St. John’s! Acuff’s Rise & More Tournament Thoughts w/ Jim Jackson, Plus Hunter Pence Talks Baseball!

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We are stacked for you today.

I'll recap the entire tournament.

I won't get to every single game of some of the stuff that I love.

And we're going to do more with Jim Jackson.

And we've got some baseball preview,

Hunter Pants, a couple world series under spell.

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We're talking NCAA tournament.

What I don't get to here will get to later with Jim Jackson.

I'm just going to run through a bunch of the things that I love

from the weekend.

And of course, we start with the Johnny's.

St. John's Beats, Kansas.

First, sweet 16 for St. John since 1999.

I could tell the story for 10 minutes.

I will not do that.

But I remember where I was in 1999.

It shouldn't be that hard.

It's 23 years old.

Negril, DJing, Margueriteville, playing scrubs 1,000 times a day.

And I had the whole place to myself.

St. John's Ohio State sat down, chicken salad.

Yep, a huge salad with chicken all over it.

Although not a lot of mass back then.

I didn't like how I felt when I took my shirt off.

And I've never forgotten that feeling.

Where's my life?

And I was like, well, this is good.

Life is good.

Was DJing a lot.

But I was like, life is pretty good right now.

Let's go, Johnny's.

And then 200 some kids from Ohio State

showed up on shuttles from Mobile and took over the entire place.

And it was absolutely hell.

And I want to blow my brains out when I missed the pre-throws at the end.

But not yesterday.

I felt good.

I got up the couch.

I yelled, yeah, twice.

Real loud.

One of us felt good to be back.

St. John's up 54-40.

And you're like, this feels like 30 points in this kind of game.

But if you're a St. John's fan, you know you have to just buckle up,

strap yourself, fan and go.

They're probably not going to score for like eight minutes.

And it's going to be brutal.

And 54-40 turns into 65-65.

There's a fouling strategy there by Bill Self

to use up all the fouls to get closer to the bonus.

But actually fouling delaying any momentum for St. John's offensively.

That's why we have the first foul in the last two minutes rule

in the NBA because back to the day when teams didn't have team fouls in the quarters.

And they would go hack a shack.

It would be like, all right, this is pointless to watch.

Try to get into the bonus to then have him take free throws.

The list just do first in the last two minutes.

That's why they change that rule.

I do wonder if 90s NBA fans or protective 90s NBA people watch that game

against, you know, St. John's against Kansas.

So they watch that and they go, now we're talking.

This is the good stuff.

St. John's can't shoot, but somehow they're making threes

even though they didn't make any yesterday.

Well, they did, but 11-35 is exactly something to be proud about.

They kept taking them.

And at halftime, Patino goes, well,

they don't think we can make them.

And so far, we've approved them right.

Thank God for Bryce Hopkins because he hit six, which I think is double his career high.

It was kind of the difference of just balancing out anything that was happening outside

because nothing was going to happen inside because one,

okay, this is really good defensively as well.

And Zubi has four, there's like five guys in basketball now that can throw an entry pass.

And even with Batinga being in foul trouble,

I just didn't seem like St. John's wanted to go to Zubi as much as I think that they probably

should have. But I thought it was interesting, at least watching the game.

I was like, I wonder if Patino just tells like some of the guys like, hey,

enough threes. And it was actually the opposite because in the post game, he said,

I told him you've got to just keep shooting him.

You've got to keep shooting him. You've got to keep,

you've got to find a way to make a couple of these things and hang on.

And so you have the foul strategy at the end, which everybody's been crushing so far.

But I would just at least add this, if you're saying that he should have saved one extra foul,

the foul the next time, asking college kids to foul, like say,

however, the clock runs down to like two or three seconds when somebody's probably getting

right another shot. And instead of a really tough shot to make, maybe you're fouling them and

sending the free throw line. I don't know that it's as clear as everybody's making out to be

the like self absolutely screwed up by fouling consistently, ruining momentum, taking time off the

clock, using up all these fouls, but then didn't have another one with four seconds to go.

We're darling who has zero points the entire game ends up hitting the game running layup,

which looking at that angle still, it's amazing that he got that thing off. So the Johnny's

move on Iowa knocks off on number one seed against Florida. I had so many great things to say about

Thomas out for Florida. I was going to, I might have done an hour on him. He saved Florida's

ass in this game. His aggressiveness, the way he just does not relent at all. I love him.

I'll talk more about him when we get closer to the draft because the gators are eliminated.

And if you look at how Florida got back into this game, it was how offensively it was incredible

pressure. I felt like Iowa probably had some easier looks offensively once they got through this

full court and three quarter court stuff like Florida was throwing all sorts of stuff at Iowa.

And Iowa was still totally fine breaking the pressure and then resetting and running more

clock. And this game was about pace when you looked at where Iowa was on the slowest side of

things in college loops and Florida on the fastest side. They held Florida to a season low 61

possessions. And it still almost didn't work. Florida misses one of the two free throws are up 72.

70 starts breaks the press. It looks like defensively one of the Florida players took a bad angle

or a gamble. You let starts get behind you. Now he has full momentum and now the defender on

full garris in the corner has to come up to meet starts because still it's only a two point game.

And starts makes the play full garris gets his toes behind the line and hits the three.

And how about this kid's story? He hadn't seen this. He's from Spain. He lost his father when he was

nine. And he hadn't seen his mother since August. And she makes it to the game and she's over in that

corner. And as Iowa is celebrating for the game winner, he runs over to his mother again, hadn't seen

her since August, but an incredible story. Iowa, great people and a great weekend for the state

American needs farmers. That means only one defending champ since 2007 has advanced past the

sweet 16 as Florida is eliminated. Obviously you con winning back to back 23 and 24 the outlier there.

Just a little note on the whole defending champ thing because anyone that wins seems to be in

this hurry to be like, Hey, we need to turn the page and I understand the mental part of that,

right? Like you don't want your young group, your kids coming into the next season thinking,

hey, we're owed this, right? Like, hey, we're the shit. But is there something to be said of maybe

the motivation of just talking yourself into once you're in the tournament and you are the number one

seed in your region that you are defending something? Because I see a lot of guys talking about this

all the time. And it's just look, it's nearly impossible to repeat, but maybe a psychological switch

on the whole thing where you decide if you're the next defending champ to just embrace it and say,

yeah, we're the defending champs. And everybody needs to take us out for them to have success because

this whole it's new and we haven't done anything. Well, again, anyone's going to get eliminated.

So you can come up with every different storyline or result that you want to Yukon UCLA.

Terris Reed 31 and 27 in the first round of his tournament. That's right. 31 and 27. He had four

points in the first half only on free throws. Terrific job. You knew UCLA was going to be up for

the challenge defensively. If someone had told me that Yukon's going to have to win a tournament game

without Caribbean doing everything on offense for them. And he's a terrific player. We know his

resume, but he's a complimentary offensive player for the most part. And he goes for 27. He's doing

everything because you never quite know what you're going to get from Yukon offensively.

Mullins, their freshman who's a first round pick hasn't really looked up for it going back to

St. John's game in the Big E's tournament final where it looked a little overwhelming for him.

Furman, he went over eight from three. So I don't know that he's overwhelmed by Furman. He just

wasn't hitting a shot. And he hits a huge shot for Yukon. Hurley goes nuts. He keeps firing away.

So he may have woken up, which balances out Yukon's offense quite a bit. If you have Reed,

if you have Mullins and you have obviously Caribbean. But that's at least something there for Yukon

with all their guards and how much they're going to get after you defensively. Can I interest you

in a little micronent? So Caribbean blocks Perry, I believe, up top at the rim. I thought the

block was fine. Maybe it was a little physical. Maybe there was some body stuff. It was already kind

of going downhill for UCLA at that point. And they're down nine. UCLA doesn't get the call.

The official that's on the baseline is now running a pass to UCLA sideline. And Kronan goes

with the most condescending clap right towards the official. All right. Yukon crosses half court.

They're getting ready just about. There was actually kind of like a choppy little play there that

maybe could have been a travel and Yukon. And the official turns right around and gives Kronan

the technical. So that means Caribbean hits the two free throws. They get possession. They scored

layup. And now they're down 13. So a couple of things on this. I could see the announcers have so

many things going on. It's hard to keep track of it. So we go to commercial because of course,

we went to commercial. The NFL is like, God, there's a lot of commercials in this.

You come back and they used, I thought a bad replay that was behind the bench because Kronan

immediately is like, I didn't even say anything. It's like, well, yeah, but you know what you did.

You didn't get a call. And you acted like an asshole because you do that all the time.

And you knew what you were doing. And they said, I mean, say anything. And because they used

the replay that they did, steroids kind of like, well, if he didn't really say anything and then,

you know, even Lapis who was terrific is kind of like, you know, that's a lot. I would have

been tech, you know, I wouldn't get a million technicals if that was the kind of thing. It's like,

no, no, no, you've got to see the other replay. You've got to see the entire play the entire time.

And look, it was going downhill for UCLA. They were having really a hard time getting anything going

offensively. The pressure by the guards, Yukon, which I can't wait for the Michigan State game. By

the way, in that specific matchup with fears against these guards are Yukon. But it felt like the

life came out of UCLA a little bit there. And I don't Kronan didn't do them any favors whatsoever.

And we've seen this from him before. We saw it in the Arizona game when they were a big two years

ago in Arizona came back. I thought the situation that he had with Jamerson when he threw him out of

the Michigan State game. And he was totally wrong about it and got into the reporters. I've just

telling you like, I know he's won. And it seems like players love to play for him. I think he's won

almost 70% of his games. So, you know, that's really all we care about. But as a non-parent,

maybe nobody gives a shit. But it's just like, I don't want you playing for him. I, I, I'm actually

impressed how he continues to get players knowing what you're signing up for. Because it is

him against the world. And I'm not telling you like Hurley's a sweet heart. But you almost like

when you watch a Kronan Hurley game, you don't even notice Hurley as much. And I guess I just

don't understand it. Like you walk out into the court. It's like it's everything you're doing

focused on your team winning. Or do you have these moments where you cannot help yourself

and you make it about you against all the things that are going against you when again,

when things are going south, you need to kind of be there for your team to try to get them out

of this funk. And it was still plenty of time left in this game. And again, I'm not saying it's

the only reason they lost. It's far from it. But just add it to the list of stuff with him that

I can't stand watching. Let's see. What else? Michigan Arizona look much better than Duke to me.

I have some thoughts on the draft picks. I don't think I'm going to share them all today. That could

be something I do going into the weekend. But just a simple part of it. Like if you're sitting

there and you're in front office, we're an NBA team and you're however the rest of this tournament

goes and you're talking about all these different players. And one guy on the staff, I don't care if

it's your video guy, maybe cheer and it looks at you know. And if somebody said, hey, is it crazy

to think that a cuff Arkansas is the best player out of this draft passing five years? I don't

think anybody else in the room should tell that person that he's crazy. And whether it's Peterson's

first three against St. John's where you're like, Oh, yeah, okay. That's why this guy's the number one

pick. But I wouldn't say Peterson had like, it was a very quiet game from Peterson. And I'm not

even talking about like, is he or is he going to play tonight? Kauai parallels. But the moments where

it's like, Hey, you kind of you're the number one pick probably. So like, can you can you get

cooking here a little bit? He had a rubin prey in a switch. And he swung it. And I was like, all right,

but at the same time I went back and looked at the clip, it looked like three guys were kind of on

them. So maybe that was a very smart like Peterson thing of like and against OKC where it's like,

what do you want me to do? Just driving to three people here and say, cool, I'm the number one pick.

So maybe there's an advanced thing of him or maybe people should have tried to get away from him,

bring some of the defensive help away. Or maybe St. John's was going to do any of that stuff.

I thought Peterson was fine. I don't think it was special. It's funny to see everybody watch

Cameron Booser now for the first time and be like, wait a minute, what the hell's going on with

this guy? I don't know. The Cameron Booser was necessarily amazing in the second half against TCU

after doing nothing the first time. I think TCU was the entire team was in foul trouble. They ran

a foul trouble graphic. There weren't any players from Duke on it. It was all TCU players. So eventually

when your entire front line is worried about the next foul, fouling them out, they're not going to

play Booser the same way. It's going to be a little bit easier for them. But I would say this

in defensive Booser, the Michigan game exists. I watched it. I'm sure you watched it against that

front line. So that's why we talk about to Bonsa. The good and the bad. It looks great. And the

bad looks really bad. And then you have Fleming's Houston who's in the mix, Caleb Wilson,

who's her is all I'm saying is that the a cuff thing. And by the way, Derek Rose's run as I

used the the comparisons here with Rose and Cal and Memphis and now a cuff at Arkansas with him.

The Derek Rose run to the number one pick was happening around this time. It was

easily all year long. And Rose, it was kind of like undeniable as it kept going and going and

going. You're like no one can no one can stay in front of this guy. Like this is special. We

talk about guys breaking down defenders and getting to the hoop and finishing a small players.

There's nothing you can do with Derek Rose. And a cuff is like, I don't know that he's as

quick as Rose, but that's not a knock. It's just as effective and with his size and a little bit

more to him. I really think that this is a little bit more. I don't want to say it's wide open

because teams are pretty clear on Peterson still being the guy. They NBA teams I talk to are way

less concerned with all the Peterson stuff. Then I think the media once we started catching

on to the story and talking about it all the time, which I think were totally fair criticisms. But

I just don't think a suggestion for a cuff is necessarily the wrong thing here. All right. So

I guess I did do a little bit more draft than I thought I was going to do. I was state. How about

that team? I wish Jefferson were healthy. I might get real weird and pick them to be in the final

four. I had them in the elite eight because I fell in love with them. I fall in love with Iowa

state once every 13 years. I just realized this. If you go back to 2000, Pfizer, Michael Nurse,

Tinsley, and then in 2014, Nyang Gang. Can I interest you in a little melvin edgem?

And then you've got Deandre Cain, King Asiatic, Nobody's Equal. That was actually big Daddy Cain.

I think Deandre Cain was like 31 when he played for Iowa State that year. So here we are again in 26.

I love this team. I love Iowa. That would be huge Iowa guy today on a Monday, which I know is,

you know, hot guys are like, wait, you were so nice to us. And now you're talking up lame style.

That's not what I say. That's what they say. Let's see, Purdue. If they're rolling with

Fletcher lawyer and Coffin Ren at this point, they're a completely different team. We saw

in the Big Ten Championship game. Lawyers 43% from three, three straight years. He's ridiculous

and then you've got brain spith of the controls, all-time assist leader, something I did notice

in their second round win. He's got bedazzled Nike's bedazzled. I'll say this about NFL

evaluations. I want my corners wearing chains. I want my wide receivers wearing chains.

You could say you don't want your guard wearing a chain. But if that guard is wearing a chain,

that tells me something about him. Probably doesn't make a ton of sense because you get ripped off,

probably every single game. I don't even know that it makes a ton of sense for the guys outside to

be wearing them all the time. But do you want Braden Smith? Do you want your point guard wearing

bedazzled? I don't know if they were Kobe's or not. I think yes. I think yes. He's on the draft

boards. Probably is in early second round pick. I do wonder if a team is going to draft him just

to teach everybody else like a team's camp to be like, hey, we're doing the Braden Smith entry-pass

camp and we're going to throw entry passes for three straight days and then you're going to learn

how to do it. I think it takes a little bit more than that. But I think I like it. And obviously,

like everybody else watching Purdue these last couple of weeks, how could you not love this team?

I'm going to end here. Nebraska Vandy going back a couple of days.

Terrific game. And I'm not new. If it were February, I probably wouldn't give Nebraska any love

with five white guys because it'd be the wrong month to do it, but it's March.

I don't know if they were inspired by the Lakers recent five-man rotation of five white guys first

time in, I don't know, 10 years, something like that. So you've got the game winner. No time out by

Fred Hoyberg. I think it's hyper. Here's what I'm going to start tracking. Do the ex players

that are now head coaches do they not call timeouts because they know it's better because it's chaos

on the court and everybody's kind of running to the ball and there's always bad help. Look,

we see in the NBA as well. But no time out and maximizing that chaos is that something that the

non-player coaches won't do where because they didn't play and they're making up for all their

insecurities as not being as good as a player to get to play anywhere of note. Do those guys call

timeouts because it's like, yes, here's what I'm going to do. And the players who are far more secure

in their basketball world or their life and what they've accomplished are they like,

man, it's going to run it out there and see what happens and a game winner for Nebraska.

On the five white guys, no, I've got to imagine there was a little kid watching that game somewhere.

And maybe you went to a summer camp to play hoops last summer and maybe didn't go great. You know,

maybe his dad picked him up a camp and his dad's maybe south of the 510 equator and

his mom's a spitfire, but she was a gymnast and, you know, there's a maximum height on those moms.

And maybe, you know, they talked about it, talked about what made more sense and maybe Christmas,

he got a lacrosse stick for Christmas. I'd like to think that little white kids somewhere after

that Nebraska game and he watched that game. He threw that lacrosse stick away and went outside

in the driveway and started getting some shots up. All right, before we dive into today's breakdown,

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and member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC. Excited to do this, especially with the big 10 heavens and

such a great opening weekend in the NCAA tournament. Jim Jackson joins us two time all American

at Ohio State and also a big part of the Clippers coverage now for a bunch of years. So it's good to see

I was thinking about you as I was watching other games. I'm like, man, for Ohio State game,

this is a heavy dose of Michigan for you. Now it is. The ironic part, first of all, thanks for

having me. The ironic part is, Michigan State in particular time is probably my favorite coach

that I've covered. Since I started back in the Big 10 Network 2007, they've kind of opened up

their doors to me to be able to get a really great insight into why the program has been so

successful over the years and a lot has to do with the culture that Tom Iso has kind of placed

together. And so for me, a Michigan thing is great because look, I grew up 45 minutes an hour

outside of Detroit from two years. I spent a lot of my formative years playing basketball,

a hundred my skills in Detroit. A lot of Michigan players, former are great friends of mine from

Glenn Rice, to Terry Mills, to Sean Higgins, to Fab5, Mark Hughes, all of them, Jalen, all of them.

So it's really growing more of a football thing than it is basketball. And plus, when I was in school,

our rivals were Indiana. It was at Michigan. But some people got to burn the boots man when they

go across the state lines sometimes, man. You know, they don't want to buy gas in Michigan or Ohio,

they don't wait till they get there. I'm not, I'm not, it's, that's too draining for me, man.

That's, plus, plus having Michigan State 2 outstanding teams in the way Michigan and Dusty

made playing. I mean, you can't help a room for them. Yeah, they're both incredible teams,

whether it's the history with Iso and the culture thing is something I'm always trying to

understand. And then you just have Michigan where I'll, I'll ask you this way because I think

it's exciting. I can't wait to talk Arkansas, Arizona. But if we just looked at, like that front

line for Michigan, you know, Lindenburg, Mara, the transfer was really, but there's more as Johnson,

as mom and son, like, yeah, I'm like, he can kind of do a lot of different things. Would you

rather have their front line or Arkansas's back court?

Oh, because you went, you went basketball with your back courts. You solidify games with

your front court, but you win it by your back court. Um, God, that's a, that's, uh,

that's a tough one. I'm, I'm going with, I'm going with the front court of Michigan.

And the reason why it's because it's the versatility within that front court because you can

bring Mara out. You can be Lindenburg out. You can place, whereas Johnson out and he can make

plays facilitate or you can go big and just power the ball inside, especially when you're not

shooting the ball well. Uh, those three compliment what their back court, maybe sometime lack in

shooting, but which is rare because like we saw, you know, the other night is when they get it going

in St. Louis, which, you know, they knew the playbook in and out because of Dusty May and

Josh Ford say they're like Kendra Spear, so to speak. They know each other. They're great friends.

But when that front court starts to dominate and just body puns, body blows, body blows,

it's just hard to compete with that. That's the right answer. I think the other one is,

dynamic as this Arkansas back court is, we're talking about two freshmen, you know, and

Lindenburg can bring the ball up, which is just a ridiculous matchup part of it. You know, I

spend so much time on the draft and so I'll watch college basketball probably too often,

almost at a detrimental level of like, hey, look at Mara dominating as this kind of

traditional post guy, but then they'll bring him up as they start their offense and then he can pass

behind him, depending on the different stuff that you're doing. And, you know, sure, there's

yokich, but I don't want to compare anyone to him. Do you think the NBA is either designed to

prevent that from being such an advantage or the NBA has just moved into direction where maybe they're

ignoring somebody like Mara, like an old school, hey, we can run offense through the high post.

And maybe NBA teams will do it every now and then and some sort of entry and then there's

sort of like a double action off of the same thing. But I'll watch Michigan play and go, it is

such a college offense, but yet these, we're talking about three guys that are NBA players.

Well, it's two different thoughts, thoughts, press, just think about it like this. Colleges

of safe haven, if you're a big man to play conventional post up basketball, you can still do that.

The women's game, also the men's game, you can be a post up player, conventionally as Zach

Edie who kind of dominated inside. But the beauty about Michigan is this is that Mara,

despite being seven plus feet, yes, he'll get on the post, but that's not where Dusty may generally

uses him unless he has the mismatch and they want to get a tough bucket. They'll put Mara in the post.

Generally, Mara is left because that provides more space for the back court for Elliot Kado,

Numeric Burnett and those guys to really have more space to operate. But if you look at the NBA,

it's more, you're bringing centers out, you're allowing the guards to facilitate. And if you have a

yoghurt, if you have an imbi, if you have a center that, when we had a beach of Zubach, he did,

he posted up, but a lot of times he was in that picking row position, up top in that short row to

make plays. So the NBA is adopted to having the centers up, elbow, free throw line extended,

in order to have more space for those driving lanes for their guards and forwards.

Yeah, I guess I look at some non-shooting biggs. It's hard to live now in the league because you'll go

like, hey, we love the defense, we love the brim protection, we love the rebounding. Zubach is

a perfect example of this stuff. But then there's always this moment that you'll have, it's like,

yeah, but I'd love if I had a stretch five. But he's starting to shoot the ball better.

But he and I, I swear, are I'm going to lower my shoulder. I'll get to my spot. I'll get the hard

baskets when we need it, often to rebounds. They're not stretching the floor, but within their

system, it makes perfect sense to what they're doing. Shingoon is a whole different story at

Houston. He's able to step out, utilize his passing and his skill set. So I think each

organization is a little bit different. Every organization, as you know, Ryan,

not blessed to have a sin groan or a yoke is that can really facilitate, that can really shoot it,

that can really be a threat. So it's, you've got to kind of pick your point. Who do we have? Who

are we? What is our person now? And how do we evolve our offense around it to make it make sense?

On the Michigan State Yukon matchup, because you had Michigan State. And I'm going to,

you know, whatever, much of the rest of you get to watch a travel and all the assignments.

We'll get to watch it. Yeah, I imagine. I imagine. I just didn't want to put in a tough spot. But

with Michigan State, like fears, you know, there's, there's very short list of point cards that are

just in complete command of the game. And I thought he was brilliant against Louisville. And then

the first thing I thought of in that matchup with Yukon is like, I just can't fathom that Yukon

will let him get into his stuff and control it the way he did against Louisville. And if fears was,

was incredible in that game with the passing, you know, there's always going to be probably

a couple shots there, but you kind of kind of take that with the entire package that's fears.

How would you see him preparing for like what Yukon's going to try to throw at him defensively?

Nothing different because

the thing about fears at Michigan State is it is going to be, I mean, a fabulous matchup.

And I'm just looking here as I go down the injury, Bimber, who's came off of injury,

but finally played last night those two. Danny, Danny Hurley is going to figure out a way

to try to negate what fears does, but they still have to play their defensive sets, which

they're not going to press up a lot. Okay, they may apply some half core pressure just to

bleed some time off the clock, but a pressing situation or a trapping situation, depending on

how it is, is something that Danny Hurley hasn't done yet. Now they'll hedge a little bit more

of their show. They don't want fears to kind of turn the corner, but they're going to force

him to be a jumpshoot. Okay, that's the thing when you have, Jeremy fears is that you want to keep

him out of the paint and force him to take jump shot. If he, if his ability to pull up on a 15 for

jump shot, if he hits that on consistency, then it's going to be a long night because what you

going to do is be able to now offset different things that he does, especially passing the ball.

So I don't see, I see, I see it from this perspective, Ryan, with Danny covering Danny all year,

and looking at different point guards that he played against, is that if they eliminate fears

from turning the corner, breaking down the defense, getting two feet in the paint, and now forcing

defensive rotations, now those spray outs are not there. So that point of attack defense initially,

and that picture roll defense, it's going to be very critical for you guys.

I, you know, when the breakies came out, it was like, do something number one overall team.

And I understand what the resume and the head to head later in the season against Michigan

neutral court, you know, we all watch that game and it in. But man, I got to tell you watching

the big 12 championship, I just went, how can anyone think any team is better than Arizona?

That's again, my opinion, the depth, the versatility, all the different things they can throw at you.

Where would you see Michigan in comparison to obviously with Florida gone here, the other two

number one seats? I love Michigan. I love the versatility. I've covered them a lot this year.

Of course, we had them in the region in Buffalo, so the two games that they played to get to

the sweet 16 were there. So it's one of those things where I love Arizona and their

versatility. And Michigan and Arizona are very similar from that perspective, because you have

sides across the board. You have an excellent back court. I think Ella Kido from a leadership

perspective may be a little bit, is ahead of Burry's just because he's played longer,

he's been in the situation. So you can kind of count on that when Ella Kido was focused in there,

I would get bad advantage. Not from a physical perspective, because I think Burry's with his

size is probably a better player at this point. But with regards to knowing how to run a team

in a situation in a one game scenario, Ella Kido has been there. And I'll lean into that a

little bit more in a matchup if I had to put those two together because of that. But Michigan is

right there. You tell me, I know they took a loss to do. But Michigan is right there, right there.

And it's not a separation between the three. This is what I'm saying.

Yeah, I totally get that. I guess my thing with Arizona would be the Burry's versus Kido

experience thing. I can't win that, right? But I think you said it and I would agree that

Burry's is a better player. I mean, he's a more talented guy. And I think what's really

impressive for this Arizona team with all these other options, especially with Jaden Bradley,

being a big 12 player of the year, is that they closed, they wanted Burry's to have the ball in

his hands to close out Utah State. So when I see something like that with a young player,

I'm like, man, that tells you something. But I think Bradley offers Arizona another point of attack

on the ball option. It's like, hey, we want to give him a look now. We're going to let him

initiate where I think, unfortunately, because of Michigan in the injuries, it's, you know,

look, we're comparing something that would have to happen much further down the road. But I

swear every time Arizona brings somebody in, I'm like, okay, this guy is making a positive

impact now, too. And it feels like it's eight guys. No, it is. Jaden Bradley is one,

two where he all sets what Burry's can do. Co-IP because he's able to go get it when you need it.

And that X factor in a one game scenario is instrumental to moving on. And we've seen

it time and time again in college basketball, Ryan, you've been around this enough to know

backwards when you games and they lose your game, okay? And to have the offset between the two

where either one can go get it, it is a benefit to Tommy Lloyd there in Arizona because like you said,

you wanted to get the ball here, but this option over here who happens to be the player of the

year, the conference is pretty damn good and it can go get it. Yeah, I mean, that's, I mean,

when you sit here drawing stuff up, it's great, but then when you're putting the scouting report

together, you're like, okay, if we trap Burry's here and the ball gets over to Bradley, now he has

the three on two on this side and now on the second side, he can go to work. Now we don't have

enough players. So it's a quandary for opposing teams when you have a player like Bradley, who can

just go get it as well. And I say, like Malita, I'm, is there an Arkansas with, you know, there's

yeah, perfect transition because that's what I wanted to ask you about because, I mean, Malik can

go and it's just, hey, sorry, man, the other guy's going to be maybe a top five pick and hiccuff

and was the SEC player of the year and has been on an absolute tear with these 30 point games,

but Malik is like when he gets his chance and he can make something out of absolutely nothing

in his size and his athleticism. So, you know, every one of us has been excited about this

draft class for a long time, but it's certainly kind of had its ups and downs, whether it's what you

think at AJ, what you think of the Peterson storyline and, and just the, the steadiness of

booser, but then you're like, if you're taking him number one, does your fan base understand that

like he might not exactly be like our go-to offensive guy for the next 10 years, which, you know,

is part of it too. And there's a bunch of other names here. But when you watch a cuff and,

and I said this at the top, I'm not saying he's the best player in draft, but I would think when

front offices are talking about this class and maybe it's teams that don't even have to worry about

picking up there. But I don't know that it's a wild scenario to say, hey, what if in five years he

ends up being the guy? Do you think that that's a crazy statement based on what you've seen from him?

No, because he's built for the mentality and how he played. The beautiful part about how he plays

is that he's putting up numbers without turning the ball over. So his usage rate is very high,

but yet his mistakes are minimal. And that's what you have to look at from a young player who's

running his program and his team and still making the right plays. Okay, yeah, sometimes it's

shot like he struggled at the beginning of the game and then finally got it going. Okay, that's

something sometimes you can't control how many times it goes through the net, but my decision

making where and when and who I get the ball to in certain situations. That to me tells you about

the IQ and knowledge of the game. Okay, that allows him to be able to compete and impact the game

without scoring the basketball. And at the next level, nobody thought Jalen Brunton would be

doing what he's doing. Okay, defensively, we don't know if he can guard in space. Offensively,

he's not as athletic. His foot, his foot speed is a lot slower. Blah, blah, blah. The young man knows

how to play and he's a winner. And then you put him in a situation in the NBA. We seen how he's

been able to prosper. All these things talking about a cup, what the defense with everybody comes

to the NBA with a flaw in their game. Okay, Luca has been in the league 18,000 years and still

has a defensive flaw. Okay, but what he gives you is a chance to win basketball games with his IQ

and decision-making ability to put the ball in the basket. Now again, Luca 6869, don't get me wrong.

But that's my point about a cup is that his ability to control a game is what you look for when

you're in the NBA. Totally on the same page with that. Like I don't think it's a 50-50 split,

hey, defense is half the game. No, when you're this dynamic and on top, everything else too,

when you're a guard, they can get past everybody and then his his changing of angles. Like I don't

want to ever compare anyone to cut. Right. The way he switches hands is he's finishing through

traffic. Like that's just no one's ever going to be Kyrie to me. I didn't even think Iverson was

as good at the rim finishing as even Kyrie was because Kyrie did it longer. But there's some stuff

with him. And you know, look defensively, I remember, you know, look, I did a bunch of draft shows

around ESPN and then you would have some guard and we go, how is he going to stay in front of Russell

Westbrook? And I'd be like, how many guys stay in front of Russell Westbrook like one on my

list? Let me give you something. It's a player that got, let me see, back-to-back MVP's

2006-2007. I played with him and he wasn't the best defender. Oh, yes, Steve Knight. Uh-oh,

okay. So stop, stop with all of this. Do you give the effort? It's my point.

Jaden Brunton is not the best defensive player, but he's going to fight over streams. He's going

to try to give you an effort. He's just not going to be, you know, on Orange Cone out there.

And I think Darius Acuff is the same with it. You know, he gets into situation. He's going to

give the effort because he understands that that hurts his team if he does it, okay? He's 18 years

old. So if we're going to judge based on that and what he is today, but compared to where he can

be and what situation he is, I think it's kind of unfair, you know, to he doesn't say he won't be

a better defensive player. I think he will be. I really do just just just just because of his makeup.

Yeah, I've always felt like defense is a lot like relationships. If you just understand and you care,

there's I mean, we're not we're not asking him to be um, March is smart, okay? Right. That's

that when when New York got Carmillo Anthony, what did they get him for? They got him to put the

ball in the best and everybody knew that. So you're sitting here talking about always not making

plays or just defense. That's not why we got him. That's that that that wasn't the purpose.

So when you draft the player like that like Acuff, you know, it's some shortcomings over here,

but this pile makes up for that shortcoming. Yeah. And having said all that about what is

futures. I think Arizona's going to put them. They're going to hunt him on multiple sessions.

I want to. Yeah. Right. Because he I think he can I don't know if he's upright too much. I mean,

I was really paying attention to his last game with him defensively. And I think there was communication

issues through everything. Look, they're not a good defensive team on top. Everything else. And

there's problems behind him. Um, but yeah, I wouldn't worry about it now on the draft prospect.

I'd worry about it Thursday night. Because yeah, they're going to be like our buddies.

I'll go hunting all day long. Wherever he's at, put him in the picking roll and force him to

have to guard. Now, as a player, I would take that personally. Okay. And say, okay, I may not be

the best, but then I'm going to give you my best effort. I'm fighting over the screen. If I get a

switch as a big man on me, I'm going to make sure to root them out, meet them early so he doesn't get

deep post position. That's my mentality. If I'm thinking like that, if you're going to go at me,

I'm going to make it extremely difficult for you to kind of win those battles over and over

and over again. Well, you think that you can just continue to kind of milk that cow, so to speak.

You're going to have Texas Purdue as well. Um, like I think anybody that loves basketball loves

when Purdue is rolling because it's just brilliant. It's balanced. It's. Have you ever been,

have you ever been to a game at Mackie? No, unfortunately not. Let me tell you something,

it's a lot of basketball venues around the country that, you know, Kansas do,

but it's something about Mackie arena when Purdue is rolling because it's built for basketball

and you can just feel it. There's no suites. You know what I mean? And it's just when they play

and you got a, an electric crowd with a team that just is working like Matt painter,

knows how to kind of implement a system. It's nothing like it, right?

And I, you can tell how much they appreciate it and you can tell it's almost as you talk about

the culture thing with Michigan State. It's like, hey, when you come to Purdue, you're just expected

to play the right way and not saying that it guarantees success, but this isn't. This is quite

the run that they've been on here. Um, and I know you've had them. So I just wonder in your prep

for them, it's, you know, again, somebody who played like, can you explain to us like why?

It's one, it's a talent standpoint. They've won 29 games, okay? They're too sick. So this is

necessarily a surprise, but what is it about their execution and the guys that they go after

that seems to kind of give them an advantage where they just don't feel like they're going to beat

themselves? Yeah, it's interesting because Matt painter was in school when I was in school,

so we play the guitar. He's a year under me, okay? So the way Matt had to play is the way he

coaches. You know, keep that in mind. It's, it's, you, you find players that are willing to do the

little things all the time. Make the extra pads. Get on the floor. Defensively, we may not be the

most athletic team every year, but from a intelligent perspective, following the scouting report,

okay? Understanding plays that are being run defensively offensively. That's how he

recruits. Now every once in a while, you get a jade and ivy that's just athletic and out of control

and you kind of morph into what he can do. A gene Katie gets a glimmer of his and you're like, okay,

I mean, I'm used to doing this, but with this guy, he's a little bit different. When you get a

Zach Edie, you know, you tend to focus and change some things, but the core group of what you get

would have produced is what reflects Indiana blue collar and the work is extremely hard. They have

a great teammate, but we're going to play a certain way. Now they play with more pace now,

to a brain, brain snip, you know, a flexor lawyer, but they still just kind of

lethatically kind of peak you apart. Yeah, and I love that brain was a guy that wasn't

getting power conference offers until the very end and Purdue was on him early. So kind of your

painter, painter point, it's like he sees something. He's like, hey, and like he was even, I mean,

not only does Fletcher make half of his threes, but painter at one point this year was like,

you know, he's actually just graded and bounding the ball too. And he was like these little things.

The little things. How important is that when you see the problems? What was the game last night?

Kansas. Kansas ball. That couldn't, could not get the ball in. So those simple things right there,

and you know this right, too, because at this time of year, all the possessions matter.

During a regular season, possessions that were lost or empty, you can make up for. Right now,

in the tournament, those empty possessions that you don't get shot at the rim, they come back to

hunch. Kansas breaks, they cut those turnovers down by six. Okay. That's different. It's a different,

it's a different ball game. So to your point, I know I can trust foster taking the ball out because

he'll make the right plan. Get it in. If not, he's calling the timeout. And then we reset and try

to get it back in. Those little things are so important, but it goes back to who are you recruiting?

What is my roster construction? Okay. And that goes back to scouting, but also understanding

mentality of these young men that you bring in. How do you expect the cam boozer,

Zubi, edge of four matchup to go? This is the difference with Zubi. And I got a chance to

cover St. John's throughout the course of the year. And I had to do game when they played

at Michigan State. Right. If you don't have that boost of energy all game to deal with Zubi's

energy, forget about it. Because it's not once. It's not twice. It's three times that he's going

after everything. And the most difficult part is why there's such an outstanding offensive

rebounding team because they don't stand still. See, prototyping will be big. You can go put a

body on them and block them out. Put them out. Zubi is always moving. Dylan Mitchell is always

moving. You see them saying, so now in order to get that check, you got to be moving. Your head

has to be on the swivel. Cam boozer's energy level and focus and awareness is going to have to be

at the highest that he's been at all year when dealing with Zubi. Because I, let's say in John's

fan. Okay. So this is not new to me to see them blow the lead yesterday. When you just go,

they're going to have these seven minutes where they can't score. And that's the only way

they can survive. And they're likely going to be down to Duke. And it's going to go, all right,

when you hit that stretch, when you can't score, are you defending them enough? And

you know, I don't know that Duke's blown anybody away here. I kind of like TCU in that matchup

a little bit to keep it competitive. But the foul trouble thing was just a disaster. And,

you know, Evans carried him a bit there offensively. Sar can kind of space the floor a little bit.

But they're, they're asking a lot of boozer. So I'm not saying, look, this is not an easy,

easy opponent for St. John's. But this isn't some wild offense that is going to be difficult to

contain. So I, I don't think it'll be as ugly as the Kansas game, but I expect this game to have

some real ugly stretches. Well, two, two things here we're talking about. One, the ability for

St. John's to hit consistent jump shot. That's, that's always been the key. They're very similar

to the Houston Cooper, okay? Houston is, remember, there was a two or three years ago,

it was just throw it up. We're going to get the offensive rebound. We're going to outwork you

and just, just fair you down defensively, okay? And if we make jump shots, that is going to be,

that's just going to elevate us any more, even more. With St. John's,

San and Isaiah Jackson, Dylan Darling, those guys could hit shots early. Now that takes

to stress off the offense to kind of be perfect to try to get something inside against a big

dupting too as well, okay? So can they make enough jump shots to keep the game competitive where

they need to be, which allows Zubi, Dylan Mitchell and those guys to have an effect on the interior.

That's always been the case for me with St. John. And let's put this factor this in.

It's a guy on that side line who is just a master. Then that's Rick Patino underneath out of

bounds play, side out of bounds plays defensively. You notice defensively, they pressured the whole

game, but it wasn't like it's a one, two, two press. It's a two, two, one press. It's just I'm in

your jersey all the time. I'm irritating. And what that does, right? It just wears you down over time,

not just physically, but mentally. It sucks. It sucks when you're like, I'm never going to have a

free chance to bring the ball up the entire day. And they're going to rotate all these different

guys. And again, it's not like some full core press. It's just it's pressure. And then you just

sitting there and you're going like, if you're Kansas, you've got to come up with something a little

different here, like bring, you know, it's pretty simple. Sometimes it's like just bring somebody

else up, bring another guy up, but maybe they just don't feel like they have the depth of ball

handler. But you would think there's at least three guys out there at the same time the Kansas

would like. And then it just then starts getting your head. And I mean, do fans don't need any

reminder of what an in bounds issue costs them going back to last year when they just they couldn't

get the ball in the end of the game. Yeah, yeah. But that's what that's what coach Patino does is

that it's those you die by thousand little cuts. Okay. And it just wears on you where and it

wears the a leads into the shot clock a little bit. Okay. And so the consistent pressure

comes second hat. Where does that put the Duke back core? That that's what's going to be

interesting to see. And it wears into your legs too as well. I want to be able to try to get to

a couple of the games because I knew you had some of these teams with Fox, but I won the Brasca.

How do you see that one going? I got to look up to what was the record during the course of the

season between the two. They split it, right? Yeah. Um, and starts with shoes to ball, not

other. He shoots the lights out of it. I know he didn't shoot well. Um, the other night,

but it was his facilitating that got his teammates open. Mimicola has done an excellent job of

slowing down the pace. And remember, Frank McCaffrey wanted to get it up and down.

This Iowa team is more. This one doesn't. No, no, no. This Iowa team is way more methodical

because of their personnel, but what they don't do is turn the ball. The Brasca on the other end,

they want to get up and down. Fred Hoyberg has done a phenomenal job with his roster construction

and putting in NBA type of offensive system that can Iowa, I mean, and again, on a neutral court,

one in one during the season, they've seen it. But the way that Fred Hoyberg is able to manipulate

his offense with some NBA type of isolation plays, picking role plays is going to be the key for

me. How defensively Iowa is against this Nebraska team on a neutral court.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw the number on how limited the possessions were for Florida,

and even blown a lead. Like, no one wins that game. No one wins that game against the one seed

when you've blown that big of a lead. And yet they get down to and then game blouses.

Illinois is in fourth place team in the big 10, which speaks to their depth. You've talked about

Houston. They had an offensive rebounding stretch against A&M in their game where it was so

I think A&M just it's way too early to say the game was over. But I felt like in that moment,

it's like it doesn't even like this is such a humiliating possession. You can't get the ball back

from Houston Houston's deep Fleming's more talented, I would say than Wogler, but Wogler is

come out of the recruiting abyss here. And again, we're talking about somebody who went from

like 250 to 150 in his class, which is still ridiculous. This guy's going to be a lottery pick in

this good. I think Illinois has every chance against this Houston team. But you never

like with Houston, there's never going to be an issue of effort and all that kind of stuff.

And I wouldn't say that I mean, there's so many of these teams that are left right now. I just

respect the fact that it's like these guys are all kind of bringing it. You can't really back walk

into into the sweet 16 unless you're just so supremely talented. You've looked out against the

opponents. But here's the thing where Illinois too, you can't duplicate like St. John's to force

the power, the energy that they bring. I don't care what you do. You watch it on tape. You try

to simulate some of the defenses that they've run in practice, but you don't have the person

out to emulate that. Can they absorb that first hit when Houston is getting up into them,

shots maybe are not falling. Boswell can't bring the ball up the way he really wants to Wogler.

Now it's filling the pressure from that Houston defense of physicality. That's how you handle that

to me. That first five minutes of the game is going to be a telltale sign of what's going to happen

for the rest of the game for Illinois. Get all the X's and O's and all that other stuff.

That's the first and foremost thing that you're going to have to tackle is being able to absorb

that first physical punch and not actually a punch, but the physicality that they bring to the

table, those first three to five minutes of the game. Yeah, and the other thing too is like

granted, there's only 60 draft picks, but when you start looking at like top 100 rankings for NBA

prospects, and granted, we're very touch on Wogler as a lottery pick. But the line I have four

guys that are like at least in the mix here. So this isn't some massive talent deficiency that

maybe you would say with other just well-coached kind of greedy big 10 teams. I don't have a ton on

I just hope Jefferson comes back as a kid who's scoring two points a game at St. Mary's four years

ago. He's terrific. They still roll without him. So I don't have as much on that one. What I would

love to do is go back to a freshman year, Jim Jackson with Ohio State and take it on you and LV

in the tournament. You were hanging. I was looking at up again this morning. I don't remember

everything, but you were hanging in there at the half. I try to figure out if you were like,

we've got this shit as a brash freshman who was immediately just on the scene scoring,

or if you were like, this is this is actually a little bit more than I expected.

No, no. Half time, even late in the game, Greg Anthony hit a big shot to put them up. We were

down five, I believe it was. And Greg had a big three. So we were right there to the last three or

four minutes of the game. There's some free throws happen, but we felt that we could compete.

If we put ourselves in the position, we could win the game. Now, again, this is the UNL with you.

We knew exactly who they were, but we knew who we were. We just had to play. And that's what we

did. As into the day, you lay some up just like anybody else, you know, and you want to compete.

And we put ourselves in the position, Ryan, that us and also ball state, remember that year,

kind of push UNLV. I would think more than some other teams in the tournament that year.

The second game they had and then they wouldn't play ball state.

Yeah, look, you were you were right in it. So, you know, when I was going back and looking

over the stuff, I was like, oh, let me go back and look at some of his tournament stuff there.

And I was like, all right, you know, because like UNLV was like, they were like the,

the bad guy, the evil guy and a horror movie for so many different people. Last thought,

I have to ask you an NBA question, because on top of everything else you're doing,

I'm just going to leave this one vague, but what is this Clipper season been like? And where do you

think it's going? I mean, this up and down a little roller coaster. Yeah, it's it's been a it's been

for me. It's been interesting because at the at the beginning, kind of understanding who the

Clippers were as a team knew that we're going to be better, but the start was just it's just the

connection. It was something there at the beginning. It just wasn't there. And I'm not going to

blame Chris Paul for that. It was just the energy in the building on the court just wasn't there.

Then all of a sudden, boom, it just starts to morph into something. James is rolling and

Kawaii is rolling. Zoo is playing well. You got the bench playing well. And you know, you have that

that stretch between late December all the way up to, you know, James had got traded. Then Zoo

got traded. And then now you rebuild this whole thing that Rossin looks totally different. So he had

three different seasons within one so far for the Clippers, which I don't think I've seen before

like this have been a part of, you know, but yet still being very competitive right now.

It's it's just been crazy, man. And I love every bit of it. I love being in middle of the chaos.

You know what I mean? And figuring out what's going to happen because I just I love Ty

Lil and what he's doing. I love Jeff. Just a bomber and kind of staying with it in the beauty of

the ride going through the this this the early period. Now one time that you see a coach general

manager throw a player under the bus and blame a certain individual or a group of players for

why they were where they were. And I think that says a lot about the organization and people.

You're a busy man. Fox for college hoops Clippers throughout the season and for tournament fans.

Jim's going to be on the call for CBS on the Thursday and Saturday games I believe here. So

that's Texas Purdue Arkansas Arizona. Is that check out? Yeah, it checks out. But I mean, we're going to

be on CBS by this through TNT, the partnership. So Brian Anderson and I alley the forest. It'd be fun

man. I looked at it. I was like, so we got the second best region I feel from a competitive perspective

and team wise. But all the games themselves when you get to this point, I just think this is the

best time of year. It's the best. I mean, I was I don't want to say I was hoops now late last night

watching Timberwolf Celtics, but it was awesome. And honestly, I think so many of the broadcast

teams are terrific. There's so much depth. And I've just enjoyed the entire thing. So hey,

me, thanks for the time today and doing this. No, anytime that that segment was presented by

Microsoft. Microsoft co pilot, the AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done.

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Microsoft.com slash M365 Co pilot. He might be one of the most popular guys that's ever lived in

San Francisco after a couple of World Series. And he is part of the opening day coverage for Netflix.

It's Hunter Pants who joins us on the show this morning. The Yankees at the Giants opening day

next Wednesday on Netflix 805 Eastern time for your first pitch and a bunch of games as well.

Good morning, man. Good to see you. Hey, good morning, Ryan. I'm very excited to be here.

Thanks for having me and very excited for Yankees Giants and baseball getting back to in swing

of things again. I want to start with young guys because you know, we taped with pass in and I

just love like the beginning of the year going through like the prospect reports and being like,

okay, you know, is this guy because it's always the excitement of something new like hoping you're

going to see something you've never seen before, which isn't entirely fair. But was there a moment

for you because I remember when you came up and you're 24 and you're all knees and elbows,

you're like, have you seen this guy play like it is it is wild. The joy that he plays with,

but you had hundreds of games in the minors after being kind of a fairly high pick the second time

around. So I almost feel like your path is kind of the odd path now or was it that they felt like

you're someone that needs way more seasoning before you get that debut. I think it was kind of just

the pro, you know, the culture that they had the mindset and I think that the, you know,

the regime that I kind of came up in was extraordinarily smart. You know, they want to make sure you're

mentally ready. You're not getting out ahead of yourself that you really learn the game and they

taught me and that Astros organization coming up extremely well. I learned they did a, I'm very

thankful because they put you through schooling and I was like kind of a sponge for that like you go

in the morning and it's not just play baseball. You go into the class and study the rulebook and

you study like certain plays and a lot of, you know, a lot of players are like, I just want to play

baseball when I lift weights. I want to go do the thing, but I like ate that up and it was like

extremely valuable for me throughout my career in particular, but yeah, it definitely isn't

necessary the way because I do think that there's more information available to kids. There was not

that much like internet and people sharing secrets. There was a lot of secrets in baseball back then.

There was not YouTube and all of these things where you can study from some of the greatest

minds in baseball. So I think a lot of these kids are just so much far, more far ahead of where we

were in our time because we had a lot to learn from the professionals that information just wasn't

available. So they're knowing this and doing the same thing as Aaron Judge or whoever the greatest

player is Mike Trout, they biomechanicked it all and science did out. They're doing that in high

school. And so in my opinion, the player today is just so far more advanced than we were back then.

And when you came up though, I mean, you hit 32, you know, a bunch of pops in 100 plus games.

Did you think, wait a minute, I've got this in that first year with Houston?

You know, I was, I was definitely locked in and when, you know, I look back at my career, I would

say my rookie year, I had something going and it's funny. I'm not sure how much Ryan you played

baseball. It's a finicky sport and it's timing and it's delicacy and you'll see someone be an

all star and then be released the next year. And for me, I had this like get your foot down

early and I was in sync with it. And I thought that I had it down. I was in sync with it the whole

way. I kind of had an injury where I slid and like kind of broke my wrist. And then I like never

was able to get that foot down early again, the rest of my career. So I like got back into leg kick

and all this stuff. But I was just in a good rhythm from the fall league where one of my teammates

from the fall league had told me like, hey, your foot needs to get down earlier and it carried over.

And then I was kind of back to square one the next year because I could never get it going again.

Were you shocked you were traded so early with the Astros? Yeah.

A little bit. Yeah, just because I think the nature of me is, you know, I'm a Texas. I was a Texas

kid. I was with the Astros. I wanted to be with one organization. You know, you dream of being a

Craig Bidgeo, a Jeff Bagwell. These guys that really inspire you. And it's not out and you're

controlled. So I definitely didn't think they were going to trade me. But I will say this after

after I was traded and and living through the experience and getting to play in Philly and getting

to look like playing some of these other cities and knowing where the Astros were at that time and

what they were going to go through for the next years and where I was in my career. I have to give

a big thanks to Ed Wade and Drake McClain for being like, this kid is like ready to go play in the

playoffs. Like we can get a bunch of talent and try to build around it. But it was a way better

deal for me to get traded than to stay with them and what they were because they were about to

sell all the players, sell the team and do this massive rebuild. That would have been my prime

years. So I was very fortunate to get traded. I didn't know what at the time.

Yeah, then it's kind of interesting too because like you're still putting up numbers. You know,

that's that's by the way, that's really interesting and like the rookie year and then feeling

this way and then never feeling that way. Again, despite putting together, you know, a nice,

a really nice career with multiple All-Star appearances here. But to then end up in San Francisco,

it almost feels like your joy for the game was rewarded. Not that these other stops weren't

incredible, but the run that you go on, that team that you have, the way that you're embraced in

that city. And again, I think you've always been a fan favorite everywhere you've gone. But

it just felt like a lot of transactional uncertainty for somebody that was producing and that was

young and it was almost like you were rewarded for that with the giants. Yeah, I mean,

I went to the Phillies the first year, Astros to Phillies and then Phillies to Giants. But yeah,

when I got to San Francisco, it was a very unique team. You know, we had we had some really big

fun personalities. You know, you talk about Lenscombe kind of in his say young era. You talk about

Bungarner just emerging, Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson's over there. You know, just some really

Pablo Sandibal with the Kung Fu Panda. It was a wild time to be with the Giants. It was a lot of

personalities. And really the city, you know, I think it really helped me awaken to who I am. I

just kind of really aligned and dig the city that kind of created vibe, the kind of free mind,

almost hippie vibe. I wouldn't say hippie all the way. But like, but I definitely am kind of like

that free spirit that likes to laugh and be a little bit different. And my play style was a little

bit different. So I just fell in love with the city. I felt like right at home and I kind of feel

like I became myself when I got over to San Francisco. And and Boat was just like amazing at

putting all these crazy personalities and getting them to go one direction. Like he was he's kind

of a bit of a risk taker. He likes a little personality. He wants his players to be risky and

crazy and fun and exciting to watch. And he kind of just encouraged that and brought it out of us.

Who would make a better roommate? Let's come or bump Garner.

I mean, they're both it just depends on what you want. It depends on what you want. But

Lince comes really kind of he's a he's a bit of a a loner like he. Granted, he's like a great

teammate and he shows up in when he was there. He's honestly one of the most giving kind people.

But he just was like an introvert that wanted to go and be by himself.

Bump Garner. Bump Garner wanted to spend time and you know, go hang out, get out the

words. He was going to he was going to do something cowboy. So if you want to do some cowboy

stuff, you want Bump Garner. Yeah. And especially if you want to close out because I love those

teams. I love those teams. I love the level that he elevated to like you want to talk about

somebody who responds to the moment in a way. Like we're talking about all time unhittable stuff

during those years and the postseason. It just turns he liked the guy turned into just Superman.

And it had to be what was it like for you to watch? Yeah, I mean, really impressive. And as

as Ryan as someone who's like really curious about, you know, meeting the moment about success,

like I love like the psychology, the mentality, like I love kind of learning both through,

you know, failure people who don't do well and do well. And like what what is that secret sauce

or whatever the belief so to speak from like the the Kung Fu Panda. But really the thing that

was super cool with Bump Garner is it was never a big deal to him. Like he was never like

over in the world series. It matters. He was just like it was like the same guy. He was very

neutral. Like and there was no highs. There was no lows. He actually and he self was very self

aware of this is like if he was pitching against a team that wasn't considered that good. He

didn't do very well. Like he, he like the better the opponent was the better he got. It was like

he he he loved the challenge. And so like when it got a bigger stage, he got bigger and better.

And when it wasn't a big stage, it was he kind of like wasn't his best self. So that was kind of

what I noticed from Bump Garner. He was extremely strong minded, strong willed. And and literally like

just a walking living breathing real life cowboy. Like he would go home and like wrote like he,

you know, like roping cows and stuff. And like yeah, just get on the farm and do that stuff.

You make a great point though about meeting the moment with him though, because I remember

I was on daily every day back then. And you know, you'd get geared up for the world series.

You start talking about it. And then you like look at the seasonal stuff and the pitching matchups

and everything. And you go for somebody that's this dominant like the regular season is not as

dominant as the other dominant guys. Like there was these maybe five to 10 pitchers that are

starters like look at all these numbers. And like why are Bump Garner's numbers not to them. And

then he's like, you know, Pedro, I don't even like comparing anyone to Pedro, but it's like

absurd levels of efficiency. So that actually makes a lot of sense that like once he was geared up

and ready for it, there was just something they responded to football basketball. I feel like

you game plan, right? You figure out how you want to defend things. You figure out how you want

to attack things. Baseball, it's probably more about a lineup. Get on the same page about how they

want to attack a pitcher. But for all of this Dodgers talk, especially with the team that you're

involved with, meaning the same division, is there any kind of blueprint? Does there exist a game

plan of like, Hey, this is how you get these guys in LA? I mean, there's not like one way that it's

like, you know, like I think Mike Tyson had a really good, you know, and you can take a one-on-one fight.

You could even think of like, you know, I don't like to talk about like a battle on a battlefield

or whatever, but everyone has a game plan to get punched in the face. And like with regards to

baseball, there's there's so much chess going on. The deeper you get into the game, the deeper it

goes. And I think one thing that I get a little upset about is people being like the Dodgers

bought their world series, because if you watched the way that they played and who their heroes

were, and yes, you buy yourself probably a really good chance to make it to the playoffs. But look

at what the medspin and they didn't even make the playoffs last year. Okay, so if you watch the Dodgers,

they execute. They do the little things right. They are disciplined. Yes, they have great pitching

and they have Otani, but that doesn't just like run you over. We've seen people like, you know,

like Barry Bonds never won a world series. Probably the greatest player I've ever seen.

People argue it was Willie Mays, but I never watched Willie Mays. I got to talk with him.

It's not like players individually. It's execution and Dave Roberts, if you've ever, I've got

to interview him. I've been very lucky because I'm covering a lot of this is absolutely brilliant

at how he leads of game planning. And they just have a wonderful team. But watching their playoff

run and like the Phillies, how they were able to pull off the wheel play in game two to steal a game

that they really needed. You know, and then when the moment happens, a guy who by the way,

I think is an incredible bullpen pitch. I know he is throws the ball away when he doesn't really

need to. He just needs to get one out Orion Kirkering that costs them a game. The Dodgers don't make

mistakes. And they and the Blue Jay still could have beat them. They suffocate you. You have to earn

it and they're very talented. And and so I think you got to tip your cap to to what the Dodgers do.

But if you do want to beat them, you just you have to play the game the right way. You have to

aren't like you got to find a way to score a run. I think I watched a series when the Giants were

actually playing really good towards the end of last year. They had we shot ourselves in the foot

a lot. Unless you're like really in the weeds, we dropped a ball that was like in field in. They

send their runner. We catch. We throw. Bailey drops the ball. This this out ball is the difference

in like winning a series and giving us a chance to make the playoffs versus getting knocked out.

And this is one of 162 against the Dodgers. So we had one game one of our young pitchers pitch

really well. And then we lose game two and then it kind of snowballs. But for me, you just have to

play the you have to play the game the right way. I do think that there's there's probably at least

seven teams that are equally talented in any team in the big leagues can beat anybody on any given

day. It's just the way it is we watched. And I'm not going to say Italy was like not as good or

talented because they had a very talented lineup. But we watched them beat the US and the WBC.

You're right. I mean, that's that's the crazy thing of, you know, some of the other Dodgers teams

that you were like, this is loaded, maybe pre this ownership. And then, you know, they're getting

bounced out. There's plenty of teams, especially with the structure of the postseason where a

team's closer to 100 wins and the team 80 wins ends up getting through it all. We're not that far

removed from Arizona, Texas and the world series, you know, which was an incredible story for

parity. First worth it. Ultimately, again, you know, I think historically doesn't get enough credit

for the parity that it has. But the Dodgers are LA. It's the headlines. It's every single player.

It's the salary cap stuff that well, different salary, but the tax stuff that people are just more

aware of. And there's just angst around it where I don't know if it's good or bad if they want

a third one here. It's exciting. I actually think it's probably good for baseball in a way that

that people wouldn't admit is that people are going to be rooting against it now collectively.

That now again, I was talking about passing about this earlier, but it's just this common

enemy that everybody else would have. Who are the seven teams? I'd be really interested to hear

that from you, Hunter. Well, let me even take it back to their first world series where like it was

very way closer than it looked because, you know, you bring in, who is it? Nestor Cortez for the

first left of you intentionally walk. And it's like his first outing to face Freddie Freeman. He

hits a crazy clutch walk up. But even that game five were like they were way ahead. And then they

make all these years like judge drops a ball that he never drops. Like cold doesn't cover first.

The ending is kind of escalating. It's like the Yankees were just as talented and maybe had a

chance to roll. You know, if you're looking at it right now, I can just go off the top of my head

teams that can compete with the Dodgers. I think it's easy to say the Yankees have a line up

they can do that after the Cubs added Breggman. They have the they have the power. The Metz obviously

with Soto and that lineup are extraordinary. I think the Giants and Padres both can match up with

them. You're looking at Musgrove coming back. You're looking at some some really power arms over

there. They have obviously Machado and Tati's and a young core with with with Jackson Meryl that

it's an electric lineup. But the Giants just added, you know, Luis Arise who looked incredible in the

WBC hairs and Bader and center field. Mally who arguably was one of the best pitchers in the Rangers

line Arsenal last year. It's kind of quiet. But his numbers stack up with DeGrom and Evaldi. So

that's just off the top of my head. The Red Sox. Obviously are the Red Sox and they can do what they

do. We saw what the Blue Jays did last year. And oh, by the way, they added the strikeout leader

more strikeouts than ever been done before and and the Korean league last year Cody Ponce

who I know very well. And I know the work that he put in. He's going to be like a front line starter

for the for the Blue Jays as well. I know they lost Boba Shit. So that'll be interesting to see.

But there's there's multiple teams and there's going to be a couple teams like I think the Reds.

I saw Chase Burns in spring training. You got Fran Kona running that in Burns. It looks insane.

It's like 99 bullet missiles. Slider. He can change the shapes of it with the curve ball and

to change up. Then you obviously obviously who is it Hunter? Hunter Green. So there's some young talent

coming up. There's some really solid teams. And that's just like off the cuff. So there's many

teams at the Phillies. I mean that like they could do it for sure. Yeah, I think the Phillies are

I don't know. It's it's very odd. Like when I was doing my preseason stuff and kind of looking

through it. I was like, why is everybody off of this team? This team's team seems loaded in a

division with a ton of question marks. You never know if the bets are going to figure out.

It feels like the Braves and Tire rotation is is a question mark after sale. And so

I mean, I'm just kind of excited to see what happens in the central because the Reds have bloated up.

Green's supposed to be back middle of the season. See what happens. The Cubs are probably

better. Milwaukee always seems to be better than ever. Whatever we think they're going to be.

Yeah, I already mentioned Milwaukee. And I know they they had a tough series against them,

but yeah, Milwaukee don't that they're young and talented. That's that's a good point, man.

With stuff guys, because this is now you were talking about the biometrics and and all the

stuff now spin rate. Everybody's kind of looking at everything and that you, you know,

you look at this generation, like soaking it up a little bit more now. When you look at the

top, top guys, like the schemes of school bull crochet, there's more names that I can throw at

you here from a from just a stuff standpoint. You're in it every day watching it. Like how fast

is this advancing for just how hard it is to hit some of these guys now at the top? You know,

but as science advances for pitching it advances for hitting as well. And I definitely like

got to reap the benefits of that in 2019 when I really learned it. And I definitely I know for

a fact that now that I understand kind of the physics of that match up and like the geometry and

like what you're trying to do. It was a massive advantage for transitioning to the broadcast booth

because like I'll be honest with you, I was like a competitor. I love the game. I didn't know mechanics

very well. I just like practiced a lot. I got as strong as I could as fast I could. I went out there.

I wanted to see the ball hit the ball. I played like a guessing game, a gambling game. I would,

I would, you know, figure out what the pitcher was throwing and practice that off the machine or whatever

and set traps. But then when I really learned the math of it, you see the game in a little bit of

a different way. So I do think that, you know, the pitchers, I mean, like schemes, what he's

going out there, honestly, even mentally is like, I don't know how you hit that because like,

you have to guess right. And that that's kind of it. It's just some of the some of the nasty stuff

crochet as well can just be absolutely oppressive and they're creating really funny angles. But

if you do learn and learn how to change and manipulate your barrel, it's kind of like it's like

playing math. It's like you have like this window to hit the ball if you're on plane with it versus

like this window if you if you get your barrel on plane. So like your contact point as the balls

passing like if, you know, and I'll give you a for example, like I was terrible at hitting

sinkers my whole career and to kind of like die make this more digestible. And so a sinker is

essentially like I'm up the bat, right? And it's coming in at me and it's and it's coming down

to like it will sink down and in towards me. All right. So what I would do because I had a very

flat bat pass. So if the ball's sinking, you have a very small chance with a flat bat path to

hit a sinking ball. It's going to like catch the bottom of your bat and you're going to hit a

grounder. That's why sinker ballers get grounders. I would just try to swing my flat bat path

underneath. So if the ball was here, I was swinging like two balls underneath it and hoping I met it.

All right. Because but I have like this window to hit the ball. But if you take almost like

instead of your barrel coming through straight, you go through really vertical, almost like a golf

swing. Now all of a sudden your barrel is on path with the ball. It's like running into your

barrel. And so like you could like hit a really good hit for like this window of time of your

barrel coming through the zone. If you just match the plane of what the pitch is doing.

I love that. That was terrific because like especially with schemes where you know they have

those overlays where it shows you where the ball is released from. And it can be forwarded for pitches

and he's just masterful not only with the stuff in the velocity and the spin right and all that

stuff, but it's the starting point like good. Tunneling the tunneling that pitchers do is insane.

And there was very few pitchers that can really tunnel well. But when they could, it is really

it's impressive. But I think a lot of pitchers are able to do that now more so than before.

And you have to you have to you have to guess and you have to you have to play like percentages

basically. Who would you have to guess at? Like it just drove you crazy. Somebody that you went

up against or you're like, I mean, there's a lot obviously. You know, and the thing is is

the worst is to be in between and there's there's two approaches to hitting that that give you a

good chance to battle if someone's not like insane like 99 with like a 86 mile an hour split with

the but the in the arm speed stays the same because it's hard to throw 99 and have something come

out 86 and you're arm moving the same, right? Like because like to throw 99 it's it's coming through

like this and then sometimes they'll slow their arm down for like the other pitch and so you can

kind of follow the rhythm of the body movement if that makes sense. Yeah. So let me think off the

top of my head. It's like Garrett Cole, you know, Verlander, Scherzer. These are guys you got to like

really you got to hunt a certain pitch in a certain location. You got to think with them like

Verlander just like really really really studied Roy Holliday was another one who was like,

you know, he was a doctor out there and he had cut her sinker change up. He had like six pitches

and he also did like three hours of study on every hitter in the lineup before he faced you.

Like he knew what you had for breakfast before you knew what you had for breakfast. It felt like

I guess what I'm ever thinking of like the the guessing part of it. Like if you're going

righty righty and you just go all right like anything away I'm just going to swing like I'm not

even trying to pick up the pit. I'm just I'm closing off this half of the you know this. Yeah.

So let me give you a better example and I'll give you someone that's a really good tunneler from

really early on and I think I don't know he was doing it kind of before as I was really young

Ben Sheets with the Brewers who's doing 95 mile an hour and think of a four seamer. It has a lot

of carry right into off of it. He would throw a curveball. So essentially what he wants to do is he

wants to throw a high fastball for a ball to get you to swing at but he wants to show you first

who he's going to get the curve ball. It starts high and comes in for a strike. All right so now

it started high into strike. Now he's going to throw a four-seam fastball really high and he wants

you to swing at that because you think it's the curveball for a strike and then like maybe he throws

maybe those a curveball that starts like it looks like a fastball and then it dives in the ground

and you chase that. So that's kind of the cat and mouse game you're playing. It's like am I getting

and with regards to even what I was telling you with the swing path to hit a curveball you want to

be steep similar to the sinker and to hit a four seamer you can't it's really hard to be steep and

hit a ball that's carrying. So you have to be flat. So you got to pick one or the other and you

have three strikes and you have like three or four bats off the guy. If you really match the

plan and you don't miss your pitch you need to sell out for that pitch and let the other one go.

Now with regards to you being like oh I'm going to take away the outside part of the plate. It's not

necessarily that simple Ryan because let's say Adam Wainwright. Adam Wainwright was like a slider

away sinker. He had four seamer. He had the big big curveball as well but he loved to like it's

called strike the ball and ball to strike. So he loved to throw you like a sinker on the outside

corner. It's a ball all the way. It looks so far away from you. It comes back and enables the

outside corner. Molina was good at like getting him a little bit off the plate. And so now you're

like you're kind of out there and then he'll throw you a slider that starts right on the outside

corner like oh that's the sinker and then it goes away and it's off the plate. So he's like doing

this kind of east west and then a four seamer in to speed you up and then a slider away can you

lay off of it strike the ball? Can you lay off of it? Now I'm going to now I'm going to zip you with

that ball to strike. And so that's and then and then he still has Uncle Charlie and four seamer in

off that he always freaking through like it was never a strike but as always the F you man like

he's good at it. Who was the best the third time through the lineup?

You know it was a small it's hard to. I feel like bump garner was one of those guys that got

better as the game got on. There's a couple of them. You know there's a couple of them that you

could get to early and then once they settled in you were just in trouble. I'm not able to really

get one off the top of my I know Jake Arietta was pretty good because he could have command issues

early and he had a two year window here like a 0.75. It was pretty ridiculous. You know I think

Wainwright was another one that like once he settled in he got better and the Velo might not have

gotten hotter but he just gotten rhythm with the game and he just started like really commanding

everything but if he hung a curve ball or didn't quite have feel for something you could get to him

a little bit early as well. Yeah because it's just such a rarity down but I I'm so excited I think

for this year just because of the depth of the top line starters and oh yeah it was a lot of fun

matchups to watch right like skiing still hasn't thrown north of 200 innings and not saying like

hey let's let's blow this guy out with get him at 280 like back in the day or three to you know

some of the absurd inning numbers that happened years and years ago but I just think when you have

the arsenal some of these guys have it still might be better than your fourth reliever coming in

in the fifth or sixth inning but we'll see we'll see I can crack it only hope. I know who asked on a

lot of innings Ryan. He's going to be he's going to be there on Wednesday the Netflix game Logan

Webb. Logan Webb, you're starting to get 200 innings and then Max Fried. I mean what if what if

what a way to start off the season those are two bangers right there. I mean so anyway I do think

that the innings pitch has been lost on baseball and I think that it's like you want to talk about

like the like locker room credit like how much that weighs on a team how you like because even like

if you're throwing in your fourth reliever and sorry to go on this tangent if you're throwing in

your fourth reliever every game over and over the weight that that has on the bullpen they're not

going to be as sharp or as crisp but when you have these guys that are eating innings and keeping

those guys fresh and allowing your manager to keep that balance because if you if you just like

absolutely pound your your relievers that are like getting the job done by the end of the year they're

either going to be hurt or they're not going to be as effective so innings I think bring that

back to baseball start respecting innings because we need to it's important. Do you guys ever have

reunion parties and then somebody starts off from the lineup apologizing to Matt Cain for the

lack of run support over a couple years there? I mean pretty much every day you know not only Cain

but bum and lints come all of them it was called torture baseball all right we know that they

carried us we had great pitching the core four as well was incredible but we did play good defense

behind them so you know there's there's one one thing but yeah I'm just saying Cain had like two

years no Cain had like two years in there where it was like unbelievable like as a huge Matt Cain

fan there for a while and I was like what is going on is like do they all hate him? Oh you want

it so bad for him Cain is the best he's an amazing human like we want to score runs man it's tough

I'm psych for you I was watching interviews last night and it just seems like year

year of the guy and throughout all the years is the young guy that somehow became the old guy you

stayed the young guy and I know it was kind of a cool send-off for you to end up back with the

giants to be part of broadcast team and more importantly to be with Netflix for the Yankees at

the Giants opening day will be on Netflix exclusively 805 Eastern first pitch thanks Hunter thank

you Ryan it was a pleasure Microsoft co-pilot the AI assistant that actually helps you get stuff done

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lifting you just take the credit Microsoft co-pilot work smarter work faster work like someone who

actually read the instructions you want details bye i drive a Ferrari 355 cabriela what's up

i have a ridiculous house in the south fork i have every tour you can possibly imagine

and best of all kids i am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required

life advice the email addresses life advice rr at email dot com cerudian kyle are with us uh maybe

just a quick johnny's check in because we had a lot of people not so much checking in on me it's

pretty obvious what i was probably doing when the johnny's one in darling bells

church later on real face time this time from kyle i called so many guys but i did not call you

guys i called a bunch of dudes i don't like hearing that i will i i did send the i sent an emoji

to the two of you guys and i was ready i mean the kid it was it was earlier than bedtime i was

ready to go hoping for the face time and it just never came so sorry boy was i stay ready but i

didn't i didn't want to let down that would have been i would have like the adrenaline was so high

you know everything was off the charts like this would really bring me down well not the emoji was

like a hey i'm i'm available but you know and i was your emoji too it was the two two beer glasses

yeah yeah i used that for that's my thank you emoji that's my good look i'm uh it's like

you know it's a triple threat uh it was great i stayed in all weekend watching the games and then

i was like sundays sundays the day and um what they're like an hour before the game uh

stayed a little bit after because there were some other fun games going on but uh man the whole

a lot of people in the bar were like what's going on like they weren't there for college basketball

it was more like adult types and then i was like like johnny's right all of us were pulling the same

direction and by the end i mean everyone was it was just like a beautiful scene everyone was was

into it it was fun that a lot of fun i imagine the last five minutes wasn't super fun but

no i i thought they were gonna lose three forty five no yeah but i had a bunch of like non basketball

watchers like they got this so like i had like started this wave of johnny stuff i'm like thank you

i guess this is this will be better than than nothing so thank you guys they were so into it

yeah i had uh it was a part of a parlay but i had like an all Kansas line right so it was like

just don't lose by ten or whatever and they were up 14 like probably i don't know what was that

like made way through the second half and i take out my body and i was like this is cooked like

they i don't know how they're gonna score and then from that point on Kansas just went on a run

i was like oh no i just jinxed my guy kyle can't run

that's all right uh it worked out for everybody and we love the support from soruti even though i

know he doesn't really care so no i'm happy that my friends are happy i have no connection to

canada uh canada canzes also no connection to canada um both accurate stitches yeah no

did true yeah no it was a weird weird slip but yeah no so i was just i'm running for the johns

and i'm you know Duke i got no connection to Duke either so let's go i'm more of a big east guy

man great advocate like i miss the old big east tournament too so dude that would be such an elite

eight that would be under i didn't want to say it out loud yeah it's awesome

yeah i get some multi shirts and sifting through here uh all right well i think that covers

the st. John's recap because people want to know what you had done uh what the shots he's uh

bailed on bailed on the i want it went for an intimate setting i bailed on the uh the buffalo

all the way yeah yeah i think that's the right call let me honest there was a guy who's finishing

up a NASCAR race as the second game came out i was like all right at some point we have to we

have to all agree what's what by the way jordan team jordan won like their fourth race of the year

pretty great start for michael jordan his drivers there anyway yeah we're we have a lot of

connect to those guys right that's that's denny hamlin our guy right love denny that's your guy

yeah we hit we had a mile and then he was awesome yeah they consistently he has got a podcast and then

honestly they've been nothing but super nice and follow ups like ask gonna see if we want to go

to date toner they've been asking that are you serious yeah they're asking about you going

all right stop we're trying to make it a surprise oh my uh so we're he's like i don't think he

out of league and go this year sit some about some landscaping run house i'd go to date uh i'd make

it work yeah i guess if you want to go we'll we'll try to figure it out i just it never yeah i'd

love to be kept abreast of whatever's going on with that but yeah you'd like to be involved in

jordan jordan and taskar and yeah really successful run just keep me plugged right yeah see what we

can do the guy probably stop texting me because he was just like this guy's getting an unbelievable

invite and he's kind of just going like yes i'm in the middle yeah we'd love to don't think i can do

it all right maybe a maybe a follow up or two but let's get into the the the meat and bones of

this deal here hey fellas 171 centimeters 70 kilos the light guy no player comp i have no redeeming

features i've been getting shit at work for eating my lunch with a spoon everyone thinks i'm a

child and needs to grow up and move to a fork my main reason is i eat barley parentheses underrated

grain and more stays on the spoon the other thing is which make make make the email pointless is i

don't really care and you did email us spoons these are to wash too that being said aren't i just

being efficient in a way i hope i'm wrong because if you side with me i may tell these mid 20

coating non drinking dweebs to put it where the sun don't shy i'm constantly tired my two kids

four and three quarters and two and a half shout out roots and as i eat the same lunch every day

their pointless spoon jokes may tip me over the edge over and out so he sent a photo in here

that's a little pre-made deal there are the oats there are the tomatoes i mean this guy's

sky's eating right i would be honest i didn't know people were so eating barley i thought that was

like a i would have to google what that looks like doesn't sound like it's going to look good

is it boiled what do you call it is it boiled barley what is it i've never dipped my toes in the

bottom of the game to be honest so first little cereal grain one of the first to be cultivated

known for its nutty flavor and chewy texture i'll see i'll say it looks kind of like

pharo and i love pharo so by the way anything that sort of is going to be plentiful like this i'm

using a spoon rice like little ground these rice steel i'll just go in with a spoon put it back

you ever try to eat the uh the Israeli couscous but you need a spoon can't wait to fork

you get like four nice they name their twins yeah they're like the wrong size that like they're

two couscous not the small couscous like the bigger couscous these really just rather have rice

we don't talk about that right i do because couscous i agree i don't love couscous either but

Israeli couscous is like a top tier side for me well it's really couscous let's find another name

for it i'm just i don't know why i'm going with that well i just don't i don't know i don't know

how that'll be received right um great look big spoon guy i'll just say this guy's right this guy's

there's a there's this fear of the spoon that doesn't make any sense at all because you're essentially

shoveling is that why because you're basically shoveling food and tear mouth with the spoon like

that's how i feel and i decided to use a spoon where others would use a fork

if i did it the other day i'll use a spoon i can't believe we just got this email because i

did it recently because the only thing i had downstairs was a spoon and i grabbed the food and i

didn't feel like going back upstairs and so then i was like all i have is i was like what i

care and you're right it was like a public shaming thing i was like well if i'm by myself no one can

see that i'm doing this and i'm sitting there smashing this teriyaki bowl and i'm going this is

so much better so much better especially when you're working out of the container and you're

you're just maximizing clearance so there needs to be big spoon needs to get involved there needs

to be a movement here where adults are going back to the spoon and that it's accepted so i think

this guy's a pioneer and on top of what you're eating why is it even even even messing with you

with how healthy you are 70 kilos not a lot going on in that workplace if this is just what they're

doing it feels like one of those dude things where like you just kind of rag on a guy for something

that's slightly weird but not really that weird thing don't let it go yeah big six exactly like

this is what that is i don't know that it's really yeah you know they just they've clearly just

isolated you not like going on it with the guy they could have some rot of rip out even though

yeah you're probably doing it right i think you embrace it to the point you start playing spoon

man by sound garden that you started learning the spoons and just on your lap on that stuff

every second just wear a shirt sound garden shirts maybe start yeah learn the spoons do it there's

a guy i think on instagram right now it does it in his car and i'm like i don't think it's either

it's not that hard or he's not that good but i love the effort i love the passion did you ever see

the outtakes i don't even know if it was an outtake of eastbounded down when dynamic brides talking

about like back in the day he's like man we've been pitching in Seattle he's like we had we had a

fucking spoon man from sound garden barbecue yeah it's so i love that show man it's so good random

references we's like all right cut chemist dj marcarina all the volumes oh man and if things work

out we're looking as if we could get trishel from the real or Vegas it's probably on my list

i'll slide that in front of the next sopranos rewatch i'll get back on eastbounded down yeah

uh but to this guy i i agree with which way you're leaning maybe go to like a craten barrel but

they have all those crazy like full full sets where you want to like hey we're moving into a new house

and just see if there's like any good looking spoon there maybe one with like those like hard

edges or something and then just have your special spoon really really lean into it just get one

one set of silverware for the office and and like a real real outstanding spoon remarkable even

i think you're sitting in spoon man in your cube and going to be unbelievable

speaking of rock bands a little clean up here uh our guy was checking in 41 year old male

preferred genre of music is 70 to 90s rock i thrown on his background music on the radio

pandora et cetera to go by my day as you can imagine aerosmith is in the rotation a lot

well i can him i don't need to imagine a few weeks ago the topic came up during life advice and

ryan threw out an a smitty as a shorthand for the band since then that name has been an ear warm

never before had i heard it i think about it several times a day ryan was that accepted nomenclature

where you're from or was that just off the top of your head i need to know so i can gain some

acceptance and move towards closure thank you love the pod um i did not invent it but i don't

really think anyone ever called him that i think it was always like a heckle here here's the thing

congrats to aerosmith incredible catalog great work guys if you met somebody that was like

a smitties my favorite band of all time you're like this fucking wrong with you right is that a

fair statement now someone listening is right now your favorite band is aerosmith and good for you

but it's weird it's a weird favorite band ever have so there was always kind of like a thing with

them where sure i had the cassettes you know do looks like a lady killed it junior high from me all right pump

we are we've covered this recently all right right um but a guy from mass i think i can't tell if it's

i don't remember if it's john hallis here or when he might win from the old diehard's day it was

one of these guys it was a classic Boston guy thing where he just was like oh what do you mean a

smitty and he made it up and i've never forgotten about it like 25 years and whenever aerosmith comes

up i say a smitty under my breath even though i don't think anyone actually calls him so i didn't

invent it but i i too chuckle internally because i just think about like the guy that still loves

aerosmith and then i would be thinking deep and funny or if he's from mass and he was like dude

i said you seen a smitty at foxwoods you hit me with a reibs a couple years ago i'd never heard reibs

and it's been like it it it shook me up uh i haven't i haven't really been able to stand

in conversation but i'm gonna one day i'm thinking about how to make it fit in i really like

to never heard that before it does it does get me think because i've really never thought about this

like who who are the p ones for aerosmith the a smitty p ones it's just gonna be like a great time

in your life it's maybe not like it's the best thing ever but it might be like i was telling

uh Ryan when i went to jimaca the take care album first came out it came out like three days before

i took a freshly 18 all yeah a freshly 18 all inclusive jimaca thing and i just had that in my

little wired apple headphones on repeat bouncing from bar to bar and it's like that album is great

but i think there's no way it'll it's better it's better for me than anyone else because of what

exactly was going on when i was doing that i'll back you that's i that's i think that's one of

the better albums yeah it could be the best one out of the 21st century uh there was a there's a lot

of Drake hate going on so and that came up recently that's a little prior to the record that's

an incredible album but thanks you're back to your aerosmith point i feel like and you kind of

hit on this run it was what what what's what maybe think of it when armer getting came out was

at like 98 i was like oh aerosmith are like the coolest fucking band and then you hear like

dream on and then walk this way with run dmc and when you're and i was in like middle school and i'm

like yeah like aero dude what does it get better than aero smith and then but i think you just

kind of like grow up and you're like wait aerosmith are actually just kind of like a fun you know

whatever band but they're not like your favorite band you know um so i don't know some bangers some

absolute bangers for first time a little dream on i was like how come those guys are bigger than

zeppelin and then it was like oh right you listen to zeppelin and you're like all right yeah

it's just levels to this yeah if you don't think of like a basketball comp for a smitty

like to jontay mary that's probably not good enough now i think that was not my

killing it in a hurry it has to be somebody where it's like yeah the ton of points like awesome

i get it but come on i don't know joe johnson there was a time where he seemed pretty that's

it actually not terrible it's like dude you actually don't understand dream on though

now the joe john is awesome for like a couple nights you know in the aso you know i don't

i feel like joe johnson like you're talking like really good but not ever great and not put up

with the great joe johnson it's not terrible it also has i think there's a good like if somebody said

my favorite player ever is joe johnson you'd be like what are you right doing okay all right

nailed it cool yeah i think we spent enough time on that picture this it's money morning you open

up your laptop outlook hits you with eighty seven unread emails your calendar looks like a game

of tetris played by a toddler your boss wants a report your team wants a presentation you want

a nap and are microsoft co-pilot co-pilot summarizes your emails boom you're caught up

it traps your report in word it builds your slides and PowerPoint it even pulls insights from your

excel data suddenly you're the office hero people think you're organized responsible maybe even

promotable all because co-pilot did the stuff you didn't want to so if you want to reclaim your time

or at least pretend you have your life together try microsoft co-pilot co-pilot because sometimes

the smartest move is letting a i do the work okay beach trip an angry girlfriend five ten two

hundred pounds player comp washed russle westbrook i love to push the pace and get down the court

maniacally but sometimes i get out of control also a very willing shooter but not super accurate

sorry for a long email here's the deal i have a girlfriend my closest friend who's gay invited me

to his beach house this summer with two straight girls you become friends with through in a broad

program he did a couple years ago the last two times him and i did this beach trip he extended

invitation my girlfriend is a courtesy my girlfriend is a good hang in groups her hanging out with

me and my friend was not negative on those trips awesome that's great dude this year he wanted to

invite his female friends and did not invite my girlfriend there are a couple wrinkles of this his

friends used to live out of the country until recently and now they're back in the state so it's

understandable he wants to spend time with them over his buddy's girlfriend but also i have sometimes

complained about my girlfriend to him so there's a chance that i'd lower your stock in his eyes as a

good hang inside her inside her trading there you shouldn't let that slip yeah i don't know i'm

i'm always amazed with the guys that like our default setting they will never complain about

their city of being other and then what active betrayal is it to like go hey you know she's been on

my case about this or whatever and like fancy like that's what your friend is supposed to be there

yeah i'll use it to match if if one guy's got something i'll use how do you do a child

no i'll just use it to match like you know i tell you not what about your wife girl i do i do i do

i do but i'm just saying i'm among my my buddies like normally it's like i'll you i'll bring it up

like so i got something else to say but it's like i usually i'll usually let i'll volley it back i'm

not usually serving it up this is different obviously we know we're this showbiz there

okay all right so there's that the classic life advice follow how cool is my girlfriend in short

she is all caps very jealous as an example i needle me over over a former female co-worker my age

who was a little creeping me even though i did nothing to invite the attention stuff like that

i tell my girlfriend that i'm going to my friend's beach house without her she's going to

think something changed with my friend and that he doesn't like her anymore since she was invited

the last two times secondly she will for the record that's kind of legit though for the record

she was invited now she's not in this thing it's the same event it's got a little stink on it

it's not gonna it's it's not just like oh yeah all right nevermind get you next time

how did she go did she decline the invite or no she went she did go yeah this is strange

yeah no no there's just other new chicks going you can't go this time

there's no space on the banana boat

so again she was needling me over a co-worker a little creepy even though i did nothing to

invite the attention stuff like that if i tell my girlfriend that i'm going to my friend's

beach house without her she's going to think something changed that my friend doesn't like her

anymore since she was invited last two times secondly she will ask who else is going

i do not think i can get away with a lie here nor do i want a lie if she finds out i'm going

to the beach with two straight girls she will not be happy to say the least one of the straight

girls has a boyfriend and the other single so not really covered on that angle either

what should i do my friend would not hate me for backing out of the trip and i would definitely lie

make up a reason so it's not to reveal how little truster is in my relationship also the two

girls are not committed to coming yet so if they back out maybe i can reintroduce the possibility

of my girlfriend coming along instead like i said while she has jealousy issue she's okay in

group hangs appreciate the help love the pod go jones all right thanks is there no room did i

miss that i thought he just said he wasn't sure i thought there was like a lot we don't have

the blueprints with us all right i mean that just man maybe like listen this would be so much better

if there's room dude please like just do it for me you know what i mean i don't because he right

now he's operating and oh maybe this is because i said that in passing he doesn't even know i think

just go straight to the source you know your buds work with me on this yeah that's that i mean

that's obviously the easiest and most simple way to do this it is odd that he wouldn't invite her

and i think it's fair to be like hey like can my girlfriend come to if you think it's gonna be

each problem and it sounds like you know this is a situation where you're not looking to break up

with your girlfriend you're looking to stay with her so you're probably gonna have to take

whatever side she's gonna be on the situation if he says no then you're not you're not going on

this trip but i think you just have to go to the source and ask him why she can't come or if she

can't come don't make it confrontational yeah because even if you did go you're like dude you're

only getting like 80% me i'm just thinking about later this is you're not even getting the full

the full thing here and it's not like you're asking him like hey can you buy her a ticket to the

concert it's like can i just bring her in the car with me so yeah this is this is this is not a

weird ask not like shrewdys like world cup ask this is like uh i didn't ask for no we know how's it

going by the way wink wink i'm the same as it's always been i'm not asking all right done yeah i thought

maybe the word would get out no yep no i don't think i'll be like i can't believe you would think

that was okay i'm like i said it's not okay that's why i but i was i wanted validation like

i got validation whatever you said i was not going to do that yeah but sometimes like who are

we kidding there's soft launches on the show that was what that was you're not you're not

knowing to be a soft launcher for benefit yeah i'm not yeah thank you you know me well enough to

know that i would not just be like i'm gonna test the waters on my guys this it's it's it's a it's

it's a insane ask i said it was a insane ask no tripped up i love it i hear now throw my wife

out of the book she was like it's not an insane ask you should just ask him and i'm not going to ask

god this is what he asked ask was if i can ask tickets yeah what were the dates again

tell her 12 months this summer it doesn't matter this was a master class honestly

this is pretty easy you've got to work with your guy here first and foremost okay

and i don't know if you're overreacting to a criticism shared here or there like you could be

creating a lot of stuff in your head where you now think that she wasn't invited because of all

these different things it could be just a square footage thing again we don't know we don't know

what to lay out of this place is um he got he's got to know he's jamming you up though right like

yeah there's no he doesn't he doesn't understand the consequences does this guy love drama he

should understand it all yeah it could be that he's the type of the our email is the type of friend

who's like very easy gone doesn't want to ask anyone for anything like enjoys being the guy who's

like never late you know just yes say what like we'll make plans like he he might enjoy being like

the perfect everything goes smoothly whereas i have other friends are like you know if we're

gonna do this thing i need you to do this this and this for me and then you got to pick me up like

i just have i have some friends like that and i have some and other friends i think want to enjoy

being like the seamless addition to a group and i think this guy might just want everything

to be perfect without having to ask so i think you just gotta put your foot forward there and

you know be real be real about the situation oh we also you know we don't know what the beach

situation is is it the is it the hamptons or we talk in hampton park in new hampshire you know so

uh that might be the prop like it's this unbelievable setting and he's like i don't want to be left

out but you know what you can't do here are the things we can definitively say you can't go

without her all right that's the number one thing so you tell your friend that even with whatever

the backstory is whether that's actually impacted her his opinion of her or if you're completely

creating a scenario in your head where that had way more to do with it than it actually did

maybe he just says these two other friends maybe he really likes you and was thinking the whole

thing out and then maybe he just say to him hey dude that's not gonna work and he goes oh my god

i didn't even think about that right sounds like that didn't happen yet you just say now look the

thing is is regardless of how many bedrooms there are like if you go by yourself you weren't sharing

a bed with anybody that we can i think safely soon if you're going with your girlfriend you're

sharing a bed so like how much room you're actually taking up so it is a bit of a weird invite here

based on like it's not like he's taking up another room if she's showing up so i think you just

go to him and say hey you cannot i can't go you can't do this to me man you can't do this to me yeah

you need to understand that straight guys gay guys we all get it

okay you're trying to play 40 chastin is like i don't like this girl and this is the first thing

i'm i'm gonna just do this little subtle oh my god it'll be awful maybe you shouldn't be with this

girl you know maybe that's what he's doing yeah a real puppet master here so but i don't think you

can go for the benefit of our email are here you know you didn't say you want to break up whether

you're insane and the stuff jealousy stuff can be really really annoying especially when it's

stuff they you didn't do sure good luck with that enjoy your summer all right that'll do it for

the show today thanks to Kevin thanks to Tom thanks to sorority thanks to Kyle we'll have a good

10 minutes because we had so little NBA today after a big NBA weekend but look it was just

it wasn't gonna be on the radar with all the tournament games so we'll stay on the tournament

throughout can't wait to keep doing that and then opening day baseball today pass in more

baseball later this week so please subscribe the ride whistle of show our still sports