Jon Rothstein, Brackets Revealed & Tom Brady Cucks Selection Sunday

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On today's part of my take, we have John Rothstein in studio. Brackets are here.
We're very excited. We're going to talk about March Madness, fill out our brackets, break it all down.
We also have who's back of the week. A certain someone decided to steal the spotlight right after the brackets were introduced.
Tom Brady, so we'll talk about that. We have Billy's final four.
Final four for quarterbacks in the 2022 draft. I actually, Kenny Pickett texted me and was like, I heard I'm in some type of bracket for Billy football.
And I was like, yep, no pressure, but he's listening. No pressure.
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Bye. We'll be right back.
It's part of my take presented by Marshall Sports. Welcome to part of my take presented by Visible.
Go to visible.com. Right now, Visible has a single line plan for as low as 25 bucks a month with unlimited data talk text and hotspot 5g is included plus it's powered by verizon today is monday march 14th and tom brady has cucked our brackets tom brady of all the dramatic things that i've ever seen tom brady fucked over the kids.
He fucked the kids today. We're going to do brackets.
Let's just do Tom Brady real quick. He didn't just kiss him on the lips.
He fucked him over. He's back right before free agency starts.
If you think that Tom Brady ruined Brackets Sunday, which he kind of did at the end there because the brackets came out and then he dropped the bomb that he's coming back for a 23rd season his retirement lasted like 40 days uh if you think it's bad for us because all we want to do is talk about brackets let me just give a little perspective for everyone in the world right now you ready for this perspective there's a gentleman who not just 12 hours ago paid $518,000 for at an auction for Tom Brady's

final touchdown in the NFL pass. Wow.
$518,000 for Tom Brady's final touchdown pass on ESPN. So I was just thinking a couple hours ago, that guy that sold the ball back to the Bucs, remember the one where they stole it back from him in the stands? That was his, like, whatever, 600th or whatever it was.

Yeah, the one that surpassed the record.

Yeah, that's right.

That guy, like, probably feels pretty good about where he's at right now.

Compared to this guy?

Compared to this guy because, geez, the Bucs fucked him over.

Everyone's getting fucked over by Tom Brady today.

It's unbelievable.

I personally can't believe that Tom Brady would ruin Coach K's retirement tour.

The last bracket reveal.

His losing tour, which is awesome. The last bracket reveal of Coach K's career by announcing his own retirement tour.
Unbelievable. Well, he might play a 24th season.
We don't know. He's not an egomaniac like Coach K.
He hasn't fully said this is his last year. I mean, he's replaced Brett Favre now.
Yeah. I think that this is the most dramatic retirement, un-retirement.
Am I going to do it? No, I'm not going to do it. Yes, I'm going to do it.
Yes, I'm going to come back. Hashtag Shefty was wrong.
Which I get why he would do it right now because it's right before free agency starts. The legal tampering period starts on Monday.
It starts tomorrow, yeah. Yeah, so he's got to do this because I think there's 20 plus free agents in the bucks organization that probably want to come back you want to get them to come back you want other free agents to come to tampa bay so it all makes sense just why did you have to do it right as we got our brackets let me ask you this big cat do you think that uh the fact that tom realized that he would have to share his induction ceremony into the hall of fame with big ben yeah and all the steelers fans that were going to bust in from out of town.
Canton is basically a suburb of Pittsburgh. Tom Brady saw the writing on the wall.
He's like, five years from now, I don't want to get my ceremony cucked by Big Ben, so I'll just cuck the kids instead. He got it back.
Now I can just hope that maybe he retires with Aaron Rodgers and we get that. That would be very funny, too.
That would be great. But yeah, the guy bought it at auction tom brady's last touchdown and now what is it it's a touchdown pass he threw in the playoffs in a loss to the rams that's such a nothing burger so i you have to wonder like what did happen with tom brady in his retirement like you said 40 days that's like that's uh that's lint right moses moses is it moses no i think jesus stopped eating food for 40 days yeah except for fish on fridays correct i'm pretty sure it's how it went so and glennie balls glennie balls also does that tom brady is gone uh for 40 days and then he just realizes like this this retirement life isn't for me he ran out of golf to play he ran out of courses to visit well there out there that the Bucs refused to trade him, so now he's coming back to force their hand to eventually trade him.
I don't buy that. To the commanders for Carson Wentz.
He did say Tampa. He's playing in Tampa.
Our colleague Stephen Che is insufferable would be the word I would use. Insufferabler than usual.
Yeah, it's brutal to watch his face, and especially because he doesn't care. He's like the truest sense of a football guy that I don't even know if he knew that it was Bracket Sunday.
No, definitely not. But either way, let's not let Tom Brady steal the brackets from us.
I do have one of my own conspiracy theories about what's going to happen with Tom Brady coming back. Okay.
I think, so Pioli went on NFL Network today, and he was being very weird about whether or not Tom Brady is going to play for the team. You would think that would be the easiest interview of all time for him.
Like, we're super excited to have Tom Brady come back to the Bucs. Wait, Scott Pioli works on the Bucs now? Yeah.
Oh, I didn't know that. I think it was Pioli.
That's his old time guy. Yeah.
Anyway, so he was being like very cryptic about whether or not Tom Brady was going to come back and play for the Bucs. You would think he would say like, yes, Tom Brady, very excited.
My theory is that Tom Brady wants to play for the Raiders. For McDaniels, who's now the head coach of the Raiders, his old offensive coordinator.
But wouldn wouldn't he have and how awesome would that division be in quarterbacks at that point yeah that would be the dumbest move tom brady could ever do it'd be stupid purely works for the bucks no i would love it he definitely doesn't he doesn't no i think he works in tv well what was florio talking about then earlier i don't know florio florio was talking about puly fuck knows what florio was talking about well okay so florio was talking about purely being very weird and cryptic on nfl network today okay about whether or not tom brady's gonna play for like he knew something got in other words got it because i was gonna say i i that would be the dumbest move of all time to go to the raiders when he's now i i think he probably looked at it was like wait everyone's in the afFC now? I just have to beat Aaron Rodgers, who chokes every time he's in the playoffs. And maybe Matthew Stafford, who, okay, yeah, they won the Super Bowl.
Like, the Bucs, they're playing the Falcons, the Panthers, and the Saints who don't know what they're doing. I don't know.
He probably was like, hey, I could just come back and I'll be in the playoffs guaranteed. Yeah.
I mean, I don't think that the way that it played out, it didn't really surprise anybody that Tom's going to come back. He just didn't have to do it tonight.
The way that the retirement was set up and then taken back and then set up again, it seemed fishy at the time. He did thank Hank, though.
How does this impact his thank you message to you, Hank? It's exciting. It just gives him another chance.
Yeah, it does. It's a total redo.
Total redo that he gets to do it for you. I think the guy's just addicted to football and even 40 days.
He probably went on a vacation for three weeks. He got back from vacation.
He took his kids to school for maybe a week or two in a row. And he was wait this is it now and i think people want like they retire so i don't have to work out but i'm sure he's like still working out and he's like still active and he's like wait alex grero why am i still doing this if i'm not gonna play when i can just play yeah alex grero's still showing up at his house at 5 45 in the morning and giving him deep tissue massages like he's like fuck it i'm gonna play and again he it's like they just he just rolls out and he's in the playoffs you think that tom brady spent the last 40 days like actually trying other foods besides no chance the rare bison like eating buffalo heart i think he's always on call so he was like even in retirement he's like i might come back at any time like he'll eat like that forever it's gonna be very funny very funny to see Antonio Brown try to walk back everything that he said about him.

He should come back. And be like, let's come on.

Let's get everybody back. The missing piece is just Gronk

in getting Ali Marpet back, who I

wouldn't be shocked Tom Brady has that ability.

But let's not let him steal everything.

We can talk about him later on this week.

Let's talk about brackets. Oh, I thought you were going to get

to Kirk Cousins. Feel this?

Hear this? You hear this?

The bag king of all time. You hear this? That's a bracket.
There's nothing like printing out a bracket. We have our brackets.
Jake, you're going to be leaned on heavily here. I do want you to just give me real quick.
I'm looking at the bracket. In the Midwest region, there's a team that I don't think they should be there.
My November self-seed? They shouldn't have been. They shouldn't be in this bracket.
What is going on? The finale of this storyline, Wisconsin has officially made the NCAA tournament. Okay, so hashtag Jake was wrong.
Yes. We're going to get with Rothstein about the brackets.
There's just something about Selection Sunday. I know last year we we had it but it was also still weird because there was you know the covet tournament the bubble tournament whatever you want to call it just seeing like the different regions seeing the names get announced it's it's just beautiful it really feels like we're finally like it's been exactly two years we're finally back i miss when they did it alphabetically.
They just went all over the map.

It made no sense whatsoever.

Everybody was so pissed off.

This was a great bracket reveal.

I thought that CBS did a phenomenal job.

Got right to it.

Showing me the regions.

In fact, I think the only intro that they gave,

I think it was Clark Kellogg saying,

nobody wants to hear me talk, here are the teams.

That's beautiful.

That's perfect.

That's all you need to do.

Looking through it, what are your knee-jerk reactions?

I'll give you two knee-jerk reactions.

Yeah.

One, they fucked Coach K.

He specifically requested that he play his games in Chicago,

in the Midwest.

They did not listen to him.

They fucked him over.

They sent him out West.

I think that the West is the toughest region right now.

Oh, I think it's the East.

No, I think the West is.

I think that there's landmines.

Agree to disagree.

There's landmines in the West. And then I think that Wisconsin, as it stands right now, actually looks like they're going to go through the Midwest.
Okay. I know what you're doing.
I know. I told you this before we recorded.
And I've got a future on Wisconsin, too. It's fine.
It's fine. It's fine.
Thank you, Hank. Yeah.
Big Cat, would you disagree that if you were to pick any of the regions, the Midwest is probably, right now, the one that you would want Wisconsin. Well, it's the most chaotic, and obviously they have a home game in Milwaukee.
It's going to be the last game on Friday, so it was going to be fucked up, and it's going to be great, electric. But, yeah, no, listen, I've been very honest about what I thought about this Wisconsin team.
It's been an awesome season. I've enjoyed every second of the ride, except maybe the Nebraska and Michigan State game.
If they can get to the Sweet 16, I'll be very, very happy. I don't expect anything past that.
It's all gravy past that. So if they lose in the first two games and people are like, they're frauds, I'm telling you right now, I don't expect a ton.
I could be, well, I'm not going to let my hopes get up they got a great draw but i'm not gonna let my hopes get up tweeted tweeted separately thoughts from what you just said my hopes got up yeah well my hopes are up no but i'm gonna stay guarded because i'm pft's gonna troll me you're gonna laugh i swear to god i'm not fucking joke jake's gonna be like they're gonna be down by fucking 15 to colgate with the under four minute mark in the second half. He's like, they still got a chance.
And I'm going to joking. Jake's going to be like, they're going to be down by fucking 15 to Colgate with the under four-minute mark in the second half.
He's going to be like, they still got a chance. I said it when you're down two with four minutes left.
My optimism is realistic. You should change into the trigger.
You're pre-triggered about Wisconsin right now because I'm being honestly supportive. And I do think, you said it yourself, they have the best draw that you could have hoped for.
Yes. Does it mean it's going to shake out.
That's all I'm saying. Here's what I'll say.
If it's not Wisconsin that comes out of that region, I'm going to call whatever team comes out of that region possibly fraudulent. Yes.
Because it is the chaos region. It is the chaos region.
I just want to enjoy my tournament experience. and I feel like there's just so much.

So many people just want to see me be miserable, and I will be miserable eventually.

Let me have two games.

Let me get to the second weekend,

and then you can watch me die in a puddle.

Is that so much to ask?

So you're looking past Colgate.

No, I'm saying let me.

I'm actually doing the opposite.

I think every game is tough,

and I would love to get to the second weekend.

Just I know there's a lot of people waiting to shit down my throat.

Can you let me get let me let me get a little air before you shit down my throat.

I think that Tennessee got fucked to Tennessee got dry.

Fucked their three seed.

They should have been a two seed should have been one of the top two seeds.

Duke in my opinion Duke fucked Duke.

Yes.

Duke fucked Tennessee. Tennessee should have that two seed.
They should be on the other side of the top two seeds in my opinion duke fucked duke yes duke fucked tennessee tennessee should have that two seed they should be on the other side of the bracket i would argue that like i do think the east is the toughest region and i would say i would probably rather be a three seed in tennessee's spot than the two seed where kentucky is as weird as it sounds like if you wanted to switch you have a the team that just won the title last year you have a team that went to the final four last year in UCLA a Purdue team that everyone had is like a one or two seed till the end of the season Murray State is no fucking slouch so I think Kentucky got a pretty tough just won the ACC tournament like that's so that would be the solace for Tennessee fans if you you had to switch, you would probably have switched with Kentucky.

I would rather be a three where I'm at in the south

than a two in the east where Kentucky is.

Also, Coach K, I love to put him out west.

It's like he's just going coast to coast in his losing tour.

I want him to get to the Sweet 16 so we can let fans out west get an experience.

He did it.

He did it in Durham for his last game against UNC.

He came up to Brooklyn, gave everyone in New York a nice little, like,

taste of the losing tour.

Now he's going to go all the way out to the West Coast, San Francisco.

Your last chance to see Coach K lose.

It's going to be great.

I feel bad for Jake, too, because Jake, his catamounts,

they have the must-bust in the first round. Your old friend.
Yeah, verbal meme, my brain, and our handshake. It's just screwed up.
Wait, what? Your brain and your handshake. Oh, your handshake with must.
Yeah. Got it.
Your hug. It wasn't a handshake.
Whatever it was. Your hug with must.
What's the verbal meme? Just like that's what my brain looks like yeah i can tell okay got it got it that makes sense got it yeah no that's um yeah see that's what i'm saying like i i think i just like the coaches i don't know in the west you got kanzaga number one see then then you've got you got hurley you've got the musk bus you've got nato that brings a lot of stuff with him you've got penny

you've got penny up there yeah that's the that is the bracket of coaches yeah yeah um okay what everyone knows he's automatic in march yes that's true uh we have we have the uh foster lawyer uh revenge game that's one of the storylines davidson's k and iso potentially second round Kay and Izzo would be great for Izzo to take him out one last time.

The Mr. Michigan basketball player of 2018, Foster Lerner, who played for Michigan State, transferred this past spring and now stars for Davidson.
So we got that little storyline. I got a question for you, Big Cat.
Have we forgotten about Villanova? No, I actually haven't been in my Final Four. Yeah, I do too.
So I definitely have not forgotten about Villanova. i i actually have them in my final four yeah i definitely have not forgotten i think i think we as in the royal we america has forgotten about the cats i i have not i have definitely not i think they're they're definitely prime they have everything set except for maybe depth which you could say is overrated as long as you stay out of foul trouble i think uh the first time that glaspie plays in this tournament, you're going to get a lot of people that haven't seen him playing.
What, Jake? You added an extra A on his team. Gillespie.
Oh, that's – yeah, I was thinking of the fullback. But the first time he plays in the tournament, you're going to get a lot of people being like, oh, this guy's back again? Yeah, yeah, because he tore his ACL last year and he's been around for forever.
I like how Jake smugly laughed at the at the minor mispronunciation um yeah they win the Big East we also have if if you have not been online in the last three days uh this podcast has a new love affair with a certain point guard from UAB his name is Jordan Walker but he goes by the nickname Jelly we pretty much it just started with a certain point guard from UAB. His name is Jordan Walker, but he goes by the nickname Jelly.
We pretty much, it just started with a random live bet on Friday where we had the whole room live bet UAB in the first five minutes of the game. They went to three overtimes.
He scored 40. We then bet him again on Saturday night.
He's electric. Wow, willing them to overtime.
Willing them. Yes, willing them.
On his shoulders because he had all his big men foul out. So it was the jelly show.
I think at the start of the first overtime, Jerry was like, oh, this kid's just going to shoot over and over again. We're like, yep.
That's what we want. And it's going to be awesome.
He just came out there gunning. He's the perfect March Madness guy.
Like, there is certain guys. I always think of, like, when you think of the perfect March Madness story, it's like Wally Zerbiak when he went to the Sweet 16.
The guy who takes his team to a certain level just by being awesome and being unafraid. And that is Jelly Walker.
So shout out Jelly Walker, UAB. We are UAB fans now.
And Andy Kennedy, their coach. So let's hope they beat Houston.
They got a tough first-round matchup. If I were to look at which five seed would I want Jelly going up against, it probably would not have been the Cougs.
But I still think Jelly's going to do it. We're Team Jelly fam.
Yeah, of course. We can't go against Jelly.
He was too much fun to watch. Matthew Jelvadova is what people are calling him.
That's like taking over. Jersey Jelly.

He is from Jersey.

Yep.

Yep.

So, yeah.

We have a new love affair.

What other, Jake?

Give us your other big picture things.

Duke got lucky.

I think Duke.

That was an awesome game, by the way, in Brooklyn.

The thing with Duke.

Yes.

Virginia Tech.

Couture.

Duke just started six for six from three.

Coach K, like, assaulted John Shire. He did.
He slapped him. He did.
He did, Hank. You weren't watching if you missed that.
I saw it. He assaulted him.
Yeah, it was not assaulted. Yeah, it was.
Duke has to beat Gonzaga twice to go to the Final Four this season. It's tough to do.
Oh. This season, yes.
Revenge game. That is a revenge game for Gonzaga.
You think they're going to get to the Elite Eight? Assuming it's chalk. I think I'm going to take Texas Tech.
Don't take EBS. I think Gonzaga beats Duke in the Elite Eight.
Okay. I think they're going to lose maybe to CS Fullerton.
That was a great game last night, the championship game. Yeah, how do you not get a shot off? Yeah, that was crazy.
Princeton had the same thing happen.

Not getting a shot off at the end is one of the worst feelings.

I got Duke.

If you want to hear my Duke thoughts, it's going to be a Coach K revenge tour of its own.

Duke versus UConn, Elite Eight.

Duke goes to Final Four.

Play the hits.

NCAA knows what they're doing.

So Duke takes down Michigan State and then takes down UConn?

Takes down Michigan State, takes down UConn, takes down Kentuckyucky and then has to go kentucky final four and then beats who for the for the championship wisconsin um i think the south double a rigged the south region has a lot of hot teams you have the one two three and five all won their conference tournament they all have momentum what does that mean? But also maybe not rested. Yes.
Yeah, their legs are weak. What does it mean? I don't know.
What do you think it means? I mean, those are all teams that obviously had momentum, but now it's going to kind of cancel out because they're all bunched together. So, Jake, let me ask you.
In the first four, if you had to pick one of those teams to win two games, who would it be? I think Indiana's got a chip on their shoulder to restore blue blood dominance. That's just the storyline that you're rooting for.
I like the pants, too. Love the warm-up days.
Yes, of course. I'm personally going to be boycotting.
I haven't figured out which one of these games to boycott, but in solidarity with Tennessee, with Volunteer Nation, I'm going to boycott one of the first four games of this year's tournament. You can't do – it's easy.
It's Texas Southern. Okay, I'm out.
Yeah, the Texas Southern. Brian is Peter Kiss.
Yeah, leading scorer in the country. They might beat Arizona.
The cockiest fuck ever. Yeah.
Like, of all time. They might beatso.
One other thing I just want to quickly say. Tony Real, I said this, but I agree.
He said the 16 seeds having to play the playing games on the coming of the tournament. They won their conference, let them in.
Leave the plans for that at large. That is kind of bullshit.
If you win your conference tournament. Yeah, no, I agree.
You get an at-large bid, but you have to play on Tuesday. Yeah, those playing games don't really feel...
I like that they expanded the field just because it's more teams, more fun, whatever. Remember, UCLA went to the Final Four from it last year.
So you can't say that those teams aren't going to do anything. But it should be the bigger conference teams that don't need – I hate how they do – I'll expand on that point.
I also hate how they have good lower conference teams matched up in the first round. I think that's bullshit.
I think Murray State playing San Francisco is stupid. They should split those up.
They should split those up. You like to see the Power 5 or Power 6 in college basketball go against the smaller schools.
That's what makes March Madness fun. So I hate when they do that.
All right, so let's go around the room. Let's see what the final fours are.
Okay, I'll start. Gonzaga, Kentucky, Villanova, and Kansas is my final four.
Two ones and two twos. Jake.
I actually have three of the same four as Big Cat. Oh, fuck.
Wait. My bracket is busted.
Probably. No, I'm just kidding.
Everyone's bracket sucks. Gonzaga, Kentucky, Villanova, Iowa.
Ooh. Right with hot hands.
Iowa's the hottest team in the country right now. Okay.
Hank. Duke, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Tennessee.
I had Wisconsin, Iowa, Elite Eight, Big Ten matchup. I did strategically fill out my Wisconsin bracket in terms of content that I desire.
Right. That's a perfect story.
Factor that in, yeah. Right, right, right, right, right, right.
Bubba, did you fill out a bracket? I have UConn, Nova, Iowa, and Kentucky. Ooh, okay.

Spicy.

Billy?

I got Purdue, Arizona, Gonzaga, and Iowa.

Okay, and then PFT?

I got Gonzaga, UCLA, Nova, Wisconsin.

So Gonzaga's going to make their first Final Four.

We all have them.

Yep.

Not me.

Let me ask you guys, the Duke haters in the room, what?

And it's not going to happen, so I'm going to enjoy it as it strings along, but...

Thank you. Yep.
Not me. Let me ask you guys, the Duke haters in the room, and it's not going to happen, so I'm going to enjoy it as it strings along, but where could Coach K lose that's the most enjoyable for a Duke hater? Every single round.
But, like, pick a round. Every round.
Every single round. If he lost in the first round, it would be incredible.
If he lost to Coach K, it would be incredible. If he lost to Texas Tech, it would be incredible.
If he lost to Gonzaga, it'd be incredible. Kentucky, incredible.
I think maybe the best way for him to lose, because if he loses to Izzo... My answer's firm.
If he loses to Izzo, there's going to be a big hug fest, and he'll be like, okay, two gladiators going at it one last time. That's going to suck.
If he loses to Davidson against a bunch of players that wanted to go to Duke that he didn't recruit, that would be awesome. Yeah, no, I'm sticking with my answer every single round.
Fullerton. Every single round.
Fullerton would be incredible. I mean, he's lost big upsets twice before, Mercer and Lehigh.
He's been coaching for 60 years, Jake. That's twice in the last decade.
Twice in the last decade. Actually, no, I take it back.
I take it all back. The best place for Coach K to lose in this bracket would be against Vermont and then Jake giving Hank a power handshake afterwards.
Great game. Nothing to be ashamed of, Hank.
Coach K fought hard. Wish he could have won, too.
I also wouldn't hate ifphis beat them in the elite eight and every duke fan was like memphis cheats and they pay their recruits just ignoring like zion williamson and every recruit in duke history that would be very delicious should we do a we got some clarity oh no it's every round for me though the answer is as long as he loses every single round will I will make that day my favorite day.

Should we do a part of my take contest?

Nah.

Loser has to drive to New Orleans.

Yeah.

Nah.

I'm just so excited to have a bracket, even though I ripped it.

Now I can't read it. What about you guys?

You guys want to do a contest?

What do you – what contests would you like to do?

I don't know. Contests are just fun yes i agree okay i'm yeah i mean maybe we want to do a bracket like do you want to maybe we announce it on wednesday's show okay send us your ideas of good punishments and we'll pick one of those and then but what are we gonna do a bracket and who has the amount of points? Yeah.
Then people can just take 16 seeds if they want to do the punishment. Correct.
Good point, Shane. Nobody would do that.
Good point. If PFT is going to have Georgia State and Bryant in his final four.
I like how they're playing. I like the Bulldogs.
What can I say? If Bryant wins. Against Wright State, you have him beating Arizona? Money line.
I'll be taking that. I'm just so excited for Thursday.
And Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday really. And they cut us to wait the whole weekend.
Oh, it's the worst time. The worst possible.
I actually said it on the drive over. I was like, if they give us the last game on Friday, I'm going to be so upset because all the energy you use on Thursday and Friday and then to have to wait for your team to play.
The perfect time for your team to play in the tournament is Thursday at like 4 o'clock. Because you get like a little game, a few games under your belt, and then if you can win that game, you get to watch a day and a half of basketball with just like not a care in the world.
I would like Thursday the first evening evening game because you get like a little prep well not the first that that one's not a real game the game they start like like basically when everyone's still eating dinner that's always like they'll do like a one verse 16 so the one that's at like after that yeah that's at like seven o'clock because you get enough time it's not gonna sneak up on you it could sneak up on you if it was at the end of the of the afternoon games on thursday um i'm yeah i'm just pumped to pumped to see impractical joker show up on my tv pumped for um like going to the gym in the morning and the tvs are still left on tnt or whatever and they're playing the worst television shows ever created at nine o'clock in the morning just the whole environment i love march yeah march is the best um all right should we do who's back when your home system or appliance breaks down american home shield will help fix or replace the covered item no matter its age visit ahs.com slash listen for 20 off any plan cahs.com slash contracts for coverage details limitations and exclusions and then we have billy's final four on the other side of John Rothstein. Shout out Kelly Martin, by the way,

for booking that, right?

Shout out.

Big shout out.

Yeah, we wanted to make sure

that Big Mike got a shout out on that one.

He got us John Rothstein.

That's a fact.

So everyone tweet her and say thank you.

Who's back in the week?

Deshaun Watson.

Yes.

Obviously a lot of stuff going on.

I shouldn't have said it that way.

Yes.

And with, yeah, so his, he was not,

there was no charges filed

or there's no criminal charges that were found.

Thank you. see a lot of stuff going on but i shouldn't have said it that way yes and with yeah so his he was not there was no charges filed or there's no criminal charges that were found careful shefty and then shefter ate the trash hard he said this is why deshaun watson from the beginning welcome to police investigation he felt he knew that the truth would come out and today a grand jury did not charge him of any of the criminal complaints yeah and then he followed it up a couple hours later by saying this was a very poor...
Well, yeah, after the internet dunked on him for like three hours straight. So he just got shit on by everybody with a Twitter account.
And then he said this was a poorly worded tweet. After consulting with people that know more about the legal process, I would like to update it.
How little did Schefter know about the legal process to just have, like a bare minimum, I've seen The Wire one time all the way through. I know that a grand jury is just like, they either charge you with a crime or they don't think they have enough evidence to charge you with a crime.
Yeah. They should declare people innocent though.
I did see one. If you can prove innocence, there should be a third thing that they add to it.
He was found innocent of all charges. I did see one reply that made me laugh.
They're like, I would have loved to see Schefter's tweet after OJ got off. Yeah, this is why OJ welcomed the gloves being brought into the courtroom.
He was nowhere near the apartment that night. Yeah, Schefter.
He also has been wrong about Tom Brady. I think that retroactively, he loses that scoop, right? Yeah, he was being very coy the other day, too.
Yeah. Very coy.
Very coy. But people are saying Steelers, the Saints have reached out, the Panthers.
I've heard Seahawks. Seahawks.
Be a good culture fit for the Steelers. Yeah.
Steelers would be just perfect. Jameis and Deshaun is Steelers.
Steelers fans can easily take care of that. So there was a time back in like 2015, 2014, I went up to a Steelers preseason game when they signed Mike Vick to be the backup.
And there was a lady standing outside the stadium holding a poster, Steelers fan. And at the top was a picture of Big Ben.
At the bottom was Mike Vick. It said, hey Steelers, this is what what a real quarterback looks like with the arrow pointing to Big Ben protesting Michael Vick being on the team I love it also Big Ben like also had no criminal charges but still got suspended innocent yeah he was found so this is why that was the other part of the tweet where it's like legal investigation there's been plenty of examples of not like people not getting charged right but still getting suspended right correct correct um oh we forgot to we it's hasn't felt like a hundred years since we've last been in studio cleo mac did get traded yes so and i'm people that was one of those situations where people wanted me to be mad but i wasn't because i the bears need to read they need to fix everything they need to tear it all down build it back up um yeah i wasn't mad because i don't know what the point of going like seven and ten with khalil mac is yeah just probably the only reason you should be mad they probably should have done this a year ago yeah well and people people were mad because the the um the hall wasn't great you know it was a second and a six but it was more about the salary also i think that's more just like just on name.
Khalil Mack is probably going to be great for the Chargers for a year or two. He's getting older.
He's been injured a lot. That's just the reality of it.
It's a guy who's 31 with a lot of money on his salary who's been injured for essentially three years off and on. You're not going to get a ransom for him.
Right. It like uh people don't understand that football players are depreciating assets correct so just because you paid x and y for for Khalil Mack three years ago doesn't mean that you should expect to get that correct unlike but unless it's a quarterback that goes out of the division for two first round picks then if you get him hypothetically for like two third round picks,

that's a steal.

LMAO.

Also Amari Cooper to the Browns.

Yeah, which I, that doesn't,

Amari Cooper is firmly in my mind,

a guy who like just is perpetually not as good as his hype.

He's a Heisman candidate.

And he's truly a total mind bender with age because he's 27. And I thought he was like 35.
27? Yeah, he's 27. Holy shit.
He's 27, dude. Yeah, I was like, man.
He's a mind bender. Well, he's been around a little bit.
He's been around for a long time. He was fourth pick in the draft.
He's good. He's just not.
He's a guy who you will forever want to be a clear-cut number one, and he will never be that. So when they made the trade, I was like, this is actually, I like the combination of Amari Cooper and Jarvis Landry in Cleveland.
And then the next tweet from Schefter was, they're giving Landry permission to seek a trade elsewhere. Yes.
And it's like, well, okay, so I guess Cooper is your number one. Someone told me a stat that we'll have to check.
Jake, you can check it. Amari Cooper and Calvin Ridley are the exact same age, and they never played together in Alabama.
Someone said that in my replies. That's a reply guy thing that we'll have to check.
But they're both 27. But yeah, Amari Cooper being 27 makes no sense.
You could also make the argument, though, that having Amari Cooper on your roster makes whoever the number two receiver is better than Amari Cooper. Yeah, that's true.
He elevates the next guy. So, yeah.
And again, he's not bad. It's just, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're always wanting Amari Cooper to be the guy, and I don't think he ever will be the guy.
I mean, CeeDee Lamb's better than him. Right.
And you could say, like, Gallup had... Yeah.
He's been better than him recently, too. Although that one is weird, because I think there was some Cowboys fans like yeah Michael Gallup's didn't he he tore his ACL like second to last week of the season yeah it felt like was whatever I made that future on the Cowboys actually like four four hours I forgot I forgot the Gell I need to do a reset on NFL news yeah yeah Mario Cooper 12 throughari Cooper, 12 through 14, and Calvin Ridley, 15 through 17.
Same age. Never played together.
That's wild. In Alabama.
That's truly wild. So the fact that Ridley got suspended for gambling on football, if Amari Cooper got suspended for it, like when I hear it's Ridley, I'm like, that's a young kid.
He's got a lot to learn. If Cooper had gotten suspended for gambling on football,

I'd be like, that fucking dumbass should know better.

Yeah, he knows better.

He's been around forever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a truly mind-bending stat of the day.

All right, PFT, you're who's back.

My who's back of the week is Pete Davidson.

Oh, yeah.

Skeet.

Skeet Davidson is back.

Got into a little text battle with Kanye West,

and then hit him with the ultimate walk-off. There's no coming back from this i'm in bed with your wife brutal i'm in bed with your wife there's nothing that you can say to that yeah there's absolutely like you can't come back with your mom there's that's that's boss level come back yeah so uh thoughts and prayers to with the picture with the picture yeah that's so that's the over the top part is like the picture of him in bed.
But there was no picture of Kim in the picture. Right, but you'd assume she's there in bed with him.
You would assume. Yeah.
That's a tough one to come back from. I don't know how he does that.
All right, my who's back is Russell Westbrook's slander. We had Westbrook and him asking people not to say Westbrook.
Well, we had one further this weekend. So a high school in Illinois just won the state title.
One of the best teams ever. They only lost.
They won every game in Illinois. They only lost to Bronny's team in like a game that they played on ESPN2.
Glenbard West, they won the state title. They were playing Bowling Brook a couple days ago.
The coach of Bowling Brook said, I'd rather be playing the Lakers than Glenbard West, they won the state title. They were playing Bowlingbrook a couple days ago.
The coach of Bowlingbrook said, I'd rather be playing the Lakers than Glenbard West. We could back off Russell Westbrook, let him shoot, and get some rebounds.
There's not a guy on the Glenbard West roster we can do that to. A high school coach said that.
That's brutal. Brutal.
A brutal burn. The thing is, for all the complaining that he's doing about Russell Westbrook, which No.
No. I understand.
That's his mother and his father's name. I know.
That's what I'm saying. Like, yes, in theory, it actually makes complete sense.
If you take us out of, like, the sports bubble that we grow up in and that we just have a common understanding of, like, yeah, if you come into my team's stadium, I'm going to make fun of you. Right.
You would never say that to somebody like in person walking down the street. But like if you completely remove yourself from that environment, it makes a little bit of sense in a bubble.
But he could just stop shooting the ball. Right.
He should just not shoot the ball. But just to have like high school coaches start roasting you and being like, I'd rather, it's easier to game plan for Russell Westbrook.
Oh, by the way, did you see the T-shirts that they were selling in Philadelphia? Awesome. When the Nets came back there, it was just a picture of a penis with Ben Simmons' face on it and just said, I think it's his complete dickhead.
Yeah. And they were just selling it outside the stadium, and families were walking by and being like, you got that in a youth small for that kid? Yeah, $20.
I love then they got 40 piece yeah they get 40 piece and the guy who dresses a full baby yeah who's had a pacifier philly is the best it really there is no city in america that can just turn the hate up to that level and they're already turning on harden it's beautiful are they yeah i mean they got because of one game yeah they have 40 Wait, who Hank, who's turning on Harden? Everyone I fall from, I've, I'm, I'm up to date with the Philly people. They're, they're not happy.
Hank is, is true. He's like, uh, what people thought Russia did to our elections.
Hank is doing to Philly, the disinformation to tear them apart. It's true.
In Philly. Hank, you should just start like funneling this info to, to Billy and have Billy act as one of your like liaisons to amplify your message.
Hank's got a bunch of burners that he's just replying to everyone's tweets. Harden's stats.
Yeah. Harden doesn't even like it in Philly.
I saw him out. Well, they got 40 pieces and then he was out at the club.
That's what happened. That's what James Harden does.
That's how he heals. It was truly a playoff performance from him.
He went, what, three for 12? He had 11 points, and then afterwards he goes out to a strip club. That's playoff J.
Also, speaking of NBA, Kyrie's move today was awesome. Showing up to the game in Brooklyn with no mask, sitting on the sideline, and basically making a mockery of the entire New York City mandate, which makes no sense.
Kyrie Irving can't play, but he can sit. And he was also in the locker room.
He's allowed in the locker room. He's allowed on the sideline.
He's not allowed on the floor. It is dumb.
The only thing that would be maybe dumber, even though I'm not even sure this would be dumber, if they let him play he kept a mask on but put the mask like under his chin yeah i've seen some of those leagues where you have to have a mask on the court but it doesn't have to be over your mouth right those right i i made the mistake of tweeting about it and it was my mentions were just it's like a moth to a flame you just gotta just everyone wants to talk about covid you gotta do what i do when i tweet about miley cyrus and just turn off replies yeah whenever you mention anything that has to do with the mask well it was such an innocuous comment i was like this is so stupid this is stupid that kairi can be there and he can't play and i think what's happening now is since covid is slowly like escaping the psyche and it's not really talked about anymore there's a group of people online who just they've spent've spent so much time, so much of their energy the last year and a half talking about COVID, that now that there's not a lot of tweets to reply to, if you just put one out there, they all just come rushing to that tweet. Yeah.
It was like 400 replies in like 15 minutes. Did the Nets win with Kyrie, or did they win because of Kyrie? They're not telling you the right stats in the papers, folks.
Oh, man. These people.
We should actually do a test and see if Billy can be a lightning rod and tweet about COVID and see how many replies he can get. Yeah, Billy, you're now our clearinghouse for our most problematic takes.
Because if you tweet him out, everyone's just like, oh, Billy's dumb. Billy's like Calvin Ridley.
He doesn't know any better. I want to test that theory.
I want to have you tweet a COVID take this week and see how many replies you can get. Just to see how many people swarm to it because they have nothing else to talk about.
All right, Billy, you're who's back. My who's back in the week is falconry.
In Japan, there is now a huge movement. There's a bunch of crows that have been damaging their solar panels, taking stones and cracking their solar panels so there's been a huge boom in falconry so they have a bunch of guys who are taking falcons out and hunting down crows that are damaging the solar panels so it's good to see age old traditions come back to be repurposed in new ways I like it, there's no modern replacement for a fal, for a bird of prey.
You could try to get a drone, but it doesn't have talons. It doesn't get hungry.
How do crows attack a solar panel? They're like dropping stones on the solar panels. Oh, like the coordinated attack.
Yeah, I think they're big, you know. There was also a viral tweet of the guy who was on a plane, and there was falconry people sitting next to him.
Oh, yeah. Like the Saudi princes all have them.
And I've said this before many years ago, but what happens if the plane goes down? Do they let them out? Yeah. You got to open the door.
Right? I don't think they would think that quickly. I would.
I would hope so. Save the falcons.
Yeah, if there's a bird on. It's like if you're in a submarine and if you get in an aquarium, you smash it real quick.
Right. Let them free.
You know how they capture the falcons? Like if you want to get into falconry? How would they get them out? Yeah, they just sack Mount Ryan. You couldn't walk.
The air pressure, I think, would suck everybody out. Yeah.
Like, how would you... I think the bird would just realize the sky's out there.
And the plane is spiraling down to the crash. We got some falcons on this plane.
Let them out. Standing up? Yeah.
Get them out. I think there are protocols if you're a flight attendant and you notice a bird getting onto the plane.
Right. You say to yourself, okay, in the event of a crash, I'm sending this guy home.

Yeah, we're letting him out.

Yeah.

Something to think about.

Yeah, you know how you get into falconry?

If you acquire your first falcon,

you don't just go out and buy one

at the falcon store or from a pet store.

Don't tell me you gotta fuck it.

No, you have to go out into nature

and set up a trap

and capture it in the wild yourself.

They won't just give you.

If you want to be a falconer, you have to like.

It's like Avatar.

Yeah.

You gotta learn it.

Which I haven't seen.

I like it.

I like that.

You just gotta go catch your own falcon.

Avatar is like a combination of catching and fucking.

Yeah.

And then it's yours.

They link the same thing.

I think that's how they do it, right?

The avatars, they link their headpiece, their hairpieces.

They haven't seen it in a long time.

Their braids, yeah.

They braid up. Jake, you're who's pieces.
They haven't seen it in a long time. Yeah, they braid up.

Jake, you're who's back.

My who's back is the NIT.

Oh, I was going to say, if this isn't college basketball related,

I'm going to be very upset.

The NIT and CBI brackets are out.

I'm filling out both brackets because why not?

My final four for the NIT.

Iona.

Okay.

I can go to the Garden.

Oklahoma, a little hot. They were a little hot this year.
Tanner Groves. BYU.
WCC. And then Wake Forest.
Wake Forest had the coach of the year and the player of the year in the ACC and they missed it. Not even.
Maybe the saddest part about the March Madness is the amount we think about first four in, first four out. And then when they announce the bracket, they'll show for one second, like, these teams just barely missed.
And then we'll just completely erase it from our brain. Be like, Dayton, Xavier, who the fuck cares? Like, they have this whole, they're pleading.
And, like, you know, our good friend Casey Smith is saying, like, Texas A&M deserved to be in. They are completely escaped from my memory.
I got a bracket now. So I do feel a little bad for the first round.
And usually there's one team that's like, oh, they got screwed. Yeah, Texas A&M, you thought they did enough with that run.
That's my NIT final four. They don't care about conference journeys.
Jay, we got to get you in touch with NIT Stu. He's that guy that I was talking about a couple weeks ago, the guy that's obsessed with the NIT.
He's already got his predictions out right now. He's got the who's.
Okay. He's got the who's right now.
Virginia? Yeah, Virginia is a six seed at Mississippi State. Oh, wow.
Slapping their face. Yeah, I don't know.
I couldn't confirm this. I don't know if there's a third-place game or not.
They had it last. Oh, yeah, there usually is, right? Yeah, but it's back at the Garden.
Yeah. I don't know.
No, there was at the Garden, I want to say. Really? Yeah, I want to say there was.
I think they cut it and they brought it back. I don't know.
Do you have any news from your dilemma from your Fyre Fest? Guys. Are we waiting? Oh, yeah.
I am credentialed for the 2022 final. Oh, yes.
Let's go, Jake. And what about us? Oh, wow.
I'm the only one who got approved. No man left behind.
Why is that? What do you reckon that is? Interesting. Well, first off, I put in the request before I talked about it on the show.
For all of us? For all of us? For me and my co-hosts. Both of them? That would be all of us in this room? Yeah.
I thought we were family. La Familia.
You guys are family. That's what LeBron says.
But more like cousins. You guys are my family.
Benchmop is your brothers. We're Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram.
You just traded us away. Never.
Okay, well, that's how it feels right now, LeBron. Jake? I feel bad.
Okay. That's fine.
That's all I want. That's all we want.
I just wanted Jake to feel bad so that we could be like, no, don't feel bad. Yeah, don't feel bad.
It's going to be a lot of fun. I also, who's back? I have to do an adjustment.
Being a gambler and being around Jake is oil and water because this guy has optimism through the roof.

But it is realistic optimism.

If you're down four minutes left, you still are a lot.

I don't know.

There was a game, I think it was on Friday night,

and it was coming down to the end, and a lot of us had the over on it.

And the guy went up for a dunk, and it got stuck between the rim

and the backboard, and everybody was like, fuck, because we needed points. And Jake stands up.
He's, and it got stuck between the rim and the backboard.

And everybody was like, fuck, because we needed points.

And Jake stays up.

He's like, it's a wedgie.

Yeah.

Because Jake loves the wedgie.

He loves seeing a wedgie.

It was like seeing a Scorigami in the wild.

By the way, do we have Scorigami for the tournament?

I doubt it.

There's just so many tournament games.

There should be. Sounds like there should be one.

Oh, and I'd like to retract.

Retraction.

Notice, NIT Stu does not have the Who who's winning that was somebody else he quote tweeted his bracket challenge link is coming shortly he's polishing up his google form right now follow nit underscore stew on twitter he's the only person that cares this much about the nit i love it i love it so uh i'm excited for the final four thank you guys for the support yes and how's your optimism gonna be in when we're gambling it's whatever you want me tell me right now i want you to be yourself i'm gonna be upset at you but i want you to be yourself okay but one time maybe you'll win a game i'll say this for jake it's come on jake credit to jake credit to jake he knows that what's said in between the lines is not real feelings. Right.
So you are good with that.

Yeah.

When I'm like, fuck you, Jake.

Stop being so optimistic.

You know that in 30 minutes I'll be fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we're good.

We're all excited.

Look at all these blogs that NIT Stu has done about the potential bracket in the last four

days.

I saw that St. John's requested a home game and then they didn't even make the NIT.

That's pretty embarrassing.

He goes by Joe Stunardi. Love it.

Perfect. He's probably

been around so long, he remembers

when the NIT was the tournament.

That's always the best when your dads tell you

the NCAA tournament, the real one,

used to be the NIT. It's more prestigious.

Yeah.

What was that? Someone's find my phone thing. It's not me.
It was Billy. It was Billy.
All right, let's do John Rothstein. Ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working? Nah, neither has Ariat.
Ariat work jackets and boots are packed with all the cold stopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver. Check out Ariat in your local workwear retailer or visit Ariat.com slash work to get 10% off your first order when you sign up for email.
And weather whatever in Ariat Work Gear. Okay, we now welcome on one of our favorite guests, one of our favorite times of the year.
It is Bracket Sunday. We have the man, the myth, the legend, John Rothstein in studio.
He's got his bracket. He just took his bracket out of his suit coat pocket.
That's right. We're ready to roll.
This is March. This is March.
The month before April. Well, I wanted to ask before we get into the bracket thoughts on tom brady with the patriots no he unretired i thought he was always a patriot no he was on the bucks last year and the year before he just unretired when did he go to tampa bay two years ago then he retired like a month ago was this before or after Tim Clue stepped down at Iona? It was after.
No. That was right around the same time.
Yeah, that's probably why you missed it, actually. Yeah, man.
Because, I mean, when you go to the NCAA tournament six times in nine years out of the MAAC, that's pretty impressive. I know.
Oh, wow. I didn't know that about Tom Brady.
He unretired. So he played in Tampa, and now he's going to play for the...
No, he's back in Tampa. He unretired.
He stole Bracket Sunday from everyone. Okay, well, not from me.
I had no idea that he was in Tampa in the first place. Okay, so there you go.
That's perfect. All right, so...
Well, there's another piece of big news that I feel like we should address today, just by the way the universe works via happenstance. Bar Coastal closed down today.
Yeah, it's a somber day. It a it's a sad day my wife was there all day paying homage and a pardon my take sweatshirt love it and just you know it kind of felt like honestly the last episode of cheers from what i gather it's just like everything was shutting down so many memories so many good times you know that bar we rented out the day after our wedding which you know i invited you guys to you had other things going on yeah it's okay it happens what do you think about maybe the prospect of of buying the place what if we just teamed up the three of us yeah what would we name it big cats no i think we just keep it bar coastal like you yeah you don't stray away from what works right uh yeah fair enough i mean if you guys want to, the down payment, I'll get you the rest later.
Yeah, you sent us a picture of your wife in a pardon my take sweatshirt this morning. That's right.
You texted us. Yeah, she wanted to.
She said just to tell them that, you know, I'm supporting the brand because you're going on the show tonight. She was.
And she's nice. Congratulations.
She's an attractive woman. Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that. You know.
I mean, with all due respect. No, I appreciate it, you know.
and she'll be the first to tell you that you know she knows that she has obviously you know her things that she has stuff but i came up with a one-liner on twitter for her too okay alana rose credit and forget it credit and forget it yeah what what does that mean well i mean you know fair enough everybody likes their nice things but you know i just don't have to teach her that sometimes forget it got it you know but because of her who is you know my best friend i love her to pieces she has planned and you guys will be excited about this a massive massive trip to europe this summer wow i'm no longer going to be able to go into places socially like you know when i'm watching the nfl because i only watch it socially i'm no longer to be able to go into places and say you know i've never played golf i've never had a glass of wine i've never had a cup of coffee and i've never been to europe because as of right now we're going to europe in july okay so we got to get to two of those things in a second but give us the quick itinerary where are you going in europe well we have friends is there anything like this knowing you you're going to be like well uh you know coach cow's taking the team to Rome. Yeah, I thought about that.
Yeah, I know you did. I thought about that, especially with the timing.
It's like late July, early August. I've talked about that.
We have some friends who are getting married an hour outside of Paris in July. So we're going to go to Paris for a couple of days and go to that wedding.
Then we've got a couple of stops in Italy, which I'm really excited about for the food. There's a restaurant that we're going to go to.
We're going to Italy. We're going to Rome, Portofino, and also the Amalfi Coast.
Now, there is a restaurant in Portofino, Puni, P-U-N-Y. It's a three-course restaurant, and one of the options is a pasta with lasagna sheets, tomato sauce, and pesto.
Denzel Washington went to this restaurant and had this pasta for all three courses. So when I heard that, I was like, that's a bucket list thing.
I have to go to this restaurant in Portofino and have all three courses of that pasta. And then we're going to go to Minkanos and Santorini after that.
Wow. You're not going to switch it up, though, in the courses? Like, try maybe something besides that pasta? Potentially.
I know I haven't been there yet. I'll text you.
I just got international service actually on my cell phone for the first time. Really? Because you know me, like for a long time, like Canada was anything north of the George Washington Bridge.
Yeah, so wait. What if there's like a highly tattered prospect over there? Well, that's why I made sure that I had international service so that I could be on my toes for this trip.
You're still going to be kind of working? Oh yeah, I never shut it off. Right.
Never shut it off. Right.
Never shut it off. Even though we sleep in May.
Yeah. I mean, I say we sleep in May, but it doesn't mean you don't sleep with your phone.
Right. So you're lying to the people.
We sleep in May. Well, I wouldn't say I'm lying.
I would say after a while, you realize you can get a little bit of a reprieve. Because if I ever said we sleep in April, I'd be like, oh, what are you kidding me? The National Championship game's on April 4th.
But I have already do have the skeleton ready for my first Rothstein 45 of next season. Oh, okay.
So, you know, we're going to amend it. Where's Wisconsin? Well, it's, you know, what's the next question? Oh, no, we're not in the, we weren't in Jake's bracket, so I love the doubters and haters.
I welcome them. We've got to, we've got to, we've got to prepare though for the transfer portal.
We've got to, you know, there's a lot going on. There's a lot.
Alright, so. Who will be next year is Chris Vogt.
No, I'm kidding.

Listen, he puts in some good minutes.

He's a decent bruiser up front.

Yeah, you need guys like that.

Absolutely.

He did a good job against Purdue at the game we're at.

So the other four things, so it was never been a trip to Europe,

never had a glass of wine, never had a cup of coffee.

PFT, you brought something, didn't you?

Yeah, I've got a few things.

I've got actually a bottle of wine right here.

Oh.

I opened it up. Red or white? I uncorked it just for you.
It's a 2016. It's a Bordeaux.
It's very nice. I splashed it all over myself when I was opening it with a knife.
The corks in there. I was thinking that maybe we could share.
We could all have a small little glass. I've got to get on a plane in like six hours.
I don't want to travel. That's fine.
I'll be out of your system in like 20 minutes. What about a cup of coffee? I've never had a cup of coffee.
You want a cup of coffee? Oh, God. This is unbelievable.
I got one of these right here. If you're not- Memes brewed it himself.
Yeah. If you're not ready for this right now, can I propose something? Sure.
Why don't we make a bet on your final four? Whatever it may be, we'll get to that when we break it all down, and you're going to be in New Orleans, we're going to be in New Orleans, I think that you can find the appropriate

time that you could have both a cup of coffee and a glass of wine with us.

Okay, fair enough.

Okay, because I can sense you don't really want to do it right now at 11 p.m. at night.

Yeah, no, I don't.

Do you want a sip of the wine?

Do you want to smell it?

Just smell it.

I don't like it.

Just smell it.

Just smell it.

I don't like it.

You don't like it?

You don't like it.

That's exactly what my two and a half year old son sounds like when I'm like, hey, do

you want pretty much any food?

It smells like the Manischewitz I used to smell at Hebrew school.

So wait, what do you drink when you go out?

Just a beer?

Vagabier, Tito's.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, all right.

Let's get to it.

Let's go through the bracket and then we'll figure out what we're going to do bet wise. I was going to say because when you're in Italy, you're going to be at these world-class pasta places.
Why can't I just have a Peroni? They're going to give you wine. Wine will be on the menu there.
Billy's going to drink that wine right now. Watch him drink it.
All right, no more tricks, but I want you to have a cup of coffee. Okay, why? Because I want to see what it does to you.
I mean, I'm functioning fine without coffee for all these years.

It's almost four decades.

What about Red Bull?

Do you drink Red Bull?

Never Red Bull.

Never caffeine?

Try not to have caffeine.

Cocaine?

Not ensign.

Didn't make that either.

Methamphetamines?

No.

Okay, we're going to figure it out.

In New Orleans, I want to see you just a sip of coffee with us.

A sip?

Yeah.

I can do a sip.

Yeah, we'll do a sip of coffee with the fellas. Yeah, sure.
I can do a sip of coffee. The wine, I don't think, is going to stick.
The coffee, I can maybe try. But we got a lot of basketball between now and New Orleans.
You know how much basketball we have between now and New Orleans? How much? 64 games. 64 games.
I'm so excited. Where do you want to start? You always break out the bracket in certain ways.
Do you guys want to start top left, and then we'll just work our just work our way down does that work well let's ask a couple questions before we get into the bracket one uh who got screwed texas a&m oh i thought that texas a&m you know should have been in the field i thought the committee did a really really good job but i think when you look at what they've done did the last couple days and i know it's the totality of your resume but I think having neutral site wins against teams the caliber of an Arkansas and an Auburn compared to everything else I thought was pretty impressive I mean you know it's interesting though the one thing that you know I've kind of taken away in like over 15 years on this beat every single year you see the bubble gets softer and softer and guys I've been talking about this for years and I think it's one thing that we need to look at and I'm leaving tomorrow for Dayton I'm doing the first four this year and I'm excited about it but I firmly believe that the NCAA should allow all the automatic qualifiers to advance into the round of 64 and then the final eight at large teams should be playing in. And then it gives us an opportunity to really jumpstart the tournament with four heavyweight showdowns.
I mean, I look at the first four, and I'm not just saying this because I'm obviously working the games, but Rutgers-Notre Dame is a fascinating matchup. Wyoming, Hunter Maldonado, Graham E.K.
against Indiana. I mean, that is a fascinating matchup.
If you could add two more of those with the last four at-large teams, I think it would add a lot of pop to the NCAA tournament. I also made the point that I hate when the committee puts mid-majors, small schools against each other in the first round.
I think that's terrible. I think it's bad for the sport.
Murray State versus San Francisco is a great matchup, but I'd rather see them go up against a big dog.

No doubt.

And I think, too, the great thing about the first four, which you know I love, is standalone

games.

Yep.

And standalone games allow yourself to be showcased at a much different rate.

So I think that's another thing we have to look forward to.

And I think, though, one thing I will say is I think because of the matchups we have

this year in the first four, the Bryant-Wright State game is an underrated 16 versus 16. I'll tell you why.
Bryant obviously has the nation's top score in Peter Kiss, really interesting player, and Wright State's in Dayton. It's near their campus, so you almost have a pseudo-road game.
Very rarely in a first four do you get that type of situation? What do you think, sidebar Jared Grasso,

where's he going to be coaching next year?

Good question.

I think without question, Jared has done one of the great rebuilding jobs

in the Northeast.

I mean, guys, you know, Bryant was three wins when he took over.

Three.

And, you know, they went to the tournament title game last year

and lost to Mount St. Mary's.

This year they're obviously champions. You know, I think he's ready.
You know, I don't know if title game last year and lost to Mount St. Mary's.
This year, they're obviously champions.

You know, I think he's ready.

You know, I don't know if he's ready to jump to a power conference.

But, you know, if there's a conference, you know, in between, obviously, the NEC and, you know, in a multi-bid league in the Northeast, he's, you know, ready to do that.

And, you know, I just know this from obviously being in the weeds, you know, obviously, you know, in college basketball, it's inside baseball.

But he was the recruiting coordinator for those great teams at Iona that I mentioned earlier with Tim Kloos. Six out of nine years.
Six out of nine years. From the Mac, yeah.
So, like, you know, those teams that had Scott Machado, Mike Glover, Momo Jones, Sean Armand, AJ English, David Lowery, those guys. He was the recruiting coordinator and top assistant for those teams.
So, side sidebar, our good friend, unfortunately, Tom Crean, is no longer going to be the head coach at Georgia. What are the odds Tom Crean gets a head coaching job next year? Do you think he wants to still coach? I don't know if Tom wants to coach.
I think Tom did a great job as a broadcaster in his year out for ESPN. Are you on the bubble now? Am I on the bubble? With Tom Crean now, he could get back in the broadcast yeah it's a different role he's a game he's a game analyst okay you know i think he's a game analyst different role you know that what i provide is a little bit different yeah that's true but you know i think tom if tom wants to coach i'm sure you know he could get another coaching job i don't know if he could get a you know a job and you know the caliber of georgia but i'm sure he could get another job i think too guys another thing that we're seeing throughout the landscape of college basketball is there is clear separation between the top six conferences, the five power conferences, and the Big East, and the rest of the sport.
And it's really the haves and the have-nots. And I think every single day that gap widens.
Now, do we have years where conferences are outliers? Absolutely. The Mountain West this year getting four teams in the NCAA tournament and one of those teams is not New Mexico and not UNLV.
Yeah. That's amazing to me.
The West Coast Conference having four teams in play, getting three teams in the NCAA tournament. Yeah.
That's a major, major kudos, but that's the exception. It's not the rule.
If Richmond doesn't win today on Sunday in the Atlantic 10 tournament title game, a 10 and the conference that had six bids eight years ago in 2014, that's a one-bid league. Side note, Chris Mooney, head coach of Richmond, dead ringer for Judge Reinhold and vice versa.
Without question. Fast times.
Dead ringer, fast times at Richmond High. Vice versa, though, for me.
And, you know, I just think when you look at college basketball now, I think it's six leagues and it's everything else. So is this the end of the conversation of Gonzaga doesn't play in a real league? Like, we've been saying for years, Gonzaga move to the Pac-12.
Right. If you want to take it seriously.
But now they've got San Francisco. Good team, right? Good team.
St. Mary's.
Fun team. Beat Gonzaga.
Yeah. St.
Mary's is comparable to Wisconsin, Big Cat, honestly. They're a similar style of play.
White guys? Yeah. You're saying that coach for white guys? No.
Slow it down. Play good defense.
It's like dead by a thousand paper cuts. Yeah.
Yeah. No, they had a good year this year, but it is a Mickey Mouse conference.
Gonzaga needs to go to the Pac-12. Okay.
All right. Should we do it? Get into it.
We're not talking about anything personal. I haven't seen you in two years.
You want to ask any of the questions? I thought of you guys, though, because, you know, and you guys could appreciate this. I have this neighbor that's like Rico Bosco.
It's like gum on my shoe. And she always complains.
So I find out. I come home a couple weeks ago.
My wife's like, we have a problem. And I'm like, well, what's the issue? It's like our neighbor wrote a letter to the board in our building that there is yelling and screaming on a loud TV late at night or whatever.
It's like if I wasn't in the studio. And they're really threatening right now to continue to complain about what's going on.
And I just responded and I said, not enough people know the importance and the impact of the Mountain West being a four-bit league. So was it you yelling? Yes.
I mean, what do you think, man? I mean, have you seen the Mountain West this year? David Roddy, Hunter Maldonado, San Diego State, Matt Bradley's a little bit like Tom Hanks in Castaways on an island on his own. I mean, where's Jordan Shackle when you beat him? It was, you know, the Mountain West was crazy this year.
Crazy, incredible crowds. And, you know, like I said, when I think of the Mountain West cat in PFT, I think of 2013, nine years ago, five bids, UNLV, Anthony Bennett, obviously Steve Alford had those teams in New Mexico, Tony Snell, Alex Kirk, Cam Bairstow, Kendall Williams, Hugh Greenwood.
Now that team didn't go far in the NCAA tournament. They lost to Harvard.
Remember that was the year in 2013 when Harvard's two best players, Brandon Curry and Kyle Casey, had to withdraw from school. They put Siani Chambers into the starting lineup, and the rest is history.
They went to the round of 32. Of course, who could forget? When that happened, that was the Mountain West, and the Mountain West took a little hiatus, and it's back now.
And there's the crazy thing. The Mountain West, they've got, obviously, a television relationship with us.
It's CBS. They've got got a relationship with fox it has a better television deal than the pac-12 yeah no the pac-12 not being able to watch the first two rounds of the pac-12 tournament brutal is insane brutal and the pac-12 is a good league in terms of its brands it hasn't had good representation in the ncaa tournament like i was talking to somebody about this yesterday there were more pac-12 teams in the Sweet 16 last year than there are in the NCAA tournament this year.
Yeah. That's crazy.
He had a great run. Well, let's start there.
So, Pac-12, Conference of Champions, as Bill Wald. Did he just invent that? Yeah.
No, it's been around for a while. It's been around for a while, but I mean, it's a little.
He brought it back. He brought it back.
He brought it back to the forefront. Who do you like out of that conference? Obviously, Arizona, great team.
But I guess it's a leading question because I really want to know, UCLA, do they have it in them? Are they going to be able to make a run like they did yesterday? I think they're going to be able to make a run. I think things set up pretty well for UCLA.
So should we go through? Yeah, let's go through. I should say, on a personal level, this is a great moment for this show and for humanity because the last time you were in here was right when everything got canceled.
You came in. We were all downtrodden.
You said this too shall pass. Yes.
We are now two years past COVID. Yeah.
It feels like last year was fun, but it wasn't a real tournament. No.
Because you didn't have all the different sites and fans and everything. And I was there for 26 days in that bubble.
Yeah, you were. You were doing hard work in the bubble.
And this now feels like we got it. We're back.
This too shall pass, and this too has passed. It has passed.
Retweet that. Yes.
Okay, right now? Well, if you want to. Okay, I'll retweet that.
This too shall pass. This too shall pass.
Hashtag John. Let's do it.
Top left. Go for it.
Well, I look at this region, the West region, and I see Gonzaga with Chet Holmgren. I see Duke having five.
Too skinny. Can I finish my soiree? Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Guys, I worked on this, okay, in the car down here. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
You're cutting me off. You're right.
We're excited about the bracket, too. Go.
Because I got to do the names first. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, I look at Gonzaga with Chet Holmgren. I see Duke having potentially five first-round picks, and they're starting five.

Notre Dame has Blake Wesley.

Obviously, Memphis has Jalen Duren.

The West region is the region of prospects.

Ooh. Wait, I'm going to just

cross this out. I like that.
J.D.

Notes in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I see

the region of prospects. So, obviously,

Gonzaga moving on against Georgia State.

Boise State-Memphis to me looks like the

ultimate 50-50 game. I'm going to give

a slight edge to Memphis just because of

how Boise State hasMemphis to me looks like the ultimate 50-50 game. I'm going to give a slight edge to Memphis just because of how Boise State has struggled offensively, especially we saw that yesterday against San Diego State.
UConn against New Mexico State. New Mexico State has two capable scorers.
Teddy Allen last year at Nebraska, a year before, or a couple years ago at Nebraska, also played West Virginia to start his career. start his career.
Sir Jabari Rice, another guard, obviously, that's capable. But I've got UConn beating them.
Setting up a UConn-Arkansas round of 32 game, which could be one of the best games of the upcoming weekend. Alabama has been a feast or famine team all year long.
They're going to play the winner of Rutgers-Notre Dame. I look at what Rutgers did in the Big Ten.
Obviously, they won a game at Wisconsin. Kayla McConnell did a great Davis fair enough I'm just giving you the context at the rack okay I'm giving you the context I got Rutgers beating Notre Dame and Rutgers beating Alabama whoa yeah I'm taking Rutgers twice Steve Peichel pounding nails and then Mark Adams though he plays them you know the defense never rests and I got Texas Tech over Montana State coached by Danny Sprinkle then the Michigan Michigan State.
Danny Sprinkle. That's the head coach's name.
Michigan State against Davidson. The storyline within that game is this.
Foster Lawyer, you know, started his career at Michigan State. Now he's at Davidson.
You know, he has made significantly more three-point shots this year than he did the first three years of his college career. I've got a Michigan State-Duke round of 32,

which would be a dream game for television next weekend.

So I got Duke moving on against Michigan State.

Duke playing Texas Tech.

Then UConn beating Arkansas, hooking up with Gonzaga.

UConn falls to Gonzaga.

Texas Tech falls to Duke.

Will Duke beat Gonzaga in the regional final?

They beat them once already.

I'm going to take the Zags, and Coach K's career ends at the Chase Center.

So Gonzaga over Duke in the regional final of the region of prospects.

I don't know. will Duke beat Gonzaga in the regional final? They beat him once already.
I'm going to take the Zags, and Coach K's career ends at the Chase Center.

So Gonzaga over Duke in the regional final of the region of prospects.

I love it.

As long as Duke loses.

Yeah.

Do you think this is kind of fun,

what Coach K's doing,

where he's traveling around the country losing?

I've got a feeling after what you just told me about.

What's the quarterback's name again?

Tom Brady.

Shut up.

I started to think, what if he unretired?

I would love it.

Personally, I'm going to miss Coach K.

He's been the greatest heel in my life.

You think he's a heel?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, Duke is one of those things where I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a strong opinion on them.

You love them or you hate them.

Right.

I think here's an interesting thing, because obviously he set the standard for college basketball. And like you said you know probably the best coach of our generation i never said that what well all right fine you're still a little salty about 2015 i never said that when you look at what happened in the acc you compare them from when roy williams got to unc he straight up out competed coach k the results were better for the tar heels since that time you can can't argue with it.
More Final Fours. More championships.
You have to look at the totality. More regular season ACC titles.
It's not even close. Okay, you have to look at the totality of the resume, which I bring this point up.
And again, it's speculating on speculation, which I hate to do. But if Rick Pitino never left Kentucky, and if Rick Pitino was still at Kentucky, I mean, you you think about that I always think that he would be the one in terms of all-time wins all-time national championships everything because you think about it this was the trajectory at Kentucky 93 you go 92 you lose on the Leitner shot 93 you go to the final four you lose in overtime Fab Five.
94, you lose to Marquette in the second round.

95, you lose 74-61 to North Carolina in a regional final.

96, you win a national championship, 76-67 against Syracuse in the Meadowlands.

97, you lose 84-79 to Arizona in Indianapolis in a national championship game,

and then you take the Celtics job.

Yeah, he would have been an all-timer. But fact remains that roy williams was a stronger head coach than rick patino if you say no then coach k it's five to three it's tough to make that argument and in 1991 duke beat kansas when roy williams was there 72 65 in the national championship game 91 ancient history i'm talking about when when roy williams arrived at unc okay well mean, you have to count the Kansas part of his career.
Well, that's because the Big 12 was legitimate, and he had to go through a gauntlet to get there. Fair enough.
Should we keep going? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you kind of glossed over our darling Jake's catamounts against Arkansas.
Yeah, I mean, you know, Ryan Davis, Jake, no offense, but, I mean, the Jalen Williams matchup is not advantageous, you know. American East player of the year, two times.
I know he's American East player of the year, but unfortunately, you know, there is no Taylor Coppenrath. There is no teaching sword.
There's Ben Shungu. I know there is.
Oh, let's go. We got a name off.
We got a name off. I mean, you're not telling me that people in, you know, Burlington are going to compare Finn Sullivan to Jermaine Mopagila in a couple years.
But Finn Sullivan can shoot. He can get hot.
He can shoot, but he's going to be guarded by Devo Davis or JT Notte. Next region.
Oh, man. Name off.
I quote tweet every time you tweet, you know, Vermont basketball very cool, Jake Marks, the future. He's coming at me.
Him and Rico, you've got to watch out for them. Well, Rico's gum on your shoe.
It's incredible. I know.
You can't get rid of him. Rico will call you and be like, bro, just want to tip you off with a scoop.
I'm thinking like is this realignment is this like something big he's like yo I heard from you know source with a source there's going to be a lot more hook and holds this year I was like what does that do for me Rico he's a big rules guy yeah big rules guy huge rules guy big rules guy alright East I think East is the toughest what do you think I look at the East region and I look at the

high seeds. Baylor, defending

national champion. Two seed, Kentucky's

Kentucky. Purdue, one of the great

brands in the Big Ten. Texas is Texas

and UCLA and North Carolina

also in the top half of that region.

This is the region of branding.

Yeah, I was going to say Texas is Texas

but that just means that they're probably

going to lose in the first round.

Texas is Texas. So I've got

Baylor beating Norfolk State. North Carolina

I'm going to say Texas is Texas, but that just means that they're probably going to lose in the first round.

But Texas is all the brands.

Texas is Texas.

So I've got Baylor beating Norfolk State.

North Carolina against Marquette.

Rematch of the 77 national title game.

Al McGuire's last game.

I got the Tar Heels moving on there.

And I've got St. Mary's beating Indiana.

I like Indiana over Wyoming and Dayton.

I do too.

UCLA obviously beating Akron.

And I'm going to take Virginia Tech over Texas. I like their body language a little bit more.
Purdue. Oh, that's just strictly body language.
Yeah, I think that's a big thing. Yeah, when they shoot the ball against Duke, it went in a lot.
Yeah, their body language was great. I like this.
Body language was great. I like their body language a little bit better right now.
Murray State over San Francisco. Setting up an interesting game, Kat, because if it's Murray State against Kentucky in the state of Kentucky, that would be an incredible game.
Kentucky would have nothing to gain from that game, but obviously have to play it other than going to the Sweet 16. Civil War.
Yeah. Baylor.
The two best college basketball schools in the state of Kentucky. Kentucky and Murray State.
Because Louisville is in Louisville State right now. Well, I'm just saying.
Kentucky and Murray State. Fair.
Baylor over UNC. UCLA over St.
Mary's. Purdue over Virginia Tech.
And then Kentucky. I've got a UCLA-Kentucky regional final.
I've got the Cats moving on out of the region of branding. So I've got Gonzaga playing Kentucky right now.
Wow. I like that for my futures.
Okay. I've got Kentucky and UCLA futures.
Okay. I like it.
So that would be a nice game for me. Dig it.
Now, top right, we're going to go and we're going to look at the south region. Now, I look at the south region, and I see Arizona.
I don't like that that's top right, by the way. Okay.
South should be in the bottom. Should it not? Well, I mean, fair enough.
Colorado is kind of in the middle. That's true.
Colorado State. Well, I look at that region, guys, and I see Ben Matherin at Arizona, stud.
I see Kofi Coburn, Illinois, stud. I see David Roddy.
I see Hunter Dickinson. I see Kennedy Chandler.
I see Kyle Gillespie. This is the region of star power.
Star power. Okay.
Question on Arizona. Yeah.
Is Kerr going to play? Yeah, I think he'll do. He's in a walking boot.
No, I know. I believe Kerr Kreese is going to play.
And honestly, I was so impressed that they were trailing UCLA without him and came back. Arizona is the most aesthetically pleasing team in college basketball.
They're also the biggest team in college basketball. And even though UCLA beat them once at Pauly, Arizona still dominated them on the glass.
I've got Arizona beating TCU. I think TCU is underrated, and TCU beats Seton Hall.
TCU also a very big team. They got some length.
Eddie Lampkin. Emmanuel Miller.
No, Jamie Dixon's done a really good job there. When you say biggest team, do you mean height? Or do you mean length or strength? You know, kind of a combination of both PFT.
I mean, you know, Tubelas and obviously Coloco are tremendous up front. Coloco's the most improved player in the country.
Balo, the transfer from Gonzaga, is also adding insurance upside. And, you know, Mather and Terry are tough on the wings.
I think I know where you're going with this. Gonzaga versus Arizona.
The student versus pupil. Can I finish it first? Championship game.
Okay, go ahead. You're freaking trying to finish Godfather 2 before they get Fredo on the boat here.
What about Godfather 3? What? We don't pretend like that exists. Well, why bring it up? That's one of the rules.
Don't mess with the rules. So then I've got Illinois over Houston.
Now, Arizona beat Illinois in early December in what was the first real statement that Arizona could be a national player this year under Tommy Lloyd. That rematch would be fascinating theater if we get it.
That was at the United Center, right? Champagne. Oh, that was in Champagne, yeah.
I bet that game I lost. I like that in the Sweet 16.
I'm going to take Michigan in an 11-over-6 win over Colorado State. Ugh.
And I've got Tennessee marching on past Michigan. The world's going to pick Loyola Chicago, but I think Ohio State is being criminally underrated in this game.
Well, they've been limping. They've been limping.
They're banged up, but Chris Holtman, more meticulous than a forensics officer, is going to be dialed in. He's coached in a lot of NCAA tournament games.
Drew Valentine hasn't coached in any NCAA tournament games. The world's picking Loyola Chicago.
I'm taking Ohio State to win one. Villanova, Tennessee in the Sweet 16.
Arizona, Illinois. I've got Villanova marching on to hook up with Arizona in the regionals of the region of Star Power.
And I got Arizona going to a Final Four. Okay.
Okay. So it's setting it up.
Okay. So I got Arizona, Gonzaga, Kentucky.
Then I look at this region. Bottom right, the Midwest.
Wait, wait, wait. Real quick.
In the Star Power region, there was one star that you left off oh oh jelly walker what the hell jelly walker how did you not bring up jelly walker well he's a 12 seed right now yeah he's not a 12 seed he's on a 12 he's on well i didn't want to get too much in the weeds because let's talk about uab all right that's our that's our team now we we We bet him on Friday in the triple overtime thriller.

We went back to the well with Jelly Walker on Saturday.

Can we get John a water?

We'll get you a fresh water.

Wait, so Jelly Walker, though, he's electric.

He is electric.

And it's ironic.

Andy Kennedy has leaned in and used the transfer portal really, I think,

as aggressively as any coach so far at the mid-major level.

And you look at their roster, guys. K.J.
Buffen came from Ole Miss. Trey Jemison came from Clemson.
Obviously, Jelly Walker. K.J.
Buffen's number five who were motherfucking the other night. What about Ertel? Ertel's a good player.
He's made a ton of threes in the Conference USA tournament. Ertel's a good player.
And this team, again, has played high majors this year. They played West Virginia, came up a little short, wasn't vintage West Virginia, but they won't be intimidated by Houston.
You don't have them? You don't have Jelly Walker doing some crazy shit? Well, again, am I going to bet on Jelly Walker? Am I going to bet on Kelvin Sampson to be in a situation? Jelly Walker is the answer. Okay, all right.
Jelly Walker. You want to die on that hill? I'll send you a postcard.
Oh, we will revisit this conversation.

You will be converted to the Jelly Fam.

If you don't know about us and Hills that we've died on, there are a lot of them.

There's an entire mountain range named after us at this point.

Yes, fair enough.

Jelly Fam will be coming for you, and we have receipts now.

Yeah, we do.

Flip this up, and we'll be playing it back.

Just tell me, if you were to say hypothetically, do you think that UAB is going to lose by fewer than nine points? What would you say? Text me. I'll let you know.
Okay. Interesting.
Hypothetically. Interesting.
Now, bottom right, I see a Kansas team that, for all intents and purposes, has played great down the stretch. But for as good as Ochai Baggi is, I don't see one of Bill Self's best teams,

most talented teams.

I see a two-seed in Auburn that has had sporadic guard play all season.

I see a Wisconsin team that has overachieved, won a share of the Big Ten

regular season title, but also lost at home to Nebraska.

Playing great basketball.

And also lost early in the Big Ten tournament to a vulnerable Michigan State team. Johnny gave his ankle.
And then I see a Providence team that's 25-5 but was 11-2 this season in games decided by five points or less and was ambushed, destroyed, and powerbombed through a table like Eric Bischoff at the 1996 Great American Bash by Creighton at the Big East tournament. But isn't that a good thing if they're 11-2? I know what you're saying.
Like 11-2, they play a lot of close games. Their record is not – I don't think the ceiling is very high for Providence.
But isn't there somebody to be set about winning close games repeatedly? That's why Ed Cooley, to me, is the National Coach of the Year because he doesn't have an all-Big East first-team player on his team when he's 25-5. That team, to me, like I'm looking at it, those are your top four seeds.
This is the region of vulnerability. And this is the region.
The Midwest region. If you're gonna go off the radar in your final four pick, this is the region to take it.
So let's look at it. I've got Kansas and Creighton hooking up in the round of 32.
So I like Creighton over San Diego State. Iowa beating Richmond.
Interesting first round game. And guys, I gotta tell you, not enough people are looking at South Dakota State and Baylor Shireman, who really reminds me of Thomas Walkup, who used to play for Stephen F.
Austin, who beat West Virginia in 2016 when Brad Underwood was the head coach. South Dakota State has not lost a game, okay, since early December.
They've won 30 games. They shoot just under 45% from three as a team.
I'm taking South Dakota State over Providence. Oh, no.
I've got Iowa State over LSU and Wisconsin advancing. USC over Auburn.
I've got then Wisconsin over Auburn in the Elite Eight. Whoa.
And I've got Iowa beating South Dakota State and Kansas. And I have an all Big Ten regional final.
Whoa. And I've got Iowa beating South Dakota State and Kansas,

and then I have an all-Big Ten regional final,

and I've got Keegan Murray at Iowa going to the Final Four.

Keegan Murray in the Big Ten tournament averaged 28-8.

Why aren't more people talking about Keegan Murray

as the best player in college basketball,

at least from the perimeter spot? You know what? When you look at him and you split the atom and you look at him number by number versus a guy like Jabari Smith, I'm not saying he's a better long-term prospect because that's not really my business. But right now, if you took Keegan Murray and put him on a blue blood, Michigan State, Duke, even Indiana or Ohio State, the perception would be different.
Ohio State's not a

blue blood. I mean, they're still a

brand. But they're not a blue blood.
Fine. Kansas.

Okay. Kansas, Kentucky.

Yes. But with a

more well-known brand, Michigan,

the perception would be different. Keegan Murray was

11 of 18 from three in the Big Ten tournament.

So I'm rolling the dice there. So I've got

Iowa, Arizona, Gonzaga,

Kentucky. I've got Arizona over Iowa and Gonzaga over Kentucky setting up.
Teacher against student. Tommy Lloyd against Mark Few.
And for the first time since 1997, Tommy Lloyd in year one wins a national championship. Ben Matherin explodes in the NCAA tournament like a volcano.
has the ability to captivate a country and captivate a nation, much like Dwayne Wade did 19 years ago at Marquette when he got 29-11-11 against Kentucky in a regional final. Wow.
So, okay, so you've got Gonzaga. That would be losing two national championships in a row.
Two in a row and three since 2017. So Lloyd, he's got deep ties to the Northwest, right? Yeah.
You think eventually he could get poached from Arizona if for whatever reason... No, Arizona's the destination job.
For him? Yes. Because I could see for him wanting to go back home.
He helped build that program. No, I know, but he's doing it his own way.
He's been very classy, too, because he inherited a really good team, and he's paid homage to Sean Miller who put the team together. So it's a good look for him.
Well, yeah, Sean Miller did all the dirty work. Yeah.
So going back to the Midwest, excuse me, the regional vulnerability, you've got Wisconsin-Auburn, second round. Did you say that you have Wisconsin? Third round, yeah.
Yeah, sweet 16. You have Wisconsin beating Auburn in that game? Yes, yes.
Why? Why do you not trust Auburn? I think when you look at a team like Wisconsin, who can manage the pace, very underrated piece in Chucky Hepburn is a very, very good freshman year. I just need Chucky to, the heat checks that Chucky goes on sometimes, they're good, but they're also.
No doubt. But Wisconsin, an extremely physical team, a team that, again, is not going to foul, doesn't really turn it over that much.
And again, Auburn, it's the polar opposite, guys, of the Auburn team that we saw go to the Final Four in 2019. That team with Jared Harper and Bryce Brown was led and anchored by an electric, electric backcourt.
This Auburn team has a dynamite, an unbelievable 4-5 with Jabari Smith

and Walker Kessler.

But the guard play right now, and we saw this against Texas A&M

in the SEC tournament, Zepp Jasper, Wendell Green, and KD Johnson

were a combined 7 of 34 in the field from that game.

Yeah.

You know, leave a lot to be desired.

All right.

Here's what I'm going to say.

So you got Gonzaga versus Arizona in your championship game.

I think if Gonzaga or Arizona, either or those two teams, aren't in New Orleans when we're in New Orleans,

you got to drink a cup of coffee.

Okay.

Okay.

And what do we have to do if they're both there?

I'll drink a glass of wine. Yeah.
I've never had one in my life. No, they're just, you know.
I'll go on a date with your wife. What? Easy, easy, bro.
Easy, bro. All right, what do we have to do? I'll drink a hand grenade.
No, I don't want you to do it. I like you too much.
I'll drink two hand grenades. Come meet me up at the supply house.
We'll have some sweet potato fries. Okay.
I love the sweet potato fries at the supply house. So we'll have to eat sweet potato fries if we lose.
I like that. Damn.
You got us again, John Rothstein. So, John, you know a lot of these coaches.
You interact with a lot of them. Yeah.
Who's the one guy this year that's going to be the coach that makes a name for himself and everybody starts talking about him the next time a big job big job. Great question.
You know, really good question, PFT.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think, and he's not getting that much attention, I think, right now

just because they're not in obviously a well-known league,

but I think when you look at the resume of Eric Henderson

at South Dakota State and the amount that he's won,

like a lot of people, and this is, I know, again, in the weeds

and very inside basketball, but last year South Dakota State was expected to win the Summit League. Oral Roberts went from the Summit League.
Max A. Smith obviously blew up in the NCAA tournament.
But in the regular season, that was the best team. Now you've got a team, again, that's won 30 games going in the tournament, guys.
30. They haven't lost since December.
I think Eric Henderson, if he can win this game against Providence, has has got a real chance to move the needle I also think the world of Lamont Paris who is an assistant at Wisconsin for the final four runs in 14 and 15 he's the head coach of Chattanooga he's got a very good nucleus Malachi Smith and also Silvio D'Souza the Kansas transfer inside so they're going to match up with Illinois it's a tough tough first round matchup but i look at him as being a guy as a 13 seed that can make a real name for himself you know chattanooga has a tough draw there but yeah those are two guys i think that would have a chance i'm looking elsewhere now around the bracket i mean jeff linder's done a great job at wyoming that's a standalone game and a standalone opportunity you know we have an interesting battle of up-and-coming coaches in the 7-10 game between Todd Golden of San Francisco and Matt McMahon of Murray State. James Jones, the head coach at Yale, who won the Ivy League this year, I don't think has gotten the credit for what he's done at Yale.
This is his third NCAA tournament. This is not, though, one of the best teams that he's had.
He had a really good team a couple years ago. A really good team a couple years ago.
If this team had Paul Atkinson, who's at Notre Dame now, or Jordan Bruner, who was at Alabama, those kids came from Yale. If they had a guy like that up front to go with Azar Swain and Jalen Gabin on in the backcourt, I would feel differently.
But I think that the lack of size for Yale against Purdue is going to be really, really tough to overcome. How stressful is it now every year when you have to learn all new names? You just get used to it, man.
What do you do, though? Do you sit down or do you just go over the roster? I think that the rosters change right now because of immediate eligibility with the transfer portal. I just think you're constantly looking at teams in the offseason, what their lineup might be.
And then, you know,, I do stuff in the offseason where there's previews and you have grids where you're like, well, this is what their lineup might be. And you just start working it every day.
It's a labor of love. What's the most recent name that you've learned? The most recent name that I've learned? That's a fascinating question.
I mean, I'm always just absorbing. So I mean, you know, I don't really.
What team did you not have the most intel on that ended up in the bracket? I would say Wright State I looked at a lot because I didn't expect them to be in the title game of the Horizon League. And, you know, I really started to learn more about, you know, Grant Pasilli and the guys on that, you know, team.
And they're actually playing in Dayton against Bryant, which is interesting to me, like I said, because you've got the nation's leading scorer in Peter Kiss going against Wright State, who's obviously from nearby Dayton. So that is a different type of first four game, in my opinion.
We're looking at the 16th seeds. But guys, I'll say it again.
It's something that I think should be talked about more and more leading up to the NCAA tournament. It it would be better if we see the final eight at large teams in this ncaa tournament kicking things off and if somebody's good enough to win an automatic qualifier put them in the round of 64 agreed because because like again what what's the difference if we're looking at it right now and we're splitting the atom a little bit like what is the difference if we're going to see Delaware as a 14 versus a 15? And they get bumped down a line.
Yeah, I agree. Don't give these kids an asterisk next to their proceeds of parents.
Get them to the dance. No question.
There's something about being a 16 seed and playing a 1 seed that's fun. And the dynamic of that has changed dramatically since UMBC.
Yeah. Well, not really, because that was the only team that's ever won.
No but again, but you can't say like, well, this has never happened before. No, you're right.
You're right. There's some validity to that.
It used to be like the teams that kept it close in the second half was like, oh my God. What was it? Holy Cross in Kansas.
What year was that? Well, there was also a Purdue-Weber State game, I want to say, in 96. And then Weber State lost to Purdue, and then Purdue lost to Georgia when Tubby Smith was the coach, who then lost to Syracuse 83-81 when John Wallace made a three in the final seconds.
Syracuse went on to the final four and lost to Kentucky. So you said A&M was the biggest stub.
Or the biggest, like, you know, what's going on here moment for you. What about Tennessee? I've been very angry about Tennessee getting a three-seed.
With the seed? Yeah, I thought Tennessee probably should have been a two, and I could have seen Duke on the three line. I got to tell you, you know, obviously A&M played well enough, and I thought it had made a case to get to the tournament, but just a brutal, brutal turn of events for Xavier.
If they win that triple overtime game at Providence a couple weeks ago, they're in the NCAA tournament. They really kind of flubbed at the end.
It sucks because Buzz Williams, who we're friends with, he red-pilled his entire team. Did you see that, PFT? No.
He said after they beat Auburn, he's like, what do you attribute this to? And he's like, I have, you know, the Matrix. I've given my entire team the red pill.
Not realizing what it means online, but it's like I give them truth every day. And he has a shirt that says, like, every day we take the red pill.
No, I like that. He should be in.
Stop the steal. And all the votes.
Get him in. I hear you, bro.
All right. So who is the best coach in your mind in a Power Six conference that doesn't get talked about enough? Best coach in a Power Six, so we're saying like the Big East.
I got to tell you, I've been incredibly, incredibly impressed with what Greg McDermott has done at Creighton. I knew he was obviously a great coach in a long time, but guys, Ryan Nembhard was a special, special freshman for them.
I went out out and saw them practice and I watched Nembhard at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia this past summer and I mean he was I mean he was freshman of the year in the Big East I mean you know he was somebody you could see like eventually being an All-American the player of the year he breaks his wrist against St. John's a couple weeks ago and Creighton still advances all the way to the Big East tournament you know.
I mean, I've been blown away. And again, here's the thing, too.
And Creighton is not, with all due respect, a blue blood program. They went to the Sweet 16 last year and lost five starters.
Right. But they've got AOC.
Yeah. I was a little nervous when they showed Greg McDermott giving a speech in the locker room.
Like, we shouldn't have a live mic on Greg McDermott in the locker room. Gotcha.
He didn't drop a P word this time, did he? No, he did not. He did not.
I like when John just goes, okay. When he just danced around anything.
This is not a conversation I have on CBS. Not going to go there.
All right, so who's your favorite player to watch in this tournament? And why is it Jelly Walker? Yeah, seriously. I'm, you know, Benedict Matherin.
Okay. Benedict Matherin.
You're high on Arizona. You're high on South Dakota State.
You're high on Gonzaga. Yeah.
That's it. No, I wouldn't say that's it.
I mean, I look at it. I mean, I think obviously I've talked a lot about Matherin here.
I mean, favorite player to watch. Yeah, I mean, I love all 68 teams.
You love every player. I was thinking none of them would lose.
You love every name. Jaime Hacquez.
Okay. Jaime Hacquez, and he's been playing great.
He's fun to say. Yeah, I was about to say, what's your favorite name to say? Zach Eadie.
The Yao Ming of college basketball. Zach Eadie, I feel bad for him.
My take is I feel bad for him. Why? Because he just, he doesn't look like he's having any fun out there.
He's so big, and it's like, it looks, he just gets banged on. David Roddy.
Yeah, David Roddy's fun. Big body David Roddy.
Yeah. You know, got a lot of respect for Colin Gillespie.
Keegan Murray. Yeah.
Keegan Murray has just, I mean, Keegan Murray has just been. Are those the best brothers in the tournament? Iowa basketball, the family business? Well, I'm just saying, they got two sets.
Wisconsin has a set. Yeah, Iowa's definitely better than Wisconsin.
I think two... Who else has brothers? We got any twins this year? Well, Keegan Murray and Chris Murray.
Yeah. Chris Murray's not...
People, when they first heard that Keegan Murray's brother was playing Iowa, it's like, oh, well, he just must be kind of throwing. kind of throwing no he is a real real dude and that guy completely changes them when he goes to a small ball five because he can stretch the defense from the five spot like it's amazing to me and again this would go to your uh go to your uh you know really I think question here in terms of a guy who you know doesn't get enough credit I mean how about Fran McCaffrey losing Luka Garza and Joe Wieskamp? Yeah.
And now winning the Big Ten tournament at Iowa. Oh, yeah, Jordan Bohannon for the ninth year.
Yeah. Well, he's 28.
Yeah. It's like Brad Davidson when they're chanting one more year after.
And Kat, and I think you look at it too, that COVID year is going to change, change basketball the next couple seasons because you know we're seeing you know that name image and likeness which was long overdue there's more of an incentive right now for kids to stay in school if they're not going to be first round pick so i think you know one of the stories guys too for this tournament and for this season is you know you look at college basketball and there's never been more great players you know remember the year in 2006 well it's jj reddick and adam morrison remember like you know a couple years ago it's ob top and it's luca garza now you've got 10 12 13 14 really really good players would you say that right now we're living in the golden age of college basketball i wouldn't say that i'd say there's a real say there's a number of really good players. But you would say that NIL is good for the sport? Yeah, no question.
Alright, so my last question is actually I'm going to pass the torch here. Oh, no, we don't do that because it's a takeover.
We're invisible. Thank you, Jake.
The future, he's doing my bad. Jake Marsh.
I'm going to let Jake Marsh end this interview with a question.

Let you guys just kind of duel looking in the mirror.

Are you intimidated by Jake Marsh?

No, I'm happy you introduced us, though.

He's a great American.

Yeah, I think you are a little bit.

He is the future.

John, which double-digit seed do you think has the best chance to get to the Sweet 16?

Ooh.

Rutgers.

Ooh.

Okay.

Oh, that's a lame answer.

What is it all but one year a team has gone? Or at least to the round of 32. At least to the round of 32.
Yeah. All right.
That's your question? Any others? Any others? The future. He's got to work on the present.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
He's just all over the place crushing me tonight. Nah, come on.
No, that's what John does.

He wouldn't do that if he didn't feel a little bit threatened by you, Jake.

Yeah.

That was a compliment.

That's fair.

Any top four seeds losing the first round?

The round of 64?

Yeah.

Good question.

You said one already.

You said South Dakota State.

Any others?

You don't mean like the four number ones.

Yeah.

Top four seeds losing the first round. I'm not picking that.
I mean, I know you want me to say Vermont, don't you? Yeah, no, I would say your best chance for one of those upsets at South Dakota State. Okay.
Okay. I've got a dumb question.
So a lot of these schools that we talked about, especially in the Mountain West, they play at altitude, right? You always hear about altitude when it comes to football. Yeah.
Players getting tired. Yeah.
They can't handle it. They can't get their second wind.
Does that also happen indoors when you're playing basketball? The Colorado-Utah trip in the Pac-12 back-to-back, people always say, yeah, the altitude's crazy on that trip. That's the time you most hear it.
Yeah. Those games back-to-back in the Pac-12.
Okay. I'm just dumb, and I think, oh, the game's being played inside.
It's probably not altitude. Fair enough.
We're all human. Yeah.
Oh, wow. He just called you a fucking moron.
I don't know. He's just alfing everybody.
I'm not alfing. I'm just dumb And I think Oh the game's being played inside It's probably not Alphazine Fair enough

We're all human

Yeah

Oh wow

He just called you a fucking moron

He's just Alphazine everybody

I'm not Alphazine

I'm just a human

No you Alphazine Jake

You Alphazine me

You said Big Cat can't date your wife

Yeah it's bullshit

You're just very angry

I'm not just gonna date your wife

Okay well

That's fine

If you said it

I would've been like

Okay fine

Go ahead

Yeah

I think it speaks volumes

About our relationship

Yeah

We got a pineapple on the floor

Should we swap?

You wanna swap?

Why don't we do a double date first?

Oh man

Alright John Rothstein, you are the best. We love you.
Love you, too. Best time of year.
Yeah. Without a doubt, this or Feast Week? Oh, this.
Not even close. I love Feast Week.
Let's just be happy that we have a real NCAA tournament. Last year was great that we had one, but there's just so many good vibes right here.
We're doing this right down the street from Madison Square Garden. By the way, remember a couple years ago when the Big Ten tournament was at the Garden? Terrible.
It was like the San Gennaro feast being held in Milwaukee. It made no sense.
Exactly what I said. It made no sense.
No, I mean, it's just great that we have the pageantry back,

everything that should be associated with the NCAA tournament.

Let's not take this for granted.

It's the best three weeks in sports.

There is no debate.

Dreams will be shattered.

Dreams will obviously be made.

The unexpected will become the ordinary.

This is March.

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, John.

We love you.

Thanks, John. Thank you, John.
We love you. Thanks, John.

Love you, too.

Okay, we're going to wrap up the show.

We have Billy Football's final four of quarterbacks in the 2022 draft.

I know everyone's been eagerly waiting for the finale of this bracket. Before we do that, Billy, what was Kirk Cousins' contract? We alluded to it.
He got, I want to say, $30 million. Actually, let's look it up so we can get the numbers right.
The bottom line is that Kirk Cousins will make, by the time this contract's over, almost $300 million. He'll end up making over $300 million in his entire career.
You are expecting me to say something about negative right now about Kirk Cousins. I will not do it.
Kirk Cousins played the game the exact way that it should be played because the guy, I think he's exactly 500 for his career. He's not really won any notable games that you can think of.
No, the only notable game you can think of Kirk Cousins winning was actually Case Keenum winning the Minnesota Miracle. There's that.
Well, no, he also won the you like that game. Yes, but that's like the best part is like you think like, oh, yeah, Kirk Cousins, of course, the game against the Saints.
Like, nope, that was Case Keenum. Yep.
So he is the bad God. I take my hat off in respect of kirk cousins kirk cousins will be a great great uh hypothetical where you can be like whose career would you rather have and pick any quarterback that had like more success but you forget that kirk cousins essentially every he basically like hit every on Monopoly board.
Every time that something could have been good for him financially, he knocked it out of the park. So I believe that Kirk Cousins, whose career would you rather have, Big Cat? Kirk Cousins or Aaron Rodgers? I mean, that's that, but you can't do Super Bowls.
But he's only got the one. I'd rather have Rodgers' career, although he doesn't have any friends or family so maybe Kirk Cousins right because at the end of the day what's money that's true right like what's you can't spend all your money who's he going to give it to that's the thing about Kirk Cousins is what is he going to spend $300 million on yeah his kids can have it I don't know grills yeah you're right i still think he's

he can't spend the money he's burying it in in peanut butter jars in his backyard yeah and he's

got like a sick fleet of minivans all right billy let's do it so where we left off was the final

four we have kenny pickett malik willis jack cohen and matt corral in our last uh final four so

the first matchup is kennyett versus Malik Willis.

Kenny Pickett advances the finals over Malik Willis.

Kenny Pickett, I mean, it was just his fake slide.

Like when you got a guy who knows the rules so well

and just improvise like that, he's got to advance.

It's kind of like you.

Yeah.

You just improvise.

You just got to improvise.

Yes.

Just stick on your feet. Your brain does a fake slide pretty's kind of like you.
Yeah. You just improvise.
Just got to improvise. Yes.
Billy,

your brain does a fake slide pretty frequently.

All the time.

Yeah.

It's the truth.

I'm happy you have Kenny Pig in the finals

because there was a little pressure.

He is a friend of the program.

Was there,

that wasn't changed at all since you met him.

No,

no.

Okay.

Well,

there was,

there was something.

Fake slide.

But that's going to be for the finals.

We'll talk about why.

Okay.

We'll see what happens.

Then we got Jack Cohen, Matt Corral.

I'm going to pick Matt Corral.

I think his durability might be an issue at the next level.

He's hurt now.

But I think one thing that pushed Jack Cohen ahead of Matt Corral

was that Jack Cohen popped his finger out, then he popped it back in, then he threw a touchdown pass to win the game. So that's why he's in the finals.
Wait, wait, I thought that you put Corral in the finals. No, no, Jack Cohen's in the finals.
I got very confused by the way that you set that up. Okay, so Cohen beats Corral.
Cohen beats Corral. But what about the fact that Corral, everybody was saying, hey, don't play in this game, don't play in this game, and he wanted to be out there with his guys so badly that he went ahead and played in the bowl game.
That should be a plus sign for him, right? I mean, it is, but the visual of just seeing Jack Cohen pop his finger back in and then throw a game-winning touchdown is just legendary. Yeah, that is legendary.
That's one of those things you can't beat. So you have Jack Cohen versus Kenny Pickett in your final.
Would you say that you are officially a Bill Pullian disciple? You just average white guys? No. Okay.
Honestly, I think Malik Willis is going to have a really good NFL career. As a wide receiver or quarterback? Quarterback.
Okay, good. That was a good test.
No, seriously, I think he's what they advertise him as. He's Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, hybrid.
He's got the arm. That's a sick hybrid.
Yeah, that would honestly make him the best quarterback of all time. That is the sickest hybrid of all time.
It'd be like, could you ever imagine if you made, like, a tiger mixed with a shark? How awesome that would be. You should go see this band tonight.
They're like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. The thing is with Malik Willis is that we just started to hear the buzz now at the combine and you know I mean a lot of guys were hearing about Malik Willis like during the season but he's only really coming to the forefront now yeah he didn't have a great year at Liberty like he had a good year the year before yeah which actually you could say is kind of similar to Josh Allen he had a better year the year before his junior year at Wyoming so I told Kahn's that I think that I wanted Malik Willis as a commander.
Kahn's brought up the fact that he got into a fist fight against Army, so he punched the troops in that game. So that took him off Kahn's big board.
Sounds like he's a rider. He is a rider for sure.
Also, a lot of his improv stuff that he does during the game, he could actually, it's either going to translate and he's going to be like a Patrick Mahomes or it's not. That's one of those things where it's like.
So like Hall of Famer or bust. Exactly.
Yep. I like that.
I mean, hey. One of those.
What if he ends up being like her cousins? Then you'd be wrong. Well, remember that one time, who was I talking about? And I was saying, like, he's either going to be Tom Brady or he's going to be the Memphis quarterback.
Paxton Lynch? Paxton Lynch. Who did you say that about? That was my Trevor Lawrence take.
Oh, yeah, that's right. He's going to be Tom Brady or Paxton Lynch.
No in-between. So there's a lot of in-between.
Yeah. So now we're in the finals.
We've got Kenny Pickett, Jack Cohen. Where's it being played? I think it's Orlando.
Okay. So it went from the first round was being played in your mind, and then the finals is in Orlando.
Exactly. Okay.
Outdoors. Epcot.
What's the weather like? It's 68, breezy. Oh, is it that field that they do like the Pee Wee National Championship at? Okay, I like that.
Pop Warner. Okay, but no rain? No rain, 68, breezy.
68, what about humidity? Humidity is going to be hovering around 40%. Okay, that's not too bad.
So it's, you know. Kind of a perfect day.
Exactly. It's going to be one of those.
So the final, should we save for today or tomorrow? No, no, no. I think we're ready.
It doesn't need to be a trilogy. I can't go another two days in the suspense.
This weekend was torture for me because I was just thinking about this. So, unfortunately, Jack Cohen's Cinderella run is going to come to an end.
What? And again, this has nothing to do with the fact that you met Kenny Pickett. No.
And that we met Kenny Pickett. I was going to dub him.
I was going to dub him, but I asked Kenny Pickett. Come back to the real world, not playing Fortnite.
What were you going to do? Well, I was going to – honestly, I had a serious doubt because of Kenny Pickett's glove usage. And I was like, I had to figure out because, you know, playing like my limited quarterback experience and, you know, like wearing a glove, gloves wear out quickly.
Like you can't have quickly. It's about consistency.
If you have a sticky glove that becomes less sticky throughout a game or throughout a week, you're going to have difference in variability when you throw the ball. Do you think it might be like basketball shoes, though, in the NBA? Most guys, I think, wear new shoes every game.
Do you have new gloves every game? Yeah, so that's what I's why I asked him about I said hey Kenny so like what's your philosophy on the gloves are you like where like breaking in gloves like where's your sweet spot on glove usage and he says that he uses a new pair of gloves every game every workout and then oh that's what sold me that's what sold me wow that's why I talked to him because that's consistency because that's the one thing when people are worried about gloves it's like you know there's a lot of variability like when it's just your hand it's pretty consistent your hand is your hand exactly uh so you know he uses a new pair of gloves every game so that's consistent he likes to throw with the sticky so many gloves that's a lot of gloves that you're going through yeah it's like oj used gloves too the 50 but he was innocent pair but he was innocent he what he welcomed the legal process to play out. Or Shefty.
Wait, so I think Kenny Pickett has like, if Kenny Pickett goes on to be a Hall of Fame quarterback, think about how much money he can make by selling these gloves. Like if he plays 200 games in the NFL.
Yep. That's a lot of merchandise.
That's a lot of gloves. The Giants and Eli Manning would kill for that type of turnover.

Yeah, maybe they should draft him.

He's a natural fit.

For the Giants.

They wouldn't have to lie about all the game-used merchandise.

Also, he would have a lot of those playing cards that got put out there

of featuring a real slice of Kenny Pickett's glove.

Wait, so Kenny Pickett wins your draft,

which, just to remind everyone, Sam Ellinger won last year. But he loses this fuckable spiral draft.
The thing is, I still can't get over the glove. Yeah.
Makes sense. I'm old-fashioned like that.
Yeah, makes sense. Okay, anything else we have? Anything else? Any other parting shots? We have Mark Titus on Wednesday and Mike Florio.
Get excited. Should be great.
It's the best week of the year. I'm dubbing it.
It really is. I'm dubbing it.
To quote Billy Football, I'm dubbing it. When you say dubbing it, do you mean like putting a dub on it? I'm putting a dub on it.
Are you saying like dub it as in medieval? No. I dub you and give you a new name.
I'm dubbing it. Because you could say, I hereby dub Kenny Pickett.
Correct. The winner of this year's quarterback.
No, we're giving him a dub. Honestly, a dub is one of those things that can go either way.
Now that I think about it, it's totally contextual. Yeah.
That's a dub. All right, congratulations, Kenny Pickett.
And this week. I hope the commanders, yeah, dubbing this week, congratulations this week.
Yes. I hope the commanders draft you, Kenny.
What do you got, Hank? 68. 68 for the number of teams? Wow, did you steal that from Jake? I was just about to say 68.
No. You say 18 every time.
No, they maybe changed it. They said I have to win it with a different team.
Oh, well. 68? Yeah, are you a system player, Jake? Are you not going to? Right, that's the point.
I'll do 64. Old school.
Yeah. Nope.
65, because remember they had that one Tuesday? Come on. Play-in game.
No, but old school was 64. Do you want 65? No, I'll go to 25.
That's what I've been riding with. Oh.
What does that have to do with the tournament? Nothing. Wow.
I guess it's not that big of a week for Jake. Yikes.
Yeah, not at all. I'm going to go with 32 in honor of the NIT.

There we go.

Six.

Six? Six for CBI.

What about you, Billy?

69.

Oh, okay.

Got a ride.

Yeah, the first team out is Team 69.

That was Dayton.

Yeah, that's true.

That's ironic.

49.

Damn. That doesn't have anything to do with basketball Nothing 49ers It's just a football number Which is synonymous with Oh maybe Tom Brady The 49ers That makes sense Tom Brady You know what's crazy So I dreamed about Leroy last night And he's hardly ever in my dreams And at the end of like When I interacted with him He was like like, okay, I got to go.
I got some important stuff. And I was like, I don't know what's important.
I just realized he had to go break the scoop on Tom Brady and dog heaven. He knew it was happening before anyone else.
Shout out Leroy. Love you guys.
Crows hate renewable energy. Is that true? They drop rocks on her.
Yeah. On what?

The solar panels.

Solar panels.

Wow. Probably getting back at the windmills for murdering all their cousins.

Yeah.

Love you guys.

Talking away. I'm talking away I don't know what I'm to say I'm sage anyway Today's another day to find you Shining away So I'll be coming for your love, okay She Take me on me Take me on I'll be gone And after I'll change Needless to say I'm all sent in

But I need to run away

Love and learn

Life is okay

Say up to me

It's no better to be safe than sorry

Say up to me

Thank you. Say up to me, it's no better to be safe than sorry.
Say up to me, it's no better to be safe than sorry. Take on me, take me on I'll be gone

In a day of peace Thank you.