The Kevin Sheehan Show - Gruden's Dilemma and Bracket Picks

Episode Date: March 19, 2019

Kevin and Thom open with a discussion about the dilemma Jay Gruden faces on a day to day basis at Redskins Park. Kevin, Thom, and Aaron fill out their March Madness brackets....Thom's includes what would be a first-ever Final 4. They discussed the Mike Trout contract, Tyreek Hill, and Mark Turgeon. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. All right, yeah, Tommy's here in studio and we knew he was coming. Also, I have an apology for you. You did tell us that you were going to be here last Thursday when you surprised us by coming in. But you shouldn't really have surprised us because although Aaron did say, when the show ended. Yeah, I think Tommy told us he was going to be away for both Tuesday and Thursday. And I said, yeah, that's what I thought. And then somebody tweeted and said, nope, go back and listen to your podcast. He told you that he was just going down there for a day. And I went back and listened. And yes, you told us that on the air. So you know, I'm not a good listener of you. I'm a decent listener in general, just not to you. I don't listen very well when you're talking.

That's built up, been built up over the years. You know, I'd like to say your apology means something, but let's face it. I mean, there's so many things you need to apologize for. This is low on the total. That's probably true. All right, Tommy's here in studio. The show's presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.

com and tell them we told you to call. we're going to go through our brackets today on the show. Tommy, Aaron, and me. We'll go through all of the brackets and come up with our national champion, and we'll post those somehow on our website for you all to follow along. I actually, Tommy, have an exercise, and this is for you too, Aaron. I have an exercise that I'm going to go through. You know, I don't like exercising.

I know you don't, and you're going to hate one part of it in particular, because it deals with an advanced statistic. But I have come up with a formula that narrows the field from 68 down to five teams that are most likely to win the tournament. Even though my bracket will not pick one of those five teams, and we'll get to that. I'll explain that later on. I wanted to start with this because you were working at 106.7 yesterday hosting for Chad with Andy in the afternoon. And 1067 yesterday got a ton of attention, I mean, national attention, because of Eric Bickle's report on the junkies in the morning where he reported that Jay Gruden found out about landing Collins being signed by the Redskins through the media and was not involved in any of the personnel offseason decisions and was very frustrated by it. That's paraphrasing the report.

Yeah, but that's pretty accurate. And so I wanted to be clear, for those of you on Twitter, who said that I shot down the report yesterday on the podcast, that's not true. I did not shoot down that report. Not entirely. I just said that according to the people that I know in some of my sources that Jay has been involved and been asked to participate in evaluating quarterback. this particular offseason. So free agents, you know, Case Keenham, a trade target, other trade targets, college quarterbacks. That may be a change, by the way, and I think it may be from recent years. But this year, with respect to quarterback, he's involved. But I did not dispute what I thought was the gist or the meat of E.B.'s news, which is that Jay learned about the land and Collins signing from the media and that he was frustrated. I believe that to be. true. And I think that it is more likely than not that Jay hasn't been, well, he hasn't been

involved that much in the past and isn't that much involved now and most of the decisions that are being made this offseason, including decisions related to his own staff, and that there may be some frustration there. So most of what EB reported, I absolutely did not dispute at all. I just believe that the one part of it that Jay is involved in this offseason, at least I've been told, is that he has been asked for his opinion and his evaluation of quarterbacks, whereas last year Alex Smith was basically sprung on him by surprise, and he was not asked to evaluate. I believe he's much more involved in the quarterback evaluation this year. did not evaluate any college quarterbacks last year, right?

Never, they never had a reason to once the Alex Smith trade happened. But still, everybody does that. Of course. It's kind of due diligence. Of course. You know, the one thing I would also just mention is that it's not totally unique in the history of the NFL where GM picks players, coaches, coach players. Right. We just know in this case, you know, that the GM or team president, if you will, I think we've all learned.

what others knew long before, that this particular team president isn't very good at running personnel or picking players. And Jay might actually have the best eye for talent of anybody out there. That's not saying much. I understand that. But here's the deal. And I've said this for a while, Tommy, the past few years. Jay is go along to get along. He is probably feeling frustration and probably deep down thinks Bruce is a total buffoon when it comes.

to picking players, et cetera. But he's not going to say it. They are friends. Remember this. Bruce gave him his shot, gave him his extension, gave him his financial freedom, you know, for him and his family, for the rest of their lives. He's playing this, Jay is, in a smart way for him economically. Remember, he's made $20 million now over five years. He's due to make another $10 million over the next two years with a 35, 44, and one record and one playoff game that he lost. How many places? How many places would a team president or an owner would they still be paying this guy? So anyway, I didn't shoot down the report. Did not do that on the podcast yesterday. I just suggested that one part of it, that one part of personnel that Jay is involved in this year, and it's a change, I believe, is he's

been asked to evaluate quarterbacks and give him their opinion. How much influence that carries, I don't know, but at least they're asking this year. Well, look, the whole dynamic of general managers picking players and coaches coaching them, I understand that dynamic, but I'm thinking even good organizations that are set up that way, I agree with you. Still, still the general manager is going to say to the coach or the coach is, what do you think of that? this guy. Right. What do you think of that guy?

And ultimately, the general manager will be the final decision maker in something like this. So it could be separate like that. But in most organizations, you would seek input from the position coaches on different, you know, position players you're interested in, whether it's free agency in the draft. We have this interesting dynamic in the Redskins organization where everybody's an idiot. I mean, really, think about it. I mean, Bruce Allen is an idiot,

but he may be smart enough to say, what do I want to ask these idiots their opinion for? Well, this coaching staff. I mean, really, fix coaching staff? This might be one of the worst coaching staff is in the NFL. I mean, you've got Bill Callahan, who supposedly Jay Gruden can't stand anymore. You've got Greg Minnowski,

who they tried to replace all offseason right in front of them. You had three coaches leave to take similar jobs or worse jobs just to get out of here. And you brought in a guy like Rob Ryan who was out of football, had to call the Redskins. This may be the worst coaching staff in the NFL. So Bruce Allen in a moment of clarity may think, why should I ask these bozos? It's a stupid convention. You know what? Here's where I would disagree with you.

I would disagree that that's the reason he's not asking him. I think it's arrogance and it's self-absorption and narcissism, because remember, a lot of these people are his decisions, so he doesn't think they're stupid. He's the one that's hired them. I also would just say that, you know, my opinion of Jay hasn't changed from day one. He's an average coach, period.

He's, you know, somewhere between 15 and 20 on the list of head. 14 and 18 on the list of head coaches. I also don't think that Jay Gruden's dumb. I actually think Jay Gruden has some savvy to him. I think he is non-confrontational with Bruce and Dan. He's go along to get along, and that's worked against chances for this organization to succeed, but has probably helped him personally continue to be employed and paid big money.

Remember this. Jay Gruden's making head coaching money right now. He's going to end up getting paid for seven years, for what will turn out to be, or six years. I don't know about that seventh year if it's guaranteed. I forget about that two-year contract extension, which kicks in this year because the original deal was five years, all right, 20 million, four million a year. Then he got the extension for two. I don't know if that second year of the extension is hard and fast, if they own the money, if they fire him after this year or not. but he's been able to hang on as an average coach with a losing record with one playoff

game, a playoff loss, and earn $20 million, do another $4 million this year at $24 million. And there's some savvy to that. Because Tommy, I don't know that he'll ever get a chance after this place to be a head coach and make that kind of money again. It's like when you said about Jim Zorn, well, you know, how stunned he was to get the job. And then during that final season in 2009, when he was using words like comply, you know, he was reading from a lawyer's email to him. This is what you must do. You must comply. Or they can fire you. And his wife's saying, whatever you have to do, you stick in there and make sure they pay you every cent. Because you'll never earn

Like you're earning right now. And so I, and overall, I actually think Jay is not a true dummy like the rest of them in the organization. There are, I know we've said this a lot over the years, and I know some of you have a sense that it's true just based on observation. But throughout the organization, whether it's PR, whether it's personnel, whether it's front office, you know, higher up in the front office, whether it's, you know, some of the sales. I mean, you're not talking about any rocket scientists out there. I mean, it is the conversations that people like Tommy and I and people in the media have had with some of the people out there, we've all left those conversations going, oh, my God. Yes.

I mean, wow, the limitations intellectually among that group out there. So that's why they don't win more, you know, that combined. and I've said this before. Arrogance, and being arrogant and dense is the worst combination because you're never, ever going to learn from the mistakes because you don't know that they're mistakes, and you would never admit to them to begin with. And you would not listen to somebody who would tell you,

and there's nobody there to tell you. Right. And the thing with Jay, though, let's remember his, he still, you know, his first year, he wasn't necessarily go along to get a long guy. Because of the Griffin thing. but he got shot down on that real quickly. Yeah, he did. But it took him a while.

And then, but once in a while, when Jay is in front of a microphone, he has that moment. I know. He does. He has that moment where, you know, God, I got to say something about this. Well, to that point on Friday, and I played this on the podcast on Friday, the quote that you have used many times when Jay at the end of the season spoke to coaching and personnel need to be together. On the same page. On the same page.

This is after five years of being with this front office. So Doug Williams on Friday, after the Landing Collins press conference, on Thursday, excuse me, after the landing Collins press conference, was doing, you know, a media scrum. And Chris Russell asked him a question that basically asked Doug to speak to how much, you know, they are looking at the acquisition of players to fit scheme, the coach's scheme. And Doug basically said not at all. We don't even really know what the scheme is. I mean, he basically admitted that personnel and coaching are not really in sync at all,

which is what Jay wanted at the end of the year. I just, you know, trying to predict what that news, which, by the way, was revealing to a certain extent with respect to Landon Collins, I would have, based on what I heard with respect to his involvement in the quarterback stuff, I was surprised to hear about the Landon Collins thing, but I do believe it. I do believe that that was absolutely something he may have found out via the media. But I, you know, those that think that it's an absolute sign that Jay is a lame duck. Well, didn't you know that before?

Didn't you have a sense of that before? Yeah, but you thought, you really thought he was a lame. You're surprised he's back. I am. I am. I thought this was a year with normal context, and I guess there was some things out of context. The Alex Smith injury would be a big one. But I just thought that he had to go to the playoffs this year to survive.

I thought Bruce, you know, I didn't think Bruce was going to come back until it became obvious that he was coming back. And that's why, you know, next year absolutely feels like a lame duck year. I think it's one of the reasons, a big reason, not the only reason, the organization, is part of the reason. People don't want to work for it. But I think it's one of the big reasons. You had coaches leave for lateral moves, and you had to pluck, you know, Rob Ryan and Ray Horton, basically out of work to coach. And Tim Rite, who had never, who's never coached in the NFL before, to coach positions, because you couldn't attract anybody else, in part because people do want stability in their lives. This is not a stable organization. And Jay Gruden's position is perceived

as lacking instability. Jay Gruden can't look at an assistant coach and he's interviewing and say, I can protect you. Exactly. He can't do that. Just one, I want to get to the Flowers thing here in a moment, but if you just,

actually, we'll go to Flowers right now. They signed Eric Flowers, one year, $4 million, you know, salary deal. They're going to try to play him a guard. Right. All right, which, you know what, I don't have a problem with at all. I mean, I can't,

I'm not going to sit here like some others and go through size, speed, strength, you know, technique, and tell you that Eric Flowers, you know, that the Giants totally whipped and should have been playing him at guard. Because that's what they would have probably tried to do if they could have because he was such a bust and an early bust at tackle. But I don't know if it'll work or not. But given their situation of needing a guard and knowing that Sean Laval is not the, answer. And Sean LaValle's not only not an answer as a starter. We know that Sean LaVal can't hold up for 16 games. So I'm all for them trying to be creative at this spot. And it's not like they missed out. I don't think they missed out on some prized guard free agent. There was no

norwell there. I am expecting the Brandon Sheriff extension to come sooner rather than later. I am expecting that. That would be stunning if it didn't happen. If they if it didn't happen, it means that Sheriff doesn't want to do it, Tommy, because he wants to be an unrestricted free agent next year and leave. But remember, the Redskins can prevent that from happening by using the franchise tag next year on him. Yeah, they're so good at that. But um, using the franchise on the flowers thing, I have no problem with the move. And I want to mention this. You know, this was an off season that I believe that the owner desired to make a splash. But it takes two for that to happen.

You know, so far, their off-season is a trade for a journeyman quarterback who may come in and start or may not, a 34-year-old running back, who may not have had a lot of other options, a splash signing, I mean, something totally unique for them over the last nine years on the first day of free agency of a safety who grew up dreaming of playing for this organization because of Sean Taylor, a corner who was retired in DR. see, a bust of an early first-round pick and Eric Flowers who nobody wanted, and Brian Quick, who they re-signed yesterday, who obviously has not had any options other than the Redskins for a while now. Remember two, and we just mentioned it, their coaches, Rob Ryan and Ray Horton out of retirement,

and Tim Rite, who's never coached in the NFL before. I don't think they're having a bad off season. I don't. I think the owner is probably frustrated that there's not more to it so far. But the answer is, Antonio Brown didn't want to be here. C.J. Mosley wanted somewhere else. And I believe the Golden Tate was a target, but wanted somewhere else as well. There should be a quarterback coming, another quarterback coming. But for now, what's left is they've got to add another quarterback, a wide receiver, a pass rusher, an O-line depth, and maybe another safety. And they may be in a position where they're going to have to try to do that completely through the draft.

and hope that some of their players like Paul Richardson come off injured reserve and are stars, or are much better. I know they want a wide receiver and they feel desperate to get somebody who can get separation at the line of scrimmage for next year, for whomever the quarterback is. But I don't think they're having a terrible offseason at this point. They just aren't having the offseason, I think the owner wanted. Well, I mean, they're having an irrelevant offseason. I mean, in this, how much, how much ground have they gained on the teams in front of them?

The Eagles and the Cowboys. None. None. Well, they may have gained ground on the Giants by the Giants doing. The Eagles. By the Giants doing. Yeah. Oh, they're way behind the Cowboys and the Eagles in terms of odds to win the division.

So basically they're treading water. There's six and a half win team right now over under for 2019. So, I mean, I don't think that's a good off season is being a, staying in cement, which is basically where they are right now. And as far as, as far as basically, like flowers and offensive linemen, they've drafted a lot of offensive linemen over the years. John Christian last year. They should have more depth at offensive line than they do now.

But their depth keeps getting hurt too, Tommy. Yeah, I know that. But they should have more depth. I know. I mean, they've missed on a lot of offensive linemen. I mean, you know the Ravens and the Patriots are real good at this, the offensive linemen that you find in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. They can't seem to do that.

They can draft the first round offensive linemen, you know, Trent Williams, sheriff. But the fourth and fifth round guys, the third round guys, where you really find the offensive line depth, they've been terrible at it. But they've had injuries there too. You know, they just have. So you've ended up with guys like Bawanko and Catalina and others being forced to play. Tony Bergstrom being forced to play because, you know, depth got hurt too. I have one other thought about the offseason so far.

And I don't have a full grasp. Again, I'll just reiterate. I think Snyder wanted a splash. I think they've tried to make a splash, Antonio Brown. The combination of an Antonio Brown and a landing Collins and a trade for Case Keenum, would have been considered a true splash off-season compared to their recent off-seasons. But I think part of it is that, you know, again, it takes two to make a deal, and there isn't a lot of interest in coming here.

But there's just one other theory that I have on this, and that is that Bruce is listening to Dan, hey, don't give me E.J. Biggers again. Don't, please don't give me, you know, another Pernell McPhee, Orlando Scandrick year. And Bruce is saying, don't worry, boss. I'm going to try to make this happen. And what Bruce really wants is that the team he's been putting together himself here over the last few years that he thinks is so close. He wants to prove that that team can win.

You know, that when Paul Richardson and Quentin Dunbar and Brandon Sheriff and Jordan Reed and Tray Quint and these guys come back, that it's his guys. You know, not the owner's splash off season. Told you, boss, just stay the course. We've been injured. It's been injuries. I've been doing the right things here. These are good players.

We were six and three, you remember, before Alex got hurt? And I think part of that is, once again, his arrogance of, I'm going to prove to these motherfuckers that I've been doing it the right way. I've been doing it the right way. And these guys can play. You just have to see it. wait till everybody licks my dwarfs over signing Ruben Foster. Wait until that happens when Ruben Foster turns into a star and everybody forgets

about what happened and all the criticism we took. I'm going to be proven right on that. I'm going to be proven right on Paul Richardson. I'm going to be proven right on all these guys that I've picked. And we had to add a quarterback because of Alex. And we had to add a safety because of DJ. So that's just, part of me is thinking he doesn't want to make too much of a splash because it's almost an admission that what they've been doing the last couple of years didn't work. I could see that.

I mean, I don't think it takes much to get in the mind of Bruce Allen. You know? Right. I mean, I don't think you have to drill very deep. I agree with that. To figure out what motivates Bruce Allen. But there haven't been many opportunities left at this point for them to make a splash. The only other place for them to make a splash is drafting a quarterback high or trading for Josh Rosen.

It's the only splash left. Yes, I think you're right. Unless they're going to trade for A.J. Green or a big-name wide receiver, which, you know, the Stefan Diggs thing obviously was, I mean, got carried away within the fan base. it never made sense to begin with. I don't know that A.J. Green makes that much sense either. It depends on what Cincinnati's plans are. But I think you're right.

I think that the final splash for this offseason, I would like, there are some players out there that I would like. I would love for them to sign Shane Ray. But there might be something wrong with Shane Ray medically or otherwise, because nobody I don't think has signed him at this point. But I would, I think that it's the quarterback at 15 or trade up or, you know, a trade back, but it's a quarterback. Yeah.

Listen, fans have accepted Case Keenham, the trade, because on the surface, it's not a bad deal. No. It doesn't cost them much money. There's not much risk. It's an insurance policy. And they are better with Case Keenom and Colt McCoy than with Colt McCoy and Josh Johnson.

Right. Okay. But there's this underlying anxiety, I think, among fans that says, well, there's got to be more. I mean, I think if there's not more, in the other words, a highly, a well-known drafted quarterback or a Josh Rosen trade, I think you'll see if fan base get all fired up in anger again about Case Keen. I don't know if they're going to, they even have enough energy to get fired up for angry anymore.

And as a still fan, I hope they don't just draft a quarterback for the purposes of trying to make a splash if they don't love that quarterback. And I'm starting to get this sense, Aaron, that Haskins, you know, my, My gut on Haskins all year long on this podcast was, I don't see it. Cooley did a film breakdown on it, said he has high bust potential. The Giants came out over the weekend, or there was a report that the giants are not interested in Haskins now. And so what if Haskins ends up being the guy that drops big time and drops to 15? Like, personally, that's not the answer.

I don't think he's the answer, quarterback, but it would be a splash. It's the answer to get people excited. You get the local boy, bring him home and put him up as quarterback. Let's not forget. And anything's possible when it comes to this organization. This is a kid who's friends with Dan Snyder's son. I know. Went to Bullis with him.

So let's not forget that. I know. Real quickly on Wind Donation, and then we'll get to some college hoops talk. Window Nation right now has a really good offer. Buy two windows, get two windows free. Buy a house of windows for just $69 a month. Harley, Aaron, Eric, I talk about these guys all the time. They have a great company.

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be one-uped. He had the record for 18 days. We're going to get to that in a moment. But the tournament starts tonight. The first four begins tonight. We got two games tonight, two games tomorrow night. Personally, I don't feel like the tournament starts until Thursday. But you have to admit, Belmont Temple is a good game. Well, it's an important game for us because the winner plays Maryland. But it's a good game. It also features one of my favorite coaches over the years, Fran Dunfin. Absolutely. I've just always been, I think you know this. I've always been. I've always. always been a huge fan of his teams. And yesterday on the podcast, we had, we had Nocky on, and Naki doesn't think that Dunfey's

going to retire and thinks that Dunfee could end up in GW. But now there's a report that JT3 could get GW's job. Now, I've also heard JT3 is a hot candidate for the William and Mary job, too. Also, don't forget there's a Hall of Fame coach that lives in the market. and would be a hell of a coach anywhere. I don't know if Gary would ever do it. And also, and I've mentioned this many times before, Tim Legler would be a great college basketball coach.

One quick stat on the first four. Aaron mentioned this yesterday, but I don't know if you went through every year. I went through every year last night. At least one first four winner of the two, you know, not the 16s versus 16s. Right. I'm not counting on.

The playing games. The two true, you know, know at-large playing teams. Playing games. At least one of those two games has produced a winner that went on to win in the next round. And you know who the first one was? The first year of doing this was 2011. It was that VCU team that beat Georgetown.

They won the first four game and then they beat Georgetown the next game in the first round of the tournament. Right. But it's happened every single year, at least one team of the two that will win tonight and tomorrow night. So Belmont versus Temple, and then tomorrow night, Arizona State, St. John's, you'll have two winners out of those two games. One of those two winners is going to win in the next round, based on history. So Maryland, better be careful. Tennessee in 2014 as a first four winner won two games after the first four win. They beat UMass and then Mercer in the second round to advance to the Sweet 16 that particular year.

So tonight the tournament gets underway with the 16 versus 16. I don't even know what the 16 versus 16 matchup is tonight. I don't really care. It's Farley Dickinson and Prairie View A&M. Okay. And then we get Belmont in Temple with the winner going on to face Maryland. Before we get to the brackets, I've got a couple of things, and I want to go through this with both of you. And then we'll go into our brackets and pick the regions.

First of all, one quick add-on to what was a very, very long conversation yesterday about the tournament. I know it got very long yesterday. You know what? Nobody actually complained about it, but I felt like it was too long yesterday after the fact. The committee, Tommy, the committee, for the most part this year is getting pretty rave reviews for the teams that got in versus the teams that didn't. Not from Debbie Yao. Not from Debbie Yow. We talked about that yesterday.

But I think I had a couple of small quibbles. Actually, one big quibble, really, and that is Kansas should not be able to play a home game as a four-seat against a one-seed in North Carolina and the Sweet 16 if they get there. It just shouldn't happen. But I think what the committee needs, because they're so into it, they need a fixer at the end. They need the wolf. They need the wolf to come in. And of course, you're willing to do that. They need the wolf to come in on that Sunday morning just to look at what they've got laid out and say,

You know what? You can't have Kansas playing in the Sweet 16 a home game, right? Oh, good point. We'll switch some. Well, what about Duke and Michigan State meeting before the final four? How is Michigan State? First of all, how are they a two seed? Shouldn't they be a one seed?

And if they are a two seed, aren't they the top two seed or at least top two? Yeah, that's where we have them. Well, they shouldn't be in the same region with the number one overall in the tournament. You know, Aaron said this earlier before the show, and he's 100% right. This doesn't address whether or not Duke would be a better matchup for Michigan State than Gonzaga, which, by the way, might be true. Like, Michigan State actually, they might match up better with Duke than they would with Gonzaga. The point is that they shouldn't be playing the number one overall in the elite eight.

No. Michigan is the worst of the two seeds should have been in the region with Duke. other hand, you get to see some pretty good basketball here in D.C. next weekend. I just hope Maryland's. It would be so much better. At the Capitol One Arena. It'd be incredible. And the last thing, too, is this Louisville, Minnesota thing. I didn't have this thought on the podcast yesterday, but I was listening to Billis in, you know, all, you know, Greenberg. God, they were on for hours upon hours last night. They do a lot of tournament discussion. It's good, too.

But they all mentioned that it's just, it doesn't make any sense for a sport that's had a lot of bad publicity over the last couple of years, the FBI, you know, all the things that are going on, to have Rick Petino's former school playing his son's school. And bring the whole thing back to the forefront because a lot of people are talking about this matchup, which happens to be the first matchup on Thursday. It's the 1210 games. So it'll be over quickly. but that's the wolf would have come in and just said nah you don't want this because it's going to you'll have too much negative attention and the patino thing will be brought back up the Louisville thing the scandals this and that that's a good point and so they they could use a fixer

here at the end but for the most part I'm fine with it go ahead no okay here's here's the let's get going here's the exercise I want to go through before we get to this so this is totally a rip-off, not specifically the way I came up with it, but a rip-off of all of the people that will do these segments that start with 68 and they get you down to like, here are the three teams that can win it. And I was thinking about it from that perspective before I started to fill out my bracket yesterday. Have you straightmarked this system yet? No, and I'm not going to. Okay. But I came up with what's important to me usually when I look at this tournament. And what I think

teams have to have to win the tournament. And I always think about, first of all, the thing that Gary Williams told me, I don't know, 10 years, 12 years ago, he's longer than that. He said, to win six in a row, you got to be able to score. You have to be able to score. You can be a really good defensive team in win two or win three, but you can't win six if you can't score. So one of the criteria in trying to eliminate 68 down to whatever it was, is I'm looking for teams that can score. And for me, I just came up somewhat arbitrary, but I know that these teams are good scoring teams. I came up with, you got to be a top 15% scoring team out of 353 in the sport. Why did I come up with that? Because 13 of the last 15 champions have finished in the top 15% of scoring teams.

Second criteria for me, you've got to be able to score efficiently. You can't be a poorly coached, disorganized team that scores but doesn't score efficiently, and therefore, by the way, you're giving up too many easy ones on the other end. And this is going to drive you nuts, but it is a fact, what I'm going to state. The Ken Palm adjusted offensive efficiency number, which is points scored per 100 possessions, adjusted for the opponent. 14 of the last 17 champions have finished in the top 10 of that stat since he started keeping it in 2002,

which was Maryland's championship year. Maryland was one of those teams that did finish. They did finish in the top 10. So I'm looking for a top 10 offensive efficiency team in Ken Palm, all right, adjusted offensive efficiency team. Then I'm looking for good guard play. That's always been important. I think you've got to have good guards to win the national.

championship. This college basketball is a guards game. I looked at trying to find teams where two of their top three scorers were guards or perimeter players. Six of the last seven champions have had their guards as their significant scores. That's why I came up with that. But I took my gut, and then I tried to back the numbers into it, right? Teams that can score, teams with good guards, it score efficiently, and then I went back and looked to see if it actually fit with enough of the champions over the years, and it did. And then my last criteria was, you got to be well-coached. You don't have to have a great coach, but if you have a bad coach, you're not going to win the title. Yeah. You remember Guy Lewis and all those Houston teams? He was a terrible

X's and O's coach, and they got there, they got to Final Fours, they got to two championship games, but then he got completely outwitted in the finals or in the Final Four. Um, this, This is a purely subjective criteria because it's based on my opinion, but I just think you've got to have a good coach. You don't have to have a Hall of Fame coach. You have to have a good coach. He can't suck for you to win. So here we go.

Follow through. Follow along. First criteria, you've got to be able to score. Top 15% scoring teams. Of the 68 teams in the field, 22 of them finished in the top 15% scoring teams. All right. Gonzaga, Belmont, Carolina, Buffalo, Duke, Tennessee, Murray State, Wofford, LSU, Yale, Nevada, Utah State, Auburn, Michigan State, Iowa, Arizona State, Northern

Kentucky, New Mexico State, Marquette, St. John's, Mississippi State, and Iowa State. Maryland was not there. Maryland wasn't even close. But 22 of the 68 teams fit that criteria, so I just eliminated 46 of the teams. Okay. By the way, Virginia's not in there either. I didn't think they were. I know.

You have to be able to score efficiently, all right? So top 10 Ken Palm number. Taking from that list, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Michigan State, Duke, Carolina, Auburn, LSU, and Iowa State. So we just went from 22 teams down to eight teams that can win it all. All right? You're following along? Aaron, are you following along?

I got you so far. All right. You got to have good guard play. All right. Two of your team's top three scorers have to be guards or perimeter-oriented players. That list now gets down to six teams. North Carolina with Kobe White and Cam Johnson, Tennessee with Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone, LSU with Waters, Mays, and Smart, all right? And Auburn with Brown and Harper, great backcourt. Michigan State with Winston and McQuaid is a perimeter scorer. Even though I don't really view McQuaid as a true, you know, guard, he is an off guard, you know, can't handle it great, but shoot it well. Iowa State's got Wiginton, Horton, Tucker, and Shayok, who's more of a perimeter player. So that takes that list of eight teams down to six teams, all right, that can win it all.

And then the subjective piece, you've got to have a good coach. In my opinion, five of those six teams have good coaching situations. Roy Williams is, I don't think Roy Williams is a Hall of Fame coach, obviously based on results. I've never felt like Roy's a genius on the sideline, but he's a good coach. Rick Barnes, I'm a big Rick Barnes fan. He's a very good coach. He's never gotten through in the tournament. He's had some losses, but I just think Barnes is a good coach.

I think Bruce Pearl can coach at Auburn. Izzo can definitely coach. And Steve Prome, who most of you don't know at Iowa State, continues to do nothing but win. And beat teams often that you don't think he can win. win or beat. So I just went down to Iowa State, North Carolina, Michigan State, Auburn and Tennessee. I eliminated LSU from that list because they don't have their head coach. Right. They don't have their head coach. So I'm down to the five teams. All right. So the five teams that I think can win it will come from this list. My bracket winner is not on this list.

And I'll explain why when we get to the brackets. Stupid, I know. But I just have a gut feel about another team that's not on this list. But for the purposes of this exercise, North Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn, Michigan State, Iowa State. That's your list of teams that would fit some of these key criteria that have also related to champions over the years. This is such a flawed formula. In a lot of ways, yeah. Oh, my God. It's very, it's very subjective. I mean, the numbers aren't necessarily subjective, but the criteria that I designed was somewhat subjective, but it's got, there's a basis for it. Did, did you go back and see how often the formula would have hit in the past? This formula? Yeah, it's like, it's like 14 out of the last 17 champions.

That's what I'm saying. All right. But it doesn't come close to at least two teams that are probably going to be in the final four this year. I, well, how do you know that for sure? Because We should leave right now and take all the cash we have. I'm sorry, which two teams are you absolutely sure we'll be in the final four? One is Duke. Yep. Okay. The other I'm not so sure of would be Virginia, but I'm not as sure of them as I am as Duke.

Just so you know, Duke in this process was eliminated because two of their three top scorers are not guards. Right. Yeah, even though I think Trey Jones is a phenomenal player. Yeah, but one of their top scores is the best best. basketball player in the world. That's true. And just so you know, my gut feel before I went through all of this is that Duke is not going to win the title. That's my gut feel. Watching them over the year with or without Zion Williamson, my gut feel is that they're not going to win the title, that somebody will beat them along the way. And I'll have that in my bracket here shortly.

I'll be real curious to see that. But who's the other one that you're absolutely sure will be in the final court? Well, I didn't say now I'm kind of hedging off that on Virginia. Okay, well, Virginia, I like a lot. And I knew Virginia because of the scoring, the average scoring wasn't going to be. They fit every single criteria here, except they were not a top 15% scoring team. So anyway, that was fun. Something to think about. All right, let's go to our brackets.

That was fun. Can we do crossword puzzles next? Let's do our brackets here. And our brackets are brought to you by Window Nation. All right, call 86690 Nation or go to windownation.com and tell them we told you to call. Now, let me just preface this, that of the three guys who were doing the brackets here, I have the least knowledge of college basketball. Which is why you'll probably win.

Absolutely. So I just want to make that clear, and I readily acknowledge it. Well, I don't, look, I'm not giving up my knowledge of basketball. I'm just saying I don't follow college basketball nearly as much as the two gentlemen I'm on here with. You know what, Tommy? Seriously, the funny thing about this tournament, it's won and done, all right? It's played in an environment early in the tournament that is unlike any other environment they play in during the regular season. Sterile, benign, not a lot of energy.

It's, matchups are everything. No one ever has a handle on this thing. You always have the story of the office secretary who never played bad, never watched a game in her life winning of one of these pool. I don't think. I'm trying to think all the years we did the 980 pool. The funny thing is

the thing that I won three times, two or three times anyway, the fantasy football league, which I couldn't have cared less about. I won those things

and then this pool where I supposedly had more knowledge than you, I bet your pools were more productive than mine. All right, let's start with the East region

and pick, let's go down in the first round games, give me your upsets, Aaron. I have two seed up, or actually, I guess three, if you read it in Cloud. I have UCF over VCU. Okay. That's a coin flip game, but I just want to see Taco Fall against Duke.

I have Minnesota over Louisville, and I have Yale over LSU. You've got Yale over LSU. Yes. Okay. Tommy, what about you in the East first round? Okay. I am in the East first round. I have Temple beating Maryland. Okay, Temple over Maryland. Will you change that if Belmont wins tonight?

No, I have Belmont beaten Maryland too. Okay. Okay. I have Yale beating LSU. Wow, that's a second. Get Fran Dunfeet of the Sweet 16, but it can't happen at the expense of my team. And I have Murray State over Marquette. That's a different region, Tommy.

Oh, okay. Stick with us. We're in the east here. Okay, so I just gave you my two. Okay, good. Yale and Belmont Temple. I'm sorry? Yale and Belmont slash Temple.

All right. My upsets here in the East Region first round, I have just one. I like Minnesota over Louisville. I think Aaron and I both watch so much Minnesota this year, and we know that they've got two players in Amir coffee and Jordan Murphy, who are probably future pros. And Louisville tends to be a turnover machine. By the way, just a general thought as we're going through this.

I think the Big Ten is going to do well in this tournament, at least in the first few rounds. And I think the Big East is going to do better than most people think. Oh, there's another one, too. Central Florida over V-C. You've got, okay, as a nine. All right, let's stick in the East, okay, and go to the next round. Who do you have Aaron advancing into the Sweet 16? I have Duke, Virginia Tech.

I have Maryland over Yale and I have Michigan State. Maryland, Michigan State. Okay, that would be exciting. Tommy, your Sweet 16 in the East is... Duke, Virginia Tech, Temple, Michigan State. Temple. So you have a true sleeper into the Sweet 16. My Sweet 16, I've got Duke beating VCU, Mississippi State beating Virginia Tech.

I actually think that Mississippi State, really good guard play, good rebounding team, they can score. Virginia Tech also has this thing that Aaron made me aware of yesterday that somebody told me that Jimmy Patsos mentioned last night on their podcast that they did at Chatter that Buzz Williams is leaving Virginia Tech, and everybody knows it. He's heading to Texas Tech. Texas A&M. Texas A&M. So that may be a bit of a distraction. I've got Duke, Mississippi State in one Sweet 16 game at Capital One Arena, and in the other, I do have Maryland beating LSU, and I've got Michigan State beating Minnesota, and that would be the Sweet 16 matchup there. All right, Aaron, give me your elite eight in the east. Duke, Virginia Tech?

Duke, Michigan State. Okay, you've got Duke, Michigan State, so you have Michigan State beating Maryland. Yes. Tommy, Duke, Virginia Tech, who advances? Duke, I have Duke and Michigan State. and you've got Duke in Michigan State. And in my suite 16, I have Duke beating Mississippi State to get to the Elite 8, and I have Michigan State beating Maryland.

That would be so painful because we'll all be there if it's played here, and Maryland will have a home court advantage in that game. But for whatever reason, Michigan State just has not been a good matchup for Maryland here over the years. So I've got Duke and Michigan State in the Elite 8 as well. Aaron, your East Final Four team is... Duke is heading to the Final Four. Tommy? Duke for me, too.

I have Michigan State. That's where I've got Duke going out. I've got Duke going out to Michigan State. You know, Izzo has had, is it two or three straight years of trouble in the NCAA tournament? I think it's three now. I think this is a redemption year for Michigan State. And man, they've been hurt. I mean, they don't have Langford, but they've got the big guy back.

I just think this is, Izzo to me, is just flat out a top five coach. Nobody, very few compare to him. They play an exciting style of basketball and that they want to run. They take it out of the net and they push it. And at the same time, they're incredibly physical as a rebounding and a defensive team. They've got a great point guard, Cassius Winston, who's so much better than I thought he would be early in the year. I just think Michigan State that this is an Izzo kind of year to get to a final four again after three rough years. All right, let's go now to the West region. All right. We've got two Dukes

and a Michigan state out of the east. In the West region, Aaron, give me your upsets in the first round, a lower-seated team beating a higher-seated team. I have Baylor beating Syracuse in the 8-9. Okay. And I have Murray State beating Marquette in the 5-12. All right. Tommy. I have one, the same one as Aaron, Murray State beating Marquette. Hold on, we're not, oh, you've got Marie State upsetting, and that's the only one you have? It's the only upset I have. Okay, I have, I have a couple in the West in the first round. I have St. John's beating Arizona State and then with Shemori Ponds, upsetting Buffalo to get to the second round.

So that's my first four winner that advances. And then I've got Florida beating Nevada. Florida's been a good team to bet here recently. and I think plus two in their first round game against the Nevada team that actually just has been off a little bit here recently. Florida, Mike White's a good coach, and they've got good young talent,

and I think they went through, you know, I think they went through the gauntlet there in the SEC. I think they beat Nevada in advance to the second round. So those are my two upsets in the first round in the West region. St. John's winning two games, winning tomorrow night against Arizona State and beating Buffalo, and then Florida beating Nevada. All right.

Next round in the West, Aaron. Your Sweet 16 teams. I have Gonzaga, Florida State, Texas Tech, and I'm not confident about this one, but something about it feels right to me. I have Nevada over Michigan. Nevada over Michigan. Okay, so you've got a seven advancing to the Sweet 16.

The talents there, you're right. They have been off a lot of the season, but the talents there, and there's always that one team that underperforms during the regular season. season. I think it could be Nevada. All right, Tommy. I've got Syracuse, Florida State,

wow. Texas Tech, and Michigan. So what's interesting about the Syracuse pick is that I would give them a chance against Gonzaga. I think that that's not a crazy pick at all. You know, it's the cliche. They're only going to have a couple of days to prepare for the zone, et cetera. It's also just... But it's a cliche that that's a reality.

Yes. No, I know, but everybody, that's true. so it can be cliche and true. Yes. So it's one of those things that everybody's saying. You know, Syracuse's zone. Gonzaga faced a team in St. Mary's that really slowed the pace in that West Coast championship game.

Great coach and Randy Bennett. So I could see that happening. I don't have that. I've got Gonzaga advancing to the Sweet 16. I have Marquette beating Florida State and advancing to the Sweet 16. Marquette just has so many ways to score. And Florida State made that run to the Elite 8 last year with Leonard Hamilton, and I love watching their team because they're always a unique team talent-wise,

long and tall and lanky and defensive. He's a good defensive coach, but they also lose at this point in the tournament and have before. Marquette comes through there and is into the Sweet 16, and then I've got Texas Tech in Michigan advancing. By the way, I did want to mention, I do think Vermont is dangerous for Florida State in that first round game. I think Florida State will get through, but I would not be surprised if Vermont plus 10 is a smell test pick on Thursday or Friday. I don't even know when they play. All right.

So, Aaron, you're down to your Sweet 16. Gonzaga against Florida State, Texas Tech, Nevada. Who advances to the Elite 8? Gonzaga and Texas Tech. All right. And Tommy, your Elite 8 game in the West. is. FSU and Texas Tech.

All right. And mine is Gonzaga in a very, I think Marquette can beat Gonzaga too. Gonzaga and Michigan in my elite eight out west. Aaron, your final four team out of the West?

Gonzaga. You love them. They are good. Tommy? FSU. FSU. And mine is Michigan. I just love how they

defend. I love how well coached they are. I think he figured. it out in every game. So on one side of the bracket, I've got Michigan State playing Michigan. Aaron's got Duke against Gonzaga, and Tommy's got Duke

against Florida State. All right, let's go to the South region. And before we do that, let me just mention launch workplaces in Bethesda. If you are looking for office space and you live in Bethesda, upper northwest D.C., you know, even

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That's 240, 86714, 240-6714, or Launchworkplaces.com. They've got locations throughout the area. You can find them at Launchworkplaces.com. All right, let's go to the South. Aaron, your upsets in the South first round. I have UC Irvine as a 13 over Kansas State. That's a very chic pick right now for an upset in the first round. Who else?

And I have St. Mary's over Ville. Illinois. All right. St. Mary's another one that I could see happening. Tommy, your first run upsets in the South. I'm a chic kind of guy. I know you are. I'm going to go with Aaron and say, you see Irvine as my only upset in the South. In the South, that's your only upset. I have Oklahoma beating Ole Miss, Lon Kruger over who's the coach at Ole Miss? That guy's smart, I think it is. Yeah. I like Lon Kruger a lot. I'll take Lon Kruger. Oklahoma's not been playing well recently either, which they're going to be another smell test pick. I can feel it plus two. Oklahoma. It's Kermit Davis at Ole Miss. That's right, Davis, Davis. And I like Iowa over Cincinnati.

Why? Because no one is picking Iowa in this game. And we've watched Iowa. We know that they are capable of playing really well. They're also capable of stinking in a game. But really, most of their stinkos down the stretch were without McCaffrey on the bench when he got suspended. for those games. So I like Iowa in an upset over a Cincinnati team that really, really can have scoring droughts and struggle to score. All right, Aaron, out west, who do you have in the Sweet 16? You mean in the South? I mean in the South. I'm sorry. Who do you have in the Sweet 16th? I have Virginia, Wisconsin, St. Mary's, and Tennessee. St. Mary's in Tennessee. All right. So you've got two teams not projected to get there,

Wisconsin and St. Mary's. Correct. Why do you like St. Mary's? I like St. Mary's a good veteran guard play kind of going into that. And just something, I don't like Purdue that much. It's less, I think, about St. Mary's and more about Purdue. I think Purdue is very vulnerable as a three seed. And I think either, whether it's St. Mary's or Villanova, either of those teams can beat Purdue. That pod with Jay Wright, Randy Bennett, Matt Painter, and Jeff Jones, man.

That's some high IQ college basketball coaching in one. pod. All right, Tommy, who comes out into the Sweet 16 for you? I've got Virginia, UC Irvine, Villanova, Tennessee. Why do you like UC Irvine? They have a lot of letters in their names. And they were one of the few teams that won 30 games this year. I think that counts for something. So in that first game against K State, people really like Irvine. I didn't see Irvine once, bet on them a couple times or against them a couple times and lost.

State's really a good basketball team, but they're injured right now. You know, Wade and even Bowen potentially out. And I think that's why a lot of people are picking Irvine. I actually like Kay State to win the game. K State's a four and a half point favorite. No one's playing them. No one is. I've got Virginia in Wisconsin.

I agree with Aaron. I think Wisconsin will beat Kansas State or Irvine. I've got him beating Kansas State. And then Purdue, Tennessee. I think Purdue's got too much for Villanova coming out of that pod. And the Wisconsin-Virgini games already been played this year was 53 to 46 or 48. Did we see yesterday? That would be another 55-52 kind of a game.

But I've got Virginia advancing there. And then I've got Tennessee over Purdue, although I'd love to see that game as well into the elite eight. Aaron, you've got UVA and you've. UVA over Wisconsin and then Tennessee over St. Mary's. All right. So you've got a UVA, Tennessee, and then who makes it to the final four? I have Tennessee beating UVA and the elite eight. Okay, Tommy, who's your elite eight game in the South?

Virginia and Tennessee. UC Irvine doesn't beat Virginia? No, no, no. They run out of letters. All right, and then who win the final four? Virginia. All right. I have also Virginia in Tennessee in the elite eight,

and I, too, have Virginia advancing to the final four. I pick Virginia to win the bracket. last year. How'd that work out? Yeah. All right, let's finish up in the Midwest. And Aaron, give me your upsets in the Midwest. I just have one in the first round. I have New Mexico State over Auburn. Okay, Tommy. I just have one. I have Washington over Utah State. Okay. I'm going to convince you to change that pick. Washington might be the worst team I've ever seen qualify for the tournament from a major conference. They are awful. If they beat Utah State, What will you do?

Well, I don't know. What will you do? I probably won't do anything because it might happen. But Utah State is a much better basketball team. I'd be shocked. I'm actually shocked that they're only a two and a half point favorite in that game. In the West, I have two upsets in the first round. I have northeastern over Kansas.

Northeastern can play. And Kansas, something's wrong there. And I have Seton Hall over Wofford. I just like the B. Big East and what I saw from over the weekend. I think Wofford's a three-point favorite, too. I may change my mind on that one, but that's what I have right now. I mean, I may end up betting Wofford by the time we get there. But Seton Hall, I've got advancing in that game. And I give no shot in that in the first round to Ohio State, and I give no shot to Washington in winning those first round games.

I think I feel more strongly about those two, you know, mid-seeding matchups more than any other. Washington is God-awful, and Ohio State's really not very good either. So now everybody out there listening is saying, God, I hope Washington wins. Yeah, no doubt. Well, people that like you, people that don't like you are probably hoping you're wrong. No, I think pretty much everybody right now is rooting for Washington. All right, Aaron, who's your sweet 16 in the Midwest region? All right. I have UNC, Kansas. And going back and forth on this one, I think I'm actually going to lead Iowa State and Kentucky.

Okay. Tommy. I have North Carolina, Auburn, Houston, and Kentucky. I have in the Sweet 16 in the Midwest region, I've got Carolina, I've got Auburn, I've got Iowa State beating Houston. That is a great second round game. Two really good. college basketball teams. I've crossed that one out three times already. And I've got Kentucky too, but I could see Seton Hall pushing them. Did they play this year? Did Seaton Hall play Kentucky this year? They may have played this year. Why am I thinking that Seaton Hall played Kentucky this year? I do not see a game between Seton Hall. Maybe they played last year. Oh, wait, yes, they did. They did. Actually, Seaton Hall beat Kentucky in overtime. There you go. I knew that they had played this year or I had a sense that they had played and Seton Hall won that game. I've got

Kentucky winning but I think it could be a good game. So I like Aaron have, um, oh no, well, we might have the same elite eight. Who's your elite eight, Aaron? I have UNC and Kentucky. You have UNC winning a road game against Kansas. I, I thought about that one long and hard and I'm going with it. All right, Tommy, your elite eight in the Midwest region? I have, uh, North Carolina and Houston. And Houston. All right. My elite eight is North Carolina, and I have Iowa State beating Kentucky in that elite eight game. I have Carolina advancing to the final four. Aaron, you? Kentucky.

Kentucky to the final four, Tommy. I have North Carolina. All right. So Aaron's final four is Duke playing Gonzaga, Tennessee playing Kentucky. Tommy's final four is Duke playing Florida State, Virginia playing North Carolina, which would make for a first ever. and I used to pick my bracket this way when I was an ACC guy, four ACC teams in the final four. It's never happened.

We've had three Big East teams in the final four. I want to say that we've had three, just three Big East teams, right? The year that Villanova beat Georgetown is Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's, in Memphis that year. I think it was Memphis, was the fourth team. Have we had three from a conference before? We've had many, I think ACC,

The ACC's had two in the final four more times than any other league. Yeah. But I don't think we've had another league have three. I know we've never had four from the same league. I'm pretty sure it's just that three. Tommy's got four ACC teams. And then my final four is Michigan State, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina. So an all Big Ten ACC final four.

Aaron, your championship game. My championship game, Gonzaga facing Kentucky. And your champion. Gonzaga. All right. Right? Wow. Tommy, your championship game?

Duke versus North Carolina. Uh-huh. Duke. And you got Duke beating Carolina. If Duke plays North Carolina in the championship game, that will probably be the highest rated, in recent times, you know, since the fragmentation of, you know, with cable and the whole thing, it'll be the highest rated championship game in 20-something years. Yeah.

I think the all-time, the all-timer was magic against Bird. think that's still to this day the highest rated college basketball game of all time. I think anything with Duke in the finals would probably break records. That's probably true. I have Michigan State beating Michigan for what would be a fourth time. All right, four times played four times one. And in those games, by the way, Michigan's led at halftime, I think, in two of the three. But I've got Michigan State playing Virginia in the final. Virginia's already beaten North Carolina once in Chapel Hill. I am a believer that in my formula, I'm a believer in the formula,

but I'm also a believer in Virginia slowing down fast teams better than anybody's ever done it. And that's why my formula didn't hold up until the final. And I've got Virginia beating Michigan State in the final to go from a team that lost for the first time ever to a 16 seed last year. to national champions in 2019. I actually on some level would be rooting for Virginia. So it doesn't, that'd be a good story. It doesn't bother you anymore. I mean, because look, when Merrill, isn't Virginia an old ACC rival,

and don't you have a resentment for Virginia? Are you forgetting what you used to rip me for all the time in the, as an ACC member and as an ACC charter member and lifelong ACC fan and alum, What I used to do once we got to the tournament, I rooted for the other ACC teams. Right, because you figured it helped the conference. It helped. It helped the conference.

Not that the conference needed any help, but what you came up with in your final four, I think in brackets in the past, I filled out four ACC teams probably 30 times over the last, until recently. And now I've got a little bit of Big Ten and a little bit of ACC. So I've got Virginia. Tommy's got Duke and Aaron's got Gonzaga winning the tournament. And there you go. That is, those are our brackets.

What are we going to do? We're going to post them on the website, the Kevin Sheeonshow.com. Somehow we'll get those up on the website by the end of the day, and you guys can follow along on that. All right, real quick word about scent bird. Centbird is a luxury fragrance subscription service, Tommy, something that you said you were going to try. My wife and I tried it. It was very, very helpful. It's a way to discover new colognes or perfumes without having to buy an entire bottle.

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Mike Trout is closing in on a deal, Tommy, to stay with the Angels. It would be a contract extension that would be the largest contract in professional sports history. Twelve years, $430 million dollars. Poor Bryce Harper didn't take long for Bryce Harper's record setting contract a week

and a half ago to get topped. You didn't see this coming this soon. No, no, I didn't. And the reaction to it just illustrates what I wrote after Harper signed with Philly. Now national fans will find out that the next best thing to rooting for Bryce Harper is rooting against Bryce Harper because he is among the most disliked athletes in all baseball. And the reaction to Mike Trout, one upping him so quickly with this contract and basically ridiculing a guy who just made $330 million in Bryce Harper is illustrative of that, that people, I mean, Mike Trout is considered a likable star. Bryce Harper is not.

He's a bigger star. Doesn't it even go further than that in that? Trout was expected to hit free agency, potentially end up in his hometown of Philadelphia, but he stayed with the team that has had him since coming out. And didn't even bother to go through the whole free agency thing. Now the Nats didn't offer Bryce Harper a 12-year $430,000 deal either. No, they didn't. But again, the offer that the Nats made was not nearly as distant to the,

the Phillies deal as Bryce Harper has made it out to be, not even close. And it's an embarrassment for Boris because the whole Philly contract, the way it was structured and set up with the 13 years and the 330 million was all about setting a record, was all about this. That's what it was about in part. That was all they had left, basically, to basically, you know, to crow about. And now that's taken from them. I mean, you know, I mean, you love this.

Well, I think it's justice. I think it's justice in a way. I think Bryce Harper, again, I don't dislike Bryce Harper. I liked Bryce Harper. But he's lied. He's lied about what happened in the process. Specifically point out what you think he lied about. About that there was $100 million in deferred money and that's off.

And that the contract was only worth $180 million. That was the Boris line. that was put out there. 180, 240 in present day money. Right. Well, it was much closer to the 300 million. Okay. So, I want to make sure everybody's clear on that.

Tommy, he's the only person I've heard say this in town, and he's right more often than he's wrong on these things. The complaint or what you've read from various sources about the Nats offer being a joke of an offer because there was so much deferred money in the deal. Tommy believes is totally inaccurate. There was nowhere near $100 million in deferred money, and that deal was worth much closer to the $300 million that the Nats believe they offered Bryce Harper.

All that, I think, I believe is the truth. And I just think that you have a media that was willing to swallow the Boris line. And now, basically, whatever the truth was has just been dwarfed, by the reality that Mike Trout is going to get a record-setting sports contract for an athlete, for North American athlete. I mean, you know, no basketball player, no football player. You know, Harper did not have the record-setting contract for an athlete. Canelo Alvarez got a 10-fight $340 million contract from a.

So trout steel tops that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Basically tops that a lot. Well, does it? What was it? Yeah, 12 for 430, tops 10 for, yeah.

Yeah, 90 million dollars on the surface right there. It's not 90, but it's whatever. 340 and 430. It's like a hundred and 10. Yeah, but it's the year difference too. So you're getting into the average. Go ahead. No, I'm not getting into it.

I'm getting in the total. Okay. Totally, yes, but it wasn't, it's not an apples to apples. years deal. Like right now, the Trout versus Harper deal, first of all, were there opt-outs in the deal? No. Okay, no opt-outs in that deal either. You're talking about the difference of literally $10 million a year in actual contract average annual average. I would ask both of you, who are much more baseball people than I, is, I know Trout's a better player and is perceived to be a better player than Harper. Is he $10 million a year better?

Wow, that's a tough question. I think he is definitively better. I think he's considerably better. And while he might not be 10 million a year better to overpay a little bit to lock him up long term if you're the angels, it's worth it. I mean, your risk, your investment risk is far less with Mike Trout than it is with Bryce Harper. I just think, you know, whatever you're investing, the risk of him going south with Mike Trout is far less. Do you think Philly fans would have preferred this deal for Trout versus the deal? Absolutely.

Yeah. Absolutely. But Mike Trout. Do you think Trout signed this extension? Do you think that it was, that the process of getting him signed to this extension was accelerated because of the Harper deal? It might have been. I think it may have been. It makes sense that it would have been.

It might have jinned up the Angels front office. And it also may have said to Trout, you know what? I don't want to go to Philadelphia now. They just signed Harper to this. big deal. And, you know, Bryce, Mike Trout may be smart enough to realize that going home is not all it's cracked up to be. There's a lot of different pressures. Kevin Durant avoided it. Yeah, there's a lot of pressures. Right now he has the best of both worlds. He can come home,

be the star, go to the Eagles games and stuff. This way, you know, when you come home, all your friends want a piece of you, you know, it's a lot to deal with. Hey, that wasn't the deciding factor, I'm sure. But I don't think it looked as good as people might think it was. Did you know this about Mike Trout? I think we've had this conversation before. If we have, just shut me off. That he has this incredible passion for weather.

Did you know this? I didn't know that. That like I do for winter weather in particular, growing up in the Philadelphia area, he is a massive, you know, he's very, very much into winter storms, snowstorms like I am. I found this out through Scott, who Scott's into the same thing that I'm into with the weather. And Trout is so into it.

Follows the models from L.A. when there's a storm in Philadelphia, he's sitting there paying attention to it. And on some level, I wonder if one of the reasons he would have thought about moving back east is to participate in some of these big snowstorms that he's been missing out in Southern California. But for the most part, he is home probably in December, January. Yes. He's going to Eagles games, for God's sake. Yeah. So this is, and for everybody who thinks baseball is in trouble, they just signed

a $430 million guaranteed contract. My God. I mean, come on. The money in baseball. Yeah. And that's where like a Kyler Murray, I have no idea what kind of prospect he was. I know he was a very good prospect. Yeah.

baseball prospect. But, you know, he'll be, I mean, the things, you know, the NFL's king in this country, but baseball is, you're still a superstar athlete if you're a superstar in the sport of baseball. You're not going to play in a Super Bowl, but you can play in a World Series, but, man, the opportunity to earn the kind of money you can earn as a baseball player is so beyond what you can earn in football. It's guaranteed money. You know, the quarterback position may be different. If you have a dream as a young athlete of one day owning a team and you have the choice of baseball or football, you play baseball. You're never going to earn in football enough money to buy a sports team like you will in baseball. Maybe.

I mean, the quarterback gets the endorsements. Payton Manning may fall into that category. Yeah, but not by just stroking a check. He's going to have to raise a lot of money on his own. Whereas Trout, he'll have to raise some money to buy a sports team. But he could probably write the bulk of the check himself. But, God, it is amazing to watch the money that they get. Yeah.

I did want also just to come back real quickly to the Redskins here for a moment and wanted you to weigh in on Landon Collins. You ended up writing a column after our last show. And I wanted you to talk about some of the things that you wrote in the column, which I actually thought were, you know, somewhat new to the discussion about Landing Collins. and DJ Swaranger. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, my question once the glow came off, and it was a deserved glow.

It was a pretty good day if you were Redskins fan that you had this star player who obviously desperately wanted to play for your team. And that doesn't happen very often for Redskins fans. And the whole story of the Jersey, the Sean Taylor jersey, I mean, you know, even even, even made Dan Snyder. seem human. So I appreciate it. But once the glow came off, I said, well, what did they get? What did they get for their money?

And how much did they improve themselves from where their position had been there earlier? And I think people have forgotten that DJ Sweringer was a good safety and last year, at times, was a great safety. Well, as described by you know, pro football folks.

He played very well at times. He didn't play very well in every game. No, he didn't. But he was a major upgrade at the position, you know, from a talent standpoint, production standpoint. And he costs you $3 million a year. Landon Collins is going to cost you. Even with the calorie cap penalty,

with the signing bonuses and all that, I think it comes out to $13 million a year for the next two years, which would have been Sweringer's, you know, deal. he had a deal into next year. And I just think that, you know, because people need to remember that DJ Sweringer isn't here because he was so disgusted with the coaching staff, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. Now, that may be a DJ Sweringer problem, but that doesn't mean he wasn't right about the coaching staff. And basically, you had to turn around and spend all this money on filling that position again

because the player you thought had that position locked up couldn't stand the coaches. I mean, that's all something to consider when you're celebrating Landon Collins. That money could, if DJ Sweringer was still here, they have that money to spend elsewhere. Yeah, you pointed out something in your column that actually I had forgotten about. And I bet many of you forgot about it unless you didn't or you heard someone else talk about it. I forgot that he was right there at the center of that, you know, public feud with Eli Apple the corner from Ohio State. Called him a cancer.

Yeah, called him a cancer, really called him out publicly. I think he was right about Apple. And, you know, Apple was not a very good corner in New York. And quite frankly, wasn't that great in New Orleans either. But I had forgotten about that. And one of the things that people have said about landing, Collins is what a great teammate and locker room presence he is, which would be, you know, contrary to D.J. Swaringer, who rubbed several people in that locker room the wrong way.

However. Not to even mention a front office and a coaching staff. However, the minute he arrived, he had been here for five minutes and they elected him captain last year. I understand that, but we've seen that with this organization before, you know, because there isn't enough leadership. But you know what, John Allen is becoming a voice and a presence in that locker room. And by the way, one of the more positive voices and presences that that locker room's had in a long time with respect to leadership. But I'd forgotten about that.

Not that I'm being critical of it, but it was a public thing. Yeah, in other words, they didn't get a, like I referred to him, they didn't get a shrinking violet when they signed Landon Collins. He'll have strong opinions. By the way, I don't know if you, you probably didn't listen to the podcast last week without you. Was it without Tommy or with him? It was probably without you. I just could not believe the attention that some in the media and some in the fan base paid to this stupid jersey thing. Will he or won't he wear Sean Taylor's jersey?

Good God. Enough already. Who cares? How about when a goddamn person? playoff game and be a competitive outfit before we get tie. I mean, that's the only thing I'm worried about now. Sean Taylor,

I said this Tommy on the podcast last week. There isn't one jersey, not one, based on merit in the Dan Snyder era that is worthy of protection. Not one. Not Chris Samuels. Not Sean Taylor. Not Santana

Moss. Not Clinton Portis. Not Chris Cooley. But I also said, if the owner felt so close to this player and we all felt the sting and the sadness of his death. It was an awful thing, an awful thing. Because of that, any impact that that death and that tragedy had on the community, if he wanted to protect that jersey, I don't have a problem with it. But I don't have a problem if he doesn't do it either. Right. It's not a three and a half year career, I'm sorry, is not worthy of Jersey protection. But, well, you know who's the most vocal about it? Redskins players.

who played with I understand that. They're the most passionate about it. And do you know what? They didn't win anything either. I know. And none of their jerseys are worthy of protection either. So remember, you know, a lot of those players who, in some cases I like those guys,

I would consider some of them my friends. And in one particular case, a very close friend, you know, I have no problem telling Cooley or Clinton. You know, you guys, I think you have elevated yourselves in redskin history at a level that most long-time fans, maybe not a recent generation fans, but if you took the fan base in general, you know, most people, sorry, wouldn't put Cooley in the top 20 Redskins of all time. Won't even have them as their best tight end.

They'll have Jerry Smith as the best tight end. Clinton Portis is not the best running back in franchise history. John Riggins is. Larry Brown's probably second. I mean, Clinton's close, though. Clinton of that group, Clinton's the one that based on production and performance and the kind of player he was probably deserves the most credit of that error. And I'd put Samuel second.

Yeah, but I agree. But not worthy of Jersey protection. I agree with you that it held no interest to me whatsoever. I didn't care if he wore it or didn't wear it. Yeah, I don't want to spend any more time. Do you know, DJ Sweringer? You know, he wore number three. Yeah, the first words out of DJ Sweringer's mouth when he was interviewed every time with the Redskins were about Chanty.

No. The same thing. and he paid uh sua craven's seventy five thousand dollars to wear number 36 yeah which was taylor's uh what jersey when he was a rookie yep yeah yeah it was his rookie number no i know i and you know again i mentioned this on the friday podcast he sean taylor's influence is amazing to me i mean he played for three and a half years and he was truly we forget the first years, hit and miss. A lot of big blow-up plays, a lot of big blow-up misses, you know, and, you know, there was the dissing of Gibbs, and there was the DUI, and there were a lot of

things going on in those first two years that if you put yourself back to that moment, nobody, you know, failed on missing on the talent part of it. It was clear and obvious from day one. This guy was a freak, a physical freak, but no one was convinced in those first two years that he was going to become this great all-time safety. But that third year and then in that fourth year, before he got injured and then left for Florida, which turned out to be a tragic, you know, trip, he really was becoming a great player at the position. And, you know, you can't, you can project, you don't know for sure, but it appeared as if he was on the verge of a stretch of years that would have been dominant at the position. Absolutely. I have no qualms in saying that. Not everybody agrees with that. I have no qualms in

the moment. I felt that in the moment. I'll never forget that week as long as I live, that week in November of 2007. And the season that he was having leading up to that, that Green Bay game, remember that game, the multiple pick game that should have been like four or five picks. He was, you know, he was going to be, I think at the very least, you know, a perennial pro-bowl all-pro safety, I think at the very least we could have projected further that he would have become, he would have perhaps eclipsed Ken Houston as the greatest safety in franchise history. And if that's true, then he would have been on the way to a Hall of Fame career. But, you know, three and a half years ended tragically, have no problem if that jersey is protected because of the impact that that death and that player and everything the circumstance had have no problem if they want to protect it but really the dan snider era has not produced one jersey not one that's worthy on merit of protection i don't believe i agree i agree i agree um anyway uh the last thing that i wanted to mention on this very show today um was something that i really don't want to talk about anymore this year

and that is my favorite professional NBA basketball team, the Washington Wizards, who really do stink and are among the worst defensive teams I can remember. But now that they are, you know, not mathematically out yet, but for anybody that still had, you know, this pipe dream that they were going to make a run to the 8C,

they're now four and a half games out or whatever it is, please, please, Ted, tell Ernie and say, and Scott Brooks to tank the rest of the season. Do not win another game this year. Play nobody but young players on your roster. I don't want to see anybody good on the floor. I think you should rest Beal the rest of the way. I think you should sit a Riza.

I think you should sit... If you want to take a longer look at Portis and Jabari Parker, they can't win games on their own with Sam Decker and Jordan McCray and Troy Brown Jr. that's who you should be playing. Bryant, play them, tank the season, increase your odds as best as you can of getting, this is not a great draft, and if you want to have any chance of getting Zion, you've got to increase your chances of winning a draft lottery.

Tank the rest of the season, Ted. You're not going to the playoffs, you dope. It's important for them to finish strong and actually maybe to even bring back Dwight Howard for the last 10 games. Oh, God. Because, you know, because Dwight Howard has an option to come back next year. It's not a team option. It's a Dwight Howard option.

So Dwight Howard's part of your future next year probably. So it would give Wizards fans a chance to see, hey, this is what could happen next year when you've got Dwight Howard and Bradley Beal on the court together. Look how exciting that can be. That's a, it's a promise. I don't always live up to my promises. I know that, but that is a promise the way I feel today not to speak about them. Excuse me, I just burped.

Not to speak about them the rest of the year. Just tank, please, you stink. This is not a team that's going anywhere. You got to somehow try to get lucky and land a transcendent player. Yeah, but that's not going to happen either. They got a lousy GM. They got a lousy coach. They play an arena that nobody shows up to watch.

and they got an lousy owner, too, who should sell the team. Last thing for today. I was reading the post this morning, and they had the final high school basketball rankings, the boys' local top 20 and the girls' local top 20. First of all, congratulations to AZ Fudd over at St. Johns. We've talked about her a couple of times. She is the Gatorade Girls basketball player of the year,

a sophomore. She's a prodigy. She is already, you know, being called the greatest high school female high school basketball player of all time, and she's only a sophomore. The female stuff, Curry, is what I'm seeing a lot of. Yeah. She, you know, I was told about her two years ago by Mike McCarthy, who's one of the long time, really good girls basketball coaches in this area, is coach visitation, Georgetown visitation for years about her as a freshman.

And so many of you out there, I know, are following her career. She's apparently just beyond. I saw her play a second half. last year at Georgetown Prep as part of that day with, you know, I forget what the charity is that they play for, but Prep played St. John's and then the St. John's girls played Georgetown Visitation. She was amazing. She didn't even, she wasn't even there for the first half, and I think had 10 threes in the second half. So congratulations to her. Also, I wanted to point this out. I knew there was a difference in the number of games, private schools played versus public schools.

Dematha played 38 games this year. 38 regular season games. That's almost half an NBA season. And then you go down in the rankings, Richard Montgomery from Montgomery County, played 25 games. I think they won the states, or they were in the final four in the states.

I don't know if they wanted or not. But they went 23 and two. Oh, no, they lost in the Maryland 4A semifinals. They played 25 games and played extra playoff games. DeMatha played 38. a big difference. I mean, look, these are massive in our area. We have incredible high school basketball,

boys and girls. The WCAC is probably the best high school basketball conference in the country. There are the big basketball factory schools, you know, like IMG and Florida and others. But in terms of a conference, there's probably not a better basketball conference high school-wise in the country. And they play, in addition to their own conference

schedule, they play a national schedule too. And they start earlier than public schools do, but I never, I knew there was a big difference. I just was looking at that. I'm like, wow, they play 13 more games than the public school team that went to the state semifinals. One more thing, and I think you have something too that you want to mention about Mark Turgeon, but one more thing real quickly that I didn't mention yesterday that I was saving for you. Tyree Kill, Kansas City's wide receiver, is now involved, police are now investigating two incidents involving Tyreek Hill. Earlier this month, officers took reports of a battery and child abuse or neglect situation at his home earlier this month. There's now a second

incident as well involving Hill. To what degree we do not know yet, specifically. He has not been charged with anything. There are two investigations. If he's charged with something, if he's charged with, you know, battery or child abuse. I think this would be a severe punishment for the league, given his background with his pregnant girlfriend from a few years ago, where he did serve some probation time, but did not serve jail time. It will be a severe. It will be severe because the league is really feeling the heat still about trying to

deal with domestic violence. And this is, you know, a different kind of domestic violence. Kareem Hunt got eight games. I know. I know. I still think they're feeling the pressure to respond strongly to these kind of issues. I mean, I don't think he'd be banned from the league. I think there's a possibility he could get banned from the league. I'd be shocked if that happened. I mean, my first reaction to the Bob Kraft thing was nothing's going to happen here.

I mean, please, for the people whose immediate reaction was he was going to lose his team, I heard some people say. Well, that's absurd. Yeah, but the, but this one. But don't say nothing's going to happen. This one. Don't say nothing's going to happen with Bob Kraft, but he still has to go to court. He's going to get, right. There's the legal thing, and they'll probably give him some sort of four-game suspension

where he can't show up at the facility or whatever. Who cares? Doesn't hurt his team. Right. The Hill thing, if, you know, the details of the pregnant girlfriend thing from back in 2015, how he choked his girlfriend who was pregnant at the time. And there were more sort of gross details from that. He served, you know, he plead, he plead that deal out and got probation for it, three years of probation.

And I think it's been, I think Aaron mentioned it's been expunged from his record now, I guess. Yes. But we still all know that there was this domestic violence situation that was ugly, heinous. And if this involves a child, and you may speak to the Adrian Peterson situation, but if he's charged, and convicted of something here, it's a year. It is a year minimum. If Kareem Hunt got eight games with his track record, it's going to be a year. It is a year minimum. I'd be shocked if it's more than a year. Look, I think it should be. I mean, I think the NFL should have zero tolerance when it comes to this kind of thing. If it was modern my business and I had athletes like this

who were high profile in the public eye, I wouldn't want these kind of guys on my payroll, but I don't think the NFL is going to ban them for life. I think it'll be like a year tops. Man, can you imagine the Chiefs next year with no hunt and no hill? I mean, they didn't have hunt. They got the biggest star in the league right now, and they've had a situation where it'll have not one,

but two of his supplemental players, his star. Eventually, yeah, if the alleged is charged for. What's going on in Kansas? This Kansas City is where you had the linemen, you know, go to the facility. Well, that was years ago, yeah. Yeah, well, but still, what's wrong out there? Is it the beef? If they didn't have Hill in 2019,

Kansas City's odds for winning the AFC championship would drop, and Cleveland would then become the second favorite in the AFC behind New England. Really, if they lose Hill, Even with Mahomes, that will be an impactful odds situation to not have Hill coming back. He's such a unique. Well, think about the West. Think about just the AFC West right now. I know.

I mean, O'Kwin? Denver. Denver with Flacco in a really good defense. And you got the Chargers coming back. A lot of people are laughing at that. I think Denver is going to be a surprise team next year. I agree with you. And then you've got the Chargers. So, yeah.

All right, you had one other thing. Well, I mean, I heard Mark Turgeon on the way in this morning with the junkies, the Merrill and coach. And he said something I thought that was really interesting, something that I tend to agree with. But I think most of people like you don't. He says when they're double teaming, when they're going inside to Bruno and the other teams are double teaming, the coaching staff thinks that means they win. They think their philosophy is if they can get their. the other team, the double team Bruno, that means that there'll be a three-on-two situation

out there outside of that, that they'll be able to win. So they see that as a positive. And Bruno obviously had trouble with it, you know, with Nebraska, but he shouldn't be having this much trouble with it at this point of the season because they've been doing it to them all season. I thought he's handled it pretty well the one time I saw them play against Purdue, at least in the second half. But for people who are looking like you, who are looking for this, grab the ball,

you know, speed up the temple of the game, they're not going to do that. They're not going to do that. Okay, so I didn't hear him say it, but what you're saying, I mean, my first response is, yes, there's always an advantage if you have a good player that's double-teamed, and you've got a scheme and a player capable of making a team pay for that, double team. They see that as a win. Well, it's only a win if you make them pay for the double team. I grant you that.

Bruno's had too many turnovers, which is not winning against the double team in recent weeks. And it's been inconsistent in their ability to handle the double team. There have been games where they've handled it beautifully and they've made teams pay. And there have been other games

like the Nebraska game in the tournament where they handled it poorly. And it heard of but. He did say in that Nebraska game, that Bruno did not handle it well. He specifically said his reaction was not what they hoped for. But another response that I would have to that is if this is your big advantage, and I don't disagree that, of course, if you have a good player that gets double teamed,

then you are four on three everywhere else. But you've got to be able to handle that double team. You've got to have a scheme to handle it. Typically, Tommy, it's you react quickly with pass or you react quickly before the double gets there to get to the rim, they've invited the double and they're trying to have them pass to beat it. They have not been consistent with that, though. I agree. Okay, so that's a problem. But what I would say is if, you know, you're so convinced that this is the big advantage that you have, then why doesn't every single possession go through Bruno on the post? I agree. Because it doesn't. I know. No, you're right.

Just so you know, not every possession is Bruno in the post. They have Bruno at the elbow a lot, initiating the offense through Bruno at the elbow a lot. Sometimes in certain games, as much as they have them on the post, but in general, I would never disagree with that. If you've got a good big who commands a double and you've got a scheme and a player capable of making that team pay for double teaming you, it's a great situation to be in. They've been more often than not pretty good against the double team, but not 100%. In fact, I would put Aaron, they've handled the double team at about a 60% hit rate this year, you know, something like that. Yeah. You know, 60%, I mean, I don't have the numbers in front of me. I need the tape for every game, but just

watching every game, 60, 65% of the time they've handled the double pretty well, but that leaves 35 to 40% of the time that they're not handling it well. And when they don't handle it well, typically what it ends up in is turnover. Yes. All right, because Bruno is up there among their turnover leaders and or not the easy shot that should come, the open shot that should come from doubling the post. It doesn't always result in that. This is their style. This is their plan. This is what they're going to do. And it's obvious that their plan has been all year. They are more comfortable. He's more comfortable coaching, a half-court, lower-possession game. And one of the things that I've pointed to all year long, to all the Maryland fans, as I have said, I'd prefer up-tempo. I've also

said, Aaron, this year they actually have a half-court offense that can work and has worked because they've got a low-post player that commands double teams in Bruno Fernando. So, yeah, I get that. I just would like to see them be better at handling the double. I thought it was interesting that he came out and said that. Yeah. Yeah. Then every single possessions should start with Bruno on the post. That makes sense.

That's their big advantage. And it doesn't all the time. All right. So you're back on Thursday in studio? Yes, I am. Awesome. What we haven't told you, though, is we are starting very early on Thursday. Are you still going to be here?

Because it's the tournament. And we have this sense that Thursday, if we don't get to show out early, people are going to be wrapped up into the tournament all day, and our listening audience would suffer because of it. We want to give people the chance to listen to the show early Thursday. Well, you know me. Anything for the team, buddy. You know me.

I'll buy you breakfast. Anything for the team. Anything I can do to help the podcast, you know me, Pat. I'll buy you breakfast, and if you decide to opt out, it's okay. You can still call in. How early? We'll talk about that when we're done here. Okay.

Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to Tommy. We'll have some guests on the show tomorrow to get you ready for the tournament. Enjoy the day.