March 31, 2025 • 23 mins
On today's episode, Jason reacts to all 4 1-seeds making the Final Four. Jason dives deep into both of the semifinal matchups and gives his picks for the championship game. What in the world happened between the Grizzlies and Taylor Jenkins? Plus, more NFL teams are coming forward to support banning the tush push, and Nick Sirianni gets too candid over the proposal!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up straight Fire, Pamp. It's me Jason back
attire Straight Fire for Monday, March thirty. First, I had
to check the calendar. Folks didn't know if it was
April first yet or not. Obviously, April Fools Day's coming up.
Don't fall for any of that nonsense. It's a good
day to stay off social media because people try to
(00:31):
be funny and get get you on April Fools jokes.
I will say the one time I got on April
Fool's Day by the wife. So it was when I
had this Saturday morning radio show, right and it was
opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. I do the show
in the studio, you know, I was doing like it
was I think the seven to ten AM show, and
(00:55):
then I would race back and I would have all
weekend to watch the college basketball the tournament. And as
I'm driving back, the wife texts, I can't believe this.
We just lost power, and I was like, oh, hopefully
it's back by the time I get home. And I
wasn't thinking April Fools. It just got done. The radio
show was they get brackets and bets and all the
(01:15):
fun stuff. So I get home, I walk in the door.
Is it power back? And They're like no, And I'm like,
oh my gosh, what am I am? I going to
go to Starbucks? Do I go to a bar? I mean,
it's like ten forty five am. And then the family's
like silent, and I'm like, guys, have you tried? And
they like start laughing. They couldn't contain it, and finally
(01:37):
they were like April fools. I was like, ooh, you
guys got me good. I was legitimately nervous. This is
how I get people, This is how I get March
Madness is such so clutch. However, I will say, let's
obviously this will be a March Madness heavy pod with
the small dose of maybe NFL as there's it sounds
like the toast push is gonna get banned. I did
not know that was on the table, and it sounds
(01:58):
like there's momentum from around the world league to squash it. Anyways,
So you guys know, I love March Madness. But just
as luck would have it, there was a local youth
basketball tournament this weekend. Now I'd never entered it. I
think I told you guys. I heard about it via
somebody emailed me and was like, hey, do you got
you want to enter a team. I was like, oh, sure,
I don't know how they got my email, but you know,
(02:18):
I'm kind of a big deal. Just kidding. Okay, So
we enter this tournament. I have no idea what to expect,
but we get like a pretty damn good team of
all stars. We just don't have a lot of size.
So I'm nervous as hell leading up to it, trying
to get scouting reports. We go out first game Friday night,
we fall behind two nothing, and I'm instantly I'm like,
oh damn, the team's big, and we proceed to beat them,
(02:40):
like twenty seven to nine.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
It was light work.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And then I'm starting to feel good about it, but
I still didn't know about the other two teams. And
then the coach at the end, are you ready for this?
The coach tells me. I was like, coach, what do
you know about the other two teams? And he's like, well,
one of them's okay, but then the other one they
beat us in a tournament. They've been playing together for
a few months. I was like, oh, what are they
good at? And he legitimately goes, I'm not gonna say
his name, but he actually says, oh, they'll break your
(03:05):
press in like three seconds. They've got like grown women,
like girls with sea cups, and me and my assistant
coach like looking at tell like, okay, all right, there
you go. Sixth grade, all right. So anyways, we only
have five players for our second game. We and it
turns out we were playing the weakest team. We win
fifty seven to twenty six. Now I wasn't there. I
was at my daughter's volleyball tournament. This is what dads do.
If you're under the age of thirty listening to this,
(03:28):
just get ready. You'll have sports tournaments if your kids
play sports. And if you're listening to this, you're probably
a sports fan and you probably have a sports background,
and your kids will be playing sports. Anyways, so finally
Saturday evening, we go up against the team that apparently
was very good and at the same time was Elite
(03:48):
eight action. Fortunately for me, it wasn't the start of
the duke game yet. I only missed like the first
five minutes of the duke game. However, as I get
ready to go and coaches game, you know, kids are
warming up. I let me just check the score. Texas
Tech was up seventy one sixty fourth, like three minutes off.
So I was like, oh damn, that's great for my
bracket contest. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So fired up.
(04:12):
Then I don't look at the phone because I am
that nerdy dude who sets up his phone in a
tripod and records part of the game, you know, the
offensive end, so I can see what we're doing right
and wrong. Blah blah blah. This game superheated. We're up
thirteen ten at halftime, and then our best player shows
up coming from a club game, and she is a
wonder kid, and we end up winning. But I was
nervous because it meant we had to play them in
(04:32):
the championship the next day. This is Sunday. Now. This
was during what was the oh, the Houston Tennessee game,
which was total garbage. That was why I one whiff
of the Elite eight. Everything else pretty much went in
cording to form I thought Tennessee. I just didn't believe
in Houston, and I should have not believed in Rick Barnes. Anyways,
we played this team and our best player, the wonder kid.
(04:54):
She had a club game at the exact same time,
and the dad was like, you know, I'm gonna let
her pick. I know, she had a lot of fun
with you guys, but she's been on this club team
for like three or four years. I was like, all right,
and then she picks the club team and I get it.
You know whatever, you've been with them. They were in
a championship bracket as well, and I'm a little nervous.
You know, we don't have our best player, a point guard,
and we're trailing most of the game, and you know,
(05:16):
Nerdy Jason. Again, nobody plays really man to man in
sixth grade. There's a lot of zones, traps, full core press,
and this team yesterday we cooked their one or Saturday
we beat their one to two press easily. So they
went to a two to three and it took our
girls a little bit because we only had one practice together.
And at halftime we made some adjustments and then we
(05:37):
make the comeback, heated game down the stretch without our
star point guard. We had a bunch of turnovers in
the back court leading by one or sorry yeah, leading
by one, and they end up tying it up and
we get the ball with eight seconds left to go
to length to the floor, and the gym was crazy
because it was one of those tournaments where like they
(05:57):
have a DJ in the corner playing super loud muse
getting the crowd all riled up. This is the largest
crowd any of these girls have ever played in front of.
It was loud there. I came home and had a
headache Sunday for like three hours after it. And Uh,
this girl, you know, I'm tight with the dad. She's
a point guard on our local team. And she darts
up the court and with like one point five seconds left,
(06:20):
just tries to chuck up a three. He had no
chance of going in and the girl foulser but her
foot was on the line, so she had two free throws,
makes the first and everybody loses their mind.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We're winning.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And then they missed like a half court shot at
the buzzer and we win, and it was It was
an awesome experience. I can't stress this enough.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Folks.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
If you have the opportunity to coach a kid, you've
got to do it, because as soon as they are
done with middle school, it's over. You know, they're on
too high school. They don't want to hang out with you,
talk to you, and now I'm getting way too deep
into dad life, but I had to do that because dude,
there was like no Elite eight drama at all all
weekend and the final four set, it's not a shocker.
We get the four number one seeds. The one goody
(07:00):
lead eight game was Texas Tech Florida. Now this is
a something so smart in that game happened. So Florida
was down by actually nine with about three minutes left,
and they did then Walter Clayton kind of sort of
took over, but they did a smart thing. They did
the hack a shack quickly, and Houston had bad free
(07:22):
throw shooters going the line for one on one and
both of them missed. Now Florida came down and instantly
got threes, which made it crazy. But as much as
Texas Tech had an incredible rally on was it Friday night, Thursday, Friday?
I forget Thursday or Friday to stun Arkansas, Florida had
an equally impressive rally to stun Texas Tech and win
(07:43):
by five. Did not cover. But it was one of
those like you just got to think on your feet
and again, if you guys have coached your kids. You know,
in the heat of the moment, it's tough to make
instant decisions because you've also got to deal with the subbing,
who's in foul trouble? How many times there's a lot
going on it is. Coaching is so freaking fun.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Anyways, So Florida's in. They will face Auburn now again.
This Jeni Broom situation bears monitoring. He goes down against Sparty,
it looks like his knee kind of buckled and then
his arm kind of got hyperx. I don't exactly know
how to phrase it, but it looked terrifying boom. The
cameras are on him and he says to his teammates,
(08:33):
I'm done, goes to the locker room. Then he comes back.
So I bet Michigan State plus ten and which cast
which was a good hit, And then he comes back
in and ends up hitting a three. It was pretty awesome.
He was getting like one arm rebounds. So I haven't
seen an official report. I'm guessing he'll get an MRI.
I'm just saying I automatically took Florida just in case
he doesn't play. Now the line's close. You look into
(08:55):
the numbers and Ken Palm has Florida by one over Auburn,
and Ken Palm has Duke by two over Houston. So
theoretically we should get two really good games. Four number
one seeds clearly the top four teams in the country.
There's a large gap between them and the twos, and
(09:18):
I automatically or already bet Florida and Duke on the
money line. I did Duke minus four with some juice
and Florida minus two with some juice as a parlay.
I just I think they're gonna win both games.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I like Auburn a lot. Pettiford's probably my second favorite
player left in the tournament, the Auburn freshman from Jersey City.
He's so nasty. Oh, I love his game. I mean,
I root for him, but I don't know what's up
with Broom. And then you go back and you can
go look on YouTube about the highlights of their first
meeting Florida Auburn in Auburn early February. I think it
(09:54):
was Super Bowl weekend. Auburn jumps out on him at
home obviously, crowds all worked up, juice up, and then
Florida just takes over fourteen to two run. It dominates
the end of the first half and never really looked back.
And you know, Clayton, this kid, Walter Clayton's an unbelievable story.
I read. I think it was Pat Forty had a piece.
(10:16):
Walter Clayton was a no star recruit coming out of
high school.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
No stars.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
That's crazy. So Iona, this was during COVID. Iona decides
kind of off watching I guess some zoom highlights or whatever.
All right, we'll give this kid a chance, you know,
we'll take him. So he goes to Iona for a
couple of years. In year two he kind of pops
and then he transfers to Florida and he has become
(10:42):
a major superstar at Florida. This kid is so clutch.
He hits super tough shots. The moment is never too
big for him. He is just a big time college
basketball player. I don't know about his pro prospects. I mean,
he is twenty two years old already. You know that
the draft kind of frowns upon some of these older kids,
which is dumb. I mean, Austin Reeves was older and
(11:04):
he's thrived. But Clayton finished with thirty against Texas Tech,
including thirteen of fourteen free throws. He went for thirty.
The kid is he's awesome. He had thirty against Yukon
in that game, and remember took that game over late
earlier in the season at thirty two. I'm sorry, not
not thirty two earlier in the UH in the season,
(11:27):
he had twenty five against Florida State, twenty nine against
South Florida, twenty seven against UVA, went for thirty three
against Kentucky, twenty eight against Missouri. He's just a bucket.
He can just score on anyone. I love his game,
and I ultimately think Florida is slightly the better team,
and I think they dispatch Auburn and Bruce Pearl, which
(11:48):
takes us to the big one, that dude Blue Devils.
Oh folks, you remember, I guess it was two three
weeks ago we did the Calcutta and as we missed
on a couple teams, we decided, you know what, let's
just go all in due That's just everything we got
let's go Duke and what We also got McNee State
and then a bucket of thirteen to sixteen seeds that
(12:08):
did nothing for us, but mckneys State got a win,
which was nice. So we needed Duke to get to
the final four to win some money. They've done it
and without much of a sweat. I didn't think the
Alabama gain Saturday. I don't even know how we would
talk about that, Like, it was pretty much a beat
(12:29):
down a second half. It was never in doubt. I
think they got It's close to seven, and now you
face Houston. And it's funny. I'm on a text thread
with our Calcutta group and I was like, so, who
would you rather face Houston or Tennessee And most people
were like, oh, Tennessee, definitely rather face. I'm like an
SEC team and I know it. So Tennessee can slow
it down and they can hit threes, which are recipes
(12:51):
for upsets. You can slow it down, crash the offensive glass,
and hit threes. That's how you get the upsets. So
Houston can also slow it down. Is the number one
three point shooting team in the country and tends to
crash the offensive boards. That being said, for whatever reason
I'm not that scared of Houston in this spot. Yes,
they put on our defensive clinic against Tennessee, but I
(13:12):
think context is needed. The Valls had just come off
a very very intense rivalry game against Kentucky and they
smoked them. Remember Kentucky beat him twice during the season.
Tennessee put it felt like everything into that game. That
was their super Bowl facing arrival a team you know, well,
you had a bit of a home home court advantage there,
(13:32):
and Tennessee that was that. I don't want to say
that was their super Bowl. But they come out against Houston,
aren't running any offense, which is what happened against Kentucky early,
but then the three started falling. They start three for
twenty two shooting. I think they were zero for fourteen
on threes, and they're trailing to twenty seven to ten
(13:53):
early on, and I mean Tennessee ended up shooting twenty
eight percent on two pointers. Now, how much is that
as a Houston defense, which is very very good, and
how much of that was just Tennessee was just drained
from the Kentucky game and not as locked in. And
I know that sounds crazy to say when you've got
Zekai Ziegler and all these really good players. But I
(14:14):
just felt like they went that was their super Bowl
against Kentucky, big rivalry game, and they just came out
a little flat and Houston hit their shots and that
was good night. It reminded me. I don't know if
you guys remember, but I mean it was I think
two thousand and eight, which is the last time that
all four number one seeds made the NCAA tournament. So
(14:36):
if you can look this up on YouTube, it probably
has a ton of views. Let's see. Yeah, I did
look it up. It's got eighty six thousand views.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Not that many.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So Kansas was facing UNCA in the final four. This
was a good Kansas team with Chalmers Rush. They ended
up winning the title against Memphis, which had Derrek rows
Rose miss that free throw, Charmers come down hit the
three unbelievable finish. Kansas wins it over, but UNC was sacked.
They had Tyler Hansboro, Danny Green. I think they had
like five pros on that team, Wayne Ellington, ty Lawson.
(15:06):
They were loaded and Kansas just comes out and smacks
them in the mouth. They're up thirty five twelve and
there's a fast break runout and I think it was
Sharon Collins tosses it back to Brandon Rush for a
transition three and it was just boom and the crowd exploded.
It was thirty eight to twelve and after the shot
goes in instant time out from UNC and Billy Packer
(15:31):
famously says this game is over, and Jim Nantz quickly
quips back, which you know, the TV executive's like, what
are you doing? Telling people to turn the channel, and
Jim nance goes is it? And Billy Packer stonefaces ever.
I love me some Billy Packer. Yes, it is just
like he knew it, and it was over at Kansas
ran them out of the building. But it was just
(15:52):
one of those moments. It's actually titled on YouTube Billy
Packer calls game thirteen minutes in and I listen. I
know a lot of people didn't like Billy Packer, but
he called it like he saw it. He wasn't a
hater like some of the inside the NBA guys, but
he was brutally honest. And if people were running bad offense,
he would call it out. They're running great offense, he'd
(16:12):
call that out. If the coach was doing a great job, excellent.
If the coach was doing a bad joy, he didn't
play favorites, and I feel like the inside the NBA
crew plays favorites and they just don't like Lebron.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I mean, I'm sure you know, you can find some
clips of them saying some positive stuff about him, but
they're usually taking shots at him. And I don't know.
I just I missed Billy Packer a lot. I thought
the NCAA tournament. I'll give you my three favorite announcers
real quick so far. I love what I heard from
Steve Lapis. I thought he has been absolutely incredible, just
(16:43):
real authentic stuff. Whatever is it. He's just firing from
the hip, Okay, Obviously, I like Kevin Harlan, Bye. Kevin
Harland's awesome, just screaming right betreeting the eye. Yeah, he's
just really good. And then you know who, Jim Jackson's
my guy. Obvious. I'm gonna try to get Hi this week.
I'm a super nice guy. I think he does a
really good job on the tournament. I mean, everybody's pretty good,
(17:05):
but I thought Lapis to me stood out as really exceptional.
I obviously RAFTERI is really really good. Grant Hill's fine,
But just as someone who grew up on the tournament,
I miss Nanson Packer Man. I really like those guys.
They just as a tandem they were great. So I'm
gonna go ahead and push them through. I think it's
gonna be Duke Florida in the championship. I'll maintain the
(17:28):
Duke will win it. We're positive in the Calcutta with
Duke getting to the final four. If they win against Houston,
it's a it's a nice, nice victory that our group
will divvy up if they win the championship. It is
a really, really nice victory. I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So yeah, kind of excited for the final four you
get the number one seeds, but ultimately it was like
I didn't pay any attention to the NBA over the weekend.
There's a huge game tonight, Lakers hosting the Rockets. Lakers
took down Memphis over the weekend. By the way, I
don't even know you guys probably didn't see this. Maybe
it's just me, but it was just absolutely crazy. All
(18:23):
of a sudden, I see the Grizzlies have fired their coach,
Taylor Jenkins, and I'm like, wait, Memphis, the team that's
fifth in the West, like fourteen games over five hundred,
and they're firing their coach with two weeks left in
the season. Did that really happen? And instantly the speculation is, oh, well,
(18:45):
he must have done he must have pulled whatever the
guy pulled in Boston, where you know he was messing
around on his you know, partner with someone or multiple
women in Boston. Udoka, That's who's the name I was
looking for. So many people are specula, oh, he bust
have pulled a new Doka. And then other people are saying, well, no,
(19:08):
maybe this was you know, the word about losing John
Morant and they wanted to appease him. Maybe maybe John
Rant didn't want him and Grizzlies GM is already shooting
that down. No, but none of that. I don't know.
I haven't followed the Grizzlies close enough to know, and
I flow I asked it on social media and I
did not get one credible response other than oh, they've
been sagging since the All Star Break. Who hasn't sagged
(19:31):
since the Like everybody's had a little dip. I mean
outside of OKCE, I mean Cleveland's had a little dip. Here,
you know, Boston's been up and down, the Knicks have
been up and down. The Lakers just went through a
rough stretch, like everybody has rough patches to fire your
coach right on the eve of the playoffs. It's very puzzling.
I don't get it. I don't know what I'm missing.
(19:51):
If any if there's any insiders out there who have
any clue, what the hell is happening, by all means,
let me know, because I just did not understand that. Anyways,
the Lakers went smack them around Saturday night, and now
the Lakers have a big one. I think it's a
TNT game. They are hosting the Rockets in a game
where the Lakers that that's gonna be a big swing
(20:12):
in the standings because as everybody knows, Houston is still
number two, they have a very favorable schedule. Denver's number
three Lakers are four. If the Lakers win this game,
they will then be two games back of the Rockets
with about seven to go, and Denver will also have
(20:32):
a shot at the two seed. It would be amazing
if the Lakers could avoid the Nuggets in the first round.
I know, I'm a Lakers homer. Ha ha, Yes, I
get it. It's gonna sound crazy. I would rather face
Okac in the second round than Denver. Is that crazy? Am?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I am?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I nuts? I mean again, I think okay SE's really
really good, but I think Denver has the best well,
you know, I'd say Luca is the best player, but
Yokich is just really incredibly talented and terrifies me because
the Lakers. It's just a bad matchup for the Lakers.
I don't know that Okase is. I mean, we still
don't really know because they haven't faced each other at
(21:11):
full strength. We'll see Lakers favored by five and a half. No,
I'm not betting that. And I thought quickly I would
wrap up with this whole situation on the tush push.
So it sounds like there is support coming from various corners,
(21:32):
i e. The Dallas Cowboys. According to a story on ESPN,
a source with the direct knowledge of the competition committee
thinking said the proposal would be hotly contested among coaches,
gms and owners as they gather for league meetings in
Florida this week. So the Green Bay Packers proposed to
(21:54):
ban it, and apparently there's a lot of support. According
to the story, Howie Roseman and two head coaches on
the competition committee McVeigh and McDermott were in a side
hallway and had an animated conversation about the Packers proposal,
and then of course you have what's his face Sirianni
(22:15):
and I thought this was fake, and it could still
be fake, but essentially Sirianni was noting, let me see
who may just let me see you put this out
there just so I don't give you guys bad info.
But Warren Sharp is the one who put it out
there that Nick Sirianni is quoted as saying Jonathan Gannon,
Kellen Moore, and Shane Styke and are head coaches because
(22:38):
of that play. So I better have those three votes
right there, and the Eagles vote. I at least know
we have four, all right, I need a quick timeout.
That's bold as hell to say that their coaches because
of the turst pusse. Really, that's a little arrogant, probably
gonna rub more people the wrong way. Yeah, very dicey
(23:01):
stuff from Nick sirian. I personally have no issue with
the tush push, but such as life. All right, we're
back tomorrow. Talk to you then,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up straight Fire, Pamp. It's me Jason back
attire Straight Fire for Monday, March thirty. First, I had
to check the calendar. Folks didn't know if it was
April first yet or not. Obviously, April Fools Day's coming up.
Don't fall for any of that nonsense. It's a good
day to stay off social media because people try to
(00:31):
be funny and get get you on April Fools jokes.
I will say the one time I got on April
Fool's Day by the wife. So it was when I
had this Saturday morning radio show, right and it was
opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. I do the show
in the studio, you know, I was doing like it
was I think the seven to ten AM show, and
(00:55):
then I would race back and I would have all
weekend to watch the college basketball the tournament. And as
I'm driving back, the wife texts, I can't believe this.
We just lost power, and I was like, oh, hopefully
it's back by the time I get home. And I
wasn't thinking April Fools. It just got done. The radio
show was they get brackets and bets and all the
(01:15):
fun stuff. So I get home, I walk in the door.
Is it power back? And They're like no, And I'm like,
oh my gosh, what am I am? I going to
go to Starbucks? Do I go to a bar? I mean,
it's like ten forty five am. And then the family's
like silent, and I'm like, guys, have you tried? And
they like start laughing. They couldn't contain it, and finally
(01:37):
they were like April fools. I was like, ooh, you
guys got me good. I was legitimately nervous. This is
how I get people, This is how I get March
Madness is such so clutch. However, I will say, let's
obviously this will be a March Madness heavy pod with
the small dose of maybe NFL as there's it sounds
like the toast push is gonna get banned. I did
not know that was on the table, and it sounds
(01:58):
like there's momentum from around the world league to squash it. Anyways,
So you guys know, I love March Madness. But just
as luck would have it, there was a local youth
basketball tournament this weekend. Now I'd never entered it. I
think I told you guys. I heard about it via
somebody emailed me and was like, hey, do you got
you want to enter a team. I was like, oh, sure,
I don't know how they got my email, but you know,
(02:18):
I'm kind of a big deal. Just kidding. Okay, So
we enter this tournament. I have no idea what to expect,
but we get like a pretty damn good team of
all stars. We just don't have a lot of size.
So I'm nervous as hell leading up to it, trying
to get scouting reports. We go out first game Friday night,
we fall behind two nothing, and I'm instantly I'm like,
oh damn, the team's big, and we proceed to beat them,
(02:40):
like twenty seven to nine.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
It was light work.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And then I'm starting to feel good about it, but
I still didn't know about the other two teams. And
then the coach at the end, are you ready for this?
The coach tells me. I was like, coach, what do
you know about the other two teams? And he's like, well,
one of them's okay, but then the other one they
beat us in a tournament. They've been playing together for
a few months. I was like, oh, what are they
good at? And he legitimately goes, I'm not gonna say
his name, but he actually says, oh, they'll break your
(03:05):
press in like three seconds. They've got like grown women,
like girls with sea cups, and me and my assistant
coach like looking at tell like, okay, all right, there
you go. Sixth grade, all right. So anyways, we only
have five players for our second game. We and it
turns out we were playing the weakest team. We win
fifty seven to twenty six. Now I wasn't there. I
was at my daughter's volleyball tournament. This is what dads do.
If you're under the age of thirty listening to this,
(03:28):
just get ready. You'll have sports tournaments if your kids
play sports. And if you're listening to this, you're probably
a sports fan and you probably have a sports background,
and your kids will be playing sports. Anyways, so finally
Saturday evening, we go up against the team that apparently
was very good and at the same time was Elite
(03:48):
eight action. Fortunately for me, it wasn't the start of
the duke game yet. I only missed like the first
five minutes of the duke game. However, as I get
ready to go and coaches game, you know, kids are
warming up. I let me just check the score. Texas
Tech was up seventy one sixty fourth, like three minutes off.
So I was like, oh damn, that's great for my
bracket contest. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So fired up.
(04:12):
Then I don't look at the phone because I am
that nerdy dude who sets up his phone in a
tripod and records part of the game, you know, the
offensive end, so I can see what we're doing right
and wrong. Blah blah blah. This game superheated. We're up
thirteen ten at halftime, and then our best player shows
up coming from a club game, and she is a
wonder kid, and we end up winning. But I was
nervous because it meant we had to play them in
(04:32):
the championship the next day. This is Sunday. Now. This
was during what was the oh, the Houston Tennessee game,
which was total garbage. That was why I one whiff
of the Elite eight. Everything else pretty much went in
cording to form I thought Tennessee. I just didn't believe
in Houston, and I should have not believed in Rick Barnes. Anyways,
we played this team and our best player, the wonder kid.
(04:54):
She had a club game at the exact same time,
and the dad was like, you know, I'm gonna let
her pick. I know, she had a lot of fun
with you guys, but she's been on this club team
for like three or four years. I was like, all right,
and then she picks the club team and I get it.
You know whatever, you've been with them. They were in
a championship bracket as well, and I'm a little nervous.
You know, we don't have our best player, a point guard,
and we're trailing most of the game, and you know,
(05:16):
Nerdy Jason. Again, nobody plays really man to man in
sixth grade. There's a lot of zones, traps, full core press,
and this team yesterday we cooked their one or Saturday
we beat their one to two press easily. So they
went to a two to three and it took our
girls a little bit because we only had one practice together.
And at halftime we made some adjustments and then we
(05:37):
make the comeback, heated game down the stretch without our
star point guard. We had a bunch of turnovers in
the back court leading by one or sorry yeah, leading
by one, and they end up tying it up and
we get the ball with eight seconds left to go
to length to the floor, and the gym was crazy
because it was one of those tournaments where like they
(05:57):
have a DJ in the corner playing super loud muse
getting the crowd all riled up. This is the largest
crowd any of these girls have ever played in front of.
It was loud there. I came home and had a
headache Sunday for like three hours after it. And Uh,
this girl, you know, I'm tight with the dad. She's
a point guard on our local team. And she darts
up the court and with like one point five seconds left,
(06:20):
just tries to chuck up a three. He had no
chance of going in and the girl foulser but her
foot was on the line, so she had two free throws,
makes the first and everybody loses their mind.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We're winning.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And then they missed like a half court shot at
the buzzer and we win, and it was It was
an awesome experience. I can't stress this enough.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Folks.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
If you have the opportunity to coach a kid, you've
got to do it, because as soon as they are
done with middle school, it's over. You know, they're on
too high school. They don't want to hang out with you,
talk to you, and now I'm getting way too deep
into dad life, but I had to do that because dude,
there was like no Elite eight drama at all all
weekend and the final four set, it's not a shocker.
We get the four number one seeds. The one goody
(07:00):
lead eight game was Texas Tech Florida. Now this is
a something so smart in that game happened. So Florida
was down by actually nine with about three minutes left,
and they did then Walter Clayton kind of sort of
took over, but they did a smart thing. They did
the hack a shack quickly, and Houston had bad free
(07:22):
throw shooters going the line for one on one and
both of them missed. Now Florida came down and instantly
got threes, which made it crazy. But as much as
Texas Tech had an incredible rally on was it Friday night, Thursday, Friday?
I forget Thursday or Friday to stun Arkansas, Florida had
an equally impressive rally to stun Texas Tech and win
(07:43):
by five. Did not cover. But it was one of
those like you just got to think on your feet
and again, if you guys have coached your kids. You know,
in the heat of the moment, it's tough to make
instant decisions because you've also got to deal with the subbing,
who's in foul trouble? How many times there's a lot
going on it is. Coaching is so freaking fun.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Anyways, So Florida's in. They will face Auburn now again.
This Jeni Broom situation bears monitoring. He goes down against Sparty,
it looks like his knee kind of buckled and then
his arm kind of got hyperx. I don't exactly know
how to phrase it, but it looked terrifying boom. The
cameras are on him and he says to his teammates,
(08:33):
I'm done, goes to the locker room. Then he comes back.
So I bet Michigan State plus ten and which cast
which was a good hit, And then he comes back
in and ends up hitting a three. It was pretty awesome.
He was getting like one arm rebounds. So I haven't
seen an official report. I'm guessing he'll get an MRI.
I'm just saying I automatically took Florida just in case
he doesn't play. Now the line's close. You look into
(08:55):
the numbers and Ken Palm has Florida by one over Auburn,
and Ken Palm has Duke by two over Houston. So
theoretically we should get two really good games. Four number
one seeds clearly the top four teams in the country.
There's a large gap between them and the twos, and
(09:18):
I automatically or already bet Florida and Duke on the
money line. I did Duke minus four with some juice
and Florida minus two with some juice as a parlay.
I just I think they're gonna win both games.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I like Auburn a lot. Pettiford's probably my second favorite
player left in the tournament, the Auburn freshman from Jersey City.
He's so nasty. Oh, I love his game. I mean,
I root for him, but I don't know what's up
with Broom. And then you go back and you can
go look on YouTube about the highlights of their first
meeting Florida Auburn in Auburn early February. I think it
(09:54):
was Super Bowl weekend. Auburn jumps out on him at
home obviously, crowds all worked up, juice up, and then
Florida just takes over fourteen to two run. It dominates
the end of the first half and never really looked back.
And you know, Clayton, this kid, Walter Clayton's an unbelievable story.
I read. I think it was Pat Forty had a piece.
(10:16):
Walter Clayton was a no star recruit coming out of
high school.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
No stars.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
That's crazy. So Iona, this was during COVID. Iona decides
kind of off watching I guess some zoom highlights or whatever.
All right, we'll give this kid a chance, you know,
we'll take him. So he goes to Iona for a
couple of years. In year two he kind of pops
and then he transfers to Florida and he has become
(10:42):
a major superstar at Florida. This kid is so clutch.
He hits super tough shots. The moment is never too
big for him. He is just a big time college
basketball player. I don't know about his pro prospects. I mean,
he is twenty two years old already. You know that
the draft kind of frowns upon some of these older kids,
which is dumb. I mean, Austin Reeves was older and
(11:04):
he's thrived. But Clayton finished with thirty against Texas Tech,
including thirteen of fourteen free throws. He went for thirty.
The kid is he's awesome. He had thirty against Yukon
in that game, and remember took that game over late
earlier in the season at thirty two. I'm sorry, not
not thirty two earlier in the UH in the season,
(11:27):
he had twenty five against Florida State, twenty nine against
South Florida, twenty seven against UVA, went for thirty three
against Kentucky, twenty eight against Missouri. He's just a bucket.
He can just score on anyone. I love his game,
and I ultimately think Florida is slightly the better team,
and I think they dispatch Auburn and Bruce Pearl, which
(11:48):
takes us to the big one, that dude Blue Devils.
Oh folks, you remember, I guess it was two three
weeks ago we did the Calcutta and as we missed
on a couple teams, we decided, you know what, let's
just go all in due That's just everything we got
let's go Duke and what We also got McNee State
and then a bucket of thirteen to sixteen seeds that
(12:08):
did nothing for us, but mckneys State got a win,
which was nice. So we needed Duke to get to
the final four to win some money. They've done it
and without much of a sweat. I didn't think the
Alabama gain Saturday. I don't even know how we would
talk about that, Like, it was pretty much a beat
(12:29):
down a second half. It was never in doubt. I
think they got It's close to seven, and now you
face Houston. And it's funny. I'm on a text thread
with our Calcutta group and I was like, so, who
would you rather face Houston or Tennessee And most people
were like, oh, Tennessee, definitely rather face. I'm like an
SEC team and I know it. So Tennessee can slow
it down and they can hit threes, which are recipes
(12:51):
for upsets. You can slow it down, crash the offensive glass,
and hit threes. That's how you get the upsets. So
Houston can also slow it down. Is the number one
three point shooting team in the country and tends to
crash the offensive boards. That being said, for whatever reason
I'm not that scared of Houston in this spot. Yes,
they put on our defensive clinic against Tennessee, but I
(13:12):
think context is needed. The Valls had just come off
a very very intense rivalry game against Kentucky and they
smoked them. Remember Kentucky beat him twice during the season.
Tennessee put it felt like everything into that game. That
was their super Bowl facing arrival a team you know, well,
you had a bit of a home home court advantage there,
(13:32):
and Tennessee that was that. I don't want to say
that was their super Bowl. But they come out against Houston,
aren't running any offense, which is what happened against Kentucky early,
but then the three started falling. They start three for
twenty two shooting. I think they were zero for fourteen
on threes, and they're trailing to twenty seven to ten
(13:53):
early on, and I mean Tennessee ended up shooting twenty
eight percent on two pointers. Now, how much is that
as a Houston defense, which is very very good, and
how much of that was just Tennessee was just drained
from the Kentucky game and not as locked in. And
I know that sounds crazy to say when you've got
Zekai Ziegler and all these really good players. But I
(14:14):
just felt like they went that was their super Bowl
against Kentucky, big rivalry game, and they just came out
a little flat and Houston hit their shots and that
was good night. It reminded me. I don't know if
you guys remember, but I mean it was I think
two thousand and eight, which is the last time that
all four number one seeds made the NCAA tournament. So
(14:36):
if you can look this up on YouTube, it probably
has a ton of views. Let's see. Yeah, I did
look it up. It's got eighty six thousand views.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Not that many.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
So Kansas was facing UNCA in the final four. This
was a good Kansas team with Chalmers Rush. They ended
up winning the title against Memphis, which had Derrek rows
Rose miss that free throw, Charmers come down hit the
three unbelievable finish. Kansas wins it over, but UNC was sacked.
They had Tyler Hansboro, Danny Green. I think they had
like five pros on that team, Wayne Ellington, ty Lawson.
(15:06):
They were loaded and Kansas just comes out and smacks
them in the mouth. They're up thirty five twelve and
there's a fast break runout and I think it was
Sharon Collins tosses it back to Brandon Rush for a
transition three and it was just boom and the crowd exploded.
It was thirty eight to twelve and after the shot
goes in instant time out from UNC and Billy Packer
(15:31):
famously says this game is over, and Jim Nantz quickly
quips back, which you know, the TV executive's like, what
are you doing? Telling people to turn the channel, and
Jim nance goes is it? And Billy Packer stonefaces ever.
I love me some Billy Packer. Yes, it is just
like he knew it, and it was over at Kansas
ran them out of the building. But it was just
(15:52):
one of those moments. It's actually titled on YouTube Billy
Packer calls game thirteen minutes in and I listen. I
know a lot of people didn't like Billy Packer, but
he called it like he saw it. He wasn't a
hater like some of the inside the NBA guys, but
he was brutally honest. And if people were running bad offense,
he would call it out. They're running great offense, he'd
(16:12):
call that out. If the coach was doing a great job, excellent.
If the coach was doing a bad joy, he didn't
play favorites, and I feel like the inside the NBA
crew plays favorites and they just don't like Lebron.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I mean, I'm sure you know, you can find some
clips of them saying some positive stuff about him, but
they're usually taking shots at him. And I don't know.
I just I missed Billy Packer a lot. I thought
the NCAA tournament. I'll give you my three favorite announcers
real quick so far. I love what I heard from
Steve Lapis. I thought he has been absolutely incredible, just
(16:43):
real authentic stuff. Whatever is it. He's just firing from
the hip, Okay, Obviously, I like Kevin Harlan, Bye. Kevin
Harland's awesome, just screaming right betreeting the eye. Yeah, he's
just really good. And then you know who, Jim Jackson's
my guy. Obvious. I'm gonna try to get Hi this week.
I'm a super nice guy. I think he does a
really good job on the tournament. I mean, everybody's pretty good,
(17:05):
but I thought Lapis to me stood out as really exceptional.
I obviously RAFTERI is really really good. Grant Hill's fine,
But just as someone who grew up on the tournament,
I miss Nanson Packer Man. I really like those guys.
They just as a tandem they were great. So I'm
gonna go ahead and push them through. I think it's
gonna be Duke Florida in the championship. I'll maintain the
(17:28):
Duke will win it. We're positive in the Calcutta with
Duke getting to the final four. If they win against Houston,
it's a it's a nice, nice victory that our group
will divvy up if they win the championship. It is
a really, really nice victory. I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So yeah, kind of excited for the final four you
get the number one seeds, but ultimately it was like
I didn't pay any attention to the NBA over the weekend.
There's a huge game tonight, Lakers hosting the Rockets. Lakers
took down Memphis over the weekend. By the way, I
don't even know you guys probably didn't see this. Maybe
it's just me, but it was just absolutely crazy. All
(18:23):
of a sudden, I see the Grizzlies have fired their coach,
Taylor Jenkins, and I'm like, wait, Memphis, the team that's
fifth in the West, like fourteen games over five hundred,
and they're firing their coach with two weeks left in
the season. Did that really happen? And instantly the speculation is, oh, well,
(18:45):
he must have done he must have pulled whatever the
guy pulled in Boston, where you know he was messing
around on his you know, partner with someone or multiple
women in Boston. Udoka, That's who's the name I was
looking for. So many people are specula, oh, he bust
have pulled a new Doka. And then other people are saying, well, no,
(19:08):
maybe this was you know, the word about losing John
Morant and they wanted to appease him. Maybe maybe John
Rant didn't want him and Grizzlies GM is already shooting
that down. No, but none of that. I don't know.
I haven't followed the Grizzlies close enough to know, and
I flow I asked it on social media and I
did not get one credible response other than oh, they've
been sagging since the All Star Break. Who hasn't sagged
(19:31):
since the Like everybody's had a little dip. I mean
outside of OKCE, I mean Cleveland's had a little dip. Here,
you know, Boston's been up and down, the Knicks have
been up and down. The Lakers just went through a
rough stretch, like everybody has rough patches to fire your
coach right on the eve of the playoffs. It's very puzzling.
I don't get it. I don't know what I'm missing.
(19:51):
If any if there's any insiders out there who have
any clue, what the hell is happening, by all means,
let me know, because I just did not understand that. Anyways,
the Lakers went smack them around Saturday night, and now
the Lakers have a big one. I think it's a
TNT game. They are hosting the Rockets in a game
where the Lakers that that's gonna be a big swing
(20:12):
in the standings because as everybody knows, Houston is still
number two, they have a very favorable schedule. Denver's number
three Lakers are four. If the Lakers win this game,
they will then be two games back of the Rockets
with about seven to go, and Denver will also have
(20:32):
a shot at the two seed. It would be amazing
if the Lakers could avoid the Nuggets in the first round.
I know, I'm a Lakers homer. Ha ha, Yes, I
get it. It's gonna sound crazy. I would rather face
Okac in the second round than Denver. Is that crazy? Am?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I am?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I nuts? I mean again, I think okay SE's really
really good, but I think Denver has the best well,
you know, I'd say Luca is the best player, but
Yokich is just really incredibly talented and terrifies me because
the Lakers. It's just a bad matchup for the Lakers.
I don't know that Okase is. I mean, we still
don't really know because they haven't faced each other at
(21:11):
full strength. We'll see Lakers favored by five and a half. No,
I'm not betting that. And I thought quickly I would
wrap up with this whole situation on the tush push.
So it sounds like there is support coming from various corners,
(21:32):
i e. The Dallas Cowboys. According to a story on ESPN,
a source with the direct knowledge of the competition committee
thinking said the proposal would be hotly contested among coaches,
gms and owners as they gather for league meetings in
Florida this week. So the Green Bay Packers proposed to
(21:54):
ban it, and apparently there's a lot of support. According
to the story, Howie Roseman and two head coaches on
the competition committee McVeigh and McDermott were in a side
hallway and had an animated conversation about the Packers proposal,
and then of course you have what's his face Sirianni
(22:15):
and I thought this was fake, and it could still
be fake, but essentially Sirianni was noting, let me see
who may just let me see you put this out
there just so I don't give you guys bad info.
But Warren Sharp is the one who put it out
there that Nick Sirianni is quoted as saying Jonathan Gannon,
Kellen Moore, and Shane Styke and are head coaches because
(22:38):
of that play. So I better have those three votes
right there, and the Eagles vote. I at least know
we have four, all right, I need a quick timeout.
That's bold as hell to say that their coaches because
of the turst pusse. Really, that's a little arrogant, probably
gonna rub more people the wrong way. Yeah, very dicey
(23:01):
stuff from Nick sirian. I personally have no issue with
the tush push, but such as life. All right, we're
back tomorrow. Talk to you then,
Host
Jason McIntyre
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