John Calipari To Arkansas, John Fanta Joins Us To Talk Final Four, Who’s Back And The Eclipse May End The World

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Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com slash podcast. On today's part of my take, we have our good friend John Fanta in person talking about Monday night's championship game.
We're live from Arizona, Final Four. We're going to talk about what we saw on Saturday night.
We're going to talk a little bit about the women's championship. We got a who's back of the week, some eclipse talk.
Great show coming to you from Arizona. We're going to get right back to the show.

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All right, back to part of my take.

Okay, let's go.

Fight!

Fight! Fight! right back to part of my take okay let's go now in the street there is violence and then a lot of work to be done no place to hang out or wash in and then i can't name all on the sun oh no we're gonna rock down to electric avenue and then we'll take it higher oh we're gonna rock down to electric it's part of my take presented by barstool sports welcome to part of my take presented by draft Sportsbook. New customers can bet five bucks to get $150 instantly in bonus bets only at DraftKings Sportsbook with code TAKE.
Today is Monday, April 8th. Breaking Moose.
Coach John Calipari is the new head coach for the arkansas razorbacks so we already recorded the full show we went to topgolf had a great time video coming out soon hank did great and and we're sitting there at topgolf and we see the news start to trickle in me and big cat didn't see the news right away hand up we apologize for that but we were we're sitting there at Topgolf, and we see the news start to trickle in. Me and Big Cat didn't see the news right away.
Hand up. We apologize for that.
But we were playing excellent at Topgolf. Yeah, beating Hank at Topgolf.
So we see the news, and we're like, this can't be true. And then in a matter of seconds, it is true.
Cal is going to Arkansas. Tyson Foods comes and saves the day for Arkansas.
The chicken man. The chicken man.
So I have a ton of thoughts. I mean, I don't know where we want to start.
Let's start with this. I love college sports for these type of moments because we have the domino meme.
SMU goes to the ACC, is able to get Andy Enfield from USC. Musk goes from Arkansas to USC.
And then Cal goes from Kentucky to Arkansas. So SMU going to ACC started this entire thing.
And now Kentucky is looking for a new coach in what, 15 years? Yeah. And it's crazy.
It is wild. So the first I heard of this, I was just shocked that Cal was allowed to negotiate with other schools.
Like they did him a favor by not firing him two weeks ago. Correct.
And they had that big meeting. And after that meeting was over, Mitch, the AD, was like, Cal's our coach.
We're going to roll with him. And then apparently in his contract, he has a clause where he's allowed to negotiate with other schools as long as he tells Kentucky about it.
Right. It's like an open marriage contract.
It's Will Smith and Jada Pinkett. And it's crazy that he basically did the you can't fire me, I quit.
Yeah. And so I was listening, Matt Jones did a Twitter space, and he explained it that Cal and his group were somehow shocked by the hate that Kentucky had had in the last like two months for Cal and how this season ended he said that it surprised them and they didn't see that coming and that's where the tide kind of shifted and then you throw in the fact that Arkansas is giving him a ton of money and basically giving him a new lease where yeah next year he would have been the Kentucky head coach but if they go out in the first round again, he's fired.
So he gets a whole new contract. He gets years to build Arkansas.
It's a huge win for Arkansas, and I think it's actually a huge win for Kentucky. I agree.
Kentucky fans, like, they wanted him gone two weeks ago. Not only that, but it's a huge win for Kentucky for a couple things.
One, you don't have to pay him any money. So the part of the deal is that if Cal goes, there's no buyout for Arkansas to pay Kentucky, but there's also no money that Kentucky has to pay Cal.
So you're free and clear of that. Two, all the boosters that had turned on Cal are going to be all the way back in and ready to write big checks for whatever coach they want.
And three, this is the part that I think most Kentucky fans know, but the outside world doesn't, and they try to roast Kentucky and be like, oh, Kentucky's cooked. Kentucky is one billion times bigger than Coach Cal.
It's Kentucky basketball. They've won eight national titles.
Seven of them are without Coach Cal. That's what I was saying earlier.
If you were to just list the best jobs in college basketball kentucky is right up there maybe number one like duke jake brought up duke and i was like i don't think so because with duke it's like that's coach k yeah it's a prestigious job right but in terms of like the system around the coach kentucky's as good as it gets so do you think that in that meeting where he didn't get fired any possibility that that they came to an understanding like, hey, we don't want to pay your buyout. You want to leave.
I'm going to say that I'm keeping you around as coach. You go off.
You try to find a new job. That way we're all happy.
No, I think this probably surprised the fuck out of him. You think so? Yeah.
I think this surprised the fuck out of him. Because I think this wouldn't have happened if Musk doesn't leave from Arkansas.
Like the dominoes started to go, and then you have a specific job in Arkansas that has the money. And Cal's also close with the chicken people.
Right. So it's like this all kind of worked in a perfect sequential order where it's like everything fell into place that this specific job opened up that has this amount of money that has the the boosters that back you so like I said like Cal has a new lease on life like he was he was on the hot seat we will we credit to us we put him on the hot seat before anyone else and we were correct but he was on the hot seat in Kentucky and he probably read the tea leaves and was like unless unless I go to the Final Four, I'm basically gone no matter what, and then I'm looking for a new job.
Why not just take this new job right now that's giving me all the money and all my friends are the boosters, and they all – Arkansas has got to be fucking thrilled. They're very happy, yeah.
Right. Hogville.
It's crazy, too. The best part is – I love this when this happens in college sports, too, the fact that Cal has to go back to Lexington next year.
Yeah. Just makes this so, so, so great.
It's like when Chris Beard had to go back to Texas Tech. Yeah.
And you get these rivalries, and it's just, it makes it, it's why I love college sports more than anything. It's good.
If you're a Kentucky fan, you're probably, like, a little bit happy that Cal's not going to be there. You want him gone, like we said.

Yeah.

But at the same time, you don't want him to go to an in-conference rival

where you have to play him all the time.

It's a weird thing that they're going to have to deal with,

and the timing of it is just crazy for it to happen

the night before the national championship.

Yep.

And also the night after Nate Oates and the Crimson Tide lose. Yes.
So I get what you're saying. Like you don't want to have to go up against Cal, but I think, again, Kentucky is bigger than a coach.
Yeah. And they're like, they'll be fine because they're going to get a great coach.
And I do think the money that's going to come in now from a reinvigorated like fan base and booster base is going to put the next coach of Kentucky in an incredible spot to succeed. And this marriage was always going to break up eventually.
They just get to fast forward past a couple more painful years that Cal probably doesn't adapt, and they probably have a bunch of lottery picks that don't win in the tournament. And now you get to fast forward, and you're like, all right, we're on to the new one who's probably going to want to be there for a very long time and build something in this new college basketball world.
Yeah, and with him going to Arkansas, I just wonder if he's going to bring recruits with him. Like, is he going to flip some guys? Some guys that we're going to be at Kentucky.
So that add a whole new level of hate yeah to cal when he does have to go back to lexington you got to assume they're all gone yeah then i made i made like a wish list of just coaches that i hope they look at to hire number one for kentucky i think we can agree rick patino yes sometimes you got to go back to move forward send rick home he wants to go home you heard him on part of my take he would love to go to kentucky that clip will get played a million times if he goes to kentucky yep uh then jay right jay right would be fun getting back in the mix i don't think he's going anywhere i don't think he wants to coach college right now also rick patino the one problem with rick patino is that you would then you'd have to figure out what you're going to do in six years that's true yeah to replace him yeah um then danny hurley they're going to call danny hurley they're going to ask danny hurley there's no reason for danny hurley to take this job except for a very big reason which is they would probably like double his salary i still think it would be zero percent just in and obviously with college coaches it's stupid to say something like zero percent because we know that they all would move. We've seen it a million times.
But Danny Hurley is a Northeast guy. I don't know what you could do as much as I said, Kentucky's bigger than Cal.
I don't know how much better you can get than possibly winning two national championships in a row. And if he wins tonight, he gets whatever he wants.
He's a new contract. He gets everything.
He's minted. The only thing they could throw is just an obscene amount of cash at him.
That would make him think about it. I feel like he's the type of guy who would say no.
I don't think that he would either. But when this kind of money is involved, you never know.
Kentucky has to at least make the call. They'll talk to him.
Yes. They'll pick up the phone.
I hope they don't try to talk to him right now. No.
I don't they're gonna like call him tomorrow they're gonna call him before the game yeah i hope he stays focused yeah i don't think you would i don't think danny would take the call i don't either i think he'd hang up on him uh those are the big ones don staley well they just have to you just have to get the conversation going don staley yeah you forgot about nate oats nate oats well no we talked about nate oats or Nate Oates seems like he'd be a pretty good fit. Seems like the buyout would not really be an issue if they're paying a shitload of money anyways.
They're ready to write some checks. And they don't have to pay Cal.
When we talked to Matt Jones a couple weeks ago, he did say Scott Drew would be at the top of the list, national championship coach, close with the AD. So he's got to be a call that gets made.
Mark Few. I have another one.
Mark Few, I'd say probably not. You don't take the call? I don't think so.
He hasn't won anything. Yeah.
He hasn't even gone to a final four. Ever.
One call that I think they probably will make is my coach. I think they would probably try to get Billy Donovan.

Yeah.

I think that would definitely be a call they make.

So Billy D back to college. But that, to me, I don't know.

With the way college basketball is now,

I feel like it'd be crazy to go back to college

if you have a pro job that you feel somewhat secure with.

I would agree with that.

Also, Brad Stevens. Got to call him.
Got to call him. Got make brad say no jim boeheim gotta call him i think he's ready for a new challenge you gotta call jim boeheim to see if you if he'll give you danny hurley's number just be like hey jim he's like i i was expecting this phone call it's like no actually we just don't have danny hurley's.
We need that from you. Coach K.
John Shire. Yeah.
Kevin Keats. Kevin Keats.
Hank, who you got? Danny Sprinkle. Danny Sprinkle.
Danny Sprinkle. Make him go from Washington to Kentucky without ever coaching a game.
What about a guy with national championship experience? Kevin Olley. Oh, yeah.
Good point. Ooh, Kevin Olley.
Yes. Good point.
Great coach. Here's a crazy one that would not happen, but I would just throw it out there because college sports can always shock us.
Musk. Musk.
Musk to Kentucky. What if he was just like, all right? Yeah.
I mean, they all. And then you know what? If you're Cal, you have to pick up the phone if USC calls.
Yes, yes. He's always wanted to coach in LA.
He was almost a Lakers coach 10 years ago. Yeah, or even Andy Enfield maybe goes back to USC and then Cal goes to SMU.
They're in the ACC now. Yeah, musical chairs.
Big program. It is shocking news.
Like, this is – we all thought that – I mean, we're going to talk to John Fanta in a minute. we brought up Cal to him and we're like he we talked about the hot seat and stuff now it already is outdated it's the fastest and interviews ever been outdated in that specific topic but yeah it's crazy I really do think Kentucky fans though should be happy because it was going to end sooner rather than later and now you don't have to pay him any money and now you have a bunch of boosters that are like good he's gone let's go get the best coach that we can find and we'll pay him all the money and we'll pay all the nil and kentucky will probably kentucky will win a national title before arkansas i i'll do my uh what's the uh calves owners dan gilbert dan gilbert yeah personally guaranteed personally guarantee i would personally guarantee and i like arkansas as a school and i you know they have a tremendous history i was actually watching 40 minutes uh of hell uh the documentary the other night with nolan yeah like awesome it's a fucking passionate great bud walton arena is the best when it gets rocking but i just think kentucky will be good i think they'll be they'll be fine immediately i'm gonna go one step further big cat i'm gonna say the next coach at kentucky will win a national championship yeah whoever you are whoever you're about to hire right now future national championship coach sign up yeah what's the what's the do you think jerry jones is just like he's been so preoccupied with his own death and trying to win all the championships he can, like spending all this crazy money? You think that factored into this? You think Jerry Jones was like, I got to get one in Arkansas, too, before I die.
Maybe. So just talk to Coach Cal.
Yeah. I wonder how much he cares about Arkansas basketball.
That is a Cowboys hire. Yeah.
Bringing in Calipari like this. Yeah.
It's the flash flashiest hire you can get the only thing flasher would be is if kentucky can get jay right that would be the flashiest hire oh what about kyle neptune get him a lot of great coaches out there yeah i it's gonna be fascinating how quickly you think it's gonna happen fast right i it's probably going to happen the next day or two. Yeah.
Yeah.

I mean, I don't think you can announce the hire the day of the national championship game.

Can you?

Yeah, you can.

Remember when A-Rod did, he announced his contract in the middle of the World Series?

Yeah, but that's A-Rod.

He's different.

That's true.

Maybe A-Rod for the Kentucky job.

I just feel like if you do it on the national championship day, that news gets overshadowed by the game later. Yeah, true.
Yeah, they'll wait a day. Yeah.
But they've already made the calls. I think they're making calls.
There's Mitch, what's his name, Mitch Barnard? Yeah. He's on the phone right now.
Yeah, he's got to figure it out. And I mean, Cal's years of Kentucky, obviously the ending wasn't good, but he had an incredible run with a national title.
Oh, the lights just went out. That's the Eclipse.
That's Undertaker. That's Cal saying, oh, by the way, let's quickly do this.
While the lights are out, Undertaker did come out. I also got Brandon Walker sent me spark notes for WrestleMania so that we can say we discussed it.
Cody finished his story. It was no DQ, and Roman had his cronies interfering.
The Avengers assembled, and one by one appeared to help Cody, culminating in Cena and Taker. I'm sorry, but the refs in wrestling suck.
They do. They suck.
That's cool. Cody Rhodes did it.
Yeah, good job. I saw The Rock kicked Logan Paul.
That was fun. Oh, okay.
Gave him a kick right to the chest. He kicked him.
Kicked him. Yeah, wrestling.
I didn't even see any of the highlights besides Jason Kelsey. I wish they didn't do it during Final Four weekend because I probably would buy WrestleMania just to see the pops.
I love the pops. All right, anything else for Kentucky? I mean, crazy, crazy news.
Like I said, we've already taped the full show, so you're going to hear us talk about Saturday night, women's, everything, and John Fanta's on, and we did bring up. I wish we had gotten him after this.
Right now. Here's thoughts, but yeah, Big Blue Nation, you're going to be just fine.
You're going to fucking be just fine. Arkansas got a great hire.
They're going to win games now. They're going to get big recruits.
They're going to open up the coffers. College basketball is back.
Let's see John Fanta's comment. He's just reporting the news.
Just the facts. Just the facts.
Just the facts from him. Jake, did you have any thoughts on him? Oh, no, no.
He said the coaching carousel is undefeated. Undefeated.
Also a fact. Undefeated.
Yeah, I think it's crazy. Jack Golki ended calipari's career like that's another domino yeah if they beat oakland he's probably sticking around yeah jack golki was the yeah you're right if they if they beat oakland they won't get maybe to the sweet 16 there's not as much pressure jack golki was the man who did it but eventually three straight three out of four years losing to north texas saint peters and oakland that's the shocking part that cal didn't couldn't see the fan base being upset yeah you're kentucky and you lose to those teams in the tournament yeah the first round he had to have an idea 2021 that's matt said that he matt said that they were shocked by the animosity that the fan base had towards him he thought like he had you know done enough and built sorry perdue lost north te North Texas.
But either way, yeah, St. Peter's and Oakland, two out of three years.
Oh, and Wikipedia has already updated. Nate Oates is the head coach at University of Kentucky.
That's good enough for me. Damn, I can't wait to see what happens.
All right, let's kick it to ourselves. Rest of the show, great show.
We talk Eclipse. We have John Fanta.
We talk about everything that we saw on Saturday night. We're going to get right back to the show.
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All right, back to part of my take.

And we're down to two.

The road ends here, PFT.

It does, yeah. We got Purdue.
We got uconn we got zach edie we got clingen we have an interview with fanta he shed light on this but it's the first time two seven footers have been on the court on opposite teams in the modern era yes the biggest game ever the biggest game ever i don't think we've ever sat farther apart for a podcast this is very awkward yeah no it's it's weird it just started uh like shouting across the room to you yeah no cans on or anything great job max what's up pft i'm doing pretty good yeah what did you say you want to you want to do you want to do the podcast what there's all yeah actually we should start out by saying are we sure caitlin clark is actually good oh bust can't win the can't win the big one yeah that game was crazy the championship game uh shout out don staley for giving a shout out yep no free shout out shout out don staley a shout out for giving caitlin clark a shout out appreciate that uh yeah south carolina turns out really good at basketball yeah caitlin clark maybe the best first quarter that she could possibly have and then she was just out of gas by the end of it and the game so south carolina they did you know they've only lost three games in the last three years yeah they they're 109 and three the only game they had lost in the last two years was the game to iowa in the final four last year yeah wild but caitlin clark is uh ends her college career going out with just everyone in the world hating her for some reason or having i feel like so many people started to hate on her that there was backlash the backlash now where it's like caitlin clark is good it's actually perfect because you have you have the old heads yeah wnba complaining about the young people being like oh the kids today can't play like we used to play bob ryan being like yeah players are much better in my day it's i think that's just a natural thing in sports we're just seeing it on the woman's stage yeah diana taurasi i think wants to like assault caitlin clark when she shows up to the wnba but yeah it was it was a weird like ending because she's obviously done so much for the women's game there were crazy ratings on friday i'm sure crazy ratings for today's game what's your number oh i got 20 mil exactly oh i think it's gonna be less than that i'm gonna say 17 17 mil 17 mil but yeah it was weird like the hate that she was getting from all the wmba players new yeah but i guess they just don't like you know the young buck on the scene i guess she attracts so much attention but i want to see it expand i want to see like female hockey players being like female basketball players are soft as shit they don't they don't play like we play get it all the way there yeah but yeah so we're here in arizona we went to the game on saturday uh why don't we talk about the games purdue beats nc state uh nc state played some of the worst basketball i've watched uh but nothing to take away from purdue purdue like but i think if you told nc state fans before that game purdue only was going to score 63 points they would have been like oh we have a real shot at this uh purdue's just too good they they their defense was great i also think and not making excuses as soon as michael o'connell the point guard for nc state went down with that injury, their offense basically was erased. Yeah, it was tough, especially the start of the second half.
It seemed like neither team wanted to make a shot. Yeah.
But there was a moment when the game started where it was DJ Burns against Zach Eady for a little bit. And we're like, how's this going to work out? DJ learned pretty quickly that you can't spin around Zach Eady.
Yes. He's too wide.
His arms go too long. He did a couple of those spin moves, which get you around almost anybody else in the game.
And then he picks up his dribble and he's like, oh shit, Zach Eadie's here too. Yes.
He's on both sides of me. And Zach Eadie scored 20 points, only two free throws.
So shout out. I know that Purdue fans hate the discourse.
That was, I mean, they were just, they were better than NC State and NC State state like what an insane run that you know our guy quiggs was with us diehard nc state fan that is one of those things that if you're a sports fan even though it didn't end well you'll remember that run from the acc championship all the way to the final four forever you had a great tournament the story of this game was nc state make a mid-range jump shot challenge. They just couldn't hit anything.
And then, yeah, you're right. Edie did not get to the foul line a lot, but the two foul shots he had were the most upsetting foul shots, I think, in the history of basketball.
Because there was no whistle for the media timeout, so it was a double media timeout. Oh, wow.
So Edie goes up there. They come out of a media timeout.
He shoots one foul shot. Boom, media timeout oh wow so ed goes up there he shoots they come out of a media timeout he shoots one foul shot boom media timeout again you had one foul shot in between commercial disgusting it was disgusting for the sport for the youngsters disgusting uh but yeah purdue i mean i think they can absolutely i know they're seven point dogs but they have they have the best chance against yConn in terms of what they have, like on the floor guard play, ED just being a monster.
And I do, I would have liked to see that the Michael O'Connell injury, like the NC state run, he was the one who hit that three against Virginia, the offense running through him, let them kind of play a little more free. And then he just, I feel like every single year at the final four they do

the video showing how cool it is that they painted this court and then someone gets injured right away yeah and that was like a phantom floor injury he only ended up playing 12 minutes i think purdue wins no matter what but you could tell that they're off nc state's offense was in a big funk after that yeah it was like anytime nc state made one three-pointer it was like oh maybe they're back maybe they're all going to go in yeah but it was never close also we should I Zach Eady be like well played he he revealed on Friday press conference to basically get everyone to be like I actually feel bad for Zach Eady that the laws don't let him make money in the NIL because he's a Canadian uh he's from Canada canada and he's on a green card that's crazy zach edie i actually like i'm now a fan of you because you were right you missed out on a lot of money oh a ton of money actually some some student at produce should marry him become a citizen yep then he makes all the money just like pay pay the girl ten thousand dollars marry me okay now i'm a millionaire yeah instantly yeah but Instantly. Yeah, but that sucks for him.
And he played it perfectly, because I didn't know that until he said it on Friday. And then immediately everyone's like, the discourse changes.
Like, wait, Zach, he's getting screwed. I saw somebody said that there's like an NIL collective that might be able to give him money through a loophole.
So he might be making some money, but he's not making like official NIL money like anybody else could right now. He would have been raking it in.
He's having one of the best tournament runs of all time. Yeah.
And he's been a star. He was the back-to-back national player of the year.
Zach Eady, you deserve some money. Yeah, it's always like, it can be frustrating at times watching him play, but just thinking about, okay, we get to watch Zach Eady go up against DJ Burns.
That was fun. Yeah.
Now we're like, okay, we get to watch Zach Edy play against another seven-footer. I just like watching seven-footers be matched up against other people playing basketball.
Yeah. And let's enjoy this game because I've said my things about Purdue.
Everyone knows where I stand. I've never said that he's not good at basketball.
He's really good at basketball. I've noticed, though, the new trend is, well, he's going to suck in the NBA.
Who cares? Yeah, no one cares about that. There's a lot of college players that, I mean, we watched during the halftime of the second game, they had the Olympic three-on-three game, and Jimmer Ferdette was playing it.
Yeah, he was elite. And I was like, this has got to be this, like, I know that he's playing in the Olympics, but but still jimmer for that probably didn't think this was how he's going to get to a final four the the uh this guy's going to stink in the nba guy is the same guy as the after taxes guy yeah same cut from the same yeah be like oh well he's making 20 million a year but the agents fees taxes probably clearing 10 such a good point it is the same person same exact guy uh so yeah purdue in the final and then we had yukon bama played an almost perfect half of basketball in the first half offensively yes but they they did everything they needed to do they were shooting 70 from three and they were down four and that's just how good yukon is and yukon like dan hurley said afterwards they knew that bama was going to make their threes their entire defensive strategy was just don't let them take 40 of them and that's what they did they ran them off the line they were they were switching on every or they were fighting through screens switching on everything when they needed to it was defensively yukon like the stats show that bama shot well but they shot so many less threes than they wanted to shoot and that was kind of the name of the game is like you can make those but you're not going to get to shoot 43 yeah and then yukon yukon was just physically dominant on them later they did the step on the throat stomped on their throat it felt like it what was it 56 56 it was 56 56 was 12 minutes left and then And then it was just all UConn.
And from that point on, it was like, this is very obvious who's going to win this game. We did get one of the saddest moments, I think, in college basketball history, the NC State mascot.
Oh, I loved it. And the UConn mascot hugging it out, the two dogs.
I loved it. The UConn mascot's head came off was very weird to see but it was um i think everyone had a little tear in their eye watching that yeah it was that was what that's what's all about sportsmanship between mascots i have some crazy yukon stats for you uh yukon uh was the first to score 69 last night they have now won uh 110 straight games where they reached 69 before their opponent this No Escalators, who's a great follow.
And then also UConn has won 18 consecutive neutral site games by double digits. It's insane.
It's pretty impressive. The St.
John's, they beat St. John's the Big East tournament by five, but that was semi-neutral because it was in New York.
That's actually how it's classified. A semi-neutral game? Semi-neutral game.
But it's pretty crazy the run they've been on. They just have an answer to everything.
And I honestly think that like Purdue scares me, but UConn's guards are so much bigger than every other team's, especially, I mean, they're bigger than Purdue's, and like they play so physical and they rebound. So like guards rebound well, and they're just a well-oiled machine.
They never flinch, and they're always just like, we're going to run our stuff, and it's going to beat you. Maybe it will take a little bit of time.
Alabama played them tougher than probably anyone's played them in the tournament since the Iona first half in the first round last year. But that was, yeah, I mean, that's what UConn does they're just they're a machine how about Cam Spencer just being able to rebound do everything I did have there's one tweet that made me laugh very hard last night Max was watching the game he had a couple cocktails in him and he said if Cam if Cam Spencer played at Duke he would be the national devil I like that phrase yeah the national devil What do you mean by that? He would just be the most hated Duke guy.
I agree with that. There's something about it.
He has a very hateable face. He also crushed Nova every time we played him.
I like him a lot. I hate him so much.
Yeah. I think if Kolic played at Duke, he would be the national devil.
He's just a kid. He's like 21, 22.

Also, UConn had all five starters in double digits.

I feel like they do that every game.

It's crazy.

Yeah, and they've got depth off the bench, too.

They have everything.

They're inevitable.

And then Coach Hurley won the Naismith Coach of the Year Award today.

I think that's a trick by college basketball to be like,

okay, we're going to gas him up so hard so he takes his foot off the pedal tomorrow.

It's classic NCAA going against coach by giving get an award for being the best coach yeah now they get sleep yep they get their circadian rhythm well until the eclipse until the eclipse that's gonna fuck the eclipse is probably doing something against hurley too we have just two awards for every because kelvin samson won coach of the year too oh yeah yeah there's just two awards for everything consolidate that make it make it easy for us to understand we're dumb yeah i saw that i saw that hurley won that and i was like wait didn't we announce this a second

ago i think this was naismith whatever whatever difference the naismith award yeah kelvin samson

won the associated press coach of the year okay from the journos yeah from the journos who don't

know ball that's a fact uh if if uconn wins are we ready to have the discussion that uconn is

ruining basketball?

Well,

they're two

Thank you. journos yeah from the journos who don't know ball that's a fact uh if yukon wins are we ready to have the discussion that yukon is ruining basketball well they're too good it's pretty crazy if yukon wins this game they will have more national titles than indiana and duke they will be third all-time ucla has 11 kentucky has eight yukon would have six and all six would have been in the last 25 years.
It's been a pretty good run. It's insane.
And they also go, they've gone, this is their seventh Final Four, so there's only one time they've gone to a Final Four that they haven't won at all. They've also never been to a championship game that they didn't win.
I think you could make the argument that UConn basketball fans are probably the most spoiled sports fans in the world because not only you root for UConn, you probably root for the Celtics, Hank. You probably root for the Patriots, probably root for the Bruins.
Maybe the Yankees. You've had a really good run if you're a UConn fan.
UConn's pretty split, though. It's probably, I don't know, 60-40.
Yeah, like Western Connecticut. They're New York.
They commute there. They fly there in their helicopters to trade stocks in the morning.
Yeah, and feels nice for the mets fans that are yukon fans yeah you deserve that yeah you definitely deserve that but it's crazy the run they've been on and yeah they they would be i mean to think that yukon could have more national titles than duke and indiana and they've only done it in the last since 99 was their first one it's crazy we gave them their blue blood last year yeah your blue blue blood congrats i i don't know maybe i'm biased here because i like dan hurley a lot i've liked him for a very long time and obviously i have money invested in yukon this year but are they hateable to outside of the big east fans i think they're if they win this they become annoying yeah it's like these motherfuckers they just reload again they're not they're i was i was thinking about it because like duke obviously is hateable for all the duke reasons but it's also because duke is always there like they always they go to a bunch of final fours all that stuff yukon just goes to final fours and wins them you know i mean like the fact they've only been to seven and they've won six they've won five going for their six on monday night like duke goes there and is always in the mix like yukon even has had that they had when they were in the ac or whatever the fuck it was called they were bad for a while like duke's never really bad unc's never really that bad kansas like that's so i i feel like the hateable nature of them isn't all the way turned up because also they beat duke sometimes yeah that's true then everyone's 99 that's good duke was the duke was like the best team to not win a championship. Yeah, and have they beaten any really, really likable teams on this run that they've been on? On this run? Yeah.
There's not a lot of people rooting against them. Right.
And I feel like people don't watch as much UConn as they would watch. UConn's not shoved down your throat on a national scale.
Yeah, I mean, they have a bias against them. They have a bias against them, so you don't get overload.
You don't get fatigue from them until the tournament. And even when the tournament happens, they have such big blowouts that people don't really watch that many of their games.
Yeah, so Max, this whole part of the show just make you sick to your stomach? Okay, that's a good answer. Jake, how was the game from press row? We saw you in your suit.
Oh, you were so pumped you were so wedgie oh we saw we were watching you take a picture of the wedgie yeah it was awesome uh really cool experience thank you to the ncaa for credentialing us i'll be back tonight fuck the ncaa yeah you're pieces of shit well me individually i appreciate yeah yeah yeah but but do fuck the ncaa because we don we don't like the Encivillade. But yeah.
Yeah, but it was really cool. Got some good interviews afterwards.
Got Hurley. He said that he'll do it all the time.
He'll come on the show all the time. It means winning.
I saw you ask the guy that shot the wedgie about the wedgie. Yeah, DR.
He was overwhelmed by that question. I did this last year with Marquise Noel, I think it was.
They hate wedgies because they take it as such a thing of embarrassment. Yeah.
Well, I think almost everyone hates wedgies except you. And Ian Eagle.
And Ian Eagle. Yeah, he loves it too.
How was he? Did you listen? I saw some highlights back. Oh, you got to go back and watch the tape.
He was built for it. Yeah, because I was there.
But yeah, he's the best. Him and Raftery have great chemistry grand hill tracy wolfson had to use like a mini ladder that was she didn't for zach edie and it was crazy watching yeah like she was basically at his belly button yeah so uh it was really cool and excited to run it back tonight yeah so you got your picture too in mid-court yeah that annual tradition yeah it's it was nice to see we were literally just watching you on press row they did you guys dirty with the seats oh i appreciate them giving yeah but let's be honest like if i were those were shitty seats they put you guys like behind the basket like all the way up yeah but we had some great access did you see jim nance i did i it was weird seeing him in street clothes what was he wearing he was just wearing like a shirt and like a jacket fucking wild yeah like have you ever seen him not wearing a full suit and tie yeah they showed him in the houston game yeah they didn't go he didn't go to the one that uh tony romo was at yeah that's right it was uh duke houston right yeah he didn't go to that one He went to the one before.
That's really interesting. Very interesting.
Because Romo was there. Romo was at.
Yeah, that's right. It was Duke Houston, right? Yeah, he didn't go to that one.

He went to the one before.

That's really interesting.

Very interesting. Because Romo was there.

Romo was there.

And you would think that they'd be good friends.

Correct.

Not.

Huh.

They're not.

Yeah.

I would be a little bit weirded out not seeing a tie in Jim Nance.

I'll give you that, Jake.

Yeah.

I assume that Jim Nance sleeps and showers in his suit.

And we're not going to get the tie thing this year.

Yeah, that's really sad. Do you think he was commentating the game as it was going on? In his head, for sure.
Yeah. Maybe.
Yeah, definitely. I saw Jay Wright.
Yeah? Yeah, he was right in front of us. What was the food like? Food was good.
It was Mexican, and then pretzels, and then a bunch of sodas. What was the bathroom situation like? Fine.
Oh, that was good. It was a Mexican and then pretzels and then a bunch of sodas.

Was the bathroom situation like fine.

Oh, that's bad.

That's saying fine is the worst thing you could say about it.

Pass, fail, pass.

Did they have enough water?

Well, they're trying to dry you out, Jake.

They do.

We're in the desert.

Cups are bust.

So you can't, you have to go back to the cooler. Oh, it bottles disgusting so i won't let her get wet every media time out and fill up my disgusting and then you have to go to the bad the just fine bathrooms yeah damn it's tough hank how did you like the games i had fun yeah good time i i i kind of i was i was hoping for a close game but yeah excited for tonight i know they weren't i mean the the bamuk yukon game was close ish yeah it was 12 minutes and then yukon was just yeah tonight does have the feeling of like this could be an all-time classic i hope it's i hope it's close we need we deserve america deserves a close title game i that.
We all spoiled the last two years of the Final Four. We had Duke UNC, Coach K's last game, and last year we had a buzzer beater.
Oh, yeah, we did have a buzzer beater. San Diego State.
We forgot about that. Yeah, we did.
We forgot about that. It's kind of just water finds its level, I guess.
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They're trying to get it. They're trying to get the pitch clock gone because you had Shane Bieber strider.
Yeah. Everyone's getting hurt.
All the good guys. I blame the uniforms.
I think the uniforms probably have something to do with it. Right.
Fanatics did it again. This is definitely fanatics.
Blame it on them. Okay.
What else do we have from the final four anything else i mean it was it's been a good it's been a good trip i'm very excited we have a bunch of master stuff coming up this week with max and brooks a bunch of other people any other notes from the final four no it's been fun oh sure what happened with shohay's uh home run ball the woman oh yeah yeah somebody got gotammed from it. But did she make her money back? I don't know.
What'd she do? She caught his first home run ball as a Dodger, and then she got a couple things, and the story came out, and she was like, no, they basically put me in a room and pressured me to give the ball back. So I guess Shohei's just a bad guy all around.
No, they always do that. I know.
People gotta you gotta listen to revel revel always has a has like whenever someone catches a big ball he's like first thing i would do is leave the stadium you have an exit strategy first plan when you get in there think about what you would do with that ball document it leave the stadium get get in touch with the lawyer immediately i would just piss on it be like no one's gonna want it if I peed all over it. That's a good strategy.
I got this piss-soaked ball rolling around. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think anything else besides this. Like, this has been Final Four.
We can. WrestleMania happened.
Yeah. I didn't watch.
I didn't either. I saw Jason Kelsey was there doing something.
The Rock won. Maybe coming back.
I didn't realize The Rock was a heel. Yeah, he went heel because everyone loves Cody Rhodes.
So this has been like the last three months has been The Rock. Everyone's like, no, not The Rock.
Yeah, our guy TJ had it up on press row, and I was watching for a second. I was like, oh, my God.
Wait, TJ was credentialed? Yeah, because we were supposed to do the Titus show, and Titus got sick. So we're going to do it tonight.
Okay, wait. So he was watching wrestling instead of the Final Four? No, he's multitasking.
Interesting. We'll have to look into the credentials there.
The Rock was mean to Philly, too. What'd he say? What'd he say? He showed up late to an event.
I think he showed up like two hours late, and people were filming him, motherfucking him because he showed up so late, and he was like, sorry, I was just watching highlights of Jalen Hurts lose in the playoffs. It's just weird seeing him as a bad guy.
I never thought I'd see that day. I feel like him and John Cena were like the untouchables.
They need a local hero to come back and throw a big event. Oh, I got a headline for you.
Dodgers make peace with fans who caught Shohei Otani ball.

We'll review process.

Okay.

Sounds like they fucked up.

So it sounds like they took this woman into a room

and then just basically made her give up the ball.

Yeah.

She exchanged the ball for two signed hats, a signed ball, and a signed bat.

An auction house told The Athletic that the ball would be worth at least $100,000.

Damn. Yep.
Who buys that shit revel yeah 100 those people definitely buy it and they're like shohei it'd be funny if they bought it and then well would it go up if he got suspended for life yeah if that's his last home run ball ever hit only home run ball for the dodgers yeah they'd begers. Yeah, that'd be worth a ton of money.
I think he hit another one, though, at Wrigley this year. He looked pretty happy going to Wrigley with the sportsbook attached to it.
Yeah, interesting. Yeah, he looked pretty happy.
All right, let's do Who's Back of the Week, and then we'll get to John Fanta. Who's Back of the Week is brought to you by our friends at Coors Light.
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Coors Light, the most delicious beer in the world. So go get your Coors Light delivered straight to your door with Instacart by going to CoorsL dot com slash take celebrate responsibly Coors Brewing Company Golden Colorado Hank who's back of the week was Tommy John sorry what did you want to say about it

you as a former pitcher it's back yeah you gotta you gotta watch out for the sliders

I I too many cutters I spoke with uh our we'll have him on later this year I spoke with our

good friend Dan Heron because I was like what's going going on? He's like, it's just like everyone's obsessed with velocity, kind of what Jeff Passam was saying. Like everyone just looking at the numbers being like, you got to throw 100, you got to throw 100, and arms are just getting pushed to this max at an early age and everyone's destroying their arms.
Is it the sweeper? It might be the sweeper because we didn't talk about the sweeper pitch until like five years ago. And now everyone's got a sweeper.
Now Tommy John's up. Arms aren't supposed to throw that high.
Maybe the eclipse has something to do with it too. Bring back the Greg Maddox's of the world.
Yeah, the nerds. Yeah.
92 on the black gets them out. Location is just as good as 100.
That's my game. Yeah.
Low 70s. Accuracy.
Low 70s. All Ephesus.
And then my other who's back was the fourth dimension, but we'll get to that. Oh, yeah.
We'll talk about that in the Eclipse after. I'll give you another free who's back, Hank.
Angel Hernandez. Oh, yeah.
Had a great call today. Right down the middle.
One of the, no, no, I was talking about the strike that he called. So the pitcher stepped off the mound and then stepped back on,

didn't even look at the batter, threw a pitch.

It was like two inches high.

He called it a strike.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's the best.

I just liked it.

Yeah, I mean, like Joe West retired.

We needed a guy who can just make it all about himself.

That's him.

And I love how defensive he gets.

Like, he's never made a wrong call in his life.

Yeah.

He's the best.

Also, the snow baseball rocked in Pittsburgh. Yeah.
That that was awesome that is good i love snow baseball okay pft uh my who's back of the week is pup punk oh so exclusive announcement here i think we're putting this public uh later on in the day on monday but i'm excited about it really pumped we're doing a uh summer concert mini tour this summer it's's the Pup Punk Off the Leash Pink Whitney Tour. And first date is in Chicago, right in Chicago, May 31st, Joe's on Weed.
And then in August, we're going August 2nd, Columbus at Scully's. Saturday, August 3rd, Nashville at the Barstool Bar.
Friday, August 30th in D.C. at Union Stage.
And then Saturday, August 31st, Philly at Underground Arts. And so I know for at least the Chicago one, we're going to get some people from the office to come out and sing some songs with us.
I've asked Big Cat if he can do it. Max, I believe, is down to sing a song too.
Max, you have to figure out a song. If you want to do shallow, I can play guitar.
Can you? You have it down, Pat? That's true. He does have guitar down.
What would you have to figure out a song if you want to do shallow i can play guitar can you you have it down pat it's true he does have guitar down what would you want to sing max i don't know i have to think about it first of the month nope i want to do tequila okay yeah be great that's well that's memes yeah that is memes beer we're show ever probably gonna get him fired uh either mr pair at least i'll make memes come out on stage. Just do acapella.
Yeah. All right.
My who's back is the world ending. So PFT and I both got a text message from our friend Jersey Jerry on Saturday night during the games.
And it read, I suggest you take out all your money out of your bank and stop using credit cards for the next few months until I can give you the green light again. We will be under a cyber tax sooner rather than later.
Just looking out, I'm in communication with a very important person for one of, if not the biggest software companies in the world. So, sounds like we're fucked.
Yeah, no, Jerry's got the inside intel right now. I tried to get the actual company out of it yeah and he i said what company this seems bad he says i can't say bro he's a multi millionaire i think wealthier than dave oh yeah i just can't say his name i'm sorry take all your money out of the bank i'm telling you i i don't i think i trust jerry yeah i mean he gets a lot of his news from tiktok uh i'd say all of it yeah all of it and he even sorts sources it that way saying did you see that article on tiktok um and he did sit next to someone on a plane that told him this information he also has been telling me for a while now that right before the election they're going to shut down the banks and make everyone get a chip to take their money out uh so yeah i think we're i think we're in trouble guys i think this is a bad bad scene i think we're in deep deep shit i asked him to send me a link to some of the theories that he's been reading and then he just sent me a screenshot of a text that he sent to erica oh so that that was his link okay all right jake My Who's Back is back is crazy injuries.
We had a wild finish on the PGA tour this week. Akshay Batia.
He made a putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff, and he fist pumped so hard he dislocated his shoulder. Oh, it's like Tony Finau.
Popped it back in. That's a baseball player injury.
And won in a playoff and got his ticket to Augusta. Yeah, it was the last open spot in Augusta that he won.

Holy shit.

Yeah, so good for him.

But yeah, it was very funny watching him.

It's such a funny golfer nerd injury.

That's so soft.

I've never celebrated in my life that hard.

Wait, did he pound somewhere?

He just...

No, he just did it himself.

This was the final putt to force a playoff.

Oh, no. It just popped out like that's that wasn't even that hard i know jesus what do you want i'm excited for the masters yeah it's gonna be incredible also excited for our mini golf tournament you want to plug that real quick hank uh yeah two two day four round mini golf tournament it's gonna be live no editing necessary uh wednesday all day and night thursday after master's coverage yeah big field a lot of competition a lot of questions about how deep the holes are so we're gonna find out do you know the answer how deep no i was it was uh jeff d lo is the first thing he said to me he was like how deep are these holes i was I was like, that's a fair question that I don't know the answer to.
What, Jeff D. Lowe? That's such a Jeff D.
Lowe. I think they're normal depth.
Apparently, it makes a difference what depth the holes are. Yeah, it makes sense.
I'm not sure. Okay.
Also, shout out Billy for getting enough signatures to be on the ballot. Yeah, Billy is officially running for Congress now, so credit to him.
We still got to figure out this jim toes hardcore common sense issue i think it's pretty simple i think you just you go mega common sense yeah mega hardcore common sense yeah common sense squared billy so much common sense we're gonna make you puke out common sense yeah no i'm i think i am rooting for billy now oh billy should actually go on a like much publicized ayahuasca trip, but not ayahuasca. It's just common sense.
Yeah. He's got a shaman who just gives him all the common sense, and he pukes it out.
He should go on stage with a beer bong that just has common sense on the side. He's just chugging.
He should boost some common sense. Yeah.
If he wants to really get it. Does he have any more interviews lined up? he did two on watching those uh on thursday the second one that he did i realized billy's got a chance to win the man is a natural politician at the end of the interview when he reached over shook the guy's hand yeah and his eyes he did the smile eyes that politicians so creepy yeah and i was like fuck billy actually this is this might be what billy was born to do yeah i mean he he does bullshit with the best of them so he's perfect and i said it on friday but like word of state in american politics i think billy's actually a pretty good option yeah i was scary to say but i i kind of believe it i would agree with close to endure i still want to see what jim toe's hardcore common sense looks like and then i'll fully endorse.
When Billy was first announcing this plan, we're like, wait, Billy, don't you have to live right there in that district? He's like, well, I lost my virginity there. So that's a pretty good reason.
Yeah. That's perfect.
That's as good a reason as any. Yeah.
All right. Let's get to John Fanta.
We'll talk some more Monday night championship game. It's brought to you by our friends at Game Time.
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$173 if you're trying to go. I'm looking at the app right now.
Also throw out there, it is baseball season. Oh, Jake's got to go pee.
It's baseball season season if you're trying to go to a cubs game you can maybe go to saturday's cubs game coming up on 420 against the marlins some really good prices out there 20 bucks get in have a nice you know oh 45 bucks to get in the bleachers that's a that's that would be my uh advice to you do it on the game time app sure not to worry when you buy tickets to your next big event game time is a fast and easy way to buy tickets to all sports music comedy and theater events near you they have flash deals for sudden discounts zone deals for when you're feeling flexible and their lowest price guarantee means that if you can find the same seats for less anywhere else game time will credit you 110 of the. Game time is the best place for last minute seats with up to 60% off your favorite events.

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Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Okay, here he is, John Fanta.
Okay, we now welcome on one of our favorite guests in the entire world. It is Johnny Fanta, live in person.
We knew we had to get you in person at the Final Four. Where should we start? I mean, the theater, the drama.
What was your speech? I loved it. Anything you do, I just love watching.
I appreciate that. What did you say in the bowels of the stadium last night? It's theater.
It's fate. It's destiny.
Yes. This is what you sign up for when you start the marathon in November.
For the hardcore junkies who are sweating out a 38-and-a-half point dog in a bye game, this is what they live for now on Monday night. They might have lived for that too, but we start the marathon in early November, and you hope in this tournament of utter chaos that you get a good final.
This isn't a good final. This is an all-time final.
This is the first time that we have multiple seven-foot starters in a national championship game since Patrick Ewing versus Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984. This is a title game 40 years in the making.
Purdue fans have waited their entire lives for this moment. For UConn fans, it's another year.
Yeah. And then obviously the story of whoever ends up winning, you have maybe one of the best basketball teams ever if UConn can do it.
Like the stretch that they've been on. And then Purdue trying to respond from getting bounced last year in the first round.
Yeah, let's do the big picture. I would say if Dan Hurley wins this, that's the best two years of a coach of all time just because we haven't had a back-to-back since Florida.
You obviously had back-to-backs earlier in college basketball history when guys stayed for a long time. But if he can win on Monday, he'll go back-to-back after losing 75% of his points from the year before and changing over pretty much the whole entire roster.
It's all-time stuff. You will have won each NCAA tournament game if you win this game in commanding fashion.
Yep. If they win this game in commanding fashion, which I do think is possible.
I know a lot of people are saying one possession, two possession game. I hope we get there.
But the reason why I'm skeptical is because we thought that we would have gotten there multiple times on this 11-game run over the last two NCAA tournaments for UConn, and they have won 11 straight tournament games by at least 13 points. It's crazy.
18 straight neutral site or away site, or neutral site games that they've won by double digits. It's crazy.
And I thought Alabama, talking with some UConn staff members earlier today, I'm like, so what'd you think? And they're like, well, Alabama played even better than we thought they would play. They shot eight for 11 from three in the first half.
Mark Sears didn't miss a shot, and they were still down by 4. That's how scary good UConn is.
And I just think not only would Dan Hurley complete the ultimate 2-year run, but in a sport that lost some of its biggest faces, if he wins the championship tomorrow, the idea that when people throw out Bill Self or Tom Izzo or Mark Few,

it's not that I'm not listening,

Hurley would put himself as the coaching face of college basketball.

Yeah, I would agree with that 100%.

You couldn't make an argument against it.

What he's done has been incredible,

especially like we said in this era, they just reloaded.

They got better, so you can make the argument that this team,

actually put it that way, this team against last year's UConn team, what's the spread on that game? Wow. I would say this team by three.
Yeah. It'd be tight.
But I think with this year's team, to me, Tristan Newton's level of consistency throughout the whole season makes me believe even more. Newton did not have a great year last year.
He had a good season. He's had a great season this year.
He's been so consistent. It's like last year never ended when this UConn season started.
And as you said, they lose five of their top eight players from last year's team. I think that when you combine that with Alex Karaban being another year older, with Stephon Castle being a one-and-done freshman who has now emerged, you can't just play off Castle.
No, they should have tried. Alabama tried that, and he made them pay.
He took that personally. He did.
I think the other thing is what makes me put this year's team as a slight favorite is that Cam Spencer is just insane. He's a mini Hurley.
He's a mini Hurley. He's wired differently.
I was talking to him about tomorrow. I said, so what will you do? I go, when you get 10 minutes back in the hotel room, what app will you go on on your phone? And he goes, I'm going to watch more film.
He goes, I'm going to watch. You're a player.
He's in bed. This guy's in bed watching more film of Purdue.

It's crazy.

And his tenacity, too,

the way he was getting rebounds.

Yeah.

Just crazy.

That guy doesn't quit.

He is.

He is wired.

It's as if Dan Hurley made a human

out of his image and likeness,

besides his son,

who he made in reality.

42-0, by the way,

when Andrew Hurley

gets in a game.

It's probably the best

note in the business

right now.

You should start.

Incredible stats. You have put that out there.
Yeah yeah we talked to him last week we asked him why don't you start he needs to take a shot let your son take a shot that's all I'm saying so all right so and and Donovan Klingon has been just insane like what he does and that's why tomorrow night's gonna be or tonight is gonna be so's Edie versus Kling. Now on the Purdue side, it's just as good a compelling story

because you have a team that lost to a 16 seed last year trying to get revenge for that.

And also Purdue as a school, they are number one in NCAA basketball

for wins in the tournament without a championship.

If they win this one, it's like everything gets erased and the Matt Painter and Zach Edady, and Zach Eady goes down as one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. It's crazy how many storylines are on both sides.
Yes, a first national championship, all-time glory in West Lafayette. And for the Big Ten.
Yeah. We talk every year about the Big Ten and their title drought, and the Big Ten gets a bad rap as a result.
But at the end of the day, you have to show it in hardware. If UConn wins this championship, the Big East will have had four of the last eight national championships.
The ACC has two and the Big 12 has two. That's it.
So for me, this is massive for Purdue because you do not know. First off, you're never going to have a player like you've got inside.
They don't make – there's not a carbon copy. Purdue will figure out a way.
Purdue gets it. They actually do have a freshman who I think is seven feet.
They have a lab. Matt Painter, he's got a thing for tall guys.
And it's smart. I mean, he's – Zach Eadie, he's been been discussed a million times he is really fucking good at basketball and been dominant this run yes he's been unbelievable i just think in this current climate where everything changes in the offseason i mean it's utter ridiculousness right now i'm doing a way too early top 25 for next season i'm throwing darts at the wall because you just have to with some of the roster management.
Who's your 19th team? Oh, God. I think I've got UCLA.
Okay, that makes sense. I like that there.
I like Mick to bounce back. Cronin's not having two bad years.
But not bounce back too much. 19.
No, 19. 19.
Miami's in the mix there, too. BYU.
I don't think Mark Pope's getting undersold heading into next season. You know, I've got more to come.
We're on it. More to come.
Don't want to give away the whole way too early. He's number one.
Connecticut. Okay, smart.
You know why? I also have that number one. I'm not getting fooled again.
I'm not giving Hurley a chip on the shoulder this time. I'm putting them number one.
Yeah. Because someone's going to have to take it take it from you.
Take that title. In the spirit of WrestleMania, it's like the belt.
At this point now, Connecticut has that belt. And on Monday night, Purdue is coming with their briefcase and this is their chance.
This is their chance. Fanta rips off like four or five WWE promos of a podcast appearance.
I love it every time. I think that this will be something that we remember.
Yeah. This clash of the Titans and for Purdue.
If Purdue wins this game, which I do not think that they will. But they absolutely can't.
They can. They have the recipe that could potentially potentially beat UConn like every other team I've seen on UConn's way it's like they're Alabama last night they had to shoot they had to shoot 60 from three and they also had to shoot like 43s they only got like 20 off because that was obviously what UConn's plan was like Purdue is the only team that has at least the the when look at it, could match up with UConn.
I think a lot of people want to say with UConn, well, we'll make them shoot threes, and that's how we'll beat them. It's not just as simple as that.
You've got to have paint eliminators. And Zach Eadie is a paint eliminator, just like Donovan Klingin is on the other side.
How this game gets called, it's Jeffrey. That's what I was going to ask.
Jeffrey Anderson, Roger Ayers, Terry Oglesby. All right, so what do we feel? Because my one concern is you go back to the last time we had a back-to-back champion, and it was Odin versus Joakim Noah, and they both get fouls very early in the game, and it kind of ruined what should have been a similar classic game.
Can we turn fouls off tomorrow? Can we maybe let both big guys have seven fouls? I'm so nervous that that's going to happen and ruin what we want to be a great game. I'm really nervous about it.
I do not want it. Us, the sports fans, nobody wants this game getting decided by foul count.
I'm not even saying free throws because look if Edie gets hacked late in the game or if Klinging gets hacked and it's a legit foul and you're asking them to make two free throws make your free throws kids then then look I get it but please for the love of all that is holy and all that is right can we not can we not be five minutes into the game and say well now donovan clingan's got to sit for the rest of the first half it ruins the product it's like loose ball like i don't want any you know uh fouls getting rebound like let them get rebounds let them do that stuff let them get a little dirty in there i get i agree with you if you hack them going for a shot that's fine none of the ticky tack stuff like Like when DJ Burns committed that foul on the fast break last night. That's rough.
Right off the bat, and you're like, well, the game might be over right now. That was bad positioning by DJ Burns.
Oh, yeah. No, he definitely committed a foul.
But at that point, every sports fan watching that was like, well, this game's probably over now. And the players don't want that.
Right. Because if I'm a player on the team, which I very much am not.
Could be. Hurley could absolutely get a solid, like, three points, four rebounds out of John Fanta.
I believe it. Fanta checking in for the last 36 seconds of the game.
St. Bernadette, Westlake, Ohio.
Most threes made in a single game in the Catholic Youth Organization. I made eight of them.
Whoa. How many did you shoot? Against St.
Rayfields. Put him in a body bag.
How many did you shoot? 28 points. How many did you shoot? Probably shot 13 that night.
Okay, that's great. That's great.
Are you still wet? Can you still play? I saw a clip of you shooting at Providence. I can still shoot the basketball.
Yeah, we give you 30 shots. How many do you make? Right now, just going in blindly, I would probably say I could make 12.
We've got to get you in the office. Yeah, we've got to get you in the Chicago office.
That would be good. I would happily come in and show off the shooting stroke.
There's nothing patented about this. No, I saw it.
It was ugly, but it went in. It doesn't matter.
Right. They don't ask you how you got there.
Yeah. If the ball goes into the hoop, that's all that matters.
How many, not how. Yeah.
Anybody could play for Dan Hurley right now. Yeah.
You could check in and give something. I'd give him a couple.
I'd hack Zach Eie. I probably actually wouldn't have to hack him.
I'd probably be able to stop him. That's the thing about UConn, though.
So if even Klingon gets in foul trouble early, what's his name? Johnson? Pretty good defender, right? So he's the X factor in the game. Okay.
I think we could come out of the game saying, Samson Johnson is the man who emerged emerged That's why UConn's number one in John Fanta's Top early 25 Yeah sometimes what happens is You know I'm going to take it from the wrestling to a little bit of superhero Like to set the series up For future episodes A new man wearing a cape Comes out of nowhere And it feels like Samson Johnson could be that type of guy in this game. You know why? He can run the floor, runs the floor like a deer.
He can fly above the rim. He throws down some thunderous dunks.
He leads UConn in dunks. He's got over 60 dunks on the season.
This kid's had a massive year in that column. And I just think he causes a wrinkle.
That's the thing with UConn. They answer every single question.
Yeah, I've been saying it from the start of the season. Every single question that you can throw at them, they have a solution for.
Because they can beat you any different way. Their guards are so much bigger than most teams' guards, especially tonight.
And you throw something at at them they're like all right we got this we'll adjust we can play this style we can play this style we play up you want to play up tempo we'll play up tempo you want to play slow we'll play slow they'll play Manhattan head coach John Gallagher I had Manhattan's game against UConn on Black Friday earlier this season season. And ahead of the game, he said, you always knew playing Dan Hurley that you had to beat him in a bar fight if you were going to win.
You always knew you were in for a bar fight. He goes, now when you're facing Hurley, you've got to win a bar fight, but before that you have to go to the library and study tirelessly.
You've got to beat them in a textbook war and a bar fight.

You know what it is?

It's like watching chess boxing.

You ever seen that?

They go out there, they fight, then in between rounds, they sit down, they play chess for

five minutes.

So what is Matt Painter doing?

It's a great sport.

Have you played it?

I've never played it, but I've watched it.

We could play that when you come to the office.

Okay.

I've never played a game of chess in my life.

Have you boxed?

Oh, really?

I have boxed. Of course you have.
You've never played chess. You probably wear golden gloves.
The legend of Fanta. Look at that.
Look at that. People are watching the podcast.
Look at Fanta throw those things around. This is going to be a boxing match on Monday night.
What does Matt Painter do if he's got to go to the library? What is his solution? Wow. I would not reference what Brad Underwood's library visit was because I'm trying to think of what you could do.
Look, Brad Underwood was reading children's books and then he came out and he was like, whoops. It was tough.
Don't just read Cam Jansen to get ready for a hard test. Remember Cam Jansen? Yes.
I don't, like, pray, you know, but the Big East has the meatball prayers and hoops down, as we talked about last year. I just, I think you've got to, you have to say, how do I do something to get Hurley to blink? Like, I don't even know if, and I think some coaches would totally scoff at me, but you're telling me that, who's to say you're going to stop him man-to-man every trip down? Nobody's been able to do that.
Could you throw in a 1-3-1? I'm not even saying you do it often. But you just make him be like, what's going on here? You make him make an adjustment and hope he makes the wrong one.
Yes. In basketball, it's different from football.
We know the big game and a football coach, a head coach, who does something totally unorthodox and it comes back to bite them because they ran one fake punt or one thing that they haven't run all season long. Lifelong Browns fan here.
I know the feeling. Where you're like, where did that come from? That's not in the playbook.

But in basketball, it's different.

Like, you could try something for a possession.

It could go miserably wrong, and it's okay.

You gave up a two or a three.

I just wonder if Painter reaches into his bag and does something totally unorthodox.

I would watch the last two years of UConn-Crayton games.

I'd watch Greg McDermott and how Crayton played UConn. What about Edie at the point? Get clinging away from the basket.
Have Edie bring the ball up. We're doing some crazy shit.
Let's do some crazy shit. The crowd pop.
The crowd pop of Purdue in behind the ball and Edie dribbling the ball up the floor slowly. Like bouncing the ball six feet in the air.
What if he's got sick handles? What if he's like the professor? He starts going between his legs. What if he could do this the whole time? We learned something about him.
He got insulted at media availability on Sunday because someone said to him, you know, you're the traditional postman, and how much do you just embrace that, where the NBA, the three of the best scorers, three in the MVP race are all big men, are all seven feet tall or larger, and how much do you think embrace that where the NBA, the three of the best scorers, three in the MVP race are all big men are all seven feet taller or larger. And how much do you think that that's that, you know, you're sort of throwing back the clock? He goes, whoa, whoa.
He goes, I can shoot the ball. He goes, watch me shoot free throws.
He goes, I can shoot the three. He goes, it's just what Coach Painter asked me to do.
Yeah, I believe it. I'm I've been very we've had the discussion ad nauseum.
I don't love watching Purdue play basketball, but anyone who diminishes what Zach Eadie's done on this run is stupid. Bold prediction for Monday night.
Okay. Donovan Klingin makes a three.
Okay. Is that coming from anywhere or just the back of your head? He's just fancying right now.
I could see. I could see.
I could see. No, it just came into my mind.
Yeah, that's fancying. It was a fantasy.
Yeah. I just think Klingon has hit threes.
Yeah. Not many, but I could see a high ball screen, and instead of rolling, he slips back.
Make him respect it. And makes Edie pay for going all the way down there.
Oh, man. I know what that could do.
I want this to come through so bad. I could actually see Klingon taking the ball because he runs the court so well.
He does. He can get up and down, like send him on the fast break.
He does. We're going to get back to Jon Fance in a second.
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The one interesting thing, though, with Klingon is he does come off the court a lot. Edie does not.
Edie is crazy the amount of minutes he plays as a big man. So, like, those non-Klingon minutes are going to be huge.
That's why Samson Johnson is my key to the game. Yeah, that's why he's your X factor.
I think he could prove to be big. I think the one interesting dimension to this game as well is that both point guards are coming off off nights by their standards.
Braden Smith is coming off of the worst game of his college career. And Tristan Newton has had two performances in a row that make you say, hmm, what's going on here? He went three for nine from three.
He was trying to find it. He was forcing the issue a little bit.
Nothing wrong with that, but I want to see which point guard ends up having the upper hand in this. Because Graham Smith, he had a tough first half especially too.
He had two backcourt violations. Maybe he should have had a third one in there.
I think the logo was so big that the point guards couldn't see it. It was an issue all night.
They made the logo bigger. And everyone found out he didn't score score because charles barkley yeah that clip was tough that was a tough moment for chuck but the other the thing about chuck is like charles barkley can do no wrong in our world he is i was thinking about this is there a more liked on tv analyst in the sport john fanta john fanta SVP Charles Barkley.
It's an honor. Joe Buck.
Those are the Mount Rushmore of the most liked guys. Right there.
Booger Cam. Mobile.
Yeah, Booger Mobile. Stanford Steve.
Well liked. Yeah, big time Stanford Steve, our guy.
I got some questions that aren't about tonight's game. Love it.
Is Ed Cooley going to resign? I mean, there's a lot of chatter, Johnny.

No, no, no.

I've seen a lot of very good source people on Twitter.

A lot of people I respect on Twitter

have been talking about the resignation.

It was a hashtag.

It was trending.

It was trending.

Donnie Mexico and Lumpy Dumper do not count

as reliable Twitter sources.

You know Providence Twitter.

They got you to windmill.

They did get me to windmill.

When are we getting the vest?

I've got to find a vest.

Okay.

I've got the AD, Steve Napolillo, claims he's going to send me a vest.

I hope they don't run small.

Okay.

All right.

Vests can, you know, you order a vest online.

That could be a tough bigger guy purchase.

Yeah, that's true. Wait, what's the vest demand that they have? They want him to wear the Kim English vest.
So Kim English wore a vest. They then loved the vest.
And now they made the AD put the vest online up for sale, but purchases go to NIL. Providence's NIL has gone way up because these fans are just so out of control, but in a good way.
In a good way. I mean, not in a good way of putting a movement together that actually produced public pieces, like actual forms of media about Ed Kool.
He's not going anywhere. He's at Georgetown.
I don't know, John. He's got a boatload of NIL.
He might be resigning. Next year's a big year for those Hoyas.
I think there's a chance. Wait, wait.
It's not non-zero that he could resign. Here's my thing.
Why don't you... My only thing is, I'm not against...
I think Providence's fan base is the wildest in college basketball. The most passionate fan base right now.
Right now, if I put power rankings together, they are. But you have a good coach in Kim English.
but i like it there's nothing better than watching your the guy that scorns you just watching him resign you have to send a message to to every coach that comes through town in the future like don't leave yeah you better not leave we're gonna gaslight you into resigning there's a curse while we gaslighting you resigning we're gonna have fanta doing windmills i did yes. And I did a windmill.
I went off the wall. Someone said it really wasn't a real one.
I'm like, well, I tried. That was my intent.
That was one take. I was not going to try 15, 25 takes.
It was literally, that was, I promise you, if you went through my phone and looked through it, that was the one take I did of the windmill. So you're high on Georgetown next, or do you have them in your top 25? No, I'm not high on them.
I think they'll be better. Well, they're going to be looking for a new coach.
There's only one. Yeah, exactly.
I've just become a Providence Twitter troll in real life right now. Ed Cooley's not going anywhere.
Maybe. You're right.
I'm just saying, it's not non-zero. It was non-zero, and then Providence Twitter got involved, and it's at least 1% chance he wakes up one day, he's like, shit, am I resigning? Who do you think Georgetown should target if Ed Cooley does resign? Good question, PFT.
Good question. Good lord.
Kim English? Who's a big name out there. Yeah.
Imagine if they got ed cooley to resign and then they took him see here's the thing you you've got the power that you could fire up the machine and say it because like when it when an opening when a coaching vacancy opens and as we are taping arkansas is looking for a coach yep so like people put out names sometimes sometimes that are never going to take the job. It's not going to happen.
But then it becomes a thing. Yep.
And names gets – I love when – this happens in the NFL all the time. It's like when a name just gets brought up and you're like, there's no job.
But the name's in there. Yeah.
So we can just start having fun with it. Condoleezza Rice.
Yeah, Condoleezza Rice. It was every time a quarterback.
Please don't bring that up. Every time a quarterback would get hurt, it would be Brett Favre until like two years ago.
Yeah. My lowest point as a Browns fan, with all due respect, Condi, with all due respect, was when I opened up Twitter and read the words that the Cleveland Browns are giving consideration to Condoleezza Rice.
And that was off Hugh Jackson?

Yeah.

It was at that point that I gave thought.

Yeah.

The exact tweet was so funny, too, from Schefter.

Brown's interested in interviewing Condoleezza Rice for head coaching job.

He got duped on that one big time.

But still, the fact that there was like, it's kind of like the Ed Cooley thing.

It was a non-zero chance that Condoleezza Rice would be your head coach.

Yeah, I think it's actually very similar. Like, you can't say that Condoleezza Rice had 0% chance, just like you can't say there's a 0% chance Ed Cooley doesn't resign.
It's exactly the same. There's a 0% chance.
No, there's not a 0% chance. No chance there's a 0% chance.
Speaking of Arkansas, what do you think about USC getting the must-bust going down there? I feel like that's going to be a good spot for him. Well, that makes USC basketball relevant.
Makes it more relevant for me, the junkie, than Bronny James at USC, just being honest. Just because, like, must is going to win.
He's going to win. He won at Nevada.
He won at Arkansas. He's been to four Sweet 16s and three Elite 8s.
He's a winner. The guy is, he's got a killer mindset.
Things run their course. Like, the end of the Arkansas era, I do believe this, was more – it wasn't because of one bad year.

Like coaches have a bad year throughout their careers.

He had one bad year.

He didn't get relieved of his duties.

He wasn't beating anything.

I think if you look at Moss, he has a lot of staff changes.

He's not the easiest guy to work for because he's wired a certain way. He's wired to go out and beat the tar out of the opponent, but

in the same way, that's how he coaches

internally in his building.

I think he creates competition inside

his building. He's going to make

USC play with fire. USC,

UCLA in basketball will matter

again in the Big Ten.

But I think USC,

UCLA, because Bus is going to say,

Trojans fans, he's a uniter. He's going to get people caring or thinking about basketball.
Trojan fans right now, they haven't thought about it. I mean, they've struggled to fill up football on Saturdays.
Now, Cronin versus Muss, two characters, two fiery guys. That's going to be fun.
It is going to be fun. I'm not the, I hate conference realignment.

I hate college.

We should celebrate stuff that's happening and think ahead.

I don't want the NCAA tournament changed at all.

No.

No expansion.

But I'm okay with USC traveling to Ohio State on a Wednesday night.

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaking of coaches, is Luke Murray going to get a job soon? Well, I think he's doing. I want to know where Bill Murray's going to end up.
Right. Where's he going? Yeah.
I think for now it's probably Groundhog Day in stores. Ooh, that's nice.
But only because UConn keeps on making it this far when a lot of the vacancies get taken. But you never know.
Luke's more than be a head coach as is Kamani Young Kamani Young and Luke Murray are ready to be head coaches and Tom Moore who was at Quinnipiac and kind of combines the old with the new he was with Jim Calhoun now he's with Hurley Hurley made Tom Moore a painting yes on viral Dan Picasso Hurley I think that when you look at that staff that's the other thing with UConn like Luke Murray should be a painting. Yes, I saw that.
It's gone viral. Dan Picasso Hurley.
I think that when you look at that staff, that's the other thing with UConn. Luke Murray should be a head coach.
He is more than ready to be a head coach, as is Kamani Young. But they keep going so deep into April, they're almost a victim of their own success.
Yeah, yeah. It's bad for them.
So staying on the coaching, Cal's back for one more year. If they go out the way they've gone out, I would imagine it would be the end.
Right. Who would take that job? We had our friend Matt Jones on.
He said it'd have to be a rock star. Jay Wright comes to mind.
It's not going to happen. Nate Oates? Could happen.
Wow. Nate Oates could happen.
But what about the buyout? How ironclad are these buyouts? Well, it depends the internal language of the contract. Like, obviously.
But I also think this whole notion that Kentucky couldn't pay the $34 million. Yeah.
They could make three phone calls. Yeah, there's always enough money.
Also, have we all not set up payment plans? Yeah, you know figure it out you can do installments bitcoin right big whatever it is you know it's like it there's always a way to find money especially when you're kentucky right how close do you think they actually came to firing them i think close and then in the meeting they decided that the head coach for life will remain the head coach for life i think that that meeting was all kind of fake. Really? Yeah, I don't believe that.
You think he cried in the meeting? Fake tears? Yeah, just to keep his job. Maybe, like, and emotional.
I mean, Cal's very prideful. Yeah.
He's very proud of what he's built. I think he thinks, like, if they had fired him, look, you owe me $34 million, and mil and oh, I'm going to go somewhere else and I'll just win.
I'll win more than program X has won in the past. Right.
You know, he's in a way what he built, he built it up to such an unbelievable level that then he's a victim of his, he's run its course. It's overdue.
Right. Like the package of ground meat expired in the grocery store.
Now, can you find a way to change who's stocking your shelves? Yeah. Via the transfer portal.
You have got to go into the portal and buy the best players from the portal. Buying the best 17-year-old does not matter anymore.
Yeah, you need to supplant it.

I mean, you saw with UConn this year when they bring in a guy like Cam Spencer.

You've got to get old.

And it's staring you in the face.

And also, you know, Cal, to answer your buyout question,

I don't think – I think there's always a way.

Yeah.

I think there's always a way.

T.J. Osselberger at Iowa State, his buyout's very high.

You know, I want him at Wisconsin.

I like Greg Gard, but I want him.

They'd have to really pay some money.

I think that's a a way. Yeah.
I think there's always a way. T.J.
Alselberger at Iowa State, his buyout's very high. You know, I want him at Wisconsin.
I like Greg Gard, but I want him. They'd have to really pay some money.
I know. I'm probably going to have to pay some money.
You're going to dish him out. I'm waiting for the day.
If it's a guy like that, I might. Do you have, could you win some money on championship Monday night? Yeah, I have a UConn future to win $140,000.
And what's that again? 14 to 1. For them to what? Win the championship.
Wow, when did you place that? December, after they lost to Kansas. Yeah, I know ball.
You know ball. Well, we haven't won it yet, so I know ball to get there.
What about your Eagles future the other year? Yeah, I know ball to get there. Oh, do you have an Eagles future? A couple years ago.
I had UConn last year, too. What about your Ravens future? Well, I had UConn last year, PFT, if you're going to just bring up all the bad ones.
And we had UConn last year on this show. I had 10-1 on UConn last year.
The start of the tournament, we talked, and we said, who could do it? And we said Connecticut. Yeah.
You have been on – this group's been on track on the college hoops front. Yeah, as soon as they lost to Kansas, I was like, this team is still really good.
Well, they played like a C-plus game and barely lost. Right, they barely lost.
They watched the whole game, and I was like, that was a road game, a true road game, and they were in it, and they played like crap. What happened that night, too? Purdue lost at Northwestern.
Oh, yeah. Interesting.
It's interesting. They lost on the same night.
So give us the exact roadmap, the recipe, because we are glazing UConn pretty hard here. If you're a Purdue fan, you want to believe.
You want to believe you have a chance, right? So what would need to happen tonight for Purdue to pull this off? Well, I do think that Zach Eadie getting Donovan Klingin in foul trouble is huge. I also think that Braden Smith orchestrating the game, controlling the way the game's played, is big.
You know, the tempo of the game. I think UConn may try to run on Purdue a little bit, and I think it's important that Smith just calms the waters.
I think it's critical for Lance Jones to stay as hot as he's been. He was terrific in the semifinal, and I think Mason Gillis is an X-factor to the game.
He's their do-everything guy. He is.
And he can shoot the three, and I agree with you there. He's been very good from three, and he missed a couple of shots against Tennessee that he has not missed for much of the season.
You can't have a performance where you're saying they're saying he missed some shots that he normally has made throughout the season. This is the national championship game.
This is for all the marbles. You're not going to win with a B game.
You're not going to win with a B plus game. This is an A game type of game.
I do not think this is going to be ugly. I think Saturday we had some ugliness.
Let's be honest. It was not the most thrilling Final Four Saturday.
No. But typically when you get a couple of duds, there's a reason for that.
These two teams were destined to meet on this Monday night. If you're Purdue, if you are Purdue, this is your open window to look out to the sunlight and say, how do we find Golden Redemption? Golden Redemption.
This is the Golden golden redemption tour for the Purdue Boilermakers. And for that fan base, the player said, our fans have willed us to this point.
If you are a Purdue fan, I do not care if you don't have a voice for the next month. Matt Painter said he would lose to FDU again if it meant he could be fighting for a national championship.
That's what it's all about. Hollywood couldn't write this.
No, Hollywood couldn't write this. They'd shoot you in the mouth.
Man. They would.
Fanta, we saw a video of you before the game yesterday. Walking into the stadium, how far of a walk did you have? Two miles.
That's crazy. I think I walked two miles total.
Because I stopped at a location near the stadium to do a pregame show. But then I had to walk all the way into the stadium.
I got great steps in. There's nothing wrong with that.
March is my best month of weight loss of the year.

Fun fact, just by steps.

You've been eating basketball.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, it's the truth.

Yeah.

I'm just feeding on hoops, baby.

I don't eat anything.

You know, I'm feeding on hoops.

I love it.

And cutting out drive-thrus.

Yes.

I love it. I don't need it when I'm courtside.

So, all right. So, what else have we learned from the final Four? The meet and greets? Did you go to the pump party? I waited in line forever, and I never got in.
So I went over to the bar scene in Scottsdale. You should have called Bosco.
Oh, would he have been able to? I saw him at Bottle Blonde or whatever. Yeah, probably.
I saw Bosco in there. Yeah.
He started talking to me about the portal. Your eyes glazed over.
He just starts doing a rant on Danny Sprinkle. I'm like, dude.
Oh, he's helping him put his stats together. Right.
Yeah, he was. Bosco search firms? Yeah.
Yeah. You sound like you're down on Bosco right now.
No, no, no. I'm okay on Bosco.
I've always been. bosco and i have always been in a pretty good spot good spot i mean i call him by his real name and we stayed friends yeah that's true that's a big test so i you know i i'd like to think that rico and i are in good quarters yeah well he's it's it's hard because you're obviously a reporter he's a coach so it's like having that you know tug and pull where it's like you're trying to get information out of a guy like Bosco who's on all these coaching staffs.

He doesn't want to give it all up.

He shows up to bottle blonde.

What is it?

I think it's a tug and pull.

Rub and tug?

No, rub and tug.

Yeah.

You're getting rubbed and tugged by Rico.

Yeah.

Rico shows up and he's like, I'm doing media availability right now.

What do you want to talk about?

Speaking of Rubbed and Tugged,

how was your appearance on Wake Up Mincy?

That was fascinating.

You know, when I showed up to the waiting area for that show,

I thought to myself,

where are we going to go in this 35 minutes?

But he really, it was a real morning show. Like he made i was like this guy has been through a lot uh over the last year all his own doing yeah right not any circumstances that someone handed to him he did this to himself live on the air and it was a fascinating uh 40 minute discussion about college basketball he asked some good questions.
He, uh, I didn't know if he had just woken up before the show started or what was going on, but that guy is one of a kind. Yeah, that's a good way to say it.
So, all right, so what does Fanta's offseason look like? There is no offseason. Okay, but what do you – I mean, there's no offseason, but everyone gets a little – I get a little sad after championship Monday and it's just like, oh man, I love college hoops.
What do you, what do you do in the, in the months that aren't games being played? Well, I'll give you the first couple of weeks, but I will give you my, my summer plan. Okay.
Next week I'm going out to the Jordan classic to, to call the games for Fox sports. So I'll call those Cooper flag.
I get to see him. I know you'll talk about him next season for a variety of reasons.
There's a girls game as well, so I'll do that. I'll do that for Fox Sports next weekend.
I then will go from Portland, Oregon. I'll stop back to New Jersey briefly.
And then I head to Detroit, Michigan for three straight nights of PBA and primetime on weeknights. So yeah, you will see me on the bowling circuit Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week, just on FS1 Weeknight Sports Detroit.
We're going to be there for the draft for a little bit. I'm going to just miss you.
What's that like? What's it like covering bowling? It is a blast. I love it.
First off, I work with Randy Peterson, who's been doing PBA bowling for like 30 years. He is the ultimate, like, just your buddy.
We'll go to the bar, have a beer, talk about nothing having to do with anything. You know, just hang out.
The shows are fun. It's five players, typically a show.
So you just get to know them as people. We sit down with them and talk to them for 20 minutes.
You can't possibly, I mean, you could, but like for me, we're making TV. So I want to hear about these people, what they do during the week when they're not bowling, who they are as people, because we're telling stories on the air.
And some of these guys have fascinating backstories and fascinating second, third businesses. And then they do this, you know, the one guy two months ago, he worked at a penitentiary

and he bowled on the side and he made an event.

I'm like, what are we doing here?

This is amazing.

So I do enjoy doing the bowling.

It's fun.

And I've got a couple shows here in the springtime

that'll keep me busy, along with some high school showcase events.

I'll do the Jordan Brand Classic in Brooklyn.

I'll do Peach Jam.

But what do I do?

I do a bunch of draft stuff, NBA draft stuff I do. What do I do in my downtime? Windmill dunks.
Windmill dunks. Try to convince Ed Cooley that he shouldn't resign.
Yeah, exactly. I go down to Brick, New Jersey.
Shout out down the shore. I go down the shore with my wife.
And I love it. I love going down the jersey shore parker house yeah i haven't been to dj's in forever but but you know like that's that's right on my alley i go to yellow brick road ice cream in brick new jersey if you haven't been spanos for a pizza it's living the life yeah that's good that's beautiful you do any travel you ever go on an exotic vacation I You said Jersey Shore.
Yeah. Well, we went to Italy for our...
Jersey Shore is fantastic. Yeah, that is exotic.
Yeah. We went to Italy for our honeymoon.
Pork roll or Taylor Ham? Taylor Ham. You're a Taylor Ham guy? Taylor Ham.
Smart, me too. Love it.
Yep. Went to Italy for the honeymoon.
Didn't want to leave because of the pasta. Exotic travel.
I mean, I go to Cleveland every summer. Cleveland's on the up and up.
Caitlin Clark was saying Cleveland is awesome. They got the clips tomorrow.
They got the Guardians home opener. You just got to make people do a layover in Albany before they go to Cleveland every time.
And they're like, this rocks. It's like when you go to a real estate agent and takes you to a really shitty apartment and then they take you to a little bit nicer apartment.
You're like, wow. Go guards, baby.
My guards are hot. Steven Vogt.
They're off to a 7-2 start. I just read the Colorado Rockies team ERA is over 8 per game.
Yeah, they're not good. They're bad.
Your strategy with the A's, I totally agree. Not going well right now.
Not well right now. I don't want to talk about it right now.
The Tigers have let us down. The Tigers have let us down.
We're down 6-0. Really? Oakland also mastered the art of losing games by one run.
Yeah. So that's been tough for us.
We might have to... Re-evaluate? No, we're just going to stay in the course.
Will you go to a Sacramento A's game? No. No, but we will go to an Oakland A's game if we find ourselves in Oakland this year.
Yes. Great ball fire.
Firm maybe. But Cleveland, Puddin' Bay, if you've never been, you two would love it.
You two would. I'll do a couple nights in Puddin' Bay with my wife.
I'll just, yeah, I'm trying to think. Nothing too exotic.
I don't have plans to go to another country. Right.
But down the shore, you see a lot of characters. Got a lot of fun.
I'll go up to Rhode Island for a weekend. Nice.
I'll check out the Friar Faithful in Narragansett or Newport. Yeah, you probably don't have to buy a beer in Rhode Island.
Friar Town takes good care. Yeah.
Federal Hill. Yeah.
It's just classic. That fan base is one of a kind.
By the way, I should have said off the top,

congrats on getting that write-up in the New York Post.

Thank you, very much.

What was the headline?

Rising Star?

Yeah.

John Fanta?

Unexpected, yeah.

No, I'm very grateful to them.

Ryan Glasspiegel did the piece.

Yeah, we know him well.

Very, very nice piece by M. Ryan.

Thank you.

I'm grateful.

You know, like, real talk.

I am very lucky to do this for a living, as I know you guys feel the same way. And I'm really happy to cover college basketball.
I cover other things, but, you know, I grew up on the west side of Cleveland. And when you grow up in Cleveland, jokes aside, you live on the Browns, Indians now Guardians, Cavs, and I'm just, I'm lucky enough and grateful enough that I've got a supportive family, and that I had two parents who taught me two things.
One, you can control being nice to people, And two, you can control how hard you work.

You might not be able to control a lot of other things in life.

In any industry, you're going to get picked over sometimes for another person to call a game.

Somebody once told me,

John, only one person gets to play-by-play on a game.

Ian Eagle's worked his entire life to call a game like he gets on Monday night.

And that's really cool and really special for him. And I'm happy for him because he's great at calling a game, and he's worked and earned this opportunity.
I'm really grateful that people care enough to give a damn about what I have to say, and I appreciate you guys. We appreciate you, Johnny.
Yeah, you're the best. All right, I got one last question.
Roback question, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, promo code TAKE. 20% off your first purchase.
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stores from the farmland where basketball is everything throughout the winter months.

The other school out of West Lafayette, they have hoped and dreamed of this moment,

and now it is here.

The Boilermakers have made their way to the desert with their eyes on the prize behind a T-Rex in Zach Eadie, who has dominated this sport in a level that we have not seen in quite some time. But on the other side is Kling Kong.
Donovan Klingon is ready to go. It's Purdue and UConn, the best two teams in college basketball all season long.
Grab your popcorn. You don't want to miss it.
We gotta send that to CBS right now. I'm so pumped.
Alright, so give me two final scores. UConn wins and then Purdue wins.
What is the final score for each? We'll cut out whichever one is wrong. Well, the show comes out before the game.
Retroactively. I was going to say right.
We'll put out the one that's right. We swear.
So two scores. UConn, 83.
Purdue, 70. 83, 70.
Okay Okay I like that Purdue 78

UConn 75 Whoa Okay Fletcher Lawyer makes a game winning three Whoa Damn Both would be incredible Donovan Klingon Over a half three pointer Hammer it Responsibly Yes I don't even think they offer it No No, probably don't. No chance.
No chance. And Dan Hurley cries.
Win or lose? Yeah. Okay.
All right. So that's the lock of the century, Dan Hurley cries.
I would say, I think he's a very emotional man. Yeah.
We love him. He's become a very good friend of the show.
I love it. You guys had a lot of coaches on throughout the recent weeks,

which has been really cool.

The Coach Patino stuff was great.

Yeah.

I'll also see Coach Patino at some point during the summer.

Okay.

Hopefully some sort of.

Down the shore?

And you got.

Maybe Maranac or New York, you know, New York area, Long Island style.

We need a trip to Chicago.

You need to get to Chicago so we can get Johnny Fanta getting wet. I forgot when we put that video out, it just said Johnny Fanta gets wet.
That's going to do numbies. I forgot to tell you one other off-season activity.
Maybe my first off-season activity. I'm seeing Joel at the Garden.
Oh, nice. I thought you were going to say come to Chicago.
Before it ends. That was literally the perfect time to be like, I'm coming to a Cubs game.
Instead, you're like, another New York thing. I'll come to Chicago.
It's a new era of DePaul basketball with Chris Holtman leading the way. All I'm going to do is win three Big East games and it'll be good.
It's going to happen. Last question.
Kyle Neptune. Big year.
Okay. Big year.
It's a big season here for coach Neptune and Villanova and look you already loaded up in the portal it obvious last year it obviously did not go correctly they've got to take a hard look at things here and bounce back next season because you can't go a decade of making the NCAA tournament and making runs the NCAA tournament then miss it back--back seasons. It is time this upcoming year for Villanova to get back to the big dance floor or else.
Or else. Okay.
Well, Johnny Fanta, you're the best. We love you.
Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, guys.
Fanta was brought to you by Chevy. As everyone knows, this is a Chevy truck podcast.
Chevy trucks are the greatest trucks ever built,

and our good friends over at Chevrolet have been a big part of the part of my take story.

From the Silverado helping us dig the biggest hole ever dug in Ohio during Grit Week,

to Silverado partnering with us to give college fullbacks all the rightful recognition they deserve,

with a Loman Award, to our nonstop cross-country trip from Connecticut to the big game in L game in LA behind the wheel of a Chevy Silverado. Silverado has been part of the doll.
Chevy Silverado, longtime, awesome partner of the show, a truck with commanding and unstoppable grit, legendary capability and dependability too. So find out for yourself, like so many other AWLs, go to Chevy.com, check out all the Chevy truck grit, build your own silverado check out what current offers are out there during chevy truck season for do-it-yourself projects to road trips off-road adventures to tailgates whatever your thing is it all starts with a chevy truck okay let's wrap up the show we got eclipse the eclipse let's talk some eclipse i also have a monday reading for us okay we want to do that i'm pumped i'm pumped for the eclipse i'm very very pumped for the i'm not excited for the earth to end because apparently that's that's going to happen oh no like they're going to take first they're going to take out the cell phone service then they're going to overload the electrical grid then the national guard is moving in fuck what do you know about cern the cern the particle collider that's the fourth oh is that the fourth dimension so explain it to us hank uh well i've done some extensive research uh this morning while i was hungover laying in bed okay go on cern is uh like an illuminati type company is that company i think it's a company i think the Let him cook.
Let him cook. Let him cook and what it's a he's done extensive research it's a particle expander collider okay and they're gonna apparently nasa's launching rockets at the same time as the eclipse huh huh interesting they're turning cern on the day of the eclipse and i believe the research is uh they're trying to reach a fourth dimension.
Where is CERN located? There's one in Tennessee in the route. Fuck.
Is that true? From the research. From the research, he's done.
All right. So what would you say to the haters out there that have said that the CERN particle collider actually got turned on in March, and it's located in Europe? I think there's multiple CERNs.
There's multiple CERNs. Okay.
So our second CERN has been discovered. I think there might be one in Chicago.
There's a CERN in Chicago? Are they going to turn that one on? I don't know. I'm just glad that we're in Arizona.
We're not going to be there for the eclipse. Our sun's going to be perfect.
But isn't this where the aliens will show up? I think it's one of those things where once the moon covers the sun,

when it comes back, we'll be in the fourth dimension.

Fourth dimension.

Everything will be different.

That's Earth for the flip side of the eclipse.

And you came to the conclusion when you were hungover

and probably felt like shit, and you were like,

please, someone take me away?

Yeah.

It doesn't matter how I feel.

Right.

Because it's over on Tuesday anyway.

Right.

It's interesting because they tell you, don't look at the eclipse.

What are they trying to hide what don't they want you to read why is national not nasa launching rockets same day this would be a very new interesting twist on my long sorted of uh affairs of losing futures yeah having this just end right before the game i'm gonna call jerry though i think we're gonna get on the same pig. He probably knows.
Yeah. Call him just end right before the game.
I'm going to call Jerry, though.

I think we're going to get on the same page.

He probably knows.

Yeah.

Call him right now.

See what he has to say.

He's probably, he hasn't slept, I don't think.

I've never understood why you can't look at an eclipse.

Because...

Well, remember when Trump raw-dogged it?

Yeah, it was awesome.

Awesome.

He gave the thumbs up.

He raw-dogged the shit out of that eclipse.

Tougher than the sun.

The fucking sun.

Yo. Yo.
We're recording PMT that eclipse. Tougher than the sun.
The fucking sun. Yo.

Yo.

We're recording PMT right now.

You're live to tape.

What do you know about CERN?

Wait, what?

What do you know about CERN?

Stern?

C-E-R-N.

CERN.

Our two best minds are on this.

C-E-R-N.

Nothing. I don't know what CERN is.
All right, Well, then ask him what about the eclipse, how it's going to. What do you know about the eclipse and the fourth dimension? I don't want to get into it.
No, you got to get into it, Jer. I'm very overwhelmed now.
All right. Well, I don't want to put too much on your plate, but I would look into CERN.
No, no, no, no. something there.
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. It's probably going on now 29 hours, 30 hours.
Okay, so what's the concern? It's a lot of things. I don't think anything with the eclipse is going to really mess things up.
I'm more concerned about a couple months from now what's really gonna happen yeah what is yeah well um cyber attacks i mean i'm talking to this one guy right now you know people i don't want to get into it no no you got to get into it you got to get into it you got to get into it well people think i'm going crazy yeah Yeah, that's fine. That's fine.
You are. It's fine.
I met a guy on a plane.

Okay. And's fine.

You are.

It's fine.

I met a guy on a plane.

Okay.

A Boeing?

And it was my first time ever flying first class.

Okay.

So people say I was in row 27.

It was my first time ever in first class.

I treated myself.

I sat next to a guy who was very, very wealthy.

We talked the whole entire flight. He's a higher end for a major major software company okay um and you know we just became friendly and you know it was just text back and forth happy holiday stuff like that and then you know the other day he sent me that message and asked him to kind of get deeper for me and uh he just pretty much said, like, I know too much, but I don't at the same time, which to me means he knows everything.
Yeah. It sounds like he doesn't want to scare you.
Yeah, he doesn't want to scare you. Yeah, exactly.
And, like, you know, just stuff with the power grid. I mean, the power grid hasn't been updated in 75 years.
I mean, 75% of it

is

ancient, you know what I mean?

So what do you think they're going to do to the power grid?

I think that's going to come

when they want Joey

in office.

When their back's against the wall

and they know, that's when something will happen.

Yeah, Joe gets out to an early lead in Wisconsin, then the power to the vote goes down. Billion building bunkers.
I mean, it just gets deep down. Yeah.
Concern. Yeah, this is – all right.
So I would – my only recommendation is do not sleep. Because it seems like the – yeah, but the more you don't sleep, the closer you get to the truth.
You're actually right, honestly, about that, because I've got a lot more information today than I have yesterday. Yeah, so sleep is your enemy.
They want you to go to sleep. When you go to sleep.
And the reason I stopped answering PFT was there was a part of me where I feel like when we were texting, the language seemed like he thought I was going crazy. No, I told you to get some sleep.
Yeah. I just wanted you to sleep, Jerry.
Yeah, he wants you to sleep, but I don't want you to go. Yeah, I don't want to give him too much info.
Yeah, that's smart. He can't be trusted.
That's not true. Okay, Jerry.
I just told Jerry, try to get some sleep. If shit does go down tomorrow, you need to be rested.
I was trying to help you. That pretty much meant, Jerry, you're going crazy.
Yeah, he's trying to get you to sleep. He's probably part of the Illuminati.
He's like, we got to get this guy to sleep. Don't sleep.
Honestly, Dan, I wouldn't doubt that. Yeah, I wouldn't either.
So I'm giving you the correct advice. Do not sleep.
All right. Okay.
And Dave, Erica answered me. Dave didn't answer me what did erica say she she believes me 100 okay i showed eric the messages okay all right yeah okay jerry all right don't get any sleep all right all right bye i love that theory like when you go to sleep that's when they reprogram your mind right yeah sounds like it's pretty serious yeah so i hope to do this podcast later this week yeah this might be the last episode ever damn i would suck all right you want your monday reading real quick yeah saw this uh it's titled i hate my homeowners association facebook group uh here's a message that a woman sent to the homeowners association just a gentle reminder to please close your windows when cooking meat as a vegan runner.
It is always hard for me. I try to go out running several nights a week around dinner time.
When you are cooking with the windows open, the smell of meat can be quite overpowering. Honestly, the odor is offensive.
Please have empathy for your plant-based neighbors by closing the windows when cooking meat and only cooking vegetables if possible.

I do not want to be a stereotype. That's way too late for that.
So I won't go into detail on why cooking animals is offensive, but I encourage you to do your research and join the movement with others who are fighting back. I love these groups.
They're the absolute best. Yeah.
I was in one in Austin and people would get on there and would go out uh onto the sidewalk and they'd take a picture because there would be like a branch laying across and they'd be like somebody should move this branch off the sidewalk and they'd share it to the facebook group this lady is she's got a pair of balls on it she i mean the homeowners association groups are like just like the the seventh circle of hell and just people professional complainers always end up ruling those where it's like whoever complains the most gets the most power I couldn't I I would be grilling on my like in the front lawn every single day after this I have a steak tree planted out front every I would raise I would raise chickens and slaughter them yeah yeah this uh this lady's crazy but you can actually in some states get fined if your neighbors smell your cigarette smoke. Oh.
That's a real thing. That's crazy.
I never heard of that. I feel like your odors, that's your property.
Yeah. Like if somebody's smelling your steak, that's actually theft.
Right. They're stealing from you.
Yeah, if you want to smell bad, you can smell bad. Yeah, I would complain about the lady running stealing all my smells from my meat.
Yeah, free those aren't free no yeah pay up um do we have is anyone in the office right now or no for lottery ball no all right we'll just do what should we do we forgot number generator number generator all right here we go this is mickey mouse though yeah no one wants to win this all right number generator numbers eight 20 oh i think that was hank yeah i think that was hank uh 18 i'll go 71 two two pick

another number because it starts at two it's like on two 22 okay memes three all right

Thank you. Pick another number because it starts at two.
It's like on two. 22.
Okay.

Memes three.

All right.

69.

Oh, wow.

Race is 69 tomorrow.

Billy.

111.

Billy got it.

If UConn gets to 69 first and they win, they'd be 111 games straight.

Yeah.

I've become obsessed with betting perfect scores.

Ooh.

And when it hits, it's going to be amazing.

Fanta said 83-70.

On Titus' show this morning, I said 83-71.

So which one are you going to go with?

I think I got to go Fanta scores.

Yeah, that's fair.

Okay.

All right, well, we'll see everyone on Wednesday.

We have Max Holman, Brooks Koepka talking Masters,

and we'll recap the National Championship game.

Love you guys. Take me, take me.
I'll be gone. We're out to you.
I'll be gone. Imagine your dreams.

Don't say that you're not alone.

Just stay my mind away.

You are the things I've got to remember.

You're shining away.

I'll be coming for you anyway. Take on me.

Take on me. Take on me.

Take on me.

Take on me. Thank you.