The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jacksonville or Washington?

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Kevin opened with yesterday's NFL craziness including comparing Washington with another 2-6 franchise, Jacksonville. Kevin recapped the Wizards weekend and then had SIX WFT predictions for the rest of the year. Jeff Ermann/Inside MD Sports jumped on to talk about Maryland's 31-14 loss to Penn State and to help preview Maryland Basketball which opens tomorrow night.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Do you bring an extra pressure from this second level here? They do. Bill is trying to pick it up.

They can. Allen throws accepting. That was the Josh Allen who plays for Jacksonville, picking off the Josh Allen that most of you know who quarterbacks the Buffalo Bills in what was one of the more stunning upsets of the 20-21 season. That's not an exaggeration. The game went off 15 and a half is what Buffalo was favored at, at kickoff down in Jacksonville, on what was a crazy NFL day highlighted by some just unbelievable results that nobody had going into the day yesterday. Here's a question

for you that I'll let you ponder for just a few minutes, and then I'll circle back to my answer. on this. Jacksonville improved a two and six with their nine to six win over Buffalo. Washington, with their by week yesterday, remained at two and six. Which franchise from a football standpoint is in better shape looking forward? I'll get to the answer to that in a moment. It was an incredible performance, by the way, by the Josh Allen that plays for Jacksonville, the first round pick from Kentucky in 2019 had the interception. He had a sack. He had a stripped fumble. He had eight solo tackles. He has been a burgeoning superstar here for a while now. Let's hope that Washington's Kentucky linebacker that was drafted in the first round, Jamon Davis becomes the same

kind of player that Josh Allen from Kentucky has become for Jacksonville. They're different players. Jamon's going to play more inside as a backer. And Alan is a pure pass rusher. as an edge pass rusher. But what a day in the NFL yesterday when you think about some of the results? That result, certainly the most shocking, sixth team since 1990, as a 15-point dog or greater to win a game outright. But really the surprising part of that result is that they won, yes, they held the bills, the highest scoring team in the AFC,

to six points. six. The other result that just completely, completely shocked me is not that Denver as a 10-point underdog pulled off the upset of the Cowboys. I didn't predict it. I didn't give out Denver plus 10 on the smell test. Smell test seven and six going into tonight's game with Chicago plus the seven against the Steelers in tonight's game. But the fact that Denver led one of the highest scoring teams in the NFC, the Cowboys. The fact that the Cowboys had no points on the board, and they were down 30 to nothing with under five minutes to go in the game, and they scored two meaningless touchdowns with two meaningless two-point conversions to make

the score halfway respectable at 30 to 16. Who saw Denver beating Dallas, but more important. importantly, the way they beat Dallas, leading in the game 30 to nothing at one point. These are the Cowboys that had won six in a row. And in their last six games, they had been averaging 34 and a half points per game, had none with five minutes to go in the game yesterday. It was a wild day that saw underdogs covering at a 9 to 3 clip. 9 to 4 now for the weekend because the Colts were a big favorite. By the way, the Jets, and I didn't know this when I talked to you on Friday,

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I was up at the very end of the Jet Colt game, and nobody told me that the Jets actually had a chance for a backdoor cover on Thursday night with Josh Johnson leading an incredible fourth quarter. Anyway, nine and four underdogs this weekend with some real surprising underdogs. The two that I mentioned are the two biggest surprises. Last night, without Derek Henry, you just figured Tennessee might not be the same team. They go into L.A. with Adrian Peterson. Peterson scored a touchdown, but he was 10 carries 21 yards. They blew out the Rams. Matt Stafford looked awful. It was his first truly awful game through two picks.

And there was a player in that game who I was a big fan of coming out. And I've talked about him periodically over the last year, a year and a half. Jeffrey Simmons has become one of the best interior game-wrecking defensive tackles in the game. Jeffrey Simmons now in his third year after being a first round pick in 2019 at a Mississippi State. And Jeffrey Simmons, who was a part of some of those really good Mississippi State defenses, which included Montez Sweat, he was unblockable last night. three sacks, many pressures, totally dominated and took the game over from the defensive tackle position and the Titans win in LA 28 to 16. You would have to think that the best player on defense in the entire league, Aaron Donald, had to watch from the other sideline and say, that's a dude.

And you know what? They've got dudes on defense. De Nico Autry's great. Harold Landry is really now, really starting to become a major problem for teams in his fourth season out of BC. Kevin Byard is just incredible as a DB. They are a good football team, and I think they're well coached. I've said this now going back to last year and the year before. I think Brable's doing an outstanding job. Of course they don't have Derek Henry. They're not going to be the same team or the same threat to win the whole thing,

but I certainly wouldn't count them out. They've won five games in a row. They got a big one coming up against the Saints. And the Rams, for those of you that were convinced, and I'm convinced that they're a contender, boy, they laid an egg yesterday. And Matt Stafford really for the first time this year, he had a bit of an off game against Arizona, no doubt, and they're lost to Arizona and wasn't super sharp against Detroit until the second half. Five sacks, two interceptions in his by far and away.

worst game of the season had a 17.6 QBR for the Rams yesterday. His lowest QBR number of the season prior to last night's game was a 64 QBR on a scale of zero to 100, the ESPN QBR stat. That was in week two and a win over Indianapolis. There were other surprising results for sure. The Giants, now I gave them out on the smell test and I thought they had a chance to win the game. They won over the Raiders, 2316. Still, the Giants without, you know, total health offensively in particular. They did get Gala Day back yesterday. They had Cadarious Tony. Still no Saquine Barkley. They're injured along the offensive line. But they get a pick six early in the third quarter, and they never relinquish that lead against a Raiders team that just been through it this year, man, haven't they?

Even though they are having a good season, five and three, with the Gruden emails and the Gruden firing and then the tragedy last week in Vegas with Henry Ruggs and a poor woman and her dog. The Raiders lose to the Giants. I'm telling you, I've been talking about the Giants and the Eagles go back before the season started. Neither one of those teams sucks. I don't know where the season will end for them, but neither one of those two teams suck. They're both better than Washington. I don't know what these games are going to look like by the time we get to them, but they are both better teams and it played better than Washington this year. How about the Browns with No, Odell Beckham Jr., and all of a sudden, they're lighting people up. Now, Nick Chubb makes a

big difference, man, when he's healthy and rumbling. He ran for 137 yards and just 14 carries, and Ward had to pick six early in the game when Cincinnati on their opening drive was in a goal-to-go situation. He had a 99-yard interception return. But the Bengals, you know, just two weeks removed from beating the Ravens 4117 have now lost back-to-back games to the Jets 3431 and to the Browns 41 to 16 yesterday. Moving along, the Eagles were right there with the Chargers. Dustin Hopkins missed an extra point and then made a game-winning field goal at the gun from 29 yards out and the Chargers snap their two-game losing skid. But the Eagles played well and I'll tell you what, I think it was one of the better games played by Jalen Hertz.

He had so many big third down conversions, several of them with his legs. Their defense just could not get the chargers off the field in that one. The Vikings had a two-touchdown lead twice on the Ravens, blew it. Lamar Jackson really on the strength of his legs brought him back. They ran 90 plays in the game, Baltimore did. you just rarely hear about that in the NFL. Somebody running 90 plays. They had over 350 yards of offense in the second half against Minnesota,

who in the second half barely even had the football. It was on them when they had it. They didn't do anything with it. They ended up having a kickoff return for a touchdown that gave them a two touchdown lead. Then they went down by a touchdown. Kirk drove him 75 yards through a touchdown pass. at the end of regulation to tie it and force overtime. But Baltimore wins it in overtime.

They actually got a great interception by Anthony Barr in overtime, and Cousins and Company went three and out, and Baltimore then took it, got it into field goal range. The Vikings are three and five, all five losses by seven or less, two of them in overtime, and one of them by one point on a missed 34-yard field goal. What else happened in the NFL yesterday before I want to circle back to this Jacksonville conversation?

The Falcons, a week after losing to Carolina, they blew an 18.4th quarter lead but got a field goal at the gun to beat the Saints, 2725. Outstanding was Matt Ryan in this one, in this one, 23 of 30 for 343, two touchdowns, no picks. Cordell Patterson's been one of the great ads of the offseason. Six catches, 126 yards for Patterson. three catches for 62 yards. And the Falcons right now, right now are the number seven seed. If the season ended today, they would be in the postseason. Two more games. I want to just mention real quickly. The Cardinals beat the 49ers without Kyler Murray, without DeAndre Hopkins. We know they have no J.J. Watt. They lost Chase Edmonds during the game. And I didn't see this game, you know,

in terms of start to finish. I saw a lot of it on the red zone. Okay. How about the game that Colt McCoy had starting for Kyler Murray. Every time I turned on the red zone, they were blitzing him and he was calmly picking it up and making a great play. 22 of 26 for Colt McCoy, 249 yards of touchdown, no interceptions. He also had 23 yards rushing on seven carries. What a game for Colt McCoy as Arizona handles the 49ers, handles them with Jimmy Garoppolo. in there. They got George Kittle back. They had too many turnovers. Kittle had a catch. He was rumbling down the field, then lost the ball. Iuke lost the ball once. Gropolo threw a pick. Three

turnovers for the 49ers. They lose to the Cardinals 3117. And then the game that I think America was waiting to see, the Aaron Rogers list Green Bay Packers at Arrowhead with Jordan Love in his first start, that was a terrible football game. just an awful, awful football game. The Chiefs winning at 13 to 7. Something's not right with the Chiefs. Okay, they're now 5 and 4.

And look, this league changes week to week. So who the hell knows what they'll look like a month from now? They might look like the Chiefs again. But wow, do they have they fallen on hard times offensively? The last game they got any kind of offensive success was the game here against Washington when they scored 31 and put up near 500 yards. They haven't done that against anybody else. They should have lost to the Giants, or they easily could have lost to the Giants on Monday night.

They beat the Packers with Jordan Love. And to have a definitive feeling about Jordan Love after one game is ridiculous. 19 to 34, 190 yards, had an interception. There were two missed field goals in the first half by Mason Crosby. Missed one, had one blocked. You know, the Packers scored late to get the cover, and if they had gotten the ball back, who the hell knows what would have happened? But they certainly aren't the same team without Aaron Rogers. I'll tell you what, though, if they had Aaron Rogers yesterday, this is a Kansas City team that really seems troubled.

They play the Raiders next week on Sunday night football. Then they have the Cowboys. Then they get the Broncos who are now rolling. And then the Raiders and the Chargers, Steelers, Bengals, Broncos. You talk about a schedule. I know people are like, yeah, the chiefs will figure it out. I don't know. All right, I want to circle back to the question I asked just a few minutes ago.

Which franchise has a better football future right now? Based on current context, Jacksonville at 2 and 6 or Washington at 2 and 6. I'm sure you initially thought, well, it's not Jacksonville. And then you thought, oh, wait a minute, they have a quarterback. They have Trevor Lawrence, and we don't. Boom, there's your answer. More than anything else. other reasons why Jacksonville's in better shape than Washington right now. They have a

quarterback, they have a potential franchise quarterback, and Washington doesn't even have the prospect for one at this point. That's where we are right now. We are one of, I don't know, four or five bad teams without the hope or without the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the quarterback. You know, you could put certainly Detroit into that category. You could put Carolina into that category for sure. Carolina is a more competitive team than Washington's been this year. I think they're well coached, and I think they actually do have an exceptional defense. Houston's in trouble a little bit because of Deshawn Watson's future as a bad team.

But, you know, teams like the Jets and the Dolphins and the Jags, they've drafted, you know, super high young guys. Who knows if they'll work out? I think Jacksonville's quarterback, Trevor Lawrence is going to work out. You can think whatever you want about it. him. I think Trevor Lawrence, and, you know, as we sit here today on November 8th, 2021, gives Jacksonville a much better chance than Washington at having success. They also have Trent Balke as their general manager. Remember Trent Balke? Remember when Marty Schottenheimer brought John Schneider and Trent Balke to Washington in 2001? Trent Balke, the architect of all

of these success in San Francisco with Jim Harbaugh. They've got young players like James Robinson and DJ Chark and Leviska-Shanalt Jr. on offense. They've got a star in Josh Allen on defense, maybe a bigger star than Washington's got on defense. You'd have to say that as far as where we are today. Miles Jack. They've got young players. They're one of the youngest teams in the league. They've got a top five salary cap situation for next year.

Yeah, Jacksonville's in a much better situation football-wise than Washington. Same record, completely different, you know, potentials. As long as you are where Washington is, let me put Washington into a different category because of all the other stuff. Your ceiling really without a quarterback is the floor. You know, there are franchises like Carolina with David Tepper as the owner that cannot have a quarterback but perhaps generate some competitive teams. Washington's ceiling is the floor without a quarterback. And then with a quarterback, their ceiling isn't as high as maybe other franchises with the quarterback, but at least then they have a legitimate ceiling.

And it's much higher than it is right now, much higher. But they don't have the quarterback. Maybe they'll find one. I was just thinking before the show started, Jacksonville at 2 and 6 with the win over Buffalo, Washington at 2 and 6. Who would you rather be? I don't know anything about the Urban Meyer situation. I don't know if this is going to be it for him.

But you know what? If they've got the right quarterback, a lot easier to find the coach than it is the quarterback. Up next, a little bit on the Wizards, and then six predictions for Washington's final nine games. Then Jeff Erman from Inside Maryland Sports will join us. We'll talk Terps Penn State. We'll also talk Terps Hoops.

They open up tomorrow night. We'll get to all that starting right after these mess. messages. This segment brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. and they'll double your first deposit. You get a 250% bonus for any referrals on their first deposits. I've got a smell test pick going tonight. It's Chicago plus the seven in the Monday nighter at Pittsburgh. The smell test seven and six right now on the weekend. So I've got a chance to have my first winning weekend in a while. I really thought I was going to get off to Well, I got off to a good start with BC on Friday night, Nebraska early.

And there was a moment there where I really thought Saturday was going to be an even better day. Ended up going five and three overall in college. And then yesterday in the NFL, I had the Giants early. I had Carolina early. And what was the other one? Two and three in the NFL. So I had the Giants were a winner. the Vikings were a winner so I was two and one during the one o'clock window with Carolina being the loser

and then late I had San Francisco and look I had a minus two they went off at minus five and a half so if they hadn't gotten it done you know minus four in that general area where probably most of you had it I would not have counted it easy to say now and I had Philadelphia and they certainly had every chance in the world to win that game outright that game by the way went off even one of sharpest sides of the day were the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. So really rooting for Chicago tonight in Justin Fields to keep it close against a Pittsburgh team that's, you know, rolling a little bit. I mean, the Steelers tonight can get to five and three and be a game out in the AFC North with still, right? Have they played the Ravens yet? I don't think they've played the Ravens yet.

They've won three games in a row. They have their Ravens games. Yeah, they've got them packed into December. They got two games against the Ravens in December. I don't think Pittsburgh's very good. I don't. But I don't think the Bears are that good either. But maybe we continue with the underdog weekend, which is at 9 and 4 right now with one game left.

Again, my bookie, my bookie.orgie.com. Two things in this segment. One, real quickly on the Wizards weekend. They beat Memphis on Friday night and what was their most impressive game of the year. I thought that putting seven players into double figures that night was really impressive. And it's just a reflection of really their depth. This is a different Wizards team.

I'm not at seven and three after last night's winner of Milwaukee, which I'm going to get to in a moment. I'm not going to sit here and tell you this is going to be a 45 win team. I'd love it to be. There's a long way to go, and they've got a lot of road games coming up. But I thought Friday night was a real reflection of what they can be. And remember, that's without Rui Hachamur. That was without Davos Pertans.

That's without Thomas Bryant. I mean, two of those three, you know, going to be major contributors to the team. That was with Kuzma going for 13, Gafford going for 15, Dinwiddie going for 12, Beal for 17, a Caldwell Pope for 12, Harold for 18, Netto for 15. My God, they put seven guys in double figures. They had 10 guys in the game play at least 17 minutes on Friday night. It was an impressive win. Memphis had won two in a row over Denver coming in,

and the Wizards were really good on Friday night. I thought it was by far and away the most impressive game of the year and the most impressive defensively they've been all year. I didn't necessarily feel that way last night. I think sometimes people will do a lot of box score reading, as I've referred to, and they'll look at the shooting percentages, and they'll say, whoa, what a great defensive effort. They've been a better defensive team than they were last year.

There's no doubt about it. First of all, they try harder. And they've got a couple of guys that actually can defend. But the Bucks missed a lot of wide open looks, especially down the stretch in that game last night. I mean, Hill missed wide open looks. Grayson Allen missed wide open looks, Holiday missed wide open looks. And I'm talking off of, you know, a Tentacompo action where, you know, he's drawing the defense and they're one pass, too, you know, maybe a second pass.

And somebody's standing all alone. They ran a play out of a timeout for Grayson Allen. I mean, he just sat there, got his feet set, got his feet set, took a deep breath and just missed it. Missed it badly, too. So I'm not about to subscribe. to the Wizards are a great defensive team. They're an improved defensive team through their first 10 games. Last night's game was, for me,

and this is going to sound crazy to some of you that listen to me and know my number one criticism of Bradley Beale. But I thought it was Beal's best game. I thought it was Beal at his best as a score. My God, when he gets on a roll and he starts crossing people up or he goes hard and then step backs in the mid-range and steps back in the mid-range or he gets it to the rim. He was so good offensively last night. It ended up with with his first 30-point game of the year. And I'm saying that despite the fact that he had three horrible turnovers down the stretch,

another six last night. Three of them were horrible. But up until that point, I thought he played his best game. And, you know, watching him work and watching him get to the rim or watching him get to those mid-range with space either on a crossover or on a step back where he creates incredible space. And then he just, you know, those shots are just money for him. He was two for three from behind the arc, which was his first, you know, game in which he made some three-pointers or shot a high percentage. He's still, for this season, only shooting 25.4% from the three-point line. He missed his first free throw of the year last night. He was 35 to 35, and he missed a free throw last night. But I thought he was really good at being unselfish,

even when he had it going offensively. And on the key possession of the game, Dinwiddie did not have a good game last night, and he's been pretty consistent so far this year. But on one of the key buckets of the game, Spencer Dinwiddie hit a big three with about 24 seconds left, something like that, up 98-94. And it was a great job by Beal to draw the double. He saw the double coming.

He was smart. He was patient. He let it come. He had the spacing with the double team, made a perfect pass to Avdia, who made a perfect pass to the wide-open Dinwiddie, and he knocked it down. So on a bad night, Dinwiddie made the biggest shot of the night of three. with just over, I was somewhere around 22, 23 seconds left in the game. And it was Beal who really saw the double, read it perfectly, didn't try to split it, didn't try to shorten the floor.

He expanded the floor, invited it, made a great pass. And Abdea made the great pass. By the way, I thought Abdiya's defense last night was exceptional last night. I'd love to see him be more confident finishing around the rim. and Harold continues to be a beast and a leader for this team. And I know Netto drives a lot of you nuts. The dude knows how to play, period. Good win for the Wizards, 101, 94.

They're 7 and 3. They're a game out in east. All right. Before we get to Jeff Irman, I've got six Washington football team predictions for the remainder of the year. I had like 10, and I don't know why. I narrowed it down to these six because I thought they were kind of realistic. and I thought one of them was at least one that would really piss some of you off, which is why I kept it in there.

Six predictions for the rest of the Washington football team season. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. If you haven't, it doesn't cost you a thing, helps us, rate us and review us wherever you can. Kyle Allen will start games, period. That's plural, too. He's going to start games. And this is why I think this is going to happen. First of all, I think the next two opponents are going to be difficult opponents for Washington.

I think their game against Tampa Sunday is a real hard game with Tampa coming off the by week. And then I think Caroline on the road will be a difficult defense. I'm saying offensively, I see two tough offensive days for Washington coming up against the Bucks and the Panthers. Hell, if they could only score 13 against the Chiefs and 10 against the Broncos without Von Miller. And I know the Cowboys didn't score any, so maybe, you know, whatever. And I think the Broncos have talent defensively, and I think they are so well-coached defensively. But I think we're going to see Kyle Allen. I don't think we're going to see Ryan Fitzpatrick the rest of the year.

That's my guess right now. I also want to just point out, it's not because Taylor Heineke has been anywhere near the top of the list of the reasons why they are two and six. He's not a starting quarterback in the NFL. but they've moved the football this team has with him. Even in the last couple of weeks, they have moved the football. You know what they couldn't do in 2018, 2019, and 2020? Pretty much week in and week out with a few exceptions is move the football. I mean, they really haven't moved the football since Kirk Cousins was here.

And now they've at least been moving the football this year consistently. It's not him. It's going to be, why not? They're going to lose to Tampa and have a bad offensive day, especially if Tampa's healthy. They're going to have a tough offensive day against Carolina. I see Kyle Allen playing games this year. That's prediction number one for the remainder of the year. Number two, I see Jared Patterson getting more and more time, especially if they're going to take it easy on Gibson and the shin injury.

And I see Jared Patterson having at least one 100-yard rushing day. number three. Number three is the first of two players that I'm going to mention that I know the coaching staff likes a lot, and I've known it for a while. The third prediction for the remainder of the year is that wide receiver Dax Milne gets a lot of chances to prove that he can be their slot receiver next year. Adam Humphreys is on a one-year deal. He's not coming back. I think they like Milne a lot, and I think we are going to see Milne a lot down the stretch. Number four on my list of predictions for the rest of the year. They like James Smith Williams, their seventh rounder from NC State from 2020. We saw his snap count increase last year. We've seen him, you know, a part of the rotation. Now with Montez sweat out, we're going to see James Smith Williams play a lot. And I am predicting that James Smith

Williams ends the season with more sacks than Chase Young. By the way, it's not necessarily a shot at Young, although he has not played well this year. And I'd like to see a turnaround. I want to see him be the player that I thought he was when I wanted them to tank that giant game at the end of the year so that they could draft him. But now with sweat out, even more attention will go on Chase Young. And I do think that James Smith Williams has the chance to benefit from that. I think he's got a quick burst and I think he's got a couple of moves and I think they like him a lot. I think he's going to get the snap count. He got his first sack last week.

For whatever reason, I thought it was his second of the year. That's my fifth prediction. Two players, number four was Dax Mill. Number five is James Smith Williams. Both are going to play a lot and both are going to have the chance to really prove something to the coaching staff because I think the coaching staff believes in both of those players. The sixth and final prediction for the remainder of the year is that John Allen continues to be their best player. Because I think really he has been, in terms of all eight games, the best player on the team,

and he will end this season with his first Pro Bowl appearance. There you go. Six predictions for your Washington football team's final nine games. They are nine and a half, ten point underdogs against Tampa. Tampa coming off the loss before their by week. They lost in New Orleans last week. From their standpoint, they're hopefully a lot healthier than they've been, especially on defense.

I don't think this is a great spot for Washington, although, Jesus, I mean, how many double-digit underdogs are we going to see be right there with chances to win and even win games outright? Maybe Washington is the team this week. Maybe they're the 9-and-a-half, 10, wherever that game goes off, point underdog that ends up. having a shocking win and upset. I don't see it this week, though.

Tampa's going to be pretty hungry coming into the, coming into Landover for this one. All right. Up next, Jeff Irman from Inside Maryland Sports. We'll talk a little Penn State Maryland from the weekend, and we will talk about Maryland basketball, which opens up tomorrow night, right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

All right, let's talk some Terps to finish up the show today. They had a football game Saturday in which they actually had a chance, a legit chance to pull off what would have been a big upset over Penn State at home. And then basketball season, look, you're, you can't prove to me you're a terp unless you're more excited about basketball season than the end of a football season. No offense, Mike Loxley, who I love dearly. But Jeff Irman, our good friend from Inside Maryland Sports, is going to join us to talk about both. It really is, Jeff for me.

I was talking to a couple of people over the weekend after the Penn State game, and I'm like, well, whatever, basketball season starts Tuesday night. And really more years than not over the course of your lifetime and certainly over the course of my lifetime, there is an excitement about basketball season when you're a Maryland person that just doesn't exist in the middle of football season for many schools. You know, there are probably, what, maybe 20 of them. I'm talking about from Power 5. maybe 15 of them that are actual basketball first schools, right?

Yeah. Other than that, you know, nobody's thinking about college hoops. If you're at a Power 5 school in the middle of football season, typically you're not. Yeah, it's really funny, Kevin, that's all spot on because, you know, I see this stuff from behind the analytical curtain, analytics curtain, I guess I should say. And yeah, right around this time of year, unless it's one of those good years, which have been pretty rare, recently, as he said, for Maryland football. The attention all goes to basketball. You know, it's obviously,

Maryland fans are, they're more than willing to jump on that football bandwagon when the team's going well, but it is totally an outlier among college sports spaces, like you said, because, you know, we have communications with the network. We're on 24-7 and other sites, and we are, it is very rare, you know, to even see a basketball article on their sites this time of year. You know, I've had this conversation before with other people, but in the Big Ten, look, the ACC was always the number one in terms of the Power Five, basketball first conference. You had more schools in the ACC where basketball was more important than football, but no other leagues like that. But in the Big Ten, other than Indiana and maybe Rutgers, do you consider any of the other schools to be obvious? basketball first schools.

Like what would you... Funny, Illinois is... Well, Purdue, yeah, Purdue is pride. There's a couple like Illinois and Purdue that almost seem to be 50-50 down the middle between football and basketball, but I've seen those Illinois basketball fans. You know, I used to cover Missouri way back in the day,

and, you know, they have that rivalry, obviously, and I covered some Illinois games, and they are, to me, the ones in the whole Big Ten that remind me the most. of Maryland fans. I mean, they are hardcore, even with the team having the program, having struggled after that run they had with Bill Self. They stay in tune to Maryland, Indiana, and Michigan State too, but they've had more reliable football to be fans of. So I feel like Maryland, Illinois, and Indiana are somewhat similar in the Big Ten. Yeah, I think the Illinois

thing's interesting because, God, remember two years ago when Maryland went there on a Friday night and Illinois was ranked and their students were lined up all day to get into that building. And I remember thinking to myself, yeah, of course. You know, Illinois's been to final fours. They've been to a national championship game. You know, they have not had anywhere near that level of success in football that they've had in basketball previously. Produce kind of that way. You know, there are other schools like Iowa fans care about their basketball. Wisconsin fans certainly care very much about basketball. And, you know, Michigan's... It's still number two.

Yeah, it's still number two. And Michigan State, I think it's still number two as well, even though it's been Izzo in Final Four, you know, after Final Four. But I think those people in that, I don't know, maybe Michigan State is split. Maybe that's even two. I think so. Anyway, all right. We'll circle back to basketball in a moment.

I was actually out of town. I wasn't able to sit down and watch the game Saturday start to finish, although I'm going to get to it, but I was watching at a bar with lots of friends. And they had a chance. I mean, at 14, 14, they had a chance, and they've got, you know, Penn State backed up a little bit, and Dotson was just too much. But give me your overall summary of why they couldn't, you know, after they even that thing up in the second half, couldn't hang in there and give themselves a chance.

Yeah, I mean, Penn State was clearly playing the, we're going to wait until you shoot yourself in the foot game. Very conservative, and it worked. You know, Maryland has turned the ball over too often. More importantly, they can't force any turnovers. They haven't had forced a turnover in five games, which is, to me, almost unheard of. So Penn State, yeah, five games in the rest of Penn State kind of waited them out, waited for them to make mistakes, and they did.

It was the botched snap, I think, was the biggest one when Maryland was driving to score. It's a new center. Spencer Anderson hadn't been playing. center. He moved there to replace Eric Harris, who I guess was struggling a little bit to the bad snap, obviously the pick at the end and then, you know, second or third and long, he let Docton get free, four, and 86-yard touchdown. Those to me were the three, you know, Maryland. They lost the turnovers and they lost the big play battle in a game where neither team had a lot of offense. Yeah, I mean, I, when it was, when they, when they scored and hit on the two-point

conversion to tie it at 14 apiece. And they had Penn State, you know, on second 19 or 18 or something like that. That was a moment because it's early in the fourth quarter. I'm like, they got a legit shot to win this game. And Penn State was not dynamic offensively to that point, really. And maybe to your point, they were playing super conservative. It seems to be Maryland's M.O., you know, this year and last, and even the year before that, they have a lot of self-inflicted, you know, it's not, I wouldn't call them self-inflicted losses, but self-inflicted blowouts in terms of final scores.

They do a lot of it to themselves sometimes. Yeah, that's been the story. I mean, that's the biggest theme. And, Lockley, Mike Lockley will tell you that himself. It's not like he's trying to deny it. You can tell he's becoming frustrated, some of his comments, you know, especially about like Doxon running free in the secondary all day. He kind of alluded to the fact that the players need to be coached to cover better than that,

you know, certain techniques that they were not employing that they should have not let him get inside leverage on all those crossing patterns. And so you can tell he's becoming a little frustrated. Obviously he's the head coach, so it's all going to fall on him. But yeah, it's just been little mistakes, turnovers, penalties. The penalties have gone down a little bit lately. They're not at the astronomical rate that they were. last season and earlier this season, but you know, they definitely have not helped

themselves. And, you know, when you have certain deficiencies and when you have injuries that have hit you like them, Dante Deemus being just an enormous loss, I mean, you watch what Docton did, well, their version of Docton is Demus, and he hasn't been on the field in a while and won't be on the field,

but clearly they have not helped themselves in terms of discipline. Did you think the supposed late hit on on Tung of Iloa should have been called or not seemed to upset a lot of Maryland fans. Oh, clearly. I mean, it was clearly a personal foul.

It was somewhere between a shove and a forearm shiver, depending on which team you follow, I guess. But there's no question about that. I asked the source that Maryland if they were going to appeal that, and I was told that they actually send in like six to eight plays per game to be reviewed. So if they send six to eight per game, that's going to be the first one they send. five and four after the loss to Penn State.

They've got three left. They have Sparty coming in this weekend. They're a 13 and a half point dog, which is a little bit scary because Michigan State, even before their win over Michigan, they weren't favored by much over Indiana, weren't favored by much over Nebraska. They've been sort of a lighter favorite in some of these games, even as they were building up the record. They're a big favorite this weekend.

you know, any slancing against the Terps. Then they get Michigan, and then it's Rutgers. Are you of the mindset that you chalk these next two up as losses and you hope to beat Rutgers to get bowl eligibility, or do you think they have a chance the next two weeks? I mean, if you're the coaches you don't, if you're a fan, yeah, I think most people have. The funny thing I was talking to somebody yesterday about this

is people have been talking about that since before the season, how it's going to come down to that Redkers game. I don't know how everybody seemed to predict it collectively, but that's kind of been the talk all season is that they could go into that game with five wins, and that's kind of the – and then obviously then that's the biggest game in Mike Locksley's head coaching career to that point, right? Because he needs that bowl eligibility this year to kind of keep a little bit – keep the momentum going and keep people from grumbling too much. So, yeah, there's obviously a great chance of that.

And Michigan State's going to be tough. Maryland hasn't been good on the road. And then Michigan, you know, they've handled Maryland recently. it is at home, but either one of those would be a huge upset. So it looks like Rutgers might be a bowl game to get a bowl game, so to speak. Yeah, the opener against West Virginia for a lot of people, were like if they can win that game, they'll put themselves into position at the end of the year to have a chance to get to bowl eligibility.

Do you think Lox is in trouble if they don't make a bowl? No, I wouldn't say in trouble in terms of like being fired, but I would say it's going to make things more difficult. you know, the bowl is just something a lot of fans and supporters and recruits and media look at, obviously. You know, in reality, it's kind of funny because it's just one win, and getting the six and six is not, you know, the same as making March Madness and basketball or whatever you might compare it to. But, you know, I think if they don't get that, then the grumbling during the offseason is going to grow.

And, you know, he'll definitely have pressure. heading into next season and probably pressure to make changes during the off season of some sort. Yeah, and I would just mention Rutgers doesn't stink. They got blown out by Wisconsin, who right now might be the most dangerous team in the Big Ten, to be honest with you. I think they're well on their way to potentially being the Big Ten West winner and facing, you know, potentially Ohio State, Michigan State or Michigan, depending on how it plays out in the Big Ten title game. They are really nasty defense. exclusively Wisconsin is.

But I was going to say, Rutgers isn't terrible. Rutgers beat Illinois like Maryland did. They, you know, they've had some, you know, competitive games. They had a competitive game against Michigan earlier in the year. But whatever, we'll see what happens when we get there. All right, let's talk hoops. Transfer portal was, you know, pretty good to Mark Turgeon in this offseason as it was to everybody.

You know, it's a new day in college basketball. And every year is like a new year and an opportunity. to reconstruct a roster. What do you think of their roster? How good can they be? I'll tell you what, Kevin. I've said this, and people might think it's overstate. I think this might be his best team.

Mark Turgeon, I think it's very likely his deepest team at least, which is pretty much a full 180 from last year, which is, you know, his least deep team. And somehow got to the tournament, obviously they struggled. They didn't have size now. It said Noah's Ark thing and coaches say they have two of everything. You know, they have a really deep experience starting lineup. I think the bench is a lot of good young talent.

Julian Reese looks really good as your backup center slash four. You know, you had no center last year. Now you've got two legit, really good centers this year between him and Caduce Wah. But I think the biggest addition was Fats Russell. I mean, he is, now that he's in a position to just be more of a facilitator where he doesn't have to score, I think he'll be one of the best point guards in the Big Ten. He is so fast. You know, Turgent said he might be faster than Anthony Callan

and based on watching him in the exhibition game last week against Fayetteville State, I think it's probably true. That's not saying he's as good or better, but I think he's the biggest addition that lets Diala move to the two to score more. Dante Scott looks really good coming back. Hakeem Hart has really filled out. Suddenly he looks like a grown man overnight, grown to about 6-8 to 10.

So I think that there's a lot of pieces in play for him this year. And, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Let's stick with the roster for a moment. I had Turgeon, by the way, on the radio show this morning, if anybody wants to go back and listen to it. It was in the third hour. You can find it on the team 980.com or the audits. I'll be writing that up. Yeah, he – well, thank you.

I appreciate that. That's not why I said it, but I appreciate that. he's really excited about Fats Russell and actually said he said he's actually better than I thought you know we've gotten you know a look at him I'm a big believer personally because I feel like we all go through this every year especially Maryland basketball fans and you start talking about the new players I don't think we really know until we start seeing them play games and even he said there's a certain amount of that that's true you know they have a sense of who it is now but you know a lot of guys are gamers that don't

practice well and a lot of guys are the opposite of that and how it all fits together and how they decide to play. It certainly sounded like to me, before we circle back to the roster here for a moment, that he's got a roster where they don't have to play the way they did last year, which I give them all the credit in the world, Jeff. I think he did one of his best coaching jobs last year. He had Dante Scott guarding centers. He had Dante Scott as the biggest guy in the floor. They defended their asses off. They had a very good defensive college basketball team last year. They played a slower, which, you know, has driven some of us nuts when he hasn't had to do it. But last year, you know, it made more sense that he did it. Is this team for you, a team that

he's going to be able to take it off the glass and get out and transition and try to score 75 to 80 a game or not? Well, I feel like that's the million-dollar question. Kevin, you know, like we have this conversation almost every year, and he'll say a few things about speeding up the pace, and then once conference play comes, they kind of revert to their slower pace. Typically one of the slower paces out there, but, you know, if it's not this year, it's never with his squad. He has talked about playing big, which, you know, could mean Mahab of the five

and Reese of the four sometimes or lineups like that, and how, you know, he's very excited to be able to play inside out. but you've got a guy like Russell who has the speed that he has and the ability to get the defense on its heels and either make an open lane with that speed or finish at the rim. I mean, he had a couple, and again, it's an exhibition game, but he had a couple of really impressive finishes on the game the other day. So I think, you know, you've got to run some with this team.

The personnel is there. You can play small. You can play with Russell, Ayala, Dante Scott, Hakeem Hard, and Julian Reese, you know, small. but athletic lineup. And not really small. Those guys are fairly, you know, tall for their positions.

But, you know, I think this definitely should be the team where that changes a little. But, you know, again, it's one of those you believe it when you see it. All right. Let's talk about the rotation. I think tomorrow night will see Russell appoint, Eric in the back court with him, Dante Hakeem and then Wahab, right? Those are the five starters? Yeah, I think that's the lineup right there.

All right. So tell me what? what's next. He seems to really like Martinez. I mean, he talked a lot about Martinez and a lot like you did about Reese. But he also talked about depth. Tell me the players that you see being a part of the rotation and being big contributors this year. Yeah, you nailed it with those two. I think Martinez and Reese will be your first two guys off the bench. One of the big questions is going to be whether Martinez is a backup, point guard, whether he can give you 10, you know,

10, 12 minutes a game at the point. If that comes to fruition like Turgeon seems to think, then that's huge because they don't, you know, they want IAlla to stay at the two all year and there's not really another proven point guard or even maybe an actual point guard on the roster. So that's big, Martinez coming in at the one, and then Reese will be, you know,

six or seventh man, however you want to, however you want to order it, you know, coming in, mostly playing the five. He still will still be interesting to see how he does against Big Ten centers because, you know, he still needs to put on some muscle. He was pretty thin. He's gained, I think, 10 or 15 pounds since the summer. But, you know, I think that's kind of like it was with sticks,

maybe not quite to that extent in terms of the strength issues. So that would be interesting. And then after that, I think Xavier Green, transfer from Old Dominion, is better than people might think, you know, with him coming from Old Dominion. He's 25 years old. So when you have a guy who's 25, you know he's committed to winning and he's going to try hard because you're not going to be there at that point, if not.

He's an athletic guy, good defender. Maybe he could serve as like a poor man's Darryl Morsell this year. And then Pablo Zuba is a transfer from Arizona State who they love. He's an absolute tank about 6-8, 6-9, probably 6-8, about 250, just athletic, super strong. So he'll give them some reserve minutes. in the front court. And then you have a couple of, I mean, James Graham is another guy.

Obviously, came in early last year and really shoot. I mean, if he hits shots, it'll be hard to keep him off the floor. The challenge for him, obviously, is that they're so deep at that three spot that, you know, there's a lot of competition. You really think this is going to be his best team? I think it's got a chance. I really do. I don't think he's had a team.

You know, he doesn't have a mellow kind of guy. but I think that this is the most balance that he's probably had, maybe the most experience, your top two guys. Ayala and Scott are a senior and a junior. Wahab is a junior. Russell's been around forever. So he hasn't had this kind of proven experience ever in his career, even if he doesn't have that All-American guy.

So, you know, there's no telling, obviously. They're not picked to win the Big Ten by any stretch. Everybody seems to have the number four, but, you know, I think it's got a chance to be his best team. You know what's interesting. I mean, at the end of last year, I think a lot of us were certainly hoping that Aaron Wiggins would come back. We weren't sure. And if he had come back, I think this would have been a preseason top 10, maybe better, maybe preseason top 6, 7 in the country.

You agree with that, right? Yeah, yeah, top 10. I think they would have been. And it's also a team. And I'm excited about it, too. Don't get me wrong. For those waiting for me to weigh in here, I wanted to get Jeff's thoughts, and I talked to a couple of people.

I am excited, but I think it's like all of these things. It's, you know, how the pieces fit together. And he's got a lot of pieces. Like, you know, and we've seen Turg at times, you know, not shorten his bench when he should, you know, and try with eight, nine, ten guys to make it work. And it doesn't always work that way. So it's going to be really interesting. going to be a challenge for him as well. But, you know, no Wiggins and no Daryl Morsell.

Like, I am still sitting here on the eve of a basketball season, and Daryl Morsell is going to play for Marquette starting tomorrow night. Darryl Morsell was the defensive player of the year. He is going to be remembered as one of the great players. I mean, he's not going to get, he's not going to end up with his number 11 in the rafters. I'm not suggesting that. And nobody's going to put him on, you know, the top 15, top 20 greatest Maryland basketball players of all time. But he's a memorable player. I mean, Darrell Morsell was the heart and soul of this

basketball team the last two years. And he's not here. Why not? Yeah, that's a good quote. Well, first of all, going back to what you said about shortening the rotation, I think that's something that comes with Turgeon not being quite as much. You know, to be like a

great college basketball coach, you have to be a little bit of a psychopath, I think, and he doesn't he's mindful of not, you know, following through on things he told kids about getting an opportunity or chemistry and things like that. So he's more mindful, I would say, far more so than most coaches about keeping everybody happy for better or worse. Turns more sell. He's never come out and explained it. You know, he's just hasn't.

He's never really said. No one knows what was behind it. I think a big part was, you know, he knew Maryland. would have a pretty good team this year and several good guards. And Marquette is kind of rebuilding. He knows the coach there. You know, Shocker Smart. And I think he just wants to be the man.

Maybe he's part of it. And that's poorly phrased. Maybe he's probably looking for a bigger opportunity, maybe to play the point guard, which wouldn't have happened at Maryland. But in terms of other reasons, you know, he really has never come out and said why. Yeah, I mean, Daryl's not a point guard. I mean, we know enough about his game. And he was a player that would struggle occasionally, offensively.

But I thought he was improved. And I'm curious as to who that tough guy. Look, Eric I, Al is smooth. And I think he'll be their leading score this year. I'd be surprised if he isn't their leading score. I'm more interested in who is the second leading score. If it ends up being Dante or if it ends up being somebody like Fats, or a guy like Martinez who ends up being a little bit like Wiggins was off the bench,

you know, a smaller version. But in terms of being able to score, you know, back in 2020 when Aaron was coming off the bench on that team. But yeah, I just, it's like everybody forgot. Seasons here. We're talking about Fats Russell. We're talking about Q Wahab. We're talking about Ian Martinez. You know, Eric Iyall is certainly, you know, all Big Ten capable this year.

same with Dante you would think going into the year and Darrell Morsell's going to play for Marquette a weird situation for sure All right, let's talk It's a new new era of college basketball New team every year. Yeah, not to mention 25, 26 year olds too. I think Wisconsin and Iowa we're going to look out there this year

and see, I mean, full grown men that should be working full time somewhere. I mean, almost everybody came back to Wisconsin, right? Aren't they, isn't their average age going to be like 24 and a half? 25 something like that. Brad Davidson is definitely on the all. That guy's been in college for 10 years, team, along with Perry Ellis, from Kansas, and Robbie Hummel, some of those guys batting me back in the day.

One of those guys has been around forever. Hummel's not there anymore. And he's not a bad broadcaster either. But no, the other guy from Iowa, the guard, he's coming back. Right? I think he is. Why am I blanking on his name? You know who I'm talking about.

about. Yeah, I think they brought back just about it, but I don't know if there's honestly a, I would question, you know, somebody I'm sure will have the stats at some point. I don't know if there's a more experienced team in Maryland. You know, they've gone from several years of where you have a guy leave as a sophomore, junior herder, and Jalen Smith, and then you're pretty young again, and that didn't, you know, that did happen with Wiggins, but, you know, with the transfer era, they bring these guys, and going back to your point about leading scores, I think it will be I think it'll be him and Scott. I'd be shocked if they're not one, two, you know, combining for like 30, probably 32 points of

game somewhere in that range. Question more is who's going to shoot the ball other than them. Where is the three-point shooting going to come from? Yeah, Jordan Bowhannon was the name I was trying to pull. There you go. He's got to be in his seventh year. The schedule, you know, I mean, it's something that you and I have talked about a lot. A lot of Merrill fans have talked about it.

you know, you don't get to pick your, your ACC Big Ten opponent. It would have been phenomenal had they, you know, had Duke in Coach Kay's final year, but we know that's not going to happen. But they get a Virginia Tech team who's not ranked, but is good. They get Florida at Barclays in December. And then before that, they're in that Thanksgiving thing in the Bahamas. They play Richmond, you know, a solid team. And actually, you know, just looking at some of the A10 teams like G.

and Mason and Hofstra. I mean, I have no idea if any of these teams are any good, but it's not terrible scheduling for the first, you know, early part of November through mid-November. But then they get Richmond. Who else is in that Bahamas thing? Who do they play the winner in the finals? It's Ole Miss and Louisville.

So that could be a pretty good notch on the resume if they advance and beat someone like Louisville or Ole Miss. I think schedule is clearly better than most years. like those teams you named off, even if we don't necessarily know how good they're going to be. We know that, you know, generally they're from a higher-level conference than a lot of the non-conference teams. They've played in past years. They scheduled the Florida game in Brooklyn. So, you know, it is definitely – it's not a blockbuster schedule.

It's not Gonzaga or Michigan State or whoever else. But you can clearly see that Damon Evans kind of – during negotiations last year, when we were speaking frequently about the contract extension, that there's a little bit of pressure applied to juice up the schedule a little bit. Yeah, and they've got, you know, the Big Ten's loaded again this year. I think the biggest disappointment as far as the schedule goes for Maryland fans is not is there's no home game against Michigan, you know, and Hunter Dickinson and some sort of game there.

They've got to play at Michigan and they only play them once. All right. Last one for you. Where do they finish in the Big Ten? and give me the teams that finish in front of them. That's really good. I mean, it's hard to knock out Purdue is number one. Ohio State's really good.

You know, I think Maryland probably finishes in that, I think they've got the stuff to finish in that two to three range. You know, I really feel like this is a loaded team. Early on, they might take some lumps just trying to get that chemistry together when you have so many guys from so many different places. It seems like their chemistry is really. good. So, you know, I think they're right up, right up in the top three mix. And, you know, he's finished there. Turgen has, I think, four out of his seven years in the Big Ten, he's been in the top three.

We'll see if the league is like, if these teams are as good as we think, we just never know with the Big Ten, right? Every year we think it's the greatest conference in the history of any sporting competition, and then nobody makes the final four. It felt that way last year in the regular season. I thought we were watching the best top-to-bottom conference that we had seen in a long time, and then it flamed out in the tournament. And look, the wars that these games, we're both ACC, we miss the ACC, but the Big Ten and Maryland's presence in it in the last few years, it's been a better league than the ACC, and these games are intense that they play from January through March, and they are physical

battles. It is one of those leagues that really does have an identity. You know, Big Ten basketball, ball has this identity of walking the ball up, playing really physically in games. And not everybody plays that way. Michigan State doesn't play that way. Illinois doesn't play that way. But, you know, Maryland has adapted. And, you know, like you said, Turgeon's finished in the upper portion of this league pretty much since the day they walked into this league.

Purdue's loaded. I love Jade and Ivy. I personally think he and Trayvion Williams might be the best two players in the league going into this year. And certainly Illinois and Michigan are really good too. But Maryland should be right there. I agree with you. And then in terms of tournament stuff, who the hell knows?

They got it. They'll be back to certainly winning 20-something and, you know, hopefully somewhere in that neighborhood of, you know, 12 conference games and being maybe a top four seed in a region. I think that's what they have going for them this year, and I think you would agree with that. That's within reach. Yeah, has there ever been more of a season where it's like,

at the very beginning, like, just tell me what happens in March? You know, it really feels like that's been the story for a while, obviously. Turgent is increasingly acknowledged it too, you know, that we want to do better in the postseason. We haven't. So he's not ignoring the elephant in the room, but that is just, you know, it's been the thought going into a lot of seasons, but it really feels like this year it's the overriding sentiment of, let's see.

I mean, people will be excited. I think the team will be good enough to get people's attention, but it's all going to come down to March. Yeah, it's true, all right? And this program is like a lot of, you know, powerhouse college basketball programs get judged on what they do in March. With that said, and I know we've had this conversation before, The journey, the journey the last couple of years has been really entertaining and fun.

And the season two years ago, you know, the Jalen Smith game winner at Indiana, the game at Illinois on a Friday night, the Michigan State game in East Lansing provided one of the all-time memorable Maryland moments when Anthony, you know, went for nine straight on three straight threes. you know, the unbelievable Daryl Morsell shot at Minnesota, the atmosphere for the Michigan State rematch. It was, I mean, I think the ACC was always an incredible journey when it was loaded and Maryland was always a part of the mix and the games and the venues. I'm trying to get to the point in my life where I don't, you know, I don't basically diminish. that that the journey is great and in a one and done anything can happen i don't want them to be out

in the second round trust me and i certainly don't want them to be out in the second round against a team that is much superior to them like last year's team was in alabama like that was a mismatch but i think we both agree that the 2020 was a chance at a deep run they got beat by a team at the buzzer that has a salary cap you know the year before that in lSU um it's been they've had good teams capable of making deeper runs and haven't really, I mean, they missed out on their biggest opportunity, obviously, you know, in 2020. Yeah. That's the thing.

That's the big what if that hangs over the whole, you know, it's a whole discussion. It's just a weird dynamic where, you know, if they had gone to the elite aid or whatever that year, then people wouldn't be as focused on that because they know that it's a possibility, It's been done. So that year really screwed up the math on Maryland basketball and turgeon to where there's no real solution necessarily or no great judgment. Obviously, he's done a good job during the year. You can't knock him.

He's been a really solid coach. The unfortunate thing is that, you know, people do largely judge by the postseason. That's what makes college basketball so ridiculous. You know, but I think even if he did, even to run in the Big Ten turn, would probably make people. They just want that little extra sense of excitement in the spring. Yeah, I agree. And that's not just all turgents while I should say, too,

because, you know, Gary had a little drought on the way out, so you combine the two, and that adds up to a lot more impatience, I think, you know, when you combine the end of his and the beginning of turgents and then, you know. Yeah, I mean, look, you can't argue with the fact that he has not had enough tournament, success. With that said, I mean, who knows? I mean, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that he didn't get to play that 20-20 season because it could have been the postseason that made like last year even more appreciated because it was a rebuilding year and they went to the tournament and won a game. But it also certainly could have been the most disappointing of post-season as well.

Well, he said that. And give him credit, as you know, he's an honest guy, almost to a fault maybe. and he has said that too. He says, who knows, maybe we would have, we might have gone on the final four, we might have been knocked out in the first round. You never know, it seems really good. They did fade. You know, as you recall, they faded late to have the conference lead

and shared a piece, but we'll just never know. All right. Was Quinny Piac any good or not? You tell me. I don't know. No, I mean, I think Maryland's favored by 22 or something like that. I don't get up again, but no, it should be. you know, with the typical clunkiness of a first game

and we saw in the scrimmage, or excuse me, the exhibition too, you know, once they get that out of the way, they should roll. Well, it'll be great to have fans back in Xfinity. The only thing, and I told him this, although I don't think I told them this on the radio show, too many 7 o'clock starts, too many weekend games that could be head-to-head with football, not that anybody cares about Washington,

but a lot of Ravens fans will be wrapped up into the Ravens. So there's some of that going on in December and January, but other than that, could be an exciting year. Thanks for doing this, as always. I always appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Jeff Erman, everybody from Inside Maryland Sports. Follow him on Twitter at Jeff underscore Erman, E-R-M-A-N.

All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy. I apologize, by the way, for getting the show out so late today. I just had a couple of obligations after the morning radio show. so I ended up getting a much later start than usual. Back tomorrow with Tommy.