The Best of Covino & Rich

Dan Beyer and Aaron Torres, in for Covino and Rich, react to the latest in NFL free agency and explain why the writing is on the wall for Russell Wilson. The guys give a thumbs up to the NBA and Tyrese Halliburton, but a big thumbs down to Shaq after last night! The guys debate if the NCAA should change their process for auto-bids for the Tournament. Plus, what is the best day of the sports calendar?!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, thanks for listening to the best of Kabino n
Rich podcast. Be sure to catch us live every day
from five to seven pm Eastern two to four pacifics
on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Find your local station for Confino and Rich at Fox
Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
On the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
We could be on the verge of the greatest day
of the sports calendar. And don't believe everything that you
hear when it comes to NFL Free agency. What's happening
Aeron Tores.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Dan Byer, I'm doing well? How are you?

Speaker 4 (00:34):
I am great? It is a Wednesday. We've got college
basketball action going on right now, conference tournaments here, there
and everywhere, and even more to come later on in
the week. It's the new league year of the NFL.
Happy New Year, Happy new NFL, New Year to you,
Happy New Year to Iowa Sam. Who is with us today,
Hello Iowa Sam.

Speaker 5 (00:53):
Hello.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Ryan Berschinger is our executive producer. What's going on? Birsch?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Happy new Year?

Speaker 4 (00:58):
And Isaac Lowincrown's at the new.

Speaker 6 (01:01):
There more than just a pretty face.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
We are broadcasting live for the tierrack dot com studios.
Tierrec dot Com will help you get there at unmatched selection,
fast free shipping, free road has a protection. You know,
we're ten thousand recommended installers tirec dot com the way
tire buying should be. We're gonna talk some college hoops
today throughout the show at various times. North Carolina getting
a win there on the bubble. Not that a win

(01:23):
against Notre Dame helps your cause, but if you don't
win that game, any hope of getting to the NCAA
tournament would be lost.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
That is very accurate. Busy day.

Speaker 7 (01:33):
North Carolina's probably the headliner, but you know, we're watching
a Texas Vandy game. Texas has to win some games
at the SEC tournament. Vandy felt like they were in.
We don't need to nerd out on bracketology at this
exact moment, but this would be a third straight loss,
which would make things interesting. So fun time a year
for college hoops and fun time a year to your point,
really across sportsmanu factor in the NFL news, Bursch was

(01:54):
just at some spring training stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's a really fun time year.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
The greatest sports day on the calendar of all three
sixty five will be determined coming up in an hour
from now, so in sixty minutes, we're going to want
to hear from you. There's three hundred and sixty five days,
sometimes three hundred and sixty six to choose from, but
only one can be the absolute best sports day. Aaron
Torres has one in mind. We're going to find out

(02:19):
what that is in an hour. But you heard Isaac
lowin Kron at the news desk, who at the bottom
of the hour will let us know what's happening in
some of these conference tournament games, give us the headlines
of the day, and there are a lot of headlines
in the National Football League, and the headline right now
is Russell Wilson is going to meet with the Cleveland
Browns and the New York Giants. And I think on

(02:39):
the surface that sounds like it's great news for Russell Wilson.
Erin Torres that two teams are interested in Russell Wilson's services,
But when you look at the list of free agents
in the NFL and you look at those that have
signed in those that haven't, there are far more players
that have signed and found teams than haven't. We're actually

(02:59):
in the new league year, so that two day window
where you can sign where it's legal, but it's not
really official yet. That's over. Everything is now fair game,
it's good to go, and Russell Wilson still hasn't found
a home. And to me, that is not a good
sign for Russell Wilson. And when you also see that
Aaron Rodgers' name is out there at this point, I

(03:19):
think it's an even worse sign for Russell Wilson. I
know that Russell Wilson's gonna have meetings later this week
with Cleveland and the New York Giants, but in my
heart of hearts, I think it's over for Russell Wilson.
I think it is done for Russell Wilson as a
starting quarterback in the National Football League. And I'm not
even sure of his value as a backup considering some

(03:41):
of the other circumstances we see in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (03:43):
Yeah, and I know this is a little bit off
topic to start, but you covered his career for so
long as a Seahawks fan, you probably paid closer attention
than most. I was gonna ask you, like, like, if
there is no starting spot or if this is the
last year where he even has an opportunity to earn
a starting spot, is this just a guy that I meets,
transfers or translates into TV or to the private business world.

(04:05):
Because to your point, yes, maybe he will get one
more shot this year, because there's way more teams than
quarterbacks that are good enough to be starting in this league.
But I don't see, you know, he certainly isn't like
a Chase Daniel type that's gonna stay till whatever mentor
younger guys and stuff.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I was just curious.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
I mean, I don't think he's gonna be with an
internet startup or a new web based hot Twitter handle
that breaks down film. I don't think it's gonna be.
I don't think Aaron Torres, you're gonna expand and bring
Russell Wilson in for newfound NFL coverage. I don't think
that's going to happen at all.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Not filling in on the weekends on Fox Sports.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
Not filling in on the weekends. And you want to
know why, you want to know why he's not gonna
be on CBS and he's not gonna be on on
Fox or shouldn't be because he can't criticize anyone, interesting
criticize any anything, and say that like the everything that
we hear out of Russell Wilson's mouth, I don't know
if we really believe. So if you put him on
a TV set at some point in his career, I'm

(05:05):
not sure if that's even gonna work for him because
I don't know if he can be even critical, and
if he was, if you'd actually believe what he was saying,
because he seems to be so positive and seems to
put on this front when speaking to anybody.

Speaker 7 (05:20):
So when James Brown throws the highlight to him and
the Jags are down forty one to ten, JAG's country,
Let's ride.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
That's that's kind of him.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
No, it's gonna be if there's a pick six, you'd
be like a tough, tough job for Trevor Lawrence there,
you know, thought he had the guy, but sometimes the
DV just makes a better play. There's nothing you can
do about it. Like that's what that's what you would get.
That would be like a big shout out to Trevor Lawrence.
I love the guy. That's what the analyst, the analysis
would be. If Russell Wilson you wanted to be in TV.

Speaker 7 (05:49):
You're a Seahawks fan who's watched way too many Russell
Wilson press conferences in your life, Oh, over.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
And over and over. But the whole free agency process
and what has gone on over the last couple of
years is the writing that's on the wall for Russell Wilson.
When you look at free agency right now and we
see the spots that have been filled, We're going to
just start with his most recent spot. This is why
Russell Wilson's career is likely over. The narrative out of

(06:18):
Pittsburgh throughout this offseason has been, we're not going to
bring it back both quarterbacks. We're going to bring back one,
or we could bring back one, we could bring back none.
But well, I'll tell you one thing we're not going
to do. We're not going to bring back two. They
were not going to bring back both Justin Fields and
Russell Wilson. Well, Justin Fields is no longer available. He

(06:41):
is not able to go back to the Pittsburgh Steelers
because he signed a twenty million dollars a year contract
with the New York Jets. So the narrative out of
Pittsburgh is we're not going to bring both back, but
we may bring one back. We've been in communication with
Justin Field's people. We've been in communication with Russell Wilson's people.
Justin Field is not out of the equation. Guess what,

(07:02):
Russell Wilson is still there. You just trade it for
DK Metcalf who is familiar with Russell Wilson totally. So
why isn't a deal done yet? Well, they would rather
speak to Aaron Rodgers, who's forty one again, still trying
to come back from an achilles injury, in a place
where you have no idea if he'd even work in
the locker room and how much gas he actually has

(07:24):
left in the tank. Russell Wilson's, you know, five years
younger than Aaron Rodgers. You would think that would be
in his wheelhouse, but it's not. And you want to
talk about locker room. I think there's just as much
risk of putting Aaron Rodgers in a locker room than
there is with Russell Wilson. I'm not sure on how
much Russell Wilson fits in a locker room, especially now
being in his mid thirties. It's one thing when you're

(07:45):
a young guy and still trying to do your thing.
Everybody else is your peers, but there's not a lot
of thirty something's in that locker room as well. But yeah,
the Pittsburgh Steelers may feel it be more valuable to
have Aaron Rodgers who plays better right now than Russell
Wilson actually plays. That tells you some. And the Steelers
had a full look for an entire year at Russell
Wilson and not bringing him back. That's just one of

(08:06):
the reasons why I think it's done for Russell Wilson.

Speaker 7 (08:08):
Well, that last part to me is the most important,
right because you know, first of all, the on the
field when lost records speaks for herself, starts four to zero,
loses six of his final eight what is it five
in a row to end the regular season? But what
was the narrative when things were actually going good for
Russell Wilson, Oh, this is Mike Tomlin's hand pick Successor
what did Mike Tomlin say when Russell Wilson started out hot?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
This is why they pay me the big bucks, you know.

Speaker 7 (08:31):
And the one thing that was kind of hammered home
again and again and again and again during last season,
through the ups and of course the eventual downs, was
that the two of them, Mike Tomlin and Russell Wilson
had a great working relationship. And so to me, that
speaks to if the one guy in the league that
you seemingly had the trust of, because we know Sean

(08:54):
Payton didn't trust him. We know that Pete Carroll and
trust him. If now Mike Tomlin is saying, either I've
seen enough on film where you're not the guy, or
I've lost trust in you as a dude. When I
was putting it out there for two straight months, how
much I liked it, how much we got along, we
met privately, That's the part that would concern me, because
Mike Tomlin very publicly appeared to be in his corner

(09:15):
when things were going well for Russell will And think
of the caliber of names that you just mentioned.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
Not only did Pete Carroll pass on Russell Wilson, He's
actually passed on him twice. The first time they allowed
him to leave Seattle to get that deal with the
Denver Broncos and they turned it over to Gino Smith.
Pete Carroll now is another decision with the Raiders. Do
I sign Russell Wilson or do I trade for Gino
Smith and pay him more than I would pay Russell Wilson.
Guess what I'm going to go with Gino Smith on

(09:42):
this one. I'm not going to go on Russell Wilson.
So that's twice Pete Carroll has turned away from Russell
Wilson and Sean Payton. We know how that went, and
like him or not, Sean Payton showed his worth with
the Denver Broncos this past season with the growth of
Bonnicks the staff that he puts together and makes it
one of the better defenses in the National Football League.
The writing is on the wall. I would even say

(10:05):
Aaron in his meeting with the Cleveland Browns, I don't
know if it's a courtesy meeting, but this team just
traded for Kenny Pickett and sits there at number two,
where we think they have a really decent shot at
drafting cam Ward as their starting quarterback. If he doesn't
go number one to Tennessee, it could be an option there.

(10:27):
So what's the point of even meeting with Russell Wilson.
If you've brought in Kenny Pickett, you're likely to take
a quarterback. Not convinced, but that could be a possible ability.
And you still have Deshaun Watson sitting there in that
locker like this is there doesn't seem to make any
sense or any room for him to even go to Cleveland.

(10:48):
I don't know if he's just getting a courtesy interview,
but there doesn't even seem to be a possible fit
for him to go to Cleveland. And if it's between
Kenny Pickett, let's say Deshaun Watson is not going to
come back and twenty five at all, and they can
wash their hands and do whatever with Deshaun Watson. And
you don't take cam Ward second overall, you take Travis
Hunter or someone else. You're gonna have a battle between

(11:11):
Kenny Pickett and Russell Wilson. Who do you really want
to win that quarterback battle? You'd probably want Kenny Pickett,
the younger quarterback, the one who's maybe getting a second chance,
not the guy that's been around the league. And toss
now between super Bowl winning at coaches for the past
five seasons.

Speaker 7 (11:26):
Well, I'll say this, you know one, I would never
push our audience to one of our competitors. But we
have four screens on in studio right now, and one
of them has a topic bar that says are the
Browns done adding quarterbacks this offseason? So we're not the
only ones that don't really know what this meeting is about.
Right now, I think everybody that cares about football, cares
about the NFL is asking the same question. And I

(11:47):
think the other thing too, Dan, is you know you
asked in theory who you would want to win a
Kenny Pickett versus a Russell Wilson quarterback derby.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
If you will. I mean, here's the problem.

Speaker 7 (11:59):
If you're the brown and assuming it's not just a
throwaway season, is the issue becomes. You know, Kenny Pickett,
I know, was in the division left and was at
least with Philly, you know, kind of in that winning culture.
Russell Wilson was just in this division. We just saw
it after a couple games when people figured things out.
He was not very good, had no answers for Baltimore,

(12:19):
struggled late, struggled against the best, you know, in the
biggest games of his season. So now you're going to
in theory, if you were the Browns, bring him in
and to your point, the best case scenario, I guess
would be that he wins the starting quarterback job.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
And we kind of saw what.

Speaker 7 (12:33):
He looked like in meaningful late December early January AFC
North Games.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
The Indianapolis Colts would rather pay Daniel Jones fourteen million
dollars to compete with Anthony Richardson. Russell Wilson was viewed
by the Indianapolis Colts. This is what this is what
they're telling you. They viewed him like they viewed Gardner
Minshew and Joe Flacco, not as a yes, as a
backup quarterback in Kate something went wrong, because that was

(13:02):
the plan with Anthony richards in these last two years.
Let's bring in a veteran to back them up and
if something goes wrong, the veteran could come in or
if Richardson gets hurt. I never understood the Flacco or
Gardner Minshew scenarios with the Colts because they were just
completely different than who Anthony Richardson was. But now the
Colts say we want competition. They would rather pay Daniel

(13:24):
Jones fourteen million dollars a year to see if he
can push Anthony richards in. Russell Wilson is not getting
fourteen million dollars a year and it is not happening.
And the Indianapolis Colts went away from their veteran ways
over the last two years. Otherwise, once you bring in
Russell Wilson to try to compete for that spot in

(13:45):
a lesser spot, or at least be in consideration. He wasn't,
never was, never was thought to be. And maybe the
Colts are looking for big picture and a longer run
if Daniel Jones works out under Shane Steichen. But that
still goes back to the point is they didn't look
at Russell Wilson as legit competition for Anthony Richardson in

(14:05):
the starting quarterback gig. It's all of these decisions that
other teams have made that didn't include Russell Wilson that
tell us what Russell Wilson's future is. And aside from
the fact Aaron Rodgers is still out there for all
of these quarterback needing teams to be able to or
quarterback need needing teams to grab Steelers, Giants, Browns, Aaron

(14:25):
Rodgers is ahead of Russell Wilson in all of those
spots if he wanted to be. And that's where I
think Russell Wilson has to look at it and say,
all right, what's my career? Am I really even good
enough to be the backup sort of guy? Is that
in my DNA to support a young quarterback if I'm
going to be the number two, Well.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
How about this.

Speaker 7 (14:44):
The one team you didn't mention that added a quarterback
this week was the team that added the guy who
backed Russell Wilson up this year. And so the Jets now, Listen,
the Jets don't have a lot of good options with
where they're drafting, they're not going to be in a
position to take a quarterback. But they just said we'd
rather take the guy that was benched for Russell Wilson.
And I know, Justin Fields is younger, and he's certainly

(15:05):
more athletic, and he can do some things that Russell
Wilson can't. But again, if the Jets were just looking
for you know, the Jets clearly were limited in their
options and took the guy that Russell Wilson beat out
for a job last year.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Probably not a great sign either.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
The funny thing is as well, with Justin Fields again
gets twenty million dollars. Twenty million dollars a season for
the New York Jets two years, forty million was the contract.
I don't think Russell Wilson's going to get close to
any of that by no means. And that's that's where
you see it. I didn't think Aaron Rodgers was going

(15:40):
to play in twenty twenty five. I think that the
information now that we've seen through free agency and what
he's doing, I think that that I think my assessment
is probably wrong. I think we're going to see him
on the field and see him either in one of
the three spots that we told us Pittsburgh and with
the Giant seemingly like the you know, the most recent ones.

(16:03):
But if Pittsburgh really wanted to bring him back a Ken,
they had a full season with him, I know, and
they would rather roll the dice on what forty one
year old Aaron Rodgers wishy washy Aaron Rodgers in terms
of what is going to happen, not necessarily knowing where
his mind is. They would rather roll the dice on
that than to bring the guy that they had in

(16:25):
their locker room for a year. That tells you all
you need to know about Russell Wilson.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
So one calendar year from now, Russell Wilson's completely out
of the public eye.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
In your opinion, I don't. I don't see how he
can be a backup.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
I agree, you know, I was thinking about this really
quick to lead a shot. I mean to cut you off.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
That's all right?

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Remember was it?

Speaker 7 (16:47):
I forget when, but it must have been after this
season with the New England Patriots. But it was like
a big sports radio topic of like Cam Newton can't
be a backup because he's too famous to be a backup.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
And of course it became a oh what is that
supposed to me? No, what's the.

Speaker 7 (17:01):
Hidden coded length? It's like, no, you can't have Cam
Newton as your backup. In Cam Newton's case, it's because
if things go haywire with the starter, people are gonna
demand for the back. But there's just something about having
like a super famous dude that really can't do the
job as your backup. We say the same thing about
Tim Tebow, like having him as a backup, And I

(17:21):
would put Russell Wilson in that same category if you
just you can't have him in the building because you know,
if you're just let's just you know whatever, say say
the Giants are bad, they draft a quarterback next year. Well,
every time there's an open locker room after a game,
people are gonna go to Russell Wilson. So I'm I know,
I cut you off before you could even answer. But
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
I don't think he can be back.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
Remember when Carmela and Anthony laughed about coming off the
bench when he was in Oklahoma case, you know, like yeah,
like he's like, they want me to call off the bench,
Like that's that's it's the same thing. I actually thought
that Russell Wilson needed the opportunity to be the guy
to come to the rescue, and I thought that opportunity
presented itself in Pittsburgh this past season. The problem was,

(18:05):
is the Steelers fared pretty well with Justin Fields early.
Then to your point about the comment that Tomlin made
when Russell Wilson did take over and made plays mid season,
it looked, oh, there it is. That was here's Russell
Wilson to the rescue, adding a dynamic. But that bloom
is now off that flower. Considering how the end of
the season transpired, and so even to go into that

(18:29):
spot Aaron of the role of saving the day, He's
already tried it in Pittsburgh's and it didn't work as
well as they would have hoped. So all of this
stuff that we hear of the Giants and the Browns,
he's planned B for all of them. The Browns just
really doesn't make sense, especially after the Kenny Pickett deal,
where they're drafting what they're looking at. I don't understand it,

(18:50):
but I just think that the writing is on the
wall for everything that's happened so far in free agency
and what could be happening with Aaron Rodgers should tell
Russell Wilson everything that he needs to know.

Speaker 7 (19:00):
Last, last, last point for me is it wasn't a
perfect situation in Pittsburgh because Tomlin's a defensive coach. They've
never been super dynamic offensively, they've gone through ocs, but
veteran head coach has your back really good defense. There
were a lot of things working in Russell Wilson's favor

(19:21):
in Pittsburgh that won't be working in his favor in
New York, that won't be working in his favor anywhere
that in theory, he could still go. So under the
assumption there's even a landing spot for him, I don't
think the situation that he's going to fall to is
going to be better than what he just had n't pitched,
then just drafted.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
And just traded for a wide receiver who had his
best career year with Russell Wilson and he's not coming back.
I think that tells you all you need to know.
He's erin Torres. I'm Dan Byer, sitting in for Caveno
and Rich on a Wednesday of Conference championship week in
college hoops. Right after the show, our podcast will be
going up. If you missed any of today's show, be
sure to listen to the podcast. Just search Caveno and
Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and be sure to

(19:59):
follow and review the podcast and rate it five stars. Again.
Just search comno on a Rich wherever you get your podcast.
You'll find today's show and a best of version posted
right after we get off the air. It was a
crazy night last night in the NBA. Thumbs up to
Tyres Halliburton and thumbs down to a friend of the show,
Quille O'Neil. We'll talk about it next year on Fox

(20:20):
Sports Radio.

Speaker 8 (20:23):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Hey, We're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern, but here's the thing. We
never have enough time to get to everything we want
to get.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
To, and that's why we have a brand new podcast
called over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun
in our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy is over promising things we never have
time for. Yeah, you blubber list Jam and me.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well you know what it's called over promise. You should
be good at it because you've been over promising women
for years.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also gonna talk
life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing
about something or we didn't have enough time, it will
continue on our after show called over Promised.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Well, if you don't get enough Covino and Rich, make
sure you check out over Promise and also Uncensored by
the way, so maybe we'll go at it even a
little harder. It's gonna be the best after show podcast
of all time.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
There you go, over Promising. Remember you could see on YouTube,
but definitely join us. Listen Over Promised with Cavino and
Rich on the iHeartRadio, app Apple podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
It is Cavino and Rich here on Fox Sports Radio
keeping our tabs on college shoops and whatnot. But the
NBA last night put on quite a show, at least
in one NBA market. I'm sitting back Aaron watching the
Bucks gonna lock up a huge win on the road
in Indianapolis against the Pacers. Pacers unable to tie the

(22:02):
game on free throws. Bucks have a one point lead.
Bucks are gonna shoot their own free throws extend at
the three. You're gonna leave Indianapolis with a victory. And
then this happened.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Pair comes a three.

Speaker 5 (22:18):
And a foul a foul, a foul as Halliburton, floating
at a bounds in front of the Milwaukee fence, hits
a three and draws a foul.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
A four point play dooms the Bucks in a one
fifteen to one to fourteen win over the Indiana Pacers.
In this run of good will coming from the NBA
ever since Nico Harrison traded Luka Dancic to the Lakers,
I think has continued. We'd seen some great games from
Nikola Jokic. Halliburton shot last night this is this is

(22:52):
how I rate it. Adam Schefter actually tweeted the highlight
of the Halliburton four point play, and the game was
not on ESPN. It was a TNT game, so it
was enough for Adam Schefter, the ESPN employee. Usually if
it's an ESPN game, you're like, okay, that's an in
house deal. This was not an awful late game situation

(23:15):
with the Bucks. Janis with the foul on Tyre's Halliburton.
Doc Rivers then challenges the play to see if Halliburton's
foot was out of bounds or if Jannis didn't foul them.
Challenge failed, so the Bucks lost their time out and
couldn't advance the ball after Halliburton completed the four point play,
and then Jannis missed a twenty foot runner with no

(23:38):
time left and game was over. And it's just a
spread of goodwill through the NBA last night continuing as now,
we took three months of the season and we rained
on the product. But even Tyree's Halliburton's play last night
had people talking outside of the NBA.

Speaker 7 (23:57):
I'll say this is that, you know, obviously, look, I
like a lot of people have been critical of the
NBA through you know, the previous couple of years. But
one I do think the Luca trade pumps some juice
into the league, and obviously Jimmy Butler as well. And
I'll say this too is sometimes you catch some bad sometimes.
Like for as much as we want to criticize the NBA,
like they've gotten some bad breaks right, jaws off the

(24:20):
court situation, Ben Simmons' mental health, whatever you want to
call it, NB can't stay healthy, whatever, but sometimes you
need some breaks along the way. And I think that
not only has have there been interesting storylines, but they've
caught some breaks, right. So the Lakers that I know,
Lebron's out, but the Lakers not only get hot, they
happen to play the Knicks and the Celtics and you

(24:41):
know Zion when Zion's playing. So I just bring it
up because it feels like, you know, it just feels
like things are finally starting to break their way. Not
only is their marquee trades to marquee teams that seem
to have rejuvenated both the Warriors and the Lakers. I
know the Lakers are without Lebron for the time being,
but then you happen to get them in signature games,
signature moments. We all kind of were paying attention to

(25:03):
that Lakers Knicks game. We're all paying attention to Celtics
Lakers on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
So I think.

Speaker 7 (25:08):
Overall, again with the third caveat that Lebron is a
little bit banged up. I think they've gotten some good
luck along with some with everything that's happening.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
And I think, you know, Jimmy Butler's success with Golden State,
as you perk up your ears a little bit, I
think that has not been a huge thing, but it's
made it a more positive conversation. And one of the
conversations that you have is about the positive or negative
coverage of the NBA that you have through its principal partners,
and it's something that the players have complained about. We've

(25:38):
heard this the top players complaining about what I felt
was inside the NBA. You've pointed out stephen A Smith
being critical. These players of the NBA have said, well,
we're getting negativity from all of these points about our game.
How is that going to help our game? Well, last
night was a great moment, and it wasn't a great
moment because the Bucks lost and the Pacers, and it

(26:00):
made a log jam for the four, five and six
spot on the East. None of that mattered. It was
a four point play that was a crazy shot by
Tyrese Halliburton that happened at the end of the game
when he kind of felt all hope was lost. That's
common in every sport. But then the one eighty happened
on the TNT broadcast. Shaquille O'Neal talking about that Detroit

(26:22):
Pistons team that is now currently tied essentially with the
Bucks and Pacers for that fourth spot in the East.
Shaquille O'Neal talking about what he likes with the Detroit
Pistons last night, I will be interested.

Speaker 9 (26:35):
You said something very interested about kay keunny in great
player now at this day, she plays at his own pace.
Anybody that can consistently play of their own place and
put up numbers, it's a great player. I like the
way he's playing. I like what chulse he is doing.
Those guys play hard. My favorite player on that team
was Isaiah Stuart. Big body, hard guy, like to knock
people out of pushing.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Who's doing it?

Speaker 8 (26:56):
He said, Chauncey, Okay.

Speaker 9 (27:03):
That's what I man. You know, first of all, I
don't watch Detroit. How about that boom boots?

Speaker 8 (27:13):
No, but I mean that sincerely.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
I think you would enjoy watching the Detroit Pistons.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
I don't want to get they played hard. Kate is phenomenal.
Jalen Durwans, you're kind of big, okay.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Isiah Stewart, Uh, kudos to left Go for trying to
save Shack there who was drowning in deep water. I
loved the absolute one eighty No tell it wasn't ten
seconds or my love kid cunning Am and Isaiah Stewart too.
I don't watch De Troit play at all. I don't
know who they are. How about that?

Speaker 7 (27:44):
What do we think was he trying to Was he
trying to look cool? Was he trying because like Chuck
has pulled off the like fun ribbing. Yeah, I don't
really watch this league half the time anyway. Do you
think he was just embarrassed and that was Yeah? It
has to be that right. It was pretty incredible. I've
said stupid stuff.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I said a tweet out the other night that I
knew exactly what I was, I type the wrong thing
and then somebody called me a dumb a. So I
just deleted it because I had the wrong thing. Instead
of writing Las Vegas, I wrote New Orleans because it
was a West Coast Conference thing in at Orleans Arena.
In my mind, yeah you can make you can make
that messy. Yeah, but but it doesn't translate. And so
to Shack's point, there the problem is is the criticism

(28:23):
that all the NBA players have been saying of you
don't watch the game and everything is negative. Here is
Shaq praising a team he hasn't watched, and then it
gets mad about because he gets the coach and doesn't know.
There's so much with that. It's the inadvertent telling on yourself.
So if you're an NBA player and saying, not only

(28:44):
are you being critical of our game, you're not even
paying attention to our game. But yet their voices are
so powerful that if you're a casual viewer of the
NBA and you're dropping in, you're taking what Shaquille O'Neil
says and then using that as truth. And so so
there's it's it's really heavy in the spot of I

(29:06):
don't know if Candas Parker should have outed him at
that point, because I don't think it did any good.
But to her point, she thinks it's ribbing, but it
unveil the curtain that I think NBA players have been
complaining about a long time and kind of proves their
point of Listen, you could rip on the league all
you want, but if you don't know the league, maybe
you shouldn't be talking about the league.

Speaker 7 (29:24):
Well, I'll say this, what's you know? Frustrating is at
the right word. I don't know that any of us
care enough to be frustrated. But there was a very
easy correction there without saying, oh, I don't I don't
watch de Troy. I'm shack, I gotta watch the Troit.
You could have just said, oh man, Chauncey Phillips, brain fart.
Obviously he's a piston leg you know he's a piston.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
He's a pistons.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
Let you don't have to do the whole. I don't
watch the team.

Speaker 7 (29:45):
And by the way, Shack, I know you watch the
team because Isaiah Stewart isn't the first name that rolls
off your tongue when you're just pulling stuff out of
the air. Oh yeah, I watch I watched the NFL.
That Mahomes guy's good. H Oh Tennis Yokovic, he's still
doing stuff, right, Like Isaiah Stewart isn't the name that
you pull out of the air unless you are actually

(30:07):
watching that team. So Shaq just own it own that. Oh,
Billip Chauncey, of course he's not the coach of the Pistons.
He played in the Pistons. What am I thinking? Instead
he defaults to the YA to watch the Pistons, which
is just absolutely not.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
And I don't want to sit there and say I'm
throwing stones in a glasshouse. If we did a Baseball
Manager's List, I'd probably go ten for thirty. Like that's
that's where we would go. Also, not hosting inside the MBA.
That's the point. Yes, that's exactly the point. The same
thing for the NBA.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
GO.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
I think I could do pretty well with the NBA,
but I don't know if i'd go thirty for thirty.
But that's that's the other portion of it of when
you're the voice of the league and have that much power.
It was just a unique spot. Shack could have saved it.
I don't think Cannice Parker did him any help. I
think Lefgo tried to save it at the end, but
at that point the cat was out of the bag

(30:57):
on Shaq was like, well, I don't care. I don't
watched it. Tr Anyway, I think that's part of the
problem as well, that we aren't seeing or we aren't
paying attention to stuff like that. Last night, people were
paying attention to the Pacers and Bucks because they love
the Halliburton shot. But the Shack comment sure said a lot.

Speaker 7 (31:13):
As somebody who fancies himself a guy who loves college
hoops would be like me being like, oh, yeah, Florida
Gators in position to get a number one seed.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
Billy Dottovan's doing really good with that.

Speaker 7 (31:22):
Oh oh, Billy Donovan doesn't go I don't even watch
the Gators.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
What are you talking about? Dan Byer? It's like, come on, man,
get above vedi ar and underscore Torres. You can find
me at dan Byer on Fox and trust me. I've
said plenty wrong. So that's why I don't want to
throw these stones in the glass South.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
But have you ever any claim that you don't actually
watch the sport that you admittedly.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
No, I try to stay in my lanes as much
as possible, agreed me. So I'm like, in terms of
I even watched the we were talking about the Celtics
documentary on HBO Max, and I was like, why do
we need a Celtics docuseries? And it was a topic
of conversation yesterday. I'm like, we've We've had tons about
the Reds. There's been Patriot ones. Now here's another Boston one.

(32:03):
But I wanted to watch it. I only watched the
first half of the first episode because it comes out
in episodes. There were two episodes that were released, and
I watched the second half last night, and I felt
a little guilty because I didn't watch the whole episode
to be able to talk about it like I did
yesterday after seeing the second thirty minutes. I don't know
if I'm gonna go back and watch the second episode.
But that's where I try to try to stay in

(32:24):
my lane, and if I veer too far off of it,
it's it's not good for anybody. He's Aeron Torres. I'm
Dan Byers. Speed up your hiring process with Express Employment Professionals.
Reduce time to hire, cutcosts, and find the right talent
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com today and transform your hiring process. That's expresspros dot
Com coming up next here on Cavino and rich As,

(32:47):
we're sitting in for the guys. When is Cinderella too much?
We'll talk about it next on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 8 (32:54):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR
to listen live.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
Is today your Christmas Eve? Your sports Christmas Eve? Or
is it today? Is it Friday? Is it Sunday? March madness?
In full of fact? He is eron Torres. I'm Dan Byer.
We are broadcasting live from the tierreck dot com studios,
tirereq dot com. We'll help you get there. An unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road has a protection you know, over

(33:28):
ten thousand recommended installers. Tirec dot com the way tire
buying should be. Iowa. Sam is here, a technical producer,
Ryan Bershing, our executive producer Isaac Low, and chron at
the news desk. Let's get this bad boy rolling with
conference tournament? Shall we? Erin Torres?

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Oh, you're speaking my language. What do they say? Talk
dirty to me?

Speaker 9 (33:47):
Dan Pooh?

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yeah, give me a little miac.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
We've got se Southland right now. We've got a ten,
we've got Southeastern Conference. I think we're smack dab in
the middle.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Of the Southland. Yeah, he's in Lamar.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
Is this gonna be Will Wade's final conference game McNeese, Yes,
I believe.

Speaker 7 (34:07):
So what's also incredible, And I'm not here to judge.
The game is on mcneese's home court, and they don't
have a full house. I'm not here to judge, but
you think they'd get a little bit of a better crowd.
It's on their home court. So Wednesday, maybe weather. You know,
we've got weather here in southern California. I don't know
what it's like on the other side of the country.
But that's why I don't want to be critical, because

(34:27):
I've been told that there McNeese is in Lake Charles,
Louisiana for people who do not know, and I've been
told that that area in general, because of hurricanes, is
the population is kind of dwindled. So I don't know,
but I mean the arena is still there, So again,
I don't I don't want to be too critical.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
I'm just I'm just observing.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
I'll tell you what some of these crowds are, these
neutral site ones and I know that your point of
this is a home site, neutral site. You can maybe
understand why Lesal and UMass aren't packing the joint. I
don't even know where the A ten tournament is right now.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
I don't eat there. It wasn't Atlantic City for a
long time.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
That's in DC. I can see actually small on the court,
So you can't make the trip down from Philadelphia to
watch an eight thirteen and eighteen LaSalle squad play Ran
Dunfee retiring really quickly.

Speaker 7 (35:15):
I know, I just criticized the crowded McNee. I was
watching THENEC championship game last night. Saint Francis just broke
the heart of my Central Connecticut Blue Devils. But the
game was at Central Connecticut's home gym. More small conferences
should go for the higher seed host the championship game.
In my opinion, well, great environment.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Well as we determine what is the greatest day of
the sporting calendar, it does allow us to bring in Iowa. Sam,
because this is something you and Doug Gottlieb have talked
about over the last couple of days. You've talked about
the conference tournaments. You just give us your stance, Sam,

(35:54):
Just so I don't put words in your mouth. But
I know Doug is also brought up that he feels
that home courts should be more utile conference tournaments. But
also you're kind of back and forth started with your
point of the conference tournament anyway, correct.

Speaker 10 (36:07):
Yeah, last week I said to Doug, you know, with
some of these one bid leagues there, you know that
they're not going to get any at large. You know,
MVC all the way, the NAK, the MIAC, the SWAK,
all of those league swak.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Teacher wears when she's teaching class.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Or the smock. I've never heard of SWAK. I don't know, yes,
but I know what you mean. I've heard of the
mag the Metro Atlantic.

Speaker 10 (36:37):
Is that the one with the Manhattan Jaspers, and that
I think has my favorite nicknames of any college basketball
league is that one.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
You have Hairfield, you have the Canisiuses whatever.

Speaker 10 (36:47):
They are, the the like the Golden Griffins, and it
just has excellent nicknames about the Jaspers.

Speaker 7 (36:53):
Did you notice the Saint Thomas Tommy's in the Summit
Championship game the other day against the Omaha First of all,
Omaha Mavericks is actually pretty It sounds like a like
a UFL names.

Speaker 10 (37:03):
Yes, it sounds like a team from any given Sunday exactly.
My I guess I kind of reeled this take back
a little bit. My original take was that for these
one bid leagues, the NCAA tournament bid should go to
the regular season champion and get rid of the conference
tournaments completely. And I know, and I don't know if
I even agree with that myself my own take, because

(37:24):
I love conference tournament time. But is there something like
where you have in the final of the CAAA Championship.
Is that the Colonial Athletic Association the CIA. Yes, yes,
you had the Delaware Blue Hens taking on the UNC
Wilmington Seahawks game, but yes, and UNC Wilmington pulled it

(37:44):
out seventy six to seventy two yesterday. But you had
a Delaware team with a sixteen and twenty overall record
and a five and thirteen CAA record with a chance
to get to the NCAA tournament. And I'm like, don't
when you only have one bid, the team that has
the best regular seas he's in conference. Don't even give
the teams like Delaware a seat at the table.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Because yeah, the.

Speaker 7 (38:06):
Game that I just referenced, Central Connecticut twenty five and
seven overall fourteen and two in the league, won the
league by two games. Saint Francis, with the win last night,
improves to sixteen and seventeen.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
And gets the automatic bids.

Speaker 10 (38:19):
And I'm not against keeping. I'm either against the either
go with my most radical take, which was just get
rid of the conference tournament, which.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
By the way, then just let me stop you. This
is what you brought up with Doug, and Doug's counterpoint,
which I think we all understand, is these conference tournaments
and putting the games at ESPN are the only ways
for these conferences to make, like gut, no money.

Speaker 10 (38:41):
So that's why I wanted to reel back my original take, like, Okay,
don't get rid of the tournament altogether. Maybe just allow
in teams from those one bid leagues who have a
winning record in conference all the way up to the
champion of the regular season.

Speaker 7 (38:54):
Can I give you a pseudo compromise that won't happen,
but should go for it If we span the NCAA
tournament beyond sixty eight teams, which we shouldn't, all those
bids should not go to the fourteenth place team in
the Big Ten or the thirteenth place team in the SEC,
like make the field of sixty eight those last. If
we're gonna add bids, give them to regular season champions

(39:18):
from who got knocked out in the conference journey, Yes,
that won't happen because again we're expanding to get more
big brands and more big ten in SEC and ACC in.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
But that's what should happen. Well also, and I agree
with you because I've said the same thing. I think
it adds a lot to it. You can't you can't
judge each year on how many of those teams are
going to be in So like in terms of knocked out,
like if you were to have four at large bids
and then set aside four spots, do you do it?
Do you do it as like a big Steelers sort
of deal? Is it only one team that ends up

(39:48):
getting knocked out? So then would they have to play
a Texas team or like how would it work? I
don't know how the whole process would work out, because
you could have you gonna have you already had maybe
nine teams get knocked out. Now you only have eight
spots to fill, So that would be the tricky tricky
portion of it. So and By the way, if you're

(40:09):
tousand who is knocked out by by Delaware and you
lose to UNC Wilmington, I don't know if that's like
you should get into the tournament then like UNC Wilmington
was the two seed, so they win the conference tournament,
they beat the top seed. Like in essence, so now
you're gonna allow the Colonial Athletic Association to get two
teams in the tournament, Like I feel like like that

(40:32):
that would be the only rub against it as well,
like they're gonna be well represented by the second best
team or you know that they had throughout the year
and that's not too shabby.

Speaker 10 (40:42):
Yeah, I think my point in all this is to
avoid is to get the best teams from those one
bid leagues, whether it's like the top what if top
three seeds, top four seeds get them in the NC
tournament and not even like in the Big Ten now,
just because it's so bloated with eighteen teams, Iowa and
Nebraska had to fight it out in the final game
of the regular season just for iowauld become the fifteen seed,
the final seat, the final team in the Big Ten.

(41:04):
But I think that you know, we'reever We're not gonna
get rid of conference tournaments, like, don't do that, But
I want to make it reward the regular season champion
as much as possible, So have them not play until
the semi finals, reward them with if it's call the
Sun Belts Conference stend weighted, yes, and West Coast Conference
has done it forever. And make it as hard as

(41:26):
possible for those really bottom dwelling teams in those one
bid leagues to make it all the way and get
an NC Tournament bid.

Speaker 7 (41:32):
To quote our Friendsheck Sun Belt, I was not familiar
with your game. The one and two seeds got the
quintuple buy into either what was it the semis I believe, yes,
five rounds until they had to play.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
And not only that, I think they both lost.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
I know South Alabama was the one seed and they did.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
And so so I think you had the three to
four matchup in the Sun Belt and and I'm actually
just bringing it up right here. It's just taking me
forever because as Son, when you're scrolling through the standings,
is all the way at the bottom. Yeah, because you
had South Alabama, James Madison, Arkansas State and Troy Troy
ends up getting the automatic bid, they go to the

(42:12):
to the dance. But yeah, it was like a bowling tournament.
That's how you do bowling tournaments. You just go one
to the next and the next, and if you're the
lowest seed and you can beat everybody, you moved on.
But even the double by there didn't help. It's also
crazy because here you had a four way tie, so
two teams actually had to play an extra game despite
having they were in a four way tie. Where if

(42:33):
you had a four way tie in the big ten,
the top the standings, it doesn't matter. Everybody gets a
buye to the you know, to the quarterfinals. At least
this actually made it even weirder. But yeah, the Sun
Belt had crazy, crazy bracket, but it is to protect
everyone else. I think there's a bigger conversation to have
at some point. Aaron and I actually going to be
in tomorrow Mike Harmon and Jason Smith going to be

(42:55):
in the spot for Comuno and Rich and you and
I are going to be in Jason and Mike's spot,
so we could talk more about it tomorrow night, because
I think there is a conversation to have as well.
I think there's a conversation as well of why top
seeded teams even need to be in the conference tournaments.
If you're in the SEC, I know there's a lot
to play for with.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
No id to me to cut you up.

Speaker 7 (43:15):
This has been a big conversation in SEC Land this
week of like, is it actually not good to win
the conference tournament? Is it better to get knocked out
on like Friday and get two extra days rest than
if say you're Kentucky and you'd have to play Alabama
and then all Burn to win a championships?

Speaker 4 (43:32):
And I feel that there's there's there's not as much
weight on the conference tournament as there used to be.
Remember when we would always think like, oh, this run
to the finals has allowed this team and that we'd
get the bracket. And nowadays we're like, well that didn't
matter at all. This team beat that team. Seems like
things were already set. I don't think it's got as
big of a picture.

Speaker 7 (43:52):
I'll tell you this that that'll be a fun conversation
for us on Sunday. Is you and I are while
I'm filling in for Kerry Rhodes on Sunday, But you know,
three number one seeds are set in stone, and it
feels like the fourth number one seed, whoever gets it,
whether it's Alabama, Florida, Tennessee out of the SEC, or
Michigan State out of the Big Ten, they're gonna be
playing on Sunday. And so it's like the big thing

(44:14):
of everybody just it's kind of been a default talking
point of like the bracket kind of gets set on
Saturday night and what happens on Sunday doesn't matter, and
the committee always says that it doesn't. Well, you know,
if Michigan State loses and gets the fourth number one
seed over an SEC team or something to that manner,
I think that'll only be a bigger picture conversation comes Sunday.

Speaker 4 (44:34):
Here's it, And I'm I'm not as against expanding the tournament.
I wouldn't say I'm for it, but it doesn't bother
me if they expanded it to seventy six. I think
there's ways that you can make it work. The point
of the conference champions who just brought up the Sun Belt.
If you wanted to give the Sun Belt regular season
champ an opportunity to play in that game, how the
heck do you do it with a four way tie?

(44:57):
Great call, you know, like that, like that's that's another
way to I'd love to make it where everybody's happy,
but it's just it's difficult. You're a happy guy because
of the time of year that we are in. I
love talking about sports calendar. And the reason I talk
about sports calendar so much is I think sports fans
lives are run by their sports calendar, no doubt. And
maybe when you have kids it's by their little league schedules.

(45:19):
But you know when it's football season, you know when
it's baseball season, and you know when it's March, and
it's March madness, and we are in the thick of
it right now, smack dab in the middle of the month.
And Aaron Torres, this is your time of year. If
you are ranking all of the sports that you have
a passion for, you obviously cover college basketball. College hoops
has got to be number one on top of the list.

(45:42):
Is this your Christmas Day? What is your Christmas Day?
Your most favorite sports day of the entire sports calendar.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
So today it's actually about Christmas Eve.

Speaker 8 (45:54):
Dan.

Speaker 7 (45:54):
So first of all, let me say this and I'll
be quick because I want to get everybody else's opinion
on this.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
This narrative has switched.

Speaker 7 (46:00):
I feel like in the last I was arguing eight
nine years ago that the Conference Championship week is actually
better than the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. You
get more games with more good teams. They all know
each other. So if Duke's at number one seed next week,
you know you could get Duke three times this weekend
against North Carolina and then against Louisville and then against whoever.

(46:22):
You don't get that in the first and second round.
So I love this week. But I will tell you this,
I believe, Well, it's just my opinion. My favorite day
on the sports calendar is Thursday of Conference Championship Week.
Every big conference is going because of the way the
by structure works, everybody is playing on that Thursday. The
SEC and the Big Ten not so much. But you

(46:44):
get all the big conferences for four straight windows. Everybody
has four straight windows, whether it's quarterfinals, whether it's like
the first round into the quarterfinals. So you're gonna wake
up on Thursday and at noon Eastern the SEC, ACC,
Big Ten, Big Two, twelve, Big East are all going
to be playing at the exact same time, and we're

(47:04):
gonna have four straight windows of that all day on Thursday.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
I think I saw at Sweed. It may have been
Brad Powers, It may have been Steve Zick, I can't
remember who it was, may have been Todd Furman, a
front of the network. But they said that to what
you said to being in Las Vegas. Oh yeah, next
weekend isn't the weekend to be in Las Vegas. Now
is the time to be in Las Vegas for the
amount of games and even the prices because of what

(47:29):
everybody expects for next week that now would be a
much better and cheaper option if you were to go
to Sin City.

Speaker 7 (47:34):
So two quick things, because again I want to get
everybody else's take, But one I think that was Brad Powers.
That has been one of his takes that I've seen
him put out that I agree with and other people
might feel that way. Last year, I was in Vegas
this week for the conference tournaments. PAC twelve was going on,
so it felt like a little bit more of a
place to be. There's five six conference tournaments. But I
will tell you, as somebody who generally is in Vegas

(47:57):
conference tournament week, it I wouldn't say it's a quiet week,
but it's not a crazy week. Last year, on the
Friday of conference tournaments, I was at Circus Sports Book.
I should probably be giving them a plug whatever, but
the place was insane. And I think people are starting
to pick up on, Hey, a little bit more affordable,
a little bit less kind of cliche.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
You know.

Speaker 7 (48:20):
I can't think of a holiday analogy. Everybody goes out
on New Year's Eve, but is it better to whatever? Like,
I think people are starting to realize, hey, this is
actually a really fun week to be in Vegas as well.
By the way, if you like basketball, you can actually
go to conference tournaments. But even if you're just sitting
in the sports book, it is just wall to wall
nine am to Sometimes you have games tipping off nine

(48:40):
you know, nine am Pacific New Eastern. Sometimes you have
games tipping off as late as midnight Eastern. It is
just a really fun time to sit in a sports
book if that's your seat.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
So this is Christmas Sports Eve for Aaron Torres. It's
gonna be tough to sleep tonight, right, Oh yeah, knowing
that what tomorrow could well could bring.

Speaker 7 (48:58):
We're gonna have and you and I are on from
ten to two am, so we get you know, think
about tomorrow we'll have again all five conference seraments. It'll
be one of the some days a year. Five monitors
in this in this facility aren't gonna be at Four
monitors in this facility aren't gonna be enough.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
And tomorrow night it's gonna be one.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
Offul We're gonna have to wheel some more in. This
is the tough part because I also know that you
had you had to dwindle it down. It's not six days.
There aren't six Christmas days. You had to pick one,
as you said, like you could have. You could have
picked the Thursday and Friday of next week where or
one of the two days because it's the first round

(49:35):
of the NCAA tournament. I think that those are the
best days. I absolutely love those days. But you can
only pick one, though, correct, And I'm gonna pick the
Thursday because there's that first game and it's usually like
it's either a six eleven or a three, fourteen, seven, ten.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Some Mountain West team is always playing. That's fun and.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
Inevitably of the first three games I use. We have
an Elite eight team out and nobody cares about my bracket.
But what I love doing and I love being here
and I feel that it is. It is so great
because everybody's involved. Yes, I love and I'll get into
other sports things, so I'll just talk about this. I
love the different picks, the paths, and I don't want

(50:20):
to say usually because I don't want to jinx it,
but there seems to be because those teams are seated
fairly closely, and if it's a six to eleven game,
maybe it's a really high end mid major that got
an at large bid or at least won their conference tournament.
They're playing a team that's maybe a little iffy, that's
bordering outside of the top twenty five, and you get
a good game, and you could get a Cinderella. It's

(50:41):
that first that first day, even just that first wave
of eight games. I absolutely love it. The feeling I
have that morning, as opposed to any other sports day
on the calendar is different. So while to tomorrow is
your Christmas sports eam mine is a week from tomorrow
that's my Christmas sports day. I think it's totally fair.
And like you said, that is one thing about the

(51:02):
about the NCAA tournament. Everybody has a bracket, everybody has interest,
everybody makes the same jokes about it. Oh there, Well,
I guess I'm not getting the perfect bracket this year, Dan,
and you know had Colorado State should have known better.

Speaker 7 (51:15):
Is it is a really fun day. And by the way,
really quickly just because we again we can only pick one.
So it's not as though I don't like the first
Thursday the NCAA tournament. It's just correct that's my preference.
But yeah, that first Thursday is awesome and there's definitely
a vibe in the air.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
I tell the story of that first day Ohio State.
This ended up Aaron Craft's last game, Ohio State Dayton
playing in a first round game. Dayton think ended up
going to the Elite eight. Thy So this was about
twenty fourteen, and Ohio State loses on a buzzer beater
and I see our good pal John Ramos on the
other side of the glass, jumping up and down and

(51:53):
just cheering because Dayton is upset Ohio State.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
And someday, and originally right.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Not from Dayton. I go to John because I was
cheering for Ohio State obviously not only for bracket purposes,
but just of being a fan. And I say to
John and like, how far did you have date? And
He's like, oh, lose the next round. I would rather
put our friendship at jeopardy and in peril for one
point in the NCAA tournament bracket. But so, but that's

(52:23):
what it does, That's what the day does. It's it's great,
Ryan Berschinger, do you have a Christmas sports Day? I do.

Speaker 11 (52:29):
I also love the first day of the tournament, so
I'm glad you spoke on that for the for all
the same reasons. I just think it's so much fun.
I will I will say opening day, and in Major
League Baseball, I think I took Isaac.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
I don't know if you did or not.

Speaker 11 (52:47):
No, I obviously it's people treat it like a holiday,
and I think that that's so cool.

Speaker 9 (52:52):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (52:53):
Baseball truly gets the spotlight on that day, and it's
also sort of a return to normalcy for us who
follow baseball pretty devoutly. It's a following baseball takes up
a majority of our life because of how long the
season is, so that first day just getting to celebrate

(53:13):
the return of baseball, making a point of watching baseball. Granted,
I don't think the last couple of years some of
the TV networks have done as good of a job
as giving as many games as they should. Hopefully that changes,
but overall, yeah, that's a very special day in the sport.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
Has it changed by not being on a Monday for you,
like that first week in April? That's where it was
for so long. Now it's on a Thursday. It's kind
of funky. As it changed at all to me? And
for me it has it completely has.

Speaker 11 (53:43):
It hasn't changed too much for me because still being
on a weekday, I think it still gives it that
same sort of level. If it was on like a Saturday,
it would feel really weird for sure.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
Yeah. Yeah, I remember how many National Championship games that
you would have on Opening Day. It would be like, oh,
baseball starts that day in the National Championship game is
at night? Isaac Lowincron Do you have a sports Christmas Day?

Speaker 6 (54:07):
Technically this all occurs over a twenty nine hour span,
so I'm going to round it to one day. It's
Divisional playoff weekend in the NFL, it seems as of
all the playoff weekends, not counting the Super Bowl because
that's just one game, but wild card, divisional playoff, conference
championship games, the Divisional playoff weekend set of games has

(54:31):
always seemingly traditionally had the better quality matchups and better quality,
most exciting finishes across the board compared to the other
two weekends of the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
I'll never forget a few years ago when you had
the Bengals upsetting the Titans on an Evan McPherson field
goal late in the game they win it. Then you
had the Niners go to Green Bay and go to
overtime and beat the Packers. Sorry, Burst and Sam, but
then you had an even better game with the Ram
speeding the Buccaneers, and the Buccaneers came all the way back,
and then the Rams ended up winning. And then you

(55:05):
had Bill's Chiefs in that thirteen second affair that we know,
each game that weekend just got better and better. It
was a football nirvana. Iowa, Sam, I didn't mean to
pinch you for time you want to do it.

Speaker 10 (55:16):
On the other side, I would just say, yeah, absolutely,
something March Madness related, or maybe like the true week
one of college football, or maybe the start of conference
playing college football. Okay, and like I give you again,
Sam gives us three and I don't have it. I
was just going to open the phone lines seven nine
to nine on Fox eight seven seven six six three

(55:37):
six nine.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
He can't help him. I can't one month's worth of day.
Thank you for taking twenty percent of the answers for
our callers on the Content Machine. You can reach at
Aaron Underscore Tours. You can find me at Dan Byer
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