January 1, 2026 • 41 mins
In the final hour of the Ben Maller Show, Adam Auslund & Kevin Figgers dive into the ongoing controversy between USC and Notre Dame, Lincoln Riley’s ringing comments about the end of the rivalry, then transition into how Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama’s injuries affect the Western Conference + a new edition of Brie’s Three!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Mahler Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific right here on Fox Sports Radio. You can
find your local station for the Ben Malers Show over
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
That's right. Final hour of the Ben mala Show with
Kevin Figures at kfig one is where you can find
me on X. Adam at follow Adam A is where
you can find him on X. Thank you guys for
joining us here, and Happy New Year to all of
you listening in the air everywhere around the vast Fox
Sports Radio network.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
In the air everywhere, right, Yeah, we miss Ben too,
all right. We love him very much as an honor
to get to fill in for him tonight, He's not in.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
The air everywhere.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I'm sorry. What was that? Ben said that? A little
bit off English?
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Mother, He sounds like our callers.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
It was the caller earlier, Bree. Do we have this
because this is an all time sound drop that I
think we generated in our first drink much night, Kevin,
that's a drop.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It is Bree.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Who is that again? Is that hey? Seabas blind?
Speaker 6 (01:21):
SeaBASS in Nashville?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
So why blinde? Okay, he's actually blind?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Is that? Am I? Am?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
I blind?
Speaker 5 (01:27):
And not seeing the blind listeners?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Tell me about the seven Toad Woman? That is that
a real caller here on the Ben.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Mallerads Felexus, the seven Toad drag queen.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
A lot going on to that name in that title's.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
She's based out of New York and she's a Vikings fan.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
So we had the nine Told Woman in The Big
Lebowski and he just had to get one toe for
this person. It would be three toes. That's a lot.
That's asking a lot. I don't know. You have to
lose a few different gambling bets for the Sharks to
take off three toes with you. But all right, Kevin,
let's get back into it. Here our college football forecast.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
College football forecast with FNA.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, one more ball remaining of consequence at least coming
up later this afternoon. The Sugar Bowl the Ole Miss
in Georgia, a rematch from earlier in the season, a
shootout was that thirty five to forty two. I believe
the final score was yeah and uh for three to
thirty five. Excuse me.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Ole Miss was up in this game and scored on
their first five possessions until the fourth quarter, where they
were outscored seventeen to nothing. Which is kind of the
calling card with Georgia this year with them dogs, They
are resilient, they come back. They trailed in six of
their seven regular season SEC victories, only loss, of course, Tobama,
(02:49):
which they got back in the SEC Championship against them.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Similar to the rolls ball, I think this is kind
of a bad matchup for ole Miss because also consider
at the time when these two teams played, Georgia was
still kind of figuring some issues out defensively obviously when
you were allowing thirty five points. And by the way,
this is no disrespect to ole Miss and Trinidad. Chambliss
has had a phenomenal season. He's been playing great. But
Georgia's defense is leaps and bounds better, especially rushing the
(03:14):
passer today than they were a couple of months ago
when those two teams played.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I mean, this is a team to me. Maybe I'm
just it's ingrained with me that Georgia. I always think
of them so highly because well, they won back to
back championships recently, the most recent team to do that.
But for a while, they kept knocking on the door
and losing against Alabama, and really the only team that
Kirby Smart loses to is Alabama. So I've got a
(03:41):
lot of faith in them dogs, especially in this matchup,
as you mentioned, because they've been there, they've done that,
and they had Lane kiffen culling the plays when they
lost that game that they were up big in early on,
and he is a great play caller. They will be
without him. That's a huge storyline we've been talking about
over the last month. So I don't know what advantage
(04:01):
they have considering as you also brought up, Georgia's defense
has been playing much better and they're peaking at the
right time.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, I mean, Ole Miss does have like a people's
team vibe to it. You kind of feel like they're
people have kind of put their support behind them because
of the Lane Kiffin situation, and I like Pete Goldings
seems to have a bit of an edge to him
and as their defensive coordinator, and he's come out and
said all the right things this week and getting the
guys fired up and talking about schematic things and how
they plan to play this game. I think I would
(04:27):
love for Ole Miss to be able to win this
game and continue to advance, mostly just to spurn Lane Kiffin.
But I just don't think that's gonna happen. Yeah, it's
just a bad matchup for them, and they're not gonna
be able to slow down this Georgia offense and Old
Miss's offense. I think it's gonna get stymied a little
bit by an improved Georgia defense. Like you mentioned a second.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Ago, Georgia's defense has allowed just thirty four points in
the second half of games in regulation so far this season.
So when it comes down to conch time in winning time,
I don't know if they have the clutch stats in
college football like you have in the NBA line five
minutes of a game within five points that's deemed clutch time.
But they have been at their best when their best
(05:07):
is required, and that's what wins in these type of situations,
especially if you have the pedigree like they do, and
maybe the best coach left, Kurt Signetti's knocking on the door.
We'll see what happens in this playoff run. But Kirby smart,
he is proven, he is bona fide, and so is Georgia.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You said something last hour about this playoff in general
and the Big Ten and what the perception may be
if they don't advance, if Oregon loses to Texas Tech.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
And man, well that's not forbid. Come on now, well,
I'm just saying, that's not go crazy here. My Ducks
losing to Texas Tech. Okay, it could happen.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, And if Alabama somehow, as I never thought i'd
say this during a football season, basketball season, sure, I
never thought i'd say this. If Alabama pulls the upset
and beats Indiana, Now all of a sudden, we're talking
about no Big Ten representation, no in the final four.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
That would be okay. First of all, the Big Ten
has won the last two championships, one with a four
teamer last year winning the inaugural twelve team playoff championship,
and as the SEC, they haven't even made it to
the championship game the last two years.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
Washington Maylwaskest Michigan against Michigan, and last season it was
Notre Dame against Ohio State, so they're kind of in
a situation where if they don't at least get there,
there are going to be odds on the SEC two.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
So maybe you could say between them and the Big
ten when it comes to conference supremacy going on, they're
both under the hot seat a little bit and under
the microscope.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
To a certain degree. I mean, also, will you talk
about conference supremacy though a lot of it is taken
into amalgam and less of it, unfortunately, is taken into
head to head, say oh, we lost that game, that
doesn't matter. If you look at our conference is better
than your conference top to bottom, and it's like, well,
isn't this what matters most? When you talk about this.
People are not gonna be arguing about who's better between
Mississippi State and Michigan State. All due respect to those programs.
(07:10):
This is the heavy hitters, the best of the best.
What happens when your best face is my best and
right now you know who knows? I mean, it's very
possible that that the big bad Big ten who's been
making a lot of noise and talking about conference or
talking about playoff realignment and who should get automatic bids
and a lot of stuff I agree with, but yeah,
it does take your prestige to a certain degree. Takes
(07:30):
a little bit of hit of a hit if you
don't even make it into the Final four with a
single team making it that deep into the postseason.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Having said that, though Indiana's favored and Oregon is favored,
Georgia favored here and Miami's doing their own thing with
the ACC, Hey don't underestimate that ACC speed. We used
to always talk about the SEC speed, but maybe the
ACC needs a little bit more respect. After tonight, that was.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
ACC power is what that was given. It to O
House stay over and over again, especially in that first half.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I thought I saw Sean Taylor out there, one of
my favorite players ever, rip the legend. But instead it
was what that Nevin Shapiro guy, the booster just wearing
his jersey.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, I mean that Miami defense was hitting on Friday night.
Some of the hits their land on those guys was incredible.
They were fired up.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
I thought I saw Jonathan Wilma out there. I thought,
I ray Lewis out there, Okay, ray Lewis out.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
There was a nice suit, real nice suit.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, I hope he doesn't have to throw that one away. Okay,
let's uh, and it was our last time feeling on
the show, Adam Ashley, but.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
An impressive performance by Miami. Nonetheless, I mean for a
team that a team that people questioned whether or not
they should have even made the postseason, which I thought
was ridiculous. The whole Notre Dame argument shouldn't have been
an argument, I said from day one. If there was
to be an argument, it should have been between Notre
Dame and Alabama. You're right now, I am brilliant, You're right.
And by the way, I also said I would have
taken Alabama to make the playoff over Notre Dame too,
(08:57):
so Notre Dame still would have been pissed off of
someone like me, So that Notre.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Dame, I gotta say. And maybe we can veer in
because we haven't touched upon the follow up with Lincoln
Riley here in his comments this week, But as much
as we have gone after USC, and rightfully so, and
had Petros Papadakas on too to talk about.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It, but trying to bite a real show, we.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Pretty much ripped into USC for twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
I'm also a little bit sick of having to accommodate
for a team that won't join a conference. I understand
why they won't. They got the big TV deal, why
would they want to share it with anyone. But at
the same time, they want this level of respect and
you to come to them and lay down your arms
and say we'll play you on your schedule later in
(09:44):
the season. I'm thinking, like, isn't it two way street?
Shouldn't it be with Notre Dame? Last time I checked,
they haven't won a national championship since nineteen eighty eight,
is correct? Why do we talk about it's almost a
mid off with them in USC and subways. I know
Notre Dame was just their last season. They they were.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Competitive as title game couple been there.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
But okay, yeah, they got there and got wiped out
by Alabama and we knew Notre Dame was gonna get smoked,
and they had some interesting victories that season against Stanford notably,
but Notre Dame to me has probably been the most
overrated team in sports sans last season with them getting
to the championship game, finally improving themselves and they beat
(10:28):
Georgia to get there, and that was impressive. That was
the first time in forever where Notre Dame didn't do
exactly what I thought they were going to do, which
was laid down when the going got tough. And yet
we give them so much respect every season, and they are,
I understand, a golden goose for college football and the
most prestigious, renowned program they have it won in over
(10:52):
forty years. What are we talking about? USC's gone like
twenty years. Notre Dame were you're talking forty years.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I feel like you could take Notre Dame out to
insert Dallas Cowboys and just have the exact same argument,
you know, as far as notoriety and prestige and how
much people talk about you and why you expect all
these things. You're right, though, the problem is Notre Dame
viuse himself a little bit as this like Marquee franchise
or Marquee that you should hold it at a highest
team at the college football level, then they really shouldn't
(11:24):
be at this point. And like there's talk, there's been
reporting over the past couple of weeks that there are
schools who just don't want to schedule them. It's like,
all right, if you want to play tough, you're an independent,
you have to make your own schedule. How about we
just don't play you.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
So wait a second. The team that is independent, that
gets to make their own schedule, that probably has the
most flexible schedule because of that, is the one demanding
you play them on their terms.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yep, that kind of bothers me.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Right, I'm not trying to take USC's side here, but
there may be a little bit more blame to go around.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well. I find it interesting and Lincoln Riley's comments earlier
this week, you know, saying that, look, we told Notre
Dame told us they play us anytime, anywhere, and we
held them to that, and then the narrative changed. Now,
maybe there was a response from Pepavaqua or someone else
at Notre Dame. I haven't seen that response or hurt
that response. Maybe they're just done with it and ready
to move on at this point in time. But I mean,
(12:17):
if that is true, And look, Jen Cohen said this,
the athletic director at USC, We wanted to play them
in Week zero to start the season, and they said
no to it.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
That has to be approved by the NCAA, though too
right to get a week zero game. There's some funny
stuff going on with Week zero. Not as simple.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
They're not going to approve that if the SE and
Notre Dame say that we want to play on week
zero or make it week one. USC really just wants
to play that game before they get into their conference schedule,
which is within the first three to four weeks of
the season. So if it's not week zero, maybe it's
week one, maybe it's week three. They just want to
play it earlier before conference schedule begins. It makes sense
to me. I don't know why that's such a big deal.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Do you think it's in earnest though? Or they knew
that Notre Dame wouldn't do it, And this is USC
trying to save a little bit of face and saying, well,
we gave them a three week window, we gave them
something knowing that Notre Dame would never go for it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That is the counter argument that I've heard, And maybe
I guess the question is why would Notre Dame go
for it? What's the what do you?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Because they want everyone to bow and bend the knee
for them because of their brand, So whose.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Fault is that? I agree it's fault. So I don't
want to play the USC for that. It is like
we're still willing to play you but our situation changed yours,
by the way, hasn't you've decided not to join the
a SEC as a full member. You do have a
part of their schedule, Adam, because they have this scheduling
to deal with the ACC. They play five games a
year for ACC teams, so those are slotted. But they
(13:41):
still have the rest of their schedule completely wide open
where they can schedule anybody wherever they want.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
And it's still four less games that USC is required
to play in the Big Ten where they don't make
their schedule like Notre Dame. Right, So I'm not saying
that Notre Dame or USC are right or wrong.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I understand both perspectives on it, but if I'm going
to lean towards one side versus who gets more blame
than another a Notre Dame is not denying that USC
has offered to play the game earlier in the season.
They've not denied that was that was the claim. So
they're just saying like, well, they didn't want to continue
the series. No, they didn't want to continue with on
your terms, And why am I going to sit here
and be dictated by you terms to me?
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I don't have to like it's a. It's a little
bit petty what's happening between both sides. But if I'm
USC and I have to play a conference schedule in
a damn good conference, I don't know if it benefits
me much to have to also take on what's going
to be a good, solid Notre Dame team that is competitive,
(14:39):
that is a contender, that has, by the way, their
own little loophole into making the college football Playoff that
nobody else has. Why are all the rules in their
favor because they're a money maker for college football. It's
as simple as that, and everybody has to help them out.
The USC felt like, I don't we don't care. We're
not going to help.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You college fotball. The CFP shouldn't care, which, by the way,
I guess by as evidence by the fact that they
left them out kind of shows you to a certain
degree like the playoff is gonna make money almost regardless
of who's there. Would Notre Dame help, sure, But the
train keeps moving. And if the CFP actually wanted to
sack up and come together and say like no, no,
(15:19):
no longer are we having Notre Dame dictate to us
what happens if you want to be a part of
this thing. Here is what is required of you to
be a part of it. If you don't have fun
playing the Citrus Bowl against whoever at the end of
the season.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I think we might be because we're on the older side.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Now.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I hate that. I say that, no, no, this can't
happen to us. I remember when they were turning thirty
in Friends, Joey freaked out and he's like, God, why
would you let us get this old? How could this
happen to me? So you're thirty last?
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Old man. I do think maybe there is a little
bit of I guess just internal bias with us because
we live in southern California and we've been so critical
of USC for so many things over the years that
we are quick to take anyone else's side in an
(16:14):
argument with USC when I could easily see where they're
coming from in that. Okay, I think they play Oregon,
Ohio State in Indiana next year. All three of those
teams are on their schedule. One of those teams might
be better than the best team that Notre Dame plays
on their schedule this season. If i'm USC, I might
(16:35):
so now I have to play Notre Dame too, because
why when I'm being judged on not if I beat
Notre Dame anymore during the regular season, it's you're being
judged on making the playoff, right, That's it. That's that's
what modern fans care about. We might be a little
bit too old school in thinking that, oh, you have
to keep this rivalry going, and this is bigger than
(16:57):
anything else. And I get Petros's argument that the play
off could change in all these things, but we know
it is still the new measuring stick of how your
season went and whether or not it was a success or.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
A failure, and you just want to make that road
as easy for yourself as possible. And again, it's not
like they said they didn't want to play them anymore,
where Lincoln Riley got himself in hot waters when he
brought this up last year and brought up the possibility
of them not playing it anymore. If Lincoln Riley had
said from day one, it's like, yeah, we you know,
love the rivalry, want to continue to play the game,
but the format just has to be a little bit different.
The roadmap has changed for USC. But he came out
(17:34):
from day one and basically said, I don't know if
the game can continue, and when he when he planned
that initial seed, that's what kind of started the ball
rolling on all of this. So now the perception is
that USC you know, is trying to say face with
what they're saying now as opposed to genuinely saying we
want to play you. We just don't want to play
you in the middle of our Big ten schedule.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And look, he continues to step in it with the
loss of TCU happening during the week while he was
questioned about Notre Dame and came out and gave their
side of the story. It looks even worse now. But
I've been checking some of the comments with the younger
fan base, or what I assume is the younger fan base,
because they're all over social media responding to these viral
(18:11):
videos and Brady Quinn talking about it and Petro's talking
about it and us talking about it now, and a
lot of them just say, we don't care about Notre Dame. Well,
we want to make the playoff. And if you have
to play those three teams Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State,
you probably gotta win at least maybe two of those games.
(18:32):
You gotta win one.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
You're at Indiana and at Penn State and back to
back weeks. Next year.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
They have Matt Campbell. Now, like, we don't know what
they're gonna look like. That could be really competitive.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
They're gonna have talent at the back end of your
season Ohio State, Oregon Washington back to back games.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
If Notre Dame or if the perception is you guys
are ducking us, I'm not hearing that from a team
that is ducking. Joining a conference and especially one as
good as the.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Big Ten so they can continue to play Stanford and
no disrespect to our servicemen. But like Navy every single year.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Yeah you know what I mean, sunk their battleship a
while ago.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Like, I'm sorry, but I see a lot of problems
on both sides with this situation. Maybe we made too
much of it because we're in southern California out of
USC and their position and Notre Dame also deserves plenty
of criticism.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, I'd always fell more on the side than the
Notre Dame bears more of the responsibility in this than USC,
because USC says we're still willing to play it. We
just want to change the date. Notre Dame says, you
want to play it, we're gonna be We're gonna be
really rigid about it, and if you don't want, we'll
take our ball and go home. And that's exactly what
they did, because we're Notre Dame, and it's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
I'm kind of tired of everyone acquiescing to them.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
So maybe I'm bitter.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Because I've had to watch them so much and underperform
in big situations when they're overhyped, going into every single seat.
He's gonna take this thing full circle. Coming up next
here on the f and A takeover the Ben Mallor Show,
Nikola Jokich has a knee injury. Wemby has a knee
injury now too. How do these two big men and
(20:15):
their injuries affect the rest of the conference standings? Since
we've been talking about conference standings all night, We'll tell you.
He's Kevin Figures. I'm Adam allslin Fna in for Ben
Mallor here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions
on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help
you win big at the sports book, and all the
best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight
(21:00):
Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts differ amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Then you don't know anything about basketball fn A, Cotton,
Kevin Figures, Adam Auslin, fn A The f and a
takeover of the Ben Mathers Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Is this spawn Jovi? God, what are we doing here?
Let's leave him? In twenty twenty five? This kid in
that's Breez's favorite. Hey smile, Brie was not the name
of his album sucked yea smile.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You swept the Panthers this year. It's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
That is a big deal.
Speaker 9 (21:40):
His album I was have an Icja, but that wasn't
the vinyl you Got Me, You Got Me something from
like nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Wait a second, I'm a dumb ass smile as Brian
Wilson's album.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I'm a dumb ass.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Oh yeah, you were away off.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
I'll take the al there. We don't even know who
that is.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Good.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
He's an Eagle?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Is he one of the Eagles?
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Is he not one of the Eagles?
Speaker 9 (22:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:01):
He gets the ball from from Jailen Hurts all the time.
Now I hate that f an Eagles.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
No, uh, not Eagles the band.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
He was a beach boy. Okay, I was you were close.
You were in the zip code of the time period,
somewhat maybe sort of Wow, all right, Kevin, we started
this thing talking about basketball here as I played that
Bobby Knight clip. Here's another one. But we've had some
(22:32):
h I don't want to say breaking news here, but
with getting hurt earlier tonight. They're calling it a light
hyper extension of his left knee.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Like whoever called it light probably has never hyper incented
their knee before. I'll put it that way.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
It looked painful. Yeah, not as bad as Nikola Jokic
is considering how he had to walk off the floor,
and that was a scary scene, especially for Denver Nuggets.
Fans who are without five of their six top paid players,
like top bread winners on the team.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Is that an issue?
Speaker 4 (23:09):
It could be, it could end up dropping them. I
think this is a situation right now where Denver had
a chance to be the two seed in the Western
Conference because Jamal Murray's been playing like an All Star
and will be an All Star this season. Finally, mind
but Nikola Jokich has been mister reliable for them and
has been able to get them where they need to
(23:29):
go regardless of who's around him. Well, this season they
actually built a team a little bit better. But now
Cameron Johnson is hurt, Aaron Gordon is out, Christian Brown
don't call him Braun is also out, and Jokich was
the one supposed to save them when they have all
these injuries and now he's out.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, it's tough sledding. It's still relatively early, although he's
going to be out for a month, so they say
about four weeks is when he's gonna be reevaluated for
his k the issue. I mean, so that's a large stretch.
I mean you can easily right now they find themselves
sitting in the three seed. I mean they can fall
to five or six by then who knows, and they're
one of those teams. I will say, I think they're
(24:09):
good enough if they are healthy. I don't know if
home court necessarily matters. It takes. It's obviously an advantage
for them in the Mile High City, but just generally speaking,
they're so good and so talented and Yoki is such
a dominant player. Would you prefer to have home court advantage, Absolutely,
but I don't know if it's necessary for them. I
think the important thing for a team like them is
(24:31):
to be as healthy as possible getting into the postseason.
I don't know if it necessarily matters that they have
to be in the top two or three.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
What it does do is open up a possibility for
San Antonio, who right now is a game up on them.
They are in the two spot. We don't know how
long Wemby will be out, if at all, because they're
calling it a light hyper extension. Even if he is, Yeah,
maybe it's a week at most.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
But even if he is, I'm not gonna it sounds
like I'm downplaying his impact, which I'm not going to do.
But does it really matter. They've been They played their
asses off, even when Winby hasn't been there. Yeah, they've
been amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
They Wemby defensively, they're like ten points better per one
hundred possessions when he's on the floor because he guards
half the floor out there. If you thought Revis Islands
was something or Ed Reid back in the day taking
away half the field, well, in basketball terms, that's what
Wemby does out there on the court. There's nothing else
like it.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
No.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
I think it was JDub recently for the OKC Thunder
who put it really matter faculty after they lost to
them three times in twelve days, when nobody else could
beat the Thunder. It's like, yeah, well they have this
guy who you know, is like seven five and guards
half the court out there. It's kind of tough.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
He's not wrong, but it's not just Wemby and Winby
does raise their ceiling. They go from a very good
defensive team to a dominant defensive team when he's in there.
But they have a bunch of other guys who have
been who contributed to them playing as well as they played,
so they if he had to miss a week or two,
I think it kind of lessens a little bit of
the impact. More So, than sant Nicole Yokish being out
(26:02):
for a month for the Denver Nunbers. I think the
Spurs can weather that storm more than Denver.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Camp They've already been used to getting by without him,
going back to last season two and even his rookie year,
because he's been injury prone unfortunately. But this could open
up a chance for the Houston Rockets, or the Lakers
if they could ever get it together, or the Minnesota Timberwolves,
like I say the same for them right now, as
Anthony Edwards was upset earlier and just left the bench
(26:29):
during the game tonight. But the Houston Rockets are really
the team in the driver's seat to take advantage of
these injuries and get a top three seed, because right
now they're game and a half behind Denver, in two
and a half games behind San Antonio. This is their
opportunity to really flex their muscles and shoot up the
Western Conference standings. That's we're forty percent of the way
(26:49):
through the season right now. People think it's too early
to be talking about this. No, no, no, remember Christmas. I
know you guys think that's the annual unofficial tip off
to the NBA season. But we're pretty far along now.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, now, And I believe I brought this up on
our show that we do here on Friday nights on
Fox Sports Radio, just talking about the standings and when
you start scoreboard watching and people talking about games in
November and December and even January for a lot of
people not mattering that much. I just take you back
to the Western Conference standings at the end of last
season and the fact that two games separate at the
(27:23):
three seed from the nine seed. Two games. Yeah, that's
I mean. So you sit here and tell me that
at two or three game losing streak, are losing four
out of five and November doesn't matter. I will fast
forward you to April and tell you the reason why
your team is in a play in contest as opposed
to you know, having home field or home court advantage
in the first round, is because they lost four or
(27:44):
five games in December. These games matter.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
I'll take it a step further with the regular season
with people that just think it's garbage, and they garbage.
I think it's inconsequential. Now that we're in twenty twenty six,
there has not been a team outside of the top
three in either conference over the last thirty years that
has won the championship. Everybody who has won a championship
(28:08):
the last thirty years has been a top three seed.
Because the last team to do it was in nineteen
ninety five with the Houston Rockets. Now we're in twenty six,
you can say it's been thirty years since we've had
anybody outside the top three.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
In their conference.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
If you aren't a top three team in your conference,
history will say you're unserious, You're not winning at all.
You don't have an opportunity to do that. Will somebody
probably breakthrough at some point. You bring up the Denver
Nuggets and how talented they are with the top end
talent with Nikol Jokic when they get healthy. Yeah, I
do feel like they're one of those teams that could
(28:45):
buck that trend. And because we have teams coming out
of the play in the league, the parody all these things,
But so far, it's held true that chock wins in
the end in the NBA, so the regular season and
seeding purposes really matter.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
And I'm say for like the last few games that
the three straight wins that the San Antonios persons have
had overly Oklahoma City Thunder, I guess I wonder if
that that's really gonna hold true if these two teams
actually do me end up meeting in the postseason. I
do think Oklahoma City is one of those teams and
look as look as great as they've been this year,
when they get to the playoffs, they're a team that
can take it to an extra year offensively and defensively,
(29:22):
especially as good as Wimby is. I don't know. I
guess I give them credit for having for having such
success against them so far here in their three matchups
in the regular season, but I still think it's Oklahoma
Cities to lose. Again. It's Oklahoma City versus the field,
and that field includes San Antonio.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Well, up until two weeks ago, I would have said,
as long as they're healthy, okc is fine. There's nobody
else that can compete with them. And I was gonna
talk about more of this tomorrow night too, But there's
something about the way San Antonio matches up with them,
and it reminds me of back in nineteen ninety nine,
(30:02):
the Jacksonville Jaguars lost three games. They lost all three
games to one team in the Tennessee Titans beat them twice.
Division rival in the NFC or what was the AFC.
Was that South back then? Now it was before that
Central maybe. So they lost the two regular season games
against them, and then they lost the AFC championship game
(30:22):
against them. They had their number. And I'm not saying,
like you know, the San Antonio Spurs they can't beat
anybody but Oklahoma City. No, they're good, but they're also
perfectly constructed to beat OKAC because OKC and their major advantage,
and I've been saying this for years, is the one
(30:43):
thing you can rely upon more than most anything else
in sports is their defense, and particularly on the perimeter. Well,
San Antonio has the guards to get by those guys
like nobody else. It doesn't affect them nearly as much.
You look at the amount of turnovers they have against
okay See versus everybody else, as I think okay See
(31:04):
is turning people over like eighteen times per game. Well,
when you have Fox, when you have Harper, when you
have Castle, when you have Devin Faselle, I mean, they
just come at you in waves and they can get
by those defenders. I haven't seen anybody else do it.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yeah, I think there will be an intriguing seven game
series to watch. I will still take Oklahoma City in
that matchup, but San Antonio's coming. They're probably a year
ahead of schedule for as far as I'm concerned. Oh,
with how good they've been and how dominant they've been
this year.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
It remarkable the step that they took. Just being okay
See three times in twelve days is insane to me, honestly,
because at some point okay See has a ton of pride.
They say they want to win every game. Shake giggles,
Alexander's talking about, Yeah, we're fine with breaking the record
seventy three wins. We'd be good with that. And it
looked like they were just gonna walk into seventy wins
(31:52):
this season. And then within less than two weeks a
team finally punched them in the mouth. And it was
this young, up and coming San Antonio team that is
way ahead of schedule.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah, maybe they got humbled a little bit too. When
they go back, they circle the wagons. I don't know
if and when they play again this year. The NBA
schedule is kind of funky when it comes to conferences.
They used to play everybody played each other four times,
and now sometimes you play somebody three times. So I
don't know how many more matchups they have this season,
but that's certainly a playoff matchup I'm looking forward to. Yeah,
and hopefully they're all healthy when we get there.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
We might be seeing this over the next five to
ten years. Yeah. Like I know, we shouldn't look too
far out. Injuries and sports guys could regress, but this
could be a real rivalry. As you see Wemby and Chet,
it's really not from Chet's side, but Wemby just absolutely
loves to irritate him. Every time Chet misses a free throw,
(32:44):
he's out there clapping. Wenby's trying to embrace the villain role.
It's almost like he realized, you know what, the NBA
is missing great rivalries and a guy that will just
go out there and be a dog and be an
irritant And I'm here for it. I love it.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I just need the guy stay on the court. That's
my biggest fear with Wemby. And then maybe it's his build,
or maybe he just had some bad luck, maybe it's
a combination of both, but just I have not been
encouraged by the returns of his the early start to
his career, the amount of games that he's missed because
usually you don't get healthier as you get older. When
you have a body that's built that way, you're probably
(33:21):
more prone to getting injured. So I do fear that.
I hope that's not the case, and I hope he
ends up having a great career and play seventy plus
games a year, But so far he's not trending in
that direction. So that's an area of concern for.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Me as a basketball fan. I pray for Wemby to
stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
We all do, yeah, we all do.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
I know Adam Silver is all right. Coming up next
final segment, we got Breeze three here on the f
and a takeover of the Ben Maller Show on Fox
Sports Radio, and a Cotton welcome back in f and
a in for Ben. I met a Mosley s kipn figures.
(34:02):
Remember with the iHeartRadio app. You know what I did
that one last hour. We don't have to do another
read here, but I do love the iHeartRadio app. You
should use it and you could stream us there. Final
segment of the show, What a save. It's breebree segment,
not one, not.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Two, but three. It's entertainment. It's good, it's Breeze three.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
All right, breath what we got, guys.
Speaker 9 (34:30):
So we talked a lot about bowl games, and I'm
sure you guys saw the pop tart spool last week.
Did you guys see that last weekend of Everybody?
Speaker 6 (34:39):
Okay, well whatever.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
I will after this segment, okay.
Speaker 9 (34:42):
Yes, And so you obviously saw it on Twitter, and
it just kind of got me thinking, like, well, if
you could make your up your own bowl game, like,
what would you do?
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (34:51):
So I said, you could do your favorite like TV show,
your favorite food, your fourth grade teacher, I don't know,
just based on anything that you really really like. So
the first one that I went with, I did a
nineties bowl. Okay, so I did like throwback uniforms for
the teams. Light brights line the field. Do you remember
light brights?
Speaker 4 (35:09):
I saw a bleeping car on the way over that
actually was wrapped in Christmas lights. Yes, that happens, that's normal.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
I've seen like five of them.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
I couldn't believe it. Actually thought it was cool. Okay.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
So like, yeah, he's like a French.
Speaker 9 (35:24):
Yeah, easy bake oven goodies like sold in the stands,
you know kind of thing like it was that kind
of rapping a Blockbuster kind of like rapping over like
the big screens and they show like old movie clips
being played during timeouts.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Yeah you really thought about this?
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, I didn't take it that far. Okay, Okay, okay,
is there a Hollywood video too? No?
Speaker 6 (35:44):
I just did Blockbuster.
Speaker 9 (35:46):
And then my second bowl, I did a Spotify bawl
so green goalpost.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (35:51):
There's a playlist of songs for each team every time
they take the field, black and green uniforms and concerts
in between each quarter, okay, for each genre. Okay, Okay,
Well it's like, you know, just play like one song.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
It's fine, it's weird, It's bon Jovi every quarter cruisy actually.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
Boys, it's fine, okay. And then my last one, I
went a little basic.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
I went.
Speaker 9 (36:16):
I went with like a Tito's vodka bole Okay, so,
like the goalposts are made out of the vodka bole,
like the vodka bottles, Okay, free vodka drinks for the fans,
like obviously they'd have to get cut off like really
really early, but like cute Moscow mules and like you know,
things like that little shots a beige field because like Tito's.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
That's kind of like their you know, like scheme.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Are they sponsoring this segment?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
How many free drinks did you say these for the fans?
Speaker 9 (36:43):
I think like three, Tito's three, you know, and then
like beige uniforms, beije in white uniforms. So those are
my three. I did like a nineties bowl. I did
a Spotify bowl like very like music, and then Tito's
because obviously like booze. Alright, so I'll go Lorena next.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah, minor much simpler than that. I was thinking a
top ramen bowl would be fun.
Speaker 10 (37:05):
They could do like a big hot tub full of hot,
fresh top ramen and the players can get inside and
they can all, you know, slurp some ramen together.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
This is not sanitary.
Speaker 10 (37:13):
I didn't think the beans eating out like I thought
all of them eating out of the same bowl was
a little, a little much.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
I don't even like the tur duck and stuff sometimes
like I grossed.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Out too much tur duckan. I also thought a chocolate
bowl would be fun, kind of similar to your martini bowl.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I thought about that. Yeah, I definitely thought about a
chocolate bowl.
Speaker 10 (37:31):
And I think the costumes could be really cute, like
the uniforms, because you could do like melted chocolate gone
all of them.
Speaker 5 (37:37):
Oh, it looks so cool. My last one would be
Boosy's beaver Bowl.
Speaker 10 (37:40):
I love Boosies and I think we could do like
beaver tails everywhere.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
That'd be super fun. Brisket for everybody.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
You know the Oregon state. They tend to be in
some of.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
These lame Beaver's Baby go Beavers.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Kevin, what do you got?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
All right? So this will never happen, and they don't
advocate a legal drug use of where the substance is
not particularly legal.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
God, I like where this is going. The best bowl
like a weed mass bowl.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Can we do that? How do you have time concert
with Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson?
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
H the dual mascot could be a giant doobie and
maybe a pipe or something crack at it. And so
at the end of the game, the prize, you know,
the Orange Bowl, they give a bowl of oranges to
a bunch of guys rolls. Well, they toss them. Yeah,
I know what you're saying, Adam. You think I'm telling
them to throw blunts to all the players.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Yes, I too.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
No, there's a ginormous blunt that all the players smoke.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Through.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
It's it's a giant puff puff pass session, and then
they get to walk out with a giant bowl of
snacks in their hand as they head to the locker room.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Okay, I mean the concessions would be great. I mean
they would They would make so much money at this ball.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
They could call it the Munchie Bowl, My missile.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Too much marijuana, they know, And if you play like
where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Raymond James, they can
fire off the cannons and the cannons just blow out
a bunch of weed smoke. But that might be a
little bit too much, and there might be kids in
the stands. I don't know if we want to smoke,
So we can't go that far.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Leave your kids at home.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I mean, was that just your first option? Yes?
Speaker 3 (39:11):
So what's my first option?
Speaker 4 (39:13):
Do you got two more?
Speaker 9 (39:14):
Then?
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah? So I have another. I'll go I'll go with
one more because runny short on time. No, no, no, no,
I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Luther,
It's a burger, one burger patty, five slices of bacon, cheese,
fried egg, and the bread for the burger. Two donuts.
How about the Luther Bowl, named after Luther van Drass.
(39:36):
They can play a bunch of Luther Vandrass tracks throughout
the game and whoever wins in order for their team
to get the swag bag, they have to finish an
entire Luther in less than two minutes.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
There goes with my diet in twenty twenty six. You're bowl, You're.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Done at them?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Not bad?
Speaker 3 (39:52):
You got all right?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
I'll go, uh the Mookie Bets Bowl Bowl where I
don't know to win the coin, Like they set up
some big ass pins out there and they have a
little bowling showdown. My thing is just the alliteration here,
Like I'm thinking the bull Bull Bull, the former Phoenix
Sun Bull Bul and he comes out for the coin
(40:16):
flip and he's really tall, so like you're gonna get
great rotation on that. It's gonna be the most random
coin flip of all time. And then also I need
this in my life. The jim Boys Taco Bowl. I
don't even know if they have taco bulls at jim Boys,
but I need jim Boys to stay around, so I
need more people to eat them, So I need them
to sponsor a bowl. And it just rolls right off
(40:39):
the Tongue, jim Boys Taco Bull.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Jim Boys Tacos.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Okay, yeah that'll work.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Gotta work the last great American classic taco I think
they call it.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
You know, I was getting ready to call the wheat
Maps Bowl just the smoke a Bowl Bull, but I
was like, I gotta get an actual, like you know,
business in there, you know what I mean. And I
don't want necessarily encourage smoking like that.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
These ideas say a lot about us. I would say, yeah,
I don't even smoke weed. That's the crazy part.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I I was gonna believe that now they're they're not,
but it's but it's damn near true.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
So thanks Lireina, Thanks to Brebris. I'm at a Masley's
getting figures. Fox will trade you
Hey, thanks for listening to the Ben Mahler Show podcast.
It's me Ben. Be sure to catch us live every
weeknight from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific right here on Fox Sports Radio. You can
find your local station for the Ben Malers Show over
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
That's right. Final hour of the Ben mala Show with
Kevin Figures at kfig one is where you can find
me on X. Adam at follow Adam A is where
you can find him on X. Thank you guys for
joining us here, and Happy New Year to all of
you listening in the air everywhere around the vast Fox
Sports Radio network.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
In the air everywhere, right, Yeah, we miss Ben too,
all right. We love him very much as an honor
to get to fill in for him tonight, He's not in.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
The air everywhere.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I'm sorry. What was that? Ben said that? A little
bit off English?
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Mother, He sounds like our callers.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
It was the caller earlier, Bree. Do we have this
because this is an all time sound drop that I
think we generated in our first drink much night, Kevin,
that's a drop.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It is Bree.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Who is that again? Is that hey? Seabas blind?
Speaker 6 (01:21):
SeaBASS in Nashville?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
So why blinde? Okay, he's actually blind?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Is that? Am I? Am?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
I blind?
Speaker 5 (01:27):
And not seeing the blind listeners?
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Tell me about the seven Toad Woman? That is that
a real caller here on the Ben.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Mallerads Felexus, the seven Toad drag queen.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
A lot going on to that name in that title's.
Speaker 6 (01:42):
She's based out of New York and she's a Vikings fan.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
So we had the nine Told Woman in The Big
Lebowski and he just had to get one toe for
this person. It would be three toes. That's a lot.
That's asking a lot. I don't know. You have to
lose a few different gambling bets for the Sharks to
take off three toes with you. But all right, Kevin,
let's get back into it. Here our college football forecast.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
College football forecast with FNA.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, one more ball remaining of consequence at least coming
up later this afternoon. The Sugar Bowl the Ole Miss
in Georgia, a rematch from earlier in the season, a
shootout was that thirty five to forty two. I believe
the final score was yeah and uh for three to
thirty five. Excuse me.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Ole Miss was up in this game and scored on
their first five possessions until the fourth quarter, where they
were outscored seventeen to nothing. Which is kind of the
calling card with Georgia this year with them dogs, They
are resilient, they come back. They trailed in six of
their seven regular season SEC victories, only loss, of course, Tobama,
(02:49):
which they got back in the SEC Championship against them.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Similar to the rolls ball, I think this is kind
of a bad matchup for ole Miss because also consider
at the time when these two teams played, Georgia was
still kind of figuring some issues out defensively obviously when
you were allowing thirty five points. And by the way,
this is no disrespect to ole Miss and Trinidad. Chambliss
has had a phenomenal season. He's been playing great. But
Georgia's defense is leaps and bounds better, especially rushing the
(03:14):
passer today than they were a couple of months ago
when those two teams played.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
I mean, this is a team to me. Maybe I'm
just it's ingrained with me that Georgia. I always think
of them so highly because well, they won back to
back championships recently, the most recent team to do that.
But for a while, they kept knocking on the door
and losing against Alabama, and really the only team that
Kirby Smart loses to is Alabama. So I've got a
(03:41):
lot of faith in them dogs, especially in this matchup,
as you mentioned, because they've been there, they've done that,
and they had Lane kiffen culling the plays when they
lost that game that they were up big in early on,
and he is a great play caller. They will be
without him. That's a huge storyline we've been talking about
over the last month. So I don't know what advantage
(04:01):
they have considering as you also brought up, Georgia's defense
has been playing much better and they're peaking at the
right time.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, I mean, Ole Miss does have like a people's
team vibe to it. You kind of feel like they're
people have kind of put their support behind them because
of the Lane Kiffin situation, and I like Pete Goldings
seems to have a bit of an edge to him
and as their defensive coordinator, and he's come out and
said all the right things this week and getting the
guys fired up and talking about schematic things and how
they plan to play this game. I think I would
(04:27):
love for Ole Miss to be able to win this
game and continue to advance, mostly just to spurn Lane Kiffin.
But I just don't think that's gonna happen. Yeah, it's
just a bad matchup for them, and they're not gonna
be able to slow down this Georgia offense and Old
Miss's offense. I think it's gonna get stymied a little
bit by an improved Georgia defense. Like you mentioned a second.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Ago, Georgia's defense has allowed just thirty four points in
the second half of games in regulation so far this season.
So when it comes down to conch time in winning time,
I don't know if they have the clutch stats in
college football like you have in the NBA line five
minutes of a game within five points that's deemed clutch time.
But they have been at their best when their best
(05:07):
is required, and that's what wins in these type of situations,
especially if you have the pedigree like they do, and
maybe the best coach left, Kurt Signetti's knocking on the door.
We'll see what happens in this playoff run. But Kirby smart,
he is proven, he is bona fide, and so is Georgia.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You said something last hour about this playoff in general
and the Big Ten and what the perception may be
if they don't advance, if Oregon loses to Texas Tech.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
And man, well that's not forbid. Come on now, well,
I'm just saying, that's not go crazy here. My Ducks
losing to Texas Tech. Okay, it could happen.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, And if Alabama somehow, as I never thought i'd
say this during a football season, basketball season, sure, I
never thought i'd say this. If Alabama pulls the upset
and beats Indiana, Now all of a sudden, we're talking
about no Big Ten representation, no in the final four.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
That would be okay. First of all, the Big Ten
has won the last two championships, one with a four
teamer last year winning the inaugural twelve team playoff championship,
and as the SEC, they haven't even made it to
the championship game the last two years.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
Washington Maylwaskest Michigan against Michigan, and last season it was
Notre Dame against Ohio State, so they're kind of in
a situation where if they don't at least get there,
there are going to be odds on the SEC two.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
So maybe you could say between them and the Big
ten when it comes to conference supremacy going on, they're
both under the hot seat a little bit and under
the microscope.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
To a certain degree. I mean, also, will you talk
about conference supremacy though a lot of it is taken
into amalgam and less of it, unfortunately, is taken into
head to head, say oh, we lost that game, that
doesn't matter. If you look at our conference is better
than your conference top to bottom, and it's like, well,
isn't this what matters most? When you talk about this.
People are not gonna be arguing about who's better between
Mississippi State and Michigan State. All due respect to those programs.
(07:10):
This is the heavy hitters, the best of the best.
What happens when your best face is my best and
right now you know who knows? I mean, it's very
possible that that the big bad Big ten who's been
making a lot of noise and talking about conference or
talking about playoff realignment and who should get automatic bids
and a lot of stuff I agree with, but yeah,
it does take your prestige to a certain degree. Takes
(07:30):
a little bit of hit of a hit if you
don't even make it into the Final four with a
single team making it that deep into the postseason.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Having said that, though Indiana's favored and Oregon is favored,
Georgia favored here and Miami's doing their own thing with
the ACC, Hey don't underestimate that ACC speed. We used
to always talk about the SEC speed, but maybe the
ACC needs a little bit more respect. After tonight, that was.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
ACC power is what that was given. It to O
House stay over and over again, especially in that first half.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I thought I saw Sean Taylor out there, one of
my favorite players ever, rip the legend. But instead it
was what that Nevin Shapiro guy, the booster just wearing
his jersey.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, I mean that Miami defense was hitting on Friday night.
Some of the hits their land on those guys was incredible.
They were fired up.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
I thought I saw Jonathan Wilma out there. I thought,
I ray Lewis out there, Okay, ray Lewis out.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
There was a nice suit, real nice suit.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, I hope he doesn't have to throw that one away. Okay,
let's uh, and it was our last time feeling on
the show, Adam Ashley, but.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
An impressive performance by Miami. Nonetheless, I mean for a
team that a team that people questioned whether or not
they should have even made the postseason, which I thought
was ridiculous. The whole Notre Dame argument shouldn't have been
an argument, I said from day one. If there was
to be an argument, it should have been between Notre
Dame and Alabama. You're right now, I am brilliant, You're right.
And by the way, I also said I would have
taken Alabama to make the playoff over Notre Dame too,
(08:57):
so Notre Dame still would have been pissed off of
someone like me, So that Notre.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Dame, I gotta say. And maybe we can veer in
because we haven't touched upon the follow up with Lincoln
Riley here in his comments this week, But as much
as we have gone after USC, and rightfully so, and
had Petros Papadakas on too to talk about.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It, but trying to bite a real show, we.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Pretty much ripped into USC for twenty minutes.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
I'm also a little bit sick of having to accommodate
for a team that won't join a conference. I understand
why they won't. They got the big TV deal, why
would they want to share it with anyone. But at
the same time, they want this level of respect and
you to come to them and lay down your arms
and say we'll play you on your schedule later in
(09:44):
the season. I'm thinking, like, isn't it two way street?
Shouldn't it be with Notre Dame? Last time I checked,
they haven't won a national championship since nineteen eighty eight,
is correct? Why do we talk about it's almost a
mid off with them in USC and subways. I know
Notre Dame was just their last season. They they were.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Competitive as title game couple been there.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
But okay, yeah, they got there and got wiped out
by Alabama and we knew Notre Dame was gonna get smoked,
and they had some interesting victories that season against Stanford notably,
but Notre Dame to me has probably been the most
overrated team in sports sans last season with them getting
to the championship game, finally improving themselves and they beat
(10:28):
Georgia to get there, and that was impressive. That was
the first time in forever where Notre Dame didn't do
exactly what I thought they were going to do, which
was laid down when the going got tough. And yet
we give them so much respect every season, and they are,
I understand, a golden goose for college football and the
most prestigious, renowned program they have it won in over
(10:52):
forty years. What are we talking about? USC's gone like
twenty years. Notre Dame were you're talking forty years.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I feel like you could take Notre Dame out to
insert Dallas Cowboys and just have the exact same argument,
you know, as far as notoriety and prestige and how
much people talk about you and why you expect all
these things. You're right, though, the problem is Notre Dame
viuse himself a little bit as this like Marquee franchise
or Marquee that you should hold it at a highest
team at the college football level, then they really shouldn't
(11:24):
be at this point. And like there's talk, there's been
reporting over the past couple of weeks that there are
schools who just don't want to schedule them. It's like,
all right, if you want to play tough, you're an independent,
you have to make your own schedule. How about we
just don't play you.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
So wait a second. The team that is independent, that
gets to make their own schedule, that probably has the
most flexible schedule because of that, is the one demanding
you play them on their terms.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yep, that kind of bothers me.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Right, I'm not trying to take USC's side here, but
there may be a little bit more blame to go around.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well. I find it interesting and Lincoln Riley's comments earlier
this week, you know, saying that, look, we told Notre
Dame told us they play us anytime, anywhere, and we
held them to that, and then the narrative changed. Now,
maybe there was a response from Pepavaqua or someone else
at Notre Dame. I haven't seen that response or hurt
that response. Maybe they're just done with it and ready
to move on at this point in time. But I mean,
(12:17):
if that is true, And look, Jen Cohen said this,
the athletic director at USC, We wanted to play them
in Week zero to start the season, and they said
no to it.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
That has to be approved by the NCAA, though too
right to get a week zero game. There's some funny
stuff going on with Week zero. Not as simple.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
They're not going to approve that if the SE and
Notre Dame say that we want to play on week
zero or make it week one. USC really just wants
to play that game before they get into their conference schedule,
which is within the first three to four weeks of
the season. So if it's not week zero, maybe it's
week one, maybe it's week three. They just want to
play it earlier before conference schedule begins. It makes sense
to me. I don't know why that's such a big deal.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Do you think it's in earnest though? Or they knew
that Notre Dame wouldn't do it, And this is USC
trying to save a little bit of face and saying, well,
we gave them a three week window, we gave them
something knowing that Notre Dame would never go for it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That is the counter argument that I've heard, And maybe
I guess the question is why would Notre Dame go
for it? What's the what do you?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Because they want everyone to bow and bend the knee
for them because of their brand, So whose.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Fault is that? I agree it's fault. So I don't
want to play the USC for that. It is like
we're still willing to play you but our situation changed yours,
by the way, hasn't you've decided not to join the
a SEC as a full member. You do have a
part of their schedule, Adam, because they have this scheduling
to deal with the ACC. They play five games a
year for ACC teams, so those are slotted. But they
(13:41):
still have the rest of their schedule completely wide open
where they can schedule anybody wherever they want.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
And it's still four less games that USC is required
to play in the Big Ten where they don't make
their schedule like Notre Dame. Right, So I'm not saying
that Notre Dame or USC are right or wrong.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
I understand both perspectives on it, but if I'm going
to lean towards one side versus who gets more blame
than another a Notre Dame is not denying that USC
has offered to play the game earlier in the season.
They've not denied that was that was the claim. So
they're just saying like, well, they didn't want to continue
the series. No, they didn't want to continue with on
your terms, And why am I going to sit here
and be dictated by you terms to me?
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I don't have to like it's a. It's a little
bit petty what's happening between both sides. But if I'm
USC and I have to play a conference schedule in
a damn good conference, I don't know if it benefits
me much to have to also take on what's going
to be a good, solid Notre Dame team that is competitive,
(14:39):
that is a contender, that has, by the way, their
own little loophole into making the college football Playoff that
nobody else has. Why are all the rules in their
favor because they're a money maker for college football. It's
as simple as that, and everybody has to help them out.
The USC felt like, I don't we don't care. We're
not going to help.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You college fotball. The CFP shouldn't care, which, by the way,
I guess by as evidence by the fact that they
left them out kind of shows you to a certain
degree like the playoff is gonna make money almost regardless
of who's there. Would Notre Dame help, sure, But the
train keeps moving. And if the CFP actually wanted to
sack up and come together and say like no, no,
(15:19):
no longer are we having Notre Dame dictate to us
what happens if you want to be a part of
this thing. Here is what is required of you to
be a part of it. If you don't have fun
playing the Citrus Bowl against whoever at the end of
the season.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I think we might be because we're on the older side.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Now.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I hate that. I say that, no, no, this can't
happen to us. I remember when they were turning thirty
in Friends, Joey freaked out and he's like, God, why
would you let us get this old? How could this
happen to me? So you're thirty last?
Speaker 5 (15:52):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Old man. I do think maybe there is a little
bit of I guess just internal bias with us because
we live in southern California and we've been so critical
of USC for so many things over the years that
we are quick to take anyone else's side in an
(16:14):
argument with USC when I could easily see where they're
coming from in that. Okay, I think they play Oregon,
Ohio State in Indiana next year. All three of those
teams are on their schedule. One of those teams might
be better than the best team that Notre Dame plays
on their schedule this season. If i'm USC, I might
(16:35):
so now I have to play Notre Dame too, because
why when I'm being judged on not if I beat
Notre Dame anymore during the regular season, it's you're being
judged on making the playoff, right, That's it. That's that's
what modern fans care about. We might be a little
bit too old school in thinking that, oh, you have
to keep this rivalry going, and this is bigger than
(16:57):
anything else. And I get Petros's argument that the play
off could change in all these things, but we know
it is still the new measuring stick of how your
season went and whether or not it was a success or.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
A failure, and you just want to make that road
as easy for yourself as possible. And again, it's not
like they said they didn't want to play them anymore,
where Lincoln Riley got himself in hot waters when he
brought this up last year and brought up the possibility
of them not playing it anymore. If Lincoln Riley had
said from day one, it's like, yeah, we you know,
love the rivalry, want to continue to play the game,
but the format just has to be a little bit different.
The roadmap has changed for USC. But he came out
(17:34):
from day one and basically said, I don't know if
the game can continue, and when he when he planned
that initial seed, that's what kind of started the ball
rolling on all of this. So now the perception is
that USC you know, is trying to say face with
what they're saying now as opposed to genuinely saying we
want to play you. We just don't want to play
you in the middle of our Big ten schedule.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
And look, he continues to step in it with the
loss of TCU happening during the week while he was
questioned about Notre Dame and came out and gave their
side of the story. It looks even worse now. But
I've been checking some of the comments with the younger
fan base, or what I assume is the younger fan base,
because they're all over social media responding to these viral
(18:11):
videos and Brady Quinn talking about it and Petro's talking
about it and us talking about it now, and a
lot of them just say, we don't care about Notre Dame. Well,
we want to make the playoff. And if you have
to play those three teams Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State,
you probably gotta win at least maybe two of those games.
(18:32):
You gotta win one.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
You're at Indiana and at Penn State and back to
back weeks. Next year.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
They have Matt Campbell. Now, like, we don't know what
they're gonna look like. That could be really competitive.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
They're gonna have talent at the back end of your
season Ohio State, Oregon Washington back to back games.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
If Notre Dame or if the perception is you guys
are ducking us, I'm not hearing that from a team
that is ducking. Joining a conference and especially one as
good as the.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Big Ten so they can continue to play Stanford and
no disrespect to our servicemen. But like Navy every single year.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Yeah you know what I mean, sunk their battleship a
while ago.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Like, I'm sorry, but I see a lot of problems
on both sides with this situation. Maybe we made too
much of it because we're in southern California out of
USC and their position and Notre Dame also deserves plenty
of criticism.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, I'd always fell more on the side than the
Notre Dame bears more of the responsibility in this than USC,
because USC says we're still willing to play it. We
just want to change the date. Notre Dame says, you
want to play it, we're gonna be We're gonna be
really rigid about it, and if you don't want, we'll
take our ball and go home. And that's exactly what
they did, because we're Notre Dame, and it's ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
I'm kind of tired of everyone acquiescing to them.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
So maybe I'm bitter.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Because I've had to watch them so much and underperform
in big situations when they're overhyped, going into every single seat.
He's gonna take this thing full circle. Coming up next
here on the f and A takeover the Ben Mallor Show,
Nikola Jokich has a knee injury. Wemby has a knee
injury now too. How do these two big men and
(20:15):
their injuries affect the rest of the conference standings? Since
we've been talking about conference standings all night, We'll tell you.
He's Kevin Figures. I'm Adam allslin Fna in for Ben
Mallor here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 8 (20:37):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions
on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help
you win big at the sports book, and all the
best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight
(21:00):
Fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts differ amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Then you don't know anything about basketball fn A, Cotton,
Kevin Figures, Adam Auslin, fn A The f and a
takeover of the Ben Mathers Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Is this spawn Jovi? God, what are we doing here?
Let's leave him? In twenty twenty five? This kid in
that's Breez's favorite. Hey smile, Brie was not the name
of his album sucked yea smile.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You swept the Panthers this year. It's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
That is a big deal.
Speaker 9 (21:40):
His album I was have an Icja, but that wasn't
the vinyl you Got Me, You Got Me something from
like nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Wait a second, I'm a dumb ass smile as Brian
Wilson's album.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I'm a dumb ass.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Oh yeah, you were away off.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
I'll take the al there. We don't even know who
that is.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Good.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
He's an Eagle?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Is he one of the Eagles?
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Is he not one of the Eagles?
Speaker 9 (22:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:01):
He gets the ball from from Jailen Hurts all the time.
Now I hate that f an Eagles.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
No, uh, not Eagles the band.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
He was a beach boy. Okay, I was you were close.
You were in the zip code of the time period,
somewhat maybe sort of Wow, all right, Kevin, we started
this thing talking about basketball here as I played that
Bobby Knight clip. Here's another one. But we've had some
(22:32):
h I don't want to say breaking news here, but
with getting hurt earlier tonight. They're calling it a light
hyper extension of his left knee.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Like whoever called it light probably has never hyper incented
their knee before. I'll put it that way.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
It looked painful. Yeah, not as bad as Nikola Jokic
is considering how he had to walk off the floor,
and that was a scary scene, especially for Denver Nuggets.
Fans who are without five of their six top paid players,
like top bread winners on the team.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Is that an issue?
Speaker 4 (23:09):
It could be, it could end up dropping them. I
think this is a situation right now where Denver had
a chance to be the two seed in the Western
Conference because Jamal Murray's been playing like an All Star
and will be an All Star this season. Finally, mind
but Nikola Jokich has been mister reliable for them and
has been able to get them where they need to
(23:29):
go regardless of who's around him. Well, this season they
actually built a team a little bit better. But now
Cameron Johnson is hurt, Aaron Gordon is out, Christian Brown
don't call him Braun is also out, and Jokich was
the one supposed to save them when they have all
these injuries and now he's out.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, it's tough sledding. It's still relatively early, although he's
going to be out for a month, so they say
about four weeks is when he's gonna be reevaluated for
his k the issue. I mean, so that's a large stretch.
I mean you can easily right now they find themselves
sitting in the three seed. I mean they can fall
to five or six by then who knows, and they're
one of those teams. I will say, I think they're
(24:09):
good enough if they are healthy. I don't know if
home court necessarily matters. It takes. It's obviously an advantage
for them in the Mile High City, but just generally speaking,
they're so good and so talented and Yoki is such
a dominant player. Would you prefer to have home court advantage, Absolutely,
but I don't know if it's necessary for them. I
think the important thing for a team like them is
(24:31):
to be as healthy as possible getting into the postseason.
I don't know if it necessarily matters that they have
to be in the top two or three.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
What it does do is open up a possibility for
San Antonio, who right now is a game up on them.
They are in the two spot. We don't know how
long Wemby will be out, if at all, because they're
calling it a light hyper extension. Even if he is, Yeah,
maybe it's a week at most.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
But even if he is, I'm not gonna it sounds
like I'm downplaying his impact, which I'm not going to do.
But does it really matter. They've been They played their
asses off, even when Winby hasn't been there. Yeah, they've
been amazing.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
They Wemby defensively, they're like ten points better per one
hundred possessions when he's on the floor because he guards
half the floor out there. If you thought Revis Islands
was something or Ed Reid back in the day taking
away half the field, well, in basketball terms, that's what
Wemby does out there on the court. There's nothing else
like it.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
No.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
I think it was JDub recently for the OKC Thunder
who put it really matter faculty after they lost to
them three times in twelve days, when nobody else could
beat the Thunder. It's like, yeah, well they have this
guy who you know, is like seven five and guards
half the court out there. It's kind of tough.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
He's not wrong, but it's not just Wemby and Winby
does raise their ceiling. They go from a very good
defensive team to a dominant defensive team when he's in there.
But they have a bunch of other guys who have
been who contributed to them playing as well as they played,
so they if he had to miss a week or two,
I think it kind of lessens a little bit of
the impact. More So, than sant Nicole Yokish being out
(26:02):
for a month for the Denver Nunbers. I think the
Spurs can weather that storm more than Denver.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Camp They've already been used to getting by without him,
going back to last season two and even his rookie year,
because he's been injury prone unfortunately. But this could open
up a chance for the Houston Rockets, or the Lakers
if they could ever get it together, or the Minnesota Timberwolves,
like I say the same for them right now, as
Anthony Edwards was upset earlier and just left the bench
(26:29):
during the game tonight. But the Houston Rockets are really
the team in the driver's seat to take advantage of
these injuries and get a top three seed, because right
now they're game and a half behind Denver, in two
and a half games behind San Antonio. This is their
opportunity to really flex their muscles and shoot up the
Western Conference standings. That's we're forty percent of the way
(26:49):
through the season right now. People think it's too early
to be talking about this. No, no, no, remember Christmas. I
know you guys think that's the annual unofficial tip off
to the NBA season. But we're pretty far along now.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, now, And I believe I brought this up on
our show that we do here on Friday nights on
Fox Sports Radio, just talking about the standings and when
you start scoreboard watching and people talking about games in
November and December and even January for a lot of
people not mattering that much. I just take you back
to the Western Conference standings at the end of last
season and the fact that two games separate at the
(27:23):
three seed from the nine seed. Two games. Yeah, that's
I mean. So you sit here and tell me that
at two or three game losing streak, are losing four
out of five and November doesn't matter. I will fast
forward you to April and tell you the reason why
your team is in a play in contest as opposed
to you know, having home field or home court advantage
in the first round, is because they lost four or
(27:44):
five games in December. These games matter.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
I'll take it a step further with the regular season
with people that just think it's garbage, and they garbage.
I think it's inconsequential. Now that we're in twenty twenty six,
there has not been a team outside of the top
three in either conference over the last thirty years that
has won the championship. Everybody who has won a championship
(28:08):
the last thirty years has been a top three seed.
Because the last team to do it was in nineteen
ninety five with the Houston Rockets. Now we're in twenty six,
you can say it's been thirty years since we've had
anybody outside the top three.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
In their conference.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
If you aren't a top three team in your conference,
history will say you're unserious, You're not winning at all.
You don't have an opportunity to do that. Will somebody
probably breakthrough at some point. You bring up the Denver
Nuggets and how talented they are with the top end
talent with Nikol Jokic when they get healthy. Yeah, I
do feel like they're one of those teams that could
(28:45):
buck that trend. And because we have teams coming out
of the play in the league, the parody all these things,
But so far, it's held true that chock wins in
the end in the NBA, so the regular season and
seeding purposes really matter.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
And I'm say for like the last few games that
the three straight wins that the San Antonios persons have
had overly Oklahoma City Thunder, I guess I wonder if
that that's really gonna hold true if these two teams
actually do me end up meeting in the postseason. I
do think Oklahoma City is one of those teams and
look as look as great as they've been this year,
when they get to the playoffs, they're a team that
can take it to an extra year offensively and defensively,
(29:22):
especially as good as Wimby is. I don't know. I
guess I give them credit for having for having such
success against them so far here in their three matchups
in the regular season, but I still think it's Oklahoma
Cities to lose. Again. It's Oklahoma City versus the field,
and that field includes San Antonio.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Well, up until two weeks ago, I would have said,
as long as they're healthy, okc is fine. There's nobody
else that can compete with them. And I was gonna
talk about more of this tomorrow night too, But there's
something about the way San Antonio matches up with them,
and it reminds me of back in nineteen ninety nine,
(30:02):
the Jacksonville Jaguars lost three games. They lost all three
games to one team in the Tennessee Titans beat them twice.
Division rival in the NFC or what was the AFC.
Was that South back then? Now it was before that
Central maybe. So they lost the two regular season games
against them, and then they lost the AFC championship game
(30:22):
against them. They had their number. And I'm not saying,
like you know, the San Antonio Spurs they can't beat
anybody but Oklahoma City. No, they're good, but they're also
perfectly constructed to beat OKAC because OKC and their major advantage,
and I've been saying this for years, is the one
(30:43):
thing you can rely upon more than most anything else
in sports is their defense, and particularly on the perimeter. Well,
San Antonio has the guards to get by those guys
like nobody else. It doesn't affect them nearly as much.
You look at the amount of turnovers they have against
okay See versus everybody else, as I think okay See
(31:04):
is turning people over like eighteen times per game. Well,
when you have Fox, when you have Harper, when you
have Castle, when you have Devin Faselle, I mean, they
just come at you in waves and they can get
by those defenders. I haven't seen anybody else do it.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yeah, I think there will be an intriguing seven game
series to watch. I will still take Oklahoma City in
that matchup, but San Antonio's coming. They're probably a year
ahead of schedule for as far as I'm concerned. Oh,
with how good they've been and how dominant they've been
this year.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
It remarkable the step that they took. Just being okay
See three times in twelve days is insane to me, honestly,
because at some point okay See has a ton of pride.
They say they want to win every game. Shake giggles,
Alexander's talking about, Yeah, we're fine with breaking the record
seventy three wins. We'd be good with that. And it
looked like they were just gonna walk into seventy wins
(31:52):
this season. And then within less than two weeks a
team finally punched them in the mouth. And it was
this young, up and coming San Antonio team that is
way ahead of schedule.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah, maybe they got humbled a little bit too. When
they go back, they circle the wagons. I don't know
if and when they play again this year. The NBA
schedule is kind of funky when it comes to conferences.
They used to play everybody played each other four times,
and now sometimes you play somebody three times. So I
don't know how many more matchups they have this season,
but that's certainly a playoff matchup I'm looking forward to. Yeah,
and hopefully they're all healthy when we get there.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
We might be seeing this over the next five to
ten years. Yeah. Like I know, we shouldn't look too
far out. Injuries and sports guys could regress, but this
could be a real rivalry. As you see Wemby and Chet,
it's really not from Chet's side, but Wemby just absolutely
loves to irritate him. Every time Chet misses a free throw,
(32:44):
he's out there clapping. Wenby's trying to embrace the villain role.
It's almost like he realized, you know what, the NBA
is missing great rivalries and a guy that will just
go out there and be a dog and be an
irritant And I'm here for it. I love it.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I just need the guy stay on the court. That's
my biggest fear with Wemby. And then maybe it's his build,
or maybe he just had some bad luck, maybe it's
a combination of both, but just I have not been
encouraged by the returns of his the early start to
his career, the amount of games that he's missed because
usually you don't get healthier as you get older. When
you have a body that's built that way, you're probably
(33:21):
more prone to getting injured. So I do fear that.
I hope that's not the case, and I hope he
ends up having a great career and play seventy plus
games a year, But so far he's not trending in
that direction. So that's an area of concern for.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
Me as a basketball fan. I pray for Wemby to
stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
We all do, yeah, we all do.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
I know Adam Silver is all right. Coming up next
final segment, we got Breeze three here on the f
and a takeover of the Ben Maller Show on Fox
Sports Radio, and a Cotton welcome back in f and
a in for Ben. I met a Mosley s kipn figures.
(34:02):
Remember with the iHeartRadio app. You know what I did
that one last hour. We don't have to do another
read here, but I do love the iHeartRadio app. You
should use it and you could stream us there. Final
segment of the show, What a save. It's breebree segment,
not one, not.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Two, but three. It's entertainment. It's good, it's Breeze three.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
All right, breath what we got, guys.
Speaker 9 (34:30):
So we talked a lot about bowl games, and I'm
sure you guys saw the pop tart spool last week.
Did you guys see that last weekend of Everybody?
Speaker 6 (34:39):
Okay, well whatever.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
I will after this segment, okay.
Speaker 9 (34:42):
Yes, And so you obviously saw it on Twitter, and
it just kind of got me thinking, like, well, if
you could make your up your own bowl game, like,
what would you do?
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (34:51):
So I said, you could do your favorite like TV show,
your favorite food, your fourth grade teacher, I don't know,
just based on anything that you really really like. So
the first one that I went with, I did a
nineties bowl. Okay, so I did like throwback uniforms for
the teams. Light brights line the field. Do you remember
light brights?
Speaker 4 (35:09):
I saw a bleeping car on the way over that
actually was wrapped in Christmas lights. Yes, that happens, that's normal.
Speaker 6 (35:17):
I've seen like five of them.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
I couldn't believe it. Actually thought it was cool. Okay.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
So like, yeah, he's like a French.
Speaker 9 (35:24):
Yeah, easy bake oven goodies like sold in the stands,
you know kind of thing like it was that kind
of rapping a Blockbuster kind of like rapping over like
the big screens and they show like old movie clips
being played during timeouts.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Yeah you really thought about this?
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, I didn't take it that far. Okay, Okay, okay,
is there a Hollywood video too? No?
Speaker 6 (35:44):
I just did Blockbuster.
Speaker 9 (35:46):
And then my second bowl, I did a Spotify bawl
so green goalpost.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Okay.
Speaker 9 (35:51):
There's a playlist of songs for each team every time
they take the field, black and green uniforms and concerts
in between each quarter, okay, for each genre. Okay, Okay,
Well it's like, you know, just play like one song.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
It's fine, it's weird, It's bon Jovi every quarter cruisy actually.
Speaker 9 (36:12):
Boys, it's fine, okay. And then my last one, I
went a little basic.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
I went.
Speaker 9 (36:16):
I went with like a Tito's vodka bole Okay, so,
like the goalposts are made out of the vodka bole,
like the vodka bottles, Okay, free vodka drinks for the fans,
like obviously they'd have to get cut off like really
really early, but like cute Moscow mules and like you know,
things like that little shots a beige field because like Tito's.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
That's kind of like their you know, like scheme.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Are they sponsoring this segment?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
How many free drinks did you say these for the fans?
Speaker 9 (36:43):
I think like three, Tito's three, you know, and then
like beige uniforms, beije in white uniforms. So those are
my three. I did like a nineties bowl. I did
a Spotify bowl like very like music, and then Tito's
because obviously like booze. Alright, so I'll go Lorena next.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah, minor much simpler than that. I was thinking a
top ramen bowl would be fun.
Speaker 10 (37:05):
They could do like a big hot tub full of hot,
fresh top ramen and the players can get inside and
they can all, you know, slurp some ramen together.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
This is not sanitary.
Speaker 10 (37:13):
I didn't think the beans eating out like I thought
all of them eating out of the same bowl was
a little, a little much.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
I don't even like the tur duck and stuff sometimes
like I grossed.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Out too much tur duckan. I also thought a chocolate
bowl would be fun, kind of similar to your martini bowl.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I thought about that. Yeah, I definitely thought about a
chocolate bowl.
Speaker 10 (37:31):
And I think the costumes could be really cute, like
the uniforms, because you could do like melted chocolate gone
all of them.
Speaker 5 (37:37):
Oh, it looks so cool. My last one would be
Boosy's beaver Bowl.
Speaker 10 (37:40):
I love Boosies and I think we could do like
beaver tails everywhere.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
That'd be super fun. Brisket for everybody.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
You know the Oregon state. They tend to be in
some of.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
These lame Beaver's Baby go Beavers.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Kevin, what do you got?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
All right? So this will never happen, and they don't
advocate a legal drug use of where the substance is
not particularly legal.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
God, I like where this is going. The best bowl
like a weed mass bowl.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Can we do that? How do you have time concert
with Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson?
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
H the dual mascot could be a giant doobie and
maybe a pipe or something crack at it. And so
at the end of the game, the prize, you know,
the Orange Bowl, they give a bowl of oranges to
a bunch of guys rolls. Well, they toss them. Yeah,
I know what you're saying, Adam. You think I'm telling
them to throw blunts to all the players.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
Yes, I too.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
No, there's a ginormous blunt that all the players smoke.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Through.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
It's it's a giant puff puff pass session, and then
they get to walk out with a giant bowl of
snacks in their hand as they head to the locker room.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Okay, I mean the concessions would be great. I mean
they would They would make so much money at this ball.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
They could call it the Munchie Bowl, My missile.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Too much marijuana, they know, And if you play like
where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Raymond James, they can
fire off the cannons and the cannons just blow out
a bunch of weed smoke. But that might be a
little bit too much, and there might be kids in
the stands. I don't know if we want to smoke,
So we can't go that far.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Leave your kids at home.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I mean, was that just your first option? Yes?
Speaker 3 (39:11):
So what's my first option?
Speaker 4 (39:13):
Do you got two more?
Speaker 9 (39:14):
Then?
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah? So I have another. I'll go I'll go with
one more because runny short on time. No, no, no, no,
I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Luther,
It's a burger, one burger patty, five slices of bacon, cheese,
fried egg, and the bread for the burger. Two donuts.
How about the Luther Bowl, named after Luther van Drass.
(39:36):
They can play a bunch of Luther Vandrass tracks throughout
the game and whoever wins in order for their team
to get the swag bag, they have to finish an
entire Luther in less than two minutes.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
There goes with my diet in twenty twenty six. You're bowl, You're.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Done at them?
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Not bad?
Speaker 3 (39:52):
You got all right?
Speaker 4 (39:53):
I'll go, uh the Mookie Bets Bowl Bowl where I
don't know to win the coin, Like they set up
some big ass pins out there and they have a
little bowling showdown. My thing is just the alliteration here,
Like I'm thinking the bull Bull Bull, the former Phoenix
Sun Bull Bul and he comes out for the coin
(40:16):
flip and he's really tall, so like you're gonna get
great rotation on that. It's gonna be the most random
coin flip of all time. And then also I need
this in my life. The jim Boys Taco Bowl. I
don't even know if they have taco bulls at jim Boys,
but I need jim Boys to stay around, so I
need more people to eat them, So I need them
to sponsor a bowl. And it just rolls right off
(40:39):
the Tongue, jim Boys Taco Bull.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Jim Boys Tacos.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Okay, yeah that'll work.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Gotta work the last great American classic taco I think
they call it.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
You know, I was getting ready to call the wheat
Maps Bowl just the smoke a Bowl Bull, but I
was like, I gotta get an actual, like you know,
business in there, you know what I mean. And I
don't want necessarily encourage smoking like that.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
These ideas say a lot about us. I would say, yeah,
I don't even smoke weed. That's the crazy part.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I I was gonna believe that now they're they're not,
but it's but it's damn near true.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
So thanks Lireina, Thanks to Brebris. I'm at a Masley's
getting figures. Fox will trade you
Host
Ben Maller
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