Talking NBA, March Madness, JuJu, MLB and 'The Bachelor' With Callie Curry, Tate Frazier, J. Kyle Mann, and Anthony Dabbundo

You're listening to the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. FanDuel Sportsbook is the best place to bet on the NBA.
We have these fun little Tuesday, Friday player performance stuff. We have same game parlays.
We have picks for me sometimes and boosts and all kinds of fun things. Get ready in the playoffs.
Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today to get in on the action. And by the way, The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming.
Please visit theringer.com slash RG to learn more. Listen to the end of this episode for additional details.
Must be 21 plus president select states game problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit RG-HELP.com. Hey, Boston, we are coming to do a live sold out rewatchable show on Thursday and then the Coolidge Corner Film Festival, all of our favorite Boston heist movies that whole weekend.
So you can check it out. Theringer.com slash events, get tickets there.
This episode is brought to you by Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was waiting and wondering and worrying.
It's almost like how in the old days of fantasy football, we used to have to tally the scores on a Monday and then the commissioner would just mail them out to everybody and you'd wait three days to see if you won. Those were the old ways of doing it.
Now taxes is matching with a TurboTax live full service expert who gives your taxes

their undivided attention. They can file your taxes as soon as today.
And while they do,

you get real-time updates on their progress, meaning you can get back to what's important,

the game. Now this is taxes into a TurboTax.
Get an expert now on TurboTax.com.

We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast network. Put up a new rewatchables last night.

Thank you. Now, this is taxes into a TurboTax.
Get an expert now on TurboTax.com. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network.
Put up a new rewatchables last night. We did Blue Chips.
It was actually one we had kind of talked about before, eight years ago, before we had the category. So we brought it back for the NIL era.
It was me and Van Lathan and Chris Ryan. You can check that out.
You can also check out the Prestige TV podcast, White Lotus, episode six. We broke that down as well.
Speaking of the Prestige TV pod, me and Sean Fantasy and Joanna Robinson on Wednesday, we're going to break down the first couple episodes of the studio, Seth Rogen's new Hollywood show, which we were all really intrigued by. So that is coming on Prestige as well.
And don't forget about FanDuel Sportsbook where player performance doubles every Tuesday, all the college basketball stuff. And then we have a bunch of bets we're going to talk about, not just for college basketball, but for the MLB later.
We have Tate Frazier and Kyle Mann coming up. We're going to talk big picture about March Madness, what we have coming, things we've noticed, favorite things.
Then I asked Anthony Dibundo to come on and talk about his five favorite MLB bets heading into a new season. And then last but not least, our old friend Callie Curry is going to come on to talk about the Bachelor franchise, which is in complete disarray.
What's going to happen to it? So yeah, college basketball, baseball, The Bachelor.

You're not getting this anywhere else.

It's all next.

First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right.
Callie Curry is here. You can hear her on the ring of reality TV podcast.
I haven't talked to you since you've lived in Charlotte for the year. Yeah.
But you, you know, it's not, hasn't been a great season, but what would have been your Charlotte NBA impressions? Bill, I just want to tell everyone, including the listeners, that before the season started, you texted me and said, am I crazy for thinking that Charlotte is a playoff team? I had a lot of injuries. And I said, no, you're not crazy.

I think they're going to be better

than people think this year.

Yeah.

They have a chance to get the number one pick

if people are not aware.

So it didn't go the way that we thought.

But I have never seen a team have more injuries.

It's like player after player

after player after player.

And that's it.

Sometimes you just have the bad juju

and that's how it goes.

Yeah, also, you know, they're super young.

I just, we'll see what it looks like next year,

but I do think that they have good pieces.

So is Seth, he's officially in his, like,

wise vet stage of his career?

That's where we've landed?

Yeah, 100%.

Like, I don't know.

Like, just taking young guys under his wing

and telling them about the league?

Yeah, 100%. Like just taking young guys under his wing and telling them about the league?

Yeah, and you know, just like, this is

how things work

on most other teams.

He's the oldest by a lot.

He does not know the music played in the locker room

for sure.

Oh, he got to that stage?

Yeah, like 100. I mean, the average age on this he got to that stage? Yeah.
Like a hundred.

I mean, the average age on this team has to be like maybe 23, 24.

Jesus.

They're so young.

Yeah.

Well, he loves it.

And he loves Charles Lee.

Absolutely loves.

I don't know anyone that doesn't like Charles Lee, to be honest with you.

Loves Charles Lee.

Loves the new management. Loves like he's enjoying it.
He likes being back home. So he's super happy.
The Charles Lee piece when he left the Celtics, just unanimous approval rating, right? And he went there and I told you that. I was like, everybody in Boston absolutely fucking loves this guy.
And then it seems the same things happen in there even though they're losing. Yeah.
which is, I mean, obviously it sucks to lose and going from Boston to Charlotte is probably huge. And even before that, he was in Milwaukee.
So he's done like a lot of winning. He's been on a lot of winning teams.
And so this is probably a huge adjustment for him. But he's like super positive, so nice.
Him and his wife, they're awesome. Give me the Doc Scouting Report.
My old podcast partner who ditched me. Ditched ESPN.
Went back to coaching the Bucs. I've been studying his faces and just seeing like he seems pretty happy with the team.
Trying not to text him too much, but he seems okay with everything. I have never, or maybe not, not never, but in a very long time have seen him like happy when things aren't going well.
And it's not that like he's, you know, okay with it, but he feels like there's things that can be done to change things. He absolutely, actually the other day I asked him, we were talking about people getting on people's nerves.
And I was like, I mean, listen, every coach is going to have players that get on his nerves. And he was like, I honestly like every guy on this team.
Like he really, really likes his team. And I think that makes a huge difference.
And you probably... Obviously, he's been doing it for so long, but the longer he's done it and had to be around a ton of different personalities and different organizations, I think he's just really happy to coach players that he like really gets along with, even though it's not perfect.
Yeah, I got the sense that it's been refreshing for him to be around anti, no agenda pros

basically. Just people who do their

job and don't like each other.

Yes. And everyone's like respectful.

Everyone, like the stars

on that team kind of act like

every other player.

They have no

desire to be treated like

significantly different.

Which I remember Austin saying that

he played with like a

superstar and was saying how he's never late. He like does what every other person is doing, like doesn't ask for any special treatment.
And I was like, yeah, but like, you know, guys are like used to the stars doing that. But I think when a star doesn't do that, it's like huge for the rest of your team.
Yeah. Well, that's like your brother-in-law is the ultimate example of that, right? That's like every time somebody joins the Warriors, and it just happened with Jimmy Butler, there was the big story about him talking about Steph like, I can't believe what an amazing teammate he is.
And all he wants to do is win. And he's the first guy there and blah, blah, blah.
But it's the recurring theme with him. Yeah.
I think that that's less normal with especially the level that Stefan's at. You hit the jackpot if you have someone like that on your team.
Yeah. That seems to be the fulfilling thing.
I think that's why Steve Kerr is like, I'm never leaving as long as he's here. I'm just staying.
Why would you? Were you worried about him a couple of months ago before they made that trade? Because as a longtime Steph fan and Steph watcher, he started to get that body language look of like the weight of world is on my shoulders and I'm too old to be able to carry this. No, I wouldn't say that I was worried about Stefan because Stefan's whole life isn't basketball.
Yeah. It's shocking when you're around him.
But he really does prioritize his family and he's very happy off the court. It's just happened to be that he's one of the best shooters of all time.
And I'm not saying he doesn't work. He works insanely hard.
But basketball is not his entire life. So I was not worried about him at all.
Do I think that he just turned 37 yesterday or a week ago? Do I think that he's probably like, what's the plan? I'm sure. But I can tell you, I just saw him yesterday.
Couldn't be happier. Very happy with the way things are going right now.
Yeah, they got the... It's like the new guy buzz.
Sometimes a TV show will have this when the new person joins a TV show and it's like, oh, good season of the show. New energy.
And it's working out better than I thought it would, to be honest. Yeah.
I was way more glass half full on it because I really thought Jimmy still had his fastball. Yeah.
And was just kind of had it in his back pocket waiting for the right situation. But, you know, the dream on Jimmy piece was going to be the fun part, but it seems like they really clicked.
Yeah. So far.
They seem to be doing just fine. What's crazy to me is what seed will they end up being, right? Yeah.
I would not want them in a first round. If they end up like a five seed, six seed, that sucks for whoever the third seed is.
No question.

You won the whole year and you get them the first

round.

I felt that way. I went to the Clippers

OKC game on Sunday and now

Kawhi's healthy and who knows how long that's going to

last, but he looks really, really good. And I was

sitting there going, this would be a

crazy eight seed.

This team, they have two

Hall of Fame scorers

slash players.

Zubats is a like

top six center.

Out of his mind.

They have role guys

all over the place.

They have Norm Powell

who's like instant offense.

They have one of the best

coaching staffs.

And they have,

they actually have a home

court advantage finally,

which is the craziest piece.

Yeah.

And two,

coaches won a championship.

Kawhi's won championships. Like, I wouldn't want to draw them either.
And it sucks that the young teams are at the top because they're going to end up with one of these veteran teams that have been there and done it before. Yeah.
People might think I'm crazy, but I think the same thing about the Suns. I'm like, if the Suns happen to draw OKC, is it impossible for them to be able to pull it off? I don't think so.

There's

signs of life.

There are signs of life.

Signs of... It's like

they were in the...

What did they put? The hole where the coffin goes?

They were in there and the dirt was starting

and then all of a sudden Katie was like,

Hey! Yeah, and am I surprised that Katie all of a sudden is scoring 40 points a night? No, I'm not that surprised. You know what I mean? It's just like, can I see that happening again during the playoffs and it be a tough matchup for an OKC or a Houston? Yeah.
That sucks as your eighth seed. Yeah.
I still feel pretty good about seeing them over the Clippers, but it's a good point. The fact that they're the ninth seed is nuts because you think about the seven, eight, nine teams in the East and it's a little bit of a drop-off once you get past Detroit.
Yeah. Although the Magic are looking better now too.
Yeah, a little bit better. I have a random Charlotte question.
So Seth, your husband, is on a team that is like the weigh station stop on the schedule because they're not having a good season, right? You're on the East Coast trip. A couple of these teams are in the lottery.
So when these teams come in, it's kind of like it's a no-win situation for the other team. They're supposed to win.
You might rest a couple guys. And that's just kind of been the whole season.
What's it like to just go to the games when you're rooting for the team that's kind of in that weird spot? One, I would say the fans are better than you'd think for where they are. I've been to some other arenas when their team is about the same place as Charlotte is.
And it's awful to go to those games. If the game is tight, the fans are up and cheering.
And they're essentially playing for nothing right now, right? So you wouldn't think that fans would care that much. They did just redo the arena so it's nicer to go to the games.
Oh, that's good. Yeah.
But it is weird. The Knicks played everyone.
Obviously, Jalen Brunson's out. And they won by 20 because of what you're saying.
I'm sure the Knicks rolled in their automatic dub. But Charlotte's whole team is a bunch of 19-year-olds that have all the energy in the world.
So if they get up and you're not taking them seriously, they will steal a win. They've beat teams that you're like, how are they beating these teams? And then they'll lose to the Wizards.
Right. They're feisty offensively.
Yeah, you don't know what you're going to get. And if LaMelo is playing and hitting the most outrageous shots in the world, it is fun.
And Miles Bridges post playoffs has been amazing. Yeah, post All-Star break.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, post All-Star, yeah.
So is Lamello, is he as talented as you thought he was or is he even more talented? I think he's way more talented than I thought he was before we got here. Yeah.
What is it specifically? It's hard. His offense is like the things that he does, the shots that he makes that look like, like these are circus shots, but he makes a decent percentage of them.
So it's kind of like, you got to let him have it, I guess. And he can see things like he is so talented.
I'm hoping that everyone gets healthy and next season they have a chance because I'd love to see him on a good team. I don't like to judge that talented of a player.
People will be like, Oh, but the team's always bad. I'm like, But yeah, that's not his fault.
Yeah. What is he supposed to do? So I'm interested to see what he would look like on a good team because he is everything and more than you think.
He's capable of it. I think Brandon Miller is better than people think too.
Well, and then unfortunately, he just got hurt again. But you also had that weird...
Charlotte had that weird trade where they made the trade. Have you ever seen a situation like that before? I think that was a great trade for the Lakers.
I think Mark is really good. Interesting.
Go, let's hear it. I think Mark is super talented.
I think in the West, to have more depth for the Lakers and size would have been great. I think that they were just worried about the longevity of it.
He's been hurt a lot. It's really strange to me to fail a physical when he's capable of playing that day.
He could have played in the game. Also, these teams get the preliminary medical stuff.
It's not like there's a ton of surprises. I genuinely think for some reason they got buyer's remorse and got scared and backed out.
I think Mark is so good. I think he would have helped the Lakers an enormous amount.
He's young and huge. He's huge in person.
And I'm just like, wouldn't you want that in the West? So you were surprised when you heard about the trade. You're like, why are they trading him? Shocked.
I mean, I guess it makes sense for the Hornets to get as much as they can get. But if you would have told me who would be off the table, I thought Mark was one of those people.
And then for the Lakers to send him back. I mean, that is the weirdest.
I've never seen that before. It hasn't happened in like, I don't know, 16 years.
Then Kinect comes back and he's like, hey, good to see you again. It's so awkward.
So weird. I also think Kinect's great too.
So I mean like, it just depends on what you want for your team. But I feel like the size for the Lakers would have been, they're already like enormous.
Adding a 7'2 guy. Right.
Well, they really need him. Yeah, I went to the game.
I went to the Bulls game Saturday night and they're just, it's so clear. They're one big guy short.
Like they're playing Rui at backup center and they, you know. Yeah.
And, and Mark like actually has like footwork and offense. He's, he's like, he could have provided a boost for them, especially in the playoffs.
But I guess like, you know, obviously they don't know him.

They haven't had him.

They know Kinect.

They know what he can give them.

So yeah.

Wait, we got to talk before we did.

You really came on to talk to Bachelor, but we just did 15 minutes on NBA.

Juju though, going down last night was such just an all time, all time.

Oh no.

I was so bummed out. I haven't been that sad over an injury in a long time it was just a gut punch because now she misses next year too I know that's like at least a 15 month injury I just couldn't believe it and at the same time I would watch her and she was so violent with how she played, like the torque she put on her legs.
And you know this, just like the ACL stuff with female athletes is so scary to begin with. So I can't say I was like, oh my God, I can't believe it.
But she seemed like she was superhuman. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe it until I took a second and I was like, well, the way she plays, she's incredibly explosive.
And her usage rate is like, I don't even want to know what it is. It's like Luka.
Luka on the Mavs, I should say. So, I guess it's not unbelievable that it happened.
But, God, especially women's basketball has been on a fucking tear. I know.
It's just... And I was so excited for next weekend's games.
Me too. And I'm still super excited.
There's still really good teams left. Notre Dame is so good.
Texas is great. UConn is...
There's so many... It's obviously South Carolina, it's super deep, but she was one of the stars you want to see.
Yeah. It felt like there was going to be a moment with that UConn USC play game.
If she was playing, we were going to have an answer for like, all right, how much of this was Caitlin and how much of this is just where we are now. Cause like, there was no way I was missing that game.
No, the good news is what's crazy is is I was going to bed last night and I told Seth, I was like, I think Mississippi State is better than people think. We should watch Juju at 10.
And I walked away. First of all, I was wrong.
They were down by 20 points in five minutes, Mississippi State was. But then when she got hurt, I was just like, and some ACL tears happen and people just are like, yep, tore my ACL.
Like no emotion at all. The way that she reacted, you knew immediately like what happened.
Yeah, some of them are you don't know if you actually did it and then other ones where you're just like in excruciating pain and that was unfortunately the one for that. Yeah, she was in excruciating pain.
I was just like, I don't even want to watch this. Like it's so tough to watch.
I thought she was... Oh, go.
She's a sophomore which is crazy that she's a sophomore because she's been one of the best players in college basketball for the past two years. But if you're gonna do it, like she has time to come back and will have two years of eligibility left

after she comes back.

So it's not like worst case scenario.

And they have a freshman coming in, Jazzy,

who's going to be great.

I was really excited to watch Jazzy and Gigi together.

But Jazzy will be a sophomore when she comes back.

So it's not like worst case scenario for her

and USC for that matter.

I just thought the way she played was a one-on-one.

I've never seen

any female basketball player play like that.

The side-to-side stuff

she could do going full speed,

there was nobody like her.

No, yeah.

The way she scored was fun to watch.

Who do you have winning the tournament

now, just out of curiosity?

I never had SC winning the tournament. But I think...
By the way, I didn't either because her usage rate was too high. You can stop that over the course of a tournament.
Yeah. It'll be interesting though because they have other players that are good.
So it'll be interesting to see how they... They're good enough, I think, that they might still win at least one more game.
Kiki's great. The other point guard that came from Oregon State, I'm blanking on her name right now, she's pretty good.
So I think that they'll be okay. UCLA has so much size.
I just think it's impossible to bet against South Carolina. How many times do you have to do it? I'd go UCLA.

You put you

have UCLA? I think I'd pick UCLA

now. Yeah.

I like their team and I like that they have

real size and I don't

know. I just.
They're feisty.

I think that

they had like one of

the tougher schedules and

won again and again

and again except for against USC and now

USC is not going to be in the picture. So

Thank you. They had one of the tougher schedules and won again and again and again,

except for against USC.

And now USC is not going to be in the picture.

So sleeper team, I guess, would be,

which is not that big of a sleeper because they were number two seed.

But Notre Dame is really good.

I'm looking at the odds right now

just so we know what they are.

National champion, UConn's plus 155.

Yeah, UCLA is 7-1.

I like that as a long shot bet.

Yeah.

If you're in need of a midweek boost, Fandle, America's number one sportsbook,

has you covered with the NBA hump day parlay profit boost. Try saying that five times.

Now, every Wednesday, you can get a parlay profit boost on everything from spreads to over-unders

and even player props like Lakers at Indiana. We just saw the Bulls run the Lakers off the

for Parlay profit boost on everything from spreads to over-unders and even player props like Lakers at Indiana. We just saw the Bulls run the Lakers off the floor on Saturday.
Indiana is going to try to do the same thing. Indiana in the over, do whatever you want to do.
Don't let the weekend have all the fun. Take advantage of the hump day parlays reward stack.
Who knows? It might become your favorite day. Look for the hump day parlay the Fandle app to find your profit boost or visit Fandle.com slash BS.

That's Fandle.com slash BS.

Make every moment more

with Fandle,

an official sportsbook partner.

The NBA must be 21 plus

in president select states

or 18 plus in president DC.

Opt-in required bonus issued

as non-winterable profit boost tokens.

Restrictions apply,

including any token expiration

C terms at sportsbook.fando.com.

Game problem.

Call 1-800-GAMBLE or visit rg-help.com.

This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra.

We are getting close to the NBA playoffs,

which means we are getting close to the NBA finals.

One of my favorite sporting events,

not just because it's really fun basketball

at the highest possible level,

but all the historical legacy stuff.

It's my favorite.

You've heard me talk about it on the podcast many times.

Speaking of finals,

This is a production of the U many times. Speaking of finals, Michelob Ultra has given you the chance to win tickets to the NBA Finals, which I hope Boston is a part of.
Not only do they make a superior beer, they're also helping fans like you get closer to the game. Michelob Ultra, superior is worth playing for.
Check out Michelob Ultra.com slash NBA Finals to enter for a chance to win tickets. Michelob Ultra courtside NBA Finals, sweepstakes, no purchase necessary.
Open to US residents, excluding Maryland residents, 21 and up. Ends on May 5th, 2025.
See official rules at mcglobalcher.com slash rules for price

and detail. Message

and data rates may apply. Void

where prohibited. All right.

Bachelor.

Are we

done? Did you watch this season?

We always have it

on because it's one of those shows you can kind of

throw on as you're doing something else. So I did catch most of it.
It just feels like a, I wouldn't even say a broken franchise. It's an expired franchise.
I think this is a 20-year structure of a show that is now no longer surprising or that interesting. And I don't think they know what to do anymore.

Well, Bachelor in Paradise to me is the direction that they should put all of their money.

It's so similar to Love Island. And Love Island obviously is super popular,

not even just in the US, but UK, Australia, France. I love watching Bachelor in Paradise.
They announced last night that they're putting golden bachelor and bachelorettes on the island. Not as excited for that one.
No, I also don't know how it's going to work. What if a 50-year-old falls in love with a 25-year-old? Is that cool? Is that what's going to happen? Yeah, it seems almost like you're doing a sociological experiment at this point.
I don't get it.

Yeah, I don't know what the rules are, if Goldens are only going to be with Goldens

or what it's going to look like.

But I feel like that's a weird mix on the island.

I guess we'll see how that works.

But I think that's where they should focus.

I also think if they're going to continue with some version of this,

making it a requirement that you're engaged at the end of it seems so dated to me. It's a great point.
That's a huge stakes thing at the end of this after dating 25 people for over a month. And the people that come off the show are like, I really did like him.
I went on one date with him and spent a total of an hour. And I was like, and you were going to get engaged? Right.
Well, I think this is why we have a 7% success rate with the couples that come out of the show would be one of the reasons. By the way, Bachelor in Paradise has a much higher success rate.
Interesting. Because they probably spend way more time just chilling and hanging.
Way more time. Also, it's not like they're forced to only have their eyes on one person.
Like they get to be introduced to 10 people and pick who they want out of those 10 people. And like, you're both choosing each other instead of here's the one guy like fall in love with him.
It's, it's been interesting to watch the franchise evolve over the, or not evolve over the 20 years. Cause like Survivor was in some of the same boat

where it's like, they have this game,

here's the premise.

And then people are like, okay,

I'm kind of used to this.

And then they would tweak certain things

and do the tribes differently.

And they're always trying to innovate.

You can't really innovate with The Bachelor.

And I think, you know,

when you think like how many shows have passed it

from a row, like even Temptation Island on Netflix. Did you watch that? My wife dove in.
I watched it too. Yeah, and she thought it was good.
And I might have seen a couple episodes myself, but it's like a smarter version of the same kind of idea. And it's just The Bachelor feels like it's out of the 1980s at this point.
I agree with you. The problem is The Bachelor still gets over a million views, which is more than what these other shows get.
I just think that the other shows have so much more cultural relevancy. Yeah.
No, no question. So how do you stop? It's the lowest production, how much money they put into the production versus how much money they make off of it.
It still makes sense for them to make the show. It's just not...
I agree with you. It's not a great show.
I think Bachelor in Paradise could be great. But Bachelor and Bachelorette, I think they're pretty rough.
So you wouldn't try to blow it up and try to actually change the show in some way because

we should mention the biggest thing that's changed is in the last seven eight years with all these

reality shows used to be one of those things where they're like it would be awesome if somebody just

got drunk and then got mad at somebody else and they just started screaming at each other

and the producers are now really scared of that yeah yeah it really hurt the challenge i mean the

challenge is ruined now it's like a sporting event now it's not even a reality show um

Thank you. and the producers are now really scared of that.
Yeah, it really hurt the challenge. I mean, the challenge is ruined now.
It's like a sporting event now. It's not even a reality show.
But it was more fun to watch train wreck TV like that. Like think about Bad Girls Club 15 years ago.
I watched that too. The most insane show of all time.
And now they're kind of afraid to go there. And these streamer shows have kind of figured out that middle ground of these people are still crazy, but we're not crossing lines here.
No. By the way, Temptation Island, I read in an interview that there is no alcohol limit, so they are allowed to drink as much as they want.
I mean, that might be one of the changes we need to put in. Part of what the Bachelor used to do is they would have those people there until six in the morning.
And they would have all the girls just drinking champagne, not eating.

And they would kind of wait until two, three in the morning when they started getting crazy and sloppy.

That was part of the blueprint.

You can't do that anymore, obviously.

I mean, there's a lot of shows that you look back at and you're like, couldn't do that anymore.

But that's part of the... Unfortunately, that is part of the problem.
Would I blow it up? I don't think you can go... I mean, you have a two-hour slot primetime TV.
You have over a million viewers a week. Yeah.
I think you got to tweak something. I don't know if you can fully blow it up because you don't want to lose that audience base that you have.
Because people are still turning out. Like the people in my house and it's terrible.
And we're still... There's a safety to it where it's like, I know what this is.
I don't really have to pay attention. Oh, we're going to get to the thing now where it's the two women who hate each other and we're going to have to go go on a date with the three of them.
And one person is getting voted off. I know all the beats.
Yeah. You know the archetype characters that they're going to have every single season.
There's going to be a villain. There's going to be someone that's a front runner.
Did you watch the finale last night? I saw a bunch of it. Yeah.
I mean, I saw that. I didn't see the last hour, but it was on in the house.
So the woman that everyone thought was going to win lost. I didn't.
I thought the other one was going to win. You did? Oh, yeah.
Yeah. 100%.
The only reason why we thought the other one was going to win is because Grant had no knowledge of Mormonism, which is crazy to me because it's like everywhere in pop culture. But he didn't know anything about Mormonism.
So all he had was whatever the producers were telling him, which God knows what the producers were telling him about Mormonism. And I feel like that might have been like a...
I don't really know what this is going to look like. No, the family visit was when you could see his wheels turning.
Yeah. My rule with The Bachelor is always like, who's the one he's going to most want to have sex with? That's who usually wins.
Well, I can see him wanting to have sex with Juliana. And it happened again.
Juliana was like, whatever, you could just see. He had a little extra hop on the step.
Super pretty, fun. Her family seemed great and easy.
Yeah. She's a Massachusetts girl.
Easy transition. Yeah.
She was cool. She was moving to Boston.
Easy is another one. I don't mean easy in the derogatory.
I mean easy to hang out with. Those are the ones that always make the final two because it's the one way the Bachelor mirrors real life.
That is what you want. People who are easier to hang out with is usually who you want your son to marry.
It's like, hey, how about no drama whatsoever? How about the stable, awesome person? Well, I mean, at the end of the day, in marriage, you spend an enormous amount of time with that person. You want someone that you want to hang out with.
Right. Be a buddy, not like...
Yeah. The runner-up, I don't know.
I thought it was interesting how her personality flipped the moment she became clear. There was this new side of her that I guess she was...
I was shocked by that. I was like, who is this? It was like she became a different person.
Yeah. She was like the soft-spoken, super kind, sweet.
And immediately, she was somebody else. Now, I'm not mad at the way that she reacted based on everything that she was saying, but I was like, we did not see any version of this side of you throughout the entire time we've been watching the show.
Yeah. I think the fundamental flaw with this show is that the people watch it after the season.
And if you're going to end up together and you're going to pick somebody and then you watch them on the dates with the other people and you watch those like conversations and you watch him tell somebody I love you or whatever they say. I don't know how you bounce back from that.
Like, sadly for me, my daughter is now at the age where I'm like, well, my worst case scenario for one of the many for me with her would be if she went on one of these shows. And I just can't imagine watching somebody you care about on one of these shows like,

oh my God, this guy was just making out with this other person in a hot tub.

Well, Grant made out with almost every person on that show.

He did.

So it'd be a lot of that.

Yeah, he was getting around.

If your daughter was on this show, you know how they do the hometown visits,

would you be supportive and go? No.

Would you be on the show? First of all, thank you for asking. I've discussed this with my wife,

and it would definitely be the good cop, bad cop thing, where my wife would be the one who's like,

oh, she seems great. And then they'd show me in the camera, kind of side-eyeing the guy.

And then I would definitely pull him out to the deck for the talk. And I would make that guy absolutely miserable for 15 minutes.
I don't think my dad would do it. You don't think he'd even be on camera? No.
I think he'd be like, I'll meet him after he's chosen you. Doc likes the cameras.
I don't think he would go on knowing that this guy is dating

other girls. It just

wouldn't be good for me.

That's where you get Austin.

That's where Austin

comes in. He plays

the hard-driving interview

family member role.

I can't even

imagine Austin

in this role.

Meet my boyfriend who has three other

girlfriends and is choosing which one of us he wants to marry. Yeah, we're on hometowns right now.
Here, come meet Austin. That's an insane ask for families, I think.
Yeah. And when families don't do it, I'm like, yeah, I don't know if my family would do it.
Because my dad would be an asshole to this guy. That would be my role.
Well, the thing is, I think if you have no experience whatsoever with celebrity or being... If you're just some random family in the middle of nowhere and your kid makes the final four and you're like, we're all going to be on TV.
Aunt Jenny's going to come over. It's kind of like you'd be excited about it, right? Yeah.
It's fun. I guess that's a really good point of view.
I've never thought about that. That makes a lot of sense, I guess.
I feel like for the opposite reason of that, my dad would be like, yeah, no thanks. It's also interesting the way they meet the families.
Nobody would do this anymore where it's like, meet my family. Here's 12 people sitting in a circle

and we're going to have

a really awkward conversation

with four cameras filming us.

What are the ads that's going to go well?

My dad's going to take you outside for a chat.

Then my brother is.

I'm going to talk to my mom and start crying.

It's like the craziest thing in the world.

And then Latia brought like 40.

Like meet my 40 family members that all live together or like not together, but like around each other.

No.

It's tough. I think the franchise is done.
I like your idea of Bachelor in Paradise

replacing the franchise because it's a better show and it's a better idea.

And you can do it twice a year.

And it's a better hang with the people you might end up with, which is why it's a better idea. And it's a better...
And you can do it twice a year. And it's a better hang with the people you might

end up with, which is why it's more successful.

And I think that they would have to move

to a trader's model

where it's not just Bachelor

contestants. You start pulling young

reality talent,

which there is unlimited

amount of young

reality talent that are single. Yeah.
And you pull them on the aisle. And maybe you do like, you're doing two a year.
One is only Bachelor people. And the other one is like young reality talent that are singles.
But I feel like that makes it so much more fun. It feels like there's only a couple moves left for the franchise.
One would be to get a famous influencer to be The Bachelor.

And try to bring in a whole new audience, an influencer audience to it. But then you have to disappear so those people would not be heard from for six months or six weeks, whatever it is.
And then you also don't have... I guess you have the talent of the people that are coming on the show to win.
best case scenario for me like give me

a I guess you have the talent of the people that are coming on the show to win. Best case scenario for me, give me a Tom Brady trying to find love bachelor.
Tom Brady? Give me... Tom Brady is a bachelor who would get ratings.
I'm positive. I floated this idea, so I'm okay.
I cleared it with her before, but I would love to watch Sonia Curry find love on The Bachelorette. Sonia Curry.
Would that not be so fun? That sounds amazing. And then family visit, what family member would you be? Seth and Stefan and Sadell.
Like that sounds great to me to watch. What family member role would you play in the interview with the person that came over to the house? Would you be the suspicious one? No, I would be like, well, no, I actually probably would be suspicious.
Yeah, because Seth's just going to be nice. Like he's 100 percent.
Yeah. And Steph, too, his cameras would be on.
I was going to say, honestly, out of the family members, Seth would be the one that dislikes the person the most. He's just not going to say it on camera.
He probably would not talk to the guy. Some brooding looks from him.
Yes. Yeah.
Stefan would be super nice and personable. Sadell would be suspicious, but she would ask the questions.
I like this. Well, I like the thought of an NBA player as the bachelor.
We've never had it. We had...
That's like, get an athlete, an ex-athlete probably, to be... Ex-athlete.

Remember when... I like this.
Well, I like the thought of an NBA player as the bachelor. We've never had it.
We had...

That's like, get an athlete, an ex-athlete probably,

to be...

Ex-athlete.

Remember when Travis Kelsey found love?

You know, we're not supposed to talk about that anymore.

Why?

Because the Swifties, they don't want to know about

when he dated somebody.

No, it exists.

I think it's one of those things

we're not allowed to talk about anymore.

Yeah, he was on a reality show

looking for love.

What was it called?

Last Catcher.

Yeah, Catching Kelsey.

Something.

It was not good.

I watched it.

It was horrible.

It was not good.

But if ABC did it

in a Bachelor version,

I think it could be pretty good.

And it doesn't have to...

Obviously, Tom Brady,

who fucking knows

how much money he would ask

to do something like that

so obviously

or probably not him

but somebody liked him

he took 20 million bucks

to get roasted

and had the worst possible jokes

made of him

like he can't be ruled out

for The Bachelor

I would absolutely watch

Tom Brady fall in love

I'd also watch Sonya Curry

we did like a whole list I think Charles Barkley was in it, but then someone said he was married. Is he married? I think he's married.
That makes it more fun though. He's married, but he's on The Bachelor anyway.
Like let's watch Shaq fall in love. Wow.
So this is the way to fix The Bachelor. Just major celebrities.
I think I sold you on it. You seem like you'd watch.
Yeah, I think it would have to be somebody who's probably divorced, but maybe 40s or 50s range. Yeah.
And that kind of plays the golden. At a good point in their life.
Yeah. Alright, this is good.
Great talk. When's your next pod? I am recording today for the Bachelor finale, so you can listen to Bachelor Party tomorrow.
It'll be out tomorrow, Wednesday. All right.
Say hi to our guys, Steph. Say hi to the whole fam.
Thanks for coming out, Callie. Thank you.
This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Michelob Ultra, a superior light beer and the ultimate trophy.
Win or lose, you're bound to enjoy the ride with a good beer in hand. Michelob Ultra, crisp, refreshing, only 95 calories, a superior light beer.
No matter the game, sport, or season, superior is worth playing for. So sign up for our Ultra Quartzsite at MichelobUltra.com slash Quartzsite, and you can enjoy some of these games with nice beer in your hand.
Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2025 Anheuser-Busch

Michelob Ultra registered light beer.

St. Louis, Missouri.

Must be 21 plus to order alcohol.

Alcohol available only in select markets.

This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn.

During the season,

every baseball team plays 162 games.

It's a true test of endurance.

It's not enough to have a hot month or two.

You need sustained dominance throughout.

While the same is true for your small business,

it's not enough to have a great Q2 or even a great year.

You want year over year growth

that starts with better hires

that'll be there for the long haul.

To find those hires, use LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has strong hiring data and insights

that you won't find anywhere else to help pair you with the best candidates from unique skills and interests to the connections you have in common. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small businesses say that LinkedIn helps them find high quality talent.
LinkedIn also lets you go beyond people who are actively applying in a given week. 171 million LinkedIn members aren't actively seeking jobs, but they are open to new opportunities.
That's a big pool to miss out on if you're not hiring with LinkedIn. Find your next great hire on LinkedIn.
Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash Simmons. That's linkedin.com slash Simmons to post your job for free.
Terms and conditions apply. All right, taping this Tuesday morning.
March Madness is upon us. It's not that mad.
Tate Frazier is here. You can hear him on One Shining Podcast.
Kyle Mann, you can hear him on that podcast sometimes as well, as well as the Ringer NBA show sometimes, this show sometimes. You can read them right now on theringer.com because we put a new draft guide up.
I'm going to start here, fellas. Men's March Madness basketball has become women's March Madness basketball with all the seeds.
You just push all the high seeds forward. You might have one get bounced.
This is just where we are now. And I don't know if it's NIL or just all the turnover or what, but St.
John's was the only top seed that got bounced, right? So Tate, is this just where we are now? This is college basketball. We don't have the Cinderella's anymore.
We're done. Yeah, we do have a Cinderella.
His name's John Calipari. Haven't you heard, Bill? He is the ultimate Cinderella.
He's having a great year. He was a 10 seed and now he's going to make a run.
That's the only sell that we have. 10 seed.
That's what we're excited about. We're excited.
Oh, it's a 10 seed. The SEC having a 10 seed.
I say this is the happy era of college basketball and happy in reference to blue chips. I mean, there's a lot of NIL, a lot of bag dropping, a lot of conversations had behind closed doors, a lot of tampering, Bill.
That's the one thing that the NBA and college basketball can do together. We can both tamper.
There is a lot of, you know, saying that the sky is falling this year. The women's bracket is very similar.
Like you said, it's the top dogs. But if you watched all year, the best teams have been the best teams.
Now, granted, it's because the best players from the mid-majors now play for the best teams. That's sort of the larger issue, but right now, we got good basketball ahead.
We didn't

get the Cinderella's, but at least we got good games.

Well, it didn't hurt the ratings.

The ratings seem like they're great. The interests

seem great.

Part of it is the players

in the tournament this year are really good, which

ties into the draft being really good.

I kind of like having Duke back.

It reminds me of being in college where just every

year, Duke had just multiple lottery picks and a signature dude. But what, before we, I asked you guys to do a five favorite thing setting into Thursdays, really for the casual fans in case people are jumping in now.
But what's, what, did you like anything out of that first four day weekend, Kyle, man? Well, take teed up my first one that I wanted to say. I feel like being from where I'm from, I'm obligated to bring this up.
But I don't know if, Bill, you ever made up an actual scale for this to measure FU energy, but Calipari's FU energy is like breaking the ceiling right now. You know that meme where the volume level goes off the iPod? I was calling this, I labeled it the Calipari FU extravaganza because people shoveled dirt on him.
They started 11-2 this season, but once they got into conference play, they lost six of their first seven. People were like, you started seeing these sort of anonymous, the athletic does these anonymous scouts, anonymous coaches, notebooks things, and you started to see, Tate knows what I'm talking about.
You started to see these, we're no longer afraid of him if he's on the other sideline anymore. It was a lot of people with shovels just enjoying.
And I tweeted this before the St. John's game that I thought that they were going to win that game because, A, they had more talent.

There's basketball reasons.

But also, this is more true Cal.

Like, when he is pissed off, when he's climbing.

You remember how swaggy he was with the slick hair and the suits?

And he rolls into town and he's like, I know you're mad.

I'm beating you.

You guys think I'm cheating.

Get over it.

Deal with it.

If I like this kid, he's coming with me.

That energy is true Cal. Cal at the top of the hill with like a fortified castle.
That's not him. So he is thriving right now.
And I don't take what kind of a limit would you put on on how far they could go? Because this team has the talent of a two seed. I don't know if I quite go one seed, but they have a lot of talent.
And I don't know where the FU extravaganza is going to top off at. I really don't.
They got a lot of five stars BS and like you said, they are blue collar cow instead of blue blood cow and blue collar cow is a lot more feisty. He's got a lot more fire in his belly than the blue blood version and that is encouraging and their best player could be coming back, Aduthiara who's also an NBA prospect that I'm sure is in the draft guide at some point.
That's's encouraging news for Cal. So I'm looking at the Fandu odds right now.
And they're 10-1 to make the Final Four. But they have a 7-10 matchup this next round against Texas Tech.
But Florida, Texas Tech, Maryland, and Arkansas are in that bracket. So it sounds like you guys are already nudging me mentally toward a 10-1 Arkansas Final Four bet.
And that's not Calipari works. You know what? The FU Extravaganza sounds like a great bus to jump on.
Do they have an aisle seat? I like the aisle seat. Tate, I mean, it's very possible.
I mean, they could beat Texas Tech. That's going to be a gritty game.
But, I mean, they also could bog Florida down. I could see it happening.
I really could. And what a brutal, what a brutal like PR beat like it was one of the hilarious things in the FU tour that we should mention is that Patino was on this like PR like just crazy tour where he his brand like renovated he's on Jimmy Fallon singing songs and stuff like that New York basketball we're popping we're in the New York Post and Cal's just just like, no, no.
He just put an end to it. So yeah, they could definitely make the Final Four.
It's wild that this could happen, but it definitely could. So that was the signature game of the weekend, right? And it sucked.
It just was a terrible basketball game. More fouls than field goals.
It was all the worst things. If you're going to say, like, here's why somebody wouldn't like college basketball, you'd watch that game.
It was like all the... More fouls than field goals.
It was all the worst things. If you're going to say like, here's why somebody wouldn't like college basketball, you'd watch that game.
Like people shooting threes that can't make threes and just, you know, so many TV timeouts and fouls. The game had no flow.
And yet it was still weirdly compelling because of the two coaches. And it's just so funny that when I, you know, we did blue chips on the rewatchables, which is built around like the mystique of a coach and how far do you want to go to keep your, keep your throne and college basketball still generating these dudes and CalPAR is not exactly in the, uh, I now have a, you know, a really bad toupee or a comb over and I'm old and I'm a hundred pounds heavier than when you remembered me initially, we don't have that wave of guys yet.
Who is, Tate, who's the next generation of Calipari Patino guys? Who are the guys 20 years from now where you could add a game like that on a Saturday and you're really watching for the coaches more than anything? Do we even have that class yet? Can we say it on three, Tate? I know we're on Zoom, but I know what you're going to say. Go ahead.
Let's do it. I do think it is one, two, three.
Will Wade. Will Wade, yes.
Right. That is the answer, and he did win in the first round.
He upsets Clemson with McNeese. Now he's going to NC State.
He's going to Tobacco Road. There's some Jimmy V vibes there.
You know how Jimmy V was, Bill. He was willing to do what it takes, get his hands a little bit dirty to make sure they could win some games.
And Will Wade is very similar. He is not afraid to go at the blue bloods, not afraid to tell Duke to F off.
He already guaranteed they're going to make the tournament next season. So Will Wade is kind of a throwback in that sense where he is a bad guy.
He is not afraid of any of the PR. And he's also not afraid to call it the NCAA, which is a zombie organization at this point.
And Will Wade is poking the bear as much as he can. So I think he would be the right.
I'm glad we're on the same page, Kyle, man. It's got to be Will Wade.
Kyle, man, do you like where college basketball is right now in 2025 with this Wild Wild West NIL? Guys could just hop around because some people like it and they're like, look, this is the way it always should have been. I mean, like we talked about this when we did the blue chips pod it's weird because happy is the quote-unquote villain on that pod but some of the stuff he's saying in the movie is the stuff that eventually became the themes of the 2020s like why shouldn't these guys get paid why can't they get a piece of it why can't they jump around when the coaches can jump around why why do we treat them like this so now we're in this but it's pretty weird.
And it's hard to keep track of if you're like a casual college basketball fan like me. So do you like it more or less? I was glad that you all said the thing about happy with the gambling because my brain just had edited that out in my memory of the movie because I always thought happy was the hero of that movie looking back.
But I was texting my dad this the other day that I'm very torn because the reparations of these guys should have been getting paid for a long time. I know once the TV money and the money changed everything and the shoe money entered it into the equation, these guys should have been compensated.
And we saw during COVID that they're so I think COVID was sort of the thing that cemented home that this had to change because the schools and the networks were so dependent on these guys playing. And we're talking about young student athletes jeopardize, you know, arguably jeopardizing their health based on the COVID situation.
But and we're just like, well, school is the most important thing, but we got to make money. So these guys got to be out there.
So I thought that proved it. But I was telling my dad that I'm just torn because I do feel like the basketball is better.
Well, a lot of the, you know, the SEC was the most dominant conference in the country this year. Six or what is it like seven of the of the Sweet 16 teams, the huge presence.
But they were old. They had a lot of older players and the quality of play is up.
But then on the other side of it, I do feel and speak to this if you want, but I feel like it has aged me as like a millennial basketball, college basketball fan where I want to see them get what they deserve. But I'm also looking at it.
I'm just like, man, the portal opened up and they set the record. What was the number, Tate? It shattered the record.
Already, it's already 700 names are in the portal in the open yesterday. Right.
Yeah. And I think we're going to see fewer and fewer CJ McCollum's, you know, we're going to see fewer and fewer diamonds who are on these mid-major teams, like for a Lehigh or guys like a John Moran.
Would John Moran have been at Murray State for that second year? I don't, it seems pretty unlikely. These guys are, they're looking to climb up because the money's so crazy.
And maybe once regulation comes in, it'll change. But I'm just very torn about it because I just I think some kind of regulation has to come into it.
Yeah, it's it goes back to like, you know, Nick Nolte says it like the rules don't make sense. But I believe in the rules.
And I do think like now more than ever, the rules really don't make sense. And the NCAA has no incentive to fix the rules because whatever they do, they get sued.
If they try to fix it, they get sued for that. If they don't do anything to get sued for that.
So they're basically just putting their hands up saying, we'll pay out these payouts. We hope we can exist and keep this tournament going.
But you guys, they're taking their ball and going home at this point. And then the game itself to use a Celtic city reference, which I really liked, there was the Spartan era of college basketball.
I feel like we're in a, an Athenian area area of college basketball. We're like, we're an Athenian area of college basketball.
We're a thinking man's game of college basketball. There are really smart teams.
There are really good teams. BYU, Alabama, those are two future NBA coaches going head-to-head, two offensive masterminds.
So college basketball, the game itself is awesome. I think we still need quarters in the game to match with FIBA, and I think then we're really cooking.
But I think it's in a good spot.

But then the rules and the transfer portal and the super conferences, all that sort of stuff, all gets kind of bundled together to say, hey, the death of college basketball.

But in specific pockets, things are going well.

Sounds like you need some advice from the sports are.

I don't know if you want to bring them in.

Yes, please.

We've been waiting.

The most obvious fix. And I don't know if they have any authority whatsoever.
They probably don't know if you want to bring them in yes please the most obvious fix and I don't know if they have any authority whatsoever they probably don't but the most obvious fix seems to be you have to stay somewhere for two years and that's coaches and players that's the rule and if you transfer after one year maybe you have to sit out the next year but there has to be it seems to me like a little more stability and it can't just be like, it's 2K and you're just resetting the rosters every April. Because I don't think that's sustainable.
I think it's going to be really hard for people to follow. And I still feel like they can get paid in the same way.
And that's how a lot of the GMs are doing it now, Bill. Even Lombardi, right? He goes to Carolina football and he's like, these guys are signing two-year deals, not one-year deals.
Right. And that was one of the reasons that made me think of it because the flip side of it is you can also kind of nudge people out faster too, right? So there's no stability in any direction.
So I don't know. It feels like something like that.
Like if Cooper flag goes to Duke, he can't just be like next year. I'm on St.

John's.

I've just changed my mind. Now I'm a Rick Pitino has won me over.
Um, and maybe that would help a little bit, but I, I don't know that the, the horse might have left the barn on this one, just in general. Sometimes with sports, things just get so wacky that you almost can't fix it.
And you just of have to hold on and that's just kind of where you are. Something just came to me.
What if we had some kind of a system where the mid-major mid-majors are rewarded for their evaluation because they're finding these guys. They're having to go down into the bargain bin and find these guys with upside.
What if a high major, if they take a mid, we'd have to draw some sort of arbitrary line between where that stops and ends but what if a duke has to pay let's say a lehigh for for some kind of a fee in the transfer fees yeah where like they get rewarded for for what they do well because these schools need money and i think the fact that they're losing these ncaa tournament opportunities it'll help their NIL, it'll help them sort of do better. And maybe it wouldn't deplete them quite so much.
Well, here's the thing, because it goes beyond just like, oh, this is weird. This guy was on this team, now he's on this team.
I think when you lose conferences, you lose the whole point of why we had conferences in the first place, which is to make it easier on people who are allegedly in college to play their

sport and then also stay in college,

which is why you had like the ACC the way like it used to be back when Tate was

a baby.

You know,

everybody was kind of around each other.

Right.

And the PAC 12 or the PAC 10 back in the day,

it was like everybody.

So when you traveled somewhere,

it wasn't like you're traveling cross country to play a conference game.

Thank you. right? And the Pac-12 or the Pac-10 back in the day, it was like everybody, so when you traveled somewhere it wasn't like you're traveling cross

country to play a conference game.

We have some friends out here, one of them

who have college athletes and

one of them runs at Berkeley

to just cross country. And they'll

have these meets and they're like, yeah, we have to fly

across country because we're playing some

school on the East

Coast. And it's like, how is this a

college experience? Like you're just

on a plane back and forth for

Thank you. a cross country because we're playing some, you know, some school in the East coast.
And it's like, how is this a college experience? Like you're just on a plane back and forth for three straight months. So that's where like, if you had a real sports star, I think they would be looking at this like, look, this is really stupid.
Like if you're going to have these mega conferences, at least make regions with them. And you would have been smart and said, Hey, why are we even doing mega conferences or super conferences? It's because of football.
Why can't football exist in its own world? Well, that's the bigger thing. Football should be over here and the rest of college should be over here.
Because now like with the, with how big women's basketball is, you could argue men's and women's basketball kind of cancel each other out from like a scholarship thing. It's not there with the revenue yet, but it might be someday.
The soccer is the same thing where the soccer on both rosters is the same. But football is what screws it up and football having to match all those scholarships on the other end.
And you end up with people who just wanted to run cross country on an airplane every week. That part makes no sense to me.
I personally really miss the regional stuff because those are my favorite rivalries and I just can't, maybe I'm too old, I just can't make sense of some of these matchups now. But it started, this has been going on for a while.
You know, this was, the Big East was the first one where it's like, wait, they're going to be there and then the ACC and they're going to be, and it's just, you know, it's a brain breaker. Maybe it's just gone.
Tate, I don't know. Maybe this just never comes back.
Well, it was, I do feel like we're all going to, the conferences are going to take over and make decisions once the NCAA is paying out all their mini reparations over the next few years and slowly become more and more defunct as an organization. And I think the conferences are all going to take over and maybe there's a world where there is just one super conference.
But I do think that everyone with the brain is going to look around and say, what are we doing here? If we're going to have to manage all of this as a conference, why don't we recede back to what we were? There's too many different, you know, we have to feed too many people. Look at the NCAA tournament.
There's 14 SEC teams and they're all really good. And like, not everybody can eat.
And eventually people, you know, they get hungry and they start complaining. And then, you know, I think it does kind of revert back to the old ways because we've gone too far and everybody knows.
What if nobody has a brain? That's the fear is like, what if there's not that one person? Idiocracy is right in front of us. B.S.
I think you're right. I think you just said it.
There's like an interesting cyclical cable bundle kind of thing going on here where there's a market correction for an inefficiency. And then we get to this other place and then it starts to resemble the original thing, right? It's like eventually, yeah, like what you were saying, if it all just, if the NCAA was the inefficiency and it goes away and we end up with this gigantic group of teams doing it a different way and then they start to regionally split off, maybe that's the path to success.
I don't know. Kyle, when you're growing up, Kentucky's biggest rivals other than Louisville were who? Tennessee.
They hate Duke, even though that was just kind of based on one game. But I'd say Tennessee and conference people.
I mean, Florida. Indiana, right? Indiana was the one.
Yeah, Indiana was a generational thing. That was really driven by the Bob Knight era.
But those are the ones. It's like three or four.
And Tate, you're a UNC fan. We know you would actually approve carpet bombing on the Duke campus.
But other than Duke, who were the big rivals for UNC? Well, I mean, obviously, Duke is special in what they are and the hatred that's there. I mean, NC State has always been somewhat of a rival.
But at the same time, I liked, you know, I had friends that were going to NC State. I liked some of their teams.
So it's not like a Clippers Lakers thing. You could almost get too mad at them.
I didn't really hate them. In fact, like there really was only Duke that I had really despised, like even Maryland, even though they would beat us, I kind of respected them, you know, and I liked, you know, Juan Dixon.
I like Steve Blake. I like Lonnie Baxter, you know what I mean? I like those teams.
So it really was a Duke thing. And now Bill Bill, as you know, Duke is not the Duke of old and they're not as hateable, even though Cooper Flagg is showing some flashes of going full Duke, which I do appreciate.
In general, they're just

not a very hateable organization right now because they're just doing everything better than

everybody else. So you can't really get that bad.
But, you know, so you miss coach K. Oh,

it's like a canker sore that you miss having in your mouth. I need an enemy.
You know what I mean? Like as I exist out here, sometimes you're like, I kind of miss just having that hovering in the background. He still is there, BS.
He's doing a radio show. He's making sure he's seen.
What was that? He did an ad recently that inflamed whatever that was. I was like, oh man, this fucking guy still grabbing bags.
He's back. We had a field day with the duty to country.
Wasn't there, wasn't there some kind of commercial that we were all talking about? It was might've been the army, but UConn has become the new Duke. It's, it's a different, it's early.
It's like the new coach K. Yeah.
They're a little, they're a little more, there's a little more bravado. Duke had that sort of affluent, great school, smarmy kind of a thing that you're seeing in Ratliff on White Lotus, like that family.
I'm sure Tate eats that up. But yeah, I mean, UConn, and theirs is a lot more coach-driven.
They've had aggressive coaches in the past, but I think Hurley has kind of assumed that, and the more they succeed, they're going to become the

evil empire in college basketball, I think.

Yeah, it started with that

fake Laker thing.

That just was ridiculous

from beginning to end, and then he's just

kept it going. I think he saw Coach K

void. He's like, how do I get

the next generation of Tates to hate my guts?

Right. What are some things

I can do? Should I just flip out at the Maui, whatever the Maui tournament's called, and act like jackass shore? Yeah, Bobby was supposed to be that guy too, right? You know what I mean? It's kind of like Bob Knight had Steve Alford, right? Steve Alford was supposed to be his protege. It was him on the floor.
Then obviously Coach K had Bobby Hurley, and you would assume that Bobby Hurley would have been the one that is the new Sith Lord, as Danny Hurley is. So Danny kind of stole it from his brother.
There is that brotherly competition rivalry that's kind of built in there. And then Coach K has kind of basically included himself in the Dan Hurley story.
You know what I mean? He's done what? Classic Coach K. Well, he got Seth Curry, right? BS.
And then he got Steph Curry by Transident Property. This is something that he's done before.
So he's got the Hurley family. He's an ultimate bandwagon jumper.
He can't resist. He's a genius.
I'm honestly impressed. I'm like, how did he, you know.
He wouldn't leave the Olympic team. He just had to grab on to more people and more legacies.
LeBron, everybody. Let's do five favorites quick.
So I don't know. I told you guys to come up with three each and maybe they'll overlap and we'll only do four.
But five favorite things as we head forward to a weekend with a lot of really good teams playing each other and a lot of good players. And this is like an excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent NBA draft that's coming with some of these guys that is going to be really fun to talk about.
Tate, what's your number one favorite thing heading into the next round? Number one favorite thing, and this is catered towards you and the NBA fans because I want them to care, the BYU-Tah Jazz. Ryan Smith is bankrolling BYU basketball.
Danny Ainge is monitoring the situation. He is going to all the games.
He has gotten Kevin Young there who is going to be an NBA coach at some point. He has a really good squad.
Richie Saunders, if you're a throwback college basketball fan, you're going to love Richie Saunders. This guy just gets buckets.
He does whatever he needs to do to win energy. He's an excellent player, gets everybody involved.
And then if you're an NBA guy, Yegor Dimon, you know, playing point guard, but really he's like a wing. He's like a wing forward, kind of like in the same vein.
He fell a little bit. He was in that top five combo.
Now he seems like he's in that 9-11 range. He's trending in the right direction, BS, at the right time.
Because you know the NCAA tournament is powerful. All these scouts get together.
They're in the same gym. Something happens.
The lights are bright, and they say, hey, he's one of those guys. Derek Queen, we just saw in Seattle.
The Red Auerbach test. Does he want to be good or great? Derek Queen said, I want to be great.
But back to BYU. I like the makeup of this group.
I like that they're funneled and fun to buy an NBA team. I like that AJ DeBant, so the future number one pick, will be there next year.
They're laying the foundation. Maybe not the future number one pick.
There's been... Kyle knows.
There's Aaron Peterson. Yeah, there's been some...
There's been some... Are we sure he's the number one pick stuff with them? Next year's draft is going to be...
Two years from now is going to be just as crazy. Well, that makes BYU this year even more pertinent for them to make a run.
Because if AJ DeBance is not going to be the number one pick and they get that cachet, they need to do it now. They're a fun team.
They know how to score. This is the highest over with Alabama and BYU.
So the BYU-Ti Jazz, that's my first pick. I do like the idea of an NBA owner who just seems like a smiling, a smiling, nice guy, like no evil side to him at all.
Just quietly funding the state's only relevant college of basketball. Right.
With Danny Ainge, his alma mater, a guy who went to the Elite Eight back in the 80s, who wants to bring him back to prominence. I mean, there is a lot of layers to the BYU touch.
Kyle, does Igor fit the, uh, that where nobody kind of knows what he is. And then Sam Presti takes him with like the ninth pick and everybody's like, fuck, is that, is he one of those guys? I texted somebody that works for the thunder and said, Yegor seems very, uh, thundery to me.
And there was no response. So I don't even either, either I'm a loser and they don't want to answer or, or it was true.
I'll choose. I don't know.
I can't believe it's true's true. Very thunder.
I can't wait to mispronounce his name 19 different ways. So we're going with.
That's everybody. It's not Agor.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. I'll get it.
I'll get it by draft. I'll be ready.
Yeah. I'll do some.
I'll do some practices. I'll be ready by the time we were ready for the draft.
This was, this was the first one on my list though. I agree with T Tate.
I had down all underline the Mormons are coming, the age of age, another age of age is upon us. But a big thing to consider here, too, is that, well, you mentioned Richie, that's true, surfer bro kind of guy, but he has a really gritty, tough way that he plays.
And one big thing, though, is that in Salt Lake City and in Provo, I was told this while I was out there, there's like a big tech boom and a lot of like BYU alums who are, there's more industry and tech out there. So there's money kind of coming up there.
There's something to keep an eye on. I think that your point about an NBA team, NBA people aligning with a school.
Um, I, there's, there's something interesting in the future of college basketball there too. It just seems a thing it just seems so illegal how does it seem conceivable you could do this also the Mormon church has more money than God like they have a lot a lot of money so you know they're really an interesting force for the future in college basketball well right now in Fando they're plus 950 to win the East because unfortunately for them they're in Duke's.
But they don't have to play Duke until the weekend if they can make it. Yep, Sunday.
We'll see. All right, Kyle, what's your first one? I was just going to point people to some of the oddities.
If you just like weird players, things to get into, things to watch for. You mentioned the lottery people in this draft.
Six of the top 14 that are in the Ringer NBA draft. Plug that again, the guy that came out.
So there's a lot of lottery talent in this game or in this part of the tournament. I wanted to point out there's a couple more odd players.
Danny Wolfe, who I mentioned on the Ringer NBA show the other day, he's a handling seven-footer. He has almost like a Franz Wagner-y, Hito Turgaloo kind of big guy who can run some pick and roll.
The shooting is a little inconsistent. He can be a little turnover prone, but he can really pass the ball.
Depending on how a game can go, he can look like the best player on the floor. I don't know.
Have you gotten to peep that guy at all, Billy? I only pre-peep when you give me the heads up, like with Queen, where you're like, can you do a deep dive on this guy? And then I'll do it. But I'm always like kind of waiting for somebody to trigger me.
Well, Queen's the other one. Queen, I mentioned that I think that he has sort of a Boris Diaz.
He has a Euro way that he plays. You know, he had that game winner against Colorado State.
He's a very cool level guy. not much so he's on Maryland for the people listening yes yes a big

guy who has really soft

hands he's constantly

chewing his mouth guard, which drives my wife insane. Right, a lot of germs.
Yeah, but he's an interesting player. I think depending on how you see the game, you can be really high on his potential.
He plays with another big guy, so I think that his future could look a little bit different in the NBA, but he's, he's very fun. He has an interesting guy.

Yeah. So I did study him.
He's one of the few guys I really deep dove because I was fascinated

by him because he's such an anomaly for wherever, as you know, I treat college basketball like it's

the feeder system, like much like the real world used to be the feeder system for the challenge.

There's nobody like him now.

He doesn't seem like he can really

rebound or defend the rim.

But then you watch how sophisticated

his offensive game is.

Honestly, it's a little

Embiid-ish. I'm talking about

last few years before

he got hurt and Embiid-ish. The stuff he does

face in the basket is

really nice.

It just seems like if he's where

he is now with some of that stuff

four years from now and he

can start doing a little bit of the one leg stuff

or take it to the basket, jump

hook, I don't know

what he is. I don't know if he's

just going to end up being a good stats, bad

team guy, but he's another one that you

put on that weird OKC team

and just be like, hey, this guy's going to come

in and we're just going to run offense

Thank you. just going to end up being a good stats, bad team guy, but he's another one that you put on that weird OKC team and just be like, hey, this guy's going to come in and we're just going to run offense through him for seven-minute stretches.
I'm like, oh shit, this guy. I am not positive he's a winning player at the next level because of the rebound and defense.
What do you think, Tate? I like him as a Kevin Love comp. I love the outlet pass.
I love that he's a little chubby right now, and I love that he wears the long sleeves because he is a little bit chubby. He's less chubby than he's ever been, though, to his credit.
That's true. You got it, yeah.
He's getting in shape. And that's what Kevin Love did.
And you mentioned it. I mean, maybe he is a good stats, bad team guy.
That's what Kevin Love was. He went to Minnesota.
That's true. He just got you 20 and 13.
And he was a lot of fun to watch. And then eventually a contender, LeBron James and the Heat said, hey, or the Cleveland Cavaliers at at that point said hey yeah come join us here and play on a real team um so i think that that's kind of like best case scenario for queen but you talk about touch you talk about like vision you talk about just natural innate feel for the game he has it all and uh i like that he wanted the ball at the end of the game and he made that shot i know a lot of people were talking about was it a traveler or was it a not was it not a travel in the nba it's not a travel so uh if you're an NBA fan, you're very encouraged to see him want the ball and finish a game.
So he's a lot of fun to watch. He's an interesting player prop guy because I could see him dropping like 35 in one of the games coming up.
Absolutely. You could also see him drop nine and foul out in 19 minutes.
But I like him. That was a good recommendation.
He was definitely something. I think the DL, even though his game's different, DL's a good comp because DL was like, what is this? That's that feel, though.
It's like you can't really describe it. It's just feel.
DL was chilling a lot of the time. And then he'd get on a good team, and you'd be like, oh, my God.
DL could do all this. Like Bobcat's DL.
You're like, does this guy like basketball? Does he want to retire? And then he gets with a great system. I have a lot of arguments with drafty people about whether or not he's a four.
I think you probably should play with a shooting five and he's inside. So then you still have to go to Washington, like plays with Sar and Sar could be the shot blocker.
There you go. Yeah.
I don't, the NBA feels like there are all these like weird, talented, flawed big man now that it's almost like this new era of the situational big man. The Klingens like this on Portland.
Edie's definitely like this on Memphis. Um, there Luke Cornette's like this on the Celtics, these guys that make sense only in certain situations or matchups.
And then you see them and they're good. And then they might not even play the next time.
Tate, what's your next one? Yeah, hyper-specific roles. My next one, you love the 2000s Michigan State team that went to Flintstones.
So I like the Flintstones kids. Jace Richardson, Jason Richardson's son, he is starring for Michigan State.
Tom Izzo has the toughness with this group. He basically said last year he's going to die trying to get Michigan State another national championship.
And I believe in Bill. And I think right now.
He might actually die. Yeah, he might not actually make it.
He's fighting for his life out there. And this team, while they're not all from Flint, Michigan, they do have the toughness, the mental makeup, and they have bench points galore.
This team does not have a guy. They have a lot.
They do it by committee. It's the team, the team, the team, RIP Gene Hackman.
But that's what Michigan State is this year. And I do feel like this group is on their way to making a special run.
And it's very cool to cut to the crowd, see Mateen Cleave, see Jason Richardson watching his son play. And every single time they need like a big bucket to kind of get them going, it does feel like it is Jason Richardson.
So I like that connective tissue and I like the storyline of the Flintstone kids. So I think that's a fun one to watch bracket for them yeah tough draw tough draw but Auburn I mean they're susceptible to a team that actually plays and sticks together as a team and I feel like that would be the sell against Auburn if they get matched up with them in the elite eight Kyle what's your next one uh that that's a good uh transition there to my fun secondary guards.
Uh, you know, you mentioned Jace, Jace really interesting because he doesn't play anything like his dad. I was trying to think of father son combos.
It's like Steph kind of played like Dell. You could go down the line.
Yeah. Jace doesn't have the same physical tools.
Jason did. He's, he's more of a, he's more of a cerebral secondary guard who just has this really wide ranging skillset.
Um, another one that I know. It's to happen.
It's like Bronny and LeBron. Bronny's game is totally different than LeBron's.
Yeah, and it's really just a choice. Yeah.
No, one of the interesting, and I know, Tate, I know this is going to happen, is people are going to watch Auburn and they're going to go, why isn't Tahod Pettiford a lottery pick? This is going to happen. Mark it down because he is one of the smoothest

handlers, scores,

has crazy middle game. There's a little

Dillingham

kind of a thing going on with him where he can

really handle the ball, super skilled. He might

be the most talented guy on the team. He probably is

honestly. And he's in their second unit.

So Auburn has this old first unit that

is very connected and good and guards.

And then they have the most talented player on the team

coming in in the second unit. And he gets

See you next time. honestly and he's in their second unit so auburn has this old first unit that is very connected and good and guards and then they have the most talented player on the team coming in in the second unit and he gets to just play freely and if he's going he plays with the first unit so that's one to keep an eye on he's he's a fun fun player i was thinking in the bachelor in the first like couple episodes somebody will make it get like the last rose that you can tell the person didn't want to pick, but they had the producers are like, you got to, you got to keep them.
Got to give the lady, lady rose. Cause we need her for the next episode.
Cause she'll be really good. I wish there were producer picks for March Madness, where somebody could have done that with Rutgers and be like, yeah, look, I know they didn't qualify, but we got to producers pick them.
We're going to make them 15th seed. We needed those two guys in the tournament.
Like, it's outrageous that they're not in there. Right there in the ringer draft, Aces four and Dillon's two.
And they're not, we didn't get to see them at all. It's frustrating, Tate.
I like a captain's pick, like what we do for the Ryder Cup. We do that for the NCAA.
Yeah, we have a captain of the tournament. We select like a celebrity.
This year, Condoleezza Rice is our captain. Condoleezza Rice, who does she want? She wants Rutgers and Rutgers comes firing into the tournament.
Yeah, captain's pick is great. Like, we have no rules in college basketball anymore anyway.
Could it take captains pick somebody and just cram them in for the first four? I don't know. I love that.
I mean, look, Ace Bailey had a great game at Indiana this year. That was probably like his go-to tape.
Yeah, Kyle Mann was in the building for that one at Assembly Hall. Dylan Harper, I mean, he showed flashes of why people thought he could be potentially a number one pick candidate.
It does suck that they're not in the conversation, and I'm with you. Let's get a captain's pick.
Let's get him in. What's your next one, Tate? Next one, I'm going to be fair because we talked bad about Coach K and Duke before, but I do think it's obvious, and maybe it ridiculous.
We haven't even said it yet, but the flagship, the main character from Maine, Cooper Flagg is the story. Cooper Flagg is the headline.
Cooper Flagg, New Balance said he was the intelligent choice, right? So that goes back to the Athenian kind of aspect of this team. He's a thinking man.
He's got the best IQ on the floor, but also he's a Spartan. He wants to kill you and he he enjoys killing you, and he enjoys watching it.
You talk about a killer instinct. This guy is different.
He loves Christian Laettner. His parents obviously have instilled him with the Laettner kind of mindset.
He went down with that ankle injury. Everybody was worried.
I was not. This is the kind of guy that he is.
He's tough. He doesn't really care about anything else other than winning.
I think that Duke, this is like if you could build someone in a laboratory to go get you the title that you need this decade, Cooper Flagg is that guy. And it's almost a disservice that he's not getting more coverage because he is that good and he's that much of a winner.
So it's ridiculous he's been this far down our docket, but the flagship Cooper Flagg. You know, phenomenal bench reactions from him too when he's not playing.
I mean, some of the best, like really harkens back to Cobra Kai and Karate Kid 1. Like a couple of the guys on there just coming forward.
Can we be honest? Yeah! Cooper would have been in Cobra Kai. Can we just be honest? He would have been awesome.
He would have crushed. You can see with the matted hair and the headband.
Yeah, it's 100%. Yeah.
Duke's fascinating because they're like a real basketball team oh yeah i mean like like a real one like they could come in i you know could they win eight games of the nba like maybe but they have a lot of different pieces the seven foot two guy so he popped up in our ringer draft guide but um he's had some moments where you go wait what's going's going on here? This is not Hashim Thabit. He can move his feet.
He can go side to side. He can guard guards from 20 feet away.
I was impressed by him. And then you know how I feel about Knipple.
He's going to go six spots too late. He'll go like 16 or 17.
It's going to be annoying. I'm just telling you now, people are going to talk themselves out of him.
And he'll have like a 12-year career. There's no question that guy is going to be a good basketball player at the NBA.
I'm positive. But he'll go six rounds late.
He has four little brothers. And they all have insane names that start with K.
It's like Kager, Knife. They're all like the most ridiculous.
Oh, it's like one of those families? Yeah. You like those.
You're getting in on those families. Well, parents, college basketball players.
Oh, they're studs. Another mom who played, that's a really fun kind of trend among young players that we get is these really competitive moms.
Yeah. You know, like Kelly Flagg, Reed Shepard's mom last year.
You talk to anybody, they'd be like, Reed's mom is like the fire. Like it's a very, it's a common trend that we're seeing more yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's an interesting trend that's that's happened lately i'm counting on kelly flag who's a massive gigantic celtics fan oh yeah she's got a plan kyle turn the tiktok camera on i'm counting on kelly flag to stick to her guns the celtics the team that she loves very much.
We have never seen somebody come into the NBA draft and just play out their rookie contract, pass up that, Oh, I better take that one kind. No, no.
He loves the Celtics five years, just plays where whoever drafts him jumps right to the Celtics by age 24. We're waiting for him.
We're going to have the cap space ready. We got a new owner.
Come home. Come home, Cooper.
You don't even have an NBA team yet. Come home to Boston.
We're waiting for you. I can't wait till they tell Cooper Flagg about bird rights.
And he's like, yeah, these are my bird rights. I'm going to the Celtics.
Bird rights. The right move is to be Larry Bird.
But like, seriously, if you love the team that much, what do you want to play for them? I always feel like, I don't know. I'm holding out hope.
Tate, if you could have played Div 1 college basketball, you would have played at UNC. Absolutely.
100%. You would have gone like to NC State.
You would have gone to UNC. I would have gone to Carolina and I would have tampered and every recruit on campus, they would have had the best time they ever had.
I promise you that. Andrew Wiggins would have been a Tar Heel.
This has been Tate's case for Steph for the last 10 years. Steph's now 37 and still on Golden State.
I DM him on Twitter every once in a while just pictures of the Hornets. I'm like, this could be you hanging in the rafters.
Well, I wonder if Charlotte got flagged. It does kind of you know, because they're already talking about the Warriors.
It's a two, three-year plan here with the Draymond, Steph, and Butler contracts. So who knows? Maybe age 40 Steph comes to play with Lomelo.
I would buy season tickets that night. Yeah, Tate's moving back.
You're moving back if that happens. I'm going back for the one season, the farewell tour for sure.
I was going to say, wasn't Donovan Klingin, he's a Celtics fan, right? Didn't he have some kind of fist pump moment in the draft room? Because Klingin's mom and Kelly Flagg... We're not turning on the TikTok camera for him, Kyle.
Kelly Flagg and Donovan Klingin's mom actually played together in college. Alright, I'm turning him back on.
That sounds great. Maybe the two of them together.
Finally. The 4-5 combo.
I love it. I'm with you on Duke, though.
It's been a while. I mean, we've had fun different versions of teams, but it's a team that at least has a little bit of the Florida late 2000s, or I guess mid-2000s feel, where you're just like, man, all these guys are really good.
They're kind of due, right? I mean, 2019 with Zion, Reddish, and RJ, that was a team that probably should have won the national championship. They lose the Michigan state 2022.
They're on a collision course to win the championship on a wooden storyline for coach K. They have to go up against Carolina.
They lose with Ban Caro. So it does feel like third time's the charm.
Cooper flag is kind of infallible as he goes on this run. Like Palo, there's a little bit of like, he's going to be the number one pick.
Who cares? Zion, sort of the same deal. Plus there was the infighting of who gets the most shots, RJ or Zion.
This team, they don't care who gets the shots and neither does Cooper and they win regardless. So I do feel like they're kind of the perfect version of a Duke team.
Yeah, you think that 2018 team, it was more a collection of assets than a team. Oh, it was horrible.
Wasn't a team that made sense as a basketball team. The Duke team, you watch, you're like, shit.
All right, they need size. Let's play flag and the 7-2 guy together.
It just seems like they have an answer for everything. I'm disappointed Caleb Foster isn't playing more because I thought.
He's playing better defense. He's coming in.
They got him now as like buying in just kind of as a defensive X factor. I know.
He was such a good high school player, though. I'm keeping my stock with him, Kyle.
What do you got for your next one? Well, I'm with you. I'm disappointed.
I'm also disappointed that Tate would say that Duke is due. I just, my skin crawled when you said that.
Yeah, that was ugly. I'm trying to stop it.
Tate's older. He's a scratch handicap in golf now.
Do you realize that Tate is at golf? There's this whole Tate golf thing happening. I appreciate that it's moving its way through the world.
Nephi Cal's dad was just like, we played golf with Tate today. What in the hell? I couldn't believe how good Tate was.
Maybe we need to do a golf series with you, Tate, where you just play golf like famous nba players we just shoot it with like cool cameras how about we do steph curry and then i basically pitch him on the hornets the entire round yeah you play golf and you and you pitch weird things to the players yeah i'm like an old assistant coach with like the the national letter of intent i'm just trying to get him to sign the paper i'm like hey steph can you sign can you sign your scorecard? Carving contact paper. Whoops, I'm due to rights over.
All right, we'll pitch it. What's your next one, Kyle? This one is more of, you know, Tate and I, we tried to get, you were talking about the St.
John's and the Arkansas game. I try not to, I try to sort of put the curtain over the unsavory parts of the game because we want to market the best version of this.
This is more advice for the casual college basketball fan. If you find yourself watching, we all know YouTube TV is just, it's all over the place.
It's the dominant way to watch these games now. If you're not watching this site, whatever.
But when you turn on a college basketball game, my advice is to pause it for 10 to 15 minutes. Go make yourself a drink.
Go make yourself a snack. Maybe talk to your kids, you know, do something productive and you start on your taxes.
I don't know what it is. I like this.
Go on a Reddit board and slam somebody you don't like. It's 15 minutes.
You can do that. Shit.
Yeah. Just go send somebody's Twitter replies, say some shit.
You have 15 minutes to kill. Yeah.
Go for it. Do this because the college review system is just completely broken in a way that is awful.
It's like getting a full body tattoo with... It's horrible.
It's horrible. So do that because once we get to that portion of the game, they're going to be reviewing literally every single out-of-bounds call.
They need to fix it. So I want you guys to have a good time.
So just maybe have a snack break. Just prepare yourself for that.
Pause the game so that you can skip right through all that stuff. This is my number one pet peeve in all sports now.
Is this. I went to OKC Clippers Sunday night and it was an awesome game.
It was so good and it was super physical and athletic and really competitive. Then all of a sudden the refs are like, you know what will be cool? Let's just slow this down like four different times with long fucking reviews of nothing.
And the funniest thing is they're reviewing some things, but then other things aren't reviewable, but are just as important to the game. So they're like, oh, I can't review that.
I missed it when it happened and we're not allowed to review that. But let me spend 10 minutes on this.
I hate it. I just hate it.
Nobody likes it. Why did we turn into a sport where we do stuff where nobody likes something and they're like, let's double down twice as much? Yeah.
I don't get it. It's terrible.
And Derek Thompson, when he was on, he was talking about how we've gotten too efficient. And I agree with that wholeheartedly.
The humanity of getting a call wrong, I'm almost okay with now. You know what I mean? I could just live with the fact

that we got it wrong in the moment

and it looked like it was off on this guy,

but let's just play the game.

And if you're a coach now in college basketball,

you don't even take your time out

or you can take your timeouts early

because you don't have to worry about

at the end of the game.

You're going to get at least two or three reviews.

So you get free timeouts.

So it basically cheats the game

for like the coaching aspect of timeouts too.

So it sucks on both sides of the coin.

I hate it.

The announcers are so terrible because they have no idea what to talk about.

They're just narrating the video that we've seen five times.

I don't know.

Maybe you can say it touched his tip there.

Let's bring in Sterator.

Yeah.

It's the worst content.

Like they should be bringing in like Shane Gillis and Bill Burr to like

during the reviews to just do like three minutes of comedy. That would be great.
Just roast them. I have one I'm going to throw in with you guys because you did all yours.
I think Edgecombe, a really interesting moment right now because where do we have them? Three in our draft guide. And I just feel like prospects in the NBA like that are like quarterbacks in the NFL are like, I don't know, Shadar Sanders, he's probably like around 20.
And then the draft comes and the thing everybody wants the most is a quarterback. And in the NBA, the thing you want most, unless you get somebody like Flagg, the thing you want or somebody who's a dominant perimeter offensive player, like those are the two things, no brainer.
If you have a chance to get a Luka or a flag, you're just doing it. The next thing you need beyond that are these awesome athletes, swingmen who can switch on everything and who could potentially become a real offensive player.
I don't know what he's missing. So what is he missing, Kyle? He's just, a lot of the intangibles that are kind of athleticism driven are the things that you're going to bank on in the short term.
And I think they're going to keep him on the floor. The only thing that are, that are missing are the things like handling and shooting the ball, which are not in bad places.
Like he's not one of these raw athletes that comes in that offers those things. And then they're just a total disaster.
Like an Oscar Thompson, you're like, Oh, holy shit. I mean, his first year was like a generationally bad three-point shooting season.
He's smaller than those guys at like 6'2", but he's like a Victor Oladipo type athlete. The big thing for him is half-port athleticism.
He doesn't need to be out in open space to impact the game. You know, he rebounds his position insanely well.
He gets a lot of half-court dunks. You hear people talk about that.
I think that the upside for him, even if he doesn't become a superstar, he's going to be a really, really... Because he's the best overall explosive athlete in this class.
He has those moments... Oh, good.
Well, I was just going to say, the only other player... I've had this happen twice since I've been covering the draft, that they tried such insane things when they were trying to finish is him and Ja Morant.
I had a whole folder of places like I can't believe Ja tried to jump from here to finish this play. Ed's home is in that stratosphere of I'll try anything.
He's fearless. And he's a smart player too.
He held his own with the Bahamian national team. Right, so if he's 6'8", this is a no-brainer.
He's the number two pick. But he's listed as 6'5".
I went to the Cooper game Sunday night where Lou Dort, who's like literally 6'2", and can guard everybody. He guarded Jalen Brown in the Celtics game, who's 6'8", like 240, and he just completely locked them down.
So I don't know. I think he's pretty interesting.
All right, guys. Sometimes it's like tall versus wide.
You know what I mean? Like Lou Dorn is like, I'm wide. So like, it doesn't matter if I'm just tall.
He's like a tight end. Any last prediction before we go? What do you got, Tate? Last one.
I think that Duke is going to win the national championship, but watch out for Houston. We did not talk about Houston.
Houston's a fun team. Giannis Antetokounmpo adopted them under the guise of Akeem Olajuwon a few years ago when he went down to Houston.
So I kind of like the Houston MO. They're a Jordan brand school, so we didn't bring them up.
So if it's not Duke, I think the Houston Cougars can stop them. And they got a little bit of redemption last year.
They had their best player get hurt in the tournament against Duke. So watch out for Houston.
That would be my last thing. What do you got, Kyle? I love you had to bring up Jordan, but you're so on brand, Tate.
You had to mention. Why did you have to mention that they're Jordan? He's the GOAT.
He's only the best player ever. Thank you, Bill.
Sometimes you got to do it. No, I was going to tack on to that.
On my oddities list, I didn't mention. Houston has a guy who has longest arms on earth,

Jojo Tugler.

He's an undersized five at the college level,

like 6'8", 6'9",

but he has an incredible plus wingspan.

You'll see him immediately if you watch the games,

but man, they defend.

Holy moly.

You could just sell a workout

trying to dribble the ball against Houston's defense.

It has to be exhausting to play them, but I agree with Tate. They're going to be a really tough out.
Any last prediction? I'm kind of with him. There is an inevitability about Duke right now that feels really strong.
I think Cal's going to make the Final Four. That would be my prediction.
10-1 out of Fando. I think the bracket is good for him.
I think it could happen.

So the most shocking thing

would be Duke winning

basically any round

before the last game.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

All right.

I like it.

All right.

Look forward to continuing

hearing and reading

you guys following

the tournament.

Tate,

Calman,

great Steve.

Thanks, Bill.

Thanks.

This episode is brought to you

by Verbo Private Vacation Rentals.

With Verbo,

you always get the whole house so you and your fellow fans can cheer on your team in peace. What's worse than watching a game with somebody who's not rooting for the same team you're rooting for? Nothing.
But that's why if you book a vacation house with Verbo, you know all the people in your house. They'll be friends.
They'll be family. Ideally, they'll be the ones who also root for my teams.
Plan a winning vacation. Make it a Verbo.
This episode is brought to you by Nissan. If you're planning on an adventurous 2025, you're going to need a car that can keep up with you and conquer anything in your path.
The Nissan Armada Pro 4X is that car with a twin turbo V6 engine ready to propel your adventures up to 8,500 pounds of towing capacity to haul all your favorite toys and space for eight passengers, this unshakable fortress will chew up and spit out anything you throw at it. Learn more at the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada at NissanUSA.com.
Towing capacity varies by configuration. See Nissan Towing Guide and owner's manual for additional information.
Always secure cargo. All right, Anthony Dabundo is here.
We're going to talk MLB futures and a little bit of a gambling preview. Before we do that, I heard you on Ringer Gambling Show.
Can you tell my audience the thing you did on Ringer Gambling Show about the elite offenses in March Madness and why you thought that was part of the dominance for this year so far? Yeah, I mean, so we saw a ton of favorites do really well. And if you had looked through kind of the numbers of the field before when the bracket first came out, the number one, two, three, four seeds, they were all basically as strong as they've ever been.
And a lot of it had to do with the fact that offensive efficiency in college basketball is through the roof. Basically better than it's been in the last decade or so.
And we only have data for about 20 years on that from Ken Palm. But basically there are 17 teams this year that have a 120 or above offensive efficiency according to Ken Pomeroy.
So that's like for the NBA, that's like Cavs, Celtics kind of level offensive efficiency. Right.
And that normally would be like five to 10. You'd get like five or 10 elite offenses and everybody else would just be good to great.
This year, it's 17. So I think that was the big thing that drove the first weekend.
And then you combine that with all of the underdogs and pretty much everybody shot the ball poorly from three the first weekend. Yeah.
People are conspiracy theory about the balls and the rims and whatnot. But really, the math gets really hard to win as an underdog if you're facing these juggernaut offenses.
So you think it's just generationally these guys are just all getting better at shooting threes? What are the reasons? Or the teams are just too loaded? What would be your biggest reason? I think some of it is there's kind of filter effects. We've seen this in the NBA, and you talk about this on your show.
The NBA is as good offensively as it's been ever. And maybe the sport has been solved to a certain extent where rim and three and analytics, because even the best teams now play this analytical style where it's rim and three shots.
We're not going to take contested mid-range twos. And it used to be that the mid-majors could get an edge if they were really smart about it, if they shot a lot of threes.
But now everybody does it. Everybody has the rim and three style and they're doing it with just better athletes in these high major schools.
And so I think it's harder now. You look look at a team like Alabama and, you know, Nate Oates is running the ultimate

math ball down there.

And it's just really hard to beat a team like that or a team, you know, like a Duke who

has elite shooters all over the floor and elite rim protectors at the rim.

Good luck.

Any sleepers or things you're looking at it?

Tate and Kyle were just on and were saying they liked Arkansas for Final Four 10 to 1 as a possible long shot bet. Anything you were looking at for the next couple rounds? We joked on Ringer Gambling Show, like I think Duke and Houston, like a parlay to win their region.
I really don't see anybody stopping us from getting a semifinal of those two teams. I think you could see more chaos on the other side.
Florida looked a little vulnerable. I like Texas Tech.
They were my final four pick from that region. I still think they look great, but their best shooter, they keep saying he's healthy and then not playing him and they're being very cagey about it.
Chance McMillan. So I don't know what to do with that region.
But yeah, the sleepers is a tough call this year because it just feels like we're going to get three or four one seeds in the final four. So Duke Houston plus 174 on Fandle right now.
That's a fun one. I'm going to do that.
Okay. MLB starting.
I mean, it started already. Now it's starting again.
They played these two games in Japan and they count. And this time the Dodgers actually won both of them.
But I asked you to come up with five favorite bets as kind of a preview for the big season. ALNL doesn't really matter.
So give me your first favorite MLB bet that you're looking at. Well, I'm not going to beat the allegations that I'm playing to the home crowd here, but are you buying in on the Red Sox? Are you? What do we need to do to get Bill bought in on Boston? I'm getting, I'm getting

excited. Okay, let's hear the case.

So I think they're

finally, so there were some things happening under

the hood with Boston over the last couple years

that make me think they're

on the forefront of things with baseball

and the way things are trending. So last year,

the big story of baseball, or one of the bigger stories

behind the scenes, was that fastballs

became unpopular relative

to what they used to be. It used to be, we

want to hunt the guys for the best fastballs,

I don't know. the big story of baseball, or one of the bigger stories behind the scenes, was that fastballs became unpopular relative to what they used to be.
It used to be, we want to hunt the guys for the best fastballs. We wanted them to throw as hard as they can with the best stuff possible.
And Boston said, what if we get a staff of guys and we focus on sinkers and cutters and junk ballers? And so Boston kind of started a trend away from the fastball.

Exactly.

And baseball has kind of followed them a little bit on it.

That's an encouraging sign.

So they're on the forefront of something.

And then the other big thing is this whole Rafael Devers third base situation where he's kind of a butcher over at third.

Incredible bat, but he's been one of the worst defensive third basers in the league.

It's a slow nudge. We're just

slowly nudging him toward the DH

spot. Just being careful.

But they've been one of the worst defenses

in baseball for the last three seasons

and last year got a little better.

This year, with Bregman

at third and Devers at DH-ing,

second base was a hole for them defensively.

We're not officially saying that yet. We're saying,

no, no, Devers is still... We're trying to handle his ego carefully.
Right, and it is hard. I mean, if I'm, you know, Devers' age, it's pretty early to get moved to DH.
And once you get moved to DH, you usually don't come back. Especially because Boston already has a first baseman they like in Casas.
So, I think Boston, improving defensively at a key position at third base, improving and getting younger at second base, spending a ton of money slash trade capital to acquire frontline pitchers so that they're not just reliant on these kind of cutters. Yeah.
Crochet seems like he, Crochet's they've been out of their mind with how good he's been. And that was a great trade.
I think people are frustrated they weren't spending money, but they ended up belatedly spending money on Bregman. But the Crochet thing seems like that might have been actually a great trade.
Right. And now with the situation at the top of the division, with the Yankees kind of taking on some water here, I think I like Boston over 86.
a half wins and to win the American League East plus 270. I am buying on Boston.
And again, it's the little things like, hey, we're going to worry about defense. Hey, we're going to be ahead on this pitching thing.
The bullpen is still a little iffy, but I think from a rotation and bats perspective, I think they might be the most well-rounded team in this division. So they're plus 260 to win the AL East.
I thought on Fandle, their 90 win number is plus 138, which I thought was intriguing. I don't know why he just wouldn't bet the 86.5 over that.
But yeah, there's some positivity. It's interesting, especially with some of the young guys they have.
They voted the best farm system in baseball. Campbell's made the roster he's going to play.
They have Roman Anthony waiting. And it feels like they have some moves maybe to do in June, July, whether they wanted to trade for one more veteran or maybe even, you know, maybe you move Devers at that point and try to flip him for another big money dude that plays a different position.
I don't know. They're way more interesting than they were.
And then stories back. Tristan Kassas was in the middle of a bit of a breakout before he got injured and ended up missing most of the second half.
So another big bat power and patience in this lineup. Bregman is such a true pro, a great vet who has a great eye.
Like there's discipline to this lineup. And, you know, Jaron Duren went from, couldn't see a fly ball when it was hit to him.
He just got lost and they would, you know, give up inside the park home runs to actually grading out as one of the best defensive players in the sport last year. So it's, it's been quite a turnaround.
And I think there's real things happening in Boston. Yeah, we don't...
The Dern thing, was it a one-year superstar fluke, or is this just who he is now? There's a lot of good storylines with them. And, you know, the fact that the Yankees, it looks like Arrow pointed down, and then Baltimore, who I can't believe they have worse odds to win the division in Boston.
It seemed like Baltimore was going to be a juggernaut for the rest of the decade. So who knows? Yeah, Baltimore's best players starting the season on the IL.
They lost their best pitcher. Yeah, not sure of their closer yet.
Baltimore is the kind of team where we look back, and they're not there yet. I'm not saying right off Baltimore.
They still have a ton of young talent. But it feels like they're in danger of not capitalizing on just how much young talent they have.
And that's where I'm a little concerned about them. Like, if you look at their rotation now on paper, with the injury to Grayson Rodriguez, their ace, you're all of a sudden not sure how they get all of these great lineups out in the American League.
The other case with that over-under with the Red Sox is they really lost the narrative in Boston the last few years. The Celtics just leapfrogged them in the biggest possible way.
They're still the huge hockey fan base. Drake May shows up for the Pats.
I just felt like it was heading the wrong direction and maybe this is their chance to oh, you don't think we're still the Red Sox? Then they blow it up. What's your next thing? What does you being back in on Boston look like for you? Are you going to be watching games? Are you going to be checking in first half of the season, second half of the season? When they traded for Crochet, I got excited.
I did because I was just like, really, they don't give a shit about this team anymore and trying to make it better, and they did that. The Bregman thing almost felt like, I think it was an overpay considering what the production has been the last six years, but he's still a good right-handed hitter who might be awesome in Fenway.
He's a pro. I think he's been important for the leadership for them.
So I get it. Did they overpay for him a little? Probably.
But there's definitely a lot. The lineup has more balance and it's going to be fun to see how they integrate the young guys.
So, yeah. Am I ready to jump back on the watching it every day and watching what happens, Banragan? I am.
I think I've officially licked my wounds from the Mookie Betts trade because the Luka trade made the Mookie Betts trade seem like a walk in the park. It's hard to even get mad anymore.
All right. What's your next bet? All right, so we're going to call them the bad good team who may have missed their window.
And we're going to stay in the division. Let's talk about the Yankees.
I took their under 90 and a half before the Cole injury. I like their 88 and a half under even more after the Cole injury.
And I get the idea that, hey, maybe it's become a little too trendy. Everybody's saying this could be a down year for the Yankees.
I just pulled up the athletics season predictions and like two people on their staff picked the Yankees to win the American League. So maybe we forgot that they were the best team last year.
But I think they've really come back to the pack. And I pulled up their stats.
They had five above average hitters last year. Most of the summer, it was kind of just Soto and Judge.

Soto and Judge and Stanton sometimes.

But Gleyber Torres is gone.

He was a productive player for them,

despite the fan base's ire.

Juan Soto is a force multiplier of a loss.

Stanton's already hurt.

Cole's already hurt.

Done for the year.

Rookie of the year, Luis Heal.

He is going to miss.

He's on the 60-day IL.

He's got an issue. Clark Schmidt comes down with a shoulder problem.
And now you're looking around, and this roster is very, very thin in an American league that's very, very deep with above average to competitive teams. There's no elite teams.
Miami will be power rankings. The top five are all National League this year.
Yeah. There's a lot of teams between like 6 and 15 and I kind of think the Yankees are just one of those teams in that mix this year.
Well, I'm in that crazy AL Keeper League with my friend Hench again. We had Ben Rice for $5 trying to decide, oh, he might actually get at bat.
Let's at least do the process at him. And it's like, he's starting against righties for the Yankees.
The guy hit like 180 last year. So that was the first time I was like, oh man, where is this going? Like Marcus Stroman's actually going to start for them and try to get like 180 innings at him? I don't know.
It seems like a transition year potentially. And I got to be honest, nothing would make me happier because I get to torture Jacko and JJ and the other Yankees fans of my life.
JJ doesn't seem too confident. We talk off air a lot about the season.
No, he does not. He's not feeling too confident about the season.
He's not happy. But how could you be? It reminds me a little of, remember the Cowboys, April, May, June, when all of us were like, wow, that over-under is way too high.
I don't think they're going to be very good. Yeah.
And then they actually had to move the over-under down. And then we got toward the season and people tried to start talking themselves back into them.
And it's like, I don't know, man. I don't, not seeing it.
And then they weren't good. It feels a little like that.
That's actually exactly what I did,

where I was like,

I don't know about Dallas this year.

And then it got so low.

I was like,

are we sure they're this bad?

And it turns out they were.

And there are parallels.

I mean, Dak going down

for two-thirds of the season

didn't help,

but it's like a lot of stars.

And then a lot of just,

eh, we're not so sure

about the depth on this roster.

And, you know,

they tried to plug the Soto loss

as best as they could. Cody Bellinger's a fine player.
Devin Williams is an elite closer. Max Freed's a very good starting pitcher.
But the net is a pretty big loss. And the thing, Soto has protection for Judge.
The story was always, we can't protect Judge in this lineup. And so Soto was always on base.
It's a major reason why Judge led the league in RBI last year.

Yeah.

And I think Alonso, Pete Alonso in New York,

has a chance to do it this year,

just solely because he's going to hit third

behind Juan Soto and Lindor.

So I think the Yankees are, you know,

an 85, 86 wildcard team this year.

I don't see them winning this division.

I think the Orioles are better,

and I think the Red Sox are better.

That sounds great. I love how we started this.
All right, you have three more. All right, we're going to go with the good-bad team.
They don't have a city officially, but I'm calling them the Sacramento A's. Over 71 and a half.
They're just the athletics this year. Over 71 and a half.
They're the good-bad team. Yeah, I really like the A's.
And it sounds crazy. You're like, you know, this team was an embarrassment two years ago.
The ownership is an embarrassment. What they did to Oakland is a joke.
But in terms of the actual on-the-field product, I'm kind of buying in. And they were a 500 team after the deadline last year.
They got multiple breakouts from guys like J.J. Bleday and Lawrence Butler, who kind of came out of nowhere and put together really impressive seasons.
Brent Rooker's the best hitter in baseball that the casual fan doesn't know about. And the other part of this offense that I'm excited about, they're moving out of Oakland, which was a terrible park for hitters.
And now in Sacramento, it's just an average park. It's not like they're going to not have home fans, like the fan base, whatever.
And I think this is an above average lineup. And in fact, in my power rankings, I put offensive ranking in each blurb.
I have the A's 13th this season. I think they're a real offense that could slog their way to a 500 record.
Would you think plus 350 for the A's to win 80 plus games on FanDuel? Does that intrigue you at all? It kind of does. And I'll give you a player for your AL breakout team, your keeper team.
Tyler Soderstrom. He might already be owned, but he last season in about 200 plate appearances showed everything that you want to see in a potential future slugger.
Patience, power, really impressive barrel rates and such. He was an above average hitter at age 23 in 200 at-bats with the A's, who were not a competitive team.
Those are the kind of guys that could power this offense. And to their credit, they did spend money.
They went out and bought Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs to give themselves a real floor as a pitching rotation. And so now, I think they're not going to be a true dumpster fire like they've been the last couple of years.
The whole thing where they drop their first name is almost unparalleled. I can't remember anything remotely like that before, even when you look at them on the different betting odds.
Yeah, it just says athletics. Yeah, you're right.
It's like Washington football team. Which they should have kept.
It was pretty funny. Yeah.
All right. What's your next one? I like that.
I like all three of these so far. All right.

Next one.

I'm going back to my tried and true.

There was a brief pause last season.

We took a break while Atlanta's entire team was injured,

but the Atlanta Braves,

not just to win the NL East,

which I think they're down to like plus one,

10,

one 20,

but to also get a first round by,

which is at plus one 60 at FanDuel.

And you can bet on that.

I didn't even notice that one.

First round by betting.

Wow.

You're waiting six months to find out if you got a buy? That sounds great. I'm doing that.
There's such an imbalance in baseball, especially in the National League, not as much in the American League, but basically the five best teams, six, honestly, with the Padres, the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers, the Padres, the Phillies, the Mets, and the Braves, all play in the West and the East divisions. The Central is kind of, we'll say, mediocre.
We'll say that. Yeah.
And so basically, since Major League Baseball changed the format to, we're going to have six teams in, we're going to give out two buys, like the old football format used to be. The top two division winners get the buys.
All three years in the National League, it's been whoever wins the East and whoever wins the West. Because to win those divisions, you need to win 95 games.
And there's just no way that the central teams can get there. So I kind of see it as the same bet.
Maybe the Cubs or the Brewers or the Cardinals come out of nowhere and win 95 games. That would really shock me.
But it feels like whoever wins the East and probably the Dodgers in the West will just be the two teams that get the bye. So plus 160 on Atlanta is where I go on that.
And I think we're getting a bit of a discount on the Braves. I mean, I love this division.
It's going to be so much fun. I've got my Phillies, of course,

and Mets, who I would never bet on.

But Strider's coming back.

Yeah.

Spencer Schwellenbach is a dark horse Cy Young candidate.

He's down to 25 to 1,

but he's basically been,

he was a top 10 pitcher in the league

from July onward.

And so I'm in on the Braves

as kind of the don't forget about us team

because they're the only team I can really see going seven games with the Dodgers and actually seeing a path to them beating the Dodgers if everybody's healthy. It's baseball, right? Anything could happen.
But to actually beat the Dodgers and to say that team I would go to war with, they're the only team I kind of see doing it right now. Do the Dodgers to win a record 117 plus regular season games at plus 630 intrigue you at all? That's a lot of wins, man.
You don't only have to have 45 losses. There I already have two wins in the bank.
There you go. Right.'t see it.
Have you seen the stuff about Mookie Betts?

What happened?

He's lost.

Oh, the weight loss.

They don't know what's wrong with him.

He can't keep food down.

He made the trip to Tokyo but didn't play.

There's a lot of weird things happening

with him and Freddie Freeman.

Freddie's got this elbow thing

and he didn't play the series either. They still won without them, so I guess who needs them? But they do need them.
And this lineup is older. So if you wanted to make the zag case against the Dodgers, they were the oldest lineup in baseball last year.
They're not getting younger with their current core. But yeah, the pitching is so deep that they could risk a couple injuries.
It's insane. And I got to say, the Dodger fans, I've always liked them, always gotten along with them.
I always thought they had a great fan base. A little cocky lately.
I'm not going to lie. A little cocky.
I was with the Dodger fan recently and I had to remind, he was talking about two World Series this decade already. I was like, that first one doesn't count.

Nobody's counting that. It's a fake World Series.

It's got seven asterisks next to it

and you won the one in 81. That was

the strike season. Like, you have

two asterisk titles. Settle down.

Well, the one thing is, the

problem with the Dodgers has always been, they go

162. They're the best team, but then they kind of

run out of gas. And in that season,

that 2020 season, they didn't have to go the full 162. It was only 60 games.
And so they were as healthy as they've ever been going into the playoffs. This year, they do have a lot of risky bets with their pitching.
I mean, Sasaki is awesome, but there's already some arm concerns with him. Tyler Glass now, one of my favorite pitchers on earth, but for like three months a year.
And then Blake Snell is hit or miss every year. Another who knows.
Right. So, but if you have all of these bets on all of these guys, your odds are you'll just have three of them for the playoffs, and then you have three of the top pitchers in the sport in the playoffs.
So, the sneaky thing, and this is where they deserve a lot of credit, more credit than they get. They find these bargain bin prospects and turn them into great middle relievers and to set up guys.
And they pull guys out of obscurity and pitch to a 2-5 ERA in the playoffs. And you're like, who's that guy? Oh, he throws 97? Yeah.
Oh, that guy throws 99. Oh, he's throwing 101.
I mean, you've never heard of them, right? And that's how they make it work, where, yes, they have the biggest payroll, and yes, they have Otani, and yes, they are the best team in the league, but they also have a good farm and they have a good player development, too. Plus 135 to win the NL on Fandul, and it feels suspicious to me.
I thought it was going to be a minus

odds and it was like plus 135.

Hmm.

What do they know?

And then in the American League,

the Red Sox have the third best odds right now.

They're eight to one.

So people have, I think, been banging them.

Second best odds to make the

playoffs in the American League

as well.

One thing, you know, like plus 135.

Even if the Dodgers could go

120 and 42, they could break the record for the best team ever. They're still going to have to play a five game series with a very good team, probably like a Phillies or a Mets or a Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs.
So they could end up, you know, like last year they were down to one. And when Dave Roberts came up and said, we have a bullpen game in game four, every Dodgers fan, before they got cocky because they won the World Series, every Dodgers fan was like, that's it.
Season's over. Like, you know, I know Jomie tweeted the video of the guy playing the trumpet at the funeral.
Like, this is over for the Dodgers when they were down 2-1 to the Padres. And, you know, the San Diego ended up losing that series and they played an incredible game five.
But, you know, the margins are still so small in these baseball playoffs, especially with all these good teams in the National League. You made me think of something before we get to your last bet.
So House always does, he calls it the Mahomes layaway plan MVP bet. We're just betting every year and it's going to hit some years.
And same thing with the Sal does it with the Chiefs. Like just bet the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl every year.
Just do it now. It's going to hit every other year two out of every three years.
And just have these things you can bet on the NFL and know you're probably going to be in the mix. Is there anything like that with baseball this year or anything this decade other than the Dodgers? Is there anything else you'd even put? Any player, any home run total, anything? Well, it's funny because Shohei Ohtani is plus 145 to win the MVP.
I have never seen... You think that's a Mahomes? I've never seen a player this low to win MVP.
And the thing was, last year, I remember coming into the season and people were texting me like, why is Ohtani's MVP odds so low? I was like, well, he's not pitching this year. So he would need to do something truly insane as a hitter to win the MVP.
So I wouldn't bet him because voters are going to say, well, if he hit and he pitched last year and we gave him MVP, and now he's not pitching, we can't give him MVP this year. And then he went and did something historic that like had never been done in the history of baseball with the 50-50 and he won MVP going away.
So I'm done trying to pretend to be like, well, actually with Otani. So if he plays 162 games, if he plays, you know, the full season, 140, whatever games, and he pitches at a competent level and he hits at the level we've seen him hit at, how does he not win? How do you beat him? That's a good point.
I don't think voter fatigue is a thing yet because we're still so in awe of what Otani is doing. It's not like a LeBron situation where he's the best player, but they're all kind of doing the same things.
Otani is doing something that nobody else does. So how do you get tired of that? I can't.
I watch Dodgers games every time he pitches.

I'm just amazed by it.

Soto's plus 550.

That would be the only other one I could even think of

if he just became Mr. Met this year

and became the most popular player in the city, basically.

That's the only thing I could think of.

What's your last bet?

My last bet is my favorite bet.

Oh. My favorite dark horse, and it's the Don't Forget could think of.
What's your last bet? My last bet is my favorite bet. Oh.
And my favorite dark horse. And it's the don't forget about us, Arizona Diamondbacks.
To make the playoffs are minus 120. They're probably my favorite World Series, quote unquote, long shot this year.
They're the ultimate post hype. Because two years ago, they made this miracle run to the World Series out of nowhere.
Nobody saw them coming. And then there were expectations last year.
Yeah. You know, there's only so much you can do in terms of expectations because you have the Dodgers in your division.
And that makes it really hard to win the division because they're not better than the Dodgers over 162. Yeah.
But all you've heard offseason is Dodgers this, Dodgers that, Dodgers this. Arizona scored the most runs in baseball last year.
They added Corbin Burns. They improved their bullpen, which was the reason they didn't make the playoffs last year.
People forget there was that whole insane final day of the regular season sawplot type event with the Mets and the Braves where both teams had to split to get in the playoffs. But if one team won both games, then it would have been Arizona that got in the playoffs.

The only reason that happened was because Arizona lost five of their last seven games

in the final week.

They completely choked.

Their bullpen imploded,

and they fell apart.

This is the best roster they've had.

And they have 2023 rookie of the year,

Corbin Carroll,

who had a terrible sophomore slump

first half of the season

and then played at an MVP level in the second half.

A non-Ohtani MVP level in the second half of the season.

So, you know, Carroll breakout, you know, big time third season for him.

Could take a leap.

Great pitching.

They improved the bullpen.

I think the snakes, the snakes are alive to make the playoffs

and maybe pull an upset or two in the playoffs as well. So we got...
I'm looking at... What do we have for a win total for them? Is it...
Probably 86 and a half. Plus 148 for them to win 90 plus games.
Yeah, I like it. Okay.
Yeah, the Snakes are my team this year. Who's winning Champions League? Barcelona was my pick.
We did Paul Carr, Steve Suri, and I, we did our bracket, and we have a little draft going, and I picked Barcelona. Lamin Amal is the coolest story in the soccer world right now, and he's just dominating.
And there's parallels to a young Messi, and just unbelievable what he did in the round world right now. And he's just dominating.
And, you know, there's parallels to a young Messi and just unbelievable what he did in the round of 16 against Benfica. Like he completely tore apart a very competent team by himself for the first two goals.
And you're just like, what are you supposed to do? And he did it for Spain at age 16 this summer and, you know, led them to the Euros. He was was, quite frankly, the best player at the tournament.

What he's doing for them, we'll see if they play any defense,

but what he's doing is unbelievable.

Plus 320 on FanDuel.

Yeah, Barcelona.

We've never had

a Real final, and

we could get one. Real Madrid and Barcelona

are looking good at the moment.

Who's the Colts quarterback next year?

Anthony Richardson. Look,

Shield came on here and said

the most... I had to

Thank you. Barcelona are looking good at the moment.
Who's the Colts quarterback next year? Anthony Richardson.

Look,

Shield came on here and said the most,

I like had to take my AirPods out and think for a second.

I was so upset trading Anthony Richardson to Pittsburgh.

I'm not giving up yet.

I will be the last person on Richardson Island.

They will,

they will like,

don't get too close to him on Richardson Island. You might get hit by a ball that goes over some football that goes over somebody's head be careful that's fine I'm the last man standing I'll be there and maybe we'll get some people to join us can't they just have him work on just here's a 20 yard pass just there's that guy over there can't you just throw it to guy is? Well, he's working this offseason with the guy who fixed Josh Allen's mechanics.

Oh, great.

So we've got some optimism.

He's fully healthy. People forget.

He played like five games

and then he was hurt. And then he didn't get a

regular offseason because he was hurt. So this is

the first full offseason. I'm treating this like his

year two.

I like this. If he's not showing improvement, we're at...
Stock is low. I like this.
He's got a little Danny Dimes competition. Yeah, Danny Dimes.
Yeah. Great.
All right. Good to see you, Dabundo.
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Thanks. All right.
That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Tate and Kyle and Callie and Dabundo.
Thanks to Kyle and Saruti and Gahau for producing. As always, don't forget, you can watch clips and videos from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel.
And we're also doing it as video pods on Spotify every time. You just see it, watch it, throw it in your pocket.
You don't have to watch it. Then you can watch it again, whatever you want to do.
I'm not sure if I'm back on Thursday yet. We're going to play it by ear, but I will be in Boston on Thursday night for a live

rewatchable show. And then we'll be in Coolidge

Corner all weekend for the Coolidge Corner

Boston Movie Heist Movie

Film Festival. I think there might be a couple of tickets

left available. You can check it out at the ringer

dot com

slash events. So

see you later in the week. I don't have

A few years with them

On the wayside

I'm a bruised side

A little one said

I don't have

Must be 21 plus and President Select States for Kansas and affiliation with I don't have to or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

Hope is here.

Visit gamblinghelplinema.org

or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts,

or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.