The Kevin Sheehan Show - Quinn's Role In QB Decision

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Kevin today solo with plenty of football to start including a discussion about NFL dual-threat QB teams over the last 12 years plus John Keim's column on what's important to Dan Quinn in the evaluation of the quarterbacks in the draft. Kevin talked college hoops both women and men, Stephen Strasburg's clutch career coming to an official end, and Denny McCarthy's near-incredible comeback win at TPC San Antonio yesterday. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! 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.

Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have a new sponsor to the podcast. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS. It's just you against the numbers rather than you battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. Football season's over, but Hoops Action is heating up. Whether it's tournament season right through the end of this month or the fight for playoff home court advantage heading. into the postseason, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a first deposit match of up to $100. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Wind Donation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mention my name for a free, no obligation, in-home estimate. I want to start the show with this, which I read right before I started to record, and I wanted to get to it right away. It came from Baltimore Hoops Coach. It was a long email, but I'll read most of it. Kevin, been a long time listener, but never called or written, just prefer to be a listener rather than a fan contributor. I'm a basketball coach and respect your knowledge of the game.

It's obvious that you've been involved with the sport. However, I actually think I agree with you more on some of your football opinions, except for the opinion that got me to write to you. I don't have a problem with your preference of Jaden Daniels, but I absolutely. think you're wrong about him being able to run most offenses. If Washington drafts him, and that he writes parenthetically, I can't say commanders just so you know. Yes, I understand that. I know many people who feel the same way.

If Washington drafts him, then it has to be the Baltimore-Lamar Jackson dual-threat approach, and there's a limit to that from a team perspective. As Merrill Hodge told you, and I had Merrill Hodge on the radio show in March, I think it was. As Merrill Hodge told you, Lamar just can't deliver when he has to from the pocket. And I see the exact same thing with Daniels. Surprise that you don't see it. More surprising because you have seemed in the past to enjoy watching dual threat quarterback teams. and then he went on and on and on and he did write.

Anyway, I agree with you on Pennix Jr. I actually think he should be the pick after a trade back. Well, thank you for that. And there's a lot to unwrap from that. In fact, there's more than I thought when I did start to unwrap it. So, first of all, Baltimore Hoops Coach, you're right. I'm not opposed. I'm not super opposed.

to a dual threat quarterback offense, even in the NFL, because what it has produced, I mean, look at Baltimore, look at Philadelphia, is, you know, top-tier rushing offenses. You know, the kind of rushing attack a team that can have when it, you know, uses the quarterback in the run game is truly dynamic. And it's totally unique in that it's 11 on 11 in the run. run game. This is, you know, when Washington started to do it with Robert Griffin the third back in 2012, one of the things I think we all learned from this, especially from

Mike and Kyle, is that when the quarterback is part of the run game, it's 11 on 11 football. It's not 10 on 11. When the quarterback is not a part of the run game or even presented as part of the run game, it's 10 on 11 because the quarterback isn't a threat and he's not a blocker. Right? So there's the runner and then there are nine blockers on a running play when the quarterback's not a run threat or isn't a runner. But when the quarterback is truly a run threat or part of the run attack, then the offense is deemed to be 11 strong and playing 11 on 11 football. And when that quarterback is not just dynamic as a runner, but also as a ball handler and as a decision maker in the option part of the dual threat

attack and the design part of the dual threat attack, then it can be really special and very effective. Baltimore has been in the top three in rushing in the league for the six straight years that Lamar Jackson has started. Three times they finished first in the league in rushing, two times they have finished number two in rushing. And then once back in 2021, they finished third in the league in rushing, Lamar missed the final five games of that season. That was the year they did not finish in the top two, but they finished third overall.

During that period of time, okay, as a dominant dual threat rush offense, they've won 66 regular season games. and been to the playoffs five times in those six seasons. And the only time they didn't make the postseason was when Lamar missed the final five games of 2021. And they went from seven and five when he got hurt to eight and nine and missed the postseason. So an average of 11 wins a year,

and the playoffs have been a near given with the offense that they've employed primarily. until last year when it was a bit different with Todd Munkin as the offensive coordinator as they went away from Greg Roman and Marty Morningwegg before that. Lamar last year did have his best completion percentage year, best throwing year in terms of passing yardage under Munkin. We'll see what next year brings. But the truth is for Baltimore, you know, last year in slightly changing. the way they played offense. One playoff win over Houston

and then a very disappointing home playoff loss to the Chiefs in a game in which Lamar really didn't play well because he had to deliver from the pocket on third down. Yes, Merrill Hodge did talk about that. He took some big sacks. He threw a pick. It was the

lowest completion percentage game of the year for him. And they were playing an excellent defense in the Chief's defense. And oh, by the way, a pretty damn good quarterback on the other side. But Lamar's playoff record as a starter isn't very good, two and four overall and hasn't made it to an AFC championship game yet. However, these dual threat attacks with quarterbacks being a big part of the run game or the presentation of the run game, it's not all about Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore results.

Again, they've won a shitload of games, and they've been to the playoffs a lot. They just are two and four with him as a starting quarterback in the postseason. Jalen Hertz made it to the Super Bowl in 2022, rushing the ball more than any quarterback in the league in 2022. Now, they didn't win the Super Bowl, had a chance, lost 3835 on a walk-off field goal. Colin Kaepernick ran it a ton in 2012 when he took over for Alex Smith, and they got to the Super Bowl and lost to Baltimore. He was a true dual threat quarterback for that stretch. That's going back 11 seasons, understood.

How about Russell Wilson and Cam Newton? You know, very high quarterback rushing attempts during their seasons in which they took their teams to the Super Bowl. A lot of it was designed. A lot of it was option. A lot of it was scrambling, too, but it was dual threat in nature, especially early in Wilson's career. and during that stretch with Cam Newton. Wilson won the Super Bowl in 2013. In 2014, when they went back to the Super Bowl,

he had his best rushing season, most rushing attempts, most yards. Now, again, with Wilson and Cam Newton, both of them making it to Super Bowls, Colin Kaepernick, everything was a bit different. Kaepernick was part of the Greg Roman system. Cam Newton and Russell Wilson big-time scramblers, a lot of situational option and designed runs.

But, you know, the rush attempts were tops in the league. So to say that you can't win it or get really close to winning it with a dual threat approach isn't exactly true. But I also don't consider what Wilson did in 2013, the same as what Lamar's been doing here in recent years. okay, the year that he won it. Wilson's most active rushing season, as I mentioned, was actually the year they lost the Super Bowl to New England. He had 118 carries that year for 849 yards. Lamar's just had one season where he's had less carries than the 118 that Wilson

had in 2014, and that was the year he missed five games due to injury and the Ravens didn't make the playoffs. Anyway, I mean, the true quarterback dual threat teams of the last 13 to 14 seasons, they've won a hell of a lot of games. They've been to the playoffs a ton. I'm talking about the teams that truly went out there with a quarterback in a dual threat offense. Now, there have been a couple, you know, Kyler Murray, Justin Fields, not so much. but if you look at Kyler Murray in particular, even more than Justin Fields, there aren't nearly as many designed or option runs as you would think.

A lot of his rushes have been quarterback scrambles. It was kind of in this last 13 years when this became more prominent in the NFL, Washington, Seattle, and Carolina early on. In recent years, it's been really about Philly and Baltimore. Lots of wins. I mean, even RG3 season, right, a 10 and 6 season and a playoff game. Seattle won a Super Bowl. They went to two.

Carolina went to a Super Bowl. Lost one. Wilson, not all dual threat offenses are the same, but you can't say that Cam Newton and Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick in RG3 and Lamar Jackson weren't presented as a run threat for the offense that they were in. Whether they kept it on designed runs or didn't keep it or there were an option runs, excuse me, whether there were a ton of designed runs or not. There were a ton of designed runs in the Cam Newton offense.

I mean, they ran quarterback counter. They ran quarterback sweep. They ran tons of read option. Anyway, let me just say this. I'm not totally opposed to quarterback run dual threat offenses, but it's not my preference. I want to make sure I'm clear on that. It would be more out of necessity if you couldn't find the quarterback

that can thrive in the pocket and also hurt you with mobility. I want the quarterback that can be mobile and make plays off schedule, but I want that quarterback to be able to deliver in the pocket. And the NFL, the bottom line is if you've got a choice between Lamar Jackson or the guy that, or Patrick Mahomes, you know, the guy that can not only playoff schedule, Aaron Rogers, but can deliver on third and long from the pocket, well, that's the one you want. You know, you can have a dynamic rushing team. and be a frontrunner and be dual threat and win a lot of games.

And just maybe as a frontrunner, you could just blow people out in the postseason and never have to deliver from the pocket on third and long. But look, we all know most of the time, the quarterback is going to be asked in big games to deliver on third and nine to win those big games. So I think it's interesting to kind of look back over the last 13 years and consider a bunch of these offenses that were dual threat and not just pan them and not, and I'm not suggesting that that's what

Baltimore Hoops coach did. But I think that I prefer the quarterback that can deliver from the pocket but I also, out of necessity, if I didn't have that guy and there was a dual threat guy, I'd like to win a lot of games and be in the postseason. Now, with Daniels, Baltimore Hoops Coach, we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this. I saw him over and over again deliver from the pocket. 75% of his rushing yardage this past season came in scramble situations, not designed runs, not option runs.

I think you can absolutely mix in some designed and option runs in the offense that you put them in situationally, in a red zone, third and short, fourth and short. But I see a guy who can drop back, see the field with size, with vision, and really throw it. But here's the thing. And it's part of all of our conversations and opinions over the years when it comes to the NFL draft and things that we, that require. us to have so much more information that we don't have, it's just not going to work out that we're right more often than we're wrong. It isn't that way with those that have the most information. What they are in college just isn't necessarily a predictor of what they'll be in the NFL. It's, you know, organization. It's got to be a coaching staff that's the right

schemes, surrounding players, you got to stay healthy. So much goes into whether these guys, especially the quarterbacks, succeed or fail. The fit, the support, the health ultimately will have a huge impact on whether or not it works out. And those things are just too hard for us to predict and to even know by just watching them as college players. And by the way, think about it. When you have the situation that Washington has this year, it's a total disadvantage in terms of our thoughts and opinions. Because there's a new ownership group. There's a totally new coaching staff.

By the way, these coaches, Quinn and Kingsbury in particular, have talked about evolving and changing every single time they've been put into. a new situation. So we can't even look at what they've done previously and try to project what they're going to be or what they'd prefer to do in Washington. Yeah, there's so much that goes into this. I am partial to Daniels based on what I saw in college. But at the same time, I'm open to what they do. I really am because, again, they know a lot more about these guys than we do. They know a lot more about what they're planning to be, you know, on offense than we do. We're at a big disadvantage right now on all of this. You know, before Harris and before this new coaching staff, it just, like, we had to suspend

reality, as we always talked about, because it just probably wasn't going to work because the owner just wasn't going to allow the kind of environment that you'd need, the healthy environment. Organizations important. You know, coaching fit and scheme is important. You know, there are just so many things that are hard to predict. Anyway, good email Baltimore Hoops Coach. I appreciate that. It just got me into this mini deep dive on, you know, the dual threat quarterbacks of the last 12, 13, 14 years because it really started in 2012 where this was a possibility where NFL teams started to play a little bit more like college teams. But I do think the big takeaway of the last 12 to 13 teams is there's a place for it in football.

You can design an offense around a dynamic quarterback who is a good runner, good decision maker, good ball handler, et cetera, and you can win an F of a lot of games. And you're going to be in a lot of playoff games if you're a top two, top three rushing offense with a dynamic run quarterback. but you'd still, I think we've learned after all of these years, the preference is still a guy that can drop back and deliver from the pocket. By the way, speaking of quarterbacks, speaking of, you know, new regime, did you see the John Kime column from over the weekend? John had a one-on-one with Dan Quinn, and I thought there was a lot from that interview that was at least interesting in his takes on what he would prefer in a quarterback and even spoke to some of the traits of a couple of the guys in the draft. We'll get to that. We will get to certainly the basketball

from over the weekend, the Strasbourg retirement, and a lot more. And we will start to do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And With that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast. The new sponsor is Unified Healing, Unified spelled Uni-F-Y-D Healing. It doesn't matter if you're a big-time world-class athlete or just a somewhat athletic podcaster like me. We all understand the importance of mental and physical well-being and proper recovery for top-notch performance. That's why I'm excited that Unified Healing is sponsoring the podcast now.

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You have to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. to get that cash bonus. They've got everything you need for the national championship game tonight. Right now, Yukon minus six and a half. They've got 147 currently prop bets for the game tonight. They've got everything for the Masters up already. Scotty Sheffler plus 400. That is a massive favorite. Rory McElroy's next at plus 950.

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It was titled, what commanders coach Dan Quinn wants in a quarterback. And there are many quotes from Dan Quinn about what he's looking for in a quarterback. And he actually specifically talks about Jaden Daniels and Drake May. I'll get to that in a moment. Because I'll just tell you, I don't know that from his quotes about Drake May and Jaden Daniels, we learned much in terms of a potential preference or lean. but there was a part of John's story that I did find more instructive, and that is when he writes about the process here in evaluating the quarterback,

he writes over the next three weeks, he, as in Dan Quinn, and Commander's General Manager Adam Peters, must decide which quarterback to select with number two overall in the 2024 draft, Jaden Daniels, Drake Mayer, perhaps even J.J. McCarthy. John writes, while Peters will make the final call on the selection, this year will mark the first time Quinn has been charged with helping find a quarterback as head coach of a team. Matt Ryan was already there when he got there in 2015. He was entering his eighth season at that time. And then there's another part of the description of Quinn's role.

in helping to pick the quarterback. Quinn also is relied on Peters and offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury for their insight throughout the draft process. I just, when I read those lines, okay, John writes that Adam Peters will have the final call. But I think this speaks to what Adam Peters talked about during his introductory press conference when he got hired, which is I can't really talk about, you know, the evaluation of players or quarterback or anything else because it's going to be a collaboration. It's going to be a collaborative process with the head coach that we hire. I think Quinn is going to have significant input. He's the experienced one. I mean, Kingsbury's worked with a lot of quarterbacks. Don't get me wrong, college and, you know, at the pro level as well.

But this is a first-time general manager. There are going to be a lot of voices involved in this decision. disputing that Adam Peters isn't given the responsibility of making the final call or breaking the tie if that's where they get to. But hell, I mean, we've talked about this already going back to the Indy Combine when it was reported that Josh Harris was sitting in on all of the meetings with quarterbacks. I mean, this is a huge organizational decision. You know, this person is going to become the face of the franchise. Don't get me wrong. Adam Peters is the one that's going to get graded on this. He's the one that's going to get a report card with a grade on who they pick at number two.

The title general manager dictates that he's the one that gets graded on this. But this may be because of the circumstance, first-time owner, first-time general manager, very experienced head coach, and quarterback being the first pick at number two overall, this may be the most collaborative process on a personnel matter. We'll see with this particular makeup of the front office. All right. Now, on some of the things that Dan Quinn said, first of all, him being a defensive guy has shaped what he looks for in a quarterback

as a defensive coordinator, is a defensive mind. He said, you know, it definitely has, meaning his history is a defensive guy, because that's the person, the quarterback, you're trying to attack the most. He wants to see mental and physical toughness, accuracy, and arm strength. But he also knows how he likes to mess with quarterbacks as a defensive coordinator, and as a result, what he wants to see from them. And he tells John in this story, quote, how quickly can they process something?

Okay, it looks like zone, but it's really man-to-man. It's two high safeties. It's one high. All the triggers you want to get to, can you do it after the ball gets in his hand? Can we disguise defenses to make them really have to figure it out after the snap? That's what I look for. How do they respond when the unblocked blitzer comes? How quickly can a guy make a right decision? How quickly can he speed up when a blitz is coming?

How quickly can he anticipate when those things happen? So I've been really mindful of watching and say not just the throwing motion or the accuracy, but what happens? Can you get out of a bad play? Closed quote. Now about Daniels. Quinn said, seeing Daniels play against SEC defenses helped in his evaluation. quote, man, they've got some concepts and looks in different things,

and Jaden has been able to really process things quickly, closed quote. About Drake May in sort of reference to, you know, the processing and the things that he's looking for, quote, when you see his ability to create and get outside on the run, if the protection breaks down, boom, he can create, and go. I thought that's one of his superpowers, for sure, closed quote. I don't personally take anything away from the quotes on Daniels in May and say, oh, he's got a preference or a lean. I don't. I mean, I think everybody kind of understands going in that the SEC has more NFL players, more talent than any of these other leagues. And he says nice things about Daniels.

his ability to process quickly, which he says is very important, but he says nice things about Drake May as well. So, I don't know, from this story, I actually came away thinking more about the process and about Quinn's impact on the decision, his involvement in the decision, the true collaborative nature, which they talked about way back when, you know, when these guys were hired. You know, Adam Peters did. in depth about how it would be a collaborative process on personnel specific to the quarterback. Quinn said, by the way, one more thing about evaluating the quarterback position. He said that, you know, don't just look at the throws, but look at the entire game.

You know, he gets into, when you're watching the entire game and you get a feel for the game, you know whether or not the decision the quarterback made in that moment, maybe a throwaway, was the right decision. And he says it wouldn't show that on the stat sheet, but that was actually a really good decision. And so there are things that I've been digging in on, closed quote. You know, Cooley has said so many times that, you know, coaches watch, you know, tape. They watch the All-22. They watch their versions of what they have.

They don't watch the game. There isn't sound. There aren't announcers. There isn't the crowd. There's down distance, score, time, yes. But he's mentioned many times. He goes, I think that's why a lot of coaches aren't very good at things like clock management. And it's that they're not watching games that way.

They don't watch games like fans watch games. And I think what Quinn was saying there to a certain degree is, you know, you have to get a feel for the game. You got to watch the game. You got to have a sense of the moment and the pressure they were under in the game situation. And, hey, that play right there, you know, if you're just watching on tape and it says third and eight with 312 left in the third quarter in a 24-21 game, you don't maybe get the sense that the throwaway as he went to the sideline because nobody was open was maybe the best play given their field position, given the crowd and how the game had turned from sort of an emotional standpoint. I think that's important.

I mean, that's just one fan's perspective. But I think, you know, when you watch these games and you watch these players, you get more of a sense of how they're able to kind of function in those environments. I mean, I've done both. I've watched a lot of the all-22s before. But sometimes I think you really miss something by not watching the actual game. broadcast. So anyway, interesting stuff from Kime getting Quinn one-on-one.

All right. There are several other things that I want to get to finish up the show. A lot happened over the weekend. It was a busy weekend in sports. The basketball over the weekend, certainly the women's tournament, which just is killing it from a television standpoint. The golf yesterday was riveting. We'll get to all of that and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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Camilla Cardoso checks out for South Carolina, career high, 17 rebounds for her. Clark finishes with 30 points. Six seconds to go. Undefeated won. It's third national championship. South Carolina was bigger, they were stronger, and they were stronger, and they They were much better than Iowa yesterday. South Carolina wins the NCAA women's tournament.

8775 was the final. The start to that game was insane. Iowa jumping out to a 10-0 lead, the pace, the back-and-forth nature. I promise you, I promise on my children that at the start of that game, when Iowa built that lead, I said, I don't see them holding on to this lead. It was already apparent to me. And I had not watched South Carolina. Now, I had read that they were the favorite because they were just too big.

And it was obvious that not only were they too big, I think they were just athletically mismatched against Iowa. And I just thought that that would ultimately prevail. Denton, my producer said at one point in the first quarter, you could have in-game bet, in-game bet. South Carolina at Plus Money. Cudos to any of you who did that. I did not. But I was really impressed with not only how good they were, how well-coached they were, both teams were super well-coached. And that finishes off a women's tournament that was a game changer from a television rating

standpoint. 18.7 million viewers to the game on average yesterday on A.V. B.C. 18.7 million. The game peaked at 24 million viewers. So if that game had been close into the fourth quarter and had been, you know, back and forth down the stretch, and I know that Iowa got it to, what, like five at one point in the fourth quarter, but if we had seen a game in which it came down to the final few minutes, I think that 18.7 million average would have been higher. But that that marks the largest audience for any basketball game, men's or women's college or NBA since 2019. The game on Friday night, the Iowa game on Friday night,

their semifinal win over Yukon, did 14.2 million viewers. That was the most watched basketball game in history on ESPN, NBA or college. men, women didn't matter. I mean, one of the all-time needle movers, this is almost equivalent in terms of the incremental bump in ratings compared to what these games were without Caitlin Clark to what Tiger did in golf when he burst onto the scene winning the Masters in 1997. Now, will it hold up? That's a whole conversation for another day.

day, maybe tomorrow with Tommy. I know we've talked about it kind of previously, but the viewership of these Iowa games specifically, it's brought a lot of people to the sport, whether or not they'll stick around for college or follow Caitlin Clark to the WNBA, who knows. But in terms of the biggest needle mover in the history of women's college basketball, women's basketball, period, she is the goat. Now, as far as whether or not she's the greatest of all time as a player, I'm not the expert on that. I don't know a lot about the history of the game.

I know names. I know Cheryl Miller's name. I know Diana Tarasi's name. I know Maya Moore's name, I think, a little bit. But I'm not going to sit here and break down where she, you know, ends up in terms of the greatest players of all time. I did catch some of the activity. You know, it's so mindless, and I tried to steer clear of it,

of some of the shots people were taking at her. I would have to think, without being an expert at all, on women's college basketball, that she's got to go down as one of the greatest offensive players in college basketball history. Certainly one of the greatest, if not the greatest shooter. But I'll leave that conversation up to others. The one thing that's not debatable is what she was able to do in terms of interest level in this sport.

She's an all-time goat as far as bringing eyeballs to television sets to watch women's college basketball. But, man, South Carolina also just real quickly, super well coached. Both of those teams were. I think for some of us, and I, And maybe some of you would agree. The NBA game and the college men's game is just so different. This game resembles stylistically in terms of, you know, the number of plays and set plays and changing defenses. You know, the way they attack certain things defensively, the way they attack zone defenses,

it just is more reminiscent of kind of high school basketball, lower levels. of basketball in terms of the way the game is played strategically, I think. I don't know, men's college basketball, you've got a lot of those games, too. I mean, tonight you'll see two incredible coaches that run an unbelievable number of sets. They're much more structured than other teams. I just thought they were two exceptionally well-coached teams. From what I could see from the game yesterday, I've seen Iowa a lot more than South Carolina. but, man, South Carolina was just too much.

I mean, they had 22 offensive rebounds. It just seemed like getting a rebound was a near impossibility for Iowa. You take Caitlin Clark off that Iowa team. I mean, do they come within 50 against South Carolina? You know, outrebounded for the game, 51 to 29, with 22 offensive rebounds for South Carolina. pretty impressive. But anyway, I enjoyed the women's tournament. The Friday night semi-final game, I'll just weigh in quickly on that. That was an offensive foul. That was a moving screen. In my opinion, it was an egregious offensive moving screen foul. I thought it was a moving screen live.

Then I'm sure at this point, you've all seen all of the replays and the slow-mo. It is, not only an egregious moving screen, it's one that creates a massive advantage for Yukon's Paige Becker's, who by the way is partly responsible for that foul being called. She did not take the screen the right way. She went way too wide, forcing the screener in that particular case, I think her name was Edwards, to have to move, to clip the defender. But the defender gets knocked so far outside of the play, it's major advantage for Becker's and then major advantage for the screener on the role. So the argument, you know, in the moment and afterwards, I would hope for most of you, isn't whether or not that was a moving screen. Of course it was. It was

textbook the way, you know, it was called. Not to mention the elbow was moving and was rising and clip the defender. The debate can be, I guess, Do you make that call in that moment? Should the referee swallow the whistle in that moment in a tight game like that? That's, I prefer, I do prefer most times for the refs to swallow the whistle unless somebody got decapitated. I do think you have to take into consideration the significant advantage the moving screen gave Yukon. If that's a play that is an actual foul, but there's not an. advantage gained from it, then I don't want it called.

But there was such a significant advantage. I felt in Paige Beckers coming off that screen. Again, she didn't take the screen the right way, right? Shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, rub. You know, those of you that no basketball understand, you've got to rub your defender, you know, off of a screen, shoulders should touch, hips should touch. And she took it way too wide. but yeah, that game was a sensational game, too.

A little bit more raggedy at times, but some stretches of some brilliant basketball as well. I enjoyed the women's tournament throughout. I really did. But it was Caitlin Clark that drew me, no doubt. It was Caitlin Clark, her shooting, her passing. She is a little bit loose with the balls, a ball handler. She's a good ball handler.

She had it picked from her, I think, two or three times. including right at the end of the first half. But a really entertaining stretch. What will happen with her going to the WNBA? I don't know. I'll say this to Tommy tomorrow. Hopefully I'll remember. If I were Disney, if I were ESPN, ABC,

I'd pay her $20 million to come back to Iowa or whatever the amount would be to make it generational, you know, FU money done, you know, can go do whatever she wants to do. for the rest of her life, as long as it generates the return on investment. Can you imagine the television networks and the deals that might be reworked

or the deals that would get, you know, potentially be put in play with NBC and Peacock and others? You know, Amazon. I mean, you might get Amazon buying a small package for, I mean, when you draw this kind of activity, these kinds of numbers, I mean, that's big, big, money, but it's only big money with her there, because I don't know that those are numbers you'll

see next year without her in it. I don't know if those are numbers you'll see in the WNBA. That's a conversation we'll get to maybe tomorrow. The men's final four, Yukon's something else, man. They just, Klingin is a true rim-protecting beast. I love him as a pro prospect. I didn't watch a lot of Yukon this year. I saw him enough. I didn't think he was this good. I thought Alabama played well, but once they put the hammer defensively on them down the stretch and outscored them from 56, 56 30 to 16 the rest of the way, it wasn't quite the 30 to nothing run that they had against Illinois. But man, Yukon is good. I am so impressed with the stuff they run, the way they defend, the grit, the toughness, the compete. I mean, it is a reflection

Hurley as a head coach. And I don't see them losing tonight. Purdue won against an NC state team that was just overmatched. I'll tell you, I think the key for tonight, let me just mention, no smell test pick. There's not a clear-cut, overwhelming public side. There's a slight Connecticut public lean, but there's sharp money on Connecticut, too. I'm not touching this game. I'm not touching the total.

I'm not touching the game. I'm going to root for Purdue. And if you forced me to play it, I'd probably take the points and probably regret it afterwards. But no smell test pick on the game tonight. I think the key to this game is Purdue protecting the basketball. In some of the games that they've lost, they've had too many turnovers. Eadis had too many turnovers. He's got to be super-super.

strong against the double team. He cannot put that ball on the floor in traffic. He probably can't put the ball on the floor in straight man coverage against Klingin. It's going to be a great matchup to see a 7-2 guy and a 7-4 guy in a game that's played so much on the perimeter, you know, in this sport now at all levels. I give Purdue, you know, a wing and a prayer chance. I think Yukon wins this game, something like 74 to 68, something like that. But it's certainly not going to surprise me if Yukon wins by more. But Purdue's super well-coached. You know, the things that they run, you've got to scout.

I had a guest on radio today. He was really sharp. His name's Isaac Trotter. He's with 24-7. You can tell he's a basketball guy. And he said, you know, they're both teams that run so many sets, so many plays. They're so much more structured and that, you know, it'll be interesting to see how, you know, each defends against the other. And it's true. When you run as much as Matt Painter does, and by the way, a lot of the Big Ten teams do, the scout becomes so much harder.

And on a short turnaround, it makes that scout so critical. I mean, Purdue and Yukon, you've seen it. The inbounds plays that they run from underneath their own basket. They must have dozens of them that free up easy buckets. You've got to scout that. So it's a tough scout for both teams. But I think the key ultimately is Purdue's got to end up with like six, seven turnovers max. They've got to end up with the same number of shot attempts that Yukon ends up with.

You can't be at a disparity there. They were at a major disparity. I think it was in the Big Ten title game that they lost against Wisconsin. Wisconsin was 30, here it is, 32 of 74 from the field, and Purdue, even though they shot a lot more free throws. Okay, so that was one of the reasons they shot 23 less shots. They were at the free throw line a lot more, but the real reason was 16 turnovers, four by 80 in that particular game. They've got to protect the basketball. It'll be interesting to see how Hurley decides to guard him.

I'm sure you'll see a lot of different ways, whether it's Clinton, and straight up. Occasionally they'll double. Their guards and their perimeter defenders are quick enough to double down and get out to, you know, lawyer and Smith and Jones, you know, on the perimeter. I don't see Purdue winning this game. I hope they do. If they don't, then Maryland is still the last team in the Big Ten to have won a national championship. But I'm a big Matt Painter fan. I'm a big 10 guys, so I'm going to root for Purdue, but Yukon's been a juggernaut. 11 and 0 against the number in the tournament the last two years. 6 and 0 last year, favorite in all every single game, 5 and 0 so far this year, a favorite

in every single game. You have gone broke if you bet against Yukon a bunch. How many times have I had them in the smell tests in this tournament? Maybe twice, maybe twice. Should be, it's the matchup that we certainly, I think, were. hoping to see. Although I think Houston would have been a better matchup for Yukon. A healthy Houston with Jamal Shed would have been a better matchup for Yukon. Game tips at 920 tonight. I wonder if it'll do the number television ratings wise what the women's final did. Probably won't.

A couple of other things real quickly. The golf yesterday. Denny McCarthy. We've had Denny on the show several times radio podcast. Denny, a local went to Georgetown prep, went to UVA, really good high school shooter and basketball player. And a lot of people in town, me included, know the family really well. They're just all golfers. His uncle, Mike's a good friend of mine. Mike is the long-time, very successful head basketball coach at Georgetown Visitation. He's been one of the best coaches in the city for a long time. I've coached I coached one of his sons for many years. Mike's a good friend.

Mike's a phenomenal golfer as well. And so there's a lot of people in town rooting for Denny McCarthy. And what he did yesterday at TPC San Antonio, let's just start with this. Against Akshay Batia, who's won once on the tour. I did not know that before yesterday. He's down six shots in the final group with Batia going to the back nine. Denny proceeds to shoot 28.

It set the tournament back nine scoring record. that venue. He had on his final nine holes seven straight birdies to get into a playoff, and he had a total number of putts of eight on nine holes. Eight puts on nine holes. His 92 puts for the 72 hole tournament this weekend, 92 in 72 holes, set a tour mark, tied, a tour low mark for putts in a 72 hole tournament. He's the best putter on tour has been. He birdied 18 and then Batia drained a birdie on 18 to force the playoff. Batia celebrating, pumped his left fist. He's like 6-2, 6-3, 150 pounds soaking wet he would appear. And he threw out his shoulder. But he played the first two shots of the playoff.

hole and then had to take a moment to bandage up his shoulder, get his trainer to put it back into the socket. But the real devastation for those of us that were just all in on Denny winning his first tournament, he lost a crushing, you know, playoff to Victor Hovlin at the Memorial last May at Jack's course, Mearfield Village in Ohio. He had 85, 90-yard shot, third shot, to get to a birdie putt on the first playoff hole, and he chunked it into the creek, just like all of us would. And it was just devastating.

It was really too bad because he just put on a putting display on the back nine, a golf display on the back nine that was sensational. He is a great putter, he's a tough competitor. He's an athlete. He'll win. He'll win soon. Look, I mean, I wouldn't put it past him for him to play well.

He had already qualified for Augusta for him to play well this weekend at Augusta. That was tough, though, for those of us who were big fans of Denny McCarthy. And then I want to finish the show with this. So over the weekend, the Nats and Stephen Strasbourg came to an agreement that Mark Zuckerman, our friend from Mass and Sports, called Amenable for Strauss to retire. And I talked about this. We actually did a call segment on radio today about Strasbourg's career. It's not a Hall of Fame career with the Nats.

I think most of you know that. It's not a Hall of Fame career because as a regular season pitcher, he was just hurt too much. You know, his best Cy Young finish was third. He never won a Cy Young. But, man, was Stephen Strasberg a special clutch performer? one of the best clutch performers in D.C. sports history for a team sport athlete. And I'll keep this to the professional teams because a lot of you, you know, wrote in and said, what about Patrick Ewing? What about Juan Dixon? You know, Dixon was incredibly clutch during

Maryland's two-year final four in the national championship runs. But in terms of the four major professional sports, Riggos won, Strasbourg is two. He didn't live up to the hype in the regular season. He exceeded it in the postseason. In the postseason, eight playoff appearances, one of which was, by the way, in relief, remember in the wild card game against Milwaukee, six and two with a 1.46 ERA.

There are only two pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball with a lower postseason ERA with at least 40. innings pitched. Hall of Famers, Mariano Rivera, and Sandy Kofax. In the 2019 World Series run, he became the first pitcher in history to go 5 and 0 as a starter in the postseason. He struck out 47 in that postseason, second most in playoff history behind Schilling. He had an 11.8 strikeout to walk ratio, third best in playoff history. We're talking about one of the greatest postseason pitchers in history. And I think sometimes people sleep on Strasbourg's clutch factor in the playoffs

because as a regular season pitcher, because of the hype that opening, you know, night in 2010, June of 2010 when he struck out 14 against the pirates in his debut performance. I mean, I think we were expecting Cy Young's plural. You know, he had an excellent career, don't get me wrong, but in the regular season, but he just missed too many games. But what he did in game six of the 2019 World Series is what, for me, will be forever etched in memory in terms of clutch performances of all time. I mean, it's one of the greatest World Series pitching performances of all time.

Remember, the Nats are down three to two. They had lost three straight home games at Nats Park after winning the first two in Houston. It ended up being a World Series in which no home team won a game. But they were reeling and they go in to Houston down three, two. And Strasbourg in the first inning gives up two runs on two hits. And Paul Menhart, the pitching coach, he sees that Strasbourg's actually tipping his pitches and Houston's picked up on it. And one of my favorite stories about that game six was Davy Martinez saying that Menhart came to me and we discussed whether or not it made sense to tell Strasbourg that he was tipping his pitches.

And I remember saying, what do you mean? What's the option here? Of course you have to tell him. But I guess they didn't want to get him out of his routine and thought maybe he might figure it out. But they did tell him. And after that, it was. an absolute masterpiece. He takes that team on his back into the ninth inning,

allowing essentially nothing over the final seven and a third. He escapes a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth. Carlos Correa strikes out. In the fifth, it's Al-Tuvie with runners on second and third, gets him to strike out. Michael Brantley, big situation in the fifth with runners on base. gets him to ground out to second. He was so great in that game.

My God, and it evened up the series. We know what happened in Game 7, but just an absolute masterpiece of a game. Remember, he was outstanding in Game 2 of that series as well. Now, they rolled in that game 12 to 3, but he won this World Series MVP, clearly, and ended up with one of the great two starts in World Series history and one of the greatest post seasons in Major League Baseball history.

Also remember, those games weren't his first clutch games. He had pitched well previously in the postseason, had a phenomenal start against the Giants in that series, in a 1-1 series. And, of course, the game at Wrigley Field in 2017, down two games to one in the end. NLDS. Remember, there was talk that he wouldn't pitch, that he was too sick. Dusty Baker kind of threw him under the bus publicly, and then he comes out on a cold, cloudy, gray Chicago

fall day. Seven innings of brilliance, five-nothing shut out to force a fifth and deciding game with 12 strikeouts, no earned runs on three measly hits. Strasbourg was big time when it mattered the most. Right there with Riggins. You know, right there with, for me, Bobby Dandrich in 78 and 79 when the bullets won the title and then lost in the finals. Bobby D is one of the great clutch performers in the history of this town. Caps fans, I'm sure, would say Cousnetsoff and Holtby in their postseason run in 2018.

You know, there are others like Dexter Manley who came up big in a lot of those big playoff games. Doug Williams certainly had a postseason to remember. You know, Rigo's 612 yards and four touchdowns and his Super Bowl MVP, 166 yards, 38 carries, and the most famous play in D.C. sports history, fourth and one. He also had big playoff games the following year. And in 79, in that catastrophic 35, 34 loss to the Cowboys, Rigo was brilliant in the biggest game of the year, 22 carries. he's 151 yards, two touchdowns, including a 66-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter

that gave Washington a 34 to 21 lead. I would go Rigo number one, all-time clutch performer, Strasbourg 2, and then have at it. I'm not going to mention Walter Johnson or Sammy Ball. I'm just talking about more modern-day sports in terms of the conversation. but we'll talk to Tommy about Strasbourg tomorrow. All right, that is it for the show back tomorrow with Tommy. Two out, nobody on. Here's Bregman, who has an infield hit and a home run.

This one off the end of the bat, Strasbourg has taken his team through eight. What a night for the 31-year-old right-hander, Stephen Strasbourg. Ninth inning now, game six. Nationals bat up three.