The Kevin Sheehan Show - Terps, Tourney, & Cooley on Curtis Samuel

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

Cooley and Kevin to start with Cooley's belated take on Washington's signing of Curtis Samuel. The boys talked too about Kenny Golladay to the Giants. Tim Murray joined the show to talk Terps with Kevin and the incredible NCAA slate from the weekend. They previewed MD-Bama and had their best picks of for today as well.  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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. All right, Coolly's with me today. Tim Murray's going to join me as well. So we'll do some college hoops with Murray after we talk some football with Coolly.

But Cooley watched the Maryland game on Saturday night and saw the Terps beat Yukon. They play Alabama tonight for the right to go to the Sweet 16. It's been a crazy tournament, Cooley. I know you're not watching all of it, but I mean, the upsets are unbelievable. We got a 15 seed in the Sweet 16. We've got multiple double-digit seeds. Syracuse is in Rutgers. I'm sorry, Syracuse is in.

Oregon State is in. We had an eight over a one yesterday. The first one seed goes down. Illinois goes down. Oral Roberts is a 15 seed there into the Sweet 16. Seriously, Oral Roberts. Yeah, Oral Roberts. I know. I know.

Are you familiar with Oral Roberts University? No. I know the name, Whirl Roberts. Yeah. I mean, familiar with it? No. I know they exist as a university that plays basketball. I think it's in Oklahoma. It's in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yeah, I just looked it up.

Yeah, Oral Roberts, actually, they've had some decent teams over the years in college basketball. They upset Ohio State, and then yesterday pulled off the upset in the tournament beating Florida, coming from way behind. Florida was a – so you and I haven't talked for a couple of days. The smell test started off really well with UCLA, and then I was 6 and 3 on Friday. I was 7 and 3, 70 percent, pretty good clip. Saturday 2 and 4, yesterday, 0, and 2. I'm back to 500. with the way it goes.

And it's really interesting because underdogs have been killing it so far in the tournament. And you've known me long enough and you know the smell test. Usually favorites are underdogs for me. Underdogs. All the time. And I had favorites all weekend long on one of the biggest underdog weekends of the year in college hoops. But the favorites were the anti-public side yesterday. Florida was laying nine against the team that had beat in Ohio.

Ohio State. So the public was on ORL Roberts. Texas Tech is a six-seed was a two-point favorite over Arkansas. And so I had Texas Tech. Now, personally, I played Loyola winner. I played Wisconsin loser and then played Rutgers winner. Those were my other personal plays yesterday, but I lost my two smell test plays. But I did want to tell you real quickly, because you love the whole gambling. stuff. I'm going to pull it up right now. Hold on for one sec. So on Saturday, and Saturday, I just started firing in on all sorts of shit. I had a lot of different plays going. Like, I'm looking at my Saturday. I did have Colorado. I almost gave them out as a smell test selection. They blew out Georgetown, but I had the first half under in the Colorado Georgetown game. I had the following

four-team parley, Missouri, Maryland, BYU, Ohio that lost. But here's what hit. These never hit. Abilene Christian plus 320, Maryland plus 160, Ohio plus 260 in a three-team money line parlay. $200 bucks paid $7,662. Now, Did you put $200 on that parlay? I did. Yeah. That a boy.

That's a big number for a three-team parlay. Yeah, I've got a little... It includes Abilene Christian. Yeah, I liked all the sides, all right? And I liked all the sides to win, but here's what I did just so you know. Abilene Christian was the final game of the night. Maryland had won. Ohio had pulled off the upset. I'd called Ohio all week long as a first round upset over Virginia. I just did not. And I'll get to the Big Ten with Murray later on. All of you went. We don't like Virginia. Virginia wasn't playing good ball. Yeah. And when I, and Abilene Christian, I didn't know enough about them, but the lines was sort of short. The public was split on it, which is why I didn't give it out as a smell test pick. But anyway, I, Abilene Christian went last. So Maryland and Ohio had pulled off their upset.

So there I was an Abilene Christian win away from 7,000. Yeah, this is easy. All we got to do is have a 14 beat of three. Yeah, but what I did is I hedged hard. And I put a lot on Texas. So I mean, all you had to do was cover the 200 bucks. Well, that's, yeah, but I didn't want to just do that. I know.

I had a chance to win big regardless of the result. And so that's what I did. you know, I basically, you know, bet Texas was minus 425 as the favorite. So I basically, you know, I basically wager like, you know, 42, 50 to win a thousand, which meant, you know, that was, by the way, the most I could on a money line bet. It was the most I could hedge with this particular shop that I have. I don't know if I buy into that hedge. Well, of course you would have prior to tip off afterwards, you wouldn't have made the hedge.

Yeah, but that's a lot just to win a thousand. Yeah, but it didn't matter because I had a middle there of, you know, $3,412. So I was either going to win $304,012 or I was going to win $800. You know, I didn't want to, if I hear you. Yeah, I would have, I would have hedged a little bit more. but that was my limit on the hedge was to win a thousand on minus 425 with this particular spot. So I ended up for the weekend having a decent weekend. But to be honest with you, I almost care about my smell test more because I just, you know,

I've been able to over the years give out more winners than losers, which is hard to do. and I haven't really done this like in the NCAA tournament before. I'm sure I have. I don't remember what my records are in the NCAA tournament like I do during football season. But basically, yes, if you've got a gambling problem, call 1-88-532-3-500 Shian. No, I just, I want to be right. And I want to win money too, but I want to be right even more than I want.

want to win. And it's really funny because my son was in Charleston. They were in Florida and Charleston, sort of a quasi spring break. And he calls me on Saturday and he goes, Dad, all my friends are taking all your bets today. They just saw you tweet out your smell test picks. How confident are you in them? And I tried to explain to him. How many years have I done this? Yeah, I mean, I'm like, there's no confidence level high or low. It's what fits sort of the criteria that I look at, which is lots of public money on one side and lots of sharp action to sort of back me up. What he meant to say was, are there any that fit even more? But I get that all the time on Twitter, Cooley.

I get that all the time for people. So which of these games do you like the most? I don't like any of them more than the others. I'm giving you the games that's not true. You know what? That's not true. There's no, there's a gray area in there to what fits even more than something else. No, not fits, but there are times when I really just personally like a game from an analysis standpoint, and it fits.

Once it fits, then there's an area where it could fit even better. Yeah. Like you put the pants on and they go on, but they might not be your favorite pants. Yeah. Like, there might be... I'm wearing pants right now that fit. Right. But I don't love them.

But they do fit. Okay. know what, you're right about this, actually. Overall, I basically picked the games that have always fit sort of the criteria. People say, Sheehan, you know, why don't you let your analysis? Sometimes your analysis is actually conflicting with the smell test pick. I go, yeah, I understand that. The point of the smell test pick is to sort of admit that we don't know as much as the house knows and that the house wins more than it loses. And so, like yesterday, I'll give you the perfect example. Yesterday, I gave Texas Tech out. They were minus two. They were two-point favorite over

Arkansas. I picked Texas Tech to lose to your alma mater, Utah State, in the first round in my bracket. I also gave Utah State out plus four. I've seen Texas Tech a lot. I've seen Utah State a little bit. And I just thought that they struggled a little bit too much offensively this year, even though they're a good defensive team. And when I saw that they were favored over the higher-seated team, they were the and Arkansas was the three, I was like, I know this is going to end up fitting the smell test, but God, I do not like Texas Tech as a team. I didn't pick them in my bracket. I picked them to lose in the first round, and I had the other side against them in the first round,

and they covered easily against Utah State. And I don't like this team. But that happens a lot. Think about all the terrible NFL teams I give out in the smell test every once in a while. Like Sheehan, you're giving out the Jets again? Well, yeah, because I know that every bookmaker is going to need the Jets, you know. And I don't love the Jets either. But I got to say the Texas Tech line was weird.

I knew the public was going to jump on the underdog. And the public was actually on several underdogs yesterday and won. And the day before, not so much. And I had four wrong favorites on Saturday. I did hit on a couple of over-unders. There was two and four on Saturday. But by the way, this tournament has been all about what I've always been about, you know, underdogs and unders,

because the public loves favorites and they love overs. But this weekend, it didn't fit as much. But anyway, the Texas Tech game, Cooley, I swear to God, I gave it out, and I loved Florida. They didn't even come close to getting it down. Although they were up 11 in the second half. Florida was laying nine against O'Rall Roberts after O'Rour Roberts had beaten Ohio State.

and I was like, I knew that that was going to be an anti-public dog, and it was, or a public dog. The public loved Oral Roberts, and they loved Arkansas. And so I gave out Texas Tech, and I swear to God, five minutes into that game, I'm like, it's just going to be the wrong side. They can't score. Sure enough, they rallied. They were up 10 early. They came back from 13 down to tie it late.

They had a chance with a layup with two seconds to go to force overtime, and they had all the momentum had the game gone. to overtime, and they missed the layup. Just like all year long, when I watch Tech, I'm like, they can't make a bucket from like inside 10 feet. They just can't score. They must have missed 18 to 20 shots within three feet, and they lost by two. So last night, the Texas Tech Arkansas game sort of fit what you are described. I just didn't like Texas Tech as a team, but it doesn't matter. The Smelt Test is about admitting that we don't know as much as Vegas knows. as bookies know, they have a really sharp handle on this stuff,

and that's what the philosophy's always been about. I'll have a smell test for you for the games today. We've got a full lineup. It's a weird, obviously, tournament with the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. We've got games starting at 12 today. And there are a couple of sides I like. I'll tell you what right now. Maryland is an anti-public side.

The public likes Bama in this game, but there's sharp money on Bama. So I don't know if it'll be in the smell test. I'm still waiting for some information. I couldn't give it out on the radio because my offshore person had not woken up yet to give me the information on the games today. But I don't know how we got all this started, but I was very happy to have that three-team parlay

that I could hedge against because it sort of covered the other losses of the day. It actually did more than cover the losses of the day. I ended up winning on Saturday because of that. Yesterday, not so good. Yesterday not so good. Murray's going to come up in about a half hour, 20 minutes. We'll do a lot of college shoots.

But Cooley's on. You know what Murray didn't watch over the weekend? What? The NCAA national championship wrestling. Did you? Yep. I watched every match. Did you really?

It was on during the Maryland game. Who won? I didn't know. Well, I have won. For the first time in 10 years, somebody would be. Besides Penn State won as a team, the national championship. Isn't Iowa a powerhouse in wrestling? They're always really good.

They recruited you, right? Yeah, everyone recruited me. Penn State had the most national champions individually. Really? Uh-huh. Hmm. But I knew Penn State go through the brackets, and when you take fifth in your bracket or sixth or whatever,

you're scoring X amount of team points, and Iowa had more wrestleback points. I didn't watch the entire tournament by any means. I don't even know if I think probably you could watch the entire tournament on E-plus or whatever, ESPN Plus. But I just watched the championship round. Do you know who has the most wrestling men's wrestling championships by college championships in history? I know Oklahoma's, Oklahoma State's like number five. Penn State's got to be up there.

Iowa's second, I think. Iowa's number two. You already said it, Oklahoma State. Yeah. Oklahoma State has 34 men's wrestling NCAA championships. Iowa is second with 24, and then it's Penn State with nine, Iowa State with eight, Oklahoma with seven, Minnesota with three. But Penn State's nine are like the last nine in a row.

Yes, 2011, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, yeah, 16, 17, 18, 19. They did win one in 1953. Oh, back in 53. Yep. Back and forgot about that one. But yeah, Kel Sanderson is as good as it gets as a wrestling coach. I don't have much to talk about with any of this. I wanted the last match. You can ask me whatever we want to ask me.

I did think this was fascinating. This kid named Spencer Lee wrestles for Iowa. Okay? He wrestles like 125, 125 pounds. He's wrestling another kid named Courtney, last name Courtney. what is Brandon Courtney from Arizona State. And so Spencer Lee's going for his third national championship. He should have been a four-time national champion, but they didn't have it last year.

Because of the pandemic. And you think that's devastating for a team in general, like for some of the seniors that could have been four-time champions last year or had their first chance to, gosh, individually, that'd be tough to miss it last year. So this kid, Lee, ends up winning by decision. like 7-0 and the dude Courtney wrestles really good and it gets done and it Spencer Lee's incredible but he gets done in their interview and all the guys and he comes over and he's like yeah it was kind of a weird interview I couldn't I just couldn't wrestle tore my ACL last week I was wrestling on one ACL just didn't didn't feel good couldn't wrestle just won the national championship 7-0 was not happy.

On a torn ACL. On a torn ACL. And then he's like won two years ago on a national channel. I tore my ACL in the national championship two years ago when I won it. So, you know, I've won two national championships on tour 90 ACLs. No big deal, you know. So explain to why everybody why he can wrestle on a torn ACL. I don't know.

Well, he can't damage it any. It just limits lateral movement. Right, but he can't damage it any further. That's one of the reasons, right? You can't damage it further. It limits the lateral movement. His skill set, more than anything, I guess, is on top. Now, anyone that's watched wrestling or knows what wrestling is they can score points for writing time.

Like if they're on top for one minute more than the other person, they score a point. So this is the only match I think all year that he didn't score writing time. So this dude had a pretty good strategy. And it got close a couple times to takedowns. But why this kid, Spencer Lee, can wrestle without a A.C. is because he's just a freak. Every move he makes is the right move. He's unbelievable to watch.

Little dude. I think it was it was it was like I love this. The national championship matches I love. It's fun to watch. I know I've asked you this before, but what were the schools that recruited you? I mean, I know you were, were you the number one high school wrestling recruit in the country

your senior year in high school? No, no, no. How high of a recruit were you? I don't know. So here's what happened for me. I don't particularly remember that many schools talking to me in high school during any of the wrestling stuff. And then so I won the state championship. And then it was like April or May or something.

There was a, it's called senior nationals. And you had to be a state champion to go. wrestling this match. And you had to be a senior too, obviously senior nationals. And so I went to that tournament and I lost my second match. There was 135 dudes in my bracket. And then I had to, I wrestled back in one like 14 matches in a row to get into the metal rounds.

And so they, and I, after I lost my second match, I got real mad. I shouldn't have lost. They got real mad and I beat everybody by pin or like technical decision. I dominated my way through to the medal rounds. And so then once into the middle rounds, that's when like coaches were there watching. They're like, you can come wrestle for us. But they wanted me to wrestle whatever was like the 190 weight class. Your Zoom faded out there.

They wanted you to wrestle what? That would have been really hard for me. The 197 weight class. Oh, okay. And at the time I was wrestling 2.15, which, and I probably weighed 210. By the next spring, I weighed 245. Wow. I would have been a good, I think if I'd have wrestled heavyweight, I would have been the national champion.

By the way, I told my wife that, and she sat and watched it with me. Oddly enough, she never watches sports with me, and she sat and watched a lot of the wrestling with me. and I sat there and I said, I definitely, I would have been a national champion. She said, I think it worked out. Yeah. And I swear to you, I had some regret that I didn't wrestle. I know. You've told me that before.

You really had a love for the sport. I would have loved to have been a national champion. Yeah. And you were really. But that was never my goal. As a wrestler, that was never my goal. It was always to be a state champion. May I tell you just one quick torn ACL story that I think I've told you before, but I'm not 100% sure.

But when you told me about this guy wrestling on an ACL, I think most people are like, what? Well, you can't damage further a torn ACL. So I had a kid that I coached in basketball. He ended up playing college basketball. He was really an excellent basketball player. As seventh and eighth grader, he was outstanding. In fact, I had a game in which, back-to-back games in which he scored 33 and 34 in like running clock, you know, fall league games. But anyway, to make a long story short, he was a really good high school football player as well.

And he tore his ACL in his junior year. By the way, ended up tearing his ACL again. in college as well, which derailed his basketball career. Anyway, his father was his high school football coach, and he had torn his ACL. I'm going to get some parts of the story wrong for whoever's listening to it that knows what I'm talking about, but whatever. The point is still the most important thing.

So his son was a wide receiver, excellent, excellent high school football player, but he also had the strongest arm on the team. He was just a phenomenal athlete. And for this particular game, it was, I think, the last game of the year, and he's over on crutches. He tore his ACL like the week before, two weeks before. Hadn't had surgery yet. It was scheduled for like the following week. At the end of the game, his team, which his father is the head coach of, is down by six,

and they've got the ball at midfield with like five seconds to go. Their only prayer is, you know, a Hail Mary into the end zone. and his son on crutches on the sideline is the only kid on the team capable of throwing it into the end zone. The quarterback didn't have that strong of an arm. So he calls time out, he tells his son to get some pads on, get an helmet on, get back in shotgun and throw it in. Time out, he had time to do that? I guess he did. And maybe it was setting up for this.

Who knows? I'm probably exaggerating part of the story. But this part is true. He went into the game on a torn A.C. and he threw the ball into the end zone, and it was nearly caught. It wasn't. They lost the game, but they had a chance on a Hail Mary into the end zone with his son throwing the Hail Mary on a torn ACL.

Well, what I understand, the parents were not happy about it at all. Of course they weren't. I mean, they don't know anything. Or a lot of them didn't. They were really, really unhappy. And the coach basically said, look, he can't do it. anything to the ACL. It's already damaged as much as it'll ever be damaged. There's nothing that can happen to the ACL. We put him back there. And sure, I guess his lack of mobility and flexibility

could have made him vulnerable for another injury, but it was our chance to win. And oh, by the way, I'm his father. I would not have done that with any of your sons. I wouldn't have done that. And anyway, what do you think? What do you think of the coach's decision to do that? Sounds like Mike Shanahan. What do you mean? Oh, Robert Deaser? Oh, with R3. I can't do it.

With RG3. Yeah, but he didn't know he had to turn ACL and an LCL. Well, if he did, can't do anything more to it. Right. I have no problem with the decision. You can't do anything worse. You know, this is an amazing record. We went to New Mexico State and played.

Emmett White was born without an ACL in one knee, something like that. He had 578 all-purpose yards in the game. In a game? Still the record in NCAA history for a single game. Really?

I think the mark at the time was like 430 yards. No one even knew on the field. Got done and they were like Emmett had 578 yards. Here it is. During his junior year, White set the still standing NCAA single game record for all-purpose

yards with 578. Do you remember what the breakdown was? I know that there was a couple kickoff returns that were big. He had 300. And he had a ton of receiving yards. He had 322 rushing yards, 134 receiving yards. So that would be, well, that would be 456. So he had another 122 in return yards.

It just doesn't say it in this. But the 456 would have set a record in itself. Wow. It was amazing. And that game was close. I remember right. At New Mexico State, November 4th, 2000. Were you a freshman?

Yeah. I was playing defensive end. Wow. And he didn't have an ACL. No. That's what you started, you buried the lead, okay? I said he didn't have an ACL before I said he set a record. No, no, no.

The lead was the 578 all-perfect. surface yards. Oh, the lead is that he did it without an ACL. I guess. I guess. So he would have been a pro if he had an ACL. And that's why he wasn't? I think so.

He was really good. He was the best football player that I played with at Utah State. NCAA records. I'm just looking at up. It is the record. I just want to see who is second. It's 435 yards as second. What'd you say?

The next most is like 400. 35 yards in a game. Uh-huh. He beat it by more than 100 yards. Yeah, Emmett White. Here it is, 578. They don't have the list here. They just have him.

Yeah, that's pretty... Second most, Brian Pruitt in 2010 from Central Michigan. Hmm. Although it says, oh, no, no, no. No, it wasn't 2010. This actually was posted in 2010. There may have been more total yards since 2010. So 322 yards on 34 carries, seven catches for 134 yards, and then four kickoff returns for 120 yards, and one punt return for two yards.

He did not have any touchdowns on kick or punt returns. He had four touchdowns rushing, none receiving. And the game was a 44-37 win over New Mexico State. that was tight. Yeah, it was tight. It was really tight. I mean... We needed him in that game.

Casey Papinga. Wouldn't he a tight end? That was the guy who started before me. Right, exactly. Yeah. He had one catch 12 yards. There wasn't much room for anybody but Emmett to touch the ball. I mean,

Emmett pretty much dominated the game. How'd you play today? I think pretty good. Yeah. Not bad. Not bad. I had 578 total yards. Is Brian Mitchell still all-purpose second behind Rice? I had this argument with my son who said he's now third behind somebody else. Leaders all-purpose yardage here. Let's find it.

Because for so many years, Brian was number two all-time, all-purpose yardage behind Jerry Rice. All purpose yards career. Here we go. I think he's number two. He's still number two. Yeah. Walter Payton's three, Emmett Smith, four, Frank Gore's five. Yeah, I don't know who my son was thinking of.

I mean, because the only person that's active is Frank Gore, and he's 4,000 yards or, you know, 3,400 yards away from B. Mitch. You know, that's really an impressive number. 23,3, 330 yards for Brian's career. Not worth the Hall of Fame, though. He's not a Hall of Famer in part because, you know, we have how many returners in the game? Billy Whitechews Johnson and Devin Hester, right? Are the only returners in the Hall of Fame?

In the Hall of Fame. And Devin Hester was a true game changer. I don't, as much as I love Brian. And Brian, by the way, and I've said this many times, Brian's best games were in the biggest games. Like he always, always played well in their biggest games, whether it was playoff games or games they had to have, you know, late in the game. But he wasn't like an electrifying returner. I mean, he was a threat to take it the distance.

Don't get me wrong. But Devin Hester, I remember Rigo. You don't kick to Devin Hester. You do not. got to the point where you're like, you just don't kick to him. No. You don't kick it. Yeah, Whitechews Johnson, I guess, is not in the Hall of Fame.

Ray Guy, and then you get some punters and kickers. Is Devin Hester in the Hall of Fame, or is he not eligible for the Hall of Fame yet? I bet you he's going to be in the Hall of Fame. He was really like a true. Rigo used to on the show that I did with Rigo for many years or whenever he was on with us. Rigo always describes just a few guys that he says had horsepower. They're just few guys that I've watched that have had horsepower. And I'll never forget because we were doing the show and he goes,

you know what, Devin Hester, horsepower. He's got it. He's got it. And I understand that. Like when Hester was back there, people feared. You know, when Dion was back there as a returner, people feared. And Brian was a really, really good returner, an excellent returner. But he was a different kind of returner.

You know, he's a more physical returner. But he had good speed. Yeah. Still an impressive number for B-Mitch to still be second all-time, all-time. purpose yardage behind Jerry Rice. Jerry Rice.

Yeah. And by the way, the difference between Rice and Mitchell is like just a couple hundred yards, right? In all purpose yardage? I'm not looking at it, but it's close, yeah. Yeah.

I'm looking at a list of like the greatest returners in NFL history, like a list. And number one, what? This doesn't make any sense. Rick Upchurch and then B. Mitch's 3 and Hester's and Sayers are tied for fourth. You know, these lists are so subjective. Anyway, all right, let's take a break. When we come back, Coley's going to give us his thoughts on the player he is not weighed in on,

and that would be Curtis Samuel. Not Chris Samuels, as I said. I think I refer to him in Saturday's podcast as Chris Samuel multiple times. I'm probably going to do it again at some point, but Curtis Samuel added as a free agent, Cooley's breakdown of Curtis Samuel, how he fits, etc. right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, on last week's podcast, Cooley weighed in on Ryan Fitzpatrick

and William Jackson III. We have not gotten his thoughts on Curtis Samuel, even though we've talked about Curtis Samuel and the possibility that they would sign him. Now that it's done three years, 34.5 million, the details of that deal have not really been spelled out in great length yet. I haven't seen them anyway. But your thoughts on adding Curtis Samuel to this offense?

Okay, my thoughts are going to start with this. I love this. Google Curtis Samuel. Yeah. I've done it many times. Why? I know. Go in Google Curtis Samuel.

Okay. On Google, there are these fun things where right below people also ask. The first one, the most common one that people have typed. in is Curtis Samuel good that's that's where do you see that where do you see that on my google uh-huh it has a people also ask so there's like pro football reference the top thing and then top stories and then right below top stories people also ask oh I don't have that I have the first one being pro football reference and then I have top stories and then I have other, I have college stats.

You might have to change your thing for Google. I don't know how I do this on purpose. The second most common question for Curtis Samuel. What position is Curtis Samuel? Third, how fast is Curtis Samuel? Fourth is Curtis Samuel hurt. And fifth is Robbie Anderson worth drafting. Well, that's all right.

Is Curtis Samuel good? Yeah. Is he good? Yeah, he's really good. He's really good. He's really versatile. He is a legit, legit four three speed guy. Curtis Samuel is not a big dude.

If anybody hadn't looked that up, I mean, he's not even six feet. But I have liked Samuel since it came out of Ohio State. Guy played with Terry McLaurin at Ohio State. Think he's got game-changing type ability. Think he can play outside. Definitely know he can play in the slot. Love that they used.

used him last year as a guy that carried the ball 40 times for like 200 yards. So it wasn't just it wasn't just fly sweep stuff. I think they want a flight sweep type of guy. And again, they're going to get it in Curtis Samuel. And if you look at Washington last year, they were fifth in the league in jet sweep motions pre-snap. But Molina Barr biggest complaints and my biggest complaints was they never gave it. And I don't think it was because they had a guy that they wanted to give it to and have the ball in their hands in that position. The type of offense that they have where they are getting rid the ball quick a lot of these times, it combined with the fact that Fitzpatrick gets rid of the ball quick, we'll get the

ball in Curtis Samuel's hands. He's electric with the ball on his hands. Think back to just our game, if you're Googling, is Curtis Samuel good? Or the Washington game last year, where he bust went off for 50 as a running back. Yeah, he's really good. But he's also a very good route runner. And that I saw last year in Carolina, as Washington got ready to play Carolina a year ago, not this last season, but the 2019 season. Right.

Yeah, I mean, Curtis Samuel is a heck of a player. I think he's a guy. Like, he'll catch 80 balls plus next year. And so will Terry. And that's what they had to have. It was him, Goladay, Will Fuller, or you're taking a risk on the guy out of Tennessee a little bit. What was the kid out of Tennessee that just

signed a contract? Oh, the Titans? You're saying the Tennessee Titans? Whatever. It's fruitless. Yeah. Yeah. Are you talking about the Titan?

He was a free agent receiver. The receiver? Oh, Corey Davis. Sign with the Jet. Cory Davis. I keep saying, every time I want to call him AJ Davis, but it's AJ Brown. AJ Brown and Corey Davis, right.

So there's one of those four. Curtis Samuel Fitz. as much as anybody. And I think Curtis Samuel really fits maybe even more than than A.J. Davis. I can't believe I can't do that. But I think he fits more because I think they see Terry as a true X. And I think Curtis Samuel is your true Z.

So I think you got the perfect compliment receiver who is a legit big-time one-slash-two receiver where you can do a ton with him. now you start thinking of all the ways they use Terry McLaurin, all the places they put Terry McLaurin. And now you got another guy that you can formation with. And then you're putting McKissick out there and you're doing some things with McKissick. And I think it should be an offense that's going to be actually pretty good this year by adding a quarterback and this receiver. If they added one more big time tight end, then who would have been sweet.

But they have a lot of versatile players. We think Gibson could be more versatile. I definitely think Gibson could be more versatile. You could use him out of the backfield more. McKissick is as versatile as it gets. Terry can do anything. And now Samuel can do anything. And he already knows the system and this offense.

Yeah, it's going to be a fun offense to watch. I think it'll be a fun offense to watch. I think it'd be a fun offense to game plan and scheme for. Just adding this one dude. Yeah, I, um, I, I really think it's a good fit too. And I think it's a good fit in part because they, I think they went into last year with high hopes about Stephen Sims Jr. And I'm not saying that if Steven Sims Jr. had really had a breakout year that they wouldn't have been interested in Samuel anyway, because, look, regardless of position football and where you want to line guys up, the bottom line is you just want to get guys in the game that can make plays.

and can create mismatches, and the more you have out on the field that can do that, the better off you're going to be. And then it's incumbent upon the coach to make it work. But Sims Jr. clearly was not that guy, which put an emphasis on finding another guy. I still wonder what they think about their other receivers. Like, let's talk about, you know, let's talk about 11 personnel. Okay, let's talk about you got a back. got a tight end and you've got

three receivers on the field. Who are the three receivers on the field? McClorn, Samuel, and who else? Sims. It's Cam Sims. Cam Sims. I don't know what Kelvin Harmon is coming back. Yeah, I don't either. That's what I was... I think that becomes interesting. I told... I've said to you

I think Kelvin Harmon could be an H-back. You did say that. Do you think they think that or was that, did you know? I have no idea what they think. I just thought last the year he played, I thought he was as good of a blocker as I've seen at receiver. Guy that could go in and block linebackers if you wanted him to block linebackers.

Big dude, strong dude, not versatility fast down the field, but if you were to say as an H-back, you would say incredible route running abilities. Yeah. I mean, just no receiver wants that on us. but put on about eight pounds and Ryan Grant didn't mind it. Well, oh, we got Ryan Grant out on the feet.

He's going to go dig out the safeties. Yeah, well, Calvin Harmon's better safety digger. Is he? Than Ryan Grant. Yeah. Yeah, Kelvin Harmon is awesome as a plucker. Hopefully he doesn't fall down either. That always seemed to be a problem with Ryan Grant.

You got to tie your shoes, Ryan, tight. Waste them up. Get those shoes. who's tied tight, man. You fall down a lot. Why does that happen all the time? Is he still in the leg? I don't think that he is. God, I think Jay Gruden was just the guy that loved him. I played for Indy for a year. He did? He played for Indy. He went to Indy. Here it is right here. He's playing for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL. He played for the Colts, played for the Raiders, so he played for Jay's brother, John.

played for the Packers briefly, and now he's digging out safeties in the CFL. So there you go. So Curtis Samuel, by the way, the other thing that they've done here, which, you know, it's impressive. You know, you're adding, you're adding, you know, guys without paying them, you know, top-tier money. You know, even Jackson's money isn't top-tier cornerback money. You know, whatever this guy's deal works out to be, call it in the $10 million range. That's way down the list. Way down the list.

I'm not suggesting they should have been at the top of the list. Kenny Golodey got $18 million a year, average annual. And Curtis Samuel's sitting there 10. You know, one of the things I think I've tried to back off obsessing about in recent years, unless it's really important to the cap, and I think they've made a big cap mistake. And all of this, obviously relative to the cap, is important. But I just want really good players. You know, I think there was, I think sometimes we in the media,

maybe even more than some of you fans, we obsess far too much about the deal, about where it ranks, and on certain positions, we just don't know what the coach is seeing the players and how they'll fit and how important the players. is to so many other different things. And, you know, I've noticed in recent years, and I'm not being critical of it because I did it too, that there's more obsession sometimes after assigning on the contract than there is on the player. You know, get the player. Get a really good player. And if you end up

overpaying a really good player, it's okay. It's much worse to underpay a player that can't do anything for you. And your team stinks because you haven't added enough players. I'd rather be in salary cap peril with really good players on my team. And I think for a decade, I totally agree with you. I think for a decade, you know, Bruce, for the most part, was so intent on getting really good deals. And by the way, maybe he came in and said, Dan, you and Vinny, my God, some of these deals you did. What were you thinking? You can't build a team that way. And then he almost went overboard in, you know, hardcore negotiating down to the penny and nickel.

And it's like, and at the same time, what did you get for it? You got some shitty-ass players for the most part over a long period of time. Yeah. You know, I want good players. And I think in this off-season, the three players, the deals are fine, you know, and it seems like they're, They're really smart deals. But the real key to it is that Ryan Fitzpatrick can play, William Jackson III can play, and Curtis slash Chris Samuel can really play.

These guys can play. They can play in their good deals. I read an article about Robert Kraft. It's an ESPN or wherever. About how much money they're spending? Michael Rice. Yeah. So there's a couple of things I like about this.

And this sort of fits some of these deals and not that dissimilar from what Washington did. But he said it's like investing in the stock market. You take advantage of corrections and insufficiencies in the market when you can. And that's what we did, the Patriots here. Nothing is guaranteed. I'm very cognizant of that. But we're not in the business to be in business. We're in this business to win.

And then he went on to say, which I thought was really interesting, in this year, instead of having 10 or 12 teams competing for most of the top players, there were only two or three. And that was the result of the cap dropping from 198.2 million to 182.5 million with the coronavirus pandemic. So the cap dropped. Not as many teams were in the market for certain players. and so you got better deals on better players this year. It was interesting because, I mean, they spent a boatload of money, but they did it on the cheap compared to what a normal year would have been for these guys. Yeah, there were definite opportunities for Jacksonville and the Patriots in Washington and some of the other teams that had a lot of cap space in a season where the cap goes down

and teams were having to shred players to make it work. I guess back just to the conversation is that I've gone, like I remember totally, and you were playing and we didn't know each other, I remember just coming on, you know, the air and just saying, my God, stop doing this. Stop overpaying guys by 15% above the market, guys who are 2930 who have big names and their best years are behind them. This is a losing way of building a football team.

And the other thing that Dan and Vinny did so often is like they took some of Dan's favorite players like Clinton Portis and they kept restructuring his deal and paying them more. And they had so much invested in so few that for a decade you guys were never able to overcome injuries because you had no depth. 2006 is the perfect example of one of those teams that they spent all that money on various players like Adam Archeletta and Antoine Randallel L and restructed for the deals. And all the injuries came and you guys sucked because you had terrible second line players. And then for the last several years, you know, in the early years, a part of Bruce's tenure here,

I was like, you know what? I like what he's doing. He's more responsible. He's more responsible fiscally. You know, I remember people were like, Larry Johnson, Willie Parker. I remember that first year. I'm like, they didn't pay him anything. Like they're just, they're throwing, he's not going after big names.

And he's, but then as it grew and we realized that the players that he was signing, I mean, there were some hits. Like Pierre was certainly a really good hit. You know, I remember Brandon Meriwether thinking, you know what, that guy can play. But then we got into the E.J. Biggers and the Mike McGlens and the Torell Pryors and the McLean McGee, you know, defensive tackle, you know, tandem. And Stephen Pia and your favorite Kendall Reyes, who you predicted basically after watching one practice that they're going to have to cut him. You know, David Bruton, you know, and it's like, well, look at what we, look at the deals we got on these guys. And I'm like, there's a reason.

But they all suck. Like they all sucked. I mean, not all of them. Like, Vernon Davis was a really good hit. You know, we mentioned, you know, Pierre was a really good hit. I'm trying to think. You know, Deshaun and Josh Norman were sort of outliers because they came available unexpectedly. They were the late signings.

By the way, Deshawn, L.A. with Sean McVeigh. I don't know how much she got left. Enough to get over the top five times for him this season. Might be three in one game, two, and another. I don't know. He's hurt so much. Yeah. He really is the guy, though, right?

Like, you know, in those years where he was playing with Jordan and with Pierre, I know Jordan was a major problem as a matchup, But the guy, over the last 10, 12 years, he was drafted, I think it was in the 2008 draft. He really has been one of the most feared take the top off the defense receivers. He really has been, no matter what. Well, if there was a stat that, maybe last year, that guys that had 40 plus yard receptions and 50 plus yard receptions, he's by far and away the number one. Yeah. Yeah, he's a guy that gets over the top.

And it's not just because he's fast. He's a good route runner. I think he's a pain in the ass probably for most teams to deal with. But that's Sean's deal. But he's a good route runner, and he's fast. Get over the top and make plays for you. That was one of the guys in that particular draft that I really, really liked. I mean, I've gotten a lot wrong.

I love Josh Doxon in that particular draft, which was the worst draft in recent NFL history by one team. We already talked about the Devin Thomas, Fred Davis, Malcolm Davis, what was Malcolm's last name? I forget now. Malcolm Kelly and Fred Davis drafts. When they picked Devin Thomas and Fred Davis, they had a chance to draft Deshawn Jackson. and they didn't do it. Anyway, all right, I wanted to get, before I let you run for the day, I wanted to get your thoughts on Kenny Goliday and the deal he signed with the Giants. Good fit for Daniel Jones, bad fit.

They also signed John Ross, the guy that's never really amounted to much in Cincinnati. They signed him over the weekend as well. So you add that to what? Sterling Shepard, Evan Ingram. to sign Kyle Rudolph, which we talked about. They still have Darius Slayton, I think. And they're getting Sequin Barclay back. Every time I start to think about the Giants, I actually think they're really underrated going into next year.

But what do you think about the fit, Daniel Jones, Kenny Goliday, and the giant offense? I think it's a great fit. I think, here, if I have Daniel Jones and I want to give him a legit shot early in his career, then I better give him guys to have. have a shot with. If I believe in him, and I was the general manager that risked it and drafted him,

I'm going to build around him right now. Right now I'm going to build dudes around him. Yeah. And so I think Kenny Ghaladay is a big time receiver. We, we, that I think we understand. He's a true take the top off guy. He can run routes as good as 90% of guys in the lake. He's a good receiver.

Legit good. What's the best receiver coming out in front? agency as far as all around for good receivers better than alan robinson had he been available i would take alan robinson before i would take galaday but they're one a one b yeah but so yeah you give them sterling shepherd and dari slayton and if you're playing us austin mac i'm not sure what john ross is going to do john ross was the guy that ran like the four two at the combine remember a couple years go when they were going to give like a free island for some. I don't know.

They were going to give some John Ross was that guy that ran that speed. Man, Rudolph and Ingram, they're good on offense. They got weapons on offense. Yeah. And the thing is, is like, they drafted Andrew Thomas last year, the left tackle out of Georgia. They drafted Will Hernandez the year before, the guard. They got guys up front. They're building around Daniel Jones.

Giants should be okay. I think the conversation, and, you know, when Washington went Fitzpatrick, William Jackson, Curtis Samuel, right in a row on three consecutive nights, you know, our fan base got very excited. And, you know, I'm glad there's some expectations going into next year. I want it to be a little bit exciting. I'm really excited about Ryan Fitzpatrick. I really am. Like, I just have a feeling this is going to work. unless he just completely falls off the physical, you know, 39 years old,

loses everything in one off season. I just don't see that happening. I see a guy that potentially could be a solution next year and the year after, but that's beside the point. I'm excited about it, but at the same time, I think that people have gotten a little bit carried away, suggesting that Washington's like should be the favorite. They shouldn't be the favorite just because they won it last year.

That means nothing. They were seven and nine. And Dak Prescott didn't play for the Cowboys after week five. And if he had played for the Cowboys, it's my contention that the Cowboys, no matter how bad they were on defense, probably would have won the division, you know, and would have gotten to like eight and eight. Where did they finish? Did they finish seven and nine?

Did the Cowboys finish seven and nine? And the Giants finished six and ten? No, they both finished six and ten. No. Because the Cowboys lost that final game of the year to the Giants. Yeah. Right. Yeah, the Giants had a chance if Washington lost to Bill. That's right.

Right. So I think in this conversation, the Giants not even being mentioned is incorrect. Now, if you don't believe in them, then it's because you don't believe in Daniel Jones. And that's fine. And if you don't believe in Daniel Jones, then you think the Giants are where maybe you thought Washington was a couple of weeks ago, which was without, you know, an answer quarterback. Well, he's in, that's, I mean, if you don't believe he's somewhat of an answer, then you just. you're not with it. I agree with you. You're not hit. I don't think I'm going to sit here and suggest he's elite,

but he's more of an answer, more of an answer than what Washington had by miles. Yeah, I think so too. I totally think so. Now, right now, if you could flip, and we'd take Daniel Jones and they'd take Fitzpatrick and be in that position, I think we'd all take Daniel Jones. Oh, I don't think we all would.

I would because I actually think Daniel Jones has a chance to be a really good quarterback. Top half of the league starter. And by the way, he's super young. So I would definitely do that. I don't think everybody in our fan base would. But anyway. Okay. Well, the Giants beat us twice last year.

Beat them. Beat Washington twice last year. They did. They absolutely did. And in fact, the truth of the matter about the Giants last year is, you know, all of their losses were super, a lot of them were super competitive losses. Like they lost that Tampa Bay Monday night game on a terrible call on the two-point conversion. They blew an 11-point lead and lost to the Eagles on a Thursday night game.

They lost to the Cowboys when Dak got hurt and Dalton came in by a field goal at the gun. I remember early that year they lost to the Bears a chance to beat them. They had a lot of close losses last year. You know, they were definitely in the mix. Remember, they went to Seattle with Colt McCoy in one. Oh, that's another thing, and I wrote this down. Colt McCoy's career, I think, is going to end because they signed Mike Glennon. It won't end.

Who picks him up? He'll go somewhere. Okay. But it won't be New York. No, it doesn't look like it's going to be in New York. That's true. But I think he'll go somewhere. Last thing, I don't know if you saw this story, but I wanted to just bounce it off you real quickly.

So I saw this in pro football talk. The NFL is going to allow, they're considering a proposal to allow its replay booth to just make calls without challenges or without under two minutes. So if a pass is ruled incomplete on the field, they can immediately just go down to the field and tell the referees, they got it wrong, even before a coach's challenge, or in the final two minutes, it's going to the booth anyway. So this would be a pre-final two minutes. Do you like that or not? No.

Well, first of all, I like it being the booth that makes the decision. Well, then you do like it. And I like it being that the booth doesn't necessarily need to use the ruling on the field. I think that's ridiculous. I think you make the right call based on what's in the booth. I do think that in a regular game situation, a coach should have to challenge. Yeah, I like, I just don't want to slow the game down. Exactly.

That's what I don't want. Over and over and over. Here's my, here's a perfect example. The wrestling stuff. And I guess they had to make challenges in that, but God, it slows it down. I know. And there's all these challenges in the NCAA championships and one at the end. You're breaking up.

I don't know. I don't... Really? Yeah, your Zoom was breaking up. Just, you know what? You got to run. I got to run and I'm getting Murray on. So we're done.

We can have that conversation later in the week. Go do your thing today. I'll talk to you later. All right. Chris Cooley, everybody. Tim Murray, right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, this segment brought to you by MyBooky. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. at mybookie.orgie.

to secure a deposit bonus up to $1,000. Again, you've got to use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They've got all of the tournament games, lots of in-game action. I was involved in some in-game action over the past weekend. Obviously, tournament all day, tournament all next weekend, and beyond NBA, NHL, no matter the sport, no matter the minute, my bookie puts the action in your hands. With live in-game betting and with the choice of thousands, of lines, odds. You can turn any game day into payday. Bet anything anytime anywhere with MyBooky.

MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. as I've mentioned many times, one of the places you can trust. All right. Tim Murray is joining us. Tim is my friend. Tim works, of course, for Vizen, the Vizen Network, and he hosts 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern every night on radio stations all across the country and serious x-m or not i mean i forget can i get you on serious x-m no serious xm anymore but you could stream us for free uh we we we join the i heart family so okay um now you can stream us i if you have the i heart app you can stream us that way vson dot com all those there's plenty of ways to find us awesome um how many radio stations have picked up vison do you know i don't uh it's interesting we've been noticing uh some of these uh fox sports uh you know

regional networks or not regional networks affiliated stations like you were at esPN 980 there's fox sports whatever yeah um some of them are becoming fox sports the gambler and those stations are starting to pick us up so i don't know the exact number but uh it's growing and that's uh we just hired a a gentleman off of colin cowherd staff uh and uh he is running our radio side of things so uh yeah hopefully more and more as the time comes all right um we are going to talk a little bit about the weekend. And I'm going to have a couple of picks here shortly, and Tim will as well. I'm going to start with Maryland, and I wanted to do this with Tim, so I have somebody to converse with over the Maryland game. We'll touch on Georgetown a little bit in UVA. Actually, we can touch on

Georgetown real quickly. When the other team goes 16 of 25 from behind the arc, you're in trouble. You're in big trouble. The PAC 12, by the way, undefeated in this tournament right now. are having a time of it in this tournament. And it all started with UCLA in that playing game in the first four game against Michigan State. So I'll be honest with you. I did not watch the Virginia game because the Maryland game was on at the same time. So I was dialed into the Terps game. You and I both thought Ohio had a chance to beat Virginia.

I picked them in every single one of my brackets. And by the way, I don't even care about brackets. I care about the point spreads and wagering on these games. I did not give Ohio out as a smell test pick because the action was completely split on that game. There were a lot of people calling for that upset. I think the ACC had a worse weekend than even the Big Ten did. And so I just didn't think Virginia and watching them this year was that good. So I didn't watch it.

Did you watch that before we get to the Maryland-UCon game? Yeah, I watched that more than Maryland-Ukron game. because I had Ohio for a lot. A lot. Yeah. I mean, I gave it out. And I also, when I give out plays, I'm almost more invested in the money. Yeah, I agree.

I just, I want that to come home. And, you know, we did a segment on the nightcap on Monday. And me and my co-host said, what's the first bet that you made? And he said, North Texas, so that came home. And I said, Ohio. And then as the week went on to your point, it became, if not the trendiest, one of the trendiest dogs. And actually on Friday night, I faded the super trendy dog that was Winthrop.

I thought I thought it was a little too much love for Winthrop. And I took Villanova. They ended up covering that game. So I wasn't feeling great about my position because it just everybody was on Ohio. But ultimately, they really dominated that second half. And you hit on it when we were talking last week. Jason Preston, man, that is a fun dude to watch. He does a little bit of everything.

And you mentioned the story. They talked about it on the broadcast, almost had a triple double in that game. And then the kid that Tony Bennett's, that there was a kid on Ohio that his father named him after Tony Bennett. His name is Bennett Vanderplaz. And he's good. He had a couple big threes.

And yeah, to your point, we talked about it. And we don't have to relitigate. But, you know, for Virginia, I thought they had issues. they weren't as great defensively as they have been in recent years. And, you know, the COVID pause really hurt them. There's no doubt about it. I mean, they didn't practice really at all heading into this game while Ohio was running up and down on the court preparing for this game. So I know it was a popular dog and I ended up coming home and the dogs were eaten.

Oh, boy. And it's dogs were eaten. And I told Cooley, and it's just funny because you know me and we think a lot alike. And for me, I've never loved playing favorites. But when it comes to the smell test, if the favorite fits the criteria, I'll give out favorites. And there were more favorites yesterday and the day before that fit the smell test criteria. And I hated it. Like I tweeted out my picks on Saturday and I go, I hate playing favorites.

And I never feel good about it. But, you know, it's really funny. when I'm wrong, I want to be wrong on underdogs. I don't want to be wrong on favorites. And I was wrong. Like such a square. Exactly. Square if you're wrong on a favorite.

Yeah, there's no worse feeling when you, when you play a favorite, you tell people about it. And then, you know, they win by two or three. And yeah, if you're wrong on a dog, like, I was wrong on Wisconsin yesterday. And, yeah, I didn't feel great about it. But it was, I was a dog, you know. The dogs went six and two ATS yesterday, and I had one of the dogs that didn't cover. I gave out two, after going two and four on Saturday, with the two winners being two unders,

because the unders did damage throughout the, and they've done damage throughout the tournament. I don't even know what the number is right now in the unders, but it's pretty impressive. But I gave out four favorites and two unders. The two unders hit the four favorites lost. Yesterday, I come back, and I'm like, I hate to do this again. But Texas Tech is a sixth seed And they're favored over Arkansas And the world's on the underdog

And by the way, Florida is a nine-point favorite Over Oral Roberts after Oral Roberts beat Ohio State I felt really good about the Florida play I didn't feel as good about Texas Tech I shorted Texas Tech at the beginning of this tournament I watched him this year You know, they're good, they're well coached They're very tough defensively

But I thought there were too many nights Where they struggled to score And yesterday they must have missed 15 shots at the rim including the layup that would have forced overtime, which would have given me a shot. Anyway, on my own, I played Loyola. I played Wisconsin, and there was one other game I played yesterday. I played Rutgers. I played Rutgers as well.

So I went two and one on those other picks, but like you said, I would much rather be right. I feel like I forced it yesterday. You know, I played Loyola, but I also played Wisconsin, washed there. I played Rutgers, but I played, I had a couple money line parlays that got blown up, especially with Florida. I had Florida and Villanova in a money line parlay. That got blown up. I had West Virginia and it goes West Virginia and Villanova in a money line parlay. Obviously, that got blown up. So it wasn't a great day.

I did have a get back spot. I ended up taking the points with Oregon State, but I will tell you, I was with you on Texas Tech. I didn't play it because I love Arkansas. I like them too as a team. And I have them to come out of the region. We talked about it on the show, Kevin. Why was tech favored? Why were they favored?

I don't know. And it went in their direction. It went off two. Open one and a half. It went off two. Opened one and went to two. I saw one to two, which meant, you know, there was sharp action. I get a note, you know, late yesterday morning.

And there were multiple sides that, you know, some of the offshore guys that I know needed. They needed, they really needed Florida, which didn't surprise me with Oral Roberts being sort of a trendy underdog pick yesterday. That number was big, too. How did they piss that away? I don't know. They were up 11. You were up double digits on a 15 seed. And that goes back to what we talked about on Monday. Florida had no business being a seven. No business. That was the team I wanted Maryland to play. I'm glad they played Yukon, though. Now I am. I did tell you, and I told coolly earlier, but I did tell you about, you know, by the way, for those of you that'll say, Sheehan's got a problem.

Not really. We all have a problem to a certain degree. I'm very much. The most gambled on event. Exactly. And I love playing around with this, especially with some of these big underdogs on the money line. And I had a Maryland, Ohio, Abilene Christian three-team Money Line parley that was outrageous.

And, you know, Maryland and Ohio. went off at the same time. And so I hedged hard and bet Texas, you know, on the money line, which, you know, created a perfect scenario. I still, I still wanted Abilene Christian because it was a bigger payoff. But anyway, um, can we, I know, I know we're in, you know, we're, we're, we're look ahead mode, but I, the offensive execution from Texas in that game was one of the more embarrassing things I've ever witnessed. They were, they should be a, they played like absolute dog shit in that game. I mean, Usually kept when you see these types of upsets, right, when you see a 14 B to 3, the 14 plays out of their mind.

They can't miss. Abilene Christian as a team in a 14 over 3 upset shot under 30% from the field and 16% from 3, but they turned Texas over 23 times. 23 times. It's funny that you mentioned that game because Abilene Christian's offense was also horrendous. I mean, horrendous. They had possessions at the end of that game that were just flat out lucky, shots that went up that I have no idea how they went in. That game, by the way, Kevin, was not a good game.

It was fun ending. It was a terrible. It was a terrible. Terrible. But I'll tell you what, nobody got schooled more than Brad Underwood did. yesterday because I like Brad Underwood and I think he's done a terrific job at Illinois. But Porter Moser and I had Gary Williams on the radio show this morning and you can go listen to that at the Team 980.com or on the radio.com app. Gary just said that's the best coach team he

saw all weekend long and he knew it because he's sort of followed them going back to you know Cameron Cruttwig's freshman year when they went to the final four. And Brad Underwood had there were multiple things. Defensively he could not guard all of their action. And I said to Gary, you know, in that situation where you are struggling so much and they are getting layups and wide open shots. And by the way, their talents underrated, okay? You can't look at their team and say, well, they have no talent. They're just really well coached.

That's not true. They have some talent. And Cameron Cruttwig, he may not be an NBA player, but he'll play overseas if he wants to. He's about as high IQ, as high IQ a big dude as you will see. And they ran their offense through him at the high post. You just don't see that much. You don't see teams do it that much. But what I was going to say is that you either get into a situation,

and I know you can't do it because you're using a big on the floor, where you switch every screen to keep from getting people downhill for layups and you keep losing people on back doors, or you go zone. And I know it's hard to go zone against the team. they can really shoot it. But they were lost, and then they constantly offensively. I've not seen a team play ball screen defense as well as Loyola Chicago did yesterday. My God, off that ball screen, they chased DeSumo or Curbello out.

Curbello dribbled the air out of the ball and pretty much the game away. He was a disaster. And you cannot do that when you're getting, when you have a team that's playing ball defense the way they were playing it. There's so many things to do. You can, first of all, you can go inside out, which is what they should have done. They should have just gone, you know, instead of running screens with the ball handler, gotten the ball to the post and then played off the post.

Because both of those guys are actually not bad passers. They really, really were lost. And then they get tight. You know, these games, these one and done games, man, when you're the heavy favorite, and all of a sudden you can't figure the team out. And now you're down and you're down double digits. It snowballs and you get incredibly tight. And now it's like, oh, my God, we're going to lose.

And then, you know, once that sets in, you're in deep effing trouble. You know, Ohio State should not have lost that game to Oral Roberts. They had two possessions up four late in the game and had two terrible turnovers. And miss free throws, a ton of free throws, which really hurt them as well. Texas deserved to lose that game. I don't think Ohio State deserved to lose that game as much as they did. And Purdue, the truth is, is North Texas was really good in that game. And then they got blown out by a team that could not miss in Villanova.

Let me get to the Maryland game before we look forward, because I want to quickly recap Maryland's very impressive win over Yukon. A game, Tim, that Maryland totally deserved to win. And it was an odd game because it had one of the oddest first half box scores you will ever see. Yukon had 18 offensive rebounds in a half. They had 18 offensive rebounds at halftime, yet they were 9 of 39 from the floor. How many times do you see a team miss 30 shots and a half? Well, Maryland, they didn't rebound well for the first 10 minutes of the game.

And the opening possession, there were five offensive rebounds before Yukon made a three. But my God, does Maryland play incredible perimeter defense? And then they front the post and they switch every screen, and Hurley didn't have any answers. And Marilyn was totally dialed into Book Knight. First of all, they were switching every screen. When they didn't screen for them, they were helping and cutting down every single possible lane. Turgeon and his staff owned Hurley, and his Hurley, for the most part, admitted it after the game. He's like, we just didn't have an answer for their switching

every screen five, you know, five positionless guy defense. Well, you got to have an answer for that. You had big guys. You could have put book night on the post because he can play on the post. Marilyn's defense was exceptional. Offensively, what's really interesting about Maryland, Tim, they can have bad and very rough offensive nights. But they have capable shooters. Wiggins is a streaky but very capable shooter. Iyala was sensational the other night and it keeps getting better and better and they wouldn't be in this position without Iyala's play. He is such a patient, crafty, scoring point guard. Dante Scott can shoot it. Hakeem Hart can shoot it. Jarius Hamilton off the bench can shoot it. And they made 9 of 18. And when Maryland makes their shots,

they're really hard because they make it so difficult for you on the other end. I thought Iyalla was sensational. I thought Morsell was once again sensational. Danny Hurley called him one of his favorite players in the country, and he is the heart and soul of them. There was a key stretch in the first half where Ayala went to the bench with two fouls, and Maryland at that point was up 28 to 19, and there was about four and a half to go.

I thought it was a real crucial, crucial stretch for them. They only scored five points. They missed a layup and they missed a couple free throws, but they took that nine point lead and extended it to 11. I thought that was a huge spot in the game. They got lucky that Yukon missed some free throws because Yukon could have made it more interesting at the end and put more pressure on Maryland at the end. Bottom line is they were better in every phase of the game, and they were much better from the bench. I'm sorry to do that to all of you that love to bash Turgeon and anybody like me that supports Turgeon.

But you ask any coach, you don't have to take my word for it. The dude knows what he's doing. He's gotten better, and he schooled Hurley the other night, schooled him. And Marilyn moves on. Look, Yukon didn't have a lot of experience. Turgeon talked about that. He said, that's a really good team, but they, you know, they're playing in their first tournament game, as Yukon sort of has come back here.

Booknight is a potential lottery pick. They completely shut him down. Now, as far as tonight goes, I said that the winner of this game was going to give Alabama trouble. The key to this whole game tonight is pace, pace, pace, Maryland's 336th out of 347 in offensive possessions per game, and Alabama's 13th. Alabama wants to run.

They want to turn you over and run. run. They want to take it off the glass and run. Maryland has met, you know, it's face teams like that. Michigan State's a team like that, but this Bama team has much more talent than Michigan State does this year. And somehow Maryland's got to do what Iona did, which is slow them down, frustrate them, turn them over a little bit, and then Marilyn's going to have to make shots. It's a tough matchup for Maryland, but paces everything, and it's harder to speed up a team than it is to slow down a team. And Maryland is not a team that gets sped up very easily.

And so if this game ends up in the 60s, like that, Oklahoma, remember when Oklahoma beat Alabama and that Big 12 SEC thing this year, Timmy, and they slowed him down? And Lon Kruger does such a good job as a coach, and he slowed him down and he beat him 6661. That's the formula right there. They can go to the Oklahoma formula from earlier this year. I don't think Oklahoma is a great team by any stretch of the imagination. That's what they got to do.

Somehow they got to slow them down and win a game, you know, 66, 61, something like that. You know, where Bama turns it over a bunch, they had 16 turnovers in the Oklahoma game. They didn't get, you know, they shot it okay in that game from behind the arc, but it was a pace game controlled by Oklahoma. I looked it up last night. The scored halftime was 32 to 29. That's the kind of game. Marilyn's going to win.

Do you think they can do it? I do. I'm not a big, I'm not a huge believer in Alabama. I feel like, I wouldn't say fools gold by any stretch. I think Nate Oates is a really good coach. I just get worried. You know how it is in the NCAA tournament. And the same goes with almost all sports.

You know, you think about all the years that the cap struggled in the postseason, right? They were this high-flying great offensive team, and then it gets tightened up in the playoffs. NBA, same way. You know, the Phoenix Suns never won a title. Now, if Steve Nash doesn't get thrown into the scores table and the suspension's cut, whatever,

but they never won it, right, with Dan Tony. Now, I feel like there's something similar with this Alabama team who is so reliant on the three. You have one, look, I think could Alabama win this game by 15 or 20 because they're just red hot from three? Absolutely. That could totally happen. But if you made me pick it, I don't know if I'm going to bet this game.

I've thought about taking the points with Maryland. I see a six out there. I think the public's going to be all over Alabama in this. So I think there might be an opportunity to grab some points with Maryland. And I was really impressed. I think, you know, obviously Michigan ultimately pulled away from them. But you think about how that first half went, how they played against Michigan State, how they played against Yukon.

They've been playing some good basketball here. I know there was the Northwestern and Penn State. loss, but it does feel like Maryland, if they have the right game plan and they can and they can bottle up defensively, I think this could be a good one for Maryland. And you look at that total 138 and a half, it seems a little bit high because if they're able to dictate the the style of play, then I think Maryland has a chance to not only cover, but get the under in this as well. So yeah, that's the way I would look at this game. It would be Maryland or pass for me. I wouldn't lay the points with Alabama. Yeah, I, um, the thing that worries.

me is that they've played teams that are super athletic, super talented, and want to get up and down the floor. Now, they beat Illinois, but I would put Michigan and Iowa up more in that category of teams that can really score and can really shoot it. And Maryland didn't do well against Michigan or Iowa. Now, they were much better against Michigan in the Big Ten tournament, and they had a 12-point lead when Morsel went to the bench and that was a big blow. But I think that it's a tough matchup for Maryland. But I think, you know, in these tournament games, and you saw it even with Alabama against Iona, look, that was like a two-point game, you know, deep into the second half. They took, so did you see what Rick Petino did in that? He took away the three. He said,

you're not shooting three. Yeah. They shot, I think for their, I think Alabama averages almost like 33 point attempts a game. They shot 16 against Iona. They said, no. And they turned it over and missed a bunch free throws. Yeah, they went five of 16 from three. They had 14 turnovers.

They only shot 13 to 23 from the free throw line. So I almost feel like the blueprint is out there of how to beat Alabama or keep it close. and Rick Petino put it out all on display. It was a one point game at half. You know, Alabama is so much more talented. Niona is not a very deep team. So I think if you just do that, you say, look, you're going to beat us from inside.

You're not going to take these threes. And if you slow down the pace, I think it plays into Maryland's hands. You know, that's the ultimate thing. And that's why going back to a game on Friday afternoon where a trendy dog was Colgate and they started out great, but you're not going to beat Arkansas playing their game. If you're going to win this game, you play your game, you dictate the pace.

You do what Iona did, and you're just more talented than Iona, and you can keep this game close to maybe pull the outright upset. I look a little bit more to Oklahoma and Tennessee more than Iona. I hear what you're saying. Tennessee, like Maryland, was a team that at times had games in which they really struggled to score, but they always defended this year. And in that tournament game, in the SEC tournament, they had a huge lead against Bama.

I want to say it was 15 points early in the second half. And Bama came back and they came back because they got super hot and they started to turn Tennessee over and get – that's the thing is they want to turn – Alabama's underrated defensively. They can really – they can really guard. You know, they've got guys – they've got two pros without question. and, well, they definitely have one in Herb Jones. But Shackleford and Petty are both really good, and they're rangy, and they can turn you over,

and they want to turn you over, and if they turn you over, it's going to be two passes, one dribble, and a dunk, or a spot-up, you know, killer three in transition, where you can, if you can frustrate them and you don't turn the ball over, and by the way, you play great transition defense, which is, you know, one of the great things, things about watching these games during the pandemic is you can hear the coaches. Turgeon has been for two months. They don't send anybody to the offensive glass and they're going to get back on defense almost Virginia-esque in the way they do not want to give up anything in transition. Well, that's fine when you get a shot up. But if you turn the ball over on the perimeter,

you're not getting back on defense against Bama. It's going to turn into real ugliness. so you can't turn the ball over, but you can turn over Alabama with Maryland's defense, and that can frustrate them. And bottom line, I'm telling you, this game is going to be all about pace. You know, this thing has to be 33, 29, and halftime, and we got to get to like the under eight and like, you know, where it's 59, 47, 52, 50, something. like that. Because if not, you know, they could easily get blown out. Alabama has blown, I'm not playing this game, by the way, either. There's sharp action on Alabama. I think the

public will be on Bama, but I'm not playing this game. I'm not playing it. I've watched Bama enough to know that it can get ugly quickly. Like, they have really hammered people, some decent teams, too. Like, they beat LSU by 30. You know, they beat Arkansas back in January. right they also lost Arkansas I was all over that they beat Georgia badly they beat Mississippi State badly they the Tennessee comeback was electrifying to watch they were down 15 in that game in the second half and it's funny I was watching that game because I had a sense that that could be a second round game for Maryland paces everything these teams I can remember when Maryland's been on the side of being the team that you had to slow down a lot

the Gary teams. You had to slow them down. You know, you couldn't let them get out and start running or it was going to be a dunk show and you were going to get blown out of the building, you know, and Maryland's now on the flip side of that with Bama. They got to really figure out how to get the game to their pace. All right. Yeah, a couple of things real quick, and I'll wrap it up here. But yeah, you mentioned defense. I mean, this, they turn you over 21% of your possessions are turnovers against Alabama. So, you know, this is a team that everyone takes offense.

They're better defensively per the metrics. They're second in the country in defense. But you look at the games they've lost, Kevin, 64, 56, 71, 61, 656. Those, there's six losses. They have only scored in the 70s one time. So if you get them out of their game, that's where, you win and that's what maryland as you've pointed out needs to be this name game need in order for maryland to win i would say there's almost a like 95% certainty this game goes under if maryland can

win in regulation yeah agreed um what was your favorite part of the weekend give me your favorite moment or two and you know a favorite player or two oh how about the uh i got i can forget his name i have to look it up real quick the big boy from uh eastern washington who was just training threes. Yeah. He had 35 in that game. They had a big lead. They had a big lead.

Yeah, they had a big lead. Yeah, he was, he was a, uh, certainly a guy that, um, that I, that was, that was tremendous. Um, uh, favorite part of the weekend, I would say, you know, the execution we saw from Loyola was, was unbelievable. Um, and, you know, if, if, if, if we're hoping for the two. two best teams in the country to play. What we saw yesterday from Baylor should remind you how good Baylor is. Because this is the way they were playing, Kevin, in February or January before the COVID

pause. Since the COVID pause, they really haven't been themselves. I felt like on Sunday they were themselves. Now, Wisconsin made a little bit of a run there, but it just reminded me with Butler and Mitchell and mayor coming off the bench. I mean, they got dudes all over the place. They're incredibly athletic. And Gonzaga looked like Gonzaga in the first round against Norfolk State.

No surprise there. But I think if a teams to be Gonzaga, it would be Baylor. And I think they looked apart very much so on Sunday. So I didn't like it because I had Wisconsin. But ultimately, you know, that was that was something that that jumped out at me. over the weekend. So I didn't see a lot of Baylor early in the season. And then really when I started to catch Baylor,

it was more after the pause. And I, you know, I saw him enough, but not just a lot. I'd seen a lot more of Gonzaga, Michigan, and I was very much for the first half of the college basketball season, a believer in both of those teams. Michigan, I'm less of a believer now. Livers, the loss of him is a massive loss. But watching Baylor yesterday against Wisconsin, you know, Wisconsin played about as well as they

could play. They missed a lot of looks early, which would have, I think, kept the game a little bit tighter. Davidson couldn't have anything. Yeah. Now, the thing about Baylor, and I tweeted this out, and, you know, some of you thought it was blasphemous. And I understand what you're saying, because trust me, I personally believe that the UNLV teams of 90 and 91 are the greatest college basketball teams I've seen. I think the Larry Johnson,

Stacey Ogman, Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt teams were just the best combined offensive and defensive teams. And I think the 91 team in particular, the 90 team also was phenomenal. I think the 91 team that went undefeated before losing to Duke in the semifinals is truly one of the great teams that I have ever seen in college basketball. I love those teams of UNLV. And Baylars, the way they play is very similar to the way UNLV played back then under Tark. It all starts with their defense. Their perimeter defense in particular is just incredible. And Wisconsin has really good perimeter players, and they run really good stuff, and they just could not get looks. And Davison, who's been a great college player, just got muscled around by men.

a grown man game against an old team, by the way, in Wisconsin. But I really enjoyed watching Baylor, and I have a hard time believing, to be honest with you, that Baylor is going to lose to Villanova. Now, Baylor, Arkansas, Elite 8 game would be a lot of fun to watch. But they really, really look good. And part of me thinks, you know, we're just headed, we're headed now for a Baylor-Gonzaga final. I sort of feel that way. But it's this tournament. It's nuts. Who knows? I agree with you on Baylor. Loyola Chicago was a pleasure to watch on every sense of it. I love Cameron Cruttwig. I just think big guys like that with great hands, great feet, great vision, great IQ. And by the way, real toughness to him. I just loved watching that team. And that was a, that was not just because

of the coaching staff or the IQ. Loyola's got good players, too. And they were a good team, and you and I both talked about Loyola and Georgia Tech being underseated. By the way, you know, I felt like Illinois got screwed with the draw and having to face either one of those two teams in the second round. But anyway, I really enjoyed watching that team. And then, you know, the moment, there were.

couple of really poor, poor gag meltdown moments. Nothing worse than Rutgers yesterday. Rutgers had that game won. That game was over. And Pichael, who's done a really good job, basically stopped playing. They had an eight-point lead with three-something left. They had an 11-point lead or whatever. They could Miles Johnson missed a layup, missed a dunk, had a ball that, a key possession where all he had to do was throw it off the guy who was out of bounds as he was falling out of bounds and totally whipped and missed him. It was such a bad meltdown by Rutgers. I give Houston credit, but to me that was much more about Rutgers than anything else. I'll give you one more, Kevin, that kind of made me, it was a nice moment.

We've talked about Abilene Christian and Texas in the finish and how it really was not a well-played game. but the kid, Joe Pleasant, steps to the line. It's a bad free throw shooter. And you're just, how many times we've seen it? The underdog steps to the line, two free throws down one, brick, brick, game over. Favorite wins, devastation for the underdog. That young man is never going to live those down. But he stepped to the line like a cool as a cucumber, bang, bang, and game over.

So that was a pretty cool moment for a guy who, uh, let's just say has had his issues from the free throw line in his personal experience. Yeah. To see him do that, that was awesome. That was a really cool moment. And it was nice for you, too, because, you know, you won your money like parley. Yeah, it was huge. When he went to the, first of all, you know, the shot they got was terrible.

The shots they got down the stretch were all terrible. And then the ball bounces backwards and he tries to flip it up on the tap. And they called the foul. And it was a foul. It was a foul. The other game, I just can't. I can't believe that, you know, Chris Beard's really been, I mean, elevated to a level in college coaching because of the run that they had and the loss in the championship game to Virginia. I think he's a really good coach. Don't get me wrong. But like this isn't the genius of all geniuses.

That team, they really defend and they really play hard and they're really physical. That Texas Tech Arkansas game was one of the most entertaining games of the first, you know, round and a half. here. It was a football game played on a basketball court. Texas Tech missed, first of all, McClung missed a key front end of a one-on-one, and then they missed no less than 15 to 20 shots within five feet of the basket during that game. It was so frustrating, and then they had to lay up at the end that would have forced overtime, and the guy didn't even come close, didn't even come close. Now, he had a timeout, he didn't burn the time out to set up anything, and they got something good, but they had a 28% three-point shooter taking big shots at the end on those

possessions, which he knocked down a bank shot and then knock one down from the corner, and they were huge in the run, but somehow I have to think that that's not exactly what they were looking for. I was disappointed in their ability to score more and to get the right guys, the shots, whether it was Shannon or McClung. And Syracuse's performance from long range, with Gerard, who, by the way, I didn't know this until yesterday. He averaged 50 as a junior in high school and tailed off to 48.5 as a senior. That's unbelievable. His bombs, he and buddy Beheim, Bayheim set the mark for most three-pointers in the first two games of a tournament.

Beheim's got some balls, man. That kid doesn't give a fuck. He just goes out there and just shoots. And, you know, when West Virginia was making their comeback and took the lead. It was Beheim who said, I got this for good. It just came down, bang, three in your eye hole as Dan Pelt was. And it really, I mean, I love Huggins. I've always loved Huggins. They just gave up too many shots. Like, you can't allow in this day and age guys like Gerard and Beheim. Once they cross half court, you got to be up in them because you can be up in them. They're not going to go buy you very easily. You just can't give them those look.

And it just always surprises me, man. Always surprises me. I talked to Gary about this this morning. I just don't understand why teams struggle so much with Syracuse's two three. Nine and two. I know. Double-digit seed. It's insane.

I think there are two things for me as a youth basketball coach, which I have to qualify. But as a long time, you know, coach and I've coached high school, et cetera. There are two things that drive me nuts in college basketball. basketball. I think too many teams run shitty zone offense, and I don't think zone offense is very hard. And then I just can't believe how many teams struggle to get the ball in bounds against full court man-to-band pressure. I just don't understand that. There are so many teams that just basically say, get open with their athletes. That's no way to handle the end of a game, have to get the ball. Syracuse nearly, they couldn't get the ball in bounds. Now, Syracuse did run some shit.

Florida in their opener, who did they beat in their first game? Virginia Tech. They ran stuff at the end of regulation. They had two turnovers on inbound plays. They didn't run anything. It's like, all right, here's what we're going to do, guys. Get open. You can't do that. When teams are pressuring, especially if they don't have somebody on the ball, you know, and they got somebody in the middle of the floor, you've got to run some creative shit to get the ball open. It drives me nuts. And zone offense, man, you're not going to run good zone offense if the ball's dribbled to its exhaustion period.

You've got to move the ball. The ball has to be passed and reversed many times. and against the 2-3, short-corner, high-post-middle. You just have to figure out how to reverse it and get it to the middle or the short corner. You know who ran the best zone offense against Syracuse's 23? And by the way, the teams that see it a lot, you know, they're Big East counterparts for many years. And I don't even know about the ACC anymore. Except West Virginia.

Yeah, except for West Virginia. Georgetown, JT3 was a really good zone offense guy. incredibly. And Patrick, I've watched them play Syracuse in their, you know, annual. They run really good zone offense. Tony Bennett runs good zone offense. It's really, it's amazing how many teams struggle with that. And I do think that has something to do with Syracuse struggles in the ACC. They were, what, in the 8-9 game. Yeah, they won the 8-9 game and then they lost to Virginia. And then they, you know, they face teams that just don't know what to do with it. Like they kicked San Diego State's ass in the first round. All right. Let's finish up this show with picks. All right. Try to get this show up and out because I think people are going to be watching games all day. I've got a couple of plays today and then I'll let you. You know what? You go first.

Give me your plays today. All right. Fortunately, if people are listened to it, they are night games. I've got two. And as soon as this line came out, I tweeted out on Saturday, Kevin. I said, LSU is going to be suspiciously low on. on Monday against Michigan. And what did it come out as?

Five. Boom. I think this LSU team, I'm curious to get your thoughts, but I think LSU, Kevin, has the athletes to keep up with, with Michigan. I mean, Cam Thomas and Trenton Watford,

those dudes are, those are pros. I mean, they're big, they're long. And I didn't ultimately play them against St. Bonaventure. I was kicking myself because I like the Bonnies. However,

you just knew there was just another, level of athlete that they can throw at you. So you give me five points, especially with no Isaiah livers. I'll take the points. There was actually a point yesterday at pop five and a half. That's come back down. It's pretty much five across the board. So I like LSU. I think they could win this game outright against Michigan. So I do like LSU plus the five. And then a game that seems to be getting a little bit of of sharp action. I'm actually seeing Kansas as a favorite offshore. But I like USC tonight against against Kansas. Now, Kansas will be. get Jalen Wilson back. He had been in COVID protocols. He did not play against Eastern Washington.

He will be in uniform tonight. The reason I like USC in this spot, Kevin, is they've got the size to essentially eliminate David McCormick. And when Kansas has made this run where they started to play better, a lot of it had to do from the postplay of David McCormick. He had 22 and 9 against Eastern Washington. But you look at USC. They've got Evan Mobley, who is a Top five pick who is a stud, 17 and 11 against Drake. And then they've got his twin brother, Isaiah, who's just an inch shorter, not as talented, but still very good. So I think the Mobley brothers can cause some issues.

They combine Kevin to average four blocks a game. And then Taj Edie has, he really played well against Drake too. So I think it's, as we would say, it's a little interesting that a six is a favorite over a three. So I like USC tonight in the late night game to be Kansas. A lot of what you said, I think I will be on personally, but not a lot of it really, some of it's close. But the smell test today, I'm sticking with, you know, a formula, you know. You got to hit 16 against the 10 guys. It's painful.

Even when you've lost, had a couple of losing days in a row, the smell test is 9 and 9, started off 7 and 3 through Thursday and Friday. Creighton is a major anti-public side, and they're a favorite. And I really liked Creighton the other day, and they did not get it done against UCSB. And they're a favored, their five-and-a-half-point spot right now against the team that beat Virginia the other day in Ohio. So I really do like Creighton. The public is all over a dog again. This has been an interesting couple of days. The public loves favorites.

They love overs. But the favorites, they've loved a lot of dogs here. And they love Ohio catching five and a half against Creighton. I like Creighton laying five and a half. And you're just not going to see Gonzaga very often a favorite by less than 20. and they're 14 and a half against Oklahoma, and the public thinks it is a short number. So finally a dog after two days worth of favorites.

But I like Oklahoma plus the 14 and a half. I think that Lon Kruger for me has been one of the best coaches in college basketball over a long period of time. He has won basically everywhere he's been. You know, you go back to Florida. He took a Florida team to the final four. He was at K-State before that one. He was at Illinois for a few years.

This guy has won. UNLV for several years, took that program back to some prominence. And he's been in Oklahoma for a while now. It's like I looked up Tad Boyle the other day. I had no idea that he had been at Colorado for 10 years. Lon Kruger at Oklahoma has basically had his team in the tournament every single year at Oklahoma. I don't love the Oklahoma team. watched them enough. I don't think that they're, you know, loaded, have a lot of talent.

And Harmon is out too, which is a bummer. Yep, and they've gotten the most out of them. But that line is short for a Gonzaga game, and it wouldn't surprise me if Oklahoma gives Gonzaga a test today. I don't see him winning the game, but I'll take Oklahoma plus the 14.5, Creighton minus the five and a half. I really considered Southern Cal. There's some sharp money on Kansas, and I actually, I mean, beyond that, I actually think Kansas has a chance to make a run here. I very much considered Colorado today catching a short number against Florida State, and I consider your LSU as well. I also very much considered Abilene, which is a major anti-public side today against UCLA, but I did, and this is why I waited for the smell test, I did get some word

that there's an expectation that that line could move up a little bit between now and their tip time at 5.50. I like Kevin, I'll throw this out there, and I know it's two favorites, but I'm with you on Creighton. I was on them against UCSB, and they kind of fell apart down the stretch. Probably should have lost that game. But I think a Creighton, UCLA, Moneyline Parlay, you can get that for a little plus money. To me, that's an intriguing play today. I actually just fired on it. So I think, you know, once again, we saw, you know, a 15 win yesterday, a 12 win yesterday, and 11.

But normally when these big, high-seated teams, 13, 14, 15s get through, they get smoked in the second round. And we saw that with North Texas. They got their ass kicked by Villanova. Yeah. Well, that's always been sort of a trend, which is why I wasn't, you know, thrilled about having favorites this weekend. But we see that a lot in the tournament. But that first game, people are tight. You know, the arenas are weird, which they are, you know, across the board this year anyway. Like Oregon's playing their first game because of the VCU situation today. I really think that Iowa's got a chance, but it doesn't fit like maybe a chance to really unload.

By the way, the whole world's on that over. But there's a lot of sharp money on the over too. That game's about to start in like 15 minutes, so I don't think anyone's going to hear this. Exactly. But they'll be able to hear it in. Retrospect. The whole world's on the over. I almost gave out the under, but there's too much sharp money. That total opened at 145. And it's up to 148 right now is what I'm looking at, I think. Yeah. I'm seeing 150. Yeah. Wow. Let's see what I could play it live right now.

149 and a half. Yeah. Yeah, I see some offshore stuff. Yeah. All right. Thanks for doing this. All right, Kevin. Yep. Anytime. All right, everybody. That's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.