Green Light with Chris Long - Gus Johnson! Stories & Favorite Play Calls. All March Madness Vibes Team. Titus & Tate Bracket Challenge. Down Goes Virginia.

Episode Date: March 23, 2021

(00:57) - Welcome, Billboards and Warm Up Music. (14:05) - March Madness, Best Uniforms and Ripping the UVA Band Aid Off. (42:16) - All March Madness Vibes Teams. (45:48) - Gus Johnson on Favorite Calls and Stories from the Announcers Booth. Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I got back to the hotel that night. And it was like all of a sudden it hit me at one time. Boom. I pass out. I wake up, drink my coffee. I get to the game. And I say, welcome to Tucson. And in my mind, I'm like, yeah, you are not in Tucson right now, brother.

You are on Pluto. We're still here. Lozman, Montana. Hello. Supposedly a nice town. You're great things. You know, listen. Listen, if you know anything about the show, we both went to Virginia.

So we're moving on. We're on to the Masters. Everybody's playing that stupid fucking theme music that I used to like. This is the 2021 Masters preview show on the Greenlight Pod. I love golf. Stay out of the bunker. Get on the green. Get in the hole.

Hit them straight. What you're going to want to do is slice this thing because it's a thundice. Dog leg left. That's good wood. Dustin Johnson is the 2021 master's favorite at six to one odds. John Rom 10 to one with McElroy. Vijay Stink?

Is VJ six? We're out of the Masters. College basketball is stupid anyways. Boy. I mean, amateurs like, not even paying the guys. Too noisy right now. There's no fans. All the squeaks. Ongoings are kind of annoying. Dimmick. Yeah. Got the kids in lockdown in Indianapolis.

I don't, I'm not really into it. I'm kind of over it. Quality of basketball is not that great either. I miss layups. Miss three point shots. Miss mid-range jumpers. Turnovers. Everywhere you look. Okay. So what we're going to do is speaking of golf, speaking of Tiger Woods, we did a Tiger Woods. We did a Tiger Woods show recently. It was very on point, I thought, when I listened back to it. Poignant. Although I've been recently been told that I, poignant has a different meaning. Did you tell me that? I was messing up poignant for a few years and somebody, somebody crushed me in my mentions for saying poignant like six times in a pod. Oh. Yeah, so it definitely stuck with me. But like I said, like golf wise, we're going to take advice from our friend, Tiger Woods,

and compartmentalize because that's what he was really good at if I learned about anything in the documentary and we're going to compartmentalize and not talk about Virginia until after housekeeping. And if we are to tuck Virginia into a small compartment, holy smokes this tourney has been awesome. Just awesome. Yeah, it has.

Best sporting event there is. Just a bonkers good tournament. Double-digit seeds everywhere you look. We're going to just crush Titus and Tate in our bracket challenge. We're going to talk about that in a little bit. We're also going to, I'm going to talk to Gus Johnson. That'll be good. Yeah.

We're also going to do uniforms and the all vibes team on this show. The all vibes team of this first weekend of college basketball, who had the best vibes. You define vibes how you'd like. I think it's going to become evident. as we go through the exercise. But standard draft, not a snake, A, B, A, B. See how I laid that out. I laid that out pretty good.

Very good. You must have warmed up today. Did you warm up? I did warm up. I did warm up. Would you warm up, too? Two Crossroads by Bone Thugs and Harmony. You remember that?

I've heard of Bone Thugs in Harmony. Wait, you didn't know the song I was playing? Oh, no. What? Yeah, when you say Crossroads, I think of country music television. Hold on a second. So I sat you down in the chair. I said, we're warming up to Crossroads today,

and I thought you were just not in a great mood, so you didn't react. Because everybody likes Crossroads. Like every human being on the planet likes the song, Crossroads by Bone Thugs and Harmony of Cleveland, Ohio. You got my mood right, but no, I was not familiar with the song.

See, CMT would do this cool crossroads deal matching a country artist with a non-country artist. You might be familiar with Kenny Chesney and John Mellencamp when they came together for a rip-roaring hour. Yeah, yeah, Crossroads. I'm not, I don't know. So you don't know that crossroads.

The day you play a song that I know, that'll be no word. I thought today was the day, but you don't know Crossroads, but Crossroads is kind of a, it's again, it's a poignant song. It's poignant to, you know, to put to tie a bow around this thing. It's a poignant song. And with everything that happened this weekend that we're not going to talk about until after housekeeping, I just thought it was the right tone. I didn't want to have you come sit down,

which I appreciate you coming out in public and everything after the thing that we're not going to talk about until after housekeeping. By the way, I'm fine to talk about it whenever. Okay, good, good, good, good. I appreciate your saying that because it's not the easiest thing in the world. Crossroads.

I like to hit Quora for interesting facts. You ever go to Quora to get facts on stuff? I don't know what that website's all about. I do if I have to, but I don't like it. Like the website exudes barely relevant clickbait. You're here. This is a real excerpt about somebody in Bone Thugs and Harmony. Wishbone, because everybody's a bone.

Oh. Wishbone was arrested at a strip club in July of 1997 because a stripper claimed that he slapped her on her butt. Someone else slapped the stripper's butt. Then she turned and slapped Wish because she thought he did it. That's the fact. What? I'm glad they cleared that up.

That's air tight. Wishbone, by the way, another fact that I learned on Quora, only a guy without a solo album in Bone Thugs in Harmony. So also initially they were supposed to be called the Band-Aid Boys. Ooh. That's pretty good. You think it would be better? Yeah.

Than Bone Thugs? Bone Thugs in Harmony. No, that's really good too. But the Band-Aid Boys? Yeah, that's pretty good. It's almost like the Beanie Boys. Yeah. It's getting warm, though.

We're not wearing any more beanie. Housekeeping items. Shoutouts. Read. Roll the Iowa wrestler tape. This is Iowa wrestler Spencer Lee, the first Iowa wrestler to win three titles since 1998. He wrestles in the 125-pound weight division.

And this is after he won his championship match. What's your reaction to winning this third championship? I mean, I went through a lot. This is definitely my toughest. I'm battling a lot of things. Yeah, you insinuated that yesterday. What are you battling and what's the adversity been like? Well, I mean, eight days ago I tore my ACL in my other knee.

I'm wrestling with no ACLs. And, you know, whatever, man. I didn't want to tell anyone because F excuses. Excuses are for wusses. And you know what? That was a tough turn for me. I could barely wrestle. I could barely shoot.

I can't sprawl But you know what I believe to my coaching staff And everyone that believed in me And here I am So He didn't want to tell anybody He just was silently

It's national television He just told everybody There's a microphone That says ESPN In front of his face Well he didn't want to tell anybody Until after Of course you want to tell people

After you win the whole National Championship Hey by the way I had no ACLs I mean like Are you really docking the guy For announcing that he's been Bone on Bone in both knees. That video called me old. Like that video called me old and soft. The first time I saw

it, I was sitting on the toilet Saturday night after the thing that happened that we're not going to talk about until after housekeeping. And I'm facing McAllen. It was good too. It was 15 year McCallin. And I'm watching this video and I'm saying to myself like, I got a stretch in the morning every morning before I go downstairs to hold my kids. This kid just wrestled with two ACLs. You know what? He has to thank youth. That's youth. That video is all about youth. But you say it's about maybe something else.

I hadn't seen the clip. It's about me, me, me, me, me. What I'm hearing. Me, me, me, hey, I got to throw, we get two ball sessions. Zoe Rabbit gets two ball sessions a day.

I have a torn labrum in my right arm. You don't hear me talking about that. I don't come in every single week. Well, you are right now, actually. I don't come in. Hey. Wait, hold on a second. We've heard you talk about it.

You talked about it three to five times on this podcast. I am throwing ropes for the rabbit these days with a torn labrum. Like I had to push. There was a while there I was going sidearm. I didn't say a word about it. And I wouldn't have unless this young man, and they wouldn't tell anybody. Yeah, no kidding.

You don't want to give your opponent an advantage. Now that you've won, I see he won. Yeah, nobody's going to be like, you know, sweeping the leg in the hallway, unless we're going to have like a retribution Nancy Kerrigan situation. Congratulations to that kid. Dude, that kid made me feel old as fuck, just watching that video, the entire thing. We want to give a shout out to Friends of the Greenlight podcast. And Chris, you were telling me there is a new friend of the Greenlight podcast this weekend, right?

Yeah. Yeah, Jeff Heath, of the Las Vegas Raiders is a friend of the program. but we got to talk about what we call players that are friends of the program they deserve like a special status damn that's pretty cool that that guy listens to this group because it is I know we got to think of a we got to think of a title for players that listen to podcast because there's a few ballers like the show featuring the rock all right that that works ballers of the program Bops So fucking stupid dude Yep

Jeff Heath is a bop bro He's bopping That's very cool I don't feel worthy of his Earholes You know what Jeff Heath Jeff Heath is bopping on the field too He's bopping people on the field

dude The guy just You've seen him hit people Oh yeah Lake O'Reilly Michigan native I'm up on my Jeff Heath Are you? Yeah.

Hello, Laco. Yeah, also shout out to Michael Lewis. We got a billboard coming up. If you guys remember back in football season, we had this fantasy football league in Charlottesville. And the loser, well, the loser has to spend a couple months, depending on how expensive it is to secure the billboard. How expensive is it is?

He's going to be up for a couple months. Okay. The loser has to spend a couple months up on a billboard near Rutgersville, north of Seaville. And we went with a, how do you say, Markson Harrison layout. Is Marks and Harrison nationwide? I believe it is. I think it is. Cowboy Reed?

I don't know. I've never called 1-800 win-win-1. Nice. Hey, did you see this? Do you see this, this Michael Lewis thing? Have you seen this yet? Yeah, I've seen. Okay, so it says looking for fantasy football advice,

don't call Michael Lewis, Seaville's Worst. That's my favorite part of it right there. I think I really nailed the billboard there. Seville's Worst in italics. Bro, I might have this wrong, but Markson-Harrison Twitter account says Virginia law firm specializing in personal injuries. Damn, we've just been talking about the Marx and Harrison,

like everybody in the country knows who they are. In your state, the law firm that's on a billboard and is on your local CBS affiliate running ads. Kind of gray scale background, dude in the suit, the sound of either a gavel or a bell. You think it's fake, but it's real. That's these guys. That guy is an actor. He's not actually one of the lawyers. Really?

Yeah. Damn. That's not Marks or Harrison. Nope. Oh, I would walk into that office so disappointed. I would turn right around. I'm surprised they get any business. They've got 220 followers on Twitter.

Damn, I've just been talking about them like their Pepsi. Well, with all of this ad money, they're doing something, right? So if you're calling to get bad fantasy football advice, 1-800-lose-lose is the number. Sponsored by Seaville's own Greenlight podcast with Chris Long, which is a touch I like because it's good for the program. So shout out to Michael Lewis. Let's rip this Band-Aid off. I texted you the other night after we lost to Ohio. And I said, what did I say?

I don't even. I said imagine, I said imagine being surprised. My style of coping with a loss is leaning into how terrible it is and almost just saying like throwing your hands up, especially as a Virginia fan, I've dealt with a lot of these losses. And so of you consider what we've been through in the last three years. We had the fandom equivalent of we died in 2018, died, dead. very next year did math.

That's good. Did math. Then we took an unprecedented one year break. Then we lost Ohio, 13-4. It happens. It's a lot of company there. I mean, you had Purdue, right? The night before, you had Illinois, a day later, right?

Countless other teams that I'm forgetting. Texas, they lost the, they lost to a, they called Abilene Christian a rival school on TV. rival school. I was like, damn, Texas. It'd be like us losing to liberty. Which, thank goodness we weren't. Okay?

I don't even know any Ohio Bobcats except for the really charming guy that my brother sent me a video of in Chicago. He's a media member doing this dance, celebratory dance dancing on our graves in an Ohio sweatshirt. I couldn't even be mad at him. His heads cut off in the entire video.

No, I'm not comfortable saying that. He's a real guy. Chuck Swirsky, Chicago Bulls play-by-play announcer. Yeah, for all of those reasons and more, I would not have been as upset about the loss. The problem with the loss is that Ohio was so bad, so bad. Yeah. If they had played well and had been a good team, sure.

COVID season, a couple transfers in a first year, hard to win in the Bennett system with a group like that. Didn't practice. Didn't practice week leading up in quarantine. These things happen. That's why it's the best sporting event ever. But Ohio was garbage. And that doesn't mean they don't beat Creighton.

Maybe they did. Maybe they started to play well, but they did not play well on Saturday. Whose could have done any number of things. Just couldn't put it together. It took 31 threes against the 175th ranked defense in the country. And as we dive into this college basketball from the weekend, it is currently like 2.30 on Monday. Right now, Oklahoma is quickly down 10 to Gonzaga.

Oklahoma's been playing lights out and it's down 10. So just know where we are. I mean, as we talk for the next few minutes before we get into Gus Johnson, which will also be like a Monday afternoon, we don't know everything to happen Tuesday night. Hey, how about your boy right there, huh? Tell the people. Yeah, Oregon.

Yeah, you got them. I have been one of my brackets as well. well. No. In one of my brackets. You're a multiple bracket person? I am. I'm in like a husband and wives bracket.

Oh, Chris. You are too. Regardless. You are too. I did not join that. I did not join that pool. What? But that's not the point. Read, what just happened? That is, that's not the point. You're in multiple brackets. You're in that league. No, no. One,

I'm not. All right? You're in the fucking group. I didn't enter. I didn't enter that one. Okay, I'm on the group tax. I didn't enter the pool. I'm saying regardless of how many pools you're in, you have one bracket, you're feeling out more than one bracket? I filled out two. I filled out one for,

you know, like the fucking neighborhood bracket. Like, whatever, who cares? I don't even know who's winning that one. But I'm crushing the Titus and Tate one, which we're going to talk about in a little bit.

Oh, God, don't meet your heroes. I thought you had integrity. The other night, you called me a motherfucker like six times on the phone. I'm your hero now? Hey, listen, this dude,

the first thing that happened is I text him, imagine being surprised. And we're going to go back down this rabbit hole. Okay. There was one text that I'm going to have to get explained because I actually read it to Meg. And she couldn't figure out what you bet. All right.

And just so y'all people know, because I'm super fan 99 over here, I get about, I don't know. By your account, three other text messages. Close to triple-difference. at people hollering, especially when Virginia loses. See? It's about you. See? No, listen.

Because I'm the fan. You know, if you want to. But it's people I don't talk to. It's like, oh, Virginia's on national TV and losing. I know a Virginia fan. I don't expect it from a friend. Dude, listen, that hurt after 16-1, but we're national champs. You know what, all those other teams? Ohio State. Sorry, we forgot about Ohio State. A 15-2 happened this weekend. an 8-1 happened this weekend, right? Already. Like, you know what? None of those teams have in common with us,

a natty in the last like a couple years? 10, 15, 20 years. I don't know. Texas, when's the last one? Did Texas ever win a national championship? No idea. I'm not. They had Kevin Durant and couldn't win a national championship.

What the fuck is Texas doing? I don't know how I'm able to not make this about me when you're trying to talk about the text messages we exchanged. No, the text messages we exchanged. Look, regardless of anything else, I'm sad that we lost the game, okay? And then you're poking. You're poking the bear. Well, I do believe that in life, like, certain people need to be poked. You need to be poked by somebody in your life consistently.

When you throw your hands up and do the, I'm the saddest Virginia fan in the world thing, which you are legitimately, it's not an act. You fucking love Virginia sports more than me, dude. You legitimately are sadder than me, especially with basketball. Football might be a little bit different. So there's always a dynamic with our fandom where you know more of what's going on, you care more, the national championship the same way.

I took the 16-1 loss very hard because it was like opening a wound from like eons of disappointing Virginia situations, including in my own playing days. Commonwealth Cup, those damn Hokies. At that point, we're 15 years strong, no wins in football. The first four were my four years of Virginia, okay? So like, not just that, we just got dunked on by a golden retriever with a 16 by their name. I actually think it's a,

it's a, yeah, Chesapeake Bay Labrador retriever, which would have really sucked if we had our dogs that weekend. I know, no, I thought about that. I would have put the dog outside for a few. But we don't have Chesapeake Bay retrievers. Okay, yeah, yeah, I have an English one with the short nose. Yeah. And you got a red joint. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Everything you're saying is right. This is not a competition, but I am deeply emotionally invested. I travel with the club. So there's a time investment, you know? Yeah. You get to know people. I'm poking you.

I'm trying to train you to get better about losing. Hmm. I'm just trying to get you because I've lost like a lot of disappointing games in my life. You've been to many of them. You've watched me toil and obscurity. Like I know how to do. to lose, which is not something I'm proud of, but I just know how to lose. I, uh, you don't know how to lose right now.

And so when I texted you and you said, you are a professional asshole and you're a fucking legend. Like, what does that mean? So that means you are, your job is to be an asshole and you are great at it is what I was saying. That's what I was trying to convey. I thought, I thought we were saying you do, you're an asshole. call for a living and you're a UVA legend.

Oh, no, no, no. I was not being complimentary in any way. Oh, no, I take the one that I suggested as an insult, but the one you suggested, now, that's a compliment. Yeah, I was saying you're just a jerk is what you do here on earth. Yeah, and I'm good at it. And you are insanely good at it. Thank you.

I appreciate that. So, when I'm at my lowest, you try to get me lower. So, well, no, what I'm doing is I'm just keeping you honest. as I was talking about earlier, but then I took it to the next level when, listen, another thing a lot of these teams don't have, that we have,

a national championship Saturday night transpired. Women swimming and diving gives the University of Virginia. It's 28th NCAA. And we're both hyped about that. I don't watch as much swimming as I do basketball, but I'm hyped about,

you know what's cool about UVA? Olympic sports make actually the big dog, look. freaking Lauren Purdue winning an Olympic gold medal former Wahoo like we have names like that

just like left and right and so that's what's great about being a Wahoo and you might be listening and saying you guys are trying to flip this loss or whatever we're not trying to flip the loss but for some reason

when I sent making that on Saturday night I got a phone call and on the other line was somebody breathing heavily this is all real like I was pissed I said You got something to say to me right now?

Yeah I said you Go fuck yourself I said do you have anything to say to me And then you said I'm just I can't talk right now I'm too sad I can't talk right now And then I told you to go fuck yourself

And I hung up So that's what I'm dealing with it For a whole day But hey listen Maybe what you did worked Because I couldn't watch The 2018 NC2A tournament and the next day, yesterday, Sunday, I was back watching.

And you're texting me, hey, got to put a little action on that game. I like those razorbacks a little bit. I kind of like those razorbacks. Today, it's kind of like UCLA. What's your thought process on UCLA? Bet number two you had me put in for you? Oh, I hate it. I hate the, I hate it.

Okay. But I got a guy. Okay. Hate it, but you got a guy. I mean, thought process is everybody's on the oral bandwagon. Yep, everybody's an oral nation. They think Abilene's an oral. Avilene's no oral.

And UCLA, hey, the Pac-12 apparently was pretty good. They're not losing games in this tournament. And UCLA did fine in that conference, and they're on a bit of a role here, beating BYU and Michigan State. I find that provocative. I just don't find it five and a half points provocative. So we'll see what happens. I hear you. I'm trusting the guy.

You got to trust your guy sometimes And one of our guys Also had By the way A shout out that I forgot Shout out to God and his plan Yeah Big ups to God

Just Appearing on VPI's highlight reel When they dunked on everybody All the doubters When they When they made the tournament But only as a 10 seed

Way to show us And now the spin is It wasn't about the tournament it was about finishing third in the conference. Oh, whoopty-do, assholes. How's the conference doing? How's the conference doing? How's the conference doing?

To third in the conference, avoiding FSU, Carolina, Louisville, Virginia. Additionally, though, how's the conference doing? The ACC and the Big Ten, it turns out, in the year that Big Ten's supposed to be our big brother, we're both sitting in detention. The big is the headliner. I mean... Boy. We were expected to suck. Y'all sucked unexpectedly.

Iowa just got bounced right as we sat down, boat raced. As our friend Mark Titus would say, and Mark Titus was the source of a lot of good content this weekend. I'm going to tell you what. I had a tweet that went viral, viral, like viral pandemic tweet, like just all over the globe. Did you see the mistake in it? No, there's no mistake in it. Okay. Wasn't it obvious that they couldn't last the whole 40s?

they blew their load after 40. Oh, very good. So I got to dunk on a few people. Very good. It wasn't a mistake in the beginning, but then eventually I found a way to... You tweeted your way through it. Well, I just found a clever way to say nah.

Yeah. Y'all couldn't take 45 of Oral. That's the problem. You could only take 40. Well done. It actually makes sense. In retrospect, I should have tweeted it that way. But I had...

So at the end of Ohio State and Oral Roberts, and this is completely coming from a place where I know that... we're going head to head with Titus and Tate. And boy, it would be nice if Titus, who does not separate Church and State, who picked Ohio State in three overtimes against Gonzaga and his bracket,

it would be nice if they got beat. Tate, I hope he's smart enough to know that, like, UNC's not that good, and he probably doesn't have them making a deep run, but they're going to get handled pretty quickly. Now, I did not expect to see Ohio State could bounce in the first round. So as this is going down,

giddy because I think we're going to win this whole game and get a free plug from a very prolific podcast. We're punching up, right? I feel good about this. Everything about it is good. Which we will. I mean, not only was our first and now second rounds better. Yeah. But yeah, as you're saying. As it sits and we'll get the, we'll get the tallies from Reed, but it looks like we're winning. I don't think there's a way we can lose. It's probably not a way forward for Titus and Tate. Yeah, and so I'm sitting there and I'm like, I legitimately am just excited. So I hop on their live stream and they're watching the last five minutes of game. And Titus is just having an aneurysm.

You know, the five phases of grief. He's in the bargaining stage and then he's in the denial stage. He's saying, let's just get it over with so I can be a true journalist. When he said that, that really fucked me up because I, you know, I'd be doing the same thing. I actually felt bad about it and at midnight I texted him an apology like a paragraph apology because I felt bad that I dunked on him for no reason

and what was the response? He totally understood. Here's the deal with Ohio State. Yeah. And feel free to make another joke after the two numbers I'm about to read you. They lost six of their last nine and I think even Mark was keen.

He lost well. He lost well, dude. He's a good loser. Oh, is he or is he a showman? No, he's a really good loser. And being a showman and being a good loser's same thing. It's about, listen, if you can deny your impulse to just fucking melt down, you're a good loser. Okay.

But my point being, he was prepped for this. Ohio State lost a lot of games late. They were going to be Jekyll and Hyde through this tournament and it only lasted 40 minutes. And they parlayed it into some really good content. It was the best kind of sports. voyeurism there is, which is watching a fan just self-destruct. And I felt like shit and I texted him. I'll read you the text at a couple minutes after midnight. And this is legitimate. I feel bad because the same night, you know Joey Mowanero from Barstool? The Nick Savan guy. I mean, he is many guys.

He is tremendous at what he does. I didn't know that he went to Purdue. And he was just tweeting about Purdue and I thought he was like doing a gambling tweet or just he was nervous about Purdue in his bracket. I have no idea. So I quote tweet him and I say, Mean Green are making a deep run because I had money on him. And then he hits me with a GIF. And then I hit him with a GIF. And then the ball tips.

And then after, at this point, I'm in a really giddy mood because I want some money. So I hit him with the roller skate guy with his shirt off, slow roller skating by, you know, with his pelvis out in front of him, looking back at Joey,

Giff. And Joey didn't like the Giff. Like I could tell he didn't like the GIF. And so I wrote him a direct message, apologize. I was apologizing to everybody, but it wasn't enough good karma to fend off the Ohio Bobcans.

Yeah. That's the beauty of this tournament. Emotions are high. Stakes are high. High highs, low lows. My bad blowing your shit up. Y'all were just cracking me up. I should know better.

Now I feel bad. That's why I said to Titus. And you believe that too, right? Reading that text, that sounds legit, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. I'm wondering why he gets that text, and what I get is,

fuck with making well i don't know him well enough to be doing that i mean like i like to consider him a friend of the program i want to be i would love for our friendship me and mark titus's friendship you know i've got him in the crosshairs when it comes to to new friends drake no new friends some new friends mark titus making the list tape fraser too i like those guys so i don't want to ruin the friendship like the first time after we have him on the show because i dunked on him and said he couldn't take 40 minutes of oral it's a fact they couldn't and take 40 minutes of oral.

But I still like Mark. You muted me Saturday night, so you didn't see my tweets. You legitimately muted me, but I tweeted right after the loss, which I think was brilliant. It was brilliant. Anybody want to rank top five cereals?

Everybody on the internet at 10 p.m. was ready to rank top five cereals. I woke up the next morning and fruity pebbles are trending, and I'm like, oh, that was me. I was just trying to get them off my back. And so then he texts me a day later. Absolutely hilarious that you tried to divert your mentions away from UVA asking people to rank cereal.

And it not only worked, but it works so well that you got a handful of cereals trending. It's scary the power you hold. So I appreciate that, Mark. I'll take that as a compliment. I did see that one, and it was brilliant. I didn't mute you until maybe the middle of our exchange. Okay. And I forgot that I had, I actually muted.

A couple dozen folks, including Mark Titus. I just couldn't do basketball there for a little while for a few hours. You have been unmuted as of about noontime. Oh, that's fantastic. I appreciate that. You're welcome. That's great. My burner's still not unmuted.

Thanks a lot, Karen, football. He said he would come on the show soon. And I absolutely love the kid. Oh, I can't wait for that. Love the kid. There's actually evidence that's been presented that might exonerate him. in the case of him, uh,

tattletailing on my burner. Um, listen, read, let's tally it up real quick before we get into the unies. And the all vibes team. Round one in the green light versus Titus and Tate challenge.

Uh, Mark Titus, 44 total points and we're doing a Fennerbachi scoring system. Making you can correct me. Vivinejee. Thank you. Making you. That's the word sucks, dude.

That's beautiful. It should be called whatever you called it. Titus with 44 points, that's two points per win in the first round for a potential total of 64. Tate, 36 total. God, what the fuck are you thinking? Mr. Big Ten, huh? Macon had 40, and Chris was the leader in the clubhouse in the first round with 46. Guys, I busted my balls to get all.

this college basketball knowledge. I can feel in my plums. Special two-of-one farmers market. I don't know why we're talking about individuals. You know, this is a, I know, but it's nice to know that I have the best bracket in the group. You really, hey, you just need one game to hang your hat on for any given tournament. And usually, you hang on to North Texas, Syracuse. You hang on to North Texas. That's, that's you for the rest of time. I don't really have a great one this year. I'll, I'll hang my hat on Oregon over Iowa in the second round. And, And yeah, I really don't see a way forward for those other guys. How about is Buddy Beheim the best coach's son of all time?

Like on his, on your dad's team. Yeah. I got to think, no. Yeah, Pistol Pete. Oh. Cowboy. I would say probably Pistol Pete. Cowboy, dude.

Cowboy. Give him a cowboy. Let's talk unies and we'll include all 68th then, because you got something to say about somebody in the 68. Well, something just popped to mind, and that was Michigan State, who did the one side paneling mid-90s, like the Teen Cleaves, Mo Pete,

and another side, just a big old Spartan head, which maybe they did that too in the mid-90s. That was interesting to me. I thought you might bring that up, and I liked half of that. I liked the 90s, like, you would like it on both sides? Yeah.

Yeah, I will go on my negative list. Oh, negative first. Okay. Also, by the way, orange teams, there were nine of them that started this tournament. Seven that were like all orange, they're getting run through by orange teams, mostly by Oregon State. But if you count VPI in Virginia, there's only two left out of nine. Hmm. Yeah, hot seat, cool throne, orange.

It's not how that works. But you like it. Yeah, that's a good idea for a segment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Garza's black shoes with the white socks. It's not a good look. I miss that. Accentuates your post moves and like your footwork.

So like we get it. You do the mic and drill. I can tell you've got good footwork. Everything's like the YouTube videos. And golly, he's a great player. I mean, he bawled in that game earlier from what I saw.

But I don't like that choice of kicks. Most script is good. Texas Tech, not good. It was Red Raiders. It was like, thin cursive with a big bulky baseball-like underline underneath. Script is nearly undefeated.

Defeated by Texas Tech on that unit. Also defeated by Eastern Washington, I hate to say, because I love everything about that team. But if you look at that script, it's kind of ambiguous. And I believe it serves a really nice purpose because you can't tell who the fuck the team is that's presumably losing the game. Are those the ones who had the cursive, one uppercase, letter, the rest lowercase of back names, the names on the back of those ruses.

It was ridiculous. By the way, Liberty's uniforms were abhorrent. Those numbers are so bad. Here's a game I didn't see. I can just tell you Maryland look bad. Probably, but I got to admit this. I put a bet on them getting to the final four that pays off pretty good. Yeah, it's an emotional hedge.

I'd hate for them to be in the final four and not make any money off it. Well, Alabama new money. UCLA Abling Christian on that other side might be a good bet by you Michigan without livers I went on a ridiculous heater yesterday and I will I'll read it off but keep keep going

I didn't like I you know Loyola to me as cool as everything about them is hate the boxing patch on the trunks I mean they're basically wearing trunks and I hate the arrows up the side of because they have a great little script thing going

Classy numbers, that sort of thing. The colors are great, but they fuck it up with the arrows. I feel like they were better when they made their run a couple years back. Yes, they were. They didn't have those stupid arrows. Yeah, less was more. They had a little bit going on, but it wasn't the arrows. Parking garage arrows.

Another bad one for me, the University of Virginia. It just, it's an awful uniform. It's just awful. and we've got great leadership, Chris. Yeah. But Nike did us dirty. We improved the V-Saber logo. I'm not arguing that.

But it's like Tommy Boy getting close to a sail and then he lights the train on fire. Yeah. We went way too far. We got rid of a wicked cool font for this sterile Nike. Check out the letter A in that Virginia uniform. Saddest looking letter I've ever seen.

The A in the Virginia. and the numerals are cartoonish. I mean, this is, East Bay would have rejected the Virginia uniform. Moreover, you changed the uni right after you win a national championship. I don't know if that's such a good idea. Listen, can I tell you something for a second while I gather my thoughts on how I might agree with you? You might be able to walk onto a floor and beat in Ohio just by virtue of the uni that those kids watch win a national title two years ago.

I didn't like that, I didn't like that uni either. Okay, that's, I can, I can see where someone would say that. Yeah. But the word mark was terrific. The orange and blue popped. And now it's just, what, what are we? We're East Bay Penn State. I think we're a team, uh, in a school with very good bones.

And we can, we can eventually write this. But the numbers got to go. Listen, I wasn't a fan of the uniforms before. I'm a big fan of the uniforms now. I think our football uniforms are great. I think they've done a really nice job. Again, the numbers. The numbers.

But I'm gonna tell you this much. Illinois, I don't say Illinois, I say Illinois's. Illinois has the best orange and blue get up, maybe in the history of basketball. And that triangle is gorgeous. And the script is gorgeous. Think it's a diamond. Spectacular.

Yeah, diamond. Spectacular. That's easy to make shapes up. It is. Because you got your, circles and your squares and your rectangles. Trapezoids. Yeah. Yeah. Did you just plural romboid me?

Yeah, I think so. Probably rhombuses. Rombuses. Did you just try to fucking just throw an A-E on the end of rhombus like it's algae? No, I went I. I went rombi. Is that how you would spell it? Yeah. Okay, yesterday I went Baylor, Loyal, a Chicago teaser. I went Syracuse. I went Arkansas. I went Ruckers. I went Oro Roberts. I went Oro Roberts money line and I went north Texas so north Texas not everything could have gone well but that was a nice day that sounds like a nice day I mean I just kept looking at the TV like waiting for like a piece

of luggage to to fall out of the sky and kill me I was just so lucky yesterday can I have some money no dude because you you make money doing this we should pick our all vibes team okay shouldn't we Yeah, as soon as I shout out the Arkansas Razorback logo Elite, the Oak State Eddie Sutton throwbacks, yes, shouts out to Nova for making tweaks but always looking like Nova. Yeah, script, whatever they, that font is, whatever you want to call it. Georgetown, that paneling will always work. Looks like Alan Iverson.

Yeah, yeah. And mean, mean green across the chest. They look good, man. Awesome. They look really good. What do you think about the fighting ducks? I'm sorry. I think Oregon is, is, I think we need to pull back. I think we're mad at Oregon about what happened to Virginia through Nike.

I'm not. I generally like the Oregon stuff. Love the football stuff. They do a little bit too much. Yeah, let's pull it back. Let's go with old school fonts for a while. Oregon just sprays. It's like as many uniforms as we can do and eventually like five to ten of them will be absolutely fire. But many of them will hurt your eyes. UCLA, BYU, gorgeous game. Gorgeous. Okay. Vibes. All vibes.

All vibes team. Fastest draft in history. You want one or two? I want one. Go. Everybody would pick Crutwig at one from Loyola with that mustache.

And are you included in everyone? Yeah. Damn it. He's going number one, dude. He's got the best vibes in the tournament. He's janitor. He possibly could be the face of the program.

Well, you've won the draft already. I will go all vibes. I can take a loser, right? Yeah. Iodosumu, Illinois, Batman. Good vibes with the mask. Huge vibes. Huge turnovers.

Yeah. I like that from my vibe team. Okay, good, good, good. Hell and a cell, baby. All right, number two, Baylor Mullet guy. Yeah, I guess I should have taken him. Everybody's talking about him. Man, what a, what, you think that lettuce is ironic at that age?

I mean, I guess I should just be blocking Waylon in a room and making him watch highlights of that guy. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that's where you're headed if you don't nip this in the bud and I'm not saying you should. I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all. You can go play. I'm not saying you should nip it in the bud. Uh, I'm going to go Joe Pleasant with my second pick. You probably don't know Joe Pleasant. Joe Pleasant two free throws to put Avalene over Texas. Guy shot 58% from the line. Yeah. From Overland Park, Kansas, talked about on the last pod. Joe Pleasant, you're going to go up there. You don't know how to shoot free throws and and knock in two to move on to the round of 32.

That's badass. He's got a pleasant vibe. I'll go, can I get both Grove twins from Eastern Washington? Please. The guy looked like Jackie Moon, 100% chance drives his Land Cruiser, for sure.

It's a shame they got bounced, but he's on my all vibes teams as well. I'm going Moses Moody, freshman. What a name. He's a chucker from Little Rock, Arkansas. Woo Pig is in the, Sweet 16 now, and they've got Oral Roberts, who they've already beaten this year.

Love Moses Moody, all vibes. I'm going Adonis Arms. There's a guy named, or there was a guy named Adonis Arms in the tournament. I forget what team he's on, but I had to stop everything I was doing to Google that he was a real person. And I got a dude, the dude, he's jacked. Bies, tries. Yeah. Skips Leg Day.

Good for him, dude. Good for him. That's a cool ass name. He's on my All Vives team. Johnny Juzang, UCLA. He was on my big. award. Johnny Zhu Zhang, who thought about UVA twice. Yeah. Once out of high school, once when he was transferring from Kentucky. That's right. Goes to UCLA. He might or might not be in the Sweet 16 by the

time you're listening to this. Final pick of the Vibs draft for my squad. It came down to the Illinois Center who's like basically in 1990s center. He actually got tired and like didn't run down the court in one possession late in that loyal loss. But I'm going with Baylor's Mark Vital. Okay. or Vital. I don't know how you say it, but he's built like a football player. He just looks like he can fight. He looks like he's tough. He looks like if I was ever good at basketball, how I would play college basketball is this guy of Baylor, Mark Vital. 6-5-260, all of. I'll join you on Baylor and go Jared Butler, the best player you've never heard of, who's probably

the, I don't know, best player in the tourney for Baylor. Right. Oh, I'm like, hey, shout out Corey Kisper for the Zags. Okay, okay, cool, cool, pick a bulldog. Bob Huggins is my coach. Okay. That's a good pick. Porter Moser is is my coach. Okay, cool. And now I got Gus Johnson on the line. Speaking of vibes. He's got good vibes. Yes, sir. He's got the best vibes, man. Connolly five to go. Lewis has been awesome seconds to go. Lavender, three-quarter court, and we're going to overtime in Lexington. Gus, my man, how are you, dude? We haven't seen each other since I ran into Gus Johnson at a bar in L.A. I was just having a beer and I struck up a conversation with somebody to my right and I said that voice is very familiar. It was my man Gus

Johnson. So that was an interesting conversation. How you been, ma'am? I'm chilling, man. I'm chilling. My first question of you was, do you miss it this time of year if you guys don't have the tournament? Nah, none more. It's been a few years, you know. since I called the tournament. I like watching. I just like watching it now. Yeah. Watching the kids and watching my friends who are broadcasters with CBS and Turner.

Jimmy Jackson's my boy. Raff's my boy. I love watching I and Eagle, Kevin Harlan and Jim. You know, those are good guys. And, you know, I like watching it. And, you know, it's been over a decade since I've called it. So it's a lot of work, too, to be honest with me. When I used to do, you'd have to do four, four,

games in one day. The first day, you did four games. So it was a lot of work, but I had some great memories and some great times and saw some incredible, incredible games. So, you know, that's kind of like an archive type thing for me. Do you, when you're doing like four games in a day, what's the biggest challenge of that? Is it your voice? Is it like just keeping your energy up? I feel like when you're a kid or when you're in your 20s, you never have to stop and think about getting tired in the evening or like in the afternoon. But the minute like you get into your 30s, you get these energy lulls. And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking like it would be hard enough for me to muster up the strength for me to bring it like you bring it for one game. What's the key to

four? Well, I'm 53 now. I'll be 54 in August. So that was 11 years ago. Yeah. So I was just getting ready to get to that point where I was going to get tired. Right. But you know, raft does it, gym dance does it, you know, they're a little bit older than me. I think back then the most important thing was to just just watch the game and not try to do too much. You know, you've got eight teams you're working on, four games all day. You're tired eventually, you know, but you got, you kind of gasped up because, you know, you're on national TV and it's a tournament and the kids are out

there, bawling their hearts out, representing their schools and, you know, their families and, you know, just trying to, you know, every, you know, every player that gets a scholarship to play Division I college basketball thinks they're going to be in the NBA. Yeah. Like without question. So it's important for me, especially, because to me, I kind of see the NCAA tournament as a, as a family archive heirloom moment, especially for kids that, that are the stars in that particular their game. I mean, these are moments that they're going to be playing in their house with their great, great, great grandchildren. So that's all I would think about, man, just trying to be present, trying to make sure that I delight in the excellence of these young men, young women, when I

called the NCAA women's tournament, and just try to be a good dude. How much coffee does Gus Johnson drink on a four-game day? He's got coffee with him right now. Dude, I always talked to... Coffee and my favorite. The Baptist beer, baby. What is it? Dr. Pepper. That's my drink right there, brother.

Hey, Dr. Pepper's my favorite. I know. My favorite soda, hands down. So, yeah, I was saying with coffee, man, like, how many cups do you think in a day you drink? When I used to do the NCAA tournament. Well, when I'm on a game day, I'm drinking, it's almost like I'm drinking it intravenously, you know?

Especially, man, they got a, at Fox, we're doing games that kick off at noon. Right. So if we're doing a big 12 game, noon Eastern. So if we're doing a big 12 game, it's 11 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. So that means we're up. I mean, I remember doing this past last couple years I did the Red River with Texas and Oklahoma.

I got up in the morning and the moon was still out. Oh, no. So. And so it's 11 o'clock in the morning where we are. when we do a big 12 game for a new kickoff. And it's like nobody cares if you're tired. Right. Nobody cares if you maybe, you know, didn't get to bed on time

or maybe you drank a little bit too much the night before to get to this. So, you know, I'll pump that coffee in just to get myself going. So I'm drinking it all day until probably. Okay. So then that begs the question. You just hit on something real quick. What's the most hungover Gus Johnson's ever been calling a game? It was with Raff. I was young, man. I was young working at CBS, right? And, you know, I'm not saying

I'm a ghetto kid, but, you know, I wouldn't, my father wasn't drinking big time bottles of wine. Maybe, you know, Wild Irish Rose or Mogan David. My mother used to drink that Mogan David. I don't even know what that is. I've never actually, and I've drank a lot of different flavors and but I've never had Moken David. Right. That's some hood stuff. So anyway, I was with Raff in Arizona, and we went out to dinner with Lude Olson and his wife, you know, before she had passed away. And we had this great dinner. I had a date with me. And we were chilling in Tucson.

They were getting ready to play cop and stay early the next day. Like, for some reason, it was like an 11 o'clock tip off in Tucson or something crazy. So then we had dinner. And then I'm not a wine drink. at all. Still am not. We had dinner and then we had dessert. And then we had drinks. We had dinner. We had dessert. We had more drinks. And I was all right. I was staying in my lane. But then Raft brought out something called and I had never drank it before. Yeah. Port wine. Oh. Oh yeah. That stuff is something I'm not touching. Right. But I didn't know. So he's feeding me all. And it's this little

glasses like that. There's little cups of it. Little, little, the glass is like a little tiny martini glass. Okay. Got it. So I drink it. I mean, it tastes like it tastes like Kool-Aid to me, you know. So I drink it. And then Raff keeps, boom. I drink it. He keeps pouring it in. It's no big deal. Okay, whatever's a little, boom. Dude, I got back to the hotel that night. And it was like all of a sudden it hit me at one time. Boom, I pass out. I wake up, drink my coffee. I get to the game.

And I, and I say, welcome to Tucson. And in my mind, I'm like, yeah, you are not in Tucson right now, brother. You are on Pluto. So be cool. At least you're really in Tucson. Yes. Because if you welcome to like Glendale, in that situation.

That would have gave it away. Gave it away, you know. But you guys probably cover for each other. Like, you come in and, like, Raff sees your eyes and he's like, okay. I know your energy, like, you're going to push through it, but at least I know you're hurting. Nah. You guys don't give each other any rope on that. That's crazy.

First of all, Raff don't need it. Yeah, Raph doesn't need it. Like, like, for example, that particular day, I get up, get to the gym, and I find Now, Raff's been working out that morning. Oh, yeah. So he's one of those guys. One of those guys. You're still drunk at 8 a.m., but he's on the elliptical.

On the elliptical. Somehow. Yeah, good for him. When you hear a Gus Johnson highlight real, you hear the energy, you hear you know, you hear you feeding off the crowd and especially in some of those big, big 10 games and like just the noise, the energy. There's probably times where you lay out too. How do you pick your spots?

you know, because that's one of the things most interesting to me. Like I asked Joe Buck this once before. How do you know when to let it breathe? Well, Joe's a great announcer, and I'm sure he gave you a great answer. I think it's a feel thing. When I was at CBS,

I loved being at CBS, man. I felt like when I went to CBS, I went to the, when I worked at CBS, I was going to Harvard, the Harvard of sports broadcasting. And we would preach that. They would preach that to us.

My producer, you know, Craig Silver, wonderful producer that I worked West in college football, Bob Monsbach, Steve Shear, Vic Frank. Those guys would literally get in my ear and say, okay, in certain moments, you know, lay out, shut up, stop talking, let the pictures, because that's also an assist in a sense, because you get a chance to let the director and the producer do their thing. and they take center stage because you're you're cutting stuff up i think the best time i ever

did that stanford played notre dame a few years back guy named conrad ukropina was the field goal kicker for stanford and he kicked the game winner it was such a great moment for stanford that there was really nothing for me to say so i just didn't say anything not because i was trying to lay out, but I just didn't know what to say. It was just everything, the pictures and the scene and the moment kind of defined itself. So I just kind of shut up. And people kind of liked how that, you know, check it out if you can on, on the internet. And so it's a feel. You feel when you need to shut up. And, you know, and I, and I watch a lot of young broadcasters nowadays, and I think that they should lay out a lot more. I feel like play by play guys are talking to

much. You know, they're talking and they're, you know, trying to get all the stuff out that they've prepared for the night before. And yeah, you're supposed to prepare for it, but sometimes you can't get it in. Sometimes you just need to watch the game. I had a great mentor. His name was Marty Glickman and looked that name up. Marty Glickman not only was the father of modern day sports broadcasting, but he was also an Olympian. He was a sprinter. Marty Glickman was supposed to run in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, but because he was Jewish, the Germans denied him his opportunity. Well, not the Germans were, I think a man, his name was Brundage, Bundage, a man who was a Nazi sympathizer. I mean, it's historical piece, but anyway, because he was my teacher. He was my mentor.

I used to go to his house on the Upper West Side, and he would teach me, and we would talk, and and I would listen. And one thing he said was that I know. Never forget. He said, listen, kid, remember, always remember this. The game is in front of you, not on all those notes you prepared for the night before or the week before. Shut up and watch the game. And to me, I think that's a good idea of when, you know, if you're really watching and you're really paying attention, then you kind of know when to talk and when not to talk. I feel like there's got to be things along your journey with having like some great mentors and teachers that you probably had to break big habits that you didn't like about yourself. And I don't know about this, but like as a podcaster, having to go back and edit some of my shit.

Like, I'll be like, I hate this motherfucker. You know what I mean? I don't know if you're. You mean you? You hate you? I hate my voice. You know how you? Do you ever hate your, like.

All the time. I never watch the games. I never watch it. I hate it. I despise hearing my voice. See? I despise it. That makes me feel so much.

No, no. It's everybody, though. You can ask Joe Buck and Jim Nance and Al Michaels. They probably... Kevin Harlan doesn't hate his voice. There's no fucking way that Kevin Harlan is at home listening to his voice in any capacity. Like, damn, I could have had any other voice, but I got this perfect baritone announcer voice. Well, he's special.

He's special. He's special. Do most guys turn it off and on? Can guys turn it off and on? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, we're journalists, sports journalists, but we're also entertainers. Yeah.

A certain degree. And, you know, we're actors in a way. You know, because you want to play to everybody. Yeah. You know, the Midwest, you want to kind of have a standard way of speaking where you're, you know, calling a game, which is going to be archived. I mean, it's not. It's casual, but it isn't.

It's really not casual, but it's becoming more casual. Yeah, that's like the crews are getting more, like things are getting more unstructured. Right? Like, and I think that's why a lot of people do like, you know, mixing in some live stream stuff. I always think it's interesting. Yeah. Like, for example, you just cursed on the air. Yeah, I always curse.

I would have never said that. I would never say that. Yeah, we always cuss here. It's against my rules. Yeah. Do you have a rule? But this is your thing. You know what I'm saying? I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not abhorishing you for that.

No. I would never do that. No, I don't do it that fucking much. And normally I curse like a sailor when I'm by myself. You know what I'm saying? No, I don't do it. We, we almost, we need to get a tip jar in here, like a fine jar. And I've toyed with this doing like a no cussing week.

It's almost impossible in this show. It's almost impossible. Let me tell you this. I feel the opposite. Sometimes I wish I could go on some kind of like sports casting after dark. Yeah. You're doing it right here, Gus. And I can, I can, I can just talk the way I want to talk.

I could just say whatever. Gus, name your price. Gus, name your price, bro. This dude, don't stop, bad. You know what I'm saying? Gus. Look at this dude. Gus.

Gus, we could do it. Gus after dark, man. You just name your price. We'll do this thing, man. We'll do this thing. How much? I don't know. I said, Dave, your price, motherfucker. I'm not going to negotiate. I'm not negotiating against myself.

You know, I know the rules. So, Gus, is it hard when you were calling games to not root for a team that you're watching? Is that something that's like a no-no to talk about as an announcer? No, I root for both teams. That's, I think, part of my strength. because I just want to see people get off, man. I just want to see, I just, you know, I never had a chance to play ball like you, you know, in the pros.

But you were a great athlete. I was just, nah. Uh-uh, I didn't know that until today. I was talking to my producer. I said, what do I not know about Gus Johnson?

So three sports star. And so it makes sense now that you had the athletic background. This makes a lot of sense to me. Because I just went. I just, when somebody is getting off, I just see myself in, them. Yeah. Because that's how I want to be. You know, that's how, that's what I dreamt to being.

I've dreamt it, you know, scoring touchdowns and sacking the quarterback and hitting threes and home runs and scoring goals and pinning guys. You know, that was my dream. But, you know, so when I see the game, when I see guys out there getting going, it doesn't matter what team. I mean, because to me, know, there's, you know, I kind of think there's, even in my job, there's a reasonable suspension of disbelief. These kids are superheroes, these men and these women that I watch, whether it be college or pro or high school or when I was in Waco, I used to cover T-ball. Same thing, you know, everybody wants to do good, everybody wants to get off, and I want to see everybody, I want to delight in the excellence of other people. That makes me feel good. And Steve Nash taught me that.

I used to Steve Nash used to come to my gym the Chelsea Pierce right down the street and he would shoot and he would have to hit 50 in a row and it wasn't just jump shots you know he would drive to the whole layup step back 15 footer boom

and I would field the balls for him I got a chance to do that a couple of times so I got a chance to meet him and talk to him a couple times and what he would say is he told me something he said man it's important for me that might teammates like me. And if they don't like me, that means I'm doing something wrong. So I have to make

sure that I do what I can to help them become better. So they'll like me. And then I can delight in their excellence. And then we do better as a team. They do better as human beings. We have a better relationship with each other. And that all comes through sharing. So this is my way. You know, just putting it on a dime for these kids. So when they get, because I get this all the time, man. I get guys that are older than you that come up to me and say, man, my mom used to let me listen to you doing my homework. Yeah.

She wouldn't let me watch TV, but she would let me listen to you doing the Nick game while I was doing my homework in my room on the radio. you know, stuff like that. And that's important to me, man. You know, I feel like, you know, that's kind of my contribution to other people. And I think, like, what's so cool about it, and I learned a lot just in looking, I didn't realize all the sports you've done. So, like, I think your versatility is pretty cool.

You know, like, I think you're great at what you're doing in the most popular sports, but I never knew you called hockey or wrestling. You know what I mean? Like, if you're not watching these sports routinely enough, I mean, you've done a good bit of everything. Well, the MMA, I had a chance to do that. I did soccer. Yeah. You got a favorite.

If somebody listening to days, like, I only knew of Gus Johnson from football and basketball. You got a favorite of the smaller sports there to call. I really enjoyed boxing. Yeah. I really enjoyed doing the soccer, the international. I did two Champions League finals. I did two FA Cup finals. I probably didn't.

You know, I received a lot of. of criticism for that, which I thought was a, you know, looking back on it was a good thing. It was a humbling thing. And I'll use a soccer term. I don't consider my soccer experience a win, but I don't consider it a loss. I consider it a draw and I'm happy with that result, right? Same thing with mixed martial arts. Those are, I mean, man, I tell you, man, that when I did the soccer, man, that was, I was just, you know, I went

over there for three years. First year I studied as an apprentice, the second year, the first game, the first game I called was Real Madrid versus Manchester United. What? Yeah. I had never called a game, I mean, on TV before. So the first game was Rayal Madrid, Christiana Ronaldo, Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson is the is the manager. We're in Madrid, Champions League, round of 16 games. you know, it was a crash course. I enjoyed it. I got tenderized. So what were the, what were the, what were the, what were the gripes with you on soccer? It was everything.

But that's a tough group. That's a tough group to break into Gus. I feel like of all the fan bases, soccer is the most like, they have so many traditions that there's so much knowledge of the game that we didn't grow up with here in the States. And they're very like, they're like hipsters. They're like sports. hipsters like they you know it would be intimidating to me to break into that very sophisticated group but I think all of everybody's like you know with the internet the internet was getting going and you know social media and all that kind of stuff I think they're passionate they care the sport is important to them they kind of have a soccer fans kind of have a underdogs

coach and I think they think their sport in the United States gets recognized they kind of they love the European sound with the English guys and all that kind of stuff. So I came out of nowhere, you know what I'm saying? I didn't know anything about soccer. They asked me to do this and I did it. But like I said, the question that you asked was, you know, that was a great life experience. I traveled through Europe for three years.

When I wasn't calling the game, I was having some fun. You were having fun. So what's the most fun country in Europe I was going to ask? Oh, uh, all of them. I was single, man. Single guy in Europe for three years. I mean, you were living the... I mean, it was Munich.

I had some great days in Munich. Met some nice people there. Munich, okay. Okay, I haven't been to Munich. I spent time in Frankfurt, but that's about it. I hear Munich is amazing. Okay, all right. Munich was dope.

What's calling hockey like, man? Because that game moves the fastest probably of any. anything, right? If you ask me, who do I just sit there and spend the entire broadcast with tremendous respect for? It's the play-by-play in a Stanley Cup game. I mean, it's just the speed of that game is unbelievable. Mike Emrick is the greatest hockey announcer of his generation, of one of the greatest of all time. Hockey is great. I played hockey. I played hockey from what? might all the way through Bantam in Detroit, in Michigan. So I got a chance to call the hockey for the NCAA tournament a few years.

I mean, a long time ago. I was in Worcester, Mass. I loved it. To me, calling hockey, especially the hardest thing is to know the names because you're not familiar. But calling hockey was like calling fast break basketball to me. Yeah. It's just, you know, just five on five, you know, basically. So, you know, goalie is the sixth man, but, you know, he's between the pipe.

So I really enjoyed the pace of just following the puck. I feel like I could have done pretty good at that if I had stuck with. Here's an off-the-wall one for you, Gus. If you had to pick one color commentator to pair with and you guys had to switch roles and you actually had to call, you had to do color, and that color commentator had to do play-by-play, who would you be most comfortable? with no prep let's just wing this thing. Without a doubt, Joel Clap.

Really? That guy is so smart, Chris. I really like my guys that I work with. But, you know, in my 50s now, you know, I used to always be the younger guy. Now I'm kind of like the older guy. Yep. And sometimes you need those young guys because I like to listen to young music. You know, I listen to Ty Dahlestein and Roddy Rich and all them kind of cats just to get my, my mojo.

Making me feel old, dude. You don't know what that is? Listen, I know who taught, like a lot of the new artists, I just don't listen to as much new, new rap. I just don't. I'm having a hard time, man. That's okay. I feel like the old guy.

I feel like the old guy. You are. That's why. Something came up about Outcast in my last year in the locker room and like 15 kids were like, who the fuck is that? And I was like, maybe I should retire. Right. Maybe I'm old.

Maybe these kids have no taste. I don't know. Maybe I'm just old. That's right. That's great. But it would be Joel Clat. Joel is, you know, Joel reminds me a lot of Mike Mayock.

I used to work with Mike Mayock. Mike Mayock and I called two Canadian Football League Grey Cups back in 94, 95. And then we worked together with CBS. And, you know, he went on to do. And now he's a general manager of the Oakland Raiders. Right. But I see, you know, if I had to switch, it would be Joel because Joel is bright.

You know, he's, I've never seen, the reason I think he's like Mike Mayock is because prior to Mike Mayock, I had never seen anybody prepare that way. He's prepared. He's good looking. He's strong. He's in shape. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I would just draft off him.

Yeah. Because Annie, any, any, any, any, and he loves it. He's passionate about it. And he's a good dude. So he beat a guy. Who's somebody young that you're seeing in the game right now? in the booth that you think that person's going places, keep it up. I like Adam Amin at Fox.

I think he's got a lot of talent and a lot of style, and he sounds good, and he doesn't talk too much. I like Joe Davis. Got that classic voice and handsome and control. Yeah. You did Knicks games. I'm a Knicks fan, so even though they're good, I'm not quite ready to pop my head back up.

No, no. They're over 500. I'm not quite ready yet, dude. I'm not quite ready. Come on, man. But I love. You gotta be down with the orange and the blue. I am down with the orange of the blue.

Just my problem is I've been down too long. You're allowed to take breaks. When they've taken such an emotional toll on me that I took like a, about a seven-year break now. No, I'm trying to think of who you. Huh? Because they were orange and blue. And when we lived in, when we first moved to Charlott'sville when I was eight years old, Virginia's orange and blue.

And I was a big fan of like just their kind of mentality. To me, I liked that underdog thing because they were the team that it just seemed like I was a Yankees fan which was very front runnerish and this balanced it out because the Knicks was a team that was never going to get over the hump

and if they ever did it was going to be like the coolest thing in the world. But beating the Bulls was damn near impossible. So I just gravitated to that kind of Chris Childs, all those. guys Larry Johnson, grandma, like all that stuff. Starks, badass dudes. Charles Oakley, as you just mentioned, who if you're ever around Charles Oakley, they say he's really actually a lot nicer than you

think, but I was afraid to introduce myself. That's one person I probably wouldn't just walk up to him, be like, yo, I'm Chris Long. Don't let me tell you. I know Oak very well. That's my man. He's a nicest guy in the world. That's what I heard. Just the nicest dude, just he's a, you walk up to him, he sit there. He doesn't talk a lot, you know, but good person, nice, to do funny. Yeah. But, you know, if something goes down,

not that you would have a problem, but make sure. Oh, but you could always use Charles Oakley around. That's right. Charles Oakley, you could be the biggest, baddest guy in the bar. It's just nice to have Charles Oakley. Let me tell you a story. Let me tell you story, Chris.

I remember one time being in the Nick locker room after a game, right? And I heard somebody say, yeah, my man is coming in. Oh, that's his Oak's bull. so just let him hang out. So he came in. Nice size dude, you know what I'm saying? But, you know, Oak is 6-9. Yeah.

Like this. Yeah. I looked at the dude because, you know, Ocas from Virginia. Yeah. I mean, went to school in Virginia. From Cleveland, but went to school in Virginia. I look at the dude that was his boy because I wouldn't pay any attention.

It's Bruce Smith. And the dude was to me, like little. Yeah. Yeah, big Bruce Smith, who's, He's tall as shit and has 200 career sacks and unfortunately went to Virginia Tech. But I still like Bruce Smith, man. He's a really, talk about another really good dude. Nice person, right?

Nice dude. Yeah, you know, that on the court stuff, it never quite, oh, it doesn't always carry off. I think even the best badasses that ever played basketball or football, they do a good job of not taking it off the court or the field. You know what I mean? My dad would be one. Wait a minute. I got to stop you. I got to stop you.

I got to tell this story. Yeah. So Howie Long, obviously, is like Zeus to me. You know what I mean? One of the great guys. Howie Long is Zeus to me. First of all, he's the nicest guy in the world. Like, really a nice dude.

But he is one of the biggest men I've ever seen. Are you bigger than him? You're not bigger than him. Fuck no, dude. I'm the third biggest guy in my family. Right. So every time we would go to the seminar, I would always try to like,

I mean, you know, it's Howie and Terry and Jimmy. I mean, I just would try to kind of like sneak up next to him and just sit there and listen and, you know, sit next to him. But howie, you know, I would see Howie sometimes out in front of the hotel in the morning when he was getting ready to go to work. We would talk, you know, we kind of developed a nice thing where I got a chance to talk to him. So I would always ask him about you and Kyle. One time I said, I said, did they ever get into it? He was like, oh, yeah. And this was, and you were in the pros and Kyle was in the pros.

He said that you guys were home for like Christmas in the kitchen. And you go up to your little brother who is my big brother now. Your big brother. And you start giving them the business, like almost like did one of those on them. And how he told me that you two got into it in the kitchen and he had to break it up. Is that true? That is true. I mean, and then when he separated you, he said, listen, I'm too old for this. Yeah.

But he had to really use that how he long-street. Listen, at this point, and my pop just got a shoulder replaced. So he's on the men right now, Gus, too. So I'll tell him I talk to you. He'll be delighted to hear that. But, yeah, you know, I'm kind of like a gnat on Kyle. You know, like, I've embraced the role of being, like, I'm the big brother. so I have the big brother like mental advantage, you know, like even if I can't beat him up,

he might think maybe I can, you know, that's kind of a nice perk to have as an older brother. But then I also have like, I know how to instigate. You know, I also know how to poke. And so I'll poke Kyle a lot. But sometimes Kyle doesn't know when I'm just playing around and it turns into a full-fledged chest bumping, you know, look at this, Chris. I can pick you up. I'm like, Kyle, I know you can pick me up, buddy.

He outweigh me by about 100 pounds. But poor dad, man. Poor dad. Anyway, I just thought that was a great story. No, he, I liked him a lot, man. He's just a good person. He's a great dude, man. And he definitely, he definitely want to hear I was talking to you because he used to tell me how much he enjoyed hearing you call games, honestly.

So you mentioned earlier having mentors and, like, growing in the game and like learning different skills. But you never, I never, I never pinned you down on this question. Worst habit that you had to break. you know, if somebody's listening there, like a young broadcaster or something, what's something that you did, uh, that you didn't like about your game early? You had to fix. I had some addiction problems. Yeah. Uh, I and G words, you know, being a, a city kid. So instead of saying, uh, instead of, instead of, instead of saying, I will say saying. Yeah. Well, instead of saying or certain words diphthongs are called kind kind kind I'm kind well he's he's kind no he's kind

so I had to go to a coach Sam Schwa one of the best diction coaches in America who was right around the corner from my house here in New York City we worked on that for years and I got better and it it was powerful for me because it was almost like I could learn I was learning another language so now I could flip it and go standard King's English, or if I wanted to, I could get relaxed and go, you know, just lay back casual. I grew. You grew.

You grew. You practiced. How about a single call that you're like, man, I want that one back? I don't have any. You don't have any. You're a no regrets guy. Because I watched the game. That's the thing that I'm very proud of in my career.

Yeah. You know, I never really, you know, I get criticized. I make mistakes. I screw up names all the time, every game. Yeah. But one thing I'm proud of is I don't think I've ever blown a moment by a big moment. You know, sometimes even the other day when I was calling the Big East tournament, because I haven't been out.

I only did one game on the road. We're at the garden. It's the tournament. I want to, I'm excited. I want to, and I got my stuff here. I was talking too much. I was looking down too much. I wasn't watching the game.

But over my career, I think, I've had some great moments. And I don't think I've blown one. Right. And I'm proud of that. Maybe I have, but I don't remember. No, but also it's a nice mindset because you're not, you're not gun shy. You know, because I would imagine you can't.

be gunshot and do the job with the passion you do it. You can't be no chunk. Right. I mean, it is what it is. You know, we're there for a reason. They gave me this job for a reason. So when it's time to step up, you know, it's time to make the donuts. And that's what I'm here for.

That's what I'm known for. That's what I love doing. I want to make sure I can do my best to immortalize these, these athletes. Because these are their moments. So that's something I'm really. really proud of. I don't have any regrets about it. Do your big taglines, man, like the ones that you're famous for? Are they just things you say off the court and then they pop in?

Or are you like, man, I think I'm going to roll this one out this week or this, you know? Chris, I think you're going to really understand this, man. I'm just vibe and I'm just flowing. I just, I just, verb. Yep. I don't know if you remember Schoolhouse Rock, right? Yeah. Verve.

That's a little day. It's you're dating yourself a little bit for me, but. But still, I do know. How about when this pandemic ends? I'm going to let you go on this one, Gus. When this pandemic ends, we get fans back in the stands. I mean, we've already starting to see them creep back in. And I know how much you love the atmosphere and how much, you know, your calls pair with the atmosphere.

One sport, one arena, one situation that you, if you could zap right back into it, where are you going? That's a good question. I want to be back at Ohio State, man. I thought you'd say that, actually. I hate the buck out of Michigan, man. Yeah. And they have been creaming us. Yeah.

And clobbering us. Embarrassing us. But it's something about being around the best. It's something about being around winners. It's something about being around the Buckeyes, man. And I feel like, you know, I told everybody, I told Ryan, dang, I said, the next time you see me, I'm about to get my Chase Young on. Chris, I've been lifting weight.

man. I've been lifting weights, man. I was there yesterday. I've been there every day. I've been deadlifting. I've been squatting. I've been benson. I've been inclining and declining. I'm trying. And, you know, I can't put very much weight on because I lost it all. But I, but I, but I, but I'm happy. I feel good. I feel like, you know, alive. And I told Ryan Day, I said, I'm going to get my Chase Young on the next time you see me. He was like, come on. We can use another pass rush. There we go. Right. I want to get back to Ohio State, man, and watch the Buckeyes. you know and those fans are so passionate and they're good people and it's it's it's it's it's the heartland of america it's football and uh if i had one place that i'm really looking forward to getting to

be there and obviously you know ann arbor and my wolverine range gains gans gus gus after dark and gains gus there's two new gus as we got going here and i can't wait to see gus at the shoe i can't wait to hear gus at the shoe the next time i see gus at the shoe i remember this conversation And that don't mean that all is right in the world, man. So Gus Johnson, thanks so much for your time, dude. And it's great to see you. Hopefully, run into each other again down the line here. Yeah, man.

Thank you for having me, young man. I appreciate it. I'm a big fan of your family. Thanks, bro. Your mother and your father. I think they're wonderful people. I think they created and nurtured and grew some wonderful children. I think you need to be with us at Fox doing games.

But thank God, thank God, you know, the one thing you got on your side is that you look like your mama. Exactly, exactly. I don't want that. Listen, the flat top, he's had a good run with that thing. I just can't recreate. I better not ever see you wearing no sketches, okay? No sketchers and no flat top. Those are guarantees for me.

Oh, come on, man. We need you doing this. All right. All right, Gus. I'll look you up, bro. I appreciate you. Thanks, man. My man.