Zimmel Hour; Baseball Starts their Season, Sweet 16

Major League Baseball begins their season and NCAA Men start the Sweet 16. Andrew Zimmel fills in for Craig Way

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here he is now Craig Way.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sports Radio. I'm thirteen hundred the Zone. Andrews zim will
hanging out with you this Thursday afternoon, and hopefully you're
doing good out there, staying safe, staying warm, staying dry.
We've already had a couple of people we know deal
with us some car issues. I don't know if that
was because of the precipitation or not, but you know,
look both ways before we cross the street, and you know,

(00:34):
keep it slow, slow down, Austin. Everybody wants to go
everywhere one hundred miles per hour. If the traffic's not
slowing you down, hopefully the rain will. So I'm filling
in today. Craig Way will join the program in the
four o'clock hour four seventeen. You can set your watch
to it. He'll join us to talk Texas women as
they go to the Birmingham region take on the Lady
Bowls on Saturday, and now Saturday is slate for women's basketball,

(00:59):
absolutely packed. If you're not, if you're not a Longhorn fan,
well there's still games for you because number three Notre
Dame and number two TCU tip off at noon on Saturday.
Then one seed at Texas takes on number five seed
to Tennessee at two point thirty, and then at four
thirty Yukon, which is all of a sudden become the
favorite out of that side of the other side of

(01:21):
the bracket, of the Spokane side of the bracket, well,
they're in a two seed. They're taking on three seeded Oklahoma,
who just signed the number one recruit in the country
on a signing day.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
So there's a lot of action.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
There's a lot of excitement on Saturday for the women's
basketball slate as they go into the sweet sixteen. And
of course we'll bring on Craig on at four seventeen
to talk Texas Longhorns basketball and also a little baseball
action as well as Texas takes on Missouri. Now I
went through all the stats, there's a lot of things
you can, you know, point to when it comes to

(01:53):
Texas baseball. You can look at that Sam Houston or yeah,
Sam Houston State went on Tuesday night and feel pretty
good about how this team is doing. You could also
look at the slate of games that they have played
to this point. You look at last weekend beating LSU
two to two to one series win at home.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
But the game.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
The number that I care most about coming into this
weekend is oh and six because Missouri is oh to
six in conference plays so far in the SEC. Similarly,
Texas A and M also defeated in conference player, but
oh in six. Look, you can't walk into any SEC

(02:32):
ballpark in this conference and just expect to win. You
don't expect to go into Columbia Missouri and expect to win.
You're gonna have to play your best ball. You're gonna
have to have your pitching staff tight, You're gonna be able,
You're gonna have to come in there with the bats
still hot if you want to beat Missouri. It is
still an SEC ball club. But I feel pretty confident,

(02:53):
pretty comfortable saying that this weekend's three game set is
probably gonna go the Long Horns way. I think that's
a fair estimate. I feel like that's a fair take
going into this weekend. And then you start April with
Texas State again not a school that's gonna roll over.
You look at what happened to the UTSA a week ago.

(03:14):
That was a good game. The UTSA stats a seventeen
game win streak. Texas State probably not at the same
level as UTSA right now, But you know, you still
feel pretty confident against Texas State. But then the conference
is already kind of separating itself between the haves and
the have nots. Georgia in Austin April fourth, that series

(03:36):
is at the same level or close to it, at
least with that LSU series. So Texas Baseball goes to Missouri.
That game will be fun. Craig Why will join us
at four to seventeen to talk all things Longhorns. But
coming up in the next segment, Kyle Glasser from the
MLB Network. Because it is opening day, that is right,
is opening day for Major League Baseball. You feel pretty

(03:59):
good for a lot of teams, you feel pretty bad
for some others. And we'll start with the teams that
you feel good about. The Dodgers have opened up as
the biggest World Series favorite since the two Yankees. Now,
people who keep track of baseball know about those Yankees
in the early two thousands, how they consistently were winning

(04:20):
one hundred games and the Jeter and okay, compare that
now to what is happening in LA There's no Jeter,
there's a sho Hao Tani and as big as you
thought that Derek Jeter was in baseball in the early
two thousands. I would argue that sho Hao Tani is
bigger not only in America right now, but also internationally.

(04:42):
This is the biggest star on the planet when it
comes to balls and bats, and that's a reason why
the Dodgers are opening up as the largest favorite since
the Two Yankees. In fact, they're a larger favorite. They're
plus two seventy five right now coming into Week one
of the Major League Baseball season. Two Yankees open the
season plus two hundred. The Dodgers win total this year

(05:05):
the over unders set at one hundred and five, which
is twelve games higher than any other team in baseball,
and it's also almost fifty games higher than the worst
team in baseball, as projected by the win totals of
the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox have a historically
low win total. The oddsmakers have the White Sox pack

(05:28):
as the worst team over the past thirty five seasons.
It's the lowest win total set since ESPN has been
keeping track of those numbers. It's twelve and a half
more wins than the White Sox had last season, but
last season. They broke almost every conceivable record to be
a bad team. Like you go through the angles of

(05:53):
history and you look at the worst teams in baseball,
and it's rare for your ball club to be in
the same category as the Cleveland freaking Spiders. Before we
turn the calendar over to nineteen hundred, the Cleveland Spiders
were losing one hundred games year after year after year. Well,

(06:14):
Chicago White Sox, congratulations, you're in that ball club to
one hundred and twenty one loss season last year. They're
projected six fewer wins than the second fewest, the Colorado Rockies.
So we'll talk to what Kyle glass a coming up
in the next segment. He'll talk to us. Probably we'll
talk not probably, we will talk about the Astros and

(06:37):
the Texas Rangers and the American League West. That is
absolutely wide open. It's it's open for whoever wants to
kind of put resources and put money towards it. You
think to yourself, is it the end of the Astros
dynasty or is it the beginning of something new? Could

(06:58):
you see a team like the Texas Rangers, who won
the World Series two years ago, stepping to the plate
and trying to put something in play and make something happen.
In this twenty twenty five season, the American League has
been called the junior varsity League to the National League
at this point, and because of the injuries that the
Yankees have suffered early with Garrett Cole blowing out his elbow,

(07:19):
John Carlos stan blowing out both of his elbows, the
Yankees no longer seem to be a major threat in
the American League, or at least not a major threat
to win the World Series. It seems that everybody has
just pegged the La Dodgers as the team in baseball,
which probably is fair. The amount of deferred money, the
amount of big names stars they have, it probably is

(07:41):
fair to say the Dodgers are the favorite in baseball
this season. But with no Yankees, this opens up the
club the doors for a lot of other teams in
the American League, and it will decide. It will depend
on if the Astros and Rangers decide to spend a
little bit of money maybe at the trade deadline, and
what they're both their younger pitching staffs look like. But

(08:02):
one of the reasons that people aren't as high on
the Astros this season as last is because of the
amount of talent that they've shed, and part of this
is because of agents and super agents who have forced
guys to go places they probably don't want to go.
One of those guys that we've hypothesized that never wanted
to leave the ball club that he started with, who

(08:23):
played a lot of baseball in the SEC is Alex Bregman.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Regman.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
The deal was on the table, is he gonna get done?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Is it not gonna get done?

Speaker 2 (08:31):
At the eleventh hour he signs a deal with the
Boston Red Sox, which I think hurt a lot of
Astros fans, at least in my life. I know there's
a lot of Astros fans who are very upset with
the fact they could not get a deal done to
keep Regman in Houston. And this is just another guy
who when he goes into the Hall of Fame, his
name will be next to a bunch of different teams

(08:53):
instead of one team. There's a lot to be said
for when you get to Cooperstown, you have one hat,
you have one team on your plaque. Well, Bragman won't
have that. He's gonna have the Boston Red Sox on
his plaque. As well, and it made things a little tension.
There's a lot of tension because of his teammate, Raphael Devers,

(09:14):
who was supposed to be the starting third basement for
the twenty twenty five season for the Red Sox, who
are trying to make a push. They have a good
pharm system of good young arms. They're trying to make
a push to be an impactful team in the American League. Well,
you get a guy like Bregman, no matter what, you
want a bat like that in your lineup. But then
it turns into where he's gonna play. Rafael Devers, who's

(09:35):
statistically speaking, is not a very good third baseman. He's
a good bat, he's a good clubhouse guy. He's a
guy that the fans in Boston like, but statistically he's
not a great defensive third baseman and Alex Bregman is.
So we figured it out yesterday. We figured out where

(09:56):
he's going to end up playing, and which is Alex
Bragman will be the every day third baseman and Ralphie
Al Devers will become the primary designated hitter. Now, we
go back all the way before this was announced. We
go back a couple months ago when Devers was saying
that he is the third baseman until something officially gets

(10:18):
done with Bregman, and that he didn't want to change positions, which, okay,
if my boss came to me and said, hey, we're
going to move you to a different daytime slot, I
would have to begrudgingly agree. But with Devers, he the
entire time kind of had his heels in the dirt,
didn't want to move, didn't love that a lot of
this was going on in the sphere of public, the

(10:40):
public sphere, instead of doing it behind closed doors and
dugout in the clubhouse. So he turns into the designated hitter.
Now Bregman, who's a Gold Glover at third base, will
play that position. And if I'm any team in the
American League or any team in baseball and Devers is
hitting a pretty good number by I don't know, we'll
call it near the debt line. Will say late early

(11:02):
early June, late Jul or early July that time period.
I'm making a move. I'm making a move. I'm trying
to put some ship chips in the middle of the
table and go get Raphael Devers.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
And if the.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Rangers are in that conversation, or the Ashers are in
that conversation that could be the thing that pushes them
over the hump in the American League West.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
All right.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
MLB's Kyle Glasser joins us next, and then later in
the hour we also have Inconceivable All coming up next
to the Craigway Show. Szim will hanging out with you
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone, Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrew Zimmell hanging out with you
this Thursday after noon. Texas Softball thirty two and two

(11:46):
on the season, five and one overall in conference and
on a four game winning streak. Now they have a
series this coming weekend against number eighteen Mississippi State in Starkville.
It's gonna be a league matchup. You're not gonna want
to take your eyes off of that. The Texas softball
team absolutely killing it as of late, continue to roll.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Through conference play.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
One conference loss so far, and that was that game
on Sunday in Gainesville about what two weeks ago. We're
waiting for Kyle Glasser from the MLB Network to join
us on the Craigway Show. He'll join us at Taka
Texas Rangers and Astros as both teams getting ready to
work into Major League Baseball this season. It's Opening Day

(12:31):
in baseball and we're in the bottom of the first
Yankees and Brewers started our day. Now, you gotta remember
this is the domestic day of opening Day, as the
Dodgers and Cubs both went to Tokyo earlier to get
things started. So to get the season started, I should say, so, yeah,

(12:54):
so we right now, we've got things. We've got things
going on. The Cubs they start their domestics season in
tonight nine pm, first pitch against Era Zona as well,
but other games of course.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
In the conversation we were talking Ralphel Devers and Alex
Bragman earlier, Red Sox and Rangers they start their season
in Globe Life in Arlington tonight as well.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
So things things that keep an eye on, of course.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
And like we were talking, we've said that the Yankees
weren't the team I don't think anymore in the American
League to be competing this is. This is a team
that is dealing with a lot of arm injuries and
and and every everything else obviously, So we'll.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Take a.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
We're gonna give you a little bit of audio here
from Tom Izzo as he had a big break blow
up yesterday during talking about the train Reportal.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
You know, I'm gonna worry today about the guys I
got in this program that have done an incredible job
this year, and that's it. And if that costs me later,
so be it. But Tom Iso isn't cheating the people
that he has that have been loyal to him for
this chaos that is going on out there. Cool, you

(14:25):
got enough? No, no, because you don't understand. When I
came back Sunday night, that was it. There was nothing
on my mind. But given these guys a chance to
win one more game, get to an litiate and one
more game and have a memory that will last their

(14:46):
entire life, their kid's life, and their grandkid's life.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone ar. Now we
have Kyle Glasser on the line from the Major League
Baseball Network formerly of Baseball America. Kyle, that's how you
and I met with is that when you were at
Baseball America. I don't know if you remember that.

Speaker 5 (15:03):
Yeah. Absolutely, It's good to talk to you again.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
All right, So let's talk Texas baseball. Let's talk Rangers
and Astros, And we'll start with the Astros. They couldn't
get a deal done with Bregman this year and the
American League West feels wide open. What do they need
to do this year?

Speaker 5 (15:19):
They really need to get their starting pitchers healthy. When
everyone's healthy, you could go Bramber, Valdez, Hunter Brown, Luis Garcia,
Christian Xavier, Lance McCullers, and that's one of the best
rotations in the American League. The problem is, Javier, Garcia
mccullars have all had health injuries, so that's the main thing.
And they also need to make sure that Ystak Cretis
and Christian Walker, their two big additions, are able to

(15:41):
give them as much offensive reduction as possible. You feel
good about what Hose al Tuba is going to give you. You
feel good about what your Don Albatz is going to
give you. But in order to make up for the
loss of Tucker and Bragman, they're really going to need
Peretis and Walker to be at their best.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So you still feel good about ALTV even as he
gets up in age, I.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
Feel him heading. Look, this is one of the best
hitters of our generation. I think he has shown he
can continue to make contact and hit for power and
do some good things offensively, no matter his age. Obviously
it's a move to left field. It will see how
it goes. There's probably gonna be some ugly moments there.
There might also be some decent moments. We'll see how
it shakes out. But I think at the very least

(16:20):
he should continue to hit. I'm never going to doubt
Jose Altuve at the batter Sox.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
No, And that's a fair point.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
You talked about him moving to left field too, which
I thought came as a little bit of surprise when
it was announced. But as time has gone on, I've
kind of understand a little bit more, Kyle, right.

Speaker 5 (16:36):
I mean, it's certainly not every day you see a
guy in their upper thirties move from the infield to
the outfield where they're going to be asked to run
around more I should say mid thirties typically for the
way around outfielder's move to the infield where they don't
have to, you know, cover so much ground. Look, we'll
see how it goes. I'm willing to be open minded,
and you know, we'll just have to wait and see.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
All right, let's talk some rain, because the Rangers won
the World Series two years ago, but now it feels
like two decades ago. It feels like so much has
changed for the Rangers since they won that title.

Speaker 5 (17:11):
I actually think that they will win the American League
this year. I think they are the team to be
just because you look at the starting rotation. You get
Jacob degromdback. I think Kumar Rocker is going to be
a big, big boost for them, maybe Jack Leder as well.
And look, we see it pretty often teams win a
World Series and the following year after that deep run
into October, they have some injuries, They're a little fatigued.

(17:31):
It just takes a little bit out of them. I
think the Rangers are going to come back refresh this year.
I think one through nine this is a really really good, deep,
dangerous lineup. They have a really good rotation. I think
all the pieces are in place, especially in a wide
open American League where there really is no great team.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
So I was saying that in the beginning of Kyle
that there isn't some sort of domineering team, especially with
the injuries the Yankees have suffered. Do you see that too,
that it's just like the National League Junior League almost
in the American League.

Speaker 5 (18:01):
Absolutely. I believe the four best teams in baseball all
reside in the National League. By good margins. That's the Dodgers, Phillies, Graves,
and Diamondbacks. And I think six of the seven best
teams in baseball are all in the NL. The NL
is the vastest secure league in terms of position player quality,
pop line, pitcher quality, health quality, overall team quality. Yeah,
this is this is cyclical. It's not meaningful of anything,

(18:24):
you know, beyond just this is how it is this year.
And I do think that it will be a surprise
if an American League team is the champion fan of
the year. The NL is just so so so much
stronger really across the board.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
And that's what I was going to ask, because in
basketball we can look at the you know, the Eastern
Conference of the Western Conference, and we know the Western
Conference has better players and better general managers. Is it
the same in baseball now that nationally just has got
a corner on like great gms.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
What happened here?

Speaker 5 (18:50):
No, it's just cyclical. I mean you have free agents
signing certain places, you have certain trades that get made,
and again a lot of us just have to do
with player movement. There's still a lot of very very good,
smart executive in the American League. It's just again, you know,
five years ago we had this conversation. It's the opposite
that the American League is sacked. So again it really
is just sifnical.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
All Right.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Kyle Glasser from Baseball Network talking to us this afternoon
on the Craig Waves Show. Andrewsim was sitting in for Craig. Kyle,
Let's talk baseball. Let's talk Dodgers now, because that is
obviously the story of the season right now. I would
said earlier they're a pick to be the favorite, the
heavy favorite to win the National League. Is there any
world where they're not the World Series champion?

Speaker 5 (19:32):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (19:33):
So, look, the.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
Dodgers are absolutely stacked. You take the defending World Series champion,
they bring everyone back, and you add Blake Snow, Roki Sasaki,
Michael Conford. I mean, this is just an absolute stacked team.
But look, the Phillies are a great, great team as well.
He'll get that rotation of Wheeler, Nolo, Blizardo, Sanchez, Suarez Walker,
they go six deep of stunts as well as the

(19:54):
lineup that is as dangerous as anyone. And the Braves
again with a Kodia coming back healthy, especially when Sean
Murphy comes back healthy, the Braves are a great team
as well. I think that the Dodgers are certainly the favorite,
but if the Braves or Phillies were to beat them
in a series, you wouldn't say, oh my god, that's
a huge shocker that no one saw coming. These are
really good teams that you get them in a five
or seven game series, they absolutely have a very, very

(20:16):
legitimate chance to beat the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
So that's a good segue into the Braves and Padres game.
And you're at that game covering in San Diego, right, Kyle.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
Yes, I am. I'm currently in the Pecco Park press
back of the Peco Park press box as we speak.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
So what do we expect to see from this one?
Between a team and the Braves that we like in
the National League and a team in the Padres that
a couple of years ago we thought would be World
Series champion.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
I mean, I would say last year, if the Padres
get past the Dodgers the LDS, they would have been
the World Sings champion. Whoever won that series was going
to win the World Series. They were just so much
better those two teams than everyone else left in the
playoff field. So look what the Padres are looking to see.
Are their stars going to be playing like stars. This
is a team that lost a lot of key players
in free agency. It's really going to be about Machado

(21:01):
and Tatiz and a Rise and Bogarts and Merrill all
performing to the best of their abilities, and they need
to come up hot. They have a very difficult to
really season schedule, and on the brave side, I think
you're just looking for their starting pitchers to stay healthy,
and you know, seeing how some of their guys are
coming back again, Ronald the Counia coming off as second
acl to injury. You want to see how he's moving

(21:21):
and just how he's able to perform overall.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
So, finally, Kyle any Bold predictions for the season for baseball.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
The San Francisco Giants will be the sleeper team that
surprises everyone. This is a really really underrated team. A
lot of people picking the Reds and they're good, but
the Giants have a really nice mix of veteran talent
and young talent that have a great manager in Bob Melbourne.
They have the right front office, you know, mindset, style
of play, personalities. Now with Buster Posey, I think the
Giants are going to surprise some people and beat some
teams people wouldn't expect them to beat.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Thank you so much, Kyle Last from Baseball Networking. Follow
him on x at Kyle A.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Glasster.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Kyle, thanks so much, man anytime or sports Radio coming
your way in a second on the Zone as we
get you ready for inconceivable? Is it inconceivable for the
Giants to make a run at the Nlpellett Pennant. We'll
talk about it next Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone.
Is it inconceivable to be defeated in sec play? Talk

(22:19):
to the Missouri Tigers. They're zero to six right now.
We'll talk about them a little bit later. As well
as the transfer portal opening up in the middle of
sweet sixteen causing guys like Tom Izzo old dogs having
to learn new tricks and they're not happy about it.
But let's talk inconceivable. Here's one for you. It wasn't
inconceivable for me to live in North Dakota for what

(22:42):
was it three years? And when I saw this story,
I knew exactly where it was going to be so
the Anulin Municipal Library, which is on the eastern side
of the state. It's about two hours thishear from where
I was when I was living up there. They out
on social media that a book arrived in a male

(23:02):
media package with no return address. And the reason it's
even a story, even though we care about it, is
because it's a copy of Rebecca by Dafaine Dumar. It
was returned anominously. But the deal is it's fifty one
years past its due date. Yes, librarian, you found it,

(23:24):
determined it checked out in the night in nineteen seventy
three in October. Quote the exact days and numbers it
would be overdue is eighteen thousand, seven hundred and eighty
three days. If you charge ten cents a day, that
equals out to about eighteen hundred dollars. You can buy

(23:46):
a lot of copies of Rebecca for eighteen hundred dollars now,
the librarian wrote, the library board voted to do away
with late fees just last month, so the return didn't
require any payment. I wonder though, if the person who
had had this book on their shelf probably found out
that it was overdue a while ago, I imagine, and

(24:06):
was just kind of waiting to see, you know, hey,
are they ever gonna charge me for this?

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Are they Are they gonna keep the ten cents? Like?

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Am I gonna have to pay a fine for turning
this book in fifty one years late? Once I saw
that come out that they I'm not gonna have to well,
you know what, I'll throw a I'll put it back
in the collection box. The anonymous person was nice enough
to throw on a twenty dollars bill, however, which is
super nice, not exactly eighteen hundred dollars that it would
cost you if you turn the book in late with

(24:37):
a ten cent fee eighteen thousand days. My question then
turns into how many days did it take you to
read the book originally? And did you actually read it?
When I was a kid, I was checking out books
some library, and I'll be honest with you, my parents
paid for some late fees for books that I didn't
even read, which you gotta feel bad about. And as

(24:58):
a parent, that's kind of the h that's kind of
the lot that you're delivered here, all right. If you
saw the story earlier this week from Harris County about
the amount of bulls and steer running down the highway. Well,
you'll be happy to know that they found some of them.
The owner of the rodeo cattle escaped onto a Texas highway.

(25:20):
They discovered the animals have finally arrived home, but there
is one steer missing. According to Harris County Sheriff's office,
a trailer latch came undone on Monday. Multiple steer well,
they ran loose on Interstate thirty five North near the
Montgomery County line. Harris sheriff say the bovine were secured
a few hours later. And I will say this that

(25:43):
this seems to be happening more and more. It seems
that we're talking on inconceivable more and more about loose steer,
loose bulvine. It's Texas. You gotta have at least one
rope rod staff. I don't know if there is a
budgetary issue. I don't know if there's a you know,
law that we can get fixed. Greg Abbott, you know,
work on it here. Every police department needs to have

(26:05):
at least one certified cowboy on staff, just in case,
just in case that it is a running of the bulls. Now,
they made fifty four the of the steer made it
back to the original ranch. The fifty fifth is still roaming.
The whereabouts are currently unknown. So do we have a

(26:29):
wrangler on our hands? Is there a world where you know,
maybe somebody coaxed this steer into the back of the
air trailer.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
I need to know more. I want to know more.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
We'll get you updates as we learn more, obviously, but
this is truly an insane story. And if you saw
the video of the running of the bulls on Interstate
thirty five in Houston, then you also will understand that
this is a This is a big story, all right.

(26:59):
So you've heard of March Madness before, and hopefully your
brackets are not completely shredded. I still think I'm doing
relatively well. People aren't happy with how chalk this tournament
has been this year, but March Naptness is occurring as well.
I don't know if you've heard about this. An international

(27:19):
Animal will Fare group announce the start of a March
Madness style bracket tracking bear sanctuaries across Europe with Hibernation
four Pause, which operates an animal sanctuary across the world,
kicked off the Animal Tournament with the bracket of twenty
three European brown bears living in six sanctuaries across Europe.

(27:40):
Now I look at this and I say, hold on
a second, there's twenty three European brown bears. Does somebody
get a automatic buy? Is there a number one seed
that doesn't have to compete? What they did was they
did in one side of the bracket they had three
and every other one has four. Okay, so the sleepiest

(28:04):
bear wins the four pause spokes been said, the bear
that remains sleeping the longest is crowned the winner for
the year. Now, the spokesperson clear the French said that
a bear is kicked out of the bracket after waking
up from hibernation and remains active for at least five days.
When an animal, especially beer hybrid dates, they may wake up.

(28:25):
From time to time. They wake up, they go out
of their den, they walk around, maybe they grab a snack,
and then they go back to bed. I will say this,
when I wake up from my nap, I tend to
wake up, you know, go to the kitchen, make myself
a sandwich, and then I'm right back sleeping. As I'm
watching the Masters coming up here, watching some golf on
the TV on a Saturday, the bears were all rescued
from captivity or.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Unable to return to the wild. Quote.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Some bears prefer their own den, while other bears, well,
they are provided to dead. They thank you, and then
they say good night. The French says that March Napness
is aimed at teaching the public about two substitute subject,
bear conservation, and of course we all could use some
more of this, the importance of rest. I think you
could really bring back the movement that sleeping is self

(29:10):
care and there's no harm in taking a little nap
when you need it.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
You hear that. I hope my program doctor heard that.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
When you catch me napping in the studio, it's self wellness.
I'm recharging the batteries, that's the plan. I'm not dozing off.
Don't doze off. If you're dozing off at work, wake up.
We got more stuff to talk about. As Texas goes
to Columbia, Missouri to take on Missouri this weekend, we'll
get you ready for it. Up next, The Craigway Show

(29:37):
continues Our number one rolls on on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred. Zone Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The Zone
andrews im will hanging out with you this afternoon. Round
Rock and Sprets Baseball begins tomorrow. They go to Tacoma
nine pm. First pitch right here on the zone your
home for Round Rock Express Baseball. Well University of Texas

(30:00):
women's basketball sophomore the engine of the program, Madison Booker,
was selected one of four finalists for the twenty twenty
five Wage Trophy Women's Basketball Coach Association announced. The prestigious
award is presented by the WBCA each year to the
best player in women's college basketball. Booker and Rory Harmon

(30:21):
were selected as a regional finalists for the Coach's All
American Team. This season, Booker has been named the First
Team All American by the Associated Press and of course,
the SEC Player of the Year as well. In twenty
twenty four, Booker earned Big twelve Player of the Year
as a freshman and was a wc A WBCA First
Team All American. She earned the twenty twenty four Scheryl
Miller Small Ford of the Year Award as a finalist

(30:42):
again for that award. This season, scored twenty or more
points in fourteen games. She's by far one of the
best players in college basketball this season. She joins Paige
Beckers from Yukon, Hannah Hidalgo from Notre Dame, Juji Watkins
from USC or the other three finalists for the award.

(31:05):
Now the Way Trophy, it's the forty eight year. It's
the oldest most prestigious National Player of the Year award
in college women's basketball. I will say, of those four players,
and again I look to myself and I say, is
it me? Am I the problem? Am I the one
that is not doing enough of the national scope and

(31:27):
doing enough to pay attention to the ESPNS or the
Fox Sports or the CBS Sports is of the world.
When I see these award nominations come out, I think
it's obvious that the Texas Longhorns should be considered one
of the best teams in college basketball. And I think
it's obvious that they should be considered Nadison Booker should

(31:49):
be considered one of the best players in college basketball.
Now she gets named to the final four list for
again a very prestigious award, But I don't see the
conversation around this team going in the direction I thought
it would go. In fact, and we're going to try
to have him on the show tomorrow Neil Paine, who
is a freelance writer. He writes for a bunch of

(32:11):
different places, but he writes for ESPN, and this is
the story that I saw today. He's talking about the
hot and cold teams coming into the Sweet sixteen. As
the men's college basketball Sweet Sixteen starts tonight women's begins tomorrow,
they were talking about the teams that are cooling down,
and on the men's side of things, they talked about
number one seeded Auburn, and on the women's side of things,

(32:32):
they pointed out the Texas Longhorns, and I had a
little bit of an issue with that. I look through
the games that they've played, I see the way that
things have been going, and it feels like this is
just one of those that you are putting. Some team
has to be the cool off team, so we're gonna
make it Texas. So the tournament point per game differential

(32:53):
is plus thirty five thirty and a half, so they're
doing a good job scoring the basketball. The difference, though,
is that they're not beating teams by as much as
they're projected I guess to be beating teams by Okay,
that seems like a very nitpicky, very slim reason to
be upset about a team. Again, We're gonna try to

(33:16):
talk to him tomorrow, the writer of the article, and
figure out why he has all burned as a one
seed on the men's side of things cooling off and
then Texas on the women's side things. But again, life
does not get any easier for the Texas Longhorns. They
play the Lady Bowls on a Saturday and a jam
Pack Saturday matchup, and then they're gonna play the winner
of Notre Dame in TCU, which I was saying to Craig,

(33:37):
and I've said to everybody, you have a chance to
play a box.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Office after box office after box office.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
The Lady Bowls historically one of the best women's basketball programs,
Notre Dame historically one of the best women's basketball programs.
USC the South Carolina game Cocks again, national champion pedigree,
and then you count on the other side of the
bracket you might see in the National Championship. So there's
a lot of excitement obviously around this team. I just
don't understand why it's not spreading past the forty acres.

(34:04):
That is really the head scratcher. For me, and Craig
keeps giving me grief about the disrespect. I feel disrespected.
I feel like I'm a Rodney dangerfield. I'm not saying
it's disrespectful. I'm just saying that I'm expecting more fanfare
around a team that should be picked for one of
the best teams in the country. All right, Texas Baseball.

(34:26):
They go to Columbia Missouri tomorrow, take on Missouri. Now,
the Tigers this season, it has not gone the way
that they expected. I imagine. They're zero to six and
conference play. They have one of the worst run differentials
in the SEC this season to this point. And Texas
on the other side of things, well, they're getting the

(34:46):
job done. They beat sam Houston on Tuesday night in
seven innings, thirteen to three. They're coming off of an
incredible SEC home weekend against LSU, and they score in
each of the final six innings against sam Houston State.
The bats have continued to look hot. Texas mounted a

(35:06):
double digit runs in the eighth inning to total sixteen knocks,
including nine extra base hits.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
In the win.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Texas talied three home runs, highlighted by the go ahead
three run blast by Jalen Flores In the third Flores
notched his ninth multi hit performance and finished the season
high with four RBIs. In the fifth inning, third baseman
Adrian Rodriguez joined the home run derby with a two
run shot into the Yetti yard. Three batches later, We'll Go.

(35:35):
Will Glaspio launched a four hundred and thirty eight foot
jack extended lead to ten to two. The Longhorns looked
great Kate Bing, who I've given slash Lego a little
bit of grief kind of sort of every time I
hear him talk about Bing, it doesn't sound like he's,
you know, as excited about Kate Bing as you know

(35:57):
some of the other pitchers and being looked really good
his first win in the burn Ors pitch the first
four innings, allowed two runs, struck out four of all
of the guys.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
He's a left hander.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
I think that might also be part of the reason
I have a soft spot for him. As you know,
I was lovingly known as the hefty lefty when you know,
no big deal. I like left handed pitchers. I'm a
big left handed pitcher guy, and I think Kate Bing
is a good left handed pitcher.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
I like him.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Sam Houston starter Danny Valdez picked up the loss after
just two innings. He got tagged for four runs in
six hits. In the win, six different Longhorns had multi
hit games, led by three from Ethan Mendozo. Next up,
of course, that three game road trip against the Tigers
in Missouri. So LONGWOT Baseball continues to look hot Slashnagle

(36:45):
continues to coach very well. Obviously, the success of this
team is going to come down to the success of
the pitching staff, and because of that, you have to
give a lot of credit to Max Wiener, the pitching coach.
I am very excited about how much excitement obviously is
around the pitching staff. I talked to a friend earlier

(37:06):
this week and I was comparing contrasting last season to
this season, because I think that's the most fair thing
that you can do when you compare a season over season,
is Yeah, you can look at the run differential, you
can look at the wins, and last year they were
in the Big twelve.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
This year in the SEC.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
I go off vibes a lot of times too, and
the vibes of this season just feel like a lot better.
Do you just you go to the ballpark or you
talk about the team, or you're around the team, or
you're listening to players, and it just feels like there's
more energy, more excitement. And maybe that's because it's your
one in the SEC. But I'm also going to lean
on the fact that you had a seventeen game win

(37:42):
streak to start the year and that you beat LSU,
a team that you're probably gonna have to face off
against in the SEC tournament and you might have to
see again in Omaha. And you look at the rest
of the SEC, and you have games against Georgia, and
you have games against Auburn, and you play Texas A
and M at home in late April. I just looked
through it, and I say, like, this is if you

(38:05):
compared where the team is now versus where you thought
it was gonna be before the season, you gotta feel
you gotta feel pretty good, all right when we come back.
Baseball season begins today in the major leagues. Who is
the favorite? And what are those scoreboards looking like? There's
already a game in action. Pinstripes are up. We'll talk
about it next. Andrew Zim will fill in for Craig
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Sports Radio

(38:29):
AM thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
How you doing? Andrews Zim will.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Hanging out with you this Thursday afternoon, Craig joining the
program in about an hour four seventeen. We're gonna talk
all things Texas with the voice of the Longhorns as
he travels today. Texas women playing on Saturday in the
Sweet sixteen, trying to cut down the nets move on
to the Elite eight. Their challenger will be a tough

(38:53):
one in the Birmingham region. They're taking on five seeded
Tennessee the Lady Bowls, a store program, obviously a program
that has a lot on the line too as a
five seed coming into that matchup. They will then play
the winner of a Notre Dame and TCU, which Notre
Dame one of two teams who has beaten the University

(39:15):
of Texas this season. Obviously a team that you do
not want to face a third a second time. If
you're if a Longhorn, you'd rather probably see TCU. I
went down the lineups for TCU and Notre Dame as
they play the first game on Saturday noon.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Tip.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
TCU technically matches up better with Notre Dame that I
think Texas matches up with Notre Dame, but I think
Texas matches up better against TCU. Does that make sense?
So Sador Prince, who has been I think she's played
college basketball now longer than most of her teammates have

(39:56):
been alive. I think she's like a seven year she's
been at TCU thanks to injuries and COVID years. Obviously,
she is going to be the focal point now. She
has not been the talk of the con the talk
of the team because of Hailey van Lyff, who came
over from LSU, who had a great career at Louisville
Before that, Hailey van Lyth has been the story of

(40:18):
this season because this is her third team. She's going
into the WNBA Draft at the end of the season.
She has been the talk of this TCU team, and
you got to give a lot of credit to their
coaching staff over there as well. There's turned a TCU
women's basketball program that honestly, for the longest time not
very recognizable, did not really move the needle. Now they
are trying to become a perennial deep team going into

(40:42):
these tournaments. That of course begins with trying to knock
off Notre Dame. We will see how that gets done. Texas,
of course, has to focus on the task at hand,
which is Tennessee on Saturday, so we'll talk to Craig
about that. We also will speak on Texas and Missouri,
which a lot of people are not as nearly excited.
They're not as excited about that matchup. I don't think

(41:02):
nearly is even necessary. They're not as excited about going
to Columbia Missouri as they would be to have LSU
come to town and then Georgia come to town the
following week. Those games are gonna move a lot more
people are gonna get a lot more people in the
stands and watching on their screens than a series matchup
against Missouri. However, it is the SEC, and it is

(41:24):
a conference that you have to bring your best. You
cannot fall asleep at the wheel. The last series that
Missouri played was the weekend series against Old miss at home,
number twenty four ranked Old miss absolutely molly wopped them.
You're talking about nine to six on Friday, that's the
closest it ever got, seventeen to ten on Saturday and

(41:46):
fourteen to six on Sunday, and then it wasn't any
prettier the following or the weekend prior against LSU So
Missouri owen six in conference play. They're trying to get
things rolling on their end, trying to make some thing happened.
And of course every time the Longhorns show up anywhere,
does not matter the sport, doesn't matter the season, it

(42:07):
is the other teams super Bowl, They're going to bring
their very best.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Speaking of the very.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Best, the defending American League champion winners, the New York Yankees,
begin their run back to the postseason today, game one
of one hundred and sixty two. Yankees lead the Milwaukee
Brewers two to one, currently in the top of the fourth.

(42:33):
Other games in action, Twins and Cardinals are in a
rain delay and the top of the first that game
being played in Saint Louis, and in the middle of
the second Baltimore leading the Blue Jays in a battle
of the Birds to zero. Which is a good segue
into the favorites this season. If you missed our number one,
you go back and listen to podcast. But we had
Kyle Glasser from the Major League Baseball Network talking to

(42:56):
us about not only Texas Baseball, which he has a
bold prediction. I asked him for a bold one. He
gave me a Giants pick. I thought it's per addiction
against the Texas Rangers, saying that the Rangers were going
to be the team to win the American League this year.
I thought that was a much more spicy take than
anything else that he said. But the favorite in the

(43:19):
American League this season is still currently the New York Yankees.
They open up as a plus eight fifty favorite in
to win the World Series. Of course, they are the
third best odds according to ESPN bets. The Braves are
the second best at plus eight hundred, but the odds

(43:39):
on favorite the largest favorite since ESPN has been keeping
track of this, and since the two Yankees. The LA
Dodgers plus two to seventy five, which means that they
have the shortest odds to win the entire thing. In fact,
their odds are as short as the New York Yankees,

(43:59):
notes there were plus two hundred. The Dodgers have the
best team, they have the best player, but in baseball,
that does not necessarily mean that you're going to win
the best trophy, which would be the Commissioner Trophy right
to win the World Series. That does not necessarily mean
you will win the World Series. Even if you win
one hundred plus games and you have the generational superstar

(44:21):
that is Shohel Tani. It's going to come down to
how teams play in the postseason, which is super lame
to be talking about in late early or late March,
early in the season, game number one of the year.
But I think that those are the standards, and that
is the level that the Dodgers are now playing for
that they're not as interested in winning one hundred games.

(44:42):
Ten years ago, fifteen years ago, you talked about the
Dodgers in the NL West with the Giants and the Diamondbacks. Says, okay,
whichever team gets to ninety five wins first, to ninety
eight wins first will win the division. But now the
Dodgers are so far and away the favorites in not
only the division, not only in the league, the National League,
but across baseball that if anything except for a World

(45:06):
Series win will be seen as a disappointment. So those
are the standards that they're living on now, and it's
not ideal. I would not wish that upon any fan base.
You argue that the Cleveland Browns or some of those
really badly, poorly run franchises that those fans suffer the worst.
I don't necessarily agree with that. I would say that

(45:29):
the fans of teams that are supposed to be good
every single season to start the year have a worse
life because every single week, every single game for seven
months now, Dodgers fans are gonna have to deal with,
will you're the odds on favorite to win the World Series?
If you beat the Chicago Cubs, if you beat the
Saint Louis Cardinals, if you beat insert team here. It

(45:52):
does not move the needle. Nobody's gonna be get super
excited about Shoheo Tani four for five game with two
home runs and six RBIs. I'll get excited because I
like Otani. Craig will get excited because he likes the Dodgers.
But average baseball fans are going to say, well, that
is what you were supposed to do, you are the
best team. Those are the expectations, right for bad teams, Well,

(46:13):
you kind of expect to be bad. You kind of
know what you are going to get. If the Dodgers
go on a two week slump, if Shoheo Tani has
a slump during the season. It's going to be endless conversation,
endless chatter. So I always say that coming into a year,
the worst thing for a sports fan to have is hope,
because hope can be crushed.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
That is the dashing thing.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
So the Dodgers, yeah, they open up as the favorite,
but if you ask me the team that you don't
want to be, but I can make a case that
it is a better life with Chicago White Sox. The
White Sox are picked to lose a ton of games
again this year. The White Sox are projected to have
a win total of fifty three and a half. This

(46:56):
is coming after a season last year where they lost
a hundred and twenty one games. They play one hundred
and sixty two of them one hundred and twenty one
losses the Dodger or the Chicago White Sox had last year.
It's the lowest win total in over thirty five years
for a team, and even then, fifty three and a
half is twelve and a half games better than what

(47:18):
they actually performed with last year. White Sox fans have
zero hope, and yet, and yet, on the South Side
of Chicago, people are showing up to watch Opening Day,
and yet even with a awful ball club, people are
gonna show up to watch and play the Angels this
afternoon at ray Field because they have no hope of

(47:39):
winning the World Series. They have no hope. Their only
hope is to be better than they were last year.
That is a better world to live in. That's a
more realistic world to live in. During the football season,
I have a team that I root for, the Minnesota Vikings,
and like Cowboys fans, I feel like are always miserable
because they're always going for well it's Super Bowl or

(47:59):
bus super Bowl or bust. And I get to live
a world where my team's never won anything of importance.
So every single week for seventeen weeks, I'm going game
after game after game we win, I'm over the moon.
We lose, well by Monday morning, Tuesday morning, I'm over
and I'm moving past it. Okay, if your goal as
a Dodgers fan is to win the World Series and

(48:21):
you have these high, high expectations, it's very difficult to
be excited about a weekend series against the A's. It's
very hard to get excited for a weekend series against
the team that doesn't have those type of expectations. Sure,
when the Braves come to town, when the Dimonbacks come

(48:43):
to town, when the Giants come in town a rivalry game, yeah,
people are gonna get excited for those games. But you're
supposed to win. And for Dodgers fans, you come in
with a lot of hope this year, and sometimes that's
the worst thing to have because those hopes can get dashed.
Speaking of hope, all right, ends basketball. The Sweet Sixteen
begins tonight with number six BYU and number two Auburn. However,

(49:07):
the transfer portal already opened, and there are some teams
that are not thrilled and some coaches that had a
lot to say about it. We'll hear from him next.
Andrews Im will fill it in for Craig on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
The Zone. This musically wants me to put my hard
hat on and get to work. That's what coaches are

(49:29):
having to do as the transfer portal opened up this
week for college basketball, and we already saw a couple
of players jump into it. Not ideal, especially as NCAA
tournament action continues for the men and the women's side
of things. The men begin tonight six pm. Number sixty

(49:49):
to BYU versus number two seeded Alabama, Maryland and Florida
play as well tonight Arizona and Duke and Arkansas and
Texas Tech. That is your matchup tonight on the men's
side of the brack. But a lot of players are
jumping in the portal, including some guys who are still
on teams. Right, we saw the news out of Michigan

(50:10):
that as Michigan gets ready to play their matchup tomorrow,
that Scottie Pippens's son is a guy who's already going
on the transfer portal. Not ideal as Michigan plays number
one seed at Auburn tomorrow at eight thirty. Right, there's
a lot of people who are upset. Needless to say,
tom Izzo, the Elder Statesman, had the most to say

(50:32):
about the transfer portal.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
You know, I'm gonna worry today. But the guys I
got in this program that have done an incredible job
this year, and that's it. And if that cost me later,
so be it. But Tomzo isn't cheating the people that
he has that have been loyal to him for this

(50:55):
chaos that is going on out there. Cool, you got enough. No, no,
because you don't understand. When I came back Sunday night,
that was it. There was nothing on my mind. But
given these guys a chance to win one more game,
get to a leitate and one more game, and have

(51:17):
a memory that'll last their entire life, their kids' life,
and their grandkid's life.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Justin Pippin the guard, the freshman guard from Michigan uh
jumps to the transfer portal. I understand where Tom Mizzo
is coming from. I cannot imagine having to coach college
basketball at the same time have to try to re
recruit my players so they don't jump into the portal.
This is madness. It does not make any sense. And

(51:46):
when you consider again that Tom Izzo and his team
are trying to cut down the nets and win a
national championship, and he goes on to talk about how
he's trying to give these young men memories for a lifetime.
Going to the national championship, playing in the National Championship,
playing in the Elite eight or a Final four is

(52:06):
a giant deal. And Izzo knows what it's like to
win those big games. He knows what it takes to
get to the mountaintop, And I'll tell you what it takes.
It takes not having to spend time re recruiting your players.
It takes time away from game planning. For Old Miss.

(52:28):
Chris Beard is a very good coach. Texas fans know that,
I know that you know that that Chris Beard is
a very good coach, and Old Miss, even at sixteen,
is a very good Teamzo does not have time to
re recruit players. But you think about what happens when
a guy like Justin Pippen, who announced on Monday that

(52:50):
he is going into the transfer portal. He appeared in
the regular season finale against Michigan State, scored two points
and assists and a loss of the Spartans. He only
played a couple of minutes a game this season. But okay,
you're thinking to yourself, well, doesn't matters Zimble that a
guy who doesn't really play, didn't really contribute, decides to

(53:14):
jump in the portal. It does matters a ton, especially
this part of the year and what happened. And again
it feels bad because you know, Justin Pippen is a
freshman and he still has a lot of basketball to play.
Obviously he's gonna go somewhere else. He's gonna try to
get a better deal. He's gonna try to get better
playing time. But what happened to guys sticking around on

(53:37):
their teams? And everybody will throw back in your face, Well,
coaches can leave. Coaches can leave whenever they want. It's different.
What happened to sticking around with your teammates. I feel
like an old guy. I feel like I should say
get off my lawn here. But it just is different.
And now take any consideration new coaches. We talked about

(53:59):
coaches even all the times. Xavier's head coach Sean Miller,
the new head coach of the Texas men's basketball team.
He was on five Bob yesterday talking about nil and
how to build a program, especially on the fly.

Speaker 6 (54:13):
I'm sure you know it's like flying a plane and
putting it together. At the same time, I think it's
very much a work in progress. Some things have already
been worked on and I think are better. But there
has to be a little bit more legislation, and I
think just a few more rules to govern all of
us that could make it even better in the future.

(54:33):
And look, it's we're at a time where the student
athletes can make money. There's nothing wrong with that name,
image and likeness. But I think the way to be
able to have the transfer portal work and the timing
of that and just how it all works, there's a
number of things that I think can be improved here
in the short term.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
In terms of putting your staff together and getting players.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
What is next for you?

Speaker 6 (54:59):
What starts with the players that are here at Texas
right now? You know they went through a change, and
you know you have to respect the fact that that
they've gone through a lot over these last couple of weeks.
So I think just making sure they're okay and figuring
out who are going to have from last year's team
moving forward with us for the future, and then obviously
bringing in those guys that we don't have right now,

(55:23):
which will come via the transfer portal, and a lot
will happen here in the next eight weeks.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
So you have a situation, and Sarkisian spoke about this
as well with college football, that you are essentially having
to game plan every single day if you're a coach
that is still in the tournament, game plan for your
next opponent. And at the same time, you have guys
who could potentially be walking out the door and exiting
stage left and going for another check. Now, I don't
want it to all be about money. It might be

(55:51):
more money than anything else. It might be sixty forty
money to playing time, But I want to focus on
the guys who want to go get playing time, want
to go get coached up, want to go better their careers,
better even their academic careers. Hey, I took a math
class at this school and it's not cutting it. I
need to go somewhere else. I the vibes of the

(56:12):
academics at the school don't matter. I'm trying to go
somewhere else where they do. I'm trying to give those
players a little bit of grace because I think they are.
There are those type of guys. But I find it
very difficult to believe that that is happening all the time.
And I think most of the time it is about money.
And I think most of the time it does turn
in to a who can cut me the biggest check,

(56:34):
which makes me feel dirty. I don't even like hinting
to it. It makes me icky inside, to be completely
honest with you, But that is the world that we
live in today. So I look at it and I say,
I balance it out. And I thought Seth Greenberg, who
was on ESPN's first take, They asked him about tom
Izzo and his comments about the transfer portal everything else,

(56:58):
and this is what he had to say.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
One hundred percent. I agree with this though, but here's
the problem. It's the A C double A.

Speaker 7 (57:03):
The transfer portal, first of all, is open twelve months
a year, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
That's just the way it is.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
The reality.

Speaker 7 (57:10):
The agents said, are are shopping these guys year round.
Having said that, I spoke to Tomo that morning and
he was talking about this exact situation. The portal officially
should not open until after the NCAA Tournament one. The
portal should not open once the brackets are announced on
that Sunday. To the NCAA term. They're dead pariods throughout

(57:32):
throughout the year in college basketball. Why shouldn't this be
a dead period. It should be a dead period. Let
people get lost in their teams, get leading people that lost,
and being the best version of themselves coaching our teams.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
I agree one thousand percent with Seth Greenberg from ESPN
because you are all the way right there should be
a dead period, it should end with selection Sunday. And
I mean, honestly, let's be real here, the month of March.
Is it really gonna change all that much? Is it
really gonna change all that much when it comes to

(58:07):
guys can't move teams. And again, I'm not even saying
that agents, which guys can now have in college. I'm
not saying that players can't talk or.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
You just can't go into portal. You just got to
be with your team.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
And if a coach says, hey, Zimmle, you're the fifteenth
guy on the bench, you're obviously not cut out to
play college basketball at our institution, at our university. You
don't fit with the program. You should look for other
opportunities somewhere else. We probably kind of want to put
that scholarship you got up in somebody else's hands as well.

(58:43):
You can go start looking for other teams. But you're
just with the team in practice. You're another body that's around,
like Justin Pippen who decides to leave the Wolverines, the
Michigan Wolverines as they take on Auburn tomorrow, borrow that
leaves Michigan in such a tough spot Now, if you

(59:06):
ask me, Auburn's a nine and a half point favorite,
They're probably going to roll Michigan. Like all things being equal,
even with Justin Pippen, Michigan probably doesn't have the team,
doesn't have the firepower to be an Auburn team. But
what good does it do for you to jump in
the portal?

Speaker 3 (59:23):
Now?

Speaker 2 (59:25):
What good does it do for you to go start
shopping yourself around and leave your organization, leave your team.
Even in the NFL, when guys come to the front
office in the offseason and say, hey, what we got
working here at this relationship it's not working. I want
to go look for another trade. I want to go
look somewhere else. In the NFL, you're seeing it today.

(59:45):
Player goes to the front office, talks to the general manager.
General manager says, you go find a trade and we'll
try to help you out.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
Coaches will do the same thing.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
I guarantee you that when it's all said and done,
Michigan State is won or lost, you go to Tommy
is Owe and you say, hey, I want to go
somewhere else. He's gonna say, all right, that's fine. He'll
probably give you a pitch to stick around if you
recruit you, he probably likes you enough to have you
stick around, but he's gonna help you out. He's gonna
help make that transition possible. What she shouldn't do is

(01:00:16):
good to him before he takes on a number six
old old Miss team that's coached very well, that has
a lot of great players that can knock you out.
You don't go to the head coach and say, guess
what transfer portals open? I'm dipping out? Not great, Obviously,
the NCAA needs to fix some things. It's the wild
Wild West and every single day is the Old ok Corral.

(01:00:38):
That's what college basketball has turned into with the transfer
portal wide open. That's what college football's turned into with
the transfer portal wide open during the postseason. Okay, when
we come back. Mel kiper Junior has put out his
latest NFL Draft update after pro days at Texas and
other schools. Where do you players? Where do teams shake out?
We'll tell you where they are next. On Sports Radio

(01:00:58):
and thirteen hundred Zone.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
Craig joined the program at.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Four seventeen, talking all things Texas with the voice Longhorns. Obviously,
Craig waits show rolls on an hour number two Andrews
WI will hanging out with you this afternoon. Games in
progress right now and opening day of the Major League
Baseball season, New York Yankees leading the Milwaukee Brewers and
the bottom of the fifth two to one rain delay

(01:01:22):
in Saint Louis between the Cards and the Twins, and
Baltimore all over Toronto, Ohs up six to zero on
the Toronto Blue Jays. Okay Pro Day came and went.
Across college football. There's a couple more that are still
kind of up in the air. We'll find out how
some of those teams do. But the guys over at ESPN,

(01:01:46):
Matt Miller, Melchiper Junior and company, they put out a
full mock draft, all seven rounds, all two hundred and
fifty seven picks. And I was curious because the long
wards didn't have a couple guys have good pro days
that would do to some of those rankings. Where would
some guys end up going? And the number one guy

(01:02:08):
who moved up, the guy that I should not be
surprised moved up as much as he did. But the
guy that did surprise me early was Johnny barn who
came out and had a very good pro day, spoke
very well to the media, spoke very well about his

(01:02:29):
team and really kind of everything else about the University
of Texas, and the big takeaway was how quickly he
moved up on the boards for guys like Matt and
mel Kiper. They currently have Johnny barn going number nine
overall to the New Orleans Saints. Now, this is a
match made in heaven in my mind. One because the

(01:02:51):
Saints are in salary cap hell. They have no money,
They have no ability to get off of any money.
They are essentially having to build a tea team on
the absolute cheapest with Derek Carr and some of the
other contracts that they've given out Cam Jordan. They don't
have any money to be spending the in the offseason,
so you got to go try to build your team

(01:03:12):
through the draft on those rookie deals. And Johnny barm,
which was originally slotted as a Day three prospect coming
into the twenty twenty fourth season, absolutely took off this
year for Texas. Five interceptions, nine pass deflections, and of
course winning the Thorpe Award for the best defensive Back.
It's gotten him into the first round according to ESPN,

(01:03:35):
which is a big deal. I think that a lot
of the mock drafts and nobody knows anything until the
day that the draft actually happens, I think a lot
of that is true. I do also consider put this
into consideration that with the way that technology has gone,
with the way that we're all more connected than ever,
I think it's possible to say that a lot of

(01:03:57):
these mock drafts from the NFL Draft insiders are getting
closer and closer to being right. And for a team
like the Saints who need defensive help and a team
like the Saints who need to be able to build
on the fly with a team, I like that move
a lot. All right, let's move on number eighteen out
of the University of Texas. According to the guys over there,

(01:04:20):
Matthew Golden. All right, I like ceu Isle's offense could
look very will look very different. They're replacing DK Metcalf
with Cooper Cup, they're replacing Gino Smith with Sam Donald,
and they're adding Matthew Golden in place of recently let
go Tyler Lockett. Okay, now, Matthew Golden this past season

(01:04:42):
super fast, super locked on, and they already have Jackson Smith.
They already have Jackson Smith, Nijigbo who is going to
do a lot of the underneath stuff. I think Golden
is a deep threat for the University of Texas. He's
going to be a deep threat for Sam Donald. Now
he's trading in at Jordan Adson and Jamar Jefferson, which

(01:05:05):
I'm sorry, Justin Jefferson, which would you could argue are
the best wide receiver duo in the NFL, maybe only
behind Jamar Chase and t Higgins. Right, it's one of
the best wide receiver duos in the league. Darnold had
one of his best seasons. In fact, his best season
is a pro with a group receiving core. So you
need to go give him those players to put around him.

(01:05:27):
Cooper Cup and Jackson Smith both work underneath Matthew Golden
takes a little bit more of that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
I would say.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Jordan Adsen role of a deep threat fast down the sideline. Again,
two first rounds potentially for the University of Texas. Also
in the latest projections you have, we'll try to get
it here for you. Kevin Banks, of course going to
the Green Bay Packers. I like that move a lot

(01:05:57):
as well. The Packers who did not like the toush push.
We're against the world where the toush push becomes an
everyday thing. Right, They went to the rules committee and
tried to move off of or tried to replace the
tush push and say it was dangerous for players.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
I like the idea.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
That they're going to continue to build up their offensive
line and keep keep the game moving with the running
back room that they have. They went and got. They
went in last season and brought in Josh Jacobs out
of Alabama played for the Raiders. He had a good
season last year. Behind the offensive line. Kevin Banks gives

(01:06:42):
you a little bit more room, and also Jordan Love,
who suffered from a knee injury last year, gives them
a little bit more protection. Okay, well, let's talk about
the quarterback that you all care about, that we all
care about. It's quin yours and Quinn right now slotted
as a second round pick again the pro DA helps
Derek Carr will be back next season. So they're saying
that the Saints are going after not one but two

(01:07:04):
early round Longhorns, and that would be Quinn. Ewers that
picked number forty. Around the league, he's projected, he's talked
about as the fourth best quarterback in this draft, behind
cam Ward to Door Sanders, Jackson Dart and then Quinn Ewers.
I like it. I like where he's at. He's going
to be under a offensive coordinator that a lot of

(01:07:24):
Longhorn fans know from their pro days of Kellen Moore,
who coached the Dallas Cowboys. He's now the new head
coach of the New Orleans Saints. Quinn and Kellen Moore
have a lot in common. Both guys are very good
pocket passers. Both guys know how to read the defense.
And I think if there's ever a coach ever an
offense that would be able to make the best out

(01:07:47):
of Quinn. The Saints have a lot of work. Salary
cap is a disaster, the defense is not that great,
but they are in a bad division in the NFC South,
and they do have a quarterback and Derek car that
will be gone after this season probably, So you're in
a good situation if you're Quinn. You're not gonna start
to start the year. You're gonna get to sit behind

(01:08:09):
a starter for at least probably ten twelve weeks, and
then at the end of the year they're going to
see what you got, which if you think about it,
Quinn hasn't been fully healthy since probably his junior year
of high school. At this point, he's gotten beat up
every year that he was at the University of Texas,
So give him a little bit of time to get
his body ready for the NFL game. He's not expected

(01:08:30):
to be the Day one starter. I like that move.
I like Quinn being a guy who goes in the
second round and can make something happen. Of course, Alfred
Collins also projected as a second rounder through the Atlanta Falcons,
but yeah, a couple of and then Andrew mckimbo could
also go to again later round, second round to the

(01:08:56):
Buffalo Bills. So Longhorns early in this draft. Keep an
eye on that as we get more and more intel
coming in as the NFL Draft happens.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
In early April.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
All right, when we come back, we'll wrap up our
number two and talk a little sweet sixteen action. Couple
games in play tonight. All that coming up next on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone, Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone, andrews zim will hang it out with
you as we wrap our number two of The Craigway
Show This Thursday, afternoon. Well, this past week was a

(01:09:32):
busy one for your boy, for the six man from
San Antonio, because Texas played Monday night one big on
the women's side of things, sixty five forty eight against Illinois.
All right, and then we moved over and on Tuesday
we had a little softball action, another big win for
the softball team, blowout of Stephen F. Austin SFA. Okay,

(01:09:55):
feeling good. Now Wednesday, that is where our fulcrum point is.
And I always tell people Wednesday is the day that
you decide how the week is going to go. You
Monday and Tuesday were bad, Wednesdays the day you can
turn around your Monday and Tuesday were good. Well, Wednesday's
the thing that can really push you over the edge.
So my Monday and Tuesday were busy, So it was
good that my Wednesday was hurry up and wait. I

(01:10:18):
got selected for jury duty.

Speaker 3 (01:10:22):
I know I was. I was excited for it too.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
I was one of those weirdos who watches a lot
of Law and Order, a lot of criminal minds. So
I was like ready for jury duty. I've seen how
it's done on television a bajillion times. I was ready
to be the twelfth angry Man. I was ready to go,
and that did not end up happening. Instead, I was
supposed to get there at eight am. I was punctual.

(01:10:45):
I was ready to go. I had to drive downtown,
so I got there early. I was ready, so were
a bunch of other people. I got in line, and
I was probably the one hundredth person in the line
that got there at seven thirty. So I don't know
what the rest of these guys were doing getting there
before thirty minutes before we were supposed to get there.
I'm usually the early one, not the case that day.

(01:11:05):
So get in line, get my parking validated. Huge news.
Ended up not getting validated right, ended up still owing
twelve dollars to the parking lot, So that happened.