The Fellas with Anthony Gargano & Jason Fitz discuss Tournament Matchups, Shedeur Sanders & MORE!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Oh, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, happy
happy MC double A Round two, first two days of
the Great American Holiday, the Hoop Holiday.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
We're kind to you. I hope you enjoyed it. Very chalky,
not a lot of thrills.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
The upsets did not really happen, and we might be
seeing the death of the mid major. We'll discuss that
as well. We are the fellas. Jason Fitz, my boy fits.
He's back on Anthony Gargana when we come you alive
from the Tiraq dot com studios tyraq dot com. We'll

(00:48):
help you get there and on Matt Selection Fans, free shipping,
Free Road has a production and over ten thousand recommended installers.
Tiraq dot com the way tire buying should be. Good morning, FITZI.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
Good look, I'm gonna tell you I'm on one. I'm
just gonna tell you already. You know this is the
best time of year for mass chaos. We all know that.
And I have never complained about being busy, but you
know it's part of part of what we love about
what we do. But I finished my work for y'alloo
last night, covering the tournament at about one in the
morning Eastern, So took a three hour nap and three

(01:23):
and a half hour nap and now we're going. So
I got you know, I've been so clean and everything. No, no, today,
I'm hopped up on Rainbow s Sherbert Energy drinks and
we're just gonna see how this thing goes.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Let's go, buddy, Rainbow Sherbert Energy drinks.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
I wish I was lying rain Total Body Energy drinks,
Rainbow Sherbert Player the day are delightful. I'm telling you,
they're so good. The problem is they make these things
taste so good that then I have one, and one
turns into you know, five or six in a day,
and then all of a sudden at the end of
the day, I'm like, God, what did I put my
body today? But that's what this weekend's about. You know,

(02:02):
this week If you're not sitting down Sunday night feeling
like you have gone through a boxing match you weren't
prepared for and done things to your body that are
almost inhuman while you consumed mass sports for four days, then.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You did it wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
And then that's what we're doing right now. Like March
madness is really talking about what we do to ourselves
to watch basketball endlessly. But I wouldn't have it any
other way. And you and I sometimes talk about like
the old guys on the block, But man, how beautiful
is it that you know? Because come on, it's not
that long ago that you got whatever game you got
in the area you were in, and you were hoping

(02:37):
you knew what was going on everywhere else, or you
could never watch all the games at once. You had
to go to a bar to do it. And now
the way they've spaced the games out and the way
that the way they're televised, you can just pop on
YouTube TV with the quad box and I'm watching all
the games at once, like this is beautiful.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, And you're right on, man, I love the way
they stagger them. But I'm just stacker. So you're good.
There's a game on. Youre used to be that dead
zone right after the afternoon session to the night session,
but that's not there anymore.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Now you got it all the way through just about.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's it's incredible. I'm with you, it really is.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
The only issue is and it's shame, but you know
it's this tournament is a chalky one and I wonder
if this is the way it's going to be right
and that one throw this at you see. A lot
of the mid majors have less of a chance now,

(03:38):
I think because of all the all their players are.
They're they're just getting gnad in the portal. They're transferring
to power teams. So now the older experience mid majors
don't really exist. Like, if they're older in experience now,
it probably means they have no talent.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
The way you've said that is powerful and correct and
an interesting change in the game. You know. One of
the things that we talk about a lot that I
think has helped women's college basketball is that because players
stick around longer, you get to know everybody. We've talked
about that, and so you can fall in love with
you know, Juju at USC and you can fall in
love with Page in Connecticut. You know, there are people

(04:23):
that you can just sort of flock to. And in
men's college basketball it doesn't necessarily work that way, but
the sort of cheat code to that has always been, well,
there's gonna be some Ivy League school that's been together,
you know for what feels like twenty seven years at
Princeton and they're going to run this maddening and everyone's
going to tell us how smart they are, because that's
the easiest thing to say. But it's true about these

(04:44):
Ivy League teams, and it felt like there was an
advantage and you can see now that that clearly doesn't exist.
And it's it's really interesting because everyone's poaching from everyone.
I heard the update anchor talking about the Michigan State game,
you know, and you start thinking about Bryant. Bryant, you know,
is a small school nobody knew anything about, but they

(05:05):
got guys that last year were playing in the Big East, right,
So you know that everybody's poaching from everybody, but it
does this year, particularly to me, it feels like there
are fifteen teams that are really good, twelve to fifteen
teams that are that are good, and the rest of
them are just all sort of okay. I like, I

(05:25):
was asked for Yahoo, I was asked whom my Cinderella
was that I thought could go on a deep run.
And I literally went back to our editors and I said,
I don't think there is one. And you know, one
of our main people came back and said, we got
to give me somebody. And I said to be disingenuous,
like I don't think that this is a year where
we're gonna see a twelve seed go on this magnificent.

(05:47):
Oh my god, I can't believe it. Like, sure they
got they got a win. But if you went chalk
on your on your bracket, you look at your look
at your bracket competitions, you're doing really well. If you
went chalk, and there's a reason for that.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, you're you're spot on that filling out the bracket.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
I was having a really tough time.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Like finding those upsets, Like I mean, my Final four
is so boring.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I mean it's all ones and two seeds. I mean
you can't find anything, and it's really played out.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
I mean we'll go through all the games, but I
mean just look at yesterday, right, you know, uh, you
got Robert Mars played Bama tough.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
That was fun. Right, Ultimately Bama wins Baba.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
By the way, though without one of their biggest stars
for the majority of that game and exactly when the
game was tight, it was like, oh man, we better
put our I mean that's like watching a football game
and you know, three quarters the way through, it's like,
I guess we're gonna put my homes in. It's just
this game is too close like that, that's real from
what happened yesterday.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then and then Lipscomb gets rolled, right,
ioways stay crosses them. I mean, Colorado State was a
twelve seed, but they weren't really they were. I think
they went off as a favorite in that game over Memphis.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, and Memphis also dealing with some injury issues. So
like it's it's interesting. There's a yeah butt to some
of these, like these interesting moments, you know.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, but you know, right right right, I mean, you
know Grand Canyon historically, like that thirteen would be live
and at least kind of give Marilyn a sweat. And
you know, Marilyn wins by thirty two. The one seeds,
you know, they roll Kentucky over Troy, they roll by

(07:49):
It was easy by nineteen right, New Mexico.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
All right, that's a good opset. That's a ten seventh.
That was legit.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
I mean it's not earth shattering, but I'll give that
to you.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
You know, keep going.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I don't know, I mean I felt Xavier would hang
it tougher ultimately, you know, I Lloyd just kind of
shot him out of the building.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
Liberty was no match for Oregon.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I mean that was it the first day he had
the drake, right, Like the drake was the best story.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
And McNeice over Clemson.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah, And it's funny you mentioned McNeice over Clemson, as
everyone has probably seen in the last few hours, but
in case you haven't, it's the first time in fifty
years that only one ACC team has made it to
the round of thirty two. Like it just it shows
you what we all knew. And you know the reason

(08:47):
I wasn't with you last week. I was flying out
to LA to do a Yahoo Sports live stream on
the tournament bracket, and you know I said at the time,
you know, the ACC was trashed this year, And you
know me, I say that all the time, like trash,
that's just an expression I use. And one of my
co hosts pushed back a little bit, is like, ah,
I mean trash, there's a harsh way to put it.

(09:08):
I think we kind of learned through the process of
the first weekend and guess what the ACC was trash
this year. Like when you start talking about the need
for this this conversation that's now happening about whether the
Big East and the acc should merge together in college basketball.
Part of the reason that that conversation is happening is
because both of those conferences lack the firepower to compete

(09:30):
with what's happening. Like, I know, we're going to spend
some time today talking about what the modern landscape of
college basketball looks like, right, And you know that merger
conversation is not happening because you don't merge conferences because
you kind of like the idea because it's cute or
because you think it'd be fun. You do it because
you need it. In college sports, everything is done because

(09:50):
you have to do it and because there's money behind it.
So you know, we saw that in the first weekend,
Like Clemson losing is just another indication of the fact
that the ac A was outmatched in college basketball this year.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, it's amazing. And who was I talking to Martelli?
I think it was Martin this week.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
I was talking to one of a couple of the
coaches this week, and I think it was Phil Martelli.
If you remember, Phil was the coach of Saint Jose
when and he had a couple of big runs Jamiir
Nelson back in early two thousands, and then he went
to Michigan was assistant coach there. His son is actually
a coach at Bryant. And we were talking about the

(10:33):
challenge that you know, like these football schools or the
basketball schools. Half right, you know when that CEC says
all right, like we now need to put resources behind basketball,
you see the result, Like the result is all those
teams are good. I mean, look how well they're doing

(10:56):
it in a tournament. They're all good. I mean, my god,
I mean other than Georgia, Like they all really kind
of show up and then they're all pretty nasty.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
And I think that's kind of what you're looking at.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
It even more crystallizes to me that there's going to
be this top tier division that is the AFC NFC,
or in basketball, it would be the Eastern Conference in
Western Conference, right, and it's the Big Ten and it's
the SEC. They're going to gobble up those other two,

(11:33):
those other major conferences. I think they almost have to.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
And this becomes part of what is valuable in the
nil and transfer portal conversation for where the sport is
at right now, because you're so right about the change.
I mean, I was living in Nashville full time at
the time when college basketball felt irrelevant and the SEC
decided to start investing in coaches and facilities. And you know,

(12:00):
it's funny because twenty years ago, people that grew up
in Nashville were Tennessee volunteer football fans because of generational love,
and a lot of them were then Kentucky basketball fans.
The same person would be a Kentucky basketball fan and
a Tennessee football fan. And now you know that Tennessee
looked around and said, well, that's stupid and started investing, right,

(12:23):
And so you just think about the change in the
way basketball is even perceived in the SEC and the
way they consume it. And it's because you make a
conscious decision. You know, like I've said a million times,
I grew up in an era where UNLV was everything.
UNLV basketball was everything in Vegas growing up. Sure, the
school has never been able to make the commitment that

(12:44):
you have to make to you know, if you want
to compete in modern college basketball, you can. You just
got to find the money for it. And you know
UNLV simply hasn't done that. So you start to think
about what it means for what we're seeing right now.
And you're right, there's going to be this line between
the schools that can find a way to invest in
the schools that can't, and the schools that can find

(13:08):
the money to build a college basketball program are gonna
be able to do it consistently and constantly as long
as they can keep the checks coming. And for the players,
I mean, if you're at a mid major to go
back to where we started this, Like if you're playing
at Lipscomb or if you're playing at Belmont and Nashville
and all of a sudden you start you just absolutely
crush up your competition. Well, it's dumb for you know,

(13:31):
other schools not to look around and say, hey, you
know what you're playing really well, why don't you come
over here. Now, kids are going to stay in school
longer that are not NBA ready. But as part of that,
they're you know, they're trying to make money. They're running
their business, so they're going to go wherever they can
run their business the best, and that means that they're
constantly going to be leaving whatever their mid major is
to go to an SEC school or Big ten school

(13:52):
where they have a chance to try and win a championship,
but also more importantly, where they're going to get that bag.
You know, that's just part of it. They're gonna get
that bag.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, you're you're that's it, man, that's the day
of the game.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
And that's kind of where it is.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
I will say this, I mean, I expect the next
two days to be great basketball because what you're now
doing is, yeah, we all love the Cinderella, but I
think there was a point where, because all the one
had donees and how the talent dispersed that those mid

(14:28):
majors because they were all together and they were seniors
and they were in older teams and they were good
that you know, it almost made the Cinderella, you know,
equal footing with the favorite, right, So Cinderella really didn't
matter as much because you know, it was it was parody.

(14:51):
But I think now the shift is gonna be these
really good teams and you're gonna get great basketball.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:59):
And and I'll take that right like I'll take that
at the end of the day all day. And I
do think that what's nice about that, that parody you're
talking about is that, I mean, even think about where
we sit right now, how many people if you had
to walk in somewhere and bet your house and every
dollar in your bank account on one team to win
a championship this year. How comfortable is anybody making that bet?

(15:22):
And I think considering we're one weekend in and I
still can't tell you like, it sure feels like Florida's great,
you know, it certainly feels like Florida's great. But it
also feels like Houston's great on both sides of the ball.
And yeah, feels like you know, Auburn obviously, you know,
had some problems at the end of the regular season,
but none of that it reflected in what we saw,

(15:43):
you know, in their easy first round matchup, Like Duke
Cooper flag played twenty two minutes and looked great. So
he looked fine, you know. So you start going through
the list of teams that can actually win a championship, like,
it's not even just that, hey, anybody can beat anybody.
I genuinely think all of the one and two seeded
teams in this tournament, if they are healthy, have the

(16:04):
ability to win the championship. And that's we don't say.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
That every year, No, in fact, it's always It's been
lately kind of the opposite, right, Like, you know, I
think that's why people were like, because you know, you know,
human the human.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Nature is to grouse about everything.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
And I started yesterday my show yesterday, and I was
talking about how great it is, Oh my god, day
two of the basketball bacchan all right, like you said
it it's you know, beer and wings and fries and
pizza and you know, just wall A. Wall had a

(16:46):
buddy of mine. He ate three meals in the bar
on Thursday, and he was doing the same thing yesterday.
He said, I left the bar like whoever. It was
twelve thirty Eastern time, and he was there. He was
there by tip Wolf at noon and he and his
wife because oh my god, you ate three meals at

(17:07):
that bar, and you know, I mean that's what happens
when you put in a twelve hour shift of just
watching and drinking and eating, right, I said. I was jealous.
And you know it's funny, right, like, this is what
it is. And people were like, well, you know the
game sucked. No, I mean, it's just basketball all day like,

(17:31):
it's fun all right. So there was a lack of
some thrills. I get it, but you know, I really
expect today tomorrow that to be much closer, much more competitive,
and I'm much more entertaining.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Yeah, and I expect her to be more chaos. I
just and that's I think chaos is probably the wrong
word to use, but it's just such a chaos basketball chaos.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
I want everybody to be chaos.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
I want everybody to be as just dumbfounded about the
stupidity of sports as I am. When I will.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
We lost fitz Yeah, chaos the agent of cats. What
Fitzias Chaos got him?

Speaker 4 (18:17):
All?

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Right?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Coming up, we will go through all of the games.
We'll take a look at sneak preview of the weekend
and where we stand. And also rip George Foreman, the
great heavyweight champion.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
George Foreman, he was. He was a great man man.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
I tell you I covered a lot of his us
during his second tour when he came out of retirement.
I covered, uh. I think his last three fights I covered,
and they were like it was like in the mid nineties.
And he was a nice man man. And of course
he was a great analyst for the big fights. And

(18:58):
I got to know George and big George was an
awesome guy.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Man.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's a great guy and he's gonna be missed, So
rip big George Foreman.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well come back. We'll go through the games. Lots to
do today.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Where the fellas Jason Fitz Anthony Gargana right here on
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (19:22):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Live Fellas Jason Fitz Anthony Gargana.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
Do't forget tractors.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Supply knows that a winning season takes practice, teamwork, and
a can do attitude. Thankfully, when you have a neighbor
like Tracks or Supply, teamwork comes easy, whether you're caring
for pets, chicken or a few acres easy. All right,
our team members will help you succeed season after season.

(20:07):
Track to Supply for Life out here, and be sure
to check out Track to Supply Fox Sports Radio. The
Bracket challenge at Fox sports Radio dot com. See how
our hosts are doing with their picks and who's the
top rack listeners.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
All right, you got it all.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
The listener that does the has the best bracket at
Fox sports Radio dot Com will win a twenty five
hundred dollars gift card to tractor supply. All right, uh, FITZI,
let's go over to over today what it looks like?

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Shall we?

Speaker 4 (20:43):
Oh? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (20:45):
First of all, what are you doing today? Are you
headed to? Uh? You headed to the bar?

Speaker 4 (20:49):
You?

Speaker 3 (20:49):
What are you doing? Are you doing? How do you work?

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Now?

Speaker 4 (20:52):
I'm working? You know me, I'm working, unfortunately, unfortunately, I
never say unfortunately fortunately. Like so, part of what we
do for Yahoo Sports is quick reactions to everything. So
not to everything, but to ninety percent of the key games,
and so for much of today's action, because there are
so many good games. As soon as the game ends,

(21:14):
we hop on, you know, electronically remotely, and I'm hanging
out with Marcus Morris, and you know, we do like
a quick react to a bunch of the games. So
you know, that means that if I'm going out, I
got to be within like ten minutes a home, you
know what I mean, Because otherwise it's like the juggling act.
I can't. I can't, you know, if I have to

(21:35):
drive twenty minutes to get there, I have to lead
before the game ends. I don't want to miss the
end of the getting you know, we're talking about it's
gonna be a big ending, right, so that means that
meshed out. There's a there are two dive bars, like
right by my house, Elmer's and one that's cleverly called
the Bar, and those two both have a ton of TVs.
So I might make my way over there because it's
like less than five minutes from my house. That's gonna

(21:56):
be about it. What about you? Or like you got
the family? Does the family you sit down and watch
the as a group like.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
We got the My little guy is in My big
guy just is football, and in fact he he rose,
and so today he's got a he's gonna meet I
got a baseball game because the little one plays baseball.
But then he and I watch the tournament. I was

(22:23):
out a little bit on Thursday, a little bit yesterday
because I did my show from a sports book Parks Casino,
so we had we had some fun doing that, and uh,
and then I'll watch I have my lair, so I'll
be in my lair and my little guy most likely
be with me the whole time. Mark, I love Marcus Mars,

(22:47):
so you'll be with two Philly boys today. Tell him,
tell him, tell him Stalo and tell him South Philly.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
I'm South Philly. He's he's North Philly.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
So tell him tell them Philly rules.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
I absolutely will, absolutely, I'm gonna start. We'll start Philly beef.
It's perfect.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Marcus, by the way, was great because he ripped dal
Borie and it went viral.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Did you see that?

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
And he's right, by the way. Tell him, I said,
he's right on about darl Borrie. I want AI to
pick my roster.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
I think the funny thing about Marcus and you know
this better than anybody, but you can spend ten minutes
with a guy that's recently played in the league and
get such a sense of what's really going on for
so many teams. You know, just the way they openly
talk about, oh yeah, what's good and what's bad, and
you know how organizations are run. And it's just there's

(23:47):
so much basketball knowledge inside the heads of guys that played,
not just from a x's and O standpoint, because I
know podcasts have really allowed players to have that mentality,
but even just listening to players talk about what coaches
you know, have it and what don't and why and
team building and the way the league behind the scenes
sort of runs it's just there's such a comprehensive understanding

(24:10):
to it that is a beautiful thing to sit around.
I think it's one of the coolest things about what
we do. When you get to work with guys that
played at that level, you just get to soak in
what they're saying. And it's like I say all the time,
if you can be the quiet person in the room,
you can get a lot smarter. So when I'm around
Marcus sometimes I find myself like just being the quiet
person in the room to get smarter about the way
the NBA is happening right now and what works and

(24:33):
what doesn't work for different organizations. It's it's real clinic.
He puts on a clinic because he's a brilliant dude
with that stuff.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Yeah, he's he's a great basketball man.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
It really is just obviously besides the players, but being
a player, they know the game, like you know, the
inside the game, the whole, the whole, the depth of it,
and some guys are really good at the depth of it,
and he really is. I'm with you. I'm with you.
All right, let's go through it. We start off today

(25:05):
with McNee and Purdue. All right, So here you go
the twelve seed versus the fourth seed, and I think
McNee if McNee is live today against Purdue, I'm curiously
what you think of what you think, But here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Purdue does not fare well.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Against teams that that press, and I think McNee is
gonna be very live against Purdue.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Because of the matchup.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I think they I think they play good defense, and
I think Purdue struggles with that.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Yeah. Also, I mean McNeice, You're right, they push pace
a lot and Purdue has a size advantage still on
the inside. But man, they're gonna be It'll be interesting
to see what their ability is to run their offenses
and not get gassed in this. Like I think McNeice,
to your point, is just gonna try and push, push, push,
push push. I was a little surprised. I think this

(26:08):
opened at five and a half of Purdue favored or
might be at five and a half. Now, that to
me actually felt a little heavy. Like I actually agree
with you. We just said that, hey, there isn't a
twelve that's gonna run through this. But as well as
McNeice shot in the first round, I'll be interested to
see if they can stay that that hot against Perdue,

(26:30):
I think they can. The Big Ten wildly underrated coming
into this tournament. I said it at the time, like
we spent so much time talking about the SEC getting
fourteen in, we forgot that the Big Ten got eight in.
That's no you know, and I think I think Indiana
deserved to be in over North Carolina, so eight could
have been nine. You know. This is a deep league that,
by the way, not for nothing, was undefeated in the

(26:52):
first round, So the Big Ten is never an easy out,
but this year, but I do think that there is
a little bit of a we didn't learn much about
Purdue taking on High Point. You know, McNeese gets the
win against Clemson and Clemson was just god awful in
that game, so I think we'll get a better sense
of both. But McNeese can certainly push here. So if
this game gets into the you know, upper seventies, that

(27:14):
favors McNeese in my mind.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, McNeice. McNeese should be able to pressure. Yep,
they need to press. The teams that get Purdue trouble
is teams that can press and that can like can
clamp down you on your Defensively, High Point couldn't do it,
and that's not who they were. So I'm curious to

(27:37):
see Purdue should have trouble. I'm not a Purdue I
don't like them. I'm not a Purdue fan. The Jewel,
the Jewel of the.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Day is a two forty I mean to forty Eastern.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
It's the It's the Olive Oil Classic, all right, It's
Fatino and cattle Power.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Right, I mean they hate each other.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
The committee smartly set this up for the second round
great game, because I love what Cal did at Arkansas,
And you know, I think everybody on the East Coast
is rooting for the Johnnies.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
I mean, yeah, this is this is like that we've
talked so much about how like the best HBO shows
have you rooting for the villain and you don't know
why you're rooting for the bad guy, Like there is
an element of this. This is like, I don't know,
Darth Vader versus Darth Vader is a spider Man meme.
Like these are two people that everybody as coaches, that
everybody has turned into these massive villains, but also not

(28:42):
lost in all of it. They're two of the best
coaches college basketball I've ever seen. Right, Like so It's
just there are some coaches that you know, the minute
you step on the court, there at cheat code, Like
is those a cheat code for Michigan State. There's never
a doubt about it. This to me, I don't even
need the players to be introduced. Just give me the
two coaches right at center court. Let them glare at

(29:02):
each other when this thing starts, and when the rev
throws the ball for the jump ball, just the two
of them stare at each other and the ball lands
between them. Like that's the moment I want here. This
is pure drama in every possible fashion. And by the way,
also going to be a really good game like Saint
John's is I think a team that a lot of
people have slept on in this tournament, seating like I

(29:22):
have them going to the championship game. Actually, so you know,
I think Saint John's can absolutely go on a run
with anybody.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, well, they just come at you in waves many
they're you know, it's interesting to watch teams at the
thirty minute mark, go back and look at it. It's
kind of when they start to will because Saint John's
comes at you and comes at you, and they're relentless,
and they play such good defense, and yeah, I know

(29:51):
they can't shoot, and everybody knows that, but they just
come at you so hard every possession. My god, that
I think it just takes a toll on teams. And
usually by the thirty minute mark, it's when you teams.
You see teams just start to tire, and then that's

(30:11):
when they just to start to get margin.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
And the funny thing about that, I love the way
you said that. I think what's funny about it is
that the ultimate killer for Saint John's and this tourney
will be if the refs are calling something tight one
game like that's it, you know, because to your point,
it's a physical brand of bully ball, you know, where

(30:35):
they're just gonna beat you up. They are, and then
they're gonna make you see ghosts in you know, the
I think the college basketball equivalent of seeing ghosts or
guys that are under the rim and think contacts coming
to them so they anticipate the contact even when it's
not there. That's what Saint John's can do in this game.
So yes, they they man, they just they disrupt you

(30:56):
so much that you get out of your game and
they get in your heads. All of these things. I
think that's real for the way that they play. So
you know, if the if they run into an officiating
crew that is overly, you know, ambitious with their whistles,
that's gonna be the thing that eventually shuts down Saint John's.
But I think, frankly, I think they're a much better

(31:17):
team because of the way they play. They are You're right,
they can't shoot their offensively challenged, but they muck it
up for everybody. They just they make everything look ugly
for everybody. So you're gonna be the worst version of yourself,
and if they're the best version of themselves, they're going
to beat you doing.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
It great great, you put it in a great way too.
It's it's really what I love about them. I love
Saint John's. I love the way they play. I love
that they play bullyball. That they play tough. That's good.
That's the East Coast, New York City. You know that

(31:52):
that kind of ball. It's playground, it's harsh. I I
love everything about it. Man, to me, that's ball, And
I'm with you. The only thing, You're right, you got it.
You get a group that's gonna call it tight. And
you know, especially if it's up against the Florida you know,

(32:15):
that's when they could be some trouble.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Also in this game, keep in mind the location matters.
Like Saint John's got a home run by getting Providence,
you know that that that arena is gonna be racked
and stacked. And it's not with Arkansas fans like, it's
just not. It's like Saint John's fans travel. And you're right,
there's a huge amount of the East Coast that is
just watching this and loving it. It's it's not hard

(32:40):
for the weekend to get to Providence, Rhode Island, from
New York and from that entire area. So man, I
think I think there's gonna be a real home court
advantage coming into today too.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah, And you're right.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
And the story of those two coaches and their feud
is pretty it's pretty cool. Man.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
It's got like that adds to it.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
Injected in my pain's going all it can to be
two to two o'clock.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Now let's go, dude, I got a baseball game of
three thirty.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
Oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Oh my god. I got a baseball game at three thirty.
Then I got to run home, get showered, and go
to my wife's friend's party surprise party.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I was like, man, not today, I
just want to watch that.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
I would trade everything just to give me the one game,
you know, I just wanted to see that one game
start to finish. Anyway, Oh my god, I have to
beat at the baseball game. You know, Moscow plays and
I helped coach. And all right, where the fellas will
continue to keep go through the slate that you'll get

(33:59):
to enjoy. Hey, there's some good stuff man right here.
Fox Sports Radio Felas from the tairaq dot com students VA.
Be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel.
Tons of great videos from many of our Fox Sports
Radio shows. Just starts Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll

(34:19):
see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows.
And be sure to subscribe so you always have instant
access to our Fox Sports.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Radio videos on YouTube. All right, buddy, uh, have you
have you encountered Patina or Caliparie or.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
Your No, not in person.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I was covering the game. I was a freelancer sports writer.
Do you know the infamous game where John Cheney and
John Calipari almost went at it? And Cheney said in
the present, I'm going to kill you? How going to
kill you? And then to be held back the thugs.

(35:07):
I covered that game. It was theater man. Yeah, those guys,
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Col Uh.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Now Platino, I love Patino. Cal's a bit cal right.
Patino has obviously his warts.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
The whole world saw those warts. Uh.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
But he's a great basketball coach man, he just is
he knows how to get the most out of his players.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Like and those two.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
I do love the coaches part of it, Like are
do you do you get into the like those colleges.
To me, the college coaches are their own. They're just
such great personalities.

Speaker 4 (35:54):
Yeah, I mean I think that's the beautiful thing for
when you have one of those guys like you, just
it changes everything about the way you feel about your
team and the way your team is moving forward. And
like I said earlier too, like I don't think you
can be Cali Patino who have become so you know whatever,
there's there's a million opinions about those two guys. Right,

(36:16):
you can't become one of those guys unless you also
happen to be wildly good at what you do. Like
that's just there. You have to at some point be
sort of that dude for people to deal with everything else.
Otherwise they eventually just leave you to the side. So
to me, it's one of the one of the cool things.
Like I mentioned Izzoh, Now, I've watched a lot of

(36:39):
Michigan State this year, and I think it's really incredible,
not just the job he's done, but when we have
this constant thought that you know, if you don't keep
players happy, they're all gonna want out. He's managed to
find a way to balance you know, ten guys, they're
they're deep, right, And I just keep thinking about how
it takes a very particular set of scrap point for

(36:59):
a coach to keep players happy in a role that
is far reduced from what every player believes they're fully
capable of. So, like, I think that's it's just such
a I think it's an exaggerated way that everybody says, well,
it's a cheat code, but it really kind of is.
You know, that's just that is true, And I don't
know that there's a better way to describe it. So

(37:20):
it's funny because as as much as people roll their
eyes sometimes to guys like Patino and cal I look
at it and say my god, like you truly have
a Your entire season is different when you have those guys,
more than it ever will be for a player that
it makes such a difference to the entire way that
you feel about your program from day one.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, you're really a great point about Iszo and Michigan
State's depth. I don't know how you have depth on
a team now, just because you know there's money out there, right,
and there's a bigger role. It's almost like NFL free agency, right,

(38:03):
Like when you see a guy that's a second tier
player on your team, like an is sending second tier
player that other teams go and poach, right, Like you're
gonna do that.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
You're gonna go to to do.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
The elites and say and look at their bench and
go all right, well, I'm gonna take that kid and
I think he can become star.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Yeah, And how do you tell a kid in the
middle of all this, hey, so you're gonna be benched
for somebody else, you know. That's one of the great
stories from Michigan State is about twelve games to go
in the regular season, Jace Richardson got in because of
illness and then never came back out of the lineup.
How do you how do you convince a guardroom that

(38:49):
has three guys that all feel like they should be
starting and only two are going to that you got
to buy in and it's gotta be you know, it's
gonna be. It's gonna be worth it. And that's that's
not an easy sales job in my When these guys
are getting more and more sort of ability to do
whatever they want, however they want, talking them into that
I think is particularly difficult.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, now you're spot on, brother, you know I like.
Speaking of coaches, I love that Brad Underwood from Illinois. Yeah,
I think he's a good I think he's a real
good coach.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
I like them.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
I think sometimes you get a little too free happy,
but I do like him. When they're playing, well, they're dangerous.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Another Big ten team, I'm telling you, don't sleep on
the Big ten. We all thought the SEC was gonna
run over into the final four. But the Big ten
doing good things.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
There's one Big ten team that I do not like
that I think is the biggest fugaise And you have
to and they're playing that a so I coming up.
I'll see if you can guess them. Where the Fellas
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Radio, Well, good morning, good morning, good morning, happy Uh.
We got round two Saturday and Sunday, Today and tomorrow
just as good are almost underrated as far as uh,
because I think you get really good basketball today and
tomorrow in this round two. Fellas come you live from

(40:25):
the Tairaq dot com studios. Ti rack dot com will
help you get there on Matt Selection fans, free shipping,
free road hazard protection. Over ten thousand recommend them installers,
ti rack dot com the way tire buying should be.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
So we're going.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Through the games today and tomorrow, don't you think it's
an underrated Like we always talk about the Thursday and Friday,
but this, today and tomorrow are great days.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
I think the reason we talk more about Thursday and
Friday is one Thursday and Friday are workdays. So it
feels better like it feels like you're, you know, kids
skipping school basically, like we see all of the things
on social media where it's like you have permission to
not go to work today. It feels a little bit
like you're getting away with something. And then because of
the chaos of thirty two games, you know, over the

(41:14):
course of two days. That's just that's so many games
at once happening, as opposed to you know today, where
you can spend a little bit more time actually paying
attention to what you got right because you're gonna have
eight games today eight games tomorrow. Just gives you a
little bit it's a little less chaos. I think you're right.

(41:35):
It's everybody's good and you're starting to get better games
at this spot. So to me, that's that's what totally
stands out. But I think there's a difference for so
many people where it feels like, oh, it's a Friday
and I'm at the bar.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Too in the afternoon.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
That's not what I usually do as opposed to a Saturday.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, it's funny. Yeah, there's something about it. I guess
that's why I like bowl games too. Is there's something
about like Tuesday afternoon or in this case, Thursday or
Friday afternoon.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
You know sports, it's great, you know the day.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
It's not just baseball or because baseball we're conditioned to
the midweek day game right in baseball. But there's something
special about the you know, basketball or football.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
It feels holiday ish.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yeah. I love the way you said holiday ish, because
let's face it, we get Thursday football every week now,
but Thanksgiving Day football still feels different, right like Thanksgiving
Day football, And so there is something, there is a
there's a there's a holiday feel to March Madness that
is pretty untouchable. And that's why, you know, for all

(42:51):
the conversation about mega conferences and what it's going to
mean for the future of the sport and how they're
going to manage college basketball moving forward, I just have
a hard time believing that there won't always be some
sort of a March Madness tournament, whatever it looks like,
for you know, for the foreseeable future, because it's become
such an institution, and because so many people still watch

(43:13):
it because frankly, it makes so much stinking money. So
you know, I just I can't imagine that even if
they even if the landscape of college basketball looks completely
different in ten years, you still have to believe there's
going to be some sort of a tournament that has
casuals from all over the world, you know, betting on
this and sitting in sports books and like. This is

(43:33):
I think one of the most electric weekends you can
ever spend in Vegas or at a sports book anywhere.
That's why they're so wildly expensive this time of year,
because it's just such a different vibe when you're around everybody.
I can't imagine that vibe isn't going to be still
something that's protected because it's a profitable vibe. Dude.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
So I did my show the last two days from
the from the casino right around in my area and
do it.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
It was like, it's awesome, right, It just is.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
The place is packed, every seat is taken, and you
know there's food and beer and cheering, and you know
you're right about that. You always talk about like those
NFL Sundays, you know, there's the.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Communal viewing is awesome.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Like when you have all those people and everybody's excited
and into it, you know, that's fun.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
It gets gets it's just good fun.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Like I know that everybody's betting and or whatever, but
it's it's fun stuff, man, everybody's into it.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
Well, the betting is part of what creates So you know,
I see both sides on betting content, right, Like when
we talk about how much different shows on TV and
radio like to talk about betting. Now, I think a
lot of people's eyes just gloss over on someone. You
have to be careful. But what makes what makes March
Madness so incredible in so many ways is not just

(45:07):
that there's all these games going on one at once.
It's that everybody has a bracket. So even if you're
not betting, you have a bracket and you suddenly care
about it. And then you've got these little schools to
become easy to root on. And then when you're in
a sports book, you've also got so many people riding
together on different you know, different parlays, different bets, and
it just creates this investment. And that's what I think

(45:28):
I love about, you know, watching sportsbook type NFL Sundays,
is that if you're a Browns fan and you're in
a bar, you're not in that bar because you feel
like hitting on a girl. You're in that bar because
you're watching the Browns, you know, and like there's a
different level of passion to all of it. And when
you put that to March Madness, like, you know, there's
a mega resort not far from where I live in Connecticut,

(45:51):
and I looked, I was like, I'm just gonna go
get a hotel room at that resort, and you know,
do all my work from the hotel room and sit
in a sports book all weekend. And you know, unfortunately
the hotel rooms were like six hundred bucks. But the
reason for that is that, yeah, yeah, not like that.
It's a nice resort, but it was also five or
six hundred bucks to get a seat in the sports book.

(46:12):
And so there's a reason. Because it's an electric vibe
that you know, groups want to go to and everybody
wants to hang out, and it's just it hits different.
And I honestly believe the people today, wherever in the
country they are that are sitting in random sports books
with their buddies watching, are having probably the best of
all of the watch experiences you can have for the tournament.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Yeah yeah, now it's awesome. It really is. Hey, you
brought something up. We're talking about holidays and the idea
that sports makes it feel like a holiday. I got
a question for you. Can't if the NFL wanted to
play i don't know, Tuesday football and put a game

(46:59):
on or a series of games on Tuesdays, would the
NFL have enough power to disrupt the work week?

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I think so, Like a Tuesday night game, not not
a day game, but a Tuesday night game.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Like if they said, if they how about this? All right,
I'm phrasing it wrong. I'm coming.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
I'm just thinking.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
You just had me thinking about this, and I was
thinking about the power of the NFL. If the NFL
said we're going to take one week from the calendar.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
And I don't know what, let's see you put it in.
Let's start early in this season. Let's say that weak.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yes, And they said, we're going to create this football
holiday and we're going to bookend it with the super
Bowl and the first day Thursday, right, like you know,
the off on Thursday. But instead of starting with one

(48:03):
game Thursday night, they're gonna take and they're gonna play,
you know, three games on Thursday and try to force
football as a holiday giving people off. Now, that might
take them a couple of years, But do you think
the NFL could succeed?

Speaker 4 (48:22):
I think if they put the full slate. If they
if they decided to open the season on a Thursday
and they're putting everything, but a Sunday night came and
a Monday night came on Thursday. Yes, I think people
would would would for Week one, they would stop everything
and go somewhere and watch the games. If there were
a whole the March madness thing of you know, they're

(48:43):
they're gonna be we're gonna put what fourteen games on
that and that day, Yes, I think people would flock
to it and it would become an annual tradition for sure.
It's it's interesting because you know, I don't you get
so starved for your favorite team by then? You know,
it's once we get through the draft, the level of

(49:04):
palpable sadness you will start to feel from football fans
is so real, you know, like us included, right, like
we're going to be sitting here at the beginning of
May post draft saying what in the hell are we
going to do for the entire summer? You know? So, Yeah,
if they decided to make Thursday of week one of

(49:25):
fourteen out of the sixteen games are going to be right,
then yes, I think people would flock to it. And
they if they treated that Thursday like a Sunday with
games at one four and yeah at one o'clock, four
o'clock in one night game, yeah, I think it would
become a national Yep, we're just gonna figure out everybody's
taking that day off, because hell, there's no chance I'd
be missing, like especially if your favorite team's could. But

(49:46):
even if they're not, that's the one week of hope everybody.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Has, yeah starved.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
Yes, yes, we'd all be flocking to it. I'm like,
I'm not missing the opening, the season opener for the Raiders,
Like that's just that's that's an unnegotiable for me. So yeah,
I think one hundred percent they could do it. Don't
give Roger any ideas though, cuz like that there's Roger's
gonna be sitting there saying we can make some money
off of that.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Well, yeah, and you can have you know, it's National
NFL Day, God would, And it's a holiday, and we
bookended because you're gonna move the super Bowl to President's
Day weekend, right, so everybody's gonna be off on that
Monday anyway, and it's a de facto holiday.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
So why not give the people.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
What they want, which is a day off in September
to watch football.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
Because of the amount of games they have, they can't
do this anymore. But man, if you had done that
on if they'd done that back in the day on
Labor Day, you know, it's like, hey, Labor Labor Day
Monday is just going to be all NFL games all day.
I mean, we would freak for it.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
We would absolutely even better. Here's what I'm going to
give the people. Because I love the people, I love
the masses. I want to go and start the season
on Labor Day Tuesday, to start to.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
Give them a four day weekend.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
That's amazing. You know what you are, man of the people.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
You're gonna go out. We're gonna end the summer with
a blast. No school, all right, we're gonna end the summer.
This is our summer blowout holiday, and we're gonna end
it with the start of football the NFL season.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Oh man. You know, the funny thing is there is
in my mind, there's so it would take two or
three years before people would say, yep, gotta figure it out.
Like we're just gonna figure out how to get that
day off. You know, it's just in the in the beginning,
everybody would be angry and then well, look, we can't
change it. So we're gonna have figure out how to
get that day off. And it's funny because remember it

(51:57):
wasn't that long ago that Mark Cuban, you know, made
his comment about the NFL essentially, you know, being such
pigs that they're eventually going to be put out to slaughter.
And it's like now Mark Cuban doesn't even own an
NBA team anymore. So every time you think that the
limit has been reached, Roger looks around. Roger Cadell looks
around and says, no, I think I found another opportunity.

(52:19):
And until one fails, they're just gonna keep doing it
and doing it.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Oh yeah, man, Like to me, that's what I would do.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
I create. I'm already old stuff. I'm gonna take over
the world. It's manifest destiny.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
I'm in Brazil now, I'm in Mexico, I'm in all
over England. I'm wanna I'm in Germany. All right, I'm
taking over the world. It's manifest destiny.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
Yeah, and you're not. It'll be interesting to see because,
you know, frankly, the expectation is that eighteenth game is
gonna be added before you know it. And when that
eighteenth game is added, and then there's an international game
every single week, which is also inevitable, then you know
we're going to have a Eastern time ten am international

(53:05):
game every Sunday morning and then we're gonna have football
all day Sunday and it's going to go to eighteen games.
And you know, Charles Robinson, our Yahoo NFL insider who
I love working with, Sea Robbie does great work. And
for anyone that didn't see this, I thought it was
funny the day that Gino was traded to the Raiders.
That that morning, we were taping our podcast Inside Coverage,

(53:27):
and as we were taping it, just flippantly at one point,
see rob was like, Hey, how would you feel about
Gino to the Raiders and Sam Darnold to the Seahawks?
Would that makes sense to you? And that was I
don't know, eight hours before anything came out. So like
Sea rob always knows what's going on, and it was
interesting to me because he said a few weeks ago flippantly, yeah,
it's going to go to eighteen games. And people inside

(53:47):
the league believe the salary cap is going to be
as high as five hundred million dollars when that happens
because of the new TV deals. So like you're talking
about a salary cap of every team of five hundred million,
Like you want to know why teams are spending so
much money right now? They believe they're going to have
it to spend in about four years. So you know, well, yeah,
if you're making that much money, my god, why not, like,

(54:09):
why not just keep going and go? Like there isn't
a limit to this if it's not hurting anybody and
other than the players who collectively bargain. And you know, frankly,
fans are fans are gonna let it keep happening over
and over and over again.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
It's not about letting it happen to me. It's like, yeah,
let's go, man, Like I let's do it. I'm all
about the eighteen game schedule, all right, let's go.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
Oh no, Like look, frankly, I think I'm the only
idiot that thinks this. I think we're going to go
to eighteen and about five years after that they're just
gonna go to twenty because it's cute number and they
can make more money. So I'm a big I'm just
a big believer in like, yeah, yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
We see me the ultimate glutton, and I'm a glutton
for it.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
Twenty feels I mean, it just feels inevitable to me.
Like there was a documentary about a beer company years ago.
In watching their growth, and one thing that they said
as they were growing was, you know, when you're getting
a warehouse, imagine your best scenario and then make it

(55:18):
like five times bigger than that. And there was this
moment of well, why would we do that? And we
can't afford this much space, and then they exploded well
past that and needed even more space. I think sometimes
when you expand rather than just expanding like the college
football playoff, if you were inevitably going to get to
more teams, just get to more teams, like, don't halfway

(55:38):
to this, just rip the band aid off and go
and you know so, yeah, I think getting to twenty
is terrible on their bodies. But at the end of
the day, we'll watch it. That's the other side. Likely
eliminate the preseason. Give us twenty football games we watch.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
Yeah, yes, you will watch it? Is right and.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Argument there. I just felt, man, it's a that's that's
tough speaking of Uh. Since we're on the subject of ideas,
I got to throw this at you. So you show
the story that Dion, who's brilliant, is looking for an

(56:20):
opponent for his spring game, and it looks like Syracuse
is it?

Speaker 3 (56:26):
Did you see that.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
Yeah, and it's it's tough because current INCAA rules don't
technically allow this, but they're going to write, like, you know,
the smartest thing about it to me Dion saying, hey,
I want to do a spring game against another team.
It is a in a year where they're already talking
about what his contract extension is going to look like

(56:50):
Dion is brilliantly finding a way to add a home game,
like they're going to sell the spring game against a
team Syracuse, you know, came out and said, let it
be us. They're going to sell that stadium out. Everyone's
gonna go. And then Dion's gonna be able to look
at it and say, hey, there's another you know, X
amount of million dollars in the coffers that we can
use for my raisin for more nil. Like I think

(57:14):
the brilliant thing is that he's Sneaky's just found a
way to make a ton of extra money, and that's
tough to do. To find new revenue sources is not
an easy thing.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
So here's my question, and your spot on by the way,
here's my question. Could you imagine a world to borrow
your phrase, where you have a package of spring games.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
And you do.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
You could have.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Almost running from April all April, may you know, a
half a June, little part of June, and you know,
maybe it's ten weeks and you have the series of
spring games on.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
TV every weekend. You were to tell me that.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Whatever network, streamer, what in clamor to televise these games.
So everybody has a spring game and there's opponents for everyone,
and you play this, you know, eight to ten week
you know spring game schedule.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
Really it's just one game per school.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
I mean, it's a huge revenue stream. And then you're
turning around to if you're Notre Dame, you're turning around
to Peacock and you're saying, well, we're giving you an
extra home game, So what's in it for us?

Speaker 3 (58:45):
Right?

Speaker 4 (58:45):
Like, of course, man, and you're right, we would all
watch the ratings on. It would be through the roof
because we're football starved at.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
That, because it's real football.

Speaker 4 (58:54):
Start.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Then let's get a glimpse of what you're going to
see in the fall all sleep preview of autumn in spring? God,
are you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Not only would we all watch it, it would fire
up your fan base. It gives you know, your players
another opportunity to stand out like it it's another data point,
you know. It's yeah, I mean that's a and it
fills the void of a time of year where we're
just football starved. I mean's just this, this is this

(59:30):
is real. Like, at least in the NFL we have
the draft to look forward to, right, so we I
think that's part of the reason that we put so
much emphasis in it. In college football, you're just stuck.
You're waiting for something to root for and something to
talk about and and something real on the field. It
gives you that to look forward to and then that
to react to for two months afterwards. So yeah, oh

(59:52):
my god.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
The spring series right week one is Baton Rouge. Week two,
no tre Dame. Like you could just see the prime
time games on all the.

Speaker 6 (01:00:05):
Venues here, you're absolutely now, I want this all right,
I'm adding that to my list when I become bizarre
of college football that I'm adding this to my list.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
It's great, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Great, great idea for you. I've had these ideas as Figgie.
I've had the see this the whole thing with the
way football did with the the night game at Thanksgiving,
all the eighteen. I had the eighteen game schedule ten
years ago. I talked about this stuff. I love schedules.

(01:00:40):
Where the fellas, We'll get back to basketball coming up
next right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (01:00:47):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Fellas. Hey, don't forget.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Tractor Supply knows that a winning season takes practice, teamwork,
and it can do attitude. Thankfully, when you have a
neighbor like Tractor Supply, teamwork comes easy. So whether it
can for pets, chickens, maybe a few acres, our team
members will help.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
You succeed season after season.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Tractor Supply for Life out here, and be sure to
check out Tractor Supplies Fox Sports Radio Bracket Challenge at
foxsports Radio dot Com. See our hosts are doing against
with our with our picks, and how our top ranked
listeners are doing. The listener with the best bracket at

(01:01:44):
Foxsports Radio dot Com is going to get a twenty
five hundred.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Dollars gift card to Tractor Supply.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
All right, my boy, let's uh, let's get back to basketball.
So we got through two games, we got We've got
a lot more to get through Mcnese and Purdue.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
We did.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Arkansas, Saint John's, the Battle of Patino Calipari, and then
I'm gonna hit your opinion here because I don't like Michigan.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
I don't know how.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Michigan is where they are, to be honest with you,
and I love Texas, A and M today.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Tell me why I should love A and M today.

Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
So that's a good question. Michigan. Until the Big Ten Tournament,
I was out on Michigan and then not. I mean,
they won the tournament, so that's a easy it feels
like a cop out. But Michigan's offense for the last
month of the season regular season, I thought was wildly
unpredictable and it felt like they've they had a tough

(01:02:49):
time generating, especially against teams that push them. And so
look back at the two games against Michigan State where
they just got absolutely ran out of the building, Like
if you run Michigan, you run them out of the building.
And that that I thought that that might haunt them
in the Big Ten Tournament, and then it didn't. They
won the Big Ten. But I think the committee told
you something, the fact that they won the Big Ten
and were still only a five seed, which you know,

(01:03:11):
considering how as we mentioned that conference so far undefeated
in the tournament, and that conference I think was underseated
all over the place. But it's interesting to me that
they were still only a five. Like Wisconsin did not
win the Big Ten, they were a three. Michigan State
didn't win the Big Ten. They were a two Michigan
five as a conference champion. For a reason they have,

(01:03:33):
They just have a tendency to disappear. I think that's
a fair way to say it. So I get nervous,
but we have seen now Michigan's on a heater. So
that's the only caution that I have here, is that
they went through the Big Ten tournament in part because
they were on a heater. Right, So I'm with you.
I don't love Michigan, but they're hot. So I'll be

(01:03:56):
interesting interested to see, you know, kind of what Brad
thinks later because there's an element for me where I
don't trust Michigan, but also now I like I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
And I think them a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:04:08):
Yeah, I think Texas A and m is being slept
on a little bit, Like I thought it was pretty
disrespectful in the first round. How many people thought Texas
A and M would be out before they even got
to the round of thirty two. So I'm with you
that this one looks like it could be a good
opportunity for Michigan to hit a wall.

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
Yeah, I like A and M too. I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
I thought that they got that they've gotten kind of
shafted through this whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
So I'm I feel the same way, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
So that's the five point fifteen Eastern, two fifteen Pacific game,
and then they start to come right. So the first
game's at twelve ten Eastern, nine ten Pacific, then two forty,
then five point fifteen, and then they start to come
in rapid fire and at six ten eastern, three tempests

(01:05:00):
Drake and Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
Is the Drake Live because Drake feels live in this game.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
To me, like, look, I got to give Drake a
lot of credit. They looked really good in the first round.
I just feel like Drake the basketball team is about
to meet the same fate as Drake the singer taken
on Kendrick Lamar, Like this isn't gonna go well. For that.
I like Texas Tech here. But but I will say
that did Drake. I didn't think Drake would win in

(01:05:29):
the first round, So what the hell do I know.
That's one of the ones I got wrong. I was
tweeting somebody earlier. You know, in the first round, I
got twenty two out of thirty two. So twenty two
and ten in the men's side. I'll take that on
my bracket. That's not bad Drake. One of the games
that I got wrong, though, So I was wrong about
Drake coming into this thing and Man in the first round.
They looked in control, they look poised. They moved the

(01:05:52):
ball really freaking well. So I got to give Drake
a lot of credit.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Yeah, I think they moved the ball right. They look good.
They looked really good.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
I hear you. It'll be interesting. I don't know how
I feel about Tech.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
Yeah, Like, I certainly don't think Texas Tech is you know,
we said earlier that there's a group of teams that
I think can really win a national championship. I don't
think Texas Tech is one of those. You know, they
score a lot of points. I mean, they certainly score
a lot of points. But Man and JC Toppen is

(01:06:27):
a good player, but I don't know, it just doesn't
The Big twelve this year didn't didn't impress me the
same way. So yeah, I'm I'm sort of mid on
Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
Yeah, and it was interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
They never could really run away and hide from UNC Wilmington,
a team that's not that good.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
Yeah, you're not wrong. They're not wrong. Like I don't
know what to make of first round wins, you know,
because I'll go back to Michigan State last night. You know,
Michigan State didn't look good in the first half of
a TV fifteen games, So I don't know what to
make of that sometimes, you know what I mean. But
that's also been in their DNA all year with the
slow start, So I don't know. Sometimes I look at

(01:07:09):
these first round matchups, I'm like, oh, well, you're survived
and you got your tournament hitters out, But I don't know,
you're You're right about that UNC Willington game, Like we
were never able just to say, Okay, this one's in
the bag.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
No, I mean, and that's not a scary team. That's
my only point. And again, I just don't know that
they I trust they're great, all right, the next game
is a really good one.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
It's got a chance to be really good.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
And that's your top seeded Auburn Tigers against Creighton.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
Big East is another conference I like.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
And Crayton they could They're dangerous, man, They're a dangerous squad.
This game is interesting to me because I think they
could stress Auburn. I like Auburn to win, but I
think you're great and could stress.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
Yeah. I like the way you said that, like Creighton
can stress them. I think it's probably pretty fair. Again,
go back to moving the ball and go back to spacing.
And Creighton shot the ball really well the other night.
Like that version of Creighton moving the ball around and
getting open looks for three if they land those threes,
kind of like Yukon last night. You know, Yukon this
year has not been a good three. They haven't been

(01:08:21):
a good consistent shooting team. But they got on a heater,
you know. And So I watched the Creton team that
I picked in the first round, and I watched them
move the ball around, and I watched them make the
ex pass, find the open look. They did that really well.
If they knocked those shots down, they can stress anybody.
So I think Auburn's a better team, you know, and
come back to the nugget we've all heard now, I
think at this point one hundred times that no team

(01:08:42):
in men's basketball history has ever lost three of their
last four games in the regular season and won the
national championship. I think Auburn hit a bit of a
wall at the end of the regular season and into
the SEC Tournament. So I am truly interested to see
what that looks like as it goes on all the
one seeds. I find myself trusting Auburn the least, even

(01:09:03):
though Auburn was the number one overall seed.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
Yeah, I agree, you know what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
I think we probably can't get down the stretch out
of our minds.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
And that's fair because the average age of Auburn is
almost the same as the average age of Oklahoma City.
So you're talking about a college basketball team that's older
and more mature and should should not have hit the
wall that they hit like. So, I think there's a
fair and reasonable conversation happening amongst basketball minds of did
did the world sort of catch up to Auburn?

Speaker 3 (01:09:35):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
Are they just? Are they tired? I had I had
two former players say they look tired and.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:09:43):
I mean, now you're gonna have a game twenty four
hours rest in the game. Like, I'm nervous about Auburn
throughout this whole tournament, which means obviously they're gonna win
the national championship, but I'm nervous about them right now.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
No, I I think I think your spot on with it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
And then we go down in seven forty five tonight
and this is a great I think this can be
a fun game, man. BYU and Wisconsin up and down.
You know, again, we've talked about before about Wisconsin and
how Wisconsin likes to push that. This isn't bo Ryan
plot plotting Wisconsin. This is athletic and push the ball

(01:10:26):
Wisconsin against BYU that pushes the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
This is a good game, man, I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
It's one and a half Wisconsin one and a half,
and I can't figure it out. I kind of slightlyan
the BYU. But I think it's a great game.

Speaker 4 (01:10:42):
Yeah, And I really you're pointing an important one on offense,
Like I think what happens a lot of times for
the tournament is we just stick in our heads about
what certain brands look like. And when you think Wisconsin basketball,
you think a couple of clunky white dudes in the
middle that you know are just gonna make things ugly
and they'll win some games, but it's never it's never

(01:11:03):
this beautiful version of basketball, right, Like that's sort of
what people think. This version of Wisconsin can score, and
they can. And you know that there was a real
conversation I mentioned earlier working with Marcus Morris, Like Marcus
watched a lot of BYU this year and his biggest
question is can they handle sort of toughness, Like can
they get into a tough matchup with somebody? Well, that's

(01:11:25):
not what this game's gonna be. I think this is
an electric basketball game, and frankly, I can't believe with
BYU Wisconsin. I'm saying this, but I like the over
on this, Like I think this turns into a shootout,
and so a shootout I think benefits Wisconsin more than BYU.
I like Wisconsin in this game, but I don't I
don't love either side of it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Like this this really is.

Speaker 4 (01:11:47):
While we've talked about the fact that coach, you know,
the cal Patino matchup is the premier matchup. I think
this is the best game of the day and it's
not even close, Like this is a this is a
great basketball game.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Yeah, I completely agree, completely agree with you. All Right,
we'll go to take quicktillo. We'll come right back. We've
got some rule changes. We'll continue to go through the
card between today and tomorrow. A little bit later on
the Brain, we'll give you some picks. So we got
you covered as always right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Hey Anthony, Yeah, hi Jacket in the show for a second.
Please do shout out to my buddy Ryan Hurd put
out a new record, Midwest Rock and Roll. The record's
out came out this week. It was a great, great,
great artist. Everybody should check him out. But also he's
just a badass human being. So, you know, shout out
to Ryan putting out a record that's out there. Got
to listen to it. It's spectacular Midwest rock and roll

(01:12:42):
available wherever you get your music. I got to give
him a shout out for doing great work. Got a
bunch of friends that worked on that record, and like
you just root for wildly talented people that also happen
to be wildly good people, and that's Ryan. So I'm
super excited for him.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Ah, that's great man, that's fantastic. It's awesome. That's great stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:13:03):
We'll cut your music love this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
Well, are you going to go on your tour this summer?

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
I'm sit in with some people here and there, I'm sure,
just because it's fun. You know, Collective Souls coming up
to Connecticut again, so I'll sit in with them. Edward
McCain is coming into Connecticut and talk to him the
other day, So gonna sit in with him, and then
I'll pick a couple of shows. You just got to
make a little music. I might go down to Nashville
too and record some of my stuff this summer and

(01:13:29):
just you know, start putting out a little bit of
a little bit, like it's fun to make music that
I don't care if anybody likes. You know, you spend
so much of your life making music that you think
you have to make because that's what it takes to
be commercially successful for a record label. And so I
think one goal this summer is to go in the
studio and do do some of my stuff my way

(01:13:49):
and write a bunch of I've got a bunch of
depressing songs that you know, I like writing and writing
dark music. I'm a happy dude that writes really sad songs.
So you know, I think that's one of the goals
this summer is to you know, take demos and tournament
to records and put out, to put something out, you know,
maybe by the end of the year. That's a statement
of the music I like to make without caring if

(01:14:10):
anybody likes it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Oh dude, I love that. I think that's great. Man. Oh,
we got to do a big release. Oh come on,
this will be fun.

Speaker 4 (01:14:20):
Well, you know, I still got to put the details together,
but yes, we'll certainly. The nice thing is I got
a you know, a radio show every Saturday. They can
promote the music.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
There we go, Oh my god, in and out of
every break man, we'll play snip it of it?

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Are you kidding?

Speaker 4 (01:14:35):
I love something like I got to write something that's
at least somewhat happy so that we can play it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
That's a ol man. Would you have someone do the vocals?

Speaker 4 (01:14:45):
No, I'm singing it, man, like I I so fun. Fact,
long before I uh made it in the band, whatever
made it means I long before that. When I first
moved to Nashville, it was like I wasn't playing fiddle.
I was, and like still, I.

Speaker 3 (01:15:02):
Didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
I know you're, you know, Juilliard trained, so I just
figured you. You know, I didn't know that you had
the vocals too. Yeah, you got all kinds of bill
you're you're multi talented.

Speaker 4 (01:15:16):
But you know, some demos, I'll send you some demos
I did last summer. But you know, like, yes, it's fun,
like I I like writing you know, depressing power ballads
and uh, you know eighties rock. I don't know, like
the bud is still in. That's totally cool. Yeah, I

(01:15:37):
know there's one. I think the the other the other side,
and I may not have time to do both this summer,
but at some point I'm gonna do like some duets
with with some of the you know, famous friends. Humble brag,
but like, I'm lucky enough to have interacted with some

(01:15:57):
some people that you know, I'm still friends with that
large and wildly successful, So I'm gonna I'm gonna pull
them in to appear on some stuff. So you know
that that only ties me back to bon Jovi, because
you know, a few years ago I became buddies with
Richie Sambora and so like it's one of those things
where it's like it's a life goal to you know,
do other artists songs like his covers, but where their

(01:16:18):
duets like I'll sing a little, you sing a little,
and we'll play on this together. So I'm gonna do that,
I think with people I toured with and people I'm
friends with, like that's I think that'll also help make
the project more popular. Let's be honest.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
So you know that's it's aw, that's a great idea. Yeah,
I think that's brilliant, man, I'll be honest. I think
it's really cool.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
Well, you know, music, music coming at some point, but
right now, Ryan's out there and uh and check it
out because, like I said, there are so many people
in this business that you know, aren't necessarily in it
for the right things or the right reasons and or
just suck. And Ryan Ryan is a great dude and
his as it happens to be badass. So you know

(01:17:01):
that's a that's a rare combination.

Speaker 3 (01:17:03):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
No, I love that listen as fell as fellow as
a fellow creative.

Speaker 4 (01:17:11):
You need.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
It's so funny. I try to explain this to people,
like you need to do it. MI craft is writing,
right so and storytelling. So you just need to do it.
And you got into it not to become a star,
right because first of all, I'm more foul than anything else.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
But you get into it because this is what you do.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
You just love to do it, and like you love
to create music. I mean, this is what you've done
since you were a child. It's not about stardom or
you know, money or whatever. It's just about that's what
you do.

Speaker 4 (01:17:53):
You love I think to like so much of as you.
As you grow up, you have the idealistic concepts on everything.
And this is the same for athletes. If you talk
to football players will tell you the thing. You have
this concept of what it's like to be a quarterback
in the NFL. You have a concept of what it's
like to tour in a band, and you have a
concept of what it's like to make music. But the

(01:18:14):
funny thing is you wake up one day and you
realize that most of those concepts were compromised. And by
that I mean like you start to well, no, we
can do this and if that's what the label wants
us to do, we'll do that. And that's sort of
what life and music is about. It's about you know,
you're constantly making compromises because that's what's important for your career.

(01:18:35):
But then you wake up later and you're like, man,
I really wish I'd done this, or I really wish
I'd recorded that. And that's one of the interesting things
that the beautiful thing that I'm really thankful for is that,
you know, I pay my bills talking about sports, so
if I go in the studio, I don't have to
give a damn about what anybody else wants. I can
just make music I want to make, you know. And
like it's so often for people to get where you

(01:18:57):
want to be, you compromise so much that you don't
just get to do what you want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
God, listen, you're you're you're one hundred right, I mean
you have to as you're doing it, you're you're cognizant
on the commercial piece of it, so that will afford you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
To keep doing it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:17):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:19:17):
The whole point is like the next gig. You got
to get to the next gig.

Speaker 4 (01:19:22):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:19:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
In fact, where the fella is right here on Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
Good Morning, Good Morning, the Morning good morning, good morning,
good morning. It's seven am and the East four M
and O West on day three of the tournament. Fellas,
Jason Fitz Anthony Gargan will call me a lot from
the ti raq dot com studios, tyrack dot com help
you get there and on match selection fas free shipping,

(01:19:53):
free road hazard production. Over ten thousand recommended it in
its dollars. Tire rack dot com the way tire buying
should be. Hey, one of the things I love about
the tournament is the UH. They have a great I
just love the coverage and fitsy. I love the the
analysts and you know, having the TNT guys is the best,

(01:20:16):
right because Barkley, it's the greatest. So last night last
night I wanted to forget what game what goes the halftime?
I think it was the UH.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
I think it was Illinois Xavier. Is that the game
that well?

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Yeah, yeah, you saw it going. It's the greatest, right.
So Ernie comes out and he goes to Charles, all right,
what are your thoughts on the first half? And Charles
is completely like not paying attention, and he goes, that's

(01:20:53):
a good question, and then they start at him, Well, yeah,
that's his job, like you know what you're thinking of
first half and then finally he goes and he's fumbling,
he's trying to look at stats and he's looking around
and he just goes. You know what, I don't know.
I wasn't watching that game. I was watching the Bryant

(01:21:15):
Michigan State game. So I don't know, ask Kenny.

Speaker 4 (01:21:21):
I loved every ounce of that, Like I think, what
makes them great? And there's such a fine line here
what makes them great? Does that feel so real? You know?
And like the hard part about that is if you
don't have that relationship with the audience, you can't do
that right. Like there are plenty of shows. I've hosted shows.
I've hosted halftime raps before for college basketball and college

(01:21:45):
football for ESPN at the time. And if nobody knows
who you are and you say that, oh, you're gonna
get destroyed. But if you've built your whole sort of
content on being that version of a group, and that's
what makes these groups so special. I mean, I mean,
Shaq got the coach of the Pistons wrong last week,

(01:22:07):
and you know when they when they started making fun
of him, he flat out of mystic admitted I don't
watch a lot of the Pistons, And it's just funny
because you know, plenty of analysts do the same thing.
They get destroyed for it. But when you have the cachet,
the equity with your audience, it's just feels so real. Man.
I loved every ounce that was cracking me up. At

(01:22:27):
the end of the night, they were signing off and
they were throwing to whatever Anthony Davis's new show is.
That's I could take on in Practical Jokers, and Ernie
did the same thing and was like through to the guys,
and Charles was like, I don't know, I never really
thought Anthony was that kind of a funny guy. And
they did the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do.
They didn't. They didn't, you know, tee this thing up.

(01:22:48):
It's like, oh, this is gonna be amazing hystorical. You
have to watch it. Instead, you just sort of sat
there and you're like, I appreciate the fact that they're
telling you. I don't even know if this is gonna
be good, Like, I love.

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
That, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:22:59):
It's spot on. You know what, there's no pretense because
here's the problem with a lot of analysts do right.
And you know what, and early in my career I
did the same thing, Like I felt like I needed
to have this grandiose, expert opinion on everything, and it's impossible, right,

(01:23:22):
It's impossible to have a grandiose opinion that's educated, well
thought out on everything. Now, last night was great because
you know, he's supposed to be watching exact game and
he just wanders off his mind.

Speaker 3 (01:23:36):
But like the.

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
Greatest thing I think the audience always appreciates is like this,
being forthright and honest like this, I feel like I
just give you what I'm saying. I could be way wrong,
and you know I've been wrong before, but this is
where I'm coming from, showing in my works. It's coming

(01:24:00):
from a place of preparedness and a place of you know,
historical knowledge, right, Like you know, it doesn't mean it's
going to be all the point or earth shattering, but
this is what it is. Charles is just like, yeah, dude,
Like I was watching the other gate. I think that's

(01:24:22):
that's I touxted him last night because we go back
from our Philly days, and uh, I texted last night,
I go, dude. He started laughing. He gave me to
laughing emojis. He's like, yeah, great stuff. I go, dude,
that's why you're to go, man, You're to go because
of that, you know, that's it, because you just.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
Are so like, you know, unfiltered is the best way
to puy it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:51):
I mean, I think that's part of why I enjoyed
doing radio with you, is like The Fellas doesn't try
to be anything other than what the Fellas is. And
that's the toughest thing for everybody, because, especially in a
Twitter society, your mistakes are amplified and whenever you say something,
you mispronounce a name. You know, I was working with
somebody that erroneously said Janni instead of Jani Broom, said

(01:25:15):
Johnny Broom and you would have thought that he went
out on Twitter and said your grandma's fat and ugly.
Like just the reaction to that, Like, you make any
mistake for most people in this business, and it gets
so amplified by everybody that suddenly thinks that means you're
more on and I think it causes a lot of
people to sort of get in the shell and try

(01:25:36):
and be something they're not, you know, And realistically, the
best sports conversations to me have always been when you
feel like you're listening to buddies hang out and talk
like that's what That's what has made podcasting such an
important part of, you know, the new society that we
live in. I think the best sports talk shows are
are buddies hanging out. I think the best podcasts feel

(01:25:57):
like they're buddies hanging out, whether they're talking about movies,
true crime, or sports like. That's that's the vibe of
modern media and that's what the TNT guys do so perfectly.
Like Ernie's approach is so brilliant because he calls out
the stupidity, but also he runs point in a really
casual way that makes everybody feel like they're in his

(01:26:18):
living room. And you know the rest of them are
all just caricatures of themselves in a very real and
absorbable way. It's what you do well on Like from
the first show I ever did with the Fellas, I
walked away from it and said, Man, what's nice about
this is it's it's a vibe because it's just trying
to be what it is, and that's I think that's
a beautiful thing that more people need to do. Like

(01:26:40):
it what nowadays, if you if you are a person
that does Like if you're me and you don't really
sit around in a suit and tie every day. If
you try and be buttoned up suit and tie, guy,
it's just not gonna work. Like people will see right
through it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:53):
And here's the truth of the matter, right, the truly
matter is we may talk. We may you know, we're
gonna throw in the core of the show. We may
talk about whatever NFL team, Right, I don't know what
to take the bills. Well, I'm not gonna sit here
and tell you I know more about the bills than

(01:27:14):
fans in Buffalo listening to the show like we're on
in Buffalo, and I may get something wrong, Like you
know your team better than I do.

Speaker 3 (01:27:24):
I may know the coach is a friend of mine.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
I may know certain things, and we may have opinions
you and I on certain moves. But ultimately, like you
guys are gonna know, we're not trying to tell you
that we know you know more than you do about
your team. I think that's you got to have respect
for the fans that in that manner too, And I

(01:27:48):
think you have that. Like we we try to do
our homework and we love it, like to me, it's
always been a gift, like being able to watch sports
for a living, and you know, talk about it is
the greatest gift in the world, because truthfully, I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:28:04):
I mean, it's it's still it's my hobby. I get it.
I'm sure you get this too.

Speaker 2 (01:28:10):
I get it all the time where people go, We'll
come up and talk to me and they'll start talking sports,
and then five minutes into the conversation they go, oh,
I'm sorry, you're probably sick of it, and I'm like, oh,
I'm not. I'll be honest with you, I'm not sick
of it. It's my hobby, you know. I mean, it's
what it's what I love to do. I love talking

(01:28:30):
about it. It's gifts and there's nothing else you want
to talk to me about because that's all I know.

Speaker 4 (01:28:37):
And I think part of you know, where where we
sit on air, and where a lot of people sit
on air now is the question is can you see
the picture a little differently? Do you have interesting angles
on things? Like do you do you can you find
interesting talking points like that's that's more the job ninety
nine percent of the time than it is. You know,

(01:28:57):
Can I sit here and analyze the where, how, and
why of every you know, motion of somebody's foot in
that position, like why did that play breakdown? Why did
that play breakdown? And that's why. You know what, if
you're working with analysts, you let them, you let them
run that point and do a lot of that work.
But for so much of the conversation now it's it's

(01:29:18):
a fine line, you know, between having an analyst and
then having somebody that just is here to drive an
interesting conversation. Totally different skill set in my opinion, Like
it's totally different skill set to sit back and say,
can we have an interesting conversation about where college basketball
is today? Or you know what we think of like
why Auburn is falling apart? You know things like that,

(01:29:39):
not that Auburn's falling apart, you know what I mean?
Can we have those interesting conversations? Becomes far more of
what happens and TNT finds the perfect blend, like you know,
Shaq and Charles and all the guys. The reason that
there's such an entertain they're part sitcom, they're part drama,
they're part reality show, and the backdrop happens to be sports.

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, nailed it, nailed it. Uh,
all right, let's get back to the games that are
going to be played this weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:30:12):
We were almost through the night games.

Speaker 2 (01:30:16):
And uh for today, so well, last we left off,
we were talking about BYU in Wisconsin, the last two
matchups of the day, and don't get to tomorrow. Gonzaga
and Houston here we go. This is, Uh, everybody in
love with the Zags. Everybody's now, that's funny. This is

(01:30:39):
a game where I don't know if you're hearing the
same thing I'm here. Everybody get Zaka Kanzaka Yanzaga. And
I think Houston's not getting Houston's good and I don't
think they're getting the respect they deserve.

Speaker 4 (01:30:52):
I think from the outset of this tournament, we got
so obsessed with Florida deserving I think a higher seed.
What's going on with Auburn and Cooper Flag that we
forgot that Houston is just this is not the same
Houston that was the number one seed three years in
a row. Like this is a Houston team that we
talk about complimentary football all the time. This is complimentary

(01:31:12):
basketball Houston team, Like they can score all day, every day,
and they can defend so like this is. I think Houston,
of all the top ones and twos, I don't think
there's a team that's been more undervalued for what they
actually are than Houston. So I know Gonzaga came in
with a big first round win. This Gonzaga team maybe

(01:31:32):
not on the same level as some of the prior
Gonzaga teams. This Houston team is. I think Houston is
about to run through them. And I think Houston's about
to run through their bracket like we are sleeping just
how good Houston is.

Speaker 3 (01:31:44):
Yeah, I agree, I'm with you.

Speaker 4 (01:31:47):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
It's funny because I was taught everybody was talking about
gonzagaing I love Kenzaggi. I was doing this exercise yesterday
and every boy Gonzaga and zagagain and I go, yeah,
all right, like I get it. And it looked good first,
you know, in the first round. But Houston's a different beast.

(01:32:10):
I think I'm with you. For some reason, Houston's getting
slept on.

Speaker 4 (01:32:15):
Yeah. And part of what happens here too is we
love what we're used to in the tournament. So seeing
Gonzaga come out and look like a version that we've
seen over the last several years and immediately there's this association, well,
this is just what Gonzaga does not this year kind of.
I mean, I watched every minute of that Yukon game
last night and cannot say this loud enough. I've watched

(01:32:37):
a ton of basketball living in Connecticut. This Yukon team
is a shell of what the last two years were.
And I know that they went in with championship DNA
and they won this game, you know, an ugly basketball game.
That does not make them the Yukon of the last
several years. Like Gonzaga went into a first round matchup
and won, That does not make them the Gonzaga that

(01:32:57):
we've seen just absolutely run through tournament year and in
year out. So I think what happens is particularly like,
come on, I mean, in an honest moment, how much
late night West Coast basketball or most of us watching,
especially through the time that you and I talk about
pretty honestly, ain't nobody caring about college basketball? Like November, December, January.
I love the sport, and you know, the hardest thing

(01:33:20):
about our jobs in general is you know, trying to
cram as much college basketball as you can after the
Super Bowl, because that's what everybody's doing like you only
have so much equity. So when you've only watched a
little Gonzaga and then you see him in the tournament
look like the Gonzaga old, it's easy to just say, oh, yeah,
this is Sagas team. They can beat anybody. No, I
don't think they can. I don't. Frankly, I think Houston's

(01:33:42):
gonna run them. I don't. I don't think that's going
to be a close basketball game tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
Yeah, I'm with your brother, I'm with you. I'm thinking
the same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
All right. This is one you gotta explain to me.

Speaker 2 (01:33:58):
Because I've slept on Ucla, so I didn't think they're
very good.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
They're playing Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
Tonight and Tennessee's only five and a half, And I
don't know why they're only five and a half because
I think they should destroy Ucla.

Speaker 3 (01:34:16):
But you tell me.

Speaker 4 (01:34:19):
Preach. I mean, my first thought when I saw that
was what am I missing about Ucla? That was genuinely
my first thought. You see, it's good, you see, LEI,
it's a good basketball team this year. But a part
of this comes down to Tennessee has had some inconsistent
moments here and there, and people want to use that
as a Tennessee in the tournament finds a way to

(01:34:39):
fall apart like tennant balls fans. I can already hear
them saying, well, it's the tournament. Is what happens every year. Again, Like,
we can't use, we can't necessarily make these blanket statements
about past years in this year's situation, I think Tennessee
is clearly more talented. Tennessee should be able to handle this,
and Tennessee should be able to pace this. So, like,

(01:35:00):
I don't know, I like Tennessee a lot in this game,
and frankly, I think there's a real chance for Tennessee
to just roll Tennessee. The matchup I'm looking forward to.
We're gonna have to wait for Houston tenn Like when
we get to Houston Tennessee, which is what I think
we're gonna get. Now, that's a game that I have
no idea how it's gonna play out, and that's gonna
be awesome. But yes, I just I feel like I

(01:35:20):
think I think we're sleeping on the balls here, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:23):
Man, I yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes I
think this.

Speaker 3 (01:35:29):
Say they're nasty, man, They're a good team.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
That's that's the thing about these these one to two seeds,
they're really good. Like what you said it, once we
get to the sixteen and then eight, I think like
it's just gonna be great games and they're gonna be
coin tosses.

Speaker 4 (01:35:53):
Yeah, I think across the board the matchups that are
gonna be the most interesting to me at this point,
if you just look at the way that bracket has
broken down, I think the really intriguing games become the
three six matchups Like Kentucky Illinois is I think that's
a tough matchup. We talked about Wisconsin BYU.

Speaker 3 (01:36:13):
That's a tough matchup.

Speaker 4 (01:36:14):
Iowa Stable miss That's a tough matchup. Those are opportunities
to me to maybe see a six seed do some damage.
But I just I continue to think, like we're looking
at the way I look at this tournament. The ones
in the twos are in their own division, and then
there's a moat from ones and twos to three, four, five.

(01:36:36):
Like I would bunch a lot of the three through
sixes together. I think there's sort of there's a lot
of comparable basketball teams there. But man, the ones and
twos sit on a different line from me this year,
and you know it's boring to go like this is
where our minds say, well, you know you got to
take and look in the first round, it was true,
like if you took the twelves over the fives, you
did pretty well, right like that, That's that's the truth.

(01:36:59):
But man, we sometimes we just get cute with the
brackets because we know the brackets are gonna have wild outcomes.
And man, I just think I think the ones and
twos in this tournament are are gonna be safe for
a while.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
Yeah, I do too.

Speaker 2 (01:37:12):
All right, let's take a look at tomorrow slate. So tomorrow,
speaking of the ones, and this is a game you
brought up, Yukon. I think Florida annihilates Yukon to marrow,
like I think game. I don't think Yukon can can
stack up and hold up against his Florida team.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
Yeah, I want to give Alex Caravan some credit from Yukon.
I've been tough on him this year for not necessarily,
he hasn't had the best year and he's supposed to
be the leader of this team and he's had his
own shooting problems. He was not good. Like, by the way,
if you didn't if you slept during the connect the
Yukon game last night, congratulations, because that was an ugly
basketball game. Yeah, but when they needed late, when they

(01:37:59):
needed a three, when they needed a rebound, and when
they needed a block, all three of those things Alex
Caravan did in the last four minutes of that game,
and they were difference makers. But that was an ugly
Yukon game. And they Yukon does not shoot consistently unless
they are wildly hot. This isn't even competitive. And I'm
with you, like, I love the way you said that,

(01:38:20):
because if you'd asked me, I'd have said, yeah, Florida
by twenty the two time defending national champions are about
to get just wiped. And I believe that now. I
also think if Florida had a coach with a longer resume,
we would be giving Florida a lot of credit here,
and we're not yet. That's going to be built this year.

(01:38:42):
So I understand people are going to say, well, Hurley, Hurley, Hurley,
he's a great coach, but man, he does not this year.
He does not have the cars in the garage to
be ready for this race.

Speaker 3 (01:38:51):
Like, no, it's not that far.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
Now you look at the matchup, and the matchup is
just not it's not there.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
This is We're just gonna swallow up care Man and
McNeely both.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
Yeah, they're horrible. It's a horrible matchup. Like Florida is
really really good and this isn't the this is Listen,
you kind of had two great seasons, like two great runs.
This Florida team is really strong, and they just don't
match up. I don't see any way they keep it close.
I don't championship DNA or not. I don't see anybody

(01:39:26):
to keep it close. All right, we're gonna take quick too.
We'll come back, continue to go through around the league,
around the games tomorrow, and then I'm gonna go around
the NFL a little bit and talk about some of
the rule changes the proposed see if you like them.
All right, we'll do some of that stuff. Where the
Fellas hanging out every Saturday with you guys on Fox

(01:39:50):
Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (01:39:53):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Radio and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.

Speaker 2 (01:40:08):
Fellas Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargana, don't forget Tractor Supply knows
that a winning season takes practice, teamwork, and a can
do attitude. Factfully, when you have a neighbor like Tractor Supply,
teamwork comes easy.

Speaker 3 (01:40:25):
So whether you're caring.

Speaker 2 (01:40:26):
For pets, chickens, or a few acres, our team members
will help you succeed season after season, Tractor Supply for
Life out here. Be sure to check out the Track
to Supply Fox Sports Radio Tournament Bracket challenge at Fox
sports Radio dot com. See how our hosts are dealing

(01:40:46):
with their picks and who are the top ranked listeners.
Listener with the best bracket at foxsports Radio dot Com
will win a twenty five hundred dollars gift card to
Tractor Supply here. It is right, FITSI A couple of things,
a couple of NFL notes. We got to get to
Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh yesterday. Lee's without a deal, but

(01:41:11):
it appears that the deal could be could happen soon.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
I mean, it's kind of the only spot left that
makes sense, right, I mean, we get the corresponding move
the Giants bringing Jamis, which I think we all agree
doesn't prevent the Giants from doing anything else for the offseason,
like they can still draft quarterbacks should one fall. But
once the Vikings made it clear that they're not currently
interested in Aaron Rodgers, and I think that that pretty

(01:41:40):
much closed that door now should be pointed out until
the Vikings actually add a veteran in that room. I
don't think anything's off the table, but we got to
be honest. If we're looking around and for Aaron Rodgers,
you got to look around and say, okay, you know
where's left that I can play. I just think it
becomes truly, truly interesting because Aaron Rodgers just wasn't great

(01:42:03):
last year. And I even take take whatever anybody's opinion
of Aaron Rodgers is and set it to the side
for a second. Go back and look some of those games.
I mean, he was bad. I mean we're not talking
about the version of Aaron Rodgers that we're used to now.
He did have a couple of nice games down the stretch,
So maybe the argument is more removed from the Achilles injury.
He's going to have a better chance at being himself.

(01:42:26):
But I think, to me, frankly, the Steelers marriage is
all about no other options for anybody. This is like
when you're teamed up for a science project, and everybody
understands you don't want me on your science project, not
not going to be any good. And by the time
you walk through the room and you're like, well, I
guess we're stuck with each other, right, That's how That's
how Anthony and I end up stuck together on a
science project. He knows I'm not a great partner. I

(01:42:47):
know he's not a great partner. But we're gonna do
science together. That's what That's what's happening right here. So
you know, the Steelers are looking around saying, well, musical
chairs have pretty much ended, and we don't have a quarterback.
And frankly, I don't think that there's going to be
a quarterback available where they picking the draft. I think,
off the top of my head it's twenty first. There's
not a quarterback there that they want to start day one,

(01:43:09):
so they need somebody. And Aaron Rodgers is looking around saying, well,
if the Vikings aren't going to let me start for them,
this is far and away the best opportunity I'm going
to have to get to start for a little bit.
So that's it's a marriage of necessity.

Speaker 3 (01:43:22):
I agree, That's that's it. That's it. Now, meanwhile, the
music stops and Russ has no share.

Speaker 4 (01:43:31):
Yeah. Well, I mean I've had people tell me flat
out that that are very familiar with Arthur Smith tell
me flat out Arthur doesn't want to coach Russ this year.
So you know, I mean, if you're Russ, you're looking around,
especially you got passed up for Jamis like this is
I'm sure he's going to have some opportunity to go
somewhere and maybe be a backup or compete for something.

(01:43:54):
But man, I just it's also everybody I've talked to
is said very clearly the Titans have no interest in
bringing him in, even if that means, you know, starting
cam Ward day one. So I man, I think Russ
is sort of left on the outside looking in. And
this is that moment where the Raiders deciding not to

(01:44:15):
go with Russ again, I mean, for being fair here,
Pete Carroll has now passed on Russ twice, right. Sean Payton,
who's supposed to be just the quarterback guru, thought so
little of Russ that he was willing to destroy his
team's salary cap to get rid of him. And now
Mike Tomlin, who is the coach that can handle anything.

(01:44:36):
Seems to be done with him. So this isn't this
isn't Wow. Three bad organizations have given up on Russ.
This is three Hall of Fame caliber head coaches that
have all said, now I'm good without him. That to
me has tremendous meaning.

Speaker 2 (01:44:50):
Dude, when you watch him, he's done. I mean he
doesn't have anything. I mean you saw it for a blip.
It looked a little differently because Justin Fields didn't go
down the field.

Speaker 3 (01:45:04):
But those moon balls. That doesn't work. He doesn't move.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
For him to be great, like or to be successful,
not great. For him to be successful, he's got to
be able to move, and he can't move anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:45:23):
I think it's as simple as that.

Speaker 2 (01:45:24):
He's small, and that's always been a challenge for him.
But before he was able to move and find windows
and throwing lanes. But now he can't do that. That's it, Like,
you need a great offensive line and you need to
be able to move a little bit because he's still small.

Speaker 4 (01:45:43):
You also, Anthony, we all know this. At some point,
when your talent isn't what it needs to be to
win at the highest level, the way you keep working
is if everybody loves being around you. Yeah, Jameis Winston
is gonna he if he's for the Giants, he's gonna
throw a bunch of interceptions, right, Like, we all know
that he's gonna have up and down moments and they're

(01:46:05):
gonna be frustrated. We all know that, but we also
know definitively at this point they love him. Locker rooms
love him.

Speaker 3 (01:46:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:46:13):
Like, and you want to tell me the Giants aren't
looking around saying, man, this is a guy for all
of his deficiencies as a player. You want a quarterback
in the room that's going to build up your other guys.
That's gonna gonna be the right type of mentor that's
also going to bring the right vibe to the locker room. Like, look,
I the closer we get to the draft, the more
I don't believe there's going to be a quarterback left

(01:46:35):
at three for the Giants. But if we're being real,
I'd be comfortable bringing in Shadeur to learn under Jamis
for a year obviously, Like I I think if they
if he gets beat out, he gets beat out, But
you know that he is going to be a positive
impact on the locker room. How many teams have to
give up on Russ, not just a quarterback, but Russ

(01:46:57):
the human being before we realize that whatever we think
of him from the outside of a locker room, it
is clear that inside locker rooms he does not bring
people together. That's clear.

Speaker 2 (01:47:06):
Yeah, can I ask you a question about you brought Shador.
I did all the tape study for all the quarterbacks
with Baldy. I don't like, there's nothing I like about him.

Speaker 4 (01:47:25):
That's so again, I'll go back. Charles Robinson with Yahoo
said to me two weeks ago, He's going to be
the most interesting draft we've seen since Aaron Rodgers. Because
there are people that you talk to around the league
that believe that Shador is a first round talent, and
there are people around the league that believe he's the

(01:47:45):
third round talent. And for fans that listen to that
and say, well, we have this every year, we don't,
I promise you. Like when Will Levis was rising because
some people said that he was going to be a
first day prospect, I hit up everybody I knew that
was smart, and I said, hey, is this real with Will?
Every single person told me, no, No, Will Levis is
not a first day prospect. And when bow Nick started

(01:48:07):
to rise last year and we started to hear Bo
was going to go early first round, I reached out
to everybody I could and said, Hey, is this real?
And I got the answer yes. If you actually surround
yourself with smart people that do a good job breaking
down the draft, I think you can get a really
good indication of the range somebody's going to go in.
I've been covering the draft for ESPN and now Yahoo

(01:48:29):
for eight years. I don't remember ever talking to people
and hearing this wide of a range on somebody like
shit tour. And it's funny to me because I believe
he's going to go second to the Browns because the
Browns have no other option. They have to take a quarterback. Financially,
they don't have anybody that they can come in and
even compete. And I think that's a stupid reason to

(01:48:52):
take a quarterback. I think if you take it, I
know we all think you have to have a quarterback
to win. We all know that. But brother, if you
take it a quarterback in the top ten and he's
not your franchise, you've set your franchise back years and
and you've wasted a top ten pick. Like that's a
prime position.

Speaker 2 (01:49:09):
They can't. But here's the thing with the Browns. They
can't take Shador. You can't roll the dice like that
after the whole Deshaun Watson fiasco. You can't do it
like you can't take Shador standards. He's too big of

(01:49:32):
forget about my untrained eye, right, I just go.

Speaker 3 (01:49:36):
Not a lot that I like that, right. I think
he's a pocket.

Speaker 2 (01:49:40):
You know, he's a pocket quarterback with an okay arm,
Like his arm doesn't pop.

Speaker 3 (01:49:46):
He doesn't have a great whip.

Speaker 2 (01:49:48):
I don't see great you know footwork like all right,
maybe down the line gets coaching and you know, he's big,
he's got a decent he's a decent athlete obviously, but
I don't. I don't see it. And I like to
take a risk like cam Ward.

Speaker 3 (01:50:06):
I would. I would.

Speaker 2 (01:50:07):
I think cam Ward can be a quarterback, like I
think he could play in this league. But man, I
think Shador is a huge, huge risk. I wouldn't go
anywhere near him. And if I'm the Browns, no way,
not after I not after I set my franchise back
with Deshaun Watson. If I do the same thing and

(01:50:28):
I'm wrong, he's too big or big of a risk,
and I'm wrong with Sanders.

Speaker 4 (01:50:33):
I'm stuck, especially if you're passing them because look at
the money that has now gone out to Miles Garrett
and Max Crosby. Look at the money that they're expecting.
Talk to somebody last week that said, you know, we
all know that Micah wants to be the highest paid
non quarterback in the NFL. He made that clear. Well

(01:50:55):
that number has changed drastically in the last three weeks. Right,
So that number is now forty five forty seven million,
right like for Micah for edge rushers. And then I
look at Abduall Carter in this year's draft. Here I
think is you know, he's clearly to me like Abdul
Carter and Travis Hunter are the top two prospects in
my mind, and I would take Abdul Carter first if

(01:51:17):
I if I was a child of the team. But
you also got to you got to hit on that
because at some point, edge rushers are going to price
themselves out of the current market and you're going to
have the same conversation got to win with a rookie
quarterback contract, Well, you're gonna get to that position with
almost everybody. Now, we've got to win. While you got
an edge rusher on a rookie contract, that's that's gonna

(01:51:38):
be real. It's part of it is what you're passing on.
And the problem is the Browns only quarterback option right
now is Kenny Pickett. Like, they don't have a quarterback
on the rockster. So what are you going to do
if you don't draft a quarterback? And then if you think,
I guess you could look at it and say, well,
we'll wait to the top of the second round and
hope that you know Jalen Molroja and Dart is there.

(01:52:01):
But both of those like those.

Speaker 2 (01:52:03):
Types of prospects, to me, I think dark it winds
up going to the top ten.

Speaker 4 (01:52:11):
You're not wrong. The number of people I've talked to
that have said top ten for Jackson Dart in the
last couple of weeks is pretty staggering. So Jackson Jackson
Dart is absolutely rising. So what I mean now we're
talking Jalen Milroe, Quinn, yours like.

Speaker 3 (01:52:27):
My boy man, what about my boy Kyle? Second round?

Speaker 4 (01:52:33):
Sure I would I would take any of those quarterbacks
you mentioned if I get the opportunity to sit them
for a year or two and really develop them.

Speaker 3 (01:52:41):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:52:43):
Yeah, And I think that's what a lot of these teams.
The smartest thing for the Giants, the Jets, the Raiders,
the Browns to do would be to take one of
the quarterbacks at the top of the second round. That's
more of a development pick, and then get your guy.

Speaker 2 (01:53:00):
Really, those guys should be going third and fourth round,
but because they're they're the position and the dearth of
them they now they get moved up to the.

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
Top of the second coming up. I got a name.
I do have a name for you that I'm shocked.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
If I was one of these teams, I would go
after this kid left and right. I think this kid's
got ability. I'll hit you up with it in a second.
We're the fellas right here, Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back
Fellas from the tairac dot com studio, Jason Fitz Anthony Gargano.

Speaker 3 (01:53:40):
So let me throw a guy.

Speaker 2 (01:53:43):
I don't know if you know him, but I know
him well because he's the backup for the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
His name's Tanner McKee.

Speaker 4 (01:53:51):
The Stanford Kid. Yes, that's when you know I've covered
too many drafts. When I'm like Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:53:57):
That's the Stanford I'm man, my man.

Speaker 4 (01:54:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:54:02):
So now the Eagles had you know, they'd move picket right,
it was their primary backup, and they got Dorian Thomas
Thompson Robinson right like, but I think it's Tyner mckee'
is really their backup. But dude, let me tell you something.
This dude can play. All right, I'm telling you he

(01:54:26):
can play. I I now, I know it's preseason. He
got a couple of reps when Jalen got hurt.

Speaker 3 (01:54:34):
But this dude is big, He's got a good arm,
he can move.

Speaker 4 (01:54:43):
Like.

Speaker 2 (01:54:43):
I'm curious to Like I'm wanting these teams star for
a quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
I'd much rather go that route.

Speaker 2 (01:54:51):
Here's a kid that's been studying under hurt on the
the Eagles on their hurts for two years. I much
rather better on him that I could probably get for
a third round pick.

Speaker 4 (01:55:05):
Yeah. I think it's interesting too, because there were plenty
of teams that seemed to really like Tanner McKey. The
year he was drafted was that two years ago? I
think it was, But as he was coming out, everybody
seemed to want to talk to him. Combination of as
you mentioned, all the skill sets and you know his
Stanford kid like, he's smart. You know he can digest
an offensive game plan. Obviously, so plenty of people really

(01:55:29):
liked him, and the arm strength was a big, big,
big part of it. I was surprised in that year's draft.
I really thought that he was going to go higher
than he did. So the fact that he went later
in the process was a little stunning to me. And
this is why teams take the time to interview so
many players in the draft process, because you kind of
keep the book on him, like you know where you

(01:55:50):
stood on Tanner m ckey and where you would stand
on him now. So to your point, I think when
he got into a game last year, I was like, oh,
the Stanford kid. There's an element here of teams need
to go back, especially as bad as this year's quarterback
class could be for this year's result. Like I want
to say this again, I think a lot of these
quarterbacks in this year's class, if they go to a

(01:56:10):
great situation and get a couple of years to sit
and develop with the right coaching.

Speaker 1 (01:56:14):
Could actually turn out to be pretty good quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (01:56:16):
I don't think this is a lost class for talent.
It just isn't the same top end that we're used to, right,
So I would much rather take a flyer on, you know,
somebody that's been in the league for a minute, especially
if I'm taking a developmental prospect. Yeah, yeah, I mean
i'd take I'd take tenor over like Tyler Schuck that

(01:56:37):
everybody is, you know, there's like forty seven years old
and has had injury issues and yeah, one hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:56:43):
I mean I think Dart is going to I think
you'm like, listen, I get dart Ward's the best is
the best prospect.

Speaker 4 (01:56:52):
Obviously not even close, not even But I like Dart.

Speaker 2 (01:56:55):
Right like I think dark Like, I would take a
flyer on Dart I told you all, Like Kyle, I
like the Cord. I mean, I think there's kids out
out there.

Speaker 3 (01:57:03):
I'm not the.

Speaker 2 (01:57:03):
Biggest Will Howard guy. You know, it's a shame that
what's his name's five five to nine Oregon.

Speaker 4 (01:57:15):
Yeah, why am I so like Dylan Gabriel in fact
got stuck.

Speaker 2 (01:57:21):
If you look at Gabriel, Gabriel's got skills, man, it's
just a shame that he's he's small.

Speaker 4 (01:57:28):
Yeah, and there are certain guys in this class too,
Like you know, it would just take so much reworking.
Like if they were just slightly better prospects, Like if
Riley Leonard was just a better thrower, then somebody could
could take Riley and say, we're gonna build around this.
But he's too mediocre at too many things to be
worth building around, you know, So it gets it gets

(01:57:50):
difficult with some of these guys. Jalen Milroe certainly, I
mean the fact that he ran so fast. Somebody's gonna
fall in love with Jalen Milroe. But man, you're gonna
have to really build it off fence around him, and
we're gonna have to slow develop the Like his throwing
technique is what for anyone that looks at it and says, well,
he was inconsistent last year, Now the question is why
was he inconsistent? And then you talk to anybody that

(01:58:12):
breaks down quarterbacks and they'll tell you that his mechanics
are just wildly inconsistent. So can somebody get in and
fix those mechanics? Sure, sure, if you give him a
couple of years.

Speaker 3 (01:58:23):
Great kids work, Yeah, he's a great kid. He's strong,
Like the kid's a beast man. He's a workout beast,
strong as old get out.

Speaker 2 (01:58:33):
Oh my God, I just wish you would have went
back to school. Yeah, more a year, go back into portal.

Speaker 3 (01:58:39):
You were got paid a man.

Speaker 4 (01:58:43):
Yeah, it seems like you know and you're right by
the way, great kids, smart kid says all the right things.
You knew he was going to do well in the interview,
Like I interviewed at the Super Bowl and it was like, yeah,
this kid's got it from from us sitting in.

Speaker 2 (01:58:57):
The they were in love with him, they got oh oh,
the kids is awesome, Like they love them, loved them,
and I can only see it.

Speaker 4 (01:59:08):
He's gonna get overdrafted because he's such a likable kid
and because he's so damn fast. But I don't know
that he's a quarterback. That's it's just gonna take. It's
gonna take time. You're gonna have to be patient with
all of these kids.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
Can just I just think it's a shame that you
getting it came out one on one more year needed
it all right, fellas big albu're coming up next Fox
Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:59:30):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (01:59:33):
Good morning, Happy, happy Saturday. It's a Fox Sports game day. Yeah,
here we go, Round Day three, Round two of the tournament. Fellas,
Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargano hanging out with you from the
tire rack dot Com studios. Tire rack dot Com Up

(01:59:55):
and get there, and I'm that selection fast free shipping,
free road as a production. Over ten thousand recommend it
installers tire rack dot Com the way tire buying should be.
Don't forget. Also, shortly after the show, the podcast goes up.
So have you missed any portion of today's show? Be
sure to check it out the podcast all right, just
search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts, and

(02:00:17):
also do a solid be sure to follow, rate and
review the podcast. Again, just search Fox Sports Radio wherever
you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (02:00:24):
You'll see this show posting right after we get off
the air.

Speaker 2 (02:00:28):
All right, my brother, Big day, Round two of all
the basketball. All right, Days one and two are gone,
first round over and this round and like we said,
should be better. This should be a little bit more
competitive basketball.

Speaker 4 (02:00:46):
I mean, yes, one hundred percent. Is there any element
of people in your mind that'll be bummed if this
thing continues to go chalk chalk, chalk chalk talk. We
got a couple of I shouldn't say it's all chalk
but we just don't have that. There isn't a Cinderella
that everybody's gravitated to. And I think you're right, we're

(02:01:07):
gonna get better basketball. The question is, does that make
for a lessoned March Madness experience If we're not getting
some random, you know, liberty team that's finally that's in
the Sweet sixteen. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (02:01:20):
Yeah, man, I think you're right. I think we're conditioned
to love the Cinderella, even though Cinderella got a bit
of I think skewed the way I said this to
in the beginning of the show about the mid Majors.

Speaker 3 (02:01:40):
See, mid Majors.

Speaker 2 (02:01:41):
Aren't like they were back then, like they were the
traditional Cinderella's right George Mason and the great call by
Verne Lund quish by George.

Speaker 3 (02:01:51):
They did it like that.

Speaker 2 (02:01:53):
Team doesn't really exist now because what happens is with
the Portal, you poach those those kids then go to
bigger programs, and any of those kids that are left,
like those older veteran types that stay in school at
the mid majors together, they're not that good. I think

(02:02:15):
that's the biggest issue with Cinderella. Cinderella, I don't think
there's a slipper out there.

Speaker 4 (02:02:23):
Yeah, And also I think it ruins a little bit
of it, like McNeice, the fact that we all know
Will Wade is already headed to n See State. You know,
it's like it ruins a little bit of that magic.
You know, there's a you knew it was going to
happen so often when a Cinderella went on a run
that the coach would take a job somewhere else. But
to get that news before the first game of the

(02:02:45):
tournament and to think about, you know, how weird it
is for the players and for coach, and yeah, thought
of like are they all going with him? And like
what's it meaning? Like we talk all the time about
distractions and what that means, but he's sitting here. Some
of these Cinderella stories, like McNeice, I think, have taken
a little bit of a side view, because now the
conversation is about already about well, Will Wade's headed somewhere else.

(02:03:09):
And that's just I don't know that it's a peel
behind the curtain a little bit too far, Like there's
too much it's too much too inside baseball for us
to already be talking about where a coach is going
to be next instead of where his Cinderella could end up.
And you know, that's one of the rare cine RelA
situations here. Maybe New Mexico if they if they topple
Michigan State, you know, maybe that becomes because that is

(02:03:31):
a a ten over a two, then they become that
sort of a massive Cinderella. But I don't know it
is It's funny because the West bracket was widely perceived
to be the toughest of all the brackets coming in,
and you have a twelve and eleven and a ten
that have advanced in that bracket. So the toughest bracket
gives us the best chance at a Cinderella, But not

(02:03:52):
really because I don't think a ten, eleven or twelve
is taken down Saint John's or Florida. So like, what
are we.

Speaker 3 (02:03:57):
Talking about exactly?

Speaker 2 (02:03:59):
Like, let's go through the two days right today, tomorrow,
all right, McNee McNeice has a chance. I think that
they have a chance to beat Purdue, all right, Like
you said, we'll put that, We'll put them to the side.

Speaker 3 (02:04:14):
Arkansas has not beating Saint John's.

Speaker 2 (02:04:16):
I think Saint John's wins and I think they even
double digits.

Speaker 4 (02:04:20):
Even if Arkansas, I agree with you one percent, even
if Arkansas does advance, that's not a Cinderella A ten seed.
Not all ten seeds are built the same. You're talking
about one of the most legendary coaches in a program
coming out of the SEC that people have already been
paying attention to. So that doesn't feel Cinderella.

Speaker 3 (02:04:38):
Agree.

Speaker 2 (02:04:39):
Agree, Michigan like A and N. By the way, Texas
Tech Drake. I think that Drake has a chance to
beat Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (02:04:51):
That would be it.

Speaker 4 (02:04:52):
And like, if Drake beats Texas Tech then gets clobbered
by Saint John's, But if Drake beats Texas Tech, that
would be Yeah, that's enough to put them, you know,
in that category.

Speaker 3 (02:05:03):
Drake.

Speaker 2 (02:05:03):
Right now, you're in this sweet sixteen, you're into the
second weekend. That's that's you know, the slipper thing, right.

Speaker 4 (02:05:10):
Yeah, So we're spending the week finding more out about Drake,
and the all week is gonna be give me stories
about Drake.

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
Yeah, yes, yes, and everybody will do the slide fell line.
Hate the Drake, love the Drake, you know, uh, Creighton Auburn,
I don't I think Auburn wins.

Speaker 3 (02:05:25):
I think you do too.

Speaker 4 (02:05:27):
Yeah, and Creighton too established a brand to be a
to be a Cinderella.

Speaker 2 (02:05:33):
Agreed, b Yu Wisconsin, Uh, that's just a great even match.

Speaker 3 (02:05:39):
Three six. Gonzaga is in nine. But it's Gonzaga.

Speaker 2 (02:05:43):
Hey, I don't think they beat Euston, but b that's
not that's not Cinderella worthy.

Speaker 3 (02:05:49):
You feel like.

Speaker 4 (02:05:52):
Hell out of state. Maryland is the other. Like, I
think Maryland's gonna cream them. Just absolutely a nine later.

Speaker 2 (02:05:58):
Yeah, I mean, and they weren't a true underdog twelve
because they were the favorite in the game.

Speaker 4 (02:06:07):
Yeah. They All they did was what they're supposed to do.
You know. That's one of the interesting things because I
saw the narrative after the first weekend of the tournament.
Some people wanted to turn around and say, well, the
SEC showed they didn't belong because they lost so many
games in the first round. And what's funny about that.
This is why context matters to information, And how often

(02:06:27):
do we scream that if you look at the SEC,
Missouri was upset by Drake. So that's definitely an upset,
there's no doubt about that. And so you know, taking
that result aside, because that again clearly an upset there
the rest of their losses, you know, they were the
lower ranked seed. So to me, if the lower ranked

(02:06:49):
seed or the playing game was eleven v. Eleven for Texas,
if you lose as the lower ranked seed, all you
did was what you were expected to do. So like,
I don't I'm not freaking out over Baylor beat in
Mississippi State, you got beaten Oklahoma, Like those were the
appropriate seed one. So it's it's interesting to me when
we look at some of this, you got to look
at who was the favorite, and then how did the

(02:07:09):
seating played out? Like I think because of the fact
that Memphis came into that game hurt and that that
was interesting in Colorado State came into that game hot
and I think underseated, it created the upset. But I
don't really think that was necessarily an upset. They were.
I think they were a two point favor by the
time the game tipped, which is pretty surprising.

Speaker 2 (02:07:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now you're the spot all with it.
So I don't know St. Mary's Alabama because it's you know,
Alabama Leak's points. They're not there. I mean, they could score,
but they don't play d Yeah, they.

Speaker 4 (02:07:47):
Did struggle with Robert Morris. I really wanted Robert Morris
to win just so I could call him Bobby Mo
for the weekend. Like Robert Morris just felt like Bobby Mo.
I mean, need Mo, Bobby Mo. But no Alabama. You know,
injury part of that too. But again, when they were like, okay,
we need to put everybody in, they won that game,
you know, pretty easily down the stretch. But yeah, Saint

(02:08:09):
Mary's I think handled a Vandy team that frankly choked
for the last eight to ten minutes of that game.
Like Vandy should have beat Saint Mary's. And I would
have liked Vandy a lot against Alabama. In fact, in
my bracket I may have actually picked I don't remember,
I may have picked Vandy to beat Alabama, the reason
being that Vandy can get on a heater shooting in

(02:08:30):
Alabama plays no defense, so that that's the thought process.
So maybe playing no defense is an issue for Saint Mary's.
But even a seven beating of two doesn't really feel like,
you know, our glory Cinderella stories of years past. But
we'll take it. We'll take it.

Speaker 2 (02:08:44):
No, Yeah, I mean, listen and Saint Mary's is you know,
it's not you know, obscure, but it's not goodzoga and
say the Saint Conference, right, So it would be a
bit it would be a fun story.

Speaker 4 (02:09:00):
Yeah, that's really it.

Speaker 3 (02:09:02):
I don't know. I mean, I think your fun story
in this.

Speaker 4 (02:09:05):
Year's tournament and nobody likes this as a society, But like,
I think the fun story is the greatness of so
many of these teams, Like I want to get to
an Elite eight that gives me all the ones and
twos because they've been the best teams in the country.
Like if we end up with an Elite eight that
is Auburn versus Michigan State and Duke taken on Alabama

(02:09:26):
and Houston taken on Tennessee and Saint John's taken on Florida,
guess what every one of those matchups is must see.
Every one of those teams has been absolutely incredible throughout
the course of the entire regular season. Like, yes, I
want I want the best of the best this year,
because this isn't like I said earlier, this isn't a
year where I feel like, oh, there's two teams that
can win it all and the rest are pretty good. No,

(02:09:48):
I think any of the eight teams I just mentioned
are fully capable and deserving of a national championship, that
that's a special moment.

Speaker 3 (02:09:56):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, because what happens is.

Speaker 2 (02:10:01):
These years give context to Cinderella.

Speaker 4 (02:10:06):
M That's what I said.

Speaker 3 (02:10:08):
I mean, you haven't had that.

Speaker 2 (02:10:13):
What was the last time you had matchups sweet Sweet sixteenth?
I mean Elite eight matchups with all those types of teams.

Speaker 3 (02:10:24):
You don't have that.

Speaker 4 (02:10:26):
And the longer Goliath dominates, the more special it is
when David actually takes him down exactly. That is that
there is an element of maybe maybe the death of
mid majors that we've been talking about this morning. You know,
maybe that becomes it makes us appreciated even more when

(02:10:46):
one pops through, simply because it becomes more and more
difficult for that to happen. You know, It's it's it's
kind of wild that you look at again, fourteen SEC
teams made it, Eight Big ten teams made a Like,
that's twenty two teams from two conferences that are just
man ruling this conference. So the more we get that,

(02:11:08):
the more it's going to become incredible. If eventually you
end up with a random mountain West team that goes
on a run. You know, that's just that's not what
we think of.

Speaker 2 (02:11:19):
Hey, I need your help with something. So I was
having a debate on my show. I brought something up,
and I'm curious to see where you stand and the
plausibility of it, all right, because I got a lot
of pushback from it. So let's say Nike, well, actually

(02:11:40):
he's new bounced. Let's say Gatorade goes to Cooper Flag
and says, Coop, we want you to be the face
of March. We're going to give you two hundred million
dollars to be the face of March, but you got

(02:12:01):
to stay for four years of Duke. You were to
give you two hundred million, but you got to stay
four years of Duke.

Speaker 4 (02:12:15):
Yeah, I'm just staying. I'm staying right in the hand,
Purt in the hand exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:12:22):
So, Mike, this is my point of it.

Speaker 2 (02:12:25):
To these guys, I go, why would if you're a
Cooper Flag, why wouldn't you stay.

Speaker 3 (02:12:31):
You'll be twenty two when.

Speaker 2 (02:12:32):
You can go, when you graduate, you go to the NBA,
You're you're going to dominate March.

Speaker 3 (02:12:37):
You're going to enjoy yourself.

Speaker 2 (02:12:40):
You're going to be the man and you got two
hundred million dollars, which is not crazy in the landscape
of the way the world works today.

Speaker 4 (02:12:50):
When when Lebron was drafted, I don't might have been
Bob Costas, but some one of the legends was doing
an interview with him and they brought up the contract
he had just signed with Nike, and at the time
it paid him more than the Calves were paying him.
And I remember distinctly the interviewer asked him, who do
you really work for? The Calves or Nike, and Lebron

(02:13:12):
just smiled and laughed and said both. You know, to
your point at some point if your Cooper flag, I
think the biggest thing that you're looking at right now
is Victor Webbin Yama, who has lived up to every
ounce of expectation has been absolutely spectacular for the Spurs,
and the Spurs obviously with Pop's health that had other
things going on. But what's happened for Wenby since he

(02:13:35):
got to the NBA. He just gets his ass kick
like he personally plays great, but his team loses over
and over and over again. And so you look at
it if you're Cooper and you think, okay, yes, I
want to make that transcendent money. But if I can
make generational wealth like family tree wealth, that changes everything.

(02:13:55):
If I can make meggie yacht owning money and win,
or I can go to a place like the Wizards,
where if I am the best rookie we've ever seen
of all time, I'm probably still not making the playoffs
for the first three years of my career. I think
the NBA is going to have to rethink some of
this at some point because these teams that are bad

(02:14:17):
are bad for so long. It takes so long to
turn it around. And I'm just looking at again underperformance
for Zion. But I'm looking at Zion and saying, man,
how much fun has he really had playing for New Orleans?
You know, you look at John Morant and the expectations
in Memphis and they've even made the playoffs and still say, Okay,
you know there is something to hey, if you're talking

(02:14:40):
about a shoe company coming in and offering two hundred
million dollars to be the face of March madness. It's
also in a situation where you can play on a
college campus where you are a king. You can live
like an absolute royalty. You know, you can live like
a King, and you can have the experience of a
lifetime in college winning a lot of basketball games like that.

(02:15:01):
I do think there has to be some appeal to that,
especially when you look at how bad the lottery teams
are likely to be. Now, if the draft, if the
draft order came out and suddenly, by weird circumstance, the
Spurs won the lottery, then maybe that changes your decision.
You're looking at and saying, hey, me and Wemby who
in the NBA right now? Maybe that changes your decision.

(02:15:21):
But I'm certainly looking at it every single year saying
if I can make anywhere near comparable money, which is
inevitable for the best of the best of the best
of college basketball, I just wonder why you would leave exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:15:34):
And that's my whole point.

Speaker 2 (02:15:35):
Now again, if if Gatoray comes you and gives you
a Jason Fitz, I'm giving you two undred million dollars,
you got to you gotta you sign a contract. You're staying,
You're not getting out of it, You're staying, but you're
getting two dred million dollars.

Speaker 3 (02:15:52):
And if you're if you're the brand, it's worth it.
Could you have the you got the league?

Speaker 2 (02:15:59):
Guy who's going to be the superstar of March every year?

Speaker 4 (02:16:03):
Locked up?

Speaker 3 (02:16:06):
I think it's a win win. I don't know why
you wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (02:16:10):
I don't know why teams are and brands don't do that.
Like they were telling me while he's not Caitlyn Clark,
and I'm going, well, he's bigger than Caitlyn Clark was
as a freshman, and if he stays, he'll be bigger
than Caitlyn Clark.

Speaker 4 (02:16:29):
I mean, if he stays four years, how many championships
could they win with it? Exactly? He comes like, and
then what what level of icon does it become? It
has to be outrageous money though, because I heard you
know Cody Decker, uh, you know Beatle and Decker on sirius.

(02:16:52):
I love those guys. And Cody was talking about being
a college teammate of Garrett Cole. And when Garrett Cole
came into college, he was offered I think he said
it was a million dollars to sign somewhere. And Garrett
came to practice and everybody thought he was gonna leave.
And Garrett Cole's response was, why would I take a
million dollars now when I can play college baseball for
a couple of years be the number one overall pick

(02:17:14):
and signed for ten million dollars. That's what I'm gonna do, right,
which is which is ultimately what he did. And you know,
Cody was telling the story in a funny way. It
drives you crazy that somebody turned down a million dollars
in a spot right then and was like, oh, just
wait a couple of years and make even more. I
think if you're you're starting to talk about like if
Cooper Flag can make five million dollars not worth it,
ten million dollars not worth it. You want to get

(02:17:34):
on that NBA train as soon as you possibly can.
But if somebody came in and truly made a transcendent offer,
and I don't know why you.

Speaker 3 (02:17:42):
Know you mentioned, but that's why.

Speaker 4 (02:17:45):
But right, yeah, my my thing is like not just Gatorade,
Like what about a conglomerate of Duke Gatorade and TNT
you want to tell me that the TV right steals
for these things? They wouldn't love to have the best
player in the world coming. Like if I'm a if
I'm a TV executive, come in and say, hey, you
know what, just like you got to pay the stars

(02:18:05):
of Friends more when friends got a ton of money.
At what point are TV execs going to go to
some of these college kids and say, wait a minute,
before you leave, tn T would like to give you
an offer to stay, Like before you leave ESPN would
like to give you an offer to stay because Cooper
flat brings ratings every single night.

Speaker 2 (02:18:22):
Yes, exactly, that's the whole thing. That's why to me
it makes sense to do that. And by the way,
the leaks still, the leak's not going anywhere. And you know,
like this man, you know, to be the face of

(02:18:44):
the tournament, and you know.

Speaker 3 (02:18:46):
It's worth it. It's where you do.

Speaker 2 (02:18:48):
All the you know, part of your duties is you
do all those commercials. You know, m hm, Capital One,
all the commercials, right, you're doing all God, I don't
know why they honestly, I don't know why in all
these in all at least basketball and football, I don't

(02:19:09):
know why they don't do that.

Speaker 4 (02:19:13):
I go back to, as we talked about often on
the show, what it felt like watching Larry Johnson, Stacey
Augman and Greg Anthony play together at UNLV and you
knew the year after they won the championship that they
were going to come back the next year and be
even better. And they were even though they lost in
the final four. Like, there is an element of carryover,
and that's why the Caitlyn Clark comp doesn't work until

(02:19:36):
you factor in what it would actually mean to have
a college basketball superstar stay for four years. Like that's
I said it earlier. With the women's tournament, We've fallen
in love with Juju and Paige and I mean Hidalgo.
There's a ton of names in women's college basketball that
are great, but part of the reason we fall in
love with them is because they're here long enough for

(02:19:57):
us to fall in love with the story and to
carry over from year to year. If you could accomplish
that in the men's game, I can't imagine what that
would mean for the growth of the sport. And if
you got to overpay, you know, your landmark guy, you
do it?

Speaker 2 (02:20:11):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it because I got pushedback
on it. I'm like, I don't understand why where the
fella is? Brain's coming up next to uh, give you
some picks.

Speaker 3 (02:20:24):
For the weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:20:26):
So that's coming up, fellas right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (02:20:31):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (02:20:44):
All right, Welcome back, fellas from the tai Iraq dot
com studios. Time now, Jason Fitz, Anthony Gargina. Time now
for the brain to get it started.

Speaker 3 (02:21:00):
Brain.

Speaker 2 (02:21:01):
Uh, where we go? Good morning, my brother, how are
you good?

Speaker 7 (02:21:06):
Literally boarding the airplane right now to Aspen as we speak, my.

Speaker 2 (02:21:09):
Friend, Oh, oh god, bless you.

Speaker 3 (02:21:13):
What are you doing in Aspen?

Speaker 7 (02:21:16):
Well, you know what's funny. The crazy thing is, I'm
not a skier, but favorite state, in case you I
never told you, my favorite state in the world was Colorado.
I just love the scenery of it. I think it's beautiful.
I didn't say it's gorgeous. So me and the family
are on our way there now. I'm excited, even without
being a skier. I just love the scenery, walking around,
seeing nature. It makes me very happy. So I'll have

(02:21:38):
I'm looking forward to having a great time.

Speaker 3 (02:21:40):
Nice. So hopefully you get a little snow.

Speaker 7 (02:21:43):
Yeah, hopefully, so hopefully some winning basketball that's as well.

Speaker 3 (02:21:47):
Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 2 (02:21:48):
Oh man, awesome, Well listen that have a great time
with the family. That's beautiful. All right, let's go through
rapid fire. Okay, yeah, we'll do uh well each do
four and then do tomorrow. I'll take the first four. McNeice, Purdue,
I think you and I are both all McNeese.

Speaker 7 (02:22:11):
You know that not a game I'm personally betting. I
think I think the line. Yeah, I think the line again.
I'm fortunately I can't check my screen right now because
I'm literally a boarding the plane, but I think it's
around sitting around five as six area. I don't really
trust Purdue is a good team. I don't. But again,
McNee am I gonna tell you that I think that
they're great because they beat Conston. I'm not going to

(02:22:33):
go that far again. Always say to everyone listening to
the show, look alive that these things. Trust rise if
you're seeing something a team can't defend a certain way,
or can't redown in that certain game or whatever. But
that's not one of my favorite games. I think the
line was pretty reasonable.

Speaker 2 (02:22:50):
Actually, sicks in a half right now, all right? Saint
John's Arkansas. I love Saint John's.

Speaker 7 (02:22:56):
Yeah, well up to seven now, seven and a half, yeah,
seven and a half. You know, It's funny. It was
six and a half half me and I was I
remember I spoke to I go, I'm very close to
playing Saint John's. I'm hoping for a six, hoping for
a six. Never saw that six. My lean here will
definitely be the Saint John's. And again, if I didn't
lay six and a half, I can't lay seven a half.

(02:23:17):
But I thought they should have been around like an
eight point favorite, and I was just I was being
greedy hoping for a six. Never got it. But I
do think Saint John's is really tough, and I think
they will beat a decent Arkansas team. But I think
Saint John's has been better in over forty minutes. They
will show them the better team and win by eight plus.

Speaker 3 (02:23:34):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:23:34):
And then my last one to give you before I
turned over to FITZI is one I think we're on
the same page with Texas A and M against Michigan.

Speaker 3 (02:23:44):
What your alma matter? Mind you?

Speaker 7 (02:23:46):
What's the line right now?

Speaker 3 (02:23:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:23:49):
I mean I I this is probably right up there
is my second favorite game, let's call it. I bet
A and M at the open lane one and a half.
Loved them lank two and a half I think Michigan.
I went to Michigan. I believe Mason Blue. I'm a
huge Michigan fan. I just and I've watched Michigan play
too many times to count this year. They don't shoot
the three well, they just they turn them all over

(02:24:11):
upon they again good bigs. Obviously, I think that Michigan stinks.
I just really do it again. I love Michigan, but
I'm again, I'm an objective Michigan fan. I'm not just
a homer, you know, like a homer that just like
roots for my team blindly and says they're the best.
I don't think they're very good at all. Yeah, I
know they won the Big n I think A and

(02:24:32):
M not a great team. But I think A and
M wins this game by about eight or nine.

Speaker 3 (02:24:35):
All right, My fourth I forgot.

Speaker 2 (02:24:36):
My fourth one is Texas Tech Drake Texas six and
a half.

Speaker 7 (02:24:41):
Oh wow, it's down to six and a half. I
really loved Drake at the Open Eye and Open did
nine and a half, believe it or not. Anthey, I
got eight and a half and I was really happy
with that. That God, it's it's just hard to recommend
the bet when you're getting eight and a half in
the line goes down two points, because so many of
these games comes down to that. That thing said, I'm
on the Drake side. Sure Texas Tech. I think they

(02:25:03):
played well down the stretch, but they're okay. I don't
think they're anything great. And Drake, they play such a
slow pace so to me, and they get shopping, Anthony,
maybe you can get at least seven on which I'm
guessing you can if you shop it. I think the
game will be quoted. I think it'll be tight, and
I think Drake probably has paul a thirty two chance
of winning the game. Out right, I'll take Drake in

(02:25:23):
the points.

Speaker 4 (02:25:24):
All right, So what about Creighton and Auburn. That one's
eight and a half. Auburn the number one overall.

Speaker 7 (02:25:29):
See here my favorite game, and it's funny. It was
nine and a half yesterday. I took nine. It was
actually nine and a half all yesterday as I didn't
see today, and maybe went down a point. But listen,
my biggest future before the year was Auburn at forty
to one. So I'm rooted for Auburn all year. They're
playing their worst basketball at the worst time of the year,

(02:25:49):
right They just have not. They don't have that hit
factor right now. Not only am I calling for Creighton
to cover, I think Craigon has a real chance to
win this game.

Speaker 3 (02:25:58):
Out right.

Speaker 7 (02:25:58):
I'm rooting like crazy for Auburn to win the game.
I'm ringing like crazy is to Creighton the coveracks. I
have a very large bet. My biggest out of the
day is on Creighton plus to nine, but even plus
the eight, and I think the game will be tight.
And I think the stealing for Auburn to win is
right around nine, ten eleven. I think that's their ceiling,
and I think Cryighton has a real chance to win
the game out right.

Speaker 4 (02:26:16):
What about b YU Wisconsin, which as a basketball game
could be the game of the day.

Speaker 7 (02:26:21):
I don't it's so funny should say that. I think
that is the I think that is the day of
the game, you know, the game of the day. I
think it's like a game that's going to be extremely entertaining.
We have a BYU team and of Wisconsin team that
can both really score. I think it's gonna be a
really high plowing, exciting game that comes down to the end. Again,

(02:26:43):
I lean Wisconsin, lean Wisconsin, but I think it'll be
a really tight, exciting game.

Speaker 4 (02:26:49):
Okay, a lot of things. We got Gonzaga Houston. Any
chance that Gonzaga shocks the world?

Speaker 7 (02:26:56):
You know it's Tonny and I totally answer me this.
I don't. I don't personally think so. I am not
a fan of this Gonzaga team. Now. The metrics from
like like the people like Neal sites like Ken, Tom
Bart Worbick, they love Gonzaga. They're like a team that
people just think is like bag of chips and all that.
I just am not there. I think Houston, well, I'm

(02:27:17):
not in love with but I definitely think they're the
better team. And I think Houston covers this game against
Gonzaga and they win the game by double digits in
my opinion.

Speaker 4 (02:27:27):
We were talking earlier about UCLA Tennessee. A little surprise,
Tennessee is only favored by five and a half. There,
what do you see?

Speaker 7 (02:27:35):
Design opened it four? And that was one of my
bigger bets too, was on Tennessee. I went up to
five and a half. I didn't know that I saw
five yesterday. Still on the Tennessee side, I think us
Sillies is you know, no offense garbage. I do not
do not think there are anything special. I think Tennessee well,
I don't love coach Barnes in these spots. Time after time,
he's proven he doesn't get it done. I think we'll

(02:27:57):
get it done against you know, well coached Houston team,
but the team, but I just don't think that's much talent.

Speaker 2 (02:28:03):
Yeah, all right, let's go to tomorrow and waste no time.
One of my favorite games tomorrow. I love this game.
I love Florida. I just think there are another class.
I think they'll be up for that game. I think
they named their score and I think they win by twenty.

Speaker 7 (02:28:21):
Yeah. I can't I can't argue with you. I mean
I really, I really can't argue with you. To me,
Florida is a different class. I agree with you. I
think Florida. He's right there them and Duke. Who's the
best team. I think you can argue it either way.
But Florida offensively, defensively, well coached, well saying I think dad,
you could say about Florida as a team. So to me,

(02:28:43):
the only way I can look absolutely is the Florida side.
I think Florida is probably gonna I think they're gonna
be the hard, hardest team to beat me in for
the tournament.

Speaker 3 (02:28:52):
Duke Baylor again, you know it can only look one way.

Speaker 7 (02:28:57):
Yeah, I mean, look, the game is going to be
and that's twenty. My kids actually went to the game.
They went to in North Carolina, so they got to
see Duke in person. Yeah, I Duke looked. Duke is
obviously it's probably gonna win the game and win the game.
My margin. Baylor to me not a great team. To me,
this is a game Duke probably should win in my opinion.
Between if they don't win the game by at least

(02:29:19):
nine or ten, I'll be really surprised. I think there's
a chance they do win it by like seventeen eighteen,
nineteen twenty. Only so that I can look at is
the Duke said, I have no interest in backing a
Baylor team. To me, it is really not good at all.

Speaker 3 (02:29:30):
Kentucky Illinois.

Speaker 2 (02:29:31):
Illinois looked great last night, but you're a little bit
of a jack one eye team.

Speaker 7 (02:29:35):
What line do you sing right now?

Speaker 3 (02:29:37):
Anthony Illinois one and a half?

Speaker 7 (02:29:41):
Yeah? For me, it's interesting, OK, because I did not
I went to.

Speaker 4 (02:29:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:29:45):
Well, I'm actually one going the other way on that game.
I think Kentucky is the better team, I think. I
actually in my numbers, I had Kentucky minus two on
my sheet, so Illinois being favored. I'm actually gonna so
as we hang up this own, my good friend, I'm
going to be betting Kentucky. I think the wrong side's favored.

Speaker 2 (02:30:02):
Yeah, I'm with you. Uh, my last one to hit
you before it turned over to FITZI. Saint Mary's and
Bama Bama five and a half.

Speaker 3 (02:30:12):
I like St.

Speaker 7 (02:30:13):
Mary's game, you know, it's interesting. Alabama to me is
a team again, it's just a matter of when it happens.
I just don't love this Alabama team. They they just
they're just they're so bad defensively and again they always
had that Budger's chance with their offense. I get it.
But Saint Mary's with coach Bennett, I think the game

(02:30:33):
will be tight. I think they're going to be close. Uh.
I am absolutely on the Saint Mary's side and actually
think Saint Mary's has a pretty close to fifty. Took
a chance to win the game out right, I'm gonna
go that far.

Speaker 4 (02:30:43):
Oh wow, that's great. What about Maryland? Colorado State? Maryland
seven and a half points right now?

Speaker 5 (02:30:50):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (02:30:50):
You know, it's just a Colorado State played. You know,
they shot. They went on a really nice streak yesterday,
taking threes against Memphis in the second half to get
up a win. I don't think they're very good team Maryland. Look,
I'll give Maryland credit. I didn't they were going to
They actually obliterated Brand Canyon. I didn't see that coming.
I was on the Grand Canyon. So you're saying Maryland
really played a good game. You know, this is a

(02:31:12):
tough game for me. I mean, Cold State's one I
think eleven in a row. Now I'll lean Colorado State again.
Not a game I'm personally going to bet.

Speaker 4 (02:31:21):
What about ole Miss, Iowa stay a six three matchup?
I was saying five and a half on this one.

Speaker 7 (02:31:26):
Yeah, you know, it's just a i Awa state. They
played well yesterday, but again it was against Flipscom who
you know, like whatever I mean, as is a game
they really should have won ole Miss. Uh, Like they
they hurt my feeling just because I had North Carolina
and North Side. I just didn't even actually crazy, they
were down by twenty the entire game, card at the
two with a minute to go.

Speaker 3 (02:31:44):
They did show up until they didn't show.

Speaker 7 (02:31:46):
Up until yeah the game, Yeah, yeah, I mean this
is this is an interesting game. I have to lean
ole Miss getting the points. I just don't trust this
Iowa State version, a little banged up of winning by
margin against a decent team. Michigan is just decent. Neither
team is great. I don't like either team long from
the deportment. Someone has to win it. I'll say ole

(02:32:07):
Miss covers the game, Iowa State wins it.

Speaker 4 (02:32:10):
Okay, then Michigan State the slow starts continue to haunt.
They're favored by seven and a half against New Mexico.
What do you think?

Speaker 7 (02:32:18):
Yeah, I mean for me, this Michigan State team, You
know what, again, they're a professional team when I mean
at the every single game they give a lunch pail
consistent effort. They started off slow yesterday against Brian, but
then they absolute because they have great depth to see
the like they go like ninety ten deep. So to me,
this to me is for me an easy call in
Michigan State. I don't love New Mexico looks. They played

(02:32:41):
well yesterday against Martette.

Speaker 3 (02:32:42):
I get it.

Speaker 7 (02:32:43):
But to me, I think Michigan State with this moe
by ten or eleven or so. I like Michigan State
to cover. I think they're a very consistent team, and
I don't trust New Mexico really to get this one
done super quick.

Speaker 4 (02:32:54):
Oregon Arizona Arizona four and a half. What do you
think Oregon Oregon?

Speaker 7 (02:32:59):
I think it's at the game easy for me.

Speaker 3 (02:33:03):
Why you like the Ducks? Eh, outright? I do?

Speaker 7 (02:33:06):
I think I think it's I'm not going to say outright.
I think the line, my line should that should be
closer to a point and a half. I think it's
a fifty to fifty kind of game for slight Lean
Arizona terms of who wins. But I like Oregon easy
with the points.

Speaker 3 (02:33:18):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (02:33:18):
All right, buddy, listen to have a great trip, enjoy
yourself in good luck and the Hoopes appreciate you.

Speaker 7 (02:33:24):
Guys, have a great weak and good luck to everyone.

Speaker 2 (02:33:26):
All right, all right, fellas will be back to wrap
it up, coming up next right here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 4 (02:33:35):
Usually this song means that you know we're ending the show,
but also the last few weeks it's been like, oh man,
this is over, this is over. I don't know. Today,
I feel like we're just getting started, man.

Speaker 3 (02:33:45):
Happy.

Speaker 4 (02:33:46):
Yes, we've had some oranges we've made some adjustments. We're
ready to go out there. Let's let's let's let's grab
it and go. Come on now right ver good?

Speaker 2 (02:33:55):
Always like when you I always want you to come
back first off of that. When we play my way,
it's it's more fitting when you come back. H don't
forget for the best pregame show every week and be
sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by
bet MGM every Saturday and Sunday morning, nay and the

(02:34:15):
noon right there us well count you down to all
the biggest games. There's no better plays to prime you
for the tournament games than right here, right here. Tune
in to Countdown, presented by bet MGM every Saturday and
Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and the
Heart Radio app. All right, my brother, Uh, what do you?

(02:34:39):
What are you smelling? You smell anything? We just want
to through all the games of the brain. What's your favorite?
What's your favorite today?

Speaker 4 (02:34:48):
Man? I think obviously the coaching battle is the thing
to watch today, you know, with Patino and Cal and
you can't talk about it enough because what it means
for where the game's been and where the games go
and the fact that you have. I don't want to
take it for granted, you know, because we have long
conversations every time a coach walks away from the game

(02:35:08):
about well, college sports have changed to the point that,
you know, coaches, legendary coaches don't want to be involved.
Like we hear that all the time. I don't know
that every time a college football coach complains about their sport.
I think a college basketball coach can come up and say,
hold my beer, right, Like it's the roster are so small,
it's such a difference, and its just it hits me

(02:35:32):
just watching this weekend and you think about the the line,
like you've got young coaches at Florida and even at Duke,
like just replacing a legend, you know, for for whatever
we think Klen Debor might end up being at Alabama.
On the football side, I think we can acknowledge that
whenever you're replacing a legend. Hell, if you did it
in the NFL, if you tried to replace Belichick, all

(02:35:55):
Jiro Meo did was get fired one year. In the
fact that Shires got Duke right back to where Duke
always has been, there's been no drop off. Yeah, and
you replaced coach K like and you I just think
when we talk about this weekend, it is a real
opportunity to appreciate where the sport is, where the coaching is,

(02:36:15):
that there's this great balance between young guys rising and
guys that we're seeing and we're learning about every week,
but also mixed in with Patino and Cal and Izzo
and like these these names that are synonymous with generations
of college basketball that you know, they said last night
and I'm Mizzo has gone to fifteen fine sweet sixteens
in his twenty six years. That's that's just unparalleled consistency, right, Like,

(02:36:41):
So I don't know, I think I've got my eye
this weekend on the cheat code of college basketball, which is,
do you have a coach that can figure out how
to save your team when things are as as they
could possibly be? And there's a handful of them that
are gonna be like we get another at least one
more game of Hurley in this tournament too, Like some
of the best brilliant minds in the game are on display.

(02:37:03):
And and you know, in the NBA world that changes
every three seconds. In college basketball, man, it just it
feels like there's we're seeing them mount Rushmore this weekend,
and I love that.

Speaker 2 (02:37:14):
Yeah, I do you think that the college game is
on the rebound with the with the NIL and the fact.

Speaker 3 (02:37:21):
That kids are even oers moved, that kids are going
to stay.

Speaker 4 (02:37:27):
I think the NIL opportunity is so big. What you're
going to do is you're going to keep that fringe
kid longer, you know, And that's there's an opportunity because
those fringe kids can develop into really good college basketball players.
And so you know that that's where I think part
of your opportunity comes. And and for these coaches, you know,
you're constantly trying to figure out the line on how

(02:37:49):
to play the transfer portal and whether you want your
team to be younger, your team to be old, whether
you know how you want to build it. Do you
want to build what guys have been playing a lot
of college basketball and bring a mid major to a
major tape? Do you want to continue to use high
school recruiting to build Like there's there's such an individualistic
opportunity to make a program in your own reflection that
I think that's that's part of what honestly, if you're

(02:38:13):
a college basketball coach, if you can figure this Rubik's
Cube out you can have sustained success. It's really an
incredible thing.

Speaker 2 (02:38:21):
Yeah, yeah, you really can. You run up the Cow
and the Patino. Who do you like out of those two?
And it's funny because they even though Patino got Cal
the job at U Bass, those two have never been shy.
You know, obviously they're both the Louisville and Kentucky, but
they have never been shy about how they're not fond

(02:38:42):
of each other, which is cracks me out.

Speaker 3 (02:38:45):
Which one do you like?

Speaker 4 (02:38:47):
I mean the in the game, I like Saint John's.
I think Saint John's is going to make this thing
physical and it's going to be ugly, and Patino's gonna win.
If I had to pick one of the two coaches
that I think is better right now, I still think
it Cal.

Speaker 3 (02:39:01):
Yeah. So you got Cal over Patino.

Speaker 4 (02:39:04):
Yeah, I got Cal over Patino, But I got Saint
John's over Arkansas. How do you like that?

Speaker 3 (02:39:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:39:08):
No, I listened, Well that makes sense. I like I
love Saint Johns today. Anyway, all right, that's gonna do
for us. Everybody, have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
We love you, We'll see you next Saturday,

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Fox Sports Radio News

Host

Jonas Knox

Popular Podcasts

The Breakfast Club

Dateline NBC

Decisions, Decisions

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Fellas with Anthony Gargano & Jason Fitz discuss Tournament Matchups, Shedeur Sanders & MORE!