduate the year that they were supposed to graduate from the time they were in kindergarten, and who enroll in college at age 18 and are developed the traditional way. Now, again, we're not discussing the anomalies right now, right? You know boozer Vance to Darren Peterson when you you know whether it's football with like a Marvin Harrison Jr or a Caleb Williams, not the anomalies, just the normal people who play high school sports. They do well enough to earn themselves a scholarship to college, and they go to play collegiate sports, and now you're an 18 year old kid, and you got to go against a guy like James Naji, who played professional basketball overseas, right? Or a guy like Carson Beck, who's almost 25 years old, a guy who he was in the class of 2020, quarterback and two, I'll name two guys he was in the same high school football class as. One is Jaden Daniel Well, he was a year before Jaden Daniels, right, right? Jane Daniels is a pro bowl quarterback right now. He was the same year as Justin Herbert, who's in his fourth season in the NFL, and Caleb Williams was the year after him, and he just came this close to making the Sure, sure, sure. And this guy just finished the season at

K.B. 22:56
Miami, Izzo, who is the head coach of Michigan, Michigan State, right talked about this very thing that even from the high school level, and I'm experiencing it in my family right now, where kids come into high school driving, yeah, they not driving, as in learners, learners permit school, meaning are they have a license. These kids are 16, going on, 17 years old, coming into high school as a

Graydon Prescott 23:25
fresh I'm a senior at Bishop Gorman right now. And you know, I know you have experience with around Bishop Gorman, sure, sure. I'm a senior at Bishop Gorman right now. There are sophomores older than me, right on the basketball team currently, to this day, right there are sophomores older than me,

K.B. 23:40
and so it starts there. It even starts in middle school, and they allow it to go on, and it has contributed to the demise of and I just watched a program on it with Matt Barnes and Jay Bayless, and I forget one of the other announcers on there who was talking as well, but they were talking about the demise of AAU, and how these older players are coming in there, and they're kind of ruining the sport. But so, you know, our coaches that really don't know what they're doing, they're in it for the money, and so there is no structure. And so Tom Izzo was talking about, look, you know, you can't have, you know, 22 year old freshmen coming in to college, and expect that if you stay four years, you're going to be 26 years old, right? Trying to get your first year into the NBA. You know, if you're 26 trying to get into the NBA, it is not likely to happen, right? And so, yeah, I agree with you. If you're

Graydon Prescott 24:35
26 trying to get into the NBA, we're saying freshmen in college. I got news for you. It ain't happening, right? The 26 year olds that are good enough to be in the NBA are generally dominating for a few years. Yeah, they're multi time all stars. LeBron was in his eighth season at 26 right? Michael Jordan was the MVP before 26

K.B. 24:57
Yeah, and we have no problem with it going the other direction. We have no. Problem with the Cooper flag, who, technically, you know, should be in his freshman year in college, right now, right?

Graydon Prescott 25:05
He just turned 19. Correct, correct. So if

K.B. 25:09
you're playing up, we, I have no problem with you, but if you have to rely on being a 16 year old high school player, should be a high school player, but playing in an eighth grade tournament, and they brag to me because you won a national eighth grade tournament, but you're 16 years old. I'm not trying to

Graydon Prescott 25:27
hear it right. And one, one huge issue, and it's going on right now in college basketball, is the former pro James Naji. Is at Baylor right now. He was drafted into the NBA. He played in the G League, and technically, he never got any NBA minutes, but he played overseas for, I believe it was Real Madrid or Barcelona something, but he played overseas, sure, good minutes overseas. And now he's at Baylor, and the NCAA allowed this. And now Amari Bailey, who was at Sierra Canyon a few years ago, he helped UCLA to get to the Sweet 16, and then he went into the draft, one and done, he probably didn't do as well as he expected, sure, because in college or in high school, Amari Bailey was that guy. He was that dude. Yeah, he got to college, he was still relatively good and talented enough to play in the league, but he went one and done a few years ago. This probably was 2022, and he went one and done, and I don't think he was ready. He probably should have stayed in college for another year, sure, sure. But he went straight to the draft. Now he's played 10 games in the NBA, the NBA, not G League, right? And now he's seeking eligibility to go back to college, to go back to college. That's insane. That's insane, and precedent was set by James Naji that, okay, you played in the pros overseas. I played in a professional league. It just happens to be in America, correct? What's the difference? Right? If the NCAA allows Amari Bailey to play college basketball again, then there needs to be a real conversation on the rules, the regulations, not just of the transfer portal, but of the ages that players are allowed to play, right? Collegiate sports, right, even high school sports, too. Like the age limit in high school sports is 20. That needs to have a drawback,

K.B. 27:12
and it's not the ages you are able to attend college, yeah, to participate

Graydon Prescott 27:17
in high school. I don't care if you're you get drafted into the NBA, and then you go back to school to finish your degree, correct? Steph Curry, that's great. That's fantastic. That's all well and

K.B. 27:27
good, but you play basketball because you didn't get minutes in the NBA, right?

Graydon Prescott 27:32
That is ridiculous. That is absolutely so what I think as we round things out here, we'll go back to Anthony call Andrea, just to make this last point. He's no villain, but he's an example of how college sports have just been broken, like the wild, wild west out there buy money. Yes, yeah, you know. And this is the end of the show. And again, nothing against Anthony Collin. No good dude. He did his job. He played by the Yes, he did his job. He played by the I got a lot of respect, for sure, but college sports doesn't reward loyalty anymore or hope or even patience. It rewards relationships and money. And now you can't say that hard work isn't rewarded anymore, because Indiana the national champions, yes, hard, hard work and fantastic coaching, absolutely great player development, but they're an anomaly in college sports nowadays, because the year before, the $40 million team won the national championship, correct and in basketball, it's the teams with a lot of money to pay, to pay for good players that are competing for national championships year in and year out, and

K.B. 28:39
I wonder how well they're going to do. I know we're wrapping up here, but he was a once in a lifetime. Qb, so now that he's gone, I'm wondering how strong this Indiana program, yeah, it'll be interesting. The coach is still a great coach, but, but Fernando Mendoza was like a

Graydon Prescott 28:52
rare I know, I know he was unique. And, you know, I'm not going to be on air doing religious things, you know, I I'm not telling anyone what religious point of view, but I pray to God that the Raiders don't ruin him.

K.B. 29:09
Like, come on. But I do want him here. No, we want him here.

Graydon Prescott 29:13
We want him just, please don't, for the love of God, don't ruin that kid. Yeah, oh my goodness, we've seen what he's capable. Oh, man. All right. Thank you everybody for listening to this season opener of the seventh season of sports prep live. I'm your host, graden Prescott, and we'll be right back here Monday next week. You know the drill. We'll see you all soon. 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 podcasts, and be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter at sports prep live. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai