Jon Rothstein is a college basketball insider for CBS Sports and will serve as a sideline reporter for CBS and TNT Sports’ coverage of the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Rothstein will also serve as a studio analyst for CBS Sports Network during March Madness and is the host of “Inside College Basketball Now,” which is part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network.
Q: How far can this St. John’s team go?
A: With Rick Pitino as the coach, you never put a ceiling on where his team can go. A lot of things in the NCAA Tournament depend on the matchup, and a lot of things in the NCAA Tournament depend on obviously the team that you’re playing in the second game of the NCAA Tournament. And it completely changes the complexion of a season. … St. John’s is going to have as good of a frontcourt as there is in college basketball. St. John’s is going to have obviously really capable depth and St. John’s is also significantly more tested than it was last season because of the difficult non-conference schedule that it played.
Q: Would a Sweet 16 be a successful season?
A: I think the season’s already been a success because St. John’s in the last two years has done things that had never been done before in the history of the school, and that’s winning the Big East outright in back-to-back seasons. So considering the fact that prior to last season St. John’s had not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000 and had not won a Big East Tournament since 2000, the season’s already a success. But you know as well as I do, the head coach Rick Pitino — and look, he could coach another 20 or 25 years — he is somebody that as long as he’s your head coach, you want to make sure that you wring out the sponge. So I think given the way last season ended, and given the way this season has gone, I think anything less than a trip to the second weekend would be a disappointment, but I don’t think the season would be a disappointment.
Q: What is the biggest cause for concern?
A: I think the one thing you’re concerned about right now, if you’re looking at things objectively, is the only teams that St John’s has played since January that are locks to be in the NCAA Tournament are UConn and Villanova. The difference is they played a high level of competition in November and December. You worry a little bit in terms of their offense if it gets stagnant. I felt all season long when Joson Sanon had played really, really well, St. John’s has played really, really well. They’re 9-3 this season where he scores in double figures.
Q: Zuby Ejiofor?
A: Zuby Ejiofor is somebody who really embraced the idea of delayed gratification, because he wasn’t a finished product when he got there. He can protect the rim in defense, and obviously he’s somebody that is in a situation that is always available to be a factor on that side of the floor, so you love that he’s defensive-first player. He’s also somebody who can dominate a game by scoring, defending or also facilitating. He’s not just a rugged rebounder anymore who can finish around the rim.
Q: What are your thoughts on Pitino’s white suit?
A: It reminds me of the wedding scenes in “Scarface” when [Al] Pacino wore it.
Q: When did you start referring to him as “The Godfather”?
A: If you’re looking at the greatest, probably, compliment you can give Rick Pitino, it’s not his player development, it’s not the fact that he’s been to seven Final Fours and won two national titles, it is the fact that he has the greatest coaching tree in the history of not just college basketball, but basketball in general. Given that, given the fact that he obviously has the Italian heritage although he’s told me in the past in interviews he only eats one meal a day.
Q: What do you think it means to Pitino coming home and elevating St. John’s?
A: It was going to take a special person to bring St. John’s from the ashes. It was going to take a person that had serious pedigree and obviously somebody who had a history of winning. I remember when I was probably 19 or 20, I was at a bar on 45th Street between Fifth and Sixth, Connelly’s, an Irish pub, and I was waiting for somebody and I was talking to the owner. And he told me he grew up in Manhattan and he went into business in Manhattan, and I asked him, “Have you ever thought about going anywhere else?” And he goes, “What’s the point? Everybody else is trying to get here.” You can win a national championship at Kentucky, you can win a national championship at Louisville, you can obviously do things in other areas of the country at great programs and they’re playing in great venues. But there’s only one New York. There is only one Madison Square Garden. There’s a reason why that’s the venue that Billy Joel played in once a month for a long, long time.
Q: One game to win, who do you what coaching your team?
A: From the past it would be [Jim] Calhoun. He was just always a monster in big games.
Q: How about today?
A: Dan Hurley or Rick Pitino. Rick Pitino doesn’t need great players to have great teams, and that’s his greatness as a coach. Dan Hurley has taken UConn to heights that obviously we’ve seen only under Jim Calhoun. Dan Hurley has the incredible ability to not allow what happened the previous day, the previous year, the previous season, to affect anything else. He has a great ability to make everybody around him in a situation where they only accept winning because they know at the end of the day it’s not so much that they are going to enjoy winning, but they’re going to hate losing … nobody coaches with a better and bigger edge than Dan Hurley. … The Big East has benefitted from this burgeoning rivalry between two coaches. Rick Pitino has lifted a program that was irrelevant for roughly 20 or 25 years to new heights, and Dan Hurley is in a situation now where he is in the middle of the best run in the NCAA Tournament that we have seen in my lifetime. The guy is 13-1 in the last three years in the NCAA Tournament. In big games you can’t go wrong with Dan Hurley or Rick Pitino.
Q: Why can this UConn team win it all?
A: Because they’re the most balanced team that Dan Hurley has ever had and they’re a really difficult team to prepare for. You say to yourself when you watch them, “What are you going to take away? Who is going to be the assassin?” I firmly believe that because UConn did not wind up winning the Big East regular-season title, it’s only going to sharpen their knife for the postseason. I’m expecting a lot out of the Huskies in the next couple of weeks. I’m expecting UConn in the Final Four. I don’t know until I see the bracket, but I would have a hard time picking against UConn and Florida.
Q: Potential Sweet 16 sleepers?
A: Wisconsin … TCU … Tennessee.
Q: Under-the-radar players who could come to the forefront?
A: Tre Donaldson, Miami (Fla.) … John Blackwell, Wisconsin … Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska … Meleek Thomas, Arkansas … Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt … Mikey Lewis, St. Mary’s … Christian Hammond, Santa Clara. … The MAC now could be a two-bid league and Miami (Ohio) could be in Dayton. Bid stealers could also emerge out of the [Atlantic] 10, Mountain West and Big East [Seton Hall, Georgetown]. This what bubble teams will be doing between now and Sunday at 6 p.m.
Q: Your conference Coach of the Year picks: Kevin Willard.
A: Kevin Willard brought consistency, accountability and also not beating yourself back to Villanova.
Q: Jon Scheyer.
A: Jon Scheyer has made replacing Mike Krzyzewski look seamless.
Q: Johnny Dawkins.
A: I thought it was a masterful coaching job when you consider the fact that UCF has a very low NIL number, and also, UCF was starting over with a brand new basketball team that lost Keyshawn Hall — the Big 12’s leading scorer last year — and Dawkins still got the Knights firmly into the NCAA Tournament picture.
Q: Fred Hoiberg.
A: Nebraska is a program that has never won an NCAA Tournament game. Nebraska before the Big Ten Tournament tied the all-time record for wins in program history with 26. And Nebraska was not a program that was heavily into the transfer portal and was spending all this money to bring in players. Nebraska had great retention, they’ve had a great great anchor in Rienk Mast, but they’ve also had a great coaching job in Fred Hoiberg. If Nebraska wins a game in the NCAA Tournament, before next season, I am flying to Lincoln and I’m putting my credit card down for one hour at a bar, an establishment in the Haymarket district and Nebraska’s fans are going to drink on me. … Hopefully it’s dollar beer night.
Q: What would you do for St. John’s if they got to the Final Four?
A: If St. John’s gets to a Final Four this year, I am going to go to B&B Bagels on 73rd and First, and will buy bagels for anybody who comes for an hour.
Q: What about Vincent’s Clam Bar in Carle Place?
A: If you’re going to the electric chair, you want to go one place, you want to go to Vincent’s Clam Bar, and you want to ask for Bobby Marisi, the one person that put in front of me fried calamari with a side of vodka sauce. I haven’t stopped since.
Q: Todd Golden.
A: Is it possible to be the head coach of a team that just won a national championship and be underrated as a coach? Todd Golden over the last few years has done the best coaching job out of anybody in college basketball. For as good as the Gators were in 2006 and 2007 under Billy Donovan, when they won back-to-back national titles, the seeds that Florida will have last year and this year are going to be better than they were in ’06 and ’07.
Q: What do you like about this Florida team?
A: Incredible power upfront … improved guard play with Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland. … But also I like that Florida has the retention that it has. … Six players that are in Florida’s rotation were a part of that run to the national title last year. Retention is the most important thing in this climate of college basketball. Florida did it as well as anybody.
Q: Jerrod Calhoun at Utah State.
A: Tougher than tomato sauce in the middle of Kansas, but also is always growing as the coach. He was somebody who was tutored and mentored by Bob Huggins, but he is also becoming an innovative offensive coach and develops one of the most aesthetically-pleasing styles in all of college basketball.
Q: Duke’s Cam Boozer.
A: The best player in college basketball. I thought coming into the season he would have a chance to be the best freshman big man that we have seen probably since either Anthony Davis at Kentucky or Kevin Love at UCLA, but he surpassed those expectations.
Q: Will AJ Dybantsa be the first pick of the NBA draft?
A: You’re looking at a couple of guys — obviously AJ Dybantsa from BYU, Darryn Peterson from Kansas and Cam Boozer are all in the mix, but so is Darius Acuff [Jr.] at Arkansas. I said this, I believe in December for the first time: Darius Acuff is having a better season in terms of his efficiency, in terms of his level of play, than any other freshman point guard that has ever played for John Calipari. He reminds me of another Stephon Marbury.
Q: What’s special about Dybantsa?
A: His body looks like really a spitting image of Tracy McGrady, that’s who he reminds me of. He can define a game with his scoring from all three levels, with his ability to rebound the basketball or his ability to distribute, but there are certain talents that come along where everything looks effortless. … That’s what it’s like watching AJ Dybantsa.
Q: Peterson?
A: There’s been no player more mercurial in college basketball this season than Darryn Peterson. Darryn Peterson is somebody who has the highest long-term ceiling out of any player in college basketball, but he’s also been somebody who’s been very, very inhibiting to Kansas and their rhythm and flow this year because he has been in and out of the lineup so much. Bill Self has had to coach two teams this season — one with Darryn Peterson, one without Darryn Peterson. When he’s on the floor, nobody can touch his ceiling. But getting him to be on the floor for a consistent period of time has been a major, major struggle.
Q: Yaxel Lendeborg of Michigan.
A: It looks like he’s an NBA player playing in a college game. Defensively, he can cover up anything, he can guard five positions, and he’s somebody as well that has the ability to impact the game by not demanding shots. And I think if you look at it from a coach’s perspective, the No. 1 thing you think about is shot distribution and who’s hands the balls in, you never have to worry about any of that with Yaxel Lendeborg.
Q: MJ Collins of Utah State.
A: As underrated a transfer as there is in college basketball. He made 73 3-point shots this season — he made 75 in his first three years of college combined.
Q: Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton.
A: If I was making a prediction on what’s going to be featured in March Madness this year, and what could be gestured in “One Shining Moment,” it is the image of Speedy Claxton, after we saw Hofstra beat Monmouth inconsolable, crying on the shoulder of his assistant Mike DePaoli with seconds to play in the CAA Tournament title game in a situation where he couldn’t believe that after Jay Wright took Hofstra 25 years ago, he was the one to take his alma mater back to the NCAA Tournament.
Q: LIU?
A: Think about the basketball life that [LIU coach] Rod Strickland has had. He was a great high school player at Truman High School in Co-op City — under Steve Lappas, I might add. He then was an All-American at DePaul. He then played nearly two decades in the NBA, then he paid his dues as an assistant coach at Memphis under John Calipari and then eventually Kentucky, and now he is taking his own program to March Madness. Life is beautiful.
Q: Why is Michigan a threat to win it all?
A: The best two-point defense in college basketball with Lendeborg, Morez Johnson [Jr.] and Aday Mara. The way Dusty May has composed Michigan’s roster has felt perfect, and Michigan took a bit of a hit a couple of weeks ago when it lost L.J. Cason, his backup point guard and the best backup point guard in college basketball to a severe ACL. Michigan before that time I felt had four starters — L.J. Cason, Roddy Gayle [Jr.], Will Tschetter and Trey McKenney — that could have been starters on a team if you gave them a capable big man that could have made the NCAA Tournament. Michigan’s bench took a hit, so I feel that the Wolverines are capable and good enough to get to the Final Four in Indianapolis, but it should be noted that Michigan doesn’t have what it had with L.J. Cason, but it still has enough to be playing in April.
Q: Why is Arizona a threat to win it all?
A: You’ve got a great balance between freshmen and upperclassmen, there are four of each. Arizona has the most physically imposing frontline in college basketball and they have a point guard in Jaden Bradley who’s very similar to what Jamal Shead was for Houston two years ago when he was a first-team All-American. And Arizona’s going to be the No. 1 seed in the West Region on Selection Sunday. That means first- and second-round games in San Diego, and if Arizona is fortunate enough to win those games, it will then play Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in San Jose. Arizona’s fans have always traveled at a high level, and that’s why I think Arizona’s got such a great shot to go to its first Final Four since 2001.
Q: Will Caleb Foster’s foot injury impact Duke’s Final Four chances?
A: It’s significant, and the Duke team that we have seen up until this point is going to look a lot different than the Duke team we’re going to see moving forward. Sean Miller told me when Texas played Duke early in the season, he was blown away at how Caleb Foster got after the other team’s point guard defensively. So now, Cayden Boozer, the twin brother of Cam Boozer, is going to really step into the spotlight here for Duke. But Duke is not the same team without Caleb Foster.
Q: Siena coach Gerry McNamara.
A: Gerry McNamara’s the most competitive person I have ever met in my life. He was one of the best college players I think we’ve seen in history. I remember the game in 2004 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse beat BYU and McNamara had 43 and literally willed Syracuse to victory. I would expect that a lot of people are going to be competing for his services.
Q: Miami (Ohio).
A: The best story in college basketball. Travis Steele is somebody who lost his job four years ago at Xavier, and his story is a great lesson for everybody in life that tough situations can be the incubator of great turnarounds. … The MAC now could be a two-bid league and Miami (Ohio) could be in Dayton.
Q: Is Gonzaga a Final Four threat?
A: It all depends on the health of Braden Huff. Braden Huff was playing at an All-American caliber level before he went out with a knee injury, he has not played since early January. I think without him they can get to the second weekend. With him, even though he hasn’t played in two months, it would be difficult. I think they’re a second weekend team, I don’t know if this Gonzaga team has enough to get to the Final Four.
Q: Your thoughts on expansion?
A: In the film “The Lost World,” the sequel to “Jurassic Park,” Jeff Goldblum said taking dinosaurs off this island was the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas: Expanding the NCAA Tournament would usurp that. … Because if you look right now at the way things are at the back of the bracket with the bubble, it is unequivocally the worst bubble that we have ever seen. The last thing that anybody is saying right now if you’re covering college basketball on a daily level and following the game at a close level is that we should expand the NCAA Tournament. It should mean something to play in the NCAA Tournament. All these people who are campaigning for NCAA Tournament expansion are saying that there needs to be more access for teams in the NCAA Tournament. Everybody has the same access to the NCAA Tournament — it’s called your conference tournament. In 2024, N.C. State was nowhere near being an NCAA Tournament team. N.C. State won five games in five days at the ACC Tournament to clinch an automatic qualifier, and then was in a situation where it won four more games to go to the Final Four — that’s what March Madness is about. And we have to also remember that it should mean something to make the NCAA Tournament. If the NCAA Tournament expands, it’s going to drastically affect the regular season in college basketball. And some of the great theater that we have in the sport exists when teams that are on the bubble have to play key games from February 1 all the way to Selection Sunday. All of that is going to go away if the NCAA Tournament adds eight more teams and goes to 76. It’s all dissipating into thin air. I quote Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own”: “It’s supposed to be hard. Hard is what makes it great.”
Q: With NIL and the portal, how would you sum up the state of college basketball today?
A: Volatile is the best way to say it.
Q: You’re renowned as a Hall of Fame foodie. Give me the All-Rothstein starting five restaurants in New York.
A: Campagnola … the steak there is as good as any steakhouse in Manhattan … the four-pasta appetizer is as good of an appetizer as there is in the five boroughs … and the veal is so buco falls off the bone. … Philippe Chow — glazed spare ribs, Beijing chicken and filet mignon and broccoli with some roast pork lo mein. I also like the chicken satay there. … Avra … I would go with the grilled octopus and the grilled calamari, along with the souvlaki skewers, and any kind of fish. … Quality Italian, the home of the world-famous chicken parm pizza. … Vincent’s Clam Bar in Carle Place. The tomato sauce is so good there I almost had it through a straw. You go there, you’re signing up for a food coma.
Q: I’ll have to get you out to Park Side, King Umberto and Umberto’s. Which restaurants would come off the Rothstein bench?
A: Elio’s … Primola … Via Carota.
Q: Your wife Alana deserves a Purple Heart.
A: She’s my best friend, there’s nobody else I would rather spend every second of every day with. But she likes to remind me once in a while that while it’s really great that I’m passionate about what I’m doing, it’s not that important — like if the Mountain West gets one or two teams in the NCAA Tournament, it’s not as important as what she’s watching in the other room on reality TV.
Q: What was going through your head at 11:59 p.m. before March 1?
A: I knew that we were about to begin this greatest month that we have on the calendar, and I knew that we were about to begin the greatest journey that we have in sports. Nothing comes close. It’s something again that can’t be replicates by any other sport, and it’s just the best reality TV series you can get because you never know what’s going to happen. Remember it’s not anarchy … just college basketball.
Q: You’re famous for “We Sleep in May.” How much do you sleep in May?
A: As much as possible.
Q: You’re also famous for “This is March.” Why not “This is April?”
A: I’m too loyal to “This is March.”
