The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - KD GAME WINNER! Tatsuya Imai is Loving H-town, Texans/Steelers Preview

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

KD GAME WINNER! Tatsuya Imai is Loving H-town, Texans/Steelers Preview 

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10.1 in H-Town. Good morning, and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. If you're lost, you can look, and you will find me time after time. I got to be honest. I am not. Not a Cindy Lopper fan at all.

I think girls just want to have fun is one of the most irritating songs I've ever heard in my entire life. Sounds like you don't want to have fun. But I like time after time. And I figured it made perfect sense with that disastrous first half when it came to the clock and the scoreboard malfunction. What the hell was going on out there? Oh, my God. It was a hot mess. There was no announcements or anything.

I was in the stance. Yeah. Thanks to a good friend of mine. Great friend. great friend that could be better all right it's fine that's fair friend's gonna get you a new daytime or two too and we'll see i've been hearing that for six months i got water i got water damage in this one

you gotta get a bigger one that's not the first time we've heard that before either that's true well there's nothing i can do about that Jonathan don't shake your head of this early it's like to write this down it is what it is and go to turkey All right, so the first half, and I actually aired, I didn't think that Jonathan Sanford was going to announce the time. He did. He eventually did the time and the stocklock.

He started not doing any of it. Then he started doing it for the rockets. He would do 10 seconds, and then that would it. And then he was doing full on like 5, 4, 3, 2.1s. Right, which was weird because he was doing it even after the ball left its hands, which is kind of defeats the purpose. Well. Look, tough situation last night. The scoreboard wasn't working. And thankfully at halftime, they're able to replace a CPU or whatever they want to call it. And slowly but surely we had ourselves a fluid second half. Yeah. And a game where the Rockets, I mean, that would have stung sports every for a variety of reasons.

They tried their damnedest to lose that game. They sure did. They just really did. Sloppy play, bad turnovers. Can't hit three again for the second straight night. make a three to save their lives. I mean, we knew they weren't going to be the number one three-point shooting team all season long. We just knew that wasn't going to be the case. So the water is finding its level there, unfortunately, or I should

say, fortunately, you go nine of 37 from three. You have all those turnovers. Was it, yeah, well, 14 turnovers. It's not that bad. A lot of them were bad. A lot of them were bad turnovers that ended up into Phoenix Sun's buckets.

Well, they turned, a couple of they were turned over on inbound passes, which you give them extra possessions right off the get-go there. I mean, a couple of times. Reed Shepard, like, Kevin Durant is blanketed and Reed Shepard just lazily throws it to Kevin Durant and he gets stolen for a bucket the other way. Just

frustrating. You can have bad turnover so look, as we kind of talked about. Offensive fouls, that kind of thing. Nobody on the team is a great ball handler. Kevin Durant's going to dribble the ball off his ankle every now and then. Yeah, since the day he started playing. Alvin Shingoon's going to, you know, have a loose handle, get double team to lose the ball, even though he wasn't playing last night.

Those types of turnovers, they're kind of going to happen. The bad, lazy passes, those are the ones that become such a frustration. Yeah. And Phoenix played the night before, won a game on the buzzer with a three-pointer by Devin Booker to beat Oklahoma City. Then they went to the airport or their plane was, they had mechanical issues, so they didn't even leave Phoenix until yesterday morning, got to Houston with like four or five hours before tip time. So you're thinking, it's funny, I was. telling the Phoenix Sun's announcement. I said, either this

Rockets are going to win by 20 or lose by 20. That's how these things work. I didn't anticipate this thing back and forth game. I thought the Rockets, and they had times showed they were going to run them out of the building in the second half. It looked like the three-point shot was failing the Suns until Devin Booker heated up in the fourth quarter. And

you know, he has not been a good three-point shooter for them at all any point this year. He had the game winners I mentioned against the Thunder a couple nights ago. And he almost single-handly brought them back to win the game yesterday. But amend Thompson, terrorized the paint. Jabari Smith had a couple of big threes,

and then obviously Katie with that right side three, as he said, and you're going to hear from coming up a little bit. Everything is advertised. Everything is advertised. He has been healthy. He is playing top five minutes in the NBA, which I know in EMA and I have talked about this. The plan is to get them off that list.

Two of the top five players in the NBA, if you include Shingoon, three of the top six. I believe in terms of minutes played per game belonged to the Houston Rocket starters. Now, men's 22, 23, so who cares? Shingoon's also... Well, he's getting banged up. Yeah, well, that was just flukeish on that way.

You just don't want... Calf Strain before that. Yeah, you just don't... I don't think you want Kevin Durant in that mix, but if you need them right now to score, and that's the one thing that's a difference between this year's Rocket team and last year's is that you questioned who was going to be that

I've got the ball in my hand, I'm going to leave, let the building leave with a bunch of happy smiley faces and he hit that one and I mean it was awesome it was it was great the crowd exploded it was fun and that shot is why he is here he is here because the rockets needed a closer they did not have one in the playoffs and that exact moment is what he is here for yeah that was a closer moment last night for katy and the rest of the rockets who by the way that was only a second three-pointer in 11 tries he is was clanking them open ones too the whole team second straight night I mean the last two games I did the math

the broadcast, and I was like, I don't think I want to mention that again, because it was, it was not good. But the Rockets did win, and the Thunder played a back-to-back game, too, just like the Phoenix Suns did. Mm-hmm. They had a home game against the Charlotte Hornets, and they got destroyed by the Hornets. Hmm. That thought of us, thinking the Thunder were to go 74 and 8, well, that's an afterthought now.

I'm feeling great about it now. You can't feel great about it. They've got to win, like, 40 in a row now. No, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm feeling great as a Rockets fan because I told you I have the Thunder Cloud. No pun intended, but kind of pun intended. Well, how's that pun now? It feels...

It's dissipated. Yeah, it's wispy. Yeah. You ever notice that term wispy is only talked about with clouds? Mustaches. That's true, two things. Can you name a third? Whispy mustache, wispy clouds, and wispy...

Think about that for a minute. I did. I'm going to hold my tongue. I don't care what you hold. okay what else is what else is you have to tell us is there something else is a wispy nope

tell me during the break nope okay all right uh seven can get you mad at me what about me's wispy I'm looking around

he's a nothing clearly all right the radio show today is going to take you until 2 o'clock I got to back out a little early because the rocket's flight

to Portland way. I know, we're playing more road games. That's good. Do you know? No, it's good. Rack them up. And rest up and be rested in the second half. Do you get home?

Did I bring this up on the show yesterday? If I did, I apologize. Okay. So we're going to play three more on the road this week. Yes. Back home on Monday. All right. That will be 39 games after that point.

We're almost at the halfway point of the season. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it is crazy. 26 of the 39 games will have been on the road. That's literally two to one. Mm-hmm. there is that ties the biggest discrepancy between road and home games in NBA history after 39 games. I like it.

Because, I mean, they're going to be, they're going to be resting, ready, and refresh in the second half. I hope you're right. Because they're already in a good spot. Because, again, I don't know what my family is doing these days. They just take money from my debit account, which is fine. But I don't know what they look like. I used to it. Yeah.

But they got a five-game homestand right after that three-game road trip. That's a meaty homestand. some big games thunder spurs and timber wolves and bulls and pelicans so yeah it's it's it's got some those are the openers it's like a buffet he's got the appetizers thing at the main courses but yeah oklahoma san antonio a san Antonio series get a little worried about them no I think it's just going to be super uber intense I want to make sure to figure out if the san Antonio team is real or they're just trying to I mean they have three wins against the thunder so far this year That means they're kind of real, but the thunder are faltering, so.

They are a little bit. All right. On the show today, we will have, we're going to move gut feelings from 1130 to 1230 today because at 1130, we're going to talk to Sam Khan. He is one of the best college football writers in the country. He works for athletic, which we love. His specialty is following the transfer portal on NIL. So I wanted, it's not necessarily a bottom of a bunch of opinions. I'm curious about some of the logistics behind this, because I don't know if you've been noticing this, Ross.

every time a player signs with a particular team and a reporter announces it it says represented by there are major major agencies in this country representing college kids now I cannot I could not believe not man I know what it's going on now

but the thought of this 10 years ago is crazy yeah and Steve Sarkeesian was talking about there are some good agents who know what they're doing and then there's somebody who's like this guy's cousin and he doesn't know how to negotiate or how to go about business In the NBA, baseball, and basketball, you have to be certified by the league to represent. There can't be any way these kids are, these guys are being certified.

Probably not. Because there's 300 schools that are doing this. Yes. Like I said, there needs more structure. I love that the kids are getting paid. Certainly there needs to be more structure, though. Yeah. All right.

So we got that going on. At 120, and I'll be in the car listening. I've never listened to Rotten 5 live. I mean, I've been in the studio with you, but we have the final Rotten 5 of the area. Who was the worst football team in the NFL this year? I have a pretty good guess of the estimation who that is. There's really down to about two teams. But I think one separated himself from the rest over the last month or so.

So we got the final rotten five at 120. We've got feelings at 12.30. Sam Khan 1130, well, the news at noon. And when we come back, we're going to hear not necessarily because Kevin Duran is always thoughtful. But he's not one of a guy that lets his guard down, but I thought it was a, as human of a moment as we've had if Kevin Durrano's a rocket. And it was an interview that Vanessa Richardson did on Space City Network last night.

We're going to play that for you next. 1014. Y'all out there? What's that? 713-212-5-790. If you want to join the show, if you watch the game, listen to the game. Want to get into some Texans Pittsburgh Steeler conversation. We can certainly do that as well. And any other impressions about

by the way, our guy, Emi, is all over town. or the Rockets came last night. Yes, he was. Throwing the H's up. I love it. I, I, I, I'm really excited about that. I don't know why. See, I'm, it seems ridiculous, but he's going the extra mile.

I like that. I am anti-throwing up H's. Yes, you are. And that's okay. But it's, but it's not, it's not about me. It's about him endearing himself. Bun B throws up the H? Yeah, but that's your guy.

That's your guy. He's my guy. Well, he's from Port Arthur, though. That's harder to throw up a P and A. 713-212. 790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Matt Ross, Jonathan, with you on a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show, Ross, here on Sports Talk, 7-90. Thank you very much for spending some time with us. You 10 o'clockers, we have extra affinity towards you. We love all of our four-hour listeners,

but we really appreciate y'all taking the time to be part with us right at the start of the show. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. If you want to follow, follow us on Twitter. You may do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV. And of course, our station account is at Sports Talk 790. All right. So, and again, I don't want to read too much into this, but it was just kind of nice. And look, Kevin Durant's a human. He's ridiculously rich. He's one of the greatest players ever to play in the NBA. But I thought he was kind of, I'm trying to think of the term of it. It was such an endearing moment, is what I'll say. Here is the conversation that he had with Vanessa Richardson. If you're in the arena last night, you got to hear this in the building. It was also on a Space City Network. Vanessa Richardson. So Kevin, you're in.

Your second three of the game. Let the crowd. Kevin, your second three-pointer of the game, and it couldn't have been better timing. What did you see on that shot? All my three-pointers felt good. leaving my hand and someone was back rimmed too strong and I'm like I'm a hit one at some point I kept telling the team that I'm a hit a three at some point and you know by the grace of God it was the last one how would you describe the feeling as that shot left your hands you looked like

you knew you had it the whole time yeah I mean I got to my spot I feel like on that right wing that pull up is my shot and I just tried to you know leave my follow through up there and focus on my fundamentals and it went through we needed it it was a game of runs the entire time how were you all put together that final run to seal the deal i mean it was it was a physical game both teams played extremely hard on defense on the defensive side of the ball i just think we made more shots to end the game to be honest i think it was a pretty even game but we made more shots at the end i mean's playmaking and ball handling in that fourth quarter was really elite what did you like about that yeah i mean just being able to control the offense that three-point play set us up

for this game winner and without that three-point play him getting get down to the rim and finishing the free throws we wouldn't be in his position so toy was big for us what's is like to hear everybody at Toyota Center Channing MVP. You, I mean, being booed in here so many years. Being an opposing player and being booed, you know, it feels

good to come out here and get some love. I love Houston. I love Texas. I'm just grateful for him. I'm representing the Rockies. Thanks, Ken. He loves him from Houston, loves him some Texas. Yes, let's go. Hook him Horns. If I was to relinquish my role as Mr. Texas. Oh, my God. I would give it to Kevin Durant.

You are not Mr. Texas. The worst candidate. Not about food. It's about the culture. It's about the lifestyle. You in general, Santa Ana. The worst candidates for Mr. Texas. And then Kevin was in the locker room after the game last night and basically said,

you know what? I enjoyed beating my old team because I felt like I was the fall guy there. The problems in Phoenix, they wanted to blame me for it. And that wasn't fair. Yes. It was like the first time he was forced out of somewhere Rather than leaving on his own

Or wanting to be traded Like with the Nets and stuff like that Right, right, right. Yeah, so Again, you and I had one first impression You only get one of those And we thought it was awesome He's great

You've not shaken, you've not cleaned your hand Or wash your hand since you shook yours He remembered when you slap high fives with him Way back in the day at the University of Texas But he pretended and that was very nice nice that was very sweet i've had him on the radio post game with me two times yes two for two when it comes of thoughtfulness he's yeah now he is savage a f on twitter he will he will annihilate you if you need to be yeah i think that's great yeah i love that he does that yeah he wears his heart on

his sleeve matt yeah and he's one of the one of the 15 greatest players ever play he's 37 years old yes playing top five minutes in the NBA not at fifth 40, 90 at this moment, but he's 89, 39, 39. He's not as quick as he used to be. Nope. He's got to force his way. He's got to throw in a little more fakes, a little more shoving, a little more off, pushing

with the off hand. He's measured. He's measured. Yeah, he's crafty. Yeah. He's got to be throwing a couple little extra fakes and body feints and stuff like that to get the wiggle to wiggle to get that space. But he only needs a sliver of space. And if you get him any space, he can make the

And I also brought this up last week as worth of repeating again, is that, you know, I've always been concerned about his minutes. He's not really, he's running 80 feet. He's not running 94. He kind of camps out of the top of the key, a little bit beyond at mid court. Then if he makes his move towards the basket, a 15-foot spot has been his sweet spot, his entire NBA career. He's not putting his back to the basket. He's not necessarily going in there and fighting with everybody else for the loose rebounds. so physically he's not nearly his tax.

I think he's just being a smarter, more methodical basketball player in terms of plotting where he is on the floor. It's being economical with his energy, Matt. Yeah. All right, so I'm going to bring up just a good old-fashioned generic question. And I don't know if we're going to get any response. I'd like to get some response. Okay.

Look, the Rockets are playing about the same level of basketball win-loss percentage than they were a year ago. Maybe it's a game or too often. It's not much. and you obviously have a better team on paper. You have that go-to threat like KD had. And Alperin's taking its next step up in his development. A man Thompson has.

Jabari Smith has. There have been some blips on the radar. I mean, the loss of Fred Van Vleek cannot be overstated. The turnover count is high. This team has struggled from three. It's got a little bit of injury issues, and not every team certainly is going to have that. And I'm coming from a purely biased perspective on this. I'm really having a good time.

And I really hope the city of Houston is having a good time. We have a good sports culture right now. I thought for a Monday the crowd was good. I thought the crowd was pretty much filled in for the most part early on, which it's still got some work to do on that. Yes. Even Sucky Brooklyn had a full crowd at tip time. For a Monday at the Suns, it was pretty solid.

Yeah. Are y'all buying in a little bit? Is that your question? That's my question. And I don't mean to make it. We're buying the rockets. Let's go. Are you buying it a little?

bit. I'm asking you to go buy shirts. I'm not asking you to go buy season ticket plans. I'm just saying, hey, are you buying it a little bit? Fun, physical. I think a lot of people complain about today's NBA, like, oh, they don't play hard or what. Like, this team plays hard. They play hard. They play physical basketball. I'm in Thompson going up and down the floor is fun to watch. I mean, Stephen Adams, rebounds. Kevin Durant's, one of the greatest players to ever walk the planet. Operin Shungoon when he's playing is extremely entertaining. and they are winning 22 and 11

and the 4 spot in the West and I think once they settle in and get more home games they're going to be better so I'm just going to ask you are you enjoying it yes well you and I would

because we're basketball frets but you know to the general population give us a call yeah 713212 5790 now if you're losing to the New Orleans Pelicans

after giving up a 25 point you're probably not calling and saying I'm having a great time Matt this is fantastic but last night was for a play by play announcer great for me

because that's what you do it for you you call 47 minutes and 55 seconds of a basketball game hoping you get a five second dramatic finish and you certainly got that last night and it's fun it's fun to see them do their thing there's different heroes every night

but Katie's been remarkably consistent now the MVP chance were cute you're not going to be in that category but for the rockets I had a man Tom's in the post game show last night. I said, man, you didn't want to lose that game. That's a 22-year-old kid who could very easily say,

you know, it's our off night. He didn't want to lose that game yesterday. He knew how bad it would be having a Phoenix Sun's team who played the night before, flew in the day of the game, how bad that would have looked. Also said, it was his most fun moment as a rocket so far. Think about this. You're a man, you're 22 years old. You grew up watching

that guy. Yes. And that guy is your teammate now. Yeah. He was a toddler when Kevin Durant was starting his career. It would be like, for me, having, you know, having, you know, the great, like, Jim Nance, like, hey, Matt, let's do some games together. What? Excuse me? What? You want to work some basketball games with me or football games? Well, he asked you to refill his coffee. That's close.

Yeah, I did. I did shine his shoes. Yeah. 713-2-1. I didn't shine his shoes. I mean, I would add, though. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas Show, Ross. join it? And I'm going to, we're going to ask about this every 10 games. We are.

Yes. Because now I'm a lot of officially standings watch. It's a calendar turn. That's true. It is the calendar turn. Well, we have full standings breakdown coming up. No, we're not going to do that. 7.13, 2,1,000, 5, 790. All right, at 11 o'clock this morning, in 20 minutes, Ross is going to go

deep into the archives. And he's going to tell us what our predictions were for the playoffs in the regular season. I'm deathly afraid, because I know yours is wrong. And my guess is if yours is wrong, mine's wrong. No, I mean,

don't even say it. What was I thinking? You know what you have? You have... Oh, here we go. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to say this. You're wrong. I want you to be mad at me.

That's fine. You have too much faith in Lamar Jackson. Well, you just do. They had a lot of injuries? I know, but... They were Super Bowl favorites. I know. He is a two-time MVP.

Yeah. Who doesn't perform well in the postseason. Now, he was great again. He's had some good games in the post-season. Stop. They've been great. Okay. Now, those two touchdown passy through to Zay Flowers were very impressive.

They should have won the game. Yeah. They got in position to win the game. Tyler Loop missed the kick. Tyler Loop. And then everybody and their grandma was going to be deathly afraid of Lamar Jackson facing the Houston Texans. You know who didn't want to face Lamar Jackson?

You know who holds Lamar Jackson in high regard? Demico Ryan's who's 0 in 3 against Lamar Jackson. Pat Mahomes is not necessarily a word about Lamar Jackson. Josh Allen's not worried about Lamar Jackson. I think he should be. Josh Allen needs to be worried about Josh Allen. Josh Allen is. See, that's the thing.

This makes me laugh. Josh Allen is this some kind of unstoppable, can do everything. He hasn't gone anywhere. To be fair. Either. They're in the same category. Same category. Let's talk to the people of Houston, Texas.

Frank, Northside 1036 on the Matt Thomas show. Frank, good morning to you. Hey, what's going on, fellas? Hey, I got one problem with Kevin Durant. The only problem I got with, all these barbershops, we got down here in Houston, Texas. You mean you tell me he can't get a free haircut nowhere? Hmm. I think he just doesn't mind looking like that, Frank.

He always walks around like that. Well, we got to introduce him to... What is the phrase from Friday? It looks like a bunch of spiders are having a meeting on his head? The ball got the goat. Frank, he's going to find out about this. Frank? Frank, I wouldn't say all these things. He's going to find you and hunt you down.

Kevin does not care. Kevin, I mean, Frank, clearly Kevin does not care. Why don't you, he just left the hoop. He wants the hoop. What old guy? Jeff Green? Yeah. He got really his.

He went bald. Why don't you let Kevin live his life? Why are you haircut checking and? man. Well, if you living in Houston, he got to go with the code. Well, I think he knew that one at home. Zero.

Zero guard. All the way around. We can't have him walk around here with the LeBron James syndrome. No, LeBron James actually takes care of his beard in his... You know he dyes his hair. He's got to have crazy. He goes to Tim Duncan Grecian Farmer. See, but I've been arguing for years.

Why don't they just go... like in the 70s, guys would walk around with the afro. It makes them more impressive. If Kevin Durant, he's got his hair is falling out and he's out there dropping 25, 30 a night, it's impressive. If LeBron James would have gone full gray with no hairline

and he's flying like 12 feet above the rim, it's more impressive. I'd be more impressed. I don't care of Kevin Durant's in drag. Score 30 points a game. Tom Brady had to carve his face up and get 17 surgeries. Just go out there like an old man. It looked like Philly

Rivers. He let himself go. It's more impressive. You think I'm going to shame everybody about hair. You can forget it. I'm not shaming anybody. Let me tell you. I love my baldness. Kevin Durant clearly does not care what you think about his hair, Frank. I mean, he goes out there and like he got

crushed for having like ashy legs and stuff like that. He just wants to hoop. I respect that. He loves hoodies in or in buildings too. He puts that hood on as soon as he goes to the bank. He knows how drafty it is in NBA arenas. Because he's the Slim Reaper.

Whatever. I guess he must have gotten the okay from basketball ops, right? On that, because they put it on the scoreboard now. I thought he didn't like that nickname. Do they clear it with it? I've never had a conversation about him. They had to have cleared that with him, right? They would ask, right?

Yes. Yeah, because now his Instagram is sniper, right? He has easy money sniper. Yeah. That's hard for me to say that. That's the easy money sniper of the basket. You should say it. Mixing it.

could mix it in. Mix it in an easy money sniper. I did call him Slim River one time. Okay. And it was kind of by accident. I wasn't trying to intentionally do it. Uh-huh. But I was thinking of different ways of Katie Durant. Like for a man, it's a man, a man, Thompson, Thompson. I call him twin occasionally. Yes.

So, I mean, you're just trying to change the vernacular to, you know, it's just strange saying the same thing over and over and over. You've got to mix it up. There's 82 games. Yeah. And 200 possessions a game. Get that right. Let's talk to Roger on 790 at 10. 39. Roger, good morning to you. Good morning, Matt, and Ross.

So, yeah, you're asking that we're having a good time. I always having a good time, well, when they hired Madoca, because you know the culture was going to change. You know it's going to be different around here. Same thing when the Texans got to Nico Ryan. Now, the Osher's already had a built-in culture. Now, it took a hit last year, but it's still a good culture. No, the, the culture change in Houston is nice,

Of course, you need some rings to go with that. I really think yesterday was, you know, Kevin Durant wiped the face off a loss just with one shot because that was ugly. We need a point guard. I don't know. I don't even know if that's even an argument. That offense is wonky right now.

Even when Shagoon comes back, it does kind of bogged down. You do need a point guard if you're going to go really, really deep in the playoffs to facilitate. Now, Reese Shepard for all his efforts. I love the kid. He needs to just be a shot. make her just look on a shot he can't do both obviously

but you know that doesn't say you might be in the future he's right now you can't man that was a crazy game yesterday man I love Dylan Brooks man that he's awesome I wish we still had him but that's it man yeah of course I'm having a good time watching our guys man that's fun

all right guys I'm a good one thanks Roger you know DB he can't even really be really Dylan Brooks here because he loves his old teammates so much. It was chippy for about the first 60 seconds, but then it was faux chippy because nobody could re-series about it. You could see him smiling. Like he was kind of like push shoving on Jabari Smith Jr. And then they kind of smile like eh. I think he and he he he and uh,

Kevin Durant though, I think we're talking some trash like well they were never teammates. Yeah. That helps. It looked a little serious between them two for a little while. Not serious. You know what I'm saying. Like they weren't going to throw hands, but like serious trash talk. Yeah. There's one building in America that Dylan Brooks can't be done. Brooks, and it's here. He'd go to Memphis and they hate him there already. He was getting emotional. The first time he came and they did the tribute video, he was tearing up.

Yeah. I, Jaylen Green wasn't. Not so much. I've said this before, and there's a handful of athletes in sports that when they're wearing your gear, you love them, and when they don't wear your gear, you hate them. And that could happen for, it's in all sports. But DB

may be the top of my list. I mean, I loathed Gunnam Brooks as a Memphis Grizzly, and then he comes to Houston, and he just, he met the swagger that Emey demanded from his team. Yeah, he's still, it's still fun. Now, even now that he's not, he's a son, I don't really root against him because, I mean, he was a rocket.

And I understand. I understand. It's like, I get it. It's Dylan Brooks. He's going to go and start a bunch of bleep. He's going to play hard defense. Yeah. He's going to throw up a bunch of 15-foot fade-aways.

He's going to hit open threes in the first half, and then he's going to break them in the second. Well, Royce-on-eiled did that, too. Yeah. Yeah, Royston-Neil. by Jordan Goodwin's face mask. That guy was legitimately scary last night. Yeah.

I was in effect his shot because he was knocking down threes left and right. Phoenix seems okay. Yeah, 21 and 15. Yeah. But rockets are three and all against him. And fourth in the west. Against the Mavericks, one of the hashtag standings watch. Oh, we do a lot of standings watch on the show.

We're going to do too much of it. There's another show in the talent in the market that gives you more standings coverage. I want to know who it is. All right. 1043. It is Matt and Ross. We are with you today until 2 o'clock. Actually, one of us is 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Rockets back on the road for a three-game Western road trip. Two to Portland. Temperatures in the high 40s. That's not great. Don't enjoy that. You'll be. You stay inside. Go outside. I'm going to walk tonight. Go to walk to dinner. Yeah. You would be surprised how much walking I do on the road. I actually, maybe I would. Try and get your steps in.

I got it to lean in a mean. Because, I mean, you can only spend so much time in a five-star. You got to get a good act. That's what I'm saying. Those massages cost. Well, I'm coming to the per diem, do they? I'd go to the other end of town for those. 713, 212-790.

And coming up in 17 minutes, we're going to embarrass ourselves with what we thought was going to happen this year in the NFL. Plus, the final edition of the Rotten 5 at 120. Ross, Jonathan. Do you hear me, Jonathan? What? 120 for the final edition of Rotten 5. Now, it's nothing up to you to prepare it. He just got to play the music, and that's going to put Ross under a lot of pressure.

It's Sports Talk, 790. Matt and Ross here on 790. We've got a busy next hour coming up. We're going to go over our predictions, which we goofed on. But I feel like most people goof on them. Has anybody ever gone, man, I knocked, I got, there were, what, 14 playoff teams? I got 12 of them. Nobody ever does that.

Probably not. I don't know. I don't know how bad it is. is i'll have to pull them up we're doing this the next segment yeah next seven excuse me i got the okay yeah uh and then we're going to go over the melb wind totals which are just been out in the last hour oh yes then we got sam khan mm-hmm we got we got a nice busy show excuse me man stop okay that's all right take it to you during the break somebody brought us tacos this morning yeah we appreciate that breakfast tacos potato and egg underrated that's what i got yeah that's a mr texas

Oh dear. I knew he was going to do that too. You don't know anything about me. I knew it. So bad. He does it just to trigger me and it works, so I got to stop. But I just can't help it because it's so bad. It's so bad. You might as well keep calling yourself the sexiest man alive. That's not far off either. Yeah, exactly. Especially with my bald head. The delusions this man lives with her. This is astounding. All right. Then we got gut feelings coming up as well. And then The Rotten Five and Revention Sam all right um so uh by the way the cowboys a couple hours ago fired their defensive coordinator that's four defensive coordinators in four years i think is what it is really yeah you know it's hard for me to fathom how at this point you would even want to be a dallas cowboy

fan i mean you're talking jerry jones is like no i don't have bad defensive players matt eberflux got let go today so that's this 30 years of futility right i mean iberflue is a very respected defensive coordinator. Now, they were awful last year. They couldn't stop a nosebleed, as Bart Scott once said. No, and when you tell Michael Parsons go away for a ham sandwich. Yeah, well, I guess Jerry Jones has to say, is it my players or is it the defensive coordinator?

It's a defensive coordinator. Do you think, and I don't know if you guys know who Stephen Jones is, but that's been, I don't know how many kids Jerry has. Well, he has that one for that Flusi at the Little Rock Airport, but that's a different issue. What happened? He had a little fair with an American Airlines girl. Oh, okay.

And she said, that's my dad. And so he's been paying her off on the side. Oh, that's good. I don't know if it's good. I don't think there's a relationship. I mean, he's got money, but no relationship. So Stephen Jones has been Jerry's right-hand son for decades and decades and decades. How much does he bear responsibility this?

I don't know how much. How do you have that conversation? Dad, you are way past your prime. Now, granted, he was way past his prime 10 years ago. Daddy signed your paycheck. You do what Daddy says. But hell, when Jerry no longer. longer runs the operation.

Steven's going to be in his 60s. Yeah. Okay, so there's Jerry Jones Jr. He is the chief sales and marketing officer. But he's not in football ops, I don't think. I think Stephen's the only one that's in football ops. So, yeah. I have a crazy idea.

She gets some football people in football ops. I know Jerry Jones played with Arkansas back in like that in the 1960s. It doesn't even count. He's been around the game for 40 years, too. And there's nothing he can do, there's nothing he can't do in terms of bringing the number one talent. The reason why the Dallas Cowboys job has not been very attractive

over the last few years is because the general manager gets in the way. I mean, if you are... The buck stops with him. I mean, the last, who is the last super quality? I mean, just immensely respectable Dallas Cowboys coach. Bill Parcells.

I was going to say Bill Parcells. I don't know. Not Dave Campo. We love Wade Phillips and we love Campo and we love... Jason Garrett. I mean, Mike McCarthy was... Jason Garrett was just a yes, man. Mike McCarthy was a Super Bowl winner. But he did burn out in Green

Bay and thought he'd catch lightning in a bottle in Dallas. It didn't last very long. He wasn't that bad. I think he's probably going to get one more job before it's all said and done. My point is this. When does the family step in? It's not like Stephen is not like Jerry is

on stage a coup? He's not having, he's not in dementia. Like a succession type of thing? He's getting, well, he's not all 100%. He's 83. He's 83 years old, running a football franchise. I mean, we make fun of A.B. Cronk Strong. You know, I notice this?

There are a lot of bad owners in the NFL. A lot of them are nepotized. Oh, speaking of that, you see Carly Ursay's a little press conference yesterday in Indianapolis. Okay, yes and no. I saw the video. I did not click play on the video. I watched it. It was two and a half minutes.

Okay. It was a monologue. Okay. It had a script. Okay. She was looking down, looking up, like she was a TV newsreader out of college. It's not getting a lot of positive reviews. Really?

It was... Now, Erse was a Nepo. Jim, the father. Jim. So this is Nepo Times 2. Yes, this is a third generation Ursae running the team. Robert, then Jim, then now Carly. Dang, that'd be nice.

Well, I mean, Cal's going to hand it off to his kids. Yeah, but Cal's got an NBA from Rice, Matt. Please. He's got business smarts. I shouldn't have said, please. I was saying, okay. You should have said, please, and then gritted your teeth in silence for five seconds. I should have said, okay.

That's fair. That's, it is what it is. And NBA is an NBA. All the well, I don't know, Tony Busby would dispute it. What's going on with that, by the way? Carrie, by the way, would dispute it. Carrie McGarr said, chit your bum ass up. Yeah, he's like, I don't, that brother, brother of mine, he didn't.

I don't know. Well, okay. Yeah, anyways. What's it going on? I got you up back. I spoke and I don't want to play it because it's too long. It doesn't really represent what's going on here in town. But I would ask you to look at it.

Okay. You might have watch it. Yeah, it's a little cringy. All right. What's her name? Carly Ursay. I believe it's on the cult's Twitter account. Okay.

But basically she's like, I'm disappointed. We're disappointed. We're underperformed. And by the way, we were bringing back our general manager and our coach for one more year. Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen. I mean, they were going to be, Daniel Jones went down. But they were actually starting to free fall a little bit. Oh, a little bit.

Yeah, well, he also started to not play that well. He's Daniel Jones. He's Daniel Jones. You spent the number four pick on Anthony Richardson, who will be probably either door-dashing or working in the CFL. I will continue to go with my conspiracy theory that Jim Ursay told he wanted Anthony Richardson. And he told Ballard, take Anthony Richardson, and I got you. That would be very logical based off the fact that a team, most teams that open up a year at 8 and 2 and don't make the playoffs usually fire front office and coaches. Maybe Jim was told Carl, like, do not let him, do not let him be the, you know, he didn't see the season.

So that's a kind of weird one. But yeah, that you need to protect these guys. I don't care what happens. Protect them. but it's it's almost like and look when you own something like a sports franchise you're not expected to be a public relation savant or you're not supposed to be an orator you know what I mean but you better get trained enough to know your strengths and weaknesses and if carly was super nervous about doing it she probably would not have had that she shouldn't have had the

press conference. He shouldn't have had the red statement that went two and a half minutes long. It just came across as inauthentic. Is that an orthodox? Yes. I think so. Overly prepared. Like, for instance, the Texans don't put Cal out there by himself.

No. They know better. He's not a great or a tour. Hannah can do all the heavy lifting. She's a much better speaker. He's got a podcast I heard. I mean, and frankly, Hannah just does I mean, look, Hannah's got to be running things here. I'm not speaking. And guess what? The franchise is

that a better spot since that happened. And since she's run things, you don't have Easter Bean, you don't have Bill O'Brien, you get a respectable coach, you get a respectable general manager, and you're not the laughing stock. Now, the biggest thing she... My friend Jack wants to pray. Now, the biggest issue is going to be off the field. I've already told you about this. There's going to be some strife at some

point about either renovating energy or getting a new stadium and we're going to put it and more importantly who's going to pay for it with that Super Bowl let's go get them both of the

get that Super Bowl all of a sudden you got a resolution on the docket for next year you know what you put that you lose to Pittsburgh this week

you can put that you can put that fall away for a while you get to the championship game of the AMC the first time ever or you get to the Super Bowl you know what

put that you have a nice little party a little press conference hey everybody look how good we are now we need a better to keep to maintain this everybody like yeah we'll do it

isn't it isn't it crazy how stadiums can go based off of how your team does. Not every time, but sometimes it does. Yeah. Is Tennessee sucked? They got a new stadium.

That's good. It doesn't hurt, though. It doesn't hurt when you wait. It would be public relations nightmare 101 if they lose to Pittsburgh or they frankly that meant to lose a divisional playoff. I mean, we're used to divisional playoff losses. The oilers should probably be here if they won one of the Super Bowl's in the early 90s, right? Yeah.

All right. How bad were our NFL predictions? We'll tell you about that next 10.58. It's a Matt Thomas show. Don't frame it that way. All right. How do we do? You'll find out next year.

I feel better now. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Our number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross continues here on Sports Talk 790. Day 2 of year number 17 of the Matt Thomas show with Ross, with Jonathan Allen as well. Where were you 17 years ago today, Jonathan? Oh, okay. I'm 23, 17 years ago. Okay, actually, I regret asking this question already.

I'm hitting first grade. Okay. For the first time or the second time? third time actually Okay okay I see you're learning You're learning Wow okay

So you were in first grade When the show started So we're into year number 17 Of the Matt Thomas show with Ross And I think this will be the 17th straight year Nobody has correctly predicted The Super Bowl champion preseason There are three things that are guaranteed life

Death, taxes and our Lousy NFL predictions I have archives of predictions Back to 2022 Just saying It's fine We're okay Oh 2022 you and I said The Buffalo Bills were going to win at all

I think I've had Buffalo. I remember even taking Dallas in the last couple of years, too, if I'm not mistaken. We both had Philly and 23. I don't remember who won it. I think maybe the Chiefs. Yeah. Wouldn't doubt the Chiefs win things. But we're always trying to figure out a way to

pick somebody except the favorites. I had the Chiefs last year and you had the Bengals. Oh, God. Now, the Bengals weren't great this last December, not this past December, the previous one. And Modern McMover had the Niners. We were all wrong. All right.

So let's most importantly go to how we did in September of 2025. All right. First of all, I spelled Jonathan's name wrong, so that's on me. You don't go by John anywhere. Is that correct? No, because my dad's name is John. Okay. That's right.

We've been over this. Now, if dad was not John, would you go, would you go with John or no? I just don't like it. I don't like it at all. Okay. You don't like it at all? Nah, maybe because I'm a Jonathan. You like hog nuts much better, don't you?

See, I can do it with that. Oh, that's a big a car. That's a big a car. You're just trying to hit bingo squares at this point, Matthew, true. I was doing the same thing yesterday. If you have not seen it, I retweeted it on my Twitter at SportsRV. You can see the-as-at-I. You can see the bingo card that a listener made for us.

It's pretty funny. It's hilarious. And that means that person is an avid listener. And for that, we appreciate them. All right. So how do we do it? So we, in FC North, you and I had the Packers, Matthew? We lost. Nobody had the bears.

Jonathan had the lions NFC East You and I had the Eagles That's a win Jonathan had the commanders L For the south I oh I went

I went to off board To the Falcons You had the Buccaneers And Jonathan did the Falcons as well For the West I had the Niners You had the Rams Matt

Nobody had the Seahawks Jonathan had the Niners as well For the AFC North I had the Ravens as did you Matthew as did Jonathan. It was consistent for Ravens. AFC East was consensus as well. We all had the Buffalo Bills. Of course.

You and I had the cheese for the West. Oh, Jonathan, you know who you went with for the AFC West? Go! Go! Well, at least they made it into a bar. You've been it better than we did, yeah. All three of us predicted the Houston, Texans, to win the AFC South. Ouch.

We were close, but no cigar. AFC champions, Matt, you had? Kansas City The Buffalo Bills Oh so I got a shot at that still So alive Jonathan and I had the Ravens so We'll see our way out

We'll see our way out now The Ravens for real Okay Texans record Matt you had 10 and 7 Jonathan went 9 and 8 I went 11 and 6 Oh wow

Well I get closest I'm feeling good about that You did you did We also all predicted Oh sorry Let's do the NFC champions Matt you had the Eagles I had the Commanders

I had a Commanders Ravens Super Bowl How's that looking? You had the old what they called the Metro There's a highway Yeah they connected two cities with a highway or something I don't know Commanders Ravens Delway Series is what you had

I don't think that's happening Jonathan had the Lions He had Lions Ravens So we're both out completely out in the Super Bowl You're alive and both Eagles and Bills If I get that right That'll be the second greatest prediction I get behind Kyle Tucker's

seven and a half years. No, I was going to say that The Mavericks on 11 was the greatest prediction. That was so good. Even though you pulled that way out of your ass. You predicted that? I predicted. Yeah. Dirk, really? Yes. Beating Miami. They were a four seed. I don't even want to talk about it. Oh, I do. He got so happy. What? I still am talking about that to the day.

When they clinched it, when they clenched it, we were in Vegas. He's jumping up and down on the bed. So happy with himself and his prediction. He launched a character off of this, Jonathan. This is how vain this man is. He made one right prediction that he pulled out of his ass, and he launched a character called Nostra Thomas after it. That's why I have the Nostra-Rongest file, where I keep all the wrong things

because he likes to peacock about things he gets right. So I'm like, hey, somebody's got to tug on these feathers when he gets something wrong. And you were my noble steed. Yeah, good times. We actually had, we went and got a costume. We went and got costumes one year and did it on a show appearance. Yes. We got costumes, and he was wearing, like, I don't know, like a wizard outfit with a giant.

That was like Karnak. Yes, with a giant head on a helmet. Not a helmet, but I don't know, hat. It was a whole ordeal at the Mardmock Maffa. Yeah. By the way, do you know who Karnak is, Jonathan by any chance? No chance. Zero chance.

I barely know who Karnak is. Sounds familiar. Okay. I thought I can give you. Okay, we're going to have to have to conversation off here. He's been off the year air, 10 years. Oh, no, no, no, no. Longer than that.

He's been off the year 30 years. I'm saying since he's been born. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that crazy that Johnny Carson ended in 1991? And yet still, Adam Clant loves him so much that he named his son Carson, literally after Johnny Carson. Yeah, Carson Ross, and then Ross after me. No, that you were nowhere near it. No, Carson Ross.

I don't think so. That's his name. I know it says name, but you had nothing to do with it. You're welcome, Adam. I mean, unless I know something. I am so honored, I was very touched. Unless there's something going on with you and Teresa, I didn't know about it. No, that doesn't make any sense.

It's Adam Clanton is honoring me with the name of his son. Teresa hates me because I talk about her cheese sticks. That's true. She hates you. That's pretty bad. She hates you for more reasons than one, by the way. That's actually more than that. You're right. I mean, they're all pretty valid.

All right. So I still have a puncher's chance here. Philadelphia versus Buffalo. You had the bills winning it all. I had the Ravens winning it all. Then we also predicted the end result of the year for the Houston Texans. As in how far would they go? I really don't remember this at all three of us answered the same let me guess

division around again correct because that's what you're supposed to do history repeats it feels about right feels about right so there you go TBD the Texans are 11 to 1 to win the Super Bowl is what I saw last time I think really got they short these odds so much yeah 11 to 1 is absurd that puts them I think seventh or eighth among all the teams in the NFL. Now, let me tell you something. If you get to the Super Bowl, that's a super big win. Wait a minute. Did I do this last year or the year before when I bet

the Texans, I think it was the year before. I bet I'm on 27 to 1. 11.01 feels fair. I mean, again, the numbers are small to begin with. 11.1's fine. There you go. We all have Mountain Division round. Matt, you have Bill's Eagles with the Bill's winning, and I had Ravens Command. I feel like,

and we're going to do this officially coming up at 1230. Okay. Are we going to predict who's going to win the Super Bowl? We can change off what we decided back many months ago. I think so. I mean, I certainly have. I can't stick with Ravens Commanders.

The big question is going to be in an hour and 20 minutes. Will you change your thought about how the Texans are going to end their season? We'll discuss. We'll do that an hour and 20 minutes. All right. Speaking of Las Vegas, the win totals are out for Major League Baseball. We'll tell you about that coming up in the next segment of the show because I do I'm a little nervous about it

because the number we're going to give you in about 10 minutes from now is not going to be the number that we've seen in these parts in a very long period of time. That is correct. And I do what I do want to do is I want to figure out

why Vegas believes that. Like, you had to come up with a number for a reason. Let's discuss what that reason may be. Seems reasonable. You don't, you know. Okay, the volume is turned up. Seems reasonable.

but would you not consider I'll save it we'll talk we'll talk 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790 Rockets again win last night on a buzzer beater by Kevin Durant and look forward to that We've got a couple calls in the first hour But that was nice

Yes The reality is we're not going to get a lot of Rockets chatter If any until everything's done Texan's got to be done And the playoff scene has got to be set up But selfishly, I'm really hoping that we're in a spot. I think interest is ticking up. It's not a tidal wave, but we're getting a splash.

Yeah. Tidal wave, a splash. Can we get more like a storm surge? A storm surge? I want a like a spring shower. Okay. A little bit of rumbles of thunder. Depends on what you eat.

Oklahoma City Thunder? By the way, the thunder are average. We goofed on that. You were scared, and you got me caught up into that, too. There's still championship favorites. Come on now. Easily. How do you lose the show?

Again, it's the NBA. It's regular season. It's 82 games. Yeah, I know. But back-to-back, there's six and six in our last 12 games. Yeah, they're so horrible. They're four games up of the two-seed. I'm going to tell you this right now.

We got the best record in the NBA. We've listened to us in San Antonio. We cannot have you involved in this. They're going to be mad. We have a relationship between us in Oklahoma City. We've got to resolve. I don't need another sidepiece getting in the way. Spurs are not going anywhere.

Yes, they are. They're not. I know you and Adam Clanton think they are. I'm hoping for it. I'm not saying they're going to. I'm just saying I'm hoping for it. I'm hoping Wembe gets thrombosis again. I'm hoping Stefan Kassar's issues.

I'm hoping Deeran Fox just won. He didn't play in their last game? Who? He didn't play all the Wemby? No, he's fine. He didn't play against Portland? Are they resting him? It's not even listed on the box score, so I'm not sure.

Uh-oh. All right, let's get a call on before we get two. our baseball numbers for from Vegas. Todd by Rice at 790, 1112. Todd, good morning. Yeah, good morning to you. Thank you. So what are the chance are Texas

and Pete Pittsburgh? What are we thinking? We're thinking it's going to be strong possibility. Even in the cold weather. Texans went to Kansas City, Todd, and they beat the Chiefs in cold weather. Now, granted,

how do you think the Chiefs are? How do you think the Steelers are? Don't know. It's a Monday night game. Steelers are the big home win to win the AFC North. Granted was a misfield goal that did it. But Aaron Rogers playoff tested. Aaron Rogers may have D.K. Metcalf back this week. There's a chance. I'm looking forward to my Texan.

I think you get nothing to worry about. I don't worry. You shouldn't be. You should be a little worried. Don't worry. It's not going to be a gimmie. You know what? Don't worry.

Be happy. Be a little worried, Todd. Be very, very happy. All right, Todd. You can go back to sleep, Todd. Todd. Great hearing from me, Todd. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. We'll see. He's calling us in the middle of an app, I think. I respect that. I got invited to one of the greatest concerts in my entire life in the middle of the middle of the world. in the middle of a nap And I almost didn't answer the phone

I went We were in Vegas taking a nap During the NBA playoffs And uh Rockets PR Tracy says Hey let's go see the Eagles At the sphere At the what?

Shear Sphere Sphere There's no There's no CH in there Sphere There we go It's Sphere

Yes Sphere and if I didn't wake up to take that phone call I would not have gone and I did and it was the most amazing concert ever been to my entire life and you took it to the limit one more time afterwards you had a peaceful easy fee all right I'm sorry you know what you start this I'll finish this let's go let's keep going all right win totals from baseball I was gonna go with it I like doing that but you don't like doing it so we won't do it take it easy You know what I need?

I need a new kid in town. 1114 on Sports Talk 790. It's Matt, it's Ross. Jonathan with us here as well on a Tuesday edition of the program. Matt, Thomas Show with Ross, Sports Talk, 790. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show. We've got Sam Kahn joining us from The Athletic. He is their college football writer with a special emphasis on the portal in NIL.

I bet his head is spending the last handful of days. Seriously, real quick, before we get to the baseball totals, so they're always trying to adjust the calendar. Why would you do a portal when the college football season isn't over with? It's crazy they're doing it right now. It's stupid. I don't know what's going on or what it has to do with academic years or whatever. But football especially needs to be its own animal.

It's just, Division I football, college football is, I mean, it's number one. It's nothing about academia either. You have to be exactly. You have to make exceptions for, for this and I don't know what they're doing with that. So we'll talk to Sam about that coming up in a few minutes. All right. So you are

big on win totals. I like them. They're just sounding boards. They're one down of points. They're conversation pieces. We like them. They're just season expectations. Yeah. Teams every year go above or under. They're in the Astros.

I believe by most books, not every one of them was about 87 and a half. Last year they won 87 games they won 87 so they're pretty good not perfect but they're good oh yeah because they didn't win the half no i said that's really good i mean that's that's as close to nailed as you can get it's not easy it's not easy to do that i mean i wouldn't want to do it because put it this way if you're a bookmaker and you are in charge and you put a crazy number out there and people find out about it you're losing money you're going to be in trouble that's why they make good lines

you make bad lines you lose money and you get fired but it's such a grandiose long six month season. You don't know about injuries. You don't know about free agents. I mean, we don't only have many free agents. We don't know where Kyle Tucker or Alex Bregman or Framber Valdez are going to play. Does that not impact things? But they can obviously change them based off of what you do in the offseason. But right now

the initial win totals are out and the Houston Astros are where among the American League elite? The Houston Astros win total is 84 and a half. If you want some other American League teams, Detroit Tigers,

are at 86 and a half. How about the Red Sox at 87 and a half? This is before a lot of that. I mean, Bregman hasn't been signed. Kyle Tucker hasn't been signed. There's still a lot of question marks. New York Yankees, 93.5. This is a little high, right?

Texas Rangers, 83.5. Seattle Mariners, 90. I'm going to ask you a stupid question. Do the Vegas bookmakers because you can only look there's 162 games

so if you give if somebody has to win 90 does that mean somebody has to be a 72 do they add them all up yeah I don't think they do I don't think it all adds up to they don't have to there's no rule that says they have to do that it doesn't add up to a zero sum win loss I don't think

okay all right more importantly let's go to the rucky's 54 and a half Astros for the Rocky's first week of the season. I think it's their first road trip of the year. Ooh, it'll be a little chilly. All right, so go to the rest of the American League West teams. That's what I'm concerned. The Mariners,

as I said, 90 and a half. The Texas Rangers are 83 and a half. The Los Angeles Angels are 71 and a half. The A's? Yeah, I know, but it's where they just called the Athletics. I was looking for O. Oh, okay. Not Oakland.

I'll have you guess the A's, actually. It'll be fun. Because they, they, They close the year strong. Astros at 84.5. So the Astros are predicted to finish second according to this win total? Yes.

I'm going to go 78 for the A's. You're pretty close. 75 and a half. Hmm. 75 and a half. That's interesting. So Rangers only one game behind the Astros at 83.5. So the question is,

does 84.5, or in 30 and a half? theory 84 or 85 get you into the playoffs well 87 didn't get you there last year that is accurate by one game so no when did I drop the gut feeling they're not winning oh no it was to tell the truth when you were out I said they're not winning the west it's because Seattle's finally going to act like a grown-ass team and play

consistent baseball I mean they did they won 90 games last year they closed down the stress but big dumpers not going to have the impact that they had like no he's not but uh i mean they came into your house and took your lunch at the end of the year that was painful and they made to the a mariner september was not only did the astros underperform but the mariners went away and hid they yeah it well uh i think i think they kind of did they they go a soft landing at the end it only ended up being a three-game deficit, but it wasn't in doubt. Didn't feel that way. Astros at one point were up

by 6 in the division. It wound up losing by three. Yeah, they charged hard at the end. Okay, so let's do this. Before we get to Sam Conning in a few minutes, let's deduce why the wind toll is 84.5. Okay. 84.5, if you're going off of the most recent standings,

does not get you in the playoffs. I think the Astros are a playoff contender. I would, even with all still certainties at backup catcher, the congested infield, the uncertainty in the outfield. Yeah. You just named a lot of stuff.

How healthy is Josh Hayter going to be? What's the order on Alvarez going to play this year? Will they get to 130? Oh, absolutely. You sound so confident. No, we'll see. You know what I love about yours. He could get hurt.

He could get hurt. But I mean, too, never mind. I don't even want to argue about this. To say he's never going to play 130 games the rest of his career is a ridiculous statement. It just is. And then when it's proven wrong, he's three of the last five years, he played over that. He's like 27. Jonathan knows what I'm talking about.

Jonathan, go learn. He's learning a lot. But you got to see the injuries he had this year, man. All right, Stephen, if Austin's going to beat U of H. He's going to learn. He's going to learn. He's going to learn. Jonathan.

I'm with you on this, man. I don't see it. Okay. I'll make a bet with you too. I don't want to make a bet. I want to be. No, I got it. We got a bet.

I want to be wrong about that because I don't think the Astros can win a potential world series if he's missing more than 30 games. year. I'm just deathly afraid that the injury bug continues to be on him. Okay. 2024, he played 147 games. Because here's a reality. He's not going to play 162.

So if he's a completely healthy, he's going to take 15 games off. Here's where I remember deduction came in. Okay. Here we go. So I put him at 147. Okay. If you go on the 15-day disabled list, that's 15 more games or a theory. That's about 132. Okay.

So you're hoping that he avoids the injured list this year. I don't want to keep him out of the field. just swing a bat. All we're asking you do, no, the news is weird, slip sliding on home plate. Can we dry off home plate

to start the games now? Or put his hand on a base? Have we learned our lessons? Please. Yeah. No running into the scoreboard. No what's a sliding in a second I think he heard.

Either trot or don't do anything, Yordon. The reason why I said 130 was for a guy who has been injury prone, it's just the reality of it. Uh-huh. And the fact they're going to They're going to treat him with kick gloves And you're going to have Ross

If this, if Paredes is still on this team You're going to have to fill some DHS I heard No I said he needs to be treated So I don't know if he's going to be there As of right now he is 1131 sports talk 790 It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross

and we are very pleased be joined by the best dressed sports writer in America great fedora game what are the types of head wear

it is a Sam Con wear did you think have you seen Sam before on TV doing some appearances here and there yeah I think he had one of those cheese graters

the anti-packers cheese grater no no is that a kangal before what are you wearing right now Sam Con I'm not talking about you close and put your hat

I'm wearing sweat because I just walked my dog out there just a tad tad warmer than you would expect for January, but, yeah, I'm wearing sweat right now. It's great to have you on the show. Thank you, friend. He's the University of Houston

graduate. He's a fine young man. He's also covers college football, especially with an emphasis on roster management and transfer portal, Sam Khan Jr., S.K. Sam Khan Jr. on Twitter. So, you are externally busy. Was your timeline as crazy as mine was on Sunday with players going left and right from one school to the next? Yeah, I mean, really a lot of it was the buildup to the opening of the portal on Friday. A bunch of players hit really at midnight. When the clock struck midnight on Friday, I think we were at 1,000 players in within the first hour.

And a lot of that I think was done ahead of time and just ready to go as soon as we started. But yeah, Sunday was especially busy because a lot of players made their initial visits on Saturday. And these visits are not like traditional recruiting visits where you go spend 48. hours at a place as a high school recruit. These are more like NFL free agent type visits. You're in there for a day. They do your physical. You know, maybe you get a quick tour, talk to the coaches, and then, you know, you talk, contract, and get it done. So, yeah, Sunday was pretty fast and furious, and I wouldn't say that it slowed down a lot. A lot has happened since then as the domino starts to shift, but a bit busy, busy first few days with, I think, more than, I think a few thousand

FPS scholarship players in the portal and even more when you add the FCS in there as well. So it's definitely been hectic. We've got about a week and a half left next Friday is when this thing closes, but a lot of activity going on for sure. Sam, I know many of these young men, maybe all of them are being represented by agents. And Ross and I were talking earlier. Some are with legit agencies and some are with friends of friends of friends. How many have you dealt with and what is it like talking to these representation, this

presentation group talking about getting 18, 19, 20 year olds multi-million dollar deals to go from one school to the next. Yeah, I think it's just like anything that you come across is there's actually a lot of pretty good ones. And then there are some ones who are not necessarily the most qualified or maybe you're not going to give the best guidance. I would say most of the ones I've dealt with are pretty solid. And you do have more NFL agents, NFL players coming to the college side.

I've come across paths with a lot of guys. who represent NFL players and are now stepping into the college game. Even with the bigger agencies, you know, your CAAs, your athletes first, you know, some of the big ones out there that people know, they're getting into this game as well. So I think it really depends on what kind of choice. Obviously, the families and the recruits are making the choices on who represents them. But I will say there is a cry amongst the coaches and the staffers

who are managing this of they wish there was some type of certification like in the NFL level you have to be certified by the NFLPA and there is no real baseline for that in college some states have certification requirements that you have to do to be able to represent someone but not every state does and I think there there is a desire for across the board certification to just establish some minimum standards that people have to meet to be able to represent a player Do you think there will be change coming with that, Sam, as far as, I mean, what exactly is the solution? I know NCAA tries to keep their hands off of this stuff so they can still claim amateur athletics, but do you think there will be some kind of solution coming with that or like federal legislation? What would it take?

Yeah, I think I think it would have to be either the CSC, the College Sports Commission, which was established by the Powerful conferences, which is supposed to be managing all the salary cap and the enforcement. enforcement of everything that's going on. I think you would have mixed results in different claims on how well that's going so far, or I think some federal legislation possibly could be in the mix for that as well. I don't sense, I think it is something that it desired. I don't sense that it is the highest priority on the list, though. I think there are other things that people want to solve before they get to that. But I do think at some point it is possible, but it would take either the CSC or sometimes federal legislation to get there, I think. Sam, Conn, Jr. of the athletic with us here on Sports Talk 790. And I kind of need this explained like I'm five, Sam. We're talking about these agents and these players and they hit the portal. Like, what are the, you can go through the legal and then maybe the illegal procedures. If there is a player who has an agent and they're thinking about hitting the portal, I mean, how much of that is negotiated or talk to other teams as far as tampering with other schools

before deciding to enter the portal? also you have guys who enter the portal when it figures out that maybe somebody else is coming so they're going to their playing time is going to go down like it just seems like a big mess from that standpoint yeah no it absolutely is and again when i talked about the cc they everyone hasn't agreed to what the enforcement model looks like like there's you know we have a body and we have uh you know their task with trying to enforce this stuff but they sent out an agreement for everybody to sign and not everybody signed it and it doesn't go into effect unless everyone signs it. So at this point, we don't have an enforcement arm with real teeth yet. And so tampering run has been running rampant for years and continues to do so. Many of these players, the portal didn't open until Friday, but many of these players announced either after their regular seasons were over sometime in December that they were going in the portal.

And I can promise you, and I know because I've been talking to these people, as soon as some of the bigger names announced they were going in, we already heard where they were likely going. and that is an issue that I think coaches and general managers complain about, but there also doesn't seem to be anybody really stopping it at this point. I think that the tampering issue is probably one of the top complaints you get, and it is. These are things that happen right away. And to your point about a player having to jump in, if somebody happens, I talked to an agent last night who said he had a client in an ACC school who was tied in, and he was going to

stay. He was going to re-sign a Rift share contract to come back for 2026. And then his team took a tight-in in the portal. He's like, well, now I've got to get in. Now I've got to get in the portal because now my playing time is going to be getting eaten into. And that's what's going to be fascinating to me, especially as we get outside the portal window, because this year we only have the winter portal window. There is no spring window. So to me, I'm curious to see what happens when we get to spring football and depth charts are getting set and you find out, well, I'm not where I thought I was going to be on the depth chart. Well, there's no spring portal window anymore. So what are you going to do? Are you going to stick it out? Are you going to

withdraw and then hope you can end up enrolling somewhere else? But there's no really guarantee you can end up somewhere else at that point. So it is very messy at this point. And that is what I think makes it so difficult, not just for the people involved, but even the fans to follow is that these things can change in a blink. And the guy who may be your star quarterback today may be on your rival school tomorrow. Sam, if you were in Times Square yesterday, you happen to see a big billboard video of Brandon Sorosby, welcome to Lubbock in Texas Tech after assigning his deal

going to there. Take me through the process. So Brandon Sorbsby's as quarterback at Cincinnati and word travels that he is open for free agency. Does Cody Campbell, he's the most recognizable NIL donor probably out there in college sports today, does he lob a phone call to Sorbsby's representation and says, look, I know the school can't give you the money directly because they can't give you $5 million. They could, but that's a budget

that they don't want to spend. But I'm going to put you in terms with my group, with my collective, and we're going to make sure that $5 million reaches your client's piggy bank by the time he arrives in Lubbock. So that is the part that is a little bit unclear at this point with some of the bigger deals, because what is the divide between the ref share pool and the NIL pool? because as we know, the refs share pool is capped at roughly $20 million. It'll go up a little bit this year by 4%, but it's still going to be around $21, $22 million. And that's for all sports, not just football. So a Power 4 roster is probably somewhere in the $14 to $17 million range.

So if you were to spend five on a quarterback, that only leaves maybe 9 to 12 for the rest of your roster, which is a lot. certainly but if you are trying to compete for a national championship it's not enough one of the biggest things that you see big time programs trying to do in this cycle is take money off the cap and doing that is through the third party nil piece the interesting part about that is the cc just sent out guidance in the last couple of 48 hours that they're saying that if you promise someone nil money ahead of time from the third party whether it's from your in-house multimedia rights deal or whatever other collectives that you have, that cannot be counted, that cannot be taken off the cap.

If you promise it, it's got to be counted toward the cap whether or not you pay them out of your refshare pool. Now, again, I go back to, is that going to be enforced? And they send out that guidance with it being backdated to December 1st. So saying that basically, if it's anybody in this portal window, that you can't take money off the cap that way. So I don't know how that's going to work out. I don't know if they can even enforce it.

But that is the way that a lot of programs that are operating above the cap, they're doing it that way is trying to figure out, okay, how much do we put into third-party NIL and how much do you guarantee through refs share? Because ultimately, they're going to do whatever they've got to do to get the player. So big picture, I know you've got still another week or so left of the portal. Who is killing it? Obviously, when you get the number one quarterback, and Texas Tech is not afraid to spend money, we've already seen it in the last couple of years.

Beyond Tech, is there anybody else that, in your mind, has really made a lot of significant movement by grabbing kids in the portal because of the money they're offering? Indiana. Indiana did really well. They landed there, the TCU quarterback, Josh Hoover, landed Nick Marsh, the Michigan State receiver, a couple edge rushers from Kansas State who are really, really talented. I mean, they're the number one team in the country right now. and clearly paying at a high rate, I think Josh Hoover's deal from what I understand is in the similar ballpark to Brennan Swordsby in that high $4 to $5 million range.

So they definitely broke the bank to get Hoover. And I think he's a really good system fit for them. Tech, as you mentioned, has done really well. I think Texas A&M has had a really quietly. They haven't made a bunch of splash additions, but made a lot of really solid additions. And they didn't really lose a lot. They retained a lot of their guys. they only lost, I believe, one full-time starter

into the portal this year, so they're in good shape. And the other one is Oklahoma State. Eric Morris, who we know was the coach at North Texas and took them to the conference championship game. He went up there to Oklahoma State. He's brought his quarterback, Drew Messamaker, his running back, Caleb Hawkins, his top receiver, Wyatt Young, and several others with them.

That's a team that was 1 in 11 last year, maybe had one of the worst rosters in the Power 4, and they look like a much improved team so far on this first weekend. So they've done, all those schools have done pretty well. I would add Penn State to that list, too, since Matt Campbell got over there. Obviously, he brought a lot of his Iowa State guys with them, too. But I think Penn State has made some waves early in the first few days of the portal. Sam, Colin, Jr. of the athletic with us here.

More of a general question, Sam. We've talked a lot on this show, myself and Matt, and argued about donor fatigue. And I thought it was going to come pretty soon. It doesn't look like it's coming anytime soon. But I guess to ask you to predict the unpredictable. I mean, for example, Cody Campbell, as Matt mentioned, shelling out a bunch of money. I mean, if he's not seeing the results year after year, how much does he continue to pour millions and these other schools as well, whether it be Texas or A&M, where do you see as far as, I mean, just the long-term economic ecosystem of this NIL money potentially drying up or it just seems like it's a full steam ahead? I think it becomes a case-by-case basis on a couple of factors.

One, what is your institutional want to? How badly do you want to win? And by proxy, how badly do your donors want to win? Two, do you have someone to that degree? Because I think a lot of the SEC and Big Ten programs are going to be in okay shape because of where they are in terms of their media rights and how big their budgets are just from the start. but it's your, when you get to your maybe middle-tier power four or lower-tier power fours, do you have a booster like a Cody Campbell?

Like if you're Kansas and you have David Booth, you're in good shape. But if you're Iowa State who is struggling to reach the revenue share cap, they're not operating over the cab. They're having a hard enough time just trying to get to the cap, which they are at. But that's hard enough for them. They don't necessarily have a Cody Campbell in their back pocket to help them. So I think it's a case-by-case issue with them. As far as do I see donor fatigue long term, maybe in some spots, but I'll just say this.

This, we are in 2025, almost 40 years ago, SMU got busted for paying players and then got the death penalty. It was 1986, 1987. That was almost 40 years ago. So if, and that was obviously a different era, but paying players or trying to do the most to get the best players on your team is a traditional. as it's a tried and true tradition in college football there has for as long as college football has existed alumni have always when boosters have always wanted to get players for their their teams and wanted to make sure they had the best teams whether it was coaches whether it's facilities whatever the mechanism was that they told you how to do it for as long as i can remember and as long as i've

been covering the sport there's always been somebody who's wanted to push the envelope to do that and i don't see that changing long term now with the money getting as high as it is. Could it get a little bit unsustainable? Certainly, I do think there is a degree to that, but I don't think we're ever going to come to a point where people say, well, I don't care about my school enough to pay this money for this player.

There's always going to be, Cam Coleman, the number one receiver in the portal right now, everybody on earth wants that guy. And I cannot see a donor saying, no, I'm going to walk away because he's not that important. Ultimately, these guys want their teams to win on Saturday, and they're going to want to do what it takes

to get the players to make that happen. I got 40 more questions for you, but I'm going to leave you with this, and I thank you so much for your time. Dalen Austin's a guy that no one's ever heard of, and at least here, he was a cornerback at Oregon, didn't play a whole lot, apparently. Numbers are just okay, but he did play. He didn't have an I&T this year for the Ducks.

Ducks are still playing for a chance at a national championship, and he's leaving. He's going to leave the team because he entered the portal. It may be a much more high-profile name that does this, but I have a feeling, and this is kind of the sickening part of, the spirit of trying to win and compete is we're going to have other players like this down the road. Do you agree or disagree that we're going to see kids

that are still playing for a national championship or in a deep playoff run saying, you know what? I got $4 million waiting for me to school down the road. I think having it happen with starters is not going to be something that becomes a trend. I think it's more going to be typically guys

who are backups or who are guys who don't have as big roles and they stand to make a lot of money and get a bigger role in another team. But I will say this, we long didn't think a coach would do it, and Lane Kiffin has done it. And so once you kind of cross that threshold, I think anything goes. So I would never say never on that front, but I do think having a starter do it,

if it were a starting quarterback or starting running back or a starting corner, I find that would be either rare or unlikely to happen. But with backup players, And we already saw it last year, Bo Pribula, the backup quarterback at Penn State, when once Drew Aller decided he was coming back, he went ahead and got in the portal and obviously ended up starting in Missouri last year. So that part has already been going on with some playoff teams. It's not, again, not high numbers.

It's only really a small handful. But I do think the reserve players that stand to have bigger roles at other teams, that I don't think is going to stop. I do think CM star players do it. I think it would be a real shock to the system if we saw it. But, again, Lane Kiffin did it, so who knows. All right, Sam, I owe you a gift card to a hat store, my friend. Thank you so much for the time.

Happy New Year and thank you, and we look forward to seeing many more your articles on the athletic website very soon. No problem. Thanks for having you. Thank. Sam Khan. I mean, first of all, University Houston guy. Second, knows his stuff. Third, what a mess.

It's just it's a good mess for kids, but it's still a mess. At least they're getting paid. But, yeah, the structural, it's Wild West. We keep using that term, and I think that works. All right. All right, last night, after the Rockets game was done, if you happen to have Peacock on, which I'm going to assume most of you did not. Streaming at 10 o'clock at night is difficult.

It just is. Why? It's easier. It's on your phone. It's on your TV. You're in your bed. Staring at your phone at 10 o'clock night, it makes you sleepy. No, put it on your TV.

I guess you could. What do they call that? Chromecast it, I guess. Chromecast, you don't got a smart TV in your house? That's okay. Point being is that I have the peacock, but I was asleep. Okay. Golden State played the Clippers last night.

Clippers won by a single point. The officials last night were Brian Forte, Justin Van Dine, and Derek Collins. Somebody of those three gentlemen, the officials, got to the ire of Steve Kerr, who got ejected from last night's game. You're saying, well, who cares? NBA coaches get ejected all the time. Yes. Not when Snoop Dog is doing the second half of the conference. color analysis on the game on peacock.

Here's Snoop with the call. Back him up. Back him up, GP. Back him up, Steve ready to fire on him. Steve's already gone. Steve bang in Englewood right now. Englewood. Get him, Steve. You in Englewood, Steve. The Arizona Wildcatting came out and look at him. Is Snoop Dogg like America's, I don't know.

It's like American treasure now. He's on everything. Yeah. He was on halftime during Christmas. Because he knows what his role is. He knows that a TV network's going to hire him, pay him. He's going to go viral with something. He's going to get him into his next game.

He's on commercials for everything. Yeah. It's crazy. He's everywhere. Jonathan, you know that, I don't know if we mentioned since you've been with me, but I was in Los Angeles during a Rockets game years ago, and he was walking one direction and I was walking the other, and I completely froze. I don't ever normally ever freeze with somebody I really wanted to meet.

Oh, I froze. Starstruck Thomas. Very rare. I didn't know what to say to him. Like, what up dog? Hi, Snoop, Mr. Dog. You're holding? What's his real name?

Oh, well, his first name is Calvin. Calvin brought us, I think is his name. I don't think he likes being called that, so it's good thing he didn't. Like, what are his, like, nicknames? Like, is Snoop Do, G-O-D-O-G? Snoop Lion? Does a 50-year-old white man go what I have D-O-D-O-G? Does he go like, what are you doing?

No, I bet that happens every day for him. So what would I... The dog father? If I ever happen to me again. Snoopzilla? Jonathan and Ross, help me out. What do I do? If he's walking one direction by himself,

I was walking in the direction by myself, I don't want to freeze. How do I refer to him? Yeah, say, with so much drama in the LBC, say that to him. And he's going to say, it's kind of hard being Snoop DL-O-G. Then get a little daff,

be cool. Be cool. I have to memorize that. You like the fonts. Be cool. You never listen to old snoop dog? Even I have. You think Matt's listening? I'm just saying. He's listening. Come on now. You know what? We've got to give him some suggestions. He's listening to old Glenn Campbell. He's not listening to old snoop dog. That is unfortunately accurate.

But he's listening to the Little River Band. That is also accurate. Can I go on one more minute here? Sorry, go ahead. So the first Super Bowl I ever cover. was the Patriots versus the Packers. No, Patriots versus... Packers, that was like 97. No, no, no, no, no. Patriots...

Who did it, Venetary, kick the field goal to win the game? Oh, the Rams. Rams Patriots. 2000. One? It was in New Orleans. And we were walking at the French courts, me and my bosses.

Yeah. And we saw this old, old vehicle moving up and down. I mean, it was in the same spot. And there was a green haze. Jumping? And it was jumping. thousands of people around this car. Okay.

It was Snoop Dog. And I had been infatuated with his career ever since. I thought this is a guy that is in a middle of Bourbon Street in an old 1975, I mean, old, old car, bumping up and down, playing music, and people are just losing their minds. Yes. A rapper came up from Long Beach was on trial for murder in like 1993 and just is like America's sweetheart. Yeah, he's on all the TV shows. It's an awesome story. Okay, so let's go over this one more time.

Jonathan, he's walking one direction. I'm walking the other. I want to say hello to him. I don't want a deep conversation. I'm not looking for a selfie or an autograph. I just want to say, hello. How do I properly accept it saying I could say hello.

I could say hello, dog. That sounds weird. You got to just be cool. You can be cool. Be cool, Maddie. Can I just simply say, what up, Snoop? That sounds fun. You're okay with that?

That's right. Yeah. Just say Snoop D-O-D-O-D-G. Oh. Yeah. Say it was like your PA pipes. So I go, Snoop D-O-D-G.

See? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, okay. Like, oh, what's up, guys? What up, cuz? No, don't say that. I'm saying that's what he's going to say. All right.

Take a break. Time after time, Kevin Durant makes big baskets. That's the news at noon. That after time, Snoop Dog's making hits, and he's all over America. And he's also on America's got talent. He's also serving your Subways. And he did a good game show, too, right?

Jerker's Wild. It was rigid. Oh, I got you upset on that one. Now my teeth are cleansing. 713-212-5-790. Got feelings of one-half hour here on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, Cindy Lauper.

much. Thank you, Kevin Durant. Time after time, making big baskets, whether it be for a Oklahoma City Thunder team. The ageless, Kevin Durant, who once took the hand of a young impressionable Ross Villarreal. That is true. Question, I don't even know the answer to. If he would have gone to Arkansas, would you have loved him as much as you do now? I think part of your love for him is because of the Texas background. Of course. Why not? I mean, I love for your own. I don't care. Yeah. I'm sure. I mean, that's why you love chicken knolls so much. It's such a Cougar legend.

I got you good. I got you good on that one. You did. That's what you love, I don't know, Jaris Walker, Jamal Shed? Who's the best? Accumalachial. Oh, current? Oh, oh, Quentin Grimes, probably.

Okay, yeah. That's why you love Quentin Grimes so much. I do. I guess. I guess I do. I mean, yeah, I was impressionable. I was on campus. I touched his.

hand. I loved going to the student section for Texas basketball back when they called it the Ozone. I don't know what it is now. It's a stampede or the herd or the whatever. Or it's the nobody's there. I was flipping through the Serious XM channel

yesterday. On the college channel, which is, you know, like serious college sports, they had the women's game on and Craigway is calling the game. Oh, that's good. The women are good. They are good. The men lost to Mississippi State at home in over. time. Women's sports better than men sports this year? That's every year

Longhorns. You knew here. I didn't want to say that out loud. I mean, that's okay. They're good. Lady Longhorns are bawling. 1209. Time now for the news at Dune. All right, Matt, you just heard the highlights there. Rockets do get the game eventual game winner. Not at the time a game winner,

not at the time a buzzer beater from Kevin Durant, but they get the win all the same 100 to 97. It was an ugly game last night at the Toyota Center. Multiple clock issues, Matt. I was talking to you about this at the game. I had never, I've seen the shot clock go off and you know what, hey, they got to figure something out with that. But the entire clock system scoreboard, everything went down for a stretch there at the Toyota Center last night. And what I didn't learn, only by deduction, was when the scoreboard downstairs, like manual things being out, it affects the big board. The stats were all good on the big board, but the score itself and the time on the game was affected.

But thankfully, by halftime, it was all figured out. The game took extra time. The Rockets shot just 9 of 37 from the three-point line. Three-point numbers continue to go down. But, hey, if I tell you, they're going to shoot 9 to 37 from 3 and still win, you would take it. Rockets get the win. They are number four in the Western Conference right now, six games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. and in a virtual tie with the Los Angeles Lakers who were in the fifth spot.

Yeah, the Rockets would have the tiebreaker over the Lakers because they beat them. Now, the Lakers and Rockets play two more times this year. Both games in Houston. Hmm. And both games will have a lot of Lakers fans. Or Donchitz fans or LeBron fans or all three. Yeah, a combination of. Who brings in more?

More Golden State fans or more Laker fans? Ooh. Or slash LeBron fans. You know, especially when Steph Curry was at his, it's all these kids, there's like, you'll see, whenever a Golden State fans. and State comes into town, you'll see a bunch of kids wearing Curry jerseys. Yeah. It's crazy. Imagine raising

children that love individual players over teams. Couldn't be me. For shame, I tell you. For shame. I know. All right. Well, elsewhere in the news, more NFL heads are rolling. The Cowboys have fired their defensive coordinator, Matt Iberfluse, four defensive

coordinators in four years. Is it the bad players that General Manager Jerry Jones is fielding? No. It's a defensive coordinator. Let's fire another guy and bring it a new one. Nuts. Yeah, very nuts. Also, this one a little bit surprising. Washington commanders

who went to the NFC championship game one year ago have parted ways with offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury. So when your franchise quarterback misses 80% of the season, you fire the offensive coordinator. Has he ever lived in Houston? He has.

Yeah, he's a UBH. Oh, you're saying why are you trying to get rid of our guy? They also fired defensive coordinator Joe Witt Jr. So Dan Quinn Stang, both coordinators fired in Washington. That's the precursor for you're being fired next year. Colts, by the way, keeping general manager, keeping the head coach. Yes.

Have you seen the video yet? I want you to do it after the show right? Oh, I know. I couldn't find the full, you said it was two and a half minutes? Yeah, I couldn't find the full video. I could only find like 30 seconds. Yep. So I know I did not go click it.

Okay. I'm sorry. What else you got? That's your news. Got a big basketball game tonight. TextTech versus Houston over at the. the Fritina Center. That's wonderful.

8 o'clock start time. You're going, so get a little nap in before. Yeah, it's going to be a little chilly night to wear a jacket, and it's going to be a little rough over there, so wear your Kevler. The view expressed by him is not true. I'm just trying to get the bingo. Throwing shade at U of H, I think, is on the bingo card. I'm sorry, U of H fans.

You guys are the greatest. You guys are the greatest program to never win a national championship ever in basketball. Did you not listen to my six things I wanted you to improve next year? The greatest program. in basketball history that has never won a championship. Did you say Kavlar? Yeah, he's rude. He's hateful and he's rude.

I was not. I want you to get in trouble. That was a good one. I want you to be safe. What do you mean? Most schools have sketched. I mean, you tell me the universe Texas 9 o'clock in 19 sketch. On campus? No, it's not. Well, about one block over. I mean, maybe like eight blocks over.

Once you get to, no, the Moody Center is in the heart of campus. Now, now where the, where the, what they call it, the puck, what was it called? I can't even remember now. I'm old. The drum? Yeah, the drum. Irwin Center. Irwin Center. I knew it was the E. I was going to say Edwin Center.

And I knew that was wrong. And the Irwin Center, a little sketch over there. Okay. I'm just saying, give me a major metropolitan university that isn't a little sketch somewhere. Okay, man. Yeah, you're right. Everything's all A-O-K on the U of H campus. The safest could be.

I had no problems. I was going on. I went there for eight years. I had no problems. How many? A lot. That's because you were a stick-up, man. You were sticking people up.

I think I've got $1,000 with a parking tickets still to take care of, too. Ooh, yeah, I got a parking ticket in Austin. Not fun. I used to use my media credential. Like, yeah, just going to parking a lot. This is when Robertson Stadium used to build a park cars over there, so. That was a little time ago. What's the situation now?

Well, there's no more Robertson Stadium. It's gone. I don't know. I've not parked in the student parking because I'm not a student there anymore. I have no intention of getting my master's degree. Get your Ph.D. I don't think so. Play a hating degree.

On whatever. All right, that was the news that new. We got feelings coming up in 15 minutes. Now, we all together? We're not doing believe it or not today. Oh, that's right. You do have the Rotten 5 to work on. At 120?

120. Oh, can't wait. You'll be gone. Jonathan, is there a chance he will skip the Rotten 5 when I'm in the car driving? Do you know I'm going to be yelling at the car? No way. You know, I want you do the Rodent 5? You're taking the hour off.

Reloader? It'll take me one minute. I love vacation days on the table last year. Back off. 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212 5790. The Rotten 5 at 120. Jonathan, what time's the rotten 5?

120. Yeah, remind him. You know what, even if he doesn't do it, you play the music, and you just play those, all those sound bites, just to make him feel bad. We've got gut feelings in about 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. 12.20. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. When Gordy and Ross argue about college sports, it makes me laugh.

Oh my God. I'm not arguing. Debating. Is that fair? If you have not heard, Parker Livingstone is a wide receiver at University of Texas. He was a good friend of Arch Manning's. Yes. And apparently Sark told Parker, we don't think that much of you that maybe you want to go somewhere else. Yes. Livingstone's like, wait a minute, I'm a Texas for life. Well, come to find out, seven minutes ago, he's committing to Oklahoma. So he's so Texas that he's going to the number two rival behind A&A. I think maybe he's doing that unpurposedly.

Hey, he's feeling spurned by Texas. Where would you go if you want to get revenge? If you want to prove that they did something wrong, if you want to prove that Texas made a mistake, you go to Oklahoma. Right. And that's great on Parker Livingstone, who is a good receiver. What I was debating, and really, first of all, the first of all, the first of all, The first thing you have to remember is you talk to Chris Gordy about college footballs. He's a hater. I mean, he's going to hate on everybody.

Yeah. And he's a huge LSU Homer. And that's okay. So Hater Gordy's coming in here like, oh, Parker Livingstone, he's going to blow up at OU. I'm like, okay, well, let's pull up the game logs in. Parker Livingstone, Unstoppable Force. And this also has to do with some Longhorn Brever than I've been texting about. Like, I like Parker Livingstone.

By the way, before you go any further. Livingston, sorry, it's Livingston is correct. He's spelled Livingstone. Livingston is the correct position. Whatever. He's not a real human being. That's not a name that we have football player Parker Levinston No, Parker Levinston

What's wrong with that? Parker, Parker Livingston, please come down You've got your coronation here at the country club Yeah Parker Livingston is not a football name Why not? It's a guy that runs the country club And is running a mass mutual fund

Okay, well he's a 6'4 wide receiver Who just signed to Oklahoma So he disagrees with you And he also got some cash from Oklahoma I'm sure he did That's the other rumor too is that Texas wouldn't up his money And that's why he had to leave And then he's go, he's tweeting out

oh, my hand was forced, I have no choice. You have a choice. You can file paperwork, and that's okay. But Gordy and some others of my Longhorn Brethren, which is why I was so passionate about this argument, people are acting like he got 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns last year. He had 29 catches. 29 catches he played every game. Parker Livingston is a good receiver. he's not some all-world guy

he had four catches or more the most he had in one game was four catches four for 22 in overtime against Mississippi State and four for 128 that's very good against San Jose State so yes he made some big catches some crucial catches and he's a good player

but like they're losing prime Roy Williams it's not no no well you've gone to the philosophy that I go with You ain't one of us. You're against us. Well, now he's an O. No, I'm wishing him the best, kind of.

I want to Matthew Golden to break his leg. Well, see, I'm not like that. Well, I am. I'm not like that. I don't wish Parker Livingston to break his leg. Oh, come on. I mean, you wanted him drop a pass in Dallas in October. That'd be nice.

Several passes, actually. But, I mean, look, I mean, I respect his game that he's Longhorn and now he's going to owe you because he's got something to prove. That's cool. Obviously, seems like a young man with. the head straight on his shoulders and has something to prove. So good for him in that respect.

Yeah, I don't want him doing well. I don't want O.U. doing well and I don't want him doing well against Texas. Other than that, wishing him the best when he ends up selling, working for State Farm. Now that I can believe. Because like a good neighbor,

he is, Parker Livingston's going to be there. Yeah. I think we've given Parker Livingston about five minutes more airtime in any other show on the marketplace. You and Gordy and I were... I loved it. That's why I barred in the show. He's going to blow up.

Well, man, you know what? Maybe he will. He's a good receiver. We got something to keep an eye on. And also, he... I mean, he's just a freshman. So, he can get even better. Redshirt freshman.

On to OU. Bigger and better things for him. We'll see. One of the thing that's funny what Sam brought up is, you know, these colleges can spend $20.5 million dollars. That number's going to go up a little bit,

but I think inflation's going to move it up. That's a direct payment from school to player. And he said that college football programs are tying up 16 to 17 of that. Then if you have a decent men's basketball program, you're probably tying up about two to three of that. So if you're a volleyball player, a women's basketball player, golf team, you're sharing probably Chick-Fillet gift cards. Can you give them those? Is the NCAA okay with that? Why wouldn't they be?

I mean, same difference, right? Yeah. It was interesting he was talking about how some programs can't even hardly make the budget to get to the max. like he was talking about Iowa State. Because you can't offer doesn't mean you have to. Right. There's a lot of schools that are low-level like Iowa State. Probably even have the funds to.

Right. You're asking these schools to find an extra $20 million. Meanwhile, you've got professors in the biology department like, I need research stuff. I would like to read a book on this, but I feel like the second it's published, it'll be dated. Well, I mean, think about how in the last five years of this show, how much we've changed around the topic and conversation with it. Especially when it comes to college. football. The landscape has changed significantly just in the last couple years, and

it's continuing to evolve rapidly. Before we get to the, oh, you know what? Got feelings are very important for us this week, because we're going to make our playoff predictions. And you guys made some last week? We did. Jonathan, did write him down. I told you to write him down. I did write him down on his document. Oh, on the document. Okay, good. I can mess it up. It's not as organized, but it's there.

I don't even know what I did. I hope I was right. We'll find out coming a minute. If you have any sports predictions. We would like for you right now to make a prediction about what the Texas are going to do. If you are a Texans observer like myself or a fan like Battle Red, it's time for you to put your gut feelings in right this minute about what the Texans are going to do this postseason. What I hinted at yesterday, I'm rolling with it. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. You need to call in. Remember, if Brad calls in, You will get...

We haven't heard from him. Did he call us like a couple weeks ago, yeah. Then he sent me an email. He wants to help me with renting a high rise in an Upper Kirby area. Oh, really? Yeah. He's like a realtor. I don't know what he does, but he was willing to help, which was nice.

I appreciated it. That's good. It's an alternative of saying we don't want to help you. What you buy a place? So you got HOA fees there. Not prepared for that. Yeah. That's a little pricey. A little pricey.

Yeah. I want to live Upper Kirby. What's wrong with these gallery high rises are nice? and you're, you're adjacent to 610, 59, I-10. It's a good location. Do they have Butler, some dormans and stuff like that? Is it dormant a requirement for you? Preferred, especially when I'm traveling.

I know you like to be served by everyone. Everyone's below you. Thanks, Tom, for this, by the way. Yeah, speaking of. All right, gut feelings. How will the Texans are doing the playoffs? Let's hear from you right now. 7-1-3.

You know what I'm sorry. That was rude. It was rude. Listen up, girls and boys. They've been so appealing. This is Russ and Matt Thomas. Yo, they got a gut feeling. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show.

All right, before we get to how we did last week, actually we'll do last week first. Then I've got to tell you that USA Today went to AI to tell you who the playoff winners are going to be. Okay. Oh, this year. Yeah, this year. So they give us some of their own gut feelings. But first, Jonathan, how did you and I do last week? I have the...

Oh, you do? Please. Now, this is all under the Matt column. Jonathan, is this? Jonathan had a few of us, too. Okay. I don't have... I know mine, but...

Okay, I have Jonathan sift through this. Well, I know mine at least, but... Did Matt make like six predictions? Yes. SFA on the road, Northwestern State? What does that mean? Oh, I had them beating Northwestern State in basketball. Go ahead, y'all.

I'll look that up, but you figured out. I thought Jim was organized. I need to help now. Yeah, we got to help you out here. Okay, the left column is the date. Y'all did this on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve? The 30th, yeah. I'm on 30th, I'm sorry.

Okay, go out. You know what, John, you read it. Oh, SFA last Wednesday, 74, northwestern state 64. That's a gut-feeling hit. Thank you. You're welcome. Good job. We're all proud of you.

Thank you. You had, looks like you had the Texans playing Baltimore in the playoffs, Matt. Oops. You had the longhorns. It looks like beating Michigan. That is correct. Congratulations on that one. Thank you.

Hook them horns. I know you're a horn fan number one. I like it. You had Ohio State covering nine and a half against Miami. Sorry. How did that go? No.

I actually, you know what? I had all of the favorites winning. I don't, let's see, Indiana won. Yes. Miami won. Oregon was not a favorite, and they won. Georgia lost. You had an over.

Yeah, I think I went two and two. That's unfortunate. That's fine. And all I said was Miami beats Ohio State. You called that? I called that all day. How did you call Miami over Ohio State? Are you serious?

I swear on everything. Wow. Sat here was like, you know what? I'm going to go Miami over Ohio State because it's going to be just a crazy day happens. He only didn't want him. You also, it says Pittsburgh over the Ravens you had as well. Oh, I do.

Oh, I had too. Honestly, Jonathan is the upset king. Hold on. I'm looking at the document right now. It was edited 12 minutes ago. I think you're making, you're putting stuff into the very last second. I put this on God, just not that's a document. I'm editing.

I mean, I'm doing some editing right now just trying to figure this all out. Yeah, this is all in one. You had Ohio State losing to Miami. Let me just write this down. You know what? I'm taking Jonathan as a word. Matt, it's up to you to call him out. You were here for the second.

No, no, no, no. I know you were scrolling IG while he was talking. I'm going to say, yes. I may have been returning some DMs or something. Yeah. Getting blocked. You had the Rockets 2 and 0. Didn't happen.

Who'd they lose to? Dallas. Oh, that's right. And let's see. Yeah, Oregon. Okay, there you go. That's a lot of gut feelings. Yeah, I was feeling quite ambitious. Yeah, your gut was full.

Yeah. Got to empty his gut for this four and a half hour flight. I'm about to go on. Excuse me? You know the rules about that. I don't want to hear about you and guts. All right, that's fine. All right, so.

Thank you. Do you know what Microsoft co-pilot AI is? No. That is the Microsoft AI predictor. Okay. And they simply, USA Today, said, hey, let us know how these playoffs are going to go. Uh-huh. So here's what AI on Microsoft had to say.

Patriots beat the Chargers 23-21. Okay. Sorry about that Charger fan. Bills win at Jacksonville 2623. I could see that. Texans beat the Steelers 20 to 16. On the NFC side, Bears at home beat the Packers 24-20. Eagles win at home over the Niners,

2320. Rams go to beat the Panthers in Carolina, 27 to 17. It's a 10-point spread. Get off the fence, AI. All right. So AI said, all right, we're now going to put some new numbers,

some new metrics in. Let's go to the division round. Buffalo would then travel to Denver, where the bills would beat the Broncos 24 to 21. Hmm. The Texans would make their second ever playoff appearance in Foxborough. Well, they will lose 23 to 20 to the New England Patriots. On the NFC side, the Eagles will play the Chicago Bears.

The Eagles will beat the Bears in Chicago 26 to 23. Okay. The Seahawks will host the Rams in Seattle. Seahawks beat the Rams 27 to 20, which now sets up the AFC Championship. In Foxborough, the Bills win the AFC East 2723 over the Patriots, the NFC Championship, which will be in Seattle. The Eagles beat the Seahawks 24 to 20, which sets up Super Bowl 60 in San Francisco, the Seahawks. Beat the Bills, 27, 23. Wow.

That's what Microsoft Copilot says in her AI account. Agree or disagree. The Seahawks beating the who? Bills. Bills, 27, 23. All these games are close. Oh, would you like my gut feeling right now? All right, so we ready. You bet y'all better write these down and don't lose them on any doctor that you're typing in there.

Okay, here we go. Let's go to all the games. And again, if you've got any gut feelings on any of the sporting events, whether it be the NFL, baseball, baseball, NBA college hoops 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 We'll start with Rams and Panthers Rams 10-point favorite

Boys, I will say The Rams cover The Panthers won by at least 10 So, okay I got it like 2716 Sure why not Okay You guys, yes

Rams Panthers cover Rams win Panthers win Okay What? Already won before He's out of control Are you sniffing glue again

He's the upset king But he calls a lot of upsets wrong This is the truth They've already beat the Rams before They know how to beat him again I feel like they got it Wow that's a massive one honestly I'm going to take the Packers

to beat the Bears in Chicago Go against AI Okay. Super close game. Packers, given the point in a half, still beat the Bears in Chicago. Okay. I'm taking, I'm taking the Chicago Bears on the Money Line. Home in Chicago, a short dog, I like them, to win outright.

Okay. Bears Money Line. Let's go. Jonathan? This is a lot of typing. I hate all. I'm gonna go bears too I have some

You're the upset king You gotta go with the upsets I feel confident In Cal Williams All right next game I think the bills Win in Jacksonville I'm still not a Trevor Lawrence guy

I don't care what they're 13 and 4 records 50 for me man What's the line on that One and a half by Buffalo Oh that is such a tough toss-up to me 2725 Buffalo covers the point and a half Two point game

Has been hot The bills are so, but the bills are so beatable. Yeah, there are no run defense to speak out. Oh, especially between the tackles. E.TN can do that. Oh, it feels like a 50-50 game. I will go with, I think you're right, bills. Since I have a high school colleague that's on the team, Parker Washington, I'm going with the Jags.

Okay. Jaguar is upset. He said three upsets for Mr. Upset, by the way. I'm not calling you Mr. Pesbo, Vizmol. I think the Niners win in Philadelphia. Ooh, I like that. I'm with you. I'm going with the Niners.

It goes against my early prediction at the beginning of the year, but I'm going to go with... That's okay. You can hedge. I'm going to go 49ers. There's 17 weeks of information. Getting the points. Eagles just seems so beating. And I was going to say, straight up win.

I'll take the Eagles, I'll take the, excuse me, the Niners on the Money Line. I will take them to flat out beat the Eagles in Philadelphia. You know what? We should parlay this. Can you get to Lake Charles? Yeah, I can get to Lake Charles. Link, link. Do you want some vizine for those eyes, too?

Yeah, I'm all right. All right. Jonathan? I'm going to stick with the tamps. I'm going with Eagles. Okay. Yeah, I'm going, okay. You're going to Eagles.

That's the last upset, non-upset. I try to convince you guys during the tell the truth, but I lied. I think the Patriots roll the Chargers. Roll! Roll! Roll. I will take New England giving. Yeah, get out of the truth.

here, Chargers fan. I got the Patriots by at least a touchdown. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm going with you guys. I mean, I'm a Chargers guy, but I'm being realistic.

I don't think we got, I don't think we'll be the Patriots here. Okay. And Texans minus three. Not an issue. They'll beat the Steelers by a touchdown. I'm sorry. Who did, Jonathan, you got the Patriots too?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. What do you got, Manny? Patriots. I'm sorry. I mean, the Niners winning at the Eagles. Oh, Texans giving up the three. I like the Texans by a touchdown.

Texans by double digits. Oh, did he swear? Did you stutter? I ain't stuttering. Texans by double digits, old man Aaron Rogers is going to be folded up into a wooden box. I got another one for you. Let's go.

You ready for this gut feeling? Anderson is going to fold him in half. I am a Texans observer. Here's what I'm going to observe. Aaron Rogers does not take every snap for the Pittsburgh Steelers. You're crazy for that.

You could be right. You could be right. Write it down. Gut feeling. Aaron Rogers. Hey, Wildcat doesn't count, by the way. I see you trying to get some Kenneth Gainwell

Wildcat. Non-Wall cat. For some reason, he gets either knocked out or has a miss-up play for some reason. If the helmet comes off, it's a misplay. You're funny. Okay.

Yeah, okay. As long as it's not a wildcat. Aaron Rogers does not take every snap in the year. Will Anderson's going to hit him low, but legally. Daniel Henderson's going to hit him high. He's going to get folded in half. Not the same time either, by double digits.

Okay, let's go. You heard it here first. Jonathan? I'm just going to say Texans. I'm just going to say Texans over. I don't have any. The three? Do they win?

They just win. I don't get any of a cover. All right, hold on. I'm writing down this. Aaron Rogers does not play every snap. You're going with the Texans. I got the Texans by double digits. What's up, baby?

all right now we'll save everybody else for the divisionals when we get there okay gut tells me texans would go to new england and would lose that's as far as we're going for the playoffs for me texans go to new england and lose okay smiley what you got say it now say it proud for the first time oh here we go he's setting it up in texon's history there's no chance

he's not going this direction now he's setting you up never made it to an AFC championship game one single time since 2002. Until this year, the Texans are going to beat the Steelers on the road. They're going to beat those fraud Patriots as well. And they're going to the AFC championship game. What's up? You heard it here first. I ain't scared.

The defense is going to be destroying people. The offense is going to do just enough. Woody Marks, you know, 3.5 yards of carry. It's fine. Dalton Schultz, eight catches for 36 yards, it's fine. And they're going to score enough. But I believe in this defense. I believe in this team.

They're making the AFC championship game. They need to go. For the first time. Don't you think for mental health sink for all of us here? They're making it. Okay. Johnman? Again, I'm not stuttering.

Johnlin, would you like to back that up or go to my point? I'm going to have to go to Matt's point here. You could also wait a week. They could be out this week. All right. I'm feeling it. So two of the three of us say out after the divisional round. After that, we'll see who they play.

I got you. All right. If you've got any gut feelings, let us know right now. 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212. Let's go, baby. Let's go, baby. Let's go.

7-1-3-2-5-7-90. 7-1-2-2-5-7-9-0. Let's go. gut fillings yours next here on 790 all right your chance now to get in with your gut feelings it's 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 let's talk to my computer is not up to speed

so we'll start with line number four Ross and go to Brandon Brandon what's in your gut this week morning guys first off the Texas game It's not going to be pretty, but I see the Texans beating the Steelers 10 to 8. 10 to 8? 10 to 8. Like I said, it's not going to be pretty.

That would be the ugliest playoff win maybe in the history of the National Football League. It doesn't have to be pretty, Matt. I understand. It's a win's a win. You could get like a lot of odds on that one. That would be a score of gummy for a playoff game, right? Yeah, probably would be. I don't know what I'm saying. You're running the book. You probably get at least 30 to 1 on that, Brandon.

there you go for your virtual trip over to Lake Charles Oh there we go Oh yes right virtual Thank you Brian Wank That's all you had to say Thank you That takes something special

To call the show And we appreciate Brandon doing that He said 10 to 8 I like that The Texans are going to score 4 in the 7th to win the game 24 to 13 2110

I got one over for a gut Texan scory defensive touchdown Does that happen when Aaron Rodgers gets hurt And folded in half as you predicted I didn't say folding a half I said missed a snap I said folded it half I'm not looking for him to be decapitated

Let's talk to Patrick on 7 out of you at 1253 Patrick what's in your gut this week I'm going to have to agree with Ross I think this year is the year that they can make it to the ASTC-G game I'm a change plan that I live in Houston so I'm going to root for the Texans

when they plug you guys So I'm saying this as an outsider looking in You're all in the Texas now Yeah, just for the season But no Mahomes, no borough I mean, I think it's going to be a Bills versus Texan ASEC championship games

You're in Houston That would be sexy The Bills win And go to the Super Bowl to play Oh hey, hey You know why Patrick Hang up on this guy Hold on Patrick, I know why you said that

Because usually you can't beat somebody three times in a row, right? About twice? Yeah, well, one was last year, it didn't count. Ross is different. I'm just saying, it's hard to beat him in threes. Bobby Sloak was on that one. Wins and threes are hard. Deaths and threes are not

so hard. We get celebrity deaths all the time. That's my cross comparison. You like it? Okay. I don't think you liked it. I'm sure. Why not? Thank you, Patrick. He's got Buffalo winning in Houston. Ooh. First ever first ever AFC championship game ever hosted in Houston. And they lose the bills.

I'm talking about orders never played at A. That's true. Never. Not in Houston. AFL, yes, but not AFC. All right, right, right. All right, Texas. Do anybody this from Orange, Ross? No. I don't either.

Kenneth on 7.9. What's in your gut? No, I'm not from Orange. I was there when I made my first call here. But anyway, I got a gut feeling. I'm going to eat every last word I said about C.J. Strout. And that just guy going to likely take us all

away, man. Wow. Yeah, I think I'm going to eat every last word. I said about him having a glass jaw. Oh, that was so tough, Kenneth. Yeah, that's my prediction, man. I'm going to eat every last word. Thank you. Well, Kenneth, either way, whether the Texans go deep or they lose in the first run,

you've got to call and tell us. We've got to check out that jaw is doing. That's not, CJ doesn't have a glass straw. He got, not glass straw. Glass jaw. He got hit hard. Turf is hard in the NFL. Quarterback spot's tough.

Guys are going to get hurt. There was a game a couple weeks ago where he got his head slammed into the turf and then he just got up and everybody's like, oh, nothing is he here? He said my name is Warren Moon. I'm going to be very happy to lead this team to victory. Yes. All right, let's go to James to wrap up gut fillings. James Wilson, your gut this week.

I'm all in on Indiana and making memories with Miami. I think I'm kind of, I mean, how could you not be all in on Indiana after that? Because I think Kirkson is an ass. Okay, he can be. A successful college football coach is an ass. I know. It's fraud. Stop me if you've heard that before. I know. I know.

I'm not rooting for him. I just think he's a boorish a-hole. Really? Yeah. Okay. Well, but James is all in. Thank you. I think they're going to win it all, too.

They're the favorites. By the way. If they win it all, that's three straight national championships out of the Big Ten. SEC Get them Stay with me on this Get Gordy Tomorrow 1130

If it happens SEC I got news for you You can S T B A U Shut the butt

S S Y Okay we go I don't want to say I don't want to steal The bid for tomorrow Don't hurt yourself By way I'll be on

8 o'clock Pacific time tomorrow morning Oof that's early You're fine That's true I'm in their hotel You're leaving early now I've got a four and a half hour flight ahead of me

oh we'll text on a private jet that is correct where you can you can stretch out you have your own row correct that is accurate and the Wi-Fi is at Starlink now oh my God is it good

exactly Stata you're the last gut feeling what do you got what's up Matt what's up Ross hey man my gut feeling is is CJ Stroud is not going to finish that game and

Davis Mills going to come in and finish the rest of the season, man. I think C.J. Straub is still going to take a hit from a play that he's going to try to make. And, you know, but I think Straub going to finish his season and he'll be a, man, what's the guy named that took the Eagles to the Super Bowl? Nick Fawt's or Nick Foles

Nick Foles Nick Foles And I think C.J. Strau is going At least get him to the title game. The L.C. title game. All right. I'm with you. NFC championship.

Let's go. They could play the Broncos in the next round. That would be if the bills and chargers lost. By the way, I was looking at my gut feelings from two weeks ago. I said that the Texans would make the playoffs and not be the seven. seed be higher than the seven good for you thank you we don't have to talk about anything else i said that week i've already forgotten that's good it was it was pretty bad by the way if you noticed jonathan in the last 12 seconds before i get out of here he's not played the habachi sound effect

i don't quite some time why is that why is that ross i'm just curious things are trending in your direction yeah he's not feeling as confidence you know things are trending in your direction i got to be honest i'm a i am still like this should be your most worrisome i went from like 99.5% confident till now I'm like 73.8. I went from 0.1 to 28. So it's like we're equal. Inverse, yeah, yeah.

But I'm still nervous. Don't kid yourself. I'm still, I still have the money that's prepared for that. Terrible. He's going to get an opt-out deal with the Dodgers. God. And Jonathan, if you think I've ever annihilated a partner of mine before.

I already told Jonathan, I already told Ross, I said, I will, I will be, I will come unglued on this show when I win this bet. And you know what? I don't deserve it. Because he has been, I will deserve it. Habachi, talking about the fried rice, talking with the sizzle, adding scallops. So bad. So bad. It is your worst. Hey, you know what this is? A must win bet. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not true. This is a must win bet. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Yes, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross for the final hour without Matt Thomas.

He is traveling with your Houston Rockets, who got the win over the Phoenix Suns last night. More on that in just a moment. So he'll be out. We'll bring you the Rotten Five coming up in the next segment. Then later on, we'll bring you the conversation. Really good stuff. I want you to tune in coming up at 1.30. Sam Con Jr., covering college football for the athletic.

I mean, there is just so much to unpack. It felt like we could have had him on for an hour. We scheduled a 10-minute interview. We had them on for like 15 minutes. I want to play. We'll see how much we have to trim it down based on breaks and all that type of stuff. But make sure you stay tuned coming up at 1.30, and you can find the full conversation, Sports Talk 790.com.

Sam Khan Jr., senior writer for the athletic, covering, I mean, this is not a writer job that existed even five years ago. This is what his title is. College football roster management and the transfer portal. That is what his job is. There is so much to figure out with what's going on with all this movement in college football that the athletic has dedicated an entire writer's job to covering it. And I'm sure he's got stuff to do year round.

So good insight from Sam Con Jr. will bring that for you coming up. at 130. Phone lines are open at 713. 212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. I predicted in the last segment. And I'm going to stick with it. Now, it's just a gut feeling on a Tuesday, but I also did put it on my Twitter account at SportsRV. I just have this feeling that the Texans are going to make the AFC championship game for the first time. And I know the Vegas line is three and a half. I just feel pretty confident going into this game. I'm not going to be acting like I broke down a bunch of Pittsburgh

Steelers tape and all that, but I've seen enough of them. I just don't think when you're talking about Aaron Rogers as the QB1, who is the RB1? Jalen Warren is kind of a third down backup to me. Same thing for Kenneth Gainwell, quite frankly. Both of those guys

don't strike fear into me as far as RB1s. D.K. Metcalfe is good. And I am worried about him coming back, But he's not like he's going to go off for 200 yards or anything like that. I don't think. It's going to be a low-scoring game. I think the Texans can do enough scoring-wise.

I think they will do just enough to win this game. And when I say just enough, like, I don't think it's going to be 35 to 10 or something like that. I said, I think 24 to 13, something like that. That's what it feels like. I don't think the Steelers are going to be able to score hardly at all against a fully healthy Texans defense. So we'll see come Monday. And then after that, depending on the way things break, right, if they seed behind them, because they read seed in the NFL playoffs, wins, then they will not be going on the road to Denver. It'll be against the next highest, whether it be, whether it be the Patriots or the Jaguars, Jaguars or whomever.

So I feel like all three of the teams that they could end up playing on the road against will be winnable games for the Texans. Whether it be the Broncos who have a great defense, but the same thing. It's not the same thing, but similar in that I don't feel like the Denver Broncos offense strikes fear into my heart. Drake May and the Patriots, due to an extent, for sure, especially when you add the fact that there's a running element to Drake May's game. He's been playing very well. I think it's overblown the criticism of them not playing a lot of teams. Yes, they've played a lot of bad teams, but they've played some good defenses, including the Browns and some others, who are not good teams, but who have good defense. offenses, and Drake May is still played very well.

That's what a lot of people are getting into the MVP argument, whether you're going to go with Drake May, and I think it's Matt Stafford, are the two primary candidates. A five-seed who won 12 games and a two-seed, they won 14 games. And we know team success matters when it comes to the NFL MVP. That's just how it is. So as far as the Patriots, I am kind of scared of them. Jaguars are kind of a question mark to me as not necessarily a question mark. I mean, they won eight games in a row.

And they beat some good teams on the win streak. But on the wind streak, they have two wins over the Titans, two wins over the Colts without their starting quarterback. So I'm not saying that the Jaguars wouldn't be favored in that game, but I would say the Texans shouldn't come into that game quaking in their boots. So no matter who they end up in, if they get past the Steelers, which is not a given. But in my mind, I think they're going to do it,

and I think they're going to do it by double digits. I think the pathway to the AFC championship, game for the first time in their history is there, despite the fact that they'll have to go on the road in all likelihood. No, not in all likelihood. They will have to go on the road twice to do it. What do you think? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in 7-13-212-5-7-90. Mentioned the Rockets got to win last night against the Phoenix Suns. We were talking about this earlier in the first hour of the show of Matt. Like, are you guys at? As far as your investment in the Houston Rockets. I know

we have not really been a basketball town. Even when the James Hardin era was happening with Chris Paul, there was a lot of people that didn't like James Hardin's style of play. Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, step back three. I get it. It wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye. But this team, I feel like, is more

embracable, if that makes sense. This is a team that plays hard-nosed defense. They've got a coach that doesn't take any bleep from anybody, whether it be officials, his own players, opposing players, and he's just fun to watch, and they play hard. They have Kevin Durant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and Alpern Shungoon when he's on the floor and healthy, hasn't played in the last couple of games with his hurt ankle. He's good.

I'm in Thompson, to me, is one of the more fun players to watch. And I don't know how, he's getting some national recognition as a first team all defense guy. But, I mean, just the way that he plays, how fast he is, how crafty he's getting. how much he's improved offensively as well. Men Thompson is extremely fun to watch. And it's just entertaining, I would say, with the Rockets. Despite all the missed threes last night, they still got the game winner from Kevin Durant against his old team.

They got the 197 win last night here on Sports Talk 790. So that was fun to watch. Kevin Durand with the game winner, he had 26 points. Two of 12 from three point land. did not make his second three until the very end. He talked about a lot of them feeling pretty good. And he had an interesting, just an interesting thought on the MVP chance that he was receiving. He was interviewed by Vanessa Richardson.

Now, if you're not familiar, after the game, it's on Space City Home Network. And then they also pipe in the audio into the Toyota Center. So it's a nice, good, immersive experience to get it to the TV broadcast, also get it piped into the arena. here is Kevin Durant with Vanessa Richardson after that 197 win last night. Vanessa Richardson. Yeah. Kevin Durant.

Your second three of the game. Let the crowd. Kevin, your second three-pointer of the game and it couldn't have been better timing. What did you see on that shot? All my three-pointers felt good leaving my hand. Someone was back rimmed too strong. And I'm like, I'm going to hit one at some point.

I kept telling him. the team, but I'm a hit a three at some point and, you know, by the grace of God, it was the last one. How would you describe the feeling as that shot left your hands? You looked like you knew you had it the whole time. Yeah, I mean, I got to my spot. I feel like on that right wing, that pull up is my shot. And I just tried to, you know, leave my follow through up there and focus on my fundamentals and they went through. We needed it. It was a game of runs the entire time. How were you all able to put together that final run to seal the deal? I mean, it was It was a physical game. Both teams played extremely hard on the defensive side of the ball.

I just think we made more shots to end the game, to be honest. I think it was a pretty even game, but we made more shots at the end. Amin's playmaking and ball handling in that fourth quarter was really elite. What did you like about that? Yeah, I mean, just being able to control the offense, that three-point play set us up for this game winner. And without that three-point play, him getting down to the rim and finishing the free throws, we wouldn't be in his position. So, Toyn was big for us.

What's like to hear everybody at Toyota Center Channing MVP? I mean, being booed in here so many years. Being an opposing player and being booed, you know, it feels good to come out here and get some love. I love Houston. I love Texas. I'm just grateful for him representing the Rockies. Thanks, Kevin.

That goes back to that old Seinfeld bit. We root for laundry. I know I'm going to ask if you've not ever heard that, but I know you've never heard that, John. I know you haven't. Have you ever even watched Seinfeld at all? No, actually, Matt asked me as a couple of years out, but I'd mention it. I would say it doesn't kind of, especially the early seasons don't hold up really over time as much as I thought.

The later seasons are a little bit better, but there is a bit that he does. Now, the show started off. The idea of the show was, how does he get to his ideas for comedy? So it was the real life experiences of a comedian and how he comes up with the comedy. So they play the bit at the beginning of the show, and then that would be the foreshadowing of what would happen. And one of the bits was he's talking about how we root for laundry. like we we boo like it's the same human being Kevin Durant is wearing a purple sun's shirt

and we hate him he's the worst boo Louis you know you're ruining our lives and I'll never root for you and then he changes shirts he puts on a red rocket shirt or last night we're in the black alternates all of a sudden hey Kevin Durant welcome you with open arms man

you're the best and so the bit is we root for laundry we're rooting for the laundry we're rooting for the clothing that the guy is wearing, not the human beings. That's not true. Well, you know, all comedy, though, the funniest comedy, I suppose, is finding the truths. So, yeah, it's funny how we root for laundry. Kevin Durant. Now, I've always rooted for Kevin Durant, but not when he was playing against the rockets.

I mean, I would be booing or upset or really just shaking my head at all the crazy shots he's been what he is making. But just a funny comment for him, like, hey, I've been booed in this arena and all of a sudden I wear this rocket shirt. Funny how that works. I'm the same guy, same human being. Who I've always been. Now I'm wearing some rockets red or some rockets black, alternate black, and everybody loves me. So it was good for him and also satisfying. He mentioned after the game that he was able to get the victory over the Phoenix Suns.

It gave him a little bit of extra umph because there was a team that forced him out, which he talked about never being forced out ever. So Kevin Durant with the game winner last night, how are we feeling about them rockets? 22 and 11. As I said, fun to watch. I know I am biased as a lifelong Rockets fan. Of course, I do a lot of the pre and post game shows. So you guys have been showing some love and calling those a little bit more.

I do see interest there. See interest in the arena. Just want to know from you. Are you gaining more and more interest in the Houston Rockets? 713-2-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV. You can follow me on Instagram at SportsRV as well.

Quick break here when we come back. We'll take your calls. And we'll also get you the Rotten 5. I understand. Don't want Matt hitting his steering wheel in traffic more than he normally does. So we'll get to the Rodin 5 as a go along. And as I mentioned, good conversation with Sam Con Jr. coming up at 1.30 here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

All right, actually, that's my bad. We are going to get to the Roder 5. Don't get angry, Matthew. But a couple of people have called in. So we're going to get them real quick. I was asking for a little Rockets and some Texans conversation. So we did get that. So let's go ahead and go to the phone lines real quick.

We've got Sam Con of the Athletic coming up in the next segment. And we'll have the Rotten Five coming for you in just a second. You know, you've got to build the drama on the final Rotten Five of the season. So let's get Jack in here real quick with some Rockets talk. What's up, Jack? Well, I was at yesterday's game, and the athletes were fantastic. It was a great game to attend. The rest of the Rocket staff did a lousy job when

The clock failed, the shot clock failed, the scoreboard failed. The second quarter, we had no idea what the score was. They were chanting the countdown of the shot clock, you know, on every play, which made sense that they were trying to keep the game moving. But if the announcer had at least summarized what happened each time there was a break, It would have been a whole nicer experience for those of us that were trying to follow a game without the usual. And I know the owner was there because he walked right past my seat. Oh, wow.

Oh, you were some nice seats then, Jack. Dang, all right. Yeah, you know how much I paid for my tickets, right? Well, you got your money's worth with that game winner with Kevin Durant. Absolutely. It was the second quarter where we weren't getting our money's worth. I would have liked to seem an explanation at halftime and apology from the Rockets. I'm with you, Jack.

Thanks a lot of appreciate. A lot better handling of the situation. Yeah, I was in the arena as well as a fan. I had some tickets. So I'm with you. We were all wondering. I knew it was a clock issue and I was trying to tell people around because everybody was confused. There was no announcement.

If you didn't catch the Rockets game last night, I have been, and I talked to to Matt, actually, at halftime of the game because, you know, he's been doing 82 games a year for seven plus years, whatever it is with the Rockets and been following and working in PA and all that stuff. So been around the league for a long, long time and never saw this bad. I've seen times where the shot clock goes down or maybe the clock goes down for a little bit, but it was everything. The clock went down. The shot clock wasn't working.

They had to stop the game. It felt like at least 10 times in the first half. that it just none of it was working and everybody was left in the dark in the arena just a quick announcement from the PA would have been nice just to say hey we are we are experiencing technical difficulties please bear with us something like that but i mean most people figured it out and word was traveling throughout the arena there was some kind of big clock issue and of course we all figured out when the clock went completely off in the second quarter but i have i have never personally never and mad who's been around the league a very long time has never seen it to that extent That was bizarre. That was very weird to see last night. But, hey, at least you got rewarded with a game winner from Kevin Duran at the end. That was a nice, not even a consolation prize. It was, what would you call it, John?

I'm searching for the word. It was a nice penance or something like that. Like, yeah, a little payback. Yeah, payback's probably the best, best base of words. A reward. I'm going to come up with a better word for that. But anyways, a nice little reward for all. having to bear all of that clock stop,

but you got a game winner from Kevin Durant. So I'm glad you went to the game, had a good time. I would encourage all of y'all to get to the game. There's, I mean, even at the top of the rafters, the seats are pretty cool. You've got the big screens. It's fun. You get so much better of a feel with how athletic and strong and fast all these players on

when you're able to get out. And oh, by the way, Rockets have been winning a lot. There are 22 and 11. All right, let's go ahead and get to the Rotten 5 here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right. the final rotten five of the season. A lot of bad teams in the NFL. And, you know, I don't think this one appeared on the list all year.

We're going to go with number five, the Arizona Cardinals. They finished the season on a nine-game losing streak. Of course, we know Kyla Murray went down in the middle of the season. They lost a lot of games. They had running back issues. They had wide receiver issues. Funny enough, they went on a nine-game. losing streak. Before that

they were on a five-game losing streak. The one win in between that, a win over the Cowboys. So they lost 14 of their last 15 games. Jonathan Gannon out. Not you, Jonathan Gannon,

Jonathan Gannon has been fired from the Arizona Cardinals. Well, you take that job a couple of million a year. Hey. I know you're not going to sneeze at that, but Arizona Cardinals is terrible. Fifth Worst team in the NFL. you suck you jackass all right how can this this many bad teams be in and we didn't we i mean three and fourteen they are terrible all right let's keep the tennessee titans on the list they have been there basically all year long i mean i do have to give them some congratulations i thought they were going to end the year on the bottom five but they actually won a couple of games late over the browns and the bad chiefs but getting absolutely dismantled by the jaguars i mean texans fans wondering hey could you get one one win in against the Jaguars? Help us out. Get that

AFC South Crown? No. They didn't do any of that. Cam Ward played, but also Brandon Allen got in the game and played the majority of it, so Titans weren't even trying to win. They did it right. They were tanking and they are terrible. Three and fourteen, the Titans are bad. One of the worst teams in the NFL. How about fourth worst to end the year? I mean, if we're keeping a bulk right now, we ask. Yes, y'all are. Now it's time to go to New York.

The New York segment of the Rotten Fire. we will go with the New York Football Giants as they finish the season 4 and 13 of course they won a couple of games at the end but they didn't matter especially over the Raiders and the Cowboys who weren't trying so I'm not even really going to count those

the New York Giants are terrible Jackson Dart maybe he's going to turn out to be something but they were going up against Joe Milton and the Dallas Cowboys who didn't want to play anybody that had any actual talent so I still don't count that as a win New York Giants

fired Brian Dable in the middle of the season. Apparently they're going to keep General Manager Joe Shane. Why? I don't know. But the New York Giants are terrible. They're the third worst team in the NFL. Sucky, sucky, sucky. Yes, they were, Matthew. All right, let's keep it in New York. This hurts me as Nimitz graduate, Aaron Glenn. By the way, hasn't been fired. Every coach fired so far on this list. Jonathan Gallen, Brian Callahan, Brian Dable. Aaron Glenn, to my knowledge, not fired yet. Could it happen? You never know with Woody Johnson and the New York football jets. they are terrible, into the season, I should say, on a five-game losing streak. Did you see the stats of the opposing quarterbacks of the Jets? It was like 14 and 3, a passer rating of like 115, and it was like 30, here, I found it, 36 touchdowns, zero interceptions. If you're the opposing quarterback of the Jets this year, these are your stats, 14 and 3, 3, 6,000 yards, 36 touchdowns, no picks. That is MVP all-time stuff going against the Jets all year. And Aaron Glenn is supposed to be the defensive mastermind. They also, of course, did trade away a lot of his players.

Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets, terrible second worst team in the NFL. This sucks more than anything that I've ever sucked before. All right. And last but not least, old man Pete Carroll wheeled out of Las Vegas. I don't know why you thought this was a good... Don't shake your head at me, Jonathan. I mean, come on. 74 years old

Pete Carroll should have never been hired one year in fired not deserving of the job in over his head bad Las Vegas Raiders team they get the number one overall pick Gino Smith I actually liked the signing I was dead wrong on that

Raiders absolute worst team in the NFL as they get the number one overall pick I've seen team suck before but they were to suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked there you go and you notice a theme in the drops today in the Rotten 5. These teams suck.

All right, that's your Rodin 5. We're going to take quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Those of you on hold, we will get to you, I promise. We will also hear from Sam Kahn with some good conversation on college football. That is coming up next. You don't want to miss it here on Sports Talk 7-9. This report is sponsored by iHeartadvertising.com. Run a business and not thinking about radio.

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Like I said, you want to catch all of it. If you like college football, really knowledgeable, really good stuff coming from him on the NIL-era, transfer portal, all that stuff. We'll get to that in just a second. But Keesaw has been waiting patiently, so let's get him real quick. What's up, Koso? Hey, man. The Master, what a great song to come back from the break.

quickly I know the clock was an issue yesterday so Johnson Stanford had to do the clock correct the 24 second clock yes he was going 10 and then 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

it was crazy well I you know after every win or every lose like to hop on the subreddit see what people are talking and apparently on the sun's page they were claiming that

our Rockets PA announcer was doing the PA doing the 24 second clock for the sun a little bit faster than he was for the rocket. Did anyone seem to catch that? I didn't notice. Now, I will say this. When he first started doing it,

he only did it for a couple of rockets possessions. And I think he got instructions to do it for everyone. He wasn't doing for 24. I mean, I think it just took him a couple of minutes to figure everything out. And then he started doing the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for every possession, which he wasn't doing at the beginning either. So I think they were just kind of figure stuff out.

And it didn't seem like he was counting any faster to me. I don't know. I mean, they could probably, you could probably pull out the tape and go frame by frame on that bad boy and figure it out if they really wanted to. But it didn't seem like that to me. All right.

All right. And then my last point is, you know, I think EMA is a great coach. I think Joe Mizzou is a good coach. Boston folks think that they got lucky with EMA leaving. You know, I just regard any of that. But I do see one thing that troubles me,

and specifically this year, given the situation with not really having we're not having Fred Van Bleed at all so far is that this team I mean it was pretty ugly offense last year but at least we had Fred operating and making moves it's so apparent that the lineup that they dish out here with with I'm in at the point guard who's fabulous player um I just don't know if he's ready especially playoff basketball point guard it's you know I'm sitting there thinking I'm like man they just need to go get a point guard. I'm like, wait, they have Reed, and to a lesser extent, Aaron, it's just, I understand Aaron has been a third, third role player for most of his career, and Reed is second year player.

But when they have an actual point guard on that court, you can see the ball moving a little bit better and getting to their actions a little bit quicker. What do you think? Why is Eme so reluctant to, especially in the middle of the season coming up here, just get Reed, those, those early minutes with a Sacramento or a Charlotte team coming to town. It's just, it's just so, look, the team looks way better than actual point guard. And I'll hang up the list of, thanks, Mr. America. Thank you, Kay, so yes, you know what, I almost start calling myself, Mr. America. I appreciate that, Kay, so it's a couple of things.

First of all, the Rockets offense is way better than it was last year. Of course, you inject Kevin Durant into that, but they are third in offensive rating. That's points per 100 possessions behind the Nuggets and the buckets and the Boston Celtics. They're one of the best offenses in basketball. So even with all the warts and where they can look a little disjointed and unorganized at times

and the turnovers and all that type of stuff, there's still the third best offense in basketball. Also, yes, it was especially highlighted last night because you don't have Alperin Shungoon. You start a lot of actions and run a lot of offense through him. You've had him out for a couple of games. He missed some games with the calf and then he came back and he twisted his ankle.

And then also, if you watched last night's game, look at who the Phoenix Sons were hunting almost every time down the floor when Reed Shepard was on, was on the court. It's Reed Shepard. Amy Adoka has a defensive-minded coach, is a defensive-minded coach, and he has a player who is a work-in progress on the defensive end. He can get some steals. He can get some blocked shots. He can play some passing lanes.

But also, he needs to hit the weight room. He gets pushed around a little bit too easy. He doesn't fight through screens well, and he can get torched defensively for stretches. He just has to be better on that end of the floor. And I think Eme Adoka likes to start with better defense and have him come in and play more offense. And normally, Reed Shepard, no matter who's in the starting lineup, whether it be Tari Isson or sometimes Josh Okie or whoever,

gets about as many minutes as whoever he would be starting for. So he does look good in that, but there are defensive issues. And Eme Adoka likes to set the tone with his defense. And Reed Sheper needs to get better on that. And also you can have him come up. It's a luxury to have him come off and off the bench and score points and kind of run the second unit. Because who else is your other candidate for that? Aaron Holliday, to me, I mean, he's good, but he's not necessarily a high-impact player.

You're not going to run stuff through him. He's not a ball handler. He's not a playmaker for the Rockets. So you have Reed Shepard as a guy who can come in and playmate with that second unit. I think the benefits are certainly. there for Reed, who's normally getting around 25 to 30 minutes a night as it is. Okay, went a little along with that. So let's get Sam Con Jr.

Those you on hold will get to you as well. But conversation with Sam Con Jr. of the athletic, full conversation, sports talk 790.com. Here it is as Sam Con started off talking about the agents that the players have now, who are now getting involved with college players. Yeah, I think it's just like anything you come across. is there's actually a lot of pretty good ones and then there are some ones who are not necessarily the most qualified or maybe

you're not going to give the best guidance. I would say most of the ones I've dealt with are pretty solid and you do have more NFL agents, NFL player agents coming to the college side. I've come across paths with a lot of guys who represent NFL players and are now stepping into the college games

even with the bigger agencies, you know, your CAAs, your athletes first, you know, some of the big ones out there that people know they're getting into this game as well. So I think it really depends on what kind of choice. Obviously, obviously the families and the recruits are making the choices on who represents them. But I will say there is a cry amongst the coaches and the staffers who are managing this of they wish there was some type of certification. Like in the NFL level, you have to be certified by the NFLPA.

and there is no real baseline for that in college. Some states have certification requirements that you have to do to be able to represent someone, but not every state does. And I think there is a desire for across-the-board certification to just establish some minimum standards that people have to meet to be able to represent a player. Do you think there will be change coming with that, Sam, as far as, I mean, what exactly is the solution?

I know NCAA tries to keep their hands off of this stuff so they can still claim amateur athletics. But do you think there will be some kind of solution coming with that or like federal legislation? What would it take? Yeah, I think I think it would have to be either the CSC, the College Sports Commission, which was established by the Power for conferences, which is supposed to be managing all the salary cap and the enforcement of everything that's going on. I think you would have mixed results in different claims on how well that's going so far.

Or I think some federal legislation possibly could be in the mix for that as well. I don't sense, I think it is something that it desired. I don't sense that it is the highest priority on the list, though. I think there are other things that people want to solve before they get to that. But I do think at some point it is possible, but it would take either the CSC or sometimes federal legislation to get there, I think. Sam, Con, Jr. of the Athletic with us here on Sports Talk 790. And I kind of need this explained like I'm five, Sam. Like we're talking about these agents and these players and they hit the portal.

Like what are the, you can go through the legal and then maybe the illegal procedures. If there is a player who has an agent and they're thinking about hitting the portal, I mean, how much of that is negotiated or talk to other teams as far as tampering with other schools before deciding to enter the portal? Also, you have guys who enter the portal when it figures out that maybe somebody else is coming. so they're going to their playing time is going to go down like it just seems like a big mess from that standpoint yeah no it absolutely is and again when i talked about the cc that everyone hasn't agreed to what the enforcement model looks like like there's you know we have a body and we have

uh you know their task with trying to enforce this stuff but they sent out an agreement for everybody to sign and not everybody signed it and it doesn't go in effect unless everyone signs it So at this point, we don't have an enforcement arm with real teeth yet. And so tampering run has been running rampant for years and continues to do so. Many of these players, the portal didn't open until Friday, but many of these players announced, either after their regular seasons were over sometime in December, that they were going in the portal. And I can promise you, I know, because I've been talking to these people, as soon as some of the bigger names announced they were going in, we already heard where they were likely going.

And that is an issue that I think coaches and general managers complain about, but there also doesn't seem to be anybody really stopping it at this point. I think that the tampering issue is probably one of the top complaints you get. And it is. These are things that happen right away. And to your point about a player having to jump in if somebody happens, I talked to an agent last night who said he had a client in an ACC school who was tied in and he was going to stay. He was going to re-sign our Rift share contract to come back for 2026. And then his team took

a tight-in in the portal. He's like, well, now I've got to get in. Now I've got to get in the portal because now my playing time is going to be getting eaten into. And that's what's going to be fascinating to me, especially as we get outside the portal window because this year we only have the winter portal window. There is no spring window. So to me, I'm curious to see what happens when we get to spring football and depth charts are getting set and you find out, well, I'm not where I thought I was going to be on the depth chart. Well, there's no spring portal window anymore. So what are you going to do? Are you going to stick it out? Are you going to withdraw and then hope you can end up enrolling somewhere else? But there's no really guarantee

you can end up somewhere else at that point. So it is very messy at this point. And that is what I think makes it so difficult, not just for the people involved, but even the fans to follow is that these things can change in a blink. And the guy who may be your star quarterback today may be on your rival school tomorrow. Sam, if you were in Times Square yesterday, you happen to see a big billboard video of Brandon Sorosby welcomed to Lubbock in Texas Tech after assigning his deal going to there

take me through the process so Brandon Sorosby's his quarterback at Cincinnati and word travels that he is open for free agency does Cody Campbell and he's the most recognizable NIL donor probably out there in college sports today does he lob a phone call to Sorosby's representation and says look I know the school can't

give you the money directly because they can't give you $5 million. They could, but that's a budget that they don't want to spend. But I'm going to put you in terms with my group, with my collective, and we're going to make sure that $5 million reaches your client's piggy bank by the time he arrives in Lubbock. So that is the part that is a little bit unclear at this point with some of the bigger deals, because what is the divide between the ref share pool and the NIL pool? because as we know, the refs share pool is capped at roughly $20 million. It'll go up a little bit this year by 4%, but it's still going to be around $21, $22 million. And that's for all sports, not just football.

So a Power 4 roster is probably somewhere in the $14 to $17 million range. So if you were to spend $5 on a quarterback, that only leaves maybe 9 to 12 for the rest of your roster, which is a lot. So certainly, but if you are trying to compete for a national championship, it's not enough. One of the biggest things that you see big time programs trying to do in this cycle is take money off the cap. And doing that is through the third party NIL piece. The interesting part about that is the CSE just sent out guidance in the last couple of 48 hours that they're saying that if you promise someone NIL money ahead of time from the third party, whether it's from your in-house, multimedia rights, deal or whatever other collective that you have, that cannot be counted, that cannot be taken off the cap. If you promise it, it's got to be count toward the cap whether or not you pay them

out of your refshare pool. Now, again, I go back to, is that going to be enforced? And they send out that guidance with it being backdated to December 1st. So saying that basically, if it's anybody in this portal window, that you can't take money off the cap that way. So I don't know how that's going to work out. I don't know if they can even enforce it. But that is the way that a lot of programs that are operating above the cap, they're doing it that way is trying to figure out, okay, how much do we put into third party NIL and how much do you guarantee through refsure? Because you've got, ultimately, they're going to do whatever they've got to do to get the player. Sam, Con, Jr. of the athletic with us here. More of a general question, Sam. We've talked a lot

on this show, myself and Matt, and argued about donor fatigue. And I thought it was going to come pretty soon. It doesn't look like it's coming anytime soon. But I guess to ask you to predict the unpredictable. I mean, for example, Cody Campbell, as Matt mentioned, shelling out a bunch of money. I mean, if he's not seeing the results year after year, how much does he continue to pour millions and these other schools as well, whether it be Texas or A&M, where do you see as far as, I mean, just the long-term economic ecosystem of this NIL money, potentially drying up or it just seems it seems like it's a full steam ahead. I think it becomes a case-by-case basis on a couple of factors.

One, what is your institutional want to? How badly do you want to win? And by proxy, how badly do your donors want to win? Two, do you have someone to that degree? Because there are, I think a lot of the SEC and Big Ten programs are going to be in okay shape because of where they are in terms of their media rights and how big their budgets are. just from the start. But it's your, when you get to your maybe middle tier power four or lower tier power fours, do you have a booster like a Cody Campbell? Like if you're Kansas and you have

David Booth, you're in good shape. But if you're Iowa State who is struggling to reach the revenue share cap, they're not operating over the cab. They're they're having a hard enough time just trying to get to the cap, which they are at. But that's hard enough for them. They don't necessarily have a Cody Campbell in their in their back pocket to help them. So I think it case-by-case issue with them as far as do I see donor fatigue long-term maybe in some spots but I'll just say this this we are in 2025 almost 40 years ago SMU got busted for paying players and then got the death penalty it was 1986 1987 that was almost 40 years ago so if and that was obviously a different era but paying players or trying to do the most to get the

best players on your team is a tradition as it's a tried and true tradition in college football there had for as long as college football has existed alumni have always when boosters have always wanted to get players for their their teams and wanted to make sure they had the best teams whether it was coaches whether it's facilities whatever the mechanism was that they told you how to do it for as long as i can remember and as long as i've been covering the sport there's always been somebody who's wanted to push the envelope to do that and i don't see that changing long term now with the money getting as high as it is could there could it get a little bit unsustainable certainly i do think there is a degree to that but i don't think we're ever going to come to a

point where people say well i don't care about my school enough to pay this money for this player there's always going to be cam colman the number one receiver in the portal right now everybody everybody on earth wants that guy and i cannot see a donor saying no i'm going to walk away because he's not that important ultimately these guys want their teams to win on saturday and they're going to want to do what it takes to get the players to make that happen. All right, there you go. Sam Con Jr., that's only a piece of the conversation. Full conversation, you can find Sports Talk 790.com. Really great stuff with him covering college football.

I mean, the athletics, college football roster management plus transfer portal writer. Wow, that is pretty crazy stuff that we are in this day and age. And a lot to cover when it comes to the portal and college football at large. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show. with Ross when we come back we'll take your calls if you are still holding and we will also well get out of here final segment of the Matt Thomas show

before the A team Adam Clinton and Adam Waxler coming your way at 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790 Greg Bizjo here the heart of the order is up right now Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790 That one makes

me laugh that's a good one for to pop up this week because I think I'm in mention this on air every now and then when that one plays. That's like the first crop, Jonathan. That, that, you were in first grade when that liner was made. Craig Bizzio came up here to do a spot. And normally when we have celebrities up here, we ask him to do a couple of liners for

various shows, many shows that are not here anymore. So Craig Bizio knocking out a couple liners for other shows and then knocking that one out for the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas is knocking out of the park. And you always got to throw the baseball pun in there, of course. but we are in the first week, second show of the 17th year of the Matt Thomas show. That's crazy. First of all, yeah, thanks to all of you for listening us throughout the years.

Look, if we weren't successful, if we didn't have you guys' listenership and supporting our sponsors and all the type of stuff, we wouldn't have lasted as long as we did. So can't do it without you guys. Appreciate y'all supporting the show for as long as you have. A 17th year. And that was among the first crop. If not the first, like maybe the second maximum of liners. Then we had like 16 years of liners of talking about Matt Thomas and making fun of his various food takes and other things like that.

So good liners always here. Shout out to Mike Bobian who makes those. So that one always makes me laugh. All right, winding down the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. We had a great show. You just heard the Sam Con conversation. As I mentioned, you can catch the full conversation. It's worth your time.

SportsTalk 790.com, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. podcast page. By the way, our podcast available on all platforms, starting with IHeartMedia because, of course, our IHart Radio, I should say, as we are, IHeartMedia, but Spotify, Apple Podcasts, basically wherever you get your podcast,

you can find the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, so make sure you check it out. If you miss anything, we put interviews up there. Jonathan works very hard, putting all our interviews up there, so you know what, give a click for Jonathan. We would appreciate it. For me you guys. Do it for Jonathan. He would appreciate that. Of course, you could follow me at Sports

RV on Twitter. I would appreciate a follow on my Instagram at SportsRV as well. I'm trying to build that bad boy up. All right. Before we get out here, Brad has been holding patiently. Brad, go ahead. I wanted to ask you, Ross. All right. That's all right. Sorry, Brad. We're running low on time, man. We got to get out. Unfortunately, appreciate you holding and getting in. But out of time on the show. So maybe next time. Thank you very much. All right. That's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. My name is Ross Villarreal. Let's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. That's me.

I'm the Ross part. Appreciate all of you for listening, calling, tweeting, being involved in the show. Thanks to Sam Khan Jr. For being with us earlier. Thanks to Matt Thomas for hanging out for at least three hours of his own four hour show. Appreciate him. Jonathan and I were here for the duration. But don't go anywhere.

Coming up next, not only one Adam. It's two Adams. They call themselves the A team. And they are next here on Sports Talk 790. You're home. Four, your home teams that actually win championships. Thank you.