The Kevin Sheehan Show - Terps: Big 10 Champs

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

Kevin and Aaron recapped Maryland's Big10 title-clinching win over Michigan. They also talked about the importance of an NCAA Tournament run for Mark Turgeon's Terps and where Anthony Cowan Jr. ranks all-time on the Maryland "greats" list. Kevin talked Trent Williams trade destinations reported over the weekend and Dwayne Haskins' Instagram recruiting of Stefon Diggs. The boys finished up with the latest on the NFL-NFLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. And that one short on the same as the first one. Then Eric goes with a loose ball. He gets the rebound from the corner.

Wiggins sets in the left corner and hits it and knocks it down. Nice job. Eric Gilele, battling for that board. Aaron Wiggins has got 15 now. He is at three from three point land. Big time. The Terrapets are up by 10 again. Johnny Holliday, Chris Nakke, Walt Williams yesterday on the I Told You So game.

I'm not going to do that to everybody out there. But I felt really good about this game, as you know, after the Rutgers game, I thought, and I pretty much guaranteed a win and a healthy win against Michigan. I'm going to admit that I did not bet Maryland yesterday. I was actually concerned before the game because all of the action yesterday was on Maryland minus the four. You were there, I was there a lot more coming up on Maryland's Big Ten regular season championship. It's a tri-championship, I guess you would describe it, with Michigan State in Wisconsin

also sharing in the Big Ten regular season title. But it was an accomplishment. It was. And they're very excited and they cut down nets. But March is a long month, and they have to make sure that it is a long month for them. Or people will tend to forget this recent accomplishment, even though it was a tough one. We'll get to all of that here shortly. So we're sitting in studio here doing the podcast, and it'll just be Aaron and yours truly today doing the show.

Because we've got a lot of Maryland, we've got a lot of Redskins, we got a lot of NFL stuff. but I'm sitting here and I'm watching just the stock market tumble in a way that we haven't seen in a while. I mean, it's down 6 to 7 percent somewhere in that range right now as we're recording this. I mean, there is panic around the globe about coronavirus. And, you know, I don't know what to make of it personally. I mean, I think a lot of people and a lot of you out there were like, you know, it's elderly people. You know, you're just going to get sick if you get it even and you probably, won't get it and it's nothing to be worried about. The flu is much scarier, all of that. I think

there's a lot of unknown about this thing right now. I think there are a lot of people that, you know, even experts aren't really sure where this thing goes from here. I have no idea, because I'm hardly an expert on this stuff. But it is an odd time we're living in right now. This has been an odd week, you know, week and a half. The market tumbling, the stock market tumbling, the economy is going to be impacted significantly. You know, in some areas, there are some businesses, some products that are going to thrive and others, you would not want to be in the cruise ship industry right now. You know, you can get a flight for next to nothing right now, going almost anywhere.

Certainly travel, tourism in this country is grinding to a halt to a certain degree. We went out to dinner Saturday night, Aaron, and I was expecting when we went out to dinner that the restaurants would be somewhat empty, that people were avoiding sort of large gatherings. And in Bethesda, it was packed. Like every place was packed with their normal wait time of, you know, depending on where you are, 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

And nobody seemed to have an issue with it. But I think it's definitely impacting a lot of places. And so, look, we don't know what, where this is going. But yesterday was an odd day because, you know, you've got all the fears of the coronavirus and, you know, it's dominating the headlines right now. And then I'm driving back from the Maryland game yesterday, and I don't know if you experienced this, Aaron, but did you see the smoke haze that developed over a lot of the area yesterday afternoon? There was a controlled fire, a controlled burn in Virginia, I think down by Quantico. And as we were coming around the Beltway

back from College Park, you know, at 315, 3.30, whatever time it was. There was a haze, a smoky haze, that was basically enveloping the entire beltway. And we rolled down the windows. They were sort of down already because it was a beautiful day, and it was smoke. It was clearly smoke. And we were like, God, there must be a huge fire. And then it's like coronavirus, and here comes, you know, wildfires. What's next?

But it turns out I turned on TOP and they immediately were reporting that much of the area was experiencing smoky conditions from this controlled fire with a wind that was blowing northward that created this. And last night on local weather, they were showing on radar. You could see the smoke on radar being picked up coming through much of sort of in close Montgomery County, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, McLean, Vienna on the other side of the river. through the actual city itself. I think some of the outer suburbs, you know, northwest, you know, northern and western Montgomery County may have been spared.

But anyway, then I started thinking about this, Aaron, and this is what I wanted to get to, with all of the Corona talk and the weirdness of sort of the last couple of weeks. What happens if one player on one of these college basketball teams

in March Madness, we will be sitting here a week from today with brackets in hand. What if one player on any of these teams gets test positive for coronavirus? Because, you know, the incubation period, I guess, like there's a couple of days before you are absolutely sure that nobody else has it, you know, on the team or in that community. And, you know, there's lots of quarantine, you know, going on. I mean, would that team potentially be out of the tournament? What happens? The NBA, if you get one player and you end up having, you know, a game or two rescheduled,

the NCAA tournament is a, you know, if you're not sure about how infected your team is, and you've got to wait three, four days, what if it's right before the first round starts? I mean, I think we are headed towards some weird, all-time epic things happening that, you know, years from now we'll say, remember the coronavirus tournament? You know, we could be heading towards that. What would have? I don't know the answer to this. What if one player on Duke's team, let's just pick Duke as the example, and one player

on, I don't want to jinx it for anybody else, what if one player on Duke's team gets coronavirus? And then everybody else is tested, but they say, you know what? Sometimes it takes a couple of days here before these players will test. Are they going to let those players go out and play other teams? teams? It'd be hard to not. I mean, at this point, if you're a coach, don't you pretty much just quarantine your players?

Yeah, I mean, but you know, these young, what I've noticed, and it's true with my boys, they're not concerned about this because they understand that they're not going to die from this. Exactly. You know? But that's why as a coach, I feel like at this point, as a coach, you're telling the players, don't go to class, don't do anything. You're going to stay in the gym.

You're going to stay around people. we're not letting this happen. What if the coach gets it? What if, I mean, you know, is it going to surprise you at this point if a key player or a coach or somebody in March Madness or in the NBA or in the NHL or in any of the sports that we're watching right now? It gets test positive for this. And it'll just be interesting to see what the team reaction, with the league reaction, with the CDC, what the National Institutes of Health, what all these people say is the right process. I was just thinking about that the other day as to whether or not that would potentially rule a team in all of the players that have spent time in the locker room. You know, at practice, playing with this player for, you know, the last couple of weeks whenever that player was infected, whether or not it would render the team, you know.

D3 tournament, right? With Johns Hopkins? Yeah, but they're not letting fans. They're not letting fans in. But the Yeshiva school, which was like, the powerhouse in that region, the hotel they were booked at the, because there was a case around the Yeshiva school, the hotel wouldn't let them come in.

They canceled their booking. Yeah. Just throwing it out there. I'm sure many of you have thought about this, and maybe I'm overreacting to the possibilities, and actually I'm not even overreacting to the possibilities, because I don't know what would happen. I'm totally in the dark.

I would expect that there would be the possibility at least, that it would take some time to test all the other players for, you know, the potential sort of virus to show up. I know there's somewhere between three and five days, I believe, if you've been exposed to somebody with it, that you get tested for those three to five days before you can be ruled out from completely having it. I just wonder what would happen. I think we got some weird stuff coming up here. All right. I wanted to start with Maryland and their win over Michigan yesterday.

So I know that I was very confident about this. I was. I really thought that the last several games were really part of, the results of their last four games where they lost three or four were really a result of a lot of different things that I went through, you know, the last, you know, during those games. I mean the schedule four games in 10 days, the road games against really good teams, against good teams at home, against teams that were desperate, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, a lot of Maryland fans were panicking.

Aaron, I'd put you in that category to a certain degree. You weren't, you were losing confidence. And I'm not saying that you won't be rewarded with your loss of confidence when this postseason starts. I just felt like this setup specifically for the Rutgers game wasn't good and that they were. would lose that game and that the setup for the game yesterday was much better, and they would win that game, and they would, you know, certainly get a share of the Big Ten title. It sucks that Michigan State won. That was expected, although actually the final score of that game was not indicative of how well Ohio State played. Ohio State's going to be dangerous in the upcoming

month. Which is great because, oh, no, they don't play. They missed that. They almost had to play Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament. Which would have been, you know, Holtman and Turgeon. Holm. at 9 p.m. Right, it would have been awesome at 9 p.m. I didn't even think about the 9 p.m. part. But what was I going to say? I lost my train of thought there. I just felt like yesterday was a much better setup for Maryland, and that coming home with days off to prepare for the first time in two weeks against a team that played on Thursday night with less time, senior day for them,

a game that they really sort of needed to get the time. their mojo back. They needed to clinch a piece of the regular season title. Michigan had been on a role recently. It wasn't a game that they had to have. It wasn't going to significantly change their postseason situation. And I know they've lost some games recently, but since they've gotten healthy, they've been a much different team, much different team. When they lost those games, you know, back in January, they had lost four or five in a row, something like that. They didn't have, they didn't have livers. They were banged up on that team. They played much better recently.

They've got wins over Michigan State recently. At Rutgers, they're the only team, Michigan, two of won at Rutgers this year. By the way, Rutgers beat Purdue on Saturday on the road. A Purdue team that's tough at home had beaten Virginia at home, had blown out Michigan State at home, and desperately needed the game to enhance their overall tournament profile, which now looks like they're out.

If Purdue had won, they would have been, sitting there on the bubble, and now they're on the wrong side of it. Rutgers won that game. But anyway, I thought it was a good setup for Maryland, but I have to tell you that before the game, I was nervous, and during the game, man, I was nervous. I wanted this so badly for Mark. I wanted it so badly for Maryland. And when that score got to 56-53 in the second half, Aaron, I could feel the entire arena tightening up. I don't know if you felt the same way or not, but there was an angst, in the arena. They were looking at that point, you're considering the possibility of three losses to end the season. They haven't played well at the end of seasons most years under Turgeon,

and they would have thrown away that Big Ten title with a two-game lead for, I don't know, they had a two-game lead for like two weeks, it felt like. And it was slipping away. But they were the better team. They never gave up that lead. They extended it from there, and they won and, you know, they deserve to celebrate. This was a very good regular season. It was a satisfying regular season for me as a Maryland fan. That league that they played in this year was excellent. You know, Big Ten people say best year top to bottom ever for that particular league.

And Maryland won 14 games, and they take home a piece of the league title. I was listening to Mike DeCorsi last night on the Big Ten network. Mike is a Hall of Fame college basketball writer sporting news for years. He said on the show, the Big Ten show that followed the final game of the year last year, last night, Iowa and Illinois, he said this year's Big Ten was the best season a conference has ever had top to bottom. He's never covered a league that was that tough top to bottom. And look, you know, I understand what's coming up.

and I understand what Maryland has to do in March. You know, I've said this before. I can say on one hand Mark Turgeon and believe, which I do, that Mark Turgeon's a good coach. And I can also say, but he hasn't achieved enough in the postseason. Those two things are true. They're mutually exclusive of one another. You know, there are a lot of good coaches that haven't had the tournament success. You know, Gary Williams was stuck on Sweet 16 for a long time, and he was criticized heavily for it before getting it

But this regular season for this particular team, they were a really good team. They were well-coached during the course of the season. They had monster wins. Turgeon had more big wins this season than he's had in his previous eight years. The win at Illinois on a Friday night in early February was a monster win. It was for first place. Illinois fans were lined up all day long. It was the toughest ticket for an Illinois home basketball game in 15th.

years. The win at Michigan State was memorable for Anthony Cowan's finish. You know, outscoring the Spartans in the Breslin Center, you know, 14-0-0 to end the game. Cowan 11 to nothing by himself. That was an epic, big-time clutch win. The win at Minnesota from 17 down with the Morsell shot was crazy. You know, Maryland came up big in clutch moments this year. You can talk about the Saturday night loss to Michigan State at home and the Rutgers loss. Again, I'll repeat, I think they had one bad loss all year, one loss that they shouldn't have taken all year long, and that was at Seton Hall in December when Seton Hall's two best players were out. Mark Turgeon was under pressure this year, in part because they were ranked in Ohio early. They had some personnel changes

in December, which changed the dynamic of the team. It took some time. They had a brutal loss at Iowa, and they had a painful loss at Wisconsin. And it was after that loss against Wisconsin where a lot of people, a lot of the fan base said, enough of Turgeon. They were ready to move on. And Turgeon felt this all season long. He's still feeling it. And he said after the game, it was like a thousand-pound gorilla had been taken off his back.

And I would suggest to him that that is true in the moment, but it's a temporary thing because I know the Maryland basketball fan base very, very well. What he does the rest of this month matters more to them. And I understand that. I'm not, you know, I think that's a justified feeling. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't be satisfied with winning this particular league this year. But the pressure that he talked about was there. If they had lost yesterday, it would have been a three-game losing streak.

They would have blown a regular season title, one that was, that was expected for the last three weeks or a month. I know he felt the pressure, the players felt it. That loss to Rutgers was really criticized by so many in the fan base and so many people in the media, many in the media who have no idea what they're watching. I had one guy insist to me that because Maryland was ranked and Rutgers wasn't, that it was by definition of bad loss. I mean, Aaron and I understand the difference between the Associated Press writers

and then the people in Vegas who make the lines. One group actually really understands the game, and the other group doesn't know it at all. Rutgers, you know, as I mentioned, won at Purdue. They're going to be a tough out, I think, in the tournament. I had another guy telling me that Rutgers was playing so poorly and that, you know, essentially got healthy against Maryland. That wasn't true.

They had lost some games, but they were all games that they were in and had a chance to win. They had a nine-point lead in the second half against Michigan at home. And Michigan rallied, and that's their only home loss of the year. Anyway, you know, the Minnesota game, I had somebody tell me after that night, or when they lost to Rutgers, they were lucky to beat Minnesota. They should be on a four-game losing skid. Well, A, they didn't lose to Minnesota.

And B, if you've watched Minnesota this year, you know how capable they are. They have a lottery pick on their team. They could be a tough out this weekend. Who did they beat yesterday to finish off the regular season? They scored 107 points yesterday, Minnesota did. Was it Nebraska or Northwestern? Actually, it must have been Nebraska because Northwestern would be Penn State on Saturday. Yeah, it was Nebraska.

Yeah, Nebraska is terrible. But still, they scored 107 points in a game. Turgeon knew the closing stretch, which included four games in 10 days, with three of them on the road could be a problem. It could trip them up a little bit. He knew it. And it did. It did trip them up a little bit.

But yesterday was the perfect setup for them. And, you know, being home, senior day, plenty of rest is mentioned. And they needed it. You know, they regained some mojo. They pretty much took over at the five, six minute mark of the first half, five to six minutes into the game, excuse me, never trailed after that. They had Michigan very well scouted, had a couple of wrinkles offensively. Defensively, they really went after Xavier Simpson at times,

who was an incredible offensive point card. I love watching Xavier Simpson in the past. pick and roll in really the high ball screen game. But he's a liability defensively at times, and the Terps took advantage of that. Marilyn was ready defensively. They took care of business with a really good all-around game. They had that one stretch that got to 56-53, and they made shots yesterday. You know, a lot of those wide-open shots that they couldn't knock down at Rutgers, they made

them. Iala and Wiggins, okay? Eric Iyala and Aaron Wiggins couldn't make shots, open shots, lots of them at Rutgers. Rutgers, and they made shots yesterday, 12 of 18 combined for the two of them from the floor, six of eight from behind the arc combined. They reached three of four from behind the arc. At Rutgers, they went five for 18 and two for ten on threes. So you get the defensive effort that you've come to expect from Maryland, and you get people to make shots. They're very dangerous. Now, they have to defend and rebound. That is really what

they do. They're going to have a scoring drought in this tournament coming up, okay? But they can overcome a scoring drought with really good defense and rebounding. And yesterday they played good defense. They rebounded well. I think they only gave up three offensive rebounds in the entire game. They protected the ball. They didn't turn it over. And they made shots. So anyway, it was a good day for them. And it was a good confidence builder, hopefully for Eric I. Ella and Aaron Wiggins, who are two key pieces coming up in this tournament. Now, I wanted to talk about Anthony Cowan for a moment. All right.

Cowan finished up his home Maryland career yesterday. He ranks first on Maryland's career list for made free throws. He broke that record yesterday. He's the only guy that's ever started 130 consecutive games. That's a school record. He is seventh on the scoring list, fifth on the assist list, and third on the three-pointers made list. His jersey banner is going to hang in the rafters.

There's no doubt about it. You have a doubt about that? The only reason I have a doubt, and it's not a huge doubt, but with pretty much everybody in the past, who's up in the rafters right now, they won something individually. They won conference player of the year. They set some sort of record.

They were AP, you know, an AP All-American. and I don't know that Cowan will get any of those individual awards. The one exception to that is Steve Blake, but of course Steve Blake was part of the championship team, which I'm going to assume Cowan's not part of, but obviously that can change. So that would be my one hesitation there is he doesn't have that one thing to really. Was Steve France's first team All-American? I think so, yeah. What about Adrian Branch?

Is he a first team? Is Adrian Branch? I think his jersey things up there? I don't think it is. I think that's a big deal. What about Baxter's? Baxter was. Was his jersey up there?

I don't know if his jersey's going to. I'll look to see exactly who's up there. Let me mention this because where I was headed was sort of a discussion in sort of the same category. I think his jersey banner is going to hang in the rafters at some point here, whenever they do that. I don't know when they do that. But on the list of Maryland's all-time great players, he climbed that list this year. but if we're being objective and fair, he's behind a minimum of 10 to 12 players on Maryland's all-time list. Now, Maryland has a hell of an all-time list of college basketball players,

all right? But the list starts with Len Byes, Juan Dixon, John Lucas, Buck Williams, Albert King, Tom McMillan, Gravis Vasquez, Walt Williams, Steve Blake, and Joe Smith. Okay, that's 10. That's a formidable group of 10 that he's not busting into, okay? We can debate by the way, the back half of that. I can tell you, as a longtime Maryland fan, what I would never be convinced otherwise on is that your top, you know, your top three are Bias Dixon and Lucas. And I'd put them in that order, Bias 1, Dixon, 2, Lucas 3. Personally, I'd have Buck in my top four. And then, you know, for number five, it's a conversation of McMillan and Albert King and even Gravis starts to push into that conversation. Some of you might have

Len Elmore in that conversation. Joe Smith, even. even though he only played two years. But you start to put Cowan into the conversation with names like Johnny Rhodes and Adrian Branch and Lonnie Baxter and Steve Francis because it was just one year. Lenny Elmore, I would put in that second group. That's the group that he gets lumped into. It's no disrespect. You know, as I mentioned, Maryland's all-time list of players is very impressive. Cowan in the mix for top 12 to top 15 player of all time.

is incredible. Now, he of course can change that. Yes. Over the next month. Yes. Marilyn's all-time list of greats is very impressive at this point for him between 12 and 15, but he still has a chance to play another nine games if things go well. So let's not etch his standing in stone quite yet. If he has a memorable March and a memorable early April, he could keep moving up that list. I mean, a month from now, we could be having a far different conversation about Anthony Cowan, Jr. What a career, though, really. The final three minutes of the Michigan State game, I'll never forget at Brezlin. You know what I didn't know until

yesterday? I didn't realize he had graduated in three years and was essentially a grad student this year. He's very bright as parents, I believe, are teachers, or at least one of the two is a teacher. He's an achiever, man. He is an achiever. An overachiever in some ways. I hope he makes the Big Ten first team. I don't think he is. I think Cassius, Winston's going to be the point guard? They don't do it by position. They don't do it by position. It's five-th-queters. Okay, well, then let's figure this out, okay, because it's Garza, it's O'Too, it's Otero from Minnesota. He's got to be there. Sticks has to be on the team, right? Winston's on the team. Who am I leaving off? I mean, Iudasumo, depending on how you.

Otisumo for sure from Illinois. Yeah. He's definitely on there before he, Cowan. I mean, Illinois is a top four team in the conference, and he's been phenomenal and hit every big shot last night. I mean, Gio Baker was really good. He's been really good at times. He's not there, though. He's not in front of Cowan. He's probably not there, but he's not far off either. At Ohio State, Caleb Wesson's not going to be in the top five. Xavier Simpson's not going to be in the top five. Nobody at Purdue, nobody at Indiana, nobody Northwestern, nobody Nebraska, You know, Lamar Stevens, I mean, is he in the conversation? He's at least in the conversation, yes.

Is Xavier Tillman in the conversation? All Big Ten would be tough. At Wisconsin, is Davidson in the conversation? Or Potter in the conversation? Potter's had a hell of a year. Yeah, I think it's... But it can't be him. Aturo.

Yeah, like, I think it goes down. So I think that Garza, Jalen, Winston are locks. After those three, you're talking about... Garza, sticks, Winston, or locks, in your opinion? I think so. I think... If this isn't done by position. Yes.

I think DeSumo is close. I would probably put him as the fourth. And I think the fifth goes to one of Stevens, Cowan, Atturo. Yeah. I think DeSumo's definitely on the first team. Yeah. I don't know how you keep him off at once. What did he average in points?

He hit so many clutch shots for Illinois all year long. I mean, big-time shots. He beat Michigan, remember, on the road. He beat, he hit a late shot to beat Northwestern. 16 points the game is what he averaged. I thought they do vote by position. No? On this team, because if they don't vote by position,

then I think Cowan's got a chance to be on that team with Winston. I'm looking right now, and I see the Detroit Free Press just revealed what their ballot was for first team Big Ten. And they have Cassius Winston and Point Garden. And then they have Otero, Smith, Stevens, and Garza. Okay. So they do not have Desumo on there. They don't have a Des Mo. I think Stevens is off and DeSummo's on.

That would be my guess. I would say Garza, Otero sticks Winston and DeSumo. And then I think Cowan leads the second team. Yeah. But you know what? Anyway, we get sidetracked here. I hope he makes the Big Ten first team, and I think it's going to be really close. I loved the embrace between he and Turgent.

That was amazing. At the end, you know, they had a relationship that was rocky at times early on. I remember the conversations with various people about how it wasn't, you know, always smooth sailing between Turg and Cowan, but it turned out to be a great relationship. You could see that in the moment, I thought, yesterday. You know, it's funny because I'm excited. I was really into it yesterday. I really wanted them to win the Big Ten title,

and I think it is for me, and maybe for some of you out there, that have felt the way I have felt, which was hated the move to the Big Ten for basketball purposes. ACC basketball was, you know, in our blood. You know, it was something that we were, you know, we were a part of. We were part of a family. forever and there's history and there's tradition and there's rivalry and you know the only

the only way for some of you to understand this if you're not a maryland basketball fan but you're a redskins fan is just to assume what it would be like if the redskins moved from the nfc east to say the nfc south and you didn't play the cowboys giants and eagles anymore it's not exactly apples to apples but the emotion tied into being a part of that you know to have it taken away from you is really bad but i say that to get to this um I've loved this Big Ten year. I've loved it. I mean, I've loved the games that Maryland's been involved in,

and I've loved some of the other games. This is the first year that I've been totally dedicated to the Big Ten Network and not watching ACC games as much as Big Ten games. In recent years, I'd watch a lot of ACC games if they were on, but wouldn't watch a Big Ten game if it was going on at the same time. This year it changed. If Illinois was playing Michigan State or Michigan, you know, at the same time, that Duke was playing, you know, NC State, I was watching Illinois, Michigan. You know,

the Big Ten Network is well done, just as an aside. The league was awesome. It was fun. Every night there were really good games. So I am getting used to it. I'm enjoying it, you know, and this Big Ten tournament to me is not the priority for Maryland, but I'm looking forward to it. You know, they get a double by. They're going to play either Penn State, who will be the sixth seed, and Penn State's going to play the winner of the Indiana-Nabraska game. You know, Indiana may feel some pressure. It wouldn't surprise me if Maryland ends up playing Indiana in the quarterfinal. Did you see the way Archie Miller went off?

Yeah, on Lennardi and all the Bracketologists. Yeah. He basically called them, you know, basically they're like Sesame Street Street. He referred to them as Sesame Street predictors, I guess. Yeah, he was just saying that they were kiddie shows. Yeah, they were kitty shows and that you shouldn't take them seriously. And that was off a loss to Wisconsin where they blew a big league. in the second half. Archie's got to be careful, man. Those Indiana people, they're much worse than the

Maryland people. They think they should be playing in the national championship game every single year. And Archie Miller, you know, I think he's a good coach, but he's got to be on thin ice, not maybe where Crean was a few years ago with the Indiana faithful, but if they miss the tournament, which I don't think they're going to. Now, if they lost a Nebraska in the first round, that would be really hurtful. I think right now they're in, but they're probably like in Dayton right now, which actually would be fun to see Archie Miller go to Dayton. Yeah, that's right, where he coached before. But if they did stumble in that first year, and I think they'd be out.

Perhaps. Perhaps if they lose to Nebraska. Yeah, you can't lose to Nebraska in that Wednesday night opening round in the Big Ten tournament. So Maryland potentially gets another shot at Penn State. They lost to Penn State and their only matchup back in December in State College. Or they get a third game against Indiana and they won the first two. the first one convincingly and then rallied from seven down late to beat Indiana at Assembly Hall. Another big road win that was.

That was that surreal day, the day that Kobe Bryant died as well. So last thing on Maryland here. To me, this upcoming weekend just doesn't mean that much. The regular season in the Big Ten's always meant more than the tournament. ACC was sort of different. The ACC tournament was really, really important, and every school's fan base knew it, and you just wanted to show well. In some ways, that ACC tournament win in 2004 was as satisfying for Maryland fans as the National Championship. I'm not exaggerating.

When they beat Duke in the ACC tournament championship in 2004 with Mike Grininning knocking down big free throws in overtime, and Maryland rallying from late, and that was the Gilchrist run. in that tournament when they beat Wake Forest, NC State, and Duke to win it. I know a lot of Maryland fans that felt happier and more thrilled with that than the national championship, which had come two years earlier. I didn't necessarily feel that way, but beating Duke in an ACC tournament final was sweet. I don't know that I would feel that way about a Big Ten final, you know, and I want them to win a game or two, Aaron, and it would be really cool if they went out and went down and won it.

But the NCAA tournament is much more important. Okay, and they need a deep run. You know, we are satisfied as Maryland fans that they won the Big Ten regular season, but in early exit is going to make you forget that pretty quickly. And it's going to put TURG in a bit of trouble, maybe, if they go out early. Still, you know, that 1,000-pound gorilla that he said was taken off his back yesterday, it's right back on at the beginning of the NCAA tournament. Trust me, because no one is going to accept a first round or second round,

exit, a first weekend exit. No one. No matter how nice of a season they had, if they're not playing in that second weekend, it's not going to be good. And I understand that. I don't think it's an irrational or unreasonable expectation. I think they still have a shot at a two seed, but they're more likely a three if they win a game or two. I think if they get to the Big Ten finals, I think there are two. I think you think they have to win the Big Ten tournament to be a two. finals would get them close. We'd put them right on the line there. Yeah, and if they win, I think if they win Friday night in that first quarterfinal game,

I think they lock down a three more likely than not. And if they lose that quarterfinal game, even though it'll be against a good team, like a Penn State potentially, or in Indiana, two teams that are going to the tournament, you know, there's the possibility of them being a four. Personally, I just want them in the East Regional. So there's a chance to be in New York the second weekend. If that's your biggest goal, you probably want them. them as a fourth. Maybe, maybe, although a two, they might be there too. But what they're the

bottom two, it's where you are. I know. If they're the bottom two, they're going to end up in, you know, with Kansas potentially, which I don't want either. Or wherever. Like, whatever they are most likely to be at, you know, or whatever's left. Meanwhile, if they're the top four, they go to the east. Has Lannardi come out with his updated bracketology today? Yeah, I think they had, he had him as a four in the east. He had him as a four yesterday in the east. with Dayton is the one. Dayton now is definitely in line with San Diego State losing to Utah State the other day.

Yeah, if Dayton takes care of business, they're the one. And they're not going to lose. I mean, have they even had a close game in the A-10? The A-10 is not a good league this year. How many A-10 teams are going to end up in the big dance? Maybe two. Yeah. Who's the second? Richmond?

Richmond, probably. All right, so we know what's at stake. But at the same time, there's no reason to think. think that the achievement that they had isn't satisfying in some way. It felt good to win that game yesterday. It felt good for them to raise a trophy and to cut down nets. It actually did. It was a nice day. I do have one criticism yesterday, and that is, hey, students, okay, get to the game, man, please. The wall wasn't even full. I mean, I understand it wasn't Michigan State where you had all day to get amped up. This was for the Big Ten title. It's a 12 noon start. I understand the clock

sprung forward. You know, and maybe you didn't know what time it was. And I know coronavirus had something to do with, you know, everybody's feeling yesterday going to the game. But the wall behind the basket was not completely full. And by the way, when the game started at noon, you know, it was three quarters full. Ended up probably four-fifths full. All right.

But, you know, give me a break. You know, you want to be a basketball school. You want it to be important. You want to do flash mobs. and you want to have people out there and talking about what a great fan base it is, when you're playing your home finale and Anthony Cowan's being honored on Senior Day, and you've got a chance for a share of the Big Ten title, you've got to fill up the student seats.

I'm sure there was an issue where students backed out and they couldn't transfer their tickets. I hear all these excuses all the time for all this stuff. They don't seem to be issues at the other big-time basketball schools in the same spot. I was watching that Michigan State game. It was packed to the rafters. They had a shot, not one seat. I know the game was sold out technically yesterday. There were empty student seats in that wall section.

NCAA tournament, I'm expecting Sweet 16 Elite 8. I am. They don't need depth in the NCAA tournament unless you get in foul trouble, but you don't get tired. You have extra long timeouts, you know, TV timeouts. Context is everything on how we'll feel, but I can tell you one thing. There is no context to losing in the first weekend.

None. If they lose in the Sweet 16 to a better team, a team there in Underdog 2 is a 3-seat against a 2-seat or a 4-seat against a 1-seat, that's different than losing in the Sweet 16 as a 2-seed to the 11 who pulled off two-upsets. You know, context is everything. But I'm expecting them to play well. In fact, I think it might be easier for them when they get to this. Let's hope. Some of us, let's hope. I'll say one thing because I have heard the...

oh, who cares. It's, you know, I shared regular season title. It doesn't really mean anything. And this is, it doesn't mean a lot. I'll say that. But here's the thing, and it's something Turgeon pointed out yesterday. First of all, this is the only the eighth time in the history of Maryland that they won a regular season title. That's what happens when you're in a league with Duke and Carolina. The other thing, Duke has not won a conference regular season title since they tied with Maryland in 2010. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. It is, look, I think we all understand this. what Turgeon said yesterday about conference championship, regular season championship being harder than a sweet 16. It's true. You know, you only have to win two games to get to the sweet 16. You know, to win a 20-game conference regular season title with the league they were in is really tough. It's definitely a better measuring stick than one and done. We understand that. Best of seven reflects more on the kind of team you are than a one and done, where you can be, you know,

be prone to one bad night and be done. With that said, this sport is measured on what you do in March, period. You know, most people are just starting to pay attention. You know, you got to get, if you, right now, I would take a fifth place finish in the Big Ten every single year if we were in the Sweet 16 with a chance to go to the final four. Okay, so that's, we all understand that. All right, we'll get to some Redskins news from over the weekend after a quick word for mybooky.ag.

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All right, let's talk some Redskins. All right. There's a lot of news over the weekend. And we'll start with the latest on Trent Williams. Ian Rappaport had this on the NFL network on Friday afternoon. You know, around the time of the Combine, the Redskins were not hearing much from teams interested in potentially trading for Trent Williams.

And then, of course, the word gets out that the Redskins would consider. and then we learned yesterday that they did give his agent permission to seek a trade. And teams started calling. There is interest. Will it be enough is a real question? A couple of things we need to know here. First of all, the Washington Redskins are not going to give them away. So with the trade request, with the ability for his agent to facilitate a trade,

the Redskins made clear that it needs to be fair compensation, fair draft compensation. So it needs to be something that would make sense for them for trading away a premier left tackle. The other thing is for his new team, if he does in fact have a new team, Mike, Trent Williams is going to want a new deal. It's not going to be anything crazy. He's not going to demand $25 million or something. But he is going to want a new deal that gives him long-term security. It's just a question now, can the Redskins and can Trent Williams agent get this done? All right. So a couple of things there. Number one, you heard him discussing that fair draft compensation is a requirement for the Redskins. This is a couple of things.

is what we talked about last week. I do not want them trading Trent Williams unless they get at minimum, a second round, early second round pick back for him. I did think it was interesting that he mentioned fair draft compensation. I don't know if that was purposeful, but there were, you know, maybe he understands they want draft picks, not players. Number two, the 25 million that he's not going to demand 25 million, I think is in part a response to maybe J.P. Finley's report that Trent would want an obscene amount of money. I think it's very possible that with another team, Trent will lower his demands contractually. I just think that that is something that I believe in J.P.'s reporting on this and some of

the things that I had heard that he was demanding an outrageous sum on an annual average standpoint. So maybe he's asking the new team for less, but he wants the Redskins to pay more. I think he wants out. there was other reporting on Trent Williams over the weekend. Connor Hughes from the Athletic said the Jets are going to be interested. Ben Standing said it on our podcast and then said it on the athletic as well that the Texans and Cardinals are exploring options. Mary Kay Cabot had said on that Thursday when Diana Rusini broke the news

that the Redskins were allowing Trent to seek a trade, that the Browns would be interested. All of this is good news because what you want is you want more teams interested than less, right? You want more demand for less supply. So if you can get Trent Williams, if you can have a market for Trent Williams and teams competing for him, and they all feel like they can get him signed, now you can really end up with a price that may reflect what they would have gotten last year. And if they end up getting what they would have gotten last year, all is well. you know, and we won't have to spend a lot of time crucifying, you know, Bruce Allen for, you know, a terrible handling of the situation and costing the Redskins organizationally a very high draft choice or something more.

I learned last week, Aaron, I learned last week, and I don't know that this is that significant to the story, that Houston was willing to part with Jadavian Clowney at some point last offseason and last summer. for Trent Williams straight up. Now, the Redskins weren't taking calls. They weren't taking offers. He was not on the trade block. And, you know, just making them available as they did last week. Now you get teams to seriously consider this. You know, I have a problem with the team leaking out information that there wasn't any interest in Trent,

that the interest when there was some interest was much less than what people thought. it was in their interest for people to think that they weren't turning down massive offers. Bottom line is they weren't taking many calls. So you have no idea what teams were really willing to offer. I just look intuitively at what they offered and what they paid Houston did for Tunsell. Okay. And cut it in half based on the age and you still end up with a first rounder for Trent. So I think the Redskins would have gotten, you know, some real good value for Trent.

I think we would have seen no worse than a second and a third and potentially a first plus. You know, if there had been competition, if they had made them available last summer or even prior to the trade deadline. But they didn't. Now they have, and you've got more teams involved. Now, it's a different situation, right? Because he's only got one year left on his deal. He wants a contract extension and a big one. And you're closer to a draft that is fairly deep with left tackles.

So we'll see. I mean, I expect him to get traded. I would think that the Redskins wouldn't get anything worse than a second rounder. Personally, I wouldn't take anything less than an early second rounder. And the good news is that some of those teams fit the bill for early second rounders. Some of them don't. But there seems to be a market for Trent Williams. That's good to know.

And we'll see if he ruins it with his contract demands. Or if the Redskins kill it with what they're asking for. as a return compensation. There's still a long road to go here, but the fact that multiple teams, you know, it's being reported, are interested makes it a better situation for the Redskins. More Redskins news from over the weekend. Start with this, the news this morning. Josh Norman, according to Mike Garifolo at the NFL Network, has signed a deal with Buffalo. It's a $6 million base salary deal for 2020, one-year deal with $2 million in incentives. So, you know, the $2 million in incentives, the $6 million base implies that there's no,

you know, commitment and guaranteed dollars for Josh Norman. So, you know, he's reuniting with Sean McDermott, who was his defensive coordinator in Carolina for the four years that he was a Panther. Tredavius White is a phenomenal young corner in the NFL. They've got a really good defense with some really talented players. And I think they're a good team. I think they're going to continue to get better because I think Josh Allen's going to continue to get better. And I think Singletary is going to continue to get better.

He was a guy that I loved coming out of Florida Atlantic. He played so well for them. I think Buffalo's got a good football team. I think they do. Now, I don't know if Josh Norman's going to fit, but he's going to get an opportunity to play on a team that's going to contend for something next year. Certainly contend for a playoff spot next year. and he's with a coach that is familiar with him. Kendall Fuller, Ben Standing, didn't mention this to us on the podcast,

but as part of his story on Friday mentioned that Kendall Fuller and the Redskins that there's mutual interest there. So if the Redskins don't end up with James Bradbury via free agency, the coroner from Carolina that Rivera is very familiar with, it's possible that Fuller could be a target for the Redskins. And then there was this. Mike Freeman from Bleacher Report, Who did Freeman used to write for? I forget. He used to be on Tony's show all the time. I think he's a good reporter. I remember some of the football conversations not being wowed by them necessarily, but I think he's a very solid reporter and has been for a long time. But anyway, quote, this is what he wrote on Bleacher Report. Quote, several teams said that Young was impressive during his combine interviews. Electric is how one coach described the presumptive number two pick in the upcoming draft.

A team personnel executive who met with Young said he was, quote, smart, quick, and a natural leader. He blew us away, closed quote. That from Mike Freeman on Friday or Saturday, some of the reaction to the interviews with Chase Young at the Indy Combine. Smart, quick, natural leader, he blew us away. I don't think a lot of thought needs to go into this, and I think we're going to end up here anyway, but there's going to be a lot of conversation about Tua, and there's going to be a lot of conversation about trading back. You know, you'd have to really blow me away with an offer to get off Chase Young.

Because if all of the due diligence on the kind of person he is, on the kind of work ethic he has, on the kind of leader he can be, is all overwhelmingly positive and electric and, you know, blows us away, blows the Redskins away. I'm not overthinking this, man. I'm taking Chase Young. He's the best pass rushing prospect in years. In years, you don't find guys with this ability.

Look at what Nick Bosa did to that defense last year. A young talented defense that added Bosa, and all of a sudden they became a dominant defense. I'm not overthinking this. You offer me a bunch of firsts and the ability to move down just a couple of spots and, you know, two firsts and two seconds and a future. If you blow me away with an offer, to consider and I'm not, I'm going to listen to everything. But I don't want to end up

passing on the next great defensive NFL player. It's hard to find them. Right now, would you trade back or would you take Aaron Donald? Would you trade back or would you take Von Miller? Would you trade back or would you take Nick Bosa? I just don't want to be sitting there, you know, in three years with the Giants or the Lions in the NFC, you know, having Chase Young be the defensive MVP, and everybody's made better by his mere presence, and he's a leader, and he's smart, and he's engaging, and he's dominant. I don't want to have Jeff Okuda getting beat on a couple of deep ones and pro football focus telling us he's barely a top 10 corner, you know, or whatever.

I mean, I think Isaiah Simmons is talented, too. Don't get me wrong. He's not Chase Young, in my view. All of the personal stuff, these interviews are so crucial, the medical, crucial. The tape speaks for itself on Chase Young. If everything else checks out and you're blown away, as Mike Freeman reported, one NFL executive was, you don't overthink this. It's Chase Young at number two. Now, the last thing I want to get to on the Redskins is this. So I guess it was on Friday. Dwayne Haskins on social media sent out an Instagram message.

where he was basically openly recruiting Stefan Diggs. Did you see this or not? I missed this. Okay. So I guess let me describe the Instagram picture. It's an animated drawing picture of basically, you know, Dwayne Haskins having just completed a pass to Stefan Diggs wearing number 14 in a Redskins jersey and running with the football with Haskins in the background.

Okay? This isn't the first time he's sort of reached out to Stefan Diggs. It says DMV connection. You'll remember DMV to UMD with Haskins. Of course. When he was recruited by Maryland, committed to Maryland, and then started trying to recruit other players to come to Maryland. So look, I'm not going to make a big deal out of this. Most of you have been listening to me know that I'm actually very optimistic about Dwayne

Haskins, a million times more than I was a year ago. And I'm rooting for him. I think he entered a very difficult situation with a bunch of buffoons in the organization, and it was just tough for him. I'm not saying that other players haven't dealt with the same thing, but the stuff that was coming out about him last year, I hated it for him. And part of it's made me really root for him. I really legitimately want Dwayne Haskins to succeed.

And I believe that he's got a really good chance of succeeding so much more so than I used to him. I'm not totally convinced that he's going to be great, but I think the downside is, is now basically, you know, the bust potentials off the table. And I think, you know, a franchise quarterback somewhere right around top 10, you know, number 10 somewhere, I think that's in play with this guy. I think he can be a franchise quarterback. You know, I'm not going to sit here and go on and on about what I think of him.

If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know there was a lot I like about Dwayne Haskins. And then, you know, there are clearly some flags, as Tommy said, some major red flags about him. you know, whether it's been some of the press conferences or the selfies with still another snap to be had, or something like this for me. I'm not saying that all of you have to feel the same way. And I know that for some of you, this is an okay boomer moment, okay? But there are two things to this that bother me.

Three things, really. Number one is it's borderline tampering. You know, you can't openly recruit a guy, you know, from another team that's under contract. So I don't know specifically whether or not the league will do anything on this. But if I were the team, if I were the Redskins, I would immediately go to Dwayne and say, don't do this. We could get, you know, this could just become uncomfortable. Even if they don't prove tampering, they could, you know, bring it up with us.

You don't want that. You know, it could be considered openly recruiting a player who's under contract, which, by the way, you can't even do if he's on the verge of being a lot. a free agent. It's considering tampering unless you get into the legal tampering period. Okay, so that's number one. Number two is this. Number two is

just you do your job. Focus on becoming a better quarterback and let the people who handle personnel do theirs. Okay? You've got Kyle Smith, you've got coach-centric Ron. They'll handle the personnel decisions.

If they think they want to go after Stefan Diggs, we'll see it as a final result. You focus on your deal. You know, you're not LeBron James, you know, openly recruiting great players to come play with you and win a championship. You've started seven games, okay? So just you get better, you focus on your deal, and you become great. And after four or five Pro Bowls, go openly recruit somebody, even if it's borderline tampering. Even then I wouldn't recommend it. And then lastly is this.

Here's what bothers me, I think, as much as anything else. And again, I'm not going to get crazy about this because it's so today. It's so, you know, the athletes, entertainers, young people, this isn't even in, the fact that someone like me would have a problem with it, a lot of younger people can't even comprehend why. I've given you two reasons. Here's the third. You know, he started seven games as a rookie. He had three wide receivers, all rookies, play really well as rookies, especially Terry McLaren, and Stephen Sims, Jr. and Kelvin Harmon, all three of them. And McLaurin was really a good player. And when you openly recruit a star player from another team for a position, aren't you in some ways just implying

that you're not good enough at the position? Is it his position? Is it his role to, you? question whether or not they're good enough at wide receiver when he's got three rookies who by the way McClorn not only played more than he did but produced more than he did you know I gave this analogy on the radio that I'm going to give to you right now what if Terry McLaren on his Instagram account put out you know a an animated picture of James Winston throwing him a touchdown pass and said you know we want you James or you know Florida to D.C. What if he did that? I understand it's not apples to apples, that there are three, sometimes four or five wide receivers on the field and only one quarterback on the field.

I understand that. So you can give it to me that it's not exactly the same thing, Shan. You understand that, right? One quarterback. I do understand that. But still, you know, doesn't mean that Terry McClearn or Kelvin Harmon or Stephen Sims Jr., even though there are four or five of them on the field. or three of them or two of them, it doesn't mean that they won't be sort of, you know, have the feeling of, hey, my guy doesn't completely believe in me. You know, this guy, by the way, he only started seven games. We might be better off trading him for digs. I just don't, some of you I know are rolling your eyes saying,

are you serious, Sheen, you're making a big deal out of this? I'm not making a big deal out of it. I'm just telling you that when I saw it, I was, if I were a mentor, or an advisor to Dwayne, I would immediately say to him, don't do this, okay? For the three reasons I gave. And if he pushed back on any of the reasons, I would say, then let's just focus on the possible tampering. Don't do this.

It's not good for the organization. Okay? You put us at risk. We'll stick with that one for the time being. And by the way, we don't want players doing, you know, the open recruiting or the, let me GM my offense. We got people that do that job. If you have a problem with the way I feel, that's fine.

And I'm always open-minded to this stuff, but you're going to have a hard time convincing me that I shouldn't have had that reaction. I'm rooting for Dwayne Haskins. I really am. I want him to do well. I also have the same concerns that Tommy has, and that a lot of you have, that there could be a maturity issue here. And maybe three years from now, four years from now, you won't get this. I mean, Tom Brady has sort of openly recruited players. He's also a, you know, how many Super Bowls, five Super Bowl time winner?

How many Super Bowls is pretty one? Why am I blanking on that? Whatever. I mean, somebody called in this morning and had the gall to say, LeBron James does it. Okay. And your point is, is Dwayne Haskins LeBron James? No.

You know, I may, five years from now, if he's on his fourth Pro Bowl, I may have a different reaction. I probably would if he put out, you know, an Instagram post sort of openly recruiting a player to come play. And let's, you know, DMV, you know, reunited all that stuff. I don't know, man. I just saw that and I thought, you've got to stop doing things that give others the chance to consider you to be immature, that could potentially offend somebody on your team, could potentially lead to some trouble for the team. You've got to get better advice on this stuff.

I would personally advise him to not do things like that on social media, to not retweet your pro football focus numbers when they're really good, but not retweet them when they're not very good. You know, it's that, I know there's a lot of you that feel the same way I do, needy, insecure, and you want more maturity. especially from the quarterback of your franchise, especially when you believe in that quarterback like I do. So anyway, that's enough on that.

Do you have a reaction to that? It's become such a thing. I have trouble really getting all worked up over it. I think it's definitely valid, especially when I do think that you're, you know, if McLaurin had posted something like that. I think that's more valid than people might give it credit for. But again, it's just become such commonplace.

Can you imagine if McLauron? We posted an Instagram with Philip Rivers or James Winston throwing him a pass saying, you know, Florida or L.A. to D.C. And by the way, Terry McClureen's a better player than Dwayne Haskins. He is right now. Yes. He is. If you're saying that the best player on the team. And Terry McClure looks like a number one receiver in this league, as is Stefan Diggs.

And Terry McClureen might say, yeah, let's get Diggs. Because, hey, if Diggs is on the other side, that makes it easier, we get a better chance to win. And I understand that even a Kelvin Harmon might say, oh, my God. You know, in this day and age, rather than him thinking, oh, my God, he might take my job and cut down on my income potential, he might be saying, I'd love to see Stefan Diggs and Red. Who knows? I get the number, I get the number two quarterback instead of the number one. Yeah, I mean, so, but personally, I just think Haskins has to be all on board with his guys, you know, not doing someone else's job in recruiting, not taking risks with tampering, and then, you know, making sure he understands that, you know, the shoe could be on the, the other foot one day. You know, you don't do that with quarterbacks, so I understand it. It's a one position, it's a one person position. It's not apples to apples. But in terms of how the receivers

could have felt in reaction to that, it's closer to apples to apples than you think. I'm not backing off my position. When you're not firmly entrenched as a star, I think you just have to be careful about that sort of thing. Definitely. You know, there is, there's all of that. You have to prove it before you start taking on all of these other responsibilities. All right. Lastly, before we go for the day, the NFLPA is going to, they've got until Thursday at midnight, I think, to complete the vote on the current collective bargaining agreement.

And the NFL owners leaked out over the weekend, a very interesting story. I think this is all sort of posturing, to sort of get the players to vote yes faster. But I actually think there's probably some truth to it too in terms of what some owners think. Jeremy Fowler had this story from ESPN. He wrote a number of NFL owners hope the proposed collective bargaining agreement doesn't pass because they believe they can negotiate a better deal with eyes on an 18-game season in the future.

And the source told Jeremy Fowler, quote, they think they can get a better deal next year. They feel they gave up too much on the economics and that there's a dissatisfied group of owners. Now, they needed two-thirds of the owners to vote this, and they got two-thirds, okay? But that means that a third of the owners potentially are not in favor of this.

You know, players such as Aaron Rogers and Marquis Pouncey and I think Sherman, among others, have basically been opposed to the deal. They want a bigger slice of the pie. You know, for that 17th game, they don't want 47% to 48 and a half. They went 47 to 50, you know, among other things. So I do think for the most part, this got leaked to get the players moving. But I also think that there's probably some truth to it, that some owners don't like the deal that got two-thirds of a vote.

If they liked the deal, they would have voted. You know, it would have been unanimous across the board, but it wasn't. I think the players are going to approve this. I think they should approve it. If you do the math on this thing, it potentially means another $600 to $700 million in revenue. It's better opportunities for the lower and mid-tier players than maybe for the star players.

It creates more job opportunity for players. And ultimately, that 17th game, as we've discussed many times, if you add up all the time now that they're going to get off in training camp and in OTAs and offseason work, it's really not going to be a significant risk, safety risk. It just isn't. Anyway, be interesting. I think by the time we get to Thursday night, it's a yes vote. All they need is a majority, just over 50%.

But there's a lot of, you know, back and forth among these players. A lot of the veteran players, Aaron Rogers said the other day essentially, you know, accused players of voting for it. not really understanding what it is. Sometimes I would, look, you've got to really get in, I'm sure Aaron Rogers has read this, this CBA, you know, start to finish and maybe has a sense of a better opportunity for a better deal right now. But if they don't get a deal done Thursday night, we're going to be at risk of having the 2021 season being in danger.

Not 2020. Okay, the CBA current CBA covers 2020. But there will be a lot of angst next off season as to whether or not we're going to have a 20-21 season. I don't think there would be. I think that it would get done. I do think, though, this is pure posturing on the owners. There's a reason this got leaked out. I don't really believe that there's, there might be one or two owners,

but I don't think there's a big group who thinks they could get a better deal, nor do I think they would get a better deal. I don't think the players would really approve of a better deal for the owners than what they're offering now. think the players can handle a lockout? Do you think they've prepared for a lockout? That's the question. That was the question with the last one. And I saw a really good one. I can't remember who it was, but said basically that just fundamentally because careers are so short, because, you know, you want to play every season you can, that players just fundamentally aren't mentally equipped to handle a lockout, which was an interesting point there. And it's why I do think that this version will

get done and get voted for. But I think that if it doesn't, for whatever reason, the players would get slightly, very slightly more next time around. I think that number one, there are more than one or two owners that were dissatisfied with the deal. I do agree that it got leaked out for the purposes of getting the players to act quickly and positively with a positive yes vote. But I do think there are some owners. I mean, they barely had a two-thirds, you know, of vote on the CBA to approve it. So, you know, roughly a third of the owners did not approve this deal and probably thought, and we had heard the 18 game schedule before. It's not the first time we've heard that. But I do think it was leaked for the purposes of getting the players to

vote yes, but I think it's more than one or two owners that wouldn't be, you know, completely distraught if the players voted no. I think if the players do vote no, I think, think we're in for a long haul because I think it's really going to piss the owners off as a group. I think they're going to come back for more. And I think they will, you know, as the Redskins tried to do with Trent Williams, they will try to bleed these people to death. Now, they want football. They don't want a lost season.

None of us do. But the players, as you pointed out, and this is the, always the issue with NFL strikes and lockouts in particular. The players just don't have the wherewithal to give in to, you know, a year. or even a half a year of lost income for a long-term goal that in many cases doesn't benefit them. It benefits future players more than it benefits them. One last thing I did have, and that is this. You told me before the show that the odds are changing rapidly on the MVP.

Yeah. So this is, it's nothing in vaguely. NBA MVP. Yeah, NBA MVP. Most books had taken it down just because Janus had gotten so prohibitive of favor that they had taken it down. And most don't have it up right now. I do kind of expect some of these more, you know, the Vegas books to put it back up now. I did find on an offshore site, it's back up, and Janus is only minus 200 compared to LeBrona plus one.

And what was Janus? Minus 600, minus 800. So it's very funny that you said that to me, and I told you I had something on this, and I'll end the show with it. So yesterday, Janus missed a game. They played Phoenix. Friday night they played the Lakers. It was a physical game, and Janus had his love. lip bleeding and his knees banged up. He's got a knee strain. He's out for a few games.

And yesterday was the first game that he missed. And in that first game, to me, without him, he basically should lock up the MVP award. Without Janus against the terrible Phoenix Suns yesterday, they gave up 47 points in the first quarter, 77 in the first half, 140 for the game, and they lost the game in Phoenix 140 to 131. Milwaukee's got good play. players, you know, to go with Janice. Chris Middleton's really, really good. He had 39 yesterday. Bledso's really, really good. I like the kid DeVincenzo from Villanova, the kid that can really shoot it. But to me, yesterday should have been like an eye opener, like this is what Milwaukee is without Janus, and then look at Milwaukee with Janus. He is so, so valuable to that team.

and I know that it's not necessarily what goes into the MVP criteria. But when your first game out, you lose to the suns giving up 140 points in 77 in the first half, 47 in the first quarter. It's actually pretty hysterical because they've been a very good defensive team. You know, the only team to really light them up recently was the Wizards, who they beat in overtime. But the Wizard scored, you know, 134 on them. By the way, that's actually my last thought.

Bradley Beal missed his final 10 shots in the game last night against the heat. It was so awful to watch because I love Scott Brooks as a person, and I know what his strategy is. He's very much sort of roll the ball out and let your playmakers, space the floor, let your playmakers make plays. A lot of coaches are that way. But when you got a defense totally geared to stopping one player, you've got to come up with some strategy.

You've got to come up with a couple of things. And it was just Beal missing one shot after another down the story. stretch as they lost to the heat. All right, we're done for the day. Tommy may, Tommy's going to miss tomorrow, right? So he's going to be with us on Wednesday. So we will be back tomorrow, okay? And then Tommy will be with us Wednesday. We'll get a couple of guests on the show tomorrow. Enjoy the day.