The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1516 - Team USA Advances to the WBC Finals, March Madness Brackets Revealed, Team USA Manager Mark DeRosa, Coach K, Sled Hockey Gold Medalist Jack Wallace, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap last night’s thrilling 2-1 Team USA victory over the Dominican Republic as they advanced to the championship game of the World Baseball Classic. They also chat about the incredible finish at the Players Championship, Justin Fields being traded to the Chiefs, the NCAA Tournament brackets being revealed, and everything else happening in the sports world. Joining the progrum is 16 year MLB veteran, MLB Network analyst, and Manager for Team USA, Mark DeRosa to chat about last night’s exhilarating game, all the heat he took leading into the semifinal game, how impressed he was with Paul Skenes, Aaron Judge’s leadership as the captain, and a look ahead to Tuesday night’s Championship game. Next, 5x National Champion, 3x Gold Medalist, most wins of all-time, 13 Final Fours, 15 ACC Tournament titles, the goat, Mike Krzyzewski joins the progrum to chat about the NCAA Tournament, some of his favorite memories from coaching the National Team, the divide between the haves and have not’s in college basketball, and much more. Later, 3x Gold Medalist in sled hockey, fresh off a hat trick against Canada in the gold medal match, Jack Wallace joins the show to chat about his story, how he got started in sled hockey, how far it’s come, and much more. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. We’ll see you on Monday, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdown. On this overreaction Monday, 316 day. This sports program begins now. Wade! Great. Happy 316 day to all who celebrate. Obviously, we are referencing Stone Cold, Steve Austin. And, you know, you got your book of John, but Austin 316 says,

I just warped your ass, and a bald-headed man would go on to take over not only the wrestling business, but also pop culture, and inspire a lot of working class, human beings, and kids along the way. Somebody that told authority to go to hell, drank a beer and kicked your ass. And that's basically a good thing for anybody that is like us in this particular world. And I had the incredible opportunity one time

to share a couple beers with the Texas Rattlesnake. I had the opportunity to chug some beers with the Texas Rattlesnake. And then, you know what they say is you don't trust the Texas Rattlesnake? Because every once in a while, he'll by God you right in the stomach and send your jaw into about 30 different places. Now, that is after a full chug and more beer. We would have to fast forward about a minute and a half into this video to see that happen. But nonetheless, happy 316 day to everybody.

And shout to the WWE being awesome throughout most of our lives on that note. Now, back to wonderful sports. It has been a fantastic few days of sports. And we cannot wait to chat about it all. Football just had some breaking news this morning. Justin Fields, formerly of the Hoss State, then of the Chicago Bears, then of the Pittsburgh Steelers, then of the New York Jets, now traded to the Kansas City Chiefs. Wow. That happened this morning for a sixth rounder.

Okay, Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL in week 15, as we all remember. Justin Fields being brought into Kansas City, potentially fill in four. Patrick, if he's not backed by week one, which would be crazy with an ACL, just like the Daniel Jones talk about him being able to be back for week one, seemingly a bit crazy. But obviously, these guys are incredible workers and incredible athletes. Congrats for Justin Fields. Good chance to go. Can you see? That's good stuff.

Won a couple games for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Didn't necessarily blow up the stat sheet in any of those types of things. Anytime he has the ball in his hands he's running, he's potentially the most athletic person on the field. We assume Andy Reed would be able to make the most of Justin Fields, his abilities, his talents. Throwing is obviously certainly a question mark,

so much that the owner actually came out after agreeing to pay him $20 million a year to be a quarterback. Owner came out and said, our guy came to complete a pass. So it's not like we have Patrick Mahomes. We got a guy that came out. even play quarterback. Owner said that, and then had to walk that back a little bit. Justin Fields obviously continued to be an adult through the entire process, but the Jets bet on him

to potentially be the guy in the meantime before they figure it out in the Aaron Glenn run, and now they're trading him away to the Kansas Chiefs, and I think it's good news for Justin Fields, happy for him. Let's go to the toxic table at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt. Didn't expect Kansas Chiefs to be trading for Justin Fields this morning, but here we are. No, yeah, definitely not. But, you know, hey, good for the Chiefs, good for Justin Fields. maybe he finally gets that opportunity to be on a winning ball club outside of the Steelers last year. He's had a tough run in the NFL, so I'm excited for Justin Fees. And maybe there's put him a running back.

One half of the Hammer, Cowboys AP Town is here. Town obviously won Steelers quarterback. Justin Fields won some games for the black and gold. We're incredibly proud of him. He's now a member of the Chiefs, but I'll tell you that is not going to be the main talking point of this particular day. No, it is not. This is a huge day in the sports world. Last night, obviously, magic happened.

There were some brackets that were made. There's some Olympic gold medals that were won. It's a wonderful time in sports. Let's go to nine-year NFL vet. One of the smartest minds in the history of all, Darius J. Ballers. DeBusch, I see your son. Day, Red. And that was a magical weekend of golf as well.

It's a beautiful time to be alive as a sports fan, Darius Butler. It is. I've seen it's off-season for us when it comes to football, but there's been a ton of great sports moments so far. All the way up from, I know we won't talk about it here, but F-1 had a great weekend as well. Oh, yeah, the Oscars. I saw Brad Pitt.

We got some hockey going on. We got everything going. It did. They're hot big one. Gratzy. We'll see if they can continue, obviously, through it all and continue to run. But the F-1 stuff is certainly tough to watch, I think, racing. But I do love the stuff around.

I do love stuff around. 2 a.m. Yeah, I enjoyed last. A couple got canceled, too. What's that? A couple, couple of Grand Prix won't happen. What, they say something? They got canceled?

Just location. Yeah. Really? Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Flag football game also. In that particular thing. Hope everybody, hope that all.

Yeah. Hope that all gets figured out. Yeah. All of it. Hope it all gets figured out. Now, let's figure out what the top five headlines are around the sports world that need to be talked about. Because there's headlines everywhere in the sports world. We wanted to give our top or favorite five coming out of the incredible weekend.

These and gentlemen, it's top five, top five, top five time. Let's go to the five. headline in our eyes. Ladies and gentlemen, it's here. March Madness is officially here. 360 teams by to get into this tournament. Everybody on earth watches college basketball for a few weeks, and they decide to themselves,

which team do I want to latch my bandwagon on? Which team do I want to bet on? Which team do I want to lose my money on? A bunch of 18-45-year-old family? I don't know what it is, but a bunch of players I've never heard of before are going to determine my fate on this particular bet or this particular evening as I ride

alongside of them. Schools that you've never heard of can make a name for themselves. But can they actually? Nowadays, they're saying those lower seeds are lower seeds for a reason. And now there is automatic bids, obviously, with the conference championships from around all of college ball. There's a chance that now with NIL

and transfer portal and everything that's going on at the bigger conferences, you know, the power conferences, they might just be, this might be a different division at this point. There's been 50 times where a 12 seat has beat a five seed. damn near every single year. Mm-hmm.

People are saying those days might be over. Oh, come on. People are saying its brands are bigger than they've ever been for some of these schools. Now, I am not a college basketball expert, but I do enjoy the hell out of March Madness. I hope the Cinderella story, the who the hell are they, university going on a run, never stops. But I do appreciate the hell out of what Hoops provides us, which is incredible environments and obviously incredible stories. Magical moments this past weekend during conference championships. There's three lead changes in the final eight seconds.

I mean, that was just in one game. In another game, there's a Hail Mary. In another game, there's a blind shot from out of bounds that's falling in there. March is magical. March is madness. And we'll actually have Coach Kaye joining us throughout the entirety of this year's March Madness to legitimize our shit. Nice.

Okay. You know, so we'll ask him the questions that need to be asked. Cannot wait for him to chit-chat and guide us through this particular March Madness. He'll be joining us at 105 today. Then I believe he'll be with us later this week and then next week a couple times and then through it all. Hell yeah. So we're going to have a nice little run here with the greatest of all. time. Man, there's 1,202 wins, most in the history of college hoops. Five-time national champion

cannot wait to talk to him. But conman, obviously, March Madness brings a lot of gambling. And you used to have a little gambling theory through March Madness that kind of carried you. And now you're going to have to evolve a little bit, it sounds like. Yeah, for sure. I definitely didn't invent it, but I kind of did adopt it. It was just blindly betting every single underdog money line. I don't think you can do that anymore to your point. I think it's probably smarter to bet on the spreads rather than the actual money line of these underdogs. Yeah, because some of these plus 1100 teams were hitting and that would make up for obviously 13 other losses in this entire thing.

Exactly. UMBC being a 16 seat and be in Virginia. You know, we probably aren't going to see too many of that. But some of the other ones you mentioned like Queens, that's cool that's playing Purdue out of Charlotte, they're joining Elon next year. They actually won't be a school next year because they're only about, I think that entire gym is every single student that goes to that school because it's only about a 15 or 1,800 kids, but those stories are cool. I also think a kind of thing to look towards is the players who start at high schools

that end up going to lower schools. That kid from Penn, T.J. Power, who was one of the kids who had a buzzer beater yesterday. Yeah, he had 44 points, 14 rebounds. He hit a buzzer beater. Absolutely based. Sending it to O.T. They end up going on to win. Like, there will still be those stories.

And yeah, this play right here is unbelievable. I mean, you're talking about someone who 3C going up. against Yale. Oh my goodness. Splish splash. Nothing but net. And look at that too. That's only their 18th win of the entire season. Oh, that almost fell.

Yeah. Yeah, Yale had a chance, but then they kind of pulled away there in the overtime. But that is March Madness, baby. We might see one of those long kind of half-cord shots to win it fall, and that's why it's so exciting. DeBott, they're saying college hoops way better than the NBA right now. That's what they're saying. Yeah, I definitely agree.

March Madness is hard to compete with, but I love the NBA. NBA playoffs, but March Madness, especially, you know, going to a blue blood. I know the underdogs and Cinderella, it's always great stories. Are they okay? That's a good question. They lost by 20. St. John's put it on this. I think we'll bounce back there.

We'll have the boys ready. But it's stacked, especially at the top with some big time players, obviously Boozer and that stack squad of Duke, Michigan, their stack, and obviously Yukon. I think they will bounce back. They will fight. Darius A. C. C.C. Jr. out in Arkansas. I'm excited. It's always one player who always captivates me.

I feel like this player is kind of captivating America right now, so I'm excited to see. Yeah, who is he? What is he? I've heard this guy got pissed off and just killed everybody. Oh, yeah. Point car out there in Arkansas, he kind of reminds me of maybe like an AI,

Stefan Marbury hybrid, just put the ball in his hand, let him figure out he'll drop dimes, he'll get you buckets, and three level score. You get to the basket, mid-range, shoot threes, just everything you want a young guard to do on the court. But, I mean, this is a preview. to the draft. The draft is pretty stacked, especially with, like, college, American

players going into the next level, so I'm excited about this much man. I like the look, too, the little sleeve. Oh, yeah, sleeveless. I like, really like the locksy out there. Yeah, out there in Arkansas. We're going to be traveling, obviously, up to Portland. That's a long way up there. I love it. It's a home of somebody.

Parents Jones. But, yeah, I can't wait to get up there. It's a long way. It is certainly way up there. Arkansas is much closer than we are to Portland, but it is fascinating how the old regions thing go. Excite to see. I guess the East super stacked, but we'll find obviously how it goes. Women's bracket as well, West Virginia's about to win this

whole thing, so everybody can just kind of wrap it up. Last tournament that West Virginia women's basketball team played in, they want it. And then guess what the next team that played in the tournament did? The rifle team, they want it. I call that. West Virginia's winning tournaments right now. That's what I'm trying. I know there's others in here. They got tied to all. They've certainly won their conference championships

as well. Okay, but they need to know that the mountain years are coming. Is Yukon going win this entire thing? Oh yeah, we're up there at the top left usually. I mean, we're always there. don't get to a final. Minus 265 to win the Addy? Yeah. Not this game.

Sarah Strong. You bet the favorites on the woman's side. They will cover. They dominate teams. I mean, we saw UCLA. They won by 50 points in their conference final. Like, there is a chance that if you go all chalk in the women's tournament, you can make out like a band.

Is Gino still Cushinette? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Godfather's still. Oh, you crooks. Where's... Well, get comfortable because you're probably going to be seeing her round two. Hate to be upset.

before Yukon gets to the Sweet 16. You're back to get cooked by honeycrops. This is Mark. This is right there. Oh, buddy. Let me ready. All right, it's got the number four headline coming out of the weekend in our eyes. Ladies' gentlemen, meet on meat.

What? Yeah. Yeah. Matt Madness. Okay, this is college wrestling. That's right. And you think to yourself, hey, why do you do it at the exact same time as March Madness? Can we not just do another week?

when it would be strictly college wrestling. And then they all say back to me, hey, literally 90% of us can just beat the shit out of you, okay? So why don't you just shut up and just go ahead and enjoy what we got? And I say, you got it. You've been paying attention to this for more part of your life than I have,

but what I do know, this is electrifying. Okay, this is a sport that is obviously a lot of toughness and obviously a lot of grit and courage and having to go dig deep down and go one-on-one and out-body somebody. So the amount of things that you need to have to be a great wrestler, obviously very admirable, but it becomes an electrifying environment.

It becomes a gladiator the way they treat this madness. Now Penn State, hey, can't even bet on them. You can't even bet on them. You can't even bet on these guys. They're too good. No, are you available? Look, without Penn State. Winner without Penn State.

What is that? 13 out of 15? Yeah, if they win this year, they would be their fifth in a row and 13 out of 15. That's crazy. They're unstoppable. You get at Penn State, you're better at wrestling and everybody else. That's just kind of how it works. Their coach, Kail Sanderson, I think he was like this in college too.

Undefeated. He went undefeated in college, won the whole thing. Then he became a coach, I think, at Iowa State. Yep. And then Penn State said, hey, excuse me, we're going to need that over here. And he just won't undefeated. It just hasn't lost this guy. This guy just has not lost.

Gold medalists, too. Yeah, so. Legends. So now it's basically, from my viewpoint, everybody versus Penn State. Tanya, like, if you get anybody that gets them, congratulations. So it becomes, like, a very incredible atmosphere. The sport of wrestling, we're from. from western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh.

Obviously, there's a lot of wrestling there. There was a time where they were trying to eliminate. Yeah. There was a time where they were trying to eliminate wrestling. And it's like, I think we'd be doing the world of disservice. These wrestlers are dogs. These wrestlers are absolute peace. And we get a chance to see it an electrifying environment.

I wish there would be a time strictly for them. But it's not bad if there's a couple duds playing and put on Matt Madness. That's where I stumbled upon it a few years back. Yeah, no matter what, if you turn it on, you will be entertained. Another thing with this team, I saw it was seven. of the 10 one seats in the individual tournament, they are on Penn State. So they have seven of the

10 weight classes basically just locked down, and I'm assuming what, how many of them are probably two seats? Yeah, several. Several. Yeah, all of their guys will be ranked and I think, and as evidence why you can't bet on them. It's like, hey, they're going to win. Can't bet on it. That's insane. Yeah, that has to be the most dominant

in history. Can't even bet on them. Yeah, sorry. Sports books, trying to profit off of people betting on things. So they give terrible odds to you. So if you do bet on minus 1100 and Italy beats USA, that's obviously a ha, ha, ha, can't even get a number big enough for them to be like, nope, not even rolling the dust. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. That is crazy to think about. Okay, let's go to number three headlines, shall we? The Players' Championship, some considerate the fifth major, obviously kicks off the PGA season in a

big way for a lot of folks. Everybody's playing at it. And Cam Young, clutch into chaos, becomes the players champion. This guy, in the biggest moments, Just clear-minded, free thought. 17th hole is basically, yeah, good luck from all of golf. Following what 16 is, which is a very difficult hole. And then the 18th hole was actually the worst hole or the hardest hole on the course. So 17, obviously, 13, minus 13, minus 12 right there. You're behind.

Do you put one in the water? This is over, Bub. You're not winning this thing. You slide down that board quicker than an Oberg. Oberg had a tough Sunday. But Cam Young instead, the complete opposite. This guy was the PGA rookie of the year in 2022 out of New York, hit the ball 3174 yards on the 18th hole, drawing it over water perfectly.

The longest drive recorded in the history of hole 18 at TPC sawgrass. You're talking about standing over that ball and not having, oh no, I don't blow this thing. like we've seen some golfers ever before. Or tighten it up and guide it. Instead, greatest drive in the history of the course. What a stone cold killer this guy is. I believe we'll be talking to him tomorrow. Hell yeah.

What a win. And shout out to golf being all the way back. And shout to Scotty just being alive on a Sunday. Because I'm going to be honest. And I saw Scottie going to work there late. And I thought he was going to maybe Eagle 16. And I thought maybe he was going to claw back into this thing. It just gave me a little bit of hope.

but then watching what Cam did all day, it was magical. It was like golf season's back is really what it felt like. Yeah, golf is awesome. It's so dope hearing all these guys different stories. His dad has been his only coach

and his swing, like that pause and he has a swing, his tempo. And then before 18, like 17, you mentioned on that Island Green, Fitzpatrick, he went, you know, right middle of the green, Planet Connestate. He was hot as well. They were matched up together.

And then he goes and just throws a dot right at it, takes the bird to get the lead, and then what he did on 18 to finish it out. It was just unbelievable. entire Sunday. I know O'Berg would his fall from the top, and he kind of handled it well with his post game. I was tough, because he seems like one of those guys that's going to be

a number one player for a long time. He has all the attributes, but he just couldn't get it done. And just hearing these guys, like the USA chance down the stretch, kind of had some Rider Cup vibes with Fitzpatger's an unbelievable environment. I mean, his post game, too. It was post-match comments about, hey, I'm going to

get over here and hit the greatest shot of my life, and he did. That was unbelievable. Yeah, so Pat talked about him being a rookie year in 2022. We had two top fives in the majors that season, and then he won. And then I feel like he picked up a lot of steam at the Ryder Cup because he was the only American who won every one of his matches. He was awesome. And then for him to do this this weekend, he's picked up a ton of fans. He is awesome.

He always looks super cool. He is the sweet MLB patch on him. He bombs the ball. Yes, the beard, the hair. Like, Cam Young is going to be a fan favorite for years to come here. Yeah, the beard is certainly fantastic. And he looks pretty chiseled. It also looks chill.

Yeah. It's a weird in shape, but not jocked look. Golf for golfers. Yeah, it looks fit, exactly. And his walk is pretty cool. You know, he has a pretty good. His shoulders sit well. Looks like a dog.

A good gate. Well put together. Yeah. Not because when we're watching golf, these are the things you all look for. Exactly. There's not a lot of other things. Some wobble bodies out there too. There are some wobble.

We'll get to it. Especially on a day like this when it's super windy too. Oh, yeah. Bobby McIntyre look great. Okay. I don't know. I saw a belly button, and this happens to me. You know. Oh, yeah.

Don't on a hole. If your belly button is growing because your belly's getting big and that thing's spread out across there, it's going to look like the whole of a volcano is in your stomach, and that's not good, especially with camera. 8K. Yeah. We got 8K. Exactly. I don't know what that means, but I know.

It's 8,000. 8,000 frames. But it is. That was a change for me whenever we started really going into 4K, and for the culture it's wearing white spanks. that was certainly something as the holidays came through and everything was taking place. It's like, man, they got really good cameras these days. Yeah, you're gonna have, you're fucking fat.

Some of these golfers don't care. No, at all. I saw a picture. It just lives in. Tugboat, I'd like to apologize. Wow. Tugboat, I did not know you're, I don't even know.

I don't know how we got here, but I appreciate you, tugboat, living your life. And you're a menace on a mound. Yeah, progboats a star. He's outrageous. I know. How do we get him on parts? How do we get Tucker?

Is he an MLB? I don't believe so. Sounds like you cut this guy. He's on the Guardians. A level. A level ball. Well, A level ball.

He's not the MLB. He's ruffling around in the, you cut this guy a check. You throw 250K at the Guardians and guess what? Tug got it's yours. Yeah. This guy is professional baseball player. That's Tung, baby.

He dropped. No offense, Tugboat. Okay, when I heard your name was Tugboat, this guy gets it at least. He understands what's going on here, okay? Tugboat's a great nickname. First time I've ever heard that. You also first human I've ever seen like this. They had some shots in the front, too.

Tugboat don't care at all. No, he don't. Tugboat, I mean, he's coming to carve you up. He did, too. Tugboat was a problem. Let's get him on the Pirates. Let's get him on the part. Let's get the number two headline coming out of the weekend.

We appreciate any athlete that's able to do that. That's why we were talking about it. Yeah. It's unbelievable. was fat ass for a little bit. There was other legendary fat ass. You know who is not? Ladies and gentlemen, it has happened. For the first time in a history of the world, a team has won the gold in women's hockey, men's hockey, and sled hockey in the Paralympics, which we just accomplished. The boys want bananas in the third period. It was a cagey affair. It was a cagey affair going into

the third period. And what did we do? We said, well, We've only won four of these in a row. Okay, we've only won four these in a row. You think we're going to tighten up into the... Absolutely not. Jack Wallace with an absolute snipe. Yeah, he had three goals. It was at one point they thought he had four.

But then Declan Farmer, greatest sled hockey player of all time, actually got... He stick on it before one in, but these boys were silky. I'm going to be honest. If you didn't watch, I think it would be hard for you to... Boom. Do you see that under the leg? Healthy.

Under the sled. Poor mama hides the cookies. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. And I saw, they were trying to kill the puck at the end. So that was dangle season. Oh, I bet. I mean, it was dangle season at the end.

I saw, I remember which guy was, dude hit a spin move with this thing under his right stick, okay? Spins on this sled turns under thing, back to the other. I'm like, whoa, we are slicing and dicey these people right now. It was getting a little physical. Oh, yeah. It was getting a little physical out there. Yeah, but the bottom.

boys, the boys won their fifth straight Olympic gold medal and hockey just, you know, pretty quickly here, I guess. Yeah. Just over the last couple, you know, weeks, certainly a month and a half or so. I didn't know this. Sorry, gumps. Mm-hmm. Football, we know.

Yeah. Football, we know. Mm-hmm. We know that no doubt about it. Soccer going forward, it's ours. Going to ride this into. Cool jerseys game out of that. We need sweet jerseys.

Yeah, they're going to crush. We know that's our sport. I didn't expect hockey to be like this. I actually had to take, like a year ago, where I thought U.S. hockey was dead because to become a great hockey player, the amount of work and commitment and everything it takes to get there,

I think there'd be two main distractions. People making too much money doing too much other stuff right now, especially with how athletic you have to be to make it in hockey, you have to be an absolute dog. We're talking like 5 a.m. on ice, putting all the shit on, and their cardio is just like never-ending.

It is, all of them have you. these massive ass. I mean, it's just, that's just coming from years of just skating and skating and traveling and moving and living in other places sometimes so you can be a part of a different league as opposed to going to your high school that doesn't have it. So the amount of commitment it takes to be a hockey player, I thought in our country, guys might get lacrosse. Sure. Sure. La Crosse is starting to come up similar. You know, who knows, maybe soccer, maybe just something completely different from it all. But it turns out it feels like they have numbers up in signups in hockey across the board, women,

men, and I assume Paralympic sled hockey as well, because we're going to be talking to Jack Wallace here in a little bit, I think, in like an hour or so. And he obviously had a hat-trick. He wins his third Olympic gold medal. He had an accident when he was a kid, and he was probably going to be, you know, who knows what his dreams were in sport of 10 years old,

I think his entire life change whenever a skiing incident takes place with a boat, and he loses his leg or something like that. And he turns to this as an alternative. And what a dream, man. What is, it's such a cool story to watch and to experience a ride alongside. And I talked about my classmate, Colin McGregor, who obviously home rooms alphabetical order, McGregor McAfee, we were pretty close to each other.

So I got to know him. He, uh, I don't remember exactly what he was. Both his legs didn't work, though, but he had two crutches everywhere, literally just crutched, absolutely everywhere. And then one Monday he came in and he had like a medal on. And I was like, we're wearing necklaces. That's sweet. What happened?

He tells me about winning this. they call it sledge hockey. I didn't want to say it, Ms. Wrong. According to Wikipedia, it is sledge hockey. Sledge hockey or whatever. So he had just won a sledge hockey tournament over the weekend. I was so pumped for it. I remember being so pumped.

And I guess Pittsburgh has a good background in it. Obviously, the North has it. And now we are five-time world champs, and hockey is completely ours. I'm pumped about watching the boys yesterday. Yeah, you mentioned. I think the number was over 100,000 boys and girls signed up for youth hockey. This year is the most they've ever had.

And Declan Farmer, we brought him up before. I think he set the record for most goals by someone or something along those lines. And some of the stories, too, of just adversity. One of the kids on the team was adopted from China. He was a born paraplegic, I believe, and he made it on to this team for Team USA. Like, just the stories of adversity are endless when it comes to this. And for them to win gold and it being their fifth straight gold medal, it's like, yeah, we do own the ice now. Yeah, and they're sprinting.

I mean, it is. Upper bodies for date. I can't wait. The questions we are going to ask to Jack Wallace. They will not be the normal questions of Jack Wallace. But I would like to know about what we are. How many dips can you do? I mean, this shit's outrageous.

They're doing this to skate. Yeah. They're going 20 miles an hour. I looked at them. Flying. 20 miles an hour. And then they're turning sideways, hitting board. And it's like, gee.

Yeah, they're hating each. They're dumping. Yeah. It was a cool thing to watch. And hopefully the numbers will come back and it was saying a lot of people watch. And then speaking of a lot of people watching, we assume last night's number is going be outrageous, just like the rest have been for the World Baseball Classic.

Sorry about it. Sorry about it. Not really. But sorry about it. Team USA Shikes! Dying the Dominican Republic. Now, Paul Skeen's came out and did Paul Skeen's stuff. We're talking one, two, three, first inning. How you doing?

Greatest hitters in a history, huh? Hi! How do you like me now? Go ahead and move on. Shut up in a suit. Yeah. Shut up in a suit with an American flag stitch in the back. I mean, he was completely locked in.

And as the entire internet was saying, yes, he's a member of Pittsburgh Pirates, say, yes, this is certainly a biggest game he's ever played in as a professional basketball player. It probably will be for some time unless Skeens can get some of the boys on the team. The defensive stalwart by the team USA boys were absolutely outrageous for this man.

And I think they understood that America was putting their race out there. And I think the boys understood the narrative about them whenever they lost Italy and almost didn't make it in. The boys want to pull on a show. The boys wanted to put on a show And let me tell you, they did Let's go to the bottom of the third, two outs Okay, Dominican Republic up one zip

That is right Ah-oh! Aaron Judge! Sheesh! Bigel! Half an elbow injury, right? Yeah. Everybody was wondering if he's going to be able to throw. He threw that, what, 96 miles an hour or something like that time? Yeah, I believe it was the hardest recorded throw he's had in three years.

So, yeah, I mean, you know, for Judge especially, his defense was kind of the thing that that showed out last night, not his offense, and it turned out, you know, crucial. And the guy who tagged him out right there, Gunner Henderson. You ever heard of him? Well, learn the name. This dude's name is Gunner, and he hits bombs.

Big Dong! To tie it up against the Dominican Republic. A lot of people saying he looks like me. Don't love that every white person kind of looks alike, but I could see it and I take it as an honor. A man that doesn't look like me, a man that looks like the future of baseball potentially. Tiny

Tony's boy. Roman Anthony hits a bomb. Two one. Only solo shots, though. We did leave some ducks on a pond. Don't love that. That's baseball, though, I guess. Roman Anthony hits an absolute bomb.

And then we talked about Aaron Judge with a huge hose. How about the mid kid? Huh? How about a 33-year-old captain laying his body on the line? Looking like LeBron James diving around in basketball courts. Yeah, 40-plus years old. Year 23 going to do it. And then Aaron Judge says, you know what?

I'm lucky and honored to be captain of this team USA. He says, I'm going to hit a ding-dong. How about it, boys? Aaron Judge is back. Captain America, cash in your home run bets. Yeah, right. Oh, man. Yeah, right, says, Julio.

Rodriguez. Who pimps a home run robbery, which is one of the reasons why we love the Dominican Republic baseball team. But it was like we were watching a movie. Everything you wanted to see from a baseball game was happening right in front of your eyes. Aaron Judge with an insane outfield play. Well, how about Bobby Witt with an infield snagged a Bryce Harper? He's been doing that all day.

This guy's a magician, Bobby Witt. The Royals seemingly got a lot of talent over there. Am I going to become a Canseer Rules fan, potentially? Let's go back to those. This is a Pittsburgh man. Bednar comes out to Renegade. Gets himself in a little bit of a situation, but ends up striking outside as Bednar Baseball.

And then let's go to the final pitch of the night. The final pitch of the turning for the diminutive. Republican Republican. Mason Miller out of Pittsburgh. Strike! I don't want to hear it. No, don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it.

Doesn't even matter. Because me, non-baseball guy a couple years ago, whenever I heard there could be a fucking robot as the hump, okay? I say, let's do the robot as the ump. I was told, no, it's the intricacies of baseball. Understand what the umpire strike sign is.

You're obviously up for a lot of debate whenever you're that subject. That's baseball. Okay? You don't really get it. You don't know baseball. You grow up at baseball. We can't have robots make a decision.

This is a human game. The umpire in his eye certainly matters more than any robot ever could. They don't really know the game. And the pitchers can know the strike zone too. They can start working. It's part of the game. That's part of the game. So in the eighth inning, when I see a fucking same pitch,

and it's a strike. And then in the ninth inning, when I see the same, two inches lower they're saying than any other pitch in the history of baseball. That's what they're saying. To ever be called a strike. And it's called a strike. it's like, hey, the umpire called it's a strike. It's a strike. I don't know why.

The people who are telling me that the intricacies of the umpire calling the strike or the ball are now telling me the Dominican Republic grew up. Jet Passions on an entire war path. Say, that's not good for baseball, blah, blah. Jet, I thought we didn't want the robots. If we want the robots, let's do the robots. But if we're doing, umpire says, umpire goes, strike!

And I would certainly be pissed if I was the Dominican Republic. boys, because they were electrifying and fun to watch. They left some ducks on the pond and some key moments. And some key moments. But obviously, that last pitch is not how anybody would have wanted to see that game end. But umpire says it's a strike in my eyes. And by your words, baseball people,

that's fucking strike. And that's how it's supposed to be. Now, I appreciate the fact that Paul Skaines plays for the Pirates, Bednar is from Pittsburgh, Mason Miller's from Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh basically beat the Dominican Republic last night. A little help from the Ups. I like that.

Where was he from? People are pissed. Yeah. Let's not look into where there's umpires from. People are not happy about this. Well, even jet passing. Americans are pissed on this entire thing, which we got one. Yeah.

That's good. Exactly. Sucks for the Dominican Republic team. It does. They should be mad. But even America baseball seems to not be happy about what happened. Yeah, I think it was more so people just didn't want to see that good of a game. And like that, you know, it's like you have this unbelievable NFL game and then like a PI call

or something that outside of what should impact the outcome kind of does. But like you said, like that is part of baseball. Like every umpire strike zone is a little bit different. And it's not like, yes, the tweets are coming out about how this was two inches lower than any other called strike in the history of the world baseball classic. But, you know, like that's tough. Hey, that's good pitcher. Exactly.

That's good pitch. He snapped that shit off. And yeah, that's good framing. That's just, that's all the above. And, you know, so I think, yeah, I think that. That's why people are more so upset. Not that we won, but because, like, that game was so good. You talked about how it felt like a movie kind of just taking haymakers from the left,

then the right, then the left and the right. And then it ended like that. And it kind of just gave you, like, the feeling like, man, for how good that was, it does kind of suck that it ends like this. But that's only if you're from the Dominican Republic. I love that. I was juiced up that we got that call. Yeah, it was incredible.

And what did Albert Pujol say? What the manager of the Dominican Republic said? Did he go to the podium and start bitching a moment like Americans were? Or did he just say like, that's baseball, baby? Because I'm pretty sure he just said, that's baseball baby. All right. Well, joining us now is the skipper for Team USA. A man who has led to boys now.

Yeah. To the finals of the World Baseball Classic. Who they play against? We find out tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, former player for 100 years in MLB, host of a morning show on MLB network, Skipper for Team USA baseball who are in the finals to become

world champions. On Tuesday night, Mark the Rosa. Yes, get it! Come on now, let's go. Hey, you did it. Hey. You did it. We kept proceeds, Pat.

Yeah, I'm sure you did. Hey, you, it was coming. We heard the noise. Hey, Ty was even killing you a little bit. It felt like... Oh, I'm well aware he was. I had to. It was the first thing I said this morning

when I came in. Yeah, you said, hey, Dero deserves some credit for some of the shit he did last night. So let's get to that, Dero. It got loud, obviously. You know that, you heard that you had to have. You're even being asked about it while you're in there. I think you said, I don't view an A team and a B team.

All these guys are my guys. Like, I picked these guys. These are all studs. So I think you got most mad about the narrative that you put in shitty players when you're like, we don't have any shitty players. But even you could admit that whenever you say, like, we're in, and then you weren't in, probably put you in a little bit of a bind there, right? I know you're past it, you're in the finals right now, but did you learn anything from that whole process?

And how did the boys respond to you getting murdered by everybody? Yeah, well, they said welcome. Oh, that's what they're like, Aaron Judge. You should see what I, yeah, okay, I like that. Yeah, I mean, I completely misspoke. There's no question about it. I put the cart before the horse going into the Italy game, and we got caught. They smacked us, but we moved past it.

The guys came together. They rallied. We had a tough game against Canada, and then anyone who was in the building last night, I mean, man, I was fortunate to play in a lot of postseason games and be a part of 2010 San Francisco Giants when they went to the World Series, man. This had like World Series vibes in the room. Honestly, I had the best seat in the house, and Dominicans rolling their lineup up, and I'm like, good God. Yeah, I was as well. Like, there's stars everywhere.

Yeah, I was as well, especially because Skeens is pitching, you know, so I'm hoping that. a badass or what? Okay, tell me about that. He shows up in a suit. I think both of his starts here, all dialed in. A lot of people are saying this is the biggest game. Obviously, he's going to play in because he's a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I think Pirates got better his offseason. They did. Okay, they got better his season. Maybe he's recruiting some of the boys, too, to opt out of their contracts, come play for the Pirates for, you know, league men, if they could possibly do that because that's what the Pirates would be able to do. But tell me about Paul Skeens. Tell me about Logan Webb. Tell me about these Aces that have kind of shown up for you guys in a big

way. We kind of felt like when we looked at the whole tournament, we needed to put our best guy in the semifinal game. And it kind of came down the road that Paul was going to get this start. And we kind of mapped it out moving backwards towards that because we felt like maybe the Dominican the way it lined up would be in that spot for us. Showed up in an electric blue suit, white collar, ready to go. he's, you talk about robot umps, this guy's a robot. I mean, he is process oriented. He wanted the moment. You can tell, you can kind of tell in the first inning, like, right? You're looking at Luis Severino. He threw a hell of a game, but he was at like 99 miles per hour, which is not

the norm for him usually. And you knew he kept like just churning out his energy, his energy. And eventually he was going to have to come out of the game. Paul was dialed in from pitch one. He wasn't overthrowing. He was making pitches. The pitch junior Caminero hit out. I mean, tip of the cap to him. That's a sweeper up in a way. I don't know how he's able to get around that ball and hit it 400 feet.

But yeah, right man, right time. And then our bullpen was just surgical. Okay, so let's talk about that surgical bullpen because I think that's a lot of decisions being made by the dumbass de Rosa that everybody was saying. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Skip. I did give it to you a little bit after the loss. the expectations were so high, but I told these guys, first thing when I came in this morning,

I said, hey, you know, who deserves a hell of a lot of credit and a lot of flowers today is DeRosa, because what you did, like, was that always the pitching plan? I mean, bringing Tyler Rogers in there after Skeens and inducing the double play from Soto, but. Why is that a good move, though, Ty? Well, yeah, that's what I was just saying, these guys. I don't know how much of it, you know, with like Skeen's arm slot, you know, and then you bring in Rogers who's scraping his knuckles off the dirt, like obviously a tough adjustment. to make. But was it always the plan then, you know, with Griffin Jackson, Bednar, to Whitlock,

to Miller, which we've seen has been, you know, unbelievable? And how difficult is that really managing that when these teams obviously don't want you throw in their closer, you know, three times in however many days with however many pitches they're going to end up throwing? Yeah, you take that all into account, Ty. Honestly, the bigger question for me was we had talked about that the night before. We were up to like two, three in the morning kind of looking at this team and where we could find lanes for bullpen guys. The biggest problem is you have that three batter minimum, right?

So if you run a lefty in that spot and he doesn't get Soto, he's got to stare Vlad down with the game on the line. And we just, we like the match up better in that. It wasn't perfect. To be completely honest with you, Tyler Rogers is a killer. Right? So we just wanted to give him a different look, but our fear was, as if Soto got on the basis loaded with Vlad came up, who gave us the best option to get out right there? And we knew he would keep him in the park, at least, and keep him on the ground. So we looked at it a variety of ways, and it's funny, when I went out to take Paul Skeens out, you know, great job, big boy.

And he walks off the mountain, and Will Smith turned to me and goes, who's coming in? And I said, Tyler Rogers, he goes, all right, I wasn't expecting him. You know, like, it kind of all came together. But yes, after we got out of that inning, we were going Jacks, Bednar Whitlock, the Grim Reaper. Grim Reaper Mason Miller. I mean, is that his name? Is that his name, the Grim Reaper?

Might as well be. He's an answer, as you know, I assume at this point. Yeah, he's a, hey, this guy's outrageous. A lot to do about that strike call to end this thing. Your thoughts? I gave my take on baseball told me, Over the last four years as I've been kind of letting baseball know, I don't know much about it. I'm sorry.

I'm trying to learn about it. I can't this year. Sorry, I go next year. Baseball people telling me, the umpire strikes center is one of the most important parts of baseball. Can't have a robot doing that. I was like, well, we'll do the challenge, but we can't have a robot calling balls and strikes, even though it's clear as day right there in front of our faces. And it's basically something that a robot could figure out at this stage of technology if we really wanted to implement it.

we can get a tennis ball down to a four or an eighth of a centimeter on what it is on the side. It's like they could definitely figure out what a strike is or a ball is. But working the strike zone is a big deal. Your thoughts on it all, Mason Miller is a pitcher, first of all. And then your thoughts on how it ended and baseball's kind of relationship with the strike zone, I guess, is more so the conversation. Yeah, I think it's like there's a bunch of narratives and parts that go into that one. Number one, Will Smith, one of the best framers in the game, right? just pulling that through the zone right there.

I think if you take the box off the screen, that ball's got a lot of plate. And then I have a lot of pride, and he was my old teammate 2009. I watched Albert Pujols winning MVP in St. Louis, the way he handled the post game. Listen, I don't think the game was decided on that, on one call.

There was a lot of great plays. Ultimately, we're going to get the ABS into the big leagues next year and I'm sure it'll be a part of the next WBC but I was happy as shit boy it's nice to see one of those go your way especially in that huge but look at you yes I was the dog where do you where we go like right like so if

Mason can only go 25 pitches in that inning or we were getting someone warm after that at bat there's all these little rules and guidelines to the parent clubs that we're trying to honor and that to same time, everyone's hearts invested in this. Like, you saw it out in Arizona. These guys really care and they want to get it done and they want to represent their country and win this thing.

And we knew the magnitude of that game. I mean, that place was on fire last night. Okay, so let's talk about where the boys are now versus whenever we saw you guys live. Because obviously that was day one. I think we're taking pictures. We're getting uniforms. We're having our first training. Maybe getting know each other a little bit more, even though the boys are obviously familiar with each other. You know, some guys hanging out. I think you guys had somebody had you over to their house. I forget who it was, had a dinner for the boys. I think you had another, you guys won out.

Maybe for another dinner. It was like basically your training camp was happening there for a couple of days before you got right into it. Where are the boys at now? And what did the scare of potentially not making it out of pool play do? And how did you see the boys respond in that? Yeah, I think it completely refocused them. I mean, still, truth be told, I'd love to show up tomorrow night and have the batch just explode.

We haven't been able to get the offense truly going, the entire. the entire tournament, which would be nice. It's just a credit to our arms, man. Logan Webb was nasty. Our bullpen against Canada was nasty. And then to do what they did last night against that lineup, which just absolutely heroic. But I'll say this.

Everyone's here. We're getting ready to go out for optional hitting and optional throwing and all that stuff. And everyone showed on that bus. These guys want it, man. They want it bad. Optional stuff the boys showing up to. Hell yeah.

I like, I saw Juan Soto, and I'm like, he signed a $750 million deal. These guys are warming up to T's. I looked up his deal. I look up Aaron's deal. I look up, you know, what Skeens is projected to make. And it's like, I appreciate the fact that they're all, you know, they were pimping the shit out of stuff. Hey, I love that the minute. You had, did you guys enjoy it?

Hate it? Because you guys have obviously. We know it was comment. Okay, good. Yeah, you guys watching the highlights of them celebrating because you guys want a little bit different way. Go ahead, con man. Yeah, Skip, I owe you an apology, too. I made a lot of jokes.

I made a lot of jokes off, too. so if I didn't say that, I'd feel bad. But tried to cancel me. No, no, no, no. They were trying to cancel your morning show. Yeah, we were trying to cancel you. It wasn't us. It wasn't us. We're just saying, we're broadcasting.

We're broadcasting. Fair and unbiased. And also, when a joke's there, you can't not expect us to take a hack. I mean, come on. But thinking about this team, Roman Anthony, I'm a Red Sox fan, kind of new of them. But now it feels like everybody knows him. And he's completely exploded. He's only 21 years old.

You know, people. are saying he could be the MVP of this entire tournament. What have you seen from him? What do you think about his kind of performance so far? And are we currently watching, you know, what will be the next 15 years of baseball with this guy? Because I forget who said it, but they basically said, too, like, hey, Roman Anthony is going to carry this torch for the next five world baseball classics. Yeah, special relationship with him. We're pizons, right? Like they were rolling out a bunch of different food the other night in Houston and me and him were the only ones that dove in on the cheese ravioli.

So we looked at each other, made eye contact. And, you know, the Italians bailed us out, too. Yes, they did. Well, Dero, they kind of put us in a little bit of a spot, too, which is kind of a Italian of them, kind of Italian of them, put us in a spot, brought us right out of it. That was very nice. Right out.

That was very nice. Gratzy, good atsy for the rabbioli. But yeah, Tony Tony's boy, Roman Anthony, seemingly a special talent. Yeah. Special, 21 years old to come in, handle himself the way he has, the quality of at bat, the way the moment's not too big for him, starting every game,

getting a rookie treatment on the bus. He's lugging this like thousand-pound speaker around with him every day. I want to get someone else to carry it for him because he's been carrying us. So, yeah, you're going to have for the next 15 years a nice time in Boston with this dude. I'll tell you what, not just in Boston, maybe five years next five World Baseball Classics with Skipper D.ro.

It didn't look like that for a little bit. It didn't look like that for a little bit. We were on life support there for a second. They were taking your name off the outside of the door. They were saying. Taking the parking spot. Hey, I learned a valuable lesson, though, right? What's that?

It's quick. It can happen quick. Yeah. Very fast. I mean, you. I'm from Jersey, man. Don't think I'll forget. I won't forget.

Our role is to win this thing. I'll take the high road for now. But, yeah, we know. Hey, yeah, we get it. Oh. Yeah. You have to, you have to. Some of it warranted, though.

You have to look at it to be here and say that, but there was a lot. You have to do that. Okay, two quick questions here. Obviously, very important. Both of them. Go ahead, Tom. Yes, Skip, you talked about, you know, the arms and, you know, doing what their clubs wants you to do.

Bednar, Whitlock, and Miller have now gone in back-to-back games. Obviously, scoble's back with the Tigers. Skeens is done. I believe Noel McLean is supposed to start the final, if what I'm hearing is correct. and maybe a Boston Red Sock who got scratched yesterday could be coming to town as well. What's the situation like with the arms and availability for the final? Yeah, Nolan's going to start the game for us.

I saw that too, the Garrett Croach. I tried to get Garrett on his team from Jump. And I think we would have had him if he didn't work so hard for the Red Sox. He had, you know, threw a ton of innings for them. And it just didn't make sense for him. We're going to have those conversations. I would say Whitlock's good to go. Fetnars had to grind the last two out of three nights.

That one for me, I don't know. I don't know if the renegade's going to be available for the finals. And Mason certainly wants the ball, but we shall see. This is what we do. We'll be on the phone after this workout with a bunch of teams kind of seeing where they're at. Okay. How many balls can this guy throw? Seven.

Can he give me nine? Can I get the nine? Can I get nine pitches out of this guy? I'm looking for a 12 here. Beddard loves that. He loves that, though. He loves getting jams. He likes to work out.

Yeah, I appreciate, though, that all this is happening behind the scenes while everybody's telling him he needs to be the furthest thing away from this team. He's like, there's billions of dollars here that are being talked about it all say. And I think, you know, going forward, I know it's probably always going to be a thing because of all the information we have and all the sports science and all that shit, especially with how much money's being invested. MLB has to realize this WBC might be the best thing you guys. have. This might be, you know, like the NHL, they had four nations drop in there, and everybody's

like, they figured out the All-Star game. They figured out, you guys are just doing your All-Star game before the season. That's what you're doing. And it's not just, you know, the pros. It's minor league. It's everybody that you can basically get into it. Because this is MLB run, right? This is an All-Star game before the season even starts. This is a beautiful, this is, this is, this is spectacular, what you guys have done here. So it's interesting about the limiting of the best players on earth potentially happening behind the scenes because they feel like they probably have to for the season and how much more baseball still to be played. But it's like, man, I hope you guys understand how special this is.

This is good for baseball here, DeRoe. All of this has been very good for baseball. You guys having success, I think he's very good for baseball in America, brother. No, I appreciate that. It's funny. I was looking at the lineup card last night before we walked out and just looking at, like, that's the greatest collection of talent you'll ever see on a field at one. time. Trying, trying to win. Yeah, getting after it. I think eventually, Pat, yeah, this thing gets

moved to the middle of the season and you're getting guys at their best, right? Like, all arms would be, all the guys want to do it. And for whatever reason in their place in their career, whether they've been paid or not paid or agents or clubs or, I just think it gets, you know, it gets tough for some guys to make the decision to be willing to put your heart in it. because once you get in the room, it becomes the most important thing to you. And it's hard to turn it off. So, yeah, I think for the betterment of the health of the players and the growth of the game, at some point, this needs to go to the middle of the season.

Last note here, last question, because it all ties to this guy. The guy who committed to this, your first call, Captain, go ahead, D. Bud. Yeah, you talked about all that talent in the lineups, even for casual like me. I expect the bombs. I expect to shoot out even with the green. great pitchers on the mound starting with schemes. But Judge's defense, and specifically at throw when he threw out Tatease at third, I feel like that kind of changed the game.

I feel like Tatees held up at second later on. Wells held up at third at a point where he could have scored. What was that play like in the building? It was unbelievable, man. We actually saw him kind of, he was slowing down around second base and kind of like almost baiting him that he was going to hold up. And as soon as he went, judges got an absolute cannon. I mean, so an aggressive base running played by Tatis, that's how he plays the game.

I'm glad he tried it. Judge has been on it. Ultimate leader of men, this guy is a monster. Yeah. A monster to be around. Better dude off the field deals with all the noise and all the pressure that's put on him with grace and class. And, yeah, I mean, J-Rod doesn't really.

robbed at Homer. Yeah. He has one of the greatest nights in the history of sport. Yeah. And I hit home run plus 175 or something like that, Aaron Judge. You know, if this isn't a robbed home run. He's been fun to watch throughout this entirety. Getting a chance to chat with him, obviously very cool. Seems like the consummate pro. Sounds like you think the same thing. And he does have an aura around how large he is. Just like you do, you have a great energy. I think that's why they picked you to kind of do what you're doing right now. It got hot in the kitchen for a bit, but you stood in there. And guess what?

We might have some chicken bomb on the other side. We might have something good. You brought him... I brought a little bit. I brought a little bit of it upon myself. You're 100% right. A little bit. A little bit.

A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. I mean... We got back. They went a little hard in a pain. Yeah. Yeah, they saw an opportunity.

A little bit. You disrespected him a little bit. the, uh, McCuia coming in. McCuia coming in. What was the thought behind this? Because I know you had Phelps in during training camp. I think you had Jack Hughes and the boys send you messages, uh,

after the Olympics going in to team USA baseball. I think you've been trying to, uh, continue to showcase America to the boys. Is that kind of the goal of the initiative here? Or, or what is it about your angle of how the team approaches this versus everybody else? I mean,

I think for me, like my first conversation with, with, was, you know, why are you doing this? Why are you so gung-ho to do this? And he said, I want to do this for every serviceman and woman that protects our freedom, right? I think getting in the room with these guys, it's such a blessing because it's just a collection of talent and you get a chance to hang out and see how to go about it and work. But I think you've got to honor what's on the front, right? The people that protect our freedom. That's why

we want to represent the United States of America. 9-11. I grew up in New Jersey. I grew up playing wiffle ball, and literally the backdrop to my wiffle ball games was the Twin Towers. And when those fell, that impacted me in a massive way.

And I, you know, I felt like Robert O'Neill coming in and kind of addressing that situation, kind of get these guys on track about why we're doing certain things. So just, you know, different messaging. Wasn't trying to go for any angle, just kind of honor to serviceman and women that protect and allow us to play the kids game.

Now, I know you guys are called managers and ours are called coaches. I still don't fucking get it. So you're managing is what I should say, I guess? Is that what you're doing? Coaching is how we speak. Coaches do the same thing, you know, try to figure out different ways to relay a message. You're trying to get perspective in for what you're playing for and what this could be and what this actually means.

And that's your style of motivation, brother. You're doing a lot of managing. Whereas we like to call in the rest of the world, coaching. And we appreciate the hell out of you doing that, get the boys focus. We're in the finals now. Hey, let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

Thanks for having me. All right. And we don't know how long is you going to last? You call you. That's man, Drew's up. Thank you, honey. It's quick. It's quick.

Yeah. It's quick. Back. No chips. Who we play, Venezuela or Italy. Yeah. Venezuela favorite minus 190 money line over Italy plus 155. There'll be tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern on FS1.

Why wasn't this on Fox last night? I don't know. That's a great family guy was on. No, no, it's a huge new Hell's Kitchen. Yeah, absolutely. No, I think it was Mormon Wives or something. Mormon Wives? The secret lies is more than season is out.

Well, I don't know. Whoever directed, it sucked. The camera cuts? It was bad. It was bad. Like, obviously, the game was incredible. The environment was incredible. But, like, you're winding up a picture.

The cutting is like, I'm like, insane. It was, like, weird. So this is what I think about golf, too. I think they figured it out. Yeah. Yes. Like, you know, like when Liv was coming in and they're like, we're going to broadcast it differently, it's like, hey, golf's figured out. We need the little tracker thing.

We need it behind it. I want to see the swing. I want to know how far it is. I want to know what club they're using. I want to know what shot they're having. Leaderboard. Leader boy, yeah. This is golf.

We haven't figured out. You can do it at a different style of music if you want to. Baseball feels like it's pretty figured out. Certainly. And if you have a couple extra shots, I guess, like, picking and choosing when you drop those in, like if you have a handheld 4K or whatever down on the field, that is like an added shot that's down first baseline. You've got to pick and choose when you get those in there. But it can't be during the action, especially if it is the best pitcher on Earth,

taking on some of the best hitters on Earth. Like, there is, I agree. There was a lot of decisions being made. And now, granted, we don't know what's available. Maybe something drops to that they don't know. Maybe the camera drops off that they have to cut to another one. that shit will happen to us where something will drop out and we have to go to something else so

maybe there's that type of shit going on we have no idea but there's a lot of stuff that I'm like that's a tough decision to make right there because you know somebody has to make that decision it's like what did you think you were going to get which is always you know in the moment I guess a little difficult Foxy has to do it all day every day Foxy has to do it like

you know three hours a day keep the main thing the main thing well and that's the I mean they're missing they were missing pitches on like one two counts where it would go back yeah exactly and it's like what do we do you know, whatever you're talking about was not more important than showing, you know, this pitch. Like, it just...

We know it's not easy. Exactly. We know there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. But, like, if you capture it, you got it. Right. That's the main thing. So kind of easy. Clean it up by tomorrow.

Yeah, because then you can tighten the shit up later. You know what I mean? And yeah, we need to just, we need to make sure we have it on frame. Just show the game, damn it. It's not rocket science. Stop running the replay. All the guys winding up the pitch. So I think they were trying to keep action during down times.

Like, hey, here's something awesome that just happened as we wait for something, something awesome. I think they were trying to get the ADHD people. And didn't do it so. I missed the wind-up. The guy did the thing. They pissed the ADHD people off. Yeah, exactly.

I need to see it. Hour to be on the other side. We got A.J. Hawk in. Coach Kay. What? with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent.

WestJet, where your story takes off. From 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gun down. The key to this case, it's Ryan. A hour before he died, he was on the phone. This might be a hit. You want the truth. Biggest one of conviction.

under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. That's right. It's 316 day shots. Stoneco. Steve Olkson and Mayland inspired all of us. They got to kick somebody there. Sports are incredible. We're lucky to talk about all of them. We did the top five last hour. Talked to Team USA Skip. Mark DeRosa. That was a great conversation. Had a good time there. Obviously fresh off a massive win over the Dominican Republic last night as the team USA baseball heads into the world championship. Who will they play? We find out tonight when Venezuela takes on Italy at 8 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.

Vinnie Pasquintina, who since our conversation has signed a deal with Starbucks. Yeah, smart. Yeah, absolutely. He's a man who's obviously leading team Italia in a legendary run here. I don't think a lot of people expected. And then Salvador Perez and the Venezuelans are favored in this high. Highly exciting matchup. I don't know who's pitching for who.

Aaron Nola for Team Italy. He went five scoreless against Mexico. He plays for the Phillies. Good ball player. Okay, and who's pitching for Venezuela? Who is it Kimer? Kider-Montaro. Yeah, Kider-Montaro.

He plays for the Tigers. He has been up in the Bigs a little bit, but he's currently in AAA for the Tigers. That's the talk to table at Boss Conner and Ty Schmidt. One half of the Hammer. Don. Cowboys AP tone is here. Nine-year NFL Vitt.

We're in a clean. Clean. Four to five figure, Sunday Red Hoodie. Darius Jay Butler is here. Is that the newest? That's got to be the newest release. It is a pretty recent release, yeah. It is. Gold. Have you seen that?

Wait, what? Wow. I mean, it's good. Feel that. Is it like Lulu? No, it's not as soft as Lulu. It's close, though. Good, man. But put a little more color on what you're talking about as far as the pictures.

I think Venezuela probably has a better bullpen. and I'll have to probably give that edge, maybe the better lineup as well. What do you think? No, yeah, I think that would be, I think that'd be 100% accurate. I think it sounds like someone who's been doing their research.

Oh, it's a big one tonight. Hello, this is baseball, D. Ballard. D. Bats. Joining us live, D. Bats, we're talking. D. Butt, joining us live from Anadikin, Ohio. He's a college football national champion,

Super Bowl champion, Router Cup winner, and a number of all things wrestling, we found out this morning. A.J. Hawke. Hawker, what up, dude? What's going on? Actually, Debutt, I have some of my own Sunday red that came in over the weekend, so I wish I would have worn it today.

I will make sure to wear it sometime this week. I didn't know we're all getting influenced into golf's affliction stuff. I didn't know. Is that what we're doing? Do not compare Tiger Woods to a fleeting. That's the same thing. That's the same business model. Not, you know.

And first of all, who was the owner of affliction? It better be the greatest M.O.B.A. guy of all times. It kind of a guy. It kind of was. Yeah, it was, dude. But what I'm saying is, people are paying a lot of money for those t-shirts. Yeah, because he did a lot for us.

Paying more than a lot. Affliction is what I'm talking about. Yeah, exactly. See, you know, it's a good business comparison, but I would say, I will support Sun Day Red to support Tiger. I just wish Tiger wouldn't be trying to charge me a Toyota Camry for a hoodie and sweatpants.

It's not that expensive. Compared to the other, you know, he's trying to price me on. He's trying to price me. And he did. So, Fleetwood. Fleetwood was rocking another day. He won't wear anything, I think.

It's kind of a free agent right now. That's what they said. Him and Nike had a 10-year deal. It came time to come time. He had a great year last year. I'm thinking this. They said we're thinking that. No deal with struck.

No, he's wearing what they call him Gumpy? What are they calling Tommy Flewwood right now? The king of the clubhouse? Yeah, that's pro shop. He's in the pro shop, but also in the clubhouse. He's going in there. He's buying the shit from the pro shop, then walking to their first tee and trying to win your tournament.

Yeah. Dogman put a shirt on. Yeah, feel you. That's awesome. Putting it on, tucking it in, pretty cool. Walking to the first tee, I'm gonna try to win this tournament.

What's the course record here? That is literally what are you doing. A lot of us have had to do that because you're not prepared to golf at the place you're golfing at. Maybe they say, asshole, you cannot wear a tank top here. So you have to the pro shop.

You put one of their shirts on. They're always got a cool logo on the side. And then you head to the first tee. That's what he's been doing. In the actual PGA. Love everything about it. AJ, we did a top five in the first hour. Obviously, Team USA's sled hockey team

winning the golden sweeping and the Triple Crown of Olympic hockey was on there. Obviously Team USA baseball was on there. We left out something, though, AJ. I don't know if you saw the omission that we had. It was a glaring one, I think, in the sports world. I'm not sure. What is the omission?

Please tell me. I don't know if you watch college baseball. I'll tell you what, I haven't. It seems like something I need to get into. Yes. This guy's name is Stone Lawless. And that he's, yep, this guy hit the ball. Can you hit the play on this, please?

The guy who's hitting the ball. His name is Stone Lawless. And he's, it's the ninth. Yeah, this is the win the game. Top of the ninth. Obviously, Georgia will get a chance to respond. This is in Athens. Freshman.

Cole Johnson. Rob's the Homer of Stonehouse right in his face. Absolutely unbelievable stuff. Post the point too. I'm him. I'm him. Yeah. Look, you know, me, me.

In their world. In the ninth inning. Wow. Thinking he's winning the game. Think about how he's traveling back to Rocky Top Tennessee. I just hit a dong in the ninth to beat the dogs. Hell yeah, he's go dogs. I'm going along, bitch.

Bombs away in the ninth inning. I saw the Dominican Republic doing this the other day. Let me spike this bat as hard as I possibly can. Let me tell the boys, yeah, yeah, everything I say, um, bot. And then before you can even make it the first base, fucking freshmen's out there robbing your ass. Baseball can get you. Easy come, easy go. I did not know that was the case with this.

sport. Oh yeah, without a doubt. And, you know, unfortunately that is probably the kind of thing that follows you for a while. You know, he's getting, especially in the SEC, I'm assuming. Stone Lawless is going to be getting mocked at quite a couple, you know, SEC ballparks. But, hey, that's the, that's the risk you run. You know, you hit it right on the screws and you think you got enough. And then you kind of just got to swallow it and eat it as the entire dugout empties out and runs out to the warning track to celebrate. Hey, a lot of those dogs down there, too, it looked like. There's a lot of barking at Stone Lawless. Yeah, AJ, don't you think we had to have this in the top five. That was what I was meaning about

an obvious omission. Any time Stone Wallace is doing stuff like this? I mean, we got to talk about it. I mean, could he even see this ball? I mean, this is an unbelievable catch. How many times, if you did this 10 times, how many times will he be robbing this thing? Paul Johnson every time. This makes the whole thing right there. Just think about how pumped he was, man. You're chasing

that. Hey, at least he got a chance to feel the dragon. You know, people are saying they chase the dragon, chase the dragon. They're chasing that feeling right there. He at least got to experience him for a couple moments there. We saw him experience. I haven't seen any bad spikes. I've seen a ton of bad flips. Haven't seen the bat spike.

Good time, yeah. That's a stone thing. I'll tell you what. Lawless. Did you have you heard the commentator call this thing? No. Oh, body. Go dogs on the coal. Hit this one to left field. This one going back at the wall.

Deemate the king. Oh, he caught it. Oh, my gosh. It's cold. It's cold. Johnson. Oh, these go dogs for sure. College sports are incredible, and obviously as we're about to dive into Matt Madness

with college wrestling, and then obviously March Madness for college hoops, the entire world is about to pay attention to what's going on in the universities across the country. Over 360 teams are trying to get into this tournament, and we, as non-knowers of ball, are trying to bring somebody in who knows ball to maybe make us better this March Madness.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are incredibly lucky to say that the guy who has the most wins in a history of college basketball will be joining us throughout, starting right now. Five-time national champion. Former head coach, Team USA basketball winning 100

gold medals. He would have won 200 if he kept going. Legend of sports and obviously goat of college hoops. Coach Shoevsky. There we go. You should do my introductions all the time. You fabricate so many things and people think they're

true. Well, that's it. I don't know if anybody will the 100 gold medals, but I think it would be true if you were to live long enough, which fuck you might, especially with how good you look at this particular age. If you were to coach for a hundred of these things, you would win that, which is what I was trying to imply. I think everybody gets that, but you are certainly worthy of

an incredible introduction, so we appreciate you joining us. Coach, let's talk about the brackets obviously set yesterday. You've been a thousand of these things. You were the coach at Duke from 1980 to 22. 42 years. Holy shit. 42 years creating an institution, obviously creating your own vill down there.

This day after the brackets are revealed is how everybody views like actual college basketball season beginning. How do you think these coaches are viewing this? How would you view this day? And kind of what's on task for these coaches across the country? Yeah, well, it's the most exciting three weeks of, I think, the sports season, because it takes over the entire country. You know, you start out every, there were 360 schools that play division. Division I basketball.

And all of them have an opportunity to get into the tournament with all the conference tournaments. So it really goes throughout the country, all the communities. And then that thing we put out many decades ago called a bracket, the bracket has become incredible. Even for non-basketball fans, those people who like to bet on things, the bracket is a hell of an addictive thing. Not me, obviously, Coach, but people that are very similar to me and that I know all around me.

And let's talk about why the bracket has become so special because obviously your school, Duke has been at the top. Everybody is expected, I assume, since 1991 when you won your first one. Everybody started to expect you guys to kind of be in there every single year after that. Is that accurate? Especially our fans, yeah. Our opposing fans expected it but didn't like it. So, yeah, understandable. But that was kind of the expectation nationally, too.

I think I grew up in Pittsburgh, didn't follow college basketball much. Pitt Panthers got dirty there for a little bit, but everybody knew Duke was going to be good. So you have you guys that are always going to be in it. And then March Madness made everybody believe that some school I've never heard of could potentially go on a run and beat Duke. Beat Duke. That was kind of what the magic is. Now they're saying bigger spreads than ever before from the sports books for these teams. What are your thoughts on kind of where we stand about the higher seeds and the lower seeds in what used to be?

and maybe what is now, Coach? Yeah, well, I think, Pat, you start first of all saying some people want the tournament expanded more teams. I think that would be a huge mistake. Really right now, the top four conferences, the power four of the 37 at large bids that you could get, those four have 31 of them. You know, they, it's, it's,

become those conferences. And there's the haves and the have-nots. There are more have-nots. But the haves, there are more halves. In other words, there are more good teams that can win this tournament. But it's dominated by those four conferences. They're saying the ACC maybe not in any. Down here.

Maybe not the ACC of old. Yeah. Now, we got a, Duke's got a hell of a chance for Christ's sake. Favorite. You know, especially if we get our two-injured guys back. But, you know, a really cool thing about the tournament in the top four seeds, there's 16 of them. Nine of them come from the Big Ten and the Big 12. And what they've done, they're spruce.

spread out over the four regions. I'm using my hands. I didn't use my hands. And still, I started watching your show. Okay. We're going to for you. I'm pretty fancy. Now you got to, you just got to do all this crap. Yeah, I got. The one thing I, I found hard to believe, you know, the Big East only got three teams in, which is probably right. But their top two teams are in the same region. Connecticut and St. John's, that would, that, that, never happens, you know, like the Big Ten has five, but they're spread out. The Big 12 has four, one in each of the region. So I thought that was really not a good thing to do for the Big East. And it's a little bit surprised St. John's being a five seed with what they've done lately,

and they won the regular season, Big East and also the tournament. Back-to-back years he's been able to accomplish that, I believe, first time ever. Win by 20 in the Big East championship game over Yukon. Certainly has us all wondering about Dan Hurley and his, what's going on up there? Well, maybe Patino's got the boys buzzing. Now, let's talk about the regions. Last question from me before the boys all have some. Mostly going to be asking questions probably for their own gambling,

just so you have a little bit of a heads up. Yeah, you're going to help out. We appreciate your service there. Don't blame it on me when you lose. We will. Yeah, we will. You're not going to give me credit when you win. No, we will.

We will celebrate. I don't know. We'll make Sheshefskyville in here, you know, if we get some heaters. But yeah, you will certainly hear the blame if it doesn't work. You guys can do that. You guys take that to a good level. Thank you. Thank you.

I think we're pretty good at it as well. They're saying the East Region, though, this is a, this is tough. I don't know. I don't want to get in the grand scheme of, like, toughest of all time because I feel like everybody does that. But it feels like the big takeaway from last night, East Region, very, very, very, very, very, very difficult. Now, obviously, number one, overall seed is in that region, so it's obviously going to be slanted a little bit better because number one, overall seeds in there. What do you see from the East region? And do you think the conversation is right about how

heavy it is seemingly against all the other regions? You know what it's heavy in is coaches that have won national championships. You have Bill Self, one of the best ever at Kansas, Rick Petino, another one. Tom is so, and Danny Hurway. I mean, you have four. national championship winners. So the coaching in that, not that the coaching under Regents is bad, but come on, you have four programs that are accustomed

to doing great things in the NCAA in the NCAA tournament. That's the very first thing that hits me. And in the round of 32, that St. John's and Kansas are going to play one another. there's some great games throughout the tournament. I think it's a lot more wide open than it has been the last couple years. But the East, I would like to have watched Danny Hurley's practice the last couple days after they've lost.

Danny and I are really good friends. And, you know, them going down by 20 to St. Johnson, the Big East Champions. you know they're going to be ready. They're going to be ready. Same thing with ISO. Tom's the crem double cram of coaching. They got, yeah, there are a bunch of teams in this region

that have a chance to win. I'm worried about our guys. Yeah, see that with every highlight that's passing. It seems like you are watching these highlights, realizing, wait a minute, now, these teams are real players out here. Now, Duke. They are.

And, you know, Duke and Michigan State had a hell of a game early in the year. And we won, but it was a fist fight. And they have, Tom is, you know, they call him Mr. March because how many times he's been in the tournament, have gone to the final four. He and I are good friends. I said, you know, what you want to be called, though, is Mr. April because that. You see.

You see. You see. You see. You see, Coach Izzo, you know, Mr. March is cute, okay? January, February. Isso. That's very, very cute. People around me, they say, hey, Coach Kay, feels like you're.

Well, Izzo knocked us out one year where we could have been a Mr. April again in one of my really good team. So I just think there's an incredible game. And one of my former players, Johnny Dawkins, has taken his, you know, for a Central Florida team there. And they play Yukon first. And they'll have a shot. You know, the Big 12 overall, you know, are top heavy.

I think three of the top seven ranked teams are from the Big 12. You have Houston and Iowa State being two seats in other regions. Wow. You know, there are more teams this year that can make the final four, Last year, all the top number one seeds, they were just a step ahead of everyone.

That's not the case. There's no number one seed that is that much ahead of the teams in their region. We'd love to hear that. The overall number one seed led by somebody you know. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach John Shire, who Pat is speaking of. What makes him so special? We hear stories about him as a player and what he's like, his mentality, the culture he has cultivated there

after your long tenure. What makes him special? What makes you think that this guy can actually lead this team and make a run and win at all? You know, he has such a feel for the game. You know, I've known him. We recruited him when he was 17,

and he was a national champion for me. And it's been on my staff for eight years. And he was ready. You know, he's got such a good feel for the game. And he was a great player. So, you know, he can not only teach his great players that, but he can feel what they feel. You know, that's why he's done such a great job with Cam Booser last year with Cooper Flagg and Knieple. He relates, and he's still a young guy, he relates so well to these guys.

And he's been his own man, you know. I've loved, you know, what he's done. And I think he's navigated these last four years in NIH. and transfer portal much better than I would have ever been able to do it. He's current, and he's done a lot with the NBA. He's followed the NBA. So his system incorporates college and NBA, and I think that's one of the reasons the guys are so well prepared for the NBA.

Well, that's kind of like what's happening in college ball as well. You're seeing a lot of NFL guys end up in college because it's kind of becoming one in the same. It's kind of professional sports at this point. Now, on that note, with professional sports happening in our sport of football, interesting situations happen. In basketball, it's seemingly happening as well across the country. Best guy in sports, maybe Darren Peterson out there at Kansas. It is a load management situation happening in college,

and there's other storylines going on. People getting paid millions. Debutt has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, coach, you're probably no better person to ask. You've coached some of the best players on both levels, collegiate and NBA. I see the Mamba. logo right there, rest of peace.

But do you have any specific stories that stand out when it comes to like managing egos of these players and these rosters, these great rosters, especially like the USA team. We're watching the W.C. right now with the baseball. Any specific stories that stand out over your tenure when it comes to managing these egos and the rosters

that come together? Well, I love managing egos if it's matched by the same level of talent. Be who you can afford to be. Managing egos. goes when it's somebody who doesn't have that talent is, well, then you'd get rid of them. You know, you shouldn't have them.

But no, with the U.S. teams, I coached U.S. teams for 11 years. And I told them every, when we started off, every team, bring your egos in. I don't believe in leave your egos at the door. That's such BS. I want you to be who you are. And by the way, Kobe Bryant, LeBron, they would have brought their damn egos in. I would always tell them, I said, if you can all put your egos under one ego umbrella,

call it USA, we'll kick everyone's ass. You know, we'll rule the world. And they did that, you know, they did that. You know, the great players are not coached. They're used. And the great player wants to get better. The great player wants to be coached. That's what I found.

And when you put a bunch of them together, they help each other. You know, Kobe helped all those guys learn how to prepare better. LeBron would sit with Jason Kidd at every meeting and shoot with him every night so he could learn more about his intellect. And, you know, he was a great pastor, but Jay Kidd is one of the greatest of all time. So talent makes talent better. And especially if, you know, look, at the end of the day, I would, I was, say you're going to be asked only one question playing for U.S.

Did you win? If you answer that by saying, well, is the leading score, then you're a loser, you know, because you've lost. And so just win. And all those damn guys wanted to win. I love them. You know, I loved coaching that level of talent. Yeah.

And ego. Yeah, we love, I love that you're. This is probably why you are who you are. Bill Belichick's kind of the same way. He's a do your job guy, but also Randy B. Randy, hey, you do. We want you to celebrate. We want you to do the entire thing. I appreciate how much you appreciate the elite talent that you have. Is that how you have always coached? You teach, or did you coach Team USA differently than you coach Duke, for instance?

And I think I read today, did you, you played for Bob Knight at West Point. Yeah. And then you coached for, and then you coached with him, I assume. Are you a disciple of Boat Night? He swigged him a little bit, and he allowed me to do some things internationally with him. And, you know, the thing I learned a lot from Coach Knight, one, how to take charges to and die for loose balls and play the game hard. He was brilliant.

He's a genius. And the number one thing I learned from him was preparation. He would always say, you know, any any knucklehead wants to win, you know, unless you're a complete idiot. And but not everyone wants to have the will to prepare to win. And he would say the will to prepare to win is more important than the will to win. And I learned that when I was 18 years old from him. And I've been an anal prepare my whole life.

And Pat, the thing I wanted to do was combined having the will to prepare. and the will to win. And what I would say, that would make us worthy of winning. If we could do those things, that it doesn't mean the other guy's not worthy of winning. But every time we went on the court, I wanted to coach a team that was worthy of winning. Is that how you treated Duke?

Is that the same messaging you had for all those years? Yeah, yeah. I mean, and that means every game is a big game. People say do you prepare differently for these tournament games? If you did, why the hell didn't you prepare differently during the regular season? Are you an idiot? You know, like, basically you get into a way of doing things. It's called habits.

Habits. I hated Hawk with being on the Packers because I'm a Bears fan. You guys had great habits. No, don't shake your head. You guys beat our ass so many times. It was unbelievable. I hated you with respect. Thank you.

AJ still has those habits, though. He's carried them for the rest of his life, like legitimately winning. No, but the thing is, you want your team not to be doing a bunch of new things going into the tournament. You want them doing the things they've done well, even, and make sure they're fresh. The healthier you are, the fresher you are, then your habits are done even better. But, you know, the main habit to have is the habit to win and prepare to win. and I thought throughout my career, we were pretty consistent with that. Yeah, I love the work happening when nobody's watching.

Everybody hates Duke from the outside in, but they have no idea the grind that's taking place behind the scenes. I had no idea was a Bob Knight-type red-led affair. I didn't know that the boys down there bopping the wood. They're still bopping the wood. Hey, Shire had all five, bop the wood. You saw him bopping wood, coach. I did.

They were, they hit slap on the floor. Slap in the wood. Yeah, smack in the wood. Bopping the wood. Got to. We like when all fuck. Dang. You're football guys.

You got to start, it's not the wood. It's the damn floor, all right? No, they're bopping wood, coach. So many football and baseball guys on the show. Let's get educated about what the whole's going on right now. Open up your minds for Christ's sake. I want to let you know, coach. I go to a basketball game.

I'm sitting front row. Where am I at? The hardwood. On the wood. I'm on the wood. Okay, so that's all I know, Coach. Any of these other things you would like to teach me to not sound like a dumbass, I would appreciate it.

Yeah, no, but you were a punter, so there's a limited amount of stuff that you know. I want to let you know. Oh, but you were a damn good punter. Thank you. Thank you, Coach. You were good. You should see, I got kind of a little bit of a wet. Oh, yeah.

Now, let's not, this isn't fantasy now. Make one for him. Let's talk about real life things. about this one. Yagat. That was full size. Two jacked up. Predictable.

That's predictable. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Fuck! Needed to make that one. That was the one. You know,

know your limits, all right? All right. Only layups and offensive rebound shots. And bopping wood, Coach, and bopping wood on that defensive side.

I'm going to be a menace down there, coach. All right. Let's talk about something other than that. Ty has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, I'm assuming you're of the mind of, hey, there are no excuses whatsoever. But when it comes to the tournament, how many of like the non-basketball factors actually impact you? Like, we heard Coach Cal saying how he's not, I don't want to say not happy, but, you know,

they have to travel from Arkansas up to Portland. If they advance, they have to go back to Arkansas and then fly back to the West Coast. Some of these games are tipping off at 950 or like 10.08 or on the flip side. you know, super early. Like over your career coaching, did that type of stuff impact any of the games in maybe years where you got upset or you didn't play as well as you anticipated playing? Well, everything that you said is true.

It's a factor. The thing that you have to say is no excuse, you know. You know, that's been one of our standards, my whole career, my whole life. Like when I graduated from West Point, that was a thing. There are no excuses. Get the damn job done. A mantra, failure is never our destination. And I don't want to hear any bullshit excuses.

And so don't talk about those things. Talk about this is what we have. This is our road. This is the road we're going to be on. But does it have an impact? Yeah, it has an impact. You're playing that 950 game and you're getting back to the whole. hotel at 1.30 in the morning. And then you got to play maybe an afternoon game a day and a half

later. The travel thing that John mentioned, I think is a very important factor. Now, the higher the seed you are, the less you are put in those situations. And so even though Arkansas, I think, is terrific. I think they're a number five seed. And so they're probably moved around a little bit more. It has an impact because you want your guys fresh. You want your guys fresh. And playing those games that late in three different time zones to travel in. You know, if you're going to go out west or come out east and you're the opposite of that team, a team that's doing that, you should stay if you advance in that area.

you know you shouldn't be going back back and forth. Coach, I got a test in the morning, though, coach. I got a big time exam in the morning, coach. You know? Yeah, they don't have exams right now. I would have never known that. With NIL and the House settlement, their exams are not as high on the list of things. Good to know.

Okay, I like to know that, by the way. Shout to these universities making things happen for the boys and for the ladies. Okay, let's go ahead and continue to do that. All right, Coach, you were able to accomplish something one time that is certainly potentially being hunted right now. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, coach, you went back-to-back 91, 92. The Florida Gators have a chance to do that this season.

They are a one-seed again. They're not the favorites. Duke's the favorites, but they are in the top four as far as favorites go. What is the hardest thing about going back-to-back, and do you think the gators have a chance to do it this year? Well, good point, and they do have a chance. Todd is called him as a hell of a coach. And one of the key things is they have their four big players, the four big guys, back from last year.

Those guys have been on this run before. And there are two guards, Flan and Xavier and Lee, early in the year, we're learning to be on that level. They now know being at that level. The thing is, you can't, you know, when we did that in 91 and 92, after we won a 91, people said you're defending your championship. And I had a meeting with my guys in April that year right after we won it. I brought the trophy in. I said, look, this isn't going away.

We don't have to defend a damn thing. What we have to do is pursue. Let's pursue the next one. And I think this Florida team is pursuing right now. they got knocked out by Vandy, but until they lost this last game, they were probably the hottest team in the country. And with those four big guys, man,

they rebound the hell out of the ball. Oh, yeah. Yeah, their last two games that I've watched, they couldn't hit. They could not knock down an outside shot. But they definitely have a shot to do it. And the thing, if they advanced all the way,

way the one and two. They're going to play really another number one seed who's the number two, and that's Houston, who, you know, Calvin Samson has done an incredible job there, and it would be a man's game. I see more of those games throughout the tournament than I did last year. I think this has a chance to be just a great, great tournament. It's going to be great for us. You know why? You know why it's going to be great for us?

because you're going to be on here teaching us about what the hell we need to be looking at. That was really nice of you to say that. You're making our life better, buddy. No, I didn't know. I didn't know if I would be accepted by mom, let you know.

You weren't there immediately. The feel the warped, the field of warmth that you guys are exhibiting right now is terrific. So it feels like we got with all swine swine-law, AJ's got his arms

open too there. You just can't see because it's out there. You see it. You're full of the garage? Yeah, that's what we're doing right now, Coach. We're very thankful that you're joining us. You've been awesome here thus far. We assume the next time you're on, you won't be ass. We assume. We're hoping you won't be asked the next time. We assume you won't. Sounds like you're great at everything you do. Certainly conversations with us. Let's talk about the grates of the great,

though, shall we? Especially with things that you've seen on the, hey, Team USA umbrella. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, coach. You talked about preparation and practice goes hand in hand with that and you mentioned how you would tell players, hey, bring in your egos. They say the greatest basketball game ever was the Dream Team scrimmage of their practice. What were your practices like for Team USA? Was it sometimes just having to sit back and watch these guys play five on five and it would just be electrifying up and down the court?

What were some of those things like? Yeah, well, I was actually had the honor of being an assistant on the Dream Team. So I was there for that game. and I did a really good thing. We only had one official, so one of the assistants were going to have to officiate. And I told Chuck Daley, I said,

I'll take all the drills, let P.J. Carlissimo officiate. And he got berated. It was one of the best decisions I ever met. I saw it. I said, someone's going to get their butt kicked, and it won't be one of the teams.

It's going to be the only official that understands. And so PJ really got it that day. And they went after it. The Magic team and the Jordan team. There was so much trash talk and it was terrific. We didn't have practices like that, the team side coach. We didn't need it.

And we, yeah, it was a different time then. Those guys were taking the NBA culture, bird, magic and all those guys in the 80s. And now they were taking it worldwide. They were on a stage that David Stern saw as an opportunity for the explosion of global basketball. And they were on a mission to be not just good, but to be the best. and no team has ever been more talented

than that team and the way they represented the game was a that's where the Gassals, the Ginoblees and these guys they saw that. I get chills thinking about it because those guys would tell you that.

Once they saw that, I said, man, that's basketball at the highest level. And now we're doing an international, internationally. But that scrimmage was unbelievable. Yeah, I could imagine. And good call by you. I'll take the drill so I don't have to rep this thing

and get shoot out. But also, when you talk about what that team's mission was and what Stern laid out, it worked. You talk about Genobley and then, but now you talk about the international invasion into the NBA. I mean, it's certainly happening. It all has roots back to the dream team.

And now they were the Beatles everywhere they won. It was rock star-type shit. And then what they were doing on the court was obviously fantastic. I watched the last dance, and I grew up in Pittsburgh. I'd watch the Lake Show late. I'd watch the Lakers late at night because they were a good show, but didn't really know as our water softener is going crazy right now up there.

Hey, it's cold weather, we need softening up. I didn't really know basketball that. Well, I didn't follow basketball that much. Come from football town, the football town. So that watched the last dance. That was basically me seeing Jordan and everybody for the first time without just watching highlights at the time. The state of basketball then vastly different than the state of basketball.

now. The people that were playing basketball then vastly different than the people playing basketball now, whenever you hear people try to compare who's goat, who's goat, who's goat, what are your thoughts on that? And how many different iterations of basketball have happened, do you think, since you've had a front list of all of it? Yeah, quite a bit because the, obviously the NBA, you know, I work for the NBA now and for three years and about 30% of the players are international. I think our last six MVP's are international. It's tough to say, you know, people like to argue that because then they can drink and give crap to one another while they're doing it, which is great for the sport. But, you know, the best player that I've ever been associated with is Jordan, you know, and then you can, there are a number of other people that.

he allowed, he can allow into his room, okay, and a limited number of him. And, but it starts with, with, I think, with, with Michael. Yeah, I will tell you one thing about international players now. That's been the biggest change. Why is that Michael Jordan number one, you think? Is it because of his competitive? He's a killer. For Christ's sake.

He could do anything. He got bored and went to play baseball for a while. You know, and it still came back. You know, no, he, you know, and his attitude and work ethic, I love him, and I love, he's the ultimate competitor. Kobe was close in that. He's in that room. There's obviously magic and Jabar and, you know, there are a number of them. LeBron, Coach K.

No, I'm not going to say one more. But let me tell you this thing about... LeBron is not in the room? No, LeBron is in there. Okay, okay, okay, okay, geez. He's not serving, he's not selling tickets outside. Okay, okay, all right, I just wanted to know for my... His career...

LeBron and I are close, man. He helped us win. I love coaching LeBron. I want to say this thing about college. The biggest change right now to college is the influx of international pros. there are more international players and they're all professional playing college basketball right now and the reason is they make more money with NIL here than they do in the EuroLeague and look at the rosters and how many how many international players there are it's amazing

and that's why the game the college game has gotten old to transfer portal you have guys who are older but the international pros heck there's some freshmen who are 22 and 23 and they've played for four or five years in Spain or Italy

or wherever but not every school can afford that and that's why it's become more and more the haves and the have-nots and the have-nots still want to be the haves

but they got to get money to be able to compete at that level. Feels like that's college sports as a whole. I wish you were in that roundtable room discussing the future of college sports alongside Coach Sabin and all the commissioners and everything. But we assume you will continue to be a voice for the good of college sports going forward and certainly for March Madness for us. We appreciate the hell out of you, coach.

Have an incredible day. Yeah, slap the wood now, okay, before I leave, all right? Sounds like, yeah. I'll tell you what. Maybe you should go slap the wood because of how good you just think that. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Cheshefsky. Yeah, go.

9-1-1, where is the emergency? It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships.

Buried cash. and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. He should go bop some wood for that. Why not? Go back to the basics. D-butt?

Thot. Slap on the floor. I'm a hoobro. That's what we say. Oh, you don't call out the hardwood? Okay. Floor. Do you call it the backboard or do you call it the glass?

Okay. Just so. Okay, glass. Okay, slapping glass. Okay. What about when I'm breaking metal? You know, what I'm going to do there? Rocking rims.

Yeah, rocking chains. You know, especially with the chain. Like, do we say that? Or the basketball net, you know, like, I understand this is. Ripping nylon. The floor, basketball floor. They're bopping wood out there. I saw all five guys same time.

Yeah. Bop. That was cool. It was cool. Did they practice that, you think? Or is there like a call? Was he counted down from the sidelines? I think hands, I don't know, because I think John Shire did it as well.

I think there's a side angle of John Shire doing it as well. So I think there is a tell that they all kind of have so that they can synchronize the bopping of the wood. And I'll tell you what, I appreciate the fact that they're kind of all doing it together. It looked like soon as the inbounder, inbounded to the guy, and soon as they caught it, the point card caught it, that's when they all did it. As soon as ball touches. Yeah, I think that's the giveaway. As soon as clock starts. Oh, jeez.

Is that who started, dude? Bopping wood? Well, that, that Bojo back in the day. Who's that? Wojahowski, he used to Bob Wood. He picked the guy

to half court. Not Gene. Not Gene. Yeah. Oh, maybe Gene. Northwestern's head coach. Yes.

Oh, I thought we were talking about Wodge Ball. No, no. No. No. Because he's in college hoops,

too. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think is going great. What? For the Bonnie? The Resards. Not going great.

Yeah. Where are they? Those are rubblinks. What Cedar? Not a tournament. They didn't make it. They're doing the NIT, at least.

in that. That's good business. I saw a commercial last night for another basketball tournament I never heard of. Oh yeah, the Super Duper College Challenge. I think West Virginia's doing it. I think West Virginia is doing it. A million dollars. I think so. Super duper college challenge. I think Indiana might be planning it too. I think you win a million bucks. No, they said no. They said no to the NIT so they're probably turned down all. No, they might not turn down a super duper basketball challenge out there for a million bucks. They got TBT happening, I think, for college teams though, I think. Okay. I like that. to do more research, everybody do your own homework.

Okay. What did it called? You said super duper college basketball tournament? Yes. Thank you. It was a commercial last night during the game. Yes. And I saw it on social because I think West Virginia is going.

I think, hey. We'll go. Million. I already have fallen. What? And though you're competing in the what? The Super duper. The SBCBT.

It is super duper though. Imagine if you have your one shining moment. You guys don't have the rights to that song. No, no. buying it with a million. The million is doing that. Ladies of gentlemen, joining us now is a three-time, three-time, three-time Olympic gold medalist

and a three-time, three-time, three-time, goal score in the Olympic gold medal match. Against who? That team up north. T-TU-1. Nice. That is who it was. Ladies and gentlemen,

American hero, stallion stud, goalmaker, Sledge Shaker Olympic gold medal taker Ladies and gentlemen Jack Wallet

Hey, Jack What's up, dude? What's up, boys? How you doing? Hey, I appreciate you joining us on such quick turnaround. I understand you and the boys probably had a little bit of a time.

I watched you guys going back into the hotel lobby seemed like there was a couple beers, maybe a couple cocktails, maybe a couple celebrations. Can you tell me how you guys feel after winning your fifth straight, you, your third straight. How does it feel to be an Olympic gold medalist again? I mean, it feels great, you know, to represent everyone back home and represent this country.

It means the world. And, you know, just to know how much work we put in over the last four years to get back to the spot. Yeah, I mean, we have some great leaders on the team. Shout out Declan Farmer, you know, leading the tournament, setting record. Shout out Spuds. He went five for five in his Paralympic career. He might be shined up after this one. So, yeah, Josh Paul, Spudsy.

Spudsy. I like the name. We got hot. Okay, so let's talk about your path into sled hockey. And then, you know, a lot of the other stories are going to have similar inspirational beginnings, I do believe, for the world to hear. A lot of people getting introduced to sled or sledge hockey strictly through you guys completing the triple crown for the first time ever where we win Olympic gold in all

hockey's women, men, and Paralympic sled hockey. Can you tell me a little bit about your story getting into sled hockey? And then also, how nice is it that the sport is so competitive, so high speed, so thrilling, and obviously so damn competitive. Like everybody's seemingly good at this sport now. Yeah, I mean, hockey's, you know, no bias here, but hockey's my favorite sport in the world. I started playing it when I was three years old, you know, in the driveway with my older brother. So I ended up losing my right leg when I was 10 years old.

And, you know, I was a diehard devil's fan. and I dreamt of going to the NHL one day. And after losing my leg, I thought I'd lost that dream. And then I found out about sled hockey. And I got that dream back. And I actually got to meet Josh Pauls after he won his first medal in 2010 in the Vancouver Games. And that's when I really got introduced that this could be a possibility in my future. And yeah, I worked night and day to get onto the national team and the Paralympic squad.

And yeah, I mean, the sports come such a long way since 2010. I mean, you can see it. We're breaking attendance records. We're breaking viewership records. It's amazing to see. You know, when I first started, you know, I was in the, when I lost my leg in 2008, I was in the hospital watching the Beijing summer games. And I knew nothing about the Paralympics. And if I just left my TV on in the hospital for two more weeks, I could have been watching the summer Paralympics, but I didn't know about it. And now, you know, now we get kids that love the NHL, love hockey. And, you know, they're finding out about sled hockey for the first time and they get to share, you know, they get to share in this amazing sport that we all love. That's beautiful, man. That is absolutely beautiful. And you get a chance to, you know, scratch the itch of being a fucking go. Tell me a little bit about beating Canada. And I saw a graphic

that said, the seeded rivalry. Did we know Canada was going to be meeting us in the gold medal? And can you talk about it a little bit? You know, you always play who you play. You know, no preconceived notions before the tournament. But for me, the entire time I've been on the national team for 10 years. I've only ever played Canada in gold medal games, championship games, World Cups, whatever. So it's been a two-dog race for the last 10 years at least. So, you know, it's always kind of a collision course for USA hockey and hockey Canada to meet in the gold medal match. It obviously happened with the men's and women's. And, you know, it's the best robbery in sports for a reason. And we, you know, we're so happy to complete the three-peat for USA hockey.

Thanks for not getting pissed off about it being called the Seated Rival. When I saw the graphic go out, I was like, that's it. That is. Yeah. We knew it would do Numbies. It did. Triple platinum, actually, I do believe. So we respect and appreciate that as well because, you know,

buying in and not being pissed about people is a cool thing. And I think that's what was very evident, especially from the sports side of all this, which is why I think the Paralympics are so special. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Jack, I'm just curious how physically demanding is this sport, especially the first time you tried this. I would imagine you've had some people that think they could play and come out to practice and they're dead within the first three or four minutes.

Like, can you describe a little bit what it takes to get in shape to play, you know, many games like this? Oh, yeah, we've had NHL players hop in sleds for the first time, and it looks like they've never been on a hockey rink before in their lives. It's a really tough sport. you're using your core and your hips in really different ways because those two blades underneath your sled, I have mine at about an inch and a quarter and some guys have them at a quarter inch. So your balance and your stability has to be top level.

And obviously you're propelling yourself at over 18 miles an hour with your arms, right? You see people sprinting at 20, 21 miles an hour with their legs. And you can obviously get way more force out of your legs. And we're using our arms. And you know, you're skating around all games so your arms are smoked. and then you have to stick handle and shoot with the puck at the same time when your arms are absolutely burning. So, yeah, it takes a lot of dedication and a lot of training to get to an elite level in sled hockey. Some nasty dangles there, though, no matter how exhausted you are, under the sled from one hand to the next top bin.

I mean, it is, there was some filthy shit going on on those sleds yesterday. And when you guys were trying to kill the puck at the end, I think I saw under the sled, like a triple deak under the sled, then a spin move with the stick at one point and then a dump into the corner and then a full sprint to a spot obviously because that's where the puck's gonna be and I looked it up. They're saying maybe 20,

how fast are you guys going out here? And then there's big, you guys are hitting the shit out of each other in this thing. That's just a part of the sport and how fast are you going? Do you know? Yeah, we're going over 18 miles an hour.

The best skaters in the world are going over 18 for sure. And then you guys are, I mean... Yeah, and you're attached to metal frames. So, you know, it's like a car crash out there when you get, you know, when you get smoke by the front of that sled, it's, you know, that metal doesn't bend. You do.

And you guys are turning that song, bitch, sideways, too. I mean, I'm watching some incredible. It's like a slide tackle in soccer. Somebody dangling, dangling, I'm going to turn that shit sideways right through the stick. It was like, ooh, that's not. And then behind the back comes out, I'm like, this is filthy. And then the speed of it, I think could be captivating for folks on that note. Go ahead, tone.

Yeah, Jack, I wanted to know, like, outside of the Olympics, how often are you guys playing in tournaments and stuff? like that. Is it all international or did you have a USA league that we can watch? How do we support? Yes, how do we support? Yeah, there's a, there's slut hockey all over the country. There's local club teams. A lot of NHL programs have sled programs associated with them, you know, for the for the hockey is for everyone movement. And then, yeah, as far as the national team goes, we're training once a month together. We all get together, you know, for like a four or five day training camp. And then we usually have two World Cup, two or three World Cups,

season, a couple rivalry series with Canada, kind of like the women's team does, and then usually a world championship or a Paralympics at the end of the year. All right, let's go and win all this. Okay, Jack, let's go and win all this. Connor has the last question for you here. Yeah, Jack, how is the team chemistry? You just mentioned it kind of you guys

playing year round, but was there a conversation going into it? Like, hey, if we can get this done for the fifth straight time, we will have the first clean sweep with the men, women, and the sled hockey. And are you guys hanging out a lot? You know, post game, before the game? What's that like? Oh yeah, we're 17 brothers. I mean, some of these guys I've known since I was 12, 13 years

old and have played on the same team as them since then. So, you know, we're all, there's a core group of us kind of getting into our late 20s, early 30s, so guys are getting married and we're, you know, at each other's weddings. It's amazing. Declan got married. Last summer, the whole team was there. And I think that's the magic behind this team and why it's been so great is just the chemistry and the love that we have for each other and just, you know, the willingness to absolutely grind in the offseason and grind during the season and through games like that, you know, really gritty games. And we just, you know, we do it for each other. Yeah, you guys outgritted them in the third period. It was nice to see.

What we do. It was good to see that. It was close. It was a cagey affair. It was a cage affair. It was very close. And then third period, you guys just decided we're going to pour it on real quick. We're going to win this thing in dominant fashion. It was fun to watch. Is there women's sled hockey that happens? Yeah. Yeah. So just recently. there was the first ever women's official world championship. They're making a push to try and get it added into the Paralympics for the 2030 games.

Did we win the World Championship? Yeah, we did. Quadruple crumb. Okay, we love that. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Keep going. We're going to try to support as much as we possibly can because we think it's a beautiful story.

I had a kid in my home room in high school that played sled hockey. Obviously, something happened out of his control. He still was able to compete, still a part of a team, everything like that. And you, still winning gold medals for your country. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Good luck. Where's that?

Are you holding the gold medal up? I don't know, we didn't see it. Yeah, we got one right here. Boom. Let's go alongside the other two you got. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Jack Wallace. We appreciate you, buddy. Yeah, Jack.

Thank you, Jack. Yeah, the dangle's under the sled. Sick. Nasty. That was sick. They're flying. 18 miles an hour. moving,

dude. It was like a... Imagine how fast you would cramp up. Your upper body would cramp, like your hips, your core, everything. Yeah, it's brutal. I mean, your arms completely... He said your arms are completely smoked.

Then you've got to still dangle. You know, still got to shoot and everything. It's like, that's very real. Especially with how many games they have back to back. It was fun to watch. I had a lot of people on the internet saying, you guys didn't really care about sled hockey before you beat Canada.

Says who? Exactly. That's bullshit. I was saying that, Canadians? Bingo. Ain't the same people that are mad that didn't like the... that, you know, they're from America, but hated that that was called a strike last night. Yeah.

Okay. You could say, wow, that was a wrong call. But then in the same vein, you could say, happy to happen for us. Yeah, exactly. And let's move for all. Charge one for the good guy. Hey, that's baseball. That's baseball.

Sorry about it. Because I heard it was an away game, too, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, I sounded like it on the broadcast. So it wasn't even like home cooking, you know, so. I have seen some picture. I don't know if you guys have seen your algorithm, some pictures of the umps. Yeah.

Yeah. His mask of you. I don't know. I didn't know who the employee. Is the president of the United States, the umpire? Could have been. I saw that online. I saw the phone.

Are we sure? Anthony hit that home run, too? I don't know. I'll tell you what, that robbing that home run, Aaron, Judge. Yeah. That was great. Too bad. Man, Dominican Republic team was awesome.

We appreciate your contributions to World Baseball Classic. We fell in love with the sport because of some of the stuff you did. America Wednesday. We'll continue. Have a good day. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. All right.

Yeah, I feel like I really got to it. There was a limited amount of time they were coming up. Yeah. Wanted to talk shit about Dominican Republic, but then I also wanted to thank them for what they were doing it. They were very fun. Had to make that decision halfway through the sentence because I was going, sorry, Dominican Republic,

you're done with baseball forever. It's like, well, I hope that's not the case. That's the conversation that was happening in my brain because they were fantastic. Oh, yeah. Pimp and a rough. Most homers in the history of the tournament. I think they hit 15 going into last night, so 16. And everyone was as if it was their first. or their last.

Yeah. Yes. You know? And that's what I love. Or walk off. Yeah, or walk off. Yeah. Them actually, Austin Wells,

hitting that walk off to 10 run a thing. That was sweet. And them all going crazy. The Gringo. Yeah. Him speaking Spanish in the clubhouse after. Yeah. And I'm going nuts.

Ola. Yeah. Yeah. WBC, they did their thing with this. Yeah. MLB did their thing. And the NHL, I believe, is adopting the world hockey classic. They had the Four Nations, of course.

but I think there's an announcement coming soon about them doing full-blown WHC. World Cup of hockey. They've been doing it. Okay. That's true. Okay. That's true. No, it's all good, though.

It's all good. Lord of Marrier. Hockey getting a rub from baseball here, not a bad play. A little bit. People are saying baseball. That's what they're saying. That was the best brand of, I mean, MLB playoff baseball is unbelievable. We just come off a great back-to-back World Series, honestly.

but like seeing the whenever you get the group of the best players in the country playing for that. Like that's why the Olympics is so great. So to see that brand of baseball, it was awesome. And being a guy from South Florida, even that environment down there in Miami, it's like, damn, can we get a good team? Because every time we win it or we have a good team, they break the team apart and we're not close. Like I had no clue that stadium could look like that. Sound like that. It sounds like the pops.

Like it was unbelievable. And Deero said he felt like that too, especially, you know, in magical moments. judge shooting that shit he's awesome done down Cushin a barrel brother That's literally what just happened there Catches that so smooth on the run And then goes right to Mahan what's the video

I watched as a child Tommy Manski It was right to Tom Manski Fucking right to third I mean an absolute rope Chasing a game What a moment And then diving play

Like he's LeBron James What was Coach K doing? I'm glad you got LeBron in that room Because he sounds like he wasn't supposed to He's not retired yet He's not retired. All those other guys are retired.

He's still active player. I don't know. He was rattling off names. I saw his brain. Like the 60s? He didn't say bird either. The bird's in there room. Yeah.

Apparently he's not. Birds at the door of that room. Yeah. Birds saying a lot of things in there from what I've been told. Letting people. They're birds. They're just fucking. How are you doing?

I'm going to go out here. And I'm fucking make every shot in your feet. fucking face while telling you about it. He wasn't farming in the offseason he would play for 10 more years. This thing is back though, remember? That's the best game ever played. He was just kind of chilling on size, smoke is sick. In the gym.

They don't make them like that. No, they don't. In many ways. And, you know, I guess that's possibly a good thing. Yeah. Let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll pick the entire fucking bracket. Boom. Go! Yes. I don't love it. I kind of love this is what our show's about to become.

You can join us while we enter an entire program bracket, which is what we're going to do on the other side. Hey, what's worse than somebody telling you about their bracket? Picking it right in front of your face. That's what we're about to do. Pretty cool. That's a word about it. It is pretty cool, I guess.

If you would like to know what bracket we as an entire program are putting in to the ESPN tournament challenge, we'll be doing that on the other side. If you have anything else to do with your life, we will see you tomorrow. What is that like 62 games to pick? No problem. It'd be quick. It'll be super quick.

Easy. We're all going to have differing opinions, too, because I know that we all have very strong. I don't think we all agree on each one? I have to gaze. Well, okay, boom, boom. Yeah. I don't know, man.

This one could go a few hours because I got some strong opinions about some of these fucking teams. I mean, we could wait until Wednesday for some of the playing games to be done. All right, let's do that. Okay. Yeah.

Let's get out of here. We should do it. All right. All right. We're going to get out of here. You got to celebrate. Wednesday does feel right, going right into the tournament.

All right. We'll do that. Wednesday. With Coach K. Yeah, and we'll tell him it's coming. I'm sure he would love that. Coach K, you get an extra three hours in your life? Oh, that'd be awesome.

Don't be able to pick on Bracken Live. Being able to pick Duke to get beat the second round and then just see how he how he reaction. Coach, one of these teams is going to have to make an upset. It's going to have to happen somewhere. It wouldn't be the madness of March. Would it be if it didn't happen? Speaking of madness, it's going on outside.

Snowing it. Snow, son. It's 50-mile hour wins yesterday. The wind. We had power out for people. like for a couple days. No joke. I don't remember this.

Like it feels like tornadoes on for eight straight hours. Two days. It's been like two straight days of tornadoes winds out here. Now granted not tornado gets up to I think like 100 or whatever. It was 50 mile an hour winds out here. Oh yeah. I can see Tom getting knocked over in this wind. That's why you couldn't fly anything.

Yeah, we had, they told us it was thunderstorms from Miami. No, it's definitely what we had going on. Oh, okay. Sustained 50 mile an hour winds for like multiple hours. It was crazy. Couldn't even walk outside. House felt like it was about to get blown over. Like, actually.

Howling like a train outside for just hours and hours and hours. And then what is this? And what did it bring in? Oh, fucking snow. Yeah. So it was a cold-ass wind. Yeah. The north, basically.

Yeah. Next couple days. And then Thursday, it jumps back up. Jeez. Crazy. I was golfing last week out here. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

It was one year. It was 70 degrees yesterday. It was windy as shit, but it was like 71, 72 degrees. Took baby girl for a walk out. Yeah. Outside. No problem. How are we doing?

Let's have a good time. We're running in the sun. We've got shadows we're playing with. It was beautiful day. Windy. A little breezy, but certainly a good day. And then, yeah, we wake up this morning. Snow.

I don't like that. Bullshit. I don't like that at all. That's Indiana. You know, we say a lot about him. But he might be right. That little fucking. Poxetani.

No. No. He's, yeah. Pike? That guy's so drugged up. He doesn't know. Phil. Phil.

Phil. Yeah. Oh, I thought you were talking about the suspenders guy. Oh, Adam Fyke. Oh, Fyke. Sure, Adam Fike. He's talking to ground hole. Fike is not a little fucking gay.

That's how I described. I was describing Punks or Taney Phil. D-Buh. We like Fike. Fike ain't getting a little fucking treatment. No. He's Jack. Exactly.

Yeah. He's a professional. I'm talking about that little fucking rat that comes out of the fucking ground. Yeah. It gets treated like a king. And then every time it comes upstairs. and says, oh, I'm scared, goes back down. Tells us, winter's here to stay.

And all of a sudden, we got to say, we don't need that bullshit right now, buddy. Okay, we haven't seen the sun in four fucking months. Maybe you'll give us some good news. That thing, I've never seen it. It has never said good news. No. We also know what's going to happen.

It's going to get warm, and then it's going to get fucking cold again. Yeah, but one day, Bunkstonny Phil is going to come up, and for some reason, it's not going to see a shadow. And it's just going to get warm, and we're not going to have this. And that's going to be cool.

I think that's happened before in my life. Oh, yeah. I think that has happened before in my life See, you don't even remember it No, how could I? Because I feel like this happens every single year. And that's Phil. Is it the same one? Is this Phil's been the same year? Yes, it's him. Oh, does he?

No, no, they shot one of them in the head. Yeah, what are you guys? I think it's Bill 9 like Uggah. It's like an Uggah situation. No, this one's not long in the tooth. This one still has it, clearly. Still bringing it. Yeah. They got so much damn Xanax in that thing so they didn't bite everybody's face off anyway.

He doesn't know where he's out. He's drug, that's true. Ground dogs are serious, man. Ground dogs will kill your dog. They got that front tooth. What? Oh, yeah. I don't think so.

They'll take a hole, drop it on a spik. You don't want to mess with a ground dog. That's why they're definitely drugged that thing. That old guy holds them up like that, and the guy, the ground dog doesn't care. Like, good luck. There's no way. Okay, so the ground dog is like a monkey in the way it attacks humans? It can.

I'm not humans as much. I'm saying animals and people have had to pull the ground hogs off their dogs or animals. A lot of times they'll kill your dog. But like monkeys, how does a monkey attack versus how a groundhog attacks? Are they different? A monkey will take your meat off. I don't think a groundhog is going for your meat, really. Why not?

You think it's a vegan? I mean, I can't get inside the groundhog's head. I don't know, but I just know to keep my distance. Okay, so you see ground dog, you go, well, I'm not going near that thing. Unless I have a gun or a bat, yeah. Just in case, because groundhog, known to run towards human, not away from human in the hole, right?

I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know how many attacks they have on humans. I just know they attack animals, other animals, dogs, cats. There's a groundhog in my backyard growing up. This fucker was gigantic. They're all replacing. Guy came in with a fucking bow and killed it.

A bow. Really? That's how big it was. That's sick. Bo Jackson. Yeah. Put up in Bo Jackson. I've heard he's pretty good with the stick as well.

Yeah. World champ. Fucking Bo. A bow. Yeah, he got that thing with a bow. You couldn't just fire a gun up. There's houses. One shot.

Yeah. It was a fool. Right through his forehead? Yeah. Eye to eye. Neal to eye. Yeah. This thing was a fat little bastard.

I don't know where it got all the weight from. But it was Chuck. This thing was Chuck. ate a couple dogs. Yeah. What it sounds like. I didn't know that. That fucker,

I'm happy. It's dead. Yeah. And you'd feel to be next. Because what if Phil is an actual trigger for this? You don't even remember a time. No, I don't. I wonder if Boston has that.

Do you guys have, like, a time where... They got their own version. They typically just have cold to warm. Like, it is a freezing cold from October, November, till April. They don't really have, like, first summer. But then again, we still get, they get some of the weather from here.

So they've had some nice of it. Is there spring? Do you guys have a spring? Spring? Spring is seemingly disappeared. Yeah, spring, spring gone. They had a record amount of snow this year. So it's probably been the worst winter in New England. Brutal. In the last 30 years.

Everywhere, I think. I don't think it's just, yeah. New England obviously gets it more than us because of where it's located. I guess they say longitude, latitude. So I think that could be a entire. The worst thing. So I think they get more snow. Like Syracuse, I think gets a bunch.

Obviously, Detroit. Buffalo, we know. Those places get a lot more because of science, I guess, is what they say. Lake effect. Yeah, just where the storms come from and end up. The UP was allegedly going to get three to four feet this past weekend. That's insane. It's like a buffalo in here trying to fucking shovel those seats out.

You remember that? You'll remember that? Oh, you know the deal. Bring your own fucking shovel night. They don't have to do that anymore. Well, 60%, right? Yeah, TBD, they might. I think the seats are heated.

Really? No, I made that part up. Okay. That would be a good idea. It's not a bad idea. Until one guy gets his ass burnt. Yeah. And guess what?

That coffee's too hot. I'm suing McDonald. Exactly. He owns it as part of the stadium now. That'd be tough for that family up there, Pagoulos. They've been investing so much up there. All of a sudden,

a little heated seat or fucking lose you a billion. That could happen, though. We need bare cheeks on these seats immediately. On it. Test it. Let's find out. See if we get the bills. Sit there for a week.

Sit there for a week and see if you get burned. Capacha will do it. Man, maybe. Kaparish, we'll do it. That guy you guys had a. What? Who had the Madonna. Oh, yeah.

Have you, George? Is he still at your house? He likes when his cheeks get burned. I think he's walking to your house right now, because we sent him on his way towards you. Just play it. Is he playing the guitar the whole way? His wife filming him? He's doing more than just playing.

He's international. What's he doing? Bop and Wood? Yeah, he might be doing a bunch. different things. I don't think we can just say like, oh, he's only playing the guitar. Like, that guy's got harmonica in him for sure. I thought I saw him up on stage with the guy that bought the Ursa

guitar. The Tiger? Yeah. I think he went for, what, $12 million or something? $13 million? And then they played it the next night. Yeah, that's sick. Absolutely. I thought I saw Happy George in the background. No, I don't think he was there for that night. I think he was in on the auction online-wise. And then it went past Happy George when it hit

$10 million. That was his final that was Happy George's final bid. We hope Happy George gets to that point because I'll tell you what he did bring a little bit of what yeah and then some laughs were you here for that I was that I saw oh you missed out you that I thought would have loved it I thought for sure were AI generated no like no way that guy got access to the thing I know I know you should have been here it was a fucking wild morning you could imagine what it was actually like yeah this thing walked over to here side door first walk right over here fool kit walks all the way over with a guitar yep microphone on

Two balloons, a heart and a smiley face, looks in, can't see anything because obviously the tin on the windows, turns around, we see his cheeks, and then he bops back out there. Bruce, Bruce go figure this thing out. Bruce goes out there and talks to him for a good five, ten minutes. Bruce asks him to stand where they are. Please do not move. We got snipers all over the point. Now I'm glad Bill didn't take them out. Exactly.

There was chance. There was thought. Yeah, Bill was like, next year brought in a new fucking 50 cow today. Yeah. He was ready. He was up on top of that thing. He was. Got a nest.

That's big motor football. That's right. Amen. People need to know that when we're walking around here. There's a guy coding YouTube in the back. He's taking photos and editing them. And then he's got a... Up on the top of his...

Looking for his next scalp. Yes, he... I mean, maybe. We don't know. There'll be a documentary someday who'll explain it all. We'll be a part of it. That's right. kids of talent.

He is. And I think he would die for this place. Yesterday, his fucking house caught on fire. That's right. What? 50 mile hour winds we're talking about. He thinks, this is Bill's projection, that one of his neighbors,

two blocks down, was deciding to burn the leaves this day. So burn some shit. And he thinks that the wind blew some of it onto a fence, which then burned his fence down and inevitably a part of his house. So that's Bill McCormis's weekend.

So he was firing in some lumber to rebuild the fence earlier You got to sell that house. It's curse. Guy crashed his car. He drove his car into it. Hit the electric. Jim Morris.

Broke the electrical box. Oh, yeah, it is Jim Moore. It is a haunted place. What's going on over there? That was earlier, for those that haven't followed along with Baila McComis' experience with his house. We're in the middle of the show, just middle of the afternoon, sunny afternoon. Not like today at all. And Bill gives us a call that I got to get out of here.

What happened? Some guy in a Corvette just. hit my house. What do you mean? What do you mean? Guy just drove into my house. I don't know. That's what they're telling.

I got to go. So Bill leaves. He gets there. We send Mitt to do a first on scene. First on a seat. Oh, yeah, reporter for this time. Eyewitness report. Turns out it did.

A Corvette just right through his yard, hits his garage. Doesn't do any damage to the garage, which is cool. But it takes out the entire electrical input to his house. Like the guy's car just so happened to hit on a spot. That's about this. big and just blew out his entire

electricity to his house. So he had to redo the entire thing. Well, it was not good. And then now we got a fire start and a couple blocks down going straight to his fence. Now I've got to fucking call 84 lumber refilled it. Now that neighbor's dead. Yeah. God. Not confirmed.

Did Bill burn the whole neighborhood down like the rest of the houses? Bill said he was in his garage cleaning things when the neighbor came in and said, hey, your fence is on fire. And he goes, well, excuse me. back there. Bailey, you're doing it. Get out of there, Bill.

Ed Policy says, I'm selling the fucking name of Lambeau Field. People aren't happy. Okay? You got to do business as business is being done. Are we going to be the only team in the world that isn't profiting off of our stadium? He can't do that. We're soon to be the only stadium without naming rights.

That's not a threshold. We're looking across anytime soon. Well, we might be a little more aggressive with some of the other entitlement inventory we just hadn't taken advantage of in the past, including things like training facility entitlements and the Tidal Town campus. So Lambo Field.

Lambo Field will be at Title Town brought to you by cheese. Craft. Craft or... Or like the indoor. I think it sounds like he's mentioned the indoor. It's called the Don Hudson Center. The great Don Hudson, but now it could be the, you know, Sargento Cheese Don Hudson.

Big. Bingo. But it will certainly be Lambeau Field at whatever the place is. so they can get around not naming Lambeau Field that? Yeah, they have gates. Like, there's gates that are all sponsored, though. There's Miller Light Gates and stuff like that on the outside of the stadium. Yeah, of Lambeau Field.

Of Lambeau Field. People think immediately that they're going Sargento Lambo Field. Yeah. And they're like, oh, I don't know if you'll make that decision, but they will certainly be trying to profit off of what Lambeau Field is, especially when there's precedent that everybody else in sports is doing the same thing. But I can understand why people are pissed. How come Lambeau Field came?

be pure. How come that can't be the last thing that we keep? Well, it doesn't sound like he's going to sell Lambeau Field. Certainly going to be selling the ground around him, it sounds like. Yeah, at least not right now. I mean, it's one of those things where, yeah, it'd be nice, but like, you saw Heinz go to Accresure, you know, and everyone's pissed off at the start, but then eventually it's just like... No, it's still shit.

Well, of course, but you're not, you know, you're not going to fucking not go to a Steelers game or not watch a game on Sunday. If some company is willing to give hundreds of millions of dollars for the naming rights to the stadium, it'd probably be hard pressed for, like, the team president and the guy running stuff to not, you know, at least look into it a little bit.

Now, I'd love for it to stay Lambo, but like, that's just kind of, that's just kind of not the world we're living in anymore. Yeah, but cheese curds across the street at that one place, what's it called? Curly's. Is that the little living room looking place? It's one of them, yeah, it's a bunch of different stuff now, but crows, I think you're thinking crows. That's the place.

Yeah. Maybe crows should sponsor Lamb. That'd be cool. Curly Lambos got a space. Curly Lambo's got a place up there. So AJ just said Curlies? Yeah. Nice.

I'll pay what it is next time I go up there. Yeah, we don't know. You should. What do they sell? Cheese cards in her? I mean, that's cheese curds everywhere. That's a Wisconsin staple. Cheese cards, beers?

By. By. Burgers, booze. Bye. Bye. You know what's big in Wisconsin? Why? Why?

So, I was trying to go out somehow. They're soaked. They soak, you know, the fruit in the booze in vodka and stuff. What? What? 316 day. Dudley, Stace Kebler. Why?

What did you say they did, though? They soaked something in the booths? Soaked fruit and booze in, like, mason jars. In like moonshine or like Everclear? Yeah. Moonshot, Everclear, vodka, all that. Those ones will get you. No, yeah.

That Krolls place. I think I saw a guy blocked out of like 930 a.m. in there. He was sitting, there was carpeting, I think, if I recall. There's carpeting in there. And then there's like a bar that kind of wraps around the middle and then family restaurant, seemingly around the outside. This guy is just kind of hanging out, having a good time. Had no idea it was a potential family restaurant. I think he lives right down the road. Bartender seemingly talking to him like he's just going to walk his drunk ass home like he does every other day. It was a nice little town. Had cheese curds, had some beers with that guy.

Right. He's got obligated, had to do it. Didn't drink any whiskey there. Why? Could have. What? Tequila also available. I turned it all down. Definitely chugged a beer. White. Blackout guy. White. I'm Green Bay. He was a hard worker.

Had calluses. Seemingly an alcohol problem. Why? All right. Let's spend a little long. Big night last night or this weekend, I'm sorry, for the Los Angeles Lakers. We talked about it numerous times. LeBron James diving on the floor as a 40-plus-year-old in year 23, game 67. Not only a massive ordeal, obviously, for the entirety of the NBA, but certainly of the Lakers.

said, I don't want the Lakers to win this game, because I don't want people to think the Lakers have a chance. Well, sounds like the Lakers have a chance, especially if LeBron James is going to be diving all over the ball. And they're exciting whites, okay? And they certainly got two of them. And Luca and Austin Reeves are pulling off the super duper triple point double shot thing. This is incredible. You talk about this in high school. You talk about this, obviously when you're shooting around. To pull it off in the fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets, one of the smartest teams in basketball is obviously ridiculous. All of Crypto Arena want bananas as Austin Reeves. ties it up and then then go ahead and win this thing

who's the ball going to? Is it going to Braun? Is it going to Reeves? Or is it going to Luca fucking Donchick? This dude scored 51 points the other night and now he is clearly one of the superstars of the league and also he is the Lakers.

That is what the Lakers are. And his relationship with Austin Reeves is cool. Watching Braun kind of have to buy into what this is has been cool because this is a different stage of his career. And JJ Reddick, the big dumb dipshit who couldn't coach for a while, potentially has a team. He has a team that's ready to go. They might win this thing. If they could play some defense and their bigs can show up, obviously, you know, when you have LeBron James is the third option. I know he's 41, but especially when you get in the playoff

series, he's going to be great. AR is great. And then Luca is one of the top two or three players in the world. So yeah, they definitely got a chance. One of the bright spots in that game, specifically was Aiton, their big man who's former number one overall pick. he played well on both sides of the court. If he could play well on both sides of the court, can they challenge the Thunder? Can they challenge the Spurs? I think so when you have that type of talent. You know, once you get to dance, we shall see.

Yeah, especially if Luca can just not miss. I like... He's unreal. It's all falling. I don't know how the hoop is bigger for him than everybody else. He's, like, a guy that can get to the room. He can, like, their game playing. This game was kind of to get him in that intermediate area

where he's putting up little floaters, and I feel like he made everyone. and it's tough to double off of them because you have guys like AR, you have guys like LeBron out there. But yeah, once you get into like any of these major sports, once you get into playoff basketball, guys are competing for spots and shit. That's when you see the best of the best.

So I'm excited about all these young players in kind of the old heads and how they'll show up. Shit, Boston. I'm excited to see how Boston's ever and Tatum down the stretch. Yeah, they say Luke is in the middle of some stuff off the court. We've seen dogs lock in before. It feels like there's a chance that that happens. And then the Eastern Conference, I mean, Indiana,

Pacers out kind of opens the door for everybody else. I don't know. They laugh. We'll say if they hold the door or not. I think we've lost 13 straight. That's going to happen every once in a while. Took on the box. The bucks were losing four straight. Yeah, they stink too.

Yeah. Turns out Pacers stink more. We lose that one. Yeah. Neesmith goes crazy, but we lose. And the Pistons? Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah, we'll see.

That guy was on TV last year. The head coach who was going to be a... Bigger staff. J.B. Bicker staff. I love this guy. Probably win Coach of the Year this year. Should be Missoula, but maybe. We'll say Missoula

somehow guided the ship without Tatum, and then Tatum comes back and it's just like an add-on to a team that's already leading the entire conference. Missoula could probably win it every year going forward. Yeah, that is the other thing. The Coach of the Year stuff seemingly always goes to. Now, this is from our sport. We assume NBA is the same.

Do they give it to like the new? Is it like a way to anoints? somebody is it. The overachiever? Yeah, is that what it is? Like, hey, has Missed? I want to say yes, but I'm actually not sure. Yeah, me too. If it goes like the NFL does, it's like, who's a young coach that we would like to anoint as a good coach going forward? That's kind of how the NFL views it. Yeah, Missoula's problem is that in May Udoka in the team, they went to the finals, and then

the Udoka thing happened, and then Missoula took over, and people were like, well, it's not Missoula. Like, they had all these good players, this great team already. So I don't know if he's won yet, but if he has done it to him then. He's not like, In the NFL, they would give it to Missoula. And Jaylon Brown, I didn't think you. Jalen Brown has had a MVP level type year on both ends of the court. Obviously with Tatum being out for him to step up and beat at, you know,

$300 million guy that he's been like, obviously, Missoula is great. But sometimes when I'm watching the Celtics and I can see, you know, their team on the floor, I can't name three or four of the guys that are on the floor because I'm not a night in, night out watcher. Are you saying all white guys look the same? You know Peyton Pritchard? I definitely know Peyton Pritchard.

Obviously, you know, I mean, Kate, there are Luca Garza. I mean, you're talking about, you know, those are elite players. Yeah. Box office white. I'm talking about the other guy. Hugo Gonzalez. Boom. Jordan Walsh.

Baylor's Ironman. Like, they are just. Which once again goes back to what we're saying about coach of the year. Yeah. Neemis Kada is a guy who was basically in the G League his entire career. And this year's the starting center for the Celtics. And he's having an unbelievable. Neamus?

Yeah. Keta. See? We're learning this together. Cicata. Cicata. Cadas are we don't like them. No, they're not out right now. Odds for coach of the year.

J.B. Bickerstaff is minus 170 at Draft Kings and Joe Mazzola's plus 200. It is a two horse race. Okay. I don't know. I mean, J.B. Bickerstaff was working the media. I don't know who's voting for the. Yeah, and the story of the Pistons. The Pistons were the worst team in the NBA by far for like over a decade,

but for like five years running one year they lost 28 straight games. No team in NBA history has ever lost 28 straight games. J.B. comes in, they go to the playoffs, and now their best team in the East. He was also the head coach for the NBA East All-Stars this year. So that's why I was thinking the coach of the year. All right. Well, congrass to him and Detroit. You guys deserve to have nice things. You got a pitcher of that. I'm not saying it.

I don't love it either. It should. Nobody does. It would be nice. It would be very nice. Well, there's 61 pitches against the whoever the fucks in spring training that nobody's what. What are we doing? I thought we're preparing for the season. He knows something that I don't know.

And I think Dero was alleging to him whenever he said, all these guys want to do it. They got agents, they got teams, they got a lot of things around them that are kind of managing everything. So I assume the conversation is much bigger, especially with Scoobo potentially about to make hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars because of how good if a pitcher he is. But maybe my brain is just too stupid. How can we do 61 pitches in the spring training game for the Tigers? But we can't do 50 pitches for USA? I don't think I fully comprehend. No, I don't honestly don't really, I mean, that's what it is, is they're just taking every precaution, you know,

and that he should be around his team. He needs to perform well for the Tigers this year. But like, look at Skeens last night. He's still on track to pitch opening day. And, you know, they said from the onset, like he was, he was available to throw 95 pitches. That's the pitch limit for starters in this round. And DeRosa said, like, he's going to throw 70 to 75 probably. So, I mean, there was never really a world.

So I really don't know. I don't know why he's not doing it. It probably is pressure from the tigers and his agent and everything, but you'd think that it is just another start. You know, like he would still be getting the same kind of workup to the regular season. Are the balls heavier in World Baseball Classic? I don't believe so. We actually have one of those balls over there somewhere,

and it is the exact same ball as the everyday Major League Baseball. It just has a different logo on it. Okay, so I don't think I fully aren't. saying it. Scoobel, we know it's not him. It's everything around him. But boy, it'd be fucking nice if he was the one about to close this thing out. Yeah. And we'll see. Nolan McLean's got a, he's got a nice opportunity at redemption. Let's go to him. Be that guy. USA. USA. USA.

You think I'm going to be able to throw this subway sub into a hoop? Yeah. Probably. That's what that is. He sent it to us. Whoa. I put a couple of stories out about the protein. That thing got laces on it? Stacker. What are they called? Protein punk power pack?

Protein pockets. Okay, protein pockets. Yeah. I posted a couple protein pocket IG stories, and their social was like, excuse me, do you like that? There's more that came from. They sent us a bag. Golf bag.

What is the protein pocket? Just a thing of meat? It is. I've learned this since then. They sent letter with information of what it is. It has more. protein packed in that per capita than any other sandwich or something.

So they're calling it to protein pocket. They got a couple different ones. It's a wrap that has a lot of meat in it. And the Baja chicken one, I believe, has some jalapinos in it and some other stuff. It has a great flavor. Nonetheless, I tweeted, or I posted that I, hey, pretty good shit here.

Yeah. Pretty good shit here. Get two of them pretty cheap. Fill you up pretty good amount of protein. And they sent us that golf bag and this football came a week later. And they fucking made a sandwich. Oh, yeah. Sweet. That's pretty sweet.

That does look cool. Go deep. Is that regulation? Nice. Go deep, you know. That's cool. It's pretty cool. All right, name that meat.

Tone. What's that one? That looks like, pepperon. Is that dark? Yeah, I think the top one. Roast beef. Okay, what's that one?

Turkey. That's pepperon. What's that one? Ham. Turqu. Ham, yep. And then we got onions in there? Onions.

Lettis. Is that mayo over here? Could be. It might be some problems. along hanging off. Oh, this looks like double meat if I this looks like it's double and triple meat. Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, give me a big meat, me, meat. Matt, man, his meat on meat. That'd be a good sandwich if that roast beef wasn't on me. Who wants to throw this? They're still looking for a new spokesman? You want to throw it? Sure. Why are they looking for a new one?

Some things. Bad things. Getting out soon. Thought happening no more was there. What Eli Manning do? No, East Jersey Mike. Oh, I can't throw this. Russ Wilson.

Yeah, somebody else. though, can't they? Yeah. Come on. Jeez. It's a sandwich. It's a sandwich. It's a football made out of subs.

I tell you what? That might be a protein power pack. I honestly don't know if I can throw this thing. I'll see if the hockey time. Is it slick? It's, it ain't pink skin. I'll tell you that.

No, it does feel like it's a loaf of bread. Oh. Tony. He can spin that thing. All right, Tony. You put it in that right over there, Tom. Spin that fuck. If you put it over there, we'll give, uh, if you can throw that particular,

I mean, have to shop put it. Double meat. Delicious. Club? I don't know what that was. Subway club. You can't go. Hold on.

In that hoop right over. Yep. Was it slick? What is it? Oh, move. What the fuck? Where's he going? Is you getting a glove?

Yep. I knew it. Smart. Kurt Warner. Smart. Good husband. Peyton Manning, Ben Rothesberger. Teddy two gloves.

Teddy two gloves. Decides to get a little bit more grip. That's a smart play. Pants are falling off you, town. Looks like you're in good shape, bud. Cowboy looking fit. You can rip that if you want to, man. That fits perfectly. Good idea.

Did it help or hurt? Help a little. You're going to rip that off, dude. Let's go, Tony. Oh, no, you can't. Okay, that's a worst nightmare situation right there in front of a bunch of people, too. You really perform well. There you go.

All right. If you can throw it as Subway Club and a hoop right over there, we'll give 20 people $500 to repost this. And... Oh! Pretty good. Good news.

If we ever pick that ball up again, you'll have another opportunity later. All right, let's get out of here. It's a great day to be alive. Yeah, it is. NFLPA's got a brand new shout out of Subway sending us shit. That was a good idea.

The football thing was a smart idea. It would crack the code getting in the office. Congratulations. It'll get worn out. Like, in a good way, so the football is throwable. Yeah, because it's a little... Yeah.

You can pump the hell out of that thing. It looks pretty fat. Let me break that thing in. I don't think you're going on that one far. No. I don't think you like you. You know when there's a show around the ice cream? Yeah.

Chocolate crunch. Oh, yeah. They sell that. They sell that. Yeah, it's delicious. Be a friend to tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together.

Thank you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. We'll be back tomorrow with more or whatever this was today. Also, big news tomorrow? Cam Young. Boom. Whoa. Yeah. The players champ, shout out to the PGA.

Hey. Thank you, PGA. This is good. Hell yeah. We might be going with PGA. That'd be fun. Brian Rolap all over the TV this weekend. Oh, yeah, it was.

Has an NFL Films thing coming out about Sunday at the players. I think it's probably going to be incredible. I assume so. Brian Rillup has a vision of what PGA is going to be. I think he's going to bring great ideas. Hopefully they're open to him. And hopefully the PGA continues to be awesome because, boy, that was a fantastic watch this weekend. We are very appreciative of that.

that and Cam Young will be on tomorrow and we assume some others will be we don't know who you know that show gets everybody it's like being here at about 1115 when there's fucking nobody that is certainly a scene then he's got to get some vitamins in you and just kind of start sending good messages fucking need you you know maybe make them feel terrible about themselves say if they don't come on show will be canceled forever sorry now I've never done that, but I am thinking about doing that some of this. Might help. Nice wrinkle. Yeah. Instead, it's always like, hey, there's a thousand other things you'd much rather do

with your life, but I got an idea. Hey, Coach, Kay, I'll but you come on and just tell us what the fuck basketball is. The fact that he said yesterday. He did. That was sweet. Yeah. Also, shout out. Nick on.

Shout out. Shout out. Shout out. Wrestling business has passed me by, but Nick on, p. Never will. I'll never catch up. I'll never catch up. Be your friend, tell her friends something nice.

It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me, team on three. One, two, three. Team. Every March, are brackets the only thing you can think about? Do you have symptoms such as constant bracket obsession or moderate to severe bracket-related distractions? You may be living with bracket brain.

Thankfully, there's ESPN Tournament Challenge, the number one proven way to treat bracket brain right at the source. So this March, download the ESPN Tournament Challenge app, fill out your men's bracket, and get You and your brain in the game. ESPN Tournament Challenge. Play the number one bracket game. Presented by Allstate.