The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Rookie BALLS In G League Debut, Verlander Heading To Giants, Texans Respond To Rex Ryan

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross," Chris Gordy and Adam Clanton of "The A-Team" react to Rockets rookie Reed Sheppard recording 49 points on 17-for-33 shooting in his G League debut after being officially assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Monday. Ross, Chris and Adam also:recap the Rockets defeating the Wizards 135-112discuss Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants agreeing on a one-year, $15 million contractlisten to Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans' response to Rex Ryan's comments about the Wild Card matchup against the Chargerspreview the semifinals of the College Football Playofftell people to "Shut Yo Bum Ass Up, Ain't Nobody Got Time" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-0-1 in the AM in H-Town. What's happening late morning people? Not lunch timers. Brunch timers? Who's having brunch on a Wednesday? I don't know. Welcome in to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I am your host. Ross Villarreal right now for the moment. We'll be joined by others as we go along. Matt Thomas is out. He is traveling with the Houston Rockets who beat the Washington Wizards last night.

And we're going to be with you here to have a good time. We've got a lot of stuff to get to as we go along. It's going to be a shut your bum ass up Wednesday. We got news at noon. We got rocket stuff to talk about. Texan stuff as well. Most importantly, you at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Chris Gordy will be joining me in a little bit, As you know, he is a very important cog in the wheel up here at Sports Talk 790 and IHeartMedia, Houston. So he is in a meeting and he will be joining me shortly. And in the meantime, as I said, you can hang out with me if you'd like at 713, 212, 5790. You also have tweets you could send to at SportsRV. Connor McGovern is here as well. As I said, we do have a lot of things to get to here on the program. Rockets winning last night against the Washington Wizards.

Taking out the trash, 135 to 112 win, both Alpern Shingoon and Jalen Green going off in that third quarter. You also have, is Reed Shepard the greatest rocket of all time? I think we might have to start having that discussion after his night in the G League last night. If you have not heard, I don't know what kind of rock you've been living under because Reed Shepard is the goat. He dropped 49 points in the G League last night. We can also talk about that as well. And as I mentioned, some Texan stuff, but I don't know where are we at on the Texans? I'm not feeling the juice.

I don't know if it's because we have everything else going on and the weather's changed. And I mean, college football playoff doesn't seem to me to be taking off the shine. But you have a division winner here in Houston who has. is hosting a playoff game, and yes, albeit it is the Saturday regular standard 3.30 p.m. start for the Texans. But I'm not like, Connor, can you get me like, I need some NFL music. I need something like, yeah. Where's the juice?

How are you people feeling about this, this Houston Texans game this weekend? Yeah, it's Justin Herbert, Jim Harbaugh, and I don't know, Khalil. and Joey Bosa coming into town, but you got a division winner coming here? I mean, you are a division winner here, and you're hosting the game. And I'm just not feeling any of the juice. I'm not feeling any of the power. I'm not feeling like it's playoff time in Houston. I was on actually Monday on a station in Kansas City that has me on from time to time.

And I said, like, we've already become spoiled in Houston. I don't know how it happened so fast, but it did. Yeah, this is working for me. You know what? I'm going to stop what I'm saying. Let's hear some D'Amico Ryans. Let's get Domingo Ryans fired up for some Houston, Texas football. I'm sure he's going to get fire and brimstone.

He's going to be pounding the podium. D'Amico Ryans, you got Rex Ryan calling you guys chumps. He said it's basically going to be a buy for the Los Angeles Chargers. I'm sure you got a lot to say as a clapback. Yeah, for us, I don't think, you know, It doesn't matter. If anybody gives us a shot, it really doesn't matter to me. At the end of the day, when the ball is kicked off, so who's the best football team right on Saturday.

That's true. And that's where our focus is on playing really good football. Everybody having an opinion about us one way or the other, but outside opinion really doesn't drive what we do here internally. Like our guys put the work in, they know what we're about. We know what we're about, so it really doesn't matter to me on all the outside noise. All right, that's, yeah, that's not getting me juiced up for the game. Okay, um, how about the Houston Texans and the great season that they had?

They went 10 and 7. They were spectacular all season. Okay, maybe they weren't. They lost two out of their last three games. Oh, no. Turn this music off. Turn this off, Connor. This is not working.

You losing it? I'm, now I'm getting down myself. All right, they got killed by the Ravens. They lost to the Chiefs. They beat the Titans with Davis Mills when it didn't matter. Their point differential is at exactly even 370 to a piece. I'm looking at quarterback rankings that are posted on Twitter, and C.J. Stroud has ranked like 22nd.

He's behind guys like Bo Knicks and Russell Wilson and stuff. The offensive line is still a work in progress and a mess. And the defense has been really good. All right. I just deflated myself in one, like in three minutes. All right, fine. Whatever. You got to get reduced, though.

Look, we had quality wins over the Colts. Okay. Two times. The Colts suck. Hey, we beat the bills. Oh, yeah? We only lost by two points to the Packers. Only lost by two points of the Packers.

That's a big feather of the cap. The NFC champion lions? Come on. Yeah, they couldn't beat the Lions. Yeah, but Tank Dell is hurt. Stefan Diggs is out for the year. Offensive line is in shambles. I mean, what happened to C.J. Stroud?

Bring me back down again. Okay, I'm sorry. Somebody's got to bring us up. I was looking at, there's this guy named Ben Baldwin who does advanced stats, and I know probably, I don't even know where the split is. It's easy when it's me and Matt Thomas here because he hates stats. They make him all scared, and they put fog in his brain, and he hates them. Stats numbers go bad, even though every single major franchise,

baseball, basketball, football, et cetera, has an analytics department. They are using numbers whether you like it or not. But this is a leaderboard put together by Ben Baldwin, who does a lot of stat stuff that I like to follow. And it has something called EPA, which is expected points added. And then it also has the pro football focus grades for quarterbacks as well. and well, when he puts them both together, he basically ranks the quarterbacks from those stats.

And as of this moment, it has C.J. Stroud as the 24th, 24th best quarterback in football. Behind guys like James Winston, Aaron Rogers, to a tongue of a lower Bryce Young has now passed him Trevor Lawrence as well ooh this is an average of the pro football focus grade and then EPA as well

so I don't like to see that and that's one of the big questions coming up here and what I was thinking about as we hit a Wednesday coming up on a Saturday with the Texans playing and I'm not going to come out here and you guys know me and much to my detriment probably in my career I'm not going to in front of this microphone and say, is C.J. Stroud's legacy on the line. This is a must-win game.

C.J. Stroud has to prove his worth and prove the doubters wrong. I'm not going to go out with that blustery, fiery absolutism, but I'm going to tell you he needs to have a good game. This is big for C.J. Stroud because a lot of what we talked about throughout this season has been the weapons and the weapons are not going to improve for him this weekend, but great quarterbacks overcome that. And the offensive line has not been great for him either. But great quarterbacks overcome that.

And he's probably not 100%. Again, great quarterbacks overcome. Franchise quarterbacks like C.J. Stroud overcome. I would really like to see a plus plus performance at home going

up against this Chargers team from C.J. Stroud because they're going to need it. Everybody in their grandmother knows that the Texans and Bobby Slort are going to try to establish the run. So you're going to end up where they're loading up boxes, they're sending run blitzes, you're going to get

gains of one or negative two yards on a couple of first downs. Lord knows you're going to get a Laramie Tunsel full start here and there, and you're going to get some third and longs. You're going to get some tight situations. This is the playoffs. This game is projected to be close. It's

supposed to be a two and a half three point spread. You need CJ Stroud to step up in this game. Because when I look up these numbers and I see that C.J. Stroud is 24th. It makes me sick. Because I'm somebody who was believed. I became Battle Red Ross

the first couple of games after the season last year when the Texans started out terribly so it couldn't be accused of bandwagon hopping because I believed in C.J. Shrout. Because I saw what he did. I saw the light bulbs going on when he was playing, despite them losing that game early on to the Baltimore Ravens. And what was it?

There was another blowout loss early in the season last year. And it looked like he started to play better. He started to play more confidently. And then that's what I said, you know what? It's time. I'm giving it up. I'm hanging up all my oiler stuff. I'm putting that in the back drawer.

I'm never wearing it again. I'm becoming Battle Red Ross. Where C.J. Stroud, early on, they started off O.N. 2, getting crushed by Baltimore. And then if you remember, Anthony Richardson, before he got hurt, was crushing the Texans, and C.J. Shroud ended up throwing for 384 yards in that game. He had a great second half. That's when I was like, this guy's ahead of his time. And this guy is going to be a franchise quarterback for the Houston Texans. And so this is a big game coming up this weekend, and there's just no other way to put it.

You need to see C.J. Stroud overcome. Because as I mentioned, these EPA, pro football focus grades that have him ranked 24th, I'm going to guarantee you all 23 quarterbacks ranked ahead of him don't have great offensive lines and great weapons. You've got a number one number one in Nico Collins is a top top 10 arguably top five

wide receiver in football. So you've got that. Dalton Schultz is a solid tight in. You've got some other veteran guys. And oh, by the way, you've got a great running game as your backbone with Joe Mixin and the guy's a freaking pro bowler. So yeah, C.J. Stroud needs to play better.

He's only played one series. in the last couple of weeks. He's had some time off. He can get fresh and better, and he needs to look so on Saturday for the Houston Texans. Certainly, if they are going to be successful in their playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers. So where are you at right now? I'm somebody I talked about this. Beginning of the week, for whatever reason, I'm really pessimistic. Weeks start to go through.

Gears get turning. I start to feel better. I'm feeling more optimistic. I did gut feelings yesterday. I predicted a Texans win. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. The formula is going to be run game with Joe Mixen, defense swarming all over the field,

and C.J. Stroud making enough plays to get the victory to survive and advance in the NFL tournament. 7-13-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. Ross Villarie out with you, Chris Gordy along the way, Adam Clanton along the way, you as well at 713, 212-5-790 tweets to at SportsRV. We'll have shut your bum ass up coming later on. We'll get the news at noon. We'll get some rocket talk.

Reed Shepard I mentioned going off last night. Rockets with another win. Are we believing? Are we full? Jumping in with two feet on the rockets who remain at the two-seat in the Western Conference? A lot of stuff to get to as we go along with you until 2 o'clock. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. More Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Now on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out traveling with the Houston Rockets. It's got the victory last night over the Washington Wizards to improve to 24 and 12. It's getting late early. We keep talking about this Rockets team early in the season. Okay, they're number two. We don't want to take too much away from it.

82 game season, we are 36 games in. Now, they're a half game ahead of the Grizz for the number two spot. They ain't catching the Oklahoma City Thunder. That's just not happening. Dunder are easily Western Conference favorites. We'll see what happens with some other teams as they get healthier, like the Dallas Mavericks. Nuggets are always lurking in a team to keep an eye on as well. But the Thunder have won 15 games in a row.

They are 30 and 5. That's insane. somehow more insane is the Cavaliers at 31 and 4 on the flip side on the Eastern Conference but the Rockets continue to play well they continue to win games they've beaten some tough competition they've lost to some tough competition including their last games against the Celtics

and the Oklahoma City Thunder they've also beat the Thunder at home in a close one as well so we'll see as it goes along Thunder are clear favorites Cleveland Cavaliers looking good in the east Boston Celtics to me still the championship favorites because they are the raining champs and when healthy, I think are still the best team in basketball, probably alongside the Oklahoma City Thunder. But the Rockets continue to play well. 36 games in, they are the number two seed. And they continue here on Sports Talk 790. We know your home. We are your home for your hometown hoopers. They take on the Grizzlies and another good test. That'll be tomorrow at 7 o'clock, 6 o'clock Rockets launch pad. That'll be with me, yours, truly. Phone lines open as I mentioned at 7-1-3. 212-5-790 if you'd like to get in.

7-13-212-5-7-90. Temperature check on where we are. On a Wednesday, with the team coming up, with the game coming up Saturday, with the Los Angeles Chargers coming into town. And I don't even want to play the audio of Rex Ryan going, I thought they got a buy week. Like, he's just trying to be funny.

He's got time to fill. And unfortunately, the nature of ESPN and being a punted on television means you have to say the most wacky stuff because you need the most impressions, the most people talking about it, the most views that you can possibly get, and all that type of stuff. Rex Ryan is a former NFL head coach. He knows more than anybody that there is no such thing as a by week when there is another team lined up across you in the NFL. Anyone can be beat.

Anyone. Asked the Baltimore Ravens, by a lot of the metrics I was talking about, are the best team. in football, they lost to the freaking Las Vegas Raiders and Gardner Minshue. So anything can happen on any given Sunday. It is not a buy week for a team that is on the road against a division winner. That's just talking out of your ass, to put it mildly. You're either trolling or is my, it's probably going to mean, you know, it's going to me my phrase for 2025.

You're either trolling or you're stupid. And I've got time for neither. That's where we are with what Rex Ryan says. and I don't think he's stupid. I think he's trolling. So we're going to move on from that. But at the end of the day, this is a big game for the Texans

because I think to what he's kind of hinting at, he obviously went overboard with it, did Rex Ryan, but I think there is a lot of discounting of the Houston Texans. And a lot of it warranted. Because you and I probably had higher expectations for this team than going 10 and 7

and really reaching that mark at the end of the season against a Titans team that was looking to, earn the number one overall pick. We talked about that tough stretch all season long. All right, right? If we were sitting here talking about the season beforehand, before the 2024 campaign started, it was easier schedule at the beginning,

and then we're going to learn a lot about the team at the back end of it. Well, they took care of business with the easy schedule at the beginning. But they also didn't look spectacular. Only game they really looked great all season long was against the New England Patriots who were starting Drake May for his first start of his life. So I would have liked to have seen them look a bit better. And at that moment in time, I was saying, okay, at least we can say we haven't seen their best football yet.

Maybe they can turn it on. Jets game was a huge, huge gut punch because they lost 21 to 13 in that game. But if Malachi Corley doesn't drop that ball at the one, that game is even worse. probably out of hand. And the Texans got grossly outplayed by the New York freaking jets who suck. And that was probably the low point at that time, up to that point of the season. Obviously, the low point is that loss to the Baltimore Ravens with everybody watching on Netflix and the Texas is getting completely clowned. 25 million people watching.

They had to stick around because Beyonce was coming on at halftime. Otherwise, it probably would have been turned off by everybody. Detroit Lions game was close But I mean it was just a loss of the Titans Ugh And just keep waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting When are you going to pick it up? When are you going to show your true selves?

I think the longer we say that, the longer we say you just have to have to go with This is who they are. They are a mediocre team. They can beat good teams, but most likely they are going to lose. At the very least, you would hope they don't embarrass themselves

like they did against the Baltimore Ravens. So I find myself very intrigued. I am convincing myself that they are going to win this game. Just because of some of the things that are, if this was on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers, I would say no chance. You get the advantage of being at home. You get the advantage of this Texans defense,

which is one of the best in football. And I'm just going to have to believe, have to believe that only playing one series in the last couple of weeks, is going to help C.J. Stroud clear his head, get a little healthier, whatever it is. He talked multiple times throughout the season about being banged up. Of course, he himself and Domingo Ryan's dismissing that

and saying that's not an excuse. Because if you're out on the field, you have to perform. A lot of it has been what's going on with the offensive line this season as well. Thankfully, not seeing Kenyon Green anywhere recently. And Titus Howard kicking into guard, Domingo Ryan says,

have been better. Titus has done a really good job stepping in at the left guard spot and he's handled himself very well. Playing tackle to move in the guard and it's been a very seamless transition, unselfish by him. That's the type of mindset we want from all our players. It's just a team first mindset of whatever it takes for our team to be successful to put us in position to win. Everybody needs to be willing to do that.

Titus is willing to make the move. And I think, you know, we've been better up front with Titus. at the guard position. And there's much credit to two tightes to all the guys, how they continue to work well together. Me and Patterson, stepping in at center.

I think he's grown. He's continued to get better with the communication that's operating at the center position. And we had Juice step in at right guard last week. So you see guys moving around the different spots. It's about just getting our best guys out there

and going to compete. That's what O-line offensive line play is about. It's gritty, it's tough. You don't get a lot of. of a lot of love, a lot of pads on the back, and everybody's going to criticize you when it goes wrong, but you just have to make sure you just stay the course and just keep grinding, playing tough, gritty football.

Keep grinding, playing tough, gritty football. We got to, you know what, I think we're going to talk to Matt about this. We've got to have some kind of bell ready for every cliche that D'Amico Ryan throws out there in his media availability. So love D'Amico Ryan's great coach. He's the right man for the job here in Houston, but he's also, I mean, just a walking cliche machine. but does a good job, gets his players motivated.

I think that's kind of an element of something that we don't necessarily talk about. You have to have somebody up there who is a leader of men who gets players to buy in and can just roll with the punches as the season goes along and keep their spirits up as the year goes along as well. And I think D'Amico Ryan has a great job of that. I think he's great calling defensive plays as well. and if you have the right offensive coordinator and oh by the way an offensive line that's working

in good weapons this team can be successful with Dimeco Ryans at the helm and we'll see what happens come Saturday unless it's just some kind of crazy 28 to 3 disaster I don't think my opinion is going to change and even if that happens

depending on the circumstances I don't think that will either all right 713 2125790 is your phone number 713 1-1-2-5-7-90. We're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Chris Gordy should be joining shortly.

We'll have Adam Clanton along the way as well. Coming up at 1130, it ain't nobody got time for that slash shut Joe Bump-ass up. News at noon. Rockets talk, Texans talk, anything you guys want to get to. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues here. Sports Talk 790. Chris Gordy into the fold at some point.

Adam Clinton coming on at 1 o'clock. Shut you, bum ass up. Ain't nobody got time for that coming up at 1130. You know, originally that segment was, ain't nobody got time for that. Geniusly conceived by one Matthew Thomas. And then Josh Smith, who was he talking about in that clip? I think it was Doc Rivers.

And it was supposed to be for one week we were going to play that just as kind of a joke for people to say. But it caught on. People liked it. So coming up. 1130. My favorite segment of the week, your favorite segment of the week. It is shut Joe bum ass up slash ain't nobody got time for that. Number then will be the same as the number now.

713, 212, 5790, 713, 212, 52790. Talking some Texans here early on. Mention, of course, the Rockets in action. We'll get to more on that. And the greatest of all time, Reed Shepard, he's averaging 49 points per game in the G-Leak. Okay, he's played one game and he got 40. nine points in that game. But still, hey, that's a fact of the matter, folks. We'll get to that coming up at 11 o'clock with some rocket stuff. You can also send tweets to

at Sports RV, Chris Mina saying, as much as time as Matt takes off, the show should be called the Ross V show with Matt. Well, you didn't have to tag Matt in that. Now he's going to get all upset, Chris. Why'd you do that? Or maybe that was your aim and that's okay. That's kind of funny. You know what? We're going to tap a light button on that. Appreciate you. But I took my time. off at the end of the year. I was out in Asia for two weeks and then I was in New Orleans, thankfully before crazy stuff went down in both of those places. And so I had my time off. Matt Thomas gets a lot of vacation because he's been in this business for a long time. So he takes a lot of vacation. He's traveling with the rockets today. Normally they leave

overnight to the next city, but I think they were leaving during the day today for whatever reason. I don't know if it's because of the weather and what's going on there in the northeast. East. But Matt will be back tomorrow. Chris Gordy should be here in a little bit. And as I mentioned, Adam Clanton coming up at 1 o'clock as well. 713-212-5790 is your phone number. We've been talking a lot of Texans, talking a lot about the offensive line. And now we're getting to this playoff week here in Houston. Unfortunately, I know 8 for 8 Saturday at 3.30. It's hard to be super excited and get all jazzed up. but it's Jim Harbaugh, Justin Herbert, and the Los Angeles Chargers.

Are we just feeling defeatists? Are we not caring at all? I mean, I'm just trying to get the pulse of you folks. And so far it seems like the pulse is dead. Not a lot of energy. Maybe everyone just thinking they're going to lose. I get the Texans winning this one. I think it's going to be close.

I'm trusting in C.J. Stroud to make a couple of plays. They're going to establish the run. But really, why I think the Texans are going to win, it's going to be that Texans defense in a loud environment in NRG Stadium over the week. Played some of the Domingo Ryan's talking about Titus Howard shifting to guard and how that's been working out. C.J. Stroud also spoke to the media as well. Wanted to give you guys some of that. Here's what he had to say about Titus Howard in that offensive line.

To me, the number one concern this upcoming weekend. Now, Joey Bosa isn't playing as well as he has the last. several years. Really early in his career where he was just an annual double-digit sack guy. He hasn't been that lately, but he's still pretty good. And Khalil Malk is still one of the best in the business. Both of those guys, I saw an

article on the Atlantic. I didn't read it, but I saw the headline. Both of those guys took a pay cut to stay with the Chargers for this exact reason. So they're going to be amped up, ready to go against this Texan's offensive line. How are they going to be ready to handle that? How well are they going to be ready

to handle that? It lies with the offensive line. And here's C.J. Stroud on Titus Howard moving to guard. Yeah, you know, he's been able to do a great job in there and holding his own, you know, definitely just being a comfort blanket, you know, I'm knowing that he's

going to do his job every time and just have that interior lockdown or, you know, that interior structure. It's kind of like a wall, you know, the three interior guys. So, you know, it's definitely helpful having him in there. I'm just, you know, happy that, you know, he's happy doing it. And, you know, I'm proud of

that he, you know, is that type of guy for the team is to go in there even though he's, his natural position is tackle, you know, but to go in there and have success has been really awesome to watch. Yeah. All right. So, there's not necessarily anything shocking there. You weren't expecting to C.J. Stroud to come out and just completely crush Titus Howard or anybody on the offensive line or anybody in any time.

Maybe if you talk to him privately say, yeah, protection hasn't been there, but he puts a lot of it on himself, and I think a lot of it is on C.J. Stroud. I think there have been times where there's been clean pockets and he's not getting said and he he's not making the correct throws and he's being a been a little bit off target. He still makes, he's still a special quarterback and I just know this. I don't, I don't think we're seeing in a situation where he pops in the first year and then he regresses and then he's never the same. I think C.J. Stroud is still going to be a special quarterback and develop into that. I think in three years from now, we're talking about this as a bump in a row. in the road, because still

a couple times a game, you go, oh my God, what a throw that was. What a play that was from CJ's trial. Look at that tight window that he squeezed it into. And there's enough of that that my belief is not shaken. Perhaps some others is, and not even saying here in Houston.

I'm talking about national pundits. We already know how the national pundits are going with the disrespect and, as you say, more of an afterthought. Necessarily disrespect. back. But keeping the Texans as an afterthought, which they themselves had a big part in with not playing up to par basically the entire season. But CJ Stroud is still a franchise quarterback. This is a bump in a road. You can call it a sophomore slump. Call it whatever you want.

Situation, circumstances weren't ideal. He makes enough plays for me to say, damn, this guy's going to be a quarterback in Houston for a really, really long time. So he's going to be fine. It's just a matter of when does that switch? turn on? Can it not flip until this season is over, until he has an off season to heal up, gather himself? Maybe the team can improve as far as an offensive

line and stuff like that. I don't know. But it'd be nice for a little soft reset, going with basically a week off, playing one drive against the Tennessee Titans, and now perfect scenario

in that you get the game at home. As far as the playoffs here at NRG because you are a division winner. It maybe would have been preferable to see the Pittsburgh Steelers who are really reeling. And I think that Texan's defense hold the Pittsburgh Steelers and Russell Wilson the way he's playing. I was saying all year, don't sleep on the Steelers. Don't sleep on the Steelers. Well, I took my Tylenol P.M.

I'm going to sleep on them because the last four weeks, Russell Wilson has regressed back to what he was as a Denver Bronco. and not going to be shocking at all if they get crushed this weekend against the Baltimore Ravens, although they did beat the Ravens once this year. We must say, but the better team, the Baltimore Ravens at home,

nine and a half point favorites there. So I probably would have rather have seen the Pittsburgh Steelers because I think the Chargers are going to be very well coached. They've got a better quarterback. They've got a better running game. Defense isn't as good as the Steelers, but still, I'm more comfortable with the Tech.

and a knock down, drag them out, slugfest. Then I am in a possible situation where you need to shoot out, which is not super likely against the Chargers. But here's their point totalers in the last three games. 34, 40, and 34. Now again, that was Broncos. Okay. Then Patriots and Raiders.

But still, the offense is humming over there for the Los Angeles Chargers. and I need CJ Stroud to keep up in this game if the Texans are going to be successful. Okay, time for a quick break. Here we go on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. They're coming fast and furious. Hour number one, almost in the books. Chris Gordy joining at some time.

You can get in if you'd like to as well. Shut yo, bum ass up slash ain't nobody that got time for that coming up at 1130. And you at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5. 7.90. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790.

10.48 in the a.m. Yes, it is the morning on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back, Ross Vioria with you. We got a special surprise for you coming up at the top of the 11 hour. So coming up at 11 o'clock,

you're not going to want to miss a special tribute coming up here on the Matt Thomas show. with Ross. Matt Thomas is out today, traveling with the Houston Rockets. There's a little foreshadowing for you. The Houston Rockets in action last night against the Washington Wizards. They were bad in the first quarter, good in the second quarter, great in the third quarter, and then went on to cruise to victory against, I mean, an absolute horrible Washington Wizards team. Is that the worst franchise in the NBA right now? man they are terrible.

They've got some good, in theory, good young talent as far as the players and the Belaw Culeboli's and they just drafted Alexander Saar and Kyle Coosman is not good but he's not the worst and he got hurt in that game and didn't play in the second half. But man, the Wizards are terrible.

And again, the mark of a good team is taking out the trash against bad teams. But the Washington Wizards barely qualify as an NBA team. It's like a tune-up game. It's like when Texas or Alabama or Ohio State, like when you, when you schedule the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks or something like that, the beginning of the season, just to start like a get-right game. Kind of like what C.J. Stroud did with the Tennessee Titans. That's what

the Rockets had with the Washington Wizards last night. A little bit tougher competition tomorrow against the Memphis Grizzlies. That'll be a good battle with the Rockets at the number two spot. Yes, you're hearing me right. Yes, we're into. January. Yes, the Rockets are the two spot in the Western Conference. Grizzlies in the three spot. So the battle for Western supremacy for teams

not named Oklahoma City is tomorrow here on Sports Talk 790. 7 o'clock tip 6 o'clock I'll be with you on the Rockets launch pad. Phone lines open at 713-213-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV

at Connor D. McGovern. Do me a fan. Connor McGovern's been working hard up here. He's covering games like nobody's business. Connor D. McGovern. Give the guy a follow. It'll impress his girlfriend. Connor D. McGovern on Twitter.

All right. So we've been talking a lot of Texans here in the first hour, and it is a Wednesday ahead of it. It's almost like, so really, it's like a Thursday for a Sunday game. And again, not getting a whole lot of pushback, not getting a whole lot of reaction. And I don't know if everybody's just giving up on the Texans. and moved along and going about their own rest of their lives

and worried about this freeze and wasn't really a hard freeze or anything like that, but the bad weather coming this week, everybody's too busy wrapping up their plants to be caring about the Houston Texans, I guess. But I did get a tweet from J. Diddy 420. What a great name that is. I agree with you on the Texans.

I think our defense will show up in a big way, need some big plays from CJ, Nico, and Joe. Yeah, I mean, look, there's cash and there's name value with the Los Angeles Chargers and their office. Justin Herbert has been playing very well. Early on in the season, he was only throwing the ball like 20, 25 times max, but they've really opened things up. Their offense is humming. I wouldn't say on all cylinders on most of their cylinders and doing a lot better.

But I feel like the Texans can bottle them up to an extent. Ladd-McConkie certainly worries me, especially as a slot guy in that matchup, and he's going to be able to get open. Quentin Johnson has really been coming along. but really, as I said, the last couple of weeks, we're talking about them beating up on the Patriots and beating up on the Las Vegas Raiders. So I think on the road,

in a playoff environment, Texan's defense is going to step up. Joe Mixing going to do his thing. He's going to be ready to go. Speaking of him, and talking about guys being banged up and not being 100%. I put Joe Mixen in that category. Multiple ankle injuries throughout the season.

Doesn't seem like he's been moving as well. Just played the one series on Saturday. So also effectively a buy week for him helping him heal up. And he's a veteran running back, which is just a euphemism for old. But a veteran guy like him with multiple ankle injuries, getting rested and refreshed, ready to go this weekend. I'm feeling pretty good about the Texan chances. And it's not even necessarily everybody's doubting us.

And that's why we're going to win or anything like that. but I do think to an extent, to an extent people are sleeping on the Houston Texans. Chris in Missouri City calling in to talk some Rockets Ball. I'm with that, Chris. What's up? Good morning, my brother. Thanks for the call. I just wanted to get your take on just kind of state and obvious what everybody's seeing with.

I'm in. That kid is something special, man. I mean, it seemed like his motor is always running. He's always on go. I mean, given that Jabari is hurt right now, I mean, going on, going forward, do you think that it's pretty much, because it looked like the starting lineup that they got is pretty good, bro. I mean, and cup half full of Jabari coming off of the bitch whenever he comes back. Oh, that's a depth, man.

So I just wanted to kind of pick your brain and see what your thoughts were on it. Are you aware of us? We do a segment on Tuesdays, Chris. It's called gut feelings. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I did a gut feeling yesterday. Tell me what you think. I said Amin Thompson will have the best career of the young players on the Rockets.

That includes Shingoon, Green, Jabari Smith, Reed Shepherd, all of them. I think a men, my gut feeling yesterday was that Amin Thompson is going to have the best career of all of them. Bro, that's a decent bet. I mean, but Alpy is a bad boy, man. So, I mean, I'm all for that because I was like, it's just like this kid gets it, man. I mean, he says all the right things. I mean, he plays hell of five defense, and he's not even figured that out offensively, man. He's just playing on athleticism right now.

So I was like, the kid's feeling is scary, real talk. So I'll be willing to put a little money on that bet. Yeah. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate you getting in. And, yeah. Let's talk about Amin Thompson individually, and then we'll talk about the fit with the starting lineup.

Individually, Amin Thompson checks basically every single box, unfortunately, except shooting, which is the crux of basketball. You shoot the ball into the hoop. That is basketball. You're like saying you have a great striker in soccer, and he does everything except for make shots, like shooting. So it's important.

But the beauty of it, and where you get a lot more wide open looks in basketball than say you do in soccer. So he can win with that athleticism to where he's getting all tap-ins. Well, that went longer the soccer analogy and I thought it was going to. He's up to 12 and a half points per game. He rebounds the ball. He gets blocks. He gets steals.

He can lock up on defense. Even though he was getting out-muscled against LeBron James on Sunday, he was not biting on pump-fakes, staying disciplined. I was like, I don't know, I was like a proud pop. I was like, oh, he didn't bump on those LeBron James. He didn't fall for those LeBron pump fakes. And then he's contesting shots, forcing misses. He does it all.

Like you said, he says the right things. You can tell that he's intelligent. We interviewed him when he was drafted. And we post a lot of our interviews up on YouTube. And for whatever reason, that one got way more hits than any other. And I think a lot of it was because people are like, wow, this guy is very lucid, smart, well-thought, I mean, well-spoken. and like just kind of

introspective, smart, funny like he's everything. And that to me, that does matter. That means you have a certain, you know, he's just smart in general and he's got a very high basketball IQ in general. To me, you can have guys who are, you know, very good on a football field or a basketball court

and not very intelligent outside of it. For whatever reason, first name that popped in my mind was Rob Grunkowski. but I digress. It's a situation where he checks all those boxes except for shooting. And it was just a gut feeling yesterday because I think nobody's perfect right now on this Rockets team. They don't have any All-Star, First Team, All-N-B-A caliber type of player. But if you can get some semblance of a shot from Amman Thompson, I think he can develop into that.

Or there are players that we can point to that were not good three-point shooter. Jimmy Butler early in his career. John Morant right now is like a 32% career three-point shooter, even though, well, Amin Thompson's like under 25% right now, so that would have to go up to some extent. Russell Westbrook was never a great three-point shooter. He's still an effective ball player. So even if the jump shot doesn't develop in full,

Amin Thompson will be good. And as far as the fit in the starting lineup on its face, I think Amin Thompson can contribute more on a game-by-game basis than Jabari Smith Jr. But also what you get with Jabari Smith Jr. is at least a credible three-point shooter. And when you have

two on the floor that can't shoot, those being Alpern Shingoon and I'm in Thompson. And really, I mean, right now we've got to throw Jalen Green in that mix. And really, right now, we've got to throw Fred Van Vlead in that mix. You've got no spacing.

You've got no spacing on the floor. You need somebody to, respect to three. In the game in 2025, in 2024, or in 2025, you got to have shooters to space the floor. So when you have all those non-shooters on the floor, at the same time, it can be problematic for the Rockets running their offense. That means they're easy. It's easier to double team Alperin Shungoon. It's easier to clog the pain on drives, which is Jalen Green's best game is driving. Amin Thompson best game is driving. And Alperin Shungoon best game is on the low block.

That's three of your five guys that aren't good shooters right now that they don't have to respect you on the perimeter. So from a player standpoint, I like them in over Jabari, but from a schematic standpoint needing the spacing, I'm curious. We'll see if they need to go back to Jabari Smith, Jr. Something to keep an eye on to be sure. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

That is me. Matt Thomas is out. He will be back tomorrow. Sources close to the show say Chris Gordy will be joining soon. We'll also have Adam Clanton coming up at 1 o'clock. We'll have ain't nobody got time for that slash shut your bum ass up coming up at 1130 as well. And you at 713212-570. 713-212-5-790. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Ball comes in, knocked away by Shepard, goes in solo, two-hand slam.

Last year, in charge of the offense for the Wizards. That was his main role. And here's Shepard on the drive, the second deck of the game. Dante is the 11th rebound. Here's come the Bifers. Hinton picks it up. Shepard again. He's got 46 now.

Drive by Logan, misses, and here's Hinton. Three on two breaks. Sent it out for Shepard a three and he got it. Proud getting into it. Read Shepard for the Rio Grande Valleys Vipers. 49 points. Eight three-pointers made. Is he going into the RGVie Hoverie Hibers?

of fame we shall discuss as we go along. That's like the guy, I mean, it was like Corey Jolks would be up here and he was 0 for 10. Yes. But you go back to AAA. He had three home runs last night. Pedro Leon is absolutely mashing at AAA. This is different though. 49 points is pretty good. Yeah, so clearly Reed is he's an elite talent. You know, Raffel said he was the best player in this draft.

I still think there's a chance for that to be. How was Zachary Oresauchet doing? He was just going through Growing Paines as a rookie, and this is what a lot of guys go through. And they were getting them some opportunities, late in some games, and he just couldn't hit shots. But man, gets to the Valley, and he's crushing. He's looking great.

That is Chris Gordy. I am Ross Vioriel. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We are here with you until 2 o'clock. Gordy Hill till 1. Phone lines open in our number 2 of the program at 713-212-5-7-9. 24 points in the fourth quarter. These statistics courtesy of Adam J. Wexler.

24 points in the fourth quarter for the game 18 of 33, 8 of 19 from 3 in under 37 minutes where the Vipers lost 130 to 125. He made, I think it was 19 threes at the NBA level out of like 68. I looked it up last night. I'll go look it up. And he already made eight in one game in the RGV. And that's the NBA three point line down there. So it's not like they were cheapies. And it's good to see Reed Shepard.

Maybe I think his biggest problem, at least at this point, is it was a lack of confidence. He looked very dear in headlights. He was passing the ball away. He didn't not necessarily look like he was disinterested in being out there. That's maybe Cam Whitmore at the end of the game last night. Would you talk about that? But I expected him to thrive in the G League. but 49 points in his debut.

Feeling pretty good. Kentucky legend. Well, and what's crazy is it's like a lot of those guys out in Kentucky. They do the one year and they're awesome, but it's like they're still only 19. And it's, you know, we've seen a lot with these Rockets players.

I mean, look at what Jalen Green and all these guys have grown into from where they were as a rookie. It's just, it's going to take time. But I think there's a chance. Reed gets his confidence and his swagger and maybe by the end of this year is a nice bench piece.

Because I think in a perfect world, in a perfect world he's a true backup point guard to Fred Van Ville. Because he's got vision. He can distribute. He can pass. He can hit threes. You know, it defends very well.

Yeah, believe it or not, at some point we'll hear from Raphael Stone. Yeah, you know, getting read back from the G League is like making a trade. It's like an acquisition for us. It's like we're looking for it for a thing. looking at a three in D-wing and this is our guy. It's like getting a trade with Ruth Ried Shepherd coming up.

That's more likely to be a Dana Brown quote than a Raffles. I feel like that covers all sports. It feels like all general managers try to think like that, or at least try to impress that upon their fan base. I mean, we're getting Christian Harris back. It's almost like we made a trade. Exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, hey, the Rockets could use a guy who could play some good perimeter defense

and knock down some threes. maybe that guy is Reed Shepard. I know we've been talking a lot about the team where they are now, 24 and 12, in the number two spot. There's a lot of people that want them to go big game hunting. De Aaron Fox has been mentioned.

Jimmy Butler has been mentioned. I just don't see it from the Rockets. What was that report yesterday? Somebody said, don't trade for Jimmy Butler. I think Jimmy Butler apparently has been going on and telling teams do not trade for me. Wow. Because I'm not going to resign with you.

So that Jimmy Butler, he's radioactive. Do not touch. Do not go near him. There's just no way. There's no way the rocket should in any way pursue. And I don't think they are. I think a lot of the fan base, like I said, we're talking about trades and they're number two and let's win the West and go to the finals and all that type of stuff. I think it's a process with Raffell Stone. They're trusting the process. The process is bearing fruit right now that they're number two. I think there could be some trades being made, but I think it would be more for bench slash depth pieces rather than any sort of major shakeup with the starting five. Meanwhile, Cam Whitmore's like, I'll go to Miami. You can send me there.

Yeah, there are some video circulating on the interwebs last night of Cam Whitmore looking less than enthused going off the floor at the end of the game. He got 18 minutes last night, but a lot of that was in garbage time. 17 points, 6 of 8 from the field. Perfect for three for three from three. And if you are, I can, I understand where he's coming from. He's like,

what else do I have to do? Every time I go out there, except for a while he had one bad game, what was it against Boston, where he was horrible, but he was great against Dals before that. He had 27 points, a few games before that,

against the New Orleans Pelicans, so we have to, they are terrible, but guy goes out there and performs and he's been playing better on defense. Coach Udoca's heaping praise on him about his defense and everything that he's, doing and checking all the boxes.

And it seems to me in his mind, he's due for a much bigger role in this team that has not come yet, despite injuries. What's his deal? Why is he unhappy? I think he's just sad. Maybe he's an angry person. Maybe he needs to go to therapy. You know, maybe he's got issues some sort of childhood trauma.

I don't know. I mean, you can be unhappy with playing time and all this and think I should be playing more. But like, this is an earn-it league. And Eme Adoka is an earn-it coach. If you were that awesome, you'd be playing more. I just wonder what it is necessarily that more that he needs to do

or that he's not seeing from. And maybe he has some delusions in his head that he needs to be starting in this game. He's like, I'm better than Jalen Green. I need to start over Jalen Green. Or arguably, by points per minute and field goal and three point percentage shooting and that type of stuff, he is more effective

than Jalen Green by those metrics. So I don't know exactly what's going on with Cam Whitmore. I don't know exactly what's going on in his head. It was very bizarre those comments from a week, week and a half ago when he was talking after the game, like he had just been sent to the G League after dropping 50

when really he was playing consistent, he played 24 minutes in that game and had like 20 something points. I don't know what's going on with him, but he's clearly not very happy. Well, I mean, this is maybe a reason why he fell? Remember he was projected as a lottery

pick? And the Rockets got him at Pick 20. We thought it was an injury thing, and we weren't sure what exactly was going on. Perhaps there were some whispers about possible attitude issues, and yeah, they have multiple times now sent him to the Rio Grande Valley. But he's back up, and you got a great game from Jalen Green in that third quarter. I think he made six threes. Alperin Shungoon was great in that quarter as well. They ended up with 29 and 26 points. Like that's what you kind of envision.

Like what happened? Now, of course, it was a get-right game against the Wizards, and I don't even care. they'd won before that. Every game against the Wizards is like a tune-up game against Southwest Louisiana State, but it was nice to see both Alpern-Shingoon and Jalen Green over 25 plus points. I wonder how many times that's happened in their careers

where both of them are thriving like that. Well, look, we're in a stretch weather away from home. You're going to go play in a tough Memphis environment tomorrow night. Atlanta always seems tricky when they have to go there. If Trey Young's been knocking down a half-court game winner, it's going to be tough. That was crazy. That was. Then you come home from Memphis next week.

Then you're at Denver, you're at Sacramento, at Portland for a little West Coast trip. I think, you know, like, just keep doing what you're doing. Just keep grinding away. Because I was a little worried there when they had dropped three out of four. Yeah. I was in the Boston. But you knew it was a tough for stretching the schedule. Well, with a bad collapse against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

All right, we've got to take a quick break here. Chris Gordy is into the fold. I am here, Ross, Ruea. I was asked the question before I will pose it to. Chris Gordy and you as well. Amend Thompson in the starting lineup right now. Is that where he does stay for the season? Is that where he should stay for the season? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Ain't nobody got time for that slash shut your bum ass up coming up at 1130.

More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. 1118 in the a.m. You're on Sports Talk 7. I do the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That is me. Matt Thomas is out as he will be back tomorrow. He's traveling with your Houston Rockets. They are taking on the Memphis Grizzlies tomorrow.

Took on the Washington Wizards last night. Jabari Smith Jr., unfortunately remaining out. with that hand fracture. Going to be four to eight weeks. Re-evaluated in four weeks is what we've been hearing. So in the meantime, now that I'm in Thompson is back from his two-game suspension for hit-tossing Tyler Hero.

He's been in the starting lineup. And we were kind of talking about this before he came in, or I guess right as around you you were coming in and getting ready, Gordy, that I like him in Thompson. To me, objectively, he is a better overall player than Jabari Smith, Jr. but the question is how does he fit necessarily with this offense as a whole against better teams who are going to pack the pain against you when you your starting lineup is Jalen Green who now has been knocking down threes he's back over 33%.

That's, I mean, objectively, half a point per shot, which is decent and okay. You'd rather him get close to league average, 35, 36%. But Fred Van Vlitt continues to struggle overall with his three-point shooting. Alpi is having his worst three-point shooting season as a pro, and Amin Thompson is shooting under 25%. Can you go out there with him in that starting lineup with four shooters in the event that Jabari Smith Jr. comes back and then have him come off the bench? I'm curious what Imaudoka would do going forward.

Yeah, I was hoping this was going to be the green light year for Jabari Smith. The light comes on, and he takes that next step. and obviously the injury is going to sideline him for some time, but his numbers have actually dipped, like his point total, it's the lowest of the three years in the league. His free throw percentage is up, field goal percentage slightly down from last year, and rebounds down at a three-year low.

So, but yeah, I mean, with Amin's a nice piece he could fill in, but to your point, like, you really want him filling in full-time for Jabari and playing that position. getting out physicaled by some guys bigger, bigger than him. Yeah, especially like, yeah, if you're playing him at the power forward spot, how physical. I mean, look, I like Jabari's Mitch Jr. I like his fit. He knocks down threes.

He's not someone that's going to be the engine of the offense, unfortunately. He hasn't developed into a player of where you drafted him to what you're hoping. You've got somebody in the top three. You're hoping the guys gets to be a star player. Now, that's not super common, but it is possible. And he also, remember, he was talking about in that drafts as a possible. one overall pick. So Jabari Smith Jr. has some talent.

And the three-point shooting started off pretty slow this year and was bad his first year, but it's come along. So I like Jabari Smith Jr. And that's a good point with the physicality and getting physically beat up at

the power floor position, but also in this age of basketball, how many opposing teams are running out two big men to where I mean Thompson is going to have to be doing a whole lot of low post defense. I don't know. These are two big games too coming up, by the way.

Memphis only trails you by half a game in the standings. You're the two seed right now in the West. They're the three seed. Half a game behind you in the standings and two of your next three are against Memphis. So I would say at minimum you want to split these. Yeah, that'd be nice. And as we go along, I mean, 36 games into the season, nearly the halfway point, I mean, where are you out on the Rockets?

Where do you think? I mean, I keep wanting to say, you know what, they're lacking star power. Like, if we go up and down the other rosters, the Shay Gilgis Alexander's of the world, and John Moran and Nicola Yokic and Luca Donchich and Kyrie Irving, like there's a lot. There's so much star power on these other teams. But the Rockets keep winning games. They keep playing well.

The net rating, point differentials, all that type of stuff. It's still remarkably consistent with where they are in the standings. It's like at this point, I guess we just had to buy in and say, these are the rockets. This team is finishing top four, top five in the Western Conference? Yeah, I mean, I hope it holds true. It's still so early in the season, but I mean, look at that gap that thunder have created. You're six and a half back in it. The thunder are the best.

And I mean, if your aim is to chase the thunder, then the rockets need to improve dramatically. but as we're kind of talking about the last second, how much is it is Raphael Stone's like, hey, stay the course, we're not supposed to win the championship this year anyways. We're in the year two of phase two, which is supposed to be multi-years, where phase three is championship contention.

Phase two is, let's get into the playoffs and try to be this kind of plucky, we're not supposed to be here underdog type. Right now, where they are, if the season ended today, which it doesn't, they're ahead of schedule. I don't realize the calves are 31 and 4. That's nuts.

That's nuts. Evan Mobley, taken after Jalen Green. He's got an all-N-Ba defense team on his resume, and he's averaging like 19 points and 10 rebounds game. Just saying. Yeah, it's one of those you'll always look back at and look at Paolo. Can I go delete that article that I wrote that Jalen Green is the pickover Evan Mobley? Can I go back into archives and delete that?

No. Oh, I'm going to actually right now. I'll live there forever. I would like to. All right, 713, 2, 1-2-5-7-9 of the phone number. Anthony in Deer Park. Want to talk some rocket ball.

What's up, Anthony? Hey, guys. So do you think that, like, the way a team comes out, like you were saying, you know, the rockets are in phase two? Like, do you think that, like, with the rockets being 24 and 12,

they're kind of in like that second group where the, you know, the Cavs, Celtics, and Thunder are the elite teams, and then you got the Rockets, Grizzlies, Knicks. But do you think that the Rockets being 24 and 12 could kind of nudge them into that phase three earlier than expected where they'd like maybe go get Dierran Fox or somebody like that to kind of push them

into that elite group of top tier teams? Yeah, that's the question, Anthony. That's where we are. Thank you. I appreciate you getting in. If I had to guess, and without knowing, I would guess that

Rafael Stone is going to preach patience on this. I can see a scenario where Udoca's like, hey, get me these players, we're close, we're the number two seed, you get me a little bit of extra, I'm going to get you over the hump, and we're going to go win a championship.

So it's going to be that push and pull and that tug, and whether it's Raphael Stone or whoever, and they're not saying that they're on the same page if there's any disagreements or discord or anything like that. But it could be a situation where do you want to trust the process, let these players that you have continue to grow and thrive, which so far they have.

And if you're going off their last game, again, against the Wizards. But if you go off their last game, Alpern Shingoon and Jalen Green both looked great. They both looked spectacular. And Fred Van Vleet's doing his thing, dropping 12 assists. And Dylan Brooks knocking down threes. And Amin Thompson is just that wrecking ball on defense and offense that is just swinging back and forth from each side of the court, the 94 feet and wreaking havoc on both sides of the ball.

So right now, this team is good. They're fun. They're exceeding expectations. They have the right coach in place. Do you rock that boat and change up the chemistry to try to get over that hump for the championship? Or do you say, hey, you know what? We're dancing with who brung us right now. We're ahead of schedule with these guys.

let's let them grow and thrive the way that this team is constructed. And by the way, Dearen Fox is in the midst of a $163 million contract. He was a year? He's making 35 mil this year, 37 mil next year. Not a good three-point shooter either. If you want to inherit that contract, you're going to have to move some things, dollars and cents to make it work. And who does he playover?

The natural fit would be Jalen Green, but you can't really trade Jalen Green's contract right now because of the extension you sign him to. people would argue over, probably over Fred, because Fred's struggling. Dearon Fox and Jalen Green, who's your ball handler? Who's, I mean, who's starting your offense? I think you need, the steady-handed leadership of Fred Van Vlead, I mean, this offense, when Fred goes out, this offense is a lot worse.

Yeah. He does such a good job of knowing where other guys need to be, setting other guys up, and kind of be in that engine of this offense. And the assist to turnover ratio, since he's been here, has been spectacular. Well, I don't know. I tend to stay the course here, but I get it. People are going to look at it and go the Rockets and the two seed. We always want more.

Let's upgrade. If you're not winning the championship, you're terrible. You're worthless. What's the point? The point is they're growing and getting better, and hopefully in a year or two will be to that championship level. Or, I mean, if this keeps going and they make the number two seed, by default, the number two seed in a conference is a championship contender.

All right, we're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Chris Cordy is here. You guys got something you want to get off of your chest, something that has been bothering you, sticking in your craw as it were. You want to tell somebody, you know, nobody got time for that. You also want to tell somebody, hey, quit talking, perhaps a former Jets coach who was on some show that doesn't even warrant mention calling a playoff game on the road a buy week. and you want to tell them to shut their bum ass up, you can do so. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in.

7-13-212-5-790. Ain't nobody getting time? Ain't nobody getting time for that. Ain't nobody getting time for that. All right. This is the segment where you got some complaints, you've got some grievances, you got a lot of problem with some people.

well, you air it all out on ain't nobody got time for that slash shut your bum ass up man ain't nobody got time for that here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out Ross is with you. Chris Gordy

is with you. Connemoghwin here as well. Phone lines open if you'd like to vent 713-212 5-790 7-7-13-212. 5-790. And allow me to start.

Myself and Chris Gordy, we were doing a Crawford Boxcast yesterday. You can check it out for free on the I-Heart Radio app. Great stuff on the latest on Kyle Tucker and Alex Breggman and the state of the Houston Ashroes right now. Just served Crawford Boxcast, presented by Carbock

Brewing. Yeah. Presented by Carbock Brewing. Ice cold, refreshing, and delicious Crawford Bach. Who's that new Astroo, by the way? What's that guy's name? Oh, the guy they just traded for? They just traded for Gray Kessinger. RIP, Great Kessinger.

No, we're not giving you a farewell on the show. Matthew Linsky. Umblnative played at Rice. Matthew Linsky. Shout out Umbl, Texas. Connor McGovern agrees. All right, anyways, we're doing some research, and we're trying to figure out, you know,

what's the latest, if anybody said anything on Alex Bregman. And every time I try to do, to look something up lately, these, and I'm going to call them out by name, s.i.com. Sports Illustrated, you used to be.

be the best most trusted source of sports news and information. My dad subscribed. I couldn't wait for it to come every week. I would read it cover to cover. And I loved Sports Illustrated. How far they have fallen. They have these Joker writers fresh out of journalism school or whatever program they went to who put these sensational lying, misleading headlines saying Alex Bregman,

favored to sign back with the Astros. And it's some joker from some New Jersey website putting that in a blog where they're making a prediction or put Alex Breggman close to doing this or close to doing that. They take one sliver of half truth and they turn it into this sensational headline. You got my click, but never again. I'm sick and tired of sESI.com

and not living up to standards and practices. Shut your bum ass up, Sports Illustrated. You suck now. Shut your bum ass up, man Well, I'm with you because I have to echo that Because I got a text from a friend on Friday It was a link to an sI.com article And it was titled

Houston Astros predicted to re-sign fan favorite To Mammoth 175 million dollar deal And it's a picture of Dana Brown I'm like, yes Wow, they're going to re-sign a fan favorite I wonder who this is And I click on the article And it's all about

They may still re-sign Alex Breggman And I'm like, wait, Where did this come front? Yes. They've traded for Isok Paratus. They've signed Christian Walker. Everything says that they have moved on from him. And it cites like one little thing and it's like,

do Esther still haven't said they're completely out on him? Right. And it's like, wait. Exactly. I had somebody in my family send me that article too. And I was like, what? So I had to look up who wrote it. It is a guy by the name of Cade Kisner.

And here's his bio. Kate Kisner is the publisher and Beat Reyer for SIs inside the Phillies. What? He covers the Phillies. And he's writing about an Astros free agent. He's an alumnus of Tulane University and graduated in 2017 with a degree of Latin American Studies and a minor in Spanish. He was commissioned into the United States Navy and attended naval flight school. He flunked out of flight school and now he's writing crap for s.i.com? Well, then he wrote the one yesterday that said New York Mets emerge his favorites to sign how it's pregnant.

That's the one you were saying. And I'm like, what? And I'm like, wait, emerge as favorites. And then he cites USA Today's Bob Nightgill, who says the Mets are showing strong interests. Yeah. So how do you get from their showing interest to emerge as favorites? Yeah, we need something needs to stop. Somebody needs to like, I don't know, we need some sort of media watchdog company or what.

But this ocean of misinformation, it's only getting worse and worse and worse. Well, it's just for clicks. Like you're doing this just for clicks. And it's, How do I block a website for my browser? It's misleading because they put it on Facebook and then we have callers who call in. They call Sean, hey.

I heard Bregman is resigning. We had a caller say the same thing the other day. And I'm like, I didn't. They're like, yeah, I saw, I saw that he was a favorite to sign over 170 million. Me and Matt were like, what? Yeah. These lies put out, but shut your bum ass up again. Sports Illustrated.

Shut your bum ass up, man. 713-212-5-790 if you want to get in 7-1-3-212-5-790. Gordi, got anything else? Are you going to stick with the sports illustration? Well, I wanted to pivot over to a report from Tom Pelliserro, who just put this out about 30 minutes ago. Multiple NFL teams have inquired about whether legendary coach Bill Belichick would reconsider his move to college football, including the Raiders. whose new minority owner, Tom Brady, spoke recently with his old coach, according to league sources.

Oh, my God. I mean, it's more of a shut your bum ass up to Tom Brady because don't be calling your old as head coach who just took a college job. But also, Bill Belichick, you took the college job in North Carolina, bro. I'm sorry, you're locked in. Ain't nobody got time for that. If you thought you were even going to be considered for an NFL job again, which, by the way, you had to keep it in the back of your mind because he interviewed for jobs less offseason. like, shut your bum ass up. If you're going to take a college job

where you knew there would be NFL teams interested still. I'm sorry to all the recruits who signed for me. Well, I signed with me. Yeah, he's got to like apologize to all the recruits. Like, what if you signed for Bill Belich? This is, again, transfer portal does not bother me.

Go and find the best spot for you. What kills me is NFL and college. Time heals all wounds. Time. And what I mean? by that is Ross, when a coach gets fired and goes and does

TV for a year, two years, his name then becomes red hot. John Grun's been mentioned. Rex Ryan's name is up again. Like, no, Rex is doing media. There's no way. Yeah. I swear, you know what it is? I think it's

that like ESPN, Fox, all the, like we watch these these games all the time, that we like in our minds, we erase what happened and we go, oh yeah, Rex Ryan, he knows ball. No, he might be a good coach again. Rex Ryan just called the Texans a buy.

Rex Ryan does not know ball. But why do we do this? It happens in college. The reason there's a college coach on ESPN now is because he sucks, because he got fired. It's not because he just decided to step away from the game. He got fired. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It's like Eli Manning being a finalist for the Hall of Fame.

Do we not remember what Eli Manning was as a quarterback? There was not once. You were like, oh my God. I'm so scared. Eli Manning's coming into town, guys. What are we going to do? No, you're like, hell yeah. Eli Manning's about to throw three picks, baby.

Let's go. He won two Super Bowls with elite defenses. But at any point, was he a top two quarterback in the league? It was a top five. I can go through the list. He probably went in top ten. The only thing he ever led the league in was interceptions and he did it three times. That's like saying Big Shot Bob, Robert Orie.

Oh, God. Look, on several teams has multiple rings, but at any point was Bob Robert O'Rei, a top five player in the NBA? Zero time All-Star, zero-time, first, second, or third-time All-NBA. I said the same thing about Manor Unlebone. I got attacked by a lot of people in San Antonio, by the way. Two-time All-Star, zero-time first or second team All-N-B. I don't think he ever made a third-team all-M-A. I'd have to go look at that again.

But, my God, we always remember things better than they were. I'll put it that way. All right, 713, 212, 5, 790. Connor, we will break, but you're going next. Oh, you're going to be going right now? All right, let's build the drama. You got something good, Connor? Or you need some time to think?

We'll hold on next break. We'll take Jason and I. Take Jason. All right, let's take Jason real quick, and then Cona McGovern can go. Jason in Kingwood, I imagine ain't nobody got time for the latest arsenal loss is what you're going to say. Well, I'm glad that you knew it. We're not going to talk about that right now. But this is for Rick Ryan.

Frank Ryan. You got to shut your bum ass up, Rick Ryan. Nobody cares about what you got to say about anything in regards to the Houston Texans. I know you don't watch them. I know you don't watch them. So, yeah, I ain't got nothing to say. Shut your bum ass up.

Hmm. Shut your bum ass up, man. He knows. This is the thing he knows, folks. He wants your attention. He wants you to know. I'm not mentioning what show or network he was even on because it doesn't matter. He was a former NFL coach.

He knows there's no such thing as a byweek in the NFL. He is saying this to sensationalize, please, I'm praying for you people to stop falling for this stupidity because it just makes sports discourse worse. And we can go over the whole society and all this going into the toilet. But man, it's getting worse and worse when it comes to sports discourse. All right, 713, 2125-790. If you still want to get in, we'll take a quick break here, but you can still still. tell somebody to shut a

bum ass up or ain't nobody got time for that. 713-212-5-7-90. Connemar Governor will give his next as well. And your calls if you want to get in after this quick break on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. All right, still a few minutes to get in if you would like

for ain't nobody got time for that slash shut show bum ass up here on the Matt Thomas show. Phone lines open at 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212, 5790. Connor McGovern, the floor is yours. So last week we had on Rocket's head coach, EMA Adoka, and Ross, you actually asked him about Cam Whitmore after Whitmore seemed discouraged about us playing time. Well, Matt asked the first question. I asked a follow-ups.

Let's give Matt his credit. That's true. That's true. I said it was on your guys' show. I know, I know. He had a good response to your guys's questions about Cam Whitmore. Somebody on Twitter screen recorded the podcast clip and posted that. And it started to get some traction. So I'm going to keep going. But just a quick, ain't nobody got time for that for the guy not linking the blog post or original podcast clip or tagging either Matt, you or Sports Talk 790.

Just a little bit of bad journalism ethics. But anyway, I saw Gordy commented on the screen, recorded repost, and properly gave credit to you and. Matt. I continued his work by adding credits to all the reposts I saw on Twitter. Thank you. David and Austin tweeted at me and took some exception saying also and also Carter D. McGovern who produces and uploads the podcast. I think he was saying you deserve some credit. Oh. He said finally stop stealing content and punting it off as your own. Oh, was he defending me? Yes. Oh, when you sent me that out. Are you going to tell him to shut his bum ass up? Oh, never mind. David listens every day. We appreciate you, David. He missed.

understood. He was giving you credit. I thought you I make sense to why you would send that to me. Oh. I thought he was getting after me. No, he's giving credit too. When I was adding the credit, I'm like, I didn't even, I was posting from a $790 account or tagging, I wasn't even tagging myself. Which I don't

need to. You're taking offense when there was none. You are truly learning from Matt Thomas. Oh, well you stopped me, so thank you. And David and Austin, I apologize for what I was going to say. But I'm not going to say it now. That's great. Anything else? How about just those people who are, Yeah, the reposters. I already said anybody got time for them.

Again, it's where we're headed. It's when our friend Elon Musk made Twitter pay for, and then it's basically rewarding people for the most impressions, so the most sensationalized stuff. It was already liked that on Twitter, right? Where the most impressions, the most retweets, the most crazy stuff gets the most views. But when you started monetarily incentivizing that, stoking the fires of trolls,

that's when things really got worse. and well, that's when my mute button has been working over time, and I've been trying to get on threads in blue sky, but there's nobody over there. I've read it now, and I completely misread that. I appreciate that. He was tagging me to also give me credit. Yes, that is correct.

Okay. Can I throw out another one, Chuchab, I'll mess up. To all the writers out there and national pundits, who are saying death to the SEC, the SEC is dead. Oh, your years of dominating the college football is, over. Need I remind you, 13 of the last 18 national championships of football have been won by the SEC. Get them, Gordy. And let's not even get into baseball reigning SEC champs for like the last

five years. Yes. Women's basketball, Don Saly and South Carolina. I mean, if you want to get into Texas and rowing, I mean, they're always national championships there. Tennis, give the Aggies some credit. They finally won a tennis championship. Before Tennessee got crushed last night, you had the number one and number two teams in the country. The country and basketball. Yeah. But like the, and here's who I really want to tell a shit their bum ass up.

Joel Clatt, who, the last I checked, Ross, works for Fox, who does the Big Ten noon kickoff. Hmm, I wonder why he would want to put down the SEC and say, oh, they're not as dominant anymore.

I think it's the Big Ten. Really? Don't they write your checks, Joel? How about Nicole Auerbach, who just left for NBC this past off season? She's now Caltech football right of NBC. And it's on the first. the Notre Dame pregame.

Guess what she thinks? Oh, SEC's overrated. Oh, yeah. It's a little convenient there. Yeah. I always caution, beware of the overreaction to a small sample size.

I said that again when everybody's like, oh, is it a disadvantage to have the buy week? Well, it's a disadvantage to be Boise State and Arizona State. Right.

And having to face Ohio State and Georgia not having their starting quarterback. So. And look, Texas or Michigan won it last year, but had Georgia gotten in? Breaking news, Georgia was going to win the championship if they got into the final floor. Now you're going with the hypothetical matchups.

I'm just telling you. I just tell you. Did you see what they did in Florida State? It was like 70 to nothing. I'm trying to help you, Gordy. If Texas wins this championship, and I like them to beat Ohio State on Friday, if they win this championship, that's what I like to hear. That'll be 14 of the last 19 football championships.

SEC. SEC. SEC. And you can say Texas is in SEC, but last I checked, the logos on the shoulder back. Yeah, let's go. They are in the championship, unfortunately, because they lost to Georgia twice. But we don't have to talk about it. Undefeated against everybody not named Georgia, though.

Josh and Cyprus, what you got going on? Hey, guys, thanks. I wanted to start all with a big, shut your bum ass up to Mr. Rex Ryan. There ain't no way in hell he actually believes that. I think. Shut your bum ass up, man. I think he just wants to have us beat their ass and, up with his foot in his mouth.

That's it. Thank you. I hope so, Josh. He would really enjoy the foot in his mouth. Actually, he enjoys that quite frequently. I imagine. You know, I'm not here to kinkshame. We're not here at kink shame on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Is it okay to touch him again? Oh, dang. Can I help you with anything? Do you mind if I touch them? Is that right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You don't remember these?

Oh. They're like really soft. There's a weird video of him touching his wife. Feet. Let's go along with Bob Baylor Doug. Go ahead. Yeah, so I go to the Texas Bowl and to see LSU Tigers defeat the Baylor Bears the day before my birthday. But I guess Chris 40's happiness is what's really important.

I think nobody got time with that. Wow. I'm sorry the Baylor Bears weren't up to snuff. It's okay. No. It's no shame and loosen to a good. good LSU team? And the vaulting,

according to some, the vaulting of Garrett Nussmeyer's Heisman campaign for 2025. Well, he is behind, he's number two and the list behind

one to Archmanning. Woo! Let's go, Arch. Isn't that while that a guy who's got a full season as a starter at LSU

under his belt is coming back? Yeah. But he's behind the guy who's played two games. It's always what's in the mystery box. We've got a full season of mid from Nussmire, okay?

Now, I'm an arch, truth, though, I do, I do think Arch is going to be awesome. We'll see. I think with another offseason, I think he's going to be really good. As long as he takes what the defense is giving him more than trying to drive the ball down the field and make splash plays, which I think he was trying to do a little bit too much when he came in.

I'm a big fan of Arch as well, and I think he needs to be featured more in the red zone. Is that Sawyer Robertson kid going to be back at Baylor? Because he was pretty damn good. I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm not keeping up with the Baylor too deep right now. He was good. All right, that being said, and it's time for another break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross,

without Matt Thomas with Chris Gordy and Connemar Govern. Coming up, we will have the news at noon. Also, Adam Clanton coming on at 1 o'clock and you at 713-212-5-790. What's happening in the sports world? A lot of stuff to cover, actually. News at noon next. Lunch timers, this is the Matt Thomas show. 12-01 in H-Town. What's happening at lunch timers? Hello and welcome in to our number three of the Matt Thomas show. with Ross without Matt Thomas, Chris Cordy here until one. Adam Clanton will join then, but right now, it's time for the top sports news of the day in a segment we call the news at noon. All right, Connor, we've got to hear your news guy voice here.

Okay, maybe if you don't really want to do it, you don't have to. But what are we got for the top sports news of the day? I want to hear it. Connor, give me your best news guy voice. Okay. This is Sports Talk 790. I'm Connemer-Govern. Here is the news at news.

I like it. Thank you. You're hired. Appreciate that. I can keep it. I can keep my job. Did I ever tell you about the guy in ESPN Louisville that I heard on Radio Row years ago? And I thought he was, I think he was doing a bit, but it was his real voice.

Really? I like talk. Welcome back, 3 o'clock here on ESPN Louisville. Like, there's no way he dearly talks like that. No. To force it like that for hours would be as tough. I think that was his real voice. Hmm.

All right. The news at noon. Thank you. The Rockets. The Rockets defeated the Washington Wizards 135 to 112 last night. Jalen had,

Jalen Green had 29 points. Alper Changood added 26 with 10 rebounds while men Thompson scored 20 and grabbed 15 boards, so double doubles for those guys. But in other Rockets news, rookie Reed Shepard, after being officially signed to the G League on Monday, made his Rio Grande Valley Vipers debut last night,

and in 37 minutes of play, recorded 49 points on 17 for 33 shooting. Drive by Logan misses, and here's Hinton. Three on two, break. Sins it out for Shepard, a three, and he got it. Crowd getting into it. So Shepard added six assists, five rebounds, and three steals, and the Rockets have a history of sending their high-level prospects to G-League.

Ken Whitmore this year and last year, men Tops in last year. so where do we see the potential of number three overall pick Reed Shepard? That's the question. I almost don't know exactly what to make of this. I mean, first of all, it's a very high-paced league in the G-League. They go back and forth, not a whole lot of defense played. He did get 33 shots up, but he made eight threes.

He'd only made like 19 all year long or something like that in a Houston Rocket uniform. So he made eight in one game. I think overall, there's no way to feel bad about this. I don't want to discourage myself too much as that. It's just the G-League. They're not even trying up there, whatever. 49 points is pretty good. I mean, in a college game, let alone in a G-League game, you got 33 shots up, but still pretty impressive from Reed Shepherd.

Yeah, did you see, I think it was Danielle Lerner tweeted out, the Rockets were in the locker room post game in D.C. Looking at highlights of Reed Shepherd once said, he's bleeping balling, man. He is. He said, did you see he had a dunk? That's kind of cool that they were cheering on their guy. I also, minus 500, one of those players was not named Cam Whitmore.

Right, exactly. I don't give a damn what he did. I hope this, keep him down there a couple weeks. Let him get a shot going, get his confidence, back, and then bring him back. So bad things happening to the Rockets. Jabari Smith Jr. is hurt. Good things happening to the Rockets. Jalen Green and Alpern Shungoon went off last night, even though it was against the Washington Wizards.

And I'm in Thompson. I mean, dudes playing like he should. make first he's getting a lot of hype like he's going to make one of the all defense teams i think whether it be first or second or third or don't do they do a third for defense i don't think so so whether it be first or second he he he he's making ways right now and the topic we were talking about earlier we don't know if he's going to be if he's going to be a situation where he ever comes out of the starting lineup if he does i think it would be strictly because of the shooting provided by jabari smith jr. all right what else you got cona mcgovern only

the news at noon. The Houston Texans will host the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday for a wildcard playoff matchup. Former NFL head coach Rex Ryan is already dismissing the Texas chances, calling them a quote, buy for the chargers. Head coach DeMico Ryan spoke to the media yesterday and had

this to say when a reporter actually quoted Rex Ryan's comments to him. For me, it's something like that, what does it do? Does it make you play harder because somebody said that? Does it change? Like, we play hard anyway. We're going to bring our style of football, our brand of football

on Saturday regardless or irregardless of what anyone talking heads opinion is about us, right? So it really doesn't drive or doesn't change our approach one bit. Joe Mixston was actually asked the same question in the locker room. It kind of reiterated what

D'emico Ryan's and the Texans are saying, which is they don't care about outside opinions. So how are we feeling about the Texans playoff chances? Yeah. In a way, I'm a guy that subscribes to, especially at the NFL level. Bulletin board material doesn't mean a whole lot. These guys are professionals.

They pour their lives into these games. They go through the slogs of this entire season. Maybe you need that little extra something to motivate you. But I don't think it's going to be, you know, the chargers are driving on third and three in an important drive in the fourth quarter. And as he's out of your hearing, like saying, Rex Ryan doubted us in this moment. So I'm going to rise up above it because I got to prove Rex Ryan wrong.

No, you go about your process. you prepare for the game. Sure, it adds a little bit of layer of intrigue, and everybody's going to pop off at Rex Ryan if the Texans do win this game. But as far as the bottom line of this game, I think Damico Ryan's, for the most part, is right. They're going to control what they can control.

They're going to do their best to prepare and get ready for the game on Saturday. I love that quote. I think that can apply to college as well. It's funny. It always happens every year with, like, the rivalry games like LSU A&M, or I'm sorry, LSU, Alabama, or Texas versus A&M,

where it's like, who wasn't one of the Aggies came out so we're not free to Texas, blah, blah, blah. Like, ooh, bulletin board material. I'm like, as if Texas is going to be like, now we really have to beat him. Like, no, it's a rivalry. And here it's a playoff game. Like, the Chargers want to beat him.

And this is different because it's not even like somebody on the Chargers set. It's a neutral party. It's Rex Ryan who, whatever the hell he says has no bearing on it. But again, if the Texas, when you use that, it's a little bit more motivation of, hey, nobody believes on us. I mean, Kirby Smart, literally a few years ago, when they were preseason picked to win the championship, had his defensive players saying after they won the title game going,

nobody believed in us. Like, okay, who did, show me the people who didn't believe in you? Did you hear Steve Sarkeesia this week? Nobody's given us a shot. We got to have these Longhorns fans show up in Arlington. Nobody's giving us a shot. They at least are underdogs. But yeah, but it is just funny.

But yeah, there's a difference between underdogs and saying nobody gave us a shot. Unless you're literally Northern Illinois against Notre Dame, nobody gave them a shot. Yeah. It's not nobody's, it's not. Nobody's giving Texas a shot against Ohio State this weekend, at home in Texas, having to only travel 200 miles for the game. I do wish, though, D'Amico would have some fun with it and go,

he said that, that's funny. Instead of, we do not pay attention to anything outside of the building. He's coach speak robot 2000. I am D'Amico 2000. We are not worried about outside noise. We are going to focus on ourselves, execute and play hard and grit and grind. Okay, thank you. Because flipping, if that's D-on,

Rex Ron said what, man? Oh, come on, that he said that. That's foul. That's foul. You know. No, what he said about that CBS reporter, what y'all did was foul. Is that guy's like, I didn't write that article. I don't have to deal with that CBS National. I write for a CBS, Colorado Springs or whatever he was writing for.

All right, anyways, what else we got as far as the news that do? To hear on Sports Talk 7-I.D. Connor McGovern. Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants are in agreement on a one-year $15 million dollar contract. The future Hall of Framer at age 42 is extending his major league career and is entering his 20th season. I have a question. I was thinking about this all day.

We do too many farewells on this show. Is it Justin Verlander farewell time? He's 42 years old. Yeah, I think you save it for the day he hangs it up. Okay. And there was also, how much was the deal? 15. Okay. There was a certain host who shall remain lamellus who doubted me saying that 50, that he would accept a $15 million deal from someone.

buddy, but I digress. He is now a San Francisco giant. Look, I'm wishing him the best. He fell apart. I don't think he was 100% healthy, but also how many full seasons of 100% health are you going to get from a guy that's 42 years old? When he's out there, he can still show great control,

but these lost ticks off the fastball, the breaking stuff isn't what it once was. And we're seeing a faded legend right now in front of our eyes, but certainly one of the all-time great's Justin Verlander and not going to get to 300 wins. We had a ton of comments on our Facebook page, not one of them was like,

oh man, we should have ponied up that cash and paid him. I think every Astrosman was like, look, great run. See you later. We appreciate you helping us win to our series, but we kind of saw some chicks in the armor last year. I'll ride with Hunter Brown

and, you know, the whole rest of the crew and bid farewell to Justin Verlender. Yeah, as far as like full seasons in his career, it was like his worst whip since 2008, his worst ERA, worst ERA plus. Every metric that you look at, there just had been significant slippage the last couple of years. Like I said, maybe he'll get to 100% health

and he can be a little bit more effective, but wishing Justin Verlander the best. One more note. Astros open the season here at home with Juan Soto in the New York Mets for three-game set. Series two, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the San Francisco Giants. Justin Verlander probably going to go. in that series against the Astros.

Okay, I know Jesse Plymins is their opening day starter. Is he their three started? Would he play in that series? I'm not sure. I would think he would be four or five, right? Yeah. Of course I'm joking. I'm talking about Logan Webb, who looks like Jesse Plymins. Yeah. Okay. Interesting.

Anything else for the news at noon? Kennedy McEwen. The Las Vegas Raiders have fired head coach Antonio Pierce after a 4 to 13th season. Pierce took over as the interim head coach midway through the 2023 season and went five and four the rest of the way and players were advocating for him to get the full-time job. The Raiders, after a two-and-two start to this season, got bit by the injury bug and went on a 10-game losing streak. Pierce joins Gerard Mayo and Doug Peterson as the first three coaches who have been fired following the end of the regular season. Again, I ask, has there been an interim coach

that had some success? And I'm not saying it hasn't happened. I'm just trying to, I'm like, I'm like, literally asking. And the players are all like, yeah, we got to keep them. This is our guy. And then they hire him and then it works out and they win Super Bowls? This doesn't seem like that happens. Well, the one scenario of college at Osirond at LSU That's true. He became the interim

and then they hired him and he won a championship. Yeah, but did they win that because of his coaching prowess or because they had like 17 NFL starters? Somebody had to bring Joe Burrow down to Tiger Country. They had like 18 NFL players on both sides of ball. The other one I will throw out to you, how's Rodney Terry doing

at Texas? Exactly. You're making my points. Hey, they made a furious rally and covered the spread against the Auburn Tigers. They were way out of that game and started to come back, but we don't have to talk about that. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. A lot of stuff we covered. How are you feeling about Justin Verlander being gone? Rockets are winning. Texans with the game coming up against the Los Angeles Chargers. I'm not saying this is a legacy type of game for C.J. Stroud, but he has to have a good one on Saturday. not only for the Texans to be successful, but for my own mental health and well-being as Battle Red Ross.

Anything you want to get to, 713-213-2-790. The phone number, 7-13-212-5-790. Quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. 1218 at the PM here on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Phone lines open and available at SportsRV for tweets at Chris Gordy as well.

At Conall D. McGovern. Excuse me. Conner D. McGovern. Give the man a follow. Hey, did you get any follows when I told people to follow you so you can impress your girlfriend? I got one. Nice. At Connor D. McGovern. He's a producer. Does a great job here. Oof. Hey. That was unnecessary. Hey, one is one per day is good. And you'll double your followers if you get that.

I'll go to my burner account, burner accounts and follow you from those too, Conner. I don't know followers. It's right. No, we got to build you up. Trust me. If you're going to stay in this business. Otherwise you get, never mind. If you want to follow me at Chris Gordy. Yes, I do.

I posted a clip from when we had Justin Verlender on a fan festival a few years ago. I saw that. I remember this. I just read that he had some kind of game day tradition that he would eat the same order a Taco Bell in case he was starting. Cheezing or Dita Crunch is strong. I haven't had Taco Bell, thankfully this year or in the last several months. But also, we made him wear

that space headset that we've had for so many years. These things were relics from a, I believe they were used at the Apollo 11 landing. Okay, it was post-17 World Series. So this would have been January of 2018. Six years ago. No, that's seven years ago. Oh, God. Welcome to 2025.

Oh, my God. I'm not used to this. That's what somebody's asking. me the other day. Like, when was Joe Burrow at LSU? A couple years ago, right? I'm like, yes. 19, right? Six years ago. Oh, my God. Oh, is it your NFL MVP? No. I mean, I love him, but it's Lamar, Josh Allen.

I get the argument for who's the better player this season. It was Lamar Jackson. Who is more valuable? It was Josh Allen. But then also, you have to get into the, is the award. You're penalizing Lamar Jackson for how. having a good general manager. You're penalizing him for having somebody that says, hey, let's go out and get Derek Henry. Let's go out and they lose Patrick Queen and other pieces

off that defense and that defense is still really good. And it's like, hey, Lamar's like, hey, it ain't my fault. And, you know, they haven't had a Pro Bowl wide receiver ever until Zay Flowers this year. And I mean, would Zay Flowers be a pro bowl or if it weren't for Lamar Jackson? So I get it. Nobody's whoever wins among those

two is going to be very, very deserving. And if you're going with the most valuable player, if you swap both of them, it would be Lamar Jackson because he would be on the bills who don't have as much as the Ravens, and then it wouldn't be Josh Allen. So it's just... It's got to be an interesting conversation. It's got a combination of outstanding numbers statistically, outstanding moments you individually. Team

success is part of it. Yeah. If we're going of most valuable players on a team that sucks, then then it's probably Joe Burrow. Right. As if Joe, Burrow isn't carrying them to all those wins that they had with that defense as as poor as it has been. The most valuable to his team was Joe Burrow. They just unfortunately because the chips didn't fall their way, they still ended up 9 and 8 on the season, but didn't make the playoffs because of tie breaks and stuff. They won their last five games where Joe Burrow was like absolutely on fire the entire stretch. They don't make that an award.

Who's a player you could name that after? Guy who just puts up great numbers on a bad team? Josh Allen Award Now the Dan Marino Award Yeah there go The Dan Marino honorary MVP You go back to like the Archie Manning Award Yep

Those terrible Saints teams Putting up great And that's the thing too Josh Allen's defense being as bad as it is Allows him to accumulate in a crew Better statistics It was like that when I don't know

We can go back to some of the The Heisman races of years past. Like teams that have a better defense, for example, yeah, Vince Young had great numbers in 2005. They were winning all those games by like 35 points, so he couldn't put up extra touchdowns

and extra rushing touchdowns to really pad the stats. You also need an element of a really, if you're all with a really good defense and you're winning games by like 28, then you're not going to be able to accumulate in accrue all those yards. So it's an interesting conversation. But to me, I'm guessing Josh Allen is going to win. Lamar Jackson deserving

And look, if you want to prove your worth, go ahead and beat each other in the playoffs. That would be a dream matchup along with whoever ends up playing the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, which could be the Texans. If everything falls to chalk, it would be the Texans if they won were able to get past the Los Angeles Chargers.

Despite being a buy, they would take on the Chiefs at Arrowhead and the divisional round of the playoffs. Do you remember preseason? I think CJ Stroud was like fifth best MVP odds and fourth best. Yes. Yes.

People had him at like top five of, I mean, we were ranking quarterbacks, like in the offseason. And I'm like, I don't know. I think I got him like top seven worse. It's like now, I was pulling up to sad before you hopped on Gordy. There's this guy Ben Baldwin who looks at EPA, which is expected points added, and the pro football focus rankings. And then he kind of averages those. When you blend those with quarterback rankings, C.J. Stroud, I believe, is, is, 20th in football

behind Aaron no no with the PFFF, yeah behind Aaron Rogers behind James Winston Matt Stafford Gino Smith

Russ Wilson Trevor Lawrence he did not have the season that we were expecting this year at all how much of that is the offense how much of that is the weapons

going down with Stefan Diggs and Tank Dell and how much of that is squarely on C.J. Shroud well we'll see by the way you just see their their uniforms that they're going to wear. No. People care about this.

Why? Here's our official uniforms. We're going with the blue, the blue and the blue. Oh, is Framber Valdez picking the uniforms? It's like, but it's almost like a black. It's so dark.

Yeah, it's black. It's basically, it's like one shade off of black with the deepest, deepest steel blue you could possibly find. This shirt is black knot. Yeah, okay, there we go. We're going with my wife in 2025. Let's do it.

I'm down. Okay, they're wearing their, those do look black. They look black and red. They've looked like Atlanta Falcons. They look like Atlanta Falcons uniforms with Seahawks font. Is it deep steel, Liberty Blue? Is that what the color? No, it's Deep Steel Blue.

It's Liberty White. And then, of course, it's Battle Red. Well, we could say this, Ross. If they lose on Saturday, we can look back and go, at least we look fire. At least we look good. I would rather than wear, I mean, like, frilly pink daisies and win. Let's go, baby. I agree.

I'm that big into uniform guy. I don't know. It seems like Matt Thomas is a little bit. I don't know how much you care about what they're wearing and what they're doing or something like that. Adam Klan owns like 76 jerseys of the Texan, so I assume he's a uniform guy. But it's not necessarily something I care too much about. I'm more focused on what's happening on the field. How do the Texans stop Justin Herbert and Quentin Johnson, who's been coming on?

and Ladd McCongy He's having a great rookie campaign It even more bolsters the argument that the SEC championship game last year Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers were both hurt They were not 100% They were struggling And they lose a close game to Alabama

But then look at what Brock Bowers and Ladd McCocky did in the NFL this year Had those guys been healthy I think Georgia would have run the table again last year Look at you just tie it back into the SEC That was beautiful Look what McCockies is 1100 yards He's been outstanding.

No, it's like I'm watching Michelangelo a statue right now. That was beautifully put putting it back to the SEC. He's tough to cover. I don't know who's going to cover. Maybe Kamari Lasser,

his Georgia teammate, can maybe cover. Yeah, Camarie Lasson. Derrick Stingley Jr. or stud from LSU? Maybe he can cover. He was in the pro football, or the NFL Players Association, all pro team,

which we didn't mention before. Derek Stingley, alongside Patrick Sertain the 2nd, who to me, he's like the number one lockdown corner in football. From Alabama, yeah. Yeah. Well, basically from his dad, though, really.

I mean, he's got great genes. If he'd have played at Miami, or didn't his dad play at Miami, I think, Patrick Chattain, Sr.? Or he played Miami Dolphins, maybe not to Miami Hurricanes. I can't remember. But wherever he would have played, he had been fine, I would say. Well, look, if any of Will Anderson, Jr. from Alabama wants to drop out, De Nico Autry from Mississippi State, Derek Barnett from Tennessee,

any of these guys make big plays on Saturday. My God. CJ Stroud from Ohio State. Justin Herbert, not from the SEC. He should have been. Yeah, should have been. He looks like he could have went to Georgia. All right, I'm going to vomit all this SEC talk.

Actually, we're going to get into some college football playoff, but we've got to take a quick break here. A couple of segments left with Gordy. Adam Clinton coming at 1 o'clock. You guys can get in. We're talking football. We've been talking rockets. Should have been stompson.

Stay in the starting lineup when Jabari Smith Jr. comes back. A lot of different stuff to get to with you, folks. If you'd like, 713, 212, 5-790 is the 5. phone number 713-212-5-7-90. 12.33 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, with you until 2 o'clock. Adam Clinton coming on and a half hour. You have Chris Gordy here right now. You on the phones, if you'd like, at 713, 212, 5, 790. 713, 212, 5, 790.

Tomorrow, already, the time is upon us. You will have the first playoff matchup, Notre Dame facing off against Penn State. And then after that, on Friday, looks like it's going ahead as scheduled, Mr. Gordy. Statement from AT&T Stadium and the Good Year Cotton Bowl Classic. We continue to monitor weather reports, and over the last 24 hours, the forecast for later this week has improved, according to the National Weather Service. We've been meeting routinely with city officials, the Director of Transportation for North Texas and college football playoff. Should the forecast change, we are prepared for all contingencies. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Supposed to kick off on Friday evening as scheduled. Yeah, I'm heading up, I think, on Friday morning or afternoon. Bro, you better be careful. You're going to go up there in a snowstorm? Well, no, that's happening Thursday. Okay. So they're saying Thursday is the worst day to travel. But they are saying snow accumulation, but from what I've, from what I've heard at least this morning is the ice isn't going to be as bad as they initially. Like they thought ice was going to be a big problem. Now they're saying they don't think the ice is going to be a problem. Because I've been to Dallas about a decade ago where they had a bad ice storm. Was that in the Super Bowl when you were there? No, this was a college basketball thing up there But what happened was it rained heavily

And then all the water on the roads froze And then it rained again on top of that And then that froze So it was like So when you were driving on it There were like holes in the eye So you're like it was the So you could only drive like five miles per hour

On the interstate now It was dangerous as hell Yeah So it's like if they get ahead of this and the accumulation doesn't stay on the roads and they ice it, you know, what do you call it? You salt the roads and all that.

Brind them is what they call. They're saying also in that statement that the roads have been brined. So they think, and you know what, up there in Arlington, they deal with ice and that type of stuff way more than we do here. So they're a lot better prepared. It says North Texas highways are already being brined and plans are in place

plans are in place to assure a safe environment for everyone in and around AT&T Stadium on game. day. And as someone who has some interest in going, the tickets have gotten quite affordable overnight with this, with storm coming in. It says as of right now, Dallas, supposed to be in the mid to upper 30s on Friday. And then actually a nice weekend into the 40th Saturday and Sunday. Okay. So you're saying I should ditch the Matt Thomas show and go to the game. I mean, look, if you think it's safe to go up there, sure.

Now you're really making it tough on me. All right. We're going to talk about the matchups in a second. But just your thoughts overall in how the playoff has gone, executed, first year of the 12th team playoff. Do you think there's going to be material change with Boise State and Arizona State getting the three and four seed? A lot of people upset about that. A lot of people talking about the buys and the way that has gone. How do you feel the first year of the playoff has gone to this point?

It's fine. I mean, I figured this was what's going to happen, though. The fact that we've got four teams left and none of them won their conference championships. I mean, it's a little shocking. you know, and the problem is, let's say a Penn State wins. It's going to be crazy because we're going to look back and go, in any other circumstance or your Penn State never would have won a national championship. Correct.

They never even would have been considered. I mean, I guess it dilutes the product. When you add more teams, you dilute the product. It happens in the NCAA tournament. It happens to college basketball all the time. It's who gets hot at the right moment. Yes. So then you have teams that break through and win a title.

It's like, well, I guess they're the best team in the country. It's really not about that. It's about who can play the best football at the right time. It's about injury luck as well. Yeah. I mean, look at Georgia. If they have the starting quarterback last week, I think they put up a better fight against Notre Dame. Yeah, you don't know that they win, but I would agree with you.

You think it's at least a better fight. But you have to survive, especially if you're a team outside the top four, you have to survive the four games. I mean, Texas has had some injuries. They're off the offensive line, and I'm not saying I'm not making excuses or anything like that. But you've had guys go down on other teams as well. state themselves. Weren't they missing a couple of offensive linemen, I think?

So I mean, everybody's dealing with it. But where did you do you think you got the truest champion? Was it the BCS system or maybe the top four? Or do we have to see where things shake out? As much as people bitched about the BCS, it actually, it wasn't that bad. Like, I think we, most years

in the BCS format, we got the two best teams playing for the time. I would say most years I would have. I mean, yeah. So people can grab a complaint about that. I think the four team playoff, I think for the most part, last year was the first time. and it was the whole Florida State incident with the quarterback and all that. But I was still more mad about Georgia

because it was like Georgia lost to Alabama and they're like, well Alabama's in. Well, Alabama lost the game. Georgia just got Lander first loss. Yeah. And they're like, well, head to head. And it's like, well, you made this excuse that well, Alabama lost to Texas, but yeah, we'll push that by the wayside.

It's like you get a mulligan on that one. And it's like, well, so I get it. I mean, again, I like the 12 format. We need to redo the seating, though. I still think one through 12. You take. Because that's what my whole gripe was if the committee is going to take the time to rank everybody 1 through 25 and their last rankings they reveal 1 through 25, well, 1 through 12 should be 1 through 12.

Yeah, 1 through 12. With automatic bids, I would say. Well, this team was 17 and they get in because they jump this team like, no, it should just be 1 through 12. I agree. That'll never happen. The other conferences will never agree to it until the SEC and Big Ten can strong arm enough to say, hi, well, if you don't agree with this, we're going to cut you out completely. But they have the best brands.

I mean, I'm sorry. It's just true. Yes. But also in the flip side, had Dionne and Colorado run through the Big 12 this year, I guarantee Colorado would have been a top three, top four, six. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's, you don't have to win your, because not all conferences are created equal. Correct.

Just because you won the Mountain West, boys. He doesn't mean you get to move to the front of the line. Yeah, but I also think, I mean, something has to be said for beating, like, like, I know you were on the side of Alabama being left out. some others weren't like Kirk Harbour Street and whoever because it's like, yeah, I know you're not for Bama. I don't expect you ever to be for Bamba. But it's an interesting conversation. I'm okay still with like Arizona State and Clemson.

I'm okay with them getting auto bids to the top 12 falling where they may. And if they were out of the top 12, put them 12th and 11th. Yeah. So from that standpoint. And then also I would like to see a reseeding of the playoff as well as we go along like we see in the NFL. Aaron chimed in. He said, listening to the media talk about Ohio State, sounds like Texas, you just skip the game and go ahead and just, you know, pack it in. Yeah, they got a buy.

They're a buy. They're a buy. As Rex Dye, Ryan would say, Texas is a buy for Ohio State. But yeah, on to the matchup. So how do you feel like this game's going to play out tomorrow, starting with the Penn State Notre Dame game? I've been impressed by Notre Dame. I just, you know, they're physical, man. What's crazy about it, and I talked to, I mean, name drop here. Yes, let's do it. Last Monday, I spent a couple of... Let's go.

here's my espion for you Ross last Monday I was able to spend a couple minutes with Mike Denbrock, Notre Dame Offense coordinator. Okay. And he talked to me about, he said Chris, our defense is so good that our offense doesn't even have to be special. They get a short field. Was that Bobby Slook

We were talking to him? But it's true. Like, go look at Riley Leonard's numbers. Because I did a show last week, Ross, and somebody asked me, they were like, what's Riley Leonard got to do this week to get a win? So you have to throw for like 300 yards? And I said, If Riley Leonard throws for 300 yards, it'll be the first time all season that he is thrown for that.

Like, go look at Riley Leonard's stats this year. He's not thrown for many yards at all. In fact, he's only thrown for 200 yards in a game four times this year or five times. Damn. He beat Georgia for 90 yards against Georgia. He beat him with his legs. He had 14 carries for 80 yards. He averaged close to six yards per carry as a quarterback.

So, yeah, I just, I like this Notre Dame team. They're opportunistic defensively. They're stout. They're physical. And then they do enough on offense. Penn State, I just, I don't know, man. Maybe it's just a James Franklin thing, and he's got the thing going against him. He's what now?

Like, like, one in 20 against top ten teams in the last ten years? Like, he just never beats top ten teams. That's why it's hard to believe in him. Yeah, so I don't know. I would skew towards the Irish. And could as to Marcus Freeman. I will say, people berating Brian Kelly for later. And I'm like, Brian Kelly was the most successful Notre Dame coach.

in the last 40 years, basically. Like, they quickly forget how bad Charlie Weiss was and Tyrone Willingham and all these guys. But Marcus Freeman inherited a loaded deck. And he's sustained it. He's recruiting very well. They've added through the portal. They get Riley Leonard from Duke. Sounds like they've opened up the NIL pad checkbook as well over there.

Yeah. So he's done a great job of sustaining what Brian Kelly built. Because somebody was like, but complained about Brian Kelly. I said, so flip it. If Ryan Kelly doesn't leave Notre Dame is Notre Dame. is in order probably in the same spot. They're probably still winning at a high level

and making the 12 team playoffs. I would think so. I would think so as well. And then quickly, you know what? When we come back? Uh-oh. When we come back,

the Longhorns and Ohio State, please give me some good news. Chris Gordy after this short break on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that, friends to the north. Back to the Matt Thomas show.

1248 and the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back, Ross Vierreau with you. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt is out doing fancy Matt things. He might even be in the air now, I'm not sure. Traveling with the Houston Rockets. They won last night over the Washington Wizards. Big game coming up tomorrow here on Sports Talk 790.

7 o'clock start rockets ticking on the Memphis. grislies. Whoever wins that game will be alone in second place where the rockets are now, but a little bit more cushion for the gris would be nice. They play them two out of their three next games. It'll be a six o'clock rockets launch pad here on Sports Talk 790 with yours truly. 713-2125790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in 713-2125790. All right. Take it easy on McGordy. Can my longhorns beat the Ohio State Buckeyes to not tomorrow, Friday.

Yeah, I think so. This will be the toughest defense that Ohio State has faced all year in Texas. And, you know, I argued for a good bit of the season. Did Texas avoid some of the better teams in the SEC this year because of scheduling? Sure. But they can't do anything about that. All you can do is go out and play what's in front of you. And, you know, it gets to a certain point in the season when you've played eight, nine, ten games,

and you still rank number one in most defensive categories, it means you're doing something special. It means that you really are good. And so, you know, it's kind of weird. Arizona State game, like they were up 24 to 8 going to the fourth quarter. They should have put that game away. They didn't, Quinn yours with the bad. I'm going to tell you what happened in that game.

The defense was on the field too much. Yeah, and Scataboo just, I mean, he got hot, man. And that's a hell of a warrior. And that kid is special. And so, but by the same realm, you got to give credit to Texas. On a fourth and 13, Quinn Ewers digs deep. Oh, my God. Makes an amazing throw and they get it done.

It was one of the most terrifying moments of me watching Texas football. The fourth and 13, like, all right, this thing's over. Let's go see. Let's see Quinn Ewer's throw a pick. Oh, my God, it's a touchdown. We're going to second overtime and then boom, first play. They get another touchdown. It was insane.

And so what I caution everybody on is, like, don't live too much in the moment. I get everybody, we always want to do A plus B equals C. Like, Ohio State dominated Tennessee. and then they dominate Oregon. So clearly they're just going to keep this going. Yeah, or we see the Ohio State that showed up November 30 against Michigan and lost 13 to 10 at home. Like, that's still in there somewhere.

So they, you know, like, in other words, just because they've won in dominant fashion the last two games does not mean they're going to keep doing this for two more games. I think especially, yeah, there can be a little bit of recency bias. And I mentioned this when the spread came out when it was like six and a half. You did have Texas struggle against Arizona State. Also, the defense was on the, the field. I can go pull it back up, but I'm fairly certain I'm right on this. I think it was

97 plays run by Arizona State and 60 run by Texas. They'd made a big fourth down stop at one point late in that game. That's when they, or in the third quarter of the game in the second half, and that's when literally the next play, they fumble the snap and there's a safety. Then the defense has to come back on the field after another long drive and another fourth down stop. The defense got worn down in that game. And yeah, Cam Scada, but was a part of that is he got a lot. There's a reason why he was so much more successful in that second half than he was in the first. And also he had like 55 touches in that game or something like that.

And I contend that that pass that he threw is grossly underthrown. And it's not like he was out there throwing dimes or something like that. But anyways, I digress. The defense got worn out. And if that's why it's on the running game to me, when Contraveon-Wisner, I mean, he's had so many good games this year. But the run game has not been there recently. 18 carries for 45 yards in that game. That's not going to get it done against Ohio State.

Yeah, we call him Trey. That was close to him. We call him Trey Wisner. It's easier to say. Yeah, well, that was like mid-season. They were like, yeah, Trey. I was like, oh, I guess that's what? No, he was outstanding.

I mean, it gets Kentucky. He ran for, what, 150 against A&M. It was close to 200 he ran for. Right. You know, against Clemson City got over the 100-yard mark. But, yeah, I think Georgia and then Arizona State did a good job of saying, we want to take him away and force Quinn Ewers to throw the football. But it worked out. I mean, Quinn had a 300-yard passing him, three touchdowns.

Matthew Golden has really emerged as kind of that go-to threat. Shout out, Coogs. You know, Silas Bolden's had his moments. I mean, they've had guys look good and gun or hell. I mean, God, arguably one of the best tight ends of the country for a guy who's former walk-on. So I think this, Ross, I think Texas playing close games makes them more battle-tested. Oh, I like this. I like this a lot.

You know, I think blowing that fourth quarter against Arizona State makes them go, we cannot do that again. We've got to put good teams away and go look at Ohio State's schedule. Where have they really been tested in a close game? I mean, the Michigan one, they cropped themselves. They lost the Oregon game. They craft themselves. So they crap themselves. I mean, like outside of that, it's great.

It's great. It's great you had two dollars because they didn't throw the football to their stud. my receivers. So I mean, that's what it comes down to. Can McCuba and Johnny Barron and those guys can they cover? Yes, they can. Let's also, yeah, it'll be, it'll be interesting. I think to me, the key is the run game. As you said, we know that defenses are going to key in on that run game. They're going to try to put the ball in Quinn Ewer's hands. He proved he can do it, at least in overtime. He did have a bad pick at the end of that game on second and four as well. You also had the miskicks from Bert Auburn that did extended that game to where we, We wouldn't even been talking about overtime.

We wouldn't even have seen those great moments from Quinn Ewers to where, I mean, that was pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Fourth and 13, needing a touchdown, getting it, and then still winning that game. It very well could be. Texas could be out of this one already. And one could argue should be out of this already. Yeah. And, you know, turnover margin is big. Well, Howard does have nine interceptions on the year.

I like that. I mean, I could make it as simple as whoever wins the turnover battle is going to win this game. But Texas lost the turnover battle against Arizona. state and still found a way to win in overtime. Yeah. So, you're making me feel better. You have a final score prediction on this one?

Oh, I mean, I think it's, I think there's going to be points scored. I think it's something like a 31, 28. I think the total is around, the low 60s, I think. I'll go pull it back up. No, no, 53. 53 and a half. That seems kind of low, but it could be low scoring. Actually, spread down to 5.5.

Yeah. 3027, something like that, it feels like. 30 to 27. Texas Longhorns, on to the final. How about me? Bird Auburn kicks the game winner. In my mind.

That'd be great. That would be good. Redemption time for Bert. Steve Sarkeesian don't go anywhere near him if he's got a last second field goal this time. Just let him be. And also Arizona State athletic trainers get out of his way when he's trying to kick the ball.

But to me, if Texas wins this game, they're winning the national championship. Agree or disagree. Yeah, I think whoever wins this game is going to win the national team. The winner of this game is on paper better than Notre Dame. in Penn State. I think I tend to agree with that statement.

We don't want an all Big Ten championship. Ohio State and Penn State the rematch. That'd be kind of funny because I don't care. I guess I would root for Penn State in that instance.

Just because it would be funny because they beat them in the Big Ten championship and then to lose to them for the national championship. And they're like, wait a minute. They're national champs. We meet them for the Big Ten championship game. This isn't right.

I guess I didn't think of that. So whoever wins of these four remaining teams, None of these coaches have won a national championship before. Yeah, so we're going to have a, we're going to usher in a new era. Well, you had to. Sabin is only. Because Kirby's smart.

Well, Steve Sarkeeson took care of Dabo. Jimbo's not in the game. Okay, so Dabo's out. Jimbo's unemployed. Mac Brown is not unemployed. Yes. So I'm just trying to think of the coaches that won championships. Yeah, there's not many.

No. Sabin took up a big part of those. Yes. Yes, he did. Ed Ogeron. Not working right now. I'm available. Yeah, he is very much available.

All right, we're going to go ahead and take a break. Gordy, thanks for hanging out, man. Yeah, appreciate you. A couple of hours with Chris Gordy. Those are in the books coming up. Will he show up on time, or is he caught in, air quote, traffic? We shall see Adam Clanton supposed to join here in the 1 o'clock hour here on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

You can also get in on anything you'd like to at 713-2125-790. 7-13-21-5-7-90 hour. Number four of the show with Adam Clanton is next. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, Ross, Viery out with you. Adam Clanton, we'll see when he shows up.

He's supposed to be here very soon. I do appreciate him making the extra time. he'll be on with Adam Wexer on the A-team, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas is out traveling with the Houston Rockets. They won last night over the Washington Wizards, and they will take on the Memphis Grizzlies in a big game here on Sports Talk 7.90. You're home for your home teams. 7 o'clock tip tomorrow, 6 o'clock Rockets launch pad. I swear to you almost said, Ashtro is on deck. My goodness. Rockets launch pad. That'll be coming up. Speaking of which, and a conference.

a couple of weeks. We'll have some interesting news for you on the Astros fan fest. So make sure you stay tuned for that. And oh, by the way, the Crawford Boxcast recorded an episode yesterday with Chris Gordy. You can find it for free on the IHeart Radio app. As we're now, as Gordy reminded me yesterday, it's like five weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting. Things are already heating up as far as the 2025 campaign getting underway for your Houston Astros. What's going to happen with Alex Bregman? Well, that remains to be seen.

Phone lines open and available for you at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Tweets to at SportsRV. And now at Adam Clanton as well if you'd like to get in there. What's up, buddy? And do us all a favor. Follow Connor D. McGovern so he can impress his girlfriend with how many followers he has. What did I hear earlier that you only got him one follower with mentioning him?

I think it was four more now, or three or four. I don't know what we're up to. Connor, how are we looking? I think we're at four. Yes. Look at that. Let's go. Well, see, I don't have that Twitter cloud like Adam Clanton does. So maybe you should find somebody with some real cloud on Twitter because it ain't going to be me, Connor. I'm sorry. I do have to deeply apologize.

My Twitter account's dead and buried. Oh. Is it? I'm self-neutored. I was going to say, yourself? There's two franchises in this city that

pay attention to what I tweet. One of them has rabbit ears and the other one doesn't. Okay. I'll just leave it at that. Thank you, Adam. I appreciate you being here. So, you know, I would have had this discussion with you all fair, but I didn't know where we've got a lot of places to go here right now.

As far as the carousel of topics, we've been talking about the Texans, how important this game is for C.J. Stroudo's pulling up some advanced metrics. And, like, they have, C.J. Straud is basically like not even a top 10 quarterback at this point in terms of things like EPA, which I know your co-host, Adam Lexer likes, pro football focus rankings, which I like as well. a blending of those. There's a guy named Ben Baldwin who puts them out. They have C.J. Shrout

is the 20th, just based on those numbers, 20th best quarterback. I mean, behind guys like Kyler Murray, Trevor Lawrence, Russell Wilson, Gino Smith. And I mean, we spent a lot of this offseason talking about him being like in the fringe of a top five type of quarterback.

And fringe. My co-host had him in the Hall of Fame. Okay. Well, he can still get to the Hall of Fame. He can still get his gold jacket. But other teams deal with bad offensive lines other teams deal with not having a good receiving core you still got Nico Collins who to me is a top 10 guy if we're talking about fringe French top five guy in the league

what is going on and how important and like I said I don't want to be like hot take host guy like this is a CJ Stroud's legacy is on the line but it's a damn important game on Saturday well I you know let's take the hot take portion first. Because just yesterday, we were talking about this, and I said, well,

you know, if, because what we were talking about was, guys like Trevor Lawrence that got paid and shouldn't have in the division. Guys that basically got their money and the franchise that gave it to them is already second-guessing it. And I wasn't saying that was going to be CJ, but I was saying year three next year, regardless of what happens on Saturday, whether you think they're going to win or lose, or you think they're a buy week or, you know, whatever.

You think they're going to win the Super Bowl this year of some miraculous run. You're going, if you're the Texans, whoever's in charge, whoever's either currently in charge or is going to be in charge later, depending on how things go. But you're going to be keeping an eye on C.J. Stroud just to kind of see, all right, how much of year two was a sophomore slump, was the offensive line, or was him really regressing? I don't think we're getting there.

That would be a super hot take. Well, you probably don't want to invest in C.J. Stroud. I'm just saying there's a lot of buyer's remorse. Well, there's a lot of buyer's remorse out there in the NFL, and you don't want to be that team. I don't think the Texans even have to consider that, but you always kind of have to consider that at that position because it's the most important one in sports. And this is a franchise that really, this is probably the first time they can say they had a franchise quarterback as Deshaun Watson's career continues to rot like a piece of fruit in the Houston's sun in July. There was a window there where you would have called Deshawn Watson the franchise quarterback. Only in Houston.

And Jackie's... No, I wouldn't say only in Houston. You think his first year in Cleveland was worth saying, oh, only in Houston. I thought you were saying, only in Houston did people say he was a franchise quarterback. I think he was nationally thought of as a franchise quarterback when he was doing his thing with the Texans. Is that what we were saying? Yeah, yeah. I'm saying it only, those thoughts quickly went away once he put on a...

Correct. Correct. Correct. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. There was a time here, I mean, yeah, everybody thought he was a franchise quarterback, and then, well... Be Josh Allen in the playoffs had the... crazy move or the defenders ran into each other and then that was...

He threw for 4,800 yards and led the entire league in passing yards and... Was that the year they went 4 and 12 as well? Yeah, okay, there's another thing that Wex would point out, but it was fascinating that year. And he would come in here every week just wanting to put his head through the wall because he's like, how is Deshaun having one of the greatest individual statistical seasons a quarterback has ever had? Not just the basic numbers, the metric numbers, the advanced numbers, And they've got four wins and you got JJ Watt walking off the field of them like,

yes, sorry we sucked. Yeah, I think, well, one of the ways that you, one of the, a very easy, not very easy way, but one of the good ways to become the leader in the NFL in passing yards is to have a bad defense. I mean, Drew Breed, you're doing it for years. You're Matt Stafford when he was having 5,000 yard seasons. Those lions defenses were terrible. So it kind of goes hand in hand. And actually kind of ties into the MVP conversation I was having earlier with Chris Gordy about like,

yeah, Josh Allen. his stats are insane in his rushing yards and all that type of stuff. Like, if they had a better defense, he wouldn't be racking up as many touchdowns and many yards. He would be on ice in the fourth quarter of some of these games. And same thing. For example, Joe Burrow, Joe Burrough is setting all these records with all these touchdowns he's throwing. Like, if the Bengals could stop anybody, Joe Burrow, that's not to take away from his greatness or Josh Allen or Lamarro, whoever else is.

It kind of takes two to tango in some way to where often teams will, like the best defense in football don't need their quarterbacks to go out there and score 60 touchdowns. See the Chicago Bears in 1985, although they did have a very good running back. Yeah. But it was a different league. And that's the thing too. It was a running game. Like Lamar Jackson, hey, I'm just going to hand it off to Derek Henry 25 times and we're going to be good.

I heard you and Gordy talking about the MVP debate. And I do think there's something to this. And I've kind of said this for a few weeks now is the MVP race between two horses heated up, you know, the narratives that are already out there. Thank God Ramona Shelburne doesn't have a vote in the. in an NFL's MVP race because we know that she votes based on narrative. Her words, not mine. Yeah.

But what I was going to say is, I do think, and I continue to think, and this will kind of build, I don't know when the votes have to be cast and all that kind of stuff. I think Lamar Jackson unfairly is going to be penalized for getting Derek Henry this year. Right. Which is dumb.

We're sorry, Lamar. You have a good GM who gets you good players. You're not MVP. But you know what people are going to say when they're arguing Josh Allen on top of that. They're going to say, yeah, and Josh Allen lost Stefan Diggs in the same offseason. And they're going to say, look at what he did with

lesser talent. I don't know. They went and got to Mari Cooper. Duke is really good. They don't have a number one guy. Marry Cooper, not much. Dalton Kincaid has been terrible as somebody who owned him on his fantasy team all year long. I can relate. So it's an interesting conversation. And to me, kind of

I know I've been crushed for this. You have to have an opinion. I can argue for multiple people. My vote, I think my vote would be, if we're taking the, how do you take the V out of MVP? But the best player I've seen on the field this year is

Lamar Jackson. That's just because you watched on Christmas. Well, I watched a lot this year. You know what's funny about the NFL versus the NBA in this debate too is that they will always go with the team that won more games. That's automatically the guy that gets it. Well, unless

of course Russell Westbrook averages. a triple double. All right. Here we go. That guy, the MVP, from the sixth seed, when they would never do that for James Harder. Well, he also did something they had been done since Oscar Robertson, black and white. And he got his ass kicked by Hardin's team in the first round. The voters cared.

All right. I don't know why I still stumped for Hardin sometimes. I hate that. Yeah, I thought you hated him. I do. And you should, too. Pick a lane. Everyone in Houston should absolutely hate James Harder.

He should. They would have won the championship in 18, and he would be viewed a lot differently in this town. if Chris Paul's hamstring could have held up. If he, which it did not. If they win that title in 18, over the greatest team of all time. Who? Those 18 Warriors, go look, Google a list.

Greatest NBA teams of all time. They're going to be in the top 10 like in every one of those lists. The 18 team? The 18 Warriors, yeah. That's why I think it's funny when people are like, oh, well, if the Rockets had won that series, it's not like they would have beaten LeBron.

They would have beaten them. They probably would have swept them. Just because, I mean, look, LeBron would have averaged, like, 40, 15, and 15 in that series, but it wouldn't have been enough. 65 win Rockets team. But, okay, so if they win that title, does he still put on his fat suit and force his way out of town?

I don't know. That's my question. Don't ask me to get James Hardin's head. I don't know. I think you and I should have like a competition as to who's more bitter about that rocket season. You're asking me to predict a guy who went in front of a bunch of children in China and called Darry a liar.

Yeah, multiple times. And he reiterated. These kids are like, oh, James Hardin is here. look, he has a great beard. He plays basketball. He's like, Darryl Morey is a liar. And they're like, oh. He's like bleeped Derrimorne.

And they're like, who's Darry? He's like, oh, okay. That was, um, Mr. American basketball man, can you make a three-point shot, please? I've had interesting conversations with Daryl about that off-air that are just fascinating. Oh, I thought it was unfair the way that he treated me in those circumstances. Go get, go in the other room and get on a lane line so we can do this right. I think the children should not. I should have been sheltered.

from those type of comments. All right. We're going to take a quick break here. Unreal. It's so good. We're going to take a quick break here on the Bad Thomas show with Ross. Adam Clinton is here hanging out. We're talking, I don't know.

Did you hear that? We're talking rockets. We're talking MVP. We're talking Astros. Texans in the playoffs this weekend. Is C.J. Stroud's legacy on the line. 713-212-5-7-90. Anything you guys want to get to with you until 2 o'clock.

On the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Matt and Ross return. Turn on Sports Talk 790. Okay, Derek, you ready? Yeah, I was born ready, Nick. Let's go, man. Derek Diggler demo. Keep the vocals up. You got the touch. Take seven.

Excuse me, Reed. Oh. Oh. Who is this? Who is this part? John C. Riley, air running. Here we go. Fine.

Make the bass is taken away from the vocal? It sounds balanced to me. It's definitely taken away from my vocal. Just to take the bass talent and bring up the vocal. Okay, let's do it, Nick. You heard him. Okay, let's do it, Nick. You heard him. I was watching Connor's face. You know, singing as he wasn't born when that came out in 1997.

And I'm so curious now. Connor, have you seen Boogie Knights? No. Oh, come on, man. Come on. That's a classic. Put it on a real list. Watch it like tonight.

It's basically Paul Thomas Anderson's O'D No, number one, the 70s porn industry, and number two to Martin Scorsese. It's very Scorsese-like in the way that it's shot and paste and stuff like that. What's the shot called when you do the one tracking shot? Steadicam. Is that what it's called, though? Yes. I thought Steadicam. Tracking shot.

The Steadicam is the cam that shot. It's all you call the Steadicam shot. Now it starts off the thing. It flips around. It starts on a crane that goes into a steady cam shot to start the film. There has to be documentaries about this film that I haven't seen. Probably. I only bring it up, A,

because I'm hosting a show with you right now. Hi. Okay, hi, my name is Ross. This is Adam Clanton. This is what we do. This is a thing between us. He always wants to talk boogie nights, so here we are. This goes back to when you were producing my one hour whenever the assures did play.

Adam Clinton experience. We should find that intro in the system. That's probably in there. We might. And just for whatever reason, you would start playing sound bites from this movie. Not for whatever reason. Come on now. I don't know.

It was your idea. It was your idea. We would talk about the movie and then I would play bits from it. That's what a good producer does. Connor knows that. I was talking to him to a break, and I was like, you know, I've sat in with you a few times now, and it's been a while since we've, you know, started playing boogie nights clips. But the thing is, I actually have a reason to bring this up.

Okay, here we go. Did you hear Mark Wahlberg recently made a statement about it? He's very religious now all of a sudden. Oh, really? Like, I think he was, I think he grew up Catholic or whatever. But I think, like, he maybe regrets that role now that he has children, and he's having to explain to them Oh, really?

Why dad made those decisions as an actor when he was younger. It was a great film with one of the great directors of all time. Okay, but again, you've heard, you know, women who get a little bit older and they regret maybe... Oh, okay. Some of the things they did that their children can now see. Correct. Well, there's a scene at the very end of that film that maybe... It's prosthetic.

They don't know that. Well, they can tell them. It's a prosthetic. Tell your kids. If they come and ask you, Daddy, what's going on to that scene? Well, the first thing you say, As big, kids, turn the film off. What were you doing watching that movie?

It's rated R. It's rated R. When you reach of age, we can talk about it. And it was a prosthetic. How about Bert Reynolds, though? May he rest? Academy Award for that. Oh, yeah, for Best Supporting Actor, I believe.

Correct, yes. And Roller Girl. And I also think there's a funny story from that scene where Paul Thomas Anderson, the director, of course, Mark Wahlberg had the music background with the funky bunch. And he's... And he now completely acts like never happened. So Mark Wahlberg tries to do bad singing what he was trying to do in the takes. And Paul Thomas Sanders is like, no, I want you to sing like as you think you're doing good singing.

So Mark Wahlberg's like, well, I guess I'm a bad singer because he kept telling me to sing my best. But he's a great rapper. Right. So that's him like singing at his best and it's bad. And that's what Paul Thomas Sanders I wanted to bring out of that scene. Next segment, we have Connor play good vibrations to come back, I would assume. Yeah. Okay.

And then you can do you can go in a full mark? Wallberg voice for the rest of the show. It would be great. Oh, geez. spectacular stuff here. That's going to be rough. Okay. Clearly it's Adam and Ross together. My goodness. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross, 713. I'm having a great time. I'm just keeping us authentic. 713-212-5-790. In our radio relationship. Phone numbers. What?

Just keeping us authentic. You're making a reference. Remembering our roots. These are our roots. We're keeping it real. As the kids say. As they might say, or they used to say. I don't think the kids are saying it. We're keeping a buck. That's what the kids would say. What's been the number one topic that you and Gordy discussed today?

Besides the SEC, because Gordy was sitting in here. We talked some Texans. We also talked a lot of rockets. Like Guggy Nights is my SEC if I were Gordy. I got you. You know, yeah, he really lights up. He'd get Gordy engaged when we talk a little college football. He was literally.

Well, there's one time in the SEC where Ed Orgeron took over as an interim coach and they won. He was like Derek Bardett, SEC, uh, Will Anderson, Jr., SEC. It's so awesome. Like, he was bringing up all these SEC players that were in the NFL playoffs and stuff like That's what he does. That's his niche. I feel like he mumbles those three letters in his sleep every night. He probably does.

He would have to ask his wife. That's how he sleeps. That's how he sleeps. He's locked on. He is. He is absolutely locked on. Find him at Chris Cordy on the Twitterverse. So one of the things that we did talk about and Biscuit, who I appreciate,

did call me last night on the post game show. We've been talking about the Rockets, their win last night. And Matt Thomas made a gut feeling on Tuesday that I didn't think was super spicy, but I wonder if it's going to happen. When Jabari Smith Jr. comes back and is healthy, is Amin Thompson still going to be in the Rockets starting all lineup? Okay. What you have to do to truly answer that exact question, in my opinion,

is you have to ask yourself, well, first of all, you have to see a stronger sample size, or not a stronger sample size so much as just a bigger sample size. But I guess in... Especially against good teams. Well, in light of last night, it actually would need to be a stronger sample size since the wizards suck. Did you see some random wizard fan getting after Matt Thomas last night? I did see that.

That was weird. I was like, I didn't even know these people existed. By the time the conversation was done... Who, Matt? No, I was happy for the wizard. I felt like, there's a wizard. I was happy for the wizard's organization. There's a guy stumping for them on Twitter for some reason.

Stupidly. Yeah. He was like, well, y'all were talking mess. Y'all should have done your homework in the first quarter as they were up by 10. Let's see how this goes, chump. And they lost by 23. By the end of the night, he had blocked both Matt and myself. And deleted his original tweet, I believe.

Yeah, but the internet doesn't forget. Neither does my screen grab. Oh, you scream grab. Well, I did a video, actually, of Matt's quote tweet of his original tweet. Got you. Then me clicking on his tweet where it shows that it's been deleted. And I just said, you know, he learned a valuable F-A-F-O lesson. Explain that.

What is that? It's fart around and find out. Okay, I like that. Yeah. I like the way, the direction you went to. To answer your question, like, how, I'm not going to gauge this based on a blowout win over the Wizards. You shouldn't. It's like a two.

I was comparing them to a tune up against like southeastern Louisiana. You just want to look good, go out there, get everybody going. Tomorrow night is an actual true test. A, it's the Grizzlies. B, it's on the road. And C, you know, amend Thompson. The problem with the problem for Jabari Smith, and it's a good problem to have for the Rockets, like, it's not even necessarily about Jabari Smith.

It's about a men. And if you're, if you're the Rockets and you're like, well, when this guy's in, there's no. Like, listen, let's all be honest. Jabari Smith, Jr., especially for where he was taken, you don't get a lot of stat box eye-popping numbers. But if you, if you know basketball, you realize what he does from a high. IQ standpoint on the floor with spacing defensively. I don't want to

downgrade or what would Mike Gundy say? I don't want to be downgrade him at the expense Is that a word? Yeah, well he in his rant it was. I don't want to do that just to prop up a man Thompson, but man, it's not a coincidence to me that Jalen is playing like this with a men

getting more minutes. He played 41 minutes last night and he was like a plus, I think he was a plus 21 was a men Thompson? Maybe a plus 19. 19 is correct. Alperin Shingoon, the biggest that is plus 20. I'm also not a big plus, super big plus minus guy. But because, you know, if your bench is terrible or your bench is good and the other

team's bench is bad or something, it can get thrown off based relative to other things. But anyways, I get what you're saying. And also, I would say when this came up earlier, my answer was, who's the better player? It's a man Thompson. But if you need to space the floor better offensively, right now you have four guys who are, bad three-point shooters or below league average three-point shooters

in the starting line which would be a men, Shingoon, Fred Van Vleet, and Jalen Green. So for spacing purposes, it would be beneficial to have one of your better three-point shooters

on the floor to start the games and then you could have them in closing games. You could have them in playing more minutes to where all right, you start off this way and then you kind of see how the flow of the game is going.

That's, if I had to predict at this moment, unless a man Thompson really comes along and you just have no choice but to keep them in the starting lineup. That's how I would figure it would go. Bex tweets in and says, F-A-F-O equals test the assumption,

evaluate the result. I like that. I like that. That's a good description of what the concept of that is. And here's my thing. You're talking about a men Thompson this way and what you're saying at the end of it,

man, I mean, if he ever gets a good jump shot, well, he's already improving. And this is year two, and he's what, 20, 21? How old is a man Thompson? He's 20, I believe. I mean, that is, I know we keep saying this about Jalen Green. I'm sorry, he's 21. He's a kid.

They're all kids. But that's actually, that is a thing. That's a very good talking point because they're not even probably done physically developing, let alone developing their game. Yeah, he'll be 22 in just a few weeks, January 30th. Happy early birthday to him in Thompson. All right, we've got to take a quick bottom of the air break. Cup of you all on hold one.

talk some Rockets ball. We will definitely get to you. Adam Clanton is here. I am here. Ross via Real. Matt Thomas is not. He'll be back tomorrow. We're with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Back with your calls on Rockets Talks. After this short break. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. He's going to let this run the whole song. I see he hasn't even started yet. Yeah. What are we? You have to let what's our fans. I know, somebody's going to suit for her royalties. Oh, really? This woman who's singing, like, didn't get paid properly the first time around or something? Shocking. Can't remember her name.

Hmm. Let's listen to Mark Wahlberg rap. All the great 90s rap songs started with, yo! Seriously, Connor, it was a better time, the 90s. I know you weren't around, but trust me on this. By the way, shout out to Kevin Cooper who's listening to us. He's like, yes! in all caps. More boogie nights

talk. He gets it. He gets me. He gets you. He gets us, Roth. Number one U.S. hit. What did he say about Roller Girl? Yeah, she's really foxy. Yeah, he is. That's such a 70s word

for hot chick. She's really foxy. It's great script writing. They did his research, Paul Thomas Anderson. Okay, on that note, just keep it rolling. Adam Clinton clearly in the house, Ross v. Riel with you, Thomas show with Ross with Matt Thomas with Connor McGovern.

No, you haven't brought up Taylor Mathis once. He'd be playing Barry Manelow. Yes. He'd be talking about how we don't work even though I'm sitting in his chair as he has the day off. Correct. He'd be upset about people who are getting hired for various game show jobs that he was not hired for. He would take thinly veiled shots at fake media around the city.

I would say not thinly. Well, I'd be nice. Not so thinly veiled. I know exactly who he's talking about. All right. Adam Clanton did the building. a couple of y'all on hold. Let's talk some Rockets ball. Biscuit next up on the line. What's up, Biscuit? Hey, what's up, my brothers? A.C.

Happy New Year to you, my brother. You, man. You too, man. I haven't talked to you in a minute. And then a minute, man. Hey, before I get to Whitmore, man, let me say this, man. Eventually, when the Rockers are making that serious run for the championship, Thompson's going to be in the start lineup.

And I don't think it's going to be in place of Jbar. it's going to be in place of Brooks. Thompson is going to, because the thing about Thompson and what you guys noticed is, and you kind of noticed it last year, Thompson and Green go good together. And then when you add Jabari with that, now you got something, man.

I don't know who the point guard going to be, but it's going to be Sangoon, Green, Thompson, and Jabari. And I'm talking like two years from now. But I just, but the coach got a decision to make because Brooks, brings the attitude, but Thompson and Green go good together, man.

It's obvious that they play good together. Jalen Greene goes to a different level when Thompson on the floor. So, you know, but that's a decision the coach's got to make. But let me ask you this, though. And I talked to Ross last night, but Ross, you didn't mention it, but a buddy of mine who's a big Rockets fan, he's telling me that Cam Whitmore kind of bumped Jalen Green last night and got into a kind of shove times.

Did you see that? I saw a video of him like walking off the court at the end of the game and he was kind of looked disinterested and didn't want to be there. And yeah, I didn't mention it because I didn't even see the video that you're, I didn't see the video that I'm talking about until somebody sent it to me after the, after I was done with the post game. I did not see him, did you see him bumping into Jalen Green? I'm not going to say that I looked hard for it, but I was on, you know, X last night and I

didn't see anything like that. I saw the video you're talking about. Here's the problem with this Cam Whitmore. I don't even know if I'd call it a situation. It's being made into a situation, but the problem is he has done tangible things to add to this story. If it's a narrative versus if it's real, you know, you can't have the press conference that he did after a win, no less, and not have people just at minimum put you on the radar for this kind of thing. You already had the fact that He was very talented but fell in the draft. And all these teams passed on him, including the Warriors and the Lakers right before the Rockets. And he had all this stuff.

But it was all talk. Then he went down to the G League. And it's like, all right, what that happens? I mean, look at Reed Shepard last night. This happens with young players. And then, you know, he comes out and just has that bizarre press conference that regardless of how you interpreted it, people were trying to interpret it. And that's just not what you want for a team with this much youth and talent and all that kind of stuff. And certainly not.

I mean, I love the Eme Udoka came out and reacted to it the way he did. He's like, you guys know I'm not sensitive, so he can say whatever he wants. But, you know, even if this isn't a thing last night, the way it's being made out to be, the reason I think there's more fuel to that fire is because of these other things leading up to it. And so if you're the Rockets, if you're Cam Whitmore, you have to kind of maybe have it come to Jesus and ask yourself, all right, where do we stand with each other in this relationship? Now, that's what we're going with, where me and Ross were going back and forth on. Me personally, Whitmore feel like he's better than those guys.

And he's mad that he's not starting. And it's going to be a problem. But guess what? There's one captain of the ship for the Rockets. And that guy's the coach. And if you don't do what he's saying, you're nothing to play. And Whitmore knows this. Hey, Biscuit, and this is, I was actually thinking that very same thing.

I was just kind of going over that in my head the day thinking about the situation. Do you think it's that he thinks he's better than those guys? Do you think it's specifically, I think I'm better than Jalen Green, and I'm not happy about the fact that he's gotten every opportunity that I feel like I haven't gotten? Well, I wouldn't so much say Jaylen Green, but he definitely think he's better than Shepard, Eason, and Thompson. And those three guys up until late and have been getting more menaced than him.

And he is pissed behind that. And then they sent him down to the G-League. I'm telling you, it's a reason why he fell in the draft, man. And if you go somewhere else, he might shine. But for this team and the style of place they play, those other guys do the system better than he does. And he hasn't quite got there yet. So, I mean, it's the maturity thing.

The guy's what, 21, maybe? But he better realize real quick. He got a coach, and he's got a plan for you. You can't get with the plan. You're going to find yourself at the end of the bench. I mean, it's hard to argue with really a lot of what he's saying. there, especially the, you know, buying into the team concept, the offense, there's been too many times

where he come down and chunk up a three-point shot that looks like a bad shot. And if it doesn't go in, well, it automatically is determined as a bad shot. You know what I mean? Yeah, the evidence is mounting. I'm somebody who, like, you know, if we're, you know, I'm not a Rockets insider, I'm not in the locker room, I'm not seeing all this stuff, stuff. But, like, you add it all up with what

his post-game comments, with some bad body language on the court. As you guys were talking, I was kind of just, I just put Cam Whitmore into X, and there's videos of him, like, not getting the pass in the perimeter and slumping his shoulders. And then the way that he walked off the court as well, it doesn't look good. The optics are bad. Does that mean he's a cancer in the locker room and he needs to be sent down the G-Leager traded away?

I don't know. That's for coach and Rafael Stone to kind of decide as we go along here. But right now, it looks like a bad situation is budding in Houston with Cam Whitmore, if indeed is, I mean, I mean, this is conjecture, of course, but as I'm guessing with you guys, it seems like he wants to be on the floor more and maybe he even thinks he needs a starting role. Well, there's, I mean, there's a lot of reasons that players pout whatever you want to call the word. I suppose this is a good reason, if there is, if you're going to rank different reasons why players act this way or act out. The fan in me obviously hates this, but the broadcaster slash cynic in me is fascinated to see how email you don't.

Oka handles this. Yeah, it'll be interesting. And something to certainly keep an eye on it. Because on its fate, Cam, what more is valuable to this team? You can come off the bench and torch other teams and score 20, 27 points like he had a few night and that was against the Pelicans several games ago. But you can get 15, 20 off the bench, instant scoring on a team that cannot shoot like the Rockets, that is a lot of value. Let me ask you this. Because I know, well, I know I'm doing this. I'm sure you probably are starting to at least a little

You score board watching in Phoenix yet? I am. No, I'm not. You should be. Why? Because they lost to Charlotte last night, and their picks belong to the Rockets, and the more they lose and or get closer to breaking up that team because they're losing, the better those picks get, especially if you're the Rockets and you want something either on the Phoenix roster to get from them with those picks, or just you want to keep those picks, and you want them to be better than they were coming into this year. But the other question I want to ask you is If the Rockets finally find the deal, the deal To get that guy that they don't have on their roster Are you comfortable with Cam Whitmore being a part of that transaction possibly? I would say certainly if he's unhappy

And if he's going to be causing problems And this is just the right organizational fit for him It would be an easy decision to me. Who's the kid that Darry Trated for from Sacramento? Patrick Patterson He had a lot of promise, but he just worked wasn't jiving and everybody was like,

ooh, this might be a low key. And then he went to Portland? I know you're talking about. I think it was Patrick Patterson. Patrick Patterson was their own their own draft pick. All right, then maybe I'm thinking of somebody else. I know who you're talking about.

I can't remember his name. It was a top five pick. He was like fourth overall. Yeah. And then he eventually ended up on the Blazers after, I think. Maybe. Had all the talent in the world, all the promise, but maybe had some issues similar to what Cam's going through.

not exactly the same but you know the reason I bring that up is those kinds of players sometimes are enticing to teams in a deal where you're like all right I'll get this. Thomas Robinson? That might be him. I get this high

reward. 2013 Thomas Robinson and then he went to Portland. He didn't have much of an NBA career. He was out of the league by he was 25. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think that's going to happen to Camden more. I don't think so either. But he is 20 years old doesn't turn 21 until July. Okay. Way over for a break. We'll get to those of you on hold next. I promise. Final segment of the

Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas after this quick break. This is Craig Ackerman. And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you. Good gracious. Good gracious. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Why don't you tell the kids what we were talking about off air, Ross? 150 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790? we do my Matt Thomas impression That's pretty good It's not hard

I'm proud of you That's neither here nor there 713-2-1-2-5-790 The phone number final segment of the Matt Thomas show With Rossi A-team with Adam With Adam and another Adam coming up Gary in Spring has been holding quite patiently We appreciate you Gary go ahead

The floor is yours Hey it's Alice you hear me all right yes okay uh calling in about the rockets uh and i won't hold on there you know so much stuff goes through your mind one thing i want to say for the rockets is man i want texans to win this saturday game so bad and mainly because i want them to go back up to kansas city and play kansas city again because you got to beat the best to be the best but that that that's my wish my my post christmas wish hey on the uh on the rockets The topic you're talking earlier about should they sit pat or should they trade.

And let me ask your question. What's their record or percentage, winning percentage this year? The Rockets? Yes, 67. 667. Last year they were 500. So why in the world would you want to go 500 to 667? And these guys are so young and they're so good and they're all got so much ceiling potential there.

Why would you want to stir that up on the chance of losing one of those and messing up the chemistry they got? That's just out of. I think they need to sit pat. And another reason why I believe that is they're getting so good. Man, they're so fast, can jump so high and run so fast, and they're so young. That's pretty good, pretty good things right there. So just any of them that they're going to trade in the future, just keep them because all of them's trade value is going to grow with their experience and everything. So I don't see any reason to even contemplate trading anybody because they just got so many good.

And one other thing I'd like to say, if it was me, the GM and the Rockets could only keep one player on their roster, it'd be Jalen Green. To me, he is just such a great player in his ceiling. He'll still be growing in five years. He's got so much potential there. So I just, I wouldn't touch Jaylen Green. But anyway, I hope they just stay Pat and see what happens. this year. Thank you, Gary. I think there's some merit to that way we kind of talked about this as far as

where we're jumping ahead of ourselves. We're to where we're talking about phase one and phase two is making the playoffs phase three. To me, the way that I see it, phase one, tank, phase two, start to make the playoffs phase three championship contention. And this core that you have that you just signed these guys to long term deals, not long term deals, but to two extensions in Alperin Schengoon and Jalen Green, you're exceeding right now. You're on a 54-55-win pace with the winning percentage like he talked about.

You're the number two seed. Is it all moving too fast to where you rock the boat, you trade away some big pieces to try to win now when maybe winning now wasn't even in your thought when we were four months ago when it was the start of the season. We were like, oh, let's hope they win 45 games and make a plan. The biggest argument for standing, Pat, is that you are so far ahead of the schedule. I think most people, let's just say outside of the organization for sure, had for you going into this season. You're not going to be the two seed in the West in January? The second week of January, you're the two seed in the West. If you had told Rockets Brass that was going to be the case back in, you know, training camp, they would have, you know, love that. So why mess up a good thing is kind of the thinking there.

But, you know, I think the ultimate audition for this group as it stands. to stand pat is what they do in the postseason and how they do it. Like you can win a series, but did you eke it out? Did you play an inferior opponent? There's so many different things that go into it. I just, the last NBA team to win a championship without a bona fide superstar was what? The 04 Pistons? Yeah, but they had four of five.

I think all five of those guys were made all-star teams at some point. Yes. And you have all-star quality players on this roster, but what was their idea? It's a lot like the Rockets. They could just destroy you defensively. Yeah, just because it was, yeah, those guys, and those are also the anomaly, as you said. I mean, it's very rare without superstar power, but they played very good team defense. We owe them a debt of gratitude. You know why? The O4 Pistons?

Yes. For beating the Lakers? But who was on that roster? Rashid Wallace? No, no, no. The Lakers roster. Carl Malone? There you go. Gary Payton?

Yeah, but I ain't mind Peyton as much because. Samaki Walker? I don't know if he was there. Mackey Walker. There's a deep cut right there. Fortunately, for all of us, it was also helped along by the fact that Carl was flirting with Vanessa Bryant.

Kobe would have six to match Michael Jordan so well. Kobe's better than LeBron deal with it. No. Yeah, he is. No. Did you hear Charles Barkley talking about that? No. Oh, it is good, good audio. But he unlike most hot air

that Barkley LeBron's a better three-point shooter, better overall score because now he was a more versatile score was Kobe Bryant, and the defenses are comparable, and he was one of the greatest playmakers of all time. Charles's argument was more about the fact that he means obviously M.J. over LeBron guy. But he was like, those two are killers,

and LeBron's just a nice guy. Which... I don't know. Well... In some of those, the end of those heat runs, and when he was with the Cavaliers, beating the greatest team of all time. We had Draymond Green crying on the phone,

begging Kevin Durant to join them because they couldn't beat LeBron. I think he's pretty good. All right. That's good for the... I won't stand for that. The Matt Thomas show with Ross. Adam Clanton is a warrior hater.

Absolutely. He stays true to his colors and that's why you got to love him. He's going to be here for four more hours. I do appreciate him coming in. Adam Wexler getting ready in the bullpen as well. My name is Ross Vireel. Thanks to all of you for listening,

calling, getting involved. Thanks to Connor McGovern. Thanks to Chris Gord. as well. Talk to you folks tomorrow on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas will actually be here.