The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - UH & UT In Sweet 16! CBS/Turner Ruined March Madness, Rockets vs Bulls Tonight!

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

UH & UT In Sweet 16! CBS/Turner Ruined March Madness, Rockets vs Bulls Tonight!

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790, coming to you today from Chicago, Illinois, where tonight the Houston Rockets are going to take on the Chicago Bulls as they start of a four-game road trip. Ross, Villal, I got to tell you something, my friend. And you and I have been doing this show for 16-plus years. We've done it in variety of time slots.

this 10 o'clocker has been a little bit more of an adjustment than I thought it was going to be because it's earlier than normal and sometimes when you play games, you have to come back to the next night, especially when you're doing post-game shows, you're a little sluggish. Yes. I have never felt as good today as I have felt in a very long time. What do you mean? First and foremost, excellent dinner last night here in Chicago. This is a fantastic food time.

That goes really without saying. Then I came back to the hotel, watched a little bit of the college basketball, fell asleep, got almost eight hours uninterrupted with zero dreams. I think you're supposed to have some dreams, Matt. That's called the deep rim sleep. Then I wake up and I think to myself, Ross, your longhorns are still in the tournament. Yes, they are. My cougars are still in the tournament.

Yes. And then damn bastards and then Florida are not in the tournament. Yes, it's a very nice. Not collateral damage. What would you call it? Whatever. Circumstance. The brackets are the brackets, right?

Bracket is the bracket. It's a nice... They don't recede. So it's a nice circumstance for the... A nice break for the Cougars if they continue to make it and get past the fighting aligni. Yeah. Now, I'll say this. It's Big Ten and Friends at Tota Center on Thursday for sure.

You've got Iowa. You got Illinois. You got Nebraska. And then you got the old Houston Cougars. By the way, I love all of you. Well, I don't love all of you. Most of you. I'd say 90%.

Please stop texting me asking if I have any ticket connections. I do not have any ticket connections. I'm going to text you just to do it. No, you don't. First of all, you don't even text me on time anyway. I heard Brian McTaggart can't even get in there. What's going on with that? Well, he's working opening day.

That's the reason why I'm assuming. Oh, he was tweeting up a storm saying you got denied tickets. Yeah. So for all of you that are looking for tickets, unfortunately, you're going to have to go to the secondary market because they split the arena four ways, at least in the Sweet 16 round. And Nebraska's bought their tickets, and Iowa's bought their tickets, and Illinois's bought their tickets, and the Houston Cougars bought their tickets.

It will be a full house. Need not worry. Houston will have 17,000 people inside TOTA Center. But the U of A tickets are gone. If you want to go, you're going to, unfortunately, have to pay above face value. but what a crazy Thursday it's going to be in Houston, Texas. You have Astros opening day at 310. You've got a doubleheader at Toyota Center.

You also have the start of the Houston Open. I mean, this is why we play Big Boy Sports Radio in Big Boy Sports Town. This is going to be a great time. And I would venture to guess, Jonathan, 500,000 people will be here this week for that, maybe even 2.1 million. You never know. Oh, stop.

bitter but honestly really a fun sports weekend the Rockets game Saturday oh baby Friday was great as well Friday was great Saturday had Kevin Duran

hit the top five in all time scoring then you got a last second victory last second victory a man Thompson say what you all about Red Shepherd breakout game Career high and what assist Yes career high for a man Thompson and rebound

I mean, my goodness. Very good Hawks and Heat team? Yeah. Sent out of town. How are the vibes? How is, I guess I got to check with Jonathan. How are the binge vibes for the Rockets on Friday, Saturday? They were better.

Yeah. I was on the plane. They were sad. They're depressed. They're unhappy. They were arguing. They're fist-fighting. They're throwing water bottles at each other in the back of the plane.

I was having to dodge between that and the hash brown potatoes flying everywhere, because there was so much unhappiness with this rocket. Uh-oh, watch out. You're going to get aggregated. I'm just kidding. I was, everybody's just fine. And I like Chicago, too. This is a, now, it's very cold here for some reason.

I don't know why we're sitting here in the late March, and it's like 45. We're getting extremes. All over the country were record highs a couple of days ago, and I think now the record lows are coming in. Yeah, two days ago here in Chicago was 71, and today it's like 34. Sorry, Jonathan. He used to be better. Used to be more stable weather when we were younger.

hashtag global warming anyways don't go to our don't go to Antarctica climate change man I believe the kids are calling it these days I got you got you

so that's kind of what we're doing I got a lot of different things you know it's funny I have a lot of different topics to get to today in no particular order so let me just run through by the way I'm in this ridiculously fancy hotel this is probably my favorite hotel in the league you're saying how fancy is it

they have a long desk pad that you can write on that covers the entire length of the desk and I wrote like 10 different things down on this thing

beautiful so we got is there any Al Capone ties it feels like anytime you go somewhere fancy they try to make Al Capone tie in Chicago Al Capone

stayed in this hotel no no no no this is this is not this no this is we have the Tommy Gun bullet holes right here oh come on

why are you been into that stereotype what do you mean Fine Midwestern people. Alco Poh was shooting people up, Matt. I mean, that's just how it was. That's true. Now, the state council I went to yesterday,

he probably killed somebody there, but that's the definition for the time. All right, so we got the Rockets, buzzer beaters. We have Iowa, Wisconsin. Not what kid Wisconsin. I mean, Iowa, Nebraska. Yes. Illinois. I wrote that down.

Get your Midwest Big Ten states right. Exactly. Wisconsin got taken out by High Point. It's a great weekend to turn in action. If you own bars in the Houston area, you're going to do well this week oh yeah you're rooting well uh sorry uh a and m sorry aggies midwestern midwestian girls like the drink when they come down to texas they're going to be hoof lordy actually the guys do too but the girls can drink too that's everyone in the midwest matt

that is true uh your beloved texas longhorns are advanced how you feeling about that i'm feeling good i'm you know what i'm feeling sheepish and ashamed that i i doubted them so much and then now they're in the sweet 16 for the first time since Roddy Terry and the squad got there in 2003 after Chris Beard's incident. And then it's been since then since 2008. Right, right. You're taking for what it is.

You were not expecting. You barely got... Remember, by the way, you had to play a first four. You went to Dayton. I know. They went first four, barely got in, and then now they won two games. And by the way, can I, as a Longhorn fan's sake,

stop calling them a Cinderella? No, no, no, no, no. That's not allowed. No, you're not a Cinderella. They're not. They're in a big conference, and there's a lot of money spent on this roster. This is not a Cinderella story. It's not.

It's a team that has a lot of talent that finally woke up. Yeah, by the way, have you, we talked about this very briefly late last week. The Cinderella's are gone. We're done. Yeah, I don't even know. Let me look, who's left? Who would you even call a Cinderella in the Sweet 16 right now? Well, I mean, if High Point would have won that would have been a Cinderella,

you know, the Utah states of the world that don't, It's not in power four schools. It's all power four. Every single team left. Yep. I mean, that's what I came to you with. I was like, is Cinderella is just dead. That's what it's looking like.

There is also, by the way, a common theme with coaches during the NCAA tournament that I have seen on the podium. We're going to discuss that today. And I think when I say what it is, you're going to go, yeah, I kind of notice it myself. Okay. So even though he slugged, what, 1900 in spring training games? He did not make the roster?

What more can I do? Yeah. They're like, Tano, we've seen you plan to big leagues. We know you slugged. We appreciate you, Tyler. Oh, spring numbers are everything, though, Matt. Ask Chris Gordy. No, they're not.

Don't leave Chris Gordy. I know. I'm sorry. You know what, that was rude. I'm going to write down a sorry already. I'm going to annihil her. Gordy Catchets Grace. We need him tomorrow for an hour, so it would be nice.

Be nice. Go LSU. They got jobs. Yeah, go LSU baseball. I'm sure the gymnastics team's great. The best. We need to annihilate the NCAA and the Turner CBS folks for a variety of things. Love it. In the last few days. We'll discuss that today.

I mentioned Rockets. Nobody, the Texans have not signed an offensive lineman today, so I think we're going to back off on O-Line. Talk, and that's one of our favorite things to do on the radio show. And that's disappointing, sir. That's fine. I have to tell the truth at 1130.30. already already. Okay.

So what else is going on in your World SportsRvey? How was the weekend? A weekend was great. Longhorns won, Rockets one, got a lot of tournament action. Let's see. One of my four brackets is doing decent. And of course you're playing that for charitable purposes only. I mean, when they give the money back, that's legal.

So all the money's coming back out. I can say I'm in a bracket pool, I think. Well, I did. I'm in a bracket pool for money. Whatever. Okay. And I'm feeling good. It's great.

It was actually like the best weekend. It was great. So let me ask you, scooper fans. Listen to me very carefully. I'm not asking. I'm going to tell you. Do not get overconfident now that Florida's not here. These teams that are in this tournament that are still here are really, really good.

And get by Illinois. You're going to the final four. I think, I think Illinois is going to be tough. It's a three and a half point spread. Iowa, Nebraska, getting waxed. I'm putting my name on it. Let's go. I ain't scared. I know you're scared because you got Cougar, battered Cougar syndrome. That is correct. I have BCS. So I totally understand and I'm not going to fault you. I'm not going to call you chicken bleep or anything like that because I've been there with Longhorn basketball, longhorn football. So I, I empathize. But Cougars get past the align I, they are into the final four in my mind.

Okay. I keep, you know, and this is this is peeling the curtain back. I continue to look at my dark breast airlines boarding pass. You keep looking at the boarding pass and the QR code? I do. You're like staring into it? Because let me really quickly tell you what the schedule would be like. Now remember, I have the Rockets games

Sunday and Tuesday. Sunday we're in San Francisco to take on the Warriors, okay? Monday would be the national championship game. Tuesday would be the Rockets back in Phoenix. So literally I would fly from San Francisco to Phoenix. Well, with

the team landed about 1.32 o'clock in the morning. Then fly immediately, go to the hotel, maybe take a shower, take a quick nap, fly to Phoenix for the champion, no, Phoenix, fly to Indianapolis

for the championship game. That's on game day. Get to a hotel which I don't have yet. Get to a ticket which I don't have yet. Watch the game, celebrate, party, win a national champion. ship, Tuesday, jump on a plane, fly back to Phoenix to call the Rockets game that night.

And I'm staring at that damn morning pass going to, am I really going to use this thing? I hope I do. But it's again, it's you that you forced me. You guilt me into doing this. Now, I didn't guilt you. I just know that you're a fraud and you would have done it anyway. So I saved you money. Yeah, because I got the, I got it used frequent flyer miles.

So that helped. And by the way, I keep looking at the fair fairs to go from Phoenix, Indianapolis. And it's like $950 now. So, yeah. You actually did save me some money for that, I think. Yeah, you're welcome. All right, if you'd like to join us today about any one of the variety of conversation points that brought into play.

By the way, Hutch is correct. He corrected me. It's an all-powerful plus big, I mean, Biggies, St. John's and Yukon. They're not Cinderella's. Yeah, for basketball purposes, Biggies, Biggie's is a power. It's a power. It's a power, yeah. All right, 713, 213, 212-570, 7190.

We have to tell the truth today at 1130. how the NCAA Turner and CBS destroyed March Madness. I'll discuss that next. 1013 on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you. It's got 2 o'clock today here on Sports Talk 790. We have to tell the truth come up at 1130. Rossi, I have three truths and one lie today.

Is that easier or more difficult to play? One lie to snuff out is probably easier? I think so. I think so. You guys both won last week. Congratulations to you on the Tell the Truth. Yes. Thank you.

Jonathan's batting a bat. I think about, I think Jonathan's batting 325. He's keeping statistics, but I don't know how accurate they are. Well, I mean, I crossed out the double win, so you're still ahead of being about one. Yeah, I don't know. We're at the, like the home score for the Celtics in the 60s. Keep an eye on you. He's, he's fudging the books.

Keep an eye on him. All right. How Turner. TNT, CBS, and the NCAA ruined the tournament. You ready for this? Yes. Now again, you may not have a strong opinion about this at all. Okay.

Number one, the start times have been atrocious. Now, I know it's dictated for television. Clearly. But Saturday and Sunday, you had two standalone games. Then you started to split the games up among the other three regions. You were having games start. starting at 910, 915 in the central time zone, 10 o'clock in the eastern time zone. It's terrible.

It's absolutely terrible. Now, they caught a break because the last game of the night between who was Texas Tech Plan, I forgot. Alabama? Alabama. That was a blow on. Nobody cared, so everybody turned it off. But have you noticed these start times for these games are getting later and later and later? and even though they say their starting time,

they never go to that. They always start later because these games are going two and a half hours now with all the timeouts and all of the reviews. Fowls and reviews and whatnot. Ross, and I don't mean to be when I was a kid guy, but I'm going to go when I was a kid guy. You had everything done Saturday,

no later than about 10 o'clock central time and no later Sunday than about 6 or 7 o'clock. Yeah, I don't know why they continue to just flat-out lie about these start times. and it's every sport. Well, I mean, NFL starts on time. But NBA does not. Major League Baseball, for the most part, the games start on time.

But college basketball and college football, they're horrible. And then they schedule. Now, a lot of times they start on time, but they'll schedule the 11 o'clock games, and then they're like, oh, this is going to start at 2 or 2.30 or whatever. And then the other game goes way longer than the guide says it's going to go. They're like four-hour games. Everything's longer than they say. Yeah. First of all, everything is longer than they say.

Secondly, why are you starting three games post 8 p.m. Central Time Zone 9 in the East? I don't know. It's very aggravating to me. And I think, and again, I'm not, I feel like, sometimes I, look, four you can be certainly not the proper barometer. But it is a gauge, so you just take it for what it is. And I think a lot of people that are good sports fans are saying the exact same thing. You know, six, seven o'clock at night on a Saturday, if you're going to be at a place, to watch a game or at your house, that's the wheelhouse.

Let's get these games in, done by 9, 10 o'clock, and you've had a full day of college basketball, and if you've got a couple of early lousy games, it's no big whoop because you've got regional action. These things are starting so late. Like, for instance, the Cougars game coming up on Thursday is supposed to start at 905 Houston time. There ain't no way in hell starting at 905.

No chance. No way. No how. Meanwhile, Texas, who is going to be in San Jose, who is the furthest west with a two-hour time change, they're starting at, they're the very first game of the night on Thursday at 6.10 p.m. Why are they going before? Again, it's all about who's sexy, who's got more eyeballs. I understand that. I can get that.

But it just moved this stuff up. I thought they did themselves a huge disservice this weekend with all these late games. going to 1145, 12 o'clock in our time zone. Imagine if you lived in the east where most of the American population is. Yeah, my only thing to say is, obviously, they have data on all this to get the maximum amount of eyeballs.

So they've looked at this, and they're trying to figure it out, and they have. So they're probably not shodding. They're probably not shelling out billions and billions of dollars for this to get the fewest amount of people watching it. I know.

So whatever they're doing probably works, but I'm with you. I don't understand why, why it's starting the way that, what the time, the start times are the way they are. It's just, it's too late.

Now, I understand this weekend, Thursday, Friday, because you kind of have to, because you want to put these games in prime time. I mean, you can't really start anything earlier than about six o'clock.

But it's just, I don't know, I would have probably had started the Houston games a little sooner than the San Jose games. But again, it's more about the last two days than it is this upcoming weekend, But, you know, I got a lot of, you know, like my wife wanted to go to the game on Thursday at TOTUS. And I said, it's going to be about 905.

And I said, really, it's going to be probably closer to 915, 920. She's like, that's a pass. It's just super late. And I feel bad for people that want to go to the game or for that matter, people that want to stay up and watch those games. So I suggest Thursday, if you're a Cougar fan, take you a good old nap about 3.34 o'clock if you can. Yeah, get a nap. Or pregame and then start hitting the vodka Red Bulls. that feels fair now the other part of the reason why the NCAA Turner and CBS should be a

same to themselves that studio show this weekend I told you how bad it was on Friday yes it got worse I didn't listen to a minute of it I watched I watched a ton of games didn't I don't listen to the the studio show first of all Nate Burleson and forget about my Hollywood Squares bias he's terrible as a host absolutely horrendous and by way so sneaky of CBS they're doing it not because they think he can do it they're doing it because they want to think they can replace him with James Brown as a host of the NFL today. James Brown's a goat. And I know James Brown's 75, but he can do it as long as he wants to.

I don't care. He's still got his fastball. Nate Brelson's been terrible as a host. Then Charles Barkley, who could not name five college basketball players. I cannot name five college basketball players outside of the Cougars, okay? But they don't ask me to do it. You're not being paid millions to do it. Yeah, Matt, I'll give you $2 million.

be an analyst on the NCAA. Guess what Matt's doing? I am doing my homework. Then, apparently Kenny Smith was sick on Thursday. So Friday they bring in something called Renee Montgomery, who it looked like she had never watched a game in her life. And then on Saturday, Ross, she kept calling Michigan State. You know, the Spartans were still in the tournament. She kept calling them Michigan. So many times that Charles Barkley had to correct her on the set. And then to make things, I don't even if it was a Saturday or Sunday, I think it was on Saturday,

they had this ridiculous talking basketball segment where they had some comedian that was being voice inflected into a basketball that was moving around. It was embarrassing how bad this thing was. So shame on you, CBS. Your game coverage is outstanding. You have Iron Eagle. You've got Kevin Harlan. you've got Andrew Catalan, you've got Spiro Ditas. I mean, you guys, Brian Anderson, you all are kicking ass on game coverage.

Your studio show sucks. Sucks bad. And I know Ernie Johnson didn't want to work as much. I get that. He's an OG. There are 15 other people that actually give a damn about college basketball that you could have put out there to do a better product. It was awful.

And like I said, I went to 4 you just to make sure I wasn't just me and my own personal bias. everybody was annihiling this thing. Everybody on social media was being negative about it. Oh, my, go. I can't believe that. There's usually so, so positive. I know it's on your part. Sunshine and rainbows in the four-you tab.

Just put in on Nate Burleson in your search, and you see it. I'm good. I'm good. You know, I'm trying to limit my negative energy these days, Matt. Well, that's why I, look, I had a lot to talk about this weekend for the weekend. I mean, again, I slept without a dream last night, so I'm in a good mood. You still need REM sleep, Matt. That's restorative for your brain and your body.

That's what I'm saying. No dreams are better for me. No, no, no, you need dreams. I dream sick. Ross, there are 365 days in a year, right? Okay. I dream 363 of them. I get two days of non-dreaming.

I'm more than okay. All right. I'm a little worried about you now. No, are you kidding me? I'm fantastic. It doesn't sound like it. Got a shishi hotel here. Got a hot cup of coffee.

Life's good. My cougars are in the tournament. and by the way y'all run around Cougar's got to buy up your tickets bra you only get like 4,000 the other schools get tickets too they just do

oh will there be enough Cougar fans there be plenty of Cougar fans there shut your bumasses up there'll be some Iowa girls there don't worry y'all get me meet and greet yeah you got a lot of teachers from Iowa over here at least when I was younger single and mingle it's a single and mingle It's a single mingle weekend at the Toyota Center.

Trust me. You'll be just fine. All right. 713-212-5-7-9 if you want to jump in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Ross, you just got an email from the Texans. Go on. The Houston Texans announcing today that Hannah McNair is the new club's chief community officer

and vice president of the Houston Texans Foundation. I thought you already was. vice president of the Texas Foundation. If someone called Steve Johnson, it's the chief planning officer. Okay. She got a promotion? The two leadership roles are the integral to the organization's success as its platform continues to grow, including expanded engagement in the community and the development of Toro District, a transformative new sports and entertainment destination in Bridgeland that will be anchored by the team's headquarters.

Wonderful. Great for her. A nice promotion. Well learned. She's been doing fantastic things for the organization. I'm queerer quote I'm thrilled to be named Chief Community Officer because our community means so much to me

Who gave her the title? Didn't she give her own title? What title would you like, Hannah? Chief Community Officer Yeah, would you like a, would you like a promotion? Yeah, honey, thanks. Hey, Cal, I'm going to make myself Chief Community Officer. Okay.

Thanks, honey. Lunchable's in the fridge. Isn't that weird? Or am I just, just, it's great, good for her. Chief Community Officer. Probably comes with the pay raise. But really, who gave her the title?

I don't know. You think Janice did? Don't get me in trouble. Okay, forget I have to ask that. I'm not, I'm going to let that one, that's a take. Not going to chase that one. Delete three, two, one. It's just odd.

They're odd over there. They just are. I mean, look, I'm not against Toro Town. I think it's a smart idea. I think it's an insanely smart idea. I think that they're ultimately going to, if they can't get a sweetheart deal at NRG, they're going to want to build their facility out,

a brand-new stadium out there. I mean, they've hired the right coach. I think general manager has been good, not great, but good, better than what was there. But yeah, just weird. They would put a release out with the woman who runs the ship is giving herself a new title. Does anybody, literally, does anybody think Cal puts in 40 hours a week with the team? I don't think so.

It's got to keep up appearances, though. I mean, I guess at the end of the day, it doesn't matter as long as they get closer to winning. Yeah, we don't care. Right coach, right GM, right players. Mm-hmm. Guys behave themselves, good in the community, which all the things they are, I just said. Yes. Yeah, so congratulations to Hannah for giving herself a promotion.

Chief Community Officer. She loves the community. She's doing great. I love the community, too. She's going to name me the Chief Community Officer. She's got to bump up that allowance. Let's go. What do you think that salary is?

It's not a publicly held company, so we'll never know. Yeah, I don't know. All right. I teased something about a minute ago, and I forgot what it was. I don't recall. Jonathan, I remember we should actually write these things down. Yeah, I thought you did. You said you had your big pad.

Yeah, but I don't remember what thing I tease. This pad's full of things. Okay. I don't remember what I, oh, the Rockets. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right. Rockets. All right.

So you as a Rocket fan, forgetting about your broadcaster hat. Uh-huh. You as a Rocket fan. Take me through your night watching. I don't know if you watched the entire game or part of it, but you thought about the game against the Miami Heat. It was a back-and-forth game. It was the most fun, entertaining game.

probably of the season and I then I thought they were going to blow it and I started to feel good about beating the hawk especially after what happened against the lakers beating down the hawks and then following that up with a nice one against the heat was good and then I was like oh my god they're going to blow this and then a man Thompson came flying out of nowhere and saved all of our bacon it was great as I said you got the reed shepherd breakout um Kevin Durant was doing his thing and he passed Michael Jordan. I mean, Thompson had a great night. 18 rebounds a career high.

It was awesome. You really couldn't even celebrate the Durant three for two reasons. One, because the game was still going on. It wasn't like it was a foul or a basket was made in a quarter. Miami came right back and hit a three, so you're going on the edge and flow of the game. And then you didn't even know into the final, literally the final second of the game, the Rockets are going to win the game. So it had been really peculiar to try to celebrate Durant's greatness.

now being the fifth all-time winning score, and then the Rockets would have lost. Man, and I know we make a lot of a men Thompson's shooting, and rightfully so, but he just does everything else so well. And the energy and him being everywhere and being so smart and covering, like the way that he guards picking rolls

where he sometimes, like, ends up guarding both the picker and the roller. He's just so good, man. He does everything. He's awesome. I love having him in Thompson. on this team. And that's why Daniel House, Cougar alum,

went to A&M to finish, had one of the worst takes of the year when he said he would have traded a man Thompson and kept Jalen Green in the Kevin Durant trade. I mean, that's it. I kind of get it, but if you're just watching box scores, which probably

Daniel House isn't watching a whole lot of Rockets basketball, I'm guessing, if he's having that take. But even Jalen Green, ask Sons fans how they're feeling about Jalen Green. They're not three. thrilled. It's been the Jalen Green up and down roller coaster experience that we've been getting the last several years. Yeah. The biggest part of that trade that has hurt that has benefited Phoenix.

Now, again, Brooks has hurt, but Dylan's been fantastic for them. Scoring over 20 points a game, kind of shooting about the same that he did three-point range there that he was here. And look, the Rockets, if there is a missing piece of last year's team that you'd love to have on this year's team, it is that dog in him. And Dylan gave it to you. Dylan gave it to you for 48 minutes as long as he was not in foul trouble. But he gave you that extra little moxie that the Rockets just don't have this year. But again, when you go get as an accomplish of a score and players, Kevin Durant, you have to give us something.

Trey just supposed to hurt. They just are. And it hurts. It just does. Yeah. And it hurts even more when literally before anybody sets on the floor together, your point cards out for the year. Yeah.

It was a major blow. It just was. Yeah. But the Rockets, I would, Reed started the last couple of games. Yes, there's a gut feeling L for me. Fully healthy. Well, it took Tar Easton being as bad as he was, but it happened. You know, it's funny because I had a gut feeling many months ago about Reed being a top three, six man in the year awards.

Yes. I think as long as he has a certain percentage as a, he'll still be eligible. Yeah. I don't know if he'll get top three, but I think he'll finish top five. So I may, I may miss that on a little bit on that. but he's done okay. He's, yeah, and he was, yeah, he was fantastic on Saturday. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Saturday's game was fun. And again, the Amen Thompson put back in was awesome. And I learned a little play-by-play technique. You have to still go to the, you got to check to see if it counts kind of thing, because you hate to oversell something and then not go in and be late, but it worked out well. And Phoenix, even if they're in Phoenix, Miami brought their big guys in. Gellel Ware was in, and men's like, I don't care if he's seven feet tall. I can go skirt right around.

I mean, that's exactly what happened. So the rockets are the number four seed. This is a very winnable road trip, Ross. I mean, winnable I mean by meaning at least three out of four. Chicago sucks. Minnesota does I'm Anthony Edwards. And Memphis super sucks. And New Orleans somewhat sucks.

Okay. So some winnable games. They've lost to some teams that super suck. Honestly, they've got to get back for some of those bad losses this year. The two to Sacramento. the New Orleans loss, the couple of Dallas. If you want to get mentally right for the playoff chase, I think you've got to win all four of these games.

Oh, wow. I really do. Okay. I mean, they'll take three and one, obviously, but four and oh could really, not necessarily guarantee them home court in the first round, but would go a long way to helping. Because right now there's a three-way tie percentage points

for four, five, and six in the West. Rockets have a small lead. They would have the tiebreaker right now over Minnesota. They would not have the tiebreaker over Denver. But remember, the Rockets and Wolves played two more times before the end of the season. Man. And the three C, I just don't, they're not getting the three seed. No, Lakers.

Oh, did you see Luca got his 16th technical over the weekend? And then the NBA rescinded it, yeah. So he's back on. He is back on. He is one of the topics I have to tell the truth today. So I cannot get any take on this at a little bit of a day. I cannot do so. 713212-1-2-5-790.

Astros had some final cuts to make. We'll discuss that coming up at the top of the hour. To tell the truth coming up at 1130 today. News at noon. Cougars destroyed. You know what? You may have a little trend going there, my handicapper friend, Rossville.

Yes. Cougars don't mess around when it comes to covering spreads in the first two rounds of the NCAA. I got to tell you, the record's got to be great. I don't know what it is exactly. But, you know, there's a friend of, I've talked about this on air. There's a friend of mine that we, we bet every game against each other. And generally, we go around 50-50.

Some years he wins a little, some years I went a little. But just for a little action, for a little fun, we bet each other every single game. And the first thing I look to jump on, he picks half, I pick half, is I want Coopers in the early rounds. Because they just hit, they just do. They took the souls of A&M. Let me give you very quick before we go to my. Because I have three children, and I love them all equally. Number one, Cameron is a Texas tech guy, and they get there, has kicked a bad.

He went to bed at halftime, he told me. He's like, I didn't stick around for that bad boy. By the way, the game also tipped off at, I believe, at 11.30 p.m. Eastern Central Time. I think it's still going, actually. I think it's out. Yeah, they're down 46 with under under four timeout there. And then I've got my Aggie, and Peyton's my middle boy. and he is by far the most sensitive of the three.

Sports-wise. Oh, my God. When A&M lost to Auburn in baseball on Friday, see, he will swear at me sometimes and I don't like it, so I tell him to stop. Then he will swear text his mother, and she just lets him do it. Oh, the compassion of the mother. Well, she understands the plight, okay. So before I left to go to the Rockets game on Saturday, Peyton's in town this weekend hanging out with us.

And I said, pay, I said, look, your team's going to lose. I mean, I was polite but blunt. There's no chance, no way, no how that an undersized A&M team is going to beat the Cougars. He's like, Dad, I know. As long as it's close. It wasn't close. It was a straight beat down. So I checked in with Kim.

wife who was in Brian with my daughter playing volleyball and he said she told me that Peyton's been texting him her about 25 times and I believe up the 25 texts 24 of them began with effing. So that's not great. Wow. So I came home Saturday after the Rockets game and he goes, Dad, I'm in a bad mood. I said, well, and he runs through all the reasons like maybe a friend canceled a date or something or maybe he's just not feeling one. He goes, no, he runs through all the different problems A&M athletics have. Like, son.

Oh, man. I love him for it. But man, oh, man, he just, he wears everything so hard on everything Agu-Athletics. How's Aggie baseball doing? I believe mid. Oh, Longhorn baseball is number two in the country, I think. I have a really good coach. But then y'all lose it like Texas State this week or something like that or Tarleton or somebody bad like that?

It's fine. They started out the season undefeated for like, I don't know, 15, 20 games or something like that. That's good. That's good. And then my last daughter, Carly, my only daughter, all she worried about is how many times she can go the rodeo. She went to rodeo five or six times in the last two weeks. Oh, what a life. And she has to have a fresh fit for every one of those things.

Oh, hell no. I want to come back as a Thomas kid when I grow up. Well, you are my son in some ways. I try to give you sage advice. you typically don't take it. That's true. Some of the advice I wish I'd listen to. Some of it you should have taken about 15 years ago, but I beg right.

That's fine. Let's talk to our buddy, Stephen in Los Angeles on 790. Stephen, good morning to you. Hey, guys. I hope you're enjoying your Monday, a long time to talk. Just wanted to talk a little better about the rocket. Obviously, that was some sorely needed wins that they had the last couple of games. And I think I overheard you saying that you think or you hope that they go 4 and O on this road trip, Matt.

And I think the most frustrating part about all of this is that they're completely capable of doing just that. It's just, you know, what Rockets team are you going to end up getting, you know? And I think that's been the most frustrating part of this whole season is that, you know, they're capable of beating any of these teams for the most. part. It's just, you know, what, you know, turnovers and the lack of shooting is what, is what and what's hurt this team. And then, kind of, which brings me to my point, I think Reed Shepard being in the starting lineup is what this team sort of needed. I, I understand the arguments for both people that were arguing bench already starting, but I think with how much Atari Easton has been struggling the second half of this season,

It's just a move that needed to be made. You know, that pass in the waning seconds of the game by Tari was ill-advised, just to say the least. But I kind of just wanted to get your opinion on. Do you think this is a move that needs to stick to end the season, or is it about matchups? Let me know your thoughts. Enjoy hearing you guys, enjoy the rest of your day.

Thanks, Stephen, for the phone call. To dumb it down, Ross, it feels like to me that a men has been able to spread his wings a little bit with Reed handling those ball skills a little bit more than obviously with him on the court at the same time with a man? You take a little bit more of the ball handling and you have the shooter out there. It's a lot of the reasons people that argued for Reed Shepherd to be out there did argue for him to be out there and the results early and for a couple of games have been great. Yeah, you have no bench scoring at this point.

None. That's the only negative. That is a negative. but I mean, Tari Easton had been so poor. You kind of had to do it. You had to do it. And I'm okay with that. Yeah.

You absolutely 100% had to do it. And that passed that he threw in bounds that wound up scoring a basket for Miami. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. He was a men, Thompson dinner. Yeah. But it all worked out for the best.

It all worked out. In reality, it was bad. Four winnable games, three really, really winnable games with a day off in between. No back to backs. The travel isn't terrible.

We're like southwesting our way through. We're going from a little spot to little spot to the little spot. I would like a four-game winning streak here. Well, it would be six if you had the two games together here. I don't know if it's going to happen. And the caller saying, you know, they're capable, they're capable of beating anybody, but capable of losing anybody.

Yeah, that's just the mark of a good and not great team. Yep. There's just not as consistent. That's good. That's anybody. It is, yeah, this, we would say this player's capable of going for 30 and he's capable of scoring five. Yeah, that just means he's not consistent. That means they're good, not great. That's anything.

So that's where the rockets are right now. Good, not great. Can lose, can win, can beat anybody, can lose anybody. Not consistent enough. A definition of greatness is consistency and they're just not there. But I love the last two nights. I had, I mean, maybe feel. not all the way better, but significantly better.

Because Atlanta had 1-11 games coming in, and Miami, you know, look, I'm on a bio. Yeah, he only dropped 32. They did a great job. 30-20 on him, still won. He's so good. He is good. All right, second hour. Matt Thomas Show at Ross begins in mere moments here on Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-79.

If you want to jump in, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas Show. with Ross. 11.02, sports talk 790. It is the Madden Ross with you on this Monday. Hope you guys and ladies are in a fantastic mood. We want to visit with you. Come on in.

We will not deep dive, break down the games because you don't know who the players are, nor do we. So we're just speaking a macro view of things. My Cougars are in the sweet 16. Ross's longhorns are the sweet 16.

Kentucky got their ass. beat, sorry, Mrs. Gordy, sorry, Ruth Shepard, who I saw this morning in the hotel. I sent my condolences to him. Did you? I said, I didn't say sorry for your loss. That's kind of a Twitter thing. I said, man, sorry about yesterday, goes, eh, it happens.

Iowa State's good. Iowa State's really good. Big 12's good. Big 10 is good. I mean, this is a lot of heavy lifting by the power schools for sure. Texas wasn't scared of no Big 12. Yeah, but Y'll be Kinsaka. Kizaka never makes it anywhere. That's always a sudden hour. I shut your bum asses up. BYU, too.

Yeah. AJ DeBantza, first round pick or first overall pick probably. All right. So one of the things I noticed when I was looking at some of the press conferences, and again, Twitter clips these things. And I don't know if you notice this yourself, Ross. A lot of questions are asked to coaches. What is it going to take for you to get to the next level?

And, you know, some coaches will say, well, better execution. Some coaches will say, you've got to not turn the ball over. Hey, we needed a clutch defensive stop. all the basketball cliche terms. But I noticed something this year, and it probably happened last year, but I really noticed it this year. A lot of people, a lot of coaches are saying, we need more money. Mike Cronin, coach at UCLA, one of the grumpiest SOBs you'll find in college basketball.

Yes. It was on the podium yesterday when UCLA lost. And somebody was asking a variety of things about, you know, what's going to take the next level and there was a little bit of noise like something had fallen in the conference room and it kind of caused a stir for a second and he flippantly said oh and I need about five million dollars the reality is this and even Calvin Sampson Ross did this about a month ago I were talking about how the poor the university used to it said broke I believe was the word he had to walk that back yes he did he did man we are noticing now everything is tied to

your salary of your basketball team. The Kentucky coach, Mark Pope, was asked about how disappointing is this. I think that payroll for Kentucky was $21 million somewhere. Woo! Is that right? And this is going to happen in football, too, by the way. This is not just going to be mutually exclusive to basketball.

But, man, you are... It's the thing that's scary about the future of college athletics when you're putting the money in the kids is that there is going to be an expectation. level that we've had and we were watching pro we still watch pro we value our players based off of their of their performance especially when we found how much they're making now we don't know how each individual college player is making some schools can announce it some most schools don't and some people can be speculative about it but somebody found out the kentucky's north

of 20 million dollars in their payroll and that's going to get brought up and when you have a coach like Mick Cronin, among others that have said, what is it going to take? What are for you to get the next level? When he flippantly says, I need five more million dollars. That's crazy, Ross. Yeah, he's not wrong.

I mean, he's not wrong. And that's why I think, to which you brought up a couple of days ago, we're done with Cinderella's. We're done in, and somebody can sneak in once in a blue, blue moon. But we've got two years now where every

what's the lowest seed left Texas is at 11 but I wonder we'll see at the elite 8 last year it was all ones and twos and a single three this year probably going to be about the same

so as sweet as the high points are and the Virginia Commonwealth's good times you've got to have cash and when UCLA is asking for it when Kentucky's having to justify theirs. Florida Gulf Coast, remember when they made a run? Oh, that was fun. Dunk City.

George Mason, remember that? Long gone, baby. Butler, well, Brad Stevens turned Butler into like an actual powerhouse. Yeah, they haven't been relevant since, have they? Yeah, is he like the greatest coach of all time? Well, he's a hell of a general manager and a hell of a coach. That's what I'm saying? And that guy's got, that's a high IQ basketball run, oh, Brad Stevens.

He's like a basketball savant. Yeah. So it's, you know what it is? And I don't blame people asking about it. I don't blame alums. Like, I mean, my school's asking for money all the time. Every school's asking for money all the time. Even cash flush A&M's asking for people money all the time.

You're going to have to answer a lot faster than you did. I mean, you coaches are going to have their seats going to be warmer. You're going to have, you know, how do you? you as an athletic director, go to these schools and say, hey, we need another three or four million dollars in NIL money. When you're getting bouncing in the first or second round of the tournament or for that matter, the college

football playoff, or let's say you don't even make the playoff, Ross, we're going to have some crabby alums of the next decade or so. Yeah, the word donor fatigue has been used. Yeah, yeah. I just thought it was really bizarre last night as as Mick Kernan's like, I need $5 million. That's UCLA. He's like, I

need $5 million. Give us some $5 million. Let's go. Get these numbers. Isn't that crazy? You know, I just, it's just things that you would never hear. Like, hey, we need better rebounders. Or, hey, we got to get, you know, we got to improve the culture. I need cash.

They're right. They're right. I mean, AJ DeBanza, highest paid division one player this year, allegedly out of BYU. Seven million, allegedly. $7 million. Now, he's worth it. But as you've said before, millions of times,

just because you write checks does not guarantee any success. No, I mean, he's worth, apparently they've landed some other big recruit at BYU that's gotten them, I think their social media posts and stuff have like triple their followers have tripled and stuff. So, I mean, there has been a lot of off the floor impact for AJ DeBanza and being a big time at BYU. But they want to win. He's also there to win on the floor and they just didn't do that. They got bounced by the longhorns, baby. He was spectacular. about that, by the way.

He was spectacular. I'm team Longhorn. I'm all about you. He's unstoppable. Who's that? DeBanza? Yeah. Yeah, he's, if I have the first pick in the draft, I'm taking him.

Morris Peterson. Not Morris Peterson. I don't get this wrong. Darren. Darren Peterson, yeah. He's good, but I, he don't love the game. I'm sorry. Cameron Boozer.

Cameron Boozer's good, too. I could see Kings and Flumings being maybe the five out of five, you know, top five pick. Yeah, I wasn't seeing any of the, lack of energy or effort or want to from AJ Depans. He was, man, he was all over the place. But man, you're paying that cat's, you did pay him, $7 million. That's great for him. I'm happy for him.

I'm happy for him. He can have an Achilles injury tomorrow and he can help take care of his family for the rest of his life. Yeah. As long as he spends well. Yeah. As long as dial back from the Bentley and get a Toyota Ravre 4. On a lease. Yes.

12,000 miles here. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 if you want to talk some March Madness Big Picture I want to get to that but it again I thought it was a very interesting storyline that we were having coaches having to defend the money they're spent and we've got coaches asking for more of it let's go to Roger on 7-90 Roger good morning Hey good morning Matt Ross Hey man downtown's gonna be positive on Thursday, man. You get a ticket for both.

You can watch you actually just walk down to the Taylor Center and go on Uber down in a short distance. And it's going to be popping in Houston and the show Houston Open's coming too. I'll be there for that. It's a good time, man. This is a good time. Yeah, the Rockets are, you know, they are what they are.

We're going to watch them and hope they advance further than what they think they are, second round at best. So the Couges, so if they beat Illinois, are they playing for the elite, they're Houston, right? They're two games there, right? That's correct, yes. So what do you think of their chats on Illinois? I say they got more than a 70-th chat to beating them.

I just think that we're better defensively. Not much better, but a notch better. The defense of the Cougars has been outstanding. tournament. Manuel Sharp has played well. Kings and Flummings. Cougars have stayed at a foul trouble. Now, granted, I don't even count Idaho as the first-run opponent because they're just not very good. But

A&M, very, very athletic, just not very tall. Cougars took advantage of that. They just pound them in on the inside over and over again. Totally agree. I think the wild card moving forward is definitely

snack. If he gets going offensively, and, you know, it's just, there's no limit to where we can go. I've got championship written all over it, but he continues to shoot well. And that's all, that's everything. That's the Cougars in a nutshell. There's just got to be there.

All right, Matt, have a good one Thursday's going to be off. It is. What a crazy Thursday in our city. Ross, you and the Adams will be downtown at 10 o'clock. Who! Opening day. 310 first pitch. Yes. then you've got Iowa and Nebraska

playing first at 6 o'clock theirabouts, Illinois, Houston right after that. Mm-hmm. You know why I'm a little pumped today about my Cougars? Why? You beat the Aggies by 31 and Kingston Fleming's only scores

nine points. I mean, you really need to be pumped as well. The gators are out. Gators are out. I'm surprised you've not asked a question. What's that? How we're feeling? Is it going to be a disappointment if they don't make it? we are by far the best team of the group but they're all talented I mean there's nothing gimmicky about Iowa and I mean Iowa took down Florida

if you don't give them credit for that then you're not very nice person I will say if you lose to Illinois it's not a disappointment if you lose to Iowa or probably Nebraska that will be a disappointment how about the Nebraska finish but I think there's not I'm telling you it's not nothing to worry about you promise Yes. Put your name on it. Do you save it for tomorrow?

Well, they got to make sure they win first. So I shouldn't cancel my ticket. If the Cougars, if the Cougars beat Illinois, they are in the final four. They're that good. Three and a half, minus three and a half, Illinois. Two buckets. I'm sorry, I had to respond to five more people asking me via text for tickets. What did you tell them?

Shut their bum ass up? I said, uh, at Sports RV has plenty. I gave you a number. Thanks. I tease, I tease. All right, Astros, final spots for the roster. Up for grab. We'll get to that next 1114 here on Sports Talk 790.

713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. I just found out we're going to have Brett Your Mark, the Big 12 Commissioner on the show this week. What? Yeah, how about that for a get? You're asking him about that floor? Well, I'm going to say, hey, so about that floor?

that's what I'll just say all right good luck because it was bad I mean it was bad but I it wasn't great huh yeah it wasn't great it was not great not great but at least he took the L early right yeah you know what sometimes difficult to admit a mistake

and they did that so good on them for that let me tell you a thing do you know me how long you know me 16 years yes how long it would take me to take an L oh years see we have to come back next year 500k in spring break thing. I knew that was going to be done. I knew you were going to say that.

713-212-5-7-9. We have to tell the truth coming up in about 10 minutes here on Sports Talk 7-90. Matt and Ross with you. I'm here in Chicago. Ross, it's 35 degrees here. What the hell, Chicago? Come on now. Jets packed two different suitcases.

It is weird. We're going to Minneapolis. We're going to freeze our ass off there because that's always going to be the case. Yeah. But it gets warmer down in Memphis and Nallands. In theory. In theory, you hope. 713-212-5-7-94.

You want to jump into the conversation. All right. So it's going to come down to Bryce Matthews, Zach Cole, or Joey Loper Fito. If Jeremy Pena, well, it depends. If Jeremy is on the active roster, you've got one spot. If you have him going on the IL, that's two spot. What should we do, sports army?

In Astros, I trust. Yeah, I'm serious. I don't, and I can scream at each other about it if you want. Yeah, it would be just a hot, takey, ridiculous segment. I mean, you're talking about probably the last couple of spots on a roster anyway. The question is going to be, I think I put this out there a few weeks ago. Am I still going to hold firm that Yordons playing left field opening day? Or is that depending on Jeremy's situation?

That's up to you. He might. It makes sense. Okay. Here's what I'm going to go with. If Jeremy is not IEL'd, Yordons in left field opening day. If Jeremy is not IEL, okay. Correct.

Playing shortstop. Corre goes back to third. What about now? Also, you mean not active as well. Yeah. If he's active. Because it's possible. He's not on the IL, but on the roster because he only needs a couple more days.

No, I'm saying for like, look, we'll demo down. Yeah. Opening day roster. See, I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to help you. Turn to help you. Yeah. It doesn't, yeah.

I, I just can't, I can't see an opening day lineup that doesn't have ESAC parade is in it. I just can't. It's not like that, like he's, you know, 4120 guy, but he's just one of your better hitters. And obviously, if they're wiggling over. whether Bryce Matthews or Zach Cole or Joey Lopofito make the rock. If you're

wiggling over that, you shouldn't have a wiggle on your first on your opening day roster, right? At least opening day playing, right? Well, my hope is Joey Lopofito goes AAA. Oh, do we have a small bed on that? Yes, we do. I don't remember what it is. Is it coffee? Let me go look this up.

No, coffee was over Joe Mixing. Okay. And I'm going to pay off on that, even though I still believe there's something hanky-panky going on. not hanky-picky Thank you. Hanky-panky. Yeah, Hanky-panky.

Yeah. Okay. Maybe Joe Mixon was out partying and he was having some hanky-panky and he shot himself in the foot over it. Oh, I didn't write down what the bet was. I only wrote down... What did we bet?

Was it deli-a-lice? Was it deli lunch? Oh, yeah, I think it was appetizer. You're right. You're right. You're right down now. Yeah, like a spinach artichoke dip. Yeah, let's get Lopey said now.

You know it's funny, we could go to have a meal with a variety of bets that we have to have separate checks for because I got to pay for one part of the bet, you got to pay for the other part of the bet. That's funny. I would say he's the leader, right, in the clubhouse? Low Profito. Of those three you mentioned? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so, too.

Cole's great defensively. Bryce Matthews I'd put in third place. Well, how about, here's a more positive. Cam Smith clearly was not guaranteed a spot on this roster, and he went to spring training and got that spot. Yes. By the way, I forgot to mention this on Friday. The Athletic, great journalism.

Our friend Channel Rome works for that. Absolutely. They had a story about 10 crazy things, not really crazy, 10 things that could happen during the course of the year. And one of the 10 was Cam Smith having a breakout season for the Astros. It could happen. If it happens, Ross, this team is in such good shape.

I really am not worried about their starting pitching at all. I'm not even worried about the bullpen. It's got two arms down at this point. Because you're going to get haterback probably in May sometime, would be my guess. But as you've said, O'Bray who can handle the role, he's been a closer before,

as long as his pitch count is not super elevated, and you've got plenty of reinforcements. You got Ryan Weiss, if you can go to, if he can go. You've got A.J. Blueball, you can go. I mean, you've got some other people, right? Mm-hmm. this team to me, and what kind of start they get,

is based off of what the hitting does. That means Walker's got to get off to a better start. That means that you've got to get something from your corner outfielders. And you've got to hope that Jake Myers in that 8-9 spot, wherever he ultimately ends up is going to give you the OPS that it gave you last year. I'm not asking for bigger numbers. I'm just asking for repeat numbers. No, you shouldn't.

And, yeah, he's going to be at the end of the lineup. He's not going to have to provide much. You're hoping he can repeat what he did last year. And I've spoken about how I'm not, just because of the numbers, his batting average balls in play jumped up significantly last year. And that's the number that can go down and can fluctuate year to year with players.

I got one for you here. And I don't even think anybody's brought this up, and I'm not even saying it's a factor. Do you think that Jose knowing, or what Jose knows, he's going to play a second base this year primarily, could give him a little bit more of a positive effect of the plate? He's been around so long that I would probably lean towards.

I know he wants to go, but I'm just throwing it out there. Yeah. I don't think so. There's probably no correlation. Very, very little correlation. Yeah. It'd be nice for him to OPS around 800 again. That'd be great.

At the age of 35, it can be 36 in May, right? Here's the reality. This Astros team makes the playoffs if the corner outfielders do something and you're on Alborrest stays healthy. I don't mean to dumb it down to those two simplistic thoughts, but that's what I think. And, of course, if you just don't have

massive amounts of injuries you had last year. Right. I mean, I can't imagine a franchise being a snake bit like that a second consecutive year. Yeah, they cleared out all the old trainers, so they're good now. All the trainers are gone.

You've got new hitting people. I mean, zero excuses now the rest of the way, right? All excuses will be made. That's why I'll be in Memphis listening to you on the 10th inning show opening night to see how crazy. Oh, my gosh. No, I don't know.

Well, I'll be listening. to you? I don't know. I don't have to. I mean, I mean, the Rockets, the Cougars play at 9. I get, you don't all listen to you. Okay. I don't want A.O.s on Friday. I just don't. I want Cougar Victory Talk on Friday's what I want. All right. Ladies

and gentlemen, every Monday at 1130, we play The Tell the Truth, where Jonathan and Ross try to take my sports takes and annihilate them. I have four sports takes on one of my notepads, Rossi, three of which I believe. Okay. One,

I do not. Hmm. Okay. Which one of the four takes am I lying about? You'll hear that next to tell the truth at 1128 on Sports Talk 790. But the wonderful thing about me, ladies and gentlemen, is I can tell you the truth. In fact, I've got so much truth, sports RV and Jonathan, that three of my four takes today on this week's edition of To Tell the Truth are the truth.

Okay. You're all right. That's it. Boys, good luck to you. Number one's an NFL take. I feel it in my bones, gentlemen. This is our last season of 17 games in the NFL schedule. And I'm going to have to give, oh, this hurts me.

Mike Florio, a little bit of credit on this take. They have not announced the date of the Super Bowl, not this year, the year after. They've not announced it yet. Normally they would have by now? Yeah, they do this two, three years in advance. They're going to put an 18th. 18th game in by 2027.

That's my take number one. Okay. And this is cringy that I have to have to accept what Mike Florio says. Never two. If the Cougars win the Natty, I think Calvin retires. Going on on top. Number three. I don't know if you saw this, folks, over the weekend.

But Luca Donchich against Orlando, got his 16th technical file the season. when he and Goga Batatsi of the magic both got teed up at the same time. Lucas said the reason why he was mouthing back and forth in Serbian with Goga is because Goga told Luca what he wanted to do to his family, and it's a verb. Okay. Did you see it? Yes. Okay.

Let's make sure. Goga said to Luca he wants to blank his family. That's rude. It's very rude. So he gets the technical foul. And when you get 16, you miss a game. The NBA yesterday rescinded that technical foul. I think the NBA did the wrong thing here.

I'm sorry, Luca. You know that Goga Batatsi was not literally going to try to blank your family. And if you really, really, really wanted to go after him, then behave yourself with the previous 15 times you got technical fouls. I think the NBA showed complete favoritism by rescinding the technical foul. And oh, by the way, they're playing the Detroit Pistons, a sexy NBA matchup. They want to look on the floor. NBA, I think, made a mistake by showing favoritism and rescinding the technical foul.

And number four, staying with the NBA. I hope it doesn't come down to this, ladies and gentlemen. But if we do see an Oklahoma City Spurs Western Conference final, I think the Spurs win the West. and this hurts me to say this. They're deep, they're talented, Wembe's on a different planet right now. Deering Fox has been good. You can't keep Jalen Williams healthy for any long periods of time.

Heart and signs missed a lot of time. I think Jell is a huge part of this special late in the year. San Antonio Jelling, Oklahoma City winning, but yet not being able to get together any sort of rhythm because they've got constant injuries. God, this makes me mad to say this. I think the Spurs could beat the Thunder in a Western Conference final. Gentlemen, those are my four takes.

I'll repeat them again. I think we're going to get 18 games by 2027. That's take number one. Take number two. If University of Houston wins the Natty, I think Kelvin retires. Number three, the NBA, I unbelievably believe they showed favoritism by rescinding the technical file on Luca so they could play against the Pistons. He could.

And number four, if it comes down on Oklahoma City, San Antonio, West Finals, I think the Spurs could win it. I would say the Spurs would win it. Which one of those four do I not believe, gentlemen? Okay, you said the Spurs could win the West. I'm going to say the Spurs. I would pick the Spurs to win the West. You'd pick the Spurs over OKC.

Yes, I would. All right. Number one, I think, is very true. Jonathan, I think. Yeah, that seems Matt Thomas brain. Hey, I'm right here. We're brainstorming, Matt. Yeah, we're not talking.

Florial brain. That's the thing that bothers me. No, you're actually supposed to, you're supposed to have earmuffs on, Matt. You're not supposed to be hearing any of this. Damn. I don't think my initial reaction is Kelvin would not retire. Now, if Matt believes he would retire, that's one thing. But also, I mean, when you factor in the NIL stuff and calling out the program for being broken, all that stuff.

But I think Kelvin is the type of person. and wants the coach until he can't walk anymore. I'm on the same type of wavelength on that as well. But I don't know. We have to ask ourselves, does Matt believe that? Right, right. Because Matt believes wrong stuff all the time. Hey, I'll get him right here.

I feel like I did the Joe Biden. Hey, I'm here, guys. What are you doing? Sorry. Sorry about that. Um, I don't know. The Luca thing, I mean, the technical foul looked kind of weak. He was just kind of jawing at a guy a little bit.

But that does show a lot of favoritism. It was favoritism, I guess. Yeah, if his name was Fred Jones, Would they have rescinded the technical foul? I don't know. You get a game out. You know, that's really believable. I would still go with OKC.

See, I disagree with this four as well. I would still take OKC. The spurs are really good. But OKC is going to beat it. Really? I think. I'm leaning towards on that. I mean, the Thunder has won 11 games in a row.

Spurs have won five. It'd be a knockdown dragout. That thing's going six or seven. Hmm I'll go with four You're going to take four I'm I don't

And if Matt believes Kelvin retires if they win it all I want to I want to bet him on that Because I don't think Kelvin would But he might because of the NIL headaches NIL headaches would be the only reason But also as I said It's Kelvin seems like like

He's just he's born to coach We're trying to find a lie right There's no way Matt believes that Oh wait the lie God I'm stupid Yeah this too Find the lie. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm, uh, my coffee's not hitting hard. It's all day too because man knows he built this culture. He built the U of A, U of A basketball is Samson. That's not going to lie. Sorry, yeah. He can't just, you can't leave that. Yeah, I believe, okay. Yeah, yeah, two is the lie.

I think. It could be four, two. No, wait, four, no, wait, four is the lie. No, I'm right. I know what I'm saying. Wait, but two is a lie. But does Matt believe it? Oh, no, I'm confused.

Hush. I'm sorry, man. I believe three of them. Okay. I want to make sure I said this. The rest of Houston understands this. They're listening going, Ross, you're an idiot.

Three of these, I believe. No, that's fine. Or, Matt, you're switching up. You switch it up every week. I'm tired. These are really good, man. I'm not going to lie. Thank you very much.

One lie. Hurry out, boys. I'll stick with four. Whatever. Who cares? That's it, too. All right, here we go. Number one, the first thing I believe,

I believe is the last season of 17 games. I think, Ross, we're seeing these new TV deals. They're tearing these contracts up all the networks. If you notice that, Roger Gooders, like, let's renegotiate this. Well, they're going to renegotiate with an 18th week. I believe this is our last season of 17 games. That's the one thing I believe. Number two, I do believe the NBA did show favoritism by rescinding the technical foul.

They want the Lakers and Pistons to be at full strength. That's a potential NBA finals preview. I don't think it's going to happen, but they want that matchup to be with both teams at full strength. He should have got a technical foul. Look, do you really think Gogga Batatsi? I mean, Ross, you've been on these NBA beats these streets before? I've heard way worse than I want to blank your family. Yeah, I don't know.

And I don't think he should have gotten one, though. I mean, he was just jawing at him a little bit. I mean, that's NBA basketball stuff too. To me, though, you've got to just behavior. So you cannot have 15 technical foul in 50 games. You just got to stop. I understand. Seriously.

Yeah, he's a whiner. You both are very good because the two, the last two, are tough. I'm glad you guys were trying to fight between that. The third thing I believe if U of H wins the Nadi, I think Kelvin retires. For two reasons.

One, NIL's a hot mess. Number two, he's got his son waiting to ready to go. And I think there'd be no more perfect way for a 70-year-old coach who's been in these wars for 40 years, 45 years, to end his career, hoisting something he'd been looking

for all these decades. I do believe if they wins the nanny that I think Calvin will retire. Just a gut feeling on my part. What I don't believe, Oklahoma City, I can't see the Spurs winning a seven-game series. It'd be fun, it'd be cool, but I think Oklahoma City is still the best team in the league. And now the Jaylon

Williams' 8 is back. That's going to add an extra layer. Shaggildes Alexander is going to get foul calls. Chad Holmgren's going to block five shots. Isaiah Hartonsine's going to have a double-double. I mean, I like this. I mean, I respect the spurs. I don't like them, but they're not as good as Oklahoma City.

So congratulations, Ross. Thank you. Your winning percentage drops a little bit. You know what? Everything in my body doesn't want to cuss you out right now. But everything in your body? You want ten toes right now? But your explanation, I can respect it.

So I'm just going to, I'm just to take the air. I'm going to take the hell. Again, I don't think I want to make a bet because it could happen. Because of the NIL headaches, there's so much. And Kelvin, if you didn't have NIL, Kelvin would coach until he's like 80.

I really, I think the isos of the world, the Patinos, the Calipari's. They're all still coaching, though. They're all still coaching, but why wouldn't you leave on top? Because here's the reality, too. You're losing Senac and you're losing Kings and Fleming's. Then you've got more guys. You know, maybe I'll make a small bet.

Let's see. What do we got, appetizer? Dessert now? Let's go dessert. Okay. Now, again, you'll be happy to pay this. Yeah, you're happy to pay this dessert. Oh, you got that right.

Let me tell you, I'll get it on a gold-plated plate for you, my friend. I'll be at zero issues with that. Okay. And that's only if they win it all. Adam wants to talk about the NCAA March Madness coverage. We'll talk about that with him next. The news of noon in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790s. 11502.

on the Matt Tomlin show with Ross, I'm here in Chicago. Rockets and Bulls tonight. And the Rockets are tanking on a team that is in full tank mode. Chicago's terrible. I want to say, and I don't have my notes in front of me. The Bulls have used 27 players so far this year, Ross. Wow, that's like 23 Rockets numbers. Yeah, they're not good.

But the fans, I'll say this about Chicago. This is a great sports town. 7 o'clock tip. I hate to say this, Ross. There'll be 20,000 people in their seats ready to go. Really? Oh, yeah. Chicago and Toronto, pound for pound,

are the two best cities when NBA fans are in their seats at tip time. And Houston is number what out of 30? Three. 33? Wow. Three, three, three, three. You're lying. You don't know that.

Yes, I do. I don't lie that often. Mm-hmm. Traffic. Trial ground tough. Okay. How is Thursday going to be in Houston, by the way? Are we going to behave ourselves?

We're going to have traffic nightmares all over the place? There's traffic nightmares this weekend. I don't even know what's going on. It's all the spring break. Yeah, honestly, I've seen multiple times to talk about the TSA lines, Matt. I think I'm sorry, Matt. There's TSA issues in every airport America. No, no, no, no.

They've been like worse than everyone around the country, Matt. I'm sorry. I know you're going to dig in your heels and your ten toes down, but if I'm getting other people's feet involved. That's how many tell them. Every number I've seen as you taking an L. So if you produce numbers that say you're not, then we'll go from there. It must be a lot of spring breakers at Atlanta Heart School because airport delays are big too.

The traffic, no, the delays they were, I saw them posted. It was like worst in the country at IAH over the weekend. Well, I'm sure those numbers are made up too, but traffic was everywhere. It was bad this weekend. No, those aren't made up because everybody's shooting videos themselves waiting in airport lines. Yeah, they were like laying out cots. Are you ready for this? this. We have a family, a family friend of ours that was going to fly from New Orleans to Houston.

New Orleans yesterday had hours and hours and hours of delays. You know what they did? They went and got a rental car at the New Orleans airport and just drove back. They figured to be better than that than missing flights and connections and waiting in line. That's a sad state of affairs, ladies gentlemen. Can you do that to make your connecting flight? Like when you go through TSA with your boarding pass? You just have the connecting boarding pass and you're fine? Does that work? No, they were flying New Orleans back to Houston.

Oh, okay. It wasn't a leg. No, no, no, yeah. No, you can't. If you don't take leg one, you can't jump on leg two. Yeah, that's what I figured. You have to re-it have to rebook through an airline. Uh-huh.

What if you call them? Hey, we're driving. Now, I have done that before. If you call the airline in advance, like I'll give you a quick example. My daughter was on a recruiting chip last year to Wilmington, North Carolina. Uh-huh. the weather in Wilmington was super bad. I was like, I don't want to miss the connecting flight.

Because Wilmington to Charlotte's like a two-hour drive. And the flight from Wilmington to Charlotte's like 40 minutes. And I was like, well, if I just get in the car and drive to Charlotte, I can at least connect the second flight. And that's what I did. So as long as you call the airline and tell them what's going on and they don't like, they notice the weather's bad, they can do it. Okay.

I'm glad you brought that up, Ross. That's a very astute point in your part. Yeah. You know, I'm trying to, I was asking questions. to America's travel expert. Expert. You were going to say whore. No, I wasn't. You were thinking it. No, I wasn't.

Adam on 790. Adam, good morning to you. Hey, good morning. Before I get to my question, can I be a mooch? Is there any chance we can get regional tickets for this upcoming weekend? For me? Are you guys giving away tickets?

We are not. Oh, are you guys giving away tickets for the World Cup? Yes, we have midfield tickets available. Would you like a pair right now? Sure. I was kidding. I don't have those either. Okay.

All right. Yeah, I was going to call like, I think Houston has a really good chance. I think they're way more athletic than Illinois. And I do think they'll beat the Nebraska Iowa winner. But I was thinking, you know, if they get, get to the final four, I'm really worried about Duke, possibly Duke, Michigan State, or Yukon, and how do you think they'd match up against them? All about against the Cougars, against them?

Yeah, it all comes down to defense, foul trouble, rebounding, and if Emmanuel Sharp continues to shoot the way that he's done so far in the first round of the first two rounds of the tournament. Okay. And then one other quick thing is Arizona looked pretty disappointing. Would you guys agree? I didn't see the game, so I can't speak to it. Okay, no problem.

All right, thanks. All right, thank you. They covered the 11 and a half. I know that. It was close with Utah State for a lot of the game, and then Arizona pulled away at the end. As I said on, what was it, was it?

If the Cougars don't want, I think Arizona's the favorite. Duke's played well, too, but, oh, Duke got a little scare from San on the first round. Yes, they did. Michigan. Oh, there's some heavy hitters in this. Oh, this is, and again, I guess you earn it every year, Ross, but it feels like this year, even more so than last year. The heavy lifting at the top six or seven are, you could really put all the teams in a ping pong ball and move it around and grab a team on goal. That team can win the national championship, of course.

When it comes to the top of the top, yes. By the way, a field report from Gordy Sports Enterprises, he was at the New Orleans Airport. He said they missed their flight. They were in line for four hours. Yeah. Wow. So maybe Gordy should have found my friends and got a part of the SUV and chipped in some gas money or something. Yeah.

Should have done that. I've never waited in line that long at TSA. I've probably waited maybe 30 minutes, I think. Oh, really? I've been definitely an hour or more. Coming back from Seattle, there was something was there. I had a flight where the machines were down or something. I can't remember what it.

exactly it was. Thankfully, I've not done it. Now, granted, if I went to the airport today, I may be in that four hour away. The point being is that that's got to be a really sick feeling, especially because you want to get home, first and foremost,

and then if you have to make a connection, that really can throw you off. Mm-hmm. Because I don't, I don't help me out. I don't think these flights are waiting for these delays, are they? They're leaving without you. No, yeah, they're gone. They have their own other flights to make.

man we got to get these people back and working we gotta get the we gotta I don't know why they're not work why they're I mean I know the reason why they're calling in sick because they're not getting paid and I would probably do the same thing but we we gotta get these airports going this is it's just too much of our

I mean you're stopping life here for a little bit well what's going on I don't even know I guess it's Congress and Congress and Donnie I imagine I guess they're all fighting cool you know if you got a butt my get tech to gas to four hours so people can travel.

I can live with it for a while. Yeah, that's fine. I don't commute. I fill up like once a month. Stop bragging. I'm gonna come to live with you for like six months a year. I told you. I got to, yeah, I got to pull out couch.

I need the master bedroom. No. You think you're gonna come into my house and live in my bedroom? Correct. What is wrong with you? I was asking you. Are you crazy?

All you'd say is no. Are you crazy or hi? Well, I'm your guest. Exactly. So get in the guest, get in the guest area. Don't you give up the bed? What does the guests take up the master bedroom? Have you ever heard of that? No, no. No.

No. You're getting no amenities. I'm be cutting you off. No, you're getting the treatment you'd give me. The news is a dude after Ross tells you about synergenic. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 12.5 in H-town hour number three of the match. Thomas show with Ross begins right now with the news at noon. And we go to the Nate Burleson of Houston Sports Journalism. Ross, Villarreal.

Hi, Ross. Yes, Matthew, leading the news at noon is all the wonderful tournament action from the weekend. We are down to the Sweet 16, the University of Houston Cougars, dispatching Texas A&M with an 88 to 57 victory over the week. weekend. They will take on the fighting Aligni at the Toyota Center. They are three and a half point favorites. That will be Thursday.

9.05 p.m. start. Get your coffee ready. They're probably not. You're going to start then, Matthew. I know. So how do you resolve that? I don't know during the week if you can resolve it. Because you're not going to start a game at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. You're going to want to be on in the primes. You know, they want their local news on at 6 in the east.

I'm going to tell you there is a boardroom full of people smarter and making more money than us who have decided when to put these games on. I just thought it was embarrassing that we had so many late games Saturday and Sunday night. I know. I know. Well, also, the Texas Longhorns

defeat the Gonzaga Bulldogs 74 to 68 in their 11 versus 3 matchup. The lowest seed remaining, the Texas Longhorns they're taking on Purdue. Also on Thursday, the Purdue Boilermakers six and a half point favorites in that game.

Elsewhere, you got Duke and St. John's, Arizona and Arkansas, Michigan State, and Yukon, Iowa and Nebraska on the other end of the Houston bracket because the Florida Gators got upset 73 to 72 by the Iowa Hawkeyes. Matt, how are we feeling? You said book it, so... Book it, baby. I'm going to not book it. Okay.

I mean, I feel obviously much better because the floor. Florida law still hurts, especially when I see those three of the players from last year's championship team in the NBA on a semi-regular basis. But now I'm going to be cautiously optimistic as well. I'll go away. All right. Elsewhere, Michigan and Alabama and then Iowa State and Tennessee. Those are the other matchups in the Sweet 16. Also a big weekend for our Houston Rock. It's Matthew.

The 117 to 95 beatdown of the Atlanta Hawks was nice to see. and then following that up with a 123 to 122 victory over the Miami Heat. The Rockets have won back-to-back games now on this four-game road trip. How are we feeling? We're feeling three and one, four-and-oh, baby. Hold on that four spot in the West. That's a man Thompson for the game winner. They will have to review it, but I think we get it.

I think a man is a hero. The ruling on the floor, successful basketball basketball basketball players under review. Let's check it Upon review, the basket scores And it's a game winner! A man Thompson With a Rockets win!

Rockets four seed in the West Two and a half... You have no comment on that at all? Like that sucked, what are you doing? What's the matter with you? Or, oh man, you brought chills, nothing? That was good stuff, Matt. No.

John, believe him or not. What? What did I do? A lot of pregnant deposit. He's looking for No, it's not your fault. I mean, you have to, it's getting checked and it was at the last second. They mess with your call, Matt, with the review system. No, it's a fast review. I'll give them credit for that.

Yeah. Rockets, two and a half games behind the Lakers who have now won nine games in a row, and they're getting Luca Donchich back. It's going to be four-seater bust at this point, but they're also in a tie with the Nuggets and the Timberwolves. as down the stretch we come, 70 games played for the Rockets in the 25-26 campaign. All right. Of the two teams, in theory they could play, which do you want? Denver or Minnesota in the first round?

Now, saying out loud, both are difficult matchups. Both are not gimmies. I would rather face the Timberwolves. I would agree with you. But Denver just can't stay healthy. Nicka Leokic just scares me. You know he's becoming almost a quadruple double machine, but the fourth one is that really at quadruple number.

Well, you know what the most remarkable thing is to me? He's turning the ball over a lot. Well, he looks gassed three minutes into every game. Yeah. And then he plays 43 minutes of, like, incredible basketball. He has, like, five steals, too. He's, like, labored breathing three minutes in, like he's about to collapse, and then he just goes and runs up and down the floor.

His face is, like, beat red for four quills. quarters and he just wears out whoever he's playing. Who else is like that? Nobody. Looks like he's so out of shape, but yet oh, I mean, Luca Donchich doesn't look. He's in shape right now.

He's got in better shape. I actually, when I saw him at shoot-around, I was actually impressed. I was like, okay, he still looks like thin, then Luca. I thought. Because I was, for a second, I was like, who is that? It's like, is that Austin Reeves down there? Oh, that's Luca Donchich.

No, Luca's guy. I'm telling you. headband like Austin Reeves does. I got a little confused. I was like, okay, Lucas, I think it's one of those, like, it's like an optical illusion for some reason. Just my observation from the game Wednesday.

But those are two of the non-leanor NBA players who are two of the most magnificent players right now in the NBA. Yeah. The classic is Kyle Lowry. Kyle Lowry, you don't think it's in shape? He's like he had lunch lady arms, but no, he'd go out there for 45 minutes. He'd be good.

Look, that's not nice either. What? I think I've got lunch lady legs, by the way. No, you don't. You have flamingo legs that are translucent. Believe it. Wait a minute. I can't get a Joe-mixing gunfire on time.

I'm going to believe it in that spot. He was ready from the knot. Yeah. I see where Jonathan is. Lunch lady legs. There's a little bit of fold of skin underneath the knee that just looks sprinkled. I'm worried about you. Let's get you on the treadmill.

I probably should. I'm trying to get my 10,000 steps in every day. Okay, good. What else is going on? Well, I mentioned Luke avoiding his suspension after his 16th technical fouls rescinded. I know it's shocking, Matt. Now he's going to be available to play the Pistons on national TV. I don't know if it's national TV.

Oh, it's not? I think it is. Oh, you're right. It's not. Pistons. Let's see. No, Peacock NBC, you've got Spurs versus Heat. Yeah, it's a pass.

Warriors Mavs. Oh, wolf. Cooper flag on the year, by the way, 20 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists. Hey, by the way, they're going to, there's a trend that's moving. Duke players can play in the NBA. Concanepel's been fantastic for Charlotte. Flag's been awesome for Duke. Man, past results are not indicative of, uh, wait, past results not indicted of future progress.

Sure, why not? I can't even get this right. My brain's not working today. Sorry. Jackson Smith and Jigba The reigning NFL offensive player of the year Reaching an agreement with the Seattle Seahawks Four years

168.6 million dollars 42 million a year for an NFL receiver 100 They got rid of Kenneth Walker 120 million dollars guaranteed I didn't even know what to say That's crazy.

All right. And Astros playing the space cowboys tonight. Going? No. I still want that space Cowboys over on the wind total, though. They're going to be a juggernaut. There's no, there is not a single number out there you could find. And I know you'll spend time.

I'll go offshore to the offshore to the offshore. Offshore to the offshore. Like in Mozambique, you may be able to get it. Yeah, I'm hoping for it. And that, my friends, the news at noon. Yes. All right. Charles Barkley,

one of my favorite television personalities of all time, been lousy on the coverage of the NCAA tournament, not because he chose to do it. It's because they told him we're going to pay you a lot of money just to spot off about teams you know nothing about. I guess you could say that for the NBA. Was not happy as a Houston rocket. Would that be fair to say of sports RV?

Not happy as a Houston rocket? Yeah. And if you don't believe me, we're going to hear right from Charles. Charles next. 1215, Matt and Ross with you, 713, 212, 5, 790. Real quick, Charles Barker was a guest on Dan Patrick this morning. Asked about whether he regretted ever coming to the Rockets. And he's like, I wanted to finish in Phoenix.

I thought we were good. Thought we could beat Michael Jordan. So the Rockets called Charles and said, hey, Charles, do you, if you come to Houston via trade, will you hold out until you get a new contract? And Charles is like, I'm not leaving Phoenix. I'm the best player they have. I'm the only player they have. I'm not trading.

Rocket said, hey, are you going to hold out if we trade for you? And he's like, no, I'm not going to hold out. I don't hold out. But you're not. So Charles calls his son. Son's like, we're not trading you. That's ridiculous. Don't listen to those rumors.

Two days later, you got traded to the Rockets. Charles was good early on. Last two years, Ross, a young Rossvilleville did not get to see the prime Charles Berkeley were in Houston Rocket Gear. Back in it down, backing it down, backing it down, backing it down. Back in it, back in it, back. and back, and thus the Charles Barkley 5-second rule that was called for the first time

in 10 years when I was calling a game without bring in Shangoon. This might be completely made up, but just from those days, it felt like the rockets would get up on teams, but they were so old and they would lose leads and lose. Yeah. They would lose 96-91 in four quarters.

I don't know how accurate that is. It's just the way I remember it. Yeah, look, I love Charles. He, to me, is one of the most entertaining people in the history of sports. And I don't even necessarily mind that he, you know, I know that the NBA folks get mad of him because he rips on players all the time.

I don't know. I just, he's one of the reasons why, the few reasons why I watch studio shows. Like, I don't watch the NFL today. I don't watch the Fox shows. They don't do much for me. But those guys crack me up. I think they're funny. The good chemistry's there. We're just not seeing it with the tournament. It's just bad combinations. The talking basketball. Did you see the

talking basketball segment, Ross? I saw it on the TV, but I didn't have the vault. I was at... You missed nothing. Funny enough, actually, I was at Rubies. Really? In Kingwood, yes. And? My nephew, who turned seven, shout out James. That's what he picked for his birthday.

Oh, did you get a little bit and did you go full of full plate? I'm one with the CFS. Two sides? Do you're brown? Cream, come on now. You can do both. I'm not a brown gravy guy. because your palettes and accepting of it

I mean, I'll eat it. Okay, good, that's fair. Yeah, I is just, you know, I was not happy with the start time of these late games. It wasn't, the studio show was awful.

Thank God the game action's good. And that's the most important thing. I mean, we're just, you know, I'm watching the games. I don't, and I'll maintain. I said it last week.

You tried to tell me wrong. Charles lost his basketball. Charles never had his fastball with college basketball Now he's he's He's a late stage Zach Crinky with the The first year with the Rockets

He's an Ephus pitch I mean Astros No no no I said It was like first year with the Astros He had a year already like a four I got you He's slipping he slips sliding down the hill Well I mean

The money is good Yeah Expectations are minimal They said Charles get on stage And get on the set And say something funny That's what he does And he takes the check

and they pay them. I'm not mad at him. Yeah. By the way, I need to do this. Ross, plug your Instagram account while I look up something. You know what? I'd appreciate that, Matt. Sports RV on Instagram. I think I'm down three followers in the last week. So if you want to follow me, you know what? I'll follow you back until 1 o'clock. If you follow me at SportsRV on Instagram.

I've been trying to post more there. Honestly, I haven't been doing it as much as I needed to because I've had this flu. And now I don't know if I got vertigo or what. I've been dealing with this. I just haven't been feeling great. But if you want to follow me at SportsRV on Instagram, I would appreciate it, and I will follow you back until 1 p.m. If you follow me on Instagram at SportsMT, I will thank you.

I will appreciate it. And there's a chance I might follow you back. Matt won't follow you back unless you got bikini picks because otherwise he doesn't care about you, but I appreciate you listening, so I will follow you back. I hate it when I'm going to go to 40 you, there's something I see, and it goes away. Try to remember a couple of words from it, and then you search it,

and it'll be like the first thing in your search. I can tell you this. NIL money for the 16 teams that are still around. The Cougars, I want to say, are 12th or 13th at $8.5 million for this year's roster. A couple spots below. Texas, $7.5 million. Which I thought was quite a surprise.

Yeah, I don't know. Where are these numbers coming from? It was just a Twitter account. I mean, it didn't look like the guy was making them up just for the sake of doing it. There are people that were trying to say that the Longhorn spent $20 million, and that's an accurate. It's because they're paying Chris Beard and Rodney Terry buyouts right now. So the basketball budget is very big.

What is Ronnie Terry doing right now? I have no idea. He's on a beach. Okay. Of the 16 teams that are still left, this is according to some dude named Mike Frank, and he's got 77 followers, so maybe I shouldn't believe this. Rodney Terry is not listed as employed, which is the right move. This guy, Mike's got Iowa at $6.25 million, Nebraska, 6.75, Texas, 7.5, Iowa State 8.25, Houston at 8.5.

Number one, NIL team, according to this dude, and again, I'm assuming this is correct. Duke's $12 million for payroll for this year. Top 10. This is not the sweet 16. It's just top 10 in college hoops. Kentucky, between 20 and 22 million out. BYU, at least 15 million, out. Indiana between 12 and 15 million didn't even make the tournament. Auburn, between 8 and 10 million, did not make the tournament. Is this the sign of the apocalypse?

Indiana didn't make the tournament in Indiana football won a national championship. That is bizarre. And they had the huge NIL budget for the basketball team. They didn't even make the tournament. that's crazy that's why i think now fans can be a little more direct with their criticisms of coaches and the individual players when these players are being compensated and these schools i'm ross i'm on these Twitter accounts all the time begging pleading come to this event come give this money i mean you're not even

giving the money to the school so they can improve the athletic facilities you're giving this money directly so the kids can have the money. That's what it's come down to. You can't even hide anymore. Yeah. You can't say we need to fund our nutrition center, or we need a better academic center, or we need a good practice facility.

It's, hey, come hang out with a... Like, for example, the Cougars had their watch party last week to announce where their tournament was going. It was $15 to get in. It's not terrible. And if you want to make a little contribution, but that $15 didn't go to the U of H, it went to the kids.

So, I mean, they're just trying to, you know. But as I've said before, too, it ain't the $15 that's going to get these schools taken care of. When Mick Cronin, the coach at UCLA is asking for $5 million, he's looking for five people to kick up a million a pop here. That's why Ryan Holland's got to get going here. Help out of his school a little bit. Yeah, he does. Let's get these numbers up. UCLA, former powerhouse.

Out in the second round. All right. 7132125790 Ross, what is today's edition to believe or not at 150? What? 713-212-5-7-90. Things on our agenda.

The Rockets buzzer-beater. Kevin Durant hitting top five. By the way, I heard a semi-hot take on satellite radio head of the airport yesterday, Ross. Ooh, okay. About Kevin Durant. I'm all ears.

And see, now you're a, you're a Durant truth. sir. Okay. You've always appreciated him. That's fine. Okay. No? No, yeah. I defended him.

Yeah. Because I'm right. And I like him too. I like him a lot. I've always liked him. Yes. And now he was way out of bounds in that Rockets Golden State game a few years back, and that was fine. Got away with it. I mean, that wasn't his fault. No.

If you're allowed to go on the sidelines into the first row to talk to save a basketball, go ahead. Knock yourself out. But it was an interesting take on him. 1230, Sports Talk 790. So National Hot Radio take was Ross, real quick, before going on the phones, was that for as awesome as Kevin Durant has been, being a top five score in the NBA,

that he is underachieved as an NBA player because of all the great players around him and then he should have had a, and should have had a deeper playoff run as an NBA player. Okay. all the great teams in Oklahoma City when they split up he goes to Golden State

has obviously the success there then he goes to Brooklyn with Kyrie and with James then he goes to Phoenix and works with Devin Booker now he's here now again we don't know the storyline at this point here but in the previous place I look it's hard to win a championship

I mean there's been lots of I mean you can say that about LeBron James not having enough championships I don't mean left for a night. I think it's, I think sometimes media folks want to say, well, if you're an all-time great, you should win a championship every year. And it simply doesn't work out there. Yeah, everybody can't win a championship. And we get so obsessed with ring culture. And when you count up all the rings, there's just not enough to go around for everyone. Yeah. And what I say, this, I find this similar to when somebody says, oh, they're not trying or they're not care.

They should have done this. Okay, well, where did it go wrong? Bring me specifics. Like, bring me the year that they should have won and then they didn't. Oklahoma City made the finals in 2012. They lost to the heat. 13, 14, the Spurs made it out of the West, so the Thunder weren't better. I think one of those years, Russell Westbrook and or Sergei Baca was hurt.

Then they were up 3-1 on Golden State and 16. That was the 73 and 9 Golden State Warriors who were arguably, I mean, up to that point, the greatest team of all time. They should have probably finished them off, but they didn't. Then 17 and 18, he won, the championship. 19, he ripped his Achilles.

And then he was in Brooklyn, and the teams weren't very good. And then he went to Phoenix, and the teams were very good. So, not buying it. Sorry. Sorry, hot take from Sirius X-M. I just think if you're playing as long as he has, what is he 18 years in the league? Yes. Bronz 22. You're going to find that with Chris Paul. You're going to find that among the guys that have been in that 15, 16, 17, 17 year. You just can't, you can't have 12 championships. I know, and you want that, but it's just

not possible. Yeah, the big one for LeBron would be 2011 against the Mavericks, first year in Miami. You know, by the way, and I mentioned this before, I'm going back on my own memory banks on this. I remember, I didn't crush Kevin going to Golden State. If you want to win championships, you go with other players that want to help you win championships. People in work go to companies, leave Company A for Company B because the company B is doing well and it's got a great support to cast and your chance to make more money and have more successful. We do it. Yeah, and then as people want to say, he was along for the ride.

He was finals MVP in both of those series. Yeah. And he was great in the playoffs throughout. They don't even get to the finals, if not him. They don't come back from 3-1. Or no, that was the next year. Sorry. But there was another series where they were down or something early.

I can't remember. And Kevin Durant was making a bunch of shots and willing that team to some victories as well. I just... We do this in sports. You and I have done this probably with other athletes, not in Houston. So maybe we could, you could catch us saying something about other players.

I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's a hard conversation to have among the all-time elites is did that person do enough? Yeah, Carr Malone is up on the all-time scoring list.

He's got zero. Yeah, number three all-time. Yeah. By the way, Katie's going to pass Kobe next year, and then that's where it's going to stop. Because I think there's, right, 2,000 points beyond that for Carl and that's just, you know.

Caram alone. All-time great score. Not an all-time great-time, all-time great human being. Yeah. And does he have any relationship with his daughter at all? Or what do we figure out about that? Wasn't there a 12- or 13-year-old he impregnated as well? Ooh, I don't want to guess that, but...

Okay, she was 13. Okay. How old was he? I think 20 or more? Can I make any more sound effects with my mouth? Please don't. It's getting very uncomfortable. Nijl, 1239, Sports Talk, 790.

Neidiel, good afternoon to you. How's it going, guys? Ross, I heard you were feeling a little under the weather. Yes, I am. I heard you mention vertigo. My wife used to work at ear, nose, and throat, and she's got issues with vertigo from time to time. So you have these little tiny crystals in your ear,

and they can get misaligned from knees in or cracking your neck. And there's actually some YouTube videos of some exercises that you can do at home that will align those crystals back up and probably give you some relief from it. So I just wanted to call and pass that on to you to check it out. So maybe you'll feel a little better. All right. Thank you, Nejo. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I'm not sure what it is. The doctor said he didn't think it was vertigo because I didn't feel like the broom was spinning. But, yeah, I don't know if I'm just still slow. recovery from the flu or what but i'm just not feeling great but thank you i appreciate your help you're welcome there we go yeah i'm gonna look into whatever he's talking about i'm because i'm ready to try anything i don't know what the hell's going on so you've been like at 70% for like a month yeah it's been very very frustrating you get some downtime you're working too much yeah i got four games this week i asked out of the friday one thank a shout out cole thompson for helping

me out i'm doing tonight i'm doing wednesday i'm doing astros thursday and i'm supposed to do It's Friday. Thank you, Cole. Cole's the man. Cole needs a back off on U of H. H. H. H. H. Trying to fill up the TOTA center, that's not a great take, but that's, we still love them, nevertheless.

All the tickets are sold. Every one of them. And if you got a hookup, good. If not, secondary market's your friend. Apparently, the most expensive ticket at this point among the four regionals can be found in Washington, D.C., on average. Hmm. Very busy.

I'm telling you, Nebraska's coming. You're fine. I'm telling you you're fine. I'm not talking about the game. I'm talking about the fans. I'm going to have a lot of people wearing corn on their heads. Is Jake Myers going to be out there? Jake Myers? There's another guy with Nebraska ties to him, right?

There's a second Astro? I think. I think you're right. I can't remember. I'm on, but I'm worried about Jake. The fan club is more locked in on Jake. About slugging or just life in general? He isn't life in general.

We wish him the best. Father or two. James, what do he got? He's running to his. phone. Hey James. Hello. Hello.

Yeah, hey. Listen, no one ever thought that the University of Texas is going to be a Cinderella team this year. And I have to be impressed the way they played VYU and Gonzaga. They looked really good. I always consider them like the wicked stepsister,

not the Cinderella team. But here we are. But anyhow, Thursday, we're going to have the Astros and the Cougars on, right? The Astros opening game and the Cougars on. same time? Not at the same time,

different times. Asher's at three, Cougars at 9, that will be here on KPME, and then the Longhorns will be on Sister Station KPRC.

I just got an official word. Okay, good, the Asthors are playing a little bit then. Okay. All right, that's all I have. Thank you. Like the Wizard of Vodge

quip in there. And it's a Cinderella or the Wicked Witch. Yeah, as we mentioned, they're not a Cinderella. This is a high, dollar big power four team. There is not a, you cannot be a power for me,

a Cinderella. I'm sorry. Well, what if you may, well, I'll go with like Northwestern or something. How about that? Yeah, I guess you could, but yeah. But we're down with Cinderella's, I think, Ross forever and ever aim in. You know, yes, for the most part, yes. Like, we used to have at least one or two sweet 16

Cinderella's, that... I mean, High Point got close to beating Arkansas. That's right. Let's see, what else? By the way, for all the John Caliperi haters out there, he can coach. To an extent. Rick Barnes is in the Sweet 16, too. Rick Petino, too. But this is a lot of OGs in this.

I know. Calvin's in there again? Miss Rick Barnes? I know you do the answer for you guys. No. What are you talking about? You don't miss him? No.

You're all in on Sean Miller. He did not make a Sweet 16 at Texas from 2008 until the end of his tenure in 2015. they did not make a sweet 16 can you all hear the sirens in my window I hear something what is going on on these downtown streets everything all right over there in shytown I don't know but I just open up my

one of my the desk drawer right in front of where I'm broadcasting from I have a high letter and a pen and they gave me some staples too I gotta love this hotel and I'm trying to see who else I mean VCU got crushed by Illinois Texas Tech ooh Cody Camas got to step up the basketball money too

yes he does and that was it High Point was your best shot at, well, Utah State hung with Arizona for a while, but even then that's not really, a 9 is not a Cinderella, right? No, no. Utah State's been really good in the Mountain West. High Point would have been the Cinderella. Which one?

12 seed, high point, 12 seed making the sweet 16. That coach, whoever that was, he's a good motivational speaker, by the way. We came here to win six games when you actually won one. It's a good try. That's what I love. I would love to watch a YouTube reel of the most fiery motivational speeches, and then the guys get their ass kicked. It gets so overblown

I'm ready to run through a brick wall Yeah go out there and execute Make your shots You can be ready to run through a brick wall all you want I think Bucky was when you're trying to lead the Aggies Before the game against the Cougars man Let's go We're gonna take it to him

Physicality We're gonna show with athleticism Let's run about the gym Versatile Hustile Mercantile Under 16 timeout And Cooter's 23

The Aggies 4 Exactly I want to see a reel of those speeches. That's funny. Like Prairie View A&M played, what they played Michigan? Oh. Then lost by 60 or something like that?

Florida. Florida. Yeah. Bye Florida. See you. 14 to 55. Oh, come on. Yeah, I want to see the miracle.

All we need is one. They'd be like SFA being in the tournament. You don't want that either. Oh, hey, SFA is won two games. Top 100. Top 100. spit it in those guys. I like the top 100.

You guys were running NIT to the NIT. CBI? CBI. That's still running? UPS, PBS. All right. Let's talk some rockets with our buddy Vince next. If you want to jump in, we got an hour and 15 left to go on this amazing Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk, 790.

713-212-5-790. Teen, moments ago, AJ gone off with pride, he's pirate's star. Coach Florida on an 18-0 run here What more do you need from your guys To slow this down and get into their game They need some help from the Lord They're very good They're very good

We just got to keep defending Trying to switch our defenses Trying to throw them off But they've been very efficient The Lord was busy Or didn't get the voicemail That's tough That's tough

Yeah JC was just He's like man you got to just take this loss I got other things to worry about. I got hunger and issue. I got hunger and cancer. I got a war in Iran. We've got a war in Iraq.

I got rising gas prices. Matt's 401k is down. Oh, he doesn't care about that. You probably should. Byron Smith, by a former Houston Cougar coaching that Prairie View team. Good for him. They got to the dance.

Just didn't get to stay very long. They won a game, kind of. I mean, it counts, right? By the way, that Texas Tech game just finished a minute ago. Yeah, go ahead. What's your score? The Eastern Time Zone blows. It's just, I mean, that's going to start.

If you are, let's say you are a fan of Illinois Houston. That's a 10 o'clock Eastern Time start. Tell me that there's millions of people watching that. I really do believe, and we've got to get to a call here in a second. I really do believe these TV networks, every one of them, are finagling the numbers to suit their needs. I just, I can't believe it. I think there's a lot of massaging of numbers that just don't make any sense.

sense. A lot of times they'll put numbers like Ohio or sever. It'll be, it'll depend on the demo and what demo they're looking at or what they're highlighting and stuff like that. They'll do that, but I don't think they're job. You think they're jobbing numbers? I think they're taking from Nielsen. I don't know what it is.

I don't, you first of all, you can't report illegal numbers. That would be, you'd be in trouble for that. But there's got to be something. Most of America, the game is on, I think it's TNT, I think. It's Illinois, Houston at 10 o'clock? TBS slash true TV.

Okay, so there's two. So I missed up in Turner. Most of America, that would be categorize themselves as a sports fan. I'm not talking about the two 23-year-old girls that are roommates that are going out that night. I'm talking about sports, potential sports fans are not staying up for this. People have to go to work. You're not staying up to 1145 midnight to watch the second. the last eight minutes of a cougar game i mean i'm not something i mean i don't know it's just yeah it's

yeah it's illinois houston as well like this not like it's any kind of west coast tilt yeah meanwhile the very first game of the day is at 610 p.m central time and it's in san jose with with your beloved longhorns now again i understand there's going to be some national cachet with texas peru i get that oh yeah but man these list super super late start now now Saturday and Sunday won't be a big deal because they're going to be on in prime time because there's a regional final. So this is really the last day we can bitch and moat about it. And again, I know Thursday and Fridays are hard because you can't, you're not putting the games on at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. You can't do that.

I'm just going to tell you. I don't think they're saying, you know what, we're not going to get that many people watching. So let's put it on here. They must be getting a lot of viewers in, I don't know, L.A. and Denver and Mountain Mountain and Westime. Must have a lot of college basketball fans in the Mountain and Pacific. They're crushing it in Colorado Springs, Rossi. I guess so. Well, that's the only thing I can think of.

Let's go to Vince on 7-9-9-year-12-56. Vince, good afternoon to you. Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hey, I was listening on the radio when you made the... What call was that that I was thinking about? But anyway, when Tar Hewson, I love to hear the call that you made. Actually, okay, I'm eating, so I got distracted. So I just heard the call when you...

On the tip in, I heard the call, your call on the... Kevin Durand three to pass Michael Jordan I would really like to hear your call on the Tari Easton turnover there with like eight seconds left. No. Please, please, please, please, please, please. No, no.

I don't think we don't have it. We don't have it. Good. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. Come on, man. No, you got to go back. Yeah, you go back and cut it. That's a whole process, man. We're not going to, just for you. No, I'm not doing it, man. We're not going to go. I got to log into the CIA. I got a down. I got to find the timestamp. then I got to download it, then I got to open it up, then I got to go cut it,

then I got to load it in the system. We're not doing all that, Vince. Yeah, yeah. Too much work, Vince. Too much work, Vince. Bad play, Vince. Just because you want to hear a bad play. No, sir.

You know what, what do you do, Vince? I'm going to ask you for some extra work for nothing. Vince, why do you want to play that kind of way? It was a terrible part of the game. Why do you want to listen to terrible stuff? And we're going to make you stay late to work an extra hour and I'm going to pay you. Hey, I want to, you know what, Vince, I know you got a beautiful wife. I want to hear about your ugly girl.

girl friends used to have back in the day. But no, the call I was thinking about was when Tari finally made the three-pointer. And he said something about his second three-pointer in March. Yeah, that was true. That's my attention. I said, you know, you said, thank you. I think you said, thank you, six-pound eight-bound baby of Jesus. I think that's what I...

No, I didn't say that, but, you know. All right, thanks, guys. We'll see you later, Vince. Yeah, Tari is... It's got to bounce back. You know what, Ross, he has to bounce back. Because if he's going to come off the bench, I need a double-digit score off the bench, Ross.

I just do. Because Dorian Finney's not going to do it. Clint's not going to do it. Josh Akogi's not going to do it. Aaron Holiday's not. Although Aaron's had a couple of nice games for the Rockets. He's been fun, but it's going to take a village to win a first-round series. No, you know, it's going to take five heavy lifters is what it's going to take.

And then second round against the thunder. You're not making the three seed. No, I'm happy with the four. No, you're not. I'd be super related with three. Hey, go Pistons tonight. That's what we need. Go Detroit Pistons.

Final hour of the show, we will get into a variety of things. One, about the roster for the Astros, breaking it down. Which two of the three make the squad? and how much of that is Jeremy Panyu's situation. We'll get to a little bit of baseball. We haven't talked to a whole lot of baseball. Actually, on the whole show today, I'm excited about that. We have Thursday's opening day.

You ready for that? Yes. Downtown Houston. Diken Park. We're going to sell that bad boy out, $40,000 for a $310. Absolutely, of course. It's opening day in H-town, baby. Baseball town.

We are. Right now. We've got a basketball town going on. We've got Rockets with a nice win. Kevin Durant. Oh, Kevin Durant, top five now in the NBA scoring. Yeah, take that Michael Jeffrey. I'm telling you, we have...

Did you use that on the call? No, I did not say it. Okay, can we play it when we come back? Sure you can. I don't, I didn't say Michael Jeffrey. I didn't even reference Michael Jordan's name. Oh, really? Michael Jordan did not necessarily have to send a little video message yet to Kevin Durant, has he?

Oh, he didn't. Kind of as we all figured. Maybe it'll play in your... Yeah. Definitely figured. Maybe it'll play in Chicago tonight. Oh, yeah. I wonder if Michael's going to be at the game to personally congratulate him.

No, he's busy. His NASCAR team just won another race. Did they really? I think they said he won like four out of six races. He's done making more money as a NASCAR owner than he ever did as a part owner of the Charlotte. He's a better owner of NASCAR than he has a GM in basketball. That's right. One o'clock, Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Bounce past the Shangoon free throw line. Back behind him to Reed. Reed, right elbow, out to Durant, setting, firing, hit him! Kevin Durant with a three ball! LeBron, Kareem, Carl, Kobe. You've got Kepenny in the airman.

His name is Kevin Durant. That's a voice of God, angelic, and humility. You always had that last little part of it at Ocho Sports RV. That's good stuff there, Matthew. The problem was it was in the ever flow of the game, so I'm running through all that, good stuff, and then boom, Miami, it's a 300 end. He didn't stop.

They didn't stop everything. It's rude. And that's kind of what Kevin won. He didn't want, you know, look. Kevin's got one more of these things that's going to have before his career is over with. That'll be next year. But, yeah, in the top five,

we have this. We had this conversation on the plane yesterday. It is going to be too hard to narrow it down to 10 greatest all time because we're kicking some really good people off the list. We just are. It's going to be to the point where so many names are arguable. Like the two guys on the top 10 list that are actually three that have the biggest conjecture about it, Kobe,

Larry Bird and Bill Russell. Yeah. I think a lot of people are Hakeem was very firmly in my top 10 for a long time. Yeah, I don't think he's in that top of it. I'm saying, he's kind of hard. We love Hakeem.

The versatility. If you're going with Shotblocking of them all. Yeah. With the versatility, the shot blocking, the scoring, everything. A complete player. Most people still have Shaq ahead of Hakeem.

I say no thank you. I'm going with Akeem ahead of Shaq. Shack is the top of all time? A lot of all time. people have them in there. See, this is, I mean, yeah, it's it's tough. It's like, you could seriously, if you're on a trip to China or

Japan, like you're in a 15-hour plane ride, you want to kill about seven hours, argue with eight or nine of your buddies on a flight about who the top ten players are in history of the NBA. And try to, try to put them in order. It's difficult. Oh, my big, you know, my long notepad here at the

desk, I got Wilth, LeBron. No doubt about it. Okay. Kareem. Kareem, no doubt about it. Michael. Michael. There's four, no doubts, no way. Always give me the list.

Can't ever take them off the list. Magic? Russell? Bird? No? Oscar Robertson, we haven't mentioned? I got four. This list that ordered the 75 and 75 on ESPN,

they got Hakeem 13, Durant 12. But how do you have a top five score or not in your top 10 all time? Steph Curry is 16. This is from last year. this is subject to change. Shaq 11, Kobe 10, this list. Tim Duncan 8.

I'm sorry. I can't do it. I cannot. Tim Duncan's are the eighth greatest player ever to play in the NBA. I'm sorry. That's just not true. I agree with you.

I cannot. Look, I value him. Great player. He's not the eighth best player and I ever playing the NBA. Who wrote this list? Some 31-year-old that lives in San Antonio. It says.

Alamo City Chamber of Commerce. That's what it says. Okay. at Spurs Nation wrote this at Missy Ultimate Spurs fan She'd have him won Monu's Ninth on the list

Luke Cornett Number 4 on the list It's weird Um Yeah We're splitting hairs I don't even know if it's worth We'll say it in the summertime

We have plenty of time The Obligatory NBA segment The legacy of Kevin Durant We will discuss for four straight hours That's exactly Bill Russell's an interesting one of me Bill The biggest negative of Bill is

didn't plan modern time, and number two, didn't, was never much considered an offensive score. 11-time champion, five-time MVP. What were his scoring numbers? What were his high? We'll go to the phone of the promise. I'll go to the phone of the promise. A bit of the game.

Supposed to be the greatest defender of all time. 11-time champion, five-time MVP. How do you not have him in the top 10? You're going to have to... How do you not kick Larry Bird out to go, go find Larry Bird right now in time he's not in the top ten of all time? You know what? I'm going to go with Kareem greatest basketball,

basketball player. And I didn't be a player basketball player of all the time. How about that? Kareem? I could argue that. Yeah. I could be on your side for that.

He was on the, wasn't he not on the freshman team at UCLA that beat the varsity team? Mm-hmm. I mean, he invented a shot. There's a hook shot, but it's different than a sky hook. And he's a three-time NCAA champion, right? Yeah. And was a complete a hole to a 17-year-old Matt Thomas. Three-time NCAA champion.

three-time Final Four most outstanding player, three-time National College Player of the Year, six-time MVP, six-time NBA champion. And held on to the scoring crown for a very long period of time. You know, he's in the top four. Two-time Mr. Basketball, USA. And an accomplished pilot. All right.

Let me not accomplish. He got sick. Two-time... Okay, let's look at this. Two-time high school player. of the year in the country, three-time national player of the year, college, and six-time MVP.

Yeah. How many points would he have if he didn't have to play three years of, four years of college? Probably LeBron still passes him. Yes. LeBron, look, yeah, by the way, two different Twitter accounts today. One has LeBron playing either in Cleveland and Golden State next year. The other account says he's definitely going to be a Laker next year. I don't think LeBron even knows what LeBron wants to do at this point.

Hmm. I got terrible news for your rocket fans. He ain't throwing 90s in the gun, but it's low 90s still. LeBron James? Mm-hmm. I don't know how he does it. As soon as you tell him he's the third most important player in the team, he triple doubles you. Yeah, the north to south.

He goes 13 to 14 from the floor. Yeah, the north to south is still great. The east to west isn't what it once was. And the three-point shot's not there anymore. 31%, basically. Oh, is that right? Yeah. He needs to watch out.

He's hurting his career numbers. I think he's okay. Yeah, you're right. The question is, is he going to have enough money to get people around him to buy an NBA franchise? He said he's not interested in that. Really? That's interesting.

He said he has zero interest in being a part owner of Las Vegas. Wow. Maybe because the price tag? I don't know. $7 billion to get into the NBA. $7 billion. If it wants to tell me how Major League Baseball is and Financial trouble. Everyone's telling me that no one cares about the NBA

anymore. Everyone's telling me that college basketball sucks because they're all one and done. These TV networks tend to disagree with all of you. Yeah, so he's in on Fenway Sports group, which owns, of course, the Red Sox, Liverpool.

Then they got rid of the penguins, didn't they ever Is that right? I didn't know that. But LeBron James, I'm potentially being part of, this is from Tim McMahon, of a group bidding on Vegas expansion teams. No, I'm not. Not at all. Do you believe him? Why would he lie?

Because people change your mind all the time. I mean, yeah, he could change his mind, I guess, but I don't know. I don't know. LeBron being an NBA owner. I was so mad at him interdight when he flailed when he got hurt. Well, hurt. When he got hit by Jabari Smith. He did land on his elbow.

Yeah, but he was like he also did oversell it. Like it was the WWE. Hey, you love overselling when it's the WWE. I don't watch WWE anymore What's today's edition Believe or not? You've got 35 minutes

Oh, what? I know. I don't know What should it be? Jackson, Smith, and Jigba? That'd be good. Or

Nebraska fans coming to Houston wearing corn cobs in their heads? Greg McDermott. He's retiring as the Creighton men's basketball head coach. I wonder if his son, Doug,

is going to take over. Dougie McBuckets? He's in the league. He doesn't play never, though. He's going to be a player coach from a difference. You never know. Stop. 114 on the phone's next. It's Sports Talk 790.

Well, lost. Do we accept his call? He's going to thank you for it. James on 790. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Enjoying your show. Thank you for accepting my call.

Listen, I just have a couple of comments. If the Rockets don't make the Western Conference final, the trade for Kevin Durant was a bus. They gave up probably one of the top five ball handling shooting guards in the league, and Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks. That was just too much. They traded a Western Conference final team for a clown. A clown.

The search came to town when Kevin Durant, when Kevin Durant, listen, Matt, if Durant was such an awesome player Phoenix would have never let him go Phoenix would have been in the Western Conference final when Durant was there The only reason why Durant is playing on the level he's playing here

he's trying to absorb as much space on the all-time scoring leader He don't care about no championship here in Houston All he want to do is surpass the number one all-time scurring leader I don't want to see that.

He could have done that in somebody else's uniform. He could have done that in Memphis. He could have done that in Phoenix. He could have done that anywhere except Houston. But we had an awesome. We had an awesome team constructed. We didn't need to do what we did when we got rid of Jaylen Green. And Dylan Brooks, listen.

Thank you for accepting my call. Sure. You guys have a great day. Thank you. Top five he put in. there with a little Janeland Green. That's high praise, sports RV. Wow.

It's going to be a bust. Look, it's probably going to be a bust in that they wanted to win the championship when they traded for Kevin Durant, but they've had a lot of players hurt and things didn't go the way he wanted to. And, I mean, it's looking like fourth seed out in the first or second round. I mean, that's not what they... I'm sorry, Matt. Nope.

Nope, that's what they didn't want. You're right. That's not what they wanted. Yeah, they were hoping for better. They also didn't want Fred Van Blitz, A.C. They didn't want his ACL to turn. They didn't want a grade three ankle sprain for Stephen Adams. I mean, the Lakers have been incredible.

They've won nine in a row. The San Antonio Spurs unfortunately made a big leap past you in the West. Things haven't gone according to plan. If we want to look at life as championship or everything else is a failure, then, yeah, the season's going to be a failure. So we've got to pray for Victor injury. That's not right. It's not going to, you're not going to be on that side of the bracket anyways.

Yeah, we're not going to see the Spurs of the Western Finals. Anyway, we're fine. You have to catch the Lakers and they have a tiebreaker. It's not happening. You have 12 games left? Let's see. The Rockets tonight is game 71, yeah. So in 12 games, you have to make up basically three.

It's there, two and a half now. What is the loss column? Okay, two in the lost column. You have to make up three in 12 games. Which means you've got to go 9 and 3 while they go 6 and 6. Right? Let's take a look. Really quick.

This will be 10 seconds of this quickly. It's not happening. It's not happening. Stay with me on this. It's not happening. Oh, my God. The next three after the Pistons. At Pacers.

When? Yeah. See, it's not happening. Stay with me. Home Nets. Uh-huh. Home wizards. Yeah.

Home Cavaliers. Okay. April games. At Thunder. Mm-hmm. home at Mavericks That could be I could lose

They could lose some of these At Mavericks Okay Home Thunder At Warriors Home sons Home Jazz Yeah you need them to go 6 and 6

and 6 while you go 9 and 3 Perfect Or not 6 and 6 because they only have 11 left But you know what I'm so you get my drift 5 and 6 Rocket schedule is not difficult the rest of the way actually It's not not a cakewalk though uh let's look timber wolves grisleys pelicans those are all road this week after

tonight's game in chicago winnable but tough home for the nicks got to get revenge every that game in lsg april home bucks win home jazz win in theory at warriors win at sons toss up but hopeful win then three home games close out the year six Wolves, Grizzlies. Does that sound like 9 and 3 to you? Sounds like a 12-0. 12-0, okay.

14 game winning streak to end the season. I mean, look, if they do that, they can make the 3-seed. No, it's probably going to be the 4. But the problem is, I just wrote it down on my notes for the night. Rockets, Denver, Minnesota are all 16

games above 500. It's percentage points lead. Rockets are the tie-breaker over Denver. They have the tie-break. No, they lose the tiebreaker to Denver, they're done. Minnesota, they have the tiebreaker, but they still have two more games of them come up for me of the year. You got to get this one tomorrow on Wednesday in Minnesota, especially if Anthony

Edwards is not going to play. Because that would give you a two, you would have a two-one worst case over Minnesota. Tie-breakers are going to play and play. If I'd spend two days less than Minnesota, I'm all for that. Let's go to EZ on 798-126. EZ, good afternoon.

Good afternoon. gentleman riddle me this. Opening day tickets I saw right now on a retail website. The cheapest ones are 85 bucks. You know, with fees and everything, you're looking at $100. That

same time, the Boston opener, those same seats are $24. I mean, is Jim Cram not rich enough or what's going on? I think if you want the fan loyalty, I think you need to bring those prices down.

We're not even talking about concessions. I'm just thinking about you guys talking now. I'll hang up, but listen. He doesn't set the resale market. Yeah, he has no control over what the secondary folks do. Yeah, the people set the resale market. Yeah. By the resale for the tournament games.

Huge downtown. But they'll be full. People are going to pay it. If you're in Omaha right now or Lincoln or anywhere in the Midwest and you're coming to Houston for a handful of days because, you know, you want to see your team. Look, Nebraska's never had this set of a success. If you're Nebraska fan, you're coming down here.

You don't care what the cost is. It's the first sweet 16 ever. Yeah. And there is dynamic pricing by teams in sports. I'm going back to the aster's for a second. So, yeah, opening day is going to cost you more than a midweek game against the, whatever the A's are this week. I mean, you have to like it. I mean, we have to like it.

But, you know, there's dynamic pricing with the gas. There's dynamic pricing with airlines. There's dynamic pricing with hotels. It's all dynamic. It's called gouging. Dynamic is just another word for gouging. Yeah, and sometimes you catch a break, you know,

a mid-weeker against the Cleveland Guardians going to get in for the building for $25. Enjoy yourself. Yeah. Take advantage when you can. Unfortunately, it is the way it is. I just, here's the thing. I can't crush owners for doing it

because if I was on the team, I would do it the exact same way. I'd have a finance person that would tell me, Matt, you is the owner of, XYZ team can charge more for a Rockets versus Golden State game and you can against a Cleveland Cavaliers. Okay, let's do it.

Yeah. I mean, we can't call Jim. If you're empty, then then I lose. Then I took my chances and I lost. You can't say you want Jim Crane to spin, spin, spin, and then you want the tickets to be free. And again, the rubrubs and the ricket rasters. Yeah, they have no interest in making sure it's affordable for you. No.

And then get ready for. you get a slap with some big fees. And my favor is when people go on the video, hey, go to this website and put my name in there, you get $20 off, and then the fees are like $86 on top of the tickets. Not just scamsters. Astros at this moment, according to Spot Track,

11th in the payroll. And hopefully we'll get to the top 10 once they lock up, Jeremy Payne, Hunter Brown, long term. That'll be after the lockout. All right. 129 on Sports Talk 790. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212.

5.790. A little ABS talk, Ross, for you next. You ready for that? Oh, love it. You love ABS. I guess. I just want full ABS. You can get partial ABS and like it. 713-212-5-790.

4-9 Sports Talk 790. So there was a spring training game that took place over the weekend and involved the San Francisco Giants. We got a little bit of the San Francisco version. And I'm going to need you to help me walk me through this as I'm a little confused by this. Okay, it's the Guardians and the Giants. Robbie Ray was facing

Sean Mooney at the plate, tying run in a 3-0-0-0-0-0-0-2 count with two outs in the top of the fourth. Here is the Giants TV network calling this play. Not just move the guy up a day with an eye toward the long haul. O2 pitch. Moody

takes a ball and Patrick Bailey's challenging this one. San Francisco is challenging the ball call There's the call. Why is the call? The call is correct. San Francisco has no remaining two. One third of an inch

beneath the bottom of the strike zone. All right, there's the call. Why would he want his call to be wrong, Ross? I don't understand. I guess he just maybe misspoke. So I saw that and I thought he said it. correctly when I first saw it. So this is the first...

The call was a ball. The play was challenged. It was correctly called. Maybe he's reversed jinxing himself. That's what I'm confused about. I don't understand why he would be saying what he said. He could be rooting for the system to get wrong and so it has a bad look on it. Okay. Mooney was the hitter.

Yes. It was 0.2 count. Bobby Ray was the pitcher. The catcher Patrick Bailey, Bailey challenged the call. The catcher incorrectly made the challenge. The call was correct. But yet Bill Miller, the home umpire, said, I hope it's a strike. Maybe it has to be a mispeak, right?

I guess so. Because I mean, I'm literally, I'm trying to connect the dots here and I can't figure this out. Yeah, maybe he was saying it to Bailey is the speculation. Like he's just joking around? know. Did he say anything after the game? That I don't know. All I know is I got video of it sent to me and I went to YouTube. Yeah, so I saw

the video as well. By the way, Bill Miller has been eating well in this off-season. I'm hoping. Come on, man. Well, I mean, don't you kind of be in shape? No, it's a major league baseball umpire since when? I don't know. Most of those guys are pretty lean now. They're not family. The younger guys are, but come on.

Joe West? I don't remember buying Joe West exercise tapes. Well Can you hear a Joe West story? He's lifting a rack of ribs to his mouth. I got news for you about Joe West. Apparently, I have an impeccable source that tells me that Joe West was a you know what hound.

What? There's no way. How? What kind of St. Bernard's was he scaring up? Oh, wait a minute. What? I make fun of Bill Miller's waistline, and you're talking about the types of dogs that Joe West's saying? out with you said he was a hound

maybe his country music remember we used to sing to his girls maybe that's part of the reason why he was getting it I don't know I guess I just know that Joe West was he meant to have been a player on the field but he was certainly a player off the field really yeah

okay there are going to be some more hot mic moments coming up they're going to forget it's going to happen yeah I mean I don't think it's be too I don't think it's be crazy but it's pretty funny that he said that I mean, he's frankly lucky he didn't say maybe either it was a misspeak or he was trying to, you know what he could have been, he could have been just kind of Josh him with the guy.

Or maybe he has the overrun strikeouts. No, I don't think umpires are betting on spring training games. And if they are, that's terrible. I'm not saying he is, but I'm not saying he's not. Maybe he said just to play get the catcher. Yeah, maybe. You know, the guy's got a bad, my eyes are better than yours and you're the one catching the ball. Yeah.

I'm excited for it. I really am. I don't think you're going to get your wish. I told you it's going to be at least what I take it. 30 years at least? 30 years. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm going to come find you.

Well, I don't even be able to find me. You'll find me in the home. Yeah, I'm going to come in my face that I'm wrong. Yeah. Bring some pudding along with at least. I'm going to beat your ass in Dominoes. Oh, my God. Shuffleboard if I can walk.

Yeah. And then the whole time we're watching Bonanza reruns. I'm going to let you know what happened. Now, wait a minute. Hold on. I've never watched one episode of Bonanza. Okay, fine. Price is right.

Let's put this fast forward. It is 2026. Yes. 30 years, I'll be 83. You're going to come to my home. Like the home home, not the home house. Uh-huh. The home.

What am I going to be watching? You're going to be watching. The Texans are going to be celebrating their third straight Super Bowl. You said they were never going to win. Made up part of the organization. Who does she report to? She reports to herself. Come on.

Does even Cal know this happened yet? Or does Hannah have to wait for a couple days to tell him? Let's see. Steve Carson-Sarkeesian's going to be winning his fourth championship. Oh, wow. You said he's going to be gone. What other stuff? I'm watching my way.

I'm watching the Price is right with the third host ever. Malik Willis will be getting his gold jacket as he's inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. SFA is no longer open enrollment. alongside Trey Lance. Oh my God. I'm right about, I was right about Trey and I'm right about the league. Ashton Gentie will be in the crowd as well, getting his gold jacket.

Ascenti will be talking about those back-to-back 600 yards seasons. Let's see, what else? Yeah, we'll be watching some baseball with full ABS. Nate Burleson will still be the host of the Hollywood Squares. I'm trying to remember what else. Oh, Zion Williamson will also be getting

inducted into the Hall of Fame. the same weekend. Jordan Alvarez Zion Ironman Williamson who will set the record for 82 game performances in a row. How about Jordan Alvarez breaks Cal Ripkin Street? Oh, here we go. I like that one too.

This is working. All your no chance, no way, no house. I mentioned SFA's no longer open enrollment. Hey, come on, that's rude. And Nick Casario will be announcing his retirement. Oh, Nick is there. We're celebrating his first offensive line hit in the first round. Stop.

And we'll be watching a 40-minute NBA game. And college basketball games will be under two and a half hours. Okay, that's not happening. And, again, if you've not heard, Hannah McNair is now, what are we calling her now, the CEO of what? She's the community something or other. She had to give in herself that boost, right? There's nobody.

I mean, who's challenging her? No, nobody. She went to Cal, said, hey, hey, honey, hey, your clothes are laid out. Also, can you make me community chief community officer and vice president? Your clothes are laid out. Oh, my God, that's funny. Your clothes are laid out.

Also, make me chief community manager. He's like, okay. No problem, Hannah. Well, but, I mean, in all seriousness, if not for Hannah, where would this organization be? I wonder how long it took for her to figure out that what's his face, Jackie.

SportsHud says the weather was really hot and the strike would have ended the inning. Oh, okay. Well, now that makes a little more sense. I'm okay with that. That'd be funny if he's just joking around. Because again, look, it's not shelt. I mean, honestly.

Yeah, he's probably sweating. Got a little dunlap. It's getting swampy. Okay, we're moving on. We could play, believe it or not, has Hannah ever held this? title with the Texans. Oh, we're not doing that.

I got a lot of work to do in this break. All right. We're going to leave Ross alone here. Thank you. I've only... Oh, by the way, it's the number one training my topic. Hannah, Texan... Oh, here it is.

Texans name Hannah McNair, chief community officer in front office expansion. How about Hannah named Hannah McNair, chief community officer? 713-212-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. I would like to give you today's edition to believe we're not topic,

but Ross probably hasn't thought of it. And I've only given four audio cues during the course of the show. 143, if you want to play, it's up next. And we are playing for it today. I think we're playing for more Rockets tickets today. Are you excited about that, folks? Rockets and, oh, yeah, Rockets against the Milwaukee Bucks. We have tickets to see Brian Adams and Pat Benatar.

That'd be a great concert. Excellent, excellent, excellent. All coming up today, and believe it or not, 713, 212, 5-790. 49 on Sports Talk 7. Tomorrow on the radio program, we will recap the Rockets game against the Chicago Bulls. We will also have gut feelings tomorrow on the radio show as well. And we'll get into a little bit more about the college basketball tournament. We have a couple of special guests along the way as well.

Wednesday will be from Minneapolis. Thursday, Ross and the A team will host the show from 10 o'clock until 2. And they will do it outside of Dynken Park leading up to the game opener with the Los Angeles. those angels. So we're going to mix in college basketball this week. We'll mix in some NBA. And, of course, the Astros opening day and anything regarding the Texans that would be worthy. Although, you know what?

You can always find offensive line talks somewhere on those streets. So busy weeks would be a good time. It's good for the city of Houston. Plus, we've got the Houston Open is going on this week as well. So a busy time to be a Houston sports fame. And I know the ticket prices are going to go crazy. I know you all going to be upset about that. You want to go?

Get you a nap. You turn that secondary market, maybe get a second job because that's what they do. The question is, are people buying the tickets and then just trying to put them on the resale as fast as possible? I guess you could do that. Because I know you've been, you could have bought tickets a month ago to this thing. You could always list them, and if they don't go for the price you want, then you just keep them and go. Yeah. But, I mean, we ran commercials, Ross, for buy your tickets for this.

I mean, anybody running around and scratch going nuts about, I can't get tickets. Well, you could have got them a month ago. You didn't take your chances. Yeah. and if you were a Cougar fan we had a pretty good shot to go to the Sweet 16. I mean, this was kind of like that this was the chalk pick coming to

to Houston to begin with. So, I mean, I know y'all want to go and it's cool, but Brock, stop texting me. Get on the secondary market. This is great. He's going to keep happening. You're going to keep getting asked. I've had five people ask me. I mean, I'm not

lying to you. Five people. And they're all great friends of mine. But damn, I don't have them. How many of those? those five are asking for freebies and how many of those five are asking for free? No, no, no, nobody knows that. That would be really bad. That would be really, really, really bad.

For sure. All right, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it Believe it or not. And here's how it works. you'll call 713-21-2-5-790 7-13-21-2-5-7-90

Today's edition I don't even know what today's edition Believe it on it's. Let's take a look what it is here. It is Waiting for it to download All things about Chicago, Ross. Nicely done, my friend. I'm in this city. Thank you, Matt.

I'm in the Windy City. I'm going to read you a statement about Chicago. Statement is completely notarily accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If the same is erroneous, Philibonka, made up, you will say this. Two believe it were not in a row when you either are a pair of tickets for the Rockets game against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 1st inside TOTA Center or a pair of tickets to see Brian Adams and Pat Benatar with Neil, is it Geraldo.

Is that who that is? July 29th at TOTUS Center. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 o'clock at TOTAcenter.com. So TOTA center.com for either the Rockets or Brian Adams with Pat Benatar. Let's play. Believe it or not. Sebastian on 790. Sebastian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yeah.

The name Chicago derives from the indigenous Miami people in Sikawa, their name for an onion-like flowering plant. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Jeremiah on 790. Jeremiah, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Oh, talking about the coves, man.

Nicknames for Chicago include Mud City, the windy city, sitting a garden in the city of big shoulders. Believe it or not. Believe it. There you go. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. In 2023 and 24, the metro population of Chicago declined for two years in a row for the

first time in the history of the city. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's going on. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. Ross, nicely done. That sounded so believable, too. Paul on 790. Paul, you're ready to play believe it or not.

Believe it. Adjusted for inflation, the Great Chicago Fire of 1913 is the most expensive metropolitan disaster in U.S. history. Believe it or not. That's correct. Rossman that up. Statement number two for the win. In terms of transit miles,

the Chicago subway system is second in the United States to only New York City. Believe it or not. I'll go with a believe it. No, you shouldn't, but thank you, though. Behind the Bay Area and behind Washington, D.C. see let's go to John on 790

John you ready to play believe it or not believe it in 2025 Chicago had 43 Michelin-starred restaurants which in the United States is second only to New York City believe it or not believe it no Ross made that up too

DC had more I'm stunned by that David on 790 David your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show whatever I called, believe it or not. Michael Jordan is Chicago Bulls' all-time winning score. Second is Artist Gilmore. Believe it or not?

Believe it. No. Who's second? Scottie Pippon Rossi, is that right? Duh. No, okay. And let's go to Orlando on 790 Orlando. You're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Sister cities to Chicago include Mexico City, Toronto, and Casablanca. Believe it or not. believe it. There you go. You finally one there. All right. More to give away tomorrow throughout the course of the week.

Make sure you listen to Sports Talk 790 every day. 10 o'clock until 2. We certainly want you to listen for the next four hours because the man who made the hire to promote Hannah McNair will be joining the show. No, I'm kidding. Adam Wexer is up next with Adam Clinton. They are the A team. I'll talk to you for Rockets and Bulls at 7 right here on Sports. Let's talk 790.