March 25, 2023 • 35 mins
Jason and Mike discuss the potential of a new era of men's college hoops as the tournament changes a lot of team landscapes.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:25):
Sports Radio. I wish you weren't such a liar. Veto
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my bass
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pair that had an ass in them. Oh That's why
I love Live Drop Friday. One game left in the
NCAA tournament and there isn't really a lot of drama
with it. Uh Texas is thumping Xavier seventy six fifty
(01:12):
seven right now, less than five minutes to go in
the shut up less than five minutes ago in the game.
So it looks like we're going to get Texas moving on,
and at least we're gonna have one two seed at
least in the tournament because all the ones are out
and all the twos are out except for Texas. So
it looks like the Elite eight is gonna shake down
like this San Diego State and Craton, Florida, Atlantic, Kansas State, Yukon, Gonzaga, Texas,
(01:40):
and Miami. That is your Elite eight, Elite eight that
nobody had nobody No, I wonder could there really be
one perfect bracket left? Now? Could there really be? With this?
Can't be one perfect bracket? You picking the you picking
the ones to lose. You had to pick two ones
to lose in the first round. Yeah. The only way
(02:02):
that happened is somehow you were able to get a
computer program to go through all the permutations and enter
them for you in time or you're still mcflies Almanac.
Well there's that too. Oh yeah, that could be. That
could be more your thanos and part of the Avengers
initiative and you change time. You know, just think about
what we talked about earlier in the show. Now that
(02:22):
we see this is what your final four is going
to look like. The left side of the bracket, either
San Diego State, Creighton, Florida Atlantic, or Kansas State is
going to play for the national championship. Right on the
other side, if Gonzaga makes you could say, okay, you know, look,
gonzag has been really good for a long time, Drew
Timmy's in his ninth year at Gonzaga. Everything's fine. Yukon's
(02:45):
a pretty good team. They were. They were a big
trendy team in the NCAA tournament. Texas is a two seed. Miami, Okay,
they were pretty good in the ACC this year. But
I can go by my bracket and how I do
in bracket challenges now to tell you how close we
are to seeing a change in a number of teams
(03:05):
in the NCAA turner, Right, Because what I what have
I always told you for the longest time, I had
a great track record for success in picking brackets, right,
Because what do I always say? Stay away from the
upsets early, stay away and go chalkish until you get
to the Elite eight, and then you take your chances.
Because if you lose a final four team, if you say, well,
I really think that uh, Creton's gonna make a run
(03:28):
through the bracket. Well, if Creton doesn't make through the bracket,
you're screwed, right, That entire side of the bracket has
done to you. So yeah, don't do the upsets. Don't
do the upsets. And I did really well in bracket
challenges for a long time because that was kind of
the best ride. You stay chalkish, and then you make
your your your big champ in the Elite eight, like okay,
well here, all right, I gotta go with if boy.
(03:49):
If Texas in Houston, I'm gonna go attack. I think
Texas is gonna wind up eating houstin like Texas here.
And that's you take your chances because you want to win.
Then you want to win your bracket, your brackets, and
you can't. Everybody picked the same team, So you gotta
take a little bit of chip, but take your chances.
The elite eight, the final floor, right, And I did
well in tournaments for a long time, last few years.
I have not why because chalk does not survive anymore,
(04:13):
all right, Whether it's the the blue blood teams that
we normally like to see go all the way Duke, Carolina, Kansas.
I'm just throwing these teams out, even lost early. You know,
you know all these other teams Michigan, who's not even
in the tournament, Uh, you know, all these teams Syracuse
to all these teams. All right, you can normally, you
could normally count on the fact that these blue bloods
(04:36):
are going to advance deep into the tournament, and even
in years where they don't, the top seeds would still
go on. Alabama was by far and away the best
team in the field. Right Alabama there by far, the
byre the number one overall seed. Alabama's out did make
it to the Elite eight. So now you're you're in
a phase of the NSA tournament where you can't even
guarantee that the ones, even if it's not a blue blood,
(04:59):
if it's not Due or Carolina, arkansa, Kentucky, you can't
even guarantee that the ones are gonna make it. So
I look at my brackets and I go, yeah, the
last years I haven't haven't nearly done as well as
I did for the twenty years before that, like from
them from the early to mid nineties up through like
the early teens, like your early twenty twelve, twenty thirteen,
(05:20):
twenty fourteen. I always did great. I always finished well
because I knew how to pick. But now you look
at this trend in the last few years, and it
has become anyone can win the tournament, right, anyone can
get to the Sweet sixteen. It used to be, you know,
nobody has. Let's why I never paid attention to snubs,
because nobody can get that snub from the tournament is
(05:42):
going to make the Sweet sixteen. It just doesn't happen.
Can they win one game? But no, nobody is good
enough to be two really good teams. If you're snubbed,
if you're a team number seventy seventy one, seventy two,
you're not. I'm sorry, you're not gonna to make the
Sweet sixteen. Now, the snub teams could easily make the
Sweet sixteen. Could Syracuse have won a couple of games
and jumped into the Sweet sixteen? Judging by what we
(06:02):
saw if you let Michigan in, like I just said,
could they have jumped in and won a couple of
games and moved into the suites? And yeah, because you're
looking at some of the teams that are winning now
with sixteens beating ones and fifteens beating twos. And I
guarantee you this, the sixteens and fifteens at one aren't
as good as Syracuse or Michigan or some of these
other schools. So yeah, if anybody can win the tournament,
(06:24):
Now you're seeing where I'm coming around to this. If
anybody can win the tournament, how far away are we
really from letting in even more teams, from going full
board to ninety six or whatever you want to do.
And we can have an entire full first week. You
can have selection Sunday and then Tuesday, the tournament begins
with sixteen teams, sixteen games on Tuesday, sixteen games on Wednesday,
(06:48):
sixteen games on Thursday, sixteen games on Friday, and then
we move on. Why not? Because if you have if
you have a situation where we don't know what the
ratings are going to be like, because the Dukes in
the Kentucky and the Kansases and the Syracuses and the
Michigans and all these in the UCLAs aren't guaranteed to
be down there at the end because I don't know
who's gonna you know, are you really gonna pay attention
(07:08):
really gonna watch crateon San Diego State this weekend. It's
gonna be hard to say I got to get to
the TV to watch crateon San Diego State. So the
NCAA Tournament's gonna need to evolve, and they're going to
evolve by overwhelming you with games and quantity where all right,
maybe some when you get down to it, some of
the games at the end of the tournament aren't gonna
have great ratings. But you know what, we're gonna get
bonzo ratings on Monday and Tuesday and we have sixteen games.
(07:31):
Everybody's gonna watch all these games all week long. If
two games, if two sets of full days on Thursday
and Friday is good, how much better? Or four days
of it? How much? How much better is that? I
try to find a way to get Monday into it,
But you know, you still have to out the even
number of teams, maybe have a play in Monday. That's
how it goes, right, That's really how it goes, And
that's how the NCAA Tournament evolves. Because now it's not
(07:54):
enough to go win your Power five conference, have a
great season, be twenty eight five, because that reward is
not what it used to be. The lower seeds are
all better, right, and the top seeds are not quite
as good. So what's the reward for a team to say, hey,
we're gonna kill ourselves to win our conference tournament this
year to get in. Why you could lose in the
(08:14):
second round because you could have a tough matchup. Why
why are we doing It's not really fair that a
team from Texas A and M Corpus Christie gets to
get in and play Alabama because just because they want
a really small tournament, they're not as good as the
other teams. You know me, I think mid majors they
shouldn't be in with the big boys because they don't
play the schedule at the other teams do. But that
horse has left the barn. So how do you make
(08:36):
it more equal? You say, listen, it's not a big deal.
Don't worry about having to win your tournament. Don't worry
about having to be a number one seed. It doesn't
matter anymore. Just get in, and we're gonna let ninety
six teams in or one hundred teams in, whatever it's
gonna wind up being. We're gonna let it could be
one hundred team NCAA Tournament and we amp up the
craziness of the tournament itself. And that's how the tournament evolves.
(09:00):
And if you think we're not going to see that,
you're crazy, because we're in an era now where that
blue blood era of the tried and true teams that
we like to see in the sweet sixteen, the lead eight,
Final four, and beyond that era is gone. It's not
coming back. The talent is dispersed too far throughout the
country and you get, yeah, you still get really good
top teams. Look, Alabama is still really good. In Kansas
(09:20):
still really good. But you know what these other teams
that are playing below them, Arkansas good enough to win,
still prettier. All these teams are good enough to win.
Anyone can win the tournament. So if anyone can win,
why are you drawing the line at sixty four. Let's
let everybody in who's at least got a pulse and
can finish it. If you're seventeen and fourteen, you're in
the NCAA tournament, congratulations, You know what, I kind of like,
(09:41):
you're drifting into NBA territory. And yeah, buddy, if you're
reading my mind, buddy, you'd know what you're gonna say,
and that's exactly where we're headed. It is like Golden
State lod management whatever. I'm not saying that guys are
necessarily taking a bunch of days off, but in the end,
is it as important to be a one, two or three?
(10:02):
What are the what are the real advantages at this
point in doing that and really grinding through the season
to try to earn that number one overall seat Other
than you know, you get the ego strokes of every
night with the all right, here's the latest top twenty five,
(10:23):
or look out, brilliant dark coaches and all that stuff.
That's all finding good. But in reality you're going to
and again we're not talking about throwing games or any
of that fun stuff. No, non't know. But the reality
is burning yourself out and maybe not being willing to
expand your rotation or do different things to make sure
(10:46):
everybody's ready when it comes time for the tournament. Maybe
your roster building is a little bit different. Look what
happened to Ucla? You draw just saying you draw the
matchup with zag again, and what do you have? You've
got height? What did the UCLA Bruins not have with
(11:06):
a couple of guys hurt. Nobody on the bench that
had any prayer of making any type of defensive effort
against Tim Heer. So you get what you get. Now,
it's still a great game. And you know, either way,
blah blah blah, you lost, right, cut it any which way,
we go through all the permutations for the purpose of
this conversation. You lost. Well, what if during the season
(11:28):
you had an extra guy, maybe add an extra bench
player or two, Jason, while we're at that too, extra scholarships,
extra nil deals at bigger schools, whatever the case may be.
Trying to find those advantages. But you're looking to make
it the best TV product that you can. You need
these teams to hang around. Not that we know anybody,
(11:49):
but the coaches who have all quit because they're afraid
of this system anymore. Mike, you know what this segment
was all about, right Syracuse. Yeah, this had nothing to
do with college basketball and saving it. No, no, no,
it's very selfish on your part. Jason, What are you
talking about. Let's let's bring it to one hundred and twenty,
(12:09):
all right, there would be next man, everybody plays, everybody wins.
There's like three hundred and fifteen teams in d What
how about we just do this the tournament, you know,
is the fact that it's only sixty four. That's the beat.
It's sixty eight. Actually, now at sixty four, don't count.
Now listen. Here's what you do instead. Here's that you
replace the entire college basketball season with this. You rank
(12:31):
the teams like one through three hundred and sixty, and
you just play games every weekend and one place three,
sixty two, place three fifty nine and three place three,
and you just get all the way down until you
have one team one of qus is three sixty one.
Then it's three sixty one. Yeah I did three twelve.
Well they're still involved, they're just still rated. And then
you can have two tournaments in the year. Right, you
could play that tournament over the first half of the
year and then the other tournamo the second half of
(12:53):
the year. Why not do that? Hey, buddy, look, Beheim's
not walking through that door. So, I mean you, sport
needs to evolve, right, and college basketball needs to evolve.
And now that now that we're here in an era
of anyone can win, and it's going to be an
era of anyone can win because that that's where college
basketball is, that's where it's been. We're not going to
(13:14):
Kansas suddenly is not going to be going to all
these elite eights and final fours again, Duke is not
going to suddenly be going to all the elite North
Carolina is not going to do it. Nobody else is
gonna do it. It's gonna be maybe we're a good year,
Maybe it's our year, maybe it's not. Anyone can win.
So if anyone can win, why not open it up
to everybody and combat the the end of the blue
(13:36):
blood era with hey, just an over We're gonna overwhelm
you and sledge hammer you with games and more teams
and really anyone, why not? Why not? Why not do it?
Why not just hundred team tournament? Hundred team? Why not
hundred team team? Why why don't you go full fully
down the rabbit hole for all those blue blood programs.
(13:57):
If you've ever won an NC double a title, you
get to lose twice. Oh no, no, I think if
you ever want a title, you get you get an
automatic birth no matter what, oh no, no, no matter
now where where you are golf, you are grandfathered in
and you get to play for the rest of your life,
and then the championship game is just a gentleman's duel
(14:17):
duck pistols at thirty paces. Uh. You know, you know,
you guys are lucky. I didn't pull out my Ian
McShane impression because I have a pretty good Ian McShane. Yeah. Unfortunately,
a lot of it involves profanity because it's time and
that Dan McShane from Deadwood. So it's you know, the
life is one vile blanking task after another. Like it,
(14:38):
but I got a curse to do it and I
can't do it. I mean, but I do have a
pretty good Ian McShane. That's pretty good. There you go.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. It's Friday, Fox Sports Radio. It is a
live drop Friday. I'll eat that ass up the Chase
The Smith Show with my best and Mike Harmon. Now,
(15:01):
before we get into the NBA, it's got to ask
you this, Mike, because today Major League Baseball did a
fun thing. They announced all the starting pitchers for ye
to day. Right, do you get what eight Cy Young
Award winners are gonna start Opening Day next week kind
of cool, uh, and including Jacob deGrom, who will start
against the Phillies. I don't know what I'm rooting for here,
(15:26):
I really don't. Do I want to Grond to just
get tagged because I want out of New York for
whatever reason. And I know I want people to think
that everything was fine, but for some crazy reason it wasn't.
Do I want him to get tagged? And do I
want the Phillies to win a game? Or do I
want him to throw zeros for seven innings and the
Phillies start off that that season with a big l
(15:48):
like I don't, I really, I don't know what I want.
I don't, Yeah, is that what I want? You think? So? Yeah?
And I want to root for the Phillies, but man,
but that's who you are. But that's one more in
without that's one more win without Bryce Harper that they
when he comes back, and they're gonna start winning more games.
I don't know, you're gonna hate watch that more than
anybody's hate watched the game in life. I am about right.
(16:10):
I mean, I guess, like I go back to that,
I know one of those teams is gonna lose, so
I guess that's okay, But I don't know what I'm
rooting for Jason from that, and I don't know you'll
take the Phillies w and hope the Graham gets shelled.
That's right, you want you just want that to be
absolutely a train wreck right off the jump. I don't
know because you say, yeah, you want out of here.
(16:31):
I can hear it now, I can hear the monologue
next week, and that you'll be doing you want out
good for you. Look what it does for you. Well
you went, you went the whole Simpsons. I'm Jacob de Graham,
blah blah blah blah, I'm the best bitch blah blah blah.
Black damn. Right now I think it. I think it
(16:54):
probably will come. You don't will be perfect. This this
is no no, no, no no, that's awesome. No no no, no,
stop him. It's a great and opening day. No no,
this is what I'm rooting for. That's what I'm rooting for.
D Graham gets absolutely shelled, gives up like seven runs
in the first two innings, gets taken out of the game,
but the Rangers come from behind and they win like nine.
Going to my fantasy football strategy. That's what I'm rooting for. You.
(17:18):
When people would try to argue with me many years
ago and current former players, executives and everything else, it's like,
you can't really be a football fan and love fantas football,
Like you're from Chicago, how do you do that? I
go very easily, very easy. Let me tell you how.
My hope is that Brett Farve goes for three hundred
and fifty yards three touchdowns and that they give up
(17:40):
forty points and lose the game. And like that's not
gonna happen. It's like, right, but it's football. Who's pitching shutouts?
How many do you get a year? Ten? Like wow, yeah,
I'm like so statistically they're putting points on the board. Rights,
Like yeah, so shut up. I would get to the
point where here, here's how. And this was maybe because
(18:01):
it was Brady who was your course in my head
for you know, twenty years, but like there was a
couple of years where Brady was my fantasy quarterbacks. They nod,
there you go live drop Friday, and so most weeks
I say to myself, boy, it stinks that I'm rooting
for a guy that I want to lose. But all right,
it's fine because you know it's fair, and I've had
other you know, I've had Dolphins and Bills players and all.
(18:23):
This one was fine. But games against the Jets, I
would really need to find a way to reconcile myself
with that, because I wanted points from Brady, but I
wanted to win the game more so. If Brady would
throw a long touchdown, I would get mad, and then
I would say, well, if they were gonna score, all right,
at least they scored with Brady. Then it would get
(18:43):
doubly madly if he gave it to Corey Dillon. Come on,
why can't you throw that ball to Croc at the end,
why can't you throw we give it to Corey Dillon.
They have a touchdown and that so I would reconciling. Yeah,
the touchdowns to guys that weren't fantasy relevant at all,
Like I'm not getting any extra points and draft rabel,
Yeah that's true. Yeah, and standard leagues, right, obviously, IDPs,
(19:05):
you'd have the asterisk and then there'd be notes about
those those points being added to a squad. But but
to your point, yeah, this is the perfect scenario for
you to get it back to baseball of And this
is for all of you out there, wherever you may be.
You've got your fandom, and maybe you're thinking about doing
a fantasy baseball league. Let's just be real about it.
(19:25):
Guys are gonna put up their points. Guys are gonna
have great days, hit home runs, maybe go past the
fifth inning once in a while where they're starting, and
they're gonna give you quality appearances. Does not mean you
hate your team because they might be playing in division
or even facing your squad. If you're that big about it,
(19:45):
then yeah, when they face your team, you say, you
know what, he's gonna get shell today, and you become
myopic fan and a realistic fan. Hey, he's got a
one point one ERA, but against us, he's given up seven. Jason,
you call yourself a real Jets fan? What what are
you talking about? What do you mean? What am I
(20:07):
talking about? Jets fan? Whokay, I'll be Tom Brady on
your fantasy team. You had him? Oh yeah a couple
of times that Brady's a quarterback. Sure, Well then you
can't be a real Jets fan. Well, I mean it
can't be a real Jets Just what fired you? What
do you do? I gotta stop. I can not draft
anybody in the AFC East, and my team's gonna suck.
Do you think I put Raiders on my fantasy team? Look,
here's well and how many champions do you have? One?
(20:28):
Probably zero? More than you can count? Oh, are you kidding?
More than Francesca can count? You would? I just like that.
He calls him Francesca. Yeah, right, exactly, Yeah, France calls
him Francesca. He's Francesca two three four. Now, with with
that that being set, uh Rady's never been hotter. It's
(20:54):
true's coming around to that. That's that's really you know,
what did I tell you? You know, hang on, hang on,
And that's something we got to get into coming up
right now. Six minutes to go in the fourth quarter,
and the Lakers lead the Thunder one oh two to
one hundred. If the Lakers win tonight, they finished tied
(21:15):
for They will end the night tied for seventh place
in the Western Conference, up from twelfth all the way.
Here's Anthony Davis with thirty three points and ten boards.
Austin Reeves just eleven but couldn't wind up with a
triple double because he's eleven, seven and six across the board.
Lakers are playing pretty well against another five hundred team,
and we talked about this last night, and it really
(21:38):
seems to be gathering momentum with every passing day. The
Lakers seem to be moving away from Lebron James, right
like we talked about last night, that they know they've
gotten what they're going to get out of him. He
can't stay healthy and it's time for them to start
moving apart. And now it could get messy in the
offseason if the Lakers really want to move away from him,
(21:59):
because look at Anthony Davis. When does Anthony Davis have
his biggest games when Lebron James is not playing and
they look at a D thirty three intended he had
the big run in November December when Lebron was out,
and now since he's come back and been healthy, he's
had big games. So the Lakers are looking at every
day that goes by the Lakers and the fans and
the media and then the front office look at everybody
(22:21):
says the same thing, do we really need Lebron anymore?
Do we really need Lebron anymore? Do we need him?
Do we need Lebron as a team still good because
the reason they're saying this, and the reason this is this,
every single day, everybody falls in love with Austin Reeves
or Dennis shrewder the second time around. I love Dennis
shrewder Man. Oh my god, I didn't b eighty four million.
(22:42):
I love him more is because he is never fit in.
He's never become a Laker. We had a couple of
times where we thought he did and now and now
he's gonna be a Laker. They win the title in
twenty twenty. But it's like he goes out of his
way to be a little too prickly where you can
(23:04):
get that he's really just out for himself. He really
doesn't have a team. He's not Cleveland because he's left
Cleveland twice, right. He's not Miami he left Miami. Right.
He's not La because he came here left. He's more
about himself. He's more about Lebron. And and the city
has never given him that hug. And really the organization
has never given Lebron that hug. They've been they've been
(23:27):
at arms length with him all the fights with with
with Clutch Sports, and and and and Lebron. This is
what we want to do, and here's how we want
to build the team and run the team, and and
Genie bust In the front office and Rob Polinka have
a different idea. But you're still at Lebron's whims because
he's the best player in the world, had been the
best player in the world. It's gonna be much easier
to move on from it because there's not gonna be
(23:48):
a big outcry from fans that say, how do we
do this? It's it's not like the Lake the Lakers,
where it's not like saying, hey, thanks for all the
thanks for the good times, Kobe, but boy, you're really done.
Uh you know you got to go finish with the
Clippers or somewhere else. It's it's it's you know how
how bad the city was and how upset they were
when Shaq got traded. I still remember the Paul over
the city the day after Shaq was dealt to the
(24:10):
He was, oh my god, are you kidding? But if
Lebron left, one of the big things. And you do
have to consider this because I remember Steve Phillips telling
me this a long time ago. Uh, former Baseball GM
He's on MLB Network now saying, hey, eventually, Sometimes you
have to listen to the fans, and there's many different
reasons for it. And there's sometimes when a fans input
and the overall fans input counts on things. And this
(24:32):
is one of those times where it's like, Okay, you
would think it would be difficult to say, we want
to move on from Lebron James. But what kind of
pushback are you really going to get if the Lakers
said tomorrow, Hey, we're shutting down Lebron for the season.
We're done and we're moving on and we're gonna find
a way in the off season, our fans gonna gonna
go crazy. Are they gonna riot on set their media? No,
(24:52):
they're gonna say a look at a d Look who's there.
He's our guy more than anybody else. And and it
would be very easy. It will be very easy for
the Lakers to move on from Lebron James because of that,
because you don't have to worry about the fan backlash,
and not bad because you really worry. You know, it
is something to be concerned about the perception of your
team and are you doing the right things? Are you
(25:13):
serving your team? Are you serving the fans? It's all
part of it, and that would not be one part
of the conversation if they decided tomorrow to move on
from Lebron. If if nothing else, it would echo my well,
I what I watched way too much of anymore classic
Northwestern basketball. Well, no, I'm getting notes out of Vegas
from my brother that he just had a nice conversation
with the great Michael Hayes, which is you know, now,
(25:36):
I'm jealous, although I love talking to you. You don't
know Michael ps Hayes. Oh no, Michael Hayes. Yeah, you
know Michael Hayes. He played the next door neighbor. You know,
Michael Hayes. Yeah, I hate you. But anyway, just the
idea that this would be Lebron at this point, inadvertently
he's putting the next guy over and passing the tour
right today, Hey, is is the Undertaker's birthday? Do you
(26:02):
remember when the torch was passed from him and moving
on right to all the bray Wyatt company. So yeah,
it's it's a pretty big deal here by his absence
crowd and the momentum for some of the ancillary players
and when he's available to go because he doesn't a
(26:24):
lot to subvert and sabotage his own relationship with the fans,
and that's Anthony Davis. But when he's available and ready
to play and puts up big numbers every time he
does that, and if they can find their way into
the play in or better, yeah, these guys all become heroes.
And it's like Lebron who that's exactly where this is headed, right,
(26:49):
And whether it's this offseason, which if he doesn't come back,
and the Lakers find a way to get into the
to the playoffs, whether they finish in the top six
or not, because if they if they you win three,
win five in a row, or you know, the Lakers
will be in the four seats. If the Lakers finish
this season and they make the playoffs and they get
in at the top of the plane, right, they don't
(27:10):
squeak in a tense. Let's just say they get in
around seventh, right, which mean or you go into the
offseason going boy, when we had Lebron, we were on
the outside looking in, right, we were in twelfth place.
No matter how good we were, he was in and
out of the lineup, we were in twelfth place. Lebron
missed the last four weeks of the season. We went
from twelfth to seventh. That's all you need. That's all
(27:32):
the team need to say, Yeah, maybe it's time for
something else. And then it gets really messy because you know,
Lebron would want to control the discussion about where he
winds up and how he ends his career. He has
always been someone to call the shots, but now you
always players Sometimes when you play for a long time,
you get to a point where you don't have that
power anymore. Just ask Aaron Rodgers, right, he's that I'm
gonna call the shots in green Bay until I decide
(27:55):
to walk away. Whatever that's I'm forty five, forty six
years old. One bad year, one year where green Bay
didn't achieve, one year where green Bay fall short the
final week of the season at home against the Lions.
And suddenly all that change, and now Aaron Rodgers getting
pushed out. He to be playing for the Jets next year.
So that so, did you think it's not gonna happen.
It can't happen to powerful players. Tom Brady got pushed
(28:17):
out in New England, all right, It's it happens. At
some point. It will happen to Lebron Lakers finished like this,
and they finished and the seventh seed. That's exactly how
that conversation is gonna go. We don't need Lebron and
the off season gets really really messy. Well, what's what's
funny is it's just that with Lebron James is all
any goodwill? It was lost right, he got the record,
(28:40):
and even that was a tepid response. We chronicled the
minute for minute of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but he goes
down in that game, can't finish, they lose, and then
we haven't seen him since. And now he's too busy
on Twitter protesting against what guys are reporting without setting
the record straight, like thanks. But with Aaron Rodgers, you
(29:01):
had several years of this, and when you're winning, you
can be an ass. We've seen this in sports forever.
You could be a terrible person and keep your place
on the field and everybody on marvel in between the
white lines. But it still cast dispersions and raise their
hands about you know, the guy or you are or
(29:21):
woman in some cases. But in the once you lose
that stardom and the aptitude and the performance starts to dip. Yeah,
we're talking about his performance. His performance, talking about his
performance is performance that once that dips, you lose any
of that ability and that gray area, and folks will
(29:43):
turn on to the next set a time because they're
cheering for laundry. You just happen to be occupying it
for a while. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeart Radio app. Today's Friday, Fox Sports Radio, The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. What's
(30:07):
in the bag a shark or something? It is a
live drop Friday. Tell Alan you're on Fox. The jet
suck so Jason? Yeah, what's up when you tell everybody
what happens to John? Uh? Not anytime soon? No, no, no, no, no, right?
What are you doing? The movie is out? What's wrong
with you? Yeah? I know you haven't seen you yet.
(30:29):
It's it's it's fine, it's fine. I haven't seen him
by now. They don't care. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine,
it's fine. Let everybody see like the dog aggression will
not stand. Only eight point seven million last night? Did
that seem love? I mean, we had a full house.
But that's you know, that's Thursday night. People say Thursday
night midnight showings. That's that's Thursday night midnight. You wait,
(30:52):
you see how much money that movie makes this week.
But I'm gonna go see it again. It might be
a little bit lower, just when you think about how
you can't just run at every couple of hours because
it's a two hour, forty five minute movie, so there'll
be a little bit less showings. But no, this movie's
gonna make a ton of money. Mike. Of course you're
gonna go see it again. You were asleep for this one. Yeah,
I gotta go get that another hour. It's gone. It's
done so so well. You gotta be so mean man.
(31:13):
Uh so I didn't even get a laugh at a
Jason Now I apologize, Hee, that's okay. That wasn't even
worth it. Well, list he hates me and all. I
mean he spilled all his popcorn. Yeah, I did spill
all my pop bad, job bad. It was a big
hole in the bottom. I did well. The guy kept
getting up and moving past us. There were a lot
of guys. Just seven times. I'm like, dude, come on,
(31:34):
sit for two and a half hour druggling. That's where
you gotta go. Get your little um the thing, the wizzonator,
bring a bag with you. Yeah, well, okay, tysher complaint
went right, all right? So with all the NSA action
done today and Texas, Xavier made a little bit close
(31:55):
at the end, but they blew him out. Jason three
seventy one. Yeah, with real quick. The Lakers won. Okay,
well it will get you. The Lakers coming up in
a few minutes. We'll get to the Lakers. We'll get
to the Lakers. Um the odds funny. Now they're back, baby,
Oh my god, you guys. I said we're gonna do tournament.
(32:17):
Here's about the tournament. The Lakers won a game. The
Lakers are back. We're do the Lakers coming up in
ten minutes. How does that sound? Lakers disrespect? We'll live
with it. Oh my gott I feel like the dead.
That's got to say, you guys, you can't just disappear
and go on all these rides. I gotta know where
you're going, all right. You can't just disappear and run.
I can't find you, all right. So Frostburg has the
(32:38):
odds for the Elite eight for the NCAA Tournament. What
do you got for us with the eight teams left
that virtually nobody had on any of their break You
want to guess who the favorite is, Well, I'm gonna
s I'm gonna say Texas is the favorite. Texas is
the favorite, followed by Yukon and plus three hundred. Yeah. Yeah,
because Kim is gonna go off at some point. Yeah,
(33:00):
you got you gotta think, yeah, especially if they played
the game in Madison Square Garden, Kemba is gonna go absolutely.
Number three is a waste of a dollar. It's Gonzaga
plus five fifty. Then you got the Creton Blue Jays
plus six hundred. Yeah, you know, I gotta say, if
if you had to tell me what team's gonna be
playing Monday night in the National Championship, And I can't
(33:23):
believe I'm saying this. I think in the end it's
it's going to wind up being Creton in Kansas State.
I'll tell you gimme Creton, man. They got they got
the guard, they got the big, they got Calkbrenner and
then Bard, you got Joe Carter winning MVP. Sure, the
Blue Jays are gonna be. David Khne is gonna be pitching.
He's gonna be you know you got Mike Timlin's gonna
close it out for the Blue Jays. I'll tell them
(33:45):
you gimme, gimme. Creighton playing in the National Championship on
Monday night. Look at you. I like the chaos for
that factor there. Creton followed by San Diego State at
plus seven hundred. Yeah, san Diego State with the veterans,
this is where we go back to have in that
core and people that have been in the program that
you can you can step up in big moments. So
(34:06):
I think I like them a little bit of as
a price shot man. The other side of the Brackett,
Texas is the favorite. Uh Tech, Miami has been pretty
good all year. That game's more of a to think
huge game tonight. Man talking about shooting the lights out.
But I'm gonna say coming out of there's gonna be Yukon.
(34:28):
I think they beat Gonzaga to borrow. I think they
beat Texas and it's Yukon and Creighton playing for the
National chip. Florida Atlantic. Oh, I'd love to see it.
I mean, if I could, I think I mean Florida,
I mean I want Florida Atlantic, and I mean would
you want Florid Atlantic in Miami? I mean it sounds
like a game. And in the fall in college football,
nobody watches or they preseason. We do at home at home,
(34:52):
oh man, every year it's your turn to Diami in
Texas basketball schools who knew? Hey, look, Syracuse is a
soccer school now, so it can happen. We drop them
into this conversation. We're talking about the tournament. You're just
saying what schools we are when this tournament expands? Okay,
very good? Uh So, Yeah, I mean I'm looking at
(35:12):
Yukon and Creighton for the national championship, saying, oh my goodness,
Twitter at how about a Fresca? Mike has swollen down
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Coming up next a basketball result. You're not gonna believe,
You're not gonna want to believe, but it happened. It's
next right here, Fox Dah Jenney, I'm sorry, I'll ruin
(35:34):
your black panther party.
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. You're listening to Fox
(00:25):
Sports Radio. I wish you weren't such a liar. Veto
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my bass
friend Mike Harmon does my nightmare. Five minutes to go
here on a live drop Friday live from the tire
rack dot Com studios. Tirect dot com will help you
(00:47):
get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road
hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirac dot com
the way tire buying should. But I've never seen a
pair that had an ass in them. Oh That's why
I love Live Drop Friday. One game left in the
NCAA tournament and there isn't really a lot of drama
with it. Uh Texas is thumping Xavier seventy six fifty
(01:12):
seven right now, less than five minutes to go in
the shut up less than five minutes ago in the game.
So it looks like we're going to get Texas moving on,
and at least we're gonna have one two seed at
least in the tournament because all the ones are out
and all the twos are out except for Texas. So
it looks like the Elite eight is gonna shake down
like this San Diego State and Craton, Florida, Atlantic, Kansas State, Yukon, Gonzaga, Texas,
(01:40):
and Miami. That is your Elite eight, Elite eight that
nobody had nobody No, I wonder could there really be
one perfect bracket left? Now? Could there really be? With this?
Can't be one perfect bracket? You picking the you picking
the ones to lose. You had to pick two ones
to lose in the first round. Yeah. The only way
(02:02):
that happened is somehow you were able to get a
computer program to go through all the permutations and enter
them for you in time or you're still mcflies Almanac.
Well there's that too. Oh yeah, that could be. That
could be more your thanos and part of the Avengers
initiative and you change time. You know, just think about
what we talked about earlier in the show. Now that
(02:22):
we see this is what your final four is going
to look like. The left side of the bracket, either
San Diego State, Creighton, Florida Atlantic, or Kansas State is
going to play for the national championship. Right on the
other side, if Gonzaga makes you could say, okay, you know, look,
gonzag has been really good for a long time, Drew
Timmy's in his ninth year at Gonzaga. Everything's fine. Yukon's
(02:45):
a pretty good team. They were. They were a big
trendy team in the NCAA tournament. Texas is a two seed. Miami, Okay,
they were pretty good in the ACC this year. But
I can go by my bracket and how I do
in bracket challenges now to tell you how close we
are to seeing a change in a number of teams
(03:05):
in the NCAA turner, Right, Because what I what have
I always told you for the longest time, I had
a great track record for success in picking brackets, right,
Because what do I always say? Stay away from the
upsets early, stay away and go chalkish until you get
to the Elite eight, and then you take your chances.
Because if you lose a final four team, if you say, well,
I really think that uh, Creton's gonna make a run
(03:28):
through the bracket. Well, if Creton doesn't make through the bracket,
you're screwed, right, That entire side of the bracket has
done to you. So yeah, don't do the upsets. Don't
do the upsets. And I did really well in bracket
challenges for a long time because that was kind of
the best ride. You stay chalkish, and then you make
your your your big champ in the Elite eight, like okay,
well here, all right, I gotta go with if boy.
(03:49):
If Texas in Houston, I'm gonna go attack. I think
Texas is gonna wind up eating houstin like Texas here.
And that's you take your chances because you want to win.
Then you want to win your bracket, your brackets, and
you can't. Everybody picked the same team, So you gotta
take a little bit of chip, but take your chances.
The elite eight, the final floor, right, And I did
well in tournaments for a long time, last few years.
I have not why because chalk does not survive anymore,
(04:13):
all right, Whether it's the the blue blood teams that
we normally like to see go all the way Duke, Carolina, Kansas.
I'm just throwing these teams out, even lost early. You know,
you know all these other teams Michigan, who's not even
in the tournament, Uh, you know, all these teams Syracuse
to all these teams. All right, you can normally, you
could normally count on the fact that these blue bloods
(04:36):
are going to advance deep into the tournament, and even
in years where they don't, the top seeds would still
go on. Alabama was by far and away the best
team in the field. Right Alabama there by far, the
byre the number one overall seed. Alabama's out did make
it to the Elite eight. So now you're you're in
a phase of the NSA tournament where you can't even
guarantee that the ones, even if it's not a blue blood,
(04:59):
if it's not Due or Carolina, arkansa, Kentucky, you can't
even guarantee that the ones are gonna make it. So
I look at my brackets and I go, yeah, the
last years I haven't haven't nearly done as well as
I did for the twenty years before that, like from
them from the early to mid nineties up through like
the early teens, like your early twenty twelve, twenty thirteen,
(05:20):
twenty fourteen. I always did great. I always finished well
because I knew how to pick. But now you look
at this trend in the last few years, and it
has become anyone can win the tournament, right, anyone can
get to the Sweet sixteen. It used to be, you know,
nobody has. Let's why I never paid attention to snubs,
because nobody can get that snub from the tournament is
(05:42):
going to make the Sweet sixteen. It just doesn't happen.
Can they win one game? But no, nobody is good
enough to be two really good teams. If you're snubbed,
if you're a team number seventy seventy one, seventy two,
you're not. I'm sorry, you're not gonna to make the
Sweet sixteen. Now, the snub teams could easily make the
Sweet sixteen. Could Syracuse have won a couple of games
and jumped into the Sweet sixteen? Judging by what we
(06:02):
saw if you let Michigan in, like I just said,
could they have jumped in and won a couple of
games and moved into the suites? And yeah, because you're
looking at some of the teams that are winning now
with sixteens beating ones and fifteens beating twos. And I
guarantee you this, the sixteens and fifteens at one aren't
as good as Syracuse or Michigan or some of these
other schools. So yeah, if anybody can win the tournament,
(06:24):
Now you're seeing where I'm coming around to this. If
anybody can win the tournament, how far away are we
really from letting in even more teams, from going full
board to ninety six or whatever you want to do.
And we can have an entire full first week. You
can have selection Sunday and then Tuesday, the tournament begins
with sixteen teams, sixteen games on Tuesday, sixteen games on Wednesday,
(06:48):
sixteen games on Thursday, sixteen games on Friday, and then
we move on. Why not? Because if you have if
you have a situation where we don't know what the
ratings are going to be like, because the Dukes in
the Kentucky and the Kansases and the Syracuses and the
Michigans and all these in the UCLAs aren't guaranteed to
be down there at the end because I don't know
who's gonna you know, are you really gonna pay attention
(07:08):
really gonna watch crateon San Diego State this weekend. It's
gonna be hard to say I got to get to
the TV to watch crateon San Diego State. So the
NCAA Tournament's gonna need to evolve, and they're going to
evolve by overwhelming you with games and quantity where all right,
maybe some when you get down to it, some of
the games at the end of the tournament aren't gonna
have great ratings. But you know what, we're gonna get
bonzo ratings on Monday and Tuesday and we have sixteen games.
(07:31):
Everybody's gonna watch all these games all week long. If
two games, if two sets of full days on Thursday
and Friday is good, how much better? Or four days
of it? How much? How much better is that? I
try to find a way to get Monday into it,
But you know, you still have to out the even
number of teams, maybe have a play in Monday. That's
how it goes, right, That's really how it goes, And
that's how the NCAA Tournament evolves. Because now it's not
(07:54):
enough to go win your Power five conference, have a
great season, be twenty eight five, because that reward is
not what it used to be. The lower seeds are
all better, right, and the top seeds are not quite
as good. So what's the reward for a team to say, hey,
we're gonna kill ourselves to win our conference tournament this
year to get in. Why you could lose in the
(08:14):
second round because you could have a tough matchup. Why
why are we doing It's not really fair that a
team from Texas A and M Corpus Christie gets to
get in and play Alabama because just because they want
a really small tournament, they're not as good as the
other teams. You know me, I think mid majors they
shouldn't be in with the big boys because they don't
play the schedule at the other teams do. But that
horse has left the barn. So how do you make
(08:36):
it more equal? You say, listen, it's not a big deal.
Don't worry about having to win your tournament. Don't worry
about having to be a number one seed. It doesn't
matter anymore. Just get in, and we're gonna let ninety
six teams in or one hundred teams in, whatever it's
gonna wind up being. We're gonna let it could be
one hundred team NCAA Tournament and we amp up the
craziness of the tournament itself. And that's how the tournament evolves.
(09:00):
And if you think we're not going to see that,
you're crazy, because we're in an era now where that
blue blood era of the tried and true teams that
we like to see in the sweet sixteen, the lead eight,
Final four, and beyond that era is gone. It's not
coming back. The talent is dispersed too far throughout the
country and you get, yeah, you still get really good
top teams. Look, Alabama is still really good. In Kansas
(09:20):
still really good. But you know what these other teams
that are playing below them, Arkansas good enough to win,
still prettier. All these teams are good enough to win.
Anyone can win the tournament. So if anyone can win,
why are you drawing the line at sixty four. Let's
let everybody in who's at least got a pulse and
can finish it. If you're seventeen and fourteen, you're in
the NCAA tournament, congratulations, You know what, I kind of like,
(09:41):
you're drifting into NBA territory. And yeah, buddy, if you're
reading my mind, buddy, you'd know what you're gonna say,
and that's exactly where we're headed. It is like Golden
State lod management whatever. I'm not saying that guys are
necessarily taking a bunch of days off, but in the end,
is it as important to be a one, two or three?
(10:02):
What are the what are the real advantages at this
point in doing that and really grinding through the season
to try to earn that number one overall seat Other
than you know, you get the ego strokes of every
night with the all right, here's the latest top twenty five,
(10:23):
or look out, brilliant dark coaches and all that stuff.
That's all finding good. But in reality you're going to
and again we're not talking about throwing games or any
of that fun stuff. No, non't know. But the reality
is burning yourself out and maybe not being willing to
expand your rotation or do different things to make sure
(10:46):
everybody's ready when it comes time for the tournament. Maybe
your roster building is a little bit different. Look what
happened to Ucla? You draw just saying you draw the
matchup with zag again, and what do you have? You've
got height? What did the UCLA Bruins not have with
(11:06):
a couple of guys hurt. Nobody on the bench that
had any prayer of making any type of defensive effort
against Tim Heer. So you get what you get. Now,
it's still a great game. And you know, either way,
blah blah blah, you lost, right, cut it any which way,
we go through all the permutations for the purpose of
this conversation. You lost. Well, what if during the season
(11:28):
you had an extra guy, maybe add an extra bench
player or two, Jason, while we're at that too, extra scholarships,
extra nil deals at bigger schools, whatever the case may be.
Trying to find those advantages. But you're looking to make
it the best TV product that you can. You need
these teams to hang around. Not that we know anybody,
(11:49):
but the coaches who have all quit because they're afraid
of this system anymore. Mike, you know what this segment
was all about, right Syracuse. Yeah, this had nothing to
do with college basketball and saving it. No, no, no,
it's very selfish on your part. Jason, What are you
talking about. Let's let's bring it to one hundred and twenty,
(12:09):
all right, there would be next man, everybody plays, everybody wins.
There's like three hundred and fifteen teams in d What
how about we just do this the tournament, you know,
is the fact that it's only sixty four. That's the beat.
It's sixty eight. Actually, now at sixty four, don't count.
Now listen. Here's what you do instead. Here's that you
replace the entire college basketball season with this. You rank
(12:31):
the teams like one through three hundred and sixty, and
you just play games every weekend and one place three,
sixty two, place three fifty nine and three place three,
and you just get all the way down until you
have one team one of qus is three sixty one.
Then it's three sixty one. Yeah I did three twelve.
Well they're still involved, they're just still rated. And then
you can have two tournaments in the year. Right, you
could play that tournament over the first half of the
year and then the other tournamo the second half of
(12:53):
the year. Why not do that? Hey, buddy, look, Beheim's
not walking through that door. So, I mean you, sport
needs to evolve, right, and college basketball needs to evolve.
And now that now that we're here in an era
of anyone can win, and it's going to be an
era of anyone can win because that that's where college
basketball is, that's where it's been. We're not going to
(13:14):
Kansas suddenly is not going to be going to all
these elite eights and final fours again, Duke is not
going to suddenly be going to all the elite North
Carolina is not going to do it. Nobody else is
gonna do it. It's gonna be maybe we're a good year,
Maybe it's our year, maybe it's not. Anyone can win.
So if anyone can win, why not open it up
to everybody and combat the the end of the blue
(13:36):
blood era with hey, just an over We're gonna overwhelm
you and sledge hammer you with games and more teams
and really anyone, why not? Why not? Why not do it?
Why not just hundred team tournament? Hundred team? Why not
hundred team team? Why why don't you go full fully
down the rabbit hole for all those blue blood programs.
(13:57):
If you've ever won an NC double a title, you
get to lose twice. Oh no, no, I think if
you ever want a title, you get you get an
automatic birth no matter what, oh no, no, no matter
now where where you are golf, you are grandfathered in
and you get to play for the rest of your life,
and then the championship game is just a gentleman's duel
(14:17):
duck pistols at thirty paces. Uh. You know, you know,
you guys are lucky. I didn't pull out my Ian
McShane impression because I have a pretty good Ian McShane. Yeah. Unfortunately,
a lot of it involves profanity because it's time and
that Dan McShane from Deadwood. So it's you know, the
life is one vile blanking task after another. Like it,
(14:38):
but I got a curse to do it and I
can't do it. I mean, but I do have a
pretty good Ian McShane. That's pretty good. There you go.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific. It's Friday, Fox Sports Radio. It is a
live drop Friday. I'll eat that ass up the Chase
The Smith Show with my best and Mike Harmon. Now,
(15:01):
before we get into the NBA, it's got to ask
you this, Mike, because today Major League Baseball did a
fun thing. They announced all the starting pitchers for ye
to day. Right, do you get what eight Cy Young
Award winners are gonna start Opening Day next week kind
of cool, uh, and including Jacob deGrom, who will start
against the Phillies. I don't know what I'm rooting for here,
(15:26):
I really don't. Do I want to Grond to just
get tagged because I want out of New York for
whatever reason. And I know I want people to think
that everything was fine, but for some crazy reason it wasn't.
Do I want him to get tagged? And do I
want the Phillies to win a game? Or do I
want him to throw zeros for seven innings and the
Phillies start off that that season with a big l
(15:48):
like I don't, I really, I don't know what I want.
I don't, Yeah, is that what I want? You think? So? Yeah?
And I want to root for the Phillies, but man,
but that's who you are. But that's one more in
without that's one more win without Bryce Harper that they
when he comes back, and they're gonna start winning more games.
I don't know, you're gonna hate watch that more than
anybody's hate watched the game in life. I am about right.
(16:10):
I mean, I guess, like I go back to that,
I know one of those teams is gonna lose, so
I guess that's okay, But I don't know what I'm
rooting for Jason from that, and I don't know you'll
take the Phillies w and hope the Graham gets shelled.
That's right, you want you just want that to be
absolutely a train wreck right off the jump. I don't
know because you say, yeah, you want out of here.
(16:31):
I can hear it now, I can hear the monologue
next week, and that you'll be doing you want out
good for you. Look what it does for you. Well
you went, you went the whole Simpsons. I'm Jacob de Graham,
blah blah blah blah, I'm the best bitch blah blah blah.
Black damn. Right now I think it. I think it
(16:54):
probably will come. You don't will be perfect. This this
is no no, no, no no, that's awesome. No no no, no,
stop him. It's a great and opening day. No no,
this is what I'm rooting for. That's what I'm rooting for.
D Graham gets absolutely shelled, gives up like seven runs
in the first two innings, gets taken out of the game,
but the Rangers come from behind and they win like nine.
Going to my fantasy football strategy. That's what I'm rooting for. You.
(17:18):
When people would try to argue with me many years
ago and current former players, executives and everything else, it's like,
you can't really be a football fan and love fantas football,
Like you're from Chicago, how do you do that? I
go very easily, very easy. Let me tell you how.
My hope is that Brett Farve goes for three hundred
and fifty yards three touchdowns and that they give up
(17:40):
forty points and lose the game. And like that's not
gonna happen. It's like, right, but it's football. Who's pitching shutouts?
How many do you get a year? Ten? Like wow, yeah,
I'm like so statistically they're putting points on the board. Rights,
Like yeah, so shut up. I would get to the
point where here, here's how. And this was maybe because
(18:01):
it was Brady who was your course in my head
for you know, twenty years, but like there was a
couple of years where Brady was my fantasy quarterbacks. They nod,
there you go live drop Friday, and so most weeks
I say to myself, boy, it stinks that I'm rooting
for a guy that I want to lose. But all right,
it's fine because you know it's fair, and I've had
other you know, I've had Dolphins and Bills players and all.
(18:23):
This one was fine. But games against the Jets, I
would really need to find a way to reconcile myself
with that, because I wanted points from Brady, but I
wanted to win the game more so. If Brady would
throw a long touchdown, I would get mad, and then
I would say, well, if they were gonna score, all right,
at least they scored with Brady. Then it would get
(18:43):
doubly madly if he gave it to Corey Dillon. Come on,
why can't you throw that ball to Croc at the end,
why can't you throw we give it to Corey Dillon.
They have a touchdown and that so I would reconciling. Yeah,
the touchdowns to guys that weren't fantasy relevant at all,
Like I'm not getting any extra points and draft rabel,
Yeah that's true. Yeah, and standard leagues, right, obviously, IDPs,
(19:05):
you'd have the asterisk and then there'd be notes about
those those points being added to a squad. But but
to your point, yeah, this is the perfect scenario for
you to get it back to baseball of And this
is for all of you out there, wherever you may be.
You've got your fandom, and maybe you're thinking about doing
a fantasy baseball league. Let's just be real about it.
(19:25):
Guys are gonna put up their points. Guys are gonna
have great days, hit home runs, maybe go past the
fifth inning once in a while where they're starting, and
they're gonna give you quality appearances. Does not mean you
hate your team because they might be playing in division
or even facing your squad. If you're that big about it,
(19:45):
then yeah, when they face your team, you say, you
know what, he's gonna get shell today, and you become
myopic fan and a realistic fan. Hey, he's got a
one point one ERA, but against us, he's given up seven. Jason,
you call yourself a real Jets fan? What what are
you talking about? What do you mean? What am I
(20:07):
talking about? Jets fan? Whokay, I'll be Tom Brady on
your fantasy team. You had him? Oh yeah a couple
of times that Brady's a quarterback. Sure, Well then you
can't be a real Jets fan. Well, I mean it
can't be a real Jets Just what fired you? What
do you do? I gotta stop. I can not draft
anybody in the AFC East, and my team's gonna suck.
Do you think I put Raiders on my fantasy team? Look,
here's well and how many champions do you have? One?
(20:28):
Probably zero? More than you can count? Oh, are you kidding?
More than Francesca can count? You would? I just like that.
He calls him Francesca. Yeah, right, exactly, Yeah, France calls
him Francesca. He's Francesca two three four. Now, with with
that that being set, uh Rady's never been hotter. It's
(20:54):
true's coming around to that. That's that's really you know,
what did I tell you? You know, hang on, hang on,
And that's something we got to get into coming up
right now. Six minutes to go in the fourth quarter,
and the Lakers lead the Thunder one oh two to
one hundred. If the Lakers win tonight, they finished tied
(21:15):
for They will end the night tied for seventh place
in the Western Conference, up from twelfth all the way.
Here's Anthony Davis with thirty three points and ten boards.
Austin Reeves just eleven but couldn't wind up with a
triple double because he's eleven, seven and six across the board.
Lakers are playing pretty well against another five hundred team,
and we talked about this last night, and it really
(21:38):
seems to be gathering momentum with every passing day. The
Lakers seem to be moving away from Lebron James, right
like we talked about last night, that they know they've
gotten what they're going to get out of him. He
can't stay healthy and it's time for them to start
moving apart. And now it could get messy in the
offseason if the Lakers really want to move away from him,
(21:59):
because look at Anthony Davis. When does Anthony Davis have
his biggest games when Lebron James is not playing and
they look at a D thirty three intended he had
the big run in November December when Lebron was out,
and now since he's come back and been healthy, he's
had big games. So the Lakers are looking at every
day that goes by the Lakers and the fans and
the media and then the front office look at everybody
(22:21):
says the same thing, do we really need Lebron anymore?
Do we really need Lebron anymore? Do we need him?
Do we need Lebron as a team still good because
the reason they're saying this, and the reason this is this,
every single day, everybody falls in love with Austin Reeves
or Dennis shrewder the second time around. I love Dennis
shrewder Man. Oh my god, I didn't b eighty four million.
(22:42):
I love him more is because he is never fit in.
He's never become a Laker. We had a couple of
times where we thought he did and now and now
he's gonna be a Laker. They win the title in
twenty twenty. But it's like he goes out of his
way to be a little too prickly where you can
(23:04):
get that he's really just out for himself. He really
doesn't have a team. He's not Cleveland because he's left
Cleveland twice, right. He's not Miami he left Miami. Right.
He's not La because he came here left. He's more
about himself. He's more about Lebron. And and the city
has never given him that hug. And really the organization
has never given Lebron that hug. They've been they've been
(23:27):
at arms length with him all the fights with with
with Clutch Sports, and and and and Lebron. This is
what we want to do, and here's how we want
to build the team and run the team, and and
Genie bust In the front office and Rob Polinka have
a different idea. But you're still at Lebron's whims because
he's the best player in the world, had been the
best player in the world. It's gonna be much easier
to move on from it because there's not gonna be
(23:48):
a big outcry from fans that say, how do we
do this? It's it's not like the Lake the Lakers,
where it's not like saying, hey, thanks for all the
thanks for the good times, Kobe, but boy, you're really done.
Uh you know you got to go finish with the
Clippers or somewhere else. It's it's it's you know how
how bad the city was and how upset they were
when Shaq got traded. I still remember the Paul over
the city the day after Shaq was dealt to the
(24:10):
He was, oh my god, are you kidding? But if
Lebron left, one of the big things. And you do
have to consider this because I remember Steve Phillips telling
me this a long time ago. Uh, former Baseball GM
He's on MLB Network now saying, hey, eventually, Sometimes you
have to listen to the fans, and there's many different
reasons for it. And there's sometimes when a fans input
and the overall fans input counts on things. And this
(24:32):
is one of those times where it's like, Okay, you
would think it would be difficult to say, we want
to move on from Lebron James. But what kind of
pushback are you really going to get if the Lakers
said tomorrow, Hey, we're shutting down Lebron for the season.
We're done and we're moving on and we're gonna find
a way in the off season, our fans gonna gonna
go crazy. Are they gonna riot on set their media? No,
(24:52):
they're gonna say a look at a d Look who's there.
He's our guy more than anybody else. And and it
would be very easy. It will be very easy for
the Lakers to move on from Lebron James because of that,
because you don't have to worry about the fan backlash,
and not bad because you really worry. You know, it
is something to be concerned about the perception of your
team and are you doing the right things? Are you
(25:13):
serving your team? Are you serving the fans? It's all
part of it, and that would not be one part
of the conversation if they decided tomorrow to move on
from Lebron. If if nothing else, it would echo my well,
I what I watched way too much of anymore classic
Northwestern basketball. Well, no, I'm getting notes out of Vegas
from my brother that he just had a nice conversation
with the great Michael Hayes, which is you know, now,
(25:36):
I'm jealous, although I love talking to you. You don't
know Michael ps Hayes. Oh no, Michael Hayes. Yeah, you
know Michael Hayes. He played the next door neighbor. You know,
Michael Hayes. Yeah, I hate you. But anyway, just the
idea that this would be Lebron at this point, inadvertently
he's putting the next guy over and passing the tour
right today, Hey, is is the Undertaker's birthday? Do you
(26:02):
remember when the torch was passed from him and moving
on right to all the bray Wyatt company. So yeah,
it's it's a pretty big deal here by his absence
crowd and the momentum for some of the ancillary players
and when he's available to go because he doesn't a
(26:24):
lot to subvert and sabotage his own relationship with the fans,
and that's Anthony Davis. But when he's available and ready
to play and puts up big numbers every time he
does that, and if they can find their way into
the play in or better, yeah, these guys all become heroes.
And it's like Lebron who that's exactly where this is headed, right,
(26:49):
And whether it's this offseason, which if he doesn't come back,
and the Lakers find a way to get into the
to the playoffs, whether they finish in the top six
or not, because if they if they you win three,
win five in a row, or you know, the Lakers
will be in the four seats. If the Lakers finish
this season and they make the playoffs and they get
in at the top of the plane, right, they don't
(27:10):
squeak in a tense. Let's just say they get in
around seventh, right, which mean or you go into the
offseason going boy, when we had Lebron, we were on
the outside looking in, right, we were in twelfth place.
No matter how good we were, he was in and
out of the lineup, we were in twelfth place. Lebron
missed the last four weeks of the season. We went
from twelfth to seventh. That's all you need. That's all
(27:32):
the team need to say, Yeah, maybe it's time for
something else. And then it gets really messy because you know,
Lebron would want to control the discussion about where he
winds up and how he ends his career. He has
always been someone to call the shots, but now you
always players Sometimes when you play for a long time,
you get to a point where you don't have that
power anymore. Just ask Aaron Rodgers, right, he's that I'm
gonna call the shots in green Bay until I decide
(27:55):
to walk away. Whatever that's I'm forty five, forty six
years old. One bad year, one year where green Bay
didn't achieve, one year where green Bay fall short the
final week of the season at home against the Lions.
And suddenly all that change, and now Aaron Rodgers getting
pushed out. He to be playing for the Jets next year.
So that so, did you think it's not gonna happen.
It can't happen to powerful players. Tom Brady got pushed
(28:17):
out in New England, all right, It's it happens. At
some point. It will happen to Lebron Lakers finished like this,
and they finished and the seventh seed. That's exactly how
that conversation is gonna go. We don't need Lebron and
the off season gets really really messy. Well, what's what's
funny is it's just that with Lebron James is all
any goodwill? It was lost right, he got the record,
(28:40):
and even that was a tepid response. We chronicled the
minute for minute of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but he goes
down in that game, can't finish, they lose, and then
we haven't seen him since. And now he's too busy
on Twitter protesting against what guys are reporting without setting
the record straight, like thanks. But with Aaron Rodgers, you
(29:01):
had several years of this, and when you're winning, you
can be an ass. We've seen this in sports forever.
You could be a terrible person and keep your place
on the field and everybody on marvel in between the
white lines. But it still cast dispersions and raise their
hands about you know, the guy or you are or
(29:21):
woman in some cases. But in the once you lose
that stardom and the aptitude and the performance starts to dip. Yeah,
we're talking about his performance. His performance, talking about his
performance is performance that once that dips, you lose any
of that ability and that gray area, and folks will
(29:43):
turn on to the next set a time because they're
cheering for laundry. You just happen to be occupying it
for a while. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeart Radio app. Today's Friday, Fox Sports Radio, The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. What's
(30:07):
in the bag a shark or something? It is a
live drop Friday. Tell Alan you're on Fox. The jet
suck so Jason? Yeah, what's up when you tell everybody
what happens to John? Uh? Not anytime soon? No, no, no, no, no, right?
What are you doing? The movie is out? What's wrong
with you? Yeah? I know you haven't seen you yet.
(30:29):
It's it's it's fine, it's fine. I haven't seen him
by now. They don't care. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine,
it's fine. Let everybody see like the dog aggression will
not stand. Only eight point seven million last night? Did
that seem love? I mean, we had a full house.
But that's you know, that's Thursday night. People say Thursday
night midnight showings. That's that's Thursday night midnight. You wait,
(30:52):
you see how much money that movie makes this week.
But I'm gonna go see it again. It might be
a little bit lower, just when you think about how
you can't just run at every couple of hours because
it's a two hour, forty five minute movie, so there'll
be a little bit less showings. But no, this movie's
gonna make a ton of money. Mike. Of course you're
gonna go see it again. You were asleep for this one. Yeah,
I gotta go get that another hour. It's gone. It's
done so so well. You gotta be so mean man.
(31:13):
Uh so I didn't even get a laugh at a
Jason Now I apologize, Hee, that's okay. That wasn't even
worth it. Well, list he hates me and all. I
mean he spilled all his popcorn. Yeah, I did spill
all my pop bad, job bad. It was a big
hole in the bottom. I did well. The guy kept
getting up and moving past us. There were a lot
of guys. Just seven times. I'm like, dude, come on,
(31:34):
sit for two and a half hour druggling. That's where
you gotta go. Get your little um the thing, the wizzonator,
bring a bag with you. Yeah, well, okay, tysher complaint
went right, all right? So with all the NSA action
done today and Texas, Xavier made a little bit close
(31:55):
at the end, but they blew him out. Jason three
seventy one. Yeah, with real quick. The Lakers won. Okay,
well it will get you. The Lakers coming up in
a few minutes. We'll get to the Lakers. We'll get
to the Lakers. Um the odds funny. Now they're back, baby,
Oh my god, you guys. I said we're gonna do tournament.
(32:17):
Here's about the tournament. The Lakers won a game. The
Lakers are back. We're do the Lakers coming up in
ten minutes. How does that sound? Lakers disrespect? We'll live
with it. Oh my gott I feel like the dead.
That's got to say, you guys, you can't just disappear
and go on all these rides. I gotta know where
you're going, all right. You can't just disappear and run.
I can't find you, all right. So Frostburg has the
(32:38):
odds for the Elite eight for the NCAA Tournament. What
do you got for us with the eight teams left
that virtually nobody had on any of their break You
want to guess who the favorite is, Well, I'm gonna
s I'm gonna say Texas is the favorite. Texas is
the favorite, followed by Yukon and plus three hundred. Yeah. Yeah,
because Kim is gonna go off at some point. Yeah,
(33:00):
you got you gotta think, yeah, especially if they played
the game in Madison Square Garden, Kemba is gonna go absolutely.
Number three is a waste of a dollar. It's Gonzaga
plus five fifty. Then you got the Creton Blue Jays
plus six hundred. Yeah, you know, I gotta say, if
if you had to tell me what team's gonna be
playing Monday night in the National Championship, And I can't
(33:23):
believe I'm saying this. I think in the end it's
it's going to wind up being Creton in Kansas State.
I'll tell you gimme Creton, man. They got they got
the guard, they got the big, they got Calkbrenner and
then Bard, you got Joe Carter winning MVP. Sure, the
Blue Jays are gonna be. David Khne is gonna be pitching.
He's gonna be you know you got Mike Timlin's gonna
close it out for the Blue Jays. I'll tell them
(33:45):
you gimme, gimme. Creighton playing in the National Championship on
Monday night. Look at you. I like the chaos for
that factor there. Creton followed by San Diego State at
plus seven hundred. Yeah, san Diego State with the veterans,
this is where we go back to have in that
core and people that have been in the program that
you can you can step up in big moments. So
(34:06):
I think I like them a little bit of as
a price shot man. The other side of the Brackett,
Texas is the favorite. Uh Tech, Miami has been pretty
good all year. That game's more of a to think
huge game tonight. Man talking about shooting the lights out.
But I'm gonna say coming out of there's gonna be Yukon.
(34:28):
I think they beat Gonzaga to borrow. I think they
beat Texas and it's Yukon and Creighton playing for the
National chip. Florida Atlantic. Oh, I'd love to see it.
I mean, if I could, I think I mean Florida,
I mean I want Florida Atlantic, and I mean would
you want Florid Atlantic in Miami? I mean it sounds
like a game. And in the fall in college football,
nobody watches or they preseason. We do at home at home,
(34:52):
oh man, every year it's your turn to Diami in
Texas basketball schools who knew? Hey, look, Syracuse is a
soccer school now, so it can happen. We drop them
into this conversation. We're talking about the tournament. You're just
saying what schools we are when this tournament expands? Okay,
very good? Uh So, Yeah, I mean I'm looking at
(35:12):
Yukon and Creighton for the national championship, saying, oh my goodness,
Twitter at how about a Fresca? Mike has swollen down
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Coming up next a basketball result. You're not gonna believe,
You're not gonna want to believe, but it happened. It's
next right here, Fox Dah Jenney, I'm sorry, I'll ruin
(35:34):
your black panther party.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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