The Kevin Sheehan Show - Final 4 Classic + Cooley on Kyle Pitts

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

Cooley and Kevin today started with Cooley's tale of impatience at a Las Vegas blackjack table last week. The boys recapped the Gonzaga-UCLA classic and previewed tonight's championship game. Then it was a lengthy NFL Draft conversation which started with Cooley's evaluation of Kyle Pitts/TE Florida. Kevin ended with a quick thought on Maryland basketball's transfer acquisitions from over the weekend.   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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. All right, Cooley's back. He was on vacation last week. He's going to tell us about it.

For those of you that said very nice things about the Billy Packer interview that we put out on Saturday, I enjoyed it too. If you missed it, Billy Packers, 81 years old, he's still as sharp as ever, has a phenomenal memory and told incredible stories about being part of really the number one college basketball broadcast team wherever he went, wherever he went, excuse me, whether that was with Dick Endberg and Al McGuire and those stories were phenomenal at NBC or with Brent Musburger and Jim Nance for all those years at CBS. But he was excellent. I enjoyed it. I'm glad most of you did too. If you didn't listen to it, it's available. It was Saturday show. Also, just a reminder, if you haven't

subscribe to the podcast, subscribe, it doesn't cost you anything. And if you are listening on any podcast platform that allows you to rate it and review it, do it. Also, if you can take a minute and just go to the purple icon on your iPhone, if you have an iPhone, search the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast, and then rate it and review it on Apple slash iTunes, that would be helpful as well. We don't ask you to do much around here. We're not asking you to pay for any of the content, which people are starting to do. But all of those things help us generate revenue.

Cooley is with me today. The reason Cooley wasn't here last week, as I mentioned early in the week, you took a vacation. Tell us about your vacation. Well, Kev, it's nice to be back from this vacation. It's good to have you back. Your little program. I thought that was funny. Your little program.

My little program. Yeah, just a little program. program and we're having fun with the program. It was weird not to have you on the program last week, and people wanted to know where you were. And I just said, you were taking a few days off with the family. You had some vacation time. Vacation time, as if the Kevin Sheehan Show podcast allowed In my contract with Cooley, I give him two weeks of vacation a year. No, it's not how it works. Cooley does whatever he wants to do. And we're at that time of year, although we are now less than month away from the draft and we will get heavy into the draft here over the next couple of

weeks with Chris. But tell everybody where you went because I thought you had a very interesting vacation week. Well, I don't know if it was very interesting, but we went to, we flew into Las Vegas and then we rented a van and we drove to southern Utah, which is a little over a two-hour drive to where we went and we did Zion National Park. I've heard that's gorgeous. Stayed in Springdale, Utah, a cute little town. And it is, it's amazing. It's breathtaking. It's almost overwhelming the mountains and the high desert stuff you're looking at.

And we did some fun hikes, but it was so busy. So busy. And you're in this little town, Springdale, Utah, and people are wearing masks outside everywhere. And there's just lines to everything. Oh, my God, man. Is that? We started the vacation. We had to fly out of Billings, Montana, which is like an hour and 30 minute drive, hour and 20 minute drive.

It's not a big deal. But the only flight we had for the day into Vegas was at 10.30 p.m. with kids. Oh, my God. The only flight from Billings? So does Billings go to Vegas nonstop? Or do you have to fly through Salt Lake? There's other flights, and there would have been other flights here. But we booked these tickets on Allegiant Air, and my wife booked it.

and Allegiant Air flies out of Billings and is cheap. It was like $100 a ticket to Vegas. Oh, God, look at you. Was there a more? We didn't know. We didn't see. We wouldn't have done that if we saw PM. Right.

Well, like you don't really assume out of Billings you're getting a 1030 flight is the thing. It's not like when you're going home from Vegas, you always got to make sure that cheaper flight isn't the red eye. But going there out of Montana, I didn't. We never even thought about it. It was a day later we said, oh, that's a PM. It's bad we got there. Okay.

And then it was like an hour way in a rental car line to get to the shuttle. Oh, my God. And then it took us 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot. That's how packed Vegas was. I've heard Vegas is on fire again. Yeah, they say 70% capacity, but that's insanity. But yeah, so Southern Utah was fun. We did some cool hikes.

My mom, we flew my mom out of Virginia. to have the babysitter at night. But we hung out with everyone pretty much the whole time. Well, she probably had a longer flight, but a more convenient trip. I mean, I'm sure she did. So, yeah, it's packed. I mean, if you're going to go to the parks this year, the national parks, you're going to see more people than I think ever before.

Interesting. What everyone says because of COVID, everyone still wants to do the vacation thing, but they want to be outside. Right. There was the craziest thing I saw in the park stuff. We were, we ran into a couple people, a couple from Utah with another kid, and we were all hanging out and talking to them. And two different couples walked up past us, and they would walk up. And we're up in a canyon where there's nobody walking.

I mean, you saw 10 different groups of people tops. That was it. And they get about 40, 50 yards from you, and they all put their masks on. Like, it's 75 degrees and sunny, you're not catching COVID from. us up here. Right. People are crazy. The outside thing, honestly, going back to last March or last April, once we found out that

outside was completely different than indoors and confined, I mean, I bring a, when I go for a walk with the dog, I put a mask typically, not all the time, in my pocket. But if somebody's walking down the sidewalk headed to me, I just veer off and cross the street or, you know, take it out into the street so I'm not passing them. I'm not going to slip on a mask, you know, I'd rather just avoid them and stay well, you know, 30 feet away from them. I don't, but anyway, that's beside the point. So I have heard that Zion National Park is beautiful. I've not been, my oldest son has been a couple of times with my father-in-law and brother-in-law, they went out on a bike trip, a motorcycle trip several years ago.

And apparently it is beautiful, but anything sucks when it's super crowded. And you're just saying that this place was super crowded. Well, Zion was. I think the most popular thing you can do is the straight up Zion Canyon at the Springdale, and it's called the Zion Narrows. It's like if you want to do walk the hole narrows, you got to wade through them, and it's like a 12-mile hike, something like that. Right.

But we just wanted to go up into the narrows a little bit with the kids and stuff. We couldn't get shuttle tickets. You can't drive up that canyon anymore. It's too busy. We tried to get the shuttle tickets, and it's like, you, for tomorrow, you need to get on at 5 o'clock and see if you can get tickets on the website. Oh, my God. We're like, are you freaking kidding me? It's crazy.

Yeah. That's okay. I mean, we did this hike. You can look it up. It was like the many pools hike, the hike of many pools or something. And it was only a 15-minute drive or 10-minute drive from where we were. And there was like, nobody. The pools being what, springs?

No, when it rains, there's nothing that catches water. The grounds all rock. Oh, okay. So they all funnel into these little riverbeds and stuff. And this has these deeper pools. It's cool. Now, is the, is the, is the, um, No, no, no, no, no. I'm wrong about that. The Four Corners is on the other side of the state with Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, right? Is that where the Four Corners thing is?

Yeah. Am I right about that, or is it in the Nevada, the Nevada part where you were? No, because that wouldn't be four states. That would just be Arizona. The Four Corners is Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. That's right. Okay. Although we did on the way If you're driving from Vegas to Utah You go through Arizona Okay, yeah, right

Probably the far northwest corner of Arizona You just dip into Arizona for a second Right, on the way to Vegas on What route is that? Is that 15 or 20? 90? 90 or 50, no, it's 15. Yeah.

Yeah, it's interstate 15 Right. It's what it is. Yeah, I've done the I've done the, I've done the, well, I've done several drives to Vegas from L.A. and back in four a couple of times many years ago. But we also, several years ago, did the Utah, Deer Valley to Vegas drive with several of us many years ago.

In not very good condition, by the way. It was one of those late night decisions. Why don't we do this? This sounds like a great idea in the moment. Why didn't you just stop? You know there's a closer casino. I'm sure there is, but it wasn't Vegas. No, it's not Vegas. Yeah. But that was a long, long drive. You're saying that from where you were, it was what, two hours?

Yeah, two hours. I think it was six from Salt, you know, from like Deer Valley and that area. Yeah, that's about right. Yeah. It might be more than six. Yeah. So this is what I wanted to talk about from our vacation. Okay.

At some point in the last 10 years for sure, as gambling's grown, people stopped learning how to play blackjack. Well, that's always been the case. No, not like this, dude. We have these blackjack conversations on the show all the time and compare things to blackjack often, and I'm not sure if it's a good thing to do anymore. There were multiple times that people were,

staying on 12 versus a 10 that people were hitting 14 versus an anything but you said but a lot of people hit an 18 hit an 18 with a 7 showing somebody hit an 18 it was so that's that's typically not a soft 18 yeah that's typically when the dealer goes hitting hard 18 right did they

everyone there's a dude at the table me and this other dude are like we finally berated a guy out of the table. Well, you shouldn't do that. How big of the table? What was the minimum amount on the table? 25. Well, then you can't do that, dude. You got to put up with the bad,

with the people that don't know what they're doing. And by the way, I do have to put up with it, but he's got to put up with me telling him he's doing the wrong thing. Well, if you think he's doing, what you need to do then is go into a higher rolling room where, you know, the minimum is 100 or 200 or 500 or 500 a hand.

Well, that's not the kind of gambling I wanted to do on this trip. And then you can tell the dealer, I don't want to be him at my table. By the way, you realize that no matter how poorly, like basic blackjack strategy, right, a lot of people don't know how to do it, which is fine, which limits their probability. You know it doesn't limit your probability. I know very well. It does nothing to me. Right.

It is. It's aggravating. Really, really hard. When they don't take the cards that you want them to take. you're right it can be aggravating i have gotten past the point of carrying if someone hits a 16 or doesn't hit a 16 or a 15 or even a 14 if there's been a bunch of low cards out and they they understand that they're supposed to hit the 14 they just don't want to bust yeah still have to do it but yeah you but as long as they understand look i'd rather stay alive and see if they'll turn over a six

under that 10. I understand that. I tolerate it. But my God, the times that people did... I just don't... It was the worst I've ever seen it. You know, it was bad when

they opened the casino in Maryland. I went a couple times and I saw bad blackjack play there. You're like, wow. But it was never this bad when you had to like really go out of your way to go to casino. You pretty much understood how to play. Yeah, I just, I just, unless I'm sitting at a true high level table where I really want the dealer to

end up with the cards or that they should, they should have, I just don't, I don't care. You, you, when you sit down at a, you know, a 10 or a $25 table, you're going to have half the people there that don't know how, don't know basic blackjack strategy. It never used to be half the people. It never. It never It never used to be there. I think it depends on where you are. Where'd you gamble? Where were you in Vegas? Well, we stayed at the Venetian.

I love the Venetian. I love the Venetian too. Yeah. And I love the Venetian. But we stayed, the first night we stayed at the Flamingo. The Flamingo Hill? Because we flew into Vegas got there late and we thought the pool would be open. And the Flamingo pool for kids is really good.

The Flamingo Hilton is a, you know, it's a legendary hotel. I don't. Before they, like, I'm going back to. the 90s now. I mean, we would stay at either, because they're all three right there. Right across the street from the Flamingo Hilton is Caesars and right across the street from the Flamingo Hilton next to Caesars is the Mirage. I mean, I'm going back to the 90s when the Mirage had one of the most spectacular sports books and, you know, all the big fights were either at Caesars or at Mirage. And a lot of times we stayed in the Flamingo Hilton,

and it was a great hotel. The last several times, and it's been a while now since I've been out there, but we've just stayed at the win. And I, and I, and I, and I, and I love the win, but you're, you were in, so you were in good hotels, you were in good casinos, but it's, no, not a good hotel. No, not anymore. It's three stars. Yeah, it's way down there. And they have $10 black check. Right, right. But we stayed there because, you know, bug, you know, Bugsy, Seagull's hotel. It was the first one, the flingo. Yeah. And then the Venetian was packed. The Venetian's awesome. That's where I had the, I mean, you know, I mean, you see, you know, God, you know, I'm really revealing a bit too much here.

But a lot of my friends and I, that's where, for, I don't know, seven, eight years, that's where we had all the major hookups were at the Venetian. And, you know, they've got that club in there, the Tao. Tau. And we had, you know, a casino marketing host, and they flew us out there. That was fun for a few years. I love that hotel. It's a great hotel.

But the win especially, I like the win the most now. I haven't been out there in a long time, so I don't know. Like, you know, we're Aaron and Tim are doing their show. Like, this circus is supposed to be incredible as a sports book. And there's so many other great hotels. We're missing a bunch of them. I don't go out there anymore. I haven't been out there in five, six years.

So anyway, you got frustrated with playing at a $25 minimum table with people that didn't know how to play blackjack. You know what? Multiple. Yeah, well, you know. And then you actually, you really took the step of berating them. I'm not, you know, one day, well, well, it's easy when you have a partner to berate them with. Who was your partner? Was it somebody that you knew?

Some dude from Iowa. Oh, okay. Oh, God. Dude from Iowa. I mean. But that we were drinking beers and it was more of, again, I'm not telling you. Were you trying to coach them up or were you just being obnoxious? Oh, yeah.

We're coaching him up big time. Okay. Um, I'm not telling you that I'm really that frustrated. and I understand that it doesn't change my odds. It just seemed more than ever before. It didn't seem more than ever before. It was more than ever before that I sit down at a table and insane things were happening. To the point where like dealers looking at it, trying to help them too.

So then I started walking around and I'd sit and watch a table for two or three minutes. And it doesn't take long. Okay. Here's the telltale hand. dude gets a 14 the dealer turns over a five or six and they sit and think about it

for some time they're like no you're good if I get frustrated I'll just say hey you're good dude you're good he's got a five up you're fine

stay right there brother but when they sit there and look at it and think about it you go I'm not going to sit at that too the best thing is when you now you were just out there with family but the best is when you can get a table and the five of you, it's all five of you, you're all friends,

and everybody's, you know, playing the right way. And, you know, a couple of people are winning, and some people are getting destroyed, but you're just, I mean, you can sit, by the way, you can sit there for hours, and it flies by, and you can have a bunch of cocktails, and you can yuck it up, and I love those nights. Those are fun nights. That's what you're aiming for, to sit down for at least an hour

and enjoy your time at the table. Even if you lose, you're having a good time. I've been at the MGM a bunch, and I just will, I, even in that one, you know, room where you can go in, where it's a little bit higher. I mean, it's the MGM and, you know, it's, by the way, the MGM is a great casino. I'm talking about here. And it's really, they really did it right. But I just don't get frustrated with the people that can't play. The thing that frustrates me is when somebody really doesn't know what they're doing.

doing, I wish more times than not that, you know, the pit boss or the dealer can say, hey, you know, if you don't know, just ask me. And I'll tell you, you know, what the basic blackjack strategy move is. Because if you, that's the great thing about, you know, they're going to, they're going to beat you regardless. They're going to win regardless. They will help you. If you've never played blackjack at a casino and you're not sure what to do, ask the dealer, nine times out of ten, unless the dealer's a real asshole, or if there's a language barrier. They'll tell you what to do. They'll just tell you what to do.

They don't know basic strategy. Yeah, so it usually makes that easier. This is the other thing that I hadn't seen yet, because I haven't been to Vegas in five, six years, and I hadn't been to any bigger casino in some time. Have you seen the continuous shuffling machine? Yes. Yeah. Well, they don't. Hate it.

Yeah, boy. Are you counting cards? I want them I want to be able to I mean the only thing you can do as a player I just have this stupid old school theory

that even an eight deck deal it's like there are shoes that are going to get hot even if you're not counting there's the shoe that starts to get hot and if you're raising your money when you're winning bets you love a hot shoe

I never won more than four hands in a row but at the same time I didn't lose that many in a row And I thought hindsight, I should have did the whole like doubled your bet. Right. Until you win and win or lose. One point, I did that whole thing. I lost not very much.

Right. I lost a couple. I lost a couple hundred bucks. I lost $800 the first night. Right. With a stupid split twos or split eights or whatever, double down both of them, dealer had a six shown and ends up turning over at 21. Yeah, well, that happens.

And that happens. And that's where I lost. but for the most part no i didn't lose money i did just fine i i like to go enjoy it for me it's not always like if i'm under a thousand dollars for a weekend yeah that's a competitive winning aspect of it more than it is losing five six hundred dollars right like i just want to beat them yeah i've told i i think i've told you this story before but like it's it was As someone who's bet on sports and been in casinos a lot, you know, you typically remember your worst beats much more than you sort of relish in your greatest wins. I mean, I remember my worst beats more than anything.

But my greatest win ever in a casino. And I'm probably told this story. So sorry if I'm being repetitive, but I think I've told you. But if I haven't, I want to because you just talked about splitting eights. So we had been in Vegas for Super Bowl weekend. This was the Super Bowl after. I mean, this is a long time. This is 30 years ago, right?

We were really young. There were 12 of us, I think, in Vegas. We went out because really, like, there was a group of us that would say, hey, you want to go to the Super Bowl this year? And basically, you know what that meant? That meant going to Vegas for the Super Bowl. Because going to Vegas for the Super Bowl was better than going to the Super Bowl. But this was the year that the Cowboys played the Bills in Pasadena in the Rose Bowl the year after Washington had beaten Buffalo in Minneapolis.

So that would have been the 92 season, the 93 Super Bowls. There are 12 of us out in Vegas. And we had been out there a bunch that year. I forget, I think we were staying at Caesars. I think it was Cesar's. And it may have been the Mirage, but whatever. So we had a casino marketing host and I had asked her early in the day on Saturday, hey, there are like six of us that would really like to go to the game tomorrow.

Do you guys have any tickets? We don't have any because it was a short trip to Pasadena and we figured hell. Let's see if they have tickets and they're giving them away to any of their bigger clients, not that we were massive clients. I think we had a much bigger impression of what we were. and they said, no, you know, Kevin, we don't have any. They're all gone to our highest rollers. Fine, no worries.

Saturday night, we're at, like five of us at a blackjack table, and we're having a great time. And my buddy, Mick and I start getting really hot, and we're winning a bunch of money. And, I mean, I, you know, this is 1993. I bet we're both up five figures at that point. So that's a long time ago, but that's, you know, that was, that was good money, you know, to be up. I mean, I hate, I hate talking about money because for some people that are listening, like, oh, that, dude, that's nothing. And for others, it's like, what? But whatever, it is what it is.

So I, I mean, I'm on a role and Cooley, I guess I was up to, you know, because I was up so much, I was up to playing basically, like, you know, I was like, you know, I was like, thousand bucks a hand. It was out of control. I was out of control. Um, and I get two eights against a six, split them. I get a third eight, split that. I get a fourth eight, split that. Um, the first eight is like a three double down jack. The second eight is like a two double down, you know, ace, right? The third one's like a three double down ten. And the, I, swear to God. And the fourth one's like 8-2 double-down jack. So I got basically

3-20-1s and a 20 against a six. Dealer pulls over you know, Jack, one hit, you know, another 10, all four hands hit, all four double-downs hit. And like, you know, places going nuts. As I got,

as they turned over the fourth eight, you know, everyone's, whoa, four-eight's out there. You know how when, you know, there are people sitting around and watch and all of my boys are going nuts. Literally, as she's, you know, paying off each hand, our casino marketing host walks over, no less than within 30 seconds after that,

and says, how many did you need for tomorrow? And I said, well, we needed six, but we'll take eight. And she gives us six Super Bowl tickets to go see the Buffalo Dallas Super Bowl. And so actually, eight of us ended up going. The other two scalp tickets out in front, and it was a lot because it was the Cowboys, and they were back in the Super Bowl for the first time. By the way, that was the Super Bowl where Michael Jackson was the halftime performer.

And my seats were right in the middle of the Buffalo section with two of my friends. And then actually, it was just my buddy Ted and I were in the Buffalo section. And then I think the other guys were in the Dallas section, and then the other two, I forget where they were. but that was like the all-time you remember the beats much worse like if i if i you know can you imagine if you know the first double down was a two jack the second one was a two you know uh 10 like they were all 20s and then somehow she pulled over a five and then had a 10 21 yeah I can imagine that and of course you could because that happens all the time too but i'll never

forget that particular deal and that hand and the excitement over it and literally no less than 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure her name was Kathy. She was our casino marketing host there, although that may have been the Venetian too. But anyway, walks over, Kevin, how many did you need? Well, we needed six, but if you got eight, because, you know, and she literally hands me an envelope with six Super Bowl tickets. So we went to that Super Bowl. We flew over that. So it wasn't really just a $8,000 win. No, it was, look, at that time, what did Super Bowl tickets cost at that time? Do you have any recollection? I would bet that they were probably face value, $250,000, maybe. Uh-huh. Maybe $300, maybe $500. I don't know. I think I had gone to the Super Bowl the year before, the last Washington Super Bowl in

Minneapolis, which by the way, I've mentioned this before, was one of the best times I've ever had, despite it being absolutely frigid and it snowed almost every single day from, we got in on like Thursday night. But it was such a great time, not to mention they won the game. But that's, I think, and so, and I was a season ticket holder, and I think, and we got them in the lottery, like there was a lottery, you know, for season ticket holders because they couldn't give them to everybody. And I want to say that that was 250 bucks. So I bet they were like 250, 300 bucks face value, something like that. I can look that up. I bet that they have face value Super Bowl ticket history. Because I'd actually been...

The average ticket for that game was $325. You found it already, $325. I'm awesome. I'm Googling. Yeah. So that was the average, that was the average face value. Yeah. Yeah. So, God, I'm looking through. Do you know, like, so Washington's first Super Bowl, Super Bowl 17, 40 bucks face value? Holy shit. That's unbelievable. And then they just started going up. And yeah, Super Bowl 26 was actually Super Bowl 26. it says that face value, well, I'm showing 150 bucks, but I believe you, because it had to be more than that.

Had to be more than that. It was three straight years that 325 was the average cost per ticket in the 93 year. What is it now? Is it a thousand? I don't know. Well, you have the list of it. Well, face value is different than what it is now. I'm curious as to what the face value is.

If you're like a season ticket holder and you're one of the two teams and you get the season ticket face value, even if it's an upper deck or whatever, I'm curious as to what that face value is. It's got to be a thousand bucks now, doesn't it? No, four. What? I don't know what the face value says on them. The face value is not $4,000. The aftermarket price might be. be $4,000.

There's no way it says on the ticket $4,000. Face value of Super Bowl tickets in 2020. Well, that wasn't even the Super Bowl. $500 for the 1,000 lottery tickets. Yeah. They give for the Super Bowl. Okay. Between $8,500 for general admission, $5,000 for club seats.

But you're not getting a ticket for less than $3,000, $4,000. Right. If you don't have one via the way, like, you know, right. The 1,000 lottery tickets. Yeah. It's like almost winning the lottery. Right.

You're not getting one. Jesus. I'll tell you what, seriously, I think going to the Super Bowl is so overrated. I'd much rather watch the Super Bowl at home. Well, look at how many times we did, you know, radio shows on Radio Row all week long, Monday through Friday. Now, some of those weeks were so much fun. the week in New York, which was your first one with the radio station, I think.

That was a blast. That was so much fun. The week in San Francisco was phenomenal. The week in South Florida was great. The week in Arizona was great. The week in Phoenix wasn't as much fun because remember where we were staying. That was the Super Bowl where Cooley arrives at the airport at Dulles on like Sunday. We were flying out Monday morning.

And I'm sitting there and you walk up and you said, did you see where you were staying? And I said, I did. We're going to have to do something about it. And you just said, well, I'm not staying there. I'm booking my own stuff. This is absurd. They had us in Phoenix in a hotel that was essentially a crack dealer's, you know, hotel and parking a lot.

It was a bad place to be. It was horrible. And so you and I, we worked it out. and then Doc was on with us, and I think you, me, Doc figured it out and got into a better place. It was still a hike from downtown Phoenix. We had to get out of downtown, though. Yeah. But the San Francisco, were you with me in San Francisco?

Or not? I forget. I don't know. I forget. The San Francisco, they had us like 45 minutes away from Radio Row, which in San Francisco meant about an hour and a half commute. And so I just said, this is stupid. And so we booked a place three-minute walk from Radio Row for less money. And I canceled and basically talked everybody's reservation down to like, you know, some sort of, you know, $25 late cancellation fee or whatever.

But it was so, well, look, we've gone on about our management at the radio station too many times over the past. But those were always fun trips, but none of us ever stayed for the game. Or maybe occasionally some of us did. But the Super Bowl, and by the way, I would say this about the final four, too, overrated events to be there for. Totally overrated. I'd much rather be at like the NFC championship game in a stadium that has a home field advantage than be at a Super Bowl, much rather.

I think I'd agree with you on that. I went to one Super Bowl, and I said I'm not doing that. again. Which Super Bowl did you go to? The Grossman Super Bowl, the Colts Bears. Oh yeah, that was down in Florida. I think. Yeah. Yeah, in Miami. Yeah, in Miami. That was a fun week.

No, that was a rainy game. I didn't go to that one. What was the next Miami game? The next Miami game, I don't know. I can't remember. I don't know. I went with my brother. It was a fun week, but yeah, I I didn't like going to the game. Right. That was the only NFL game I attended.

That was the second NFL game in my life I attended in the stands. Saints Colts. Do you go to that one? Yeah, that had to be it. Yeah. Yeah, because it wasn't Chiefs 49ers a couple years ago. If you went with your brother, it was way back when you were playing. No, it was like 2007.

2010 was the one that was Colts Saints, Drew Brees. Oh, that would have been it. Yeah. Yeah, the, the, the, one that was in Miami prior to that was the Bears Colts, the Peyton Manning. That was the year we went to play golf on Sunday before the game, and they said, hey, there's another guy. Can he join you? His name's Jim Brown. Like, Jim Brown? Yeah, he can join us. And I teed his ball up on every hole because you'd had two hip surgeries.

I think you've shot an 83. Yeah, you've told me that story before. And you see, said that, like, was he, did you, do I remember you telling me that he wasn't that talkative during the round? No, he was competitive. Competitive. No, he was just really competitive. It was fun. He was good.

So who was it? Four old's in, though. I asked my brother to tee his ball up for him. And he was like, no, I like the way you do it. He did? Yeah, so I had to tee up on every hole. That's pretty funny. So it was you, your brother, Jim Brown, and who was the fourth?

No one. Where did you play? Do you remember? Some beat club in Dade County. Not like a nice, nice club. Did he know you were an NFL player? I think they told him, yeah. I think they told him, and that's why he was good to play with us.

Okay. Did he know who you were? Yeah, barely. Barely. You teed up the ball of the greatest NFL player of all time. And at one point you said, hey, my brother's going to do it. Nope, nope, your brother's not going to do it. You're going to do it. I like the way you tee it up. That's so funny. And you didn't mind? No. It's Jim Brown. Honestly, Kev, if I went out there and some older dude had two hip surgeries and

played with this now, you would have done the same thing. I'd do the same thing for anybody. Of course. It doesn't make any difference to me. I, I mean, he wanted to play golf. That's so funny. All right. The moral of the story is, if you're going to play a $25 table, you know, at the Flamingo Hilton in Vegas, you can't complain about the people who are there that don't know how to play blackjack. Just have a couple cocktails enjoy it.

And just actually, then you can just start to predict. You can start to bet on whether or not they're going to hit 17 against a six. I disagree. I feel like you can complain. But not to them, per se. And I'm definitely not complaining to the dealer. But I can complain because it takes away the enjoyment of the game. Well, then you need to find a different table.

It's like watching a football game. They're on vacation too. You're watching a football game and you're punching every third down. They're on vacation too and they're having a good time and they don't know how to play, but they want to gamble. Well, then I'm just trying to convince them. not to do that anymore. Okay. All right.

When we come back, we will talk about, I think, you know, I'm trying not to be overreactionary, but for me, it was certainly among the two or three greatest college basketball games I've ever watched. We'll talk about that. Cooley watched a lot of hoops on his vacation, bet on a lot of hoops, too. Probably took my advice that didn't work out very well. most of the week. But the college basketball, Gonzaga, UCLA game discussion when we come back right after this work from one of our sponsors. Started by Kisper. Eight seconds to go.

Jusang, floater short. He got his own rebound with 3.3. Gonzaga failed away in chip game. That was the Sean McDonough call of Jalen Suggs's 40-foot bank shot game winner in Saturday. nightcap of the final four. By the way, at the end of the show, we'll play back that call, which I think was the best call of all of the calls. He was calling that for ESPN International, and we'll play that back side by side with the call that McDone had, the famous call of the Michigan-Michigan State finish where the Michigan punter dropped the snap and turned into a touchdown, a crazy miracle finish. I think Sean McDonough is the best, and it sucks that it never worked out with, I mean, Gruden went back to coaching anyway, but I know that they didn't get along

super well, even though I thought it was a pretty good pairing, McDonough and Gruden on Monday night football. Cooley, I've been watching college basketball my entire life. I don't know and can't remember, you know, a final four game that I missed. And, you know, you do this thing after you know you've watched something truly special and unique, where you immediately, you know, you're going to you know, it's the recency bias, you know. And in this day and age, and I'm not putting this on just younger people, but there is this emphasis from so many to feel like you just saw. You were witness to the greatest game ever or the worst game ever or whatever.

Bottom line is the game on Saturday night between Gonzaga and UCLA, I've never seen a better start to finish college basketball game. If you want to say Duke, Kentucky in 92, which ended with the Christian Leitner shot in overtime, the famous Christian Leitner, Grant Hill to Christian Leitner pass and shot, that game was phenomenal. Maryland, NC State, for all of you old-timers, which, by the way, Billy Packer talked a lot about, he called that game, is one of the most significant games in college basketball history because it essentially initiated what we have today with March Madness. There was one turnover in that game in 1974 in the ACC final, 103 to 100 in overtime.

And really, people have always said it's either that game or the Leitner game or the two greatest games. We saw Chris Jenkins in the final after Marcus Page hit the three a few years ago and Villanova beating North Carolina on the Chris Jenkins jumper. There have been so many great games. This one Saturday night, though, had it all. It had everything. Start to finish. 19 lead changes, 13 ties. The game featured both teams running terrific offense,

hitting one tough shot, one contested shot, one clutch shot after another. The game featured 47 assists in the game. Gonzaga made 37 shots, 26 of them assisted. UCLA 34 shots from the floor, 21 of them assisted. UCLA shot 57.6% for the game, 47.1% from behind the arc, and lost. Gzaga shot 58.7% from the field and nearly lost. And then, of course, it featured controversial calls. The Cody Riley finish where Jalen's Suggs slaps it away and that ends up in a fast break. Incredible pass layup. That was a foul. and there was controversy there. We'll get to some of that here in a moment.

It had an incredible finished regulation where they made the right call on Timmy's draw of the charge on the Zhu Zang Drive at the end where UCLA had a chance. It had the, you know, it's crazy to say David versus Goliath because it's UC fucking L.A., you know, one of the greatest programs in the history of the sport. But they were an 11 seed. They played in the first four.

They were the biggest underdog, final four history. They went off as a 14 and a half, 15 point dog, and there they were. They had a chance to win in regulation. It goes to overtime. The overtime's phenomenal, and it ends with a 40-foot bank shot from Jalen Suggs. The best freshman in the country is going to be a top three pick at the buzzer, and Gonzaga remains undefeated, and they've got a chance to become the first undefeated national champions since Indiana in 1976 against Baylor tonight. More on that coming up. Where did you watch the game? Home. Oh, you were home at that point. Yeah. It was, I sat on my couch and watched it. And I'm, fortunately for me, you, you've talked about this

with a lot with me with younger kids and stuff you get doing things and you you forget exact times of games you forget it Saturday not Sunday so I just turned the TV on and I was like oh UCLA games on or Gonzaga games on sat down I'm like this is a great game I turned it on with like I don't know 14 minutes left in the first half dude No one could miss. It was amazing. Yeah. And making every shot that someone needed to make that was a big shot to get him back in it,

they'd make it. You see, that dude, Jazein was unbelievable. You kept being, like, get him the ball. Just give that dude the ball. He makes everything right now. Let him take every shot. And then all of a sudden here comes Gonzaga back down. And it's easy.

Gonzaga is good. Gonzaga's got a bunch of dudes. like just Bert and Timmy and they got dudes that can just score top to bottom and they play fast and they're fun to watch but gosh UCLA just kept battling and battling and battling and I'm anybody watching it's like how are they at 11 speed like how'd they lose the last four games who beat this team? They're unbelievable right now and I wanted UCLA to win so bad because it's it was the David and Glythe thing and as they got to overtime and I thought gosh I I thought they should have won it in regulation right there at the end. They got to overtime. It's like they're going to win. They've won two overtime games.

They're going to find a way to pull this thing out. Yeah. The play that they make was it Jazeeng right there at the buzzer with three seconds left to get his own rebound? Yeah. Johnny's using. And after Jazeeng only had one shot in overtime. That was it. I missed that the bunny that kind of got contested right there.

Oh, right. In the lane, yeah. In the lane. And then they never got him the ball again in overtime. And it was like, and not only that, I mean, the dude Timmy's unbelievable. He should have, they should have given it low to him every single possession because they couldn't stop him. Right. Then he gets into foul trouble and you're like, go at Timmy.

Yeah. That's not that they could have went at Timmy more. Well, that was. And you also have the guy from UCLA. Was it? Who was it? Hockes. Jaime Hockes.

The big dude that doesn't make. or Cody Riley. That doesn't make jumpers that all the sudden is knocking down all the jumpers. Yeah, knocking down jump shots. Right. Cody Riley, they're saying. And I'm just,

you're watching it like, my God, but as Suggs hit that shot, have you ever seen anyone more poised that knew exactly what they were doing? They knew exactly what they were doing. With three seconds left, no panic, no nothing.

They could have called the time out. They didn't. They took it right out. They knew exactly what they were doing. You know, UCLA dropped quickly. They allowed that in-bounds pass probably a little bit too easily. Look, you know, the 40-foot bank shot is a one out of tenor.

You know, maybe a two-out-a-t tenor when you're, you know, in this day and age. And, you know, one of the things Mark Few said is he said he sees Jalen Suggs knock that down all the time, that they all practice it. But Jalen Sugg said he hasn't been making that shot in practice. Well, it was, I mean, if he doesn't make it and it goes to double over, time and there's not a walk-off winner like that, it's still one of the all-time memorable games. It just, because of the final shot, you put it up there with Jenkins and Leitner and Lorenzo Charles and all of the final four and or championship game winners. But I want to go back just real quickly because this game, at halftime, I'm sitting there

going, oh my God, we are watching a fabulous basketball game. What a first half. But there are a couple of things in the first of all, I'm watching this game because I had UCLA. I took UCLA plus the point. You told me not to. No, I gave him out as a smell test pick. I did not tell you. I have a text right here. No, I probably told you I don't like it, but it's a smell test pick for me.

I'm looking through my text. Hold on. I don't love either game, but I think Baylor and Gonzaga both win. Yes, I did send that, but I... You like Houston and UCLA, question mark. Nope. Period. So, I say, I say so, dot, dot, dot. Yeah, which day was that?

When did you send? You said, I think both Baylor and Gonzaga will win. Yeah. Well, let me just tell you, I gave out UCLA as my only smell test winner. I gave out both unders. The first one was really painful. Now they're the smell test after this text conversation. And that, well, I mean, people that listened to the podcast heard me give a UCLA out.

I wasn't listening to the podcast. I was texting directly with you. You weren't listening to this little program? I was directly. texting with you. I know. I know. That's fine. Well, you know what? You would have split. Okay. So, so what? You would have lost the juice if you had taken... No. No, no. If you would have said, no, I don't, the only game I like is UCLA to cover. I wouldn't have split. I would have won. I wouldn't have told you that. If I had given you all four of my smell tests from the, picks from the weekend, you would have gone

one and three. So be glad that I didn't tell you everything that I liked. Actually, I liked Houston much more than I liked UCLA. And I gave out four picks this weekend, and I went one and three. Houston never had a chance in that first game. And by the way, Baylor's so good. And we'll get to the preview of the game tonight. But let me just mention, you know, when you're, I had UCLA. All right, I actually bought the half point.

It was 14 and I bought it to 15. I know. Whatever. I just, you know, the Oklahoma game was so close. And I just, they had been covering. This was the biggest. spread in Final Four history. And I'm going to be honest with you. I told you guys this on Friday.

I didn't feel good about the pick at all, but I was hitting 16 against a jack. I was playing by the book. Anyway, you know, you get to the under 16. UCLA's up a point. You get to the under 12. It's still close. And I'm like, wow, they're playing well. Here was the thing that was very noticeable in the first half. it was not hard for UCLA to score against Gonzaga. They were making a lot of big-time shots,

and they were shooting a very high percentage, but they were shooting a lot of open shots, too. They were getting to their spot a ton to where they wanted to shoot. And here's the thing with Gonzaga. They are a beautiful offensive basketball team to see the way they space, the way they pass, the way they're so high IQ. I love watching them offensively.

But they gave up 53 points and a half to be watching. in the West Coast Conference Championship game. They ended up winning that game going away. But in a tournament that has been dominated by great defense, Gonzaga not being the example of that, UCLA, Michigan, Houston, Baylor, etc. Gonzaga is just not a great defensive team. They're not terrible.

But the one thing that I noticed in the first half, I'm like, at least I'm on a team that can really score. Like they're getting a big number and they can really score. In the first half, to me, what was unfortunate for UCLA was their foul trouble. Campbell had two, Hawkes had two, Jules Bernard had three. The second foul on Jaime Hawkes was an absolute bullshit call. I thought one of the fouls on Campbell was a terrible call. And in taking Campbell and Hawkes out of the game, it really hurt UCLA.

I think if they're in the game, they're up six at halftime. And instead, they're down one. Big difference, right? Now, the game goes back and forth. They're down seven at one point. You're wondering, uh-oh, is Gonzaga now about to open up a can of whoop-ass and open this thing up and win by 20? And then they hit a big three. And then they hit a big three.

Every single time, you know, there was any sort of hint that UCLA might be on the verge of, you know, being, you know, being handled. They hit big shots, even in overtime at 90 to 85. Hock is from the corner. Then they get their best defensive possession. But in the second half, there were a couple of plays. And one thing that I want to mention that I think was a coaching error, and it speaks to what you had said about Timmy and how good he was. First of all, the block by Suggs on Riley that started that incredible fast break, I'm glad that they kept the whistle in their mouth and didn't blow it. But if you're Jim Nance and Bill Raftery and Grant Hill calling this game, and you've now seen this replay seven times,

you have to say what the entire world watching it sees, Cody Riley gets fouled, period. He gets his hand raped by Suggs, which is why he missed at the rim. There's no other reason he missed at the rim. He missed at the rim because his hand was pulled off the basketball. Hands part of the ball. Hands part of the ball.

And so I just, like I love Jim Nance. I can't stand that group. I mean, Grant Hill is trying to be Raftree, and Raftree apparently is the nicest person in broadcasting. I've never met him. I've had them on the show before. It's over. That crew's the worst.

But anyway, that was, you know, that led to an incredible play. I thought that Timmy drawing of the charge on Zhu Zang's last second shot in regulation. It was the right call. And, man, that was drama right there. here was the coaching mistake that I thought was made because I think McKronin's a great coach. I think the job by both of the guys pretty much was phenomenal. The mistake was Gonzaga consistently put UCLA into a pick and roll with Timmy. Timmy was setting the ball screen out in the middle of the floor.

Cody Riley's on Timmy. They switched every screen over and over again. and Gonzaga figured it out, and they dove Timmy immediately to the rim, and he had a guy four, five, six, seven inches shorter than him. And it was a total mismatch. Timmy owned everybody inside because he wasn't being guarded by a guy his side. There are times when it's Tiger Campbell on him. Why Mick Cronin and why UCLA chose to continue to switch screens with Timmy,

it was a big mistake. You know, and by the way, that wasn't pointed out by the crew. crew. Afterwards, Kenny Smith pointed it out. They did point it out late in the broadcast. They did point it out late in the broadcast. That was the only thing I was like, oh my God, stop switching screens. Do you not see that Timmy's immediately taking the switch and diving to the rim? And by the way, Gonzag is so smart. And they've got so many guard mentality guys, whether it's Suggs or Kisper or any of them, Nemhart. They're all, they've all got incredible. credible IQs, they immediately see it.

They go inside and Timmy's having his way to the tune of 25 points on 11 of 15. Well, I'd like, I didn't go back and look. I would bet you that half of his 11 shots were against guards guarding him at the rim. You can't have that. But I think you're sitting there saying it doesn't matter if we switch or not because nobody can cover him. No.

That was the other part of it was that, Kevin, nobody could cover it. It didn't matter who was on, Timmy. Look, that is true. And the other part of that is, you know, switching screens gives you the ability more times than not to not give up a quick open shot, especially since if you're sticking and you're rotating. And you don't want to give up. I mean, Jesus Christ, I mean, AIE was an incredible shooter and has been in this tournament. By the way, he's in the first round now in a lot of mocks along with Suggs is going to be one of the top two or three picks. Kisper is. lottery. Timmy is, you know, late first second. AIE's late first now. Four, four draft choices, three, maybe all four in the first round. Juzang's probably worked his way into the first round as well. But I thought that was the only real mistake made. I loved the game. It was a, it was just such a, it had everything to it. It was so high level. It had all the drama of a couple of calls that went, you know, the end of regulation opportunity for the 11 seed to pull the upset.

And then, you know, the incredible finish. You know, just the incredible finish. I would point out that Hakez at 90 to 85 knocked down that three from the corner. They get a great defensive possession. Then you get Juzang that ties it. When Johnny Juzang basically came down on that possession, he gets a screen from Hakez and they hedge hard. he gets a quick double team.

If he flips it over to Hawkes, he's got a wide open three for the lead. But he was not giving the ball up in that spot. He was not giving. He was not going to. Maybe he should have. Yeah, because he really hadn't touched it except for that fast break that you mentioned, that, you know, he missed the floater off the back rim. And that was really well contested in transition.

It was. It was actually not a great fast break. I mean, they should have gotten something easier. But anyway, I don't know. man, like, you know, rank it wherever you want. I don't think, you know, two days later, basically, or whatever it is, day and a half later, I don't think I've ever seen a better game college-wise start to finish. You know, there have been a lot of them. I mentioned on radio this morning, and I don't think I've mentioned it today. The Arizona, Illinois Elite 8 game in 2005 was one of the

most dramatic comeback to one of the great games ever. Louisville, Houston, in 83 in the semifinal, before Houston lost to NC State was one of the highest level athletic games I've ever watched. But in terms of a game that just had everything, from high-level play to clutch shots, tough shots, critical possessions, lead changes, tie scores, overtime, last second, crazy 40-foot bankshot game winner, you'd really be hard pressed to tell me that you're absolutely sure that Duke, in 92 was a better game. Like, it may have been as good. You know, Duke UNLV in 91 may be as good.

Maryland NC State in 1974, maybe as good. You know, Carolina Villanova from 2016 in the final, maybe as good. But you can't convince me that you've seen something better than that. That was spectacular. The only thing they didn't do, neither team shot free throws well. You know, I mean, Zhu Zang, who's an 8. 87% free throw shooter missed two crucial free throws.

He sure did. And by the way, Kispert missed a free throw. And I think it was a front end of a one-in-one. Kisper really didn't play well. God, he had that dunk, though, man. Oh, yeah, the dunk was sweet. He's going to be a good NBA player. He's so fluid.

I mean, look, Suggs is just really good. Now, the game tonight, Cooley, I personally, I think, Baylor is the better team. I think they're the more well-rounded team. They're the best defensive team in the entire tournament, and they played maybe the second best defensive team. They have the guards defensively.

Davian Mitchell, I've been mentioning this throughout the tournament, has become my favorite player in the tournament. You know, Butler really got off the other night. The only way I see Baylor losing this game is since their COVID pause, they've had a couple of games where they've just not, down shots. They did the other day. They shot 52%, made 11 threes, and totally shut Houston down. I mean, that was a, they were up 25 at the half against a Houston team that, you know, can really offensive rebound, and they had a bunch of offensive rebounds again. I don't know,

I look at tonight, there's no smell test pick. The action split at four and a half. I like Baylor. I just think they're the better team. I may be really. wrong on this because Gonzaga offensively, there isn't a better team. But I think Baylor's defense and their athleticism on the perimeter in particular is going to be too much. And they're also a deeper team than Gonzaga. I like Baylor tonight. It's just that they haven't played an offense like Gonzaga. And also, they haven't played that many. It's really interesting because nobody's played that many games this year. I guess. You never leave a heater.

And I'm not saying Baylor's not really on one, but do you take that momentum? And in football, you might think you win a critical game like that. And a week later, there's a drop-off. I think in the NCAA tournament, you win a critical game like that. And you ride it. Teams ride that, man. And you're saying Gonzaga will ride that victory. Look, they are certainly capable of scoring a lot of points, but they have not.

they have not at any point faced a team of men and athletes and defensive players like they have faced in Baylor. Look, this is the matchup people have wanted to see all year. I think if Isaiah livers had stayed healthy for Michigan, I think they could have been here tonight. By the way, think about this, right? You know, UCLA beat Michigan 51 to 49. They had 44 to halftime against Gonzaga. Michigan was one of the better defensive teams in the draw. They also allowed themselves to get slowed down by UCLA, and Gonzaga didn't,

and yet UCLA still had a chance to win. I just, this is the matchup everybody wanted to see. This game was scheduled in December, canceled by COVID. They never rescheduled it. In many ways, Naki felt the same way this morning he was saying, I'm glad we didn't see it in December. I'm glad we're seeing it in the national championship game. This is the game that I think a lot of people wanted to see.

You know, Gonzaga crushed every major opponent they had. Look, Gonzaga, it's crazy to say, they're playing UCLA. Gonzaga's brand is top-notch in the sport, even though they haven't won a national championship. They're the brand right now. Baylor is not the brand, even though they're from a Power 5 conference, not a basketball brand. Gonzaga crushed early in the season, you know, Kansas and Virginia and Iowa and, you know, Auburned.

That was their first game. That UCLA game was their first game that they haven't won by double digits. I know. No, no. West Virginia. West Virginia was a close game in November, December, whenever that was. That was their only. In like the last two months or something. Yeah.

They haven't won by at least 10. And then it was only BYU that was within 10. and the rest of them were 20-point big. BYU scored 53 in the first half, and they were up 12 at halftime, 53-41, and then ended up losing by 10. And that's the thing. I look at Gonzaga, and I just think,

to me, ultimately, I'm going to take it to, if Baylor wasn't also a high-flying offensive team, I might be concerned. But I'm going to take the team of the two that I know is great defensively. And that's Baylor. Baylor is great defensively, and their defense starts everything. Now, with that said, they're playing the best offensive team they have faced.

And the best offensive team in the country, the highest scoring team in the country. It's such a great matchup. I can't, it's funny because we don't have, you know, Gonzag is obviously a huge basketball brand that's never won the title, and they're going for the first undefeated thing since Indiana, and 76, et cetera, et cetera. You know, you don't have Duke or Carolina or Kentucky or Kansas, you know, in the final or even Villanova or Michigan State, you know, some of the other teams. It's Baylor-Gonzaga, and yet, man, I'm looking forward to this tonight as much as I can remember looking forward to a college basketball game. These are two excellent teams, and it's a really good contrast.

To me, the most interesting thing will be to see, put it this way, Unless Baylor has one of their truly off shooting nights, which they've had since that COVID pause once or twice, unless they have that, I feel confident that they're going to score 75 plus points in this game. What to me is the total matchup is Baylor's defense against Gonzaga, especially on the perimeter. I think how they play the pick and roll is going to be really interesting with Timmy to see how they play that with Suggs and Timmy. and whether or not they help, whether or not they, you know, guard Timmy in the post with one guy or, or, you know, whether or not they tend to, they're so long in athletic, they can double and still get out to the shooters and close out. It's going to be, it's going to be a great game.

I just, I picked Baylor from the, you know, since after the first weekend when Illinois got eliminated. because I think my pick was Gonzaga over Illinois in the final. After seeing Baylor destroy Wisconsin, they've been my pick. I played them on the to win the tournament at plus 250. So I'd like to get that tonight. I'll probably play them plus four and a half as well. I just think they're the better team. I think they've got better players.

And that's saying a lot because Gonzaga has four first round potential picks in the draft. But anyway. Yeah. Do they have better players? I think they have the same level of players, but they're better defensive players, and I think they're deeper. I think they're deeper than Gonzaga. We'll see. I'm not one of those people that think Gonzaga is going to be like, you know, exhausted after the game on Saturday night. I mean, these are, I think they'll be certainly ready for this. These are 18, 19, 20-year-old kids.

And I'm a big Mark few fan, so if they win, I'm going to be happy that Gonzaga finally gets that title because they deserve it. They are, you know, they're not a blue blood in the sport. Okay, you've got to win national championships to be considered that. But it's amazing that a mid-major team, not from one of the Power 5 conferences, over really, you know, it's been building over 10 years, but really for 20 has become one of the real basketball powerhouses. from Spokane, Washington, playing in the West Coast Conference. They recruit with the big boys.

They play with the big boys. This is the last step. They've been to the championship game. They lost to North Carolina in a game that I thought they should have won. I thought the officiating in that game was terrible, and I thought it was one-sided against Gonzaga in that championship game from a few years ago. And they've got a chance to get it tonight, but so does Baylor. And Baylor's so good.

some football stuff and also what Maryland did over the weekend. We talked about the Turgeon Extension on the Saturday podcast, but the two transfers that they added, Maryland's got a chance to be a preseason top 10, top 15 team next year. We'll finish up with that next. Kevin Sheehan, Chris Cooley today on this little program of ours. So there wasn't any huge Washington football team news. The sale to the minority owners went through the league.

approved it had happened. So Snyder now is the 100% owner, having bought out Fred Smith, Dwight Schar, and Bob Rothman for $875 million, the other 40.5%. So as we've discussed, he ain't going anywhere. This is going to be his team for a long period of time. The one thing coolly I'd mentioned to Tommy last week is I do think, you know, the league waiving the debt limit in allowing him to buy out his minority investors. It would not surprise me if he takes on a new group of diverse minority owners, minority in terms of their ownership stake, because I think that's something the league wants to see is more diversity in ownership. And it's been an emphasis for the organization over the last year in terms of their hiring. But what we aren't going to see

play out at all is any of the nastiness between Sharr and and Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder. All of that stuff goes away with this. We still have the Beth Wilkinson investigation. How much of that will see? I have no idea. I was talking to somebody, and I'm trying to remember who it was.

It may have been Neil. Neil and I were having this conversation. If you look at all of the league investigations, you know, deflategate, all of this various stuff, typically at the beginning of the investigative report when it's finalized, there's an executive summary that doesn't, that doesn't necessarily and doesn't have to include identifying information of the people. I mean, I think there's a chance we will at least with the Wilkinson investigation get the executive summary,

you know, the two or three pages of sort of summarizing what's, you know, in the report. But it's not going to surprise me if we don't get the report in totality, which would be a disappointment, of course, given how Jason Wright, among others, you know, promise total transparency with everything. But this is a league, remember, a league-owned investigation with Beth Wilkinson. The only other thing Washington football team related from over the weekend, I guess Kime reported that Sheriff had been offered some long-term deals, but has no interest in it. And by the way, once you get down, they should have learned this. once you get to that second tag, and it's $18 million for a guard,

there's just no incentive for him to sign a long-term deal when he's a year away from unrestricted free agency and he's going to make $18 million. Unless they came back and said, we're going to give you a long-term deal, and it's going to include $50 million in guarantees, and part of that is $18 this year. There's just not much of an incentive to do that.

So other than that, I know you had some football relations. things you wanted to talk about. Yeah, it wasn't necessarily Washington football things. The sheriff deal, we went over that a million times. I mean, it was going to have to be break the bank to be interested, and there was no reason for them to do that either with the cap space that they have. And it's, that position is so fortunate to be lumped in with the tackle position. Yep.

So in the future. shirt to anybody franchise tagging a guard. Don't. You don't want to start down that path with a guard. By the way, we never did talk about this. You know, Joe Thuney got that contract that's worth $16 million a year on average. So the numbers you were talking about and I was talking about with Sheriff, your numbers were never going to be close with Thuny getting $16 million a year.

I didn't. You know that I didn't think that that was going to. You're right. think my numbers were going to get the deal done. Understood. My numbers would have got the deal done two years ago, though. No doubt. Maybe.

No. Surely. Surely? Don't call me Shirley. All right, Karen. So, yeah, they would have gotten the deal done. I would have gotten the deal done a couple years ago. You knew he wanted him.

Do it when he's hurt and he's out for the year. It was really, I think it would have been three seasons ago. Right. There's no risk in it. What were the things you wanted to talk about football related? So I watched a couple of these workouts. I was sitting in Vegas and the Florida workout came up. And the kids were all going to the pool. And my mom was there.

My wife was like, we're going to the pool. And I said, we are not going to the pool. I'm watching this workout. Did this dude, Kyle Pitts? Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me? I mean, seriously. How do you get that athletic and that big and that good?

He put on a show on his pro. When you watch him, he put on a show, but he really put on a show. Like, when you're watching a guy play that position and open his stride up and pick it up and put it down out of transition, there's nobody that does that. he's absolutely outstanding yeah he and if he wants to block he'll be a great blocker if he wants to he's not going to need to but he'll do whatever he wants to do in the league it's he's unbelievable if he does not go in the first four picks i will be blown away because i was sitting here looking at it And I'm like Atlanta number four.

Everyone has taken a quarterback. And I'm sure that they're talking to enough people saying they're going to take a quarterback, that there's reasons why all these mock drafts have them. No way. It's pits. There's no way they're passing on pits. I get it. You want to build for the future.

And you're saying the quarterback is what's going to make your team great for the future. But you still have Matt Ryan. Yeah. It's pits. There's no. this dude there has not been a dude like this that i remember seeing look how much Travis kelsey changes a game look how easy a guy like that makes it for a quarterback you can't pass on pits I you're sitting there at two and you're the jets and you're like well we do have

darnald right I don't remember a tight end being this highly rated in forever I I mean, Kellyn Winslow, I think. My year. Yeah. There's been another tight end that came out that just you had to have? I'm not sure. Yeah. I'm really not sure.

What, um, I think the quarterback workouts were interesting. I watched Zach Wilson's workout. He's, well, people went nuts over that. He's amazing. I think Trey Lance is going to be a good pro. Okay. I like Trey Lance.

His workout was really good. The field's workout was awesome. But again, you remember, like, these workouts are with your receivers in your building when you're looking at all these quarterbacks. All of them. Working out with your receivers in your building. This has been game planned out. You have a plan.

You know exactly what's next. None of the workouts blow me away. But the more I look at it, I think Mack Jones is going to go. be four fields. Yeah. I don't think so. I think he's going to go to San Francisco. Yeah.

I think it's almost been unfair to Mac Jones. And when you watch him work out and make some throws, and I've went back and watched a couple of the games, when you watch Mac Jones, you can take away from a guy because he's got three top five picks or top ten or whatever. And he's got this amazing offense, but you can't really take it away because he makes all the throws.

and he's great off run action he's going to go to San Francisco that's why they traded out yeah there's I mean it wouldn't blow me away if they took tray lands what did you think a Trask

did you see him in his pro day yeah because I watched the Florida workout yeah Trass looked good I think he's I think he's gonna be a decent quarterback in the NFL and I mean I don't know if he's going to be there 51

and I don't know that they even are going to take a quarterback in the first or second round. But I like Trask. I'm like, you know, Mac Jones must be like super smart and processed quickly. That's what they said. He's the smartest one in the draft. Yeah. By the way, I looked up the tight end. He could operate the biggest load of offense.

The highest drafted tight ends in the last 20 years were Kellynne Winslow, Jr. in your draft in 2004, six overall. And remember, there was a team that was going to take them, if not for Clinton Portis, talking Joe Gibbs out of it. And then Vernon Davis was taking at six overall in the 2006 draft by the 49ers. And Pitts is better than both of them. Without a doubt. I mean, did you watch his 40? I mean, I just watched so many of their games.

So I didn't watch the pro. If you're, he's ridiculous as a player. Pull up Kyle Fitz is 40. I know. What did he run? 4-4-4-4? Yeah. 4-4 or something? Yeah. It's not like he had to train for that. Right. He was weaving down the line and ran a 4-4-4. Dudes don't do that. And he's 6-6. 6-6.

And he's got great hands. I think the jet. His wingspan's enormous. I think the jet thing's really interesting because, I don't know. I know that a lot of you, you know, think I'm not sensitive. Sam Darnold. I just think that it's way too early to bail on Sam Darnold if I were the Jets. I mean, he was drafted by a team that was not set up to develop him. Okay. Now, I'm not going to, I'm not about to compare him to Patrick Mahomes, who was drafted by a team that was ready to develop him with, you know, a guy by the name of Andy Reed, who was his coach.

You know, Josh Allen, ready to develop him. He got drafted into the worst situation. Hell, Baker Mayfield's situation with Kevin Stefansky is a much better situation than Sam Darnold's situation is. I just, you know, I forget who I had on the show now because it was all of last week, but I said to my guest, who was a draft person, and again, I'm blanking on who it was last week on the radio show. I said, can you make the case that Kyle Pitts is the best player in this draft? And he said, yeah, you can.

You know, I think a lot of people would say it's Lawrence won Pitts too, but you could make that case. You know, and yet all these quarterbacks are going to go first. You know, Lawrence and Zach Wilson and Mack Jones. And who knows if Atlanta trades, you know, out of that four spot, maybe Fields or Lance goes before Pitts. And we know what the history with quarterbacks are. are. It's more misses than hits. Pits is not going to be a miss. And if I were the Jets... Exactly. If I were the Jets... Not going to be a miss. If I were the Jets at number two, and I, with the new coaching staff, you know, which includes, you know, Robert Sala, who is the head coach, I don't

know who they hired as their offensive coordinator. I don't know who they hired. Do you? I know who it is, but hold on. But they go ahead. Remember, they added, In free agency, they added Corey Davis. They added the guy from Jacksonville, the receiver from Jacksonville, Keel and Cole. They still have Crowder there, right? I think they still have Crowder there. It's in their O.C.'s Mike LaFleur. Okay.

Who's that? Matt LaFleur's brother. Okay. I don't know. If I were that staff and I looked at Darnold and I said, I believe in Darnold. I think Donald can be a top half of the league's starting quarterback. Then are you going to pass on a sure thing, which is Kyle Pitts, for Zach Wilson because of the potential upside and maybe? You know, look, I think you do.

You need the quarterback. You know, you need the franchise quarterback. And if you don't think Donald's that, then you have to take the quarterback there. because you may never be in this position with this many quarterbacks with a feeling that you might have about Zach Wilson. So I get it. But it's not like they are. You may never be in the position. But the Jets have the ability to be in that position next year because they can trade out of that spot and acquire the same type of draft pick for next year.

Okay. Yes. And I get it. Okay. So let's say you go through this draft and you say, okay, well, Atlanta really does want. to come all the way up and they want to take Zach Wilson. Or let's say Detroit was willing to come up from seven to two. Carolina would be the one, but Carolina would be the one.

But if you, like, Detroit would be perfect because Detroit's going to stink next year. You're getting a top five pick like we out of Detroit. Right. If they're willing to do that because they are in true rebuild mode. But your point is if you're the Jets, you are listening. You are all ears because you've got Darnold. But this assumes that you like Darnold and you think Darnold's going to be a really good quarterback. If you don't, then you have to stay there and you've got to take the guy that has a chance to be the true franchise guy.

No, I agree with you, but I think what's holding up the Darnold trade is that the Jets are entertaining trading out of two. I don't think they're entertaining trading out of two. I think they're going to take Zach Wilson. I know that you think that, but they're entertaining trading out of two. I'd be listening to everything. If you can get three number ones and number two and another whatever, like what was given away for Robert Griffin, I would be entertaining that for sure,

especially knowing I have Darnold. So I'm sitting there saying, okay, I can get a second round pick for Darnold or I can get three number ones in the next two years or three years and trade, essentially trade Zach Wilson. I would trade Zach Wilson. Yeah, it all depends on what I think Zach Wilson is. If I think Zach Wilson is, the next Patrick Mahom, or Russell Wilson, I'm not, I'm drafting Zach Wilson. And, you know, the Russell Wilson,

Zach Wilson comparisons have been made. You know, he's a bigger version of it too. So I, my guess is we're seeing Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, one, two, and then probably Mac Jones three. And then it gets interesting that, you know, pits, if you're Atlanta and you don't draft Kyle pits at four, then you better be moving out of that spot and getting a boatload for somebody who wants to take Justin Fields or Trey Lance. By the way, if I had a quarterback and needed weapons, I'd be thinking about trading up to number four to take pits. I agree.

I just think you're going to have to give up too much to get to four because of the potential quarterback situation. Yeah. And you've got Jamar Chase and you've got receivers and the whole thing, you know, sitting there. Now, where it gets interesting for me is if I was sitting at number, I don't know, 19, 20, 21, any of those spots? What? I'd be thinking about trading up to 9, 10. To get who?

Michael Parsons. Yeah. With everything that's went on over these last three weeks and these workouts, Jamar Chase is going to go early in this draft. Mac Jones is going to now go in the top 10 of this draft. Fields ends up going into the top 10 of this draft. And all of a sudden, you got like Certaine, Devante Smith, Jalen Waddle. You got like four dudes sitting there at 10.

Yeah. You're going to get one of those guys at 10. One of the should be, I believe personally, there are five guys that should go in the top five that are not going to go in the top five. probably because of the quarterbacks. Look, the quarterback's all going. Five quarterbacks in the...

Look, you pretty much just spelled it out. Okay, Lawrence 1, Zach Wilson 2, Mac Jones 3. All right, there's no chance that a quarterback's getting past Carolina at 8 and probably not Denver at 9. So there are the 5. Okay, the 5 are going in the top 9, top 10. Which means, like you said, now you start pushing a lot of really good players into that 10 to 15 range like Patrick Sartan, the corner,

Devante Smith, potentially Chase, although I think Chase will be gone and Pitts will be gone before then. You've got the tackles, you know, the kid from SC and then the kid from Virginia Tech. Now here's the thing about Parsons. I love Parsons. I love Parsons. I couldn't wait to see his year this year at Penn State, but he opted out. all right um micha parsons is um is a major talent there's something that we've got to watch with him because

there's a lot of you know speculation about the due diligence on him and what he is and you know what kind of person what kind of kid what kind of work ethic all those things are in play if you start to see him fall and all of a sudden he's available at 12 or 13 you know Maybe Washington, who would have a huge need for a player like that, a huge need for a player like that, maybe they know something and maybe other teams know something about them. That's the one thing. I can say that. I'm with you. Talent-wise, this dude, if he were on our team, oh, my God.

I mean, now if he really is a talent. Now, you've got, you know, at that spot at 19, you know, you've got the. You know, Ousa Coramoa from Notre Dame as a possibility. You got Jaman Davis, who, you know, was flying up the boards. Ben Standing had him and his mocked at 19. Linebackers, you're going to have other corners. You're going to have offensive linemen. But to your point, yeah, all the quarterbacks, five of them going in the top nine,

top ten means that a lot of the really good players are getting pushed back further. So there are five guys, I think, at least three that are going to go after 10 that could be top five players in any other year. And they are who? Okay, let's go with the three receivers. I think the dude out of LSU will still go top ten. Yeah, and Pitts will too. And Pitts is going to go in the, I'm hard pre to top five. The offensive tackle from Oregon, the offensive tackle from Oregon and Pitts and one to two of the receipts. And one to two of the receipts. are going to be the other players taken in the top 10. As it's...

Devonthe Smith, Patrick Sertane, Micah Parsons, potentially Jalen Waddle, would all be top five players in another draft. Those four, there's four of them, that could all go after 10. Pitts ain't going.

They'll go from 9 to 12. Pitts isn't going after 10. No, Kev, no. He's not going after 10. The other thing with Pitts is like, his film puts him in the top 10, in the top five. But his athleticism and what everybody saw at a workout just validates what you saw in film. Like he's, it validates everything.

He can do everything and his workout numbers validated at all. That makes him a top five player. By the way, he's a sure deal. I think what Washington did in free agency really does mean more likely than not that it's not going to be a receiver at 19. It, you know, I'm not trying to say that Adam Humphreys and Curtis Samuel or... I disagree. Okay. If a guy was there, if one of those dudes are there, one of the, either of the two Alabama dudes,

and there's one other guy that could be there, right? Well, Chase isn't going to be there. No, Chase is going to be gone, but... Yeah, Bateman could be there. Bateman probably will be there. And then Smith... Smith, Chase, Waddle, Bateman. Rondell Moore has been looking more like a second round guy.

Cadarius Tony, I think, would be there. You know, Pierce-Lot, I love him. I mean, I love everything about Tony. I'm forgetting the other receivers. I just don't have that list in front of me right now. But, yeah, I mean. Yeah, I don't think anyone besides the three we mentioned, And that, I mean, probably you'd have to trade up to get one of those guys.

But still, like, those dudes aren't available at 12 any other year. And it's such a passing dictated league. And, yes, I think with Terry and Curtis Samuel, there's no doubt you got a couple good dudes. But Samuel is more of a slot type of guy. Yeah, but he's, if you could get, Samuel's going to, I just, Samuel's going to play Z. You're the one that told me that. And it sounded listening to Rivera last week that, you know, that's sort of what they're anticipating, too, that he's, you know, on the opposite side of McLorn and Humphreys is going to be in the slot and obviously. But, you know, I mean, we saw how many times did we see it, especially an empty set, McLorn in the slots?

They're going to do a lot next year. They can do a lot with all of it. I mean, it's just to get one of those big-time transcendent talent guys, just just, You can do a lot more. I want to just mention one other thing, and that is this. Justin Fields continues to sort of fall in this draft, at least now. I mean, it's April 5th. We've got, you know, three and a half weeks until we get there.

And all it takes us one team. And, you know, there was the recent quote from Orlovsky, which apparently has been shot down because all of the other stuff about Fields was great leader, work ethic, you know, all of the due diligence on all of the intangibles is going to check out. And then Orlowski had the thing about last one in, first one to leave, which, you know, you don't want to hear that about yourself. But I'm going to be interested because I watched Justin Fields and I wasn't a big fan. And then all of a sudden, you know, he had a couple of games late and then had the Clemson game.

I don't know. I think he's really intriguing. And I'm surprised that Trey Lance and none of you are, lot of you aren't. I'm sort of surprised that like it's just absolutely assumed that Zach Wilson is going to be a better NFL quarterback than Justin Fields, that Mack Jones is going to get picked. We know why he would get picked at three. He is the Mike Kyle, you know, cerebral processes quickly, throws with anticipation, boom. It's everything they love in a guy. Okay. So we sort of understand that part of it. But why is Justin Fields potentially?

going to go nine or ten or eleven in this draft or maybe even make it to new england i just don't see that and if and if i and if i do see that that must be there must be a lot of stuff about him that you know by the way on this quarterback thing mostly just that ohio state operates with incredible simplicity yeah you've said that before true and you don't see a lot from fields when you watch film in terms of his ability to really operate as a quarterback and go from one to two to three and, you know, cut the field in half and go, you just don't see that. And I'm not suggesting that it's entirely his fault. It's just Ohio State really hasn't had to do that. They just are so talented everywhere.

And then when you start looking at some of their play action stuff and some of the stuff that some of these guys excel at, their run game is so good that it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, just demands that you play it. So they get wide open guys with speed, with pure talent. They get, why he's dropping is because coaches are watching film. And they're seeing a guy that definitely is an athlete that definitely can make throws, but they don't see it all on film. That's what he's dropping for. He is a playmaker, though, man.

Good God. Have you watched any of the Trey Land stuff? Yeah, I have. Like the thing I think people just don't know as much that aren't really watching it is just how unbelievably athletic he is. But also what a decision maker. Like this dude is a freshman through 28 touchdowns and no picks. I know.

At that level. I get it that it's North Dakota State. But also you always got to keep in mind like all the guys he's playing with are at North Dakota State. Actually, it's almost not fair because North Dakota State is an almost. almost like the Alabama of that league. They're that much better than everyone else. The FCS. Yeah, I know.

I don't, I mean, you know, I watched all the video just like everybody else has. He looks incredibly dynamic. I mean, there's a lot of Mahomes to his game. Right. The speed, the whole thing. But I watch Justin Fields, and I see a guy that's got eyes in the back of his head like Russell Wilson. And, you know, at the same time, I see a guy that, you know, has made some bad throws at

the worst possible times and has had some, you know, hideous games. But then in the biggest game of his career, he threw six touchdown passes with basically, you know, you know, broken, near broken ribs. I just, the quarterback thing's just always really hard. It's just, you know, always hard. It's always really hard. And you always, the things teams should really consider as well as what they're going to, who's going to coach them, that guy in particular, and what they are going to put around that guy in the first two. years. Here's what isn't going to be hard. Pits in the first round. Parsons, if there's no issues, you know, red flags to wherever he goes. Sartan is going to be phenomenal.

You know, to me, like I've said this a million times, I know that Jamar Chase more likely than not, especially up the heels of Justin Jefferson's rookie year last year and him getting picked after a bunch of receivers, Chase is probably going to go first. And I know Devante Smith is tiny, but I don't know that there's, like, to me, Devante Smith looks like the total package real deal. And Waddle looks more like rugs to me. And I'm not saying that that's bad. But man, if Devante Smith fell all the way to 19, and I don't see that happening,

but I just think he's going to be a phenomenal pro. I totally agree. I'm all on board for drafting Alabama receivers as well because I think that Alabama does a very nice job of taking some of the learning curve out of it. By the way, if Atlanta stays at 4, and by the way, they're not going to trade with Carolina. They're not giving Carolina a quarterback in their own division.

So that takes Carolina out of the trade picture for Atlanta. If Atlanta stays at 4, okay, with Matt Ryan, who by the way has years left, like 3, 4, 5 years left, He's 35 years old, okay, and still can play at a high level. Their offense was not the problem and hasn't been. Nope. And you've got Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley, Calvin Ridley, and Kyle Pitts. And Hayden Hurst, right?

Who are their running backs? Who is Atlanta's? Hold on, I'm pulling up our lads. Oh, they signed Mike. It was girly. They signed Mike Davis. my guy. Interesting. The other thing with taking a quarterback with Matt Ryan as a first-time head coach,

do you really want to deal with that crap? Do you deal with what? You mean taking a quarterback? You're Arthur Smith, and you're going to immediately deal with as a first-time head coach, a quarterback controversy. No, I want one of the better quarterbacks in the league? No, Matt Ryan's 35 years old. I mean, Matt Ryan, Atlantic.

Ryan's going to be super pleased when they draft his replacement. But if they draft Kyle Pitts with Julio Jones and Ridley, et cetera, they were already dynamic offensively when they were healthy. Not going to do that. They're probably going to try to trade back one or two spots. Why would you if Pitts is there? Because they know someone's moving up to take a quarterback. Okay.

And then since they think if they go back to six, they might get pits. Okay. Well, will Cincinnati pass on pits? No. They need help for Joe Burrow. No, Cincinnati won't. Cincinnati's also one of those teams. There hasn't been a lot of trades lately.

Cincinnati's one of those teams that if someone's available, would really be looking to trade back a little bit. Unless you were like, we're taking pits. There have been a lot of trades. Pitts is going before six. I think he's going in top three or four. Well, top three would mean that the quarterbacks aren't one, two, three. But definitely I think...

The quarterbacks are going to go one, two, three. So Pitts 4 to Atlanta. And again, like, I know this is crazy because all you do now is talk about who's trading up to get quarterbacks. The best player in this draft might be Kyle Pitts. And if Kyle Pitts is available at 4 and you don't have to go up to one to get them, you know, the Jets potentially, you know, could, I don't know. Whatever. I mean, I think the Sam Darnold thing is still interesting. And I was reading something over the weekend where, you know, the draft.

value on Sam Darnold was thought to be dropping precipitously, but the Jets apparently are not going to entertain trading Sam Darnold for anything less than an early second late first. Now, whether or not that's posturing. Exactly that. Yeah, whether or not that's posturing or not. But, you know, I don't know what they think of him. You know, this is one of those things where we're all guessing, like, okay, everybody assumes they're going to draft Zach Wilson.

all right, but what if they really like Sam Darnold too? And the only, the question of Donald is, they're going to have to have a rookie deal for five years, for four years. I know. And that's the other beauty of it is if Darnold were to play really well, like you'd hope him to play, then you've got to pay him. Right. A lot, a lot more than a rookie quarterback.

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. They'll take Wilson. That alone. But then what do you do with Darnold? Well, you got to deal him. You got to deal him, but gosh, I do think someone's getting a pretty good deal with Darnold for a two. You and I, I think, are the only people that think that.

That's not true. There are other people that like Darnold. The problem with Darnold is you're concerned about some of the emotional stability as a leader, as a quarterback in general. Just some of the on the field, can he control himself? Can he keep himself even? you know can he stay medium i don't know but you're also you're sitting there saying as a staff the new staff is it his fault because of the staff he's been with and some of the chaos that's went on with adam gaze it's uh you know we're getting we're nearing that time coolly we're

nearing that time um we are three and a half weeks away from the draft so we will obviously with Chris in particular over the next couple of weeks have a lot of draft talk, a lot of film stuff from Cooley on, you know, prospects that Washington might take at 19 and anybody else he feels like evaluating. But, yeah, I'm looking forward to this. I mean, I think Washington's done a really good job. I think what we heard from Rivera last week is, you know, it's Fitzpatrick. They don't feel like they need to draft a quarterback.

I'd really still be totally shocked if Washington makes another move for a quarterback, meaning first two rounds or some sort of trade for somebody. I think it's going to be an offense alignment or a linebacker or a corner or maybe a receiver if one of those big names falls and that player's way ahead on their board is the highest rated player. They're still in a position to me where they've got to draft the highest rated player on their board. still have to get better in a lot of spots, but we'll have plenty of time to talk about that. I wanted to just close real quickly, coolly, because in the Saturday podcast, I talked

about Turgeon getting the extension. Later, you know, Saturday, they got Wahab, the transfer from Georgetown and Fats Russell from Rhode Island. Maryland, if Wiggins comes back, and I would bet that he does, with the two transfers, two of the biggest name transfers in the transfer portal, they're going to be a top, you know, 15-ish type of team preseason next year. It really changed quickly with Saturday, not just the extension, but getting that extension also locked up those transfers. And they've got a chance to be really, really good. There's more news coming on the roster. So I will comment on that when the news comes in. But, you know, this is a polarizing thing. I know for Maryland fans. You know how

how I feel. I'm thrilled that Mark got the extension. I think he earned it. I think he deserved it. And he has added two players. Fats Russell has a chance to be one of the more dynamic players in the country next year. And they got a big time, you know, prospect center, average 12 and 8 for Georgetown. Georgetown didn't want to lose him with the way he had played in the Big East tournament. And they got, you know, they got a lot coming back. Wiggins Iala, I think we'll both be back. Hopefully, Wiggins is going to test the NBA market. I think he's a late second at best. If he comes back, he's got a chance to be a first rounder next year. Iala would not get drafted. So I think he, you know, he's back.

And you've got a lineup next year of, you'll have Russell and Iala in the back court. You know, Wiggins comes back with Dante Scott and Wahab. You've got Hakeem Hart. You've got Jarius Hamilton. Graham, one of the freshmen, from what I'm told, will definitely be ready to contribute next year. I've heard the same thing about Julian Reese. They're going to have a really good team coming back. You know, a lot of you are rolling your eyes saying, you know, wake me in March and tell me that he's into the second weekend. But, you know, it'll be another year where they're picked, you know, in the top three or four in the Big Ten and probably a preseason top 15, you know, top 20-ish or better type of team. You know, I don't know what else you want. I want better in

March 2, but I'm really, really excited for what was accomplished for them over the weekend. All right. You got anything else? I'm happy to have nothing else for you today. All right. I'll talk to you on Wednesday. Tommy will be with me tomorrow. Everybody enjoy the day.

Guarded by Kisper. Eight seconds to go. Juzang, floater, short. He got his own rebound and scored with 3.3. Gonzaga failed the win. Chip game. Whoa!