Pardon My Take - Jon Rothstein, Brackets Revealed & Tom Brady Cucks Selection Sunday

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

Tom Brady stole selections Sunday by coming out of retirement.(00:03:20:22-00:10:40:09) We talk brackets and what we see happening with a full tournament back.(00:10:40:12-00:29:05:24) Who's back of the week including Coach K's losing tour. (00:30:08:23-00:50:07:20) Jon Rothstein joins us in studio to break down his bracket, his upcoming trip to Europe and lots more.(00:51:21:02-01:39:57:01) We finish with Billy's Final 4 QB Bracket and the winner of the 2022 prospect draft. (01:39:59:13-01:51:57:23)You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake

Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On today's part of my take, we have John Rostin in studio. Brackets are here. We're very excited.

We're gonna talk about March Madness, fill out our brackets, break it all down. We also have Who's Back of the Week. A certain someone decided to steal the spotlight right after the brackets were introduced. Tom Brady, so we'll talk about that. We have Billy's Final Four. Final Four for quarterbacks in the 2022 draft.

I actually, Kenny Pickett texted me and was like, I heard I'm in some type of bracket for Billy football. And I was like, yep, no pressure, but he's listening. No pressure. Don't change it, but he's listening. And we were brought to you by our friends at Visible. So here's the deal, guys.

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So thank you very much to Visible.com. Go check it out right now. Okay, let's go. Welcome to part of my take presented by Visible. Go to Visible.com. Right now, Visible has a single line plan for his lowest 25 bucks a month with unlimited data, talk, text, and hotspot.

5G is included, plus it's powered by Verizon. Today is Monday, March 14th, and Tom Brady has cocked our brackets. Tom Brady, of all the dramatic things that I've ever seen, Tom Brady fucked over the kids. He fucked the kids today. He, we're gonna just make out with him.

We're gonna just do Tom Brady real quick. He didn't just kiss him on the lips. He fucked him over. He's back right before free agency starts. If you think that Tom Brady ruined brackets Sunday, which he kind of did at the end there because the brackets came out and then he dropped the bomb that he's coming back for a 23rd season,

his retirement lasted like 40 days. If you think it's bad for us because all we wanna do is talk about brackets, let me just give a little perspective for everyone in the world right now. You ready for this perspective? There was a gentleman who not just 12 hours ago, paid $518,000 for at an auction

for Tom Brady's final touchdown in the NFL pass. Wow. $518,000 for Tom Brady's final touchdown pass on ESPN. So I was just thinking like a couple hours ago, that guy that sold the ball back to the Bucks, remember the one where they stole it back from him in the stands? That was his like whatever, 600th or whatever it was.

Yeah, the one that surpassed the record. Yeah, that's right. That guy like probably feels pretty good about where he's at right now. Compared to this guy? Compared to this guy because geez, the Bucks fucked him over. Everyone's getting fucked over by Tom Brady today.

That's unbelievable. I personally can't believe that Tom Brady would ruin Coach K's retirement tour. The last bracket reveal. His losing tour. The last bracket reveal of Coach K's career by announcing his own retirement tour. Unbelievable.

Well, he might play a 24th season. We don't know. He's not an ego maniac like Coach K. He hasn't fully said this is his last year. I mean, he's replaced Brett Favre now. Yeah. I think that this is the most dramatic like retirement, unretirement.

Am I gonna do it? No, I'm not gonna do it. Yes, I'm gonna do it. Yes, I'm gonna come back. Hashtag shifty was wrong. Which I get why he would do it right now because it's right before a free agency starts. The tampering or the,

what the legal tampering period starts on Monday. It starts tomorrow. Yeah, so he's got to do this because he's probably, there's a lot, I think there's 20 plus free agents in the Bucks organization that probably want to come back. You want to get them to come back. You want other free agents to come to Tampa Bay. So it all makes sense.

Just why did you have to do it? Right as we got our brackets. Well, let me ask you this big cat. Do you think that the fact that Tom realized that he would have to share his induction ceremony into the Hall of Fame with Big Ben? Yeah. And all the Steelers fans that we're gonna bust in

from out of town. Canton is basically a suburb of Pittsburgh. Tom Brady saw the writing on the wall. He's like five years from now. I don't want to get my ceremony cut by Big Ben. So I'll just cut the kids instead. He got it back. Now I can just hope that maybe he retires

with Aaron Rodgers and we get that. That would be very fun too. That would be great. But yeah, the guy who bought it at auction, Tom Brady's last touchdown and now what is it? It's a touchdown pass he threw in the playoffs and a loss to the Rams. That's such a nothing burger.

So you have to wonder like what did happen with Tom Brady in his retirement? Like you said, 40 days. That's like, that's Lin, right? Moses. Moses? Is it Moses? No, I think Jesus stopped eating food

for 40 days. Yeah. Except for fish on Fridays. Correct. I'm pretty sure it's outwind. So. And Glenie Balls. Glenie Balls also does that.

Tom Brady is gone for 40 days and then he just realizes like this, this retirement life isn't for me. He ran out of golf to play. He ran out of courses to visit. Well, there's conspiracy theories out there that the Bucks refused to trade him. So now he's coming back to force their hand

to eventually trade him. I don't buy that. To the commanders for Carson Wentz. He did say Tampa. He's playing in Tampa. Our colleague Steven Che is insufferable would be the word I would use. Insufferabler than usual.

Yeah. It's brutal to watch his face and especially because he doesn't care. He's like the truest sense of a football guy that I don't even know if he knew that it was Bracket Sunday. No, definitely not. But either way, let's not let Tom Brady

steal the brackets from us. I do have one of my own conspiracy theories about what's going to happen with Tom Brady coming back. Okay. So Piolli went on NFL Network today and he was being very weird about whether or not Tom Brady

is going to play for the team. Like you would think that would be the easiest interview of all time for him. Like we're super excited to have Tom Brady come back to the Bucks. Wait, Scott Piolli works on the Bucks now? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that.

I think it was Piolli. That's his old time guy. Yeah. Anyway, so he was being like very cryptic about whether or not Tom Brady was going to come back and play for the Bucks. You would think he would say like, yes, Tom Brady very excited.

My theory is that Tom Brady wants to play for the Raiders. For McDaniels, who's now the head coach of the Raiders, his old offensive coordinator. But wouldn't he have- And how awesome would that division be in quarterbacks at that point? Yeah.

That would be the dumbest move Tom Brady could ever give. It'd be stupid. I think Piolli works for the Bucks. No, that would love it. He definitely doesn't. He doesn't? No, I think he works in TV.

Well, what was Florio talking about then earlier? I don't know. Florio- Florio was talking about Piolli- Little fuck knows what Florio's talking about. Well, okay. So Florio was talking about Piolli being very weird and cryptic on NFL Network today.

Okay. About whether or not Tom Brady's going to play for the- Like he knew something. Got it. In other words. Got it. Because I was to say, that would be the dumbest move of all time

to go to the Raiders when he's now- I think he probably looked at it and was like, wait, everyone's in the AFC now? I just have to beat Aaron Rodgers, who chokes every time he's in the playoffs. And maybe Matthew Stafford who, okay, yeah, they won the Super Bowl. The Bucks, they're playing the Falcons,

the Panthers and the Saints who don't know what they're doing. I don't know. He probably was like, hey, I could just come back and I'll be in the playoffs guaranteed. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that the way that it played out,

it didn't really surprise anybody that Tom's going to come back. He just didn't have to do it tonight. The way that the retirement was set up and then taken back and then set up again, it seemed fishy at the time. He did thank Hank though. How does this impact his thank you message to you, Hank?

Oh, it's exciting. It just gives him another chance. Yeah, it does. It's double the- Total redo, total redo that he gets to do it for you. I just, I think the guy's just addicted to football and even 40 days of like, he probably went,

it is exactly the way it went. He went on a vacation for like three weeks. He got back from vacation. He took his kids to school for maybe a week or two in a row. And he was like, wait, this is it now? And I think people want like, they retire so they don't have to work out.

But I'm sure he's like still working out. And he's like still active. And he's like, wait, why am I still doing this if I'm not going to play when I can just play? Yeah, Alex Guerrero's still showing up at his house at 5.45 in the morning and giving him deep tissue massages.

Like he's like, fuck it, I'm going to play. And again, it's like, they just, he just rolls out and he's in the playoffs. Do you think that Tom Brady spent the last 40 days like actually trying other foods besides- No chance. The rare bison still like eating buffalo heart? I think he's always on call.

So he was like, even in retirement, he's like, I might come back at any time. He'll eat like that forever. It's going to be very funny to see Antonio Brown try to walk back everything that he said about him. He should come back. And be like, let's come on, let's get everybody back. The missing piece is just Gronk

and getting Allie Marpette back. Who, I wouldn't be shocked. Tom Brady has that ability. But let's not let him steal everything. We can talk about him later on this week. Let's talk about brackets. Oh, I thought you were going to get to Kirk Cousins. You hear this?

You hear this? You hear this? You hear this? The bag king of all time. You hear this? That's a bracket. There's nothing like printing out a bracket. We have our brackets.

Jake, you're going to be leaned on heavily here. I do want you to just give me real quick. I'm looking at the bracket. In the Midwest region, there's a team that, I don't think they should be there. They're my number three seed. Said they shouldn't have been. They shouldn't be in this bracket.

What is going on? The finale of this storyline, Wisconsin has officially made the NCAA tournament. Okay, so hashtag Jake was wrong. We're going to get to with Rothstein about the brackets. There's just something about selection Sunday. I know last year we had it, but it was also still weird

because there was the COVID tournament, the bubble tournament, whatever you want to call it. Just seeing the different regions, seeing the names get announced, it's just beautiful. It really feels like we're finally, it's been exactly two years, we're finally back. I miss when they did it alphabetically. And they just went all over the map.

It made no sense whatsoever. Everybody was so pissed off. This was a great bracket reveal. I thought that CBS did a phenomenal job. Got right to it. Showing me the regions that, yeah. In fact, I think the only intro that they gave, I think it was Clark Kellogg saying,

nobody wants to hear me talk, hear the teams. That's beautiful, that's perfect. That's all you need to do. Looking through it, what are your knee-jerk reactions? I'll give you two knee-jerk reactions. One, they fuck Coach K. He specifically requested that he play his games in Chicago in the Midwest.

They did not listen to him. They fucked him over, they sent him out West. I think that the West is the toughest region right now. Oh, I think it's the East. No, I think the West is. I think that there's land mines. A breed of disagree. There's land mines in the West.

And then I think that Wisconsin, as it stands right now, actually looks like they're gonna go through the Midwest. Okay, I know what you're doing, and I, whatever. I know, I told you this before we recorded. And I've got a future on Wisconsin, too. It's fine, it's fine, it's good. Would you not, yeah, Big Cat, would you disagree that if you were to pick any of the regions,

the Midwest is probably, right now, the one that you would want Wisconsin? Well, it's the most chaotic. And obviously they have a home game in Milwaukee. It's gonna be the last game on Friday, so it was gonna be fucked up, and it's gonna be great, electric. But yeah, no, I, listen, I've been very honest

about what I thought about this Wisconsin team. It's been an awesome season. I've enjoyed every second of the ride, except maybe the Nebraska and Michigan State game. If they can get to the street 16, I'll be very, very happy. I don't expect anything past that. It's all gravy past that.

So when, if they lose in the first two games, and people are like, they're frauds, I'm telling you right now, I don't expect a ton. I could be, well, I'm not gonna let my hopes get up. They got a great draw, but I'm not gonna let my hopes get up. You've tweeted separate thoughts from what you just said. Then my hopes got up. Yeah, well, my hopes are up.

No, but I think what you said. But I'm gonna stay guarded because PFT's gonna troll me. You're gonna laugh at me. I swear to God, I'm not trolling you. Jake's gonna be like, they're gonna be down by fucking 15 to Colgate with the under four minute mark in the second half. He's like, they still got a chance.

And I'm gonna- I'm gonna war fucking kill myself. I'm gonna war two with four minutes left. Yeah. Yeah, Jake's gonna say- My optimism is realistic. You should change. They got a chance.

You're pre-triggered about Wisconsin right now because I'm being honestly supportive. And I do think, you said to yourself, like they have the best draw that you could have hoped for. Yeah. It doesn't mean it's gonna shake out. That's all I'm saying. I think that, here's what I'll say.

If it's not Wisconsin that comes out of that region, I'm going to call whatever team comes out of that region, possibly fraudulent. Yes. Because it is the chaos region. It is the chaos region. I'm, I just wanna enjoy my tournament experience and I feel like there's just so much,

so many people just wanna see me be miserable and I will be miserable eventually. Let me have two games. Let me get to the next, let me get to the second weekend and then you can watch me die in a puddle. Is that so much sad? So you're looking past Colgate.

No, I'm saying let me, I'm actually doing the opposite. I think every game is tough and I would love to get to the second weekend. Just, I know there's a lot of people waiting to shit down my throat. Can you let me get, let me get a little air before you shit down my throat.

I think that Tennessee got fucked too. They did. Tennessee got dry fucked, there are three seed, they should have been a two seed, should have been one of the top two seeds. Duke fucked them. In my opinion, Duke fucked, Duke, yes, Duke fucked Tennessee.

Tennessee should have that two seed. They should be on the other side of the bracket. I would argue that, like, I do think the East is the toughest region and I would say I would probably rather be a three seed in Tennessee's spot than the two seed where Kentucky is. As weird as it sounds. Like if you wanted to switch,

you have a, the team that just won the title last year, you have a team that went to the final four last year in UCLA, a Purdue team that everyone had is like a one or a two seed till the end of the season. Murray State is no fucking slouch. So I think Kentucky got a pretty tough job. Virginia Tech just won the ACC tournament. Yeah, like that's,

so that would be the solace for Tennessee fans. If you had to switch, you would probably have switched with Kentucky. I would rather be a three where I'm at in the South than a two in the East where Kentucky is. Also, Coach K, I love to put him out West. It's like he's just going coast to coast in his losing tour.

I want him to get to the sweet 16 so we can let fans out West get an experience. You know, he did it. He did it in Durham for his last game against UNC. He came up to Brooklyn, gave everyone in New York a nice little like taste of the losing tour. Now he's going to go all the way out to the West Coast, San Francisco, your last chance to see Coach K lose.

It's going to be great. I feel bad for Jake too, because Jake, his catamounts, they have the must bus in the first round. Your old friend. Yeah, verbal name, my brain and our handshake. It's just screwed up. Wait, what?

Your brain and your handshake. My brain. Oh, your handshake with must. Yeah, got it. Your hug, it wasn't a handshake. Whatever it was. Your hug with must. What's the brain?

Where's the verbal mean? Just like that's what my brain looks like. Yeah, I can tell. Okay, got it, got it, got it, that makes sense. Got it, got it, got it. No, that's, you see, that's what I'm saying, like I think I just like the coaches in the West. You got Gonzaga number one, see, then you've got Hurley,

you've got the must bus, you've got Nato's that brings a lot of stuff with them. You've got Penny. You've got Penny up there. Yeah, that's the, that is the bracket of coaches. Yeah, yeah. Okay, what else? Izzo, everyone knows he's automatic in March.

Yes, that's true. We have the Foster Lawyer revenge game. That's one of the storylines. Davidson's. Kay and Izzo potentially second down. Yeah, Kay and Izzo would be great for Izzo to take him out one last time. The Mr. Michigan basketball player of 2018,

Foster Lawyer, who played for Michigan State, transferred this past spring and now stars for Davidson. So we've got that little storyline. I got a question for you, big cat. Have we forgotten about Villanova? No, I actually haven't been my final four. Yeah, I do too.

So I definitely have not forgotten about Villanova. I think we, as in the royal we, America has forgotten about the cats. I have not, I have definitely not. I think they're definitely prime. They have everything set except for maybe depth, which you could say is overrated as long as you stay out of foul trouble.

I think the first time that Glaspia plays in this tournament, you're going to get a lot of people that haven't seen him playing. What, Jake? You added an extra A on Glaspia. Oh, that's a cut. Yeah, I was thinking of the full back. But the first time he plays in the tournament,

you're going to get a lot of people being like, oh, this guy's back again. Yeah, yeah, because he tore his ACL last year and he's been around for forever. I like how Jake smugly laughed at the minor mispronunciation. Yeah, they win the Big East. We also have, if you have not been online

in the last three days, this podcast has a new love affair with a certain point guard from UAB. His name is Jordan Walker, but he goes by the nickname Jelly. We pretty much, it just started with a random live bet on Friday where we had the whole room live bet UAB

in the like first five minutes of the game. They went to three over times, he scored 40. We then bet him again on Saturday night. He's electric. Well, willing them to overtime twice. Yeah, on his shoulders because he had all his big men foul out. So it was the jelly show.

I think at the start of the first overtime, Jerry was like, oh, this kid's just gonna shoot over and over again. We're like, yep. That's what we want. And it's gonna be awesome. He just came out there gunning. He's the perfect March Madness guy.

Like there is certain guys, I always think of like, when you think of the perfect March Madness story, it's like Wally Zerbiak, when he went to the sweet 16, the guy who takes his team to a certain level just by being awesome and being unafraid. And that is Jelly Walker.

So shout out Jelly Walker, UAB. We are UAB fans now and Andy Kennedy, their coach. So let's hope, let's hope they beat Houston. They got a tough first round matchup. If I were to look at which five seed would I want Jelly going up against? It probably would not have been the Cougs. But I still think Jelly's gonna do it.

We're team Jelly fam, we can't go against Jelly. He was too much fun to watch. Matthew Gelvedova is what people are calling him. That's like taking over. Jersey Jelly, he is from Jersey. Yeah, so yeah, we have a new love affair. One other, Jake, give us your other big picture things. Duke got lucky.

I think Duke. That was an awesome game by the way in Brooklyn. The thing with Duke? Yes. Virginia Tech. Couture, started six for six from three. Coach K assaulted John Shire. He did, he slapped him. He did, Hank, you weren't watching if you missed that.

I saw it. He assaulted him. Yeah, it was not a salt. Yeah, it was. Duke has to beat Gonzaga twice to go to the final four. This season. It's tough to do. Oh, this season, yes, revenge game.

That is a revenge game for Gonzaga. You think they're gonna get the lead eight? Assuming you do. Talk. I think I'm gonna take Texas second one. Don't take the lead eights. I think Gonzaga beats Duke in the lead eight. Okay.

I think they're gonna lose Texas. Maybe to C.S. Fullerton. That was a great game last night, the championship game. Yeah, how do you not get a shot off? Yeah, that was crazy. Princeton had the same thing happen. Not getting a shot off at the end is one of the worst feelings.

I got Duke, if you wanna hear my Duke thoughts, it's gonna be a Coach K revenge tour of its own. Duke versus Yukon, a lead eight. Oh. Duke goes to the final four. Oh, okay, Hank. Play the hits. NCAA knows what they're doing.

So Duke takes down Michigan State and then takes down Yukon. I like that. Takes down Michigan State, takes down Yukon, takes down Kentucky. And then has to go Kentucky final four and then B2 for the championship. Wisconsin.

See, I'll fuck you. I think the South. NCAA rigged. The South region has a lot of hot teams. You have the one, two, three, and five all won their conference tournament. But all of the momentum, what does that mean? But also maybe not rested.

Yes. Okay, that's where it starts. Yeah, their legs are weak. Yeah. What do you think it means? I don't know. What do you think it means? I mean, those were all teams that obviously had momentum

but now it's going to kind of cancel out because they're all bunched together. So Jake, let me ask you, in the first four, if you had to pick one of those teams to win two games, who would it be? I think Indiana's got a chip on their shoulder to restore blue blood dominance. That's just the storyline.

I like it. Yeah. I like the pants too. Love the warm up. Of course. I am personally going to be boycotting. I haven't figured out which one of these games to boycott, but in solidarity with Tennessee, with Volunteer Nation,

I'm going to boycott one of the first four games of this year's tournament. You can't do, yeah, it's easy. It's Texas Southern. Okay, I'm out. Yeah, the Texas Southern. Brian is Peter Kiss. Yeah, leading scorer in the country.

They might be in Arizona. The talkiest fuck ever, like of all time. They might be in Arizona. One other thing I just wanted to quickly say, Tony Real, I said this, but I agree. He said the 16 seeds having to play the playing games unbecoming of the tournament, they won their conference, let them in, leave the plans for that at large.

That is kind of bullshit. If you win your conference tournament, Yeah, no, I agree. You get an at large bid. Because you don't really... They get to play on Tuesday. Yeah, those playing games don't really feel, I like that they expanded the field

just because it's more teams, more fun, whatever. Remember UCLA went to the final four from it last year. So you can't say that those teams aren't going to do anything. But it should be the bigger conference teams that don't need anything. I hate how they do, I'll expand on that point. I also hate how they have good lower conference teams matched up in the first round.

I think that's bullshit. Like I think Murray State playing San Francisco is stupid. They should split those up, yeah. They should split those up. I like to see, you like to see the power five or power six in college basketball go against the smaller schools. That's what makes March Madness fun.

So I hate when they do that. All right, so let's go around the room. Let's see what the final fours are. Okay, I'll start. Gonzaga, Kentucky, Villanova, and Kansas is my final four. Two ones and two twos. Jake. I actually have three of the same fours, big time.

Oh fuck, all right. Wait, my bracket is busted. Probably. No, I'm just kidding, everyone's bracket sucks. Yeah, Gonzaga, Kentucky, Villanova, Iowa. Ooh, the hottest team in the country right now. Okay, Hank. Duke.

Kentucky, Wisconsin, Tennessee. I had Wisconsin, Iowa, lead eight, big 10 matchup. I did strategically fill out my Wisconsin bracket in terms of content that I desire. Right, so that's a perfect story. Factor that in, yeah. Right, right, right, right, right, right. Bubba, did you fill out a bracket?

I have Yukon, Nova, Iowa, and Kentucky. Ooh, okay. Spicy. Billy. I got Purdue, Arizona, Gonzaga, and Iowa. Okay, and then PFT. I got Gonzaga, UCLA, Nova, Wisconsin. So Gonzaga's gonna make their first final four,

we all have them. Yep. Not me. Let me ask you guys, the Dukaters in the room, what, like, and it's not gonna happen, so I'm gonna enjoy it as it's trings along, but where could Coach K lose that's the most enjoyable for a Dukater?

Every single round. But like, pick a round. Every round. Every single round. If he lost in the first round, it'd be incredible. If he lost to Coach K, it'd be incredible. If he lost to Texas Tech, it'd be incredible. If he lost to Gonzaga, it'd be incredible.

I actually think. Kentucky, incredible. I think maybe the best way for him to lose, because if he loses to Izzo. My answer's firm. If he loses to Izzo, there's gonna be a big hug fest, and it'll be like, okay, two gladiators going at it one last time, that's gonna suck.

If he loses to Davidson, against a bunch of players that wanted to go to Duke that he didn't recruit, that would be awesome. I'm, yeah, no, I'm sticking with my answer. Every single round. Fuller team. Every single round. Fuller team would be incredible.

I mean, he's lost. Pickups, that's twice before. Mercer and, uh. Yeah, he's been coaching for 60 years, Jake. That's twice in the last decade. Twice in the last decade. Actually, no, I take it back. I take it all back.

The best place for Coach K. to lose in this bracket would be against Vermont, and then Jake giving Hank a power handshake afterwards. Great game. Nothing to be ashamed of, Hank. Coach K. fought hard. Wish he could have won, too. I also wouldn't hate if Memphis beat them in the Elite Eight,

and every Duke fan was like, Memphis cheats, and they pay their recruits, just ignoring like Zion Williamson and every recruit in Duke history. That would be very delicious. Should we do a- We've got some clarity. Oh, no, it's every round for me, though.

The answer is, as long as he loses every single round, I will make that day my favorite day. Should we do a part of my take contest? Nah. Loser has to drive to New Orleans. Yeah, nah. I'm just so excited to have a bracket, even though I ripped it.

No, I can't read it. What about you guys? You guys want to do a contest? What do you, what contest would you like to do? I don't know. Contests are just fun. Yes, I agree. Okay, I mean, I don't think we want to do a bracket,

like do you want to- Maybe we announce it on Wednesday's show. Okay. Send us your ideas of good punishments, and we'll pick one of those. And then, but what are we going to do a bracket, and who has the least amount of points? Yeah.

Yeah. Then people can just take 16 seeds if they want to do the punishment. Correct, good point, James. Nobody would do that. Good point. The PFT is going to have Georgia State, and Brian and his final four.

I like how they're playing. I like the Bulldogs, what can I say? If Brian wins. Against Wright State, you haven't beaten Arizona? Moneyline. I'll be taking that. I'm just so excited for Thursday. And Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday, really.

And they got us to wait the whole weekend. Oh, it's the worst time, the worst pause. I actually said it on the drive over. I was like, if they give us the last game on Friday, I'm going to be so upset because all the energy you use on Thursday and Friday, and then to have to wait for your team to play. The perfect time for your team to play in the tournament

is Thursday at like four o'clock. Because you get like a little game, a few games under your belt. And then if you can win that game, you get to watch a day and a half of basketball with just like not a care in the world. I would like Thursday, the first evening game. Because you get like a little prep time.

Well, not the first. That one's not a real game. The game, they start like basically when everyone's still eating dinner. That's always like, they'll do like a one versus 16. So the one that's at like seven o'clock, because you get enough time. It's not going to sneak up on you.

It could sneak up on you if it was at the end of the afternoon games on Thursday. Yeah, I'm just pumped too. Pumped to see impractical jokers show up on my TV. Pumped for like going to the gym in the morning. And the TVs are still left on TNT or whatever. And they're playing the worst television shows ever created at nine o'clock in the morning.

Just the whole environment. I love March. Yeah, March is the best. All right, should we do Who's Back? Who's Back is brought to you by our friends at Visible.com. It is Visible's taking over the entire episode today. So it's the only ad we have saved today by switching to Visible,

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And you gotta go check it out if you want a great wireless plan, Visible.com. All right, we're gonna do more bracket talk, obviously, with John Rostin. Let's do Who's Back, and then we have Billy's Final Four on the other side of John Rostin. Shout out, Kelly Martin, by the way, for booking that.

Right? Shout out. Yeah, we wanted to make sure that the big mic got a shout out on that one. She got us, John Rostin. That's a fact. So have her on Twitter and say thank you. Who's Back?

We get to Sean Watson. Yes. Obviously, a lot of stuff going on. We shouldn't have said it that way. Yes. And with, yeah, so his, he was not, there was no charges filed, there was no criminal charges that were found.

Careful, Shefty. And then Sheftor ate the trash hard. He said, this is why to Sean Watson, from the beginning, welcome to police investigation, he felt he knew that the truth would come out, and today, a grand jury did not charge him of any of the criminal complaints. Yeah, and then he followed it up a couple hours later

by saying, this was a very poor. Or after the internet dunked on him for like three hours straight. So he just got, he just got shit on by everybody with a Twitter account. And then he said, this was a poorly worded tweet. After consulting with people that know more about the legal process, I would like to update it.

How little did Sheftor know about the legal process to just have like a bare minimum. I've seen the wire one time all the way through. I know that a grand jury is just like, they either charge you with a crime, or they don't think they have enough evidence to charge you with a crime. It's, they should declare people innocent though.

If you can prove it, in a sense, there should be a third thing that they add to it. He was found innocent of all charges. I did see one reply that made me laugh. They're like, I would have loved to see Sheftor's tweet after OJ was, OJ got off. Yeah, this is why OJ welcomed the gloves being brought into the courtroom.

He was nowhere near the apartment that night. Yeah, Shefty. He also has been wrong about Tom Brady. I think that retroactively, he loses that scoop, right? Yeah, he was being real. He was really being very core the other day too. Yeah. Very core.

Very core. But people are saying Steelers, the Saints have reached out, the Panthers. I've heard Seahawks. Seahawks. Seahawks. He's a good culture fit. He replies.

Yeah, Steelers would be just perfect. Jameson and Dishon is Steelers. Steelers fans can easily take care of that. So there was a time back in like 2015, 2014, I went up to a Steelers pre-season game when they signed Mike Vick to be the backup. And there was a lady standing outside the stadium holding a poster of Steelers fan.

And at the top was a picture of Big Ben at the bottom was Mike Vick said, hey Steelers, this is what a real quarterback looks like with the arrow pointing to Big Ben, protesting Michael Vick being on the team. I love it. Also, Big Ben also had no criminal charges but still got suspended.

Innocent. Yeah, he was found. This is why Big Ben welcomed the legal investigation. There's been plenty of examples of people not getting charged. Right. But still getting suspended. Right, correct, correct.

Oh, we forgot to, it hasn't felt like 100 years since we've last been in the studio, Clio Mack did get traded. Yes, so. And that was one of those situations where people wanted me to be mad, but I wasn't because the Bears need to fix everything.

They need to tear it all down, build it back up. Yeah, I wasn't mad because I don't know what the point of going like seven and 10 with Clio Mack is. Yeah, just probably the only reason you should be mad, they probably should have done this a year ago. Yeah, well, and people were mad because the hall wasn't great. It was a second and a sixth,

but it was more about the salary. Also, I think that's more just like on name. Clio Mack is probably gonna be great for the charges for a year or two. He's getting older. He's been injured a lot. That's just the reality of it. Like it's a guy who's 31 with a lot of money on his salary

who's been injured for essentially three years like off and on. You're not gonna get a ransom for him. Right, it's like people don't understand that football players are depreciating assets. Correct. So just because you paid X and Y for Clio Mack three years ago doesn't mean

that you should expect to get that. Correct. But unless it's a quarterback that goes out of the division for two first round picks, then if you get them hypothetically for like two third round picks, that's a steal, LMAO. Also, Mark Cooper to the Browns.

Yeah, which I, that doesn't, Mark Cooper is firmly in my mind, a guy who like just is perpetually not as good as his hype. He was a Heisman candidate. And he's truly, People still think that. A total mind bender with age, because he's 27.

And I thought he was like 35. 27? Yeah, he's 27. Holy shit. He's 27, dude. Yeah, I was like, man, he's a mind bender. Well, he's been around a little bit. He's been around for a long time.

He was the fourth pick in the draft. He's good. He's just not, he's a guy who you will forever want to be a clear cut number one, and he will never be that. So when they made the trade, I was like, this is actually,

I like the combination of Amari Cooper and Jarvis Landry in Cleveland. And then the next tweet after that from Schefter was, they're giving Landry permission to seek a trade elsewhere. Yes. And it's like, well, okay. So I guess Cooper is your number one. Someone told me a stat that we'll have to check,

you could check it. Amari Cooper and Calvin Ridley are the exact same age and they never played together in Alabama. Someone said that in my replies. That's a reply guy thing that we'll have to check. But they're both 27. But yeah, Amari Cooper being 27 makes no sense. You could also make the argument though

that having Amari Cooper on your roster makes whoever the number two receiver is better than Amari Cooper. Yeah, that's true. He elevates the next guy. So yeah. And again, he's not bad. It's just, you know what I'm saying,

like you're always wanting Amari Cooper to be the guy. And I don't think he ever will be the guy. I mean, CD Lam's better than him. Right. And you could say like Gallop had, he's been better than him recently too. Although that one is weird cause I think there was some Cowboys fans

that like, yeah, Michael Gallop's a tinny. He tours ACL like second or last week of the season. Yeah. It felt like it was whatever I made that future on the Cowboys. He toured like four hours. I forgot, I forgot the Gallop. I need to do a reset on NFL news.

Yeah. Amari Cooper, 12 through 14 and a Calvin Ridley, 15 through 17. Same age. Never played together. That's wild. And Alabama. That's truly wild.

So the fact that Ridley got suspended for gambling on football, if Amari Cooper got suspended for, like when I hear it's Ridley, I'm like, that's a young kid. He's got a lot to learn. If Cooper got suspended for gambling on football, I'd be like, that fucking dumb ass should know better.

He knows better. He's been around forever. Yeah. It's a truly mind-bending stat of the day. All right, PFT, your who's back? My who's back of the week is Pete Davidson. Oh yeah, Skeet. Skeet Davidson is back.

Got into a little text battle with Kanye West and then hit him with the ultimate walkoff. There's no coming back from this. I'm in bed with your wife. Brutal. I'm in bed with your wife. There's nothing that you can say to that. Yeah.

There's absolutely like, you can't come back with your mom. That's boss level, come back. So thoughts and prayers to Kanye. With the picture. With the picture. Yeah, that's the over the top part. It's like the picture of him in bed.

But there was no picture of Kim in the picture. But you'd assume she's there in bed with him. You would assume. Yeah. Now that's a tough one to come back from. I don't know how he does that. All right, my who's back is Russell Westbrook Slander. We had Westbrook and him asking people not to say Westbrook.

Well, we had one further this weekend. So a high school in Illinois, just won the state title. One of the best teams ever. They only lost. They won every game in Illinois. They only lost to Brownies team in like a game that they played on ESPN too. Glenbard West, they won the state title.

They were playing Bowlingbrook a couple of days ago. The coach of Bowlingbrook said, I'd rather be playing the Lakers in Glenbard West. We could back off Russell Westbrook, let him shoot and get some rebounds. There's not a guy on the Glenbard West roster. We can do that too. Oh, my God.

A high school coach said that. That's brutal. Brutal, a brutal burn. The thing is, like, for all the complaining that he's doing about Russell Westbrook, which I understand. That's his mother and his father's name. I know, that's what I'm saying. Yes, in theory, it actually makes complete sense.

If you take us out of the sports bubble that we grow up in and that we just have a common understanding of like, yeah, if you come into my team stadium, I'm going to make fun of you. You would never say that to somebody like in person walking down the street. But if you completely remove yourself from that environment, it makes a little bit of sense in a bubble.

But he could just stop shooting the ball. He should just not shoot the ball. But just to have high school coaches start roasting you, being like, I'd rather, it's easier to game plan for Russell Westbrook. By the way, did you see the t-shirts that they were selling in Philadelphia when the Nets came back there? It was just a picture of a penis

with Ben Simmons' face on it and just said, I think it's like complete dickhead. Yeah. And they were just selling outside the stadium and families were walking by and be like, you got that in a youth small for that kid? 20 bucks. I love Philly.

Yeah, then they got 40-piece. Yeah, they did. They get 40-piece and the guy who dresses a full baby who's had a pacifier, Philly is the best. It really, there is no city in America that can just turn the hate up to that level. And they're already turning on hard and it's beautiful. Are they?

Yeah. Like, it's a one game? They got 40-piece. Wait, Hank, who's turning on Harden? Everyone I follow from, I'm up to date with the Philly people. They're not happy with me. Hank is like what people thought Russia did to our elections, Hank is doing to Philly,

the disinformation to tear them apart. It's true. It's true to us and Philly. Hank, you should just start funneling this info to Billy and have Billy act as one of your liaisons to amplify your message. Hank's got a bunch of burners that he's just replying to everyone's tweets.

Harden's stats. Yeah, Harden doesn't even like it in Philly. I saw him out. Well, they got 40-piece and then he was out at the club. Like, that's what happened. Well, that's what James Harden does. Yeah, that's how he heals. That's how he heals.

It was truly, it was a playoff performance from him. He went, what, three for 12? He had 11 points. And then afterwards, he goes out to a strip club. That is, that's playoff, that's playoff Jay. Also, speaking of NBA, Kairi's move today was awesome. Showing up to the game in Brooklyn with no mask, sitting on the sideline and basically making

a mockery of the entire New York City mandate, which makes no sense. The Kairi Irving can't play, but he can sit. And he was also in the locker room. He's allowed in the locker room. He's allowed on the sideline. He's not allowed on the floor. It is dumb.

The only thing that would be maybe dumber, even though I'm not even sure this would be dumber, if they let him play, if he kept a mask on, but put the mask under his chin. I've seen some of those leagues where you have to have a mask on the court, but it doesn't have to be over your mouth and nose. Right, I made the mistake of tweeting about it.

And it was my mentions were just, it's like a moth to a flame. You just got to talk about COVID. You got to do what I do when I tweet about Miley Cyrus and just turn off replies whenever you mention anything that has to do with the mask. Well, it was such an innocuous comment. I was like, this is stupid.

This is stupid that Kairi can be there and he can't play. And I think what's happening now is since COVID is slowly escaping the psyche and it's not really talked about anymore, there's a group of people online who just, they've spent so much time, so much of their energy the last year and a half talking about COVID that now that there's not a lot of tweets to reply to,

if you just put one out there, they all just come rushing to that tweet. It was like 400 replies in like 15 minutes. Did the Nets win with Kairi? Or did they win because of Kairi? They're not telling you the right stats in the papers, folks. Oh man, these people. We need to, we should actually do a test

and see if Billy can be a lightning rod and tweet about COVID and see how many replies he can get. Yeah, Billy, you're now our clearinghouse for our most problematic takes. Because if you tweet them out, everyone's just like, oh, Billy's dumb. Billy's like Calvin Ridley, he doesn't know any better. I wanna test that theory.

I wanna have you tweet a COVID take this week and see how many replies you can get, just to see how many people swarm to it because they have nothing else to talk about. All right, Billy, your who's back. My who's back in the week is falconry. In Japan, there is now a huge movement. There's a bunch of crows that have been damaging

their solar panels, taking stones and cracking their solar panels. So there's been a huge boom in falconry. So they have a bunch of guys who are taking falcons out and like hunting down crows that are damaging the solar panels. So it's good to see like age old traditions sort of come back to be repurposed in new ways.

I like it, there's no modern replacement for a falcon, for a bird of prey. You could try to get a drone, but it doesn't have talons, it doesn't get hungry. How do crows attack a solar panel? They're like dropping stones on the solar panels. Oh, like the coordinated attack. Yeah, I think they're big, you know.

There was also a viral tweet of the guy who was on a plane and there was falconry people sitting next to him. Oh yeah, like the Saudi princes all have them. And I've said this before many years ago, but like what happens if the plane goes down? Do they let them out? Yeah, you gotta open the door. Right?

I don't think they, I don't think they would think that quickly. I would. I would hope so. Save the falcons. Yeah, if there's a bird on, it's like if you're in a submarine and if you get an aquarium, you smash it real quick. Right.

Let them free. You know how they capture the falcons? Like if you want to get into falconry. How do they get them out? Or do they just sack them out, Ryan? You couldn't walk. The air pressure I think would suck everybody out. Yeah.

Like how would you? I think the bird would just realize the sky's out there. Yeah, like the flight flies. And the plane is spiraling down to the crash. We got some falcons on this plane, let them out. Standing up? Yeah, get them out. I think there are protocols if you're a flight attendant

and you notice a bird getting onto the plane, you say to yourself, okay, in the event of a crash, I'm sending this guy home. Yeah, we're letting them out. Yeah. Something to think about. You know how they, how you get into falconry? If you acquire your first falcon,

you don't just go out and buy one at the falcon store or from a pet store. Don't tell me you gotta fuck it. No, you have to go out into nature and set up a trap and capture it in the wild yourself. They won't just give you, if you want to be a falconer, you have to like. It's like avatar.

You gotta learn it. Which I haven't seen. I like it. I like that. You just gotta go catch your own falcon. Avatar is like a combination of catching and fucking. Yeah. And then it's yours.

They link the same thing. I think that's how they do it, right? The avatars, they link their head piece, their hair pieces. They haven't seen it in a long time. They're braids. Yeah, they're braided. Jake, you're who's back? Like who's back?

It's the NIT. Oh, I was gonna say, if this isn't college basketball related, I'm gonna be very upset. The NIT, NCBI brackets are out. I'm filling out both brackets because why not? My final four for the NIT. Iona.

Okay. You can go to the garden. Oklahoma, they were a little hot this year. Last week. Tenor Graves. Graves. BYU, WCC. And then Wake Forest.

Wake Forest had the coach of the year and the player of the year, the ACC, and they missed it. That's why I actually final four. Maybe the saddest part about the March Madness is the amount we think about first four in, first four out. And then when they announce the bracket, they'll show for one second, like these teams just barely missed

and then we'll just completely erase it from our brain. We'd be like, what, Dayton, Xavier, who the fuck cares? Like they have this whole, they're pleading, and like, you know, our good friend Casey Smith is saying like, Texas A&M deserved to be in. They are completely escaped from my memory. I got a bracket now. So I do feel a little bad for the first four out.

And usually there was one team that's like, oh, they got screwed. There was no like, you don't feel bad. Yeah, I mean, Texas A&M, like they, you thought they did enough with that run, but. That's my NIT final four. I don't care about conference journeys. Jay, they don't.

We gotta get you in touch with the NITs too. He's that guy that I was talking about a couple of weeks ago, the guy that's obsessed with the NIT. He's already got his predictions out right now. He's got the hoos. Okay. He's got the hoos right now. Virginia.

Yeah, Virginia is a six seed at Mississippi State. Oh wow, slapping their face. Yeah, I don't know if I couldn't confirm this. I don't know if there's a third place game or not. They had it last year. Oh yeah, there usually is, right? Yeah, but it's back at the garden. Yeah, I don't know.

No, there was at the garden, I want to say. Really? Yeah, I want to say that. I don't know. Do you have any news from your dilemma from your firefest? Guys. Are we waiting? Oh yeah.

I am credentialed for the 2022 final. Oh yes, let's go, Jake. And what about us? Oh wow. I'm the only one who got approved. Oh, no man left behind. Why is that? What do you reckon that is?

Interesting. Well, first off, I put in the request before I talked about it on the show, but. For all of us? For all of us? For me and my co-hosts. Both of them? That would be all of us in this room.

I thought we were a family, love familiar. You guys are family. That's what LeBron says. But like more like cousins? So you guys are my family. So they're like, Ben Chauvin's your brothers and we're like, you're like. We're like, we're Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram.

We're, we're, you just traded us away. Never. Okay, well that's how it feels right now, LeBron. Jake? I feel bad. Okay, that's fine. That's enough. That's all we want.

I just wanted Jake to have. I'm excited. I feel bad so that we could be like, no, don't feel bad. Don't feel bad. It's going to be a lot of fun. I also, who's back? Like I have to, I have to do an adjustment. Being a gambler and being around Jake is oil and water

because this guy has optimism through the roof. But it is realistic. If you're down four or four minutes left, like you still are alive. I don't know. There was a game, I think it was on Friday night and it was coming down to the end and a lot of us had the over on it.

And the guy went up for a dunk and it got stuck between the rim and the backboard. And everybody was like, fuck, cause we needed points. And Jake stays up, he's like, it's a wedgie. Cause Jake loves seeing a wedgie. It was like seeing a score of Gami in the wild. By the way, do we have score of Gami for the tournament? I doubt it.

There's just so many tournament games. For sure. Sounds like there should be one. Oh, and I'd like to retract, retraction notice in IT stew does not have the who's winning. That was somebody else he quoted. His bracket challenge link is coming shortly. He's polishing up his Google form right now.

Follow in IT underscores stew on Twitter. He's the only person that cares this much about the in IT. I love it. I love it. So I'm excited for the final four. Thank you guys for the support. Yes. And how's your optimism going to be in when we're gambling?

It's whatever you want me. Tell me right now. No, I want you to be yourself. I'm going to be upset at you, but I want you to be yourself. Okay. But one time maybe you'll win a game. But I'll say this for Jake. Come on, Jake.

Credit to Jake. Credit to Jake. He knows that what's said in between the lines is not real feelings. Right. So you are good with that. Yeah. When I'm like, fuck you, Jake, stop being so optimistic.

You know, like in 30 minutes, I'll be fine. Yeah. Yeah. So we're good. We were all excited. Look at all these blogs that the IT stew has done about the potential bracket. The potential bracket in the last four days.

I saw that St. John's requested a home game and then they never, they didn't even make the NIT. That was, that's pretty embarrassing. He goes by Joe Stunardi. Love it. Perfect. He's probably been around so long. He like remembers when the NIT was the tournament.

Was the tournament. That's always the best when your dads tell you, you know, the NCAA tournament, the real one used to be the NIT. Yeah, the NIT. It's more prestigious. Yeah. What was that?

Someone's find my phone thing. It's not me. It was Billy. It was Billy. All right. Let's do John Rostin. Before we get John Rostin. Visible, right?

Taking over the whole episode, PFT. Yeah. We love Visible here. Visible is sponsoring this entire episode. You can get family plan savings with no family. If you got a cell phone, maybe you're right out of college. You're looking to move off your family's old plan

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Aaron Rodgers is actually perfect for this. Visible is as low as $25 a month for a single line. That's insanely low. 25 bucks a month for a single line. Don't be the person that's, you know, you turn 27, 28, 29. Don't be the one person in your friend group that is still on your parents' line

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Unlimited 5G data powered by Verizon. So you know that it's actually good service, good coverage for data management practices. Learn more at Visible.com. Additional terms apply. And now here is John Rothstein. Okay, we now welcome on one of our favorite guests. One of our favorite times of the year.

It is Bracket Sunday. We have the man, the myth, the legend. John Rothstein in studio. He's got his bracket. He just took his bracket out of his suit coat pocket. That's right. We're ready to roll. This is March.

This is March. The month before April. Well, I wanted to ask before we get into the bracket, thoughts on Tom Brady? With the Patriots? No. He unretired. I thought he was always a patriot.

No, he's on the box last year and the year before. He's just unretired. When did he go to Tampa Bay? Two years ago. Then he retired like a month ago. Was this before or after Tim Clu stepped down at Iona? It was after. No, I was right around the same time.

That's probably why you missed it, actually. Yeah, man, because I mean, when you go to the NCAA tournament six times in nine years out of the Mac, that's pretty impressive. I know. Oh wow, I didn't know that about Tom Brady. He unretired. So he played in Tampa and now he's gonna play for the...

No, he's back in Tampa. He unretired. He stole Bracket Sunday from everyone. Okay, well, not for me. I had no idea that he was in Tampa in the first place. Okay, so there you go. That's perfect. All right, so...

Well, there's another piece of big news that I feel like we should address today just by the way the universe works via happenstance. Bar Coastal closed down today. Yeah, it's a somber day. It's a sad day. My wife was there all day paying homage and I pardoned my take sweatshirt.

Love it. That's very nice. And just, you know, it kind of felt like, honestly, the last episode of Cheers from what I gathered. It's just like everything was shutting down. So many memories, so many good times. You know, that bar, we rented out the day after our wedding, which, you know, I invited you guys to,

you had other things going on. Yeah, it was busy. Yeah, it's okay. It happens. What do you think about maybe the prospect of buying a place? Of buying a place? What if we just teamed up? The three of us?

Yeah. What would we name it? Big cats? No, Bar Coastal. I think we just keep it Bar Coastal. Like, you don't stray away from what works, right? Yeah, fair enough. I mean, if you guys wanna put down the down payment,

I'll get you the rest later. Yeah, you sent us a picture of your wife in a Pardon My Take sweatshirt this morning. That's right. You texted us. Yeah, she wanted to, she said it just to tell them that, you know, I'm supporting the brand because you're going on the show tonight.

She was, and she's nice. Congratulations. She's an attractive woman. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that, you know. I mean, with all due respect. No, I appreciate it, you know, and she'll be the first to tell you that, you know,

she knows that she has obviously, you know, her things, that she has stuff, but I came up with a one-liner on Twitter for her too. Okay. Alana Rose, credit and forget it. Credit and forget it? Yeah. What does that mean?

Well, I mean, you know, fair enough, everybody likes their nice things, but you know, I just, you know, have to teach her that sometimes there's boundaries. Credit and forget it, got it. You know, but because of her, who is, you know, my best friend, I love her to pieces, she has planned, and you guys will be excited about this,

a massive, massive trip to Europe this summer. Wow. So I'm no longer going to be able to go into places socially. Like, you know, when I'm watching the NFL, because I only watch it socially, I'm no longer going to be able to go into place and say, you know, I've never played golf,

I've never had a glass of wine, I've never had a cup of coffee, and I've never been to Europe, because as of right now, we're going to Europe in July. Okay, so we've got to get to two of those things in a second, but give us the quick itinerary. Where are you going in Europe? Quick itinerary.

Well, we have friends. Is there anything like, knowing you, you're going to be like, well, you know, coach Cal's taking the team to Rome. Yeah, I thought about that. Yeah, I know you did. I thought about that, especially with the timing, it's like late July, early August,

like I've talked about that. So we have some friends who are getting married, like an hour outside of Paris in July. Okay. So we're going to go to Paris for a couple of days and go to that wedding. Then we've got a couple of stops in Italy, which I'm really excited about for the food.

So there's a restaurant that we're going to go to. We're going to Italy, we're going to Rome, Portofino, and also the Malfi Coast. Now, there is a restaurant in Portofino, Pune, P-U-N-Y. It's a three course restaurant. And one of the options is a pasta with lasagna sheets, tomato sauce and pesto. Denzel Washington went to this restaurant

and had this pasta for all three courses. So when I heard that, I was like, that's a bucketless thing. I have to go to this restaurant in Portofino and have all three courses at pasta. And then we're going to go to Minkinos and Santorini after that. You're not going to switch it up though in the courses? Like try maybe something besides that pasta?

But actually, I know I haven't been there yet. I'll text you. I just got international service actually on my cell phone for the first time. Because you know me, like for a long time, like Canada was anything north of the George Washington bridge. What if there's like a highly-tied prospect over there?

That's why I made sure that I had international service so that I could be on my toes for this trip. You're still going to be kind of working? Oh yeah, I never shut it off. Never shut it off. Never shut it off. Even though we sleep in May. Yeah, I mean, I say we sleep in May,

but it doesn't mean you don't sleep with your phone. All right, so you're lying to the people. Well, I'm going to say I'm lying. I would say like after a while, like you realize you can get a little bit of a reprieve. Because I ever said we sleep in April. Bill, are you kidding me? The national championship games on April 4th.

But I have already to have the skeleton ready for my first Rothstein 45 the next season. Oh, OK. So we're going to amend it. Where's Wisconsin? Well, it's, you know, what's the next question? Oh, no, we're not in the foot. We weren't in Jake's bracket.

So I love the doubters and haters. I welcome them. We've got it. We've got to prepare, though, for the transfer portal. We've got to, you know, there's a million things. There's a lot going on. There's a lot. All right, so the other.

Who will be next year's Chris Vote? No, I'm kidding. Listen, he puts in some good minutes. He's a decent bruiser. Yeah, you need guys like that. Absolutely. He did a good job against Purdue at the Gamerat. So the other four things.

So it was never been tripped to Europe. Never had a glass of wine. Never had a cup of coffee. PFT, you brought something, didn't you? Yeah, I've got a few things. I've got actually a bottle of wine right here. Oh, I opened it up. Red or white?

I uncorked it just for you. It's a 2016. It's a Bordeaux. It's very nice. I splashed it all over myself when I was opening it with a knife. It corks in there. I was thinking that maybe we could share. We could all have a small little glass.

I've got. I've got to get on a plane in like six hours. I don't want to trip. That's fine. I'll be out of your system in like 20 minutes. What about a cup of coffee? I've never had a cup of coffee. Want a cup of coffee?

Oh, god. This is unbelievable. I got one of these right here. If you're not. Meme's brooded himself. Yeah. If you're not ready for this right now, can I propose something?

Sure. Why don't we make a bet on your final four? Whatever it may be, we'll get to that when we break it all down. And you're going to be in New Orleans. We're going to be in New Orleans. I think that you can find the appropriate time that you could have both a cup of coffee and a glass of wine with us.

OK, fair enough. OK, because I can sense you don't really want to do it right now at 11 PM. Yeah, no, I don't. Do you want to sip of the wine? Do you want to smell it? Just smell it. I don't like it.

Just smell it. Just smell it. I don't like it. You don't like it? I don't like it. That's exactly what my two and a half year old son sounds like when I'm like, hey, do you want pretty much any food? It smells like the man of Shevitz

I used to smell at Hebrew school. So wait, what do you drink when you go out? Just a beer? I got a beer, Tito. Yeah, OK, so all right, let's get to it. Let's go through the bracket, and then we'll figure out what we're going to do bet-wise. Let's go ahead and say, because when you're in Italy,

you're going to be at these world-class pasta places. Why can't I just have a Peroni? They're going to give you wine. Wine will be on the menu there. Billy's going to drink that wine right now. Watch him drink it. All right, no more tricks, but I do want to. I want you to have a cup of coffee.

OK, why? Because I want to see what it does to you. But I'm functioning fine without coffee for all this year. It's almost four decades. What about Red Bull? Do you drink Red Bull? Never, never Red Bull. Never caffeine?

Try not to have caffeine. Cocaine? No, not Ensign. Didn't make that either. Methamphetamines? No. OK, we're going to figure it out. In New Orleans, I want to see you just a sip of coffee with us.

A sip? Yeah. I can do a sip. Yeah, we'll do a sip of coffee with the fellas. Yeah, sure, I can do a sip of coffee. The wine, I don't think, is going to stick. The coffee, I can maybe try. But we got a lot of basketball between now and New Orleans.

You know how much basketball we have between now and New Orleans? How much? 64 games. 64 games. I'm so excited. Where do you want to start? You always break out the bracket in certain ways. You guys want to start top left, and then we'll just

work our way down. Does that work? Well, let's ask a couple of questions before we get into the bracket. One, who got screwed? Texas A&M. I thought that Texas A&M should have been in the field. I thought the committee did a really, really good job.

But I think when you look at what they did the last couple of days, and I know it's the totality of your resume, but I think having neutral site wins against teams, the caliber of an Arkansas and an Auburn, compared to everything else, I felt was pretty impressive. I mean, it's interesting, though, the one thing that I've kind of taken away in over 15 years on this beat. Every single year, you see the bubble get softer and softer.

And guys, I've been talking about this for years, and I think it's one thing that we need to look at. And I'm leaving tomorrow for Dayton. I'm doing the first four this year, and I'm excited about it. But I firmly believe that the NCAA should allow all the automatic qualifiers to advance into the round of 64. And then the final eight at large teams should be playing in Dayton.

And then it gives us an opportunity to really jumpstart the tournament with four heavyweight showdowns. I mean, I look at the first four, and I'm not just saying this, because I'm obviously working the games, but Rutgers Notre Dame is a fascinating matchup. Wyoming, Hunter Maldonado, Graham E.K. against Indiana. I mean, that is a fascinating matchup.

If you could add two more of those with the last four at large teams, I think it would add a lot of pop to the NCAA tournament. I also made the point that I hate when the committee puts mid-majors, small schools against each other in the first round. I think that's terrible. I think it's bad for the sport.

Murray State versus San Francisco is a great matchup. But I'd rather see them go up against a big dog. No doubt. And I think, too, the great thing about the first four, which you know I love, is standalone games. And standalone games allow yourself to be showcased at a much different, different rate. So I think that's another thing we have to look forward to.

And I think, though, one thing I will say is I think because of the matchups we have this year in the first four, the Bryant Wright State game is an underrated 16 versus 16. And I'll tell you why. Bryant obviously has the nation's top score in Peter Kiss, real interesting player, and Wright State's in Dayton. It's near their campus, so you almost

have a pseudo-road game. Very rarely in a first four do you get that type of situation. What do you think sidebar Jared Grasso where's he going to be coaching next year? Good question. I think without question, Jared has done one of the great rebuilding jobs in the Northeast. I mean, guys, Bryant was three wins when he took over.

Three. Damn. And they went to the tournament title game last year and lost to Mount St. Mary's. This year, they're obviously champions. I think he's ready. I don't know if he's ready to jump to a power conference. But if there's a conference in between, obviously,

the NEC in a multi-bid league in the Northeast, he's ready to do that. And I just know this from obviously being in the weeds. Obviously, in college basketball, it's inside baseball. But he was the recruiting coordinator for those great teams at Iona that I've mentioned earlier with Tim Clues. Six out of nine years.

Six out of nine years. So those teams that had Scott Machado, Mike Lover, Momo Jones, Sean Armand, AJ English, David Lowery, those guys, he was the recruiting coordinator on top assistant for those teams. So side sidebar, our good friend, unfortunately, Tom Kreen is no longer going to be the head coach at Georgia. What are the odds Tom Kreen gets a head coaching job next year?

Do you think he wants to still coach? I don't know if Tom wants to coach. I think Tom did a great job as a broadcaster in his year out for ESPN. Are you on the bubble now? What, am I on the bubble? With Tom Kreen now, he could get back in a broadcast. Yeah, it's a different role.

He's a game analyst. He's a game analyst. I think he's a game analyst. It's a different role. But I provide a little bit different. Yeah, that's true. But I think if Tom wants to coach, I'm sure he could get another coaching job.

I don't know if he could get a job at the caliber of Georgia, but I'm sure he could get another job. I think too, guys, another thing that we're seeing throughout the landscape of college basketball is there is clear separation between the top six conferences, the five-power conferences, and the big East, and the rest of the sport. And it's really the haves and the high of knots.

And I think every single day that gap widens. Now, do we have years where conferences are outliers? Absolutely. The Mountain West this year getting four teams in the NCAA tournament, and one of those teams is not New Mexico and not UNLV. That's amazing to me. The West Coast Conference having four teams in play,

getting three teams in the NCAA tournament. That's a major, major kudos. But that's the exception. It's not the rule. If Richmond doesn't win today on Sunday in the Atlantic 10 tournament title game, A-10. And the conference that had six bids eight years ago in 2014, that's a one-bid league.

Side note, Chris Mooney, head coach of Richmond, dead ringer for Judge Reinhold and vice versa. Without question. Yeah, fast times. Dead ringer, fast times are Richmond high. Vice versa, though, for me. And I just think when you look at college basketball now, I think it's six leagues and it's everything else.

So is this the end of the conversation of Gonzaga doesn't play in a real league? We've been saying for years, Gonzaga move to the Pac-12. If you want to take it seriously, but now they've got San Francisco, good team, right? Good team. St. Mary's, fun team. Me, Gonzaga.

Yeah, yeah. And Harris is comparable to Wisconsin, big cat, honestly. They're a similar style of play. My question. You're saying that coach for white guys? No, they slow it down, play good defense. It's like that by a thousand paper cuts. Yeah, no, they had a good year this year,

but it is a Mickey Mouse conference because Gonzaga needs to go to the Pac-12. All right, should we do it? Get into it. We're not talking about anything personal. We haven't seen you in two years. You know what I was gonna do with the questions? I thought of you guys, though, because, you know,

and you guys could appreciate this. I have this neighbor that's like, like gum on my shoe. And you just always complain. So I find out I come home a couple of weeks ago and my wife's like, we have a problem. And I'm like, what's the issue? It's like our neighbor wrote a letter to the board in our building that there is, you know,

yelling and screaming and allowed TV, like late at night and whatever. It's like I wasn't in the studio and like, you know, they're really threatening right now to continue to complain about what's going on. And I just responded and I said, not enough people know the importance and the impact of the Mountain West being a four-bit league.

So was it you yelling? Yes, I mean, what do you think, man? I mean, do you see the Mountain West this year? David Roddy, Hunter Maldonado, San Diego State, Bradley's a little bit like, you know, Tom Hanks and Castaway is on an island on his own. I mean, where's Jordan Shackle when you did him? It was, you know, the Mountain West was crazy this year.

Crazy, incredible crowds and, you know, like I said, when I think of the Mountain West cat and PFT, I think of 2013, nine years ago, five bids, UNLV, Anthony Bennett, obviously, Steve Allford had those teams in New Mexico, Tony Snell, Alex Kerr, Ken Bearstow, Kendall Williams, Hugh Greenwood. Now that team didn't go far in the NCAA tournament.

They lost to Harvard. Remember that was the year in 2013 when Harvard's two best players, Brandon Curry and Kyle Casey, had to withdraw from school. They put Siani Chambers into the starting lineup and the rest is history. They went to the round of 32. Of course, who could forget?

You know, when that happened, that was the Mountain West, and the Mountain West took a little hiatus and it's back now, and there's the crazy thing. The Mountain West, they've got obviously a television relationship with us at CBS. They got a relationship with Fox. It has a better television deal than the Pac-12. Yeah, no, the Pac-12, not being able to watch

the first two rounds of the Pac-12 tournament, is brutal. Is insane. Brutal, and the Pac-12 is a good league in terms of its brands. It hasn't had good representation in the NCAA tournament. Like I was talking to somebody about this yesterday, there were more Pac-12 teams in the sweet 16 last year

than there are in the NCAA tournament this year. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it's a great run. Well, let's start there. So Pac-12, conference of champions at Skillwall, did he just invent that? Yeah. No, it's been around for a while.

It's been around for a while, but I mean, it's a little. He brought it back. He brought it back. He brought it back to the forefront. Who do you like out of that conference? Obviously, Arizona, great team, but I guess it's a leading question because I really want to know, UCLA, do they have it in them?

Are they going to be able to make a run like they did yesterday? I think they're going to be able to make a run. I think things set up pretty well for UCLA. So should we go through? Yeah, let's go through. I should say, personal, on a personal level, this is a great moment for this show and for humanity because the last time you were in here

was right when everything got canceled. You came in, we were all downtrodden. You said, this too shall pass. We are now two years past COVID. It feels like, you know, last year was fun, but it wasn't a real tournament because you didn't have all the different sites and fans and everything.

And I was there for 26 days in that bubble. Yeah, you were. You were doing hard work in the bubble. And this now feels like we got it. We're back. This too shall pass and this too has passed. It has passed. Retweet that.

Yes. Okay, right now? What if you want to? Okay, all right. All right, all right. This too shall pass. This too shall pass. Hashtag John.

Let's do it. Top left, go for it. Okay, well, I look at this region, the West region, and I see Gonzaga with Chet Holmgren. I see Duke having five. Too skinny. Can I finish my swarray? Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I read, guys, I worked on this. Okay, in the car down here. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You're cutting me off. You're right. We're excited about the bracket too. Go. Because I got to do the names first.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I look at Gonzaga with Chet Holmgren. I see Duke having potentially five first-round picks and they're starting five. Notre Dame as Blake Wesley. Obviously Memphis as Jalen Duren. The West region is the region of prospects. Ooh.

Wait, you better just cross this out. I like that JD Nottay's in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see the region of prospects. So, obviously Gonzaga moving on against Georgia State. Boise State Memphis to me looks like the ultimate 50-50 game. I'm gonna give a slight edge to Memphis just because of how Boise State has struggled offensively,

especially we saw that yesterday against San Diego State. UConn against New Mexico State. New Mexico State has two capable scores. Teddy Allen last year at Nebraska. You know, year before or a couple of years ago at Nebraska. Also played, you know, West Virginia to start his career. Sir Jabari Rice, another guard obviously that's capable. But I've got UConn beating them.

Setting up a UConn Arkansas round of 32 game, which could be one of the best games of the upcoming weekend. Alabama has been a Feaster Famine team all year long. They're gonna play the winner of Rutgers, Notre Dame. I look at what Rutgers did in the Big 10. Obviously they won a game at Wisconsin. Katelyn McConnell did a great job on Johnny Davis.

We beat them there. Fair enough, I'm just giving you the context. At the rack. Okay, I'm giving you the context. I got Rutgers beating Notre Dame and Rutgers beating Alabama. Whoa. Yeah, I'm taking Rutgers twice.

Steve Pichle pounding nails. Then Mark Adams though, he plays them, you know, the defense never rests. And I got Texas Tech over Montana State coached by Danny Sprinkle. Then the Michigan State. Danny Sprinkle. That's that coach's name.

Michigan State against Davidson. The storyline within that game is this. Foster Lawyer, you know, started his career in Michigan State and now he's at Davidson. You know, he has made significantly more three point shots this year. Then he did the first three years of his college career. I've got a Michigan State Duke round of 32,

which would be a dream game for television next weekend. So I got Duke moving on against Michigan State, Duke playing Texas Tech, then Yukon beating Arkansas, hooking up with Gonzaga. Yukon falls to Gonzaga, Texas Tech falls to Duke. Will Duke beat Gonzaga in the regional final? They beat him once already. I'm gonna take the Zags and Coach K's career

ends at the Chase Center. So Gonzaga over Duke in the regional final of the region of prospects. I love it. As long as Duke loses. Yeah. Do you think this is kind of fun? What Coach K's doing where he's like

traveling around the country losing? I've got a feeling after what you just told me about. What's the quarterback's name again? Tom Brady. Shut up. Shut up. I started to think like, what if he unretired? I would love it.

Personally, I'm gonna miss Coach K. He's been the greatest heel in my life. You think it's a heel? I mean, Duke is one of those things where I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a strong opinion on them. You love them or you hate them. Right.

I think here's an interesting thing because obviously he set the standard for college basketball. And like you said, you're probably the best coach of our generation. I never said that. What? Well, all right, fine.

You're still a little salty about 2015. No, I never said that. I never said that. The facts and when you look at what happened in the ACC, you compare them from when Roy Williams got to UNC. He straight up out competed Coach K. The results were better for the Tar Heels since that time. You can't argue with it.

But you have to look at it. More final fours. But you have to look at the totality. The totality. More regular season ACC titles. It's not even close. Okay, you have to look at the totality of the resume, which I bring this point up.

And again, it's speculating on speculation, which I hate to do, but if Rick Bettino never left Kentucky, and if Rick Bettino was still at Kentucky, I mean, you think about that. I always think that he would be the one in terms of all time wins, all time national champion.

That's probably right. Because you think about it. This was the trajectory at Kentucky. 93, 92 you lose on the late in their shot. 93, you go to the final four, you lose an overtime to the fab five. 94, you lose to Marquette in the second round. 95, you lose 74, 61 to North Carolina in a regional final.

96, you win a national championship 76, 67 against Syracuse in the Meadowlands. 97, you lose 84, 79 to Arizona in Indianapolis in the national championship game. And then you take the Celtics job. Yeah, he would have been an all-timer. But the fact remains that Roy Williams was a stronger head coach.

Then Rick Bettino? If you say Kentucky? No, then Coach K. It's five to three. It's tough to make that argument. And in 1991, Duke beat Kansas when Roy Williams was there, 72, 65 in the national championship game. 91. That's ancient history.

I'm talking about when Roy Williams arrived at UNC. Okay, well, I mean, you have to count the Kansas part of his career. Well, that's because the big 12 was legitimate and he had to go through a gauntlet to get there. Fair enough. Should we go? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, you kind of glossed over our darling Jake's catamounts against Arkansas. Yeah, I mean, you know, Ryan Davis, Jake, no offense, but I mean, the Jalen Williams matchup is not advantageous, you know. Marrake's player of the year, two times. I know he's a Marrake's player of the year,

but unfortunately, you know, there is no Taylor Coppenrath. There is no teaching source. There's Ben Shungu. I know there is. Oh, let's go. We got a name off. Fair enough.

We got a name off. I mean, you're not telling me that people in, you know, Burlington are going to compare Finn Sullivan to Jermaine Mopagila in a couple of years. But Finn Sullivan can shoot. He can get hot. He can shoot, but he's going to be guarded by Devo Davis or JT Note.

Next region. Oh, man. Name off. All right. I quote tweet every time you tweet, you know, Vermont basketball, very cool. Yeah, I appreciate that. Jake Marrake's future, all right?

Yeah. He's coming at me. Him and Rico, you got to watch out for them. Well, Rico's come on your shoe. It's incredible. I know. You can't get rid of him. Rico, like, call you like, bro,

just want to tip you off with a scoop. I'm like thinking like, is this realignment? Is this like something big? He's like, yo, I heard from, you know, source with the source, there's going to be, you know, a lot more hook and holds this year. I was like, what does that do for me, Rico? He's a big rules guy.

Yeah, big rules guy. Huge rules guy. Big rules guy. All right. East. The East. I think East is the toughest. What do you think?

I look at the East region and I look at the high seeds. Baylor defending national champion. Two seed, Kentucky's Kentucky. Purdue, one of the great brands in the big 10. Texas is Texas and UCLA in North Carolina also in the top half of that region. This is the region of branding. Yeah.

I was going to say Texas is Texas, but that just means that they're probably going to lose in the first round. The Texas is all the brands. Texas is Texas. So I've got Baylor beating Norfolk State, North Carolina against Marquette, rematch of the 77 national title game,

Al McGuire's last game. I got the Tar Heels moving on there. And I've got St. Mary's beating Indiana. I like Indiana over Wyoming and Dayton. I do too. UCLA obviously beating Akron. And I'm going to take Virginia Tech over Texas. I like their body language a little bit more.

Purdue. Oh, that's just strictly body language. Yeah, I think that's a big thing. Yeah, when they shoot the ball against Duke, it went in a lot. Their body language game is great. I like this body language game. I like their body language a little bit better right now.

Murray State over San Francisco setting up an interesting game, Kat, because if it's Murray State against Kentucky and the state of Kentucky, that would be an incredible game. Kentucky would have nothing to gain from that game, but obviously have to play it other than going to the sweet 16. Civil War.

Yeah. The two best college basketball schools in the state of Kentucky. Kentucky and Murray State. Because Louisville is in Louisville State right now. Well, I'm just saying Kentucky and Murray State. Fair. Baylor over UNC, UCLA over St. Mary's,

Purdue over Virginia Tech, and then Kentucky. I've got a UCLA, Kentucky regional final. I got the cats moving on out of the region of branding. So I've got Gonzaga playing Kentucky right now. Wow, I like that for my futures. Okay. I got Kentucky and UCLA futures. Okay, I like it.

That would be a nice game for me. Dig it. Now, top right, we're going to go and we're going to look at the South region. Now I look at the South region and I see Arizona. I don't like that that's top right, by the way. South should be in the bottom. Should it not?

Well, fair enough. Well, Colorado is kind of in the middle. True, yeah. Colorado State. Well, I look at that region, guys, and I see Ben Matherin at Arizona. Stud. I see Kofi Coburn, Illinois.

Stud. I see David Roddy. I see Hunter Dickinson. I see Kennedy Chandler. I see Colin Gillespie. This is the region of star power. Star power. Okay.

Question on Arizona. Yeah. Is Kerr going to play? Yeah, I think he'll. He's in a walking boot. No, I know. I believe Kerr Kreese is going to play. And honestly, I was so impressed

that they were trailing UCLA with Adam and came back. Arizona is the most aesthetically pleasing team in college basketball. They're also the biggest team in college basketball. Even though UCLA beat them once at Paulie, Arizona still dominated them on the glass. I've got Arizona beating TCU. I think TCU is underrated and TCU beats Seton Hall.

TCU also a very big team. They got some light. Eddie Lampson. Yes. Manual Miller. No, Jamie Dixon's done a really good job there. When you say biggest team, do you mean height or do you mean length or strength?

You know, kind of a combination of both PFT. I mean, you know, Tubelis and obviously Coloco are tremendous upfront. Coloco's the most improved player in the country. Bolo, the transfer from Gonzaga, is also adding insurance upside. And you know, Matthew and Terry are tough on the wings. I think I know where you're going with this.

Gonzaga versus Arizona, the student versus pupil. Can I finish it first? Championship game? Okay, go ahead. You freaking trying to finish Godfather 2 before, you know, to get Fredo on the boat here. We're about Godfather 3. What? We don't pretend like that exists.

Well, why are you bringing it up? That's one of the rules. Don't mess with the rules. So then I've got Illinois over Houston. Now, Arizona beat Illinois in early December in what was the first real statement that Arizona could be a national player this year under Tommy Lloyd.

That rematch would be fascinating theater if we get it. Was that, that was at the United center, right? Ah, Champagne. Oh, that wasn't Champagne. Yeah, I bet that game I lost. I like that in the sweet 16. I'm going to take Michigan in an 11 over six win over Colorado State.

Ugh. And I've got Tennessee marching on past Michigan. The world's going to pick Loyola Chicago, but I think Ohio State is being so criminally underrated in this game. Well, they've been limping. They're banged up, but Chris Holtman, more meticulous than a forensics officer, okay,

is going to be dialed in. He's coached in a lot of NCAA tournament games. Drew Valentine hasn't coached any NCAA tournament games. The world's picking Loyola Chicago. I'm taking Ohio State to win one. Villanova, Tennessee in the sweet 16, Arizona, Illinois. I've got Villanova marching on to hook up with Arizona in the regionals of the region of star power.

And I got Arizona going to a final four. Okay. Okay, so it's setting it up, okay. So I got Arizona, Gonzaga, Kentucky. Then I look at this region, bottom right, the Midwest. Wait, wait, wait, real quick, in the star power region, there was one star that you left off. Oh, Jelly Walker. Yeah, what the hell?

Jelly Walker. How did you not bring up Jelly Walker? Well, he's a 12 seed right now. Yeah, he's not a 12 seed. He's on a 12 seed. Well, I didn't want to get too much in the weeds because that's the weeds. No, that's not the Jelly Walker. Let's talk about UAB.

All right. That's our team now. UAB? We bet him on Friday in the triple overtime thriller. We went back to the well with Jelly Walker on Saturday. Can we get John a water? We got one coming. We'll get you fresh water.

Wait, so Jelly Walker though, he's electric. He is electric. And it's ironic, Andy Kennedy has leaned in and used the transfer portal. Really, I think, as aggressively as any coach so far at the mid-major level. And you look at their roster, guys. KJ Buffen came from Ole Miss.

Trey Jemisin came from Clemson. Obviously, Jelly Walker- Buffen's number five who were motherfucking the other night. What about Urtle? Urtle's a good player. He's made a ton of threes in the conference USA tournament. Urtle's a good player. And this team, again, has played high majors this year.

Played West Virginia, came up a little short, wasn't vintage West Virginia, but they won't be intimidated by Houston. You don't have them? You don't have Jelly Walker doing some crazy shit? Well, again, are you going to bet on Jelly Walker? Am I going to bet on Kelvin Sampson to be in a situation? Jelly Walker is the answer.

Okay, all right. Jelly Walker. You want to die on that hill? I'll send you a postcard. Oh, we will revisit this conversation once Jelly, you will be converted to the Jelly Fam. If you don't know about us and Hills that we've died on, there are a lot of them.

There's an entire mountain range named after us at this point. Yes, fair enough. Jelly Fam will be coming for you. And we have receipts now. Yeah, we do. Flip this up and we'll be playing it back. Just tell me, if you were to say hypothetically,

do you think that UAB is going to lose by fewer than nine points? What would you say? Text me, I'll let you know. Okay, interesting. Hypothetically. Interesting. Now, bottom right, I see a Kansas team

that for all intents and purposes has played great down the stretch, but for as good as Ochaibajie is, I don't see one of Bill Self's best teams, most talented teams. I see a two-seed and all burn that has had sporadic guard play all season. I see a Wisconsin team that has overachieved

and won a share of the Big Ten regular season title, but also lost at home in Nebraska. Playing great basketball. And also lost early in the Big Ten tournament to a vulnerable Michigan State team. John Davis-Zankel. And then I see a Providence team that's 25 and five, but was 11 and two this season

in games decided by five points or less and was ambushed, destroyed, and power bombed through a table like Eric Bischoff at the 1996 Great American Bash by Creighton at the Big East tournament. But isn't that a good thing if they're 11 and two? I know what you're saying, 11 and two, they play a lot of close games.

Their record is not, they're not pulling it out. I don't think the ceiling is very high for Providence. But isn't there something to be said about winning close games, repeatedly? That's why Ed Cooley to me is the national coach of the year because he doesn't have an all Big East first team player on his team and he's 25 and five. That team to me, like I'm looking at it,

those are your top four seeds, this is the region of vulnerability. And this is the region, the Midwest region, if you're gonna go off the radar in your final four pick, this is the region to take it. So let's look at it. I've got Kansas and Creighton hooking up in the round of 32.

So I like Creighton over San Diego State, Iowa beating Richmond, interesting first round game. And guys, I gotta tell you, not enough people are looking at South Dakota State and Baylor Shireman, who really reminds me of Thomas Walkup, who used to play for Stephen F. Austin, who beat West Virginia in 2016 when Brad 100 was the head coach.

South Dakota State has not lost a game, okay, since early December. They've won 30 games. They shoot just under 45% from three as a team. I'm taking South Dakota State over Providence. Oh no. I've got Iowa State over LSU and Wisconsin advancing, USC over Auburn.

I've got then Wisconsin over Auburn in the Elite Eight. And I've got Iowa beating South Dakota State and Kansas. And then I have an all big 10 regional final. And I've got Keegan Murray and Iowa going to the final four. Keegan Murray in the big 10 tournament average 28 and eight. Why aren't more people talking about Keegan Murray as the best player in college basketball, at least from the perimeter spot?

You know what? When you look at him and you split the atom and you look at him number by number versus a guy like Jabari Smith, I'm not saying he's a better long-term prospect because that's not really my business. But right now, if you took Keegan Murray and put him on a blue blood, Michigan State,

Duke, even Indiana or Ohio State, the perception would be different. Ohio State's not a blue blood. I mean, they're still a brand. But they're not a blue blood. Fine, Kansas. Okay. Kansas, Kentucky.

Yes. But with a more well-known brand, Michigan, the perception would be different. Keegan Murray was 11 of 18 from three in the big 10 tournament. So I'm rolling the dice there. So I've got Iowa, Arizona, Gonzaga, Kentucky. I've got Arizona over Iowa and Gonzaga over Kentucky

setting up teacher against student, Tommy Lloyd against Mark Few. And for the first time, since 1997, Tommy Lloyd in year one wins a national championship. Ben Matherin explodes in the NCAA tournament like a volcano, has the ability to captivate a country and captivate a nation, much like Dwayne Wade did 19 years ago at Marquette when he got 29, 11, and 11

against Kentucky in a regional final. Wow. So, okay, so you've got Gonzaga, that would be losing two national championships in a row. Two net in a row and three since 2017. So Lloyd, he's got deep ties to the Northwest, right? Yeah. You think eventually he could get poached from Arizona

if, for whatever reason, the Arizona's on? No, Arizona's a destination job. For him? Yes. Because I could see for him wanting to go back home. He helped build that program. No, I know, but he's doing it his own way. He's been very classy too, because he inherited

a really good team and he's paid homage to Sean Miller who put the team together. So it's a good look for us. Well, yeah, Sean Miller did all the dirty work. Yeah. So going back to the Midwest or, excuse me, the regional vulnerability, you've got Wisconsin, Auburn, second round.

Did you say that you have Wisconsin? Third round, yeah. Yeah, you have Wisconsin beating Auburn in that game? Yes, yes. Why? Why do you not trust Auburn? I think when you look at a team like Wisconsin who can manage the pace, very underrated piece

in Chucky Hepburn, it's a very, very good freshman year. I just need Chucky to, the heat checks that Chucky goes on sometimes, they're good, but they're also... No doubt, but Wisconsin, an extremely physical team, a team that, again, is not going to foul, doesn't really turn it over that much. And, again, Auburn, it's the polar opposite, guys,

of the Auburn team that we saw go to the final four in 2019. That team with Jared Harper and Bryce Brown was led and anchored by an electric, electric backcourt. This Auburn team has a dynamite, an unbelievable 4-5 with Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler, but the guard play right now, and we saw this against Texas A&M and the SEC tournament, Zep Jasper, Wendell Green and Katie Johnson

were combined seven of 34 in the field from that game. Yeah. You know, leave a lot to be desired. All right, here's what I'm gonna say. So you got Gonzaga vs. Arizona in your championship game. I think if Gonzaga or Arizona, either or those two teams, aren't in New Orleans when we're in New Orleans,

you gotta drink a cup of coffee. Okay. Okay. And what do we have to do if they're both there? I'll drink a glass of wine. Yeah. I've never had one in my life. No, they're just, you know.

I'll go on a date with your wife. What? Easy, easy, bro. Easy, bro. Easy, bro. All right, what do we have to do? I'll drink a hand grenade. No, I don't want you to do it.

I like you too much. I'll drink two hand grenades. Come meet me up at the supply house. We'll have some sweet potato fries. Okay. I love the sweet potato fries at the supply house. So we'll have to eat sweet potato fries if we lose this. I like that too.

You got us again, John Rothstein. So John, you know a lot of these coaches. You interact with a lot of them. Yeah. Who's the one guy this year that's gonna be the coach that makes a name for himself and everybody starts talking about him the next time a big job comes out.

Great question. You know, really good question, PFD. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I think, and he's not getting that much attention, I think right now just because they're, you know, not in obviously a well-known league, but I think, you know, when you look at the resume

of Eric Henderson at South Dakota State and the amount that he's won, like a lot of people, and this is, I know, again, in the weeds and very inside, you know, inside basketball, but last year, South Dakota State was expected to win the Summit League. Oral Roberts went from the Summit League. Max A. Smith obviously blew up in the NCAA tournament,

but in the regular season, that was the best team. Now you've got a team. Again, it's won 30 games going into the tournament, guys. 30, haven't lost since December. I think Eric Henderson, if he can win this game against Providence, has got a real chance to move the needle. I also think the world of Lamont Parris,

who is an assistant at Wisconsin, for the final four runs in 14 and 15, he's the head coach of Chattanooga. He's got a very good nucleus, Malachi Smith, and also Silvio de Souza, the Kansas transfer, inside, so they're gonna match up with Illinois. It's a tough, tough first round matchup, but I look at him as being a guy,

as a 13 seed that can make a real name for himself. Chattanooga has a tough draw there, but yeah, those are two guys I think that would have a chance. I'm looking elsewhere now around the bracket. I mean, Jeff Linder's done a great job at Wyoming. That's a standalone game and a standalone opportunity. You know, we have an interesting battle

of up-and-coming coaches in the 7-10 game between Todd Golden of San Francisco and Matt McMahon of Murray State. James Jones, the head coach at Yale, who won the Ivy League this year. You know, I don't think he's gotten the credit for what he's done at Yale. This is his third NCAA tournament.

This is not, though, one of the best teams that he's at. He had a really good team a couple years ago. Really good team a couple years ago. Like, if this team had Paul Atkinson, who's at Notre Dame now, or Jordan Bruner, who was at Alabama, those kids came from Yale. If they had a guy like that up front to go with Azar Swain and Jalen Gabonon in the backcourt,

I would feel differently, but I think that, you know, the lack of size for Yale against Purdue is gonna be really, really tough to overcome. How stressful is it now, like, every year when you have to learn all new names? Nah, you just get used to it, man. Yeah, what do you do, though? Do you sit down and you just go over the roster?

I think that the rosters change right now because of immediate eligibility with the transfer portal that I just think, you know, you're constantly looking at teams in the offseason, you know, what their lineup might be, and then, you know, once the season starts, you know, I do stuff in the offseason where there's previews and you have, like, grids

where you look, well, this is what their lineup might be, and, you know, you just start working on it every day. It's a labor of love. What's the most recent name that you've learned? The most recent name that I've learned. Ah, that's a fascinating question. I mean, I mean, I'm always just absorbing, so, I mean, you know, I don't really...

What team did you not have the most intel on that ended up in the bracket? I would say Wright State. I looked at it a lot because I didn't expect them to be in the title game of the Horizon League, and, you know, I really started to learn more about, you know, Grant Pacilli and the guys on that, you know, team.

And they're actually playing in Dayton against Bryant, which is interesting to me, like I said, because you've got the nation's leading scorer, and Peter Kiss, going against Wright State, who's obviously from nearby Dayton, so that is a different type of first four game, in my opinion, when you're looking at the 16th season. But guys, you know, I'll say it again,

it's something that I think, you know, should be talked about more and more leading up to the NCAA tournament. It would be better if we see the final eight at large teams in this NCAA tournament, kicking things off. And if somebody's good enough to win an automatic qualifier, put them in the round of 64.

Agreed. Agreed. Because again, what's the difference if we're looking at it right now, and we're splitting the atom a little bit? Like what is the difference if we're gonna see Delaware as a 14 versus a 15? Yeah.

And they get bumped down a line. Yeah. I agree. You know. Don't give these kids an asterisk next to their proceeds. Get in. Get into the dance. No question.

Let them play, there's something about playing, being a 16th seed and playing a one seed, that's fun. And the dynamic of that has changed dramatically since UMBC. Yeah. Well, not really, because that was the only team that's ever won. No, but again, but you can't say like,

well, this has never happened before. Right. No, you're right. You're right. There's some validity to that. It used to be like the teams that kept it close in the second half was like, oh my God. Oh yeah.

What was it? Holy Cross in Kansas. What year was that? Well, there was also a Purdue-Weber State game, I want to say in 96. And then Weber State lost to Purdue, and then Purdue lost to Georgia when Tubby Smith was the coach,

who then lost to Syracuse 83-81, when John Wallace made a three in the final seconds. Syracuse went on to the final four and lost to Kentucky. So you said that A&M was the biggest stub. Are they the biggest like, what's going on here? Moment for you. What about Tennessee? I've been very angry about Tennessee getting a three.

With the seed? Yeah, I thought Tennessee probably should have been a two, and I could have seen Duke on the three line. I got to tell you, I don't, obviously A&M played well enough, and I thought I had made a case to get to the tournament, but just a brutal, brutal turn of events for Xavier, if they win that triple overtime game at Providence

a couple of weeks ago during the NCAA tournament. They really kind of flubbed at the end. It sucks because Buzz Williams, who we're friends with, he red-pilled his entire team. I don't know if, did you see that PFT? No. He said after they beat Auburn, he's like, what do you attribute this to?

And he's like, I have, you know, the matrix, I've given my entire team the red pill. Not realizing what it means online. Yeah, waking them up. But he's like, I give them truth every day. And he has a shirt that says like, every day we take the red pill. No, I like that.

That he should be in, stop the steal and all the votes. Get him in. I hear you, bro. All right, so who is the best coach in your mind in a Power Six conference that doesn't get talked about enough? Best coach in a Power Six, so we're saying like the Big East. I gotta tell you, I've been incredibly, incredibly,

you know, impressed with what Greg McDermott has done at Creighton. I knew he was obviously, you know, a great coach in a long time, but guys, Ryan Nemhard was a special, special freshman for them. I went out and saw them practice and I watched Nemhard at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia this past summer.

And I mean, he was, I mean, he was freshman of the year in the Big East. I mean, you know, he was somebody you could see, like eventually being an all-American in the player of the year. He breaks his wrist against St. John's a couple of weeks ago and Creighton still advances all the way to the Big East tournament, you know, title game.

I mean, I've been blown away. And again, here's the thing too. When Creighton is not, you know, with all the respect to Blue Blood Program, they went to the sweet 16 last year and lost five starters. Right. So I've got AOC. Yeah.

I was a little nervous when they showed Greg McDermott giving a speech in the locker room. Like, we shouldn't have a live mic on Greg McDermott in the locker room. Gotcha. You didn't drop a P word this time, did you? No, we did not. You did not?

I like what John just goes, okay. What do you, what do you just dance around anything? This is not a conversation that I have on CBS. Yeah. Not gonna go there. All right, so who's the most, who's your favorite player to watch in this tournament? And why is it Jellyfish?

Yeah, seriously. Yeah, well, I'm, you know, Benedict Matherin. Okay. Benedict Matherin. You're high on Arizona, you're high on South Dakota State, you're high in Gonzaga. Yeah. That's it?

No, I wouldn't say that's it. I mean, I look at it, I mean, I think obviously I've talked a lot about Matherin here. I mean, favorite player to watch. Yeah, I mean, I love all 68 teams. You love every player? Yeah. I would say good enough.

You love every name. What's your name? Jaime Hacaz. Okay. Jaime Hacaz, he's been playing great for you. It's fun to say. Yeah, well, I was about to say, what's your favorite name to say?

Zach Eadie, the outming of college basketball. Zach Eadie, I feel bad for him. My take is I feel bad for him. Why? Because he just, he doesn't look like he's having any fun out there. He's so big and it's like, it looks, he just gets banged on.

David Roddy. Yeah, David Roddy's fun. Big body, David Roddy. Yeah. You know, we got a lot of respect for Colin Gillespie. Keegan Murray. Yeah. Keegan Murray is just,

I mean, Keegan Murray has just been. Are those the best brothers in the tournament? Iowa basketball, the family business. Well, I'm just saying that they got two sets. Wisconsin has a set. Yeah, Iowa's definitely better than Wisconsin. I think too. Who else has brothers?

We got any twins this year? Well, Keegan Murray and Chris Murray. Chris Murray is not like, you know, people, when he first heard that, you know, Keegan Murray's brother was playing Iowa, it's like, oh, well he just must be like, you know, kind of throwing. He is a real, real dude.

And that guy completely changes them when he goes to a small ball five because he can stretch the defense from the five spot. Like, it's amazing to me. And again, this would go to your, go to your, you know, really, I think question here in terms of a guy who, you know, it doesn't get enough credit.

I mean, how about Fran McCaffrey losing Luca Garza and Joe Wieskamp? Yeah. And now winning the Big 10 tournament at Iowa. Oh yes, Jordan Bohan and for the ninth year. Yeah. Well, he's, you know, he's 28. It's like Brad Davidson,

when they're chatting one more year after. And Kat, you know, and I think you look at it too, that COVID year is going to change, change college basketball over the next couple of seasons because, you know, we're seeing, you know, that name, image and likeness, which was long overdue. There's more of an incentive right now for kids to stay in school.

If they're not going to be first round picks. So I think, you know, one of the stories guys too, for this tournament and for this season is, you know, you look at college basketball and there's never been more great players. You know, remember the year in 2006? Well, it's J.J. Redigan, Adam Morrison. Remember like, you know, a couple of years ago,

it's Obi-Topp and it's Luca Garza. Now you've got 10, 12, 13, 14, really, really good players. So would you say that right now we're living in the golden age of college basketball? I wouldn't say that. I'd say there's a real, there's a number of really, really good players. Yeah.

But you would say that like NIL is good for the sport. Yeah, no question. All right, so my last question is actually I'm going to pass the torch here. Oh, no, we don't do that because it's a takeover of visible. Thank you, Jake. The future, he's doing a my bad. Jake Marsh.

Jake Marsh, I'm going to let Jake Marsh end this interview with a question. Let you guys just kind of dual looking in the mirror. Are you intimidated by Jake Marsh? No, I'm happy you introduced us though. He's a great American. Yeah, I think you are a little bit. He is the future.

John, which double digit C do you think has the best chance to get to the sweet 16? Ooh, Ruckers. Ooh. Oh, that's a lame answer. What is it all but one year a team has gone, or at least to the round of 32? The first four.

Yeah. All right, that's your question? You got others? Any others? The future, he's got to work on the present. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yikes. Yikes.

Oh, no. He's just all over the place crushing me tonight. No, come on. No, that's what John does. He wouldn't do that if he didn't feel a little bit threatened by you, Jake. Yeah. This is good.

That's a compliment. That's fair. Any top four seeds losing the first round? Round of 64? Yeah. Ooh, good question. You said one already. You said South Dakota State.

Any others? You don't mean like the four number ones. Yeah. Top four seeds losing the first round. I'm not picking that. I mean, I know you want me to save Ramon, don't you? Yeah, no, I would say your best chance for one of those opposite South Dakota State.

OK. OK. I've got a dumb question. So a lot of these schools that we talked about, especially in the Mountain West, they play at altitude, right? You always hear about altitude when it comes to football. Yeah.

Players getting tired. Yeah. They can't handle it. They can't get their second wind. Does that also happen indoors when you're playing basketball? The Colorado Utah trip in the Pac-12, back to back, people always say, yeah, the altitude's crazy on that trip. That's the time you most hear it.

Yeah. Those games back to back in the Pac-12. OK. I'm just dumb. And I think, oh, the game's being played inside. It's probably not out there. Fair enough. We're all human.

Yeah. Oh, wow. He just called you. He's just alfing, everybody. I'm not alfing. I'm just saying we're even. Jake, Alph and me, he said, Big Cat, can't date your wife. Yeah, it's bullshitting.

He's just very angry. Well, I mean, I'm not asking to date your wife. OK, well, that's fine. If you said it, I would have been like, OK, fine, go ahead. Yeah. I think it speaks volumes about a relationship. We got a pineapple on the floor over here. Should we swap?

You want to swap? Well, why don't we do a double day first? Oh, man. All right, John Rostin, you are the best. We love you. Love you, too. Best time of year? Yeah.

Without a doubt, this or Feast Week? Oh, this. Not even close to this. I love Feast Week. Let's just be happy that we have a real NCAA tournament. Last year was great that we had one, but there's just so many good vibes right here. We're doing this right down the street from Madison Square

Garden. By the way, remember a couple years ago when the Big Ten tournament was at the Garden? Terrible. It was like the San Gennaro Feast being held in Milwaukee. It made no sense. Yes, exactly what I said. It made no sense.

No, I mean, it's just great that we have the pageantry back, everything that should be associated with the NCAA tournament. Let's not take this for granted. It's the best three weeks in sports. There is no debate. Dreams will be shattered. Dreams will obviously be made.

The unexpected will become the ordinary. This is March. Yes. Yes. All right, thank you, John. We love you. Thanks, John. Love you, too.

OK, we're going to wrap up the show. We have Billy Football's final four of quarterbacks in the 2022 draft. I know everyone's been eagerly waiting for the finale of this bracket before we do that, Billy. What was Kirk Cousins' contract? We alluded to it. He got, I want to say, $30 million.

Actually, let's look it up so we can get the numbers right. The bottom line is that Kirk Cousins will make, by the time this contract's over, almost $300 million. He'll end up making over $300 million in his entire career. You are expecting me to say something about negative right now about Kirk Cousins. I will not do it. Kirk Cousins played the game the exact way.

Perfectly. That it should be played. Because the guy, I think he's exactly 500 for his career, he's not really won any notable games that you can think of. No, the only notable game you can think of Kirk Cousins winning was actually Case Keaton winning, the Minnesota Miracle. There's that.

Well, no, he also won that you like that game. Yes. But that's the best part is you think, oh, yeah. Kirk Cousins, of course, the game against the Saints. Nope, that was Case Keaton. Yep, so he is the bad god. I take my hat off in respect of Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins will be a great, great hypothetical

where you can be like, whose career would you rather have and pick any quarterback that had more success. But you forget that Kirk Cousins, essentially every, he basically hit every good spot on Monopoly board. Every time that something could have been good for him, financially, he knocked it out of the park. So I believe that Kirk Cousins, whose career would you rather have to get?

Kirk Cousins or Aaron Rodgers? I mean, that's them. But you can't do Super Bowls. I would probably have one. I'd rather have Rodgers' career. Although he doesn't have any friends or family, so maybe Kirk Cousins. Because at the end of the day, what's money?

That's true, right? Like what's, you can't spend all your money. You know, who's he gonna give it to? Well, that's the thing about Kirk Cousins is what is he gonna spend $300 million on? Yeah, his kids can have it. I don't know, grills. Yeah, you're right.

I still think he's, he can't spend the money. He's bearing it in peanut butter jars in his backyard. Yeah, and he's got like a sick fleet of mini vans. All right, Billy, let's do it. So where we left off was the final four. We have Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis, Jack Cohen, and Matt Corral in our last final four. So the first matchup is Kenny Pickett versus Malik Willis.

Kenny Pickett advances the finals for Malik Willis. Kenny Pickett, I mean, it was just his fake slide. Like when you got a guy who knows the rules so well and just improvised like that, you just gotta, he's gotta advance. It's kinda like you. Yeah. You just improvise.

Just gotta improvise. Yes, Billy. Your brain does a fake slide pretty frequently. All the time. Yeah. It's the truth. I'm happy you have Kenny Pickett in the finals because there was a little pressure.

He is a friend of the program. Was there, that wasn't changed at all since you met him. No, no. Okay. Well, there was, there was something. Fakes it. But that's gonna be for the finals. We'll talk about why.

Okay. You know, we'll see what happens. Then we got Jack Cohen, Matt Corral. I'm gonna pick Matt Corral, you know, I think his durability might be an issue at the next level. He's hurt now, but I think one thing that pushed Jack Cohen ahead of Matt Corral

was that Jack Cohen like popped his finger out, then he popped back in, then he threw a touchdown pass to win the game. So that's why he's in the finals. So. Wait, wait, I thought that you put Corral in the finals. No, no, Jack Cohen's in the finals. I got very confused by the way that you set that up.

Okay, so Cohen beats Corral. Cohen beats Corral. But what about the fact that Corral, everybody was saying, hey, don't play in this game. Don't play in this game. And he wanna be out there with his guys so badly that he went ahead and played in the bowl game. Is that, that should be a plus sign for him, right?

I mean, it is, but like the visual of just seeing Jack Cohen pop his finger back in, then throw a game winning touchdown is just legendary. Yeah, that is legendary. That's one of those things you can't beat. So you have Jack Cohen versus Kenny Pickett in your final. Would you say that you are officially a bill-polling disciple?

You just like average white guys? No, no. I think, honestly, I think Malik Willis is gonna have a really good NFL career. As a wide receiver or quarterback? Quarterback. Okay, good. That was a good test.

You see, I think he's, what they advertised him as, he's Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, hybrid. He's got the arm of a sick hybrid. Yeah, that would honestly make him the best quarterback of all time. That is the sickest hybrid of all time. It'd be like, could you ever imagine if you made like a tiger mixed with a shark?

They're like- How awesome that would be. You should go see this band tonight. They're like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. The thing is with Malik Willis is that we just started to hear the buzz now at the Combine and you know, I mean, a lot of guys were hearing about Malik Willis like during the season,

but he's only really come to the forefront now. Yeah, you didn't have a great year at Liberty. Like he had a good year the year before. Which actually you could say is kind of similar to Josh Allen. He had a better year the year before his junior year at Wyoming. So I told Kahn's that I think that I wanted Malik Willis as a commander. Kahn's brought up the fact that he,

he got into a fist fight against Army. So he punched the troops in that game. So that took him off Kahn's big board. Sounds like he's a rider. He is, he is a rider for sure. Also a lot of his improv stuff that he does during the game, like he could actually like, you know, it's either gonna translate

and he's gonna be like a Patrick Mahomes or it's not. So that's one of those things where it's like- So like, Hallfammer or bust. Exactly. Yep. I like that. Yeah. I mean, hey.

One of those. What if he ends up being like her cousin, so then you'd be wrong. Well, remember that one time who was I talking about and I was saying like he's either gonna be Tom Brady or he's gonna be the Memphis quarterback. Pax and Lynch.

Pax and Lynch. Who do you say that about? That was my Trevor Lawrence take. Oh yeah, that's right. You're gonna be Tom Brady or Pax and Lynch. I mean, it's one- No in between. So there's a lot of in between.

Yeah. Yeah. So now we're in the finals. Okay. We got Kenny Pickett, Jack Cohen. Where's it being played? I think it's Orlando. Okay.

Okay. Orlando. So we went from the first round was being played in your mind and then the finals is in Orlando. Exactly. Outdoors. Epcot.

What's the weather like? It's 68, breezy. Oh, is it that field that they do like the Pee Weed National Championship at? Yeah. Okay, I like that. Pop one. Okay, but no rain.

No rain, 68, breezy. 68, what about humidity? Humidity's gonna be hovered around 40%. Okay, that's not too bad. So it's, you know. Kind of a perfect day. Exactly. It's been one of those.

So the final, should we save for today or tomorrow? No, no, no. I think we're ready. It doesn't need to be trilogy. I can't, Billy. I can't go another two days in the suspense. Okay, so. This weekend was torture for me

because I was just thinking about this. So unfortunately, Jack Cohen's Cinderella Run is gonna come to an end. What? I know, yes. And again, this has nothing to do with the fact that you met Kenny Pickett. No.

And that we like Kenny Pickett. Well, you know what? I was gonna dub him. I was gonna dub him, but I asked Kenny Pickett. Come back to the real world. Right. Not playing Fortnite. What were you gonna do?

Well, I was gonna, I honestly, I had a serious doubt because of Kenny Pickett's glove usage. And I was like, I had to figure out cause, you know, playing like my limited quarterback experience and you know, like wearing a glove, gloves wear out quickly. Like you can't, you can't have like,

it's about consistency. If you have a sticky glove that becomes less sticky throughout a game or throughout a week, you know, you're gonna have difference in variability when you throw the ball. Would you think it might be like, like basketball shoes though?

Like in the NBA, like they can, most guys I think wear new shoes every game. Right. New gloves every game. Yeah. So that's why I asked him about it. I said, Hey, Kenny. So like, what's your philosophy on the gloves? Are you like, where, like breaking in gloves?

Like where's your sweet spot on glove usage? And he says that he uses a new pair of gloves every game, every workout. And then that's what sold me. That's what sold me. Wow. That's why I talked to him. Cause that's consistency.

Cause that's the one thing when people are worried about gloves, it's like, you know, there's a lot of variability. Like when it's just your hand, it's pretty consistent. Exactly. So, you know, he's using new pair of gloves every game. So that's consistent.

He likes to throw with the sticky gloves. It's a lot of gloves that you're going through. Yeah, it's like, OJ use gloves too. The 50, 50 dollars pair. But he was innocent. He welcomed the legal process to play out. Shifty.

Wait. So I think Kenny Pickett has like, if Kenny Pickett goes on to be a Hall of Fame quarterback, think about how much money he can make by selling these gloves. Like if he plays 200 games in the NFL. Yep. That's a lot of merchandise. That's a lot of gloves.

The Giants and Eli Manning would kill for that type of turnover. Yeah, they might, maybe they should draft them. That's, he's a natural fit. For the Giants. They wouldn't have to lie about all the, all the game use merchandise. Also is he would have a lot of those, those playing cards that got put out there

of like featuring a real slice of Kenny Pickett's glove. Wait. So Kenny Pickett wins your draft, which just to remind everyone, Sam Elinger won last year. And, but he loses this fuckable spiral draft. The thing is, I still can't get over the glove. Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. I'm old fashioned like that. Makes sense.

Okay. Anything else we have? Anything else? Any, any other parting shots? We have Mark Titus on Wednesday and Mike Florio. Get excited. Should be great. It's the best time. It's the best week of the year.

I'm, I'm dubbing it. It really is. I'm dubbing it. I quote Billy football. I'm dubbing it. When you say dubbing it, do you mean like putting a dub on it? I'm putting a dub on it.

Are you saying like dub it as in medieval? No. I dub you and give you a new name. I'm dubbing it. Because you could say like, I hereby dub Kenny Pickett. Correct. The winner of this year's quarterback.

No, we're, we're giving him a dub. Honestly, a dub is one of those things that can go either way. Now they think about it's totally contextual. Yeah. That's a dub. All right. Congratulations, Kenny Pickett. And this week. I hope the commanders.

Yeah. Dubbing this week. Congratulations this week. Yes. Hope the commanders draft you, Kenny. 68. 68 for the number of teams. Wow. Did you steal that from Jake? Was Jake...

I was just about to say 68. No. You say 18 every time. No, they baby changed it. They said I have to win it with a different team. Oh, well. It's 68. Yeah. Are you, are you a system player, Jake?

Are you knocking it? Right. That's the point. I'll do 64. Old school. Yeah. Nope. 65. Cause remember they had that one Tuesday? Come on.

No, but old school is 64. Do you want 65? No, I'll go to 25. That's what I've been riding with. Whoa. What does that have to do with the tournament? Nothing. Wow.

I guess it's not that big of a week for Jake. Yikes. Yeah. Not at all. I'm going to go with 32 and honor the NIT. There we go. He said it. Six. What about you, Billy? 69.

Oh, okay. Got a ride. Yeah. The first team out is team 69. That was Dayton. Yeah, that's true. That's ironic. 49. Damn.

That doesn't have anything to do with basketball. Nothing. 49ers. It's just a football number, which is an honor to us. Oh, maybe Tom Brady is a 49ers. Tom Brady. Tom Brady. You know what's crazy?

You know what's crazy? Yeah. So I dreamed about Leroy last night. And he's hardly ever in my dreams. And at the end of like when I interacted with him, he was like, okay, I got to go. I got some important stuff. And I was like, I don't know what's important.

I just realized he had to go break the scoop on Tom Brady and dog heaven. He knew it was happening before anyone else. Shout out Leroy. Love you guys. Crows hate renewable energy. Is that true? They drop rocks on it.

Yeah. On what? The solar panels. Solar panels. Probably getting back at the windmills for murdering all their cousins. Yeah. Love you guys.

Okay. Shine away. I'll be coming for your love, okay? Take on me. Take me on. I'll be coming for your love, too. Needless to say, I'm all set in. But I'll be stolen away.

Love and love, life is okay. Say out to me, it's no better to be safe than sorry. Say out to me, it's no better to be safe than sorry. Take on me. Take me on. I'll be coming for your love, too.