The Kevin Sheehan Show - Report: J.J. McCarthy To DC

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Kevin opened with the NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reporting that executives he's talked to in Orlando (site of NFL League meetings) say Washington will take Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy at #2 overall in the April NFL Draft. Plenty of NCAA Tournament reaction as well before Kevin got to comments made by Adam Peters today in Orlando about Jon Allen, Jamin Davis, the offensive line, and what the plans are for #2 in the draft. Kevin also had Patrick Everson/Vegas Insider on the show to talk about the big weekend had by "public" betting on the NCAA Tournament. 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-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 She and Joe. He is Kevin. It's been really interesting because everybody's always trying to figure out, especially at the top of the graph, what the other teams are doing.

When I've had conversations here with executives for other teams, who know Adam Peters well, know the situation well, the most popular answer for what they do at number two is J.J. McCarthy. Put J.J. McCarthy on the board in terms of reports about what Washington will do at number two? I would categorize what you just heard Tom Pellasaro from the NFL network say earlier today on the NFL network set down in Orlando at the league meetings as more report than speculation. Speculation is defined as the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence. Tom Pellasaro from the NFL network told you that he's talked to league executives who know Adam Peters, well and know the situation well. And they say, J.J. McCarthy.

I think if we're keeping track of this, you go back to last week when Albert Breer suggested people that he had talked to said Washington was leaning Jaden Daniels. Eric Ed Holm said the same thing on 1067 the fan last week. I think if we're keeping track of reports versus speculation, Jaden Daniels and J.J.J. McCarthy are on the board, I don't think Drake May is at this point. You can correct me if I'm wrong by tweeting me at Kevin Sheehan, D.C. But I don't think at this point we've had what you just heard Tom Pellasaro say, or what you read what Albert Breer said or what Eric Edholm said last week. I don't think we've had anything related to Drake May that rises to that level. Now, what do I

think of it, if you're curious, I don't think much of it. I don't think the team has made up their mind. And in fact, I'm going to read a quote to you coming up here on the show from Adam Peters. The reason I'm getting the show out late is Adam Peters spoke today late this afternoon down at the league meetings. I wanted to wait for that to end. I also had a dental appointment that took some time today. So I had to get that done after the radio show. But I'm getting it. I'm getting the podcast out, and it's a good thing that I waited so we could get some of that Tom Pellasaro audio on the show, and I'll be able to read to you some of the things that Adam Peter said today as well. The show is presented, as always, by Windonation. Call them at

86690 Nation, head to Windonation.com. Mention my name for a free in-home estimate. You don't have to pay anything when you call them or have them come out to your home. to give you a quote. It's total, no risk. Get the quote, shop it if you want. I don't think you'll find a better deal. Windownation.com or 86690 Nation. So one guest on the show today, Patrick Everson is a senior writer for Vegas Insider. We will do some tournament talk and tournament gambling talk from this past weekend. It was an absolute bloodbath for the sports books on Saturday in particular. It was one of the worst days I can remember as an anti-public better. If you won a lot more games than you lost this weekend, you are what Vegas refers to as a

square. Now, sometimes the squares win too, but it was a great weekend for public betters, especially on Saturday. A little bit of a comeback yesterday. I have no idea how I am 10 and 9 overall on the NCAA tournament smell test picks that I've been giving out. Because my own picks, and I've played all 19 of the games that I've given out, going back to the first four game that I gave out. But I've wagered on more games than just those, and those did not work out well. So consider yourself lucky if you just play my smell test picks,

because Saturday should have been a much worse day than it turned out to be. But anyway, Patrick Everson, Vegas Insider, in the final segment of the show today. And he'll talk about what happened out there this weekend and look forward to the Sweet 16. You know, there were some really good games over the weekend. And there were some real snoozers because we've seen a ton of blowout games. But since we last spoke on Friday, before the first round Friday game, games. I mean, going back to that Friday, there were a couple of excellent games that Friday. You had the Florida Colorado game, which was insane. You had the overtime game between Northwestern and

Florida Atlantic. Those were two really good games. And you had a bunch of blowouts as well. J.M. You won their first round game beating Wisconsin. I loved Wisconsin. Was dead wrong on Friday night. And then Saturday came and you had a great game to cap off the night, the double overtime game between Oregon and Creighton. Another thriller with NC State involved beating Oakland, the team that had upset Kentucky. And then I don't know if you guys stayed up and watched last night, but the Houston, Texas A&M game was ridiculous.

A&M, I gave out Houston. I was on Houston Lang 9, and that game was over with a minute 25 to go. They were up 12. A&M came roaring back, forced overtime, lost 100 to 95 in overtime in that game. And so that was an excellent ballgame. How impressive was Purdue yesterday? How impressive was Duke?

The Madison thing was some get back for Vegas. I mean, that was a game in which they got some of, what they had taken in terms of, you know, bashes on the head all day Saturday. They took some of it back because that was one of those rare games in which Duke was a major anti-public favorite. And darling James Madison, who had won 14 games in a row and they were 32 and 3,

they were the big public play, and they got demolished by 38 points. Duke easily covered that number. We have all chalk into the Sweet 16, all four number ones, all four number twos. The two lowest-seeded teams are Clemson as a six, and then NC State as an 11, two ACC teams. It sets up for a hell of a sweet 16,

and the ratings through the roof. Did you see some of this information on the NCAA tournament ratings? Here was a CBS Sports and TNT Sports headline. record-breaking viewership for the NCAA men's tournament. Saturday's games average 10.8 million viewers across TBS, CBS, TNT, and True TV. The most watched second round day ever. Most watched second round day one, meaning Saturday. The tournament coverage is averaging 9 million viewers, the most watched NCAA men's tournament of all time.

through the second round. That was through Saturday second round. That's shocking to me. Now, I think betting has a lot to do with it. I think the legalization of betting in so many states has a lot to do with it. But I told you, I didn't have any juice for the tournament last week. I've got more juice for it now. I watched a lot of the first four days of the tournament and enjoyed some of it.

I don't have a dog in the fight this year. I'm kind of rooting for the Big 10 teams. Purdue and Illinois are the two that are left. Obviously, the ACC doing well, and the Big East has all three of their teams left. But getting all of the favorites into the Sweet 16 means that you will see another big viewership number. Because people love to see the upsets, which we didn't see a lot of this year, and the stunners in the first two rounds. Ultimately, they like to watch the Blue Bloods, not necessarily the Blue Bloods, because I have a four-team blue-blood category.

Kentucky, Kansas, Carolina, Duke. And then we can go to tears after that. Yukon is fast approaching Blue Blood Territory. But they like the big names. They like the fact that on Thursday night you're going to have Carolina, you're going to have Yukon, you're going to have Arizona, you're going to have, Arizona. You're going to have a team like Illinois, who, in various times. I mean, we don't have one small conference team other than San Diego State who was in the national championship game last year. And then Friday night, you know, the same thing.

I mean, you get Gonzaga in there. I mean, they're a small conference team, but it's Gonzaga. Gonzaga, Purdue, Houston, Duke. I mean, you've got Duke, Carolina, and Yukon in the Sweet 16, along with a lot of other big. name teams and it should be a wild sweet 16. Yukon to me looks like the class of the field. They really do. I don't know that you're going to be able to make a number big enough to get people

to bet the underdog against Yukon like I did yesterday with Northwestern. They actually had a chance there late to get it back door covered. They were getting 13 and a half. But it should be entertaining. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday should be great. and you're pretty much guaranteed to get, you know, a high-profile final four. I guess you could get, you know, something like, you know, a Creighton and you could get a Creighton and a Marquette and a Clemson and a San Diego State or an Iowa state you could. But you could also end up with, you know, Yukon, Duke, Carolina, and Purdue or Gonzaga.

the final four. Much more entertaining. Once you get into the tournament, the drama of it is awesome. I am surprised, though, that the tournament has been as watched as it has been. So I wanted to read a tweet that I got from Charles, and then we'll get to what Adam Peters said today down in Orlando. Also, Washington signed a new player. We'll get to that as well. But Charles sent me a tweet during my radio show today. Right after I had tried to explain on the air the new kickoff rule that the league has not yet voted on, but is considering down in Orlando this week. I did not do a very good job, I guess, of explaining this new rule. And Charles tweeted, now I'm really confused, exclamation point, hashtag kickoff return explanation.

I guess I didn't do a very good job. I'm going to take another swing at it here. I'm coming back for another taste at the explanation of the kickoff rule. But before I get to that, there was a rule voted on today and passed by league owners. No more hip drop tackles. I hate this. But I did read a report on ESPN that indicated that while the hip drop tackle has been officially banned, It's a rule that will result if flagged in a 15-yard penalty.

Troy Vincent, the NFL EVP of football operations, suggested that this is a rule which will typically lead to warning letters and fines in the week after a game rather than flags during the game. That would be good. I just think it's getting so hard to play defense. now, how do you possibly get the man with the ball in his hands to the ground? If you can't hit him high, if you can't hit him low, if you can't hit him when he's not looking and he's defenseless, if you can't pull him down from the waist and have him land, you know,

in an awkward position on your body, which is horizontal and has come underneath the rest of his body. It's just getting awfully hard to play defense. But I was encouraged as someone who's not in favor of this being flagged. to read that Troy Vincent and the league will typically approach this, as they have with that use of helmet rule on offense where, you know, there is a rule against an NFL runner dipping his head into a would-be tackler,

but there have been more fines and letters than actual flags for that. Anyway, that rule was passed, but again, perhaps it won't be enforced. I think it would be a very hard rule, very, subjective, super subjective to enforce anyway. But anyway, the kickoff rule that is being considered was passed in the competition

committee and is being considered by owners. They did not vote on it today. They could vote on it by the end of the week. They could also table it until May. This is the rule. First of all, if you've watched XFL games, you're familiar with what I'm talking about and you can

visualize it much easier. But let me just try to explain it again, hopefully more effectively. So normally, as we've watched a kickoff and a kickoff return for all of our lives, the kickoff team all lines up at the 35-yard line with the ball on the tee, and once the ball's kicked, they run down from their own 35-yard line to cover the kick. The kick-off return team has a couple of guys up front, 10 yards away from where the ball's being kicked off in the event that there's a sneak onside kick.

then they've got guys further back and the wedge and the returners, etc. We understand what the kickoff and the kickoff return has looked like for years. Because there have been fewer and fewer kickoff returns because kickers have developed much stronger legs and it's better turf and there are more indoor stadiums, etc., etc. We just haven't had enough kickoff returns. So the league wants more action in that play, right? So here is the proposal that passed the competition committee that only, are now considering. So do your best to visualize. I'm going to try my best to explain it better this time. So there is now just one player on the kickoff team that lines up at the 35-yard line,

and that's the kicker. The kicker puts the ball on the T at the 35-yard line, and he is the only one at the 35-yard line. Ten players, the other 10 on the kick-off team, they line up at the other teams 40 yard line. So 25 yards in front of the kicker are 10 players on the kickoff coverage unit. All right. So that takes care of the 11 on the kickoff team. So what about the kickoff return team? How are they supposed to align? What is their formation look like? You've got the kickoff team, kicker at the 35 with the ball on the T, 10 players covering the kick, 25 yards in front of the kicker at the opponent's 40-yard line. Kickoff return team now. Let me try to give you visually where they have to line up, and then I'll tell you kind of the rules once the ball is put into place.

So the kickoff return team has to have seven of its 11 players with their foot on their own 30. yard line. So five yards away from the 10 players on the kickoff team are going to be at least seven players on the kickoff return team with their foot on the 35 yard line. Now, what about the other four players? Well, you're allowed up to two returners. That means you can have one returner or two returners. You're not going to have no returners. And so that means that another two to three are allowed to be in an area that they call the setup zone, which is between the 30 and the 35. So you've got seven players with their foot on the 35 required to be there. And then another two to three players are allowed to be between the 30 and the 35,

and then the returner is going to be in a typical return position. That returner can be anywhere below the 30-yard line. Are you envisioning this? You've got kicker at the 35, kickoff coverage at the opponent's 40, 10 players, kickoff return team anywhere from 7 to 10 between the 30 and the 35-yard line, seven required to have their foot on the 35-yard line, and then no more than two returners. So now we get to, after you visualize how the alignment is, now we get to the rules. All right.

So let's start with this. The intention here is that any kick in the field of play gets returned unless it goes out of bounds and then the balls at the 40-yard line, all right, just like it would be in any other situation. They have an area of the field that they refer to as the landing zone. This would be the target area for the kicker. The landing zone is from the goal line to the 20-yard line, or just outside the goal line to the 20-yard line. Any kick into that area has to be returned. No fair catches.

Last year, remember, they implemented the fair catch rule in the field of play, put the ball at the 25-yard line. No fair catches if the ball lands between the goal line and the 20. However, players can't move. The 10 players on the kickoff coverage team at the 40-yard line, the 7 to 10 players in the setup zone with 7 players having their foot on the 35-5. yard line for the return team. They cannot move until the ball is either fielded or it hits the ground.

The kicker, by the way, cannot cross the 50-yard line midfield until the ball is fielded or hits the ground. Now, that's the landing zone. That's a kickoff that gets returned. Okay? You got hopefully a better visual than I gave this morning. the alignment and the rules are they're trying to get kicks between the goal line and the 20 and you got to return all of those kicks.

But players can't start to move in the direction of the returner to block or to tackle until the ball's been fielded or it hits the ground. Now, what happens to a kick that doesn't land in the landing zone? So there is a touchback rule that puts the ball at the 40-yard line. That is a kickoff that does not make it past the return team's 20-yard line. So a kicker that messes up or tries to get the ball to land right it around the 18- or 19-yard line, if it doesn't go to the 20-yard line, then the ball is considered out of bounds, play is ruled dead, and the kick-off return team gets the ball at the 40-yard line.

again, if the ball's kicked out of bounds, it still goes to the 40, just like the old rule. So the kicks got to go beyond the 20 for the kicker, or it's a penalty, and the ball goes to the 40-yard line. Then there's a touchback rule where the ball ends up at the 30-yard line. That is the ball that gets kicked into the end zone on the fly, because if it hits at the five-yard line, it's got to be returned by the returner. So if the ball is kicked into the end zone on the fly, then the receiving team gets a touchback in the ball at the 30-yard line. That's five yards ahead of where they've gotten it in the past. The touchback also applies if the ball is kicked out of the back of the end zone.

Okay. This is a bit of a change from the early version of this rule, which really penalized the touchback kick and had the ball out to the 35-yard line. They tweaked that rule the competition committee did over the weekend and said, Nope, touchbacks in the end zone or kick out of the end zone goes to the 30. So a five-yard gain from a year ago. And then there is a touchback that ends up at the 20-yard line. How does that happen? Well, if a ball hits the ground in the landing zone area and then rolls into the end zone

and doesn't get returned, then the touchback only goes out to the 20-yard line. that seems to be maybe the strategy of the kicker, although it's kind of hard, to kick a ball that hits on the ground somewhere around the five-yard line, and it goes into the end zone. Then the other team only gets it at the 20. So that's the new kickoff return rule. I hope you understood it. Basically, it's a rule that encourages more returns. You know, it incentivizes kickers to kick a ball that can be returned because a touchback, it's at the 30.

That's not necessarily good for the kickoff team to send their defense out there with the offense already at the 30-yard line. By the way, what happens with an on-side kick? Well, the on-side kick rule that will follow will be a rule in which you have to declare an on-side kick. There will be no more surprise on-side kicks, and they'll only be allowed in the fourth quarter, and only allowed if a team is trailing. And then you'll go back to the old alignment for an on-side kick. There was a rule proposed by the Eagles' fourth and 20 to replace the on-side kick,

but it doesn't look like that has much of a chance. I don't like the new kickoff rule. It just reeks of kind of XFL gimmicky. I don't think it's a play that people are screaming for more action. Just like I didn't think there was, you know, much screaming for the extra point to be moved back. You know, you get a lot of times, you know, just a bit of a longer break in between scores on a kickoff

because 80% of them are touchbacks or they have been in recent years. And I'm not sure, look, I'm okay with it, I guess. I'll live with it. I just think the alignment's going to make it look very non-NFL-ish, very non-footballish, and somewhat gimmicky. And I haven't yet figured out whether or not it's going to work to the advantage of the return team or the kickoff team. Like the ball now has to be returned between the zero and in the 20. Like if you can get a super sky high kick, even though they can't start to run until it's

fielded, I don't know. Or if you can get a ball that bounces around a little bit in the landing zone, you know, you've got a chance to nail them or maybe because they're not flying down there and there's, you know, less room to run down to cover the kick. There's a chance for it to be blocked up better and chance at a bigger play. I have no idea with the result. will be. But it sounds like there's a chance it'll pass. Okay. Enough of that. When we come back, I will tell you who the Washington commanders signed today, and I will tell you what Adam Peters said this afternoon down in Orlando, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Window Nation's got a really good offer right now through the end of this month, the month of

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They do it for everybody. They do a great job. But I promise you, Windonation will take good care of you. 86690 Nation, windonation.com for a buy-to get-to free, no limit, with no money down, no interest, and no payments for two full years. So we'll get to what Adam Peters said today down in Orlando here in a moment. He commented on several things, including the plan at number two. But Washington actually signed a player today. They signed Michael Dieter, a center from the Houston Texans. He actually started 12 games for the Texans during this past season, a good season for Houston with C.J. Stroud winning offensive rookie of the year.

And he was drafted by the Dolphins back in 2019, third round by the Dolphins, apparently he's got some position flexibility. He can play either guard spot. He's 6-6-315. He got drafted back in 2019 in the third round out of Wisconsin, where he was a starting center. And in 2017, he was a Rimmington Trophy watch list candidate, one of the best centers in the country.

Why do I mention that? Well, because Tyler Biotish, who was one of the first players, this team signed in free agency, also went to Wisconsin and followed up Deeter as the starting center at Wisconsin and won the Rimmington Trophy for the best center in the country. Two Wisconsin centers, Beaudish and Dieter on the team.

By the way, Casey Robach, long-time center for this team, went to Wisconsin as well. All right, let's get to some Adam Peters stuff from today. So a couple of things before we get to what he said about number two and the draft. First of all, as it relates to the question of John Allen potentially being traded, the quote here is pretty simple and pretty direct. He says, quote, we are not interested in trading him, closed quote. That ended that conversation.

There are players on this roster people that this group likes. you know, Duran Payne and John Allen and Terry McLaren are probably near the top of that list. There's another player's name that he mentioned today that I thought was interesting. I'll get to that in a moment. He was also asked about the possibility of picking up Jamon Davis's fifth year option, which has to be done by May right after the draft. And he said that he and Quinn have yet to discuss Jamie Davis's fifth year option. Yeah, right.

That's like when during his introductory press conference, he said, yet we haven't talked at all about quarterback. I do think that's a tell, right, that they're not going to pick up Jamie Davis's fifth year deal. I'm sure Dan Quinn's got some ideas for Jamie Davis, and if it works out, great. And if he turns into a stud, well, they can worry about that later. They'll have a lot of cap space next year. But, you know, Jamie Davis has had some of the issues off the field as well.

They're not picking up his fifth year option. And he basically, by saying that we haven't discussed it yet, is telling you they're not picking up that fifth-year option. I'd be very surprised if they did. He was also asked about the offensive line, left tackle in particular, and he said, quote, I'm comfortable going into the season with Cornelius Lucas or Trent Scott as the starting left tackle. There's another name that I thought was interesting out of his mouth today. Trent Scott, he's a player I've mentioned a couple of times when I've said,

I wonder what they think of certain players. Like, for all we know, they might like Trent Scott because, you know what? A lot of people in the last regime liked Trent Scott. And so, Trent Scott is a grambling kid, 6-5-325. He's gotten some action. He's played. You know, he was signed, you know, last March a year ago by Washington and had, you know, an opportunity to play a little bit this year. and the roster is filled with players that we just don't know what they think of.

You know, when he said Trent Scott is a possibility to essentially start. Now, I think they're going to still be looking for tackle in the draft. I do. You know, at 36 or 40, Ben in his first mock draft, Ben Standing, mocked a trade back into the first round, which I think is a very interesting and real possibility with six picks in the top 100, that they see another A-level player that they've got on their board at a really high spot and they don't think they can get them at 36.

Well, they got enough picks to move up into a spot in the late 20s or early 30s in the first round to take that player. But there are just a lot of players that are still on the roster that were on the roster last year that we just don't have any idea, any clue. I'm very interested to know what they think of, you know, the last three first-round picks. Dotson, Forbes, and Davis. I'm also interested to know what they think of K.J. Henry, a guy that actually showed some quick-twitch pass-rushing ability last year.

Yeah. All right, let's get to what he said about number two overall. First of all, he did have a comment specific to the Bears and what they're going to do, and he said, you know, you can't assume that Caleb Williams goes number one. quote, I think you've got to be prepared for anything. I can't assume that the bears are drafting a certain guy at number one. If you do that and they don't, oh, shoot, regardless of how much information you have that says

one thing leading up to the draft, you don't know really until the card is turned in. And then the quote of the day from Adam Peters in talking about number two. Quote, that would be number two overall. quote, we still have a lot of time, a month till the draft, as of today. It doesn't sound like a long time, but you get a lot of information in that month. There are still some of the guys that we haven't seen in person, so we'll go out and do that next week, see a couple of more quarterbacks, then we'll do visits with them, we'll do Zoom calls, we'll do a lot of different things. So we're far from our answer, closed quote. I believe them.

This is exactly where I think they are right now. I've heard too much about this ownership group and how they're all sort of aligned in being data-driven and being process-oriented and making sure they've crossed every T, dotted every eye, just like the coaching search, probably like the Adam Peter search, which was going on during the season

and we didn't even know about it, you know, with guys like Bob Myers, and Spielman getting involved, I just don't think that before pro days and before top 30 visits and before a lot of other things that are still going to be done over this last month, that they have a collaborative consensus.

I don't. Is it possible that each of these individuals has a slight lean or a slight preference? Of course, they're human. Do I know who that is? I don't. I have no idea. And I think they're going to go through the process, just like they did with the hiring of Dan Quinn. They're going to go through this process, and at the end of it, Adam Peters will have the final say,

but they've talked about collaboration. Cliff Kingsbury and Dan Quinn and Martin Mayhew and Lance Newmark and all these people are all going to have a say. And as it relates to number two with a quarterback, the owner is certainly going to weigh in, I would guess. All right. Up next, Patrick Everson works for Vegas Insider. He's got some interesting thoughts about the weekend just finished up gambling-wise as it relates to the NCAA tournament. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Two rounds are in the books, guys. Round of 16 coming up on Thursday, Friday, then the round of eight. And by the time we get to late Sunday night, we will be down to the last four teams standing in the tournament. If you're looking,

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Jumping on with us right now is Patrick Everson. Patrick is a senior reporter for VIII. Vegas insider. He's a contributor to Fox Sports as well. He's out in Vegas. He covers everything having to do with sports betting and knows everything that was going on this weekend. Patrick is on X on Twitter at Patrick E underscore Vegas. So Patrick, thanks for jumping on with me. I mentioned in the open to the show that it was a bloodbath to a certain degree for the house. How have you described what happened during the tournament's first weekend in 2024. Well, first of all, thanks for having me on.

And let's flip that on it here a little bit, how good it was for the betters. Because we like to kind of root for people on this side of the counter to win a few bucks, especially here in Vegas. They're kind enough to pay Nevada's state tax. Nevada has a state tax, so that's where it comes from. So we're happy that they get out with a win sometimes. But yes, it was definitely a rough weekend behind the counter. a good weekend for the public betting masses, if you will.

And really what that was a product of mostly was Saturday, but also it kind of continued, it certainly continued Sunday. The first couple of days of the tournament, most of the first couple of days, pretty much fell in the sports book's favor. The sports were on the winning side of the ledger there for those couple of days, especially getting Kentucky knocked out early. A lot of, there was a lot of activity on Kentucky to go all the way and win the national championship.

So a lot of books are pretty grateful for that. But with regard to the weekend, you got 16 games in the men's tournament, eight Saturday, eight Sunday. The favorites went 15 and one in those games. Only one favorite loss. Straight. That was Baylor against Clemson. Yeah, only one favorite loss.

And against the spread, they actually did pretty well, too. They went 11 and 5 against the point spread, the favorite kids. So what happens is, what often happens, and this happens during football season, too, Kevin, is, you know, that sports betters like a lot of the public sports betters, the average everyday people, not the super smart people trying to make a living at this, but just people having fun at it generally. They like to do money line parlays to the favorites. They take the favorites and, you know, in three, four, five, six games, who knows. And if you're taking money line favorites over this weekend and those favorites go 15 and one, well, the same. sports books are going to definitely take a bath.

And it's not that people stacked up all 16 favorites, but usually they'll, you know, three, four, five, or six, here or there, a couple of those start hitting. And it's just kind of an avalanche. It's hard to make up. And again, the same thing happens during football season. If favorites have a really good NFL Sunday, especially if there's some real popular favorites in some attractive games, then the betters do well, and the sports books take a bath. And that's kind of what happened Saturday and to a little bit lesser extent.

Sunday. So Patrick, I'm going to share something with you because I think it'll be easier for me to get into my next question. So for years on the shows that I've done, I have this pick segment called the smell test. It's basically an anti-public contrarian handicapping segment where, you know, I identify the biggest public plays of the weekend during the NFL season, and then I resurrect it for the NCAA tournament as well. And, you know, with some additional information I give out, you know, five to 10 picks a weekend and a couple of picks a day during the NCAA tournament. But the reason I mentioned that is that I thought Saturday and Sunday was a little bit different in that some of the public sides were against essentially public teams, like big name public teams.

Like the public was on Gonzaga Saturday against Kansas. And then yesterday, I mean, from your perspective, I'd like to know what. you think. But I would guess that James Madison was one of the biggest plays of the day, if not the weekend. So I had Duke laying the number. Was there a bigger public play yesterday than James Madison against Duke getting the points? No question. It was a really massive play Friday night, which was kind of what I had Wisconsin. I had J-Mad plus five and a half, thankfully. But that was a very public play on the spread and on the money line. And that's kind of what set the wheels in motion.

That was one of the later games Friday night. The public did great on it at Scott Shelton at Bedham, Jim, Nevada, behind the counter at at Bedham, Jim, Nevada here told me on Friday night. He's like, hey, the public got seed money for the weekend now, game on. So, and it was because of that James Madison game, and then the public just continued to roll throughout Friday and Sunday. But to your point, you are absolutely right. The books needed Duke.

They continue to be on James Madison on Sunday. And again, from Scott Shelton at Benham, Jim, Gen, Nevada, he said, as that game was unfolding and it was becoming clear that James Madison was not going to come back, he said this is big. We needed Duke. This is the only favorite we needed, basically, of the weekend. James Madison was a very public team, a very public underdog. But beyond that on Saturday and Sunday, the public betting masses were generally on the favorite. So Duke actually helped stem the bleeding a little bit.

Interesting. Maybe I had it wrong. I thought there were a couple of more public dogs. Duquesne against Illinois. I thought the public was at least leaning Duquesne. And then for sure, I thought the public had Oregon catching the points in that last game on Saturday night against Creighton. Well, I wouldn't say you're wrong about it. Here's what was taking place in another area where sports books did all right to the weekend, one area.

It still wasn't enough to overcome all the favorite Moneyline parlayes, and even straight-bett parlayes to some degree, because as I said, the favorites went 11-5 against the spread over these 16 games. But you're not wrong, but where it was was they continued to play the public did Moneyline underdogs heavily. And you mentioned Illinois, Duquesne. At Bet, MGM, it was like 90% of tickets, 85% of money on Duquesne to win that game outright. Public loved public continued to ride. They were kind of riding with it over the first day or two, certainly with James Madison and a couple of others. But with Duquesne getting that win and Oakland getting that win, Oakland was a really, really popular money line play against North Carolina State.

And that's the thing. They continued to, you know, while they were maybe stacking up Moneyline parlay, on favorites. They were continuing to play just straight standard money line bets, not parlaying it, on the underdogs. And, you know, Scott Scheldt began with Bettsum, Nevada, but he's echoing sentiments that I heard from others, you know, noted that a lot of these money line underdogs were getting play. You know, as you said, DeCain, James Madison, Oakland, for sure, among others. and he said these dog money line betters are getting slaughtered. Right.

It was, they said we're only really a handful of upsets over the first four days, but they continued to come back and bet them. Yeah, I would have to think Clemson was a big winner for the house against Baylor. Yeah, I'd have to go back and look at that number, which will take me two seconds here. But I, but Baylor, I think, was the more popular play, and I'm just going back through my, through my files. Yeah. No, that's quite, quite all right.

I've got a, I've got a lot of this in front of me. Yeah, Baylor was certainly on the spread, Baylor was the more popular play. Clemson on the Money Line, they were taking another Money Line dogs that they were taking, but I don't think they were heavy tickets and money on Clemson on the Money Line, but I don't think it was a really heavily bet money line. Clemson isn't as the NCAA tournament goes, Clemson isn't the sexy Cinderella the way that a James Madison or in Oakland, et cetera, were. So let's look forward.

Can they make a line big enough to get people? people off Yukon? Well, they're certainly trying to. I mean, remember, this is a team that, this is a game. It's a rematch of last year's championship. Right. Standing the State against Yukon. And I believe in that team,

Yukon was like seven, seven and a half point favorite. Exactly. And again, these are different teams. It's a different season. And I've heard multiple odds breakers tell me this Yukon team is better than last year's Yukon team. And after what we've seen over these first few days of the tournament, well, really all season, but certainly more broadly,

more people saw Yukon over this weekend. It's hard to deny that that team is probably better than the last year. So what pretty much every oddsmaker did is they opened Yukon a double, you know, a double digits. And I believe they're still sitting, you know, 10 and a half or so. So we'll see if that's something that's attractive enough to get the, you know, to get betters on onto San Diego State. It might be. And maybe that's part of what they're trying to do by making it double digit.

It certainly, you know, it got my attention last night. I didn't think it was going to be, you know, a double-digit spread on that game the way it was for the, for Yukon's first two games. And yet it absolutely was. And I think it's going to get people's attention. It might take a little time, though. Everybody's trying to, you know, we all got through these first four days, and I think everybody's breathing a little bit. Not to say that these games are not being bet, but, yeah, it looks like they're really trying. I'm actually looking at kind of an odd board right now of multiple sports books, Kevin,

and it's 11 at a lot of these places. So you'd open 10, 10 and a half, you're looking at 11 almost across the board at quite a few of these places. So they're certainly trying to generate some interest in San Diego, the underdog, no question. I would think that's going to be their biggest exposure of the 8th Sweet 16 games. that there will be a whole lot of behind-the-counter rooting for San Diego State. How much exposure do you think they have on Yukon winning the tournament? Where did they go off? I didn't even see pre-tournament where they went off.

What were they? Super short. Like in the, you know, relative to an NCAA tournament, they were plus 350 before the tournament began. And they've been pretty short for a few weeks. They've been less than 5 to 1 for a few weeks. Now, that said, they are, you know, I know a couple of books where that's one of the key liabilities. Nationally, I know I mentioned Scott Shelton of BetMGM, Nevada, but nationally for BetMGM, Yukon is the third largest liability at this point.

Number two is North Carolina, which I don't think surprises too many people at this point. Obviously, Kentucky being gotten out of the way, as I alluded to a little bit earlier, Kevin, that was a big liability for multiple sports books on the championship front. But the number one liability at Benjam, and this just came over on Monday morning, and I was stunned by this. Let me guess it. North Carolina State. Oh, okay. Oh, shoot.

I'm sorry. No, it's all right. No, no, no, no, no. Well, so what were they going into the tournament after winning five straight in the ACC tournament? Right. I'm scrolling down to find it because they're going to be way down this list because nobody expected them to be involved here. So, holy cow, this is why they had to be higher up at this point. So I'm trying to find it on the list.

But yeah, NC State was 2001 ahead of the first four and the round of 64. After they got through, they went to 100 to 1 and they remained 100 to 1. So you can still get a pretty good number on them. And that's one of the reasons. It's not necessarily that North Carolina State is suddenly taking a whole lot of bets, but the bets they are taking a big number that creates liability in a big, big hurry. Yeah, I actually was going to guess, and it's not going to be a massive number. But after the way they looked in their first two games, I thought maybe Gonzaga or Illinois, one of those two teams.

Right. And Gonzaga is getting a little more interest, Illinois too. Really, you know, I went back and forth with Seamus Begui on Monday morning. He is the lead trader for Bet, MGM nationwide. and I just asked him about, hey, okay, in light of what's gone on over the last 96 hours, what are you seeing? Who are the training teams? And they're Purdue, Yukon, both teams were very impressive over the first four days. And then, as I mentioned, North Carolina State.

So there's no stopping money coming in a North Carolina state. Lots of betters, particularly from North Carolina, are jumping on the wolf pack. And I think it's worth noting because North Carolina literally in just the last two weeks went live with legal-regulated sports betting. So they're pretty excited to not only have the tar heels to back, who they have back at a significant level for the last couple of weeks, but now all of a sudden, NC State being in the mix as well. I'm curious as to what the early info is on Duke in Houston, because as we, as we, as you

know, it's been rare in the past when Duke is sort of an anti-public team like they were yesterday, but I think it might be the case again. This week against Houston. What do you think? They're getting four and a half. Right. And I'm looking over to some early numbers. And again, a lot of this is coming from Bed of Jammer today because that's where I'm getting a lot of.

They send out a lot of really good information. But look, there's some correlation generally between a lot of these major sports boats where the public betters, where the public is going to put their money. And so Duke Houston, this is a very early snapshot of this. A lot could change. but on the point, but it's sort of doing a lot of what happened over the last, over the first four days of the tournament, Kevin. And that is a lot of tickets and money on Houston in the early going. And again, let me back up a second here. This is probably a very small pot of money at this point.

People aren't fully engaged yet. They'll start getting there on Wednesday and then certainly on Thursday in the lead-up to the first set of sweet 16 games and then Friday as well. But early on the spread, Houston's a three and a half point favorite against Duke, 75% tickets, 86% of money on Houston. But then you flip that over to the money line where Duke is plus 150 to get the outright upset, if you will. A modest upset is basically a three-point play away from winning. But you've got almost 80% of tickets and 64% of money on Duke on the money line. So they're kind of – which is, like I said, not unusual for the NCAA tournament.

It's kind of how the first four days were played. a lot of money line, dog money line activity along with favorites against the spread and then favorites on their, on their, on their, on their, on their, on their, on their parleyes and money line parlay. Did you get, did you just give me the price on Duke? If I did, I didn't hear it. Is it like plus 160 somewhere around there? Plus 150.

Plus 150. It might, it may be a little bit. That's not a couple of hours ago. So it might be off a little bit as we speak. But it's in that range. Yeah. So, you know, $100 to make $150. So do you think is somebody who.

paid attention to this for a while. Do you think an all chalk, basically in all chalk suite 16, without a true Cinderella, I mean, NC states and 11 seed, Clemsons is six, but they, you know, their, their ACC teams, does this drive more activity, more interest, the same or less, than it would if we had a 13 and 11, you know, and a 14 in the sweet 16, like we've had in recent years? Well, I just speak with one odds maker on that. John Murray, he's the executive director of the Superbook, which obviously operates here in Nevada, but also in several other states.

And, you know, the first two rounds, especially the first round, betters want to see underdogs do well and win all those first to 15 points props and things like that. But what John had to say, and he just kind of, you know, recap the weekend and looked ahead to next week when I went back and forth with him on Sunday evening after all these games, done. And he said Thursday was great. Saturday not so much. Too much chalk. As you've talked about this, your listeners calling, O'Chalk is the favorite. But he said, I will say the good thing about all this chalk winning is we get great regional matchups. We are already getting booked up for next weekend. It's going to be great.

So I think they're looking forward to it, and I think they think the handle is going to be really, really good. And I agree. I mean, when you're getting a rematch in the national championship game, that's fantastic. I think Gonzaga, Purdue, is a phenomenal game to be, you know, to advance from the Sweet 16. Duke, Houston is certainly a really attractive matchup. Houston has been one of the best he felt she's long, and Duke is, you know, a blue blood perennial. Crayton, Tennessee is a really attractive game. Illinois, Iowa State is a super attractive game. So I think they're going to see, I think the odds makers are pretty happy, even though they got beat up over the weekend, they often like to look ahead and say,

okay, how does this trend for next week? What they really want to, see is they're not necessarily sure about what decision they may want, but they do want to see what they call churn, and that is a lot of activity on games. And when you've got high-profile teams playing in high-profile games, you're going to see that churn. So I think they'll be pretty excited about this. Now, whether, you know, if they get beat up by the favorites, again, they may not be as excited, but these are certainly some attractive matchups that they are intrigued by, and I think the sports betting public is going to be enthused about it as well. What have we seen with totals so far? Have we seen more overs or more unders?

that's a really good question and I hadn't even had a chance to look into it. Don't worry about it. I'm not sure where we're at on that. I know there's been some awfully high-scoring games though. I mean, my Colorado Buffalo is in Florida. That was something else. Holy smokes. Yeah. Yeah, some very entertaining games at least. As you look forward, if you had to make a futures bet right now and take Yukon out of it, at plus, you know, wherever they, what did you say, plus 180?

I forget what you said on that. They're around, I believe they're around two to one. I can double check that right now. So right around there, two to one. So if you take them. I say 200, 200, 200. Okay, plus 200. If you take Yukon out, give me a futures bet to win the whole thing that you like.

Well, you can still get Carolina at 10 to 1, which, I mean, that's one I wish I'd pulled on a week or two weeks ago, you could have got them at double that probably, you know, 20 to 1, maybe even 25 to 1 at one point. And Duke as well, you know, it seemed like a bit of a down year for the ACC, but here they are in the NCAA tournament making a whole bunch of noise. But I think, you know, you want to look down the board a little bit for a little more values than you get not only out of Yukon, but out of state Houston or Purdue. I mean, Iowa State is interesting.

I've got a future ticket on Gonzaga to the final four just at 12 to 1. Of course, they're going to have to get through Purdue to do that, which is in the round of 16, which is no easy chore. And then I kind of like Iowa State. There's something interesting about Iowa State there that might be worth a look. And don't forget about Marquette. This is a team that kind of underperformed last year. caught Tom iso and Michigan State on the first weekend, which is not something you want to do as a one-seat.

I mean, I know Carolina took care of it over this weekend, but look, for a while in that game, Michigan State was right there, and they had a couple of bad possessions, and all of a sudden Carolina is off the races. But Marquette might be worth it. Look, all these teams are beyond 10 to 1 and give you a little bit more bang for your buck, you know. I kind of like your idea of Marquette and even Creighton to a certain degree for these reasons. First of all, you're going to get a nice price, certainly on Creighton. I'm guessing you're at least on Marquette at 10 to 1. I'm going to guess Creighton probably 20 to 1 somewhere in that neighborhood. Even beyond on both.

Even beyond on both. All right. So the reason I say that is because when you get kind of a juggernaut team like Yukon, it's the teams that have played them during the regular season. And in the tournament, like Marquette did, Marquette played Yukon, three times the last time without Tyler Colick. And they're used to it. You know, it's kind of like the Villanova Georgetown thing

from many, many years ago. Sure. It's like, I don't think any... I remember that. I'm old enough. Yeah, I don't think anybody beats Georgetown in that final except for another Biggie's team. And if they could get to that spot,

they're used to playing that team. I don't know. And certainly the price is right. I like Marquette. I think they're well coach, too. Switching subjects here quickly. do you have and have you had conversations about what you think about the show hey otani thing look most of what i've been able to deal with the way that broke during march madness was

yeah right was quite a time it's almost like uh it's almost like the 5 p.m eastern time news drop on friday which basically it sort of was yeah but but but in the middle of like arguably the well certainly as a as a as a whole the largest sports betting event of the year the march Matt is far out strips of Super Bowl because it's over the course of three weekends as opposed to a one-day single-game event. So the timing of the drop is certainly interesting. Look, I just, you know, I've talked to a couple of people about it, not really in depth and then seen, obviously, a ton of things on on on our social media, as I'm sure we all have. Let's just say it's something you kind of mentioned at the top where you were talking about teams, whether they

pass a smell test, something doesn't pass the smell test here. And, you know, we'll see. how this goes in the wake of his discussion today or is announcing the conversation he's going to have, you know, where he's not taking questions and so forth. But something doesn't add up here and it could be, it could get really messy a lot. It seems to me a lot of these sports betting universe on social media isn't really buying what's being sold about how this all happened and who was and who was sports betting and so forth. Great info, Patrick. Really appreciate. appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the tournament and then we'll focus on the NBA because the West

is going to be wild. That's for sure. Absolutely. I appreciate you having me on. Thanks a lot. Patrick Everson, everybody from Vegas Insider. The tournament getting watched and getting bet. Maybe a lot more than I thought just a week ago. All right, we are done for the day. I'll be back tomorrow with Tommy.