The Kevin Sheehan Show - Smoot's "Married QB" Theory

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Kevin joined today by Fred Smoot and Jimmy Patsos. Kevin was all ears on Smoot's "Married QB" theory. They also talked a ton about the Commanders' current QB situation, Chase Young, and lots on the NFL Draft. Jimmy and Kevin discussed the Final 4 among many subjects which included best burgers in town, living next to Doug Williams when Williams was the Skins' QB, Waco, and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Two outstanding guests on the show today. Two of my favorites. Fred Smoot will join us in the next segment.

He's got a theory on quarterbacks that he will bounce off all of us. And I think you'll love this one. But when you talk to Smoot, he is great on the team currently and the NFL draft. always. Smoot's such a big college football fan, such an NFL draft fan. So we'll do a lot of draft talk with Smoot coming up in the next segment. And then with Jimmy Patsos, one of my favorite people. Jimmy's one of the most interesting people out there in sports. Of course, Jimmy does a bunch of work for NBC Sports Washington. He works for Under Armour. He's down at the Final Four. We'll talk Final Four. We'll talk, I'm sure, about a lot of things with Jim.

because the conversation usually goes in a lot of different directions with Jimmy. So I think you will enjoy that. I'm going to get to a smell test here in the open. I've got two picks for the final four. But I'll start with two quick things before we get to that. Number one, what an ugly opener for the Nats yesterday. They don't play today. They play tomorrow.

We'll get Josiah Gray on the bump for his initial start. but yesterday was ugly in terms of openers. I mean, the Nats lose to the Brave 7 to 2. Just a rough outing for Patrick Corbyn. I mean, this guy really can't find anything in games that matter. You know, an outrageously high ERA with a 6 and 19 record overall last year. He goes three innings, 85 pitches in three innings, gave up seven hits, four runs, two of them earned, walked three. That was a disaster. Pitching-wise, Kyle Finnegan came in in a 4-2 game. They weren't out of it,

but once he got into the game, they were out of it. He gave up a hit, three runs, two of them earned in the 9th. And then some of their younger players, like people have been talking up C.J. Abrams, and I know that he is a great talent. and, you know, Abrams and Ruiz and Gonzalez are three players that they're really counting on from these trades over the last year and a half. And he went 0 for four with not one, not two, but three errors in the game. Three of them, not good. Seven to two, the Nats lost the opener. The game went over three hours, three hours. Seven minutes, I believe, was the final number on the opening day game,

although overall the big league openers yesterday came in much lower than the average of the last few years. That's going to be the biggest result, I think, will be the speed of the games. And yesterday they had a significant increase opening day-wise in stolen bases as well. So it's been kind of quiet on the ownership front for Washington. Yesterday was a pretty slow day in terms of news after a very active early week. But today, Charles Gasparino from Fox Business News tweeted out the following. And this is kind of the second or third time he's tweeted out something similar. But there was a twist on today's tweet.

Gasparino has admitted he's friendly with the Snyders, with both Dan and Tanya. So a lot of his tweets have come from, we believe, information close to the Snyders. Today's tweet read as follows. Latest from inside the Dan Snyder camp on sale of the commanders is that they are aiming for $6 billion sale and again have no problem with Jeff Bezos. bidding. Snyder will in capital letters not reject a Bezos offer because he understands

that his role regarding the Washington Post does not involve editorial. That's funny. Really? Do you think Snyder cares whether Bezos has any kind of say in the editorial? By the way, he owns the paper. He has some

say. But do you think he cares one way or the other if he has a say? Do you think the reports early on that Bezos was being excluded from the process of being able to be a bidder. Do you think all of those reports were wrong? I don't. But look, the constant push from Gasparino over the last week to get Bezos into the conversation, it's very clear what's going on here. And again, this could be a little bit behind the current story. For all we know, Bezos made a bid today. or made a bid in recent days.

We've been talking about that. Tommy and I have been a bunch about how some of the reporting may be based on things that happened a week ago or two weeks ago or three weeks ago. It's been all over the place. But what's clear about the constant push from the Snyder side to not exclude Bezos publicly is to drive up the price, whether it's with the current bidders, the one that we know of for sure, Josh Harris, Schaefter reported the Apostolopoulos bid.

And what also must be true at this point, given the $6 billion sale number, the Gasparino tweets about that they're aiming for $6 billion in a sale price, is that they don't have a true $6 billion offer on the table. You know, I know Schaefter reported $6 billion, two bids fully funded from the Harris Group and from the Apostolopoulopoulos Group. I told you on Monday that it was my information from a pretty good source, and they were emphatic, that the Harris bid is not going to be a $6 billion bid. They don't think what they're offering, which is somewhere in the fives, I think more than $5.5 billion, but less than $6 billion,

that it's even worth that much. So clearly what we're seeing with Gasparino really pushing on Bezos, and now including the aiming for $6 billion sale is an indication that they probably don't have legitimate true $6 billion offers. There can be many ways to present the offer so that it looks like $6 billion with contingencies or with fancy accounting, but I don't think that they have a true $6 billion offer on the table. That's my guess, but I think the Gasparino tweeted. which I think is very much kind of being pushed by Snyder. Remember, Schaefter's source was one source he specifically said,

and he was at league meetings with the likes of the organization there. Tanya was there. Carl Schreiber was there. He is instrumental in the Snyder's home office operation. I think that they don't have a $6 billion offer. I think Schaefter's reporting was that he was hearing, that the offers, you know, were $6 billion fully funded, but there may be ways in which they look like $6 billion, but really aren't.

Snyder's still looking for $6 billion, and it would sound like at this point he doesn't have it. I still don't think that's going to stop anything. I don't. I hope I'm right about that. But I think that there's one serious bidder. It's Josh Harris. It's less than $6 billion. And they'd like to get somebody else in there that either drive, the Harris bid up to a true $6 billion number,

or they get somebody like Bezos to come in and offer six or more for the team. Anyway, let's get to my final four smell test and then get to Fred Smoot. Kevin looks where the John Q public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. 15 and 12 is the record through the first two weekends. of the NCAA tournament with one more to go. Two plays, and they're both totals. I really don't like either side.

San Diego State right now is a three-point favorite. Yukon, right around a six-point favorite. I've seen it as high as six and a half in spots. I've seen it as low as five and a half. I don't like either side. There's not a clear public advantage on either team. If there's a lean, it would be on the two favorites. San Diego State and Yukon.

I like the totals in both games. Everybody's assuming the first game will be a low-scoring 55-54 kind of a game. So I'll go over 131 in the Florida Atlantic San Diego State matchup in the first of the two final four games. And then everybody's assuming a shootout between Yukon and Miami, two teams that have gone regularly for 80-plus in this. tournament, the number is at 149, I'll go under 149. So over in the first game 131, under in the nightcap 149, those are your two plays. In terms of the two games, man, I think Sand, I think the first game is going to be a much better game than probably the interest level will reflect. Two teams that have really played well throughout the tournament. Florida Atlantic did play,

another very good defensive team in Tennessee in this tournament. And Tennessee shot so poorly in the second half. San Diego State will be a better defensive team and a more capable offensive team that they'll face. So I kind of lean Aztecs, kind of like the way they play too. And then in the second game, and I think I may have mentioned this already this week, UConn has not had a close game that they've won all season long. They have not been tested in this tournament. They've won by blowouts in this tournament.

I mean, massive blowouts, 87 to 63 over Iona. By the way, in that game, remember Petino went off at halftime and talked about how great Iona basketball was and how he appreciated the effort. They were actually up on Yukon at halftime, 39, 37. then they got outscored 50 to 24 in the second half and lost by 24. Then Yukon beat St. Mary's by 15. They beat Arkansas.

Arkansas. They crushed Arkansas. That athletic team that had beaten Kansas, they beat them by 23, and then they destroyed Gonzaga by 28. But I think I've mentioned this. The Connecticut team this year has not won a game decided by five points or less. They haven't won a game decided by five points or less. The closest game they've won was a six-point victory.

And the games that they've lost were by two to Marquette in the Big East semis. They lost a Creighton by three in early February. They lost a Xavier by three. They lost a Seton Hall by one. Those are their last four losses. Every other game they've played in during that stretch, blowout wins with the exception of a six-point win at Georgetown. I think game pressure is how Miami wins this game. Put game pressure on Yukon. Make it, you know,

have it be a 67, 622 kind of a game with two minutes to go. That kind of game. See what Yukon, you know, is able to do in how they handle that situation. They have not had success in that situation and they haven't been faced with that situation at all in the tournament. Still, with said, I like a Yukon, San Diego State final. And then we can talk about that game on Monday if it happens. I actually think it would be a much better game than maybe a lot of people think. All right. Up next, Fred Smoot, followed by Jimmy Patsos.

We'll get to both right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, you want to bet the final four this weekend and get out? MyBooky will allow you to do that. go to mybooky.ag. Use my promo code. Kevin D.C. And MyBooky will allow you to wager your initial deposit amount one time and then cash out if you're up. MyBooky.orgy.org.

promo code Kevin, D.C. All the final four action you want, all of the prop bets you want. They've got contests as well. Go to MyBooky.org for this weekend's final four in Monday night's national championship game and use my promo code, Kevin D.C. Fred Smoot joins us right now, and so much to talk to you about, including a lot on the NFL draft, but I want to start with the quarterback situation here.

How would you have handled this offseason as it relates to the quarterback situation on this team? What should have been done, in your opinion? I think we jumped the gun a little bit because I think you work with the information you have, and the information we have, was we didn't know one of the best organizations in football with the Baltimore Ravens was going to come, we're going to get in this situation with Lamar. So I can't, I can't fault them for this.

But I have to say this, he is in love with the fact that we're going to get a new owner. But, who's one of this a year to have vintage, our guy be himself, Dan Snyder, because he would have paid Lamar whatever he wants. Like, you know, like, listen, wouldn't you want 2003 vintage Dan right now? Because he would have paid Lamar. This would have been over with. So if we had vintage, you know, Dan and Vinny from 2000, you know, from the early 2000s, who would they have gone for, Rogers or Jackson?

They would have went for Jackson. They would have went for Jackson, one, because he's box office. Two, because of look at the virus. He was running back some tight ends we have. Three, he's right down the road. He brings a fan base with him. They would have filed an upside and getting Lamar Jackson. But when I look at what this team has done on the offseason,

I'm not mad they can't get Lamar Jackson because they field a lot of holes. And they made it to where when they draft, they can legitimately draft best player available. And I love that. I don't like to go into draft trying to feel holes because you one draft, pick away from not feeling their hole because we don't know a college player can be a professional until we get them around professional. I just love the fact that already, Smoot wouldn't mind just this year with Dan remaining his owner. Just remember that if this were vintage Dan Vinny Days,

they would have given, but, you know, all they have to do is give up two first rounders. They would have given up four because they always, they always overpaid. You know, one of my, One of my all-time favorites, and you were playing on the team. Now, in 2008, were you on this squad? Yes, I was there. Yes, yes, yes, I was there. So remember, they offered Cincinnati two first-round picks for Ocho Cinco, two first-rounders.

And by the way, Cincinnati, the only other dumb team in the league, or one of the other dumb teams in the league, turned it down. They wouldn't even accept it. That's amazing to me. Still one of my favorite all-time Dan Vinnie's stories. They offered two first-rounders, and Mike Brown turned it down. All right, let's get back to what they did do. What do you believe Sam Howell is?

Well, Professor, you're going to look at me and say, what the hell is wrong with you, smooth out of it? What's in your coffee? But when I look at this player, and I love this about my quarterback, I want my college quarterbacks to go through something. You look at Aaron Rogers. he dropped in the draft. You look at all great quarterback stories.

They don't come from usually power five teams that had everything at the disposal, five-star wide-out, five-star linemen, five-star running back. Quarterbacks usually come from a situation that's kind of unsettled, where this kid was supposed to be a first-round pick. He's six months of football away from being a first-round pick if his senior season went different. And when I look at him, I say, who do he remind me of that I played again? he has a lot of Tony Romo in him. And when I say he has a lot of Tonaro,

he can make throws from odd angles. He can, he's elusive, not fast. He's very elusive in the pocket. And he's a gamer. Put him in the game. He's going to look better than practice. So at a high end, he could be Tony Romo or Kurt Warner. And I know they're saying a lot.

But on the low end, that was, I think, different about him. We don't know his floor. Like, we don't know his floor. floor. I feel like I know his ceiling. I don't know his floor, but I know he has Erick B. Enemy with him. I know he has a cast of offensive weapons, and now they're starting to fix the main thing that matter. The last time this team was great, we had the hogs, and until we replaced that fat boys, we will never get back to grace. And right now, on the defensive side, we have a dominant group of fat boys, and on the offensive side,

they're patchworking and making it to where we can be dominant on next side. So I'm looking, hoping somebody like Danos, the second tackle from Ohio State drops to us. Michael Smith, Smith, from Minnesota. He's a top-knock center. So at the end of the day, it's a lot of draft picks in this draft that could solidify his line. And then it's a waiting C process when it comes to our quarterback, Sam, I'm out, the young wolf. The young wolf. You know, a little bit of an afterthought, a little bit too far north, maybe more like House Stark,

as you would be familiar with. A little bit underrated to begin with, but ended up coming out okay in the end. So in all seriousness, though, like this whole idea of first round pick, that's true. I'm not denying that he wouldn't have been a much higher draft choice had he come out a year earlier,

but he didn't go until the fifth round. Teams passed him up for four rounds. our coach, you know, sat here the other day out in Phoenix and sold him in the same way he sold Carson Wentz, by the way, last year. And one of my questions was, well, if he was so great, why did you wait until the fifth round to take him? Doesn't any of that make you think that this is coin flip or a little bit less than coin flip at best? No, it doesn't. It shows the flawfulness when it comes to scouts. These are the same scouts for years that, pick Tom Brady in the late round. I'm sorry, he's the best player. He's the only example. He's the only example, though. I can give you examples from my draft. Steve Smith went

this round. Ocho Cinco went fourth round. We always find diamonds in the rough, London Fletcher, late rounds. You see this all the time. The guys that's paid to find out who can play this game at a high level. They are no different than me and you. See, here's the thing about it is everything you do you draft the player is a craft shoot. Yes, he showed me he could play in college. The league is a different game, and we don't know you could play it until we get you in practice, till we get you in games, and that's what makes the draft process so flawed. The drive, the combine is for one thing. It's not to find out the reason why I should draft you. It's to find out the reason why I shouldn't draft you. So the thing about it is, it's only to make checkmarks on why not,

and we know this for a fact. The first round is all. safe picks. These are the picks that keep these guys higher. Second, third, fourth, fifth, six, now you've got to do some work. Now you've got to find out what this guy can be and what can we get from him. I never give

scouts props for finding Chase Young. But I will give you props for finding Terry McLuhan. I will give you effects for finding Cameron Curl. Like, that's when the work gets done then. That's the meat and the bread of your team out of late round

picks and your quarterback happened to have what a chip on his shoulder from followers to the respect of his guys because he came in as a late round pick and kept on working it's just something that validates you in that locker room as one of the guys when you go through the same exact thing and we know this about quarterbacks quarterbacks are independent contractors it's them and it's us they are different but when you get one of these guys there's one of the guys the team will rally around him you haven't heard one Washington players say, I can't believe if they started Sam and we didn't sign He didn't sign Hineke.

That shows you that in practice, he gained a respect. Right. Look, I'm with you on Sam Howell's talent. And I'm not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that it can't work. But when you started listing some of those players that were drafted really late, they weren't the quarterback position with the exception of Brady. I went back and did this, Fred, last week or two weeks ago. in the last 23 years, this century starting in 2000,

quarterbacks picked in the fifth round or later, there's one, one that became a significant quarterback in the NFL, and his name was Tom Brady. Now, Tony Romo was an undrafted free agent, so I'll count him. After that, nobody. I mean, the best you got is somebody like Mark Bulger, or Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, fifth round or later.

So I think the odds going in are long. And look, part of that is probably because they don't get as much of a chance as a first rounder gets. And I understand that idea, too. But back to this team, you know, I have a sense of what you think about Sam How. What did you think of the signing of Jacoby Brissette? Oh, I thought that was great because not only is he a teacher, because I said, ask yourself this. You're going to bring in somebody to compete with him?

Not really. You're going to bring in a teacher. You're going to bring in somebody to teach him situational football. football. And sometimes we learn lessons better from a player than we do from a coach. Dale Green was key to me starting from day one because he put his brain inside of my head. I can learn from champ. I can learn from the, it made me easier transition to the NFL. Well, at the end of the day, it's the same situation when it comes to this one where you literally, you go in with a Jacova reset. When you come to the sideline, he will be waiting on you.

it ain't no situation that he hasn't seen on this field that he cannot tell him about. So, yes, we brought in a capable backup that can step in for four games if he needs to and win it, but we also brought in a teacher. And I ain't talking about a substitute teacher. We brought in a teacher four times. But you've just said, you've just answered the next question. You don't think that this will be a competition. No, I think it would be this.

I think if Jacoba Bissette start, that means Sam Howe has shown that he's not a starter. It's simple math. If he shows that he's not a starter, then we start the guy that you can trust. Because that's what Jacoba Bisset brings, a guy that you know won't throw the game away, a guy that you know going to be a professional, a guy that you can trust. So they didn't tell us all by this offseason, but they're going to give Sam Howe every chance to be that starter. Now, I got something different from you. You say you went looked up.

and said every quarterback from the fifth round for the last 23 years. You need to go through this investigation, Shane. Every married quarterback are the only winners in the NFL. You can go through any Super Bowl. You can go through it. What did you say every married quarterback versus like a single quarterback? Single versus a single quarterback. Because if you look at the history,

besides Aaron Rogers and Ben Rothensburg, early career, before you got married, they are the only two guys to win a Super Bowl as a single man. Mary quarterback's out Trump, the guys that're single. And I think it's all because the single is focused. If you can hold a household together, you can most definitely hold a team household together. Well, I mean, Philip Rivers was married with like 37 children, and he didn't win a Super Bowl, but I thought he was pretty good. So what's your theory? What's your theory on this? Do you know what the – so you're saying just two in the last what, this century? Ben Rafflesberger and Aaron Rogers as single non-married quarterbacks have won the Super Bowl,

and everybody else was married. Patrick Mahomes is married? Yes, Patrick Mahomes is married. Okay. Was Tom Brady married when he won his first Super Bowl? No. He was single. And guess what?

And he's a part of that being robbed this early. And guess what? Do we give him credit for winning those Super Bowl? But did those defense win those Super Bowl? Well, I mean, it was a great team, obviously. in a great defensive team, but was he married when they won him in 2003, 2004? 2004,

him and Giselle began their relationship. He settled down. I just think settled men. Settled down more than married. Yes. Settle down at that time. And what I'm saying is when you're married, you're singular, your mind is on two things, making sure your household is good and making sure your team is good.

But when you're not single as a quarterback, you can't hold a football family together because you still living life like the cornerback. is like I like my cornerback single, I like my cornerback and my wire receiver's single. Right. Yeah. So you've got a different theory based on the position. So Sam Howell's not married, is he? No, he's not. What about Brissette? I think Bucet is married. He looks like a married man. He don't even smile. You know, married men don't smile. What do you think

the team's going to do with Chase Young's fifth year option? I think if I was a bad man right now I would say most definitely yes they're going to give him every chance to live up to Chase Young and I just I think they're going to go all out that way to give him net but at one point we have to say who he is and what he is we know what his ceiling can be but we also starting to see what his floor can be this is a typical year for him

that third year and it's a lot of stuff he needs to Dodge this year. He needs to dodge getting injured. He needs to put the film, he needs to put the plate on film to match what he did in college. I foresee a big year from not only Chase Young, I see a big

year from sweat, and I think that defensive line will be the catalyst that moves us forward. And I tell people out of time, I do get this front office props. I get a team props. For the first time in a long time, we got a lot of guys that's true Washington

football player. We drafted, we nurtured, and now they're bearing fruit. The camcouros of the world, the deep throes of the world, St. Jucers of the world, this team is coming together, and that one piece is the quarterback, and now they're about to see patiently, do we have him in the house also? And you've got to realize this. He's got to sneaky revelation. Maybe we didn't want the quarterbacks in this draft because Caleb Williams and Drake comes out next year, a better group of quarterback. So see who you have this year and worry about it next year. I think the only problem with that is they're too good on defense to lose 13 or 14 games and end up in that position. Like, I think the worst case with that defense is they win six

games, you know, and that's not going to be good enough for Drake May or Caleb Williams. You never say never. We just watched the Panthers move up in the draft. It's always ways to get things done. And one thing we don't, we don't know. before the season is how the season is going to turn out. Nobody, I said the Eagles was going to be a dominant team last year because I've seen their roster, all right, but we know how this NFCE is. Nobody wins it twice in a row. I don't think it's happening 30 years, all right?

So that's telling you the Eagles probably won't win it. So who are you going to put it on Dallas? We showed Dallas we could play with y'all no matter who's that quarterback. We have the roster to play with y'all. The Giants, we're not afraid of the Giants. This is a tough division, but it's a division that we're, We have the guys to maneuver our way through it. You know, it hasn't been 30 years, but it's starting to get up there.

It's 2003, 2004 since the last repeat winner in the NFC East. And that was Philadelphia. Philadelphia. They won four straight, I think it was four straight during that stretch with Andy Reed. Back to Chase Young for one second. Tell me what you think's really going on with Chase Young. And then with, you know, Ron Rivera, Jack Del Rio, Chase Young. What's going on there?

Why is this even a decision as it relates to picking up this fifth year option? I just think, like I said, expectations. Expectations rule the world. If you expect for somebody to come be Bruce Smith and they haven't been Bruce Smith, you're going to wonder why. Well, we know it's injuries and things like that. I think what they need to do is just all sit down and get on the same page. And that's what I really respected about Greg Williams.

Anytime he felt like we were slacking anyone. it's a face-to-face meeting. Here go my expectations of you. This is how I want to get it done. We need you in this sort of shape. I want you to come in this, and nothing else will be tolerated. And that's the thing about it.

They need to get on the same page because we all want the same thing. We all want him to be a perennial pro pro bowler. So the only way to get on that page is to sit down, lay down expectations, tell him how we're going to get, show him the roadmap or how we're going to get there, and make sure he follows that.

And if that doesn't happen, then you do it. You got to do what you always do. You have to let the guy go and you got to find you another one. One year from now, is Ron Rivera still the coach? You know what? I asked myself, how many games does Ron have to win this year to solidify his job? I would say double-digit wins. I would say nine and eight won't do it.

Squeaking in the playoffs with one-day, I mean, a single-digit wins won't do it. I think he has to really because this, new ownership, we don't know who they are. They're going to want the fan base to bubble. They're going to want the fan base to bubble, and there's three ways to do that. New ownership, one, which is a guarantee. Two, new quarterback,

all right, which we're choosing not to go their route, i.e. a new coach. So for him to take his name out of it, they're going to have to win double-digit games this year. If not, we will see changes. And I wouldn't be shocked if the changes are minute. Simply

run, move to the front office, and be enemy moves the head coach. I see that happening if it comes to that. All right. One of the reasons I love talking to Smoot is because he is a massive college football fan and he's into the draft. So let's talk real quickly. What's your order on the quarterbacks? Like if you were drafting number one overall and needed a quarterback, who do you take? All right. We got the top five quarterbacks right here and this is I see them going. C.J. Scrod, I think, is the safest pick out of all them. I think he will start the quickest. I think he will be the one that plays as a rookie better than them all. I see the Carolina Panthers pick and see they scrod. I think he got

everything. He checks out of boxes. Don't have a lot of weakness, but he doesn't have the highest ceiling out of these guys. I think with the second pick, they come in and they take Bryce Young. I think the Texans do take Bryce Young because he has a little Pat Mahomes in him. His in pocket presence is great. Have a little Drew Brees in him. He knows how to around people in between people. So he'll have no problem of getting the ball out. Now we get into the thick of the draft.

The question is, Anthony Richardson, he's the unicorn out of the group, meaning he has the highest ceiling, but he also has the lowest floor. So he could either be Cam Newton 2.0, or he could be Jamarcus Russell 2.0. There go to trick. Can you get

him to a city where he can sit and watch football? He needs to be served up like Grandma cooking You have to take time and need to put some love in it. So at the end of the day, I want him to go to Seattle so he can sit behind Gino Smith and he can learn how to play the quarterback position. Then you unleash him. We'll levish.

We're a levish to me is the classic. We're going to force you in the first round because that's what we do with quarterbacks every year. We force one of these guys in the first round and we say, ah, don't worry about what he did in college. Look at his armscrant. Look at the mechanics. He's the guy that they're going to force at four. Now, Herndon, Hooker, from Tennessee, I think it's going to be the surprise out of the group. He's only dropping because he told his ACL.

And he's 25 years old. But other than that, this guy can flat out play. He can make every throw. His lankiness remind me a Randall Cunningham. He has a tight, compact release on the ball, and he could be the best big ball throw out of all of these guys. He's the one that probably going to end up with a playoff team in the better position. Is there a guy outside your top five that, you know, is a day two or day three pick that you would be happy if Washington took? I got two guys. I got two guys. I like to try to fire oddity. I really do. Like, I like to fire guys. There's something different about them for the position they play.

Dunnell, Washington, the tight end for Georgia. He's a massive man. Not only is he a massive man that can be killed. catch balls and run down the field as fast he can. He's a massive man that moves people in the run game. He's a unicorn at tight-in. He's very Gruncowski-like. He's one of those guys that you can, you've got to force your way to try to pick him

out to 30 and get in the line. And I also like Jack Campbell. Little linebacker for Iowa. Some about him says he's been here before. Like I feel like I've watched him play in the NFL before. Like, he is the guy I think, going

lead a board before most people. Most people got him slotted in the second round. Somebody going to move up and pick Jack Campbell at an early, early spot. But I also love Emmanuel Ford from Mississippi State. He's a unicorn because he's a hundred and sixty-six pounds.

The same thing when y'all drafted me, y'all would wonder how they're going to draft a 175-pound corner? Well, I tell you what, he's the best, he has the best ball skills of any corner in this draft. He's one of the fastest in this draft, and actually he's one of the few

in his draft that can play off-man. just as well as he can play press. He's played against the best in the SEC his whole career. He is a winner. Whoever gets a man with Forbes going to get not only the best ballhouse, but they're going to get a 12 to 15-year quarterback. All right. I was actually wondering about quarterbacks

if there were any day two or day three quarterbacks that you liked outside your top five. Like, do you like DTR? Do you like Dorian Thompson-Robinson at UCLA or not? I do. But then I had to ask myself, who does it? he played behind. He can only, if I'm going to get him as a second screen quarterback, he has to play behind Kyle Murray. He has to play behind somebody's skill set that's very similar to his,

Justin Fields. Like, it's all about where do he go and where does his chances come from. If he goes where another running quarterback is, his chances of starting a game is very high. We all know that. I do Miami look at him and say, let's put him behind tour as a guy that we can bring in the goal line, is a guy that we can make play. for, so he, right now, when he stepped into the league, he will be situational. Can you get him behind a quarterback that allows him to at least have one package all year that he can really learn? But no, he's an instant guy because he actually has a better arm that most people think he is. Because when people talk about him, they all they talk about is his run.

No, this guy can let the ball rip. He can actually play. So are there any of the quarterbacks that you'd like for this team day two or day three? A hanner or an Aed and O'Connell out of Purdue, I think he has. looks like a pro quarterback. I don't know what you think. I can say a colonel does. A colonel does because he has the body and he has the arm. I just don't know where his processing is. How does he read defenses?

How does he process the play? His arm is so strong in college he can let the ball go a second later and he still get there. I don't know if he can do that at a high level in the league because these cornerbacks are just too damn good. You know what your best call was, by the way, draft-wise, because I remember specifically you and I talking about Debo Samuel, and you said he was your favorite player in that draft in 2019, whatever it was, 2018, 2019. You called him coming out of South Carolina, and you said, this dude's one of the baddest competitors, baddest-ass competitors there is in the league, and you predicted him. So real quickly, on corners, which may be a target for this team at 16, who are the corners that you?

like? All right. Whoa, there's a lot of guys. Listen, that Weatherstone from Illinois? Yeah, Illinois. He is another version of Chris McAllis. He is the most physical cornerback out of the scene since Antoine Winfield. So you said McAllister.

You said Chris McAllister. Yeah, Chris McAllister. His body frame reminds me in him the way he attacks the run, and he's a sticky cover you. I love Christian Gonzalez. I think him on the right team, he could be legit. a special cornerback. But I think it's a couple of guys that we're forcing

Joy Porter, Porter, Jr. I think if he doesn't go to the wrong team, I mean, the right team, he will be exposed. I just think he lacks the ball skills needed to play with some of these wide receivers and I think smaller wire receivers would give him a little bit more trouble

than other wire receiver. And then back to my guy Manuel Forbes, I just think he's the sneaky pick in his trail because he has the best ball skills. He also six-two. He's the close. He's the closest theme to South Gardner in this draft is a manual force. Do you like banks from Maryland or not? I'd like banks from Maryland, but for you to grade that high on all of the stuff

that to come by, where are the plays to match it? Where's the film? Where's the film? Like, you've got to ask yourself, Sheen. Am I coming here for a bodybuilder? I'm coming here for a track style? Am I coming here for football players? Like, football players?

That's what I want. I want football players. And because you kill the combine and you climb the people drive, it ain't going to change the way I feel about you. You're the best, and we got today on the show, the Married Quarterback Theory. That's as good a theory as any other out there when it comes to picking personnel. But the Married Quarterback Theory, let's find somebody quickly for Sam Howe that he can fall in love with so we can get him married off. We need to get him married ASAP, DM. I mean, we need to get here married eight.

I'm telling you, the more you study my married quarterback thesis, you will understand that it has a lot to do with maturity. It has everything to do with maturity. You know what? It has to do also with the ability to sort of work together with somebody. And problem solved. You got a problem solve. You got to be less self-absorbed, and you've got to be a part of a team.

you've got to be willing to give a little bit. All right. How much drama list will we have with Aaron Rogers if he was married? Like Aaron Rogers is the ultimate wild card of I'm single, I'm wild, I'm going to do stuff my way. You're right about that. And he's obviously a narcissist definition with his picture next to it. But with that said, I really think that if he ends up with the Jets, which I think he's going to, I think they're a legitimate contender next year with that roster.

They are legitimate as they get. They can run the ball. They can throw the ball. And everybody's so happy about him coming to be a party offense. That defense run that team. That defense is something special. But I am looking for New York Jets to New York Jets. Because one thing I know about this is,

if you bring in a quarterback with this me, me, me, like Aaron Rogers is, I don't know if Air Rod's going to be there in our season. I don't know if he's going to get the reps in needed like a Tom Brady. I don't know if we're going to fire him at a high school throwing to the Wilson and the rest of these guys. I just don't. He's one of them guys. He's like, put me in and I'm going to do my job and I hope everybody else do theirs.

Well, I'm sorry. Football families require relationships. And the one thing we know that is not good at is relationships. Got a compromise, and he's not willing to compromise. With that said, you know, I was just thinking, as you were saying, the Jets are going to do the Jets. I think the Jets in Washington are very close in terms of rosters. Great defense, really good playmakers on offense, just missing a quarterback.

And I think if he were in Washington in the NFC, we'd be the second or third pick to go to the Super Bowl next year. Yeah. If Aaron Roger was our quarterback, Al-Lamar Jackson, we would be legitimately at Super Bowl. I agree. We don't have many weaknesses on this roster. that where I gave the front office prompts. This is a roster that's ready to go. And that's what we want to see.

We want to see, do we have that quarterback? Is Lamar married? Lamar is not married. That's why he lasts out on Twitter right now. He's not married. That's why he's on Twitter all the time. Well, he doesn't have an agent. He's got to communicate on his own.

But that's maybe why he hasn't won more than one playoff game. Yeah, yeah. But he is 45 and 6. 16 is a starter. I've had this debate with everybody on the air on the radio show. I would take Lamar Jackson in a heartbeat. I would take Aaron Rogers. We've been in the wilderness for 30 years plus. And so give me with this team, you know, Ron keeps talking about roster building. They've got a pretty good roster. They just don't have a quarterback. Hey, the roster is built now, but also, she and we are our franchise, even at success, even at our

Pinnacle. We have not had long relationships with quarterback. We didn't have a long relationship with Dug. We didn't have a long relationship with Thaisman. We didn't have a long relationship with Riep. We need 10 to 15 years of the same guy. You want to win a fan base back? If they know 15 years in a row, I'm going to see Sam, how? It changes your fan base. We are a fickle fan base when it comes to quarterback because we have not been good in their relationship territory. No, we haven't. They are hard to find. though, that's for sure. Thanks for doing this. Hey, eight million people on this planet, she had, eight billion.

We haven't found 32 people that could play quarterback at the same time yet. Thysman was here, just so you know, Thysman was here for nearly a decade, but you know, he started as a punt returner. He was a punt returner's first couple of years as the third string quarterback in the first team

punt returner. But yeah, I mean, you know, look, the last you and I have argued about Kirk Cousins before. I don't want to start down that path again, but they had a guy, they had a guy here that was, you know, top 10 to 15. And if they had built around him, they would have had a chance to win a lot more than they've won here without him.

But that's... Hey, let me ask you this to you. Let me ask you this. My other team, the Minnesota Vikings, my other team, you think they, you know, you think, you know, not if they look back, was this Kirk Cousin trade worth it? Well, see, we're going to get into it now because it has worked, but they have had horrendous, not bad, horrendous defenses.

That was the worst defense in the NFL this year. They've had terrible special teams while he's been there. And there was a major issue with the last coach, Zimmer. I think KOC loves him. And I think they've got a chance, you know, to win. another 10, 11 games this year if they can add some defensive help. They were

horrible on defense. I mean, look what the Giants did to him twice. They got Daniel Jones paid that defense did. Yes, yes, it did, but we also know once you pay the quarterback so much money, that's like you can't get a defense. Fair point. That's fair. No, that is, that's 100%

right when you have that much invested in a quarterback and he's not elite, he's not Patrick Mahomes, he's not Aaron Rogers, then it makes it very difficult. You're right about that. And that's part of the, you know, that's part of the dilemma with Kirk. You're getting a top, you know, 12 kind of quarterback, you know, worst case 15. But when you pay him as much as he's been paid and he counts as much against your cap, you're going to, you're going to struggle. They won 13 games last year.

If they were just bad on defense instead of all-time bad, I think they would have won a playoff game or two this last year. Maybe. Yep. I think they would have, but like you said, when a disparity is like it is, it kind of kills your defensive side of the ball. And we know like everybody else, you need all three facets to win. And I thought last year was their year. Green Bay was down, Chicago, not too much, and Detroit is coming. That's a scary-ass team. Detroit, it's a scary team. I agree. But I thought last year was just, I felt a little magic with him.

They was winning at the end of the game. They just would figure out a way to win the game. I thought Kirk was in his bag. He trusted his wire sealed. He would just throw it up more because that's one thing I always said about Kirk. He would take care of the ball. He'll hold it to defend himself before he let it go. He let it go last year.

And I think last year pretty much, even though it wasn't his best numerical number here, I thought it was his best year ever going out winning games and taking control. No doubt. It was. It's a shame because when he was here, they were bad on defense, and in Minnesota, they've been bad on defense. But you're right, the contract in Minnesota kind of prevented them from building the best possible roster around them. That's a fair argument, too. Thanks for doing this. It's great to catch up. Any time, professor, let me know. Let's not wait too long next time. You got it. Fred Smoot, boys and girls.

Always entertaining, great guest, and we've got another one coming up. Our good friend Jimmy Patsos on the final four, and I'm sure a lot more, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, jumping on with us is one of our favorite guests of all time, and a good friend Jimmy Patsos. Jimmy's down in Houston for the final four.

That's what we're going to talk about, but I'm sure this conversation will take turns and twists where we're not even expecting them to go. What's the best thing, the most exciting thing you've done in Houston for the last couple of days? You know, that's really good question because we're having a party here for under our show. You've got to do some things like get prepped. We're having a luncheon at the pond, the big boss, Kevin Blanks, flying through. this is a coaches convention. The women were in Dallas last night. So it's very rare, Kevin,

that you'll have a final four women with Caitlin Clark and Iowa's Super Sensation. She's kind of like Steph Curry, and she's really a, you know, transcendent player. So Caitlin Clark's playing South Carolina, an hour, you know, three hours away, our flight away, but three hour drive.

So it's a really interesting time because you have a function in Dallas last night for the women's coaches. Don Staley, our best team. Brenda had a great. run. Everyone was so impressed with me a lot of people talked about the job Brenda Freese did. And a lot of people didn't think she'd have that good a year because she had some people

leave, including Julian Reese's sister. You don't want Julian Reese's sister. We don't want Julian Reese's sister made a lot of money in the NIA. So it's kind of a compelling story that both Final Fours are in Texas. Then I come here to Houston and I was with

Jeff Jones, the former AU coached last night. Kevin Broadus, Dave Odom and I, we always sit together at this dinner. Jeff Jones has a famous dinner every year. Then he rolled to the double pump party, David and Dana Pomp. I was with Pino Ransom, Camia Hunter, who's from around here.

Tony Skin, who just got a job. Keith Ergo, another local legend. I lived with him. Tortured his poor brother Donnie and Seampton. They sent me at the time. And Bernie McCarthy by living with them on old Georgetown. We all bartended at the third and at T-Bones. So,

this is what it's like when you have two final fours. You're seeing a lot of old friends, developing new friends, repairing relationships, building relationships, but we have a job to do here at Underarmine. We have Bruce Pearl coming today because Auburn's been our most successful program. We're going to kind of give him a shout out when he's up on the stage. Kevin Willard, unfortunately, is too busy doing work right now because he's still rebuilding that program.

I understand that we're excited to see who gets the American New Job is at Dwayne Finkins, Mike Jones, or Josh Leffler. I also saw Mike Jones did him out to coach last night. So it's a really interesting time, Kevin, because you run into people for friendships, but there's a lot of business going on. That's what I want to let everybody know. Like, there's business at hand. We want South Carolina to win the women's tournament back to back.

She's building her dynasty. Gino R. R. E.M. has 11 titles. Pat Summitt has eight. Don Staley's chucking right behind at three. And let me tell you something. She's chugging along. It's kind of a juggernaut.

They're really big team. We love what Don Staley's doing in South Carolina. On the men side, we had Fairley Dickinson. We had some compelling stories. You know, you had Auburn, you had St. Mary's, and you had, of course, Maryland had a fantastic year. Texas Tech is waiting on a coach. I believe it's going to be McCausland from North Texas. So this is what goes on business-wise here at the Final Four.

Where did I go? So Florence Wong, who was left-year-old student. Left-Didrejov's student secretaries here because she lives in Houston, you know. You see people from the rockets and things like that. Where have I gone? I had a nice little lunch at the palm just to check in. That's where our party is today. If you're in Houston, it's too late, but it's going to be a great one come down this afternoon.

You see your NCAA friends, the Pappas brothers. I'm sort of a steak place. Went to a place, Klee last night, had a pool outdoor. You forget it's Houston, you know. There's pools outdoors and clubs. There's indoor outdoor club. They're talking about the rockets and how they're thanking for Victor. So, like, this is all, and I'm going to throw everything at you,

this frenetic paste I'm giving you. Kevin, I wanted to give you that because that's what it's like being at the final four. Yeah, I was at La Diplomat last night for a late dinner with my wife and had the burger, which I think is the best burger in town just to twist and turn this conversation. Oh, we love food. You're at the Diplomat on 14th, Fred. I used to go to Be sure the Aquinas kind of came in and took over the... Why, the best burger at a French street? I think... Mottomis... Did you just throw out Monomese burger? very good burger, very comparable to La Diplomat. There's a place called Abollah on MacArthur Boulevard

in Upper Northwest near my house. Phenomenal Berger, Belgian place, a great restaurant. But La Diplomats got the best burger in town. So that's what I was doing last night without all of the other things. I was also at DC-9 to listen to some music before the late dinner. But anyway, it was great. It was great. It was great. There was a, my son in his girlfriend have a band. They opened up for some red hot, you know, band called Eilio. They've sold out everywhere they've gone, and they're blowing up a little bit. And I was not down there to see them. I was not down there to see them.

I was down there to see my son and his girlfriend, and their pop duo. They've been playing a lot. They've got an album out, and they've been around town. They played at Union Stage last week, and so I went down for that. And then Karen I, my wife. Are they like Tedski trucks type pop duo? They're a little, if you know, Beach House, if you know, Lana Del Rey, it's kind of a combination of that. But anyway, I'm not going to, we're not going to sit here and bore everybody with music conversation.

But I had a feeling if I threw out La Diplomat Burger, you might weigh in with your favorite burger. Look, Shagsack's still in its own way. and I know it's a different kind. They just do it for me. Shake-shack when you're at the right time. And then, you know, I'm going to give you a diplomat if that's what you like. When I go to D.C., it's fine. I don't eat burgers.

I like eat burgers in New York at J.G. Mellon. And we'll switch. And that's an Upper East Side place. You know, PJ Clark says down here. I love the diplomat. That's my old backyard of my neighborhood. I kind of live over on 19th Street. I have a place in DuPont.

I still have on 20th and 19th right there on S behind DuPont, right where Reagan on We got shot. To see diplomat, to see DC-9 and all this stuff come back, rolling back even better, and then post-COVID to see that area develop, you know, whoever started it with the Wizards, probably the Wizards Caps and Abe Pauling gets the most credit in my mind for D.C. And this could be a historical show, but we won't do that of how important that development was because you and I were there when that was not a great area to go.

You ran for your life just to go to studio theater down there occasionally. The 930 Club was a serious adventure, and you better have a ride planned out of there. And now, from DuPont to Howard University, it's just spectacular. The whole thing, it's just fantastic. It's a world-class city. And I think the diplomat has done a lot for 14th Street and it's rejuvenation. But I'm going to tell you this, there's just no better stop for me than the original Benton Chili Bowl. Yeah, that's right.

Every time I go in, know them. But I really go in. I read the New York Post in the back, and then I'll go in, and I'll always bring a bunch of to goes back to Baltimore. You just got to love that area. My wizards are, I got the Knicks Wizards this Saturday. It's the trying time for the Wizards, yet they're only, well, they're only a game and a half. Oh, stop it. I don't, I'm more interested in, you know, the rejuvenation of our city.

I think you're right. I think Gabe Poland gets a lot of credit for basically doing what he did in an area that, you know, we wouldn't walk around in the daytime, you know, 30 years ago. in Chinatown. And then obviously the gentrification of a lot of areas around town. Obviously the U Street corridor. But look, D.C., when you and I, when I was working the door and occasionally waiting tables at third edition,

when you, Bernie and Giles and everybody else and Pete Haley and everybody else were behind the bar, by the way, you never... Well, Carl was managing it as he was T-Bones. But, you know, at T-Bones, you were not a bartender. You may have been a guest bartender. You were an owner of T-Bones. You were a shareholder in T-Bones. I was a shareholder in the Oxford Grill when they brought it back.

Another one of my great address. We'll be digress. Stay away from that. But yes, and leave my, the wizards, I'm telling you, Oh, God. We're two wins away. I don't want to be in the way. I don't want to be in the playing.

I want the best, I want lottery chances increased in the best possible draft position. conversation, I'll entertain this conversation briefly, but real quickly, what I was going to finish saying is when you and I were spending a lot of time in Georgetown at third edition at Nathan's, at Garrets, and everywhere else, and occasionally over an Adam... Big Pauls was my spot on a Sunday. Fine. And occasionally in Adams Morgan at cities or Dakotas or Perrys or any of those places, it was not a city of neighborhoods.

Now it is a city like a lot of northeastern cities are with neighborhoods, which has made it a much better young person's city than it was when we were running around, D.C., because there were only a couple of places to go. That's a great point. All right. So to the Wizards real quickly, Jimmy, look, I mean, and I love Chris dearly, And I know he got into this thing. And I understand what he was saying with respect to, you know, anybody that, you know,

thinks they're going to go out and lose. No, no player on the floor, no player in a football game late in the season is going to try to perform poorly. Tanking takes place organizationally with the players you end up putting out on the floor, which will... Oh, I know. I'm in Houston, believe me. Right. The two-year plan and Hardin's coming home in a year. But it's already on the street.

Hardin's coming home. and they're tanking now to get victor. Here's the thing, and I know we have had this conversation before. The only way to legitimately contend for an NBA title, it's different than other sports because the best teams always win because of the best of seven nature, because of the number of players on the floor, and since 2004, every single NBA championship team has had,

a top five player in the league on their team. If you don't have a top five player, you can't win an NBA title. We don't have a top 15 player. If Beal's top 15, he's barely top 15. And the only way... When healthy, he was, but I hear you. He was, is he getting too old? Does he have too many other things going on in his life?

He's got a big trot-track. But when healthy, I love Real Deal. He's just a nagging injury this year. But the only way to win is to get a top five player, and for Washington, the only way to make that happen is to get lucky in the draft. Yeah, I'll give you that. Okay. So why do you want to, you want to play a play-in game?

You want to play a playing game against the Bulls or the Raptors? And then what? To what end? Well, here's the issue I have is that I was at the Pacers game when they won, And then they went to play the Sixers and they won a game. I actually got to do it. I got to do a wizard Sixers game. I mean, they did not win the game.

When I say, David, for those you listening, I do TV, the pre and post on NBC, which I absolutely love and I'm grateful to do because it is the NBA. And when you're in cities like Houston that talk about Akeem Elijah on and Ralph Stamps of championship years going to the finals and things like that. And that's what they want here at Houston. They don't have to hang a banner here in Houston, Kevin, but they want to be in the mix for a championship. And I would take that in Washington right now because, let's face it, since I've been here for five years,

and I remember while standing on the table, that was in the second round series, which is very exciting, which we lost. It hasn't been, we're not in the midst for a championship. But, you know, Beal, a fantastic guy to watch. Everyone coveted him a couple years ago. He's got to get healthy. Kuzna's been really interesting to watch. I really like him. I wish he played down the stretch a little more.

the last two years, but he plays so hard on both ends. He's running out of gas, but I'll close with this. Posingas has been a good find. Yeah, I agree. Pozingis is a piece of a team that can get in the serious playoff mix. What you do with the rest is Denny going to get good? Shouldn't you have kept Rui because he scored? I know his contract coming.

This is not for me. I'm not that smart. I just do my games. Chris Mill and I love talking hoop. But we want to be in the playoff mix, so you can have a chance to win it. So I do get excited when we were playing and meeting the Pacers. We're going to move on from the NBA because whether it's Victor or the twins, you know, the Thompson twins, not the whole being out, Thompson twins band,

but there's Thompson twins coming up. If it's Sue Henderson, if it's Miller, if it's Jarrett Walker, who I think they could really use and should trade up for a team throw Baltimore kid from Houston, should they take Hunchefino because you need a really, a real point guard of the future, he's the Indiana kid, Trace Jackson Davis in the second round. I can go through all of this, but you have to make some calculated decision

and then Beal's got to get healthy. The free agent thing has always mystified me that they can't get a guy to come home because it's such a great place to live. But you put all that together. I'm with you on that. I didn't say I want to hang a banner tomorrow. I agree with you.

You have to have a great, great player. But we're close, but I do want to be in the mix, and that's what the message is. We're going to close on this with Texas. The Spurs have five banners. hanging. Okay?

The, the, the rockets have two banners hanging and the Mavericks have a

banner hanging in the modern era with course, and now they're losing with Luca Dachach so they're in

like a weird place because the Kyrie ring, I don't know. But you're, you're focused on a Texas

attitude right now and they're going to be on your side, Kevin. We're big, we're Texas. We got a wind

down here. He's got a radio show all there. It's 10 am. They're so happy. Houston and

and San Antonio have the two best chances along with Detroit. So those are the big three that are going to get it. They're all in on, let's get rid of this stuff now. Let's try to get there. Let's try to get up in. And then let's have 10 years of chase. And let's try to get, or maybe it's somebody a little better because Kenyon, because, you know, Murray, Kenyon Murray out there at the fourth pick was great. And now the Sacramento King's

Carter has a lot to do with it, the bonus, the iron fox. Like, Beal's sitting there and we're wasting him. We do have to find a way to trade or draft. But the Texas attitude, down here is we got a couple banners hanging up there, but we went to a lot of finals, and they want James Harden back, whether they like him because of his social, social nightlife ability. That guy can get buckets. They went to the conference finals a bunch. San Antonio's got five banners and then. Dallas went to the conference finals last year. And the attitude, it's just, I'm just closing on this. Closing on this for the fifth time. Are we going to close on this or not?

No, we're closing on this. That to have a championship aspiration takes some gutsy movement. moves, so I'm on your side. I hope this is the year the Wizards make it, whether it's through trade. You can't just sit there and pick where you pick, but they've done it in Dallas, they've done it in Houston, and they've done it in San Antonio, and that's the vibe down here right now while I'm in Texas. Yeah, I mean, I'll close with this. It takes some of that, you know, some really good maneuvering, some really good roster construction by, you know, a solid front office, it also really takes some luck, too. You know, Kawhi Leonard was picked at 15 overall. Yannis was picked, you know, somewhere, I'm

forgetting 14 or 15. Wherever. So it takes some luck because a lot of teams passed on Janice and Kauai. And speaking of the Texas teams, the worst thing that ever happened to San Antonio was not figuring out a way to keep Kauai Leonard because they would have continued to be a threat. But my audience, which by the way, is your audience right now as well, wants us to talk about the Final Four. They probably want us to talk about the Ravens and the commanders, Jimmy being more of a Ravens guy, obviously, and just talk NFL, but I want to talk Final Four. So let's talk.

Thank you for not making me talk about the Lamar situation, because I have no idea. I hope it gets solved. It's not. He's probably going to play. Maybe he's going to play for you guys. No, he's not. They don't have the ability with the ownership situation to write him a match. massive check. They're not going to do that. But since you brought it up and since you said,

I'm glad I don't have to talk about it, I'm going to make you talk about it real quickly. Why do you think that there's been little to no interest in signing Lamar Jackson to an offer sheet? I think everybody's waiting for the draft would be my outsider guest. It depends. If you get strouty, I like strouds out of the other guy, okay? The Kentucky quarterback's fascinating, but I don't know enough about them. Do you want an offensive tackle? You want the guy from Northwestern? I am really just a fan of football. I do not dive into it all now. Sometimes when I'm at Northwestern

and I'm going to poke my head into football practice because that guy's supposed to be the best line. Of course. But I think they're going to wait for the draft to shake out and see. And the Ravens don't have to do it. The Ravens are in a great position in terms of, it's not great for what's going on at all. And we were a botched one-yard attempt from beating Cincinnati

and having a fantastic year in winning without Lamar. which I think the players really, you know, are not really, I think it's a very disappointed group that we could have had a chance to do something special and how hurt he was. I'm not a doctor. I'm not here to tell you the guy was tanking or not playing, but sometimes if it smells like fish, it's fish.

Well, what do you do with them? You don't have to do anything. You just wait until he signs and then you decide if you want to offer or not. But I don't believe in collusion and all that. The draft's coming up. The Patriots don't have to make a move. until they see how Back Jones looks at, you know, OTAs or whatever, and then who they did.

But the draft is huge, Kevin, look, your commanders, I actually like Tyler Heineke, but you let him go. I mean, I'm watching as a fame. But what are you going to do with your quarterback situation? What are we going to do with ours? It's obviously a huge position. Can you win without it? A little bit. You know, we went to the Super Bowl with not the greatest quarterback.

I lived next to Doug Williams in college. He was the backup when that all happened. And it was me and Michael Adams all living near Catholic youth. Oh, really? You've never told me that. You lived next door to Doug when he was in Washington? Yeah, we all lived in the closest. James Brown lived next door in Park Place.

Now, this is when opening a Catholic U. is the greatest area, but they were gated communities. I was a senior with Lonnigan. Doug Williams was working out. He saw us doing the heavy rope and running and doing bars. It was a brand new bar. Easy living, you know, and he can go right down the streets of the Redskirts. And, you know, Michael Adams wanted to live close to the city to kind of go out and hang out.

and then they drive out to Bowie. They practiced in Bowie and they played. But we were all the same complex for like six months. And at the end of that, Doug Williams led us to the title. So the quarterback position is obviously a funny position. You know, my favorite is Bill Parcells, my friend Bill Parcells, who always said all quarterbacks and running backs look the same when they have good blocking. They all look the same when there's no blocking.

For the most part, he said there's obviously an aberration of guys that can play outside the line. but for the most part, when you have good blocking, most quarterbacks are pretty good, and most running back. Sequin Barkley was really good this year. They had a good line. Stunk two years ago because they didn't have a good line. Like, is that the question?

Do we have to wear it? We almost won with Tyler Huntley. I mean, we almost beat the Bengals in Cincinnati. That's true. So I'm not panicked about it. I'm not panicked about it as much, but I'm going to jump on what you said with the NBA. You do need a top 15 guy, a real one.

Well, you want top five, right? you do. But I'm just saying he's another guy. Because you, because... In the NFL, you can piece it together. What is this? Of course. Of course.

It's different. It's not... Especially in Baltimore with a strong defense. Best to seven, Best to Seven proves over time that the best... That's very interesting. I like that. I like that.

I never really heard that the Best to Seven really is. Now you're being sarcastic. It's a deciding factor. No, no, I'm actually kidding. I'm not kidding. Well, Best of Seven's always, you know, that's why the NBA, you always get a true, you know, the best teams win. Now, hockey's different because of the random nature of a puck, you know, bouncing off, you know, pads and posts and, and whatever else, and skates. But the end,

you know, and baseball, baseball is three out of five where you can have some guy just go cold. Hot pitcher. Yeah, right. You get a pitcher that pitches great. I'm being, I'm being serious. I like that. Well, if you go back, I can't believe we haven't had this conversation before, but literally, if you go back through the last now, it would be 19 years, coming up on 19 years. The last team to win an NBA title without an obvious top five player in the game was the Pistons in 2004 with, you know, Rip Hamilton.

Larry Brown. Yes, and Billups and Tashon Prince and who else. Rashid was on that team. Ben Wallace was on that team. Ben Wallace kind of rebounded his way to like the MVP, which was weird. Larry Brown went speaking at clinics or if you talk to Larry Brown and I know Larry Brown,

the most amazing thing was they went to five straight conference finals. That's what we're talking about. See, I hate when people are like, you got to get a beer or it doesn't matter. I need a chip. That's all BS. Going to the conference finals is very hard. Yeah, it is. And you're on TV.

Really hard. And you're on TV every. So Larry Brown's like, Jimmy, we had one with the five conference finals. You know how hard that is, let alone going to the finals, which he's right. But his most important guy on that team, he says to this day was Rashire. Wallace. Leadership was, toughness, but he was the best. He was at the time, and remember,

this is going back. And that was when I was in college when I started seeing the pick and roll at Loyola a lot more in the Mac. New York City League, I didn't know as much about it. We ran the Flex, you know, Carolina, Carolina transition and all that stuff with people. All of a sudden, the pick and roll became a huge offensive weapon.

Larry Brown was the first one who put a lot of emphasis on defending the pick and roll. Do you know the cabs and Drew Good at them? They played the Spurs in the finals. There was only one game that went to 100. All those games, the Pistons played, like you said, Kevin, were kind of lower games. Larry Brown's like Chauncey Billups, big guards with Rashid Wallace,

and we can defend your pick and roll so you can get to the championship. But you're right. Chauncey Billis is still almost a top 15 player. Rip Hamilton, that was a collective unit of very good players, but I'll give you that, that you have to have a player. But do the Ravens, and let's go right through the trips, because you've got to get to college basketball. Is Jemir Young good enough?

Is Jemir Young, is Jemir Young good enough to lead us to the title? We both know the answer to that. He's not, but we have to have him. Julian Rees is starting to become the guy that could meet us to the Sweet 16th, in my opinion, who had a great year. And now you have to take care of him in the NIL because he deserves a big race. I don't know when he was getting paid last year, but it wasn't enough. Jamir Young is coming back.

We need Reese back. You need those two guys. Are you worried about Reese coming back? no, I'm not. I know. I think Willard knows what he's doing, and he's got a kid, and he's very happy, and you're going to have to give him a huge pay raise. Welcome to the world. But Harris Smith is the guy I want to speak to.

With Young, with Young, and with Reese, and I think Jonathan Lamont's really good, and Jamie Kaiser, unfortunately, didn't play IM versus State John's, which Pat Biham. What a story at the St. John's level. What a tough one. But what a great year he had. I was at the game. So I can't evaluate Kaiser because it didn't seem in person. He'll be in Geico this week. They're in Geico, IMG, which is top eight. But Harris Smith and Paula Sixth is, in my opinion, an NBA player.

So you're adding him, Kevin, to what you're – we're kind of – we're combining – we're both right on this. You got Harris Smith, your NBA guy, which you say you need to win it all. And I say young and are really important. But I was being specific to the NBA. College is different. No, no, college is and – no, not really. Not really. Not it is. But it isn't. You know, you still need, you know,

Yukon's got two or three pros out there, okay, including Jordan Hawkins from Montgomery County, then to Maffa in Connecticut, okay? San Diego State has a collection of guys. Long is really, is playing like an NBA guy. I'm just saying I'm agreeing with you, but Reese and Young, you had to keep them. And Kevin Willis so far has Young coming back.

I hope Reese we're going to miss Doctor in Hart. They did a great four years. They graduated. We're going to miss your voice in the choir, but we're moving on. And then, can the bench develop, but it's Harris Smith from Paul the 6th. I'm telling you, in my opinion, that in two years he's an NBA player.

I don't think he's a one-year NBA guy. I think he's like I.D. and Suggs and Johnny Davis and all those kind of guys. I think he's a sophomore NBA guy. We're moving around here pretty quickly. By the way, I'll just throw in real quickly. I hated when the bullets traded Rashid Wallace for Rod Strickland. I thought you don't trade big for small, and I always was a massive Rashid fan. And I think he's actually very underrated, you know, by basketball.

Well, Kevin Garnett won't have. I hear you, by the average person he's underrated. Kevin Garnett will tell he's not underrated. There are a jump shot away from winning two titles with Rashid Boston. Don't forget that. Right. All right. So let's talk final talk. I didn't know they're trading him to Rod Strickland. And I love Rocket Rod, but another one. of the not bullets wizard's finest moves ever. No. No, it wasn't. All right. Final four, first game, Florida Atlantic, San Diego State. Nobody expected this to happen. Nobody expected

to see these two teams. But what do you make of that matchup? What do you make of these two teams, coaches, et cetera? As much as it's going to pain me to say this, I have to give Chris Naki credit. I'm reluctant to do that. I'm just kidding. He runs our D.C. coaches' podcast. Naki's one of my better friends. And Kelsey Nocki's coming home.

His daughter's amazing. She's coming to V.C.U. She's the best. And with me, I might go around about the ways, but it's all connected. So, Naki's daughter is with Ryan Odom, my friend, and I was with Dave at Utah State. And we have Colorado State

with David Roddy, who's other Grizzlies. I've watched that league a lot. San Diego State has always been really good. They were really close two years ago. Along with Dayton, I thought they got screwed the most because of COVID. Right. In terms of making their mark, they were really good that year, Kevin.

Yep. I take the Blue Bloods out and you don't know if FDU and VCU were going to be good. George Mason with Laredega. Those were all aberration. Dayton and San Diego State, the COVID year, were excellent teams that were probably going to go, to my opinion. Sweet 16 minimum, probably the elite eight, which means

you have a chance. So San Diego State, to me, You know, it's not just Butler and Tram, Olin Johnson. What's interesting is Dusty Mays, Brian Dutcher, and Danny Hurley, all took those jobs within six months, okay? All those three guys. Connecticut go back to the Big East, Kevin Alley, things over. God bless Kevin Alley, but he won a title basically with Calhoun's guys, and he won it in the American.

They go back to the Big East, and they bring in Danny Hurley. Great move. Dusty Mays, clearly a great job. Florida Atlantic, who's now going to go. That conference, by the way, for those you listening, could have, in theory, all the champions. The CBI was won by Charlotte, North Texas, and UAB. Right. They're going to win tonight.

They're going to get that championship in the NIT. And now Florida Atlantic, who would have thought, conference USA? Now, they're all going to the American to take Houston and Cincinnati's place. This is the kind of stuff that really gets strung out at the final four. And I don't have all the answers. I do a lot of listening, actually, at times. and you look and say smart as at times but you look at that was some self-awareness love it by the way you are a good listener because you're very and I've known this about you for a long period of time

you're very curious and so you do listen very well but you're also a great talker so continue no but you go through and you look and you say wow well as far at o'anica is this a one-year wonder well now they're going to the American with Memphis which as you know is going to hand a recruits And I have a feeling down in the Bocca, Rotton, Palm Beach area. There might be a little N.I.L. Yeah. Well, Coral Gables, Coral Gables also. Well, we're going to them next, but Lane Giffon didn't go to Florida, Atlantic on a win.

But Steve's got a lot of... Sea, the Eagle State is really an interesting place. They, I'm friends with Steve Fisher, and Dutcher was with Gofriede to Steve Fisher. Dutcher's father was the coach. But Dutcher, Dutte May, and Danny Hurley are all within, like, six months to take in those three spots over. Now they're in the final four. A little bit more modern.

Hurley's calm down. Dutch is a fair but firm guy. And I don't know Dusty May that well, but he's really done a good job. And then there's Laranaga who has coached longer. Laranaga has been a head coach longer than those three combined. So it's really an interesting story. I think San Diego State's got a lot of legs.

They have the most depth. They have a real nine guys. Laranaga plays five and a half to six guys. If you're betting, I would take the field versus Yukon. That was my thing yesterday. I would take that if you can take those three because Yukon's going to win two.

And they're definitely, Yukon is the favorite. They came in fourth in the Big East. And they're the favorite. The other three won their leagues. So this is the kind of stuff I was listening to and learning yesterday. But to go back to San Diego State, they draw the best in California and it's not close.

They outsell tickets by a mile. UCLA second, USC's third, you know, St. Mary's doesn't count because they only hold 3,000, but St. Mary's doesn't say we play the capacity. Everybody has a cell and recruiting. No one cares about Stanford and Cal anymore, and that's it. So it's an interesting thing. San Diego State is by far and away the most watched and most like program in the state of California from November to March.

I didn't say when U.S.D. is playing UCLA when that's December 25th, when Maryland goes up to Pauly Pavilion and Shian's going with us. yes, I'm releasing that day. That's really interesting. That is something that I don't think anybody listening knows. San Diego State is a college basketball program draws better than any other California college basketball program. Look, they've had so much success, Jimmy. I mean, Fisher took him to the tournament almost every year. Yeah, they have a new, they fixed the arena when he got the job because Rob Aid in the late great Rob Aide. He's my agent. the DC lawyer, helped them get out of Michigan,

escape Beauchamp, like those grips, and go down there, they averaged less than 2,000 people a game. Now, they had the charges. They had a H.H.L. Hockey. People were going up to the lakes. There wasn't as much traffic.

It was a whole different. They are now, like, the isolated second-best team to go to in a large area behind the Padres, and they don't even play in the same season. So that thing could go. And the Mount West, my point about Nike is Utah State's packed,

You know, remember the New Mexico and UNOV in that league? Yeah. Boise State Street. It's a really good league. And I actually think them in the Pac 12 was left should find a way to merge, but let's not get too crazy. And those are other things you listen to. And Dave Odom was really great last night because Logan, Utah is a terrible place for people like us to live.

It's a beautiful mountainous, quiet town. You're not finding no burgers. Coolie's alma mater. Yeah. No, no diplomat burgers in Logan. Well, Cooley went to school at Utah State and now lives in lovely Cody Powell, Wyoming. And they just, you know, he got really excited with me of like a couple of months ago because they opened up in Chick-fil-A and Helena that they got to drive to. 45 minutes for a chick-fellon.

I'm going to go out there and see him this summer. Yeah. I'm going to go out and hang out with this summer. I've heard of just I want to. And so we have Montana State at Under Armour, so I know about them because I've talked to, you know, Travis But when you hear all this stuff, with NIL, with isolated programs where there's more interest, will the blue bloods be dying? And I don't mean dying to death, but just slowing down. We're Miami who has money.

And also is in a little bit of a, you know, Miami is a half hour for Miami Beach. You're not running down to the beach. But the Coral Gables neighborhood is just like the president of the people. People live and go. It's beautiful, but people go to live and go to school. They function. They want to go down the road to the highway. to the hurricane. You know, they got some real

NIL money. They were the ones that took back from K-State and said, we're just going to pay right away, we're not going to negotiate, we're going to need a two-year deal because we're smart business. But this is what's coming. Florida, Atlanta's going to get the money. Yukon is an isolated place,

stores that that's the only play game in town, too. So it's pretty interesting to see these four teams. My question for you, Kevin, is this a wave of the future? Like, should Ed Cooley have stayed at a Providence where he was the king. He's coming into a very crowded market at Georgetown. I love Ed, but he can get up there and say, we will win games, and we will bring this back

to where it's... Really? Okay, Ed, show us. Show me you can do that because this is a city where people go to the caps and the Wizards and the Nationals and the diplomat and BC-9PBand and do all this other stuff. All right, stop. They don't just go to Providence games. Can Ed Cooley do this? Or is this final floor, I'm asking you to give us a wave-in-old. How much... How much George does George don't have? They have a lot, but doesn't matter to kids to play in an M.P. What I'm saying to you is an Ed Kuh as a friend of mine, I'm asking you, do you think

this is a picturesque final four of the waves of the future? I do. Now, I definitely do. I think that the NIL and transfer portal just gives teams a chance to sort of reload and almost anybody to reload with older players. And that seems to be a bit of a trend with older players. I also have another theory about NIL altogether that I have no idea if I'm even close on. We can talk about that at another time. But netting it out is this. You know, this is the Wild, Wild West of NIL days. And at some point, all the money that's being shelled out to players

that don't work out in terms of their performance, or, you know, you shell out a bunch of money to a big-time receiver or a big-time quarterback, and a year later he transfers, it's not like there's a refund coming to the collective. You know, that money is gone, and I just wonder for how long this big money exists when the hit rate is kind of like the NFL draft hit rate. It's like if you're hitting it 30%, 33% somewhere in that range,

that's a good hit. But you're spending big money on these players in some places. And then a year later, they're gone, because they didn't get the playing time they wanted or they didn't like the way they were being played and it's not like you got to give that money back. But anyway, I want to move on from that. Who do you like in the game?

First game. I like San Diego State in the first game. I think they're much tougher and stronger and they're going to will their way. This is, while Florida Atlantic is a rising program, they're going to have big eyes and you get distracted and your aunt and uncle are coming in. And I'm not saying San Diego State's not surprised to be here either,

but they've also lived. in that world, but it's a little bigger world the Mount West. I'm going to go on that. I'm not really talking basketball stuff. Thatcher's just a tough guy, tough team. You don't beat those teams you beat, you don't walk through Alabama and things like that without being

prepped and being ready. So I got them, Florida Atlantic, I love it, that kind of an easy run. They almost, I always thought, and I had I said, whoever won them in Memphis had a real shot at the final four, but I picked Memphis because one of my assistants is this coach there.

But that was a tough game for them, and they've kind of had, you know, Purdue flames out again, three years, three losers to double-digit seeds. Come on, Matt Pina, wake up, okay? We love you, but come on. Cut it out. He's killing the big tent, you know, because it's his turn to win. And as Gary Williams taught us, when it's your turn to win, you owe it to the team, yourself, the school. You also owe it to the league. Like, we were really proud to carry the ACC flag along with Duke.

Carolina was going down. Then there was three of us, you know. saw Bobby Clemens last night. We talked about how great the ACC was, but it was Carolina and Duke's League. But when you have a chance to get in that mix, you have to do your job, and that's how you earn respect. And Purdue has really let the Big Ten down, in my opinion,

because it was their years to be good, and they haven't been good in the tournament. But I say, I used that because Florida Atlantic had kind of an easy run. You've got them playing it's such a highlight. I saw them in person in Albany. They just beat St. Mary's just couldn't win the game, especially when the three-man went out. He's a really good coach and preps well,

and they've got bigger size than you think, and they have a good couple young guards, Tyler Johnson's brothers there, and they were no match for Yukon. Yukon are coming forth. What I don't understand is how Yukon had that bad stretch in January, but I wasn't watching close. But they're also very deep and have two big men.

So I'm going San Diego, Steve, beat Florida, Atlantic. Yukon, Laranague, if anybody can trick him and beat him, it's him. Once again, I would take the field because it's two. I think Yukon's going to beat Miami, and it could be a little bit of one of those games that Yukon is so hyped that they think they've done it and they've won and then San Diego State's going to upset him and become the national championship. And Bill Walton can walk around Balbollah Park and say,

this is a fantastic place and all that stuff, because he's a San Diego guy. I got San Diego State cutting down the next to the upset. How about this? How about, you know, Yukon right now is a six, six and a half-point favorite against Miami. Wow, it's gone up to that high. The look-ahead line for Monday night, if it's Yukon and San Diego State, is Yukon minus four. So the books view San Diego State as a much better test for Yukon than Miami, who I think can't guard.

Let me give you my theory on Yukon real quickly. If you go through their entire season, they have not won a close game all year long. Every three-point or less game they've been involved in, they've lost. In this tournament, they've won decisively in every game, by 24, by 15, by 23, and by 28 over Gonzaga. I think if Miami can put some game pressure on them, score, clock, game pressure, let's see what Yukon is in a tight game in this tournament. Because they haven't faced, you know, they haven't had many close games all year. The last two games that were legitimately close, they lost to Marquette.

in the Big East tournament and to Creighton back in early February. They've basically blown out everybody when they've won. So I think if Miami can keep it close, they've got a chance. But I'm concerned that Miami can't guard. Like, I know they've outscored everybody, and they scored 30 points over, like, the final. And that's kind of how he does. He's a great offensive coach. He trains him and trust him.

I love Laronaga. He's got a really good way about him. He's done well with Caputo. And there's another D.C. guy. on that bench, by the way, and Bill Courtney's a great guy. I had Courtney on the show the other day. He was a great guest. They love him. Fantastic. Great. I love him.

You come to third edition, too. Chris Simpson from Bucknell. They score a lot of points. Jim Laranaga is a priceless guy. He plays with the team. The whole dancing thing. Don't do that, but I like it. But he could, if he gets the lead, I hear what you're saying. Yukon falls behind. Remember, they won, once again, Miami

even first in the ACC. And you can say what you want. I know. Pretty good teams in the ACC. Yes, the bottom stunt. They'll fix that. Florida Atlantic won their league and won their tournament. San Diego State won their league in their tournament.

Like, these guys have won. Yukon, okay, they've had some, you know, it's not been the easiest run. But Hurley has grown up as a coach. That's it. It would not surprise me. I would take the five and a half six from Laranaga. If he gets that lead and then they keep scoring, I hear you. will you con panic?

Because if Hawkins doesn't make some of those NBA threes, I didn't see a lot of other shooters out there. I love Jackson, went to my camp. Andre Jackson's a kid from Albany and went to my shenicamp. Newton and all those guys are good. But Sunovo, I just don't know if Miller and O'Meer or whatever can cover him. But Laroniagin is going to play his six guys.

He's not going to panic. It's interesting. But I just do think Yukon's stronger than him. San Diego State has eight or nine really strong guys. Ryan Odenham and I talked about it. They're six and six. seventh man are legitimately as good as anybody starting. That step, they're tough. That mountain west is tougher than you think, and they'll find a way to grind it down. And as you said,

Kevin, you're the one that pointed this out. If that's Yukon's situation in close games, that's what San Diego State thrives in. Right. I just would love to see in either Saturday or Monday night. By the way, I think it's San Diego State Yukon, and I think San Diego State's got a really good chance to win the whole thing too. By the way, I don't think I've seen a better team staying in front of the basketball defensively on the perimeter. I don't think I've seen any team like them. I thought Tennessee was the best defensive team coming into the tournament, but San Diego State is. But I'd like to see 65-65 with three minutes to go tomorrow night. And let's see what Yukon can do. All right, I've got two more for you real quickly, and then

you've got to run, and so do I. The first one is this. You have said on two different occasions about Danny Hurley. You said earlier, and I wrote this down, he's calmed down. And then you said just moments ago, he's grown up. Explain what you mean when you describe Danny Hurley, the head coach at Yukon that way. Look, you know, I haven't coached for five years, but people like, what would you coach? Like, no, totally different. It's a different type of kid. You have to let them play two mistakes, and I think Hurley's done a good job. I knew him at St. Benedict's, okay? We knew him as a player. I love his dad. I don't know Bobby that well, but I know Daniel, but I know the dad, but that's actually him and his wife, Chris. And he's learned to just teach and let kids

play. He'll let guys get to the four-minute mark without yanking him out. He doesn't yell officials too much. He commented how he yelled maybe during that five-game. You know, we beat him around. He was at Rhode Island, and we beat him in Loyola. He paid us money. We went up there and beat it was a tournament that we went three and one and the scene hall was in there and we actually won the dave gavitt side which is beating albany and dorfick state that's how they do these tournaments like the one maryland's and next year's really good at asph it's in ashville there's four mid majors you play one of them kevin then you play your own tournament well we play

davidson uab and clemson are in there with with merlin this is how these well you get to watch other guys coach when you go to those and early was like myself a little bit of a madness i was just happier off the court than him. He's become happier off the court. I think he's settling into his role. You know, Wagner, he did a good job. He didn't even get to the NCAA. I don't know if he won the league, but Rhode Island

really turned it around. Now they're faltering. You saw how good they were with them and how they are without him. But he learned a lot of Rhode Island about how to have a program that's a state program that everyone relies on. Cooley had his own little Providence thing going, but Rhode Island Providence is two teams that both have, they split

the state. I'm talking about managing the program, being great off the court, fun to see it this summer league, stuff like that, Danny Hurley. But coaching his team and then letting them play a little more, not getting all crazied up and everything. We've all done it. Look, my last

year, I just sat there and tried to do the Gandhi's end thing. It didn't work. We were terrible. I did a bad job. But you go through phases of where you find out way you can coach. I think Danny Hurley is in a really good place of knowing who he is, what

he is. Luke Murray's on his staff. Come on. I know all these are Tom Moore's, the head coach of Quintap. He was on the bench with Calhoun. He's got that thing. And I think, I'm going to jump right to this. I believe we have that in Kevin Willard. I think Curley was the right guy for that job. It took him a couple years.

Yeah, they lost in the Maryland in the first round. Book night was a nightmare. Who knows? Last year they just got beat. He's got that thing. But he knew what he was doing. He has a plan. He's working the plan.

You know, plan the work, work to plan. My own Dennis Green thing. And he's done a fantastic job of it. it and I'm really impressed, and I was really impressed watching him up close in Albany to coach and get his team prepped and all that stuff. Yeah. I mean, I've heard, I heard, you know, stories about him at Rhode Island in particular. They played Maryland a couple of times. Maryland destroyed him. I think it was in Cancun. I don't think him in Turs. I don't think him in Turs. You're going to go to the people. No, I don't, I don't think that's, I don't think that's

going to happen. But I will tell you, there's a really good story. and I would recommend that you read it. Brendan Quinn wrote it in The Athletic about Danny Hurley and about how, you know, when he was at Seton Hall as a player with obviously a legendary father coach in Jersey City, a brother, you know, in the midst of winning two national championships at Duke, and he suffered from depression. He suffered from alcohol issues.

And, you know, he left PJ at Seton Hall. And when his, when Danny got in the car accident out in Sacramento as a rookie, Bob Hurley left St. Anthony's briefly, and Danny went in and helped coach during that year off. And that was like the beginning of his kind of love for basketball. He's had quite a life, you know, quite a basketball life. I think it's interesting. I actually think he's a really good coach. But I know he was very difficult on players, and not every coach out there loved him.

All right, last thing, and that is just a recommendation for you, because I know that you will really like this. I watched it a few days ago is Waco on Netflix. The whole Waco thing, which is now, believe it or not, 30 years ago, all right? 30 years ago, Dave. Is that 30 years ago? I'm putting that in my little book to watch Waco,

the Branch Divideons, I mean, I remember. Branch David Koresh. No one knew what, no one knew what that word meant. Next thing you know, you're watching it on TV with your mother going on your parents and go. What is that? And all of a sudden it's burning and all that. Wow, it was good, honey. All right, Waco will be foot down.

Waco, Netflix, it's three parts. Each part is 45 minutes, so it's an easy thing. But what's amazing about this Netflix show, about the David Koresh Branch David Ivdivdian shootout with the ATF and the 51-day siege is how much video they have of the whole thing, including what started it, which was this incredible shootout, Between the ATF, ATF lost four men originally that started this whole thing. But you'll love it.

You'll love the whole thing. You'll love the whole cult thing and how Koresh built this cult and became, you know, to all of those people. They thought he was the second coming of Jesus Christ. It's really. You know what I'm glad you're going to say? Because when I moved to Albany and I was going to, at first I was going to live in Albany and then went to Saratoga, one of the gems of the world. It was just fantastic.

too much racing and too much going out. I lived in Saratogauga for a year and a half. We had looked at a house, Michelle and I, and there was this group next door in Albany. It was like a nice area in the park, and there was something going on over there. We realized later that was the Nexium

people. We're like, hey, what's up? Michelle, I want to get here. Should we live here? And they were very weird, and then they talked about this guy, and it ended up being part of a Nexium group. And so while I don't even remotely support any of that behavior, it's not normal, I'm a big normal guy, and I'm a big happy guy, and I don't understand it.

I will watch for you, but the nexium thing was going on with those people went away. They were there, and we remember very quickly leaving and being... It was the Seagram's girl. I don't know what it was. It was a trafficking cult, wasn't it? Or am I thinking of something else? No, it was a combination of that, but the Seagram's girl was involved. It would be a big story.

The guy was really weird, and these young kids were like... Like, I'm from Colorado and I'm from the state of Washington. We met, and this guy's like, Jesus Christ, you've got to meet him. I immediately say the wife, we ain't living. I mean, it's no, we're not here, okay. I just want to play backgammoner, like, you know, risk and have some beers and eat bad food. But to see that, you see how that gets it.

It's a sad state of affair that our country can no longer get along. It really bothers me. I don't want to get into politics because I really don't care. I just do sports. I care, but I don't. I just want the wizards to make a run. I wanted the wizards in the plane. I know you didn't.

but I will watch Wakego because I think these things take on the life of themselves. But being 30 years ago, that's a long time. All I want to do is watch from Final Four, and I get the Wizards versus the Knicks. And the Knicks are a really interesting team. But I'm going to tell you right now, my surprise team from the East is the Cleveland Cavaliers. And with that, I've got to go. I love you. Love you, too.

Jimmy Patsos, everybody, NBC Sports Washington, doing all the wizard stuff, and follow him like I do on Twitter. which it's easy to do at Coach Patsos. All right, we are done for the day. Have a great weekend. I'll be back on Monday.