February 17, 2025 • 40 mins
Brian and Jason talk about Tom Izzo passing Bob Knight for the Big Ten wins record and where he is seen in the echelon of college basketball coaches, USA vs. Canada and why hockey isn't as popular, CFB Playoff expansion, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:32):
Let's give this.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, we got an
odd format and an interesting comparison on the way. We're
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(00:57):
should be. Okay, I'm gonna get to some hoops here
because there's a comparison. I want to throw your way, Jason.
But first they all start a game with a new format. Yesterday,
four teams. There's a round robin tournament. It was interesting
because some of the NBA players, they were commenting on
(01:17):
the stoppages. So they would start a game, it's a
target score, it's a race to forty points. Whoever can
score forty points first advances, but there would be stoppages.
They would start to play and they're like, all right,
hold on, we're gonna just play a song right now.
We'll get back to the Actually, like they tried to
space it out and elongate it if you will, but
(01:39):
it's just strange, just a wee. I'm so used to
East versus West. I guess that's the true indictment. Is
the lack of effort was so bad. They're like, we
have to change the format so dramatically that this is
the best we got. And I thought it was okay,
(02:00):
But man, it shows the same thing with the NFL
and not just an NBA thing. They had to do
away with the Pro Bowl because the effort was so bad.
I get it when it's tackle football and you don't
want to nurse an ACL injury in the offseason. You know,
if you're playing basketball and you just have to give
minimal effort, that's far harder to explain why you're not
(02:22):
doing that than it is football. But they had to
make dramatic changes because the effort just wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
So what's the next change because the format is not
why it was bad. Like I'm gonna go ahead and
tell the league this and tell Adam Silver this. It
wasn't the format, and i know you're trying to figure
this out. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you they
don't care. They just don't like They like being called
(02:49):
an All Star. They like being part of that team,
but they don't have any interest in the actual product,
Like they're not there's no buy in there. They're already
making a ton of money. I mean, Ron James most
important face of your league by far since Michael Jordan
in terms of recognizability and what he's done and how
long he's been able to play and for the most
(03:09):
part stay healthy and all this. You know, he had
a twenty year run of playing any All Star games.
He was just nah, I'm just not gonna do it.
And he said it yesterday. He didn't set it like
a week in advance. He said it just a few
hours before the game. I'm just gonna, you know, I'm
gonna rest my ankle and all this other kind of stuff,
like there's no buy in. Nobody, nobody cares. It's not
that they're not gonna go out there and have a
little bit of fun. But there's no reason for me
(03:31):
to care if you don't care, Like I can't. I
wasn't gonna play in my schedule around the NBA All
Star Game, because the NBA players barely altered their schedule
in order to play in the NBA All Star Game.
Like it's getting to the point where if there's a
guy that I assume should be an All Star based
on his talent and he doesn't make the All Star Game,
(03:51):
I'm gonna start to think, Yeah, I think he's probably
just kind of loafing it until after the All Star break,
and then around April, you're gonna start seeing a lot
of takes like, man, he's playing at an All Star level.
Imagine if he had done this all season right, he
didn't want to be part of All Star weekends, so
he decided to turn it on in the back half
of the season because he didn't even want to have
to decline this or go out and do a fifty
(04:13):
or sixty percent effort. It's just they don't take it seriously.
It's and I don't necessarily blame them for it. But
at some point the fix is just stop doing the thing.
Yeah right, That's about the only thing left to do here.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, And you wonder if it does get to a
point where that is the only thing that they decide
to do, where it's like, this thing sucks so bad.
We've tried all these goofy formats and it's still bad,
So the heck with it?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I do.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I wonder if they get to that point or not.
But at least for a year it was it was
at least like watchable effort. I'll put that, like it
was bearable yesterday with the format that they came up with.
And I don't know if you need musical acts when
it's like eleven to one and the game is just
started and they're like, yeah, let's pause for a little
(05:04):
bit and do this in the meantime. That was kind
of strange. So that's gonna take a lot of getting
used to. I don't know if we're ever gonna get
used to that. Let me throw something else your way,
because I know you love your college hoops. And there
was something that happened this weekend where Tom Izzo, Michigan
State head coach, he won another game Michigan State beat Illinois,
(05:25):
had a nice comeback. They outscored Illinois in the second
half forty two to twenty four, and that includes a
fifteen to oho run in about the final seven minutes.
So Sparty got the win. That was Izzo's three hundred
and fifty fourth win in the Big Ten. That passes
Bobby Knight for the most by a head coach. So
shout out to Izzo. And it just got me thinking,
(05:47):
I'm curious what you think about this, Jason. Where I
was thinking about Tom Izzo and John Caliperi and how
there are some similarities in terms of their resumes, their accomplishments,
and it's it stands out how they're viewed so much
differently between the two and there are some reasons why.
(06:08):
But I look at it like this one of them
if you look at just resume. So they each won
a title. You know, Izzo had eight final fours. Cal
has six. Cal obviously has had way more top end
talent than Izzo has had. It's you just look at
the NBA and how many dudes are from Kentucky that
(06:28):
played for Cal. It's ridiculous. So I get that you're
not gonna look at the accomplishments, you know, titles final
fours as the same because Cal has had more to
work with. And that's fair. But the other part of this, though, Jason,
is that if we just cut right down to it,
Iso is more likable than Cal is. You know, that's
(06:49):
a big part of this. I think that Izo has
looked at as like the underdog, the blue collar guy.
He's gritty, he's scrappy, he's clawing with his fingernails, like
al Pacino said in any Give and Sunday. You look
at Cal, I think he's widely looked at like he's
this pretty boy, trust fund kid who has all these
advantages and we just resent them for it. I think
(07:10):
that has a lot to do with it. Where Iso
it's just more likable. Nobody's gonna look at Izzo and
be like one championship with eight final fours? Are you
kidding me? Where are the rings? Don't look at Cal
like that all day? And I think it's not just
the talent disparity. I think the likability disparity is at
play here too. What do you think about this?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I mean, I think that's one hundred percent right, even
though I mean there are some things you could criticize
Iso for and there's some things that have been said
in recent years, but like the narrative about Izzo, a
lot of times going into the NCAA tournament was didn't
have all the talent, but somehow would win. And the
opposite was true for cal Perry because that point that
you made about all the talent that's in the NBA,
(07:52):
but how much of that talent actually won a championship
at Kentucky? And I think that's part of it. Also
being at Kentucky sure is part of huge coach cow
like that was already bristly, but he went to a
true blue blood. Whereas how much did you really know
about Michigan State basketball? I'm not I to understand. You
(08:13):
had Magic Johnson, you had Sean Rustby, you had a
couple of guys come through there through the years, But
like Michigan State basketball is Tom Izzo, Like, yeah, he
has become synonymous since you know the Mateen Cleaves Mo
Pete teams at the turn of the century. He's been there,
He's been a fixture there. It's not like some this
(08:33):
is not the Notre Dame of college basketball where they've
been like this incredible dynasty and kind of the face
of the sport for eighty or ninety years, Like that's Duke,
that's not Michigan State. That's Duke, or that's Kentucky, or
that's North Carolina or that's UCLA. That's one of those
kind of teams. And I think that's part of it.
Also is he's doing it where he kind of carved
(08:55):
his own niche. He's like, it's easier to argue that
tom Izzo is closer to like a Mark Few type
because Michigan State doesn't have the same name recognition as
some of those blue bloods do. Even like I think
that you kind of view him a little bit differently
even than you view Calhoun. And Calhoun had more success,
(09:15):
but Yukon was a little bit stronger of a brand.
Now he helped kind of bring them to the dance.
But that's I think that's part of it. But the
likability thing is one hundred percent true. Like cal Perry
bristles a lot of people. He says what's on his mind.
It's never bothered me. I kind of like that about
Coach Cow in terms of some of the things that
(09:36):
he says. And I think he's always been a pretty
good showman and good for college basketball. But Izzo has
always kind of felt like the blue collar guy compared
to the white collar guy, and that definitely plays into
the perception.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah yeah, you know, Cal is a little bit like
Dan Hurley, right Like you and I have talked about
Dan Hurley being as outspoken as he is, and we
like it. We think it's good for this sport. But
not everybody does. You know, sometimes you put a target
on your chest by speaking your mind like that. I
think the Kentucky fanaticism is a big deal here too,
(10:11):
because man, these these fans. Remember I was at the game.
Actually it was Kentucky against North Carolina. I'll never forget it.
And a lot of Kentucky fans thought the whistles didn't
go Kentucky's way. They like ruined one of those officials' lives.
They kept on calling, and they wrote a bunch of
(10:32):
bad reviews for his business that I don't know, his
business went under it Like there's this whole thing, you know,
I just look at it like this, Cal who's now
at Arkansas right now, he went back to Lexington. When
Arkansas beat Kentucky, he got booed. The fans are booing it.
Do you think Michigan State fans would boo Izzo if
(10:53):
he was coaching at another school and came back to
East Lansing. There's no way, no possible way. And some
of that is the likability, some of it is the
lack of fanaticism. Some of it is just like, what
was Michigan State before tom Izzo?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Right, Like that's right, that's my point.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, yet not as decorated as Kentucky was before Cal.
And so a lot of these Kentucky fans are like, yo,
where are the freaking rings? You've got to do better
than this. But I think they're closer than they appear
accomplishments wise, because we look at Cal losing to Saint
Peter's and we don't look at Izzo as a two
seed losing the Middle Tennessee at all. It's like it
(11:35):
never even happened.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It did.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
But I think the likability thing matters, and I think
the lack of just star star talent matters as well.
But their accomplishments are are very similar, and they're viewed
as like polar opposes. I just don't think it should
be viewed as extremely as it does.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well. I also think there's I mean to the larger
Kentucky point versus Michigan State. I also think something has
changed now because and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't
think a lot of people were just rooting for Cal
to fail at Arkansas, Like I don't. Like you can
talk about the likability factor, and there may be some
of that in terms of there's still some people that
(12:15):
want to see him get his come up into whatever
like that, but like him not being at Kentucky now,
I think Kentucky still has the villain role, but I
don't know that Cal does. Like now it's just sor right, Listen,
you know Cal made a move. Now, the thing about
booing Cal, it's not like he left you in the
middle of the night, right and just disappeared, like it
(12:36):
just it ran its course. I do think that he
probably wanted to change the scenery because he was tired
of your stuff, your fanaticism and all that, and the team.
I think I think the school wanted to make a move.
But like, this wasn't some ugly, nasty breakup where he
said negative stuff about you or anything else like that,
So like, what are you booing him for? I mean,
he kept on recruiting at a high level, making you
(12:59):
national news year after year after year. Maybe he didn't
have the success that you wanted, but he also did
win a title yeah for you while he was there,
Like I think that's something Like I think the entitlement
of Kentucky fans and just Kentucky basketball in general has
led to this since, which is why, Like as soon
as he went to Arkansas, I was like, man, I
hope he wins. Like I'm not really I don't really
(13:22):
have some negative opinion where I want to see him disappear.
Like I think he just wanted to go coach basketball
and for the for a large part, just be left
alone and just be able to do that because I
think he loves the sport of basketball. I think he
loves coaching basketball to a fault, and he wasn't. You
couldn't just coach basketball at Kentucky because you were the
most powerful man in the state if you were the
(13:43):
coach of that team.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
You know, cal at Kentucky reminds me a little bit
of Ryan Day at Ohio State, right, Like, like Ryan
Day this past season lost of Michigan, lost of Michigan
numerous times, and he was on the hot seat man.
The seat was boiling hot, and then he ended up
winning a championship. In all is great, But I think
(14:08):
the Ohio State football fan base is similar to the
Kentucky basketball fan base. Yeah, where it's like, bro, if
you don't deliver, there is hell to pay. And I
think what's lost is how much winning is happening along
the way. Right. Granted, it wasn't as much success as
Kentucky fans wanted. It wasn't until Ohio State won a
(14:30):
championship as much success as Ohio State football fans wanted.
But I think you just gloss over all of the wins.
And I'm looking at Kentucky right now and Mark Pope.
He started off great, they were fourteen and three. They've
been three and five over their last eight games, and
they have some injury issues. But the point is, I
think it's easy to look at Cal and say, yeah,
(14:52):
losing to Saint Peters is never going to be permissible.
But there's a tendency to gloss over all of the
because there wasn't as much winning as you wanted. There
weren't as many titles as you wanted. Where the next
guy in if the winning goes downhill a little bit
like Alabama football, right like Saban delivered title after title
(15:14):
after title, but any years that didn't result in a title,
it's like, man, what are we doing over here? Now?
We had a new era with Kaylin de Boor, and
it's like they're not even in the playoff, you know.
So I think that you sometimes you get humbled a
little bit as a fan where it was like, man,
it was a lot better than I thought it was
at the time, And I'm wondering if that happens for
(15:37):
Kentucky fans, like it's happening with Alabama football fans right now,
and like it might happen with like it was happening
with Ohio State fans until until Ryan Day finally won
a title.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Oh yeah. I mean, like if they had lost that
game to Michigan and gone out and gotten beaten by Tennessee,
I don't know if he's still the coach.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I don't either. I think he gets run.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
But yeah, I agree with you, but that is a
scenario we're not going to have to live because of
what Ohio State did in the playoff. And I think
that I just think that more people want to see
Kentucky lose than cal at this point, I think that
I think that that brand is the one that feels
entitled much more so than the coach of that team.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, no, that's interesting right there. I like that. Take. Hey,
right after the show, our podcast will be going up.
If you missed anything on today's show, be sure to
check it out. Just search two Pros wherever you get
your podcasts. Be sure to also follow rate and review
it again. Just search two Pros wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll see this show posted right after we get
(16:41):
off the air. He's Jason Martin, I'm Brian Know. We're
in for Two Pros and a Cup of Joe here
coming up next. Oh my gosh, it's uh. It was
just a matter of time, and it looks like time
is going to be put into effect very shortly. Here
we'll have some details for you. We're in uh for
(17:02):
the crew here. It's Fox Sports Radio live from the
Tirack dot Com studios. We invite you to stick and
stay with us.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am. Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
He's Jason Martin. I'm Brian No. We're in for two
pros and a cup of Joe here on Fox Sports Radio.
We're live from the Tirack dot Com studios. I was
just telling Coop and Lorena off the air, Jason that
I saw one of my buddies yesterday. I'm at home.
Unfortunately one of my uncles passed away, So yeah, thank
(17:43):
you man, shout out to my uncle Jerry. The viewing
is today, the funeral is tomorrow, so it sucks. But
I'm at home and I saw one of my buddies
Jay last night, well a couple of nights ago. And
he goes, so we have this text thread going and
used to do like which band is better? Like two
good bands and you have to make your argument, and
(18:04):
he's like, you know it would be way funnier pick
like two horrible bands and you have to choose one.
You know, you have to choose, no matter. So it
just turns into oh no, man, Google dolls all day,
definitely overweight. Wait to say, wait wait wait wait wait
wait wait uh oh uh oh.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't know the goo Dolls are should be in
the all time bad band category.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Like see now you need to be on this text thread.
This is right up your alley.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Jamn, they have some day. I mean, the catalog is
deeper than you think, Like Iris, which is what we
just came back with. That's not their best, but like
Black Balloon and Broadway on that same record, I like,
long Way Down is still my favorite song that they
ever did. But I mean Name and Naked a Boy
Named Goo that album is actually pretty solid. They've been
around for a while. Like I don't think they're I
(18:52):
don't think when you were talking about bad bands, the
Goo Goo Dolls is gonna be mentioned like Nickelback some
of these other bands, like that's much more okay, Yeah,
I don't. I don't think Google do.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I think that is shade that is undeserved fair enough.
What's what's another band that you would say is like
nickelbackasque hmm, anything come to mind?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I gotta think about it now. I mean, there are
obviously bad bands, and there's like one hit wonder bands
and sure, oh yeah, and there's you know bands that
where just like they had a record, but then nothing
else they did after that point. Was good. What do
you have? Like? What what when you're talking about that,
like when you're doing this text thread? What else?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And I wish he had other.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Creed?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Okay, Coop has entered in the chat and throws Creed
out there. Okay, so break the tie. Who do you choose?
You go team nickelback Er, team Creed?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Oh, Creed for sure?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, what are the reasons why?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I mean, My Own Prison is a great song in
my opinion, I like that song quite a bit. Yeah,
I Sacrifice and a couple of the other tunes that
they've put out I like better. Nickelback's first album or whatever.
The Silver Side Up record had a few songs that
were catchy that I enjoyed, but nothing else that they
(20:13):
did after that point was at all relevant to me.
So I think Creed is I think Creed is the answer.
Now I'm trying to, like, now, some other names are
trying to pop into my head, yeah right now with
other bands like that, But I'm definitely gonna be team
Creed in the fight against against nickel Pikelback. Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I do like the exercise, though, I think we should
apply this to the sports world, you know, because it's
gotten just so negative, just so over the top negative
where it reminds me of my mom. Like when I
was a kid with my sister, My sister would sometimes
say something negative about herself and my mom would say,
if you keep that up, I'm gonna make you say
(20:52):
three nice things about yourself, and every now and then
she would have to do that. Right, my mom would
be like, you did it again, all right, three nine things,
and my sister Christy would have to be like, Okay,
I have nice hair.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know you have to say.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I think we should do that with certain sports subjects.
Is uh, you know, point out that good in some
stuff because it's gotten so like ridiculously negative. But maybe
you'll have to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Man, Team USA and Team Canada had three fights and
nine seconds in hockey.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
How crazy was that? That was wild?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Man?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
That was that was cool to see him.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I was actually like watching, you know, watching a little
bit that. I was like, Man, I really miss when
I cared about hockey and really enjoyed it. Im I'm
a Penguins fan. I have them my whole life will
always be. But like when I used to really pay
attention to that league and like the critic the critique
that we've had about the NBA, and it just it
comes across like they don't care. That's not the case
(21:51):
in hockey.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, oh, just go out and absolutely do their.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Thing and it doesn't matter. Like that's that to me
is a shame. I wish there was a fix for
that somehow. I would love to care about hockey the
way that I did fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I'm right there with you, man, and I don't even
understand myself. I don't know what happened to me. I
don't know why I haven't fallen for hockey. I should.
It's right up my alley right like, it's intense, it's
fast paced, there's hitting, there's intensity. They absolutely care. There
was a story like one of these hockey typical hockey stories.
(22:29):
It happened a week or two ago. It got a
bunch of teeth knocked out, like had all this dental
work done, or even worse than that, And still I
think it was actually worse. It wasn't a teeth injury.
It's something like lower body. And he still made it
like those guys give all effort and I'm just like, eh,
not really my thing. I remember watching years ago. It
was I think it was the Red Wings and the
(22:51):
Blues and they played this two or three overtime thriller
and there was a goal that somebody just ripped a
shot from the blue line. It might have been eiser Man.
I was all in just watching that beginning to end,
and it's like, I just don't care at all. I don't.
I can't even explain it. I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, and I understand that it's not as easy to
follow on TV because of the size of the puck
and you know, all of those things. But at the
same time, like hockey is still fun to watch. It's
very fun to watch in person, but it's still as
fun to watch on TV. Yet I never actually make
time for it.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I don't either.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It is it is. It is a lost and I
don't think it's coming back. Like I don't think that
that's gonna change. And every year I'm like, I'm gonna
start paying attention again, and then it doesn't happen. And
I'd follow the Penguins through the box score and I
know what you know, those guys are doing, but I'm
not watching any of those games. And I feel like
that's just kind of where a lot of us are.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I think a lot of it, Like you'd relate to this,
the gigs that we have. It's like you're gonna spend
a good amount of time following this stuff that people
care about. You know, I'd be following the NFL anyway,
I care about it that much. But the ratings off
the charts, you know, so we're all in with that,
and like you got a wife and kids, you know,
(24:05):
you got to divide up your time somehow. And it's like, okay,
if the ratings aren't even registering in hockey, am I
going out of my way to watch it when I'm
not going to talk about it, you know what I mean? Like,
so I think our gigs and just where the ratings
are have a lot to do with it. I think
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I mean, yes, I mean we know it's death to
go into hockey in any detail on the radio. It
just is. And I don't know that that was always
the case, but it's definitely the case now. Like regionally,
you can get away with it for a segment here
and there if you're in the right place, but nationally
it's death, Like you can't even do it, Like the
only topic you can do about hockey is the one
(24:45):
we just did. Can I know hockey?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah? Or like look at those fights man, No, yeah
do that. Let me throw some college football your way,
cause I know you love the sport. I need to.
College football playoff expansion is gaining moments, Jason. Here's the thing.
We've got the suits at the Big Ten in the SEC.
They're pushing for anywhere between fourteen to sixteen teams in
(25:10):
the expanded playoff format and wow, shockingly it's going to
benefit them. This is stunning to me. My jaw is
still just on the floor, you know where they're looking
at automatic qualifiers, maybe as many as four per conference
with the Big Ten and the SEC. Listen, they've got
the power. They wanted the majority of the money, they
(25:33):
wanted the full say, and so the other commissioners they're like, Okay,
I guess this is what we have to do, because
the Big ten and SEC threatened to be like, well,
screw it, we'll just do our own thing. Then we
don't have to play by your rules. And they're like, oh, okay,
we'll give you the majority of the money and to
say so. And so they're coming up with a potential
format that's going to greatly benefit them. I just hope
(25:56):
they don't ruin college football, Jason, I have no interest.
And as many as four automatic qualifiers per league, Now
you can argue, hey, most years it's not gonna matter.
Those teams would be deserving and would make it in
any way. And it's like, well, then why do we
have to have automatic qualifiers. It's just in case they don't,
in case they don't actually deserve it and earn their
(26:17):
way in. I hate the idea of any automatic qualifiers,
and as many as four per league. I am completely
out on that idea.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, Like, I'm fine expanding. As a matter of fact, I
think there probably should be a little more expansion. Then
they need to cut it off. But yeah, the autobids
in the way it's all set up, there's definitely some
tweaks to the system that need to be made. All told, though,
I still think where we're headed in terms of more
games with stakes is a positive as long as there's
(26:46):
a balance struck. I mean, we did get to a
place where the Michigan Ohio State game didn't end up
mattering at all, because Ohio State still ends up with
the national championship. If we were still in a four
team playoff wouldn't have had the opportunity in the first
place to have been there. But the AQ situation is
something that needs to be They need to be very
(27:08):
cautious with that. But I think that the bigger point
is the one you made about the SEC and a
Big Ten. They have all the power here. They at
this point are bigger than the sport, and so they'll
just go and form their own version of live golf, yeah,
if they have to, and it will be more important
than what else is happening. And that's the thing that
(27:30):
you have to protect against. You still have to make
it so that everybody has a reason to watch their team,
not just the bigger squads, even if that ends up
being what we see in the championship ultimately, So if
they want to add a few more teams, I'm cool
with that as long as we don't get too much
past two or four more. But we all know that
(27:51):
this is just about creating more money for the SEC
and a Big Ten.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, that's all it is. And I just look, man,
I thought that past season it was successful. I thought
it was I thought the regular season wasn't just like
greatly watered down and there are all these games where
you just shrug your shoulders and say, ah, who cares, well,
just you know, we'll rest our starters and just get
ready for the playoff. It didn't turn into that at all,
(28:17):
so I thought it was very successful. And I just
hope they don't add too much where it waters down
too much of the postseason where it waters down the
regular season, and I thought they had a great mix
this past season. I would love in a perfect world,
(28:37):
I would love to see every playoff game be a
home game except the championship game. I would love to
see college do exactly what the NFL does, because that
incentivizes your regular season games. You know, if you're a
one or a two seed, and all of a sudden,
your regular season games matter throughout the entire season, right
(29:01):
if you've got home games potentially in the playoffs tied
to it. So I love what they did with the
first round. I don't know why they would just limit
it to the first round where it's like, wow, we
have these old ties to the Fiesta Bowl. Who the
hell cares get rid of them. It's better to have
home playoff atmospheres. It's way better than a neutral site game.
So I would do it all throughout and that would
(29:21):
absolutely spruce up the regular season. And if you're expanding
it to or four more teams, if you had home
games throughout, man, that is a great way to maintain
the importance of the regular season. I would love to
see them make that changed.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I mean, the atmosphere is better. My only problem is
we understand how hard it is to win on the
road in college football, and the neutral site at least, well,
it does feel bigger. The atmosphere is different, but it
feels bigger because it feels more national in terms of
(29:57):
just how it looks from the outside. But I don't
know if you want to make it harder for the
road team to win, You're right, it creates an incentive,
a big incentive because field in college football is just massive.
But I don't know that I want that environment to
make it that hard to potentially see the underdog win
(30:20):
because it's not like in March Madness, where it can
It can happen a lot easier in football because of
the size of the rosters, the depth involved in things
of that nature, especially in the transfer portal of the
Nile era and everything else. Stuff has changed so rapidly that.
I still kind of like the neutral site feel after
a point, because I feel like the scales are so
(30:42):
out of balance because of the home advantage in college football.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
It's interesting, right, Like I think the first round this
year it was a boat race city all four games. Yes,
you know, well Texas Clemson was edit. Yeah, yeah, so what.
I wouldn't say all of them, but I think a
couple of them. It was just the teams themselves. Instead
of being on the road like you, I, you had
(31:07):
such a favorable path. They were not like this upper
echelon playoff team. Same with SMU, you know. And so
if you put I you against Notre Dame on a
neutral field, I you still probably gonna get smacked. If
you played SMU on a neutral field against Penn State,
They're probably still gonna get smacked, you know. So I
don't know that it was just the road atmospheres why
(31:30):
that that had a huge part with most of the
games being blowouts. I think it was the quality of
the teams that a lot to do with it. I'd
be fully for it. I completely get your point, and
it's a good one, but I would before all home
playoff games except the title game, you you going to
play that at a neutral site, that's fine, just like
the super Bowl. But I would incentivize the regular season,
(31:54):
and yeah, we might have more potential for blowouts, but
that's like, hey, man, Hender, your business in the regular
season if you don't want to play on the road,
and these upper echelon teams, they're more than capable of
winning on the road. You know, I would love to
see that, but you would vote no. You would keep
it like the postseason, just first round home playoff and
(32:16):
then everything else neutral site.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You would like that, Yeah, I mean the main mainly,
just like all of what you're saying, I understand, and
I just I disagree with the notion that I think
it makes it worse. I think it makes it much
more likely you're going to have worse games. And I
don't know that we need that in a sport where
it's already a pretty high percentage that you're going to
(32:38):
get bad games, because the difference between the teams that
are really good and the teams that are merely good
is obvious, and it's obvious pretty quickly if you put
them on a neutral site, then you know, remember all
NCAA two thousand and five on a PS two, like
they had the home advantage thing and it would shake,
and so you would go play Like I would take
(32:58):
a small school like Iyoming or something, and I would
go to Ohio State and literally the screen would be
shaking so much. I couldn't even see my receivers. It's
like I would Yeah, there's all like I don't want.
I don't want a team that is potentially going to
get blown out to then go in there and be
so overwhelmed by the atmosphere that it was over before
it ever even started. Like I would just like it
(33:20):
to feel like there's a little bit more of a
chance the crowd need to end up turning on the
team or whatever. But I think that that just adds
so much nervousness and anxiety to young men in that
situation that I just think that that probably makes for
a lot more blowouts that are unwatchable.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Faster how about this too, Because I'm just looking at
the neutral site playoff games this past season, and listen,
it's neutral site game. Penn State worked Boise State and
in the Rose Bowl, right, I still Oregon getting just
yeah dusted the way they did against Ohio State. Those
(34:00):
are neutral site games.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Too.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
So listen, I understand there's they're probably a greater chance
if it's at a home stadium, greater chance for a blowout.
But there's still a really good change for blowouts and
neutral site stadiums too. So it's like, I'd rather have
the atmosphere. We're gonna get a blowout one way or
the other. I'd rather have the home atmosphere. I'd rather
How great would it be if Ohio State went to
(34:23):
Autsen and put it on Oregon the same way they
did at the Rose Bowl, Like, it's even better that
way if they go into enemy territory and do that.
So I yeah, give me the home atmospheres and we're
gonna get blowouts either way, whether it's a home stadium
or a neutral Sece.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
You're selling me. You're selling me on it more than
I thought you were going to. You've made a better
argument here. I might. I might be ten percent more
in your direction than I was when this started.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So there we go, baby, all right, nice, I'm like
an agent taking a ten percent commission, you know what
I mean, change your opinion ten percent. That's what I'm
trying to do over here. All right, We've got Jason Martin.
I'm Brian No. We're in for two Pros and a
Cup of Joe coming up next, jmart this was easily
(35:09):
my favorite part of the entire sports weekend. And you're
gonna think I'm a lunatic for saying this, but I'm
telling you I absolutely love this. We'll get to that
coming up next. Keep it locked right here. We're live
from the tire rack dot Com studios on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
He's Jason Martin. I'm Brian No. We're in for two
Pros and a Cup of Joe here on Fox Sports Radio.
We're live from the tire rack dot Com studios. You
know you're gonna think I'm a lunatic for this, Jason.
My favorite part of the sports weekend. I did love
the hockey fights US against Canada. Was that What night
(35:59):
was that was that Thursday? Yeah, so technically not part
of the weekend, but still it was. It was a
great moment. Three fights within the first nine seconds. That's fantastic.
But we've seen hockey fights before, right, you know seen
that many times. What we haven't seen before is during
the NBA Skills competition, a team deliberately manipulating the rules
(36:25):
and then getting disqualified for it.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I love this story, Jason. You're gonna think I'm out
of my mind.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I honestly do.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yes, Team Spurs disqualified for manipulating the rules. I'll do
my best to explain this. You know, the skills competition
where for the people listening, like, you throw the ball
through a little opening and you're supposed to take a
couple of jump shots, you dribble around. It's you're right,
the skills competition. And so Team Spurs with Chris Paul
(36:54):
and Victor wembin Yama, they they're supposed to take nine
shots a piece, right, You're supposed to take like six
three pointers, like three free throw like elbow jumpers. And
what they did they didn't take legitimate jump shots. They
(37:14):
just threw the ball in the direction of the hoop
as fast as possible to save time. And they thought
they saved time. The whole arena's booing them, Donovan Mitchell.
NBA players are giving them the thumbs down. Like what
and then the rules people come over and they're like,
you're disqualified. You either have to make one shot or
(37:36):
take three valid shots to advance. They got disqualified. I
just love that Chris Paul tried to find a loophole
and was like, hey man, it doesn't matter if we
make these shots or not, so let's just chuck the
ball as quickly as possible save time. Boom we win.
I love that he's that competitive where he's looking for
(37:57):
a skills competition loophole. I say salute to Chris Paul
on this one. That's my takeaway. I know I'm in
the minority on this one, but I honestly feel that way.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Well, I mean that's uh, that's certainly a take I
think that's that's more interesting than anything that happened yesterday.
It is like that, that's actually there's more fight shown
in that. Yeah, more more competitive spirit shown in that
than anything it took place in the All Star Game. Like,
imagine being so competitive and look, Chris Paul has says
(38:32):
he's been known for different things in his career. A
lot of really good ones are gonna put him in
the Hall of Fame. Also some that are a little
below the belt literally, right, yeah, as well as figuratively,
so like if you were going to put together a
list of guys that might try to pull something like this,
absolutely feel like Chris Paul would be near the top.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Of that list. Who else would be on that list?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Off the top of That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
I mean Draymond and he was in the skills competition,
you know, and he didn't do it this, he would
have to be like him, like, uh, Dylan Borok, Dylan Dilibery,
That's the name I was trying to get. I was like,
who's the former Grizzly? That's just yeah, yeah, I could
see him doing something like that maybe.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah. So I mean I think that like Chris Paul,
Like if you were telling me somebody did this and
it was a guard that's going into the Hall of Fame,
oh Chris Paul, Like if the first thing would have
come out, Like I said, he's Hall of Fame level talent.
I've enjoyed watching his whole career and he definitely is
somebody that would try to get a leg up in
(39:34):
a meaningless skills challenge on All Star Saturday Night.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Absolutely, and that's exactly what he did. I love that
story so much. It's so good. Okay, before we get
out of here, j Mart and not are my friend Jay?
Here in South Bend, Indiana where they have a text thread,
they put two bad bands on it and you have
to make an argument for one of them being better
than the other. To close the show, Baha men? Or
(40:01):
Blind Melon? Who do you go?
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Blind Melon by Far? I like Blind Melon.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
By far By far it gets who let the dogs out? No?
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I hate and I'm saying of the two, Blind Melon,
like bah Man, can go off somewhere never to be
heard from again. Blind Melon, I actually have some.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Love for really you do. Okay, go listen to Tones of
Home after the show. No rain smash it. By the way,
Baha men, they did win a Grammy for Best Dance Recording.
That's something Blind Melon never did you know? Advantage Baha
men is what I say. Everybody, have a good day.
We'll see you soon.
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with Brady Quinn, Jonas Knox, and
myself LeVar Arrington. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern or three am to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your
local station for the Two Pros and a Cup of
(00:20):
Joe show over at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or
stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by
searching fs R.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Let's give this.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Oh, we got an
odd format and an interesting comparison on the way. We're
broadcasting live from the tire rack dot Com studios. Tire
rack dot com. We'll help get you there, an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand
recommended installers. Tire rack dot com the way tire buying
(00:57):
should be. Okay, I'm gonna get to some hoops here
because there's a comparison. I want to throw your way, Jason.
But first they all start a game with a new format. Yesterday,
four teams. There's a round robin tournament. It was interesting
because some of the NBA players, they were commenting on
(01:17):
the stoppages. So they would start a game, it's a
target score, it's a race to forty points. Whoever can
score forty points first advances, but there would be stoppages.
They would start to play and they're like, all right,
hold on, we're gonna just play a song right now.
We'll get back to the Actually, like they tried to
space it out and elongate it if you will, but
(01:39):
it's just strange, just a wee. I'm so used to
East versus West. I guess that's the true indictment. Is
the lack of effort was so bad. They're like, we
have to change the format so dramatically that this is
the best we got. And I thought it was okay,
(02:00):
But man, it shows the same thing with the NFL
and not just an NBA thing. They had to do
away with the Pro Bowl because the effort was so bad.
I get it when it's tackle football and you don't
want to nurse an ACL injury in the offseason. You know,
if you're playing basketball and you just have to give
minimal effort, that's far harder to explain why you're not
(02:22):
doing that than it is football. But they had to
make dramatic changes because the effort just wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
So what's the next change because the format is not
why it was bad. Like I'm gonna go ahead and
tell the league this and tell Adam Silver this. It
wasn't the format, and i know you're trying to figure
this out. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you they
don't care. They just don't like They like being called
(02:49):
an All Star. They like being part of that team,
but they don't have any interest in the actual product,
Like they're not there's no buy in there. They're already
making a ton of money. I mean, Ron James most
important face of your league by far since Michael Jordan
in terms of recognizability and what he's done and how
long he's been able to play and for the most
(03:09):
part stay healthy and all this. You know, he had
a twenty year run of playing any All Star games.
He was just nah, I'm just not gonna do it.
And he said it yesterday. He didn't set it like
a week in advance. He said it just a few
hours before the game. I'm just gonna, you know, I'm
gonna rest my ankle and all this other kind of stuff,
like there's no buy in. Nobody, nobody cares. It's not
that they're not gonna go out there and have a
little bit of fun. But there's no reason for me
(03:31):
to care if you don't care, Like I can't. I
wasn't gonna play in my schedule around the NBA All
Star Game, because the NBA players barely altered their schedule
in order to play in the NBA All Star Game.
Like it's getting to the point where if there's a
guy that I assume should be an All Star based
on his talent and he doesn't make the All Star Game,
(03:51):
I'm gonna start to think, Yeah, I think he's probably
just kind of loafing it until after the All Star break,
and then around April, you're gonna start seeing a lot
of takes like, man, he's playing at an All Star level.
Imagine if he had done this all season right, he
didn't want to be part of All Star weekends, so
he decided to turn it on in the back half
of the season because he didn't even want to have
to decline this or go out and do a fifty
(04:13):
or sixty percent effort. It's just they don't take it seriously.
It's and I don't necessarily blame them for it. But
at some point the fix is just stop doing the thing.
Yeah right, That's about the only thing left to do here.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah, And you wonder if it does get to a
point where that is the only thing that they decide
to do, where it's like, this thing sucks so bad.
We've tried all these goofy formats and it's still bad,
So the heck with it?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I do.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I wonder if they get to that point or not.
But at least for a year it was it was
at least like watchable effort. I'll put that, like it
was bearable yesterday with the format that they came up with.
And I don't know if you need musical acts when
it's like eleven to one and the game is just
started and they're like, yeah, let's pause for a little
(05:04):
bit and do this in the meantime. That was kind
of strange. So that's gonna take a lot of getting
used to. I don't know if we're ever gonna get
used to that. Let me throw something else your way,
because I know you love your college hoops. And there
was something that happened this weekend where Tom Izzo, Michigan
State head coach, he won another game Michigan State beat Illinois,
(05:25):
had a nice comeback. They outscored Illinois in the second
half forty two to twenty four, and that includes a
fifteen to oho run in about the final seven minutes.
So Sparty got the win. That was Izzo's three hundred
and fifty fourth win in the Big Ten. That passes
Bobby Knight for the most by a head coach. So
shout out to Izzo. And it just got me thinking,
(05:47):
I'm curious what you think about this, Jason. Where I
was thinking about Tom Izzo and John Caliperi and how
there are some similarities in terms of their resumes, their accomplishments,
and it's it stands out how they're viewed so much
differently between the two and there are some reasons why.
(06:08):
But I look at it like this one of them
if you look at just resume. So they each won
a title. You know, Izzo had eight final fours. Cal
has six. Cal obviously has had way more top end
talent than Izzo has had. It's you just look at
the NBA and how many dudes are from Kentucky that
(06:28):
played for Cal. It's ridiculous. So I get that you're
not gonna look at the accomplishments, you know, titles final
fours as the same because Cal has had more to
work with. And that's fair. But the other part of this, though, Jason,
is that if we just cut right down to it,
Iso is more likable than Cal is. You know, that's
(06:49):
a big part of this. I think that Izo has
looked at as like the underdog, the blue collar guy.
He's gritty, he's scrappy, he's clawing with his fingernails, like
al Pacino said in any Give and Sunday. You look
at Cal, I think he's widely looked at like he's
this pretty boy, trust fund kid who has all these
advantages and we just resent them for it. I think
(07:10):
that has a lot to do with it. Where Iso
it's just more likable. Nobody's gonna look at Izzo and
be like one championship with eight final fours? Are you
kidding me? Where are the rings? Don't look at Cal
like that all day? And I think it's not just
the talent disparity. I think the likability disparity is at
play here too. What do you think about this?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I mean, I think that's one hundred percent right, even
though I mean there are some things you could criticize
Iso for and there's some things that have been said
in recent years, but like the narrative about Izzo, a
lot of times going into the NCAA tournament was didn't
have all the talent, but somehow would win. And the
opposite was true for cal Perry because that point that
you made about all the talent that's in the NBA,
(07:52):
but how much of that talent actually won a championship
at Kentucky? And I think that's part of it. Also
being at Kentucky sure is part of huge coach cow
like that was already bristly, but he went to a
true blue blood. Whereas how much did you really know
about Michigan State basketball? I'm not I to understand. You
(08:13):
had Magic Johnson, you had Sean Rustby, you had a
couple of guys come through there through the years, But
like Michigan State basketball is Tom Izzo, Like, yeah, he
has become synonymous since you know the Mateen Cleaves Mo
Pete teams at the turn of the century. He's been there,
He's been a fixture there. It's not like some this
(08:33):
is not the Notre Dame of college basketball where they've
been like this incredible dynasty and kind of the face
of the sport for eighty or ninety years, Like that's Duke,
that's not Michigan State. That's Duke, or that's Kentucky, or
that's North Carolina or that's UCLA. That's one of those
kind of teams. And I think that's part of it.
Also is he's doing it where he kind of carved
(08:55):
his own niche. He's like, it's easier to argue that
tom Izzo is closer to like a Mark Few type
because Michigan State doesn't have the same name recognition as
some of those blue bloods do. Even like I think
that you kind of view him a little bit differently
even than you view Calhoun. And Calhoun had more success,
(09:15):
but Yukon was a little bit stronger of a brand.
Now he helped kind of bring them to the dance.
But that's I think that's part of it. But the
likability thing is one hundred percent true. Like cal Perry
bristles a lot of people. He says what's on his mind.
It's never bothered me. I kind of like that about
Coach Cow in terms of some of the things that
(09:36):
he says. And I think he's always been a pretty
good showman and good for college basketball. But Izzo has
always kind of felt like the blue collar guy compared
to the white collar guy, and that definitely plays into
the perception.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah yeah, you know, Cal is a little bit like
Dan Hurley, right Like you and I have talked about
Dan Hurley being as outspoken as he is, and we
like it. We think it's good for this sport. But
not everybody does. You know, sometimes you put a target
on your chest by speaking your mind like that. I
think the Kentucky fanaticism is a big deal here too,
(10:11):
because man, these these fans. Remember I was at the game.
Actually it was Kentucky against North Carolina. I'll never forget it.
And a lot of Kentucky fans thought the whistles didn't
go Kentucky's way. They like ruined one of those officials' lives.
They kept on calling, and they wrote a bunch of
(10:32):
bad reviews for his business that I don't know, his
business went under it Like there's this whole thing, you know,
I just look at it like this, Cal who's now
at Arkansas right now, he went back to Lexington. When
Arkansas beat Kentucky, he got booed. The fans are booing it.
Do you think Michigan State fans would boo Izzo if
(10:53):
he was coaching at another school and came back to
East Lansing. There's no way, no possible way. And some
of that is the likability, some of it is the
lack of fanaticism. Some of it is just like, what
was Michigan State before tom Izzo?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Right, Like that's right, that's my point.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, yet not as decorated as Kentucky was before Cal.
And so a lot of these Kentucky fans are like, yo,
where are the freaking rings? You've got to do better
than this. But I think they're closer than they appear
accomplishments wise, because we look at Cal losing to Saint
Peter's and we don't look at Izzo as a two
seed losing the Middle Tennessee at all. It's like it
(11:35):
never even happened.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It did.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
But I think the likability thing matters, and I think
the lack of just star star talent matters as well.
But their accomplishments are are very similar, and they're viewed
as like polar opposes. I just don't think it should
be viewed as extremely as it does.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Well. I also think there's I mean to the larger
Kentucky point versus Michigan State. I also think something has
changed now because and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't
think a lot of people were just rooting for Cal
to fail at Arkansas, Like I don't. Like you can
talk about the likability factor, and there may be some
of that in terms of there's still some people that
(12:15):
want to see him get his come up into whatever
like that, but like him not being at Kentucky now,
I think Kentucky still has the villain role, but I
don't know that Cal does. Like now it's just sor right, Listen,
you know Cal made a move. Now, the thing about
booing Cal, it's not like he left you in the
middle of the night, right and just disappeared, like it
(12:36):
just it ran its course. I do think that he
probably wanted to change the scenery because he was tired
of your stuff, your fanaticism and all that, and the team.
I think I think the school wanted to make a move.
But like, this wasn't some ugly, nasty breakup where he
said negative stuff about you or anything else like that,
So like, what are you booing him for? I mean,
he kept on recruiting at a high level, making you
(12:59):
national news year after year after year. Maybe he didn't
have the success that you wanted, but he also did
win a title yeah for you while he was there,
Like I think that's something Like I think the entitlement
of Kentucky fans and just Kentucky basketball in general has
led to this since, which is why, Like as soon
as he went to Arkansas, I was like, man, I
hope he wins. Like I'm not really I don't really
(13:22):
have some negative opinion where I want to see him disappear.
Like I think he just wanted to go coach basketball
and for the for a large part, just be left
alone and just be able to do that because I
think he loves the sport of basketball. I think he
loves coaching basketball to a fault, and he wasn't. You
couldn't just coach basketball at Kentucky because you were the
most powerful man in the state if you were the
(13:43):
coach of that team.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
You know, cal at Kentucky reminds me a little bit
of Ryan Day at Ohio State, right, Like, like Ryan
Day this past season lost of Michigan, lost of Michigan
numerous times, and he was on the hot seat man.
The seat was boiling hot, and then he ended up
winning a championship. In all is great, But I think
(14:08):
the Ohio State football fan base is similar to the
Kentucky basketball fan base. Yeah, where it's like, bro, if
you don't deliver, there is hell to pay. And I
think what's lost is how much winning is happening along
the way. Right. Granted, it wasn't as much success as
Kentucky fans wanted. It wasn't until Ohio State won a
(14:30):
championship as much success as Ohio State football fans wanted.
But I think you just gloss over all of the wins.
And I'm looking at Kentucky right now and Mark Pope.
He started off great, they were fourteen and three. They've
been three and five over their last eight games, and
they have some injury issues. But the point is, I
think it's easy to look at Cal and say, yeah,
(14:52):
losing to Saint Peters is never going to be permissible.
But there's a tendency to gloss over all of the
because there wasn't as much winning as you wanted. There
weren't as many titles as you wanted. Where the next
guy in if the winning goes downhill a little bit
like Alabama football, right like Saban delivered title after title
(15:14):
after title, but any years that didn't result in a title,
it's like, man, what are we doing over here? Now?
We had a new era with Kaylin de Boor, and
it's like they're not even in the playoff, you know.
So I think that you sometimes you get humbled a
little bit as a fan where it was like, man,
it was a lot better than I thought it was
at the time, And I'm wondering if that happens for
(15:37):
Kentucky fans, like it's happening with Alabama football fans right now,
and like it might happen with like it was happening
with Ohio State fans until until Ryan Day finally won
a title.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Oh yeah. I mean, like if they had lost that
game to Michigan and gone out and gotten beaten by Tennessee,
I don't know if he's still the coach.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I don't either. I think he gets run.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
But yeah, I agree with you, but that is a
scenario we're not going to have to live because of
what Ohio State did in the playoff. And I think
that I just think that more people want to see
Kentucky lose than cal at this point, I think that
I think that that brand is the one that feels
entitled much more so than the coach of that team.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, no, that's interesting right there. I like that. Take. Hey,
right after the show, our podcast will be going up.
If you missed anything on today's show, be sure to
check it out. Just search two Pros wherever you get
your podcasts. Be sure to also follow rate and review
it again. Just search two Pros wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll see this show posted right after we get
(16:41):
off the air. He's Jason Martin, I'm Brian Know. We're
in for Two Pros and a Cup of Joe here
coming up next. Oh my gosh, it's uh. It was
just a matter of time, and it looks like time
is going to be put into effect very shortly. Here
we'll have some details for you. We're in uh for
(17:02):
the crew here. It's Fox Sports Radio live from the
Tirack dot Com studios. We invite you to stick and
stay with us.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am. Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
He's Jason Martin. I'm Brian No. We're in for two
pros and a cup of Joe here on Fox Sports Radio.
We're live from the Tirack dot Com studios. I was
just telling Coop and Lorena off the air, Jason that
I saw one of my buddies yesterday. I'm at home.
Unfortunately one of my uncles passed away, So yeah, thank
(17:43):
you man, shout out to my uncle Jerry. The viewing
is today, the funeral is tomorrow, so it sucks. But
I'm at home and I saw one of my buddies
Jay last night, well a couple of nights ago. And
he goes, so we have this text thread going and
used to do like which band is better? Like two
good bands and you have to make your argument, and
(18:04):
he's like, you know it would be way funnier pick
like two horrible bands and you have to choose one.
You know, you have to choose, no matter. So it
just turns into oh no, man, Google dolls all day,
definitely overweight. Wait to say, wait wait wait wait wait
wait wait uh oh uh oh.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't know the goo Dolls are should be in
the all time bad band category.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Like see now you need to be on this text thread.
This is right up your alley.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Jamn, they have some day. I mean, the catalog is
deeper than you think, Like Iris, which is what we
just came back with. That's not their best, but like
Black Balloon and Broadway on that same record, I like,
long Way Down is still my favorite song that they
ever did. But I mean Name and Naked a Boy
Named Goo that album is actually pretty solid. They've been
around for a while. Like I don't think they're I
(18:52):
don't think when you were talking about bad bands, the
Goo Goo Dolls is gonna be mentioned like Nickelback some
of these other bands, like that's much more okay, Yeah,
I don't. I don't think Google do.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I think that is shade that is undeserved fair enough.
What's what's another band that you would say is like
nickelbackasque hmm, anything come to mind?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I gotta think about it now. I mean, there are
obviously bad bands, and there's like one hit wonder bands
and sure, oh yeah, and there's you know bands that
where just like they had a record, but then nothing
else they did after that point. Was good. What do
you have? Like? What what when you're talking about that,
like when you're doing this text thread? What else?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And I wish he had other.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Creed?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Okay, Coop has entered in the chat and throws Creed
out there. Okay, so break the tie. Who do you choose?
You go team nickelback Er, team Creed?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Oh, Creed for sure?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, what are the reasons why?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I mean, My Own Prison is a great song in
my opinion, I like that song quite a bit. Yeah,
I Sacrifice and a couple of the other tunes that
they've put out I like better. Nickelback's first album or whatever.
The Silver Side Up record had a few songs that
were catchy that I enjoyed, but nothing else that they
(20:13):
did after that point was at all relevant to me.
So I think Creed is I think Creed is the answer.
Now I'm trying to, like, now, some other names are
trying to pop into my head, yeah right now with
other bands like that, But I'm definitely gonna be team
Creed in the fight against against nickel Pikelback. Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I do like the exercise, though, I think we should
apply this to the sports world, you know, because it's
gotten just so negative, just so over the top negative
where it reminds me of my mom. Like when I
was a kid with my sister, My sister would sometimes
say something negative about herself and my mom would say,
if you keep that up, I'm gonna make you say
(20:52):
three nice things about yourself, and every now and then
she would have to do that. Right, my mom would
be like, you did it again, all right, three nine things,
and my sister Christy would have to be like, Okay,
I have nice hair.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know you have to say.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I think we should do that with certain sports subjects.
Is uh, you know, point out that good in some
stuff because it's gotten so like ridiculously negative. But maybe
you'll have to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Man, Team USA and Team Canada had three fights and
nine seconds in hockey.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
How crazy was that? That was wild?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Man?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
That was that was cool to see him.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I was actually like watching, you know, watching a little
bit that. I was like, Man, I really miss when
I cared about hockey and really enjoyed it. Im I'm
a Penguins fan. I have them my whole life will
always be. But like when I used to really pay
attention to that league and like the critic the critique
that we've had about the NBA, and it just it
comes across like they don't care. That's not the case
(21:51):
in hockey.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, oh, just go out and absolutely do their.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Thing and it doesn't matter. Like that's that to me
is a shame. I wish there was a fix for
that somehow. I would love to care about hockey the
way that I did fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I'm right there with you, man, and I don't even
understand myself. I don't know what happened to me. I
don't know why I haven't fallen for hockey. I should.
It's right up my alley right like, it's intense, it's
fast paced, there's hitting, there's intensity. They absolutely care. There
was a story like one of these hockey typical hockey stories.
(22:29):
It happened a week or two ago. It got a
bunch of teeth knocked out, like had all this dental
work done, or even worse than that, And still I
think it was actually worse. It wasn't a teeth injury.
It's something like lower body. And he still made it
like those guys give all effort and I'm just like, eh,
not really my thing. I remember watching years ago. It
was I think it was the Red Wings and the
(22:51):
Blues and they played this two or three overtime thriller
and there was a goal that somebody just ripped a
shot from the blue line. It might have been eiser Man.
I was all in just watching that beginning to end,
and it's like, I just don't care at all. I don't.
I can't even explain it. I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, and I understand that it's not as easy to
follow on TV because of the size of the puck
and you know, all of those things. But at the
same time, like hockey is still fun to watch. It's
very fun to watch in person, but it's still as
fun to watch on TV. Yet I never actually make
time for it.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I don't either.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It is it is. It is a lost and I
don't think it's coming back. Like I don't think that
that's gonna change. And every year I'm like, I'm gonna
start paying attention again, and then it doesn't happen. And
I'd follow the Penguins through the box score and I
know what you know, those guys are doing, but I'm
not watching any of those games. And I feel like
that's just kind of where a lot of us are.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I think a lot of it, Like you'd relate to this,
the gigs that we have. It's like you're gonna spend
a good amount of time following this stuff that people
care about. You know, I'd be following the NFL anyway,
I care about it that much. But the ratings off
the charts, you know, so we're all in with that,
and like you got a wife and kids, you know,
(24:05):
you got to divide up your time somehow. And it's like, okay,
if the ratings aren't even registering in hockey, am I
going out of my way to watch it when I'm
not going to talk about it, you know what I mean? Like,
so I think our gigs and just where the ratings
are have a lot to do with it. I think
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I mean, yes, I mean we know it's death to
go into hockey in any detail on the radio. It
just is. And I don't know that that was always
the case, but it's definitely the case now. Like regionally,
you can get away with it for a segment here
and there if you're in the right place, but nationally
it's death, Like you can't even do it, Like the
only topic you can do about hockey is the one
(24:45):
we just did. Can I know hockey?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah? Or like look at those fights man, No, yeah
do that. Let me throw some college football your way,
cause I know you love the sport. I need to.
College football playoff expansion is gaining moments, Jason. Here's the thing.
We've got the suits at the Big Ten in the SEC.
They're pushing for anywhere between fourteen to sixteen teams in
(25:10):
the expanded playoff format and wow, shockingly it's going to
benefit them. This is stunning to me. My jaw is
still just on the floor, you know where they're looking
at automatic qualifiers, maybe as many as four per conference
with the Big Ten and the SEC. Listen, they've got
the power. They wanted the majority of the money, they
(25:33):
wanted the full say, and so the other commissioners they're like, Okay,
I guess this is what we have to do, because
the Big ten and SEC threatened to be like, well,
screw it, we'll just do our own thing. Then we
don't have to play by your rules. And they're like, oh, okay,
we'll give you the majority of the money and to
say so. And so they're coming up with a potential
format that's going to greatly benefit them. I just hope
(25:56):
they don't ruin college football, Jason, I have no interest.
And as many as four automatic qualifiers per league, Now
you can argue, hey, most years it's not gonna matter.
Those teams would be deserving and would make it in
any way. And it's like, well, then why do we
have to have automatic qualifiers. It's just in case they don't,
in case they don't actually deserve it and earn their
(26:17):
way in. I hate the idea of any automatic qualifiers,
and as many as four per league. I am completely
out on that idea.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, Like, I'm fine expanding. As a matter of fact, I
think there probably should be a little more expansion. Then
they need to cut it off. But yeah, the autobids
in the way it's all set up, there's definitely some
tweaks to the system that need to be made. All told, though,
I still think where we're headed in terms of more
games with stakes is a positive as long as there's
(26:46):
a balance struck. I mean, we did get to a
place where the Michigan Ohio State game didn't end up
mattering at all, because Ohio State still ends up with
the national championship. If we were still in a four
team playoff wouldn't have had the opportunity in the first
place to have been there. But the AQ situation is
something that needs to be They need to be very
(27:08):
cautious with that. But I think that the bigger point
is the one you made about the SEC and a
Big Ten. They have all the power here. They at
this point are bigger than the sport, and so they'll
just go and form their own version of live golf, yeah,
if they have to, and it will be more important
than what else is happening. And that's the thing that
(27:30):
you have to protect against. You still have to make
it so that everybody has a reason to watch their team,
not just the bigger squads, even if that ends up
being what we see in the championship ultimately, So if
they want to add a few more teams, I'm cool
with that as long as we don't get too much
past two or four more. But we all know that
(27:51):
this is just about creating more money for the SEC
and a Big Ten.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, that's all it is. And I just look, man,
I thought that past season it was successful. I thought
it was I thought the regular season wasn't just like
greatly watered down and there are all these games where
you just shrug your shoulders and say, ah, who cares, well,
just you know, we'll rest our starters and just get
ready for the playoff. It didn't turn into that at all,
(28:17):
so I thought it was very successful. And I just
hope they don't add too much where it waters down
too much of the postseason where it waters down the
regular season, and I thought they had a great mix
this past season. I would love in a perfect world,
(28:37):
I would love to see every playoff game be a
home game except the championship game. I would love to
see college do exactly what the NFL does, because that
incentivizes your regular season games. You know, if you're a
one or a two seed, and all of a sudden,
your regular season games matter throughout the entire season, right
(29:01):
if you've got home games potentially in the playoffs tied
to it. So I love what they did with the
first round. I don't know why they would just limit
it to the first round where it's like, wow, we
have these old ties to the Fiesta Bowl. Who the
hell cares get rid of them. It's better to have
home playoff atmospheres. It's way better than a neutral site game.
So I would do it all throughout and that would
(29:21):
absolutely spruce up the regular season. And if you're expanding
it to or four more teams, if you had home
games throughout, man, that is a great way to maintain
the importance of the regular season. I would love to
see them make that changed.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I mean, the atmosphere is better. My only problem is
we understand how hard it is to win on the
road in college football, and the neutral site at least, well,
it does feel bigger. The atmosphere is different, but it
feels bigger because it feels more national in terms of
(29:57):
just how it looks from the outside. But I don't
know if you want to make it harder for the
road team to win, You're right, it creates an incentive,
a big incentive because field in college football is just massive.
But I don't know that I want that environment to
make it that hard to potentially see the underdog win
(30:20):
because it's not like in March Madness, where it can
It can happen a lot easier in football because of
the size of the rosters, the depth involved in things
of that nature, especially in the transfer portal of the
Nile era and everything else. Stuff has changed so rapidly that.
I still kind of like the neutral site feel after
a point, because I feel like the scales are so
(30:42):
out of balance because of the home advantage in college football.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
It's interesting, right, Like I think the first round this
year it was a boat race city all four games. Yes,
you know, well Texas Clemson was edit. Yeah, yeah, so what.
I wouldn't say all of them, but I think a
couple of them. It was just the teams themselves. Instead
of being on the road like you, I, you had
(31:07):
such a favorable path. They were not like this upper
echelon playoff team. Same with SMU, you know. And so
if you put I you against Notre Dame on a
neutral field, I you still probably gonna get smacked. If
you played SMU on a neutral field against Penn State,
They're probably still gonna get smacked, you know. So I
don't know that it was just the road atmospheres why
(31:30):
that that had a huge part with most of the
games being blowouts. I think it was the quality of
the teams that a lot to do with it. I'd
be fully for it. I completely get your point, and
it's a good one, but I would before all home
playoff games except the title game, you you going to
play that at a neutral site, that's fine, just like
the super Bowl. But I would incentivize the regular season,
(31:54):
and yeah, we might have more potential for blowouts, but
that's like, hey, man, Hender, your business in the regular
season if you don't want to play on the road,
and these upper echelon teams, they're more than capable of
winning on the road. You know, I would love to
see that, but you would vote no. You would keep
it like the postseason, just first round home playoff and
(32:16):
then everything else neutral site.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
You would like that, Yeah, I mean the main mainly,
just like all of what you're saying, I understand, and
I just I disagree with the notion that I think
it makes it worse. I think it makes it much
more likely you're going to have worse games. And I
don't know that we need that in a sport where
it's already a pretty high percentage that you're going to
(32:38):
get bad games, because the difference between the teams that
are really good and the teams that are merely good
is obvious, and it's obvious pretty quickly if you put
them on a neutral site, then you know, remember all
NCAA two thousand and five on a PS two, like
they had the home advantage thing and it would shake,
and so you would go play Like I would take
(32:58):
a small school like Iyoming or something, and I would
go to Ohio State and literally the screen would be
shaking so much. I couldn't even see my receivers. It's
like I would Yeah, there's all like I don't want.
I don't want a team that is potentially going to
get blown out to then go in there and be
so overwhelmed by the atmosphere that it was over before
it ever even started. Like I would just like it
(33:20):
to feel like there's a little bit more of a
chance the crowd need to end up turning on the
team or whatever. But I think that that just adds
so much nervousness and anxiety to young men in that
situation that I just think that that probably makes for
a lot more blowouts that are unwatchable.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Faster how about this too, Because I'm just looking at
the neutral site playoff games this past season, and listen,
it's neutral site game. Penn State worked Boise State and
in the Rose Bowl, right, I still Oregon getting just
yeah dusted the way they did against Ohio State. Those
(34:00):
are neutral site games.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Too.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
So listen, I understand there's they're probably a greater chance
if it's at a home stadium, greater chance for a blowout.
But there's still a really good change for blowouts and
neutral site stadiums too. So it's like, I'd rather have
the atmosphere. We're gonna get a blowout one way or
the other. I'd rather have the home atmosphere. I'd rather
How great would it be if Ohio State went to
(34:23):
Autsen and put it on Oregon the same way they
did at the Rose Bowl, Like, it's even better that
way if they go into enemy territory and do that.
So I yeah, give me the home atmospheres and we're
gonna get blowouts either way, whether it's a home stadium
or a neutral Sece.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
You're selling me. You're selling me on it more than
I thought you were going to. You've made a better
argument here. I might. I might be ten percent more
in your direction than I was when this started.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So there we go, baby, all right, nice, I'm like
an agent taking a ten percent commission, you know what
I mean, change your opinion ten percent. That's what I'm
trying to do over here. All right, We've got Jason Martin.
I'm Brian No. We're in for two Pros and a
Cup of Joe coming up next, jmart this was easily
(35:09):
my favorite part of the entire sports weekend. And you're
gonna think I'm a lunatic for saying this, but I'm
telling you I absolutely love this. We'll get to that
coming up next. Keep it locked right here. We're live
from the tire rack dot Com studios on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
He's Jason Martin. I'm Brian No. We're in for two
Pros and a Cup of Joe here on Fox Sports Radio.
We're live from the tire rack dot Com studios. You
know you're gonna think I'm a lunatic for this, Jason.
My favorite part of the sports weekend. I did love
the hockey fights US against Canada. Was that What night
(35:59):
was that was that Thursday? Yeah, so technically not part
of the weekend, but still it was. It was a
great moment. Three fights within the first nine seconds. That's fantastic.
But we've seen hockey fights before, right, you know seen
that many times. What we haven't seen before is during
the NBA Skills competition, a team deliberately manipulating the rules
(36:25):
and then getting disqualified for it.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I love this story, Jason. You're gonna think I'm out
of my mind.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I honestly do.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yes, Team Spurs disqualified for manipulating the rules. I'll do
my best to explain this. You know, the skills competition
where for the people listening, like, you throw the ball
through a little opening and you're supposed to take a
couple of jump shots, you dribble around. It's you're right,
the skills competition. And so Team Spurs with Chris Paul
(36:54):
and Victor wembin Yama, they they're supposed to take nine
shots a piece, right, You're supposed to take like six
three pointers, like three free throw like elbow jumpers. And
what they did they didn't take legitimate jump shots. They
(37:14):
just threw the ball in the direction of the hoop
as fast as possible to save time. And they thought
they saved time. The whole arena's booing them, Donovan Mitchell.
NBA players are giving them the thumbs down. Like what
and then the rules people come over and they're like,
you're disqualified. You either have to make one shot or
(37:36):
take three valid shots to advance. They got disqualified. I
just love that Chris Paul tried to find a loophole
and was like, hey man, it doesn't matter if we
make these shots or not, so let's just chuck the
ball as quickly as possible save time. Boom we win.
I love that he's that competitive where he's looking for
(37:57):
a skills competition loophole. I say salute to Chris Paul
on this one. That's my takeaway. I know I'm in
the minority on this one, but I honestly feel that way.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Well, I mean that's uh, that's certainly a take I
think that's that's more interesting than anything that happened yesterday.
It is like that, that's actually there's more fight shown
in that. Yeah, more more competitive spirit shown in that
than anything it took place in the All Star Game. Like,
imagine being so competitive and look, Chris Paul has says
(38:32):
he's been known for different things in his career. A
lot of really good ones are gonna put him in
the Hall of Fame. Also some that are a little
below the belt literally, right, yeah, as well as figuratively,
so like if you were going to put together a
list of guys that might try to pull something like this,
absolutely feel like Chris Paul would be near the top.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Of that list. Who else would be on that list?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Off the top of That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
I mean Draymond and he was in the skills competition,
you know, and he didn't do it this, he would
have to be like him, like, uh, Dylan Borok, Dylan Dilibery,
That's the name I was trying to get. I was like,
who's the former Grizzly? That's just yeah, yeah, I could
see him doing something like that maybe.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah. So I mean I think that like Chris Paul,
Like if you were telling me somebody did this and
it was a guard that's going into the Hall of Fame,
oh Chris Paul, Like if the first thing would have
come out, Like I said, he's Hall of Fame level talent.
I've enjoyed watching his whole career and he definitely is
somebody that would try to get a leg up in
(39:34):
a meaningless skills challenge on All Star Saturday Night.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Absolutely, and that's exactly what he did. I love that
story so much. It's so good. Okay, before we get
out of here, j Mart and not are my friend Jay?
Here in South Bend, Indiana where they have a text thread,
they put two bad bands on it and you have
to make an argument for one of them being better
than the other. To close the show, Baha men? Or
(40:01):
Blind Melon? Who do you go?
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Blind Melon by Far? I like Blind Melon.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
By far By far it gets who let the dogs out? No?
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I hate and I'm saying of the two, Blind Melon,
like bah Man, can go off somewhere never to be
heard from again. Blind Melon, I actually have some.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Love for really you do. Okay, go listen to Tones of
Home after the show. No rain smash it. By the way,
Baha men, they did win a Grammy for Best Dance Recording.
That's something Blind Melon never did you know? Advantage Baha
men is what I say. Everybody, have a good day.
We'll see you soon.
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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