P.J. Carlesimo
speaker
83 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard 30 Apr
P.J. Carlesimo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 1.
Appearances
All right.
It's crazy.
Good to be with you, brother. This is, uh, you know, we, we both did time at ESPN. This is the nicest thing they do for me. They let me go for three weeks to do the, uh, the tournament every year for Westwood one. And it gives me my college fix. I love it. Uh, I had been doing PAC 12 tournament.
It seems like for six, eight, 10 years, I don't even know, but obviously this year they put me back into big East, which was kind of, kind of fun being back in the garden. I hadn't been at the big East tournament in a long time, but, uh, I lucked out. We got Seattle the first round, so it was a home game. Now we got San Francisco, the West Region before, and San Antonio.
There's enough places I've been fired.
I thought for a lot of the year, I actually thought it was Auburn. I hadn't seen them in person, which is all, you know, again, I don't see as many in person. And it's hard. It's different. I don't I don't know why, but it's just different sitting there seeing the quickness, seeing a team. And like, you know, I came out of the Big East tournament feeling I really knew those teams.
I had watched a lot of games before going in. I thought it was Auburn early. Then they kind of slid. I haven't seen Duke much, but like kind of the consensus and people I talk to, most people feel it's Duke's to lose. Like if Duke plays that, that they're, they're good enough to win the whole thing. Florida has really come on. Everybody's talking about them right now.
Danny Hurley, my old buddy, had them on the ropes. I actually thought UConn was going to get them. They played so well, but I'm anxious to see Todd. I've known Todd for a long time. He was at Columbia. He was assistant at USF, Todd Golden. But I'll tell you what, we were with Maryland for four days here in Seattle. Maryland's very, very good. They're very solid. They play both ends of the floor.
I don't know if they're underrated, defensively, they're a really good defensive team. Everybody keeps saying they only have five starters. Their bench is not very good, but their five starters are damn good. I like them a lot. I just have kind of a feeling that one of the old horses is going to make some noise, either Izzo or Kelvin Sampson.
I'm just probably pulling because they're closer to me in age than anybody else. But hopefully one of those two guys, Michigan State or Houston, will do some damage.
He's a machine. It doesn't matter now. They change conferences. Everybody goes, oh, how are they going to adjust to the Big 12? They've owned it since they went into the Big 12. He loses guys. It doesn't matter. He's an exceptional coach. He drives his – he's got a great rapport with his players. I don't want to say they allow him, but, I mean, he is tough. He's on them.
If you go to their practices, their shoot arounds, there's no middle ground. Like if they don't do what he wants, he's very direct. He tells them, but they, you know, they love him too. His son is excellent, which really helps an awful lot. He's always had a good staff. He's losing Qantas this year. They defend and they rebound. St. John's was very much like them, right? I knew St.
John's had to dodge a bullet somewhere. They shoot the ball so poorly. And I thought if they got a bad whistle somewhere along, a tight whistle, I shouldn't say a bad whistle. I thought if they got a tight whistle somewhere along the way, that was the game they were going to have to find a way. There always seems to be one if you're,
good enough to get to the final four, you know, and play five or six games. You got to dodge a bullet somewhere. And that was St. John's bullet against Arkansas. And they couldn't do it, but they're very, very similar. They turn you over. Their best offense is points off turnovers and offensive rebounds. Kelvin's got an expression.
He talks about six hands, you know, those three guys up climbing on the glass with their each of them with two hands up in the air. They're not a good, they're a great rebounding team, especially offensively. So they generate points. They guard the hell out of you. He always has very, very good athleticism overall.
He's got length, may not necessarily have seven footers, but he's got length and he's got jumping ability and they're strong. They get after you. He's played small guards. That hasn't made any difference. We were in, I think it was the South region. I was in Dallas last year. with Raph and those guys, and Ryan Radke and I were there. I thought they were coming out of that, and then Shed got hurt.
And that kept them – I thought that kept them last year. He was their best player. Kept them from going to the Final Four. I remember him in Indianapolis. I mean, it just seems every year we have Kelvin in the round of 16 and often enough in the Final Four. But he's an exceptional coach. I mean, you know, he's very good technically. But, you know, most guys are. It's what you get your guys to do.
Those guys just play for him. And they play at home. They play on the road. They can play, you know, smart teams that slow the game down. They can play teams that go up and down quick. It doesn't seem to matter. He's really, really good at adjusting. I mean, it's almost like a season starts and you put down 30 wins for Houston and they're going to be in a sweet 16.
Let's see what happens after that.
For sure. I'll do a disclaimer first. I know the SEC the least of all. I just see them the least of all. Having been back in the Big East and watching, I'm telling you, Rye, if doing games, the few games I did this year around the country, if the referees from these other leagues refereed any of the games in the Big East Conference, they would think they're in a different planet.
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