Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks talk Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio dream here on a
beautiful Saturday. It is Fox Sports Saturday, right in the
middle of March madness, and we are broadcasting live from
the Tairac dot com studios. Tirac dot com. We're gonna
help get you there and no match selection, fast free shipping,
free road has some protection over ten thousand recommended installers

(00:22):
tirerac dot com. The way tire buying should be. Well,
apparently it's official. Ladies and gentlemen, Hartman and Brooks on
your Saturdays hanging out here. Bucky very excited about the news.
How you sure you're ready for that? I am so
ready for it. I am super excited I get a
chance to be along of Bruin. I'm hoping that you

(00:43):
can bring me up and my tar heels and nut
in March madness. So maybe we can't have somebody winning.
Well here here's the thing. So your tar heels and
by the way, I congratulate your tar heels for turning
down the n I T. I don't want to be
critical of the n IT, but when you're a season
number one and you've had a disappointing season, you don't

(01:04):
want to drag your ass through an n i T
tournament and only add to it because you're not really motivated,
and then all of a sudden you attack on you know,
a first and second round loss or first or second
round loss in the NA. You don't want to do that.
Ucla in their history is only played in two nis
in eighty five and an eighty six, and in eighty
six they lost on the first round at home to Irvine.

(01:26):
And I said at the time, if they ever accept
an n I T invitation, I will de throne them forever.
And they haven't, so I congratulate you and your tar
heels were saying no to the n I T. By
the way, speaking of the ACC, Duke looking ugly in
that first half against Tennessee. The four seed balls against

(01:48):
the five seed Dukes in the East Region twenty seven
twenty one tennis, twenty one points and a half for Dukie.
What's going on there? Buck? Look, Tennessee is playing a
physical brand of basketball that typically isn't played in the ACC,
and because the officials are kind of letting him play,

(02:08):
it is kind of morphed into a football game. This
is not the style of play that you see in
the ACC. And so because of that, and because ANCWA
tournament has been full of that acc teams have struggled,
and so this is Tennessee really taking it and challenging
every possession, making it really a bumping grunt affair, and
the Dukies having responded that's it. Their best player Flip

(02:32):
He's not necessarily played much the first half because he
got the cut over the eye. So we'll see in
the second half if it changes. But right now things
are looking good for the volunteers. So on a personal
note here, I want to congratulate San Diego State Brian Dutcher.
Outside of my Bruins, I'm probably closest to that San
Diego State program. I spent the last eight years down
in San Diego. I was there when coach d Fisher

(02:54):
stepped down and Brian Dutcher, who had been by his
side for you know, over twenty years, sort of waited
his turn. And now in a sixth season at San
Diego State, he's at twenty plus wins every year, but
they had not won an NCAA Tournament game in three
previous appearances. Under Dutch. Of course, they win their first
round game and they blow out Furman today. Ferman of course,

(03:14):
took out Virginia in the first round. So San Diego
State advances to the Sweet sixteen for just the third
time in school history. That's a big deal for a
school like San Diego, stating, you know what, they've done
really well and we sort of lose sight of, you know,
the recruiting process these days. Bucky about the fact that
it's not just you know, going for five star recruits

(03:36):
four star recruits. The transfer portal and those that are
able to utilize the transfer portal full portal effectively year
in and year out, can gain a lot, especially in basketball,
where one or two players can obviously make a huge difference.
In San Diego State under Brian Dutcher has done a
masterful job with the transfer portal. They got a lot

(03:58):
of veterans on that team as well. Congrats to the
Aztecs making it to the Sweet sixteen. Yeah, congratulations to them.
And they played great today. I mean, they're on it.
They can defend the shots with going down and they're
in there in the Sweet sixteen. But first time since
twenty fourteen, yep, time ever. Yeah, the first time they
ever did in twenty eleven when Kawhi Leonard was there

(04:20):
and they lost to Kamba Walker and Yukon. I remember
being out of that game in Anaheim. But it's a
solid program, you know, Steve Fisher. I've said this many times.
You know. I think about who did the greatest job
ever in turning around a program in college football, and
I always go back to Bill Snyder Kansas State. I mean,
Kansas State was the worst losing his program in Division

(04:42):
one football for oh I don't know, fifty years and
Bill Snyders somehow built them into a winner. But the
same thing with Steve Fisher at San Diego State. They
were a zero in basketball and he took over and
he suddenly made them a perennial hour highlighted with the
Kawhi Leonard years. And then he hands it off to

(05:04):
Brian Dutcher and now they're back. And by the way,
remember Fisher and Dutch were part of the Michigan coaching
staff with the Fab five back in the day. Dutch
was his number one assistant when they brought in the
Fab five, So there's a lot of history there. So
for Dutch to finally get over the hump and win
some games in the NCAA Tournament, big time for him.

(05:24):
That is big time, and it's big time for that
league and that conference. And I will say the one
thing that is showing up now in the tournament that
I can appreciate, the parody is really appearing. Oh yeah,
meaning that all of these games you're seeing. Everyone talks
about the blue bloods and those things, but you're now
seeing different teams, like seeing Fairley Dickson take down per

(05:46):
Due and seeing these teams that have these older experienced
guys stepping up and playing against some of these teams
that have the five stars and the recruits that everyone
knew going in. To me, it's refreshing. I think it
puts the spotlight back on team basketball. And so this
has been great to watch, even though I'm kind of
on the sideline on the outside looking in with Martari

(06:07):
Heos not being in play. Yeah tough. By the way,
game coming up here in about an hour, we're gonna
get a run on game. So Arkansas the eighth seed
against the number one seed Kansas. Kansas will be without
Bill's self. He's still recuperating some heart procedure that he had.
And by the way, this is a weird line. Kansas
is only a four point favorite against an Arkansas team

(06:30):
that lost thirteen games this year. But we've been all
over the map with Kansas, right, I mean, they got
a one seed despite getting humiliated by Texas in the
Big twelve championship game. So I don't know what we're
seeing from the Jayhawks. But the oddsmakers is saying this
game's almost a coin toss. Yeah, this is. I mean,
it's tough, and it's also tough because I'm sure when

(06:52):
you have Bill's Hill sitting on the sideline, he's not there.
You're worried about what's going to happen in these late
game situations. Are they going to be able to navigate
it without their leader, even though they're a talented squad
and one of the best squads that we've seen, the
defending champions going back. It look, it's a tough matchup
and the tournament has been like this, and so we'll
see if they're able to implement their style get the

(07:14):
game on their terms. But it's gonna be an exciting
game without Bill Sell if you certainly have to give,
it does become more of a coin flip type game,
all right. As you know, Bucky Iowa Sam is a
shameless defender of the Big Ten Conference, and you know, Sam,
I want to apologize. Let's see Iowa, Iowa State and
Drake the three. Were there any other Iowa schools in

(07:35):
the tournament? No, No, they're gone. They're all gone. They're
all gone. One in the first game, after the first game.
But we were talking about the Big Ten and why
it is that the Big Ten every single year seems
to get a lot of favoritism, and how many schools
get into the Big Dance and how they traditionally underperform
once they get there. And Purdue because the second one

(07:57):
seed ever to go down to a fairly Dickinson team
that honestly shouldn't even have been in a tournament. No,
it should have been Merrimack, right, but they weren't eligible,
right for a stupid rule that requires you to wait
four years to make the transition from Division two to
Division one. Fucky, I don't know, did you. I don't

(08:17):
know how much of that game you saw, but Purdue
was they were just flat out out played. Oh they
were outplayed. And the thing that showed up in that game, man,
they just looked like a set of big lumberjacks. I mean,
they were just a big, slow plotting team, and fairly
Dickinson is just zipping around him. You talked about one

(08:37):
of the shortest, maybe the shortest team that was in
the tournament field. I think their average height was six
three tallest player six six sixty seven, and yet they're
able to kind of control the boards. They were able
to get the game on their terms and turns of
speeding it up a little bit, the way they were
able to track down loose balls and those things. And
then really the strategy that they employed. They sat down

(08:59):
and doubled the big man that maybe and they dared
perdue to shoot threes and they could not hit a
three point in to save their life. And then as
the game got tighter and went to the late stages,
man those wide open shots, I mean, it was almost
like they were trying to shoot them too a thumble.
I mean, it was really tough watching them shoot. They

(09:19):
could not shoot the ball. And that's one of the
things that we're seeing that some of these teams. If
you don't have perimeter scoring, if you don't have the
ability to take advantage of the three point line, it
is hard for you to advance in this tournament. So
I saw one of the outlets head. Over twenty million
brackets filled out, and after that perdue loss, not a
single one had a perfect bracket. They didn't get all

(09:41):
the way through the second day without all the brackets
being busted out there. So good luck to all you
people with your brackets. It's you figured this was going
to be a wild tournament. I filled out my bracket
for Fox Sports Radio. To be honest with you you, I
didn't even keep a copy of it. I just winged
it because I was looking at these games. I'm like,
do I really have any pu on who's going to
win these games? Now? As far as my UCLA Bruins,

(10:03):
they'll play later today against Northwestern. A big question here
Bucky is Adam Bona is the freshman going to play.
Did not play against unc Asheville. They didn't obviously need
him in a thirty point plus blowout. Northwestern's pretty good
team and they're a pretty motivated team right now, so
I understand from what I understand, at least some of

(10:25):
the talk from mc cronin was the fact that Bona
will be available and it could be one of those
situations where he may start the game play a little bit,
depending how the game goes, we'll determine how much he
actually plays in that game. But new at tien a
couple of the backup bigs where it combined nine for
nine shooting against unc Ashville. So well, we'll see how

(10:47):
it plays out. But I'm feeling I'm feeling pretty good
about my UCLA Bruins right now. I mean I'm looking
around right Produe's already gone, Houston did not look good
in their opening game. Alabama's pretty good. I like Ali Bam.
We'll see what happens with Kansas today, but I think
the Bruids are in pretty good shape. I mean, I
think they in grad shape. The in grad shape because

(11:09):
they're even inspite the injuries, they're playing well on in
the areas that you really need to play well to
the advance in the tournament. You gotta be able to
play great defense. You has to control the boards, You
got to minimize your turnovers. UCLA has been able to
do that. They haven't experienced squad where these guys have
their battle tested, and so some of the things that
we're seeing teams are losing games because they can't do

(11:30):
the simple stuff. They can't execute a press offense in
key moments. They're throwing cross court passes that are I
mean passes that you see at the rec center on
Saturdays with the kids that are tending under turning it over.
Teams are doing that. And so as long as UCLA
plays within themselves and they don't give the game away,
as a mccronin likes to talk about, yeah, they're gonna

(11:51):
have a chance to advance. And they don't need to
necessarily be the best team in the country. Business need
to be the best team in the arena today and
if they're that, they're going to continue to win. Played
the fense, I mean, that's what it's all about. You
play defense. You can survive an offshooting day. UCLA will
have a game against Northwestern coming up. Meanwhile, second half
is underway right now, Tennessee leading Duke by a score

(12:12):
of thirty to twenty four. We'll keep you updated on
everything with all the March madness going on. Got MBA news,
I'll talk about my trip to Arizona. I was at
spring training for the Dodgers this past week, bucket. But
on the other side, we got all kinds of NFL news.
We're not going to start with Aaron Rodgers now We're
going to start with the situation involving Lamar Jackson. Will

(12:35):
an offer come down to the Ravens for Lamar Jackson?
I got a team in mind. We'll share it with you.
This is Fox Sports Saturday. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
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the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live. Hey, I'm

(12:57):
Doug gottlie The podcast is called All Ball. We usually
talk all basketball all the time, but it's more about
the stories about what made these people love their sport
and all the interesting interactions along the way. We talked
to coaches, we talked to players. We tell you stories.
You download it. He listened to it. I think you
like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb on

(13:19):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, orherever you get your podcast.
Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks, this is Fox Sports Saturday
and we are live from the tire IRAQ dot com studios.
I just spent some time in the Arizona Bucky. I
was there, tended a spring training game with the Dodgers.

(13:45):
I saw Cory Seger, the former Dodger, now playing with
the Rangers, hit a home run off his former teammate
Clayton Kershaw. And I don't know that if that ball
is landed yet that thing was absolutely launched. In fact,
it was funny because you know, I mean, it's spring training, right,

(14:06):
And there was a little exchange going on between Seeger
and Kershaw as he rounded the bases, And apparently Kershaw
was asked afterwards, I was there, and what did Seeger say?
And he said, Seeger basically said, you know, I was
going to swing at that pitch, right. It was like
a two strike fastball right down the middle of the plate.
And Kersha has not thrown as hard as he used to,

(14:28):
so but it was fun. You know, I love the
whole spring training atmosphere. But it's also a reminder that
we're only a couple of weeks away from the start
of the baseball season. Just another thing to add to
the plate here. Bucket had a very busy time in sports.
By the way, updating Tennessee leading Duke by a score
of thirty six to thirty one, fifteen minutes to go
in the second half, and the game will continue to

(14:48):
update you there all right, I want to I want
to talk some Lamark Jackson with you right now. So
teams have the opportunity to make an offer to the
Ravens for the services of Lamar Jackson, they would have
to forfeit two number one picks and obviously sign Lamar
Jackson to a long term deal. The reports are is

(15:11):
that trying to get a deal done between the Ravens
and Lamar Jackson, they're like one hundred million dollars apart.
I mean, they're not even close in then negotiation going
on to try to get him set with the Ravens,
so big. Let's start with this question. If a team
does offer a substantial amount of money for the services

(15:33):
of Lamar Jackson, can you see any scenario in which
the Ravens would match that offer. I guess if it
works for them, like within the budget and within the
salary cap stuff. But I don't. I mean, i'mn be
honest with you. The Ravens appear to want to move

(15:55):
on from Lamar Jackson just based on the terms, based
on the lengthy to goiation, the back and forth that
they've been having to undergo, and this was kind of
the last straw. The last straw is to sign them
to the non exclusive tag and allow somebody else to
do your bidding, meaning someone else comes up with the contract.
Someone else gets him to agree to terms that you
couldn't get them to do, and then you look at

(16:18):
that contract and you try and figure out is this
something that we want to do? The issue that you
have the dance cards are almost full. You know, you
have a handful of teams at the top of the draft.
They may want to get in a quarterback game, but
how many of those want to play premium prices for
the quarterback. We've talked about it. We've seen the best

(16:39):
time to build a Super Bowl team is when you
have a quarterback on a rookie deal. It's significantly cheaper
than the deals that we're seeing for franchise quarterbacks, and
so it's just easier to build around that. And Lamar
Jackson is at the point where now the salary may
make it prohibitive from him to find another deal on
the market that is going to exceed what the ball

(17:00):
Ravens have kind of slid across the table in his direction.
All right, So the deal is this, if no teams
offer him a bit, he will get paid thirty two
million dollars next year, had they given him the exclusive tag,
he would have made forty five million dollars. So let
me ask you this, buck, do you think that there's
any clusion going on right now amongst NFL owners to

(17:25):
not make an offer for Lamar Jackson to keep his
number down, especially for a former MVP, A guy that
is what forty six and fifteen as a starting quarterback
in some vain eutfort to try to keep some of
these numbers down when it comes to guaranteed money for

(17:45):
the quarterback, I say it's odd that had a quarterback
with the things that Lamar Jackson has has not been
paid yet. We've seen other quarterbacks kind of come through
there who are less accomplished, but we're able to get
their money. Notably, we just saw Daniel Jones get a
big contract puts him minute forty million dollars club. He

(18:07):
had fifteen touchdown passes a year ago. He struggled with
his turnovers throughout his career until last season. He's not
nearly the player that Lamar Jackson is, but he was
able to get his money, and so that's probably part
of the problem when it comes to Lamar Jackson. Lamar
Jackson's contract is really hindered. The negotiation is hindered by

(18:29):
the fact that Deshaun Watson signed the blockbuster deal fully
guaranteed the amount of money that he was able to
get and guarantees all the other stuff. But the difference
was Deshaun Watson had multiple suitors that drove up the
costs of the bidding. The Cleveland Browns were not even
considered in the game until all of a sudden they
put out that big deal where they would fully guarantee everything,

(18:51):
and that's when they're able to swipe Deshaun Watson from
Carolina and Atlanta and some of the other teams that
were interested. Lamar Jackson right now doesn't have that same leverage,
and unfortunately for him, it comes at a time where
he has been injured each of the past two seasons.
And even though his injuries have nothing to do with
his playing style because they happened within the pocket, it

(19:13):
is given the naysayers, it's given the team, it's given
those who were leary on paying big bucks to him
in particular, enough ammunition to say, you know, I don't
know if we can go with a fully guaranteed deal
based on the way that you performed the last two years,
not necessarily the numbers, but your inability to finish the
season upright, that has been the biggest issue. All right.

(19:35):
So there's been talk about the Colts. Although the Colts
would end up giving the fourth overall picking the draft up,
I don't know about that. They've been talking about the Falcons,
who have the eighth overall pick. If not those two teams,
there's one team that, in my mind, is such an
obvious choice. But the question is would this organization do

(19:59):
what's necessary Terry to bring in a franchise quarterback of
the level of Lamar Jackson, And that to me is
the New England Patriots, because when you look at a
division that already has an emerging to a tongue of
ILAA who you know, hopefully he'll stay healthy, but you
can see where that Miami offense is going. Obviously you

(20:19):
have Josh Allen and we'll get to the Aaron Rodgers
situation with the Jets. But I don't know where you
stand with Mac Jones. But I know this, Lamar Jackson
is better than Mac Jones. And I remember when Lamar Jackson,
you know, blew out New England. You remember that game.
The ratemns now and afterwards, you know, Belichick was just

(20:40):
going nuts about Lamar Jackson and what he brings, that
whole dynamic. You know, he thought maybe I could get
that at Cam Newton, but Newton's time had come and gone.
He's got an opportunity right now. They have the fourteenth
overall pick. It's not the top ten pick, but you
give up two number ones for Lamar Jackson entering the
prime of his career. And you're Bell check Man. I

(21:02):
you know, with all due respect to Mac Jones, he
Lamar Jackson. Do you think there's any possibility the Patriots
to commit that kind of money to bring in a
quarterback of the caliber Lamar Jackson. That's really interesting. It's
really interesting when you bring that up and you talk
about it in those terms. Bill Belichick has a history
of going after players that he seems to be the

(21:25):
best players in the league. We've seen him bring in
players from all over because he just had an affinity
for those he believes are great players. There's no doubt
in my mind, in many people's mind, that Lamar Jackson
isn't a great player. He brings special stuff to the
field when he's at quarterback. I could see the Patriots
kind of laying in trying to assess what it looks like,

(21:47):
and then maybe they jump in because if you bring
Lamar Jackson over, what it does is it not only
elevates their ability to move the ball, particularly with that
power based run game that they have, but now they
have some playmakers on the outside. You bring into Mike Gasicky,
you have Juju Smith, Schuster Gas who can work over
to middlefield, which is where Lamar Jackson does his most damage. Yeah,

(22:09):
this could be a very intriguing situation, particularly knowing that
the New England Patriots attempted to do it with Cam Newton.
Bill Belichick isn't afraid to have a different style quarterback
in the fall. I think he's waiting, you know, see
anybody else jumps in. If nobody else jumps in, he
may look around and say, look, if we're convinced that

(22:32):
the Ravens are not going to match the offer, it
may not cost us as much as we think. And
we're getting a superstar quarterback who's what twenty six years old?
Makes sense to me, And it also depends on how
long Belichick plans on coaching. But I think he's got
to be at least around for the next five years.
It just makes a lot of sense to me. By
the way, if you're still overpaying for a razor in

(22:53):
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the ad. Let's find out what it's trending right now. Well,
all the March madness going on, and I know he's
locked into the n I yes, Brian Fenley. Let's I

(23:16):
got a perfect an IT bracket going right now? Oh
you do, because I didn't do one, so I haven't
missed any of the games. Yeah, yeah, I actually have
a friend of mine she filled out a bracket for
the very first time in one of those gigantic, you know,
twenty million people brackets, and she was in the top
ten percent after the first two days, just picking random games.

(23:39):
If I had Arizona and the National Championship game in
Memphis in the final four, do you think I still
have a chance in the FSR Challenge Pool bracket? Probably not?
Might be last, maybe the way VA. Honestly, I filled
out my bracket and I I don't remember who I
filled out. I didn't even want to find out. I
just let the ride if I If I did well,
I'll find out. If I did lousy, I'll find out.

(24:01):
So I'm just did you have UCLA as the national champion?
I have used CLA in the final flour? I learned
my lesson two years ago, right, because I have two
years ago, you know, it's a weird year. All the
games are going to be played in Indianapolis, and I
think UCLA didn't e would belong in the tournament. They
had a first four bid. I had them with a
quick exit, and of course they go to the final four.

(24:22):
That always hurts when you don't pick your own school
and they and they make a run. I saw. I'll
never make that mistake again. I feel pretty good about
it right now. Yeah. Likewise, as far as the one
game happening right now in the NABLA tournament, as we
look at second around games, five seeded Duke is trailing
the four seed Tennessee forty four to thirty seven, just

(24:43):
under eleven minutes to go in the second half. This
out of the East Regional the Blue Devils with fourteen
made field goals and thirteen turnovers, and despite Goos pedestrian numbers,
they are within single digits of the Valls. The earlier
game that already wrapped up saw number five San Diego
torture thirteen seeded Firm and seventy five to fifty two.

(25:04):
And so the Aztecs are the first team in the
field the first of the eight games that are taking
place today to get into the sweet sixteen. By the way,
our next game that is coming up, that will be
at five fifteen Eastern time, and it's the one seed
Kansas going up against the eight seed at Arkansas. And
you will not see Bill self, the Jayhawks head coach,

(25:25):
wandering up and down the sidelines as he continues his
recovery process as Buck and Steve we're talking about from
an operation last week to alleviate blocked arteries after he
noticed some chest paints or Norm Roberts will be the
acting head coach in this game for the Jayhawks. In
the NBA, we are watching right now the Clippers in
a tight one, just a two point lead at home

(25:47):
that crypt dot Com Arena against the Magic sixty four
to sixty two seven twenty three to go in the
third quarter of that one, and a comeback victory for
the Knicks one sixteen to one ten over the Duggets
at Madison Square Garden where Nicole Yokich was just two US,
just shy of a triple double twenty four points, ten
rebounds and eight assists. With that, let's get it back

(26:11):
to the Pride of UCLA Steve Hartman and the pride
of North Carolina Bucky Brooks and Bucky I am still
in a daze as to how the tar Heels from
a preseason one seed are not in the Big Dads.
I can't believe it. Well, I blame the prognosticators. Yeah,
we're not looking at the team last year and realizing

(26:31):
that they were a middle of the PAC team. They
got hot and then they anointed them to number one.
But it is disappointing. They should never be out of
the tournament. But it's disappointing for sure. No, But as
I mentioned, turning down the n I T I love that.
I mean, you're North Carolina, right, You're not gonna settle
for an n I. Your heart's not in it. By

(26:53):
the way, we're coming Alive from the Tirek dot com
studios speaking of your heart in it. I mean, this
is a big part, right. You know we were talking
about when we watched this March madness, and you're looking
at teams pulling these upsets, and for instance, the coach
at Fairleigh Dickinson, right, and this guy, by the way,

(27:15):
he speaks faster than I do. This guy speaks at
such a rapid rate I cannot literally understand a word
he says. But talk about motivating a team, and you're
a coach, so you know what I'm talking about, the
biggest part of coaching is just it's not it's more
than motivating a team to play hard. It's giving them

(27:37):
the belief they can be maybe better than they are.
And this Fairly Dickinson guy had basically convinced his team
well as soon as they realize they were going to
play Perdue, when you know we were last Sunday, he goes,
I've seen this team. We can beat this team. I mean,
he absolutely convinced him we can beat this team. And

(28:00):
you can see it from the outset of that game.
They did not feel like a sixteen seed going against
the one they want toe to toe despite the fact
that size wise, they were half the size of that
Purdue team and they battled all the way. So as
a coach, how do you get that mindset? Because I
got another direction I want to go on this motivator.

(28:20):
They're not motivated. But how do you get a team's
mindset that maybe they're actually better than reality says they are. Well,
I mean, I think Bill Parcells said this, Every game
is winnable if you're willing to do what it takes,
meaning if you can look at the game, you look
at the opponent and try and find a way to

(28:42):
put the game on your terms. Whatever that might be.
That might be playing stallball, slow it down, they might
mean picking it up, going fast, It might mean pressing,
but being willing to get out of your comfort zone
to make the other team uncomfortable, you can win the game.
And I think when this guy stands in front of
his team, I think one he's built enough currency in

(29:02):
the trust bank from them that they trust that he's
going to give them a game plan that is going
to allow them to be successful. And when you have
guys who believe in the coach because they've seen the
coach deliver a return on the investment they're willing to
buy in. And so with him taking that stand, immediately
after that playing game win to then say hey, I've

(29:23):
seen this team. We can beat this team. Here's what
we need to do. Guys are listening. And then as
you get into the game, Steve and add some of
the things that your coach has said, it's coming to fruition.
Now you fully believe it because they were in the
game early, because the game was always kind of tight,
and they were always within striking distance. The longer the

(29:44):
game with on, the greater their self belief came. And
then the pressure on perdue being number once being a
team that has fall to the last two tournaments before
this one, the pressure kicked in and so now it
begins to have a snowball effect on the opposition as
you continue to build a confidence and then it kind
of overwhelms you. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, let's mention

(30:07):
it is Tobin Anderson. Of course, he had been at
Saint Thomas a Kenis for like nine years before taking
over the fairly Dickinson job this year. And even though
it was you know, they were nineteen and fifteen at
the end of the season, which is why they were
a sixteen seed playing, but now at twenty one and fifteen,
I would imagine this guy's gonna beginning a few offers.

(30:27):
That's what happens, you know, if you can take an
unknown school and suddenly have a remember Shaka Smart of
VCU from the first four of the Final four, suddenly
cant a hot commodity out there. I want to just
sort of flip this motivation thing to the NBA right
now and the idea of professional athletes versus the influence
that college coaches have on college kids, because the coaches

(30:51):
really have the control at the collegiate level, not so
at the NBA. The Lakers, they lost a game last night,
a buzzer beater to Dallas, and afterwards Anthony Davis took
ownership of a complete collapse at home. You know, must
game for a Laker team. That all this braggadocio. You know,

(31:14):
we're you know, after the All Star break, you know,
Lebron said there should be the twenty three most important
games of my career. He hasn't even played. He's only
played three games three total since he broke the all
time NBA career scoring mark. I know he's hurt, but
how long is he going to be out? I also
remember that Darvin Ham, the coach of the Lakers, saying

(31:34):
that Lebron and Anthony Davis would not miss a single game,
and he holds a d out of this game against
the lowly Houston Rockets and they lose that game. I'm
watching this team and I'm like, how motivated are they? Seriously?
I mean, when you're making all that money and you
know you talk a good game because everyone expects you

(31:56):
to talk about well, you know, it's about winning championships
and this, that and everything else. I'm not seeing it.
And I don't know how you get that at the
professional level. Some teams eventually get it, you know. I
always feel like the Warriors were that team a year
ago where they were motivated to prove to the world
that we can win another championship without Kevin Duramp. But

(32:16):
if you're coaching the Lakers right now, Bucky, I don't
see it. This team may crawl in as a playing
game and have a quick exit, but when you consider
their payroll, the names on that roster, it's just not
happening right now. Man, No, it's not happening. And you
wonder if it will happen. I will say that the
Lakers have worked their sales into contention in terms of

(32:40):
the play in tournament, and so you would like to
be optimistic that if they get into that round, they
can win a couple of games in the in the
play in and give themselves an opportunity to play in
the bracket play. The thing that you have to have
is ad has to play at a high level and
then when eventually Lebron comes back, you have to jump
in and kind of fit in with all the new
pieces around him. Still time, still, still a handful of

(33:03):
games to play, Still enough time to build a chemistry
and continuity that you need to have to play at
championship level. But it's a tough one. Yeah. I always
remember the Marvin Hagler quote when he said, you know,
it's tough to get out of bed to do roague
work at five am when you're sleeping in soak pajamas.

(33:24):
How do you keep that hunger? I mean, some guys do.
Tom Brady was one of those guys. I think Lebron
to a degree has always been one of those guys
where you've done it all, you have nothing left to prove,
you know, Kobe was certainly that way where you're just
constantly pushing yourself no matter how comfortable you get, because

(33:45):
it's only human nature, right. He got, you know, tens
of millions of dollars, you're financially set for life. Where's
the motivation at that point to continue on? On the
other side, we're going to get to that motivation in
terms of a quarterback by the name of Aaron Rodgers.
How motivated is he to play for the New York Jets.

(34:08):
We'll tell you. This is Fox Sports Saturday, Steve Harman,
Bucky Brooks here at Fox Sports Saturday, coming alive from
the ti iraq dot com studios. Tennessee leading Duke fifty
six forty eight under four and a half minutes ago.
This is a Duke team that won their last nine
in a row, including the ACC Tournament, so they finished
strong after some indifferences early on. Now Tennessee just hit

(34:31):
a three, so they're up eleven now four minutes to go.
Not looking good for the Dukies again. A team that
came in with a lot of hype. In fact, according
to Rivals, they had three of the top five high
school basketball players, three of the top five, one of
them got hurt. Another guy underperformed Philipowski. He's lived up

(34:53):
to the hype. But yeah, this would be a tough
loss for Duke to get out before the Sweet sixteen.
I'm I mean it would. I mean it would be
a tough loss for them. I mean it appears that
the bracket is wide open for them to kind of
dance and skate into the final four. But this is
a tough game and every team has to go through
a tough game to kind of get to the four.

(35:14):
But it's not looking it's not looking good. It's not
looking good for the Duke. He's a heart. It breaks
my heart. Here's the one thing. So Tennessee is coached
by Rick Barnes, who's been coaching like forever forever. In fact,
I'm looking. He first started as a coach at George
Mason in the eighty seven eighty eight season, then he
went to Providence, Clemson all those years, he added Texas

(35:36):
and of course many years at Tennessee. So he's been
around forever. He's won almost eight hundred games, and he's
been to the tournament a million times. This is the
thing for John Shire, right, I mean, your first year
ahead coach and it's a mixed back. We saw Hubert
Davis last year, first year, and man, he was like
magic for North Carolina. But sometimes there's a reason why
certain coaches have a consistent success rate in the tournament.

(36:00):
It's a different beast. It's just like we talk about
in Playoff Action that coaching the playoffs is much different
than coaching in the regular season, and it's very true
of this tournament. If you're a coach and you've been there,
done that, if you've figured out a few little tricks
of the trade to get you through, it can help you.
And that's at least what's happening right now with Tennessee

(36:23):
pulling away against Duke. You know, one thing, Steve that
you cannot underestimate is experience and coaching experience matters because
the more games that you've been into, more situations that
you've seen, you have more answers, and the tournament requires
you to have answers, and you have to be able
to deliver those answers to your players quickly. You have
to have clear thoughts in those things, and the only

(36:44):
way you can get that is by playing in these games.
And so John Shire is a great coach and watching
how this duke team has improved over the course of
his first season. He has all the jobs to be
a really good coach, but he just doesn't have what
I would call it that big game experience. And you
can sit beside coach k you can sit beside a
great head coach for a long time, but in two

(37:05):
of your task with making the decisions instead of making
the suggestions, you don't gain that experience that you need
to win at a high levels. One of the lessons
that he is learning now, he'll continue to learn, and
as he gains more experience, he will develop a level
of expertise that will allow him to win these games
going forward. All right, so keep her eye in that
game coming up Kansas and Arkansas. Next game up here,

(37:25):
as we will figure out the field of sixteen, the
Sweet sixteen by weekends. In all right, I want to
skip to Aaron Rodgers, and we'll wait till the next
hour to get into the whole dynamics the waiting game
between the Packers and the Jets right now. But I
wanted to get into the head of Aaron Rodgers as
best week can, which is very difficult. So he claims,

(37:48):
he claims that when he emerged from hibernation that he
was ninety percent set on retiring, but there was that
ten percent in him that said, well, maybe maybe another opportunity,
a fresh start somewhere else might be the right ticket.
Now he's made it publicly clear that he is motivated

(38:12):
to begin a New York Jet, But is he really
I mean, if you're the New York Jets right now,
whatever the compensation may be, are you one hundred percent
convinced that he is all in on being a New
York Jet? No? I'm not. I mean an he say,

(38:33):
you talk about being retired, you retired? And his emotion,
his desire to want to prove the Packers fans the
Packers wrong for moving on from him and getting on
with Jordan Love being the franchise quarterback. All of that
is great, But when you get into the dog days
of the season, when the season becomes a grind and

(38:54):
you really have to work at it and pour yourself
into it, then you have to be committed to doing
it because otherwise it's too hard. Is he going to
be willing to do that stuff? And so they retirement
comments to me are telling? And if I'm a Jet
Jets front office official, coach or fan. I am worried

(39:14):
about the version of Aaron Rodgers that's going to show up,
because it'd be easy for him to be motivated the
first part of the year, But what happens after they
take a couple of losses, or what happens if it
doesn't start out the way that he wants it to
start out. Is he gonna cut bait? Is he gonna
like pack it up and leave, or does he have
the grit and the gumption to finish the job. I'm

(39:34):
worried about that part of Aaron Rodgers because he's thirty
nine years of age. You already saw he's not really
looking to get hit and do those things, and so
he's changing. I worry about Aaron Rodgers with the Jets.
I agree, and and of course they have Nathaniel Hackett
now as their offensive coordinator, coming off his disastrous season
as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. And you know,

(39:55):
Lazard is there and he's saying, this guy did more.
He's the best teacher I've ever been around, and this
that and everything else. He's a real positive. But I've
never believed that somehow Aaron Rodgers is connected or tied
to a coach, whether it's a head coach or an
assistant coach. He just marches to his own beat. I
don't think that the presence of Hackett is going to

(40:17):
be like, well, there's a motivator for me. I'm all in,
Nathaniel Hackett's my offensive coordinator, all right. On the other side,
it's a waiting game going on right now between the
Jets and the Packers, who ultimately will get the price
they want to pay for Aaron Rodgers. Keep it here.
This is Fox Sports Saturday. Well, in the midst of
all this big college basketball action, this is Fox Sports Saturday,

(40:38):
and we are broadcasting live from the tirac dot Com studios.
Tirac dot com. We're gonna help get you there, and
I'm at selection fast free shipping. Free road has a
protection over ten thousand recommended installers tiract dot com. The
way tire buying should be. And Duke is going to
go down down thirteen with forty seconds to go, Tennessee

(40:58):
is going to move on to the weet sixteen. If
you're wondering how a team that wins the ACC Tournament
is a five seed, it's in full effect. Is Duke
has just fifty two points in this game as they
rattle off the final seconds. I got to ask you this,
Bucky as a tar heel, because I have I mean,

(41:18):
you know, being a Bruin. People say, well, how much
do you hate USC? And my attitude is I root
for USC unless obviously they're playing UCLA, because if USC
is good, then beating them means that much more. So
what is what is your view as a tar heel
about Duke? Are you elated that Duke has gone down

(41:41):
and that is the final score? Sixty five fifty two,
Tennessee is knocked out Duke? So do you root four
or against Duke when they're not playing North Carolina. I'm
really neutral when it comes to Duke. I don't really
care about nam or anc State or any of the
ACC teams, to be honest, so it has me no good.
I'm not one that pools for the conference to do

(42:02):
well in the tournament. It doesn't matter if Tatar heroes
aren't in it. I could care less what goes on. However,
I might take a little satisfaction because my timeline was
blowing up a little bit after Carolina was invited to
the n I t and turned it down. And so
now NC stayed in. Duke can sit at home with Carolina,
we can watch the rest of the tournament and everyone
can get along. Splendid league. That was ugly by Duke

(42:25):
today and they came out ice cold, and they stayed
that way throughout the game. So you think about John
Shire inheriting obviously a program from the richest tradition. I
remember the guy that followed John Wooden at UCLA was
a coach named Gene Bartow, who, of course, after two
years at UCLA would leave to launch that new program

(42:47):
at the time at Alabama Birmingham. He was a good coach.
He sort of looked like wood He had glasses. You know,
It's like it was like, we're going to replace John
Wooden with a guy that sort of resembles a little taller,
but you know that he had the Wooden look. Two
years and he was like done. The pressure was immense,
And I remember a conversation I had with one coach

(43:08):
saying that there was no that he purposely turned down
a job because a legend had held that job. You
don't want to be the next guy. And I just
wonder for John Shire after you know, again, coming in
with a highly touted recruiting class and not even making

(43:29):
it to the Sweet sixteen. Last year, of course, Duke
made the final four in Coach K's final year. How
this guy's going to hold up? It's not gonna be easy.
I promise you that. No, it didn't never be easy.
I mean, the hardest thing to do is to step
in for a legend all the things, the wonderful things
that Coach K wasn't accomplished throughout his tenure Ado. I mean,

(43:49):
it'd be hard to live up to that. And the
only thing that John Shaw can do is be the
best version of who he is, very similar to what
Hubert Davis is having doing filling in for Roy Williams,
who came after you know, the legendary Bill Smith, I
mean Dean Smith a few iterations after that. And so
it is hard to step in that. And so you
have to create kind of like your own legacy under

(44:11):
the specter of that big kingdom that the legendary coach
has established. And it's hard for anyone to do it.
I mean, let's be honest, Mick Cronin still has to
live in the shadow of John Wooden because the standard
has been established by Wooden winning all of those championships
in Bali and so it's one of those things that
coaches have to do. You have to embrace it though
and understand that the foundation of this program was created

(44:33):
by a legendary coach. But what we want to do
is take it up even higher. We want to take
it up even for the baton and go farther with it.
And so we'll see if he is able to do that,
if some of these other coaches are able to do it.
But it's tough. It's a tough situation when you're a
young coach filling in for a let. Yeah, he mentioned
the fact that mc cronin, he's not the guy that
inherited a program from Steve Alford. It is John Wooden.

(44:55):
And that was that way for Alabama for years with
Bear Bryant, right until a guy Nick Saban came along
and surpassed. But Bear Bryant was able to do at Alabama.
That's gutsy, it really is. I mean, because he knew,
you know, despite his background coming to Alabama. If you don't,
when you know multiple national championships, you're going to be

(45:16):
deemed a failure, fair or not. And Obviously, Nick Saban
was not deterred by that, and he's gone on to
unprecedented success at the University of Alabama. So the next
game coming up will be Arkansas in Kansas. Kansas the
number one seed in the West Region. Arkansas an eight seed.
And you know, Musselman has done a heck of a job.

(45:37):
And there's another story. I always lead these great coaching
stories about guys that sort of survive in the business.
You know, Eric Musselman, I remember years ago here Bucky
at Fox Sports Radio after being the head coach with
the Golden State Warriors, and he was with the Sacramento Kings,
and he was like out of coaching for a couple

(45:59):
of years, like he was doing you know, commentary work.
We were bringing him on our show as sort of
an insider, and I remember he was suddenly with the
LA Defenders. You know, he's in the D League and
You're just like, wow, I mean, this is sad. I'm
he's still a relatively young guys. He ever going to
get another opportunity. Finally Arizona State hired him as an

(46:21):
assistant coach and then he went to tell us you
for a couple of years, but he went to Nevada,
got the job done, and now he's doing it ark
and saw. So we always talk about comeback stories. Musselman
is one of those guys as they get ready to
take on Kansas today that never lost his belief in
the fact that he could get the job done and
now making big money again. Super guy. I get excited

(46:46):
about stories like that. It's a great story. It's a
great story because he reinvented himself. He was a lifetime
pro coach. He had toured in not on the NBA,
but g leagues. He'd be all that other stuff, right.
He is then of a legendary coach, Bill Musselman, who
was a great showman and all those things, and so
all that he knew was the pros. He gets fired

(47:09):
from his job. He then goes and works in the
college rains and finds a way to learn that game.
You talked about the success that he had and divided you.
Now seeing the success that he's having at Arkansas, it's
really a great deal. It's a great story in terms
of turning a failure into a greater success because you're
willing to do the dirty work. He did the dirty work.

(47:30):
He's changed his ways he changed the way that he
looks at the game and all that other stuff and
has really worked out well for him. So hats off
to him for the job that he's done. And maybe
you'll have an opportunity, you know, to take this team
to this week sixteen and beyond if they can take
care of business. I've always wondered about that though, from
a coach of stand But because we talk about comebacks
all the time, players that maybe you know, flame out

(47:51):
and then they get an opportunity elsewhere and find their
way back, although the majority don't, you know, when they've
lost it, they've lost it for good and can't get
it back. But from a coach's standpoint, if you go
through a period of non success where suddenly you might
be second guessing your ability to actually get the job done,

(48:14):
how do you get it back? Can you get it back? Well,
obviously we're talking about a guy like Eric Musselman, But
how do you get something like that back when people
around you are saying, dude, you've lost it, it's over,
you can't do it anymore. How do you get it back?
Improve them? You have to do it. I think you
have to do it, just like Eric Musselman did. You
got to do some deep soul searching. You have to

(48:36):
be willing to maybe take a step back or a
step down. He went from the highest of the high
when it comes to being able to coach at the
highest level in the NBA, to then being an assistant
coach at the collegiate level, then being almost like like
like working his way up from Nevada to then being
able to get into sec with Arkansas. He had to
take a couple of steps back to have an opportunity

(48:59):
to behind his way, rebuild and repair his confidence, and
then show the world that he is a great coach.
And he has by all accounts, shown to be a
very very good coach. When he has talent, he's able
to put it together. He has done it, and this
Arkansas team is a very very tough team, and he
has success before that at Nevada. So that's the way

(49:19):
that you have to do it. Sometimes you have to
take a couple steps back home with yourself, find an
opportunity that allows you to grow, and then show the
growth by finding a way to win games with what
you have. Now, remember this an Arkansas team that made
the Elite Eight the last two years this year, they
were ninth in conference, still snuck into the tournament. So
by the way, that line is dropping more. Remember I

(49:42):
mentioned a four point favor for Kansas, the one seed
against the eight. It's down to three and a half.
Money is pouring in on the Razorbacks. Bill self will
not be on the bench for the Jayhawks in this game.
So interesting matchup. That'll be our next matchup in about
fifteen minutes. Kansas taken on Arkansas. By the way, the
game after at is the Missouri Princeton game, which everyone

(50:03):
thought was going to be Missouri Arizona. And when I
watched Arizona completely discombobulate at the end of that game
against a Princeton team. Remember IVY League schools do not
have scholarships. They're all non scholarship athletes. All I kept
thinking about was the effort that Arizona used to win
the Pac twelve tournament against UCLA. And this is something

(50:27):
I've always researched, this about success in the conference tournament.
Could there actually be an adverse effect when it comes
to the NCAA tournament. It's a mixed back. I mean,
the ultimate, you know, positive was that Yukon team in
twenty eleven with Kema Walker then when five guys five
games and five nights to win the Big East Tournament

(50:48):
and still had enough gas left in the tank to
win the NCAA tournament. But I've seen a lot of
final four teams over the year's bucky and you look
back and they were out one and dunns in their
conference tournaments. So it's tough an Arizona just looked out
of gas after winning those three games and three nights
to win the PAC twelve tournament, losing that game to Princeton. Yes,

(51:12):
and I think there's something too that Roy Williams of
North Carolina used to talk about the focal point being
the national title, and so they didn't put as much
into winning the ACC tournament. If they lost early, it
gave them opportunity actually to practicing it ready for the
ncuble A tournament. It's hard because I'm conflicted. I believe
the conference tournament is valuable. There's a lot too. The

(51:33):
ACC they recognized the conference tournament champion as the champion
of the conference, and those are the banners that hang
up in the arenas, and so you want to win that.
I think what it requires, though it requires coaches to
understand the effort that was expended during the conference tournament
and to be able to tweak your practice schedules to

(51:55):
make sure that your players are fresh and ready to
go when they get into the NCAA tournament. There's some
kind of formulas, some kind of code that you have
to unlock. But if you can do that, your team
is still responding to play well in the Nancy Waa's
all right, Aaron Rodgers is mate, Claire. I'm ready to
be a Jet. So what's the hold up? And which team,
the Packers or the Jets have the upper hand. We'll

(52:17):
have the latest. This is Fox Sports Saturday. Steve Hartman
and Bucky Brooks here on Fox Sports Saturday. We're coming
alive from the tirerac dot Com studios. During the break here,
I was talking to Iowa, Sam and Bow about the
Academy Awards. I don't know if you heard this. So

(52:37):
last Sunday, Bucky, I brought my oscar expert on normal
Land to have them on during my Friday show leading
up to the Sunday Academy Awards. But I don't have
a Friday show right now, so brought him on Academy
Sunday ran down all twenty three categories What's gonna win? Right,
and he was nineteen and four. Last year he was

(52:59):
twenty two one. This guy's unbelievable top eight categories Picture
Director for Acting Awards to Writing Awards eight for eight.
So I kept telling people if you I said, the
only reason because I know a lot of people, you know,
in the sports rold could care less about you know, movies.
But I know there's a lot of gambling degenerates out there.

(53:19):
And I said, if you want to make some money
tonight because you can bet on the Academy Awards. Are
you listening? I hope they were listening, guy, But are you?
Are you a movie guy? Bucky? Kind of? I wish
I could say that was more of a movie buff.
But so this is the thing about you. We've known
each other a long time, and you know I have

(53:42):
the utmost respect because a lot of people have accused
me of overworking, you know, too many jobs, right and
m And my answer to them is the reason I
work so much is that I can, but my schedule
pales to years because it's not only do you do
obviously we hear you on the radio, but you do television,

(54:04):
you're a coach, and writing has been your main hub
for all these years. So is there any free time
for you to do anything outside of all your jobs.
I mean, there's free time, but I'm look, I'm a
football junkie. I'm a sports junkie. So when i have
free time, it's something sports related. I'm gonna watch games.

(54:24):
I'm invested in and watching athletics because I just love
looking at the chess match, regardless of the sport, whether
it's it's basketball, football, baseball, if you have a hockey
game on, particularly near the playoffs, I'm all in. And
so my hobbies consist with that outside of like my
daily yoga practice. That's about it, you know. And so

(54:45):
I wish that I could say that I was a
movie buff and I was really into all those those
things and I have to go see like the Oscar
movies and this and that. But yeah, it just doesn't
took my fancy like that. The only reason, again, my
dad worked in the movie industry, so I was raised
with it, you know. It's one of those type of things.
And my oldest son is working in the movie industry.
My younger son is the big sports guy out there.

(55:06):
But I'm with you. I mean, people ask me often
do you ever get tired of talking sports? And I'm like, no,
I never get tired. Why would I get tired of
talking sports. There's a friend. The thing, there's always something new.
I mean, this is this is what the great thing
about this NCAA basketball tournament is you're learning new names
during the tournament. Like outside, look, obviously I know UCLA,

(55:29):
or maybe I know some of the schools players. You
know that we're in the Pac twelve Conference. But for
a lot of these schools, some of the you know,
I don't know these guys. And you get to know
some of the players, and maybe somebody emerges or school
emerges or coach emerges. Out of the first round of games,
then you get to the sweet sixteen, You've had a little,
you know, week to sort of talk about, to get
a little buzz going. That's the one thing I love

(55:50):
about this NCAA basketball tournament. So we're getting ready for
the start of this game between Kansas and Arkansas. All right,
let's get to the Aaron Rodgers story. So now the Rodgers,
and again I'm always trying to get in the head
of Aaron Rodgers. So it comes out publicly Sane that
he's all in on the Jets, and in doing so,

(56:15):
he really, in a lot of respects screws over his team,
the Packers, because when you think about it, there are
no other teams on the table. Some people would say, well,
the Packers have the upper hand on the Jets because
the Jets don't have a fallback plan. But what's the
Packers fall pack plan bringing a disgruntled Aaron Rodgers back

(56:39):
with no guarantee that he won't announce his retirement. They
have Jordan Love. So I'm trying to figure this out
because if you weren't listening a few weeks back with
Bucky and I asked you how much draft capitol a
team would have to give up to get Aaron Rodgers.
You said, well, they're not going to have to give
up a number one pick. Now, if you look at

(56:59):
the upcoming draft, it doesn't seem likely that the Jets
want to forfeit the thirteenth pick in the draft in
order to get Aaron Rodgers, nor should they. So how
long is this waiting game going to go on before
we consummate this deal between the Jets and the Packers
and ultimately what will the price be for the Jets

(57:19):
to get Rogers. Ultimately they won't cough up a first
round pick. I think there would be any combination of
multiple picks twos and threes, maybe two twos or maybe
a third round edit year and a conditional second round
or the following year that you know the team in
turn can the kind of parlay in the first round picks.

(57:41):
But when you look at Aaron Rodgers and you look
at where he is, He's thirty nine years of age,
he has two years left on his deal. He told
you before he was ninety percent ready to retire, before
going into the hold, and of having an epiphany in
the darkness saying that he wants to play. And so
you have to take those things in. And so if

(58:01):
I am the Jets, I can't give your first round
pick for a player who may only play one year.
I don't want to give up that kind of capital
because the first round pick would be someone who is
a core player and would be a core player for
at least four or five years. And so I think
you have to settle on a conversation below the first round.
And if you pulled any executive, they would say the
same about Aaron Rodgers, even though he's a four time

(58:22):
MVP and he's done some wonderful things in the league.
Where he is right now is the player that we
saw last year. The player that we saw last year
wasn't playing at the MVP level and his team wasn't great,
And so you just want to make sure that you
evaluate him the right way. Don't evaluate him on the
Lifetime Achievement Award, but evaluate him based on how he

(58:43):
played last season, because he's more likely to play like
he played last season than to return to for him
as an MVP. All Right, So the draft is coming
up at the end of April, and you know there's
no kicking bonuses or anything else in the existing contract.
He's flat out making fifteen million dollars with the Packers
this year, so there's no time restraint from the Packers standpoint.

(59:06):
From the Jets standpoint, let's say the Packers. I mean
to me, as far as the Packers are concern, they
got to evaluate, whether it's a second round pick or
whatever multiple picks they could get out of the Jets
this season, whether they're better serve getting the picks now
or deferring the picks to seasons down the road. And
then from the Jets standpoint, how important is it post draft.

(59:30):
Let's say we get through the draft and still no
deal has been done OTA's mini camps. At what point
do you feel like is the cutoff time for the
Jets to get Aaron Rodgers on the field with his teammates.
For the Jets, they want them a sap. Of course,

(59:52):
you want to sap because you want to start developed
the chemistry and continuity that you need to play at
a high level. We saw what it looked like when
Aaron Rodgers is not around and he's playing with a
bunch of young receivers. It took the Green Bay Packers
about half the season to get in stride to kind
of find their way for Christian Watson to emerge and
become the player that many thought he would be during
the draft process. And so for the Jets, the onus

(01:00:13):
is on them to secure Aaron Rodgers rights immediately so
you can get him to New York and have him
participated in the off season program and those things. Now,
the off season program doesn't start to April seventeen, and
so you have time. But the longer this goes, the
more depressions on the Jets. The Green Bay Packers have
already figured out how they're going to make this work

(01:00:34):
with the dead cap money that Aaron Rodgers will have
on the cap. They also have an option bonus that
is not payable until one day before the start of
the regular season. So the Packers know that they can
just take it all the way to the end and
eventually cut him, wave him or whatever right before the
beginning of the season. And so they're okay with it.

(01:00:55):
So it really it's on the Jets to kind of
meet the packers halfway so they can consummate deal to
make this go away. So I agree with you. I mean,
people don't understand this. I mean they could. The Packers
can hold them all the way to the finish line
if the Jets don't come up with the offer that
the Packers want because they've already moved on to Jordan Love.

(01:01:17):
What's Plan B for the Jets? All right? By the way,
stole over paying for a razor in this economy, that's gross.
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what we call the man. Right now, that's gonna tell
us what's trending. We're talking about the legend himself, Brian Fendley.

(01:01:40):
And please please, by the way, Bucky, did you see
the Beefen interview with yours? Truly? Did you see it?
I have not seen it. I was not tipped off
on that. Yeah, you're like the last person that hasn't seen. Yeah,
Bucky's got to come on too, Buck, He's another guy
you got to get into. Fantastic. Yeah, Okay, I share
stories that I like the promotion of the interview that

(01:02:06):
Bfen uses because he uses my raciest story where I
talk about getting naked at multiple parties in high school,
a desperate seeking of attention um as a as a tease.
But in the interview, but Bucky the in all honesty,

(01:02:26):
the conversations are beyond the superficial chronological career talk where
it's about life and about you being a dad and
you know that that sort of thing that those who
work in this business and they're so busy they don't
really have time to reflect on their human and personal sides.
And so we go down that road. Like my favorite
interviewer is Oprah and so kind. I love the kind

(01:02:48):
of going down that road. And for Steve, you know,
he took me down a very interesting road, to say
the least. All right, well ask you Okay, So you've
done a lot of interviews over the years. They're fun
um percentage of you talking versus your guests talking. Where
do I rank in terms of monopolizing the conversation? You
are probably top five top five And I've done a

(01:03:11):
couple of the couple hundred of these, so you would
definitely be up there. I was impressed you allowed me
to ask a question. Now I will say, who beat you?
There's one. There's one that comes to mind, and I
love this guy and he's a mentor. He's awesome and
he's part of the Fox family. Tim Brando, he came
on and he's a great talker. Yes, Tim, I mean

(01:03:31):
he can tell a story. So it was I got
a couple questions in, but man did he run with it.
So it was very you're you're channeling your inner Tim
Brando in that set. Yeah, Bucky, he did a reset
on our interview. We had a pause to extend the interview, yes,
which I thought was good, great stuff. By the way,
BeFAN is as good an interviewer as there is out there.

(01:03:53):
Oh you're well again. You're trying to go and and
it really allow your guests to go in pretty much
any direction they say, choose, yeah, and in away from
the cliche and get really into the heartfelt original stuff. So, yeah, Bucky,
I know you're a busy guy, but it'd be fun
to have you on at some point if you're interested,
as yeah, let's do it. Let's let's make it happen.

(01:04:14):
By the way, we do have our third game of
the day in the NABA tournament happening right now, the
second round, and it's number one Kansas up nine to
two against eight seeded Arkansas. They just had that under
sixteen minute time out. Grady Dick had the dunk there
for Kansas, so he has gotten out to a good
start from earlier. What a turn of events for number

(01:04:35):
four Tennessee as they got some big help from one
of their players in the second half against number five,
Duke James fresh off the bench, defended by Whitehead, kick
out of the way Como Open three. He's having a
monster day. A spot of sweet sixteen on the line
Westwood one on the call. Kambo had twenty seven points,

(01:04:55):
including in the second half a thirteen oh personal run
in the game, and it's a sixty five, as you heard,
sixty five fifty two finals score there in the end
for the Valls. Twenty seven points from Commwa. Also a
Markie win for number five San Diego State Test. They
beat thirteen seed Perdue. Excuse me, Furman, I should say
seventy five to fifty to Our next game coming up

(01:05:18):
would be fifteen seeded Princeton and seven seeded Missouri, and
that will be in about forty five minutes from now
when they'll tip that thing up. Meantime, in the NBA, quickly,
we'll get to a couple of finals. The Nuggets fall
short against the nixt one sixteen to one. Ten. Nicola
Yokitschi near triple double in the Magic go into Crypto

(01:05:39):
dot Com Arena and stun the Clippers one thirteen to
one oh eight despite thirty points from Paul George. But
as I send it back to Bucky Brooks and Steve Hartman,
our focus. Yeah, there's seven other NCUBAA Tournament second around games.
But UCLA and Northwestern now, yes ten, as they're up
for that one. How you feeling about the Bruins if

(01:06:02):
you don't know, Bfen does a lot of work at
UCLA and has for many many years. We're watching Kansas
right now get off to a great start against Arkansas
in this game, up nine to two. They're the number
one seed in the West Region. If we were to
come down to a Kansas UCLA matchup to get to
the final four, how you feeling about that, Befen? I
think that UCLA as long as they could get it

(01:06:24):
in Bona back, and that's the question mark. I think
they're going to be okay with the emergence of Amari
Bailey taking some of the role of Jalen Clark as
far as the steels and the perimeter play and the
athleticism without Clark, I think you're going to get that
from Bailey. But a dem Bona, I think, guys, is
the X factor if he's fully healthy. I really don't
think there's anything that can stop this team. Considering as

(01:06:45):
you guys were talking about how open the tournament is
with all of these upsets that have already been in play,
I agree. I agree, Thanks so much. BeFAN. By the way,
speaking of Bona, and by the way, we're coming alive
from the ti iraq dot com studios. If you have
not seen the fresh in center out of use CLA,
the guy's a shot blocking machine. How much value is
that anymore in the NBA these days, Bucky? I mean,

(01:07:08):
everybody's even your big guys are standing at the three
point line. We used to talk about rim protectors. Is
that still a premium in the NBA? I think so,
because you can play drop coverage, you can run people
off to three point line, funnel him into the lane
where you have a big Yeah, there's still a value
for a shot blocker, and it doesn't always show up

(01:07:29):
in the regular season, but in the postseason, when every
possession carries weight and you have to kind of grind
it out and find a way to get buckets, it
certainly helps to have a rim protector, someone that can
discourage people from stepping into paint and trying to shoot
those layups and floaters. Yeah. I hate to say it
because I'd love to see him stay at UCLA, but
he would appear to be a one and done another

(01:07:50):
guy at UCLA. Mari Bailey five star recruit. You and
I are very familiar with his game coming out of
high school. For half the seasons like where's this guy?
Where's he? M? I A what happened to have five
star recruit all of a sudden since the injury to
Jayalen Clark, he has shown up in a big way.
So we'll see how the Bruins do again by a
day's and we'll have eight more games tomorrow and the
feel will be set for the Sweet sixteen. Just getting

(01:08:13):
back again for the Aaron Rodgers story for a moment
here and the leverage held. I'm sitting there with the
Jets right now thinking what is their plan B. I
mean if the Packers, because again, as we explain, the
Packers are under no urgency unless there's somebody they're targeting

(01:08:33):
to get in this year's NFL Draft, And if they
can't get the thirteenth overall pick out of the Jets,
they would say, well, the hell with it, We'll just wait.
And like you said that, there's no further money out
of their pocket. They could literally hold Aaron Rodgers to
the day before the start of the regular season release him.
They're going to be hit with a cap hit anyway.

(01:08:54):
That doesn't matter. He may decide to retire and the
Jets would come up empty handed. So at what point,
if you're the Jets, do you have a little sense
of desperation here where you think wow? Because I mean,
what good is Aaron Rodgers if he shows up the
day before the start of the regular season. I mean,
you gotta get this guy in, right, I mean, you

(01:09:17):
can't just have them come at the end of training camp,
throw him out there and think everything is going to
be hunky dorry. It doesn't work that way. Even if
he's familiar with the offensive coordinated, he's not familiar with
all the receivers Liz already knows, but I mean the
rest of the team he's not familiar with. So I mean,
I agree with you that they shouldn't give up a

(01:09:38):
one pick, But if you get past the draft, now
are you willing to part with future number one picks
for a guy? As you said, now, he's got two
years on his contract, but he may only play one year.
I don't know how desperate do you think the Jets
are to get Aaron Rodgers? And what's their plan be?

(01:10:00):
You know, I don't know if anyone knows what they're
planning B is there's another quarterback on the market that
could be their plan B, unless they decided they want
to jump in the mix and take a swing at
Lamar Jackson. But some would say Lamar Jackson's probably a
better plan than Aaron Rodgers because Lamar Jackson, you would
have an opportunity to have a young quarterback to secure
the position for maybe five plus years, and go about

(01:10:20):
it that way. With Aaron Rodgers, it's a short term fix.
And so right now we're operating under an asap mentality
if we're the Jets, because we want Aaron Rodgers in
the building immediately. We need his leadership, We need our
team to see him working so he can start to
impress upon the team the things that are needed to
play at a championship level. And so sometimes it might

(01:10:42):
require overspending a little bit to get the bottom line result,
which is we want number twelve in the building, We
want to working with the young guys, and we want
him to begin to establish the foundation that leads us
to become a title contenter this season. Clarify for me
on Lamar Jackson situation. So a non exclusive franchise tagets
another team an opportunity to make him an offer and

(01:11:05):
part with two number one picks. Does one of those
number one picks have to be twenty twenty three? Could
it be twenty four to twenty five? How does that
work in terms of the number one picks? It would
have to be if it's done before the draft. Has
to be a pick in this year's draft class in
the following year's class. If something happens after the drafting,

(01:11:26):
you can carry it over to the next the next year,
but it has to be consecutive drafts. Yeah, consecutive. Dress
has to be back to back. The big thing with
Lamar Jackson is, you know, trying to kind of read
between the lines when it comes to the subtweeting. He
absolutely knows his value. He understands that. When the reports
came out and Adam Schefter reported about the Ravens one

(01:11:49):
hundred and thirty three million guaranteed, but that was part
of a six year deal, Lamar Jackson tweeted, But thirty
three four three years, one hundred and thirty three that's
what maybe the Ravens offered. Well, if you look at
Lamar Jackson playing on multiple franchise tags, it puts him
right in that mix. So you talk about thirty two

(01:12:11):
million this year, maybe forty five to following year, and
in fifty the year after that. And so right now,
just by inking what would be three straight franchise tacks,
he's already in that in the range. And so now
it's about, Okay, well, why would I give you six
years of commitment to get the same money in essence

(01:12:33):
that I would get if I continue to sign these
franchise deals. And so I think everyone just kind of
has to understand the nuanced nature of how the money
was guaranteed, if it was fully guaranteed, if it was partially,
if it was you know, missing the like injury and
skill and all those other things. But Lamar Jackson will
eventually get his money, either from the Ravens or somewhere else.

(01:12:54):
But there's a lot of pressure right now on the
Ravens to make this thing go away, because now people
are beginning to get nervous about what they're going to
have to try it out when they kick off the
regular season in September. All right, speaking of something that
is a huge story in the sports world to some
and for many listening on out there, they're completely unaware

(01:13:17):
that it's even happening. We're talking about the World Baseball Classic,
and at least one Major League team has paid a
dear price for a player's participation in the WBC. What
kind of future, what kind of stature does this baseball
tournament have? We're gonna tell you. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

(01:13:39):
Steve Harman, Bucky Brooks. You are listening to Fox Sports Saturday.
We are alive from the ti iraq dot Com Studios,
Kansas leading in Arkansas eighteen to eleven, eight forty two
to go in that West Regional matchup. When it we'll
move on to the Sweet sixteen and again so far
to schools are in San Diego State, and tennis have

(01:14:00):
moved on to next week's action in the March Madness.
All right, I want to ask you about this World
Baseball Classic. In fact, the other night I was at
this Dodgers spring training game and we were talking at
Clayton Kershaw. There was some talk he might participate. He
decided not to, and he gave like the most politically

(01:14:21):
correct answer possible when talking about the WBC, like he
wanted to make sure he wasn't gonna say anything negative
about it. But we're also reminded that when you're playing,
spring training is a time to sort of get yourself
in shape, and injuries do occur during spring training, But
when you're participating in the WBC and playing for your country,

(01:14:44):
you're not operating at spring training levels. You know you're
you're suddenly operating at a higher level. Now, the freak
injury that ended the season for Edwin Diaz, the ace
reliever of the Mets. How good was he last year?
How about a one point three r ray, a whip
below point nine. He averaged seventeen strikeouts per nine innings,

(01:15:08):
one of the absolute best closers in baseball. And he
injures himself celebrating with his teammates after the final. They're
jumping up and down and he blows out his knee.
It's a freak injury. I get that. But here's my
thing about this World Baseball Classic, and to me, it's
it's true of any kind of international competition involving United

(01:15:32):
States teams. I think for the most part, Now I
know they're exceptions, but for the most part, in this country,
we don't give a crap about international competition. Our competition
is the World Series. Our competition is the Super Bowl.
Our competition is March Madness. Our competition is the NBA Finals.

(01:15:55):
That's our competition. Whoever wins the NBA Championship is the
best team in the world. Whoever wins the World Series
is the best baseball team in the world. Obviously, the
NFL speaks for itself. I know the Olympics come around,
but how many times do the Olympics come around? And
you were even unaware the Olympics were even here until
they actually start, And then for a couple of weeks

(01:16:16):
we're excited when an American wins, you know, a gold medal,
and we can hear the anthem, and as soon as
the Olympics are over, they're forgotten. I mean, I just
we had John Paul Morossy, and he's a big proponent
of this World Baseball Classic. I'm talking for myself alone
on this. I really can care less. I haven't watched
any of it. I don't care about it. I don't

(01:16:39):
care if the US wins, I don't care if the
US loses. To me, has no effect on me in
terms of from a baseball fan, which country is the
best in baseball or doesn't even matter to me, you know,
I'm excited about the baseball playoffs in Major League Baseball
and who wins the World Series? How do you stand
on this? So I see differently. I love this stuff.

(01:17:00):
I love it because I get a chance to see
baseball players in a different light. Meaning we don't have
all the unwritten rules where you can't celebrate, you can't
flip the badge, you can't do the stuff that I
believe fun when you look at the Baseball Classic, the
World Baseball Classic, the fans are excited, they're into it,
they're playing music, it's festive. It's a different atmosphere than
your normal spring training of regular season baseball game. And

(01:17:24):
then to see I watched Dominican, Republican and Puerto Rico
play the other day and the banter back and forth,
that stuff to me was exciting. I mean, let's be honest.
I mean we're in March. We're now seeing competitive games
in that vein, and it was unfortunate that player got
hurt in the celebration, and you know, you never want
to see that. But I actually like to see players

(01:17:46):
have a vested interest in these baseball games. And so
I'm all about the World Baseball Class. I dig it
I think it's great. I can't get there. I'm sorry.
I mean, it's it's the same thing when we get
to World Cup and in the US participation. I just
I don't know. I just I understand we're in a

(01:18:09):
much more international atmosphere. It's it's like the frustration I
have with the National Football League. Why are games in
Germany games in England? Care? I mean there are American cities.
Here's what I would have done, Bucky. You remember when
we go to a seventeen game schedule, right, and so
this made it uneven like some teams would have eight

(01:18:30):
home games and some teams would have nine home games.
And I said, well, there was an obvious solution for that.
You have one neutral game, and the scheduling would have
been very easy. You could have had a Tuesday night
game every single week where two teams matchup at a
neutral site. Imagine a game in Happy Valley, or a

(01:18:52):
game in Columbus, or a game in Tuscaloosa or San
Diego or Saint Louis or any one of these cities.
It would have been a great promote ocean for the
NFL in this country. I really don't care about the
NFL in London, or in Mexico or in Germany. It
means nothing to me when there are obviously cities here

(01:19:13):
in this country starving to get NFL professional football action. OK.
Call me the young angry man on the one. That's
just the way I stand on this. You're very angry,
very traditional, don't want to see any expansion. You want
your football to stay the same for the next twenty
or thirty years. You don't want to expand markets. You
don't want the game become a real global game so

(01:19:36):
we can have more popularity and bring more people to
the table and maybe have more kids from different areas
participating in the game. That's what this is about. It's
about making everyone adore the sport of football. You have
an affinity for the game, and so that's what we're
trying to do, expand it and do all this stuff.
That's why there's such an emphasis on flag football. More people,
more people involved. So it's great, all right, you hang

(01:19:57):
on to that because I got much more to say.
That's the way I am right now. By the way,
don't go anywhere. We'll also have Adam Kaplan our NFL
insider on This is Fox Sports Saturday eight All right.
Two schools of are punch there take it to the
Sweet six team. By day's end, eight eight schools will
be set for the Sweet sixteen. This is Fox Sports Saturday.

(01:20:18):
We're broadcasting live from the tirerac dot com studios tirac
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buying should be now. Buckie's School, North Carolina last year
shocked many by getting all the way to the championship game.

(01:20:41):
I ask you this, though, Bucky. When your school is
not in the Big Dance, which is rare for your school,
it is rare for my school UCLA, does that mean
you're turning off the tournament or do you feel like
you're more relaxed during the tournament. How do you approach
March Madness when your school is not a participant. This

(01:21:03):
is different from me. This is hard. I feel like
the last three weeks I watched more college basketball games
than I normally would. Part of that because you know
your team is on the bubble, so you're trying to
figure out who's the competition. When it comes to being
the last four in and the four out and all
those things that people are saying, and now the Carolina
is out of it, and I'm looking at the tournament.

(01:21:25):
I'm looking in the first round. I'm like, well, let's
see who these teams are. They got in, and then
you look at some things and you're you're trying to
see these other teams in comparison to your team, and
how hard they play and what they do on defense,
and do they shoot well and all of this stuff,
and then you get kind of caught up into the
upsets because we've seen a ton of upsets and the
parody in college basketball, and why does Michigan State find

(01:21:48):
a way to win games? And they want to say
they barely get into it, but they had a nineteen
and twelve record coming in, and then they win one
over USC and then I'm thinking about tom Enzo has
been the twenty five Ncuble Tournaments and all this other stuff,
and I'm like, man, how does Michigan State always do it?
And it always looks ugly for them? And so it's
been difficult because there's a lot of compare and contrast

(01:22:09):
my school to a bunch of other schools. And programs,
but it's still an enjoyable experience because college basketball is great.
This tournament is awesome. I thought, and we talked about
this last week. I thought North Carolina still had a chance.
I mean, won twenty games, you had a winning record
in the ACC. But after watching do completely get manhandled
by Tennessee today, after winning the ACC tournament and finishing

(01:22:31):
their season when nine state wins, they didn't look like
they belonged on the same court. And that's shocking. ACC
basketball just down, it happens. It's you know, cyclical and
everything else. So anyway, we got March madness. Very American.
I know, I come off like really pro American, and
that's because I am. I'm really partial. And again, you're

(01:22:55):
gonna have to explain this to me. I need, I
need further because you're right up against it. All right.
I'm trying to figure this out, Buckie. And again, I
don't want to come off completely neanderthal year, but I
mean football especially, we have what we call football. The
rest of the world says football, and we call it soccer.

(01:23:18):
We have our own brand of football that we developed
in this country. Basketball has been an international game for
a long time. I get the aspect of basketball. Obviously,
football aka soccer is very much an international game, and
looking at Major League Soccer, it continues to grow in

(01:23:39):
this country. So I'm not anti, it's just that I
don't have a lot of personal interest in the sport.
But when it comes to American football, which so dominates
the landscape of sports in this country, and every time
you think it can't get any bigger, it does. And
it's not just the professional game, but the college ledge

(01:24:00):
game as well. When we think about the amount of
money that's being important, because you know, as well as
I do college football, if we're talking about projectory, and
it's going to separate from all other sports if it
hasn't already. When the NCAA has very little say when
it comes to FBS football, and it's going to even

(01:24:21):
get more so down the line, and you know, money
just talks. I don't understand why we feel like it's
necessary to expand beyond what is already there. I mean,
I get it, but I mean, let's let's let's be
honest here. The NBA, it has a lot of financing
from China that a lot of people are not comfortable with.

(01:24:44):
And I don't know if the NFL, I mean, the
international scene is very mixed bag as far as all, right,
where do we want our money to come from? What
countries do we want to do business with? And for
the NFL, it's not necessary to have to do business
with any country outside of the country we have right

(01:25:07):
here in the United States. I'm just I'm trying to again,
you know, risk reward. What's in it if if suddenly
we have down the road an NFL team in China
or Russia or or another country like that, or even
in in you know, allies in Western Europe, why is
that so necessary? Is it necessary at all? Um? You know,

(01:25:33):
I think part of it is like you want to
expands as much as you can. You want so many
people to tap into it. You think about the international following,
what they bring to it, and you know, when when
you think about the different money and the currency and
all the things that are changing. You know, um, we
just look at the media. Um, but the Diamond Sports
who owns all the Valley sports groups and funds a

(01:25:55):
bunch of you know, the regional networks that cover the
NBA and some of baseball stuff. Those things fold and
so now you don't have the influx of money in
the cash cout that you normally did. And so that's
why you're always trying to expand you're always trying to
take it and make it a bigger batter sport when
it comes to participation in eyeballs and streaming services and
all this other stuff. And it's all about leveraging your

(01:26:18):
assets to to kind of can create a model that
allows it to sustain itself in any economy and despite
what's going on that your sports will always be played.
And so that's why you see the greater push for
expansion and kind of reaching beyond the borders is because
they're looking for the green. They're looking for the money
that can come from anywhere, and that money doesn't always
have to be domestic. Well, I want to get back

(01:26:40):
and speaking of you know, getting to bed with people,
I mean for the NFL to get in bed with
the gambling US establishment. Right, how did you feel about
the Calvin Ridley suspension? Well, what were your views on that?
Because remember he got the harshest punishment possible for engaging in,
you know, betting on a game that didn't he involved

(01:27:02):
his own team. And this is the same league landing
out the punishment that for years try to hold back
any kind of connection to the gambling community, and then
all of a sudden, when billions of dollars are being
thrown their way, they fully embraced it. So to me,
there's a little hypocrisy going on right there. But how
did you feel about how the Riddlely situation was handled? Well,

(01:27:24):
I mean, it's tough, but obviously tough for Calvin, and
it's tough to lose a player who's gambling on a
sport he participates, and particularly when you have you know,
sports books and casinos and everyone. Now I'm partnering up
with the league in teams for sponsorships. However, I understand
the optics and what you don't want is that you
don't want the appearance of your players like they can

(01:27:47):
get gout, like they can get guy by people who
they owe money too. So then you have point shaving
scandals in those things. And so I understand from an
optics standpoint, you want to make sure that your players
don't engage in those activities because the last thing you
want is the game to feel like isn't that pure?
That the integrity can be questioned because you have players
and maybe even coaches who aren't on the up and up,

(01:28:10):
and so I understood why they threw the book at him.
Even though on the surface it doesn't appear to be
a major infraction. It's kind of minor in nature. When
you think about the money that was exchanged. Yeah, I
just I don't think it's like it used to be.
The money is so big for these athletes nowadays. The
legendary story was that Bill Russell, when he was the
star of the Boston Celtics, was offered a million dollars

(01:28:32):
at a time when he was the highest paid player
in the league at one hundred thousand dollars, and of
course he said no to it. But I just I
don't know. I mean, there's a lot of greed involved.
I get it. This is a business. And if you're
if you're a billionaire and you have you're already got
all this money, but you have a chance to make

(01:28:52):
even more money. That's already your mindset. Nobody nobody gets
sort of falls into a billion dollars, right, You have
to be on a mission if you if you're an
extremely wealthy individual and having been born into wealth, you
got there because of your desire to be wealthy. That
was your goal, that was your end goal. And so

(01:29:13):
it's it's it's not how much money you have, it's
it's like a competitive situation, how much more can I make?
And for the NFL, I'd be careful. I'd really be
careful because they're in such a sweet situation already. They're
already pushing the envelope with the gambling establishment. I get it,
you know, there's a lot of money out there, but
we're already seeing, you know, a lot more scrutiny as

(01:29:36):
far as officiating is coming in the NFL, and that's
only going to increase for all these teams. So I
just I just I concerned because the last thing I
want to see is to any of these leagues unravel
unnecessarily because there is plenty of money to go around.
I mean, there's always plenty of money to go around,
and you want to make sure that you take care

(01:29:58):
of the business. You don't want to kill to God
in Google. You want to make sure that the game
is able to continue to flourish and thrive in those things.
And that's why the NFL always has these talks and
seminars where they talk to employees and players and coaches
about the things that are expected of them and some
of the things that you can't engage in. And it's
one of those things where you look, if you're in
the league, if you're representing the shield, you can't do

(01:30:20):
certain things when it comes to gambling and being in
sports books and all that other stuff. And even though
civilians are able to do that, you're not able to
do that because your employee the National Football League, and
you have to make a decision do I want to
continue to stay employed or do I want to do
my own thing for this short term fix. And so
hopefully most guys here on the side of right and
not going in those sports books and not engaging in

(01:30:40):
those activities even though everybody else around them can engage
in those activities. All right. On the other side, we're
going to tack a little more NFL football. What's the
latest Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, any collusion going on these
days with those NFL owners not offering Lamar Jackson a deal.
We're gonna check in with our Fox Sports Radio NFL

(01:31:01):
insider Adam Kaplan will join us next Steve Harman and
Bucky Brooks. This is Fox Sports Saturday and we are
alive from the tirect dot Com studios. I know, Book,
he's on the edge of his seat right now. North
Carolina and Saint John's a tie at fifty eight. That's
in the women's first round. Five seconds left in regulation,

(01:31:24):
North Carolina with the ball. So I know it's gonna
be a little difficult for you to focus right now, Bucky,
with that game going on, But you're gonna have to
do your best. I'm locked in. By the way, Princeton,
trying to become the first Ivy League school to make
the Sweet sixteen since Cornell back in twenty ten, has
an early lead right now. So we'll keep you updating

(01:31:45):
on all the March madness. But right now, let's talk
some NFL football. What's simply the best of the best.
He's our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider Series x NFL's
Adam Kaplan. All right, Adam, Instead of starting with the
obvious stories, I'm doing this for our producer, Bo the
Eagles fan. He wants to know the status of CJ.

(01:32:06):
Gardiner Johnson. So I'm gonna get that one out of
the way. What is the status of c. J. Gardner Johnson?
So the Eagles want to resign him. He'd like to,
he'd liked to come back, but he has not gotten
the money that he's looking for. In fact, other teams
are interested. This is an interesting story. So Garter Johnson,
he's a safety, but because he's line up with both
safety spots and slot corner, the Eagles and other teams

(01:32:29):
are trying to pay him less than the safety number,
which are between fourteen and fifteen million, So they want
to pay him somewhere between eight and eleven million. These
teams do, and he's not getting where close to what
he wants. So he is unsigned. Yeah, he's the best
player left in FEG. I am surprised. I thought he'd
be signed by now, but they're just he's just not

(01:32:49):
getting what he wants and he's frustrated. If if you
fall them on social media, he thinks of the he
think it's been disrespectful. But he's got to understand it's
not his fault. It's just that the data says it
shows where he's lined up, but he's not been a
pure safety. You know, it's amazing that data plays such
a huge role. Was the biggest trend that you've noted

(01:33:10):
doing free agency? Well, I here's Bucky. Here's something that
you're seeing here. If you're a pass strusher, you're getting paid.
If you're just an okay receiver, you're not getting paid. Like,
we're not seeing any big money at receiver. The biggest
deals are eleven million a year. That's not a lot
for wide receiver. It's really right now, your value is

(01:33:33):
to what you of production. You're not if you're a
slot receiver, you're not getting fifteen to seventeen million. Teams
I don't want to see they're holding against them. They're
just they're they're like, just because you're the best player
at the position does not mean you're going to get paid.
That's really what this the situation has been like. Some
teams kept players, went down to the wire in fact
that here's another one for you. We'll stay with Eagles here. Now,

(01:33:54):
this has been the strangest story I've seen in years
where a player Darius Slay, was told they're gonna he's
going to be released. Three hours later they're negotiating extension
with him. That was the strangest. I mean, I've seen
teams change their mind, but they didn't want to pay
him seventeen million. In fact, not only will they pay
him seventeen million, They've tacked on additional money that was
very bizarre. All right, consider me a conspiracy guy, but

(01:34:16):
I am watching this Lamar Jackson situation unfold. So by
giving the non exclusive tag to Lamar Jackson, if no
team offers him a deal, the Ravens are on the
hook for thirty two million. Had they gone the exclusive route,
they were on the route on the hook for forty
five million dollars for their quarterback. The fact that he

(01:34:38):
hasn't received a single offer yet and potentially down the road,
whatever he receives could have major ramifications on some other
quarterback contracts down the road. I'm not screaming collusion, but
are you a little suspicious as I am that no
team has yet stepped up? You take a whiff and say, wow, gee,

(01:35:02):
could we use a NFL MVP as our quarterback? Well,
with this situation with Mark Jackson, you got to look
at two things here. Yeah, you gotta pay him, and
he wants a fully guaranteed contract. But the thing is
you also have to go significant compensation in terms of
draft picks, and no teams willing to do that right now?

(01:35:23):
I am I surprised a little bit that we don't
even have a because he's a free agent technically though
he's under the franchise tag. He could he could visit
on this tag. It's non exclusive. You can negotiate with
him with the NFLP and his mom is involved, as
I understand it. But yeah, look in a league where
quarterback play, there are a lot of teams that don't
know who their starter is going to be. We're still
at that that number of around ten for the fall.

(01:35:44):
We still don't know certain situations. Yeah, I'm a little
bit surprised, but it's the cost. And Steve, I could
just tell you if and it's been a year now,
I remember going to the owners meetings last year at
in Florida, and there are teams that are just really
upset with the brown for doing that kind of contest. Yes,
I could tell you. I was shocked at just the

(01:36:06):
anger they had at the Browns. How could you do this?
The issue that they had was Watson didn't play the
year before any of these significant allegations against them. How
would you do this? You know you talk about collusion, Well,
it's I hate to use brotherhood. It's not exactly a brotherhood.
A lot of these owners don't like each other, but
if or not, but they want to be cost controlled

(01:36:26):
to a certain extent, and the Browns were not. They
went rogue, and that's what bothered a lot of teams. Okay,
so we have justin Herbert Joe Burrow on the I
guess they are about to be eligible to sign contracts.
How will Lamar Jackson's I guess interactions? How will it
impact the young quarterbacks that are about to get a

(01:36:49):
contract or that are eligible to have a contract exstence.
So Bucky, those those deals will be interesting because they'll
have at least three year fully guaranteed, because we've already
seen him with Kirk Cousins, they make it four. Where
they may or what they may do is through a
unique contract where at least the full guarantees at signing
could be over two hundred million. They're not gonna be
two forty to fifty, but they should eclipse two hundred

(01:37:12):
and then that'll help Lamar Jacksons so in a way
him And here's another thing is remember Lamar is not
signed that non exclusive tag. He has not even signed
his own tag to stay with the Ravens. So it
might behoove him to wait and see what Burrow and
Justin Herbert also the Eagles want to get Jalen Hurts
signed to extension. They're opening to get that done well
before training camp, and if the other two guys get

(01:37:33):
it done, that that would help Jalen Hurts. It Actually,
it's funny you bring this up. It actually could help
Lamar for where these deals are going. The one team
that it keeps popping in my head as a perfect
fit for Lamar Jackson is New England. I mean, I
am not sold on mac Jones, and I don't know
how they believe because he took a step backwards, not forwards,

(01:37:55):
from his rookie season into his second season, and in
a division where already have Josh Allen, you have two
and most likely Aaron Rodgers if he decides to continue
his NFL career. Could you see any scenario where the
Patriots would forfeit those first round picks and the money
to get a quarterback who, what twenty six years old,

(01:38:18):
seemingly has a lot of prime years ahead of him.
Is that possible that Belichick would make a move like that. No,
I don't see that. Here's what happened, well, just well,
first of all, they like Mac Jones. I know it
didn't look good last year. We'll look who was coaching him.
Bill Belichick committed his mistake and removed Matt Patricia as
a play caller. And Joe Judge is not going to
have the impact that he had last year with the quarterbacks.

(01:38:41):
So things are the coaching was poor. Let's really criticized coaching,
but it was abominable last season. I know internally there
were some serious questions about just the way that the
offense looked, and I know the players were not happy
with it, and Belichick knew this and he had to
make a change. He had no choice this. It's only
a few mistakes, BELTI because Maine his career with coaching,

(01:39:01):
and he brought back Bill O'Brien who called the plays
and after Josh McDaniels left, and this guy's a good
play caller. So yeah, no, they like Matt Jones. He
took a step back, yes, but there's a reason for it. Um,
what is going off with Aaron Rodgers? What do you
think the conversation is eventually going to be before he
goes to the Jets. I was told really at the

(01:39:22):
combine to be at least the first round pick. I
still believe that. I don't know exactly Bucky Bucky what
it is, but everything's been met. Rogers got permission, he
met with the Jets. The Jets knew he wanted to play.
They kind of always believe that. And what I find
fashioning Alan Lezard signed his contract this week is for
your deal with the Jets. So you know that. You
know it's eventually going to happen, but it could take

(01:39:43):
some time now because the Packers, as Rogers told Pat McFee,
they're digging in because they want what they want. I mean,
I know and I agree with this. So the Packers
clearly have leverage right now, but eventually they have to
they have to turn the patron Ordan love because they
have to get an idea. So what Rogers? You know,
what would be interesting is if Rogers would show up,

(01:40:04):
because he's on a contract still to the Packers. What
if he showed up to their off season program. What if?
What if he shows up and after the draft, let's
say fragments sake, let's just say the deal's knocked down,
or he shows up in mid April to late April
before the draft, what do what do the Packers do
now that that would change the narrative of they have
all the leverage. Yers, Well, I'm not so sure. I

(01:40:25):
mean to me that he would be treated like Deshaun
Watson was in his non year with the Texans. I mean,
they've was the legal issue, right. But here's the thing though,
But I mean, I can't stop him for working out.
They cannot. He can work out, that's fine, but what
if he drops it weight on his knee. I look
at it. I don't know where the Jets. The Jets

(01:40:47):
are gonna have to get him in as quickly as
POSSI yeah, yeah, I agree, I mean where they can't.
They can't wait till training can because obviously contractually the
Packers aren't facing any penalties that can literally hold him
till the day before this are the regular season. I mean,
I'm trying. I know people are trying to make this
case that the Jas Jets have some leverage. I think

(01:41:07):
the backers are city on every they have right, Yeah,
they clearly have it now, but the Jets. Look, the
Jets want to move on here, then make the feel
but they're not going to give away the farm. They're
not going to impact their future because they look we
could argue that they're quarterback away from being a prime team,
maybe a top five six team in the National Football League.
Their rosters really good all of a sudden, but they

(01:41:28):
can't go anywhereout a quarterback. And you're right, Steve, because
you want to get Aaron Rodgers in there. It's got
to get with Garrett Wilson, Corey Davis if they keep
him those tight ends the coaches, although Nate Hackett and
Rogers are close, but you want to get him indoctrinating
to their offense there. And by the way, they're running
the same I'm told, the same exact offense that Rogers
runs and in with the Packers eight old school West

(01:41:51):
Coast offense, so that part of its its sound. But
he's got to get used to working with these players
and two one of the better. It's my problem is
in this g GM said this to me about a
week ago. He said, this should have been this should
have been Greed too at the combine, and they would
have contentially planned if Rogers decided he didn't want to play,
then just junk the thing, but at least have this
thing developed instead of now saying, okay, well the Packers

(01:42:13):
want too much that we can't do the deal right now. Well,
my bottom line final thing here with Adam is the
fact that if you don't want to part with the
thirteenth pick, fine, But if I'm the Packers, I say fine,
then you're just gonna have to up the annie down
the road. If you don't want to give up this
year's number one to get Aaron Rodgers, it's gonna cost
you much more if we get through this draft and
we don't get any draft picks out of twenty twenty three.

(01:42:36):
We'll see how it all plays out. And of course,
the man that will be on top of everything as
he always is, the best of the best, Adam Kaplan. Adam,
great stuff as always. We'll talk to you next week. Okay,
thank you, Adam Kaplan our Fox Sports Radio, NFL Inside.
Well have much more of this on the other side,
but first let's find out what is trending right now.
Is once again the one the only Ryan Finley who's

(01:42:58):
been on social media a lot. Well, you have to
retweet the full interview that we did. You just retweeted
our little tease video, the preview of so I have
to retweet this yet and see I'm really bad about this.
All right, hold on, let me get on the Twitter here,
let me do this. So am I gonna retweet what
you just tweet? Yeah, yeah, you can do that. I
can do that. I'm doing that's right now. Boom, there

(01:43:20):
it is. There you go. I just retweeted. Now Bucky
can see it there. So you need to see this interview. Okay.
By the way, this is the first interview that I
have ever done from inside my home. No one has
ever seen a single room inside my home. So there
you go. By the way, didn't Denise got into the

(01:43:43):
picture at some point? Yeah? Yeah, And she's a big
fan of yours because she was showing me all of
these photos. Although you should tell Bucky why there's this
thing about you, Steve where you don't like to take
pictures with celebrities or sports media. Denise my ex wife.
We're actually sharing a house right now. That's another story.
But anyway, so if you look in our office, there's

(01:44:04):
photos of her with Vin Scully, Al Michael's i mean legend,
Muhammad Alee, John Elway, all people that she has met
through me. I have no pictures like that. Are you
a big picture taker with celebrities fucky. I am not,
how about you. I get a little uncomfortable asking those

(01:44:26):
guys to take pictures. But even though I know it's
important to document it, I know in a social media age,
we want to have that because, as I've been told,
that's kind of like the backstage pass to VP to
your fans, right, right, But it still makes me an
comfortable to ass I am very uncomfortable with that, very uncomfortable.
But my former wife is not, you know. She she'll

(01:44:47):
jump into every photo, grab every autograph. I remember one time,
so I used to work with the Big Game Jaane's
Worthy in television, and she had a school function where
everyone was leaning on us to come up with all
the auction items because they knew I had connections all
these famous people in the sports world. She came in
with ten basketballs for Big Game James to sign ten

(01:45:13):
a bitch he signed them all. It didn't he of
course he did, because he's a super nice guy. But
but I'm not in a millionaire you know, would make
me really uncomfortable. Steve, is you taking a selfie? Have
you ever taken a selfie? No, you have never taken
a selfie, Not that I remember wow. No, no, no,
I don't know. Wow. It's not that I'm horrified by

(01:45:36):
my appearance. It's just the fact that that doesn't I
don't wake up thinking I got it. I get it,
I get it. It's it's the way of the world.
My kids, well actually my daughter of course. You know
girls that they do things a little different the guys.
I don't think my guy, my boys take selfies. Bucky,
are you a big selfie guy? Taking selfies all day?
On a case? And you kind of have to the
world right now, who's the last person you took a

(01:45:58):
selfie with outside of your own family? Let's see a
coach with the falcons, because we're buddies and we were
sending a picture to one of our friends away from it.
There it is, there you go. How about you befriend
You take selfies all the time? You know? I take
a lot. Is this weird? I take a lot of
selfies with my corgy, my dog. Is that weird? Or no,
I'll take one family, or I'll take one with my

(01:46:21):
two year old nephew who is a walking petree dish
and anytime I go see him, I pick something up
from him. I love him to death. But yeah, you know,
well a non family pets her family obviously. So who's
the last celebrity you took a selfie with me? That's
a great question. Yeah, something on the outside of Well,
I think you should break a trend and maybe I'll
have a selfie with you. How about that. It is

(01:46:42):
a celebrity right there, you could do that. Yeah. Hey,
we do have two NCUBA Tournament games that are going
on right now, and one of the stories here for
number fifteen Princeton as they are leading number seven Missouri
twenty four to fourteen, is Ryan Landborg. The San Diegan
has eleven points for the Tigers of Princeton. Battle of
two tigers as far as their mascots between both of

(01:47:04):
those teams. Number one Kansas owning a thirty five to
twenty seven lead against number eight Arkansas. That one is
at the half. Our next game to start here will
be number nine on Burn against number one to Houston,
and that one will tip off in about forty five
minutes a little under that from now, and Marcus Asser,
the star for the Houston Cougars, is said to be
playing and we'll get his a full allotment of minutes.

(01:47:27):
Despite the fact he's dealing with a groin injury. Games
from earlier number five San Diego State tearing and the
number thirteen fighting Andy Furman's seventy five to fifty two
the final score there and number four Tennessee Walloping fifth
seated Duke sixty five to fifty two. So John shi
are going down as the coach there in his first

(01:47:49):
NCAA tournament appearance at the helm of the Duke Blue Devils.
And in the NBA quickly, guys, the Nick steakecare of
the Nuggets one sixteen to one ten, and the Magic
come into Los Angeles and spook the Clippers one thirteen
to one oh eight. So the clip show losing to
a team Bucky Brooks and Steve Hartman in Orlando that

(01:48:10):
seemingly starting to find themselves. They do have just a
twenty nine and forty two record, but I feel like
they're starting to trend in the right direction. And the
Clippers not a great performance from Russell Westbrook by the way, guys,
as far as his numbers in this game, five of
fourteen from the floor, oh of three from long range,

(01:48:31):
six turnovers, and four of seven from the free throw line. Yeah,
I've always It's been a mixed bag with me with
Russell Westbrook over the years. I always tell the story
that when he was a freshman, a completely anonymous freshman
at UCLA, rarely played. I was there with my then

(01:48:53):
young sons and we were waiting for Coach halland to
come out. Who was a friend And I was gonna,
you know, introduced him to my boys. And I looked
at my at the time, I guess he was maybe
seven or eight years old, and I said, who's your
favorite UCLA player? He goes, I love number zero. I'm

(01:49:14):
like number zero, Who the hell's number zero? And he
goes right over there, and I'm a go, Westbrook, you
don't even play. What do you that's your favorite player?
And then of course the guy goes on to be
a Hall of Fame talent. But I don't know. I
know it's funny because I feel like he's probably going
to go down as the most disrespected Hall of Fame player. Yeah,

(01:49:36):
and in our era, just because I think people dismiss
the triple double record and all those other things. And
it's become the narrative that Russell Westbrook makes your team worse,
whether it's actual or factual. Like people have kind of
built that up because that's what we do on our side,
and I feel like we're going to look back and
we're going to regret and not appreciating what he did

(01:49:58):
during that time when he was called doubles. Yeah, you know,
he's a self made player. I feel like the way
Russell Westbrook plays in the NBA stems from where he
came from, which was pretty much nowhere. He was not
a heavily recruited high school player. In fact that the
report was is that when Jordan Farmar decided to opt

(01:50:21):
out for the NBA, UCLA realizes we need another guy,
and Russell Westbrook had made a verbal to go to Pepperdine,
but one of the UCLA assistants told Ben Hallen, look,
there's a kid. He's a great athlete. He doesn't have
much as far as offensive skills, but at least with
his athleticism, he can help us on the defensive end.

(01:50:42):
That was basically the selling point of offering Westbrook a
deal at UCLA. The fact that he's gone from that
to you know, voted one of the seventy five greatest
players in league history. And that's why he plays the
way he does like he's trying to prove he's not
a good shoot. He's never been a good shooter. I
can do other things. I can, you know, get the
rebounds and go coast to coast and be a playmaker

(01:51:05):
and you know, and everything else. So he's a guy
that plays with a chip on his shoulder and it's
not always for the best of his team, but that's
how he plays an individual. Befen, Thank you very very much.
Once again, we are comedy live from the ti iraq
dot com studios. All right, So we're just finishing up
there with Adam Kaplan on this Aaron Rodgers deal. The

(01:51:27):
more I'm thinking about it, all the leverages with the
Packers at all. I mean, if I'm the Jets and
I'm sold on that Aaron Rodgers is going to be
our quarterback, just get the deal done. And if you
don't want to give up the thirteenth overall pick in
this year's draft, are you willing to part with more

(01:51:48):
down the road? Because the Packers going to just sit
there for as long as they want. Let's getting off thirteenth.
They've already turned the page. They're gonna have Jordan Loves
their quarterback twenty twenty three. At some point the Jets
are gonna have to flinch here. I mean they don't.
They really don't have a choice. They might as well. Look,
they need to give up the money so they can

(01:52:10):
give up the conversation so they can go ahead and
get what they want, and that's Aaron Rodgers. They want
Aaron Rodgers in the fold. And so to me, you
have about two weeks or so to get this done
because their offseason program starts April seventeenth. Ultimately, Aaron Rodgers
won't come to the offseason program for all that here
show for maybe the mini camps and the OTAs, but
that's kind of the deadline if you did. Jets, hey,

(01:52:32):
we need to go ahead and wrap this up and
get this done. I mean, it really doesn't matter what
you give up. You're rolling the dice anyway. Obviously, if
you give up that number one pick and he leads
you to the playoffs, some of the Jets have seen
rarely in their history, to be honest with you, then
it was worth it. It was are you just want
to give yourself a chance get into the big dance
for a chance to win a Super Bowl? That's what

(01:52:54):
you want as a Jets fan. If it doesn't work out,
then it doesn't matter what you gave up. You roll
the dice, but you're rolling the dice on a four
time MVP. I think the Jets need to get this
deal done. If the Packers want to first give him
a first done done, what's your alternative? Should be a

(01:53:14):
done deal. It should be a done deal, all right.
On the other side, we're gonna get you call caught
up in all the march madness. Can prints them be
the first Ivy League school since Cornell in twenty ten
and make it to the sweet sixteen. This is Fox
Sports Saturday. The Horn hits three bat, the fizzerd air
ball Tennessee staggered into the NCAA tournaments of a sweet sixteen.

(01:53:37):
The volunteers down sixty five fifty two. That's Westwood one, Tennessee.
They move on to the Sweet sixteen with a dominating
victory over Duke and the East Region. And that's our
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(01:54:00):
all your protection in one Place, Bundle and save apt
Progressive dot Com Steve Harbin, Bucky Brooks. We are here
from the tire rack dot com studios, and I want
to thank the guy said, hey, Chris always jumps in
for Iowa, Sam and late in the show Ryan Finley,
be Fenn doing a great job keeping this update with
all the march madness. And then, Bo, were you happy

(01:54:21):
with the answer from Adam Kaplan? I let off with
the question you desperately wanted me to ask. Yeah, I
mean I figured that was the case. I just wanted
him to say that, Oh no, he's actually signed right now.
But that's fine. I'll take it. We'll get there, all right,
We'll get there. Yeah. Well he's he's a valuable piece
in that secondary for the Eagles, no question about that.

(01:54:41):
All right, So Bucky here we are right. How about
Princeton leading Missouri thirty three to nineteen. You know, it's
amazing about Princeton. So the IVY League tournament, and remember
they haven't had a tournament long, but they had the
IVY League Tournament on their home court and their championship
game against Yale, they were the underdog even though they

(01:55:05):
were on their home court because Yale had beaten them
twice during the regular season, so Princeton wasn't even considered
the best team to come out of the Ivy League.
But they upset the number two seed Arizona and they're
up fourteen right now on the number seven seed Missouri,
trying to become the first Ivy League team in thirteen
years to make it to the Final four. Do you

(01:55:27):
find yourself rooting for a school like Princeton, Again, no
scholarship players at Princeton. I think what's great about the
tournament So many teams can employ so many different styles,
and you're seeing that systems still work in basketball. When
you're so conditioned to watch NBA basketball and it's a
lot of one on one it is refreshing to see

(01:55:48):
college basketball where people that are running old school offenses flex.
Princeton has their own Princeton system that people talk about
and they've been able to level the playing field, and
so it's great to see Princeton do it with a
bunch of non scoutship guys take down a couple of giants.
It is one of the reasons why we love March
Madness absolutely all right. So remaining games today, we got
two ones and two twos in action one seed Houston

(01:56:11):
taking on a night seed Auburn, two seed Texas against
a ten seed Penn State, two se Ucla against the
seven seed Northwestern, One seed Alabama against an eight seed Meryl.
You know one of these games is going to be
an upset, right has to Okay, So which one of
those four teams, Houston, Texas, Ucla, or Alabama is not

(01:56:32):
going to punch their ticket to the Sweet six team?
I think Houston is the most vulnerable without their best player, Sasser. Yeah.
To me, they're the team that you have to watch
out for because they don't have their guy. Yeah, when
you're when you're when you're about Now do we know
Sasser's status? Is he one hundred percent out of this game?
He's not one hundred percent out, but you know the

(01:56:53):
groin injury kept him out early. Yeah, and he won't
be the same. He's such a big part of what
they do. I can't imagine. I just can't imagine him
continue to be able to overcome that. By the way,
Penn State, in their entire school history, well when I
say school history, since the sixties mid sixties, have only
made it to the Sweet sixteen once in like sixty years.

(01:57:18):
It's always weird to me because I mentioned this at
North Carolina. So North Carolina and UCLA very similar schools
where basketball dominates. But you've had good football teams over
the years and UCLA sad some very good football teams
over the years. So how does that work at North Carolina?
I mean you played football there, so how much interest

(01:57:41):
was there in football at a school so dominated by basketball? Oh,
it's all about the basketball team. I mean you enjoyed
the football games, but you I mean most of the
football players grew up North Carolina fans because of the
basketball team. That's just what it is, and you have
to understand that. But it's a place for both teams
to be successful, as a place for both of them
to get to shine. But it's always gonna be basketball,

(01:58:02):
just like when you have the tradition at Carolina that
they have, much like UCLA and John Wooden those basketball teams,
it will be hard for UCLA football to surpass that.
It will take a few national titles before they could
get the same kind of respect and recognition that the
basketball team does, just because of the legs in the
history and you look at Alabama, right, I mean football, football, football, football, football,

(01:58:25):
and yet you got a basketball team, this one seed.
I mean, yeah, how much I remember this when Florida
won the national championship back to back in basketball, Billy Donovan.
I was there in Atlanta when they beat Ohio State
for their second consecutive national championship. And I'm there at
the game, and so I'm walking out of the arena.

(01:58:46):
You think Florida Gator fans are all buzzing about everything. No,
all they were talking about is tibo tibo tibo tibo teva.
I mean walking out of winning the national championship for
the second straight year. Oh Man, can't wait to see
this tebow? Guy, Man, he's going to be unbelievable. See
that's it was true. He ended up being true. Yeah,

(01:59:09):
and it was true, and he ended up winning Heisman
Trophy all that season. All Right, So we're gonna get
through the Sweet sixteen. Hey, next week, we're gonna be
punching tickets of the final four. Buckie. That's when it
really gets that. That's oh Man. Just when he gets
started with the tournament, all of a sudden it comes
to the rear bottom line. Are we going to see
any difference in the Lamar Jackson or Aaron Rodgers situation

(01:59:31):
by the time when you meet again next Saturday. An
let's say Aaron Rodgers gets done, Lamar Jackson next. All right,
that comes through the one and only Bucky Brooks. For
all the things you need to know in the sports world,
keep it right here. This is Fox Sports or Radio.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Steve Hartman and Bucky Brooks talk Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers!