Hour 1: Lakers blown out and Luka Injured

Please stand clear of the gap. Another morning, another reminder there's a gap to be careful of. But maybe it's time to bridge the one between your 9-5 and your dream of living life on your own terms. At HSBC, we know ambition looks different to everyone. Whether it's retiring early or leaving more for your family, we can help. Because when it comes to unlocking your money's potential, we know wealth. Search HSBC Wealth Today, HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. HSBC UK current account holders only. First Take is presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Hello and good morning. Welcome to a Friday edition of First Take. I am Shay Cornette. Stephen A. Smith is here as is Kendrick Perkins. A lot to get to. We got a good basketball weekend in front of us. Good morning, boys. How are we? What's up, people? What's up, people? What's going on? What's up? What's up? We're here. We're here. We're here. That's right. Happy Good Friday. We're going to round out the week on a high note. Let's go to a high note for the Thunder last night. Into the West we go. A much-anticipated battle between the one and three seeds in the Western Conference and it quickly turned ugly last night. The Thunder scored 82 points in the first half alone in LeBron's second worst loss of his career. But the headline is Lucca Dantzich exiting the loss because of a strained left hamstring and then he was ruled out. Dantzich first responded or first appeared to tweak his hamstring rather in the first half and then heard it again midway through the third quarter. We're going to dive into the Lucca injury a little bit later on. But in this moment, does this blowout tell you more about the Lakers or the Thunder? Stephen, what do you think? Well, first things first, ladies and gentlemen, that was an ass kicking last night. That was a romp. Now, you can sit up there. I mean, we're going to talk about Lucca and all of the... What we not go do is gloss over that ass whipping that the Oklahoma City Thunder, the reigning defending NBA champions placed on the Los Angeles Lakers. Charles Barkley has never looked this good. He has never looked this good. Weeks ago, he got on all of us sitting up there talking about the Lakers. He said, oh my God, the Lakers win. I hope they don't win because if they win, we're going to have these fools on television talking about their contenders. I'm still not going to sit up there and summarily dismiss them. It is one game, but the Oklahoma City Thunder showed up last night and said, there's levels to this. We are sick and tired of the damn noise. Let's pump the brakes and understand there's a difference between who the hell we are and who the hell they are. The Lakers were down at the half by 30. Bust it. Getting the ass is whipped. I mean, it was a stump. Okay. And it was almost so that it's a good thing that Luca actually got hurt and had to get taken out in the third quarter because when we saw him holding his hamstring in the first half, a lot of us were like, wait a minute now, that that wouldn't happen. Then when you would drop the 30 plus the last 12, 13, 15 games, but suddenly now you're damn hamstring is hurt. We were looking at it with a raised eyebrow because an ass kicking will do that to you. It will make you humble. It will make you run for cover. It will make you want to run in the locker room. It will make you pretend you got to use the bathroom. It will make you pretend that something might be a family emergency or anything just to get away from those confines. That's the conda ass whipping we saw last night. And they came into this game and we wanted to see whatever it was that we wanted to see from the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, here's the thing. Either we didn't see it. Oh, we actually did see a preview of what's to come if the Lakers fall to the fourth seed and they're lucky enough to get out of the first round and they got to face those brothers in the second round. Big Perk, they came to the Lakers like this. Luca, they heard all the noise about the Luca Avergin 39 and all. They're like, we're going to put a stop to that stuff right now. And they did it from open and tap. Period. Well, a few things. Number one, I'm glad the Oklahoma City Thunder did get on the Lakers behinds like backpockets so that now the knowing Laker fair base could stay out of my mentions on social media. That's number one. Number two, this was all about the Lakers. Right? When you think about what this buildup has come to for us, what they've been doing over the last month and a half and Luca playing at the MVP level, what we witness is that we saw that it's levels to this. And when I say levels to this, when I look at the Lakers, their second round exit, that's their ceiling, a second round exit. Do people understand their record against the Thunder this year is 0-3? Do people understand their record against the Spurs this year is 1-3? The Lakers don't scale so even on Halloween. And when it comes to a bigger picture, let's talk big picture here because we know that the Lakers are not going to win a championship this year. Listen, we see that. It's going to be hard for them. They're not going to beat OKC or the San Antonio Spurs in the seven game series and hell, they might have to even face the Nuggets and depending on Luca's status for his hamstring injury, we don't know when he's going to come back. They might have to face a team like the Minnesota Tipper Wars and they might get out. They might, and we damn sure know without Luca, they're not going to beat them in the first round series. Big picture here though, Stephen A. Che. Last night showed me that if you're the Lakers, you cannot invest all your money into Austin Reeves and Luca Dongech as your two franchise guys going forward if you're expecting to win a championship. Those two guys cannot be your franchise guys taking up majority of your dollars and take you to the promised land. I hope Austin Reeves get all the money in the world because I'm a fan of Austin Reeves. I believe he's a hooper. I believe he's one of the best, one of the better offensive players, one of the better offensive players in the game today. But if we're talking big picture and we're talking about the future of the Los Angeles Lakers, that moment last night and their record against the top two seeds in the Western Conference should remind them or have them rethink things for us who's going to be leading the charge in the near future when it comes down to their two franchise guys. Well, it's a very interesting point that you make, Big Perk. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you at all, but I do love the fact that AR has elevated his level of play to the degree that he has because it gives the Los Angeles Lakers a tremendous asset to potentially move for additional pieces because we know Luca ain't going anywhere. But definitely AR, you know what? He would command a lot if you're the Los Angeles Lakers. So since you don't have that much draft capital, you got LeBron James approaching free agency, you got Austin Reeves as a commodity that you have in your staple that you could go and get big time assets in return for. I think the Lakers are still in a good position, obviously, and I think their ceiling is deep in the second round. I think we'd be remiss in neglecting to bring up JJ Redick because a lot of people, you know, as far as I'm concerned, he's done an exceptional job this year. We all know, we all got love for JJ. Listen, there's a lot of people that's questioning what he should have done with Luca Doncic because Luca Doncic was grabbing his hamstring in the first half. JJ Redick did say that he received treatment on the hamstring at halftime and was cleared by the team's medical staff to continue playing. So we're not going to point to figure JJ, the man, the medical staff, cleared Luca Doncic to play. That's why he was out there. Now, his, to me, is the reason why he might not should have been out there because they were getting their ass kicked. That's why they went down 23 in the first quarter. They went down over 30 at halftime. I'm sitting up there and they down over 40, over 40 in the third quarter. As far as I'm concerned, they came in the Oklahoma City waving the white flag. It was bad. It was bad. Now we wish Luca nothing but the best, no doubt about that. We know that he's had these injuries before. You know, he ain't faking it. I'm certainly not trying to imply that. I'm just trying to say that kind of ass kick and we'll tempt you to want to find an excuse to leave. That's all I'm saying, but we know the injury is serious and it's a bad situation for the Los Angeles Lakers to be in right now because who knows when that's going to get better. That's a hamstring injury, Big Perk. It takes a lot longer than people realize sometimes to heal from that in all seriousness, no doubt. So can I push back with you and Steven, I just a little bit here. Now first of all, this game, I know the Thunder and the Spurs are in a different tier. However, last night, the Lakers didn't score till what? The first five minutes of the game, they didn't have their first field goal. You have Luca Dongec, who got hurt. Austin Reeves, who appeared to be hurt last night and banged up a little bit. Could we say maybe last night's game and Perk is pointing to maybe this is what it's going to be and it was telling was a little bit of an anomaly, like a little bit like that. No, no, no. That stuff's not going to happen in the first season. Shay, Shay, listen, listen, when it comes, when it comes down to you knowing your stuff, you know it with the best of them. I know this, but this morning it seemed like your listening skills is not there. Okay, it seemed like your listening skills is not there. Now I know I'm country, you know what I'm saying? I know I speak with broken English at times, you know what I mean from Beaumont, Texas. And slow, but you're smart as hell. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Whatever, whatever. Here's the thing. Shay, I just highlighted to you that there are 0-3 versus the Thunder this year, the Lakers are. They're 1-3 versus the Spurs. In order to get to where you're trying to go, and we know the bar, the expectations for the Los Angeles Lakers is always championship or bus, you're going to have to go through one of those squads. Sure, Perk. And nothing, nothing, huh, go ahead. But Perk, in the last month, the Lakers have looked like a completely different team. They have locked down defensively, they're playing more on both ends of the floor, they've sharpened their financial bid. Not against the reigning defending champion, Shay. Right, this is the first time we're seeing that though. I'm not giving excuses. I'm just saying I don't know that this blowout means it's going to look like a different level. I'm just, look at it this way, Shay, look at it this way. So all this noise is being made about the Lakers and what a challenge they could end up being in the Western Conference and the reigning defending champions who have the San Antonio Spurs nipping at their heels with a 26 and two record over the last 28 games. And they're still in second place because Oklahoma City been winning two. And everybody talking about the Lakers 15 and two in the month of March, forgetting that Oklahoma City was damn near 15 and two in the month as well. And just ignoring the reigning champions with LeBron and Luca and AR coming into their city. This is what they did last night. All right, okay, all right, come on. Good. You see, Shay, did you see that movie straight out of Compton? Remember that, you know, that's a big time movie, right? With O'Shay Jackson, my man Ice Cube and his son O'Shay doing big things. Love that brother right there. Love that brother. Love both of them. But you remember when you saw O'Shay Jackson playing Ice Cube and straight out of Compton and remember when they called him a bit of he said, better go on. I ain't say nothing about them. And then all of a sudden he said, glad y'all done set it off and he went in. That's what Oklahoma City did last night. They said, I, okay, y'all talk about these. Let me show you who the hell we are. There's levels to this and they ain't on it. That is what happened last night. I'm stealing big perks lying right in front of them. They got in the Lakers ass like back pockets. That's what they did. I mean, before anything, keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. This is LeBron. This is AR. This is Luca. And before anything happened, the first statement they made was shutting the Lakers down for the first five minutes. It's the first statement they made. Before they did anything, they sat up there and they let them know not tonight, the 39 average and all of that, what you gonna do now. That's what the hell we saw on prime last night. Okay. I mean, it was so bad. It was so bad. The damn streaming signal got static. That's how bad it was. They were like, we might not want to watch more of this. This is bad. It's bad. It was also bad because both teams sat their starters in the fourth quarter and had the reserves come in. The bigger issue here though is probably the health of Luca Donicic. Again, he is going to have an MRI today. I know he's going to have an, we will later on, he'll have an MRI today in Dallas. This is obviously his former hometown and we'll see where they go from there. But that could be a major concern more so than the butt kicking by the thunder going forward for the Lakers. Yes. Che, he is guaranteed Che. He is guaranteed to have exceptional service. He's in Dallas. They will roll out the red carpet for that brother. He don't have anything to worry about service. The medical treatment that Luca is going to receive today is better than anything he will have received in this lifetime. They love that man. They do. He's going to be alright on a big day. They're going to hope they could stay a little bit longer. Let's go to the final four. We got a big basketball weekend this weekend. The final four is going to take center stage in Indianapolis on Saturday night with Michigan and Arizona as the night cap. And Illinois and Yukon is the first semi-final game. Speaking of Yukon, here's their head coach, Dan Hurley, talking about the mission. We came here for rings, not watches. Everyone that comes in final four gets a beautiful watch. But only one per, only one group is going to get a ring. We don't hang banners for final fours at Yukon. We hang national championship banners. And if you want to hang a banner, you've got to get your eyes off social media, get your face out of the phone, and get locked in on Illinois. Speaking of my language this early, talking about jewelry. I love it. Jay Will now joins us from Indianapolis. And look, the Huskies have the fourth longest odds right now to cut down the nets. Jay Will, good morning to you. How surprised would you be if Yukon wins it all? Brian Padda, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down. Hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. In place under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. I would be surprised. I think talented wise out of Illinois, Arizona, and Michigan, they're probably the least talented team. But then again, I wouldn't be surprised. First off, a couple of things, SA. And good morning, Shay. I love how we come here for rings, not watches. Isn't every team here at the Final Four coming for rings, not watches? And every team is coming there to win a national championship. But there's something about the way the athletes are doing it. You got a follow-up saying that? Says things. No, but every team comes there for that, Stephen A. What do you think? You think I'm coming to the Final Four? He the coach of Yukon. I'm so happy. I'm going to get a Final Four banner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what? Tommy Lo is the head coach of Arizona. Listen, but he ain't the head coach of Michigan. So what? He ain't Coach K. He ain't trying to be political. He letting you know how he feels. That's all. That's what's the problem. What's the problem? Listen, are you salty? Are you salty because he said Duke come? Are you still salty about that? I'm just asking. No, no, no, no. Are you still salty because he said Duke come? I don't appreciate you trying to make it personal. I don't appreciate you trying to make it personal. Don't make it personal right here. Stay objective, damn it. Stay objective. There's no need for little subtle jabs here. Sorry, the weekend. Come on, man. I'm just saying, man. I'm just saying. Ain't that wrong with him saying that? And they say that. Ain't that wrong with him saying that? I mean, I understand. You know, I mean, Mullin's shot like sent y'all. Send Duke. I'm sorry, not you, but Duke home. They said Duke home. OK, you know, in that home right now, man, you know what? Everybody come to the Final Four to get the chip, right? But he said it, damn it. I like it. I ain't got no problems with that. Oh, OK. Well, first off, I have my championship. I'm OK. Oh, OK. OK. So you're that. OK, OK. Secondly, secondly, I have to say. They did deliver the ball. Let's get back to the point. Get back to the point. Would you be surprised? I had to go get it. We all had to go get it. You rocked it. Let's go. OK. Go ahead, Steven. Listen, man, I have no problem with it. I do think that you, Carl, may be the least talented or the crew, but the coaching of Danny Hurley, you know, be an opportunistic in a moment like Mullin's was. Stretching a game longer and exploiting your weaknesses, I think helps. I think that you, Carl, recognize that you had a cat in Canaan Boozer who was not the most experienced dude in the world. OK. Evans had just been coming back from injuries a game earlier, so ago. So you saw something to potentially exploit as you was creeping back into it. And you saw that, you know, particularly when you were 19 down, you got to get up in them and make it a physical fight. And the referees assisted in allowing that to happen, which is something one would argue a lot of ACC schools ain't accustomed to these days compared to the Big East, anyway, would say Jhaju Khan, et cetera. I just think that when I look at Dan Hurley, Illinois to me is a more talented team. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Illinois beat them. I'll admit that. But if there's a coach that can pull a rabbit out the hat, make the game, keep the game close and ultimately exploit a weakness that you see from an opponent, it would be you, Khan. So the word surprised, I think, is a bit too extreme when it comes to a Dan Hurley coached team that ain't against a Big East foe. I'm not sure you, Khan, would be here if they had to go against St. John's and the elite, instead of Duke, because of the familiarity factor and the way St. John stomped them in the Big East Championship. And Dan Hurley said himself, Jay, if you remember, he said, we're one of the best teams in the nation. This is our time of year when we don't, when we get to go against teams that are not in our conference. That was a big statement on his part because he was conceding essentially that the obvious, going against a team in your own conference who's very familiar with you, makes things a lot more difficult than we expect to experience during the NCAA tournament. None of these teams in the Final Four are Big East teams, but you, Khan, and I think Hurley likes it that way, and I think it's elevated and buffered this level of confidence. All right, so where you are right now, Jay Will, you're in Indianapolis. Monday is the national championship game. What two teams do you still think will be standing on Monday morning if we talk to you then? 9-1-1, where is the emergency? It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. I think it'll be Arizona and Yukon. Something about the way Arizona competes defensively, and I'm not saying that Michigan can't easily be in the final four, or the national championship, same with Illinois, because they could be. But I've been on Arizona since the beginning of the season. Now look, Michigan has the highest ceiling offensively, and at times, Arizona can get stuck. But the one thing you've seen, Elliott Caddow, who's had some challenges over the last several days of being hospitalized, and I'm glad he's okay, I feel like beating Michigan is taking out the head of the snake, and it starts with Elliott Caddow. And if you can do that, and if you can limit their three-point shots from them finding a rhythm, and make the game clunky in a half-court game, I do think there is an advantage to Arizona being able to do that. And back to Stephen A's point, I think Illinois, the more talented team, Keaton Wogler, exceptional talent, and David Murkovich also exceptional talent. But there's something about this destiny feel that UConn has for his third championship in four years. It feels like that will be ultimately the championship game, and it'll come down to the wire for both. Okay. Stephen A, you want to jump in here? You can save your picks for later. No, no, no. I mean, listen, this is television, and Jay is busy, because you know he's an indie, you know, preparing for final four coverage and all of that stuff, ready to do the exceptional job that he does. So he has to give his picks right now. Since I'm not going to be there, I'm going to wait until the end of the show to reveal my prediction over for the final four. I'll wait until the end. We got an hour and 40 minutes left. Okay, very good. I will say that, Jay. As a true TV veteran would do. Exactly. You know me and my Big Ten fandom. I pulled that message. I will be upset if the Big Ten does not win another championship. It's been since 2000. We got two teams, 50-50 chance. He's not even listening to me, because these two are just cracking up. I'm listening to you, Jay. You're not listening to me. You two are making jokes. I'm listening to you, Jay. Jay, I'm listening to you. I'm listening to you. You two text offline. Coming up here on First Take with Anthony Edwards falling below the 65-game threshold, will this rule ultimately devalue NBA awards going forward plus after the break? Legendary college basketball coach John Calipar is going to join First Take to tell us what single factor will determine this year's national champion. You're watching First Take presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance. First Take is presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. The winner goes to the final four. It ain't over, and it's over. Plattener puts it up. Two seconds. You're almost touches it. This is it. You've made it. The final four, where the only thing that matters as much as the championship game is reaching it. If you're going to dream, you might as well dream all the way. So, before you reach for the scissors, you need to reach within you. Lock in. If they can hit it, now come to the championship. And when your seconds away from that final buzzer, keep your composure. It could all come down to one moment. Oh, I have goosebumps. The final four is here. But you know, since Alex Carabam played his first tournament game in 2023, the Huskies are 17-1 in the NCAA tournament. They have won two national titles. Carabam's 17 wins are the most wins by any player in the Yukon tournament history. And he could become the first non-UCLA player to win three national championships. Tomorrow, that final four will begin from Indianapolis, which is where we find the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. Maybe you know him. His name's John Calipari. Very familiar with FinerFours, having coached six of them. Hi, coach. Good to see you. Jay, how are you? I'm great. Thank you very much. Look, we just laid out Yukon, Carabam, and all the success that they've had. You obviously, as I said, have coached in six Final Fours. Very familiar with this situation. What do you value more when it comes to this point in the season? Is it experience or is it talent? It has changed. So, normally I would say I'm taking talent every time. The problem is experience is now 25, 26-year-olds. So, you probably need a mix of both. My team that won it in 2012 had three freshmen, really a fourth freshman, and then three guys that were soft mowers and a senior. But back then, they said, you're kidding, win with three freshmen. A couple years later, we had five freshmen start, and we got to the final game. I'm not sure that can happen now. You're going to have to have some of your best players being veterans that have been through this to know you got to treat it like it's the next game. You can't make it bigger than it is. Coach, how do you feel? First of all, it's good to see you. Thank you for being here. How do you feel about 25, 26-year-olds playing college ball? Why don't you tell us that? My issue right now is we got to worry about 17, 18, and 19-year-olds. We can't not give them scholarships because we're waiting on a 25, 26-year-old that can help us win more. All of a sudden, how about if it's your child? And he's 17, 18, and he's worked his whole life, and he is a Division I player, but he can't get a scholarship because everybody's waiting on the older players. Or European players who have been in their pro leagues coming back because they can make more money in college, and now it's not healthy for an 18-year-old to play against a 25-year-old. So I think we got to get that in check. But right now, you're still playing. We had freshmen. We had some veteran guys on the team we just had. Arizona has it. It's where we're going, but we got to get this thing in check. And if we worry about young people and their opportunity for a college scholarship, we're going to be in better shape as a sport. Okay, so you just mentioned here. I'm looking at you. Go ahead, Stephen. Go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. But you mentioned Arizona. We'll get to the final four in a minute. But let's talk about your squad this year because all we talked about on this show for the longest was Darius Acuff Jr. and how impressive he was. This team and the way they battled, obviously, down the stretch, I know you had a bunch of injuries, but why should people be wanting to draft and get to know Darius? Well, first of all, the thing they don't know is he was hurt the last 12-15 games. His toe was really, he could have said, I'm done. I'm shutting it down. And there was no way he was going to shut it down. I made him sit a game late in the season. I tried to do it earlier and he looked at me. He had 50 minutes against Alabama. They fouled out four of my players. This kid fought to win that game, played all 50. We got home and I said, I'm not playing you the next game. Your toe, you're sitting out. And he's like, we just lost. I'm playing. And he got up and left. So here's a kid that's playing hurt that can play on the ball, can play off the ball. They talk about XYZ, but this guy is real. And I think if you pass on him as an NBA franchise, you will look back and say, what were we thinking? You will regret it. Listen, he could be the number one pick and value. He reminds me of Alan Orphson. I've said that no doubt about it. But coach, I might be one of the few people in the country that's more interested in talking about you than I am in talking about Darius A. Cup two. You know, you and I go back. You and I go back a long ways, coach. You remember I was covering Temple when you were at UMass. You know, I love you. My man, Bruiser Flit. That's my brother right there. Loving the depth. Your assistant. Here's the deal. I'm looking at a record. I'm looking at a coach that's won 76% of his games in his career. I'm looking at a coach that's got 905 career wins for crying out loud. I'm looking at a three-time Naismith coach of the year, four national players you've had in your squad, 16 conference players of the year, 21 conference freshmen or newcomers of the year, 43 first round NBA draft picks, four number one overall picks, 25 NCAA tournaments, 12 elite eights, 17 sweet 16s, six final fours, three national championship games. But in 34 years, it's one championship. And I'm going to ask you this question. When I looked at Arizona and how loaded they were, that's how I used to see John Calipari's teams. But he was the one that was loaded. Okay. I'm wondering, is there anything that you think you need to do to tweak what you have been doing since you haven't been in the final four since 2015? Or are you cool with exactly how you've been doing things? Well, first of all, probably could have used a couple more players. But what moves me the most, Stephen A, and you know this, because you've been around and you and I knew each other when we both had holes in our shoes. Okay. What moves me is developing young people, going in a home and seeing it and say, if we all do right, it's not going to be like this long. And that means you're doing it with young people. But look, I went with Nate Sistine. I went with Reed Travis, Jonas Hadoop, I'm Tray Mitchell. We brought in Nick Pringle, older players, Nellie Davis to go along with young players playing six, seven guys. I kind of like because they're all playing, they all get a chance. I mean, on this team, Billy Goat, Billy Richmond, come on. You have Malik Thomas, you have Trevon Brazil. These guys all helped themselves. DJ Wagner had more to do with us winning than people want to give credit. This kid did stuff. And then they all let the other guys play. Darius was able to be who Darius was. I don't want to get away from that. I'm not going to do this at the expense of young people. But yes, we're going to, we want transfers who want to come in that are coming for a reason. I want to finish my game off so I have a chance to do something special. And so, you know, but it's, look, will I try to take more? Maybe would I like to have maybe one more big guy? Yeah, maybe. But I'll tell you what, I was so proud of these kids. I feel good. I don't think I, maybe I do have more to prove that. But, you know, the people that have taken shots, you know what I say? I just need to outlive them. That's all. But, you know, people are going to take shots. He should have done this. I should have won as many championships as John Wooden. What? I'm John Calipari. I'm not John Wooden and I'm not Dean Smith and I'm not Mike Shyshevsky. I know who I am. I'm from Moontownship, Pennsylvania, played for Bill Sacco. I mean, I am who I am. And all I know is what moves me is seeing players get from point A to point B to point C and us being there with them. Do we, listen, I try to tell them, you get to a final four. It's going to help your draft position by five or six. You win the national title. When we won, we had the number one pick and the number two pick. Never happened in any other sport because we won the national title. So it does matter. Winning matters. And I know that and I coach to win, but not at the expense of the kids. Okay. And that's a terrific answer. And I, this, you've kind of mentioned a little bit, I think, in terms of transfers and things like that. But you moving throughout the SEC, going from Kentucky to Arkansas, is the vantage point. I know you're a head coach, but it's remarkable how you picked up right where you left off. Is the vantage point different from Fayetteville? How has it changed for you? It's a college town. The support, you know, the way they are. And I mean, we're building something. And we're not there yet. We want this to be even bigger for the fans, for the administration, for the school, for the state. And I'm having a ball trying it one more time. But again, this year was so fun because of the young people we coached. The young people were trying to help. And again, look, the kids that I've coached, I've had guys transfer. And that's fine. Now, not one that is transferred has been drafted yet. There's some out there that I feel would be drafted. But right now, you're better staying and fighting and doing your thing than transfer. And because they've never been drafted, that's just what it is. And again, I'm going to stay focused on these young people. And if I do that, I can keep doing what I'm doing. I am not going to be transactional. You put your name in the portal, you got to go somewhere. I'm not in this bidding war. If you want to be here, let's talk about it. But I have to have a team. It can't be one guy. And now, do we take care of our kids? Yes, we really do. But I'm saying in all this, I want to stay transformational. I don't want to be transactional. If I got to do that, I'd coach in the NBA. Well, I already got fired from there. And I played rookies in the NBA. Maybe that's why they fired me. But I am who I am. I'm not trying to change. I've been true to myself. I feel good about it. Could we have won more games? Yeah, we could also lost more games. But you know what? I think what I've done right by the kids, and that's where I'm focused on. Coach, we're getting back to the final four. Who do you think should be the favorites? Who do you think will be playing for the national title Monday night? Well, all I'll tell you is Danny, Brad, Dusty and Tommy have done unbelievable jobs. Michigan and Arizona, in that one game, I remember that being us in Kentucky when I was at UMass. That was like one in two had to play in a semi-final. Then Kentucky went on to play Miss, who'd they Syracuse? I think they'd be. But that game is going to be tough. But let me say this. Illinois is big and talented and can score with anybody. And right now when you watch Danny, they asked me about him. I said, the reason, again, he's doing such a great job. His will is stronger than any staff member, any player, his will and his ability to get them to believe and have his intensity. He's done a fabulous job. I don't know who's going to win this thing, but I know all four teams deserve to be here. Hell of a hell of an out cue there, coach. No player that has transferred has been drafted. Keep that one in your back pocket. That's a rally cry. I love it. Coach Cowley, appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time. Enjoy Indianapolis. See you, coach. Thanks. See you later. Coming up, major concerns out of LA with Luca going down last night with an injury. Look, how many teams are legit title contenders and are the Lakers? One of them. Plus with Anthony Edwards being the latest star to not be eligible for NBA awards. Will this ultimately diminish how we view such awards? That debate next. We are live on hockey aisle inside Riley's mind to bring you the first ever inside out classic for an NHL game unlike anything you've ever seen before. Capital Rangers on Disney Plus, Disney XD, Disney Channel and the ESPN app. Welcome back to first take with six games left in the regular season. The Timberwolves sat Anthony Edwards last night against the Pistons due to a right knee injury and an illness, which means he only played in 58 games that count toward the league's record and he now becomes ineligible for postseason awards. Ant-Man had played at least 70 games in his first five seasons in the league. So with Edwards ineligible for NBA awards, there are multiple other stars on the cusp of being ineligible for awards as well, including Kate Cunningham, Luca Donic and Wemby. Just to name a few, Perk is back here with us and Stephen and I ask you this, does this rule of them having to play a specific number of games devalue the postseason awards? Perhaps, but I don't care. I'm very, very happy and I hope that the players continue to complain about it. I hope they make all the noise in the world. I hope it makes them sick to their stomach. Because at that point, all it will do is provoke conversation and dialogue about why the rule came into existence to begin with. Thank you. The NBA had no desire to do this. The NBA had no desire to do it. What are you talking about here, Shay? So the NBA, which recently signed an 11-year, 77-billion dollar deal, okay, wants to implement a rule that will deny who's the legitimate MVP, who's the legitimate or NBA team, who's the legitimate whatever other award you want to pick. The NBA would want to compromise that? Of course they wouldn't. But this came into play because they had to find a way somehow to incentivize players to play because players were missing games, like it was going out of style and having no compunction about it. How many times, Shay? Big Perk, by the way, beautiful outfit today, by the way. I usually get on you without having to tie, but you're looking good today, my brother. So props to you. Here's the point that I'm trying to make to you, all right? I like the silk-looking material. Keep in mind, I'm going to copy it soon. But anyway, my point is this, back to the regularly scheduled programming. How many times have y'all watched a player not play but come out there with a smile on their face, inch-dreak clothes, not signing any autographs, not taking any pictures, jumping up and down, smiling, frat-nosing with the players, inch-dreak clothes while a paying customer came and didn't know they weren't going to be playing? How many times have we seen that throughout the years? The NBA had to do something. And so I get the part that there are things to complain about with the rule. I totally understand. I'm also saying that complaints are legitimate. I get that. Anthony Edwards is out with a legitimate injury. Steph Curry is Miss Games. Those are legitimate injuries. We get that. But on far too many occasions, Miss Games were questionable on the part of too many players. And as a result, the NBA felt compelled to step in because advertisers, sponsors, and patrons who patronized their product and their brand were making these complaints. They forced the NBA's hand. This is not the NBA's fault. These are the players and their respective teams. And we have to remember that. Really quick, Perk, before you go, Stephen, I just want to push back a little. Now, we did point out maybe it's some of the teams that make players sit, not always the players that want to sit. So wouldn't the teams be just as much at fault for this issue as well? I just said, I said the players, I said the players and the respective teams that they play. Okay. All right, go ahead, Perk. Yeah. Hell yeah. And listen, I love Greg Popovich. He's one of the greatest, if not greatest coaches to ever coach the game of basketball. But he's at fault here. He started the whole low management. That's how we got to this point. And then everybody else followed. And so this, this rule, I don't care. I don't care if this rule affects or devalues the awards because this rule was not put in place because of the awards. This rule was put in place for the fans, for justice for the fans, people who pay their hard earned money to come and watch players play. And all of a sudden they show up and these players are sitting out games because let me take you out behind the scenes of what happens before the season started. Before the season started, especially with some of these franchise players around the league, they get with their organization. They look at the schedule throughout the course of the whole season and they actually were planning games that they were going to miss and sit out. Whether it was back to back to whatever the case may be. This rule has, is a rule that holds guys accountable. This, because people were starting, the players and organizations were starting to disrespect the greats that came before them. Guys that paved the way like Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, the list goes on that will took pride in playing games every single night. And I'm going to say this, this falls under the same category to me as the whole tanking situation. I'm putting it all in one basket. Like it's another thing that we're going to have to address because you're also cheating the fans. And we hear in the rumors, we hear in the whispers about the Bucks and Yanis not being on the same page right now because Yanis wants to play. The Bucks don't want them to play. It brings me to a story real quick. Do you know the reason why Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves ended their relationship when KG was playing? Was because KG was in the locker room one day about to put on his jersey and get ready to run out on the floor. And they came in and told Kevin Garnett, you're not playing tonight. And he said, what? You're not playing tonight. You know why? Because they were trying to tank. They didn't want to win games. And that ended the relationship. So it's so many areas that we could dive into when it comes to these rules. But I'm with Stephen A. I don't give a damn if they doing all the crying with the babies go do. Leave some room for the babies. Look, I agree with you. It's getting outrageous. Let me put something in perspective, Shay. In 15 seasons, Michael Jordan played 80 games, at least 80 games, 11 times, 11 out of 15 years. Okay. 11 times. Kobe Bryant did it six times. Do you want me to blow you all away with another stat? Shaquille O'Neal did it three times. Shaquille O'Neal, 7-1, 3-40, 3-50, played at least 80 games in a season three times. How many of these dudes have done that? Yeah, there you go. Here are some players that are close to becoming ineligible. We have Cade coming him, Nikola Jokic, Kawhi Leonard, and then Victor Wimonyama can only miss two more games, or he would become ineligible. Now, I don't know that that's going to happen with five or six left to go, but something to keep in mind. Coming up, how many legit title contenders are in the NBA right this second? Stephen A. and Perk, very far apart on this one. Plus, could we see the Yukon men and women both win the national championship game for a third time in history? Chenaya Goomacay and Seth Greenberg are coming through.