The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Dusty Baker, Texans First Injury, Rockets Lose, Joel Klatt, Matt Goes To Luby's

Episode Date: September 9, 2020

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-01 in H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show where today we will mix in all three local sports

and what might be the busiest week in Houston sports history in a long period of time with all the teams competing, huge games under different circumstances for all three, and we will discuss them. We will also get you a fix for college football as... It's really the second week of the season, but maybe the first week of teams you actually recognize will be... Don't hit on Central Arkansas like that, Matt.

It's true. Or Navy. Well, we were going to talk Baylor, but we can't because that game got pushed back. Thanks, Louisianaans. Well, you know, are they saying it's because of COVID or there's not enough practices? Because that's the new catchphrases. We didn't have enough time to practice.

Well, I thought they had 38 infections on the team. I think that's right. I think that's Tulsa that's the one that didn't have enough practices. Okay. Okay. So that's been happening. All right. Let me set the show for you.

Dusty Baker, the Astros manager, joins us in one half hour. His squad finally won a game in Oakland yesterday for the first time in what, five tries. It's been a minute. Six, right? Well, they got swept the first time and then... Or was it? Okay. So they lost the first game.

So they were that lost five in a row in Oakland and then one yesterday, I think is what it is. Whatever. It was the first time they tasted victory on the road trip and the first time they had tasted victory in Oakland because they had swept earlier in the season. One o'clock, we begin our regular Wednesday visits with our good friend Joel Clatt from Fox Sports, who got shifted from going to Waco. to Kansas State. Yes. And I forgot who they're playing. Oh, it's some really small team.

I can't remember. Yeah. So the Fox College number one broadcast team, him and Gus Johnson. Arkansas State. That's a grudge match right there. I mean, under normal years, would Joe Clyde, and I won't ask this to him, because I don't want to embarrass him.

But normally Joe Clyde and Gus Johnson are not calling Arkansas State, Kansas State. You never know, Matt. I mean, it almost feels like a 19-year-old. old sophomore at Kilgore College is calling that game. Not to be disrespectful for those two fine institutions, but let's just say it's not a number one spot. So they've shifted from Waco to Manhattan, Kansas. And we're not going to talk about that game per se, but talking about the world of college

football, what do you have seen? Is Waco to Manhattan? Is that an upgrade or a downgrade? I've never been to Manhattan's. I can't tell you. I've been to Waco. You've never been to the Little Apple? No. No. I've never been to Stillwater or to Waco. That's actually not true. I flew into Stillwater.

It was kind of by accident because there was a shooting at Oklahoma City Airport. We were flying to play Oklahoma City. What? Yeah, this was a couple years back. Oh, yeah, I remember that now. And they are like, you can't land at Will Rogers Airport, Oklahoma City. And they're like, well, what are we going to land? Well, we can drop you off in Stillwater.

And then we had to, so we got the Stillwater, and we had to take a bus for the next 75 miles. It's rough. Dayland lifestyle. Were you on the Greyhound next to a homeless guy? No, no, it was a regular bus. They had buses ready for us. It's always interesting, the people you sit next to on a Greyhound or a Megabus. What was the last time you've been on a Megabass or Greyhound bus?

I went one year or two ago to a UT game. And how much did it cost you to get there? 15 bucks. Okay. And did you have the whole role to yourself? No, there was a drunk girl sitting next to me. She was literally drinking rum out of her, out of a water bottle, and she offered me some. And was she attractive?

Was she bus attractive? She was bus attractive. I'll give you that. Joe, George, we don't even explain to the audience what bus attractive is, do we? Well, I think it's just like what's the scale of a bus attractive? Oh. Like, is it like a five and a normal set? Oh, it curves up considerably.

But how much does the curve? I would say a normal girl that's a five. You get up at least three points. Would be a bus attractive eight. Yeah, you get at least three points on a megabus, for sure. She was okay looking. She was nice enough. Because here's the reason why I think you have to upgrade a lot, because you weren't expecting to sit next to a girl on a megabuzz.

No, you're expecting to sit next to a homeless guy who's going to shiv you. Okay. So, I mean, I was pleasantly surprised. She was nice enough. It's a plus three. She had offered me some of her rum at some point during the ride. We chatted a decent amount. Of a half a point, because at least she's nice.

Well, I think she's just drunk. So bus attractive at eight and a half then. And then so when we got off the bus, she offered me, she said her sister's picking her up, and she asked if I wanted to needed a ride to somewhere. I can't remember like 10 blocks or something. I was like, okay, sure, yeah, because my brother was picking me up. So I get in the car with her and her sister, her sister, as soon as she gets in the car, she hands her the rum and the sister whose driving takes a pull off the rum bottle. We need more time for this story. Fortunately, we've got a lot of sports to get to, but let's hold this.

That's pretty much up. That's when alarm bells started going off, and I'm like, I don't need to know these people. But you went ahead and got in the car and went for the drive? Well, it was literally like 10 blocks. I think I was getting taken. Okay, very good. My brother was, I can't remember. But he was, he was at UT at the time, so he was picking me up on campus.

All right. Next summer, when we have dog days again, when normalcy kicks in, we're talking, well, I'm on, I will make up stories. Okay. I got zero problem with that. All right. So, Dusty Baker, 1230. we have Joe Cloud at 1 o'clock, and we have you guys at 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90s. We mentioned the Astros split the double-heder yesterday. Michael Brentley was fantastic. Yoli Gariel saved the Astros' bacon with a sack fly. Ryan Presta got the save in the second game. So all things considered, you'll take the split. You are falling further and further behind from the A's. Rossi, in my mind, I'm not even thinking about the American League West anymore.

I'm thinking about just holding out of that second spot in the divisions to make the playoffs. To the Rockets. Who? Your beloved NBA team. How were the calls last night on the fifth in the fifth quarter slash Rockets pad? We got two, I think. Two.

Maybe three. Okay. Gerard, one of them? Oh, it was three. It was three. It was Gerard, Ron, and I can't remember the other guy. Okay. Girag gave you a complete recap of the game.

Yes. He was really upset that James Hardin didn't start the fourth quarter. I mean, the biggest criticism against Mike. Dan Tony is that he plays his guys and runs him into the ground. I never want James ever starting the fourth quarter of a game. I just don't. He checked in with 927 ago. They were within four and then that's when the Lakers continued their huge 10-0 run.

Okay, so here's the reality. The Lakers have this fifth gear they jump into, and when they do, they scare the hell out of me. The amount of blocked shots, the suffocating defense they put on. It wasn't like the Rockets played an awful basketball game. They really didn't. They really played all things considered pretty good. Now, scoring was an issue in the second half as they were outscored 51 to 38.

But it's not because the Rockets took crappy shots. It's not because the Rockets blew a bunch of layups. It's because the Los Angeles Lakers put the defensive clamps on the Houston Rockets. And for all the bitching that LeBron does during the game and all the howloss and all the, he wants to be the fourth official and all the yelling after he blocks a shot. Well, he is because you could tell that younger officials would just be eaten alive

by LeBron James. You've got to call that. He was fantastic. Anthony Davis continues to be one of the more unguaritable players in the NBA. You know how James is unguarible? Yes. Anthony Davis is a different type of unguarable. You can't contest his shot. He's just too lengthy.

He's in the Kevin Durant range, worry, no matter what you do, no matter what kind of body you put on him, his height and his ability to jump, to jump, shoot you over you, especially for a team that's undersized. I mean, Covington did his best. PJ always does his best, but it's one of those situations that AD, the step back, the fallaway, the ability to attack the lane, and then Rajan Rondo, who has been well-traveled, has had a lot of success in his career, has had a few blemishes along. on the way. I remember when the Rockets and Mavericks played first round playoff series,

what might have been, what, 2015, he was so bad that Rick Carlisle, the Mavericks coach, basically said, don't play anymore. We're not going to play you. I remember that. But since then, especially when he's around that great cast, Rajan Rondo was one of the freaking heroes of yesterday's game. They got nothing much from Cantavius Caldwell Pope. They got very little from Caruso. They did get a great game, especially late from Kyle Kuzman, to kind of seal it away. But Rajan Rondo, if he's sitting three-th-threes in a game, you're

in massive trouble. And the Rockets were in massive trouble, fourth quarter last night's game. Yeah, he also had nine assists. He was good on the break. He was good at decision-making. He was just, a lot of the stuff that when somebody like that comes out of nowhere and drops 20 on you, it can be backbreaking in a playoff game. And I think that was definitely

part of the story. Yeah, there was, to me, Ross, there was a lot of groans last night of oh, no, please don't go in. It wasn't a night of It wasn't a night of Oh, what the hell are you doing, Russ? There was very little of that, especially in comparison to game two.

There was very little of James. What are you doing? It was just, damn Lakers. Rossi, they turned it up in the final 12th. I mean, they took the burner on their stove and they turned it on a boil. And they suffocated the rockets defensively.

They're good. And the rockets struggled with the double team. When Russ and James Hardin are playing together, when James is out there with four shooters, he's fine. And Russ is out there with four shooters, they're fine. But when they're both out there, that's when things get bogged down. And that's when things get out of sorts. And that's when they struggle offensively. It's just a fact.

They have to figure that out. And Jeff Green took the role of Daniel House and did it very well. Ben McLemore took on some of that role, too, and did not do well. He was just getting... Well, he wasn't really involved. He was just kind of out there. Same thing with Austin Rivers. I mean, Austin Rivers and Ben McImore, who I like both of them a lot. I especially like Austin a lot. It just hasn't been around this series.

Well, we want Daniel House Jr. out. I mean, back in. He was announced out yesterday with, for personal reasons. We don't know if he's going to come back. Mike Dantonian the post game yesterday said he doesn't know when he's coming back, but the Rockets need him. Yeah, Mike D'Antonio will speak to the media at 2 o'clock, and I know that Joe will record. Let's see there's an update on Iowa. We already talked about this in the pre-show meeting. We're good. Yeah, that you didn't come to. Over macaroni and cheese? Yeah, I had turkey and stuffing, ochre and green beans at Lubies today. Oh, nice.

I went chicken fried chicken. That's heavy on the veggies. Fried ochre only had like two pieces of. Sweet tea. Unsweet tea with cornbread. I mean, it fills you up. No question. Very much so.

And then we took a picture of it just to kind of say RAP Lubies. And everybody's like, your sides suck. I'm like, I didn't ask it. I didn't care. Wow, you got criticized just for putting a picture of Lubies? Yeah. Go look at my mentions. You can't do anything on the internet.

No, you can't. Especially Mr. Mr. Miston opinionated on food. they're going away. So all you Luby's haters, you can go, you know, you'll have your fun. You'll have your day here very shortly. I don't realize that was turkey. I thought that was an egg over easy or something. No, it's the turkey grave that goes on, yeah, it's circling stuff and good stuff.

713-213-5-790. Dusty Baker joins us in 18 minutes right now a word for, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to talk about OOPs a little earlier today. 281-8-220561. My friends at Oops are fantastic people. They are so nice. nice. They are so easy to work with, and they have been able to take care of customers' needs for, I mean, long, long time. In fact, when this show started in 2010, I was telling you about oops,

and I'm proud to speak for them even to this day. 281, 8220561. If you were watching the show on AT&T, if we were broadcast on our, you would notice I've got no script. I don't need a script when it comes to oops, because they have been to my house multiple times. I know what they do, and they do it at a great job. They true steam clean your carpets. They'll take care of your upholster. They'll take care of your dining room chairs, they'll take care of your oriental rugs, and they'll do tile and grot cleaning, too. With all this ring, we've had the last handful of days, I'm assuming that the dogs are having more accidents in your home than you would like, like multiple times. If you're spilling things and you're just in a good old-fashioned cleaning of the carpet,

do it today. 281-8-2-2-0-561. That's 281-8-2-0-651, and online at oopsteam.com. This is awesome rivers. It's good! Come and laid it up and in. It's back. Welcome back.

Hey, it's the MetTalmer show on Sports Talk 790. Wow! Time is 12.18, the station you are listening to, and for that, we greatly appreciate it. Sports Talk 790. You know tomorrow? Well, if you want to join us, come on in, y'all. Let me tell you something. Are we not the most interactive show in America, Ross?

I mean, a lot of people say that they're the most interactive. We're the most interactive. Yes. I would say so. 1,000%. So come on in. SportsMT. horrible sides

did you see did you read the tweets during the break yes I mean why would anyone write that people like to be negative yeah just instant mute I'm all about the instant mute so here's the rule here's the rule on Twitter okay and I know that you're not going to listen to me if you don't if you have a personal relationship with somebody you can bust balls yes

and I would love to have a personal relationship with all of you but I don't because there's just too many people right So if you don't like something that I tweet or something at Ross tweets, you can just scroll or you can mute or you don't have to like. I guess the rule I'm just saying is you can just not comment. This is the thing though. I will say this. There are people who listen to us every day that we don't really know and they don't call

or they don't tweet or some of them do. And when you listen to somebody on the radio every day, you kind of feel like you know them. You know what? Let me tell you. In all honesty, our guy that was busts me about my sides, he's been listening to show all the time,

so I'm just busting chops. But to complete, like, some of you are showing me gifts of a doll vomiting? I mean, come on. Lubies,

I mean, say what do we talk about yesterday? It's been around, for 50-something years. No, longer than that. Yes. They're obviously doing something right. Well,

not anymore. Well, I mean, I think, frankly, the industry has changed. It's hurting me more than anybody else. Yeah. The square, I never knew fish came into square until then, until Lubies. I should have gotten the fish in the square. I have a bunch of people that are friends in them and text me like, I've got to get to

Lubies before it closed. I'm like, I'll go with you. I'll get square fish. You're going to go back? Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll definitely go back. That's my first time.

That was his first time in his entire life. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, it's a Texas institution. But cafeterias. I mean, there's no one going to replace it. We've already talked about this before. Matt and Ross's comfort food restaurant and that ain't opening.

Yeah, that's a bad idea. Although we'd have the market cornered virtually. That's true. All right. So, yeah, y'all can bust balls. I mean, I'm just saying, I was enjoying my lunch and I'm like, you picked off a website. What?

Anytime you pick something, you put something on Twitter, Matt, but there's going to be some negative backlash. Yeah. Am I supposed to consult you before I pick up my sides? Yeah, I just go to the instant mute these days. It's just a lot easier. It's therapeutic. Okay.

I like to block. I think I enjoy blocking. Okay. I just like the element. Because you know what? Here's the thing. When you get black by me, you don't get to see the amazing material I put out. It's not that big of a loss.

But when you mute them and they still get to follow you, so you still get the follower count. And they're speaking, they're spitting into the wind whenever they talk to you. They don't know that you can't see them. So they just continue to scream at a brick wall. And that to me, that has appealed to me, Matt. That's actually not bad. Yeah. It's the spite in me.

I like spite Ross. I've only got a handful of people muted. Jamel Hill's at the top of that list. Oh, Jamel. You mean like people retweet her stuff? Yeah, so I just want to see it. Well, then you should go look at the people that are following her and follow them. That's how you solve that.

I guess. I have at least 200 counts muted. At least. I can go find the number. You can find the number on the app. Yeah, I'll, you know what? We got other things to get to, but I just like, don't mess them with my sides. Let's go to a giraffe.

at 1222. Gerard, I bet you got a lot to say today. Yeah, man, I'm not to say about the lack of adjustment.

Uh, by the Houston Rockets, man, I still don't see that mean in adjustment. Uh, you know, like they trap in James

Ardon, why don't you trap, uh, for Don't you try to uh, you know, you got to make a of a distance,

I think, in the series. Uh, Alston Rivers, you know, when he's your guy is not playing with, man,

I think you got to try to make it your point to try to get them going, off the bench, man, get him in some, hit three when he's home. You've got to try to get this guy going because there's too many games where he's a MIA, man.

He's got to give him the stuff. You know, he's out there filing and he's putting nothing on an outfit. So you got to try to get this guy going. And the Rockies, in close games, I have a hard time in this is a playoff. So they were, what, 0 and 3 against Oklahoma City in close games? And this game against the Lakers were close midway all the way through the midway point of the fourth quarter. And they just kind of fell apart.

And that's the problem I got with the superstars. You know, James Harden and Westwood, they put up good numbers. They put up stats. They don't get their numbers. But in key situations, you need a band. You need the guys to kind of step up. And they just didn't do that last night. You know, you had it with, I don't keep going back to this.

You had it with Chris Paul, man. The trade of Chris Paul, I really didn't like that trade. I saw what he did. It cut situations for the Rockers throughout the regular season in the playoffs against the Old State. And when the Rockers need a bucket, he'd go in that picking road, he'd get that big range jumping. He would hit it.

He would be money. and he would pretty much be your close in the fourth quarter in the playoffs. I know Jay's Harder to get shocked in games and in the playoffs. I really beat the Golden State in game three hitting that game winning shot to get it from 2-0 to 2-1. So I've seen a bit shocked, but overall, you know, he hasn't shown to be that guy that closed games and playoffs. So he's showing not to be that guy. So he's going to have to step up and do that. You know, like I say, the Lakers are doing a good job of pretty much what they're doing is they're playing a lot of

zone and what they're doing is LeBron James is coming over there to the double team and trap, especially when the shot clock get down to the round about 10 seconds he'll run over there and trap and then the Rock's against the shot clock and then they're getting up getting a poor possession on the offensive end of the floor

man, that's a love thing they're doing. So the Rockers got to get their offensive a little bit quicker push the pace up for early offense and try to get the offense going before, you know, James Hart, he's kind of what he does he kind of like die-six the defense. He tried to see what

People are saying, and time is running off the clock and stuff like that. I just think he just needs to get going a little faster. Push the ball. If it ain't there, pass it and try to rotate to the open man. If it is there, go, going to your move, get to the whole before the clubber team gets there. And the defense can't have a little bit more urgency, a little bit more desperation to a game. You see what they're doing to you. They're coming in with the trap, especially late in the shot.

He just got to be a little bit more ready for that situation. So we'll see what happens in a game for, man. But Dan Tony's got to make some adjustment, man. In my opinion, I think Bogers's making all the key adjustment in that series. I mean, it's paying off for the Lakers, man. And that bench is all playing a Rocker's bench, and that's kind of surprising in this series, because they're not known to have a better bench in the Rocker,

but their benches all played us so far in this series. So Austin Rivers, Jeff Green, I like what he did last night, but Austin Rivers and guys like that, if they get down your house back, and over they get those guys back, and they can play much better on off-the-bench, man, give support to our heart and, All right, Gerard, thank you very much for the phone call.

A lot to chew on per usual. It was at least 336 based on this clock. Oh, my God, yeah, that's a lot of meat on that bone. Matt, your reaction? I don't think this is about adjustments. I mean, we're going to dusty here in just a second. You can't adjust. You know who they are.

Yeah, I mean, I thought we would see a little bit more of this is the thing is the Lakers are doing a really good job of mixing up their defenses with the one-two-two-zone with the they were sending the the double teams a little earlier in the first half James Hardin was just going around them second half they delayed them they used to they would fake the double and then they would just shade with Rondo they're changing up they're doing they're one of the best defensive teams they have been one of the best defensive teams this entire season yes and it starts with Anthony Davis at LeBron James LeBron James, he's just blocking everything.

He's gotten chased down blocks. He's been playing really well. So they're just struggling a little bit with the length of the Lakers and then all the different looks that they're giving them. And the bottom line is this. If James gets screwed to the basketball faster, I applaud that. But guess what's going to happen with 10 on the shot clock? The ball Ross, where does it go?

Back into his hands. Yeah, a lot of just sends up back. You want him shooting more than anybody else on the floor for the rockets. Yeah, you have to be better in four on threes. You have to get easier looks. and when they're not doing that, they're just resetting. And so it just comes back to James Hardden. And then he can be successful a little bit in those situations.

But it's just, it's just Lakers have really good defense as well. Dusty Baker joins us after a word here for Big City Wings, where today it's $8 Burger Wednesday. Every one of the burgers is $8. And I also believe it's Whiskey Wednesdays too. If you're a whiskey consumer, which you're going to be hearing more about in the next few weeks on this radio show, you're going to want to enjoy a great whiskey and an $8 burger today

while you're watching the Astros tonight at any of the eight, soon to be nine Big City Wing locations. Find the location near you, you go to Big CityWings.com. They want you to dine in, they love that with social distancing. If you want to take out, that's cool too. There's curbside pickup. There's delivery options. There's all sorts of options with great food, amazing appetizers, happy hour specials, and the Wednesday special, which is whiskey specials, and also eight dollar burgers today at Big City Wings.

You can get a mushroom Swiss burger. You can get a chili burger. You can just get bacon and cheese. Whatever you want on it, it's going to cost you. $8. Big on wings, big on burgers. That's big city wings

and big city wings.com. The Houston Astro. The Astros. This exclusive Astros segment on Sports Talk 790 is brought to you by Expedity. The future of awesome. It's awesome.

Let us spend 10 quality minutes with the manager of the Houston Astros. Dusty Baker here on the Matt Thomas show. Skip, thanks for joining us as always. Congratulations. You guys had a few fist bumps finally for the first time in Oregon last night. It's been a long week, and I've telling you,

I wasn't looking forward to doing this show if we had lost like seven in a row, you know what I mean? Because after a while, you kind of run out of reasons and excuses, and we've lost them all kind of ways. Boy, I mean, how many times can you have your heartbroken? But, you know, I mean, you got to come back the next day and play probably twice as hard, you know, to get over from the days before.

then when they got up on us for nothing, and then I was like, oh, no, please not again. And, you know, there wasn't much time to, you know, to rebound. But, hey, my guys got it done. They helped us out. We finally got some breaks. We haven't given any breaks. But, you know, I mean, you got to make their own breaks. But it helps, you know, have some luck along the way.

Well, Skip, you have to understand this is a friendly and fair show. So trust me, well, I'm going to be too hard on it because we know it's been a very difficult run. Hey, you got to do what you got to do. You got to do what you got to do. Now, last week, you and I visited, and you were like, man, I got a lot of guys that I haven't thrown in a while. That isn't the case. How are you now massaging? Who's available and who's not?

Because it feels like to me, especially with Lance's going down and you're having, you know, the double-headers, you've had to really just try to figure out who can give an inning when necessary. Well, you know, like usually you're about matchups and you hope they work. But, you know, when you're getting a quick working like this, you're about who's the precious, you know, if it matches up or not. And you just kind of, you know, hope those guys on, hope, you know, walk people because, you know, there's a period. Like, you know, if we walk the guy, he's scoring. I mean, that's almost like impossible. No double play, no pop up, no nothing.

And I was like, you know, that's when we're going through, you know, a bad period. But like I reminded the guy, you know, nothing else forever. It just seems like forever. And a student didn't want to go below 500 last night because, I mean, that's kind of like, you know, Mark, when you're clearing the way, so I'm hoping we can, you know, get a little difference to clean up and five-hand, get back to fix your seven up like you were before.

Yeah, and comfortably at least secure that number two spot in the West. So I've been watching some of your media availability before games, and it feels like 90% of it is, you know, hey, skip, you got an injury update. So how about you giving us some good news? Tell me with the best news. I think it's about your second basement, but I don't want to give it away.

What's the best thing going on, Ryan, in terms of guys that are currently out for you? Well, there's a couple things. I mean, you know, our two ways moving pretty well. You know, his lateral movement's a little off, you know, because of the knee injury, but his straight-ahead movement, you know, like if he was with Jackson, he'd be ready to go right now, but he's got to make left, you know what I mean?

Bregman's back yesterday. You know, he's going to be a little off. You know, hopefully it won't take too long. we understand it Verlander threw some off the mound you know like we got a kitty back and it was nice to see Cicoc throwing the ball well last night

you know I never seen him in person then when I saw him in his first out of he was 88, 89 and didn't have much life, much movement than I saw him last night and he was 92 1999 with life and you know with a sharp breaker

And that was encouraging to see. So, you know, we're getting some guys back. You know, hopefully get them back in time to make this run here and, you know, be wide open by the time, you know, get to the playoffs because we haven't been, you know, all cylinders, you know, for the whole year. And so I'm just hoping to get all our guys back, get them sharp, and then we get hot at the same time.

You had to pull Lance early last week. Luis Garcia came in and really saved your bullpen in that respect. on Lance, and I know you know the word doctor in front of you, but any timetable on when you think you could get Lance back? No, no, no timetable. You know, we're talking to the doctors, the doctor, I guess they gave him some treatment, and, you know, it alleviated 95% of his pain and discomfort. And if anybody's ever had any pain in their neck and down their arm, I mean, you don't know where it's coming from. And, you know, you get these numb feelings, You get tinglings in your fingers, and it's like it's not a very good feeling.

But, you know, Lance is a tough guy. Like I said, 95% of his discomfort, you know, was relieved in that first treatment. And, you know, I mean, this guy's in shape. I'm this guy's a physical specimen, so it shouldn't take him too, too long to get back, especially if you can start throwing. So just have the people out there, you know, hope and pray that, you know, we get healthy and, you know, and healthy at the right time. So Garcia goes for you tonight.

I mean, you've had to use this speech before. You put a lot of men on the mound in their first major league games. I would think you can record it and just use the same thing over and over again. What are you going to tell a young man like that who's about to make his first major league start? Well, you know, you don't tell him anything. Like, I think it was tough enough for him to come in with basically voted in that first season. But a lot of times, you know, when you come in out of the bullpen and long relief, that's the easiest role when you're going to.

to get because most of the time you're behind. There's no pressure on you to, you know, to win or lose the game. But, you know, he saved us and he saved our bullpen. So we really, you know, you don't say anything other than just, hey, it's the same game. It's the same game that you played as a kid, same game. And I think it's pretty fortunate, really, that there aren't people in the stands to, you know, heckle him and make them nervous. I mean, that's one thing that's happened with no fans in the stands.

for the young guys. I mean, I certainly wish there were people in the stands, I mean, for the energy, but, you know, for the young guys, it's just like a spring training game or air squad game and nobody out there. So, you know, we don't know what we're going to get. You know, like I've been told that, you know, sometimes you can have bouts of wildness. I mean, like all young guys, so just opening those strikes, quality strikes, and get them deep in the bullpen and so we can have a strong bullpen today and tomorrow before they off day. A couple more minutes here with Dusty Baker, manager of the Eurastros here on the Matt Thomas show. All right, Skip, before you got here, Kyle Tucker came with a lot of publicity and just the moment might have been way too big for him.

And then it got a little bit better last year. This first few or two or three weeks, it wasn't particularly great. But in the last four or five, he's literally tearing the cover off the ball. What have you seen from him now that you didn't see when you first saw him as a Houston Astros manager? Well, when at first time, you know, like he was, he didn't have much, much, you know, he wasn't being very selective at the plate. You know, I mean, like most young guys, he was swinging at everything. Either they swing at everything or they don't swing at anything. And so, you know, like now he's compensating.

He's swinging his strikes. He's using the whole field. He was pulling everything early in the year. I mean, he's comfortable. And he's comfortable. The guys are comfortable with him. You know, comfort is everything when it gets to the big league level, you know, if you have the ability. And, you know, success, breed success.

And the better he does, the better he's going to get. I mean, you know, he's a guy that, you know, is blessed with speed and power. You know, there aren't many of those guys around. And so, you know, you really look forward to see, you know, what he's going to become. And he's a long way from scratch to the surface. And, you know, you see why he was the player of the year. in our organization and play of the year, AAA. And so right now we just want to keep him healthy,

put him in the position to succeed. And, you know, I mean, he's our top run producer right now. You know, I'm glad we got him because, you know, Yule's going to get hot. I mean, you know, Carlos's going to get hot. You know, Bregman's going to get hot, but you've got to have somebody that's carrying you in the middle to drive in some, you know, some runs in the meantime.

Last question. Michael Brantley might be that one of the quietest stars in Major League Baseball history. All he does is rake for you. And I feel like he doesn't even, no moment is too big for him. And I think what a blessing to have a veteran like that, especially during these tough times.

Well, you know, he's a son of a player. And I had Mickey and San Francisco, and, you know, he learns well. And I forgot to mention George Springer, too, because George is about to get hot too. But those guys are close. When I think of Michael, I think of Bill with because they're always together.

but Michael probably had the most tension-free swing that I've seen since Will Clark. I had Will Clark in San Francisco. And it looks like they don't have any back speed. It looks like they're not swinging hard, but the ball just keeps going and going. And the thing that I'm trying to tell our guy is to watch Michael here. I mean, he's the whole field. You know, he's lined and lined with no one way to play. You can't shift on him.

And, you know, the game is meant to be played without this year. And, you know, those holes out there are for a reason. So let's try to use them and use them all. And, you know, Michael's like, man, he's going to say with it that I've been around. And I've been around some good ones. We appreciate the visit, as always. Congratulations on the win last night. One more tonight.

One more tonight, as always, Skip. All right, be the best thing. You got that. We need tonight and tomorrow. That's right. Thanks very much, Skip, for the time as always. We appreciate it. That's the manager of your Houston Astros.

Dusty Baker with us here. 42 is the time. We are going to get to the Rockets. We'll get to the Astros. We will get to next. Rossi, I think a pretty significant injury report on the Texans. What? I know.

You've got to listen to our show to find out exactly what we're talking about. 1242, Sports Talk 790. The Houston Lunchtime Sports Conversation most respected by head coach Bill O'Brien. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt Thomas. In his career here in Houston. Of sorts. The Matt Thomas Show. All right.

We are our station at T. We are your unofficial home for Texas football. Very unofficial. The most unofficial. Like Joe George, how unofficial are we of the home of the Texans? The unofficial home. On a scale of 1 to 10?

Yeah. I got three. How many hours of pregame have we done so far? Zero. Okay. Oh, why not? Well, I mean, what's the deal? Let's get after it.

Let's start right now. I will say this, though. What? The guest list across our show. for football season this year, elite. Let me just, you know what I'm going to do? Please allow us to brag for one second. Okay, go ahead.

We are your unofficial home of Texans football. And if I'm forgetting anybody, please let me know, all right? We'll start with our show first. Every Tuesday, Aaron Reese from the Athletic joins us. Wonderful. Great beat runner, right? Rule hustler, well-respected. Sweet kid.

Sweet kid. Today, Joel Klatte joins us in 10 minutes. That's Fox Sports number one analyst. That's right. Period of story. You guys have had, of one of the fantasy football fix. We do it every year.

Half hour Dr. Roto tomorrow at 2 o'clock. D-R-R-O-T-O. Okay. What else do you? We always talk to somebody in the other city to get the perspective. We'll do that tomorrow with Bob Fescoe of the Kansas City Chief Network tomorrow. He'll join us at 1 o'clock.

Okay. Let's see, Brian T. Smith. Aaron Wilson is on a couple times a week, I think. Yeah, he'll be on early in the week with the trenches and then on Friday's with the 18. Ian Rappaport will be on with Sean Salsbury. Sean Salsbury Duh on that one. Eric Winston

on the VA team. Yeah, I mean, John Clayton on Friday's Sean Salsbury show. So everybody that's like, we give you coverage like no one else has given you. Oh, shove it. Oh, you also forgot former Oiler Great. Sean Jones.

John Jones. Dwight Andre O'Neill, Sean Jones. Crazy-ass guy. We love him. And we got Indie Kalu. That's football. Sean Jones. is going to come on every week and tell you how J.J. Watt, his pass-a-rush moves are not anywhere close to his.

So we got that. I love that. Love it. That's a line. Joe, George, your objective on this? That's a lineup. What do you mean? Of course I'm objective.

I mean, I'm biased, aren't I now? I'm trying to sell you as objective, but that's right. Yeah, but you could be at another station within a week. So we just travel around. I've already hit every station at the market. You've been in every one of them. You know better than anybody else since your objective. That's kick ass.

Yeah. Joe might be on like a Tejano station by next week. Oh, and oh, by the way, we have Jeff Blum. We just had Dusty Baker on. We had Mike and Tony yesterday. I mean, thank God we're a radio station that talks about all the sports. Beautiful. Makes me happy. We are well-rounded. If somebody came to me and said, and look, I work for the Rockets, right?

I wouldn't want to do a show for three hours a day on Rockets only. I like having variety. Now, I love talking Rockets. I wish we talked more of it. But it all, but it really depends on what the other. audience wants. We kind of, we play the hits. It's true, Matt. Okay. So Brandon Cooks did not practice yesterday with a quad injury.

Now, help me out if I'm wrong about this. Today, yesterday was the Friday of a Sunday play week, right? Effectively, yes. And what is usually the word when you don't play on Friday? Or don't practice on Friday? Usually.

If usually you don't practice on Friday, you don't play on Sunday. Generally. Generally. I hope that's not accurate. Correct? Correct. Because if Brandon Cook's first game as a Houston Texan, he's inactive because of injury,

that's going to really suck because of all the receivers they have. I said this the day that he got traded from the Rams. It was a price to pay for sure. But the Rams picked up. I want to say, what, $12 million of his $20 million contract? I mean, they picked up a pretty good haul of that. he's the guy that could really be the star of this team, provided he's healthy.

Will Fuller has shown no evidence of playing 16 weeks a year. I think the best days of Randall Cobb are gone. Possession receiver, sure, but he's not going to scare defenses. And Kenny Stills is the wild card. Oh, the wild card. Don't you think? Yeah, he could get like one catch for 12 yards or he can get you a 50-yard bomb catches for 98 and two touchdowns. Think about that first Saints game last year.

Yeah, that's true. luckies, right? Yeah, from what I can remember. Yeah. There's cheap beer that night. They were going off. And then Kenny Still's at the end of the game. He's the one that's coming up big.

Not Hopkins, not full of it. Yeah, I'm not counting DeAndre Carter. I mean, I'm just not. You're not? What about Kiki? What about Kiki? Do you love me? Not counting him either.

No, okay, fine. I just gave you the receivers that are going to, that are going to make or break DeShon's season as a quarterback. And the guy that I think supposedly, and again, if he plays tomorrow, this is all a move, conversation. And I'm not a big looker of injury reports because no other sport does it like the NFL does.

And they can't really lie on them, but they don't have to always tell 100% truth either. But when he doesn't participate, I mean, a red flag went up. It just did. Yeah, I would imagine. I'm going to imagine he's not going to play. So put Will Fuller in your fantasy lineup. And play Brandon Cooks a lot when he's healthy, though. Don't you guys agree that cooks?

to be the best receiver? It's supposed to be. He's had, what, 4,000 yards seasons in his six years? Yeah, and he completely fell off a cliff last year and had multiple concussions. I know, but he'll be the first player, I think, ever to have a thousand yard receiving season with four different teams if he does it with the Texans. And he will. That should kind of be maybe be an alarm bell, right?

If he's so good, wouldn't teams be hanging on to him? But the thing about, he's been traded for three times. A first from the Saints to the Patriots. first from the Patriots to the Rams and then a second here a second here so it's not like people well they're not just giving away

this isn't like Randy Moss for a seven nobody gives away first round picks anymore so they're well said Bill O'Brien Bill O'Brien well that's true he gives him away like their tic Tacs but he's here with Jack Easterby so he's going to be great his guy Jack Easterby they're

meshed together I've told you this before I think Easterby out last O'Brien no way Oh, I How many steak of dinner Isherby is his stooge Don't get that feeling anymore You think Easterby's running the ship?

No, no I'm just saying that If it comes down to it I could see Jack Easterby Saying Bring a coach in, let me hire one Really? Oh, absolutely

Have you heard he? I think he's been on this Have he gotten really close with Cal? I think I agree with you Matt Yeah Did you spot them together at Mass with Cal or something like that? No, no, just a gut feeling I have.

just a gun. Unless Cal has become, I mean, unless Jackie Csby has become the spiritual advisor to Cal McNair, I just don't see that happening. Here's how I see it. Guy was brought in as a culture coach.

It has zero football background. So what has he been doing since he got here? Helping with the draft, helping with contract signings, and completely reorganizing the Houston Texans organization. And getting Bill O'Brien's coffee. Oh, I don't think,

I mean, I'm sure he's doing that too. But Bill O'Brien ain't organizing the flatter structure, or whatever the hell Cal was talking about. Yeah, flat alignment. That's a Jack Easterby. I want to be a future president

of football operations kind of move. I'm just, look, if I'm wrong, tell me I'm wrong. Okay. But I would like to put that on the, put that in the Noster Thomas. Nostarongus is the name of it. The Jack Easterby outlast Bill O'Brien. Okay. I was going to say out survives, but outlasses the term. Now, can we get some

clarification on this? Please. If Ian Rapport says, Breaking News, Bill O'Brien, fired. And then Jack Easterby is fired like five minutes later. No, then he didn't out last him. No, no, no. I'm just looking for clarification. I'm saying if and I'm not first of all, not even forecasting Bill O'Brien to be gone.

Let's see, hold on. Let me see what I have on this pad. NFL season will not start on time. Wrong. NFL preseason doesn't get played. You give me a check for that. No, it's deleted. That's not on here. Oh my God. Yeah, it's not anywhere. Rockets win over Oklahoma City, 175,000 stars. Check. I don't remember that. That was just last week. I think you're making that. I'm quite frankly. Okay, so back to your point. Here it is.

If Bill O'Brien gets relieved of his duties that Jackie should be stick. He has to say another season. The following year. Yeah, the following year. Yeah, for sure. I feel, I don't have a huge competent level on it. It's just one of those gut feelings. Everybody has gut feelings, right?

Yeah. Give me one gut feeling about sports the next handful of days. You have a gut feeling that Texas are going to beat the Chiefs? I do not have a gut feeling. I have a gut feeling this Rocket Series is not. going well the rest of the way. Meaning they're not going to win another game? They might not win another game.

All right. You got a gut feeling back there? Joe? Yeah, he kind of stole my thunder there. You know what we're going to do? I think we just created a new bit. Gut feelings? Gut feelings.

Okay. When do you want to do this? We can do this on a weekly basis. Just a one little gut crazy ass per day. And we start writing them down. Tuesday, Gut feelings. Yeah, I'm okay with that.

Because Tuesday's day after Monday night. Yeah, yeah, nothing else going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tuesday gut feelings. And we'll have listeners tell us their gut feelings too. I got a gut feeling. I just had a brisket sandwich. It feels good.

I had a gut feeling this turkey is going to stick with me for a while. Okay. Hashtag Lubies. RIP. All right. Let's get the second hour started with Joel Clatt from Fox Sports. Afterword for Improve Myerection.com. Dr. Rorick, his wife, Doty, have been a husband-wife team that have been satisfying

a lot of males that have had trouble with erectile dysfunction. If you are in that position and need to call and get a consultation and visit with Dr. Roark and his team, do it right now at 281-4963355. That's the number you will call to say, hey, Dr. Roick, I heard Matt talking about you. Can you help me because we've had a lot of sexual dysfunction in our relationship? I want to get the intimacy back in our bedroom again. And Dr. Roarick's like, oh, heck yes, because guess what? I had, meaning him, the same sort of sexual difficulties as you have.

So Dr. Rourke knows from personal experience what it's like to suffer from ED. 281, 496, 3355 is a number. That's 281, 496, 3355. You can also visit their website, improvemyerection.com. That's improve my erection.com. Is the Matt Thomas show. 102 on Sports Talk 790. We'll be joined by Joel Clad of Fox Sports coming up in just a couple of seconds.

He'll be with this every Wednesday at around this time. 713-212-5-7-90 and Joel just didn't call them right now, so we'll do so. Ross headlines, rockets down two games to one. I hope your gut feeling is wrong. Me too. I just think I'm just getting down after a couple of losses. Well, I mean, let's be honest, that fourth quarter, the L.A. Lakers were defensive players possessed. Blocking shots, altering shots, cutting off, passing lanes, making everything difficult.

It wasn't like the rockets were turning the ball over. wasn't careless. Well, no, they were taking terrible shots. They took contested shots because the Lakers put the clamp down. That's 80. That's LeBron, who's playing like he's 25 years old. He just is. I mean, they missed a couple of open.

The key stretch was around like 11 minutes to go. That's when the Lakers started their 10-0 run. And the Rockets missed a couple of threes, and Rondo made a couple of threes. And Alex Caruso made one, who he's not a good three-point shooter. and it was just one of those stretches where they're back breaking and hard to recover from from and that's what happened on the Rockets. More on the Rockets and the Astros splitting the double header coming up shortly right now as we are back.

I believe this is our fourth season with one of our favorite people. He is the lead college analyst for Fox Sports. He was busy on his phone talking to his travel engine because you're going from Waco to Manhattan, Kansas, in a very short period of time. Which trip are you looking forward to now? I guess the one that you're calling, actually, right? Any game. Any game. Jones Junior High School. I'll be there. Yeah, I mean, weird year, but this is this is kind of what we expected.

And to be honest with you, with the Big 12 trying to be the first of the power fives out there and playing, in particular against non-conference opponents, I think that this, to some degree could be and was expected that we would have some of this. And I know Oklahoma State had to shut down, TCU had to shut down Wattek. Now it's had to shut down. and Oklahoma State probably more so because of Tulsa. But I digress. So the, yeah, Matt, I mean, listen, I'm, they told me late last night. I was like almost done with my boards and everything. And then sure enough, they're like, oh, hey, by the way, that game's not happening.

I'm like, awesome. That's fantastic. So I've been on a crash course. I was up most of the night. Just got off a call with Arkansas State. Talked with Blake Anderson. Unbelievable guy. If you don't know a story, go check it out.

And, you know, getting ready for this game, man. But like I said, I'm ready to call any and all football wherever. And I think most fans are with me that they just want to see some games being played. Well, selfishly, and again, I would rather you have a full schedule. But I felt like you and I talked every September. You were doing games against Ohio State versus somebody. So I think we're going to get a steady diet of you doing Big 12 games this year, it feels like, right? Well, that's all that's all I'm going to be doing.

because our only conferences at Fox were the PAC 12, Big 10, and Big 12. So that's all I've gotten to fall. And by the way, sneaky, sneaky, Matt, I could be doing games for like 30 straight weeks. Because think about it, the Big 12th played. Then all of a sudden, the Big 10 starts up, like, let's say end of November. And then all of a sudden the Pac-12 starts up, let's say, like, beginning of January or such. And I'll just be working all the way through that. So it's going to be a wild year, but I'm here for the ride.

All right. What do you make of these last second cancellations? It feels like to me, they're COVID-related in some respects, and they're also related to, and I think this is in Tulsa's case, if I'm not mistaken, we didn't have enough practices. We're not ready to go, and maybe Navy should have done that against BYU this past Monday. Yeah, and listen, I think that if I'm not mistaken, Navy and Temple moved their game because Temple said, hey, we're not ready, was not COVID. I mean, somewhat covert related, like you're saying, but they, you know, they saw what Navy rolled out there and their coach, Ken, Nia Macalolo said, listen, we had basically tackled

bags and weren't ready to go. And Temple thought, well, that's what we've been doing. So why don't we hit the pause button as well? So you're seeing some of that pop up. It's interesting. And I think one of the reasons why you're seeing that more prevalently now is because it's these kind of non-league games that clearly don't really matter. I mean, obviously they don't really matter. And in particular, in the Big 12 cases, you know, they're just thinking themselves,

well, if we can get to our league schedule and play through that, then we're going to be all right. So it's a fascinating time, though, I got to tell you, because all these programs, some of of them have had to deal with a few positive tests, and then they've got a quarantine because of contact tracing, you know, let's say 25 guys, and then go out there and try to practice the next day, is nearly impossible. So that's why you're seeing teams that are claiming at least that they're just not ready to play. All right. So let's do this now, since you're going to be doing a lot of big 12 games, what is your early gut feeling on maybe the top two or three teams in the conference this year? Well, I still, it's hard not to say Oklahoma, right? I mean, they've won five straight

Big 12 championship games. So I think if you look at it objectively, you've got to put them at the top. Quarterback seems to be a revolving door for them. the sense that it doesn't matter who walked through that door. They're going to play outstanding football. Three straight Heisman finalists, three straight draft picks, two of them, number one overall, all three transfers. Now he's got a guy that he actually recruited, and Spencer Rattler, I'm nervous about their running back room because Kennedy Brooks has opted out, Trace Serman Transfer, Ramadre Stevenson is dealing with potentially a suspension. So, you know, they're going to be thin at running back, and this is a running oriented team. They've been

one of the best rushing teams in the country, much less the Big 12, over the last few years. So we'll see how that impacts them. But as the five-time champ, you've got to start with them. I'm a big fan of what Texas could be this year. This is a year that many of them had pointed to anyways. I thought two years ago they arrived a little bit early. Then you have the Sam Ellinger, you know, on the stage with Holly Roe that they're back, making everyone in Aggie lands puke. And they fell on their faces last year, in large part due to inexperience on defense and then just a rash of injuries. as well. So now they've got so much more experience on defense. They've got that quarterback back. Tariq Black comes in as a wide receiver transfer. That's going to bolter that outside. They should be

better as a run game team. Sam Cosmy is sitting there. He's a first round talent at tackle. I think Texas has got a really good chance to potentially win the Big 12. I think that they're a really, really good team. And everybody rolls their eyes when you say Texas is going to be really good because we've been trying to say it for seven straight years now. They haven't won a Big 12 title in over 10 years. So, Matt, I get it. You can all, you know, all the Aggies out there, please roll your eyes. You're the one dodging the long horns anyway.

And then I would say the team would be the team. Well, it's true. I just love, it's just the subtlety of the dig is what I appreciate. Because I just love a good subtle dig. And you just went right at it, but continue on, my friend. I mean, listen, it's, is it a dig if it's true? Look, I don't have a dog in the fight. I want them to play.

I grew up, Joel, watching those two teams playing Thanksgiving night. I need to happen, but I'm over it. If they can't get it done, it's like, remember when Pacquiao and Mayweather were supposed to have this amazing fight when they were both in their prime, and we waited and we waited and waited and waited and we finally got to see them play, and it sucked. That's some of a great Texas N&M is going to be because by the time we ever care about them again, maybe both programs will be in different spots. Who knows?

Yeah. I just, you know, I think it would be, listen, the sport would be better if they can figure it out. Thanksgiving week would be better if they can figure it out. I think all of us would appreciate that. Jabs aside. All right, so going to A&M. But in all seriousness, there's a lot of folks. I would just say, go ahead.

They love A&M as a sneaky pick, especially with the fact that LSU is the sexy pick to lose four or five games this year. Yeah, I mean, I don't dislike A&M by any stretch. I think that they have a really good chance to be a good team. The problem is I just don't see them being better than Alabama. I think Alabama, I think that they very well could be the second place team in the division. I just think Alabama is better than A&M. They're stronger. Their defense should be better.

But I'm a big A&M guy. I think I would have them right about that 11, 12, 11 in the country right now. And I think with Kellyn Monde as a returning guy, Jimbo Fisher as your head coach, the way that they've been able to recruit, they really should expect to see a little bit of a bump this year. And let's face it, now everybody is going to have a bit of a gauntlet as far as the schedule goes in the SEC

because they'll all have to play those 10 games. Whereas last year, when you looked at A&M schedule and we talked about it, like I told you, they're probably a way better team, but I don't think it'll be reflected in the record. I remember saying that almost verbatim on your show early last year. And it was because of just the absolute, schedule nightmare that they had sitting in front of them as far as who they were getting

from the East and how they were playing the games through the SEC. Now that that's evened out just a little bit, I think that you could see A&M take that jump. So listen, I like A&M a lot. I think that that's a really good program and they're on the cusp of doing something special. The problem is getting over the hump of Alabama is going to be incredibly difficult. How ultimately good do you think Kalamond will be? I mean, I would say to describe his college career would be inconsistent, would be a fair assessment. Yeah, I think that that's a very fair assessment. I think that he is very talented.

I did his first significant action, actually. The last A&M game I did was the UCLA Josh Rosen comeback. You remember that game? Oh, yeah. I finished that game going, Josh Rosen is going to be this amazing quarterback in the NFL, and now he's, what, four teams removed from his first one, I guess. I know. I know. Unbelievable.

But the guy that was overshadowed in that game was this freshman quarterback that kind of came in and started to win the job named Kellyn Bond. And I liked him then. I still like him now. One of the things that Jimbo quarterbacks dating all the way back to even James and prior, one of the things that they've struggled with at times is turning the ball over. Brian Kelly's quarterbacks have struggled to turn the football over. and Ian Book kind of righted that ship last year a little bit up there in South Bend. But there's been two bugaboos for Jim's offense, and that's been their lack of ability to protect the passer and the turnover-prone nature of the way that their quarterbacks play.

And I don't know why. I really don't. But if they can clean those two things up, I think Mon could have a great season. I really do. Because I'm a fan of his ability. He's athletic. He's got a good arm. I think he's accurate for the most part.

And here's the one thing that people might not understand unless they really dive into the numbers. Yeah, they lost a bunch of games last year. He played really well in the games that they lost. Against the best opponents that they played, go check out his splits against some of the better teams and better defenses that they face. He wasn't necessarily the reason they were losing those games. He played great in a lot of those games. Didn't turn the football over. So I think a next step jump.

for him might be in line this season. All right. Before I let your run, because you obviously, with their Fox commitments with Big Ten and Pac-12, have to hear about it, how often are you getting updates about their future and what they might be doing here, say, late October? The Big Ten? Both of them, Pac-12, too. Yeah, okay, so let me just, I don't know anything. This is not reporting.

This is not factual. This is just my hunch based on the conversations that I've had. My hunch is that in the next 15 days, you're going to get a flag in the sand from the Big Ten stating a date in which they intend to return. I believe that that date falls somewhere between November 1 and Thanksgiving. Maybe October 24 right in there, but that would be really pushing it. There's two factions. We've got the coaches and ADs want to play as soon as they possibly can. the presidents are sitting there and they want to save face because they kind of punted on this thing a few weeks ago.

And I think that they're going to meet in the middle and there's going to be sometime in November, they're going to put a flag down and say that's the date that we're targeting to get back to playing. So that's the big 10. In the PAC 12, there's a whole different set of issues. And that set of issues really begins and ends with the political climate and political affiliation. I shouldn't say that. It's just really just the state of California. What the state of California is going to allow those schools to do and not do

is what's going to prevent the PAC 12 probably from playing football until January 1. So I think that the PAC 12 doesn't play until January 1. And in large part due to the fact that the schools within California are just not going to be able to get ready, come back, compete, workout, do all those things necessary that a season would require. On that note, safe travels, my friend, to Manhattan, and we'll visit again next Wednesday. forward to you and Gus on the call. Again, I don't care if you called junior high school games. I mean, seriously, Gus Johnson involving who's Kansas State playing again? Arkansas State.

Arkansas. Do you think that Arkansas State kids ever thought in a million years that Joe Clot and Gus Johnson be calling one of their games? Seriously. You know what? I don't know. I had never thought of that. I did just get off the phone with their code. we had a Zoom call with their coaches. And that's one of the things Blake Anderson said. He was like, well, I went to bed. We were playing Kansas State. I woke up and we're on Fox at noon. And I was like, well, good luck.

That's what I would think of it too. All right, great to have you back with us this season. We'll talk again next Wednesday. Absolutely, bud. Have a great day. Thank you very much. That is our good friend, Joel Clatt from Fox Sports. We'll be on the call for the Arkansas.

Now, they used to be called the Indians. They're not the Indians anymore, right? What is Arkansas State? we'll tell you next. That's what we call it quality radio teas. The Red Wolves. The Red Wolves. You saved it.

I was going to tell the audience after. Thanks for bursts in the bubble. Yeah, everybody, the whole audience was going to hold over for that one. Oh, I think there would have been quite a few. 116 on Sports Talk 790. 713-1-2-5-790 with a message here for Oops, steam cleaning. Carpets professionally cleaned.

You can't do it. The people at the neighborhood hardware store don't want to do it. Guess what? You should let Oops do it at 281 822.0561. 281.8220561. 281. 8220561 for quality, true steam cleaning with a company that's been doing it for decades. You see their vans all around town when puppies on the side. That's oops. I've been speaking about them since 2010 and proud to do so today. 281 8220561. If you have air ducts need to be cleaned, they'll take care of that. If you have Oriental rugs and need special

attention, they'll take care of that, and they'll just do a great job with your towel and your growl too. 281-822-0561 and online. Oobsteam.com. Don't leave Matt Thomas in your car. Take him with you. Download the free I-HeartRadio app for your phone at sports790.com. Just remember you'll have to feed him.

122 on Sports Talk 790. I don't think Aggies like Joel, but that's okay. You don't have to be friends with everybody to listen to. but he did speak very well of Calamond, right? He even said that the games they didn't play well, he was good, which... Oh, good for them.

I just don't remember when they were not good that he wasn't particularly good, but I didn't watch 12 at Aggie games, so I don't want to speak to them. They can ride that wave to third or fourth place in the SEC West, so congratulations to it. Okay, what do you want as an Ag as a Longhorn fan? What do you want this year?

What do you mean? I want it all, Matt, or nothing at all. So you're saying either a big, 12 championship or three wins? Yes. That's all or nothing is what you're saying. You don't want any middle ground. You're tired of going to the Music City, the Alamo.

There's no Music City. Holiday Bowl. Alamo, yes. Holiday. As they destroyed the overrated Utah Uts. I'm sorry, the actually properly rated excellent Utah Uts, but the Longhorns were just that much better. No, you undersold them.

What are you talking about? You didn't want any part of that game. I don't want to waste my time. I didn't say that. Well, I think I wanted to go to the game, but I had something. I can't remember what we were doing. Oh, they're going to be bowl games? I forgot to ask, we'll ask us up to Joel next week.

What is your gut feel? We're getting bowls? No. Or at least not 80 of them or whatever they have. Because, like, that's the problem. You're going to have to allow. There's more bulls slots, and there are teams that are playing, right? Well, that and on top of that, these bowls need people to go.

And basically, do they? The bowls are all about TV rights. They're usually pretty empty. Yeah, they're all about TV rights. Like the bad bowl games. Like the Rose Bowl, yeah, you need fans there. I guess you don't. So you all really think that you could have a bowl game between

Southern Miss and Utah State in the Boca Raton Bowl, and the television is going to, that sponsorships are going to carry the load for that thing? Not that there'd be a lot of fans going to your ones. I'm going to say. Is there a difference? That's a bad example. The bowl game happens at Boca Raton and nobody is able to attend or nobody can't attend.

You probably can't even tell a difference. So let's do this. If the Rose Bowl can't have 110,000 people at it like they normally do, no matter who the opponent is, does the Rose Bowl need to exist this year? TV rights. That's what it's all. Maybe that's what it is. Yeah. Because that's what the NBA is.

We always ask why are there 40 bowls? It's 40 bowls because they make money off of TV rights. Even a couple of million dollars is profitable for some of that they can stage and put these on. All right. So back to my original question. Have you really looked at the team? I mean, do you have a feel for how they're going to be this year? The Longhorns? Yeah. Not really, quite frankly. It's just been a weird. I mean, I think I went most of the offseason thinking they weren't going to have a team. Would you like me to go get Craig Way on for Friday show?

No, I'm fine. You don't want... There's 42-point favorites against U-TEP. Oh, then we won't use them for until... What is that game on? A Longhorn Network or something? Yeah, because Andre We're doing it. Okay, good. Yeah, we'll get...

Craig I wouldn't actually mean something. Wonderful. U-TEP just isn't going to mean something, anything. And this is their only non-conference game. They're going to league play starting next week, right? It's nine games in conference and then one out of conference. Yes. At Texas Tech, they have an off week, and then they go to at Tech, two Texas Tech to look.

How about this? And we'll go out of some other things here, but how about LSU saying we want 50,000, A&M wants $50,000? you have some schools that are saying we're not even bothering with this. How about Notre Dame? I mean, you talk about guaranteed sellout for whatever and ever and ever, only letting students, faculty, and friends of the family go to games this year. And they've been basically COVID-free, right?

Yeah, I think LSU said... No, they had a big outbreak on campus, though. They had 500 people test positive on campus. But they weren't athletes, all right? No, football team's been okay. Okay, that's what I thought it was. Okay. 500 people, it was all traced to like one or two

parties on campus. That's what's going to happen. That's what happened. I think it was USC frat row had a huge outbreak. And ironically, and ironically enough, it was also because a gender reveal. Gender reveals are the antichrist. Did you see the gender?

I just did one. Yeah, sorry Joe. Joe, you're what's wrong with America. Joe, if you notice the forest fires that are rampaging that are rampaging throughout the state of California? Well, I'm not a moron. These people are idiots. That's the second giant fire that started from a gender reveal, right?

Wasn't there one in Arizona as well? Like last year? Alano is the one, Tim Roy is a friend of mine. He is the voice of Golden State Warriors, and he had to evacuate his house because he lives east of Oakland, and it's gone that far in that, yeah, they've had to evacuate. He goes back to check on his house every day to see if it's still there. Can we end gender reveals?

I don't mean it's to bring up a sore subject with you. We're still going to do when we get to like number two or three one day. Terrible. I feel like we should be the gender reveal police. Like if you want to have a gender reveal the rest of your life, you got to run it by us first. It's fine. Just let people do what they want. Let them do their thing, Matt.

Because you can put an IG, get some likes, and you feel good about yourself, and that's what's important in 2020. Fact. How many likes did you get? I don't know a lot, though. See? It's funny. Of my three kids, we only found out the sex of one of them. like to be surprised.

So we are the anti-gender reveal, the Thomases are at least. Meanwhile, others need Facebook likes. I won't mention names, George, baby. I mean, I was too impatient. I couldn't wait. Okay, well, you know what then? Go to the doctor. She'll tell you, or he'll tell you, and you move along.

You don't need to have a party with cupcakes and balloons. There's no cupcakes. Should have had cupcakes. Good idea. And boxes of cheeses. And, uh... Adam Clinton. And fly.

And flash fires that would destroy an entire state. We did not start a fire did ruin. I guess you can't ruin a driveway. But it's permanently painted now with blue and gold paint, my father-in-law's driveway. It didn't come off. He hates you more than he already did before. I think so.

I don't think he's very happy about it. Like, I really don't. All right. This radio show does college football and gender revealed conversation in the same half hour. I challenge another show in the marketplace to do it. You can't. It's can't do it.

128 on the Sports Talk 790 with a message for Big City Wings. Today is Burger Wednesday. I want to keep mentioning that to you because, again, you know how good the wings are. You know how good the executive chicken nuggets are. You have to know how good the burgers are. I've had the mushroom Swiss. I've had the cheddar with bacon. I've had the chili cheese.

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Go to the bar. I'll have a burger. Have a whiskey. Get out of there for a real cheap amount of money. And enjoy great sporting events like the Astros game tonight at 8 o'clock. To find the location near you, you go to bigcitywings.com. BigCitywings.com. They also do dine-in, take-out, curbside delivery, and alcohol.

The Astros game tonight at 8 o'clock. To find the location near you, you go to bigcitywings.com. BigCitywings.com. They also do dine-in, take-out, curbside delivery, and alcoholic drinks to go as long as you drink responsibly. That's all from Big Citywings and BigCitywings.com. Hey, smart device. How do I play some good sports vibrations?

Just ask me to play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hard Radio. She's so smart, almost as smart as my mother. Mr. Walberg, where are the funky bunch? Have you been to a Walberg as lately? We have some breaking news. The A team's going to work a full three-hour show today. Really? I know.

And because of the rocket start time, they're working, I believe, a two-hour show tomorrow. Yes. I know. Struggle's real for them. Wait, what is the rocket start time tomorrow? Six. Oh.

What a blessing. You don't like those 825 starts When post game talking to myself on KTRH till midnight Let get it Let's get the show on What is it coast to coast Where is my ground zero radio What is ground zero on?

I don't even know You always refer to it to Middiscque I thought coast to coast was like the number one overnight show It's ground zero right before that Okay Maybe 10 to midnight or something like that Okay People get really upset

if I'm on instead of Ground Zero radio. I don't really listen to Ground Zero than you. Thank you. I mean, to be brutally honest. I'd rather listen to Costa Coast of me. That's for damn sure. Yeah, it's true. What's the latest?

What are the polter guys up to this week? See, the problem is when I was doing Astros post-game shows way back in the day, those callers would call into me. Yes. What if we called into the coast to coast? You used to get the guy always talking about the secret planet Naburu. Right, Naburu. But what if I got to call into the host?

Is it George Norrie? Does George Norrie still do it? I think so. Okay. What if that, what if I called in and say, George, long time, first time, I'm east of the Rockies. Quick question. Uh-oh. What? Just a quick clarification, ground zero is not been on for six months.

Oh, well, whatever. That's your fault. What happened to Ground Zero radio? I killed their listenership. So we go from Mark Levine to coast to coast? Oh, people are real mad when I'm on from Mark Levine. Levin, sorry. The light is from the Washington Compost.

So I call coast to coast. first time, long time, east of the Rockies. Your thoughts about the Astros pitching rotation coming up. You should do that. You should know. You would be on the first time caller line. Or would you be on the wild card line? Oh, it's definitely wild card.

It's all these lines. It's the first time. It's east of the Rockies, west of the Rockies, first time caller line, the wild card line. Well, why don't we do what? Let's do it right now. Really? Yeah. This is what you would.

See me find the song. Because we would, let me. Let's try this. See if we can have as many lines as other people have. Okay. It's got to find the music. If you want to join us here, by the way,

713-212-5-7-90. I'm going to get the mood for this. This is Houston Sports Coast to Coast. If you want to talk Rockets Basketball, 7-13-21-25-7-90. If you want to talk Astros baseball, call 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. If you want to talk about Luby's shutting down, call 713-212-5-790.

Waldcard Mexican pizza enjoyers from Taco Bell, call 7-13-212-5-790. This is Sports Talk 790, Matt Thomas Show, coast to coast. Oh, that brings back great memories. Gets the people going, Matt. And then there's like a big lightning bolt at the very end. Yeah, I used to have the lightning sting, but I don't have it anymore. I need to get an overnight guy to roll on it for me. Wouldn't be the worst thing.

All right, let's take our first call on the 790 coast to coast. Spencer in Kingwood. You would be east of the Rockies. Hello, Spencer. How are you doing, Matt? Good. What's going on? Not much.

I was reading on ESPN, and they put out this article, and I'm pretty sure they made a massive error. It was that all defensive team, and for some reason it didn't include PJ Tucker. How could they forget this? He's never made first team or second team yet. Has he not earned it? Well, I mean, we love him and we appreciate him, but, you know, the problem with Pete, I don't know what the problem is because he plays a position where normally guys are 610, 611. He plays at 6.5.

my guess is the voters say to themselves, that's not our fault that you guys went small, we're still going on for the best 10 players. The biggest travesty of it all, to me, was the fact that Pat Beverly made second team all defense. And I love Pat Bev, and he might have been slotted in earlier years, but he's going off a reputation now.

Pat Beverly is not one of the top 10 defenders in the NBA anymore. He's not. Absolutely. And he hasn't been healthy all year. It doesn't make any sense, how you can take PJ Tucker, who hasn't missed a single game. And granted, I understand the size difference in the position that he plays and that they're

not going to give him extra credit for it, but you still look at the lockdown defense that he's given against stars. And I don't understand how he wasn't at least given consideration or more so than you hear about. He did get, I want to say, in the upwards of 20 votes, am I right about that? 29 second place votes. He was of the others players receiving votes among forwards, he was number one. Okay, and how many votes would it take to get to the second team? He was 29 points.

Kauai Leonard had overall 128, and then Bam out of bio had 61. He there on second. And look, these are the forwards that are ahead of him. Yonis, Tentacompo, Anthony Davis, Kauai Leonard, Bam out of bio. I mean, all really good. Right. He's just in a tough spot because of the people in front of him.

It's not a slight against him. They're just some other guys. And again, he's not competing against Pat Beverly for that spot, but that's just the reason why, when you brought him up, up to myself, wow. Pat gets in not really deserving it because he hasn't played a whole lot. And fouling out of games does not make you a great defensive player. And Pat Beverly either files himself out of games or he gets tossed because of technicals.

Absolutely. And I was just curious on one more thing. How much influence do you think LeBron James had last night on that game and the calls that were not called and or that were called? from my perspective, it seemed that every time that man raised his voice, he had the attention of the rest. And no matter what he did, he could not get a T. I thought Aldmore John quite a bit last night. I applaud the officials for not giving technicals.

Here's the thing about LeBron. That's who he's been since the day he became an NBA player. And you would think at this point that you'd have officials that have been there and done that. I mean, this is the second. This is the conference semifinals. So you're not talking about rookie officials that could be influenced. I think one of them told LeBron to keep it quiet, basically, during the course of the game. So that's who he's going to be.

That star power is going to get you calls regardless. But I thought all things considered, I mean, Russ yells at officials all the time. James does too. So the best thing in my opinion about last night was, even though the game made out and I've been officiated to your standards, nobody got technicals for John. Because, look, it's a very emotional time. It's a highly charged time. It's the conference semifinals. and I would hope that if I was an official, that I would be able to say,

all right, I'm going to let something slide because of the magnitude of the game. Fair enough. Fair enough. I just think James Hardin needs to start screaming his head off when he's going down to the basket. Maybe he'll get a couple more foul calls. The Rockets get their fair share of complaints. Yeah, I was going to say, thank you for the phone call. You're not going to find anybody in the NBA.

It's like, you know, the Lakers and Rockets get screwed on calls. No, I mean, James Harden does work the referees and look at it. PJ Tucker. Eric Gordon throws up his hands every time he goes for a dribble drive. I mean, so and Mike Dan Tony works the rest too. So it's just funny to me that a lot of Rockets fans were complaining about LeBron

talking to the rest when every single rocket does it. It's just the way it is. And especially when you had Chris Paul here in the last couple of years, that guy works the rest more than anybody I've seen. Yep. All right. 142 here on the Matt Thomas show. I'm about to do a commercial a la Michael Barry style because Michael's

listening right now. Say this sounds familiar. Ready? Hoops, sporting equipment. Great people. Family owned, family operator. Want to shoot on a goal? Get with hoops.

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Produnkhoops.com 281-351.9822. Craig Bizio here, the heart of the order is up right now. Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790. We are your unofficial home of Texans football. Proud. We've been unofficial, what, since the franchise is open? 2002?

18 years and running of being your unofficial home for Texans football. Wow. That's a long time. That's a long time. A little too long. All right. Injury Port has just come in for today. The team left for Kansas City in the last hour.

They're going to Kansas City. They're a nice PR director. Shot a photo of herself on the bus wearing a mask. That's good. Mask up on the bus. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Close quarters.

Hopefully air conditioned. It could get a little stuffy. Well, I think the air conditioning actually is... Circulates the device. Yeah, circulates the bus. I'm not going on a bus lot without air conditioning, no chance. Well, yeah, I'm not saying not to go. So pop the windows open, man.

It's nice out. On a charter bus at the airport? That seems a little risky. A million dollar NFL players. Here we go. Jonathan Grenard is questionable with an ankle injury. He's been limited in practice all week. I've been limited my whole life, so I don't know.

It should be fine. Cullen Gillespie, the only fullback on the roster. Limited all week. He is listed as questionable for game status. Okay. Brandon Cook's limited Monday, did not practice Tuesday, today limited. He is listed as questionable for the game. This is a decoy?

Do you think that's being set up? No. I would agree with you. Now, for Bill Belichick, when he's always got in the middle of the season, he's got 15 people listed as questionable, probably. And again, it's up to each individual team to determine what it's questionable, what's not, right? I think so. Because the NFL can't say, well,

sentence is x-rays. I think you can be fined if they think you're being dishonest, right? Well, I guess my point would be this. If you are, if every one of your questionable players plays every week, that's a sign that you're probably not telling the truth. They take it by percentage. Questionable is supposed to mean 50-50.

So that would be fair. I don't know if he's an absolute guarantee to go, but I'm just saying that how do you watch over that? Because they got rid of probable, right? What's the next layer after questionable? Going to play? It's questionable and then doubtful. That's it?

They used to have probable, but then... Wait, probable is gone? Are you sure about that? In the NFL. Okay. Because they used to have probable and everybody started. Oh, it's full,

limited, and D&P for practice. Now, the game status is a two different animal because that's the first time this week they are brought up the term and questionable for these three players. Yeah, they moved. They were moved in 2016. Probable as a designation.

So it's either doubtful, out, or questionable. Because every time somebody was ill-said, they played, and they're like, this is a waste of our time. Okay. Well, then they're doing nothing wrong then. If that is the case, they're doing nothing wrong in terms of putting him out. Because he might play. I mean, doesn't mean he's not going to play,

but it's not a guarantee that he's going to. And frankly, there probably were too many players that were questionable that we're playing. And that's the reason why I'm like, Wait a minute. You have nine players that are questionable and in New England would play all nine of them. Okay, so he's questionable.

But aren't we all? You're highly questionable. Tomorrow night is going to be a crazy sports night. Rock is either even the series or the Lakers start to beat their chest and take a 3-1 series lead. Texans either go there and erase the temporary wounds

of a lost to New Kansas city in the playoffs or the fire Bill O'Brien watch starts on front. Friday morning. I don't know about that. They're supposed to lose. Fire Bill O'Brien started the day that DeAndre Hopkins, well, actually before that. Yeah, Fire Bill Bryan's been around for some time since like his second 97 season.

But I mean, if you went for the hashtag Fire Bill O'Brien, it probably has gone up 250% since the day that DeAndre Hopkins was traded. Yeah, absolutely. Remember we were checking their mentions on Twitter every single day? And they would be like, JJ Watt helps them. community with million dollar donation to Houston Food Bank. Fire Bill O'Brien! Look at this artwork from the six-year-old diehard Texan fan. Oh, this is cute. And oh, by the way,

Fire Bill O'Brien. Yes. That's what it was. For weeks. We were reading the mentions like every day on the shows, just because they were hilarious. Oh, we're reading the mentions on Friday. I mean, Texans are nine-point dogs. It's going to be shocking if they lose tomorrow?

Not at all. I do like the plus the nine, though. You know why? Because you just love, here's why you love it. Okay. Because it's almost double digits. So that gets you automatically in a frenzy. Second of all, teams that host the first game of the season typically have a difficult time in that first game. And you've had zero preseason.

So I think both offenses are going to be a little bit sluggish. So I think it'll be lower scoring than people think, too. So you think a lower scoring game keeps the game close? I think the last few years, when everybody's been taking basically the preseason off, the first couple of weeks have been a little sluggish because people are getting their bearings, and it's almost been effectively a preseason. I think we'll see the same thing Thursday night. Man, I really go back and four on this.

Because the team, as opposing teams have gone on the road in one, in week one. Did New England one year host a Super Bowl party and they lost that first third? Probably one of those 15 times they won the Super Bowl. Yeah, that's way too many. We'll make our official predictions right now. Right now? Or tomorrow? Tomorrow.

But your gut right now says take Casey plus the nine. No, no. Minutes Houston plus the nine, I said. Okay. So I'm saying you're saying take Kansas Houston plus the nine. Nine is a big cushion. Are you going to change that at any point by tomorrow? No, I don't think so.

Because here's the thing. Am I saying they're going to win? I got news for you. 34, 24, 24, 24, close. Not a cover. So is it 3427. Now you're not with us tomorrow, Joe George.

So your vote kind of doesn't count. Oh, but it might as well. He's not? Well, we're not a part of our family. He'll be back with the A team. They're actually putting in a full day. Well, not they're not. They're a two-hour show tomorrow.

Actually, they're going to work. One of them is going to work more than you tomorrow, though, because they'll do the Rockets game. Hmm. Okay. Fair enough. Then maybe one of them should do the Astros on deck and tent ending show for me tonight. Wait a minute.

Don't you wait? Tomorrow, oh, is the Astros on KTRH tomorrow? Yes, but I'm working tonight on 790 and 740. Oh, good. Good job. Yeah. All right. So what do you got, Joe?

For the... Score. For the score? The score. Because we are score of 790. Chiefs 33, Texans, 27. So you have them covering as well. Meant to cover in and over for those of you playing at home.

You think it's going to go... Are you taking the under, by the way? Yes. Are you willing to put your financial future on it? Yeah, you want to make a bet. No, you should call your friends. Well, I'm saying if you want to bet the... I'll bet the other.

I have no good feeling about it. the game tomorrow. Okay. As the kids would say, I'm staying away from this one. Oh, you're to stay away. Steve, there's nothing wrong. Let me get a little public service announcement for the kiddos and the young gamblers out there.

There's nothing wrong with staying away. Nothing wrong with it. It's usually the right move. I actually have a better feel about the Baltimore game the following week. Hmm. Baltimore 40, Texans 20? That's more my speed. Okay.

You just want Lamar Jackson to do big things. No, Pat, Holmes is my fantasy quarterback. Oh, yeah. I forgot. Yeah, you had Pat Moines. You had one of the big ones. Yeah. All right.

Final hour of the show will feature us talking about how you feel about the Rockets right now. How you feel about the Aster is finally winning a game in Oakland. Is tomorrow's game a must win? I'll let you, you know what I'll do? Let's do this right now. Is tomorrow? And don't say, well, Matt, it's not literally a must win. It's not.

But figuratively, is tomorrow must win. The answer, of course, is yes. I think there's such a huge difference between. 3-1 and 2-2. I think there's tremendous separation. So I'll ask you out there in Radio Land, in your mind is tomorrow must win. Oh, no.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Just do it. You put the music on. Everyone's going to say yes. You just did it. Fire it off. He said it's breaking down.

Oh, we're going to break. Okay, so we're going to keep on the clock. No, turn it off now. Nope, nope, nope. No. No, I've got Instapol. We've never opened the show The 2 o'clock hour with Instapole.

Are we going to? We're staying on the clock. All right fine. Staying on the clock right now. Let me tell you about Shaw's jewelry. Can I tell you about Shaw's real quick? I'm going to take my time, actually. They're great people.

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Check them out right now. When you stop on in, you'll be doing that in secure comfort. You'll be doing it with proper social distancing, and you'll be doing it with a great company that's been around since the 1960s. Tell them that Matt Thomas sent you to Shaw's. Yes, is the Matt Thomas show. In the history of the Matt Thomas show,

we ever opened up an hour of the program with an Instapult. The question was asked. is tomorrow night's Rockets Lakers game a must win for Houston. Your voice needs to be heard right now. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Rockets fall last night.

Drop the series now two games to one. Massive fourth quarter for LeBron James. Defensively, everything about L.A. was good. Rockets didn't play poorly the Lakers just played better. So if you're ready, Ross, what do we say about the Instapole? You're right over there?

We say it never lies. But it has lied before. Name them last time I lied. You had an Instapole pick a Texas game when there were dogs to Texas Tech and then they covered that game. So the Insipole was wrong. Literally wrong.

But it's not often wrong. Factually wrong. And certainly doesn't lie. And I found that quite satisfying. 713. 212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Line 1.

Tomorrow night, Rockets. Is this a must-win? Hell yeah. Hell yeah, that's right. Okay, that's one. This may not take long, Ross. No, I know what's going to go. Line 2 is tomorrow and I must win, yes or no?

Well, if it asks me honestly, I'd say yes. All right, well, I mean, he's being honest. That's too. Thanks, Lou Holtz. It was like a Cajun Lou Holtz. That's a great accent. Could anybody do a Cajun Lou Holtz? Is it a spotting or a cruncher or don't you know?

What is Foghorn and Leghorn doing on the show? That's not Foghorn. That's not I say. I say. Line three is tomorrow night's Rockets game. A must win. No doubt about it. They have to win more.

All right. That's three. One more. Line one is the tomorrow night's game a must win. Absolutely. All right. That's a 4-0. Stop the poll.

That might have been the quickest instapole in the history of the Instapole. Okay. Let me ask you a quick question. You can take your time. We've got a full segment here. We're doing Denver Radio. And the Nuggets are down two to one to the Utah Jazz. Okay.

We're on mile high. Hey, this is Ross and Matt on Mile High Sports. Mile High, 7. Let me see. Your home. Here we go. Here we go. Will the Broncos?

win 11 games? Listen right here to your home of Denver Broncos radio. Yeah, actually, we get this like, this is like our eighth segment because we spent the first seven breaking down the entire Broncos roster. Next, linebacker talk, Denver Broncos radio. Yes. So after seven segments of linebacker Broncos talk on the eighth segment, we're kind of running out of steam. And we're like, hey, man, Nuggets versus Jazz tonight down to one. Denver Nuggets. It's a Denver Broncos radio. Is tonight a must-win game for the Denver Nuggets? And what would we be saying? We'd be saying, of course it is.

You don't want to go down 3-1 in the series. Well, they lost, and they still won the series. Okay. Hear that, folks. Ross just wants to make a point. That's all. I'm just making a point. That's right.

New segment on the show, Ross makes a point. That's every day. Oh, I got to write that down. What do we call our new Tuesday segment called? Tuesday gut feeling Tuesday got feelings From the gut Well that sounds weird

No Got feelings Let me write the down Because we like to have News We like to have interesting segments Not just throwing a bunch of stuff Against the wall

Yeah Tuesday got feelings What was our gut this week We've already forgotten our guts My gut feeling was the Rockins Don't win another game In this series Oh I'll write that one down

No don't write that down Why that was your gut Because I want them to win a game I want to be wrong I just not feel I'm just down because they lost two straight Okay. So if they win tomorrow. I'm down because yesterday there was...

Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot the Rockets could have done. I don't want to say it was Warriors-esque. Oh, by what? You're recording Mike D'Anne-Dan-Toney back there? Well, I want to get an update on Daniel House. The look on his face says that's a no. He's sinking in his... He's literally sinking in his chair. He is melting like the wicked witch of the West.

This was 18. You'd have done it. That's a fact. Bias. Well, that's because he doesn't want... We don't bitch at them like Wex would. Think Wex is recording it for us? It's not, they haven't started yet, so we're fine. Oh, aren't you lucky?

Okay, back to it. Wait, Wicked Witch of the East, whatever. There wasn't anything that was done by the Rockets that you said, what the hell is going on out there? They're missed shots. People are going to miss shots. A little too much Westbrook mid-range. When he makes it, I don't know when he added a Dirk step to his offensive repertoire,

but I would like him to take it out. Do you know the one shot that he makes more than he misses, which is the, I think it's one of the hardest things is that mid-range 16-foot bank shot. He doesn't make that more than he misses. In my mind, it does. Okay. Stay with me on this. This is a lot of those. But that's hard.

No, those are difficult shots, and he makes them sometimes. You've got to make enough to keep the defense honest a little bit when they back off you that much. When you're completely wide open and in rhythm, you need to be making at least half of those. And he numbers show that he doesn't. So LeBron's always going to score. He doesn't, he has not changed the way he scores. He attacks the basket. Same thing for Anthony Davis.

The thing about Anthony Davis that drives me crazy, and it's because he's just so damn good, is that fall away 17-footer, just beyond the free throw line with a hand in the face. The rockets defended properly, they just aren't seven feet tall to knock him down. It feels like he's making that at like a 70% clip. He's not, I feel like he's not going to,

he can't keep that up. This feels like the way that he's shooting, remember that point. Portland series early on and Lamarcus Aldridge could not miss anything in, what was that, 2014 or whenever it was. That's kind of what it feels like. Like the Rockets just felt like there are completely powerless to this powerless to a mid-range fallaway game.

And that's what it feels like it is with Anthony Davis. Now, getting to the basket, he's going to be fantastic and he's going to be finishing those and the putbacks and all that type of stuff. But my God, has he missed one of those face-up jumpers? It seems like he hasn't. He's been shooting so great. I imagine that's not going to be. That's just not sustainable.

One of the things, by the way, we've not talked about is that Robert Covington was tested for a concussion protocol and tested negative, which is a very good sign. Great news. His nose is not broken. He does not have a concussion. So I tweeted this last night. If Covington is out, series completely chalked to me. He's just too important to what they do defensively. And he's been shooting great from three. If he's out, the next man up is Daniel House, I guess. No. You would probably have to go. If Covington couldn't play. Your starting lineup, you'd probably change out. You'd move Tucker efficient of the five. Tucker and we don't even have houses back. You'd probably start. Well, I mean, if you don't have a house, you'd go Jeff Green.

And then realistically, your only bench at that point is Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore. What's Bruno Caboaklow up to? He's there. It's funny. Yesterday, Tyson Chandler was also inactive because of personal reasons. Very strange situation in my mind. I don't know what's going on, but very, very much. very strange for very shortly before the game, somebody to be out,

a guy who is going to factor into your rotation heavily in Daniel House, Jr. Is out. And then all of a sudden, guy who doesn't even play. Like, did Tyson Chandler need to declare himself out? Tyson Chandler's been effectively declared out since like January. He's only step on the court for less than one second. When Billy Donovan wanted him to shoot a free throw. Right. Because whoever it was got hurt.

Yeah. That was it. It has not played in that. So again, Mike Dantonie is supposed to speak here shortly, and we hopefully will have an answer for you on exactly what's going on with Daniel House. It's going to be a little bit. What happened? They're still watching film. Who said?

What? They came out and said that? Yeah. It's not a chat room, yeah. Okay. These Zooms can be chatty. Well, you know what? Watch all the film you want.

We don't need to hear from Mike Dantone, even at all. Watch the film, baby. How are you going to break down this trap? How are you going to break down this doubling defense? How are you going to break down one, two, two, two, so watch the film baby. Since you're the coach of the two of us, How do you do it? Well,

and ball movement has always been good. That isn't the problem. It's been a little, it's been careless a little bit. I think the, the Lakers are really good at rotating quickly. I think they need to continue with the ball movement. They're having Russell Westbrook stay out there on the wing.

They're doing what basically what the Rockets did to Lou Dort, or what you've done to Andre Roberson over the years and stuff like that, Roberson, is you completely leave him open. One of the things that they were doing towards the end of the regular season is having Russell Westbrook with the ball at the top of the key. And so then he can be the outlet, the safety valve, if you will, when James Hardin is getting doubled. And then he's at exactly where he wants.

He can crash to the paint or he can find somebody open on the wing or are on the corner. And so that really hasn't been happening. Or you just kind of stick him in the corner and hope he makes corner threes. But again, you're putting the ball on somebody else's hands. when the ball needs to get to James Hardin's hands while you're moving the ball around, when does it go to him and when does he decide it's time for me to take that shot?

Well, I have a crazy idea for that too. Okay. Why not when Russ and James are playing together, at least some of the time, start the possessions with Russ. Russ at the top of the key. Okay. And so you have James on the wing.

Got it. I'm trying to envision it. My eyes close. PJ Tucker in the corner, whoever else in the other corner and somebody else, and in Russ at the top of the creep breaking down somebody on the dribble

or maybe even try to get a switch for him maybe he gets Anthony Davis one of the reasons you don't want to go at Anthony Davis but one of the reasons it's good to use him have him as the get him on a switch is because then he cannot help James can get by him a little bit and that crashes the defense

but is Anthony Davis going to be foolish enough to come out of the free throw line that's what I'm saying you have to get him switched on to him you have to set some screens come up in whoever he's covering whether it be Jeff Green or PJ Tucker, whoever, try to get that switch and then have what Russell Westbrook can go by Anthony Davis. Is he going to do it a bunch and proficiently? Probably not. But then you have him getting broken

down. And the really huge element is you can't have Anthony Davis with his length paying, pat playing passing lanes and over as a help defender getting free blocks. You take that element out of their defense. Well, it's tough. From your mouth to the Rockets coaches to their video room's ears. Look, there's no really good solution when you have a guy who can just do do everything defender with Anthony Davis and what LeBron James. And LeBron's not moving like a 35 year old. He is his ability to get from the top of the key to the guy that's going to the lane is milliseconds. All right. 212 is our time. We'll hear from coach, hopefully the next half hour or so want to get more on the Astros. When we come back, I've got to tell you about a crazy

ass idea coming from the ACC. That is straight ahead after I tell you about Oops, steam cleaning. 281-822 0561 is the number you can reach to call my friends at Oops Steam Cleaning for true

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281-8220561. They're fully insured and they're available online at oops steam. That's oops steam. dot com. 217 on the Matt Thomas show. We've got, believe it or not, coming up in 33 minutes. Tomorrow on the show, we'll go to Kansas City for an enemies report. Bob Fesco does a morning show in Kansas City.

We'll be with us at 1230. Kansas City, here we come. The first Thursday, Dr. Roto appearance tomorrow will be at 2 o'clock. And we're going to spend at least 20 minutes of that talking about your teams, correct? So you've listened to show then. And then at 1 o'clock tomorrow, so we get 1230 Bob Fesco. One o'clock, we are going to have Matt Ross's and Brendan's NFL selections for the year. Wonderful.

We'll do the Texans record. We will do the playoff teams in both conferences, and we will declare our Super Bowl winners, plus a few overrunners on some various individual stats. Oh, I like that. So kind of a one-clock. Are we going to keep records? I'll keep them, yeah. And then if they're to my advantage, I'll keep them.

And if they're... And if they're wrong, then we'll throw them away. Yeah. And then the file got corrupted if I'm wrong. So... Yes, for sure. So that's on the show tomorrow. So Bob Fesco, NFL predictions for the season.

And Dr. Roto, all tomorrow is a huge show, Matt. It's not bad. Great work. Day after day on the Matt Thomas show, 12 to 3 Sports Talk 7-9. You should listen. People would enjoy the show. I listen half the time. Spread the word.

All right. The ACC. This is college basketball, so, you know, take it with a grain of salt. They all got together, apparently. They must have been on some golfing trip or something. All the ACC coaches got together. And there are a 14-team conference, right? Did they social distance?

Well, it could be a Zoom. You never know. Okay. That's true. They're having a Zoom happy hour with the coaches. So apparently, and I'm not read a whole lot about this, and I want anyone when the shows are with, it kind of broke as we started the show today. They basically have proposed an idea.

that anybody that plays Division 1 basketball this year, because the thought of anybody playing non-conference is probably out the window. We're talking about just league games this year. The ACC is proposing that anybody that plays Division 1 and plays a full conference schedule should be allowed to play and would play in the NCAA tournament. 353 teams. That's presuming that everybody plays.

Well, that's true. 353 possible teams. That's crazy. It's kind of wild, but I kind of like it. I'll be honest with you. I want to see how it would work. So for one year, I'd like to see it too. What?

Again, I don't think it would ever be cool for more than one year. But how in the world do you develop a bracket? Does one play 353? Do you give 60 or 80? or 100 teams a buy? You start at 256, right? Because you've got to go from 64 to 128 to 256. And then from there, I don't know if you have more than that,

then you have some kind of where a lot of people get a first round buy. Let's be safe. Let's presume that there are going to be 30 to 40 schools that don't. So let's put it at 280. Okay. Well, we'll be the derivative of that. 256. Let's add 16s.

Let's say 272 teams. Okay. you have eight playing games, then that gets you down to, I'm sorry, well, I guess 16 playing games, that gets you down to 256, right? Yeah. You're going to have to do something like that to get to 256 thing. Again, I think we'd have to sit down one day, have a couple of pops, and try to figure out the bracket. You have to have a series of buys.

So you would create your original bracket, give everybody in that first bracket a buy. Those first 64 get a buy. Then the next 64 get a buy. Yeah, it's going to be something complicated like that. That would then leave, well, let's do this. Let's give the next set of 64 or buy. So it's 180, no, 64 times 3 would be 192, right? Yes.

Mm-hmm. So the first 192 teams. Yeah. Now, I'm assuming they would have to use the RPI. Yeah, I don't know what you do. I would personally use the Ken Pomeroy ranking. Whatever, but it had to be computer-based. No, it would be something like that.

Or what is the day? They updated the RPI to something else. What do they call it? College RPI, right? I can't remember. Something, but it wouldn't be, there wouldn't be a committee room to say, well, you know, Dartmouth. Yeah. They're about the 117th.

And since everybody's in, you just, I mean, is it 300 and, I mean, is a 27014 going to say, hey, we deserve to be 232, probably, but it is what it is. Okay. So the first 192 teams get a, get a buy. Mm-hmm. Then you then you then create a 128 team bracket out of that and the one team out of that. They're figured out, man. It doesn't matter. Are you sure?

Yeah. It's possible. It's possible. 100%. Let me ask you before going on. I think it'd be fun to watch too. If you are the last team, do you have to play eight games just to get to the regular bracket?

Probably. You might have to play a couple of games. You'd probably have to play at least two games. So there's no way in the world and you think in your mind, you would have one play the very worst team. No. And go from there. No.

One is probably playing 256 or one is playing 128 or something. That's still a while. That's like multiple buys. You can get down there in two games. You're taking out because if you're playing, if 128 teams are playing, that's 160. I mean, it's 64 of them are gone. I'm saying?

Yeah. But you're only, but those first 120, 192 are sticking around. They're not going anywhere. Well, for a game, for a day. Okay. You can play back-to-back day. it's basketball. And by the way,

this might be, as I said before last week, this might all be in a bubble too. Yeah, 192 is not winning it anyway, so they can get screwed. So I would say this. I will gladly embrace

this one year super mega event because the number one thing they're saying is it's not fair to do a 64 or 68 team tournament when you're only playing conference opponents. You've got no chance

to build a resume by playing good teams that could help you bolster. Yeah, obviously it's a little more difficult. I'm in for it. Hey, let's go. I would love to watch that. Now, my bracket rules would have to really be kicked into play. What's that?

No one would say, well, you know, I had the University of San Diego knocking off Missouri Tech. Isn't it like in the trillions to get a perfect bracket as it is? Now when you add in this many teams, the perfect bracket will be the longest odds of the history. Who is it, Warren Buffett or whoever offered a billion dollars, if you won or whatever. Warren Buffett has already announced.

He says if you get every team right, you can have every bit of his money. You can have every cent he owns. He will go, he will be like in trading, trading spaces. Yes. Training places.

The Dukes, yeah. Yeah. Trading places. Trading spaces was a show by fixing people's home. I thought that was the wife swap one. No, no, training places. Training spaces is the show

where you were given $1,000 and to go fix people's homes. Oh, okay. That's what Joe's watching a lot. I'll take your word for it. That in Grey's Anatomy. By way, I haven't checked on you on the

Grey's Anatomy watch. How's that going? I pretty much stopped. What happened? Sports are more important. It was a quarantine thing. Joe. So, I mean, you haven't know what's the latest with McSteamy. Wait a minute. You impregnated your wife and she's not forcing you to watch other females type shows? She goes to sleep at like 8.30, so.

So it's pretty nice. Good for you. You've got the perfect marriage. I'm watching the Rockets games and she's asleep. So how are you going to handle this game tomorrow when it's on six o'clock? Do you watch in the same bed or do you go watch in the living room and then she's a bed and sleep in the bed? I'm in the living room. Okay. So 6 o'clock tomorrow, you got no chance of watching the game, do you?

I'll throw it on my laptop. It'll be fine. Okay. Very good. But then Texans will get the big TV. Tomorrow's a good night. Tomorrow's a great night. Because the Astro started at 2.30.

No, 240. Man, that's tomorrow is knockoff work about two. Yeah. Go to Big City Wings. Yes. Get you a burger. Well, you can't buy one executive chicken and get one free. Thursday's Boneless Wing Day.

Yeah, boneless Wing Day. or a.k. Executive Chicken Nuggets. It's Boneless Day. You just call it, but you don't have to say boneless wings. Why don't you just say boneless? Why don't you change it to boneless? Take the wing out and it's correct. It's still boneless. That's true. I'll accept that. But it's not the best piece of chicken. The wing on the bone in a drum. Oh, okay. The grisly junk meat that's inside of a wing.

Nobody calls it grisly junk meat. I do. Well, you're the only one. That's what it is. When they were creating buffalo wings in Buffalo, New York, whenever that was, they didn't go, hey, there's just grisly piece of meat. Let's call it a wing. No, it's full of flavor. Full of flavor.

Mm, delicious. Yeah, that's why it has to be dipped in buttery buffalo sauce and ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing because it's full of flavor. Oh, is you're telling me that boneless guy doesn't put stuff on it? No. Of course. No. Even chicken nuggets at McDonald's have to have dunked in sweet and sour sauce. Yeah, because that's not even chicken. That's just, that's great. Last time I checked the chicken. Have you seen the slurry that they just Google? No, I'm not Googling anything. I'm a McDonald's alum. The pink slurry that they used to make that stuff is disgusting.

Do we have a Mike Dan Tony update on, has he speaking yet? Is Michael care? Happening soon. Is he still breaking down film? They're on the way to the facility, so it happens soon. All right, very good. So hopefully we're going to answer on what's going on with Daniel House in a minute. 227. Believe it or not, what's the category today?

Highly Googled, but related to what we talked about this segment. Oh, very nice. 713-212-5-790. 713212.5.790. You're going to need some energy for that next segment of the show. Well, you're going to need some energy for tomorrow. You've got the Astros, you got the Texans, you got the rockets going. And if you just haven't been feeling like yourself, if you're in this pandemic malaise, and you're sluggish and you're tired and you're moody and all those types of things, might not be your fault. It might be something that's wrong with you with your testosterone levels.

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Get back in the game of life at 833 FixLotie.com. Hey, this is linebacker Whitney Merciless. Listen to real Texan talk on your smart speaker. Just ask. Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Time is 232. Matt Thomas show continues. Sports Talk 790, 719.

713, 212, 570 if you want to join us. Believe it or not, coming up in about 18 minutes from now. A couple other things. We mentioned Braining Cooks. Among those listed is questionable for tomorrow. night's game with the Chiefs tomorrow. We're going to be in a football mood tomorrow, aren't we? Because the Astros game will be somewhat on the radar as a little bit of later start.

Rockets don't play until the night. We've been waiting for this for months. And I will say this. I will applaud the NFL, much to a no-steroongous on this one. I thought they were going to push season back a month. I mean, it was a very reasonable idea or take. It was just, yeah, they've been doing great. The tests have been there.

They have been, the negative test has been there. They haven't had a whole lot of positives, at least as of late. So good on the NFL for getting this done. And there will be limited fans in Kansas City tomorrow. There will be no fans for the Texans Baltimore game in two weeks. They're hoping they being the Texans, hope that they can open up for some fans for the second home game, which would be against the Minnesota Vikings. Every state's acting differently on this, right?

Yes. There is no, I think it's social distancing. It's what you're willing to put up with. Mask up. You're going to have to go to the game with a mask on, I imagine. I'm sure there's going to be temperature checks. Ooh. Do you think the temperature checks, and this is quasi not sports,

are they really making a difference? I guess it's the easiest way to say, you can't come in my restaurant. You can't come into my place of business. You measure it 101, 102. Okay, that's a non-starter. So, you know, I think there are people bumping around right now with COVID that don't have a temperature. Fair? Yes.

When you had COVID, you didn't have a temperature all the time, did you? Well, I've only for three days. Yeah. So I went up to 100.5 and I never went higher than that. Yeah. So, yeah, I would have only been kept out of there for three days. But you know what? It was better than nothing.

That's true. I just don't know if the temperature checks. There are very, very. Not superficial, but a very thin layer of prevention. And especially, you know what? Thinking about this, I mean, is it going to be, what's the temperature going to be like with the Texans in their home game? What's that on the, is that on the 20th? Mm-hmm.

September 20th? Still summer here in Houston? And you're out there waiting in a hot line, sweating your face off? Is the temperature going to be accurate? Well, you know, that's happened to me one time. I was going to get my teeth clean. Mm-hmm. And I was in my car.

And I don't like a lot of air conditioning. blown at me. Just nice. I usually keep in the lowest level. Oh, really? And I went in there. Blass that bad boy. And they're like, you, we can't treat you right now because you've got a temperature. And I'm like, temperature. The F? I didn't say that literally, but I was saying in my mind. Punch somebody in a face and hit him with a pool cue. So, like, where were you the last 15 minutes? I said, I was in my car. Oh, that makes plenty sense. So they put a fan on me. And two minutes later, I was back at normal temperature. That's what I'm thinking. If you're waiting in line, if unless they're just, they're rapid scanning, which I don't think they are. There's going to be, there's line anytime you're

getting into any stadium. And frankly, if you're parking and you're walking across the street on Kirby, there is a great chance you're going to dial up a little sweat. Yeah, yeah. If you're hoffing it from the orange lot or something like that, you're going to be working up a nice lather, man. But how many, but if you're only putting in 10,000 people, I'm just throwing a number out there,

are they really going to keep every lot open for that? You're going to make the people walk that far that are from that distance? I don't know. It seems a little crazy. I don't know, but yeah, so will there be temperature checks or no? Oh, tell me that facility you've not gone to that as in a temperature check. When I was going to do the rock... Did they check your temperature at Lubies?

They did not. Okay. But they have checked it at Twin Peaks. I've had it checked at El Chimpo. They've checked it at Hooters. They've checked it at not big city wings. I'm trying to think of places I've gone. Pizza place I go to Mod down the street from my house.

They don't check it there. I think it's places that really want you to be inside for a long period of time. That feels like those are the types of places. But Luby said not. We were there today, as a matter of fact. I get nervous when they checked me at El Tempo because it was hot outside, but I was fine. Yeah. So when I was doing the Rockets play-by-play, I was getting checked for temperature in the TOTA center.

Have you seen the latest technology? Maybe I'd be the latest, but I walked over to a, like a little monitor, put my face inside the monitor and it got my temperature at that. Really? And it also detected whether or not I had a mask on, which was really bizarre, which I always did. And then you started getting Amazon ads on your phone. Yeah, and then I got a bunch of tracking you.

And then I got a bunch of Facebook request. Yeah. It's weird. That's interesting. I didn't know they had the facial thing. Yeah. And I think the facial thing may be something for the future for everything. I think they're going to be at airports.

Remember we were talking about, remember when this first thing started? I told you there would be nurses at the, at Gates to check, temperatures, that's going to replace that, those, these automated things. Dang, even nurses are getting replaced in 2020. Well, I'm just saying, I don't know if you're going to be able to get on a plane. Now, I think I got my temperature checked in Lubbock. I don't remember. I think I did.

And we're in Kim, where at the gate or? At the gate. What if you're, what if you're a hundred fever at the gate? Are they just going to, do you get a refund on your ticket? Well, I don't know the answer to that. My guess would be if you go back, maybe you catch a later flight that day. What if your temperature is still temperature then?

Well, then you're going to just have to keep waiting it out until, I'm sure there's a caveat of saying, did not pass temperature protocol. Well, at least get a Southwest and get your money, get your, what do you, not store credit, but whatever you would call it. Same thing with United. They do that now?

Yeah, they're done with change fees. Oh, what? Yes. Well, welcome to what, Toto 2020. A nice job, United. Finally, it took you 10 damn years. Yeah, zero change fees. And their change fees were $200.

That's why I didn't, if I could fly Southwest every time, I would. They just don't fly to everywhere. Right. And that's why United's going to ultimately win this because they've got more destinations, more non-stops. And again, their customer service is a little bit of desired. As Greg Cook, how their customer services. Poor Greg. The stories he can tell.

But at least they don't. They don't charge you for it because that $200 is pretty stout. So LSU is going to have 26,000 fans at 25% capacity and they also will have no tailgating. Zero tailgating? No tailgating. Do the people Louisiana know this yet? I don't know. Hopefully it hits the Times pick of you and by the time's Saturday so they know.

That's bad news. I mean, that should have a, that's Baton Rouge Radio. I say, I can't do a Louisiana expert. Me either, not really. Joe, can you do one? I'll take that as a no. I just go, yeah, baby. You're at me?

This is, get that gumbo over there now, baby. Where's Gordy? I don't know now. Where Gordy at door? Gordy, listen. Come in and do Baton Rouge radio for one second. Baton Rouge.

This is Baton Rouge, Sporselaida. Why does it sound like you're doing your terrible Cosby almost? It is. 1150 on the dial. We all. We get to get the surf report. We are the Baton Rouge. Porcelita.

Do y'all hear, we cannot go to the games and have a couple of pops before the games. What? We cannot need the gumbo and the hush puppies. And the alcohol and the massive amounts of alcohol from the cheap beer we buy at the grocery store. This is terrible. I can't do this. I'm done. I'm done.

Gordy, where are you? Jesus, get in here. Get the pole boy now there are from Domalusus, baby. Go down on what is it was a punch of train. Let it. Is Gordon to listen to another show? Because usually we mention his name. He runs in here as fast as possible.

Maybe he's recording his SEC podcaster. Jeez. Or maybe he's working on, I mean, any number of things LSU related. Nothing revolving around us, but that's not the here nor there. See, this is here. I can't do it. Woo! Welcome back to a Baton Rouge sports leader, baby.

1150 on the AM dial. Y'all hear? They say y'all in Louisiana? Matt T. You got a little gumbo on your foot mouth there. Very. Come, there he is. Get in here. Cori.

Do some Louisiana sports talk that LSU can't tailgate. Come on now. Coming up at five, we're going to discuss. No, that's not it. What will the bail cost if you get arrested for tailgate? No, no, no. No, no.

If 200 RVs show up in that. No. I'm going to tow them all? They should. They're not. They should. We want your Louisiana accent on. I don't care what you say.

People at college station, tailgate like crazy. as well. They are showing up the tailgate. They're not all staying home. Man, how you get? Well, you can't really social distance during beer pong, can you? Yeah, you stay 10 feet away from people. No, we can't do it teams. Well, you take turns. Yeah, but then you all touch the same grimy ping pong ball. That's why you have a water cup. Can we stop this right now? You put a little rubbing alcohol in the water cup? I'll put a little Everclear in it. Oh, Everclear will kill anybody.

Exactly. So if I'm listening to Bat Roos sports leader, the number one sports dude in Baton Rouge. Give me what he's going to sound like. I can play the keep in music. Matt Muscona? Maybe not Matt. He doesn't really have an accent. Yeah, he does.

There's got to be somebody named Harold Robeshow, right? Oh, yeah. Landry's a big one. Go ahead. Where's that music? Fire it off one more time. This is, this is gaudy doing this. Oh, by way, we have a, you have a parody for tomorrow?

Oh, come on now. Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's opening night. It's opening night. I'm texting you right now. The best ones are last minute put together. Yeah. All right.

I'm texting you right now. That's what we need to tell our. So give us 30 seconds before we go to break here of Lafayette and our Baton Rouge sports leader. What's happening? You're Mark Landry here, presented by Cuyons Poe Boys. Coming up, we're going to be talking about, you can't tailgate for the game? I know Boudron-Tibedo are going to be paying their fines if they get arrested for tailgating. They got to get the jambalaya going at 2 a.m.

Does that work? We need the great. We need to a Louisiana Sports Minute every week. Yes. Because, you know what? We don't want to give you any more shine, but your voice is so good that we would give you a minute. You know, we used to do the Duncan Road Rockney football picks. We need the Louisiana sports picks every week.

Like Saints picked this week. Yeah, of course, the Saints win by 45 every week. With Derek Abad Jr. The funny thing is nobody in Baton Rouge talks. That's Lake Charles and Lafayette. Like, Lafayette, ooh, the raging Cajuns share? That's Cajun country. All right, I just texted you for a parody for tomorrow.

We'll see if we come up with one. Damn. Whatever Pop-Hitt is going right now. You couldn't have me know. like Monday? No, it wouldn't have made any difference. I actually texted him to remind you a couple days ago. As my fault. You know, that's why we call him awful football parody.

But they're also an American treasure. People ask about them constantly. We could put them on a CD and make you some money. I know what you can do. You can do blinding lights by the weekend. That'd be a good one to parody. Matt doesn't know that. So what? It's got to be like, John or the Beatles or something he knows. You're just awful. Both of you making fun of me while I'm in the room. The latest from Carly Simon.

All right. Gordy's parody tomorrow. 1250. He's got basically, what, 20 hours to do it. I want to remind you about Cromberg flags and flagpoles. These are folks that I'm telling you, if you want to represent the state of Louisiana with a state flag or Texas or Arkansas or Louisiana or wherever you're from, you can do it with Cromberg's flags and flagpoles. Bel Air Base Company, they love to visit with you on the phone at 713661-922. If you are in charge of a school, if you're administrator, maybe you're a parent and a leader. of a PTA and your school needs a new flag or a flagpole or a banner for that matter. Cromberg's flags and flagpoles can do it for you.

713-661-922. We give away Astro flags on every Astros on Decks show. Guess what they come from? They're amazing. They're awesome. And they come from Cromberg's flags. For more to tales, check out their website, Cromberg's Flags and Flagpoles.com or give them a call at 713-661-922. If you need a flag, a banner that really needs to stand out, get it from Cromberg's.

713-661-922. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Robert's fine. Got hit in the nose, your heart and a lot of blood, but he's completely over. He seems to be ready to go. He's here in practice, so I don't see anything at all well with him. Daniel, we haven't heard yet.

Huh. I don't have anything to respond, except that's good done, Robert Covington. Daniel House Jr. and Tyson Chandler out for personal reasons hours before the game yesterday. Mm-hmm. Why? Daniel, we haven't heard yet. Oh. Reality is there's something going on. They don't want to tell you.

Something is rotten in Denmark. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what the, I mean, not that I'm sitting there kicking the tires of people in Orlando. You know, that bubble world is pretty locked in. When's Woj going to weigh in on this? When's Sham's going to come out with the salacious details? Honestly, Ross, I hope it's not salacious. I hope it's not something that's going to piss us off. Well, nothing could piss me off.

Well, that's not true. What if it's something that he did that he wasn't supposed to be doing? Like he broke protocol or something like that? I don't know. Or was out 4 o'clock in the morning playing golf? Or... I mean, a big golfer?

What's his handicap? I don't know. I'm just saying that I just, it's sad. If it's a personal problem, it's sad, but that wouldn't that usually mean that would be a,

he would leave the protocol for that, right? Yeah. If there was a protocol violation, I think that would be made public. No, I'm saying that if somebody, if you're in the bubble

and somebody said, we got this problem, it's personal, that would probably mean you have to get up and go to wherever that problem is. Yes. That's what makes it so bizarre.

how could you have a personal problem in the protocol in the bubble unless it happened in the bubble attending family matters the whole time right and they had to leave and then they came back so i you know again it's it's i don't want to say it's reckless speculation but it's it's we don't know it just yeah i just don't know i'm trying to put the pieces together and i'm coming up empty every time that's okay five minutes left to go on the show what should we do We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply call it B, believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713212-570.

7-13-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe or Not, brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Printout you gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston, Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is something we talked about earlier this hour. it appears the ACC wants every school that plays Division I basketball to be in the NCAA tournament. So I'm going to ask you,

does this school play Division I basketball? I'll give you a school in the conference. If it's true and accurate, you'll say this. Believe it. If we made it up or put some erroneous information in there, you'll say this. Not.

Two, believe it or not, in a row, win your prize. Ross, the first prize is a Mombo seafood card of $25. It's Mombonifico. Yes, Joe George, you're telling me it's a DVD. You'll have a choice of four. You'll pick one.

Really? You're going to have to take the time of that? Does 18 know you're going to be taking away time from their show for that? All right. I choose Johnny Mnemonic. Let's play. Believe it or not. John on 790, John, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. High Point University plays in the Big South Conference. Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, they do. Sorry. Duh. It's not a duh.

It made me a no doi, but it's not a duh. Line number three. Raphael on 790, Raphael, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Cal State Bakersfield plays in the West Coast Conference. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, they're Division 2.

All right. Bill, you won like last week. Roger. I have one in a while. May I told the last one was shoes and they were closed. Just like Louie's closing. Let's go, baby. Wagner College plays in the Northeast Conference.

Believe it or not. Man, that's not. Believe it. Bye. And I find it quite satisfying. And remember, we're playing for $25 a mumbo-nefico seafood. 7-13-212-5-790. Jackson on 790.

You're ready to play, believe it or not? State University in New York, Stony Brook, plays in the Colonial Athletic Conference. Believe it or not. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Winthrop University plays in the Big South Conference. Believe it or not. Not.

No, they do, sorry. Dang. We can't be giving away these Mammonipikos if you can't get too right. Rick on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Virginia Military Institute plays in. the Big South Conference. Believe it or not? Oh, they do. Dang.

Watch out for VMI, Matt. Casey on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. University of Massachusetts Amherst plays as an independent. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the way in Lane College plays as a member of the Sunbelt Conference. Believe it or not. Believe it.

No, their division to. Ross, you have done a magnificent job today of perplexing these people. All right, got to get a caller online. Number three, John on 790, John, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Grand Canyon University plays in the Western Athletic Conference. Believe it or not. Not.

They do. Their longtime coach was Dan Marley. I think Bryce Drews are coached now. Don't hold me to that. how I know so much about Grand Canyon is beside me. Let's go. One more. Let's go to Matt on line one.

Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. American University plays in the Patriot League. Believe it or not. Believe it. There you go. You're going to get some Mambonipical out of that one. Nice job.

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19822, 281, 351, 9822 for hoops. Tomorrow on the show, we go to Bob Fesco in Kansas City for an update on the Chiefs. We got Dr. Roto on the radio program. We have our NFL predictions, and we have so much more. Adam Clayton, Adam Wex, are going to entertain a heck out of you for the next three hours. They are affectionately known as the A team. I'll join you guys at 7 for Astros on deck. Stay tuned, 8-Team next on 790.