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It's time for our weekly PAC twelve conversation with Senjose Mercury News reporter John Wilner,

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brought to you by Simply Seattle. Our friends at simply Seattle dot com

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Seattle. Always use code KJR fifteen for fifteen percent off anything at simply Sattle

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dot com. Here he is the Baron of the Big Ten, the ex

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Pope of the Pack. John Wilner joining us on the program. Johnny,

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how are you pal good? Speaking of our friends at simply Seattle, I

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got a question for you all. I saw their their sixty four team bracket

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of the best moments in Seattle history, which is very cool. What is

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the number one overall seed in that bracket? I don't think they're seated.

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Yeah, there were no seeds, no numbers. You know what we'll do. We'll find out. I'll call my friends at simply Seattle and I'll ask

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them what the number one overall seed? Really, it probably should be the

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Seahawks winning the Super Bowl? Don't you think should be number one? That

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should be number one? Yea, yes? Would you like to make folly

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in a pick for that? Uh? No? I like the Lister blister?

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There you go. Do you remember that one, John? I do?

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Indeed? Yes, yes? Was that because did you see Anthony Edwards

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dumped last night? Yeah? I did see that? Oh god, yeah,

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I saw them discussing that this morning. Actually, I was pulling a

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Dick Fine and watching the sports talk shows and they were discussing after Lebron,

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who's the next face to the NBA, And some folks think it might be him, Anthony Edwards after what he's doing right now. So we'll see.

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But John Willner's with us, and John before we talk about the Big ten

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and the PAC twelve and the NCAA tournament, all that came out today.

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Caitlin de bor is making ten point eight seven five million per year at Alabama.

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Is that number surprise you or is that kind of where you thought he'd be where I figured he'd be. I don't remember off hand what Washington's top

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offer was. Do you guys remember that it was just a nine and a

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half. I believe was the was the last offer. You know, that's

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actually, you know, not that big a difference. Uh, clearly,

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you know there was more to it than just the cash, right he wanted

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to be the coach at Alabama. But no, that's that's what we're getting.

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The guys at the very top of the food chain are over you know,

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ten million or more, and there's no sign of the market slowing at

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all at this rate. Well in ten ten million in TUSCALOOSID dollars versus Seattle

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dollars, it's like a billion dollars a week, let's say, exactly right,

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no question about it. Hey, John, I know we're going to

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talk about the Brackett a lot, But I've got I got Will Wade on

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the brain. Will Wade is back in the tournaments. He's a controversial character.

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He coached at LSU at the same time Troy Dannon was the ad in

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the state of Louisiana. So I know they know each other. You would

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imagine they know each other. Should Husky fans want Will Wade to be on

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Troy Dannon's list. No, No, absolutely not. Why Why? Why?

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Because the guy? I mean, the next thing that's gonna happen is

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the NCAA is gonna be start playing very close attention. And there's still ways

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you can break the rules, right, I mean, NIL has changed things,

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and the portal has changed things. But I just don't think that washing.

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Does Washington, with its reputation for integrity, want to be employing Will

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Wade lawless basketball coach? I don't think Wow, I don't think that fits.

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I think they should hire him, and in the bio they should introduce

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him as Will Wade Lawless basketball coach. That's exactly what they should do.

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I mean, John, And you're right, you can still get busted even

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in the age of NIA. Don't you have to be though a supreme dipstick

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to get busted right now? In college basketball? In college football, you

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do. But you also have to be kind of a supreme dipstick to talk

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about a big ass offer when you're you know, on tape so and I

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believe that is exactly the phrase he used when he was talking about paying players.

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Yeah, yeah, you got the fighting Danny Sprinkles losing. You've got

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the Zags losing, and you got the Kougs losing. Take them in whatever

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order you want. I think that the uh wait, hoot the Zags have

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Are they quite playing Grand Canyon? Or is that Saint Mary's playing Green Knon?

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No, the Zag's got McNees. Oh that's right, McNees. Yeah,

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thirty wins. The're good. I just have not been overly impressed with

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because guys, I don't think they have as good a players as they did

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before. And it's been so long since Mark Few didn't get out of the

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first weekend. I think it's gonna happen. I'm concerned about Washington State's lack

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of tournament experience. You know, these guys were in kindergarten the last time

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when Klay Thompson was leading them in the NC double as Wow so and Drake

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and Drake's good. Drake, you know, won of the Missouri Valley.

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They beat Indiana State. Drake Drake is very good. I'm generally a little

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bit skeptical of the Mountain West. It has not done well in the tournaments

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in the past. San Diego State's run last year was you know, an

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outlier for that conference. So I didn't go about it trying to pick against

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teams that are from the Northwest or anything like that. It just was an

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individual evaluation. Well, and you know who's coaching McNee State, don't you.

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Your buddy Will Wade is coaching McGee State. So he's a good coach.

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He's a great coach, and I he's lawless. Yeah, I think

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you're nuts, by the way on that. I think if this was five

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years ago, I could see it. But everything has changed. You're getting

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a better version of that guy. I mean, LSU paid the price for

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his stupidity. The odds of him doing that again are probably slimmed to none.

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This nil era probably fits him better than the previous era of college basketball.

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He proves he could win this year doing it whichever way. Yeah,

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he's one. Everywhere he's gone, John, everywhere he's gone, he's won.

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So you're telling me that his past indiscretions that now were being almost encouraged

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by teams are still a problem for him. I think that does Washington want

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to I mean, Washington hires Will Wade. The headlines are Washington hires cheater.

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No, the headlines are Washington hires a guy who was one hundred and

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five and fifty one at LSU and two twenty four and ninety nine. Overall,

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that's the headline. That's my headline. He'll have to answer questions in

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the press conference. Obviously, there's lots of there's lots of good coaches out

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there that don't have his baggage. Yeah. I just don't know if he's

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got as much baggage now as he did three years ago after all these rules

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that have changed. Man. So we'll see. But John Wilners with us

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on the radio show and Dick and I were discussing off the year. If

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Colorado doesn't make the Pac twelve final, are they dancing? Boy? Great

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question, and that was a that was a very good loss for Washington State.

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In a lot of ways. I don't think they are. I think

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that if they had lost to the in the semi finals that they would have

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made it. I mean, they were the third to last team in.

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You have to think that beating getting a Quadrant one win in the in the

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semi finals was what put them over the top. I think they may not

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have gotten in. It worked out. It worked out perfectly for Washington State

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and Oregon State and for the conference. Like if you had designed a way

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to maximize their bids, it would have been exactly what happened, Oregon winning,

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or USC winning and then Washington State losing to Colorado or to get Colorado

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in. Is Oregon now healthy completely? And can they make a run here

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now that they got hot in that pack twelve tournament? I think they can

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make a run. You know, they got eight guys. Basically, they've

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got good players. They've I think they've kind of underachieved. Dante is a

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dominant force, data Altman has never lost a first round game in the n

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Tournament. I could I could easily see them winning two games again the Sweet

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sixteen. Absolutely. Yeah, you know, South Carolina is they're pretty good,

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but you know they were picked last in the SEC and kind of did

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a big surprise like Utah State did in the Mount West. But you know,

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Oregon's got good players and they have kind of put it all together here

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in the last week. Yeah, they were underachieving for sure in the regular

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season. But John Mike, the course he was on with us yesterday was

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yesterday yesterday. He's got Arizona winning their region, and I just don't trust

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them to do something like that, after all the bumps I've seen out of

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them, How surprised would you be if Arizona made the Final four? Not

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at all, because I also picked him to win the West, And in

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fact, I published an article today should we trust Arizona? That exact question

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I think is very valid after the last two years. And here's why I

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think they're different because they are quicker and they are tougher on the perimeter,

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which is where you gotta be. What you know, that's what wins in

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March is guard play and Caleb Love carrying North Carolina in the Final four two

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years ago by doing exactly the things that Arizona needs, big shots in the

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last eight minutes of the game. He scored twenty eight points against Duke in

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the semi finals, and he's the guy you need. Close game, you

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got to have somebody make a play. Caleb Love is the guy that makes

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a play. I think he's going to carry him to the final four.

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John, there are certain things about the PAC twelve I'm gonna miss, but

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I canna be honest, the PAC twelve tournament isn't one of them. Am

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I being cold to say good riddance to the thing At least men's side.

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I mean, the women's side was good. I mean because there's always seven

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or eight really good top fifteen teams out of this conference, like this year,

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and they usually get really rowdy crowds on the women's side. The men's

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side just seems to me like it was a nothing most years. I thought,

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Vick, that you were going to say you were gonna miss Pakoff Football officiate. Oh yeah, definitely the men's tournament has been It's okay. The

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problem is the product's not any good, right, It has been second rate

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product for the last six or eight years. If the women is the opposite

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pack called women's basketball is as good as it gets nationally and they're eventually good

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thing and pat keeping the Pac twelfs together for women's basketball would have been great,

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But men's basketball has not been very good. Too many bad coaches,

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including you know some of the ones that have been moved out right, Washington

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was not coach well, Stanford not coach Wells have problem. There's been a

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lot of bad coaching in the conference and the product has suffered. If you

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look at the recruiting, it doesn't match up with the performance. The conference

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should have been better they've been getting plenty of blue chip recruits up and down

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the league. H Gee, I thought we all wanted to just watch our

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teams play more with not the whole point of the NIT conversation we had yesterday.

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Now you want to dump the Pac twelve tournament. John, We had

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a big debate on the radio show yesterday about the NIT because the Huskies are

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declining an NIT bid, as are a lot of teams Indiana, Oklahoma,

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Pittsburgh all said no to the NIT. What's your take on the kind of

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usefulness of the postseason tournaments that are not in March madness. I think that

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there is some use. Now, my understanding is there's different reasons, right.

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I think Washington put it to a vote of their players, right,

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That's what I was told, yes, and they decided not to play. In some cases like Indiana, they're not playing because the coaches want to focus

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on the transfer portal and recruiting, right. And part of the problem with

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the n I t is that the transfer portal opened yesterday. There's like two

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hundred guys entered the portal yesterday, and so I think that that what we

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could see is that the NIT goes back to where it was, which is

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the regular season champions who don't win their conference tournaments get automatic bids to the

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NIT, so it's not as reliant upon these you know, at large teams

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that finished midway through their conference agreeing to go. I think they made a

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mistake by getting away from that formula that they had for years. Well,

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you wrote that you don't like the timing of the transfer portal opening yesterday.

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When should it open? Well, I mean, at the very least,

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it should open on the Monday after the Elite eight, so two weeks basically

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two weeks later. But why not just push it back to the after the

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final four? Right the day after the final four? It opens, right,

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So it's not open for forty five days, there's no it doesn't have

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to be open for forty five days. It could be open for thirty.

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It's ridiculous that it opens the day after selection Sunday this week. I mean,

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half the story, half the narrative this week is who's in the portal

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and it should be on the tournament. Yeah, it's bananas. No,

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I agree with that. John Wilner's with us. And there's this now kind

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of tradition. I guess that started a firing head coaches before their press conferences

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are even over. You saw where Utah States women's coach got whacked before her

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press conference, and then Jared hask got fired by Stanford walking off the floor.

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How much did that bother you? What Stanford did to him and making

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them go out there and make that press conference appearance after they fired him,

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It didn't bother me at all. I mean, I think he knew it

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was coming. I mean, to be honest, Scafford should have fired him

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two years ago and or last year. You know, I think he got

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the more than the benefit of the doubt from Stanford, and I'm sure he

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knew that was going to happen, right. They planned that firing for a

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couple of weeks. The interesting piece is when you announced that you're firing your

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coach before your conference tournament, and then your team wins, the conference tournament

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goes to the ccaa's right, the Long Beach State story. Oh yeah, crazy, yeah, Dan Munson, is there any chance that Mark Madison would

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jump ship from cal back to his alma mater to take that job at Stanford.

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No, he just agreed. That's a great question. A lot of Stanford fans have had that question. He just agreed to a contract extension with

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Cal and his buyout is substantial. If he leaves Cal this spring. No,

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that is not going to happen, to the dismay of Stanford fans.

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I mean, this is what you call, you know, poor management,

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right Stanford. Jared hass had coached Stanford for seven years as of last spring,

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never made the NCAA Tournament. Stanford one of the best players in school

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history. Mark Madson has won at Utah Valley and is available for Stanford to

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hire. They just I had to bring Jared Hats back for an eighth year.

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Meanwhile, Cal fires their coach and hires Mark Madson and he turns their

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program around. And so now Stanford doesn't. They can't get their guy and

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he's coaching their rival. It's just sometimes I wonder what goes into the thinking

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of some of these athletic directors. Well, speaking of Stanford and Cal,

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we see that Clemson has added their name to the lawsuit list with Florida State

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and by ACC. So would Stanford and Cal. What becomes of them if

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the ACC crumbles? Do they go to the Big Ten? Do they join

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the Pack two and make it the Pack four. I mean, what happens?

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Oh man, there's something going on, because if if Florida State and

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Clemson win their lawsuits, it's not just those two schools leave it. It

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is Katie bar the door. Oh yeah, it's Pack twelve all over again.

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It's gone. And the first the interesting thing is the first pick in

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the hat that the Big Ten and the SEC have of ACC schools is in

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Florida State or Clemson. It's North Carolina. But those other two schools are

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kind of leading the charge. So all of a sudden, at least four

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teams leave the ACC. What's left has zero value to ESPN. So at

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that point, the contracts basically dissolve, and Stanford and Coal have to decide

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are they going to go back into the PAC twelve and rebuild it with Washington

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State Oregon State or they going to try to get into the Big Ten.

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And I have to think that the Big Ten would give serious consideration at that

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point to Stanford and Caul, especially if they're willing to come in at huge

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discounts. Right, Washington State and Oregon are fifty percent discounts. Stanford and

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Call come in at twenty five. Look, the Big ten presidents would have

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taken them last summer, right because they got great academics, great Olympic sports,

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access to Bay Area tech, money, and tons of alumni in the

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Bay Area. But Fox didn't think they were worth the money. So the

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question would be, is Fox gonna be willing to pay something to get Stanford

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to call into the Big Ten? They should be. It makes way more

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sense to have a six team Western arm It would be good for the athletes at all the schools to just play more games out West. No, no

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doubt. Well, it's it's incredible to me, John and I want to

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just end with this because we got to run. But John Wilner with US

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Courtesy is simply a Seattle dot com. The power that the TV networks have

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over college sports now is more obvious than ever. I mean, you just

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mentioned, you know, is Fox Sports going to make enough of an effort

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to get callen Stanford into a certain conference. I mean, they're dictating who

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plays where. Then there was this story that I actually talked to Dick about,

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and I was actually fairly surprised at Dick's reaction to it, where Fox

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was apparently considering an anil deal to try to convince Caitlin Clark to stay in

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college. And my first reaction is, well, that sounds like a massive

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conflict of interest, right, the network that carries the games is going to

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impact who comes and who goes. What was your take on that? Not

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surprised at all? I mean they have they are business partners. I mean

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Fox owns the Big ten Softy right, the Big Tens Meteorites are owned by

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the Big Ten Network. The Big Ten Network is owned by Fox. Fox

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is the majority owner of the Big Tens. Fox basically owns the conference,

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right, so it is in their best interest to improve the product the best

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they can. So sure get Kitlin's hard to come back. Absolutely nothing surprises

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me. And it's just gonna get worse or better depending on your look the

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view of it. But that does that strike you as a conflict of interest?

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Though? For Fox to do something like that, and I guess we've already gone way past the conflict of interest road in the first place. But

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them trying to convince her to come back, does does that sound like that's

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wrong to you? No, not at all. I just and I think

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that that's because I am so jaded about the impact of the set and Fox

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have on this whole thing. They are the grand masters, right, I

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mean, my favorite conflict of interest is ESPN writing breaking news about ESPN's deal

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with the CFP, Right, I mean, it's just bananas. Well,

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it's just kind of borderline professional wrestling. This is how it starts. We're

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just creating this product for you to be entertained by it, and now we're

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gonna dictate who comes and who goes. So I don't know, man, all right, crazy stuff. Enjoy the tournament and we're talking a week all

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right, Thanks Jan Thanks guys. All right, John Wilder with us.

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We're gonna get back and hit on the moves the Seahawks made today, and

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there were a couple of them, A couple of guys in, a couple of guys out. Next on ninety three three KJRFM,