Hour 2: Overreaction Tuesday, plus ESPN’s Jay Bilas Breaks Down Michigan-UConn

0:01Rich Eisen:Every soda's got something to say. Colas brag. Probiotics give TED Talks. Then there's Mr. Pibb. No pitch, no promises, just bold cherry bringing the flavor. Bold kick of cherry. Hey yo, Mr. Pibb. I get so many headaches every month. It could be chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more. Botox, on a botulinum toxin A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It's not for those who have 14 or fewer headache days a month. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms.

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1:07Rich Eisen:Why wait? Ask your doctor. Visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of The Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere. Watch us weekdays on Disney Plus from noon to 3 Eastern. Miss the show? We've got a podcast so you can listen anytime. But here's the best part. Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. I'm a true champion. Go blue is the mantra. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Michigan, the men's basketball champion.

1:52Rich Eisen:From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show. Michigan head coach, Dusty May. Coming up. ESPN college basketball analyst, Jay Billis. UCLA head coach, Corey Close. Actor, Emmanuel Shrieky. And now, it's Rich Eisen. Hour number two of the Rich Eisen Show is on the air. 844-204-RICH. number to dial this hour we're going to have uh overreaction monday on a tuesday and more than enough time to take your phone calls before cory close the champion head coach of ucla basketball on the women's side uh will be joining us the actress emmanuel shrieky we also just said um goodbye to dusty may on a nice zoom that we had a chat with uh here on this program moments ago after cutting down the nets in Indianapolis last night.

2:48Rich Eisen:Joining us now, fresh back, I imagine, from the national championship game in the Final Four is none other than Jay Billis in his usual spot here on the show on Tuesday after the national championship game. Good to see you, Jay. How are you, sir? I'm doing great, Rich. Well, I'm not doing as well as you, but I'm doing great. No, I appreciate that because you know, obviously, where my allegiances lie. I'll just give you the floor on your impressions of the national championship game. Your takeaway is what from that? You know, I thought it was great. It wasn't the prettiest basketball game I've ever seen.

3:23There were a lot of missed shots and it was really physical. And I'm not sure in these football arenas whether we should expect teams to shoot it better. I mean, both Michigan and UConn shot it better in the semis than they did in the final. But it was compelling. And as well as Michigan played defensively and as hard as they played, it always felt to me like they kind of were going to win until the last few minutes. And UConn kept hanging around. And when Terrace Reed made that steal in between the top of the key and midcourt and was taking it the other way, it was a six-point game. That would have cut it to four, and I felt put some real game pressure on Michigan.

4:11And the ball kind of got ahead of him a little bit. He pushed it out a little bit too far and then threw it back to solo ball. And it was really well contested by Trey McKinney, I think it was. And, you know, both those guys hit the deck. And then Michigan takes it the other way, and there was a penetration from Roddy Gale Jr., and then Trey McKinney hit a three to put it to nine again, and that was kind of the game. and it was one of those deals where it came down to the end uh at least in the last you know last couple of minutes and it was it was really compelling and all those games every title game um has something unique to it and just these guys didn't shoot it well that was the only thing if shots had been going it would have been really fun to watch but it was a really enjoyable game

4:57Rich Eisen:yeah danny hurley's um conversation with tracy wolfson during a timeout and the one time that that they had Danny Hurley for that conversation. He was really honest. He's like, I think we're playing the style of game, the type of game that we have a chance to win. The only chance to win is what he said, the style of game. And he's right. They were, they were, they dictated, UConn dictated the tempo on the eventual national champs on Monday night. Jay, they did. Well, they did, but both teams really took each other out of transition. there weren't a lot of open court plays and Michigan's defense was what impressed me the most.

5:39I kind of knew, um, like Michigan's got another gear that most teams don't have. And, you know, you saw it throughout the year, they blew out a lot of good teams and there, there might've been games or there were games, but you might've seen them where, you know, they were letting a team, you know, you might say we're letting a team hang around. And then they just stepped on the gas and blew them out. I remember that game against Northwestern where it looked like, hey, Northwestern's got a shot here. And then midway through the second half, Michigan just went on a 20-something to nothing run, and the game was over.

6:14But UConn runs such good offense, and it certainly didn't look like it against Michigan. Michigan was switching different things, took away a lot of their cutting, extended their catches further out on the floor, made him take a lot longer. UConn couldn't run any clean offense against Michigan. And that was really impressive. You know, their rim protection, you know, their size was one thing. But even guys like Roddy Gale-Juny blocked two shots. At the end of the game, I was looking at the stat sheet and I was going, you know, they blocked six shots at six steals. It seemed like they blocked like 12 shots.

6:52They were really good defensively. But, yeah, it wasn't the tempo. If it were an up-and-down game and the game were in the 80s, I would have been surprised if UConn could have won that game. But they certainly had a game in the 60s. And as poorly as they shot it, UConn still could have won that game. And, you know, mention the Terrace Reed-Steele thing in the three. But even, you know, Alex Garabat had a shot. They were down four out of shot to cut it to one. Like, you know, I kind of couldn't believe with the feel of the game that UConn had a shot.

7:24Rich Eisen:Yeah, there's no doubt about it. What do you make of the last four years at UConn? One of the better runs we've seen in quite some time. Right, Jay? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, if you went back to the mid-90s, I thought one of the great sort of periods in college basketball for a single team was what Kentucky did, 96, 97, 98. I mean, they were an overtime period away from a three-peat. Went to three straight title games, two with Rick Pitino, and one with Tubby Smith. They kind of bookended two championships. That 96 team was historically good. And I think Dan Hurley could talk about his 23 and 24 teams as being historically good.

8:05In fact, they were. I mean, those two years, they won every tournament game. So that's 12 tournament games in a row. They won by double digits, which has never happened before. And John Wooden's teams didn't even do that at UCLA. but to have a guy like Alex Caraban who if they had beaten Michigan last night he would have won three championships and he would have been the only non-UCLA player in history to have three championships is kind of amazing and so what Danny's done at UConn and especially like people like to say in today's game like somehow it's harder now but it's really really amazing what

8:44Rich Eisen:he's accomplished there yeah and you know i don't know if you heard this stat you might have but i'll repeat it here since we're talking about caravan he he became the fifth player to start three national championship games in four years the others are ewing grant hill uh christian leitner and danny's brother bobby i mean those are that's that's uh that's a heck of a cast right there that's a that's a five right there unbelievable yeah and it's been a long time since since that's happened. And one, he stayed at one place. So, you know, I really kind of enjoyed the contrast a little bit because you hear a lot of narratives and people have their mindsets about the way things should be in sports and especially in college sports.

9:28So on one hand, you have Alex Caravan and people say, oh, look, stayed in one place and look at all the relationships and all that. And then you look across the way at Michigan and they started five transfers. and the stories there were frankly amazing like a daimara barely played at ucla uh before he transferred to michigan and he's a lottery pick player now and yaxel lindeborg was one of the best players in the country that nobody knew about um you know outside of the basketball nerds like me uh very few you know fans knew how good he was and uh and elliot caddo when he was played he years at North Carolina, and I think North Carolina fans would admit this, that they criticized the hell out of him.

10:14You know, he went unguarded in games because he had difficulty shooting from the perimeter. So the opposing point guard would just camp out at the free throw line. They wouldn't even guard him and just dare him to shoot. And then he's most outstanding player in the final four and had a 19 point game. And, yeah, he made over 73s this year and just had an extraordinary, not only tournament, but an extraordinary year. So those guys were a really close team. And you could see cared about each other, didn't care who got the credit. You know, all the things that people, the cliches people like to use about great teams in sports.

10:53And they haven't been together for all that long. So you can do it different ways in college sports. And it was really kind of cool to see the contrast.

11:02Rich Eisen:Well, in terms of that, Jay Billis, I mean, again, you just pointed out that the transfers that came to Michigan weren't, with the exception of Yaxa Lendeborg, another team's best all-star, terrific, Naismith -type player. You know, it was other teams, talented guys that together as a collective could be as dominant as Michigan turned out to be. And then you've got a bunch of guys that did stay for Michigan that weren't playing as much. And that's why I want to turn to Dusty May here, because somebody had to stitch this all together. Somebody had to come up with a vision and along with the staff to make it all work.

11:42Rich Eisen:Where do you think Dusty now ranks in terms of college coaches, Jay? Well, even before this game, he's up with the best coaches in the game and the best young coaches in the game. You know, you know his story. He was a manager for Bob Knight, grew up in Indiana, manager for Bob Knight at IU. And, you know, he was wandering around the Final Four 20 years ago trying to get a job. And now, you know, North Carolina was reported, was courting him. And he's one of the hottest names in the game and rightfully so. And when he was at Florida Atlantic, you know, he's riding his bike to work every day. And, you know, people probably thought he was an assistant librarian and he's the head basketball coach.

12:27And and they go to the Final Four. And one of the cool things about that was a lot of I'm sure a lot of coaches in that situation have taken a team like Florida Atlantic to the Final Four would have capitalized on the opportunity to go somewhere else right away. He stayed another year at Florida Atlantic before taking the Michigan job. And one of the really cool things about that Florida Atlantic team is all the players stayed another year. Guys like Vlad Golden and Elijah Martin, all them, they didn't they didn't transfer until Dusty left. And and that's I think that says something. Maybe it says something about the players, but I think it says something about about Dusty as well and the relationship he has with those guys.

13:06And, you know, I think he and Coach Close that you got coming on later, the champion coach of UCLA women, I think they're showing that, you know, you can hold people accountable and you can have high standards and you can strive to win and not be, you know, this demeaning coach. and sometimes when I hear hard coaching um because there are a lot of old school people out there saying hey you know it's okay to yell at your plate like nobody's arguing do whatever you want like whatever whatever you think is is the right thing to do but um but there are different ways to do it and I think Dusty does it in a in a really uh really admirable way as

13:48Rich Eisen:does coach close at UCLA a couple of things uh I want to hit you on before I let you go on your on your Tuesday, Jay Billis. Last night, as soon as the game was over and Danny Hurley's meeting with the media, I don't know if you saw the soundbite, but he asks if it's after midnight and somebody says it's 12.01. He goes, the portal's open. Is anybody in it yet? And I just had Dusty May on the program. And he said, as soon as he got back to the locker room after winning and cutting down the nets, he said he looked and there were some of his staff already scrolling through the portal. I mean, is this the way to run an operation?

14:26Rich Eisen:I mean, right after this game, you know, like right after a tournament? I mean, can we get a week or two? What's going on? I'll give you the floor. Well, first of all, that's what the coaches wanted. They wanted it after the title game because the portal in the past, which is an NCAA creation, you know, the portal wasn't thrust upon the NCAA by some court or some law. The NCAA created it. That's their creation. They wanted it. But it used to open a couple of weeks ago. And the theory was, look, there are still teams playing, but the overwhelming majority of teams out there aren't playing. And, and the players deserve to have some time to process this and get where they want to be too, because they have to have their decisions made so that they can, they can go somewhere else for next year.

15:17And, and, you know, these aren't snap decisions that everybody's making. So would it be better if there were more time? Yeah. But the calendar is compressed in a lot of these areas. So there's no perfect solution to this, but to your question of, is this any way to run a business? No, it's not. But again, this is the way the NCAA wants it because the smart thing to do would be for the NCAA to take away all rules that prohibit schools from paying athletes directly and signing them to contracts like they do their coaches, but they don't want them to be employees. That's where they're on Capitol Hill begging Congress for an antitrust exemption so they can unilaterally impose work conditions on players.

15:55So it's almost like they can't have it both ways. And I understand the coaches, but I think the world's tiniest violin is going to be played for Dusty and Danny with people going, hey, I'm sorry that you're going to have to take a few extra days to sort out the portal and you're not going to be able to spend your$8 million a year on vacation as soon as the rest of us can. But I think everybody will get over it. I always think of the godfather line of this is the business we've chosen and this is part of it. And the NCAA has gotten away with their cartel restrictions on players for five decades now, actually for 100 years but when there's been a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry being run without paying the players you know they've had five decades now and they should have figured it out before now i say i still think they'll figure it out in the future but they're spending a lot of time on capitol hill on bended knee asking congress to please give them what they used to have which i don't think they're going to get see this is why you and i we see eye to eye

17:02Rich Eisen:We're, you know, this is why we're buds, we're pals, because this is a drop that we have on the show all the time. This is the business we've chosen. There you go. See, I've got Hyman Roth ready for you anytime you need that, Jay. Well, what you need to do, Rich, is you need to, I flew back this morning from Indianapolis, and one of the officials was in the TSA line with me. Okay. And I felt bad for the officials last night because they were, well, they were at a conundrum. Like they were thinking, who do we screw? Like we want to screw Michigan because of Rich Eisen. No, they don't. And then we kind of like to screw UConn, you know, because Danny yells at us.

17:46So they were in a really bad spot. I felt bad for them.

17:50Rich Eisen:You know, it would have been easier for them if Duke was in the game because then they know exactly who to screw. Yes. they know it's much more clear cut you know it's much more clear cut yeah you know yeah you and wojo started all this okay we're slapping the floor we just got a major issue what'd you make of michael malone's hiring in north carolina jay i thought it was great like you know i i didn't really think that a change was necessary north carolina um you know you win 70 of your games and uh number one seed and all this stuff but that's their business i get it uh i understand the way the world works but uh michael malone's a terrific coach i i just thought i just chuckled a little bit you know we had the media telling us all these names and his name never came up right and uh and then he gets the job which shows how much we know and and kudos to north carolina for for doing their business uh privately but uh you know michael coached in in college um you know he He started at Oakland with Greg Campy, who's still there, and a great coach.

18:53And then he was with Pete Gillen at Providence and went with Bobby Gonzalez for a while in Manhattan before he went to the NBA. And I think his NBA experience will be great at North Carolina and great in college. And maybe even some of the international connections that he has can prove fruitful for Carolina. And I think it'll be fantastic. I'm really happy for Michael and happy for Carolina.

19:19Rich Eisen:Last one for you, Jay Billis. It is Masters Week, and I follow at Jay Billis, and I saw the menu that you posted that if you were the Masters champion, this would be your club dinner menu. I'll give you the floor. You want to walk us through it and why you chose each course, Jay? Yeah, I chose stuff that I like. because in the dream scenario of winning winning anything in golf i'm gonna eat what i want so and the miso cod was just a nod to people who don't eat meat which i can't i can they wouldn't be invited anyway i just can't understand that um yeah what one of my some of some of my friends were doing and i thought it'd be kind of funny so uh so i did that so i don't think so then let me ask them let me let me go through it as well um if you don't mind caesar are are we taking the anchovies off or are you an anchovies on guy i'm anchovies on yeah you know not everyone's an anchovies on guy i mean and then there's a taste of the anchovies on the bowl first too they're gonna be putting garlic on the bowl first jeez heavy heavy caesar light caesar what are you what are you what do we got i'm a medium caesar large croutons small croutons these are very crucial questions jay this is the masters for crying out loud yeah croutons i'm not as concerned about i think uh small or large can work as stale bread is uh what difference does it make how big it is understood tomahawk ribeye you're just going for the whole big and i mean you're you know you you pay for the menu you're right you are you aware that they make at augusta they make the the player pay for it that's a that's expensive they seem pretty happy to do it and i think i would be too yeah but i i went tomahawk because i want the option to pick it up with my hands i was i was from the flintstones generation and a nice brontosaurus steak is uh is in my mind all the time so it would tip over your golf cart like fred flintstone's car oh yeah that's what you're talking about absolutely okay yeah and then chocolate brownie with vanilla bean ice cream so it's not just any vanilla ice cream you need the beans in it so you're saying oh yeah oh yeah And I would pay the staff extra to make it.

21:37Rich Eisen:That's because you're Jay Billis, man. That's because you're Jay. Well done. I look great in green.

21:46Rich Eisen:Jay, thank you for your time. By the way, this is a tradition unlike any other, you being on this show after every national championship game. I think this is like five years in a row, and I really appreciate it. No, it's my pleasure. It's an honor for me to do it. I appreciate you saying that. and let's are you calling any of these NBA playoff games? We're going to hear your voice and what's your next few weeks like for you, Jay? What do we got? I hope so. I haven't heard anything. I've been kind of immersed in stuff the last month so nobody's been beating my door down but I hope so. That'd be fun.

22:20Rich Eisen:That would be fun. I hope you get to do that and I hope I hear your voice and we'll have you back on throughout all that and get ready for the NBA draft in June. Thanks, Jay. Best thing about doing NBA games the hotels are way better. Ah, then then college. So what you're saying? Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're not staying in a Hampton Inn in Lawrence, Kansas or, you know, in in Bloomington, Indiana. It's a that's a little better. All right. Yeah. There are no anchovies on the on the Caesars there. I understand what you're saying. Jay, thanks again, bud. You be well. Thank you. You're the best. That's Jay Billis.

22:55Rich Eisen:Everybody right here on the Rich Eyes and show. Let's beat it on down the line. Get to a commercial break. Come back phone calls and overreaction Monday on a Tuesday.

23:08The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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