The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Cam Smith Plays RF, Altuve Makes Blunder In LF, Getting Real About Astros, Rockets DOMINATE Suns

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" preview the Astros split-squad spring training matchups that saw Cam Smith spend some time in right field. Jose Altuve got some more time in left field but was unable to make a catch against the wall versus the Cardinals. Matt and Ross also:get real about the Astros with Brian LaLimarecap the Rockets defeating the Suns to extend their winning streak to four with head coach Ime Udokapreview the Houston Cougars in the Big 12 Tournament with Joseph Duarte, University of Houston and Big 12 Conference beat writer for the Houston Chroniclesay "I Just Don't Get It" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-07 in H-Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Here goes Royce O'Neill, and he lost the basketball. That's an unforced turnover into the hands of Brooks.

Here goes. Easting gets turned back in the lane out right side of Van Bleak. On the lane he goes, and Freddie has got five first quarter points. Rockets up 12 to 9. Coming right back, Fred Bambly, bounce pass out to DB. DB at the right elbow. Out left side.

Jalen, catch, shoot, launch, score. Three-pointer. Jalen Green to give the Rockets a 9-point lead. He's got 26 on the 9th. Bambly, bounce past, right side over to Jabari. Left-hand, he'll drive against Durant, pulls up 14-foot shot.

Yes. Javieri Smith. Not a huge part of the offense tonight. He's got sick with the clips of Rockets a double-digit lead again at 95. Double team comes to Green to Brooks. Shangoon behind the back pass. Inside for a flush to Tari.

What a beautiful dime that time for the Rocket Center. Whitmore is going to hold on to the basketball at his right hip. And for the fourth consecutive game, I can tell you, it's another. Rocket twin. Final score, Houston 111 and Phoenix 104. It's funny for my. friends that bash me for my unabashed love unabashed. Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah. Catch you. Of the Beatles. Uh-huh. I put this song on there like, okay, this is a really good song.

Yeah, there's some jams. Hi, Rossi. It's almost time for a break. 10-10 on sports songs. All right. We'll talk to you guys.

Back with the next segment. No, we're not going anywhere, at least for a couple minutes. Here comes the sun. Here comes the Phoenix Suns, and here comes another Rockets victory. Here comes an ass whoop in Phoenix Suns.

In a game that was not indicative of the final score. Poor Cam Whitmore. Gee, many Christmas. I mean, five minutes and five missed shots. It was crazy. Maybe it's a poofed out here he's got going now. Got to get the braids back? Whatever it's going to have to take.

Hey, Rockets one last time. Good morning. It's Matt and Ross. We are with you today until 2 o'clock. It's our penultimate. Is it penultimate for the week? Yeah. For Connor, too.

Oh, for Connor. Yeah. Whatever. We just said goodbye to Brian. Brian and Lee, I'm not even going to look at him in the face. We're down the two days left with Connor McGovern. He is leaving to go get a full-time job with great benefits and outstanding pay. What an idiot.

I mean, what do you do it? I did tell him we're going to have to call him for a variety of things, you know. I only have to call him for get a loan. Show-related stuff, even though he's not a part of the show anymore. I need that low-interest loan from the Bank of McGovern. Yeah. By the way, he is promising us one well of a Friday open tomorrow. The last one under his watch.

Yes. Now, those will return. We've got a new producer coming up next week. And so there's, I don't know this on it. There's a few layers of this show. And so it takes a while to get to the show. People, you know what? I'll even say further.

People around the building know that Matt Thomas is the most demanding person when it comes to producers in the building. That is far from accurate. It would be Michael Barry, but he's not in the building. So it's you. Connor, is that true? Was my reputation worse or better than what you had originally heard? The reputation was worse.

People had me a little scared, not scared, but prepared to get some like rude comments. Yeah, but I'm rudy regardless of what the show working out right or not, right? Well, the thing is, Matt, he doesn't deal well with incompetence, and you were very competent, Connor, so you were spared. And rude, maybe it wasn't the right word. Maybe it was just frustration, but not to take it personal. I was told never to take anything personal. Yeah, I get frustrated very easily. and I have not been frustrated with you.

So thank you very much for your time and you're well. We're going to go celebrate tomorrow after a little lunch because we've got a shorter show tomorrow. That's right. But we're here today for a full days this week. Let's go. We're full four hours today. Well, we were full three hours and 49 minutes because, you know,

the previous show took some time. That's fine. That's fine. That's all right. All right. On the radio program today, I just don't get it at 1130. Okay. 12. 1 o'clock.

Eme Adoka is going to join the radio program. The Emeadoka? The Emeadoka of your Houston Rockets. and damn it Ross, I am standings watching. Everybody else is moving up and the Rockets are just staying at number five. The Memphis Grizzas are now in the two C in the Western Conference.

Yeah, but you're just a game behind. But we're also really close to the six and seven spot too. Maybe you should just let go. I have a problem. Don't watch the scoreboard. You're probably watching the scoreboards more than E. I'm having like the client in Waxer read scoreboards in the middle of the game.

I'm just that obsessed about it. Jeez. You got to relax, Matt. All right. So I'm going to throw this out right now. Right now. And I don't know if anybody is listening or not. And if you are, thank you. Is there something in sports that drives you so crazy you can't do it anymore?

Hmm. You can't do it anymore. Can't do it anymore. For instance, I'll give you a very small example. I can't. I'm going to continue to do it because I'm a fraud. But I shouldn't be looking at the standings in the Western Conference. I shouldn't be scoreboard watching, but I keep doing it.

It's March. Maybe that's a better, maybe that's a better question. What is something you know you shouldn't be doing in sports, but yet you continue to do it? Might be being a Texans fan. Hmm. Might be a Casario Truther. It might be playing golf. Do you think of something you do in, is there something that you, that involve sports that you know you shouldn't be doing, but yet you keep doing it?

Hmm. Like a sports, not even a guilt. pleasure. No, it's guilty. It's guilty, just terrible. Because here I'm, Rockets have won four straight game and they're going to move up the ladder and they're still in that damn five spot. Yeah, but they're getting closer. All right. Because Denver did lose last night to Minnesota, but Minnesota got closer now because Minnesota's winning. Lakers have lost a couple in a row.

So if you've got something in your life that you know you shouldn't be doing in sports, but yet you still do, I want to know what it is. Okay. 713-212. 570. 713-212-5790 is how you reach this program today. If you want to reach out to us via Twitter, you may do that as well. It's at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Conardee McGovern. I just don't get 1130. Again, email at doca 1 o'clock, believe it or not, 150, and we are with you today at 713-212-5-790. With a word right now for the Shell Federal Credit Union, if you want to picture the possibilities of driving a new car or refinancing for a better rate or lower payment or a shorter term, You can do that today with the Shell Federal Credit Union.

They make auto loan simple and rewarding with rates as low as 3.99% APR for up to 36 months, plus you'll get $250 in cash back. While you're there and talking to those great folks at Shell FCU, you can ask about 90 days a deferred payment and the flexibility of two skip but pays per year. Apply online at ShellfcU.org or call 713-8441100. That's 713-8441100 or again ShellfcU.org for an auto loan from the Shell Federal Credit Union, proud sponsor of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal.

It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. You know, Ross, we ask of you to listen to Rockets Radio because I think we do a pretty good job. It's, you know, not nearly as talented as Craig and Ryan and Vanessa are, but, you know, who can be? So last night, Alperin Shingu nearly posterizes somebody for the sons. I forgot who it was. Couldn't have been Plumly because he was tossed after he got into a wrestling match with Stephen Adams for a short period of time. Yes. And

so there was no poster, but there was a found some free throws coming up. And Adam Clanton likes to ask me a variety of things during the broadcast, and this is what he asked me last night. Who was on the poster in your room when you were growing up? Elijah one. Nice. And two girls. Not in the same

poster. Well, I was about to say, that'd be very interesting. Who were the girls? They were just Laundrae Girls Free throw one for Green is up in You asked

Why do I do this to the audience I thought they were like Famous No no there's lingerie models Hmm I can remember that That poster like it was yesterday Oh right

We don't need you reminiscing About those times I mean I was 15 I was fat That's what it is Remember You ask me

I'm trying to forget actually Remember remember You asked me question. I'll answer it. Okay. It's not like Bruttle Ross or or As Ross. I don't know. We got you retire that segment. That was, that got you in a little bit of trouble there, so we don't need

that. But yeah, that's what's going on with the Rockets. They won last end over the Phoenix Suns. Rockets remain in fifth place in Western Conference. We'll get to that a little bit today. We have a pair of spring training games for the local nine today, split squad, and one of them will feature Cameron Smith Nobody calls him Cameron, right?

He's just Cam Smith. He's in right field today. Good. Good for him. Get him some work over there. Mm-mm-mm-mm. Oh, so yeah, that's not a good situation at all. That you're going to potentially open up this season

with a left-fielder. It hasn't played before. And maybe a right-fielder hasn't played before. I don't think you're going to open. the season with that. I agree with you. I'm just saying we have to continue to bring up that possibility. It is potential. I don't think it's happened. I don't think so either. He's hardly played out there. But if that was to happen, and it sounds like to me that's very much a possibility at some point this year. Is Jake Myers like, man, do I have to cover the entire

outfield? He would, that's one other, again, one of the luxuries you have is that he can cover so much ground out there. I wonder if this is part of it is because Chats McCormick can't field his position. No. That's not it. No. It's the bat. Or more importantly, maybe Cam Smith, we will start to find out maybe isn't a third baseman that he'll be better to serve as a major

leaguer in right field. There has been talk about him and the third base work. Get him somewhere else. It's fine. Get him on the field. Get the bat in the lineup. Yeah. If it's going to produce. Again, 20 plate appearances above A ball. Spring has been

great. But we, I think need the pump the brakes a little bit. But I will say the argument against that is that Dana Brown doesn't pump the brakes when it comes to prospects. He moves guys up. But previous general managers have definitely pumped the brakes. George Springer's like, you, not only did you pump

the brakes, you didn't even turn the car on. Yeah. And I'm not going to be signing back with you guys. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. To me, I still have May 15th down and I might even be a little bit early. I may have been too late on that. unless

McCormick does bat his way into the lineup and that there's really no spot for him because again I don't think you bring him up here to sit him four to five days a week if you're bringing Cam Smith up here it's because he wants to play

or needs to play we'll see now let's go glass half full on this you ready? My glass is normally half full Matt I know they call you Mr. Glass Heffle. That seems a little wordy.

It does. That's why I don't call it to you very often. If he is successful, you've replaced Kyle Tucker, who was going to leave with a phenomenal bat in right field. All right. Stop. Again, this is Glass Hiffel.

I'm giving you both sides. This is a glass spilling over. All right. Glass spills. This is a 30-30 guy we're talking about. You're replacing. Gold Glover. Stay with me in this.

Glass overflowing. Okay. Your first round pick. Obviously, somebody thought how high enough of him, meaning the Cubs, the draft in the first round. There is obviously something to his game that says, this is going to be. Most first round picks make it to the major leagues. Most do.

Not all, but most. I mean, they're great, but they're at least get there. Okay. He plays every day in right field. He's significantly cheaper. I'm not saying he's the same side of power or takeover games, but you're not missing much of a beat. Much like Jeremy Pena when he took over for

Carlos Gray. You miss a little bit of the beat, but you didn't miss the whole beat. You still danced. You miss a lot of it. He had a great postseason run in 22. You love the postseason. The bat's not been good at all. I know. Slow. Stay with me on this.

Stay with me on this. Where is this coming from? I'm just giving you both sides of this. Okay. The negative is, how in the world would you get rid of Kyle Tucker? Knowing that you're going to put Jose Al-Tube out in the left field, knowing that was going to be a minus play in the outfield, and then you're adding a minus player out in right field who's never played but the position before.

That's the negative of. of what were you really thinking? Or how about this? What were you really thinking, thinking that you're going to put Chas McCormick in right field and say, oh, the Chas McCormick in two years ago was going to be the guy that was going to come in here and help this squad in 2025.

Well, you're hoping. Because you wanted to stay under the tax. You know that Kyle Tucker's going to leave. You want to get some value for him. And you short up the infield with Paradist and Walker. Yeah. because you were going to have, you couldn't, you just didn't have the money to plug every hole

on the roster. So, what is it going to be closer to being? Are we going to be like, wanting to enshrine Cam Smith and the Astros Hall of Fame right away? Or are we going to be missing Kyle Tucker more than we ever thought we were going to be miss him?

I mean, I guess it can be a combination of both, especially if Kyle Tucker rakes and Ed Wrigley Field. Do you want, do you want realistic Astros talk? I know we can't do this in March. Let's do it when come back. Okay. Realistic Astros talk. We have to be real.

Realistic. So you and I will both be realistic here. Okay. Is there a song with the word realistic or really in it? Yeah. What is it called? I'm too real. Okay. Look up the song, Connor. I'm too real.

And see where that ends up. 713-212.5-7. I'm too real, huh? Okay. I'm sure you'll find us a realistic song. Got to be Real by Cheryl Lynn. That's a great song. I'm real by Kendrick Lamar.

We don't play Kendrick Lamar on the show. He's kind of a one-hit wonder. 7-13-212-5. That's not accurate. 7-90. I think he's got like four top ten hits like right now. Got to be real. Yeah, but I don't listen to his music.

I know the top ten. Okay. Just because you don't listen to it doesn't mean we can't play it. So you're telling me on the Billboard top ten, he's got four songs. He has recently, yeah. Wow. Okay. Good for him.

That Super Bowl performance. It did him very, very well. 713-212-5-790 with a word for League 1 volleyball. I've got to be real about something, and that is watching March professional volleyball at the Fort Bend County epicenter. You may do that by going to lovb.com, L-O-V-B-HtX.com. That's to get your right to the Houston part of the website. League 1 volleyball is a brand-new volleyball league.

They've got three matches in the month of March, as I mentioned. Tickets as low as $10 to check out the best volleyball players in this country, whether they are from overseas, whether they are All-Americans, whether they are just good old-fashioned ex-college players that are now wearing the Houston gear of League 1 volleyball. L-O-VB.com, L-O-VB.com.

It's such a great sport. I play it. I've got friends that play. My daughter's going to be playing in college. And you should enjoy it as well, especially if you ever played before, or happen to watch your kids play it. League 1 volleyball, L-O-V-B-H-TX.com, March matches at the Fort Bend County Appracentor. Tickets at $10. Be there. Back to Matt.

Thomas and Ross via real. On Sports Talk 790. Are you going to be real, Ross? 1034 Sports Talk 790. Shout out Brian Lima. Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday. Turn the microphone, that's fine.

Is it this one? Are you no longer in plug by us, correct? No, I'm not. I'm not. You say whatever you want. Absolutely. I can. Aren't you an uncompet?

I am in non-compete. I am. It's Thursday, so we don't get any good morning, like, what is it? Tomorrow. What do we do? That's at 155. No, okay. Wait, y'all are working a full show today?

Yes. Shut up. The A team's not, by the way. At all. Matt's not. Because your horns are playing Texas A&M. What are you doing, Matt? This is what he does.

Listen, go on. He does show prep and his calendar, the whole show. I just wanted to get in for at least five minutes, you know. Yeah. Worked with you guys since 2018 and I can't ever get an invite to do a filling show with you guys. We've called you on air before. I did. Yeah, Ross did actually, yeah.

We've called him on air before. You were taking a nap, whatever that means. Oh, that's right. Right, yeah, because you were probably with somebody else. I was taking a nap. You were taking a working nap, it's fine. You've done morning drive in your career. We talked about it yesterday.

It's the worst, isn't it? It's the worst. Yeah. Look, I'll say this and I said it to you off air. We should be paying Sean as much as we are. Although, I don't know if there's great value in that, but we're still paying them a lot. Morning Drive just sucks the life out of it. Yeah, it does.

So yes, I take a nap every day. I'm going home to take a nap right now. All right. Yeah, maybe some patio beers. Who knows, though? That sounds great. It's supposed to be 88 today. Shower beer or no?

shower beer's most underrated beer of all time. Have you all tied that discussion yet? Matt Hayden, though, don't even try to smile. You've besmirch the good name of shower beer for years. I didn't just surch it. Yes, you have. You're such a liar. I just don't get it.

What do you mean you don't get it? Matt, where did you go to college? University of Houston? Yeah. Did you live on campus? No. So you stayed home with your parents? I got an apartment as well.

Okay. So you never, when you're pregame, where'd you go back in the day? Wild West, was that still around? No. Did you party? He was staying at home. I was working. So you didn't party?

I party with the Rockets. Okay, and you never had a shower beer? He was playing the Wheel of Fortune home game by himself. That's what he was doing. I was playing Plinko. It's kind of like... You know what I mean? No.

No? Go ahead. Say that. It's kind of gay. You can say that, right? You're no longer employed here, right? We said it on here this morning. I meant happy.

Apparently you're filtered is... I meant happy. I'm not... I just want to know why you don't respect to shower beer. gay. Nothing at all. Actually, one of my cousins is gay, so it's fine. Huh, thank you for that. You really? It's fine. Anyways. What? You guys?

What? You guys never said that before? No, not really? No, okay. I mean, I've been in your three years. You wanted to fill in. Yeah, it's fine, though. It's all right. All right. Well, this has been great. It's good, huh? It's like we're at our company party again. So what are we talking about? What's the A topic? Oh, we'll let you do this. We want to be real about Cam Smith.

We have to be real. Chance McCormick. I said we're going to have some real Astros to Jose Al Tuve. Look in your crystal ball how those boys are going to do this year. Well, as long as Jake Myers is not on the roster, I'm good. Oh! Get out! What?

You're fired. What? That's the president of Jake Myers' fan club. I know he is. That's why I said it. The dude is, what's he going to hit this year? No, we have to be real. Can we stop putting Cam Smith on the All-Star team already? We have to relax. Who's doing that? We have to... Oh, you're bros. Your little Astros'

Twitter? Astros' Twitter. This is a nice. by the way. That's all you're possible, by the way. No, it's not. Oh, it's not. He's going to play right field. Kyle Tucker is a 30-30 guy.

Let's be realistic about this. It's more likely that Cam Smith is not going to be a good major leaguer than it is that he's going to be a 30-30 guy. By the odds. I think it's fair. By the odds. Yeah.

Okay. That's being real. Joseo Tuves in the twilight of his career. He's turning 35. They're moving him to the outfield. Yeah. Craig Bizio got moved to center field when he was 37. Yeah.

So we have to be real. Yeah. Jake Myers isn't going to wake up and hit 25 bombs. No, he's not. We have to be real. So who plays center? Chas McCormick or Jake Myers? Jake Myers.

It's going to be Jake. Yeah. Okay, so what happens? Especially when Jose's in left. Well, that's true. Yeah, but then you got to worry about them crashing into each other. Yeah, but then what happens? No, no, no, no.

Jake's going to call off Jose every single time. What happens with Jake Myers? We told him, we were joking that in the locker room on the clubhouse. Yeah. We're like, you're just going to call off Jose on everything. He's like, yeah. Yeah, okay, good. But what happens when Jake Myers hits a buck 70 for the first three months of the season?

He's 228 last year with a little pop, 13 home runs. Are you a Jake Meyer stand? Matt? He's fine. What? No, he's not fine. He's a good defender. He's my ninth place hitter.

That's true. I'm sorry. They had Martinique Plains God as the nine hole and they succeeded, but he also was a big valuable piece in the clubhouse and everything I was made about. Jake Myers sucks. He's not good. I'm sorry. He was. Offensively.

He had two wins above replacement last year. Did he have two war? Yeah. You guys big war guys? No. No, no, no, wins above replacement. Not like what's going on over, you know, other places. No, like, Winnella.

No, no. No, no. No, once you break down the whole Israel, Palestine thing for us while you're here. Don't you have a little podcast to go do or something? What do you think about Ukraine? You guys got to lighten up around here. No wonder we didn't have on the show. Look what you've done.

You've drugged this show down on any bad levels. What do you mean? It's 1039. What is that supposed to mean? That's, you should, believe it or not, should be about Zelensky. Jake Myers-War 2.0. Okay. Marisa Dubon, 1.2.

Ugh. What's up? What's the league average? Josh Hater, point nine. What's up? More valuable than Josh Hater. Well, what's the league average? Are you with your bros at the bar going, man,

Josh Heter's 0.9 war? No, nobody's doing that. I have been. You ask because you have no friends. I guess. Talking to yourself at the bar. That makes no sense. I guess you guys don't listen to the Sean Salisbury show from 6 a.

When I was on it. I'm not up. Right. I'm not up. Because I hate stats. I'm in traffic. I can't stand stats. I hate them.

I hate advanced stats. I hate the advanced stats. Nerds. I hate the wins above replace with the dumbest out of all time. Guess what? Every organization, every general manager, every front office, the players, they're all using the numbers. The managers, everybody but you, pal. When did you get on board with Jake Myers, like so heavy?

What do you mean? Where have you been? When he first came up, I was good. I'm going to tell you, exactly. He had the shoulder injury. That's when I began. That's when we founded the Jake. When he first came up, I was like he was putting together good at bads.

He was showing some good eye. He showed some pop. He had great range in the field. He was making five-star catches. I was like, man, I like Jay Mike, by the way, too. Now, I never thought the guy was going to be an all-star, but I thought he would be a good everyday player. So that's when we founded the Jake Myers fan club.

Look it up. Honestly. You know who is better than him? Who? Jake Mariznick. Look it up. You know one of the reason why he's in here? I just figured it out.

He got so much love in the last two hours of the show. He's looking for more people to call in to say. I miss you. Call in and talk about how great Brian Leeman is. No, hear me out. Hashtag, hey, hashtag, hear me out. Hashtag, hear me out. No, no, no, no.

Hashtag, I said what I said. Hashtag, drink more water. Hashtag, hear me out. I just don't ever get to do any shows with you guys. You know, when we're crossing over. You always are going to call. I'm ready to go. No, I'm not going to call.

What's your hours like? You never responded my text. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. I'm a bad text. You are the worst. You are the worst. I called Matt back for the first time. Way worse than me.

Yes! I called back. He called me yesterday in the way of the Toto Center. I left him a message two weeks ago. I'm just glad somebody's worse than me. Two weeks ago, I finally called him back. I said, hey, I'm sorry. I'm bad too because I just realized you didn't text me back.

Hours are going to be I work from home. All right, so we can get to come fill in? No. No, he's going to call in him six months. You said you want to fill in? Yeah, yeah, but no. Matt will never ask me to do a show with just me and him. No, no, I'll be happy to you.

Yeah. And then the guys below the, the guy's in the afternoon? They don't work. They don't ever. Like, I've never gotten invited me one time. It was because it was on location at gallery furniture. Just because you're on four hours in the morning. We don't want to bother you. Look, man, I'm a team guy.

We didn't know that. What should we do? If you want to call on how much time you're going to miss Brian and Lima, call us again, that was the whole morning show today. We'll give you his personal cell number, actually. No, please don't. No. 213-304. If you're ready to mingle.

Get at your boy, leave. Are you changing your Twitter avatar, by the way? Oh, yeah, I have to. Now it's B-Lima 790. What do we change it to? Sports BL? How about sports BM? 1043.

What does BM stand for? What is BM? Sports BM. BM what? What is BM? 713. 212. Go to Go to Gervyn Dictionary.

I'm still on the company Wi-Fi, though. Sports, hold on. It's not that bad. What does BM stand for? Bowling management? Benjamin Warren Company? Nope. Bowel movement?

There you go. That was lame and y'all thought that was funny? I thought you went to college. I did. You went to Saul Ross. You want us to get us to get us a great. That's an open enrollment school. Nobody really goes this.

Acceptance rate. 99. Accepted this. Do you want to apply your end? We don't even check your records. Get your ACT? No big deal. Digana, did you take?

Did you get the, what do you call when you get the, when you don't even finish out high school? Oh, GED. GED. GED. Full ride. Sol Ross. 1043, Sports Talk 790.

The Harvard to the West. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. 1048 on Sports Talk 790. A special shout out to my friends over at Two Creeks Crossing Resort. We appreciate them being a part of the Sports Talk 790 and the Matt Thomas show with Ross family. TWO Creeks Crossing Resort.com. About 90 minutes from downtown Houston. A great place to get away for a couple days.

a 20% off special. You can find out right now by going to 2Creekscrossing Resort.com. And if you would like to be a part of the 790 advertising family, help us with your marketing needs, send me an email. You can do it. It's very simple. M.T. at Sports790.com. M.T. at Sports 790.

com. And you, just like 2 Creek's Crossing Resort, can join the Sports Talk 790 family. 1048 Sports Talk 790. 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212. 790. Rockets will win last night over the Phoenix Suns. Astro is in action today with Cam Smith playing in right field. Looking forward to hearing some of that. Maybe something impactful at least... Is that the game we'll have? I know it's a split squad. I'm... You know, honestly, I don't know which one we're doing. There's two. We've only done one. So I would assume the one that's going to be in West Palm Beach. Okay. So tape delay. Astroline at 6 o'clock tonight.

Wow. Then at 7 o'clock, the tape delay of the game. Can't wait. And then today, by the way, what's today? We've got our show till full 2 o'clock, and then we're going to A&M versus Texas in the SEC tournament. That is correct.

It doesn't do anything for it, does it? What do you mean? A&M Texas basketball. Oh, mid? There's a little extra juice, I would say. I would say. A&M is comfortably in the tournament. Yes.

Texas could certainly use a victory over A&M to build their resume. Mm-hmm. They are six and a half point dogs are the Texas Longhorns. Have you checked in on Joe Lenardi's Brackatology after last time? No, I have not. You usually post it a fair amount on Twitter. I don't follow him, but it always shows up my four U-Tam. They finish six and 12 in the SEC.

Now, the SEC is tough, but I mean, they're still like, what I've seen them in the last two weeks, they've fallen out of that first four, last four-in. They've been in that first four-out category for quite some time. Yeah, they lost the South Carolina and Georgia. They got beat down and they should have won both of those games. Whatever. I don't want to talk about it.

You're almost, and I want to put words in your mouth. You're almost like, let's get this over with swinging a new coach. Yes. I will be rooting for the long ones to win, though. We're going to go watch a game somewhere? Where you want to go? I'm going to my house. Yeah, I know.

You see, you're always wanting to be invited somewhere. You're always saying we're going to go somewhere and then you should go home. Yeah, but it's, it's 2.30 afternoon basketball. What's wrong with that? That sounds perfect. You're off at two. You can't get off at two and have a couple pops and watch a basketball. But I want to go home and sit in my recliner. And do what?

You're just going to get on your phone and watch a bunch of old answers from, I don't even know, some game show. No, that's not true? Yeah. You don't watch the Rockets? You know, watch the Astros? What are you doing with the rest of your day? My middle son Peyton is home for spring break. Okay.

So we're going to probably go. Why don't you go watch the game with him? He doesn't like to watch. he's done watching. That's good, actually. It tempers him a little bit. You check his phone? Quite volatile on the Aggie athletic front.

It is what it is. He just has an intense passion for Aggie Athletics and doesn't really accept losing very well, no matter what it is. He should have picked a different athletic program. Yeah, but every school, I mean, who in sports doesn't ever lose? Everybody loses.

The Aggies are worse than most. Come on. They literally never. made in Elite 8, ever in their basketball history. Come on. Let's be real. Remember I said we got to be realistic? Championship game? Yeah, and they lost. In three. Okay. They haven't won a conference championship in football since 1998. Your son was not born. I know. So let's be realistic. I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt the Aggie's feelings, but you're hurting the boys' feelings. Holmesie's been home all week with a stomach flu. That's what you do? I would say more hype with more

disappointment than any program in the country. What's up? And by the way, we'll be getting more money from a third-party marketing group than anybody else in college athletics. That's right. I don't think they're going to be asking for those checks in advance, well in advance, because I don't think it's going to pay off, but that's a different business for a different time. So much money is pumped into that program. It's incredible. Like this marketing group is spending like 30 million bucks a year on them, or I don't know what's the dollar,

man. It's something crazy for a long period of time. I mean, you can only put so many signs up. You can only put so many pieces of. advertising in a magazine. You can only... Every yard line sponsored rather than just like the Red Zone?

Like, you know, they superimpose in professional sports. Yeah. Do they superimposing in college sports now? Ah, not that I can recall. But the problem is you can't control that because you're... That's SEC money. That's not A&M TV. Yeah. That's ESPN

or whatever. Yeah, yeah. They can... That's their responsibility. Yeah, they're just doing radio and multimedia, whatever that means. Does it bother you on the superimposement of things? I don't know. I'm used to it. It's really started around the pandemic, right? Right.

I feel like. Yeah. Yep. I'm used to it on the Rockets floor. Now, I mean, look, basically the whole floor is covered when you watch a Rockets game now. Sam, I only see what I see in front of me. I never see the insupertosing stuff. But yeah, it's, um, I always thought, man, I can't believe they put that there.

And then on the second quarter or something gone. But we have to realize that the advertising dollars drive so much of this, every part of the economy, but it's certainly the sports economy. Yeah. Our jobs. Yeah. Oh, yeah. For advertising, we wouldn't be around. The Astros games, the Rockets games, the TV dollars.

It all's from advertising dollars. Mm-hmm. Whose fault is this? When this all really started, whose fault is this? George Washington. I don't think he goes back that far. Oh. That's where it kind of started.

Was it with the Advent of Regency? They wanted to throw a bunch of tea in them water. Well, you're going Boston Tea Party. Okay. I was going to go a war of 1812, but that, you know, to each his own on that. That was more than invasion. Oh, are you a righteous gemstones guy?

I've watched the, I actually watched the first couple episodes. I liked it, but I didn't follow it. So there was a prequel this past week, and it was about the Gemstone family patriarch, right? He was working during the Civil War. John Goodman? No, that's the dad. This is my guy that's got to be John Goodman's character's grandfather, probably. Oh, okay.

By the way, you know who played the role? of the very first gemstone in this prequel? Bradley Cooper. Okay. So, I mean, that's a good pull for our buddy, Danny McBride. Jimstone Talk, 790. Yeah, it's, it sucked. But yet I still watch it.

You said you quit that show like in season two. It's like my thing for fantasy football. I'm going to stop playing, stop playing everyone I'm playing. You coming back? No, we need you. No, I'm good. Because now Brian Leema left. Why don't you?

He said he'd stay in the league. Why don't you text, uh, Roto. He'll be in for you. He's only got space. No, Roto's going to be on the waiver wires claiming like 18 players a week. We can't do, we can't have him in our league. You're looking for, you're looking for an upgrade, aren't you? You know what I should have done where?

You know what I messed up. Is Spencer Argetti was like 100% in the league. Well, guess what I'll be home in two weeks? You can talk to him then. Okay. Go to the clubhouse. Introduce yourself again. Hey, remember you, we got a spot in our own lane.

I was like, what's your ESPN email? That is interesting. That's funny you say that. about 35 minutes from now. Anything new going on in the NFL? It seems like it was been quiet the last couple of days. Mostly quiet on the NFL front. Texans make any big time moves?

You know, we're honestly waiting for us where Aaron Rogers is going to show up. There's Aaron Rogers talk to Minnesota of all places. I thought I saw somebody reported it was the Giants and somebody else. No, Minnesota is definitely in plain now.

The Giants in Minnesota? Yeah, I still think he's going to the Giants. But that was just kind of like a gut feeling I had a few weeks back. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. If you want to get in today, we are taking this program until 2 o'clock this afternoon. E-Madocca in two hours here on Sports Talk 7-9. Where I have to talk to you basketball fans, or look, if you're just looking at the basketball game a little more interesting,

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One per new customer. Bonus awarded is non-withdrawable pick-six credits that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer, see terms at pick6.draft kings.com slash promos. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 11 o'clock. Sports Talk 790. It is hour number 2 of 4. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790. Is how you reach the show today if you want to jump in. 713-212-5-7-9-0 on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Connor D. McGovern. Rockets with a win last night have now put together four consecutive wins.

Rossi had him going six and one in these seven, and they're so far on the path towards that six-and-one more. Let's go. Dallas Mavericks will be in on Friday, the Chicago Bulls Saturday, Philadelphia on Monday, and then we hit the road for a few days to go down to Orlando and Miami. So only one game behind two, the two seed. The problem is

you can't think of it as one to one because you've got two teams to hop as well. Everybody has to fall. And the fact is the last 10 game of the season for the Rockets will feature two against the Los Angeles Lakers, one against Golden State, one against the Los Angeles Clippers. Teams that are

in and around your area trying to snag your spot in the Western Conference standings. And one more with Oklahoma City, by the way. Who, by the way, last night, beat Boston. Gosh, yeah, they're good. And yet, They continue them in Cleveland. You know Cleveland's won 15 consecutive games for the second time this year. That's insane.

And no one is giving, well, I shouldn't say no one. I would say. The national pundits are giving them very little respect. Yeah. Well, that's because the national pundits don't even know who's coaching every team. This to me comes across as the national narrative is praying for television numbers. Like, for instance, it shouldn't matter to anybody that works for ESPN. I'm talking about the on-air talent or T&T.

They're being paid to call games. If I was a play-by-play broadcaster or an analyst or a studio host, I mean, I want the best matchups possible. Yes. I think Cleveland's getting some respect around the NBA spheres. How could you know? Everybody in their mother is picking Boston to win the east. Everybody in their mother? I can't find anybody that says Cleveland.

I haven't gone through all the punnets, but I watch it around the morning. Yeah, you watch it more than I do then, I guess, but I mean, I've watched the ESPN coverage. You should stop. I know. I think most legitimate media, and I follow more on Twitter, NBA people, than I do on these talking head shows. And I think everybody's respect. How could you not? They're 55 and 10.

It's ridiculous. It is absurd. They don't get their respect. Well, I mean, look, Boston are the reigning champs. To me, it's a toss-up at this point. Because they're still saying at the end of the day, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Chris Saps, Porzingis, Derek White,

Peyton Pritchard, those guys have been there done that where Cleveland is going into an area that had never been before. Yeah, I mean, most people, I mean, but Darius Garland, people don't talk about him in a national sphere, but he's been great.

He's been an all-star. Same thing with Donovan Mitchell is great. Longhorn legend, Jared Allen, Evan Lobby's been playing amazing. Yeah. They've got a great team. So back to my original point. if you're on the air,

you shouldn't care who's in it. You shouldn't be wishing for, man, I know that Cleveland and Oklahoma City are cool, but man, wouldn't it be awesome if we had LeBron versus the Celtics? I think that's what ESPN wants. Of course they do. I'm talking about, now,

the shareholders and the network executives do, but if you're Kendrick Perkins, do you particularly care who's playing? Or are you caught up in the glamour of, well, if it's Lakers, Boston, I'll have more people watching me than if it would say Oklahoma City versus Cleveland. I can't really answer that question for him or them.

I don't imagine that they do care that much as long as it's good basketball. Kendrick Perkins is the leader of the I got Boston one in the East. Maybe because he played there. Kendra Perkins, even though he doesn't have good opinions, in my opinion, he still loves basketball. I think Cavaliers Oklahoma City would be a great finals. ESPN disagrees. ESPN would be crying over that. The funny thing is, too, they wouldn't be crying if it were the Westbrook-Durant Harden Thunder versus the LeBron Cavs, just like in a whatever.

Like the cities, it's about the stars. It's about the players. That's right. And I mean, because Green Bay in the NFL had many, many, many. Brett Farve was a major star. Absolutely. In Green Bay, Wisconsin. It's not about the city name. It's about who's on the team that sells the sex.

And that right now, those teams, and maybe the NBA will always be this way, Ross. Maybe we're just never going to get the flashiest of flashiest players to play. I mean, for as awesome as Janus is, you're not seeing Janus on McDonald's commercials. He's got, I think he's got some advertising. Some, but it's not. L.A. The NBA flashes to its cities more than any other sport. I just think it is.

I don't think as much in 2025 as it was in years past. Can the average NBA fan? I'm talking about the average NBA fan name a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder not named Shagel to sell Alexander. I would say yes. They would probably go to Chet Hongren next. After that?

He's running their second best player. The second best player is Jalen Williams. I would agree with that. Jalen Williams A, by the way. There's two Jalen Williams. I think the average American would name Lugentz Dort. I don't believe it to be accurate. Maybe they wouldn't.

Under zero circumstances. There's no chance, no way, no how. But you know how you make those guys? stars, put them on the NBA final, they win finals. But they've been on television a lot. I don't know what the ratings are. But you see what ESPN did the other day? They put the Lakers Celtics game

on ABC and it was like their highest watched NBA game in years. See, this is the thing too. We crush these networks for like, hey, why don't you build up these guys and blah blah, blah. People don't watch if it's not Lakers Celtics. That's right. So it's us. So I can't blame. I can't blame ESPN. We complain about

dumb analysis. We complain about putting these teams into our but what happens when they put these teams on? The ratings go up and what happens when you get somebody breaking down like a bunch of, here's a horn set from the rockets and what they're trying to accomplish with Jalen Green at the top of the key. You lose

everybody. So part of it is a mass dumbing down of our society in general in everything to where we have so many options and streaming and all that type of stuff. Lakers and Celtics on, you're

more likely to click it. The general public. NBA ratings were down 10% before the calendar turn. They're now down 3%. So they've rebounded. They've rebounded nicely since the turn of the 2025. Use a basketball term. Me or you?

Rebounded. That was you or me? They're stupid. I don't know who said it. Me or you. Give me equal credit. I'll give you full credit. So they're getting better.

This weekend, the ABC game of the week. I believe it's going to be involving the Golden State Warriors. Let's take a look here. It is, yeah, Nick's Warriors. You have the largest mark in the East, and you've got the most successful franchise in the last 10 years on the West Side. I mean, if I'm the networks, I don't, you know,

I don't argue with them. I just don't. You rather than, yeah, you go to where the people are going to be, and then they're going to, you, they see Lakers? Now, Sunday, there are three games on national television. Sunday, it's a magic cavaliers. Magic are terrible. Cavaliers should destroy.

Suns Lakers, that seemed like a sexy matchup two months ago, not nearly as much because the Suns don't ever win. And you have the Thunder Bucks at 8 o'clock that night. But it's spared on a Sunday night. When people are trying to get their kids ready for school the next day and just chilling out, I mean, that's going to be one of those flipper, all its games happens to be on. So we'll say, I don't know.

Yeah, but I mean, look, if the Thunder rip off three championships in a row, more people are going to know who they are. Yeah, because let's face it, 20 years ago, Golden State Warriors were atrocious. No, nobody cared about Andres, Beardin, and Adonnell Foil in the boys. Wow, what a pull for you. There's nobody else in the marketplace would have dropped in Adonis Boyle. Donald Foil, whatever his name is, on like you just did.

That's what we're here for, Matt. Yeah, but it doesn't do us any good. I'm sorry. The audience is like, who? What does that to do with the Astros? I feel like at least one person appreciated that reference. One listener. Maybe one.

Maybe one. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to come in and say hello 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 Well, college basketball ACCC tournament is back in play In fact, the Big Ten, there's a lot of games. But we've got the Cougars are playing today They're going to be playing at 2 o'clock in Kansas City The Big 12th tournament.

That'll be over on 950 today if you want to listen to that. I'm good. And then you've got 790. We'll have the Aggies versus the Longhorn. So we are like your college basketball mecca tiered this afternoon. This is the tiebreaker. This is the rubber match. Between the Longhorns and the Aggies.

By the way, the Cougars are playing Colorado. Colorado, I believe, was, were they a 16 seed in the tournament? And they beat West Virginia, I want to say? One of those super mega upsets. Okay. Yeah. By the Cougars are 17.5 point favorites.

Woo! That's a lot for a college game, too. Especially, I mean, now the Cougars are scoring this year. it's not like they're out there like the the running Rebs back in the 90s or something. Correct, correct. 17 points is a lot. I'm just telling you Ross, after being in New Orleans last week

and betting a college, a couple of college games, you were right. March Madness is fun, but just a rando day to pick a college basketball game, I find no enjoyment in betting on that, especially because I had one team that was heavily favored and I gave up the points and they wound up winning by one less point. As the kids

would say, it was a bad beat. Oh, shoot, I forgot. I forgot. We're going to have Joseph Dorothy join us from Kansas City next. When? Right now, after this break. All right, what's believe it or not? I don't know.

Yeah, oh, man, I'm texting him. Oops, I forgot about that. Don't tell him that. Just say, all right, great. We'll get you on next. I said 11 o'clock. That's totally on me. Oh, you said 11.

I set the time. Wow, that's your friend, too. I know. You see how man. Thomas, I can't believe you. Actually, I believe it. You shouldn't believe it. Joseph Torte is going to join us next here. Okay.

At 713-21-21-1-5-7-19. 7-13-212-5-790. What is an angry-face emoji I see on your phone? And the middle-finger emoji looks like. I'm kidding. He sent me a one-finger salute, ironically enough. Coming up next. Coming up next.

Joseph Torte from Kansas City. It is the Matt Thomas Show. Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Matt and Ross return. Return on Sports Talk 790. All right, we'll be getting a hold of Joseph Dwarty. And I'm at our moments here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

We have, I just don't get at 1130. And I called it, this is such a douche move on my part. I called him, I texted him yesterday. I said, can you available 11 o'clock? Yeah, I'd be happy to. And I totally, I didn't even put him in the pre-show tweet. I didn't put, I didn't totally forgot. What's wrong with me?

I try to call Joseph again. I think the phone's working again. Georgia Tech leads Duke 10-8, five minutes, six minutes into the first half in that game in, where are they playing? Is that Charlotte for the ACC tournament, I think? Sure, why not? I think it is. Cooper Flagg, by the way.

Look at that guy in Georgia Tech. Is that guy, that is some serious tats. Oh, my God. I wonder if you got those in an NIL deal. Had to have, man. I think his entire family's on there. That's, hmm. The girls like that kind of stuff?

I think some of them. Did you catch the big Cal Stanford matchup, Matt, in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament? I did not. Was it very good? Yeah, it was a good one. In the Atlantic Coast Conference. So those two teams are separated by, let's see, Cal, Berkeley to Palo Alto is probably 25 miles. Yeah.

And they went far away were they from the Atlantic Coast. They were, well, not far at all. Their schools are far from it, but they're from the Atlantic Coast themselves, they weren't very far. Their schools. I know. They're only 3,000 miles away. I think we are having phone issues. I don't know.

Yeah, what is going on? We got the phones dropping? This is one last time for you, Connor. Connor, company is so great. We just, we just, the best equipment. We just do. That's fine. God, bless it.

You know what I could have done? I could have blamed the equipment as compared to us. Phone lines were reliable, Matt. Why do we go to web phones? Because they're not reliable, and they're significantly cheaper. Are they that much cheaper? It had to have been. I guess.

Yeah, that's true. Well, they certainly would be right. If they were more expensive, it would be happening. But anyways. So once we do secure, are they in a line that does... Do the interview with me, Matt. Ask me questions about the cougars. Basketball team.

No, I don't want to... I don't know anything. You're just going to piss people off by doing that. I really think chicken knolls are going to have a big, big 12 tournament. Can you name any cougar besides chicken knolls? There's only been 10 guys in Nambay in the last five years. No, none of them. God, what's wrong with you?

This days has gone great so far. Phone line's not working. I got Dwarty mad at me. You are here with me. What does that mean? It's just general. I've been nice today. Because you're actually here.

I'll be here tomorrow too. So I'm happy. And here Monday. Wow. That's got to be some kind of streak. Not for the whole show, but for most of it. Oh, that's right. You got to leave early.

I forgot. Yeah. Oh, my God. It's only an hour early. Not that much earlier. You're doing three hours. Look, you're going to nostalgia on us. It's a throwback.

I think I think I'll be working. the three hours I was signed up to do with originally. It's a throwback Monday. Georgia Tech Cup 5 on Duke. Is Duke a true contender? Hey, I'll say what, if Duke loses? Can that squeeze the Cougars into maybe a top two? That explet of you just heard screamed was from your wife

when you said if Duke loses. Yeah. I said, you know what? There's a chance of Duke in Houston can be in the Final Four together. I know. What if they play each other in the Final Four? What's that going to be like? You all going to go? I think I got Rockets games before and after but I probably could get there and then have to come right back Hmm Y'all might like you'll might scrap in the stands

Would she sit next to me? Just kidding, I don't want to joke about domestic I don't want to joke about domestic incident Let's do a ruling here She is a diehard Duke fan Yes Never stepped on the campus until we were married When we got tickets to go to games

She just was a fan from a distance. Yes. We met at the University of Houston. She got her degree from the University of Houston. What was her degree in, by the way? Radio television broadcasting. Really? Yeah, that's how we met.

Let's get her on the show. I'm like, years later, I was like, why? She goes, I don't know why. And it makes any sense. With her parents or her family? No. I don't know why she got it because she's somewhat bash for when it comes to this kind of stuff. Hmm.

Is the big Bobby Hurley fan? I don't know. But my point is this. What's the ruling? She should root for our school, correct? The ruling is whatever the wife says goes. But she's been a Duke basketball fan. Does she root for Houston?

She does root for Houston. Okay. But she's rooted for Duke longer. Yeah. The ruling says? Survey says. All right. You lose.

O'Connor, the phone lines down. I need some sort of intelligence. here. What is going on? Clearly, it's not good, Matt. But how does it say something? Somebody say so. Well, Gordy came in to rescue us here. Let's plan for the phones not working, because clearly he popped up calling him like five times. So I'm going to say it's not working right now.

I think the phones are fine, but I try texting, Joseph. Has he responded to you? It's delivering. Do you have the right number? Send it to me again, just case. All right. Talk for a second. Give it out on air. No, I'm not giving it out on air. Yeah, Matt. If you, if your

wife, the Duke fan, And the Houston Cougars are playing in the final four. She's going to, her Duke fandom is going to, it's going to be her call. It'll be your call. But we met there. I know. It's our alma mater. I'm sorry.

We've got degrees from there. It's very, very unlikely. I don't think it's highly unlikely at all these two teams play each other. Very unlikely. I mean, I still, the odds are. The odds are still not in favor. Not every one seed makes the final four. But it feels.

like this is a top heavy tournament. It always feels like that, Matt. And then the tournament comes and there's upsets galore. All right, Dorothe's calling now. I think. Just get him next segment. I just don't get it. I just don't get while we don't want to have real phone numbers.

It's 2025. We've got to get the web phones that are great, man. All right. Do we got them? We do now. All right, Joseph, we were trying to call you for like the last five minutes. We have terrible phone lines. How are you, sir?

Now, what kind of operation we're running over there, Matt Thomas? First of all, I apologize for forgetting about you. That was not intentional. And I know that you're going to call it the Ross show with Matt Thomas now. Oh, my God, that's terrible. That is embarrassing. It's got a nice ring to it. All right.

So apologies on me. How is Kansas City, by the way? Kansas City is good, you know. Made a barbecue run last night. It didn't disappoint. Did you run into Jeff Goodman today and see why he's complaining about his press box seat? No, I'm down on the court, so I don't mingle with those folks. Good for you, guys bitching about his press receipt.

I can't cover the tournament properly. You know what? You haven't been to three big 12 games this year. Shut your bum ass up. Seriously. Good Lord. All right. So are we locked in, we being the University of Houston, locked into a number three

overall national seed. Do you think, is there any room for movement up or down in this bad boy? You know, I don't think there's I think three's where it's going to stand. You look at the body of work. Auburn is, you know,

quad-wind-wise, head and shoulders above everyone, and Duke is, let's put it this way. Even if there's movement, I think the site are set. You'll have Auburn and South, you'll have Duke in the east. And I still think Houston goes out west as the number three.

So will it matter? And the big picture, I don't think so. But I think Houston is comfortable and set where they are at the three. Joseph, how is the team right now health-wise? And there have been a little bit of aches and pains the last couple weeks. Guys missing some time, seeing limited minutes. Where is this team health-wise right now? They're good.

I spoke with the head trainer, John Houston, prior to their departure. this week. And, you know, the main one, L.J. Crier, he's been playing with that, that knuckle injury on his shooting hand, but, you know, he hasn't skipped a beat. The one that I'm kind of watching is Emmanuel Sharp, you know, he's dealt with that foot injury for the better part of, you know, probably two months, and he's got some ups and downs.

I don't know how much of that is causing his shooting and maybe his rhythm to be off. He'd be the one to watch. And then, Ramon Walker, he had a hand. injury. He hasn't played since December and the expectation is that he won't play at all the rest of the year and they'll try to do some type of medical red shirt. And that's it.

So they're in good shape. It's just a matter of staying that way, as you know, for the duration and that hasn't unfortunately been the case. But they are good as of now going into the tournament. Do you think the perfect road record this year in conference

play has a unintended or maybe intended and benefit about playing in neutral sites for the rest of the season? I guess it can't hurt you. I mean, you look, they're really good at home. And, you know, most of the times if you're going to have a slip, it's on the road. You know, you look at the neutral site games. They lost to Albert at Toyota Center.

They were winning that one. They lose to Alabama at a neutral, and they could have won that one. The same thing with the San Diego State game. So three of the four losses have come at neutral sites and the other one at home to Texas Tech. So, you know, I mean, that's the way this team has been. I mean, they haven't lost many games in any season in the last, you know, five or six years. So I don't know if there's an intended consequence to it, but, I mean, they certainly show that big environments don't phase them. And, you know, this week, Iowa State's going to pack it in.

Kansas will pack it in here. So if they play either one of those, you know, you're going to basically be playing in essentially a road game. and that hasn't been a bad thing for Houston this season. Joseph Torto covers the Cougars for the Houston Chronicle. You can find him on Twitter and all the different platforms that he gives you great insights not only in the paper online but on his Twitter account. So of all the years, this team has been where it has been, which is Final Four, Sweet 16. This feels like the most complete team of the Calvin Samson era because not only do they have the

little post starts with three different players, but they've got the outside touch as well. Is this the best that you have seen, or do you feel like even last year's team or the team that went to the final four? Again, if you're trying to measure up year by year by year, where do you size up this group as compared to years past? Well, to me, it starts with the final four year. And, you know, this one is sort of a TBA on whether or not they eventually take that spot away. But, you know, you do it first and then you kind of look at all those things. but I do agree with you. This is probably by far his deepest team.

You know, they go eight, maybe nine deep. And the biggest change, sure, the addition is, you know, we've always known they're good defensively. They're good rebounding. But this is a team that can shoot the ball. They're very efficient at the three-point shots. And the difference, or maybe those early years, like maybe that 19-20 team or the 2021 team,

they could beat you with first. shot. This one is maybe not a first shot type team, but when they do the rebounds and get second chances, they're really good. So I'd say it's top two, maybe top three since Kelvin's been here,

but that can certainly change if you do what many people think they can do and get to San Antonio and specifically the Monday night. Joseph, is it too simple to say that the key for this team is to make sure

Francis, Tuggler, Roberts, do not get into foul trouble. I mean, that could be said for about any team with a couple of big men, but it feels like that there could be some games and there certainly have been in years past in tournament games where big men have gotten into two fouls early early in the contests and are always chasing to stay away from that third and fourth. Is foul trouble of a concern to you for those guys, especially when whistles can be pretty tight come tournament time? I think it's big for, in this order, Tuggler and Francis. those are the two guys that typically get in foul trouble the most. Jay-Wan Roberts is a veteran.

He's been pretty good about staying on the floor. They like to run things through him, so having him on the court really helps him a lot. Cuck was the defensive player of the year in the conference. I mean, he's a difference maker. He's a shot alter. That's the guy you've got to keep on the court. And, you know, we've seen some games where he's picked up two and 14 seconds.

I mean, it's just been wild the number of games that he's, He's had three and four fouls and have had to sit on the bench. But, you know, the big men, that's going to be certainly a key. The guard play, they're really smart about not getting in the foul trouble. So, you know, I'd agree with you, you know, for this team, a lot of what they do centers around those three, whether it's on the defensive end or trying to work inside. So you've got to keep them on the court because you don't get any do-overs this time of year. You have one bad game or something goes wrong like foul trouble.

You could look at the end of the season. Look at the A&M game last year. They were down to a walk-on lake because of all the foul troubles they had, and they had to really pull out that one and the second round just to advance to the second weekend. Farlett, you run, Joseph. We don't know the teams are going to be in the region, obviously. So let's do this. If you can do this, give me a style of play, a type of a team.

that could cause the Cougar some issues maybe a little bit deeper in the term and say, Sweet 16, Elite 8 round. Oh, you know, that's interesting because you look at, you know, we've seen a little bit of everything this year. You see teams that are lots of possessions

and try to go fast-paced, and then Houston makes you play their brand of ball. They slow it down. They force you into their game. Like, for instance, you know, the Arizona game, Arizona was averaging 80 plus points a game, and Houston holds them to around 60. That's the kind of game, if you're Houston, you know, and I've seen this in the past tournaments. You know, they played Arizona in 2022, and then you look at a game like in Illinois a few years ago

where they had a dominant big man, and that didn't seem to face Houston at all. So it's really interesting because it's not necessarily the matchup on the other end that can get you. It's what Houston sort of dictates because they're really good at forcing you to play their game. They feel like if they can keep it under 60 points of the opponent, they've got a really good chance to win, and they do that a lot of the time.

So, you know, I was looking at, I saw Memphis as a possible second round matchup. That would be intriguing based on sort of the style that Memphis fights to play. So, you know, I'd be definitely. at this point, Matt, but I just think that Houston, for as much as other teams trying to do stuff, Houston usually has a pretty good game plan and a way of attacking other teams to make them do what they want them to do. Very last question. Where are we going to talk to you next week? Where do you think they're headed?

They're going to Wichita off. I'm almost 100% sure on that. The difference is if they're in the Midwest or in the West. But that first weekend of the tournament, they'll be in Wichita. And I think in the other side of it, you'll probably get either A&M or Texas Tech. So it'll be interesting. There'll be a couple of Texas teams, in my opinion, that'll be in Wichita next week. And, of course, Houston will get the 16 seeds if they're number one, which we pretty much all expect that to happen. Great stuff, my friend. Thank you again.

We'll talk with you next week. Safe Travels and our friend, our mutual friend, Taylor, sends her very best. Thank you, buddy. Thank you. That's our good friend Joseph Tortay from the Houston Chronicle with us, and he'll be with us as the Cougars make their big run towards the tournament. And when the Longhorns make it, Ross, we'll have a Longhorn correspondent as well. Make it to what?

The NCAA tournament. It doesn't seem like it's happening. By the way, I didn't mention this yesterday on Twitter. Red Panda will be at the NIT finals this year. So if you want to go check her out and check out your beloved Longhorns playing for the championship? Yeah, it was a bad joke. Longhorns aren't going to accept an NIT invite. They should. It's their tournament.

It is the people's tournament. Don't get me wrong. All right. I just don't get it. I don't get you. What don't you get, ladies and gentlemen? 713-213-212-5-790. 7-132-212-790. What don't you get in life? Let us know. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topic to see if we come. All right, Conner, this is your last. I just don't get it. All right, Connor, this is your last. I just don't get it, at least on the airwaves. You probably do a lot of it, just don't get it in your life. That's true.

Conner's his second to last day with us here on the program as we're taking care of those that want to go get full-time wages and great benefits and excellent pay and company benefits. Jerk. The nerve are you, Connor. Real A-hole. I mean, I get it. I get it, too. This is sad. Guys can make more money in Ross's.

That's probably not even close. I'm sad, too. He said he's going to bring us some food or something. What did you say we're going to lunch, I think, right? Yeah, when I get my first paycheck from the new job, we're going to get barbecue. We're going to get barbecue. All right.

And tomorrow we're going to get Mooth barbecue. We're going to get Korean barbecue tomorrow, right? That is correct. That is paying off from, that's a different. It's not a bet. It's a reward. Yeah, it's a reward. I got you.

For everyone. Yes. All right, Connor D. What do you got? What is your final? I just don't get it. Well, last night I was flip between watching the Rockets and watching a little hockey and the Buffalo Sabres were playing the Red Wings. And in the third period, it turned into a little bit of a blowout with the Red Wings winning 7 to 3.

But the third period was full of fights. There was 11 players assessed misconduct penalties. And if you're assessed to 10 minutes misconduct with less than 10 minutes left in the game, you're just sent off the ice. The ref actually had a pretty good call last night. Troy's going to have a minor for Ruffing and all the other guy is going to have a misconduct. It was too many to names. So he said all the other guys... Wait, man.

What is that guy's accent from? He's not... He's French Canadian, the referee. Oh, I see. Okay. Jean-de-Leemir. Something like that. But so I just don't get it in any sport,

but especially in this instance, why you're fighting when you're getting blown out. I mean, the game's been over. Should have used that energy earlier in the game. You're asking us to figure out why you don't get something in hockey. You're the hockey guy. I'll talk about all sports, though.

If you're going to fight, make it matter like Stephen Adams last night. That was a good one. That was like... My microphone is off. Yeah, that was like a wrestling. That was... E. May Idaq was asked about Stephen Adams when the kind of wrestling.

He goes, that wasn't really wrestling. Stephen Adams wanted to wrestle. He'd have beat the crap out of him. I think they should allow fighting in every sport like they do in hockey. They should do the same thing. Power play. Stephen Adams, Plumley, you're out for five minutes.

Bring them back. That's not a power on four. But you could end up with power plays, Matt. I know that's not a power play. You go five on four for two minutes? I'm going to say I don't get that under any circumstance. Why not? How come you can fight in hockey?

You can't fight anywhere else. Because hockey's on a real sport. Oh. It's a sport of goons. I mean, let's be brutally honest. Oh, I think they should fight in the NFL games too. Why do you got to get ejected? Five minutes.

Ten on 11. This is terrible. That's what they do in soccer when you get a red card. Yeah, but nobody cares about soccer either. That's not true. It's the most popular sport in the world. But soccer is the rest of the game. You're playing down.

Yeah. Anacquated old-ass 1846 rules. I don't know. I don't get any way. No, just do it as is. You cannot endorse fighting. People can get hurt. Just kick him out.

Do what they did. They both should have been ejected yesterday. Yeah, I thought, you know, I thought it was inappropriate timing as well, Connor. Watching the game, I was just, I was flabbergasted. You hear that, you hear that sarcasm coming out of his

velvety voice over there? That's fine. It's terrible. All right, mine's going back to what happened. talking about on Monday. What? Dark, dark breast. Airlines?

Yeah, I mean, do you? You get it. I go ahead. I just don't get the number one thing that separated you from the other airlines and you said, F it's because they got bought by an equity firm. Equity firms don't buy things to lose money. But then my point again is this, Ross, and maybe I'm just not very good on the old economic.

Charge $15 more ticket. slide the airfare the money you need in that we'll still buy the tickets but there's a perception of well if I'm paying $279 as compared to 260 on another airline

at least I get two bags free and I feel better about myself and it's a nice airline and I have to worry about jamming things on my you know that's the thing about airlines that we make fun of is you have to pay for bags you got to pay for your seats you got to pay for this you didn't have to worry about that with dark breasts and dark breasts you're

losing marketing. My business. Yeah. When I go on these camping trips to say, you know, the national parks and I fly to Oregon or whatever, I check camping gear. So I always use Southwest, always when I go to a national park. Right. And now I'm going to shop around.

Unfortunately, you're shopping around and every airline's going to say. Everything's going to cost me more. But at least Southwest had 100% of my business when I go camping because I check camping gear. Right. Now they're going to have less than 100% of my business. I kind of get it, though, because when you're looking at airfares, the airfares are still going to be cheaper and people don't see the add-on cost for bags. No, I think that's changed.

I think people, now it's been, there's been the, since 9-11, the bag thing has been a part of American airline flying. Not the American Airlines, the American airline, the American flying experience. It's, yeah, I get, but what Connor is saying is people are stupid and they're going to think about this, but they're not going to pay attention. they're going to look at the raw airfares and then they're going to factor in bags. I think people are doing that. People are stupid and they want money.

It's an A&B. I get it. I don't like it. I don't want it to happen. I don't want all these corporations to be coming for every single diamond cutting everything to the bone with layoffs and all this stuff

and then taking more and more from us. But I get it. That's just how this system works. I am just a huge fan of marketing and winning an element and winning a share of a perspective. client base because of your marketing charm. And I think that dark breast lost it.

Making your customers happy doesn't show up on the earnings report. They just want the earnings report. All right. If there's something you don't get, 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. By the way, real quick, I don't get you guys ripping on fish sandwiches. I just saw a commercial for Barbies. That fish sandwich on that Barbies commercial looks really damn good.

Yeah. It's Lint. You're going to see those types of things, advertisement. Matt. So let's go get a Rhabis on Friday. We can't eat Korean barbecue on Friday, can we? Oh, we can't. I'm not practicing Catholic. Okay. I mean, I grew

up Catholic. I'll call the priest first. Ask for forgiveness. Boom. We'll go to reconciliation. What do you mean? Yeah. We'll go to lunch at two and reconciliation at three. Yeah. Confession, we're all good. Forgive me for my sins. Let's roll. Okay. I like how you think. All right. Something you

like, something you just don't get. 713. We've just taken religion and went, eh, it's flippant. I did it. Hi, that was Ross. If you got a problem with me. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

If something you don't get, let us know. I can tell you I do get Uptown Appliance Repair. I can tell you that I do get a company that wants to make sure that all your appliances are working at their very best, and that's why you get with Uptownappliancerepair.com. That's Uptownappliancerepair.com. 281-7.

58-9778 if you want to schedule a service for anything in your home that is not working, whether it be a expensive refrigerator, a high-end washer dryer, a dishwasher that is not performing, an ice maker or a wine cell that you want to get worked on. Get with the folks at Uptown Appliance Repair.com. 281-7589978. That's 281-78-9978. You get an exclusive two-year warranty and unparalleled appliance care from the amazing folks. So Bobby if you're going to put together, Bobby has. done so at Uptown Appliance Repair. 281-758-9978.

That's 281-758-9978 or uptownappliance Repair.com. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. All right, another thing I don't get. 713-212-5-790. What? If you have an iPhone and you use the red function on your text, so I can see that you read it. it? Yes. I would say, why do you do that? Why would you ever allow me and let me know that you

read my text? Because if you don't respond, that makes me irritated. That pisses me off. That's, Matt, that's such a good one because I have the same reaction. Why do you leave read receipts on? And then don't respond. And don't respond. Yeah. You want to make it known that you didn't have the time to respond to you. I didn't want you. I'll get some texts and I can't respond to them. But the last thing I want is someone to look at my red and have a red receipt and then not respond to me. I just don't get it. because they want to be passive aggressive. I see how you all are.

Maybe people are doing that on purpose. I don't know. But I mean, people turn on read receipts, especially, I feel like a lot of our sales staff, and then they leave me on, right? But, you know, business people. I believe there's no... I believe there's no quality in having read receipts.

I turn my off because I understand I'm a bad texter. You are horrendous. And stuff, sometimes I'll get, you know, during the show, and I'll tap it on my watch to dismiss it and that counts as red. Because what I will do then, I was, if I send somebody a text a day or two ago and they don't respond to it, I'll say, hey, did you

get my text? That gives me one more opportunity to say something. But if I send the text and you read it and you don't respond, that is the ultimate sign of disrespect. This Cooper flag turned ankle doesn't look good. U.H might really be winning it all.

Oh yeah, they just put it on. He turned that bad boy. Ooh, he's lumping in the locker room. our odds are looking better for Vegas for the championship. You're celebrating a youth I love this. You disgust me.

Oh yeah. Another player that got hurt too number six was. Hmm. Well, I've always felt like it was the big three going into the tournament. Auburn, U of H, and Duke.

Alabama probably in the mix too, right? Not as high, but certainly in that group. And Auburn's been losing lately. Auburn v. Houston for the national championship, Bruce Pearl, of losing his job? I mean, you're going to be a one seed, which is basically a free pass of the Sweet 16.

Hopefully, maybe they get some breaks like they did that last time they made the Final Four when they didn't face a single, single digit seed, and then once they lost, saw one, they lost. People check that as soon as you start talking like that. What did I say? You just start making a bunch of goof.

I didn't even get to do my eye. I just don't get it, did I? Please do. The reports are coming out now in baseball that the Tampa Bay Rays are not moving forward with new stadium plans. Okay. Why are the Tampa Bay Rays still in Tampa Bay? They're not.

They spend no money. The team, nobody cares about them. Their stadium has been a disaster. Now they have this stadium issue. How have they been here for so many years? If the owners don't care to spend and the city doesn't care about your team, what are we doing here? They're not staying.

I don't get it. They've made no attempt to refurbish Tropicana Field, or they said it won't be ready for years. But that's just a waste of money, because they're building a new stadium anyway. Why would you put a roof on that stadium when they're not going to use it anymore? It's either going to be the Portland Rays,

the same salt lake city rays or the Nashville. Nashville, Nashville, there's no raise in Nashville? There's no jazz in Utah. They're going to change the name. My point is that five years, this is saving it for next week. Five years from now, there will be no more Tampa. I just say five.

Yeah, I'll go five. Five more years from now. No more Tampa River. Okay. No more Tampa Verres. You have the Las Vegas Athletics going. Are they going to change the name there? They should.

No, that's from back to the Philadelphia Athletics. That's a classic name. Yeah. Gotta say the 21s for the NBA franchise. That's not happening, Matt. Why not? Nobody calls it 21 unless you're eight years old. It's Blackjack.

You can't call a lot. They're not going to use that. They're not going to use a lot. They're not. They're not going to do that. No, they're not. They're not going to do that. Not come to Las Vegas ace to spades either. No. Northwest side, Joe, 1156.

Joe, I got a question for you. What don't you get? Yes, sir, Matt. And Ross, how y'all doing? Good. I don't get it while, why people are so well put off or offended if I don't return their text right away. Even if I read them, I mean, sometimes you're driving your car or you're in the middle of something and you're like, okay, I got a text. Let me see if it's, you know, really important and they'll check it. Okay, I could get back to them later, you know, it's not an emergency.

Right. But don't be offended just because I don't text you back right away. I mean, it doesn't mean I don't love you or I don't care about you. I know, Joe, the rule should be two hours. I'm giving you a two-hour grace period. What if I'm in a movie? That's fine. How many three-hour movies are going to?

Weekly? No, that's not true at all. That's a lie. I'm not lying. Joe, the rule is you should return to text within two hours, especially if you read it. And if you don't, your phone should be locked. You're wrong. Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt.

But what if, like, Ross said, I'm coming out of a movie and I've got a date with me? Yeah. And I got my arm around. Oh, come on. Joe, it's just. Am I supposed to say, wait a minute while I check my text? Yes. Joe, Joe, it's 2025.

Everybody's on their phones constantly. You have not gone two hours out looking at your phone and I don't know how long. So stop this. Well, I'm in a movie. I'm on a day. Bologna. You're checking your phone. She's texting her.

She's checking her phone. You guys are texting your bros. You're texting your ladies. How's the day going? It's going great. Joe, you got a two-hour window, my friend. And thank you for the phone call. That's what I'm talking about.

You get two hours. Connor, you're 20-something. You're cutting a run for an hour and a half. It's fine. Check your text and go off the dance floor, correct? Yeah, of course. Thank you very much. Joe and King would wrap up. I just don't get it. Joe, what don't you get? I don't get while managers and players have to eat while they're playing baseball.

Why? You're supposed to be athletes out there running around and you got a mouthful of sunflowers to you. Don't get it. It's the past the time kind of thing in baseball to me. Fasts going to throw in sport out there. No. I mean, if Jose Al-Tubi went on one out there with a slice of pizza, it'd probably be an issue. But it's sunflower seats. I don't care.

It's chewing gum. It's better than tobacco. Right? Yeah. A lot safer. A lot safer. Less mouth cancer from double bubble than chew. I will say this, Joe and Kingwood. If there's an omelette station in the middle of the dugout,

that'd be a problem. That'd actually be a good idea. Get a little protein. Wait a minute, you cannot have a chef saying do you want peppers, onions, onions, and cheese? Bacon. Maybe tomatoes as well? Peak it a guy on the middle? You cannot ask for that middle of the game.

Why not? Not in the dugout. Before the game after the game, sure. But not in the middle of it. Wouldn't you love a good omelette station at the hotel breakfast? Don't you think they're... I am not endorsing a chakouterie board at third base. I like that actually.

Some almonds. Some prosciutto. Yeah, and some fancy pickles and some greyer and some of that fancy moustache and some gutta and some gherkins. By the way, the rockets

have a nice chakutory board at Toyota Center is right next to the melons that nobody ever eats. That charcutteroot board is dangerous. You can do quite well. Because usually the entrees are mid, so.

I would agree with you. Shout out to my boys at Levy who brought me a little snack at half a minute. Thank you. We got a more in. Have you got the news at noon? ready? You don't. So you're going to get a minute

here. Philip. Philip and Pearland. Philip, what don't you get? Philip? Associate Credit Union of Texas. I don't get it. If I don't use my online account every six months, they're going to kill my credential. What? I got to set it up again.

So I got to check in every six months. I don't get it. What a hassle. Thank you, Philip. And that is the, I just don't get it for this week. all my banking online. You don't sign up for six months? Yeah, what are you doing? You don't check your banking account for six months?

Philip, I don't get that. He's got a lot of cash. News at noon, Jim and Heights. I was going to get to you, but we can't because we've got to hit our breaks. We didn't already. It's fine. 12.01. The news at noon is next. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 1205 and H-town. What's happening in lunch timers? Welcome to hour number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk, 790. Let's get to the news at noon. And with that, here's Ross Fielder again. Yes, Matthew, I mean, so much going on in the news here in Houston, Texas, talking about sports news.

But we will start with your Houston Rockets getting the victory last night against the Phoenix Suns. Double team comes to Green, to Brooks, Schengun behind the back pass. Inside for a flush to Tari. What a beautiful. dime that time for the rocket center. Oh, look at the rhyme, the beautiful time. Rime, dime, that time from Matt Thomas. Jalen Green leading the way for the squad with 29 points on 8 of 16 shooting.

He also got to the free throw line a lot 10 of 11 there. Coach Udoka, speaking after the game on what he liked from Jalen Green's game. Yeah, he's taking what they give and making the right reads. He's been getting off the ball sharing it. obviously in attack mode as well. So with them in out, read out and Fred out until today, he's been having a lot of the ball in his hands a lot more

and been basically the backup point guard once they're guys go out and done an excellent job. Four wins in a row for the Houston Rockets, but not able to move up in the standings as far as where they are in spots, but closer. Just one game behind the Grizzlies and Nuggets were tied at two and three and just a half game

behind the Los Angeles Lakers who are in the four spot and the Warriors keep on winning. Rockets, three and a half games clear of Golden State, however. And Imeidoka joins us in 55 minutes. Yes. Any reaction to the Rockets and the four-game win streak, man?

Oh, we're going to move on. Okay, fine. I think we're fantastic. Okay. Well, we're just going to keep it moving then on the top sports headlines of the day. Mention this on I Don't, just don't get it. The Tampa Bay Rays will not be moving forward. with new stadium plans, citing hurricanes and costly delays.

The development of the $1.3 billion baseball stadium in St. Petersburg will not be moving forward. Apparently, the Tampa Bay Rays had to provide documents that could prove they could basically cover their minimum $700 million obligation in order to secure the public funds. They were not able to do that because all the setbacks from the hurricanes. Tampa Bay Rays, no new stadium. Why the heck are they still there, Matt? All right, so let's do this. I've given you three cities.

Nashville. You think Nashville? I think it's going to be Portland. I think they would stay Eastern just for divisional purposes. I think the stadium's development is everything, and I think that Portland is ahead of the game. They do? They have a game.

Portland has a, they just announced this past week of renderings. of a new facility in downtown Portland, about 32,000 seats. Okay. Which seems kind of small to me. It does seem small, but isn't that around with the athletics are going with? A is going to go with that in Las Vegas. I think the new Tampa Park if they were going to build it was going to be in that range.

Maybe they're not worried about 3 million population because 82, 81 games times 32,000 is what, 2.5 million? That's if you sell every ticket, which again, if you do that's good. Yeah, if you, is it like scarcity marketing act? you make fewer of something available, charge more for it, and you can offset that. I think in the first five years you absolutely could do that. If you charge 30% more, it's the same thing as filling up 40,000 in the tickets. But I don't know, I guess if Portland's going to go for that. Yeah, I think Portland and Salt Lake City have their stadium act together.

I have not heard much about Nashville lit-leap. Although I would say of the three cities, Ross, Nashville probably has the most money ready to go to spend for a facility. You get some celebrities involved. Like who? Justin Timberlake? You could. You could get Brooks and or done involved. Are they, they're from Nashville? No, I'm just throwing out a random country act.

Sorry, that was a bad analogy. I mean, maybe it works. I'm cracking myself for no reason. Sorry. That's okay, Matt. It was terrible. Welcome to the Matt Thomas show. I apologize.

You should apologize. By the way, my wife is crying right now. Cooper Flag has got a bad ankle injury and is hurt right now for Duky. Yeah, that's. So normally for this show, I just go check and what's the top sports news items at ESPN. It was the Tampa Bay raise one. Now literally, as I refresh, Cooper Flagg,

leaving the ACC tournament quarterfinal game with an apparent ankle injury. It didn't look good, Matt. But your name on it. Cougars are going to play Auburn for the National Championship. Put a name on it, baby. Who's going to win? What's up on the headlines?

Okay. The headlines after that, not great. Unless you want to talk about Julian Alvarez's Champions League penalty drama, Matt. Did you catch it? No, but we got Cam Smith playing in right field today. We do have, oh, yeah, you're right. Cam Smith playing in right field for the Houston Astros. And, well, how do you think that's going to go?

Anti-climactic. I would say probably. I would say probably. He's going to make three or four plays. How about he's going to gun somebody down running from second to home? Put your name on it. No, it'll be first or third, I would think he'd probably give. Boy, he can get somebody from second home.

What is he going to skip third base? Oh, going from second, a rounding third. I got, I got, okay. This is how baseball works, Matt. You go to second, you got to go to third, and then you got to go to home play. There we go. How you score what's known as a run. Got the baseball bunch with me here on my right.

Thank you very much. That's the news at noon. Sure, why not? Jim of the Heights. What can we do for you? Well, here's something I don't get. I was born at Heights Hospital, so I support the Houston teams. whole life, win, lose, draw, that's my guys.

What I don't get is when people apply that logic of following a sports team to politics. I don't get if you stick with that brand, regardless if, you know, they elect the devil or the guy that steals everybody's money. I don't get that. It's sports is one thing. Being an American is a totally different thing. and by the way, you guys have the very best freaking show on the radio. Well, that's nice you to say that.

Thank you. I don't quite understand. Do you understand this parallel? I think he's saying blind party loyalty when it comes to politics. Oh, you should vote for the person of the party. There are people that do that. Every time, there are certain people you know in your life, man. That every time a Republican does something, they're going to back it.

Every time a Democrat does it, they're going to say it's the worst. I have. Vice versa. I have two really fun friends of mine. I wouldn't say they're super close, but they're friends. Okay? And I follow them both on Twitter. Okay.

One despises every single thing a Democrat does. The other one despises everything a Republican does. And they don't get off brand. Correct. And I've had a little slight conversation. with the person who thinks that everything the Republicans do is the worst thing ever. Okay. And I said, it can't be that way every single time.

And she said to me, yes, it can be. She was not willing to budge off of the fact that every Republican is scum of the earth. Now, I've not had that conversation with my friend who thinks every Democrat is scum of the earth. I haven't really talked about it. I don't like talking politics. So that's the same. You bring it up every time. Like every day during every break, it's weird.

It's not true at all. Okay. I'm anti. tie of that. But I just... Yeah, I don't bring up politics because I'm like a... Yeah, no, it doesn't matter.

Yeah. I don't like Republicans or a dendiparats, and I don't participate in these sham elections either. You don't also take part in blackjack that's six to five, which is a loss on your part. I do not. Okay. Sometimes you've got to have principles in this world, Matt.

I'm going to Fort Lauderdown next week where I fully assume there'll be six to five tables, and I'm going to play because I like playing blackjack. Well, you have a good time, appreciate it. You're the reason casino's put 6 to 5 everywhere now. Well, I mean, it's either that or playing I don't want to do the slots. They've done nothing

for me. Blackjack does something for me. Makes me win. Oh, yeah. I had a good year, by the way. Great. 2025 has been good for the sports MT Blackjack Academy. Rather be at 3 to 2, but I'll take 6'5.

Well, it doesn't matter. There's no difference. No, there's a significant difference. No, there's no difference. No, no, no, there's a lot of difference. No, no, no, there's a lot of difference. Jason and Katie. We'll get to you when we come back. 1214. Let me hit my breaks on time.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross with a message right now for a website that I want you to memorize. You ready? Here it comes. S-O-Patio.com. S-O-S-Mipatio.com. If you're looking for affordable concrete services for your home, for your patio,

for your pool, for your place of business, complete driveway and patio installations. Can be found at SOS MyPatio.com? And during their springtime breakout sale, you mention your best friend, that of course being me, 15% off labor when you mention me, Matt Thomas. That's 15% off.

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More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. This song sucks. Sorry we're having to play it. I sent a text to the Thomas family text thread saying the Cooper Fly is leaving the game, leaving the arena in a wheelchair and my wife just said stop in all caps with an exclamation point.

Uh-oh. I also put it in the Cougars or winning the championship. So her Why are you doing that? Why are you twisting the knife? Because I want to see where her affinity was and her affinity is Duke. Her allegiance is Duke greater than Houston. That's fine. I will not be mentioning her name

when someday they put me in the University of Houston Athletic Hall of Fame. They are? I'm saying someday. For what? For being just cool alum. Okay. I mean, Jim Nance got in there. I mean, why can't I? Bill Rowe got in.

Why can't I? Okay. Do they do like a bronze bust or what do they do? No, it's not the, it's not the athletics. It's the university. They have an alumni association, as every school does. And they have an alumni gala where they are honorary, they have big honors of, and not Hall of Fame, but.

What do they call it? In trinies of the Hall, I don't know what they call it. Hall of Honor or something like that. Oh, okay. We can get you in that. I mean, I've been in business for 30 days. I've been 30 years. Yeah.

I mean, I've been representing the school. I don't embarrass us. We've been calling Rockets games for a while. Yeah. Did you have age games two different times? Yeah. No major criminal incidents. Not that public knows about.

Correct. Yeah. You have it all expunged. I mean, I didn't have good proper legal representation to help up that one time. Shout out Rusty Hardin. 713-1-2-1-790. 7-1-2-1-7-90. E-May-Doka.

joins us in 40 minutes here on the program. Let's talk to Jason and Katie on 790. Hello, Jason. Yeah, I just got a question. Why hasn't San Antonio Austin area been brought up to move the race to? I mean, you think about it. That is the largest concentration of population in the country that only has one professional sports team. And it's not even close.

I mean, that area has a bigger population than the state of Utah, probably than the state of Oregon. Because first of all, the state is already saturated with two major league teams. Third, secondly, you'd have to have some sort of ground swell. Let's build a stadium and neither San Antonio or Austin has shown that. And I think putting a stadium in San Marcos has what the difference would be a waste. And I just don't think there's just enough affinity for baseball to carry a third team in the state. Well, I'd have to disagree with you on that. But,

I mean, how's there a possible disagreement? We've never heard any inkling of San Antonio or also getting a team. That's what I'm saying. Why haven't they gone out to get one? If there was a team there, there would be a lot more affinity for it.

There would be people going. Of course. I know people who drive here from San Antonio just to go to a ball game. Same thing, I'm sure, in Dallas, just so they can go to a ball game. There isn't enough interest. You're talking about a multi-billion dollar operation in terms of a team,

hundreds of millions of dollars to put in for a stadium. There just isn't enough interest. All right. I was just curious. All right. Thank you for the phone call. Yeah. I didn't know this, but I was just Googling it.

There's a group called the Austin Baseball Commission that is trying to work on a plan to make a bid for Major League expansion. By the way, a Twitter follow of ours just sent us something. This is from RSJRDK. The Nashville Stars yesterday, just yesterday, put out a new logo and cap called a group called Music City Baseball, trying to bring an MLB franchise to Nashville. And it kind of looks like the Chicago White Sox, if you look at it. You see that there? Not that they're trying to get the White Sox out of Chicago.

They wouldn't leave. But my point is this, is that, yeah, if Tampa does leave that area, there are three cities that won a baseball team very badly. I think it's going to be quite a chase between Portland, Salt Lake, and Nashville. Baseball is dying, though, Matt? Yeah, according to people that don't like baseball, those that think baseball is pretty cool, they seem to think it's pretty good. No, I don't think there is enough of a population between Austin and San Antonio

of a sports fan population that would be able to justify a third team in the state. But I could be wrong, but I, you know. Why can't you get three in a state as big as Texas? Well, um, Austin, Dallas, Houston got to be as close as like, I don't know. Boston, New York, whatever. First of all, you can't take, you can't take two cities and split a team. And you can't put a team in San Marcos. I mean, I guess you could, but it just, it just wouldn't make sense.

I mean, you're also, what are stadiums, what are stadium costs going for these days? Billions. Billions a dollar. I don't think there's enough. Yeah, this article I have from Fox 4 in. Austin says they need, it's a minimum a $4 billion enterprise. There's an expansion fee, stadium, and then operating budget. You add it all up.

It's around $4 billion is what they're saying in Austin. I mean, you could say the same thing about a lot of different parts of this country that have a huge population base that just can't. But I mean, Austin's got to be the biggest, one of the biggest cities or metro areas without any major. Not counting soccer team. Wow, yeah. Yeah, I think Austin's probably there. I would think if Austin is going to get a professional sports team, my guess it would be some sort of a,

well, you're not going to want to hear this, but it probably may be convincing the Spurs to leave San Antonio, which I don't believe it's going to happen. The Austin Spurs? I think San Antonio is going to build a new downtown arena for the Spurs. That's what they want. Austin is the biggest metro. Yeah, it is the population.

2.2 million. No, none of the major big four leagues. Wait, San Diego doesn't have anything? Yeah? No, they got the Padres. Oh, yeah, the Padres, never mind. Well, why is it?

Hey, thank you, Google AI. I was like, what? Yeah. No, I mean, honestly, no disrespect to San Antonio, but... Sounds like you're about to disrespect. It's funny when you say no disrespect to...

With all... You can say all due respect, because maybe there's no respect, do, Matt. With plenty of respect to that city, I don't think it could serve. I don't think it economically could not put up enough to put up a stadium. Hell, they built the Alamodrome with the hopes of NFL team coming and they got shot down pretty quick. Austin, for as population heavy as it is, well, see, I don't, you know what, I don't want to talk on my ass on this one. I don't know. It doesn't feel like to me that is a longhorn town. There's a lot of

transplants there these days. For instance, I mean, Columbus, Ohio, Ross, is the biggest city in Ohio. It's bigger than Cleveland and it's bigger than Cincinnati. It's got plenty of industry. They have an NHL team. No one's ever thought about putting an NFL team in Columbus or a basketball team or a baseball team.

Hey, the NFL started in Columbus. Columbus, what? I don't know. It was like the superstars or something. It was like a 1920. You see what I'm saying, though? I mean, there's just some cities that when I think of, man, that city could use this. I don't think of Austin going. I don't think the city of Austin wants to build a $2 billion baseball stadium.

Okay. I mean, I really nothing much more to say than that. It just doesn't come across to me as a place that would be if I was scared that if I was a race fan worried about Tampa Bay losing, I wouldn't be, I'd be way more concerned about Nashville, big metropolitan area. one of the fastest growing cities in a country. Portland, huge growing area. Salt Lake City, majorly aggressive in grabbing sports franchises. Nashville Metro Pop 2 million.

2.072. It's 2.04. In Austin? For Austin. Wow. Man, Austin has just ridiculously gotten busier. But yeah, I would say the Rangers and the Astros probably do not want a team in Austin. No, I want to think it block him.

There are territories to it, but remember, it's all about the check. If somebody, if they get a big check, they'll, but they can get that check from other places. When I was there, it was an Astros town. That was when, you know, the Beltran trade happened and talking about Austin. And then when I was there, the later years, when the Rangers started winning, it became a Rangers town. But so, but you have the ability to have both. Yeah. Rangers and Astros' interest there.

Yeah. All right. 1229, Sports Talk, 790. This is the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. 713212-5-790. Today is Thursday, and that means buy one, get one free, boneless wings in any of the 13 Big City Wing locations. They have specials every single day. Please tell me you're taking advantage them. Today it's double boneless wings and $3 Bud Lights and $3 Ultra is 16 ounce aluminums all day long at any of the 13 locations. And there's a new shrimp ball going on right now at Big City Wings. Crawfish is back. They've got a St. Patrick. Day special, which will feature green beer and green waffles. They've got catering packs that are unbelievably delicious and unbeatable lunch specials every single day, for a Monday through Friday, that is, for $9.99 between 11 o'clock and 3.

Happy hour starts at 3 o'clock, the Mexican drafts at 350, Wells 2.50, 325 wine and $4 craft pints. And today with being a Thursday, it is double boneless wings and $3 bud lights at any of the 13 Big City Wing locations. To find the location near you, you go to Big CityWings.com. That's big citywings.com. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. One of our Twitter followers like, hey, San Antonio missions are minor league team. People go see them.

Austin is a Round Rock Express. It's a little different. You're paying 30% of prices what you'd pay for Major League prices. Go get a Round Rock Express game for 15 bucks. That ticket's going to cost you $70. in the major leagues. $80. We have a Jose Altuve play in left field

that he didn't make, Matt. Do we have the audio of it or no? Oh, I don't know if we have that. Oh, we do! Let's hear it. 3-1. That's lifted in the air pretty deep to left. It sends back Al-Tuvae gets turned around on the warning track.

He leaps at the wall, and he can't make the catch. It hits off the wall. Herrera on his way to third, throwing it in to third. Third base is Myers, but not nearly in time as it's a triple for Herrera. I wonder if Altuve, with his experience out there in left field, was unsure of how much further he had to go. It would have been a difficult play had he made it,

but it seemed like a ball that was potentially catchable. He never got there, but you're right. It hit a eye off the wall, and Altuvae just was unable to time that jump at the top of the fence to come down with the baseball. Yeah, you can, Brian McTaggart tweeted the video. I retweeted it. Just missed time. He mistimed his jump.

Okay, I've not seen it. Ball should have been caught. Oh, Sam's going to ask you, should it have been caught? Ball should have been caught. Oh, God, Rossi. I'm going to ask you again. Is there any chance that an above average left fielder would have not made the play? No, very little chance.

Can I also say something that may be mean, but I think it's true? Can you put music behind it or no? No, I mean, I'm just going to say it. I think a six-footer probably doesn't even have to jump for this ball. Oh, Christ, that's it. I'm just serious. I'm out of here. I'm out of here.

It's one spring training play. I'm speaking of this. I'm just, I need L to me to play these in my God. Matt is screaming in the hallways now. I'm just, I'm just saying. Look at the video and then try to refute what I just said. But it's going to be funny. Do you hear that, folks?

He's working out the kinks. The greatest astro of all time. Jeff Badwell's out there? Stop. Stop. It's trying something new, and my radio partner will give him no grace whatsoever. That's not true. I just said he's going to be fine.

You just said a normal outfit it would have made the play. It's true. I can also be honest and factual. Okay, a six-footer would have jumped, I think. But more of a skip. He just mistimed his jump. He'll be fine. This is what spring training is for.

It's for these mistakes. This game doesn't matter. It's all good. You have collectively ruined the people's image of a greatest astro of all time. I haven't done anything. He's fine. I don't like this. I don't appreciate it. And I will not have slander of the greatest astro of all time. Chandler Rome, after the inning,

Jose Altuve and Jake Myers talked for a while as they walked back. to the dugout. Then Alteuay and Dave Clark spent a few minutes talking before Clark went out to coach first base. They're working on it. So let's interpret they were talking. What's what do you think they were talking about? Dinner plans for a little. No, I think they're talking

about timing jumps and the wind and I don't know. The game is on. Yeah, I just put it on. Why didn't he have it on an hour ago? Look at Jake. Look at Jake! Oh, Jake to left center and makes the catch! Yes! Jake's our hero. And by the way, Lelima was

this earlier. Slandering Jake Myers. Yes, he was. Shut you a bum ass up, Brian Leema. I don't care if you don't work here or not anymore. Hmm. Ooh, and I got Erigetti's on the mound. Yeah, he's into the third inning. It's scoreless. That's got to be good. It's going to be really good. How about the Cardinals wearing their real uniforms

in spring training? That's kind of a waste, right? That's a lot of extra laundry for no reason. What are they supposed to do? Do what the Astros are wearing? We're in their spring training gear. This looks like the Sunday Blues. Yeah, but it's mainly the spring training gear. Most teams don't wear their real uniforms in spring training. Okay.

Cardinals are treating us like Game 7 of the World Series out there. Okay. If you say it's a big deal, I'll take your word for it, Matt. All right. You're getting it dealing. Down 2-0 in the count? You're trying to do a live listening? No, no, no.

And we're probably a minute now. Yeah, we're at least two minutes behind. Jake Myers has probably made three more five-star catches by now. It's probably four-two by now the time we catch up with this video feed. That's not accurate. All right. It actually isn't that bad. It's pretty far off.

Okay, that's fine. All right. So if anything happens with right field, with Cam Smith, we'll be happy to push that along to the audience as well. Okay. We're going to be watching that left field like a hawk, aren't we?

I'm used to be watching these Jake Myers catches, baby. 14 outs above average, fourth among center fielders. You dropping stats. It's on the... Okay. I wouldn't have told anybody that. Oh. Can Jake hit 250 and we can leave him alone?

He's the ninth place hitter. But I mean, 250's fine. You got to be 225 is going to hurt this team. He hit 228 with 13 bombs. It's not. No, it's not good. Terrible. No, no, you were going to say it was not terrible.

No. His OPS lost the 700. Yes, it was. Not good. Okay. Well, he's out there catching. Is it center field? Is it premium?

It's not like he's playing first base in doing that. Oh, carotini lost the handle on the steel there. Your Honor Diaz is like, you're moving me out of catcher out of my ass. I'm telling you, I'll be there for the rest of my life. Caratini's the better defensive catcher. Didn't show it there. Spring training. It's spring training.

See? What in doubt? It's spring training. Yeah. Where's our just the preseason drops? Yeah, we've lost those. Well, I think I might have like one or two of them. All right.

713, 212, 5.7. Nothing means nothing. Oh, yeah. Let me tell you, the macho man is here. tell you, it's just the preseason. That is epically good. It really is. Now, of course, I don't know. It's rainy Macho Man Savage.

It's not really him. He's dead. May he rest in peace. Oh, man. Now I'm bummed out. We play that hell out. I'm not in a bad mood. Don't be bummed out. It's fine. All right. It's going to be okay. Are you sure? Yes. You know what I'm going to do to fix things? Let's get a call on some soccer in. Hi, Sal.

Let's go. What's up, man? Al Ross, how about Real Madrid, man? Dude, you got the luckiest call in the history of the Champions League. Julian Alvarez's foot did not double-touch that ball. And you know it. You know it, don't you? Hey, yeah, I know it, but hey, if the VAR says it, you know, got to go with it, you know.

Yeah, that was crazy. I'll be rooting against Real Madrid against whoever. Liverpool's already out, so I'm good there. Now I just need Arsenal and Real de lose, and then we're good. Hey, I have another thing to ask. Have you seen the leak of the new uniforms and what do you think about them? That'll be it. Matt, have you seen the leak of the new uniforms?

I have not. Oh, yeah, this is hilarious. Yeah, 1992 calls and wants its sports take back. God. So archaic and tired and trite and lame. It still works. Yeah, it's hilarious. Hey, Sal, you and octogenarians everywhere agree.

Sal, listen to me very carefully. I have not seen the uniform link. There is no way know how I could have possibly seen what they're thinking about putting out there for their special city connect uniforms. I have no idea what they look like. Ross, how about you? I've seen them. When I first saw the graphics, the initial ones, I thought they looked really terrible. But then I saw something else that was leaked.

It looked a little bit more sharp. I think they could be okay. But I think there was somebody made their own rendering of them in the dark astro. blue and I think they look spectacular. If the uniform leak is accurate, I love them. It's like a tequila. But again, I wouldn't have seen them. I'll make sure

I haven't seen them. I haven't seen them. But if they are what I think they might be, I love them. Because I have been on the record. I liked the hats last year. The tops were okay. The pants were terrible. The whole combination was a below minus grade for me. if these leaks, which I've not seen, and never would tell anybody I've seen anything,

if it's what I think it is, I love them. I'm going to go with like, not love. I would like to see what they actually. When they're supposed to be revealed like next week or something, right? I don't know. Okay. But the leaks are out and we have not seen them, Ross. I would never ever even pretend to think I've ever seen them even one time.

I saw them. I'm on social media. No, no, no, no. I'm never on social media, so I don't see them either that way. 1244, we've got E. May Adoka coming up in 15 minutes. By the way, who's batting for the Cardinals? Did you see the guy's name? I didn't see.

Las News Bar. Oh, yeah. No, Lars Neupar. Who is that? You know what Lars Neupar is? No. Yeah. He's like a Dutch or something.

He's been there for years. I think he's been an All-Star. He's got a triple. He was with O-Tani on the Japanese team that won. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. You said it was Dutch. Whatever. It's a Dutch name, isn't it?

He just smacked the ball to straightaway center field. Yeah, father is Dutch, mother's Japanese. What's the name again? I got it right. Lars Neupar. I'm sorry, I was thinking All-Star. I must have been thinking World Baseball Club. He does the crack the pepper celebration.

Duh. Come by the way. You don't know Lars Newtbar? When y'all reach me in Orlando next week, I will... Would you stop doing that with your hands? That's disgusting, Connor. That's just a celebration. Yeah, but you're using two hands.

only takes one to celebrate you what you want to celebrate. He's cracking the pepper. Yeah, I bet you've been cracking a lot of pepper. 1244 on Sports Talk 790s. E. May I doke coming up in 15 minutes. Ross, what is today's edition of Believe it or not? It's Googled and we're leaving in with that. No further hints, Matt. Okay.

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$500 to get started, 4% APY. From the Shell Federal Current Union, where you can picture the possibilities, shellfc u.org, shellfcU.org. Don't leave Matt Thomas in your car. Take him with you. Download the free iHeartRadio app for your phone at sports790.com. Just remember you'll have to feed him. All right. To make y'all feel better, Jake Myers.

And for those of you that are part of the Jake Myers fan club, we have some great defensive work for him too. Legal opportunity. We did play the Jose Altuve, attempt to grab and left. So now here is what Jake Myers does with his glove in spring training baseball. And he swings, breaks his bat, a fly ball to left center field, and a diving effort by Jake Myers and Myers makes the catch. Jake Myers dashing to his right, full extension in the alleyway, comes up without number one.

Full extension in the alleyway, Matt. You love to get some full extension in the alleyway. I haven't gotten full extension since the late 90s. I've got pills for that. I've tried them. 1252 Sports Talk 7.9. It is a Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 713-212-5-790.

I think the Friday, open tomorrow should be just 10 minutes of his best drops. Well, I've got the best of, like, I was hard enough to choose, but then you guys are giving me more stuff. So I'm just going to have to, those will just be all for future use, I'll just put them in your folder, Ross.

All right, so we, have we met our new producer yet? Yeah, I have. You're never up here, so. But where is he, could he be working today with us or something? I don't know. He'll be tomorrow. Unfortunately, he's working a lot. He's working, like, he's, we're a little short staff, we're a little thin up here right now, Matt. Okay.

He's doing overnights right now, filling in. But his name's Jonathan, so he'll be here tomorrow. And he's a nice kid? Oh, yeah. Very excited. Yeah. All right. He's got personality.

Do you think he can handle all the nuances of like the Friday opens and stuff like that and all that kind of stuff? I think it might take a minute for the opens, but, I mean, it took me a while. We didn't put that on his plate until very deep in the game. How about believe it or not? Can he handle it or not? Yes. It's a learning process. Yeah, he'll have some help.

It'll be good. And we got a lot of bits. Shut your bum ass up. Yeah. Tomorrow we got. He shows all about the bits. We got, tomorrow I got I'm sorry Friday. We got apologize a bunch of people.

Hmm. Are you going to apologize for besmirching the good name of Jake Myers? I didn't besmirch it. It was a Malima that besmirched it. Are we going to do non-flora stories because I have a good one finally this week. Finally? Yeah. Yeah, where's your from?

Yours from, Matt? Cincinnati. Really? Yes. Okay. It involves crappy chili. Man, I found a good one the last week and then I realized it was from Jacksonville, Florida. It's, you know, next Friday, I'll be able to do a Florida.

Florida story. And you will be in Orlando and Miami. The rules of anyone. Either one, any of us are in Florida. You get to do it. By the way, let me give you stories that I've been sent from my research department that I don't think I'll be bringing you up. Okay. A dog managed to fire a gun and wounded his owner and an accidental shooting in Memphis on Monday.

Oh, that's, I'm sorry, that's tragic. Another one is, a man embarked on a pest control mission and ended up with an unexpected trip to the hospital. Hmm. A woman was hospitalized after being stung by. a scorpion at Logan Airport in Boston on Sunday. I've been there. My boyfriend has a micropenus and here's what our perfect

sex life is like. Oh, come on, man. We don't need to hear that. These poor guys, I feel so bad for them. An ornate, dangerous snake was discovered in the box of a bananas at a New Hampshire grocery store. My God, the research team is on top of it. Teen dies after injecting himself of butterly remains,

butterfly remains. What? Mm-hmm. Oh, I think I saw that one. How many links do you get a week from this research team? That's over about a two-week span. My God. You know, people want to know which stories. Here I am fighting and scrapping for any one story I can get. You got a whole dossier.

I have a research department. I see that. But I won't use any of those tomorrow. I don't think. Okay. Connor, you weren't with us, but the all-time, all-time non-flora story for me was out of San Antonio. Do you remember what it was, Ross?

Was that the blood coming through the roof? I knew you were going to say that because I wasn't an all-timer. I think it was. Connor. No, the all-timer was the guy from Alabama who was giving meth to a squirrel and it attacked people. He was like he had an attack squirrel. See, that was your story, though. I'm talking about my personal old-timer.

Oh, okay. My personal all-timer was a woman was lying in her bed and she was, her wall was, at the top of her wall was dripping things. that was the most disgusting one you know. And it was dripping blood. The guy that lived above her died. And the blood was seeping through the the wall, the carpet in the ground of the apartment. Yeah, doesn't that sound like a great...

That is terrified. Doesn't that sound hilarious and fun? Connor? So then... Sicko. So then she goes after the apartment complex. The apartment complex, you didn't pay your rent, bitch. Let's go.

Wow. I think you should get free rent. For a six months, minimum for blood spattering into your home. And the worst part was, Connor, is that her ceiling fan was on. So the blood would hit the ceiling fan and was splied a hole. That's enough. Let's go to break.

Good God. That's my all-time non-forta story. And it happened just in San Antonio. That is a real life horror movie. It's funny because I don't even like horror movies. I mean, I can't remember the last time I saw a horror movie. it's got to have been 30 years

we do already have comments from Joe Espada on the Jose Al Tuvei jump when we come back We got an email dog You're going to wait for 20 minutes Well, we'll talk to email about it No, email doesn't care about Why not?

Why not? He's not playing Plague for the Rockets, no Fine, I'll read it Read it. On the television broadcast, Joe Espada said his first step was good, his direction was exactly what we're looking for, he got to the right spot he just needed to find the wall and leap. He jumped a little too early. And he also said he better fix us quick.

He didn't say that. We're all good. You didn't say that. 1257, final hour, the Matt Thomas show with Ross begins with E. Mae Adonkin. Next on 790. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 101 Sports Talk 790. The Rockets with an off day today, back-to-back games tomorrow against Alex. said Saturday against the Chicago Bulls, Rockets have won four consecutive games to talk about that. And other things Houston Rocker-related is the head coach.

E. Medoca here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross coach. It's Matt Ross. Good afternoon. Congratulations on the four-game stretch. And I brought this up to you yesterday. Is it somewhat nice in a world of NBA when you feel like you're in five cities in 10 days? It's been nice to kind of be home for a little bit to kind of get in some sort of routine here? Yeah, I would say it is after the hectic travel schedule. that we had.

I think at some point 13 to 17 on the road and come on for a game and right back out on the road. So it's good to be back for a little bit. I don't really mind it, but I think the players like to sit down, settle down and be with their families and get on a regular schedule. But it's also nice to be at home for a while and take care of our home court advantage. And we did that lately. How tired of you were you of Fred Van Blythe, coach? And how happy were you to have Fred Van Blyte the player back on the floor for you last night?

Well, we'll get tired of him as far as what he does for our guys, as far as coaching sitting there, and he does that while he's playing as well, so we don't get tired of that part, but it's great to have him back on the floor, you know, settling things down and just, you know, finding his way, getting his rhythm back and, you know, had a nice fishing game overall. I think, you know, just to get the rest off and have them back out there, obviously benefits the team. You know what? This is a Phoenix team that scores a lot of points. It's really strange.

in the last two games you faced two different teams that played different styles, but frankly, I love the defense in those last two games and very good for your squad. Yeah, we got back to guarding at a pretty high level. Obviously, if you score or you hold somebody in the 80s, like we did Orlando, that's a great feat nowadays in NBA. But even except for their late run by Phoenix making some threes late, you know, we held them in the 90s for the most part. And so especially with Bill Booker and Durand out there,

I think we did a great job of paying attention to. detail making them work extremely hard and um you know obviously when you can hold durant and booker to 19 each um you're doing a really good job uh do you coaches have a nickname for the jabari smith stephen adams alper and shingoon lineups no we don't i'm sure people are media or jumble package is what i've heard how do you like that making our names for that but sounds good to me uh double bigs has been really good for us though and when you include Jabari at the three, obviously, with a man out right now and some guys in and out on back the backs. We have to go with some unique lineups, but they've all done a really good job

of adjusting and making taste pay. It comes down to a war of will with the bigs and smalls out there and who can take advantage of what, and I think our bigs have been taking advantage of the smaller lineups and not getting hurt too bad by them as well. Rocket Tech coach, IMA Adoko, with us here on Sports Talk 790. What are your conversations or, I guess, offensive philosophies with Dylan Brooks. His scoring has been up. He's been getting his shot a lot more as well and really helping you guys offensively, but not normally one of the traditional kind of engines

of the offense for you guys. The thing for him is to be aggressive and take the right shots, which he does. He's obviously shooting at a really high level from three. And I always say he finds a way to impact the game, whether it's getting out in transition, relocating off Alpi and Jalen and finding his spots, especially when I don't call a ton of plays for him. He impacts the game in a great way. And from there, it's just make the right plays. A lot of times the team will have a lesser defender on him, and we want him to take advantage of that, whether it's on the offensive glass or occasional post up here or there,

just hunting the shots. We guys are helping off of them. So he's been doing a great job of that, making teams pay, and need that aggressiveness. Obviously, the focus is on some of our leading scores, and he's done a great job all year, being very consistent and knocking down those shots. Stephen Adams gave you a double-double a couple nights back.

Obviously, could not do that last night because he and Miles wanted to play WWE in the, a court last night. But he's always been a good offensive rebound. You know that from all your time watching him over the NBA. Is it brute strength? Is it just pushing guys aside? Or does he just have the innate ability to know where that ball is going to bounce,

especially but does not come off the and down the through the hoop? Well, it's all the above. In order to be a really good offensive rebound like he does, you have to have a great sense of where the ball is going to come off the rim. But starts with his strength and wedging guys under carving out that space for himself. a lot of times he's going to get the ball, but also he commands the double and triple team on the glass, and he allows other guys to clean up and get those opportunities as well.

So starts with the strength, obviously. He's a load down there. You can kind of wedge guys in, but he has a really good understanding of where the ball's going to come off. And then a great understanding of where the shooters and scores are out of that, hitting guys going to the basket, kicking out for threes, or finding those putbacks for himself. And so all the above, he's a really smart player

and has obviously worked at that for a long time. say last night that he and Plumbly got after it like they did and no one came on the court. How would that have ended? It would end it. It would have ended with Stephen and quickly. I'm afraid of him, he may.

I mean, I'm afraid of you and I'm afraid of him. You guys, I mean, y'all are some scary mofos. I'm going to tell you that right now. He's just not a friendly gap. I appreciate what he brings the table. It's kind of nice to have that little bit of moxie on that squad. You got quite a few guys that'll do that if it need be. no it's good i mean he brings the edge to us um you know i obviously uh he's a big teddy bear off the court

he has a great personality as most guys do and sometimes it's just a flip that gets uh the switch that gets flipped on the court and so uh he brings that edge and toughness he's carved out his career doing one thing but um yeah we love that about him and obviously it's important to what we're trying to do be the number one offensive rebounding team in the league uh we have great wings that do it but for him to come in and do it the way he has obviously has been helpful as well. But, you know, and don't, I don't want to take anything away from Plumley. That's my guy. He was with us with USA basketball, but great guy as well.

But Stephen, to your point, is a very formidable opponent in all those aspects. Yeah, for sure. You may docker with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Coach, give us an update on a man. What is he doing? I know rest, rehab. You got a great training staff that's watching him probably every minute of the day when they can. Where is he on his progression and his ankle?

it's been good obviously precautionary you you know you get the x-rays and all that and those are all negative but you want to keep them in a walking food just to limit swelling and all those things and so that's been good he's getting the running in on the alter g treadmill the weight non-weight bearing treadmill and moving around looking very normal walking around and that's a great sign no limp and a lot of the swelling's getting pushed out so yeah to your point around-the-clock treatment to get him back strengthening work and then obviously he'll build up little by little until he's on the court and getting back to who he is. Yesterday you used Cam a little bit in the second quarter.

I know he had not been playing much beforehand. Was that just a kind of, was that situational? Was that, hey, I want to sneak in a few minutes here, see what he can do? Because I know he probably hasn't been overall very pleased with his work probably since that game where you started him against Oklahoma City. Yeah, I mean, well, with injuries out, we got to go to different lineups.

I think we ran jail in the entire first quarter. He was on a high streak there, which we usually don't do. And then it was situational with the fouls. Tari and Dylan both got two fouls in the first quarter and didn't want to go to a crazy different lineup. And he obviously, Cam is a really good score that can come in and give us a spark. So when we got Jalen out, we brought Cam in to do that.

It was a funky lineup out there for sure. But that's what it's going to look like at times when you have readout and you have out, obviously, and then you get in foul trouble and things of that nature. So all the guys got to be ready And they always are for the most part You see Aaron, Jock, Jeff, Jashon, Cam as well Work putting in the work And when their number is called they gotta be ready to go

Do you as a coach kind of relish in these opportunities To where things kind of don't go to plan You've got to figure things out You've come up with there's been the zone lineups There's been the big lineups That type of stuff does that make the job fun for you? I would say fun to the fact that the injuries and, you know, unavailability on back-to-back,

so you understand those things are going to happen throughout a season. The luck of being totally healthy throughout the season is unrealistic, and we had good health for the first, you know, three, four months or whatever it was, and now it's been hit, obviously, with the back-to-back guys, and obviously Fred being out quite a while. And so I would say I'm relative, but you have to be ready for everything and be able to be able to adjust on the fly. And that's the blessing that we have with our team is that we have,

have a lot of interchangeable parts where if someone goes out, I'm in could kind of plug in the hole at every position. Jabari's doing the same, playing small ball five or playing the three for us, and then all of our big wings and even our guards play up as well. Fred's a tough guard, Aaron can play up as well. And so you can mix and match pretty much a lot of different lineups to put guys in spots, but that's the beauty of the team that they all have to be ready for everything. And I think we can go to zone.

We can go to double bigs, and it will all work out well for us in the playoffs going forward. Lastly, and I told this to the audience earlier today, you may, I am watching the standings too much. It's a sickness I have. Are you doing that? I mean, I think I know that your answer, but damn, we keep winning, but everybody else in front of us and behind us is keep winning. There's not a whole lot of seismic shifting right now in the Western Conference. Yeah, at that time of the year, we all understand how tight it, tight it is, tight it is basically from two to five, Golden State and Minnesota are right behind there.

So you have to handle your business first and foremost. And then from there, you know, get some luck on your side. It always works, but not have to rely on anybody to win or lose. And, you know, the games we've given away some early in the season and had that little slump, obviously, with the injuries and guys in and out. I hurt us some, and we'd be in a good spot without that. But now it's still in our hands to, you know, us, Denver, Memphis, and Lakers, based in a four-way tie or one game apart for second to fifth.

And so have to handle our business, take care of the home stretch, and then go win some games on the road. I like your approach to that. Thank you very much, friend, for the time. We'll see you tomorrow night against the Mavericks. Thank you. You got it. That's Eme Adoka with us here on the radio program.

It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Thanks again to EMA for joining us, and he will be with us again next week. On the road, as the Rockets have three more home games before heading to a Florida trip to Orlando and Miami. 112 is our time. If you want to be a part of the program, 713, 212-5-790, 7-1-2-790. We've got some college basketball coming up at the top of the hour. On 950, you'll have the Cougars against Colorado. And right here on 790, you've got the Aggies and the Longhorns.

Huge. Boy, Dad, just listen to basketball on the radio? Magic. What a great country we live in. Wonderful, yes. A certain airline went after the Dallas Mavericks. We'll tell you about that next. 112 on Sports Talk, 790 with a message here for SOS.

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to SOS My Patio.com. That's SOS My Patio.com. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk 790. 118 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790.

Did you see this? Dark Pressed Airlines has an Instagram account. And they are obviously responding to, people having to pay for bags. This is... How's that going? Not great. Well, they actually got their most recent post-Rosca, 2,821 likes, 645 comments.

Hmm. In the middle of this blue screen or this blue image, it says, it's not like we traded Luca. Ooh. So they're trying to be funny and edgy. and they also know they're not a corporate sponsor of the Dallas Mavericks. They can probably have a little more leeway than if they were, say, corporate sponsor, the Dallas Mavericks. Because, of course, they play at Schmerich and Smeralines Arena.

Or center, yeah. Yeah, whatever. Whatever it's called. By the way, Northwestern is not being treated very nicely at the Big Ten tournament. Why not? Their coach says that the hotel they're in does not have air conditioning and that players are staying in rooms that are 85 degrees temperature. Feels like there's a little bit of a lie there. You think that he's lying?

I feel like that if there was an air conditioning issue, that they would have moved the players out of the hotel. Is there coach still? What's his name, Collins? They weren't going to say, sucking up, Nancy. It's Northwestern basketball. I mean, yeah, I mean. I think they've won one tournament game?

If you're, you know, if you're, what, Michigan State, I kind of get it. You're Northwestern. You should be just happy you got the invite. Oh, wait. They actually, no, they won tournament games three times. They had never made the tournament until 2017. That was the first time they ever made it.

Well, so, you know what? They ought to be happy they get a roof over their head of the hotel. Good for them. Wishing them the best. Do you think, and I don't mean to point out Northwestern, but let's be real, when you think of schools that are very lucky to be in the conferences they're in because they've been grandfathered in for all these years, and they're getting this huge piece of the pie?

I mean, does Northwestern not come to the top of the list? I would say so. Vanderbilt, certainly in the top of that list. What else would be? Houston Cougars. No, we just got recently invited to the Big 12, so we had to work hard to get our way in. After a mass exodus. It wasn't mass.

It was two teams. It wasn't mass. I'm kidding. But my point is that there are a handful of schools that have not done much, like Purdue, for instance. Purdue's got a best, had a pretty good basketball program. Football's done. Decent. Not squat.

Kentucky football, not squat. Generally speaking. Indiana football just didn't become relevant until, what, the last couple of years, maybe? Sometimes, look, everybody can't be winners, Matt. But my question is this. They're winners and losers in life. When we do get this ultimate separation, this next round of realignment, are any of these big schools going to have the stones that tell the little schools of these conferences,

you know, we get to bring Clemson in and we get to bring in North Carolina or Florida State, are we got to kick, you know, Indiana, Purdue. They're kicking. They're just adding. But I'm talking about this is football driven. Could you imagine being, I should say imagine. Could you picture where we have just football conferences and then everything else aligns up with the traditional conferences we have now? Oh, okay.

Meaning, like Notre Dame being in ACC and everything, but football? If you're really going to have 36. teams play for a national championship. The creme de la creme, the top 36. Okay. You're not putting Northwestern in there. You're not putting Illinois in there. You're not putting Vanderbilt in there.

You're not putting Kentucky in there. You are not putting in who else would be from a power. Who would be another one? You don't need more. Kansas would not be in the mix. You know what I'm saying? Okay. Do you kind of go, we love you?

will play you in basketball. There's value in you and playing you in baseball. But if we're going to really share this outrageous pot of money that ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS is going to give us. We need to give it to the schools that really do me. Because when you put Northwestern on CBS against anybody, people are like, eh, I'm not going to watch. You put Michigan State, Ohio State on, you're going to watch. You're putting Indiana versus Purdue on the CBS game week. You're not going to watch.

You're just not. I don't know. It's different because, I mean, these TV broadcasting companies that bribe the rights to professional sports. Like, what are you talking about ESPN? They don't put on, I don't know. The only end of Washington this week, but the Wizards and the bad teams or whatever. Orlando, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And they end up on the, you know, Northwestern plays a lot on the Big Ten network. They do. A lot of peacock games. Yeah. A lot of peacock games So I don't know You can't have a tough game Every single week

You gotta have easy dubs Matt That's what you need Northwesterns But even if you took the top 36 I'm just throwing just a number out there Well like one mega conference of 36 football teams And they have their own TV deal Yeah

Is that what you're saying? Somebody has to be 18th In each one of those divisions Somebody's going to have to suck Like Nebraska carries a huge college football presence.

A history. Yeah, they used to. I wouldn't say not anymore. But I could see a world where Nebraska is going to be in a group of 36. I can't see a world where

Colorado is long term going to be in it. As long as Dion's there, they're good. It's a question of how long he's going to be there. I just thought it was funny that Northwestern

feels like they're not being treated equally in reality. If it was a football world, they would not be treated equally. that hotel? Does the big team determine the hotels for the tournament? The Big Ten tells you what hotels are going. Oh, okay.

And my guess is that there is something of a default, I mean, of a, of a, of a, of a, of a, uh, Let's get him some window units. Let's go. I don't even know what the, it's a big 10 tournament wearing it. Oh, it's in Indianapolis issue. Think so. There's a lot of nice. I was just in Indianapolis last week.

There's plenty of nice hotels. A lot. Now, granted, the conference is bigger now. They got them in the Rotel Ricks? No, they're probably at the Dampton Rinn. It's not that bad. I've been in the Dampton run before. I've spent many a night in the Dampton.

I love the Dampton. You get free breakfast as the Dampton. It's not bad. It's fine. I like the Moory. I know you do. Ross wanted to find a Rory in West Palm Beach to go eat dinner. I'm like, the food's not that good.

It's not that bad. It's not great. Hey, it's good for the budget. It's chili mac. I mean, it is what it is. It's good for the low budget. If you want chili mac, Mac, it's like IKEA meatballs. They store from IKEA.

That is so, Franklin, it's just incredibly accurate. It troubles me that it's so accurate. 713-212-5-7-90. David and Kingwin wants to talk to some Cougar basketball. You know what America wants to talk some Cougar basketball? Especially Cooper Flags hurt. You're the worst.

You're celebrating a young man's major ankle injury. Let me tell you this right now. He was weird out of the arena. Thoughts and prayers to Cooper Flagg's ankle. Mason Wynn from Kingwood. Pop Flags. Well, they'll be able to win their first and maybe their second game without him. So that'll buy you a week.

That'll buy you two weeks. So you're telling me Duke gets the sweet 16. And then they feel better. Yeah. Matt, you're the face that he is making, folks. I hope Cooper's okay. Yeah, I sure you do. I really want to be back as soon as possible.

127 on Sports Talk 7 out of with a message here for Two Creeks Crossing Resort. I am very happy to tell you that if you want to be back, We're looking for a little getaway if your spring break is next week or you've got a little long weekend coming up around maybe perhaps Easter. Thursday, Sunday through Thursday stay, two-night minimum. Get you 20% off at Two Creeks Crossing Resort. About 90 minutes from downtown Houston. Really relaxing place to go to enjoy the fresh air of the Piney Woods of Lake Livingston. And remember, again, they've got an opportunity for you to take advantage of some outstanding specials.

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Creek Loop Livingston, Texas at 2 Creeks Crossing Resort. TWO.Creekscrossingresort.com. Spring Super Savings, 20% off all lodging between now and the end of May at 2TWO Creek's Crossing Resort.com. Matt Thomas and Ross Beaureale. Two guys extremely passionate about Houston

sports. You can tell them to go get a room. We've shared a hotel room. But they already have. And I've been on. Truth be told. It's true. Thanks for the visual. Pillow in between. There's no pillow between you and more lunchtime Houston Sports Talk on Sports Talk 790. So Cam Smith, Rossi played five innings today for the Astros against the St. Louis Cardinals in West Palm Beach.

I heard he was gold glove caliber. He did not commit an error. That's correct. He did not have an assist. Yes. he did not have a put out. So he didn't touch the ball. Nope.

See, man, if your pitching staff is good enough, you don't have to worry about the outfield at all, really. Defense. Well, if you... Jake covering everything. You got Jake Myers covering everything. You don't need to... You know what?

Again, I would rather take those two outfielers and put them in the infielders, and put them in the infield and have Jake cover the entire outfield and have a bunch of people in the infield, so nothing in the infield gets spy. that's making a lot of sense well i mean if christia walker is not playing first base and john singleton's playing a lot of first base your range over there at first not nearly as good as it could have been you put somebody between first and second call it a day just put jake in the outfield period he's got it

you know the other guys on the foul lines and then jake covers everything else so here's what happens if it's a right hand of hitter you shade him to left center yeah if it's a left hand a hitter you shed him to right center unless it's a pull guy versus you know you have to cook of the matchups man look at your little uh matchup card they keep in their back pocket. Yeah. He looks at this matchup card. Oh, crap.

Where am I supposed to go? Maybe he just moves around like a toggle switch, you know, move him left and right. Absolutely, I'm sure. Yeah. If there's anybody that can cover, what is it, what one field, what is the dimensions between one left field line and the right field line? I guess it depends, right?

Yeah. So. Oh, you're trying to find the hypotenuse? Yeah. Oh, that's big math. I don't want to think, I don't think I want to go down this avenue. What is, what is the distance between? the left field line and the right field line.

Are we supposed to know this? A squared plus B squared. Connor, are we supposed to know this right offhand? The difference between the left field and right field line? Actually, we got a Pythagoras from line on line to. I'll take a call if you get the answer to this. What is the difference to know? How far is it for the cover left field to right field line?

We can find it. David and Kingwood at 135 on 790. David, good afternoon. Hey there, man. How you doing, buddy? Good friend. What's on when your mind is. Hey, uh.

I'll just fix and watch his coos here in a little bit. By the way, Kingwood, I know you're, you're frequent with this area. You've been that Perry's yet. Perry's up. You haven't tried out. It's pretty good. The pizza place? Yeah, pizza and draft house.

We're pretty check the coos out over here, me and my son and friends. Pretty good place. Every time I try to go there, it was like an hour away. I can't wait an hour. That's too long. I got you. I got you on that. All right.

Well, hey, first of all, like to backtrack to, I think last hour. he's talking about getting the U of H, I don't know, not the Hall of Fame, get your picture in there or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was teasing, yeah. I'll tell you what, just the mere fact that you talk about the Cougars, about the only one in the city that does,

should qualify you for that, because I bring for a lot of stations. I'll listen to all at 12, but I'll browse those stations. No one talks about the Cougars, rarely. That's what we're here for. That fact you should get in there, buddy. Thank you very much.

I appreciate your vote. there you go I won't keep I got just a couple things I like the way the cougars have slowly gotten really good this year they start

I don't want to say it's sort of slow but the development of Uzon and everybody else I love the way they came together I think they're peeking at a good time I like the way they're looking right now

and I kind of like they're quiet even though they don't get a lot of national press which I like too my second Point is, do you think Samson approaches this conference tournament any different? I mean, you talk about Cooper Flag while you go rolling the Zanket? Right, right.

That happens. And do you think if they didn't win the championship that would affect the number one seed at all? Yeah, no, thank you for the phone call. Nice words, David. Appreciate the K. Woodlove. No, they're number one seed. They're going, even if they were, they're not going to lose it at Colorado because Colorado is terrible. If they don't win the championship in the Big 12, they're still going to be number one seed.

As Dr. Joseph D'Warte mentioned, I think they're locked in the number three overall. I think it's going to be Auburn 1, Duke 2, meaning there are four number 1s. And I think they'll be the third of the four number ones, is my guess.

Now, if they win the Big 12 and Duke doesn't win it, could they change? I'm not smart enough to figure that out. The Bracketology, right now. This is of Joe Lannardi. Auburn in the South. Duke is the number

two overall sea would be in the east. The Rockets. The Cougars would be the number three seed in the Midwest and the first overall seat in that division, third overall. And then Florida would go west as the number four. That's if that Holden and he did that as

of 18 hours ago. And the Longhorn's first four out. He has last First four out, Texas, Ohio State, Boise State, Colorado. State. Next four out, Dayton, Wake Forest, UC Irvine, and Cincinnati. Cincinnati is going to be out. They lost yesterday, so they're definitely going to be out.

13 bids to the SEC, according to Lenardi. Wow. Nine to the Big Ten, eight to the Big Twelve, five of the Big East. Only four in the ACC? Four ACC. Wow, what has happened that league? 16 teams and only a 25%. Yeah. You would think by just by

sure numbers would be crazy. And then three to the Mountain West and two to the West Coast Conference. Last four in Oklahoma they've got in, Indiana they have in, Xavier in North Carolina, who won yesterday in. So Indiana fires Mike Woodson or told him he's not coming back and he's probably going to

be in the tournament. Good for him. It's a bit of a higher bar there at Indiana than just making the tournament. I kind of think so. Did you ever figure out the distance? Oh, 400. Well, the high, I did, what is it, 315 to left? The hypotenuse of 315 to 315 is 445 feet. I respect that.

But you're assuming every, is it? 315 to, uh, well, but is, not every left field line. Is it 325ish to right? I guess I should know the dimensions. It's 315 to left and then like 325 to right or 326, I think, to right, right? Point being is, can we put Jake Myers on a mad sprint? Like the Mr. Freeze guy in Atlanta. Yeah.

Has Jake Myers and Mr. Freeze ever been in the same facility before? Yeah, 315 to left, 326 to right. All right, fine, I'll find it right now. No, that's okay. You did, you did good. No, that's fine. Here we go.

453 feet he has to cover. That doesn't count the, like, all the way back to center. And the nooks and crannies of it, too. Don't forget that either. Yeah, you can't forget the crannies, Matt. You can't, I forget the crannies. By the way, I'm watching John Singleton play first base for the stroves, and that's fine. What's wrong with that?

Well, I mean, what do we keep hearing about? Christian Walker. No, about how John Singleton looked. He's in the best shape of his life. Yeah. What is his batting average in spring training? It doesn't matter. Spring training.

Well, it only matters if it's good and it's Cam Smith. It's bad, it's just spring training. Since you asked, he's going to the Hall of Fame. Since you asked, Singleton today is 0 for 2. He's batting 107 in spring OPS of 268. Yeah, but we'll see XBA, man. He's got a lot of hard hit balls. Maybe he's been scorching him.

I thought he was so ripped that he would get hit space off just his intense muscles. He's strong. Big John Singleton. It's fun to say Big John. He only has two buttons down, too, as a matter of fact. Not normally three or four of the Jose of Brue. He's trying to say light and airy. He's not.

Light and air is not a part of John Singleton's repertoire. Air conditioning, Matt. Well ventilated. He's all good. So you're telling me a guy that bats 107 this spring of all of a sudden going to be a 300 hitter in case you needed to play first base. It can happen, absolutely. Not that it's,

I'm not telling you John Singleton's hitting 300. I never said that. But you're hoping for it. He's going to hit better than 107. Oh, well, I would hope so. I think you and I could bat better than 107. I don't think I could. Nor could you.

I'm telling you that one time I took batting practice. And your hands are blistered up. My hands, I couldn't move them for days. So I asked Dino Ebel, who was the manager of the Salt Lake B's the time. I said, Dino, what were you throwing me at? It's about a 50. Like, oh my God. And my hands are permanently, like the last time my hands hurt that bad is when I shook Adrian Peterson's hand.

That's how bad they hurt. All right? Believe it or not, today is highly Googled. It's about baseball, right? Yes. That's all you're going to say. That's all I'm saying. And Connor, what are we playing for? We have some amazing...

You got to answer quick. Answer quick. So you get two seconds. And we're playing for some amazing prizes, correct? Yeah, we got tickets to go see Journey at Houston Rodeo and also tickets to go see the psychedelic furs of the House of Blues. Okay. So psychedelic furs. Love it. When the bros are hanging out in their garage, right?

And they're jamming. We need a name of a band. Did somebody go psychedelic first? That sounds fantastic. Probably. Like what's the worst name of a band you know of today? Like a famous band? Yeah.

Psychedelic first. You could have gone easy with Eagles. That's not. bad. The Beatles. Are the Eagles or are they the Eagles? The Eagles. No, I don't even, I'm being serious. Van Halen named after Eddie. Yeah, that was easy. Arrow Smith?

Not, it's okay. The Beatles is kind of, yeah, it's a lame pun. I give you one. It sucked. The Pet Shop Boys. Yeah, what does that even mean? That's, that's creepy. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. was a bad, how about basically anything in the 80s. Any, any, any, any, any's band name? Mr. Mr. Mr. is probably the word.

Was not was? Uh-huh. Oh, uh-huh. Uh-huh. That's terrible. I'm Googling worst 80s band names. 10 buck three. Imagine Dragons is pretty bad. First of all, their music sucks and the name of that band sucks.

Hey, children love them. And my brother. Your brother likes Imagine Dragons? We've talked about this. He loves them. He's not going with us like Charles. Separate cars. All right, let's play, believe it or not next. 713-21-2-5-7.

on a highly Googled about baseball. That's up next. How about the band? That was pretty bad. You know what I like? I like city names. Chicago. That's good.

Boston. Kansas? It's close enough. That's not bad. It's not a city. Alabama. Yeah. For country.

That's not bad. It's fine. How about the Miami sound machine? Underrated. Kind of a techno feel to it, even though it wasn't really a tendency. We could also head over to the CNC music factory. Oh, we could.

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Matt Thomas, Ross via real. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Space City using a commercial with me in it. Imagine that. It's a promo for Rockets All Access. Well, they had to find somebody that was around 30 years ago, and they found you, Matt. And Kevin Murphy. And Calvin.

Two Hall of Famers. What Hall of Fame are you in? A Hall of May Creek. Hall of Honor? Hall of Honor. I guess I don't know on a Hall of Fame. That counts for something. does. I think so. I'm proud of you, Matt. Thank you. I appreciate it. You're doing great.

Shout out to all of us for Rams that are out there. Made Creek Rams. Well, those of these aren't imprisoned. I mean, it's been 20 years of rough times over there. It's what it is. Yeah. I heard they're folding up to school. No, the school is twice as big as it was when I was there. Oh, maybe that was Nimitz I was hearing about. Yeah, I don't even know. Does every high school have, like, not the light of detectors. Metal detectors? I think so. I don't know. Okay, I'll tell you, I only have an experience at one high school. And the answer was yes. And there was metal detectors. Yeah, that's true. That's true. All right, tomorrow on the show, it is our final day with Connor as he leaves and it goes on to full-time salary and benefits.

This is your fault again. I mean, it was only a matter of time. Bring it up every day. This is his last show with us. Look, next producer we get, don't talk about them leaving, Matt. That's the only rule I have. You know what we're going to do. The next producer we get, we're going to say, this is the best job. ever going to get you've got you've got you've got nothing else to look forward to you got a gaslight this is your ultimate job that's what i'm talking about all right 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 be

believe it or not and here's how it works you call 713 212 570 719 710 today's edition of believe or not is Did this player ever open up an Astro season in right field? If they did, you'll say this. Believe it. If they didn't, you'll say this. Two believe it or not in a row. Win your prize. Connor, what are you playing for today?

We've got a pair of tickets to see Journey on March 14th at Rodeo Houston. A pair of tickets to see the psychedelic furs live on July 12th at the House of Blues and some 790 t-shirts. By the way, these are left field and right field, not just those. So it's either left field or right field for the Astros. Let's talk to Rubin on 790. Rubin, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

Carl Everett started in right field for the Astros in 1998. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, is Derek Bell. Duh. Brant on 790, Brent, what was your favorite part of today's radio show? Listen to how much you guys don't know about music. 2017.

Is you a big Mr. Mr. fan? Yeah, apparently. You guys go off on music and you guys' knowledge of sports is so awesome. That's why I love your show. But when you guys start talking music, it just cracks me up. Well, so we're here. We're four hours. We can't break down linebackers for four hours.

That would be boring-ass radio. All right, here we go. Norei Aoki, left field, 2017. Believe it or not? Not believe it. I don't remember this, but you really are believing opening day 17, huh? No, I'm lied. I made it up.

Well, I mean, you could have. Rick on 790. Rick, you ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. 2000. Left fielder was Bill Spires. Believe it or not. Believe it.

Believe it. Name number two for the win. In 1962, the opening day right fielder was Rusty Stob. Believe it or not? No. You're right. It was Roman Miejas. Dull.

Nicely done. 713, 212. 579. Brian on 790, Brian, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. 2017, opening day right filter was George Springer. Believe it or not? Believe it.

No, it's Josh Redick. Dave on 790. Dave, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. 1992's opening day right filter was Pete Incavillia. Believe it or not? Not. It was. Duh.

Joe on 790. your favorite part of today's four-hour radio show, Joe. Man, I love all of it, Matt. Oh, hey, it's one of our top prize horse. What's up, Joe? Oh, Joe, don't listen to him. He love you. Brian Bogusevick played right field for the Astros opening day 2012.

Believe it or not? Right field? Yeah, right field. Oh, he's looking it up. Believe it, all right. Believe it. Quickly, 1986, open day left field, it was Jose Cruz. Believe it or not.

Yes, believe it. No, it was Eric Bullock. Jose must have been heard. Yeah, must have been. Steve on 790, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. 2002, opening day left field, it was Daryl Ward. Believe it or not?

Believe it. That's right. Believe it. Just last season, Open Day left fielder was Maricio Dubon. Believe it or not? Not. It was Chas McCormick, congratulations. I thought I was going to get a win with that one.

All right. Tomorrow, non-flora stories, get. bumped up to 1230. Hell you are not, 1245 tomorrow. We're doing that? Because it's the last one. We're going to do Believe or not all things, Missouri and Connor McGovern. We're going to have time. We're going to have time. We're going to make time.

Because we've got to be out by 50. We'll move everything up. Really quick. Geez. I don't trust you to break on time. Connor, I want to do believe it or not tomorrow. Ross is not. All things about you. I guess we're out of time. We can do it.

Stand by. Aggie. Fighting Texas Aggie basketball. Lerafel sports against the Longhorns. Talk to you all tomorrow at 10 here on 7. It's the Longhorn call. It's a Longhorn call. Hi, Craigway.