And then let's just go macro.

Because as crazy as it is to say, I mean, honestly, talking about Duke is more interesting than talking about the 68 teams that are actually going to make this tournament and have a chance to cut down the Nets in Indianapolis.

That's just the way the Duke is a couple of points here on Duke.

And then let's get to a real issue that a lot of conferences and teams are struggling with.

Ethically, I know we're talking about college sports guys getting paid.

What does ethically have to do with it?

Give me one minute here.

Here's the thing with Duke J.

You know this, and this is to accentuate the greatness of Coach K.

People are wondering what's going on.

Last couple recruiting classes haven't been up to snuff.

I will mention they're coming off of RJ, Cam and Zion, so I don't know how you can go higher than that.

But a couple of things I wanted to just mention everybody's saying do is going to miss the tournament for the first time since 1995 and that actually is true.

Um, but J.

You know this in 1995 Coach K stepped away to have back surgery.

People don't remember.

This is 25 years ago.

Coach K stepped away to have back surgery, and when he left, there were nine and three.

He was replaced for the season by a guy named Pete.

God.

It was a very elderly guy.

He was on the staff, one of the lower level assistance.

Duke missed the tournament.

He coached about 17 games.

They went four and 13.

They finished under 500.

People don't remember this.

This was a quarter century ago.

So I'm not laying this on Mr God.

It by no means.

But the last time Duke missed the N.

C.

A.

A tournament where Kay was there the whole way, 82 83.

Just let that marinate in your mind for a second.

Yes, they missed it in 95.

And yes, it's on Coach K's record because you coached the 1st 12 games.

But when he had the back surgery the rest of the season, the majority of the season was coached by somebody else.

The last fully coached Mike Wazowski team to miss the N.

C.

a A tournament.

1982 83 95 is impressive.

Don't get me wrong.

95 is super impressive.

82 83 is something else.

The last thing I would say do.

Getting in.

What's the deal?

You know what I would say?

What is key?

It's the Cowboy sneaking in at nine and seven in the playoffs, right?

They're not gonna win, but it's still the Cowboys, and we're still gonna watch.

And it's still going to be super highly rated Dukes the same thing.

Maybe it's a one and done, but you never know Jake.

Two words.

Rasheed Sulaimon, right?

They lost them.

What happened to write?

You always want to, Brandon, but But I just I think that's also part of the reason where, even though they may be 13 and 11, how good are they?

It's still Duke.

It's still going to be absolutely Jim Nance and Bill Raftery, CBS in the best slot because it's Duke, and that's why them not being in the tournament is hurtful.

No, it it is, and Jay knows this from a recruiting standpoint.

No matter when they coaches coming to Jim, you can have all them little logos on every shirt when they see that Duke Blue Devil.

For whatever reason, people eyeballs pop out.

I don't want to grant Hill out of that.

Sorry, Grant Hill, also one of the greatest Dukies of all time, Of course.

So here's the bigger issue, and I want to get J your thought on this because I mean, you guys are punching your ticket to the tournament, and obviously your only goal was to win it every year.

Seth Greenberg, your old partner.

ESPN's college GameDay was on yesterday during the Big 12 tournament when all of this was broached.

The Duke positive test comes out there out, and Seth broach something, he said.

If you're a team like Gonzaga or Baylor, this is hypothetically because Gonzaga's tournament has ended.

But if you're a team that you know no matter what, you're going to the N c.

A.

A tournament with a chance to win it all, why in the world would you risk your N C A A tournament chances by playing in a conference tournament?

That really probably means nothing for you.

The virus controls us.

We don't control the virus.

The virus is undefeated, but Now we've got to look forward because you've got to understand how Louisville, who's a bubble team, will probably an N C double A tournament team.

They have a contact trace.

They have to have seven days of negative test to get into the N C double A bubble.

So here's my question for your fans.

If you're Baylor, if you're Michigan, if you're a team that you know we're going to compete for a national championship, you're about to travel to your conference tournament.

Do you play because you're putting your team at risk?

If winning a national championship is your goal, All right, Are you willing to put your team at risk?

Something that's out of your control?

It's a fair question.

J.

It really is.

I have no problem with teams.

Want to opt out?

You wouldn't hear me up here on our platform complaining about it.

They're making the best decision.

What's in their interests to win the long game.

But at the same time, I'm sure a lot of coaches and players think this way to these conference tournaments are tune ups to get you ready for the N C double A tournament, so to go through some of those battles.

Those in game experiences help you when you get to March Madness.

But if you want to take two weeks off and get ready for March Madness, you won't hear me complain about it.

Whatever strategy helps you get to your goal, which is winning a national championship so you don't have contact.

Tracing issues like Louisville potentially will have.

I'm all for it.

Key.

Yeah, it's weird to me because I heard what Coach said, and I heard what J just said.

But when I think about teams that are skipping the conference championship games to advance, go ahead and rest up to get ready for the tournament.

I go back to like individual athletes that opt out to get ready to make their money.

They're protecting what they need to write.

No, I'm just No, no, I hear it.

It's OK for a team to opt out of paying 14, opt out for a conference tournament to get ready to do what for the school win a championship.

But the moment that a player decides I'm done because I got to get ready to protect my family for the rest of my life.

Everybody seems to go crazy.

I just cannot.

Can I say something because you bring up such a great point?

And I don't know if you guys saw the news about Michigan State.

I know we discussed it, and Michigan State will be a tournament team.

Guess we can't refer to them anymore as the Michigan State Spartans.

We have to refer to them as the Michigan State Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage.

I want you to know how we constantly we're still trying to get name, image and likeness.

Push the van ski instead of sitting on their hands about that.

But we are allowing schools to change up their name.

We're not going to call them the Michigan State Spartans anymore.

For basketball.

We call the Michigan State Spartans, presented by Rocket Mortgage.

But we want to kill kids like Jaylin Johnson, who decides to opt out.

He's quitting on his team well, our teams quitting on their conference if they opt out their conference tournaments because that's a huge revenue generator for them.

Even if we're not having fans in the stands, there still TV deals, you don't think we want to see Michigan and Illinois go for the Big 10 championship in Michigan, opts out.

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