Why is Arizona your favorite to win the Big 12 for the second consecutive year?

Yeah, I, I think for Arizona, uh, this is, you know, it's easy to focus on the players lost.

I mean, this is a team that is returning really two key players from last year.

Obviously, a couple other returners as well, but for the most part it's, it's Mo Krivos and, uh, Ivan Karankov.

Uh, and you lose Koa Pe, you lose Brayden Buries, you lose Jayden Bradley.

Three guys getting drafted.

It's, it's easy to kind of look at that and think, "Well, you know, what, how can this team be back in that conversation?" Especially with, you know, a, a potentially very loaded Texas Tech roster, although they have all sorts of questions around what exactly that roster's going to look like.

What's your read on Houston, and where would you place them in your conference rankings?

We're getting it in the basketball side as well.

Yeah, I'm excited about this team.

It's funny because we're the Colorado State and Oregon State were the teams that had the toughest time.

Like I pinballed back and forth on them and they're in very different spots.

I mean, they both have young head coaches, but otherwise like Colorado State is their benefit is retention.

They kept four of their five starters from last year.

They kept a couple key bench pieces.

They were already the PAC 12 or the WCC in the case of basketball last year, Texas state was its own kind of, you know and without using the other word ugly duckling they were by themselves right is it the same thing for texas state or is it just truly a team that you just don't know much about it's

How's your law degree going? How's the litigation happening? Give me an update on what's going on in the college basketball world, especially with Gonzaga basketball as we enter the month of September.

Well, it was a good time for us to miss a week, Christian, because it was actually, for the first time, kind of a quiet week.

There haven't been a lot of quiet weeks for Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs this offseason.

It feels like they've been adding players, losing players, having players be eligible, ineligible, all sorts of chaos, losing coaches.

I mean, it's just been nuts.

So it was a little nice to have a bit of a reprieve.

It was the first time pretty much this entire year where I was like, you know, I actually have to – Think about what to talk about on the show.

Okay, what happens if all five of these players are not eligible and Gonzaga walks into the season with hardly any opportunities to replace this? What do you think their backup plan is if that happens?

Darren DeVries, kind of a genius because they left one scholarship spot open on this roster and they did it for a guy like Sam Alexis and so now you've got a backup for Aiden Shirell you have a starting caliber player who knows the system who knows the routine who knows the program who can come in and play 10 12 14 minutes a game and be the backup for Aiden Shirell so this is such a big boost for Indiana and for Darren DeVries in year two

You hit on exactly what I wanted to talk about next there, Jacob, which is kind of that role for Sam Alexis.

Because again, this is a guy who played big minutes for this team last year.

He led the Big Ten in two-point field goal percentage.

Like you said, yeah, I struggled a little bit with the physicality at the four, and him and Reed Bailey weren't exactly tailor-made for that specific role.

But a guy who played in summer league, you know, had opportunities, I'm sure, to play overseas.

He comes back to Indiana, and it's not You know, he's not coming back to an obvious guaranteed starting role.

It's exhausting, man, to try and keep up with everything for football, basketball, and beyond.

I think that Luke Ertle completely outplayed Omer Meyer.

That's an encouraging thing for Purdue.

I mean, even if it can be viewed as the negative about Meyer as somebody who maybe didn't hit those expectations last year, like you said.

But again, I don't know that you trust a coach more in the country to develop guys and also have guys kind of step maybe under ranked or underappreciated freshmen.

And Ertl was certainly more highly ranked than Smith, obviously.

But somebody who maybe kind of flew under the radar and now is popping up as somebody who might be super impactful for this team.

Beyond the point guard position, I think some things I'm curious about with this team are kind of the wing spots.

So how is that going to look when you face off against an Illinois or a Michigan? I really don't know what you do with Caden Pierce right now, but I don't necessarily love him at power forward, especially not on the defensive side.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

No, you're not.

I mean, I think for Gonzaga, the road games at Moraga were always brutal because that arena is like 115 degrees.

Road games when BYU was in the conference were brutal because that was a huge, huge arena that BYU plays in.

But since BYU has not been in the conference, I mean, the next toughest one is probably Santa Clara.

And no disrespect, that's a good program, but it's not a rabid fan base like in the same way that you're going to see.

San Diego State's going to be great.

UCLA has now put this non-conference schedule on par with, with what it should be and not just avoiding teams because they need to play home games against mid-majors.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

No, you're not.

I mean, I think for, for Gonzaga, the road games at Moraga were always brutal because that arena's like 115 degrees.

Um, road games when BYU was in the conference were brutal because that was a huge, huge arena, uh, that BYU plays in.

Um, but since BYU's not been in the conference, I mean, the next toughest one is probably Santa Clara, and no disrespect, that's a good program, but it's not a, a rabid fan base like i- in the same way that you're gonna see...

San Diego State's gonna be great.

I think it is comparable to, to Moraga.

UCLA has now put this non-conference schedule on par with what it should be, and not just avoiding teams because they need to play home games against mid-majors.

Is he more a defensive coordinator or more of an offensive coordinator?

Yeah, that's a good question.

So Gonzaga's two main assistant coaches, Stephen Gentry and Brian Michelson, kind of handle those coordinator roles, for lack of a better term.

Gentry's the offensive coach, Michelson's the defensive coach.

But I think Sands and then R.J. Barsh is kind of the player development, like rah-rah enthusiasm guy.

He's also a phenomenal recruiter.

And I think Sands was really analytics and player development focused for the most part.

Andy, as you look at kind of that balance of Carolina family and kind of newcomers, including Coach Malone himself, do you feel like he's achieved a nice balance? What do you like or maybe dislike about this now completed staff?

Will he stay for two years? If not, this is still a big win for Mick Cronin.

I, I honestly think this is gonna be one of the more fascinating things to track, whether it's with Kusturica specifically, whether it's Bouche Boumce over at Duke, whether it's Marcus Spears at Texas.

Three players, uh, y- you know, Bouche Boumce committed a while ago, but Spears and Kusturica committed very recently to their schools.

And, uh, I'm...

All three of them have to stay two years because of their age, and we're seeing that more often just because you can, if you're good enough to play college basketball a year early, why not go make- Millions of dollars playing college basketball rather than staying in, in high school for an additional year.

Uh, not all these guys are gonna be Cooper Flagg necessarily, who, you know, obviously he only stayed one year, but he was young for his age.

But I, I'm curious if, like you said, what legally they can do to keep these guys, because like you mentioned Mick Cronin's hot seat, I imagine that whatever contract is written would give Kustarica an out if Cronin left.

What do you think UCLA is expected to do heading into the season, and what do you think they'll do overall?

Do you buy any of these rapid risers, or do you think they will probably go in that late lottery like many expect them to?

I think Mara probably will go in that late lottery.

I understand the appeal, certainly the size, the passing, the connecting.

He has a lot of potential.

He's not an elite defender.

He's not particularly mobile, which you can accept that for a guy his size, but he's less mobile than Edie or Klingon, and those guys... have had troubles in the playoffs, you know, being able to contribute.

So I think Mara's probably 10 or later, maybe Golden State, maybe Oklahoma City does try to get somebody who can stand next to Wemby.

With saying that, Andy, what has got to happen – in terms of success stories with this group to make it live up to all the hype?

Hate to say it, but reigning national championships in Michigan, and, uh, it, it's just a great way to start the year.

Yeah.

And, and, uh, again, uh, kind of one of the things that UConn has similar with Gonzaga, and part of the reason they schedule the way that they do, is because you can't always predict how your conference is going to do.

Like, in the SEC or the Big 10 or even the Big 12, like, y- you know that the conference is gonna have enough marquee games that even if the, if the conference has a quote unquote bad year, it's not gonna be super detrimental.

The ACC can be.

We've seen that a little bit, where it's like, oh, this actually...

Like, Duke's schedule didn't look as good because of the ACC.

Not having a Luke Murray there, not having that consistency and that offensive mind in the huddle, how can UConn prepare themselves but ahead of, like we just mentioned, the juggernaut of a regular season schedule you have? Well, what better way to try to go through that and recreate that than going up against a Michigan State and a Purdue preseason?

And as a fan and somebody that covers the sport, just yes.

Yes, indeed.

I'm, I'm 100% with you.

Um, and yeah, and I think one, I can speak certainly on how Mark Few feels as somebody who covers Gonzaga.

Like I know he's, one of the big things he's always championed is wanting to grow the interest around college basketball.

And, and I know that that's something that Dan Hurley has talked about a handful of times, and I'm sure it's something that many of these other coaches, you know, care very deeply about.

And, and this is the way to do that, is like, let's put, like, let's find a way to make it so that fans are not only engaging with the sport in March.

Uh, and I think that's a big selling point for Dan Hurley because it helps with the- How you going?

Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

All right, still here with Matt Sean Bisquette of Locked On UConn.

We talked about the Diamond Club, this new MTE that is reportedly coming in '27, '28.

Uh, and now we're gonna switch gears and talk about a new roster addition for Danny Hurley and the Huskies.

It was announced on Thursday morning that they have added a transfer from Northern Arizona University out in the Big Sky in Isaiah Shaw.

Shaw has got some serious college basketball bloodlines.

He's the grandson of Homer Drew.

Right

What do you know about Casey Alexander? And should we be excited about the new future here in Manhattan?

Yeah, Casey Alexander wins.

I mean, that's what you want to know about Casey Alexander.

And I think that's what you want to hear if you're a fan of Kansas State.

I mean, this is a coach who's won 20 or more games every year in the last decade.

I mean, he's been really, really consistent.

And yeah, it is fair to acknowledge that he took over a Belmont program that had been very successful previously under coach Rick Bird.

Take me through the thoughts about Kansas State being in the Players and what the Players is.

He is suing the NCAA and Gonzaga basketball loses on the road to Portland.

Absolutely brutal, embarrassing and historic loss.

Gonzaga

goes into the Child Center at the University of Portland for the final time and leads for just 32 seconds in an absolutely brutal, embarrassing, and historic loss.

to the Portland pilots.

We're going to break it down.

We're going to talk about the good, which will not take very long.

We are going to talk about the bad, which will be the majority of the show.