Pardon My Take - Jon Rothstein, Day 1 Of March Madness, Aaron Rodgers Is Gone And Fyre Fest Of The Week

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

The boys are limping into this episode but we are ready to break down the games and Madness that occurred on Thursday. Princeton's big win, Furman's stunning upset and we name winners of the day including Duke and UCLA (00:00:00-00:45:22). Jon Rothstein joins the show to break down Friday's games, Rick Pitino coaching news, and the names for all the regions (00:45:22-01:11:13). We finish the show talking Aaron Rodgers and Fyre Fest of the week (01:11:13-01:35:30).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

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 pardon my take, we are dead in the casino, and we're gonna talk March Madness, we're gonna talk Aaron Rodgers, we have John Rostin on the show,

and Max is a big dumb fucking idiot, and I'm actually recording this for the second time. So we've already done the whole show, but he made me do it again, because he forgot to record the intro. So here we are, I'm gonna do the ad again, and everyone's gonna be like, well, you already did this ad,

and that's Max's fault, bad guy, bad guy. Anything to say? Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy, bad guy. But great show, our brain cells aren't really firing, but real ones know these are the episodes that we shine because we are just three dudes sitting here, talking ball, working our way through March Madness, all the crazy stuff that happened today.

I'd like to say that if you're listening to this, you are a real one, and also we will give you one free subscription to pardon my take. One free. To give to a friend or family member. And we are so dumb, and our brains are so fried that we forgot to talk about Aaron Rodgers until after John Rostin, so that does happen.

But John Rostin, great interview with him, talk Friday games with him, tournament with him. Before we do all that, we were brought to you by our friends at the Barstool Sports Book. Sports Book made for Stoollies, the only place to find exclusive picks and parlays for me, Dave, and the rest of the Barstool gang. And this March, kick off the action

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Boy! Boy! Now in the street there is violence and not a lot of stuff to work to be done. No place to hang out or wash in and then I can't live all on the sun. Oh no, we gonna rock it down to electric avenue and then we're taking higher.

Oh, we gonna rock it down to electric avenue and then we're taking higher. It's part of my take, presented by Barstool Sports. Welcome to part of my take. March 17th and Joe Biden's bracket is busted. That's tough, that's tough. Once again, our president Biden, he submitted his polls

after the official locations had closed. He did. He put in his votes, I think at like, I wanna say 1245. So he missed the deadline but he had Arizona. A lot of people had Arizona. The good news is we don't owe Joe Biden a billion dollars. Yes, we do not.

I haven't seen what my tax check's gonna be like this week. Yeah, so maybe. But he pandered to Arizona and his bracket is busted as long as, whoa, I can't speak. Let's just set the stage. Yeah, well, let's set the stage for people. His bracket is malarkey. Yeah, the bracket is, what is it, dogface pony boy?

Yeah, dogface pony soldier. Pony soldier, just fat. Remember when Joe Biden just, his brain stopped and he saw a dude who was like asking him a hard question. He's like, listen, fat. Yeah, you know what? That is challenging to a push-up contact. Listen, fat.

All right, what I was trying to say is this is the show. We do it every year. It's this show and Sunday show where we are struggling. We are with everyone. We're in the foxhole with everyone who loves March Madness, who bets on March Madness, who has teams in March Madness, who's grinding, loving every second of it, hating every second of it.

We don't sound great. We don't feel great. We don't feel great, but we're here for the people. And what I was trying to say is his bracket's broken as I can't do it. Okay, I'll take over real quick. As well as everyone else's, that's it. Joe Biden fucked America. Yeah, no, everyone's bracket's broken.

Including Jake Marsh, who for the second year in a row, he's not here right now. He's doing the tightest show. For the second year in a row, he lost his national champion on day one. Tough break for our college basketball expert. But actually, it works perfectly because Jake has proven this year,

as well as last year, that he fits in on the show. Because if you're going to be wrong, you might as well be hilariously wrong at everything. He actually, it was funny because when Arizona got pounced, he came up to me, he's like, I remember last year when the same thing happened, he was like, because I think he had Kentucky, he was like, you told me, if you're going to be bad,

just be the worst. And I was like, yeah, and you could tell like he actually took that to heart and was like, this is my way forward. Yeah, and we've molded him. He adopted it this year again. Being dumb can be a career path. We have shown that.

Yes, and it can be a very, yes, absolutely. Oh, wait, wait, who's that? We're all super dumb. That was Hank that was saying before the show that he doesn't have anything to say. Hank, are you doing a show from the North Pole right now? What would you like to say? I'm ice cold.

I'm cold in this room. I'm cold. What was your record today? I won my first bet of the day on the first half West Virginia under. I won my last bet of the day on UCLA spread, and that put me at two and 27. That's tough.

It's not how you start, it's how you finish. It's so diabolical, and this happened, I think last year as well, that the NCAA tournament usually starts the day after payday. Yeah. How dare you? How dare you, sir. And St. Patrick's Day, we should have mentioned that.

Billy's not here because he's celebrating for the next three weeks. He's celebrating White History Month right now. Yeah, he's got a lot of plans for St. Patrick's Day, mostly just not getting in fights. Yeah, so we're here. It was a great first day of the tournament. We had incredible upsets.

I know it wasn't a great day for us, but I'm saying for people who were listening, who maybe don't gamble, they saw and they watched it, and it was madness. We had the Furman buzzer beater, not buzzer beater, but close to a buzzer beater. We had Princeton crazy upset third year in a row. We've had a 15 seed take down a two seed.

It basically happens now every single year. It feels like Oral Roberts two years ago, St. Peter's last year, and now Princeton this year. Hank, you just gave PFT a side eye. Do you want to bring up bad blood this early? Well, we should probably get it out in the open here. I actually gave him a side eye, and then I realized I just don't have it in me.

You retracted the side eye. I do. Since I'm getting side-eyed right now, I think we should discuss it. I can't fight when I'm dead. So I put together a hot parlay this year. Streets were talking about it. I parlayed every single one seed to win Moneyline,

along with every single two seed. And then what does Hank do? Hank comes out and he bets every two seed to lose a halftime Moneyline, right? Just spitting in my face. Hank is truly addicted to plus signs so much so that he will just straight up take a bet that I have and then see that the opposite side is plus

and then just go right in my face. But both of you lost. We both lost because Hank's bad vibes. Hank's? Yeah, and it was when you explained to me... Thirst completely separate. Completely separate. When you explained to me what you're doing PFT,

I had a moment where I was like, just remember like there will be a moment in these next two days where there will be a 15 seed, putting the two seed to the brink and everyone will be rooting for the 15 seed and it will suck to have it. And you're like, yeah, yeah.

And then we got to that moment and it was like, this sucks to have it. Oh yeah, I felt like such an asshole rooting for Arizona. Why was I rooting for Arizona? It made no sense, but it was worse knowing that Hank was back there just cackling, just rubbing his fingers together like gargoyle from the Smurfs being like, I've got him.

I've got PFT right where I want him. And your defense there and my defense there, I wasn't really focused on you. I was in a room with Jake. He was legitimately like squirming, like pacing around, jumping up and down. And I was getting a little bit of satisfaction watching Arizona lose.

I'm not, I'm not, I can't lie. I know you were. I wasn't thinking about you really, although you did call me small, which was crazy. Yeah, you did the two small dance on him. But yeah, it is what it is. I'm sorry for your loss, honestly. No, you're not.

I am. I am. It was quite something. It's hard. All right. So Princeton beats Arizona, incredible upset. I think Arizona didn't score for like the last six minutes. Mark Fuse legacy passing off just tragic losses

to Tommy Lloyd to take with him to Arizona. Arizona was feeling themselves after winning the Pac-12 championship. Like a lot of people were picking them to win it all. And now you have Alabama in the South region, Virginia and Arizona lose. They now have, it's officially official that if they don't make it to the final four,

it's the biggest disaster in sports. Yeah. Yeah. Also with, with the Arizona Princeton game, Arizona was kind of lucky it wasn't worse. Yeah. Because Princeton didn't shoot well. Right.

I think they ended four, was it four for 25 from three? They shot, so that's 16% from three and just 40% shooting overall on the day. So it could have been way worse. It was not a fluke. No. Arizona was often stunk in the second half and the last part of the first half as well.

Yeah. They're a flawed team. And Princeton is, this is going way back, but like they do just feel like a tournament team because it's just etching your memory, them running the back door cut over and over and over and over again. And their coach is just so Ivy League,

like he looks like he should be a lawyer and instead he's coaching basketball. They, I mean, there were, it was legitimately fun to watch that type of upset happen in an Ivy League. I actually think they've sick Jersey colors. They do. They have non-Ivy. They have non-Ivy.

And they're Jim. Google their Jim. Their Jim is awesome. I actually think their Jim is so cool. That Princeton by far is the funnest Ivy League school to root for. Ooh. Think about it.

I mean, I probably can't name them all. There's Penn, which technically is Ivy League. There's Cornell. I would, the only one I would say. Yale, Harvard. The only one I'd say is Chris Perman's Brown. Because Brown is like, who goes to Brown? Yeah.

A bunch of weirdos. Yeah. Brown's pretty cool. Brown's cool to root for in football. Yeah. Princeton's cool to root for in basketball. Yeah. I agree.

Yeah. Princeton's the coolest basketball school. Google their Jim. It's one of those random Jims I just look at every now and then, which says a lot about me. But it is a very, very cool Jim. So yeah. Princeton basketball won the day.

I would say they won the day. I think Furman did. Furman? I mean, but 15 over two is just insane. I guess it's not insane anymore. Furman though, yes. Furman's comeback win. Look at that.

That's a good Jim. Put it up on the YouTube. You see the, see how like weird it is on top? Yeah. Ivy League has some fucking cool ass Jims. That's sick. I would, too, I think. I would fuck this Jim.

Yeah. Yeah. Very cool Jim. Yeah. So Furman, Keihei Clark, who had one of the greatest passes in NCAA tournament history in the overtime win, the year they won the championship against, or sorry. Yeah.

The overtime win, the year they won the championship against Texas Tech. They did that. He did that against Purdue. Remember the overtime game? I'm just repeating myself. He had that pass that was incredible. And then he had one of the worst passes in NCAA history when he gets trapped in the corner, just lobs it up and Furman gets it, hits a three, wins the game.

That was awesome. What's also, I have a question. What's a paladin? A paladin? It's when the score is like, it's like 76, 67. It's like a race car? No. Yeah.

Hanks, right. Race car, radar. Yeah. I want to say it has something to do with a horse. Probably a knight. All right. I saw a lot of horses out there. The paladins also called the 12 peers or 12 legendary knights, the foremost members

of Charlemagne's court in the eighth century. That's lame. Damn. But that's kind of, they have to be canceled by now, right? Like the knights of the round table, they definitely did something fucked up. There's a cool thing for Furman, now everyone knows the paladins. Like I wouldn't have been able to tell you what the Furman's, I would have been like the Bulldogs.

I will forget by tomorrow morning. That's a promise to you. The end of that game was so crazy though. He gets trapped. There wasn't even really anybody he was passing to. No. He threw the ball like three quarters of the way down the court. Hank, cover your ears.

Yeah, yeah, I was. It's giving Jacobi Myers. It was. It was Jacobi Myers type pass. It was. He picked off great interception at mid court, showed good ball skills. You say he threw it far. He really didn't.

Well, he threw it high. He seemed like he wanted to throw it all the way down the court. He threw it to like half court. You know, it would have been better if he threw it high and it went all the way down the court. Right. I think that's what he thought he was doing. It was a Zach Wilson pass because he threw it and then when they zoomed out, you're like,

there's got to be a guy there and there wasn't a guy anywhere close. I'm going to wait till the all 22 comes out, but it looks like maybe his receiver ran the wrong route. Yeah. I feel bad for him. He had a great career, um, terrible way to end. I do. I am going to NBA or is that it because that's, that's, that's tough.

My shoes are blocking the course. Like, can you grab me a water? Two. I'm going to lose my voice. Um, no, he's, I don't think he's going to the NBA. So it's a tough, but I want to say we, we got beat to a take that I'm very upset about. Pat 40, uh, who's a college basketball football writer, very good writer. He had a article after the game that said Virginia's upset loss to Furman further proves

2019 national title was a fluke. Well, I mean, look it up because the last four years of UVA in the tournament, they lost in the round of 64, won the Natty, lost in the round of 64, lost in the round of 64. Do they suck? I don't even think their national title counts anymore. That was, that was a COVID here. Technically, right? No, no, 2019.

Oh, that's right. Yeah. That, I was in Hong Kong for that one. That's why I thought it was, yeah, 2019 is pre COVID. Yeah. Uh, it was, I'm, I'm going to find myself agreeing with Pat 40 the more I think about it. Yeah.

It was a fluke. I mean, they should fire Tony Bennett. It's what you do. Yeah. He should go coach Wisconsin. That wouldn't be bad. No, it's, it's what you do around your, your championship that people remember you for and not the champion.

Yeah. I think Tony Bennett's one of the coaches. There's probably only like two or three that still remain that need to be wearing a suit. I know they relaxed the rules. Tony Bennett should be wearing a suit. Uh, Jim Kilpari should be wearing a suit and Rick Bettino should be wearing a suit. Buzz Williams had a nice, Buzz Williams had a three piece on those nice. I also, the Virginia basketball, cause it's, it's similar to Wisconsin basketball.

It's not fun to watch. People take a lot of joy when they fail. Yeah. Cause they're like, I don't like watching you play basketball. Get out of this tournament. See, I like watching UVA play basketball. If all of college basketball was like that, I would hate it, but it's good to have one team that's around that's just playing that ugly.

They are there. They keep things slow. They, they muck it up. They just do a bunch of curls right at the foul line. They take, they take like 28 seconds to shoot. It's fun to have one team that does that. Yeah. Yeah.

But, but you know what I mean? Like there's always, UVA gets more anger than they probably deserve just because everyone's sick of watching them play basketball. And they are the IV League of the South as they'll remind you. And shout out me for being a total shit for brains loser who gave out Furman all week and then went against myself. And then on top of it had to do the Ray Allen tweet, which still, I mean, I mean, our show is big and we have a lot of listeners and we love all of our listeners, but you forget

when you do the Ray Allen tweet, there's a lot of people who don't know what you're doing. I could tell by big catch reaction. He was so excited to do the Ray Allen tweet and then right before you did it, you tweeted out a warning. Yeah. And then after you did it, you, you tried to cover it up again just to make sure. And then, and then I tweeted at you and said, you know, big cat, you accidentally tweeted

this. And then I, I could tell that you were a little bit on edge that there were so many people that are like, whoa, is big cat being horny on main right now? No, I wasn't on edge. It was just funny because there were so many people. It was like an instant 70 quote treats and people being like, bro, what's wrong with you? Yeah.

Did you get ratio? What the fuck is this? I imagine white men sex. Yeah. Yeah. They're like, like, if they only knew it was, I had another one that was like, the barstool boys are being shitty again. Barstool don't be a generate impossible challenge.

Literally they know we don't get laid ever. Yeah. So that was, it was voice to text jokes on them. Yeah. It was just guys hanging out in a casino. But yeah, Furman. So Furman and Princeton won the day. Motherfucker on the Vegas bombs for sure.

I mean, there was some dramatic, there's some other dramatic like there's another team ish. There's another team that I would say won the game one a day and that would be Penn State. Yes. Penn State. If they play like this, nobody can beat them. Dude, Andrew Funk.

What are you laughing at, Max? Hank just looks so, so sad right now. Yeah, so sad. You look like every time you bring up one of his losers, I could just hear it in like the audio of this huge sigh. I did say Penn State. So watch it on the YouTube, but Hank right now looks like Bernie Sanders at the inauguration. You said you love Texas and Penn State.

We got to stick together boys. Yeah. Stick together. Yeah. I went with my heart on this one. I went with A&M because I like Buzz. I wanted to see the Texas versus Texas A&M matchup. Instead, we got A&M versus Penn State in the battle of which loser has to admit they're

a cult basically. So you lost that one. And also A&M, this is just a lesson to ourselves. Whatever team complains about being under seated usually loses, I feel like, because like that was the Texas A&M got screwed. I said it myself. I was like, I thought they deserved a five seed and then they come out and they laid an absolute stinker.

Penn State looked incredible. Andrew Funk. I love this kid so God damn much. Andrew Funk was eight for 10 from three. Eight for 10 from three, just absolutely unconscious. Those are the moments that you always remember in the tournament, like some guy who just gets blazing hot and absolutely torches a team. And yeah, Penn State, I have a few other winners.

Duke was- And he pulls up from deep. And he pulls up from deep. Yeah. Duke was a winner. Duke smashed. Yeah. Duke was really good.

Charleston was like, was one of those, or sorry, it wasn't, was Charleston- San Diego State beat Charleston. Yeah. Who played Duke? That was Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts was like one of those teams that everyone was talking about. Oh, look at this, six points, love it. That was a never-undoubt- I mean, I don't think Oral Roberts scored for the first eight

minutes of the game. It was an ass-kicking. I was hoping that they weren't going to score. I was hoping that they'd get to like two minutes in the first half. When something's bad, you just want it to get worse sometimes. And I'm saying this as somebody that bet on Oral, just so that I could make Oral Roberts jokes later, unfortunately, they stole that from us, society took that from us, the loss is really on the listeners for not having to listen to me say like Oral sucks for seven

hours. But it's, I wanted my bet to lose way, way, way, way worse because it was so comically bad. Yes. But Duke was incredible. They smashed. Like all the credit in the world goes to what Duke's been able to do in the last 12 months since they rid themselves of the plague that was Coach K.

This team probably want to make the tournament with Coach K. No. Shire has the boy. Shire took a pile of shit and he grew a rose out of it. And I have a little, I want to say something real quick because I think Hank was about to say it, but I'll say it before he does. There's no way about to say what I was about to say. Okay.

I'll write it down and then you say it. Okay. I mean, all right. All right. All right. All right. Hold on. Hold on.

There's that problem too. If you're about to say this, then like you're David Blaine. Okay. Because this is not about anything. All right. I'm not touching my keyboard. I'm not touching my keyboard. Okay.

What are you about to say? The Duke coaching staff. Sweaters. Look at that. Shut up. Look at that. Shire, sweater. Shut up.

I fucking wrote it down. You said, you said it like seven times on the fucking stream. You're just like, these sweaters are so cool. These sweaters are so cool. I don't know if I have notes that you won't want to see. You just zoom in. PFT can confirm. I wrote Shire, sweater right here.

Shire, sweater. Yeah. Confirmed. Confirmed. I knew what you were going to say. Shire, sweater. Every time they showed them, you're like, those are the sickest sweaters I've ever seen.

And what I was going to say is, I think John Shire's sweater is bringing Hank's Duke fandom back. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of Duke fans are sitting at home looking at that and they probably flew off the shelves. Yeah. No, Hank. That was a link.

Four times. Every time they showed me, it's like, oh my God, those sweaters are so cool. Well, no, because it's like coaching. It's like, you know, sometimes I go super casual. Then there's sometimes they try and go with like shirts that are too casual. They try to wear polos. It's over casual. These look like really, really comfortable long sleeve athletic sweaters, but they were

like sweaters. If Hank showed up wearing one of these sweaters, like you wouldn't work out in it, it fits on a basketball court. You would definitely wear it to Christmas dinner. No, it's like, it's a sweater Hank would wear to like his sister's graduation. And everybody would be like, Hank's definitely doesn't wear this on a regular basis. No, he would. It's a church sweater for Hank.

It's people. People will back me up. No, no. I thought they were. I thought they were very nice. He's revolutionizing the game. You make deals in that sweater. Yeah.

You show up to a client dinner and you're like, we're going to make some deals in this sweater and everyone's going to know I went to Duke like you did. But I'm also an athlete. But you're also an athlete. Yeah. Oh man. Uh, let me do a couple of ads and then we'll do the rest of the games. Uh, Omega accounting solutions, attention, small business owners.

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Try new one day beard and brow today. It fills in my gray hairs, my patchiness and then I can wash it right out when I get home. It's the best. All right, one day beard and brow today from just for men. Okay, other games. I got more winners. Yeah. UCLA was a winner today.

Oh yeah. UCLA. I was talking to Titus before he walked down here and we came to the conclusion. I think UCLA is America's team. Yeah. They're the most fun blue blood to root for. They're kind of scrappy underdogs right now, not only with their head coach, but also they've lost a lot of players injury.

So Max, you live to fight another day. UCLA looked, UCLA looked really good. Now they're playing against you and see Asheville, but so, but there's a lot of prints. You know what? I'll say this about UCLA. They took care of business. They did. You get credit for taking care of business in the tournament.

You absolutely do. They went out and smashed them. Other winners Colgate for like basically deceiving the public for the third straight year in a row. I feel like Colgate gets talked about as the underdog pick for everyone and every year they play a team and then the team's like, wait, these guys aren't athletic. We can beat them. And it happened again.

Yeah. They had us going for a while until Texas remembered. Oh yeah. We've got, we've got horses. It was, it happened two years ago with Arkansas having last year with Wisconsin happened this year with Texas. I had no offense to Colgate. They seem like a great college team, whatever, but why do you say that?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. They keep winning their conference. So they doing something right. But then they get to the tournament and everyone's like Colgate shoots a lot of threes. Colgate, they can really change, change the pace of a game and, and get an upset. And then Colgate gets absolutely killed and then we'll do it again next year.

Remember, I think it was three years ago when we were in Chicago, every mouth based team won. Yeah. I think Colgate did not win. They got killed by Arkansas. They were the big Colgate stat that everyone likes to throw out is they've been leading in the second half of all of their games. Okay.

And then they lost to Arkansas by 17. Yeah. Colgate, they're maybe they did win that first game. I don't know. Maybe they might have. Cause I think it was Colgate, Oral Roberts. And then there was another mouth at Lipscomb. Maybe it was the year of the mouth.

Nope. They didn't, they lost by 17 to Arkansas in the first round. So shout out Colgate. Shout out Colgate. Great group of kids. Yeah. Way to, way to get everyone pumped up every year for the same result. That was mean to Colgate, but I don't really care.

Another winner. Arkansas. Arkansas. That was another, another one that I gave out the under wanted to try to stay and receive. It was a brick fest Arkansas felt like Illinois was going to come back there must is one game away from officially being Mr. March. If he takes down Kansas, I think he's Mr. March because that would be two straight years where he takes down a one seed and he'd go to another sweet 16.

He's Mr. Sweet 16, Mr. March. Yeah. And they're not going to have bill self. So that was another piece of big news bill self still recuperating thoughts and prayers to bill self. First of all. Yep. Second of all, would probably use his thoughts and prayers for like the basketball getting

wedged. Yeah. So we should talk about that. There's a scandal afoot in March madness in Des Moines specifically. It's Des Moines, Iowa. We need to shut that whole place down till we can figure out what the hell's going on. There were five, six wedgies today, four of which occurred in the Des Moines, Iowa gym. So either the balls are stickier, the rims are harder, maybe the balls are a little bit

smaller. That might do it. But there's something different this year. I don't know what last year I remember the balls were orange or you remember that? Yes. This year the balls are stickier. Something's happening. We got to figure out what's going on because this is not.

We haven't seen this level of wedgie before and it was, um, it's just, it's just a different experience watching March madness with Jake when we're all gambling and we needed a three to be hit and there was a wedgie and he stood up and cheered like it was game seven of the world series. Wedgie. Another wedgie and everyone turned around and was like, dude, what are you doing? He's like, sorry, I just love wedgies. We got to get him to make a shirt.

I love wedgies. It would be, man, it would be so Jake if, if he tourists, pretender celebrating a wedgie. A wedgie. Yes. Yes. Uh, other winners. Maryland. Yeah.

First, they won the first game of the official tournament, uh, came back, looked like they were dead in the first half. Shout out, Scott Van Pelt. I know he probably didn't even watch the game because he was dancing, uh, for Edwin Diaz's injury. His head was spinning. Yeah. His head was spinning.

He was so happy that Edwin Diaz got injured that he probably didn't even see his turps, but they get it. Uh, also the mountain West for having at least one team advanced to the second round. They got killed. The Vada got absolutely smoked by Arizona state, Utah state, lost to Mizzou, uh, Boise state lost to Northwestern, but San Diego state. There's one team. They don't, they, they, they're off the Schneid.

Uh, that would have been tragic if they had been out of the tournament in 10 hours just like last year. The mountain West, they, they got something to prove. Yeah. My Aztecs, they advanced, uh, with Maryland, I think this was a big win. It's Kevin Willard, right? Their head coach. Yes.

Big win for him because a lot of the Maryland fan base did not think that he should be hired in the first place. Yes. And the way that they won was pretty impressive. They came back. I think West Virginia was up. They were up double digits, uh, and, and the Terps fought back. They're fun.

Terps are a fun team of root for again. Yeah. Yeah. Um, now they're, they're running to a buzz saw because Alabama looked really, really fucking good. Although without Brandon Miller, Brandon Miller's got a groin issue that he's dealing with. He played, but he scored zero points, zero points. That is an issue.

Uh, we had Texas Corpus Christi, that dude on Texas Corpus Christi being like, I want the ball. I want to cover this spread with such a March moment. It's a chaos. He's a hero. Somebody. So I don't know exactly what was going on on that last play, but it looked to me like he demanded the ball because he knew that they had to score.

And then he went over to the coach. It looked like told him, stop, we don't need to shoot. He dribbles between his legs, takes a baseline three, goes in at the buzzer. They cover a crazy spread. There's no reason he should have shot that ball. No. I mean, I'm glad that he did just because it's March and that's fun for March. Right.

That was weird. It was weird. That was weird. There's that, that got the hairs on my neck standing up. That was suspect, especially because it covered like the line move from 22 and a half to 25. So like, you know, you could have middled it somewhere. Yeah. So, uh, yeah.

Very suspect. Um, Auburn gets my bad sports town of the, of the day. Oh, okay. I disagree, but go off. I just wasn't impressed with the crowd. They're playing basically a home game. I think they will be, they will show out for their game against Houston on Saturday, but I was going into that game being like, I was going to struggle because it's a home game

for Auburn. When they showed the stands, they were like half full. Yes. I was still struggled because Fray McCann, they can't coach at March, but Auburn like, come on guys. I disagree. This is a home crowd for you. I think, I think Alabama is a bad sports town, Birmingham, Alabama is a bad sports town

because if the Crimson Tide fans had their shit together, they would have bought tickets to show up and then boo Alabama or excuse me, boo Auburn and root for Iowa. If the rivalry was real, you're, they're playing in your home court, show up and fuck them up a little bit. That's, I mean, it's a fair point. It's a fair point. But yeah, I, Harvey Updike would have been there in a second.

Yeah. We, I mean, we'll see on a Saturday when they do play Houston, Houston struggled, Sasser got re-injured. I appreciate Kellen Sampson just at least admitting how hard it is to watch Houston sometimes. He said, we play like shit a lot and I was like, yeah, you know what, that's, that's the honest truth. Yeah. You guys do play like shit a lot.

So they got on the offensive rebound side of things, they got out rebounded overall, they rebounded better. They got more total rebounds, but on the offensive side, Northern Kentucky, they were playing like fucking maniacs. Crazy. They were running to the ball. They were throwing elbows that were diving everywhere. Yeah.

The Norse, they were absolutely crushing it on the offensive glass. Houston, I mean, they got away with it, but because, you know, they're Houston, but they definitely didn't look like they had a sense of urgency. Yeah. And, and I'm trying to think what other things happened today. The, we had our first crying cheerleader, Utah State. Her bottom lip was quivering. I, there's something about March Madness.

The crowd shots are just so great. Like they just make it so much better. When you see the pain, Virginia fans, you know, the Utah State fans, just the passion and like the exhilaration. It's just the best. I just love watching the crowd shots in March. There was a, there's another Northwestern kid that looks exactly like the old one. They're spawning them.

They're just reloaded. They just restocked. So this kid, I think he's about the same age as the first Northwestern crying kid who credit to Jake. He did pick Arizona and attribute to his favorite president, Biden. But Jake said that they were going to show the Northwestern crying kid and have him show up on the broadcast again and be like, look, you want to feel old? This kid's age, the appropriate amount of years for his age.

But then they cut to the side and that fucking, maybe that kid had a kid. Maybe that's, maybe that's his child. Probably. But it's the same guy. It's the exact same guy. They also showed, they showed Doug Collins in the stands a couple of times. That was kind of cool. Yeah.

His sons, the coach, his sons, the coach, the Northwestern played really well. Yeah. I was, that game was kind of never in doubt. Big day for nerds. Yeah. Nerds won day one of March Madness. Huge day for, and Mizzou, Mizzou winning, you know, the, the journalism school isn't just Syracuse.

No. Let's put, put some other schools on the map. Uh, oh, and last one, Tennessee won the award of thank God we won even though we know we're going to lose in the next round. Yeah. Well, it's big for Rick Barnes. Yeah. If he makes it to the sweet 16, are we calling that a win for Rick Barnes this year?

Yeah, I would say so. I would say so. There's slightly expectations right now. Yeah. They, they, they're dealing with injuries. They've been on the down slide. I just, there's something about when your team makes it to March Madness and you are a four or above seed.

Those first round games are like, basically a no win situation because you are expected to win. And then when you win, you're like, you just breathe a sigh of relief. Like thank God we're not embarrassed. Thank God we're not Arizona. Thank God we're not Virginia because those are the moments that everyone just like laughs at you and punishes you losing in the second round. Anyone can lose in the second round, but when you lose in the first round, if you're four,

three, two, one seed, it's just the worst feeling in the world. So good job, Tennessee. You survived. Duke in the next round. And I mean, Duke looks like they could be very, very dangerous. You've seen this. Yeah. See the sweaters.

Yeah. Look. Those sweaters. Are you going to run the sweaters back? You have to. If you're Duke. Yeah. Have to.

Hank, what was your favorite moment from today? West Virginia first half Monday. Yeah. Yeah. That was big. Should have just left the tournament then. So this happened to us last year, I think on Thursday. Yeah.

I think we all got killed. He's thinking about it. No, I'm just trying to think of like other, like there was, there was, there was no other joy. I ate ice cream. That was good. I had, I had 10 Reese's Cups. I went through 10.

I was, I was trying to rally multiple times. Like I came back here. It was like, all right, I'm going to chill out, put some bets in for later and then get back on track. Like when one, then the snowball goes rolling down the hill. I came in here. And then I kept coming back. Yeah.

I came in the green room and there was just a bunch of Reese's in the refrigerator. I was like, I know my guy Hank. He's stocking up because it little known fact, Hank and I, like at the, at the core of our relationship, if everything else fails, our love for peanut butter and chocolate is like, we're just like always there. It's true. It's like, you know, like if I go buy some, I'll get some for him. If he goes by some, he'll get some for him.

It's just, it's just, we know it. We know it. It's true. The end of the day. Peanut butter and chocolate can heal all. He's wearing insult socks. I mean, I'll save it for a firefest, I guess. I am wearing insult socks right now.

Oh no. It's on my right foot only. I just, I just, just looking at those right now. Right, right, right foot only strictly for the, strictly for buckets. I've got Hank's face all over my socks right now. It's a bad luck sock though. It's an insane, I, I, I jinxed myself. I admittedly came out a little bit strong as Hank.

I should not have given him the too small, but in my defense, I was furious at him. And we've all been there. You're mad at Hank. He takes turns. He, you're an equal opportunity, pissed her off. I'm gonna say not me, but that's not true. Yeah. You're definitely mad at yourself.

You're very mad at yourself right now. Yeah. No. Yeah. You're furious at yourself. Yeah. You've got, you've got a rivalry with yourself. Oh, also, uh, shout out Dayton.

We went to the first fort. That was an awesome arena. Yeah, it was. It was very cool. It was, uh, it was intimate. Yeah. It was nice. It was, it was fun to get out there.

We saw Texas Southern, um, and they lost to Fairleigh Dickinson. And that's about all I have to say about that game. Yeah. It was a bad game. It was a very bad game. Um, I know that like, I know Jake just was getting so romantic about the idea that we went to the first four and we're going to go to the final four. Um, he just like, he's so in love with March Madness.

It's, it's, it's something to aspire to. Yeah. Some kid came up to him on the stream and said, uh, Jake, if you could pick anywhere in the world through on vacation tomorrow, where would you pick? And without even thinking, he was like, well, I wouldn't go tomorrow because it's March Madness. It's smart. Jake is so pure.

He's like a cartoon character almost sometimes. Yeah. Like a children's cartoon. Yeah. I felt bad like Rudy. I was, I actually, honestly, Arizona losing might have been the only other time I felt any type of like happiness to watch his, his, and that's a little bit like kind of messed up because Jake is a pure soul and the nicest guy in the world.

But yeah, but you want to, you want to drag here down to your level and be like, you know, I was Princeton. You know, I didn't have any dog in the fight. So I was like, fuck it. Like who doesn't like an upset and it's going to, you know. Would you be happy? Hank, if, if you, if you corrupted Jake and you turned Jake into like a very, very cynical like bitter man, would that, would that cheer you up?

Hank just talked himself around being like, yeah, I was just trying to be a dick to Jake. I wasn't trying. It was just like, it was funny. Yeah. Which I guess is again, like, I don't think Jake could ever be cynical. I think Hank's making his mission though. And I don't think no, it wasn't Jake didn't care. What are you going to say, Max?

I was also in the room and I was, I was in this green room with Hank a lot. Max was on the same boat as me. Oh yeah. Yeah. I wish you guys had called me in. I would have loved to see it. I would have made fun of him. Yeah.

No, no, that, it was fun. But Hank was down tremendous. And then I just look over at him because he had Princeton first half money line. I was like, are you going to be pissed at Princeton wins? And you didn't, and he took first half money line and not full game money line. And he's just like, yeah, but Jake really wants Arizona. That's worth every other bet. It's also like, yeah, I don't know.

I feel weird rooting at someone to lose a bet, but like losing a bracket. It's like, yeah, no, you can do that. It is true, like Misery does love company. It's also going to be pissed off. Then you're going to want somebody that is just as upset as you are. It's so infuriating if somebody has a better, if anyone has a better experience than you do at a certain level, you, you, you feel jealousy towards them. You feel mad at yourself for letting yourself down.

So you just want somebody else to be just as mad as you are. And yeah, Evan did have almost a perfect 15 out of 16, pretty good. He forgot about Andrew Funk, Andrew Funk, funk, funked him up. Yeah, I think if it was 16 out of 16, it would probably be a lot. It'd be a story of headline news. I said he might start the show. Man in Columbus goes 16 for 16.

I mean, look, 16 for 16, a lot of people done it. But to do it on a day when you have a fifth, a 15 seed, be the two seed. That's pretty fucking impressive. So Penn State was his only miss. What else? Anything else? I think every bracket is perfect. But it's just it doesn't get old. I just I Googled probably four or five times today.

Just in CAA bracket, just to look at it. Yeah. And we won't have to pay a billion dollars because there's no way there'll be a perfect bracket. No, I think it's down. I pulled up the stats here. It's down to point zero zero six percent of all brackets that remain perfect. If Evan was in that, yeah, shit, dude, so close, so close.

All right, should we get to John Rostine? Yeah, let's get to Johnny. We still had all of the boyish wonder of March Madness, and we were excited about everything that was going to take place. I think tomorrow is going to be a better day. I think so, too. It can't be worse. Hank went two and twenty seven.

That's really bad. Hank, you do a sports podcast. Bro, do you know ball? I'm not. I actually learned early on. I'm not a sports talk guy. Yeah. If you come to the show for expert analysis and like trying to get an edge on something, you you have played yourself.

Although I did give out two stone cold winners on Wednesday that I just didn't bet. So maybe maybe the key is to just listen to us in a former moment. USC was my favorite pick of Thursday and Friday. It's the early game tomorrow. If that doesn't hit, just disregard. OK, just pretend this never happens. If it does hit, regard, because you definitely wouldn't start out a day with a winning bet and then go for two for twenty seven afterwards.

Fair counter. Maybe that'll be the only bet I make. If Hank's wrong tomorrow, then tail Hank for the rest of his bets. Yeah, that's true. It's you'll you'll go reverse on it. All right, let's do John Rothstein before we do that. You had a couple ads. Yeah, I need a nice cold Coors Light right now.

It's been one of those days. I bet you guys need one too. Saw Dickie V drink in an ice cold Coors Light today on all the commercials. I love Coors Light. You love Coors Light. Hank's got one right here. He's going to. Yeah, Hank, why don't you just bottom us up? There's nothing like the excitement of the big tournament, but every buzzer be there for your team is someone else's bracket buster.

And every game is a chance to turn the tables when your pride or your money is on the line and you need to take a beat, take a moment to chill with an ice cold Coors Light. There's nothing better than watching basketball drinking your favorite beer in the world. That's Coors Light. I bought a round of Coors Light for the boys last night. Would have thought that I was a celebrity. Just show up to the table here.

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And now this is March with John Rostine. OK, we now welcome on our friend, John Rostine. We thought we'd do a little different this year. We got him on for the Friday games. You've already watched March Madness the first day. You're probably bleary eyed. You've seen a bunch of buzzer beaters, hopefully. Now it's time to regroup.

Now it's time to get what Rostine's got to say about the Friday game. So, John, how are you doing? What's what's the buzz? Like, give us what's going on in your life right now? I mean, guys, first off, great to be with you. Best time of the year. I mean, you know me, my life's an open book. What do you guys want to know?

I'm curious to know if you've heard the news about Bar Coastal, your favorite wing place, Carey's Way. That was the name of the of the wing sauce. Well, PFT, I have heard that and I have been the plug uglies. And they have recreated the wings that we used to have at Bar Coastal. So the vibe is a little bit different. But if you're looking for your wing fix, that is definitely the place to go. In fact, when I had a Super Bowl party, that's where we got the wings from.

Wait, you watched the Super Bowl? Socially, I watched the Super Bowl. You know, I wasn't really watching the game. I was, you know, I was wanted to make sure that obviously, you know, that I had, you know, people around and I was visiting with people, but I wasn't really watching the Super Bowl. OK, so since your life is open book, I have a question as well. Have you retroactively gone back and given thoughts and prayers to Damar Hamlin?

I have opted moving forward to just be more cognizant of what's going on around me at all times, despite the fact that I am a college basketball insider. And I was merely reacting to Rutgers going on the road and playing Purdue. I did not know that a Monday night football game was going on. I didn't know obviously who was playing. I was only focused on what was happening at Macchi Arena. But obviously, when something like that happens, you know, when you just send your prayers out and hope for the best.

OK, so can you say it? Thoughts and prayers for Damar Hamlin? Thoughts and prayers for Damar Hamlin. OK, thank you. That's very nice. Very nice. You do realize that the thing that we love about you is that you are singularly focused on college basketball. That's like it's all you do. That's all you care about.

I don't I don't necessarily want John Rothstein out there tweeting about things that are happening in other sports. I go to you to get away from all that stuff. Well, and again, it all happens, obviously, in like a Murphy's Law type away. PFT, I mean, you know, Camp Spencer makes that unbelievable three at Macchi Arena. It just happens to coincide with such a traumatic event. And obviously, we're just continuing to wish good prayers to Damar and obviously his family. But, you know, again, I had no idea what was going on.

And people have asked me over the last couple of weeks, like, what are you going to do after the final four? Are you going to get into baseball? You know, the Mets just added some picture or something like that. Or are you going to get into the NFL draft? And I said, no, there is only one thing on my mind. And that's the NCAA tournament and preparing for next season, especially in April, which is portal combat season.

Yes. Yes. And all right. So last personal question, because then I do want to get into the Friday matchups. What's the update? You went to Europe. Did you like it? We went to Europe. It was a life-altering trip, 18 days and 18 pounds later. My life was altered.

But the bread in France was so life-altering. And the pasta at the Amalfi Coast was so life-altering. I found that France, and especially Paris, is a comfort food city, meaning you don't want to overthink your meals there. Go to, obviously, a brasserie, get croissants, get bread, get a croque monsieur, get a grilled cheese and fries, get a burger. But don't get too intricate with stuff. But the pasta and the freshness of the pasta in Italy,

we went to Portofino, Rome and the Amalfi Coast. And in Rome, there's a place near the Pantheon, Armando al Pantheon. It was the best rigatoni Amatriciana I've had in my life. I can still taste the bruschetta on some days. But I will say this, you know, we talk all about, you know, what we eventually want to do in the media and, you know, how can we expand our career and so on and so forth in preparing for this trip to Europe? I binge watched Searching for Italy with Stan Tucci.

I would like to get a crack, maybe in the off season, to do a similar show and kind of be a co-pilot to Stan Tucci, because I watched that show and that restaurant in Rome, Armando al Pantheon, was taken off the show. Oh, OK. Yeah, we can. I'm a good friend of his, so I'll reach out directly and see if I can link you two up. Now, we do need the final verdict, though. Is it more life altering to go to Europe for an extended vacation or spend one night at the Siegel Center at VCU?

It depends if the A10 is a multi-bid league. It hasn't been a multi-bid league, you know, this year. So I think, you know, we have to wait and see what happens next year in the transfer portal. If the A10 is a multi-bid league and it's peak shocker like it was in 2014, you know, when you had Briante Weber at the top of Havoc and, you know, you want to do push-ups on picket fences when they put the press on. That was a different animal. That was Tate Jones and Langston Galloway at St. Joe's.

That was obviously in 2014. You think back to those St. Joe's teams, you think back to the Dayton teams that Archie Miller had with Scucci, Smith and guys of that caliber. You think back to the GW teams with Kevin Larson, Prisciogorino. That was peak A10. So to substitute, obviously, a trip to Europe while I love the bread, I love the pasta, the sites are beautiful. I think that might be a stretch.

I listen, you were that was exactly what I was thinking. I often think back to the George Washington heydays. So same wave like, all right. So, John, let's do Friday's games real quick. Give us a big picture. Which which games are you most excited for? Which games are popping off that you're like, all right, I can't wait to see this matchup? Well, I just wanted to know, guys, if we had the chance to kind of go through

the names that I had for the regions, because we didn't do that. You know, we were doing things differently. I look at the top left, the South region as being the region of opportunity because I look at this and I don't see any way that Alabama, who has never been to a Final Four, gets to a regional final. I see that and I see San Diego State as a five seed program that has not won in NCAA tournament games since 2015 when it beats St. John's in an eight nine game under Steve Fisher.

I think there's major opportunity. Remember the Mountain West went on four last year in the tournament. You go then to the bottom left part of your bracket, the East region. It's the region of misdirection. Now, why do I say that Purdue was supposed to be good, not this good. Marquette was picked ninth in the Big East. They're the two seed. Kansas State was picked 10th in the Big 12.

They're the three seed and Duke, again, is vintage Duke is the five seed. It's not vintage Duke, but they're the five seed. It's the region of misdirection. So then you go to the top right, the Midwest region. It's the region of guard play. Look at the guards in this region. Houston has Sassar and Shed, Miami basketball, more guards than Shawshank, Nigel Pack, Isaiah Wong, Indiana has Jalen Hood, Shafino.

Then Xavier has Suley Boom, Penn State is Jalen Pickett. And of course, Texas A&M is Wade Taylor, the fourth. And Texas has Sergio Bari Rice. The Alphals also have Marcus Carr and Tyrese Hunter. That is the region of guard play. And then finally, the region of Brands out West. These are your top four seeds. Kansas, UCLA, Gonzaga and Yukon all have been to a final four in the last 10 years.

John, you mentioned the bracket of the region of guards. Do any of the other regions have guards? They definitely have guards, but not of this caliber. I think, you know, you have to look at that region as being specifically, specifically noted for its guard play. And even the guards on Pittsburgh, who I covered on Tuesday night in the first four, have big time chops. I mean, Nellie Cummings came from Colgate.

He was somebody who played in multiple NCAA tournaments under Matt Langel and also Jamarius Burton made a big shot to beat Mississippi State. So the region of guards holds form. Yeah. OK. All right. So we've struggled here on this show trying to figure out what to make a Purdue, what's the vibe with Purdue? Because I don't believe in Purdue. I've never believed in Purdue.

I do think Zackeedy has gotten very like a lot better. I just think it's going to be same old Purdue. And I don't mean that in a mean way to produce fans. It's just they kind of feel the same way. I think for Purdue, it's a final four bus type scenario. Now, this is why I'm saying that. Think back to the heartache that this program has had over the last half decade in the NCAA tournament.

2018, you're good enough to go to a final four. You lose Isaac Haas, your starting center to an elbow injury. You lose to Texas Tech in the sweet 16. 2019, the brutal loss of Virginia in the elite eight. When Mamadi D'Aquite made that shot at the buzzer to send it to overtime. And last year, you have a team with E.D. Travion Williams, N.J. and Ivy, who loses to St. Peter's.

So given all of that, given the balance landscape of college basketball and given the fact that you have the most dominant force that we've seen in quite some time at the center position, Zach Eadie, anything less than a final four birth will be at this appointment for Purdue, for its fans, for its alumni, for everybody. Yeah, yeah, I'd agree. Yeah, I would agree. I'm going championship or bus with Purdue.

I'm putting my flag in the ground right now. You're getting bold, B.F.D. You're getting bold. What can what can possibly go wrong? Absolutely nothing. Who is what coach in this tournament do you think has the most to lose? Legacy wise, because I feel like there are a couple of guys that are dangling out there. That's an interesting question.

When you say legacy wise, B.F.D., do you mean like that? Like, you know, they may never get an opportunity like this again. I guess when I say legacy, I mean, for us in the media to absolutely tear them down after a bad loss after this, well, really, it really doesn't mean much. But who who's going to be the easiest target to say this guy's on the hot seat with a bad tournament loss this year? You know, I don't know if we can go there, but I will say this. I think there are certain programs that have opportunities in front of them

that they're not going to have a line like this for a significantly long time. One is Alabama. Alabama has never been a number one seed in the NCAA tournament until this year. Another is Houston, because Houston has obviously the final four in its home city. And the third would be Purdue. Those are all programs where if they don't make it to Houston to play in a final four, you will feel like the season's a disappointment. Yeah. OK.

Here's a question for the Friday games. Vermont versus Marquette. Jake Marsh's Vermont cat amounts going against Marquette, who just came off, obviously, a great big East tournament. What do you see in this game? Because if we're all to have a chance, do we have a chance? Vermont, Jake, I think Jake would agree. Vermont has been knocking at the door on their

John Becker to win an NCAA tournament game, but I just see too much of obviously an advantage in terms of Marquette's size and athleticism. I think for Redo is going to be overmatched against Oh, Max and also Aguadaro. I think it's a tough matchup for Vermont. But most of the matchups in the round of 64 are going to be tough. But I will say this. Vermont was really competitive last year against Arkansas and has been competitive in the NCAA tournament, just haven't gotten over the hump.

Yeah, yeah, should should Kentucky fans out there be worried going? Providence, you would think with Ed Cooley, great coach, done some good stuff in the tournament before he knows how to get his guys ready. But they're kind of limping into the tournament right now. So not only that, PFT, but like Bryce Hopkins, who barely played last year in Kentucky, has become a borderline All-American and an All-Biggies player this year, averaging about 16 and 10. And he is playing against his old team.

So that is probably the individual storyline of the first round. Providence has not played well down the stretch. But Bryce Hopkins is going to get a crack at his old team. So that, to me, should be a concern as well, because, look, Kentucky, when you look at things, it's coming off. What I believe is the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history when it lost to St. Peter's last season. Now, people can say, what about UMBC, Virginia?

If you compare the potential, the resources for UMBC's program and St. Peter's program, it's night and day. And I also think when we look back and we start thinking about the Virginia team in 2018 that lost to UMBC, sure, they won the ACC regular season title by multiple games, sure, they won the ACC tournament title. But if you remember, DeAndre Hunter went out before the NCAA tournament with an injury and that allowed UMBC, obviously, to have the door open and for them to get that historic win.

So so remind me, what happened the year after that for UVA? They won the national championship. So you're saying Kentucky has a chance. Everybody has a chance this year. I think this is as wide open a landscape as I've seen in nearly 20 years covering the sport at the national level. And guys, it reminds me of the 2010-2011 season when Yukon, who was a three seed and finished nine and nine in the Big East, won the national championship.

They played Kentucky in the final four, who was a four seed. And the other side of the bracket was an eight seed and butler and an 11 seed and VCU, it would not shock me if when we get to Houston for the final four, if there's no one and two seeds in the final four. Whoa, I like that. That's a bold prediction. One of my favorite games on Friday, Danny Hurley, Rick Petino.

Yeah. What do you expect out of the coaches box in this game? And also, what are you hearing about Rick Petino going to St. Johns or possibly Providence and Ed Cooley going to Georgetown? Where's Rick Petino going to coach next year? Well, let's get to the game first. We'll get to the matchup first. You know, big cat, I'm with you.

When I saw this game on the screen on selection Sunday, this to me is immediately where my head went to as the most intriguing game of the round of 64. Because Dan Hurley, the carpenter, has done a great job building Yukon's program. They're back to obviously being a force in the Big East. But Yukon has not advanced in the first round of the NCAA tournament in each of the past two years, lost to Maryland two years ago, lost to New Mexico State last year. So really, this staff, this program has been building towards just getting over

the hurdle that is the round of 64 and standing in its way is Rick Petino, who is arguably, you know, pound for pound inch for inch, you know, one of the top coaches in the sport today. It's a fascinating matchup. Yukon has a significant advantage up front with Sonogo and Klingon. But the guards for Iona, who I saw live a couple of weeks ago in person when they played Manhattan, are very, very capable and high major caliber players. Walter Clayton Jr. is a very good player.

Dennis Jenkins is a good player. So I think Iona's guards will be able to trade blows with Yukon's guards. It's going to be a matter of whether or not Iona can rebound and obviously stop or contain Sonogo and Klingon. So let's get to Rick Petino. This is what I can tell you. St. John's has no secondary candidate. St. John's knows that in order to restore relevance, it needs Rick Petino.

St. John's has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2000. How long ago is that? J. Wright was the head coach at Hofstra still. But with that said, Rick Petino is still, whenever Iona's season going to end, still going to have to get the necessary assurances from St. John's that they're going to be willing to do the things that it takes to win. Better facilities, better offices, all those things before obviously a deal is finalized. So I would say that, you know, Rick Petino is clearly the target for St.

John's. They don't have a secondary candidate. I can confirm that. But I still think that, you know, there is nothing obviously done in the sense that we're going to have a press conference 48 hours after Iona's season's over. What about from Rick Petino's standpoint? Is he he's got to be thinking like, in my opinion, Providence or maybe Georgetown would be better, a better fit for him right now, like ready to go. They don't have to put in all that, all those upgrades that you mentioned.

If I'm Rick, I'm not limiting myself to St. John's. I'm looking elsewhere. No doubt PFT. But the one thing we have to remember is that Ed Cooley has danced the dance before and flirted with other jobs in the past. He took a hard look at Michigan before Michigan hire Jawan Howard. He obviously was obviously going to have some interest in Maryland and Louisville last year. He opted to sign a long term deal and stay at Providence after the

sweet 16 run. So those that job isn't open and that domino hasn't happened yet. So I think from what I've gathered, it was very important for a school to prioritize Rick Petino to make him obviously aware that they wanted him to be their coach. St. John's has done that through back channels to his representatives. So now it's just a matter of if St. John's can obviously get a deal done with Rick Petino. And guys, I firmly believe this parallel.

If St. John's was able to secure the services of Rick Petino as its next head basketball coach, considering everything I just said a couple of minutes ago, they have not won an NCAA tournament game since 2000. Not since it beat Northern Arizona and with Dan McClintock in the 2000 NCAA tournament, Rick Petino going to St. John's would be comparable to when Pat Riley became the head coach of the Knicks in 1991.

Yeah, but he wants to be wanted. He wants them to tell him to come. Correct. He wants to be prioritized. And that's, you know, and they should prioritize him. Yeah, they should. Absolutely. All right. Similar question, coach and matchup. Michigan State USC. This is happening. This is the early game on Friday.

I think it's the first game that tips on Friday. Who, what do you see in this game? And then how many more years is Tom Esso going to coach? Because it feels like we've lost almost the entire old guard at this point. He's the last stalwart. How's that going to play out? I asked myself that question every preseason when I go to East Lansing. And then I tell myself, what would Tom Esso do, though, if he didn't coach?

I don't think Tom Esso would want to, you know, be a studio analyst or a game analyst. I don't think he would want to be, you know, an athletic director. Tom Esso wants to coach. Tom Esso wants to win. He wants to win another national championship. Michigan State is recruiting at a high level. So I think Tom Esso is going to coach as long as he can coach. But I do think, guys, that this is a very, very sneaky USC team that they're playing.

When USC was healthy this year, they were extremely, extremely capable. But they've had injuries in and out of the lineup all season long. Drew Peterson recently has been battling a back issue. Vinsu Wachuku has had injuries. We've also seen that with Reece Dixon Waters. But this is a team you got to remember that erased a 12 point deficit at the half at the Galen Center to come back and beat UCLA. I'll say this much from a personnel perspective.

Forget the name on the jersey. I see more talent on USC's roster than I do Michigan State's USC has rim protection with Wachuku and Joshua Morgan. They've got veteran guards with Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson. Boogie Ellis is playing like an all American and nobody's talking about it. And I love the wings. Trey White, Kobe Johnson, Reece Dixon Waters. I think USC doesn't just have a chance to push Michigan State,

but could push Marquette in the round of 32. Interesting. Hey, wait, Drew Peterson. Are you talking about Drew Peterson, the murderer or the basketball player? The basketball player transferred from rice. Got it. Okay. You got to say, you got to say that.

You got to let everyone know there's a difference. There's two Drew Peterson. Appreciate you clarifying. Yes. Do you know the story about the other Drew Peterson? I had no idea there was another Drew Peterson until Big Cat just mentioned it. That's good. That's why we love it.

Yeah, yeah, that's that's smart. So, uh, Memphis, Memphis, I've heard many people refer to as the best eight seat out there, possibly a bad second round match up as well. So, um, Memphis, it's FAU, right? They're playing FAU, staying at our hotel. They're in our hotel. We should we should. Is it illegal to pull the fire alarm to make them not get a good night's sleep?

The light bulb just went off my head. Dusty, we sleep in May. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, but but Memphis, as for the actual like play on the court, do you see Memphis as being the strongest eight seat in this tournament? Memphis, Maryland, the Arkansas, Illinois game is capable. Obviously the same thing with Iowa and Auburn. It's close, but I look at Memphis as being a potential bracket

buster in the region of misdirection. Another reason why I use misdirection is because Penny Hardaway may have one of his lesser talented teams. Like there's no precious to chew up. There's no James Wiseman. There's no Boogie Ellis, but they're a better basketball team is because we have seen and big cat knows this because he's obviously spent so much time watching the big 10.

We have seen Purdue's guard struggle with pressure the last month. If Memphis can get that FAU, Memphis could be a really difficult matchup for Purdue in the round of 32. This is by far Penny Hardaway's best coaching job since he took over at Memphis Kendrick Davis, DeAndre Williams, big time, big time players. I think Memphis is a scary matchup for Purdue in the round of 32. If they can get by Dusty, we sleep in May. Yeah, I mean, I think if I use a scary matchup for Purdue as well, because

they got a Vatislav Golden, right? Ladislav Golden transfer from Texas Tech. Yeah. Big man on big man would be like an old school. Be like turning on the TV and watching a 1985 tournament game. Exactly. Yeah, from from just a purely basketball standpoint, John, do you like the direction the sport has gone?

Is it is it better for you to watch? Do you enjoy it more or do you miss kind of banging it down low? No, I think the big thing that's happened is, you know, finally, you know, with the NIL rules finally going in, which for long overdue, we have seen college be able to retain some of its better players. If those players didn't have lucrative professional opportunities, so that has made players more identifiable for fans from the periphery and the brand of basketball has been better.

So I think it's really helped the sport. I think things will reset a little bit when the COVID year goes away and kids don't have that additional year of eligibility. But no, I think it's all good. Another question about your broadcast. So your colleague, Jay Wright, have you talked to him? Have you discussed whether or not he has interest in maybe coaching in the NBA next season?

No, I don't think he's really wants to coach again. What? Yeah, I don't I don't think Jay wants to coach again. Now he can answer that, you know, better than I can. But I get the vibe that I know he's, he's working at media. He's great at media already. Obviously, you know, he has keen insights from being somebody that's led a team to four final fours and two national titles.

So no, I can, you know, he's working at this broadcast thing and he's already, you know, great at it. Okay. All right. I have one last question, John. You got to you got to scurry and call the first four games, which is awesome. We will actually be there. So we'll see you.

Awesome. Maybe give us a wave. Yeah, we're going to be in Dayton. We're not there yet. Last question. Roback question. RHOBACK.com use code take 20% off your first purchase. Joggers, Q zips, polos, everything I'm wearing the joggers right now.

Fluent them. These are flying gear. We've had a busy week. We've had basically no time this week. We finally got here. John, tell us your final four and who your champion is. And let's hope that team has not already been eliminated. That would be very funny.

I've got Alabama out of the region of opportunity. I've got Duke out of the region of misdirection. I've got Texas out of the region of guard play. And I've got Gonzaga out of the region of brands. And I've got Alabama beating Gonzaga for the national championship. Oh, wow. Mark, if you go into his first final four, that would be huge. He's went to two already.

I don't recall. He went in 17 and 21. I disagree. Must be a few Mark Fuse. Disagree. Why is that? I don't because Mark Fuse has never been to a final four. Yeah, he's never gotten over the hump.

He's built a good program. But at the end of the day, you have to give me some results. Yeah, will this be the year that Gonzaga finally gets over the hump and gets to a final four? Yeah, but yeah, Gonzaga's good, but they can't win the big one. You got a tough crowd. All right. Well, John, thank you as always.

We appreciate it. Enjoy the tournament best time of year. We're we're all going to be just sitting there just enjoying every moment. Nothing better. And maybe we'll see in Houston. All right, guys, congratulations to you and your team on that big move to Chicago and continued success. Really happy for all you guys.

Yeah, when you're out, when you're out scouting like the Saluki's or you're going out to, I mean, I don't I don't even think you go see the big 10 teams, right? I love Chicago, especially in the summer. Great restaurant scene. OK, so you'll come by the office. John, I have one last, last question for you just real quick. So I was talking to your good friend, Rico Bosco, last night, and we got

into a debate about whether or not you had ever played basketball in your life. Have you ever played basketball? I mean, when I was a kid, yeah, but you know. So yeah, so yeah, proven. We're on your side. He said that you've never taken a jump shot. And I I called Cap, John. I called Cap for real.

For we just look forward to the documentary on, you know, Rico's life in 20 years, because that's going to be appointment TV. We're that will be. You're right. Wait, are you reporting that? Rico Bosco dies in 20 years. No, no, no, no, no documentary on his life. You know, you try to be nice to the guy and he treats you obviously

like he's his worst enemy. That's true. That's true. You try to try to be helpful. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be featured heavily in that documentary. All right. Well, John, thank you so much. Good luck with the first four. Good luck with the rest of the tournament.

Great catching up with you, man. All right, guys, have a great March. John Rothstein was brought to you by Chili's, baby. That's right. Chili's only at Chili's will just 1099 get you a bottomless drink, a starter like bottomless chips and salsa. By the way, they delivered chips and salsa to her office this week. Best chips.

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Head to your local Chili's where you can enjoy the three for me deal for just 1099. OK, before we get to Firefest, this is just a lesson in what March Madness does to our brains. We watched 12, 13, 14 hours of basketball and we just forget about everything else that's happened in our lives. Probably should have talked about this somewhere in the beginning. Aaron Rodgers is out of my fucking life. Not yet. He is not yet.

Not yet. He's not. Yes, he is. Don't do this. I root for Dan Sider to sell the team. Aaron Rodgers out of my life. He is gone. He's going to the Jets. It's over. I'm so happy. Wednesday was one of the best days. Everything is up for the Bears.

Fuck him. He's gone. OK. Don't do this. I'm he's going to do it. No, here's what I'm going to say. He's not. He's not going. He is gone. He's not going to play for the Packers. You're right. He's gone to that certain extent. But we still don't have a trade in place. Correct. So he he actually fucked the Packers over.

Yes, that's why Aaron Rodgers finally beat the Packers. Yes. So yeah, his last act, he goes on the Pat McAfee show and he basically burns that bridge and says, I've decided not to play for them. They don't want me to play for them. So I told them I want to play for the New York Jets. Now, the trade's not finalized. So now the Jets are going to have to fork over

probably more than they were originally because he tipped his hand. Oh, I think it's the Packers hand. I think it might be opposite the Packers. It's clear that Aaron Rodgers does not want to play for the Packers. The Packers don't want to employ Aaron Rodgers. The Packers now don't have much leverage because Aaron Rodgers doesn't want he he's like, they don't want me. I don't want to be there.

Every all the cards are out on the table. Like the Packers have to they have to trade them. So they could trade them, but they don't have to pay them until I think start a training camp. So I don't know. So they can they can keep them around for a while and they can start fielding other offers. He's gone. He's out of your life, which is gone.

I'm very happy. He's gone. He's gone. I'm so happy he's gone. I just am so happy he's gone because here's the thing. Aaron Rodgers is a phenomenal quarterback, Hall of Fame quarterback. He did say that he was the best packer ever, which was OK, dude. Way to blow yourself there. Bart Starr, bro. Bart Starr, bro. Right. Like that guy was pretty damn good.

Reggie White. Yeah. You won one Super Bowl. Dick Buccas. No, no, no. Wrong. That was a joke. That wasn't serious. No. Yeah, he was serious. That was not serious. You just thought you just thought old guy from cold weather. I hope I hope John Shire's sweater gives him a really bad rash.

No, that was a joke. Yeah. Yeah. OK. But yeah, he is a phenomenal quarterback. He's probably going to play for, I don't know, three, four more years. Even if his skills diminished, he loved beating the Bears. He was going to keep beating the Bears forever. It was just how it was going to go. I'm just so happy he's out of my life.

And all the Packers fans are like, Jordan loves next up. Let's see. Let's see. It doesn't. If it works this way, that you just go back to back to back, Hall of Fame quarterbacks. I'll just put my hands up and be like, there's no reason to even watch football anymore. But I'm confident that he's not going to be Aaron Rodgers.

And maybe this gets clipped and I'm an idiot in like five years. But let's cool it on. Jordan Love is like, we're actually happy that Aaron Rodgers has gone. Jordan loves next up. He's going to be awesome. Chill out. Aaron also landed on pretty thick with the darkness retreat stuff in the interview. He kept saying how his perspective got changed by it,

how he came out with a sense of clarity. But if you really listen to what he said, he came out thinking that he was going to retire. Right. And then he got back to civilization and started reading the Internet again. And the Internet puts weird thoughts in Aaron Rodgers brain quite frequently. And this might be the weirdest of all of them, where he was like,

actually, you know what, I'd rather play for the Jets. Yeah. And so he decided that that's what he was going to do. But if I was a real darkness retreat guy, like an old head that had done darkness retreats for years and years and years, and then Aaron just comes in like Aaron, Aaron, Aaron adopted darkness. Yeah. Helen Keller was born into it. You're not a darkness guy. You just did it one time.

What are you calling cap on Helen Keller? Cap alert. She was a rich guy. Her parents are tells you all tales. Oh, really? You don't think she was really blind? Which one blind death for mute? Which one do you think she wasn't?

Death. OK. OK. OK. All right. She could hear everything. She just couldn't speak or see. Still tough life. Also, that's a tough life. If that's the case, great commitment to the bit. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah.

We're both stage mom. Stage mom. Yeah. But Aaron Rodgers, this is actually really bad for like the psychedelic community because like doing a bunch of ayahuasca and going into a darkness treat and then coming out and being like, I want to play for the Jets. Not great. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely not. That's actually what they should do for reefer madness.

Yeah. For ayahuasca. It's like this is your brain and you're playing for the Green Bay Packers. This is your brain on drugs. Yeah. You're playing for the New York Jets. And shout out memes and Billy, they're happy. I do think I think the Jets are immediately a Super Bowl contender. It depends on Rodgers on the team. It depends how many of his friends he's going to get to play with them.

That's true. So he's they're still waiting. That's part of the thing too for the Jets is like now we have to basically change up our entire offense and get all new personnel. That was also the biggest takeaway from the Pat McAfee interview is as much as Aaron Rodgers wants to play the role of like, I don't care what people think guy, he listens to everything. Oh, yeah. And he gets mad about everything.

Yeah. And he should be in jail. I hope he gets mad about that. The the text was Shefty, where he's like, I told Shefty, yeah, you can lose my number when he sent it. And then Shefty just tweeted at the screen grab. That actually made Adam Shefter look good. It made him look really good. He's just he's a hound.

I didn't hound dog. I didn't tell you this, Big Cat, but I texted Aaron like a month ago. You didn't give me his number. But in the in the text to Aaron, I was like, hey, this PFT from part of my take. Big Cat didn't give me your number, by the way. And I just wanted to ask him questions about DMT. He didn't. I feel bad because like he at least gave Shefty the dude lose my number with me.

He just left me on red. Yeah. And didn't even reply to me. I would have loved for him to be like, hey, fuck off. Oh, I mean, I've been left on red. I all my text messages to him are not. I don't think he'll ever speak to me again. Maybe, maybe not. I mean, he seems let's see.

The thing with the jet says he's going to a very, very tough division. Yeah, I texted him on March 7th. If you need any New York City recommendations, I got you. You want to make your move as comfortable as possible. That's what friends do for each other, not no response. And then I said, so happy for you and your new team. Congrats. I'm wishing you nothing but the best piece in love. And then I said, hey, Aaron, if you need someone to move you into your new

apartment, I'm happy to do it. I'll rent the U-Haul through a charge. I kind of hope he takes you up on that. Now, I would make sure it makes you carry. Dude, you can have my apartment. Now, you can have every piece of furniture in my apartment. My kids toys. I don't give a fuck. I bet Aaron's going to set up like a teepee in his apartment in Brooklyn.

Yeah. Yeah, he's going to fit. He actually would be perfect in Brooklyn because he could like there's enough people in Brooklyn that don't watch football, that he could definitely just have a group of friends that don't even know he plays for the Jets. He could go out to a bar and they just wouldn't recognize them. Yeah. Right. On my corner that doesn't have a TV. He's kind of bars that he's going to.

He's going to ride his fixie bike through Williamsburg. That's not a bar. It's just a fucking it's just like a shitty house. If honestly, if you go to a bar where there's not a TV, you're an alcoholic. It does. It's past like every bar in Williamsburg. What? When I was in Williamsburg, I had to remember like being like, oh, it's it's Monday at football. I'm going to go watch and get food at a bar down the street.

And I had to walk like, I mean, it's New York City. So it wasn't there was, but I probably went to five or six bars walking in and be like, there's no TV here. I bet you if you did a poll of like every and it was like a soccer pop, which is like the most hipster should ever. Not like far Brooklyn that like has actual like sports fans, but like the like close to the river and like Manhattan, Brooklyn. I bet you my house has more TVs than almost every other bar.

I went to a bar one time in my neighborhood that has TVs and they incorporated them into the decor and they're not plugged in. Yeah, that was fucked out. That's assault. That is that is honestly assault. I wanted to burn the place down. But yeah, Aaron Rodgers is gone. Everything's looking up for the bears. It's been legitimately like great two weeks to be a Bears fan.

So I know this won't last. I know the shoes on the other foot, probably draft jail in Carter after he like doesn't want to play football anymore. But yeah, I can't can't yuck my um right now. Everyone is trying to. No, no, no, no. Aaron Rodgers is gone out of my life. All right, should we do firefest?

Oh, you know, it's crazy is that the teams that can be forced to do hard knocks next year, it's the Jets, the Bears, the commanders. And then I think the Saints will 100% be the Jets if he's on that. Yes. And oh my God, he is going to treat the New York media so poorly. Yeah, which I kind of like. Yeah, I want to see how that relationship unfolds. Yes. Hey, do you want to do your firefest first? Yeah, do you guys want to give a quick quick Edwin Diaz thoughts? Yeah, he got injured.

Yeah, World Baseball Classic. That's hot takes. That's tough. It's really, really tough. Considering it's a game that doesn't really mean anything. But or does it? Here's here's my I saw a lot of debate back and forth. These guys are grown grown ass men.

If they want to play for their country, they should get to play for their country. Like, I don't know why people are being like, why would my players play? Like, they get to decide what they want to do. They know that they could get injured. Most most people who play sports for a profession like to play sports for a profession. So if they get to play with their friends that they maybe grew up with and rep their team, rep their country or their country,

I think they'll probably take that that that chance. This is obviously the downside. But every fan being like, why the fuck do we even have world? I don't know. Like these guys want to play. They don't have to play. Also, it didn't happen in the course of the game. My big takeaway from this is that this is the most most Mets thing to ever have possible. Yes, that's true.

So if you're a Mets fan, you probably in your darkest nightmares, think to yourself, oh, Edwin Diaz is going to go play in the World Baseball Classic. Oh, shit, he's probably going to tear his patellar tendon celebrating after a win when he's just jumping up in the air. And then he's not going to be able to pitch for the next 12 months. I'm also that's pretty. That thought has probably crossed your head prior to this happening. Yeah. And they get they get rid of Grom, who would be the guy

that I would think that this would happen to. And Diaz, too, is I mean, he had one of the all time great seasons in the history of Major League Baseball as a close of the Trumpets, which, hey, pick. Have you heard this one? The Trumpets are playing taps. Oh, no. Damn. I just don't. I'm not a World Baseball Classic fan. Some people really like it. And if the players want to play, they should get to play.

I don't I don't like. I also believe that injuries like that were going to happen anyway. You know what I mean? Like, well, yeah, it wasn't in the course of the game even. If it was a freak celebration and something probably is a little off with your body that like there's going to have there's going to be an injury that happens at some point in the season. Yeah, it's called being a Mets player.

All right. Exactly. Mike Trout is a big winner of the World Baseball Classic because he gets to play meaningful baseball for once. Yes. So he's having fun. He's probably I'd say he's Captain America. He's the Patrick Reed of the US team. And so it's fun watching him actually be able to to celebrate a game that could potentially impact future games. Yes. Yes.

So, yeah, I'm not. I guess my take on World Baseball Classic is I still don't care. But for people who do care, cool. Yes, I'd say that's fair. Yeah, like I have fun. I that's that's cool. Like March Madness is on. But if you like baseball more than College Basketball,

that's cool, too. So the the knock against it is it's a made up tournament that people just decided to start doing. But every tournament every single is a made up tournament. We're watching it right now until somebody decides to start doing it. It's a completely non existent tournament that doesn't mean anything. Correct. And then they try to grow it. So history. Yeah.

It takes time to build up history and tradition. I think we can say as a podcast, we're a grow the game podcast. Yeah. Doesn't matter. All games. It is. I mean, they were growing every game. It is kind of funny, though, that the World Baseball Classic, like the only major headlines it ever gets is the injuries. Yeah, it doesn't feel like there's a lot of positive headlines. No, not really. Yeah.

Columbia covered a seven and a half run spread. That was pretty huge. OK, Firefest of the Week, Hank. In the midst of today, which as we previously discussed, to not go great, there is a rage room adjacent to our game link set up. A crush shout out to Jack Slinks, a little sponsorship for people that have bad bets or whatever they go in to do some smashing.

Jack links. Jack links. What did I say? Jack Slinks. Jack. Sorry. PFT went in there and in the video, I love how Hank's Firefest has just become him as an excuse to take a shit on me. No, go ahead. We didn't let me finish. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I wanted you to shut the fuck up first. I had to set it up.

I mean, because my mind makes no sense without explaining errors. If I if context matters, if I was mean right now, I'd say that you're so addicted to plus signs that even your golf game incorporates them, but I'm not going to say that. No, if I was a plus in golf, that'd be unbelievable. No, I should have said plus is bad. Handicap false. Plus is bad in golf.

You want lower scores. False plus six handicap means you're really, really good. I didn't say plus six. You guys going to kiss? I'll kiss him if you want. So PFT went to the right. I think I think I can I get in. The sexual tension is off the charts.

It's crazy. What's up in that jacket? Walked in the right rage room with a baseball bat, swung at a glass and completely missed. Oh, no. And I again, maybe that maybe I'm learning a lot about myself. Probably the only other part of the day where I kind of laughed watching the video, being like, ha, ha.

Swing and a miss. That's embarrassing. And it's right next to the room where I was in lying down. And I was like, all right, I'm going to I biggest bet tonight. Text saying I'm walk. Let's get this train rolling. I'm going to make a video poking fun at PFT, explaining my bet. And then I'm going to smash the glass that he missed.

And then I took a swing and he went over the cup. I went under the cup. I just smashed the table, but I missed the cup. Oh, no. And it was a one. But Penn State right there. It was a one take situation. I wasn't going to delete it.

And a lot of people did say, well, obviously, now I'm going to bet Penn State. So I guess you're welcome. Right. That was sad. I'm sorry about that, Hank. So yeah, I mean like that. I'm just on athletic, dumb, stupid, not going to gambling. Your yawns sound very bad.

I was just I was helping you out. You seemed like you were looking for another bad thing about you. Yeah, USC, USC, USC. You know what, I'm a good friend. So I'm going to ride on USC tomorrow. Let's go. PFT or Firefest? My Firefest of the week, I was going to say what happened

in the Jack Link's rage room when I took a big cut and just completely whiffed on the glass. But it was a small bat and also I'm a golfer now, so it ruined my baseball swing. But I will pivot and say my Firefest of the week is this is my first March Madness without Tums. And the reason for that is I think I'm a full time, like, take two anti-acid tablets a day guy.

You're like medicine. Yeah, like medicine. So I wake up and I need to have one of those Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday things that old people get that their children have to dispense for them. But I have made the transition to that because just straight Tums isn't cut in form anymore. Damn.

The acid's that bad, shout out Aaron Rodgers, that I have to now be able to switch over. And it's weird because I always forget to take it until right before I need it. And then it doesn't work like Tums. That's the thing. If I try to take a Pepsi to the AC instead of a Tums, I have to wait an hour to get any relief. But now I'm a full time, just like constant.

There's always going to be anti-acid in my blood is what I'm saying. And that's that to me is the worst. That's that's the most clear sign that I'm old as fuck. Yeah, that's tough. Yeah, that's very tough. I'm trying to think. I don't really have a Firefest. My Firefest is I love the tournament so much that when Thursday ends,

I'm like, damn, we we only have one more really crazy chaotic day. And it bums me out. I'm trying to think. What else? Oh, my son is no longer waking me up, but he does watch me sleep. And that's kind of creepy. I guess that would be my fire. Oh, yeah, you know, you figured out he stands in your room. Yeah, so I told him, like, if you come in my room and you wake me up,

like, I'm going to lock my door. And he does. He's like, don't lock the door, don't lock the door. And I was like, so don't wake me up. And he didn't wake me up. And then I was walking him to school. And I was like, so you slept well last night. And he's like, well, yeah, I came in your room and it was too cold in there.

So then I went back to my room and I was like, what? And then I looked at the monitor and fucker left his room for like 10 minutes. He probably just watched me sleep. Yeah. So that's weird. That's he just loves you. He's just staring at me, but not waking me up. So that's baby steps. Yeah, we're making progress.

So he's just he's just he's just, you know, watching me sleep. That's fine. Kind of miss it on the road. Like, don't get anyone to watch me sleep. Maybe Hank, you could wait. Is your my key card tonight, Hank. He coming to just watch me sleep. Is your son the hat man?

You know, he's not the hat man. He's not the hat man in training. But yeah, I do miss him. There's one more story that's kind of developing right now. As we speak, the Jimmy G to the Raiders saga. Yeah. So Jimmy G has not signed a contract with the Raiders yet. They were supposed to introduce him at a press conference this afternoon.

The bunny ranch even did a picture. Did they hookers for Jimmy G? Yeah, so he so he so he shows up or he doesn't show up. The scheduled time was I want to say like 4 30 in the afternoon. All the reporters showed up, waited for Jimmy G. They said, we're going to delay the press conference by an hour. He just never showed up. Something they delayed, they had to delay it a full day or more.

Something is going on with Jimmy G. And I don't know if Josh McDaniels leaked news of his marriage to anybody. Yeah. Or what's happening there? He got to Vegas and was like, this is awesome. Yeah. You know what? I think I just realized that I wanted to move to Las Vegas and not necessarily play football there. But what if what if he just backed out because that would be

knowing what I know about Josh McDaniels. It's not his way of doing business to accept an offer to go somewhere and then back out of it. Yes. Right. Shortly thereafter. That's not how that's not how we do things on McDaniels. Las Vegas Raiders. Yeah. Someone, Jim or say, went to Jimmy G's

took a shit house, took a shit. And he's like, I want to play for this guy. Oh, also. Mike Flora reported that Dan Snyder is going to sell the Washington commanders. Yeah. And so see, I'm excited for you. I'm not going to ruin it for you. I was trying to ruin it. I was just pointing out that he's not going to he's he might not play

for the Jets. He's not going to pay for the Packers. But Floria reported that Snyder has moved all of his shit out of the commander's team facility. Yes. Him and his wife and that a sale is imminent right now. So I am that was that was the highlight of my day. Yeah, I had a bad day at the track today. No, you kept on. You walked around like shown showing the tweet to everyone in the room.

Yeah, I was so happy. Look at this. Look at this. I was I was well, I want to jack off again. Yeah. And I mean, I've got a hotel room and I can't jack off in it. That's torture. Well, give Hank your key card. You want to come jack me off, Hank? Thank you. Got a lot of work to do tonight. But you have. We've got a winner's attention.

Yeah. All right. We did lottery ball. And yeah, we'll see if Hank gets it. Cut to that. Yeah. Hank, do you think you got it this time? Yeah. All right. Let's kick it to ourselves back in studio. See everyone on Sunday night when we don't have voices.

Love you guys. OK, we're back in the studio after you listen to us recap the first day of the tournament. We're going to we're taping this on Tuesday. Hank, have you ever gotten this? No. Lottery ball. You didn't let me finish. Oh, false.

Oh, no, no, no, Billy. That was the biggest false start of all time. You said lottery ball. No, I thought I was. No, I was asking Hank if you ever got the lottery ball. I know, I know, I did. You tried to lane Johnson it. I did. Yeah.

I'll take the numbers. Six and no, no, no, no, you have a false start. You go last. Do you not know how the four. Oh, Hank, I was going to take sixty four. Oh, wow. Do you want to take? Yeah, no shit. P.F.T. one of us. Well, there's sixty eight.

Why being so salt? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Sixty eight. I'll take a point, Jake. Yeah. Well, by the time this episode airs, it'll be. No, but I'm looking at a bracket right now. There are six times that's recorded. You know what? I'll take seventeen.

I'll let you Max, you have last chance to take sixty nine. Yeah, I'll take sixty nine. Yes, Billy, getting a 20. Genuinely upset at other people taking sixty nine. It's my number. Do is the sex number is not. No, it's just like a yin yang and just like it's a consistent. No, that's why I guess it every time.

Yeah, twenty. What was your number? Hey, there's a lot of devastating numbers that come up. Forty eight. Continental U.S. Forty eight. Love you guys. Damn, Hank.

And you lost all your bets today. At the end of today, there'll be forty eight teams remaining. Oh, Hank, you did your math wrong. Is that the end of Friday? There's sixty four, sixteen games. You should have done that, Hank. Number of teams remaining at this. Or at the end of Friday, not the end of this episode.

Yeah, figured out. It's still not still not even close. Wait. No, after Thursday. He's right. How are you wrong? Yeah, you should have guessed Thursday. We go sixty four to forty eight and then Friday, forty eight to thirty two.

Oh, no, Hank. Tough break. Yeah, learn ball. Hank, that's tough. Love you guys. They prove that chickens actually came before the egg. Oh, Hank, you did your math wrong. You did your math wrong.

You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong.

You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong.

You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong.

You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong.

You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. You did your math wrong. Thanks for watching.