Two for the Win
Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Bryan has more than a decade of civil service experience. Together, these blue collar guys dissect the latest sports headlines and events.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - E24 - Basketball Fever, Torpedo Bat Takeover & NO PIZZA FOR YOU!!
Spring has erupted across the sporting landscape with baseball's opening week, basketball's playoff push, and football's draft season converging into a perfect storm of excitement.
In this episode, we track Alex Ovechkin's historic pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's scoring record as the 38-year-old superstar sits just three goals away from passing The Great One. Despite injuries limiting him to just 39 games this season, Ovechkin's remarkable 1.66 points-per-game pace has him positioned to make hockey history.
MLB's opening week showcases a fascinating trend of teams securing young talent early, with the Padres signing 21-year-old Jackson Merrill to a nine-year, $135 million contract after just a handful of big-league appearances. Meanwhile, the Yankees' innovative "torpedo bats" are causing a stir across the league, with their strategic design placing the bat's sweet spot where hitters most frequently make contact – resulting in 18 home runs in their first four games.
The NBA playoff picture comes into focus with Cleveland and Boston dominating the East, while the Oklahoma City Thunder have stunned the basketball world with a league-best 64-12 record. We break down potential playoff matchups and identify which teams might make surprise runs when the postseason begins.
College basketball's Final Four features a rare occurrence – all four #1 seeds advancing – setting up Duke's Cooper Flagg against Houston's elite defense in what promises to be a classic semifinal matchup. We also explore Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders' massive contract extension with Colorado and debate whether Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders should be the first quarterback selected in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Whether you're tracking baseball innovations, basketball championships, or football futures, this episode captures the exhilarating convergence of sporting seasons that makes spring the ultimate time for sports fans.
Welcome back everybody. Thank you for joining us again. We are on April 3rd, coming in hot and heavy to the spring. We had an all time high in temperature today on the East Coast and we are an all time high temperatures for sports. Once again, I'm Brian with an eye and I I'm Mike. And we are Two for the Win. Mike, let's delve into what we got tonight.
Speaker 2:Well, as we all know, the MLB is off and running. We're going to touch in with the NBA, which is heading straight for the playoffs hot and fast. We're going to get into our flagship of the NFL as well. We've got plenty to talk about this evening.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, a lot going on Two basketball brackets, some MLB action and some NFL news leading into the draft Boy, we've got an exciting segment tonight, don't we?
Speaker 2:We sure do, but we're going to lead off with some hockey, as we are watching Alex Ovechkin inch ever closer to that points title, trying to pass the great one. Right now he is three away from passing Wayne Gretzky man, so he's making it happen. Now everybody's going to start following him. Some of his former teammates and Wayne Gretzky himself are going to follow him as he tries to make this epic history goal. You know, of course, the pressure's probably on him now. He's probably feeling it, but Ovechkin will never let on that. He's feeling the pressure.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, towing points, towing 2,8, toying 2857 are 1487 regular season games, 894 goals that's the number over check-ins chasing now well, the point that I need to make on this is like remember he was hurt this season yeah he's only played 39 games and if you total his well, a little more than 39 games at this point, but if you total the points he scored in that time that he's been on the ice, his point total per game is 1.66. Okay, okay, so he's averaging almost two points. Based on that, I mean, granted, you know, you're gonna have some games where he has nothing and then some games where he'll have two or three goals or you know, because he'll get those hat tricks. He's had had some hat tricks, but it's still very impressive, I mean. And and he's not, he's not. You know, he's not a young guy anymore, he's in his late 30s. You know, for hockey, you know, guys can't have a longer career. I mean, look at Mario Lemieux, he kept playing into his 40s. So I mean you could see that with Ovechkin too.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, just another generational great chasing another title. I mean, just like when Brady was playing in the NFL at a certain point in his career. It was just about watching him chase the titles and the records Because that's what he was doing at one point. So you know, here in hockey, ovechkin doing the same thing at this point in career.
Speaker 2:Ovechkin.
Speaker 1:Ovechkin Sorry, I have a problem. We all know it Anyway. Ovechkin chasing the great records of his career and his generation just watching him do it and everybody having a blast at the same time. So congratulations to him. I know he's not there yet. We hope he will get there. He's only three goals away. But yeah, man, this is an exciting time because a lot of greats are coming forth in sports and filling shoes of greats that had recently left. So this is an amazing time for sports.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, oh yes. Speaking of amazing times, mlb has kicked off and hey look, I know not everybody's an MLB fan, but I love me some MLB. Mlb is my jam. I do love some baseball.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I love all sports, but baseball is a special place in my heart.
Speaker 1:Oh, and Mike brings the toe jam with the regular jam all day so got some news from the MLB world.
Speaker 2:So Arizona Diamondbacks have signed Kendall Marte to a six-year extension worth up to $116.5 million. So they're hanging on to Kendall. He's definitely earned it. He's been a mainstay in their offense so he's going to put up some good numbers for them at least for the next six years.
Speaker 1:Honestly, no-brainer by the Diamondbacks here.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but that's not the only one, that's not the only one.
Speaker 1:They're moving today they're doing some things.
Speaker 2:Boston Red Sox signed their young infielder, their second baseman, christian Campbell, to an eight-year extension worth $60 million. This is kind of cool, because what's happening in baseball is you're seeing a lot of this happen, where the younger players, if they show they've got it, teams are not being shy about going ahead and signing them to extensions. I mean the Braves have done this multiple times. They did it with Ozzie Albies, they did it with Acuna. I mean they've done it with multiple players. I mean they also did it with Strider. They signed him to an extension well before he had played multiple MLB seasons. So it's smart by these GMs, because then you're locking up these players for a little longer for a little less.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I agree with the move because, unlike in some other bigger sports teams are tired of missing out on talent, especially young talent. So they want to be there and they want this guy already locked up when he comes into his prime.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And they believe heavily that's going to pay dividends by paying them early. I think honestly it probably will too.
Speaker 2:But wait, there's more. That's not the only extension that happened. So, jackson Murrell of the San Diego Padres he's only 21 years old and the Padres they've seen all they need to see. They've gone ahead and signed him to a nine-year extension. That nine-year extension is going to be worth $135 million over those next nine years. Hey, I'll tell you what I've seen Jackson Merrill. He was Rookie of the Year. Look that guy. He's a good player. He's going to be a good player for a while and he plays center field, a premium position in baseball, and he plays it well.
Speaker 1:Man, 21 years old. Honestly, this is why I'm sending my son to play baseball. The potential is there.
Speaker 2:Baseball doesn't have a salary cap. So all you parents understand they don't have a salary cap. They have AA, aaa, oh, sorry, forgot about single A and minor A ball. So there's multiple levels that you can play. And oh wait, there's also leagues in Japan. There's leagues in South Korea, there's leagues in Australia. Yeah, are we getting the picture here that people are loving baseball? Not to mention, we have leagues in Mexico, we have leagues in Cuba. We have leagues in Cuba. We have leagues all over the world. Now.
Speaker 2:That's why we have a World Baseball Classic.
Speaker 1:Certainly one of the oldest traditional sports in the world, certainly one here in America and one of America's considered America's pastime sport. Just an immense amount of opportunity. But let's get back to the subject here.
Speaker 2:But they've definitely had their day in the spotlight. They've kind of been pushed aside by the NFL because, let's face it, the NFL draws way more eyes than baseball does. But baseball's been making improvements to the game with the pitch clock, the bigger bases, making the amount of times you can throw over to first base less, so there's less of this just wasted action and it's increasing the number of stolen bases. They're doing things to try to speed up and improve the game and you can see it because the games are getting really exciting. Fans are loving it, attendance is up, so it's definitely good because we also have major stars that are starting to pop up and people are starting to take notice of them. You know, not only on the field but off the field as well. For good reasons, not bad reasons.
Speaker 2:But speaking of bad bad, atlanta braves outfielder jixon Profar is being suspended 80 games for violating the MLB's PED policy. This is a huge blow and understand this when you get suspended like this, it also precludes you from being able to play in the playoffs. So if the Braves make the playoffs, they still can't have Profar for the playoffs. So that's a huge blow because they just signed him and they were hoping for him to be a key piece in their offense. So that's a huge blow. But moving away from some negative aspects, I want to move into this story because this is cool, something that doesn't really happen in baseball anymore, because now we have these pitchers that do five innings and bring in the bullpen. We don't have pitchers going the distance anymore. But why is that?
Speaker 1:do you think I don't want to cut you off?
Speaker 2:so the all these data points show that they want pitchers to pitch close to around 100 pitchers, then you pull them out and it's to save their arm. It's to save, you know, pitchers to pitch close to around 100 pitchers, then you pull them out and it's to save their arm. It's to save their ability to pitch later. Wear and tear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're trying to curve something that's kind of impossible to curve. You don't know when, if somebody's going to get hurt. I mean, these pitchers are throwing harder, faster than they ever have. They're trying to increase the spin rate on the curveball, which puts more torque on your elbow and joints, so it's causing these pitchers to go harder instead of just pitching. Yeah, now there's a difference. Just because a guy can throw 100 miles an hour doesn't mean he can pitch. Just because a guy can throw 100 miles an hour doesn't mean he can pitch. And if you need to know what that means, go watch the difference between Greg Maddux throwing pitches and go watch, you know, like Paul Skeens throwing pitches. There's a difference. Now don't get me wrong. Paul Skeens is an amazing pitcher when he figures it out. Eventually, when he figures it out, he will be a good pitcher if he learns to pitch. And what I mean? Go watch greg maddox, watch how he locates, watch how he pitches.
Speaker 1:you'll understand what I mean difference between on being on the field and being the field general well, okay, maybe I'll dive into this a little bit.
Speaker 2:I wasn't going to dive into it, but I will why not?
Speaker 2:we got time basically what I mean by pitch is you pitch based on the person you're pitching against.
Speaker 2:So you're going to pitch a player based on what you know about them. So if you know this guy can't hit the outside pitch for a darn, you're going to keep everything outside. But you'll set him up for the outside pitch by pitching him inside, so you may throw a throwaway pitch on a favorable count inside to back him off the plate and then pitch him outside on the corner, and that's the whole point. You want to locate on the corner or you want to locate outside the zone and make him chase a pitch. So if you go watch the way Maddox used to pitch back in the day, he was very masterful about pitching both sides of the plate and locating pitches to force guys to swing at the pitch they didn't want, but the pitch he wanted them to swing at. So he was very masterful in that because eventually what happened was his fastball lost the speed, and when you lose the speed then it becomes a home run show. Everybody's just pinging it and hitting it out the park.
Speaker 2:Running away with the wind, as we call it, you have to learn to pitch, you have to learn to get better. So, getting back on topic, somebody had a complete game on April 1st. Nathan Evaldi of the Texas Rangers had a complete game on April 1st. Nathan Evaldi of the Texas Rangers had a complete game, and the reason I bring Maddox up is he did it in Maddox-like fashion, and what I mean by a complete game in Maddox-like fashion. He did it under 100 pitches. He threw 99 pitches for the complete game, 70 of which were for strikes, and he got eight strikeouts with no walks and got the win.
Speaker 1:That's a hell of a game right there.
Speaker 2:That's a great performance by a pitcher. You very rarely see somebody do a complete game anymore and I really wish we would see more of it, because you really, when you have these kinds of games, you love seeing it, because you want to see pitchers go the distance and you know a rather clean game too.
Speaker 1:Just your no walks.
Speaker 2:So yeah, very clean, very efficient, very good, like you said, complete yeah, you face 27 batters if you face the minimum and you don't walk a single one, yeah, that's pretty good, that's efficiency that is.
Speaker 1:That is top notch.
Speaker 2:Right there you were buttoned up, my man so, moving on to a kind of a down note, and it's kind of this is this is one of those anomalies that is baseball right. Rafael Devers has been a very good player to past few years and he's he's swung a good bat and been an all-star multiple times. You know people have gotten used to him being a good player, but this season he's not having a great season so far.
Speaker 1:Hey, take it a step back.
Speaker 2:He's had 23 played appearances. He has struck out 15 times in those 23 appearances.
Speaker 1:That is over 70%, my friend.
Speaker 2:He only has two hits and four walks, so it's been strikeout walk and very rarely a hit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the walks were pity. They were out of pity. Look, they were pity points.
Speaker 2:All I can say is he'll get it figured out.
Speaker 1:We hope.
Speaker 2:He will, he will. He's too good of a player to keep playing this poorly.
Speaker 1:I mean, he's got a Ninja Turtle first name. He's got it figured out.
Speaker 2:He'll be fine. He'll be fine, He'll get it figured out Also. To get into another down note I'm sorry I got some down.
Speaker 1:We should have started with bad news, man. We got all amped up Now we're winding down.
Speaker 2:Trust me, I got a path. Hear me out. Is it circular? Listen, right now most teams have played about seven or eight games so far in the MLB season. Right now there's one division that has to be the saddest division in baseball. Now you might ask okay, what division is that?
Speaker 1:They might not even ask, they might just already know.
Speaker 2:They might, they might, but right now the saddest division in baseball is the AL Central. And I know you're thinking well, what about the Braves? They haven't won a single game yet. I know you're thinking well, what about the Braves? They haven't won a single game yet. Wait, you're getting ahead of me.
Speaker 1:I'll get to that. That's one team, though.
Speaker 2:We're talking about the entire division, Correct? And the reason I say the entire division. Every team in this division only has two wins, which means every team in this division has at least four to five losses. So not a single team in this division has a winning record.
Speaker 1:So are they collectively the Cowboys of the NFL or the NFC South?
Speaker 2:Look what this is is. These teams have just been running into it. So all of the teams in the AL Central have just been having a horrible run right now. So hopefully one of these teams will get above 500, and they'll stop being all bunched up at 2-4 and 2-5.
Speaker 1:Well, lord, luckily we're just getting started. They've got some time to figure it out, but if we sit in here in June and they're still behind the curve, I ain't got a lot of hope for them.
Speaker 2:All I can say is it's very interesting that it's working out this way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're going to skip over to this thing that's going on right now in the West, the West, the NL West. They have some teams playing some hot baseball. Right now the Dodgers are 8-0. Starting 8-0, that is a record. The reigning champs at 8-0 is a record because they beat out the 1933 Yankees who went 0-7 and then lost their next game. So the Yankees move over. The Dodgers own the record for the reigning champ being undefeated the most games.
Speaker 2:So, that's pretty impressive, but did you also know that the Padres are 7-0, so they're keeping pace. They're only one game behind. That's well, half game behind or no one game behind one game, one game behind my bad. So, but part of that, both those teams have all those wins because they both played the Atlanta Braves Sad to say, I'm a Braves fan and this sucks. This sucks so much.
Speaker 1:Braves having a rough run of it here recently, losing players the PEDs and getting swept by teams consecutively.
Speaker 2:The Braves got swept by the Padres and then go over to the Dodgers and get swept by teams consecutively. The Braves got swept by the Padres and then go over to the Dodgers and get swept. And not only do they get swept, but the Braves were up on the Dodgers 5-0 in yesterday's game, only for the Dodgers to come back and win off of a Shohei Otani home run 5-0 in baseball, Depending on the inning you're in.
Speaker 1:That should be game lock. You should be able to hold that down.
Speaker 2:That was early on in the game.
Speaker 1:So they went up early.
Speaker 2:They went up early and Dodgers chipped away until they tied it up in the eighth, and then you had them win it in the ninth with a Shohei walk-off on Shohei's bobblehead night.
Speaker 1:Do you think that the Dodgers are using torpedo bats.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to get to that, sir. We're going to get to that. So they're not the only ones with walk-offs this year. Right, there's been a few teams, but the Florida Marlins have three walk-off wins already this season.
Speaker 1:Man, what a way to start.
Speaker 2:The Florida Marlins. They're getting a couple of things right, so they're getting them walk-off wins. But Sandy Alcantara, one of their pitchers, who everybody thought was going to be their ace, had a very down year the year before, actually required some surgery and he just didn't look himself. He wasn't the same pitcher who has been an all-star and looked like the guy that was going to be their ace. He's pitching like an ace again. He's looking like his former self Good good so the Marlins are definitely happy to see that Maybe he's back relaxed again.
Speaker 1:We'll see what happens. Good start for the Marlins, though.
Speaker 2:But speaking of teams doing well, we have to discuss these torpedo bats.
Speaker 1:Damn Yanks.
Speaker 2:Look.
Speaker 1:You never want to hear that.
Speaker 2:Okay, there are two teams you never want to hear are doing well because they've done something innovative or changed something that has kind of lent to them doing well. So right now the Yankees are kind of catching strays because they're using these torpedo bats. And in case you don't know what a torpedo bat is, so normally you look at a baseball bat and it kind of tapers all the way down until it gets a little fatter towards the end. Well, with a torpedo bat the fat part of the bat can be anywhere in that middle section where the label is. So they kind of move the fattest point of the bat to wherever it needs to be and then it tapers off kind of down towards the end, so it kind of has a torpedo kind of shape it has kind of a bulbous.
Speaker 1:Look where that, where it's fatter at they are. They do look slightly odd, but I gotta give it to them. I mean, this seems to be working and they're designed based on the player so they put you know the bulbous where the player most often makes contact with the ball exactly so, these bats.
Speaker 2:They're moving the thickest part of the bat to the sweet part for the batter. Yep, so if they see you more or you're more likely to hit it, hit it towards the label of the bat. They're moving the fattest part of the bat closer to that point where your sweet spot is hey so and it's not illegal because they're not actually doing anything illegal move over louisville slugger because you're on the back bench now the size of the bat is within regulations.
Speaker 2:they've just moved the thickest part, that densest part, to where the hitter hits it most, and now, in four games, the Yankees have 18 home runs.
Speaker 1:And you've got to think about something else. There's a lot of physics happening here in this design. Right, you have the bulbous part, but the parts where it begins to taper off, both the top and the bottom of the bat, also play a role in the suspension of where that bulbous is. So all of that is in the dynamic of the bat. I read a little bit of science behind it.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing this isn't the first time people have kind of changed up the bat a little. You have guys that they don't have the traditional knob at the end. Some guys they're using what they call an axe handle bat. It's kind of weird because you think of the bottom end of an axe handle, it kind of curves a little downward. So instead of having the knob at the end of the bat, where your hands are, it curves a little and reason being guys, when they're going to swing, the torque of their swing makes the traditional bat rub their palm and it doesn't feel good yeah you know it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not a natural motion because when they're going into the backswing it doesn't lend to a fluid backswing. So they have changed their bat to more of this axe handle to improve their swing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you look at the way you would typically swing an axe I know hitting a baseball is different, but it's the way your hands are positioned at the base of the bat is largely the same way they're positioned on an axe handle. So I think that's another great, innovative change.
Speaker 2:So now people are asking well, how come the Yankees are the only ones using it? Well, that's not the case. That's not the case because actually they've been using these bats for a little while. There was even players on the Braves I believe it was Blake Baldwin had said in the Arizona fall league he had used one of these torpedo bats. He says, yes, it looks weird but it does aid into some of your abilities as a hitter. Because if the, if, the sweet spot of the bat is where you make contact most, hey, you've just improved your power. Well, not improved your power, but you've improved your ability to make solid contact. It doesn't mean you're going to be jacking home runs I mean, you've got to kind of be a home run hitter anyway it just means you're going to make more solid contact.
Speaker 1:Want to jack all the runs.
Speaker 2:Which can lend to you hitting more home runs. Now you would think, with us talking about the Yankees hitting all these home runs, that you would think that, okay, is everybody using this bat? No, and you would think, okay, well, what about Aaron Judge? Aaron Judge had the best comeback.
Speaker 2:I've ever heard when people started talking about these torpedo bats. What'd that man say? He said why do I got to use one? He said look at my numbers, they speak for themselves. And I can't argue with him, man, because look, if you put up the numbers he does with the bat he's using, don't change anything.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with you. Don't change it if it's not broken. But there's a salesman somewhere. There's a salesman somewhere thinking Aaron Judge, all right, look at your numbers, Try this bat and see how they inflate. I guarantee you there's a salesman somewhere thinking of a sales pitch right now for Aaron Judge.
Speaker 2:Aaron Judge has been doing just fine without it. I don't think he needs a new bat. I just don't think that's a thing Now.
Speaker 1:So you would think he probably uses it and just doesn't tell anybody.
Speaker 2:I like baby powder. They've been asking players well, what do you think? Do you think you would use one? Do you think you want one? Right, we already have the atlanta braves and the philadelphia phillies who have placed orders for these bats, so obviously, oh, the braves need all the help. They can get. Right now, I'd be ordering two of everything at this point, including young superstars.
Speaker 1:Hey, you come on over here, bro. We need some people.
Speaker 2:So let's put this in the context, right. So you sit here and you put the Braves against the World Series champs of last year, and then the team that almost knocked the World Series champs out of the playoffs, and the Padres if it wasn't for a comeback. You put them against those two teams to start off the season, where you put them on the road in their house. Come on now.
Speaker 1:They must have thought one of two things Either the Braves were going to get their shit together this season, and early on, or they just thought they'd give those more powerful teams a quick little walk in the park, you know?
Speaker 2:warm-up exhibition match look man, all right, so I'm not. I'm not going to sit here and be an apologist for the Braves here.
Speaker 1:Well, here you go.
Speaker 2:Look, they have already come out and said we deserve where we're at right now. They have said that as a team said we deserve where we're at.
Speaker 1:You guys can't see it, but Mike's holding his cross while he says this.
Speaker 2:Look, they're going to get it together. These things kind of happen in baseball. Look, when something happens that is unexplainable, usually in baseball you say the phrase that's baseball. I mean, that's usually what it comes down to. You can't explain it, you don't know why this is happening. You call up a guy from the minors and he hits five home runs his first night. That's baseball.
Speaker 1:That's baseball you just can't explain it. Hey, you know these things happen A winner if I've ever seen one. Come on up to the pros, bro. You can stay. You can stay. You want a contract? How about a nine-year contract?
Speaker 2:I've seen players come up, have like a three-homer game and they can sit right back down the next day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why?
Speaker 2:because that's baseball. Hey, sometimes you fire and sometimes you're fired. It just it is what it is, man.
Speaker 1:But you know it, it'll all work out. It'd be like sometimes it's a long season. You just got to let things happen it is and rather exciting and some funny storylines to start the season as well oh, yeah, oh yeah, moving past here on into the nba, we don't have much for the wnba tonight.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying there's not news out there, but we, we obviously didn't catch it this week. We're going to talk about some men's basketball here, professional basketball cavaliers, you know. Uh, beat the, beat the knicks. Wednesday, april 2nd 125 to 105, 124 to 105.
Speaker 2:Um so remember earlier we had talked about how the knicks haven't beat the calves, they haven't beat the celtics. That trend is still going?
Speaker 1:yeah, it seems not it should still be rocking and the Knicks were kind of a semi-favorite this season and last season.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So here's the thing the Knicks have a huge problem and that huge problem is depth. They don't have it. They don't have depth on their team and a Thibodeau team, their coach Thibodeau he likes to push his starters. His starters play heavy minutes. They have the most minutes of all the NBA starters. It is a fact that he does this with every team he coaches. So these players get worn out, these players play these heavy minutes and then eventually we get to the playoffs and you're like what happened? These guys are good. Why are they playing so bad?
Speaker 1:Because they're worn out. You're good. Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you, I was just saying I just had a thought. It's funny you mentioned the Knicks and their depth and the struggles they're having, because I don't want to jump ahead. But if you look at the Rockets right now, part of their success is because of the depth they have.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You need depth. You need to have people that can come off the bench and contribute points or contribute in defensive plays or in rebounding. What their problem is and this all goes back to when they traded for Carl Anthony towns they gave a buttload of players and picks to the timber wolves. So what happens? When you do that, you're taking away from your depth.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So now they're kind of in a in a spot where they're like who's the guy?
Speaker 1:yeah, who's?
Speaker 2:the person coming off the bench that's going to help us and, like you, don't have that, going into playoffs it's gonna be a long road, it is, and you got a good starting squad, they're not that bad let me phrase that maybe not a long road, but a short road in the playoffs. It'll be a short road for the knicks.
Speaker 1:Don't worry guys, it'll be over quick, short lift. But you know, like I said, the rockets, they have like two to three dudes that can rotate at every position on the court and they have their big names. Yes, they're starters but, like I said, the the depth is in their aggression. Obviously that man, they really bring in something, but the Knicks they're just I don't know what. You know they need, like you say, they need some depth, maybe get a little more aggressive, but they need some depth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they need to figure something out this next offseason because if they're going to compete with teams like Boston and the Cavs, who both have deep benches and can bring in players that will still produce points, they need to figure that out before next season.
Speaker 1:Right now the Knicks are the number three seed in the Eastern Conference in the playoffs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're not going to pass the one and two, the Cavs and the Celtics, if you can't beat them.
Speaker 1:Just look at who they have. Game one Milwaukee Bucks. They're a high-endurance team.
Speaker 2:Well, the Bucks though. The Bucks have man, I hate to say it, but the Bucks have been the team here lately that they play great, they get into playoffs and then they lose.
Speaker 1:They kind of taper off a little bit. Yeah, they, you know, last couple years maybe, but I still think the Bucs will be a formidable match for the Knicks. And if the Knicks get past the Bucs, who knows what they're going to face in the next round? They would go on probably to face the winner. It depends on how everything shakes out, but they have some forward opponents. The Pacers are known for upsetting people in the playoffs.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Speaking of the Knicks, the Knicks definitely hate the Pacers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thanks to Reggie Miller and his antics in the garden back in the 90s.
Speaker 1:I don't think they're in a. They're not in a terribly bad position, but they're in dangerous waters right now. They could slip a little more than they have.
Speaker 2:Well, and sometimes you've got to be the team that just catches it in the playoffs, like, if you can get hot, sometimes you can make a run. I mean, obviously we saw the Miami Heat do this, where they got hot and made it all the way into the finals. Yeah, because they just got hot at the right time but nobody picked them to go. But they did.
Speaker 1:And then you know, but you, you know, we'll just see how that plays. And then, uh, you know, the Cavaliers themselves, uh, they're in the playoffs too.
Speaker 2:Let me pull the bracket.
Speaker 1:Oh they're, they're, they're number one seed in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2:I don't know how.
Speaker 1:I don't remember that, but they usually up, they're pretty good playoff team they. They do pretty good, especially ever since the LeBron era kicked off. I know he's not with them now, but you know I remember when he left miami to go to the calves and then ever since, the calves seem to have kind of turned it around a bit, um. But we just got a couple pieces of player information here. Uh, carmelo anthony has been notified that he's been elected into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025. Congratulations, carmelo Anthony Certainly deserves it. It's a very storied career he's had.
Speaker 2:So I feel like with Melo's career it's kind of a Don't get me wrong, melo is a great player, can score, can find his shot. He didn't matter what team he was with, he was always producing. But I feel like without having the titles and without having, I mean, he did produce in the Olympics, he's gotten a gold medal, but you know just like did produce in the Olympics, he's gotten a gold medal, but you know just like I don't know. It's kind of the almost. You could almost forget how good he was.
Speaker 2:You know, Like, unless you really followed him, he could get lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I mean he was playing with denver, goes to the knicks and then when he's with the knicks, they never really got him. The second guy, I mean like there were guys but it just never seemed like they could get.
Speaker 1:He just never really enough pieces around him he bounced around a little bit, never really did he did. He was an established player that really never established an identity with a franchise. Um, he has a lot of first, second and third team nods like you mentioned three gold medals, one bronze medal with team excuse me, team usa.
Speaker 1:Um even got some, uh, accolades from his ncaa. So he really honestly is a. I think he's had a Hall of Fame career. He's just one of the lesser talked about guys because you know he just doesn't bring all the flash to somebody like, you know, lebron James or Steph Curry, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, that's because, again, how many times do we see LeBron make a deep run in the playoffs? Often you kind of you make your legacy getting into the playoffs you're gonna be the greatest score in the regular season. But if you're not making deep runs into the playoffs, people kind of it's just like.
Speaker 1:It's just like any other sport. Baseball football is one of the worst ones for it, I mean oh, perfect example mike trout.
Speaker 2:Mike trout of the angels. Look, we're not that far removed where people are saying he's the best player in baseball. And now people are just like when was the last time you heard anybody say anything about mike trout other than he's hurt again?
Speaker 1:or even better, and from the nfl, dan marino, one of the most talked about players. But again, when?
Speaker 2:you start.
Speaker 1:When you start talking, you start talking best of all time, he don't have the championships, so you could have all the stats, just like carmel anthony, and you've been a great player. I'll stay, probably even a great player in the community. But you're right at the end of the day, championships matter, winning matters and that identity matters, right. But he still get into the Basketball Hall of Fame still a huge accolade and still had a hell of a career.
Speaker 2:Oh, he definitely deserves being in. Yeah, he definitely deserves being in because he has been a. And also, let's keep in mind this is the Basketball Hall of Fame, not the NBA Hall of Fame. This is basketball. So, your college career, your career in the Olympics, your career in the NBA all count towards your resume. So he more than lives up to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you there. A couple more pieces here moving on from that. I'm just like you, mike, we're gonna start on a high note and bring it down to the sad note, but luckily the last one in this section. Well, not glad, but kind of second to last, kind of funny. But here first, uh, charlotte's charlotte hornet star lamella ball. We all know this is one of my favorite players personally. Uh, we'll miss the rest of the season as he undergoes two minor procedures to address ankle and wrist injuries or wrist issues. Sorry, um, you know the hornets obviously not really a playoff team. I don't blame them for for going ahead. All right, guys, we ain't going much farther than this.
Speaker 2:Let's go ahead and let me get right for next season you can't really be much of a playoff team if you keep getting blown out almost every single game.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like they've been losing by double digit points.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy. You'd think the team you know mostly owned by Michael Jordan.
Speaker 2:Well, jordan, he sold his, he did sell his shares. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that Now I remember that.
Speaker 1:Well, it didn't seem to help. And Embiid 76ers center Embiid he's out for the season. He's going to focus on rehabbing his left knee Now. 76ers.
Speaker 2:I heard today he's having a microscopic surgery to repair some damage in his knee. So even more reason for him to be out because he's going to have to rehab that knee.
Speaker 1:This is something that a lot of NFL linebackers and D-line players go through and some offensive linemen knee scopes. His is probably a little more in-depth, but again, the 76ers are a playoff competitive team this year, but he's just saying, hey, let me go ahead and get ready for next season.
Speaker 2:But let's keep in mind he's had multiple times where he's had procedures on his knee. He's had multiple times where he's been out long periods of time due to injury. I'm beginning to think that Embiid, he just can't stay healthy anymore because, look, when you're a big guy in the NBA and you start having knee procedures, you start having to miss chunks of seasons. It ain't going to get better.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean the wear and tear and then the rehabbing it's going to catch up.
Speaker 2:So unfortunately we might be coming to a point where Embiid's not going to be much as far as an NBA player for very much longer, at least in my opinion. I think, that if he wants to continue to play, he's got to really change up everything he's been doing as far as his training, as far as his diet. He's got to really hone in on his health.
Speaker 1:Where do you, if he doesn't want to just outright hang it up? Is this the time where he becomes a role player, like a veteran, like a role model?
Speaker 2:in the locker room. All teams have a breaking point where, if your player is always missing time, they just get to a point where like, look, we drafted this other guy, he's younger than you, he's playing more minutes than you, he's out scoring you not saying they have that right now, but they're. This happens damn a guy is out in any sport for long periods of time and somebody comes in and outplays him and outplays him for a while. Sorry bro.
Speaker 1:I just want to say you're an absolutely ruthless GM, like if I was a player and my GM was like bro, we got this guy. He's better than you, he's faster than you, he's younger than you. Sorry, man, but you gotta go look, man, there comes a point.
Speaker 2:There comes a point when all teams are done and the smart teams know when to get ahead of that. You cannot sit here and hold on to a player because of loyalty to the player and I say that because we've seen in all sports, not just NFL, not just basketball but when you hold on to a player, when they're obviously a declining asset and you still treat them like they're the starter, it only drags your team down. So if you want your team to go in the right direction, you need to start trying to move beyond having that loyalty and be real with these players. Like, look, you can stay, but you're coming off the bench.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And some players, they can't handle it and then other players.
Speaker 1:You can stay, but you're going on the bench. Is what you mean? Other players?
Speaker 2:learn how to continue their career by taking heed of that Case in point, Vince Carter, who we've talked about multiple times on here.
Speaker 1:Another great name.
Speaker 2:He was not quite the same player. And then they told him you're coming off the bench. And when they told him that he was like okay, I guess I've got to figure something out. So he started working on his three point shot yeah started working on trying to be a good off the bench player yeah so that's where players have a hard time. When you've been the man since you were a kid, you've been the man. Now you're being told you're not the man anymore yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's hard to take a step back right, and this is not, to me, just about sports, right, this is about whatever you excel, excel and achieve, have high achievement in anything right business, your career, uh, politics, maybe you're a leader of your local moose lodge or mason, uh, you know house, just sorry, basis. Anyway, I know terminology. But you all understand like with great success eventually becomes the great responsibility of learning how to step back, and a lot of guys have trouble with it. They do not just in sports.
Speaker 2:A lot of people cannot handle stepping back from being the guy but that's when you got to hope you have real friends, and what I mean by real friends is a friend that will pull you aside and say, hey bro, what are you doing? It's time? Well, yeah, it's time you need. Hey you, what are you doing? It's time? Well yeah, it's time you need. Hey, you're not who you were. It's time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not just good friends. But you hope you have a good establishment. You hope you have good, honest coaches, good, honest teammates. You hope you have people near you who you know nobody wants their feelings hurt. But your feelings might get hurt in the process, but you need people who are going to break it down to you in a way you can understand and help you see the light, and sometimes a lot of people just don't have that.
Speaker 2:Look, I can tell you right now, if you're playing a sport and you brought your feelings into it, you're wrong.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, you're already on the outfield, right?
Speaker 2:there, I can tell you right now, having gone through the military, gone through boot camp and gone through just being in the military, Thank you for your service, by the way, Mike. I'm pretty sure I didn't have a first name for the longest time I was cussed at so much.
Speaker 1:You probably didn't even have a last name, didn't even have a rate, didn't even have a rate. You're just hey, fuckhead, come here exactly so.
Speaker 2:Look. So when people get caught up in their feelings about playing a sport, it's like, bro, figure yourself out, because if you're this emotional over a sport, you need something better in your life.
Speaker 1:The crazy thing is a lot of these guys are getting paid millions and millions of dollars and they're still crybabies. People in the military ain't getting paid hardly shit and still getting their ass torn out. Excuse my language, y'all.
Speaker 2:They're just hoping they hit a port or hit somewhere where they can get a drink and maybe get laid.
Speaker 1:Look, there's gotta be something worth it.
Speaker 2:Get back to basics.
Speaker 1:Yo ho ho, motherfucker, Give me a beer. Us Navy in the house. Yeah, I got a pirate flag, Don't worry, it's called a missile. Anyway, last piece I got here from the NBA. Well, it's not the last piece from the NBA. It was maybe the last piece of player news from the NBA. It's kind of funny and kind of not at the same time. I believe in professionalism. Some people simply don't have it okay.
Speaker 2:The title of this headline. Let's leave the fighting in hockey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's leave the fighting in hockey, since it is part of that game. Or the.
Speaker 2:UFC or boxing.
Speaker 1:If you know what I'm alluding to. You're aware, last Sunday, a matchup between Pistons and Timberwolves. There was a huge on-court battle between. It resulted in five players and two coaches being ejected and one of those players being permanently banned from the NBA, as well as a local pizza establishment, which we will get to in just a second. But if you don't know, if you don't know what I'm talking about already isaiah stewart okay, I personally don't know a lot about this gentleman until I started reading some. I know he doesn't have a very good reputation, but he already has six flagrant fouls across the 2025 season in the NBA playing for the Pistons. He was a key and, I also believe, an instigative member of that brawl that leaked into the courtside seating into some fans as well. So just not a good look for the NBA.
Speaker 1:Mr Stewart, or those two teams as well. In the brawl at Target Center, mr Stewart, or those two teams as well. In the brawl at Target Center, mr Stewart was one of on his team. It was Stewart, ron Holland II and Marcus Sessor, as long as they're. Head coach, JB Brickerstaff, which is kind of funny, to be honest, with you, head coach, getting into it. And for Minnesota side, dante DiVincenzo. Sorry if I've put it Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 2:That's how I'm saying it DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1:Look, I watch basketball. I have no verbal mechanics, okay.
Speaker 2:He's horrible with names.
Speaker 1:folks Be easy on him Nas Reed or Nats Reed, I don't know it's Nas, reed Nas. Reed and assistant coach Pablo Prigioni. Those three from Minnesota were ejected. The only one banned from the NBA, isaiah Stewart. Before I get into the next part of this story, Can I interject one second? Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Dante DiVincenzo.
Speaker 1:DiVincenzo. Sorry Guys, I have multiple sclerosis and motor speech problems sometimes, so fuck me Anyway, so you can just stick with Dante. Yeah, we'll call him Dante D, that guy, okay?
Speaker 2:Hold up. Do you know what this reminds me of?
Speaker 1:Idiocy.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. This reminds me of idiocy. No, no, no, no. This reminds me of of a former nba player who had a similar situation a long time ago. Uh, you may know him by ron artest, or you may know him as meta world peace when he went to the stands and was just fighting anybody who would have some, and then other players started jumping in. I don't know what it is. Every few years we've got to have a fight in the stands at an. Nba game.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't you wonder where they find these guys? Maybe it's just for entertainment. Maybe it's just for ratings. It's a low-rated game. We've got to go start a fight in the stands. Let's get the ratings up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Let's add some excitement to this game, because this is a blowout.
Speaker 1:Somebody just go fight somebody in the stands, but but to add to Mr Stewart's problems, since this game was in Minneapolis, minnesota, home of the Timberwolves, by the way um, parkway pizza who has, by the way, four locations, two in the city of minneapolis, one in roseville and one in st louis park um, I'm not from there so I don't know anything about those locations, but having four locations as a pizza place is a very huge accomplishment, especially as a smaller operation. So these guys are known for having a sign and possibly a deal with Nas Reed. They have the signs out front of their establishment, honk, if you love Nas Reed. So since Mr Stewart not only likely instigated the fight and was predominantly instigating against Nas Reed amongst the other players, and got Nas Reed ejected with him, parkway Pizza has officially announced that Isaiah Stewart is no longer welcome at any of their establishments Not that he was probably ever going to go there.
Speaker 2:So not only do you get kicked out of the NBA, but you can't even get a slice of pizza.
Speaker 1:You can't even get a pizza in Minneapolis. Now, bro, Come on man.
Speaker 2:Man.
Speaker 1:And it really. It was just simply because it was a player that they hugely supported and obviously supported them, so you know.
Speaker 2:One other thing that I didn't see in our notes, but I wanted to mention that Joker had 61 points the other night.
Speaker 1:He did, he did.
Speaker 2:But in a losing effort.
Speaker 1:In a losing effort, but still one of his better turnouts, probably even of his career. But he had a great night the other night, despite the loss.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had a good night. The team had a bad night because they lost.
Speaker 1:Mike, are you ready to talk NBA playoffs?
Speaker 2:Yes, Dun dun dun yes, let's talk some NBA.
Speaker 1:Let's dive into some playoff action. Guys, this is where the heat is. This is where the money is. This is what you all want to hear about right now. I hope here we go nba bracket. Uh, we'll just quickly go over some of the teams here. Uh, that's not the nba bracket, I'm sorry. So for the eastern conference we'll start bottom to top. Okay, uh, number 10 c, we got the bulls. Number nine is the heat two classic teams and the bottom of the bracket.
Speaker 2:They're currently in the play-in games.
Speaker 1:They're in the play-in games.
Speaker 2:Along with the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker 1:Number 7 and number 8 respectively. The winner of that game goes on to face the number 2 Celtics. Talk about the Magic Hawks game. The loser would advance to the last playing game to face the winner of the Heat and Bulls game, and the winner of that will go on to face the number one seed Cavaliers.
Speaker 2:So their playoff run will probably end very quickly.
Speaker 1:I was just about to say the same thing. Whether you're going against the Celtics or the Cavaliers, any of these four teams is probably not likely to make it past either of those teams, but we have seen weirder things happen. We have We've seen upsets. I don't think the Hawks or the Magic are quite there. I think the heat of these four teams is the most likely to make it in and stay in the playoffs. That's my personal opinion. The Bulls have been pretty solid.
Speaker 2:Look, the Bulls have been playing some good basketball lately.
Speaker 1:Kobe.
Speaker 2:White's been really good for them. And look, they just beat the Lakers not too long ago on a last-second three from Getty and from half-court, where that gave them the win. Look, all you got to do is be the hot team at the right time and they could be moving on.
Speaker 1:And you know, speaking of some of these teams, they've been in the bracket in recent years but haven't made it far. You know, I don't see anything specifically worth mentioning of these four. I mean it's been a couple years for the Bulls. I mean the Heat's been in and out. They've been knocked out in rounds one or two here recently. Not a lot of success in recent playoff memory for these. Obviously. We just mentioned Cavaliers, seed number one, celtics, seed number two. The Eastern Conference is just loaded okay, because number three is the Knicks and they're going to face number six Milwaukee Bucks. I like the Bucks here, but I think the Knicks honestly can probably pull this one out, especially being, as the higher seed Records aren't terribly far apart. Uh, they kind of.
Speaker 2:I would give them pretty even matchup here I'd rather see that other matchup in the in the east this one here that I'm circling the number four pacers versus number five pistons.
Speaker 1:Honestly that, as I was gonna say, probably a better matchup than the nicks and bucks. Probably gonna be a lot more fireworks in that game. The Pacers are 45-31. The Pistons are 42-34.
Speaker 2:Which is kind of funny because the coach of the Pistons was the coach of the Cavaliers and Bickerstaff. They let Bickerstaff go and then he goes and coaches the pistons and now he's got the pistons at a five seed and ready to go into playoffs, when the pistons have been kind of, you know, a maligned team for a while. He's got them kind of turned around and ready to make a playoff run yeah and and yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you just mentioned the pistons, last time they were in the playoffs was 2019, as the eighth seed. So huge improvement there, not just coming back, but coming back to in the in the middle of the pack to make the playoff bracket as well. Pacers last year's uh, sixth seed, they advanced all the way to the finals, eventually losing to the celtics who took the nba title again a team that caught fire and made it through and yeah, at the right time caught fire and made it through and over here.
Speaker 1:that's it. That's it for the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2:Talk the West.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the West. I thought I had a couple more things to say, but apparently I don't Move to the West. Moving over to the West side, here Started the play-in games Number 10 kings versus number nine mavericks. Now this is interesting here. Uh, you know, the mavs are last year's fifth seed and the final, the western conference's final runner up.
Speaker 1:Okay, um injuries have kind of plagued them yeah, they lost in the nba finals to the celtics, so this is a big matchup for the kings, who haven't seen the playoff since 2023, and they were barely in then as the sixth seed and got knocked out immediately by golden state. Uh, then we're followed by number eight grizzlies, the number seven clippers for the next playoff Winner of that game, going on to face the Rockets.
Speaker 2:Who are the number two seed?
Speaker 1:Who are the number two seed have had a huge turnaround, and we were just talking about depth. I like the Rockets to make a deep playoff run here, you know, and then ahead of them the number one seed in the West, Oklahoma City Thunder. Is anybody surprised by that, as they have 64 wins, blowing out the entire rest of their conference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the winner of the Mavs-Kings game will move on to play the Clippers or the Grizzlies, depending on which team loses in that matchup, and then the winner between those two will go on to face the Thunder, who are the number one seed, which I feel like the thunder have been showing all year that they are for real yeah, so I would be very surprised if they don't make a deep run and actually we might see them in the finals honestly, uh, your number one and number two seeds on both conferences.
Speaker 1:I could see all four of them Thunder and Rockets and Cavaliers and Celtics. I could see all four of them making it the final four in this bracket, to be honest with you, okay.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to say this only because it's kind of how I feel. I feel like the Rockets don't have enough pieces yet and I don't feel like they're defensive-wise, that they're going to be able to hold up through the entire playoffs going against some of these other teams, because there's a few teams in the playoffs that you don't want to sleep in, that have playoff experience, that are in these middle brackets, that could catch fire.
Speaker 1:Honestly in their first round, which will be the second, will will be the first round of the NBA playoffs, but, um, after the play in the Clippers or Grizzlies, honestly I think the Rockets could take either of those, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying they wouldn't win that game. I'm just saying I okay, yeah, rockets move on. And you, you got teams like the nuggets at four, the warriors at five, they're gonna play each other. And then you got the lakers at three playing the timberwolves at six.
Speaker 2:If everything stays the way it is right now yeah so you got the lakers with the team, with their team, having players that have playoff experience and have shown these past few weeks they have a little depth. They have a defensive problem which doesn't lend to their, but can you really count lebron out when it comes to playoff time? Not really, you really can't, and they have lucauka now too.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you have Luka, a strong number three seed there.
Speaker 2:Well, luka took the Mavs by himself Well, not by himself, it was him and Kyrie kind of pulled the team into the playoffs, deep into the playoffs, and got into the finals.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So Luka has shown he can turn it on and get things done when it comes to playoff time. He can turn it on and get things done when it comes to playoff time. But the 4-5 team, the Nuggets and the Warriors, those two teams you don't want to face those teams in the playoffs because if those two teams because you've got playoff Jimmy for the Warriors and you've got Joker over on the Nuggets side, and both of those teams have shown that when it comes to playoff time sometimes they can flip that switch and then they're just a hot team in the playoffs and you don't want to be facing those teams in the playoffs.
Speaker 1:And I agree with you and the lakers. They're looking to rebound because last their last year's number seven seed and they lost immediately to the nuggets. So they have a rematch right now of what happened last year. So oh, oh, sorry, that's the warriors, the nuggetsuggets. I'm thinking differently.
Speaker 2:No, you're thinking the Lakers. My eyes got mixed up.
Speaker 1:But the Lakers are looking for a comeback because they still got knocked out immediately last year by the Nuggets. They were number seven last year. This year they're number three. So adding Luka has clearly helped them and LeBron has gotten some help.
Speaker 2:They were playing better this year even before they got Luka. But having added Luka to that it kind of almost ignited a little something because they were playing better defense in the beginning. But people have kind of figured out. Their swarm defense isn't as formidable as it once was. So people are adjusting to how they're playing, which is exactly what playoff basketball is. People are going to adjust to what you're doing, these coaches, when you get into the playoffs, they know how to adjust their teams. At least you hope your team can adjust, because if you can't adjust and you're in the playoffs, you're going to be one of the teams bounced.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, honestly, I love all these teams in this playoff. The fact that the Mavericks are playoff competitive after trading Luka and ADOA says a lot for their coaching and for their depth. I believe I know they're on the play-in tournament, but there's teams, not even in this conversation right now, who lost less, who didn't lose anything.
Speaker 2:We'll see how it all shakes out. Right now you've got a lot of teams at this point in the year that are just going belly up because they want to get that lottery pick which, mind you, that lottery pick is going to get you Cooper Flagg and every single thing points to Cooper Flagg is for real.
Speaker 1:If I'm picking let's do an exercise here. You take the West, I'm going to take the East. If I'm picking one team to really be an upset player, I'm looking at the Pacers because they have a history of playoff upsets and turning it on. What are you looking at for the West? Who's your one team? You're watching if the playoffs started right now.
Speaker 2:The Nuggets.
Speaker 1:Can't say I disagree.
Speaker 2:I would say the Nuggets.
Speaker 1:They also have a history of playoff upsets.
Speaker 2:yes, Well, not to mention that they have a multiple-time MVP on their team and, let's face it, I've seen them play against the Thunder a couple of times this year and they give them fits, they play them hard. So you know, right now the Thunders is, for all intents and purposes, they are, the best team in the NBA. They have 64-12.
Speaker 1:Without question, you don't get 64-12 by being a scrub. The only team anywhere near them is the Cavs and the Celtics, at 61 and 56 wins respectively. The next closest team behind them has 50 wins, and that's the Rockets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the Rockets. They're a young team, they're not Okay. They've been good through the regular season. When you get into the playoffs, it's a different animal.
Speaker 1:well, they've been they've had a sluggish last few years, especially ever since harden. You know he's bounced around a couple teams since then, since the hardened days of the rockets, but it seems like they're they're getting their identity back now oh yeah, well they are a much more physically aggressive team on the court too well, they're that player.
Speaker 2:Ahmad Thompson, that guy is for real, he's a very good player. They're just young. They're just a young team. They need to experience the playoffs, to get that experience and to get themselves into the mindset of what you need when it comes to playoff time. And they will get there. Don't get me wrong. I don't think this will be the year that they can run into the playoffs and look I'm saying this and watch them get into the finals.
Speaker 1:These are moments where you and I disagree, my friend, and this is what draws in the crowd.
Speaker 2:Okay, but these are also moments when sometimes I have to come back and say I was an idiot because I called it wrong, because I just all right just just like with the, the ncaa bracket I drake, drake yeah, I said drake not moving on hey I had.
Speaker 1:I had st john's to win it all.
Speaker 2:They lost the second round no, no, look see, and I don't want to be the guy who goes, look at my bracket, look at my bracket. But right now, other than Duke, I have all the other teams in my Final Four and I have Auburn winning it.
Speaker 1:You don't have Duke winning it.
Speaker 2:Look, I said this before when I filled out my bracket. I didn't know if said this before. When I filled out my bracket. I didn't know if Cooper Fly was going to play because he had the ankle injury and there was no definitive answer if he was going to play or if he was healthy to play, and I didn't know if he was going to even play in the first game. So if they didn't have him in that first game, there they could have got knocked out.
Speaker 1:I'm cheating, because I've been making up my bracket as we go. I just remake it every round, so that's how I've been keeping up. If you want my original first bracket, I had like two teams that advanced that I picked. I did good in the first round, a lot of teams I picked advanced, but after the second round my bracket was gone, just almost completely gone.
Speaker 2:To have my final four be right all except for one. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got to give you that. I don't know the exact number of brackets, but this year had a high number of brackets that went deep.
Speaker 2:So I remember last year almost all brackets were wiped out. I had Bama making it in instead of Duke, yeah, but we all know how that went.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had Bama. Well, I had Duke going all the way and I think I had Houston going. So maybe I'll have to go back and look exactly what I picked. I didn't put it in the Tonight segment for our agenda but I probably did. Okay, it doesn't matter because we are where we are. Before we get too deep into college basketball, I got one piece of women's college basketball information here Notre Dame women's basketball star, olivia Miles. She was projected to be the number two overall pick. Probably could have even been maybe number one if they threw a curveball in the WNBA draft this month. But she's foregoing the draft to enter the NCAA's transfer portal. So there's a lot of things happening with this situation right now. Number one she's foregoing her draft eligibility, which means she likely has one year left of college eligibility. She's probably a junior. I don't know a lot about her. Two she's switching schools, so she's going to use her one year remaining college eligibility at a different school. She's probably going to get drafted anyway.
Speaker 2:She's so good way she's so good so I got a take on this. This is probably because she's going to make more at NIL to stay and play college ball than she would if she got drafted and went to the WNBA. Even as a number two pick overall, she's not going to earn a salary that's going to be anything near what she's probably making an NIL right now.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny. You mentioned this because this is exactly where I was hoping to go with this right we are going. This is a trend. Okay, it's a good trend.
Speaker 2:It's a good trend.
Speaker 1:We're seeing it with one or two colleges, but eventually I believe it is going to come to norm. And if this is the motivational factor to see people finish their college degrees that they've worked literally their whole life to get to, because it's their first major accomplishment, is your college degree okay assuming it's in something that is not just you know going and getting an underwater basket weaving class why did you take that from me?
Speaker 1:I was going to say that very sentence. Anyway, I don't care what you have a degree in, even if it is basket weaving, at least you have a degree okay. But I agree with the NIL because you're right. Wnba players what is the highest average salary? Like $78,000 to $80,000 right now.
Speaker 2:Right now.
Speaker 1:It's not even $100,000.
Speaker 2:No, it's not $100,000. Right now you're looking at between $60,000 and I think it's like $85,000.
Speaker 1:Maybe they should go play baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, a lot of the girls, they'd get paid. Well, yeah, a lot of the girls. They make up the money by endorsements and they get a little extra by doing that and go and doing things like talk shows, or they go and do appearances and sign some autographs. They make up the money by doing other things, usually in the off-season.
Speaker 1:A lot of them model too. Women love modeling. But again, that's other things to make more money, yeah but still sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, my friend.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, you're good.
Speaker 1:Still, those things are not going to add up to the likely NIL deals she might have on the table.
Speaker 2:Yes, but what this does, and okay. So there's two sides to this right. There's the side where, yes, they're staying in college and they're making more money. That, and by staying in college, it's giving you more time to see these players, and the more they're in the spotlight in college, the more people are getting to know them. So right now, if I ask most people I'd say hey, who was the top five people drafted in the WNBA draft last year?
Speaker 1:I guarantee you nobody can tell me I can name three. I can name three. It's because I'm attracted to all of them.
Speaker 2:But that aside, even in the NBA, if I said name the top five people drafted, unless you're a hardcore NBA fan or unless you're involved with the NBA, nobody could tell you that.
Speaker 1:Well, it's the same with the NFL, though it's just the audience. You're around, no.
Speaker 2:In the NFL it's different. The company you keep no listen. In the NFL it's different because these players in college football they stick around for a few years. They get the exposure. You get to know these names, like okay Shador Sanders, he's in the upcoming NFL draft. You get to know him because he played college ball for a few years and you got to see him play.
Speaker 1:And his name is kind of all over the place especially playing under. Deion Sanders in Colorado State or Cam Ward or Cam Ward you could throw over the place, especially playing under deon sanders in colorado. Okay, or a lot of or cam ward.
Speaker 2:You could throw his name out there who only exists because the titans are lying or jutkins the running back for for ohio. Ohio state yeah you saw him play.
Speaker 2:You got notoriety by seeing these players in college yeah so my point that I'm trying to get to is the longer these players stay in college, the more time you get to see them before they get drafted. The problem we're having with NBA right now we're not drafting American players, we're drafting players from overseas. Why? Because the players overseas are playing what the NBA needs. They don't need AAU ball. They need players who know how to play in a team setting. They need the players that when they come in here, they know how to pass, they know how to play a team game, they know how to play when they are not playing well because they play from the moment they're entering into playing basketball. These european players, they're learning how to play in a team game and they're not restricted on minutes. In the college game there are restrictions because you've got to go to class. They can only have so many practices, they can only do so many times training. They set limits on all of this. They don't do that in Europe.
Speaker 1:And it's funny you mention that, because there's also a different level of discipline that come from foreign students, as well. Exactly Something we lack hugely here in the United States on all levels.
Speaker 2:Just look at some of the biggest names in the NBA right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Joker foreign player Giannis.
Speaker 1:Luka yeah, a lot of them. Giannis, he's just been in B Foreign players A lot of them foreign players. And then the other thing I want to go back to what you talked about, the college ranks, right Another thing that NFLfl prospects, football prospects, have over other sports prospects. The nfl actually highlights their potential prospects more than the nba or the mlb. Like there is a whole two months of nfl network devoted to who's coming into the league potentially. The draft is its own whole event. They plaster the names and faces so they get a lot more exposure than the other sports do too.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not like we don't get exposed to these players, because if you spend any time online and social media wise, you start to see highlights of these players from the moment that they are in high school. So you can see these players Like we've known about Cooper Flagg, for years.
Speaker 2:It's just now. He's at a point where he can be drafted because he foregoed his senior year in high school and basically accelerated his learning process so he could get out early to be able to play college ball. Right now he's only 18. Yeah, and he's going to be drafted number one in this next draft. And I'm telling you, right now people are tanking in the NBA because they want.
Speaker 1:Cooper Flagg Because.
Speaker 2:Cooper Flagg is being compared to Jason Tatum, to Scottie Pippen. He's getting comparisons to all these players. Look, this guy showed up for one of the Olympic trial games, like the practices with the NBA players. He went out there and played with them, doing one of these future games where you bring in a couple of young cats and they play against some NBA players. He was holding his own. The NBA players were sitting here standing back and watching him. It's kind of like when you draft a quarterback in the NFL and he's a rookie and all of a sudden you start seeing all the defensive guys just standing back and watching him.
Speaker 1:Jaden Daniels, all the coaches standing back and watching him.
Speaker 2:Jaden Daniels and all the coaches standing back and watching him and then because they know when they see it, they know.
Speaker 1:I believe you're talking about Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 2:Well, when they see Cooper Flagg playing, the way he is and you can see it even in this NCAA bracket, with him playing with Duke, and seeing the way he's playing, I mean, dude, he's tall, he's lanky, he can handle the ball, he can move it up court, he can pass and he can score.
Speaker 1:And this is what I was talking about. There is a gap between legitimate generational talent, outgoing right now, current existing generation talent, which is not a lot in there for any sport. I mean, the nba has a lot of it, but again a lot of those players are aging, starting to age. Now we are in a turning point in sports history where the next true great generation is about to step into the pro limelight on and we're and we saw it in football the last couple years Now we're seeing it in basketball. The MLB is in the mix of it. Shohei is one of the biggest names.
Speaker 2:Shohei Otani.
Speaker 1:Shohei Otani is one of the biggest names, he's still a young player. He's a generational talent.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing With some of these players you've seen them ahead of time. Shohei, we saw him ahead of time because we've seen what he was doing in the World Baseball Classics.
Speaker 1:You're right.
Speaker 2:And we saw him playing in Japan. So people who were paying attention saw it, they knew he was coming, they saw it happening, they saw him coming.
Speaker 2:And let's face it baseball, when it comes to the draft and when it comes to players, a lot of times you're drafting players and it's we're not seeing that player for years yeah that's why a lot of these teams they're really keen on, if they see a foreign player playing well, they're going to go try to get that guy, albeit unless you're, unless you're able to find somebody under the radar, usually it winds up being yankees dodgers, you know, people with the deep pockets that get these players. But let's get back over to what we were talking about, which was college.
Speaker 1:Mike, let me tell you what man. We're having a great conversation tonight. This might be one of our best episodes of the day, but we're going to get back on subject. Talk about some Men's March Madness. The final four? All right, we only have a. We're just going to give some basic information.
Speaker 2:Oh, excuse me, guys, I got excuse me. Yeah, the final four teams are set Right now. We got Auburn going to play Florida and we got Duke playing Houston. Which stellar matchups.
Speaker 1:I am more excited for the Duke-Houston matchup because not just because Houston is firing on all cylinders from the NBA to the college, but Duke, like we were just talking, with a general talent like Cooper Flagg and his other teammates as well. To me, this so far is the marquee matchup of the tournament.
Speaker 2:Let me just say one thing though Go ahead. This is going to be their biggest test, because Houston has the best defense in the college tournament. Yeah, I was just about to say that they have not faced a team with this level of defensive play all year. They have not played a team with this type of defense since the beginning of the season Guys this— so now they're going to get their sharpest test against Houston.
Speaker 1:This might be one of the best matchups in all of college basketball this season Duke versus Houston, and Houston legitimately just came out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:I mean, when you're a one, do you come out of nowhere?
Speaker 1:Well, were they the one seed to start the tournament? Yeah, I know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah they're a one seed, but yeah, they're a one seed, but they are, but look they are one now, houston, houston. The past few years have been in the bracket and they've been a solid team. They usually make a run look wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute. I'm sorry to interrupt you, mike I just noticed something. All the number one seeds are in the final four bro from all of the brackets.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Whoa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have no Cinderella's this year, I know that.
Speaker 1:I just now am realizing this.
Speaker 2:The way to catch up to the rest of the sports world that knows this. It's not that I don't pay attention.
Speaker 1:It's just that sometimes numbers elude me, and I was looking at this earlier today 1-1-1-1. I'm like, okay, well, maybe they're just all number one now. No, I'm just now realizing they're number one from all their regions, all the number one seeds basically ran their divisions, ran their brackets and they're like we should skip that shit. Here we are. So auburn and florida I think that'll be a good match, uh, but duke and houston definitely the marquee matchup for me of the season of the bracket well, we're getting both these games on saturday saturday we get, uh, we get florida versus auburn.
Speaker 1:uh, at, I think it's the official 6.09, but I have it listed at 6 pm Just tune in at like 5.30 for pregame action.
Speaker 2:Anyway.
Speaker 1:April 5th, cbs 6 pm, live from San Antonio, and then immediately after, at 8.50 pm, on the same channel as CBS, and the same day, also live from San Antonio, we will have Duke versus Houston. These are two great matchups and we're going to find out who's going to the finals for the NCAA men's bracket. Which will be on the 7th Sunday, monday, monday.
Speaker 2:Yes, Monday it would be.
Speaker 1:Monday. Sorry guys, If you haven't learned by listening to our show by now, numbers elude me. It would be Monday. Sorry guys, If you haven't learned by listening to our show by now, numbers elude me. It's okay, but that's what we got for college basketball. Very exciting time both for the NBA and college basketball. What'd I miss, bro?
Speaker 2:Well, we have some college football news.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. Moving on to the next, so we actually have college football news once again.
Speaker 2:So pretty interesting news, actually, because Stanford has hired their next head coach, and it's a name that might be a little familiar, frank Wright, who was the interim coach for the Panthers and who was a former Colts coach, which should be familiar. For another reason too, because Stanford's GM of Sports Operations. Their GM.
Speaker 1:GM of Sports Operations.
Speaker 2:Yes, is the former starting quarterback for the Colts.
Speaker 1:And number one overall draft pick in the 2020-12 draft Andrew Luck.
Speaker 2:Yes, so he brings in a familiar face to become the new head coach at Stanford.
Speaker 1:You know what's funny about the 2020-12 NFL draft?
Speaker 2:Not much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, anyway, don't ruin my flow, bro. Anyway, rg3 was taking number two right behind him. Everybody thought Andrew had a very bright future in the NFL, but he chose his health over football.
Speaker 2:So what I got to say to that is the Colts failed him. That's why his career ended short.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they didn't give him any protection. They didn't give him any weapons, they just.
Speaker 2:Look, they gave him a shit offensive line for years to play behind.
Speaker 1:Never even tried.
Speaker 2:And they just basically let Andrew go out there and win it for us.
Speaker 1:He was just getting creamed.
Speaker 2:He was, yeah, he was getting creamed and he was playing hard and you know he wanted life after football. Football wasn't. I don't want to say that he didn't love football, but football wasn't everything. That is him like. He had other interests outside of football so he walked away before football had taken from him, you know, through injuries or through, you know, just not having a much of a career outside or having much of a life outside of football due to injuries. So I don't blame him. But one of the things that I miss most after having seen him leave was his his uh twitter page where somebody was texting or not tweeting at the time yeah, doing these tweets where he's like a civil war fighter, right back to his mom. I miss those, you know it's funny.
Speaker 1:They were funny as hell. He wore that outfit to an n NFL awards ceremony.
Speaker 2:I forgot what it was. It was after a Thursday night football game.
Speaker 1:That is what it was.
Speaker 2:It was after a Thursday night football game, yeah he wore it just to poke fun of himself, but they were so funny. He would just be like Mother, dearest.
Speaker 1:Mother Dearest.
Speaker 2:I had a very tough battle.
Speaker 1:The opposition is swell, but dire.
Speaker 2:We faced a team known as Buffalo.
Speaker 1:We were defaced by a team known as Buffalo. He left after the 2018 season. Now he did take a staggering amount of sacks early in his career, honestly, all the way through his career. I mean a total of 2.02 sacks per game over 86 games. If you don't know, that's horrible.
Speaker 1:Okay, 41 in his in his inaugural season, 32 after that, 27 I did say his offense line sucked yeah, and that's what I'm trying to iterate on here, and this is why he left, okay, but getting back to him he's the gm of sports operations at stanford and bringing back the coach who drafted him into the NFL as their head coach, how do you think this is going to work out for Stanford? Because Frank Reich did not find a lot of success even during Andrew Luck's tenure.
Speaker 2:Well, frank Reich is a decent coach. Let's understand that he wasn't, again, much like andrew luck. He wasn't given all the tools for success. So if you give the man an opportunity where he can build maybe a nfl style program in college, he might see some success.
Speaker 1:I mean, we've already seen this happen is it safe to say that it is better to be a college football coach than nfl football coach, because in college you have a lot more reign as a coach over your roster than you do as an nfl head coach?
Speaker 2:unless it's built, in your contract yes and no, because now you have to navigate nil. So now you got to figure out how to not only get players but how to keep players, because just because you've got the player to come to your school doesn't mean he's staying. He might only be there for a year, and then he's going to move on.
Speaker 2:And now just being able to build some depth on your team like bringing a guy in and saying, okay, well, you're not a starting QB, you'll be our backup. A guy in saying, okay, well, you're not a starting QB, you'll be a backup, guys will be like nuts to that. I'm going over to this school and be a starter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they can go to a smaller deal, land an NIL deal that they wouldn't have had at the bigger school and be the starting quarterback.
Speaker 2:So is it really much better being in college? I mean?
Speaker 1:watch, but competition's everywhere.
Speaker 2:Look, we watched a lot of coaches once. This NIL deal situation was proven, it was happening. We watched Nick Saban and a bunch of former good college coaches say I'm done.
Speaker 1:Look, there's a lot. Even Joe Patino right, there's a lot of Joe Paterno. Paterno, fuck off, sorry. Anyway, there's a lot of I'm helping Remember that, paterno.
Speaker 2:Fuck off. Sorry, there's a lot of I'm helping.
Speaker 1:Remember that. Yes, remember You're helping. Anyway, there's a lot of things surrounding Dang. My mind just blanked. Alabama's coach.
Speaker 2:Saban.
Speaker 1:Saban, surrounding Nick Saban, right how he ran the organization, the things he did behind the scenes to make that the success it was.
Speaker 2:What saying deez nuts jokes to his players Exactly. Yeah, that too.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of speculation that once NIL rolled around, he rolled out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's because the playing field, like a lot of people were saying, was leveled.
Speaker 2:I just said that this past playoffs where I said look look at the teams we have in this playoffs, it has been leveled. I just said that this past playoffs where I said look look at the teams we have in this playoffs, it has been leveled. This field has been leveled because you're now spreading out the talent.
Speaker 1:You can't just say, hey, I'm the head coach of Alabama, one of the biggest football programs in the country, come play for me, You'll be successful. It doesn't exist anymore. You can still make that pitch, but now coaches like Deion Sanders from you know Colorado State, they're gonna come there. Okay, yeah, you can go play for Alabama. A lot of their players over the years have been drafted to the NFL. They have good quality players. But guess what? Come over here. We got a new age system. We're running a different kind of scheme. Uh, you're not gonna be a starter right away, but you could be also. We're a playoff, competitive, playoff, competitive team. Every year I say play up, but really in ncaa bracket, uh, at this point, after deon's, you know, been there for a while, a few years. Secondly, come over to Colorado State. We can give you money. Alabama ain't going to give you money.
Speaker 2:We're going to give you money. Well, and it's the difference in now, these guys that would have gone and just been the backup at Alabama are now hoping for a chance. They'll go and be the starting center over on another team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they'll get paid for it.
Speaker 2:Well, and they'll get more tape, they'll get more stuff on film that can allow them to get drafted.
Speaker 1:Yep and I agree with you. It levels the playing field and you've seen that already in years one and two of the NIL of how much it's leveled, because now you're seeing and hearing teams that don't make the bracket getting into it. Let's move on here. So moving on. We got a little bit of UFL news for you guys tonight.
Speaker 2:Did you have?
Speaker 1:something else. Don't forget Coach Prime, coach Prime man, I am mistaken. Tonight I am not on this game. Anyway, coach Prime, I got a piece of great news here and thank you, mike, for not letting me skip it here. Um, coach prime reportedly become one of the highest paid coaches in the country in college sports prime, colorado state uh university head coach. They agreed to a five-year $54 million extension. This is as big as big gets for a college like this and a coach like Deion, former player stepping into the coaching world, taking a lackluster, almost unknown school and putting them in the national spotlight.
Speaker 2:Well, taking a school that once was a good school in the 90s and bringing them back from the dead.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, since it's been forgotten, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean, and some analysts have said that they said, you know, this school was dead, the football program was an afterthought, and now they're relevant again.
Speaker 1:Now looking at what Deion's done at Colorado. Michael Vick is at NSUhaun, jackson's at delaware state head coaches respectively right, right.
Speaker 2:But you know, I know a lot of people are speculating. Well, let's see what deon can do now his son's not there.
Speaker 2:Well, he had other players, bro, sorry no, no, but like, so keep mind, he got a five-star quarterback coming in after Shador and you know they already had that picture where Shador's handing off the keys metaphorically to this new cat who's going to be the guy. So I think that you know, if this kid lives up to the hype, they'll be okay, because Deion's already showing that he can bring some talent in look, deion has a guaranteed two players getting drafted.
Speaker 1:He might have three to four. That is a hell of a job by a college coach.
Speaker 2:I don't care what program, especially from a program that people had kind of written off.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree with you 100% and especially being down here in Norfolk, I'm excited to see if Michael Vick has the same level of success with the NSU squad. But congratulations to Coach Prime on his extension. I'm excited to see I love watching him work Colorado State. I'm excited to see where he takes this program. Post-travis Hunter, post-shadur Sanders. It's time for Phase 2, coach Prime, and I'm eager to see what you got Now.
Speaker 1:Like I said before, a little bit of UFL news. We don't talk a lot about the UFL but they are currently playing. They have kicked off their season. First little bit I got is really not a big piece of news. So I'm going to get out of the way. The renegades used to be based out of houston, now based out of uh, now starting their second season based out of arlington, texans. They will be going back to their popular bandit logo. They're no longer using the r that they used last season. I'm a big Renegades fan. Seeing them go to the Renegades logo makes me a little bit happier, even as a young league. A little happier, a little happier.
Speaker 2:A little happier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little happier. Sorry, I told you guys, words and numbers elude me. Get over it.
Speaker 2:Anyway, but that's, and yet we do a podcast, and yet we do a podcast, but yet they still listen.
Speaker 1:So here we are. But thank you, by the way, everybody. But yeah, they're going back to the Bandit logo. I think it'll be a more aggressive look. I think they'll bring in more fans. Uh, the next piece I got. David dykeman, ufl director of football operations, has confirmed that an expansion is likely in 2026. They're looking to open two more teams. They currently have six team.
Speaker 1:There's six teams or eight teams, the ufo right now, I think they have eight eight they have eight teams, looking to add two more and the 2026 season a ninth and a tenth team. It was right there in front of me, I don't know why I asked you anyway. And some of those cities under consideration just as a running list oakland, california, who just lost the raiders. They're trying to get a baseball team, they're trying to get basketball. They're trying to get anybody that wants to come to oakland. Okay, they even want to get a UFL team. Seattle, talk about bringing back a secondary pro Seattle football team. Those fans would love it. Portland, oregon, I think another great location. San Diego, who just lost the Chargers to Los Angeles, getting another pro-level football sports team in there. I think they'd be excited. Columbus, louisville, tulsa, oklahoma, and who they would share with the Oklahoma City Thunder out of the NBA. Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh, who does not need any more sports teams on any level.
Speaker 2:So I have an opinion here Yay, no, no, no, hear me out, hear me. No, no, hear me out, hear me out, hear me out. Uh, so why do teams need to go to cities who already have teams? Now, I understand, from an infrastructure point, where they're. They're gonna do that because there's already stadiums, there's already stuff there. But why not do it Like some of these teams, some of these areas, I think would be a good idea? Louisville, they don't have pro anything. Make it happen because people are going to support it. Tulsa, they don't have a pro, anything other than the Thunder, or Salt Lake City, who just now got a hockey team and have the jazz. Why not put these in areas where there are no teams so those areas have something to cheer for. So those fans that, hey, the closest team to me is, you know, five, six hundred miles away, and I want to cheer for something. I need something to cheer for in springtime, because maybe you don't like baseball and you love the game of football.
Speaker 1:I have one here that's under the radar. That has been tossed around easily for what? 12 years now in this area. We used to have a UFL team right here in Norfolk.
Speaker 2:The Destroyers, the Destroyers.
Speaker 1:I would love to see them bring back the Destroyers. I don't know why the commanders didn't change their name to the Destroyers when it was available.
Speaker 2:Because it was still copyrighted and they couldn't use it.
Speaker 1:Money talks bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know it does, but remember who the owner was at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't need to talk about that, so anyway, but let's also discuss this for a second.
Speaker 2:You know, if we're going to sit here and have expansion in this league, you need to put it in places where it's going to get the most interest.
Speaker 1:I agree Most interest and where it's going to advance football's image.
Speaker 2:But not only most interest for the partners of the area but might help generate more interest to the league. So you have San Diego up there. San Diego got their hearts ripped out when the Chargers moved up to Los Angeles. When the Chargers moved up to Los Angeles so much so that they would not all the moving companies within a 45-mile radius of San Diego basically told the Chargers F you, I'm not moving your team. They flat out said no, I'm not moving your team. They had to go find moving companies from out of the area to move them.
Speaker 1:That's how salty the area was, and I can't you know how much they would support and loved having another team again.
Speaker 2:Not only that, it's a military town. You could bring in military members and help support the military. You know people there by helping them out and saying, hey, look, here's, here's some free tickets, come to the game. You know hey, come do an honor guard thing on the field. Or hey, come show us your dogs that you train and do a thing at halftime. Or hey, can you guys maybe organize a flyover or something? Honestly, help generate stuff for the fans and for the people that are in the area. Support them.
Speaker 1:I agree with you Honestly, and I hate to admit, the Destroyers would work in San Diego as well as they work in Norfolk. Both have heavy military presences. The team could work perfectly. That should be one of the two franchise expansions, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Well, and when we had the team here, people supported it. They did. They sold out the game every time and we have a personal friend who tried out for them yes, we do, mr micah?
Speaker 1:yeah, anyway, guys, we don't have any fun facts this week. I'm sorry, but I hope you're ready, because what's that? You dropped that ball I did drop that ball, but they were never very good. Anyway, let's just be real here, but they will be back next week. We're an hour and 40 minutes into this show. We're getting ready to wrap it up. Are you ready to talk some NFL with us? I can't hear your screams but I'm going to pretend you're screaming, positively.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Well. Thank you Just move on into the football we're going to move on to our flagship sports. Subject of our show, which we talked a lot about the NBA and basketball and MLB. So maybe those sports are finally catching up and they're also part of the flagship. But let's just talk NFL draft preview real quick. Mike. Who do you think is going number one overall? The Titans have the pick. What's your opinion? We know what all the analysts are saying.
Speaker 2:Are you agreeing?
Speaker 1:with them, or are you going a different direction?
Speaker 2:First off, they're not trading the pick. The Titans are not trading it.
Speaker 1:I don't think they're trading it and I don't think they're picking Cam Ward either.
Speaker 2:No, sir, they're picking Cam Ward 100%. They're picking Cam Ward because he's a better quarterback than Shador Sanders, and why I say that? Shador has accuracy and quick processing, but everything he doesn't have Cam Ward does. Cam Ward has a stronger arm. Cam Ward is a better runner. He's a better play extender. He's better at running an offense.
Speaker 2:The only thing that Cam Ward needs to figure out he needs to figure out how to not try to go for the big play and how to work within the offense to just take what is given. And same thing with Shador. Shador needs to learn that too. But they're being harder on Shador for some reason. I mean, look, when you play with a not-so-great offense and you still put up numbers, you should be drafted because you have proven that you're not going to be scared in an NFL offense. That you know. Let's face it, if you're in the top picks, you're going to a team that's probably not so great right now. So you need to have a quarterback who can play under duress, and both Cam Ward and Shador have proven they can play under duress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't get me wrong, I like Cam Ward. Shador is going to land in one of two places Cleveland, or with the Giants, just point blank.
Speaker 2:He's going to one of those two teams. I don't think that the Giants are going to draft him?
Speaker 1:I don't think so either.
Speaker 2:I don't think he's going to wind up in Cleveland either, Because what I think is going to happen is he's going to slip in the draft a little, Because I think what Cleveland's going to do they're going to draft Abdul Carter and they're going to bookend him with Miles Garrett and create one nasty defense. That's what I think is going to draft Abdul Carter and they're going to bookend him with Miles Garrett and create one nasty defense. That's what I think is going to happen, and Shador will just continue to slide because the Giants won't take him. They already got two quarterbacks and they're probably looking to next year for what they need, because they need to win now and Shador is not going to be the win-now answer.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:They're going to need to win now and Chador is not going to be the win-now answer. No, they're going to need to start the veterans and hope that they can make something happen. They need an offensive player who can run the ball more than they need anything else. So, after the Giants, new England. New England has a quarterback, so they're going to probably choose offensive line. So let's say he moves down further. Fifth pick is Jacksonville. Jacksonville doesn't need a quarterback.
Speaker 1:No, they don't. They're good with sunshine bro.
Speaker 2:So this puts him falling all the way to Vegas and he has ties to Vegas because he knows Brady and they need a quarterback for the future.
Speaker 1:They just locked up Geno, so there's a good chance you can lock up Geno, was it one-year or two-year extension.
Speaker 2:Look, Geno is not their long-term answer. He's the guy that's going to be the bridge. You could bring him in and he could be the guy, the heir apparent, the one that sits back and watches, kind of like Mahomes did when he was sitting behind Alex Smith.
Speaker 1:Not to get off subject, but I think it's safe to say Geno Smith is the modern-day Ryan Fitzpatrick At this point.
Speaker 2:Is that because they both played for the Jets?
Speaker 1:Fair point. But no, I think it's because since Geno has left the Jets also since Ryan Fitzpatrick has left the Jets which was like 20 years ago for some of us it's not that far back Geno has been relatively competent at the quarterback position and has kept those teams relatively competitive. Seattle wasn't. They were borderline playoff competitive.
Speaker 2:Well, geno had a bad habit this last year of throwing ill-timed picks. Yeah, throwing picks late in the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did have a couple. Yeah, he did you know.
Speaker 2:So I was actually there to witness one when he was playing against the Niners on Thursday night football. That was a lot of fun, you know, being in Seattle as a 49ers man, I can only imagine what that was like. Oh, it was fun. It was fun, but back to the task at hand. Uh, so yeah, cam Ward. Definitely to me. He's going to replace dang I forget his name old mayo boy, will Levis. Will Levis, he's going to replace Will Levis as the starting quarterback there.
Speaker 1:And Will Levis is going to go be the spokesperson for Levi Jeans.
Speaker 2:I don't know what he's going to do, but he ain't going to be the starting quarterback of the Titans. He's going to be an apostrophe in his name. But anyway, work for a clothing company.
Speaker 1:That's where I think he's going to do, but he ain't going to be a starting quarterback at the Titans.
Speaker 2:He's going to be an apostrophe in his name. But anyway, worked for a clothing company. Yeah, that's where I think what's going to happen there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can't say I disagree. Cam Ward's at the top of most of these mock drafts you know four-round margins to random. Cam Ward's pretty much at the top of all of them. The random, yeah, cam. Cam ward's at pretty much at the top of all of them. The ones he's not they got sanders. I disagree with that. But anyway, moving on, we'll dive more into nfl draft. Uh, as we get closer to it. Uh, one thing we're gonna hit on here moving into more nfl news. We're gonna. We're gonna talk about mark davis. Who who doesn't love talking about Mark Davis? Mike?
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of the Raiders.
Speaker 1:Speaking of the Raiders, Mark Davis says the same thing every year this is my favorite time. We're undefeated. Oh, but they might legitimately be building something and might have some degree of success this year, especially with Tom Brady now being in the ownership group. What do you make of this, Mike? Is Mark Davis just happy with the status quo of being an NFL owner, or does he really want to get this franchise to the next level?
Speaker 2:Well as an owner, you want your team to win because it leads to better profits. As an owner, if you're a Cowboys fan, you just want your team to win because it leads to better profits as an owner. If you're a cowboys fan, you just want your team to make money if you're a cowboys fan, you want for jerry to stop making dumb decisions.
Speaker 1:That's what you really want I meant if you're a cowboys owner oh, if you're a cowboys owner you only care about money.
Speaker 2:all all jerry jones wants is for people to be talking about him, and as long as they're talking, he's making money, that's all it is, he doesn't care. Look, he says he wants to win a Super Bowl, but his actions don't say he wants to win a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get back to Mark Davis. We can trash Jerry Jones all day, but let's get back to trashing Mark Davis.
Speaker 2:He'll do it on his own.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I kind of like Mark Davis. It's weird. You know it's funny. I've been waiting to bring this up.
Speaker 2:His girlfriend right? Can he at least get a better haircut? God, I mean, you own a team Can you at least get a better haircut?
Speaker 1:Look if the difference between him and Bill Belichick is a hairstyle, I'll take Bill Belichick. Okay, they both have young girlfriends. I don't think either of them's 21 years old.
Speaker 2:Um, mark davis's girlfriend said she didn't know I guess hanging 100 out of your zipper works.
Speaker 1:I don't know I think they taped it to his forehead and threw him in the women's bathroom. But I, you know I digress, but his girlfriend and I don't mean to really make fun of him, I just thought this way his girlfriend publicly said on social media I didn't even know he was rich, I was just attracted to his smile and good looks. And if you've ever seen mark davis, ever in your life, even wearing a tuxedo, just go google mark davis even even wearing a suit.
Speaker 1:Like I know, we all get rough as we get older, but look, ain't no 20-year-old girl dating Mark Davis for that personality and good looks. Okay, I'm just saying Bilicek, maybe because his lack of personality is also personality. Okay, he's got a gimmick, I give it to him.
Speaker 2:That's only with the media. If you can get him talking about football or something other than trying to answer media questions, he's okay. But Mark Davis?
Speaker 1:doesn't have that. Okay, and I like Mark Davis, I like the Raiders, I like his dad, al Davis, but come on, man, let's get with reality here. But anyway, he said this is my favorite time of the year because we're undefeated. Is that a uh, uh, gloomy way of viewing things?
Speaker 2:no, it might be a glass half full kind of outlook I mean, it could be it's a you know, when you lose so much as a franchise and you know you're sitting here going we don't have a loss maybe this time next year he can say we're still undefeated.
Speaker 1:Hopefully he's hoping for that. But we just got some quick moves here. Moving past that fun piece of news Cowboys acquiring Joe Milton III from the Patriots for a seventh-round draft pick in exchange for the Cowboys' fourth round in exchange for a fifth rounder Okay cool.
Speaker 2:Just happened, just happened actually earlier this afternoon.
Speaker 1:So the Cowboys are training for a quarterback when they already have a $60-plus million quarterback on roster.
Speaker 2:Well, this okay Understand. They don't have a backup quarterback right now.
Speaker 1:I don't think they have any quarterback right now, if you ask me personally.
Speaker 2:Well, they have Dak, but Dak's their guy.
Speaker 2:But, this gives them a backup who can come in and do some things. Milton was a decent college quarterback. He was playing, I believe, for tennessee and from what I remember seeing him play, even last last year during the preseason he he played pretty competent. You know. He looked good in the in the pro style offense. So I mean, is he a starter? That might be a bit of a stretch, but is he a guy that could possibly come in and do like Cooper Rush type duties? Yeah, he probably could, because Cowboys don't have Cooper Rush anymore. He's with the Ravens.
Speaker 1:We see this happen.
Speaker 2:They also don't have Trey Lance anymore because he's out of league.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that guy is somewhere in the CFL or the UFL right now. Anyway, they have Drake May. That's their guy right. Maybe they feel confidently enough about Joe Milton and maybe Joe Milton's also having some emotions himself. Maybe he feels like he can go to Dallas and win that job.
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 1:We've seen it happen before. I don't think that's the case I don't think it's the case, but I absolutely give it some weight. I think it's the case, but I I absolutely give it some weight.
Speaker 2:I think it's jerry doing. He's doing something to fill a gap, which is get the young guy in if he turns out to be something good, cool. If he doesn't, oh well he.
Speaker 1:We just traded a fifth round pick for him I, I like the trade, to be honest with you. Uh, I'm not a big dak prescott fan. Um, call me biased, I'm a commander's fan, don't care, that would you know. But anyway, dak prescott has some skills but like the hamstring injury last year, which may or may not have been bs- he's like a b quarterback he's like a b level quarterback. Joe mill I'm not saying is better or that he's more skilled, but I think that he's. He has a chance he's.
Speaker 2:He's a backup quarterback man. That's what he is. He's a backup quarterback in the nfl yeah so they're filling a need. The need is backup.
Speaker 1:They got their backup yeah, now moving on cardinalsinals, trey McBride. He gets a four-year extension worth $76 million, making him the highest paid tight end in the league. $43 million of the contract is guaranteed.
Speaker 2:That's not the only move they made.
Speaker 1:What else they do, bro? 38. Oh yeah, that's right, they signed out, so let's give a round of applause to khala camp khala campbell uh, khala campbell khala campbell. He has signed defensive lineman formerly with the dolphins, was a free agent this year. Uh, the cardinals, this man's 38 years old, okay which is a former Cardinal.
Speaker 1:He was a former Cardinal, went to Miami. Now he's coming back to the Cardinals, expected to sign with them on a one year deal. Uh, he is a former Walton Walter Payton man of the year. Uh, going in for at least one more season with the Cardinals. At 38 years old, he has 17 seasons consecutive nfl seasons under his belt as a defensive lineman. These are this is longevity. You only see from quarterbacks this is rare, rarefied air for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is, and from what I saw last year when I saw him play, he is still a good player. He is still doing his thing.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:I mean he might not be putting up the gaudy numbers like he was early on in his career, but he is still a force.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, just on longevity, he may be a generational talent himself, because he's had some Pro Bowls as well, but just an absolutely standout player so, moving on to uh other moves that have happened, uh may have slid under the radar if you didn't see it.
Speaker 2:Uh, case keenum is back in the nfl. He signed a one-year deal with the bears for three million dollars to come in and kind of do like what he did with the Texans, with their quarterback CJ Stroud, just kind of helping mentor and usher him into a starting role. He's going to do the same thing for Caleb Williams there with the Bears.
Speaker 1:Yeah, congratulations to him. Case Keenum, he's got to be like he might be the new Fitzpatrick. He just doesn't have the stats. He has got to be the oldest back of the league and good job Case for keeping it going, just finding a way to stay alive in the NFL and pro sports bro.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think he was even playing last year. But what you were saying earlier, what about Geno man?
Speaker 1:You said he signed a oh, I thought we hit on that already when we were talking about gaudy-ass, mark Davis yeah, speaking of Mark Davis and the Raiders, maybe this was a conversation between us, but Geno and the Raiders two-year deal I may have mentioned it briefly. $85.5 million extension Are holdover quarterbacks worth almost $100 million. Now, is this the inflation we're experiencing?
Speaker 2:Hey, sometimes it's going right.
Speaker 1:Honestly, geno is probably worth it. He's got some skill and he's got some knowledge. He's not a bad quarterback. I think he's slightly above mediocre, but, like you said, he has his bad moments. Okay, certainly not like Jameis Winston, but maybe a step above. Jamis is very hot and cold, very streaky. Gino is a little more consistent. Um, everybody that brings us to the conclusion of our show. I'd like to thank you for joining us for another exciting conversation about sports. Uh, find us on social media. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook, we are on all streaming platforms for podcasts.
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Speaker 1:No, don't tell us we suck, say nice things on social media.
Speaker 2:We will debate it's social media. They can do what they want. We will debate with it's social media. They can do what they want.
Speaker 1:We will debate with you and respond to you, but interact with us like us, find us. Whatever you gotta do, let's get to it, and thank you everybody for your support. We love you. We couldn't do this without you. Once again, I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike, and we are Two for the Win.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody, spread and I and I'm Mike and we are two for the win. Thanks everybody, spread the word.