The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anything Goes Friday! Rockets Take Down Hornets, Tim Legler & Kelvin Sampson Join

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Anything Goes Friday! Rockets Take Down Hornets, Tim Legler & Kelvin Sampson Join 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Thanks, town. Good morning, and welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross from New York City. This is Sports Talk 790. Gotta move out. Come on, Gordy. You should be doing a parody of this. Oh, I cannot wait for Toro Town.

as we hope you guys are in a and ladies too are in a fantastic move for an anything goes Friday. On the Matt Tomlin show with Ross, Sports RV. How the hell are you? I'm doing fantastic, Matthew. Rockets got a victory. Yes. You try to get another one tomorrow. Yes. Anything goes Friday.

Life is good. Yeah, we got a lot of good stuff going on today. We've got a couple of interesting people joining us on the show today, which will feature. I'm sorry, he's at 1130, looking forward to that. That's where you get to basically apologize for all the terrible things you've done over the course of the week. Me? No, I'm not talking about you exclusively.

I'm talking about the general city of Houston, Texas. We'll wake up the strippers today at 12 noon. Tim Legler will be on the call tomorrow night on ABC for the Rockets and Knicks, a former three-point champion, and a longtime ESPN analyst and is now in the game role, and he's been awesome.

I have really, I've always respected, that his opinion as an analyst. He was on with Scott Van Pelt out during sports centers and he said, you know what, let's put you in the booth and he did it. He's done a great job. So we'll talk to him coming up at 1230. We have Florida stories today at 120. That's right.

Florida stories, because the rule is, if any of us are in the state of Florida for any length of time that week, we get to go to the lowest of lowest hanging. And of course is what that crazy things happen in the Sunshine State. And then we've got Kelvin Sampson at 1.30 today to talk about our Houston Cougars taking on the Arizona Walcats.

I have a friend of ours, Ross, and he's a friend of yours as well. Okay. It is trying to sell his tickets. Okay. I've heard the market is quite lucrative. I have heard that as well. I don't know if it's gone up a little bit since then, but I'm going to safely say in the history of the Fortita Center, I don't remember tickets going for as much as they are going for. Now, Arizona's lost a little bit. They've dropped two of their last.

three. So they're not nearly as, say, sexy as they were maybe two weeks ago, but they're still excellent. And so I don't even know what the tickets are. We can certainly check on that. But yeah, this will be probably one of the highest price tickets ever to see a Houston Cougar basketball game ever, for that matter, especially inside the Fortita Center. Wow.

Amazing. I can hear the energy and the excitement. Man, I'm over the moon. Yeah, it's a good game. Big game. Big game. Got a big basketball day. We've got the Cougars during the day and then the Rockets of Knicks here

in New York City tonight. By the way, can we go back to West Palm Beach? It was, what, 75 and Breezy? It's nice. It's nice in Houston, too. It's 33 degrees in raining here in New York City. I think it says 72 and Pleasant here in Houston.

Oh, you can go get you 18 holes in now for the show today? Probably not. No, maybe nine. We're close to Memorial. That's true. Get the Twilight. Get the Twilight rates.

Yeah. You're going to walk or you're going to actually get a cart. Come on now. I don't have anything to prove to anybody. That's true. That is true. All right. Thoughts about last night. Kevin Durant quickly forgets about burners and all that when you score 35 points, correct? Yeah. People were jumping on the rockets and when they got down nine in the first quarter. Teams falling apart. Look at the burner air. Post-burder error. They're down nine in one quarter. Well, they rally back in one. So you can, you know, try to write your narratives and want to jump on them that they're going to fall apart and crumble because of some random burner story that may or may not be true, but also didn't have a denial from Kevin Durant. But you know what? Whatever he wants to do off the floor, I'm okay with it because on the floor, he saved the Rockets Bacon last night. He was awesome.

Not only did he score 35. He went on a fourth quarter terror by himself. And then you look at the box score. 14 of 20. He missed six shots. He took 20 of them. He also had three block shots, I think, in the first quarter by himself. Yes.

37-year-old, now granted, a lot of us supposed to be productive at 37. I certainly was. Ross, I mean, you were okay for 37. I mean, I was co-hosting by then. That's cool. Major market sports radio co-host. It's good. Absolutely.

36 minutes last night for Katie, 14 and 20. 2 of 4 from 3, 35 points, 4 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 block shots, and 1 turnover in 36 minutes of play, especially that's a nice bounce back after 8 in the Rockets' previous game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Yeah, Alpern-Singoon and Amin Thompson combined for 9 of 24, both, and they combined for 0 of 6 from 3. So, I mean, earlier in the season, I was saying it was a big 3. It was a big one last night. Kevin Durant, they do not win that game without him. Yeah, I thought the bench played pretty well.

I thought Doreenfinishman had a good night. I thought James Contauntate was very productive. Encouraged. Reed Shepard's three-point shooting wasn't great. But, man, did you see that where he was musseling up Ryan Calkbrenner on that layup? Seven foot one. I was like, who is this guy? He just pulled a LeBron James bully move layup where you shove the guy out of the way

and then just lay the ball in softly. I got news for you. For those of you don't know, Ryan Culk Brenner is a second round pick. He's a starting center right now. for the Charlotte Hornets. He's made more starts than any second round pick in this NBA draft. So obviously there's value in him. He's seven foot two, but let's just say he's the most muscular thing in the world, Ross.

No, he's not, but I still, Reed Shepherd's not the most muscular thing in the world either. I know. But they were pushing him around, and they have pushed him around. And in fact, I think one of Jabari's blocks last night, maybe his only one was at a Colk Brenner shot. So, yeah, good win for the Rockets last night. It's way more respectable than, say, they were in the last couple of years. Now, they may still be on the outside looking for any sort of deep playoff run.

They're 26 and 30, but they played well. They have 1-9 of their last 11. One of those losses is coming at the hands of the rockets. Good crowd last night, good energy, good start of the second half of the season. And Kevin Durant continues to defy age. And he now has, and I pulled up the e-I-didn't, I clipped the email. I want to make sure to get this right. You know, we talk about all the number of 20-point games he's had in his career.

The number of 30-point games are absolutely spectacular as well, as I can tell you right now, that Kevin Durant has the sixth most 30-point games in NBA history. He is two behind Kobe Bryant for fifth. He tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last night with his 35 points. Wow. I like how every time we bring up stuff he's done doing, it's like Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I mean, Wilt Chamberlain. It's crazy.

And he's living, breathing in a rocket uniform. It's awesome. It's not like he's beating up a record set by, I don't know, Lou Williams. You know what I mean? Hey, Lou Williams puts a perspective on Lou's name now. That's true. Atlanta wouldn't have the popular wing scene if not for Lou Williams.

That's, well, no, those wings have been legendary for some time. That'd be so, maybe so. But needless to say, every time he beat, he does something new, he's putting himself in another an amazing rarefied air group and to do what he did yesterday was just absolutely spectacular and it's fun to watch and the Rock it's going to win

and then take out of a Knicks team tomorrow who got their butts be pretty bad last year and last time here at the Garden by the Detroit Pistons so needless say I put on ESPN this morning and your future presidential nominee for the Democratic Party Stephen A. Smith is upset because the

Knicks are 0 and 3 against the Detroit Pistons this year. You know what I'm putting my on it. That's not happening. I hope for the good of America. No chance. No way. No how. I mean, it's been a clown show for, I don't know, quite some time now. Our entire existence? And it feels like it's gotten progressively worse.

Yeah. I mean, look, President, you know, and I'm not going to actually do this today. I'll just say, please. I've been liars and grifters for quite a long time. I'd like to have some decent candidates, but we're still in search of that. But Stephen A. ain't one of them. Okay Teddy Roosevelt

The last great candidate Oh I was going to go with Leonard Fillmore A Millard Fillmore Come on whatever Same difference I always thought you were a Zachary Taylor guy

Who is he Is he a linebacker for the Dolphins? Is that who that is? Yes All right If you would like to join us Today is your day It's an anything goes Friday

By the way So make sure We on? Yes, of course Okay so I want to make sure Come on Never know. You never know sometimes.

Anything goes. Rossi, explain the essence to the audience of anything goes Friday. Anything you want to get to at 713-212-5-7-90. That is the phone number. Look, you've heard our drunk-day callers. Day-drunk callers. We have the longest leash in the biz. It gets even longer on a Friday.

Any sort of topic you want to bring up. 7-13-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. You could talk about the Rockets last night. course you want to get into the women's gold medal victory over Canada and overtime. We're going to get a full breakdown from Cole Thompson on that. You've got the men in the semifinals today. And with Arsenal losing or I should say drawing the Wolverhampton Wolves, it's a big game for Manchester City tomorrow at 2 o'clock against Newcastle, Matt.

Is Cole really coming in to Breakdown Women's Hockey in our show? Yes. He's got a mask on and he brought his own puck and stick. All right. I mean, if he wants to brag about the men, they're in the finals yet or is that today? I think it's the semis today. Okay.

Yeah. Against Slovakia or Chechia or... You know, Czechoslovakia broke up and now they're just Chechia and Slovakia. It's very confusing. Yeah, it is confusing. Yeah. It's like Holland Oaks.

What's that? It's like Holland Oates break it up. Well, it's funny because I was reading more about Holland Outs on the plane from Charlotte yesterday. You were? Are they back together? No chance. Oh, man.

No chance. No chance. you know how. Yeah. Hall and oats are done. Millie and Vanilli are done. Well, one of them's dead. Or they're both dead now, right?

Then thus make the duo impossible to reunite. Yeah. We got Steve Perry. He's not coming back to Journey. I don't know why. Well, I mean, his voice has been broken for a while, right? I think so. I mean, I haven't heard a hit from him in, I don't know, since 84.

So I guess. Yeah. What was that solo hit he had? Oh, something. It's grooving on you. No, it's not grooving on you. Oh, I just made that up. Oh, Sherry.

That's what I'm thinking about. Oh, Sherry. That was his solo hit, I think. Okay. Yeah, but Journey's had like 19-th-year-old. You know what? We could do Fantasy Five of songs with women's names. Next week.

O'Donna. Jessica. Oh, the all-time would have to be Michelle. Valerie? Oh, Lela. Steve Winwood? Valerie, nice for you. No, well, are you doing Valerie?

You're talking on Amy Winehouse, Valerie. I'm talking, uh, oh, that's a hard one. I don't know. I'll go with Amy Winehouse, Valerie, personally. But the Steve Winner one, it's fine. Eleanor Rigby? Yeah. Cecilia?

Wait a second. Gloria? Are we going to do this? Laura Branigan? Laura Branigan? Yeah. The song's called Laura Branigan? No, it's Gloria by Laura Brandigan.

Oh, okay. You know what, Jonathan? It's anything goes Friday. We want songs of women's names in the title. Yeah. That's what we want. It's that anything damn goes Friday. The greatness of this show,

rings. Yeah, let's go right now. That's about music today. Man, if our producer filled in, which week, he would be confused as hell because all he likes to play is lots of rap, which fits the show to the T. Yeah, you can probably Bridget. Let's see, there's rap songs. Oh, we'll have plenty of songs. Don't worry. But come back with a little, you know, you've heard the song, Glory, have you not? It sounds familiar. You'll hear it coming back next. Great. It isn't anything goes for Friday. 713-212-5-790.

Man to people, Ross, did aerobics to this in the early 80s. You know, I often think of, like, what's the most 80s song ever? This is pretty much pretty it, my jit. This got to get added to the Mountain Rushmore. I think of, like, everybody wants to rule the world, take on me by aha. Culture Club songs. Man. Early Madonna.

Yes, karma chameleon. Oh, yeah. This is going to have to be on the list. Physical Olivia New. It's a little similar, physical. It's a little similar. Which one came first? Physical.

Turn up a little bit here. Listen to this, Jam. All right, Jonathan. Your thoughts, please. God, this is 80s as hell. I like this. I know this, I didn't like, I'm listening.

I like this. It's nice. All right, boys. Is this song on my father? I'm going to say no all day Jonathan's right all day This is like a shower song You know it's an hour shower

Oh my god What makes this a shower song may I ask? You sing in the shower? This is something you probably sing in the shower Matt Oh I thought you were thinking about glory in the shower What does that mean? I don't know What?

Hey it's Matt and Ross I'm in here in New York City Ross is back in Houston We look forward to having you with us today It is in anything goes Friday. Clearly the case in the first 20 minutes of the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90.

I'm going to bring up a topic today that I don't know is going to resonate a lot with people here because, look, we are a very finicky sports town. We love our local teams. We don't have really affinity for much else besides the local teams. And unless that local team is playing amazing, it's going to be kind of weight me up when they win something. But as the voice of the Rockets, and I'm very happy to do so,

and my partner Ross is a huge rocket fan. Forgetting about our responsibilities of the radio station, we're just Rocket fans. We're basketball fans. It feels like to me that even though the league just signed a hellaciously expensive, rich, multi-billion-dollar television deal

for the next 11, years. I mean, they are cash flush. And arenas typically are full. And merchandise sales is strong. And the international game is powerful. I mean, the amount of people that watch the NBA outside the United States is incredible.

Hell, I think we've got 90% of Turkey watching every rocket's game. Adam Silver, who's the commissioner, is really wearing it from expansion to guys taking days off

for rest, to tanking, to the All-Star game being a hot mess. Am I just looking at every form of media, whether it be in front of my computer or on my phone and saying, it's just coming my way? Or is there just a lot of disdain right now for the general sport of basketball? I don't know, because I'm seeing the same thing you're saying, but we're also probably similar algorithm and, well, not in some things, but with the NBA, I see a lot of different NBA stuff. I think it's natural on social media to complain about stuff

in the first place. I don't know what the answer is to tanking. I mean, because that has been a big problem. And people try, they tried to discourage tanking by flattening the odds, but that means more teams have can get to the best, have access to the best odds to get the number one pick. So then more

teams are going to tank. So they might go back to an old system. They're talking about abolishing the draft. I don't know what's going to happen. But obviously, Adam Silver in the last couple days has said, look, we got an issue, and we're going to sit in a room. We're going to shut the door and lock it and come out and not come out until we have something resolved.

It was talked about last night with a fellow broadcasters. We were sitting around before the game and talking about what should be done. And I think the best answer coming out of this, and hopefully the rockets will never be in this position ever again, but they have certainly been in the past, is that if you are in the top four in the lottery, in, say, 226,

you are forbidden to be in the lottery in 2007. You must skip a year in order for you to be in the top four. So that would curtail, not end, but curtail repeated tanking by teams year after year after year. But everything is on the table.

And I don't want to get necessarily tanking because, look, the rockets are number three seed in the West now after the rockets won yesterday and the Nuggets lost. So that's a double good situation. But maybe I'm just getting the feeling that commissioners wear it all the time no matter what it is.

Yeah. Who's one that's got what's the approval ratings of all the commissioners? Who's got the highest one? It used to be silver, probably. It used to be silver. But I think the NBA

All-Star game has hurt. I think load management has hurt. I think the new television deal making it significantly harder to find games has hurt. You know, you've got the Kauai Leonard situation going on right now where there's a circumventing

of the salary cap perhaps and is there being invested? investigated on that. There's the social, there's the political stance that the NBA has made over the last five or six years, which turned people off. And the reason why I bring this up, not necessarily to say, hey, do you like the NBA? That's not my point, is that my point is I love the NBA. And I guess any sports team, any organization in life that you love is going to have a share of issues. It's just, it wears on me a little bit. Because the game, the last night's game, if you just forgot about everything else, that was an enjoyable basketball basketball basketball basketball. basketball game. Concanipal plays for the Charlotte Hornets. He is going to be a star. It was fun watching him do his thing. Watching Kevin Durand at 37 years old, scoring 35 points is incredible. Watching block shots and coming back and dunking the ball on a variety of different guys. I literally sat down for two and a half hours and really enjoyed my job. And I always do enjoy my job.

But it's almost like you get in the arena and all the other stuff is forgotten about. Once you get outside the arena, then you go to your algorithm, as you said, Ross, and it's, oh, the league got guys tanking. You've got players saying this. You got political stance. You got LeBron bitching. You've got All-Star game fatigue. You've got NBA tell it. I can't find my games.

All they do is shoot threes and dunk. It's almost like I wish I could take any basketball fan that it's any fandom in their pores of their body. Stick them in an arena and say, just sit and watch the game. You're still going to enjoy it very, very much. Yeah. watch the games and obviously you're very privileged. I'm privileged. I get access to the games as well.

I mean, that's where the real fun is. You see how strong, fast, skilled these guys are. I mean, it's just insane the level of talent. We've talked about all year, I mean, to where it's even a 26 and 30 Charlotte Hornet team has so many good

players on it. And any given night, when you're watching an NBA game, you can see crazy plays and layups and like you said high flying dunks and like that alley you from james hard to donovan mitchell last night was insane it's it's a fun fun product on the floor to me it is a fun product and i wish more people would just take the game for itself but you know what we don't do that anymore with so much of our sports that we love watching has an economic and social value to it i mean we've been spent we spent the last couple days talking about how great baseball it's going to be this year

how much fun it's going to be. Oh, by the way, we're probably not going to play baseball in 2027. Then it's a way to get everybody juiced up for 2026 knowing there's probably a large workout stoppage coming after that. Speaking of baseball, Ross, we have a debut of a brand new update today on the show. Really? Yes. Okay. And we'll play it for you next. 1030.

It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross on it. Anything goes Friday at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Oh, Ross, this might be number one. I'm pretty happy I got the crown right now. Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of good picks, though.

A snake, you'd get two and three, you'll be good. Billy Jean, bang. That's a good one. Matt at Ross, with you on anything goes Friday. 713-212-5-790 if you want to join our show today. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Help me out here. You're the official historian of the show. We have had updates for about 10 years on the show.

We have a little special news sounders. Do you remember what the first one was or why we did it to begin with? I think it was Dwight Howard Update. That's exactly right. Dwight Howard Update. That's when he was, when our good friend, who's that crappy reporter, Derek Schultz or whatever? No, no, no, no, no. Derek Schultz is WND. Jordan Schultz?

Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't want to besmirch the good name of Derek Schultz for this show. Yes, we love Derek. Jordan is an idiot and a liar. And I was when he was with the Huffington Post. And we had him on because he broke a story saying Dwight Howard's going to sign with the Mavericks.

And he's in, I think even after Sam Hymick's report, he's like, no, I'm going to stand on my sources. And then he blocked me on Twitter. He was my first original blocks. Yeah, he blocked both. He blocked me. I never tweeted at him once.

So I don't even know how he found me or how sensitive he is, but he's been putting out false reports forever. Shame he got dropped by Fox. He's a nipo, bitch. I want to start clarifying, because we don't really sound similar to people who aren't paying attention think I say things that you did.

I'm tired of you getting me in trouble. Matt Thomas said that. And you know what? I'm also tired of you getting credit for picks that I made. You got credit for one, and I gave it to you right back. So you're welcome. All right, without any of first.

further ado. We're going to segue out of this and bring you the latest Matt Thomas Show Ross update. Hater Update on Matt and Ross

show. Aider Update. Today's Josh Hater Update, Rossi is he threw again. Catch? He had a catch. Okay.

According to Joe Espada, this is for Brian McTaggart at Spring Training Down in West Palm Beach. Hater is improving every day playing catch. And that's it. He's improving every day. It's good.

Hey, we don't want to hear the word setback or shut down. Oh, my gosh. Don't even start. I feel like the update today. The music for the update was longer than the update. Is that good news or bad news? It's not terrible news because if it's a long update, it means something really bad happened.

Yeah. All right. So there you go. There's your Josh Hader. date. Thank you, Matt. Look forward to seeing him May 1st. Ish, hopefully. That's right, ish.

You don't have to stretch out. Do you even rehab when you're a reliever? Well, this early year, no, you would just stay back in camp a little bit longer. Extended spring training, as they call it. As the kids call, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't expect him to be wearing Sugar Land's based cowboy gear. And if he is, it's because he's hadn't thrown, it's June 9th. You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm. I think it's called the Jose Abraio Complex Jose Abraeu Complex over there now Yeah remember we said to talk to the skipper and Dana About what was going on down there And yeah we're flying Jeff Bagwell down there to see what's going on And he's gonna fix his swing Going to take him out to dinner at a dropperies

He was talking about when he got signed I was talking about when he got sent back there when he was terrible What's I'm saying? Didn't Bagwell go back with him that one time I think he did Yeah He didn't fix him No

That's why Ross A squat like you're sitting on a steps duel and swing as hard as you can. Jeff Bagwell is just one of one. Like if you're an owner of a business and you have a bad employee, you can cut your ties pretty quick. Yes. If you own a sports team and you have a bad deal, you're going to still pay that bad boy out. That might be the only negative of owning a sports team is you've got to pay out. It's inevitable you have to pay a bad contract.

Yeah, Montero is off the books by now, right? Oh, my gosh. Just asking for a friend named Jim. Yeah, that's that... Yeah, there was some money that was spent that wasn't in the right direction, for sure. That's all right. Bouncing back.

I'm feeling good. I'm actually, whenever we do gut feelings, I'm going over on the wind total for the Astros. Oh, really? Yes. What is the current number? Is it 86 and a half somewhere that area? Well, here's the problem.

And it's not a problem. It's just who we are as human beings. we were down there and we're like okay this got a nice pitching staff it's deeper it's got you know everyday line of at least one through five that's going to be really good you know what i do to kind of temper myself ross mm-hmm i go read a channel the rome article oh come on all the the channel of rome articles are just about the uncertainty we've got options baby can answer any question you can throw at me so i read the latest one about the outfield oh great And he says, he says, so the Astros are worried about their outfield.

So what do they do in return? They get rid of a guy who has majorly experience that has done it before to save money. And that was the Hesu Sanchez. Hesos Sanchez. No, it's the precursor to a bigger move. Now, we thought that was going to happen sooner. Well, he didn't give us a timetable in fairness to Dane on that. No, he didn't.

He said we're not done yet. He didn't mean, you know, we could make a trade in three years. We're still not done. I would hope. I mean, if that's the last trade. ever made. That doesn't set up for a long-term future as a general manager of a baseball team. Yeah.

Yeah. But, yeah, needless to say, it's, you, the deal may, unless Loper Fido all of a sudden makes these adjustments that makes him a much better complete offensive player than it was, even when he first got here a couple of years ago. Yeah, I mean, Hesu Sanchez certainly regressed. Hesu Sanchez, if you had any hair in your head, would you help you pull it out with some of his work and his defensive routes and inconsistent hitting. No, he was on a plus edition of the deadline.

He just wasn't. And so you add that number plus the fact that you had $7 million in the books for this year, and you come back and get a guy that, you know, was so widely beloved and that maybe you saw something that maybe the Toronto Blue Jays didn't. And oh, by the way, don't ever forget, it was a chance to cut some cost. And that's exactly what they did as long as it was a precursor to the next big move, which hopefully will be coming up for the not too distant future. but if you read the channel of Romarticle,

and it's certainly worth of read again, his work is outstanding as the athletic, it does once again show you where this team is and where they have to go get some help in the outfield. It just doesn't sound like, at least on paper, look like, I should say, a team is going to strike a lot of fear in anybody when it comes to their outfield hitting lineup.

Right now. Right now. But it could. Cam Smith, first round pedigree, Great March or April And by great March and April last year Zach Cole Late Bloomer

Great head on his shoulders Strong Strikeout rate Confident A lot of pop Ready to go Jake Myers Gonna hit 300-ish again

What's a lot going to be I didn't I what We have that Connection issues I got connection Sorry about that They got to do something

You don't need Jake Myers to hit 25 home runs. You just don't. No, you don't. You need your head. First of all, you need Yordon Alvarez in this lineup, 145 times. And then from there, you need Carlos Corre to keep doing his thing. Jeremy Payne to continue progressing.

Christian Walker to bounce back. Essock parades to plug in wherever he's going to be. Yiner Diaz to get a good head back on his shoulders. And that's just, what did I just name? Like six guys? Yeah. again, not every team's going to have a nine deep, amazing line up top to bottom, and certainly not the Houston Astros this year.

The 2019 Astros, they will not be. Well, I'll say this. I wonder if the outfield gets off to a sluggish start, will that make Joe Espada amend his thoughts about putting yard on Alvarez and left field more than he would be? Because then you would then have an easy spot for a DH to put Parades in the D.H. But if, again, the Astros corner outfielder struggled to dish. That's what I would do, right?

If you can't move them and your corner outfielders are not providing much power and you've got a lot of backup available for you at Sugar Land, give Yordon two starts a week. He obviously likes doing it, Ross. I don't think he's hiding the fact. He likes to play the outfield. Right. But the Astros are saying, you know what? We've got to treat this guy with kid gloves.

We want to lessen his options of potentially getting hurt, to which Yordon said earlier this week. I've played plenty of outfield my life and never got hurt once. On the base pass, a little bit of a different story. 1044 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got I'm sorry. It's coming up at 1130 today. At 12 noon, we'll wake the strippers up and have some news headlines. Tim Legler from ESPN and ABC.

We'll be with this at 1230. And Florida stories at 120, 130 today. Calvin Samson, University Houston coach. And today on Hellyer or not, it's a one question wins contest. Today, because we have a lot of nice prizes to give away, including Dave Matthews tickets. So that'll be all part of the show, a busy program, especially in the backcap.

You want to join us now on anything goes Friday. You may do so at 713-212-5-790. That's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you're out and about today on Twitter, want to follow us there, you can do that as well at SportsMT. Of course, Ross, the Instagram account is thriving at SportsMT. That's great news, Matt. And yours is thriving, too, at SportsRV.

That's true. We're over 1,400 followers. Thanks, you know what, I've been trying to put myself out there more, and you guys have been following me. I really appreciate you guys for following me. I think you to do a video with one of those weird graphic backgrounds. I would love to. What are you going to talk about?

I don't know. You got any more pictures of clouds? Those are so good. People love them. Got great. Oh, that's great. I love pictures of clouds. Put some more up.

I put music behind it too. Uh-huh. Oh, it's wonderful. Spectacular. Do you hear the sarcasm of the man's voice? No, it's great content. And you want to make fun of me? I'm coming to you.

Let's go. I make fun about it. What did I just say? Oh, shut up. You said weird. What'd you say? Weird, Bracko. Go ahead. Yeah. Oh, the losing connection again?

Are we even on the air? 10 o'clockers, where y'all at? 10.45 on 790. Come in. Man. 1051 on the Matt Thomas show with Raw. I'm here in New York. It's a rain-snow mix.

apparently coming to the New York metropolitan area sports RV. Sorry, I'm in the zone, Matt. That's fine. Hey, this is a classic. This might have to make the list. Um. Matt, we had a call a Matt at you.

Will, he said, I can't believe you didn't put this in your top five last time. Mary Jane. Little Rick James. This isn't bad. It's a jam. Now, Matt, this is what you turn on for your girl. Your wife. to wash his cooking dinner or what?

Anywhere. Anywhere. Really in a public park? For a picnic? Romance it. Oh, I see what you're doing. Friday soundtrack. Got to be one of the best of all time.

I have it on my phone. No, you don't. You're right. Coming up at the top of the hour, ESPN put together a list. You know, we do a lot of list radio here on the show, Rossi. No, we don't. but this one was interesting to me because I'm going to look at it.

I saw a brief glimpse of it, but I want to go through the better list. The ESPN folks have put together a list of the top 100 college quarterbacks since 2000. Okay. Tebow one? Oh, no, this isn't this past list where they, I think they had Baker Mayfield up there or something. Or did they? That list pissed me off, actually. All right. You want to hear Ross pissed off?

Eight minutes from now. They better have David Ash in there and Tyrone Swoops. Man, you want to just litter with Texas players, basically, right? Colt McCoy's got to be on that list. Yes. Case McCoy, not so much, but that's okay. We still love them. We always remember the Longhorn.

Oh, James Brown's got to be in. It was James Brown was the 90s, right? Yeah, come on now. Major Applewhite. Chris Sims. Ooh. How many Texas quarterbacks? Now, the question is what I don't know.

Lock? Where will Case Keenham be on that list? Well, moof. Don't say it. He's got to be around Timmy Chan. What was this guy's, that guy's name?

Chang. Sorry. Isn't Timmy Chan a Chinese restaurant? I'm sorry. I meant Chang. Hmm. All right, so be ready for that. We'll have that list for you coming up at the top of the hour.

It is the Matt Tom of the show at Ross. It isn't anything goes Friday. we say hello to James at 1054. James, what do you have today? Yeah, when you're our dad in spring training, you were talking to Christian Walker, and he had mentioned that in the minors, he had played left field,

and y'all didn't follow up on that. Maybe if they get desperate, they'll put him in left field and have parades and him in their lineup together. That's not going to happen. He's a gold glove first basement. Why would you do that? They would sooner have you out there and left, James.

Well, that would be a wise decision know. And the other thing I want to talk is about G. G.I. John. And why I mean by that is Gambler Insider John. When is his segment coming up? John who? Together. I didn't follow that one.

I really like to give James as much of a rope as possible, but his calls continue to suck. Anything goes Friday. It's an anything goes Friday. Who's gambling, John? I'm not getting that reference. I don't know. I don't know who that is.

I don't know. That whooshed over my head. James, I'm going to take you something. Because we appreciate you listening. But if you continue to bring this ridiculous Houston gambler narrative to my show, you're going to be barred and you're going to have nowhere else to go. Oh, was it the caller that wanted to talk about the gamblers? I guess.

Ah. He cares. And you know what? This is a tight-knit group, Matt. A tight-knit meaning three people. Yeah. You know, they're shorter than the Jake Myers fan club. You know, put that song Mary Jane on.

Let's go get them some ass and let's move on with this. Come on now. Go gamblers. Are they playing somewhere? Do they have a... Are they playing at Shell? Yeah, they're at Shell Stadium. Okay.

So... Yeah, I, again, we got bigger fish to fry. We got baseball coming up. We have the NCAA tournament Ross. We got Arizona versus Houston on Saturday. Woo! Huge matchup. Longhorns versus Georgia.

Ooh, that's a big game, right? Yeah, kind of. Sort of. Longhorn's got to stay on the, they're over the bubble. They've got to stay more, what do you do when you go more in the bubble? Take an acid?

Yeah. Have you checked brocatology on your beloved horns? What's going on? I think last I checked there were a projected nine seed. That's get you in. Yeah? That makes you avoid Dayton. You don't want to go to Dayton for an extra couple games.

It's too much time in Dayton. By the way, we're getting an extra set of games. Oh, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't even be surprised by next season. Mm-hmm. By the way, your Coog's five and a half point favorites over the Arizona Wildcats. Love it. Been a tough week.

Start the year at Iowa State coming home for this Arizona game, and then you go back on the road to play Kansas on Big Monday. How about our friends at ESPN only giving us two Big Monday games, both of them on the road? That doesn't seem fair. No, they're haters of what you're saying. I'm saying there's a bias, and I don't like it. Okay.

is the anti-Huston bias. Yes. Don't they know when Houston athletics get on there? That's massive television ratings boost. They're putting them on ABC. That's right. You've got to put the big games on there. We know more ESPNU.

Maybe you're around then. It's been a lot of SEC network for me. We're not on CBS Sports Network Plus. It's not been great. You know what sucks is that because they're so good, I've lost out on games. That's true, actually. It costs me money.

Yeah, you know what? Careful what you wish for, Matthew. Yeah, you know what? Nine losses would be bad next year. The ESPN Plus against writers, not so bad, is it? Yeah, I kind of miss those games. All right, the best college quarterbacks

in the last 25 years. We'll discuss that to open up the second hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. If you'd like to be a part of the show on anything goes Friday, we're asking for apologies coming up in one half hour. 713-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 11 o'clock on 7-90.

It is our number two of four on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We've got coming up in one-half hour. Your chance will apologize for all the bad things you've done over the course of the week. Ross, do you want to open up with anything? Are you pretty good? I think I'm good for right now.

I'll come up with something. Okay. Jonathan's going to apologize for a variety of things he's done wrong. We look forward to hearing his his update. Plus your opportunity as well. This is an opportunity for you to cleanse yourself. And the question is, do I need to apologize to the guy at the gas station in Fort Lauderdale for telling him, I don't wish him have a nice day? Yes.

No. I don't apologize for that. Well, I mean, has anybody had your back on that? I'm just wondering. A lot of people did. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, the only thing I will do next time is I will just say,

all right, put 40 on there and I'll get the rest. But he never even offered that up to me. Okay. Come on, bro. How much you want, bro? It's not that difficult. You don't want to hope you lose your job. Matter of fact, I'm going to call that gas station.

You want to get out the ear. No, you're not. And I'm going to use the hotel phone. You know where it is. You know where it is. Oh, I'll figure it out. It won't take me much. We were in the middle of, not in middle of nowhere,

but I don't even know what city we were in. We were north of Fort Lauderdale Airport, so whatever that is. All right, Rockets last night took care of the show. I'm going to call him and tell him how pleasant he was. Yeah, because you asked him where the potty was. I mean, how unpleasant could you be? Yeah, you could still be rude. Yeah, it's over there.

Do I need a key? No. He could have done that. He didn't do that. He was pleasant. He was nice. Come on, bro. It says bathroom over there, bro.

Yeah, see, he could have done that. Well, he likes you better than me. He's 105-101 Rockets beat the Hornets last night. They will take on the Knicks here tomorrow in New York City. All right. Now, so you obviously did see this college football poll question. Okay. So is this recent?

I thought I saw one like a month. Okay. So if it's today, then no. I saw one a few months ago, and I thought they had Baker Mayfield way too high. So I have not seen it, and I purposely did not research this. All right. Let me give you the list. and then when you say, hey, this is in a good spot, too high, too low.

Well, can I guess one? Can I guess one team? We're going to start. We're not going through all 100. Oh, you're going through 100? No, no. We're going to go through someone. What is this?

The A team? You'd apologize to Wexler and Clanton directly. Oh, I do that because I figure they're listening. I love those guys. There's no chance. No chance, Wex are. Well, at least, no, Wex listens all the time. Clant might be in the shower.

You never know. All right. At number 100 is J.G. McCarthy, the current... Oh, really? in Minnesota Vikings. Who's... We had a good career at Michigan, but has had zero successes in NFL.

Okay. 99 Bryce Petty at Baylor. My son, my oldest one with camera, was a big Bryce Petty fan. Really? For what? I don't know. You have a Baylor Bear jersey? Hey, friend of the show, B.J. Simmons at number 96. Really?

Yes. Okay. BJ was a quarterback at Texas Tech between 2000 and 2003. Brock. Purdy at number 94 out of Iowa State. Okay. Hmm. Moving down the list of people you would actually care about.

Rod Purdy was a baller at Iowa State. Shador Sanders, number 87. That feels really high. Okay. Carson Beck, between Georgia and Miami coming at number 86. Ryan, now the president of the Atlanta Falcons, number 85 at Boston College. It was great at Boston College. Teddy Bridgewater, 84, and Louisville.

It would have been a lot higher if not for his friends being beat out by the Houston Cougar defense. Hey, come on now. Your friend Timmy, don't call me Chin Chang, number 82. Okay. Dak Prescott, the original member of the Thomas Sports Enterprises collective group at number 81. Dude, he carried those Mississippi State teams. He did, he did. Let's see here.

Kevin Cobb at 74 at the University of Houston. What? No, I'm going, I'm sorry. I'm going Dakota Prescott over Kevin Cobb. What? Sorry. Almost 13,000 passing guards in four years. Yeah, it was great.

Be nice. I'm not saying he's bad. He was good. Number 73, the Katie Rocket, Red Rifle Rocket, Andy Dalton. Yeah, he was a baller at TCU. Number 72, Zach Wilson. Good quarterback, got a lot of milk ass over his time there. What number of Zach Wilson?

72. Yeah, he's one on the Milf list, but he's not, he's, eh. Aaron Rogers out of Cal at 68. Okay. Here's one that's interesting, and it's basically not off of what he did as a pro, but Pat Mahomes at 66 out of Texas Tech. Yeah, I think how many years did he have there where he was really good? Well, he played there from 2014 to 16,

and I'm presuming it was not all three years that he was awesome. Going down the list a little bit more. David Carr, number 60 out of Fresno State, the first ever Texans draft pick. Okay. That didn't work out very well. Eli Manning, 54 out of Ole Miss. Okay. Brady Quinn, 53 Underdame.

Okay. Going down the list here. Keep going, keep going. Alex Smith, who I covered my year calling Utah football at 47. Yeah, he was really good at Utah. Mack Jones, Alabama, 45. Hmm. Okay.

Graham Harrell, one of those many Texas Tech Corpites that got up huge numbers, 41. I'm going to tell you, I was scared of Graham Harrell. I sure. Colin Kaepernick out of Nevada at number 38. Kaepernick, people don't know this. He was great with the Nevada Wolfpack. Yeah, he literally put them on the map. I mean, nobody knew anything about Nevada football until Colin Kaepernick.

He had that rocket arm. He could run. He was doing it all for the Wolfpack back in the day. Ben Rathlisberger at 33 out of Miami of Ohio. Yeah, he was great there. Russell Wilson, North Carolina State, in Wisconsin at 31. Bo Nicks at 30 out of Auburn and Oregon. Jalen Hertz 29.

And coming in at number 28, your favorite Houston Cougar, Case Keenum. Case Keenum, okay. Yeah, I mean, she's still the all-time leading passer. Yes. Can't argue with that. 19,217 passing yards. Wow. And he got two PhDs while he was there, I believe.

He also had two grandchildren while on campus. Carson Palmer, 27. Philip Rivers 26. Caleb Williams, between Oklahoma and USC, was 24. Two of Takavela 23. Coming in at number 22, your favorite Texans quarterback of all time, CJ Stroud at Ohio State. Really?

Yeah. Stroud ahead of all those guys. Right in front of C.J. Stroud for the second consecutive time. Bryce Young at Alabama. I mean, yeah, that's fair, I guess. Andrew Luck 19, Matt Leonard 18. James Winston, 17. Sam Bradford, 16.

Sam Bradford single-handedly changed how they paid NFL quarterbacks. Yeah, he was great. Heisman winner. like a 50 touchdown season won the Heisman at Oklahoma. Now, to the recency bias. Uh-oh. Fernando Mendoza, 14.

Real, yes. It's such a long list here. It's hard to even argue. I mean, they had an incredible season. Yeah. And he was great. Number 13. Johnny Football. Ooh, honestly?

Honestly, it feels early. He was a friggin' phenom. Yeah. I want to hear from the Aggie fans on this one. You're not going to like this because right in front of him, Colt McCoy. I would say Johnny Mansell, better college career than Colmicoi. Say it.

Put it into existence, Ross. Hey, you know what? I'm going to defer to the list, Matt. I didn't make the list. Oh, stop. You're such a frog. Come on. That's terrible.

I'm going to defer to the list. Number 11, Trevor Lawrence, Clemson. No, I mean. Archie 3 at Baylor number 10. I'm putting, ooh, Trevor, I'm sorry, sorry, you're kind of going. Yeah, Johnny ahead of Colt. Lawrence, ooh, I don't know about that. Go ahead.

10, Robert Griffin at Baylor. Stop. Stop. Okay, Robert Griffin was great. He was great in a Heisman winner with Bay. You win the Heisman with Baylor freaking Bears? Like, you're great. Still too high.

I'm not putting my head to Johnny. No. Marcus Marriota, nine. Marcus Marriota over John. Oh, no. I would put Robert Griffin over him. I would put Trevor Lawrence over him. And he was great at Oregon.

So now we're in the top ten. Number eight, Lamar Jackson at Louisville. Oh, yeah. I mean. Tupers demolished two. Yeah. Number seven, Kyler Murray. Between A&M and Oklahoma.

Still putting him behind Johnny, too. Me too. Deshawn Watson six. Man. He took the Alabama team that he beat for that championship had like a billion first round picks on it. That's what we do. You mean?

Yeah, when he was Clemson. No, he was Clemson. They beat Alabama as what I'm saying. Yeah, okay, there you go. Now we're to the top five. Joe Burrell five. No. No, I'm sorry.

I love, poof. it was one great season, right? We're talking about college careers here. Yeah. It was one amazing, incredible season. He also had like 50 first round picks around him. I would bump down Mendoza and Burrow because they were great for one season. How does Mendoza make the top 15?

That's crazy. I mean, I know he was awesome and turned around Michigan or Indiana to a relevant product. But come on. Number four. Timothy Tebow I got Tebow one I'm curious the rest of this list Number three

Vince Young Vincent Paul Young Jr. I have two But three okay Number two I know they have Baker up there Don't they I don't get it We're not there yet

Number two is way too high Cam Newton Ooh okay Again again one season Against one season wonder but look at that Auburn team that Auburn team that he carried to a national championship

you know what? Yeah, Cam Newton had a borough fair oh just now we're splitting hairs though and I do believe if you're going to be one of the greatest in the last 25 years you've got to do it over more than one season if you weren't talking about single season accolades I buy into Cam Newton

was Blinn and where else are you know come on yeah Blin and got a big bag and went with Auburn He carried that squad. And they went to grab laid. They had them and like Nick Fairley and then it was just a bunch of nobodies. A bunch of Jomokes, as Adam Klan would say.

Jomokes on a recorded line. And the number one, college quarterback, according to ESPN, since the beginning of the 2000 season for the last 25 years, former Texas Tech Red Raider, finishing his career at Oklahoma,

currently the quarterback of the 10th, Bay Buccaneers, Baker Mayfield. Okay, so I'm pulling it up and I'm kind of kind of going okay. I mean, he led college football and quarterback rating for three years. Heisman

finished 4-3-1 in his three years at Oklahoma, 119 touchdowns, 21 picks. That's impressive. If you didn't attach the name to the quarterback, I would say who was that throwing that foot? Right.

Okay, I'm buying this more as I delve into it. Okay. But I would still take Tebow over him. I would still take Vince Young over him. And then we're getting into different, and then we're splitting hairs. Trevor Lawrence. I mean, you remember how awesome Trevor Lawrence are like, people were saying if you could have drafted Trevor Lawrence as a freshman out of Clemson, he would have been the number one overall pick. That's how good he was.

And how do you, you got to have Kevin Cobb and you got to have Kay Skieski and right at the top of the list. Top five for sure. maybe my bias is kicking a little bit. Cam Newton to me should not be number two. I'm sorry. Cam Newton was insane though. Is the, I mean, the

one man band that he was on that team. Yeah. I think frankly, Deshawn wants, does Sean? I like Deshawn up there. I know, and it's, you know. Wait, excuse me? Got to rephrase that? Yeah, just delete that or save it for next Friday.

1114. on the Matt Thomas show with Ross if you'd like to join us. See, I mean, the sex scandal is, it's hurting his legacy. He was insanely saying at Clemson. Close to sex is going to hurt him.

He was so good at Clemson. And so good as a Texan, too. Yeah. And don't forget, I was teamed to Sean when he said, screw this organization, screw you, Cal,

screw you Bill O'Brien, screw you Jack Easterby. Like, I don't blame you, bra. Then you wouldn't got a bunch of massages. Using a washcloth as a towel. Yeah. You're in a lot of trouble. I learned the phrase digital stimulation.

Thanks, Deshawn. Thank you, to. Educating people. Bottom of the hour. Time for you to apologize. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm here in New York.

Rockets Knicks tomorrow here on 790. Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, please don't take my man. I'm a huge Jolai Parton song, fan. I don't like this song. You don't like this one? Not really, no. It's fine. Wait a minute.

What do you mean, wait a minute? You don't like Jolene by Dali Parton? No, I do not. What's wrong with it? I mean, but I wouldn't, I mean, I wouldn't prefer to listen to it over and over again. Here You Come Again is my favorite her song. I love nine to five. I love islands in the stream with Kenny Rogers.

I love, I will always love you even though Whitney Houston perfected it. Dolly was the first one to sing it and write it. It was amazing. Creeping in with Nora Jones. It's a classic. So, yeah, it's okay. I'm so surprised. This is like your perfect melancholy.

You could just turn it on. Windows down. Windows down to Jolene? Yeah, you get the breeze in your hair. I hope you get, I hope you get heat for this on Twitter. I'm not a lot. No, what do you mean? You don't understand Jolene, and that's just upsetting to me.

And I'm the young guy here. What am I missing out on them? Tell me, tell me what I'm missing. I like it. I don't love it. So I don't know. I would say I'm more on that side, but people do love that song. What?

Yeah, I don't know, Jonathan. I like this. Look at the old soul of Jonathan coming out. Bonnie Joe sent us some more songs, by the way. I've got to see him. Okay, great. Find it here. She had Jolene on her list. Thank you, Bonnie Joe.

Let's see. My Sharona? Oh, Sharona's a woman? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, think about the lyrics. Oh, okay. No, I don't listen to it.

I don't know what they're saying. Beth by Kiss, not a Kiss fan. Yeah. I don't know that song. Oh, Roxanne. Oh, Roxanne by the police. Oh, uh-huh. How about Brandy?

You're a fine girl? Not bad. Maggie May, I'm not a huge Rodsdour fan. That's okay. Oh. Now, these are more deep cuts, but Lucille by Little Richard and Lucille by BB King, two of my favorites. Oh, both.

I prefer the Little Richard version, but yeah, a great song. Riannon by Fleetwood Mac. That's a good one. Oh, yeah. Just so many good choices. It would be an impossible fantasy five Because you really couldn't go wrong with any of them, right? You know, you can go wrong with Dolene apparently

Billy Jean number one Billy Jean's number one Glory is in the group Brandy's great Michelle by the Beatles is in there Oh, that's a good one Jessica by the Allman Brothers band Um, that doesn't come to mind

You would recognize that I'm sure I would I'm sure I would it's an anything goes Friday. Clearly. Clearly. As since anything goes, I got Jessica right here. You'll recognize it immediately.

Go ahead. You know this instrumental the whole way. Yeah. And you know what? Maybe that's more endearing that. This is a jam. Absolutely. I wonder why it's called Jessica. I don't even know the foundation of the song.

I mean, I have a theory. Please? There's a woman named Jessica. Well, thanks for that. She's probably hot. This is a good one. There you go. That's enough.

That's enough of this one. So, you know, the Rockets played last night in Houston? I don't know if y'all know that or not. They did win. Yes. Good win. How were the calls on the call-in show to last night? Good.

Really? Yeah. It makes me happy. Yeah, it makes... What do you think it makes me most happy? You? I'm out the monologue for 14 minutes. Run some sound and get out.

I love talking to y'all on the post game shows. I'll be on Saturday. Saturday night. Left start. It's 8.30 here in the east. I know. I've got to get me a midday nap in. I'm not super happy about that, but it is what it is.

Yeah, by the eastern time zone just absolutely sucks. Just terrible. Oh, it's horrible. I couldn't stand it for three days. By the way, Aggie Doug is going to come in and back me up. Okay. I know I was not going to say this. On the Fantasy 5.

It's Mandy, of course. A.D., what do you got today? Okay, so Mr. Barry Manilow himself forget the most famous Barry Manilow song. Mandy? I don't know if it's his most famous. His most famous is probably Cocoa Cabana, but his first hit was Mandy, for sure. Yeah, I mean, come on, dude. You dropped the ball on that one for Mr.

He's Mr. Barry. No, no, no, no. Let me tell you about AED. Anytime I bring up Manelow, I get ridiculed by my partners here. So I want to be in a good spot today. Matt, this is songs about girls. I mean, you have to bring now. I didn't even remember Michelle, but I guess Michelle Mavel, yeah.

Yes. But no, I have a question about this list. What is it based on? You know, that's a great question. Or like yards or. no I think it's just a highly subjective list that was created by their college football analyst I mean they obviously was stat driven for sure uh but i don't know

baker may had some great years I mean he was extremely efficient but I mean having Johnny at 13 that's that's ugly let me tell you because you had who was the quarterback before and was it Tannahill before uh Johnny yeah well actually it was

it wasn't Tana Hill and then kind of it also ran I think it was what's the come on Matt why you put me on the spot like that

sorry but no it was Johnny then there was Tana Hill another guy and then Johnny yeah wasn't there some

freshman quarterback that lost the job yeah when someone calls us it tells us the quarterback before Johnny Mansell 80 you and I like, oh, of course it was.

Yeah, I mean. Yeah, I'm trying to read the story who wrote it and what it was based on. It doesn't necessarily give a list of it. This is just one guy's thought. Bill Connolly is the guy that wrote it. And apparently, Rossi, he updates it every year. Ah, okay, so maybe I saw it

last year. If we three were going to rate these, I mean, obviously Vince Young, I mean, I thought Vince Young was an amazing player. Obviously, it's not on the team that I like at all, but you still have to respect the game. I would also put, I mean, I don't know, I probably at least have Johnny in the top five. Let me tell you something. If someone doesn't have a dog in the fight, Johnny Mansell and Vince Young

are both in the top five and it ain't even close, period. Well, they just played the game differently and made the defenses change the way that they thought about the way a quarterback play. I mean, obviously Vince was big and strong and he did it that way, and Johnny was just like a little jacked around and running around. Like, can spoon the head cut off, and it worked. So, and for both of them. But, yeah, no, I would probably have Johnny in the top five at least top ten. Yeah.

All right, Aggie, Doug. Thank you for my back on Mandy. I appreciate it very much. By the way, the third guy on my top five list is Tim Tebow. I mean, Tim Tebow, I mean, created a phenomenon for that kind of quarterback. Not big armed, but mobile, jump passing, scrambling. overachiever, whatever you want to say. Those three are in the top five in the last 25 years.

Period. Am I right? I'm with you. The other two, you probably could debate. Frankly, probably Trevor Lawrence should be in that top five and not even debatable at this point, the way he performed. It's tough.

And you have to weigh the guys who were just great for one year, like Joe Burrow and Cam Newton against the guys who were great for multiple years. I mean, it was just two great. great years for Vince, for example. Baker had three great years. It's interesting. Well, look, first of all, it's highly subjective. But don't you think if you're going to really take all the great quarterbacks in college sports over that time, wouldn't you think attendance and playing more than one year would probably bumps a couple of guys above the list?

Because what if Cam came back for a second year at Auburn and sucked? I mean, he wouldn't. He wouldn't have. You're not going to say, well, he'd one great year and one lousy year. Yeah. I guess team success may be factoring into this for, I mean, for Johnny Mansell, they won a Cotton Bowl. One in Alabama.

Yeah, I mean, there was a game in winning in Alabama, but they didn't win the championship that year. They didn't really get close to being in a national championship. But neither did Baker Mayfield. I mean, he got close. They were in the playoff, but I'm right. And maybe I guess I was oblivious to Oklahoma football. But when I think of great college quarterbacks, it would have taken me an hour to come up with Baker Mayfield. And again, maybe if I'm doing Oklahoma City radio, it's a no-brainer.

But to me, good career. But I think of a guy that had a chance to go to a school that loved playing using big being quarterbacks. And he went there and said, I'm going to get out of Texas, tech, go to Oklahoma. I mean, I don't know. That name did not come to me. All right. We've got Ryan and Mike and Greg. and Barry Mantle all coming up.

Plus, we got I'm sorrys between now and noon. If you want to apologize for anything you've done, and look, I've met a lot of you. You need to apologize for the things you've said and done this week. 7-13-212-5-790. We'll get to, I'm sorry, a little bit later, because we've got some other folks that want to get some other things.

We'll let you guys get to the list before we get to say our sorrows. 1131 on 790. Song is she just want to tear up right now. Just waggy-dog in and bring it up. Music is going to happen. Sound effects and everything. What?

Hello? You're standing on the edge of time, aren't you, Ross? I'm standing on the edge of sleep. You were caught up in a world. Uphill climbing. I'm Kyle Houston. Rejoice with this song. Here we go, Mary!

I'm like the main of the show. I came and gave so much. What? Exactly. What's the name of this album? Musical Melatonin? Jonathan, I need your review. It means a lot to me.

Oh, no. I'm trying to make that. Oh, wait a minute. You like Jolene and you don't like this song? What's wrong with you? Because I'm not trying to be a hater. I don't even know if that's on beat right now, man. Turn it up.

One more time. Here we go. Oh, God. Good job, Jonathan. I'm here. I'll be real. I'm giving a big criticism. I will have a very man.

panel of appreciation, IG Live, after the show today from my room. That is, that is honestly, that's on the Elevator Cheese Hall of Fame, Mount Rushmore. No, it's not. It's a banger. It's been a banger for 50 years. Elevator cheese. On the phones. Ryan on 790, Ryan, good morning to you.

Good morning. I'd like to start with a very quick. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that Cole and I got into a. argument about Lord of the Rings with a tweet that y'all were attached to. Y'all didn't deserve that. That being said, three things quickly. Jessica is actually about the lead guitarist's infant daughter, Ross.

So, no, she's not hot, or at least she was not hot when they wrote that song. She was a baby. Okay, thank you. That's the daughter. That's number one. Two, Mandy sucks, Matt. Don't ever play that song. ever again.

And three, has anybody said Layla by Eric Clapton? I mentioned it when we first brought it up. I got news for you here, Mr. Suck. Eric Clampton, way overrated. Way overrated. John Lennon, way overrated.

Oh, oh. You shut your bum ass up, man. We got some fight on. You shut up. Get out of here. Uh-oh. Don't you defame him. Layla, you got me in my lease, Layla, great. Wait, we're a wordsmith there. Begging, darling, please.

Now, of course, John Lennon greater than. Duh. But Eric Clapton, good friend of the Beatles, especially George Harrison around. Yeah, I heard he and his, uh, George's wife were close. You mean like what, going to lunch together and stuff? Was it Layla about George Harrison's wife? That I cannot tell you.

Okay. Yeah, I thought Eric Clapton was extremely like, I can't remember. He had like some smoking hot wife, of course. The Eric Clapton song I like is Laydown Sally. That's it. What? The Tears in Heaven song is. Okay, that's very sad.

Sad. I can't say I love that song. Hey, guys, check out my new song about my son who died. Yeah, I refuse to accept that song. It's so sad. I understand. I get that. But I mean, his time with Kareem.

Cream was great. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, he was just, he was just trying to be Freddie King, and he wasn't better than Freddie King, and he wasn't better than, I don't know, Jimmy Hendrix or C. Ray Vaughn. He's great 60s.

He's good. But I would say, as the years have gone on, I would say slightly overrated. But still good. vastly overrated. Like Bruce Springsteen vastly overrated. And don't Google Eric Cloud. Optin immigrants.

To the phones, Mike in Cyprus at 1141. Mike, good morning to you. Hey, happy Friday, gentlemen, and one of the thing, I got shamed over Barry Manlo and Billy Joel when I was in, you know, junior high and high school. So, yeah, I feel your pain. And you know what? Such for them if they don't recognize great music, even if it's from the 70s.

Thank you. But, man, you know, and I believe Cougar Red, I stand up for you 99.9% of the time. I sit here and punch my dashboard sometimes thinking about how Ross torments you over stuff. And I know he does it because you let him get under your skin. But yesterday, I could not call in whenever we were having the discussion about the lack of the ineptitude, rather, of the Astros training staff, the medical staff. And you, this is perfect for I'm sorry because you chastised me and made the amount of, you. So much fun of me.

When I called in questioning last summer saying, dude, what are they doing? They have Time Life magazines up in there. They don't have the Internet to check in what's going with Albrez's hand, Tucker's leg. And you sat there and said, really, you think that they're not there purposely, or they're just not doing that? No. Yeah, we live in the greatest medical city in the world. If you want to get sick. And you made fun of me on the radio for just a little bit for saying that.

Well, wait a minute. First of all, first of all, glad you called. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Secondly, you really, they made staff changes not because of malpractice. They made staff changes as they wanted a first set of eyes on things. Do you really think at the end of the day? But no, I'm not saying they weren't trying.

There was medical malpractice by the Astros training. I don't believe it to be the case. Do I believe that sometimes you can not necessarily misdiagnosed, but maybe underestimate or overestimate the severity of things, that could happen. but I do not believe as poorly as the Astor's medical situation was with all the fact that the time they did not give out information were so secretive I don't believe in any offense and I do I agree they're either lying or they're acting like you know a hand issue is going to make the difference on whether we finish second or first in the division and it's like it's a big secret just be open with this stuff I mean the NFL can't do that and what advantage do we really get you know either he's going to be in the lineup or it's not It is like just one game a week. You and I agree on that for sure.

It's just ridiculous. You know, it's just, I mean, and it's just like the Texans. You know, you never know what the hell you're going to get from them. But what's the Texans? They've always been that way. I just don't get it. All right. Well, thank you for the phone call.

I'm glad you called back. Go Coogs. Thanks very much for the phone call. I appreciate it. Yeah. You know, I don't like Mike. I like he's smart enough to know that it's, uh, I'm just normally twisting a knife. It's not too serious with the cougar stuff.

Yeah. And we're going to talk more Cougars, anybody else in the marketplace. So suck it, everybody. And thanks for the phone call. Let's do this. Let's go really quick to Greg. And we got, I'm sorry, the next segment of the show here. Greg on 790, good morning to you. What's up?

Yeah, we're going to be real quick on this. Neal diamond greater than Barry Mantolo. And I think you may have forgot. I missed the show for the last 20 minutes. I'm sorry about that. but sweet Caroline. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.

Great song. Thank you, Greg, for the phone call. Neil Diamond, bitter than... So are we doing this or skipping this? Do I need to make a list? No, I mean, at some point, like, you know, next week or something. Yeah, we'll do next week, something like that. We've got to do males, too, don't you think?

Aren't there songs about dudes in there, too? Dude names? Dudes on dudes? Yeah, you and Jonathan can do that one. Hold on. Yeah, why are you throwing Jonathan on the bus? I'm not throwing it to the bus. I'm not trying to be dude.

on, dude. I love this show so much. I'm sorry. I love this show so much. You go on a cuss and discuss some C.J. Stroud trade rumors. Let's do that next. No, we're not. I'm sorrys are next here on 790.

Houston, Texas. Get in here, SportsR.B. And Jonathan Allen, it's time for you to say these very simple words. I'm sorry So sorry And if you were a fool this week It's time for you to apologize 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-7-90

I'm sorry for any of you that listen to horrible sports radio That bring up C.J. Stroud trade rumors Stupid I'm sorry If you're a sports host talking about that You should apologize to the city of Houston You should have no listeners and lose your job, period. I am proud to say, Ross, you and I are the leaders in the clubhouse with least minutes discussing a preposterous ridiculous topic.

I would say so, man. Thank you. It's not going to happen. Otherwise, John McClain's going to get real interesting for him. I don't know. I want to make sure I'm off the streets that day. So sorry. All right, Rossi. What are you going to apologize for?

You know what, man? while we were in West Palm you know we went to that wonderful seafood restaurant Captain Charlie's and I'd taken some leftovers and I've been a person who have stood up strong

and said when you're in an office setting and there's more than just you around you cannot reheat seafood but as you know Matt we had some leftover gumbo which had some shrimp had some fish had some sword fish in it

I was hungry. I was starving. And I broke my own rule. Now, it also did have sausage and chicken and gumbo flavorings. So it wasn't like I did a bag of shrimp. But I would like to apologize to all the Astros employees in the office where I reheated my seafood gumbo. I'm a hypocrite. And I'm not comfortable about it.

And I'm sorry. Did you get any dirty looks from the people in the office? No, I didn't, thankfully. I would like to apologize to the guy at the gas station for telling him, I hope he has a bad day. What were your exact? So he says, have a good day. And you said, I don't want you to have a good day. I said, I don't want you to have one.

I think it was a really funny line, actually. Okay. Because I was being honest and truthful. You know, I lie four times a day. That was not a lot. That was a complete truth. Yes. But it was rude of me to say.

I could have defused the situation and said you have a nice day too, a whole. And I didn't do it, though. Yeah. Jonathan, what are you apologizing for? I'm going to apologize on behalf of my girl at the instant at Rovers. They forgot her food at the drive-thru, and she drove off, got back to the house, realized that, called the manager and came back. I don't know what exactly was said. But she got three free meal coupons and an extra meal.

So I apologize on that worker. I know you're just a teenager. You messed up with the wrong girl. I'm sorry for that, man. All right. I'm going to find out from you right now what kind of girl your girl is. What was the order at Moulvers? It was the classic butter.

And then side salad. with no with mayo and no tomato you got a side salad at Movers really she's on keto she's on keto she's on keto brunt at the house all right then I have to we have to disqualify her because I was going to say if you go to Molvers you don't get the pork sandwich with curly crinkle cut fries you're doing it wrong

those fries oh they're good all right So that takes care of that. Let's see what Charles says. He says he wants to say he's sorry to me. This is what I live for, these types of calls. Charles, good morning. You're on 790.

What's going on? Hey, what's up, guys? No, I just want to say I'm sorry that your choice in music is terrible. Oh. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You can suck it. I'm sorry to the rest of us for having to listen to it.

I'm sorry. And I'm sorry. to my sister because she came from New York wearing a Yankees at one day, and I told her some choice word, and I just want to say I'm sorry for that, even though she's an idiot for doing that. But at least you love her, right? Eh, you know. It's fine.

You know, a sibling love right there. I bet you're a barrel of fun that parties, Charles, right? Sometimes, I guess. I don't know. I'm sorry. Thank you for the phone call, Charles. Wow. I'm sorry, Jonathan, for not liking Jolene. I'm sorry.

I feel like I've hurt your feelings, and it's just, it's just okay. No, I need to that. And then you played Mandy after. Yay! I'm like, come on, man. By the way, other bangers would be, Come on, Eileen, would be another great song. That's a good one.

Yeah. There's a lot of songs involved in the ladies. Don't worry. Don't worry. 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Geo on 7. But I mean, Gio, what's the matter with you, and who are you apologizing to? Matt, Ross, Jonathan, man.

I'm apologizing on behalf of someone because I know the type of guy that he is, he would never admit that he's sorry. But for one, I want to apologize to a gas station attendee for some guy who went in and gave him a hard time about, you know, gas and pumping and this and that. And, you know, just, just total, you know, Excuse my French, man, but total douche behavior. You know what I mean, man? You don't want to do that, man.

So I apologize to that gas station attendee, man. You can suck it, Gio. I was right. He says, bro, how much you want? I said, bra, I don't know how much there is. That's ridiculous. Let me finish. I got one more.

I got one more. I got one more, all right? And I want to say, I want to apologize to Ross and Jonathan for having to work with the self-proclaimed Mr. Texas. Come on, man. Let's keep it at Mr. Kingwood at least, man People around the country say, look who's walking in the front. When I got to the hotel here in New York, Gio, this morning, 3 o'clock,

Mr. Texas walking to our hotel. It's happening all over the place. It's a national phenomenon. Matt. I love you like a long, lost, rich stepdad, man, but you're no Mr. Texas. I'm sorry, man. Let me tell you some. I'm sorry.

I thank you, Gio. I have been to Lubbock. I have been to El Paso. I have been to Beaumont. I've had so many great experience on the streets and freeways at the highways of our state. I've had chicken fried steak. I've had brisket. I've had chili.

I've done it all. Thus, the reason why I'm Mr. Texas. It doesn't like Jolene. Jim in the Heights. Jim, who are you apologizing to? Well, first of all, I'm not in the Heights. I was born at Hikes Hospital. I just got that nickname from a former sportscaster.

that reminds that sounds like the other side of the pillow. So that's where I got the nickname. Fair enough. But anyway, let me tell you what I'm sorry for. I am the guy that sets at the red light and notices people looking down at their phone, not looking at the red light, and I'm quick to give them the good old beep feet. And I did it yesterday, and it was, I got a little closer, and it was a handicapped driver.

I felt like a complete ass. So I'm sorry Oh, I'm sorry Oh, I'm sorry Oh, I'm sorry Hmm Okay I'll get people every day

At a red light Are you? What are the guy Steve Boudreau That said something terrible about me I wanted me to die of cancer yesterday I didn't know his name But sure Well, I'm saying his name

He sent me an email Just two seconds ago It says Oh really I see you're triggered by my comments On Instagram LOL Your young female relatives Were Good in bed

And he shows me He has a picture of a woman having sex with a man and he sent me a photo. What? This is a deranged person right now. Yeah, yeah. Just go ahead and block him and...

He sent you a what? I'm going to send it to y'all. No, wait, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not trying to get flat. I'm not trying to get flat. I'm thinking about calling the police. Steve, you're nuts. Who is this person?

God Almighty, what is wrong with people? Hmm. Yeah, just go ahead and block that person and all right sorry to be a damper on that but this is Bob what are you apologizing for I'm going to say I'm sorry to two things number one the Canadian woman's hockey team when they were crying and and then all upset

and I was really laughing because they really thought they had that wrapped up and the other thing I'm going to say this is a pre-sorry sorry to all the Arizona people that are going to spend their weekend, their Saturday at our house and watch their team lose big time as we take our frustration from the last loss out on them on national TV. That's Mr. Patriotic Bob right there. Team USA for Life. Team USA and go Coogs.

And go Coogs, yeah. I mean, I find zero wrong with the phone call. Low-key thrashing other countries, rooting for Team USA, and Go Coogs against Arizona. We wake the strippers up next, plus in a half an hour. We say hello to Tim Legler of ESPN and ABC. It's a Matt Thomas show Ross here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1204 in H-town.

Gingster! It's a Friday edition. to the Matt Tompoh show at Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. The Matt Tompich show with Ross, and anything goes Friday continues. Sports Talk 790. Those poor people. If we were down there, we probably would have gotten a donut.

They're trying to back up their trailer and get out of the stadium, and then they get harassed. Let me take it. By a man demanding, they pull over and fire up all of their friars to make him a donut. Yeah. And I would have given them a plug, and they would have got a lot of business from the Houston fans that would have come down to West Palm Beach. They're already in the prime spot of West Palm Beach. You like many donuts, right? Who doesn't?

Lemonade. Ooh, sugar high for sure. Let's go. I go with a coffee. Coffee's not bad either. Yeah, coffee you go with the sweetness and then, you know. So I was portly in. I was Portland in Minnesota.

I did my show before Twins games on the Metrodom and it's like a little mini trailer and right across the street from me was a mini donuts place and they gave me many donuts every single day. Wow. Six game homestand. That was a lot of donuts. Sounds like a lot of donuts. Yeah.

Hey, we've got Tim Langer coming up at the bottom of hour, Ross. What? I know, but you know we need to hear first. What do we need to hear first, Matt? Some amazing Matt Thomas highlights is part of the news at noon. Well, I'll see if we have any. amazing. Oh, stop.

So rude. I said I'll see. I didn't really. Oh, hold on. Sorry, I had to restart the computer. So let me just get something in order here. Uh-huh. How's everything you, Matt? I'm good.

You're in New York City? Yeah. New York City. New York City. By the way, the delicate contestants are great. I had a great everything bagel today. Delicious. All right, here we go.

Rockets defeat the Charlotte Hornets last night. in North Carolina. Now, Meadow's going to back away allowing Shepard to freely inbound the basketball. Gives it to Alpey, left side angle. Nine on the timer. Behind him to Duran. At midcourt with seven, six, five, four.

Double pump shot, left side. Got it, 17 feet. Duran again with a clutch basket, 103, 98, 21 seconds remaining. Big basket there from Kevin Durrani. He would also sink two clutch. free throws. Rockets beat the Charlotte Hornets 105 to 101 last night

and they go for two in a row. Tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden, the mecca of basketball. It is overrated facility because it's old, the people are extraordinarily rude. I mean, the rudest people in the NBA league-wise, like attendance and stuff.

People that work are Madison Square Garden. But you still have to claim it's history, for sure. The world's most famous arena? what they call it? I call it the world's most overrated arena, but I still appreciate that. That's kind of rude. I don't think they're going to put that on a banner. Probably not. At the place. All right, a couple of things going on. Let's go with the

Winter Olympics as United States and Canada lost in the women's Olympic curling semifinals. Matt, your thoughts on that? We've got four years to rebound. Okay. It's a long

time. Don't you feel like you're the number one team in the Olympics and you don't win. That's a long four years. But I digress. Finland was beating Canada 2 to 1 in the second period of the semifinals of the men's hockey

Olympics. But now Canada has seized the lead. They are up on Finland 3 to 2 in the third period right now. As Finland is discussing things with 17.3 seconds to go looks like it's going to be Canada headed to the finals.

Where's the watch party? I don't know. It's going to be at Cole Thompson's house. I thought Cole was coming in with a hockey report. Yeah, I thought he was too. By the way, Sidney Crosby was out for the semis. As the MRI did not show, let's see, it was an MRI for the lower body injury.

It was not the worst case scenario. And maybe Sidney Crosby, well, we'll be back for the final. We'll see on that. elsewhere in the news, Matt. Kurt Signetti got a new deal with the Indiana Hoosiers after... I want you to... Yes, I want you to slowly tell the world how much money he's getting for the next handful of years. He is under contract now until 233.

He is making an average of $13.2 million per year to coach football. I know it's insane to make $50 million a year playing 80 basketball. basketball games. So everything is relative. Yes. He's going to make a million dollars a game to coach.

Well earned by the Indiana Hoosiers. And remember, I thought he was going to get hired away this whole time and he won a championship and now he signed a big deal. So he's planning his flag. That's his last, I mean, I think he's, what, 63, 64 years old somewhere in that range? You know, if he wins two or three at freaking

Indiana, which has more losses than any major program in history, we're going to start thinking about putting, we've got to start thinking about that all-time list. That's, because I mean, Sabin 1 in Alabama, of course not a sample size, and he's older, so it's going to be hard for him out of a storied career.

I don't know. Let me see what Indiana looks like in five years. Of course. We just do that. Look, he's the hot thing, and is he going to win the national championship every single year? No. Certainly not as the playoff has as many rounds as it does now. It's going to be even that more difficult.

But just interesting. But Kurt Signetti, New Deal with the Indiana Hoosiers. Elsewhere, Matt, Jalen Brown is considering action against Beverly Hill, the city of Beverly Hills. After police shut down a private event,

he was hosting Saturday during NBA All-Star weekend. He was embarrassed and frustrated by Beverly Hills Police shutting down his event around 7 p.m. Saturday without any discussions of him or the owner of the house. He is raising concerns about due process, insignificant, financial, and reputational harm. What kind of party was it? It was just like a, I think it was a private party at a home.

And the police came in and shut the whole thing down, and it kind of became a little bit of a national story. And he says he spent $300,000 on the canceled event, while sponsors spent roughly $300,000, $300,000. $500,000. This is in LA. It was just like an All-Star event. I was going to say.

I would say a chance to meet with Jaylen Brown. Yeah. I would say don't do those things. You get promised to like a golf tournament. Hey, come play with these guys. They probably, first of all, they don't play with you. Second of all, they don't have time for you. Same thing with those parties.

It was at a Beverly Hills home owned by Oakley Sunglasses founder, Jim Ginnard. Yeah, they're all trying to turn an extra profit during the All-Star break. Good for them. Because I mean, I know Jalen Brown's hurting for money. Yeah, what's he making? Probably like $45 a million shoot or something like that. All right, by the way, we know we have not mentioned. Did you see Lamello balls get up after the game last night?

No, I did not. He went to the podium to talk about his Hornets losing the Rockets. Did he have a traffic going on? Very briefly talked about the accident. He went up there with a towel around his neck. He was not wearing a shirt, and his basketball shorts were probably three quarters of the way down. You could clearly see his underwear.

Okay. Go look at it. It's not how you should look and dress at a press conference setting. Let's see. I don't know. You just want to go find a picture of a man in his underwear. That's what you're asking me to do. I'm saying go look at a lamello ball.

And you'll be backing me up on this. Okay. All right. That's the news at noon at 1216. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, we'll hear from the ESPN lead analyst. He looks comfortable. It certainly looks comfortable.

I mean, it'd be like me doing my show my underwear right now. You think I'm comfortable? See, these are the mental pictures we don't need. Well, I can send you a photo if you want me to. No, please don't. You've already sent me enough photos that I didn't need. Yeah.

What do you think about that one? From Stephen Boudreau. No, no, I deleted it immediately. What's wrong with you? What's wrong with that guy? What's wrong with you? There's a great people in our world. Yeah, there certainly are.

I'm hosting a show with one of them. You got that right. 12-16. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-7-90. This is a jam right here, period. Of course. I think people are really mixed about police and sting.

I'm generally speaking enjoy his stuff. That's a good, not great to me. I'm a good not like all-time great. Properly rated. How about that? Yeah, properly rated. I'd see him in concert. Probably with a free deal.

Yeah. I wouldn't pay for it. who would you pay for I think I've asked you this a few times over the years who have you not seen in concert you're like I would pay to see this let's see I paid for my weekend ticket think

yeah I did I've paid to see Kendrick Lamar three times I don't know depends I mean I have the luxury of being in a job where we can for most things we can get tickets so yeah I paid for Paul McCartney four times and I'm done because the voice is gone

and I love him. But that's enough for me. I'm done with Manilow. It was enough. It was a good time. I saw him in Vegas last year. Good show. Done.

Saw the Eagles in Vegas. That was amazing. And apparently now that Don Henley is going to retire after this last run of things. So I'm glad I did that. I'm trying to think of somebody that's currently, I mean, I want to go see John Cougar Mellon camp when he comes to Houston on like a quote-unquote farewell tour for him.

Fleetwood Mac, I think it's going to do something with Jackson Brown to close out a year. That'd be good. I'm still a Fleetwood Mac fan. I've known Christine McVas passed away. I'd pay for that. It's good. I try to go to the Symphony once or twice a year. Pay for that.

I went to Eremanos Gutierrez last year. I paid for that. Nice. Let's see. It just depends. I think we got to, I think I figured out of date for the Hibachi lunch, by the way. Yeah, hurry up. Please.

Next, when. We'll get this out of the way. We're going to go at lunchtime so we can save you a little bit of lunch. Oh, yeah. We'll get that lunch price. Let's go. I mean, I feel that's the least I can do.

Thank you. Since you can you get bad information. I was getting bad advice. I was so confident, too. I know. That's the best part of it. You were playing a sizzling sound effects. You were talking about you want to upgrade the choice of me.

No. I mean, you know, I was just joking, Matt. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah. That's what it is. It was a good bit while it lasted. I did. The only bet on the board we have right now is Chips and Casol on, what is it on?

I got low perfido with a... No, we have another bet. Oh, it's about the Joe Mixon foot situation. It's that. And we also have your... I think I got a list. Let me go pull this up. I have Yord on at one point in the next 10 years playing 100.

30 games in a season. Let me ask you this in all sincerity. If he doesn't do that, how much is it tarnish his legacy as an astro? I think his legacy has already been established. If he never plays 130 games ever again, yes, it's not going to be good. It's going to be unbelievable.

He's had such a great mark as an astro. He's been over 133 of the last four years, three of the last five years, I think. Okay. Is he in the top five of Astro? all time. Right now? Yep.

No? Biggio. We're talking about Bageo Bagwell-A-Touvae. Position players. Okay. Position players only? Birkman.

Bigwell. Bigwell. Bigwell. Bageo-Bagwell-Tubei. Berkman. I think you probably put Bregman or Correa ahead of him at the moment. At the moment, just for longevity.

And then, of course, we're not even counting anybody that was an astro of yesterday year. Yeah, probably. That's hard to do you. Well, I was going to say Joe Morgan, but his best days were red. Oh, Tony Husebio. Jose Cruz? Say, Sarasadano.

Go find Jose Cruz in an Astros game and tell me you're kicking him out for Yaron and Alvarez. Go tell him. See how that works for you. He might, you know, he's a very humble man. That he is. All right, let's focus on what's going on in the NBA. is going to call tomorrow's game on ABC is, I think, one of the best analysts in basketball today. We are going to be joined for the first time ever on this show by Tim Legler of ESPN and ABC.

He'll join us next here at 1227. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. It's 1231 on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm here in New York City. Ross back in Houston, Rockets and Knicks tomorrow night. You can catch the game right here on 790 beginning at 730. If you are watching on television, you will see the game on show.

Channel 13 ABC, where the man will be calling the game alongside Mike Breen. He'll be with us now. A first-time guest to the show, and I mean an absolute no-brainer when ESPN decided to make a change in their booth to have Tim Legler as a number one game caller. Tim, it's Matt and Ross. Thank you so much for coming on. Legs, how are you this morning, and thanks for joining us. Hey, I'm great.

How are you guys doing? I'm doing very well. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night, man. Madison Square Garden, Saturday night, ABC Primetime, Rockets, Nicks. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, for sure. I want to say, first of all, I'm so happy that ESPN made the decision.

I thought you and Scott on the Sports Center at night really had a terrific chemistry. Take us through that show because, look, your parent network is so good at so many things, but some things people go, I can give it or take. But that dichotomy of the sports center with Van Belpelt yourself and you were doing it was kind of almost like must-see television after any big NBA sporting event. Well, I think, you know, we really hit our stride because Scott and I have known each other a long time. We have a great friendship. So our chemistry is pretty natural.

And what we were able to kind of provide was that breakdown. That breakdown with touchscreen, demonstrations, trying to make people smarter what they just watched became very, very popular. A lot of people connected with that because, you know, the game ends, you want to find out. And I think what I try to do every night and sitting there watching the games with Scott. and then knowing I'm going to go on the air was I was always trying to find, you know, that nugget, hidden nugget within the game that I knew was like really important to why the outcome happened the way that it did. And maybe people watching didn't know it was that important.

And that's what I was always trying to look for. Scott was the perfect person to sort of find that with because he loves basketball. I mean, he's an incredible studio host that has to cover all sports, but that guy loves basketball. And so those segments, I think, kind of brought that. that out. Two guys that love hoops, that love talking about the game, and we're able to sit down and break it down afterwards and make you smarter.

Tim, I love basketball. I'm the proud voice of the team. You have been in the league as an analyst, as a longtime NBA player yourself, and we were talking about this very early in our show today. For as wonderful as the sport is, and this could go for a major league baseball, go for the NFL. There are so many

extra things outside of the sport itself that gets a lot of attention. primarily on the social media streets. And I mentioned this last night because I was in Charlotte calling the Rockets Hornets game. When you get in the arena and you watch Kevin Durant and you watch Concanipal and you watch Brandon Miller and any of the Rockets,

when you sit down and don't focus on labor or resting or tanking, it's still a wonderful game. Do you still find yourself having to battle the separation between the 94 feet and then stuff outside the business of the NBA? Yeah, look, those topics are always coming up, so you're always kind of forced to address them and talk about them. But the bottom line is you're right. And sitting courtside, you still see it every night. Like when you're sitting there calling a game, you can still see every night how hard these guys are playing, how much they care.

There are other problems, like larger picture problems sometimes with maybe load management or player availability. You know, star players being hurt. There's been a lot of injuries to star players. And that really dramatically affects our product because those are the guys. that you're dying to see. Those are the guys that really kind of change of the game. And when they're not there, it is a different

product. And then the tanking obviously has been a lot of talk here recently about that. Adam Silver is trying to get control of that, figure out new measures to control it. So all that stuff is always kind of going around in the air and in the surface and you're trying to kind of work your way around it. But when you get to the game and you're

watching these guys play, and you're watching the talent and the skill and how hard they play, If you love basketball, that is a basketball fan's dream. And I still think this time of year now, after the All-Star break, when everybody is just sitting there battling and trying to play as hard as they can for seating and play in situations and you're trying to make your mark. There's a sprint to the finish.

When you come out of the break, this is when the most intense basketball on the planet takes place. And that's what the area we're about to enter into right now. There is no better time for a basketball fan. Tim Legler from ESPN and ABC with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Rockets and Knicks tomorrow night on ABC. I have the last 10 years called James Hardin, and I've called Chris Paul Russell Westbrook. I'm just talking about the Houston players that I've had the pleasure of calling.

But there's something different legs about Kevin Durant, 37 years old plus. Last night, he's taking 20 shots. He's making 13 of them. He's 35 points for them against the Hornets. He's carrying this team offensively on his back. I know you're not supposed to be amazed by players because, hell, LeBron's been doing it for 20-plus years. But tell me about in your particular thoughts

about watching Kevin Durand even in just the last five years. He's a machine. And look, and I was watching the game against the Hornets, and I'm sitting there going during his time in the league, the number of years he's been in the league, which is approaching 20 years, there has been no more shot to me that is more as a result than Kevin Durant going to his right hand for a pull-up jump shot.

And you think how hard it is to be efficient when you shoot a lot of contested jump shots, and you're basically a perimeter-based player, which he is, how hard it is to be efficient and get up into that 50% field goal range. The guy's done it for, I believe, 13 consecutive years. I mean, you go look at the best mid-range jump shooters in the history's league. You look at guys like Michael Jordan. You look at guys at Kauai Leonard. you know, their longest streaks of their career are like five, six years in a row.

Kevin Rance's like 13 years, straight. And to be doing it at his age and to be that automatic, particularly going to his right hands, pull up 15, 18 feet with his length, the natural lean back, you know, the perfect shooting mechanics. You still marvel at it. And on those nights when he does it in the fourth quarter like he did against Charlotte last night, it's still, you're still just, you know, it's awesome to watch. really are kind of just watching this guy. You're going, this is one of the all-time great generational talents,

and he can still do it at that level. And when he's able to put together a stretch like that in the fourth quarter, there's nothing you can do defensively to be able to stop that because that shot is almost impossible to deter because of the area of the floor in which you're taking the shot. You can't run out and take it out of his hands at the three-point line. He doesn't have to get all the way to the rim. 12 to 18 feet pull up.

In a one-on-one situation, it's as automatic as it comes, and he did it again last night. So, you know, appreciate these guys. You know, Steph Curry, LeBron, James, Kevin Durant. You know, these guys, you don't know how much longer you're going to get to see him, but I think you need to just appreciate what you're taking in every night because they're one-offs, each of those guys in what they do. And for Kevin Arant, that means contested mid-range jump shots. Very few guys, handful of guys.

And the history of this league has done it as good as he does. Ross, with you here as well, Tim, in Houston. And on Kevin Durant. We love him here in Houston. I'm a Longhorn fan. I love Kevin Durant. But I'm just curious, your perspective, because there are some reasons to be a Kevin Durant detractor because of the burner stuff, joining a ready-made Golden State team, and now this even more recent burner stuff. How do you weigh all of that with somebody who is an all-time great?

And right now, as we speak, chasing down Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. Yeah, look, I think for me, it's easy. I'm a basketball analyst. So some of the stuff that, with the burner accounts, some of the stuff you're going to see on social media, I kind of stay away from that. My job is to break down Kevin Durant to player. And look, sometimes that does bleed over into locker room stuff or leadership

or decisions that guys make in their careers when they change teams. And it's obviously part of my job. You're going to comment on that. But when push comes a shove, I'm sitting down and I'm about to watch these guys play. I'm going to focus on what this guy is as a job. player and how unique he is and how talented he is. And when it's all said and done, you know, there will be a time and place when all these things get put into perspective, where do they rank historically, when you start to put

together these lists top 10, top 20 players of all time, all of this stuff will factor into it. But for me, in the moment, I'm just trying to appreciate Kevin Durant to player and all that stuff kind of keep to the side. I'm looking at him and what he does and the unique challenge. that he represents for defenses. Continuing with Tim Legler here on a sports talk 790. I want to get your thoughts on him in Thompson,

especially, we know, first team all defense, great defender, and a blur in transition. But the thing that has been holding him back has been his jump shot. And I'm just curious you as a great jump shooter, your perspective on how do you find or get somebody to find their ceiling as a jump shooter, especially young in their career? because it's something we've said about Janice and maybe Russell Westbrook and other guys we can point to to say if that jump shot would get there and sometimes that just doesn't come to pass. Yeah, I think, look, one of the things that Amman Thompson is going to be dealing with is the fact that he's so successful in other areas of the game.

And really, still a very effective offensive player without having to do that. Sometimes it requires guys being forced into it because their weaknesses are exposed to such an extent. that now they're not even as effective offensively as they need to be to help their team win. It's not really the case with him. And I was watching it last night. Like, he had situations where they clearly were determined not to rotate to him when they were trying to run extra traffic at Duran or Shangoon, and they're saying they're going to live with Amman Thompson,

catching the ball with 15, 20 feet of space at the three-point line and live at the results. And a couple of those he shot missed. You know, they weren't particularly close. But then there's other plays he catches it. And regardless of all the space, he still drives it down the gut. and he's so athletic that he can come to a jumpstop in the paint, you know, hang in the air longer than other guys and still make a play at the rim or make a pass from that position or put pressure on the defense.

So he's still able to be effective and put up actually pretty respectable stat lines offensively, even though that shot right now is a win for the defense if he takes it. Very few guys have been able to pull that off. Normally, if you're exposed to that extent, it becomes a real problem and it becomes a dilemma for the coach to keep you on the floor. It's not the case with Amin Thompson because clearly you want his defense, but there's a lot of great defenders in this league that couldn't shoot, that eventually they're taken off the floor because the weakness starts to overshadow

what they are doing well offensively. It's not really the case with Amman Thompson. He's still able to walk that line as a playmaker and a finisher around the rim and a rebounder and the push he has up the floor in transition. There's so many things he can do well offensively without that, Now, if he ever figures that out and, you know, he just gets confidence and he continues to work on, you know, tightening up his mechanics and there's some things mechanically that he can work on, if he gets to that place, man, now you have an all-league caliber player. So we'll see. He's very, very young.

He's still having success, which hasn't forced him into addressing this, probably to the extent that he needs to. By all accounts, he's a grinder. He's in the gym. He works. So if that's the case, I think it will get there. And certainly he's already shown great tremendous. improvement from the foul line. That's really important for him. But now the three-point shot would be the next thing.

And maybe over time, next couple of seasons, you might see a pretty dramatic improvement there as well. Lakes for a let you run, the West is a hot mess like it was. Last year, we found out that being the number two seed was not going to give you guaranteed success with that seven-game series against Golden State. This is a long-winded question for you or the long answer. How do you size up the West? What can the rockets do? I know that the Fred Van Vleet injury has been talked about a lot. Stephen Adams being out for the year has hurt the rebounding.

From a Houston perspective, what has to happen for the Rockets to really go after the OKCs and the Denver's, and the Denver, Cs and the Degers and maybe not even San Antonio's for supremacy in the West coming up in the playoffs. Yeah, look, you mentioned those teams, OKC, Denver, San Antonio, Houston's in the mix. You've always going to have the Lakers sort of looming. You've got the Minnesota Timberwolves hanging there as well. It's been the last two conference finals. The West is loaded. it's a juggernaut, full of landmines.

All of these teams have had different stretches of the season where you start to look at their vulnerability. Oklahoma City has gone through that. They're 24 and 1. You're thinking, oh, well, let's just play on the parade route. They're going to win another championship. Who's beating this team? And then all of a sudden, San Antonio shows up beats them three times in 10 days,

and now everybody in the league goes, wait a second, maybe they can be had. Maybe there is a way to get OKC. Denver's going through it right now. I mean, and I think for me that the common theme with a lot of these teams is the lack of continuity with their top 10 rotation. And you look at what Denver's dealt with, even OKC, like how many nights I've watched OKC this year? And they're still like really good defensively. And I look over and Alex Caruso and Luke Dorton and street close. And you're like, wait a second, these two the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, they're not playing tonight.

And they still held some team to 102 points. So, but their depth hasn't really come to the surface because they're always missing people. Denver is still going through it right now without Aaron Gordon. Peyton Watson goes out, just get Christian Brown back. This is, Sam Johnson just goes back. So everybody has dealt with this lack of continuity. And as a result, they're still shuffling the deck to me in the Western Conference. I would still say OKC is the favorite.

I think San Antonio and Denver are probably toe-to-to-toe as the next best challenger to OKC. And then I would put Houston just behind them because I need to see a consistent stretch out of the rockets where they run off eight, nine in a row, and they are so consistent on both ends of the floor. And when you have this great answer in Kevin Durant offensively now that they didn't have a year ago, you take them much more serious. But the inconsistency and some of the stretches I've watched them play this year, you go, okay, maybe they're not quite there yet. So I would still say Oklahoma City is the betting favorite. San Antonio, Denver would be on the next shelf. Houston's just behind them. And then I think the Lakers of Minnesota probably hovering as well.

Legs, great to visit with you. Thank you so much for the time. You're a good luck charm because I think you've seen the Rockets once on Christmas Day, and that was a fun night in Los Angeles. So hopefully it has to repeat itself for the local team. Thank you for the time. Safe travels to the city, and we will visit with you tomorrow. Thanks again for the time.

We really appreciate it. Yeah, my pleasure. Looking forward tomorrow night. Take care, guys. Thank you. That's Tim Legler joining us from ABC and ESPN. He'll be on the call for the Rockets and the NICS on TV. I'll have the call here on radio tomorrow night.

730 will be the start time from MSG. Thanks again to Tim Langeler for joining us. Again, easy decision to make the change when they... And look, I like Doris Burke, too. I think she's really good, but Tim Langeler's awesome, and I think you heard it right there. It can be on the call tomorrow night and just loves basketball, studies the game.

I thought the banter between him and Scott Van Pelt made you watch SportsCenter. And frankly, how much are you watching SportsCenter, of Rosson, 20, 25, 26. Not a whole lot these days. Not a whole lot, but Scott Van Pelt is great. If I do watch it,

it's probably usually he's on it. Because they put him on right after games, and I stick with it. Because usually I'm right after games, it's like the news, and I turn it off because after the third murder, I'm like,

what am I doing watching this? But with Scott, the third murder, when it's Scott Van Pelt, I stick with it. Yeah. Yeah. And he doesn't put on a hot takey guest after.

Usually the interview of the people right after the game. and smart analyst people on there. Yeah, it's just good. Scott Van Pelt is, if you were to create the Mount Rushmore of your favorite ESPN, not saying the people are most legendary attached to it,

because obviously that would be like Chris Berman, who else would be like a hallmark of ESPN, Bob Lee, you know what I mean? But in terms of making the shows great, Scott Van Pelt makes ESPN what we always want to, ESPN to be. Unapologetically smart and not hot takey

especially in 20206 is hard to pull off and be successful and he does it. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-70. More basketball chatter coming up. Look, gang, spring training

is awesome, but it doesn't move the needle in terms of the game results itself. That'll obviously happen when the season really begins, but we will have positional battles. and obviously frequent updates to what's happening down in Florida, so we'll keep that up. But this is a good time for basketball.

We've got tournaments coming up in the not too distant future. We got seedings, brackatology, and a huge basketball game tomorrow night, tomorrow afternoon over at the Petita Center. And we'll have Calvin Sampson join us in about 35 minutes to discuss that.

Right now we go to Emmanuel, calling us from the entire state of California. Hi, Emmanuel. What's going on? Hey, guys. I'm a big U of A fan, so I've been waiting a long. time to talk to you by Uva versus Houston.

You know, I know you're a big coup guy, you're a long, and I got nothing but respect for them. I'm not going to call and talk trash because I know that it's going to be hard as heck to win over there, and we're hurt a little bit with Coa Pete out and stuff like that. But I just hope it's a real good game, no blowouts. It's going to be hard to win for sure. We're going to have to bring it physically, going to have to be physical on the, anywhere in the key, and just make sure.

we just keep crashing the boards, stay on the boards, get more rebounds, more chance to score. Because you guys are, you know, you should have won the national championship last year. You guys are a national championship team this year. And it's going to take a lot to win. But, you know, I think we can give you a battle. If we do win, it's going to be about like two, three points.

If we do lose, it could be like 10 or more. But I'm just excited to talk to you about college ball because we never get to talk because U of A doesn't play Houston very often, and now we're both in the Big 12, so I'm excited about it. Hey, do you miss the Pac-12 at all, or do you like this? I think Big 12 basketball has been absolutely amazing. It's been so much fun to see the league getting as much positive earn as it's gotten. It's as far as I'm concerned.

It's everything that I thought it would be in terms of a – it was going to be a good football conference. It's an elite basketball conference. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have like four or five of the top ten. That is crazy for one conference. And I do miss the Pat 12 a little bit. Just because all rivalries, UCLA and USC and Oregon was always a battle to go up there and play. And Eugene was always hard to win.

And so, but, you know, as we go along, times change and we have to move. So I'm excited, though. Now we get to play Kansas and we get to play you guys. You see, we get to play. We're getting into good rivalry with BYU now. so that's becoming a quick early arrival. We're starting with those guys. And then I'm just excited to finally see Houston and U of A playing in the regular season.

You know, it's a good barometer to see how good we really are. We went to Kansas. We lost a close one, and then we lost the Texas Tech 2. But they bounced back. We handled BYU on Wednesday. So I'm excited again for a really good game tomorrow. And either way, I'll call you again next week. and we'll talk about the game and also go Rockets.

Real quick, I think the ceiling for us this year is the second round just because of Vanfrey not there. I think if he was there, we'd have a real shot at the finals. But I really love the team anyways, and I'm so glad we have a great player like Katie on our team. It's just amazing to watch them play every night. So go Rockets and I'll keep listening to you guys. You guys are the best. Thank you, Manuel. Nice to hear from you.

And we'll get more on the game itself when Coach Samson joins us in about 20 minutes from now. 12.59 on the mat, half an hour from now. Florida story is coming up. Ross, we can actually say, where's your Florida story from? You can say Tampa or Orlando or Gainesville. Jupiter. Or Jupiter. Or I have a story about an A-Hull gas hole attendant in Fort Lauderdale.

Oh, really? That was rude to a very polite, nice person. I got his ass kicked. Who didn't wish a guy a nice day? What o'clock on 790? This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt and Ross with you on Sports Talk 790. Our time is 104.

Rossie, my Florida story this week involves a sport. How about that? I think I know which one it is. Do I need to give you the city? Is it? No, this is. great because I didn't is this in Volusia County?

Let's see where county it is in porn orange Oh Volusia County that's it Okay good I was Because I found a story before this one And I was like I was literally about to get email To Jonathan But he's eating enchiladas

So we didn't get to talk about it But uh Yeah I'm glad we're gonna go with that I'm glad this was getting done Valencia County Sheriff will be giving you an update so good.

It's Florida stories coming up in about 15 minutes. Okay, yeah, I think we got to make sure nobody's I'm going with Valrico. Valrico, Florida. Valrico, all right. I think this story is so good. I may have to send it to E. Mayadoca.

You should. That's kind of a little teaser on that. And there's nothing to do with basketball, ironically enough. Oh, wait, I got to register for this, a full article. Never mind. All right, Ross, anything on the news headline front in the last couple of hours? No.

I mean, do you want a medal count, Winter Olympics? I believe we've got spring training games underway, correct? I think. If you were to put on the MLB network? Astros legend Kennedy Corona just made a big catch for the Yankees. Did he really? In center field, yeah, covered a ton of ground. Oh, my God, we're getting our ass kicked.

Norway has 37 medals, 17 golds, at least the United States. States is up to second now tied with Italy with nine golds and 27 total metals. Nine golds, 12 silvers, six bronze. Norway's going to get this bad boy running away. So how about this? Let's throw open and a question out for the audience. Are you disappointed with Team USA? 713-212-5-790.

I think Norway, they were the medal winners last time. They just kick ass. I can name one city in Norway, Oslo. Damn it. I was hoping. You wouldn't say that one. You know what you could go with? Norway City.

Norway's always a good defense. Norwaiten? No. So really, I have Oslo and you have the field, and we can't think of another name of the city in that. No, I don't even, I'm looking up other cities, and I don't know any of these. Bergen, Trondheim. Oh, by the way, what? Oh, today's edition of Hellyer and out's got to be all things about Norway.

It could. Well, you got about less than an hour. If you want. I was going to maybe do interesting facts about Astros members because, behind the curtain, folks. We got a nice little fact book from the Astros PR team, so I got a lot of interesting facts

about the players, and I can use them in, believe it or not. Yeah, use them in hell you or not, and since I'll be handling Kelvin Samson's conversation, you can work on that right there. Perfectly. I got a Florida story.

I'm eating food. That's where we should mention one of our assistant program directors, Callum, is a human lady or expecting a child, and today was bring diapers and wipes day, and the office was going to

feed you lunch as part of a little gift. And thankfully, you and Jonathan both chimed in and chipped in together to buy him some wipes and diapers. That was nice of y'all. Now, I actually didn't do that. Jonathan did, actually. I think I was not at the office today, so I sent my diapers ahead of time. Did you really?

Yeah. I Amazon and their house. I don't believe you. Go ask him. Well, that's great. I just sent a gift card. Is that okay? No, absolutely.

Okay. Sometimes the best gift card you can give for a baby shower is give an adult gift because let's say that, you know, the baby's having a difficult time sleeping and you could use a glass of a Chardonnay at 1.30 in the morning during feeding, then, you know, that's an adult gift. Yeah, I just sent a Ramazon gift card and I got a plate of food out of it, so it's a fair deal. Yeah, for sure. By the way, you see congratulations to Ramazon. They're now the most sought after online buying. I think Walmart was won for a while, and now where Amazon's taken over that.

Oh, really? I would have guessed they were already won. That's what I was thinking, too. You're saying my ads for Walmart didn't push them back to number one. Do you know why I miss Walmart not being on the station? Walmart. Because you were doing the Spanglish.

Yes. Haritos de tamarindo. Yeah. Mateo. I found out, I found myself speaking the words of the commercial and not knowing what a word I was saying. Come on, compa. You hear that Walmart?

Come on back to 790. We don't bite. Let's go. All right. Trying to beat Jeff Bezos somehow. So let's go back to Tim Lingo for a second before we get to the Florida stories. Okay.

It felt like to me, and look, I wasn't asking him to give us a Uber pro rocket thought, but the consensus, you're going to be hard to find anybody that's going to not want to put the favoritism on the Oklahoma City Thunder, especially if SGA gets back healthy, and Jalen Williams is back healthy for them. They're really good for a reason.

They were on pace to win 72 games until the injury bug started kicking a little bit. but they've been a little bit over 500 since then, but they're still very, very good. Rocket's got a huge win up there, but no SGA, no Jalen Williams, and Rockets have a none of them in time, some of that game.

But the only thing I will say, and this will be probably a too much of a pro-rocket take on this, and for that, that's fine. You can take it with a grain of salt. I don't, I'm not scared of, I'd be more scared of Oklahoma City if it was a one-and-done thing. I want to see what this team can do

if it happens to get to a five or six or a, seven game series. Because the games have been Uber competitive. They have. I mean, Oklahoma City did beat the Rockets down in Houston, but the game was back and forth

for three quarters. What happened in the fourth? I think I fell asleep. So do the Rockets. They score like 81 points in that game or something. Bad? I know. My SGA was foul baiting.

Oh, what? He's going to stop in the play? playoffs. Hopefully we get Scott Foster working games. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, 91 points, not 81. Okay, if OKC is one, is San Antonio the second biggest threat in the West?

Or do you say you've got to prove it to me in the playoffs first? Because the Aaron Fox has not any sort of playoff experience. I mean, you can't put the ride. The Rockets have improved in the playoffs, so you can't put them in this first. Yeah, I'm not saying the Rockets have. But you do have an all-time grade on your squad that has been through playoffs. I'm going to go with them because they're literally only two and a half games behind the Thunder.

And they beat him what? They're three and two against them or four and one? They have at least three wins. I think they had the extra matchup because of the NBA Cup. Right, right. So, I mean, I'm going to put them there, honestly. By the way, just for those that say, well, this team's, you know, doesn't feel the same of a year ago.

The Rockets are 34 and 20. They were 34 and 20 this exact moment a year ago. They wanted to win 52 games. Yeah, 4 and 1 they are against the Thunder. So they got the fifth matchup because of the NBA Cup.

Yeah. But, I mean, think that's for San Antonio. Wemby's not been in the playoffs before. Castle's not been the playoffs before. Deerrin Fox, it's been years. I understand. Harrison Barnes has been there, done that. I get that.

I respect that. Julian and Champany has no playoffs. deep playoff experience to speak of. I don't think the Thunder had much deep playoff experience for last year. They didn't. They didn't. You're right. So I'm just going to say, I mean, they're in the two-seat.

It's not even close. They're four and a half games ahead of the Rockets. We're the three. With the Nuggets. Like I said, like you and I have been talking about, the Rockets can stay at three. We're going to be in good shape. I wouldn't mind playing the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.

Selfishly, one, because I love L.A. And number two, I think the Rockets can beat the, Lakers. I think this talk of LeBron potentially retiring and maybe going or going back to Cleveland's going to, you know, and whether or not the Lakers want to keep around, that's a storyline that just isn't going away for them. And it's been talked about for about two months now even before the trade deadline. Yeah, I just, my gut feeling is it's just still the thunders to win and they're going to win at barring injuries. So we'll see. All right. Up next, we do it when one of us or two of us or all three of us find ourselves in Florida for any length of time. It's Florida

Stories next. One-14 on Sports Talk 790. We find interesting stories that occur outside the state of Florida and share them with the people of Houston. It's time for none. Every week we do the stories outside the Sunshine State, but if one of us finds ourselves in the Sunshine State, we get forward. Florida stories. And Ross and Jonathan, I've got great news for you. One week from today, this show will come to you from Miami, Florida. Oh, that is great news.

Back to back weeks of Florida stories. This is easy. This is easy. There's like five great stories I want to bring you guys. All right, I'm going to go first here. What began as a routine pickleball match at a Florida country club ended in chaos. Country Club. after a heuded dispute allegedly escalated into a physical brawl involving dozens of people.

Anthony and Julian Sapienza were arrested following the February the 8th altercation at the Spruce Creek Country Club in Port Orange, Florida. according to the affidavit the Valencia or Volusia County Sheriff's Office responded around 11 10 a.m. after a 911 caller reported a physical fight in progress that reportedly drew

more than 20 individuals into the fray. 20 people on a single pickleball court? That's got to be really congested, by the way, right? Probably. Investigators, the confrontation began during a doubles pickleball game between the Sapiens's and another couple. Tensions flared after Anthony accused his male opponent of violating a rule related to the kitchen. Yes.

The seven-foot no-valley zone near the net designed to prevent aggressive smashes. The disagreement quickly turned verbal with insults allegedly exchanged in the court. According to court documents, as the game, concluded and the opposing couple began walking away, Anthony allegedly shouted your wife is a C. Oh, no.

The remark reportedly prompted the husband to a respond telling Anthony not to speak about his wife in that manner. Authorities alleged that Anthony didn't try to lunge to the man and punch him in the face. Nice. The affidavit also states that he also struck

the victim with a pickleball paddle causing severe injuries and bleeding. He's got blood coming from his nose and scratches on his forehead. At that point, the Sapienza's left the country club. Authorities found the couple later at their home. Both were taken into custody and charge of connection with the incident. Julianne Espienza faces a felony charge involving a person 65 years or older. Oh, wow.

Anthony Sapienza is charged with two counts of battery involving a person 65 years older, as well as one count of aggravated battery causing bodily harm. Some of the alleged victims, again, a total of more than 20 people on the court, were seniors. Wait a minute. What are they doing? Dude, pickleball gets intense. It does, but you're not dropping a C-word on the woman. across the net. Well, I haven't seen that, but I've seen some people get pretty serious about the

pickleball. And yeah, so the kitchen, like, if the kitchen is near the net, you can't volley from there. You got to have both feet out of the kitchen. But how does 16 other people go in there? I don't know, man. It's like the jets and the sharks in this pickleball match. I want you all to be driving around right now, thinking about a pickleball cord. And 20 people of at least 60 years Boulder brawling on this court with pickleball paddles. And that's my Florida story. Gentlemen. Thank you, Matt.

Jonathan, I literally have tried to decide between like four stories. You want me to go? I'm not getting, I'm not getting in doing, son. You're like, okay, fine. Let me go. Should I go with the, you know, I'm going to read these, Matt. You tell me which one to read. Restaurant faces backlash after selling iguana meat.

Or Clearwater Marketing Execx, Stealiener, handling 800K from his own firm spent it on strippers and other stuff. Oh, damn, that's good. Florida man tries to smuggle thermos inside his rectum into jail. Uh, iguana meat. North Palm Beach, Maddie.

Not far from where we are. Let me tell you about Buck's coal-fired pizza in North Palm Beach. It will no longer be offering its viral pizza topping that put it on the map. While iguanas were falling from trees, Buck's coal-fired pizza shared a video that inspired customers to try something new. The video says, quote,

How do you feel about me bringing in some iguana meat and making iguana pizza? Absolutely said Frankie Cessere, owner of Buck's coal-fired pizza. The restaurant received about 1,500 calls for iguana pizza, and it was highly sought after. People called and saying we have live iguanas, in house like an animal cruelty issue, we do not have live iguanas here as there were complaints to the health department. Despite not selling or killing live iguanas, bucks coal fire pizza is killing back on the topping for now. Ironically enough, Ross, there is a McDonald's one block from

there that are selling the mic iguana. All right. McGuana. Maguana. The restaurant is now working through regulatory questions about serving iguana meat. Oh, sorry. The owner, Cesary says, I thought it would fall under the catch and cook rule. Oh, gross. Oh, girl. Don't do that. It's terrible.

You don't need to, you don't, the catch and cook rule. You don't need a license to, you don't need a license to harvest iguanas. because they're an invasive species. But apparently there is no statute for it. Catch and cook iguana. Mmm, delicious. Jonathan, we got Calvin Samson standing by. What do you got for your Florida story?

All right. Florida man caught in sexual performance with a vacuum. Oh, no. A central Florida man was arrested this week after he caught engaging in a sexual performance with vacuum. As sheriff said, local 10 news partner WKMG in Orlando. The victims that observed his behavior provided a statement in a cell phone recording of a male, harshly clothed in front of a residence, engaged in a sexual performance with a vacuum cleaner. However, the deputy said the suspect had already left the area before a deputy could arrive. An investigation revealed that the suspect and his wife were listed as the host of an Airbnb in a home in the Winsdale Hill Resort.

He did it at the Airbnb? The investigating the beauty canvass the area. I don't know where they found him. They arrested him as Kevin Westlerhole at 51 who has caught near his home on Tuesday. Oh, that's Tuesday. Faces a charge of exposure of sexual organs. Don't worry about the cleaning fee. I got it, guys.

There is a line that I could use with this. Don't. But we have got Calvin Sampson next. Thank God. Thank God. 128. Calvin Sampson next on 790. It is 132 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

I'm here in New York City for the Rockets and the Knicks tomorrow night. If you are a basketball junkie, you're going to want to watch rockets in nighttime, but during the daytime you're going to want to be on ABC watching Arizona versus Houston or better yet inside the Fertita Center for the afternoon tilt and Coach Samson with us here on the show. Coach, it only feels like a decade plus ago. You and I are sitting in Hoffheims Pavilion. We're getting ready for a game with Tulane,

about 2,000 of our closest friends, maybe. And now you've got people trying to sell your tickets for $500 and $600 in the open market. Congratulations on making this the hottest ticket in town tomorrow afternoon. Well, thank you, Matt. I think one of the great things for, our university than the uh getting into the uh big 12 you got a good team in the big 12 you're probably one of the best teams uh nationally but you're also playing the best teams uh in the nation

and Arizona certainly fills uh fits the bills to that that is for sure did you look you knew how good the conference was when you first jumped into it but this year it just I mean Kevin, I'll be really honest. I'm watching a lot of basketball in my life. Sometimes I needed some time away, but if there's a BYU game on or an Arizona game on or a Kansas or an Iowa State, my goodness, I mean, this competition is going to get you ready for March Madness for sure. No, it's going to test you, great coaches, great fan bases, great home court advantages. But that's what you sign up for. That's why I'm so proud of what we've been able to create at the Partita Center.

Our fan base has been awesome, not just this year, but for a long time. So it's going to be a great test. Arizona has great size. They've got an elite senior point guard in Bradley. they've got one of the best freshmen in America that nobody talks enough about and Braden Burrys. And then the two big guys inside,

Crevas, 7-2-250, and then Oaxa, who's 69-260. Their size, their girl, they're extremely well-coached. They run their stuff. They've got a clear identity on who they are. But, you know, It's like playing Iowa State or Texas Tech, BYU.

We haven't played Arizona yet. We haven't played Kansas yet. But it's going to be a dotlet. If you're fortunate enough to win a game, you take it and move on. But even if you lose the game, you've got to find a way to learn something from it so you can get better next time out. Kevin, you've obviously had two of the most amazing freshmen of the Kansas. campus has had in a long period of time and there certainly get a lot of run. Take me through

what the Uzan and Sharp season's been like in your mind because those are the quote-unquote salty veterans been there and done that. Are they enjoying this right as much as all of us are as well? Probably more so. I think they take pride in their leadership. Our team is very inclusive on how we do anything, whether it's off the court, on the court, over to my house and night before every home game for film

Uno games sit around watching Jamal or Jaris or Marcus or Quentin one of the many Coopers we have in the NBA we love watching

watching them play together but Emmanuel's had an awesome year and so has Milos I think it took Milo's a little bit to

adjust to a new role instead of being B-point guard. We're playing a two-point guard system, and I think he's struggled early trying to figure out how to make it fit for him and ultimately for us. But since we got to conference play, he's been awesome. His defense has improved.

He had five defensive rebounds, the other nine of Ames. So he's having a great year, the manual is and more importantly Matt they take responsibility for the way our team plays and they they're they're great help to the freshmen they're always coaching them and giving them little pointers on what to do here what to do there on the court so we we have a good team I don't know that we have a great team but we have a really good basketball team Calvin Sampson with us here on the Matt Thomas show, Ross getting ready for tomorrow's game with the Arizona Wildcats. I think I've asked you this a few times over the years.

How many games does it take for freshmen who do play, especially as much as Seneca's played and as much as funnings, to get that freshman tag off? I know they're still learning on the job, but they're about to hit an incredible stretch with again this game tomorrow, big Monday in Kansas. The tournament's coming up soon. what do they need to experience yet, or do you think they've got a pretty good feel of what it was like going to Vegas early in the year, the non-conference games, the playing on the Big Monday at Iowa State, playing a Techstick. Is there anything yet that they have yet to experience that you want them to see before? It really gets down to that announcement time.

Well, I think the first rogue game was their biggest test, and that was we played Auburn in Birmingham. And they were a top 25 team at the time. time. It was very much like the road game, even though it's Birmingham because they had 16,000 Auburn fans there, playing Arkansas in New Jersey, National TV. I think all those were good building blocks for them. But, you know, there's very little they haven't seen, and they both, and they've both played well. Chris has had the toughest. adjustment because he had to change positions. He's always been a five, high school five.

He guarded fives. He had an advantage of over fives outside. Playing at the four has been in an adjustment for him. Now, Kingston had any adjustments. He's a point guard. He's used to having the ball in his hands. He's used to excel at a high level against the other best players in the country. You know, he, his, uh,

at EU experience, he's, he's played, uh, Darren Peterson or DeBan Buryd many times. Um, it was two summers ago. I was in Orlando at the,

uh, NBA top 100 camp. And, um, you go to one court, there's, uh, Kingston playing against Chris's team or

Chris's team against Bradenbury's team or, or, uh, Kingston against, Darren Peterson or AJ DeBancis. So these kids, from the time they're 14 or 15, they're on the national circuit. So they play everybody.

It's not regional. It's national. So I think the way the AAU system is set up with the shoe companies sponsoring these major tournaments and showcasing these kids against each other, I think that's really accelerated their growth and give them confidence to come in in year one. and play at a high level. And we could spend a long time,

Kelvin, talk about the AAU scene for the pluses and minuses. Help me out. Are we, if I'm going to an AAU tournament, am I seeing just incredible athleticism that you're saying, I'm going to take this kid,

bring him into my program, we're going to learn some better fundamentals about defense and jump shots, or has the AAU game been refined a little bit where you're not having to do as much of that now that maybe you were 10 or 15 years ago? Well, I will say this. There is some outstanding AAU coaches.

There's some outstanding AAU programs. When I first got here, Texas Pro had Jared Allen and Galen Robinson, Houston Hoops. They had so many outstanding players. That's who Joe Tuggler played for. And they play everywhere. They play in L.A., Las Vegas, Louisville, Atlanta, Dallas, New York, you name it. I mean, they're flying all over the country, and that's another thing that's help these kids adjust to college basketball. But, you know, when you're out in the summer, you're really evaluating.

Your cinnamon, some games are rag-tag, some games they win by 50, but you're, you're, you're, you're, you're sending them in. you're watching how they react to just about everything. For instance, Kingston, when I watched him, the thing that jumped out was his maturity, how he handled everything, his leadership, how tied in he was to his coach. Kingston went to the same high school for four years. He played in the same AAU team for four years.

He had the same coach for both teams. and I think that speaks to his loyalty, his commitment. They also changed a little about his mother and father, how committed they were to their son and their whole family. I mean, his daughter just signed a national, I'm sorry, his sister just signed a national letter in 10th with Duke. So he comes from an awesome, awesome family. His character is beyond reproach.

He cares more about winning than he does. statistics and it shows when we're out there playing. For a let you run, you brought up Jojo. I was down in Florida with the Astros of Spring Training watching the game. The handball, which was the kickball, still infuriates me, but I know that plays don't come down to this, but tell me about Jojo, keeping them out of foul trouble. I know that's an easier thing said than done. How much does that still weigh on you in terms of not getting that quick second foul?

And I'm not trying to put the two plays together, but just. thinking about Jojo and his athletic ability is so crazy, but man, sometimes in that second whistle comes, it really changes who he is as a ball player. Well, the thing that's really helped us there's been the development of Kalifa Sacco. He's really improved. Sid Lott, who's been with us now in his third season of playing four years, he's improved. You can't work on the kids' foul trouble.

You can't teach him how not to foul. A lot of times the same thing he does. One game that's not a foul is a foul the next game. So a lot of it is the inconsistency of the whistle. Jojo is extremely aggressive. He's a lot better at playing smarter with his activity than he was. but you're not going to take away you're not going to take away

his aggressiveness you know it's like one of those old quarterbacks like Kenny Stabler or Jim Plunkett those guys always should throw five six seven touchdowns certain Sundays but they also

throw three-point receptions so sometimes if you take over their aggressiveness you're not going to get his block shots and he's not perfect he's a human being he makes mistakes. Sometimes people don't understand that, but it actually happens.

He makes mistakes, and he doesn't do it on purpose. Jojo's a special kid. We would not be where we are without him. Do I wish he would never foul and could play 30 minutes and never miss a shot? We could never lose a game. Yeah, I wish to have that.

That's not reality. Yeah, I know. Thank you for the time. Congratulations, an awesome season, and please be safe up to Kansas. That's a tough place to go. You've been there many a time over your life as both here and at Oklahoma. Congratulations on the success so far. Have a great weekend tomorrow at home, and save travels up to Lawrence next week.

We thank you for the time. Okay, always enjoy business with you back. All right, Kevin, take care of yourself. Calvin Sampson joining us here. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross, we play Hell yeah or not. Fun factoids about the Astros. We've got one correct answers, all you need, and you will be winning a prize this week, which will feature tickets

to see Dave Matthews Band if you're so interested. 145 on Sports Talk 790. All right. Wrapping things up on a Friday edition of show. Rossi Florida stories may be a major hit. We're going to have to do that more often, I think. Maybe I'm just going to need to go to Gainesville, turn, and come right back.

I mean, there's just so much good stuff in Florida. I've been saying this for years, and you've been calling it low-hanging fruit. I know. I'm a fraud. Five minutes left to go on the show. What? we do we should play america's fastest growing sports radio game show we simply call it be leave it or not and here's how it works you call 713212 5 790 713 212 5 790 today's edition

of believe or not is all things about funny fact toys about the astros i'll read your statement about the astros if the statement is completely utterly accurate you'll say this hell yeah if the statement t ronies full of bunk and buck and full of bunk you'll say this. Two, believe or not, no, make that. One hellier or not. One hellier or not. Wouldn't you either a pair of tickets to see

the Dave Matthews band, May 8th of the Willans Pavilion, or to see Triumph at the Smart Financial Center on May 22nd. Tickets available for Dave Matthews at Ticketmaster.com. You want to see Triumph, it's at smartfinancialcenter. Dot. The insult comic dog? The insult comic dog? I would watch that.

Although he's on the Hollywood Scurial. and he's just kind of rehearsed. Cameron on 790, Cameron, you're ready to play Hell Yeah or not? Hell yeah. Cameron, one win to the game here. Before being drafted, Brian King planned to retire from baseball and even lined up a job on a salmon fishing boat in Alaska. Hell yeah, or not?

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Congratulations. John on 790, ready to play Hell yeah or not. Hell yeah. Jake Myers was also a pitching standout. pitcher at Nebraska posting a 17 and 4 record with an ERA of 2.61. Hell yeah or not?

Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. Let's go. I figure his arm would be better than the outfield. Oh, stop. Frank on 790, ready to play, hell yeah or not? Hell yeah. Zach Cole gave his first home run ball to his high school coach Dave McCowan,

who didn't allow Cole to quit the baseball ahead of his senior year. Hell yeah, or not? That's right. He gave it to his dad. Congratulations. As he told us. Ken on 790, what was your favorite party today's 10-2 radio show? Every session.

Before each series, A.J. Blueball practices grounding, where he walks around a stadium barefoot to get in touch with Mother Earth. Hell yeah, or not. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. There you go. Four winners. This is terrible. It doesn't count.

It doesn't count when it's four. That's fair. That's fair. Adam on 790. Adam, you ready to play hell yeah or not? Bill you. In 2020, Logan Van Way was in the brink of retirement, but his career was saved by an experimental,

thoracic outlet surgery he underwent in Germany. Hell yeah, or not? Not. That is correct, too. He's terrible. I'm sorry. Wait a minute. Bill, you won yesterday.

You can't play today. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hang up on them. Bye, Bill. We have five winners. We have one line open. If you want to win, because so far it's five for five on our tickets. All right, we're going to go to Andrew on 790.

Andrew. You're ready to play hell yeah or not? Hell yeah. In 2024, Hunter Brown gifted Alex Breggman, a luxury Richard Milley Watch. Is that right? I think so. As thanks for advising him to add the sinker that turns. his season around. Hell yeah or not?

Not. That is correct. And on that, we close out the show. Six winners today. Big City Wings, you want to win. You want to watch basketball and baseball and hockey and the Olympics and enjoy amazing food. Any of the 14 Big City Wing locations, go there right now. Big CityWings.com.

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It's Big City wings. Up next, it's Clinton, it's Wexler. It's the team. We'll talk to you tomorrow for Rockets and Knicks at 730 here on 790.