PTI - Maxx Crosby Say's I'm Not Leaving!

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Italy/USA, Crosby/Raiders, Murray/Vikings, Miami Ohio undefeated streak broken, Duke, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. Tony, a red fox stole away on a cargo ship from England to New Jersey. Tony Cornheiser, Red Fox.

He's still with us? Red Fox? Well, kind of. Kind of. He had to go join, you know, Elizabeth, you know, get away from Ron Esther. But, you know, 103 years old, Tony, grew up right here in part on the south side of Chicago. Did he go to high school with your mother? Is that correct?

Yes. Duceble High school. It must have been there together for a year or so at least. Good to know. Welcome to PTI Boys and Girls. In today's episode, Max Crosby embraces the Raiders. Kyla Murray may be Minnesota-bound, and Miami of Ohio goes down for the first time all season.

But we begin today with the World Baseball Classic. The United States team got into the quarterfinals. because Italy beat Mexico last night, clearing the way for the U.S. to slide in. Vinnie Pasquantino, the Kansas City royal slugger, hit three home runs for Italy last night. After the 9-to-1 victory, Pasquantino looked into the camera and said, quote, you welcome USA. We were thinking of you guys over at your hotel. Glad you guys could join us in the party, unquote. Wilbon, what does this mean for Team USA?

And what did you make of Pasquantino? I only care about Pasquantino. I only care that was so cool. That's what you have to do. From the time you are six years old and you learn to point in somebody's chest in your neighborhood because you hit the wiffle ball over the fence, you learn how to talk a little junk. Pasquentino, that was fabulous in the age of social media or people don't even really know

how to effectively talk trash anymore. Pasquantino did it. That's all I care about. I'm glad the U.S. has advanced. I want to see us play. You know, there's a couple of teams you want to play. I want to see us play the DR. I want to see us play Japan.

I know we get Canada first. But come on, those games would be fun. But we did that only because Pasquantino and his boys allowed us in the door. Thank you. And thanks for the trash talk on the way out. Yeah, I agree with all of that. I loved Pasquantino. I love the three home runs.

I loved what he said. You know, you're welcome USA. Most of all, though, Mike, what I love was that after every home run, because I watch this game, after every home run, he went over to the espresso machine in the Italian dugout. Had a cup of espresso. I think I have this right. I think when you hit a home run, you put on a sport jacket because it gives you a sense of sophistication. And then you drink the espresso, and then they hug each other.

And that is so much more sophisticated, so much better. than spitting sunflower seeds at one another. Yeah. So he had home runs last night. We're scratching. He hit home runs last night in the second and the sixth and the eighth. He basically won the game by himself. But he hadn't had a hit in the entire tournament prior to that.

And I got the thinking, because he's a slugger. He had 32 home runs for the world's and 113 RBI. I was wondering, did he think he should be on the United States team? But they've got his first baseman, and they've got Bryce Harper and Paul Goldschmidt, and they're not Italian. so they couldn't have... They couldn't have flipped and gone somewhere else. Yeah, you mentioned that the United States gets Canada next.

I don't know if we can win the tournament, but that's yet another sport in which the United States is playing Canada in the last three or four weeks. We've seen this a lot. And then if we win, we get Korea or the Dominican Republic. I will say this. I found Mark DeRosa pointed to his own clubhouse sometime back and said, honestly, we've got the 30 best ballpark

players in the world in that clubhouse. I'm going, whoa, hold on a second. Hold on a second. Are you telling me that Shohayatani and Juan Soto are not in the 30 best? Come on. Come on. Come on. I don't know about that either, Tony. Yeah. By the way, did we beat Canada in curling? How'd that turn out? I forgotten. Anyway, I don't know about curling. Beat him in hockey. You know, let's move to Max Crosby's first public comments since the Ravens backed out of

their trade for him. Last night, the all-pro past rush were posted, quote, I'm a raider. I'm back. Run that bleep, close quote. Tone, do you expect Crosby to remain a raider? No, I don't. I think that in the next few days and weeks, I think

the Raiders are going to listen to a lot of teams come up with offers. I think they're going to find one of them acceptable and they're going to trade them. But if they want them to stay, that's fine. They just went out and spent a lot of money on free agents. They were a better team now. They're a better now than they were when they were negotiating this trade. Plus, they have the number one overall

pick, which we assume will be Fernando Mendoza, who's going to get tutored by Hello, Tom Brady. Couldn't get much better tutoring than that. So if they want to keep Crosby, he's a great player, I'm with that, but no, I don't actually think that's what's going to happen. I just want to circle back to the Ravens for a second, because they, too, on the field, they too are a better team than when they started with this trade because they've got Trey Hendrickson and they've got both number one draft picks. So they're better on the field. I don't know if they're better off the field. I don't know how other teams in the league now view the Baltimore Ravens. I think it is fair to question whether they were ever truly going to go through with this trade or if they just backed off as a matter

of convenience. So I sort of wonder about that. I know there's a lot of talk among agents. I don't want to do deals with the Baltimore Ravens. Because Mike, in the last few months or maybe even a few weeks, you know, they got rid of a very popular head coach in John Harbaugh, and they reneged on a deal for an all-pro player. It's very secondary to me how

people view the Ravens. How they're going to view Max Crosby? Because another team said, no, you're damaged goods. And so that's what matters to me. Max Crosby's going to be a raider. Because nobody else is going to offer a one and a one. I doubt

anybody's going to offer a one and a two. People forget, Tony, we should have known there should have been more examination of this. Late in the season, Max Crosby stopped playing. Why? And what was the result of that going to be? And so these things, when they involve

knees and meniscuses, they don't just go away. And so other people don't just get blamed. There's stuff that's happened. I'm familiar. You know, you know, it's a couple of my famous athletes. my favorite athletes of my life, one of them, Derek Rose,

whose career was never the same after meniscus issues. That's right. Never the same, okay? So, no, I think teams are going to not look at the Ravens. Don't look at the Ravens. Look at Max Crosby. And wonder, you have to get

an honest assessment out of what's up. And maybe you leave him there. I hope it can be Max Crosby and be great wherever he is. It looks like, to me, that's going to be with the Raiders and not necessarily somebody else. So you just you tossed them off the bears.

Three weeks ago, you wanted them on the bears. No, I told you. I'm not giving up a one and a two. I told you that before we got the news on the knee. Not a one and a two and $30 million. Uh-huh, no. How about a one? How about a one? We turned to Kyler Murray, the biggest shoe yet to drop in free agency.

According to the NFL network, Murray is in Minnesota to talk to the Vikings. But the NFL network also reports that Murray plans to have a conversation with three to five other teams. Well, by I'm circling back to Minnesota here, would you have confidence in a pairing

of Kyler Murray and Kevin O'Connell? No. No. I can have, and they're both not just competent. I mean,

O'Connell's had some great success with Minnesota. Kyleor Murray has had flashes. It's not about that. It's about this presumption, and there was far too many of it on too many

networks last year that cover football, including this one, including from the miles of very smart people that O'Connell was just going to whisper in the ear of this kid from Michigan and they were going to go on and win 14 games again. See, that was wrong. I don't hear enough oops I was wrong when these things are wrong. That was just dumb wrong. And so they got it wrong with the kid from Michigan. They drafted them in the top in the first round. A lot of us

who watched Big Ten football religiously. Why are they doing this? What is he shown? And it turns out that after two years now, only one year of actual playing time, they're trying to distance themselves from him. So they got it wrong. So the quarterback whisperer must not be able to whisper to everybody because he would whisper to the guy they drafted. Yeah, well, what McCarthy had shown them was he was the quarterback on a national championship team. And so they were intrigued by that, obviously.

What does it mean? I don't know what it means. but we're going to find out next year with the Raiders. We're going to find out with them too. That's what's attractive about certain quarterbacks. I don't know Kevin O'Connell from Kevin Garnett. What I do know about him is that he was the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams. And he worked for Sean McVeigh, who people know is your new best friend ever since you had lunchtime with Duke.

Love him. And there are a group of quarterback geniuses out there, offensive geniuses. Sean McVey and Kyle Shanahan and Liam and Matt LaFleurr. And Kevin O'Connell's name is mentioned among that. All the time. So if the question is, would I have confidence, would I have confidence in his pairing? My answer is similar to yours. And my answer is not necessarily.

Not necessarily. And I love Carla Murray. He's the most exciting player in the world to watch. But I'm not certain he was with, you know, an offensive guru. Cliff King's. didn't work out that well. His record in Minnesota was 38, 41, and 1, and 14 and 28 in the second halves of seasons. So I'm not certain about this. And again, I think it's probably a good spot for Murray, and I think Murray has talent. But also, Mike, when I look at Kyler Murray, I still see in

my mind a baseball player. I do. I'm not certain, you know, and O'Connell's done well with Donald and he's done well with his cousins. He's done really well. Not that well with McCarthy. You're right about that. Let's take the break. Coming up, Miami of Ohio takes its first loss of the season today. What's the word for that?

Top-rank Duke gets his first test without two significant contributors tonight. So what is JJ McCarthy? He got a cauliflower ear? You can't whisper in JJ McCarthy's ear? What? Because he had one great quarter against the Bears in his first game. That division. Everybody had him in the Hall of Fame.

that division has four offensive coaches. That division has all the great offensive coaches, right? Yeah, well. Campbell and your guy and LaFleur and O'Connor and O'Connell. Then what went wrong? What happened? Time to get down and wordy with Wilbon. What's first?

Previously unbeaten Miami of Ohio's loss to UMass today was blank. It's nothing. That's my word, nothing. they are still going to be in the tournament. The drama of this is past us. It doesn't really matter. They're going to go in maybe instead of 32 and 0, they're going to go 31 and 1.

They're still going to have the best record of any school in the tournament. I mean, I guess we should have and could have seen this coming, Mike. Their last three games, they won by two, by two, and by two in overtime. So I guess that they were due for a loss. but what is the net result of this? The net result is a mid-American conference

is going to get two bids, and consequently, some 11th or 12 seed in a large conference that's waiting on the bubble to get in is not going to get in, and I don't think that's the worst thing that ever happened. I mean, the magic is gone from Miami of Ohio, and I suspect their seed will drop. I suspect that they'll go from an 8 or 9 to an 11 or a 12,

but they're still in the tournament. They are at home, but my word is mind-changing. Whose mind might it change? Mine. I spent the last two weeks saying, Miami of Ohio is in. They've already earned it.

And that seems to have been the case. They already earned it. Yes. But then, Tony, I think what happened here with this loss, and we can see it coming not just because of the scores, but because it was probably wearing them down. those kids probably never dreamt they'd be on the undefeated team into mid-March and it probably just wore them down to a frazzle.

Now I'm hoping this loss will just release them because I'm rooting for them, but if you're out there watching and you're a casual fan and you're saying, wait a minute, should this team have been in any way, this loss could be mind-changing. And so it annoyed me, I'm still rooting for him, but it annoyed me they'd drop this game. Yeah, I got to be honest. I could see them going out in the first round by a substantial margin now.

I'm rooting for it. I could. I don't want it, but I could. Let's see what's next. Tonight's ACC tournament opener against Florida State will be blank for Duke. My word is uncertain. Duke has been an eight-man team all year,

and now they are a six-man team because they have lost two starters, Caleb Foster and Patrick Gungb. They're out. They were giving Duke 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. They were giving Duke the third and fourth most moments on the squad, most minutes rather on the squad, and they were the third and fourth leading scorers.

And they don't have anybody on the bench that can replace them. If they had a better bench, they'd have used more people to this point. I don't think it has any meaning at all with Florida State, because this game doesn't matter. Duke's going to be a one seed, no matter what happens in this tournament. But it could have a lot of meaning in the second week of the NCAA tournament because they're not, I don't think they go into the bench. I think they ask their other players to play more minutes.

I think that's how they solve it. We're going to have what we call honest disagreement here. So my word is scrimaging. And it's scrimaging for two reasons. One, because like you said, the Florida State game in and of itself means nothing. So it's like a scrimmage. You're going to go out there. Here's what we're going to concentrate on tonight, fellas.

But Tony is also like scrimaging because Duke has to find something else. And they do have to go down the bench. And they can go down the bench. And John Shire is a hell of a coach. We haven't talked about him much because he's still living in the glow of the coach, Mike Shishowski. And so we don't talk about John Shire must be he's a Chicago boy. And I pay attention to sort of what he does and how he does it and who he's got on his team and who he's got on his bench. and Duke does have a bench.

And this is next man up time. People talk about it, but they're not about it. Duke can actually do something about it. John knows who those people are and how to get them ready. And I think he's going to have to get them ready, like you said, not for this tournament, but for the next one after round one. So with scrimaging, because the result doesn't matter, but what they're looking at does.

Do you think John Shire went to high school with your mother in Red Fogg? I'm just asking. I don't know. That'll have to be the final word. Let's take one last break, still to come. One of the hottest players in golf sees his players' championship end early. The big matchup between the Celtics and the Thunder doesn't feel so big anymore.

No, because a lot of people aren't playing. You know what I suspect, Mike? I suspect the Celtics feel in their hearts. They can beat this team. Why waste it before the playoffs? They were very close until Jalen Brown got thrown out. They were ahead by two points

with the other team in San Antonio. We're going to have to wait to the playoffs for everything. The NBA just wastes our time. The NBA mostly wastes people's time until mid-Apr. But only for six months.

It's not like it's a long time, it's only six months. Why? Happy time, people. Happy 47th birthday, Ryan Day. The Ohio State football coach won the national championship in 2024. And at any other school, that would be good enough. But Day has a two and four record against that school up north, so there are always some Yahoo's

and Columbus seeking to get rid of them. Day is 82 and 12 at Ohio State. 55 and 5 in the Big 10. Consider those numbers for a second. They started out as a record-setting quarterback at the University of New Hampshire, where his offensive coordinator was Chip Kelly, who later rejoined him at Ohio State. Along the way, Day coached at Boston College, Florida, Temple, and in the NFL at Philadelphia and San Francisco. Day was on staff at Ohio State when Urban Meyer left, and they succeeded him. Tony, of those five Big Ten losses, four are to the school up north. It's sort of a blemish, but there's no question he has had a great, is having a great run at Columbus, and you've got to ignore the fools who want to question with him.

any loss whether he should be fired. Just get off the stage. It's an astonishing record. Be thankful you've got this coach. Yeah. Happy anniversary, BYU and Western Kentucky. Around this day, 14 years ago, the Cougars pulled off the biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history

on a memorable first four night in Dayton. BYU rallied from 25 down to beat Iona in the play-in game, breaking Duke's old record of coming back from 22 down to beat Maryland in the national semifinals. in 2001. BYU's rally was the second big turnaround that night in Dayton. With President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron in the stands, Western Kentucky came back from a 16-point deficit in the final five minutes to beat Mississippi

Valley State 59-58. Wilming, do you think Jerry Rice got 44 of those tickets? What do you think? Could have. You would hope that Jerry Rice might have been in attendance watching Mississippi Valley State. Those Dayton games, at first I was a... always like, ah, but they've grown on the toe. No, they're pretty good.

Grown on me overtime. They're pretty good. They are. They're pretty good. Happy trails to last night's game for the Timberwolves. Minnesota lost its third straight last night. This one by 25 to the Clippers. Kauai had 45 points.

The win is the Clippers' sixth and seven games, puts them at 33 and 32 after starting the season 6 and 21. This apparently makes the clips the first team in NBA history to move above 500 after 4. at least 15 games under 500 in the same season. And the recent success comes after they traded James Harden to the Cavaliers. It's a nice run. They're not tanking.

And the question becomes, though, could you see them in a series beating if they played in, beating either Oklahoma City or San Antonio? And the answer is, no, you can't. So what they're doing is admirable. I would have said they would have no chance without James Harden. I'm surprised at this. I have to say, I am surprised at this. Let's go to the big finish.

Jason Tatum out for Celtics Thunder tonight. Your thoughts? This is not a surprise. You didn't think Jason Tatum was going to go Cowell Ripkin right out of the gate after coming back from, you know, a serious injury like that. So I'm just expected. Colin Morcawa withdrew from the players after tweaking his back this morning. I love Warcawa.

Aren't you disappointed? Yeah, he had finally won after about three or four years of not winning. He won at Pebble. He looked to be having a really good year. BYU and number five, Houston in the big 12 quarters tonight. Who you got? I got the banter anytime I can see him. But Houston, Tony Houston.

I think Houston's still a real threat. Capitals at the Red Hot Sabres tonight will Buffalo win its ninth straight. It's very hard for me to pick against the Washington Capitals. This is my hometown team now. But Buffalo's only two points out of first in the conference. Buffalo's real good. Last one, Northwestern, at 18th ranked Purdue tonight. Are you smelling upset?

See, I'm wearing purple. I'm going to the United Center. I'm going to be loud behind the bench. Loud as this voice will allow. We almost beat Purdue a week ago. It wouldn't be out of the question. It's going to be a tough game, but it was not out of the question. You'll have no voice at all on Monday.

We're out of time. We're trying to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornhizer. I'm Mike Wilbot off till Monday knucklehead shout out Corey Billups. We still sound terrible.