Breaking Down This Weekend's Final Four with Expert Insights

SportsGrid

Watch Breaking Down This Weekend's Final Four with Expert Insights - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Alright so

00:01Here we are back for the third hour. We're gonna be going to San Antonio

00:06To talk to Mike to Corsi of the sporting news Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network. He's on the take for the Hoosiers

00:12He looks fantastic down there off the Riverwalk. Look at him. Is that he's looking like pink

00:18I mean, he's got it all going and at the Alamo dome for the final four festivities

00:23I got a friend going down there to the final four

00:26I told him he should go to the TPC on Sunday and watch the golf at the gasoline open and then go to the game

00:33Monday's going Saturday to the hoops

00:35I said you got to go to the golf Sunday and then see the final round and then go Monday to the title game

00:40I saw your rankings for the final four teams and you obviously have Houston fourth and that's because at times

00:48They struggle putting the ball in the hole even in their

00:52Elite eight final there was a five-minute stretch where they didn't score

00:58That is who they are

00:59Scott it's it's been the nature of this team, but they have won some very big games doing that

01:04I used an example when they played on the road at Texas Tech a team you saw in the elite eight that was literally

01:10four minutes from the final four that

01:14Houston scored there. I think was their

01:1744th point

01:19Around the 16-minute mark then they scored their 46th point at about 12 or 13 and then they scored their 48th point

01:28At 9 minutes and they didn't lose the lead

01:31They that's because because Texas Tech couldn't score at all. That's who they are

01:36And so when you're playing against Houston, you have to be able and willing to fight through that

01:43They're not going to make it easy for you. They're going to make it miserable

01:48They're going to make it hard to get rebounds hard to make initial passes all of the things that you want to be comfortable doing

01:55They make it hard and if you are a if you are a team playing them

01:59You can't surrender to the difficulty to the frustration if you surrender to the frustration of that

02:07That's where they win

02:09So they're playing Duke and I just think Duke is phenomenal

02:14And I you know what they did defensively to Alabama

02:17What's we had seen him have 25 threes in the game before and you knew as a basketball

02:23aficionado that you are and that I believe I am you knew they weren't getting 25 threes against that defense and the way they

02:31play defense

02:32Is spectacular. I think Duke and Houston are the two best defensive teams in America and have been all year

02:39The difference for me is Mike is that Duke is able to score?

02:44Against good defenses. They're able to score more points than teams like Houston. They're able to put up more they finished off, Alabama

02:51I mean easily it just doesn't matter who they play

02:55Yeah, Duke is a great offensive basketball team, but they haven't had to deal with this before

03:01I mean Auburn's very good defensively and they came into Cameron or Stadium and the Devils were able to get the win

03:08but this is a different level of defense that they're going against and they know that because actually

03:14John Shire two years ago his first year

03:17he wanted to against somebody that was going to make it difficult and

03:21They chose Houston and Houston agreed to the scrimmage in Houston and they learned a lesson in that game

03:28In that scrimmage a private scrimmage that that it was they can make things really hard for you

03:34It's different then because they had Jamal shed and he was as good against the ball as any

03:38Guards been in the last 10 years or so, but this team beats you in other ways defensively

03:44They make it hard to make the initial pass to the wing

03:47They don't allow offensive rebounds. They contest everything inside

03:51I I watched JT Toppin who was an All-American for us

03:54Second teamer go against them for Texas Tech and basically say nope. I'm not going inside anymore. No fun

04:01I want to do it. They didn't say it literally, but he said it with his play

04:05He wanted no part of anything that happened within six eight feet of the goal

04:09From about the 10-minute mark of that game on and it was a big difference in why Houston was able to win on the road

04:15at Tech I

04:17Look, I think that

04:19They're spectacular. They're gonna make it very difficult. There's no denying that

04:23I just think the same thing's gonna happen to them. I think they're really gonna have trouble scoring

04:30I think we'll find a way to score

04:33Do you still believe like, you know, I don't you haven't told me do you think Duke will get past that defense and beat them I

04:41Do I think that they are the best team here?

04:44I think they are the team that looks like a national champion Scott. I think we've mentioned this before

04:49I've talked about in a lot of places

04:51You got to have pros at least that's what the history has been since my first Final Four

04:56This is my 35th. My first Final Four was was Kansas beating

05:02Oklahoma in Kansas City with Danny Manning having the game as good a game as anybody's had in the Final Four since

05:09yeah, and and ever since then you have had to have a

05:14at least one and usually multiple NBA first-round picks in your rotation in order to take home this trophy and

05:21I don't know whether any of the other three teams have that

05:25I think Alex Condon and Thomas Houck of Florida

05:28Maybe I think to hot Pettiford if they can overlook his size at Auburn, maybe Janai brooms a great player

05:34Maybe somebody takes him at the end of the first round

05:36Maybe Duke's the only team that you look at and say no doubt they're gonna take those three guys in the top ten

05:41They're gonna take Malik Evans

05:46Excuse me, Isaiah Evans either this year or next year preferably next year because if he comes back next year

05:51They're probably gonna take him in the lottery as well

05:53So that's that's what they have over every other team that's here, but they can lose to any of the other three

06:00We've seen that we've seen them lose

06:04To Kentucky to Kansas to Clemson

06:06So it's out there for everybody to try to try to sort of write the new paradigm or at least the new paradigm for this

06:13year

06:14but there's no question in my mind that Duke is the team that is built most like the

06:19Typical and be excuse me NCAA champion

06:22well, so you have Florida to and

06:26Auburn three and they're playing each other and they've seen each other. They know each other their SEC teams

06:33I kind of like Auburn their physicality. They're like a football team to me their size their rebounding

06:41They're banging their bang ability

06:43They're very tough and physical and I think Florida's a gifted talented

06:49Scoring team quick transition team that has bigs, but I actually for my money. I think they're a little soft. They're bigs

06:57Well, you know I asked Alex Condon about that today because he did look like that in the Texas Tech game for about

07:0535 minutes and then played really tough down those final five minutes when Florida won the game came from 10 down

07:11He was a big part of why they were able to come from 10 down got I think three rebounds two offensive rebounds in those

07:18Final five minutes. I think he made a bucket

07:20He was a big part of that comeback not as big as how making two threes or or Walter Clayton making two and assisting on

07:27Some others but he was a big part of it

07:29And so I I understand your point and what what Alex told me was that he didn't feel confident playing on his ankle and that

07:37Affected him and that as the game wore on his confidence rebuilt and he was able to be effective when it mattered and now his

07:45ankles had another six to this point five days and then

07:50Eventually may be up. He'll have had two formal for two more full days on top of that

07:56And so hopefully at that point he's ready to go

08:00Respectfully I have one minute. What's it like for you?

08:03You know, I've been to 30 straight Super Bowl

08:07You know Radio Rose media been to 15 Super Bowls. I've been to a lot of

08:12Final fours and national championship games my favorite being Indiana and 87 over accused of the Superdome

08:18What's it like for you to go to this many?

08:21Final fours and have as much juice as Mike the course he has in the media. You're like a god down there

08:28Well Scott today John Shire couldn't even find me wearing pink in the crowd

08:32I mean, he couldn't find me. So how much juice do I have?

08:36Unbelievable that is just that's disrespectful Mike. I love you. Have a blast at the final

Category

Transcript

Recommended