Seth Davis
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And of course, being students, they were awful. And I watched that, and I said, oh, I can suck. I didn't realize sucking was an option. That's easy. So I'm going to go out there and suck. And I did, but at the time – You could get five minutes of stage time if you brought three audience members. And those audience members, I think they had to pay a $20 cover and a two drink minimum.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And I had a lot of friends in New York, so I would space them out between shows and kind of develop my material. So I had a few good nights on it. I kind of hit the low level circuit. But, you know, to be really good at anything, you've got to be able to commit yourself fully to it. And I was at Sports Illustrated. Things were happening for me there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
So at a certain point, I just kind of decided I was done. I did it. But I will say this. I was that was right about when I was starting to do a lot more television. And you can see how those skills are translatable from the stage to to the small screen. So, yeah, but I've got a lot of mileage out of mentioning it in my bio. So thanks for picking up on it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, the only constant in life is change. And again, it's a great example of an entity not adapting and being stuck in the way things were. And especially when the people making those decisions are so vested in the status quo, that becomes difficult. So, you know, you have two businesses. One is Blockbuster and one is Netflix. Explain to your audience.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
uh listeners under the age of 40 or even 45 what blockbuster is so the blockbusters everywhere um and now look at netflix and now nobody knows what blockbuster is so that's kind of what happened to sports illustrated i will say though that um i'm very pleased with the way that um sports illustrated has reconstituted itself with all of the tumult and you know there was a there was a point in time there where we thought it was literally gone
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Completely. So it's still there. It's still a very good monthly magazine. They still have some really good writers there. You know, Chris Mannix and Tom Fertucci and Pat Forty does a great job in college sports. I mean, they have some really good people there. Steve Cannella, the guy who's running the. The magazine is the managing editor has been there long.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
In fact, he and I started on the same day. We shared an office July 1995. But, you know, I think with disruptions, Dan, and changes, and I know you're an old newspaper hack like me, like there's a lot of opportunities. And, you know, this what I'm doing with Hoops HQ is a great example. I mean, we have this new creator economy where.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
You know, if you're willing to hustle a little bit and just think creatively and, you know, use the things that got you there, which is access, storytelling, shoe leather. People want to read. People want to listen. And they'll even give you a couple of bucks for the ability to do that. So I'm not saying it's easy, but life is not easy and life is not fair. And that's kind of where we are.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
You know, Sports Illustrated is the company that had a chance to buy ESPN in the early 80s and I guess figured maybe cable TV was just a fad. So so that's one of many decisions that didn't work out so well, I guess.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
you have named uh first of all it's amazing to hear you say that i've done 21 shows because i'm only 26 so obviously uh i'm the dude i'm the doogie hauser of sports broadcasting uh you you've actually named in one of the shows i actually watch uh i am not a shows guy or a movie i'm even worse with movies so i've watched a few shows i i am not caught up on white lotus i am
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Okay, well, you had one that punched its ticket to the dance, as we say, Drake. Yesterday, the Drake Bulldogs, really interesting story in that their coach, Ben McCollum, the job came open because the coach moved to West Virginia. So they hired Ben McCollum, who was a Division II coach, and he took a bunch of his Division II players. He won a national championship at the D2 level.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
brought them with him to Drake, and they won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season, and now they've won the tournament, which is really, really hard to do. They've won all year. Best player in the league in Bennett Sturtz, just a really talented guard.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
They're one of the slowest teams in the country, and I do like teams that play a slower tempo because it's much easier to take a team that wants to run and slow it down than take a team that wants to play slow and speed it up, so that's an advantage. St. Mary's also plays slow. I would watch out for them. Out West, you see San Diego in the Big West, similar story with some D2 transfers.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And this is their first year in Division I, probably in position to win an at-large bid if they don't make the tournament. Will Wade is doing great things at McNeese. I think he's probably going to move on. You want to talk about Rick Pitino's past. Will Wade is a whole other conversation. And then St. Mary's. I talk about a slow tempo, playing grinding defense.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
They've already beaten Gonzaga twice. Randy Bennett has another really good team with a lot of international players, the type of team that no one's going to want to see. I think it's only a matter of time between kind of like what San Diego State did and breaking through to the Final Four. I've long thought it's only a matter of time before St. Mary's has one of those runs. Maybe this is the year.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
I'll see you next year. God willing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
100%. First of all, part of it is I usually watch it at night with my wife and I'm 54 and I'm lazy. So, yeah, by the time we get about halfway through, I nod off and then I have to watch, you know, the last 15 minutes the next morning during my workout or something to stay caught up. So these are first world problems for sure.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
No, because he can win. you know, the, uh, the ability for people to get past certain things is directly correlated to your ability to win. And no one can ever, um, question Rick's ability to win. You know, it's, it's interesting, Dan, the thing that he was eventually fired for in relation to the, um, FBI investigation was like the biggest nothing burger of all time.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
I mean, that case was an incredible waste of time, money, energy, attention. Basically, these FBI agents heard all these low-level scammers scamming each other, and they thought they were telling the truth. So when one guy tells another, hey, man, I got Patino, I got Self, I got Laraneg, I got this guy, the FBI thinks, hey, all we got to do is move in on those guys, and they'll flip.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, it turns out there was nothing to flip to. So the problem with Rick was the optics of his being even tangentially linked to that case on top of the other things that had happened, some of which were directly his fault, some of which were his fault by responsibility. It was that accumulation. But there were other places, Kansas in particular, basically said to the NCAA, like,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Give us everything you got. And they stuck by Bill Self and nothing happened to him. And he was in it considerably deeper than Rick was at the time. So there might be a little bit, I don't know what the opposite of buyer's remorse is at Louisville with Patino, maybe firer's remorse, if that's a thing. But no, I'm not surprised because he's a great coach.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And in today's era, Dan, with the portal, you can rebuild very quickly. And when you have a coach like Rick Patino, you got guys who want to play in the NBA. And so they want to play for Rick Patino. So not surprised at all.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, I think it's a great question. I think they thought they were above it or at least didn't have to do it. You know, it's a different type of culture, different type of setup. I mean, there are some private schools inside the ACC. There are, you know, public schools that are not necessarily as invested even in the concept of college athletics. You know, even Syracuse is a private school.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
It's big. But, you know, I mean, let's be honest. In the SEC, you know, some of these places – have been operating like this for a very long time. So this is just a matter of paperwork. Now everything is above board. And it's the old saying, adapt or die. And the ACC might have a storied history, but it's past history. And if you're not forward-looking, you're in trouble.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
I mean, for example, North Carolina has been struggling again. And North Carolina, just in the last couple of weeks, hired a general manager. I did not know that they didn't have a general manager. I kind of assumed they did. John Shire was the first person in sports to even think of this position at the college level. Now, everybody not only has one, but you have to have one.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
News this morning that Steph Curry is going to be the assistant GM at Davidson. I mean, all he has to do is cut one check and his job is over. So it's a great life lesson, really, for college. Teachers and parents and all of us and business leaders, especially, that you cannot be stuck in past thinking. You cannot think about, well, this is the way we've always done it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
It's like that old Wayne Gretzky saying, you know, what made Gretzky great isn't that he skated to the puck. He skated to where the puck was going. The ACC skated to where the puck used to be. And now they're paying the price. They have a lot of catching up to do.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
It's where we are, man. I mean, it's just the reality. And it's funny, you mentioned about Miami having fallen on hard times. But when they made the Final Four, they had their own version of Steph Curry named John Ruiz. I think he's a Miami grad, but he's a Miami booster and a billionaire guy. And he gave them a lot of money to buy players that helped them get to the Final Four.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And then he and his business fell on hard times. There was a SEC investigation and all kinds. And so he's not He's not paying the piper anymore. And look what happened in Miami.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
So but the real coming change, Dan, is is the is a genuine revenue sharing model where beginning in July, assuming this case settlement gets approved, which looks like the judge is going to do, every school now can spend up to they're not required. up to $20 million to give to their athletes.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Now, they can spend that however they want, and it's going to be fascinating to see how that all breaks down. Because if you're at a place like Auburn right now, which is one of the top teams in college basketball, Alabama certainly, obviously the first dollars out the door are going to football. And so how much really is left for men's basketball?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And then you have all the other women's sports and this big question of how Title IX is going to play into it. So there's a lot more unknown than known. But the only thing we know is that players are going to have money in their pockets.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And if you don't have money to put in your players' pockets at a competitive rate, whether it's directly through revenue sharing or through the Steph Currys and James Hardens of the world or other NIL arrangements, there's not as much money out there as maybe some people think. But this is the new paradigm.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And if you're in the business of college sports, you better be adjusting to what's happening and what's going to happen as opposed to the way things used to be.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, Jessica, let me put it this way. There's a better chance that I will play next season for Duke than Cooper Flagg.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Yes. You know what? It's funny you say that because I'm a D.C. sports fan. Well, first of all, they haven't had the lottery. I'm a Wizards fan. I go back to the old Bullets days with Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld and the Capital Center and Landover. And I was down at Duke a couple of weeks ago interviewing Cooper for Fox Sports.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And I kind of looked him up and down and said, you know, you look pretty good in a Wizards uniform. But the most Wizards thing ever is going to be they are not winning the lottery. Like I am not even allowing myself mentally to go there. As far as the numbers are concerned, though, if you look at what Cooper Plagg is going to make in the NBA as a number one pick, Duke can't even touch that.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
So but what we are seeing are players who would otherwise go to the draft in like the second round or even guys who might not be drafted and would potentially go overseas or guys who are coming out of high school and going to play for the NBA G League Ignite, which, by the way, doesn't even exist anymore. So all of this has really been great for college basketball.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And, you know, everybody's saying, oh, it's killing the transfer portal and all that. You know, they point to things that kind of make us uncomfortable. If you look overall, the fact that players can now make real money playing college basketball, guess what? That means more of the really good ones are staying and returning to college basketball.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And that's been very good, I think, for the enterprise.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, I think it's a great hire. The very, very interesting part of that is the timing. And this is just one of those odd things. I presume this is going to be fixed. The transfer portal opens on March 24th. And so if Miami doesn't have a head coach, not only on the 24th, but really in the run up to the 24th, it's going to be way behind the eight ball in terms of recruiting transfers.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
So that's basically the deal, as I understand it, that they presented to Lucas. And, you know, a lot of credit should go to John Shire for being okay with it. Because if John Shire put his foot down and said to Jay Lucas, hey, I gave you a chance to come here. We need you for the stretch run. We're trying to win the championship.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
I'm not saying Jay would have done it, but it would have been a different situation. So it's a great, again, lesson in terms of leadership of service, doing what's best for the people who work for you. But it's a problem because the portal opening on the 24th, so you're going to have 16 schools who are still playing in the NCAA tournament.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
They could move that back even a week and a half, two weeks, and kind of ease that pressure. Football has a much harder problem because for 95, 98 probably percent of the schools, I guess, whatever it is, 90 percent, their season basically ends at Thanksgiving. Now, you have these bowl games that don't really matter in the grand scheme. And so kids can enter the transfer portal.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
But you still have 12 teams in the playoff that doesn't even begin for several weeks. And that's interesting.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
a very very long uh lead time and there's really not much they can do about it because there's so much time between the end of the regular season and the start of the postseason but i'm hoping in college basketball that they'll be able to move the portal back a week or two but there may be other factors particularly academics involved in that that i'm not you know fully briefed on that would prevent that but it seems to me you know one or two weeks shouldn't be all that hard
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
See, Chris needs to roll with me because I'm kind of an intermittent faster. So I have my – I'm in L.A., by the way, so I'm up early. Dan, I love you, but it was for Leah that I'm doing this because I don't say no to her. That's my rule. So I got my little MCT oil and my ghee butter and my early morning coffee. Chris, you may want to give it a shot.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
And then I basically won't eat any food probably until I have my workout.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
I would have no problem admitting to an almost burp or even an all in out belch. I have no I've I've admitted to many worse things than that. So just being factual. But you should still try the intermittent fasting, Chris.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, I was kind of there. I moved out here. I am a big juicer. I try to have a nice green juice drink every day. The key is no fruit, no sugar in there. So my concoction is parsley, spinach, kale, cucumber, lemon, and ginger. It tastes a lot better than that sounds. The lemon and ginger makes it taste good. So it's about being hydrated, being healthy. But don't get it twisted.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
I can put away cheesecake like no one you know. I love a good steak. I mean, I do like to eat. So as I like to say, everything in moderation, including moderation.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Man, I didn't know you did research like this, bro. I don't know that I would call it a career. I know it shocks you because I'm not funny at all. It was basically an itch I wanted to scratch. I was living in New York City. I grew up like so many people listening to George Carlin and Rich Pryor and especially Rich Little.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
should I do this whole answer is, is, uh, Rich Little doing Ronald Reagan?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
Well, I, uh, I always, I always listened to George Carlin and, uh, well, one day I, uh, had a friend who took a comedy class at the new school and, uh, well, there you go again. Um,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
That's it. Every Ronald Reagan impersonation has a well in front of it. You can flip that right into Mike Tyson. I don't mind losing to Buster Douglas. I just want to lose Staley. Anyway, I – I grew up listening to George Carlin and Richard Pryor, all these guys. And it was like, you know, everyone was like, oh, I could never get on stage and do that, right? So I was living in New York City.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Hour 2: Ruth is a Tapper (feat. Seth Davis)
A great friend of mine named Mitch Brenner was taking a stand-up comedy class at the New School down at Greenwich Village. And as part of the class, you take a few classes and then you get some stage time. And I thought, oh, I could never do that. I can't believe you're doing that. I could never do that. And then he showed me a video of him and his fellow students doing their stand-up.