Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin Time Sports Podcast. I am your host Justin Jackson.
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Welcome into the show season 5 episode 5 of the Justin Time Sports podcast.
Welcome into the show. I'm excited to be with you as we are actually recording late-ish on a Thursday night.
Typically I don't record on Thursday nights. I play basketballs and pick up basketball. Usually it just doesn't happen for me on a Thursday night.
However special occasions special times call for special occasions.
As I'm recording this late on a Thursday night I'm actually watching my Pelicans play the Kings right now.
So we do a standings update as always how we start the NBA. It'll be entering tonight.
Being Thursday night's games not counting the results of Thursday night because for instance the Knicks already played the Celtics.
So these results are as entering Thursday night. But out east, let's jump right into it in the NBA.
Out east you have the Celtics as the runaway 1 seed. At this point it's a formality that they're the one.
They're the runaway 1 seed. The Bucs minus 13 and a half games back. So with that gap being so massive.
And like we've done the past couple of weeks we're going to discuss the East in relation to the Bucs.
Considering the Bucs are the 2 seed and it doesn't make sense. The numbers get so laughable as far as the gap between whatever team and the Celtics.
So for instance the Bucs are the 13 and a half back from the Celtics. And now we're going to go again in relation to the Bucs.
So the Knicks are 1.5 games back from the Bucs. The Cavs are 2 games back. The Magic are 3 games back.
The Pacers are also 3 games back. And that would be the rest of the playoffs.
The play in begins with the Sixers at 4 back. The Heat at 5 back. The Bulls at 11.5 back. And the Hawks at 13 back.
However at out West we don't have that issue. And I say we because I'm talking about the totality of the NBA.
The fandom in general. The gap between the Nuggets and the Warriors. The Nuggets at 1st and the Warriors at 10th.
Is still less than the gap between the Celtics and the Bucs. And the Celtics and the Bucs are 1st and 2nd in East.
The Bucs are looking to go 64-65 wins. While the rest of the East is struggling to get to 50.
So that is to say the gap in terms of talent. The Bucs are looking for one of the all time regular seasons in Celtics history.
So that is what they have on the line and what they are battling for the rest of this regular season.
Anyway out West we have the Nuggets. That is currently the 1 seed. Again entering Thursday's games the Nuggets were the 1 seed.
The Timbukus are a game back. The Thunder are also a game back. So those 3 are battling for the number 1 seed.
Then there is this gap. So the gap is the 4 game gap. So that means the 3 teams I named. The Nuggets, the Timbukus and the Thunder.
They are locked into the top 3 seeds. They are just battling over what order of the top 3 seeds they are going to have.
But they are going to be top 3. Then you have the Clippers as your 4 seed. They are currently 5 games back.
The Mavs are 6 game back. The Pelicans round out the play-offs entering Thursday's game at 8.5 games back.
Okay. The Feeding Suns are 9 games back as the 7 seed. Then the Kings are 10.5 games back. The Lakers locked into the play-in are 11 games back.
The Warriors also locked into the play-in are 11.5 games back entering Thursday's night competition.
So just looking at the standings, some things that stand out to me. For instance the Warriors and the Lakers are locked into the play-in.
Mathematically the Kings have an opportunity to get into the play-offs. But they would need the Pelicans and the Suns to pretty much lose out while they went out.
In order to get into the play-off they have and go into the play-in.
Now the Pelicans and the Kings are currently playing. As it sits right now it's 54-48 with about 3.34 left in the second quarter of Pelicans ahead.
So this would be a situation where the Kings could almost double jeopardy the Pelicans by gaining a win and putting a loss on their record.
They're going to automatically gain a game and I believe they would own the tiebreaker at that point which would be huge.
Then of course tiebreaker they end up with the same record. The Kings would get in.
So this is a big game for New Orleans and Sacramento. New Orleans playing without Brandon Engelmar already.
He's scheduled to return against the Lakers in the last game of the season. While Zion has gone back to the locker room after coming out a little awkwardly.
He's going back to the locker room dealing with a wrist injury complaint.
So something to keep your eye on if you are a New Orleans fan. Something you are absolutely holding your breath if you're a New Orleans fan.
The last thing you need is Zion with a sprained wrist or I'm not even going to speak worse but something else was to occur.
Now he's dinged up for the start of the playoffs. He's probably playing his healthiest season as a pro.
So that is the last thing you want as a Pelicans fan. So we're all a little nervous right now.
But back into the show. Back to the topic of the show itself. I'm a LeBron guy. I am right. I'm a LeBron guy.
And I love the Pelicans. They're my favorite team. LeBron is my favorite player. You have to understand.
That's a great pass by the Air Fox. He got stolen but it wasn't because of the pass.
He made a forward on defense. God dog I love the Air Fox. But it wasn't due to a LeBron's fandom rather.
You have to understand I'm almost 27. I turned 27 in about a month. LeBron has been in the league 21 years.
I was born in 1997. LeBron entered the league in 2003. My first cognitive memories of watching basketball was LeBron James.
So it's a situation where guys who are 15 years older than me, their first cognitive memories of watching basketball is Michael Jordan.
Think about it. If you're born in 1982, Jordan is the league in what? 86? 84. Jordan is the league in 84.
So your first cognizant memories of basketball is probably of Michael Jordan.
Magic Johnson and Leigh Berger. Those are your three options. Especially because there's no league pass.
You pretty much have to watch the game, the national TV game. If you're in Louisiana, New Orleans, the New Orleans Hornets was no longer a thing.
The Jazz had left and the New Orleans Hornets was no longer a thing. So when the Charlotte Hornets had moved,
so it was a situation where you didn't have, you had to wait until the national TV game. Well, national TV in the 80s was Magic Michael Larry.
Or Detroit. That was the national TV games. So a lot of people's first cognitive memories of basketball,
and remember long playing basketball was of Michael Jordan and the Bulls. So LeBron's my guy, right?
Because LeBron's my guy, I tend to follow him wherever he goes in terms of I now invest in that team. I now have all the jerseys.
I now not all the jerseys. I have a jersey from every team. I have a Lakers. I have a Cavs. I have a Cavs the first time.
I have a Heat. I have a jersey from every team. So when he goes, I thin throw my support. I'm not the only one.
There's millions of us that do it as evident by the ticket sales and the merchandise sales whenever he does change locations and the ratings for the teams.
So LeBron was who I get invested in the team. I learned the style and the coaches. I kind of called him the culture a little bit.
It's almost like college recruitment in a way. But instead of like, it's not like when you're in college and you go to college in a different city.
And you like learn that city. Like for me, I'm from Baton Rouge, but I went to college in Hammond.
Hammond's all about an hour and 15 minutes, an hour from Baton Rouge. But it's something where you learn Hammond is a little different than Baton Rouge.
You know what I'm saying? And you're learning it and you're learning how it operates and you're learning the restaurants and etc.
You're getting great shit in the culture. You're getting great shit in Hammond America and it becomes a thing.
Well when LeBron changed the teams, he had about a four year pattern of changing.
Because again, it's almost like going to college. You learn the culture. You learn the city. You learn how this operates.
What are the true expectations? Are they just LeBron based expectations? Or are they used to winning?
So LeBron is the next guy to win. And I kind of say that because when he's in Cleveland, they never won.
So a lot of expectations of what they were supposed to do were LeBron based.
He's so good that they're supposed to get here. Okay? He was good enough to back it up.
They went into East Concert final a couple times. They made it to the NBA finals.
And the team was mostly not great. But he was able to carry those guys with help into premium long running playoff runs.
He gets to Miami. They were not necessarily used to winning. They had had a title.
They had won a title in 06 with Dwayne Wade. But they were not necessarily used to winning.
That was the only franchise with a title. They had been Mr. Playoffs in Dozer and Sinks.
But you got LeBron James, Chris Boster, Wade all in their primes.
They became we're going to win because these guys are so good expectations.
And they delivered. Two titles, four title strips. They delivered, right?
When LeBron goes back to Cleveland, he picks up Tyree Irvin who at the time was a very flashy non-winner.
And Kevin Love who was a fat machine non-winner in Minnesota.
And then they kind of both end to their pieces around.
So again expectations became we're going to win not because the teams are that good. Because LeBron's good.
Then you go to the Lakers and you get a different environment.
The team is good, yes. But they're used to winning. LeBron's the next guy to win.
Will and Jerry won. Kobe won. Magic won. You're just the next guy to win here.
It's the Lakers we win, right?
And so that being said, you got to get in great shape in that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I say all that long stuff to say, Darwin Ham sucks.
And I say this not only as a fan of LeBron's name. I say this as a fan of basketball.
Darwin Ham is horrible. What he did to the Lakers against the Warriors should have been professional malfeasance.
It should have been a crime. No, it was professional malfeasance. It should have been a crime.
It could have been potentially committed as a hate crime against LeBron. I'm not even sure what it would have been.
Ages? I don't know.
Favoritism, nepotism, buddyitism? I don't know. That was insane.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, the Lakers and the Warriors are exchange and blows.
LeBron's playing really well. The Warriors are in in threes, but the game is within reach.
The Warriors end up actually shooting the best three point percentage in the history of basketball with at least 40 attempts.
So a high range, a high volume rather, three point day, they had the greatest shooting performance of all time.
They made 26 of threes. It was like I said, it was the highest percentage ever shooting over 40 attempts.
As far as an official high range shooting team, they're the best ever.
So it was like a bit of a uphill battle, but they were in the war. Right? They were in it. Right there.
Blow for blow. And then it is in the third quarter, Darwin Han puts a lineup on the floor.
That is, D'Angelo Russell, Spencer Denwitty, Torian Prince, I believe Rui Hachimura and Jackson Hayes.
That is professional malfeasance, coaching malpractice, an absolute crime against the state of California,
against the Los Angeles Lakers fan base and against LeBron James.
That's a disgrace in terms of if you tell me you're trying to win.
Because honestly, you're disrespecting winning at that point.
And predictably, the Warriors go on this 13 to 2 run and push the game on. It's over and they're like two or three minutes.
The starting lineup managed to only play 10 minutes together.
I'm not even sure how you can do that with it without injuries.
They managed to only play 10 minutes together.
The lineup in question that had never played one second together got three minutes.
And the guys who started the game with somehow got 10.
To be upset at Darwin Han is a waste of emotion.
I'm going to be honest with you, it's pointless at this point.
To be frustrated with him is like you're not doing enough.
To want him fired feels like overkill.
He's such a guy that seriously I feel like he's trying stuff at this point.
And it's just not working.
And he's committing a crime against Laker Nation and is going to seriously jeopardize the ability for the Los Angeles Lakers to win a title.
I don't think they can win a title with him.
As great as LeBron James is, I do not think they can win a title with him.
LeBron has won two with Air Exposure, one with Frank Vogel, and one with Tyronn Lue as a replacement coach.
He can't be a way through a season.
I do not think he can win a title with Darwin Han.
That is how bad Darwin Han is.
It is as if he's never coached professional basketball all day in his life.
And I feel like it shows up every time they're in a big moment, every time they're in a crunch, every time they're going through a war.
Darwin Han finds a new way to not be confident at his job.
And it is just tragic that LeBron has to go through this at this stage of his career.
But it shouldn't be all that shocking, despite how much winning the Lakers franchise has done over its illustrious history.
They've had strong periods of ineptitude.
They pretty much won in spite of management with Will and Jerry.
And then Jerry Buss takes over.
And then that's a mess at the beginning, but they get Magic.
And so when you get Magic and you got Kareem, you kind of win.
And then when those guys are gone, it's ineptitude again.
And then Shaq decides, thanks to Jerry West, he wants to head west to your team, and you still suck.
And then you get gifted this kid from Philadelphia, this high schooler named Kobe Bryant, and you start winning again.
But that was strong periods of ineptitude even in Kobe's time.
He wanted to get traded at one point.
This team has gone through periods of just flat out bad management.
And I think what you're seeing on the court now is a symbolic gesture or symbolic symbol and a residual effect of what was happening in management.
Real time, Genie Buss had to force her brothers out.
It was like Mitch Kupchak running around.
And Phil Jackson was heavily involved.
It was a mess of Lakers.
They stayed in the 1980s and tried to do 2010s basketball.
It was awful.
And then after Kobe retired, it was awful.
And then Jerry Buss convinced Shaq to go west from Orlando.
Magic Johnson convinced LeBron to go west from Cleveland.
And all of a sudden there's this guy again.
And then they get another guy named Anthony Davis, and then they win.
And it's like you just kind of ignore all the bad.
But what you're seeing right now is all the bad with Darwin Ham.
They probably should have just done what LeBron wanted them to do, what everybody thought they should have done, which was give Tyloo this big.
Tyloo won it five years.
They offered him three.
The money wasn't the issue.
Like if they offered him five years, Tyloo was the coach of Lakers today.
They probably won more than one title.
Then you had Frank Vogel, and you let Frank Vogel go.
I'm not saying Frank Vogel is the world's best coach.
I have my issue with Frank Vogel.
He's better than Darwin Ham.
He's done with a lot more injuries than I'm testing.
Phoenix and airplane are really good basketball right now.
So I mean, it's just a sign of the ineptitude of the Lakers as an organization.
At times, I mean, Palenka was an ineptitude to Kobe.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's like it is what it is.
LeBron chose this.
He's still choosing this.
He's going to continue to choose this because the city of Los Angeles is far more important than the actual basketball itself right now.
So before we dive too far into the playoffs, I want to propose you guys a question.
And Chris Haynes proposed it on TNT to the crew, and they asked to hear their answers.
I'm glad I didn't hear the answer.
I don't want my pain to be swayed.
But we were speaking about those things.
OK, purpose of the play in tournament was to give and I want to make a little more money.
Let's start off there.
Number two, it was designed to give teams in the nine and the 10, especially in the old areas of the West, where like the 10th seed would win like 46 games, 47 games and then be the 10th seed.
And then the eighth seed in the East will win like 40 games.
You know what I'm saying?
People are putting out the West being too hard.
Now, my thing with that has always been even the games out, get rid of conferences, top 16 records go.
If you really care about one side being stronger than the other.
But they put the play in tournament in.
Well, it originally got installed for the bubble.
It originally got installed for the bubble.
And it was designed because the teams would not have a full season.
They would not have 482 games.
They would only play 70 games.
So to make those last 12 games sort of kind of make sense and matter.
They put the play in tournament in.
Teams seven through 10 who will be vying for those lack of playoff spots will then proceed to play so there are no mini tournaments.
The people who win that tournament win the playoff.
So you guys know how to play in tournament work.
Cool.
So it was such a success in the bubble.
They continued it outside the bubble.
This is the first year where this question is relevant.
It's something that I thought about others voiced when the play in tournament came out.
What happens when the gap is so big that you're punishing the server to eight feet for still playing?
If the bulls and the hawks knew two, three weeks ago, they were in the play in tournament and no one was going to catch them.
So it didn't matter how bad he looked.
It didn't matter what they did.
They were going to be nine and ten play in tournament and they were going to they were in no matter what.
The play in tournament was also designed in the back.
But back a little bit of more of a backstory, the play in tournament was also designed to encourage 20 teams now to continue to play because you plan for something.
It also was to encourage the next two or three teams behind the 10 seed to play a little bit longer to see if they can get that 10 seed.
So in the perfect world, you would entice 24 or 30 teams to play hard until early April.
That's something that you cannot do with eight seeds because really 11, if you're six games back with 15 to go or 14 to go, you start making choices.
We're not going to catch them.
However, six back from eight may be two back from 10, which gets you into play in tournament.
So I'm playing a little bit harder.
You know what I'm saying?
So anyway, back to the point, I say I like to say Chris Haynes on the team to oppose to the crew.
Should the Heat and the Seasors be exempt from the play in tournament due to the gap between nine and eight and nine.
The Heat are six and a half games up on the Bulls and they are eight games up on the Atlanta entering Thursday's game.
And yet there is a chance for a couple of bad days of basketball that the Heat could be at home.
And it's like, oh, happy to report, fellow Cousin Nation, Zion is back on the court.
For those who didn't watch the game and look to the podcast, Zion is back on the court.
But, you know, it's a little different in the West where the eight seed is a game up on the 10th seed.
OK, that's a perfect playing situation.
Yet had 82 games, maybe one game difference.
You know, perfect playing situation.
It is not perfect.
In the East, like I said, where the seventh and eighth are going to battle, I think Cessick and B gets it.
Right. He gets the seventh seed if he doesn't find a way into the sixth seed.
But regardless, the Heat are going to play two teams.
They were eight games better than or, you know, four to seven games better than in their regular season
and could lose their playoff spot with a couple of bad, you know, a couple of threes that just don't fall like a bad shooting night.
Could lose their playoff spot to a team they were eight games clear of.
You know, and so Chris Hayes proposed it should teams, should there be a certain number of games difference
between the six and eight seed.
You say don't do the playing tournament for these.
The West would do it.
But I mean, I think if you're six games up, that team gets removed.
So obviously the playing tournament is seven through ten.
So I think if it's six games up from if you're six games away from a seven seed, that the whatever teams are lower than that get removed.
That would six games, six games that would remove the Bulls and the Hawks from the playing tournament.
Or you could do six games from eighth, which in that case would remove the Hawks.
They keep the Bulls, Bulls and Hawks.
Bulls and Heat would go at it, run and get the eight seed.
Six is automatically seven seed.
So I think that it's kind of outrageous that like Atlanta is eight games back of Miami and can end up the eight seed.
We knew the playing tournament may cause the Spanish to look a little wonky.
Like such and such made the playoffs and they were three games worse than this team didn't.
We knew that would be a problem.
But to have an eight game difference for the second continue of the playing tournament, we can simply like I said, put a rule in where it's six games.
You got a rule, you got a game rule for everything else.
Sixty-five game rule for individual awards and et cetera.
Why not do a game rule for the playing tournament?
You have to, you have to be within six games of the eight seed in order to be in the playing tournament.
That sort of thing.
I think that would cut down on like not purposeful taking, but like individual things.
Like you can kind of tell that like Atlanta, besides when Ter Young came back, really wasn't all going all that hard.
Because they knew they wouldn't play in tournament regardless.
Their whole season came down to two games.
Chicago the same way they put some really funky lineups on the court.
They know at the end of the day, they're just trying to keep home court in that first round of the playing.
But regardless, they are in the playing.
And so that's definitely a different feeling and a different pressure amount.
And I do believe that there should be a certain number.
I keep saying six, six feels appropriate.
I feel like there should be a certain number that if I'm up by that much or I'm down by that much,
I'm not going to be able to get the playing tournament for corresponding seeds.
It don't exist.
All right.
So let's dive into the playoffs.
We do have one matchup confirmed.
The only matchup truly that's confirmed.
And that is the Clippers versus the Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
These are two teams that don't particularly like each other.
They've had multiple wars over the years in the playoffs.
Luka Dantius has had some great games against the Clippers, some great moments.
There was the Marcus Morris stuff.
There was all the pushing and the shoving.
There was a lot of stuff going on in the Clippers and the Mavs.
Not as entertaining as Mavs and Suns.
That is going to be entertaining with Luka scoring more points at half than the Phoenix Suns' Ross today last year.
But Luka and the Clippers have had some absolutely crazy wars.
But a lot of it hinges on the fact that at a certain point,
you can tilt the entire floor to Luka, double teaming and rotating and all kind of stuff,
and tilt the entire floor aimed at Luka.
Well, that strategy doesn't work anymore because Kyrie Irving exists on the Mavs.
So there's no such thing as, oh, we're going to half defend Kyrie.
He's going to take a bad shot or just stand there
because he's going to make a great decision with the ball, more than likely aim to score it.
And so that's a strategy of basically isolate Luka and make the others beat you.
That doesn't necessarily work in this situation.
So the Clippers are going to have to do something.
They're doing a lot of injury management.
I haven't heard much on Kawhi since he got the knee drain.
Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Clipper insider.
I haven't heard a lot about Kawhi, but even when they do their highlights, ain't Kawhi, you know.
So that'll be interesting to keep an eye on there.
If you're the Mavs, you have a chance to correct a lot of wrongs here.
You have a chance to where you were the hunted.
Now you could be the hunter.
This is almost a dream path so far.
If you are either one of these teams, because you have a chance to really, really go at it
and kind of kick out some demons while you're at it from this series.
Whether it be individually guarding Luka or Luka getting over the hump and beating the Clippers.
One thing I do want to talk about the playing tournament with,
and I should have mentioned in my last segment, is that is the playing tournament a disadvantage
for the one and the two team?
Because now you have to prep for two teams at the same time.
You have to learn two scouting ports, do all this different stuff.
Then it's playoff level scouting ports and end-upness and etc.
It's not just something that you can throw together or that you can look at a basketball game and oh,
this person likes post-split, so this person likes a spot cut, etc.
There's percentages and all this other stuff.
But I think that could be a major disadvantage to the playing to the top two seeds.
Normally not a problem, but with somebody like Joel Embiid and the Sixers lurking around at seventh seed,
if you don't know you're playing Joel Embiid until four days before,
that could be a huge problem with your game planning and things of that nature.
But that is all I have for the NBA and now we're going to shift into college basketball.
Welcome back into the show.
And now we're going to talk about the conclusion of the college basketball season.
I kind of want to look forward to next season.
So congratulations in order.
Shout out to the South Carolina Gamecocks winning the Women's National Championship,
their third national title in seven years, I believe under Don Staley.
The dynasty is officially on in Columbia.
All their legends have a ring at this point.
Aja Wilson, who already has her statue, has a title.
Aliyah Boston, sorry, I had a brain cramp there.
I've been watching this Pelicans and Kings game, my apologies.
Aliyah Boston has her ring and now Camila Cardoza has her ring.
So post-U is kind of what they're being nicknamed around the college basketball world
because they just keep developing these amazing post players,
which is crazy because Don's a guard and none of her guards are that dominant.
I mean, Daya Cook's okay, but you know what I'm saying, none of her guards,
Brea Beals, solid, but none of her guards are making a high level impact
at the professional level, at least in the WNBA.
You hear her posts are becoming like megastars.
So that's pretty interesting there.
But also congratulations to the University of Connecticut men's basketball team
for securing their second title in a row, going back to back,
dominating the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year.
They've won 12 consecutive tournament games, obviously, winning two titles.
They've won every single game by an average of about 23 points.
They won last year's title at winning about 20 points a game,
and they won this year's title winning about 23, I believe,
so about 21, 22 points a game they're winning NCAA tournament games.
They're not just winning, they're crushing people.
And it's not even a situation where it's like, oh, they're blowing out the first round
team by like 60, so then at that point, you know, they're just kind of,
it's really, they're winning final four games by 25.
Like, they are absolutely dominating opponents right now.
Hurley is built to juggernaut in Connecticut.
Very interesting to see what he does with the Kentucky job open,
which we'll get to in a second.
But he's built to an absolute juggernaut in Connecticut.
He knows what he wants.
He's competing with Gina Oriyama.
He's not going to have the career Gina Oriyama had in Yukon, obviously.
That's just a bad bet to make like, oh, damn, Hurley, Bobby Hurley, sorry,
is going to have a similar coaching career to Gina Oriyama.
Like, that's a bad bet.
Gina Oriyama has top three most wins of men and women ever.
He's like 100 national titles.
That's a bad bet.
He has a win streak of over 100 at certain point.
Like, horrible bet, right?
But he is, you know, he's already got two national titles.
He's going back to back.
And he's talking about Yukon basketball.
He says that he doesn't mean men's basketball.
He means Yukon basketball.
The University of Connecticut collegiate basketball,
men and women have been the, are the standard right now.
Yes, South Carolina has the titles.
South Carolina has Don Staley, but without half the roster,
Paige Becker and Yukon was in the final four and was, I think,
a bad call moving screen away from potentially either going to overtime
or facing South Carolina in the national championship game.
So Yukon basketball as a whole is running college basketball right now.
Definitely the best basketball program in the country.
North Carolina State had a pretty good run as well.
Both of their teams went to the final four.
But I think that this is a major opportunity for Yukon to really solidify
their claim at the top of college basketball.
But graduation from the University of Connecticut and South Carolina
on winning the men's and women's national championships respectively.
Now, we spoke about it a second ago, or we began to,
and then I backed off for five reasons.
But Don Staley winning her third national championship,
she's got lots of history involved, a lot of stuff.
No other African-American coach has done,
a lot of stuff that no coach has done.
We know some of her stuff.
She's the only person to ever win a Nate Smith Player of the Year
and Nate Smith Coach of the Year, a wooden award for player and coach.
We know some of this stuff, what she's done.
We know about her gold medals.
We know about her national championships.
We know about her time as a player on the WNBA.
And it's just, you almost begin to question if she's the GOAT.
And is there a case? Yes.
Now, it's a small case.
Now women's college basketball, college basketball in general,
there's such a gap in terms of wins.
Geno R.M. is over a thousand.
Tara Vanderveer, who just retired at Stanford,
there was Stanford calling her the GOAT, she's over a thousand.
C. Vivian Stringer was around, was a really high number.
Pat Sumner is over a thousand.
You get some of these wins and you're like, my God.
Especially in the New College basketball, these people hold jobs,
this same job 25, 30 years in their dominant program.
If they're 30 years in their dominant program, 25 of them.
So they win 30 games every year, or 25 games every year for 20 years.
The numbers are just insane.
So congratulations to Dawn.
Like I said, she has a GOAT case in the sense of like Jim Brown
has a running back GOAT case, or Barry Sanders has a running back GOAT case.
Yeah, okay, you don't have the physical counting numbers of some of those people,
but the impact of the social ramifications of a Dawn Staley
and what she's doing right now for black coaches, for black players at a non-HBCU.
Like she's not at ABC, she's South Carolina.
She's not at South Carolina State, she's not at, you know, something like that.
She's at the University of South Carolina, in the SEC.
And what she's doing there is absolutely spectacular.
She's well on her way to having a counting numbers GOAT argument,
but you know, I've seen, you know, I am one a lot.
I don't think women's basketball has ever been more competitive.
I just don't.
I don't think women's basketball is ever more competitive than it is right now.
I grew up watching women's basketball.
I'm not one of these people that popped in in the last two years
because of the Katelyn Park Show, who we'll talk about.
I grew up watching the Candice Parkers.
I used to jokingly call Candice Parker my big sister.
I tried to steal all of her moves,
like the little up and under step through that is effectively a travel, but not really.
I tried to steal everything.
I even learned how to shoot like off my face.
Like, you know, I tried to do everything just like Candice Parker.
So I grew up watching Candice Parker.
I grew up watching Maya Moore.
I grew up watching Simone Augustine Sylvia Files.
I grew up watching Tamika Johnson on the point guard for LSU.
I grew up watching all these great players,
Sabrina Stewart at Kentucky winning four shooting-out-of-times championships.
And in my later years, you get Sabrina in that school of the world.
You get, I had the three to see.
I was like in high school, I think with the three, CK and the WNBA,
which we'll talk about that later as well,
when Brittany Grind and Skyler Diggers in LA and De La Donne all came out of school together.
I'm old enough to have seen all this, right?
So I have a scope and a grasp on the women's game.
To me, the golden era of the women's game in terms of, yes, the pre-WNBA era was different.
You had Sherri Miller.
You had Kim Monk.
Like, Kim Monk is probably a top-three pick in the WNBA draft.
She was, she won a national championship with Louisiana Tech, right?
Like, she's probably a top pick in the WNBA draft.
Sherri Miller is easily the number one pick.
She was a goat at the WNBA just today.
I'm not old enough to have seen Cheryl Swoopes, right?
But she was Eric Swoopes.
She had her own shoe deal like Eric Jordan.
Like, she was it.
So I'm about to understand the history of the game.
Cheryl Miller was so good, multiple men's leagues invited her,
wanted her to play in their leagues.
Like, I'm old enough to, I know the game enough to know this.
I know enough to say, Donne's well on her way.
Well on her way.
She's been there, in seven years she's got three titles.
She's already produced, in my opinion, multiple college basketball hall of famers.
Asia Wilson and Leah Boston are both going to go in the hall of fame.
Kimberly Godoza potentially has a case.
She's already winning gold medals.
You know, she's on her way and on a pace and on a path that if she speaks,
if she speaks to Columbia, she's going to win seven or eight national titles
over the course of 20 years, 25 years.
And she stays in South Carolina, she's going to probably make
over $100 million coaching.
And then on top of that, she'll have seven national titles in 20 years
and is a hall of fame before she retires.
I mean, that's the level which I'm going to be honest, let you know the secret.
Donne Staley should be a hall of famer as is.
She should be a pro basketball hall of famer.
If for nothing more, if you don't want to put her in as a coach yet,
put her in as a contributor to the game.
What she did for college basketball, for Virginia,
what she did for the Olympics teams, what she did for the WNBA,
now what she's doing in coaching, she should be in the pro basketball hall of fame.
Definitely in the women's basketball hall of fame, for sure.
But she should be in Springfield in the pro basketball hall of fame.
Point of late period, she's well on her way to being a GOAT.
She's not the GOAT, truly, and I said she was, but she's truly not.
But she is beyond well on her way to being this.
She's the modern GOAT.
To me, Pat Summitt, Gina Horaima, Tara Van De Ver, even truly Kim Mokie,
those people are yesteryear.
Still great accomplishments, still love and appreciate all of them,
but to me they're yesteryear in terms of their GOAT argument.
Dawn Stadons leaving the new school, she has no peers.
She's so dominant that she's being compared to the legends of yesteryear
because they're the only people that can talk and compare to her.
So that is what Dawn Stadons got going on South Carolina, very commendable to her.
And lastly, and finishing up on this topic or the women's side of it anyway,
I want to talk about Katelyn Clark.
Now you guys, if you listen to the show, listen to the audio show on a regular basis,
or you watch the YouTube show, the Doesn't Talk Boy podcast on YouTube,
of course we'll put the link in the description as well, just like we did last week,
but the link to the show is in last week's description.
Expect that next episode coming out sometime early next week,
but you guys have heard me talk about Katelyn Clark.
Okay, again, I'm not going to run through my basketball history.
You guys heard it, one of my women's basketball history.
I don't feel like I'm an expert in this topic,
but I feel like I'm knowledgeable enough to know enough.
You know, I know what I know and I know what I don't know.
Katelyn Clark, people want to put her in a GOAT competition.
Some of the people I named in that long list of things have multiple college titles,
multiple wooden awards.
Like, yes, they don't have the raw score of a Katelyn Clark.
Yes, they don't have the 30-foot bomb at all.
Yes, they don't have like an entire nation feeding out of their hands.
But they won a lot, and they won individually.
They won as a team.
Individually, they won all, a lot of good majority of them,
won wooden awards.
All of them, I think Tameka Johnson doesn't have one.
I believe Simone got one while she was at LSU.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Simone got one while she was at LSU.
Maybe the LSU team was able to get them.
But a vast majority of the team, people I named, have wooden awards and national titles.
Again, the LSU girls do not have national titles.
But a majority of the LSU women, I'm sorry, do not have national titles.
But a majority of them I named have national titles, have wooden awards,
have these accomplishments in their careers.
Katelyn Clark has the wooden awards.
I can get that.
No national championships.
She lost two years in a row to SEC schools, one to Angel Reese and LSU,
year two to Camila Cardoza and the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Great player, all-time scorer, one of the legends in the game,
one of the legends in women's basketball.
She deserves her jersey retired, which it is.
She deserves a statue outside of the arena, which I'm sure there will be.
I'm sure they may permanently mark where she made the record-breaking shot.
It was marked at one point, but it got rubbed off.
People want to take pictures of the spot.
I legitimately believe she deserves all that.
If you want to go and rename part of the arena for her, do it.
She's that good.
She means that much to Iowa basketball.
She means that much to the state of Iowa.
She means she has meant that much to the women's college basketball game,
so she helped grow it.
But she wasn't the only one.
You had a lot of people contribute to the game.
The class 2020, to me, is responsible for the elevation of the women's games
to where it is now.
That class includes Paige Becker as the clear-cut best player in the class,
Kamen Brink, Angel Reese, Camila Cadoza, and Kaelyn Clark.
What further five could you possibly want in one high school class
in relation to this group is going to elevate the game?
No one else may not do it.
This group is going to do it.
There's no other class you could possibly imagine between those five,
at the time, young ladies, but those five women.
All four of them are going, and next level, Paige coming back.
But speaking about Kaelyn Clark, you have all these records,
you have all this stuff, and at the end of the day, you're ringless.
So how can I put you in a position where you challenge Brianna Stewart,
who has two wooden awards and four titles?
Maya Moore would have even had two wooden awards and three titles?
Put you up there with Candace Parker, who has a wooden award and a title.
Put you up there with Cheryl Miller.
Put you up there with Cheryl Swoops.
Put you up there with all these legends.
You got wooden awards. You get that. No titles.
And when you want to enter into a situation where you want to be a GOAT,
you don't have to have as many titles as Brianna Stewart.
She got four.
If it was about titles and wooden awards, Brianna Stewart in the argument,
she has two wooden awards and four titles.
That means in order to beat her, you have to have at least three wooden awards
and four championships.
She would be the only one to go for life.
So you don't have to have as many titles as Brianna Stewart,
but you got to come up with at least a wooden award
and probably two titles to get into the argument.
You know what I'm saying?
You got to come up with two of something and one of the other
in order to get into the conversation.
She got the wooden awards. She doesn't have the ring.
Amazing career. Very commendable career.
A career that put Iowa basketball on the map.
Put hell, put Iowa athletics on the map,
because the football team is a disaster.
Put Iowa athletics on the map and highlighted the women's game
and helped grow it to the casual fan.
So kudos to her for that.
She had a pressure on her every single game that not many people could even fathom.
She kind of spoke about it.
That pressure of even her fellow senior teammates
when they were playing the round of 64 and 32 in Iowa,
the pressure that they felt to not lose in Iowa.
They didn't want to lose on the court.
So she's going to have to be carried a franchise at WNBA
and we'll speak about that a little bit more in Jack's high take.
But kudos to her for kind of getting an induction into it with Iowa.
On a few quick hitters,
John Calipari has left the Kentucky Wildcats program to stay in the NCC
but moves to the Arkansas Razorbacks after 15 years at Kentucky.
In his introduction, which was kind of funny, it was weird seeing him in red.
He's been in blue for over 20 years.
He was Memphis, was blue.
He was at Memphis with Degros, that was blue.
And then he goes to Kentucky, he switches out Memphis blue for Kentucky blue.
And now he's in red.
I mean, he was like bright red with a little Razorback on his head.
It was really weird to see him in red, right?
And he spoke about his press conference, a couple things just real quick.
Number one, he spoke about having a meeting with the roster.
He lied to say there is no roster.
He's not kidding.
They have one player.
Everybody else who graduated are transferred out.
They literally have one player.
So he made the joke about meeting with the roster.
There is no roster because he has one player.
And also he spoke about how it was just time at Kentucky.
They needed a new voice in the building.
They just needed a new story.
It was time.
It was 15 years.
He won over 400 games at Kentucky, winning an Afton Tide with Anthony Davis and my kid, Gokras.
And he said it was just time to move on from Kentucky.
And I think the model, Kentucky had invested so much in the model
that even if he wanted to deviate from the model, people at Kentucky weren't used to the losing.
Because when you transition from building your program in the land of the one and done
to now all of a sudden pivoting and wanting to build less than one and done guys
and more guys that might stay like a UConn, two, three, four, even grad transfer in.
That takes about a year or two of transition.
So instead of going 25 and seven, like you always do or 26 and six, you might go 20 and 12
and go a couple of rounds at the tournament.
You might get in the tournament.
The big dance, it might be an FC team.
But it's going to take you more than likely a recruiting class or two in order to get the different style of player in.
And I believe that. Oh, hold on.
Hold on. Hold on. I have to correct myself.
So earlier in the NBA segment, I said that this game was for the Tidebrook.
It is not. The Pelicans are four and out against the Kings this season.
My apologies to the New Orleans Pelicans.
I should know that as a Pelicans fan, but they are undefeated against the Kings this season.
So this game is not for the playing at and not for the Tidebrook at all.
My apologies to the New Orleans Pelicans.
But that's what I was saying.
It's weird for him being in red. He's got a lot of work to do.
I mean, the Calipari thing involves the heir to the Tyson chicken.
Tyson food, no, that means the Tyson chicken bites.
Yeah, the heir to the fortune is friends with Calipari, who helped lure him to Fayetteville
and in turn also helped give Calipari the biggest NIL resource budget in college basketball
with over $5 million annually to NIL to be allocated.
For reference point, Kansas was the most expensive NIL team this season.
They were just over $4 million.
So that's an extra million dollars that Calipari has exposed again annually in Fayetteville
in order to get guys to come to Arkansas.
He may still a couple of Kentucky's recruits.
They are all requesting out of their letters of intent.
The school for the most part has been cooperative from what I've seen and letting them out.
Schools are not in the position of holding kids.
It creates bad reputations and all kind of stuff.
So the school has been real genius in letting those guys out of their letters of intent.
And if you're the Kentucky, you have to get a coach in fast because you have to completely rebuild
your recruiting class from Jump Street.
Whether that's bringing your own guys in, whether that is deciding that you're going to try to keep the Kentucky guys,
whatever it is, you're going to have to rebuild your rotation from literal Jump Street.
So that is going to be intriguing for whoever becomes the new head person in Lexington.
That is all I have for the college basketball segment.
Because I guess I want to delve into it.
I'm going to get into it with Jack's high take, which is going to be about the WNBA.
And this is the most important draft in the history of the WNBA.
Welcome back into the show.
And now we're going to talk about Jack's high take, which is going to be my take on the upcoming WNBA draft.
Being the single most important WNBA draft in the history of the league, the league that was conceptualized in birth in 1996.
This is the most important draft since its inception.
Yes, the first draft had legends.
Tina Thompson is the first player to ever sign a contract with the WNBA.
I believe Cheryl Swoops is the first player to ever be drafted into the WNBA.
Then there's been stars that have matriculated their way in.
You see Candace Parker, you see Maya Moore.
To me, the most important draft class prior to this was the three to see.
They were about a decade ago.
It was Brittany Griner, Skyler Diggins, and Elena Della Dawn.
It was fresh off of Brittany Griner winning a title at Baylor.
She comes out.
Della Dawn is the small school superstar.
If the transfer portal existed, she's probably at a UConn, NLSU, somewhere.
She's not at Delaware for four years.
It's on the table because I believe she's from Delaware area.
And she's really close to her family.
Leave us her system.
I'm not going to go too far into it, but she has reason to be near her family.
So maybe ultimately she doesn't.
But with NIL money, she may have gotten a million and a half, two million dollars a year
to go to a big school that would have gotten her family what they needed, basically.
So ultimately, and then of course, Skyler Diggins from Notre Dame, who made the Ninja headband.
I don't care what anybody says.
That should be, if Skyler Diggins had NIL money, she's one of, if not the richest people to ever have NIL.
Because Nike would have given her the Ninja headband in a way.
And I'd given it to her, but given it to her.
She would have been marketing it for her, but she trademarks it.
She's the only person I've seen wear that headband.
She was the only person in college girls college basketball wearing that headband.
People wearing head wraps.
People may have worn different things trying to hold their hair back.
But as far as major female college basketball in terms of wearing something to protect their hair,
the head wrap from Skyler Diggins, the head, the Ninja headband, it became known in the NBA, was her thing.
She was the only person really wearing it.
She would have made a multitude of millions of dollars off of it, had she been able to, you know, market it and trademark it, et cetera.
But that was the most important class, right?
It was easily the most important class.
Those three came in, they were labeled as three to C.
It was the first WNBA class I remember being incredibly marketed.
They were marketed everywhere.
They were blasted and everything.
They were everywhere because everybody anticipated their arrival.
OK, you know, that was about a decade ago.
I don't remember the exact year, but that was a while ago, the three to C.
This class is about ten times more important than that.
And then that class didn't do much to go to the WNBA.
Brittany Griner is mostly known for the Russian incident.
Skyler Diggins is mostly known for her looks.
Anne-Laine De La Don is mostly known for being good at basketball.
But like for the most part, they didn't really move the needle.
The WNBA was still poorly marketed.
At the time, they were flushing out the old owners, the newer owners around, but they were flushing out a lot of the old owners.
It didn't grow.
The opportunity was there and they didn't take it.
Bad commissioner and whatever.
This class, however, thanks to the growth of college basketball and it started in the Wubble,
which the WNBA bubble, female college, female basketball grew in the world.
The ratings shot up for the W during the Wubble during COVID.
It was the only thing on TV, right?
So people watched, people actually enjoyed the game, people were social meeting about it positively, et cetera.
The game grew.
They had seen steady ratings growth.
Women's college basketball followed behind it.
Steady growth.
Right?
It matriculated up.
Then this class, this class 2020, this is the COVID class, absolutely explodes on the scene.
You have Paige Becker, who's one of the most highly rated recruits and highly touted recruits ever in women's college basketball.
You have Cameron Brink, a four and a half, five star recruit.
You have Kaelyn Clark, who probably is UConn's point guard if it's not for Paige Becker.
You have Angel Reese, who's a four and a half star going to Maryland.
Now you have Camila Cadoza, the six foot seven monstrous from IMG, well this is IMG, but the six foot seven monstrous, Hayden South Carolina, right?
So this is the COVID class.
They're the class 2020.
So now they're HMWNBA, and then four of them are entering.
Paige decided to go back to UConn, unfinished business, along with, I think she wanted a chance to play with her team.
When they were mostly healthy, she was out.
When she was healthy, they were out.
So I think she wants an opportunity to play with her team.
Plus, she's doing a lot of great things in the community, utilizing her NIL money and her connections and her face, et cetera.
And plus, financially, there's no rush to the WNBA at all, right?
And so Paige has decided to come back to school.
However, the other four are entering the draft.
The WNBA is already started.
They're doing good.
And I like Kathy Engelbert, I believe is her name, the WNBA commissioner.
She's doing great already.
What she's done, she's made a commercial called Rooki-Os,
where Brianna Stewart's eating Rooki-O cereal, introducing the rookies.
They're blasting all the star profiles.
And Jereese Cayman, Clark Camilla, Cadoza Cameron, Brink.
They're blasting them all over TV.
They're being glassed all over social media.
They are plastering the world as much as they can with WNBA draft, introducing these rookies.
They're also responding in kind with what they're giving in terms of what they're giving with Kaylin Clark.
I am not the world's biggest Kaylin Clark fan, though admittedly, she's entertaining.
But she's a lightning rod for popularity in America, especially in white America.
So what people are doing is that they are marketing towards Kaylin Clark.
For instance, the Phoenix Mercury have already produced an ad that says,
Goat versus Rook.
And it is a female silhouette that honestly looks like Kaylin Clark's silhouette.
On the poster with Diana Taurasi with Goat Across Her Chest,
and they're marketing the Indiana Fever game.
It's a safe marketing strategy because regardless if Indiana does something highly unforeseen
and picks somebody other than Kaylin Clark,
it's still the Goat versus the number one pick in their mind.
So it's not a bad marketing strategy.
The Las Vegas Aces have moved their game from the Fever from what I call the side arena,
which is a much smaller arena.
But they have moved them from a smaller arena into the bigger,
into the playoff arena, the T-Mobile Arena,
for the game against Indiana Fever as well anticipating a large crowd.
Right. And so the NBA is taking unprecedented measures to support the Kaylin Clark bonanza.
But they're also not ignoring the fact that they have an Angel Weez.
They're not ignoring the fact that they have a Camila Cadoza.
They're not ignoring the fact that they have a, man, brain crown.
They're not ignoring the fact that they have Cameron Brink.
They're not ignoring the fact that they have all these other stars.
They are doing a great job because they know, like I know,
this is the most important class I've ever had.
If this class busts out, there is a chance that the NBA may never recover
in terms of it will never elevate to the level that it should.
However, this class, the hits they've been their whole lives,
the NBA could be carried to a level not equal to the NBA,
but what people are looking forward to the NBA during the summer.
So that is what this class has on their shoulder.
They have the future and the vitality of the WNBA on their shoulders.
They carried it for women's college basketball.
They made it through. Angel and Kaylin wore heavy crowns specifically.
But this class has the ability to alter the way the WNBA is seen around the world.
But that is all I have for you today.
I hope you guys have a great rest of your Friday.
I'm excited that you're listening to this and your weekend is right next door.
I'm excited that you are listening to this and you know,
you're potentially already enjoying your weekend.
However, whatever the case may be, I hope that you have a great rest of your weekend.
Look for the video show sometime mid next week.
We should be recording it sometime next Tuesday.
You should get that sometime next Thursday and Friday.
But of course, I'll remind you right before we record.
I'll probably do the audio show first.
But again, that's all I have for you today.
This is your host, Justin Jackson.
Signing out.
See you guys next time.