If Sam Presti does not hire a coach that Kevin Durant is happy with, chances are Durant will leave Oklahoma City as an unrestricted free agent in July, 2016. That is a fact. Kevin Durant likes Kevin Ollie. That is a fact, too. And Kevin Ollie is Presti's No. 1 choice for the job. That fact was first reported by respected colleague Adam Zagoria, and it is 100 percent on the money.

So what to make of Ollie's statement today, tactfully written in the present tense, that he has "no plans" to leave UConn? 

Well, put it this way. I have no plans to marry Taylor Swift. But if circumstances led to that being a possibility ... 

As for the other two names that are out there, Billy Donovan and Fred Hoiberg, fans of the Thunder should ask themselves this: "Do either of those guys have a strong relationship with Durant?" Because you can be damn sure that Durant is going to have some input on who OKC's next coach will be. That is why my money is on Ollie -- even if it doesn't happen until the middle of the summer. I explain more in this interview on Erik Gee and Kelly Gregg on 107.7 The Franchise in Oklahoma City.

Five top sleeper free agents are all playing in the playoffs with the hope of cashing in big this summer as columnist Michael Scotto outlined in a previous SheridanHoops column.

With the NBA projected to increase the salary cap to roughly $90 million in 2016, teams will spend big this summer with the hope those deals will be bargains in retrospect once the new salary cap kicks in. Whether a majority of players opt for shorter deals remains to be seen.

Despite the anticipated gold rush for free agents in 2016, there are some players who would rather opt out of their contracts this summer after a productive season with the chance of guaranteed money at stake without risking a major injury next season.

With that in mind, Scotto joined 1320 AM KFAN in Utah and hosts Kyle Gunther and Ben Anderson to discuss the top five sleeper free agents and some key decisions players will have to make this summer whether to opt into or out of their current contracts.

How many of the 16 teams in the NBA Playoffs have a legitimate shot at the championship?

It is a fair question, and it was posed to me this morning on NBC Sports Radio by host Erik Kuselias on NBC Sports Radio. Just to give you a preview, I did not answer "Trail Blazers," "Pelicans" or "Celtics." But I did give an answer that reflects what an odd situation we have on our hands after the first two days of the NBA Playoffs.

Clearly, the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs are both championship worthy. And just as clearly, one of those teams is going to be watching the second round of the playoffs from their sofas. After two days of postseason basketball, it is not unfair to say that the only series worth your while is the one taking place between the Nos. 3 and 6 seeds in the West -- the two teams that finished the regular season with the strongest finishing kicks.

But which team in the other seven series has a legitimate shot to make these NBA playoffs a bit more interesting?

Give a listen and I'll provide you with an answer.

Legendary coach Bobby Gonzalez did pick Duke in last night's NCAA Championship game, in large part because he felt Wisconsin won a sort of national championship of their own on Saturday night when they beat the 38-0 Kentucky Wildcats.

Duke cruised into the final after a 20-point win over Michigan State, and it really showed last night in final stretch of the game as Duke had a little more in the tank to close it out.

In this interview with Robin Lundberg on ESPN Radio in New York, Gonzo talked about the breakout star performance -- and a name for the future -- with freshmen Grayson Allen coming in and saving the day by igniting the Duke team with his 16 huge points, his heart and hustle when they were down 9 points and Jahlil Okafor and Justice Winslow were on the bench with foul trouble. Allen and Amille Jefferson's defense on Frank Kaminsky was enough to get them in striking distance, then freshmen point guard Tyus Jones took the game over and put on a show for the ages of some of the most clutch plays you will ever see from a freshmen in the title game.

Last, Gonzo and Lundberg spoke about how Bo Ryan handled the Badgers' defeat, and where this 5th national championship now puts Coach K. (I wrote about it in my column for SheridanHoops back when he went over the 1,000 win mark.)

Adam Silver has been commissioner of the NBA for 14 months now. He has been forceful on one issue -- the lifetime suspension of Donald Sterling, which led to the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to billionaire Steve Ballmer.

It is time for Silver to stand a stand again, and this time it has to do with reformatting the playoffs.

I wrote an open letter to Silver about this very issue less than a month ago, and it is certain to come up at the NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York next week. My suggestion: Take the six division winners, seed then 1 through 6, and then take the remaining teams with the 10 best records and bracket them so that 1 plays 16, 2 plays 15, and so on.

That was one of the topics I discussed today on the Eric Hasseltine Show on ESPN Radio in Memphis, along with plenty of talk about the flatlining Grizzlies, the surging Spurs and a few other NBA topics. Enjoy.

Yes, Bobby Gonzalez picked Kentucky to go all the way ... but always included the caveat that a lot would have to go wrong for them to lose in this tourney, and a lot would have to go right for someone else to beat them.

That's exactly what happened last night.

Kentucky only made three 3-pointers, only shot 10 free throws, got outrebounded by 12 ... but more than anything else, they did not do the things they were known for, the things that got them to 38-0.

They always played to win in close games, instead of not to lose, except last night they were up 4 with under 5 minutes to go but then got very tentative with their offense, having three shot clock violations and not getting the ball into an unstoppable force, big man Karl Anthony Towns, down the stretch.

They did not get stops like they always had in the last few minutes, and ultimately Wisconsin did to Kentucky what Kentucky did to everyone else all year ... they closed out the game with all the big shots, big defensive stops and big plays down the stretch.

Coach Bo Ryan took advantage of matchups and exploited Kentucky with his multi-dimensional and multi-skilled front court of Frank Kaminsky Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes. All that was up for discussion this morning on Ian O'Connor's radio show on ESPN Radio in New York.

On SheridanHoops.com, coach Bobby Gonzalez tells a great New York story.

Years ago, he was having dinner in the famous Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side, Campagnola's, out celebrating his second NCAA run as the coach of the Manhattan Jaspers. The maitre d came over said some gentlemen at a nearby table would like to send over a bottle of wine, and would like to meet and thank you.

So I naively looked at the table full of recognizable characters with pinkie rings and said "Thank me for what?"

One guy looked familiar to me, and it was because his picture was often on TV and in the papers as a don of the Genovese crime family who was known to walk around Greenwich Village in a bathrobe to make the authorities believe he was crazy. He was Vincent "The Chin" Gigante.

He motioned me over, saying he and his crew wanted to meet and thank me as they had won a lot of money on Manhattan beating Florida in the tourney.

After I told him I don't gamble or know much about it, he explained we started as an 11-point underdog by the time the game started people liked my team's chances so much it dropped to 5. After we went on to win by 15, they were all very happy.

I then told him I didn't want to accept the wine as I also don't drink, but I thanked him very respectfully. Gigante and his dinner companions all said they would be following and rooting for me as their favorite coach.

I laughed and thought to myself "Only in New York."

And with that intro, here is my latest NCAA Tournament interview from Sports X Radio with Ken Thompson, a show based out of Vegas.

Vince McKee was on the Sports Beat with Nick Camino & Andre Knott on WTAM 1100 in Cleveland last night to discuss the excerpts on SheridanHoops.com this week from his new book “The Redemption of the King.”

Highlights from the interview include the meaning behind the title, and McKee's original inspiration to write the book.  

They also covered the best parts of the book -- but also the most difficult parts of the book to write.

Among topics discussed were LeBron's epic Game 5 of the 2007 NBA Eastern Conference finals, as well as the hard fought series loss to the Orlando Magic in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals.

It was a fun and informative interview that will keep fans excited about the excerpts on Sheridanhoops, as well as the book in general.

After going 7-1 on his Sweet Sixteen picks and 3-1 on his Elite Eight picks, Bobby Gonzalez has only added to his aura of being a basketball savant. The guy knows more about basketball than just about any columnist in the country.

In this appearance on WFAN Radio in New York, Gonzo discussed the Final Four matchups of Kentucky-Wisconsin and Duke-Michigan State. You will love it.

Once upon a time, coach Bobby Gonzalez took an underdog Manhattan team to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, where they were national darlings and a Cinderella story.

This year, the lowest seed to advance out of the first two rounds of the tourney is No. 11 UCLA, and we would be hard pressed to describe them as a Cinderella in any way, shape or form ... not with that school's history.

This year's Sweet Sixteen is loaded with quality teams, from the undefeated (Kentucky) to those with just 2 losses (Gonzaga) and those with just 3 loses (Arizona).

In this interview with 740TheGame in Orlando, coach Gonzo looks ahead to the resumption of the tournament this Thursday and gives his thoughts on just about every team remaining in the field. Enjoy.