Final Four Voice, IAN EAGLE, on the Utterly Impossible

A single shot can freeze time, but the real madness is everything that happens before the ball ever leaves a player’s hands. We walk through the kind of endgame sequence that breaks your brain as a fan: no clean foul-and-free-throw script, possessions flipping in a blur, and a finish so pure it barely seems real. Along the way, we dig into how those moments get called on TV, why a great broadcast booth knows when to stop talking, and how trust between voices turns chaos into a memorable call. 

Then we widen the lens to the Final Four and the coaching stories that shape March Madness. We talk UConn basketball through the prism of Dan Hurley: polarizing, unapologetic, and undeniably effective, with routines and superstitions that have become part of his identity and preparation. We also give Brad Underwood his due, from the grind of junior college to a first Final Four run, and what makes Illinois basketball dangerous when it can score from everywhere and truly believes it can win a national championship. 

Finally, we preview a matchup built on force: Arizona vs Michigan as a frontcourt collision where size, strength, and counter moves decide the rhythm. If you love college basketball strategy, March Madness storytelling, and the craft of play-by-play from voices like Ian Eagle, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with your bracket group, and leave a review. Which Final Four matchup are you most excited to watch?

Transcript

The Shot That Shocked Everyone

Mike Grace 0:48

Lead announcer now for the NBA on uh Amazon Prime as well, because he's got nothing else going on. And again, the uh final four this weekend, hanging out with Mike Grace, Mike Moat, and Bart Heich. Uh, we were worried about uh not used so much Ian, but uh Bill Raftery after that play the game. We thought we might lose Bill uh with all the excitement that was going on there. But but maybe he was better capable to handle it than any of us. I don't know, maybe so.

Calling Chaos In A Three-Person Booth

Ian Eagle 1:12

Yeah, I I can assure you I've now spoken to Bill twice. He's good. Everything is fine, all the vital signs are good, and he will be in Indianapolis. But I think Bill and Grant's reaction mirrored that of the viewing public. Yeah. An absolute state of shock at the sequence. It's one thing for the shot to go in, which was obviously uh an all-time moment, but to me, what separates it is everything that led up to it. Anyone that's watched basketball, certainly anyone that's called basketball, you anticipate a foul game in that situation. You anticipate lengthening the game any way that you can if you're Yukon, and you expect to maybe catch your breath. Okay, they go to the free throw line, Duke, they make them both, it's a four-point game. They make one out of two, it's a three-point game, and the door is still open. They make zero out of two, maybe Yukon has a chance to win it. The last thing that you think is going to happen is a frenetic sequence that leads to Duke on offense and Yukon on defense, flip it, Yukon on offense, Duke on defense, and then uh about as perfect a shot as I've ever seen go through the net. That did not hit any portion of the rim. That was as pure as pure can be for Braylon Mullins.

Bart Hyche 2:38

So in that booth, and I and I I've just I've watched it so many times. There's so many things when I saw you were coming up. Well, uh Bill Raptory is my idol as a color guy. I mean, he's he's my that's it. I mean, I he's a he is. I mean, he's like one of the best honors was me meeting him in Tampa and just like getting to shake his hand and say, Man, hey, thank you for shaping my childhood in the living room. And you do that too, obviously. But my thing is like the dynamic iron of one, you let it breathe enough, and then you just take the mark, which means madness and but granted Duke guy, you know, I mean he said my question to you is how do you know with a three-man boost? Like it's your booth, but like I is is that just organically created like it was this time, or does is that Bill's how does that work? Because I've never really done a lot of three-man boots. And that and that's testy. Not testy, but tricky.

How Combacks Really Get Built

Ian Eagle 3:36

Yeah, tricky. Yeah, it's tricky. I think uh for for me at least and the three-man booth that I've worked with, there there's no point, at least in my opinion, where you decide, hey, I'll touch your shoulder, I'll give you a hand signal to speak, I'll let you know, I'll give you the Heisman when to stop speaking. It has to happen naturally. And it it does go to a genuine place with the three of us and extending into Tracy that there's a trust level there, uh, there's a sense of nobody is trying to be a solo artist. It's all about the collaborative process. And I can tell you, look, the camera's on them there. And and the only reason the camera wasn't on me, which is hilarious, is the ball got knocked out of bounds with about four minutes left in the second half, and it hit that mounted camera and shifted it over so that it was just Grant and Bill in the shot. And then you see a smidgen of me. Uh, if you watch it, and you're right, it's very nuanced, it's very layered, there's a lot going on there. As the steal happens and Yukon comes up with a ball, Grant hits my midsection and then leans in as the shot goes in, and then his hand goes to his mouth because he's a gape in shock. Bill is watching it and then looks at the monitor, and they both have the presence of mind to lay out for a moment, let the sound take over, and then Bill with a line that everybody is thinking in in that moment, utterly impossible, because it felt utterly impossible. And then I just felt like it needed a period, some kind of button on the back end. Just got it in there, man. What we just watched. Yeah, it was it it it truly was like one of those once-in-a-lifetime type of situations that you get in this tournament. And the other part that that I always love, you guys pay attention and and you're following this throughout the season, and there are names that pop up, and maybe it sticks with you, maybe it doesn't. But for most people, they did not know the name Raylon Mullins. They had not heard of him. Yeah, people in Indiana knew it, people in Connecticut knew it, some really big college basketball fans knew it. But the fact that his name will live forever now within college basketball lore, that's to me what this crazy manic month is all about.

Mike Mote 6:09

Well, you think about guys like Bryce Drew, you know, in the miracle shot in 1998. Guys like that. I mean, yeah, we've got Tate George from Connecticut circa 1990, you know. Nobody knew those names until those moments, right? And of course, Bryce Drew went on to be a coach and all that stuff. But and Homer Drew, everybody knew him because he was a legendary coach at Valpo and all that. But, you know, like you said, Braylon Mullins, nobody knew who he was until that game. But I'll tell you what, you go back and look, he made some big plays, along with you know, Terrence, Terrace Reed. You know, everybody's talking about Alex Caravan, who had a terrible game. He made one or I think one three in the whole game. But yet, Connecticut is just it's the typical thing, Ian, where if you keep playing and the way that they set this up, really over the last 10 to 12 minutes of regulation where they even were in a position to win the game. So I thought it was a great job of coaching by Danny Hurley just to get them to the point where you could have a moment like that. It doesn't happen without what they did the last 10 minutes of that game.

Ian Eagle 7:16

Completely agree. You could go back and look at a play that Solo Ball made, driving to the rim and then getting fouled. You could look at the the two threes that uh Demory made when they needed it most. The caravan three that you alluded to, they're down by four. It's under a minute to play. He hits a three to cut it to one, and it does change the complexion of the game. Duke went down and scored with Boozer, so that brought it to a three-point game, and then the foul, which really isn't talked about, it was inexplicable. It wasn't like Demory was driving to the rim, it wasn't as if Demery was attacking the rim. Boozer just fouled him out to the left side of the paint with 10 seconds on the clock. They weren't, in my mind, executing a very good half-court set. They used a lot of time and they really had nothing going on. It was a complete bailout by Duke. It goes unnoticed because we had the theatrics afterwards. But yeah, let's face it, guys, if you try to break down the anatomy of a comeback at that level, ten things had to happen the way that they did for UConn to win the game. And it's just one of those inexplicable situations that you look back on and say, every one of those ten things happened. If they foul boozer, if they foul Tsar. They were trying to foul Tsar. Yes, if they call a timeout to stop all of the chaos, all of these things change the result, change what we're discussing, and change basketball history.

Bart Hyche 8:59

Iron Eagle, I have a dinner party fun fact for you, thanks to Mike Moat bringing up Bryce Drew, that you'll use at infamy. This ain't one for TV. This is, yeah, you'll like this. Fun fact Bryce Drew is married to Tara Drew, whose last name was Tara Thibodeau, who is the daughter of little Ricky from I Love Lucy.

Ian Eagle 9:28

Right.

Bart Hyche 9:29

That's amazing.

Mike Grace 9:30

Only on the press box. Only on the press box, dude. That is amazing.

Mike Mote 9:37

Work that in somewhere in the uh work that in the right.

Bart Hyche 9:41

She was the Hawks cheerleader when he was in Atlanta, um, and my girlfriend lived with her. She was from Jackson, Mississippi, and they end up getting married. That is a that is the truth.

Mike Grace 9:50

Right is married to little Ricky's daughter.

Ian Eagle 9:53

Okay, that that's just absolutely amazing. If if we could find someone in college basketball connected to the Adams family, that would be the only thing better.

Bart Hyche 10:05

I might be cousin it, but I don't have hair.

Mike Grace 10:11

We're talking Final Four and more with Ian Eagle, again, who will call the action of the Final Four this weekend on the TBS and TNT. I think they stream it as well on HBO Max and of course March of Madness Live as well. Um look, Dan Hurley's a pretty polarizing figure. There's not a lot of gray area with this guy. You probably either like him or you don't, one or the other. But one thing we gotta all agree on, Ian, is he can coach some basketball, man.

Why Illinois Believes It Can Win

Ian Eagle 10:34

Yeah, he certainly can. And I think Dan has done it his way. Uh Dan is unapologetic about who he is. He's written a book about who he is. He acknowledges that he's got a bunch of hang-ups and a bunch of superstitions and a bunch of things in his past that probably shaped him to who he is today. If you really analyze it, he's the son of a legendary high school coach, the best to do it in the state of New Jersey, and Bob Hurley, and parents that lived and stayed in Jersey City their entire lives. His brother turns out to be a basketball legend, goes to Duke, and then emerges as one of the great point guards in NCAA history, and then plays in the pros and has a tragic car accident that sends his career in a different direction. And then he's a player and someone who was a good player, was an outstanding player, but still lived in the shadow of his brother, goes to Seton Hall, ends up being uh a very solid collegiate player, decides to go into coaching, the family business, does it at the high school level and wins at the high school level, and by his own admission was happy. He he thought, hey, if this is what I do, I'm comfortable with it. He gets a shot to be a head coach at Wagner, does well there, goes to Rhode Island, does well there, gets this incredible opportunity at UConn, and it took a couple of years, but he's turned them into a powerhouse. And his superstitions are now very famous, and something I'll probably bring up on the air at some point this weekend, uh, amidst all of the things that he must wear. He must wear, and it's almost like Silver Lying in his playbook, if you ever saw that movie with Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. Yeah he he has to have these things to show up and coach the game. His suit, which he bought originally at Rhode Island, this is the same suit he wears for every game. The lining in the suit is disintegrating. So it's it's on its last leg, and he told me the other day when the season's over, he will send it to a tailor and they will replace the lining, and the suit will live on. He cannot coach without that suit. There are pins that he has to wear. Uh, you know, I don't know if you've heard this, but he wears the same underwear. They travel with an underwear cleaner that they bought on Amazon and dryer on the road so that he wears the same pair for every single game. Same socks, same shoes. He's had to replace the soles of those shoes four times. This guy is doing it in a very unique way, but you said it. He could flat out coach.

Mike Mote 13:13

Yeah. And I would say, Ian, when you look at who he's going up against in Brad Underwood in that matchup against Illinois, I don't know that Brad Underwood gets the national notoriety that he should get just because of who you're going up against in the Big Ten, because you got Michigan, you've got Wisconsin, we know how good Greg Gard is. We but Brad Underwood has been Purdue with Matt Painter, obviously been you know great, and of course but I think Brad Underwood has just been a steady coach. I mean, just grinding it out. And to me, this is maybe the hardest matchup for Connecticut because Illinois can score from everywhere, they can defend, they can do all kinds of stuff. To me, this is an intriguing matchup between two coaches who really get it.

Ian Eagle 14:01

Yeah, very much so. Brad is uh a great guy who has earned this trip and earned this storyline. He will become the third oldest head coach to make the Final Four for the first time. You had Bo Ryan, you had Brian Dutcher, and now it's Brad Underwood, and he did it at levels that most people aren't familiar with. Junior college, traveling in buses, minivans, whatever it takes to get to a game and play that game and improve your skill as a coach and then move up, move up Stephen F. Austin, Oklahoma State, Illinois, didn't happen right away. His team is really interesting. He leaned into the European scouting and development process, and I'm with you. They believe that they can win the national championship. This is not a, hey, we're thrilled to be there. What a cool story. They think they're winning the whole thing because they played at a level that deserves everybody's attention. They have a lot of itches on the team, so for a play-by-play guy, you just got to make sure you're you're locked in because uh the pronunciations are a big part of who they are. You better nail Stoyakovich, Mirkovich, Ivasic, Petrovich. You got to scratch that itch and make sure that uh you're all locked and loaded.

Arizona vs Michigan Frontcourt Clash

Bart Hyche 15:28

I'm excited about the guard matchups in that game. And I just I love I love Wildman. They found what a find. Um, and I could talk about it you know all day. I want to see if the experience of UConn shows up in that game. But the way Illinois's been playing, I'm I I'm I'm as excited about that one because either one of those teams can win it too. But let's get to the heavyweight bout. Um I think a lot of people are considering the the the previous, the undercard. All right, so here's how I kind of look at this. And as you analyze it, I I'd like your opinion and put Arizona's whichever three you want in these slots. Mara is a problem for other teams, um, the Michigan Center. Johnson is the X factor. Yachtsell is the dude. Yep. How would you kind of is it kind of the same with Arizona like Krebos? And and we ain't even talking about backcourt yet. I'm just talking about how do you match up these front courts?

Final Four Schedule And Sign-Off

Ian Eagle 16:30

I think the the thing that Arizona has done all season, they've just gone at people because of their size, because of their power, and most opponents can't handle it. They just don't have the bodies, they don't have the physical presence. And I think Tommy Lloyd is aware that Michigan can. So basically, they're gonna go toe-to-toe with them and then see what really is developing in the game. If they can control the action, they'll keep doing it. If not, they can go to plan B. They can go to plan C. They have three, four, five counter moves because of the way their team is set up. You're right. We didn't talk about Burries or Bradley or Karchenkov, who is a really versatile piece and has no fear whatsoever. And the Pete Krivos combo, you've got a very mature forward in Co-Pete. He does not carry himself like a freshman. The guy has been a winner his whole life. Four state titles, four gold medals as a part of U.S. FIBA teams playing internationally. And then Krevos, people forgot about him. He was injured last year. He's come back better, better defensively than he had been previously. Offensively, he is massive. So most of the matchups that Michigan has had, they've just had the physical advantage over teams. They're not going to have the advantage. Doesn't mean they can't do the things that they've done, but this was a collision course. Just look at how these two teams cruise through their respective regions: Arizona in the West, Michigan and the Midwest. The numbers are absurd what they're doing offensively.

Mike Grace 18:11

The semifinals begin on Saturday, 6 09 p.m. Eastern Time. The National Championship game Monday, 8 30 Eastern Time. TNT and TBS has it. HBO Max, March Madness Live as well, and Iron Eagle on the call along with the Grand Hill, Bill Raftery, and Tracy Wilson. I can't imagine the number of requests you get this week. Thank you for finding time for us, buddy. We really, really, really do appreciate consider ourselves honor to have you on the show, brother. Appreciate it.

Ian Eagle 18:38

Anytime. Love you guys. Love to get on with you. Enjoy it. I think it's it's gonna be a college basketball celebration.

Mike Grace 18:46

Safe travels, you bet, and we'll uh we'll be watching on the weekend, man. You bet.

Bart Hyche 18:49

Thanks, I appreciate it. Appreciate you. You bet. Just a best man to hear how the how the how the cocktail comment goes, too.

Mike Mote 18:55

And let me just say, this may be the best Final Four that I and Eagles ever called. I mean, when you look at the teams and the matchups, I mean, this is as good as it gets. No shade to anybody else in the last few years. You got great matchups in both games, and I think both games could come down to the last player, too.

Bart Hyche 19:14

I know that about the interline.

Mike Mote 19:18

Let's just disintegrate in the middle of the game.