March Madness & NFL Moves

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My girl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride that is
Houston Sports Chill late down for the only homegrown afternoon
team is Talking Your Teams.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A teams.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
A What's Up Houston. It is a Thursday and a
Madness edition of the A Team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety,
It's wex It's a c We've got you until six
o'clock tonight. We'll have you on the Telly coming up

(00:57):
in about an hour when we are simulcast on Space
City Home Network. And yes, we will probably talk a
little bit about the tournament action. We'll talk a little
bit about the fact that the Rockets can't lose all
of a sudden. Although I was telling wex before the
show started it was kind of an anti climactic win
last night. I mean, it's great to get your eighth

(01:18):
straight victory, and it's awesome that they can't lose all
of a sudden. And because you know, the Cavs finally
had another huge winning streak go by the wayside, the
Rockets now have the longest streak in the NBA and
their ratings in all sorts of key numbers are off
the charts at the moment. But a couple of things.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
One, I can't sit here in this chair all the
time and dismiss other teams as winning ways or streaks
and say, well, look who it came up against and
all that, and ignore the fact that the Rockets haven't
exactly been playing a murderer's row. But you know what,
They're supposed to take care of these teams, and it
would be a lot worse if they weren't doing that.
So I will take the eighth consecutive win. I will

(01:59):
also so take the rematch tomorrow night between Tyler Hero
and A Men Thompson. I'm not saying I know he's
gonna play, but I'm not saying he's not.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
And I think.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
It's pointed very heavily in that direction, especially since he's
actually done on the floor action and has had no
ill effects afterward. And I think I could be wrong.
This's just my personal opinion. I think he really wants
to play in this game because of what happened last time.
I know, guys and coaches and organizations make it seem

(02:31):
like that stuff. They don't pay attention to certain things,
but come on, that came in a loss that wasn't
a particularly a good loss, not that there are good
losses for the Rockets, but it was the way that
that kind of went down down the stretch, and then
to be thrown out, and then to have Tyler Hero
do what he did and say what he did and
act the way he did in the postgame locker room,

(02:51):
I feel like a men. Thompson wants to return for
this game specifically because of that, not just because he
wants to get back out on the floor.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Yeah, one of the many games he's been ejected from.

Speaker 6 (03:00):
I'm sure he gets circled on the calendar and says,
I gotta go get some revenge or something.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
That'll be the only game he's ever ejected from for
the rest of his career.

Speaker 5 (03:07):
I guarantee it.

Speaker 6 (03:08):
He's So, he's not ejected from a game since then,
not like that has he He got ejected from the
Bucks game when he flagrant to Giannis right back to
the Rockets locker room.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
Yeah, but that's because a referee was.

Speaker 6 (03:20):
Because he did the same thing to Tyler Hero. They
just that just wasn't a flagrant too. Those are the
things that get you ejected. He didn't throw him down, no,
because well technically he did, he just wasn't holding on
to him.

Speaker 5 (03:30):
He came crashing down on top of claw his face.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Yeah, but look at the the guys in question in
those two scenarios, one of them.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
Yeah, both times Flagrant found the person he was assaulting
building a rep Like, I get it. It's just I
think he wants.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
To come back.

Speaker 6 (03:49):
So everything is good to go for the postseason because
there is a dwindling number of remaining games, and I
do think there's something to the opponent because they didn't
play well.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
They gave it.

Speaker 6 (03:59):
I feel like I'm sure they feel like they gave
that game away the way that it was going and
then the way that it finished. So a chance to
go out and beat a team that is just like
all the other teams that they've been beating. They are
a fringe Eastern Conference playing tournament team that is just
playing the worst basketball maybe in a couple of seasons
for them.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
They can't win. They're finding ways to lose.

Speaker 6 (04:20):
They are a little bit worse off since the Jimmy
Butler trade, even if they were healthy. As Wiggins has
missed some time since coming over, but he's not nearly
the winning player and basketball player that Jimmy Butler is.
So it was clear they were going to get worse,
so they did not make that trade in an effort
to get better. I can assure you they are aware
of that. They've got two players that should be near

(04:40):
the top of the league and at their respective spots
at Tyler Hero and bam Adebayo. They have some nice
young players, but they're missing the type of winning basketball
that Western Conference teams play because Eastern Conference teams don't.
And that's why four of them that are way under
five hundred are going to be a part of the
play in tournament. It's a big, big difference. You know,

(05:01):
this the play in tournament from the NBA standpoint, in
order to create more you know, competition late in the season,
there's something still to play for the added benefit. I'm
sure in their mind about what the couple of days
worth of those games are the seven eight game, the
nine to ten game, and then the loser winner game.
But in the Eastern Conference there's six teams with a

(05:23):
winning record. That's it. The Hawks and Magic and Bulls
and Heat would all be battling for the last two
spots to see which of them is going to get
throttled because they're awful. But now all four of them
are going to be a part of the play in tournament.
Three games under for the Hawks all the way down
to eleven games under for the Heat. The Heat are

(05:44):
going to lose close to fifty games and be in
the play in tournament because the Raptors aren't catching them.
The West is different, you know, the Suns and Mavericks
are in their respective positions for different reasons. The Mavericks
are not a losing basketball team, even with the Doncicch
trade being made. If they were a healthy team, they'd
be well over five hundred. They'd be ahead of the Suns.

(06:06):
We wouldn't be talking about this, and all ten teams
in the Western Conference going to the postseason or playing
tournament would be over five hundred instead, nine of them
are a big, big difference, and the battle for seven
and eight and six and five potentially it matters. Rockets
maintain their spot by winning. The Lakers won and moved

(06:27):
up again there now third that was a win over
the Nuggets handily. Again no Jokic, no Murray, and no
problem at all for Luca exactly.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
But like so they won big. So there are three.

Speaker 6 (06:38):
The Nuggets are four, and Memphis in Sacramento without Demonis
Sabonis fell or excuse me, Portland beat them last night.

Speaker 5 (06:47):
That was the previous loss they've lost to.

Speaker 7 (06:49):
In a row.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Now, I mean, look, I thought the Rockets would be
much better this year. I don't know it right, well
I knew. I mean, come on, fourty one in forty one,
it's logical. I mean, you hear it in the promos.
It's you got Jalen Green saying it has to be
the playoffs this year.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
I'm veraphrasing.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
We were there when he said it, and he was like,
all right, you guys are gonna have Alprin Chagoon's gonna
come in next and Tari East it should be after that.
We've got Jabari coming in and then Jalen will be here,
Aaron Holliday I'll be in after that, then Jay Shaw
Tates coming in. Oh yeah, a bunch of guys that
were here last year when they went forty one and
forty one. Because basically it's the exact same team and

(07:31):
they delivered the exact same message. One after the other,
one after the other again again again, this is and
should be and will be a playoff team. And even
that day, even on media Day, they thought it was
the right thing to say, and believe that we're not
trying to get into the Plan tournament. We're trying to
make the top six. We belong in the top six.

(07:52):
We believe were among the top six based on how
we got to forty one and forty one, how we competed,
what the rest of the league looks like.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
And they're right, yeah, But here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
Oklahoma City at fifty seven wins, you might not have
thought that they would be approaching the sixty win.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
Threshold this year, but maybe you did. I don't know.
They were fifty seven last year. I figured it was
a pretty.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Much a gachological step would be to improve on that
which they have.

Speaker 6 (08:16):
Their offseason was sadly good. Adding Caruso and Hartenstein made
him better. As soon as I saw the Caruso deal,
I was like, I hate the guy. I hate that
that guy's good because I have to admit it even
a huge impact, but with some of the time that
Josh giddy out, Alex Caruso in definitely helps do you
know what he does that people don't give it him
a credit for. He plays defense, he makes winning basketball
plays without necessarily putting the ball in the basket, and

(08:38):
then having Hartenstein there when it turned out, Hey another
year where Chet's gonna miss a big chunk of time.
That helped a great deal. Yeah so, but okay, the
thunder the Calves.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
I mean, I knew the Calves would be good again,
but fifty six wins right now good. I don't know
if anybody saw that they've had the best record in
the NBA for most of the season. They don't. At
the moment, they're getting back of that, and then the
Celtics are on crew control. That's it. After that, Rockets,
that's your fourth best team record wise in the NBA
right now. On March twentieth, nobody had that. I don't

(09:08):
care me you the most Rockets tented colored glasses on
the planet. I don't think would have said, all right,
this team's going to be flirting with well past fifty
wins this season after going forty one and forty one.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
This is in their wildest dreams. They couldn't have expected
this good.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
Without making any significant additions. I know they had the
third pick in the draft, but as you can clearly see,
that was not a magnificant on court addition, nor would
any I don't even think Stefan Castle would have been
a significant on court edition, nor would the two players
that play Atlanta and in Washington, both of whom are
actually playing way better than anybody's paying attention to, because

(09:46):
both of their teams stink.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Well, look, Jim Whitmore's riding away on the bench, but
they can't crack the rotation.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
They made a nineteen win improvement last year and they're
going to have maybe a ten win improvement this year.
You get to fifty one wins and there's only they're
only six away. Maybe it's a thirteen win improvement. Those
back to back seasons are hard to do. It's hard
to get that much better next year. Well, it's hard
to get that much better from one season to the
next one. You just had a huge improvement. Obviously, the

(10:11):
Astros are playing right now. We'll have that game for
you later tonight via tape delay. That comes after we
bring you Astro Line six o'clock. A visit with a
general manager Dana Brown. Hey, Dan, what do you think
about Cam coming up at six o'clock with Robert and
Steve handling astroline duties tonight.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
They are, as I said, playing right now.

Speaker 6 (10:30):
And one of the astros outfielder has hit a home
run in this afternoon's game.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
He plays center field. You like my disappointment. They're shortstop
also homered this afternoon. Who was it?

Speaker 6 (10:46):
Josh Hater also picked up four outs, so he pitched
in multiple innings. He also walked not one, not two,
but three batters in a hitless performance in regular season
four in and out of trouble. No issue. A brall you,
I would say, is in regular season form. Thank god
they only have one a braill you on the roster. Now,

(11:06):
that's most of what was the case last year. We'll
obviously tell you more about that. The NCAA Tournament is underway.
Twenty minutes of basketball from the best team at the
very least in the Midwest region. The University of Houston
Cougar is twenty more minutes away from their usual advance
out of the first round. They are clobbering Edwardsville SIU
Edwardsville as expected last night on our family of Networks,

(11:31):
the last game of the season for the university of
Texas Longhorns and likely the last game for two people
involved in the game, both their head coach, Rodney Terry,
who's expected to be relieved of duties, and their star
player Trey Johnson, who is expected to declare for the
NBA draft. I saw an exceptionally disturbing note on the

(11:51):
Texas Longhorns basketball program. I believe it was from twenty
fifteen to Trey Johnson. Johnson will be the sixth first
round draft pick coming from the University of Texas since
twenty fifteen, and he will be the sixth consecutive first
round draft pick from Texas to log zero NCAA tournament

(12:12):
wins which they came to play last night, had a
good lead over Xavier, played very well for the first
thirty five minutes or so, and it was kind of
a slow comeback and eventually Xavier passed them. Interestingly, there
are a lot of rumors that suggest the University of
Texas Longhorn's next basketball coach beat them last night, so

(12:33):
we will see if Sean Miller is in fact the
name they end up on when they get there. Into
the second half for the Cougars, gets you updated on
some of the other games. Obviously more Texans to discuss,
because yesterday we did not get to tell you that
Nick Casseo knocked on Cal McNair's door again and said,
can I have some more millions for one of our
awesome players that I brought in here on short term

(12:53):
deal that now needs a longer turn deal, and Callanhana
of course said absolutely. We love this guy, A local,
A B. We're gonna be great again next year. You
can have all you want and we'll give you an
update on where that stands and what else is going
on with Cam Robinson's football team here in Houston, the
Houston Texans. As we continue opening segment fifteen, more to
go here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Back to Adam Clinton, had Adam Wexler the eighteen on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
Eight team on a Thursday continues year with you, wex
and AC as the NCAA tournaments finally got to their
field of sixty four, eliminating a pair of teams on

(13:42):
Tuesday night, had eliminating a pair of teams on Wednesday night,
and then on into the sixty four team field of
the Longhorns, one of the teams that fall by the
wayside last night to Xavier. The Cougars already long into
their opening round game and long into dominating their opening
round game. They'll play again at an undetermined time should

(14:03):
they finish as they are currently against sixteen seeded SIU
Edwardsville with a Saturday game and hopefully many more after that,
which has been the case pretty much throughout their run
under Kelvin Samson. The opening weekend, while often challenging recently
for the now three years in a row, number one
seed is not provided an obstacle they could not overcome,

(14:25):
and many people close to the program, many people covering
college basketball just in general, there are a lot of
people looking at this particular Cougar's team specifically from their
depth standpoint and their multiple guard weapons as a difference
between this team and previous teams. They've always had tremendous
depth upfront with their bigs, usually their wings as well.

(14:47):
I think Emanual Sharp really had a phenomenal postseason tournament
last year and then continue that throughout the year this year,
also probably at his healthiest. But you also, in addition
to having a really strong shooter, I think will Soon
has been so awesome off of the bench as a
change of pace player to help the team push pace,
and then you get to two guards, they can put

(15:07):
the ball in the basket. That's what they really haven't
had together at any time during this run. You know,
Marcus Sasser obviously could fill it up. Jamal shed as
the leader of the team, would usually find a way
to make points happen, whether or not they were his
or somebody else's.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
But with Uzzan and LJ.

Speaker 6 (15:25):
Cryer, they just flat out fill it up, and that
is a big, big difference. Their defense is no different.
It is going to be very difficult to score against them.
The team they play first, sau Edwardsville, well they had
a handful of days. They knew they were in the
tournament on Sunday evening and they could scout U of
H all they wanted their next opponent. Well, they have
to win their first game first, and then they have

(15:46):
one whole day essentially to look at you of H tape.
Granted I'm sure they looked at it already. We'll set
that matchup when it comes another number one seed Auburn
on the court. Wisconsin's going to take care of their
opening round opponent. Like I said, we'll just got you
updated on games over the course of the afternoon. An
update on the Texans cap situation. Well, it's going too

(16:08):
fast for us to really get into all that, because
on almost in every single day basis since March tenth,
technically March twelfth, when the league year opened, a series
of restructures, a series of trades, a series of free
agent acquisitions, most of which have all been announced and
become final, and a host of internal contracts handed out.

(16:29):
And that's what took place with Daniel Hunter, as Aaron
Wilson reported yesterday and many others did. Beyond that, he's
going to get a pretty nice chunk of change. If
you thought signing him for forty nine and a half
million over two years was a lot, well, the first
number in his average annual value on the new deal
is a three, and deservedly so when you looked at
what else was signed this offseason. But I also think

(16:52):
the timing of this from the Texan standpoint is again
another winner another This is when you should Trey Hendrickson
is trying to get a new deal. Trey Hendrickson had
at least as strong of a season as Daniel Hunter,
and has repeatedly had those seasons, and the Cincinnati Bengals
chose to hit their offense first, and it came to
an agreement with both Jamar Chase and t Higgins while

(17:15):
telling him and his agent Trey, Well, if you want
to find a deal somewhere else, I'm sure we can
work out something if that's the team that's going to
pay you what you want, And it does feel like
they've turned it back into I think we might be
able to work something out here. Either way, Sign your
guy first. And that's what the Texans have done with Hunter.
Instead of being here for two years under the deal
he signed last offseason, a whole nother year, he'll now

(17:37):
be here for three years contractually.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
But there's no reason to think that he's going to
have any sort of drop off from a production standpoint,
which is why you're obviously giving him the money that
you are.

Speaker 5 (17:49):
You will be.

Speaker 6 (17:51):
You'll be extending Will Anderson Junior and CJ. Stroud next offseason.
In my opinion, that's why a lot of these moves
have been made. A lot of the structures that they
could make this offseason were made and likely will make
again next off season with a host of players. Is
for that very reason. They don't want to be sitting
there another year later. Nobody makes less money the next year.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
Nobody.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
It doesn't happen these players, and I'm talking about this
particular group of players, the Micah Parsons level players, the
Jamar Chase level players. I say those two names specifically
because both of their teams were unable to extend them
when they could last offseason. Jamar Chase did not participate
with the Bengals until they played football for real because

(18:34):
they couldn't come to a contractor agree and could not
come to a long term deal. He's already under contract,
but he's trying to get his and deservedly so. He's
the best receiver in the AFC didn't, so they had
to do it this offseason at a much higher rate.
Cowboys run able to get Micah Parsons. I even think
to the negotiating table because it does take two sides,
but it's only going to be more expensive if and

(18:54):
when they do finalize that deal. And the Texans, I believe,
are making deals, adding players on short term deals, restructuring players,
not getting caught with lots of big future deals in
their future. Obviously, Derek Stingley is the lone exception but
he's in that group of three. He's in the group
with c J. Stroud and Will Anderson Junior. If it's

(19:18):
up to them, and it is, I think they're going
to encourage both Will Anderson Junior and c J. Stroud
to say yes to the deal that they put on
the table at this time next year, next offseason, following
year only year three for both of them. But the
opportunity is there is there on this They would be
on the similar timeline to any other player after their

(19:40):
first three years, like Derek Stingley Junior.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Look, do you anticipate any sort of not holdout, not
you know, bad blood, but a situation where you can't
come to terms with either of these guys?

Speaker 5 (19:54):
I don't let me let me rephrase that.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Do you expect that or do you foresee any of
that situation Willy Anderson Junior?

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Because CJ is getting done. It's just a matter of
what the number is.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
Yeah, as a quarterback, it's even to me even more important.
Even though the cap will go up, so the percentage
that your quarterback's a new deal will eat of that
cap will will not be so prohibitive. But if you
can get him for fifty seven million on an average
annual basis in the twenty twenty five offseason or twenty
twenty six offseason before the twenty sixth season versus sixty

(20:26):
three point five the next offseason. I think you can
see the merit in doing that. I don't think they're
going to have an issue with either. You know, Michael
Parsons played thirteen games this year, his fourth year, the
last year of his rookie deal before the option year
kicks in, and played at roughly the same level, if
not better some of his pressure rates, and depending on
whose numbers you like the most, he was as disruptive

(20:50):
as he's ever been playing the fourth year of his
rookie deal, which is what Will Anderson would do in
twenty twenty six if he doesn't sign in the offseason
following this third season for him, I don't think that
the player is going to bring on field ill will
at all. I mean, you got to go out there
and play again. I mean that's part of the leverage
of it. If he goes out there and can't play

(21:11):
well or can't stay on the field, well, he's not
improving his leverage, he's weakening it.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
What's crazy about this is you know, we see this
with the Astros. Everybody loves playing with each other. We
want to keep this core together. They all came in
fairly young, and this has been built from the ground up,
if you will, after you know, rough too three seasons
of losing. But then the way to get to that
endpoint where you're keeping this group together or you're waving

(21:36):
goodbye to this, that or the other player is so
different in the NFL, I think than it is in
Major League Baseball.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
Now.

Speaker 6 (21:45):
Everybody thinks that because you're right, But the cap is
the most obvious thing.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
The cap is one thing.

Speaker 6 (21:50):
The other thing is when did these players, Springer Correa,
Kyle Tucker, when did they finally play themselves out of
your price range? Six years into their major league career,
seven years unto their major league career. Yeah, first round
picks have a four year contract in the NFL and
an option year, so technically a five year deal. If

(22:11):
they're awesome, you have it at your disposal, a franchise tag
for year six, a franchise tag for year seven, which
absolutely creates bad blood. Okay, so those first round picks
are comparable to those Astros we're talking about, but every
player is the same in Major League baseball Hunter Brown,
they can keep control of him for the same amount
of time they keep control of Kyle Tucker, a first

(22:32):
round pick versus a whatever round pick.

Speaker 5 (22:35):
It's totally different. In the NFL.

Speaker 6 (22:36):
Well, you got to go to the franchise tags in
year five with some second, third, fourth round pick, and
you don't have five franchise tags and you can't give
it to everybody.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
When you the player start actually contributing to the win
or lost record of your team is immediate. In the NFL,
it's not. They're not stashed away in some minor league system.
You're drafted where you're drafted to play right now, and
then it becomes whether or not you're actually helping the
wins versus the losses.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
But it's completely different.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
But it's just but you do get that same roughly
the same major league activity. And Alex Bregman was drafted
and played minor league baseball and then played nine seasons
in Houston without ever having to quote unquote get the
Astros to break the bank. Granted he was one of
the players they got to sign a deal. There was
team friendly that bought out arbitration years, but it also

(23:26):
paid him, you know, upwards of thirty million at the
end of the deal, the type of money he might
be able to get in free agency. But a player
is willing to accept a deal like that early on.
They signed it with the Jordan, they signed it with Javier,
they signed it without two Vay many years ago. But
each of these players, while you're right, they don't go
straight from LSU to the field. They don't go straight
from a Tampa high school to a Bustner only article,

(23:49):
but they still get significant major league time with your
team because they're under control. There's been no contract. Kyle
Tucker has signed zero extensions with the Tech. Are the
Astros either George Springer, same thing, correct, same thing, But
they all put in six seven awesome years on the
field with you, no matter where they were drafted the

(24:10):
way major League Baseball works. When Kamari Last wants more money,
there's no fifth year option for him, And now he's
also on the same timeline as Kylen Bullock, there's no
fifth year option for him either. So money, I know
we're three years down the road before those contracts expire,
but tell me if you remember last season, the twenty

(24:31):
twenty three season and Tank Dell was awesome as a rookie,
and we're already having the conversations about, well, are they
going to be able to only pay him through his
rookie deal without needing to extend him. That's the same
thing I'm talking about with these two defensive players. His
third round pick, he's got a four year deal. And
those deals are not super NFL lucrative. They're lucrative for

(24:52):
me and you and most of our listeners, but from
an NFL standpoint, they're not lucrative at all. I mean,
Tank Dell probably five and a half six million for
four years. If he plays three awesome years, which maybe
last year can do and maybe Bullock can do. Well,
you're asking for more money before you're up, like Nico
Collins did and got and earned after three years of football.

(25:15):
It's just it's a different timeline completely on the NFL side.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
All Right, We've got a little thing we get to
each and every day at around this time.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
It's called the Best of X.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
We peruse the social streets and we bring you the
best of whatever app we decide.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
That's straight ahead. Hey, it's Craig at for four free.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Listen to the Home of the rockets on yours smart speaker.
Just ask hey Google play Sports Talk seven ninety on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 5 (25:46):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 2 (25:47):
We're putting out between five and ten posts.

Speaker 6 (25:50):
Day, four hundred people were arrested for things that they
said on social media. History repeats itself type Benuels succeed
never that you're the one to Puss'll go one building.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
You're the best.

Speaker 7 (26:06):
X.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
Nothing's gonna have a top.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
You know you're the best X posting every single day.
You know you're the best of X, breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
It is literally the best.

Speaker 6 (26:24):
It's the best of X, each and every weekday afternoon
here on the A team at two thirty seven on
a Thursday afternoon, and say a tournament time. A lot
of other sports are ongoing, which means we should see
something of interest on the social media streets, and somewhat surprisingly,
we did.

Speaker 5 (26:42):
From the land of.

Speaker 6 (26:45):
College baseball in the past couple of days. I will
read you the tweet posted by Michigan star player Mitchell Voit,
and he wrote on the X platform, I would like
to apologize for my actions on third base yesterday.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
Pause pause, what do you think he's talking about? His actions?

Speaker 6 (27:11):
I would like to apologize for my actions on third
base yesterday.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
On third base? Did he make some sort of gesture
to the crowd?

Speaker 6 (27:22):
Okay, I made an immature decision in the heat of
the moment.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
I don't know. By the way, I know nothing about it.

Speaker 6 (27:28):
I know that, Okay, listeners, he knows nothing about this, guess.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
The gesture I made.

Speaker 6 (27:34):
Does not reflect my character, the household I was raised in,
or the block m he places for Michigan that I
represent in any kind of way. I take full responsibility
for what I did, and I am truly sorry to
all those who have negatively I have negatively impacted by

(27:54):
doing this.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
Well, it's good to apologize.

Speaker 6 (27:56):
So you're still unsure of what exactly happens. You guessed
it was a and in fact was a gesture, But
there are several gestures that can be made. I've never
seen this one before. Oh boy, believe immature and doesn't
represent him if accurate or probably worthwhile to apologize for. First,
want to give a CJ a hat tip, as he
was one of the quote tweeters I saw of this story,

(28:19):
and he said next day, regret and apologies. It's part
of the full blank experience. I respect the commitment to
the bit. And I left that word out because I've
yet to explain exactly what Mitchell did. But CJ's noting
that you have next day regret, you apologize. That's part
of the full experience that this person's gesture was indicating.

(28:42):
So he respects the commitment to the bit. He goes
all the way through doing it on the field to
having the apology and regret for it the day after.
But what exactly did Michigan star Mitchell Voit do on
third base in their game? Michigan baseball star Mitchell Voit

(29:03):
sorry for cocaine snorting celebration. Oh, he slid in safely
to the third base and before he rows up to his feet,
he leaned his head down to the baseline chalked up
baseline between third and home and mimicked a cocaine sniff. Okay,
time out. First of all, tons of points for creativity.

Speaker 5 (29:28):
It's I said, it's a new one.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
Secondly, remember when like like Terrell Owens took the pom
poms from the cheerleader. Who's the guy that took the
cell phone Joe Horn from underneath JC Horn's dad? Yeah,
that guy. But this is this could have been approved upon.
That's my problem with it. So the creativity points are
off the charts. Even if it was as it stands,

(29:51):
it's fine and he did okay, sorry, If he rolls
up a hundie, puts it in his back pocket and
takes it out to the then.

Speaker 5 (30:01):
Snort the chalk line, that's where it goes. Next time.

Speaker 6 (30:05):
I'm going to just lean into either of the two
movies that get referenced far too much on this show
where I know cocaine was used. Are you saying you
can appreciate using the dollar bill there when it's not necessary,
as we've seen from movies like Wolf of Wall Street
and the Dirk Diggler experience, Well you need you don't

(30:25):
need a dollar bill, You just need a mountain or
a credit card to line it up. What was those
handles without any sort of straw or rolled up piece
of whatever.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
But that's what he did, was right down to the chalk.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
Was using some sort of apparatus when he was snorting
it from a very different surface in that movie.

Speaker 6 (30:45):
So he sent his apology out on the always popular
notes app on his iPhone, and that's where we draw
some of the replies. BJ or bg says, selly of
the year. If you ask me, Jacob says, my ten
year old son saw your celebration and immediately asked me

(31:05):
what cocaine is and if we know where to get
some blow. I hope you realize that now he is
addicted to fentanyl. Well done setting an example for young ballplayers.
Oh my gosh, like we get paid to talk.

Speaker 5 (31:19):
About this nonsense for a living.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
Do you ever stop and think that I know our
listeners do at least one hundred times a day.

Speaker 5 (31:24):
Not cool man, says Stamp.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
Me and my two year old son were watching, and
now he's begging me to buy him some cocaine so
he can be like you. He can barely like you,
but keep saying hit trips and snort coke.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
Oh my god, what is wrong with these people? You
know what this is happening? If he doesn't do the.

Speaker 6 (31:45):
Celebration right, Ocean Tide says, not a single person had
an issue with it under fifty years old.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
Don't apologize. Let the boomers be mad. The boomers, this
isn't a boomer thing. Nice going as Dave.

Speaker 6 (32:01):
Kids will now mimic this celebration this season, smh Our
youth will be mimicking who doing the drug is.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
The most likely now on the astros to do something
like this.

Speaker 6 (32:11):
Well, you say now, I think we all know why
you say now. I know you think it would have
been did he go to the Red Soxs offseason? I
mean he did carry a bat down to first base once.
I don't know that he'd go this provoked. This is
I do think it's pretty wild because you can't confuse
it with anything else. We've seen a bunch of celebrations,
you know, hand gestures to your team's bench, and all

(32:33):
sorts of things that could be.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
We probably know what it was, but.

Speaker 6 (32:36):
They could probably explain it into something else. This one's
pretty difficult to explain into something else. But again, without
the far reaches of social media and the X platform,
I don't know where young Mitchell would have been able
to post this apology. I don't think the athletic department
was going to send out a release. I probably wouldn't
have seen it if it wasn't the three second highlight

(32:57):
of the third baseline sniff wasn't posted all over the
place and went viral. So social media doing us as slave.
That's how best of X is born. Well, I tell
you of all the things I thought we would be
covering in Best of X today, that was not one
of them.

Speaker 5 (33:10):
But there's several.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
To close up the segment that particular element, college baseball
season just began conference play. They got a couple months
to go before they get all the way to the
end of the College World.

Speaker 5 (33:21):
Series in May and June.

Speaker 6 (33:23):
The Major League baseball season has only seen two regular
season games played. Everybody else got one hundred and sixty
two still in front of us six more months of baseball.
And the high school baseball seasons I hope don't apply here,
nor do the minor league baseball seasons, but they're professionals.

Speaker 5 (33:37):
Maybe I should include them too.

Speaker 6 (33:38):
Will we see a repeat performance on social media by
any of those baseball players I just grouped together at
any point in the twenty twenty five seasons? Will we
see a second Sniff celebration?

Speaker 5 (33:54):
Will we is McGuire there? I don't think so. Sniff
If McGuire's there.

Speaker 6 (33:58):
I mean, that was just a that was what you
do after you've risen back up from the full smith
this cush.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
This cush.

Speaker 5 (34:05):
There you go. Best of X Thursday edition here on
the eighteen back.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
To Adam Clinton had Adam Wexler.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
You know, as we wind down the three o'clock hour,
we will be or two o'clock hour, will we simulcast
to start the three o'clock hour next on Space City
Home Network. It'll be good to have our mugs back
on television again. I just dealt with some seven ninety
on seven ninety violence during the break. It's not even no,
I'm talking about the conversation we were having. He called

(34:39):
my shirt stupid. And then today's shirt. No, I know,
today's shirt's awesome and it's not black, it's red.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
You'll see.

Speaker 4 (34:47):
Just tune in on Space City Home Network wherever you
are provided that channel, on whatever provider you experience. But yeah,
I you know there's some good natured ribbing every now
and again. But since it's top of mind, especially in
the political sphere. You ever been swatted before, and in
this case, you ever been cyber swatted? You know what

(35:09):
swatting is, right, Listeners, might not. Somebody will get your information,
specifically where you live in the most cases, and then
call the authorities and tell them that something bad is
going on inside your home in order to try and
get you into a situation where you could get hurt.
It's a terrible thing. It's honestly, frankly domestic terrorism. But anyway,

(35:31):
you can also do it on you know, social media,
like say, if you were a coworker of mine who
hosted a show typically between the hours of ten am
and two pm, and your name was not Ross, you
would do something like this. Your name is at sports MT.

(35:52):
He did his customary bit that he does where he says,
should si Ue just give up? You know they're getting
throttled right now by the koogs seventy two to thirty eight,
and he got a response.

Speaker 5 (36:05):
He got several responses.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
One of them was from at Lizzie mag seven three
three zero six and she writes, Hi, how are you.
I hope you're doing well. I just saw your profile.
I like it a lot. That's why I'm sending you
this message so I can get to know you. I
hope you don't mind. Now, you and I and people
that are on social media know exactly what that is.

(36:26):
That's called a bot in the industry, it's called a
not real person. And that's just frankly something that you
should ignore or move along. That's what most of us
would do, not. Matt Thomas Matt Thomas quote tweeted that
and said, Hi, Lizzy, I'm a very busy man, but
at Adam Clanton isn't, and thus would like to tweet
back and forth with you a lot.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
Why does he do these? Why does he?

Speaker 6 (36:50):
Then?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
What?

Speaker 7 (36:51):
Well?

Speaker 4 (36:51):
I responded, of course, and said, this is cyberswatting, and
you're a horrible person, which is all accurate.

Speaker 5 (36:57):
And he's doing it from Florida. He's not even here.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
He's so unbothered and has so much free time after
his you know, thoroughly entertaining talk.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Show today that he can do this to me, it's
the matter. Will you manage? He'll be all right? Right, good,
good to hear. I have bigger fish to fry in
my world, as you know. Let's fry them up.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Well, I need, first of all, I need the Rockets
to not get caught up into a trap game tomorrow night.
I don't even think it is.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
How many trap games in a row?

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Can they play all of them? None of them are
trap games. Every game during this winning streak has been
a trap game. But seriously, think about it, and they've
almost been trapped several times.

Speaker 6 (37:38):
This one for those that believe in it could actually
cite it because of the venue. No, because the next
game is difficult. I finally haven't. That's why I get
a game that is difficult. I just haven't gotten that
part of the equation yet. Yeah, they have Denver coming
up over the weekend. Denver, provided they bring a healthy
team to the table, and they might in their next game,
and then they might when they meet the Rockets the weekend,

(38:00):
but they haven't in their last couple. Yeah, you might be.
Come on, man, Jalen Green and Javari Smith Junior, and
you know, Aaron Holliday and Fred Van Vliet and Alpie
and Dylan. They're looking ahead. This team. They've played bad
basketball for a lot of different reasons, and they might
play bad basketball against the Miami Heat tomorrow night.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
It's not gonna be because it's a trap game.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
It's not gonna be because they're looking ahead to the
first of their final eleven games of the season, where
they got a bunch of games against Denver and LA
and the other LA and Golden State and the Oklahoma
City Thunder. There'll be plenty of focused in on a
team that has lost nine straight games. And it's eleven
games under five hundred.

Speaker 5 (38:42):
Yeah, I'm sure that's the case.

Speaker 6 (38:44):
The last three games, and if you include the Magic game,
which was a little bit more comfortable, were very dissimilar
from the other wins in this streak. They clabbered the
Pelicans on back to back games. They embarrassed the Magic,
holding them the eighty four points. They blew out the Suns,
even the the final scorer was a little closer. They
beat the mass by thirty seven, and then they snuck

(39:05):
past the Bulls. They had to go overtime against the
Sixers and were down twenty five and had to come
from a relatively unfortunate early game deficit to the Magic.
Probably the last three or more of the trap variety,
even though the play elite basket, there's no trap involved.
They just didn't more like play down to their competition. Yeah,
expecting a team of this caliber, because they're not the

(39:26):
Thunder to play unbelievably well for five, six, seven, eight, ten,
twelve games in a row. Is it doesn't happen. It
didn't happen at any other point this season either. This
just happens to be a point in the schedule where
they've been able to maintain some form of manner of
consistency against lesser competition, thus a bunch of victories. We'll

(39:46):
talk about all those things and more in the three
o'clock hour that is next.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Hopefully you took part of the eight dollars specialty burgers
last night at Big City Wings. But since it's Thursday,
double boneless Wings, three dollars, bud Light, three dollars, Ultra
sixteen out sixteen ounce aluminums all day and oh, by
the way, thirteen convenient locations where you can watch. There's
probably something on right now, something you could watch on

(40:19):
all the screens.

Speaker 6 (40:19):
There anything, anyone, any hardwood activity around the country, is there, madness, Yes,
in fact there is. I know a bunch of people
went over there to watch the Coogs at any of
those locations that you mentioned. Always a great time during
all of these games, especially when the locals are playing.
But you got games throughout the afternoon and evening today, Tomorrow,

(40:40):
Saturday and Sunday this weekend, and more tournament action coming
up the following two weekends. Make sure you make your
way on out to Big City Wings. Wall to Wall
TV's fantastic food, well beyond the specials. Loaded fries, great wings,
chicken and waffles, tremendous burgers.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
We're just talking about.

Speaker 6 (40:57):
Enjoy yourself at any one of the Houston area Big
City Wings locations.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam were talking your team.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 6 (41:15):
A three o'clock the A team here on Sports Talk
seven ninety wex and AC here with you. Simulcast begins
on Space City Home Network. Appreciate everybody with us today
and those of you out there listening via the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
You know who you are.

Speaker 6 (41:34):
We love you, especially those of you who have already
made Sports Talk seven ninety number one on your presets.
You got a host of spots available, don't you. Well
go ahead and make Sports Talk seven ninety one of
your presets even number one, and you can listen to
us anywhere you want. The ease with which you could
find us right there via the iHeartRadio App, especially after

(41:54):
you have bumped us right up into your presets, you
won't believe how awesome it is.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
It is new and improved.

Speaker 6 (42:00):
Great place to find us and a great place to
find us talking about what is taking place with every
team here locally, including the Cougars, who have wrapped up
their victory over SI you Edwardsville, and you would hope
with a team in this stage of the season, you
know what could derail anybody. Cooper Flagg got hurt a
couple of days ago. You've had seasons where the Cougars

(42:21):
had injuries in the tournament. Jaywon Roberts injured in the
conference tournament. He was on the court today, but he
and the rest of the starters didn't need to tax
themselves for thirty six, thirty eight forty minutes. Far from
it in their victory today and now advancing beyond the
opening round again seventy eight to forty of the final.
There another number one seed on the court right now,

(42:44):
technically in the locker room because they are halftime, Alabama State,
who won their first four game and Auburn was their prize.
Auburn has a ten point lead at the half, a
super popular pick as a dark horse to win it
all or win their region or beat you of h Clemson. Seriously,
don't you know? Will Wade coaches mcnease State McNee State

(43:07):
twenty one Clemson eight twelve and a half minutes into
that game.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
That's a twelve five matchup.

Speaker 6 (43:16):
Three other finals, also in each of the expected seeds
were winners, and I am aware one of them was
an eight nine game. You know, the nine has beaten
the eight way more often than the reverse. Creighton beat Louisville,
Purdue beat High Point, and the Wisconsin Badgers. Badgers were
too much for the Grizzlies, which doesn't sound right, but

(43:38):
it's true. Wisconsin beat Montana. Texas Tech will play later
this evening, last game of the night from their spot
in the West. Texas A and M will play in
the early slot and their spot in the South, They've
got Gail Tech has UNC Wilmington. Pretty entertaining matchup of

(43:58):
coaches later this evening with Bill self and Kansas taking
on John Kyle Perry.

Speaker 5 (44:03):
And ar Kansas.

Speaker 6 (44:05):
I don't think either one of those teams has much
more basketball in them after one of them advances. Today
and a host of other games will keep you abreast of,
including the Georgia Gonzaga game and that the winner of
that game is the next opponent for Kelvin Sampson's Kougs.

Speaker 5 (44:19):
Give me an update on that mcnee's score again twenty
one to eight, twenty three to eight.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
Now, I'm sure you are aware that our own Chandler
Rome and Brian McTaggart and others I think shared a
photo of Brian King not playing along with wearing a
U of H shirt today.

Speaker 6 (44:34):
Yeah. Tip to the local teams here, the Texans, the
Astros among others noting the Cougar's tournament run began today
and they sent out some social media best of lux
to them. Nice that the ad over at U of
h Eddy Noonyez acknowledged that also, and the Astros took
it to the point that to each and every chair
in their clubhouse in West Palm Beach, in advance of

(44:56):
their game activities which have wrapped up, they had Houston
Cougar's t shirts they're red on their chairs and then
they obliged and wore them for their practice portion of
their day. Early this morning, even Brian King wore his
Cougar's jersey, though he asked the training staff for some
tape so he could tape over.

Speaker 5 (45:18):
The front of it.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
Was like the whole thing, right, McNeese stayed on it.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
He was going to stay on brand.

Speaker 6 (45:25):
I like that, well, it's wrapping the team you, as
a Houston baseball player, needs to show some love to
while giving his own squad the McNeese State cowboy veteran
that Brian King is after he attended Ponderosa High School,
he wrapped them as well as they make their tournament
run possibly extend beyond today.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Possibly, huh, they're only up fifteen. They're not afraid of
the big stage. According to CBS Sports. You know, there
are probably some people watching us right now in Space
City Home Network that are thinking, why didn't Clanton do
the same thing?

Speaker 6 (45:59):
Why didn't he put some tape over his logo? It
is Sam, He's exactly like the State is. Not only
in the tournament they're playing today.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
And I'm old enough to remember when that was somewhat.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Of a rival for the Bearcats, especially on the football side,
well but basketball too.

Speaker 5 (46:14):
But you know, it's not all roses over with the Astros.
All right, what's going on with the Astros? If you
did not hear a rather.

Speaker 6 (46:25):
Unappetizing update on one of the ailing Astros pictures, which
may cause us to ask bigger questions after we tell
you what Joe Spota said about one of his ailing pictures.

Speaker 5 (46:37):
What did you say.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
Today, Well, he said, according to Joe Spata, that Luis
Garcia was supposed to throw a live batting practice session,
but he came down the wording.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
You're making it sound like he had the sles. He
came down.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
Well, I'm reading Brian mctagger's tweets. You're going to take
it up with him. He came down with a sore elbow,
and we'll be examined by doctors. This is he just
paused at the wrong time. He came down. He came
down with a sore elbow. Came down with a sore elbow.
This is not what you want to hear off off
of what he's gone through.

Speaker 6 (47:14):
All right, so first thought when you heard it, what
was your first thought?

Speaker 4 (47:17):
I honestly thought, this is like Lance mccullor's all over again.

Speaker 5 (47:21):
I went the other direction.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
I thought, Okay, I've already seen it with the player
you mentioned set back, set back. Now we're seeing with
this player set back. What about the one that's even
further behind them? That's who I thought of. Yep, yeah,
well I saw their return to play procedures have been
under scrutiny. I guess is a fair way to say

(47:45):
it for a bunch of different players and a bunch
of different reasons. Jake Myers comes to mind for how
quickly he tried to come back from a pretty serious
shoulder injury and basically torpedoed at season. Whether they were
right or wrong, it certainly didn't work. How about his career?

Speaker 4 (47:57):
He has not been the same guy since he hit
that wall in the playoffs against the White Sox, And
more than one person said this, and I'm not even
I'm not taking shots. I think it's a legit point.
What are the Astros doing as a training staff that
this keeps happening the same way?

Speaker 6 (48:14):
Well, in his case, I would still separate it from
is he hurt?

Speaker 5 (48:18):
No, no, no, no, no, Jake Myers. Oh, Jake Myers.

Speaker 6 (48:24):
Isn't playing good baseball. Not because he came back too fast.
He's not playing good baseball because maybe there was some
mental residue from that and he just simply hasn't been
able to overcome it, or he just isn't good. I mean,
his track record of being good was pretty short. I
mean that runway was shorter than the one that Maverick
and Goose's kid tried to take.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
Off his what is wrong with you?

Speaker 2 (48:45):
What?

Speaker 5 (48:45):
It was a short runway?

Speaker 4 (48:46):
I mean, he was just I thought you were making
a goose death joke for a second there, but then
I realized that the end of the sentence changed everything.

Speaker 6 (48:53):
You're right, they lost the front. This isn't a runway,
it's a taxiway here to make an emergency land and
do not have Fronny Myers prior injury taxiway before he
got hurt against the White Sox in the playoffs. It
was a couple of months a major league baseball. He's
played ten times that many months, you know.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Once it's been so long. What I know that he
was a better player prior to that? What kind of
player was he?

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Though?

Speaker 6 (49:20):
Well, he had a surprisingly poppy bat. And that's when
you know. We were actually found out about that deal
when we were over at Toyota Center handling a live
broadcast with the Rockets. So they were getting ready for
their season and heard that they were going to trade
their starting center fielder away during a likely playoff season
and bring up a kid from the miners to take over.

(49:41):
And nobody was really keyed in on this prospect, Jake Myers,
but he had put up an offensive profile that kind
of made the team, if not fans pay attention. He
came up to the Astros that year from Sugarland as
a one thousand OPS player. He had sixteen homers in
sixty eight games. He had fifty one RBI in sixty

(50:03):
eight games that year. It was a big jump in
his slugging percentage, slugging abilities because I think there were
things that in this development they worked on and thought, well,
let's see if this can help him do this and
make him better at that and the answer was yes.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
And then he came up.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
He clearly, I'm not trying to tell you he was
awesome when he came up, but we would kill for
him to have a seven to sixty one OPS here
in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (50:27):
That would be unbelievable, right, And.

Speaker 6 (50:28):
That's what he had during his you know, one hundred
and fifty at bats or so to head into the postseason,
which unfortunately ended with him getting hurt. And he's really
never been the same player since. Even as you know,
his power numbers are down, it's slugging is down, everything
about it. It's all down, all across the board, but
specific to Luis Garcia and Lance mccullors Junior and Christian
Xavier and JP France. They're not all the same injuries,

(50:53):
so they can't be treated completely equally by any means.
But you're you're dealing with a lot of the same
instruction and guidance from the staff. They're dealing with different
doctors potentially for which particular injury they had surgery for. Internally,
a lot of the same voices you're hearing from inside
the ASTROS staff are those same voices and in you know,

(51:15):
other than Javier clearly because he's not at that stage yet.
I don't think each of those three that I mentioned
are all hoping to pitch again very soon for the
astras that all have faced. Well, we didn't expect this.
This is absolutely a setback. This resets the timeline to
some degree in Garcia and mccullor's and JP France, I mean.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
JP France flat outsid I shouldn't been pitching.

Speaker 6 (51:37):
I shouldn't have been out there, And anyway, that's about
all on the team necessarily. That still can be way
back to like morgan Ensburg going out there and playing
every day on a one shoulder. I mean things, players
will do certain things and.

Speaker 5 (51:48):
Pitching the same expression on his face though.

Speaker 6 (51:50):
He might have it's not all I'm not it's not
an all on the management, but when you're in the
rehab portion, much of it is. But I still have
another example of oh it isn't And Las mccullors told
us this during this spring training. He said he pushed
it too far in this instance when he was trying
to do that, and we he was at this stage
and he now knows that and probably should have known

(52:13):
at the time.

Speaker 5 (52:13):
It's not all on them.

Speaker 6 (52:15):
And that's where I would still say, well, it's perfectly
reasonable to scrutinize them.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
Every case is still individually based. It's just.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Back to Adam Clinton had Adam Wexler the eight on
Sports Talk seven ninety's.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Some injuries along the way.

Speaker 8 (52:40):
Smith drives a deep left field that goes as a
car over his head and off the top of the wall.
Down the third goes humble and the umpire's now indicating
home run. Cam Smith trots around the basis for the
fourth time this spring.

Speaker 5 (52:57):
Yes he does.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
In case you missed it, another day, another camp Smith
home run, this time to left field, pulling the ball
and I guess barely sending it over the fence. Who
knew until they took her about it that he had
done so he was able to take his number ninety
casually around the bases yesterday, not a part of the

(53:22):
Astros group today. I mean, what more do you need
from the kid? He's been unbelievable. It continues, and that's
why this is your home for all the best and
brightest news you're ever gonna want to hear. The camp
Smith hype train is rolling through the A team here
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (53:43):
I'm so happy about this development on the show.

Speaker 6 (53:45):
It's incredible what this kid has and likely will continue
to do.

Speaker 5 (53:51):
Fade, well, I don't have the I.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Know, that's just funny because it's so abrupt and not
at all how a train would stop making noises.

Speaker 5 (54:01):
It went into the tunnel. Yeah, that's still a fade.

Speaker 6 (54:05):
I mean, I guess an approaching train coming out of
the tunnel where you see the light coming, doesn't just
on top of you with the noise. I mean, I
could have asked for a fade, but that would have
required me to ask for a fade. I just wanted
to go about it that way. No, it was much
funnier the way you did it perfect. Yeah, so the
camp Smith hype train is rolling strong, the idea that
they'll have to consider more of this in the regular season.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
We'll hear from Joe Spott on that very thing.

Speaker 6 (54:29):
He was asked about that yesterday after yesterday's game, in
which he homered. He, like I said, did not participate
in the Astros game today, and somehow, miraculously they still
managed to score eleven times. They only scored in three innings.
They took a one nothing lead to the seventh they
won eleven nothing. I mentioned Josh Hater pitch today and
walked three batters.

Speaker 5 (54:50):
Uh huh. The other.

Speaker 6 (54:53):
Seven Astros pitchers walked zero batters, allowed only five hits
and strike out ten in the zero run performance that
they put together against the Marlins. But also of note, hey,
way to do your work on the group project.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
Josh.

Speaker 6 (55:09):
Yeah, he didn't give up any runs, just like them.
He had two strikeouts. The team had twelve. He had
two of those. So what would be the equivalent equivalent
of what since he walked all those batters. So what
he's working on things, he's getting out, he's ironing out
the king absolutely. Okay, all right, when will let me Josh, Yeah.
Zach Dezenzo deserves the same kind of discussion about Cam Smith.

(55:32):
He just doesn't have a train, and he wasn't traded for,
and he wasn't a former first round pick, and he
doesn't hit a bomb every at bat. But he did
get hurt earlier this week when a line drive down
the first base line bounced up into his jaw. But
he's in the lineup today and all he managed to
do was raise his average to four fifteen with three
more knocks. He's got eleven thirty eight ops. That's cam

(55:53):
Smith territory. And he was out in right field today.
Mentioned the other day this week he was playing over
at first base. There aren't that many obvious open roster
spots for opening day, But what are you supposed to do.
You're supposed to make it hard on them, make the
decision difficult. Camp Smith's doing that. Zach Decenzo is absolutely

(56:14):
doing the very same thing. Jake Myers also hit the
ball over the fence today, his third of the spring.
Has his extremely important spring training numbers to eight to
seventy on the ops scale. He's going to be your
opening day center fielder most likely. We do know the
opening day pitching matchup. I don't think we've mentioned it much.
Yankees great Clay Holmes will be on the mound for

(56:35):
the other New York team when the Mets are in
town on opening Day in the bottom of the first
after from ber Valdez has mode through their high priced
top three in the order.

Speaker 5 (56:45):
And I mean mode through.

Speaker 6 (56:47):
It's possible it will be as high priced as it
can get. If manager Mendoza decides to go Lindor Soto Alonso.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
Is Soto's still twenty one?

Speaker 6 (57:00):
Yeah, because the game is at Minute Made Park. Yeah,
only twenty one years.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
So cheeze. He's going to destroy them if that is well.

Speaker 6 (57:06):
He was at Minute Made Park last year as a
twenty one year old to open up the season and
mashed against the Astros.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
And open everybody mashed in that series.

Speaker 6 (57:15):
He just kept getting on base. I'm like, what's this
on base percentage a billion?

Speaker 4 (57:18):
Where was Aaron Judge's stupid fielding gaffes in that series?

Speaker 5 (57:22):
Oh wait, he saved him for.

Speaker 6 (57:23):
The big gets about the wind after the opening series
of this year.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
All right, I'll ask you a question.

Speaker 6 (57:30):
Home runs, it's a home run and every other ballpark,
but Minute made park the wind. Okay, Boonie, what is well,
he's he's extended so and could be bearded if he wants.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
Why. Oh, just because of this, they relaxed the rules.
Can he even grow a beard?

Speaker 6 (57:48):
He's older than you would think, even though he's baby faced. Yeah,
but certain peoples don't grow facial hair.

Speaker 5 (57:56):
You could be right. I don't know.

Speaker 6 (57:57):
The Boone family bearded history, and Brett and Bob were
unbearded major League Baseball players as well.

Speaker 4 (58:03):
Let's just attack the obvious here. Since you brought it up,
I've been wrestling with something, and I mean I I
think I might need some input. I have not solicited
this on social.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
Media always the place to go. Well for this, it
actually is. I don't have to.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
Do an instaple.

Speaker 6 (58:23):
No, okay, it's time dding I don't know if videos
should be made for this season. I don't know if
videos should be made this season. Everybody's I guarantee you this.
Your longtime followers of that bit will be waking up
each day and they will want someone I should hope

(58:45):
so want some to wish them, someone to wish them
a good morning in video form. Here's the thing, here's
why you're where they're going to have fewer winds than
any of the previous years. You're gonna duck out. I
started doing this, but that's the thing, that's the bit.
I started doing this as a way to almost I
hate to even say it this way, but when you

(59:07):
get cast aside in this business, sometimes it's permanently and
you know, just to stay relevant with an online presence
in the interim. And it was twenty eighteen, they were
coming off the World Series Championship. They were right back
in the thick of things until Boston cheated, and I
just wanted to kind of make my mark where I could,
and it kind of evolved.

Speaker 5 (59:29):
But like that bit really.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
Only works in my opinion. I mean, if you ever
actually read the disclaimer, there's no way you have.

Speaker 6 (59:37):
I mean, I have a T shirt that has a
disclaimer on it.

Speaker 5 (59:40):
Well, I've read it. You know.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
It talks about other fan bases being but hurt because
they're not They're team's not as good as yours.

Speaker 6 (59:47):
I feel like you are kind of wasting an opportunity here.
They opened with the Mets and the Giants, two National
League teams. They obviously don't play them very often, and
it's a very high likelihood their fans in New York
are very high on their season. That's very high likely
that both sets of fans will be unfamiliar with the
BIT should they see it on Giants Twitter.

Speaker 4 (01:00:09):
You mean like the first time the Orioles were relevantly
like ten years exactly, and they're like, look at this guy.

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
I mean, does he not know how this works? They
play multiple games in series and he's just acting like, it's.

Speaker 6 (01:00:22):
Only one hundred and sixty more to go. Run your
run a victor, go ahead. It's so easy if you're
not a more. I think I'll do our listeners and
your followers, our followers a solid and encourage you to
comply as often as possible. I'm not expecting eighty eight videos.
Well here's the thing, but I do think we'll see
a good, good number. Sponsors change everything. If you want

(01:00:44):
to sponsor the videos, absolutely I'm solictening money here on
the show.

Speaker 5 (01:00:48):
You have to absolutely let me know on that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
But yeah, it's not that my heart isn't in it,
but I just feel like it's it's not The bit
has to also be genuine to do it. And also
there's only a certain amount of songs in this world
think about that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:08):
I do think about that, But every year also brings
new angles.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
Yeah, well that's the content that serves itself up and
then I have to do, you know, do with it
what I will.

Speaker 6 (01:01:17):
So we mentioned the opening series. It's a home stand
of six games. You got the Mets and the Giants.
Their road trip includes Carlos Korea's team and Julio Rodriguez's
team in Seattle. And today we found out there's more
ammunition for any astros beat Mariners.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
Good morning video.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
You'd like, let's talk about the Mario theme exactly what
a stupid stupid thing they did.

Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
Why?

Speaker 6 (01:01:43):
Because it's stupid. You just said what they're doing is smart.
Not two seconds ago. You wanted to get some product
of yours sponsored. They did the exact same thing. They
got a product of theirs. They're baseball players jerseys. They
got themselves a sponsor. The difference is my sponsors a sponsor.

Speaker 5 (01:02:06):
Wait to go, Cole.

Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
My sponsorship will actually give the investor a return on
that investment, whereas THEIRS will be like, hey, look we
put a Nintendo patch on these jerseys and they are
still not scoring runs. They're not allowing other teams to
score runs. But they're the most boring anything product in
baseball because all these one nothing games that don't even

(01:02:30):
go their way are any good.

Speaker 6 (01:02:33):
The score of their ball games is not relevant to
Do you think we could get payoff on this? Diken
certainly thought so with the ballpark, Oxy certainly thinks so.
With the Astros uniforms. Ox he's getting their money and
in this case, both Nintendo at Home and Nintendo switch
To on the road will be seen by thousands of

(01:02:54):
Mariners fans and everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
On social media.

Speaker 6 (01:02:56):
Regular Console at home handheld Onto try it ends up?

Speaker 7 (01:03:00):
Brother?

Speaker 6 (01:03:02):
Yeah, did you see the drink? The drink so they're
selling it with the shape of their m in the
Triday two ounces with free refills.

Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Nice. If you buy that, then you should get free.

Speaker 6 (01:03:12):
Refills, getting your gear sponsored revenue stream. It's gotta do it,
got it, put it on the stadium, Gotta do it there,
gotta do it everywhere. Halfway home. Our number two here
on the A team. Another item on the Texans. I'll
tell you what I think their offensive line might look
like based on their latest move.

Speaker 5 (01:03:32):
That's next.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
The A team now continues.

Speaker 6 (01:03:45):
Eighteen, wex ac here with you on Sports Talk seven
ninety a Thursday edition of the show.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
The opening day of the.

Speaker 6 (01:03:52):
NCAA College Basketball Tournament, March Madness, handful of games have
gone final, a couple of others about to get there.

Speaker 5 (01:04:00):
The biggest upset of the.

Speaker 6 (01:04:02):
Tournament, early early, early in the first day of the
tournament is halfway to becoming reality, with McNee state absolutely
handing it to Clemson right now.

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
Clemson scored thirteen points in the first half. That's insane.

Speaker 6 (01:04:14):
They are not winning and they are not close the
University of Houston. I appreciate ESPN's post on the X
platform about their victory at Reads. If the University of
Houston Cougar men's basketball team went scoreless in the second half,
they would have still won by double digits. They scored
fifty two points in the first half. They won their
game seventy eight to forty Fifty two would have been

(01:04:37):
a twelve point victory if they had shut her down
offensively in the entire second half. They'll wait the winner
of the Georgia Gonzaga game to see who they will
play and get a game time on that for Saturday.
We'll have that on our sister station nine to fifty KPRC,
just as we did earlier this afternoon and will throughout
the NCAA tournament with the Cougars. I mentioned my thoughts
were forthcoming on the Houston Texans latest offensive line configuration.

(01:05:03):
The Texans have clearly decided what we had is not
good enough. The personnel we had is making too much
money and not good enough. First round pick, a highly
paid extended guard, and a very highly paid Pro Bowl
caliber tackle.

Speaker 5 (01:05:20):
We're all shown the door in different forms.

Speaker 6 (01:05:23):
A trade of Laramie Tonselo the Commanders, a trade of
Ken Young Green to the Eagles, and a release June
first release of Shaq Mason. Though again with the June
first releases, the players released currently and you get the
cap savings based on the beginning of the league year,
and then you get more cap savings presumably, And that's
why they're designated as June first, because it is definitive

(01:05:46):
you'll get another a big chunk of cap savings when
that June first day hits. But Jack Mason is free
to negotiate and find a new team, and I'm sure
that he will. Each of those three players probably will
be on the field next year in some former fashion
for their new teams, the Texans have added two players,
two of the three players that the Vikings mimicked the

(01:06:07):
Texans with the Texans went to the playoffs last year
and told three of their opening game lineman offensive lineman, thanks,
but no thanks, we don't need you anymore. The Minnesota
Vikings made the playoffs last year and told three of
their opening game starting offensive lineman, we don't need you anymore.
And technically, in Cam Robinson's case, he was the opening

(01:06:28):
gay starter for Jacksonville and then started the final ten
games of the season from Minnesota following the trade the
injury to Christian darrisaw but their line they felt was
not up to par either, and the Texans have plucked
two of their players away. And when you get to
double dip with Cam Robinson, I don't know how you'd
like this statement to be made and have it not

(01:06:49):
sound awful. The Texans decided, in order to get better
this year, the player they were going to pay the
most to in free agency and the best player there
going to trade for as the new league year begins,
and their number one cornerback from a depth standpoint, would
be added. All from the crappy Jacksonville Jaguars. Cam Robbinsons

(01:07:11):
started for the Jaguars last year and now he's possibly
the Texans starting left tackle. Christian Kirk hurt last year
in the third year of his four year deal with
the Jaguars, traded for him, redid his deal.

Speaker 5 (01:07:24):
He's going to start here for the Texans.

Speaker 6 (01:07:25):
He'll be healthy long before the season starts to be
ready for their offseason program, and he will start.

Speaker 5 (01:07:31):
And I just mentioned Darby.

Speaker 6 (01:07:34):
The Texans actually officially announced that move about twenty minutes ago.
And he's longtime NFL player. He's started in a bunch
of different places. He's been with the Jaguars most recently.
And now you said, man, they got some good players,
let's get him over here. But to their offensive line,
I ask you this question. I brought it up before,
and I'll ask again. What do CJ. Stroud, Joe Mixon,

(01:08:00):
Ico Collins, and Dalton Schultz have in common? Are they
the only players left that have played for a coach.

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
That's no longer here? No Demiko at CJ. I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:08:19):
They are the only four players as of March twentieth,
twenty twenty five, that are slated to start for the
second year in a row for the Houston Texans offense.
The only that's four players that are slated to start
in the same spot for the same team because just
twelve months later, because as Stefan Diggs explores, flirts with

(01:08:43):
whatever you want to call it with the Patriots first
official visit reported yesterday afternoon by Chad Graff, and he
is with New England today.

Speaker 5 (01:08:50):
Tank Dell is not going to be ready to play.

Speaker 6 (01:08:53):
Maybe not at all, but certainly not the opening game.
Right the offensive line is zero for five. They will
have five newly placed starters on their offensive line unless
you're gonna tell me somehow they've put it together where
Titus Howard is back at right tackle and Blake Fisher
is somewhere else, but they're five man starting lineup Larrmie Tunsel,

(01:09:18):
Kenyon Green, Juice Scrugs at center, Jack Mason, and Titus
Howard on the right side, right guard and right tackle.
I'm only guessing because they really do have a bunch
of options again, because they have so few.

Speaker 5 (01:09:30):
This player is so.

Speaker 6 (01:09:32):
Good he must start at this spot on their offensive line,
which is not a good thing. Flexibility, positional movement Hey,
this guy went down.

Speaker 5 (01:09:41):
You can just move him over.

Speaker 6 (01:09:42):
That's great. It's like the worst thing ever. It's not great.
It's not the best thing you want, Like snaps. Cam
Robinson's a left tackle. It's pretty much where he's played
his the tire NFL career, and this is where he
played poorly last year for two teams. He'll be your
starting left tackle as of today, and I'll put Blake
Fisher as the other tackle over on the right side.

(01:10:03):
He doesn't have experience at any other position. He didn't
play it in college. He's certainly not going to play
it here all of a sudden. I wouldn't suspect Titus
Howard has a couple of positions of experience.

Speaker 5 (01:10:13):
Left tackle is one of them.

Speaker 6 (01:10:14):
Had a very short few games stretch back in twenty
twenty one where he was really really good there. But
you signed Cam Robinson. I have to believe that's where
he's playing. And for twelve million dollars, he's not a reserve.
So Titus Howard's going to play left guard, the only
position Laken Tomlinson has played in his NFL career.

Speaker 5 (01:10:32):
I'm better than a decade now. He's only making four
and a half million.

Speaker 6 (01:10:35):
It's not the end of the world if you did
sign him for depth, and we've been talking about that
from the moment that was announced.

Speaker 5 (01:10:40):
In that or reported and that acquisition was made.

Speaker 6 (01:10:43):
He has been an every down player seventeen game seasons
the last several years, and sixteen game seasons before that.
He started every game for seven years in a row.
But he has some right tackle experience he played there
when he was a duke. And then you also have
Ed Ingram, who they traded for from Minnesota. I'll put
j Pat back at center. I think he's played better
center than anyone else in either of the past two seasons.

(01:11:05):
Just hadn't been able to stay healthy. So he'll start
the year there, which is where he finished last year.
And I'll say, you know, either Tomlinson or Ingram. Maybe
I'll lean Tomlinson today, maybe I'll lean Ingram tomorrow. That's
what your new offensive line alignment looks for your new
offensive line coach, your new offensive coordinator, and your star quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:11:26):
Questions abound.

Speaker 4 (01:11:28):
Yeah, it's for a team that did so well in
year two even though it had same record, and look
to take the next step and has done so well
putting the other side.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
Of the ball together, you're talking about the offense here.

Speaker 4 (01:11:43):
It's wild how much turnover is going to happen, and
yet they're still going to be expected to surpass and wins.

Speaker 6 (01:11:52):
Three time defending AFC South champions. That's what we're talking
about next off season with your Houston Texans.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexelwerth on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:12:10):
Update on the injury situation for the Houston Rockets as
they head into Friday's game against the Miami Heat. Has
predicted here on the eighteen Go Baby, his aura will
be maxing soon. The latest injury report gets released a
handful of times each day after a certain number of
minutes fifty five plus five minutes over the course of

(01:12:32):
each and every afternoon, and finally the Rockets a whole
day plus in advance of their game against the Heat
to put out their preliminary report for tomorrow night's tilt
seven o'clock against the Miami Heat. Reed Shepherd, in fact,
is out. They have not made any changes to their
three G League players, David Roddy, Jack mcveiz.

Speaker 5 (01:12:52):
Hoping, David Roddy.

Speaker 6 (01:12:54):
They are all album each of the other two G
leaguers have have been with the Rockets quite a bit,
and Dante has scored his first NBA points.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
Who else is on a list?

Speaker 6 (01:13:04):
A Ben Thompson has listed on the injury report, as
he has been since he sprained his ankle and had
to leave that game early during the homestand but instead
of being listed as out as he has been for
each of those previous game, he is listed as probable.

Speaker 5 (01:13:17):
You are so cooked, Tyler.

Speaker 6 (01:13:19):
Hero likely means he'll go through whatever they have in
store for shoot around tomorrow, and considering they have not
played back to backs here, they should have your typical
shoot around before the heat game.

Speaker 5 (01:13:30):
He'll go through his normal workout.

Speaker 6 (01:13:32):
I would imagine it won't even be till maybe after
probably when he meets with the media talking about head
coachy Dooka tomorrow evening before the heat game the five
o'clock hour, he'll recognize that everything's fine, he's in good
shape and we expect him to be out there. And yes,
since you asked, he'll be back in the starting lineup
and you'll see Fred and Jalen Amen and Dylan and

(01:13:55):
Alprin Shangouon starting against the Miami heat with both Jabbari
and Tari coming off the bench, Well, Tari's streak will
go by the wayside. What is his streak the Rockets
have won. I believe it's either ten or eleven consecutive
games in which he was in the starting lineup, something
along those lines, something to that effect.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
It's definitely ten. It might have been eleven last night.
He started last night, he did, so, I can't remember
if that was ten or eleven.

Speaker 6 (01:14:23):
He is essentially when these two different injuries, for you know,
and the Fred injury came about, he was still dealing
with not being available for both nights of a back
to back, but essentially every night he was available, he
was in the starting lineup. There are a couple of
games he didn't start against Sacramento and the Pacers this month.

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
The Rockets lost both of those games. Yeah, I hate
Sacramento this year a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:14:46):
He started five times on the home stand. They won
all five of those games. They won last night. That's
six in a row. Started the first game of the
winning streak. That is seven wins in a row. The
winning streak is eight, but obviously he missed one of
those games. Started against Milwaukee Minnesota Phoenix. Before that, the
last time he started and the Rockets lost was the

(01:15:09):
only time NBA fans have seen this occurrence the entire season.
Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving playing basketball together on the
Mavericks or a half or half and change.

Speaker 5 (01:15:21):
Yeah that's true. Well yeah, when did he go like yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:15:25):
But yeah, that goes all the way back to the
twenty fifth of February. Every game started by Tarry East
and it's now ten consecutive starts the Rockets have won.
They've won other games where he didn't play or didn't start,
but he will do neither this starts, but will play
coming up on Friday. If, as we just ran through,
all plays out.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
This is a completely inappropriate analogy, but it's true. I
only bring this up because it's the only thing I
can think of to really hit home how Amen Thompson
feels about well, in this case, not being on a basket.

Speaker 5 (01:16:01):
It's like he's jonesing. I'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 4 (01:16:05):
He you know, I always make the joke you're gonna
break out in hives if you don't get to this
or that.

Speaker 5 (01:16:10):
He has probably been.

Speaker 4 (01:16:12):
And I say this because of talking to multiple people
within the organization about how he conducts himself when he's
not in an NBA game, I e. You know, the
other twenty one and a half hours per day every
day if they don't have a game, he's clawing the walls,
crawling the walls. He is such a gem rat and

(01:16:33):
it's all he does. What do you do in your
spare time? I like to play video game? No, he
likes to play basketball. And so I guarantee this has
been killing him and he's probably gonna be like a
caged animal by the time he gets out onto the
floor in Miami. So I'm looking forward to it. He
will by far have the freshest legs of anybody out there,

(01:16:54):
even though it's not a back to back.

Speaker 5 (01:16:56):
He's just gotten.

Speaker 6 (01:16:56):
It's a leg injury that he's been missing time with.
He's eight and two triple doubletmore and I I'm calling
it eight and two this season when he is not
a part of the Rockets, and when he is a part,
a lot more wins but.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
Not quite as good as a winning percentage. Yeah, well,
percentages are overrated, just like batting averages.

Speaker 6 (01:17:15):
That was one thing obviously we wanted to get to here,
talk about a bunch of different things, and one of those,
clearly we just finished up on was the Texans offensive line.
It's unfortunate that this off season is so almost singularly
focused on when an area of an entire football team.
You got all these position groups, you've got all these
moves that need to be made. And while they've clearly

(01:17:37):
enhanced their secondary, they've bolstered contractually some other parts of
their defense, reshaped some of the interior of their defense
with what they've done, and still more to do. Clearly, offensively,
it was pretty much all focused on the offensive line
and at wide out. Made the trade for Christian Kirk,
signed Justin Watson, signed Braxton Barrios, and the offensive line

(01:17:58):
has been very significantly reshuffled, to the point that none
of the five players that were on the field open
up the game's first game of last season, a win
for the Texas will be in the same spot or
even with the team just twelve months later. And yet
even with all those changes, and now they actually have
the bodies that can accommodate the plays like they have

(01:18:19):
players here they can play right now. They have an
offensive line. The personnel is probably not considerably better, if better,
at all. Now we're having to lean on what I
figured we would from the beginning. I think there's a
strong belief that some of their biggest downfalls offensive line related,
protection related, past game related, were not necessarily strictly on

(01:18:44):
the field twelve to three each Sunday or whatever game
time and day they were playing, but they were a
lot more with what was happening during the week and
who they were being coached by and how things were
being addressed, and accountability and things that are making sure,
hey man, this is what they're gonna do. This is
your responsibility. That's your responsibility. And then on Sunday it
wasn't happening too many breakthroughs, and breakthroughs in a bad way.

(01:19:06):
He's breaking through your offensive line with no resistance whatsoever, unblocked.
That's not talent, really offensive line lack of talent. That's
lack of communication, a lack of recognition, probably poor coaching.
And I think all these elements, you know, was it
Popovich versus Strawser, Was it Strawser versus the players?

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
Was it the players? I mean also, I think an
element of all of that was.

Speaker 6 (01:19:29):
In play last year, and I don't know you can
clean it all up in one year when you've hired
a new OC, you've promoted from within on the offensive line,
and now you've sent most of your highest paid offensive
linemen out.

Speaker 5 (01:19:42):
Obviously Titus Howard remains.

Speaker 4 (01:19:44):
Yeah, I look the whole thing about Titus Howard you
were talking about, because you were last segment, in case
you guys weren't listening, you were talking about the fact
that only what four guys are going to probably be
in their their spot again on the offense.

Speaker 6 (01:19:56):
Yeah, one wide receiver, your tight end, you're running back
in your quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
And Titus Howard wouldn't be one of them, provided he
plays where you think he will be, which is at
left guard. Even though you went out and signed a
left guard for depth purposes and all likely.

Speaker 6 (01:20:11):
He's a he's a better I think he's a better
left guard than anybody they signed. I don't know if
he's a better right guard than anybody they signed, because
he doesn't play there. If you put him at right tackle,
then what are you doing with Blake Fisher? I mean,
there are too many iterations to run through before we
hit this last break of the second hour of the
A team here on a Thursday, two.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
The Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the e team.
Been through a lot, a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:20:52):
Talk over the course of the first couple hours of
the show, and more to come here on the backside,
with two hours still to go before we get you
Ano Astro Line, the Astro's general manager will be sitting
down at his local watering hole there in Fla with
Steve Sparks and Robert Ford talking little Astros Baseball. After Astroline,

(01:21:12):
you'll hear Astros Baseball. Their game today very one sided
in a positive way. Astro's pitching very solid, no runs allowed.
Astro's offense also solid, eleven tallies on the afternoon homer's
for Zach Short and Jake Myers. But unfortunately not real
good news on Luis Garcia coming from Joe Espada and

(01:21:33):
that we'd heard from him earlier in the week about
the schedule for Luis Garcia set to throw live BP today,
but as it got closer to today and got to today,
unfortunately that was not going to happen because of some
sort of setback, the details of which we are still uncertain,
but it's definitely not good news. Sore elbow when you're

(01:21:53):
coming back from Tommy's Jaron surgery. Considering where he was,
we talked about this yesterday, not even knowing this part
of it. He was well ahead of Lance mccullors junior
and pitching against hitters last season during the season, in
preparation to be fully ready to go a full go
without any restrictions, probably sometime during the off season and

(01:22:14):
then obviously on into the beginning of spring training.

Speaker 5 (01:22:16):
That clearly didn't even happen.

Speaker 6 (01:22:18):
And now this set back, and we'll hopefully at some
point know a little bit more about it. Hopefully it's
not something even more serious than several weeks, maybe months.
It absolutely could be worse. Don't know that yet, but
that's definitely not good news. Lance mccullors has had good
news so far for each of his weeks in camp.
He will pitch again Sunday or Monday, and if it's Monday,

(01:22:38):
even though the rest of the team will be here,
he'll stay there to probably get in a few up
and downs, something they've obviously he needs to do. He
talked about that after his thirteen pitch outing the other day.
But I know a few of you want to discuss
a little bit about the Astros. Oh yeah, Camp Smith
homer again yesterday. He's got four homers here in spring training.
The Astros are absolutely paying attention, which is why he

(01:22:59):
continues to get regular work in right field, which could
be available to him come opening day or somewhere in
that neighborhood.

Speaker 5 (01:23:07):
We'll find out.

Speaker 6 (01:23:08):
Seven one, three, two, one two, five, seven nine. He
talked a little Astros baseball here with Brandon. Get Brandon
here in on the A team. What's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (01:23:16):
Brandon?

Speaker 2 (01:23:18):
Hey, we thank you. See what's going on?

Speaker 9 (01:23:19):
Guys love the show man always great, great job. I
wanted just to kind of cash in a little bit
on I mean the Cam Smith thing, just kind of
follow up what you guys already said that go those
sentiments and how can you not put a guy on
the roster. It's just, I know, it's spring training, it's
minor league pitching most of it. Here and there, he's hit,
you know, a couple off. I know Tyler McGill was
one and with the Mets the other day. But a
guy is just really positioning himself to be, you know,

(01:23:40):
one of those players, those special guys. And he was
pretty much the crux of that Kyle Tucker trade right now,
and just knowing, you know, was talking to Sean a
little bit this morning. I just don't feel confident in
this outfield.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
I just really don't.

Speaker 9 (01:23:51):
I know that Jake Myers can be kind of a
one hit wonder, but he's more of a defensive guy
than he is in the outfield out there too, compared
to you know, an offensive guy. I mean, Cormick has
to have a bounce back here, no doubt. Then of
course left field is going to be almost an albatross
out there defensively, no doubt, without too no disrespect, but hey,
it is what it is when it comes down to it.
I think you've got a little stronger up in the
middle with you know, maybe Brandon Rodgers or Dubond probably

(01:24:13):
starting there too. But I was kind of in a
little bit of a state of confusion on the Verdigo situation.
He got signed today for like a million and a
half dollars. Did you got to see that with the
Braves and he's going to be sent to like Triple
Lake Guinette, I think yes.

Speaker 4 (01:24:26):
That backs up what Wex has basically been saying this
entire offseason and for most of his career, which is
that he can't stand him and doesn't want Hi anywhere
near him.

Speaker 5 (01:24:33):
Yeahs, I have one.

Speaker 6 (01:24:34):
Had to bring his name up this offseason, but he
obviously came up last offseason before he joined the New
York Yankees. I get where they're at, and you've laid
it out pretty well, Brandon, about what they have in
the outfield, and that is not very much to count on.
I could have seen the Astros going in this direction
for that amount of money. There's nothing to lose. There's
nothing at all to lose, and it's a good signing

(01:24:55):
for whatever team, and in this case it's the Braves.
But he was already at a level where I was
concerned with before last year, and then he had a
terrible offensive year with the Yankees in a lineup where
you figure that they've got to have something for him,
he just wasn't very good offensively. And I don't want
guys who can't. I already have those players here. I

(01:25:16):
don't need another one. If you're concerned about Chaz or
Jake's offense, I mean, maybe you could tell me that
verdu Go's in line for a little bit of a
bounce back and He certainly has a track record of
being better than that, but at that amount of money,
I absolutely would have brought him in. That is a
little bit surprising, but it's more about where we are
in the offseason. I think the Astros felt a little
bit better about going with their other options, and I

(01:25:38):
do appreciate you trying to be nice and kind about it.
We haven't even brought it up. Back to back days
with Jose Altuve missing not line drives, not balls in
the gap. These are basically fly balls that every twelve
year old would catch if they're an outfielder. He was
trying to make a throw after he made the catch,
which probably played a role in him not making the catch.

(01:25:59):
But oh my gosh, these are can't happen plays and
back to back games.

Speaker 9 (01:26:06):
Yeah, I was gonna hit on one more thing too.
I don't know if you guys, I feel like it's
been crickets ever since it happened. I know they were
talking about the Christian Walker, the old Blake injury there
a few weeks ago, and then the plan was to
ease him back into action. I mean, the crickets. I've
heard nothing, and of course he hadn't appeared in the
game in on over two weeks. Are they just playing
it kind of safe and kind of getting ready for
next week's opener. He's going to be ready for opening

(01:26:26):
day with the limited number of A bats, or they
want to stretch him out a little bit on the backfields.
I'll hang up and listen. Guys, great show. Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:26:32):
Thanks for joining us, Brandon appreciate that as well.

Speaker 6 (01:26:35):
The indications from Joe Aspota earlier this week where this
weekend will be game time for Christian Walker.

Speaker 5 (01:26:41):
He'll be in game action.

Speaker 6 (01:26:43):
I don't know what their full plan is through you know, Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday in preparation for Thursday, but I would imagine there's
probably two games of play for him. I don't think
they'll be too concerned about the lack of IT bats
when they get to the regular season opener Thursday, provided
he's he provided he's played the game, woking up the
next day without soreness with the oblique, or didn't have

(01:27:05):
any issues when he's swinging the bat with the oblique
in either of those games, and then if all things
went well, then they wouldn't have red flags to keep
him out of the lineup. When they get the season
started against Clay Holmes on Thursday, that would be my
best guess.

Speaker 5 (01:27:18):
It might mean he wouldn't start.

Speaker 6 (01:27:20):
I mean, they have off days built in around both
of these series, and then another off day built in
around their third series, so it's not like you have
to overtax him. But I imagine we'll see John Singleton
because of this, probably in a game or two more
than we otherwise would have.

Speaker 4 (01:27:36):
First of all, the descends up, that's a snow day
that's built into that third series. Secondly, I was texting
back and forth with a buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:27:43):
This morning, die hard Astros fan, and he's like, I'm
gonna be so mad if Cam Smith isn't on the
opening day roster and John Singleton is. I'm like, why
are you picking on John? First of all? But I
get it, I get that the anticipation is there. Honestly,
they're not in competition with each other by for a
roster spot, right, you can have both, but.

Speaker 5 (01:28:05):
Well, one of them is a lock and it's not
Cam Smith. I know, I know, and that's what I
gently tried to say. But my thing is this, like.

Speaker 4 (01:28:14):
I'm gonna start and I've kind of started to tell
myself this just so I don't get my hopes up
for that kind of thing. If yord On Alvarez can
spend as much time as he did in the miners,
because believe me, no matter what you think of Cam Smith,
he was not. Ord On Alvarez was just doing things
that were insane. Maybe it wasn't all in spring training,

(01:28:37):
but I mean essentially from the start of the season
in the miners wherever he was at, he was murdering
baseballs and we were watching the videos every day like
when is this monster coming up?

Speaker 5 (01:28:49):
Why?

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
And now at that time, the Astros were far more
talent laden in the lineup.

Speaker 6 (01:28:56):
His first full minor league season with the ass it
was was twenty seventeen. They won the World Series that year.

Speaker 4 (01:29:03):
They went to the ALCS. The next year they went
to the World Series his rookie year, and he was
a big part of that. But he didn't come up
until late June. We just established this earlier this week.

Speaker 6 (01:29:12):
I'm going to take the under on nine hundred and
eighty at bats for Cam Smith in his minor league career.

Speaker 5 (01:29:18):
And how many did Jordon have? I know you just
did this the other day. Nine hundred and eighty.

Speaker 6 (01:29:22):
Okay, I thought it was a thousand something though, because
of our conversation. That's why included his nine at bats
in twenty twenty three when he rehabbed.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
His nine at bats.

Speaker 4 (01:29:35):
Yeah, I mean like that's I feel like because that
is this is the most anticipation we've had for a
kid since then. And I say kid because he's way
more of a kid than Jordon was at the time.
As I recall, I.

Speaker 5 (01:29:47):
Mean, they have three. Anyone you want to compare him to,
it would be difficult.

Speaker 6 (01:29:51):
The one you probably would compare him best to, Regman Alvarez,
Correa Tucker Springer is George. George is a college player,
a first round draft pick, a can't miss type of talent,
and he was in the minors forever. Yeah, in my

(01:30:12):
mind famously right, Yes, when you start thinking about ridiculously
is the word I would use.

Speaker 5 (01:30:18):
Ridiculous?

Speaker 4 (01:30:19):
You would, and I think most people that are in
the know would say it probably played a huge role
in the fact that he was never going to come
back here after he was done.

Speaker 5 (01:30:27):
But Kyle Tucker's a high school player.

Speaker 6 (01:30:30):
Jordan Alvarez was a player you traded for, had had
any minor league experience, a little bit of a question
mark about exactly what he'd be, especially since one of
the teams said, yeah, you can have him and each
of the other players. Bregman's a little bit closer to
cam although a little bit more experience even on the
college baseball diamond than he did. So it's hard to
go one for one apple for Apple. But as Brandon

(01:30:52):
described him, absolutely the crux of the Kyle Tucker deal.
And most people here were maybe aware of the name
he was a first round pick. I'm really into baseball.
I knew that they had he was a top prospect
for the Cubs. I knew that he was a high pick.
I know he had a good career at Florida. Say,
this's real talent. And every day he's been a part
of this organization, it's just gotten bigger and bigger and

(01:31:13):
more and more of anticipation about his major league debut,
which at least at this point is a given in
twenty twenty five. Camp Smith's playing for the Astros in
twenty twenty five. Yeah, I don't think he was, but
I think that more than likely he's playing the front
half of twenty twenty five. He gets called up he'd
have to play poorly to prevent it. He'd have to

(01:31:34):
go into the minor leagues and play poorly to prevent
a major league arrival by May.

Speaker 5 (01:31:39):
By the way, I think.

Speaker 6 (01:31:40):
If he's not on the opening day roster and the
Astros sputter out of the gates, I mean, you'll get
what you want sooner, probably because they're gonna look for
a spark.

Speaker 5 (01:31:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:31:50):
By the way, the home run yesterday, if you were
unaware hitting the later innings off of AJ Minter, the
aggie who's played with several minor or major league teams,
the Braves previously, now the Mets, that makes it several.
That's an established left handed reliever. That's a top flight
left handed reliever at different points in his career. That's

(01:32:10):
a plus homer. That's not a He hit a homer
in spring training in the light innings of a game
against I don't know who.

Speaker 5 (01:32:17):
That's legit.

Speaker 6 (01:32:17):
And he also pulled this space not a cheapye not
well according to the call we heard earlier, they didn't
even know it went out of the ballpark.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 2 (01:32:28):
The A Team now continues.

Speaker 7 (01:32:39):
It is the A team.

Speaker 6 (01:32:40):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety it's Space City Home Network.

Speaker 4 (01:32:46):
Uh, you know, we've kind of like just left by
the wayside, and we I know, we intended on talking
about it, maybe even two days ago. So there's been
talk this offseason about, like, for example, obliterating the tush push.
The Packers very adamant about this, they were the ones
pushing for it. But rule changes are now almost They're

(01:33:08):
not as exciting as free agency or trades or even
the trade deadline, which is hilarious that there's even one
in the NFL. I mean, I get it, people make trades,
but it's not like the NBA. But rules changes I
feel like, have like vaulted towards, if not the top
of the list of discussions every offseason. It's one of
the key points because inevitably, every single year, we're watching

(01:33:32):
an NFL game and we're like, come on, how long
do I have to wait until the competition committee meets
after my team's getting jobbed in the postseason because of
this rule or that rule. I'm just kind of making
up a general hypothetical. I'm not talking specifically about the
Texans or anything, but the Lions have proposed a significant

(01:33:55):
change to something that WEX brings up a ton in
the past the playoffs seeding. So I think a lot
of people, well let's discuss it first, but I think
a lot of people are going to be on board
with this. If they do it, it would largely use
regular season records as the guiding principle.

Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
Huh what a concept, right?

Speaker 6 (01:34:17):
This is very very simple. Four division winners make the playoffs.
The teams with the next three best records also make
the playoffs. No change, only changes You're seated by record.

Speaker 5 (01:34:26):
Boom.

Speaker 4 (01:34:27):
Why wasn't this initially the thing when you start adding
wildcards and all that kind of stuff, Like, why wasn't
this how they did it?

Speaker 6 (01:34:34):
Because, unless I'm mistaken, the seating one, two, three, and
four one now has the off week and then the
home game and home field advantaged. Throughout two, three, and four,
which previously were the three division winners, they also have
home games. Moving forward, the three division winners, no matter

(01:34:55):
what their record is, would still make the playoffs, but
they would no longer be guaranteed to land a top two,
three four seed and thus the home like the Texans
this past year. Back years Yeah, yeah, that's actually.

Speaker 5 (01:35:07):
This was in place. Both of the Demico Ryans led C. J.

Speaker 6 (01:35:10):
Stroud led Texans teams that made the playoffs would have
played at Cleveland two years ago and at the Chargers.

Speaker 5 (01:35:17):
Last season, and they would have won both those games.

Speaker 4 (01:35:19):
Anyways, maybe how much do you think home field matters
in the NFL?

Speaker 6 (01:35:26):
The numbers have suggested it means a little bit less
than it used to, and probably over the last five
to eight years, that's where we are. It has not
had as big of an impact as it once did.
It is not regarded as having as much of a
big impact, I think from a perception standpoint.

Speaker 5 (01:35:41):
But you've got numbers.

Speaker 6 (01:35:42):
There's this many playoff games and other than the Super Bowl,
the other games were played in a home stadium.

Speaker 5 (01:35:47):
How did they fare?

Speaker 6 (01:35:48):
And I think we can see with the quality of
football it's being played in the caliber, especially in the
AFC with quarterback play like the Bills, the Ravens and
the Chiefs. Took forever for the Chiefs to even have
to find out about it. She's played nothing but home
games for four years. They didn't know if the home
is gonna play well somewhere else. All those runs to
the conference title game, they kept playing nothing but games

(01:36:10):
at geha Field.

Speaker 5 (01:36:13):
Rolls off the time, but these teams know they can
win wherever.

Speaker 6 (01:36:16):
Weather can be an interesting part of this whole conversation,
especially for a team like Houston. Houston plays in the South,
Houston plays indoors. Houston's players, specifically their kicker, now must
kick out doors in the winter in Buffalo, Baltimore, or

(01:36:38):
Kansas City, and I think it's mattered. I don't believe
the best of Kaymi Fairbarn has been seen in the postseason.
Maybe for that reason, maybe not. But I can't go
back on anything I've ever said. I think the Texans
should have been playing on the road in each of
the past two years. I've said it for a long time.
Your reward for winning the division is automatic qualification for

(01:37:00):
the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
Why are you getting a second reward?

Speaker 6 (01:37:03):
The Texans won a terrible division, which means it was
easy to win it, and just still only won ten times.
The Chargers won more games against a better group of teams.
They had three teams in the playoffs, and they still
won more games than you. They should have had the
home game. Thus it should have been a bye week

(01:37:25):
for them, according to some people. Yeah, I think there's
actually from what I've read. I think Jonathan Jones of
CBS indicated this and that there's actual traction on this.
The belief is this is a proposal that will pass,
and this is what will be in place starting with
the twenty twenty five regular postseason.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
Yeah, this upcoming year, not next year or anything after that.
It's not the only thing mentioned. The Toush push that
was submitted by the Packers. Rule would prevent players from
pushing a teammate that has quote lined up directly behind
the snapper and he's a snap immediately at the snap.

Speaker 5 (01:38:01):
My guess is if this gets past, the Eagles will
still be very, very good at football.

Speaker 6 (01:38:06):
Yeah, they they have a it's it's every what do
you think that? Do you think the Texans would have
fared last year with the Toush push. I think they
would have been stuffed every time they tried it.

Speaker 5 (01:38:15):
Yeah, their offensive line.

Speaker 6 (01:38:16):
I don't want CJ doing it. The Eagles are fine
with Jalen Hurts doing it. The Bills are fine with
Josh Allen doing it.

Speaker 5 (01:38:22):
They have good lines.

Speaker 6 (01:38:24):
They also have a massive quarterback runs the football all
the time.

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
What's funny about you saying that?

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
Though?

Speaker 5 (01:38:30):
I think of Josh Allen, I think he's massive. I
still don't. I know, but I still don't think of
Jalen Hurts that way, even though.

Speaker 6 (01:38:36):
He's probably he might not be in what you would
just doesn't look like, but he should and he's I mean,
I'm not trying to sit here and call Josh Allen weak,
but Jalen Hurts is a freaking beast, an absolute.

Speaker 5 (01:38:48):
I think.

Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
I think it's because he runs, and so it just
makes him look like because he's fast, you know, I
think of like a Michael Vick.

Speaker 5 (01:38:58):
Maybe it's because he's wearing an Eagle jersey.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
I don't know, but it's just I don't I just
don't think of him as, Oh yeah, when I think
of big quarter quarterbacks in the NFL, I don't think
of him.

Speaker 5 (01:39:08):
I think he's you know, Pat Mahomes, I think he's
and he's not.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
You're right, he's absolutely bigger than these guys. He just,
for whatever reason, doesn't look like that. He doesn't appear
that way to me on camera. Josh Allen looks like
a big dude, and then if you go see him
in person, he's absolutely a big dude.

Speaker 6 (01:39:23):
And the other thing that I believe is gaining traction,
is unifying overtime rules. We play with two sets of
overtime rules, one in the regular season, one in the postseason.
The opportunity for both teams to possess the ball is
going to be the unifier, and that's how it's going
to be played moving forward if it passes. And I believe,

(01:39:45):
similarly as I said to the last one, that's another
Eagles or belief that it is going to get enough support.
And they would also change the overtime period back to
fifteen minutes from ten.

Speaker 4 (01:39:58):
I had totally forgotten that it was is only ten now.
I feel like there's just always a determining, there's always
a winner determined before we get to that point. But
I do think it's interesting how many of these.

Speaker 5 (01:40:12):
Rules are centered around one way or the other.

Speaker 4 (01:40:18):
The Philadelphia Eagles, the Super Bowl champions, the tush push
something that they This has less.

Speaker 5 (01:40:23):
To do with it.

Speaker 9 (01:40:25):
Really.

Speaker 6 (01:40:25):
There are groups like the general manager of the personnel side,
the owner, president, whatever group of people.

Speaker 5 (01:40:32):
Any NFL team employees.

Speaker 6 (01:40:34):
It's usually the same teams that give the rules proposal
because they have people committed to the game, committed to
really spending time and effort on it then not even
necessarily those that are members of the competition committee, but
it happens to be a lot of the same teams
year in and year out are the ones submitting the
proposals to benefit them. You know, the Eagles, clearly, I think,

(01:40:57):
have an extremely intelligent front office that they've been able
to put together a ridiculously talented team. There's some other rules,
like when the defense gets penalized for anything, it's an
automatic first down defensive holding five yards and an automatic
first down. Proposals submitted to eliminate the automatic first down

(01:41:19):
portion of it. I could not support that more. Maybe
you will see an increase in holding penalties. I'm not
sure that that's definitely what you'll see, but it's a
penalty that should not be so awful for the defense.

Speaker 5 (01:41:35):
Actually, I had to hold him here. Now can they
take advantage of it?

Speaker 6 (01:41:38):
Maybe when a pass interference twenty yards down the field
gets called holding instead.

Speaker 5 (01:41:45):
When it shouldn't.

Speaker 6 (01:41:46):
You know, there's different ways that it can be not
necessarily manipulated, but maybe officiated a little differently or poorly.
That is a huge shift into the defense's favor. Like
there's times where, especially in college football, when it's not
a spot foul, you just get you got beat. This
guy's going to score forty five fifty yard touchdown, Just
tackle him fifteen yards.

Speaker 5 (01:42:06):
Who cares?

Speaker 6 (01:42:07):
In the NFL, it's obviously a little different to prevent
that very thing from happening. But most of what I've
seen and we ran through all, I think but one
of the rules changes, these are all seemingly ones that
should have support.

Speaker 5 (01:42:19):
Yeah, it's not like you pass.

Speaker 6 (01:42:21):
It's yeah, it is just push will not pass, it
will remain.

Speaker 5 (01:42:26):
Why are you so sure of it?

Speaker 6 (01:42:27):
I'm very, very sure that they will not have the nest.
I think it's twenty four to thirty two to three
quarters vote because all these other teams want to be
able to.

Speaker 7 (01:42:35):
Do it too.

Speaker 6 (01:42:36):
I just think it's it's just not something that it
has support to eliminate. And you know, Nick Cassario talked
about it at the Combine I believe it was at
the Combine or during his in house media visit one
of those two. He said, you're basically saying, stop being
so good at football, right, versus it's on us to
stop stop it.

Speaker 5 (01:42:57):
I love this one.

Speaker 4 (01:42:58):
A resolution from the delers to allow that allows some
direct contact between pending free agents and teams that are
pursuing them during the three day negotiating window that precedes
the opening of the league year. Yeah, don't tamper as
much legally.

Speaker 5 (01:43:12):
Sure, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:43:14):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam wexlerth on Sports.

Speaker 6 (01:43:18):
Talk at a new signature seven called.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
What's Up with That? What's up with That? What's Up?
I say, what's up? What's that with that?

Speaker 6 (01:43:38):
An only go to goodie A new signature A second.
We are here on Thursdays, we ask what's up with that?
You're getting faded out into oblivion and we'll take over
from here because there's different music that's gonna come your
way on this special Thursday edition of What's Up with That?

Speaker 5 (01:43:57):
Oh, I'm intrigued. So we are fans.

Speaker 6 (01:44:01):
I think the two of us here are respective producers
other members of the station, specifically one who's in the
producer's studio currently.

Speaker 5 (01:44:09):
He's a fan, So here you go. He's a fan
of parody. That's my favorite part right there. He really
leaned into it.

Speaker 6 (01:44:23):
That, Yes, I did lean into it, but I really
do have to request that we move away from the music.
So the new music can replace it, because we're going
to be playing parody song for you. Okay, there's a
certain player who's an extremely popular topic on every talk

(01:44:43):
show all around the country, especially during hardwood season, which
we're currently in.

Speaker 5 (01:44:48):
We're approaching the NBA postseason.

Speaker 6 (01:44:50):
This particular player is not healthy as we speak, but
we'll be in the next handful of days or games,
and I'm sure be in perfectly good health to team
up with.

Speaker 5 (01:45:00):
In the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:45:01):
Lebron, I'm sure you've heard a lot of them over
the years, songs rewritten to pay homage to the great
Lebron James, from his CALVS days, from his Heat days,
from his Laker days.

Speaker 5 (01:45:19):
I've heard quite a few.

Speaker 6 (01:45:21):
I actually was looking for a few the other day
just to remind me because I had just come across
a Lakers version, which obviously I had never heard.

Speaker 5 (01:45:29):
Before because it's to date.

Speaker 6 (01:45:31):
It's talking about the current formation of his team, is
current teammates, others who have been moved away.

Speaker 5 (01:45:37):
And I didn't give you the entire song for brevity's sake.

Speaker 6 (01:45:40):
But couple that with if you were going to give
our listeners a reminder of Adam Clanton's top for all
time musical performers. I'm pretty sure this musical performer would
be on your list. What would be in your top four?

Speaker 5 (01:46:01):
Metallica?

Speaker 6 (01:46:02):
Okay, just pure unadulterated musical greatness. Metallica is one.

Speaker 5 (01:46:09):
Led Zeppelin, that's two, William Joel, that's three. You only
have one spot left now, this is tough man not alive,
Michael Jackson.

Speaker 6 (01:46:19):
There you go.

Speaker 5 (01:46:20):
You nailed it, Michael Jackson. You know me so well.
Would you like to guess what song this Lebron James.

Speaker 6 (01:46:25):
Parody is set to from MJ's catalog and MJ's cattle
also owned the Beatles catalog, but that's a separate issue.

Speaker 5 (01:46:32):
Uh man in the mirror? Very good? Guess so obvious?
Are you ready? Yeah, let's go. What's up with that?

Speaker 7 (01:46:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:46:38):
All right, here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:46:41):
We'll get it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Lebron big, they cave up, James. If you want to

(01:47:16):
make a take a look at this.

Speaker 5 (01:47:28):
I thought you to join the Lebron again.

Speaker 8 (01:47:32):
That was that was like good?

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
Hiccup?

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
There?

Speaker 6 (01:47:38):
So does that meet with your qualifications for excellence and
parody musical writing and singing?

Speaker 4 (01:47:43):
Well, it's no Chris Gordy magic, but it's I mean
it reminds me of what I think of when I
think of a Lebron James fan.

Speaker 6 (01:47:55):
Now, just because it's what people do, it's a crutch,
it's a given if you had If you look at
Lebron's career and everything that's happened with it on the
basketball court, there have been a bunch of different instances
where hey man, we need a new Lebron James parody song.
You know, I'm the all time greatest prospect to hit
the NBA. You could have written one before it even

(01:48:17):
played his first game with Cleveland, and then he made
it to the finals with this team parody song time
the Heatles. You don't think there were songs written about
the Heatles? For sure, there were probably ten. Well, this
is all the same artist. I'm just saying, anybody who's
out there that loves Lebron and likes music and is
a good writer, when you chasing, you have that opportunity

(01:48:38):
that maybe when they came up short anti Lebron James'
songwriters came out during his heat days. Now he's on
the Lakers, of course you're writing a song where you're
mixing all the great Lakers' names into this new Lebron
James song about how awesome he is. And now, at least,
if nothing else, they won a title, there probably was
time to write a new one then, And now they've
made a rather sizeable deal. And oh, by the way,

(01:49:00):
to spin it back to what's up with that, it's
a month later and change and still trending fairly regularly
on the X platform, some form of fire. Nico Nico
Harrison this morning after Luca apparently, and this is super
statistical minutia nonsense. He did something last night in the

(01:49:24):
first quarter that no Laker has ever done before, you know,
twenty one points, three threes, a block, a steel, something
totally ridiculous to put it all together and say nobody's
ever done this before. He scored twenty one points in
the opening quarter.

Speaker 5 (01:49:39):
That's great.

Speaker 6 (01:49:40):
I don't need all the other little bits and pieces
to tell me anything about it.

Speaker 2 (01:49:43):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:49:44):
I had my silly folks in Dallas on my group
text saying, uh, this could be the night this we
might be seeing his second seventy point game. I said,
they're slaughtering the Nuggets. He's not scoring seventy tonight and
he didn't even double what he had the rest of
the game. But the way he played brought people back

(01:50:05):
around again.

Speaker 5 (01:50:06):
How could you do this? How could you.

Speaker 6 (01:50:09):
Send this player away? How could you tell us this
overweight can't count on him not winning? Player to go away?

Speaker 5 (01:50:18):
NKO? How because stuff with that?

Speaker 4 (01:50:21):
NKO because of things that are happening like tonight where
he's out again. Now I know it's an injury management,
but I will be interested to see.

Speaker 6 (01:50:31):
Out for the second night of a back to back. Yeah,
after they've played four games and five nights. Yeah, that's
that's not an issue. At least he played them Lebron. Yeah,
it's hurt.

Speaker 5 (01:50:42):
He did happen.

Speaker 7 (01:50:43):
He did.

Speaker 6 (01:50:44):
I know everybody knows this. He did post about man.
This schedule is unbelievable that we have never seen anything
like that.

Speaker 5 (01:50:49):
Right before he sat out in that entire.

Speaker 6 (01:50:51):
Streach had a groin injury that allowed him to sit
all of those games, but did not allow him to
sit as he attended other basketball activities and was jumping
out of his chair like I'm mad. Man, Uh to
see a sun winner state championship. That seems like a
reasonable thing to do after grinds hurting. Take it gingerly, Man,
you're old.

Speaker 5 (01:51:08):
He's fine. I know he's fine. He should be playing.
That's my point.

Speaker 6 (01:51:12):
There's no reason to do like it's okay, I can't.
This is where we time sometimes go sideways. Nikola jokicch
isn't playing, Jamal Murray isn't playing. It's this is normal stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:51:24):
I don't like load management at all.

Speaker 6 (01:51:26):
The playoffs are way too close to be grinding it
out down the stretch for your final.

Speaker 5 (01:51:32):
He can't help that.

Speaker 6 (01:51:33):
Okay, he can help if he doesn't have to go
out on the court and like I said, grind it out,
which is what Clemson's trying to do late stage of
their Turney game.

Speaker 5 (01:51:43):
But there you go. That was special for ac on
what's up with that?

Speaker 7 (01:51:47):
Here?

Speaker 5 (01:51:47):
On the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:51:51):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler, the eighty.

Speaker 4 (01:52:06):
Don't want to forget to remind you of a couple
of things, the first of which being why haven't you
put Sports Talk seven ninety is the first preset on
your iHeartRadio app, which is free, by the way and
new and improved. You want to listen to the show
in crystal clear clarity wherever you go, that's the place
to go to, and so make that pre set your

(01:52:28):
number one pre set and everything will be right in
your life.

Speaker 5 (01:52:30):
It will all go according to plan.

Speaker 4 (01:52:32):
Also tomorrow night at Miami Heat, as the opponent for
your Rocket says they go for nine wins in a row.
You can obviously listen to it here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. You can watch it on Space City Home Network.
And if you want to do both of those things
or some semblance of that with me, we'll be over

(01:52:52):
at Tom's Watchbar for the viewing party of the Rockets
and Heat. Again, it's not an early start time like
it probably normally would be, like last night was in Florida.
It's just seven o'clock. So make your way over there
downtown right there. I mean, you can't miss it. That
whole complex down there in the pavilions. It's right there
on the corner, and we'll have a good time.

Speaker 6 (01:53:12):
We'll also have tickets to this Sunday's game against the Nuggets,
you know, the non trap game portion of the calendar.

Speaker 4 (01:53:20):
Rockets going for nine in a row. The schedule will
get tougher down the stretch. But again, as we mentioned
earlier in case you missed that well injury update ament Thompson,
I'm gonna say he's playing tomorrow night. I'm just gonna
put it out there in the universe, and the probably
is because he's what probably. I just it's been trending

(01:53:43):
this way, especially if you've seen the video of him
out on the floor, including before the Orlando game last night.

Speaker 6 (01:53:48):
Yeah, he worked out during their shoot around before the game.
Then he worked out as expected and as planned before
the game and went through some contact drills which were
kind of here's the next step, here's the next step
to the return to game action. And that's why things
point to him missing just the six games, all of
which were Rockets wins, all but last night's game were
part of that six game homestand Rockets have put themselves

(01:54:12):
in a really strong position as they go down the
stretch because there is such a tight battle down the
stretch as they head into play tonight, and the Lakers
are the only one of the four teams in the
race for the number two spot that are playing tonight.
Rockets are forty five and twenty five. They're twenty games
over five hundred. That's a game better than the Lakers,
who are eighteen games over five hundred. Two fewer wins,

(01:54:34):
two fewer games played. They played the same number of
games the Nuggets. They are a game ahead of them.
They're forty four and twenty six. They played the same
number of games as the Grizzlies, seventy for all three
of those teams, twelve games remaining. The Grizzlies are forty
three in twenty seven, two full games back of the
Rockets in the race in the West, in the race

(01:54:55):
in the Southwest Division, which could have a role in
tie breakers, and the Rockets have the tiebreaker having beaten
the wool or the Grizzlies three out of four games.
So the Grizzlies passing the Rockets, it's not impossible with
this many games left, clearly still mathematically very easily doable.
They don't have any more head to head games available,

(01:55:16):
and they're continuing to try to get their lineup healthy.
Another game without John Morant and another loss. That last
one was to Portland. Golden State, LA, and Minnesota are similarly.
They all have the same record. Basically, Golden State's a
game better than the Clippers, a game better than Minnesota.
None of them technically have the same record, but forty wins,

(01:55:38):
thirty nine wins, forty wins, they're tightly packed and last
night with the results in the NBA a w for
the Suns, an embarrassingly bad finish for the Mavericks in
a game they led with led by seven, I believe,
with a minute to go, led by four with thirty
seconds to go, they lost the Indiana Pacers and they

(01:55:59):
don't have the tiebreaker. The Phoenix Suns are now in
the ten spot in the Western Conference. If the playoffs
started today and they only had a seventy game season,
the Sons would play at Sacramento in one of the
two playing games. A victory in that game would send
them to the loser of the game between the Clippers
and the Wolves. A win there and the Sons would

(01:56:21):
be out of the lottery and the eight seed. Not
a very likely path even as number ten, but an
impossible path. If the Mavericks wouldn't have fallen apart and
fallen to the injuries that they have, Phoenix would have
never had a chance to make the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:56:38):
Do you feel like the seven to ten should play
each other and the eight to nine should play each
other since those are the four teams like lumped in
together in that scenario.

Speaker 6 (01:56:46):
No, I actually like the way they've done it because
they're giving the seven to eight seeds a break, a bonus.
You're good, you were better than the other team. You
can absorb a loss and not be eliminated. The team
in the nine to ten game when they lose their
season night, the team in the seven eight game when
they lose, they get a second opportunity to make the playoffs.
If you finish seven or eight, you could be either

(01:57:06):
the seven seed or the eight seed. If you finished
nine or ten, you could only be the eight seed,
and you have to win two games to get there.
The seven eight they just have to win one game
to get there. That's their bonus for finishing in what
used to be the actual playoff spots. You only have
to win one more game to qualify for the playoffs.
The two other teams that would not have otherwise have
been in the playoffs, they've got to win twice.

Speaker 4 (01:57:26):
And all of this we have talked about, and we
haven't mentioned the fact that somebody bought the Celtics for
over six billion dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:57:34):
You know, in the NFL, when we talk about j. C.

Speaker 6 (01:57:36):
Horn getting twenty five million average annual value from the
Sabie agent, that has Derek Stingley Junior. So we knew
right then, of course he's going to beat that. I
didn't realize this was in pro sports franchise purchasing. Also,
moments after sham Serania reported that the Sixers were the
Celtics were being purchased for six point one word which

(01:58:00):
should I use? I don't want to use billion. I
want to use a bigger one. But it's six point
one billion dollars.

Speaker 5 (01:58:05):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 6 (01:58:06):
Not moments after that, there worthy this is more than
the six point five billion that the Commanders were purchased
for by Irvin Magic Johnson and the other richer people
that are the primary owners.

Speaker 5 (01:58:20):
Other richer people. Yes, these are technical terms, but this
I have little doubt.

Speaker 6 (01:58:25):
And I don't know if you already reported and I
just didn't read all the way through. This probably came
up in negotiations. Well, you know, can we can we
just bump it up a little bit? Can we get
an extra five hundred k an extra you know, two
hundred thousand instead of selling it to for five point
nine Can we go to six point one two hundred million,
not two hundred thousand? And now this will be the
biggest one ever, and it's still I don't I've said

(01:58:49):
this for about fifteen or twenty years, and I do
believe we'll get there someday, but this again indicates we're
not there yet. Owners can tell media and fans all
they want for the entire run of their ownership, but
I'm not making money. It can be true you're operating
income for X year might be in the negative. You

(01:59:09):
might not have made money on this year or that year.
I'm okay with you telling us that. If you're okay
with us responding.

Speaker 5 (01:59:15):
With wait till you sell it, tell me, then tell
me how little money.

Speaker 6 (01:59:21):
You're making when you sell it for an absolutely obscene profit.
Obscene profit which is what has happened here with the Celtics,
who might have also been making money along the way.
At some point it's there, isn't going to be a buyer.
I don't know when that's going to be. At some
point six point one is too much, at some point

(01:59:41):
eight point three is going to be too much. We
we watched the Clippers get purchased, we watched the Rockets
get purchased in the billions, and now this is three
times as much as that.

Speaker 5 (01:59:51):
And the last.

Speaker 4 (01:59:52):
So you know there's a list of recent sells sales,
I should say, and the Rockets were the furthest out
way back in twenty nineteen, yep, when they sold for
a two point two But I mean it is the
jump from the Broncos, which was four point sixty five
up to the Commanders you just mentioned six point oh five.

(02:00:14):
They couldn't even they couldn't even crack six point one,
which is what Celtics went for.

Speaker 6 (02:00:18):
Yeah, and most of these purchases include additional properties, and
you've got this team or that team in the stadium
and thee.

Speaker 5 (02:00:24):
There's some parts to it.

Speaker 6 (02:00:25):
But yep, six point one billion for the Celtics since
I considered it, but about out in the early four billions.
This is why other countries hate us, hate us five
o'clock hours.

Speaker 5 (02:00:37):
Next, how do you eat open?

Speaker 2 (02:00:40):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wetflor are the team.

Speaker 5 (02:00:55):
Five o'clock hour brings with?

Speaker 6 (02:00:56):
It's football at five each and every weekday after Here
on the A team we revisit that sport. We've likely
talked about it at points during the day all season long,
all seasons long, and all year long, and we've done
that again today. Something we mentioned earlier worth a revisit.
Daniel Hunter is a little bit longer term Texan. He's

(02:01:18):
spent the past off season looking for a new team
and settled in on the Houston Texans. A two year
deal has now turned into a three year deal. The
Texans added a mere thirty five zero point six million
dollars to the original deal, which we'll keep him here
as a Texan through this upcoming season and the next season,

(02:01:39):
and also might call for a restructure probably next off season,
if not.

Speaker 5 (02:01:45):
Another option for another deal.

Speaker 6 (02:01:47):
He's been exceptional in his career and there's a little
doubt left with his play last year, he was exceptional
as a Texan. I thought they might have the best
edge rushing duo in the NFL, and I certainly think
a case could be made that that's absolutely what took place.
I doubt very seriously that they're going to see a
downturn in Will Anderson's ascension towards being one of the

(02:02:08):
top five six to seven edge rushers in the league,
and Daniel Hunter's been there for several years, certainly a
top ten. Now you've got two of them playing their
second season together in the same defense, with a lot
of those same players back there. One other part of
the defense we talk very little about because I'm not
sure what his role will be next year, but presumably

(02:02:28):
you have a healthy Christian Harris to go with CJ.
Gardner Johnson to go with ninety million dollars sting to
go with second year for both Kayln Bullock and Kamari Lassiter.
The Texans put out a graphic yesterday complimenting their secondary
and included all six prominent members of their secondary. They're

(02:02:49):
probably not going to play on the field together very often.
If ever, there will be some occasions where you could
have six dvs on the field, especially with who you have,
but you add Jimmy Ward to CJ. Gardner Johnson, the
return of a healthy Jalen Peatree, Stingley, Lassiter, Bullock. I

(02:03:10):
said it already the moment that the deal was reported
for Kenyan Green to go to Philadelphia and Gardner Johnson
to come to Houston. It's the best secondary in the NFL,
and they're going to produce like it because of what
they have upfront. There's a big reason why Philadelphia's secondary
has been so successful at being disruptive and are such

(02:03:31):
awesome playmakers, and also why Howie Roseman is reshaping his
secondary this year cause they're awesome upfront, They're disruptive upfront,
they're animals upfront. Same thing for the Texans. Texans have
already gone through that process two years ago. What did
their secondary look like? Not this You had Derek Stingley
Junior hopefully playing well and staying healthy in his first

(02:03:55):
year with Tamiko Rans. You are not necessarily sure on
what kind of player you'd have.

Speaker 5 (02:03:59):
With Jalen Petrie.

Speaker 6 (02:04:00):
You just signed Jimmy Ward from the Niners to help
everybody learn the defense. Obviously the lassiter and block weren't
even here. And two years later you have the best
secondary in the NFL, and you're going to couple that
with what could be should be one of the best
five defensive fronts. They already were last year, should be again.
So making sure that Daniel Hunter can feed his family

(02:04:22):
because I'm not sure that he was going to be
able to on the last year of his forty nine
million dollar deal. So Nick was nice enough, along with
cal and Hannah's help, to take care of that. But
shows you where the market is and when Bosa got
his numbers up into the mid thirties, it stood to
reason that when you chose to give a two year
deal out, if you got the performance you were hoping for,

(02:04:46):
you're probably gonna have to pay him again immediately, even
though he has another year, because you're not gonna want
to get to that possibility of what do we do
now and how do we make this work? That sign
him early. Well, you put it yourself in that situation,
maybe you go three years seventy million, you know, like
a Nico Collins deal. It wouldn't have been as much

(02:05:07):
as twenty four million a year, would have been a
little bit closer to twenty three or twenty two. I
don't know what that way that would leave Daniel Hunter
and his agents if they had signed that, where they'd
be sitting today knowing what the market looks like. But
it still falls right in line with what we talked
about From the moment they made the deal with Laramie Tunsel.
They're gonna extend stingy check, they're in the future, are

(02:05:29):
going to extend their young core of Will Anderson Junior
and CJ. Stroud, and they clearly still need to consider
how much cap space is being eaten up by Daniel
Hunter and other players.

Speaker 5 (02:05:42):
Of those contracts.

Speaker 6 (02:05:43):
Now, his cap number this year is going to actually
be get get a little more friendly, and void years
will make it ridiculous in the future. The amount of
money that Nick Ksearia is now spinning into fake contract years,
which are called correctly void years, the biggest loophole I
think the salary cap has ever allowed gms to use.
They're paying sixteen million dollars in cap space dead cap

(02:06:08):
because Stefan Diggs played half a season here because they
chose to turn his contract into what it was last year,
which included a void year, which is this year. And
they're doing the same thing with Titus Howard's deal that
they've restructured to a pretty significant amount. That's why you
got all the cap savings this year. There'll you'll always
have to pay the piper down the line, but the

(02:06:29):
CAP's going up every year, and so when you keep
putting dead cap in the future in the form of
void years, you're never concerned. That's the trick because just
like with ownership and selling your product, eventually, I've not
yet seen the cap go the wrong way to a
significant amount some years, not recently, it hasn't gone up
very much or the expectation was for it to go

(02:06:49):
up more, but most years the expectation is exceeded, like
this year. The NFL teams were operating off of a
certain number that they thought the cap would go up
to in twenty two twenty five, and then when they
got the memo from the league that it went up more.
And that's how the Texans, like many teams with this
much talent, they're gonna do it. The Chiefs and Texans,

(02:07:10):
two of the final four in the NFL, got rid
of their left tackle this offseason. Both of them experienced
major pass protection issues in the playoffs, and both financially
decided to get rid of their then highest paid player.
The Chiefs are paying somebody else more now because of
the franchise tag with Tray Smith. But if it is

(02:07:33):
just about money, and they're telling us here in Houston,
that's a big reason why. And the timing of when
you get something in return, well, the Chiefs really didn't
do anything much Differently, they're taking a big chance on
who they've signed, someone who hasn't been on the field.
A Ton is their new left tackle from the Niners.
I mean, I kind of hope it doesn't work, So
thanks to inflation. These two teams can take advantage of it.

(02:07:55):
Now it is it's look, it's taking advantage. If you
want to call a loophole. I don't even think it's
a loophole. It's just the way things are.

Speaker 5 (02:08:04):
So you're either exploiting the rules.

Speaker 6 (02:08:08):
The stretch provision in the NBA, which was utilized by
Team Well, he's you could get rid of this one
player and he's still owed twenty five million, but under
this provision, we're gifting you. You can spread that hit
over five years, and now he only hits five million
a year for five years. That's essentially what void years are.
You're just taking this fifty million dollar player and having

(02:08:31):
twenty million of that hit in years he's not under
contract for your team to use a term that was
previously used earlier this week on the show, this feels
much less icky than what the Dodgers are doing.

Speaker 5 (02:08:43):
Was shoheo Tani. Yeah, that is a different way to
do it. They obviously don't have a cap.

Speaker 6 (02:08:47):
They have a CBT tax limit and levels of it
and repeat offenders and multiplications off of it, which is
similar to the NBA as the Warriors. You know when
just Klay Thompson, for instance, do we want to give
him a fifty million dollar deal. Hey, I don't know
if you know this, Bob. When we pay him fifty
with where we're at on our spending, it's actually we're

(02:09:10):
going to be spending one hundred and ten million on
that contract.

Speaker 5 (02:09:12):
So let's go ahead and not do that.

Speaker 6 (02:09:13):
I mean, he just happened to be the next guy
in line, the next contract you're signing, and the penalties
are overwhelming. The NFL is clearly different. On March twelfth,
the twenty twenty five. Everybody's compliant in compliance with the
salary cap. They're not this team that's not. Even the
Saints somehow become compliant every year despite how they've been
going about their say, even the Saints. I haven't talked

(02:09:36):
a lot today about the signing of Cam Robinson. I
don't know much more that we can other than there
are areas that analytically speaking, it just did not look
particularly good from what he did last season and into
this season. He'll also be playing for his third team
in less than twelve months, beginning of last year with Jacksonville,
last year finishing with Minnesota, and now beginning this upcoming year.

Speaker 5 (02:09:58):
With the Texans on.

Speaker 6 (02:09:59):
A one year, year, twelve million dollar deal on the
low end, fourteen and a half million dollar deal on
the high end, and some of the cap maneuvering they
were doing allowed them to sign a player at that
value when free agency began. If you would have told
me it was for that player, I would have been
pretty surprised.

Speaker 2 (02:10:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:10:19):
All of this is to say that, Well, let me
ask you a question before we get do they make
another offensive line free agency addition that's of any significance? Yep,
that's what I think. So that means you are piecing
this together via the draft. Well, you have three tackles.

Speaker 6 (02:10:41):
No Titus Howard can play inside, so you could convince
me you have two starting tackles and Cam Robinson and
Blake Fisher. You can convince me. I'm not real enthusiastic
about that, but I will believe you. Does that roster
prevent you from drafting a tackle at twenty five? Prevent
you from trading an asset to move up to eighteen
to draft a tackle, because the moment you draft that

(02:11:03):
tackle at wherever eighteen fifteen, twenty five, he's the best
tackle on your roster, or you made another mistake, right,
and that's what's quirky about But what do you do
with all these players? Now? Are two of them playing
on the interior? Does it give you the flexibility to
move one of these players? And they've signed two other
guards or added two other guards, and Tomlinson and Ed Ingram,

(02:11:26):
though not likely they both start, they could. It's competition
for the players that remain. The next edition they make
of consequence to their offensive line will come hopeful possibly
on the first night of the draft. It might not,
might come on the second night of the draft. It
presumably will come before Saturday of the draft. Though if
they're trading, that's the long term plan. Cam's only here

(02:11:48):
one year. Their long term fix still needs to come
through the draft. Those are your Texans and their long
term plans of protecting their long term quarterback heading into
year three. C J.

Speaker 5 (02:11:59):
Stroud We now.

Speaker 1 (02:12:00):
Returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexelwerth on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:12:11):
Brief opportunity to get you caught up on a few
of the goings on all across the country.

Speaker 5 (02:12:19):
The madness continues.

Speaker 6 (02:12:21):
This we're mocking Clemson earlier and those that thought Clemson
was about to go on a long run.

Speaker 5 (02:12:26):
Is maybe an under seated number five. They're not well.

Speaker 6 (02:12:29):
They were down thirty one thirteen after the first half
and they made one three against mcnee's State.

Speaker 5 (02:12:36):
Will Wade's team.

Speaker 6 (02:12:37):
For now, Will Wade is almost a lock to be
coaching somewhere else next year. We already know a few
programs that I believe we'll be looking for a new
head coach. But then Clemson couldn't miss late in the
second half three three three, and McNee State didn't take
a lot of time off the clock on their possessions.
You know, had a couple of instances where they made

(02:12:59):
just one of two free throw, went down and beat
the press and immediately scored, which I don't really have
a problem with unless the other team literally makes every
single shot, waiting to get fouled and maybe making one,
maybe making two free throws, just go ahead and dunk it,
which they did. I don't think it's necessarily the wrong play.
Everyone looks it at as well, you're not playing the clock. Well,

(02:13:19):
if you try to, they value and you still don't
get to play the clock. But now you have to
make two fifteen foot set shots, or you can just
make a dunk and get the same number of points
in one and a half seconds less time either way.
Clemson hit a three to make it a one possession
game with ten seconds to go. McNee luckily hit one
of two free throws that followed, and then Clemson finally

(02:13:42):
missed a three, hit a layup at the buzzer, and
ended up losing. So the five seed in the Cougars
Region is gone. McNee State advances. I feel confident that
we won't see Georgia come back. They were down twenty three.

(02:14:02):
Not Kirby Smart's Bulldogs, the basketball team in the NCAA
tournament out of the SEC where everybody gets a bit
unless you're LSU and the other team that didn't make it.
They're down seventy one to forty eight. There's ten minutes
to go. BYU is going to make the Big twelve
look good. They're gonna topple a VCU. Creighton beat Louisville

(02:14:23):
earlier today, Purdue was a winner, Wisconsin was a winner.
Auburn had a bit of a rough time with Alabama,
stayed into the early stages of the second half, but
then ultimately one by twenty. And I think everybody also
knows that the Cougar's crushed beat SIU Edwardsville rather easily
dominated him early, and we're able to cruise to victory
without too much physical stress on their.

Speaker 5 (02:14:45):
Playoffs only by thirty eight.

Speaker 6 (02:14:47):
Only by thirty eight, he had a fifty two burger
on the board after the first half, coasted to a
twenty six point second half. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna
go out on a limb and say, if they scored
twenty six points or less in another tournament game this year,
it will be a game they don't win. Yeah, that's

(02:15:08):
probably a good guess. Texas A and M's going later tonight,
as is Texas Tech. I expect both of them to win,
as do the odds makers. Handily, Tech's fifteen point favorite
over Wilmington and a M against a pretty good Yale team.
They're a touchdown favorite. I think Mike Elko's crew will

(02:15:28):
come through.

Speaker 5 (02:15:29):
So you got winning. Kansas, Arkansas WEX I think, I
don't really think.

Speaker 6 (02:15:33):
I think Arkansas is just another okay team that got
in kind of on reputation out of the SEC, So
I don't think they're great.

Speaker 5 (02:15:41):
I hate Kansas.

Speaker 6 (02:15:43):
I think they're so unbelievably overrated. But on any given night,
they have enough players that aren't their overrated center, and
I think they'll probably win.

Speaker 4 (02:15:51):
I was just about to say, it's not so much
that you hate Kansas as much as you hate Hunter Dickinson.

Speaker 6 (02:15:58):
Now, in the very same post post where it listed
Dickinson's points per game and where it ranked nationally, and
his rebounds per game and where it ranked nationally, someone
posted that and said, I mean third Team's okay, he
made ap All America third team, but he probably should
have been second. And I looked at it again, at
the very same post with this graphic in it that
this person chose to post to talk about him getting

(02:16:20):
jobbed out of second team. He was not even the
top one hundred scorers in college basketball, nor one of
the top ten rebounders.

Speaker 5 (02:16:29):
Well, which of eighty seventh in scoring?

Speaker 6 (02:16:31):
Which of these two things did he I'm not sure
what you're trying to say here. You're giving me the
numbers that say he's a good player, but probably not
among the best.

Speaker 5 (02:16:39):
He is eleventh in rebounding, Yeah, not top ten.

Speaker 6 (02:16:42):
She's such a but second team means one or two
other bigs were better than this in the whole country.

Speaker 5 (02:16:50):
And he's a he's a seven. He's seven for two.

Speaker 6 (02:16:53):
He's also played eight thousand games in college. I saw
this something of note. I believe the third third team,
which LJ. Cryer is on, Hunter Dickinson is on, and
apologies for not remembering the other three players. I believe
that starting five average age is way older than the
Thunders and the Rockets. Seriously, with Fred and Dylan in there,

(02:17:16):
they did have to bump it to maybe a lineup
that included Jabari earlier this year. But yeah, I think
the average age of those college players was a little
over twenty three.

Speaker 4 (02:17:26):
Just looking at Hunter Dickinson's official photograph face, Yeah, you
root for Arkansas.

Speaker 6 (02:17:33):
Okay, Well, I am pulling for coach cal not a
very good tournament coach, by the way, Even there's really talented,
really talented teams. Just ask John and DeMarcus and many
others glittered.

Speaker 5 (02:17:48):
With coaches that fit that description. Well, no Barnes, but.

Speaker 6 (02:17:51):
Nobody was doing it like he was. Oh, you want
the best recruiting class in the country. You want a
team that went thirty two to two during the regular season,
We're not winning the title. Barnes had Kevin darn Garnett
and didn't even make it to the Sweet sixteen. I
think Kevin, I said Garnett didn't I Well, he could
have had Kevin Garnett and still found a way to
not make it far.

Speaker 5 (02:18:11):
Actually that's they still retired as number thirty five.

Speaker 4 (02:18:15):
Well, Kevin Garnett's one of the fakest tough guys in
the history of the NBA, and he didn't go to college.
So that's a really bad miss on my brow. So
saying it as you did, it went to Farragut Academy.

Speaker 6 (02:18:25):
Straight to college, or straight to the NBA from college.

Speaker 5 (02:18:28):
One of the last ones.

Speaker 6 (02:18:30):
Is there a punch thrown by Kevin Garnett that stands
out to you? Because there's definitely a punch received by
Kevin Garnett.

Speaker 4 (02:18:37):
No, he threw punches with his mouth and then people,
but he never threw them at anybody that could actually
do something about it, until somebody did.

Speaker 5 (02:18:47):
Anthony Peeler, a guard. Would you have messed with him?

Speaker 2 (02:18:50):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:18:51):
Exactly, Well, KG, didn't you know what's fascinating? Punch thrown back? Well, right,
why would you you want it to continue or do
you want it to be over? He's still around.

Speaker 6 (02:19:01):
He's still a prominent figure on the voice parade with
his podcast, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (02:19:07):
He does have great stories. Yeah, he's way more likable
on that medium than he was as a player.

Speaker 6 (02:19:14):
Here's where you find more out about the NBA than
you ever realized. It's not from Kevin Garnett. It's not
from Draymond Green. These are championship caliber players that are
a huge, huge, huge part of those championship teams.

Speaker 5 (02:19:26):
Is it from the smokey one? No, it's fine.

Speaker 6 (02:19:28):
Well, that's a good suggestion both Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes,
though they are on the official up all the Smoke,
we are high as we perform this. Jeff Tigue is
insane so good. There is a a an ex post
that says, you know, Jeff, Jeff Tigue is the greatest
storyteller in the NBA and then it's quote tweeted by

(02:19:51):
like a thousand of his podcast stories about what he did.
You have you heard the Danny Ferry story when he
was the GM And it's not just the facts, it's
not just the retail it's how he tells the story.

Speaker 5 (02:20:04):
He's so good.

Speaker 6 (02:20:05):
An unknown voice of the NBA that without this world
where we live in, we wouldn't. He wouldn't, no platform, nothing.
That's why he's great blomb.

Speaker 4 (02:20:16):
And he said this to me on the air with
you before, in addition to several times off the air
he's like, you just got to get You've got to
hang out with Chipper Jones once. I know you hate him,
I know why you hate him as an Astros fan. Well,
if you're if you're an Astros fan in the late nineties.
In addition to just the murderer's row of completely unlikable

(02:20:39):
at the time pitchers, who I really I love John
Smolton now on the broadcast, Oh my gosh, he's amazing.

Speaker 10 (02:20:46):
I think he is.

Speaker 6 (02:20:46):
If I'm not mistaken. He draws the first Astros Fox
broadcast of the season.

Speaker 5 (02:20:52):
On Friday with uh, is it Kevin? I'd have no.

Speaker 6 (02:20:56):
I'd have to look at that the list. I looked
at it. It's a Davis, right, Joe. Yeah, I believe
that's who they are. Who called the upside down game
over the Phillies. I thought that was Brian Anderson, No,
that was he.

Speaker 4 (02:21:08):
That was Jordan's walkoff against Seattle. I thought Brian had
both of them nope. Okay, he didn't have Game six
of the World Series. Okay, I believe you was the
World Series on TBS. No, all right, my god, geez, dude,
have all of your broadcasters in line.

Speaker 5 (02:21:25):
Man, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
We found about some fun stuff here. You yelled at
me over this.

Speaker 4 (02:21:31):
Brian Anderson is one of the best, though I think
he's underrated. I think you should have a more prominent role.

Speaker 6 (02:21:37):
He's working with Jim Jackson on the hoops side here
in this round of the tournament.

Speaker 4 (02:21:41):
Jim Jackson, another guy who reputation guys, locker room lawyer.
Rocket was his reputation here when he was in town
with who's he with locally?

Speaker 5 (02:21:52):
He does?

Speaker 2 (02:21:53):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (02:21:54):
What team is he with? It's not it's it's not
the MAVs. I wasn't listening close enough to follow where
you came from. Jim Jackson does color analysts for what team? Milwaukee?
Maybe he wasn't. No, I don't think that's right. I
don't know. It's some random team.

Speaker 6 (02:22:09):
But whenever he was in town, Joe Davis, John Smoltz
and bow tie guy Mets Astros good and that's which
night Friday?

Speaker 5 (02:22:17):
Okay, Saturday?

Speaker 4 (02:22:19):
Uh, but uh, Jim Jackson, very very pleasant. The last
interaction I had with him right there at the top
of the section.

Speaker 5 (02:22:27):
There he was. He had a bad reputation here.

Speaker 4 (02:22:30):
Plus you know the whole Dallas thing with Jason Kidd
and well Tony Braxton of course, and Jamal didn't date her.

Speaker 5 (02:22:40):
He was just there.

Speaker 7 (02:22:43):
There.

Speaker 5 (02:22:43):
Wow, Well he wasn't there.

Speaker 6 (02:22:45):
All right, we'll go with that as we run into
in case you missed it, a few items we need
to revisit or introduce that's coming up next.

Speaker 2 (02:22:53):
Five.

Speaker 5 (02:22:55):
Hey, it's Craig Visio. Listen to the Home of the
Astros in your home. Just tell your smarts play Sports
Talk seven to ninety on iHeartRadio. Halfway through the final
hour of the show. You know what that music means.
It's not I means it's the five thirty segment right now.

Speaker 10 (02:23:14):
It does.

Speaker 6 (02:23:15):
We appreciate everybody here at the station for obvious reasons
and maybe not so obvious reasons. Calum doing a tremendous
job today as he does each and every day. Long
time friend of the show, longtime friend of the first ever,
Yes back again for more. People loved it so much
he came back six years later. I man I'm kind
of busy. I don't know other things to take care,

(02:23:37):
but I mean, if you guys need me, I'll hang
out with you.

Speaker 5 (02:23:40):
Guys be there, I guess.

Speaker 6 (02:23:41):
In case you missed it, there's an Astros player at
spring training who's got a thirteen seventy one OPS sitting
four nineteen. He homered for the fourth time, second time
in a row off a major league caliber pitcher did
so again, AJ Minter and yesterday's game a lefty and

(02:24:02):
then took him out of the ballpark to left field.
That's Cam Smith, Astro's right fielder, which is where he's
been playing most of his baseball. But you know, right
here on the A Team, this is the home. We
created it and we are driving it. We are filling
it with coal. Not a lump of coal, the kind
of coal that makes it go down the tracks, wrapped

(02:24:25):
in speed and entertain people, natural resources coal at a
ballpark near you. The A Team Sports Talk seven to
ninety wex and AC the home of the recently created
Cam Smith hype train. There's room for everybody, including Cam
and his girlfriend and his family, and his teammates and

(02:24:47):
his seminole friends and his ballpark friends. Top a board
the Cam Smith hype train.

Speaker 2 (02:24:54):
Whoo whoo.

Speaker 6 (02:24:56):
Joe Spotta asked yesterday about Cam smithicult decisions that are afoot.
What do you like about what he did in the game,
and how's it impacting you and Dana and everybody else's
decision making moving forward? About the possibility that Joe, you
keep hearing about on the A team that this guy
could make the opening day roster.

Speaker 10 (02:25:14):
I like the fact that he pulled that he pulled
that one and then the single to write. So he
continues to hit the ball to all fields with power,
you know, swing decisions are excellent, and you know him
make a couple of plays on the right field corner
there where I thought he handled himself really well, and
he continues to.

Speaker 5 (02:25:33):
Push the hand on us.

Speaker 10 (02:25:34):
You know, he's putting himself in a really good position,
so we'll continue to evaluate him.

Speaker 6 (02:25:39):
You know, for him to say that as transparent and
clear and not sugarcoated and bluntly as he just did
makes me think it might actually happen. It also gives
the player confidence to know or hear you say it
might not end up being the truth. But this is
what I would do say public. I don't think he's
fueling the fans or fanning the flames. I think you

(02:25:59):
say these things and player just keeps going out there
and feels comfortable and confident about what he's doing. And
I ran through a bunch of his numbers and I
still think this one might be the most impressive. And
it goes right in line with what a Spot has said.
His swing decisions are good. He's been at the plate
thirty six times. His on base percentage is five hundred.
Every other time he's gone to the plate, he's reach base.

Speaker 5 (02:26:21):
It's insane.

Speaker 6 (02:26:21):
It's unreal how comfortable and but okay, Katie, does it
look like he's some kid. This is his first spring training,
but this is first go around with all of these
teammates as spring training. It is spring training, but the
more that they play him early and yesterday was not
a good example, but he got a major league caliber

(02:26:42):
reliever in the game that he got to face, so
that was very good. The more major league pitchering he faces,
especially as we move forward into these pitchers are working
less on stuff now and more on well, I gotta
get people out because in a week I have to
get people out. I've got to make sure this pitch
is working well, and you know there are a lot
more is lot more to it, and I certainly think
it's been nothing but promising. Also, in case you missed it,

(02:27:05):
this morning, the soon to be Weekly visits Brian bogus
Sevic all throughout the last couple of seasons being part
of the station will be again. He joined the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. They talked a little bit about
get this Cam Smith.

Speaker 7 (02:27:20):
In case you missed it, he is in a different
position in al Tuve from the fact of al twove
past twelve years of understanding the speed at which the
game is played, so he knows when he's chasing a
ball down with his back to the field, kind of
where the runners are going to end up, and when
when he's going to have to go after a lead leinner,

(02:27:40):
when he's going to throw behind a runner. For Cam
that's all new the professional game, let alone the big
league game is brand new to him. So not only
is he going to have to learn the position, he's
going to also have to just learn the speed at
which the game is played at this level.

Speaker 6 (02:27:56):
Oh, by the way, Cam Smith's never played right field
before and this is where they're playing him on a
regular basis to see if there's an opportunity to speed
up his path to the majors even more.

Speaker 5 (02:28:08):
He's learning the outfield.

Speaker 6 (02:28:09):
Jose al Tuovey is also learning the outfield, and you know,
to be fair to equal time, since that was the
gist of where he jumped off of Jose al Tuvey
and we're going on back to back days on similar plays,
very catchable baseballs with other factors. You're going to make
a throw after and you're lining up for it and
you're positioning yourself for it. But if you remember all
the lazy pop ups to the infield that Jose would

(02:28:32):
catch off to the side with one hand, not very
teach tape. Well, that's how he's tried to catch each
of the two balls he's dropped in the last couple
of days. A comment from Brian Bogosovic on that play yesterday.

Speaker 7 (02:28:45):
So all it was misplayed yesterday is a perfect example
of you know, learning the position. It's not just do
you know how to catch a fly ball? Obviously he
knows how to catch a fly ball when it's hit
to him. It's playing the angles, it's playing the way
the ball is moving. You know, he's he's running in
and towards the line, trying to get around that ball
to line his throw up to home, and doesn't get

(02:29:08):
all the way around it to work through and ends up,
you know, clanking a ball off of it, off of
the heel of his glove.

Speaker 4 (02:29:15):
So okay, how how much grace is he allowed once
the season begins? In other words, I feel like, because
it's baseball, the ball is gonna find him. He's allowed
grace based on the win lost column.

Speaker 6 (02:29:34):
Yeah, that's actually a good way, based on some of
these extra stress he puts on a pitcher. You know,
if this reliever can't get out of the inning because
he just threw an extra ten to twelve to fifteen
pitches because the third out wasn't made, it's going to
be a factor.

Speaker 5 (02:29:47):
They have to consider.

Speaker 6 (02:29:48):
If the Astros should have left the top of the
third inning with a three to one lead, but instead
they're leaving with a four to three deficit because a
play wasn't made and guys got to circle the bases,
then they're gonna to reconsider this. I know there have
been a lot of different viewpoints said about this from
people in the media, ourselves. On an in regular basis
because of this move, it's happening. They're doing it. He's

(02:30:12):
playing left field, so most of my comments are made
with that knowledge. He's gonna be a bad left fielder.
I think everybody knows that he's gonna be a bad
left fielder. He's not gonna make plays that other guys
wouldn't make. Any play that he makes that we applaud
him for most other left fielders would also make that
play because they're left fielders. They've been doing it for ten, fifteen,
twenty years. You know, thirty year old Major league players

(02:30:32):
probably played left field for at least fifteen years. He's
a thirty plus year old player who's played it for
five minutes. He's gonna be bad. We haven't even seen.
He couldn't even make the two throws in the last
two games because he didn't catch the baseball.

Speaker 4 (02:30:44):
You remember that time in the twenty nineteen ALCS where
Michael Brantley doubled off Aaron Judge at first base with
a ridiculous catch and throw that was fun.

Speaker 5 (02:30:55):
Like part of that play, he was probably thinking, I
have to make this throw. I can get him.

Speaker 6 (02:31:02):
Before he'd made his dive, before he'd made the catch
before he.

Speaker 5 (02:31:05):
Catch was a given in his mind, moved on to.

Speaker 6 (02:31:08):
The next part of the thought and all that takes
place before the pitch also, but he being able to
do all those things.

Speaker 5 (02:31:15):
Have an eye on where the runner is.

Speaker 6 (02:31:17):
What you need to do, I mean Bregnan was probably
yelling at him also, but yet.

Speaker 5 (02:31:22):
Was yelling at him by the time it was done. Yeah,
this the it is.

Speaker 6 (02:31:26):
This is a Major League baseball team trying to repeat
his division champions absolutely positively experimenting, taking a huge risk
all because they want a few more outs at second base.

Speaker 5 (02:31:38):
Experimenting is really really being generous as well. That's where
they're at.

Speaker 6 (02:31:43):
Jose Al Tuove the outfielder and Cam Smith the prospect,
good good stuff here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (02:31:51):
Adam and Adam are very, very dedicated fans, such big fans.
In fact, one of them actually pays for his favorite porn.

Speaker 2 (02:32:01):
Paying for porn, Now that's dedication, folks.

Speaker 1 (02:32:04):
Back to eighteen premium on Sports Talk seven ninety, you're
gonna get your money's worth.

Speaker 6 (02:32:16):
We are fifty five seconds away from setting the matchup
in Wichita for the round of thirty two, the second
round for you of h uh already clabbered their opposition
earlier today, s I you, Edwardsville, not gonna be here
anymore anyway.

Speaker 5 (02:32:32):
Not gonna work here anymore. Seventy eight to forty.

Speaker 6 (02:32:35):
We gave you the Gonzaga Georgia score a few minutes
into the game when Gonzaga was leading twenty seven to three.
In the thirty plus minutes that have followed, Georgia has
been able to cut into exactly none of that lead.
With fifty five seconds to go, they still trail by

(02:32:57):
twenty four points.

Speaker 5 (02:32:59):
Great job.

Speaker 6 (02:33:00):
This is what was concerning to some people when they
saw the bracket. I think one through sixteen some people
viewed the Cougars region as very winnable. But Duke Florida,
U of H, and Auburn they all got number one seeds.
They are the four top ranked teams in the Pomeroy

(02:33:22):
College Basketball Ratings Ken pom So sounds like they got
it right. Tennessee, Alabama, Texas Tech, Michigan State. They're five, six,
seven and eight in the ratings. Three of those teams
got a two seed. Tech got a three seed. I
think Tech deserved the other two seed. Saint John's got it.
I think that was a small error.

Speaker 5 (02:33:40):
But so far, so good.

Speaker 6 (02:33:41):
Those are the top eight of the top nine teams,
eight of the top ten teams. They got top two seeds.
The Cougars are about to play Gonzaga. Gonzaga is playing
in the eight nine game. They're the eight seed in
both the Ken Palm ratings and the Net ratings. Gonzaga
is eighth in the nation and drew an eight seed

(02:34:05):
in the Cougars regional I still don't know how that happened.
I've looked at all the other numbers that go with it,
all the quad one wins, and all the scheduling, and
the quality of watching them play and what they'd it
made no sense then and the way they've absolutely manhandled
an SEC team. This was some people's concern that even

(02:34:27):
though the Cougars, I'm not saying they're not good enough
to beat Gonzaga, but you play your season to earn
the right to not have to play a team that
good that early.

Speaker 5 (02:34:36):
They're playing them in the next round.

Speaker 6 (02:34:38):
Gonzaga is absolutely a quality team that when their season
ended and they did not know where they'd be seeded,
where they'd be headed, who they'd be playing, I guarantee
you they thought we're an Elite eight team. We're definitely
a Sweet sixteen caliber team. That's the kind of basketball
we played all year, and that's the matchup. Now it's
gone final the Cougars and Gonzaga. No game time yet

(02:35:01):
Saturday in Wichita. The other two teams to advance included
McNeese State, who toppled Clemson big upset, and Perdue, who
beat High Point. The one for eight and twelve remain.
Why do I feel like you're setting us up for
the inevitable upset, Well, I'm setting you up for if
just about any other eight nine match, like Creighton won

(02:35:23):
the other eight nine game that was played earlier today.
They're a good basketball team, and I think they beat
a good Louisville team. And I wouldn't be saying any
of those things if either of those teams were being
matched up against the Cougars. I think Creighton's really good.
But Gonzaga has no bit had no business being given
an eight seed. That's a four or five seed at worst.
They got an eight seed. So that's who sits there.

(02:35:43):
By the way, Mark Fugh, who's been there forever more
wins than any other team in the NCAA Tournament. Mark
fus Gonzaga Bulldogs twenty three of them.

Speaker 5 (02:35:53):
And that's who the Cougars have on Saturday, good old
days when they were a Cinderella team that only peered
every once in a while. And you know, now like
a thing. They are a thing.

Speaker 6 (02:36:01):
It's a really these are the two winningest programs in
college basketball over the last eight seasons. Nobody has more
wins than the two of them, if I'm not mistaken,
Kelvin Samson's Cougar's and Mark Fugh's Bulldogs. So it's super intriguing.
It's great for the tournament, it is for this weekend
to produce a matchup of that caliber.

Speaker 5 (02:36:19):
It's great for them.

Speaker 6 (02:36:20):
I hope it's not troublesome for a number one seed
that most everything I've seen, hardly anyone has them out
of the tournament before the regional final, and many of
them have him as a final four team. I picked
him to win the championship if I one rapidly filled
out no thought bracket. You've watched college basketball, though I
watched a little college basketball, I'm not. I don't know

(02:36:42):
everything about all sixty eight teams. I'm gonna fully acknowledge
that here.

Speaker 4 (02:36:46):
So how many of the teams that you picked to
a like, how many of the teams in this tournament
do you feel like I watched a good amount of
their games or at least saw highlights.

Speaker 6 (02:36:54):
Most of the SEC fourteen teams that got there have
a pretty good idea of what they're all about. Big twelve,
same thing. It sounds like I'm named almost half the tournament.
That's twelve, twenty eighty, that's twenty two teams. Here's the
thing I mean, I'm very much on the record. I've
said it many many times. I don't like the product
itself in the regular season. It's excruciatingly bad for somebody

(02:37:15):
like me who calls NBA games. The disparity in the
two levels to me is just insane. Having said that,
this is the time of year where I can gladly
throw that out because there is it is a cliche.

Speaker 5 (02:37:30):
There is nothing like it. It's the greatest event and
all its But like it does sound like you're complimenting.

Speaker 4 (02:37:36):
Well, I just you know, if you're gonna ask me, hey,
would you rather watch you know, any NCAA tournament game
in March or the Super bowls.

Speaker 6 (02:37:48):
Sixty eight teams made the tournament, there's sixty seven games tournament.

Speaker 4 (02:37:52):
And none of them are going to be one. I
would pick over watching any given Super Bowl on any
given year, and.

Speaker 6 (02:37:57):
In lieu of watching any of the thirty two games
being played today and tomorrow. To eliminate thirty two teams,
you have to watch the Knicks and Hornets, or the
Nets and Pacers, or the Raptors and Warriors, or the
Bulls and Kings, or the Bucks and Lakers tonight, Bucks
and Lakers. All right, No, Luca, no Lebron should be fun.

Speaker 5 (02:38:18):
Is is Giannis playing? Don't see?

Speaker 6 (02:38:21):
Why not?

Speaker 7 (02:38:21):
Well?

Speaker 4 (02:38:22):
Sometimes he's load managed. That's the NBA in twenty twenty five.
Why is he playing? I bought tickets to see him. Well,
he's resting. Why is it a back to back? No,
because the playoffs he's managing his injury. So you're telling
me that this guy that was already managing his injuries
or not playing on back to backs got hurt anyways, Yeah,

(02:38:44):
so why am I You know you see what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (02:38:47):
No, I don't see what you're saying at all. Please more. Uh,
he's probable to play tonight, Thank god, You'll be at
least Buck fans will get their money's worth.

Speaker 5 (02:38:55):
Everything will be fine.

Speaker 6 (02:38:56):
Luca will drawn out Austin Reeves Baby thirty show best
number three player on any team in the NBA, best
third option?

Speaker 5 (02:39:04):
Debate it next? Can you believe that?

Speaker 4 (02:39:07):
I honestly, I'm trying to think of somebody off the
top of my head, but I can't because you know
it's correct. No, it's not because I know it's correct.
It's because I know it's incorrect, and I just can't
think of another third guy.

Speaker 5 (02:39:17):
One of the most underrated players in the league.

Speaker 6 (02:39:22):
Draymond Green. Ugh, it's true, though, Ugh, he's not an option.
I don't want the ball in his option.

Speaker 2 (02:39:30):
Luck.

Speaker 5 (02:39:30):
Yeah, but he doesn't. Just he doesn't score for you.

Speaker 6 (02:39:34):
Nobody covers him for ninety four feet and you go
length of the court and dunk it on nobody because
nobody picked up the ball like he did earlier this week.

Speaker 4 (02:39:40):
Then maybe or if he hits a random late three
pointer against the Rockets to seal the victory, which he
did this year.

Speaker 6 (02:39:46):
As you know, because we've mentioned a couple times during
the day, We leave you here, but deliver you Dana
Brown astro line with Dana Brown comes your way.

Speaker 5 (02:39:55):
Next.

Speaker 6 (02:39:56):
Robert Ford and Steve Sparks have the call of that
for you. After Dana B talks about his baseball team,
you can listen to your baseball team.

Speaker 5 (02:40:03):
The tape delayed broadcast of Astro's.

Speaker 6 (02:40:05):
Dominance earlier today, Well that comes your way at seven o'clock.

Speaker 5 (02:40:09):
We return tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (02:40:10):
I can't believe it. It's Friday tomorrow on the A Team.
Very much looking forward to it, and an opportunity to
recap the first half of the first round of the
NCAA Tournament.

Speaker 5 (02:40:20):
Do all that for you tomorrow right here on the
A Team.

Speaker 2 (02:40:27):
The A Team

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