Day 1 Of The NCAA Tournament, Kentucky's Stunning Loss With Matt Jones, Friday Gambling Picks With Stanford Steve + Fyre Fest Of The Week

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On today's Pardon My Take, day one of March Madness in the books, we're going to talk about

all the games, Kentucky's stunning loss. We brought on our good friend Matt Jones from

Kentucky Sports Radio to talk about what's happening in Kentucky. Will Cal survive this? If he doesn't, who could possibly coach the Wildcats? We get the inside scoop from Big Blue Nation.
We also have our good friend Stanford Steve on to give you some Friday picks. So we talked tourney with Stanford Steve.
Some picks that you're going to be watching today. So you're going to want to listen.
Also shout out to everybody that's actually listening to today's podcast. Yes.
Because I think usually this Friday is the lowest listened to episode of the year because everyone's watching basketball. So please redownload.
So you have to download it twice and leave a five-star review to get the entire episode. But you are one of the filthy few yeah if you're listening to this refresh your your uh you know rumble youtube wherever you're watching it refresh it a couple times get us some more views uh but yeah and then we're gonna finish off with fire fest there's making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich and when i want something perfectly crafted i go straight to Boar's Head.
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Okay, let's go. And then I can't blame 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 avenue It's Pardon My Take presented by Marshall Sports Welcome to Pardon My Take presented by DraftKings Sportsbook New customers can bet $5 to get $150 instantly in bonus bets only at DraftKings Sportsbook with code TAKE right now.
Today is Friday, March 22nd, and Jack Golke has captured the hearts of a nation. The Oakland Grizzlies? Golden Grizz golden grizzlies i knew that take down kentucky in the one true stunner from day one of march madness jack gulke hit 10 threes from michigan oakland is yes from from detroit uh hit 10 threes he was the wait really yeah i did not know that until just now.
I was looking up Jack Golke's stats before we started the podcast, and I was like, oh, I guess he played small ball in Michigan somewhere, then he moved out to California. He's actually from Pewaukee, home of Derek Watt and J.J.
Watt and T.J. Watt.
Yes. Yeah, it is in Michigan.
That guy could not miss. It was incredible.

He was double teamed.

He was coming off screens with no daylight, just sinking everything.

It was so much fun.

Yeah.

It was so much fun.

He is the perfect March Madness guy.

He has taken a total of eight two-pointers all season long.

One of the coolest stats out there.

He didn't take a single one.

He was shooting shots that no one should be shooting, fully covered,

just draining threes.

This is the first time. All season long.
One of the coolest stats out there. He didn't take a single one.
He was shooting shots that no one should be shooting. Fully covered.
Just draining threes. That was perfectly March Madness.
And he had a quote after where he was like, I know that they have a bunch of NBA guys. I know that I'm not going to be playing in the NBA.
But on any given day, I can compete with those types of guys. That's what March Madness is.
This guy is going to absolutely rock some men's league basketball. Yeah, he's perfect because he already looks like a men's league basketball player because he's kind of got a little bit of the male pattern baldness starting.
His head is huge. He's got a little Derek Carr in him.
Yeah, and I hope it keeps going. I do too.
Actually, we'll see because we basically have a matchup of America's Sweethearts in the second round now because it's Jack Golke and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies going up against the team that just cannot lose right now in NC State. Yeah.
Two very fun teams. Yeah, they've won six straight – well, six straight tournament games because they won five straight ACC tournament games.
And now they've won their first tournament I think it was since Flute Girl really yeah against Villanova they showed they showed fluke they showed that clip they always find a way to show I wonder what Flute Girl is doing these days yeah she I hope that uh she was able to like overcome her she was everywhere right after that for like years and I think maybe when Villanova won the championship I her redemption story. Yeah.
Where it's like, okay, now I'm not going to get brought up all the time. Max, you know, Fluker? No, I don't.
But they put her in that commercial, basically. Yeah, no, they show her every single tournament.
They have a clarinet player crying. Yeah, they have a fake Fluker.
Yeah, yeah. But that was the first time NC State won a tournament game since then.
But that is a – it's just – this is what we watch for. The tournament, you don't know who's going to become the hero out of nowhere.
I did try to get everyone on Samford. They were absolutely robbed at the end of the game against Kansas where they had a perfect block called a foul and ended up losing the game.
But, like, you just – that's the beauty of the tournament tournament you don't know what team is going to pop up and have everyone talking about them and now we have oakland versus nc state what the winner of that game is going to be the talk of of the week leading up to sweet 16 because it'll be a great story either way there are two very fun teams to root for and nc state with dj burns sexy red that dude he's a big dude but he moves his feet he's like a ballerina on his feet he's a great passer soft touch it's you can't root against him and then you can't root against golki so i don't know just take the over yeah the next game i don't want i want there should be there should be a rule where two of like uh the cinderellas that have very fun players on them if they both get matched up with each other in the second round, you should be able to float one spot. You float one spot because I don't want either of those two guys to go home.
I want to get more of those dudes in the tournament. Did you see there was a very funny quote after Arizona? Arizona beat the fuck out of Long Beach State.
Yes. Very funny quote from the athletic director at Long Beach State.
Who fired Dan Mun he fired Dan Munson before their conference tournament Dan Munson kept coming into work which kept winning also was very funny about it because Dan Munson had a great quote where he said the day after he got fired he went into a film study with his team and he's like you see this closeout guys this is what gets coaches fired yeah and they all laughed and they're like yeah it's great that hits hard so so the athletic director said the timing of his decision to part ways with dan monson was done with the hope that it might trigger the exact run that led the team on unexpected march madness here's the direct quote from him ready my belief and hope is that by doing what i did and the timing of it they would play inspired and that's what they did i'm not trying to pat myself on the back, but it worked. Bullshit.
Bullshit. What a piece of shit that guy is.
Yeah, Long Beach put a little scare into Arizona for a minute there. We had a couple scares, but it was really just about Oakland and Kentucky, and then the other big winner of the day, I thought, was the Pac-12.
Washington State beat Drake. Drake, now this is just their MO.
They get in the tournament. They get a lead at the end of a game, and then they just stop scoring and lose that game.
The exact same thing happened to them last year against Miami. So Arizona, Washington State, and then we had obviously Colorado won on Wednesday night.
And then I'm going to mention it again with Matt Jones, but Dana Altman, my most underrated coach in America. I love how he coaches basketball.
Dana Altman in the Oregon Ducks. Similar run to NC State.
Wouldn't have been in the tournament. Win the Pac-12 tournament.
Fun fact, Dana Altman is now 8-0 in first round NCAA tournament games. He is such a good coach, and he has them going every single, like overachieving every single year.
And we have like dana altman iso iso did it again so did it again now it's going to be iso against unc which we talk about with stanford steve coming up in a little bit not to pat myself on the back but just wait for that moment uh but but if michigan state can win too then i think all the talk around iso has forgotten because he has done a masterful job of just getting to a point where he doesn't have any expectations in the tournament every year. And then he surpasses those expectations.
And it's perfectly Izzo because he has two guards. Like his team has not played well pretty much all year.
But he has two guards that when they do want to play well, they're a nightmare for anyone. And that's what he does.
And yeah, so it was a great day. I mean, like Tennessee took care of business.ennessee took care of business iowa state took care of business creighton had a little scare with akron at the beginning of the game but they took care of business yeah there was texas took care of business all the colorado state they caught virginia they got they get they got cavid 19 that was that was actually more embarrassing for virginia yeah the fact that they scored 14 points against colorado against Colorado State in the first half and were the laughingstock of America

on Tuesday night, and then Colorado

State beat them by 25,

showed up to the tournament, and scored 11

points in the first half. And it makes it doubly

worse for Cavaliers fans because they were so

desperate for one team to lay a giant

egg so that they could be like, see,

we did belong in the tournament, we're taking all this

heat. Other teams can have bad days too.
The one team that you couldn't have that happen to was the team that beat you yes in colorado state yes we also had oh you called mcneese too good good call on giving out the mcneese schedule yeah the university of women mississippi university of women yeah is that what it was yeah well they're yeah they're not mcnephew yeah mcneese biblical studies studies. Yeah, they got absolutely whomped.
Turns out you got to play a couple people. Gonzaga looked damn good, and now we get a good Kansas-Gonzaga blue blood matchup in the second round.
Also, shout out to Kane. A hand up.
I was very wrong about that. I thought that they were – the talk of the seeding was that they shouldn't have been an 11 seed.
They proved everyone wrong. All the bid stealers did carry business today.
Oregon, Duquesne, and NC State. Yeah, they were all hot.
And so, yeah, like they – Duquesne, I was hand up very wrong. They played lights out.
They held on. It felt like BYU was going to maybe steal it back from them, but they are a tough, tough team.
Yeah, so the stat is that number 11 seeds are 27 and 25 in the first round since 2010. Yeah.
Which is pretty impressive. You said it.
11s are the new 12. Yeah, and then number three seeds also dominate the six seeds.
Number three seeds in the later rounds are 22 and 5. I guess you just don't want to be a six seed.
Yeah. That's the kiss.
Six seat. Well, cause it kind of makes sense.
Cause the six seed usually is a team that was, had flashes of being good, but probably faded at some point in their schedule. You know what I mean? Like it's that weird, it's kind of what the five seed was for a long time.
And yeah, I mean, six seeds had a very bad day. They went on three.
Yeah. Very bad.
Yeah. Very bad day to be a seed uh yeah texas tech got absolutely worked by nc state uh also we should mention the dayton comeback um we also have a co-worker who went to dayton dukes who was literally crying after the company now dayton was uh the seventh seed they were underdogs but were yeah they were they were underdogs they were two point underdogs two and a They were underdogs but yeah they were

underdogs. They were two point underdogs

two and a half point underdogs. Oh happy

birthday to Dave Portnoy.

Didn't realize that. He just Max just pulled

up his Twitter and he had the balloons.

Dugues was crying though.

Dayton was an incredible incredible

comeback. They basically was like

a 22 run. 56 to

40 on the win probability Nevada hadada had 99.5 chance jeez and nevada scored four points the rest of the game seven minutes crazy i mean it was an awesome day i lost a lot of bets but that's not what it's about it's about having fun with your friends it's about the bets that you didn't make that would have lost yeah and when

i say having fun with your friends that's loser talk for someone who doesn't win their bets because

if i won my bets i'd be like it's about winning bets it was still fun it was still a fun day for

i think the first time in four years i'm up after day one i'll take that i'll take that that's a

huge you just got to make positive steps yeah that's a huge huge win do we miss anyone um i

think we hit pretty much all of it.

I think you guys hit all of it,

but I think this Kansas-Samford story is going to just blow over

because of the timing of it, but it was a bad call.

It was egregious.

It was egregious.

And they would have had numbers the other way to take the lead.

I think they made that call because he fell hard.

That's it.

That's why they made the call.

It was a shout-out, by the way, to Samford alum Devlin Hodges.

Duck.

Remember that?

Steelers?

I love Duck yeah he's he's the only guy that I know that went to Samford uh that was that was bad you have every right to be mad online you have every right to go January 6th on the NCAA offices yes if you're Samford and I know you can say like oh there's so many other calls you shouldn't have been down 20 yes but in that moment that's that's a bad one yeah but also Samford. And I know you can say, oh, there's so many other calls.
You shouldn't have been down 20. Yes, but in that moment, that's a bad one.

Bad call.

But also, Samford was dead.

They were capital D dead for most of the game.

And then they just put together this crazy run.

And you look up and you're like, oh, shit, it's still alive.

Bucky ball.

They just chucked threes. Bucky ball, baby.

And they press.

And they were just giving up a million points in the paint.

Bicow, would you say that with some of the upsets, the bracket opens up real nice for JMU or Wisconsin? Well, we haven't played our quadrant yet. I'm just saying.
Yeah. Sure.
Yeah. Sure.
I'm all optimism right now. Sure.
I haven't kind of beaten out of me yet. Yeah.
All right, before we do some picks for tomorrow, we've got to quickly talk about Shohei Otani. It's appropriate timing for it, yeah.
Yeah. So Shohei Ohtani, one of the weirdest stories that broke Wednesday night.
So the story goes, he went to the media and was like my interpreter. I had to wire money to my interpreter because he was in gambling debt, $4.5 million.
Yeah. So Ohtani and his representative talked to the media.
So it was somebody that was, I don't know if it was his manager, but somebody that was there to tell the media the official story. Right, so he was like, the official story is my interpreter, I had to send him $4.5 million because he was in gambling debt, and then almost immediately after that he's like, wait, no, he actually stole the money from me.
I was joking. yeah because so maybe it would look bad if you were like my interpreter is four and a half million dollars in debt and people are like huh that's weird your interpreter's four and a half million dollars in debt and they were seen in the dugout of the baseball game the mlb game uh like laughing and joking the interpreter and otani after this statement had had been released, and it didn't look like

somebody that had stolen $4.5 million.

It looked like someone who was like, we should take Oakland Moneyline.

It looks like someone that was like, we got away with this.

Yeah.

So there's a problem.

There's a lot of problems.

One is, I'm going to take Otani at his word, okay?

Yeah.

I'm going to say that the-

Well, we don't know his word because he doesn't have an interpreter anymore.

Okay.

Well, I'm going to take him at his representative's first word okay before he fired the interpreter yep um which is beautiful that he now doesn't have to answer questions because you have an interpreter yeah so so the guy and correct me if i'm wrong here but the interpreter who makes what two hundred thousand dollars a year correct was four million dollars in debt correct How would that happen? Because the only way it would happen would be if they were using a bookie that was willing to give that interpreter that amount of credit. Correct.
If he makes $200,000 a year, why would the bookie give him $4.5 million worth of credit? You're asking very good questions. It would be no different than if memes, there was a story that memes was five million dollars in debt to a bookie and it was like huh i wonder whose money is like what yeah so it makes sense i'm just connecting some dots here uh and baseball's got a big problem because problem shohei otani stands to make mlb hundreds of millions of dollars if not more yeah over the course of his his career.
He's playing in the biggest market. By the way, maybe that's why he moved to Los Angeles was because he loved betting on his team so much and he couldn't make any money off it with the Angels, so he moved to the Dodgers so they could win some games and get some money.
Also, California doesn't have legalized gambling. do not so again this was all on credit

with an illegal bookmaker

and it seems to me like baseball

given how much money they stand to make from Otani

really does not want to have to treat

Otani like they would anyone

can you imagine if it was a utility player

that paid off 4.5 million dollars

how fast would that guy be banned

for baseball for life

and let's do a hypothetical real quick

Thank you. imagine if it was a utility player yeah that paid off four and a half million dollars yeah how fast would that guy be banned for oh yeah for life and let's just let's do a hypothetical real quick just

a quick hypothetical because hypothetically speak well no this part is real uh newsflash i like to

gamble okay hypothetically speaking though if someone were to give me 700 million dollars

knowing that i like to gamble i'd probably ask for it in little pieces not all up front

Thank you. If someone were to give me $700 million, knowing that I like to gamble, I'd probably ask for it in little pieces, not all up front.
Maybe a deferment, because I know that I like to gamble, and I don't want all the money right away, because I like to gamble. How pissed do you think Otani's interpreter was? If it was really him that was in debt, that's like, don't worry, I'm good for it.
I got a big payday coming in soon. We're about to sign a new contract and then otani's like hey man yeah we're not gonna get that money for 10 years yeah it's like fuck we'll get a little bit we'll get enough to

to you know march madness yeah just get us through just get us through the ncaa tournament we're fine

what do you say hank it's gonna sound crazy but four and a half billion from for what he makes

is also not that much oh yeah for otani right yeahani. Right.
Yeah. But for his interpreter.
Yeah, no, that's like his unit size, isn't it, for all relatively speaking. Yeah, isn't crazy.
I mean, you hear like Floyd Mayweather bets a million dollars a game. It's like that's eye-popping, but then you're like, wait, but Floyd Mayweather makes like $100 million a fight.

Yeah, for his interpreter, that's a big number.

My idea for Rob Manfred is very simple.

You just do the reverse Jordan on him,

and you tell him he has to go play minor league basketball for four years.

What was he gambling on?

Sports?

That's what I want to know.

Yeah, the best case scenario.

Because if it was American sports, then it was definitely him because the interpreter was explaining to American sports how do you want to yeah the the best case scenario I think for the uh MLB is like it was somehow casino related but I don't think it sounds like it is no and and that's no Mars situation that's where that's where there's another problem is if the only way that you could expect a bookmaker to give a guy four and a half million dollars with a credit to bet on if he makes 200 grand a year is if that guy is doing other stuff for you. Yeah.
If that guy is giving you inside information that you would that he would know because he's inside a clubhouse every single day. Interesting situation.
MLB has their hands in now yeah so that's it we'll see what happens uh this also all broke when he's overseas right because they're they started uh the season in japan no korea korea uh so yeah we'll see when he gets back but again it's very funny because he's gonna walk in and they're gonna ask some questions like questions. He's like, I don't have an interpreter.
He gambled too much. Do you think, Hank, when you said like explain American sports to him, do you think he doesn't know like how to bet on basketball? His wife is a basketball player.
Facts. She's actually a bucket.
She is. With all due respect.
I'd knock it out of the park but like football yeah okay yeah hockey so we're gonna we're gonna find out a lot more god it would rule if shohei otani was betting on maction what if what if shohei otani is like goddamn bowling green what if shohei otani is an ice man what if i would up? He trusts the data too much? If they're sitting there watching NFL on a Sunday, the interpreter is probably explaining things to them. So the interpreter is the bad gambler? No, Shohei is the bad gambler.
Right. But if it's American sports, then it's definitely Shohei.
I think he probably watches football and knows how to yeah that on football allegedly his interpreter slash shohei but yeah there's gonna be a lot of a lot of twists and turns in this story as it ends up coming out and base baseball has painted itself into a corner as being like the ultimate like high and mighty moral arbiter of all things good and evil yep and you got pete rose pete rose is watching this closer than anyone yeah pete rose is like what are you going to do to show hey yeah yeah and and all the steroid guys so yeah it's going to be interesting um but yeah we'll update as it goes along i'm sure we'll have updates on monday's show ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working nah neither has ariot ariot work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver. Check out Ariat in your local workwear retailer or visit Ariat.com slash work to get 10% off your first order when you sign up for email.
And weather whatever in Ariat work Gear. All right, what do we like tomorrow, boys?

I got a simple one.

Today.

I got a simple one for you.

I have a Mega Max Super Lock of the tournament.

Oh, okay.

I'll let you guys go first.

I have a lock plus.

Well, no, now you have to go.

No, you guys go.

No, do your Mega Max Super Lock.

Is it bigger than a Mega Max Lock of the tournament?

No, mine's just a lock.

Why would you do the main event before the undercard?

Mine's a max plus.

Yours is bigger. So you do yours first i like yours is i like texas am plus one i think they're gonna they're gonna bother nebraska a lot i like the under in western kentucky marquette western kentucky loves to run the floor but they suck they chuck they are bad they're a bad offensive team but they they take bad shots, but sometimes they go in.
Yeah, but I don't think they're going in this time. Okay.
158 under. I love, love, love, love Purdue.
Oh. Revenge.
Yeah. I could see that.
The UVA formula? Yeah. And didn't UVA win the next year? Yeah.
Remember, the next year, they were down at half to Gardner-Webb as a one seed.

They ended up winning it, obviously, and winning it all,

but they had a slow start.

Again.

Yeah.

It's happening again.

Max, NIT?

It's March Madness. I have UAB plus six and a half.

You were all about the NIT a day ago.

Yeah.

Come on. I'm allowed to have a little fun.
UAB plus six and a half. What happened with the NIT? I think UAB is pretty good.
The Mountain West stinks. Mountain West loses every game.
UAB plus six and a half. What happened to Nova? They lost.
In the NIT? UAB is a pretty good program. In the opening round of the NIT? There's no Jelly Walker this year.
Were you guys at home? I still think they have a pretty good squad. Well, at least losing in the first round of the NIT means that Kyle Neptune's going to get fired.
No. Oh, what? I'll take Coach Kyle.
I would love Coach Kyle. Max is just dealing with coaches he wants fired that won't get fired.
It's great neptune's got one more year on his contract to make or break year next year but i think we're gonna lose all our guys yeah he's gonna be a lame duck coach uh okay well good luck to everyone we have more picks coming with stanford steve we're gonna talk about the entire friday slate with him before we do that uh matt jones is gonna join us uh we forgot to mention matt jones has a great netflix show out called uh the wrestlers go watch it right now support our friend matt jones it's awesome i watched it if you're a wrestling fan you got to watch it even if you're not i'm not a big wrestling fan but yeah it's awesome it's compelling yes it's very compelling uh so when your home system or appliance breaks down american home shield will help fix or replace the covered item no matter its age. Visit AHS dot com slash listen for 20 percent off any plan.
See AHS dot com slash contracts for coverage details, limitations and exclusions. OK, we now welcome on our very good friend from Kentucky Sports Radio.
We've known him for a very long time. We hate to have to bring him on this show under these circumstances, but it is Matt Jones.
Matt, where do you want to start? What went wrong? Kentucky bows out of the tournament in disgrace yet again, loses to 14-seed Oakland. You can just tell us what you're feeling or where you want to start because sure we have some follow-up questions but the floor is yours speak for Kentucky you know the last time you had me on your show was when Mitch McConnell got me kicked off the radio and I didn't have a job and I think this is worse I'll be honest with you I think this is uh I think this might be worse.
It's terrible. You know, loads to St.
Peter's in Oakland, two of the last three years. And I think probably the end of the Calipari era, there's a really good change.
I mean, I, I mean, I don't think it's certain, but I think a lot of the fans want that. And it's just sad, you know, listen, you guys are fans of your teams when you really really love something and and it's it feels like the end of an era tonight that kind of sucks yeah that is that is tough uh his buyout is what 33 million dollars to yeah it's a lot yeah it's not my it's port noise kind of money not ours right uh Right.
But they may have to do it because this fan base, I've never seen them this upset ever. Yeah.
So I was reading some stats earlier that Kentucky has only won one NCAA tournament game since 2019. These are actually your stats that you tweet out.
And that Kentucky has won one SEC. It's hard.
It's hard to hear that and not be like, what the hell is going on at Kentucky? Like what is, how did it, how did he get to this point? Well, you guys were the first ones to ever put him on the hot seat. Yeah.
But we also said to give him an extension. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm looking forward to you hosting this summer.
I hope you'll do it again. Yes.
You'll have a lot. You'll have a lot to talk about.
I think he's kind of gotten a little big for the program. I think he his relationships here are pretty poor.
He has no relationship with the AD, no relationship with the boosters, no relationship with the media. You know, you guys know I used to be pretty close with him.
He does not like us us now at ksr it's just unfortunate because i think he's a good dude but you know sometimes times the end right like sometimes you just got to say that's it and i i think i don't know if we're there but i think we're pretty close yeah so so cal has been very vocal in the last several years about how proud he is of his track record with guys that he brings into the program develops them gets them into the nba and then gets them massive contracts in the nba his alumni right so that's kind of what he's hung his hat on and he had a quote after today's game that says it's going to be hard for me to change that bringing in freshmen because we've helped so many young people and their families that i don't see myself saying okay we're not going to include freshmen anymore so i don't with with a coach like that i understand where he's coming from but i can't see a fan base really having that message resonate with them if you're not also winning right so they hate that the fans here hate that hate that he like, the draft is the important thing, changing people. Like, everybody likes the draft, but, you know, I could sit here and go through the players he's had just in the last, like, eight or nine years.
Shea Alexander, Devin Booker, Tyrese Maxey, right? You know, Taysom Wallace, all these guys, Oscar Sheewe, all these dudes, they've won, and then they haven't won anything. And I think that Fox, Monk, Adebayo, all these guys, Jamal Murray, and like to have all those dudes, and think about all those guys I just mentioned, not one Final Four, and that entire group.
I mean, Devin Booker made the Final Four, but the rest of them, no Final Fours. I think that's a lot.
I think people are kind of tired of it. And then to say he's not going to change i mean look i will tell you when i saw gunkel or whatever his name was yeah oakland yeah i thought of you too because i thought those you guys had to love him right oh yeah real ham and eggs your own hairline yeah play d3 basketball and he goes out he's talking trash 30 points but losing to dudes like that when you've got the players Cal has, Dillingham and Shepard going to be top ten picks, I think fans are just kind of over.
Yeah, that is the extra pain that Kentucky goes through because it's very rare that they don't have a more talented team and they keep having these disappointments. So let me ask you this.
If Cal somehow stays, is there a fix? Because to me, the biggest issue with Kentucky right now is that it's a lot of recruiting and not a lot of coaching. I watched a lot of Kentucky basketball this year.
There wasn't a lot of set plays. There was a lot of guys who were really talented off the dribble.
The defense never came around. He said he was going to do some tweaks.
There were no tweaks. It felt like he was the last person on earth to find out that Oakland ran a zone and that Gawke could shoot from anywhere.
So, like, to me, I'm just watching that game and I'm like, did Kentucky, did they plan anything for this game or were they just going to roll the ball out and say we're better than you? Because it feels like that what happens time and time again so is there if cal says you know if he says in two weeks i'm hiring the best assistant coaches i can find we're going to get back to basics we we have to we have to actually run some stuff and and teach these guys basketball that's winning basketball would the fan base be like okay maybe this is different i mean but first of all, he would have to admit that, which he won't. I mean, he believes that the way he plays is the way you should play.
I mean, after the game today, he said we had a lot of freshmen do things they've never done before, but you watch the game. I mean, they ran a zone, a little junk zone, and Kentucky couldn't get any shots open.
I mean, listen, Oakland should have won by more. They missed 11 free throws.
I'll even say we got the good side of the whistle. Right.
Like, I think we got some good calls. So it could have been worse.
There's no assistant. He won't listen to them.
You know, listen, how many 60, however many year olds, how many of those guys do do you know that change yeah the best thing here's one of the things i like about the culture you guys have at barstool you guys have you two are very successful dave is very successful but you all are surrounded by people that are not on your all's level in terms of like success but you give each other a hard time and you listen to each other right and so like you will listen to people that might be lower on the food chain but like you'll consider what they say cal's not like that cal is in charge people can say whatever he wants he's still going to do what he wants to do and that's a good way to lose your grip on success that's that's crazy to me because it's just it's it's so nuts to be this coach who's been wildly successful and not like Saban is the perfect example how many times did Saban change what he did when the when he would he won national titles where he was running the football and playing great defense then linebackers got you know smaller and and people were spreading it out he got two and all those wide receivers and it was that shape-shifting of I will get with the times. Cal, that stat, I know you probably know it in the back of your hand, but up until I think it was the LSU game, they hadn't hit a game-winner in forever because they literally just didn't.
They ran the same play every time for a game-winning shot, and it's like teams knew this.

They had 32 shots until the Mississippi State game.

They had 32 shots at the end of games to win, and they had missed all of them. Right.

Which is like a crazy – which is a crazy stat,

and then they hit the one with Shepard this year.

Saban's a great example because to me,

Saban is an exact example of what you should do. Like Cal would bring in a lane kiffin kind of guy right to be an assistant like he would never do that but that's what saban saban is the most successful coach of all time but he had the humility to say look i need help with this right i need to bring this guy in for modern offense cal won't do that um when dudes get a certain age, they do not change.
And the ones that do are special. Saban, Krzyzewski did that, right? So Krzyzewski was recruiting a certain kind of way.
And then he goes, you know what? I got to go get the stars. I got to go get the star freshman.
And he did. And they kind of took a lot of Cal's guys.
Like think about yeah zion would have been a kentucky player yeah in the day cal made k change that's exactly right he did and now and now cal needs to change back because jay wright tonight said it the best because of nil these dudes are staying in college longer and that's about to happen like you're gonna see good players stay in college for three and four years and i just don't know if you can win with freshmen anymore because these i mean hell the guy two of the starters on oakland were 24 years old we're starting three guys that are 18 that's a big difference yeah yeah no you're right have you have you allowed your mind to wander yet have you thought who would look good in kentucky blue oh man i'm gonna throw a couple names out there. All right, let me hear them.
And if we're talking buyouts, there's a guy down in Alabama who just got a new contract with a massive buyout. But if you want to win, Nate Oates is a hot name.
Yeah, but Nate Oates hasn't won anything, though. I mean, Nate Oates, he talks – I like his trash talking, but he doesn't win anything yet.
Now, maybe he'll do it this year, but he hasn't won anything. I like that, Matt, because I was floating that out there to see if y'all were still Kentucky.
Yeah. And you're still Kentucky.
Y'all still Kentucky. What about, hey, Matt, what about Coach K? What about getting him out of retirement? No, Matt.
Well, here's what they'll do. First of all, if Cal is gone, and I don't think that's certain, but let's say he was.
The first thing they'll do is I know the first two people they'll call. They'll call Jay Wright and they'll call Brad Stevens and they'll say, any chance.
Yeah. My guess is both of them would say no, but that's the first thing they would do.
Yeah. And then I think their next thing would probably be Scott Drew at Baylor would be who they would try to get but i'll tell you after scott drew i would ask you guys like there's not an obvious yeah there is no yeah there is he was he was on this show and he said that he never should have left kentucky he said such nice things about how about that we don't have rick patino on how did you not ask him about some of the stories I told on your own show? Well, we were very intimidated.
We had it was the most that PFT and I like talked about an interview before doing an interview. We're like, OK, this guy was nice enough to come in.
We said a lot of things. Yep.
We have to obviously own up to some of the things without getting into too much detail which i think we did well but we were like we've done some interviews that we haven't aired where we screwed up by kind of being like it didn't go well right away and we're just like so we're like let's have a good interview here uh but yeah it was in our mind the entire time i thought i'm kidding you i thought you did a great job job. People want you to be jerks to people when you interview them, and you can't.
It's hard to do that. And I thought you guys – I actually thought you made him seem very likable.
Yeah. Well, he is.
He is, Matt. We're Rick Pitino guys now.
I wanted at least one down my leg, though. I did.
I wanted one down my leg. I bit the fuck out of the inside of my cheeks at one point during the interview just like don't do a pft it went against everything in my nature and i hated it but yeah people remember by the way how crazy that story is oh yeah do you do you but no i mean like the he takes his equipment manager asked him to take the woman to get an abortion i don't recall love on the way.
This sounds fake to me. We're Rick Pitino guys now.
It sounds like you... But they fell in love at Subway over at Subway.
No, that's a beautiful place. That's a beautiful place.
You got Pitino derangement syndrome. Five dollar foot long.
Listen, I actually found myself this year, guys, and you know what my Pitino history is. I found myself pulling for him at St.
John's. I wanted him to make the tournament, actually.
Yeah, he does a Subway commercial. It's like Jared, but he's holding up the pants with a stain on it.
Listen, Patino would be a great coach to go back to Kentucky. But, yeah, I mean, it feels like Kentucky would have the pick of the litter.
I don't know. I mean, I'll throw out another name who's the opposite of Cal in the fact that I think he's a fantastic coach, X's and O's.
What about Eric Musselman, Arkansas? Like, that's a guy. Even, like, little stuff.
Like, there's certain coaches. Like, all right, so back to Cal and how he coaches.
Like, we saw today Dana Altman, Oregon coach. I think he's one of the most underrated coaches in college basketball.
I agree. He always has teams overachieving to their talent level and playing great tournament basketball.
The defense he threw at South Carolina today had them completely befuddled in the first half. Or even Shaka Smart, it drives me nuts that he's on the court.
But going back to that you know game when they played against Villanova he drew up the perfect play at the end of the game that ended up not counting but like those type of things where it's like you have a coach that you know will steal you you know at least a few possessions a game when it comes to like out of timeout calls when it comes to little throwing little wrinkles at them for a possession and there. And that's the stuff that like Cal just doesn't do.
And it would drive me nuts as a Kentucky fan. It does some.
I think at this job though, this is like, again, I know, I don't know if people outside the state realize, but like you have to be a rock star to be at this job. Like this is a hard job in the state of Kentucky.
This is what we do. I mean, you guys know you've hosted the show every year.
Like, it's what people live for. So you can't be – like, Dana Altman looks like an accountant.
You can't be an accountant. You have to be a rock star.
You know, if Nate Oates had ever won, he's an example of a guy who has that personality, but he still hasn't won anything yet, so I think it makes it hard. This is tough.
Normally, there's always the guy that I think, well, if Cal leaves, we'd get this dude. Yeah.
Right now, I mean, Scott Drew, he's won a lot. He's kind of boring, right? Yes.
So, like, do you get Scott Drew? That's why I think they'll go hard if Cal leaves. And, again, I don't know if he will.
But Jay Wright and Brad Stevens would be the two. Jay Wright would rock.
Jay Wright would be very good. Yeah, Jay Wright tj otzelberger i mean it's kentucky that's the opposite for rock sorry he's a wrestler yeah yeah i want to win give me just give me somebody that will win the fact that like nobody got upset tonight but us that also makes it stink yeah one except us tonight yeah no the 11 seeds had a nice showing but you're right like it felt like all day we were just watching for that big moment it's like oh here comes Kentucky shitting down their pants again uh all right so last question for you Matt uh your your show which everyone should tune in tomorrow what are you expecting in terms of uh the anger and the calls I would imagine there's probably people already on hold right now waiting to talk to you, but is it going to be one of those shows where it's just going to be people just calling in and ripping them apart? Well, I already did a post-game show a little while ago, and we had one person cry.
We had one person very, very angry. We had a couple of people drunk say, Cal better get out of here.
So I think it'll be more of that. I don't think we're going to be very reasonable, to be honest with you.
This is amongst this fan base's many things. They're not reasonable is not one of them.
I want to say one thing, and I want to do it on your show because people, your listeners need to hear this. These two dudes, I've known these two dudes now since before they were popular.
I'm telling you, the guys you hear, I get asked this all the time about you all. Like, are those really nice guys? The guys you hear on the show, this is how they are in real life.
They are kind to people that they don't need to be kind to. And I know they're funny and hilarious and super successful, but they're as good a guys as you hope they would be, which I can't say about everybody.
And I just want to say that on your point. Thank you, Matt.
I'm glad to hear the check cleared. Yeah.
Well, let me ruin that for you. Let me ruin that for you real quick, Matt.
Would you say the last time that this fan base was truly happy with Coach Cal and Kentucky basketball was March 28, 2015, when you beat Notre Dame in the Elite Eight to punch your ticket to the Final Four at 38-0. Would that be the last time? You know, that might be right.
I think we were pretty happy up until we lost to Carolina in 2017 and I got sued by John Higgins and won the lawsuit in the Sixth Circuit. That's the last time maybe we were happy.
But your Wisconsin team, I don't even want to hear it. It's still the thing I hold against you the most in Los Angeles.
It's fair. It's probably one of my happiest moments, and it didn't end well a couple days after that.
That's the Kentuckiness of it all, though. Big Cat's favorite moment is beating you guys.
That's how high the standard is. Yeah, you guys are Kentucky.
Yeah, we didn't even win it. It was supposed to be Kentucky.
I revealed the brackets on ESPN, and when I saw James Madison versus Wisconsin, I said on the ESPN show, it's the pardon my take matchup. And then when I left, I went into the restroom, and somebody goes, I'm not going to say who it was, but somebody goes, maybe be careful talking about the part of my tank matches.
I was like, oh, come on. That's what everybody knows.
Yeah. Everybody didn't love it.
Yeah. We're still.
You know what? Rent free. Yeah.
Rent free and ESPN said. Yeah.
Matt, I heard that one caller called in today and said that you guys are now the new Indiana. How did that make you feel? Listen, we are not that pathetic.
We would never wear those stupid striped pants,

and we would never make their stupid rap videos.

Indiana hasn't been good in 25 years,

so I will not be insulted and be called Indiana.

Okay, last, last, last question.

Are you guys at football school now?

Ooh.

Yeah.

Well, I think we got to go to a playoff first,

but I will say it's now become more of a debate. You guys would love Mark Stoops, by the way.
Oh, we've had him on. We've had him on.
Yeah, we've had him on. He's the best.
And you would like Cal, too. You're going to get Cal at some point, and you'll end up charmed by him.
I think Stoops was at Bo Pelini's – what tournament was that? It was his bocce tournament. His bocce tournament.
Youngstown, Ohio. Yeah, we had Stoops in the back of the van.
I remember that. you went to Youngstown yeah that's uh that's a good place for you guys yeah it was great thanks Matt all right well Matt thank you sorry again uh but you are the best and we can't wait to host Kentucky Sports Radio this summer thank you for coming on yes I can't wait to my fellow DraftKings guys you all have a good night love it love it take care Matt Matt.
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One also has other delicious flavors like birthday cake, maple glazed donut and blueberry cobbler. Find all one bars at a retailer near you or on amazon.com and now for something completely different okay we now welcome on one of our favorite guests our good good friend it is stanford steve you can see him on sports center with svp every night that SVP decides to work.

He is one of the sharpest guys we know.

What was your record on game day this year?

Not great.

Oh, no.

4-1 in 2024.

4-1 in 2024.

So we're taping this on Tuesday afternoon.

So we're going to run it Friday.

And we're like, we need to have Steve on.

And I think it's the perfect time to have you on because Thursday already happened. If you're listening to this, you got your teeth kicked in.
You got absolutely destroyed. And Steve is going to help us navigate the Friday slate and hopefully win us some money.
Steve, big thoughts, though, before the tournament starts. This might be bad if you recommend a team that is playing on Thursday and then loses and you say, oh, they could win the Final Four.
But big overarching thoughts. Your UConn Huskies look unstoppable.
What else you got? That's the worry right there. Too much UConn.
Too much UConn. Too much UConn, and it's really, really scary.
Also, Dan, I thought you had this in your big brain.

You got to have your Final Four teams on Friday.

Just so you have an extra day of the tournament.

Yes.

That's a very good point.

That's a very good point.

Hopefully, North Carolina beat the winner of Howard Wagner because all my other Final Four teams are playing on Friday.

That's smart.

So no Tennessee, no who's the other one?

Maybe Iowa State, not a believer.

No.

No.

What futures do you have?

I know you probably have a bunch of futures.

What do you got?

I have UConn all the way back at the beginning.

I think it was 18-1.

Ooh, you got me trumped.

I have 14-1.

UConn a couple weeks ago to make the Final Four, plus 125. Okay.
I'm still shopping around for a Duke not to make the Sweet 16 because that's even money. I like that.
I was hoping that would be a better price, knowing the teams that are in a little pod, but I'm sure we're going to talk about that. Yeah.
But, no, I was solely based on UConn. I didn't buy any of the Houston.
I'm just – the Purdue factor is obviously everybody's feel-good story except yours, Dan. Yeah.
So I do have something in myself rooting for them. But, yeah, we're pretty stacked up on UConn, and now it's pretty scary how much – first of all, how good they are, but then again the belief because now they are the ultimate one seed.
Last year they were a four, and, you know, I thought they had – I think right when Titus did it, we were talking about them for the national title. So it's been a storm brewing you guys have had early on.
There's no messing around. I think he's a master motivator in what he does.
And I could see his motivation for every step of the way because this is the one thing about the tournament. And, you know, right away, it's UConn has the toughest road, right? UConn's bracket's unbelievable.
Same thing on the women's side. Caitlin Clark's bracket's incredible.
Okay, I understand you see the teams in the bracket, but on the bottom, they can only play one team. Right.
So whoever comes out of that bottom, and a lot of people are saying, you know, Illinois, Iowa, that's going to be over. Hopefully both those teams move on.
But they only can play one of those teams. Same thing with San Diego State and Auburn or UAB and Yale.
Like they could only play one of those teams. So I don't look at the, they're not playing the whole bracket.
They play whoever's on the line in front of them. And that's why I don't think it's as tough a walk for UConn.
And the biggest factor of all that no one brought up is they're playing in Brooklyn and Boston. I know.
Connecticut's in the middle of them. Yeah.
It's home games. And all my friends can be as bitter and evil and just flat out mean from Connecticut as possible.
And that's all they're saying to themselves. They can't wait to get to the gym.
Well, you have to have something to complain about. It's a very nice thing that they have built in.
You can get mad about that until you start playing the games, but then the way the tournament always shakes out, you can't predict who's going to win each game, so who knows if they're going to actually have to play two of those tough teams. I believe in bracket pools, this will be the lowest score or least amount right ever.
Oh, ever, ever, ever, ever. I think you're better off of getting on a team and riding that thing with a future or betting to make the Sweet 16.
I think this bracket pool, I think it's impossible. Max's mic is on, so we just heard that.
Do you ever do that by mistake, Steve? Yeah. Do you ever talk during SVP's show?

When he's doing one big thing, and he's getting real sentimental about something,

and then you're in the background, and you're like, yeah, at least six on Mississippi State.

My producers do a good job at Bristol of if something serious is coming up to get in my ear.

Have you ever, when Scott's doing a monologue, have you ever gone on a monitor

and just typed in Sidney Sweeney on Twitter and started scrolling through pictures

while they're trying to introduce the show? That's not what show? Does that ever happen? That's not what happened. That happened here.
We were looking for topics. She was number one trending thing on Twitter.
I wanted to see what was going on. You're doing his job.
Happened to be a picture of boobs. Hey, it happens.
It happens. You know, hey, sometimes.
The one thing about UConn that makes me nervous, because I also bet him in December, Rico Bosco called him the 96 Bulls. So that pretty much ends UConn's run right there.
That's a whole other pod if we're going to bring up that guy. Yeah, you're just putting the mush all over them.
Yeah, I'm just wondering who he – PFT, who's he going to get a hat from after a sweet 16 run and that's going to be his team. All of them.
Probably ISIS. Yeah.
Probably. Oh, he does.
Oh, he'll be rocking a, rocking a Putin hat. Yeah.
He does have some pictures. All right.
So Steve, you want to talk about our game. You want to rip off the bandaid.
You're pot. You're pot.
I'm including all the guys. Yeah.
Because you are a Duke fan. So I said it on Wednesday

and I'm not just doing this

just to guard myself. I think this is a very

bad matchup for Wisconsin. I'm very nervous

about this game. They don't defend the three well.

James Madison hits the three well.

What's your take,

unbiased take on this matchup?

I'm going to fast forward.

I have Wisconsin in the final four, Dan.

Oh my God. I like it, Steve.
Good pick.

Why? So you think that what

happened in February doesn't count. Oh, my God.
I like it, Steve.

Good pick.

Why?

Great pick.

So you think that what happened in February doesn't count they found their form again?

Because that really was they were two different teams.

Correct.

I think they really found their form against Maryland.

That helped because, you know, what that rivalry has been for so long that they found themselves.

And I'm at the ACC tournament, and I'm not with anybody. And and I just see the score and I'm like, Oh Lord.
Yeah. 40 points.
Like this is put the phone down. Yeah.
It actually was, it actually was bad because I like it when Wisconsin beats Maryland by a little bit. So then I can get Scott really like he gave up in the first 10 minutes.
And one of my favorite things to do whenever Wisconsin, like you said, an all-time rivalry, Scott loves being in the Big Ten, is whenever Wisconsin plays Maryland and Wisconsin wins, it usually will be like 9 o'clock at night. I'll FaceTime Steve knowing that he's sitting right next to Scott and just be like, talk about the game, knowing that Scott's just getting so upset next to him.
I believe this year my reply was not happening tonight. Yeah.
Yeah, I didn't call this year because the Cole Center refs came through. They were calling some – Madison Whistle.
Yep, the Madison Whistle. All right, so you like Wisconsin the final four? I do.
I do. I love what I've seen from them.
I think Storr is an absolute difference maker. Chucky healthy is good.
I mean to to withstand what they had to do against Purdue Dan yeah and and you watched them you guys I mean I I checked in on the on the live stream you guys watching that game and I get it you know you had to do it what three times this year it is I sort of take Edie's side though because he is Shaq no one knows how to defend him. He gets shit that guys just don't get, and it is so different because he's so big.
Yeah. You know, it's funny.
I got three little girls at home, and whenever they're on, it's like, oh, my God, there he is again. Like, they just – they're enamored with how big he is.
And I just think, you know, he is that good. I give the kid a ton of credit for what he withstood.
He got his father shooting better. He's in way better shape this year.
You could just see that. But anyway, Wisconsin, I just – the team's been through a lot, man.
Like they got seriously humbled in February. Yeah.
You lose to Michigan? Yeah. Like that's as bad as it gets.
Yeah. And I think there – I mean there's been past instances with wisconsin basketball teams and stuff off the court whether the locker room likes each other but i genuinely feel this team has the goods they're as versatile as any of these wisconsin teams maybe even more versatile uh because the athleticism at the guard at the guard spot than the team that lost in the national championship yeah i know that team had pros, but what you want in this day and age with three-point shots and inside presence, you mentioned the perimeter defense.
I get it, but if James Madison's going to make 33s, then they're going to be anybody in the country, maybe anybody in the world. But I like the offensive standpoint.
Storch could get a bucket at any single time. Hepburn is the same way.
And that opens up a lot of stuff. Now, do I feel confident? No.
It's a five going to the Final Four. But I just felt Houston is beat up, man.
They are not what they were at the beginning of the year. I think they got their hands full.
I have A&M winning against Nebraska as much as I love Nebraska ball. And is Jake in there? He is, yeah.
Did Jake go to the Vermont game Sunday? No. Saturday, no.
When's the last time he didn't go? I was at the championship game last year. I know.
And then the year before, right? No. Oh, okay.
I thought you were more loyal. You have, just to clear it up, you have Wisconsin in the Final Four playing against Purdue.
If you're rooting for Big Cat's sadness, that's not a bad way to go. Oh, my God.
Yeah. Although the happiness of beating Duke would kind of – That's true.
You get that. Listen, Steve, I like that you think that we found something.
Yeah, I mean, the Big Ten tournament, like – the thing with Wisconsin is if they can hit their threes, everything opens up. You saw it in the Northwestern game.
When A.J. Storr hits one or two threes, no no one can guard him off the dribble and then when you have to come out and like even crowl hitting a top of the key you know key three that all opens up klezman can obviously get hot but i just i just i i'm worried about james madison just because i just i totally get it dan yeah i get it and that's and that's the kickers i i i went to see jmu the night before PFT and hung out at that great university, and they're as different a team because they just absolutely violate the three-point line.
And your recipe for a tournament upset, everybody loves that. And they got purple, and people love that.
People love purple. Do people love purple? People love purple.
Okay, yeah, I'll buy that.

But what about – so JMU hasn't really played in big gyms.

Jake was talking to me about that earlier.

They played at Michigan State, obviously.

Does that have anything to do?

Like is the moment going to be too big for these Dukes playing in Brooklyn?

No, it's about big Dukes energy.

That's the biggest thing here.

Okay.

And the lighting at the Barclays is always off to me. I mean, that 8-10 tournament is as dark a backdrop as possible.
So, no, I don't worry about the – I do worry about the rims. These rims are brand new.
They bring them in for – it feels like every single pod. They're not – you know, what the Nets play on.
Hopefully – I was hoping you were going to get those because they're probably soft for what the nets shoot on a nightly basis, but no, it's, it's a, it's a real interest. It do, it does feel too public to me for, for, for the 12, five.
Everybody loves the 12, five. I get it.
Um, I liked looking more towards down for upsets, but I get everybody's withstand. It's going to be a fantastic, it might be the best game of the first round.

So it's, my thing is just more inclined to what's the bet for all four guys involved.

You mentioned the bet, so it sounds like you've got some ideas.

I don't know.

We haven't sat down and talked about the stakes of the bet yet.

Here's my problem.

I'm sure there will be something.

Here's my problem.

So when we bet, like we bet the Commanders-Bears game Thursday night football this year because both teams sucked and we're like, who cares? Yeah. When we're talking about the tournament or playoffs, like I won't even bet the game because it's like I'm just all fandom in it.
You know what I mean? What are you going to say, Max? What about like an NBA playoff series where... Well, you guys bet that.
I'm talking about myself. I'm talking about myself personally.
I care so much about the Badgers in the tournament that there's already so much at stake that humiliation of losing in the first round sucks. Humiliation of losing to Duke would suck.
Humiliation of Jake being like, oh, I'm kind of rooting for Wisconsin against Vermont. I hope you guys have fun.
That would suck. So there's nothing that could be – it's just torture is just waiting for me on the other side.
Very simple for you, Dan. You're in the best position of anybody.
Oh, I think I'm in the worst. No, because you just throw in a James Madison money line bet, and then when it happens, you just tweet it out and say, life's fulfilled, I'm good.
You won money, you can win money off it. I could never bet against my team.
I could never do that. What is wrong with you? How much would you pay? How much would you pay to know that Wisconsin was going to advance? 50K? Yeah, there you go.
And then JMU hits, you get... Is that line still five? Probably another...
Probably 100 to beat Duke. If I could just pay for them to win the national title.
Then you're like a boost. I would pay a million dollars if they won the national title this year.
No problem. Okay.
I would be like, I could just be happy for the rest of my life. Oh, deal? You're going to make it done?

We've talked about...

I will say,

this is what worries me about Vermont

against Duke is Jake not being at the game.

He went last year, he was all in,

and now kind of the shine is off

of Vermont. Everybody's saying this isn't

as good a team as Becker has had. They're still going

to be solid. They play great defense,

and all the pressure is on Duke. This is when I really get worried about it.
This is when the Mercer happens. This is when Lehigh happens.
It's when they're on the four line, and that's what scares me. They're as talented as anybody.
I just haven't seen that angst. A little more emotion would be nice, and that's what worries me about the Dukes.
We've talked about doing some sort of bet where me and Big Cat meet in the middle in terms of our weights. If one person – so I'm not going to ask Big Cat.
There are three things you don't ask. A woman, how much she weighs.
A person, how much they make. And Big Cat, how much he weighs too.
But the loser should have to come to the other person's weight. In a calendar year, what if I had to put on 50 pounds? Just get fat as fuck.
It would be funny. It would be funny.
What do you weigh now? Honestly, it could be anything. I haven't weighed myself in a year.
Loser has to go to 210? Loser goes to 210. I got way better.
You got four guys, and you got the four teams. Max has to pick a guy who he's going to back.
Okay. The winner of this pod gets to pick one of the losers and shave or cut his hair in the style that he wants.
Oh, man. But I'm going to have to get odds.
Jake and I would have to get odds on yeah 12.00 underdogs we'll take us something i was thinking you said max has to back one of us and if they lose max has to do the punishment you know the person who wins could pick him oh max is in the pool yeah i like this yeah that ponytail he's got to back somebody. Max has to.
That's the first thing.

Max has to come to the forefront.

Yeah.

Max has to pick a perfect bracket in this quad.

And if not, he gets punished.

Yeah.

I like this.

Oh, yeah.

This is the one time that I should have nothing to do with any punishment.

Good idea, Steve.

Max, that is not your style to not be part of it.

Yeah.

You're all in all the time.

Get ready to learn mullet, buddy.

Great idea.

We'll get back to Sanford Steve in a second.

PMT's one take episode is powered by our friends at Visible Wireless. Draining a half-court buzzer beater to win the game.
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For additional terms and network management practices, see visible.com. Now back to Stanford Steve.
All right, so other games on Friday that you love. You mentioned Texas A&M.
I love Texas A&M in this game. I think their guards are going to cause Nebraska problems.
I think they're going to slow it down. They're going to get it nice and dirty because Nebraska, when they go nuclear, it's fun to watch, but I think they can bother them.
I totally agree. I love what I saw from A&M against Tennessee in that tournament and just the wherewithal.
I think they won six or seven coming in when all the pressure was on them. They were out.
They were outside the bubble and really got it together. The Nebraska A&M game is going to be a fun one.
Yeah. With Nebraska being back in the mix, they play a fun style.
Take the over in that game. It might be the highest over on the board.
No, Alabama-Charleston. Oh, okay.
Alabama-Charleston is at like 173 now. Yeah, a half oh wow that's getting a little crazy it's getting a little crazy you got to play a perfect game for 173 and a half so what other bets on friday have you circled uh recency bias i'm known to be a custom of that i haven't probably definitely with uh with wisconsin i like new mexico uh i really like i mean dent is the guard that mostly takes care of the ball.
He didn't even play in the Mountain West title game. And they did it with Masper and Junior in-house.
They were spectacular. That's what you want.
They're the perfect mix. You got a Patino in there knowing that, you know, his son probably knocked out the dad when they got an automatic bid.
But I think New Mexico is playing as well as anybody.

I mean, their ability from the three-point line, they got some young bigs that are good.

They'll be tested against P.J. Hall.

Clemson, you know, is not going to get picked because of how bad.

I mean, I was there against B.C.

They were pathetic.

And you can't expect them to come out with that effort, knowing how close they've been to the tournament and now that they're in but I do like them I mean they're in 11 they're favored I think they're I believe they're a better team I really would like to see New Mexico and Baylor in the second round that's that's a fantastic game I Jake would you rather have Vermont playing Duke or Auburn because I'm thinking of like Yale and in the same category. I'd rather be playing Duke right now, just the way the two teams are playing.
Yeah. Auburn could not – they can't be better than they were.
Yeah. They just can't.
And Titus brought up a good point on Wednesday. Auburn is playing incredible, but they also didn't have to play the top three teams in the SEC.

Correct. They didn't have to go through Tennessee

or Kentucky or Alabama.

It's no offense to the SEC, but

their run, they did beat

two out of three tournament teams

in Florida and Mississippi State.

Yeah. But still, it's

a little bit different than having to go through

that gauntlet. Yep.
They beat A&M

too in the championship, right? No.

They beat Florida.

They beat Florida. And Florida's a team I absolutely loved coming in before the injury.
I honestly thought they could have won a national championship. I still think they could do some damage.
I thought they got a tough draw with playing the winner of the playing game and then, you know, Marquette's sitting there. Marquette's a team that scares me because of how valuable and how good Colick is.
It feels like Kentucky's way too public for me, just knowing how many people have picked them to go to the Final Four. Grand Canyon is really interesting.
Totally different style of play that they're going to play against St. Mary's.
and the games in Spokane.

I feel... Interesting, totally different style of play that they're going to play against St.
Mary's. And the games in Spokane, it feels like both those fan bases there, you know, Grant Canyon's done a great job of creating a great home atmosphere wherever they go, where it feels like in the southwest of the country.
But I would pick Grant Canyon in that one. St mary's jefferson injury has been huge for them it really hurts them um as far as defense and that's what you need uh tie on the kid for grant uh grant canyon is a pro uh if you haven't seen him i i think he's he's going to be a name uh you're going to know for sure alabama is an absolute shambles crap shoot Like, I don't – Charleston – see, here's the deal.
With a Charleston, even a UAB, and a Vermont, like those teams, I don't think they're as good as they have been in years past. But they do a good job of doing what makes them successful.
And obviously, if you can make threes against Bama, you're going to be in it because all they do is shoot threes and layups and try and block your shot. So that's an interesting matchup.
I would side with Bama winning. I could see myself taking a point with College of Charleston in that one.
I should have mentioned, by the way, Auburn did beat South Carolina as well. So they beat three tournament teams, but they didn't beat Kentucky and Tennessee.

And, you know, who was the big dogs? Yeah, the big dogs.

What about Northwestern?

So I don't have the spread pulled up in front of me.

We're in Illinois right now, so it's not on our sports books.

Last I saw was FAU minus two and a half.

Okay, so I like Northwestern.

So do I.

My analysis is twofold.

Real in-depth shit here, okay?

One, Boo Booey is fun to say, and he's fun to root for. He's a good player.
Boo Booey. You're going to want to say that name a lot.
Number two is a lot of chatter about Dusty May. A lot of chatter.
A lot of chatter about his next destination, maybe going up to Kentucky somewhere. I like Northwestern in this game.
I guess they are true underdogs because a lot of these seeds we were talking about earlier, the higher seeds are actually favored by Vegas. But I like Northwestern.
It sounds like you like them too. I do.
I do just because of how much everybody has jumped on this. UConn has all the Final Four teams from last year.
Well, if FAU was that good, I thought they got overseeded. I don't think they should be an eighth seed.
Obviously, everybody knows the story of what they did last year. Nobody capitalized on the opportunity that they got last year, more than them getting to play Fairleigh Dickinson in the next round.
I thought really that got themselves going towards their final four run. But FAU just feels way too public to me.
I still think they're another team. I really liked Northwestern when they were fully healthy, and now they got two injuries.
But Boo Boo is fantastic. I think Northwestern will make enough outside shots, and I like being on the other side of the public in that one.
So I do have Northwestern playing UConn. You guys always talk about fading the public.
I know you talk about it a lot in college football season. Is the public stupider in football or in basketball in the college game i feel like with the bracket it is yeah yeah yeah yeah because it's it's really like really centrally focused um like you feel like don't you feel like you know everybody's underdog picks yeah yeah you know like that that's that's that's the's the good part of of the days leading up is you really oh you like oh i got it you like james madison too got it heard that so they get talked up the those teams certain teams get talked up to a point where like it feels like everyone's on this team and i also just think in terms of like fading the public you can't just fade public.
That's impossible because the public does win. But whenever you have events that have a massive amount of like, I don't want to say casuals, but casuals gambling, it definitely changes the dynamic.
No doubt. No doubt.
And like I said, I'm caught in it with Wisconsin in the Final Four the the hardest thing to do projecting and betting in sports is to forget what the team looked like their last time out yeah right and they lost Wisconsin did but they were fantastic you know in what they did New Mexico was as good as they played all year and it's hard and you know that New Mexico Clemson I mentioned before that's the there there's not a bigger difference of perception of teams with how hot new mexico is and how i'm not good clemson looked in their last game so i do feel uh like that but i always have an 11 going to the sweet 16 and in new mexico is mine this year oh okay um any upsets any one or two seeds that should at least be on the Steve alert? I think Houston, just because they're not healthy. And the way they play with just getting up under you defensively and making everything so hard and not being an up-tempo team at the same time gives me a notion that teams can hang around with them and A&M has guys that can score some buckets uh and and so does Nebraska so that that I think Houston has the toughest matchup uh when it comes to second round games for the one seeds North Carolina um never mind no you could say that no because that.
This will be Saturday preview too. If North Carolina is playing Mississippi State or Michigan State...
That's the next toughest to me. I think people will be shocked.
Michigan State wins their first round game. I think people will be shocked when that line comes out and it's like...
Double digits? No, I think it's going to be way less. I think it'd be like North Carolina favored by like five.
No, it'll be at least seven. You think so? Yes.
Okay. All right, we'll make a bet.
We'll make a wing bet on that. I like that.
Betting on a bet. Yeah, we're betting on a bet.
Betting on a bet. So I have anything under seven? Yeah.
Okay. And seven's a push.
Seven's a push. Seven max wins.
I went on seven on seven i'm the guest no well you said you said double digits so i think seven has to be a push seven and a half you were listening to me yeah yeah no i'm listening i'm listening what what is the uh march madness setup look like for stanford steve because you don't go to vegas you go to vegas for conference championship uh did that ACC was here, so I did that. I will split some time here at the Great Cleveland Park Bar and Grill in D.C.
Watching games there with all the TVs, and then my setup is really good at home. I got four TVs ready to go, so they will be on constantly, and I will be on the couch.
I do like to watch a lot of these games by myself. It's the fantasy football mentality.
I think going out to watch NFL regular season games now is, what do they call New Year's Eve is a JV holiday now. Yeah.
I feel like that's a JV way of going because all anyone is yelling about is their fantasy team. Yeah.
It just drives me nuts. But I do like to get around the energy.
So I'll do that Thursday. And the night sessions, I'll be at home locking in with all the TVs going.
Only four TVs? That's all I need. Do you have a fifth? NIT is going to be playing.
I guess it doesn't play exactly. Saturday they play some NIT games early.
What do you think about Villanova's chances in the NIT? It depends if they want to play. Okay.
What do you think would be funny if they finish second? That would be the best. Would you watch a Max live stream of the NIT game? I'm trying to get them to live stream.
No one wants to watch that. I would.
What about a personal feed just for me and you, Steve? Would you watch it? I could. I'll FaceTime in a couple times.
Okay. I think you just described FaceTime.
Just Max, just FaceTime Big Cat while you're watching. I'm fine with that.
I'm on Cameo. Oh, yeah.
OnlyFans. Oh, we should put Max's Max watches OnlyFans.
Oh, Just get OnlyFans feed of Max watching all his sports teams.

Just him being sad.

We could get so much money from that.

Just give out a cell phone number.

People love to check in with him.

That's a good point.

We're going to get back to Stanford.

Steve, he's brought to you by Visible.

PMT's one take episode is brought to you by our friends at Visible Wireless.

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Steve, do you have a Fitbit or like an Apple Watch? I do. I want to see what your steps are going to be like on Friday.
Like if you're just posted up in your basement. They were great Saturday, I'll tell you that.
What do you think the over-under would be on Saturday? Saturday I got more time because the games start later. So I'll make sure to get something.
I've been trying to do the five miles a day VFT. Really? Yeah.

Driving?

Not driving.

Majority jogging.

We've been upticking on the running.

But, yeah, we've been trying 35 miles last week.

Wow, Steve walks.

Yeah.

Walk, run. As a protector of Scott Van Pelt, and you've done a very good job of that, you are his, like, bouncer.
Charles Oakley. Yeah, it's Charles Oakley.
Was there any hesitation having him do Frank walks? No. Okay.
You didn't think that Frank was just going to throw him into the reflecting pool? No. No, no, no.
Because Scott deserves a lot of credit. He is an everyman.
When we were setting it up, I was like, Scott, will you do this? He was like, no problem. I was like, all right, who should I contact to get your schedule set? And he's like, just have him text me.
So Scott was texting with Jenks and maybe Frank. And, like, I don't know many guys in Scott's shoes that would be like, yeah, just throw him my number.
And he was in. He was all the way in.
There's been a long lost love i would say all along yeah yeah yeah i agree they did find some common ground there yeah yeah it's beautiful yeah i mean there's not better i mean francis was walking feel felt like on the street during garbage day they had garbage trucks going around and scott was down by the reflective pool it was it was gorgeous yeah there was a second when frank started talking about vaccines that you could see the look on scott's face where he's like what what have i gotten myself into it he's great at changing the subject did a wonderful job with that uh t i never got back to you after game day at jmu like being at game day every saturday and then like doing like we did we we left the office, FaceTime a couple of friends to check in that got mentioned on the show. And then we made our way to the tailgate and the game.
And I would rank JMU as the biggest amount of drunkness. I saw walking from the office to the stadium.
Yeah. Do you remember how messed up people were? Yeah.
They got after it. And it was also like- It was one o'clock in the afternoon.
It was a very special occasion too. I expect a big state school, like an LSU, probably the average BAC over the course of a season's worth of Saturdays, probably higher.
But since it was college game day day and the stakes were so high,

it was like just a big – it was like you said, St. Patrick's Day

for Central Virginia.

It was wonderful.

Yeah.

The amount of grown women we asked for directions to the tailgate

that just couldn't even speak.

They had no idea.

Which was numerous.

Well, because they changed the campus up so much

since a lot of those people had been there. They're like, I don't know.
The library used to be over here. Okay.
All right. Thank you, ma'am.
Take care. No, it was a very fun time.
I'm glad that we got to experience that together. And the FaceTimes afterwards, pretty incredible.
If you follow Texas football message boards, you can probably put together who we were talking with and her monkey. Her monkey was also there.
Was there? Yeah. Fantastic time.
Steve, off the tournament question, are Hank Celtics going to win the NBA title? No. Oh.
Fuck. Oh.
They're so good, Steve. I I will say this.
Sounds like a yes. I want it to be Denver-Boston because that's what I want in the NBA.
Like all this stuff about the teams and the drama off the court and all the stuff that, whatever, NBA, Twitter loves to talk about, you won't have in that game. You will have the best player in the world going to one of the most storied franchise, if not the most storied franchise, trying to get back on top.
That's what that sport needs to me. Because when it comes to pure basketball, I believe those are the two best teams.
But I don't see Boston beating Denver because he's the best player. Good comments, Hank.
I'd like to see it happen. I think we would.
You think they'll be in the finals? It's a team game, Stanford, Steve. Understood.
Understood. Denver's got a pretty good team.
Jokic plays pretty good team basketball. Yeah.
It doesn't matter. You four could go out there.
Yeah. You'll get a couple wins in the playoffs.
Yeah, he'd get us some open looks for sure. Steve, back to the Frank Walks thing again.
So, I don't know how involved behind the scenes you are in the graphics department on SportsCenter, but maybe one time this season, as a treat, as a treat, if the Mets lose, could you actually have the logo spin? And have? Have Scott's head spin as they go into SportsCenter. All right.
Because Frank has made up this entire, like, fictional world in his head. Yeah.
Where Scott loves it when the Mets lose and his head starts spinning around. Just like you don't have to talk about it, but just as SportsCenter's intro, just have, like, the head spinning or maybe yeah or maybe like a if you do sunday night baseball and the mets lose like maybe like a pinata of frank and be like mets lose mets lose because what we're doing it's actually sick what we're doing is we're taking frank's fictional world of torture that he's made for himself and we're we're turning it into reality but I think that's actually good for Frank because he'd be like, see, I was right all

along.

Yeah, that would be the end.

Yeah, he would win that one.

Yeah.

No, but we've done the optimism meter with me and I'm a diehard born loser Mets fan.

And it's just I've seen it too many times.

That is funny that you are a diehard Mets fan and you are on that show and still Frank is like they hate the Mets. Yeah, yeah.
There's not a team I love more than them, but I've come to reality to expect the worst. Well, you're UConn Huskies.
No, they're not my team. Steve, what do you think about Major League Baseball's strategy of having opening day overseas during the NCAA tournament? Quite something.
When you say it out loud like that, it sounds just about as bad as you can get. Yeah.
Yeah, it's brutal. Steve, what? Especially when they're trying to get back to where they were.
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
That one's tough. What team in the tournament would have worked worse for your – or the poorest nickname because you're Stanford Steve, but, like, would Grand Canyon Steve have worked if you had gone there? St.
Peter's Steve? That would have worked. I always think about that.
You went to Stanford SS, but, like, what happens if you had decided to go to McNeese State? McNeese State, Steve? How about Drake, Steve? Drake, Steve. Oh, Drake, Steve would be good.
Get a little fade going. Your whole life would be different if you went somewhere.
I mean, you could have been Notre Dame, Steve. Nah, could have.
Drake, Steve, you've got a huge hog. Do you regret not going to Notre Dame? I don't.
I don't. Why? You would have been able to get a cushy job as an executive somewhere in Chicago.

Yeah, but that's not fun.

I guess that's probably the counterpoint.

Florida Steve would never get a job.

Florida Steve would rock.

Yeah, it'd be a lot of fun to hang out with.

I don't know if Florida Steve would be alive.

Wait, what were the other schools that you were deciding between?

North Carolina.

North Carolina Steve would be cool.

Yep, Duke. Duke Steve would suck yeah howard steve not howard grambling steve yeah southern steve southern steve would be awesome rock yeah tarleton state steve billy clyde there's a lot of steves um south carolina would be hard to say yeah south carolina steve would be weird i did get a t-shirt one time from samford that it's there they made shirts that said sam not stan that's good what about byu steve no so can steve so can steve uh all right steve i got one last question for you it's a roback question rhobackH-O-B-A-C-K.com.
Jake, you owe me some gear. Yeah, you do.
You owe him some gear. I'm on it.
Promo code TAKE, 20% off, first purchase, Roback.com, joggers, hoodies, shorts, everything. Rank your three favorite bets on Friday as people are listening to this, and they are saying, I need a winner, and Stanford Steve's going to give us a winner,

three favorite bets on Friday.

Okay.

We're going to start with New Mexico.

I mentioned Donovan Dent barely played in that title game.

I think he's a difference to have an extra ball handler against Clemson.

Jamal Mashburn Jr., I'm biased.

Jamal Mashburn, his dad, was one of my favorite people ever to work with.

At ESPN, we'll take New Mexico. I like A&M.
Wade Taylor IV, I think, is a tremendous player. And I like the matchup for A&M for a full 40 minutes against Nebraska.
And I believe UAB is getting too many points against San Diego State. When you look at what UAB is, I love Andy Kennedy.
Just a phenomenal dude. They got six guys that average about eight points or more a game.
And we love how San Diego State loves to dial it back, play defense, slow pace. I believe UAB has enough guys to keep that game close enough.
So we're going to go New Mexico, A&M, and UAB. Okay, and your final your final four my final four where is it is you're one bracket guy right you're one bracket guy yeah yeah okay good thank god and are you a highlighter guy uh when it's going good yeah okay depends on like saturday we'll make that decision yeah or we just throw it out you know um if we get to saturday and feel good that's always a good

feeling but again be kidding don't don't go multiple brackets this year because you're never going to get the combinations right with how you separate them yes uh i have uconn north carolina tennessee and wisconsin okay i fucking love this time of year so much it's the best best two days of the year.

Ooh.

What do you like more?

I like last Friday and Saturday.

Yeah.

I. I fucking love this time of year so much.
It's the best. Best two days of the year.
Ooh. What do you like more? I like last Friday and Saturday.
Yeah. I mean, I do love conversation.
I mean, if you Saturday, like that's what it's about of all those bids getting stolen because now you, the angst, like usually it's like one or two bubble teams that are worried. You know, like going in, it was Indiana State where all the big boys still had

games to play, but then they lost.

And then all these – being in D.C. for the NC State run was incredible.

Yeah.

Like those guys walking in for the games like on Thursday,

seeing a big man walk in, I was like, man, he's got to get himself ready.

Sure enough, he played 17 minutes in that first half against North Carolina and was awesome. He's so smooth.
Okay, so who do you have in your finals? UConn, Tennessee. UConn, Tennessee.
And then UConn winning it all. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Congrats to Wisconsin. Correct.
I don't like this. Final four bound.
Final four or bust, Wisconsin. I trust your opinion, so that makes me hurt.
Is anybody not allowed in the room during JMU-Wisconsin? Well, no. Pinty's going to be at the game.
I'm going to be at that. Oh, you're going.
You're going to kill me, though. I've had a wedding I've had to go to for – I committed to it eight months ago, a Friday wedding during March Madness.
That's worse than football season. I'm sorry.
It's in Brooklyn, and it's ten minutes away from the arena. So after the wedding, I'm just going to go over, probably still wearing my wedding tux, and just go straight to the event and just sit there.
It's the big dance, Steve. I'm going to be ready, dressed up for a big dance.
This is very easy. You just go Chippendale's costume in the game.
Yeah, go shirtless with a bow tie. No one wants to see that.
Yeah, we do. Wait, Hank, what did you say?

Well, me and PFT have this bracket busters team where if JMU advances the farthest,

we get to split 40 grand.

So I'm going to be all JMU Friday night.

So I'll be catching the rap.

I'll be going nuts at Hank.

He's a piece of shit.

He is a piece of shit.

So you're in the room.

Yeah, and I will be mad at him. Actually, Hank, we were talking about having Ebo put on the wig and glasses.
Hank should have to do that. Yeah, I'm going to be mad at you.
I will take out the wrath on Hank. It's going to bother me.
Wedding Friday is March Madness. Crazy.
It's tough. It's a tough one.
Crazy. Did they look at the calendar? That's the major question.
I can say with confidence that they did not. All right.
I will say for the benefit, this is a week later. Yeah, yes.
You know, like this year's weird with, you know, Masters being in the middle of August or April. So.
Yeah. Okay.
Be in touch and see you guys in Phoenix. Yes.
See you in Phoenix. Wings on Friday.
Friday wings. for the women's final four.
Who do you got in that? Well, I got Iowa, LSU. No, they have.
I know. I got LSU, Stanford, UConn.
Line. Help me.
South Carolina. There you go.
Yeah. Yeah, South Carolina.
They're undefeated, right? There you go. Okay.
They're undefeated. Yes, that's my final four.
I don't know if any of them play each other early. No, you're good.
Okay, I'm good. Lock it up.
There's been more buzz about the women's game this year. It's good.
Some of the teams hate each other, which I personally love. Yeah.
They have more star power. Oh, by far.
By far. That's the one thing about women's sports that I think has pushed a lot of people away in the past is it seems to be too positive.
And you have to hate somebody, right? Yeah. So getting some hatred, some rivalries going, that's good for the sport.
We want to be like, Caitlin Clark sucks. She flops.
You know? Like, we want to have those takes. I think the only thing that would surpass the women's Final Four is if Kentucky gets the Final Four.
I feel like America will be go hard on the Reed Shepard bandwagon because the story with his parents and all that stuff, Kentucky boy. Dad made me cry in college when they beat Stanford in the Final Four.
Yeah, so I think that that's got the March Madness storylines written all over it. Yeah.
Texas bracket brackets up for grabs. That's what Stanford's the two, just so you know.
That's mayhem in that bracket. Okay.
All right. I like that.
All right, Steve, thank you as always. You're the best, and let's win some bets.
Appreciate you guys having me on. Stay safe.
Drink a lot of water. Dan, I know you don't have a problem with drinking all that water.
PMT's one take episode is powered by our friends at Visible Wireless. Stanford Steve was brought to you by Visible Wireless, draining a half-court buzzer beater to win the game.
Not easy switching to Visible and saving on wireless with no hidden fees. Yeah, that's pretty easy.
Visible is a wireless company with nothing to hide. Switch to Visible and get one-line wireless with unlimited 5G data.
Powered by Verizon, just $25 a month every month. Taxes and fees included.
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See visible.com. We're also brought to you by our friends at Morgan & Morgan, right? Yeah, Fire Fest of the Week is brought to you by our friends at Morgan & Morgan.
You know what really sucks? Having to miss an entire Friday of NCAA games because you're traveling to a wedding. You know what really sucks? Breaking your toilet and having poop water spread all over your apartment and not being able to fix it.
You know what else really sucks? Getting injured. But you know what doesn't suck? Calling Morgan and Morgan so they can help you get what you deserve.
They will fight for you. While they can't help Hank store his Christmas tree that's unfortunately still up even though it's basically summertime already, they can help fight to get you full and fair compensation when injured if you're

ever injured you can check out morgan and morgan their fee is free unless they win for more information go to for the people.com slash pmt or dial pound law pound five two nine from your cell phone that's for the people.com slash pmt or pound law pound five two nine from your cell this is a paid paid advertisement. Okay, time for Fire Fest of the week.
Henry, you want to kick us off? Throw on those headphones? Put the cans on, Hank. Come on, Hank.
Throw those cans on. I mean, it's the best week of the year.
It really is. It is a fun week.
It's hard to really be mad because it's like, yeah, you know, I didn't do the best gambling, but it's also like we get to do it again tomorrow. Yeah.
And today was Thursday. Tomorrow's Friday.
We get to do it all weekend. Oh, Friday's the weekend? No, we get to do it tomorrow.
Oh, and then the weekend? And two weekend days. Got it.
It's an absolute treat. So there's really no Fyre Fest that comes to mind we got a shooting machine i guess we can talk about the rick patino drill now that the video is out uh that was a really bad shooting performance now we have a shooting machine big cat is adamant that he's a better shooter than me well well the stats show you exactly who's better so that's kind of my fire yeah you're fire that's you can't admit it this is i said to pfd last night but there's just a very small sample size i finally understand what pft goes through when you guys play golf and pft beats you every time and you're like oh i don't oh no no we're actually even i beat you in the rick patino we were on the same team for the rick patino shooting drill which we got to do again but i i shot better than you and then we got this new shooting machine and yesterday we did hank and i were like let's shoot 10 three pointers and uh whoever has the most you know wins and i the first round i won six to five out of ten and hank goes well i didn't count i might have hit six second round i won.
And he's like, all right, we'll do one more.

Third round, I won again, like seven to six.

And then Hank shot again and hit four.

And then you left and I hit eight.

And you're like, no, no, no.

You would have just made me stick there forever.

It's okay, dude.

I think I won one of them.

No, you didn't.

You literally did not.

And Hank, the good thing is it's all recorded on tape.

And then the ones that aren't recorded on tape, the shooting machine has stats that you can look at. Which that should be my FireFest.
Memes, we got this new shooting machine. It's awesome.
And they set me up with a profile. And then Memes texted me at like midnight last night.
And he's like, Big Cat, you're going to probably need a new profile. I was like, what? And he's like, me and max just shot like a thousand shots and max said oh yeah i was chucking air balls so my stats are fucked so really this entire office has become just a big game of uh what's the coolest thing that we can get installed and still have people actually do work yeah we did popcorn machine we did the shooting machine we have a golf simulator we're gonna get a we.
We're going to get a flight sim. We're going to get a flight sim.
Yep. I think he wants to get a barber chair.
Yep. I do.
I want to get a barber chair. Hank, here's- You get a massage room? You know what, Hank? We won't get a barber chair if you can prove that you're a better three-point shooter than me, but you're not.
I will. I will.
And that's, again's it's it's my year it's my proving year i gotta prove it i like hank is looking at i'm motivated shooting like it's like it's art like it's subjective yeah i'm just like better than well it depends on who you ask like sometimes small sample size like big cat beat me by maybe every time we shoot i i shoot better than you well we'll do an official official contest I beat you. No, what about Chili's? What about Chili's? You've got...
So Max has... Chili's, I beat you.
Max has early onset... I beat you in Chili's contest, too.
Max has early... Literally every time we've done it, I've beaten you.
So Max has early onset Fleming. Hank has early onset Billy football.
Yeah. Yeah, he does.
This entire last 45 seconds has been verbatim a Billy football excuse. But I'm at least, it's just the realization, which is kind of like, you know, people have watched this grow, watched me grow on this podcast, and it's just the realization that I'm like super, super, super washed up.
Not that I was ever really like in my prime when I was younger. Which is crazy.
Like I was never like a prime athlete in my early 20s, but I was decent. But now I've just slowly realized that I'm really washed up, and the only way to unwash yourself up is to really work hard and train, and that's what I've started doing, and I just got to keep going at it.
But can you ever really be washed if you were never dirty to begin with? Yeah, I just wasn't that dirty. Yeah, you were never filthy.
I honestly don't, no offense to you, but I don't think it's like a washed up thing i think just pftn are better athletes than you yeah that's where it's just well it's not false hank what what what what place did you finish in the combine we're nine years older than you and still better athletes than you all right good for you yeah i think both me and big cat beat you in every combine event. Of course we did.
No.

What?

I beat you.

I don't know.

I definitely beat you in something.

Yeah, this is Billy.

You're Billy.

I'm rooting for you.

It's a big brother, little brother.

You know what?

I'll let you win the next one.

I will.

All right, PFT.

My Fire Fest is twofold one.

I forgot my keys at the stream, so I don't know how I'm going to get home tonight. I think someone's bringing them back.
Oh, just right now? Right now. Oh, shit.
So I think someone's bringing them back to the office. It's after midnight right now.
I have early onset Billy. Max is early onset Frank Fleming.
PFT has early onset dementia. Yes, correct.
Correct. Yeah.
Billy does act like he has CTE. I probably have CTE before Billy does.
I played more organized sports at a high level. My other fire fest is that I'm traveling during March Madness tomorrow.
When's your flight? It's actually crazy. Yeah, it is crazy.
So my flight is that. No way you're packed either.
No, definitely. Well, the only thing I'm packing, it's a one-night thing for a wedding.
So I'm packing a suit, and that's it. Also, it doesn't matter.
You can't get into your house. I can't get in my house, so yeah, I can't pack anything.
So I'm going to be flying during the early games tomorrow. What time's your flight? Which is tough.
I think it's at noon. Oh, dude.
I think it's at noon tomorrow. That's brutal.
It's brutal. What airline? Why do you ask? TVs.
American? Nope. No TVs? I think Delta is the TV place.
I can't keep track of which ones have TVs. As long as it's not a Boeing.
I think Delta is guaranteed. Also- But United and American can be.
It's really hard to watch live sports on a flight because if you look at your phone, you're like three minutes fast. Yeah, you can't look at Twitter.

Yeah, you can't look at your score apps.

And every time the pilot gets on the horn and being like, oh, sorry, the flight didn't hit a switch.

Now we're going to crash.

Every time they interrupt you, they just cut out the stream.

And it's always, always at the most important time of game

that they do that.

So I'm going to be flying during the games tomorrow,

which stinks.

Then I'm going to be at a wedding

during some of the other games, which, yeah, I love love love i'm in favor of people getting married go for it um march weddings are a choice friday march wedding is a choice i committed to it eight months ago and i knew that this was going to be a problem as an ultimate future me being like yeah you know what i'm going to go to this wedding i'm going to miss some of the games uh i'm going to sneak watch some of the games. That's my plan.
During the reception, during probably the ceremony too. And because I'm only flying for one night and I'm not bringing really too many clothes and I'm going to the JMU Wisconsin game right after the wedding ends, I'm just going to have to go in a suit.
So I'm going to be wearing a tux to the game. It's the big dance.

Yeah, that's fine.

And we're going dancing.

But the whole situation,

and then I have to fly back on Saturday during the games also,

during the early game.

But yeah, tomorrow's going to be a challenge for me.

What's going to happen is I'm going to land,

I'm going to open up my phone,

and I'm going to see how much money I lost.

That's how it's going to go.

It's really no different than what we're going to do.

I'm going to look at a number,

then I'm going to get on the plane,

and then when I get off the plane,

that number will be much smaller.

I appreciate it. It's really no different than what we're going to do.
I'm going to look at a number, then I'm going to get on the plane, and then when I get off the plane, that number will be much smaller. It will be changed.
That's how I'm spending my March Madness tomorrow. So I apologize to you guys for not being at the stream tomorrow.
Apologize to anyone that wanted to watch me and Big Cat at each other's throats. I'm the one that suffers the most from this, by the way.
Well, yeah, you touching me is a problem. Yeah, Hank's gotten very gropey.
Well, no, but I'm also, you know, PFT picked JMU as our bracket busters team, so I have no choice but to root for JMU against Wisconsin. Yeah, Hank really didn't want to pick JMU.
I know, I wanted to pick JMU. You might have to watch it in a different room.
Big head's just going to lash out at me when it's like I'm just trying to support the company by rooting for my Dave and Busters team. Hank, I'm counting on you to be as annoying as possible.
I don't want to be. I just want to, like, you know.
No, naturally. People get in trouble for not promoting their teams.
He doesn't have to try. He could just be.
Well, today, it's like we had to do a huddle up thing. And, you know, what do you do when you huddle up? You grab your teammates' shoulders and you bring them together.
I did that in Big Cat. Give the actual context.
You want to bet a big bet. Touch me.
Touch me. after you're you're like touching me and touching my neck it's a technical foul it should have been technical foul you touched above the above the shoulders that's a technical foul that's all i wanted you pin the arm down big cat pulled me then I dropped everything on my – and then stole my phone.

Grand Theft Auto.

Is that what an auto is?

Yeah.

I do think that it's the universe, though,

smiling on this podcast a little bit, Big Cat,

because of all the times that –

of all the things that could happen,

our team's playing each other.

Yeah.

But it's on a day when we're not going to be in the same room

where we won't get into a fight with each other.

Yes.

We might – the loser's definitely going to be mad looking at the social media posts from the winner. I'm going to be just mad, if the Wisconsin loser would be mad at Wisconsin.
Like, I won't, that's the thing, is like, because it's not, it's not like if it was Wisconsin playing Duke and I had to deal with this guy over here who doesn't admit that he's a terrible athlete. I, like, I'll Wisconsin loses, but I also will be very happy for you because I love you as a friend, whereas this guy over here, I want him to fail.
I'm going to be happy for you too, Big Cat, and I'm going to root for you very hard against Duke or Vermont. I just want to say right now, if Wisconsin wins, I'm converting my JMU fandom.
I want you to absorb our powers. Yes, no, I will do this.
Use those powers to beat Duke or Vermont. Got to beat Duke.
Actually, I hope Duke loses. Yeah, whenever Duke loses.
It's a pretty bad fire fest. All things considered, it could be worse be worse but in terms of the sports calendar and travel syncing up I feel like this is this is like an equinox of shit for me that I have to deal with uh all right my fire fest is short and sweet uh I've actually I've been I've been chef Donnie's been cooking for me been losing a little weight working out a little more uh but then I decided to get a haircut and shave right before all of our streams and i just looked at myself all day and i just have the fattest neck and i should just never shave before i have to sit on on a couch for four days straight with just the worst angles possible i saw every single clip today and i was like holy fuck i have not lost weight what happens is before we get to the streams, a little behind the scenes, Pete sits down behind the cameras and then he has like a sit in for all of us sit there.

And then he just lowers the cameras and gets the perfect angle to make us look as bad as possible.

Yeah.

So that was a shock today.

So just a reminder to not shave right before March Madness because there's really no way to look good March Madness streams because you're just eating and sitting and sitting back and just like gross. But there's definitely a way to look extra bad and I've done it.
All right, Jake, finish us off. Yeah, this is the best time of year, as you guys have said, and these are the best three weeks on the sports calendar.
And I somehow just always feel sad when something goes wrong in my bracket and it's just like why am i feeling sad i should be happy it's march madness so yeah well you're uh you're number two seed or you're champion north carolina your champion did not lose in the first round yeah but i thought i was being smart by putting drake in the elite eight that was a devastating loss like we talked about earlier but there should be no room for sadness here yet i'm here again yeah damn i mean it's kind of nice kind of sweet that you still care that much about your bracket yeah because that's all i have my integrity yeah and just like yeah i don't think your integrity is my reputation i don't think your reputation is tied to it either but sure in my own head yeah yeah you're. Yeah.
You're like, imagine if we, to put it in on this side of the glass, like imagine if I was like, my reputation is based on my gambling picks. I would be.
Yeah, that's true. People would be calling me Hitler.
But this is like the only time where I publicly make picks on something and hold myself to it. Yeah.
It's not fun. What about the NFL season? Yeah.
What about... Oh, yeah, the bowling.
Yeah. That too.
Yeah, that's true. Well, there's no...
You don't have a punishment if your bracket gets busted. That's the difference.
During football season, you get punished. Well...
We're like, it's a bad Jake. Bad Jake.
If you lose your entire final four before the Sweet 16, you should have to shave Max's back. I literally have zero hairs.
Let's go, Max. I love it, Max.
His chest. Well, no, because Max gets waxed.
Oh, yeah, you do get waxed. He gets waxed and nared.
A Brazilian Max. Max has the fucking cleanest pussy in this show.
He's a smooth little Italian. Who's my smooth little boy? Yeah.
He's like a baby boy.

All right.

Let's wrap it up.

We'll see everyone on Monday where we'll do a full recap.

Shane Gillis episode is going to come on Wednesday.

So we're going to do Monday because we don't do a guest on Mondays.

I misspoke a couple weeks ago.

So it will be coming on Wednesday, but Monday will be just pure talking about everything

with the boys.

Maybe if we get, I'll tell you what.

If that Oakland guy hits some more threes and wins a game,

we might have to have him on.

Golki.

Yeah, Golki.

Golki.

Okay, numbers.

20.

40.

3.

I'll go 68.

18.

99.

Pogue.

What did you say, PFT?

8.

21.

I will say Golki's number three,

so I feel good about this guy next to me.

34.

Half of 68.

Damn.

Love you guys.

I'm talking away.

I wonder what I'm to say.

I'm saying it anyway.

Today's another day to find you shying away.

I'll be coming for your love of me. I'll be coming for your love of me.
I'll be coming for your love of me. I'll be coming for your lover Take on me Take me on I'll be gone And after all I'm changed Needless to say I want to send it But I'll be stolen away Slowly learn and life is okay Say after me It's no better to be safe It's no better to be safe It's no better to be safe It's no better to be safe than solid To be safe than solid

Take on me

Take me up

I'll be gone