Michigan State HC Tom Izzo, NFL Free Agency, Myles Garrett Re-Signs And Geno Smith Traded, Who's Back And Monday Reading

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See ahs.com slash contracts for coverage details, limitations, and exclusions. On today's part of my take, we have our good friend.
I can say good friend now because he's been on twice. Coach Tom Izzo, Michigan State.
Huge win on Sunday. A little controversy.
Also won the Big Ten title outright regular season. So awesome talking to him.
It is March. It is Tom Izzo.
We also are going to talk some NFL free agency, which is about to open, but we had some huge moves happen over the weekend that we're going to break down, talk a little college ball, a little NBA, who's back of the week, and we have a Monday reading. So let's get to all of it.
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Okay, let's go.

Hey, football guy.

But Dean of A-W-N.

Martin Mainty.

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The crown is yours. Today is Monday, March 10th.
And, oh, boy, do we have sports. We got a lot of sports.
It's all happening right now. It's all happening.
It's the start of the legal tampering window. We got NFL news.
We've got conference championship week. We've got NBA drama, both on and off the court.
We have sports, a lot of sports. Let's start with NFL because it is the official league.
The tampering window window has opened even though there's been a ton of deals uh well it's interesting because there's a lot of a lot of guys that are deciding not to test the free agent market correct and re-signing with their teams that they were going to be leaving but they're doing that before they were legally allowed to be tampered with correct which is very interesting just to point out that is so yeah let's start let's start with the nfl the biggest story uh i would say is miles garrett is staying put so miles garrett who said who who mockingly said uh because because his gm andrew berry was quoted saying the goal was never to or sorry he said that we envisioned him going from cleveland to can Canton when his career is over. Talking about Miles Garrett wanting to keep him as a Brown.
And then Miles Garrett, a couple days after that, said the goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton. It has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl.
He wanted to go to a championship contender. And then there was a material change to the tune of $123 million guaranteed, four-year deal averaging $40 million a year.
Everybody's got a price. I think the Browns just show that they are committed to winning.
Yeah. The Browns football organization is one that is, they're putting their best foot forward, trying to deliver a championship, and Miles Garrett said, you know what? Now I believe you.
Yeah. I think that we're actually going to do it and step number one towards committing to a championship is to pay miles garrett a shitload of money 123 million dollars guaranteed that is a lot of money it is the largest contract for a non-quarterback uh it just listen we always knew it was always about the price but this is a good reminder it's always about the price it doesn't matter anyone can say anything the money talks and i think pete briscoe always says that money over everything it does not matter and the money talked here i do so he'd sign this contract on sunday uh max crosby had the largest non-quarterback deal that he signed earlier last week, which was $91.5 million guaranteed, $3 or $106.5 million.
I think there should be a new rule that if you sign the biggest contract, whether it be the biggest quarterback contract, the biggest non-quarterback contract, you should get seven days to wear the crown. Miles Garrett should have had to wait seven days.
To take that crown away from Max Crosby. Max Crosby should have had seven days where he was like, yeah, I had the largest contract, non-quarterback contract ever, and then Miles Garrett.
It was too quick. It's like in the – was that the AFC championship or was that in a regular season game where the Bills kicker and the Chiefs kicker went back and forth

breaking each other's records for the longest field goal?

Give it some breathing room.

In like 15 minutes, yeah.

It would be nice.

I mean, Max Crosby at one point was the highest non-quarterback.

For about four days.

For about four days.

And then Miles Garrett took that from him.

And Miles Garrett is – LeBron could learn a lot from Miles Garrett

about how to stay loyal to Cleveland.

Yeah.

Like he decided he wanted to check the market out there,

maybe go to warmer climate, build a super team.

And then he said, you know what?

I'm going to go those kids hearts in cleveland because they mean something i want to be here for the city of cleveland the losers in all of this i would say are uh the dallas cowboys the cincinnati bangles or anyone who's trying to trade for an edge rusher and has to pay them because the price has gone up.

Yeah, Micah Parsons is now going to take that crown.

Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase, all these guys, the price just keeps going up and up and up.

And it does feel like more than ever, the better move is to just get the deal done earlier than later.

Because the price is just always... When you have a guy like this, and you can put Micah Parsons in that group and Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase, like I said, the price is always going to go up.
The cap has gone up significantly. The price is going to keep going up.
And so those those teams are looking around being like, fuck, we just screwed this because now we have to pay a lot more money. I did think that Miles Garrett was going to try to either sit out or force the trade.
I didn't think that he was going to come back. I thought it was always going to be the money.
I was surprised when they announced that he's staying this morning. Yeah.
Well, that also, Max is probably in the same boat. You guys had thoughts of Miles Garrett wearing your team's uniform.
Max and I are both losers in this one, too. Although you can make the argument that we're both winners in this one because part of the reason why we each wanted him was to keep him away from the other team.
True. Yeah, I had no problem with that news.
Yeah, so congrats on winning this deal, Max. But if you want to trade for Trey Hendrickson, you've got to pay him a lot of money now.
You're going to have to pay him a lot of money. For sure, but you won't have to give anything up in terms of the trade.
So that's kind of nice. Yes true uh and then josh chase also is going to get yeah he's yes and t higgins and then josh allen just broke deshaun watson's record for most guaranteed money 250 million guaranteed the total i think was like 330 million on six years but it's i think it's five years guaranteed, 250 million guaranteed, biggest guaranteed total given to an NFL player ever.
Josh still has not paid us from his second contract that he got. So he owes us 10% of 250 million guaranteed.
With interest? He owes us $25 million guaranteed to part of my take. That's a lot of getting excited about Josh Allen you can buy.
Yep. Yeah is a lot the but this is the bills did it right because the bills josh allen i still i think per year dak prescott is still getting paid more than josh allen but josh allen this was a correction to the fact that like hey he was still under contract for what four years or something it wasn't like they to give him a new contract.
They probably moved some money around, did the cap shit that everyone knows and understands. But they're like, let's get this done now, money in hand, and you didn't have to pay him more than Dak Prescott per year.
And also, thank you to the Bills for doing that, just so that we can keep saying Dak Prescott actually is the highest paid player in the NFL. Because that's funny to say.
Right.

And we also, we threw around the idea and this is a loose idea. We're not going to actually enact it.
But if AWL is want to enact it and maybe tweeted him, we thought maybe we would throw out there that we're going to stop doing the podcast if Josh Allen doesn't pay us the 10% that he said he would pay us. Yeah, because otherwise we're looking like schmucks here.
Right. So if people want to tweet him and just be like, hey, the fate of part of my take is in Josh Allen's hands, which are very big hands, by the way, that'd be fine.
Yeah. That's totally fine.
I'm not going to tell people what to do. I'm willing to say that we won't put out a podcast.
I'm not willing to not put out the podcast, but I'm willing to say that publicly that we will cease so uh that those are big news there's making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich and when i want something perfectly crafted i go straight to boar's head for over a century boar's head has been dedicated to crafting premium deli favorites every ingredient is carefully chosen every recipe made with a purpose their oven gold turkey smoke master ham and ever roast chicken are made from premium whole cuts hand trimmed and perfectly seasoned last weekend i made the ultimate sandwich oven gold turkey cheese pickles and mustard simple but unbelievable so next time you're at the deli don't settle get the best boar's head committed to craft since 1905 discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at boars head.com then we had geno smith getting traded to the raiders yeah so geno smith gets traded to the raiders for a third round pick uh reunited with pete carroll felt like the the i mean we knew this from when they gave geno smith that new contract a couple years ago and it was basically you know you know, this is the season where everyone, we should put this PSA out there. Don't ever believe whatever the newsbreakers tweet in terms of years and money, because they're just getting that directly from the agent.
About 50 minutes later, you'll find out what the actual deal is. And Gino Smith, when he signed his new contract with the Seahawks, and we found out afterwards that it was essentially like a one-year deal i think that they could cut him yeah every contract at the most is really two years yeah so uh but so they were never all the way in on geno geno's all the way in on geno geno thinks he deserves a lot of money which i mean i think he's a pretty good quarterback he can do a lot worse than geno smith but now he's on the Raiders.
Did you hear the rumor that the Raiders initially, actually, no, it was, I think it was the Seahawks initially wanted to trade Geno Smith and DK for Max Crosby, which that would have been crazy. That would be a wild trade.
Trades like that never happened in the NFL. Yeah.
There was also a tweet that someone had from combine week that was on a plane and he was like i just watched pete carroll walk up to uh john schneider i bet you they're trying to talk about geno smith getting traded and it was like two weeks ago trying to spot yeah yeah do the thing where they saw like the the dallas mavericks and the lakers talking to coffee shop yeah be like this is the origin this is the origin it all went down i did p carroll and gino smith are we qualifying that as like a reunion that everybody's wanted to see i i mean it definitely was the gino smith's career was saved by p carroll yeah well p carroll was the head coach yeah but it's not like it's p carroll's playbook no but it was p it was Pete Carroll calling the shots, and Gino was saved. Yeah.
I mean, he was nothing. What I like about this, though, is just that the Raiders do have a plan.
Yeah. Whereas last year, it felt like they got into mid-summer.
They're like, oh, fuck. We don't really have a quarterback.
We've got two backup quarterbacks. Yeah.
But now they have one. Now the Seahawks.

Do the Seahawks have a play?

Seahawks then traded DK Metcalf to the Steelers.

Grinch you, PFT.

You were talking about it on Friday.

I just wanted to see it bad.

DK and George Pickens together is going to be fantastic.

What is the Seahawks plan?

Is the Seahawks plan to get Sam Darnold? Because is it crazy to say that I think I would maybe rather have Gino?

And Sam Darnold?

Yeah, probably because Sam Darnold is probably going to cost more right now.

I don't know. I don't know what Gino's new contract will be.
Yeah, I don't know either, but I don't think it's yeah, they're kind of the same kind of the same like Sam right now. Sam Darnold the way that he played last year makes me think I would rather have Sam Darnold for most of the year.
Yeah, I was going to say. Until the end.
Yeah. Whereas Gino, I feel like Gino from like two years ago, that would line up with Sam Darnold from last year.
Yes. Yes.
But it's the musical chairs. And then there was a rumor that Aaron Rodgers, so Aaron Rodgers looks like the Giants, but then there was a rumor that the Vikings could be interested in Aaron Rodgers, which I think we all are rooting for.

Well, actually, I'm not because I don't want to have to play Aaron Rodgers, but it would be funny just for the Favre story arc.

Yeah, the Brett Favre career.

But yeah, the musical chairs are very interesting right now with Gino going to the Raiders and now another Sam Darnold because we thought the Seahawks weren't going to be a Sam Darnold destination.

Now it feels like Seahawks, Steelers possibly still.

I don't know where else would Sam Darnold go.

I don't know where else would Sam Darnold go. I don't know.
But I don't know how the Steelers are going to manage the DK Metcalf and the George Pickens situation. I'm excited to see how they do it.
That's why I wanted this to happen. It's the funniest possible combination of receivers that you could get.
I would almost just say run it back with Justin Fields and Russ Wilson and just give one of those guys their own quarterback. Deep balls to – I mean, they are – with DK and George Pickens, they're basically building the whole plane out of just go-routes.
Yeah, just fucking run. Just two freaks on the outside, just run as fast as you can down the field.
You can't double both the freaks you can double one of them i want it so bad i want them to say i i'm afraid they're going to try to trade trade george pickets also they both wear number 14 yeah so i'm excited to see how they resolve that one that should just be a battle royale also sam donald wears number 14 oh so we could just have maybe like college rules everyone wears 14 also dk metcalf another reminder of uh which we you don't even remind people the miles garrett it's always about the money dk did say he wanted to go somewhere warm pittsburgh not known for its tropical weather well that's interesting you brought that up because i looked it up it is warmer than seattle okay on the average so in terms of weather in seattle we got in the in football months 67 degrees 59 degrees 51 degrees 46 degrees in pittsburgh it's 78 degrees 65 degrees 53 degrees 43 degrees okay so every football month besides december in the regular season it's actually warmer in pittsburgh okay so he's gonna get warm so he is gonna get warm you looking at me, Max? You got to look Hank. I got nothing.
I didn't mean to give a look. All the, all the big, it feels like the, I was reading, I think Albert Breer had an article.
He's, he pulled the league and, and the quote was that this free agent class is trash, trash, because a lot of these guys, Miles Garrett, you know, I mean, I know he wasn't going to be a free agent, but, like, a lot of these guys are re-signing, like Ronnie Stanley signed with the Ravens. Obviously, there's been a franchise tag on Tee Higgins.
There's been a franchise tag on who is, oh, Trey Smith, right? So there's, that was what I heard. It was trash.
I mean, what wide receiver is out there? Devontae Adams, now a Ram. He's a Ram.
He wanted to go someplace warmer too, I think. I think he said he wanted to play on the West Coast.
That also might mean that Aaron Rodgers could be washed. It also might mean- Because Devontae Adams, wouldn't you think he would be like, oh, I'm going to wait to see where Rodgers goes? And he's like, no, I'd actually rather just go with stafford there's a good chance that aaron rogers just wasn't around his phone this whole weekend so devante's like hey i'm trying to make my decision if we could speed this up and aaron was in a tree stump somewhere in portland oregon yeah that might be yeah they had a little gnome knock up yeah knock on the door be like hey devante's trying to reach you he's like no it's fine so go wherever i go davante taking over cooper cup's role i am i crazy to think that he's gonna be pretty good on the rams uh yeah he's gonna be very good i feel like that's a great place for him to be yeah no that that that was a that was a huge signing for the rams um who the chargers gonna get the chargers shane is very upset the chargers have a lot of cap space and they don't have anyone um i'm trying to think who else.
What other big. Oh, Tommy DeVito resigned.
Giants. Congrats to the Giants.
Zach Bond with the Eagles. That was big, Max.
Like, that's the thing is a lot of these guys are staying with their teams and getting paid because I think the problem is the cap goes up. The cap went up significantly.
Everyone can afford to keep their guys. Yeah.
Zach Ertz back to the urts daniel jones daniel jones can deciding between minnesota and indianapolis and possibly pittsburgh hmm are you just throwing pittsburgh again i just threw pittsburgh i feel like pittsburgh they might not know what's going to happen all they know is that mike tomlin this is actually a little bit different from mike's normal mo which is to draft insane wide receivers yep this time he's bringing in a crazy guy from out. It's like he's outsourcing his craziness.

Yes. And DK, again.
I don't think DK is that crazy. He's crazy on the field.
He's a live wire. Yeah, yeah.
He's a live wire on the field. He's not a crazy guy in the same way that George Pickens is crazy in the same way that Antonio Brown is crazy.
But he gets, like, he will get thrown out of a couple games. Yeah.

No, there'll be some –

You want that out of your wide receiver one, though.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, he's a dog.

There will be some significant – there will be some funny moments where both George Pickens and DK Metcalf are costing them 15 yards on the same drive.

Well, if they have a bad quarterback, that's going to be the problem.

Yes.

That's why they should get their own quarterbacks. They shouldk's like russie he's my guy you don't talk to russie that's another one where we don't pickens is like you don't talk to jussie that's my guy we don't know similar to the p carol geno smith were russie and george or dk metcalf were they tight i i'm going to go out on a limb and say they had their moments.

Okay.

I think DK had enough good games with Rossi where he's like,

okay, I can get excited about that.

You know what?

The situation is fluid.

I don't think they were tight.

I don't think they're tight.

Didn't Russell Wilson not talk to the team?

Yeah, I don't think anyone probably was tight with Russell Wilson,

but the situation is fluid.

You don't know. He might have been humbled when he had to take a team-friendly deal in Pittsburgh because the Broncos are still paying him like a billion dollars.
Yeah. I think Hank's right.
Nobody's really that close with Russell Wilson. So I'd say probably he's happy.
He was happy when he was getting thrown the ball in Seattle. He had some monster games with Russell.

Yeah.

All right.

What other big moves are we waiting for?

I mean, I'm excited.

There's going to be – who's out there, though, still?

Because, oh, Aaron Jones got re-signed in Minnesota.

Yeah, we're looking at a Chiefs re-signed Nick Bolton.

That was another big free agent guy that people thought was going to get a lot of money.

Patriots, Harold Landry.

That's a good signing.

Yeah, there's not.

Who's going to be the biggest name that goes on Monday?

Because it will happen pretty quickly, right?

I know the Bears are looking to maybe get Khalil Mack back and Dahlman Center, which would be awesome. Godwin, I feel like is probably going to stay.
Khalil Mack. Probably in Tampa.
I want the Bears to get Khalil Mack. I would very much like that on a deal that makes sense.
But the cap went up. Cap went up.
This is why I'd be such a terrible. Well, there's a million reasons why I'd be a terrible GM.
But if you give me more cap, I'm spending all of it. Yeah, you don't get to keep it if you're a GM.
I'm also just assuming the cap will always go up. That would be a very bad assumption on my part, but I would do that.
All right, you got it. So Sam Darnold is the biggest name.
Josh Sweat, a big name. And then Milton Williams, a couple Eagles.
And then, yeah, Drew Dahlman, who I think the Bears hopefully will sign, which would be nice because then they'd have their interior of offensive lines set. Yeah, look, a lot of these guys have already re-signed with their teams.
I expect Godwin to go back. I feel like he'll be in Tampa again next year.
But if not, that is the guy that the Chargers should get. Yeah.
Tevin Jenkins is going to be good somewhere because he's going to stay healthy. And I'm going to be like, fuck, that's going to happen.
What are the commanders going to do now that they lost out on Miles Garrett? Trey Hendrickson? I think Trey Hendrickson. I think that's what we're looking at.
It's going to be a spicy meatball. Very spicy meatball.
Very spicy meatball. I'm excited.
So I don't think can't announce the signings until Wednesday, correct? Wait, I thought Trey Hendrickson still had a year left. Is he not? I'm pretty sure you'd have to trade for him still.
I thought he had... I thought he just wants new money.
And they're not going to pay him. Let's see.
He is an un... Yeah.
Yeah, he's got one more year. One year left.
Okay. So, yeah.
So, they're going to... They'd have to trade for him.
Probably not the same price tag that you'd pay for Myles Garrett, though, right? Because Myles had... I feel like he had more years left.
He's going to... They're probably going to...
They'll give him a new deal no matter what. Oh, yeah.
He'll get a new deal wherever he goes. But to trade for him, you'd have to...
It'd have to be a second at the minimum, right? Let's see. The Cincinnati Bengals aren't eager to pay edge rusher Trey Hendrickson.
The commanders are positioned well to trade for the star. What is it saying? It might be your first rounder, right? Could be.
Because it is. You're picking at the bottom of the draft.
Have you thought about that? No, I haven't. So we're in Indy.
It was funny because we're in Indy, and I was saying to somebody, like, there's just not that much buzz around the draft this year. I feel like it's not as much juice as it normally is.
And then this person was like, well, dude, when was the last time you picked in the 20s in the draft? I was like, oh, yeah, that's a great point. Like, if it's not your team that's active in it, you're like, oh, kind of a dull draft season right around right right uh i'm excited though i'm juiced a lot of teams getting some new players oh yeah you guys you guys released jonathan allen right yes we tried to find a spot how'd you feel about that so jonathan allen i i like jonathan allen a lot he played on some really shitty teams and he played very well on some really shitty teams and he had that famous quote last season where he was like i'm fucking sick of this shit i'm just sick of this shit this shit sucks fuck this shit and i was like god damn it he's right he's right and if he wants to get traded like i i wish him the best but he just wasn't worth it to bring back next year and so i hope he finds a good place i feel like we could have traded him somewhere for like not a.
And we said, you know what? We're going to set you free. Yeah.
Find your own spot. Yeah.
You're a good player. Yeah.
Memes. Did I see a rumor that the jets might think about doing Justin Fields? You did see that.
They're very interested. Oh, strong interest.
And are you interested in? Yeah. It'd be good to have a mobile quarterback for once okay that's you you always say you memes saying mobile mobile is insane you say it every time and i had i had to address and so you're saying thank you for addressing that it would just be interesting to see a quarterback run around a little bit yeah there were moments last year where you're just like the yards are right in front of Aaron.

Just run.

And he couldn't run because he's old as shit.

So you put Justin Fields in that scenario.

He gets those yards. Yep.
Memes. Let me ask this.
You produced this show called Pardon My Take. Yeah.
You were probably one of the people, if not the person, who edited the majority of the roller coaster of my experience with Justin Fields. Does that not give you a sense of like, oh, this is bad? Young quarterback.
You had a front row seat. You not only watched it in real time, but then you would go to your computer and have to edit it and watch it back and then post it.

Yeah, but we're in Chicago.

Got to watch a lot of Bears games.

And?

And that Atlanta Falcons game when the entire stadium is just cheering Justin Fields.

Justin Fields.

He was a stud.

He has those games where he is a stud.

That's true.

He does.

I want you to be honest with me.

How many times have you said the words, Justin Fields' ass? Ooh. I think it's probably a lot.
No, not that many. He was good at times.
When he would break out for one of those runs, you would just be like, oh, my God. I know, but memes, you are the biggest hater in the world, and you especially hate our quarterbacks.
When they play poorly, you're the first guy to be like, that guy's ass. Correct.
He also didn't have an offensive line there. All right, let me ask this a different way.
It's wild the justifications you're making for him. That's verbatim what Big Cat is.
I'm telling you. Let me ask this a different way.
Max, Hank, you guys also, producers of Pardon My Take, Hank more of a co-host.

Shout out to Kaz.

You guys saw it front row.

Would you want Justin Fields on your team?

No, God no.

Me, no.

Memes, maybe.

Like, what option does he have? I like Justin Fields as a guy, awesome guy,

but you can't be like, this is our plan.

But what would the plan? Sam Darnold down but everyone's saying sam darnold not ever rogers daniel jones i think i would rather have justin fields and bring him back aaron rogers you run it actually wouldn't be the worst idea jones fast what no hear me out he's faster yeah what if the jets signed aaron rogers and it was kind of like you got divorced, you moved out, and then you started dating again? Like, oh, man, I really like this person. If you love something, set it free.
Yeah. Why not? Memes.
But what if Justin Fields has that redemption arc like Sam Darnold did with the Jets? And then we go. But it's the Jets.
Your team sucks too, Hank.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

That's a fair point.

Also could be a good rebuilding quarterback.

Could be a bridge quarterback.

Like could be a good enough quarterback to be bad next year to get a good quarterback. I mean, this is where we start to look at the most impactful free agent being James Winston.

Yes.

Why isn't his name out there? He'd be awesome in Seattle. Yeah, he would.
He'd be awesome in Pittsburgh. He doesn't get enough in-person meetings.
Do you think James throwing to DK and George Pickens, that would be... All right, so if James Winston went to the Pittsburgh Steelers, I'm going to make an executive decision right now, and you guys have no choice to follow along, but you can also tell me I'm crazy.
If Jameis Winston is quarterbacking for the Pittsburgh Steelers and DK Metcalf and George Pickens are on the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing every game in the middle TV next year. Yeah.
Like, with sound, every single game. I'm down.
Jameis Winston is the antidote to the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive struggles. Whatever disease they have in Pittsburgh for the last, what, six years? Yeah.
Seven years. You get Jameis in there with DK and George Pickens throwing go balls.
It's a different team. God damn it.
The vibes are different. Also, Hard Knocks.
Do it. Can we please get Hard Knocks in Pittsburgh? Do it.
They made the playoffs.

Fuck.

Yeah.

Stupid Hard Knocks rules.

So who's eligible for Hard Knocks right now?

It's teams that did not make the playoffs and don't have a first-year head coach.

Okay.

So that would be the Dallas Cowboys?

Not a first-year head coach.

The Seahawks.

Seahawks.

The Giants.

This is some good podcasting. The Giants will definitely not let them do that.
Titans. Yeah, Titans would be eligible.
Yep. Colts.
Colts would be eligible. This is some good podcasting.
Cardinals. Right now.
Dolphins. I feel like they might do Dolphins.
Dolphins might do it, yeah. Cardinals are up there, Yeah.
49ers. That'd be fun.

That'd be a fun like redemption arc.

Bengals.

Bengals would actually be if they if they go into the year with all these guys not under contract.

If Trey Henderson doesn't get traded and like I feel like they would do the Bengals.

Yeah.

Right.

I think the Dolphins too.

Yeah. Guessing hard.
I completely forgot. do we miss football playoffs yes we do we do very deeply I told you guys the other day it was a moment of weakness but we were talking about they were talking about the weather and like you know the calendar year and I said that I just need what March Madness is one of my favorite times of year and then as soon soon as March Madness ends, it's like it's almost football.
Yeah, that's how my brain works. Well, because March Madness.
I'm like, well, summer's in front of us and then it's football. Here's how it goes.
March Madness ends. Then there's the Masters, which means that it's getting warm.
Yeah. And then after the Masters, you got the draft, which is football season.
Pretty much my entire point was that I love life in the calendar year from March 1st till the end of the Super Bowl. Yeah.
So it's pretty much from the end of the Super Bowl till March 1st. I'm like, this fucking sucks.
February. Life sucks.
And then you get through it and you're like, we got everything in front of us. We got summer in front of us.
And then football. I think football season starts after the draft because then you got rookie minicamps.
You got OTAs.

You got some other stuff going on.

You got piss tests.

Yeah.

Okay.

We're going to talk some other sports real quick.

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Do it now and get some awesome gear. Okay, other sports.
Should we talk about Stephen A versus versus lebron yeah so uh on thursday night late uh steven a smith and lebron had a little dude to do uh after the lakers game in the middle of the game oh it's the middle of the game middle of the time out larry david sitting right there which is very funny it was literally just a curb your enthusiasm episode uh lebron went up to steven a smith it was caught on camera uh steven a smith would never have talked about it publicly if it had not gone viral it was just too viral steven a smith would never talk about his interaction with another player he would never mention anything of the sort but the fact that he he basically was forced to talk about it. Yeah.
By LeBron getting him his face.

And then.

Why did LeBron go up to him?

He went up to him because he had some.

He took some umbrage. Yeah.
LeBron took umbrage with Stephen A. Smith's remarks regarding Bronny James.
Yes. He went up to him as a father, not a basketball player.
Stephen A. Smith was like, you should have just made contact with me in a private meeting.
I actually have no problem with LeBon doing this just because i do actually think that like lebron is is lebron james a better father than he is basketball player yeah i think didn't we say that on friday yeah the fact that he got brawny drafted yeah no basketball player has ever done that before but i do think he went up to him like stephen a smith played the role afterwards he got in his very serious tone and was like, he came up to me as a father. But I think the issue LeBron had was when Stephen A.
Smith a couple months ago was pleading with LeBron James as a father. Stop this.
When you say as a father, I think that's where it becomes a little bit more direct, a direct shot. And LeBron, like he grew up without a dad.
I think he takes as a father i think that's where it becomes a little bit more direct a direct shot and lebron like he grew up without a dad he i think he he takes being a father very seriously obviously you have to talk about brawny and you can say like hey brawny shouldn't be in the nba this is crazy but saying lebron james as a father stop this that probably pissed lebron off and i would understand lebron being like hey don't do that was stevie day smith saying that like lebron james is not being a good dad right essentially by getting when i think he's actually being the best dad ever by getting his son an nba contract that he shouldn't be getting correct so like in a weird way i do think the whole situation uh and i've maintained this brawny is the big loser in this brawny's not a loser but he's the big loser in this in the fact that he's been put in a situation where he's talked about in this way and like Stephen A. Smith is going on first take and talking about LeBron as a father.
That sucks. This probably sucks for him.
He probably wishes in a weird alternate world that he could be on an NBA roster that isn't with his dad on it, and people are talking about him as a player

and not him as LeBron's side project.

The only way for LeBron to win this interaction is if he uses it,

he flexes the remainder of his muscle in the NBA,

and he says, fuck it, we're drafting Stephen A. Smith.

Yeah.

I'm going to force Stephen A. to get some minutes in the NBA

and just watch him get swatted into oblivion.

That's a great idea.

How awesome would that be? That's a great idea. LeBron, if you want to get back at him, this is the best way to do it.
Yeah. But I.
Hey, did you have a problem with LeBron doing it? No. And Bronny's been playing good in the D League, but it's also LeBron.
Like the. Everyone was.
G. Sorry.
LeBron's going to come up to you and talk to you about that. Everyone resurfaced the tweet of LeBron from last year, which is just him saying lightweight, hilarious is funny, but he was like, yeah, I'm watching League Pass, and Bronny's better than a lot of these cats.
It's lightweight, hilarious. That was a bad tweet.
Bad tweet. But also, as a father.
Again. I get it.
Right. Like, as a dad, he's like, my son's better than these guys.
Like, if LeBron had gone up to Stephen A. Smith and said, do not talk about my son.
I would 100% be on Stephen A. Smith's side being like, that's ridiculous.
Your son is in the NBA. He has to be talked about.
Does he get talked about more than every other rookie by a long shot? Because he's LeBron James Jr. But I think the father part, like if Stephen A.
Smith calls him out as a father, I think LeBron has every right has every right to be like dude don't do that i think it's kind of fair play for both sides yeah i don't think because he even has does he have kids oh yeah he might have a dude steven a fuck dad to dad i think he might have a kid no steven a has his his boys swim yeah he's a confirmed sex haver but i i think it's fine for steven a smith like lebron you got your son drafted to be on your team. Probably shouldn't be in the league.
He's not that great. He's not really playing.
He's playing in the G League. Still a great dad move, but also part of what goes with that.
Correct. You should have at some point thought Stephen A.
Smith is going to have some thoughts. Right.
The scrutiny is fair until you say you're stopped this as a father. That's where it's like, hey, dude, what are you talking about? He's a pretty fucking good dad.
Yeah. I'm defending LeBron again.
I think Stephen A. Smith was like, you're forcing me to talk about your son.
Yeah. Not a good father move.
I also don't think it was very funny timing, but from what I looked into, it was taped before, but it came out on Friday that Skip and Stephen A are reunited.

Karazma, who's back of the week.

Yeah.

And also, Skip is in a do-do-do with KD because Skip said that Kevin Durant looks like he's semi-retired.

Yeah.

Well, then KD came back at him and said, we're both washed.

Skip.

Congrats.

Yeah.

Okay. We also had Jokic have the first ever 30 2020 just insane insane it's crazy it was overtime but doesn't matter he's so good it looked so easy for him out there too everything was in slow motion he was doing the crazy passes where only he knows where the ball is going to go yeah and he knows it like two passes in advance and he still doesn't look like he's really enjoying himself that much and then after the game do you see svp got the exclusive interview with with joker okay and svp was like all of us he was fucking pumped because we've never seen that before and it was such a great game and it was so fun to watch after the game he's like i know you don't really get amped up yokich but is there a part of you that's like this was really fun out there this is amazing I can't believe i did that and then yokage his response was uh you know it's i go out to try to play basketball like he did not give a fuck he was like i wish i had been with horse instead he did not give a fuck that he just dropped 30 20 and 20 face of the league does not care but that's what makes me love yokage so much yeah and he uh we have a real mvp debate going with him and sga it's people are people are are choosing sides and and diminishing we we on this show would never diminish uh anyone in in any kind of postseason award debate that's crazy um but it's a good debate it's having it we're having it and it's it's the classic voter fatigue verse you know best team in the league okc i think it's going to have the debate it's going to be sga i think i think so too but i think voter fatigue but if i had a vote you go to yokich i i would vote for yokich too probably every year until he retires he's so fucking good he's so goddamn good and he he basically just he runs everything he he runs the he's the point guard he's the center He's so fucking good.
He's so goddamn good. And he basically just, he runs everything.
He runs the, he's the point guard. He's the center.
He's everything. Ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working? Nah, neither has Ariat.
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And weather whatever in Ariat work gear. Okay, college basketball.
It's March. Do we have any thoughts from this weekend? I saw NC State fired their coach off of a Final Four appearance.
Everyone was like, how can you do this? Maybe because it was the flukiest Final Four. I mean, it was an incredible run.
Nothing to take away from NC State. But if Virginia had fouled up three in the ACC tournament, he would have been fired last year.
It's still kind of weird. It's still kind of shocking that after a team goes on that run,

they fire the coach.

Yeah.

But like fans don't care.

No.

Fans forget.

We forget about that shit within a month.

Yeah.

Very quick.

Also, we had Cal drop some bars.

I don't know if you saw.

He said, everyone put us in a coffin.

They forgot the nails.

I like that one.

I like that one a lot.

The Omaha St. Thomas game, they're not scoring points.
They just have started the second half, and they're not scoring points. Sorry to yell about that.
How many in a row? 16. We had the craziest win ever on Saturday for the Kentucky-Missouri.
I was at a birthday party, Climb Zone. I had all the dads huddled around an iPad getting they were like it trickled around climb zone that like the 14 you know man was in the building trying to go 15 and oh and it was like a whole scene of people just being like oh shit is it going to happen? How did the wives feel about it? My wife wasn't there so she didn't know so that was good.
Listen were there any wives huddled around? No, there were not. A six-year-old birthday party.
Any parent can back me up here. When you go to a birthday party, you just let your kid go.
They just had the fucking time of their life. It was an arcade climb zone.
Laser tag. They were having the best time ever.
They didn't even know it. Kids go to birthday parties, and're just like see ya yeah they fucking love it yeah what percentage of kids birthday parties at a

trampoline park and with everybody uninjured 100 health i don't know about uninjured but there's

always tears yeah we we we survive without tears which it would have been my tears if that over

didn't hit um but we survive without tears that's good yeah uh and it's march we're at

conference tournament week also the auburn alabama game was awesome awesome that was such a fun game to watch huge win for alabama uh nate oates was was was riling up the crowd afterwards a little bit yeah auburn fans were getting upset about that i mean bruce pearl does do some antics as well i think it's fair on both sides litter that was thrown. Yeah, they were thrown.
So I think University of Tennessee fans broke into the arena, and they threw trash on the court. Yes, yes.
But it's the best, March. And I also, the Badgers had the worst loss ever.
I've downgraded my expectations. That's a shame.
Yeah. No, thanks, Hank.
I've downgraded my expectations. They'll be back.
It's bad. You're going a little run into the conference tournament.
They'll be back. Nah.
I had a moment during the Duke-UNC game, and I've talked about not caring as much about Duke over the years, and obviously it started with Caleb back in the day, but they did the celebrities in the crowd during that game, and it was Belichick first and then Drake May. And I was like, yeah, yeah.
And I was like, think they you think they talk to each other definitely you think so yeah belich i mean spending time with gruden it's a insight into a true football guy's mind which belichick is as well like they're just talking x's nose you know that he's just there like he could talk to any football player and just talk about their film or whatever it may be you know belichick's watching drake may you know that he doesn't take his personal feelings with the patriots when he's talking to a player like they just they can just talk ball yeah and that goes for any football player with any coach ever without without belichick drake may would not be there true just a fact that's a a good point. Did you feel like were you rubbing it in like any UNC fans' faces? Do you get pleasure out of beating them in a down year? No.
No? No. Yeah, UNC's in trouble.
UNC's in a lot of trouble. It was a good game.
They fought hard. Yeah, they were on the ropes for a second.
Douches really, really good. Okay.
Anything else? People were giving online. I saw there was a clip of a UNC fan crying in the stands after, and they caught her mouth saying, at least they tried really hard.
Yeah. And people were giving her shit, which I don't.
Oh, what was that? I don't know. Max is finding something.
Max is pulling up a picture of a chick in a bikini. Wrong.
Tap, hold, and load in 4K, Max. Wrong.
I was trying to get. Addiction baddie.
Wow. I was trying to pull up the video that they were talking about.
Accidentally. I accidentally pulled up Twitch instead of Twitter because it's X.
The everything app. It's all happening on X.
Action baddie. Addiction baddie.
And this was just the first picture that came up. That's an interesting picture.
On a boat. Wow.
Good job, Max. Now I'm just not going to find the video.
Well, you got to put that into the show. You got to put addiction baddie into the show for the viewers.
She is on a boat, isn't she? Please subscribe to the YouTube. Yeah, we'll add addiction baddie to the show.
Shout out to everyone who punched a ticket to the dance. Drake.
Big win. They deserved it to be in

anyway.

High Point. Yep.

I think Lipscomb got in. This is the best time

of year. It's going to be.
It's conference tournament week, so

we'll have someone on to talk some conference tourney

week. Maybe our friend Stanford Steve.

But yeah, I love this. I love

these two weeks. Sunbelt finals or

semifinals on right now. JMU looks

like they're probably going to lose Detroit. A lot of time left.
A lot of time left. Don't feel great about the semifinals on right now.
JMU looks like they're probably going to lose to Troy. A lot of time left.

A lot of time left. Don't feel great about

the spot I'm in right now. Same.

Remember last year though? Yeah, that was

fun. That was so fun.
Yeah.

Alright.

God, I need points so bad.

I need points. Have you been betting

or fading? Nothing. Nothing.

Do we believe him, Max?

We believe him.

I've heard from

Jerry was

Thank you. or fading? Nothing.
Nothing. Do we believe him, Max? We believe him.

I've heard from Jerry was

Jersey Jerry thought he was breaking

news to me. He was like, I was playing

Call of Duty with Hank the other night and he was like

PGA 2K. Oh, it was

PGA 2K. He was like, I can't wait to

fade Big Cat in

conference tournament in the tournament.

And he thought he was like telling

me I was like dude he's literally said it to my face like seven times and it hurts every time

because I know he's probably right and he's gonna have like the best tournament ever

but so so it goes so it goes maybe not I mean that that win Saturday was yeah I would God

God touched me something yeah God God was on my side God was on my side we'll see we'll see how this game is dead. I'm dead.
All right. Let's do who's back of the week.
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Who's back the week? Hank. Yeah.
My first one was shorts. Another treacherous winter of Chicago survived.
It was like two cold weeks. Now it's 60 degrees again.
So all the people that said Chicago is going to be so tough. The winters are so bad there has been snow in april here yeah we're gonna probably get a couple more just like shitty days that are gonna be tossed in there some false shit we're just gonna get some we're gonna get like a 30 degree day out of nowhere we got mid 60s this week yeah all you need is a couple nice like today was really nice tomorrow's gonna be really nice the clock's changing clocks change like the the end is near summer is here it's gonna be 63 on on saturday for the st patrick's day celebration that's pretty good that's dangerous um either whose back was the celtics uh as a national champion i mean nba championship favorite is lebron hurt or is he just i need lebron i need game, he would not be hurt.
I need two weeks before the playoff stretch. I need two weeks before the playoff stretch.
Yeah, take some time off. The Lakers were scaring me.
They won eight straight. They were playing really well.
And the conspiracy of how does Luka end up in LA? The NBA needs a Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals for ratings. Yep.
I hope that happens. I do too.
I hope that happens. The Celtics love Luka.
They love hating Luka. They love deeing him up and showing the world that he's not as good as, you know, people says he is.
Showed it again last night. Al Horford, 40-plus, maybe not 40-plus, but he's so old.
Deeing up LeBron, Dying up Luka. It was just a beautiful sight to see.

And with no Porzingis.

Yeah, he had Luka locked up pretty good on a couple things I saw.

Where Luka was just traveling all over the gym.

He was taking like seven steps.

And he got kneed in the face on that Al Horford dunk.

Yeah, he got pickpocketed on one end, kneed in the face on the other.

It was just...

You're having the time of your life.

You're calling him out.

You're calling LeBron out.

Yeah, I was a little... There was a little bit of concern with LeBron, Luka, Team of Destiny.
Could this be the team that beats the Celtics? No. But you want to play them now.
Yeah. So you're rooting for the Lakers in the playoffs.
Okay. I like that.
I put two futures. Obviously, Celtics are such heavy favorites, but I did Celtics to beat the Nuggets in the finals and Celtics to beat the Lakers in the finals.
Are the Celtics have any chance at the one seed or no? No. Okay.
I think they're probably six or seven back. Cavs don't lose.
It's crazy. Cavs are really good.
Yeah. They're seven and a half back.
The Cavs are awesome. They're a really good team.
You're not scared of them? I'm a little concerned, but we're the champs. You got to be the champs to be the champs.
Okay. Can't be scared of a team that hasn't done it.
Okay. PFT or who's back of the week? My who's back of the week is Skip and Stephen A.
Skip and Stephen A have reunited. They're back together.
They taped an episode of, I believe it was Skip's podcast, right? Which if you had asked me whose podcast would it be i would say probably steven a right great booking by skip to get steven a to go on his show maybe the lebron thing had something to do with that maybe maybe skip saw lebron steven a yelling at each other and skip was like come talk to me about this my son like this is this is friendly territory for you to get all the feelings off your chest about LeBron. But I'm pretty sure that was what I was hoping.
Like, they saw that and was like, finally, it's time. Let's get back together.
Yeah, it's like LeBron parent trapped him. I think the report came out on Friday that they had already taped it earlier in the week.
Ah. I hope the case is that it was LeBron focused.
And they talk about that for the whole time. But I'm pretty sure that the report came out Friday that they taped earlier in the week and the LeBron thing happened late Thursday night.
I mean, if they taped and then that happened, Skip had to call up Stephen A and be like, we need to do an appendix to this. We need to do another segment because this is going to be what people tune in for.
Yeah. I'm just very excited.
I will be if you did not live through the the first take years where it was skip and stephen a it was perfect television yeah just two two guys who have never been wrong in their lives disagreeing on everything they were it's one of those we were lucky enough to be born uh at the same time that those two guys found each other and were on tv on TV. And it was perfect.
It was perfect. All right.
My who's back is baseball injuries because Garrett Cole's out for the year. Damn.
Bad. Tommy John.
Bad. Tommy John.
Not good. Bad.
Really bad. They should never change the rules about shaving your face.
Facts. That's absolutely true.
This would not have happened if he he was clean shaven that's true that's your your face your face is connected to your uh shoulder to your elbow your elbow without a doubt max what do you get oh oh john carlo also may have season ending in surgery i'm telling you i'm telling you it all went downhill shit oh my god yeah. Jalen Brunson got hurt, too.
Fuck. Second guys grow a beard.
That's bad. They got St.
John's basketball, though. Max, are you excited for your fills? Yeah, I don't know.
Okay. Just say birds.
Just say birds. Birds.
Those are getting older. I mean, I'm going to be excited for opening day.
We'll see how it do, but I don't have the highest of hopes for the Phil season. Got it.
Got it. Oh, also National Sports Podcast.
Ovi scored again. Oh, yeah.
So what is he, 10 away? Empty netter at the end. I think he's nine.
He's single digits. I think he's nine away.
He's 886 right now. Damn.
Yeah. Single digits.
It was an open netter, but it was also from center ice, backhander off the boards. So it was a sick goal.
That is a sick goal. and also if you're a hater that says too many empty netters another empty netter for over you have to be winning the game to score an empty netter yeah so that's pretty good also national sports podcast the nhl trade deadline brad marshall trade to the panthers yeah very sad very very sad uh again not a diehard bruins fan but you're puck head.
I'm a puck head in the playoffs, and... So you won't be doing puck this year.
That was the very, very... It's tough that he went to the Panthers.
Like, that hurt. It's tough to get over our rivals.
Hated rivals. And truly, the end, the final person of someone who won a championship for Boston when I was still in high school.
player on any of the teams so sad sad sad day for for young Hank and he wanted to stick around too yeah it sounds like they they the Bruins fucked it all up like I know that you're not supposed to pay a guy based on what he's done for the team but some guys like a centerpiece like that I I feel like he wasn't even asking them to break the bank, right? He said, I'll come down. I think he had a face-to-face meeting with him.
He said, I'll bring my request down. If you can meet me in the middle, we'll make something happen.
I don't want to play anywhere else. And they said, okay, we'll talk about it.
Pack your bags. Go to Florida.
Yeah. All right.
Should we get to our interview with Coach Tom Izzo?

Awesome interview.

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And now here's Coach Tom Izzo. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest.
He is March. He is coming off a record-tying 11th Big Ten title.
Incredible run that his Michigan State Spartans are on right now. It is head coach Tom Izzo.
Coach, first of all, congrats on the title. I know you got more work to do, but I wanted to start with that because I know we got to talk about what happens when a team stands on a logo and what goes on with that, but I want to talk with your team and how they're playing right now.
Like three weeks ago, you guys were 19-5. You lost three of four.
You had a gauntlet coming up at the end of the Big Ten schedule. You ripped off seven straight wins to finish 26-5, win the Big Ten outright.
What changed, and how are we here right now where you guys are looking prime for a deep run in March? Well, to be honest with you guys, my staff did an unbelievable job. I mean, we spent a lot of time.
We felt like, you know, we've got a good team, but it's not a talent laden team. And so we started working together more.
We became very good defensively. We just couldn't make a shot from three.
We're it good we're getting to the line we're making

free throws we're scoring 80 points a game and i said if we ever make some threes we could be really good well we got a little better with now we're making threes and uh you know we're still maintaining our defensive stuff i think the players and my staff did an unbelievable job and I've got along for the ride.

Coach, that's too humble.

Yeah, this might be one of your best coaching jobs that you've ever done this year, considering where you came to the season, what the expectations were, and then how you guys are playing. I also just love the voice right now.
Your voice sounds like March basketball. Are you going to take a couple days off? Are you putting yourself on like a word count for the next couple days trying to gain that back? You know, guys, the only time I lose my voice is when I don't sleep, and I haven't had a lot of sleep lately, as you can tell by how I look.
But no, you know, we are taking a day off tomorrow. We've been on a grind, and now we don't play until Friday.
So guys deserve a day off but you know you'd really like my team my players uh they've worked their tail off they've been selfless they've sacrificed for each other and uh it's kind of a a good team to uh to cheer for and yet uh we still make our mistakes you know we have our times when we don't't take care of the ball or we kind of go through these little stretches. And so we got to try to correct that this week.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, today was the big win against Michigan.
You guys had already wrapped up the Big Ten title. So obviously you're playing for your seniors, but the effort was there and you guys killed Michigan.
We had a little dupe to do at the end of the game with some Michigan players standing on the logo when seniors are going to kiss the floor, and Trey Holloman took it under his own hands. I got to start with Trey.
He was made in an Izzo factory. How do you always get these guys? He's a dog.
He's got so much heart, and it's down to the thick headband. I feel like you

always got the dogs with the thick head. When they put on the thick headband, it's like, that's an Izzo guy.
And you know, you can go to war with that guy. So is he, would it be safe to say that he's kind of the heartbeat of the team and you liked what he did there? Like, you know, kind of standing up for, for the Spartans and for all the home fans and everyone there.
what in love didn't love what happened, you know, because the game was going along pretty good. They came back, give them credit.
And we have a tradition here and it's been a tradition for 30 years. And I didn't even see all of it.
You know, Dusty's done a good job with his team, but you know, we've gone through a few things over the years with Michigan. And, you know, that hits home a little bit.
But I would never do anything on somebody else's court. We did not celebrate the Big Ten championship at Iowa.
You know, I wouldn't do any of that. But we are going to celebrate at home when we win.
And I think it just got out of hand quick. I don't even know totally what happened.
I do know this. Our guys are kind of trained by the guys before them, not by me.
You know, when Mateen Cleaves comes back or Steve Smith is there, or even back to Magic Johnson. I mean, you know, Draymond Green.
I mean, the mean the rivalry is a rivalry I mean you're not supposed to love your rival but you're supposed to respect them and I felt like uh you know Trey was sticking up for not only his teammates but all the players that have come before him that got a chance on this special day to kiss the S and kind of symbolize what we are here.

We're not flashy and this and that.

We're just kind of grimy.

We get down and kiss the floor.

I mean, that's not always good to kiss the floor.

There's a lot of people, but on that floor.

What we do, and I hope that doesn't take away from, you know,

how good we played in the game.

And they came back in the second half and played good also.

Yeah, I loved it.

Listen, you're on the right show because we're a big supporter of rivalry

should be – you shouldn't like your rival.

That's what makes sports fun.

Like, those moments are what we tune in as fans,

and I love Trey Holloman doing that, standing up for him. Hey, listen, there's a pretty basic rule.
Don't stand on another man's logo. You can't do that.
Can't stand on another man's logo. Get him off there.
And if there's one thing I know about the University of Michigan, they don't tolerate post-game theatrics at midfield or at half court. That's just not in their deal.
So they were probably shocked to see something like that happen. There was a funny moment though as all this was being cleaned up you had your arm around dusty may he had his arm around you guys were talking to each other what was said were you guys were you explaining to him because i don't think that dusty knew about the tradition were you letting him know hey dusty this is what we do when we win at the end of the season well we do it when we lose i mean draymond green Draymond Green's senior year, we lost the game.
I mean, it's tradition. It's not tradition when we win or tradition.
It's this is what you do. Some guys have been there four years, blood, sweat, and tears.
That's what we do. And I just told Dusty that.
But he was at Indiana, you know. He's been in the state at Eastern.
you know i i think he's done a hell of a job this year with his team and i give them all the credit but let's be real here nobody is disrupting us from kissing the ass yeah yeah can't do it 15 000 people and probably 600,000 living alums watching for that moment.

And we would have done it if they would have beat us.

Yeah.

This isn't just about winning, guys.

Draymond Green lost that game to Ohio State.

I think we had one or two other guys.

But that was devastating.

They hit a last-second shot, beat us by one.

And Draymond, we had to live that. You know, he had to kiss the S on a loss.
So it's not something we do as front runners. We do it because it's who we are, what we are.
It was started by Sean Respert. It was reinvented by Mateen Cleaves.
Those are two of the greatest players that ever played here. And it's going to continue, the rest of my life but definitely as long as i'm head coach it's going to continue i i got a question about that because i i uh i learned something today because we were trying to get john this afternoon and and you had your mother in attendance and she's 99 years old and it dawned on me with those genetics are you going to coach for another 20? I feel like you're never going to stop.
You're going to coach forever. I mean, your 99-year-old mother was at the Breslin Center today.
I heard reports that she was handling the stairs just fine. So, like, you're going to coach forever.
Well, I got 29 years to catch her, so who knows, you know? But I tell you guys, it was a thrill of i had my family there my grandchild there my 99 year old mother and um a lot of former players came back and like i said michigan and michigan state this year rivalries aren't rivalries if both teams aren't good right that's another thing about rivalries you know you don't have a rivalry i I mean, three years here i couldn't call it a rivalry you got beat by 20 every night right and then we went on a stretcher we did a lot of the beating and um you know then john bline came along and we i think had a very tough rivalry but a very respectful rivalry but knowing you guys the way you are there at Barstools, I would probably figure that you'd like us to drop the gloves and have a big hockey fist fight in the middle of the court. Yes.
I would appreciate that. That wouldn't go over big for me, but I guess once in a while I understand how you guys feel.
Yes, yes. We love rivalries.
We love bad blood. Have you ever kissed the S? By the way, it's kissing the S, not kissing ass.
Yeah, are you an S-kisser? It did definitely sound like the first time you said it, kissing ass. I've done that a lot.
No, I haven't. You only do that on your last time in Breslin.
This is my last time in Breslin. When it is, I'm positive I'll kiss the ass.
Yes, got to. Speaking of Breslin, I got a question for you.
So I'm a Badger. We played you guys last Sunday.
What do you do? It's the Izzo magic. There was a moment in the game where Tanjay went up, got called and won uh they went to I think commercial break and they're like haha just kidding it's ball out uh out the side there was no foul there and then you guys went on a 10-0 run and ended up winning the game pretty easily was that just you just talked to the ref and you're like hey listen that's not gonna happen in my house you guys are crazy You know the moment I'm talking about.
The game swung on that moment. I'm not an excuse guy, but it swung on that moment.
What do you think? I had Uncle Guido doing the refereeing or what? I don't know. I'm just asking.
Just asking questions. You know, the truth of it is, and Greg Gardner and I talk a lot.
He's one of my favorite guys. So believe it or not, I guess I got to like you a little bit

because I love playing in the job he did.

I think he was coach of the year this year.

When you look at where they were picked, 12th, 13th, he reinvented his team.

He's done an unbelievable job.

It's too bad that he has some alums that turn out like you guys.

Like you didn't have a daughter than that. No, I didn't talk to the official.
Those guys make mistakes, you know, once in a while. Yeah.
I coached once in a while. Yeah, they make mistakes.
Yeah, it was an interesting mistake. So about Greg Garden, the Big Ten as a whole, because you played Iowa on Thursday night, and Fran McCaffrey, they've had a bad season, and you talked afterwards.

You're like, look, this guy's a great coach.

You've got to stick with these guys.

You don't want to make a mistake and move on.

You've had some years in your career where it's maybe not been up to expectations.

What does it feel like when the wall's closed?

Do you feel that?

Are you like, hey, look, I'm trying my best here, but's it's year to year and the ball doesn't bounce your way sometimes you know there's a lot of things that happen especially now with this transfer portal and everything you know it's i mean i look at greg guard last year struggled a little bit right yeah and then and you i hope you weren't one of them that was leading the charge never said a bad word that guy did an unbelievable job this year i mean not only did he reinvent his team but he reinvented his style you know they were scoring 90 points a game yeah bo probably was turning over in his bed out there it's true springs but uh i was uh really uh no i i i just think that coaches nowadays are in trouble because everybody thinks because you're paying players, you should win. Well, other people are paying players too.
Yeah. And you got a lot of problems with these kids leaving and coming and going.
And you can be up one year and down the next. It's going's gonna be you know i i saw where they just fired the guy at north carolina state yeah yeah he went to a final four last year now i don't know the particulars to it so i'm not speaking about it either way but um you know there's administrators out there that are are crazy too you know it's it's not just coaches that are crazy.
There's administrators that are crazy, too. Yeah.
It feels like the whole college sports, the pressure has just been ramped up even more in terms of urgency and just like win now, win now. And if you don't, like you said, the NIL has changed the landscape for it.
And even in the offseason, if you don't add guys that your fan base is excited about going to the next year they almost like put you in the hot seat preemptively where where were spartans fans with you this offseason were they excited about this year i don't know you know i'd do something really good that would probably bother you guys i've never been on twitter in my life that's smart i'm starting it no because so they were upset with me. I don't know, but I didn't know it.
I tricked them. Yeah.
I just didn't read anything, you know? Yeah. My wife has a rule here.
There's no newspapers, no online stuff, no anything. So I just kind of do my job, but it is getting harder you are you are so right in college athletics in general but I think we still um I think you'd be surprised you know it's not 40 percent of the people are 30 or maybe even 20 it's 10 percent of the people are 15 that make all the noise.
Right. And somebody believes them because sometimes administrators, you know, they used to be former coaches.
And so the coach understood what was going on. Now some of them are not former coaches and I don't think they understand, you know, one big injury like Franny.
Yeah. He lost the freshman of the year last year.
The guy was averaging almost 17 points a game. He's 6'10".
And all of a sudden, you don't have him. And, you know, in sports, they do it a lot in football.
They say, well, the theory is next man up. Right? You always hear that line, man up.
If the next man up was as good as the guy that was there before him he'd have been a starter so next man up isn't the same man true true especially when there's not as many men yeah yeah exactly it's like you got you got five good luck if you lose one you're gonna have to coach that guy up when did you realize though that this year was it when the three started falling You realized that this team might be special? No, because the threes started falling just, you know, maybe a week or two ago. You know, we took our team to Spain.
We did a bunch of stuff this summer to try to keep the culture and camaraderie. I was really lucky because I had some guys coming back.
Jeremy Fears, who was injured last year, you know, he's come back. I get a guy like Jace Richardson, whose dad won two big tens championships and a national championship here.
I think they knew what the culture was. What has really impressed me about my guys is the, the way they bonded together and pulled from one another and um the the selfless acts you know the sacrifices they made maybe a few minutes here a few points there and uh i gotta admit it's been one of the more fun teams i've had to coach now sometimes we're not as good but uh we found a way to hang in there,

and I'm proud of them.

Yeah, I think Maryland 3-2, the buzzer beater.

It started to feel, and you had quotes talking about, like,

you know, these guys understand Michigan State,

and I was like, uh-oh, this is a problem for the Big Ten

because this is Izzo.

There's some of – I can kind of – I've been –

you know, I know you from afar for a long time. I can tell when you start to get a little swagger.
I can tell when you feel like you got some guys. And that happened a few weeks ago.
I was like, no, this is a problem. Well, in that game, you know, the only thing I was frustrated with is we had pretty much been up eight or nine points, you know, and we screwed up at the end.
So we need the heroic play and everybody made it out to be, we were lucky.

I thought we played pretty well.

Most of that game.

Yeah.

It's not the Izzo swagger that does it.

Cause believe it or not, guys, I never shoot a shot, never get a rebound or make a pass.

These guys have, have taken on their own personality.

You kind of hope each team each year has something that they can hang their hat on. You know what I mean? You always want them to learn from the players before them, but you also want them to bring their own identity.
This team has been different than most teams before them. What's been the same is they got good guys.
I think they play for the name on the front and back. I don't think it's just that way where you play for the name on your front anymore.
Those days are kind of gone. But if you just play for the name on your back, you got problems.
So I think this team has found a way to play for both. And I'm really kind of proud and excited about it.
And I'm also enjoying it, you know. And, you know, me, I don't enjoy a lot of things so this is good.
Are you still daring teams to zone you? You threw that out there a couple weeks ago. You said, I dare you to zone us.
Is that still standing now that you're hitting your threes? Well, when I say dare them to zone us, I mean, listen, we played Indiana and I went to the press conference and said I did a poor job. Don't blame the players.
We did not prepare enough for it. They played like two percent zone.
We hadn't worked on it as much. And so it wasn't only that we didn't shoot well, we didn't execute well.
And that was, you know, I mean, there's times when coaches got to look in the mirror and say, you know what? I didn't do my job. And I said that in front of everybody.
And, and, but I vowed then we're going to be making sure that never happens again. So we're working at it harder, but at the end of the day, as you guys know, you can work on anything, all you want.
If the ball doesn't go in the hoop, it's like hockey or soccer.

You can pepper that goalie.

But if it don't go in there, you don't score.

And so there's a combination.

We needed to get better at what we do.

We needed to make some shots.

But we have to execute better, and that's what we've improved on.

Now we're starting to make shots, and then we'd be a much better team. Yeah.
Have you had to break out the football pads this year? You know, you guys laugh about that. Every time my old players come back, that's the first thing they talk about.
You know, I did it because I was mad, and we had so much fun. I'd have done it again.
I'm just afraid this day and age some lawyer would come in and sue me, or I'd get fired. But the guys love it.
It's another part of our identity. So maybe someday I'll shut off the cameras and walk the doors and go ask Jonathan to borrow some football gear.
That was fun, man. Nick Saban sent over 12 sets.
It was awesome. Yeah.
Hey, quick question about your bobblehead. Do you see your bobblehead? Do you think they did a good job with your bobblehead? They have an Izzo counter for wins because you're going up there in all the records, like I said, but you broke Bobby Knight's Big Ten win record.

You just tied him for the conference record.

You just keep going, going, and going.

But they made a bobblehead.

I think they could have gotten a little more iso.

Maybe put on that crazy leprechaun sweater that you wear,

something like that.

No, I don't look at my bobblehead.

I haven't seen my bobblehead.

And I'm sure it's not very good. You know, my bobblehead doesn't have to be that big.
I'm not that tall. So I don't know what the bobblehead is.
But I keep saying I don't win those games. The players win those games.
And I mean that. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
But I also, you know, guys, it's been an interesting three, four years.

And yet, you know, we won a championship, I think, in 18, 19, and 20.

And now another one in 25. So we had a little bit of a downstretch there.

But right now, you know, how good we are, I don't know.

And like I said, it's not the talent-laden team that maybe you normally see.

But it sure has been a fun team to coach.

And guys are getting better.

And I think they believe in each other and they play for each other.

Yeah.

And get better than that.

How much importance do you put on the tournament now?

Thank you. are getting better and i think they believe in each other and they they play for each other yeah and get better than that how uh how much importance do you put on the tournament now on the on the conference tournament is this something where it means a lot to you it would mean a lot to the program if you guys won the whole thing or is it let's just go out there let's work on some stuff we'll try to win uh but if we don't win it's not the end of the world Yeah, I don't think I'd ever admit that, but the truth of the matter is,

you know, winning the regular season is so important to me because it's that 20 game stretch, you know, and you get lucky or unlucky in three games and you might be in or out here. But I still think it's important because it teaches you how to play when it's one and done time.
In other words, if you lose Friday, you're done. And so that's where we had a stretch today.
We didn't play very well. And that's the first thing I told our guys.
Hey, guys, you know, if this happens in the NCAA tournament or the Big Ten tournament and you go down, you're out. It's not that you just get another chance.
So those will be things we'll be working on this week. So it's still important to me, but it doesn't supersede the 20-game grind that we just went through.
Yeah. All right, Coach, I got one last question.
This has been so much fun. We love having you on.
We appreciate you giving us some time. Rowback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com.
Promo code TAKE, 20% off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts.
Rowback.com, promo code TAKE. It's actually a two-part question.
Slow down, man. I can't even understand you.
Slow down. It's a two-part question because I got – can you sit up for a second? I want to see the Positive Vibes Only sweatshirt.
It looks awesome. Wait, let me get that in frame.

See if you can get it in frame.

I want to get the – there we go.

Positive Vibes Only.

I love that you're wearing that.

I don't know if you – I would imagine in like the – you know,

when you're preseason and you're coaching the guys tough,

you're probably not like, hey, guys, Positive Vibes Only.

That's all we're going to do.

I don't know if that matches your style. You can tell me if I'm wrong.
You don't seem like a total positive vibes only guy. Yeah, you're probably right about that.
But it's hard not to be positive when you just went through this 20, you know, game grind and we won the Big Ten championship. Right.
So at least for tonight, by tomorrow we'll be back to dog eat dog, but tonight we're into the positive vibes. I like that.
So my last question, my real last question, you've been coaching for 30 years, you've seen it all, you've been in all these tournament settings. Do you kind of relish getting into March Madness, into the big dance, knowing that you have a little bit of an edge because you have seen it all, and that quick turnaround, that's what I love about the tournament where it's like you play Thursday, you play Saturday.
The coaching staffs do – players make the plays. You've said it a million times, but the coaching staffs do matter because you have such a little prep time for the opponent.
It can be a team you've never seen, style you've never seen. Do you feel

extra confident, though, going in being like, look,

I've seen it all. I know how to coach

on 24 hours. I know how to

get my team ready quickly on a quick

turnaround.

You know, honestly, I would say

that's one thing that I'll give my staff

credit of over the years. I think

we have had enough experience in the eight

Final Fours and the things we've done that quick turnarounds are a key. So I feel really comfortable that we'll have our teams prepared, but you still got to play well.
But I think the experience, even for a player, experience matters, you know, and I think experience matters in that respect as far as preparing them but you still got to play the game yeah yeah how are we feeling about the talk of expanding the tournament i know that they said that they might look to add eight teams 16 teams there's all these plans out there for the future where do you stand as a coach yeah you know i i was involved in a lot of things i was on a lot of committees but this last couple of things that have happened i've kind of just decided um i care about the game a lot i work for a guy who loved the game i mean he he cared more about how the game went sometimes in our own team but i i would say this i I'm not really putting enough time in to figure out what's right. I hope they do what's right for basketball, what's right for the players in the game, and not just for money or something else.
I hope it's, you know, the best interest of basketball. And I don't know what that would be until I really sat down and observed it but right now there's some younger coaches out there that I really respect that are on some of these committees that I think will fight those fights and in the meantime I'm going to just they want my opinion I give my opinion and you're going to say well what's your opinion? I worry if they expand it too much.
You know, we have already it's tough because we have Cinderella. You know, football doesn't have Cinderella.
Everybody that's in there. I mean, I've been beaten by a 15.
Right. You know, my good friend, Tony Bennett, you know, was beaten by a 16.
You know, I mean, it happens. In football, that will never happen because that team will never be in there.
So the more you expand it, the more those kind of things happen, which you guys all like the first day. Right.
But TV doesn't like it the second round. No.
No. So it's always fun and exciting for you guys.
And meanwhile, I'm sitting home ready to, you know, whatever. Well said.
But I do respect the little guys, too, because I was a Division II guy to start with. And I have great respect for Cinderella.
I have great respect for what VCU did back when Shaka was there. You know, I was, I was pulling for him.
But now that I'm on this side, it's scary. You know, we faced Middle Tennessee State, for example, and we were really good.
And Denzel Valentine, I mean, I thought I had to make it to a Final Four. And we were, I think, one in the country defensively.
I think they shot 58% in the field and 54% from the three. Right.
I mean, they just beat us. And that was kind of bone crushing, you know.
Yeah. I don't know what I hope for.
I don't want it to be too watered down. And yet, I want everybody to get a chance that deserves a chance.
Yeah. Good answer.
Uh, all right, coach, thank you. Rest that voice.
Um, and you're, you are very humble, but incredible year, incredible team. And, uh, we're excited to watch you guys in March.
Well, you know, the only person who'd be more excited than you two that I did come on is my son, because he spends all the time watching you guys. So clean your act up.
Do a good job. Talk good about everybody.
Be positive. Yep.
Positive vibes sometimes. Positive vibes sometimes.
Then it's dog eat dog. All right.
There you go. Thank you, coach.
Appreciate it so much. Take care.
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We got a Monday reading. This one was sent to memes.
Good am I the asshole question on Reddit. What is this? Have you not read this? I'm just looking at this picture of Israel you posted.

Oh, yeah.

Positive vibes only.

He looks like he's a hostage.

He looks like a sit board.

Yeah.

Looks like a hostage.

A good rule of thumb is if you're posting something to am I the asshole, you're usually

an asshole.

Yeah.

All right.

So this one is, am I the asshole for letting a neighbor make pack lunch for me?

My wife used to pack lunch for me, but I noticed a while back that she stopped making lunch like she used to already bad, bad start before she would get creative with it. Take her time, try new recipes, put little special touches here and there.
Then I felt like it just became, okay, what are the kids having? I'll just make an extra one and give it to them or give it, give that to him. I would make my own lunch, but for one, it's not the same as when she makes it haha and two i work in construction so by the time i come home all i want to do is hit the sheets and all the places to get lunch near the construction site are expensive so i'd rather just bring something from home so i brought it up to her one day and we talked about it and she told me that she had so many things to do in a day that she didn't have as much time to put her energy into making my lunches like she used to seems reasonable it also seems like the lunch might be a metaphor for something else in this relationship yeah well it's so far we've learned that this guy uh is mad that his lunch wasn't made well and also when he gets home he goes right to bed and also she spends more time making the kids lunches than she does making his lunch.

Yes.

God damn it.

You got to make technical free throws.

You have to make technical free throws.

That's a sidebar.

But I could see that she genuinely felt bad because I noticed the next few lunches were

more polished than the previous ones.

And I appreciate her so much for trying that when the quality of the lunches started to

go down again.

I didn't even have the heart to complain.

Wow.

Fast forward. I have a day off.
So my wife drags me to a Bible study that was being hosted at a neighbor's house. The food was so good that I kept going back for more.
After my third plate, the woman who had made the food and I started talking, basically she told me that she was flattered that I liked her food so much and that she was training to be a chef and that she had more food that she would like me to try out. I told her that that would be perfect because I always am looking for different things to try and whatever food she made, I could just pick up in the morning and take with me to lunch.
Okay. So you're asking your neighbor now to make you lunch every day.
Does that also entail like you going over to her house first thing in the morning? Well, yes. Good question.
And picking the lunch up? Yes. We exchanged information.
The next day, she sent me an address to her home, which turned out to be right on the way to work and not too far from the construction site. So that's where I've been getting lunch for the past few days.
This does seem like a big metaphor. Yeah.
Like my wife, it was great when we first got married. The lunch was fantastic.
But my neighbor- She would do special tricks and it would be try something try something new all the time a lot of variety there then it got stale kids showed up but then i met then i met my neighbor and man she makes a fucking hot lunch yeah and met her at bible studies so you know there's nothing there right this is he's hitting all the cliches i told my wife that she'd have to make lunch for me anymore. And she didn't say anything until today.
She said she said she thought I was getting lunch from the store. And I said that I don't see why that matters where I'm getting it from.
She said she doesn't want me to pick up lunch from there anymore. I told her she was being unreasonable for no reason.
We had a big argument a few hours ago and she's still mad. Am I the asshole? I really don't see what the problem is.
She doesn't have to worry about taking time out of her day to make lunch for me and i'm getting quality lunches again how is this not a win-win for everybody i'm confused this guy's the most guy brain ever it's just lunch baby he is like he's just quintessential guy like well i like special lunches you didn't make me special lunches i found special lunches win-win there's no difference between me getting the lunch from my neighbor and me buying it at the store there's no difference if somebody else made it why don't you get upset if i go to wendy's during the day all right edit i know what you guys are implying but it can't be because she thinks i'm cheating i told her that she can literally check my hours when i arrive at work i have to clock in if i If I was going over to her place to cheat, I would be clocking in late unless you come fast. Yeah.
Check my location. Yeah.
Edit two to clarify one. I complained once, but after I saw how bad she felt, I didn't complain again and quietly kept eating the lunch.
She made good guy hero. Good guy to stop making it seem like I intentionally went out looking for another woman to make me food.
She's a chef. She saw that I enjoyed her food and came up to me and offered.
Again, she's a chef in training. Obviously, she wants people to try out her food.
Please stop making it seem like it's more than that because it's not. I love my wife.
She's a chef. I wonder if this guy, because he's going to construction every day.
Do they do trades at lunch in construction like they do in elementary school? Oh, yeah. Show up with Dunkaroos.
Elementary school, you roll in with a pack of gushers. You can take five people's sandwiches for that one thing.
Absolutely. So I feel like on a construction site, you probably are able to wheel and deal and upgrade.
And he probably just, since she wasn't doing a good job making his lunch anymore, he was probably just left out of the trading circle. Yeah.
Yeah. And at three, well, basically, it seems like it's unanimous that I'm the asshole.
But I really can't. He must have just been getting roasted.
But I really came here hoping to find out why. And no one really explained to me why it's wrong for me to eat food that a chef ordered offered to me, especially since my wife has already said in that she's usually too busy to make lunch the way she used to.
I thought this would be easier on her and let her have more time in her day to focus on other things. But somehow I wind up the bad guy shaking my head.
Thank you for all the responses, but I think I'm going to keep eating at the chef's house. I can't stress enough.
This dude is just like, he has the most like caveman brain. I like that.
He, his whole point of view is i thought you'd appreciate it yeah i thought that i'm doing this for us no one is telling me why this is bad i'm doing it for us babe i thought you'd be happy that i was going over to her house every morning and picking up food here's a reason it might be why your over stressed wife who's uh busy taking care of your kids maybe doesn't love the fact that you love the food that your hot neighbor is making for you. And maybe because she was still going out of her way to make you lunch every day.
Yeah. Your wife was making you lunch every day and it just wasn't up to your standard.
It wasn't special enough. It wasn't like it used to be.
Yeah. I editorialized hot, but we all agree this chef is hot.
Oh, for sure. Bible study chef, hot.
For sure. And she's also like, she is definitely unhappy in her marriage if she's making lunch for a random construction yeah does her husband know that how would this guy feel if he came home and and there was another guy that was just mowing his lawn a construction dude is pulling up to his house every morning being like where's my food he's yeah he's pulling up he's got his hard hat on oh he looks like a village person maybe just only wearing the vest probably got some sick tattoos edit four last edit wow she locked the bedroom door so i guess i'll be here reading responses from time to time until i fall asleep how did i get here i love this dude i kind of agree with him i love this dude it's just lunch this dude wants to come on we can uh we can have his back and just be like, dude, we still don't understand it.
That food. Like, yeah, it's just lunch.
Why didn't she make you special? She doesn't put the treats in there anymore. When? When? This is crazy.
She's trained. By the way, she's training to be a chef could mean a lot of things.
Oh, yeah. It could just mean like she likes cooking food.
Yeah. And it's been her dream.
Like when she was a kid, she saw a movie about a chef and she's like, that'd be fun yeah and she just thought about it for a couple years or she could actually be in school my guess is that she just enjoys cooking yeah and the guy's like she's trained to be a chef man she's trained to be a chef and that she's someday gonna just be like making food for the whole bible study all the boys on the construction site yeah i hope she's an inspiring like food tiktoker yeah like she has like 500 followers on tiktok and like is really trying to blow up her page yeah yeah that would be great uh i love this dude though what a meathead absolute meathead all right good show boys great two weeks coming up uh memeses, welcome back.

Numbers?

Three.

33.

Eight.

Three has never been pulled, memes?

Not here.

Okay.

I gotta pick a new number.

I go 60.

You guys go first.

99, pug.

51.

21.

Shane, do you want to do 15 seconds on the Chargers?

Go.

Did we already start?

Yeah.

You have five.

Mad so far.

Very disappointed.

Upset.

Give me one name you want.

Fast.

Devontae Adams.

I don't know who's available.