Utah, You Have to Appreciate Rick Carlisle

Shower Thought - June 17, 2025

Audio Transcript

"College basketball has always been about the charismatic coach leading the program.

For each one of them you can point to distinctive style exes and ohs or personality thing that they do that sets them apart.

Jimmy V, started the fouling when you're down to extend the game.

Jerry Tarkanian had a towel in his mouth and paid his players.

Rick Pitino full court press.

Bobby Knight short shorts and choking students.

Nolan Richardson 40 minutes of hell.

Jim Boeheim best 2-3 zone in the country.

Utah, You Have to Appreciate Rick Carlisle

We never talk about coaches in the NBA because it's a players league. It's all about LeBron, or Jokic or Steph...not who's coaching them.

Nobody can tell you what separates Jason Kidd's style of play from J.J. Redick's. They just happen to have the players whether it's LeBron or Kyrie or Luka or whoever.

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But watching Indiana and Rick Carlisle is like watching a college team who's coach has the players all locked in. It's like watching a Kelvin Sampson team or a Danny Hurley team.

Tyrese Haliburton gets hurt last night, they're down by 15, they still are out there bulldogging it's a 4 point game with 5 minutes left.

They've had four comeback wins with less than 5% probability in the playoffs. Last night they're down 12 with 90 seconds left they're diving on the floor like college players.

Rick Carlisle gets credit for that. He's old, he looks like Jim Carrey, he's coaching against a kid, he has the worse team. But he's coaching them up.