The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Good Follow - Lisa Leslie Joins The Show, Final Four is set + The Transfer Portal & Dawn Staley’s Coaching Ability
Wed, 02 Apr 2025
This week on Good Follow: Ros & Logan preview UConn vs UCLA and South Carolina vs Texas in the Final Four. Then, Ros sits down with 2x WNBA Champion and Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie to break down March Madness, discuss Juju’s injury, the WNBA’s CBA battle, and her bond with Dawn Staley. Later, Ros and Logan decide whether the transfer portal and how women’s basketball is covered is madness or not in “This is Madness.” Finally, Ros shares her March Madness pick of the week presented by DraftKings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the key matchups in the Women's Final Four?
Hey, what's up, y'all? Welcome to Good Follow, presented by DraftKings. I'm Roz Gold on Wooday, and that right there, that's my girl, Logan Hackett. Logan, how are you doing? I'm great. How are you? Girl, I'm so excited. There's so much happening in basketball. March Madness, it's now. We are in the April part of it. We are heading to the Final Four. I'm heading to Tampa. I'm so excited.
You know I like warm weather.
Yes, absolutely. With you saying March Madness, actually last night falling asleep, Ryan Rucos, you bet, was just playing him. You bet, you bet.
Not you being haunted by the voice of Ryan Rucco. You're in your kitchen. You bet. Oh my God, where are you? Where are you, Ryan Rucco? I'm gonna tell him that. No, but what's up to all of you? I know everyone watching at home. We've got a great show for you. Let me take you through the rundown today. And then there were four. We are definitely breaking down the woman's final four.
Chapter 2: Why is the transfer portal causing a stir in college basketball?
And you know, we've been talking about March Madness, but the madness is happening in the transfer portal, y'all. It is absolutely insane. So we are talking about that transfer portal and what's going on there. We also have an exclusive interview with Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie joins the show. And the interview is awesome.
She talks about her relationship with Dawn Staley, the WNBA's negotiations of the CBA. We reflect on Unrivaled, all the things. I mean, we're even talking about taste testing oxtails, all the things. So really cool to catch up with one of the GOATs.
And y'all, as always, we love y'all so much. We appreciate you for rocking with us and please do not forget to subscribe, comment, follow all the socials, literally click every button you can because new episodes drop every Wednesday and we want y'all to be the first on it. Alrighty. Well, the final four is officially set and we have UConn, South Carolina, UCLA, and Texas.
Chapter 3: How did UCLA and UConn perform in their Elite Eight games?
So I want to start with UCLA, who booked their first ever trip to the Final Four after a pretty crazy Elite Eight game against LSU. And props to Kim Mulkey because she had a game plan and she stuck to it by getting Lauren Betts in early foul trouble. And I think Lauren was out for, what, a quarter, a little bit more than that.
And I don't think anyone expected the rest of the team to play around her and step up. Tamia Gardner had 15 points. Gabby Hawkins, 18 points with eight rebounds, shooting four of five from three. And they really proved themselves in this game. So Roz, how did you see UCLA perform without bets?
And what's your take on that? I was impressed by it because come March Madness, come the tournament, come, hey, we're one win away from the Final Four. You better believe that the scouting report is in, right? So what you need to advance are X factors.
Players stepping up outside of themselves and putting on an incredible performance that the other team may not have counted for or maybe made a bet on, like, all right, we're going to take away this one. Let's see if they can beat me there. And that's exactly what happened with Tamia Gardner hitting five threes in the game. I mean, that's an X factor stepping up.
Or Jaquez with the dagger three, a big shot, rebounds, just steals, working throughout the game to make things happen. And as somebody who's been a point guard in stressful, tough situations, you know, I'm looking at Kiki Rice, who did not have a good shooting game, but still had eight assists. That takes mental toughness to continue to just stay with it, stay with it.
And speaking of mental toughness, we're going to highlight the fact that Lauren Betts had foul trouble in the game. But what stood out to me is that despite having foul trouble through the first half of the game, she still was able to come in and make big impact. I mean, she had six blocks in the game. She still had 17 points. She made her presence known on both ends.
It's really hard when you're sitting out for that long, especially early, not to get psyched out, not to get cold, or it's hard to find your way back into a rhythm of the game. And instead, she was able to stay with it. The sign of a really high level and high mental toughness type player.
It also takes a lot to get back in the game and play like you have zero fouls. I mean, she was probably being safe on some plays, but a lot of those blocks that she went up for just plays where she was on the ball by herself going for charges like she was playing fearless. And I absolutely love that because I think a scared Lauren Betts would not have helped this team.
But she really stepped up when she needed to, as she has been all season. But that's an excellent point. Yeah, another team that we've been seeing be dominant is UConn. And they're taking on UCLA. I am so scared for this game. But they are appearing in their record 24th Final Four after beating USA. And this game, I feel like it did go as everyone expected it to go.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do South Carolina and Texas face in the Final Four?
But I want to move to the other side of the bracket. We have South Carolina and Texas. And South Carolina has been giving me heart palpitations. I think they've been giving everyone heart palpitations because their past two games have been super close. But even with that, they've been able to pull out the win with the last one being a four-point win over Duke.
To be honest, I kind of think that Duke lost that game for themselves. But do you think that this is sustainable or does South Carolina need to step things up?
Girl, experience matters at this point of the season, and I agree. It looked like Duke did not know how to execute down the stretch and just close that game out and win or grab it or steal it or take it. And look, it's South Carolina who continues to find a way. But for me, again, at this point of the year, A win is a win is a win, and they don't have to be pretty. Win in advance.
You only need two more at this point to the championship, and neither one of them got to be pretty. You just need a W. And so for South Carolina, I think what's key for them, they have an identity around defense. They've got to make sure that they at minimum execute that. And keep the game low scoring and, you know, make it hard on the other team.
Offensively, South Carolina doesn't necessarily have some go-to, like, huge superstar player. It's by committee. And everyone's seemingly been, like, scrapping it together to make something happen. And for me, what that brings to light is just how great Dawn Staley has been. at understanding what buttons to push for her players, when to push them and how to.
Like for instance, in the Sweet 16, it was Mylasia Fulwiley who came through and had a huge second half after Dawn Staley got on her. And she recognized in Fulwiley that in the past that she might've closed down, shut down, but that she was ready for that now. And she responded to have a huge second half and push them into the Elite Eight. In the Elite Eight game, Chloe Kitts had a strong finish.
And she's been playing really strong as of late. But I think that Dawn Staley empowered her at the end. And there's some post-game, you hear them talking about how Dawn was like, yo, we're going to you. And Chloe wasn't fully even sure herself. She admitted that. And she said, I had to tell myself at the free throw line, I'm a good basketball player and I'm going to make that.
And I found it really relatable because just because you're in these situations and shining in them does not mean that you always know right away that it's going to be you. There are some players who know, but there are some who are figuring it out as they go along. And Dawn. put her players in positions to step up and shine, and they did. And guess what?
She did that in different ways for each of them. Different messaging for Fulwiley, different messaging for Kitts,
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Chapter 5: How does Dawn Staley's coaching style influence her team's success?
But we was hurt. We ate so much. I was like, I didn't eat no more food the rest of the day. That was too heavy of a meal.
We did it. It was delicious. And we had the mac and cheese side, right? Yes. I read all a bunch of your accolades, but an accolade that, you know, may not even be on your Wikipedia page and is flying under the radar, content queen. OK, content queen, because like, how do you love and crush social media so much? And how are you staying up with all of these trends?
Because you're on the talker tick. You're on the grammy gram. You're doing all the things you're with Gen Z doing this and that. Like, come on. What's up, content queen?
Well, listen, you know, I got kids. So listen, I've got a 17 year old and a 15 year old. So it's just. For me, I have to know what's going on. So between watching them and seeing TikTok and checking them, I really just enjoy social media. But I think I enjoy making the videos. It all started through the pandemic, just trying to meet my kids where they are and doing TikTok dances.
And then I sort of took over the TikTok world from them. And ever since then, I just really love it. I think having content and having fun and, you know, I'm so silly. I have a lot of fun. I think you can't take yourself so seriously. I'm such a loving person where I love people. I love to make people laugh. And I just think it's a good time. I don't. Yeah. Yeah. I have a good time.
I really like it. It's very editing though. That's a whole nother story. That's hard.
You might have to hire somebody to do the editing. You just like plop all the content and you say, put this thing together. But that's one thing that I really noticed in being able to be close to you for long periods of time as a fellow broadcaster on Unrivaled and being together in Miami. You're such a lovely person.
You really make time for people and your friendships and dynamics are so genuine. It's not just like kissing babies and shaking hands like Lisa messing with you. She's rocking with you. And that brings me to one of the friendships that, you know, people enjoy watching. It's between you and Dawn Staley as we, you know, sit here in March Madness and the women's tournament is underway.
What have you seen as a lifelong friend of Dawn Staley? What did you see in her as a player, as a teammate, as a friend that you recognize now in her as a coach?
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Chapter 6: What insights does Lisa Leslie share about her relationship with Dawn Staley?
Yeah. Yeah. You also mentioned you work well together. What are the chances you could see yourself? You know, is there any truth to these rumors that might be circulating right now and buzzing that you could work together on a coaching staff? Because I know this is something you had talked about being interested in on the WNBA side.
And now there's all this buzz that, oh, Lisa and Dawn may link up.
I know. It's so funny that I could go to visit my friend and watch her play, watch her coach. And then all of a sudden, social media, that's probably the, there's good parts about it, but then there's bad parts. Because it's like, you can't even give a person a hug. I say, hey, it applies.
And then it's just like, I mean, it's just crazy that social media just takes any situation and turns it into like.
Okay. So it was social media running.
Yeah. Social media just taking off sprinting right now.
Okay. Okay. We keep it moving then. You know, within the March Madness, we have had some sadness, obviously with the injury to the ACL of Juju Watkins. And I know this also hits home to, you know, USC is your alma mater. What does this injury mean for the trajectory of the career of Juju Watkins?
Well, it means that we would probably be delayed, right, a year of her getting back to normal as well as, listen, she's such an explosive player, right? So to be explosive, we've seen a lot of players who've had these ACL injuries, and it takes time. It takes time to get back to where you know that you can play, and we have to give her grace and time to be able to get back there.
um it's definitely heartbreaking you know we're all impacted i mean i'm not even on the team and i was heartbroken just like in shock watching so um yeah it's gonna take time and we have to give her grace and You know, when you see a player of that caliber, you just hope that they can continue to get back there. And I know that she will. She's a hard worker.
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Chapter 7: How does Lisa Leslie stay relevant in the digital age?
But I think overall, when we just step back and look at the tournament, the excitement of women's basketball, the true parody that we're seeing where it's like South Carolina is the defending champs and somebody's got to take them down and their defense is stellar. Like they really hang their hats on defense and they get guards. I mean, when you're out there on that perimeter,
The guard play defensively is at a very high level, you know? So I just look at all of those things and go, I'm not sure, Roz. Like, I used to be real sure about who was going to do it. I'm not anymore because that's just how excellent the game is being played all around.
Just shifting a little bit from March Madness into other women's basketball, I mean, where you and I had the chance to work together was unrivaled in Miami. The season has come to a close. Just... Lisa, how would you evaluate this first inaugural season of Unrivaled and its trajectory moving forward?
Yeah, I hate to use the word Unrivaled, but it truly was like Unrivaled. Everything was mind-blowing about Unrivaled from the fact that they played full-court three-on-three, from the fact that they came out and it was balling. Like, because Raj, you know, we played three-on-three before and three-on-three could get real, what's the right word?
raggedy it could get a little bit like people don't run back because you got tired like it could fall apart in a way that that would not be good for tv and arrival was the exact opposite like it was phenomenal yeah i don't know if i'm just biased because i was had a front row seat to be able to commentate and color you know add color to it But I thought it was so excited.
I love the battles, the battles of the big and the paint. I love the guard play. I mean, I could just go on and on. And then the players that just rose to the top. And when you talk about Nafisa Collier and how excellent she was, that one-on-one bracket, that one-on-one tournament was mind-blowing and epic. Like, there were so many elements. And then Angel Reese doing so great.
Chelsea Gray, like... What? Rip the Band-Aid off of these fools. Like, don't disrespect her. And then for the role in the championship, like, there was so many elements that I loved every minute. And I'm telling you, if you were sitting at home and you're a WNBA player, like, the unrivaled league is where you want to be in the offseason. Ooh.
Yeah, I loved it. Wow. Wow. No, I thought it was a great success, you know, and I thought it was every single thing that could be epic for Unrivaled happened, like whether it was the one on one tournament and Nafisa's dominance or the fact that the Owls dominated all the way and then got knocked out by a four seed or. I can't believe it.
You know, like it was, it was just, and all the trash talking and the rivalries for 10 weeks, people cared.
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