00:00:00
Speaker 1: Twenty four after five o'clock. This is the ESPN fifteen thirty Earnston Associate's Final Four Show, presented by Duimatt dot Com live from the Airport Gain and Body broadcast area here in Indianapolis. Our show today is also sponsored by LinkedIn Ads. Reach your buyers with LinkedIn Ads. Spend two hundred and fifty dollars and get a two hundred and fifty dollars credit for your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn dot com slash college basketball terms apply. You'll hear them this weekend calling the Final Four for Westwood One, which those broadcasts are heard on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. Former produced star Robbie Hummel you also see on the Big Ten Network CBS. His rise to one of the top college basketball analyst spots has been pretty meteoric. I want to start though, before we talk about this weekend. You had your first ever Skyline Chile Crosstown shootout this past December. You called UC and Xavier with Brian Anderson for TNT. You've been a part of a lot of great rivalry games, You've called great rivalry games, But what was your first shootout experience?
00:01:04
Speaker 2: Like, Well, I've always had an appreciation from Afar of this game because just in terms of when I was in college watching the Yancy Gates to Holloway and I did my pre draft stuff with twos, so I got to know him pretty well. And you know, just from following both programs and being a Midwest kid and you know, appreciating good basketball and seeing a rivalry where the schools really don't like each other. It's one of the great rivalries in college basketball, and it's definitely one that does not get talked nearly enough about.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: You know, Xavier and Cincinnati.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: Have great histories, There's been great players, and you know, just walking into that building, you could feel how electric it was. And you know, I know that for Cincinnati it wasn't the season they were hoping for and for Xavier there's a lot of hope with Richard Patino.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: But I loved it. I had a great time.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: It was great to be with Brian Anderson, who's one of the better play by play guys in the game.
00:01:53
Speaker 3: And it just felt like a big game. It really did.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's a pretty cool thing to say about a rivalry when honestly, the teams are down compared to what they've been at their best.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: So I hope I could do it again. I really do hope.
00:02:05
Speaker 4: So So your career is interesting to me because remembering you as a player, you pivoted pretty quickly from playing to broadcasting.
00:02:12
Speaker 3: Walk me through that.
00:02:13
Speaker 1: Well.
00:02:13
Speaker 2: I hated playing overseas, so I went as a rookie. I got drafted by the Timberwolves in the second round, fifty eighth, and I go to Spain. Play you have a really good season, come back play two years for the Timberwolves.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: Go to Milan.
00:02:24
Speaker 2: I played for Armani's basketball team that he owned and ended up hurting my shoulder, came back, had surgery, got healthy once with the Nuggets, was the last cut in training camp, went to Moscow, and Moscow like broke me.
00:02:38
Speaker 3: Now.
00:02:38
Speaker 2: When I was in Milan, I had hurt my shoulder and had to come home in January, had shoulder surgery, tore my labrum, and Big ten Network reached out. I was like, would you want to do some studio? So this is like twenty sixteen, and I did ten studio and it ended up being something I'm like, you know, I'd done the NBA sportscaster for you, and now I've got this under my belt, and you know what I'm gonna kind of when I was in Moscow, I couldn't not go back overseas, and I wasn't gonna be in the NBA anymore. So I made the decision to you know, I auditioned to ESPN and got on there, and Miles Simon had just taken a job, so they had their an opening for their like second Big twelve crew and a little bit of Big ten, and then I was at BTN and doing those games and it just kind of worked out from there.
00:03:17
Speaker 3: But it was I fell into it for sure, I really did.
00:03:21
Speaker 4: I love talking with players about their overseas experiences. I've never talked to anybody who's played in Moscow. Yeah, walk me through that experience.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: Well, I landed and I cried. So it was snowing so hard. I mean, it's so cold in Moscow. But you know, some of the corruption is crazy. You know, our owner admitted to bribing the refs in a playoff series. I'm sure they were doing the same thing. So it's just it's an experience and it's a different one. But you know, I have good stories.
00:03:53
Speaker 4: But I would not want to go back understand, understand, let's talk about these games this weekend. You know you have a big ten focus. Illinois, to me, the most impressive thing I've seen anybody do in this tournament. You may disagree, is I watched Illinois out Houston. Houston guarded the heck guy, and to me, that answered a lot of questions about brand Unwoods team.
00:04:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think their defense has made such strides in the last month and a half. Now it will be a different beast against Connecticut with the movement, the cutting, the screening, the slipping, like just the discipline it takes to switch off the ball against those guys and not.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: Just get slipped into oblivion.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: But the way they guarded Houston, the way they guarded Iowa, and those aren't two offensive juggernauts, but they handled Houston's toughness and they really withstood a barrage of threes in that first half from Iowa and just were the toughest team in Houston.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: So I'm curious to see if their defense can.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: Travel again and with standard and offense that can be so potent with a coach like Danny Hurley. And I'm also curious if you can remount with these guys. I mean, Illinois just goes and goes and goes to the offensive glass. It's their wings, you know. It's it's hard to keep those guys off the glass. So I'm really intrigued by the Caravan Mierkavic matchup. Americavich more interior, Caraban. We're on the perimeter, a great cutter, you know, running off screens. I'm intrigued to see if Mirkavich can handle over and on the flip side, if Caraban can guard Mirikovich on the interior.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: Sure.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, you think Michigan, you think Arizona just two wagons, you know, Arizona. Watching Cincinnati the way I did this season, I don't know how you begin to prepare for everything they do. And then Michigan with Landenborg, the size, the depth, the different things they can do offensively. I think it's one of the most interesting just battles matchups we've had in a Final four National semifinal in quite a while.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's just it's two elite teams and two of the best teams that we've had all season long. The front courts are stacked. I mean you're looking at Krevas Pete Awaka and Karchenkov going up against the Daimar Mores Johnson, the actual Levon Boar like that is as good as it's going to be in the entirety of the sport. You know, you look at the back and if you're talking about just the one in the two, I do think Arizona has the advant Jade Bradley, the Big Twelve Player of the Year, Bradon Burry's is gonna be a lottery pick. And for Michigan, they've got really good players. Cano's hit a great year and Marrion Burnet's hit a great year. But you probably look at the overall talent you say that'd be advantaced to Arizona. So I'm curious to see if Michigan's guards can raise their level. And that calculus can be a bit different if you throw Lendeborg in there and say he's in the back court. But you know, you're just talking about two teams that are so immune from poor three point shooting because they live on the offensive glass, they live in the paint, they get to the foul line. They've got big time defenses. Michigan the best defense in the country. The variance of shooting is really not. They're Arizona doesn't have to take them, and Michigan can make them. They they'll take a ton, but they they can get going from three. It'll be an awesome game. Who can be the more physical team and kind of set the tone in the Paint on the Glass.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: Robbie Hummell, the former produced Star color analysts for the Final Four on Westwood One. You'll hear those broad cast tomorrow and Monday on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. It is a twenty nine away from six o'clock. We're broadcasting from Radio Row in Indianapolis. We've got good news from Texas and a college basketball coach with an interesting story whose career came to an end at the hands of the Bearcats.
00:07:18
Speaker 5: That is next.
00:07:18
Speaker 1: It's the ESPN fifteen thirty Ernst An Associate's Final Four show, presented by Duy Matt dot Com. Relyve from the airport, Paint and Body broadcast area here in Indianapolis on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
00:07:31
Speaker 4: Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic co mean.
00:07:37
Speaker 5: You see health Traffic Center. When it comes to your health, a big diagnosis can be big decisions. Get a second opinion from that expert you can trust. You see health and explore your options. Visit you seehealth dot com.
00:07:49
Speaker 6: Watch out for that ongoing accident that has the left lane block on seventy five soundbound at their Western Avenue Police on the same beware of delays. And you have a disabled vehicle that has the right lane block tenty five souths bound that Fort Washington Way amand you jones with traffic.
00:08:04
Speaker 3: This report is sponsored
Speaker 1: Twenty four after five o'clock. This is the ESPN fifteen thirty Earnston Associate's Final Four Show, presented by Duimatt dot Com live from the Airport Gain and Body broadcast area here in Indianapolis. Our show today is also sponsored by LinkedIn Ads. Reach your buyers with LinkedIn Ads. Spend two hundred and fifty dollars and get a two hundred and fifty dollars credit for your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn dot com slash college basketball terms apply. You'll hear them this weekend calling the Final Four for Westwood One, which those broadcasts are heard on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. Former produced star Robbie Hummel you also see on the Big Ten Network CBS. His rise to one of the top college basketball analyst spots has been pretty meteoric. I want to start though, before we talk about this weekend. You had your first ever Skyline Chile Crosstown shootout this past December. You called UC and Xavier with Brian Anderson for TNT. You've been a part of a lot of great rivalry games, You've called great rivalry games, But what was your first shootout experience?
00:01:04
Speaker 2: Like, Well, I've always had an appreciation from Afar of this game because just in terms of when I was in college watching the Yancy Gates to Holloway and I did my pre draft stuff with twos, so I got to know him pretty well. And you know, just from following both programs and being a Midwest kid and you know, appreciating good basketball and seeing a rivalry where the schools really don't like each other. It's one of the great rivalries in college basketball, and it's definitely one that does not get talked nearly enough about.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: You know, Xavier and Cincinnati.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: Have great histories, There's been great players, and you know, just walking into that building, you could feel how electric it was. And you know, I know that for Cincinnati it wasn't the season they were hoping for and for Xavier there's a lot of hope with Richard Patino.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: But I loved it. I had a great time.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: It was great to be with Brian Anderson, who's one of the better play by play guys in the game.
00:01:53
Speaker 3: And it just felt like a big game. It really did.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's a pretty cool thing to say about a rivalry when honestly, the teams are down compared to what they've been at their best.
00:02:02
Speaker 3: So I hope I could do it again. I really do hope.
00:02:05
Speaker 4: So So your career is interesting to me because remembering you as a player, you pivoted pretty quickly from playing to broadcasting.
00:02:12
Speaker 3: Walk me through that.
00:02:13
Speaker 1: Well.
00:02:13
Speaker 2: I hated playing overseas, so I went as a rookie. I got drafted by the Timberwolves in the second round, fifty eighth, and I go to Spain. Play you have a really good season, come back play two years for the Timberwolves.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: Go to Milan.
00:02:24
Speaker 2: I played for Armani's basketball team that he owned and ended up hurting my shoulder, came back, had surgery, got healthy once with the Nuggets, was the last cut in training camp, went to Moscow, and Moscow like broke me.
00:02:38
Speaker 3: Now.
00:02:38
Speaker 2: When I was in Milan, I had hurt my shoulder and had to come home in January, had shoulder surgery, tore my labrum, and Big ten Network reached out. I was like, would you want to do some studio? So this is like twenty sixteen, and I did ten studio and it ended up being something I'm like, you know, I'd done the NBA sportscaster for you, and now I've got this under my belt, and you know what I'm gonna kind of when I was in Moscow, I couldn't not go back overseas, and I wasn't gonna be in the NBA anymore. So I made the decision to you know, I auditioned to ESPN and got on there, and Miles Simon had just taken a job, so they had their an opening for their like second Big twelve crew and a little bit of Big ten, and then I was at BTN and doing those games and it just kind of worked out from there.
00:03:17
Speaker 3: But it was I fell into it for sure, I really did.
00:03:21
Speaker 4: I love talking with players about their overseas experiences. I've never talked to anybody who's played in Moscow. Yeah, walk me through that experience.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: Well, I landed and I cried. So it was snowing so hard. I mean, it's so cold in Moscow. But you know, some of the corruption is crazy. You know, our owner admitted to bribing the refs in a playoff series. I'm sure they were doing the same thing. So it's just it's an experience and it's a different one. But you know, I have good stories.
00:03:53
Speaker 4: But I would not want to go back understand, understand, let's talk about these games this weekend. You know you have a big ten focus. Illinois, to me, the most impressive thing I've seen anybody do in this tournament. You may disagree, is I watched Illinois out Houston. Houston guarded the heck guy, and to me, that answered a lot of questions about brand Unwoods team.
00:04:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think their defense has made such strides in the last month and a half. Now it will be a different beast against Connecticut with the movement, the cutting, the screening, the slipping, like just the discipline it takes to switch off the ball against those guys and not.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: Just get slipped into oblivion.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: But the way they guarded Houston, the way they guarded Iowa, and those aren't two offensive juggernauts, but they handled Houston's toughness and they really withstood a barrage of threes in that first half from Iowa and just were the toughest team in Houston.
00:04:41
Speaker 3: So I'm curious to see if their defense can.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: Travel again and with standard and offense that can be so potent with a coach like Danny Hurley. And I'm also curious if you can remount with these guys. I mean, Illinois just goes and goes and goes to the offensive glass. It's their wings, you know. It's it's hard to keep those guys off the glass. So I'm really intrigued by the Caravan Mierkavic matchup. Americavich more interior, Caraban. We're on the perimeter, a great cutter, you know, running off screens. I'm intrigued to see if Mirkavich can handle over and on the flip side, if Caraban can guard Mirikovich on the interior.
00:05:15
Speaker 3: Sure.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, you think Michigan, you think Arizona just two wagons, you know, Arizona. Watching Cincinnati the way I did this season, I don't know how you begin to prepare for everything they do. And then Michigan with Landenborg, the size, the depth, the different things they can do offensively. I think it's one of the most interesting just battles matchups we've had in a Final four National semifinal in quite a while.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's just it's two elite teams and two of the best teams that we've had all season long. The front courts are stacked. I mean you're looking at Krevas Pete Awaka and Karchenkov going up against the Daimar Mores Johnson, the actual Levon Boar like that is as good as it's going to be in the entirety of the sport. You know, you look at the back and if you're talking about just the one in the two, I do think Arizona has the advant Jade Bradley, the Big Twelve Player of the Year, Bradon Burry's is gonna be a lottery pick. And for Michigan, they've got really good players. Cano's hit a great year and Marrion Burnet's hit a great year. But you probably look at the overall talent you say that'd be advantaced to Arizona. So I'm curious to see if Michigan's guards can raise their level. And that calculus can be a bit different if you throw Lendeborg in there and say he's in the back court. But you know, you're just talking about two teams that are so immune from poor three point shooting because they live on the offensive glass, they live in the paint, they get to the foul line. They've got big time defenses. Michigan the best defense in the country. The variance of shooting is really not. They're Arizona doesn't have to take them, and Michigan can make them. They they'll take a ton, but they they can get going from three. It'll be an awesome game. Who can be the more physical team and kind of set the tone in the Paint on the Glass.
00:06:53
Speaker 1: Robbie Hummell, the former produced Star color analysts for the Final Four on Westwood One. You'll hear those broad cast tomorrow and Monday on Fox Sports thirteen sixty. It is a twenty nine away from six o'clock. We're broadcasting from Radio Row in Indianapolis. We've got good news from Texas and a college basketball coach with an interesting story whose career came to an end at the hands of the Bearcats.
00:07:18
Speaker 5: That is next.
00:07:18
Speaker 1: It's the ESPN fifteen thirty Ernst An Associate's Final Four show, presented by Duy Matt dot Com. Relyve from the airport, Paint and Body broadcast area here in Indianapolis on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports.
00:07:31
Speaker 4: Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic co mean.
00:07:37
Speaker 5: You see health Traffic Center. When it comes to your health, a big diagnosis can be big decisions. Get a second opinion from that expert you can trust. You see health and explore your options. Visit you seehealth dot com.
00:07:49
Speaker 6: Watch out for that ongoing accident that has the left lane block on seventy five soundbound at their Western Avenue Police on the same beware of delays. And you have a disabled vehicle that has the right lane block tenty five souths bound that Fort Washington Way amand you jones with traffic.
00:08:04
Speaker 3: This report is sponsored
