Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What we learned from Coby Bryant being Bears’ top priority in free agency (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote opened their show by detailing what we learned from safety Coby Bryant being the Bears’ top priority in free agency. After that, they explained how quarterback Caleb Williams is helping make the Bears a free-agent destination. Later, Jeremy Werner of Illini Inquirer joined the show to discuss Illinois’ 105-70 rout of Penn in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.

This hour is sponsored by Riverfront Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. We love a man who is five foot. and playing in the NBA. That is fantastic. That should be celebrated. So we love a short king now. No.

Hell yeah, Ray. Yeah. It's okay, Colin Cito. I know I'm short. And you know how I know? Because when I lie about my height, I say I'm 5'9, which means I'm really 5'7 and a half. And I'm lying about the half.

They knew what to do when Yuki got into the game. Did they not understand the assignment last night? The crowd pops were appropriate and fun. Adam and Stacey mentioning Yuki coming in the game and you just hear the crowd erupting because they love this guy. Like that fan favorite wrestler entering the arena. And his name is Nuki, man. And I feel like that's what was happening with Yuki.

People wanted to see the man do work. What I didn't realize was how much game time was devoted to this on the CHS in broadcast last week. Yuki Kalamara, the 24-year-old from Japan. Tell you what, but they need to make a Hallmark movie of Yuki. Here's Yuki. Crowds is. I love it. I love it so much.

Who's playing Yuki in the Hallmark movie? That's a great question, actually. Who would play him? If we were the cast, I would suggest me because I am the shortest out of all of us. You just want to be love like they love Yuki. I want to be Yuki. White chocolate is so weird, you know.

That is a big smile-inducing moment. Broughts here by Yuki-Kal-Murra. I just wanted to bring the energy, you know. Lila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Margherty. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3, The Score. Shout out to Yuki and every other 5-8 dude who never stopped dreaming that he could still hoop. And shout out to your joints, would probably feel better than a lot of tall people.

You ever think about that? Glucosamine and chondroitin, still a thing, or does that show my age? Welcome to a Friday of Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on 1043, The Score. It is Mark Grody and Laila Rahimi. in with you this morning. I love it when Mark, by the way, like Gabe said the afternoon show because Gabe is up early,

so to him it is afternoon, people will call the midday show anything. You're right. To some people were the morning, to some people were the afternoon. And sometimes we're middays, but mostly it just tells you how people interpret their day.

Yeah, that's a great point, especially, and I think things kind of changed after the pandemic to some degree, certainly during the pandemic, when this was the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. was kind of the morning because everybody was working from home at the time. And after the pandemic, we all learned with certain ways, including radio. We don't do it as often

anymore, but we all learned ways to work from home, which pushes the morning up a little bit. But yeah, we are the show between the morning show and the afternoon show. We are the midday show. At least that's my interpretation of it. Technically, they call us middays. But I really kind of like learning how people feel about their days. That does give you a clear. to who it is. You know, it's like Mr. Rogers says, the people who you meet each day. And it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, I must say. It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood, especially compared to Monday. I'm into this. And we hope you're enjoying a very fun sports Friday on this day. Now, you'd think that we'd be done with Bears talk, but Mark is here,

and it goes on and on and on. We will address baseball in an R5 on a segment at noon. We will address a stadium discussion as well. We've got Jeremy Warner with a line-eye talk coming up at 1045 just so you guys are aware. But in the meantime, I think I said it offhand and it has become the truth. The bear's biggest free agent signing is safety Kobe Bryant. Three years, $40 million, $25.75 of it guaranteed. He'll be 27 in the season when he's playing here in Chicago. And he sat down with the great Kay Adams, also a Chicago girl.

and I think really let us in on some inside information. He also repeated something that I think not only should you understand how much it matters to him, but how much I think sometimes guys like that will play with that energy when they know that's how a team feels about them moving forward. But then he also let us in on some inside information that might give away some timing here that might be a little off compared to the NFL schedule. Let's take a listen. Based off the season, Kobe, you have.

And I'm glad that you look, there were a lot of options for you. A lot of people wanted you to be hanging out with them for the 2026 season. How did it go with the Bears? What was it about the Bears? Just the sense of being wanted, honestly. They called me at 7 a.m. I'm in Arizona, so they called me pretty early, which I had just woken up. And, you know, that struck it right there, honestly.

Just like I said, just being wanted and them pursuing to, you know, get me over there. It wasn't easy, you know, obviously, you know, being in Seattle for four years, but all to me, I'm blessed. And, you know, that's where it led me to Chicago. Wait a second. The NFL, quote, legal tampering period, end quote, started at 12 p.m. Eastern on Monday, March 9th, 2026. Kobe Bryant was an announcement that happened on March 9th. Was it not? Wasn't that news broken on March 9th?

That's correct. Wait a second Hold on You mean to tell me that Even that might not actually truly encompass the practice of the NFL What? Do you mean to tell me that maybe they knew about this guy Even before Monday?

You're telling me that there's an illegal tampering period too We have an illegal tampering period And a legal tampering period And a signing period That is the right That is the right move That's five butes to start the day off there, Cornhusker. How would you, wait, if this were a Law and Order episode with that specific sound effect,

how would that go? What would be, would you, how would you address this to the jury? Wow. To the jury, yes. You had legal tampering. You have illegal tampering. And you have signing, sir. What say you?

Ding, ding. There it is. I don't think Kobe Bryant or the Bears should get in trouble for any of that. I also like the part where he keeps on saying. This is now the third time I've heard Kobe Bryant say, I just am glad that I was wanted. I mean, that was the theme of his press conference. He feels spurned, is that the right word?

Spurned by Seattle, like not being wanted there, even if it is understandable in the big picture for Seattle, which, who's their GM embraces the challenge of having to lose guys and adding guys, which we could talk to Mike Sando about later on, he intimately is aware of having covered the Super Bowl champions. But it is interesting. I love that this guy is, first of all, very talented, very 26 years old, and very much seems to have a chip on his shoulder.

Well, and the other question becomes, why? He was a quick pickup for the Bears. He was part of an excellent Seattle defense, as I've mentioned before. Yeah, he had considerably fewer tackles than Kevin Byer did. But that's because, as I've also said before, and as you saw, if you saw, if you were watching the Seahawks at all. People didn't get to the secondary. They made tackles,

hear me out, at the line of scrimmage, and then close to the line of scrimmage. I think the why is obvious to me. The team that he was on that just won the Super Bowl, let him go. They chose Emin Worry over him, essentially, and the rest of the players

that they're eventually going to have to pay on that roster on offense and defense. I mean, that's it. And Nick I, and Worry is fabulous, and he's going to have a great career in this league. I think that's pretty obvious. But this is what happens.

This is why seasons are so ephemeral, Mark. You know you can't always pay for everybody's services. People get too good. Players don't have to understand that. He was not chosen to be kept by Seattle. And that's it. You know, and as Michael Jordan has showed us many times, the great philosopher of our

time. Love them. When you take things personally, it can be recreated energy and redirected energy to be very positive for your team and the outcome. So, I don't mind that at all. But he really does talk about that. And frankly, if that was the objective by the Bears

was to make sure he knew that they wanted to sign him, that he was a priority to them, then they also accomplished what they wanted to a T. Because when you hear that, you understand exactly what the bears were trying to get done with him. And if that mattered to him, if that was part of the reason they were able to sign the guy they wanted, then that's a good thing.

Now as far as did the Bears do enough because we still don't exactly know who's starting opposite of him at safety, that's another issue. But as far as this is the guy we want, here's how we want to go about doing it separately, then that objective was indeed accomplished. Yeah, I mean, Cam Lewis, not known for being a starter, has started, actually had four starts last year. Elijah Hicks has started a bunch for the Bears, but not enough to make you feel good about it. one other name here. I know you've got to get to some more audio, but I keep thinking about this. Dave Wonstead, once upon a time ago, was pushing the idea of Terrell Smith, who, of course, was injured last year, but it should be back this year. Good bear. To, good bear, to make him into a safety. So I don't know that they would convert. I mean, Kobe Bryant was converted from cornerback to safety.

Maybe they could do the same thing with Terrell Smith, but we can get to that later on. No, I think that's a good thought to hold because a lot of people ask about Terrell Smith. A lot of our listeners mentioned Terrell Smith and you're right to do so. That's kind of how this works. If we're all building this team together, then you're going to name your guy. Now, there was more on the Up and Adams show with Kay Adams and Kobe Bryant because this is important about, I think, not only the time that the Bears called, but also who we think is in charge of what. And he lets us into some of that behind the scenes as well. I know Paul said that, was it polls who called you? Was it somebody else? I don't want to misspeak.

Dennis Allen Dennis, oh yeah that's what I want to talk Oh, that's very cool because I would imagine like I heard polls say that you play

their style of ball that was the quote that is so what did I would love to know like you know obviously when I think of Dennis I think like aggressive right

he wants those takeaways that's so what like what what makes you a good fit according to Dennis Allen and you yeah just pretty much what he said already just me playing fast

you know just the takeaway aspect, just really just being that dog that I am, you know, and not to, you know, hype myself up, but just, you know, all the things that they listed, you know, obviously like I said, they're building something special over there. And, you know, I'm just excited to be a part of it and, you know, keep it going and all to me, just go win it all for sure. That's important. You know, Dennis Allen is a part of this. Ryan Poles is a part of this. And that lets us know how involved Dennis Allen is in this process. Like for people who say, well, how involved is Ryan Poles when it comes to the coaching input?

You know, how involved is Ben Johnson in the draft? Do you feel better because of it? A lot of people do. What about the defensive side? Well, it sounds like Dennis Allen might have at least close to equal input here, doesn't it? Well, I push back on this just a little bit. Yes, yes, he does. And so does Ben Johnson.

But I think all coaches are always going to have some say, including Matt Eberfluse, who essentially was responsible for, for T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmins. Now, I trust the evaluations of Dennis Allen and Ben Johnson more than I do Matt Eberfluse and any number of his defensive coordinator. So that changes the game, but the idea that somehow these guys have outsized influence, I think is a tick off because your coach and your coordinator should always have.

And you don't think Vic Fangio back in the day had a little bit of influence on who was going to be on his defense. So I think it always exists. It's just that the evaluators, I think, are a little better now. Well, I agree with that because I don't envision a scenario on this planet with any team. Name the worst NFL team you can think of. Even that team, I think there's a very good chance that the GM and the head coach are having a conversation where somebody's going, can you use this guy? And then they say yes.

You have to. Like, that's just how this goes. It's essential competency. Why wouldn't you talk to your, what type of player do you like? Dennis, what would fit in your scheme? And maybe he did say, bring me Kobe Bryant. Maybe that was the answer. Or maybe Paul said, here's three guys.

Who do you think? That's just the way it works. Yeah, and I feel like Ryan Poles, you're scouting people all year long. You're scouting people for multiple years. Ryan Poles himself goes to a lot of games. People have seen him. They've talked about it online. They've posted about it.

He goes to the pro days. Even the day he spoke after free agency, he was at the Oklahoma Pro Day, that day. So I'm with you, Mark, on the, he still very much has a part of this, a bigger part than a lot of people want to admit. But I think we did have some questions about how much Dennis Allen is, how much of it is like him being a second head coach essentially, like how much of it is him being head coach of the defense. You know, we talked about Declan Doyle's role previously, now press Taylor. So that is some good insight there when it comes to understanding that part. And again, way to be hands on about it, you know, if you want to be hands-on about it like that,

then I don't think that's a bad thing either. Especially since the defense was, other than the turnovers, all the numbers were bad last year. They were, you know, middle to upper 20s in most categories, including overall defense. Stopping the run was not good for the Bears last year. So, yeah, I think that some, you know, some autonomy. I don't know if that's the right word for Dennis Allen,

but the idea that he's going to have some influence. And did he, we have to go back to last year then, how much influence did he have? in Dio O'Angbo and Shamar Turner and Grady Jarrett. And like, do we penalize that then if we're going to do this fairly with Dennis Allen? Well, that's it. You know, I always would talk about this, especially in college recruiting because it would be like, oh, well, this school can get anybody they want.

And I'm like, yeah, that's the problem. These were the guys they wanted. Yeah, that's a separate thing to me. So I try to compartmentalize when it comes to, did you get the guys you want? Because a lot of teams. in the NFL and in college, for example, are not good at getting the players they want,

the acquisition process. And then there's the secondary issue of, well, why did you want these guys? And then can you actually use them? You know, like Tremaine Edmins is a great example of that. Well, that was the guy you wanted, but could you even actually use him properly with what you wanted to do?

Those are three different things in my mind. And I don't think, like, now that I think about it, you just ask the question, do they use him properly? Tremaine Edmonds seemed to not like Matt Eber-Fle. the coach. Yeah, just because that guy wants you and thinks that you're supposed to do certain things in his defense, doesn't mean that that's good. Right. Well, that blew me away because it was the Iber Fluse who had tremendous influence on him coming here. But every time we asked Tremade Edmonds about Mad Eber Fluss after he left, he wanted no, he couldn't even fake it.

He couldn't even, he wanted no part of talking about, and he took the high road. It was wild. Do Jerry Jones, and take this with a grain of salt when he speaks, as we know. But absolutely, lambasted the defense last year. And I'm just thinking to myself, well, if only they had had players, you know, like one in particular, who wasn't in the NFC North. Michael Parsons? Yeah, who, maybe you could

have used him. But I do think about, think about Montez Sweat and the combo of him and Maddie Brux. That worked out well. It did. And then I feel like it dropped off too. Yeah, and you know, that's, I don't know, that's on Montez, his injuries, but that's the forever question about Montes Sweat and what he actually

is. A team is a living mechanism. But I do feel like those are three different things. Number one, get the guy. Number two, can you acquire the guy proper? How do you evaluate getting that guy? And then number three, even if your evaluation and your getting was good, how did you use the guy? How could you put him in a position to succeed? And it felt like at least it feels like from Edmonds's standpoint never got the most out of him or didn't put him in the right positions, I guess.

I'd like to know that story. Congratulations. You got your guy, but then you didn't. And he's a good guy to get, but then you didn't use him right. So that was step three of Laylorahimi's Dennis system, if you want. So that's improvement. Write that down, Buterbaugh. She just had a three-part system.

I'm going to create my own problems and then complain about them, only to fix them with lesser replacements. I think you should have a three. 26 in a nutshell, everybody. Can you do three-part plans every day? I love your sense of organization, the way your mind works. Like, I like that. I want three-part plans at least once a week. this show. Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Oh, you're so linear. Yes, I'll work on some others. This is Rahimi, Harris, Grody. On 104-3 The Score, that is Mark Grody. I'm Laila Rahimi. Marshall was in with Gabe this morning, and if you missed it, it was a really fun show. You can tune into that on our Odyssey app.

This is 104-3, The Score, we broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. When we have Breaking News on the Score, it is brought to you by Wildfire. enjoy a delicious meal at Wildfire restaurants with five Chicagoland locations. Our producers are Ray Diaz and Tyler Bueberbaugh, who is wearing his Nebraska hat because the fighting Fred Hoiberg's got their first ever NCAA tournament win yesterday. Make room for Nebraska basketball. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. That was fun to see. Brandon Fryer helps us out as well. You can join us on video. Twitch.tv slash the Score Chicago and YouTube. We are at the score Chicago there. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westreland are our video team.

And text and call us, if you like, on this Friday, 312, 644, 67, is our number. And coming up next, we want to also get to another part of the part one of the plan. Actually, it's part two of the plan. Like, can you get the guy? I think there's another element that is helping the bears get the guys they want. And it is important and it's a good thing.

Caleb Williams is helping recruit some people even when he's not active about it. We'll do that next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043 The Score. This is 1043 The Score on a Friday. Mark Brody jamming out

Lailahaheimmy with you. And we listened to what Kobe Bryant the bear's biggest free agent acquisition so far had to say to Kay Adams regarding the business of the Bears, how he came to be with the team, and once again reiterated the feeling of being wanted. And I think part of the reason he liked this option for him

coming from an excellent Seattle defense, which we've discussed, he himself had a very good year. A lot of fans are excited about this acquisition. Is not just because of him being wanted, but who he was going to work with. So we knew that part of the reason Ben Johnson, the hottest name in the coaching carousel of the cycle, whatever you want to call it,

the offensive genius who left Detroit's building. We knew that a major, major reason why he chose to come here was because he wanted to work with Caleb Williams. Well, he's not the only one. Listen to what Kobe Bryant had to say. It's always tough leaving, you know, Seattle, just what I've built, what we built, for the last two years with Coach Mike.

You know, all those, all my brothers, you know, like I said, that was definitely the toughest thing about it, you know, leaving those guys. But just like you said with, you know, Kelly Williams, just the special talent he is, the leader he is. He actually reached out to me. He was the first person to reach out to him when I did sign. And we were texting back and forth, you know, just catching up, getting to know each other and stuff like that. And just, you know, telling him, you know, what we could build and, you know, just going off of that. And, you know, just for him reaching out to me meant a lot, honestly. You know, me playing safety, him being quarterback and, you know, him recognizing my game and vice versa.

Elite talent, he's just scratching the surface. Honestly, like I said in the press conference last week. I'm excited to, you know, watch him play and watch him be great this year for sure. What was the welcome message? The first text was a time. Yeah. It was legit. Like, he did get him be like, yo, just, you know, hit my lines.

And, you know, we texted. And then, yeah, I told him I got to come to L.A. I think go to a Lakers game. So he's a L.A. guy. Yeah. I love this. Maybe he can help you with the negotiations with Kyra to get that. I might have them, you know, pay for the number for me.

That's exactly. That's right, Kay. It's on you. Well, well, well, how the turntables. Would you listen to that? The quarterback is a selling point in Chicago. That's what it really made me think. The selling point is huge.

Also, the Caleb Williams, the leadership and now the ownership of the team, something he did not have in his first year with the Bears. Like the leadership was a little bit shaky. And I don't know that everybody bought in to his ownership of the team. And that's what you want. not just when the Bears sign him a new offensive lineman, not just when they draft a wide receiver, not when they'd bring in Colson. When he's talking about the defensive guys,

that's a different Caleb Williams, who I think has rehabbed his reputation based on that first year. And some of the stuff that was written, and maybe some of it, like there might have been points of it that were true, he's kind of, he's not a complete product. I don't think in any way, shape, or form yet, Caleb Williams. But boy, has he come a long way in a year plus. I mean, that's it. You know,

that's, I don't think that's something we would have heard last year even, you know, after this rookie season. Would not have. I didn't. I also think that, I also think that as a rookie you can only do so much, you know, the NFL hierarchy and how it works. And even if you're a quarterback, I think the job and the culture still dictates an inherent humility and understanding that you're not going to be the dude in year one. You know, you're learning the ways of the team at that point. You're learning the ways of the NFL. His dad illustrated the hardships that he went through

from a tape viewing standpoint, for example, how lonely that must have felt for him. So when I consider all of those things, I don't fault him for not wanting to come in gangbusters and say, you know, hey, I'm the guy, Ricky quarterback. let's go, I'm going to do this. You know, that's not really, you do,

but you do it with deference to your veteran teammates. He had Keenan Allen and Mercedes-Louis, too. Excellent, excellent resources. Two excellent resources. Who pushed him as well. We know Mercedes-Lewis did, and I just don't think Caleb Williams knew how to be an NFL quarterback when he stepped into that locker room.

And, you know, of course we can blame the coaching staff. I just don't think he knew how to do it. He needed that year to go through it, the ups and downs, and many downs and then the perfect seemingly the perfect coaching staff is around him now. Yeah, it just seemed like communication was a massive issue all the way around. And we've heard other former players under that head coach when they were with him as a defensive coordinator in Indianapolis. You know, they think of Zaire Franklin talking about communication with Mattie

Ruffaloose being terrible from what he made it sound. So it makes sense as to why that was an issue. Now, initiative is something else that you take upon yourself. But all of that said, we're seeing these actions in years two and then ahead of three. The other part is think about how Kevin Byard just spoke glowingly about Caleb Williams and how impressive it was for him to watch. Football players are fans of football. They all have favorite players they like watching. They all have games they tune into.

So if you love ball and you play it, maybe you want to play with that dude. Like I always think of the way a lot of people describe certain basketball players. Like, for example, they may love LeBron, but I always say like your favorite athletes, favorite athlete. There's something to that. And for Caleb Williams to be a part of this in this way where people want to play with him, when was the last time you could say that? I think about how I used this example yesterday. There were a lot of buccaneers who took discounts because they wanted to play with Tom Brady.

That's the end-all be-all example. It is. The Bears had a little bit of it. with, and I mean a little, with Jay Cutler to get guys like Brandon Marshall to come to the Bears. And maybe that's where my example stop with Jay Cutler. But I do think that when you identify a team that has a quarterback, that's a pretty good direction to go in. As you are listening to Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on the score. And Layla, I mean, we all saw, like through Kevin Byrd's eyes.

And I heard you guys talking about it yesterday. It was great with you and Marshall. We all saw what Caleb Williams did in real time. You know me, I was very skeptical of Caleb Williams. I was very much just taking every game for what it was, and a lot of times it didn't look great. And then it started looking great. He didn't want to be here.

Yeah, same. But I was worried that Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams were going to make it out of training camp the way things were going. I was there watching the relationship between Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. and the tough love was real, but we all saw what happened with Caleb Williams. The light came on at some point in time this season and it's a matter of getting it up to the next step. Well, and that's it. And frankly, I think the outreach goes a long way.

If you're going to a new place and the head of your department gives you a call and says, hey, you know, it wasn't just your supervisors that wanted you here, but we're happy you're here too. Doesn't that make a difference to you? I'm sure it would. Of course. So to also just have that connectedness and the ownership, you can't say it doesn't matter. Like similarly to Kobe Bryant telling us in the media and Kay Adams the feeling of being wanted matters to him. You can't tell me that doesn't reflect on the field, that the way he plays isn't going to motivate him knowing that.

Yeah, you're wanted. And then the other part too that I don't even think we've mentioned with Kobe Bryant, that he has mentioned at a handful of times not going back to his interdial. Press Conference, he wanted to go to a place that could win. And he looks at the Bears

as being a team that is on the verge, maybe not just because of Caleb Williams, but because of a lot of things that he's seen, considering the defensive coordinator that he's going to play for,

considering the head coach that he's going to play for. People watched what, like being in the playoffs and winning a playoff game and then taking the Rams down to the wire, everybody saw that.

That makes all the difference in the world in terms of a destination in Chicago is back on the map. Yeah, we're used to the opposite. You know, we're used to showing the dysfunction for the world to see. But this is a different time. Capitalize on your playoff run. Capitalize on your playoff capital.

Capitalize as the city. You know, everybody should agree when they hear Kevin Bayard and the Fox crew, or Kevin Byard, Kevin Burkart and the Fox crew say they love to be in Chicago. and you hear Al Michaels and you hear Kirk Herb Street on Prime Football talk about how much they wanted to be here. That's everybody. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's about time some of that started turning around. Seriously, like, it used to just be a place that they come and love being in the city and eating the steaks and enjoying the pizza.

And now the football is pretty good. Well, and if you need proof about how sports is sometimes your best marketing tool to an audience who doesn't normally get your marketing, look no further than Alabama football and the enrollment into that school since Nick Saban started coaching there. That's why a lot of schools put the finances into it. So to be on the other side of this, where your quarterback is making this a destination,

free agents want to be new times, fun times. I have something that I would like to reward our audience with. As you know, I get to perform a podcast with my friend Dan Weider. It's something called Take the North. We're going to do a Take the North live episode, the second year in a row, second annual. Now, it's a special show.

Ladies and gentlemen, call her 6 and 7 to the score contest line. 312-540-0-670 will win a pair of tickets to a special edition of Take the North live with Dan Weeterer. And me, Mark Grody. It is on Thursday, April 16th, from 6 to 8 p.m. in our sick Blue Cross Blue Shield Performance Studio 312 540-0670. That is correct. So don't say we never gave you anything.

That's right. We're giving you take the North Live podcast tickets. And I actually think it's going to be great. Maybe you guys can hassle Grady and Dan Weeder and ask them some questions. We did last year. And that was the, we realized that was. the best part of the show. We went into the audience and had questions. We'll have a great

guest. We'll probably get a draft expert on. Dan and I'll give our opinions. But we will make studs take the microphone into the audience like we did last year for our overflow crowd and hopefully we'll have the same this year. See, it's just like when Oprah would do that with the audience. That's what I was thinking.

Everybody felt represented. Yes. Oprah still teaches us a lot of lessons. Coming up next year, I'm Rahimi-Harrison Grotie. Let's get some tournament talk in because the Illini looked solid. yesterday to say the least against Fran McCaffrey and Penn. So Jeremy Warner, the publisher of Illini Inquirer.com, will join us next to talk about the second round of the tournament.

Red will dribble it out into the front court. Illinois, absolutely lights out in the second half. They won away with this one. 10570, the final score. The Aligni beat down the Penn Quakers. And move on to the round of 30. That's right. It was a good day for the fighting Alainai who had suffered in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. But then there seemed to be some karma there as well. Wisconsin ends up getting bounced.

And Illinois is now set to take on VCU the 11 seed. So to discuss it all, we go to our hotline and that is where we bring in Jeremy Werner. He is also on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. He is the publisher of Aligniteenquirer.com. thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. If you ever had that conversation with your friends about ranking the time zones and which are the worst, it's definitely Eastern time zone. Definitely the worst, especially with the 10 o'clock tip off on all the post game activities. Thanks for having me this morning.

There's no doubt about that. The West Coast time in the East Coast is absolutely the worst. And think about the 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. change. Some people are going to bed on the West Coast while you're waking up on the East Coast. And honestly, I was complaining here in the central time zone yesterday, Jeremy, just because of the VCU. I'm like, somebody please score a basket in this over. Is anybody going to score a basket and win this game? I can't have a second overtime because I'd like to go to bed too at some point in time.

I'm with you. It was a 4.30 bedtime for me last night after the late, late game. We got another late one on Saturday. But carbon, the NCAA tournament's pretty fun. So I'm not going to complain too much, guys. Well, and a nice change of pace after last week when I was eating crow after I, I asked you, oh, is this Brad Underwood's best team and then they lose to Wisconsin? What did you see out of the Illini that you liked and what was more indicative of how they've

performed all season long last night? Yeah, it can be Brad's best team because you see what this offense is when it's firing all cylinders and you can see what this rebounding is because of this great size. Now, they overmatched Ivy League team and Penn and their best player, T.J. Power was sick and one of their best players, Ethan Roberts, was out with an injury. But that's what you want to see in a first round game. You know, other teams are struggling a little bit. Duke struggled with Sienna yesterday.

Those first round nerves can get a team. And, oh, I didn't play perfect in the first half. But I thought they came out pretty well. And obviously, the second half, they just blew the doors off. But that's what you want to see. And it should be a confidence builder for this team that I don't know if they got a break in VCU beating North Carolina and coming back and winning that one. But it's an 11 seed.

That's how Illinois got to a sweet. 16 and in elite eight eventually a couple years ago is du cane pulled off an upset against BYU and sometimes the bracket breaks your way and uh you earn that when you're a number three seed and you have a good season like you are so the path has opened up for illinois but obviously david mirkovich was a story last night dominating with 29 and and 17 and i'm sure we'll get to him but that that's just kind of the urgency and just kind of confidence and imposing your will that you want to see from illinois to start off the instillway tournament what were you thinking though in that first half, there was a stretch where the Aligni missed 12 of 13 shots, but they had 18

offensive rebounds. And the guy that you just mentioned, Murkovich, basically kept them in the game. I'm like, wow, are they vulnerable to this Penn team? And then all of a sudden they were, the Penn just ran out of gas. It felt like, Jeremy. Yeah, and Illinois was just too big, too good for them to handle. And you knew that would be the case at some point. I thought Illinois controlled the game.

for the most part. But yeah, there was, just like we'd seen previously, Illinois gets this big lead, starts off great, and then they just kind of start settling. They kind of fall in love with three-pointers. I think in that 11 or 12 shots, Bamark that you mentioned, I think it shot nine or 10 three-pointers. Penn is terrible at stopping teams at the rim. You saw it with Andres Stryakovich and David Merkovich, but they just kind of started settling for threes, weren't, you know, kind of mentally tough enough to just kind of keep going at that because that's what is so easy for them to get when they, want it, but it's tough physically. It's tough mentally to keep going to that. So yeah, that was the one concern, but then they fixed that. There was a concerted effort early in the second half to get

Thomas Lovivisich, a seven-footer on the post. He's really improved his post game here in Illinois, got him going, got him a confidence builder. But it was really the offensive rebounding, just toughness and tenacity of David Mirkovich, who had one of the best individual NCAA tournament games Illinois has ever seen. Only three other players in Illinois. Illinois history have scored more in an NCAA tournament game. They go by the name of Darren Williams, Frank Williams, and Terrence Shannon Jr. Wow. That's pretty good.

Wow. First drawn picks there. Yeah. And David Mirkovich set a record for Illinois in the NCAA tournament with 17 rebounds. And it was great to have him on that stage perform that way because even Keaton-Wagler said it after the game. Because Wogler has been so good and he was fantastic last night, it's kind of taken away the shine of Murkovic, who's also had one of the best freshman seasons.

Yeah. in Illinois history. He currently has 457 points, guys. Wow. That's only 38 away from beating the previous record. Now, Wogler's shattered that with 591 points, but Casper Siacosha had 494 last year. Corey Bradford at 494, and he's only eight rebounds away from saying the Illinois freshman record in rebounds, which was set by Kofi Coburn back in 2020. Now, Kofi didn't play as many games because COVID canceled the postseason, but he's put together

one of the best seasons. And to be honest with you guys, he has been their best player over the last month. And for a freshman, he's been ridiculously, ridiculously consistent. Well, and I think Jeremy, as we talked to Jeremy Warner, the publisher of the Illythai Inquirer, one of the things that I think what we saw in the first half, especially that game against Penn, is something that they're going to have to do. You need something else to rely on when your shooting doesn't go right for you. And for them to be able to use that to fuel the second half. You know, that's, that's, you know how the boom and bust is with this team and really Brad Underwood's teams in the tournament. If they're not shooting well, then they exit early. So to have that fallback and to have those offensive boards,

and you know, Keaton Wogler had an excellent line as well, 18 points, seven assists, seven rebounds. That, that will sustain you. That will win you a game and sneak you through another round in the tournament for sure. Yeah, Brad Underwood's mantra, all you. years, yes, he built this team around offense and it's working. They're the number one offense in the country. It's a historic offense efficiency-wise. And when they're rolling, you see in the second half what this team is capable. They're capable of beating anyone when their offense is at a high gear. But you're not going to make shots every night. And they have been through a shooting slump over the last month. And what do you do? Can you win games when you don't shoot it well from

three? How do you do that? Well, for Illinois, it's offensive rebound. They did that last night. I think They had 28 second chance points last night dominated the glass 48 to 25. But also their defense was pretty locked in. Kyle and Boswell was an animal against T.J. Power. Again, I know Power was sick in that game, but Boswell only let him get up eight shots. That was one of the lows of his season, held him the six points, his season low there. And they really held Penn down from three. They hit a couple late, but nine for 30 from three.

And Ivy League team is going to have to make 14 or 15 to beat a team like Illinois. So they did those little things for the most part last night. Obviously, it's going to step up here a little bit with VCU. But I liked him getting Thomas Lavivich more on the post. He's been really good down there. So I think they need to make him a more concerted effort early in games to get him going. And then Dobbin Mirkovich can back people down because I'm sure we'll talk about VCU here in a moment. But VCU, they got good guard play, but they're not strong up front.

So that's something Illinois has got to utilize Thomasovievich on the post, Dobin Mirovich on the post, Dobokovovovovovovov. post, but also guys like Andre Stoyakovich and Colin Boswell, guys who can get to the rim, they can't settle. They can't settle for threes because they're not good three-point shooters. And Keaton-Wager, I thought, did a really good job of getting to the paint and getting to the rim as well last night. So they got to keep doing that. Well, unfortunately, Jeremy, the passage of time gets us yet again because we are out of it as we head to our top of the hour. But we are looking forward to that VCU game. We will keep in touch

with you for sure. And thanks for the insight today. Thanks for getting up. Yeah, anytime, guys. Thanks. Thank you, Jeremy. That is Jeremy Warner, who has had himself a schedule snafu with those late tournament games, and he is covering the Illinois, as he always does, aligni Inquirer.com, and you can also see his work on X at J. Warner 24-7. We also want to be on time because one of our favorite football guests is coming on next is Mike Sando from the Athletic, here to talk about his latest work, NFL free agency, and more next. Next.