The Kevin Sheehan Show - Bears Might Trade #1?

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Kevin solo today opened with the speculation that Chicago may hold onto Justin Fields and trade the #1 overall pick. Kevin explored the potential price and probability of Washington moving up a spot for Caleb Williams. Kevin also discussed the weekend report that Sam Howell could bring back a 3rd-round pick or more in a trade. Kevin finished up with the Terps' win at Rutgers and thoughts on "Court Storming".  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show is Kevin. On the inbound is picked, and the party is done in Winston-Saintle. Kyle Philipowski is being helped off by members of the Duke's staff, and you saw the immediate bear hug surrounding him as this court-storming is in full effect with Philipsky hobbled. Wow.

So where are you on? court storming. I'll give you my thoughts on court storming at the very end of the show. It's not going to lead the show today, even though I came in with the highlight of what happened Saturday in Winston-Salem. Wake Forest beat Duke by 4.8379. Their fans storm the floor, and Duke's really good player, Kyle Philipowski, got banged up in the process. So that conversation is all the rage today. The show is always presented by Windo Nation. Call them at 86699. or head to wind donation.com. You've got just over three days to get half price on all windows, any style,

with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two full years. Their month of February, big deal coming down to the wire. Mention my name at 86690 Nation, and you'll get a free in-home estimate. By the way, in that Wake Forest game on Saturday against Duke, Wake was unranked and favored by two and a half over the eighth ranked Blue Devil. Yes, I was on Wake Forest laying the points. They won by four. That was a winner.

I wish all of my picks on Saturday were winners, but they were not. Anywho, I wanted to open with this. So I read this morning that the NFL is losing one of its long-time Hall of Fame writers and columnists. Peter King announcing his retirement in his Monday morning quarterback column, this morning. I'm not mentioning this because I'm about to do some sort of look back on a great career kind of a thing. I'm mentioning it because in his last column, he wrote two things that I thought were really interesting, which I will get to here in a moment. I've never been, let me just be really clear, I've never been the biggest Peter King fan, but definitely

have a lot of respect. Anybody that's lasted as long as he has has clearly done something right. He's been covering the league in some shape or form for 44 years. That's included writing. It's included broadcasting. He's had a hell of a run. But for me, roughly 10 years ago or so, it just bothered me when he went public, when nobody was clamoring for him to go public, that he wasn't going to use Redskins anymore. He was not going to use that name, that he was deeply offended. and after 30 plus years of a career of covering the NFL and using the name, it had finally occurred to him that he could no longer use the name. And I just didn't feel like at that time there was any reason for him to go public with his thoughts.

There wasn't a huge outcry for writers or broadcasters that covered the league to give their opinion one way or the other. There were people that were truly passionate about the issue, had studied it, as much as you could, and we're ready to deal with the consequences, whichever side they were on, you know, it was their issue. You know, we had Mike Wise in this town for many years. Whether you were with him or against him, this was his issue. He was super passionate.

He lived it. It was a big part of him as a columnist. I mean, it wasn't the only thing about Mike Wise, the columnist, but he was there taking, you know, the backslaps from the people that agreed with him. and taking the hits from the people that did not agree with him. He was ready to deal with the consequences of his position. And I just felt like Peter King in that moment could have easily stopped using the name without telling anybody. And it would have, for the most part, gone unnoticed.

There were a few people back then that were scattered here and there that had a problem with the name and would just use Washington when they wrote or would just use Washington when they broadcast it. unless you were really paying close attention, you really didn't pick up on it. And there wasn't really much said about it if you did pick up on it. I just felt that Peter King having this revelation after 30 plus years of using the name, that it was a bit, you know, as the kids say today, performative. And I still to this day, as I thought back then, I just didn't understand the outrage over this issue and not some of the others that were

actually less debatable. You know, the tomahawk chop. Still, to this day, nobody seems to have a problem with it. openly mocking Native Americans in unison. You know, the mocking logos of Native Americans. It seemed to be stuck on just this team name. I do remember, and I'm probably not going to get this exactly right, because there's, I tried to find some sort of record of. of it. But this was on radio. It was following the 2016 Washington Post poll, remember, that had the results that 9 out of 10 Native Americans did not find the name offensive. And Peter King was on our station on 980. I don't remember who he was on with. It was not Tommy and me. I don't, and, well, at that point, it would have been Cooley and I doing the show together. It was not with

Chris and me. have been with Zabe and Andy. It may have been with Zabe and Scott Lynn. It may have been with Doc and Coach and Brian. I can't remember what it was, but I remember being really, really upset about something that he said and going off on him a little bit the following day or the following show. He basically said that the results of the poll were very surprising to him. He was very surprised that nine out of ten Native Americans were not offended by the name. But then he said, something to the effect of, you know, you don't make moral decisions based on polling, which, okay, there's nothing wrong with that.

But then he went on and on about how, you know, polling doesn't reflect the feelings of minorities, that, you know, the majority is more reflected in polling than the minority. And I just remember, whether it was the next day or it was over a week, and on Monday just coming in and saying that just this poll was of the minority. It was only of Native Americans. Like he had missed that whole point, that that poll was of only 500 plus Native Americans. Now, there's been lots of debate about the polling, that specific poll, and other polling, as I think there always will be. But the point was that this was not a poll that included non-Native Americans.

It was a polling of only Native Americans. So I just felt like that, you know, of course, you know, if you feel strongly about something, ethically, morally, et cetera, you don't let polling sway you. I mean, I don't know, all pieces of information would be accessible for me in trying to come up with something of an opinion on something, unless I just felt, you know, about it. in a way that was super personal to me. But he just had it all wrong. I just remember thinking and listening to that.

He was on the station. It was later on in the day, and I'm like, wait a minute, somebody say to him, this was not a poll that included anybody but Native Americans. But anyway, I digress. As an NFL writer, Peter King is one of those that will be remembered as a very, very good one. And the reason I'm bringing up his last column is because of two things in it that I thought were really interesting. The first was this, and it was under the category, if you've read Peter King over the years, he does this category on that's titled Things I Think, and this was 10 Things I Think, and it was number seven on the list of 10 things that I think. And he wrote, I think I won't miss mock drafts, busy work.

Waste of time. Blight on the football planet. One mock draft, the week of the draft, or close to it. After listening to sources and people you trust in the game, fine. And even good. Mock drafts in February? Laffable. You don't know anything. Mock drafts in October?

Worse because you don't have any idea who's picking where. What a total waste of time. That made me smile because I, I think he speaks for many in media, NFL media, that are asked to do mock drafts. You know, there are people who do them because it's their actual job to do them, the Kipers of the world. But even they would tell you that they like the evaluating of the players and the projecting of the players to the next level, the NFL level, more than the mocking out of the draft, you know, giving grades and giving rounds, you know, projected rounds.

The mock part of it is so out there until we get to April, maybe mid to late April, as Peter King mentioned. It's fun to look at them for us and talk about them as fans, as long as we recognize them for what they are. Now, let me just make one exception, of course. Ben Standig, our good friend, is a multi-time mock draft champ, so I pay attention to his mock drafts, especially his final entry. But the more important part of these mock drafts are to pay attention to the evaluations that go with them, and especially from the people that you really respect. And even then, the hit rate on getting it right is at best, at best, one out of three.

But then there was this from Peter King's final column. He wrote, and this was also under the ten things that I think. And he said, I think I have five quick thoughts about. the near future. And this was one of them. He writes, quote, I suppose the bears are going to trade the top pick. I know nothing, but that seems to be the way the wind is blowing. What I say, the bears could keep Justin Fields and should, and trade the first pick down once or twice and build the kind of supporting cast a team needs to contend. Suppose GM Ryan Poles traded the top pick down one spot to Washington, which would take Caleb Williams, and got the second pick, a second round pick,

and a 2025 first round pick in return. Then suppose polls traded the second pick to Atlanta at number eight, and the Falcons picked one of the other quarterbacks. In return, Chicago gets the eighth pick, Atlanta's second round pick, and first and second round picks next year. Imagine moving from one to eight in ending up with that draft hall. By the way, did he get that right? Chicago would get the eighth pick. They would get Atlanta's second rounder and a first and second round pick next year, and then they would get Washington's second rounder from this year and Washington's first rounder from next year. So basically,

he concludes by writing, for moving down seven picks in the first round, the bears could end up with nine picks in the first two rounds of the next two drafts. Instant infrastructure. So there's kind of some support for this latest trend on Justin Fields staying in Chicago and the Bears potentially trading number one. He says he doesn't know anything. But Peter Schrager of Fox Sports wrote that you might want to slow down on the notion that the Bears have picked Caleb Williams over fields.

While a decision might not be imminent, Schrager outlines that the upcoming week might be the most important yet as it's the biggest step in the fact-finding mission, adding that Bears' GM Ryan Poles will likely gauge the trade value of the number one pick. So would you do it? Would you swap spots one to two, throw in a first rounder in 2025, and one of your two second round picks in this upcoming draft. By the way, they have number 36 overall.

They also have number 40, which is the pick they got from Chicago for Montez Sweat. So let's just say it's that second one for, you know, the purposes of being able to say we're sending your second round pick back to you now. What if you had to give up, you know, for one spot, next year's first, and number 40 overall in this draft? The answer lies in the team. team's evaluation of the quarterbacks. It's that simple. I mean, we can have our own opinions,

and I'll share mine with you here in a moment, but the team's decision on something like this, it all depends on how they evaluate these quarterbacks. If there is just one quarterback that they love and they have that quarterback, let's just say it's Caleb Williams, much higher on their board than any of the other quarterbacks, you do it. A first and a second for one spot, a swapping of one spot, giving up next year's first and giving up a second, especially if there's heated competition, which for the purposes of this conversation, let's just say New England also has a similar interest. And so Chicago's fielding offers from more than just Washington. It doesn't seem like that historic of a

hall that we've read Chicago needs to move down in the draft? I would not have a problem if the team did this with the reason being the guy they pick at number one is the guy everybody wants and it's because

he's much better than the others and they feel the same way. I would never have a problem with that. Are you kidding me? Like you get the guy and the only guy that you feel has a chance to be the guy. He's much higher on your board, and you're giving up a second rounder, number 40 overall, and next year's first to get that guy? No, that does not seem to me to be

hefty. It doesn't. Not if you're absolutely convinced that there's a big difference between the person you want at number one, let's just call him Caleb Williams, and then all of the other quarterbacks. My personal view, okay, now that's the team has to make that evaluation. The team's evaluation, if it says we've got a guy in Caleb Williams that is just way higher than any other quarterback in the draft, you do it. My personal view is that I think Jaden Daniels isn't that far off from Caleb Williams. I've shared that with you before. I'll share it again. It's a personal view. It's based on watching them play for the last couple of years. It has nothing to do with the kind of information, the intangible information that we don't have.

They have that information. We don't have that information. It's based on, you know, fan evaluation, watching these quarterbacks the last couple of years. I've said it before. My top three would be in order. Caleb Williams won, Jaden Daniels, a close to, and Drake May. May 3. I think Daniels is closer to one, closer to Caleb Williams, than May is to number two. May is to Daniels. So without knowing anything about the type of leader, person, the work ethic, the intelligence, etc., etc., I'd stick it to and take the one that lands for me, you know, whether it's Williams or Daniels.

Because I think they're pretty close. I think Williams is the better overall prospect, but just not buy enough where I would make that trade. But if they view there to be a big difference, I'd have no problem if they made that trade. Benefit of the doubt, Kev, at work here. The Indy Combine starts this week, later in the week, to be precise. This will be a week of information leaking. There will be plenty of reckless speculation. There will be lots of rumors.

and there will be some real reporting as well. Adam Peters is scheduled to speak tomorrow. So will Dan Quinn. So on Wednesday show, we'll have a lot of the Peters and the Dan Quinn from tomorrow. I think Peter speaks early enough in the day where we'll have some of what Peters said on the show tomorrow with Tommy. As far as the quarterbacks go, it looks like Williams and Daniels won't throw, but they will be there to interview. as far as Drake May goes, as of the recording of this podcast, not sure on what he plans on doing in Indy.

He will be there. I'd personally love it if the guys took the chance and showed that they're not afraid of anything and at least through at Indy. The tape is the most important thing. I understand that. But to me, it would represent some level of fearlessness if one of them said,

no, I'm throwing. That's what I do. do. I'll throw on my pro day also, but you guys are here. I'm not afraid of failing. Watch, you know, watch this. I'm sure most agents would tell me to shut up and sit down that, you know, we're not risking anything on a guy that's going to go in the top three in this draft. By the way, if Williams, Daniels, and May go one, two, three in this draft, I read this, not in Peter King's column, somewhere else, it will be just the fourth time. It has happened in 54 years since the merger.

54 years. Now, it did happen recently. It happened in 2021 when Trevor Lawrence went one. Zach Wilson went two and Trey Lance went three. Then you got to go back to 1999 for the time that it happened for one of the other three times it happened. Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb, Achilles Smith. Ooh. And then in 1971.

one, all right, the year after the merger. Jim Plunkett won, Archie Manning, two, and Dan Pastorini, three. Those were the only times since the merger that we've had quarterbacks go one, two, three, and it looks like there's a chance that it'll happen this year unless somebody takes Marvin Harrison Jr. By the way, he is not going to show up in Indy, not even for interviews, which I think is pretty interesting. Also interesting is the story that was out there over the weekend that Sam Howell has a lot of interest from other teams. We will get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. Go to my bookie.

Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and you'll get a cash bonus on your initial deposit. March Madness is right around the corner. They'll have everything at MyBooky that you, you need not only for the men's tournament, but for the women's tournament as well. All of the game lines, totals, money lines, all the prop bets, lots of contests as well. So make my bookie your march home for all of your college basketball betting needs. Again, use my promo code, Kevin, DC, to ensure a cash bonus on your initial deposit. So there was a lot of Sam Hal talk from over the weekend. There was a report that Ralph Vakiano from Fox Sports had. He covers the NFC East.

He wrote a story about Washington and what they need their off-season checklist to be. He had three items. Number one was choose a quarterback for the future. Number two was completely rebuild the offensive line. And number three was replace what they lost on defense. Well, in writing about choosing a quarterback. He wrote about Sam Howl. He wrote multiple NFL sources believe several teams would be interested in trading for the 23-year-old who threw for 3,946 yards and 21 touchdowns and 17 starts last season, albeit with an NFL worst 21 interceptions. They could potentially get a third round pick for him, maybe more, if they decide they're willing to deal him. sometime around the draft.

A team like the New York Jets who know they'll need somebody after Aaron Rogers' career ends would be wise to make a call. So lots of you sent this link to me over the weekend. So there are a couple of things. Number one, let me just start with this. Man, I'd be surprised if anybody offered a third round pick and maybe more for Sam Hal. could I see an end of third round compensatory kind of a pick, I guess. More likely, I could see a fourth rounder for Sam Howe.

That's what the Cowboys gave up for Trey Lance, who was the number three pick in the draft. I understand Sam Hal's played a lot more football, but playing a lot more football isn't necessarily a good thing when it comes to the evaluation of Sam Hal. We all believe that there were some good moments during the course of the year, But ultimately, when all 17 games were, you know, played and over with, it was not a good season for Sam Howell. And we can sit there and we can try to rationalize and justify and come up with reasons as to why it wasn't a good season. He had a part in not having a good season. Yes, it could have been Eric B. Enemy related.

Yes, it could have been the fact that Ron Rivera was a lame duck coach all year. Yes, it could have been offensive line related. It could have been a lot of things. But Sam, in a lot of games, wasn't anywhere near good enough, anywhere near promising enough. And that's really what you were looking for. You weren't looking for wins and, you know, unbelievable performances. I mean, that would have been nice to make it obvious. But you were looking for some shred of evidence that he could be the guy.

He could be it. You know, and after 17 games, I just don't think that evidence is there. I think the evidence is there that Sam Hal can be a backup quarterback and be a part-time starter in a pinch. He can be Gardner Minchu. He can be Colt McCoy. He can be Taylor Heineckee.

You know, differences in the way they play and the physical abilities of all of them. I mean, Sam has physical abilities that, quite honestly, Taylor Heineke does not have. But Taylor Heineke may have had the ability to process a little bit faster than Sam did. But the way I would think about it is, first of all, if somebody said, no, no, you get a third and a fifth, you know, for Sam Howe. And the third, by the way, is in the middle of the third round.

I don't think that's going to be there. But the first thing that I would want the team, and I'm sure they will, to figure out is, what do we think of Sam Howe? because if we think he's good enough to be a solid NFL backup quarterback, then why get rid of them? You know, it's hard finding solid backup NFL quarterbacks. There's no guarantee that you're going to have one on your roster, especially on a rookie deal with two years left on it.

If they believe, and by the way, to a certain extent, I believe Sam Hal can be a solid NFL backup quarterback, they're hard to find. I'm not just giving them away. However, if I feel that my number two overall, and the assumption here is that they're going to pick a quarterback, right, early in the draft, if he needs some veteran mentorship, you know, beyond Cliff Kingsbury and everybody they've hired, which, you know, I hope they don't need veteran leadership.

Look, Sam Howell's not a mentor, okay? Like you're not keeping Sam Howell. Somebody tweeted me, you take Drake May, you keep Sam Howell and Sam because they're friends. He can mentor Drake May. Sam Howe's not a mentor. That's not his personality. First of all, he's only been in the league for two years, started for one year, and this is going to be a brand new offense. He's not a mentor for the new quarterback.

That's not the way to look at it at all. He's not mentoring anybody. It's not his personality anyway. He's an introvert. He's well liked, you know, his teammates definitely liked Sam Howl, but he's not, you know, that kind of leader. And who's relying on a second year quarterback or, you know, in this offseason, an upcoming third year quarterback to mentor a rookie in a new system? Come on, that's, that doesn't make any sense to me at all. You keep Sam Howell because you think that he is as good as you can do at backup quarterback.

That's why you keep them. If you think your number two overall pick could really benefit from veteran presence and that veteran presence is also a really good backup quarterback, then I have no problem if they go in that direction. And then they move Sam for a late compensatory third or a fourth rounder or whatever. If they feel like Jacoby Brissette or a Gardner, Minchu, or somebody like, you know, in that category, been around for a while, We know Berset, so let's stick with Berset.

Berset's probably going to command 8 to 9 million a year again. And I think he might get a two-year deal for that when free agency opens. If you feel like, you know, he could benefit from some veteran presence, as long as that veteran presence can play, can start games in a pinch, can maybe start games to start the year if your young guy's not ready to go week one and is going to be ready more week three or week four, then you go that route. But if there's very little difference in backup quarterbacking

and you're not really looking for a mentor for your number two pick because you've got all these different people on your staff, including Cliff Kingsbury, who's been a bit of a QB guru working with so many of them, young, you know, when they've been very young, then I would just stick with Sam. I think Sam's a, I think he's got a career in the NFL, a long career in the NFL as a backup quarterback. You know, those backup quarterbacks,

you want them to be fearless and you want them to be able to move. You know, and that's what he is. He's never looked afraid, although he was a bit shell shock there at the end of the year. There's no doubt about that. But it's one of the things that you loved about Taylor Heineke, is that you knew that he was ready to come in and there was not a care in the world.

He looked completely unfazed by the moment. He was up to it always, competitively. And I kind of feel that way about Sam. So I would keep Sam unless I really felt like, you know what, be really nice to have an eight, nine-year veteran like Jacoby Brissette in our quarterback room. He's just so smart.

He's so helpful. he's the perfect teammate. He, we would actually feel a little bit better about him as a backup and as a part-time starter if we've got to go in that direction. But if it's close on the actual play, I wouldn't spend the $8 to $9 million. But we've talked about this previously, and I've suggested, I think there is a chance that Sam Howell's not on the roster next year. I think there is a chance.

You know, part of it's just going to be there. Well, all of it's going to be about their evaluation of Sam. You know, if they watch these 17 games and they see a kid who was just too limited in his processing, in his size, et cetera, and that's what led to all the sacks, not the offensive line, not the offensive coordinator, you know, and there's a lot of belief out there that the majority of these sacks, the majority of these bad plays were on Sam. I'm not saying an overwhelming majority were on Sam, and that he's got flaws that are, as we were discussing, very early in the season, they tend to be really crippling flaws.

But I just can't see a third plus for Sam. I can't. I mean, Tray Lance, it was a fourth rounder. The Cowboys gave up for him. You know, what's interesting is that in many ways, I could see Sam being the perfect backup for a veteran quarterback, like Aaron Rogers, and a veteran quarterback being the perfect backup for the number two pick in the draft,

call him Jaden Daniels or Drake May. But Sam, there's something too, Sam. He can play a little bit. He's not the starter. I don't think he is the starter after what we watched that's going to take you into a five to seven year run of being a contender. All right, uh, court storming and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This final segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation.

Right now, replace your windows and you'll save big. 50% off on all window styles with no money down, no interest, and no payments for 24 months. Plus, an additional 10% off through the end of the month if you mention my name, Kevin Sheehan at 86690 Nation or windownation.com. So in addition to 50% off, mention, my name, you'll get an additional 10% off until the end of this month. The end of this month is this Thursday, 29 days this February. We are in a leap year year here in 2024. Take advantage of it. Don't miss out. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com. A free and home estimate and an additional 10% off through the end of this month. If you mention my name, they're the best. They're not

going to pressure you to take this deal. Just get an estimate. If you've got windows that are older, if you've got windows that are letting cold air in, you're spending too much on your heating bills, you spend too much on your air conditioning bills in the summertime. Call them now at 86690 Nation or visit windownation.com. So a couple of things before I get to just a final thought on the whole court storming issue. I'm going to start with college basketball. First of all, Georgetown beat DePaul. I mean, these are two of the worst teams in the country. They are the two worst teams in the Big East. And Georgetown, with the win over DePaul, pretty much clenches that they won't end up in last place in the Big East.

They won by a point over DePaul who is winless, and they are three and 24 overall winless in the Big East. Maryland yesterday beat Rutgers, 63 to 46. This team, man, I know some of you. I roll when I say this, and some of you have pushed back on this. I don't give a shit. They play so hard, and they've had very little reason to do it. They are so good and so, so feisty on defense. They held Rutgers to their low point total of the year in the Big 10, 46 points.

They had 18 in the first half. Maryland's they still got something left in this season. They have not had a game that wasn't winnable since January 2nd when they lost to Purdue at home by 14. Every game since January 2nd, which is pretty much every game they've played in the Big 10, they've either won or they could have won. Now, they've lost too many of them. They're 7 and 10 in the Big 10, 15 and 13 overall. Ken Palm, in their rankings, they've got Maryland right now as the number 44 team in America.

That is bubble territory in Ken Palm. Now, they are 57th, I think, in the net, which is outside kind of that bubble range. But there are a couple more wins away from, you know, I say this every year when it comes to the tournament. You've got to fill out every line in the bracket, 68 teams. and sometimes in some years, it's hard to find 68 qualified teams. Maryland's 44 and Ken Palm's advanced numbers because it recognizes what they are. And that is, they're pretty good. They just have lost a lot of close games.

Kevin Willard gets a lot of credit. I've given them credit already. It's so hard to get a team to defend night in and night out the way his team does when you're not winning and when you're not very good offensively. It's much easier to get kids to participate and come out and play offense, much harder to get them to be consistent on the defensive end when a season is kind of lost or teetering. And he's gotten that team to defend night in and night out.

They're the number six team in America defensively. By the way, they played the number two team in the country defensively in Rutgers. I'm telling you, the difference between being an absolute rock-solid NCAA tournament team and not is like 10 made shots and 10 made free throws over the course of the last two months. It's essentially it. I'm talking about some 14 to 15 games. You know, if they could have made just 10 more shots in aggregate, 10 more free throws, they wouldn't be 7 and 10, they'd be 10 and 7 in the big 10.

and they'd be absolutely solid in terms of their NCAA tournament prospects. But they're not there right now. They're going to have to probably win the Big Ten tournament because the best they can do is 10 and 10, and they lost their two opportunities to beat quad one teams in Wisconsin and Illinois. Although they do have games with Northwestern left. I think the Northwestern game might be a Quad One game. I don't know.

I'd have to look at that right now. Let me just see where Northwestern is. No, I don't think that'll be a quad one win. I think that'll be a quad two win for the purposes of trying to enhance their resume. But they play effing hard, man. Every night they play hard. And they did it yesterday at Rutgers in a tough environment without Jemir Young going off offensively. He had one of his worst offensive games, one of his worst offensive games,

one of his worst offensive games of the year. He had 12 points. Missed four free throws. He's a 92% free throw shooter. But he made a lot of really good point guard plays, passes. And they got a really good effort from Jordan Geronimo, from Dante Scott. Julian Reese had 20. Man, I wish Reese just wish he wouldn't put the ball on the floor in traffic when he's double-teamed. He just turns it over so many times when turnover is really. shouldn't happen at this point in this career. For you basketball people that may not be paying attention,

it is a rock fight every game they're in. It ain't pretty at all. But if you appreciate just a coach who's in the midst of a disappointing season, but coaching his ass off to get his kids to just play so hard night in and night out, they're limited. It's his fault that they're limited offensively. You know, the players, the roster is his responsibility, too. But I think he's done a phenomenal job coaching this team night in and night out

because they have played teams that should be better and maybe better by a lot in some cases. And they just, the games that are going to haunt them, the double overtime loss at Ohio State, even though Ohio State now is one like, you know, after firing their head coach, they have won back-to-back or won two games. They beat Purdue and they beat Michigan State. That game they had basically won, but they missed free throws and lost in double overtime. And they lost to Rutgers at home by three.

And it just wasn't, it was a game after a really physical draining loss at Michigan State. And it kind of felt like they could have won that game. You know, you take the two Michigan State losses and you get one of them, And you get that Ohio State game or you get Rutgers in Ohio State and they're right there, right there on the proverbial NCAA tournament bubble. They have Northwestern on Wednesday night at home, Indiana at home on Sunday and Penn State on the road to finish up. Wouldn't be surprised if they win two out of the three there. That would give them a losing record in the Big Ten, but probably would keep them out of that bottom four, which they've never in their, years in the Big Ten, they've never finished in the bottom four, which requires you to play that

first night of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday night. They've played, they've either had the double by or the single by every single year. They've been in the Big Ten. Right now, they are outside of that top four. That's 11, spots 11 through 14. They're in 10th place right now in the Big Ten with a chance to move up a little bit between now and the Big Ten tournament. So I want to finish up with just a thought or two on the conversation that many are having. about court storming in the wake of what happened at Wake Forest on Saturday when they beat Duke and Kyle Philopowski, when a Duke's really good players, got knocked around a little bit by the fans that stormed the court. Same thing happened to Caitlin Clark a few weeks ago at Ohio State. I think there's an

obvious answer here. I think it's the easy answer. I think it's the right answer. I'll get to it in a moment. I do want to mention, though, that I was a big fan of courtstorming for many, many years. I, as a Maryland fan, witnessed it many times, you know, at Cole Fieldhouse, at Xfinity Center, at Bird Stadium a few times as well during the Bobby Ross years or during the Ralph Region years. Remember the Clemson game in 2001 that set it up for them to win the ACC title or it was for a share of the title? They won the ACC title the following week at NC State. The goalpost came down against North Carolina Halloween weekend 1983 and Boomer Siousyn's final game at Maryland and they got carried up and down Route 1. I've seen many a couch burning on Route 1 as well.

I mean, I think anybody, certainly younger people are passionate fans. There were moments that, you know, you felt like it deserved a court storming. But it just happened so many times. And in recent years, I would say the last five to ten years, they haven't even been deserved court stormings. It's just that you get a lot of young kids that are like, I'm going to the game. If we win, we get to storm the court,

and it's like you're beating the number seven team in the country, the number of 12 team in the country. You know, it wasn't saved for the true occasions that deserved it. But here's the truth about court storming. It's dangerous. It's not orderly. It's always been dangerous. I mean, these goalposts that used to come down,

and by the way, a lot of the emphasis has been on college court stormings for many, many years. I mean, pro teams, you know, you had massive, you know, go watch the highlight of Chris Chamblis, 76 AL Championship Series, the home run that beat the Royals at Yankee Stadium. He gets just beyond second base and then basically fights and swings his way into the dugout and into the locker room. You know, the skins, when they won the title in 72 at home against the Cowboys, the NFC championship game,

fans rushed the field with still two minutes left in the game after Kurt Knight kicked a field goal. They had to move them back to the sidelines. They watched the final two minutes with fans draped around the sidelines. George Allen famously had his hat ripped off his head when he was carried off the field in a swarm of fans. I mean, hell, there are regular season games you can go back to and watch fans. in NFL games storming the field. Washington beat Dallas in a regular season game in 1975, 30 to 24 in overtime on a Billy Kilmer sneak.

And the fans stormed the field after they scored. There used to be, if you go back and watch games from the 70s in particular, you know, somebody scores a touchdown and fans run into the end zone and slap the players on the back. I mean, that's not necessarily a field storming. But look at Larry Bird, 84, Game 7, Boston Garden, they beat the Celtics. They beat the Lakers, excuse me. And Bird is, you know, barely able to get off the floor in one piece.

So it wasn't, you know, until maybe the last 15, 20 years. It wasn't just exclusive to college sports. Pro sports decided it was unsafe. It was perhaps very costly in terms of lawsuits. and they added more security and they started to punish people who did it. And that's what has to happen now everywhere. I mean, these colleges are at risk. This is not a safe activity.

And it needs to stop. I mean, I think there should be a zero tolerance policy now. The leagues, the universities, the NCAA, I mean, these member institutions should all come together and say, it's not worth it. Like, I'm not sure, I've heard this argument that it's a great marketing platform for schools or a recruiting tool. Look, you know, how passionate our fan base is. Really?

I mean, you can be really passionate. You can have really loud arenas. I mean, you don't see Duke fans in one of the most hostile environments in all college sports storm the court a lot. You know, it's happened, but not often because usually they're the number one team. and they do okay recruiting-wise. It doesn't happen a lot at Allen Fieldhouse. You know, it happens more with the tier two, tier three, and below schools that, you know,

when they pull off these big upsets or these big rivalry games, it's just not safe. This is easy, okay? Schools come together and they say, you know, these young adults who are taking classes and others who are just in attendance, you're not going to call. our university, you know, big lawsuits or big fines because there are leagues. Like the SEC put out something that they have fined schools in basketball and football, some $3.9 million for court and field stormings over the last two decades. That's unbelievable. I didn't realize that. Not every conference has the same policy. The lack of readiness has always astonished

me, especially in some of these games where you're like, you know it's going to happen. Hopefully you're prepared for it and they don't seem to be prepared for it. But the answer is simple. You can't do this anymore. If you do, you're in trouble. And for those that will take that risk anyway, because there will be people over-served that will take that risk anyway at the end of a game, you still, in addition to having a zero-tolerance policy,

you've got to add more security specifically for opposing teams, players, and coaches. They've got to be able to get off the floor safely. But to me, it is sorry, but you're going to be fined. If you're a student, the ramifications could include suspension. You could get booted from school for multiple offenses. We're putting an end to this. It's just not that entertaining anymore to see for adult fans anyway. Most of the time, it's not even a deserving win or event.

and it's too dangerous, period. End it. I'm not going to miss it. If it's really a marketing tool, a marketing plus or recruiting plus, you're going to have to come up with something else, like, you know, a really good home crowd that's super loud, super influential without storming the court. because crowds are much more influential to the outcome of a game before the game's over. Anyway, I would go zero tolerance across the board on this, and I would think that leagues and universities can come together and come up with something that says, here are the rules and here are the ramifications and the punishments if you can't stop this in your own arena.

And by the way, I don't expect it to be stopped completely. There are going to be people that will just take the risk. And those people have to get punished. Done for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.