The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anything Goes Friday! Rockets vs Hawks Tonight, UH/UT/A&M All Win, Astros Bullpen Talk

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Anything Goes Friday! Rockets vs Hawks Tonight, UH/UT/A&M All Win, Astros Bullpen Talk

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It's an anything goes Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show and Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. My brother's putting in Matt's mouth, the crawfish tail.

Oh, on. That's an old timer. It was delicious. Yeah. My brother puts meat in your mouth. You would not Craw-Crawfish meat. How is it not meat?

I mean, you just call it crawfish. You wouldn't call it meat. Why not? You were trying to get a little clip for the day show. No, it's crawfish meat. Hello? Shrimp meat, fish meat, beef meat, pork meat. Absolutely, you call it meat. You take all the meats, don't you? Yeah, it's high and protein? You took the high protein meat. Jonathan, you know exactly what he was doing.

What are you talking about? Is it not meat? Jonathan, is it meat or isn't it? It's four minutes of show. Don't put me in this. They're the greatest coach of all time. University of Texas still in the tournament. Longhorn legend Tremont Mark blocking all these shots. Fighting Texas Aggies are still in the tournament. They're going to get their eyes kicked on Saturday night,

but that's a different issue for a different time. And our beloved Cougars, I went to bed a little past second, a little past half time. I was like, I'm good. I went two and one on my locks at a week. I told you the Cougars were going to cover easily. they always whip ass in the first round. Yes, they do.

Because Calvin Samson's like chewing them out when they're up 30. Yeah. So they don't mess around. Correct. And I lost on Ohio State, but then I won on Nebraska. So you're welcome. Two and one on the likes of the week. I put a poll question out yesterday.

And there's still 10 hours left to vote on this if you'd like to. Go to my Twitter account at SportsMT. What's the poll? Do you care how my bracket is so far? Oh, I voted no. Two options. You care about me slash bracket One hell no

Shut your bum ass No actually I did I did vote for I care about you look Well that's nice I appreciate you doing that I was just trying to help out I knew that'd be a low number 84% of you don't care about my bracket That's rude Good because I don't care about your bracket either So suck it

I've never cared about your bracket I don't care about your bracket I just don't I'm I am immune to your bracket Okay Like if you're sick and you don't feel well You're like oh man I got the fever or I got the chills.

I'm like, I'm Ross. I'm worried about you. Okay. But if you're like, man, I didn't have Wisconsin over High Point. I don't care. Okay. Well, I have four brackets. Two of them are doing good.

One's doing really bad. Really? Just throwing away. No, I can rally. Meanwhile, we're trying to do the show yesterday. Yes? Then we go, I go have lunch with my mom after. And my wife is blowing up me at my phone.

Are you watching this dude game? I'm like, yeah. Don't worry about how much. it'll be fine. They're going to win. And they did win. Yeah. Is she worried? Yes. Oh, that's fine.

41 texts in like 19 minutes means she worried about the Duke Blue medals. It's Siena. Good win by the Duke. The Dukies. It is amazing. I was worried. There is something we know nothing about that we care so passionate about for two days. Is there anything else in sports or your life that you know nothing about going in,

but yet you carry the passion of it for 48 hours? I would say used to be the maybe like the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500, but maybe not as much. Kentucky Derby. Kentucky Derby, absolutely. How about Team USA? I've never heard of any of these horses.

Did anybody really pay attention to the hockey until the championship? No. I think sports has that component to it. We love upsets. We love never heard of's. But generally speaking, we don't know anything about any of these players. It's the best two days in the sports calendar, I think.

Back to back. You've got nonstop action. They stagger the games. And whenever you get on a nice string of like great, a great close game after close game after close game, it's fun. We didn't get that last night though. All them boys last night were blowoffs. Well, I mean, if you had the number, most people don't have the number wrong. I mean, I know you're always thinking about a component of gamble, which is cool.

I'm just saying. And we may be in a point in our life where we may all have a little bit. But there's a lot of people that I still run into people all the time. I know if this ever happens to you. Matt, I don't gamble. I never played blackjack. I've never been in a game. That's the majority.

Yeah, and then you kick them in the shin because you're like, what's wrong with you? I don't know. It's a good problem not to have. It's probably better. Because I'm looking at my next Rockets Road trip. I got a chance to go gambling in all four of the cities. It's for our depraved to serve people like us. It is.

I like to gamble. Have a good time. I know. I mean, the game's more fun. We get a little action on it. How else are you going to care about Howard Michigan? But I didn't have any action on a high point versus Wisconsin, and I enjoyed watching that. I had Wisconsin.

Sorry for your loss. Oh, I didn't by the other. Yeah, I don't think you're sorry. You're right. I don't care. I don't care. All right. We had a busy show today. Yes. I'm sorry. He's at 1130 today. Yes. And you have like your own page on your own planner that I bought you. I mean, how you get that list going there?

Of what? The I'm sorry's? No, this is I just don't get it. And this is your five things about what the you don't like are the problems with the rockets. Which I only give you four. And these are prospective questions for Brian McTaggart. So that's all I have. You, I tell you to write down what you're sorry for every week and you don't keep a list. No, yeah, I must have.

You must have wet it out. I get you. All right, 1130. We've got that. We've got the news at noon. We like the strippers up today at noon as well. Boy, are they up a little early because the bars maybe a little bit busier because the tournament games are on? I mean, you get a tournament.

All the spring breakers in town? You get, yeah, there's quite a few. You get the steak, you get the tournament, and you get a day. It's not bad. I still waking them up at noon today. I mean, I'd rather go to Willie's Grill and Ice House. By the way, thank you. Everybody that came out and said hello to us yesterday.

It was very, very, very, very nice. We, frankly, peeling the curtain back, we don't go out very much. We'd like to go out more. Yes. But Willie said, you know what? We want you guys out there. We had a great. I mean, Matt's appearance for you is exorbitant.

So we don't get to go out as much as we'd like, folks. No, we're going to be out, I think, a little bit during World Cup this summer. You're going to have to keep me, keep me awake. during that. Look, I'm going to tell you. A lot of group plays not going to be good. You're going to be making funny.

We're like, oh, look at this nothing, nothing game between North Macedonia and Norway. When it gets to the good teams, it'll be good. Do you really think I will do that to you? Absolutely. You're right. You're right, I will. All right.

So we got that. Joseph Torto is going to join us from Oklahoma City at 1230 today. Okay. And he is in with their cougars took care of Idaho. I don't think I've helped me out with this, I don't think I've ever gone to sleep

in the middle of a cougar basketball tournament game. But it was, they were up 20, and I was like, Kim's like, are you sure you want to go to sleep? I was like, yeah, it's Idaho. It's the vandals. Yeah, you're fine. And I was fine. They wind up covering, for those of you that are interested in that.

I was. And what was about 30 points? Something like that? Something crazy? I'd be interested in the history. Like, under Calvin Sampson, first round cougars are a cover machine. Second round pretty good, too. Final four?

Well, that's a different discussion for a different time. Yep. All right, one o'clock, E-May Doca is going to join us. I can ask you a question, Jonathan. Are you still you there? Hey, he's here. Did you accidentally call E-May Doca yesterday?

He got that. Did you hang up fast? Like fast. He was like, he says, I said, well, is I supposed to go on yesterday? I said, no, why? He goes, like, I got a call from my heart. And I said, uh-oh.

Oh. Oh, you called from my heart? Would you type the wrong number? Yeah, I was typing, and I was editing at the same time, and then I clicked it. He felt, he was like, I'm so, sorry. I'm like, we didn't set up a time. Oh, okay. So let me say you.

That's funny. I thought you did it from your personal phone. Man who doesn't care about the team and is not, he cares more about the radio station weekly call that he does his own basketball team. We appreciate EMA for that. And he'll join us today at 1 o'clock. And then at 120, Fantasy 5 Master's Inters, and you and I get to be judges. Yeah, I'm excited about this. Too. All right. So Jonathan, you and Wexler will be doing this at 1. Have you ever competed against Wexer or anything? No, it's been the first time. It's going to be the first time.

Yeah. If you lose, challenge him to a foot race. Yeah. You can. can win that. Semantics about Texan's offensive line, you'll lose. All right. So here we go. You have an appetizer. Two entrees, a side dish, and a dessert.

Two entrees? Yeah. Okay. Yep. Two entrees, an app, a side dish. Now, do you go with a leafy vegetable, or do you go with a carb? Okay. And then you have the dessert.

And Ross and I, Ross, you will be judge number one. I will be judge number two. Okay. And then the rest of the listeners will finish out three through seven. Beautiful. Now becoming ever 120. And then, of course, all things about Chuck Norris, RIP. Today's edition of Hell Yeah, or not at 150.

Real facts about Chuck Norris or like Chuck Norris facts? I think it's got to be just like you would normally do it. Fine. All right, real quick about Chuck Norris, 20 years ago, my wife and I had dinner with his wife and Chuck Norris. Really? Yeah. He was in town doing a book tour and our station was in... Like one-on-one?

There was five of us at dinner. Wow. It was Chuck Norris, his wife, me, my wife, and the lieutenant governor of our state, Dan Patrick. Did you ask him about Bruce Lee? I would just ask him 50 questions about Bruce Lee. He had a book coming out, and we were the official station sponsor of this book event. And so he said, yeah, let's have some dinner, and we went and had dinner,

and it was amazing. Here's the problem. I don't really want to. watch his movies or didn't watch his TV shows. So I was, I think if I was a Walker, Texas Ranger fan or sidekicks or any of the things he's done, I would have been in awe. My wife was in awe

because it was Chuck Norris. He was as gracious and as pleasant as a human being as ever been around in my entire life. I mean, could not have been nicer. My great grandma Dolores would be happy to hear that. She was a huge Walker, Texas Ranger fan. And Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Oh, she just loved all the CBS shows.

They were all back to back, weren't they? Was she a big fan? of murder she wrote probably did she start her night off with 60 minutes except on the west coast i was like dang we got to watch walker texas rangers because you know when you're a kid you didn't have whatever your parents were watching that's what you watched when we were growing up back in odd day whatever parents wanted to watch is what you watched so i watched a lot of walker more walker texas rangers that i wanted i did not watch shows that my mom watched i did watch shows that my grandparents when i'd go to i'd go to florida for the summer so we'd watch general

General Hospital. We would watch... Oh, this is how you got into soap operas. A little bit, yeah. But I never stayed with General Hospital. We watched One Life to Live. Yes. And then my grandfather loved Benny Hill.

So I used to watch a Me's... Oh, you loved that. I still could watch a Benny Hill right now if you wanted me to. I'm Team Benny Hill. Okay. Actually, I'm not him. It's more like a team supporting cast. Make you rest.

Those nurses on that show? May they rest? My God. Oh, my God. All right. Okay. I'm thinking about those nurses. 713-212-1-2-7-9-8 and anything goes Friday.

Tournament run-down. You'll give us the Texas breakdown. Okay. I'll give the fact that Milos Zuzan and Kingston Fleming's and everybody else. Cougars went deep to the bench. Had to. Not and had to. Wanted to.

A&M wins. I don't know anything about A&M basketball except they'd like to run up and down the court really, really fast. St. Mary's, come on now. They didn't have a prayer. I'm not upset that St. Mary's lost yesterday. A little personal thing

of the St. Mary's. You got beef with St. Mary? Oh, I know why. That's funny. And that coach has been since fired, so I hate to hear that too. 1015, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212 57.9. 7-1-3-212-5-790. It isn't anything, and I mean

in anything, goes Friday. Manuel Sharp was knocking down threes lesson. You'd be scared of his cooves. I may be going Indianapolis after our Ross. Don't you squint your nose at me. Oh, well, you might be. Hopefully. You know what, maybe this is when they make the run,

when they're not the heavy favorites. I mean, they made it to a championship game, literally last year. And they led all but 63 seconds of the game. Sorry, Matt. What happened at the end? Jonathan. No, I forgot. I forgot.

Getting spicy on a Friday. What happened? How did they lose? Oh, he's playing dumb. He's learning. I love it. You know, you're blossoming, Jonathan. I'll be genuine.

Jonathan, I don't care if Wexler chooses enchiladas and tamales. I'm voting for him. You have no chance with my vote today. Got a little night Astros baseball spring training style today. And that'll be at 450. You want rockets tonight against the Hawks. They're over on 740. and I think 950 is going to be on its own

and I just doing its own brand of Talk Radio for Texas Wonderful. A legendary Texas station. If you're looking to hear Bennett Sousa, you will not for a while. He injured his left oblique on a PFP which is pitching, fielding practice. Will not be on the Astros opening day.

Oh, come on, Suze. Best probably won't hear from him in the first month of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. might be the perfect time. No, we've got to have guys on active rosters. I would hope so. I would hope so too. All right, 713-212-579.

If you want to join our conversation, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Again, all three of the Texas teams. Do you have a, you don't even have a, do you have a Texas chat group chat or anything like that? I mean, your family is huge as a Texas. Yes. I would say, yeah, I have some family members where it's a more Longhorn-specific chat. I'm just curious how the general Texas fan feels.

Shout out to Sam from Big City Wings. I normally text Longhorn stuff with him. Yeah, he's pretty pleased, right? Yeah, we're happy. Yep. Who you got in round two? I believe I have the Zags, but they look pretty vulnerable. Yeah, they barely won yesterday over Kennesaw State.

Yeah. So we'll see. Let's see. Gonzaga, six and a half is the line. Okay. I'm just curious. You know, Bucky Ball is in Aggie land. And my son, you know, that's my pipeline.

That's my chat on that because he lives and breathes. As a matter of fact, he loves it so much, he went to the movies last night during the game. Well, did you see the A&M Houston line? I did not. Do you want to guess it? Two versus a 10. 11.5.

Close. 10 and a half. Okay. Good guess, Matthew. Thank you. Go Coogs. This is an easy one for me. Go Coogs.

That is so nice. You hear that CoogFans.com or whatever that website is? I don't care about them. They're nice. They're lovely. They're a bunch of losers. They're not very nice to us. Yeah, I'm not spending mental energy on that.

Good. That makes seven minutes proud of you. 7190, 7190.7.19. 713, 2,1, 2,1, 2,5. Again, if you're a radio host doing a deep dive into college basketball today, you're just not, I mean, And there was, you just can't do it. There's too many games. Nobody really even knew.

I mean, we had, believe it around the other day, and I said High Point University was in a different city and they got the guy, you got it wrong. So it's not like it's top of mind. I'll tell you, A.J. DeBonce is amazing. He's really good. I want to say, did they put the graphic up yesterday? It's the BYU big guy. He's going to be probably a number one, maybe. One, two, three, somewhere in that range.

It 35 points. First time ever. somebody had 30 points in his first tournament game, I want to say. Is that true? I think it's true. Don't hold me to it, but I think that's it. The rest of the BYU Cougars didn't do much, but he was amazing. He was unstoppable.

It was fun to watch because the Longhorns were winning. But it's funny, you do go to the social media to paint with a broad brush here. You know, DeBancet got a lot of money. $7 million. $7 million and you're out in the first round. Again, not his fault. No. But it just shows you again that just because you write the checks is not guarantee any term long-term success.

Nope. He's not mad about it, I'm sure. There's a lot of – let me tell you, Ross, and this is in college football and in college basketball. A lot of check writing. You're never going to get the payoff on it. Like our buddy Cody Campbell up in Lubbock. I mean, a lot of money for them to – did they even score? No, that was A&M.

No, that was A&M? Who did Texas Tech play? Was it Oregon that they waxed them? Yeah, it wasn't even close. That's tough. Spending all that money and just to kind of flame out in their first playoff game. Roger with us at 790 and 1028. Roger, good morning. Hey, good morning.

Matt and Ross. Yeah, my wife called me very distraught. You know, she shares a, she follows Chuck Norris on social media. She's like, my look what he's doing now. This is so great and fit. I'm like, yeah, he's. far than the healthiest 86-year-old I've ever seen and goes to Hawaii and then he just dies. You know what Hawaii you suck?

I was going to go. We were thinking about going to Hawaii. We got pivoted. We're going to Turks and Kekos. I got some news for it. I have a very good friend of mine. You're going to, you're going to, either spot's going to cost you a lot of me. Turks and Kekos, apparently, everything is expensive.

I mean, literally everything. Yes, we heard. You know what you ought to do? You ought to do something that I do a lot. Stay in our lone star state and appreciate everything that is about the state of Texas. Well, we've done that. I mean, there's some places we haven't gone.

You know, legal port towns, you know, like Rockford and Aransas and stuff like that. We're thinking about going there. But then, I don't know, just like the, I went down there for a job to go deliver some parts. And, man, you see like the law down there, the, the legal, the police element, the crime element, it's like, man, they're all right alert down there, man. Every stop sign, every crevice, every quarter, they're there, like, wow, what's going on? Anyway, so, yeah, Chuck Norris, man. It's a sad, sad thing. A huge fan.

My favorite move from him was Solid and Rage just because it kind of was Chuck Norris versus Michael Myers type. It was pretty cool back in the day. Yeah. And should the COVID ever hadn't trailed at all yesterday? I was not me. I was just going out of my mind. I know they're only down back to you. But it just pissed me off.

What? It meant you mad they were down like 13 to 12? Seriously? Yes. They should never be down. Oh, stop. That's ridiculous. You're not, now you're just grabbing a stroke.

You know what? Go to Turks and Kikos. You have a great time. Relax. Stop worrying about the Cougars being down by one. That was a beat down yesterday. Yeah. Poor Idaho.

I mean, they got a long-ass trip to Oklahoma City. Look what happened to Duke. Okay, you want to get all mad about the Cougars being down one early? They should never be down. I think Howard was within two, a couple different times. It was close to half. And then they just blew them out. Yeah.

I mean, come on, man. This is another thing, too. It's not even just Roger. I'm just saying, like, look, sometimes open your eyes wider than the scope of only the teams you follow. And it'll give you a better perspective. And when people get all mad about the Rockets losing to this team or that team or whatever, who's that bad team the Nuggets lost to a couple of days ago?

Memphis. Yeah, they lost the Memphis Grizzlies. I mean, just look around a little bit. No, it's easier just to hyper-focus on the local teams. Oh, okay. Well, I'm not asking you to fully invest in Nuggets basketball or anything like that. I'd like you to just invest in the Rockets. That would be nice.

I'd like to. Yeah. Duke struggled against Sienna, like you mentioned, it was 50 to 46th at the halftime, Michigan and Howard. Wisconsin lost a high point. Now, that's not a two-seat, but still. North Carolina and Hubert Davis, they lost yesterday. Did you see his post game?

He was certainly, he's going to lose his job. You can't be losing in the first rank. You can't have the lack of success in the term that North Carolina's had the last handful of years, right? I mean, they're certainly held to up. a higher standard. Yeah. All right. 713,

212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. Minton the Rockets. I'll be taking on the Hawks. Luis wants to talk some rockets. We'll do with him with him next. 1031, Sports Talk, 790 with... 1037 on Sports Talk, 790.

Look, I don't run TV sports networks, but we're allowed to have an opinion on this. I thought the studio show with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith and Nate Burleson was awful last night. Nate was terrible as an... anchor. I mean, just terrible. Captain obvious. Oh, yeah, that's great. You're such a Nate hater. You know what? I was just going to say that as well. He was terrible. I didn't watch much of the studio show. Charles had no idea who any of the teams were. Kenny tried to. You know,

they would defer to Clark and everything because Clark actually cares. Yes. That's what he, and again, not Charles's fault, but if you get an assignment, you accept it. You probably should prepare for it. Yeah, it's his fault. And Nate Burleson. Oh, this action is so exciting. Thanks, Captain Obvious. You suck at the Hollywood Squares host. I'll live with you on the NFL today. But, I mean, you went from Ernie Johnson to Nate Burleson as a studio host. I mean, come on. It's a downgrade. Oh, it was awful. It was terrible. And I just thank God that you, you know, you know, think about

this about 15, 20 years ago, the games would only be on CBS, and you would have to, you regionalize. We used to do that. Well, back in the day, we'd ran the games. We did it on radio. It would be whip around coverage. Yeah.

And now, thankfully, because the incident of the incidentally said, look, we want a billion dollars for our coverage. They're like, well, we'll give you four channels. You get to watch every game in its entirety. It's awesome. The quad box? Amazing. Yeah. Love it.

Or just the next on your phone. It's on R. HBO Brax. as well. I think it's going away, by the way. Is it? I think HBO Rax is going away. You mean the coverage on there? No, I think the whole app, everything is going on.

What? Yeah. There's a big merger going on in television. I don't know. Oh, that's great. I'm sure it'll really benefit the consumer. But why you give me Charles Barkley trying to talk about any player from Arkansas? It just doesn't make any sense.

No. Apparently, they were, he had something wrong too because this, it wasn't the who was it there was the high point coach talking about how people wouldn't play them or our miami of ohio they're saying they won't play us and they're telling us the schedule better but these teams won't play us and charles thought that he was talking about home games and he the coach wasn't talking about home games charles apparently was getting a bunch of stuff actually wrong yeah it was bad but you know what i mean if i'm charles and i'm getting all these millions and they don't care what kind of job i do they don't it's on the networks they just believe that

he's entertaining and that's yeah and look it's great as Clark Kellogg is in analyzing games, nobody goes, man, I can't wait to hear a Clark Kellogg has to say. Yeah, and I mean, I'm sure it's a real talk Friday. Please. Charles lost fastball. Oh, I don't think so. I think I'm the NBA is still great.

It's no. I'm not saying I'm not saying he can't get an ERA of four. You want Charlie Morton out of him. That's fine. I mean, he, you know, in his prime is Pedro Martinez. No, I'm not going to going to go Jason Alexander on him or something. Oh, my God.

You just made a Jason Alexander Charles Barkley reference. There is not a single media member in America that could pull that off. Astros era, Zach Grinky. How about that? Zach Grinkey? Royal Zach Grinkey's... Lucky to get five innings out of him? No, not late, late, but when Zach Grinky first came over.

In 19. Okay. And he was in Royals. He's throwing 100 miles an hour and he was doing great. Astros' era, Zach Grinky. Topping at 91. A little bit more crafty. All right.

Let's talk to... That's where he is. I'm sorry. Luis and Katie at 1041. Luis, good morning to you. All right. Good morning, guys. How are you doing?

Good. I was watching the game yesterday. And actually, I saw Coach Miller talking about the guy from NYU, which is unbelievable. And they, I don't know if it wasn't the show, or probably one of the shows after.

They mentioned that the NBA draft for this year is going to be very deep. I was one of the one. I kind of lost with the Rockets because of the only draft choices or the KD trade. But didn't we have something from the Harden-Brooklyn trade that maybe allow the Rockets to get a good position this year? Would you talk a little bit about that? And also, who do you think that my – what would be the position that the Rocks may be looking at the drafts this year? I know it's too early.

And I know that this guy is completely out of the – out of the – it's really probably in the top two. But the guy was amazing. It was impressive. Okay, guys. I don't believe the Rockets have a first round pick this year. I think it's going somewhere. Again, there was a lot of picks. It came with Brooklyn.

There were some pick swaps. There was a first round pick that went to Phoenix last year as part of the trade. I think their own is, from what I'm reading right now, because I'm just pulling it up. They have their own if they get top four, which is not going to happen. Oh, so it's okay. So, yeah, they effectively don't have their own. Then they have a Clippers pick and a Thunder pick, which effort is, this is very confusing. They can swap with Brooklyn next year.

I don't know what the hell's going on. I just don't believe it. As we speak today at 1043, they do not have a first round pick in the 2026 draft. Most feeble. Okay, yeah, it's going to, it's going to O'KC. Oh, that's right, because I think Oklahoma City has got 19. first round picks coming up next year. I think next year's draft is strictly Oklahoma City.

And that's the Chris Paul move. No, is it Chris Paul? The Russell Westbro? Or Russell, there was something, yeah. Right now, the Rockets have two second round picks, one from Chicago and their own. They have the 2027 pick of Phoenix with no protections.

They have a swap right in 2020. They have two first rounds in 27. But nothing in 26. Okay. The 2026, Oklahoma City will receive the two most or more favorable of its 2026 from Houston's first round, protected selections one through four, and the Clippers' first round pick. Oh, my God. This is so convoluted. I just, I got a headache. My brain hurts.

All right. So let's just put it this way. Rock is one of the draft pick in the first round. Okay. Thank you. And they will not get AJ DeBance it because he's a lottery and there's nobody going to, nobody's going to pick out. Nobody's going to pull out of the top five. No.

We're going to have a Houston Cougar in the top five. I think it's pretty cool. I'm very happy about that. Yes. Kingston. Yeah, it feels like to me it's going to be Boosers Kid, one of the twins. Yes. The bansa.

Morris Peterson. Darren. Who's Morris Peterson? Mo Pete. Mo Pete. Yeah. Michigan State, right? Yeah, Mo Pete could play back in the day.

Yeah, he was good for a while. Darren Pattern, Darren Peterson. Peterson. Peterson, who by the way, is he always hurt or just pretends to be hurt? I don't know how that works out. I don't know. What's the latest on him? Checking himself out of games.

Maybe he's all right. Maybe he was saving himself for this month to help Kansas. Yeah, he wanted to make the March run. But I think people are concerned about his true desire to play basketball. That kind of means? And then Caleb Wilson, North Carolina. And actually, people were really high on Darius A-cuff. Let's go with that from Arkansas.

He can score, but I saw like a cut-up of his defensive possessions. Oh. Anytime, for the most part, you see any kind of defensive cut-ups. It's low-light reels for the most part. And it's not on the YouTube page. Yeah. All right. 1045 on Sports Talk 7-9.

I'm sorry. It's coming up in about 45 minutes from now. 713-212-5-790. Does anything go Friday here on the program? And, Ross, just explain quickly the essence of anything goes Friday for the audience. Yeah, it's anything you want to talk about. Phone lines open. Look, you've heard the day drunks on this show gets even better on a Friday.

You get the longest leash in the biz, and you can talk about anything you want to. It's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Even if you want to talk about your bracket, that's okay. You want to talk some Turks and Caicos. You want to talk some NCAA tournament. Rockets in action against the Hawks. We have another death in sports today. Another one?

Yep. It just happened? Just happened. These things happen in three? I'll stop. Chuck Norris. And next, we'll tell you who it is. And he's probably as well known for a commercial as he is for his playing career.

O.J. Simpson. No, he died about a year ago. 1046 on Sports Talk 7.90. So, death coming threes, as we've all talked about for years, we lost. Ridiculous. Chuck Norris. Mean Joe Green passing away just shy of turning 80 years old. Oh, wow.

We got to throw him on the list now, too? That's up to you. You can't you get a Chuck Norris, can't you though? I know. Chuck Norris, Hall of Famer for the Pittsburgh Steelers, played his college football where? Was he? What? You said Chuck Norris.

Oh, you know. Meen Joe Green, I'm sorry. Well, let me take. Let me tell you, Chuck Norris want to be in the Hall of Fame? He would get in the Hall of Fame. No, he wouldn't. He would just tell somebody, I'm going to give him. your Hall of Family. It's like, yes, sir. North Texas. So there's always been a big argument about whether,

because North Texas, the name of the mascot of there are the Eagles. But there's always been an argument as to whether he added mean, he was so good for North Texas. They added mean green eagles to it or they just called it the mean green. It's a convoluted thing. I thought it was a known thing. It was because of him. I didn't know that. No, matter of fact, he doesn't even like being, he didn't like being called Mean Joe Green. Because he was so nice. Because he was so nice. In fact, I have an example of how nice he was. Okay? Play it.

Jonathan. This is how nice Mean Joe was. Mr. Green? Yeah. You need any help? Mm-hmm. Want my Coke? No, no.

Really? You can have it. Okay. Thanks. That's a way it should be. I like to see you in the whole world. Smiling with me. Okay.

Okay. Man Joe. Wow, thanks, Minjo. Mean Joe, leaving the field, hard-fought game, aches and pains. He's sore walking back to the locker room, and a kid just says, you want my Coke, and he says, I'll take it. He takes a big swallow of it, and boom, the kid gets a jersey out of it. What a sweet story.

What a great story. That nasty jersey, he just gave him off his bag. You wouldn't take a... You wouldn't play... That's a lie. You would absolutely take any game war in Jersey by somebody. 100% you would. If Kevin Durant surpasses

Michael Jordan tomorrow night and Jonathan, you're in the stands. And he takes the jersey off and says, here you go, hog nuts. You'd be like, thanks, Katie. Thanks, easy money sniper. You would take that in a heartbeat. a fraud.

Yeah, maybe I'm a fraud. Yeah, you would take it. You would take it. Yeah, Mean Joe, 80, just I'm 80 years old, passing away. May he rest. May he rest. Now, who gets in the,

who goes to the pearly gates first? What do you mean? Does Chuck, does Chuck's already been dead? Chuck gets there first. I imagine it's an expedited trip. I mean, I don't know. I think I'm stuck in Pergator for a while.

Okay. I think I am. you'll be fine. You're going to be reincarnated. As a what? Don't even answer that question. I didn't. Okay.

First thing I was going to say, I shouldn't say. No. Second thing I thought of I shouldn't say. I kind of know what I want to come back as. 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We're excited for Rockets and Hawks tonight? Yes.

I'm trying to move on to something else here. I'm trying to get back to sports here. Oh dear. I'm distracted. What's happening? Go Astros? What's the line? Don't worry about the line.

You're going to enjoy the experience. No, I'm going to go and I'm going to be rooting on my Houston Rockets. Ooh, three and a half. Let's go Rockets. So the Rockets are four and five in the month of March. Yes. Atlanta comes in on what have 11-game winning streak. Yes.

And the Rockets are favored in the game. All good things must come to an end. That must be A, we still think the Hawks are a mid. B, you're on the home court, and C, you can't possibly lose three games in a row at home. Is that what Vegas is thinking? I don't think they think of one's going to the other. I just think the rockets are pretty even and they're at home. So the victory will get back.

And by the way, the Lakers, so the Lakers beat the Rockets, Monday and Wednesday, as many of you know. And then they had a horrific overnight trip, not horrific, but just a late trip to Miami. And the thought was, well, LeBron won't play. Maybe Luca won't play a handful of minutes. Luca Donchich last night for the Los Angeles Lakers in Miami on a back-to-back scored 60 freaking points.

60. 100 points in two games. It's insane. He's incredible. And the Bronn played Blond and a double-double. I think he had 19 and 14 I think he had 19 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists.

We had a triple double of Ron did? Oh, hell no. Yes. Don't say it. I sometimes want to give you the final word of the hour, but I know what you're about to say, so don't say it. All right. Mike's off. Good. About this, one week from today, we will be breaking down the Astros season opener against the Los Angeles Angels. One week from today.

It'll be me. And if they don't win, AOs right out the top. Oh, my gosh. It'll be me, Adam and Adam. That's one way from yesterday. Oh, wait, one way from yesterday. Yes, that's opening day is next Thursday. Oh, I'm sorry, what?

Yeah. Okay. How you're not paying attention? I'm right here. What's your name? It's an editing goes Friday. They're going to win. Opening day.

Hunter Brown? Against you say Kikuchi, I'm assuming? No, it is. Not Kikuchi? Soriano. Really? Jose Soriano. Okay.

And Kikuchi, it could be a Kukuchi versus EMI. That won't be bad. It could be a matchup of two Japanese pitchers in game too. By the way, the athletic has an article out, which will tell you about coming up in a few minutes, about 10 crazy thoughts about the 2026 season. And one of them concerns the Houston Astro. Is one of the crazy thoughts? Is this the last time we're going to see baseball for a while? That's a deputy downer moment right there.

I'm sorry. Let's go baseball. I'm excited. No, to be honest, you should probably embrace and let it all come rushing into you. Love every minute of baseball. Because I don't think a year from now, we're doing the, hey, can't wait to see the bunting at the Diken Park. I believe I'm on that post game. Let me see.

In 2027, you're going to be off that day. Oh, no, 2027. I'm sorry. I'm thinking about the opening day post game. Oh, I am. Why are you upset about that? Just win, baby. Oh, no. It's just one game.

Have you met our fans? People cannot call and complain about the hitting. Now, I'll say this. I'm going to do quite a bit of them before the start of the Rockets playoffs. I'm going to try to at least. Damn, I got rockets on Monday and Wednesday, and then Thursday Astros and Friday Rockets? What's Wex on Clinton? Where's Cole Thompson?

Those guys are morning driving. I'm going to try one of the Adams. I get those guys working a little bit. All right, back to more important things. So where are we going with this? Oh, I know what the calls will be. If the Astros outfield starts out to a sluggish start, it's going to be Yorna Alvarez,

he needs to play left field every day. That's going to happen. Maybe he, maybe opening day he's in the last field. Taylor Tremel probably is going to make the roster over Zach Cole. Because Cole has options. Yeah, and Tremel does not. So you have Tremel in left, Jake Myers in center, Hammsmith and right.

Prey. Defense, you're going to be fine. Defense are going to be great. Defense you're going to be above average. Yes. You're supposed to have the great defensive infield and the power hitting outfield. Yes. That's how it usually works.

Typically. But the aster's trying to break trend. Cam Smith could hit. Would it be the craziest thing ever if I said Cam Smith hits 20 home runs this year? No, it would be crazy. Okay. That's what we're hoping for. 25.

We're stretching it. 30. That'd be. I mean, incredible. I just don't know if you can go long-term with that group, with those three. Maybe Zach Cole ghost didn't sugar on opens the ear, tears cover off the ball, and the strike out nearly as much. That's what you're hoping for, because we kind of know who Taylor Tremel is at this point.

Nice guy. He can hit for stretches and can make some great grabs. Oh, man. Very good defensive player. Very good defensive. He's a good fourth outfielder. He's not a good starting outfielder. No, he was not meant to be played.

playing six days a week. And maybe he won't. Maybe it'll be a troop platoon out there and left. Maybe Yordon is out there in the first day. If you're going to put him out and left, you're doing it at Dikin. You're going to play him a lot in Dikin. He knows that ballpark. And I'll say this.

His arm is better throwing out runners trying to score from second if that ever happens. It is. He's got a good arm. What is Tramel's arm considered? I don't even know. I mean, he thinks it's decent. Okay. I'll go look it up.

Yordon, like, he hits over 90. No, the biggest thing about Yoron is he doesn't take the greatest tracks going after balls. And he's going to be limited in terms of the amount of space he has to cover. But when you have Jake Myers in the center, he's going to cover up a lot of those wards. Once he gets going, Yordon, he can track down. He can make good catches. But the number one thing is, more than anything else is they don't want to risk him getting hurt in left field because he's IP. Okay.

131 games. Prove me wrong. I would love it. I cannot wait. The thing is, if I don't get it this year, I got next year. You got a long time. And then the year after that, in the year after that. But also, guess what also goes up?

His age. He's 28. And then when he plays again, it'll be 30. Let's talk to Ron, southeast, 1107 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ron, good morning to you. Good morning, Matt and Ross. Hey, man, I want to just hit on the Rockers a couple things. But the first thing I want to say is I was afraid when we got Kevin Durant that, you know,

we were going to look better on paper, but we weren't actually going to be a better team. And secondly, man, sometimes when I watch the Rockers, man, I actually feel sorry for them because their offense is like so out of place, man. When you be having these different guys trying to run point guard, I see. Kevin Durant trying to run point. He looks lost. And then my man, Thompson, he'd be lost. I don't know, man.

I almost feel like they need to let one of the lesser players, even though they're not as good. Just play the point guard role, man, because they look really lost, man. We have all those big guys out there and, you know, they're platooning at point guard. But y'all got to see about that.

Yeah, that's the roster. That's the way it is right now. Where are you, Kevin Durant isn't a point guard. He's got to bring the ball up. Alperin Shungun, Amin Thompson isn't really a true point guide either. And so they're having to do it by committee. And it's not going to always look fluid. You don't have a bunch of guys. All those guys are good ball handlers, good passers,

but none of them are great or elite at those things. Like watch what Luca Donchich can do as far as ball handling and passing and all that type of stuff and playmaking. I mean, he's a special, special player. They have guys who can do the job. They don't have anybody that's excellent at the job. this has been a conversation we've had for a lot of the season and it feels like it's a broken record but that's okay because at least people are

interested thank you so the is why didn't the rockets have good a point card let's talk about why didn't go get one number one that would come with moving a player because they have no room no they had no wiggle room to sign anybody and think about the streets the streets are going to probably not have guys that are going to make you go wow that guy's going to prove things All right. Again, you give me one example, Chris Paul.

Is Chris Paul a point guard? Yes, he is. Is Chris Paul one of the best point guards ever step on the NBA floor? He sure is. Absolutely. But there was a determination whether you agree with them or not. And obviously the Los Angeles Clippers felt this way. Obviously, 28 other teams in the NBA felt this way. Yes. That they did not need the services of a guy who is significantly past his prime, who by the way would have cost you money, money you did not have to spend because of a salary cap situation. Yeah, his vet minimum would be more than a regular player because of how long he's been in the league.

So, everybody that keeps calling, and I'm not talking about the previous call, I'm just talking about just in general, that says, why didn't the rockets go to go to point card? Okay, if you wanted to go get a point car, you would have had to make a significant trade. Yeah. Who makes trades a week before training camp that are seismic enough to get rid of your point guard on your team in order to grab a rocket from their team? If you want a Jabari Smith, I'll just throw in case, you wanted Jabari Smith Jr. July 1st. You didn't want him September 21st because your roster is basically set. You know who you are going in. You have your draft picks.

You've already done your frequency. Other teams. Other teams. Right. You just don't go organically go, oh, I can get rid of this point guard who I like who runs my offense to help out the Houston Rockets, which would then leave me without a point guard, unless you had multiple teams around the association that had point guards a plenty. I can't. I don't know what Ross construction was of 29 other NBA teams in September, but the point matter is that I don't think teams were running around going, we need, oh, let's call the Rockets now because now we know they need something from us and we really.

want Jabari Smith. Or we really want Amin Thompson. Oh, we really want Tarisan. Or we really want... Well, else would be really... Oh, we want to... We want to package something without Brin Schengoon. The injury came, first of all, a horrible time. And point guards are

a pretty prime commodity. Teams don't want to give them up. Yeah. And if you're trading... If you're putting Fred Van Vleet to try to match money, I mean, you're asking somebody to take on a point guard with a torn ACL. And also, you're you're spitting at the feet of Fred Van Vleet who took a discount to stay with you.

Yeah. Again, you could have traded Fred, but that's a lot of money for a guy who wasn't going to step on the floor at all this year? Who'd want to do that? No. So look. It would be disloyal to Fred who took a discount to stay. Again, if you really poured truth serum down Emeadoka and Rafael Stone's lips, they'd be like, yeah, we want a point card. A man's does a nice job, but a man's a combo player.

that probably is better served as an off guard or a small four than he is a point card. Point guard is probably the weakest of his three definable roles. But they have a guy that does ball handle. They did have a guy that ball handles an operin shangoon. They do have a ball handler. I mean, Jabbarra does a pretty good job. You just don't have the prototypical one. Right.

You don't have the prototypical one. And when you're not playing as well as you would like is the number one reason because of a prototypical point guard, I can't necessarily give you the answer to that's BS or no. but I can say that it'd be stupid to say that if they had a real point guard, things would be a little bit more less congested. There wouldn't be a lot of Kevin Durant bringing it across the timeline. There wouldn't be oper in Shingoon as much ball handling. But that would come into price.

What's that price? And the price was too big, especially for the time of the year in which the injury occurred. And Reed Shepard is developing as a point guard, but it's not like he is some great playmaking wizard. Per 36 this year He's doing very well 18 and a half points per game 4.4 assists

2.2 turnovers It's good He's getting there He's developing right now Last year he hardly played This year he's getting the most minutes of his life In any form of basketball 650 minutes last year

He's about to hit 1800 this year So he's playing triple the minutes he did last year The development is happening But everybody wants everything to happen Now now now no no no no no Put him in the starting line I put him in 40 minutes a game He's ready to reach up

ready to go. That's not how it works. And he has been playing a lot. And almost every night, there's at least one, two, or three starters. He plays more minutes than. He's getting looks. He's playing. It's just a work in progress. And again, the Kevin Durant that came over here with this team was supposed to play alongside Fred Van Blee. Yes. And a man, Thompson, the two guard. That's just a reality of it. And he's been a turnover guy his entire career. We talked about yesterday.

3.2 as a rocket 3.1 in his career. That's Kevin Durant. Prygene. 713-212-5-7-90. We'll talk to Mark and we'll talk to Brent. We'll get to your Astros, little rockets. Anything Goes Friday question coming in today, which is always something we enjoy. And at the bottom of the hour, Jonathan's got to apologize for many things he's done wrong this week.

What? 7-13-212-5-7-90. 1120 on Sports Talk 790. Astros, spring training, baseball. here today on 790 with a 4-50 first pitch and again a couple of games down in Florida they'll be in town Monday and Tuesday for games against the Space Cowboys and off day Wednesday and Thursday

they'll open up the regular season against the Los Angeles Angels of are they called themselves L.A. Angels of Anaheim I forget what they're just L.A. Angels. Okay. They're the L.A. Angels in Anaheim. By the way, you see the Astros Spring Records on 10, 12, and 3? Yeah, they're rallying. They're all right.

It's going to be all right, Gordy. And Hunter Brown makes his final spring start today. Feeling good. The ace, Hunter Brown. A little surprise we've not heard word one about Pena and or Brown contract conversation. It was a very easy answer. Lockout 2027. Yes.

Dang it. I wish it wasn't the answer. I know. And I would think the athletes have to know that too. Oh, yeah. because they want to make a better deal for themselves. Absolutely. And that's why it happened in the WMBA.

There's all these top names are unrestricted free agents because they knew the new CBA was coming and they were going to get some more cash. Very smart. Cost me habachi. Should have thought about it. Yep. That's why you got the insider with you here.

I knew that coming way ahead of time. Mark on 790 and 1121. Mark Goodmore. morning. How's it going? Good. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. I don't know if it was Matt or Ross that talked about right before the rocket segment about your outfield for the Astros. Yeah. You said Camel, Myers, and Smith. Yes. I think that's just an average outfield. You got to have. Hey, hold on. Hey, oh, and thanks for hanging out. Let me hang out. Let me hang out with guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mark. I'm telling you, Mark,

I didn't say that because I was trying to make you mad. I'm just telling you it sounds like that's going to be a distinct possibility. Yeah, so do you put the Zeno or Kohl and center? I don't think either one of them make the team coming out of spring training. Dang.

So you let Tremel and Kim Smith fight out for right field. No, I think Tremel opens the season in left field. No, no. He's a good ball player. We need to have lefty stick. But that would be my outfield. That would be my outfield. You put Myers in, say, in the seventh, eighth inning for a defensive replacement. Yeah, but Zach Cole strikes out too much.

Zach Cole has not done enough to make the major league team, it sounds like. Well, I think he at least give him a shot. No, no, no, no, he's got options and they're not, and they don't do give shots at the major league level. They do give shots in Little League bark. They don't do give shots when you got all the competition you have out there. Yeah, I get you. I get you, but no, that's not, that's just an average outfield. I know. I know you and I will not disagree on that.

My friend, Mark, thank you for the phone calls. Great to visit with you yesterday out there at Willys. No, it's, it's, look, they're all nice people. Yeah. And we want them to succeed. Yeah. But if you are looking at these strict stats in the history and what is expected of those, of that particular group, it's probably.

Probably the worst hitting outfield on paper going into the 2020-6 season. I don't think anybody could possibly argue that. And that's not what you want to brag about. That is, that precludes you from winning games. There's no slug unless Cam Smith has an outstanding start of the season. We know Taylor-Termil doesn't carry slug. Jake Myers does not have slug. Cam Smith can, but Cam Smith also had an OPS of Sub-500 in the second half of the year last year.

Can he, can he break out and have a great soft? sophomore season, no question he can. But we're dealing in the realities of what it is right now. And right now it is, you're scared to death. Yeah, I'm just looking at, I'm trying to find some, just projections, especially when it comes to Cam Smith.

For example, baseball reference has a mat, 450 plate appearances, 715 OPS. 11 home runs. And maybe Joe Lopofito gets in a mix to Africa. Yeah, Joey Loporffito. Yeah.

That's a name. we both missed. I would love for Joe Loparfito's I don't think it's a question of being missed. There's not enough on Joe Lopofito to say that he should be playing four days a week. Not yet. He could get there. I would love to, I would love it to happen.

But the reality is, the best hitting outfielder in that corner has been Taylor Trammell. And again, March numbers don't mean squat. But it is, I'm sorry, when you are competing with three other guys that are trying to take that spot, What is, I don't even know Loparfito's OPS has been this spring, but it's been over 800. Okay. But I mean, Tremel's been over a thousand for much of it. Not that

he's ever going to be a power of stick. No. So it's... But Loparfeito's got some power. He's going to strike out a lot too. No, I think Loporfito, because you traded for him, is going to be given as much of an opportunity as well. 38 played appearances, 958 OPS. Oh. One home

run. He's in 355. You've got Prime Barry Bonds. Let's go. By the way, speaking, of Barry Bonds. I wish we had this a couple days ago. He's working the Netflix broadcast. I am so tired of

athletes who treated the media with such disdain becoming quote-unquote part of the media. Hypocrats. It's so awful. Barry Bonds was extraordinarily rude to thousands of media members.

Not just me. I'm talking about it in general. But when someone writes the right, you a check, all of a sudden you are team media. It's embarrassing. Shame on Netflix. It's not surprising. Not at all. We've got a lot of those guys.

So what Netflix? They're doing opening day. I don't know if he's doing the game coverage. I know he's a part about it. I just know what he's doing. They had the very first game of the year, which is just weird. It's a Giants in the 80s. And they will have the Demogorgon from Stranger Things making picks.

I don't know what that means, but it feels like it's a good line by you. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Let's talk to. Brent on anything goes Friday. Hello, Brent. Hey, fellas. I was using my Friday leash to just kind of

wind some people up and I had already said what I was going to talk about before the last caller, but it was a perfect lead into this. Just honest opinion and what y'all feel and how I feel.

So bottom of the ninth, two outs. You have to have a run. You got to get a run. Man on second. Who do you want at the plate? Aaron Judge or Jake Myers? Aaron Judge? Aaron Judge. All right.

That man can strike out in pressure situations all the time, man. I love it. I love it. But yeah, look, we are, look, I got the president of the Jake Myers fan club to my right over here. But, come on.

I guess we in Houston have to hate him and all that stuff, but I, We don't have to. We're going to hate him. Yeah, we can hate him. Again, he had OPS over 1,000 in the playoffs last year. Did Aaron Judge? I'm trying to pull it up, but. Jack Myers is a singles hitter.

I like Jake Meyer. Hey! Single turns into a double with that speed. But it's got to get out of the infield for that to happen. 1,200 OPS in the playoffs. last year for Aaron Judge. Overall, he's just hitting 236 with an 822 OPS.

He's hit 17 home runs in the playoffs. No, it's a no-brainer. I know we want to crush Aaron Judge. Don't worry, we will. I would love for him to fail in every clutch situation he ever comes up again, ever in his life. Especially if it's going against the Astros in a playoff series. Which it has before.

But he can also close his eyes, use two fingers of his left hand, and swat a ball 395. feet. He ain't country strong. He's just period. Strong. He's just ridiculous and strong. I always make Houston fans mad. He's the best hitter on the planet.

No, I won't say best hitter. He's the best hitter on the planet. Most dangerous hitter on the planet. I think it's a difference. Okay. Because I do believe contact. I do believe putting the ball in play. I do

I mean, frankly to me, I don't know, Mike Trout, but Mike Trout's always hurt. He hit 331 331. Batting title, on base title, slug title, but his OPS title.

But his OPS plus of 2.15. But in the most important thing in the world, the WBC, he sucked. Okay, see, exactly. The WBC, like... What, what? It's not the World Series. It's not. 1130. Time to apologize.

Say her sorry for the things you've done wrong. He's won the OPS title three of the last four years. Aaron Judge. I understand. We hate him and all that stuff. And we're not going to change. That's okay. He's the best hitter on the planet. Most dangerous. What does that even mean? You're such a fraud.

He hit three. He hit a bag. He got the batting title. And the OPS 1100, he had 50. He failed us in WBC. He let us do. He let America down. I will not give him that kind of props. You let USA down. How many guys have ever hit over 3.30 with 50 home runs?

Short time out. Time for Ross to apologize for a variety of things here on Sports Talk 790. Remember this show every Friday 1130. Cleanse his mind, his soul, his palate, and say these very, very simple words. I'm sorry. So, sorry. And the reality is Ross is a fool. Jonathan is a fool for thanking 2 million people

have come to Houston for spring break. Hey, he said 500K. Thank you. Are you going to finally pony up and say you're sorry? Nope. Because you laughed at him. At the very least, you laughed, ridiculed, poked fun, and called him ridiculous.

And he was none of those things. 500,000 was ridiculous. We don't know what the nothing. That's not ridiculous. When the news is saying, 2.2 million saying 500,000 is not ridiculous. I know you've got the NT numbers. I know you've got the Matolytics because you've got boots on the ground and you're out there counting heads.

You know what? I'm sorry, KPRC that you have a man so vocal in the Houston space discrediting your news. You should be sorry. Where else you got, Ross? Um, hmm. You, look, we even tell you when to write it down. I'm sorry to the Longhorn basketball team. Why would they do? They won yesterday.

I was screaming about them about how much they hurt me. I was screaming about how I would just be easier for me if they lost to the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the first four. I was down. I didn't believe. I've been hurt for many years. And you know what? I got to let go of the past. and I got to embrace the future with Longhorn Basketball.

They beat North Carolina State. Now they beat by BYU. They're into the round of 32. Gonzaga looked a little shaky. They're only six and a half point dogs. I'm sorry for doubting. Longhorn legend, Tron, Mark, and all the boys on the Texas Longhorn's basketball squad.

And Sean Miller, I owe you an apology. That's nice. Because you do. There's nobody that hates Texas basketball more than you in this marketplace. That's not true. Who hates them more? You mean love hates them more? You mean love hates?

Yeah, exactly. I could just not care. But I care, man. If you hate something, you care about it. What am I sorry for this week? I think I've been pretty decent, actually. What massive mistakes of a man in the show this week that I'll have city Houston apology?

Probably whatever picks you had? No. You're South Florida upset people. pick. People don't care about my bracket. I'm upset about that. I know. I voted I did. How's it going? Not going well. You're not in a pool? No, I don't know. I just filled one out just for

blanking eagles. Okay. Jonathan? You know, I actually had something that said today. Go ahead. After Monday and Wednesday, I'm sorry for what I'm going to say, but Kevin Durant and whatever his Twitter was going on, all-star break, completely ruined this

Rockets team. It's been brushed over, knowing wants to talk about it. He didn't want to speak about it, which even made it seem more truthful. And now we're sitting on Wednesday game where the entire Lakers bench is all together trying to win this game, still close. And you go to the Rockets, there's no leader.

They don't want to be respected to do it anymore because it must have been true. And if it it was not true, now you have the entire team questioning, okay, he thinks I'm doing this, this, this and this, when they all at the start of the season looked up to the man. Okay, see, first game on. This is not the same team that's battling the

Lakers now. There's no, there's the complete difference, and I'm sorry, he ruined it for everybody. He ruined for the entire Rockets team, and I've been on a team when people do that. He ruined it, and I'm sorry to say that. I saw that video. Sorry. I mean, that's very normal for play. Like,

there's a cut of, did you see the video he's talking about? It's LeBron, and he's like talking to the teammates, and then they cut to the Rockets bench, and they're all just kind of sitting there in their own world. So it's, well, that happens. And of course, you know this man, you can maybe shed some light on this. When a timeout

happens, the coaches, if you look at that video, they're just waiting for the coaches to come over. Ema Doka talks with his assistants for the beginning of the timeout. And then they're like, hey, what are we going to tell them? What are the game plan, blah, blah, blah. Then coach comes over and talks. So they're waiting for him to come over. And yeah, there's no LeBron James on there that's like screaming at everybody and tell him to do this and that. But LeBron does that for theatrics.

You guys are smarter basketball fans. Y'all are missing the point. If Van Blee's on that court right there, Van Vleet's doing that. He's leading the team. And Kevin Durant was doing that. Yeah, but Alper and Shingoon isn't sitting there thinking about the, you're talking about the burner stuff. He scored 27 points in the game. He's not like, Kevin Durant doesn't think I'm a good player.

I'm not going to play well. He had 27 and 10. This is why I'm sorry, because everybody that's been on a sports team. Yeah. You, that's not your brother no more. Now we're co-workers. Look at Draymond Green and Jordan Poole. They still played good together, but they weren't the team no more.

He punched him right in the face. That's insane. Dude, you just talked to mess about me into the entire world. They all know that you. talk mess about me. You're not my teammate. He scored 27 and had 10 assists. They're doing all right. Yeah, they're doing

co-workers. They're not a team no more. And that's what got showed Monday and Wednesday. You can win championships. No, the reason why they lost Monday and Wednesday was because Luca Donchish was doing things and LeBron was doing things. And they got a double team. I mean, and the turnovers, that wasn't about because they weren't getting along in the pregame chat. Okay, so, but you're telling

me right now, Lakers weren't a better team. Chemistry and everything wise. Monday and Wednesday. that? Chemistry wise? Chemistry wise? I mean, I think chemistry. I think they had Luca Donchton the Rockets.

I think chemistry is overrated when it comes of pure talent. I'm going to stand ten toes out on this. You win ten toes. No, I get it. I'm not saying you're crazy, Jonathan. But I don't think they lost that game or I don't think they've been losing. I mean, I don't think one is leading to the other, but I could be wrong. And maybe some stories will come out and be like, the locker room were fractured and we all hated each other.

and nobody talked. My reality is this. When Kevin Durant was signed here, no one said he's going to come in here and be the kumbaya leader. That's just not who he is. He is a leader by his performance on the court. And Jonathan, I know that's not what you want to hear,

but I've done enough due diligence to know that this is not a guy that's going to rally the boys and take him out to have a couple of beers and have hot dogs and go on a fishing trip. He's going to hoop. He's going to. I could do it every single day on the court

and that's how he feels like he can do his best leadership. He is not a leader by rallying the troops kind of guy. I'm sorry, but was Kobe a leader? Yeah, because Kobe would just yell at you. Okay, but I guess, I mean, he would punch everybody and his players, guess what? You want to talk about

his teammates hated Kobe. That's what the point I made. Was Michael Jordan a leader? Michael Jordan led by example on the court. That's what I'm, but Katie is none of those, not a Kobe, not a Jordan, he's none of that. Nor. You want him to Punch his teammates in the face to... Listen, listen, listen.

Because none of these people, none of those guys, Michael Jordan and Kobe can go on the court, lead you. Yeah, he's a bad teammate. This is and this. When Kobe wasn't winning, everybody's talking about he's not making a team better. This is not.

We go back to Katie and the Rockets, and you're talking mess about the entire team to people. And when it comes out on national states, you don't defend that? You don't say, no, these are my teammates. You don't say that? That does something to a locker room, and we've seen it in football.

We see it everywhere. And we can't say that they didn't have a factor. I think it factors in who the great players are. Because to bring up your point about Kobe, we can go back to the archives. When Kobe Bryant, when Shaq left, and Matt, you remember this, when Shaq left and Kobe had his rate case

and they weren't winning games, and it was Smush Parker and Lamar Odom was on crack. It was Kobe Bryant is a bad teammate. Kobe Bryant is a chucker. Kobe Bryant is a ball hog. Kobe Bryant only cares about. himself and he's a bad teammate and he's ruining the Lakers franchise. That was the talk. And then what happens when you get Paul Gassau and when you get Andrew

Bynum and you get Phil Jackson back coaching and you get the greatest coach of all time? All of a sudden, Kobe Bryant, Mamba mentality. He's setting the example. Their narrative changes based on the result. The result is the rockets are losing so you change the narrative. If they're winning some basketball games and earlier when that happened and they were winning, that that's the way that it gets shaped and gets formed. So Kobe Bryant, himself, I think, is a perfect example of saying the result shapes the narrative. When the burner was coming out, that stuff, and then

the Rockets, did they play Oklahoma City before the All-Star or after the All-Star break? I don't know exactly with it. My point is that when they went to Oklahoma City and won that game, nobody worried about the burner at that point, did they? Because when was All-Star? Because they beat them on February 7th. All-Star was like February the 14th. So

it was before, exactly. That's exactly the point I'm saying. This team is, you can, y'all, if we I cannot accept the burner being a primary cause of the reason why the rockets are playing so average basketball. They're human too, guys. I'm just trying to. All right. Yeah, for sure.

There's a human element for us. There's a human element for sure. We'll see. This is a good discussion. I'm just saying. It's a good discussion. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys about it.

Don't be sorry. No, no, you came strong. No, but that's what I'm saying. I'm sorry for people that are going. I can say he came strong. I don't know nothing wrong with that. Oh, wait. I can't say he came strong?

Oh, I, oh. You. Your take was excellent. Oh, God. 1145. No, no. That's the easiest clip in the history of this show. Do not play that clip.

All right. Look, folks, we need y'all to call. Really bad. So we can cleanse that whole segment. 713-212-5-7. Speaking of that, the strippers are coming up in 50 minutes. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. You came with a strong take.

How about that? Thank you. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3 That's still bad 7-13-212-5-790 Please call and say sorry about something you said or did Back in a minute

All right, I owe you to a sorry real quick Apparently Joe Green is so alive I'm so sorry Reports of Joe Green's demise Were greatly exaggerated What happened? Who reported it? Did you get Ball Sacks sports again?

Trying to think Where did it come from originally? Why are we doing that by the way? Were you on Facebook? Are you getting your sports news from Facebook? I told you that to do that. The problem is that we don't know who put it out originally. Okay.

It wasn't some goofy website, I thought. Yeah, he's okay. He's not in dire straits or, anything? So if you were working on Joe Green, believe it or not? Well, good, lucky for you. I've been lazy, and I hadn't put any Joe Green. You could put that in the drafts and use it for later on when he does eventually pass. You put it in the back pocket.

You got a Jimmy Carter obit for years. Now, we do know that Chuck Norris has passed away, so we know that. Okay, that's a done deal. We had that confirm, confirm? No, I'm not so sure. It's funny. Chuck just called the station and confirm his own death. Okay. Yeah. All right. Any of our last calls for it? You want to apologize. 713-21-2-5-790.

7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Real quick, we've got college basketball going on right now, and our beloved Texas Tech Red Raiders, lead Akron 10-7. Oh, yeah, what are we doing? I've got to get these games on. That's on the True TV network. CBS has Kentucky and Santa Clara, and Kentucky is up three on the Bronx, 26 to 23.

Coming up at 12.30, it's Long Island v. Arizona, and at 12.50, it is Wright State versus Virginia. I have a philosophical question for you about the tournament. By the way, that's my buddy Eric Curry, working the game as an official in the Texas Tech Akron game. Oh, okay. Got a fresh haircut. Good for him. What was your question? We'll get to it later in the next hour.

Really? So we have stuff to get you for sure. We've got a call to get you for sure. Let's talk. We've got to get them up in seven minutes here. Get them up. They're still sleeping, right? I want to write this down, 1220.

I have a question for you. All right. Write the down, 12. In 1230, Joseph Dorsey is going to join us to talk about Cougars and the Aggies in Oklahoma. sitting. There are only 13,000 people at the game yesterday. I think first round games don't get attended as well as people think they should. No, why would they? Because if you win, you've got to go to second

round, then you're saving your money for an elite eight. Unless you're like high point, and you're like this is our one shot, I've been there a while. Right. And then at the end of the day, what's the enrollment at high point? My guess is where is this Akron, Texas Tech game? Where is this game being played? Let's see. Oh, it's in Tampa. I believe in

Sri Lanka. Do you think there are more Akron people there or Texas Tech people? If I'm Akron, I'm going to that game, right? Yeah? Because the chance of me... Go zips? Yeah.

Yeah, how many more people do you think there are more Akron fans or Texas tech fan? Now, the people that we're watching right now, there's... Where is it you said? It's in Tampa. Oh, fad for bad. Both teams, frankly. For anybody. Yeah.

Robert on 790, Robert, thank you for waiting and good morning to you. Good morning, Matt. I'm not sorry for anything. Everything I did I meant to do. Yes, sir. I appreciate the honesty. the reason I was calling, I think I got the solution for the Rockets Point Guard. Please.

There's a Hall of Famer sitting at home named Chris Paul. Why don't we just give the Clippers a call? He can come, get his shape these last 14 games, and we'll get to the playoffs. We have a solution. And if we don't want Chris Paul, give Cleveland a call, and we can get Lanzo Ball. Isn't he sitting at home? I don't know what his health is like. But, you know, I'm a solution's already in a guy.

I think Chris Paul and Mike can get in here and get it done. Robert, may I call you Mr. Solutions? Mr. Solutions is a great name. Let's go. Robert, Mr. Solutions, we've got one problem. He's already been released. He was traded to Memphis, was Chris Paul, and then released. I think it was Memphis or was it Toronto?

I can't remember. It was Toronto. He got traded in Toronto, I think. He got released. Cleveland flat out release ball. So you don't have to, Mr. Solutions, I can save you a solutional step by not calling those teams. You don't have to call them.

You can go grab those guys tomorrow if you wanted to. Okay. Well, how la after a general manager when you talk to him, Matt, and let go win a championship? Would you like Lanzo ball to shoot 30% for you for the Rockets? Would you like that? I just wanted him to pass the ball to the open guy. So you're saying he's not going to shoot at all. A guy that has been a current chucker is going to not shoot the ball here.

And also, if you signed either of those players, they're not eligible for the playoffs. It's too late. It's too late. Oh, they're not. Yeah. So you know what? You're not Mr. Solutions. You're Mr. Pine the Sky.

A prospective solution. You know, he's trying. You're trying, Robert. I appreciate your efforts. You know what, Mr. You know, Robert? The illusions. No, no.

You know what you got to do, Mr. Solutions? You've got to come through and call us on like January 9th. That had been a much more practical situation. Oh, yeah. It's past the eligibility waiver deadline. Well, if anything goes on Friday. Yes, it is. Anything goes.

It is anything goes Friday. Yes. I. Anything goes except for skirting the rules of the NBA. And I announce a man's death. that didn't die. That's not my fault by myself. You can't even, I'm curious, you're sore.

You didn't check your source. I might blame you for not vetting the source. Look, I'm the Texans insider. I'm not the Steelers insider. Okay, well, you got one wrong. You Bob Nightingale this one, bad. Dude, did you just Bob Nightingale me? You Bob Nightingale it.

You said a legendary NFL figure was dead. We even played his Coca-Cola spot. It was a sweet commercial. It was. Where did you see that? Let's see here. Well, it had to been TMZ first, right? I'm going to blame TMZ.

TMZ says Gene Mean Joe Green alive after online death hoax. You fell for the hoax. I want to find out who did it. I want to know who put me in the bad direction there. I don't know. I didn't see it. He's seriously trending. I love these pictures, these 70s, 70s players. They have these giant shoulder pads.

They're so massive. Yeah, and he gave the kid the jersey. And all he does is I give a Coke. All right. Well, Joe Green is alive. You're going to have to issue a retraction. You are the sports director at KTRH. I am.

I am the sports director at News Radio 740, KTR. We are your news weather traffic and Joe Green Station. And we're sorry that Joe is. No, we're not. Sorry, we're happy to report. We're sorry. We're sorry to have reported his death when he's alive. Yeah, we're at the Twitter of News Media.

Let's wake the strippers up. We've got to the news at noon coming up. We've got 1220. Ross is going to bring up something. Apparently he was a different guy named Joe Green. Oh, so whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Then there is a Joe Green that died. Well, this is from one Twitter.

I don't know. This is an unconfformed surf. unconfirmed sources. All right. Joseph Tortay at 1230, e-may in one hour here on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show

with Ross. 12-0-3 in H-town. Three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. My brother's putting it in Matt's mouth, the crawfish tail. Oh, on.

Disgusting You know what, that's why I like your brother more than like you. He puts crawfiz in my mouth. He's much more likable than me. I'm okay with that. He always comes and sees me, gives me a big hug. He hangs out, supports. Yeah, big support of the show.

Shout to My Familia for coming out. Your dad was out there. It looks great. Happy to see the entire Bill of Real family out there hanging out with us. Had a good time yesterday yet, Willis. Yeah. And we are down to an hour and 53 minutes left to go on on anything goes Friday. I'm going to busy back half of the show.

We had at 1230. We'll have Joseph Torte from Oklahoma City. Wonderful. You'll be working on today's edition of Hellier or not during that time? I mean, yes. Furiously. Emaidoka 1 o'clock. Love it.

And then Jonathan, you got your list ready for your little master dinner at 120? Yeah, I'm trying to make some changes just in case, but I'm pretty confident. I'm pretty confident. I wonder if there's going to be something that you had the he steals or vice versa. You have to have a couple of backups. That's what I'm scared of. I got to be ready. And for those that don't know, we're going to do the Fantasy 5 at 120 today.

It is Jonathan versus Adam Wexler on a master's meal. You get one appetizer, two entrees, one side dish, and one dessert. Ross gets the first vote. I get the second and you the great audience of Sports Talk 790. Get votes three through seven if necessary. Before I go back to the phones, let's get to the news at noon. Yes, Matthew, the news at noon, of course, is led by all the tournament action yesterday. had some upsets, you had some close upsets, but of course we are going to lead with the University of Houston Cougars.

78 to 47 over the Idaho Vandals. They advance the next round where they will be taking on the Texas A&M Aggies. Fighting Texas A&M Aggies beat St. Mary's 63 to 50. That matchup will be on Saturday at 510 p.m. Prime time. Houston, on TNT. Yeah, they took you off of True. We got upgraded.

With the impractical jokers. Ten and a half point favorites are your Houston Cougars. How you feeling? Cougars by 12. Ooh, okay, that's a cover. Says one Matthew Thomas. Also, Texas Longhorns upset the BYU Cougars and A.J. DeBonsa, as they defeat them.

Where's my final score? I forgot it. I lost it. It's 79 to 71. As I predicted Matas Vokatitis for a double double in the first four. He weighted 23 points, 16 rebounds and a lot of miss free throws for Mottes Vokatitis. That's college basketball. Texas Longhorns taking on the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Gold dogs. Yeah, let's go with the Bulldogs in the second round. That will be on True TV and TBS. is so good it needs two networks. Huh. Interesting. Is that right? You know, I'm really mad that the new NCAA deal does not allow Homercast.

You know, they always put the teams. That's because you want to be on it. Yeah, Reed Geddes and I would be fantastic on that call. Six and a half point favorites, the Gonzaga Bulldogs taking on Longhorns. That game will be, I don't know, maybe here on SportsCard 790,

maybe on KTRH, it'll be in the family networks. Yes. Because we carry the Astros and the Run. who are in action tonight. It is a back-to-back against the Atlanta Hawks. And then tomorrow against the Miami Heat. Three and a half point favorites. This game also getting a national broadcast on NBA TV.

You know, Craig and Ryan will have their version of the game on NBA TV. Oh, awesome. Yeah, because they usually, the NBA TV takes the home broadcast. Correct, yes. Which, let's just say, last several years, haven't been a whole lot of Rockets home broadcast picked up by the NBA TV. Will Craig's ego go out of control tonight? I don't think so.

I mean, he always gets love from people. talking about how he calls the game straight and stuff like that. Yep. So I think he does a fantastic job. Ryan Hollins as well. I will be at the game so I won't be not be catching the broadcast. But Rockets and Hops. But you've been listening to it on your computer as you're calling.

Yeah, I'm going to bring my laptop. I'm going to hold it to my ear in the arena. Perfect. That's what I'm going to do. And then you have the heat and the rockets tomorrow at 7 o'clock. And you may want to go to that game tomorrow night? Because I think, you know who may be that number five on the all-time scoring list. I believe Kevin Durant is 51 points away from...

Yeah, let's have you confirm that. I will confirm it for you. Let me ask you this. How do you want me to call that basket? What do you mean? You're going to do a great job no matter what you know. Don't even have something prepared? You're going to...

It's going to get picked up. As I'm saying, what should I say? I really don't want to say. I know you're going to get a Jeffrey in there. I promise you no Jeffrey. Why not? I like it. Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

But I'm trying to think of should I go clever or just be the declarative statement? You're just going to go statement. You're going to do the kiss method. You go Kevin Wayne Durant? No. Kevin Wayne Durant. At the elbow. This for number five.

Get it! There have been thousands and thousands of NBA players. Really lay it out. That have done an NBA uniform. There are only five men that can claim. They're on the all-time scoring rates. and Kevin Drian is now one of them. Oh, that's it.

I think I'm right. Should I write that down? If you want, yeah. Should I say thousands and thousands? Practice? I know you've been practicing in the shower. I have not. That's so I'm a little nervous.

I've not prepared for it. You got to tell tomorrow. That was my first rehearsal. What do you think? That's great. Okay. Should I write it down? Sure.

I don't want to butcher it. Elsewhere in the news at noon, Matt, did you know? There is going to be a new inductee to the W.W.E. Hall of Fame. And it is Dennis Rodman. Congratulations. To all those involved.

Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman. Of course, five-time NBA champion with the Pistons and the Bulls, making his WCW debut in 1997. Also skipped a practice in the 98 finals to appear on WCW Monday Nitro. He needs some time away from the court. He will join other sports figures such as Pete Rose, William the Refrigerator Perry, Bob Eukert, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali. Why is Muhammad Ali in the WWE Hall of Fame?

He was a part of the very first one. Very first what? WrestleMania. Oh, really? What do you do? Do you go out there with boxing gloves? I think he was a referee. Did he suplex Andre the Giant?

No, nobody can suplex under the Giant. That's asking for something. I'm just asking. I'm just happy that you know what a suplex is. Thank you. As a matter of fact, I think you should put Jonathan in a figure forward leg lock. I don't know what that was. I don't know what that was.

Jonathan do his own devices. He's got quite. quick twitch muscle fibers. That's a stay away for me. All right. And he's half my age. That's a big time stay away. Something wrong with you, man. There's a lot of things wrong with this. Rockets and Hawks and Ben and Sousa's hurt. That should be the news of a dude.

Oh, okay. Luke Dodgis drops 60 points. After scoring 40 the night before. He's still doughy, but damn he's good. Okay, here we go. Gordy heard me confused on what's where. On Saturday, it'll be the end of the end. Astros against the Mets, 1155 AM, U of H basketball

on KPRC, UT basketball will be on Sister Station KTRH and then the Rockets versus Heat will be here on KBME. There you go. Generally check KTRH or KPRC. You'll hear our great coverage here on Sports Talk 7-9. We have so many great sports events. We have three stations to put them on.

Tonight, it will be the Astros and the Marlins on KBME and the Rockets and Hawks will be on news radio 740 KTRH. I'm getting the blow torch tonight. When I do post games on KTRH, I can't even help it. It just comes out.

News Radio 740 KTRH. You're like pregnant pause. Yeah, it's like it's the pregnant pause lockout. KTRH lockout. I can't help it. You don't know this. There was a catchphrase that they used many years ago. Give us 30 minutes and we'll give you the world.

I like that. That's a good one. But we want you to be with us longer than 30 minutes. Yeah, we do here. Our furies here at 790. Give us 30 minutes. We're going to give you a lot of technical mistakes and factual information. Give us 30 minutes. I'll need a break and maybe a cigarette. Yeah. And maybe some lunch. Yeah. That's the news at noon. Stunney and James will get to you plus Ross. You have a question for me?

Thanks for reminding me. I forgot my own tease. I have a kind of a philosophical tournament related question for you. Can the audience answer it to? Yes, absolutely. Okay. We'll do it next year on 790. Joseph Twarty is going to join us from Oklahoma City coming up in about seven minutes from now. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Stunner is with us on it. Anything goes Friday.

Stunner, what do you got? What's up? Happy Friday for both you guys. Same to you. Man, I was watching all these games, though, over the way, I guess, on the week's game, I guess. But, man, the commentators, can we get some better commentators? in there because it seemed like oh my god

they were they were like they were messing up the game because I ended up turning it down and watched the game and then even though my bracket got busted already so I know I ain't gonna have a great bracket but it was some terrible commentators

man hmm which games were you watching that wasn't bothering you so much Well, first one was, actually I had to watch the Miami-Ohio game and at the beginning. It seemed like they just did not want Ohio. It was like everything they did was for Ohio. And then when the next game, it was, oh, no, it was just too many, just too many.

Hold on. But Chuck them was pretty great. But the list of it, they could have kept it. All right. Well, you know what? I have a direct pipeline of the people at True TV and TBS. I will let them know that fine connoisseur of college sports like yourself is unhappy. So Stunner, I will pass your words along, I promise.

Practical Joker would have been better. All right, here's one for you. They should get them on a game, right? Stunner, I'll give you $10,000 of MT bucks if you can name one show on True TV, not named Impractable Jokers. Oh, damn, but I even watch True TV. Nobody watches it. Nobody does. Only the time I watch it is when it pop over on my screen and say, hey, the game is on

true TV. I know. I'm right there with you, Stunner. Did you have a comment, too, about Chuck Norris, or do you want to pass that for another day? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, man, man, you said Ving Joe Green was dead, but then he's alive. You sure Chuck is dead? I've confirmed with many of my sources.

Chuck Indeed is dead. Oh, man. Hey, Chuck was just on the weightlifting machine commercials the other day, man, he came. Oh, man, my boy, it go. Well, damn. I know. That's all I've got to say is, like Florida Evans would tell us, damn, damn, damn. Thank you very much for the phone call, Stun.

I appreciate it. So Stun does not like the broadcasters? And he wanted to double check to make sure that indeed Chuck Norris is dead. Chuck Norris is dead. May he rest. And me, Joe, is alive. and kicking. Yes.

Probably drinking a Coke with a smile. Okay. Maybe. I wonder if I can do. I don't know if it's good for his blood sugar. Yeah, it's true. I had a Coke. That's what I had today.

I had a Coke zero slash caffeine-free Coke. Caffeine-free? What are we doing here? I didn't buy this. It doesn't taste fine. Nothing different to it. Well, if there's no sugar and there's no caffeine, what are we doing here?

What's the point? Yeah. I was looking for a high-sodic. It's like de-caf coffee. I just don't get it. I was looking for a high sodium coffee a drink, and I found one. Let's, here's one interesting. Rocket slash Burger King.

Now, I want to tell you, I had a Whopper this week. Okay. Because the commercials are getting to me. You know, they're going old school. They're going with the old logo. They're going with the old style of restaurant. I go give me a Whopper. Wopper's delicious.

Okay. That's all I've got to say. We'll see what Ryan has to back it up in on the Rocket slash Burger King conversation. Hello, Ryan. howdy guys so i go first rockets as the season progresses it's just looking more and more like a first round exit not a second round exit and that bums me out you know it's bad when people like we gotta sign chris paul or we need to sign lonsel ball uh i think i got the right ball brother on that one you want people are calling in and that's the idea man we're cooked that's it that's that's first round exit at least we made the playoffs better luck next year on uh i was going to say Burger Ring. I was going to be nice, but since we're just dropping names, free promos, went to Burger King today, and I got the new Wopper. This is the Wopper box era. They come in a box now. Yes, they do.

My word, that is the best whopper I've ever had. If you like Burger King at all, it's a game changer. And that's the one bright, shining thing of this week. Work is sucked. Rockets, give me no hope. I'm not excited about baseball. But hey, the Wopper's amazing now. And you should go try. try it out and I'll talk to you guys later. Thank you. You know, again, the ketchup mayonnaise combo on a hamburger is delicious. And it's the only

burger I think in the fast food industry that does that. Is that true? Well, if you get the quarter pounder from cheese from Rick Ronald's, that's much for ketchup. That's true. If you get it from... I'm not a big mayonnaise guy. What a burger. Does whatever even have what mayonnaise anywhere?

They have it. Yeah, you can't ask for it. Yeah. No, I like the way a water burger does it. Straight up mustard. That's it. They don't put ketchup on it either. Yes, sir. I'm already, well, I sent an email to Waterburger.

They didn't that responded back to me. That's rude. Passards. Give me my ketchup, my receipt, and my napkins. That's all I want. It's all I want.

Sorry, Matt. But no, the whopper slaps. It just does. Fries, wretched. Onion rings, pretty good.

Okay. But don't ask for them while I like ketchup at night because it'll only give you three. you. Oh, what was your question, by the way? Your dilemma at 1220. Well, well. We're going to save it now because we got George Dwarthe next. Okay. I got a hot take. I had in and out last

weekend. And I think I'm coming around on their fries. Fries are good. I will not shame their fries. Oh, this is how it might be wrong. We agree on food stuff. You really go crazy. Why don't you go animal style in those bad boys? Oh, I'd go animal style every time. I do light well as well. That's the

I got a Californian tip to go not well done, but light well. They let you do light well? Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Joseph Torte coming up. Joseph Torte to talk about burgers and Cougars and Aggies in Oklahoma City next year on 790.

1233. Matt and Ross with you here on Sports Talk 7-N-A. Let's go to a city I've been to, I don't know, 30 times in the last 10 years. Joseph Duarte in Oklahoma City, where he will watch the Aggies and the Cougars play a 5-10 game tomorrow inside the, Paycom Center. Joseph, first of all, good afternoon. Thanks for joining us. Anything catch your eye

yesterday, forgetting about the score, forgetting about the hot start they had and they really wasn't even a contest in the second half. Anything surprised you keen your interest in that first round game against Vandals? Yeah. I'd start off with

we've seen seen the freshman play this year. We know what Kings and Fleming is capable of he's an all-American. I thought Chris and that coming in and, I mean, good God, 18 rebounds. I don't care if you're a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior. That's pretty impressive. So I think getting the first game jitters out of the way was important.

I thought that Emmanuel Sharp for all that he's done and the scoring that he's done, you know, he's kind of struggled a little bit, trying to fighting through some things the last couple of weeks for him, to trigger that that big run in the first half. You know, those are things that you want to see, but by no means is this team played a complete game yet. Last night was pretty close to it, except for that slow start, but, you know, you see them trending,

and as we get into March here, that's typically what Kelvin Samson's teams have done. So, you know, it was just little things like that. I don't know how much you can gauge because it was Idaho, but certainly moving forward. beginning Saturday against Texas A&M, the road gets much tougher, and that's kind of what you expect.

You want to see that gradual improvement as you move along in the tournament. Joseph, the game obviously would nationally televised, and there is still going to be a large segment of the population that didn't see the Cougars at all this year. So there was a little bit of a storyline, not much of it, but at least a little bit of the,

you know, this is Emmanuel Sharp, gets one more chance to kind of write the pathway towards a national championship, has been with the team forever, and obviously the last few seconds of his, career last year was not good with the double-driple call. You've obviously talked to him about it, but you've been with those guys almost from the jump. Not almost. From the jump. How much has that entered his mind? To say it hasn't

entered his mind about where he needs to be and where he wants to go would be ridiculous. But how much has it been a theme in any point during the course of the college basketball season? Well, if you're a college basketball fan in Houston, you know, your generation and my generation, Matt was the Lorenzo Charles moment in C-state. You know, I'm watching the game last night, but I also have the TV monitors there. And, you know, they're replaying

that play, that moment in the final seconds against Florida, where he didn't get the shot off and they turned the ball over. So, you know, that's sort of this generation's bad heartbreak situation. And, you know, he

talked about it at the beginning of the year. You know, there was a story in the athletic by C.J. Moore that he went on a trip with Ramon Walker and Jamal shed in the offseason to, I forget where Turks and Cicos may be. And one night they're sitting at the table. And finally, it was like the moment to bring it up to Immanuel Sharp. And he sort of therapeutic. And he talked to us back in Houston about it right before the season. So it was there. I think it's more of a not to redeem himself from that particular.

moment, but sort of the get back to the national championship game and finish that job that they did not get to complete. The best thing about last night for me was that box score and under minutes played. And look, you just finished playing off three games in Kansas City the week before. There's a lot of intensity. You're playing every other day. So have some guys get some downtime in that second half had to be a huge benefit for the squad, especially in the first round matchup where teams like Duke and some others did not have a chance

to do that. Yeah, I mean, there was no suspense and no drama. You know, Mercy Miller, I thought, gave them some really good minutes. He's a guy that last year at this time, he wasn't even on the radar. He was going to get mop-up time, if that, he was in a shooting slump. So it was good to get guys like Kim, you know, said Lott, who's number 14 or so on the bench, he got in with about three minutes off. So that kind of gives you an idea how things are going.

But you're right. This type of time of year, if you can get. your starters out, you know, get them, keep them healthy. It goes a long way. And now, Chase McCarty was one that a lot of people were concerned about. He took a hard fall in the first half. Came back and played, talked to him after game, said it was his calf. He's fine.

But, you know, if you can get guys out of the game and keep them fresh, that's huge because you never know what you're going to run up into. And, you know, I think a lot of you of H fans will hope that the, you know, the second matchup with A&M in three years doesn't go to us a type of overtime thriller as we saw in Memphis a few years ago. This Aggie basketball team

took care of business, beat St. Mary's by 13. I don't know how much of you witnessed it personally. This Aegee kid did a lot of heavy lifting for them yesterday. To the first possession of the game, they force a 10-second violation, and it just went downhill for St. Mary's from there.

A&M 4's 18 turnovers, you're right, the AG kit guy, you know, he had 22 and 8, I believe, and he's their leading score and rebounder. But, you know, it was interesting because A&M did not end the regular season well. They got beat by 20 against Oklahoma in the first round of the SEC tournament. So it's kind of like which Aggie team was going to show up. And I thought they did a really nice job. They went with a different lineup than they had all year. but it's sort of the same guys

between Griffin, Dominguez. You know, I thought Pop Isaacs had a good game. They're going to be formidable. They're undersized, but they're scrappy. They can sort of bring the game down in terms of tempo.

So, I mean, this could be one of those, you know, 60-something, 50-something games that sort of also plays into Houston's willhouse. So two sort of similar stuff. so it should be a good one in the second round. Yeah, the Cougar's size advantage is significant, but isn't Bucky Ball meant to run and try to run teams out of the gym? And I'm curious if that's a concerted effort for them knowing they're going to have such a size disadvantage against the Coors.

Yeah, and I don't know much about Bucky Ball since I've focused on Kelvin Ball for most of the year. That's funny. But just when you look at it, you know, there have been teams that have. tried to that their style is base off of that festival now houston can push the tempo uh when it needs to fleming's alone you helps them do that but i've seen more times than not that kelvin teams uh and the way that they game plan and prepare they sort of will you to have to play their style and that's where houston becomes really good when you have to play their ball and uh you know I just think from a matchup, you know, Houston should be, you know, the considerable favorites in this game.

There's a lot on the line, Matt. You know, if you win this one, you are playing a de facto home game in the Toyota Center and have two wins away for playing, you know, in the final four. So there's the motivation's there. They quickly turned the page last night. And they're all, they're set, you know, on A&M and Saturday. Joseph Dwarte from Oklahoma City. Let me ask you about just the Houston angle of going back here. It's been a topic of conversation, but I feel like there's at least one team that would have this kind of advantage.

And so I'm not going to apologize for it. University of Houston should not apologize for it. And ultimately, it was the committee's decision to put these teams in the South because they deserve to be there being the sixth best team going in the tournament. Right. These things are planned out in terms of who's hosting regional years in advance. And you just happen to have another year that Hussim was in position for number one seat. And they were the fifth team just outside of that. And so they got a two in a very favorable region. You know, they've seen it.

You know, since I've been on the beat, you know, they've had Purdue last year in Indianapolis. You know, they've had some other schools that have. have played relatively close. So, you know, I don't really get it. The buy into that argument, it wasn't set up this way. It was there was no conspiracy. This thing was planned out, but you have to take advantage of it. Now, a couple years ago, when the Final Four was in Houston, that was all the talk.

Could they get to a hometown Final Four? They ended up getting upset in the Sweet 16. You got to go in, you got to take care of business. The interesting thing, Matt, is if this region holds, you have the defending National Champion, Florida, the one seed that would be coming. You'd have Houston as the two. You'd have Illinois as the three coming and then

the four seed Nebraska. Nebraska has taken over Oklahoma City. There's some concern that if Nebraska is in that south region, their fans will travel. So it's going to be really impaired that the Houston fans show up and buy tickets

because there could be red in that stand, but it may not necessarily be Houston red. I think Florida's going to travel too, Joe, I think they do a really good job, yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, you look at it, this is not one of those regionals that would have a fan base that's not active and doesn't travel,

and then you throw in the hometown Cougars. It'll be a hot ticket, you know? I don't know if you're going to get your floor seats like you usually get, but you might just want to try to sneak in the building. You got an access card. You could probably get in. That is actually accurate.

I do have an access card, but I will be with the Rockets in New Orleans, so I'll be cheering from about 275 months. miles away. Gotcha. How's Oklahoma City treating you, by the way? It's good. I don't have any food stories for you. Haven't had much time to check out the food scene.

But I can't tell you, I think I have a better seat in this building than you do for Rockets games. I'm on the court. Every time I see your social media photos, you're somewhere up in the rafters. Thanks for rubbing it in. All right. We will talk to you from Houston, Texas next week. What do you think about that?

Yeah, there's going to be one local team in it. So if you're Houston fans, you're polling for the Couges. But I think this is the start of something for them. They're getting right and hot at the right time. And that's what you want to do this time of year. Safe travels. Look forward to reading your coverage in the Chronicle, friend. Thank you for the visit.

Thanks, buddy. All right, Joseph Torto, with us from Oklahoma City for the regionals. And again, that Cougar game against A&M will be tomorrow at 5.10 p.m. If he says nothing but nylon on the national simulcast tonight, and people go, that's such a great call, Craig.

Nothing but Allen's so interesting. That'll be it. We're done as friends. You're lying. That's true. He wouldn't do that to me. I know. I don't think he would. You guys are great friends. Yeah, we are. Craig's great. 713. You know, it's funny. We were talking about this yesterday with some folks that were in town for the Rockets game.

There are some broadcast teams that don't get along. We really, really generally get along. Not generally. We absolutely get along. But it's weird that you kind of have to. You guys are bros. We're travel the same streets. Yeah, but I mean, you're sitting in a different row in the bus.

You'd be all right. You can get lonely on the road, I guess, without friendship. Yeah, but I just, I don't understand it. Like, there are like four or five broadcast teams that never hang out with each other. It's just peculiar to me. Because, I mean, you kind of have to. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to Vegas together.

Yeah. Normally we go gambling together. about all we do. We eat together sometimes. Yeah, it's true. And you stay out later than I do. I don't really stay out. I'm on my, I'm on my couch, I'm on my bed later. Yeah. Good for you. Too old to be staying out late. Me too. Let's talk to Emmanuel on 7. Emmanuel. Good afternoon to you. Hey, Ross and Matt. This is ending goes Friday. So, first of all, I would like to say, I would like to say I'm sorry for last week. That was a horrible connection and that was my fault. And I just like to tell you guys that I'm sorry.

Thank you. We appreciate that very much. All right. And then second of all, man, look at Texas the first day of the tournament. I think everybody in Texas schools won except maybe SMU. Texas Tech, I mean, Texas A&M, Houston, Texas. And that was an awesome game, man, Texas being V and VYU, much over. respect that to Ross and your boys.

I love how the self-deprecating that you told yourself, Ross, oh, we're going to get destroyed by BYU, and then it turns around. It makes you so much more sweeter, huh? Yeah, well, I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't be such a defeatist fan. Maybe I should have confidence in Texas Longhorns basketball, even though they've done nothing to inspire it for the last, I don't know, 23 years.

Ball game, you just really never know who's going to show up. Yeah. But definitely got to get that one guy with the real tall dude with the letter V that says his name. He cannot hit a free throw to save his life. Matas of vocatitis. Volcatitis. That guy's got, he's got to tease that guy. He's got to hit a free throw for it.

But he could swap that ball. He's laughing at your boy's free throw percentage. He tried to cost them the game. But I still love him. I still love him. He had 26 and like 16 rebounds. He was great. They don't win that game without him.

No, Vax. He was on the, he was on the boards. was smacking everything around and dropping down. He was pretty good. And Houston, good job, Matt. I mean, guys, you guys handled your business. My boys, U of A, they're already destroying it through Brooklyn. So we're going to move on for sure. And I just can't wait until we get into the next couple rounds.

And I hope Houston and U of A meet up again. Just so we can mess around with Matt one more time. Not one more time. You'll be taking the big Ls would you be taking. and that's what you were. No more messing around. I'll get him twice back to back. I'll go with the three.

That's because we got to compete against eight people, not five. You always buy off the officials. Don't do that. Don't be bad because we crashed the board and we're huge. I mean, hey, we got the size. And that kid brewery, though, that kid's special. We're very lucky to have them. To me, he should have won big 12 player of the year.

But I think I'm glad that you have a Bradley won, but I think Burry is an amazing. He's really good. Good. You have an, you know what? I said this on Monday show, and thank you for the phone call manual. If not, Houston Cougars win the National Championship, this isn't a question of what I want. What I think is going to happen is, I think ultimately, if the Cougars don't win it, it's going to be Arizona. I think Arizona is an excellent basketball team. They are deep, they're physical. They play a ridiculously good schedule. They are battle tested for a long-term and run.

That brings me on a question. Oh, you're a conundrum. No, we got to do it now. Okay, fine. Not a conundrum. Do you think the transfer portal, now last year is a one-off, maybe, but last year the Elite 8 was 4-1 seats,

3-2 seeds, and a 3, okay? And we have seen some upsets here early on, but do you think the top of the top teams have a big advantage long-term with the transfer portal and the way it is to where they can fill out their rosters? If you have a good player on, I don't know, high point or wherever,

he's going to end up possibly at a better program the next year and it keeps slotting up and these smaller mid-majors they can get players from smaller teams but at the end of the day there's a finite pool of top talent and it all trickles upwards. It's not the portal. It's the cash that goes with the change. Of course. Of course. The portal and the money. Right. Yes.

So if I'm a player at a high point and I show off and Arizona State, Arizona needs another guard, I can pay $250 a grade. High Point can't do that. Yeah, even if so you'd rather, I guess also because of the money, you'd rather be, in the old days, we would say, you'd maybe rather be the big dog at high point,

not necessarily high point, but you know, Akron or something like that, rather than be the fourth or fifth best player on a top program, even if even not a top program, maybe like a Texas or a Baylor or. If you're the big dog at Wichita State. Yeah, making $50,000. Or you can be the,

Sixth big dog at Georgia-making 175. Yeah, you're going to do that. I think it's the advantage, big programs. Yeah. And I'm curious to see how it shakes out with the top seeds. Again, I don't think we're going to see reduced underdogs. We're just going to see a lot of heavy lifting come sweet 16 times. Because still, you have the element of anything can happen in one game with a high point in Wisconsin like we're talking about.

But I think, long term, the mid-majors just don't have anywhere. Not that they had a big chance back in the day, but it feels like it's worse. I know a coach at a division one mid-major. His highest-priced player, this is money that I think he gets directly from the school, is $90,000. The star player. $90,000 at Texas is what?

Your sixth best player? Robin, I don't even know. We're going to say maybe not even that. That's where the mid-majors get hurt. Yeah. E-Made Doca to start the final hour, Plus we got the Fantasy 5 in 20 minutes. We're going to figure out the master's menu between Wex and Jonathan here on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 102 on Sports Talk 790. Let's spend 10 minutes right now with head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets. His name is Ema Adoka. Rockets tonight taking on the Atlanta Hawks. And this Hawk team coming in has won 11 consecutive games. Rockets could certainly like to get in the streak like that going here sometime soon. Emay, thanks for the time.

Tell me about how awesome that third quarter was for you guys. Came back after being down double digits, and I really thought it was a turn to the corner. Did fourth quarter, what was the difference in your mind, those final 12 as compared to what you saw out of those opening minutes of the third quarter two nights ago? Well, I would say our energy and efficiency was way better than the third. Obviously, getting down.

We battled back, and that was a good sign. But, you know, defend at a high level, holding them to 22. obviously scoring 37 is a great number for a quarter. The fourth quarter to start, it was a few bad plays in a row, turnovers. They led them out to easy baskets and kind of went on, I think they went on 13 to 6 run to retake the lead. And so after all the work we put in the third,

it was a little disappointing to come out in the fourth and kind of give it right back. You know, the turnover count was significantly lower than it was from Monday, but, man, it felt like every one of them turned out to be leakouts into baskets for the Lakers. That's at least the way I saw. Yeah, you have 12 turnovers. They score 23 points off those, and they're 8 for 10 and fast break points. That was a big part of it.

And so a lot of live ball turnovers that got out to layups. You know, you want the dead ball ones. If you do turn it over, you want to throw out of bounds or travel or whatever the case may be instead of a steel that leads to an easy uncontested break. And so to their credit, they were efficient in those. Although we had the number lower, it was just the types of turnovers that really hurt us. Did you feel like, man, with a man being as efficient as he was, Alpi was 10 of 15, that was, it was, you needed something of a bounce back in that and to get Alpy out there. And tell me, obviously, obviously, obviously, now, unfortunately, a little bit of separation

between you and the Lakers for that three spot in the West. Yeah, we had an opportunity to go the other way, especially how tight the standings are. And, you know, we, at least want to win one and win the season series, the tiebreaker. and put ourselves in a little bit of hole there, but have time to kind of dig ourselves out. We're two games behind and lost columns. So get on the streak, like you mentioned, start to play more consistent basketball

and finish here on the right note. We can get ourselves right back in contention where we want to be. Eme, Tari, got to double digits for the first time this month. Unfortunately, he just has one three-pointer to his credit. This is a prolonged slump for him. Is this a deep dive into shot selection? Is it to where the ball is leaving his hand? because I always have the firm belief of

I can usually tell when the ball leaves a hand if it's going to go in because of the rotation or where it was shot. What's in his mind right now? Because obviously, this is the deepest funk he's been in quite some time. Yes, starts to become mental at some point. You know, like I always said,

with young guys, you have your ups and downs, and Jabari played his way out of it and been playing great basketball this year. Al-Pice had to deal with it somewhat at times, and so you want to do other things to inject yourself into the game, not just rely on three-pointers going down. you know, cause some havoc on the defensive end like he does.

Get some easy baskets. He got some out in transition. Get to the free the lines and some putbacks, you know, get on the offensive glass, things of that nature. So you're not just relying on three-point shot. But honestly, it's the same great looks he was getting all year when he was shooting 45 plus. And it just has your ups and downs. But he has to stop overthinking it.

I think that guys will start to hesitate and pass up open shots trying to get something better. You know, stay at the course. Trust the work that you put in and you'll shoot your way or work your way at a Sloan. How did you feel about the way you guys handled Luca Donchich for a couple of games? Because to me, it seemed like a lot of times it was pretty good defense, even though you look up, he had a 40-point triple double. And then I guess at least he didn't give up 60.

Yeah, you know, he's a tough shot maker. You know, he was efficient with his shots. But other than the first game where he, we had some miscues and he got some wide open threes, he didn't get the same open looks in this second game. I think, you know, he made really tough contested shots in the lane that you kind of want to live with. And we did a really good job on him on Christmas Day and making him miss the same shots. And so very efficient. That's why he's one of the best in leading the league in scoring is because he can do that on a nightly basis.

But the other things were, you know, the three-point attempts being a 17 and then the Frito's being at 14. That's way too high a number. And obviously, it's the same thing he did against Miami last night, 17 attempts and 15 free throws. So consistent with what he does, and that's why he's the lead score. Rocket Tech coach, EMA Odocha, with us here on Sports Talk 790. We know that every game at this point of the utmost importance, do you feel like as a coaching staff and around the team, are you guys trying to get into playoff mode or trying to try to keep things a little bit normal?

No, you have to ramp it up and understand that after All-Star break, it goes very quickly, let alone the standings of how tight it is this year. You know, when you've given some games way early, you have more sense of urgency, you know, later in the air. So for us, you already have to kick into that, no doubt. I think in general, we understand what's on the line now. The rest of these games, you want to get to that mode as quickly as possible, but also, you know, understanding that you can go from 3 to 7 pretty easily

and get on a good streak ourselves. This Atlanta team, I think we're catching in me at the absolute wrong time. They have won 11 consecutive games. Not only are they winning games, you may have been, as you know, they're blowing people out. What's the elixir that's working for them right now? They've been number one on offense and number one on defense in the last, you know, on their streak, 11 games. I think Jalen Johnson's playing an extremely high level, but they're playing fast, aggressive, you know, shooting the three really well, and then they're great on the boards.

And so that's always a, you know, formulas for success. You shoot the ball well, fast in transition and crash the offensive and defensive glass, and they've done that. You got, I guess when a couple back-to-backs now left to go before the end of the season, it feels like we were always running into these things. Is Doreen going to play tonight or tomorrow? I was trying to figure that out at this point. Doreen will play tomorrow. Okay, so Doreen is out tonight. And it looked like Alpe was pretty fresh.

Those couple of games of back spasms. Those things can always pop up. But he looked very nimble and was able to really be effective, at least scoring for you when you needed him two a couple nights ago against the Lakers. Yeah, he's feeling good. I think, you know, had it been the playoffs, he could have played probably the first Laker game.

But you wanted to get him that rest to make sure he's 100% coming back. And so, yeah, it looked really. good. Obviously, a very efficient game, 27 points, 10, 10 assists, and, you know, very efficient 10 for 15 shooting. So, great bounceback night for him, and obviously we're going to need him down the final stretch. And lastly, I meant Thompson continues to give you lots and lots of minutes. He's scoring has gone up. He's 26 for you. How's he holding out during all this? I know he's young and spry, but it feels like he is really taking a lot of bumps here and a lot of, probably

a lot of cold tubs after games these last few weeks. He's definitely meticulous with the recovery, you know, getting the needles and massages and everything, taking care of his body. But, yeah, we lean on him in several different ways. Obviously, the scoring has been great, his bump there, but the rebounding assist numbers, no turnover's last game, and then defending, you know, the best player on the nightly basis. It's a lot of work. And so he takes care of himself to be prepared for that and has really relished in this role. And I think that's what he's looking for.

That's what we need for him. and he's in the 40-win range consistently, but still does it at a very high level. All right. Thank you for the time, as always. We'll see you tonight. Good luck against the Hawks. Thank you. You got it. Imaidoka with us here on the program,

109, Sports Talk 790. Again, Rockets against the Hawks tonight. They are 38 and 31 are Atlanta. They have won 11 in a row. Their last loss came February the 20th, and I still think they're in the playing game on the Eastern Conference of the playoffs to start tonight. No, it sounds like.

Sounds like they're due for an. L. Oh, you know what? They got bumped to six. I stand corrected. They are, they jumped Orlando by percentage points. Okay. So, there you go. I'm ready. For what? I'm ready for the rockets. Rockets dub. You're going to wear some rock. Absolutely, I'm wearing rockets. You're going to go old school or new school gear? Most of my stuff is old school. I appreciate that. Catchment musters good. Most of the new school gear, I was just gifted by the rockets. I appreciate them. Thank you. I should buy you some stuff too. Yeah, you should actually. Don't you get a distance. discount? No, you don't. Never mind. I'm sorry. Write that down. You could say no. No, Ross. I don't get a

discount. There we go. Yeah. Problem solved. Let's go. Oh, Santa Clara. Texas Tech 59, 51. Look at Santa Clara, Kentucky. You got to put that on. Well, I got, I was going to get the score. Now I can't give you the score. You can read. All right now. 59 to 51. 59.51. 12 minutes. Tech leading Akron. Ooh, Sanct. Santa Clara leading Kentucky 70 to 68 with a minute and change going. Can we check in Mrs. Gordy? Do I send what I need to send? Oh, you better not.

Are you sure I can't? You got in trouble last year. Sorry for your loss. Jonathan, out of nowhere. Now, Mrs. Gordy, you know how much Chris Gordy loves LSU? Mrs. Gordy might love Kentucky sports more than he loves LSU. I try to tell everybody when I was at West Kentucky, it's wildcat everywhere

Like people are They're nuts That's their school They don't mess around She's nuts about it And they met Matt never texts with her Never says anything Except hi when I see her in person

Exactly But when Kentucky lost He sent her a how Sorry for your lost text All right Should I do it again this year What was the response You might not have gotten

No I think she told her husband about it And then he told me me about it. All right, let's talk to I'll tell you what she wanted to say. Fleepe off. Okay, Santa Clara has the basketball. 48 seconds left. They're up by two. Shot clock at nine. Kentucky hasn't scored in four minutes. Here we go. Pull up right side, Jay

from 10 around the rim. No, on a bounds. It's still Santa Clara ball. He had the rebound. Yeah, don't do that. We don't have express written consent. The rebound went out of ball. Take a break. All right, we're going to take a break, and we're going to come back, and we're going to tell you the results of this game. He got pushed. Is that a five?

No foul, just possession change. Stay. We're not going to break yet. We can stay here. Why not? Okay. We can get sued by the NCAA. What are they?

They got enough lawsuits on their hand. Hi, this is Matt Thomas talking and giving play-by-play. Not me, Ross v. Uriel. It's Matt Thomas. A team in the red is going to lob it to the baseline to another complete teammate in the red against a team in a white uniform. Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, Pump, turn, spin, miss it, ball tapped up, lost, fought for,

scramble, free throw line. Kentucky ball. A timeout. It's coming up. Timeout to the team in the white uniform. Ooh, it's getting good. All right, we have a Fantasy 5 coming up next. What?

Yeah. Is Wex getting in here? Yeah, I hope so. I don't think he's doing on the phone. All right. All right, so Jonathan, get your list ready? Yeah, I'm looking up for backups now. You only need one backup.

No, you always have backups. Yeah. Just in case. It's in case. All right. The Fantasy 5, Master's Meal, Wex versus Jonathan, next year on Sports Talk 790. All right, it is 120 here on Sports Talk 790.

It is something we do mostly Friday's we do non-flora stories, but this week we're going to do a Fantasy 5 instead. And here's what we need. You guys, for those of you that are new to the show, which hopefully is not many of you. And if you are new to the show, welcome. We are asking you to be judges in our Fantasy 5. It's a list of five things that usually it's Ross and I that do it.

But this week it's going to be Jonathan and Adam Wexler is going to do the Fantasy 5. and we need you to judge the list. Did he forget? Okay. Oh, there he is. Hi, Wex. Oh, he looks grumpy. Did we do something wrong?

I think he had Santa Clara cover in the two and a half. Hello, foul. Wake the heck up, Santa Clara. Up three, two seconds left? Yeah. Fowl. Oh, you need it in your bracket? No, it's just common sense.

I feel bad for this team. should have be they should already be advanced but anyway that's not why i'm here hi wax all right we need five judges yes 713212 5 790 713 212 5 790 all you got to do and jonathan don't set up your friends to be judges on this since you're screening your own phone calls not that we think you would do that but there's certainly you've been accusing me to do that for like 20 years that's like that i should have done that all right so if you want to be a judge it's only one problem i don't have friends i know 713 2 1 1 3 2 1 12-5-7-90. Wex is going to go get his headphones.

7-13-21-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. What? I'm just killing time. I know. I'm sorry. He's pissed off about the Santa Clara game. He can't focus. I got to give you a sorry.

All right. Give you yourself a sorry. It should be laughing so much. All right. It is time now. Hit the music, please, for the Fantasy 5. Wait a second. I thought we were going to do the. do the what? Master's music.

Oh, you know, that's even good. Turn this off. I got it, I got it. All right, turn to Master's music on. For those who you don't know, when you win the Masters, the following year you get to choose the menu. I never won, I didn't know.

And it's Rory won last year, right? Sure, why not? And then he put a bunch of, his menu is quite diverse. Is it Irish? We're dumbing ours down. Okay, good. Our two players here today, which are Ross,

you're not one, I'm not one. It's Adam Wexler from the A team and of course Jonathan. They're going to choose in any order they want. Any order. One appetizer. Two main courses, one side dish and one dessert. Now, once the category has been selected, obviously the other person cannot choose that,

i.e. steak, i.e. shrimp. Okay? And you and I will be judges one and two. The rest of our audience, 713, 212, 5, 790 will be the judges 3 through 7. Wonderful. Now, Jonathan, you are a part of our show. Wex is not a part of our show.

Since Wex, you are the guest, you have the option. Would you like the very first pick in the Fantasy Five? Or would you like to snake your way to picks two and three? Remember, you get one entree, two entrees, one appetizer, one side dish, and one dessert of any choosing in any order. Well, considering the parameters laid out that if one person chooses steak, the other one cannot. I will choose a pan-seared steak with garlic. butter as my entree. Okay. As one of my entrees.

All right. What if you do prime, can you do rib-eye and then strip? No, prime rib? Steak is off the board. It was pretty limiting, so I figured it was kind of an important number one pick. I feel like you could do prime rib. It's a rib roast. Rib, you can, now, Jonathan, if you want to do, if you want, no, no, he's fine. It's a rib roast.

If you want to do prime rib, you could do that if you wanted to. So you're going with again, what is it you said? I'll take a pan-seared steak with garlic butter. Pan-seered with. Garlic butter. That sounds delicious. It's watering, isn't it? All right. Jonathan, you have the next two selections on the Fantasy 5.

What would you like to do? All right. So one of my entrees, I want to get this up the way. I'm going for a blackened catfish. Ooh. What is the side of corn right there on the bed? No side, no side. No side.

Sorry. That's just the entree. Yeah, blackened catfish. Black and catfish. I like that. Okay, okay. To get out the way, my appetizer is going to be mini baby back rib

like mini ribs like little lambies like riblets you know what I'm talking about like little lamb ribs not exactly you know it's like mini baby back rib you can look it up if you need to mini baby back ribs now the only time I ever had ribs and appetizers is when you order them in a Chinese restaurant

they would call them spare ribs with the sweet and sour sauce or you get the like the Mexican costillas Uh Mini baby back ribs as an appetizer Hmm Okay Wex you have the next two selections on the Fantasy 5

I will take Hmm Wow there's I'm gonna take just plain old crab cakes as the app Okay Crab cake appetizer All right And Again simple

I'm taking it as my dessert Just a New York cheese cake With a raspberry drizzle. Oh. I knew I should have got the dessert out the way. He went raspberry drizzle on your ass. Oh, no. That's fine.

That's fine. That's fine. All right. I'm just going to, uh, you need a rally. John, Jonathan, I don't mean to be rude, but you better kill the next two picks, my friend. All right. I got the next two. Yes. My side is Jambalaya.

Oh. Okay. We're going full, uh, Louisiana. Louisiana. We need some Louisiana. Cana's called Goee Gordy on the line for voting. So just jumbalaya. Okay is your side.

And then you have one entree and a dessert left. Cajun garlic butter shrimp is my other entree. Cajun garlic. It's getting Cajun as hell. Butter shrimp. All right. Wex, you have two left. You have an entree and a side dish, please.

All right. I will pair up the option. If you, for some reason, don't want my seat. steak. You can have some bourbon-cawn chicken. Bourbon-pecan chicken. A pecan-crusted chicken with little bourbon sauce.

We're talking about breasts or bone-in? No bone. Bown-less. Yes. Bownless. Yes. And the side will be truffle butter, mashed potatoes. I'm not asking them the chef

to go crazy. I want everybody to enjoy their master's meal. How many different types of but butters do we need? We have a lot of butter. A lot of cholesterol on this meal. Tuffle butters. I know. How can these extremely finely tuned athletes on the golf course handle this meal? I know.

All right. So, Jonathan, you need, oh, your dessert is what you're looking for here. Yeah, we're going to go. We're going to go. Key lime pie. I love key lime pie. Okay. So, with that being said, we need to.

Oh, man. All right. So let's recap it. Let me give the phone number again. We need two more judges here if we need it, but it's best of seven on the Fantasy Five. Wex has, we'll go for his apple going order. Appetizer, we're starting with a crab cake with Wex.

Then our choice of entree is either a panseered steak with butter, with garlic butter, or you can get the pecan-crusted chicken. Bourbon sauce? And bourbon sauce. His side is truffled mashed potatoes, and his dessert is the New York cheesecake with raspberry drizzle. Jonathan's going to open things up and give us some baby back ribs for an appetizer. Many, many baby back ribs.

It's like a fetal pig. His entree is blacking catfish and Cajun garlic buttered shrimp. Now that does, it makes more sense hearing it together. It does. The side is jumbled eye with a jumble eye aside. And the dessert is key lime pie. those are the dinner entrees for the master's dinner. Okay.

We will take a short time out. Wonderful. And build a drama. Yes. And you want to call in and vote? Call in vote. We've got three in the line. So if it's a sweep, we don't need you.

But we need two other people to come in as a backup voters. 713-212-5-790. 129 here on Sports Talk 7-90. Jonathan, you were absolutely right. I did go Google mini baby-back rib, and it is a perfect appetite. So you do absolutely are allowed this. I've never had a baby back rib for an appetizer, but it is what it is. Now, again, Chinese restaurants, sweet and sour spare ribs?

Absolutely. Okay. You get you a good spare rib at a buffet, Chinese buffet? Oh, I love ribs. I love ribs too. Babyback, beef, spare. All of it. Chuck.

Do you like Chuck ribs? Sure, why not? You don't even know what a Chuck rib is. Yeah. All right, Wexer wants to leave. So let's get these out of the way here. I thought I'm first, right? Run the meals again.

Meals. Appetizer for wax, crab cake, entrees, the steak with the butter. A lot of butter here. Bourbon pecan-crusted chicken. I'm trying to picture the plates. The side is the truffle mashed potatoes, the dessert's New York cheesecake with raspberry drizzle, not an Arkansas cheesecake. For Jonathan, his appetizers, the mini-baby-back ribs.

His entrees are blackened catfish and Cajing garlic shrimp. his side is jambalaya and his dessert it's keeline pie that's really good too i mean i need both these meals comfortably it came together he won the masters i gotta be honest i thought jonathan was struggling when he was picking the trees i was like what is this guy doing but when i see the forest see it's a good i see the vision see i can it's a good you got the savory ribs and then you get hit with the seafood go ahead you get the first vote there's one problem i don't like keeline pie What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

How do you not like key lime pie? It's America's dessert. I should say I like keeline. I don't love key lime pie. It's not my favorite. You give me a slice key lime pie. I'll eat it. But cheesecake is my favorite dessert.

And while Jonathan, your meal came together nicely, better than I honestly originally thought. That's okay. That's good. I mean, I can't go against steak, chicken, mashed potatoes and cheesecake. Crab cakes is a great, also as a kind of a different,

something, a different flavor for the app. So I'm going with Adam Wexler. All right. Adam gets the first vote. I'm next. Jonathan, I like three of your things more than I like of Wexes. I love Cajun garlic shrimp. I love key lime pie. I love jambalaya. But pan-seared steak. Oh, I'm sorry. His steak and the crab cake is good.

And I just don't want to have a mini baby, back rib for an appetizer. So off the strength of the two that he has that are better, I'm going to go with Wex as well. And I'm sorry, I love you, but I... No, that's... I got to take Wex. Wex had a good pool. I'm not even... I'm going to tell you the Wex,

you hurt me in the chicken. Pecan-crested chicken. Okay. There's four entrees. The first three were obviously already taken. Chicken is obviously the worst. I recognize that, but that's where we are. You could have gone with a sea bass or a mahi, mahi. I thought fish was out once he took the catfish.

lot of fish. Yeah. I didn't realize that. I would have taken Chile and sea bass. All right. All right. You still got our votes. It's fine. You're up too nothing. All right. Jacob, who wins a fantasy five? Jonathan or Wex? Man, Jonathan got a nice menu for the cookout, bro. But for the masters, I think I got to go with Wex. All right. Yeah, I got to tell you, I think you're going to get crushed on the baby back ribs. You could have gone with a soup. You could have gone with a chowder. You could have gone with maybe a pair salad. I like the ribs pick, actually. Somebody from the Masters did cheeseburger sliders.

Don't give you that. Scottie Schaffler. You did your research. I appreciate that. I was doing it. Corey on 7. O'O.C., who wins a Fantasy 5, Wex or Jonathan? Man, Jonathan Biggieves like a 7-year-old born-in-out a menu with a French fry.

Adam is clearly the master. Oh, wow. 4-0 sweep. All right, just for S and giggles. Mike, who did you have Wex or Jonathan in the Fantasy 5? Well, it's obvious that Jonathan has not indulged in buying cuisine in a while, so I'm going with Wex. All right, there you go. Thank you very much. It's not like he said I'm going to go with my entree.

We'll go with hot dogs. Yeah, he's just, you're acting like he's got slumpy joos. Let me tell you, the Cajun garlic, butter shrimps, and the jambalaya sounds delicious. And the black catfish is good, too. Yeah, what's wrong with that? I'm going to be honest, I should have took my dessert because I had cheesecake already written down. And key lime pies. Look, cheesecake is fine, but key lime pie is the goat.

It's on the, oh, okay. Wex, congratulations. You had a five-nothing sweep. A rare five-nothing sweep. I know. I know. In a best of seven. In a best of eight, you would have won.

I love it. What's on your rather large program today? Well, we will obviously talk about not seeing the biggest upset of the tournament today yet, but we did see it yesterday. So we'll get into that. Obviously, we got some interesting things to look at on the latest with the, let's fill out our 26-man roster for the Astros as they get here. and exactly how good are the moves that have been made so far by the Texans and what's left.

All right, there you go. That's a shorter show today, but it is the 182 to 450 here this afternoon on Sports Talk 7.9. All right. Let's go back to this fantasy five. Cajun garlic shrimp in general. I like going with some savory ribs and then like some spicy chicken. Is that where I lost off the? No, not me.

Okay, okay, okay. You lost me a little bit on the appetizer, but the pants here. Your menu is like an 8 and Wexas is a 9. Yeah, I mean, I would I would comfortably enjoy your meal. And I like ribs too. Honestly, nothing wrong way. I'm kind of wanting some black food.

Black and catfish now. I feel like you need to go like to, what was that place on Richmond that was back in the day? Cajun Place. Caligula. No, no, you don't get, I guess you could get Cajun food at Caligia if you wanted to. Not Crawford.

Dreams? Centerfolds? Start with a C. Help me out. Yeah, centerfold. No, Richmond Avenue. It was a chain. Treasures No men's club

Shush Captain D's I give you Captain D's something else Like we're gonna have to go to Papadol Right we're ready to go Not Crawfords What was it called? Help me out somebody It was on Richmond Avenue

Carman's Whatever that place Constantine's You said C I'm trying to help I'll rely on something on Twitter It'll tell me You're of no help I'm sorry

It's the last segment It was Friday I'm sorry Chris Gordy just said Wex's picks were U of H Jonathan's picks were Idaho Oh Wow

Wow Now see I disagree I disagree with that No you you know what You were Santa Clara They were Kentucky See I'll take that That's what I'm saying

Rex was a good I can't get mad at Wicks That was good That was good Hmm That place That can't bother me What was called

I don't know This is good You take a break You did really well I'm very proud of you But if you'd have got French onion soup or cram chowder I would probably would take in your list

Honestly if you had cheesecake And he had key lime pie I'd probably go down there But why is cheesecake Had me from New York If you're in Connecticut It's just as delicious That's not as good

What it makes in New York Is it the thickness of it? I don't know It's more like New York pizza It's better than regular pizza It's with the yeah They made it with the Hudson River water Fluffs it up

Okay. Got a break. All right. Sorry. Helly Aaron out is up next. All things about Chuck Norris. And somebody helped me out. There was a, there was a Cajun restaurant, seafood restaurant on Richmond, long gone.

It was started with a sea. And it was on the Richmond strip. Like, I want to say right across from Yucatan Liquorstan. Help me somebody, please. I don't know somebody I went to Newcatan Liquorstan back in the day, right? You all right, Ross? Yes. I'm great.

143. We're going to play hell yeah or not next. Hold in. It was Copeland's, what's the name of the place? Is that a C-O-U-P? C-O-P-E, like Copeland. Like, C-O-P-E, like Copeland. Okay.

One time went to Copeland's in Lafayette, Louisiana. Okay. And it was me and two of my sons went with me. We had a University of Houston tournament trip, I think. It was Louisiana, Lafayette. Okay. Went to Copeland's. And there were about four people at a table that we were sitting at.

The bill was $91. And the person tipped to $95. Rounded up. Wow. And the woman came over who was our waitress. And she just shook her head. And she said it happens to me all the time. Yeah.

Some people are bad tippers. Unless it's wretched, 20%. if it's good 22 to 25 if it's below average 15 if it's awful then you do the rounding up yeah unless I'm getting like a flat out bad attitude I mean come on now crazy crazy crazy crazy

I understand some people just don't know for some reason no there's no you have to know if you're an adult and you go to Copeland's restaurant you have to know the tipping procedure no I'm telling you bad as 15 good is 20 excellence 22 to 25 I'm telling you.

Some people don't know. I told this story before. When I was working at Cheddar, it was like two people in their kid, and it was like a $60 bill, and they left me five bucks. They filled out a comment card. Excellent, great, everything. Next time we come back, we're going to ask for Ross. Perfect service. No, you're not because you won't be there.

I was like, no, we're good. You don't have to. They love the service. They gave me $5. It was like a $60 tab or something like that. They just don't know. They just think that, five bucks is? we're going to take care of him. Here's five bucks.

Right. Some people don't know. Yep. I get it. I get it. All right. Rockets basketball tonight over on KTRH. We'll have the game for you beginning at 6.30 on the network pregame show. 7 o'clock tip time. Astro spring training over here at 4.50 this afternoon. Yes. Cougars and Aggies will play tomorrow on 950 KPR. See, that's also a go-coops. That's a 5-10 tip time.

So I will be prepping for the rockets and the heat. well at the same time watching my beloved Cougars hopefully advance the sweet 16 all right and by the way yeah cougar fans i thought uh josephorth brought this up earlier in the show buy the tickets i guarantee you florida's coming too really yeah i guess it kind of makes sense huskers i mean they've had no terminate success ever in their life right so they're excited so if they're going they're going to be coming yeah home games let's go let's go uh five minutes left to go on the show what should we do We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game. Show we simply call it Monday through Thursday, believe it or not. On Fridays we call it a hell yeah or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of a hell yeah or not is all things about the late. We know who confirmed he is dead, Chuck Norris. I'll read you a statement about Chuck. State is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Hell yeah. If the same is erroneous full of bunk and made up, you'll say this.

Not. Two hell yeah or knots in a row will either win you a $7.90 t-shirt or a pair of tickets to see Triumph on their rock and roll machine reloaded tour. May 22nd at Smart Financial Center and Sugarlam. Tickets are on sale now at smartfinancialcenter.com. That's smartfinancialcenter.com. Ross, what is your favorite triumph song? Dog Day afternoon? mine is Tuesday, Tuesday.

713, 212, 1,000, 7.9. 7.13, 2, 1, 2, 5. 7.9. I think people are maybe checked that for the weekend. I don't know. Greg on 790, Greg, you're ready to play a hell yeah or not? Hell yeah. Chuck Norris is given name. Carlos Ray Norris.

Hell yeah or not. Hell yeah. Hey, yeah. Statement number two. for the win. Chuck Norris won six consecutive international karate championships in the middleweight division. Hell yeah or not.

He did. Duh. Robert on 790, Robert, you're ready to play hell yeah or not? Chuck Norris served in the Air Force and was discharged in 1962 with the rank of Airman First Class. Hell yeah or not?

Oh yeah. Statement number two for the win. Chuck Norris was slated to play Red Foreman in that 70s show, but had to back out due to obligations with Walker, Texas Ranger. Hell yeah, or not? There you go. Congratulations. We're going to see Triumph. Ryan on 790, Ryan, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show?

Probably Mr. Whisker's in the freezer. Okay, that was you, we didn't bring up cheeks today, but thank you very much anyway. In 19... I've been thinking about it for six months. Well, of course, sure. That makes you a P1, and for that we thank you. in 1969. Hey, tell Ross

that walked down memory lane of all those chob bars was awesome. Epic. I threw 20 bucks out the window just listening and laughing.

Oh, you walked down the lane to the Cowboys history? I don't remember. That mammary lane that Ross to all the, I used to go blow a lot of money at those arcades.

In 1969, Chuck Norris defeated Bruce Lee in a cheat cundo sparring match, but out of respect for Lee Norris never spoke publicly

about it. Hell yeah, or not. not that's correct statement number two for the win chuck norris stated that all of his fake chuck norris facts his favorite was chuck norris can divide by zero that's his favorite one hell yeah or not uh hell yeah no his favorite actually was on him goodbye before the boogeyman goes asleep he checks his closet for chuck norris that's his favorite one huh yes the things you learn on this show 713 713 7 1 that's right past tense uh uh i think we're done, right? We got nobody else to play? And these were some good questions, I thought. We have two left. We got

one minute to kill. Ross, what are you going to do this weekend? Going to the Rockets tonight. It is my nephew's birthday tomorrow. Happy birthday to James. Mm-hmm. And that's about it. So, birthday lunch with the familia, and then, of course, going to watch the Longhorns

beat up on them Gunzaga Bulldogs. I'm watching basketball in person and on television a lot of the next two days. And then going to Shy Town. on Sunday, baby. Four game roadie. Love it. That's it for the show. It's the weekend. Yeah, the polter madness is on. People aren't want to listen to

show. But you might always stick around for the yay team. Next on Sports Talks 7.30.