Last night's sweet 16 games were on fire! + There is only one "Iceman" in sports

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Gunther, on top of the surrogate jet, big drive coming from California's block.

Ten seconds to go!

Park on a far wing, up and out of the zone.

Oh, that's good.

20 empty net.

Yes!

It's a hat trick for Alex Oh, that's good here in Utah.

His second hat trick of the year is first in Montreal.

And here he makes it seven to four with five point two to go

and again some post whistle hostilities.

John Walton's really really good.

That was the call of the empty netter at the end last night that gave

Alex Oh, Vechkin his 34th career hat trick.

4th most hat tricks in NHL history.

And he set a league record with a hat trick against his 21st team.

The caps rallied from a 3-1 first period deficit to a seven to four win.

In Salt Lake City.

That was the crowd cheering for Oh, Vechkin there at the end, right?

It certainly sounded like a lot of cheering in a road environment.

The caps still kind of hanging by a thread in terms of their playoff hopes.

The problem is teams in front of them keep winning as well.

But they are right now.

They are still seven points behind six points.

Excuse me behind the second wild card team with nine games to play.

Good morning on a morning following a winning day yesterday.

How about the nets going to rigley and beating the cubs 10 to four on opening day.

Despite James wood going 0 for five with four strikeouts.

Kind of where he left off in the second half.

But last year, Kate Cavali certainly wasn't great.

Only went three and two thirds in his opening day start.

But the nets get a 10 to four win on opening day.

They'll take today off and be back at it tomorrow at rigley for the second of their season opening three game set.

I was very much knee deep in the hoops last night.

Man, those were good basketball games, especially the first two games.

The Purdue Texas game and the Iowa Nebraska game, which featured an unbelievable gaff.

I would say it was a coaching gaff, although some have suggested the referees had something to do with it.

I'll get to that in a moment.

The smell test 2 and 0 last night with Arizona and Illinois.

I mean, literally, you never sweated either one of them.

Somebody did mention to me on Twitter, your guy Ben Fox basically told you that all of the public action was on Arizona.

And that the other side Arkansas was the right side.

Yes, he did.

That wasn't the information I had.

And I went in another direction.

And that sometimes happens, especially with standalone games when you get late into a season, playoff games, sweet 16 elite eight games.

There's going to be a lot of different information depending on, you know, which sports book you are talking to.

So he was talking to some of the real big ones.

And I was talking to many that sort of do this offshore.

And I, from the beginning, I told you on Monday, Max, you remember I said, man, Arizona is giving a big number.

I just think I'm going to need them because it just seems like they're begging you to take Arkansas.

And Arizona looks the part, man, right now.

God, 19 to 88.

Calipari's worst loss ever in the NCAA tournament.

But I'm going to tell you this right now, they play Purdue in the elite eight.

And I haven't seen and I haven't gotten the numbers that I usually get, you know, usually a day out in terms of, you know, where sharp money is and where public money is from some of my friends and warmer climbs.

But I'm going to guess the public's going to be all over Arizona in this game.

I said, Max, last night on a group text to a bunch of guys that like to do this wager on games.

If Arizona is more than seven, they're going to be the right side.

If they are less than seven, Purdue is going to be the right side.

Seven's the right number.

It came out at five and a half six.

And it's just sitting there at five and a half six right now.

I think that number's short.

I think the public's going to absolutely hammer Arizona.

Well, no more tomorrow.

Remember, follow me on Twitter at Kevin Chien, DC.

I've been tweeting out the picks in advance of the games.

Tomorrow, they'll be out by early afternoon.

Same thing for Sundays, elite eight games as well.

But 16 and eight now.

So I'm hitting at 66.6 percent repeating.

Two thirds of the games have been winners.

So far, last night, no sweat on either one of them.

Man, Illinois was really, really impressive.

I'll tell you, they're freshman, Keaton Wogler,

who had the 46-point game during the regular season at Purdue

in an Illinois win, which was one of the best freshman performances of the season.

And he's a very good freshman player.

I don't think as an NBA prospect personally.

He's anywhere near some of these upper echelon guys.

But if you look at his box score after the game last night,

and you see 13 points, 4-14 from the field,

you know, only three assists, you would think,

yeah, he was okay.

He was outstanding in this game.

He controlled the tempo of this game.

And you get a really good point guard.

And he is a taller point guard and more of a scoring point guard at 66.

But he controlled the tempo of this game.

He had 12 rebounds at the point guard position.

I thought he was outstanding in the game.

And then all of their, you know, Balkan, Eastern European, Serbs, you know,

et cetera, they all played well.

And they went into Houston, a virtual home game for Calvin Samson and company.

And they just shut him down and beat him 65 to 55.

The game of the night was Purdue.

And Texas, Texas was really feisty.

By the way, how about that kid,

Tramon Mark from Texas.

He hit the game winner to beat NC State in the first four,

you know, nine days ago or whenever it was, he was great.

But Purdue, this was interesting, Max.

Purdue had the worst three point shooting game of the season for them.

They made the fewest three pointers,

and the percentage was the lowest.

They were four for 20 from behind the arc.

If you know anything about Purdue,

they can kill you with the three.

And they had the worst three point shooting night of the year for them.

They also missed some key free throws down the stretch.

And yet, they still scored nearly 80 points and won the game.

79 to 77 on the tray, Kaufman, Ren,

tip, I thought he pushed off.

Could have easily been called for an offensive foul.

Although on the other end, the three point play that tied it by swing.

I thought that was a sketchy call.

But Purdue wins 79-77,

and they are on to the elite eight against Arizona.

And then in the other early game,

you had one of the all-time gaps.

I mean, it wasn't Chris Weber calling a timeout that he didn't have.

Fred Hoyberg's an outstanding coach.

He's going up against, and he did last night.

I think maybe the best exes and owes coach left in the draw in Ben McCollum.

Nebraska led the entire way in this game,

and then Iowa had a big run late,

but there was a sequence with 58 seconds left in the game.

And Iowa up three with the ball after a timeout.

So Nebraska needs to stop, get the ball back.

Do you have the sound of that call?

All right, so let me just set it up.

Nebraska down three, but Iowa's got the ball with 58.8 seconds left.

In the game, there was a timeout before this.

Nebraska doesn't need to foul.

They need to play good defense.

Get a stop, you can come down, get a two,

or a three, whatever to extend the game.

But this is what happened when they came out on the floor.

Marcus Lawrence, you put all that.

Look at this pass.

Oh my goodness.

It's all curious.

What happened?

Well, that was a major defensive breakdown.

There.

Watch it again.

Well, they just don't guard full garrison.

And he's waving for it.

How about the vision there?

Buked and gel trying to get back in the play.

Wait a minute.

I think Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor.

They did.

Ripmask is not on the floor.

Nebraska, that is a major breakdown.

They didn't even have five guys on the floor.

When Iowa was inbounding, you can't match up like that.

Stan Van Gundy, Robbie Hummel, talking about Nebraska putting four out there.

This wasn't Gene Hackman and Hoosiers doing it on purpose.

They did not do it on purpose.

They had four defenders and they left the guy that was closest to the basket.

On the other end of the floor, they left him open.

And he caught it.

He dunked it.

He got fouled by somebody who chased him down.

It was a six point game.

And Nebraska never recovered.

They ended up losing 77 to 71.

So how can this happen?

You know, anybody that's out there that's played or even coached before,

you know this that many times the referees will turn to the coach and say,

coach, you only got four out here.

Get a fifth out here.

Or vice versa.

Coach, you got six out here.

You got to take somebody off.

That happens a lot.

And I was listening to some of the follow up conversation about this,

that a lot of the coaches, Seth Greenberg was talking about it this morning.

He's like, yeah, more times than not, the referee counts.

And he'll tell the coach, coach, you're one short and he'll hold up the ball

until the players out on the floor, the fifth players out on the floor.

They didn't do that.

Obviously, there was a player near the scores table that looked confused

as to whether or not he was supposed to go into the game or not.

Look, there's no way of getting past.

That's a, that's on the coach in Fred Hoyberg that the long time coach at Nebraska

played, you know, at Iowa State was an NBA player for many years.

And he's a really good coach.

He said, it's on me.

But man, that is a terrible mistake for players.

And not only that, the fifth player was the player that was supposed to,

I am assuming, guard the player that was wide open at the other end of the floor.

You know, sometimes you'll look around before the in balance pass

and you'll say defensively, we got to have somebody all the way back.

Somebody's got to be all the way back.

Nobody should be further than our deepest guy defensively.

They didn't really do that.

And that is a crushing way.

Now, they were down three and they didn't have the ball.

They were going to have to get a stop.

And they were struggling to get stops down the stretch anyway.

So Iowa had the advantage anyway up three with the ball with 58.8 seconds left.

But man, that's one after the special season, the best season.

Nebraska's ever had in basketball, winning their first ever tournament game,

getting to their first ever sweet 16 game.

By the way, having a big lead in the first half of this game,

it was a spectacular game.

I mean, I thought the coaching, the playing was super high level in this game all night long.

The three point shooting, the shooting in general,

just a really high quality basketball game.

It was their third matchup of the season.

They had split the two during the regular season.

But man, you'll be remembered for that game for having four players on the floor defensively

on a rather important, important possession.

Anyway, Good Hoops, Arizona is a really good man.

Wow.

And Darius A. Cuff Jr. for Arkansas, the player that I really liked that right now,

honestly, I think he might be my number two.

He had 28 in the loss.

But Arkansas never had a shot.

They couldn't guard.

And I'll tell you a crevice, the Arizona center, it was a monster last night.

And they've got, Max, I would say that their top nine players are all starters almost anywhere else.

They are so deep and so good.

And yet, each one of these games is its own entity.

Matchups are everything.

And I give Purdue a legit shot in what will be the second of the two elite eight games tomorrow.

Iowa, Illinois is going to go first and then Purdue, Arizona second.

How about that three of the four teams playing in the elite eight on Saturday night are big 10 teams.

And we're not even done with the big 10 teams.

We've got two left playing tonight.

One of them right here at Capital One.

Duke St. John's will be the first game at Capital One Michigan State Yukon.

The second of the two games at Capital One.

And then in Chicago in the Midwest region, Alabama Michigan early Tennessee Iowa state.

Late should be another great night of sweet 16 hoops leading to some really good elite eight matchups.

The basketball has been good.

You know, I wasn't into it during the regular season.

Even at the beginning of the tournament, I was lukewarm.

It's just when my team isn't in it.

And I don't know how you guys feel if you have a team that you're passionate about.

When my team's in it, it's never the same thing.

But this tournament's gotten really good here over the last few days.

I thought the weekend was great.

Last night was a really, really good basketball throughout with the exception of the four players on the floor.

Alright, let's get to it.

What do you got?

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What are my all-time favorite players?

Any sport, any era,

is George the Iceman-Gurvin.

About seven or eight years ago,

Cooley and I were doing a show out at Creighton Farms,

out in Loudon County.

It was a Jack Nicholas event, charity event.

We did the show out there,

and somebody walked by and said,

would you guys like to have Mr. Nicholas?

I said, of course, we'd love to get Mr. Nicholas.

Jack Nicholas on the show.

He came on the show,

and then somebody came by and said,

you probably don't care,

but George Gurvin is playing.

He used to play, and I just said,

yes, yes.

The person, the PR person,

was unfamiliar with the legend of the Iceman.

And I just said, yes, please.

And I'm telling you,

that was one of the few moments,

I think when I had Mac and Row on the show,

that was maybe the most nervous I've ever been.

I think Tommy and I talked about this not too long ago,

and somebody had written in,

what's the interview that you looked forward to the most,

and maybe you were nervous about?

For me, it was Mac and Row.

It ended up going really well.

He had a book out 10, 12 years ago,

something like that came on the show,

and he was great.

As he always is,

he's just an introspective,

very thoughtful smart dude,

and I was a massive Mac and Row fan,

but being a big Gurvin fan,

when he sat down,

it was during a commercial break,

and I just said,

I gotta tell you, man,

you are right up there for me,

as one of my all-time favorites.

And somebody, whoever was with him,

said, he hears that every once in a while,

but he couldn't have been nicer.

He was super kind,

and I went through some of the games

that he played against the Bullets way back in the 70s,

because the Spurs and the Bullets played in back-to-back series,

in 78 and 79,

when San Antonio was in the Eastern Conference.

He is truly, you know,

up there on the highest of pedestals

for just flat-out being able to score

in the history of the game.

I think he's still top five,

top six all-time score.

I should have looked it up,

I will shortly.

But this, what do you got,

is not about the greatness of the Iceman.

It's about the Iceman moniker,

which Caleb Williams,

the quarterback of the Chicago Bears,

has attempted to trademark the moniker,

Iceman.

First of all, help me with this.

I didn't know that

Caleb Williams had the nickname Iceman.

I've never heard that. Have you heard that, Max?

So it kind of started on Twitter

during the Bears season this year.

So it kind of towards the end of the regular season

when the Bears were making that playoff push

and into, you know,

the playoff push and that loss against the Rams,

he kind of got the name the Iceman.

That's what Bears decided to,

Bears fans decided to call him.

Okay. Well, this is not,

this is not appropriate.

He's gotten bad advice from somebody.

So George Gervin got wind of

Caleb Williams attempting to trademark

the moniker, Iceman.

And he told ESPN he was caught off guard.

He learned recently that he tried to

trademark the name.

And Gervin said, quote,

I've been the Iceman for 40

something years.

Actually, Ice,

it's been like 50 years

because I've been watching the ABA.

I watched the ABA documentary on Netflix.

Highly recommend it.

Maybe it wasn't Netflix.

Was it Amazon Prime?

I'm forgetting what it was on.

Highly recommend it.

If you're a basketball fan and you

have any recollection or you've heard the stories

about the American Basketball Association,

the ABA, the Red White and Blue Ball,

this is 100% worth it.

But you're talking about now

the mid to early 70s

and he was the Iceman for the Virginia Squires

in the ABA.

So it's not 40 something years.

It's 50 something years.

I've been the Iceman for 40 something years.

I never thought anybody would try

to trademark it.

He kind of knocked me out of the box.

On March 16th,

Caleb Williams holding ink filed

four trademark applications

with the United States patent

and trademark office related to the Iceman nickname.

According to the trademark application,

goods and services related to the name included

athletics sporting goods and equipment,

water bottles, t-shirts,

sweatshirts, jerseys, hats,

eyewear,

and downloadable posters

and digital trading cards.

I didn't have a lot of posters as a kid,

but I had one.

Actually, I had more than one.

I had Cheryl Teagues as a poster.

But the other one that I had

was George the Iceman-Gurven

in that silver San Antonio Spurs sweatsuit.

Sitting on a huge block of ice.

It's a legendary poster

for anybody that was alive

and aware and a sports fan

during that era.

Shortly after getting wind

of the Caleb Williams holding

inks' filings,

Gurven interests LLC

filed two trademark applications

for Iceman and Iceman 44,

the latter of which references

his jersey number worn

throughout his NBA career.

One of the biggest questions

according to a trademark attorney,

Josh Gerben,

is how trademark rights are viewed.

Gerben said Gerben would claim

that even though he didn't file

the trademark, he was using it

before Caleb Williams,

even though Williams filed it first.

But since Williams filed his application first,

the US patent and trademark

office could accept

Williams's application

and refuse Gerben's.

If Williams's application is accepted,

George will have a 30-day period

in which he can file a formal opposition

to Caleb's applications

and say they shouldn't be registered

because I was using these trademarks long ago.

And the public associates

the name with me.

And yes, the public

associates Iceman

with one person.

Other than, you know,

Iceman

in a certain 1980s movie

with Tom Cruise.

Yeah, I just...

Come on, man.

Somebody helped the young man out.

I mean, his father has got to know

he can't do this.

And if you somehow get access to it,

you certainly can enforce it

with George Gerben.

That would be the one in which we'd say,

yeah, we'll make an exception.

Gerben can do whatever he wants to do

with the Iceman logo

with the Iceman name.

The original Iceman.

George Gerben.

Good God, people.

He was so good.

He was so good.

I've told...

I think I told this story the other day.

Stan Olbeck was a coach of his

in San Antonio in the 80s

when they were always

this is when they had moved to the

Western Conference.

And they seemed to be the

runner-up in the Western Conference

finals losing to the Lakers

multiple times.

But he was asked like after,

you know, Gerben had retired

about just, you know,

what it was like to coach him.

And he said,

it was the easiest thing ever.

Because all I had to say,

if we needed a certain number from him,

he would just get it.

Ice, we need 40 tonight.

No problem coach.

Ice, we need 60 tonight.

No problem coach.

And of course,

very famously,

the season in 1978,

it ended the 77...

No, it was the 79-80 season,

I believe. Let me pull that up.

79-80,

where he and David Thompson were

fighting for the scoring title.

And early in the day,

let me just see if this is the game.

Maybe it was 79.

Could have been 79.

Sorry about that. I should know that.

Anyway, the season finale,

there was a scoring title at stake

between David Thompson

and George Gerben.

They weren't playing each other

in that particular game.

All right, I was right the first time.

It was the 78 season.

April 9th, 1978.

Scoring titles coming down to a few percentage points

between David Thompson and George Gerben.

David Thompson, early in the day,

goes out and gets 73.

Gerben in that game needed

59 to maintain

and retain the scoring title.

He had 56 at halftime.

Ended up with 63.

Only played 33 minutes in the game.

And scored 63 points.

On 23-49 from the field.

No three-pointer people

in 1978.

Again,

23-49 from the field.

And 17 of 20 from the free throw line.

He kept the scoring title

and then scored a few more points

in the second half.

And then took a seat.

That's what he was able to do.

Need 56 to keep the scoring title.

Yeah, let me get those in the first half.

All right, we got a lot to get to.

Including

Beaumarshanti, one of my favorite draft analysts,

will be on the show

with us today at 11 a.m.

Chris Nocki is going to jump on

with us at 1135 to talk hoops.

Talk big 10.

And talk about Maryland doing some damage already

with some of their own.

Bringing back two

key players reportedly.

And then Ben standing at 12.

But when we come back,

all of these mock drafts

but this is a first

for our team in terms of a player being mocked

to Washington at number seven.

Share that with you when we return.

Kevin Chienshow, the team 980

and the team 980.com.

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