SportsPrep Live

Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to local programming produced in KU NV studios. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jas and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:17
Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of sports prep live, prep live, where we unbox the mic and talk excellence in athletics

Unknown Speaker 0:35
Welcome back to sports prep live. Episode Seven of season two. March Madness has officially started and just for just so you all know there are no perfect brackets remaining in the men's side and there are exactly three left on the women's side. You know, so just had to get that out of the way. Second round just finished up sweet 16 is getting started this Thursday. So you know, we had to come on and do a prep talk about it. Great impressed got KB you know what it is KB you're ready to go.

Unknown Speaker 1:07
I'm ready. I'm ready.

Unknown Speaker 1:08
All right, let's go. Let's start off first couple of rounds. stuff started off hot on the men's side. Personally, I picked a couple of upsets that did take place. Okay. I have my bracket here. I had Yale beating Auburn. That's a 13 over a four that did happen. I also had James Madison beating Wisconsin. Seriously. I'm serious. It's here in ink in black and white and black and white and signed by me yours truly. But then again, nobody's perfect. So I missed a few as well.

Unknown Speaker 1:48
I would imagine with just those two picks. Probably 80% of brackets were obliterated more

Unknown Speaker 1:53
than 80. I think after Auburn, and James Madison, there were like 5000 Perfect brackets left out of 22 million. Seriously? Yeah. So that's a lot more than 80% 99.999. Yeah, it's closer to that. Obviously, the men's side is a little bit tougher to predict in the women's. But we still have seen a couple of surprising outcomes on the women's side. First of first and foremost Middle Tennessee over Louisville. That was an 11 overall clicks. Yeah. Down to the wire game. Other than that, nothing really huge. Ohio State Duke they all advanced. So it's a little bit more predictable. Over on the women's side because it's kind of top heavy.

Unknown Speaker 2:40
When you say Ohio State advanced you meant

Unknown Speaker 2:43
first round first round. Yes. Second round. But yeah, there's got an update probably didn't go as expected for them. Once we get to the second round, South Carolina kept doing their thing. North Carolina, they beat them at 841. Texas Advanced 6450 65 to 54 over Alabama, correct. USC defeated Kansas. Yesterday, I believe 73 to 55 through Watkins

Unknown Speaker 3:11
doing Juju things.

Unknown Speaker 3:15
Iowa, escaped West Virginia, by the skin of their teeth, you call it? You call it an escape. I call it an escape. They were up 10 going into the fourth? Yeah, tell us why you call it an escape. Okay, here's why I call it an escape. And I'm gonna go in on this a little bit. I have some things to say.

Unknown Speaker 3:33
And for the record, I do know that there are a lot of people out there who

Unknown Speaker 3:37
share your view. Yes, yes, this

Unknown Speaker 3:39
was I have some narrow escape. I

Unknown Speaker 3:42
have some things to say about this Iowa team. It concerns me. Caitlyn is going to be Caitlyn. But when Caitlyn has a slightly off shooting night or she is well defended, because West Virginia is one of the best teams in the Federals. They had one of the best defensive teams in the country. That is they had the best turnover margin. And all of division one women's basketball, yes. Their turnover margin was plus 8.8. That's the best in women's college basketball. And they defended Caitlin Well, the other girls couldn't get it going as much. So they held Iowa to their lowest scoring output of the season.

Unknown Speaker 4:23
On Iowa's team,

Unknown Speaker 4:24
yeah, the other one. Gabby Marshall. I don't think she scored over

Unknown Speaker 4:31
and over, shout out to Gabby Marshall.

Unknown Speaker 4:34
Kate, Kate Martin did okay. Sydney. You know, Hannah played a pretty big game got a lot of rebounds. But if Caitlin's not scoring 40 points, yes. I don't know if and if they're playing a strong defensive team. I don't know that Iowa concerns me sometimes they really do. And they have a tendency to let go of leads. They had a ton 12 point lead, and then they let that go in the third quarter were three times during, then they got it back up to 10 going into the fourth quarter. Correct. So I'm thinking, Oh, they're probably just gonna, you know, pull away with it. Just keep doing what they've been doing and they'll be fine. No, Santa Ana answered to start the fourth quarter and it's a tie game. That's why I say they got away with the skin of their teeth because it was a two point game with 90 seconds left. They ended up winning by 10. But that's free throws, right. So yeah, that's why I say Iowa escape. It wasn't like South Carolina where they just by North Carolina. It wasn't Texas, they won by 11. So it was a similar margin of victory, but it was kind of a wire to wire victory. More comfortable. Same with USC. They won by I think 18. Wire the wire were in control the entire time. So sweet. 16. Iowa is going to be playing Colorado, USC will be faced last year. Yes, they did in the sweet 16. Yep, that's right. And it got

Unknown Speaker 6:03
a 10 point victory, I believe. But there was one point separating them at halftime. Was it

Unknown Speaker 6:08
the second round? I believe I believe it was.

Unknown Speaker 6:11
No, I think it was. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 6:13
Yeah, so they played sweet. 16 last year. 10 point win. Sounds about right, separated

Unknown Speaker 6:20
by one point at halftime. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:22
So they will play Colorado USC will play Baylor South Carolina against Indiana, Texas will play Gonzaga. Those are the number one seed teams. So we've gotten them out of the way. And then Notre Dame will play Oregon State. And Stanford will play NC State.

Unknown Speaker 6:39
Correct. But let's go back to before we get too far down the road, with respect to the other teams, and how they're going to be doing and there's some great great teams on this side of the ledger, you know, the women's bracket, because outside of South Carolina, you really don't know who's going to end up in that championship game. And were it not for South Carolina? You don't know who would be on either side. You know that? That champion? We're assuming South Carolina is going to be there. You didn't pick South Carolina. No. Quiet quiet. ASKAP. You're whispering. But let me push back a little bit on your vantage point of Iowa. squeaking by with a win. Let me ask because I know you watch the game. Yes. Okay. As did I could you share with the audience half of that game that probably went an hour and 3040 minutes? How often? How long in minutes. Was West Virginia in the lead?

Unknown Speaker 7:49
They started off in the lead. But out in totality out of the 40 minutes of game time that they played they probably lead for six minutes, probably

Unknown Speaker 8:00
or less. Yeah, yes. So Caitlin Clark did Caitlin Clark things even though and this is why she kind of epitomizes you know that that superstar? That that nirvana of basketball talent in in all of college sports, not just women's college sports, because she did take a team that doesn't have any five star athletes on it other than her and went against as you pointed out in quite correctly. One of the most, if not the most toughest defenses in all of collegiate sports are in all of collegiate basketball. And they concentrated on her. She is not you can't sneak up on Caitlin Clark, right. Like, you know, she's coming. And she knew they were coming. And still, even though they knew their game plan was to make someone else beat us other than Caitlin Clark. Caitlin still found a way stingy defense, but I still think she hit her average for the year right. Now the team didn't team has been averaging What 9093 points. Somewhere. They came nowhere close. 64 points. Yeah. So it was what 64 to 54. But Caitlin had her 32. So in the games that they're averaging 90 points, Caitlin's averaging about 31.8 points that were in there. She had 32 against a very, very stingy defense and scored very little in the fourth quarter.

Unknown Speaker 9:37
She didn't make I think she had she had eight free throws in the fourth quarter. That's why I say it was up off night for her even though she didn't shoot well. Exactly. That's why I say a lot of credit to West Virginia, quote unquote, off night. Yes. That's why I say it was off night because of course she still found a way to get it done. But out of those 32 points, probably 14 more free throws. So,

Unknown Speaker 10:00
but that's that's an aspect of the game, right? Finding your ways and finding a way no matter what the obstacles are to get it done. And that's what she did. I think you're right, she had to go to the free throw line to get some of those points to, to get into that, that 30 plus range. But that's what great players do. They find a way. And so I understand that it was a closer game. West Virginia executed their game plan very well. You couldn't have done it better. And it was probably great for Iowa that they face this team, because there's a lot of similarities between the defense that West Virginia uses and the defense that Colorado uses.

Unknown Speaker 10:39
I do agree with that. I think this was a test that they needed, especially early in the turn correct? Because then that's gonna get their first game was a cakewalk. But this type of game early in the tournament kind of gets you prepared for the rest of the tournament? Yes. And they had a similar situation last year, in the second round, they played Georgia. And Georgia last year was a tough defensive team. Yes. And Caitlin only had 23 points that game, but they still found a way to get it done. And that kind of led them or got them ready for the rest of the tournament where they played Colorado, Louisville, South Carolina, and then LSU in their next four. Right.

Unknown Speaker 11:16
So that's the point that I'm making. And I think it's actually a positive for Iowa to have gone through this experience. Now, you're not going to always hold Gaby Marshall and Kate Martin, in the crew to get a less than 15 points total. I think when they're averaging 19.8 or more per game, they have their win record is close to 100%. Yeah, when those two especially Gabby Marshall and Kate Martin fall under 14 points a game. Now they've only lost four games a year. But that's been the center of similarity between those four losses that they didn't get the production out of them. But here's why I say that. I don't necessarily believe this was a squeaky win. Iowa went up two or three times by 10 to 12 points. Did West Virginia ever go up? By 10 to 12? Points? No,

Unknown Speaker 12:09
but that's a concern for me. On the contrary to what you're thinking, even though they did get up 1012 points, because they've been doing this offseason, you look at their game against Nebraska and the regular season. They were up 12 points heading into the fourth quarter, right, Nebraska came back and beat them. They were up 10 points last night, going into the fourth quarter now they still won by 10. But it was two with a minute and 52 seconds left. Right. Right. So I think I would gives up leads a little bit too easily they do now. It is a game of runs. It always has been always will be. But they give up a lot of runs. Especially when they get they

Unknown Speaker 12:50
are not the best defensive team. They held them to 54 points that will give them that I think well, West Virginia is not a high scoring team. Yeah, that's true. So it was a dogfight. You know, I know we've got to move on to some other teams and some other interesting news coming out of the NCAA are coming out on March Madness, especially on the women's side issue that I want to raise with you that has given me a lot of consternation. And it's really unfortunate. I don't even know how many folks out there in the audience are aware of this. But it's a big issue. And we'll talk a little bit about it in a few minutes here. But just to wrap up on Iowa, I actually think that what they did yesterday was improvement, because as you've said, they've they've been in positions where they were up big, and they allowed the team to claw back. I don't it's a game of runs. i What was up 10 to 12 points with a couple of different occasions, West Virginia made their run but Iowa never relinquished the lead. And I think that is improvement over what we've seen from them in some of their past games where they ended up losing as a consequence of not meaning to not maintaining the lead. So that's all I have to say about that. I'm looking forward to their next battle against Colorado. I think it's going to be eerily similar to the game that they had West Virginia but I do expect I wouldn't be able to pull it out Friday

Unknown Speaker 14:11
night. I got to stop giving up open threes. Saturday night. My apologies. Okay, moving on from Iowa, still on the women's side. Yes. UConn is looking good. Paige Becker's. Okay, now, Geno Smith, her coach.

Unknown Speaker 14:28
I heard this. I know where you're going with this. He

Unknown Speaker 14:30
said some stuff he did. He said two things. One, and I mean, he's our coach. So what do you expect him to say? If you look at the analytics, he said she has been the best player so far in the postseason. Yes. So the Big East Tournament conference tournaments and then the NCAA tournament. And he said he believes that Paige is the best player in all of women's college basketball. He

Unknown Speaker 14:56
did say that with a straight face. Yeah, and He was serious.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
I think she's good. I think she's really great. I think she's one of those. She's

Unknown Speaker 15:05
great. Is she the best but there is a great or yeah, she's great. I'm a huge fan of Paige Becker's. She is a baller. She plays excellent basketball on both sides of the ball, both ends of the floor. She's a three level score. She's got it in terms of basketball, IQ, you know, she's got it between the ears. There is nothing negative that I have to say about Paige Becker's she is on that all America team, deservedly so, alongside Caitlin and I think Hannah Hill Dulko.

Unknown Speaker 15:45
Julian Cameron, Brett

Unknown Speaker 15:46
Juju and then camera break. Yes. For some reason that Elizabeth Kelly was was popping into my head, but Kelly didn't make it. And Godspeed to Elizabeth ketley to get her injury. Get to heal with her injury. And that was a really tough break for Virginia Tech and shout out to JJ Georgia anymore. King Brooks is leaving by the way. Did you know that?

Unknown Speaker 16:08
He said it to Kentucky? Kentucky coach.

Unknown Speaker 16:11
Great coach. But yes, you know, I, I think that Paige is everything that we've laid out here. But what she is not at this moment in time, is the best female player in college basketball. That has been wrapped up. That movie's over. I think everyone is well aware of it. The after season, the postseason awards, AP naysmith, all of that. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion. Not that she hasn't had a season that would put her in the hunt. But I don't think more so than say, Judy Watkins. I don't even know if more so than Hannah Hill doggo at North Notre Dame who has had an outstanding season. So to what else is he going to say as her coach?

Unknown Speaker 16:59
Yeah, that's Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 17:01
I agree with Shannon Sharpe. I was watching Janet job this morning on first aid. And he said, you can tell me what the numbers say. But I'm talking about the eye test. And what my eyes tell me is that she's had a fantastic postseason. She's had an incredible comeback from an injury that probably most athletes wouldn't have come back for. If not come back for him to the degree that she has. But she is not this year. The one she's not, you know, the

Unknown Speaker 17:30
numbers say that she's not either. I mean Caitlin's leading the nation and points with 31.8. Next closer she is more efficient than Caitlyn. She far more, far more.

Unknown Speaker 17:42
Yes, yes. Shout out to page backers.

Unknown Speaker 17:44
Do you think she has a more well rounded game like just overall defense mid range finishing three point shooting.

Unknown Speaker 17:51
I don't know that. I would say she has a more well rounded game, but I would say that she is more of an offensive threat when you consider three level scoring. Caitlyn doesn't do a lot in terms of mid range shots every now and then she gets into the pain usually off of the fast break. Sometimes you know she comes off of a screen or what have you. And she'll get to the cut page breaks people down off the dribble. Yeah, Paige has a pull up mid range, you know what I refer to as the kill zone when I'm talking with my kiddos in AAU basketball. She's deadly from mid range. And she has a three obviously she's not as prolific with a three as as Caitlin up but she doesn't have to be. What Paige does have though, is some ballers surrounding her. This is true. And I don't know if you swap just those individuals. And granted, you know, I think right now you kind of is dealing with some health issues. But assuming everyone's everyone's healthy. I don't know that if you put Caitlin Clark on UConn that you are walking away with anything but a national championship and there's no question about it. Like she she hasn't had the opportunity other than USA basketball, you know, going for vying for gold medals. She hasn't had the opportunity to play with that level of talent around her on the regular. Yeah, not in high school. And not in college.

Unknown Speaker 19:29
Yeah, that's true. Right. But she's getting drafted with a league of Boston. And Chelsea Mitchell Coliseum. Yeah, that's where I was going now. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 19:37
sir. Yes, sir. She is a score. Yeah. One thing that I did want to get your take on

Unknown Speaker 19:47
Utah. Oh, yeah. No, I this has gotten coached

Unknown Speaker 19:49
by Lynn Roberts shout out to Lynn Roberts. I think what she did for her team standing up for her team is commendable. I am her Really sorry that she and her squad had to deal with what they had to deal with. And I think the NCAA needs to do something about this. Utah was in Idaho. For a game they were supposed to be in Spokane, Washington, I believe. And the hotels were 30 miles apart. Yes, the hotels were more JAM PACKED there. And so they didn't get into they didn't get to stay near the facility that they were going to be playing it. And so they were shepherded to a place in, I think it's called the daily own. That sounds right in where they went to a hotel. And they left the hotel on Thursday evening to go to have dinner. And in route, and this was just a few blocks, they walked this distance. And in route to the hotel. They met up with our they were accosted, I shouldn't say met up, they were accosted by a gentleman in a pickup truck. With Confederate I wouldn't. I wouldn't use the term, gentleman. You're right. A guy in a pickup truck, with Confederate paraphernalia all over the truck. And this guy commenced to terrorize this team with racial epithets, the N word. Other things that we can't and would not repeat here on radio, and I probably wouldn't even want to repeat and caughlin private conversation, and then had to turn around within a day and go play basketball games. Not only did it happen, as they were going to dinner, but then when they left dinner, and went back to the hotel, he gathered this guy went and got more people and continued to terrorize. Let's be honest, the African American women on this team, and there's not a ton of them. engaged in the same behavior. And the fact that they then had to play a game against Gonzaga. And the NCAA could not have foreseen this, I think is shameful. Yeah. We need to recognize that there are pockets in this country where these athletes go. And there is not a ton of diversity in those areas of the country. And the NCAA, the NCAA needs to recognize that when they are sending teams to these areas, for overnight stays, or what have you, they have to travel a little bit within the town, that there needs to be some element of security. Now they got security after the fact.

Unknown Speaker 22:52
Yes, like a death that day. Correct. What good does that

Unknown Speaker 22:56
do? I understand that they're trying to get the Marshal Service and other authorities involved. They're trying to look for videotape, to identify this cretin. But that's a really tough break for a really talented team. And my condolences to them. And my hat's off to coach Lynn Roberts for standing up for this squad. Ad Harlan out there. I mean, just the whole administration for Utah, I think Gonzaga had some of the right things to say. But I think by that time, it was, you know, by the time they came out with a statement, there was nothing really that you could be that could be said, this is something that you need to have a little bit of forethought and understand that in places like and I hate to dismiss submerge cities or states. But in places like Idaho, right, even in places like like Washington, Oklahoma, there's other there's, there's a number of cities where this sort of, of, of racial antagonism has been prevalent that the NCAA needs to get on the front side of that, and to recognize that they need to do something to protect not only these young women, but but college players in general. That's all I have to say. I'm

Unknown Speaker 24:09
going to add something a little bit here. This is obviously much more important than basketball, right? There are more important things in life. There are more important things than sports. And this is something that you never want to see happen to anybody. But I think this is a bigger reflection on the NCAA, more than anything, because, and I'm gonna go out on a limb here, this would not have happened to a men's team, correct? They and it stopped and here's why. There's no chance that the NCAA will allow a men's team to play in Washington and have to stay at a hotel 30 miles away. That would not happen. That is also true, that would not happen. And because that happened, then you start to get into more nuanced things. Okay. is does the NCAA care about the women's team teams nearly as much as they do the men's. It's disappointing to see it's disappointing that we have to have this conversation because at the end of the day, it's basketball. Everybody's playing the same sport. Everybody has the same passion, the same drive, they work just as hard to play the sport, right, and to see the women treated less than the men because of who knows what, just because they're women, just because it's not as exciting as men basketball, which is no longer true. No, not at all. That's why air quotes, not as excited as well. Yeah. You don't want to see anything like this. It's

Unknown Speaker 25:41
certainly it's a black eye for the tournament. And it is completely unfair to Utah, because there is no way that you go in and play a game to go against Gonzaga. I think they lost by maybe nine or 11 points or something like that. Yes. And that is not in the back of your head, the entire game for the moment that it happens. I can't imagine how they even slept that evening. I don't think right? I can imagine them being visibly shaken. Yeah, like literally visibly shaken. And that that stays with you for longer than the whatever amount of time that you know, they actually had to hear this nonsense. I'm not sure what could have been done. But it is exceedingly, exceedingly unfair to Utah, that they then had to play a tournament game, within 24 hours. If something like this happened, there's

Unknown Speaker 26:35
not much you can do about what could have been done after the fact. But I'll tell you what could have been done. You take care of it before the fact don't let them go do a town 30 miles away in Idaho, when they play in Washington, get them a hotel in Washington, near the arena, get them their resorts just like the men's get, or

Unknown Speaker 26:54
have them escorted likely did following this incident. But that didn't help.

Unknown Speaker 27:00
And this wasn't the only case where a women's team was treated a little bit differently than a men's team, same tournament this year, Michigan loses. They have to get their flight back home. And they ended up having to stay, I think two extra nights because they couldn't get a flight right. Again, not going to happen on the men's side. So it's the repeated. It's the repeated process that just keeps happening. For instance, yes. It's the repeated offenses that keep on happening on the women's side that you don't see on the men's side. And it's really concerning, and something needs to be done about it. And I hope that soon enough, something will be done because it's unacceptable. It's an except it's a bad look for the NCAA. It is and that's a bad look for college basketball. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 27:48
it is. Yes, it is. And, you know, we started down this road a few years ago with the whole weight room incident that went viral. You know, the men's side having basically a health club, you know, to work out it and then I think the women were provided and this was at an actual NCAA Tournament. Yeah. A rack of weights. Yeah, maybe 10 to two and a half pounds and a stationary bike. And that was it. So NCAA needs to get it together. The women have lifted the profile of this sport, it's going to be the most the most exciting games this season are going to be on the women's side just as they were last year. Yeah. So shout out to all of the women that have not only paved the way before this generation of players, but the but but in addition to this generation of players in the NCAA, you guys need to get it together.

Unknown Speaker 28:42
And I'm gonna just end it was something that Shaquille O'Neal, the great Shaquille O'Neal said about this tournament, these two tournaments going on. I'm not watching the men's tournament. We don't care about the men's. Yes, we're here. Yes. Yes. Thank you, everybody, for tuning into this episode of sports prep live. It was a great conversation. Hope to see you next time. And as always, have a great day everybody. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of sports prep live. I'm grading 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 rep law. Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai