LeBron at 41 Is Still Dominating the NBA

The Lakers might actually be a problem again… and somehow it all comes back to LeBron STILL doing this at 41.

We break down how the Lakers flipped the switch, why Luka looks more locked in, and how JJ Redick deserves way more credit than he’s getting right now. This team suddenly feels different — and honestly, nobody in the West is gonna want to see them if this keeps up.

We also get into March Madness chaos, St. John’s and Rick Pitino making real noise, Duke’s path, and which teams actually look built for a run. Then we dive into the NBA side — Cade Cunningham, the 65-game rule debate, Jokic vs Embiid, and how the MVP conversation is starting to get messy again.

This episode is all over the place in the best way — Lakers surge, college basketball madness, and real NBA debates.

If you’re rocking with the Lakers, LeBron, Luka, March Madness, or just love talking hoops, this one’s for you.

1:42 LeBron at 41 Makes No Sense
4:18 Luka Looks Fully Locked In
7:05 JJ Redick Deserves Credit
10:12 Why The Lakers Are Dangerous in the West
13:48 March Madness Has Been Chaos
16:30 St. John’s & Rick Pitino Statement
19:05 Duke’s Path Moving Forward
21:40 Cade Cunningham & The 65 Game Rule
24:55 Jokic vs Embiid MVP Debate
28:10 The MVP Conversation Is Getting Messy

#Lakers #LeBronJames #NBA #NBANews #LukaDoncic #MarchMadness #CollegeBasketball #JJRedick #Basketball #NCAATournament
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

On today's show, we give you a full scope of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament. We talk about great teams, we talk about great coaches, we talk about it all, upsets, everything. Plus, we talk about LeBron James still being the man at 41 years old. Comes off the triple doubles. Lakers are playing incredible basketball. There's a lot to get uh on this episode. But before all that, make sure you head over to our YouTube and subscribe over there. Make sure you're liking us on social media. Follow him at Keon Dooley. Follow me at 10 Day Tony. With all that said, let's start the show. KD, a monster, monster, monster stretch of games for the Los Angeles Lakers. Winners of nine in a row. Big one Luke Connard hit a big shot last night in Orlando. They had just come off a 60 piece for Luca against the Heat. On a back-to-back. On a back-to-back. LeBron played, had a triple-double. The night before that, he had seven dunks in the game. Like, what what are we missing right now about LeBron? Like, like, why, like, why did we not see this?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Um, I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but nothing he does surprises me. Like, LBJ is one of the greatest players. He's one of the top two greatest players, in my opinion, in the history of the game. He's totally giving himself to the game. I see him diving for loose balls. I see him making plays. I see him switching up his game, which is something that we've never really seen for him, from him, and still being impactful and effective. And I think like what we don't see is like his professionalism and his approach to the game and him giving himself to the game, how that is like kind of translating over to his teammates. Because I'm seeing a different side of Luca, right? And offensively, we've never questioned Luca, but we see him truly giving himself to the game. He's dealing with adversity off the court as well. He's dealing with the bullshit on the court as well, and he's responding and he's taking his game to another level. Um, so I have to credit LeBron LeBron for a lot of that, but also I gotta um credit JJ Reddick. JJ Redick is a guy who was my rook, who I've seen like kind of grow. And we were hard on him as a rookie, and he's been coached by some of the best coaches in the history of the game. Some of the best development coaches. Luke uh uh JJ has been able to like kind of, you know, be a disciple of it. Yeah, yeah. And like he's pulling all the right strings. Imagine, imagine this, like seriously though, like JJ Reddick telling LeBron, hey, this is what we need from you. Like, imagine like the confidence and the poise and the experience and and and and the toughness to be able to have that conversation with LeBron. So I have to really credit like JJ, LeBron, and Luca with that transformation and also getting Austin Reeves back. Really helps. Yeah, that helps him a lot.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

But to the point about JJ Reddick, um, LeBron has been you know praised for having such a savant IQ for basketball. Where it's like he knows everybody's position, he knows where everything's gonna happen, he knows what the defense is gonna do, he knows what the coach's tendencies are, he knows that if I do this, this is gonna happen. Like he's got all that stuff thought out in a way that we've never really seen before. Yeah. Now imagine the confidence in having all your stuff together that you need to exude to allow LeBron to respect you as a basketball mind. Yeah, like that's what JJ's going through right now. It's just not, hey, he's he's one of the best players ever, and I have to coach him. It's like, no, this guy knows basketball to such a degree that I need to be learned and I need to need to do my homework to prove to this guy that he needs to respect what I say.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, like that is a tall task. That's a tall task, but I think they have that mutual respect. I think they did a podcast together before like he got the coaching job. Um, Rob Palenka, as much credit criticism as he gets, like Rob really is great with people, especially people under his umbrella, like where he has to see him every day. He's poised, he's smooth, he's confident, he has a resume playing with the Fab Five. He's got a great resume as an agent, and he's won a championship as a general manager, um, running a show. Um, so I think that combination, man, I think he picked the right person for this job at the right time. Now, whether LeBron stays or goes, I don't know. Personally, that's a conversation for summer. That's that's a summer conversation. But what they're able to do right now and the the impact that they're having in the West and what they came on this East Coast wing and did, man, I salute the Lakers, man. And it's not just their superstar guys, it's not just their big three who's doing it. Marcus Mark Marcus Mark is with you well. Man, they're all playing well. Jackson Hayes is playing well. Aiden has had some good games as well and has kind of embraced where he is in his career. And I don't think Aiden would be able to do that if LeBron wouldn't have shown the humility to say, okay, yep, if I want if y'all want me to be a third option and play in a ducker spot and get out in transition and play more defense and play harder. Like, I don't think Aiden would have had that buy-in for that. He LeBron may have saved Aiden's career. Wow. Yeah, it's leading by example, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:09

You can't tell do what I say, but not what I do. Yeah. Like uh it's got to work both ways. And just it's interesting because they're sitting at the third spot right now in the West, and we know you want to try to avoid, you know, the guys at the top as much as possible between the Spurs and between OKC. Um so you're hoping, all right, if we can get the 3C, we can stay away from OKC. We'll have to battle with San Antonio, but like you gotta fight one of them to get there.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah, right. And you just hope that their experience will play a part in that. Like Luca has playoff experience, LeBron is obviously LeBron. Um, they got guys who, you know, um are proven. Marcus Barr has a lot of experience. Um, so the Spurs to me is a team that the Lakers want to like see as opposed to OKC. Yeah. Um OKC can only get better. Right. If they can battle tested, yeah. Spurs haven't. Yeah. If they get J Dub back, you know, like it's a whole nother level. It could be like a boost like how the Celtics have with Tatum. Mm-hmm. If they get Jay Dub back. But man, I'm not gonna discount these guys with the Spurs, right? Wimby is just a special talent. He wants it, man. Tonight here in Miami. Yeah, man. Spurs Heat tonight. Absolutely. It's gonna be a good game. I'm gonna check it out. And the Heat, Heat, you know, they've been doing all right, you know, and Spurs. And Spurs.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

They won seven in a row. Bam obviously had the 83. They've lost four, I think five in a row, four in a row. So they got the Spurs and they got back-to-back against Cleveland.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

So they got a seven-game stretch of they need to. And Evan Mobley's back as well. He's playing well. He's playing well. This last month of the season, Evan Mobley's been stepping up.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

It's just when when you look at when you look at where the Lakers are a month ago, maybe six weeks ago, we were looking saying, this team may not win a game in in a playoff, uh, in a playoff series if they play against Minnesota fully healthy, if they play Denver fully healthy. Like their defense is not good enough to play against some of these elite teams in the West. And as they continue to win, and those other teams continue to kind of falter and have their their limitations uh as far as with injuries or not playing well, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Um two scariest teams for me in the West is the Lakers and Denver. Right? Because they're not one of the top two seeds. So at some point they'll be the underdog. Um, those are dangerous teams. They're battle tested. I think right now, Lakers three, Nuggets six, they'll be playing each other in the first round. Oh, well, they'll knock each other out. And both of those teams are really dangerous. And personally, I would probably rather, I would rather see uh, I know Styles make fights, but I would rather see the Nuggets than the Lakers right now. Only because the way that LeBron has adjusted his game, the way that Luca has like taken his game to another level, it seems like something is starting to click for him with all the criticism that he's been receiving. And Austin Reeves is still hungry to try and show that he's a$200,$300 million player. And Aiden is kind of bought in now with saying, okay, well, if in order for my career to survive, I can't like be looking for the post-touches anymore. Right? I gotta be a lob threat, I gotta be a good screener, I gotta put effort on the defensive end. Um, so yeah, I think the Lakers are are really dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

They're on a roll right now. And LeBron, fresh off of being in Houston, had a game where he was 13 or 14 from the field, had seven dunks in that game, lands here in Miami at five o'clock in the morning, then plays against Miami at night, has a triple-double. He's 41 years old. Yeah. Yeah. KD, you know what it is to dunk and then land. Yeah. Like it's not about everybody says it. It's not the dunking part that hurts. It's the landing, it's the landing part that hurts. And he's playing at a pace where it's just like he's got the most fast break points in the league. Like, this is not a LeBron we've seen almost ever. Like the way that he's playing. Like, if he would have played like this against the Mavs in the finals that first year of the Big Three, they win easily.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yeah, he changed up his game a lot, man. He's more comfortable with not just being a lead player where he either has to make the score or the assist. Um, now he's on the receiving end on it of it. And like LeBron in the pick and roll, getting it at the mid-post, and LeBron in the dunker spot, LeBron out in transition. It's a scary sight to see that freight train coming at you.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Big time lakers are rolling right now. Uh, really quick over to the east. Obviously, we talked about Cade Cunningham. We talked about him missing the rest of the regular season. Indefinite situation, we don't we don't really know when he's gonna be able to come back. And it got us talking about the 65-game rule with the NBA. And yeah, me and you have both had issues with it in the past where it's just like this is a very arbitrary number to get people to play games, but like it it was supposed to curb the load management theory of your biggest star is not playing and they've got to meet a threat threshold. And we've been talking about all right, how do we change it? Do we lower the gain count? Do we lower uh or like what do we do? And I was thinking if it is a real certified injury that the trainers, doctors, even if you get an independent specialist to come down and check the injury or what have you, right? I don't know if that's overstepping by the NBA. The games that you miss via injury should not count towards the 65-game rule. Yeah, like Jokic missed 16 games because of a hyperextended knee here in Miami. That we were talking about him that day being the MVP, that night he goes out, almost tears his ACL. Yeah, like those 16 games shouldn't count because he had a a very close to severe injury.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah, I think that's something they're gonna have to take a look at. Um, at one point it was about like for the fans, right? And I think the NBA does a great job of responding to the fans. And if you're paying your money, you want to see the best players play. But injuries are a part of the game, it's to hurt business. It's a lot of games. And I think it's actually more than 82 games. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but with the play in tournament, a lot of those don't count, right? Towards your record, right? So right on it.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

So in the in the the NBA cup is what you're referring to, right? The NBA cup, the only championship game is not on record. So what they do is they try to you know uh manipulate the actual season to coincide with all right, that game, if you're playing the Kings that day, that's an NBA cup game within your scene. So like it's within the construct of the 82 games. Yeah. Only if you make it to the championship game, that game is the 83rd game, which is the Knicks and the Spurs. Gotcha. But getting into the play-ins and get to the playoffs, like, yeah, you end up playing 100 games. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

10 games if you go all the way. It's hard, it's hard to litigate it. Um, I think you know, we got to do a better job of um if our voters are um educated enough on the game, they should be able to know the difference between like a real injury and load management. I don't think you have to put a system in place that says guys have to go out with a collapsed long in order to like hit their mark of mark so that they can get their bonuses and things like that. Um, but on the other hand, it it's a great opportunity for other guys to get highlighted with that and you know, like kind of raise their platform a little bit because you'll have some guys who make first team, second team, third team who aren't really in the top 15. Right. And now you have another problem because like their bonuses can go up, right? And you'll have to pay them more. So it's a catch 22. And I don't know if you can just use rules or litigation or you know what I mean, like the standard to make the game and to make the guys um on point. Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

My my issue is that you look at the season that Cade's had where he's been shooing for first team all NBA all year, right? Like he's been the driving force behind one of the teams with the best record in the league, and he's just not gonna appear on first team because he hasn't gotten it.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

If I'm the coaches, you know what I'll do? You know what I'll do? I'll I'll send him out there and I'll send him out there for the jump ball and and have him commit a foul and then go sit back down. Now that might hurt their numbers, so that might like you know statistically impact them. Right, but then what do you do? But at the same time, if you need four games of zero points, but you got 65 and you're Cade Cunningham, like it'll be worth it for them financially. Um, it'll be you know uh sufficient enough to have that 65 game limit. And we just have to see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Just a crime that history will look back on an incredible season for not only Detroit, but for Cade by himself, and he'd be like, he didn't make not one team, not first, not second, not third. It's like, oh, there was a 65-game rule that also you look back 20 years from now, like they had a 65-game rule that you couldn't you couldn't make all NBA if you didn't play 65 games. Like it's gonna look foolish in in the long run. Yeah, the way we look back at stuff in the 50s and 60s, we're like, wow, why why'd they do that?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. I would I would be interested to see like how many guys that made all uh NBA that that played under 65 games. You're sort of from just the lot of yeah, before that. Before that was a rule, how many guys made all NBA, right? Because like the players in the media and the fans, like you know who the best players are. Right, correct. You really do, you know, and it's been uh a slant as far as MVPs, in my opinion, sometimes. And I think it'll like this is making it a slant that the best players won't be won't be available. They won't be all NBA.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

I mean, we've had so many injuries to big time marquee players this year. Absolutely that it's like Wemby, SGA, Tatum, uh you the list goes on on Jokic. Like Jay Dub has just has he played 20 games this season? I don't think so. Like I have you're talking about a guy who was who had 40 something in the NBA finals. Yeah, the guy who was a stud and just hasn't played. Yeah, right. It's it's it's crazy. Speaking of MVPs, I I want to give you this little stat. This is crazy. All right, according to Andrew D. Bailey, who did the math on this, since Joel Embiid won MVP in 22-23. Embiid has played 91 games since then, which is basically just a takeover of season in almost three years. Nicola Jokic, who lost that MVP to Joel Embiid, has had 87 triple doubles since then.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, it's crazy because like I'm telling you, like sometimes what it's crazy, Tom. 91 games for Embiid in 87. Yokich, 87 triple doubles in that span. Yep. Jokic is fell victim to like what a lot of great players have felt fallen victim to. Being the best player and not getting the MVPs. And ultimately it hurts your legacy. Right? Shaq should have had more MVPs. Kobe should have had more MVPs, LeBron should have had more MVPs. And, you know, for whatever reason, you know, sometimes they factor in the teams, sometimes they factor in, you know, winning. Sometimes it's just a like, hey, you could get bored with one guy kind of winning it all the time. That's what that's what is going on with Jokic right now. People are bored of him winning it. Yeah, and it's you know why is that? The reason I feel like they get bored of certain individual players because like they're starting to merge like team accolades into individual awards. And it's unfair. And they've been doing that for a while because there, like I said, there were years where LeBron was worthy, Shaq was worthy, Kobe was worthy. Kobe averaged 36. When Steve Nash, when Steve Nash won his MVP, Kobe averaged 36, and LeBron had 36 and 7. That's what I'm saying. So it's like, is it an individual award or is it a team award? Like, right? And if there, if there's a like a merging of those two things, then okay, we need to categorize that so that like we can know the standard where guys are being graded on their accolades.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Yeah, and I saw that set and I was like, my God. And then it just makes me think, yo, I don't know if Jokic is even going to win the MVP this year because SGA's been great. That'll be his second in the league. Yeah, he won't, he won't, uh Jokic won't win it this year. He's averaging a triple-double. I know. He leads the league in rebounds, leads the league in assists as a center, and has had better numbers this year than any other MVP season he's ever had. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

And it doesn't matter. Yeah, because his team, his team success. Agreed, agreed, agreed. If it's gonna be an individual award, it should be an individual award. Right. You shouldn't just factor in the team success.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Uh, let's get to March Madden. Yeah, let's get there. All right, let's talk about what was the game from the last couple of days that really stood out to you, and you were like, oh, I was locked in on this game. Obviously, outside of the outside of the Keon dueling game, which we'll get to. You want to get to that first? You want to do Mizzou? All right, let's do Missoul Miami.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yeah, the Mizzou, I see my jersey and the Mizzou game was a little bit um bittersweet for me um because CY and Coach uh Lucas is doing a fantastic job. Being from you know, Broward County, I always cheer for the Kanes, but I can't cheer against you know Dennis Gates. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah. Right. Um, but it was a great game, man. The Canes, you know, fought. They they they turned their program around. I think they're well positioned to be a force in the South. Um, but if any game really stood out to me, and there were several that did. A bunch of fun games. Yeah, but I love going downhill and I'm seeing Darling uh with his right hand and hearing Rick Patino saying, hey, this kid called the play. He said, uh, well, uh, you know, he is 0 for 4 right now. But for a lefty to get downhill at the biggest moment and make that play, um, I wouldn't be surprised if he'll be a coach one day. Yeah. I I wouldn't be surprised. Like he's gonna be a legend in New York, you know, from you know, all time now, just because of that play, even no matter what happens the next round. But uh, yeah, that game was probably the most interesting game to me. That was that was a great game.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

At one point, St. John's was up 14. Peterson came down, had a couple buckets, Kansas was able to chop at the lead, chop at the lead, chop the lead, and uh made some good defensive plays down the stretch to kind of close the gap. They score, they tie it up. Darling comes down, and what if I don't know if we could put this mix, see if we can superimpose the actual last play, rim protector standing under the hoop, they run a pin-down screen off the wing where his guy goes goes wing side, he starts drifting over and tries to follow his big over to the other side. I don't know if it was edge of four or somebody that that was on him. He curls around, so he starts going. Darling had the entire lane, he knows protector, no nothing. And the finish he had, so and a lot let people know how how tough this is when you're leaning into the contact, but then finishing away from your body with the English off the glass. That's some Raj Strickland shit. That's the ah yeah, finishing that way unless you have a shot. Right the lefty to finish with the right. It was the touch you need to have to have that off the glass, so far away from the momentum. Where if your momentum is carrying you this way to try to draw that contact, that ball's gonna go off hard unless you have that soft touch. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

It was an incredible game. It was an incredible play. But Rick Patino coached teams, man, in the tournament. Like they junkyard dogs, they don't shoot the three-pointer that well, um, even though one of the guys went like six for nine, he made 25 threes all year and made six in that particular game. And so that's what the tournament is all about. That's why we love March Manis. We can't necessarily predict it. Um, but to go back to Kansas for a quick second, uh, to me, you know, Peterson, as talented as he may be, uh, I just don't see him as the number one pick. Talk to him. You know, I know AJ DePonsa and BYE. He's far away the number one pick. But I there there's about three or four guys that I would take over him just because of the disposition and the durability. Really? Now, his talent, like scouts, they get to see them more. What I see is on the game film, right? And to me, like this season, he never went full throttle. And if you don't have the capacity in college, you know, to really lock in and dominate it and be that guy and be bolsterous and you know, be charismatic, like it's gonna be difficult to be a number one pick. Like, so I feel like him as an underdog would be better. Like, if he it we'll set him up a failure if he goes number one. I think he'll be much better as a player if he goes, you know, number two or two through five. You say he's a better complimentary piece to a team than he will be the star of said team? I'm not saying that he's a better complimentary piece because I think he is a guy who can get buckets and he gets them really easy. But it's not the the scoring that makes you great. It's the other things. You know, how do you make your teammates better? How do you inspire your teammates? How available are you? How durable are you? Right? It's the other things. How do you deal with the media? How can you, you know what I mean, like bring confidence and and and make people follow you? And I I just don't see the it factor in his personality and it shows in his play. I know it might be a little bit controversial saying this, but I just don't see that charisma to be that guy.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

I'm I'm fully I'm fully in agreement with you because you look at the last game they had prior to St. John's game against Cal Baptist, he went the last. Four minutes without shooting the ball. And if you're you're and I know they were up sizably, and I get that, but if you're the number one guy, it's like, yo, give me the ball.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Like, we're making things happen. And don't compare him to Kobe if he's not Mamba mentality. Please don't. Like, he is not Kobe. No. He is not Kobe. He's a good player. And I'm not going in on him. Like I think he's a really good player.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Well, you got to talk about it because they're talking about this guy being the number one pick, and what you saw with the last two games is not number one pick material.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

I would take it's it's three or four players in the draft right now who I would take over him. I would take uh DeBonto over him. For sure. I would take Cam Boozer, the winner over him, because I know he's got a motor and it might not look as pretty as people want, but it's effective, it's impactful. Um, the kid out of North Carolina who was hurt, I would take Wilson, Caleb Wilson, I would take him over him, right? A cuff. Hey man, listen, let me tell you, depending on what I need on my team, like I know that that kid is a warrior. If you're gonna last in the NBA, you gotta be a soldier. And if you show, you know, traces of that, and like I know some people kind of make the comparison like with Kawhi and his disposition because Kawhi is like kind of quiet and cool and you know, but Kawhi is a dog. Not in the life. Like at San Diego State, you didn't have to worry about Kawhi not showing up. Once he started becoming the claw and he was that guy, yeah, he was there. He might have been quiet, but it was impactful. Um, I just don't think he has the impact, the sauce, the Moxie to be the number one pick. I agree with you. Um, another big game, Florida, your champion.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yeah, I picked him. You picked him in our pool. You picked him in our pool. The uh the champion goes down to Iowa in what I thought was just uh a very poor game for Florida, poorly coached. I thought Golden did kind of a uh not a great job, especially with the last play. You tell me from a perspective of of being in college, understanding that, being in the NBA, understanding how how you guys dissect every little thing from the NBA perspective, because that's a that's a business, that's a job. To run a full court press with three seconds left, have three defenders on basically five guys in the front court now, once the uh the point guard has brought the ball up past the sideline, past the timeline, he goes, takes one dribble into the paint, kicks it out for an open three. Yeah. Do you call a full court press there, or do you start from half court? And if you want to trap, yeah, trap at half court to start, you know, to which you're not it's tough, man, because you're moving in real time.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

So coaching is a real difficult, you know, job in those moments. And I think, you know, he called the great play because they got the bucket, right? They had to inbound the ball and then they had to go full court, right? Maybe he didn't communicate that, hey, if we get this bucket, you know, we got to get back, start our pickup points at half court, maybe. Or if we miss, we have to foul immediately. So I don't know if the guys were in position, if they didn't think they were gonna get the basket to foul. Um, but also I think it was Flynn who kind of went for the steal. So now you create a two-on-one situation. The guy that leaves the corner, which is a no-no, like maybe stunting, but he probably was afraid that he could get to the show at least. Yeah, it was something about that. And like Golden has been too good of a coach for me to say that, hey, that guy, that game was his fault. Um, personally, I think offensively, like they missed a lot of chippies, man. You know, Cundham and those guys, they they they would get to the cup and they would miss, you know, Lee got out on the break and got a great steal and made a great play and missed layups. And so now you can look back at it in retrospect, but while you're in it, you have to be in it. Um, I just have to tip my head to Iowa. They just played great basketball, they played a great game. Um, they were tough, they were focused, they weren't afraid of the moment, and they came up with the upset, and that's why we love March Madden, it's because upsets like this. And Florida was was one of the better teams all season.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Again, number one seed. Like everybody had them pretty deep. Yeah. And now in that bracket, Houston, Kingston Fleming, and them boys, man, Kelvin Samson and them boys, all of a sudden, maybe a little fight, a little final four run. Yeah. Uh, what other team? We talked about Duke a little bit. They had some trouble with Siena in the first round. They were able to, you know, clean that up, win that game. They beat TCU pretty handily.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Uh, how do you feel about Duke going forward right now? Yeah, I mean, I still like Duke. Uh, you know, there's an opportunity that they can get more healthy, you know, as this tournament goes on, if they can get their big back. Um, he brings a lot of like rim protection. Uh, they got a guy on the bench who can score right now. So injuries do play a part in this. I think they're well coached. I think they have enough talent to win it. They got a lot of good pieces, um, but they're still not my favorite. Um, now that my favorite is out, I still don't think Duke has enough talent to win it. They got a lot of good players, but I don't think they have enough creativity off the dribble. And in college basketball, it's a little physical, right? So you can bump at things like that. So when the shot clock is winding down, you need somebody who can kind of create off the bounce. And I don't I think Duke lacks that.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

In a way that Houston does not, Kingston Fleming can get his own shot on basically anybody. He can. Uh, on the other side of the bracket, Arkansas has a kid who can get his shot on anybody. Yes. Darius A. Cove Jr., who's been, I mean, I think if you give me, all right, what's the one team that has surprised you in this tournament? I'd say Arkansas has played about as well as anybody in the country. But for these last two games, obviously they beat Hawaii, who was uh just happy to be their team, but they took care of Hawaii. Yeah, and then they played high point, who beat Wisconsin, who had an incredible story and shooting threes and all that, took care of them. Like they're doing exactly what they need to do to win ball games and be oh wow, wait a second, Arkansas might be a real team. Yeah, um, Michigan's been great too. Yeah, they're just steamrolling teams. Yeah, like Iowa State slapped up Kentucky, beat them by 19. Uh, Tennessee beat Virginia, Tennessee's a nice little interesting team. Yeah, UConn beat UCLA by 20, Dan Hurley and them boys.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yeah, man. I think this is uh, man, believe it or not, man. I think the coaches are gonna have uh a tremendous impact on who wins the national championship. There's a lot of good coaches in in this tournament still. There's a lot of championship caliber coaches who have the resume. Um, and so we'll just have to kind of see what happens, man. Like the better coach teams with the most talent who are the most happ uh healthiest in these moments usually win. A lot of OG coaches left for sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

You got Izo, who's still, you know, running around Patino, Samson, like all these guys still in the Burns out of Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Like, there's a lot of OG coaches that are doing their thing. So we'll see what happens, man. It's wide open right now. A lot of parody in college basketball. A lot of parody in college basketball thanks to NIL.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

But on Thursday's episode of the crossover, we'll break down some of these games. We got Texas Purdue on Thursday. We got Iowa, Nebraska Thursday. We've got the one I got circled 945 start on Thursday, Arkansas versus Arizona. You know that's gonna be a good game. And then we got Illinois Houston, that's Thursday. So we got a lot of good games. St. John's Duke on Friday, Alabama, Michigan on Friday, Michigan State, Yukon on Friday, Tennessee, Iowa State on Friday. Boy, it's some good hoops. We got some hoops. It's some good hoops going. We got some hoops, man. It's some good hoops. All right, we'll lock in on that for the Thursday show. We'll give you a nice little preview of all the games happening in the uh in the Suite 16. But before Thursday show, I want you to go on to our YouTube at the crossover show. Go check us out, go subscribe, go love it, go comment, go do whatever you got to do to show us some love. Show us some love on Spotify 2 and uh and channel 18.6 WDFL. Go download the app. Show us some love. Mommy, we're on TV. Come on, baby. Yeah, Thursday. We bring it to you. We made it. We made it. Mama, we made it. We'll see you guys Thursday. We out.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

It's out again.