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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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take, day one of March Madness in the books. We're going to talk about all the games, Kentucky's stunning loss.

Speaker 1 We brought on our good friend Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports Radio to talk about what's happening in Kentucky.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 Also, shout out to everybody that's actually listening to today's podcast. Yes.

Speaker 5 Because I think usually this Friday is the lowest listened to episode of the year because everyone's watching basketball.

Speaker 1 So please re-download. re-download it.

Speaker 5 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 if you're listening to this.

Speaker 1 Refresher your

Speaker 1 Rumble, YouTube, wherever you're watching it. Refresh it a couple times.
Get us some more views. But yeah, and then we're going to finish off with Firefest.

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Speaker 1 Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 Now in the street, there is violence.

Speaker 1 And then a lot of sound work to be done.

Speaker 1 No place to hang out on washing.

Speaker 1 And then I can game all on the sun. Oh no, we're gonna rock it down to Electric Ivenue.

Speaker 1 And then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 1 Oh, we're gonna rock it down to Electric. It's part of my take, presented by March 2 Sports.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. New customers can bet five bucks to get $150 instantly in bonus bets, only at DraftKings Sportsbook with code TAKE right now.

Speaker 1 Today is Friday, March 22nd,

Speaker 1 and Jack Golkie has captured the hearts of a nation. The Oakland Grizzlies.
Golden Grizzlies. Golden Grizzlies.
I knew that. Take down Kentucky in the one true stunner from day one of March Madness.

Speaker 1 Jack Golke hit 10 threes. From Michigan.
Oakland is. Yes, from Detroit.

Speaker 1 Hit 10 threes. He was the perfect.
Wait, really? Yeah.

Speaker 5 I did not know that until just now. I was looking up Jack Golke's stats before we started to do the podcast, and I was like, oh, I guess he played small ball in Michigan somewhere.

Speaker 5 Then he moved out to California. He's actually from Pewaukee,

Speaker 5 home of Derek Watt. Yes.
And J.J.

Speaker 1 Watt and TJ Watt. Yes.
Yeah, it is in Michigan.

Speaker 5 That guy could not miss. It was incredible.
He was double-teamed. He was coming off screens with no daylight, just sinking everything.

Speaker 5 It was so much fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So much fun.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 He was a single one.

Speaker 1 He was shooting shots that

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 This guy is going to absolutely rock some men's league basketball.

Speaker 1 And he was, 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 bit head is huge.

Speaker 5 He's got a little Derek Carr in him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and I hope it keeps going. I do.
Because, well, actually,

Speaker 1 we'll see because we're 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 They're 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 game.

Speaker 1 I think it was since Fluke Girl.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah, against Villanova.

Speaker 1 They showed Flute Girl. They showed that clearance.
They always find a way to show Flute Girl.

Speaker 5 I wonder what Flute Girl is doing these days. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I hope that she was able to overcome her. She was everywhere right after that for years.
And I think maybe when Villanova won the championship, I feel like that was her redemption story. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Where it's like, okay, now I'm not going to get brought up all the time.

Speaker 1 Matt, they made a flute girl.

Speaker 7 No, I don't.

Speaker 1 But they put her in that commercial, basically. Yeah, no, they show her every single tournament.

Speaker 8 They have a clarinet player.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they have a fake flute girl. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 But that was the first time NC State won a tournament game. Since then,

Speaker 1 but that is

Speaker 1 just, this is what we watch for.

Speaker 1 The tournament, you don't know who's going to become the hero out of nowhere. I did try to get everyone on Sanford.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 that's the beauty of the 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.

Speaker 1 The winner of that game is going to be the talk of the week leading up to Sweet 16 because it will be a great story either way.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 You can't root against him, and then you can't root against Golke. So I don't know, just take the over the next game.

Speaker 5 I don't want, I want, there should be, there should be a rule where two of like the Cinderellas that have very fun players on them, if they both get matched up with each other in the second round,

Speaker 5 you should be able to float one spot. Yeah.
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.

Speaker 5 Did you see there was a very, 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.

Speaker 1 Who fired Dan Munson?

Speaker 5 He fired Dan Munson for their conference tournament. Dan Munson kept coming into work, which kept winning.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 This is what gets coaches fired. Yeah.
And they all laughed and they're like, yeah. It's great.
That hits hard.

Speaker 5 So So the athletic director said the timing of his decision to part ways with Dan Munson was done with the hope that it might trigger the exact run that led the team on unexpected trips to March Madness.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 I'm not trying to pat myself on the back,

Speaker 1 but it worked. Bullshit.
That's

Speaker 5 what a piece of shit that guy is.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 M.O.

Speaker 1 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 him last year against Miami.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Fun fact, Dana Altman is now 8-0 in first-round NCAA tournament.

Speaker 1 He is such a good coach, and he has them going every single, like overachieving every single year. And so we have like Dana Altman, Izzo.

Speaker 1 Izzo did it again.

Speaker 5 Izzo did it again. Now it's going to be Izzo against UNC, which we talk about with Stanford Steve coming up in a little bit.

Speaker 1 Not to pat myself on the back, but just wait for that moment.

Speaker 5 But if Michigan State can win too, then I think all the talk around Izzo is 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Yep. And that's what he does.
And yeah, so it was a great day. I mean, like.

Speaker 5 Tennessee took care of business.

Speaker 1 Tennessee took care of 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.

Speaker 5 Texas took care of business. Colorado State.

Speaker 1 They caught Virginia.

Speaker 5 They got Cavid-19.

Speaker 1 That was actually more embarrassing for Virginia. Yeah.
The fact that they scored 14 points against Colorado State and were in the first half and were the laughingstock of America on Tuesday night.

Speaker 1 And then Colorado State beat them by 25, showed up to the tournament and scored 11 points in the first half.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 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 in Colorado State.

Speaker 1 Yes, we also had.

Speaker 5 Oh, you called McNeese, too.

Speaker 5 Good call on giving out the McNeese schedule.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the University of Women, Mississippi University of Women.

Speaker 5 Yeah, is that what it was?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah, they're not McNephew, McNeese.

Speaker 10 Biblical studies.

Speaker 1 Biblical studies. Yeah,

Speaker 1 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 Duquesne.

Speaker 1 Hand up, I was very wrong about that.

Speaker 1 I thought that they were, I mean, the talk of the seeding was that they shouldn't have been an 11-seed. They proved everyone wrong.

Speaker 10 All the bid Steelers in the carry business today. Yeah.
Oregon, Duquesne, and NC State.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they were all hot. And so, yeah, like they, Duquesne, I was hand up very wrong.
They played lights out. They held on.

Speaker 1 It felt like BYU was going to maybe steal it back from them, but they are a tough, tough team.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 11s are the new 12.

Speaker 5 Yeah, and the number three seeds

Speaker 5 also dominate the sixth seeds. Number three seeds in the later rounds are 22 and 5.
I guess you just

Speaker 5 don't want to be a sixth seed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's the kiss. Six seed? Well, because it it kind of makes sense.
Because a sixth seed usually is a team that had flashes of being good, but probably faded at some point in their schedule.

Speaker 1 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 0-3. Yeah, very bad.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Very bad day to be a sixth seed. Yeah, Texas Tech got absolutely worked by NC State.

Speaker 1 Also, we should mention the Dayton comeback.

Speaker 1 We also have a coworker who went to Dayton Duges who was literally crying after the comeback. Now, Dayton was the seventh seed.
They were underdogs,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 he was.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they were. They were underdogs.
They were two-point underdogs, two and a half-point underdogs. Oh, happy birthday to Dave Portnoy.

Speaker 1 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, it was like a 22 run.

Speaker 10 56 to 40 on the win probability. Nevada had 99.5% chance.

Speaker 1 Jeez.

Speaker 10 And Nevada scored four points the rest of the game, seven minutes.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 It's about the bets that you didn't make that would have lost. Yeah.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 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 win.
You just got to make positive steps.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a huge, huge win. Did we miss anyone?

Speaker 1 I think we hit pretty much all of it.

Speaker 10 I think you guys hit all of it, but I think this Kansas Sanford story is going to just blow over because of the timing of it. But it was a

Speaker 1 call. No, it was a shout out.
They would have had numbers the other way to take the lead.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think they made that call because he fell hard.

Speaker 9 That's it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That's why they made the call.

Speaker 5 It was shout out, by by the way, to Sanford alum, Devlin Hodges, Duck.

Speaker 1 You remember him? Steelers? I love Duck.

Speaker 5 Yeah, he's the only guy that I know that went to Sanford.

Speaker 5 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 Sanford. And I know you can say, like, oh, there's so many other calls.

Speaker 10 He shouldn't have been down 20. Yes.
But in that moment, that's a bad one.

Speaker 5 Bad call.

Speaker 5 Also, Sanford was dead. They were like

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Bucky ball. They just chucky balls.
And they press, and they were just giving up a million points in the paint.

Speaker 5 Because would you say that with some of the upsets, the bracket opens up real nice for JMU or Wisconsin?

Speaker 1 Well, we haven't played our quadrant yet. I'm just saying.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Sure.

Speaker 5 I'm all optimism right now. Sure.
I haven't kind of beaten out of me yet.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right, before we do some picks for tomorrow, we got to quickly talk about Shohei Otani.

Speaker 5 It's appropriate timing for it, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so Shohei Otani, one of the weirdest stories that broke Wednesday night. So the story goes, he went to the media and was like, my interpreter.

Speaker 1 I had to wire money to my interpreter because he was in gambling debt, four and a half million dollars.

Speaker 5 Yeah, so Otani and his representative

Speaker 5 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 like the official story.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And then almost immediately after that, he's like, wait, no, he actually stole the money from me.

Speaker 1 I was joking. Yeah.
Because maybe it would look bad if you were like, my interpreter is $4.5 million in debt. And people are like, huh, that's weird.
Your interpreter's $4.5 million in debt.

Speaker 5 And they were seen in the dugout of the baseball game, the MLB game, like laughing and joking. The interpreter and Otani after this statement had been released.
And

Speaker 5 it didn't look like somebody that had stolen four and a half million dollars from it.

Speaker 1 It looked like someone who was like, we should take Oakland Money Line.

Speaker 5 It looks like someone that was like, we got away with this. Yeah.
So

Speaker 5 there's a problem. There's a lot of problems.

Speaker 5 One is, I'm just, I'm going to take Otani at his word, okay? Yeah. I'm going to say that the.

Speaker 1 Well, we don't know his word because he doesn't have an interpreter anymore.

Speaker 5 Okay, well, I'm going to take him at his representative's first word.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 Before he fired the interpreter. Yep.

Speaker 1 Which is beautiful that he now doesn't have to answer questions because he didn't have an interpreter.

Speaker 5 Yeah. So the guy,

Speaker 5 and correct me if I'm wrong here, but the interpreter who makes, what, $200,000 a year? Correct. Was $4 million in debt.

Speaker 1 Correct.

Speaker 5 How would that happen? Because the only way it would happen would be if they were using a bookie

Speaker 5 that was willing to give that interpreter that amount of credit. Correct.

Speaker 5 If he makes $200,000 a year, why would the bookie give him $4.5 million worth of credit?

Speaker 1 You're asking very good questions. It would be no different than if Memes, there was a story that Memes was $5 million in debt to a bookie, and everyone was like, huh?

Speaker 5 I wonder whose money is

Speaker 1 like, what?

Speaker 1 Yeah, so it makes sense.

Speaker 5 I'm just connecting some dots here.

Speaker 5 And baseball's got a big problem because.

Speaker 1 Big problem.

Speaker 5 Shohei Otani stands to make MLB

Speaker 5 hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. Yep.
Over the course of his career. He's playing in the biggest market.

Speaker 5 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

Speaker 5 with the Angels, so he moved to the Dodgers so they could win some games and get some money.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 1 California doesn't have legalized gambling.

Speaker 5 They do not.

Speaker 5 So,

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 Can you imagine if it was a utility player

Speaker 5 that paid off four and a half million dollars? Yeah. How fast would that guy be banned for

Speaker 1 life? And let's just do a hypothetical real quick. Just a quick hypothetical.
Because hypothetically speaking, well, no, this part is real.

Speaker 1 Newsflash, I like to gamble. Okay?

Speaker 1 Hypothetically speaking, though, if someone were to give me $700 million knowing that I like to gamble, I'd probably ask for it in little pieces and not all up front. Maybe a deferment

Speaker 1 because I know that I like to gamble and I don't want all the money right away because I like to gamble.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 Yeah, we're about to sign a new contract, and then Otani's like, hey, man, yeah, we're not going to get that money for 10 years. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like, fuck. We'll get a little bit.
We'll get enough to,

Speaker 1 you know, March Madness.

Speaker 5 Yeah, just get us through, just get us through the NCAA tournament. We're fine.

Speaker 1 What do you say, Hank?

Speaker 1 It's going to sound crazy, but four and a half million from for what he makes is also not that much. Oh, yeah, for Otani.
Right. Yeah.

Speaker 5 But for his interpreter.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no, that's like

Speaker 1 his unit size isn't it for

Speaker 1 all relatively speaking. Yeah, isn't crazy.
I mean, you hear like, you know, like Floyd Mayweather bets a million dollars a game. It's like, that's, that's eye-popping.

Speaker 1 But then you're like, wait, but Floyd Mayweather makes like $100 million a fight.

Speaker 1 So my idea. Yeah, for his interpreter,

Speaker 1 that's a big number.

Speaker 5 My idea for Rob Banford 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.

Speaker 1 I like that. What was he gambling on?

Speaker 1 Sports?

Speaker 1 That's what I want to know. So, yeah, the best case scenario.
Because if it was American sports, then it was definitely him because the interpreter was explaining to him American Sports.

Speaker 1 How do you want to play? Yeah.

Speaker 1 The best case scenario, I think, for the

Speaker 1 MLB is like it was somehow casino related, but I don't think it sounds like it is. No, and that's Bruno Mars situation.

Speaker 5 That's where there's another problem:

Speaker 1 if

Speaker 5 the only way that you could expect a bookmaker to give a guy $4.5 million with a credit to bet on, if he makes $200,000 a year, is if that guy is doing other stuff for you.

Speaker 5 If that guy is giving you inside information that he would know because he's inside a clubhouse every single day.

Speaker 1 Interesting situation MLB has their hands in now. Very interesting.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So that's it. We'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 This also all broke when he's overseas, right? Because they started

Speaker 1 the season in Japan? No. Korea.
Korea.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, we'll see when he gets back. But again, it's very funny because he's going to walk in and they're going to ask him questions.
Like, I don't have an interpreter.

Speaker 1 He gambled too much.

Speaker 5 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?

Speaker 5 His wife is a basketball player.

Speaker 1 Facts.

Speaker 1 She's actually a bucket.

Speaker 5 She is.

Speaker 1 With all due respect.

Speaker 5 I'd knock it out of the park.

Speaker 1 but like football

Speaker 1 yeah okay yeah hockey so we're gonna we're gonna find out a lot more god it would rule

Speaker 1 if shohe otani was betting on maxion

Speaker 1 what if what if shohei otani's like goddamn bowling green what if shohe otani is an ice man what if

Speaker 1 like if i would add up if they're sitting trust the data too much

Speaker 1 if they're sitting there watching you know 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.

Speaker 1 But if it's American sports, then it's

Speaker 1 football and knows how to bet on football. Allegedly, his interpreter slash Shohei.

Speaker 5 But yeah, there's going to be a lot of twists and turns in this story as it ends up coming out.

Speaker 5 And 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.

Speaker 5 Pete Rose is watching this closer than anyone. Yeah.
Pete Rose is like, what are you going to do to showhey? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And all the steroid guys.
So yeah, it's going to be interesting.

Speaker 1 But yeah, we'll update as it goes along. I'm sure we'll have updates on Monday's show.

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Speaker 1 All right, what do we like tomorrow, boys?

Speaker 5 I got a simple one for you.

Speaker 1 I have a Mega Max.

Speaker 1 Super lock of the tournament. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 I'll let you guys go first. I have a lock plus.
Well, no, now you have to go. Oh, you guys go.
Oh, you have to go.

Speaker 5 Oh, do your mega max.

Speaker 1 And is it bigger than a mega max lock of the tournament?

Speaker 5 No,

Speaker 5 mine's just a lock.

Speaker 1 How would you do the main event before the undercard?

Speaker 5 Mine's a max plus.

Speaker 1 Yours is a bigger. So you do yours first?

Speaker 1 I like Texas AM plus one.

Speaker 1 I think they're going to bother Nebraska a lot.

Speaker 5 I like the under in Western Kentucky Marquette. Ooh.
Western Kentucky loves to run the floor, but they suck.

Speaker 1 They chuck.

Speaker 5 They are bad. They're a bad offensive team, but they...

Speaker 1 They take a lot of bad shots, but sometimes they go in.

Speaker 5 Yeah, but I don't think they're going in this time.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 158 under.

Speaker 1 I love, love, love, love Purdue. Oh.
Revenge. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I could see that. The UVA formula? They're not, yeah.

Speaker 1 And what happened? Didn't UVA win the next year? Yeah.

Speaker 10 Remember, the next year, they were down at half to Gardner Webb as a one seed.

Speaker 1 They ended up winning it, obviously, and winning it all, but they had a slow start.

Speaker 1 Again,

Speaker 1 it's happening again. Max,

Speaker 1 NIT?

Speaker 7 It's March Madness.

Speaker 1 I have UAB plus 6.5. You were all about the NIT a day ago.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 come on.

Speaker 1 I'm allowed to have a little fun. UAB plus 6.5.
What happened with the NIT?

Speaker 8 I think UAB is pretty good.

Speaker 7 The Mountain West stinks. Mountain West loses every game.

Speaker 5 UAB plus 6.5.

Speaker 5 What happened to Nova?

Speaker 1 They lost. In the NIT?

Speaker 8 UAB is a pretty good program.

Speaker 1 In the opening round of the NIT?

Speaker 8 There's no Jelly Walker this year.

Speaker 1 Are you guys at home?

Speaker 1 Pretty good squad.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 at least losing in the first round of the NIT means that Kyle Neptune is going to get fired. No.
Oh, I'll take Coach Kyle. I would love Coach Kyle.

Speaker 1 Max is just dealing with coaches he wants fired that won't get fired. It's great.

Speaker 7 No, Neptune's got one more year on his contract.

Speaker 1 It's make or break year next year, but I think we're going to lose all our guys. Yeah, he's going to be a lame duck coach.

Speaker 1 Okay. well, good luck to everyone.
We have more picks coming with Stanford Steve. We're going to talk about the entire Friday slate with him.
Before we do that, Matt Jones is going to join us.

Speaker 1 We forgot to mention Matt Jones has a great Netflix show out called The Wrestlers. Go watch it right now.
Support our friend Matt Jones. It's awesome.
I watched it.

Speaker 1 If you're a wrestling fan, you got to watch it.

Speaker 5 Even if you're not, I'm not a big wrestling fan, but it's awesome. It's compelling.

Speaker 1 Yes, it's very compelling.

Speaker 1 So, give it up for Chicago.

Speaker 12 Sebastian Menescalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 1 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht, and the boxes keep

Speaker 1 coming.

Speaker 12 Sebastian Maniscalco, It Ain't Right, premieres November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend from Kentucky Sports Radio. We've known him for a very long time.

Speaker 1 We hate to have to bring him on this show under these circumstances, but it is Matt Jones. Matt,

Speaker 1 where do you want to start? What went wrong? Kentucky

Speaker 1 bows out of the tournament in disgrace yet again, loses to 14-seed Oakland.

Speaker 1 You can just tell us what you're feeling or where you want to start because I'm sure we have some follow-up questions, but the floor is yours. Speak for Kentucky.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 1 I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 13 I think this is, uh, I think this might be worse. It's terrible.
You know, Lowe's to St. Peter's in Oakland, two of the last three years.

Speaker 13 And I think probably the end of the Cal Perry era, there's a really good change.

Speaker 1 Whoa.

Speaker 13 I mean,

Speaker 13 I don't think it's certain, but I think a lot of the fans want want that.

Speaker 13 And it's just sad. You know, listen, you guys are fans of your teams when you really, really love something and it feels like the end of an era tonight.
And that kind of sucks. Yeah,

Speaker 5 that is tough.

Speaker 5 His buyout is what, $33 million to

Speaker 5 do it.

Speaker 13 Yeah, it's not my, it's Port Noise kind of money, not ours.

Speaker 13 But they may have to do it because this fan base, I've never seen them this this upset ever.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 And that Kentucky has won one SEC tournament game since 2019.

Speaker 5 It's hard to hear that and not be like, what the hell is going on at Kentucky?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 5 how did he get to this point?

Speaker 13 Well, you guys were the first ones to ever put him on the hot seat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but we also said to give him an extension.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 13 I'm looking forward to you hosting this summer. I hope you'll do it again.

Speaker 13 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 his relationships here are pretty poor.

Speaker 13 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 now at KSR.

Speaker 13 It's just unfortunate because I think he's a good dude. But, you know, sometimes times end, right? Like sometimes you just got to say that's it.

Speaker 13 And I think, I don't know if we're there, but I think we're pretty close.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 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 to the program, develops them, gets them into the NBA, and then gets them massive contracts in the NBA, his alumni, right?

Speaker 5 So that's kind of what he's hung his hat on.

Speaker 5 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 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

Speaker 13 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 says like the draft is is the important thing changing 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.

Speaker 13 Shea Alexander, Devin Booker, Tyrese Maxey, right?

Speaker 13 You know, Kason Wallace, all these guys, Oscar Shibway, all these dudes, they've won and then they haven't won anything.

Speaker 13 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.
Yeah.

Speaker 13 Except, I mean, Carl, Devin Booker made the final four, but the rest of them, no final fours. I think that's, that's a lot.
I think people are kind of tired of it.

Speaker 13 And then to say he's not going to change, I mean, look, I will tell you, when I saw Gunkle or whatever his name was in Oakland, I thought of you two because I thought those, you guys had to love him, right?

Speaker 1 Real ham and a year old hairline. Yeah.

Speaker 13 Play D3 basketball and he goes out. He's talking trash, 30 points.
But losing the dudes like that, when you've got the players Cal has, Dylan Hammond Shepard are going to be top 10 picks.

Speaker 13 I think fans are just kind of over.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I watched a lot of Kentucky basketball this year. There wasn't a lot of like set plays.
There was a lot of guys who were really talented off the dribble. The defense never came around.

Speaker 1 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 Gaulkey could shoot from anywhere.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 Because it feels like that's what happens time and time again.

Speaker 1 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 and teach these guys basketball that's winning basketball would the fan base be like okay maybe this is different

Speaker 13 i mean maybe but first of all he would have to admit that which he won't right i mean he does he believes that the way he plays is the way you should play.

Speaker 13 I mean, after the game today, he said we had a lot of freshmen do things they've never done before, but you watched the game.

Speaker 13 I mean, mean we they ran them a zone a little junk zone and kentucky couldn't get any shots open i mean listen oakland should have won by more yeah 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

Speaker 13 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 you know that change? Yeah.

Speaker 13 The best thing, here's one of the things I like about the culture you guys have at Barstall.

Speaker 13 You guys have, you two are very successful.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 13 He's still going to do what he wants to do.

Speaker 1 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 sabin is the perfect example how many times did sabin 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 like i will get with the times cal like, that, that's that.

Speaker 1 I know you, you probably know it, uh, you know, in the back of your hand, but like up until I think, what is the LSU game, uh, 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.

Speaker 1 And it's like teams knew

Speaker 13 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, which is like a crazy, which is a crazy stat.

Speaker 13 And then they hit the one with Shepard this year. Sabin's a great example, because to me, Sabin is an exact example of what you should do.

Speaker 13 Like Cal would never bring in a lane kiffin kind of guy to be an assistant. Like he would never do that.

Speaker 13 But that's what Sabin, Sabin 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.

Speaker 13 Cal won't do that.

Speaker 13 Listen, when dudes get a certain age, they do not change.

Speaker 13 And the ones that do are special saban um szyzewski did that right so he was recruiting a certain kind of way and then he goes you know what i gotta go get the the stars i gotta go get the the star freshman and he did and they kind of took a lot of cow's guys like think about zion yeah zion would have been a kentucky player back in the day cow made k change that's a fact exactly right he did and now and now cow needs to change back because Jay Wright tonight said it the best.

Speaker 13 Because of NIL, these dudes are staying in college longer, and that's about to happen.

Speaker 13 Like, you're going to see good players stay in college for three and four years, and I just don't know if you can win with freshmen anymore.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 1 No, you're right.

Speaker 5 Have you allowed your mind to wander yet? Have you thought who would look good in Kentucky blue?

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 5 I'm going to 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.

Speaker 5 But if you want to win, Nate Oates is a hot name.

Speaker 13 Yeah, but Nate Oates hadn't won anything, though.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 I like that, Matt.

Speaker 13 He talks. I like his trash talking, but he doesn't win anything yet.
Now, maybe he'll do it this year, but he hadn't won anything.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Y'all still in Kentucky. What about, hey, Matt?

Speaker 5 What about Coach K?

Speaker 13 What about get him out of retirement no matt i mean well here's what they'll do and first of all if cal is gone and i don't think that's certain but let's say

Speaker 13 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 they their next thing would probably be Scott Drew at Baylor would be who they would try to get.

Speaker 13 But I'll tell you, after Scott Drew, I would ask you guys, like, there's not an obvious.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there is. No, Yether is.

Speaker 1 He was on this show and he said that he never should have left Kentucky.

Speaker 5 He said such nice things about Scottish show.

Speaker 1 How about that?

Speaker 13 We don't have Rick Petino on. How did you not ask him about some of the stories I told on your own show here?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 9 we were very intimidated.

Speaker 1 It was the most that PFT and I like talked about an interview before doing an interview.

Speaker 1 We're like, okay, this guy was nice enough to come in we've 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 the 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

Speaker 13 i thought i'm kidding you i thought you did a great job like people people want you to be jerks to people when you interview them and you can't like like it's hard to do that.

Speaker 13 And I thought you guys, I actually thought you made him seem very likable. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, he is.

Speaker 1 He is, Matt. We're Ricatino guys now.

Speaker 13 I wanted to, I wanted at least one down my leg, though.

Speaker 1 I did.

Speaker 13 I wanted one down my leg.

Speaker 5 I, I, I bit the fuck out of the inside of my cheeks at one point during the interview. Just like, don't do it, PFT.
It went against everything in my nature, and I hated it.

Speaker 13 But yeah, do you think people remember, by the way, how crazy that story is? Oh, yeah. Do you, but no, I mean, like,

Speaker 13 he takes his equipment manager, asks him to take the woman to get an abortion.

Speaker 1 They fall in love with him. Yeah, this sounds like this sounds, this sounds fake to me.
We're Rick Petino guys now.

Speaker 1 But they fell in love at Subway over

Speaker 1 their friend.

Speaker 5 You got, you got Patino derangement syndrome.

Speaker 1 $5 foot long.

Speaker 13 Listen, I actually found myself this year, guys, and you know what my patino history is. I find myself pulling for him at St.
John's. I wanted him to make the tournament, actually.

Speaker 5 Yeah. He does a subway commercial.
It's like Jared, but he's holding up the pants for the stay on it.

Speaker 1 Listen, he Petino 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Like, it's even like little stuff. Like, there's certain coaches.
Like, all right, so back to Cal and how he coaches. Like,

Speaker 1 we saw today Dana Altman, Oregon coach. I think he's one of the most underrated coaches in the past one.
I agree.

Speaker 1 He always has teams overachieving to their talent level and playing great tournament basketball, throwing, like, the defense he threw at South Carolina today had them completely befuddled in the first half.

Speaker 1 Or, like, even Shaka Smart, even as it drives me nuts that he's on the court, but like going back to that, you know, game when they played against Villanova, he drew up the perfect play at the end of of the game that ended up not counting.

Speaker 1 But like those type of things where it's like you have a coach that you know will steal you

Speaker 1 at least a few possessions a game when it comes to like out-of-time out calls, when it comes to little throwing little wrinkles at them for a possession here and there.

Speaker 1 And that's the stuff that like Cal just doesn't do, and it would drive me nuts as a Kentucky fan.

Speaker 13 It does some.

Speaker 13 I think at this job, though, this is like, again, I know, I don't know if people outside of the state realize, but like, you have to be a rock star to be at this job. Like, this is a hard job.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 1 You can't be an accountant.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 13 Normally, there's always a guy that I think, well, if Cal leaves, we get this dude. Yeah.
Right now, I mean, Scott Drew, he's won a lot.

Speaker 1 He's kind of boring, right?

Speaker 13 Like, so, like, do you get, do you get Scott Drew? That's why I think they'll go hard. If Cal leaves, again, I don't know if he will, but Jay Wright and Brad Stevens would be right too, I think.

Speaker 5 Jay Wright would be very good. Yeah, Jay Wright.

Speaker 1 What about TJ Otzelberger?

Speaker 1 I mean, it's Kentucky. I'm obviously a rock star.
He's a wrestler. Yeah.
Yeah, I want to win.

Speaker 13 Give me, just give me somebody that will win. The fact that nobody got upset tonight but us, that also makes it stink.
All the favorites won except us tonight.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 All right, so last question for you, Matt.

Speaker 1 Your show, which everyone should tune in tomorrow, what are you expecting in terms of the anger and the calls? I would imagine there's probably people already on hold right now

Speaker 1 waiting to talk to you, but is it going to to be one of those shows where it's just going to be people just calling in and ripping them apart?

Speaker 13 Well, I already did a post-game show a little while ago, and we had one person cry.

Speaker 13 We had one person very, very angry. We had a couple of people drunk say, Cal better get out of here.
So there, I think it'll be more of that.

Speaker 13 I don't think we're going to be very reasonable, to be honest with you. This is amongst this fan base is many things.
They're not reasonable is not one of them.

Speaker 13 I want to say one thing, and I want to do it on your show because people, your listeners need to hear this.

Speaker 13 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?

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 13 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 phone.

Speaker 1 Well, we're pretty much. Thank you, Matt.
I'm glad to hear the check clear. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, let me ruin that for you. Let me ruin that for you real quick, Matt.

Speaker 1 Would you say the last time that this fan base was truly happy with Coach Cal and Kentucky basketball was March 28th, 2015, when you beat Notre Dame in the Elite Eight to punch your ticket to the final four

Speaker 1 at

Speaker 1 38-0. Would that be the last time?

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 13 That's the last time maybe we were happy.

Speaker 13 Your Wisconsin team, I don't even want to hear it. It's still the thing I hold against you the most in life.
That's fair.

Speaker 1 It's probably one of my happiest moments, and it didn't end well a couple of days after that.

Speaker 5 But that's the Kentuckiness of it all, though. Like, Big Cat's favorite moment is beating you guys.
That's how high the standard is.

Speaker 1 That's Kentucky. Yeah, we didn't even win it.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 13 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 pardon my take matchup.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, come on. That's what everybody knows.
Yeah. I didn't love it.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 we're still, we still, you know what? Rent free. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Rent free in ESPN's head. Yeah.
Matt, I heard that one caller called in today and said that you guys are now the new Indiana.

Speaker 1 how did that how did that make it feel

Speaker 13 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 into air okay last last last question uh are you guys at football school now oh

Speaker 13 yeah well

Speaker 13 I think we got to go to a

Speaker 13 playoff first, but I will say it's now become more of a debate. You guys would love Mark Stoops, by the way.

Speaker 1 Oh, we've had him on. We've had him on.
Yeah, we've had him on. He's the best.
He was at.

Speaker 13 And you would like Cal, too. You're going to get Cal at some point, and you'll end up charmed by him.

Speaker 5 I think Stoops was at Bo Polini's.

Speaker 5 What tournament was that?

Speaker 1 It was his bocce tournament. Bochistown, Ohio.
Yeah, we had Stoops in the back of the van. I remember that.

Speaker 1 You went to Youngstown.

Speaker 13 Yeah,

Speaker 1 that was a good place for you guys. Yeah, it was great.
Thanks, Matt. All right.
Well, Matt, thank you. Sorry again,

Speaker 1 but you are the best, and we can't wait to host Kentucky Sports Radio this summer.

Speaker 5 Thank you for coming on.

Speaker 1 Yes, I can't wait.

Speaker 13 To my fellow DraftKings, guys, You all have a good night.

Speaker 1 Love it. Love it.
Take care, Matt. See you, Matt.

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Speaker 16 And now for something completely different.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 He is one of the sharpest guys we know.

Speaker 9 What was your record on game day this year?

Speaker 1 Not great. Oh, no.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And Steve is going to help us navigate the Friday slate and hopefully win us some money.

Speaker 1 Steve, big thoughts, though, before the tournament starts.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 What else you got?

Speaker 1 That's the worry right there. Too much UConn.
Too much UConn. Too much UConn, and it's really, really scary.
Also, Dan, I I thought you had this in your big brain.

Speaker 1 You got to have your final four teams on Friday,

Speaker 1 just so you have an extra day of the tournament.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah, that's a very good point.
That's a very good point.

Speaker 1 Hopefully,

Speaker 1 North Carolina beat the winner of Howard Wagner because all my other final four teams are playing on Friday. That's part.

Speaker 5 So no Tennessee, no, who's the other one? Maybe Iowa State, not a believer?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 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 to 1.
Ooh, you got me trumped. I have

Speaker 1 UConn a couple weeks ago to make the final four, plus 125.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm still shopping around for a Duke not to make the Sweet 16 because that's even money. I like that.

Speaker 1 I was hoping that'd be a better price knowing the teams that they're in a little pod, but I'm sure we're going to talk about that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But no, I was solely based on UConn.

Speaker 1 I didn't buy any of the Houston. I'm just

Speaker 1 the Purdue factor is obviously everybody's feel-good story except yours, Dan. Yeah.
So

Speaker 1 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. or how it should spread first of all, how good they are.

Speaker 1 But then again, the belief because now they are the ultimate one seed.

Speaker 1 Last year, they were a four, and, you know, I thought they had, I did, I think right when Titus did it, we were talking about them for the national title. So

Speaker 1 it's been a storm brewing. You guys have had Hurley on.
There's no messing around. I think he's a master motivator in what he does.

Speaker 1 And I could see his motivation for every step of the way because this is the one thing about the tournament. And,

Speaker 1 you know, right away, it's UConn has the toughest road, right? UConn's bracket's unbelievable. Same thing on the women's side.

Speaker 1 caitlin clark's brackets incredible okay i understand you see the teams in the bracket but on the bottom they can only play one team right

Speaker 1 so whoever comes out of that bottom and a lot of people are saying you know illinois or iowa that's going to be over uh hopefully both those teams moved on um but They only could play one of those teams.

Speaker 1 Same thing with San Diego State and Auburn or UAB and Yale.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Connecticut's in the middle of them. Yeah.
You know, like home games. They're home games.

Speaker 1 And all my friends could be as bitter and evil and just flat out mean from Connecticut as possible. And that's all they're saying to themselves.
Like that, they can't wait to get to the gym.

Speaker 5 Well, you have to have something to complain about. It's a very nice thing that they have like built-in.

Speaker 5 You can get mad about that until you start playing the games, but then the way the tournament always shakes out,

Speaker 5 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?

Speaker 1 I believe in bracket pools, this will be the lowest score or least amount right ever. Oh,

Speaker 1 ever. Yeah, ever, ever.

Speaker 1 I think you're better off of

Speaker 1 getting on a team and riding that thing with a future or betting to make the Sweet 16. I think this bracket pull, I think it's impossible.

Speaker 1 Max's mic is on, so we just heard about that.

Speaker 5 Do you ever do that by mistake, Steve?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Do you ever talk during SVP's show?

Speaker 5 When he's doing like one big thing and he's getting real sentimental about something, and then you're in the background like

Speaker 5 Elite 6 on Mississippi State.

Speaker 1 My producers do a good job at Bristol of if something serious is coming up to get in my ear.

Speaker 5 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?

Speaker 1 Does that ever happen? That's not what happened.

Speaker 1 That happened here. We were looking for topics.

Speaker 1 She was the number one trending thing on Twitter. I wanted to see what was going on.
He's doing his job.

Speaker 1 Happened to be a picture of boobs. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, it happens. It happens.
You know, hey,

Speaker 1 the one thing about UConn that makes me nervous, because I also bet him in December,

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 Probably ISIS. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, he does have some.

Speaker 5 Oh, you'll be rocking a Putin hat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he does have some pictures. All right, so, Steve, you want to talk about our game.
You want to rip off the band-aid. You're pod.
You're pot. I'm including all the guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because you are a Duke fan.

Speaker 1 So I said it on Wednesday, and I'm not being, 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.

Speaker 1 They don't defend the three well. James Madison hits the three well.

Speaker 1 What's your take, unbiased take on this matchup? All right, I'm going to fast forward. I have Wisconsin in the final four, Dan.
Oh, God.

Speaker 9 I like it, Steve. Good pick.

Speaker 1 Why? Good thing. 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.

Speaker 1 I think they really found their form against Maryland.

Speaker 1 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, I'm not with anybody, and I just see the score and I'm like, oh, Lord, 40 points.

Speaker 1 Like, this is. Put the phone down.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 and one of my favorite things to do whenever Wisconsin like you said all-time rivalry Scott loves being in the big 10 is whenever Wisconsin plays Maryland and Wisconsin wins

Speaker 1 you know usually like nine 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 and they were calling some Madison whistle Yep, the Madison Whistle.

Speaker 1 But all right, so you like Wisconsin, the Final Four? I do. I do.
I love what I've seen from them. I think Store is an absolute difference maker.

Speaker 1 Chucky Healthy is good. I mean,

Speaker 1 to withstand what they had to do against Purdue, Dan,

Speaker 1 and you watched them. You guys, I checked in 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 are enamored with how big he is.

Speaker 1 And I just think, you know,

Speaker 1 he is that good. I give a kid a ton of credit.

Speaker 1 um for for what he withstood he got his foul shooting better he's in way better shape this year you can just see that but anyway, Wisconsin, I just, the team's been through a lot, man.

Speaker 1 Like, they got seriously humbled in February. Yeah.
You lose to Michigan. Yeah.
Like, like, that's, that's as bad as it gets. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I think they're, I mean, there's been past instances with Wisconsin basketball teams with stuff off the court, whether the locker room likes each other, but I genuinely feel this team has the goods.

Speaker 1 They're as versatile as any of these Wisconsin teams, maybe even more versatile because the athleticism at the guard, at the guard spot than the the team that lost in the national championship.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know that team had pros, but like what you want in this day and age with three-point shots and inside presence,

Speaker 1 you know, you mentioned the perimeter defense. I get it, but if you're if James Matt is going to make 33s, then they're going to be anybody in the country, right? Maybe anybody in the world.

Speaker 1 But I like the offensive standpoint. Store could get a bucket at any single time.
Hepburn is the same way. And that opens up a lot of stuff.
Now,

Speaker 1 do I feel confident? No.

Speaker 1 It's a five.

Speaker 1 You know, going to the final four, but I just felt Houston

Speaker 1 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 AM winning against Nebraska as much as I love Nebraska ball.
And is Jake in there?

Speaker 1 He is in there. Did Jake go to the Vermont game Sunday? No.
Saturday, no.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Okay. I thought you were more loyal.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 5 you have,

Speaker 5 just to clear it up, you have Wisconsin in the Final Four playing against Purdue?

Speaker 5 If you're rooting for Big Cat sadness, that's not a bad way to go.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Although the happiness of beating Duke would kind of.

Speaker 5 That's true. You get that.

Speaker 1 Listen, Steve, I like 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.

Speaker 1 You saw it in the Northwestern game. When AJ Store hits one or two threes, no one can guard him off the dribble.

Speaker 1 And then when you have to come out and like even Crowell hitting a top of the key three, that all opens up.

Speaker 1 Klezman can obviously get hot, but I just, I just, 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

Speaker 1 went to see JMU the night before we pft and hung out um at that great university and they are they're as different a team because they just absolutely violate the three-point line right and your recipe for a tournament upset everybody loves that and they got purple and people love that so people love purple people

Speaker 5 do people love purple people love purple okay yeah i'll i'll buy that but what about so um jmu hasn't really played in big gyms jake was talking to me about that earlier

Speaker 5 They played at Michigan State, obviously. Does that have anything to do? Is the moment going to be too big for these Dukes playing in Brooklyn?

Speaker 1 No, it's about Big Dukes' energy.

Speaker 1 That's the biggest thing here.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 the lighting at the Barclays is always off to me. I mean, that A-10 tournament is as dark a backdrop as possible.

Speaker 1 So, no,

Speaker 1 I don't worry about the

Speaker 1 rims. These rims are brand new.
They bring them in for, it feels like every single pod.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But no, it's it's a real interest, it does, it does feel too public to me, okay? For for the 12-5, everybody loves the 12-5, I get it.

Speaker 1 Um, I like looking more towards down for upsets, but I get everybody's misstand.

Speaker 1 It's going to be a fantastic, it might be the best game of the first round.

Speaker 1 Uh, so it's it's it's what my my thing is just more inclined to

Speaker 1 what's the bet for all four guys involved.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Here's my problem.

Speaker 5 I'm sure there will be something.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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, say, Max?

Speaker 7 What about like an NBA playoff series where

Speaker 1 well, you guys bet that? I'm talking about myself. I'm talking about myself personally.
Like, I care so much about the Badgers in the tournament that, like, there's already so much

Speaker 1 at stake that, like, humiliation of losing in the first round sucks. Humiliation of losing to Duke would suck.

Speaker 1 Humiliation of Jake, like, you know, being like, oh, I'm kind of rooting for Wisconsin against Vermont. Like, I hope you guys have fun.
That would suck. So there's like no,

Speaker 1 there's nothing that could be. It's just 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

Speaker 1 you just

Speaker 1 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 i could never bet against my team i could never do that but what's wrong with what's what's wrong with you how much would you pay how much would you pay to there you know that wisconsin was going to advance

Speaker 5 50k 50 yeah there you go and then JMU hits you get

Speaker 1 probably another

Speaker 1 probably a hundred to beat Duke

Speaker 1 if I just paid for them to win the national title then you're like a booster I would pay a million dollars if they won the national title this year I have no problem okay yeah I would be like I could just I could just be happy for the rest of my life o'deal you're gonna make it done

Speaker 1 we've talked about

Speaker 1 I will say do you want to pay so like this is what worries me about Vermont against duke is jake not being at the game like he went last year he was all in and now like 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 this is when the mercer happens this is when lehigh happens it's when they're on the four line and that's that's what scares me they're as talented as anybody i just haven't seen that angst uh a little more emotion would be nice and that's what worries me about the Dukes.

Speaker 5 We've talked about doing some sort of bet where me and Big Cat meet in the middle in terms of our weights.

Speaker 5 If one person, so I'm not going to ask Big Cat how much, 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.

Speaker 5 But the loser should have to come to the other person's weight.

Speaker 5 Like in a calendar year, like, what if I had to put on like 50 pounds and just get fat as fuck?

Speaker 1 It would be funny. It would be funny.
What are you weighing out?

Speaker 1 I haven't, honestly, it could be anything.

Speaker 5 I haven't weighed myself in like a year.

Speaker 1 Loser has to go to 210.

Speaker 5 Loser goes to 210.

Speaker 1 I got way better.

Speaker 1 You got four guys and you got the four teams. Max has to pick a guy who he's going to back.

Speaker 1 The winner of this pod gets to pick one of the losers.

Speaker 1 and shave or cut his hair in the style that he wants.

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 5 But I'm going to have to get odds. Like, Jake and I would have to get odds on 12-pound underdogs.

Speaker 1 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.
No, the person who wins

Speaker 1 could take it. Oh, Max is in the pool.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I like this. He's got to save that ponytail.
He's got to back somebody.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 this is the one time i thought it should have nothing to do with any punishment good idea steve it is not your style to not be part of it yeah get ready to learn well buddy great idea

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Speaker 1 Now back to Stanford Steve. All right, so other games on Friday that you love? You mentioned Texam.
I love Texas AM in this game. I think their guards are going to cause Nebraska problems.

Speaker 1 I think they're going to get, they're going to slow it down.

Speaker 1 They're going to get it like nice and dirty because Nebraska, when they go, when they go nuclear, it's fun to watch, but I think they can bother them.

Speaker 1 I totally agree. I love what I saw from AM

Speaker 1 against

Speaker 1 Tennessee in that tournament and just the wherewithal. I think they won six of seven

Speaker 1 coming in when all the pressure was on them.

Speaker 1 They were out. They were outside the bubble and really got it together.

Speaker 1 The intensity, the Nebraska AM game is going to be a fun one.

Speaker 1 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 or maybe that. No, Alabama, Charleston.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 Alabama-Charleston's at like 173

Speaker 1 now? Yeah, 173.5.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. That's getting a little crazy.
It's getting a little crazy. You got to play a perfect game for 173.5.
So what other bets on Friday have you circled? Recency bias.

Speaker 1 I'm known to be a customer of that. I have it probably definitely with Wisconsin.
I like New Mexico.

Speaker 1 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 Jr. in-house.
They were spectacular.

Speaker 1 That's what you want. They're the perfect mix.
You've got a Patino in there knowing that, you know, son probably knocked out the dad when they got an automatic bid.

Speaker 1 But I think New Mexico is playing as well as anybody.

Speaker 1 I mean, their ability from the three-point line, they got some young bigs that are good. They'll be tested against PJ Hall.
Clemson, you know, is not going to get picked because of how bad.

Speaker 1 I mean, I was there against BC. They were pathetic.

Speaker 1 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 an 11. They're favored.

Speaker 1 I believe they're the better team. I really would like to see New Mexico and Baylor in the second round.
That's a fantastic game.

Speaker 1 Jake, would you rather have Vermont playing Duke or Auburn? Because I'm thinking of like Yale and Vermont in the same category.

Speaker 1 I'd rather be playing Duke right now, just the way the two teams are playing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Auburn could not, they can't be better than they were. Yeah.

Speaker 1 They just can't.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 They didn't have to go through Tennessee or Kentucky or Alabama.

Speaker 1 And it's no offense to the SEC, but their run, they did beat two, what, two out of three tournament teams in Florida and Mississippi State. Yeah.

Speaker 1 yeah but still it's a little bit different than having to go through that gauntlet yep they beat a n too in the championship right no they beat florida yeah they beat florida they beat florida and florida's a team i absolutely loved coming in before the injury i i i honestly thought they could have won a national championship um i still think they could do some damage uh i thought they got a tough draw with um playing the winner of the 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 Kolick is.

Speaker 1 It feels like Kentucky is way too public for me.

Speaker 1 Just knowing how many people have picked them to go to the Final Four. Grand Canyon is really interesting.

Speaker 1 Totally different style of play that they're going to play against St. Mary's.
And

Speaker 1 the games in Spokane.

Speaker 1 It feels like both those fan bases there. You know, Grand Canyon's done a great job of creating a great home atmosphere wherever they go, where it feels like in

Speaker 1 the southwest of the country.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I would pick Grand Canyon in that one. St.
Mary's, the Jefferson injury has been huge for them. It really hurts them as far as defense, and that's what you need.

Speaker 1 Tyon, the kid for

Speaker 1 Grand Canyon, is a pro.

Speaker 1 If you haven't seen him, I think he's going to be a name that you're going to know for sure. Alabama is an absolute

Speaker 1 crapshoot. Like, I don't, I Charleston.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 do a good job of

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 shoot threes and layups and try and block your shot. So that's an interesting matchup.
I would side with Bama winning. I can see myself taking the points with college at Charleston in that one.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 The last I saw was FAU minus two and a half.

Speaker 5 Okay, so I like Northwestern.

Speaker 5 My analysis is twofold, real in-depth shit here, okay? One, Boo-Booey is fun to say, and he's fun to root for.

Speaker 1 He's a good player.

Speaker 5 Boo-booey. You're going to want to say that name a lot.

Speaker 5 Number two is a lot of chatter about Dusty May.

Speaker 5 A lot of chatter. A lot of chatter about

Speaker 5 his next destination maybe going up to Kentucky somewhere.

Speaker 5 I like Northwestern in this game. I guess they are true underdogs because a lot of these seeds we were talking about earlier get the higher seeds.
They're actually favored by Vegas.

Speaker 5 But I like Northwestern. Sounds like you like him, too.

Speaker 1 I do. I do just because of how much everybody has jumped on this.
UConn has all the final four teams from last year.

Speaker 1 well if fau was that good they wouldn't i thought they got overseed i don't think they should be an eighth seed uh 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 fairly dickinson in the next round uh i thought really that got themselves going uh towards their final four run but it's it fau just feels way too public to me uh i still think north they're another team i i really like northwestern when they were fully healthy and now they got two injuries.

Speaker 1 But I, Boo-Booe's fantastic. Uh, I think Northwestern will make enough outside shots, uh, and I like being on the other side of the public in that one.
So, I do have Northwestern playing UConn.

Speaker 5 You guys always talk about fading the public. I know you talk about a lot in college football season.
Is the public stupider in football or in basketball in the college game?

Speaker 1 I feel like with the bracket, it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's it's really like

Speaker 1 really centrally focused. Um, like you feel like, don't you feel like you know everybody's underdog picks? Yeah.
Yeah. You know, like,

Speaker 1 that's the good part of the days leading up is you're really, oh, you like, oh, I got it. You like James Madison too.
Got it. Heard that.
So they get talked up.

Speaker 1 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 the public.

Speaker 1 That's impossible because the public does win. But

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And it's, it's, and like I said, I'm, I'm caught in it with Wisconsin in the final four.

Speaker 1 With my, 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.

Speaker 1 And they lost, Wisconsin did, but they were fantastic, you know, in, in what they did. New New Mexico was as good as they played all year.

Speaker 1 And it's hard to, and, you know, that New Mexico Clemson, I mentioned it before, that's the,

Speaker 1 there's not a bigger difference of perception of teams with how hot New Mexico is and how not good Clemson looked in their last game.

Speaker 1 So I do feel like that, but I always have an 11 going to the Sweet 16 and New Mexico is mine this year.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 Any upsets, any one or two seeds that should at least be on the Steve alert?

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 Houston, just because they're not healthy and the way they play

Speaker 1 with just

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And AM has guys that can score some buckets.

Speaker 1 And so does Nebraska. So

Speaker 1 I think Houston has the toughest matchup when when it comes to second-round games for the one seeds. North Carolina,

Speaker 1 never mind.

Speaker 1 No, you could say that. No, because, I mean, this will be Saturday preview, too.
So if North Carolina is playing Mississippi State or Michigan State.

Speaker 1 That's the next toughest to me. Yeah, because I think people will be shocked.
So if Michigan State wins their first-round game, I think people will be shocked when that line comes out and it's like...

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 5 And seven's a push.

Speaker 1 Seven's a push. Seven max wins.
I went on seven. I'm the guest.
No, well, you said 10. You said double digits.
So I think seven has to be a push. Seven and a half.

Speaker 1 I was just making sure you were listening to me. Yeah, yeah.
No, I'm listening. I'm listening.

Speaker 1 What does the

Speaker 1 March Madness setup look like for Stanford Steve? Because you don't go to Vegas. You go to Vegas for Conference Championship.

Speaker 1 Did that. ACC was here, so I did that.

Speaker 1 I will split some time here at the Great Cleveland Park Bar and Grill in D.C.

Speaker 1 watching games there with all the TVs. And then my setup is really good at home.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 It's the fantasy football mentality. I think going out to watch NFL regular season games now is,

Speaker 1 what are they called?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Only four TVs? It's all I need. Do you have a

Speaker 1 fifth? NIT is going to be playing. I guess it doesn't play exactly.
On Saturday, they play some NIT games early. What do you think about Villanova's chances in the NIT?

Speaker 1 It depends if they want to play. Okay.

Speaker 5 What do you think it'd be funny if they finished second?

Speaker 1 That would be the best. Would you watch a Matt Max live stream of the NIT games? I'm trying to get him to live stream.
No one wants to watch that. I would.

Speaker 1 What about a personal feed just for me and you, Steve? Would you watch it?

Speaker 1 I'll FaceTime in a couple times. Okay.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I think you just described FaceTime. Max just FaceTime big cat while you watch it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm fine. I put him up on cameo.
Yeah. Love doing

Speaker 1 that. OnlyTime fans.
Oh, we should put Max's. Max watches OnlyFans.
Oh, you just get OnlyFans feed of Max watching all his sports teams.

Speaker 5 Max is him being sad.

Speaker 1 We could get so much money from that. Just give out a cell phone number.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what you want. Check in with him.

Speaker 5 That's a good point.

Speaker 5 Man, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 14 When you're hungry out there, you start acting like a rookie quarterback in his first game, making bad decisions, messing up the basics, being all out of sorts. That's where Snickers comes in, man.

Speaker 14 That thing is packed. Roasted peanuts, nugget, caramel, milk chocolate.
It's like the MVP of candy bars.

Speaker 14 And when you bite into it, boom, it sorts you out, gets your head back in the game of life, satisfying your hunger. Remember this: Snickers handles your hunger so you can handle everything else.

Speaker 14 Snickers satisfies, man.

Speaker 1 That's a winning play.

Speaker 5 Steve, do you have a Fitbit or like an Apple Watch? I do. Yeah, I want to see what your steps are going to be like on Friday.
Like if you're just posted up in your basement.

Speaker 1 They weren't great Saturday. I'll tell you that.

Speaker 5 What do you think the over-under would be on Saturday?

Speaker 1 Saturday, I got more time

Speaker 1 because the games start

Speaker 1 later.

Speaker 1 So I'll make sure to get something.

Speaker 1 I've been trying to do the five miles a day, VFT. Really? Yeah.
Yeah. So driving? Not driving.
There's

Speaker 1 majority jogging. There's been some, we've been up ticking on the running.

Speaker 1 But yeah, we've been trying 35 miles last week. Wow.
Steve walks. Yeah.

Speaker 1 As a protector of Scott Van Pelt, and you've done a very good job of that. You are his

Speaker 1 bouncer. Charles Oakley.
Yeah, it's Charles Oakley.

Speaker 1 Was there any hesitation having him do Frank walks?

Speaker 1 No. Okay.

Speaker 5 You didn't think that Frank was just going to throw him into the reflecting pool?

Speaker 1 No. No, no, no.
Because Scott deserves a lot of credit. He is an everyman.

Speaker 1 When we were setting it up, I was like, Scott, will you do this? He's 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 There's been a long-lost love, I would say, all along. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
I agree.

Speaker 5 They did find some common ground there.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's beautiful.
Yeah. I mean, there's not better.
There's not better. I mean, Frances was walking

Speaker 1 felt like on the streets during garbage day. They had garbage trucks going around, and Scott was down by the reflective pool.
It was, it was, it was gorgeous.

Speaker 5 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 have I gotten myself into?

Speaker 5 He's great at changing the subject. Did a wonderful job with that.

Speaker 1 DFT, I never got back to you you after game day at JMU.

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 1 being at game day every Saturday and then like doing like we did. We left the office,

Speaker 1 FaceTimed a couple of friends to check in that got mentioned on the show.

Speaker 1 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, yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you remember how messed up people were? Yeah, they got after it.

Speaker 5 And it was also like it was one o'clock in the afternoon. It was a very special occasion, too.
I expected a big state school, like an LSU, probably the

Speaker 5 average BAC over the course of a season's worth of Saturdays, probably higher. But since it was college game day and the stakes were so high, it was like just a big, it was like, like you said, St.

Speaker 5 Patrick's Day for Central Virginia. It was wonderful.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the amount of grown women we asked for directions to the tailgate tailgate that just couldn't even speak. They had no idea.
It was

Speaker 1 numerous.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Okay. All right.

Speaker 5 Thank you, ma'am. Take care.

Speaker 5 No,

Speaker 5 it was a very fun time. I'm glad that we got to experience that together.
And the FaceTimes afterwards,

Speaker 5 pretty incredible. If

Speaker 5 you follow Texas football message boards, you can probably put together who we were talking with and her monkey. Her monkey was also there.

Speaker 1 Was there?

Speaker 5 Yeah, fantastic time.

Speaker 1 Steve, off the tournament question. Are Hank Celtics going to win the NBA title? No.
Oh. What the fuck? Oh.
They're so.

Speaker 1 I will say this.

Speaker 1 Sounds like a yes.

Speaker 1 I want it to be Denver, Boston, because

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Like that, that's what that sport needs to me, because when it comes to pure basketball, I believe those are the two best teams.

Speaker 1 But I don't see Boston beating Denver because he's the best player. Your comments, Hank.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 Denver's got a pretty good team. Like, Jokic plays pretty good team basketball.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter. Like, you four could go out there.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You'll get a couple wins in the playoffs. Yeah, he'd get us some open looks.
For sure.

Speaker 5 Steve, back to

Speaker 5 the Frank Walks thing again.

Speaker 5 So I don't know how involved behind the scenes you are in the graphics department on Sports Center, but maybe one time this season, as a treat, as a treat, if the Mets lose, could you actually have the logo spin

Speaker 1 and have

Speaker 5 Scott's head spin as they go into Sports Center? All right, because Frank has made up this entire fictional world in his head

Speaker 5 where Scott loves it when the Mets lose and his head starts spinning around.

Speaker 5 Just like you don't have to talk about it, but just as Sports Center's intro, just have like a little SVP logo with a head spinning around.

Speaker 1 or maybe, yeah, or maybe like a if you do Sunday Night Baseball and the Mets lose, like maybe like a piñata of Frank and be like, Mets lose, Mets lose.

Speaker 5 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 turning it into reality.

Speaker 1 But I think that's actually good for Frank because he'd be like, See, I was right all along. Yeah,

Speaker 1 that would be the end. Yeah, that would he would he would win that one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, uh, 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

Speaker 1 you are a die-hard Mets fan, and you are on that show, and still, Frank, is like, they hate the Mets. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, 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.

Speaker 5 Steve, what do you think about Major League Baseball's strategy of having opening day overseas during the NCAA tournament?

Speaker 5 Quite something. When you say it out loud like that,

Speaker 5 it sounds just about as bad as you can get. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 it's brutal. Steve, what...
Especially when they're trying to get back to where they were. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. That one's tough.
What team in the tournament would have worked worse for your

Speaker 1 poorest nickname? Because you're Stanford Steve, but like would...

Speaker 1 Would Grand Canyon Steve have worked if you had gone there?

Speaker 1 St. Peter, Steve? That would have worked.

Speaker 1 I always think about that. You went to Stanford, SS, but what happens if you had decided to go to McNeese State? McNeese State, Steve? How about Drake Steve? Drake Steve?

Speaker 5 Drake Steve would be good.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 Drake Steve got a huge hog.

Speaker 1 Do you regret not going to Notre Dame? I don't. I don't.
Why?

Speaker 1 You would have been able to get a cushy job as an executive somewhere in Chicago. Yeah, that's not fun.

Speaker 1 I guess that's probably

Speaker 1 fun.

Speaker 5 Florida Steve would never get a job.

Speaker 1 Florida Steve would rock.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you'd be a lot of fun to hang out with. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I don't know if Florida Steve would be alive. Wait, what were the other? What were the other schools that you were deciding between?

Speaker 1 North Carolina. North Carolina Steve would be cool.
Yep.

Speaker 1 Okay. Duke Steve would suck.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Howard Steve?

Speaker 1 Not Howard.

Speaker 1 Grambling Steve? Yeah.

Speaker 5 Southern Steve. Southern Steve would be awesome.

Speaker 1 Rock, yeah. Tarleton State Steve.

Speaker 1 Billy Clyde.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of Steve's.

Speaker 1 South Carolina would be hard to say. Yeah, South Carolina, Steve, would be weird.
I did get a t-shirt one time from Sanford that

Speaker 1 they made shirts that said Sam, not Stan.

Speaker 1 The Bulldog. That's good.

Speaker 5 What about BYU, Steve?

Speaker 1 Soaking Steve. Soaking Steve.

Speaker 17 Hey, this is Rhea from Chicks in the Office. And this season, we're heading home for the holidays with Abercrombie and Fitch.
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Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Jamal Mashburn Jr., I'm biased. Jamal Mashburn is David, one of my favorite people ever to work with at ESPN.
We'll take New Mexico. I like AM.
Wade Taylor IV, I think, is a tremendous player.

Speaker 1 And I like the matchup for AM for a full 40 minutes against Nebraska. And I believe UAB is getting too many points against San Diego State.

Speaker 1 When you look at what UAB is,

Speaker 1 I love Andy Kennedy,

Speaker 1 just a phenomenal dude. They got six guys that average about

Speaker 1 eight points or more a game. And we love how San Diego State loves to dial it back, you know, play defense, slow pace.
I believe UAB has enough guys to keep that game close enough.

Speaker 1 So we're going to go New Mexico, AM, and UAB.

Speaker 5 Okay, and your final four.

Speaker 1 My final four, where is it? Is you're one bracket guy, right? You're one bracket guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, good. Thank God.
And are you a highlighter guy?

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 if we can get to Saturday and feel good, that's always a good feeling. But again, be careful.

Speaker 1 Don't go multiple brackets this year because you're never going to get the combinations right with how you separate them. Yes.
I have Yukon, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Okay.

Speaker 1 I fucking love this time of year so much. It's the best, best two days of the year.

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 1 What do you like?

Speaker 1 I like last Friday and Saturday. Yeah, I mean, I do love conversations.
I mean, if you Saturday, like, that's what it's about, of all those bids getting stolen because now

Speaker 1 you the angst that 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.

Speaker 1 And then all these teams, I'm being at N DC for the NC State run was incredible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like those guys walking in for the games like on Thursday, seeing big man walk in, I was like, man, he's he's got to get himself ready.

Speaker 1 Sure enough, he plays 17 minutes in that first half against North Carolina and was awesome. He's so smooth.

Speaker 5 So, okay, so who do you have in your finals?

Speaker 1 UConn, Tennessee. UConn Tennessee.

Speaker 5 UConn, Tennessee. And then UConn winning it all.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 5 Congrats to Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 PFT's going to be at the game. I'm going to be at that.
Oh, you're going. I got to kill me, though.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 I'm sorry. It's in Brooklyn, and it's 10 minutes away from the arena.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 I'm going to be ready, dressed up for a big dance.

Speaker 1 This is very easy. You just go Chippendale's costume to the game.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I go shirtless with the bow tie.

Speaker 5 No one wants to see that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 Wait, Hank, what did you say?

Speaker 1 Well, me and PFT have this bracket busters team where if Jimmy

Speaker 1 advances the farthest, we get to split 40 grand. So I'm going to be all JMU Friday night.
So

Speaker 1 I'll be catching the wrath.

Speaker 1 I'll be going nuts at Hank. This piece of shit.
He is a piece of shit. So you're in the room.
Yeah, and I will be mad at him.

Speaker 5 Actually, Hank, we were talking about having Ibo put on the wig and glasses. Hank should have to do that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm going to be mad at you. I will take out the wrath on Hank.
It's going to bother me. Planning Friday of March Madness.
Crazy. Crazy.
It's tough.

Speaker 5 It's a tough one. Crazy.

Speaker 1 Did they look at the calendar? That's the major question.

Speaker 5 I can say with confidence that they did not.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 I will say for the benefit, this is a week later.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
You know, like this, this year is weird with you know, Masters being in the middle of August or April. Um, so

Speaker 1 yeah, okay,

Speaker 1 I'll be in touch and uh see you guys in Phoenix. Yes, see you in Phoenix.
Wings on Friday, Friday. Friday for the women's final four.
Lovely.

Speaker 1 Who do you got in that?

Speaker 1 I got well, I got Iowa, LSU.

Speaker 5 No, they

Speaker 1 took that. I know.
I know.

Speaker 1 I got LSU, Stanford,

Speaker 1 UConn,

Speaker 1 line.

Speaker 1 Help me. South Carolina.
There you go. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Yeah, South Carolina, they're undefeated, right?

Speaker 1 There you go. Okay, getting it.
Undefeated. Yes, that's my final four.
I don't know if any of them play each other early.

Speaker 1 No, you're good. Oh, okay.
I'm good. That's

Speaker 1 lock it up.

Speaker 5 There's been more buzz about the women's game this year. It's good.

Speaker 5 Like, some of the teams hate each other, which I personally love. Yeah.

Speaker 1 They have more star power. Oh, by far.

Speaker 5 That's far. That's the one thing about women's sports I think a lot of people 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.

Speaker 5 So getting some hatred, some rivalries going, that's good for the sport.

Speaker 5 We want to be like Caitlin Clark sucks, she flops, you know? Like we want to have those takes.

Speaker 1 I think the only thing that would surpass the women's Final Four is if Kentucky gets the Final Four. I feel like the America will be go hard on the Reed Shepard bandwagon.

Speaker 1 Because the story with his parents and all that stuff, Kentucky. Dad made me cry in college when they beat Stanford in the Final Four.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so I think that's got the March Madness storylines written all over it. Yeah.
Texas brackets up for grabs. That's what Stanford's to, just so you know.

Speaker 1 That's mayhem and 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.

Speaker 1 Drink a lot of water. Dan, I know you don't have a problem with drinking all that water.

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Speaker 1 just like football it's about grit grind and getting it done head to chevy.com to learn more and build your own chevy silverado 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 uh

Speaker 1 i mean it's the best 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

Speaker 1 i didn't do the best gambling but it's also like we get to do it again tomorrow. And it's today was Thursday, tomorrow's Friday, we get to do it all weekend.

Speaker 1 Oh, Friday's the weekend?

Speaker 1 No, we get to do it tomorrow. Oh, and then

Speaker 1 the weekend. And then weekdays and two weekend days.
Got it. Got it.

Speaker 1 Got it. It's an absolute treat.

Speaker 1 So I can't, there's really no firefest that comes to mind. We got a shooting machine.
I guess we can talk about the Rick Petino drill now that the video is out.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 Well, the stats show you exactly who's better than me.

Speaker 1 So that's kind of my firefighter. Yeah, you're firefighting.

Speaker 9 I can't admit it.

Speaker 1 I said to PFT,

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 no, no, we're actually even. I beat you in the Rick Petino.
We were on the same team for the Ric Petino shooting drill, which we got to do again. But I shot better than you.

Speaker 1 And then we got this new shooting machine. And yesterday yesterday we did, Hank and I were like, let's shoot 10 three-pointers.
And

Speaker 1 whoever has the most wins. And

Speaker 1 the first round, I won six to five out of 10. And Hank goes, well, I didn't count.
I might have hit six. Second round, I won seven to four.

Speaker 1 And he's like, all right, we'll do one more.

Speaker 1 Third round, I won again, like seven to six.

Speaker 1 And then Hank shot again and hit four. And then you left, and I hit eight.
And you're like, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 You would have just made me stick there forever. It's okay.
I weren't one of them. No, you didn't.
No, you literally did not. And Hank, all right, so yeah, that thing is all recorded on tape.

Speaker 5 And then the ones that aren't recorded on tape, the shooting machine has stats that you can look at.

Speaker 1 Which, that should be my Firefest. Memes,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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, oh, yeah, I was chucking air balls.

Speaker 1 So my stats are fucked.

Speaker 5 So really, this entire office has become just a big game of what's the coolest thing that we can get installed and still have people actually do work. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We did popcorn machine. We did the shooting machine.
We have a golf simulator.

Speaker 1 We're going to get a

Speaker 5 battle cage, we're going to get a flight sim. Yep.

Speaker 1 Pickup wants to get a barber chair in the gym. I do.
I want to get a barber chair.

Speaker 5 Hank, here's... You get a massage.
You know what, Hank?

Speaker 1 We won't get a barber chair chair if you can 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 that's again you know it's it's it's my year to it's my prove it year I gotta prove it I like Hank is looking at

Speaker 1 three-point shooting like it's like it's art like it's subjective yeah I'm just better than it well it depends on who you ask like sometimes

Speaker 1 like big cat beat me my maybe

Speaker 1 every time we shoot I shoot better than you

Speaker 1 well

Speaker 1 we'll do an official official contest I beat you no what about chilies what about you've got so Max has chilies

Speaker 5 early onset Flemies.

Speaker 1 I've beat you in Chili's contest, too. Max has early information.

Speaker 1 Every time we've done it, I've beaten you.

Speaker 5 So, Max has early onset Fleming. Hank has early onset Billy football.
Yeah.

Speaker 5 This entire last 45 seconds has been verbatim a Billy football excuse.

Speaker 9 But I'm at least a,

Speaker 1 it's just the realization, which is kind of like, you know, people have watched this grow as watched me grow on this podcast. And it's just the realization that I'm like super, super, super washed up.

Speaker 1 Not that I was ever really like

Speaker 1 prime when I was younger.

Speaker 1 Like I was never like a prime athlete in my early 20s, but I was decent. But now I've just, you know, slowly realized that I'm really washed up.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 5 But can you ever really be washed if you were never dirty to begin with?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I just wasn't that dirty. Yeah, you were never filthy.
I honestly don't, like, no offense to you, but I don't think it's like a washed up thing.

Speaker 1 I think just BFT and and I are better athletes than you. Yeah, that's where it's just.

Speaker 1 Well, it's not false. Hank,

Speaker 5 what place did you finish in the combine?

Speaker 1 We're nine years older than you and still better athletes than you.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 I think both me and Big Cat beat you in every combine event.

Speaker 1 Of course, we did. No.

Speaker 1 What? I beat you. I don't know.

Speaker 1 I'm not. I definitely beat you in something.

Speaker 11 Yeah, this is Billy.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I will.

Speaker 1 All right, PFT.

Speaker 5 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 back right now.

Speaker 1 Oh, shit.

Speaker 5 So I think someone's bringing him back to the office. It's after midnight right now.

Speaker 1 I have early onset Billy. Max is early onset.
Frank Fleming. PFT has early onset dementia.
Yes, correct. Correct.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's actually true.

Speaker 5 Billy does act like he has CTE. I probably have CTE before Billy does.
I played more organized sports at a high level.

Speaker 5 My other Fire Fest is that I'm traveling during March Madness tomorrow.

Speaker 1 So when's your flight? That's why

Speaker 1 it's crazy Africa. Yeah, it is crazy.

Speaker 5 So my flight is... I don't know why you're packed either.

Speaker 1 No, definitely.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Also, it doesn't matter. You can't get into your house.

Speaker 5 I can't get in my house. So, yeah, I can't pack anything.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 Oh, dude.

Speaker 1 I i think it's at noon tomorrow that's brutal it's brutal and what airline uh what why do you ask tvs uh american nope no tvs i think delta is a tv place i can't keep track of which ones have tvs as long as it's not a bowing guarantee also united and american can be it's really hard 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're you can't look at twitter yeah you can't look at your score apps and every time the

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 Then I'm going to be at a wedding during some of the other games, which,

Speaker 1 yeah, I love love.

Speaker 5 I'm in favor of people getting married.

Speaker 1 Go for it.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 There's an ultimate future me being like, yeah, you know what?

Speaker 5 I'm going to go to this wedding. I'm going to miss some of the games.

Speaker 5 I'm going to sneak watch some of the games. That's my plan during the reception, during probably the ceremony too.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 So I'm going to be wearing a tux to

Speaker 1 the game.

Speaker 5 It's the big dance. Yeah, that's fun.
And we're going dancing. Yeah.

Speaker 5 But the whole situation, and then I have to fly back on Saturday during the games, also during the early games.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 That's how it's going to go. I'm going to look at it.

Speaker 1 I'm going to look at a number. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Then I'm going to get on the plane. And then when I get off the plane, that number will be much smaller.

Speaker 5 That's how I'm spending my March Madness tomorrow. So

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 1 I'm the one that suffers the most from this, by the way. Well, yeah, you touching me is a problem.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Hank's gotten very gropey.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, no, but I'm also, you know, PFT picked JMU as our bracket buster team, so I have no choice but to root for JMU against Wisconsin.

Speaker 5 Yeah, Hank really didn't want to pick JMU. I know I wanted to pick Jamie.

Speaker 1 You might have to watch it in a different room.

Speaker 1 Big Cat is going to lash out on me when it's like I'm just trying to support the company by rooting for my David Busters team.

Speaker 5 Hank, I'm counting on you to be as annoying as possible. I don't want to be.

Speaker 1 I just want to like

Speaker 1 people get in trouble for not for not promoting it.

Speaker 1 He doesn't have to try.

Speaker 1 He could just be.

Speaker 9 Well, today, it's like we had to do a huddle up thing.

Speaker 1 And what do you do when you huddle up? You grab your teammate's shoulders and you bring them together. I did that in Big Cat.
Give the actual context. You want a bet and big bet.
Touch me. Touch me.

Speaker 1 And then immediately. I lost a big bet.
Who do you think you are thinking you can touch me?

Speaker 1 Immediately after you're like touching me and touching my neck. It's a technical foul.
It should have been a technical foul. You touched

Speaker 1 above the shoulders. That's a technical foul.

Speaker 9 That's all I wanted.

Speaker 5 He pinned the arm down.

Speaker 1 Big Cat pulled me over and then I dropped everything and then stole my phone. Grand Theft Auto.

Speaker 5 Is that what an auto is?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 We might the losers definitely going to be mad looking at at the social media posts from the winner.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be just mad. If the Wisconsin losers will be mad at Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I, like, I'll be very upset if Wisconsin loses, but I also will. 15 minutes doing that.
I will be. I'll be very happy for you because I love you as a friend, whereas this guy over here,

Speaker 12 I want him to fail.

Speaker 5 I'm going to be happy for for you too, Big Cat, and I'm going to root for you very hard

Speaker 5 against Duke or Vermont.

Speaker 5 I just want to say right now, if Wisconsin wins,

Speaker 5 I'm converting my JMU fandom. I want you to absorb our powers.
Yes, no, I will

Speaker 1 beat Duke

Speaker 1 or Vermont. Got to beat Duke.

Speaker 5 Actually, I hope Duke loses.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 whenever Duke loses.

Speaker 5 So it's a pretty bad firefest. All things considered, you know,

Speaker 5 could be worse. But in terms of the sports calendar and travel syncing up, I feel like this is

Speaker 5 like an equinox of shit for me that I have to deal with.

Speaker 1 All right, my Fire Fest is short and sweet.

Speaker 1 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, but then I decided to get a haircut and shave right before all of our streams.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 a couch for four days straight with just the worst angles possible.

Speaker 1 I saw every single clip today and I was like, holy fuck, I have not lost weight.

Speaker 5 What happens is

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 5 And then he just lowers the cameras and gets the perfect angle to make us look as bad as possible.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so that was a shock today. So just a reminder to not shave right before March Madness.

Speaker 10 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 uh but there's definitely a way to look extra bad and i've done it uh 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 your number two seed or your your champion champion north carolina your champion did not lose in the first round.

Speaker 10 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.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's kind of nice, kind of sweet that you still care that much about your bracket. Yeah.

Speaker 10 Because that's all I have, my integrity. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And just like, yeah. I don't think your integrity's

Speaker 1 tied to it. I don't think your reputation's tied to it either, but sure.

Speaker 10 In my own head.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Like, imagine if we,

Speaker 1 to put it on this side of the glass, like, imagine if I was like, my reputation is based on my gambling picks.

Speaker 1 I would be messing. People would be calling me Hitler.

Speaker 10 But this is like the only time where I publicly make picks on something and hold myself to it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's not fun. What about the NFL season? Yeah, what about...

Speaker 15 Oh, yeah, the bowling. Yeah.

Speaker 10 That too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 5 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, like, it's a bad jig.
Bad jig.

Speaker 1 If you lose your entire Final Four before the Sweet 16, you should have to shave Max's back.

Speaker 1 I literally have zero hairs.

Speaker 1 Let's go, Max.

Speaker 5 I love it, Max. All right, his chest.

Speaker 5 Well, no, because Max gets waxed. Oh, yeah, you do get waxed.

Speaker 1 He gets waxed and nared.

Speaker 5 A Brazilian Max. Max has the...

Speaker 1 That's what he orders. Max has the fucking cleanest pussy in this show.

Speaker 5 He's a smooth little Italian.

Speaker 5 Who's my smooth little boy?

Speaker 1 Yeah. He's like a little baby boy.
All right.

Speaker 1 Let's wrap it up. We'll We'll see everyone on Monday where we'll do a full recap.

Speaker 1 Uh, Shane Gillis episode is gonna come on Wednesday, so we're gonna do Monday because we're gonna we don't do it a guest on Mondays.

Speaker 1 I misspoke a couple weeks ago, uh, so it will be coming on Wednesday, but Monday will be just pure talking about everything with the boys.

Speaker 1 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 go.

Speaker 1 Uh, okay, numbers:

Speaker 1 20, 40, 30, 68, 18,

Speaker 8 99. Pug.

Speaker 1 What did you say, PFT? 8. 21.

Speaker 10 I will say, Golki's number 3, so I feel good about this guy next to me.

Speaker 1 34.

Speaker 1 Half a 68.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 5 Love you guys. Talking away.

Speaker 5 I don't know what I'm to say. I'm saying anyway.

Speaker 5 Today's a matter of day to find you shy away.

Speaker 5 I'll be coming for your love of pay for your love of me.

Speaker 5 Take on

Speaker 5 me,

Speaker 5 take

Speaker 5 me on.

Speaker 5 I'll be on

Speaker 5 today.

Speaker 5 Be less to say

Speaker 5 about sentence, but I'll be stirring a little way.

Speaker 5 So learning that life is okay.

Speaker 5 Say after me.

Speaker 5 It's not better to be safe. It's not better to be safe.
It's all better to be safe. It's all better to be safe.

Speaker 5 Take on me.

Speaker 5 Take

Speaker 5 me up.

Speaker 5 I'll be your

Speaker 5 daughter.