The Kevin Sheehan Show - Commanders Closest to Championship?

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Kevin opened with a few emails including answering a question about which team in DC is closest to a championship? Pay Mayo from "The Pat Mayo Experience" jumped on to talk Masters in the second segment of the show. Part 2 of Kevin's conversation with Jimmy Patsos about the Maryland Basketball events of the last few weeks came in the final segment of the show.  Go to https://zbiotics.com/SHEEHAN and use SHEEHAN at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics. Try hims.com/SHEEHAN for your personalized hair loss treatment options. 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. Here's Kevin. Swings and builds one. Deep right, center field. Help James Wood in this series.

Masson's Bob Carpenter last night as James Wood went three for four with two homers and five RBIs. The Nats trounce the Dodgers eight to two. If they win this afternoon, they'll complete their first three-game regular season. sweep of the Dodgers since 2008. The show's presenting sponsors, always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation or Windonation.com, if you need new windows. Two guests on the show today. Jimmy Patsos Part 2.

We had them on on Monday. Per usual with Jimmy, we got into so many things. The conversation went on and on. I love him, and I love the long conversations with him, because he is one of the more interesting people that I know. I saved the Maryland part of the conversation for today. So you'll hear him weigh in on, you know, what took place with Kevin Willard and the hiring of Buzz Williams. I'll save that for the last segment. Next segment, we're going to talk some golf with Pat Mayo. The master starts tomorrow. Pat Mayo was recommended to me. He was excellent.

I've already recorded it with them. For those of you that are into the masters, into gambling on golf, we actually talk some football as well because he does a lot of football also. But Pat Mayo from the Pat Mayo experience in the next segment. This from Pell to open up the show.

Pell writes, Kevin, the McCaffrey story may have been fake, but I could see it. He's 29. He's expensive, and the 49ers have 11 draft picks in a draft loaded with running backs. There would be a lot of teams interested if the Niners wanted to trade him, so compensation would be the question mark. But adding a healthy McCaffrey to our team would make him the second best player after JD. So, first of all, what Kevin, what Pell was referring to was Tommy and I yesterday talked about this fake story on the internet. It wasn't necessarily a fake story. It was kind of presented as breaking news, but it was actually just a prediction on some random website,

and it caught some people by surprise, as the Internet does a lot these days. It's really hard to figure out what's real and what isn't. but it was a Christian McCaffrey gets traded to Washington for a second round pick, and then kind of, you know, this is the prediction of the person that was writing it. Anyway, so I can't disagree with Pell what you said about Christian McCaffrey on this roster. He would be the second best player on our team if he actually were on the roster, healthy. It's also a good point to bring up about the 49ers with 11 draft choices in a draft filled with running backs. San Francisco has four of those 11 picks in the top 100, six of those 11 picks in the top 138 picks.

They've got a first rounder, a second rounder, two thirds, two fourths. Kind of sounds like where we were last year. I think we had six in the top 100. Two of their backs also signed with other teams. Elijah Mitchell signed with the Chiefs and Jordan Mason signed in Minnesota. I don't think there's any doubt that the Niners will take a running back in the draft. They typically do, and they need one, you know, in the event that Christian McCaffrey misses time, which has been a pretty good bet in recent years.

But I think that, Pell, I think that the 49. are going to keep McCaffrey. I don't think they're trading Christian McCaffrey for a couple of reasons. Number one, 2025 is a big year for San Francisco. You know, maybe the last year of a legitimate Super Bowl contending possibility. You know, they are getting older, especially on offense. Trent Williams is going to turn 37. Kittle's going to turn 32.

during the season. McCaffrey for a running back is going to turn 29. So that's on the older side for a running back. So if they're trying to win big and win now, like they treat this like a closing window, you don't get rid of one of your top three players. And one of the answers to the question, how do you win a Super Bowl this year? Well, you have Christian McCaffrey on your team, And he stays healthy. You know, you can't have Christian McCaffrey, you can't contend for a Super Bowl more likely than not, without an elite and healthy Christian McCaffrey.

And the only way for that to happen is for him to be on the roster. I also think that the time to move on from him contractually is next offseason. If you look at the particulars of his deal, they take some cap hit damage by moving him now. They've got room to do it. I guess a really good offer could change things up a little bit, but I don't think he's going anywhere. I just don't.

Now, as far as our team goes, and I said this yesterday to Tommy, too many good running backs in this draft that are cheap. And by the way, hopefully, based on their age, the odds of them being available every week of the season might be better than McAfri's. But you're not wrong. A healthy McCaffrey, and Kyle, by the way, Kyle Shanahan said the other day that he's ready to roll.

He's totally healthy. He would be a game changer, you know, playing 17 healthy games for us or for anybody else, you know, in the league. I mean, he is a truly elite offensive running back, offensive player. You know, he is incredible. incredibly versatile. Barkley, you know, Derek Henry, Bejohn Robinson, Jemir Gibbs, McCaffrey, elite-level game-changing offensive players at the running back position.

This from Evan, here it is. Evan writes, Kevin, which team in D.C. is closest to a championship? I'd say caps over the commanders because hockey is so unpredictable. And the Eagles are really good and are here to stay. What do you think? I think it's the skins, Evan. I think our football team is the closest to a championship. Because of what you just said, you know, hockey is so unpredictable. It's so random when you get to the postseason.

And so, you know, 16 teams in the NHL playoffs, this random quality to the games and the results, you know, it's hard to say that they're closer than the skins are. I know that they've got one of the best records heading into the NHL playoffs. Apparently, you know, and this may be a good thing for them, the odds makers think teams like Florida and Carolina and even Toronto in the east are better or at least as good as the caps. But, you know, the NFL is changeable too. I talk about the year-to-year week-to-week nature of the NFL as well,

but it's less changeable for teams that have greatness at quarterback. And Jaden Daniels is great. Washington's first Super Bowl window is open. It doesn't mean they'll do it. We do know where they have to improve. They have to be better defensively next year. They can't win enough games during the game. a regular season to snag home field advantage or at least get enough home games to make a

legitimate Super Bowl run if their defense isn't better than it was last year. How that defense improves, whether it's the new players, whether it's just year two in the system, whether it's schematic changes made by the coaches, whether it just comes by the nature of defense being variable year to year. They've got to be better defensively, but if you believe like I do that having the best quarterback gives you a really good chance to go far. And if you also believe that Jaden Daniels, like I do, is the best quarterback in the NFC, then I would say of the four professional sports teams, Washington's football team has the best chance and is the closest to a championship. It's obviously not the Wizards. And it's not the nationals, despite winning four in a row against, you know, Arizona twice, good team,

and against the Dodgers, the defending champs in back-to-back nights. No, I think, Evan, my answer to that would be Washington. I want to find and read a couple of more emails because there was a few on the same subject. Here they are. Okay. Actually, I got a lot of emails and tweets over the last week regarding the Maryland situation, Maryland basketball situation. This from Benjamin.

Benjamin writes, Kevin, I'm not judging, but you seem to be less critical of Kevin Willard last week than some of your media cohorts. Scott Van Pelt also seemed to take a step back from his harsh criticism on your show last week. What do you both know that others don't? This from Mo on the same subject, on the same subject. Kevin, I'm a terp like you. I thought you and Van Pelt went from 100 degrees blazing angry to lukewarm pretty quickly after Scott's conversation with Willard would love to know why. Again, lots of feedback, and I appreciate all of it. I know how many Maryland fans listen to the podcast and the radio show,

in part because I have the same passion as some of you. And I know, as I say all the time, when we talk about anything other than football that I might be passionate about, that not all of you care at all. But I'm going to answer these two emails and really similar ones that came in over the weekend in particular. Scott was on the show with me last week and he shared with all of us his conversation with Kevin Willard. He said Kevin Willard had reached out to him. Scott was pretty harsh on his show on Kevin Willard. So let me just begin by saying I don't know what the other media people, my media cohorts in town thought about.

the situation. I know what a lot of fans thought, and I certainly, as I said last week, I thought much of the reaction was over the top, incredibly vulgar, mean. You know, I read a lot of the stuff that came in to me, even threatening. I'm just not going to be that way in almost any situation, especially if I don't have the whole story. And many of those people that are still attacking Willard. Don't have anywhere near enough of the information. And by the way, wanted Willard

fired during the season when they started 1 and 3 in the Big 10, and would have wanted him fired had Derrick Queen not made that shot to beat Colorado State to get to the Sweet 16. As far as other media people, I don't know many that know the Maryland situation in general like I do.

I don't know anybody that knows it like Sky. does. So I don't necessarily care about that response as much. But I'm not sure I was ever 100 degrees blazing mad or what did he say? Blazing angry at Willard. I wasn't

happy and said repeatedly that if Villanova was even a remote possibility going back to that first press conference when he went scorched earth before the Grand Canyon game on the athletic department, I said repeatedly that, you know,

know, if he knew that there was even a chance that he didn't handle things well. He shouldn't have answered anything related to Villanova if he thought there was even a chance. That's for starters. And then he definitely should not have said that he would come back if he got everything he was looking for from Maryland after sort of describing it in that initial press conference and even describing it on my radio show. So I still feel that way, but I was adamant also from the start. And I think based on things that I've learned over the last week or so, I'm glad that I also emphasized during those days that multiple things could be and were true. One, it could have been handled much better by Kevin.

And two, he had every right to leave for legitimate reasons, whether they be personal or professional. and specific to the professional reasons, anybody that knew anything about the situation at Maryland for the last many years understood that when he went scorched earth in that first press conference on the athletic department, nobody that knew was in the know said that he was wrong. They understood it wasn't the greatest of situations for the basketball coach or the basketball department. You know, Damon Evans, the athletic director at the time, and then he left, is gone. That may have been the best result of the chaos of those final few weeks, but Damon's replacement,

you know, the intram A.D., Colleen Sorum, wasn't necessarily considered to be a favorite of many out there either. So I do think the school stepped up and gave him a lot of what he wanted, but there was still some uncertainty for him. over the AD situation moving forward. And I also think there were a lot of personal reasons involved in his decision, and I'm not going to get into those because I was told some of those confidentially, not to sway me because I had a hunch about some of those personal reasons before I was even told about them. but there were some reasons, family reasons, why he would have been interested in a job like Villanova. I think despite all of that personal and professional, and a lot of it was professional-related,

I think he'd still be at Maryland if it wasn't Villanova or a similar Big East opportunity like Nova. I like Kevin. I think he's a good coach. I wish he were still the coach at Maryland. I think there were a lot of things that led to his decision, which he had the right to make. I personally, even with all that said, think that some, not all, but some of the venom spewed towards him

would have been less venomous. Had he chosen to exit Maryland by saying much less than much more, that might even be something he would admit to. Although even if he had said much less, were promised less, he still would have been eviscerated by the fan base. There's no easy way for a coach to leave, especially when it's abrupt and unexpected. But me personally, I'm just not going to go on a rampage and attack personally when I don't have the whole story, or at least most of it.

It doesn't stop me from professionally going on the attack. I'm far from saintly when it comes to that. But even with Dan Snyder for a long time, there were many years where my focus of criticism was professional criticism, even as it became apparent that there was a lot to despise personally about him. But the bulk of my criticism during many years was about the job about the way he was owning the team. I guess it did turn pretty personal at the end, I would admit that. But anyway, you know, as Scott said after talking to Kevin Willard, and he described that conversation on the podcast last week, I just agree with him when he said, you know,

it's not necessary to keep swinging at him anymore. He could have exited with less drama, no doubt, but he ultimately did what was best for him, his family. He had his reasons and many of them were understood to be pretty good reasons by most people in the know. You know, when this first came up, I remember talking to multiple people who were close to the situation, who said, if he does go, I can't blame him. I think things changed as it went on because there was a feeling that he might stay if he got what he wanted and he ultimately did not. You know, most of that probably because,

of the AD situation. Maybe it was impossible to give him everything he wanted because it takes time to hire an AD. But anyway, I don't know. I personally reached out and wished him and the family the best. It's not that, you know, I got to know him super well, but well enough over these three years to know that he ended up in a spot where I think he and his family think they'll be much happier. my attention now is away from that and much more on Buzz Williams and hoping that the last few weeks was a look-in-the-mirror moment, as I've described over the last week and a half for the school. Because after losing two coaches, because they didn't really like it here or think Maryland was the best of opportunities,

I hope that Buzz Williams entered a situation that is new and improved. and I think there's a chance that maybe he did. Shout out to a few of our sponsors today. Thanks to hymns and zbiotics and their pre-alcohol product. Listen to the ads coming up on the show to learn more. We'll also include a link to both products in the show notes. Pat Mayo from the Pat Mayo experience next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, if you've lost your hair,

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Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information. Yes, that is the sound of this time of year at Augusta, the Masters gets under way tomorrow. Joining me right now to talk some golf and who knows what else is Pat Mayo. Pat is the host of the Pat Mayo Experience podcast. You can find that anywhere you get a podcast. You can follow Pat on X on Twitter at the PME.

Pat is a golf guy. He's a football guy. He is a gambling guy. But I'm having you on to talk about golf. I want to start with this. Do you agree that there's no bigger story entering tomorrow and the rest of this weekend, then will he or won't he when it comes to Rory McElroy? It is the same biggest narrative that we deal with as long as Tiger isn't one of the best players in the field

that we've been faced with almost for the past decade now. Ken Rory, complete the grand slam, finally get this done. He's been inside the top five of the betting on each of the past 10 years. years at Augusta. No one has more top 10s than Rory without actually winning the event, but I still don't think that he wins. You don't. So why? Why won't he win this weekend? If he's not, it's the first round that kills Rory at Augusta every single year. It's one of the worst scoring averages of anyone in the first round. If you go back and look at the past five years at Augusta, if you have not been inside the top three, after the first round, you

do not win. If you start out slow, there's no coming back at Augusta, at least in this version of golf, this version of Augusta National that we've seen. So Rory, historically slow starter, if you start slow again, we can have this narrative wrapped up by the end of Thursday that he's not going to win, which means doors open for a lot of different players to win this week. We'll get to some of those other players, but if I told you, Pat, that I had a crystal ball and that Rory won the tournament, and he was sitting there with a green, jacket on late Sunday evening. Why did he win? He would be that he comes in with the best form of any player. He's back up to number

two in the world. He is actually won twice in major events, not major, but high-end events so far this year where Sheffler has not. Sheffler's deal with the hand injury. He looks rusty. Rory has the best form pre-agust of any other year of his career coming in. Everything is pointing up and up. He's even fixed the putting issues that he's had for so many years. He's been one of the best putters in the world over the past 18 months, and obviously the driver is still as good as anyone. He sets up perfectly. You just have to worry that, as we've seen with Rory in majors,

over the past 10 years, when he has the lead on Sunday, and he's going down the back nine, is he just going to start missing three-foot putts? Because that's what happened every other major over the past 10 years. Yeah, that's what I was expecting you to say first, which is that, you know, he missed a four-foot downhill putt somewhere you know, like he did at Pinehurst on 16 and 18 where he missed putts, because it seems like that's where he tightens up when he's got a really important putt

and typically a very makeable one. It's true. It's very atypical for almost any other event, and part of it is. Part of the reason that Rory gets dogged on this so much is that when you go and take a look at the top five in the world rankings for each of the past 10 years, it's just different names all the time. Guys don't stay good on the PGA tour for that long. They'll have their runs for two and a half years,

and then they kind of settle into being the 20th best player in the world, or the 25th or the 15th or the 50th, and maybe someday they get back up there. There has been one constant over the past 15 years inside that top five, and it's Rory. He has competed and challenged for major championships more than anyone else over the past 10 years. Winning in golf is hard. It's random a lot of the times.

it's lucky a lot of the times. You need those breaks to go your way, and he got a ton of them early on in his career, but he picked up four majors very quickly, and all of that good luck got used up, and it's been bad luck all that time since. But you remember all of the times that Rory blew it because he's been in contention in all these majors. Take look at Brooks. People have this thing.

Oh, Brooks has won five majors. What? He lights out in majors. Brooks misses the cut in a lot of majors. Rory doesn't really miss cuts in majors. He comes third in majors, yet somehow. when he comes in third, he is penalized more for that reputational than Brooks missing cuts.

Would he be as popular a winner as we've seen in a long time if he did it? I would say that, just from my perspective, just I'm going to talk about me personally. I am not betting on Rory to win. If Rory won, I would be happy for him. I want to see him get over this hump, so we never have to talk about this stuff again. And it would just feel like it would be such a story for the PGA tour, especially against Live, where is Rory going to go? Is Rory not going to go?

And Rory is the focal point in the face of the PGA tour. They thrust him into this role and asked so much of him to see him, beat the best players in the world, complete the Grandland. It would be a great feel-good story. But there are more popular players than Rory that could win, which would, A, draw better ratings probably, and be the people just like more. There's a, I mean, I'm Canadian, so I relate more to the international. crowd as it comes to Rory, we all love Rory. There are people that genuinely do not like Rory

McElroy, and most of them are Americans. Who would draw a bigger audience than Rory in the final group on Sunday? Steve. You think so? Not even close. He's by far the most popular player is not Tiger. Here's a question for you that we did on my radio show this morning. Like I said, I had Steve Sands on the radio show, Steve's a longtime friend, and I just said, you know, there's this 10,000 pound weight on Rory's shoulders. It's since 2014, he's won one. We can go through all of the close calls, like you said, he's been in a lot of them, but he hasn't gotten it done. And to do it at Augusta would be amazing because that's the major he hasn't won. In sports right now, player or coach, who's going to?

got a bigger sort of burden to win again or to win for the first time, a championship in team sports or a major, you know, in golf or tennis. Who out there comes to mind for you that sort of matches that kind of championship pressure that Rory has right now on him? The only two I can really think of in that same stratosphere off the top of my head would be Lamar or Josh Allen. Yeah, Lamar's to, to me, Lamar actually might be number one right now. That was, Lamar's the first one that comes to mind, I think. And Josh Allen, to a lesser degree, because he just won his first MVP,

and I think everybody kind of thought, you know, Lamar's multiple MVPs. Ironically, I think this was Lamar's best year. But yeah, those two, Lamar might be number one ahead of Rory. But imagine if Rory wins just the reaction and the feeling of not. in a final put to win after all of these years of expectations. Oh, my God. It would be fantastic, and it would be a moment to really celebrate. It would feel like a special moment.

But we're thinking about if we could program the – if we scripted this out, let's say this is WWE, and we're scripting it out for Sunday, who are the final four? Who are the final two groups at the majors to draw absolutely the most interest? I think you put Rory in with speech as the final group. Bryson needs to be one of those people. And then it's really difficult to figure out who's number four. It's not Sheffler. Sheffler's just a robot who's really good at golf and no one cares about him.

So I don't really know who that fourth person would be, but they're kind of the big three at the moment. Honestly, it still might be Phil. Oh, I was going to say it's, I first thought of DJ, but then I'm looking at the field, and it would be Phil for sure. Yeah, that's usually the Tiger spot that if you could just get Tiger on TV, any way that you can possibly do it, you do it. Even to take a look at TGL ratings, when Tiger played, people watched.

When he didn't, no one watched. And all of the other top-end golfers are just the most boring people on the planet. Like, Speed is the most boring guy on the planet, but people love him, and they still love him. And it's amplified even more where he's not that good anymore, and you take a situation, like even the Valero, Texas Open over the weekend. He wasn't even on the featured coverage because he was so far back. that they kept cutting the speed. And any time that you see him in contention at a tournament,

you can basically count on those ratings being doubled, what they normally would be, just because he's on TV. It's a weird draw. I don't quite get it, but people love this guy. And thankfully, for Augusta, this is still the course that he plays the best. It wouldn't be, I mean, I would be shocked if he won, but it wouldn't be surprising to see him lingering in contention.

You know, it just drives me nuts. I mean, the yacking back and forth with Mike, with Mikey, The constant, you know, there's just so much talking with Spieth before a shot. It just drives me crazy. I don't know what it is about Spieth. I've heard he's the greatest dude. And certainly during that stretch when he was winning majors, a phenomenal player. And, you know, a brilliant short game, the whole thing.

But like you said, he's not even one of the best players on tour. All right, let's talk about the tournament, specifically the field. First of all, it looks like great weather. It looks like maybe fast and firm, you know, even with, you know, the rain, they've got the system that pretty much dries it out. What do you see as the winning score come late Sunday? Minus 13. It's going to be cold on the weekend.

Yeah, right. You're looking at mid-50s to low 60s. That's why I've loaded up on fat Europeans to win the Masters this year. So you like Shane Lowry? I do love Shane Lowry. He is my favorite single best. No offense, Shane. You're just, you know, you're punchy.

Hey, look, it comes in handy from time to time. This could be one of those weeks. And his stat profile, especially at the Masters, he threw everyone off the sent a year ago because he was so bad on the Greens. He lost eight strokes putting last year. It's the worst performance of his 16-year career in any tournament. It's an outlier. It's atypical, and likely will never happen again.

And conversely, Ludwig Gobert in his very first masters, gained eight strokes. So to take their scores and put them next to each other, Ludwig was second. Lowry, I believe, came 43rd. That Ludwig was 16 strokes better than Shane Lowry on the green. You know what? He didn't beat Shane Lowry by 16 strokes because Shane Lowry has been inside the top ten of Tee Green at Auguste each of the past three years. He comes in with sneaky good form, and he's already a making. champion. And when I take a look at the breakdown between what majors do correlate with each

other, and it can't be one v. 1 because there's all the different venues that get played at all of the other majors, except for this. But guys do profile Open Championship Masters together, U.S. OpenPGA Championship together. They are different skill sets, and Lowry has the Augusta Open Championship skill set. Well, give me other sort of, you know, international players that fit that sort of profile that could deal with maybe a chillier weekend. Robbby Mac, Robert McIntyre is my guy. I always enjoy a lefty. You know, like a lefty.

It's Taylor made for him. He hasn't played here in three years because three years ago he stopped being good at golf all of a sudden. And it was kind of surprising. But he got in as a debut talk at 22 years old. He came in 12. That 12th allowed him to be in the Masters. The next year he came 23rd. Then he went away for a few years.

And what has happened since? well, we returned to the 2025 Masters, and now Bobby Mac is reigned 14th in the world, he's won twice in the past two years, and, well, he's never really contended that much down the stretch to have a legitimate chance to win at a major championship. He was top 10 at a few open championships, including at Port Rush, where we're going back to this year, when Shane Lowry actually won as champion golfer of the year. But the biggest thing for me thinking about it was him losing to Rory in Scotland two years ago. The weight of a nation, and I've been trying to explain this to a lot of people this week,

that an American winning the U.S. Open is nice. Americans don't feel pressure to win the U.S. Open because they are American. There's a lot of great American golfers. Too many great American golfers that likely an American is going to win. It just happens all the time. Me being Canadian, I won't watch my entire life. Canadians piss themselves coming down the stretch with a lead at the Canadian Open. It's a different level of pressure when there are,

so few good golfers from a country you have, and you have a national open that people are really wanting you to win. Fortunately for us, Nick Taylor got that job done a few years ago. It took a 65-foot pop, but he got it done. Bobby Mac is the only good Scottish player at the moment, and he's been probably the best Scottish player since Paul Lowry, like 30 years ago. He's the only guy who gives him a chance to win, and he had the tournament won with one of the best shots he ever hit, and Rory came and ripped his heart out.

What did he do the next year? he goes back and he wins that coming down the stretch, making every single clutch shot with the weight of a nation on his shoulders. So honestly, if he gets in contention, and I would expect him to do that because he's been good here before, the lefty, and the ball striking has been immaculate so far this season, which is the real through line to all of this. I don't think that the pressure is going to get to him. I think he has these reps in him already based off of that. We usually have to see a guy go through a major play late on a Sunday and completely collapse. because that's usually what happens when guys get into a major championship for the first time and really content.

I don't think that's going to be the case with Robert McIntyre. You mentioned Nick Taylor. I have not watched a lot of the full swing episodes, but I did watch the episode with Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin, I think it was. Taylor seems to me like he's got the mental toughness, competitiveness to win and to win big. I did not feel that way watching Hadwin in that show at all. So, I mean, is Mike Weir the last Canadian to win a major? The only Canadian to win a major is Mike Weir.

Do you see a Nick Taylor? I mean, Corey Connors is one. Do you see a Nick Taylor being the next one? It's tough to say. Nick Taylor has the most, I mean, Nick Taylor has the fourth most wins on the PGA tour the past two years. Right. People kind of forget that, that every time he's in contention, he wins.

Coming down the stretch, it's kind of crazy. He's just, he's good, and he's clutch, but he's not consistently good, where someone like Corey Connors is consistently good, that's almost to his detriment, that he's so consistently good. He doesn't have that gear to go over the top because he's Mr. Top 20s. He's 11th. He's 9th. He's 17th.

Every single week. He has very few disappointing performances. You start looking through the results card for Nick Taylor. it's 20th, first, miscut for eight weeks in a row, and then he's 35th, and he wins again. It's like, you can't really figure it out. He's never played well in a strong field.

He's never played well at a major. He might be the king of these lesser events against weaker field. We do not know. He has made the cut in one of his master's appearances. It's funny to think about it. He's 250 to 1 to win. I think he's a better bet to win than Corey Connors, who's 40 to 1 to win,

but if you put them against each other, who's going to finish better, Conner's probably beat them 95 times out of 100 with a better finish. It's just Taylor actually has a chance to win where Connors probably doesn't, if that makes sense to you. Yeah. What's the number one statistic

that correlates to winning at Augusta? Weirdly, it's strokes gained off the T. You need to be good with your iron. Augusta's second shot course. If you have poor irons and to the point of where you're losing to the field, you have absolutely no chance of winning. So a great

Iron Week can really carry you a long way. You need that. But when I take a look at the past few champions, Hadecki and Tiger are a bit of an outlier in it, but they did something outlierly well the week that they ended up winning. But last year, Shepler was second in strokes gained off the T. Rom was second in strokes gained off the T the year he won. Sheffler was fifth in strokes gained off the T in his first win, and Dustin led the field in driving, number one, in strokes gained off the T in 2020. Now, Hadecki was 13th. And he chipped in four times that week and led everyone around the green. He had that spike outlier week with another part of his game.

But he was bad off the team. He was still top 15. Tiger was 14th off the T in 2019 when he won, and he was the best iron player in the field by far. He gained almost 10 strokes on approach, which was the most stroke he had ever gained on approach at the Masters in his career. So if you drive it well enough, slightly above average, and you have by far the best iron week in the history of you playing this tournament,

you also have a pretty good chance. but that, it's hard to bank on outliers. Like last year with Ludwig on the greens, like the guy's not really that great of a putter. He showed up here and had one of the best putting weeks of his career. Pudding is fickle. The worst guy can be the best guy, the best guy can be the worst guy on every single day. We think about projecting out what means the most.

Very rarely is Denny McCarthy going to step on the tee and outdrive Roy McElroy. That doesn't happen. So you can bank on driver being good for certain players. So I've really put a lot of emphasis on my pick. this week into that. Lowry right now, he's 10th in the field in driving, and he's gained massively two of the past three years at Augusta that gives him a check in my book. Robert McIntyre slightly outside the top 15 in driving right now. The other two main plays that I have this week, I bet on John Romm at 15 to 1, who would rate out fourth in this field when he combined

live staff together and looking back at his master's history, he's been excellent. Off at Augusta and the other one is Strocka, who's a year to one, and people don't really know a ton about. He's Austrian, but he did go to the University of Georgia. He's a bulldog, so he's very familiar with the grass types in that part of the country. So that's not going to be a shock to him. He's already won this year. He has three top 10s. He played on a Ryder Cup team. He's 80 to one, and he is one of 11 players the last two years of the Masters to gain at least three strokes with his driver. And he comes in with the best iron in the world right now. So if he doesn't puck himself out of this tournament, at 80 to 1, his real price should be like 40.

the one. Boy, you're the third person that has mentioned Sopstraka to me. You mentioned Denny McCarthy, obviously one of, if not the best putters in the field, but he's a favorite around here. Denny's been on the show several times. Do you give him any chance? Probably not because of driving. He can't drive him. Yeah. I mean, I don't give him a chance to win ever any week. Yeah, because of that. All right. No, no, it's not because of that. People get it conflated because they've heard their entire lives people tell other people, well, you drive for show and putt for dough.

Denny's been the best putter in the world for 15 years and he has no wins. Tell me how that works. He hasn't been out there for 15 yet, but, but yes. He hasn't been a pro for 15 years. Is it 10 even? I don't know. He's been the best, since he's come on tour,

he's been the best putter. Pudding doesn't mean, putting nothing on the PGA tour, driving an iron do. To your point, when he's been in contention and had chances, like at the memorial, he hasn't putted well on the final day. All right, let's talk about, you know,

you've mentioned some of the players that you like and that you've wagered on. Who's in the final pairing on Sunday? Well, I really hope it's John Rahman and Seb Strachan. It's true for my finances. I can tell you three guys who aren't going to be there if you'd like to hear that. Yes. Bryson might miss the cut.

So there's one. Bryson is living off of being first round leader last year. And you would make mention, you know, it was a little bit raining on Monday at Augusta. It's going to be dry as a bone come Thursday. Last year is the first time I can really remember they had rained Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Those greens played like sponges. That is how Bryson became first round leader. That round that he shot 65 in the opening round last year is his only,

time that he's broken par in his past 10 master's rounds. What did he do after he was first round leader? Nothing. He shot over par every other day. He can't chip at Augusta. If you gave him like a real-sized sandwich, maybe he would be able to do it, but he refuses to put it in his bag. If it's going to play firm and fast, you're not going to hit 15 of 18 fair greens in regulation. You're going to hit half them. You're going to have to rely on shipping, and then your lived teammate, Patrick Reed, is probably going to be you. So Bryson's one of the three that can't win.

Who are the other two? Number two is Victor Hovlin for very much the same reason. Guy can't he just won at the Velspar. Congratulations. Now try to ship your way around the master's not happening. And for the very similar purpose, another big favorite in this field who was second place last year is Ludwig Oberg. His shipping has gotten worse over the past 12 months. And if he doesn't have the best putting performance of his career again, then he's not going to be sniffing that leader for.

All right, I'll come back to the final pairing in your winner, more so than just who you hope, although you really do like Straca and McIntyre. So, and Rom, give me somebody right now, let's just call it 30 to one or longer that you give a legit shot to be there on Sunday with a chance. Shane Lowry. Lowry, yeah, you've already mentioned him. Yeah, Lowry's 40 to 1, McIntyre's 66 to 1, Strach is 80, and the other guy from down there that I do have money on to win is Sergio. Oh my God, that was my next question.

I just said to Sands on radio, he won recently on Live, he's gotten himself back into shape, seems to be more serious about it, obviously a winner. Why do you like him? Very much those same reasons. He's been the best player on Live so far the season. Neiman has the two wins, but Neiman has a spotty record, especially coming in the past few weeks. I mean, Sergio just came third at Derell. He had a win a few weeks back overseas, and he's picking up other tournaments, too.

He's playing on the Asian tour. He's playing on the DP World Tour. As you said, he seems to be taking it more seriously because, and he's spoken openly about this, he's in contact with Luke Donald. And Luke Donald has told him you play well enough, especially at the majors, then you'll be on this Ryder Cup team in New York. And that's all he wants. one last go at the Rider Cup,

so he has rededicated himself to Yonkees. He's got like $500 million in the banks by going to live. I can see why none of these guys care. But he cares now because his Rider Cup means so much to him. Now, when Sergio misses 28-foot putts in a row, and you're kicking yourself because you have money on him, that's a part of the Sergio experience. But we do know that he does have the Masters championship.

It's awful at the Masters ever since. In fact, he's awful at the majors ever since he won in 2017, at Augusta. However, the last major he played, and he's not even in all the majors anymore. So he needs to get his spot in there. His best major performance came at the last major he played at the end of last year at Pinehurst, Sergio was T-12. I really do think he's taking this seriously. And although they don't make it public, public, Liv does have strokes gain stats that if you're a media member, you can go back and look at driving and irons. Sergio is number one on Live in both categories. Yeah, I was going to

say, I mean, has there been, how many players legitimately have been better iron players during the course of his era? Oh, Tiger? Yeah. Would you won? I mean, do you count Sergio as a part of like this era of guys or like the old, like, 10 years previous? Yeah, I would say that more so the last era, yeah.

I mean, how? VJ and Tiger, maybe? Yeah. All right, who wins it? Bricker? Who wins it? Shane Lowry, your master's champion. 2005. Not the Irishman that a lot of fans would like to see, but he's very popular indeed.

Actually, that was a cool swing episode. Think about it this way. When was the last time Rory had this much pressure on himself and everyone was assured he was going to win a major? Do you remember? You're going to tell me Shane Lowry won at the open. It did. 2009 in Northern Ireland, the first time Northern Ireland had an open champion. I think it was in 75 years. The home country guy,

Rory, and he was playing great golf going into. I think he had three wins before that open championship as well over the course of the summer. He was primed and destined to take down the claret jug. What happened? Too much pressure. He missed the cut. Lowry wins. Royal Port Rush, 2019.

Thanks for doing this. Really enjoyed it. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Golf fans, if you're looking for a really good golf podcast, the Pat Mayo Experience, anywhere you get a podcast. If you want to bet on the masters, my recommendation, my bookie, go to mybookie.orgie. Use my promo code. They'll give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. More money to wager

with Scotty Sheffler, the favorite right now at plus 400. Rory at plus 560. Nobody's really close to those two. John Rom then is at plus 1225 and Colin Morcawa at plus plus 1225 at plus 1250. So only two golfers with, you know, less than 10 to one odds. Rory at plus 560 and Scotty Sheffler at plus 400 before you get to Rom and Moracawa. He liked Rom. He liked Shane Lowry. Lowry right now at MyBooky plus 3,100. For all of your master's betting needs, and of course Next week we get NBA playoffs, and next weekend we get the NHL playoffs. Go to my bookie.ag and use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. Part two of my conversation with Jimmy Patzos after you hear from a few more of our sponsors.

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I love having Jimmy on the show. He's truly one of my favorite people. He's super smart, super interesting, super interested, which I think is one of the reasons he is super interesting. Always curious is Jimmy. I've known Jimmy forever. Jimmy, of course, was Gary's assistant at Maryland for so many years, and then was the head basketball coach at Sienna, at Loyola, before that, and does a lot of work with college programs across the country, with Under Armour.

He was on with me Monday. We talked primarily about the Final Four and about the national championship game, but I know that he wanted to, I wanted to hear his thoughts as well. He wanted to weigh in on the Maryland situation of the last few weeks, so we let him do that. So I started off when we got to the Maryland part by asking him, what did you make of how it ended,

and what did you make of the hiring of Buzz Williams? Could have been handled better, but in a world where players change, in a world where LeBron James goes to the Miami Heat, where, you know, certain quarterbacks don't want to go to certain cities. It just evolves into players and coaches and everybody that are going to do what's good for them. And that's okay. Kevin Willard thinks Villanova's a better job.

Kevin Willard thinks it's a better fit for him and his family. Kevin Willard likes the Big East. He grew up in the Big East. Kevin Willard was that Iona. Iona is the best basketball job in the Mac. It's not even close, okay? It's not a division two school with a gym or an arena. It's not someplace in Buffalo.

let you have this. It's not some school in the risk. No, no, no, no. Iona has everything that you need and is geared towards basketball. Then Citi the Hall. Come on, let's face it. Okay, Mo Vaughn went there. Some other guys went there. Craig Bizzio, I don't care. That's a basketball school. For 15 years, he's been in a Catholic institution where basketball comes first to the president, deans, security guards, people working in the cafeteria. How's the team doing? How are we going to be this year, coach, okay? He comes to Maryland, and let's face it, it's football, it's basketball, it's soccer, it's field hockey, I love this, you're sorry, okay, that's okay. Oh, come on, it's a basketball first school. No, it isn't, no it isn't. No, it isn't. It's not inside the school, the

fans and the perception of the school, and you know this, because you coach there. We won a national championship and went to back-to-back final. Only 10 teams have gone, but I'm just saying, Carolina is a basketball school. Kentucky's a basketball school. Kansas is a basketball school. We have other interests, and we're very successful, and I'm not jealous. It doesn't bother me. I'm trying to let everybody know what somebody from the outside who came from the Big East. And I don't speak for Kevin Willard, but he's my friend. And we went to two NCAAs in three years in a Sweet 16 and beat West Virginia in Birmingham, and he got the place packed in January and February. But there's a lot of other things going on in Maryland. Right.

Theater. There's Google. There's engineers. There's D.C. There's six pro teams, two football teams, NFL teams, a guy number eight-breaking the scoring record. Like, there's a lot going on. You know, baseball royals going to the playoffs.

The Natch won it four years ago. I did a good man. No, no, no, no. He came from a place of Ireland in Seton Hall with for 15 years in his world. This is what matters. This is our ideology. This is who we are. And we love you.

and there was no lack of love. I think three weeks ago he was pretty happy. I think maybe something that said that should have said, should Damon have left? None of my business. Did Darrell Pines handle it well? I like Darrell Pines. He's always nice to me.

It's running a big university. He doesn't have time to look at every minor move of basketball team's making. It's just these things kind of slip through. Villanova was a great job that was open. It's not a good job, folks. It's a great job. They have two banners hanging. It's outside of the city of Philadelphia.

Three banners. Three banners. Don't forget Raleys. Three banners, right, because I love Easy. He had picked me, and Dwayne McClain, who I played against the high school. But you know what? I don't think he would have, he's my thing. I love Maryland.

I think it's an unbelievable place. I like football. I like going to lacrosse. Sasha's a friend of mine. I couldn't wait to see Missy. I knew Cindy Tim Shaw. You want me to keep going? I know all the coaches.

I like all the sports. Not everybody is built that way. Not everyone is built that way. And if that's what he saw, he wasn't sure what to do with no AD and got a little nervous, I'm going out and saying this. He doesn't leave for any other job in the country except for Bill and all. So that was a perfect storm that we got caught up.

So we got Buzz. I like Buzz. Buzz is a little different. I said Willie Wonka because I say that he does his own stuff. He knows how to make his own product. He dresses cool. I say that like Julie Wong. That's a compliment Willie Walker.

He's the best of what he's. he does. He's really good. He's a little different, but I like him. He's got he won a Marquette when the Big East was good. He won a Virginia Tech when Duke was in Carolina and won a national championship. And he was in the SEC, which was already described to the podcast, to the number

one conference of 14 teams. His kids play hard. He's gone to the elite eight, a couple sweet 16s. He's got $400 million worth of contracts in the NBA right now. That's how many guys his coach that are in the pros, like, Buzz is cool. We're going to get to know Buzz. I'm not going to get to know Buzz as fast as I knew Kevin, because I

Kevin. I coached against him. He's from the Northeast. Buzz is good. Everybody embraced the change. It's part of the new deal. There's going to be coaching changes. Calipires in Arkansas. Okay? He was fine. They went to the Sweet 16. They survived without musclemen. He went to USC and didn't win. It's just part of the new deal. It's players aren't going to move with money, blah, blah, blah. No, no. Coaches have always moved. But maybe they're moving a little faster because N.I.L. makes it scary. Or what resources do I have? Or keeping up with the money. Joneses. The mid-major's aren't as attractive as they once were. Guys don't want to stay at Missouri Valley of the CIA anymore because they're only one-bid leagues. It's really hard. The 8-10

was a one-bid league. That should be a two-free bid league. I don't make the rules. So these power five jobs are really big. Kevin Willis saw an opportunity. I don't, I'll say this again, I don't think he would have left for any other job except going over. His wife's from Pennsylvania, he wants to move back to be closer to Jersey. He likes the big east. Maybe Jay Wright. Hey, it's hard when George Clooney of the world has you to come coach to say no. They have a great on-campus arena

that can handle the small crowds for the Annarne Conference. They can play downtown. They got banners hanging three. But the uncertainty of what was going on when Damon left, just opening, just the whole thing,

everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and Kevin Willard left. I'm bummed. But I'm happy with Buzz Williams. The beat goes on. Who's the new coach? Let's go get him.

It's Cody Bennett's not coaching anymore. Jay Wright's not coaching anymore Sheffey's not coaching anymore Roy Williams isn't coaching anymore Billy Donovan's not coming back to the pros Bobby Kravages isn't going back to Georgia Tech Devon Galapari's at Arkansas Here we go

The only person that stays anywhere Is Mark few Other than that, welcome to the world So Buzz Williams is our coach Let's embrace them Isoh and few are the only two mainstays Petino's been at six schools now And he's as good of coaches there is

Painters, painters now I wouldn't freak I wouldn't freak I wouldn't freak Yeah. Yeah, Painter's here too, but he hasn't won the title yet. I'm just saying, I wouldn't freak out everybody. It's just, it happened. We won.

Kevin left. I'm going to miss him. Who's a new coach? Buzz will get players. Buzz is won everywhere he's went, so it's just a matter of when. It's just a matter of when he wins. It's the first year, second, your third year. I just want to clarify one thing, and then we can wrap it up.

And when you said Maryland's not a basketball school, I want for everybody. I meant, I didn't mean basketball. basketball only. I understand that. I understand that. But what you're really referring to is inside that school, there's a lot of shit going on at a big state public university with football in the Big Ten and incredible research programs and unbelievable academic reputation.

But in terms of fans, alums, Maryland will always be for, you know, the fans of the teams of the team that may have nothing to do with the school. It will always be basketball first. Always has been. That is now, will be. And I love you for saying that, and by the way, it makes my heart bleed, you know, really go beat, beat, beat. I get emotional about that because we've worked hard to go to 16,

5, 3, 16s, and 11 NCAAs. But the two back-to-back final four is building. But football money took over. The Big Ten move is for football. Yeah, I get it. Kevin Blank deserves a lot of credit because he saved. the athletic department and saved all this money

and it was a great move that when the president Kevin Plank and all the people all got together and what should we do the Big Ten Network and Gary Williams would be the first to tell you

is an unbelievable network way ahead of the curve right so we'll deal with it I just meant I just meant it's not basketball only and I really think we were turning

the corner because the Sweet 16 and Queens win that's the only thing I'm mad at Will it about yes I'm mad at Will it in a way I hate will it alone Will it. He's a friend of mine. He always will be.

I like him, too. I wish he handled it differently, but B, what stinks is we have the momentum of becoming a national basketball program again because everything was going good. Derek Queen, the whole name, the way he plays the game, his swagger, they woke the crab

five, like we were on the right path to recovering our identity of the basketball school. I just meant we weren't a basketball school only. Kentucky Kansas, you need to go to a place like that. When fans can start going in November, in December. Yeah.

That's 4,000 people of the rain saying about the ballot. I don't want to hear that crap anymore. I'm not talking about Kansas, Kentucky, Carolina. No, no, no, no, no. Can we fill the place up halfway for teams that everyone else is playing too? See, that's the stuff, in other words, that's the stuff that bothers me, in other words, before.

I go around the country, too. We're an A-1-and-there's nothing wrong with that. We got a great situation. But we were on the, we were getting healed, and we were about to become really, we were about to take the next big step. And it stinks that he left. That's why I'm maddie left,

because I thought we took a big step this year, and I thought we took a big step with the NCAA and winning the game against Colorado State and Queen's personality, and Willard was really functioning well at the job, and everyone's getting used to. So now we have some rebuilding to do. But that's okay.

God tests us in many ways. You can't do it alone, and you're going to have some mistakes and failures along the way, but you can't do it alone. and Buzz Williams has a lot of support. Kevin had support. The school's a great place. I want to make sure everybody understands.

I love the place, and it has so much good known, but it's not a basketball-only school. And that's what Will it was used to. So if that's what he went back to, don't create a – don't kill him for that. He had to follow his heart. But we got a new coach. Let's focus on the new coach.

Let's get some players. Let's go to some more games early. Let's play them on our national schedule. But the Terps – everybody gets excited. The Terps for the talk of this. of the NCAA after Queen's shot. Two days later, which you coach is leaving.

That's really unfortunate for the players of the program. Am I allowed to say that? Yes. I actually think we agree on everything. I think the way you put it initially, I just wanted to make sure that people understood what you were talking about was there's just a lot going on. And by the way, your point about half-filled arenas,

D.C. in general has become more of a bandwagony town, period. It wasn't a good way to put it. I actually like that. That's a good way to put it. It's become that because it's much more of a pro-sports town than it was when you and Gary were coaching. Maryland was arguably the number two story in town Maryland basketball for a long period of time. It isn't anymore. Georgetown and Maryland combined.

Hey, I want to Catholic you. We did Catholic, you, congrats to them. W. Mike Jarvis. Caputo did good this year. George Mason did good. Hey, you did good. But this wasn't like when we were here.

You couldn't get into the Georgetown. I know. GW was playing Tom Penders in West Virginia. I mean, it was on fire in the late 80s, 90s, the basketball all through the city. You know what? I'm going to steal from you. I learned from you. I think that's an appropriate term.

It's just more of a bandwagon town. I like to see, I learned something today. Well, that means we should end this right now because that's a first. Love you. I'll talk to you soon. Nobody better than Jimmy Patzos. And I don't know that he'd want me to. mention this, but I'm going to do it anyway.

When we started our conversation the other day, and the first part of it is all about the Final Four and the National Championship game, he was eating ice cream, and I said, do you want to finish the ice cream, and

then we can start the interview? And he said, no, no, no, no, let's start. I'm good. He is just flat out one of my favorite people. All right, that is it for the show today, back tomorrow with Tommy.