CBS Sports college basketball analyst Chris Walkers discusses Gonzaga in the post-Drew Timme era and the top storylines heading into the 2023-24 season
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Gonzaga Nation with another episode.
00:11 I'm your host Dan Dickow.
00:13 Taking a preseason look with a number of analysts
00:16 for their thoughts, not just on Gonzaga,
00:18 but the world of college basketball in general.
00:20 Today's guest, he's been a guest in the past.
00:23 Thankfully he wanted to come on
00:25 and I'm glad he wanted to come on
00:26 because he's one of the best
00:28 and most knowledgeable, at least I gotta say this
00:32 about the Big East.
00:33 He's gonna throw some shade
00:34 at the West Coast Conference, I'm sure.
00:36 Hopefully he's learned his lesson.
00:38 He says Gonzaga properly.
00:40 I'll test him on that at some point today.
00:42 But he's my colleague at CBS Sports.
00:44 He's one of the best out there.
00:46 None other than PowerPoint guard from Villanova,
00:49 Chris Walker.
00:50 C-Walk, how are we going?
00:51 - Hey, listen, there you go.
00:52 I'm with you again.
00:53 You're right, I can say Gonzaga the right way.
00:56 So, you know what?
00:57 Because of you, Dan, I correct other people now.
01:00 (laughing)
01:02 - That's awesome.
01:02 I love to hear that now the student
01:05 has become the teacher in regards
01:07 to pronunciation of Gonzaga.
01:10 So, let's talk big picture now.
01:12 College off season of transfer portal talk, NIL talk.
01:17 Besides those two things,
01:19 what are you most excited about
01:21 now that practice has started?
01:22 There can actually be some excitement of games
01:25 being right around the corner.
01:27 - You know what?
01:28 What team is gonna be the team that surfaces this year?
01:31 Like I'm really thinking about,
01:33 you know, Duke's gonna be great this year probably.
01:36 Filipowski came back, which I didn't think he'd come back.
01:38 Proctor came back.
01:39 I thought all those guys would be one and done guys.
01:42 Kentucky overhauling their roster.
01:44 I mean, like when is the new Kentucky gonna be,
01:47 actually the old Kentucky gonna be the team
01:50 that was a team full of one and done's.
01:52 You know, the top recruiting class in the country.
01:54 Seems like Calipari has learned his lesson with the portal
01:58 and turning back the clock
01:59 and going back to what he did before.
02:01 You know, the question is what team is gonna,
02:05 I don't know if Arizona out West.
02:07 UCLA loses a lot of guys to the pros
02:09 and Villanova's trying to revamp their program.
02:13 I guess the story, Dan,
02:15 would be what is St. John's gonna be?
02:17 - Yes.
02:18 - You know, with Patino.
02:19 What is, and I know I'm talking Georgetown,
02:21 I mean, Big East, but what is Georgetown
02:23 gonna be a traditional power that hasn't been great
02:25 in the last four or five years with Ed Cooley there?
02:29 Can Kansas State do with that?
02:30 Were they just, you know, a Cinderella team
02:33 or is Jerome Tang really building something at K State?
02:37 And for Texas, was it because they had a bunch
02:40 of older players that Chris Beard brought in
02:43 and Rodney Terry got the opportunity to coach them
02:46 or can he continue to do what Chris Beard was building?
02:51 And I mean, again, I can go around the country.
02:53 Will Tom Izzo be the man of March again?
02:56 - Yeah.
02:57 - There's a ton of storylines out there.
03:01 Ohio State, when is he going,
03:03 when is coach gonna get that program
03:06 to the point where it was with Thad Motto
03:08 when they were going with Final Fours?
03:10 You know what I mean?
03:11 Like again, every single league
03:13 and obviously the elephant in the room is,
03:15 and I know, you know, you probably,
03:17 I shouldn't say you hate to hear this
03:18 'cause you left the Pac-12, the Pac-10.
03:21 There is no more Pac-12.
03:22 - Yeah.
03:23 - I mean, think about this, Dan.
03:26 UCLA versus Rutgers, UCLA versus Maryland,
03:30 UCLA versus Penn State.
03:33 - That doesn't have like, for a West Coast guy like myself,
03:36 that has no buzz around it.
03:38 - Zero.
03:39 - To be honest, it just doesn't.
03:42 I understand that there's money behind this realignment.
03:45 Football drives the majority of it,
03:47 but you know, that doesn't make sense to me
03:51 because that's not gonna be a well-watched game
03:54 whatever network it is on.
03:57 - It's not sustainable.
03:59 I get the football argument,
04:01 but, and you know what's funny,
04:03 one of my bosses back in the day, he saw this coming.
04:06 He saw, this was in the works probably in 2015.
04:11 Or like it was coming.
04:13 As a matter of fact,
04:14 I remember working for Jay Wright at Villanova,
04:16 and we were like 2008, 2000.
04:18 He saw this, this was coming when the biggies broke up
04:21 and a lot of the Pittsburgh and Syracuse and Louisville
04:25 and everybody went to the ACC.
04:27 West Virginia went to the big 12, like this was coming,
04:31 you know, and it was only a matter of time
04:33 for there to be four power leagues.
04:36 And look where we are now.
04:37 We're gonna be in a situation
04:38 where it's gonna be four power leagues.
04:40 The question is, and it's interesting
04:42 that Washington State and Oregon State
04:44 are both ranked in football,
04:45 but yet they're the ones without the league.
04:47 And Cal and Stanford, you know,
04:50 they're just not very good at football.
04:53 Stanford was good for a while,
04:54 and Cal has been pedestrian at best.
04:57 Now they're the team that gets to go to the ACC,
05:00 and Washington State and Oregon State
05:01 are probably relegated to going to the Mountain West,
05:04 even though they're trying to fight it.
05:06 - Yeah, that Cal Stanford won to the ACC
05:08 makes even less sense than USC, UCLA,
05:11 in my opinion, to the big 10.
05:13 But I wanna stay on the big East
05:15 because UConn knocked off Gonzaga
05:18 last year in the tournament.
05:19 They go on to win the national title.
05:23 They're gonna have a rematch with Gonzaga
05:25 in Spokane this year.
05:26 You're around the big East all the time.
05:29 You touched on the excitement around Patino at St. John's
05:32 and what Ed Cooley might do at Georgetown
05:34 to return them to prominence.
05:36 But give us a quick take on UConn
05:41 and how good they're gonna be
05:43 because Gonzaga fans are gonna be interested
05:45 to hear about that team
05:47 and who they're gonna face in December.
05:49 - You know, the interesting thing is,
05:50 I think if you talk to Coach Danny Hurley right now,
05:54 he'd be asking the same question,
05:56 how good are we gonna be?
05:57 I mean, they lost--
05:58 - With a few expletives though, right?
05:59 - Yeah, of course.
06:00 But they lost a lot.
06:03 They lost Hawkins, a lottery pick.
06:05 Lost Sunogo, big East player of the year.
06:09 And they lost who I thought arguably was their glue guy,
06:11 their best player.
06:13 And Dan, you and I can appreciate basketball players.
06:17 You know, they may not have all of the,
06:18 they may not have one thing that they're great at,
06:20 but they can do everything.
06:21 And that was Andre Jackson.
06:23 I thought he was really the Swiss army knife
06:25 of that program.
06:26 And I'm gonna be honest with you,
06:27 they lost a guy like Calcaterra
06:29 who came off the bench and made threes.
06:31 Now they got a talented group of freshmen coming in.
06:34 They got Alex Caravan, who's there,
06:36 who was a starter last year.
06:38 I thought made a tremendous rise in their program
06:42 from a freshman never playing to what he became,
06:44 a guy who guarded everyone
06:46 and could knock down shots like you wouldn't believe.
06:51 They, the big fella, he's coming back as well.
06:56 And so, you know, I forget his name.
06:57 His name--
06:59 - He's like, he's a seven, two freshman.
07:02 - Yeah, he's a person.
07:03 - Clingan, not Clingan.
07:04 - Yes, yes.
07:05 - And he's tremendous.
07:07 Now, again, he was a backup last year.
07:10 So now you're the primary.
07:12 It's very different.
07:12 People think, oh, plug and play.
07:14 It doesn't work that way.
07:15 We'll see what happens, particularly like for Gonzaga,
07:18 which I believe, right, that,
07:21 and I said this to someone on a show the other day,
07:23 I said, "The program I wanna see the most
07:26 "is the Gonzaga Bulldogs."
07:28 'Cause in my mind,
07:29 they lost the Christian Laitner of our era, Andrew Timmy.
07:33 I'm sorry, they can say whatever they want.
07:35 You know, they got this guy,
07:37 they got, bro, you lost Drew Timmy.
07:39 Drew Timmy was an absolute beast and he will be missed.
07:43 No matter who else is on that roster,
07:45 the one guy everyone feared was Drew Timmy.
07:48 And he's a big, and in college basketball,
07:50 Dan, you know this,
07:51 bigs are more important in college basketball
07:52 than they are in the pros.
07:54 You know, you look at the last four college players
07:56 of the year, like they're just more important.
07:58 They just, they can dominate more in this league
08:01 than they can in the pros.
08:04 So UConn also got their starting point guard back,
08:06 who put his name in the draft,
08:08 who was a transfer, and so on.
08:09 I mean, they got some guys that are pretty good,
08:13 and they had a big time recruiting class that came in.
08:15 So UConn is gonna be really good, again.
08:18 Now, people gotta understand,
08:21 UConn finished fifth in the Big East
08:23 and won a national championship.
08:25 More importantly, two years removed,
08:27 UConn was in the AAC, struggling against Houston,
08:31 struggling against Memphis.
08:33 And in two years, Danny Hurley has won the championship.
08:37 That's amazing, but it's also a testament
08:39 to what that program used to be in the past
08:41 when I was a player, when I saw them build it
08:43 with Cliff Robinson my first year as a player to-
08:46 - Uncle Cliffy from the Blazers?
08:49 - Cliff Robinson, I played against Cliff Robinson.
08:51 That was the first year that they took it.
08:53 It was on the ascent that first year
08:55 that it became a big time program.
08:57 Coached against them when they had,
09:00 not, I don't wanna say Ray Allen,
09:02 but oh my God, what's his name?
09:03 He's a coach with the Heat now.
09:05 I forget his name.
09:07 Oh, it's killing me right now.
09:08 I can see his face. - Daniel Marcial?
09:10 - Not Daniel, but he played, he was from Milwaukee.
09:12 Oh my God, it'll, anyway, it'll drive me crazy
09:17 that I don't remember it.
09:17 I'll remember it for the end of the show.
09:18 - You'll text me in about 30 minutes.
09:20 - Exactly, I mean, the bottom line is they've had so many.
09:24 - Yeah. - Rudy Gay,
09:25 I mean, you name it, they've had a ton of guys
09:28 in that program, and it looks like with Hawkins,
09:32 with Jackson, who obviously wasn't a high draft pick,
09:35 they have it back again.
09:36 But let me tell you something, UConn,
09:37 I mean, Kentucky brought in a great freshman class,
09:39 but so did UConn, you know?
09:41 And I had a chance to speak
09:42 to their Freshman Fundamentals Big East event in New York,
09:46 and they're long.
09:47 Those freshmen, I'm like, oh my God,
09:48 these dudes are gonna be good again.
09:50 And Danny Hurley with Kamani Young,
09:51 who's the associate head coach, excellent recruiters.
09:54 And you know what's funny, Dan, similar to Spokane.
09:58 And again, I don't want all the, is it called Spokanians?
10:01 I don't want the Spokanians to get mad at me.
10:02 - Spokanites.
10:03 - Spokanites to get mad at me,
10:04 'cause I used to work at LMU,
10:07 and I used to work at Pepperdine.
10:09 So I knew Spokane when Fitzy was the coach,
10:12 way back in the day, when y'all had a kid named,
10:16 oh my God, what's Jeff's last name?
10:18 - Jeff Goss?
10:19 - No, Jeff Brown.
10:21 Jeff Brown, that's how far I go back
10:24 in Gonzaga basketball, right?
10:25 Again, it had not taken off with Santandelo
10:28 and all those guys yet, and Richie Fromm.
10:31 I was there at the beginning of that, at that time,
10:34 when Gonzaga was still good.
10:35 But going to Spokane was the worst place
10:38 anybody wanted to go.
10:41 Well, have you ever been to Storrs, Connecticut?
10:43 I'm like, oh my God, who?
10:45 But they found a way, the same way the Zags,
10:47 the point I'm making,
10:48 they found a way to make it attractive
10:50 to high-level players.
10:52 And that's similarly what Gonzaga has done
10:55 with UConn accomplished,
10:56 and Danny Hurley is now bringing that back.
10:58 - Well, let's stay on the topic.
11:01 You mentioned, having been at Pepperdine,
11:04 having been at LMU, you're one of the analysts
11:07 that I love getting your take from,
11:09 because you were immersed in the coaching world
11:12 for quite some time.
11:13 You were a head coach for a while,
11:15 you've been an assistant in a number of different places,
11:18 including your alma mater, Villanova.
11:21 So you see the ascension of different coaches
11:23 along the ways.
11:25 Is there an up-and-coming coach right now
11:29 that you go to a shoot around,
11:30 or you're at a practice doing your game prep
11:32 for analyst work, and you're like,
11:34 man, this guy is on the verge of being the breakout coach?
11:39 - Man, you put me on the spot there,
11:41 'cause I should be asking you that question,
11:43 'cause you do quite a bit of games too.
11:45 And you know what's funny, Dan,
11:46 before I answer that question,
11:48 it's easy to tell, right?
11:49 Like, you know it when you see it.
11:51 When you go to a guy's walkthrough,
11:53 you'll be like, okay, this guy's different.
11:55 For instance, when I went to Chris Beard's practice
11:59 at Texas Tech, I'm like, oh, wow.
12:03 When I went to Eric Musselman's practice,
12:05 when he was at Nevada, I'd be like, this guy's different.
12:08 Okay, whatever you think about him is whatever,
12:10 that guy's different.
12:11 There's no accident for success.
12:14 Stan Johnson at LMU is one of those guys
12:17 that I can see being very successful, right?
12:20 And I remember Dusty May as an assistant coach,
12:22 when he was at La Tech.
12:24 I'm like, this guy's button up.
12:26 You can tell when guys deliver the scouting reports.
12:29 And that's what I always tell guys.
12:31 One of my big things was,
12:33 I remember when I worked at New Mexico.
12:35 And there was a gentleman,
12:37 you know him from the West Coast, Craig Neal.
12:38 He's at Nevada now.
12:39 - Yeah, noodles.
12:41 - And yes, noodles.
12:42 And I would do my, I thought I was pretty good,
12:45 and it wasn't me directed at me,
12:48 but he was always saying like,
12:49 hey, never do a scouting report
12:52 with your paper in your hands.
12:53 I always tell coaches,
12:55 because the players don't get to put the paper
12:56 in their hand.
12:57 So if you're the coach,
12:59 and I don't care if it's 20 plays,
13:01 they have to know 20 plays.
13:03 They don't get the paper.
13:04 So if you don't have command of it as a coach,
13:07 then why should they respect you?
13:08 And you know what he told me?
13:09 You know who says like,
13:10 slap the paper out the assistant coach's hand?
13:13 Charles Oakley.
13:14 He said, when you were doing a scouting report,
13:15 if you had paper in your hand or whatever,
13:17 Charles Oakley would slap it out of your hand
13:19 and you'd have to know.
13:20 So that was something to me
13:21 that the minute I walked through,
13:23 I'm like, who's that guy that has it in their head
13:26 and knows how to direct people a certain way.
13:29 I know I'm not giving a bunch of names.
13:31 I'm just saying what I look for.
13:33 And I'm gonna tell you another thing I look for.
13:35 And I've seen very experienced coaches
13:38 guilty of this, Dan.
13:39 And you may have seen this too.
13:41 This is not football.
13:43 There are 13 guys on a basketball court.
13:45 Stop calling guys by their number.
13:47 In football, I get it.
13:48 There's 80 guys out there.
13:50 There's 25, 32, 25.
13:52 In basketball, should we know their name, Dan?
13:55 I mean, seriously.
13:56 - No, those are great points.
13:59 And you mentioned a lot of coaches that I agree with.
14:02 You know, I do think Stan Johnson at LMU
14:05 is a terrific coach.
14:07 I've gotten to talk to him, you know,
14:09 off the court in regards to kind of
14:12 how he structures some things.
14:13 And I've been impressed.
14:14 Eric Musselman, I'll give you a quick story
14:16 about how he structures shoot around.
14:18 So people typically learn by reading,
14:21 by watching, or by doing, right?
14:24 And his shoot arounds,
14:26 they would go through a station of prep for their opponent
14:30 and guys would read on a board
14:32 what the plays are and the actions that are.
14:34 They would watch it on film
14:36 and then they would walk through it.
14:38 So to me, that was, I'd never seen that done before.
14:41 It was ingenious.
14:42 And I played for him in NBA Summer League
14:44 before he was a head coach with the Warriors years ago.
14:47 But I had never seen this approach to doing a shoot around.
14:51 And it made a ton of sense
14:52 because if you cover those three ways that people can learn,
14:56 players don't have an excuse.
14:57 They should pick it up one of those three ways.
14:59 - No, no, you make a great point.
15:01 And again, there are a ton of coaches out there.
15:04 Now you just asked me the guys I've gotten to see.
15:06 So, you know, in doing games and, you know,
15:09 and you know, it's funny, Dan,
15:11 a lot of coaches don't do shoot arounds like they used to.
15:14 Like you don't get to go to practices
15:16 and they're afraid of the media.
15:18 And you and I are both in the media.
15:20 And I tell coaches all the time, like,
15:22 why are you afraid of us seeing what you have going on?
15:26 At the end of the day,
15:27 we're going to see it tomorrow night, you know?
15:29 And so my thing is, you know, I just, when I see coaches,
15:33 here's the one thing I do do.
15:35 When I see coaches and I'll go to a practice
15:37 and I see a young coach and I see him struggling
15:40 to remember names and I see him struggling.
15:42 And I said, that comes down to one word.
15:44 You're not prepared.
15:46 It's different.
15:47 'Cause we can say the same thing to us as announcers.
15:49 Like, how could you not pronounce that name?
15:51 And there's some truth to us too.
15:52 Like, hey man, the more prepared you are,
15:54 you don't struggle with that.
15:56 But when you're dealing with players
15:59 and you're instructing them where to go, you know,
16:02 like for instance, something as simple as saying,
16:04 you go over here, you go over there.
16:06 No, you go to the wing, on the left side of the wing,
16:09 you go to the left box.
16:10 Like you can tell the guys that are really thoughtful
16:13 and how to direct and very directional
16:16 when they're coaching.
16:17 And that just comes down to who you've been tutored by.
16:20 You know, so I encourage guys, Dan, all the time.
16:23 I say, you know what's funny?
16:24 A coach is, especially assistant coaches,
16:26 they have this thing about saying,
16:27 well, if you want to shoot threes,
16:29 get in the gym in the summertime.
16:30 Well, I challenge other coaches.
16:32 I challenge coaches.
16:33 Well, you go to clinics.
16:35 Go learn from somebody how to speak and preach and teach.
16:39 Because you make a great point about Muscleman
16:41 is that he's finding three different ways.
16:43 He's saying people learn three different ways.
16:45 If I only teach by video,
16:47 then the guys that have to read it, right?
16:50 And say, then they won't get it.
16:51 If I only teach this way, then these guys won't get it.
16:53 Now I'm gonna make sure somebody gets it, right?
16:56 Because at the end of the day,
16:58 the only thing that matters
16:59 is what happens tomorrow night in the game.
17:01 And I don't, the guy, you know, Dan,
17:03 you've been around the league.
17:05 Guys are embarrassed.
17:07 People don't understand that.
17:08 Like they can think what they want,
17:09 but they're embarrassed to say they don't want to play.
17:11 How many times does a point guard
17:13 coach draws up a play?
17:14 You're coming out of the huddle and a guy says,
17:17 "Hey Dan, where am I supposed to go?"
17:18 (laughing)
17:19 Am I lying?
17:20 - That was the most frustrating thing
17:21 is a lead guard coming out of the timeout.
17:24 - Yes, and every, like every time,
17:27 like, okay, am I supposed to go over here?
17:29 Like, dude, and you know what's funny?
17:31 It'll be players that we revere,
17:32 that we think are super really good players.
17:34 And they just struggle with the mental aspect of the game.
17:38 That's why I always say football players to me,
17:41 football players are a lot smarter than people think.
17:44 Do you know how big those playbooks are?
17:46 And especially quarterbacks,
17:48 they have to see things and react.
17:50 They have to know coverage,
17:51 like even running backs have to know pass protection,
17:54 running, it is a very difficult game that you have to know.
17:58 And the one thing I love about football players
18:00 as opposed to basketball players,
18:01 football players can draw on the board.
18:03 Basketball players can't.
18:05 They can't, they can't.
18:05 I say, man, draw the play up.
18:07 They can't draw a play.
18:08 Football players, they can draw a place.
18:10 - That's a very underrated skill by coaches.
18:13 I know because I initially thought my path
18:16 was gonna go into the coaching world.
18:17 I spent a year with the Blazers, player development staff.
18:21 I had a couple interviews for G League head coaching jobs.
18:25 And in that first initial part
18:27 of learning the coaching profession,
18:29 running drills is easy.
18:30 Substituting guys is easy.
18:32 You grow the nuances of different parts of that,
18:36 but you command a timeout
18:38 or you command a locker room by drawing a play,
18:43 a set in a certain circumstance is difficult.
18:47 I was in an interview for a head coaching position,
18:50 12 people in a room grilling me with questions.
18:53 Draw up a play with four seconds left, you're down two.
18:57 You either gotta get a three point shot
18:58 for your best shooter,
18:59 or you gotta get an easy two point look
19:01 to force overtime for someone else.
19:04 What do you do?
19:05 You gotta draw something up on the fly.
19:07 Hopefully if you're a good coach, you're prepared.
19:09 So you got two or three thoughts going on through your mind
19:12 to prepare for that.
19:13 But then to draw it out in a way with dashes,
19:17 with arrows, with perpendicular lines,
19:20 to call it a screen for players to understand
19:24 and articulate it, that's difficult.
19:26 People don't understand that.
19:28 - I'll tell you this, and people laugh,
19:30 and it's again about being thoughtful.
19:33 So when the team's practiced,
19:35 I always watch the way you made a good point
19:37 about how people learn.
19:38 You'll go to a practice, you'll laugh when I say this,
19:42 the coach will draw up the play,
19:44 and the players will be behind him.
19:46 But when you draw up a play in the game,
19:49 where do the players sit?
19:51 In front of you.
19:52 So think about it, it sounds like a small thing.
19:56 So they're drawing it up, seeing it a different way.
19:59 So it seems simple to you.
20:02 Now let's add 15,000 people.
20:04 He just screwed up, his girlfriend's watching,
20:07 the AAU coach is mad, the this, the that,
20:09 and now he's trying to think,
20:11 and you're drawing up a play with four seconds,
20:13 and he's not getting the shot.
20:15 But the cut that he's making is essential
20:18 to you getting the shot to win the game.
20:20 That's what people don't get.
20:21 Coaching's very, very difficult
20:25 because you're relying on them to get it.
20:27 But you know what?
20:28 Hey man, as I tell guys all the time,
20:30 habits, habits, habits, habits.
20:33 How do you teach is habits,
20:35 because in pressure, you've been a great player.
20:39 When that pressure comes,
20:40 it's like coaching is like free throw shooting.
20:43 Free throw shooting, you do the same thing
20:45 every single time no matter it's one person watching
20:47 or 15,000, because it doesn't matter what they're doing
20:50 'cause it's routine.
20:51 Coaching has to be the same way.
20:53 I draw up a play, you gotta get your players conditioned
20:57 to practicing and being in environments
20:59 where it's like no one's there, this is what we do.
21:02 Because the other thing is you don't have control
21:04 over what kind of defense they're gonna throw at you.
21:06 That's why it's the getting smart players.
21:10 Bobby Knight had a statement that I believe.
21:13 I used to be like, "Ah, that doesn't make sense."
21:15 Stupid gets you beat more than smart helps you win.
21:17 I believe that more than anything.
21:19 - I like that.
21:22 - You know what I'm saying?
21:22 - No, that is a great phrase, a great quote.
21:26 I'm gonna have to remember that one.
21:27 But we've talked a lot about coaching really quick
21:31 as we wrap up our conversation.
21:34 And obviously the season's right upon us.
21:36 We'll have you on again once we get into the season
21:39 and we have an idea of which of these teams
21:42 that are really gonna be Final Four contenders.
21:45 But when you look at the lay of the land right now,
21:48 I see a lot of really good teams.
21:49 I don't see any standouts.
21:51 Maybe Kansas, maybe Purdue 'cause of E.D. coming back.
21:55 Do you have an early Final Four grouping
21:57 or is it still too early for you
22:00 based on not being at practices or seeing any game action?
22:03 - Yeah, it's early, man.
22:05 So many people lost a lot.
22:06 Obviously, Kansas is a favorite people pick.
22:09 I think Duke has a chance 'cause of so much talent.
22:13 You mentioned Purdue brought everybody back on the farm,
22:16 but they had those freshman guards
22:17 who are now sophomores this year.
22:19 UConn, I think they have a chance
22:21 to be in the conversation.
22:24 And I'm gonna say Kentucky with these young guns.
22:27 I just think that they're so talented
22:29 that at some point, Calipari, he's gotta break through.
22:33 And it's just, last year you had teams in there
22:37 like San Diego State and FAU, no one expected that.
22:40 And I think, I'm gonna say unfortunately,
22:43 unfortunately probably for the networks
22:45 and probably for the basketball savants,
22:47 that's gonna be more of the norm.
22:49 Because Dan, we're still in the last phase of COVID, right?
22:53 COVID seniors, we're in the last phase
22:55 of guys getting those waivers.
22:57 Now, they're gonna eliminate those seniors
22:59 real soon, but we're still in the last phase
23:01 of guys playing five and six years.
23:03 So those high major teams, which are really, really good,
23:07 we consider high major, more upsets are still brewing.
23:11 I'm telling you right now, I call the Pac-12 the Swag-12
23:13 'cause I believe them putting that tournament together
23:15 with the Swag in the delete
23:17 because they lost four games to the Swag
23:19 because they have older guys.
23:22 And people don't realize,
23:23 you've been a young player, talented,
23:25 I've been a young player.
23:26 But when I was 13, if I played against a guy that was 18,
23:30 it doesn't matter how talented I am.
23:32 - I agree.
23:33 - These guys are playing against guys that are 25 years old.
23:37 And now you put three or four of those guys out there,
23:39 I don't care who you are, I don't care what you were ranked.
23:41 That's what you're dealing with
23:43 in college basketball right now.
23:44 And you know what?
23:45 This is more like what it's like when we played, Dan,
23:47 where it was all seniors back then.
23:50 The team was senior lane one.
23:52 That's what we're seeing.
23:54 - Well, the coaches that have adjusted the quickest
23:57 and adapted the best are the ones that are going to continue
24:00 to have success year in and year out.
24:02 You mentioned Kentucky,
24:03 they're also on Gonzaga's schedule this year.
24:05 That should be a heck of a game.
24:06 So I'm going to hold you true to that the next time we talk
24:10 in that you think Kentucky
24:13 may be the best team in the country.
24:14 So Chris, I appreciate the time.
24:16 I know you're getting busy
24:17 with all your prep for the season.
24:19 Hopefully I'll see you at some point
24:21 back in New York in the studio this year.
24:23 - Absolutely, brother.
24:24 And listen, man, we'll see what life without Drew Timmy
24:26 is like.
24:27 Listen, I'm one sitting and waiting, right?
24:30 See what life is like without my guy from Richardson, Texas.
24:34 - There you have it.
24:35 One of the best in the business from CBS Sports,
24:38 Chris Walker, joining me on Gonzaga Nation.
24:41 (upbeat music)
24:44 (upbeat music)