North Florida Sports Network Podcast
North Florida Sports Network Podcast
Champions and Controversies: NBA Finals Drama, LSU's Dominance, and College Football Recruiting
The North Florida Sports Network. All right, welcome back.
Speaker 2:It is the.
Speaker 1:North Florida Sports Network Big show. Today we will recap the NBA champion, oklahoma City Thunder. We will talk about what was just a heartbreaking game seven with the injury to Halliburton. We're going to talk about the what-ifs I mean he might be out next year. We'll talk about I don't think there's a might with that. And then there's a lot of crazy things going around that injury we got College World Series, lsu with the eighth, their eighth national championship, goodness gracious well, what eight?
Speaker 1:eight wins and eight national championship appearances oh my god, that is incredible, absolutely incredible, especially when it's a one-off or double elimination, right, right, um. And then at the end we'll finish it up with a little college football, some recruiting and a little bit of smack talk to get into talk your shit, tommy. It's going to be a good show. If you haven't done so, download, subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Podcast is available everywhere. Let's get started. We're back again. Well, what do you mean? I was watching that, I was texting you, you were texting me, justin, and then pop goes the Achilles for Halliburton, which had the biggest impactful playoff performance of anybody. In the playoffs. His Q rating was higher than any player. I mean guy that was voted most overrated player has just done nothing but ball in advance. You know underdogs and it was a game seven where he started out three of three from three. And then bam, there goes the Achilles in the first quarter. Oh man, what if you're a fan? It's just terrible to see they put up a fight.
Speaker 3:It was brutal man Because, like you were pointing out, dude, halliburton Was on Fire To start that game and not just, not just hitting the threes, but he was controlling the pace of the game. I mean, it was Halliburton was going to Dominate that game and win the championship To form for the Achilles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh wow. He said he was like gonna put up a 40 burger. I mean that was you saw. I mean they did what they could. They actually had the lead at half, um, but it was too much. They didn't have enough offensive answers.
Speaker 2:I mean the heart was taken, the head of the snake was out I feel like everybody was robbed of one of the greatest Game 7s possibly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, look at the guys who've been there at the end and had some incredible game winners already that you're going to remember and to have him go out in Game 7, it was terrible man and, like Justin said, the way he had started the game off.
Speaker 1:And it's not where it's and it's so late in the season I mean, the daggum draft's about to happen in the NBA, you don't have to wait that long for that and then he's probably going to miss all the next year. So it's just terrible, you feel, for somebody. I know it's sports, I know they get paid a lot of money, but as a competitor this is probably the most depressing thing to go through.
Speaker 2:There's probably not a sadder moment in his career than last night right, not to mention it hurts like shit man like, oh yeah, it hurts.
Speaker 1:It hurts, but like well, I mean it would have been if they would have somehow pulled off a miracle. It still would have hurt, but you would have had a championship and recovery. But you lost and you weren't there. It's just going to be tough.
Speaker 2:I don't know yeah.
Speaker 1:It's going to feel for the kid.
Speaker 2:I tell you what man Can we start by saying. What is that? Four players In the playoffs, that's right where.
Speaker 3:I was going. That's right where I was going. I was waiting for Austin to finish. Dude, remember in the 90's the Achilles was like Super, super rare. I mean you never saw Achilles injuries In any sport man. I remember when Dan Marino tore his Achilles in like 93. I was like what the hell is an Achilles tendon?
Speaker 2:Like how the hell do you do that as an athlete?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and now it's, and now it's happening left and right, and I mean they're popping. You can see them.
Speaker 3:I mean you watched the replay last night, you can see it pop like a rubber band up the back of his leg, dude. It was the same with Jalen Phillips on the Dolphins last football season His. You could see it pop right up the calf Durant. I mean there's. I don't know what the hell it is, man, but like, why is it that all of a sudden, all these athletes are just popping their Achilles left and right? Yeah, tatum, I mean shit, go back to Kobe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's overwork on the legs.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You can do nothing to strengthen an Achilles tendon, Like there's no workouts you can do.
Speaker 3:There's just so many games, yeah.
Speaker 2:It is what it is and these look at a guy like Christian McCaffrey in football Like the amount of workout, the amount of training that they do.
Speaker 1:So with that injury and with this, I mean you saw the two teams in the finals where guys playing big rotations you don't see that usually in the playoffs, but I think that's going to be the norm moving forward, I mean you could kind of see this NBA change this year and I don't think it's going back.
Speaker 1:You know the era of, you know buddy, buddy yeah, yeah you know where it was cleveland or miami, or then la, and then you know, maybe golden state and then. But now it's going to be whose front office can construct the best roster and who can play the most guys that are productive.
Speaker 2:Depth.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's a more fun watch that way. Honestly it is. Yeah, this is coming from a diehard Heat fan who loved the Heatles with LeBron Bosh and Wade. But the Heat lost their first championship because they didn't have any depth. Then, when they added the likes of Mike Miller and Ray Allen and Shane Battier, all of a sudden they won a couple titles. Especially in a long playoff run, you need to have depth. If you don't have depth, you cannot make that run, even if you've got the three best players on either team If you lock in defensively had.
Speaker 1:That's what they did consistently. I mean they were average on the road in the playoffs, but for they were also. They're also the youngest nba champion ever so as a team average age.
Speaker 2:So yeah, let's go ahead and say what everybody?
Speaker 3:wants to say oh, it's a, uh, it's a dynasty in the making. You don't?
Speaker 1:and if anything, it's not, and they've got seven straight years, seven straight years with a different champion, you could see. I mean they took them seven games. Denver looked like they ran out of gas. I mean they still got the best player, kevin Durant, now in the Rockets and I like the culture that they're building in Houston.
Speaker 3:I think Nothing will kill that culture faster than why you asked Kevin Durant. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was about to say Well, I think they need a score.
Speaker 1:They were doing a great job. I need a score. They're going to have the defense. That coach is really good and what's his name? The guy that was in boston.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:He got fired he made a doka, a doka.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's a good coach yeah, the guy that cheated on me along, man, like what the hell's wrong with that guy, whatever man, but I'm just talking about basketball, wise, he, he's a. Really I can't trust that man's judgment dude. I can't he cheated on me along, bro.
Speaker 2:Acquiring KD is one thing, but cheating on Liam.
Speaker 1:That's a big trade you got. Yeah, I can't. I mean Denver will be tough for them, they'll have. You don't know if they'll get out of the playoffs again. I mean they went to seven, but I mean they win it. It's their championship, the first ever for Oklahoma City.
Speaker 3:Well, the first ever for that city. That's what I said. I didn't say franchise.
Speaker 1:I said the first ever for that city. You know the Sonics had Seattle's celebrating right now. Yeah, I know, well, you know, right now, well, you know, uh, shay gildress, alexander, was named the finals mbp with a. You know, he put a stamp on game seven. I mean it wasn't 29 points but like 12 assists. Yeah, I mean, he had big, that's big time.
Speaker 2:And it is man, but the the takeaway from this in the next decade to come, or however many years is going to be the injury.
Speaker 1:That's unfortunate. I mean, you're going to look back at this series and it's going to be like, oh man, they lost their best player in game seven.
Speaker 3:Right, we were robbed of it, man Robbed of it all along.
Speaker 2:Everybody feels yeah, nobody had been more clutch this entire playoffs. It was just.
Speaker 1:Jesus, I mean Oklahoma City. That's not their fault and they deserve the ring and they did it. They did it, they had the best record and then they went through the West and they won the NBA championship. They didn't lose consecutive games, all playoffs. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. This Indiana, this series was won. Like I said, in game four indiana had a chance to go up 3-1. They had that game, but the finals, mvp stepped up clutch in the fourth quarter and won that game on the road and that's won the series. Because that this it was going to come down to home court with these young teams, with these teams of bench players which play better at home, and in those last games. That's what it's going to come down to, although you never know what would have happened in Game 7 with the injury, but in Game 4, it might have never happened.
Speaker 3:Game seven probably never happens if, if indiana closes that out yeah, you can't lose that game for them, and especially the way they, the way they did it. I mean it was amazing. They bounced back and forced it to a game seven.
Speaker 1:Honestly, yeah, well, they, I mean they dominated game six and I think Oklahoma city kind of just laid an egg, um, which makes you think you know in the NBA playoffs what you want to do. There's a lot of. If you're betting, you bet the opposite every game. So Oklahoma city had been perfect for that. Um, they did that, they did a lot of that, but what was consistent was their effort on defense and the rotation and the job that the general manager did and who, and setting up this team yeah where you had guys that were maybe that relied upon as the second and third guy that just disappeared how about?
Speaker 2:it didn't matter, he had so many other dudes, junior's favorite player, alex Caruso. A guy like that, there you go and then that's it.
Speaker 1:It's kind of a boring team, but that's why they were good they bought in and they are the NBA champion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say they're boring as far as quote-unquote superstar players that you know the average housewife might know, but this was a really entertaining series for a basketball fan to watch yeah, right, and that's why it was just a tragic ending where it deserved it.
Speaker 1:It looked like it was going to be one of those where it came down to it came down to a shot.
Speaker 2:Shit, you might have had ot, double ot, who knows man that it it was shaping up to be that battle, that game seven, because you had mcconnell who stepped up.
Speaker 1:You know, and if he doesn't, if he plays well, I mean there's just a lot of ifs, but you could just see the lack of. They didn't have anybody to go to, they had nobody to to start the offense, to dish the ball, to shoot it when they needed it it was, it was but you could see that rick carlisle could get it there for like a half, but in the in the second half it was too much.
Speaker 3:They didn't have enough offense yeah, I mean, it wasn't until about halfway through the third quarter that somebody got a lead bigger than five points. Well, yeah, other than tj mcconnell, nobody could hit a damn bucket yeah that, oh that little run mcconnell had in the third quarter where he had like five straight shots, was so much fun man I was like oh my god, here we go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just, oh man god I said I would text you what I text you in that injury, unless what?
Speaker 3:he needs to turn into a team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I was like he didn't. Well, yeah, he would have to do that the whole game. But uh, you got oklahoma city. They're your champs, they're young sean kemp's doing the windmill baby. They'll probably be their favorite next year yeah, I guess I, I wouldn't put money on them repeating, so I I just know I mean seven different champions in seven years yes, all right. Well, uh, lsu baseball. They won, yeah, their eighth national championship out of eight attempts. Right.
Speaker 1:A feisty Coastal Carolina team that had won 26 games prior to the championship series Lost the first game 1-0. 1-0.
Speaker 2:What a duel to what was going to be the number one pick really Cade Anderson likely to go number one in the mlb draft for lsu? Um, dude is probably. I mean, he is the best pitcher in college baseball. Uh, yesterday was just ridiculous, though. They threw the first base coach and the coach for coastal carolina out of the game in the bottom of the first. Um, you know not, you can go online and watch all the right. That happened. But it, college baseball does not need umpires, no it, they serve no purpose. You have replay now.
Speaker 1:You have the ability and the technology to have k zone especially at the college board series, where you have all the angles right and and and.
Speaker 2:It turned into an up show all day yesterday. It was just the umpires getting their 15 minutes. So yeah, unless you won, but whatever.
Speaker 3:There you go. I mean you're throwing out the coaching staff at the bottom of the first inning.
Speaker 2:That's that, you can't do that. And it's still baseball.
Speaker 3:It's not like you know he's out. No, it's still baseball, it's not like you know. He's out there calling plays, but still, man, you lose your manager and your first base coach first base coach runs in, or what was it?
Speaker 2:the umpire it was first base umpire ran in to kind of try to separate after schnall is his last name had been tossed and tripped over one of the other umpires and fell over you know um. And then immediatelypires and fell over, you know. And then immediately gets up and says you're suspended two games bumping an umpire. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in college baseball.
Speaker 3:He might have tripped over that big bag of cash break thing he gave him. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I just that draws me back to earlier in the postseason, when they were playing against Florida or when Florida was at Coastal Carolina.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that same coach had some comments about Kevin O'Sullivan and you know his blow up and everything you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, SEC don't like that. Right right their territory, man.
Speaker 2:And I just dude no expletives, you know. Didn't cuss at them, Didn't, didn't? Was that six straight?
Speaker 1:SEC championships in baseball. Yep, yep yep, all of the money Right. Lsu spent the most in baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, LSU's really good. They got the best roster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, LSU's always been good in baseball. They got the best roster the LSU has always been good.
Speaker 2:They had some up and downs during the season, but they have the most talent.
Speaker 1:But, still.
Speaker 2:I mean it was bullshit to see it happen like that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's very. It's not good to see that in the final game, nor the injury, but that's crap with the umpires is you could actually do something about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had those that they face no reprimand umpires in any baseball.
Speaker 1:It's coming in the big leagues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a little rap on college baseball.
Speaker 1:All right, Wee All right. Well, let's see here, oh oh, let me see, oh oh.
Speaker 2:We had to go. Oh, is the shuttle here, our ride, see here, oh, oh let me see.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, we had to go. Oh, is the shuttle here? Our ride was here. Yeah, all right. No, no, no, hold on, hold on. We got some recruiting to go do oh, kiddie pool Okay. Oh man, we got some smack talk to get to yeah Big.
Speaker 2:Tommy, oh baby, it's all sales. Now Just get a sales. Yeah Well, what do you got All right? Well, both Miami and even FSU kind of hot this week, picking up multiple commitments. Miami just flipped wide receiver Vance Spafford from Georgia. It's a guy out of California. He's going to fit into that Restrepo type role. For Miami they got a big defensive end out of Venice. Ashari Charles, it's another four star, always good to stock up in the trenches. And Florida State managed to finally find a quarterback for this class Jaden O'Neal out of Oklahoma by way of Long Beach, california, and actually just flipped Devin Carter from Auburn. So a little bit of juice. Miami's been recruiting really well this whole time. I think they got like the number six class in the country, florida State trying to creep up into the top ten. But again, you know who really cares.
Speaker 1:You like those guys? I do I do Legacy player in Carter.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean Carter was committed to Florida State first and then just kind of bounced over to Auburn, but he's easily the best player Florida State has in their current recruiting class.
Speaker 2:Well that's a big hit yeah yeah, I think that the lack of offensive linemen is going to doom Florida State's efforts this year. But whatever, miami's looking really solid, though they, you know they pulled Cantwell. They got a bunch of other highly guy. Watch out for Tristan Keyes, the number one wide receiver in the country. Serious about Miami, he's committed to LSU right now, but that shit's heating up. We'll see, though. Man, you know, again it's all sales. So the last two weeks, you know the end of November, right before early signing day, that's when you start to find out what the final offers are going to be. Who's going to sign?
Speaker 1:where? Well, all right yeah.
Speaker 2:I try to stay interested, man. These kids are cool.
Speaker 3:One little Tommy. One little Tommy, I have to say.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, my God, big Tom, big Tom, callahan, castellanos Quarterback.
Speaker 1:Florida State starting quarterback was asked.
Speaker 2:Multiple questions. I mean it was an interview. You know he touched on a variety of subjects, but the biggest thing was his comments on Alabama. You know they don't have nick saban anymore. I doubt they're going to be able to stop me. You know this isn't the same out stuff like that very, very confident talk. Um also had some not so nice things to say about bill o'brien in boston college.
Speaker 1:Oh boy and all that so yeah it.
Speaker 2:it was a pretty eye-opening interview. I can't imagine that Norvell is stoked about it. But whatever, man, we're not going to beat Alabama, you might as well just talk your shit. Try to pump the guys up, yeah. That's right, do your job. We had to go Now the shuttle, there it is.
Speaker 1:All right, we had to get our phone out of here, our ride's here, but before we go, otc talking that smack. I don't care, let him talk Right, who cares? What did we have last year? We had a potato, yeah.
Speaker 2:Guy that didn't even talk.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Looked like he was comatose half the time. So, whatever, who's going to be the quarterback for Alabama? Looking like Ty Simpson, fourth-year starter, on his fourth offensive coordinator? But that'll be a good question, man, they don't really have it settled. In other news, the University of Wisconsin has filed a lawsuit against Miami, which might be the most laughable lawsuit in the history of lawsuits. So that'll be something to keep an eye on. Nothing's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Oh, under the radar tampering old Mario doing it again.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't even know how you can punish the school, the kid unenrolled oh.
Speaker 1:I know that case is laughable.
Speaker 2:Right, the entire NIL. You know all of it is just a shit show right now. I know it's just going to get worse and worse every year. Even with the House settlement, as soon as something tries to be enforced they're going to be in court. It's the Wild West out there still, but that's the first lawsuit. We've seen one school go after another school. We'll see if any judge or any court even agrees to hear it. I have my doubts. But yeah, football man Less than nine weeks away.
Speaker 3:If you're Wisconsin and you're going to sue Miami for anything, you sue them for Tyler.
Speaker 2:Van Dyke. There you go, that's what I'm saying. You gave us this piece of shit, man. What yeah?
Speaker 3:I mean, that's what you sue them for. Is TBD man Not some bullshit ass tampering TBD? You Not some bullshit ass tampering TBD? You set up these balls.
Speaker 1:It's kind of going into the dead period, man, but baseball man, you got to tip your hat to baseball. The pitch clock has sped up the game. I was reading something. All these games are under three hours and they're scoring like 20 runs still. Yep, good job, rob Manfred.
Speaker 2:Alright, we'll talk to you next time Maybe some throwback Thursday. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm down.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
