The Kevin Sheehan Show - Save Buck and What's Josh Rosen Worth?

Episode Date: March 7, 2019

Kevin and Thom open the show discussing what and how to determine Josh Rosen's worth. Next, they respond to the news that the Wizards and NBC Sports Washington decided not to pick up Wizards play-by-play voice Steve Buckhantz's contract option for next year. Scott Van Pelt joined the show to talk about Buckhantz, LeBron James, and Turgeon's Terps. That was followed by a conversation about the criticism Charley Casserly took yesterday for his comments about Kyler Murray. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. Yeah, Tommy's here. It's Thursday. Scott'll call in, we think, a little bit later on. Aaron is here, and this show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com and tell them we told you to call. We are going to get to the story about our good friend Steve Buckhantz and the possibility that Buck will be calling his final games as the voice of the Wizards after 22 years. It's not definite, but there's a story out there that we will go through here shortly. I wanted to start the show, though, real quickly with the news that came out yesterday, Tommy, about Josh Rosen and the Cardinals,

that it's possible that the Cardinals aren't really interested. in trading Josh Rosen. Schefter's report basically was that a lot of teams have indicated interest in Josh Rosen if they were to take Kyler Murray number one overall, but it really doesn't necessarily mean that the Cardinals are shopping him. And there's the possibility, Tommy, that if somebody isn't willing to give up a first-round pick for Rosen, that the Cardinals will stay right where they are, which is with two quarterbacks, which, by the way, isn't a terrible strategy.

The big problem, though, is that Josh Rosen doesn't fit the Cliff Kingsbury offense. It would seem to me that they would be looking for a backup quarterback to Kyler Marie if they take Kyler Murray that is more in the style of Kyle Murray, not the traditional sort of pocket passer. So that begs this question, and that is if the Cardinals don't want to move them for a third or even a second, would you give up a first for Josh Rosen? I've heard various people say not a chance in hell that they would give up a first round pick for Rosen. I've read other people who I respect say he would be the number one quarterback in this draft outside of the Kyler Murray unique circumstance

which is this very intriguing player that doesn't fit the normal quarterback mold but that he would be rated ahead of Haskins and a head of Locke and Daniel Jones and, you know, somebody may have to give up a first rounder to get Josh Rosen. And if you are sure that Josh Rosen is your guy and is the number one quarterback on your board and is a top 20 type of player on your board, even though there was this comment recently from Kurt Warner through Peter King about I wouldn't give up a third for him, if you need a quarterback

and he's in the top 20 players on your board, would you do it? Well, look, I'm not as adept at judging football talent as you are, you know, so I don't presume to know if Josh Rosen can play quarterback, but if the Redskins think that he would be even minimum, the second best quarterback coming out of this draft behind Kyle and Murray, you've got to be willing to give up that 15th pick. Look, you know, I'm on with Chad Dukes on 106-7 a fan every Wednesday, and we had Andy Benoit on yesterday. He said, that's a no-brainer. He said, I'm giving up that 15th round pick in a second. If I have to give up less than that, I'm going out for a steak dinner, and I'm celebrating the steel we got. Benoit said that? Yes.

I actually really respect Benoit's opinion on a lot of things, especially Benoit's understanding of the type of offense that Jay Gretaire. Rudin runs. Oh, he's a big Jay Gruden fan. When it comes to Jay designing an offense. Yes, absolutely. Yes. So that's interesting. So he is very high on Josh Rosen as a red for any team, but particularly the Redskins. So, I mean, if it's me,

I'm willing to, and again, where they have him is important. If he's not their guy, it doesn't make sense. But if they say, well, you know, he'd be the second best quarterback behind Kyle Murray. You give up that 15th pick in the draft.

for him if that's what it takes. And look, a lot of things could change between now and the draft. You know, there's speculation that Kyler Murray at the combine was actually 5'4 and actually inflated his height. You've seen that story. No. No, there's, on the Dan Patrick's show, Dan Patrick said a scout told him that people believe that Kyle Murray inflated his height somehow for the combine.

They haven't figured out how, but they don't think he's as tall as the combine number claim. Are you being serious? Aaron, am I being serious? He's being serious. There are some conspiracy theorists out there. He believed that he's somehow cheated during the hike portion. And the scout was quoted as saying if he does not measure again at his pro day, that will be telling. Well, I mean, how do you?

I don't know. And I'm thinking seriously. I don't know. Because they're in their fair feet. story somebody may have a theory as to how you can do it. They're in their bare feet, so I don't know how you could possibly do it. Is there a stretching exercise that you can do right before your measure? No, maybe hold your breath. Oh my God. You know, maybe, maybe, you know, wait until you have to go to the bathroom.

I have no idea what it could be. But I mean, there is that school of thought out there. The other thing is the Cardinals, they have no pressure to necessarily trade Josh Rose, and certainly not now. they could walk this right up until a couple of days before the draft to squeeze the best deal that they possibly can. I mean, you know, I mean, like desperation of the moment usually yields the best deal for something that you have that other people want. So I can understand why the Cardinals are not returning phone calls necessarily at this point. But, I mean, the only downside for Redskins fans is by the time this is all over,

And if Josh Rosen doesn't play for the Redskins, it will have felt like he played for the Redskins and you'd be tired of him already. And he would have never played it down. Short-term shrinking pills, perhaps, have been developed. You know, it's interesting about the height thing before we get back to Rosen is he doesn't, when that measurement came in, I don't know if you were on with me that day or not. I don't think so. I just said he doesn't, he really looks much smaller. Yeah. He doesn't look like he's Russell Wilson's height.

He doesn't look like, you know, he's 5'10. He looks like he's 5'7. When you see him and you see him playing. That aside, there are a couple of things. And thank you for the admission that you don't know as much about evaluating quarterbacks as I do. Well, Kevin, you do understand. You do understand what I was talking about there.

Of course I do. But what I wanted to be serious about is that what's interesting about quarterbacks is no one really knows how to evaluate quarterbacks. It's very rare that you know you've evaluated some but someone and you turn out to be right. It's a one in three at best opportunity in the first round, two out of three miss. You know, with the, you know, the best evaluators in the world, you still, you know, end up with the Jake Lockers and the Blaine Gabbarts and the Christian ponderes and the Ryan Tannahills and the, you know, and the Gino Smiths and the E.J. manuals. You still end up with more of them than you do with Andrew Luck, or even, you know, a Carson Wentz.

But what's also been proven here recently is that more recently than not, the evaluations from the teams who have traded up to grab their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, Carson Wentz, and potentially even Josh Rosen, the Cardinals traded up for Josh Rosen, that if you're really sure, there isn't a price high enough to get that, player. Right, exactly. So, but what I was going to say is that what's interesting about the compensation discussion is sports fans, football fans, we all can be influenced by a comment or a story like Peter Kings because the truth of the matter is when it comes to this stuff, even with the draft, you know, draft pick chart, the trade chart, which is really for draft choices, not players,

but we never really have a handle on what these players are worth. It's always a guessing game. You know, like, the guessing game right now is Antonio Brown is absolutely going to demand a first-round pick. But what if, you know, the craziness of Antonio Brown turns everybody off and no one's willing to give up anything other than a mid-second or early third? Like, we get fooled on compensation for players as fans all the time. So this comment that came out via Peter King's column from Kurt Warner, I guess. You see the, well, it made everybody. Go ahead.

There were two comments. There was Kurt Warner's and then there was an anonymous general manager. Okay. And Peter King. Now, Kurt Warner's comments give you paused. I mean, because you trust his... On the evaluation of the player, not necessarily the comp package. No, no, on the evaluation of the player, because for one thing, I think he lives there.

So he probably maybe saw more of Josh Rosen than a lot of people. And he's Kurt Warner. And his opinion carries weight. So I just wanted to make that comment that we often get. it wrong on the compensation piece. We're often way off. And it isn't crazy to think that if somebody evaluates Josh Rosen as the number one quarterback on their board and the, you know, a top 25 to top 30 player overall, and they have a need for quarterback that they wouldn't give up a first round pick. Like this notion over the last few days that it would be grossly overpaying to give up

anything more than a second for Josh Rosen is not accurate thinking. Personally, I don't think I would give up 15 overall for Josh Rosen because I don't think he'd be anywhere near the top 15 players on my board. He might be in the top 30 players. I don't do a board like you do. What if he's the top two quarterbacks? If there's a pass rusher, I don't want to get into this conversation, but if There's a, if Josh Allen's sitting there as the next, you know, Joey Bosa or the next von Miller, and I can get an absolute, you know, game changer as an edge pass rusher, and he's 20 spots ahead of the quarterback, who's my number two quarterback on the board, I'm taking the pass rusher.

So I think in this draft, number 15 overall, would be high. It doesn't mean that New England at 30 overall that they'd be far off. but I guess the compensation thing's the first thing. The second thing is, is that with quarterbacks, who the hell knows? Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of people out there that contact us on social media that know. They are. They're all geniuses at home.

Well, and sometimes it's because you and I both act like we're geniuses and that we've got it figured out. But no one really has it figured out when it comes to this position. So you have to be, you know, no one can ever be sure, but you have to be, you have to be in love. Like, you have to be absolutely at your highest level of confidence before you select a quarterback at 15. And I'm saying select a quarterback because if they trade 15, they're essentially, you know, taking Josh Rosen with the 15th pick.

Right. I'm not sure you've got to be in like, you know, I mean, because it's very hard to get more than one person in love with the same quarterback. You're probably right about that? You know, I mean, because these are consensus picks. Like, even the Redskins, I would assume that, you know, Dan Snyder's opinion counts, Bruce Allen opinions counts, Jace Gruden's opinions count, maybe even Doug Williams' opinions count. So it's hard to get everybody in love with one quarterback. Look, Robert Griffin III.

I mean, Mike wasn't in love with him. he basically said, you know, I can work with him, you know. But he gave him a warning. Yeah. So my point is it's hard to get everybody to love one guy. I understand that. That's why, you know, these organizations that, you know, go with, remember, it's, that's a redskin grade.

What the hell does that mean? The red skin grade over the years has been inaccurate more times than not. But it's why really you do, I think it's, you're better off having, that one personnel guru voice that trumps all others. You know, for a while. And the only, and it's the owner who has to say everybody else, this is our guy. We're backing him. We trust him.

We want your input. He wants to work with you. He wants your evaluations. But ultimately the buck stops with whomever that person is. The problem for Dan Snyder's first 10 years is that the buck stopped with him. and he couldn't figure out. I mean, he didn't know what he was talking about, nor did Vinnie Serrato. And then for the last 10 years, you've had Bruce Allen who airs on the side of,

we're not going to pay anybody any big money, but then also isn't a good evaluator on top of that. Remember what Mike Lombardy said. But Lombardy wasn't very good. I know, but they wouldn't even let him in the room in over. Exactly. So anyway, the Josh Rosen thing, first of all, it sounds like the Cardinals would, definitely need a number one. They're going to need something significant. I, and I'm sort of with them on this, and I'm with you, I'm with you on this too. There's no rush for them right now.

They can walk this up to, you know, draft day, but I would be very surprised if you could get Josh Rosen for a third round pick. So would I. I'd be very surprised. I think it's going to take a first round pick. I think there's going to be a bidding war for Josh. chosen. And you mentioned in New England. If I'm the Patriots, I mean, I'm offering, I'm offering a deal that includes a couple of twos. Well, I mean, the fact that... I mean, because the Patriots have no future at quarterback right now. Maybe Belichick doesn't care. Maybe what's going to happen is when Brady goes, Belichick goes, and what does he care who plays quarterback after that? But, you know, you have to evaluate him as that. I mean, you have to think that he is your

quarterback of the future before you even think about what he's worth. Yes. So now for a team like, you know, for teams that needs a developmental guy, somebody that can, you know, be mentored and groomed behind a really good starting quarterback, the, you know, that's different. But you have to believe that he will develop and he will eventually take over as your starter. That's interesting. So Andy Benoit said he's absolutely worth 15 overall. No brainer. Anything. I think he's got a sharp opinion. Anything you give up less, he said you celebrate that you got to steal. I loved Rosen at UCLA. I like Rosen for Jay's system. But, you know, if you make the deal for Rosen, then part of that should be recognition that he's a good fit for Jay Gruden system,

which then locks you into Jay for the foreseeable future, so that he has a chance to develop this quarterback. Tommy, you know what? And I was thinking about, you know, the Rosen for, a first. It would have been a hell of a lot better had the Redskins gotten Rosen last year, because to me, his upside is

better than Alex Smith's. But then again, his floor could be much lower than Alex Smith. Yeah, but actually, Andy Benoit said that he would be an upgrade from Alex Smith. Josh Rosen would be? I think that

the, I think there's a really good chance he would be an upgrade. Alex Smith, look, We can talk about he didn't turn the ball over. They were six and three, really six and four. I've made that point before. They weren't going to win the Houston game had he not gotten hurt. So he was really six and four.

It was a bad offensive football team with very subpar quarterbacking. The only thing he did well, and it was important, and I'm not minimizing the importance of not turning the ball over. But he did not give you a chance to be a playoff team. team that could win when they got to the playoffs. And I still argue that the playoffs would have still been less than a 50-50 shot had he stayed healthy the rest of the way, given the way their schedule was going and still another game with Dallas and two with Philadelphia and a road game at Tennessee, the whole nine yards. It's hard to have success when you always have to play from ahead. If you have to play from behind and you can't, you're very limited. And the Redskins could

not play from behind. They were very, the bottom line is, even when they were ahead, they were very limited offensively with Alex Smith. And part of it could have been that he just needed more time. Yeah. You know, it's not unfair to look at a quarterback in a new system in his first year and say, you know what, we got to judge him over two or three years. But the coach said at the beginning of year, there is no more time.

But the coach from what we've been told was the most frustrated of anybody out there, with Alex Smith as a starting quarterback. Anyway, can I get to a couple of things about Josh Rosen? If Benoit said that, I agree with that too. I agree that I would have rather had Rosen last year than Alex Smith. Yeah. Let's remember the one thing about Rosen as we're judging him.

Not that this is a big deal, but of that quarterback class last year, that highly rated quarterback class, he was the youngest of the bunch. What, age-wise? Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah.

So that's something to consider. He was younger than Darnold and Mayfield and Josh Allen. Yes. Now, again, let me... Jackson, Rudolph got there a lot of curbs. I didn't get a chance to read my Surgeon General's warning into this conversation. So I'll do it real quickly here, is that the Redskins are not an NFL franchise, and it really won't matter who plays quarterback for the Redskins moving forward.

Well, we can actually just shut down all sports talk radio and sports podcasts, if we're going to go with that. People still sell cigarettes, buddy. They just put a warning on the side. That's all. That's my warning on the side. I don't think they need Dr. C. Everett Coop, was that his name, to tell you that this organization isn't good right now or good for your health. Now, all that said, let me throw, and I've mentioned this to you last week, and nobody's paying attention to this, and rightfully so, because it's probably a little bit nuts. but Josh Rosen is a different kind of cat.

I know. Okay. Josh Rosen. I know what you're going to say. We did talk about this and I talked about it the other day without you. Is that you have to be sure that his political, social, progressive views don't, you know, conflict with the team name. Yeah, you really do. Look, again, at some point, they're going to run into that situation.

I agree with you. Sooner or later. I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I'm surprised it hasn't. Maybe it has, and we just don't know about it. That may be. And again, he's never given any indication that he has any thoughts about the name of this football team. And probably because he never had to think about it before.

But if you go back and you look at Josh Rosen's comments, he's, he is, he's not necessarily political, but he's a millennial with strong views. I mean, he wore that hat, the curse word of Trump. on the hat on the golf course. He did an interview with Sports Illustrated, very outspoken about the NCAA and amateur athletics. So he's, and he's a kid who comes from money who doesn't think he needs football.

Look, beyond the name thing. And Tommy, I think I would bet, and I'd love to know what the odds would be, but I think I'd wager on somebody along the way here in the last decade, a young player that they were interviewing to be drafted or a free agent that they were targeting that they had conversations with told them I don't want to play for your team because of your name I bet it's happened I'd be surprised if it hasn't happened do you think that they've asked prospects that I it doesn't matter if they've asked it's probably been offered up it probably

has yeah but but anyway that aside there are two other things with Rosen yeah you've mentioned both of them in that is he comes from affluence his father's doctor, he's had a concussion before, and you wonder whether or not if he were to have another serious head injury, concussion injury, if someone like that would be as interested in football. Also, I do think that you can project a little bit. There's nothing wrong with that when you're making a decision on a huge investment in a player to really project as this guy gets older, is he going to become more interested in other things that aren't football?

you know, maybe as an activist, whatever it is. But he's a different cat. He's very bright, not that there aren't other really bright quarterbacks who are interested and curious and perhaps want to get involved. And it doesn't mean he can't do both, that he can't play and be a Hall of Fame quarterback and at the same time be into a lot of other things. It doesn't mean that at all. But you do have to, when you're evaluating the possibility of making a huge investment,

All of those things play into it. It has to come in the play. It may be a small piece, but it has to come in the play. I still believe, based on the question that we asked each other the other day with the five options on the quarterback options, I still think it's going to come down to Ryan Fitzpatrick and hopefully from their, this is from their standpoint, you know, teeming up with an Antonio Brown. And the Antonio Brown thing apparently will come to a conclusion by the end of day tomorrow. or at some point over the weekend.

And the Redskins, according to most reports, are still one of those teams that are in the hunt. I think the most interesting team to sort of emerge here based on some of the reporting is Green Bay. Because Aaron Rogers is... I mean, I don't know about the Aaron Rogers Antonio Brown personality dynamic, but Aaron Rogers has never had anything like Antonio Brown.

if you gave him Antonio Brown and he was healthy for an entire season I mean that's one team where Antonio Brown would change their odds of winning the division or winning the NFC championship or winning the Super Bowl because it would be in combination with Aaron Rogers

more significantly than anywhere else that's a tough ask for a rookie coach like Matt Lefjord to have to have to manage that's a tough ad now you've got to figure that Aaron Rogers it's going to be doing the managing of Antonio Brown. Right. And maybe that gives you enough confidence to do that.

The Antonio, let's say the Redskins come out, come from, you know, the back row and become like, and make the deal for Antonio Brown. Isn't that, doesn't that mean that whatever they're probably going to have to give up to get Antonio Brown takes them out of the running for Josh Rosen? I agree with that. Okay.

I do agree with that. But the other part of that, too, is if you made the deal for Antonio Brown, let's say right now their primary goal is to extend Brandon Sheriff and execute a trade to bring Antonio Brown to Washington for number 15 overall. Let's just say that they're willing to give that up to get Antonio Brown here. Well, you don't have enough dry powder, I think. You know, you can always trade away next year's number one for Josh Rosen,

but you don't have enough, I think, to get Rosen away from the Cardinals or away from anybody else that might be interested. But the other side of that would be this. They think they're close, right? They think they're close to something. So do you put Josh Rosen out there in year two, first year in a new system, second offensive coordinator in two years,

second head coach in two years and expect him to be ready to lead a team that's close to the promised land? Or do you go get Ryan Fitzpatrick? Maybe you can do both. Well, you can do both. I mean, because Rosen's contract isn't going to be that much, but you then have to give up a package that would probably include next year's number one, potentially.

Yeah. Or maybe you could get them for a two and a three this year. They don't have a four. Maybe a second and a third would do it more than number 15 overall. I don't know, but we keep coming back to they're close, and I believe that they believe they're close to what, who knows, but I think it's really to being a playoff team. What's the better choice next year to try to go really make a run?

Is it Josh Rosen or is it Ryan Fitzpatrick? I think if you're trying to get people interested in next year and make this playoff run, it's got to be Ryan Fitzpatrick. If you're interested in building a team for the future that will have sustained success, it should be Josh Rosen. I think that's right, but maybe they believe after watching the tape and evaluating and Jay evaluating, hopefully, that he in this system with a full off season with Antonio Brown on the field, that they've got a chance with him. I don't know. I would still say my guess today is no on Rosen that that doesn't happen and no on Antonio Brown.

I would say both of those, yes. But I do still think that the quarterback solution is going to be solved through free agency, a veteran free agent that, you know, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not for somebody like Fitzpatrick or Bridgewater who would be brought in to start. And then again, or on top of that, I'm sorry, they could also draft a young quarterback by moving back in the first round and taking Daniel Jones or not with the 15th. But perhaps not with the 15th overall, unless a guy they really liked, say Drew Locke, dropped to 15. From what I'm hearing, that's not going to happen, that he's not going to drop to 15. But again, the opinions are varied. Like, if you just sat there for two hours today and read all of the quarterback evaluations

and all of the reporting on the quarterbacks and what certain teams think and what certain teams don't think, you'd be thoroughly confused because there are some people that believe that you, Drew Locke may be the number two quarterback after Kyler Murray, but others think that Kyler Murray is just a smokescreen. It's that time of year. By the time we get to mid-April, we'll have an idea, a much better idea, because free agency will have already been a month, we will be a month into free agency, the trades, the significant trades, will have more likely than not already happened. It's this way every year. It never ends up being what you think it is in January, February, and even early March.

So if they do not have a free agent quarterback signed by, let's say, a week before the draft, and Josh Rosen is still with the Cardinals and their entertaining offers, that would significantly increase the chances that they're going to make a move. It depends on what they deem him to be worth and what the Cardinals are willing to deal him for. I mean, if there's a huge divide between the Cardinals needing something and the first round and the Redskins having a third round grade on him. I mean, if you have a third round grade on him, why aren't you taking a quarterback in this draft before him? Again, this is, the evaluation process to me is really simple when it comes to Josh Rosen. You put him on your

2019 draft board. Where is he on your 2019 draft board? And then that's the value that you assigned to him vis-a-vis a trade. Like if you have a second round grade on him, then you'll give up, you're willing to give up a second rounder for him. If you have a first round grade on him, you know, out of the 30, you know, he's a top 32 player for you on your board, then you think about giving up a first round pick for him. I don't think it's that hard.

I just have no idea what they're thinking. You know, we talk about, and I bring up and we talk about Josh Rosen being a different kind of cat. Kyle and Murray, apparently, is a different kind of cat. I want to save the conversation about Charlie Casserly for a little bit later, because I think you and I both really, like Charlie and have an idea in our minds as to the type of quality person he is. And he took

a beating yesterday a little bit on social media and by others. By particularly Florio, pro football talk. So we're going to, we'll get back to that. But I wanted to get to Buck. I'm not sure. I'm assuming that most of you have saw the report from Dan Steinberg late yesterday that Steve Buckhantz, who is, I mean, I'm not objective when it comes to Buck, he was the first person I ever worked for. He was my first job, you know, out of Maryland. And he was a great. He and Ernie Bauer were for young people in their early 20s to have Buck and Ernie Bauer as their first bosses couldn't have been better. You talk about two high quality people who encourage young people, who gave responsibility to young people. It was just, it was

awesome and not everybody at 22, 23 years old has that kind of first experience in their first job. I would bet most people have the opposite of that. But they were always incredibly, you know, not only smart and encouraging, but, you know, secure. You know, like they just went out of their way to help a lot of people. I mean, look at all the people that worked for Buck over the years. Scott Van Pelt, Gus Johnson, you know, Chick Hernandez, like people who have been, you know, really successful on television over the years, all worked and started with Buck and Ernie. But anyway, the story was that after Buck finishes this 22nd year

of being the Wizards Play-by-Play Voice, that they've notified him, the team has notified him, or I guess NBC Sports Washington has notified him that the network's not picking up his option year. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. And they specifically said,

that they were, or Buck was informed that they just at this time were not prepared to pick up his option, but left a return as a possibility. So it sounds to me like when you hear that, you know, on a play-by-play guy like Buck, who's become an icon, who's become, you know, sort of a local legend, you know, in doing Wizards games. And before that, Buck was, you know, the lead sports anchor at WTTG-5. Channel 5, which, you know, back, it was Buck, it was George Michael, it was Glenn Brenner, and it was Frank Herzog. Yeah.

You know, it's quite a time in this town. So Buck was known long before he became the play-by-play voice of the Wizards. And let's remember, Buck wrote one of the biggest stories in this town. The Joe Gibbs retiring story. And I remember, I remember another smaller story in particular that really grinded me. What? Buck was the one who broke the story about Bill Collins having a deal to move the Houston Astros to DC.

Was he the Pager guy? Yeah. Yeah, the Northern Virginia the pager guy. That he had a deal to buy the Astros and move them to D.C. Buck was the one

who broke that story. I kind of remember that. Yeah. I'll never forget that because it grinded the heck out of me. I couldn't believe I got beat on it. But it wasn't. Well, what happened was

Bud Seelich put the kibosh on it pending a referendum on a new stadium in Houston. The idea was if they didn't pass the new stadium referendum, then he would go ahead and okay the deal, and they just barely passed the stadium referendum. But he broke that story.

Let me start on Buck, because I've known him forever, and he's a friend. I'm not objective when it comes to this, but I also feel like, you know, as a sports fan and a sports media person, it's a subjective thing. It's a totally subjective thing. I understand that when it comes to who you like and who you don't like in any of this sports media stuff, the stuff we do, this stuff Buck does, you know, the stuff that, you know, NBC sports, Washington, whatever. But I will just tell you this because it's not just my opinion, but, you know, it's Scott Van Pelt's opinion and Stanford Steve's opinion and people

at ESPN who sit there and watch NBA games every night and listen to play by play guys. Buck is really good at what he does. He is one of the best. I, his style personally, is what I love in a play-by-play guy. He is understated for most of the game. He lets the action really speak. He's got a lot of, you know, Summerall's a legend, but

Summerall used to let the action go. And I know Buck's a huge Summerall fan, and Buck's style is to really let it breathe. And it's so perfect. It's, again, subjective thing. It's the way I like it. But then when the moment calls

for it, he's great. Yes. You know, and he's great in the big moments. I personally can't stand guys. Like, I know a lot of you love Kevin Harlan. I don't like to hear the guy that's hysterical. And, you know, every play is for the, you know, championship of the world, and it's early in the first quarter.

That style I don't love. Some of you do. It's, again, it's a matter of opinion. Buck is really good. People who know this stuff know how good he is. This is not a case. Understand this of him losing his fastball. He has his fastball right now. There are guys out there. And you know what? He's had his fastball for a long time on a team surrounded with singles hitters and strikeout guys. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's the only guy bringing it.

If this team had been good during his 22 years, this wouldn't even be a conversation. No, of course not. Because he'd be an even bigger legend as the boy. of the team. But Tommy, the first point, it's really important. People that know this stuff, they know how good Buck is. Buck is appreciated and respected by people in the play-by-play world. Trust me on this. He is excellent. This is not a case of Jack Buck at the end of his career. I mean, what a great voice. What a Hall of Fame broadcaster. But you didn't know who had the ball where and how much time there was in his last few years. years. Hell, Dick Stockton, God bless him. He's still working. He has lost his fastball. Yes, he has.

All right, there are guys out there that if this were to happen to them, you know, a lot of us would take a step back and say, yeah, I get it. He's just not that good anymore. Buck is still really, really good, has not lost his fastball. A couple of other things. You and I both know this from direct experience that a lot of times in media, in management of media, and I'm going to specifically talk about what I know and what Tommy knows and what Buck knows, that they miss out on this relationship that a broadcaster has developed with his or her audience. And they think it's easy to replace with, you know, a lower cost alternative, or in this case, probably a younger alternative. We'll get to that in a moment because they're so cutting edge over there at

monumental. But it's not, you take Buck off that broadcast. You got a lot of people that are tuning into your shitty team for a long period of time because of Buck and Phil. And now Buck and Kara, who by the way, I think is excellent and I think they have developed some pretty good chemistry. I miss Phil. You know, that's, that's, you know, Buck and Phil had an unbelievable chemistry. It was one of the best listens. And many nights you're listening. You're listening. to that broadcast just for them because the product is so awful. But Carol Lawson is good. She knows the game and I think she and Buck have really hit their stride this year together. I personally do. And I'm not saying that because I prefer it over Philin Buck. But Karen Buck are

pretty good. And I think that speaks to Buck because Buck has this versatility of being able to work with different types of people. He's done it his whole life. So he's good. He's made it work. And she's good. She's got a lot of talent. And so I actually enjoy listening to Carol Lawson because she really knows the game. But people in management, especially, you know, you come in, your new management or you're younger and you've got these, you know, they've got their own ideas and changes. And they want themselves to be identified as geniuses rather than recognizing in many cases that the best idea is to leave it be. That's the best idea. that there's a relationship that Buck has developed, you know, over the years.

It's a comfort level. People count on Buck to be there. And you don't, you know, Johnny Most and Chick Hearn basically called games until they were dead. These play-by-play jobs are very unique. These guys become part of the fabric of the community of those teams. Absolutely they do. There's no job like that. There isn't.

Especially local, let's make it clear, local play by play. Local play by play. Who comes into your living room 82 times a year. So, you know, I know that you've seen it here with this particular organization. You know, they want to be so AOL technology, cutting edge, hiring Christy Tolliver, hiring Kara Losson. Kara's a good hire, don't get me wrong. You know, pushing this sports betting thing.

Seriously, as you and I have discussed. They're so, Ted's so naive as to the impression he's giving off to a lot of people who know better. He comes off as either disingenuous or a naive dope pusher. It's thoughtless. Yeah, I mean, utterly thoughtless, not to mention it's embarrassing for a certain crowd to look at him do this because he doesn't realize this. But the smart guys, the wise guys, look at him as the mark. like they would book his action tomorrow at discounted Vigs until the cows came home. He would say get you and all of, and Zach, your son and all of their friends,

we're booking all of your action, and we'll give you a discounted Vig to do it. All right, because they really do come off to those of us who have experience with this on both sides as utter naive marks. Or he's just disingenuous. Yes. Because he's... It doesn't particularly care about... Right.

About the damage. How about stop talking about sports betting and get your goddamn basketball team better? When he's not talking about sports betting, he's talking about his e-sports team. Right. Team Liquid. Of course. You know, cutting edge, new, you know, and you know what? New thought, out-of-the-box thought.

It's not, it's a good thing. I get it. And I get that risks taken often, you know, generate huge rewards. But your primary business is not sports betting. it's not e-sports, it's your hockey team and your NBA team. And your NBA team is an embarrassment at times and has been. And you know it. Ted knows it. It's a sleeping giant in this town.

If it ever became really good, it would be a big effing deal. But he's more interested, at least he's giving off the signal as he sits on the team's bench during basketball games. That still blows me away. He's the only owner in sports. who sits on his team's bench during a game. I'm not criticizing it. I just find it interesting that nobody seems to make that big of a deal. I've mentioned it a lot over the years.

It's just unique. I mean, even Mark Cuban doesn't sit on his team's bench. He sits a row or two behind it. You know, Arthur Blank is sometimes on the sideline. That's probably the closest thing because Jerry doesn't even come to the sideline until the end of a game. Ted is sitting next to his head coach, next to the co-coaching staff. Do people realize that? Maybe not this year, because not enough people are watching.

If they're watching, they're watching for Buck and Kara, but he sits on the team's bench. Anyway, stop with the sports betting, stop with the cutting edge thinking when it comes to announcing teams. You know, God knows what you're going to get. I mean, you might get some 28-year-old female play-by-play voice next year. You know, I don't know what they're thinking, but don't fix what ain't broke. this ain't broke he is an asset to your broadcast and to your team and so i hope that they come to their senses i don't know that they will but this this is not someone that has lost their fastball that isn't cutting edge enough that doesn't understand esports and and sports betting enough

to call your games all right that's another mistake they will make if they turn these broadcasts into, you know, oh my God, right now, you know, the live line is minus three and a half and the live money lines plus 175. You're talking about a niche audience for that. Give us the games. We can follow what the in-game live, you know, betting line is. I do it all the time, and I don't need them to tell me on television what it is. All right. Okay. I just, this is, this disgusts me. It disgusts me because I was upset about Phil, but Buck, and Phil hadn't lost his fastball either, don't get me wrong, but Buck is truly one of the really, really excellent play-by-play guys in all of sports. And look, Buck could have done a lot of other things over the years and probably

been a national play-by-play voice, but this was his dream job. This is what he wanted. This is his hometown. This was his favorite team. This is his dream job. And look, I mean, maybe Buck doesn't want to do it for that much longer. I have no idea. Buck's a young, you know, 60-something, very young 60-something. He just got married a few years ago for the first time. But I really hope that they come to their senses and that we don't end up losing out as fans to, you know, some sort of AOL out-of-the-box, cutting-edge technology, you know, want-to-be genius decision-maker.

because it would be the wrong decision in this particular case, I think it would be. You know, unless Ted is so tone deaf, and you have to assume that he is remarkably tone deaf because Ernie Grunfeld still has a job. He's also remarkably cheap, I think, and that's one of the reasons that Ernie Grunfeld probably has a job, and one of the reasons why Steve Buchance, who probably is not among the highest paid play-by-play guys in the league, Eagle already. He's probably, Ted is probably going to want to get cheaper. Now, maybe it's in part with an NBC Sports Washington decision

with new management there. Right. But I suspect that a lot of this was like the decision to replace Phil. You know, Zach Leon says basically flexing his inherited muscles. Oh, that's pretty funny. I mean, basically that, that's it. Is that the only way

he got that muscle? I don't know anything about him. Well, I mean, that's, look, he He's having more and more of a role within the monumental organization. I know he takes a lot of meetings with media companies and things like that. So this is his thing. What they're doing now, this is his thing. Yeah, but you just said something. You said NBC Sports Washington, which does have newer management anyway.

Yeah, they do. But it's Ted's network. It's Ted's network for all intents and purposes. And, you know, what they love to do over there is they love to hire 23-year-old kids in polo shirts with Instagram followers. You know, that's what they love to do right now because they're cheap. And people, you know, again, Bill Gates said the famous line, content is king. Bad content is king. You see, people don't recognize the difference between a buck and some kid they bring in with not a lot of experience.

They don't recognize the differences. They don't appreciate the nuances. They don't appreciate the insight. I mean, one of the things, if I'm right, I mean, you tell me, Buck is a basketball referee. Oh, yeah. He understands the game. Oh, yeah. No, Buck was a longtime referee.

Yeah. So, I mean, he had. Referee professional summer league games at Urban Coalition. So he has a particular understanding of this game. And you're not going to be able to repeat that with some younger, cheaper kid. And of all things. I mean, this franchise is reviled right now. I mean, it's really.

I would love to watch a match race in what franchises hated more of the wizards or the Redskins right now in this town because it'd be a dead heat. And the one thing you feel good about is Buck. Is Buck. I mean, my God, the one reason to tune in is Steve Buckhands.

And it's like they're trying to turn off more fans. And the fact that Ernie Grunfeld has a job and Steve Buckehands may not is a mortal sin. Again, look, it's a criminal offense. Somebody should go to jail. Somebody should go to jail for that. It's, you know, I know, I can feel some people saying, oh, my God, this is your boy, you're coming to his defense,

it's a media guy and the whole thing. But, you know, there are situations where, you know, you would come to the defense but understand the decision, this is not one of those cases. No, this doesn't make sense, except if you're trying to cheap out. You're trying to cheap out. I think it would be partly to go, you know,

in a lower cost, you know, mode. But I think it just goes hand in hand with, they really want to be perceived more as this cutting-edge group rather than having a championship contending NBA team. I think they get a rise and are so impressed with themselves over, you know, Christy Tolliver and, you know, taking these, you know, cutting edge new, you know, out-of-the-box, you know, paths, which I'm not against. I love people that think out-of-the-box.

But I also think that there comes a time where the out-of-the-box direction doesn't make any sense. based, you know, compared side by side to the direction you're going in right now, but it's like they're more involved in wanting to look like they're on the, the frontier of this sports betting, you know, wave. They're on, they've got a female broadcaster, they've got a female coach, you know, we're going to go young and who knows who would replace Buck next year. I can tell you this. There is nobody that lives within 500 miles. of this town that does play by play that could ever replace Buck and do it better than he does. Nobody.

Maybe they're thinking about somebody else that's up and coming that's doing, you know, I don't know who's doing the Clippers games or who's doing the Grizzlies games. Maybe there's somebody they really like that would be 50% cheaper who's really good. Go online. And I think Ted has a network called Monumental. I'm not sure. It's like an online network. You know, let's go online and look at some of the kids that they've got on.

that network for the little like little uh the shows that they've got there maybe he's going to promote one of those guys well i hope they don't and and you know what maybe they feel like they have a diamond in the rough maybe one of those polo wearing you know deep into their iPhone you know 26 year olds maybe the guy's been doing practice games on the side maybe with phil maybe he's been doing them with phil and they are blown away by how good he is and by the way what he'll cost yes next year. But I do, Tommy, not to beat a dead horse. I think this is, this goes, you know, hand in hand with this impression that they want, this, this brand that they want associated with themselves. And it's the worst smarter than everybody else brand. And what I want as a sports fan in D.C. and as a

Wizards fan and a die-hard lifelong Wizards fan is I want all of the focus to go on fixing that, not figuring out what kind of sports book you're going to have at Capital One Arena so all of your AOL friends can come in and take down the D.C. lottery or whoever's running, whoever's the house for D.C. sports betting, because it ain't going to happen. But I just wish that the focus would be, hey, you know why we're smart and you know why you think we're smart because we win yeah that'd be nice that it would be much better that would be right now all that said i think the groundswell of outrage could could change their mind and and you know unless there's so much damage done already that it won't matter well you know part of the problem is that when you know the timing of news like this is always important right now

the wizards are floundering they won last night i watched the game God, they're a horrendous defensive team. And somebody tweeted me and said, why did you put this on Scott Brooks recently? Well, because when there's no effort defensively, when there's disinterest defensively, and there's no punishment, there's no accountability for being disinterested, that's on the coach. You find people that are actually going to give effort. There are times when the effort and the interest level on defense is totally non-existent. Now, they are an exciting offensive team to watch at times.

Chabari Parker's really interesting. I'm not going to get sidetracked, but God, is he so much more explosive as a basketball player and athlete than I ever realized? Anyway, I digress. Back to this. I just hope that they, the point that I was making is that the timing is everything, and right now, no one's paying attention to the Wizards more likely than not. So you have your buck fans that are tuned in.

You know, the broadcast fans that are tuned in. They're not tuning in because they think the wizards are in the midst of a magical run, even though they're still, you know, theoretically in the playoff race. But it would be much better if the news came out when there was a lot of interest in the team. Then you would have the outrage. Like last year, they were on their way to the postseason again. And not a great year, but Wall had been hurt. but there was more interest last year in the year before in the team.

Like there was outrage over Phil, right? Yeah, but the timing wasn't great. It would have been better had it happen during this seven game series with the Celtics when you have maximum audience. I think this will get more outrage. For one thing, it'll seen as a double blow. It'll be connected to the Phil decision. And the presence of Ernie Grunfeld still, I think it accentuates the outrage.

I mean, that's part of the equation. As part of the equation is, people are angry that you could even consider getting rid of Steve Buckhands when the worst general manager this town has ever seen still has a job. Ted has at times been incredibly loyal. I mean, Ernie is the perfect example. He's the best example of true loyalty. And part of that is cost, I'm sure. But I don't know where they, I mean, it's a conversation you'd love to. have with them in terms of their thinking. And maybe one of the reasons that they said

were not picking up your option now is to gauge reaction. Maybe. And then react to it. But there's... I think there'll be strong reaction. It's already been. Tremendous reaction. I think so, too. Massive mistake in my view. Again, like, if I didn't even know Buck and I was just a basketball fan that watched their games and somebody said, what do you think of him? You're it's sports fan, you're a basketball fan, you're in the media. You've done play by, I've done play by play before. What do you think? And I would just say, well, it's, I mean, what are you talking about?

He's one of the best. Yeah. He is, there are only 29 other guys that have this gig in the NBA, and Buck is one of the best. It is a very, it's a specialty job. It is a, it's a skill that, you know, it's a skill that you have, but you don't get good until you're hundreds and thousands of reps in. Right. So whomever they bring in, unless it's some, you know,

incredible, you know, prodigy and wonderkin, it's not going to equal what they have now. Maybe they don't care. Maybe, you know, the only other thing I thought about, and I don't think I've mentioned, is that the whole sports betting thing, Ted the Bucky, you know, Ted, Ted the Buckey, Ace Rothstein.

Yeah, Ace Rothstein. Ted the Bucke is just going to go straight, gambling and he's looking for somebody to call the games that's going to be, you know, to really understand, you know, odds and point spreads and live betting. Well, why wouldn't that be you? I wouldn't do it. I would never take Bucks spot. But to be fair, who would be better at that than me?

All right, let me tell you about one donation. Wait, one last thing. You know, green turtles exiting. They're getting rid of green turtle at the arena. Ted's buying out the least. So that's going to be the sports book? That's the thought. You know, hanging out in a sports book and watching games and being able to walk to a window is a lot of fun.

A lot of fun. Now, for a lot of people like me, we don't need the betting window. We have access to getting down on games. But it's always been fun to go to Vegas with a bunch of friends and hang out in a sports book on an NFL Sunday in particular. Absolutely. just a football weekend. The football weekend in Vegas and a sports book is the best. I mean, I've been to every weekend, Tommy.

To me, a fall weekend with a big fight is the best. You know, and there was always that fight in November, where you would have a college football Saturday, an NFL Sunday, and the fight Saturday night, and you're in Vegas, and it's just a hell of a weekend. The Super Bowl in Vegas is great. That's a lot of fun. It's actually better than going to the Super Bowl itself.

We used to, a bunch of friends of mine would say, you know, somebody who said, you guys going to the Super Bowl? Yep, we are. We're going to the Super Bowl in Vegas because it was much better in Vegas. And then the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, you know, the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, round of 64, round of 32, you know, before you get to the Sweet 16. That's incredible. That's an unbelievable weekend.

That's an unbelievable weekend. The problem with that weekend, and I haven't been out there for that weekend several years now, but it got so crowded. No matter where you were, it was so crowded. The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 round, you know, that next weekend was actually a little bit easier, but you didn't have the games all day long. Right. But anyway, all right.

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86690 Nation or Windonation.com and tell them that I sent you. All right, let's bring in Scott Van Pelt to get his thoughts on a lot of topics, including we'll do some Maryland basketball with Scott here in a moment. But, you know, I mentioned, you know, you and Gus Johnson and Chick Hernandez, and, you know, Buck's got quite the tree of people that went on and were successful in television. And so you knew Buck. You worked for Buck. You interned for them when you worked. were at Maryland, and you know the news that came out yesterday that they didn't pick up his option for next year. Now, they're not, they didn't say definitively he won't be back, but they're,

you know, essentially considering other options. I know you wanted to say something about it. Yeah, this is idiotic, and I admitted as much on Twitter when I responded to the news I saw yesterday from the transcriber, or is what you call him, Stanford? Steinberg, yeah, the transcriber, yeah, the transcriber. that I'm hopelessly biased because of my association with Buck. I interned for him. We remain very close friends. I adore the guy as a human being.

And as a broadcaster, he is as identifiable with them and the dagger calls and the years of not just like showing up and doing the job, but doing it well and having a connection and a passion for. a product that frankly has not always lent itself to having a connection and a passion. And I don't know what goes into these decisions. I don't know who makes them. But, I mean, Phil Shemir was beloved, and they decided to go in a different direction. They're Carol Oss and I happen to know and be a friend of and admire her work. So, I mean, you know, care is great.

But, like, you move on from Phil. You have a fan base. It's like what? but Buck is I don't know man like I it infuriates me it's just so freaking stupid and and like what are gonna do

he's not good enough is he make too much money like figure this out do do the smart thing listen to your fans who are saying to you have you have you heard one dissenting voice like hey and I'm he's flipping or maybe a new book has anybody said that no because I haven't seen one

I haven't seen it and I mean social media is not the place to go for positive feedback, as we know. But this is a united front across your fan base and from people in media like me and you and so many others. What are you even doing here? So I hope they listen. They probably won't because they're pretty tone deaf, it seems organizationally. But if you get rid of buck, we'll have fun.

Good luck with whatever's next. You know, they are remarkably tone deaf because I'm still betting. that the groundswell of outrage, and it's a tremendous amount of outrage, will eventually force them to change their minds. But the one thing they did do, they got people passionate about the basketball team again. I mean, well, if that's all you got to do is use your loyal, your loyal play-by-play guy's bait to get people pissed off. Well, great. That's what you've done. So just, so actually take the feedback. You know, the thing about business, I would think,

It's hard in many cases to actually get, you know, you send out surveys and you send out things. You're trying to gauge. What do people care about? And it's hard to find out because people don't want to answer surveys on the phone. They don't want to fill out things if you leave them on your seat. But this is real genuine feedback you're getting from your customers about how they feel about this. So you can do one or two things. You can ignore it and put your head in the sand and do the stupid thing.

Or you can, you know, that was foolish. We should pick up his option. This guy is identified with our team. and we're not going to alienate our fan base. That's good. That's what it comes down to right there. That's the decision. I mean, you know, if we didn't have the relationship that we had with Buck,

but we watched him and we knew what he is, which is very good at what he does, you'd have the conversation about, look, there are people over the years that are also, you know, identifiable with a team and the market. you realized at a certain point when they got to a certain age, perhaps, that they had lost their fastball. Like, they weren't really that good anymore. But even those guys survived, whether it was Johnny Most or Chick Hearn, or I can't even, I'm sure there are hundreds of college guys, because that's where these guys really have become iconic and legendary that were, you know, in those positions long after they were really, really good. Buck is great at what he does. It's a subjective thing. I know. I get it. But you and I have talked about this. Stanford Steve has mentioned before.

You guys watch a lot of games. Buck is one of the best. Why would you part with that? And the other part of it too, Scott, is that imagine, and I said this to Buck, because I have talked to him, imagine if for the last 22 years he had been calling games for a team that was really good. This wouldn't even be a conversation right now. I don't think.

although with Ted and his son and these, you know, they were such out of the box, cutting edge thinkers. I mean, this is what they're impressed with. They want to be viewed as on the cutting edge of everything. You know, Christy Tolliver was hired. You know, Carol Lawson, and I think Cara does a really good job, you know, they are on the forefront, you know, I've told you about this. Ted's basically, he sounds like a bookmaker.

He pushes sports betting so much that, you know, there's a naivist. to it, as we both know, but it's off-putting how much he does that while his basketball team is a, you know, is a subpar product. But the whole thing just reeks of we want to be cutting edge. We want to be young. We want to be new. Don't fix what ain't broke. Bucks one of the best. He's not an owner. He's a visionary. Of course, and he wants to be viewed that way. He's a visionary. Well, listen, and I will, I'll just to reiterate, you know, you and me, Kevin, are, we're hopeful biased here. So if you want to disappoint us because of our personal

relationship with Buck, who I love the guy and I'm in his debt and always will be, for not just for having me in to cut some highlights, but just for always being as kind and as supportive as he's been throughout my career. But how do you pay that back?

Well, you pay it back right now by being loud and I'm thinking about, I want to write something for the show tonight about this. Like, this is just stupid. This is a guy that has been identified, and now I'm just reiterating myself, but he's been identified with his team, he's been loyal to this team, and he has been great. It's not some guy that's just there out of nostalgia because he's been there forever,

and he just plugs in the IFB, which is the thing you shove in your ear, and he sits down, and does a crappy job for a crappy team. No, that's not what this is. So, you know, you've got a chance. You can listen. You can listen to your fans who are telling you how they feel, but they probably won't. I don't. They're the smartest guys in the room.

I don't think they'll be this. I don't think they'll be this tone deaf. I can't believe I still think that, but I just can't see how human beings would be this tone deaf. But then, you know, then Ernie Grunfell wouldn't have a job if they weren't tone deaf. You know, the green turtle is right, you know, adjacent to the Capital One Arena. It's in the building. Yeah, it's actually in the building.

So Ted apparently bought that lease out, and that's going to end up being his big sports book. You know, I can't wait to go down to that sports book. and fire away. Maybe you and I can get a job as greeters. Well, maybe I can talk to some of his really smart analytics people and come up with a much better way to bet to make money doing this. Because there's access to all that information. Vegas doesn't have.

You're going to have. Yeah, right, because it's never factored into the price, ever. No. But he's smarter than everybody else. He'll learn. Dave buck. Yeah, exactly. There you go.

I'm with you. Before we get to Maryland, And, you know, LeBron, obviously, last night, and we have not talked about this, Tommy, and I haven't yet on the show, but he passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list last night in a loss to Denver. The Lakers are in total freefall. And, you know, there's been so much conversation this week, a lot of it on your network about, you know, the way LeBron's handled this losing streak, the fact that he's more likely than not going to go to the postseason in L.A. and how the things turned into a disaster. And some have said, this is a season. that will hurt his legacy in some way. Do you agree with that? I think given that this is the year that we're looking through, right? This is a lens that's right in front of our eye, that it's impossible to discount what this year has been.

That said, we need to know more about how things go from Los Angeles. Are they able to attract the ancillary star to him that gives them a chance to make the playoffs and compete. Because right now, given this last few weeks, it's impossible to discount what they've been, which is horrible. And that's just horrible, but he's been the guys that walked out to court at the end of the Bucks game.

They lost to Atlanta, and they lost to the sons, and he's thrown it off the backboard. Just like, what the hell is this, right? Yeah. Does this last couple of minutes change what he's been for the past? you know, 15 years. It's a student, in my opinion.

But the bigger, the question to me is more interesting, honestly, Kevin, than the idea of his legacy is what this year's been like. Imagine your Kuzma or Ball or, you know, one of these young guys on the team that you're like, man, we're going to be so much fun. And then actually, no, you realize you just kind of exist in his orbit. And then you were bait for this trade. And then Jeannie Buss goes to this Sloan Analytics convention. tells us all, no, that was fake news.

Like, oh, so you guys really weren't trying to trade everybody you had for Anthony Davis? Like, don't use that catch-all term now. It becomes like anything you don't want to be true. You just say fake news. I mean, that's ridiculous. So the whole year in Los Angeles was from what the storyline that was sold to is what it's actually been are diametrically opposed. And that is what is interesting to me.

What we thought it would be versus what it actually was. Yeah, there are some people that actually didn't, that saw this coming, and I give them all the credit in the world, because I absolutely thought this would be a playoff team. And I was actually interested to see he and Rondo on the court together, because I think the two highest IQ players are certainly among them in the league. But it's shocking to me. And here's why. Like, he's carried much less to the NBA finals, and he can't carry this to just an eight-seed. Like, it just doesn't seem like it would have been possible unless, like the only way I would have said this is possible is I would have

assumed that LeBron had a huge drop-off. And that really isn't the case either. I mean, he hasn't been great and he's been hurt and he's missed a lot of games, more, I think, this year than never before. But it is a shocker to me. I mean, I'm dead wrong about it. I forget what your opinion was if you thought they would be a playoff team. I figured they'd be a playoff team. But But when the summer came and it was, oh, they're going to get Kauai or some other star, and it was actually, no, it's Lance Stevenson and Javale McGee and Rondo, and you're thinking, well, who's going to shoot it, right? I mean, there were some questions with that.

And then how do these young guys sort of fit into the orbit of LeBron? Because even you say he's had worse teams, even when he had lesser talent pools with teams like Cleveland, and at least for some veterans that fit in to specific roles where it all made sense. This is just kind of a pile of stuff, and it doesn't necessarily fit into a puzzle, so to speak. So, look, I didn't think they'd be this. I didn't think they'd be an absolute catastrophe in March, but that's what they are. Yeah, I mean, it's, and I think the NBA playoffs, I love, and I'm going to watch regardless, but this will hurt the, I mean, the ratings haven't been great,

the NBA playoffs to begin with here in recent years. This is going to be a big hit to April and May in June, don't you think? Yeah, well, playoff ratings have been fine. The ratings this year have been way down because the way TV ratings work, and this is boring probably for people, but it's mostly based on getting good lead ends and then holding lead ends, and when you have LeBron and an East Coast time frame in an East Coast window, you create a big rating, and then you hang on to that rating through the later games.

Well, if your early ratings aren't as good, well, it's not as easy to attract the viewers later at night. If you're talking to a 10-30-tip game. And then if the Lakers aren't that good, then it's not as big an attraction. And then we've had countless examples of LeBron's playing in that Saturday night window against Golden State, but he's got load management where he played the night before, but not against Golden State on ABC. So, again, this is probably boring to people that are listening. But the ratings in the regular season have been off. to a large degree because of LeBron being out west.

Now not having him at all, will, I think, will hurt. And there's also just this overarching thing in the NBA where everybody just assumes Golden State's going to win. And I think that there's probably fatigue with that. But then they go out and have a game against Boston where they get destroyed against a team that we've been waiting to be good, and you think, oh, maybe Boston's good. Maybe there'll be enough of these other storylines that create interest.

But in a much shorter answer, which I'm not good at, Not having LeBron in the playoffs is obviously bad for the NBA, bad for TNT, bad for us, to the ESPN. Yeah, and the NBA faces for the first time in, well, nine years, the possibility of a final without, not just without LeBron, but potentially with a smaller market team like Milwaukee in the NBA finals. Against maybe another, not that Denver is a small market team, but imagine if Denver pulled off an upset and it was a Denver Milwaukee NBA finals. I mean, we know right now, regardless of the fact that actually there are players on both teams that are fun to watch.

Nobody knows that. Go ahead. Did you want to say something about that? Sounds like you're a best of talk. I mean, if you have Milwaukee and you have Janice, you know, you've got a true superstar that I think people know. Denver would be a tougher sell. People don't know Nicole Yolkich is an excellent player.

They don't know that Coach Malone's done an amazing job with that team, which he has. But if you get like, say, Houston, say it's Houston. Say something happens in Golden State gets upset by Houston. Well, then you've got a superstar player. Houston's a top five market, blah, blah, blah. But just not having LeBron opposite that is a giant hit. There's no doubt.

That's true. All right, you were there Sunday when Maryland lost to Michigan, and they get Minnesota here at the end. It took a little bit of, I mean, it was deflating, I think, for a lot of Maryland fans to lose that game. And there was some momentum had they won it, what's your general thoughts right now on what happens Sunday and you know what they're saying about Turgeon, a lot of people in the Maryland basketball fan base, they're frustrated.

What do you think? Yeah, Sunday was frustrating. You know, that's the game that you would have loved for them to have won. Michigan's excellent, but they had enough droughts themselves that Maryland was unable to take advantage of, and that's the kind of game with, you know, they had the 100-year celebration and Saturday night. You had a bunch of great players back. You had a packed building. Look, hey, Michigan had plenty of fans there. They've got a huge alumni base in the area. So it was actually kind of cool. You know, you had a bunch of Michigan fans in there.

So there was some cheers when they scored. And then late, obviously, they kind of took over the building there because they played so well down the stretch. But, I mean, in the grand scheme of things, all the Maryland fans out there that somehow forget that since the title, the program has gone to two sweet 16s and think that a birthright is something more than being a tournament team, which they are this year, I think you need to just reacquaint yourself with the reality of what has been since 2002. I'm not saying you can't be frustrated about the way games go and this and that, by all means. But just, I think just be careful what you wish for when you're all bitter about being in the tournament and probably being on the five line. I saw people on the Maryland Shepard.

board said, are they going to be a seven? I'm like, do you have any idea what you're talking about? Marquette, Iowa State, they're supposed to be on the four line. They can't win games. Like, it's going to, first of all, I don't know how they fill out the bracket because everybody loses, you know, no one can win games. And there aren't a whole lot of teams around the four or five line where Maryland is that are playing excellent basketball. They just aren't. So it's the kind of thing where a win tomorrow night, which won't come easy, by the way, and a decent performance in. Chicago could put them solidly on the five, maybe even the four if it goes well enough. So I would just say keep the face, but that seems hard for Maryland fans to do. Everyone rather just say, oh, they're going to lose in Chicago in the first round that they're

going to be one and done. Like, if you want to be preemptively pissed off and just wait for the bad thing to happen, they're going to lose before the title game, okay? Almost certainly. So if you want to be, if you want to predict that now and wait for it to happen and then celebrate it when it comes, well, then what kind of frigging fan are? you. Like, what's the point in any of it, you know? But that's what I feel like is happening. Is, like, oh, they're probably not going to do this. They're not going to get out of the first

weekend. Well, if they don't, then great. You could have been mad about it now, and then when it happens, you can say, see, I told you. Or you can be hopeful and hope that the talent on this team which exists carries them into a second weekend. I mean, that's what I'll choose to do as a fan, because it's more fun to do that than sit around and wait to be pissed off about something you told everybody was going to happen. I don't get that. All right. Well, your warning, as you know, because you know me, isn't going to stop me from going down this path with you, which is, what if you do get the ending you had a few years ago losing the, you know, in the quarter final round, and then losing your first round game, the Northwestern and Xavier example from two years ago. And you've only got three games left in this season. Friday night, one Big Ten game, and one NCAA tournament game. What would be the reasonable reaction to this? that. Disappointment. Absolutely disappointment. No, as it relates to the coach. Disappointed the coach

or disappointed in the result? Okay, you want to get rid of the coach? Okay. I didn't say that. I just said what would be a reasonable response if this team that's pretty talented that's going to end up being on the four or five line played three more games from this point forward. Friday night, one big ten game and one NCAA tournament game. That would be an, it would be an unsubes. satisfying conclusion to a year with a team that was admittedly young but also very talented and you wouldn't have gotten as much out of it as you would have hoped. You know, games like the one they had against Purdue where they played a great last 10 minutes and really stretched that out against a team that's going to be a three or maybe

probably a three after they lost last night. But I mean, so that's the high water mark thus far. So then people go, I'd rather beat Michigan. Yeah, so and I. I would have liked to have won that game. That would have been a fun one to win. But they just had too many stretches of five minutes where they can't score at all. And so what's reasonable to say you've got to figure out how to protect the ball better

and not have so many droughts where you can't score? How do you do that? I don't know. That would be my first order of business, figuring that out. The people that are so upset and are borderline delusional as to what we are. Maryland basketball is now. What is reasonable to think, to expect? What are reasonable expectations? Because just going to the tournament, you know, three out of four years, I think, I would hope that you would admit that that's not good enough, that the expectation level. I'm not trying to sell,

I'm not trying to sell anybody on lowering your expectations. I'm not trying to sell anybody on what's a reasonable expectation for a fan to have. What they've been in the past five years, if they finish and they need Wisconsin to lose a game, but that could be, you'd be a top four in your league and four of the five years you've been in the league. Like people pretend like Maryland's Wake Forest, okay? They act like their Oklahoma State, some team that's cratered in their conference. And that's just not accurate. No, it's not.

It isn't accurate. But people pretend like that. People talk about the program's been ruined. That's bullshit. It's just not real. Now, can fans aspire to more than that and have a team that you think can beat ranked teams on a consistent basis and has a – and is a threat to make a run in the tournament? Yes, that's absolutely reasonable. Everyone should want that and demand that.

But this is a team that could make a run. But I know sitting here right now because they got crushed by Penn State and they lost to Michigan, People will say, well, they can't make a run. Oh, so you can see the friggin' future? Great. Well, then you know what? Don't watch any more games. Don't watch the tournament.

I'm going to be over here watching the tournament, hoping they make a run. Silly me, because I'm a fan, and I root for the team. But yes, you should hope that being ranked and making the tournament should be expectations. You should expect that with this program. And over the years, that's largely been what they are. But pretending like you're, like, if you don't win every game you play or if you don't make a run, that it's, you know, unacceptable, well, then we've had 15, 16 years of unacceptable, I guess.

The, I think they can, I actually think they can make a run too. I think almost any result is very possible. I agree. Anything could happen at this point. With this particular team. Discounting the possibility. Discounting the possibility that's ridiculous. I just, I don't, I don't understand what you're accomplishing with that. Well, it's not fun either.

I mean, it's tournament time. Right. It's March. I mean, the team's going to be. in the tournament and they actually have a talented team. He's also pissed off, Kevin, and that's the part that infuriates me. Like, last year, you could be mad about the way things. Indeed, you could go, man, that sucks that they had injuries and that things didn't work out

and that they didn't make it. That's no fun. Next two Sundays from now, you're going to hear that music, and Maryland's going to be in a lot. And you're still mad, and you're still sitting out there being mad. We're still having a chance to win. Shut them up. Man, for God's sake. If you can't just enjoy the fact that you're going to go to the tournament,

I appreciate that, then what are you even doing as a fan? We're not Kansas or Kentucky or Carolina or Duke. We're not. No, we're not. It's not what the program is. But part of what it's always been at work here as an outside observer is Mark Turgeon took over with two strikes against him. He took over for Gary Williams, and he took over at the time when the program was moving to the Big Ten. Yeah.

I mean, so fans were angry. we're ready to be angry from the beginning and it's hard to over you have to do something special to overcome that here Tom that's fair yeah it is fair and what and there isn't there's not like a high water mark

yet there's not an accomplishment that's like a singular thing there's been consistent like top four finishes and that and that shouldn't be diminished but is there that moment where you beat you beat Kansas in a sweet 16 game that hadn't happened yet and it's reasonable to say that you're waiting on that. That's reasonable. I'm not saying that you can't

criticize. I'm saying that living in a place where only, only criticism is what you do. I don't understand what that accomplishes. Well, I mean, remember, Gary faced a lot of the same thing at times when he was there. It could never get over the hump. Yeah, it's, it's the, the fan base is very passionate and tends to, you know, lean negative versus positive. The one thing, though, recently, I'm not saying it's just recent, but the thing that comes up that bothers me is when people will say, well, you know, Gary's last eight years or seven years weren't that good either. They're basically the same as Turgeons. Turgeon's actually won more games. Look, Gary over his final seven years, you know, he didn't go to a Sweet 16, you know, after 2003. That is true. But he also won an ACC

regular season title. He won an ACC tournament championship. He beat number one. He beat number one. and number twos and number threes all the time. And he had three second round games that his team lost by a grand total of five points. They had a chance to get to a Sweet 16 at the end against Syracuse, against Butler with players, by the way, who were sick in that game. And then a prayer was answered by Corey Lucius against a Maryland team that was a legitimate Final Four contender that particular year. So it's not, Gary's performance.

just for you Maryland fans that like to say, well, you know, Gary's teams really, he didn't do anything either over his final seven or eight years. Look, put his seven or eight years side by side with Turgeons. It was better. It was better. And Gary's a better coach than Mark Turgeon is. I will, I will admit that. But to what Scott has said, to act like this program has been Wake Forest, or Oklahoma State, who by the way has a basketball tradition, so does Wake Forest to a certain degree that have both really fallen on difficult times. It hasn't happened under Turgeon. His record at Maryland over eight years is 178 and 88.

He's been to the tournament, this will be the fourth time in five years, that he will have gone to the tournament with a Sweet 16 visit in there, and maybe this will be the second one. And if he gets this team to the Sweet 16, it makes a big difference in the way he's viewed at the end of this year, because then you say, oh, well, over the last five years, gone to four tournaments and two sweet 16s. You know what? That sounds closer to what Maryland basketball should be. I'd like to have a final four visit in there, or certainly a legitimate

chance for a final four in there, but that's not half bad. But if he goes out in the first round, there's going to be a lot of bitching and complaining and a lot of anger. Of course there will. Of course there will. And here's the thing. The thing with this Maryland team is that they have the talent to get out of the first weekend, and they have the, and they have the, and they have the inconsistency that they could lose to Belmont in a 512 and you just shrug and go, well, that's kind of the way the year went. Like that's, that's where it is at the moment. Let's just hope when that, let's just hope if that happens, we don't hear we were a very young team and we got better today. That's, that's a tough sell when you lose to try to, you know, I understand to try to sell optimism,

but like your fans don't want to hear that you got better when you lost at home to Michigan. No one wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that. Well, he's talking to his team when he says that. He knows he's not talking to the phone. And then say that in the locker room, I'll say that to the press. Because Verluga is going to write that article and he had all the points. He had the post made check.

All right. Thanks. Talk to you later. Thank you, Scott. All right, boys. Have a good day. Real quick word on launch workplaces in Bethesda. If you live in the Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Upper Northwest, you know, even over the American Legion Bridge

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They also have locations throughout the area. Just go to launchworkplaces.com to find out where those locations are. All right, I know you wanted to talk about Charlie Casserly, as I did. Charlie Casserly, who made the very critical comments about Kyler-Murie based on information that he had, that he had not interviewed well at the combine, and that Charlie essentially said that it was some of the worst things he had heard about a player coming out of the combine in all of his years in football. I talked about it on the show yesterday, Tommy. Later in the day, he was criticized by a lot of people. Obviously, Kyler-Marice head coach, Lincoln Riley,

and his agent, you know, went after Charlie, and a lot of people in the media. Mike Florio, pro football talk, the head aggregator, as I like to call on. The head aggregator, that's good. He does aggregate a lot of stories that aren't his. That's what he does. And all of a sudden, he's Ben Bradley deciding journalist's ethics. Let me tell you something. If one general manager went to Mike Floreo and said, boy, Kyle or Murray interviewed terrible,

it'd be on pro football talking 30 seconds. So true. 30 seconds. So true. So stop with this. Look, Charlie Cass, I've known Charlie Cass release since I've been a sports writer for 25, for 26 years now. And he's a guy who's trustworthy, who has a level of integrity, who understands how the media works, and would be the last guy I would think of that would be reckless with information that he knows could be damaging.

Right. I mean, again, that's not the Charlie Cassily, I know. I mean, you know, and if you were a team trying to leak this to basically, you know, enhance your chances to get Calamari by scaring other teams off, you wouldn't have to do it to Charlie Cassily. You could do it with a reporter. Any one of the big national reporters you could leak this to, and they would have written it in a second. You know, I saw a Bucky Brooks and Lewis Riddick basically trying to, you know, cover for Kyle or Murray in this case.

So you tell me, if somebody told these guys, if a general manager that they knew and trusted told either of these guys about what happened with Kyle or Murray, they would sit on it? None of them would. None of nobody's going to sit on this. Come on now. And, you know, you can explain it all sorts of way. And it wouldn't have nearly the legs it had if it wasn't for Kyle and Murray's bizarre appearance on the Dan Patrick's show during Super Bowl Week. That gave the legs to, whoa, mate, what's wrong with this guy? You know, he might be a little bit of a handful.

So this only fuels that. This only fuels what we've already seen with our eyes. That's what makes it more believable. So I just think it's laughable that everybody, and particularly in the media, who's criticizing Charlie Cassily, would have been on this story in a second. Everything you said, I agree with, especially the first part, because Charlie, the one thing, anybody that knows Charlie knows that Charlie has a ton of credibility, a ton of respect from people in the business, and is not. he's not the kind of guy to go off on a young 21-year-old football player if he didn't have the information. I totally believe he had the information. He did an interview, I think, yesterday afternoon with the Michael Kaye Show in New York.

And he said that, quote, clearly this guy was not trained for the interview, just listening to it. I train players. I train over 100 players a year for Combine interviews. This guy wasn't trained, closed quote. That gives me an indication, Tommy. I don't think he would say just listening to it unless he had heard one of these interviews. Some team gave Charlie, my guess is, some team gave Charlie access to listen to this, to help him form his opinion.

So this wasn't, you know, this opinion wasn't formed and then delivered for the purposes of getting a lot of negative attention. No. Charlie really had the information, I believe. and felt this way. It doesn't mean, by the way, that, you know, Cliff Kingsbury is going to be turned off by it. I mean, Arizona, I find it interesting some people who think that Arizona is like posturing here, that they have no intention of taking Kyler Murray. None of that makes sense to me other than, you know, if there's other sincere interest in drafting Kyler Murray really high, like number one, increasing the trade, the compensation package. But to me, when they hired Cliff

Kingsbury, this was going to be a possibility if this guy measured up, you know, and I'm talking about literally measured up, you know, at the combine, which he did. Now, maybe at his pro day, he'll come in at five, six and a half, and that may change the whole thing. But I, there are people that could have thrown this out there that would have been criticized that I think you and I both would have said, yeah, this guy's wrong half the time. He's in the business of trying to create headlines, But not Charlie Casserly. No. Not Charlie Casserly.

No, absolutely not. But I do, the Kyler-Murray thing, you know, did I do this with you on Tuesday or maybe perhaps by myself on Monday when you, Aaron and I went back and we looked up where Kyler Murray was a year ago on projected 2019 draft? He's nowhere to be found. He was going to play baseball a year ago. Well, but beyond that, I mean, he was replaced. replacing Baker Mayfield, and I think some people knew that he was talented, but nobody thought he was an NFL quarterback. Nobody did. And a year later, he's the number one pick. You go through Kuiper's, Kuiper broke him down by seniors and juniors, seniors and underclassmen. On Kiper's list of underclassmen, it was Herbert, Jared Stidham, Shea Patterson. Boy, does anybody after watching Michigan Aaron this year look less like an NFL quarterback than Shay Patterson? Patterson. Nathan Stanley from Iowa, Jake Bentley from South Carolina.

These were the names of the underclassmen. Locke, Greer, Finley, Thorson, and Fitzgerald were the seniors. He's not even on any, he's not on any list. Yeah. It's really, that's the interesting thing about this draft, and it's such a business, the draft. People are so interested in draft-related content, aren't they? Well, yeah. Television, you know, online.

You could make a living to it, and you know what's remarkable. Well, people have. I mean, Mel Kiper was the first. Oh, yeah. You know, I mean, it really is remarkable to look what Mel did. Oh, he created a whole industry. He really is. I mean, it's amazing.

He should be in the pro football Hall fame, to be honest with you, for what he did as a contributor. Because, I mean, he helped change the whole business. Now you have cities bidding to host the draft. I know. No, I, look, the popularity of the NFL was also. on the rise in a major way? Not that in 1980 or whenever Kuiper started to do the draft. It was somewhere around that time. It was early ages. You know, that the NFL wasn't on the rise anyway, but I do remember even before Kuiper became a star. I do remember when ESPN, I think, was the first

to televise the draft live, you know, when it would start at 8 in the morning on a Tuesday in April, that it became, you know, this sort of cultish thing with hardcore football fans. I remember in college, and Kuiper was just starting to become popular. But I remember getting up with a bunch of friends in geeky friends watching the draft at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday and skipping classes and drinking, you know, starting at 8 in the morning to watch this thing. So it was going to grow in popularity, but Kuiper really accelerated that growth. Yeah, he.

And so did Berman and, you know, just the ESPN cover. Yeah, ESPN grew along with all this. But it's amazing with all of the people that do this, you know. And it's a year-long thing. I mean, right when the draft is over, there will be an all-too-early look at the projected mock. You know, the first mock brackets for 2020's draft will be out there. And it's just amazing how much it changes between, you know, not just May and the

following April, but September in the following April. You just don't know, and at the quarterback position in particular, unless there's an Andrew Luck out there, you just have no idea. And when you get to April, it doesn't look anything like the all-too-early mock from the year before. Yeah, and a lot of these guys who are in the draft projecting business, and there's a lot of confusion how people understand this. I'm assuming most of these guys are projecting what teams will draft, not who should be drafted.

They're two different things. Well, as part of an early mock draft, you're also guessing on the draft order. Yes. But, you know, there's a big board, which doesn't have anything to do with the draft order. But then there is the draft order projections. And I guarantee you I can find right now online a mock 2020 NFL draft. Let's see where they have the Redskins drafting. I'm going to guess it's somewhere in the 20s.

Walter Football does this. So here's the mock 2020 draft. Tampa projected to have the number one pick. Oakland, the number two. Houston, the number three? Huh? How could Houston be? New England 4?

No, what's going on here? Does New England have somebody else suspect? The order of it is completely random. It is random? Yeah, that's what it says at the top of that. Oh, well, then random ending up with New England at number four, they should do it again. But somebody will have the projected 2020 draft. Here we go.

I got one here from draft site.com. I don't know what it is. Miami number one, Washington number two. Yep, here it is. Here it is. I knew the Redsend v. The second pick in the draft. Yeah, so here I just found what Aaron found.

Miami, the draft site.com 2020 mock draft has Tua going to Miami number one overall and Jake Frum, the Georgia quarterback, going to the Redskins at number two overall. There you go. By the way. Let's start talking about their number two pick for 2020. Tommy, first of all, there's no way that they're going to have projected going into next year unless they get Fitzpatrick and Antoni. Brown and Landing Collins, then maybe they're at number 12 or 13. Other than that, they're going to be in the top 10 of most of these, you know, guessing on where they finish next year.

But, you know, you forget that the Redskins have next year, too, potentially, you know, Tua and Jake. And then how about Trevor Lawrence in 2021? You know, so they're going to have other opportunities. By the way, Justin Herbert next year, too, right? Aaron, so you're going to have a ton of quarterbacks that are going to be Herbert, Tua, and Fromm are all going to be top five, top ten picks, potentially, although, as I just mentioned, could totally change between now and next year, more likely than not. My ears are starting to. I know, mine too, mine too.

Because I'm not a, I like reading and following the draft, and I do like looking at various players at certain positions that I feel. Like, I don't know how somebody, like, somebody in sports media, the people I know anyway, there's not one person I know other than a former player like Cooley who could watch the tape of an offensive lineman and tell you whether or not. Oh, but they will? Oh, yeah.

Oh, they will, though. It's just not reasonable. You just have no idea. Now, can we watch a quarterback or a running back and a wide receiver and have an opinion? Yes. Is it accurate? Probably not.

But you can have at least an opinion. Somebody that tries to grate out, you know, the offensive tackles. Give me a break. But anyway, yeah, it's a lot, this draft thing, this draft business. It is a lot. It's big business. And you and I, for years, have been doing draft night shows. You know that other than the fact that it was a revenue-generating night for the station,

I always felt like better programming would have been to run ESPN live. ESPN and ESPN Radio, and we had a relationship with ESPN Radio, had guys that had been preparing for this all year long. All we were talking about was the Redskins. I know we were. The Redskins pick. I know. But we talked about the Redskins.

Some nights, it was hours before we got to a Redskins pick. Yes, it would be. But again, you're better off talking Redskins for those hours. But we always had Doc in his draft war to rely on. One more thing from last night. Did you see what happened to Georgetown last night? They had a big game last night. Georgetown was still in the hunt.

They were like the first four out, or at least the, you know, worst case, the next four out. And they needed to beat DePaul last night. And they, by the way, DePaul was favored. And I did have them laying a point in a half against Georgetown. DePaul's not very good. And Georgetown got beat 101 to 69. Bad loss. Oh, my God. Really bad loss. College basketball, the scores are out of control. The scoring is unbelievable in the NBA now. College basketball, not so much. I actually believe that the change from the 35 to the 32nd, shot clock has hurt offensive basketball. You know, theoretically, we're supposed to speed up, take more shots.

But the shots they get now and trying to run offense, especially when you're playing against a true zone, end up being bad shots. So you have lower shooting percentages. But anyway, Georgetown last night getting beat 101 to 69 against a DePaul team that was, I think, 6 and 10 in the Big East going in. They're not terrible. But that was a game Georgetown had to have. Georgetown had an opportunity had they beaten DePaul and Marquette to end the season, right, Aaron, to have a chance. They wouldn't have had to win the Big East tournament. Maybe just win a game or two in the Big East tournament. They would have been in. I don't know about a game or two, but they would have had, but yes, they had a chance without winning the Big East tournament.

Right, because they beat Seton Hall. And Seton Hall last night did have a big win. They last night pulled off the win over Marquette, which I think Seton Hall now is well ahead of Georgetown. Look, I think the committee would have loved to have put Georgetown in. Have Patrick Ewing as a coach in the tournament? Absolutely. But after last night, I would imagine that Georgetown's not even in the first four or next four out anymore. In fact, I'm pulling it up right now. Yep, they're not in it. They're out.

That was it. That was their chance to stay in the hunt. Now they've got to win the Big East tournament, which, you know, anybody could win that Big East tournament. There's not a great team in the Big East. Villanova is capable with their shooting. I actually like Marquette, but I don't see any big East team making a big run in this particular tournament. All right. Anything else you got?

Nothing else, boss. I don't think I have anything else either. Okay. What are you doing this weekend? What am I doing this weekend? Well, I'm doing the show with Andy Pollan Saturday and Sunday mornings on 1067 the fan, and that's pretty much it. And you're on with Chad tonight or tonight. But actually, I'm going to be on with Chad in Florida next week.

Next Tuesday from spring training. Nice. I mean, has JFK, are all the shows in spring training? They sent, Grant and Danny were sent down about two weeks ago. They did a couple of days. The junkies just came back from doing a couple of days. And we're going down for just to do one show because of that schedule. They're playing a night game that night, so we'll have lots of guests.

I bet you won't be doing it from a part. bench outside of the facilities. Still one of the great radio moments in DC history. It's hysterical. Tommy got sent down by the station and the Nats. Rightly so, we were not a rights holder of Nats baseball. They made it more difficult for us. We couldn't broadcast from the facility.

Couldn't broadcast from the facility. It's funny because being a rights holder for the Redskins, the location we got at training camp, might as well have been, you know, in Richmond, might as well have been in McLean. We were that far away from the action. It really, I know we do this every once in a while, but you people out there couldn't care less, but you would not have believed the relationship. It was non-existent and confrontational. And for whatever reason, we weren't a rights holder. We were, we were honestly a red-headed stepchild. They wanted nothing to do with. But anyway, all right, have a good weekend. Have a good trip next week. You'll call in from there.

Yes, I will. Oh, you know what we didn't talk about real quickly. I can't believe this, is the whole thing about Harper trying to recruit Trout and the fact that Major League Baseball is considering potentially tampering charges. I know. It doesn't interest me. I know, but what an idiot. Oh, look, I think he thinks he's LeBron James. Apparently so. I mean, I think he sees himself that way.

Wow. So, you know. You don't think somebody said to him, hey, you can't do that? Well, I mean, look, I think Boris has given him carte blanche to basically say, you know, you're the king of. He's done it before. Remember when he was tweeting at Stanton? Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's done it before. Yeah, but wasn't Stanton at that point, a free agent?

No. No. No. Stanton got traded from the Marlins to the Yankees. All right. I will talk to you next week. Have a great weekend. Thanks to Scott. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to all of you. Have a great day.