Pardon My Take - Jon Rothstein Bracket Breakdown, March Madness Is Here And Drew Brees Retires
Episode Date: March 15, 2021We finally have a bracket. We love our brackets, our brackets are the best brackets ever. We recap Conference tournament weekend and talk more about our brackets (2:20 - 31:19). Who's back of the Week... including diabetes causing racism and J-Rod breaking up for a day (31:19 - 41:38). Jon Rothstein joins the show to break down the bracket and who he likes coming out of each region as well as the Indy bubble (41:38 - 80:52). We finish with Drew Brees retiring, Taysom Hill's fake contract and Billy Burner Gate.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake
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Hey, pardon my take listeners.
You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or YouTube.
Prime members can listen, add free on Amazon Music.
On today's part of my take, John Rostine.
The brackets are out.
It is officially March.
I know it's been March, but this is truly March.
We've made it a year in the making
to have the NCAA tournament come back.
Actually, two years, two years.
We're gonna break down the brackets with him.
We're gonna talk about conference tournament weekend.
Awesome, awesome weekend of hoops, storylines,
who's back of the week.
And then we'll talk some football
because Drew Brees did retire.
So we will have a little Drew Brees discussion,
taste some Hills contract.
Mr. Biscay's moving on.
All these types of things.
Pack show for you on Monday.
It's the best week of the sports year.
It truly is.
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We are back.
Okay, let's go.
Hey.
Hey.
Now in the street they rip violence
and then a lot of stuff will be done.
No pistol hang, I don't wash it
and then I can't live all on the sun.
Oh no, we're gonna run down to electric avenue
and then we'll take it higher.
Oh, we're gonna run down to electric avenue.
It's a part of my take presented by Bob Stool.
Welcome to part of my take presented by Coors Light,
the only beer to chill with your March hoops.
Go get a Coors Light, check out those blue mountains,
tweet at us, thank you to Coors Light.
Today is Monday, March 15th, and we have brackets.
This is March, we have brackets.
I have a printed out bracket in front of me.
It's the only way to go.
I have five of them.
You gotta go with a bracket you can hold.
Ink on fingertips.
Fingernails.
Yeah, paper in hand, sorry to all the trees out there.
We know we got a lot of AWLs that are trees,
but we are printing out our brackets.
We're doing the highlighter.
We're gonna be highlighter guys,
although fuck highlighter guy,
he's always kind of a little much.
He's got a folder, paperclips.
A little much.
Here's the greatest part is having a bracket
and then losing it and then looking for your bracket
because you didn't fill it out on a computer.
That's just part of the game.
And honestly, if I'm a tree and I'm doing a power ranking
of things that I would want to be made into,
a bracket is number one.
Yes.
That's like the ultimate.
That's achieving the highest form of life if you're a tree.
I love just staring at the bracket.
Like I just, every time I look at it, I see,
oh, oh, oh, okay.
Abilene Christian versus Texas.
That will be interesting.
I just see new things every time.
Oh, Tennessee kind of struggling
versus Oregon State hot right now.
I just love looking at the bracket.
I don't even, I don't even have to fill it out.
Yeah.
I'm not a rebel.
Don't ever be a rebel.
Don't be the guy who's proud
that he's not filling out a bracket.
Wait, Big Cat who?
Oh yeah, sorry.
You have a problem with Big Cat.
Well, I can say it.
I have a problem.
I can say it.
I can say his name.
I don't have a problem.
He's got one on the podcast.
Yeah.
No one on the podcast.
All right, but I just like looking at my bracket.
I like to walk around with my bracket.
It's like, I'm like a little kid who like,
you know, when a little kid has like one toy
that they show everyone,
like all I'm gonna do tomorrow is like,
hey, you want to see my bracket?
Like, hey, oh.
How's your bracket?
Yeah, bumped me in the street like,
hey, check out my bracket real quick.
I like asking people how the bracket is
before the game start.
Because I do go through phases with my bracket
where I love it on Monday.
And then about Tuesday afternoon,
I'll have absorbed all these different takes
from everybody.
I'll change two or three things.
I'm actually just thinking that my entire year last year,
my entire March would have been made better
if somebody just printed out 64 colleges
on a piece of paper.
I just got to carry it around,
just looking at the names of colleges.
Dude, didn't we ask that a million times
is it for them to just make the bracket?
Just give us a bracket that we can then hypothetically
like fill out.
They wouldn't do it.
Last year.
Yeah, they wouldn't do it.
But no, there's no because, Jake.
The bracket.
Trust me, I was as devastated as you were.
I was with a team.
America.
Not true.
Not true.
You were with a team.
Yeah, that was awful.
Listen, America is built on this bracket
that's in my hands.
This is the most American thing ever.
It is a love affair with a bracket.
That's what I have.
I'm in love with this bracket.
You know what, like, I bet you 10 years from now,
we're gonna be,
I have a devastating treeover population problem
because we didn't have brackets last year.
Look at me.
I'm literally rubbing the bracket on my face.
If I could, I would sleep on these brackets tonight.
I can't because I do need at least three pillows
because I'm kind of a diva like that.
I would sleep on this.
They should make a mattress out of just brackets.
They're just stuffed into a piece of fabric.
Dude, I'm gonna, you know what?
I am gonna put a bracket underneath my pillow tonight.
Just to see if I can
resolve some of the energy of this bracket.
I like that.
And the NIT brackets out too.
Duke didn't make that one either.
Duke pulled out.
No, okay.
Well, just an inviguation time, Jake,
because the NCAA did the first thing
that I've ever agreed with the NCAA doing, maybe ever.
And they made an announcement earlier today
that despite the COVID protocols
that were in place in various conference tournaments
and different teams having to go home,
Duke, UVA, Kansas, et cetera,
all these teams were in fact eligible
for the NCAA tournament.
So they made that announcement
just so that they could say
Duke did not make the NCAA tournament.
Jake, can I ask you a quick question?
Of course.
You had a great bracket show
with your podcast stool bench, Bob.
Appreciate it.
Do you feel like you betrayed your big J degree
by tricking your co-host, Marty Mush,
into saying Duke made it to the tournament?
Do you ever think Jim Nance would do that?
Would Greg Gumbel do that?
No.
Oh, man.
So it may have not been.
You've said enough.
They don't work here.
It may have not been the biggest big J thing to do,
but people loved it.
It was a medium J.
I could see Gumbel doing it.
Yeah, Gumbel could do it.
Gumbel could do it.
I don't know, but a whoopee cushion type of thing.
Definitely not.
Yeah.
Let's pull my finger.
Let's all remember because it is Jim Nance season,
which officially kicks off this week,
and that Jim Nance carries around a picture
in his pocket of toast.
So when he orders toast at a restaurant,
he can show them exactly how he likes his toast cookies.
Not too burnt, but not too undone.
And he hands out the tie.
The tie to the fanatic.
The senior on the championship team
to be like, hey, not to make this about myself,
but here's Jim Nance's tie.
I think it's a cool ritual.
He should give out two this year.
Oh, one for last year.
Yeah, that would be nice.
Two ties.
Either way.
I also like how it's also Bill Raftery season
when people just make continuous illusions to the fact
that Bill Raftery likes to really get at it
and drink his shitload of Scotch during games.
He'll just make like subtle references.
It's like him is to alcohol,
as Bill Walton is to hallucinogens.
Man to man.
Oh, Nance.
Yeah.
I love it.
I love it.
So yeah, this bracket,
like I actually don't want to get it out of my hands.
I want to hold it just to make sure it's real.
We're gonna talk to John Rothstein in a minute
and break down the bracket.
Let's talk a little college.
Let's talk about conference championship weekend.
It was awesome.
Biggest takeaways.
Natoats has pissed off.
I'm happy that Alabama LSU now has a rivalry
on the basketball court.
Natoats tells the entire LSU team to get the fuck off my court
after an unbelievable SEC championship game,
which might I add, take note, big 10 referees.
You don't have to review every single play.
I noticed like at the end of the game,
I was having so much fun watching it.
Like, oh, because there hasn't been a crazy stoppage
and they also were kind of letting them play.
Like there were some fouls that were missed,
but let the boys play.
Yeah, so this game kind of highlighted for me
an old man take that I've been kind of brewing on
for the last six, eight months,
really this entire season.
I'll put it this way.
Stephen A. Smith, he put out a tweet last week.
He said, I'm just stating facts
in the interest of fairness.
I'm obligated to do that.
So if you have a controversial take,
just start it with that.
So I'm just stating facts
in the interest of fairness, big cat.
Coaches need to call actual plays at the ends of games.
They need to stop.
They need to stop with the ISO.
And then the guy has a ball dribbles
at three times between his legs
and then shoots from 25 feet
because Steph Curry ruined basketball.
That's Steph Curry and Dame Lillard have ruined basketball.
That is the take that everyone has now spitting out there.
That Steph Curry has ruined basketball
because everyone thinks it can be Steph Curry.
I agree.
I just always, I send the same tweet every time.
Take, when you have a last shot, go to the rim.
Because something can happen.
You can get fouled, someone cuts,
just dribble and drive
instead of just dribble, dribble, dribble,
crossover, step back.
Everyone wants to be Kemble Walker.
There's only one Kemble Walker.
Okay, that's the truth.
And it's frustrating because like,
I think LSU is one of those things.
When you go to the basket, good things happen.
Of course.
I think if you drive to the basket,
there's a possibility of three good things happening
and one bad thing happening.
If you shoot the long three,
there's a possibility of one good thing happening,
one bad thing happening.
I'm not a math guy,
but I like the ratio of taking it in the paint.
Yes, but the one good thing
when you shoot the long three is like super sweet.
It is sick.
It's the sickest thing ever.
Because then you can stand
and then your whole team has to run to you.
So you get that one moment where it's just you.
And you start walking away from the basket,
mean mugging guy.
Yeah, so now that I'm thinking about it,
I actually am totally cool with the three.
Whatever.
It just sucks when you bet on a team
and they do that for the lab.
That's actually the most frustrating.
It's like, drive, drive the ball.
Do something.
Yeah, Illinois did the same thing.
Yeah.
All right, so other takes.
I alluded to this.
I actually told Jake that I was gonna say this to him.
I think the big J's need to be put on notice.
The love affair with Patrick Ewing
was disgusting this weekend.
He got hot against a really bad Marquette team,
a Nova team that basically is all injured,
Seton Hall that was underwhelming all year,
and a team whose coach just dropped the P-bomb
in the locker room.
So now it was a great run for Georgetown,
but they were 500,
and last year they had a million transfers
and off the court shit.
And I think Patrick Ewing should be complimented
for a great run at MSG,
but this idea that like he's building something
and this is the culminate,
like they had a good week.
They had a good four games.
Yeah, also, is Patrick Ewing above security protocols?
How, like the whole thing about,
this is the house that Patrick Ewing built.
Yeah, he actually is.
Is Patrick Ewing?
I think that was totally fair.
But if you were born before, you know, like 1985.
Do you think that security at MSG was born before 1985?
I guarantee they weren't.
Some of them were.
No way.
I put it this way.
I put it this way.
It's like you don't respect the Big East, Big Cat.
I got asked to show my ID at the fucking dog show.
I got kicked out of the dog show.
I did not die for Patrick Ewing to be able to walk around
with his badge tucked into his pocket
like he owns that place, okay?
They have tight security at MSG.
So I stand with those guys that kicked me out.
I respect the Big East.
I just don't respect it when a mid major
makes the Big East finals.
Yeah.
Jessica Pointer's.
Creighton would have been the first mid major
ever to win the Big East, yeah.
Right.
So if they maybe played Yukon,
like if Georgetown played Yukon,
I just think I'm happy that Georgetown's back in it.
It was just crazy.
Like I saw people being like, you know,
this is John Thompson's legacy through Patrick Ewing
and they've learned, you know, Georgetown is back and all.
No, they were a mediocre team.
And last year they were very underwhelming.
It had a bunch of shit happen.
We'll see if he can build off of it.
You said that he has DiKembe Matumbo's coming in.
Yeah, Ryan Matumbo's coming in.
So there you go.
But there's only a limit to friends, kids
that you can bring into the program.
The other one I had was.
Wait, wait, wait, Georgetown,
I liked them being in the tournament.
Yeah, I did too.
Because the colors, I liked the colors.
No, I was just.
I liked the potential for like a hard foul.
Yeah.
I like seeing the name Georgetown and more than anything,
as many schools that we can get in there
that have Bulldog mascots,
I'm always gonna be a favorite.
Like a live Bulldog.
My point is more that the way
that Patrick Ewing was talked about was that he was,
they won the Big East Tournament
and this was like Georgetown has arrived back on the scene.
And holy shit, look what Patrick Ewing has done.
When in reality, I feel like that probably
just saved Patrick Ewing's job for another year or two.
Like he can look back and be like,
yeah, remember when I won the Big East Tournament.
Oh, don't get me wrong.
I'm gonna bet against Georgetown in the first round.
Absolutely, but I'm glad that they're there.
So the other take was Rick Petino back in the tournament,
gets in the tournament with Iona.
Rick Petino is a hall of fame coach.
Rick Petino is a fantastic coach.
I don't make those jokes anymore.
Can we at least just recognize the fact that Iona,
this is their fifth straight trip to the tournament.
Like Tim Clouse, who was there for a decade
who had to retire because of health issues,
was a monster in that conference.
Like Iona owns that conference.
So yes, Rick Petino deserves some credit,
but he also took the best team in that conference
to where they've been in the last four years.
They also had a lot of code.
Didn't they miss like six weeks?
Yeah, that's how they ended up being in nines.
They had to be the first nine seed ever
to be favored in every single one of them.
52 days off, I believe it was.
52 days off.
Okay, I'm still gonna continue to make the Rick Petino jokes.
I did not sign up for your anti-Petino joke crusade.
But yeah.
Yeah, because you wanna get me killed.
Well, yeah, it wouldn't be.
And this isn't an anti-touch downloads.
So after you died would be, I mean, it'd be through the rules.
And then it'd be Billy.
And you'd just be like,
what the fuck, everyone would tune out.
It's more of a, hey, Tim Cluce built something awesome there
and Rick Petino inherited it.
And good for Rick Petino.
He's probably using it as a stepping stone,
but the way he was talked about was like,
dude, this is their fifth straight, fifth straight tournament.
It's crazy.
They're a monster in this conference.
Also in that bracket, Michigan State UCLA.
I love that that's a playing game.
Absolutely love it.
I think I am gonna bet on Michigan State this year.
I think like something about Izzo,
January, February, Izzo, April, we sleep in May.
You made them, but you're bet on.
Yeah, I'm gonna bet on them this year.
I think that like a motivated Izzo,
there's no expectations on Michigan State this year,
except maybe to win that first game.
So I think I am gonna bet.
All right, other conference championship talk.
Oh, Danny Hurley.
That was unreal that he basically called
his star player a pussy for having cramps.
That was unreal.
That's just hard nose coaching.
And that's a compliment coming from Danny Hurley.
He said that he was being a diva
because he was cramping.
I do like Yukon against Maryland.
It was tough that Yukon lost that game
because that's a team.
Yukon is a team that I do think
they're kind of building something.
What else?
What other conferences big?
John Howard.
So Mark Turgeon didn't say what he said
that people said he said,
but he should have just took in credit for it
because allegedly he told John Howard,
don't bother putting the banner up
because you take him down anyway.
And that's an awesome line.
So he didn't say that.
He didn't say it.
I'm gonna choose to believe that he said it.
He did not say it.
It also had been brewing
because Hunter Dickinson was an AWL
who we will back him.
Well, what?
Oh, it comes on the show?
No, we're saying his name.
I said that we weren't gonna say his name
until they won another game.
So he has been staring down Turgeon.
I don't even know him to say his name right.
I don't really like him.
I think he's on the receiving coach.
Am I saying his name right?
Turgeon, yeah.
He stared him down the first two games.
So there's bad blood.
That was awesome.
Turgeon is an all-time dad mispronounced name.
Dads across America, they're called Turgeron,
or they call him Sturgeon,
which is actually the name of a fish.
But it's Turgeon.
Yeah, this Mark Turgeron guy.
I also like Michigan players wearing black shoes.
There's something about seeing them.
I just always think back to the Fab Five.
By the way, short shorts, officially, totally back.
Oh, they've been back for a while.
All the way back.
They've been back for a while.
100% back.
Yeah.
And yeah, seeing John Howard,
I just like when coaches look like
they're gonna fight each other.
No matter what sport it is, it makes it pop.
That was great.
Any other big, well, we had some upsets.
Well, Louisville gets left out,
which I was fine with.
We should talk about...
The Georgia Tech run is impressive.
Georgia Tech?
Yeah, they got a game canceled.
Right, but they're playing,
they're the hottest team in the AC series.
They are, and I love Josh Pastor.
He is awesome.
He's a hilarious...
He's getting out the broadcast.
Yeah, he's a hilarious dude.
He's the face shield.
COVID Pinata.
COVID Pinata, which is one of the more awkward videos
you've ever seen where he gave candy to his team,
a bunch of adults, or, you know,
I mean, I guess they're still kids.
But I pray that Pastner keeps the face shield forever.
Like Rip Hamilton.
Remember when Rip Hamilton broke his nose
and then it was totally healed,
but he liked to feel the mask?
If Josh Pastor knew what was good for him,
because he won the ACC title,
he would be wearing that thing in 10 years from now
and be like, dude, what are you doing?
He's like, nope, good luck charm.
I like the way it feels.
Yeah, like Hugh Free is constantly
just coaching from a bed somewhere.
Yeah, I like that.
I think AO actually pulls off the face mask too.
Oh yeah.
He might just continue to wear that.
It looks sick on him.
Yeah, no, he looks like Batman.
Yeah, he absolutely looks like a superhero.
One other thing about Pastner,
he is a classic case of a guy who's put on 15 to 20 pounds
and hasn't realized it yet.
Like those shirts he wears,
he just hasn't fully come to grips with the fact
that he's getting, you know, it might've been a muscle.
Like it's not even fat, but he's put on a little weight
and he can't, he needs to size up.
He needs to size up a little bit.
We should probably address it if you guys are wondering,
wow, it's been a long time since Hank's weighed in
on this podcast.
He just went to take a shank left
because he said he just texted the group
after he left from the toilet.
This is breaking news from Hank.
Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.
My stomach is a blood bath.
Oh man.
I'm sorry, Chinese food.
Yeah, the Chinese food.
Hank is currently just destroying it to toilet right now.
The Chinese food was really good.
Yeah, it was.
Hank's cutting down the nets in the bathroom.
So whenever he gets back, let's do the office.
Like the minute he walks back in,
I'm like, all right, we're ready to keep going.
And he'll be like, what are you doing?
You guys just talk to him in the podcast.
All right, so when he does that,
we'll do that and get his reaction.
We talked a little bit about Luca before we started taping,
but we should probably run through our takes on Luca again
because he is, he's just like out of shape, I think.
I hate him.
He looks like he's running with cinder blocks on his feet.
I've already, look, I hate him,
but I also understand that is hypocritical of me to hate
just like a big goofy white guy who's good in the big 10
because the team I root for just made up of those.
But yes, I do not like him.
He doesn't get back on defense,
going fundamentals on everyone's ass.
And whenever he has to play a guy
who's stronger than him, he struggles.
He looked like a child against Coburn.
Coburn just straight up, and he's a big dude.
And Coburn just got the ball, put his ass into him,
and Luca was just, I can't do anything.
He just quit, he gave up.
Yeah, and I know Iowa beat Wisconsin.
Wisconsin is not gonna beat UNC.
It's the lowest I've ever felt
about a badger team going into the tournament.
I can't even be hurt.
The only way I can be hurt is if the,
we ready to keep going?
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
All right.
All right, Hank, all right, should we clap back in?
Yeah.
Three, two, one.
Okay, so where were we talking about,
what were we talking about right before you left?
I don't know.
Oh, I stopped.
Players don't drive to the hole anymore.
Thank you.
They don't, yeah, players don't drive.
So did you have a take on players don't drive to the,
did you just give them a sympathy comment about diarrhea?
I was asking if he was okay.
But you're like, I know that feeling, it's distinct.
Yeah, we all, we all have had diarrhea.
I know, but like, I was checking on him.
What do you want me to, I mean like, you're like,
You're good.
Yeah, well, it seems like you're diarrhea shaming me.
I'm not, no, I had diarrhea on an exercise bike last week.
Everyone has diarrhea.
I have diarrhea like half the time.
Chaps has had it for seven years.
I didn't know if I was ever gonna smile again
for a minute in there.
Yeah, this is your Lamar Jackson podcast.
Oh man.
I should have brought the camera.
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you.
Sprinting the bathroom with this balloon.
We could probably pull the string.
I don't know if Liam was cutting me before and I was,
I was struggling.
You were sweating.
I was hoping it was gonna be farts
and then I just realized.
You were gonna fart in the studio while we're all in here?
Well, I knew if I left, I would be fucking shamed.
So.
Did you, yeah.
No, you weren't shamed.
Was there any poop?
I mean, I walked in and Billy goes, oh, oh.
Well, we were trying to do the thing where,
Well, that's just,
You come back and we do the office like,
all right, you ready to pick back up?
We obviously kept on going,
but Billy kind of ruined it because he was like,
Oh, easier.
Billy's like a T-Rex where if something moves around
and his eyes go to it.
He's, he's, he's predator.
You've got to cover yourself in diarrhea before.
It's the only way Billy can't see you.
Did you poop your pants at all?
Or was it just, you made it all into this whole toilet?
No, I made it in there.
It was just, it was, you know.
Sometimes you wonder,
Sometimes you wonder if you have demons inside of your stomach
and like you, you start sweating and you wonder,
like, am I ever gonna smile again?
Is this what my life is gonna be like for the rest of time?
Like, I'm just gonna, this is how I'm gonna die.
How long has this been going on Hank?
About, it would, you know, it happened.
It was, it was a 10 minute thing.
I literally had this on Friday.
The Chinese food, you know, it digested.
It didn't sit well and it came out.
I'm probably gonna have to go
during the Rossi interview.
You're good, you're good.
I went to, I was back in Chicago.
The Illinois has launched,
we're gonna be in Chicago this weekend, coming weekend.
But I went to Bird's Nest, my favorite wing place.
You guys have all been there.
And same thing happened to me.
You know, I just, like a dog eating chocolate.
I had like 40 wings.
Couldn't help myself.
Wing Diary is just, it's a natural.
Couldn't stop myself from eating
as many wings as possible.
All right, if I eat chicken wings,
I'm at the point in life where I need to,
I need to schedule being around a toilet
for the next four hours.
Honestly, I should just start eating chicken wings
on the toilet. In the stall.
It would make it a lot easier.
That's a great idea for a restaurant,
is just bathroom stalls.
And then they come to your bathroom
and they're like, hey, here you go.
Here you go, here's this chili.
Yeah, here, have some fun.
Here's a burrito.
Right through, cut out the middle, man.
All right, other bracket.
I mean, we're going to get to Rothstein
with all the bracket stuff.
What other conference championship stuff?
You guys really still are doing this.
No, yeah, well, we were talking
conference championship and weekend.
Jake, any other big thoughts?
You are our college basketball expert.
I think we hit the majority of it.
Latino?
Yeah, we talked about the Kansas, Virginia,
Duke all backing out.
Yeah.
We'll be something.
Say that differently.
What?
Say that differently.
They got COVID.
They didn't back out, except Duke.
Duke 100% backed out.
They had to stop playing in their conference tournament.
Kansas and Virginia had an unfortunate outbreak
that they had to stop playing.
Duke backed out like cowards.
No.
Duke faked it.
The other guys were praying for their health.
So that'll be something to monitor.
Yeah.
I'm currently monitoring the situation in Durham right now.
Yeah.
There are a bunch of fakers.
6 PM Eastern is the deadline for the fill-in teams,
the replacement teams.
And after that, it becomes four fifths.
It should not be ideal.
But so what happens, because a lot of these teams
have played in tournaments, shared facilities with teams
that had COVID, what happens if more than four teams
have to back out?
I'm sure they have contingencies.
Because in the NIT bracket, I noticed
that there is a severe lack of Duke in that bracket,
just in case they get the call.
Fifth man up.
Fifth man up.
So what are the four teams that are waiting?
It's Louisville's ones.
Louisville, St. Louis, Colorado, St. Ole Miss, St. Louis.
But isn't there a rule that it's in your conference first?
So if LSU got COVID, Louisville wouldn't take that spot,
Ole Miss would.
I think that's just if it's a conference champion that
got an automatic qualification of Georgetown,
I think if they miss out on it, then maybe the next team
up does.
Or it might be like a big East team at the first four.
It might be a mid-major then.
So I see it's the first four teams out
who will be on standby to replace any team
from a multi-bid conference that is forced to withdraw.
Yeah, so if it's just one bid, then the team that came in
second, I guess.
No, no, I think that what they're saying
is if it's one bid league, then they just get eliminated.
It would be my guess, right?
Yeah, I'm not positive.
These rules change so often.
I don't want to say something and be wrong.
Also, Gonzaga has the easiest path ever.
So they've played the two, three, and four.
They beat the two, three, and four in their own region.
They are going to dominate.
They're probably going to win the national title.
All the jokes that I've been making,
I knew when I was making them, too.
I was like, Gonzaga's really fucking good this year.
So this is probably going to blow up in my face.
But I still made them because, like we've
said for the last four years, people still
don't understand it, newcomers.
Just because something changes, Gonzaga going to the Final
Four, going to the national title game,
doesn't mean a great storyline has to change.
Peyton Manning still can't win a Super Bowl.
Right, one of the best storylines ever
will mark few finally get to the Final Four.
Well, he did, but we didn't quit on the storyline
because it's so much fun.
Sir Theo Garcia will never win a Major.
Ever, ever.
So that is where we're going to stand forever.
Gonzaga has not made a Final Four in our minds.
If they make one this year, I'll give them credit.
It's a Mickey Mouse.
It's a Mickey Mouse title.
They made the title game in 2017.
The West Coast Conference.
Yeah, I know that, Jake.
I just referenced that.
I know.
Not that it did.
No, it did not.
Did you not absorb anything?
We just said it.
The storyline doesn't need to die just because the facts
change.
That's how you do journalism.
Facts, that would be our, if we did give a journalism class,
we'd just be like a big book on day one that just says facts,
and we'd throw it through a window.
Yeah, you yelled at me for saying someone's free throw
percentage on the stream the other day.
Yeah, yeah, because I needed a make and a miss.
Everything you believe that you say on the air,
you have to believe that forever.
That's how it works.
You need to write me the cheat sheet for this weekend.
Yeah, I got it.
So I'm going to write Jake a gambling cheat sheet.
So he, I can't remember what game it was,
but I basically needed very badly for a guy
to hit a free throw.
And Jake was like, it was the over of the Mac game.
Yeah, he was like, here he comes to the line and 83% shooter
clanked it.
And I was like, don't, don't.
And he's like, but I just said fact, like,
but it's not a fact in that context.
Yeah.
No, when, when Joe Buck says, oh, he never misses,
that's a jinx.
We're not talking about the fucking time, time game.
And would you say 83% that he's going to make it?
And you have to understand gamblers are the biggest
bitches in the world.
I, any little thing will set me off.
Like I understand.
I even told you, I pulled your side out there.
I was like, Jake, you were actually correct.
Yeah.
But in this case, you're wrong, which makes no sense, right?
Sure.
You did.
You did say that.
No, you did.
Yeah, I was like, you're right.
You're 100% right.
But in this case, you're wrong.
OK.
Yeah.
Facts out the window.
OK.
See you later.
See you later.
And so I'll take a big, it'll almost be like an old school,
huge Bible, and it will say facts on it.
I'll be like, you see this, kids?
Throw it out the window.
And then PFT will pull down one of those old maps.
And it will just say, Gonzaga's never made a final four.
It'll just be a picture of a guy.
It'll be from an anatomy class and an arrow
pointing at your gut.
This is where the real facts are located, except for Hank,
because he's shitting them all out.
Yes.
I don't die of shame.
I want that on the record.
Good to know.
If I did, I would just, I'd be a masochist.
I'd hate myself.
I'd be a self-loathing person if I die of shame.
Billy, you feel like you want to say something.
I have a drunk idea.
Speaking of diarrhea, Billy wants to talk.
That was good.
Come on.
I have a drunk idea.
OK.
He wants to Billy.
Why don't we take Duke, UVA, in Kansas, and make them play?
Because they all have COVID.
Yeah.
And like a tournament.
Well, because they all have it anyway.
What, a COVID time?
Yeah, a COVID tournament.
The kids probably want to play.
But Duke didn't qualify.
Yeah, Duke didn't make it.
No, just like, UVA is playing.
They all play.
And UVAs are in the March Madness tournament.
OK, we'll make a new tournament.
We're going to make a new tournament,
and it's going to be called the NCAA tournament.
We're going to have Duke out of it, but Kansas and UVA in it.
Or we should just make our own tournament.
And just invite Duke.
The COVID invitation.
The COVID invitation.
I'm kind of in on this.
Yeah, because whoever wants to play, like.
Yeah, Billy, I'm kind of in on this.
And they like, after every game.
What about the teams that are in the real tournament?
Instead of handshake line, they have to French.
No.
What?
So you have a good idea?
And I have a bad idea?
It's like a COVID invitation.
Yeah, it's like, they want to play.
It's the part in my tournament.
Right, but Billy, what about like,
Virginia Kansas are in the real tournament.
And it's Duke.
Yeah.
And it's going to be interesting.
They should not.
I thought Kansas had to leave the tournament.
We'll see if they accept our bid,
or if they reject it like ours.
Yeah.
Keep the postseason streak alive, Coach.
How about we have the COVID tournament, it's just Duke.
Versus the Lakers in a seven game series.
And if Duke loses, Coach K has to retire.
And also, we do that shame thing in Game of Thrones
with him naked in the streets.
Did you see the tweet that that was, that's.
Yeah.
That was crazy.
That's crazy.
What?
One of the, the shamer, the head shamer.
Yeah.
Is the owner of the, of the Richmond AFC.
No way.
Yeah.
Same guy.
The lady.
Yeah.
She's a woman.
She's an adult woman.
Yeah, girl.
She a woman.
She's friends with the son.
Same woman.
Yeah.
It's a girly girl.
Actually, yeah, that does make sense to me.
Now that I think about it, it is the exact same woman.
I knew that internally.
Not a good fact.
I thought it was a good fact.
I was shocked when I saw it.
Oh, and what?
If Duke wins, then Coach K has to leave
to go coach the Lakers finally.
Yes.
After 25 years of speculation.
And if he loses, the shame thing I talked about.
Yeah.
All right, let's do our who's back of the week.
Then we have John Rossi, who will actually maybe give us
some real bracket knowledge, not whatever we just talked about.
That was bracket.
That was Hank's diarrhea with a side of bracket knowledge.
Nothing better than this show.
All right, who's back of the week,
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Who's back of the week?
Hank.
My summer problems are back.
So I'm going to make this quick, but J-Rod is back.
Quick scare on Friday.
They said there was a rumor that they were breaking up
their engagement, not getting married, breaking up.
And then on Saturday or Sunday, they released the statement
and said, we're still working through it.
So they're back on.
The way they broke up for a day.
Yeah, to say it was an emotional weekend for me,
it was essentially like if you could imagine going to the doctor
and the doctor comes out and he's like,
hey, I'm reading your chart here.
Sorry, you have a brain tumor.
And you're like, what?
And then a day later, he calls you.
He's like, actually, it's just an ankle sprain.
That's what I went through.
That's exactly the same thing.
They're going to continue to get back together and call it off
because I think A-Rod realized that once you get the engagement
photo, that's really the height of any relationship in 2021.
When you post the Instagram of the ring,
the proposal on the beach, it's all down hill after that,
unless you have a baby.
In which case, yeah, I guess you could make the case
that the birth might get a few more likes.
But I feel like A-Rod's going to maybe take the ring back
and then he'll re-propose again in a couple months time.
I just want to go to the bachelor party.
Hank is gone again.
Hank's gone to use the bathroom.
I know he had a ton of use-backs because he said,
I have a lot of use-backs.
All right, this is literally the little Marj Jackson.
We need to make a video of Hank.
Can we do that afterwards?
We'll make a video of Hank going to the bathroom.
We'll maybe make it like CCTV, like black and white.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Yeah, we'll have the security footage.
Billy, you're Trace McSorley.
You get in the game.
Fuck it all up real quick.
You go first.
Jose Canseco was also back.
He jumped in.
Oh, fuck that high.
He jumped in on the.
He's been waiting for this.
Yeah, and he was like, I can tell the future.
And honestly, I really want to have a conversation with that
guy.
He's kind of out there.
But anyway, Cam Newton is also back.
I don't think he could beat him up.
No, probably not.
Cam Newton is also back.
He resigned with the Patriots.
That was from Hank.
He just texted me.
Oh, he texted you?
I texted him.
He said, tell me what we're doing.
Wait, call him.
Just call him.
OK.
Call him and see what he says.
Who's back the week from Hank on the toilet?
Hey, do you hear who's back?
Yeah, do you hear who's back?
Hey, we have to do John Rothstein.
Oh, he's on right now?
Well, it's 10 o'clock.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, we'll finish the who's backs.
But tell us.
We can't finish until you tell us who your who's back.
Cam Newton is back.
He's on the Patriots.
I feel not great about it.
Kind of like my stomach right now.
OK.
I'm not happy.
I'm not sad.
Who else?
That was it.
Oh, you're not happy.
You're not sad.
It sounds like you're sad about it.
Red patino.
Oh, my god, you hear that?
All right, we'll finish who's back and we'll get Rothstein.
All right, PFC, who's who's back?
My who's back of the week is accountability,
because you guys, I'm sure, all saw the Norman High School
women's basketball game that dropped some hard in bombs,
said probably the most racist things
that you could probably say on a live broadcast of a woman's
high school basketball game.
And credit to him, he came back and took full responsibility
for it, apologizing, tossing in the fact that at one point,
he thought about becoming a youth pastor.
Let's take that into account when weighing it against the fact
that he was dropping in bombs.
And also, I will state that I suffer type one diabetes
and during the game, my sugar was spiking.
While not excusing my remarks, it's
not unusual when my sugar spikes that I become disoriented
and often say things that are not appropriate as well as
hurtful.
I do not believe that I would have made such horrible
statements absent my sugar spiking.
So there's just one way to solve this,
and that's Papa John needs to become his sponsor
in his racism's anonymous 12-step program.
I was going to say, I wonder if Myers Leonard just
went right to his computer and was like,
do I have diabetes?
Yeah.
Looked at him, put out the statement.
I'm not going to take the statement seriously
until the guy posts a picture of himself wearing
pitfipers sunglasses.
Also, stay woke.
Papa John definitely just has a bunch of NFTs
that he's about to sell of him saying the n-word.
And he publicly announced that he'd quit saying the n-word.
That goes more rare.
Yes.
That would be awesome.
You'll get one, right, Billy?
What?
No.
All right.
All right, my who's back is Pi Day.
And happy Pi Day, guys.
3.143.
No.
78246.
3.149265358979.
Yeah, you ran into a plus sign.
That's all I know.
It's like 15 digits.
I'm addicted to.
You didn't think that Jake would know the first 12 digits of Pi?
Once a year, I'm addicted to fake doing Pi.
And having everyone be like, I don't know.
But now I forgot I have a fucking nerd in here.
One of my hottest takes will just
fax in the interest of fairness.
Pi is better than cake.
Yeah, except ice cream cake.
Ice cream cake's good.
Ice cream cake's the best.
But ice cream cake has many Pi-like qualities to it.
Yeah.
No, I don't think that's that hot of a take.
OK.
I actually don't think it's hot at all,
because I'm thinking about it.
Like apple pie, blueberry pie, peach pie.
Those are all better.
Cheese cake is even a Pi.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you take out ice cream cake,
I think that that's easily, that's almost a blowout.
Yeah.
And saying birthday pie sounds just way happier
than saying birthday cake.
Yeah.
Birthday cake's better when it's like an ice cream flavor,
the flavor of something else.
Yeah, it's better when it's like a doughnut birthday
style.
When it's something else that's flavored as birthday cake.
Right.
Jake, do you have a who's back?
Yeah, it's the trifecta of Samuel L. Jackson, Charles
Barkley, and Spike Lee.
Yep.
Those Capital One commercials that air literally
every single commercial break during the tournament.
They started with the Big Ten tournament on CBS.
Just get ready for that.
It is the Paul Miss the Net commercial of NCAA.
Also, I can't believe I forgot about these guys.
The impractical jokers are back.
Yeah, true TV.
True TV.
That's always the best.
Like it's a fever dream at like 2 o'clock in the morning
when you forget to turn your TV off.
You who shop shall not be named will be like tweeting it like,
oh, this had a great rooting ratings boost.
Oh, Billy, Billy, Billy.
Did you see?
What?
Did you see what he said?
Some guy, he should not be named.
OK.
Now we're just.
No, some guy tweeted a picture of like just like just going
through all my dad's old stuff, like all his old baseball cards,
like his father passed and he like inherited all of it.
And under it, Dan Revelle just replies, it's all junk.
Don't bother going through any of it.
Wow, that's harsh.
That's very harsh.
You just inherited.
Jake, I thought you were going to say our diet is back
for the next four days.
I was saving that for my firefest for Friday,
but we ate like crap this week.
We were eating pizza on Friday and he just like
saddle saddled up next to me.
He's like, salad's Monday, dude.
I was like, come on, man.
Are we doing salad Monday again?
I've just salad every day for a long, long time.
He was like, oh, I've been eating and I'm sitting there like,
dude, I still haven't had my ice cream tonight.
So we're back.
I can't let it get to that again.
I'm going to opt out of salad Monday.
It just did bad stuff to my body.
I'll mean on salad Monday, not salad Tuesday.
Yeah, I'll bring it in for you.
I got you.
I'm going to soup Monday.
All right, liquid salad.
Let's get to John Rossi and before we do that,
PFT, you had a word from our friends at better help.
Better help, yeah.
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And now, John Rossin.
Ooh!
Mr. Rossin, how we doing?
Are you an indie?
I'm in the bubble, bro.
Oh, nice.
What's up, John?
What's up, fellas?
That was Jake.
Jake wanted to say hi.
That was the future we were talking to you.
Oh, what's up, Jake?
The future.
Yeah.
Did you want to say hi to Billy?
What's up, Billy?
There we go, nice.
Oh, you don't have headphones on, Billy.
Adam, I'm just going to run to the bathroom before we start.
Wait, are you joking?
No.
Do you want me to hold it?
No, it's just we're going through something.
It's a bit of that going around.
Hank has had to go diarrhea twice during the show.
No, no, no.
This is just number one.
Oh, okay.
All right.
That's a bathroom show.
It is, yeah.
Are you recording?
Pissed dogs.
Keep it in there.
Oh, man.
Do you got to go to the bathroom?
Can we, the gang gets diarrhea?
This is March.
Dude, my stomach is full of steel trap.
All the talk about diarrhea kind of makes me think
I might have to do it myself.
I think it's just placebo effect.
My stomach is like a fucking garbage dump.
So it's used to this.
When Hank has diarrhea, everybody gets it.
I'm going to, he's gonna get awkward
when I tell him it was a good stream.
Yeah.
Okay, well, we'll give it a shot.
We're recording this.
Yeah, we might as well.
No, I can't hear it.
Hey, everyone shh, everyone shh, shh, shh, shh.
Are we flushed?
I didn't hear a hand wash, did you hear a hand wash?
All right, we're back.
Pillow?
Did you just wipe your hands with a pillow?
No, I just bring a pillow in case we need a prop.
Oh, okay.
That was a solid stream, dude.
You sound healthy.
Thanks, bro.
Thanks, bro.
Did you wash your hands?
Watched my hands.
It was like Tom Hanks and the league of their own.
That's kind of a beta move though,
to wash your hands after you pee.
Yeah, especially when you're in the bubble.
Like you can't go anywhere.
You can't go anywhere.
No, I don't want to, obviously,
I don't want to peek too soon,
but I'll say it for air.
All right, okay, here we go.
Well, we're gonna run all this.
All right, three, two, one.
Here we go.
It is time, our good, good friend, John Rostin.
One year ago, probably today or tomorrow,
you were in this studio,
the cancellation of the NCAA tournament.
You said to us, this is only temporary.
And boy, was that true,
because now we're sitting here, John, with a bracket.
We're holding a bracket.
We feel the bracket.
It's the best time of the year.
I'm so excited to see you.
Where do you want to start?
This is your show.
Guys, I just want to say,
it's just great to be here with you on a tradition,
unlike any other, our selection Sunday breakdown,
where we get set to obviously embark
on an NCAA tournament,
unlike anything we've ever seen before.
You know, I've been here
in the Indianapolis controlled environment,
AKA the bubble since Friday.
The protocols are intense.
Obviously, everything is isolated.
You know, and I'm really just curious to take in
this experience here over the next couple of weeks,
which again, is gonna be unlike anything
I've ever been a part of.
Do we have any new John Rothstein isms
that we're gonna be debuting this year?
The people want to know,
because as you said, it's a year unlike any other.
So I feel like there might be a couple of lines
that you need to drop just to kind of let us know
just how special this year is gonna be.
Yeah, I've added a few this year, which you guys know.
I feel a little bit guilty about the one liner
and tagline that I kind of created for Oklahoma.
Cause ever since I started dropping
Lon Corleone after Oklahoma won games,
like they went on this abysmal losing streak.
So like, I kind of feel like if I ever went to Norm
and I'd be viewed as like Barzini.
Yeah, yeah.
Because like breaks my heart, it was you and him.
Like because I was watching obviously their game
against Alabama, their shorthanded,
they don't have obviously a couple of starters,
you know, no Brady Manic, no Alandis Williams.
And then all of a sudden, like, you know,
really they really start going on a downward trajectory.
So I feel like there was a lot of the Jinx of Lon Corleone.
Yeah.
What about the Jinx of Greg Gard, the silent assassin?
Has he?
Well, I think there's other things that go into that Jinx,
but I will say that I am interested to see the age
and the experience of Wisconsin against North Carolina.
No, John, no, John, they're not a good team this year.
You can, sometimes you have to just as a fan,
you got to admit when, when you don't have a good team.
I'm not excited for that game.
Have you broken down?
Wait, give us a couple more Rossinisms
that you've created this year.
I mean, there's so many.
I mean, we have Illinois basketball.
Here comes the pain.
Now you'll appreciate this.
That originated because there's a couple of days like,
you know, like around the holidays
where there's not as many games
and you might like have an opportunity
to like be in a situation where you can like watch a movie
or you can just feel like a regular civilian
for a couple of hours.
So, you know, I'm a big fan of like the Pacino movies.
So one of the more underrated Pacino movies
was always Carlitos way.
I always thought Carlito Brigante
was just a very, very underrated, you know,
Pacino character.
You know, he's obviously,
I'm not the biggest David Klinefeld fan.
He could like like Sean Penn in that movie
kind of resembles like PMT a little bit,
just from what I've seen so far.
So, you know, in that movie,
if you remember early on,
like there's a couple of guys trying to whack out,
you know, Al Pacino and, you know,
he obviously, you know, goes and he fights them off
or whatever in that like, you know, pool hall,
but he screams, here comes the pain.
So I was watching Illinois early in the season
and they were just eviscerating their opponents
and I was like, you know, just thinking,
I was like, there's so much pain in champagne
in this Dean plays.
And I was like, wait a minute,
there might be something there.
Because then all of a sudden I was like, well, what if,
you know, we can make it different where it's P-A-I-G-N.
And it was just gold.
And then also another thing too.
And then it obviously coincided
with Alabama's Renaissance is like, you know,
one of the big things in my cousin Vinnie
was obviously the fact that you had guys from New York
going to Alabama in the movie.
One of them was Ralph Macchio.
The other was Joe Pesci.
And like Nate Oates wasn't from New York,
but he was from Buffalo.
But, you know, Alabama fans are extremely passionate
for basketball.
So I dropped my cousin Vinnie and, you know,
the rest is history or shorter on Twitter.
It's better.
Yeah. I mean, Utah, you could do like the two Utes.
That would be good too.
Or if you like Pacino, you could do a Serpico one,
but for Purdue, where it's like Purdue,
it's like Serpico because you watch it for three hours
and absolutely nothing happens.
Well, interesting.
But I also think that, you know,
we have to leave Purdue alone
because they have debt taxes,
Matt Painter, which obviously was, you know,
the handoff on the bow Rhine.
What about, what about for Nate Oates?
When he like today, he sewed his wild oats
in right now issues face.
It's interesting.
What a dramatic finish in that game.
You changed the subject very quickly there.
That was, yeah, exactly.
Well, by the way, I haven't,
dad, I haven't seen a Reebok switcher since like Alan Ivers.
Since I'm like,
Do you like it?
Yeah.
It stands out.
It's good. Yeah. The answer.
Yeah.
So what about that opening round matchup?
The first four, the Michigan state
and they're playing against UCLA.
Those are two guys that you,
you love to drop your little Rostin's isms about.
So are you going to do, who are you rooting for?
Are you rooting to tweet out January, February, Izzo?
Or are you rooting to tweet out?
Was it Mick Cronin as consistent as a few good men
on a rainy Sunday?
On a rainy Sunday.
Yeah, I don't root because I know either way
out of this game,
I'm going to be able to get a one liner on Twitter.
Yeah.
So it's like, you know, either way, you know,
you're, you're moving the chains, so to speak.
You know what I'm saying?
You need to create a one liner for the bubble.
Just a one liner for the bubble.
Well, there's something,
yes, something that is like the bubble, you know?
Yeah. I mean, like, I'll give you an example.
Like so many thoughts were going through my head
when I got this assignment,
but my mind went to one place when I found out
that this was going to be a possibility.
You remember the opening scene of Rambo two
when like Rambo's in prison and like Colonel Troutman goes
and it's like, John, you know, there's, you're a computer,
dug up your name is one of three,
most likely to complete the mission.
Cause I was like, this isn't an assignment.
It's a mission.
It's 24, 25 days in an enclosed environment.
There's three places I can be guys.
I can be in this hotel room.
I can be in the convention center
where again, the teams are going to practice
and I'm going to have my own setup
where I can do hits from for CBS and Turner
or I can be at a game site.
And that's it for 24 days.
There's no haircuts.
There's no going to pick up food.
There's no going to the gym.
There's no going for runs.
It's pretty much just straight college basketball.
And on Thursday, when we kick it off,
67 games and 18 days.
Hold on.
Well, you just described, like this isn't a mission for you.
This is heaven.
Yeah. I'm really enjoying it so far.
But this is, you, you have eliminated the entire world
except for college basketball.
If John Rothstein could make his own heaven,
it would be the bubble in Indianapolis.
And believe it or not, and you'll appreciate this.
I went down, you know, got some COVID testing early
because I'm going into quarantine right now.
Cause obviously it gets situated.
There's type protocols.
Bo Barasky's in my hotel.
Oh, fuck him, John.
You should have kicked him in the nuts.
Yeah. So get this.
So Bo Barasky's in my hotel.
Like I'm waiting for a COVID test and there's Bo Barasky.
But here's the interesting thing, Kat.
And you'll appreciate this.
Years ago, okay, I was asked to MC
one of my best friends weddings in Newport.
Nice wedding, Labor Day wedding.
Like, you know, it was a cool deal.
All of a sudden I'm like getting ready to do the intros
and like I'm going full throttle on the intros.
Like it's kind of, I'm kind of like throwing this out
or whatever where it's like the 1998 Chicago Bowl.
Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah.
Did you have, you were like,
listen to their height and weight
as they walked out on the dance floor?
Exactly. But Kat, PFDA, here's the best thing.
Before I got into the intros,
I like did a little Michael Buffer.
I was like, Newport, Rhode Island, are you ready?
And I was like, Newport, Rhode Island, are you ready?
And then instead of saying, let's get rid of the rumble,
I dropped the Heath Ledger line.
And I said, in the words of the late Heath Ledger,
you know, as a joker circa 1998 in the dark night
and here we go.
So I do that and I get obviously everything going.
But then there's Bo Borosky at a wedding
and he's like any Newton,
he was obviously friends with the bride
and we started talking.
And then like late earlier tonight,
I'm getting ready to do a hip for CBS.
And who do I see?
It's Bo Borosky.
And I like one, I was thinking like,
do I make a topic about the stoppage and play
during the Wisconsin Iowa game?
And I was just going to the monitor.
I mean, seriously, like there was like a scene right there
in that game where like you had a great big 10 game.
And honestly, it was ruined like the people who decided
to make the Godfather part three.
Yes, there it is.
That's a great Bo Borosky story.
And I would love to see you MC a wedding.
Yeah.
I mean, I look forward to more MC opportunities
if I can, but seriously,
by since we're on the topic,
like when it comes down to like the Godfather series,
I'm like kind of like convincing myself that like
it stops with one and two.
First of all, you think about this.
They never really explained the ancestral relationship
in Godfather three, like between Andy Garcia
and Michael Corleone's daughter.
That's one thing.
And then a second thing is like, you know, why in an essence,
if you're going to whack somebody out,
you have to kill them with a poison cannoli.
Because it's cool.
Like, yeah, honestly, because you remember it, right?
Yeah, I mean, for sure.
But I just thought it could have been a little bit different.
I realized that I did say,
John, this is your show.
Take it wherever you want.
And I probably shouldn't have done that.
You just gave him, yeah, carte blanche.
Let's talk about 1980s cinema,
which I'm actually here for.
And let's get back to what Big Cat brought up a second ago.
Boy, but before we get to the bracket.
No, no, no, this is not brackets up.
No, no, I want to know, John,
I want to know what you would be doing differently
if you weren't in the bubble.
Because as Big Cat says, it sounds like you're having,
isn't this what you do every March?
Yeah, it's just a little bit different guys
because the proximity to everything is closer.
Like, you know, like I'd be going to the studio in New York
and now I'm just like walking down the block.
Like everything is just so close and obviously tight.
That's so, it's more convenient.
Yeah, no, this is, they created this bubble for you.
It's the John Rothstein bubble.
It is, there's nothing you can do
but consume college basketball.
That's it.
Non-stop, 24-7.
And I'm so pumped for it
because I think we have pound for pound inch for inch.
The greatest first four game in the history of the first four
UCLA, Michigan State, you know, maybe the more underrated,
you know, utility players in the country
and Jaime Hacas.
And remember this guys, when Jaime Hacas plays for UCLA,
there's no such thing as a 50-50 ball because it's 90-10.
I will remember that.
I like that.
All right, so let's talk to the bracket.
Have you broken it down region by region?
You always do, you name them, right?
John Rothstein.
All right, so let's do it.
Let's, let's, let's do it.
You lead us, we'll throw in our thoughts.
You lead us through the bracket.
Okay, I'm going to pull it up right here
because obviously we're doing this over Zoom.
So I just want to make sure that, you know,
I get everything on point.
What are you talking about, John?
You're sitting right next to us right now.
Oh yeah, exactly.
I just want to get him in trouble with the NCAA.
Sure, Kat, but I'll say this, you know,
because we have so much, so much,
so many stake places here in Indianapolis.
Yup.
It's kind of crazy in the sense that like, you know,
I can't go to any of them because of the protocols.
So I have now been in a situation where the four regions
are named after different stake places.
In Indian.
All right, we've been to all of them.
We've been to all of them.
So let's do it.
So what's, what's the best cut?
Are you a, uh, St. Elmo's guy?
Uh, I, well, I haven't, I mean, I liked,
I liked the vibe in Harry and Izzy's a little bit.
Okay.
Okay.
So let's, so, so South region, what is that?
Gonzaga?
We got to go left.
We got to go left to right, my man.
That is left to right.
Is it not?
It's a little bit different.
I'm just getting up the PDF here in my, uh,
All right.
We have printed out copies, not to brag.
Yeah. I mean, it's tight course here.
Okay. I got it.
All right.
West region is going to be the St. Elmo's region.
Okay.
Okay.
This is Illinois number one, Houston number two.
No, no, that's the West.
That's the West cat.
You just said the West.
What is it?
It's Gonzaga's region.
Oh, is our bracket screwed up?
Is our bracket maybe ours is.
Wait.
It feels like space.
Well, it feels like space balls when Mel Brooks was on
backwards and he says, I might convert him out.
All right. Yeah.
All right. Jake, Jake, Jake gave us these brackets.
Not, not to blame Jake.
Actually Jake and Billy.
Um, what?
Yes.
I mean, ours is screwed up.
All right.
Our screwed up.
All right.
So Gonzaga is,
South is your West.
Gonzaga.
Okay.
Gonzaga.
This is the St. Elmo's region.
Okay. Great.
We got Oklahoma and Missouri rematch of the 2002 elite eight
when Kelvin Samson beat Quinn Snyder to go to the final four.
Kareem Russian company came up a little bit short that day.
I feel like Oklahoma has been obviously on a downward trajectory
since the Lon Corleone one-liner, Missouri,
a very Jekyll and Hyde type team.
I'm going to go with Missouri over Oklahoma.
They'll play Gonzaga in the round of 32.
Creighton, UCSB, you know, you guys know for a long time,
I didn't believe in vacations,
but my favorite vacation spot.
Okay.
My favorite place to be in the
No, Santa Barbara, California.
Great, great ice cream at McConnell's ice cream.
But I went on vacation there a couple of years ago.
The first thing I did was went to a Santa Barbara off season workout.
And I couldn't believe the talent in this program.
I mean,
there is an American athletic conference caliber roster at Santa Barbara.
They've got high major transfers to Corey McLaughlin,
the transfer from Oregon States of stud,
Miles Norris, a transfer from Oregon's a really good player.
Devereal Ramsey, a transfer from Nevada has great speed,
great velocity in the open court.
I've got Santa Barbara over Creighton in the 12 by the spicy.
That was why I said Omaha because Creighton.
All right.
So wait, when you go on vacation,
let's say you're eating ice cream,
do you ever wear shorts?
I always picture you as being like a suit 24 seven guy.
Yeah, I would say like every like spring,
like I have to go out and buy a couple of pairs of khaki shorts.
I really like honestly,
I don't have like many levels to my wardrobe.
Like my fiance breaks my chops about this all the time.
I'm either a suit, tie, handkerchief,
or I'm like going to blue button down in jeans
with the sleeves rolled up.
There is no in between.
Got it. Got it.
Okay. You don't own sweatpants.
No, I own sweatpants, but only to work out.
Like it's like, you know, there's just,
it's not just like I have different levels of the drove.
Yeah. Yeah. Got it.
All right. This region, the St. Elmo's region to me,
big picture. Gonzaga has a cake walk.
Now that is because Gonzaga is that good,
but they have beaten the two, three and four team in this region.
Iowa has some major flaws.
Kansas, I would say is, is the strongest team
and they were playing the best ball.
They obviously had the COVID layoff.
But when you look at the rest of the region,
like the, uh, you know, the four Virginia,
also the COVID, uh, Creighton had,
you just have them losing in the first round.
USC has had trouble.
The Oregon, Oregon, I don't know what to make of them.
I think this is, if Gonzaga doesn't go to the final four,
it's a huge, huge upset.
Well, I'll say this too.
I think that, you know,
it's a championship or bus type situation for Gonzaga.
You got to the national championship game in 2017.
You were a couple of possessions away
from winning a national championship.
But guys, there is not a great blue blood representation
in this NCAA tournament.
There's no vintage Kentucky.
There's no vintage Carolina, Kansas, Duke,
Villanova just lost Colin Gillespie.
So I look at Gonzaga's path here
to winning a title as Mark Fugh's best chance
to win a national championship.
It's his best offensive team.
It may not be his best all around team
since he's been in Spokane.
But this to me is a championship or bus situation.
But I do want to point this out
in the bottom part of the St. Elmo's region bracket.
The most under seated team
in the 2021 NCAA tournament is Oregon.
Daniel Altman, the master of the Rubik's Cube.
It's like obviously, you know,
Russell Crowe and a beautiful mind
with what he can do with mixing and matching,
you know, different, you know,
alignments with transfers and different players.
And I look right now at Oregon and I see a team
and you got to judge them by the team
that they're going to play with in the NCAA tournament.
They're 11 and three with Will Wright Richardson
in the lineup.
They're starting point guard.
This team is more talented than its seed.
I think they're a very difficult matchup for Iowa.
I have a big pack 12 breakthrough
at the bottom of the St. Elmo's region.
I've got Oregon going to the second weekend
to match up with USC and Evan Mobley in the sweet 16.
Kansas is obviously at personnel issues.
Evan Mobley, the most talented player on the floor
in that game.
I've got a six versus seven in the sweet 16
on the bottom portion of the St. Elmo's bracket.
So is it fair to say that you,
you agree with us that Iowa is a big F word?
They're frauds.
No, I just think it's a bad matchup for Iowa.
I, I agree with you on Oregon.
They, they turned it.
They had a bunch of issues.
They had COVID.
They had injury issues.
They finally got their full team out there in February.
They were lights out, but that's all the more reason
why the, the loss to Oregon state and the way they lost
was baffling on Friday night.
They got their, obviously, obviously that makes logical
sense, but remember, there's no such thing as logic
in college basketball.
I can quote the great late Howard Garfinkel,
rest of the score.
Yeah.
And I also want to point this out too.
We should not look necessarily at momentum
from championship week when we're making our bracket
selections.
Here's a piece of information.
Six of the last eight national champions did not win
their respective conference tournaments.
The only two who did were Louisville in 2013 and Villanova
in 2018.
Wait, no, Louisville didn't win that happened.
Didn't happen.
We can't say that.
Fine.
Anyway, it's not a good one.
No, no, but I think your point even stands further
because now you can say like, what never happened?
Six out of the seven times.
It didn't happen.
It didn't happen.
It didn't.
They didn't straight away, but it happened.
Where's the banner on the shoulder?
Yeah.
All right.
So next region.
I think this is, well, let's just say it's the Michigan.
I don't know what our bracket says, but the Michigan
is region.
This is the Harry and Izzy.
Okay.
Okay.
So Michigan has limped in.
They, you know, livers.
We don't know what's going to happen with him.
Pretty much similar to your lawn Corleone.
I put Michigan is my number one team like three weeks ago,
and they have looked bad ever since.
So I'll take this was a one line or two that I started this
year, the fab vibe for Joe on that vibe.
I like that a lot coming out of this region or just break it
down high level.
I like Texas actually.
Yeah.
I like Texas.
Yeah.
I think you're on cat.
Let's go top the bottom right now.
Michigan obviously going to advance in the first game.
LSU, St. Bonaventure, a fantastic obviously first round game.
LSU showed its capabilities against obviously Alabama
in that great game on Sunday.
St. Bonaventure starts five juniors, you know,
a real, real dynamic balance team.
Kyle Lofton, Dominic Welch, Jaron Holmes, you know,
Jalen Attaway and Osuno Shuny.
So that's a very balanced team.
Then you have Colorado against Georgetown.
I think a big edge in that game at point guard for Colorado.
McKinley Wright against Dante Harris, who was obviously the best
player for Georgetown.
The biggie's tournament won the award,
but he's still going against McKinley Wright,
Florida State and UNC Greensboro.
UNC Greensboro as a player in Isaiah Miller,
who again has the chance to star in this type
of NCAA tournament setting.
But it's a very difficult matchup for them,
especially against the size of Florida State inside.
UNC Greensboro has more size than they've had in past years
with guys like Muhammad Abdul Salam and Hayden Kobal.
But still, I think it's a very, very difficult matchup
against Florida State.
Then, you know, our guy Mark Pope here at BYU,
like you think somebody hates him.
He gets a six seed and he's either getting Tom Izzo or Mick Cronin.
Texas, Abilene Christian, UConn against Maryland and Alabama
against Rick Fatino and Iona.
I'm taking Michigan against LSU, Colorado, Florida State.
I'm going to take Michigan State because of what the big 10
has done this year to win two games to beat UCLA and BPYU.
Texas advances over Abilene Christian and then UConn against Alabama.
Then I'm going to take Michigan to win a close game against LSU
and I got Florida State advancing.
Then I like Texas to get to the second weekend.
And I think Connecticut, if Connecticut can get the matchup
with Alabama, Connecticut has the size and the defensive prowess
to slow down and give Alabama fits.
And here's an interesting dynamic.
If we get this game in the round of 32,
when Dan Hurley was building the Rhode Island program,
his premier recruit out of the gate was a young man
by the name of E.C. Matthews from Romulus, Michigan.
His high school coach was Nate Oates.
Nate Oates made such a good impression on Dan Hurley
that Dan Hurley said to his brother, Bobby,
if you ever get a job, Nate Oates would be a good assistant.
Bobby Hires and Mitt Buffalo, the rest is history.
But I'm looking right there at that UConn team
with the healthy James Book Knight,
with the size and the physicality they have inside
to be a dangerous matchup for Alabama.
I like Texas against Connecticut in the sweet 16,
Florida State against Michigan,
Florida State, Leonard Hamilton,
the sentimental favorite, he's done everything
but get to a final four.
Then I've got Texas over UConn,
and I am going to go with Chaka Smart,
10 years after VCU, gets to the final four,
taking Texas to the final four.
Guys, you know me, I love to draw parallels,
and I'm going to draw one right here in the Harry and Izzy's region.
The guy that's blossomed the last week
in during championship week has been Jericho Sims of Texas.
He has completely went to a different level.
It reminded me a lot of what Jordan Bell did
during Oregon's final four run in 2017
when he just exploded like a volcano.
If Jericho Sims can play three quarters
as well as he did during the big 12 tournament,
Texas has an outstanding chance to go to a final four.
You're plugged in, John.
What did Turgeon actually say to John Howard
that made him kind of fly off the handle in that game?
I wasn't there, but you know, I think Phil Martelli said,
it's March. I'm going to go one further. This is March.
Okay. All right. By the way,
what's your order when it comes to a steakhouse?
Are you a ribeye guy?
No, I really haven't eaten red meat in a long time.
You named your brackets after steakhouses,
but you don't eat red meat.
That's VCU all over it.
Yeah, it's a vacation in Europe.
Yeah.
Two week vacation.
No, it's a VCU home game at the Segal Center,
more life alter than a 10 day trip to Europe.
Yeah, but you've never been to Europe.
Never been to Europe.
Don't eat red meat.
Again, I was supposed to go last summer.
COVID got in the way,
but you know, I'm still obviously wondering
if the food in the Italian food is that much fresher
overseas than it is obviously here in New York.
Probably not.
Even though I'm not in New York now.
Yeah. You're not in New York.
All right. What's the next one?
The Baylor.
The Baylor region.
That's the Ruth Chris region.
Okay. Wait. What?
Okay.
It's a famous indie steakhouse.
No, I know. I know. I know.
I know. I'm wondering what the fourth is.
That's the Ruth Chris region.
It's actually, I hate to nitpick
because you are, you know, your Mr. Bracket.
It's Ruth's Chris.
Ruth's Chris.
Okay. Whatever. Wine.
Okay. All right.
Who do you got coming out of this region?
Well, I've got Baylor.
You know, Baylor to me is going to go.
I have Wisconsin winning a game against North Carolina.
No way.
Look, North Carolina has played really well recently,
but Demetrius Trice has a distinct advantage
with experience in this game in the back court.
So I'm going to go.
What about the front court?
Well, look, that's going to be an issue.
But I think Wisconsin's due to play well out of the big 10.
Okay. So you, you, you are prescribing to the theory that I have
that iron sharpens iron.
The big 10 was just that so much better
than every other conference this year
that Wisconsin losing to all these good teams,
they're going to just march right through the tournament
because they don't have to play any big 10 teams.
I don't know about more through the tournament,
but I mean, like, look, they've played obviously competitive basketball
against really, really good teams.
And, you know, I like obviously their veteran experience.
I mean, that's something that North Carolina's back court,
especially in terms of securing the basketball with love and Davis,
they haven't had all year.
Kerwin Walton, Kerwin Walton is going to be an X factor for this game.
I expect Brad Davis and a lot of time on defensively.
So it's an interesting matchup because it is back court,
obviously Wisconsin has the edge,
but front court UNC has a big edge.
Then I look, you know, if we go a little bit lower,
lower there in the roots, Chris region, you know,
I look at Purdue is having a, you know,
a great opportunity to get to the second weekend.
You have North Texas,
not obviously the top team in the regular season in Conference USA,
really good guard named JV on Hamlet.
Then you have Winthrop Villanova.
Villanova's limping into the tournament.
Winthrop, 11 guys, average double figure minutes.
Pat Kelsey's done a masterful job,
but Purdue is a great chance an hour away from its campus
to play into the second weekend.
Texas Tech in Utah State,
two coaches that have really, really been like unbelievable climbers
the last couple of years, you know, seven years ago,
Chris Beard was the head coach of Angelo State,
a division two school in Craig Smith,
who was an assistant at Nebraska.
I've got Texas Tech moving on.
I've got Arkansas beating Colgate.
I like Florida over Virginia Tech,
Trey Mann kind of obviously an off the radar guy
could be a star.
And I've got Ohio State beating Max Asimus and Oral Roberts.
So I'm going to go Baylor over Wisconsin,
Purdue over Villanova, Texas Tech over Arkansas.
I'm going to have Ohio State over Florida.
And then I'm going to go with a Baylor, Texas Tech situation
in the elite eight.
And I've got Baylor going to the NCAA tournament.
Walk me through Texas Tech over Arkansas
because we're must bust guys.
He's actually listening to this right now.
So, yeah, don't say anything bad about him.
No, Musselman has done a masterful job.
I just, you know, Texas Tech.
I don't believe you.
I don't believe I don't believe that you think
he's done a masterful job.
I think you're lying to us.
All right.
Well, I think, you know, right now,
if you were able to get a polygraph test
and you were able to get it to this, you know,
hotel room in Indianapolis here in the bubble,
you would see that I am absolutely telling the truth
because Eric Musselman, you know,
in a lot of ways, unlike what he's done in Nevada,
Nevada was such a transfer heavy rebuild.
He has blended freshmen and transfers at Arkansas.
He sprinkled in a Jalen Tate with a Moses Moody,
with a Jalen Williams, with a Justin Smith.
So I think, you know, it's a little bit different.
But wait, so you think Texas Tech is that good?
Sounds like you think that Texas Tech
is like the second or third best team on that side.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. No, for sure.
I mean, I just, I have belief in Chris Beard.
I've got belief in obviously, you know,
the culture of Texas Tech and, you know,
they're built for the NCAA tournament.
I love it.
All right. Last one.
Illinois, that region.
Are you going to do prime 47 or no?
Prime 47.
No, this is steak and shake.
Oh, you, that's why you're the best.
John, I, you gave us the hezzy. Hey,
I was waiting for the prime 47 and no, it's steak and shake.
Okay.
It's steak and shake for sure.
So, you know, we go down this region now and we've got Illinois,
obviously against Drexel, Georgia Tech,
Loyola, Chicago should be a obviously pit bull type game.
I'm going to say Georgia Tech there, Tennessee over Oregon state,
Oklahoma state against Liberty.
Liberty's got a really, really good guard named Darius McGee,
you know, a son player of the year.
Really, really good player in San Diego state.
I'm going to take over Syracuse.
They'll play West Virginia and then Rutgers.
I'm going to take over Clemson, which is first the 45 wins.
Houston is going to then play Rutgers.
You know, it's been so long since Rutgers has been in the NCAA
tournament has been three decades, 30 years.
And you know, the last time the Rutgers in the NCAA tournament
dances with wolves, one of the Academy award for best picture.
That's how long it is.
There you go.
John, by the way, I totally forgot to mention
you are endorsed by body armor, right?
Well, they have a sponsorship agreement with my podcast.
I love it.
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Orange frenzy or berry blitz?
I think berry blitz sounds good.
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All right.
March, I've never before.
Shake, steak and shake.
Illinois is, is playing the best basketball in the country right now,
wouldn't you say?
No question.
They're the team I'm going to pick to win a national championship.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
I put a future on them today and it might be recency bias,
but they, they look like when they're firing,
when they got their two best players playing well,
I don't know how any team can beat them.
And granted, I've watched maybe like three Gonzaga games this year.
So they might be able to do it, but as far as this side of the bracket,
the Ruth's, Chris and steak and shake,
I don't see any team beating Illinois.
Yeah.
I mean, I think you look at it PFT and like,
I think the team that obviously,
obviously it could be the biggest threat to them on that side
would be Baylor and the final four.
But I look at the bottom of that region, the steak and shake region.
And you've got a San Diego State team.
And again, nobody's talking about they've won 14 games in a row.
West Virginia obviously has the highest seed guys
since the mountaineers went to the final four in Indianapolis 11 years ago.
And then you're going to have Houston,
who again is 24 and three under Kelvin, Samson.
Remember this guys, the best player on Houston in the preseason.
Okay.
Was Kayla Mills.
He was the American athletic conference player of the year in the preseason.
He leaves the team and then he doesn't really affect their bottom line.
They're still 24 and three.
I know they're not in one of the best conferences in the country,
but that's an incredible accomplishment for that program.
Also, Fabian White, who is obviously they're starting power forward,
didn't come back till about a month ago and they still played 27 games and 124.
I look at that bottom of that region being loaded.
And I also think we have the potential, if it lines up,
to have a Cade, Cunningham, IO, Desumu matchup in this 16,
which would be sensational in the stake and shake region.
But now I'm going to take the one seeds on that side.
I've got Illinois, Baylor, Gonzaga, Texas in my final four.
Illinois, Baylor, Gonzaga, Texas.
All right.
So three out of four, one seeds.
That's fair.
And then you have Illinois beating Baylor and then beating Gonzaga.
I have Illinois beating Baylor and then beating Gonzaga.
I think Gonzaga will get the 31 and 0 and then fall to Illinois.
Because one of the things I'm telling you guys,
just being in this environment is you want to obviously experience,
you want to be in a situation where you obviously have a great one-two punch
and you want to have star power, mental stamina for older teams.
It's going to be a critical element to this whole thing, a very critical element.
I like it.
I like Illinois.
Yes.
Yes.
I am behind that a hundred percent.
I think they were like plus 700.
Yeah.
The plus 700.
I also am going to put a sprinkle on them.
Yes.
Absolutely.
All right.
John, I got to ask the Maryland spring break tweet.
Some people are wondering, what does that mean?
Well, guys, when they were fans, okay, and obviously the world was obviously more
normal before we went into this pandemic, you guys know me.
I've been all over the country covering college basketball.
The one place that was like rehab at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas for a basketball game
was Maryland.
The Xfinity Center was crazy and it was the loudest place I've ever been.
It was raucous.
And I remember being there, you know, for games.
I remember the game I was at when Alex Lenn hit a put-back to beat NC State.
I've been there so many times for games and it felt like spring break.
And then obviously, you know, with Maryland being just north of Washington, DC,
I just kind of said, this is like the spring break capital of the northeast.
There it is.
Wait a minute.
There it is.
That's it.
So there you go.
I think it's harder, Kat, when you look at a pandemic-type season where there's no fans,
but when the world resets, God willing, and we have fans back in the stands and there's the
pageantry that's back with college basketball, you will see what I mean when College Park gets
back to being the spring break capital northeast.
But yeah, it's like rehab in the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
It's like a trip to Puerto Vallarta that's out of this world.
Something you haven't been to.
You haven't been to Puerto Vallarta.
No, I've heard stories.
Okay.
Have you at least been to the Hard Rock?
Many years ago.
I remember many years ago, like 17 years ago.
I like it.
It's like you read a book on what fun would be like.
You file stuff away if I need to make an analogy for later.
I like that.
Fun experience.
Oh, okay.
Well, I mean, fun and fun experiences like every day.
I mean, think about the scenario we have going on right now.
We've got Tom Mizone, Mick Cronin in the first four in a standalone game in the NCAA tournament.
That's true.
That is the definition of fun.
Have you considered changing your Twitter avatar?
Because I've seen pictures of you where people like edit it to make your eyes glow red.
And that's when Rothstein gets activated in March.
Have you considered changing your avatar, at least just for the tournament,
to be activated Rothstein?
I believe this quote by Aristotle.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is what is it?
Excellence is a habit.
Oh, shit.
The computer.
We got to plug it back in.
Hold on.
It's like I short circuited.
We got to pull you down.
I'm going to dig it up right now.
I'm going to dig it up right now because it's been a long day.
And I was wondering if the Mountain West was going to get four bid.
They didn't.
They didn't.
You know, the bubble stealers, the bid stealers really hurt them.
Yeah.
So I actually have one last question.
What can you explain to us the first, the standby teams and how this works?
If a team can obviously be available, okay, there are certain teams on standby
to fill in for the NCAA tournament.
Here's the quote.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence is an act, but a habit.
Aristotle.
That's what I believe.
Okay.
That's nice.
So, so what happens?
Is there a specific, is it straight like Louisville's the first team that goes in?
Right.
Is that how it works?
Yeah.
That's how it works.
It's all on nca.com.
They give you all the guidelines and so on and so forth.
So there's teams like right now that are going to be at the ready.
If, you know, obviously God forbid, you know, something happens, but remember to stay positive,
test negative.
Yeah.
But what about how it works?
Like if a team comes down with COVID and they come from a one bid conference,
how does that work in terms of their replacement?
They're like different different team, obviously in that conference who's next up will then step in.
Okay.
So not Louisville.
Like if a, if.
Yeah.
This is all, I'll get it for you guys.
This is all obviously documented in the, in the, in the, in the NCAA guidelines situation.
Got it.
That's crazy.
So I'm just excited, John.
I'm so excited that we got to talk to you.
I'm so excited that March Madness is back.
It feels, it feels like we made it.
We made it guys.
I told you, obviously throughout we had a lot of group messages about the positivity that we
needed to keep.
And you know, I'm going to go with another quote right now from a movie that really defined our
generation, the Shawshank redemption.
Remember when Tim Robin said this to Morgan Freeman, hope is a good thing.
Maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.
We had hope we stuck together and we're getting ready for an NCAA tournament starting on
Thursday, 67 games, 18 days, one general area.
Again, if you don't want to do a pushup on a picket fence right now, you officially hate fun.
I love it.
All right.
Thanks, John.
We really appreciate it.
Hope we will talk to you again throughout the tournament, but best of luck in the bubble.
Stay, what is it?
Stay positive and test negative.
We sleep in May.
Love you dearly.
Love you too, John.
Thanks, John.
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Okay.
Let's finish up the show.
Drew Brees has retired.
I'm good, by the way.
Hank is good.
You're done?
Yeah.
You've got nothing left to shit.
Yeah, I feel great.
It's like after crying, like I have no tears left.
You know, it was a great shit when Hank changed his shirt to come back.
Yeah, I did a full castanza at one point.
Yeah, you had to.
You feel, you look better.
I feel, yeah.
You like his comeback.
Yeah, I feel great.
Drew Brees has retired.
Drew Brees has retired.
It finally happened.
Or I didn't see the reaction because it went, he basically kind of, I know he wanted to do it
because it was, I think, the 20th year anniversary for when he, what, 15th year anniversary?
For when he came in the league or whatever it may have been.
I don't know when he got surgery.
Yeah, with Simon Saints.
But it's kind of stupid to do it on selection Sunday when he retired and then boom, brackets
in our hands.
But was there any response about how his daughter wasn't wearing a jersey?
No, I haven't seen it, but we can make that response.
Okay, yeah.
His daughter wasn't wearing a jersey.
It actually is funny at this point how much.
Does he do it on purpose?
Negs his daughter.
Because when it first happened, like the very first time that he was like throwing passes
to his sons, and then his daughter was saying next to him, there were like, I don't know,
five or 10 people that got upset about it.
And it was funny to laugh at those people.
But in every other series of footage that I've seen of Drew Brees like playing with his kids,
his daughter is actually like never included.
Never.
Never.
Justice for Little Miss Brees.
It's so fucking funny.
So yeah, he's done.
I think we all expected that the hair gave me pause, but the hair can be explained away
as like a Jason Witt and Brian Erlacher glow up.
Yep.
And I, I think the biggest loser in all of this is myself, not to make it about myself,
Drew Brees retirement, but I am going to miss being right about Drew Brees being washed up
and having Saints fans be angry at me when he like beats the Panthers and he has like an 80%
completion percentage and everyone's like, no, he's not washed up.
But Hall of Famer, incredible career, probably played a year or two too long, but that's okay.
It's also funny how his retirement announcement kind of got a little cocked by the Taysum Hill
contract.
Yeah.
So Taysum Hill got the, got the greatest extension of all time, four years, 140 million
dollars big gap.
We should have stopped there.
We should not explain it.
Just like, that's it.
That's the contract.
$35 million per touchdown pass that Taysum Hill has ever thrown.
This is, uh, Shefty's masterpiece.
And by masterpiece, I mean Shefty's masterpiece of bowing down to the agents and tweeting
whatever they ask them to tweet, uh, this, I actually, if I were Taysum Hill, I'd be mad
that Shefty tweeted this, that my agent said, I want to flex so much about a 140 million
dollar contract that is made up money.
All, it says 140 million dollars, all years voidable, and he has 12 million guaranteed.
He signed a 140 million dollar contract for $12 million.
Yes.
It's not like after this year, he's not going to get 140 million dollars.
No, you never will ever.
I'll put it this way.
Sean Payton, he falls in love with a lot of people.
He falls in love with a lot of players, but he's really good at prenups.
So like he can put this out there like, Oh yeah, it's a long term marriage between me
and Taysum with this huge number.
But no, Sean Payton is not going to come anywhere close to forking over that kind of
cash for Taysum Hill.
Don't you think though that he like Taysum Hill has a right to be a little upset because
he just got roasted.
So he got roasted for the 140 million dollar eye popping number that when I say the agent
thing, it is so clear that every contract that gets announced, Adam Schefter gets it
directly from the agent.
It is ridiculous numbers and none of it is real because every single contract in the
NFL is like the same where it's this guy signed for five years, $175 million, but if
you really want to strip it down, it's a two year deal for like 45.
And this is the ultimate example of that because it is a one year deal.
Like you don't, you don't need any of these numbers involved.
Now, if Adam Schefter, he could have gone one of two ways and I would be okay if I was
Taysum Hill.
He could have really what he should have done is just tweet four years, $140 million and
then let everybody else figure it out after the fact just so that because in the tweet
that he put out, it said like these, the rest of the money after like the first year is
not guaranteed and easily avoidable.
Just don't put that in there.
Either tweet out what the one year contract is or just let me figure out on my own that
Sean Payton is not actually giving him four years, $140 million because at least for,
you know, a couple hours, I might actually think that Sean Payton loves Taysum Hill enough
to pay him $140 million.
So Drew Brees got cut by selection Sunday and by that he is a Hall of Famer, his first
ballot Hall of Famer.
I don't think anyone questions that.
He also, I don't think we will ever see a player have a relationship with a city as
unique and as deep as Drew Brees has with New Orleans.
Like that is something that is, I don't know if it will ever happen again.
I really don't.
Like it's very rare for there to be that perfect set of events and it wasn't obviously a perfect
event at Hurricane Katrina, but what he did for that city and the pride that I think,
you know, that city takes and Drew Brees and those saints, it's clear that it goes beyond
sports and it means more to Saints fans.
So I totally get it.
I totally get why they were very protective of him over the years in the last two years,
especially I completely understand it.
It was fun for me, but I get it.
And I think that that that is like his lasting legacy that he will be a God in New Orleans
forever.
Yes, absolutely.
And it did.
Like you probably won't see it unless another disaster happens to a city with a quarterback
that just like, if there's really bad traffic on the 405 for six months nonstop, Matt Stafford
arrives in LA, traffic is cleared up, they win a Super Bowl, then you'd see it.
But you need something that would be like a rebuilding.
You'd have to rebuild entire city along with having it be a combination of a franchise
that has never won anything and never really had a good quarterback besides, you know,
Archie.
And he was like a 500 quarterback, but like if the Bears got a guy that won the Super Bowl
after a disaster, it'd be kind of like that.
I mean, like the only thing that I can think of that pops in my head is if Derek Rose had
won a title with the Bulls, that would have been something, you know, there's these certain
players and, and what they can mean to a different city.
I'm trying to think I'm racking my brain right now.
I mean, Chajie Watt had a little dance with Houston there where it was like clearly, you
know, especially with what he did for the city of Houston.
Yeah, but it's hard to get that.
Yeah.
Drew Brees definitely had a unique relationship with New Orleans.
LeBron and Clea.
Oh no.
He left Cleveland twice.
Never mind.
They don't like him there anymore.
Whoops.
He could have been.
Yeah.
Just when, actually LeBron and Cleveland is a fact because of the one title he brought
them.
That's all that he needs for his life.
That he does have that type of relationship, even though it's actually a testament to his
relationship with Cleveland that they don't hate him after leaving twice because he did
win.
So he, that's the answer.
LeBron and Cleveland is the answer to Drew Brees and New Orleans.
What if Baker wins a Super Bowl for the Browns?
I feel like that, that elevates him above LeBron.
Because he never left.
Baker never left.
That's true.
That is very, very true.
Cam Newton, we talked about him when Hank was in the dumper, feeling okay?
No.
No.
They have to get someone else, right?
That's really the-
They're going to draft someone.
Right.
I thought I was talking about my stomach.
Oh.
If they draft someone, I understand it.
But if they don't, if they're like, hey, we're going to just roll with this, it also,
I have a feeling that they're just going to become like the Navy offense, getting Trent
Brown back and then being like, let's run with Cam Newton.
He would honestly be sick if they did that.
I actually, I wouldn't be shocked if Belichick was like, I'm going to, I'm going to prove
how much of a genius I am.
We're bringing back the triple option.
We're going to run the ball 60 times in a game.
He's going to adopt our philosophy of downfield laterals and the triple option.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mitch seems like he's gone sad officially, not official, but opposed to official.
It's not necessarily official because I read the story about him and they said the ship
has sailed, but the door is still open.
So they're mixing their metaphors a little bit.
It's a drawbridge, I guess.
Yeah.
And so it can turn around a little bit.
So I don't know if Nick Foles looks like he sucks enough when they pass them in the
hallway.
They'll be like, you know what?
Maybe, maybe roll the dice on Mitch.
Yes.
Yes.
And then the Packers signed Aaron Jones to a new deal.
So that was smart.
They last year drafted a new quarterback and a new running back and they're about to give
money to a running back and a quarterback.
Not the guys they drafted.
Yeah.
They're doubling up on every position.
As an owner, I don't hate it.
They are doubling up on every position.
Yeah.
But that's fine.
You get the new guys in to learn from the old guys.
Yeah.
I guess so.
We can say Billy.
Juice got re-upped.
Did they?
Yeah.
Really?
That's the most important sign they can make in their offense.
Nice.
That is sick.
Revolutionary fullback.
Yeah.
So Billy, should we talk about Billy Gate?
Oh, yeah.
We should.
We got Billy Gate.
A lot of false accusations.
No.
No.
Nice.
So in the program in Pothead, Chris Long said that Billy reported his burner.
Basically, for saying that you were dehydrated.
Or I hope you get dehydrated.
Let PFT explain what he said.
Yeah.
So Billy, while Billy was busy looking futilely for my burner account, Chris Long, friend
of the program, he, I guess he texted me in Big Cat and said, I've had a burner account
going for a while.
It's been sitting on the sidelines.
He's been wanting to put it into action, but he's never really had the opportunity to
do it.
It's like that one ingredient in your cupboard that you look at every day.
Like maybe, maybe I'll cook with this hot sauce today and you never do.
And so he finally started using it, replied to one of Billy's tweets and said, I hope
you get dehydrated.
Kind of hypocritical coming from Mr. Water Boy himself.
And then his tweet got reported to Twitter.com suspiciously right after chirping Billy.
So we're just conducting the dots, Billy.
We're not conspiracy theorists, but connecting the dots and reading the tea leaves.
It sounds like you harassed Chris Long's burner for harassing you.
I would just like to state my case.
I am not in the big, like, look, if you look at any of my tweets, you have seen over the
last months, soy boy, frog fucker, chicken fucker, yeah, these are all my replies.
Like terrible things that I tolerate.
I don't report, you know, okay, fine, whatever.
And lately because of this burner, we can't report them if they're true, this burner business
I've been like fighting armies of burners every morning on Twitter.
I wake up and I say, let's go about to hop back in and I just take it on burner after
burner.
I have never.
I know I do not report.
Yeah, I did not report them.
But you just said that you're fighting them.
How do I fight them by existing?
Someone on Instagram.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Okay, you cannot call me soft.
You cannot call me soft.
Billy softball.
Let's report that person.
No, I didn't report any of these people.
I, the thing is, so what people won't mention is that the tweet, all right, let me throw
this in there.
When, before you got here today, Billy tried to tell Hank and I that the tweet got reported
because it said he, they wanted Billy to die to get dehydrated and die.
Yes.
I wouldn't found it automatically.
Twitter.
He was saying Twitter automatically.
I don't even know what the tweet is.
So how could I report it?
Chris Long had texted it to me.
It all it said was, I hope you get dehydrated.
Yeah.
Nothing about dying.
It's very clear.
And I know Billy well enough now when Billy is cornered, he just starts making up lies.
You don't know me.
Yeah, I do.
No, you don't.
Your brain's not that hard to figure out.
You're a smart kid, but you're also really bad at lying.
So you thought this was like the best lie ever.
And then we debunked it.
And then you just started panicking.
I did not debunk.
I did not do it.
Billy.
Are you dehydrated?
Yeah.
So take too much creatine.
Okay.
So it sounds like you were sensitive.
It was like it cut too close to the bone.
I was mixing creatine with my mac and cheese to see if it was like a good way to get more
creatine.
Yeah.
And so if somebody says, I hope you get dehydrated while you're doing that, you probably get
very offended by it.
Don't you?
Look, I have no idea what, who reported it, probably Twitter, Twitter bots and people have
been talking about this.
You're blaming Jack for this.
Yeah.
Jack's been reported.
Section 230.
Implement Section 230.
Look, if you tweet Memphis, you get blocked too.
I saw that on a tweet.
Yeah.
But yeah.
So basically it got reported because it was wishing harm on other people.
That's why it got blocked.
What?
That's one of the ways it gets clocked.
Dehydration.
So if you tweet, I want you to die, it automatically gets flagged.
The robots, bro.
The bots.
We're blaming the robots.
The bots, dude.
I hope you get dehydrated.
Dude, people say the worst things to me on Twitch and on Twitter, like this is nothing.
Saying dehydrated is nothing.
It's just so much more worse stuff.
Let's do an experiment.
You just never thought, there was no chance that you thought that this burner was going
to be Chris Long's.
I had no idea.
Somehow come back to you.
I was not.
I'm not in the business of reporting burners at all.
Except you did it like a week ago.
Yeah.
But that was a different situation.
Oh.
Okay.
I just want to say to everyone out there, tired burner accounts, wired burner people.
Young Sound Bob is my burner person.
He's a legitimate real human being and I've taken control of his Twitter account.
So if you see tweets from there, they're most likely from me, but they're also Bob.
He's a real person.
So old hat is like being like, oh, that's your burner.
Like I literally have a burner person.
I've got a, he exists.
He exists.
I've got a burner in all facets of my life.
Yeah.
I've got a burner gambling account that I tell myself isn't real.
So when I lose money on it, don't have to pay.
I'll never burn.
It doesn't really work.
I'll never burn again.
You'll never burn again.
No.
Okay.
All right.
Let's do numbers.
Twenty-six.
Twenty-eight.
Nineteen.
Ninety-nine.
Ball Eagles mate in a free fall while grasping talons and they go towards the ground, not
flying and then they literally have to pull out and pull up.
Hagen PFC, do you feel like lesser of men?
No, because I'm due.
Yeah, but no one better.
Yeah.
I mean, I love you guys.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Take presented by Bar Stool Sports.