March 26, 2022 • 33 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon speak to Fox Host/ NCAAB Insider about the NCAA Tournament and more NCAAB Tournament odds much more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm 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 I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. Hey you,
the Elite eight is all set after tonight St. Peter's
with the Big upset over per Due the first fifteen
(00:44):
seed ever into the Elite Eight. They'll take on North Carolina. Meanwhile,
Kansas and number ten Miami. You know Kid is one
of those teams. My Carmen just say, does don'tan to
pay attention to us, so all the other ones are
out of just no, don't pay attention. We're just gonna
keep winning. Everything is nothing to see here winning. We're
all good. It's gonna keep winning. Moving on. Joining us
(01:05):
now on the hot line to break it all down.
College hoops Insider host here at Fox Sports Radio. He
is the owner of Aaron Torres Media. He's on Twitter
at Aaron Underscore Torres. It is Aaron Torres, a t
what's happening, man? Absolute pleasure is always how we do
it tonight, fellas everybuddy, buddy. I'm feeling good man, because
(01:28):
I'm like the only one that picked Duke in the
Brackett Challenge here at Fox Sports Radio and They're gonna
win the n c A Tournament. I'm feeling great. I'm
gonna win a big TV. Well, I'll tell first of all,
apparent so I won last year. I don't know if
you get the TV. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna
put it out there. I don't know if the hosts
are eligible, but I'll give you credit. Jason. You know
this was and I include myself, so I'm not looking
(01:50):
down from the heavens and and you know casting, you know,
judgment on everybody else. But it was kind of amazing
to me, is that we all kind of understand that
if you just look at recruiting rankings and NBA mock
draft boards, that Duke has the most talented roster in
college basketball, they have an iconic coach, and I I
(02:11):
still go back to selection Sunday and and the days
that followed and even the days that led up to it,
And I just didn't hear anyone anyone in college sports anywhere,
anyone that that follows college basketball, loves college basketball. No
one made the argument of this team is going to
rise to the occasion and lead coach k to the
promised Land. Now they still have three more wins to
(02:33):
get for that to happen. But you go back to
last night, and and you know something that that I
thought about while I was watching that game is man,
you know, in two wins in which the young guys,
the freshman and sophomores made all the plays down the
stretches dating back to the Michigan State game last weekend,
and of course last night against Texas. Texas so tough
(02:54):
challenge against Arkansas tomorrow and then obviously he would have
two more wins in New Orleans. But always struck me
as strange that just nobody seemed to want to make
the argument on why do could actually do it when,
as I said, they had the most talented roster in
the tournament and obviously the best coach as well well.
Jesse has already done all the connect the dots of
(03:15):
how this becomes the true storybook ending. Let's go to
the Peacocks. You could you could pass that on in
a minute because it was National Peacock Day and Shaheen
Holloway Uh and his four guards making uh well, tournament
magic happened when everybody's odds down and whatever else. These
guys have become a story. They've become the story. Mike.
(03:38):
You know, I mean, I'm blown away. I mean, you
know I'll say and I've said it, and I think
I said it last week when I came out with
you guys around this time was I looked at all
the matchups and and and I like Kentucky coming into
this tournament feels like a lifetime ago that they were
actually involved in college basketball. And I saw nothing from St.
(03:59):
Peter's mean Statistically, defensively they were pretty good. But I
go back to what I told you guys last week.
A smaller team um turned the ball over a lot,
wasn't a great shooting team. And so yeah, you played
great defense, but what does it mean when all of
those things are working against you? So to to have
a couple of things, Listen, twos have upset fifteens before.
(04:19):
It was incredible last week they got a pseudo advantageous
matchup against the fellow in major Murray State. But what
I think we all thought was that you have the
week now where you're you're probably pretty much the focal
point in college basketball. Everybody's talking about you. Everybody's descending
on your tiny, tiny, tiny campus in New Jersey. National
(04:42):
media is there, the New York Times is there. I'm
sure we had Fox sent people down to St. Peter.
So I just bring it up to say, I think
we all thought, Okay, it's a great story, but now
you are the focal point for four or five days,
and all on top of it. I just thought it
was a bad matchup. I mean, you know, per new
having a seven ft four center and Zach Eady a
six ft eleven backup, and Trevin Williams who ends up
(05:04):
playing more than the starter. I just thought it was
a bad matchup. And here they are again. Now obviously
get a Carolina on Sunday. It's gonna be kind of
that marquee window the finally there will have three Final
four teams to that point. But Mike, I continue to
be blown away, man, I really do. It's just it's
a great story. Um, I am as surprised as anybody.
(05:26):
I did not see this coming. I'm not taking credit
for anything. It's just it's unbelievable, guys, it really is.
And listen, you know, we can criticize college basketball a
lot for what it is and what it isn't on
the national scale, and how much can we talk about it?
And I get it, you know, Mike, I was in
for Jason the other day and we talked about college
basketball just doesn't really resonate. But when this tournament starts,
(05:47):
stories always present itself and the St. Peter's Peacocks are
just a great example of that. Well, but here's here's
what you guys are ignoring every I'm like, what am I?
I'm like the guy in the movie that says, don't
you see the aliens? They can't get there's they they
can't hear or whatever. I'm the one guy. I'm the
crazy guy with the with the lab coat and the
(06:08):
crazy hair. Look for Duke. Right, they beat Tom is
a right, one of the best head coaches in college
basketball in the last twenty five years. Okay, they're gonna
beat Arkansas and get revenge for the national championship game
where Arkansas beat Duke forty minutes of hell, they're gonna
play North Carolina in the final four, because we're gonna
get the whole week of coach k in his last
(06:29):
tournament in the final four, and oh, by the way,
they get to play North Carolina. Roy Williams will come
out of the stands to coach that game, and Duke
is going to win. And then who are they gonna
see for the championship Monday night? They're gonna play Kansas.
Roy Williams will then coach that team on Monday night,
and Chewski is gonna win, beating Kansas for the title.
Who oh, by the way, is the team he beat
(06:52):
for his first national championship way back in That's how
it's happening. I've told you how the n c A
Tournament's going to end is it can't end any other way.
So you predicted all of this in your bracket. You
had North Carolina. No no, no, no, no, no, listen,
I had Syracuse in the final four, like no, I
(07:13):
hadding at all. No, I had Duke winning at all.
But all this where it sits right now. Look, I
don't like he's beatn he's beat Izzoh, he's gonna beat Carolina,
He's gonna beat Kansa, He's gonna beat Arkansas. This is
how it is. Come on, the guys, seventy five. He's
walking away. He's the greatest head coach anybodyny of us
have seen since John would And of course that's how
it's gonna end for him. And he's gonna get all
(07:34):
the foul calls too. They're all gonna go Duke's way. Well,
that's you know. That's one thing I will say is
and and we've we've all thought it and talked about it,
and like I did think, like, Okay, they can win
some games and whatever, but you kind of have a
vision of of if it goes down, this is how
it's gonna go down. And that's how I kind of
(07:56):
assumed it would be. It's gonna be a lot of
sketchy calls and coach, yeah, this, this this, and that. They've
just made plays down the stretch. I mean, listen, they
do have the best players in college basketball. Paulo Bank
Caro was either the number one or number two player
in the country in high school coming out a j Griffin.
He dealt with injuries and in play senior year because
of COVID, but that was a five star dude, like
(08:18):
you know, Jeremy Roach injuries, but five stars. So I
just bring it up to say, like it is, you know,
they do also have the best players and and and
that's what's been so not surprising but kind of surprising
to me is we talk about how this isn't a
freshman sophomore tournament. It's a junior senior tournament. And they
got the guys that are making plays. And it's not
(08:38):
because the rests want Coach K. It's not because CBS
wants Coach K. It's not because TBS wants Coach K.
They got dudes making plays against a bunch of grown
men from Michigan staying a bunch of grown men from
Texas Tech. So listen, Jason, next year when I'm filling
out my bracket, I will obviously consult with you. But
I am blown away by how good they look, how
(09:00):
they're winning games. It's not the reps, it's not the TV,
it's not anything. They're just winning games because they have
the dudes that are making plays and the other teams don't.
It's actually like we could criticize Coach K and poke
at them it's actually been a really, really impressive run
to this point. As they get set to play Arkansas tomorrow.
All right, I'm gonna go back in the rewind too.
(09:20):
I mean, you your reference sitting in for Jason as
this thing was really kind of kicking off. Aaron. In
last night Arkansas bullied Gonzaga and we had had the
conversation and discussion about Gonzaga. Can I ever believe in them? Again? Well,
what I would say is, and this is something you
(09:42):
and I talked about when Jason was out sick. You know,
I'm glad you're feeling better. Jason. Here's the thing you
guys keep saying it like like you give me, Like, hey,
all the fun we had while you were gone. Oh
look at this. We ordered pizza. It was fantastic, and
we did hang out. I mean we got some good Uh.
I had some tin Doory chicken wings. Those were pretty good,
weren't they, Aaron? He did? I had one. It was delicious. Uh. Yeah.
(10:05):
Poor Jason, he takes off like one day every two years,
and he's just getting crushed for it NonStop. Just to
call back to to discussions that we had as the
tournament was starting and their Jermaine to the conversation. Now,
that's all I will say. Mike, you I'm not even
being sarcastic. You really opened my eyes on the Gonzaga thing,
(10:25):
because I still look at them as this is an
incredible story, small Catholic school, Spokane, Washington, Bolva. And you
brought up the point like you want to be treated
like Duke in Carolina and Kentucky and U c l A. Okay,
let's do it. But you gotta win one of these
at some point. And so what I would say is
(10:46):
one thing that I did say on the night that
Jason was out, because I don't know if you remember, Mike,
but he was out. He was not there that day.
We had a ton of fun. Um. I didn't think
this was a vintage Gonzaga team. And and and it's
funny because sometimes I think the whole like, oh there
are conference thinks like sometimes I think that conversation is overrated. Um,
(11:06):
this year, I thought it was kind of important. Not
because I don't think they were challenged, but because I
don't think they were exposed. I think if they play
in a normal conference, they're just a nice twenty five
and eight team going into the tournament like all Burn
like Kentucky, like Tennessee, like whoever, Duke, and we just
(11:27):
sit there and say, Okay, they're one of fifteen really
good teams. But because they played in this random conference,
and I know they had three tournament teams this year
and all that time because of the conference, they beat
up on a lot of bad teams, and people went
in with the expectation there again, a one seed, there again,
the number one overall seed. I never thought they were
that team. And and you know, Jason Martin and I
(11:48):
were on their last Saturday when they easily could have
lost the Memphis and then last night, you know, I
forget which one he brought it up, but they just
got pumped. You know, Arkansas was a better team from
start to finish. Again goes back to the Duke thing.
There is no sketchy foul calls. There's no Arkansas was
the better team. And so you know, I don't believe
that they can never win the championship. I do believe
(12:08):
by the way that you know, you start to look
at that program. Tommy Lloyd, the assistant coach, is now
the head coach at Gonzaga. He recruited all those international
guys um and and I'm not saying that they can
or won't win, but I thought this was their weakest team,
and probably about three or four or five years, I
think you'd go back and the teams with Ruey hot Chamore,
and the teams with Corey Kissburn, and the teams with
(12:29):
a bunch of guys that are in the NBA right now,
Jalen Suggs. I thought they were better than this team,
so you can maybe believe in them again. But I
thought this was maybe their their best chance again for
a while, and you start to look at what they
could look like. I I really think this was the
one where now that they didn't do it, I don't
(12:49):
know when they get back on this stage where people
feel this way about him. It'll be interesting to watch
over these next couple of years. He's on Twitter at
Aaron Underscore Tours. That's at Aaron Underscore Toris College asked
while inside our host here at Fox Sports Radio, check
out the Errant Torres podcast with the big topics of
Gonzaga peaking as a program, is Duke officially the team
to beat is Syracuse on the move to win it
(13:12):
All next year? All these topics I should have just
add I don't even I wonder have even had to
ask if Duke was a team to beat. If I
had just consulted with you before the press opened up,
you should have like told you, man, that's that's okay,
it's okay, it's okay, it's all right, Duke, not Syracuse.
Thank you guys very much. Next week. All right, there
(13:35):
goes Aarontar is always great stuff with him. If cold
candidate calls aren't turning into hot hiring leads, then you
need Indeed, because Indeed's powerful hiring platform makes easy to attract,
screen and interview candidates all from one place. Find your
next great higher visiting Indeed dot com slash credit. That's
Indeed dot Com slash credit. Well coming enough, So we've
(13:56):
got more NBA on the way because in the NBA
eight tonight, oh, there was one game. We just have
to spend a couple of minutes on Plus Mike and
I will tell you what the final four will look
like with all the games put to bed. Who are
gonna be the four teams we're gonna talk about all
next week hoping to cut down the Nets win the
national title that's coming up next, right, here. This is
(14:16):
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific Fox Sports Radio. The Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. You can't
keep me cooped up in here, Okay, pecock, you gotta
let me find hiring heating up Indeed Hiring platform makes
(14:39):
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all in
one place. Sponsor a post and instantly receive a shortlist
of quality candidates on indeed whose resumes match your job description.
Visit indeed dot com slash credit. That's indeed dot com
slash credit. Well, we gotta get to this a little bit, Mike,
because you know, we were told the other night by
(14:59):
Miami Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra that, Hey, this whole
potential fight on the sidelines with Jimmy Butler and Donnas
HASSLM and me. Maybe Jimmy Butler wanted to fight me.
Had to ask him if he was blanking crazy. Oh,
this can galvanize a team, right, this could bring us
all together. Yeah. They lost at home tonight to the Knicks,
(15:21):
So I think the whole well, this will galvanize the tape. No,
that's out the window, out the way. Heat was also
up seventeen. They were at one point in this game,
so they gave it away. Yeah, well, you know what,
every everybody has a bad night, especially at home when
you're up big. Yes, the Knicks again, Barrett with it,
(15:45):
I mean quickly, three off the bench, Barrett with eighteen.
I mean, you're your guy didn't even um didn't even play. No,
he hasn't. He hasn't played in a couple of games.
It's been he didn't even have that. Jimmy Bucketts had thirty,
but you know, minus fourteen from Bama to Bayou and
they go down by eight. A convincing win by your Knicks.
(16:10):
Look at what Thibodeau has got I got him doing.
Just when it was too late for the Knicks to
do anything. Here they are winning games. It's too late
for now. Wait wait, wait, now we're gonna win a
couple here. Now we're gonna do it. Yeah, I mean
obviously regular season and you just kind of shrugged to
a degree. But your losers of three straight and four
(16:33):
of your last six, and you're you're losing to well,
you're losing all comers. At this point, you're losing good teams. Uh,
and then you lose to the Knicks. Yeah, but your
last wins were against okay see and Detroit. Yeah yeah,
and uh, neither of them are good. They're not they're
not they're not They're not good, not not not good.
(16:55):
So yeah, it'll be curious. I'd love to see some chaos.
I mean, there's no question when you're the top seed
and there there's a little bit of handwringing going on. Sure,
let's go that Eastern Conference. Man has the only team
you trust is Milwaukee. Like they they sat and faced
themselves all year and now all of a sudden, up
in the top, you know, one of the top couple
of seeds, and it's like, wait, what happens? Like, oh,
(17:17):
they started playing because it was time to get ready
for the post season. The only and everybody else stinks
because the Bulls can't be the top three team. If
you're a playoff team, they're gonna fall down. Uh, and
just there and we thought they were and clearly t
J Mike Harmon hoping to see the Bulls on parade
(17:39):
after the season this year, but likely not happening. But
why I'm looking at my my vacation time for the summer.
I'm like, all right, if my passport comes in, I'll
go follow a band on tour. I'm not worried about
playoffs for the Bulls or anything. And and t J
instead of playoffs, clearly the Bulls getting more els in
(18:03):
the column. I hate you that. Well that was oh man,
I really I think I used every last synapse in
my brain for that one. I was that was a
good one. Well, that's one of those where like in
a superhero movie where you've got try to use your
superpower and then you're exhausted by the end of it
and you collapse. You could say it's Friday Night to it.
(18:26):
It's like iron How many times Iron Man like down
to his last like three? So the suit is it three?
And suddenly you would find a way out of it,
or someone would come and rest. You're about to spontaneously combusted.
Where are we were in Nashville? Nashville? What do we do? Uh?
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Tonight,
Shoe brought to by one of our favorite cities, Las Vegas,
(18:48):
the greatest arena on Earth. Every game match racing competition.
It is always on whoever you root for, whatever sport
you love to watch. The biggest games were even bigger
in Vegas, so make sure to plan your trip today
a visit Laws Vegas dot com. That's visit Las Vegas
dot com. Now we'll get to our picks for the
final four coming up in a couple of minutes. But
one football story that uh is it was really interesting
(19:13):
how it came up today and that Johnny Manzel had
a bunch of headlines for the vast majority of the day. Uh. Manzel,
who was playing in the fan controlled football league I
didn't interview with ESPN in which he said, listen, my
football career is over right, My'm my football, I'm playing now.
I'm playing football for fun. So this is why he's
(19:33):
playing in the seven on seven football fan controlled league
that fans call the plays and it's a crazy as
like and this is where Johnny manziel is playing. Johnny
Manziela and the Bleep and Heisman Trophy. In two thousand
and twelve was a first round pick at everything handed
to him for the Cleveland Browns. Now he's saying, I'm
just playing football for fun. Um it's been very easy
(19:55):
to compare and lazy to compare Johnny Manzell and Baker Mayfield. Right. Sure,
they're similarities. They were supposed to be the uh, the
saviors of the same team. It didn't happen. Both of
them are very cocky, both of them are very stubborn.
Both of them flamed out right. But what they both
have different reasons for what happened to them. Right For
(20:17):
Baker Mayfield right now, Baker is more about being unprepared.
His cockiness and arrogance was he thought, I'm going to
take the NFL by storm, and I don't need to
learn anything from anybody. I can come into play, I
can make commercials, I can talk about Duke Johnson's contract
and now people need to be on board with us
here or away. And he just didn't know what it
(20:37):
meant to be an NFL quarterback. Right. We've gone over
this about about Baker Mayfield a while ago. Now. The
thing for Johnny Manzel, it's hidden in what he said
right here. Now, I just played football for fun, um.
I think he always kind of played football for fun.
I don't know how much you ever really loved football.
Football came easy for him. Until it didn't, and he
(20:58):
didn't care to put the work in and be what
it meant to be to be a quarterback of franchise
quarterback in the NFL. Baker Mayfield, I know, loves football,
all right. He's always talking about the player he is
and everything he's overcome, and nobody believed in me. I
know Baker Mayfield loves football. Johnny Manzel never loved football.
He was good at it. It was it came easy
(21:19):
to him, and everything was great. Right when something in
sports comes easy to you, Hey, you never really want
to put the work in because it's coming in. It
came easy to him in college, even against Alabama in
the big Heisman Trophy performance he had a decade ago.
Football was easier. But then it gets to the NFL
and it gets harder. Hey, come draft me. Let's wreck
this league together. Hey, and the quarterback of the Browns, now, Hey,
(21:40):
it means a little bit more. You gotta put away
the party and you gotta do a little bit more studying.
You gotta do a lot. No, No, I'm not gonna
do that. I'm just gonna kind of do my thing
because it's what I've always done and what happens the
guy flames out of the league in two years. Alright,
it's because if he loved football, he would have made
it more of a priority. He would have understood, all right,
I need to to fit my mistakes and get what
(22:02):
it means to be a franchise quarterback or I'm gonna
lose it. And here he is now. Does he look
like he has any regrets about flaming out of the NFL?
Not once? Not what even when it Hey, you're on
your last best chance to make the NFL. Yeah, I'm
partying out in Los Angeles and I'm party in Hollywood
and and I'm having a good time, and I'm gonna
and we would get these headlines for him once in
a while. Look, he's out and been out living his
(22:25):
best life since we knew him, since he first became
Johnny Manziel Heisman Trophy winner, and whenever it was, hey,
you gotta do this to be a quarterback in the NFL, now,
he never did it because he didn't care enough about it.
He liked doing it, and if he didn't like doing it,
he wouldn't still do it now. But he's just he's
just going out there and existing on his ability and
he's playing football for fun. He never loved it, never
(22:48):
wanted to put the work in. So yeah, big bit
of difference between Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel because Baker
Mayfields a guy that worked for what he had and
continues to try to work it his struggles much differently
than what we saw for Manzel. Yeah, I mean, look,
it's conversation extension of a conversation we've been having this week,
and certainly I've been having. You know, as you know,
I've got one daughter starting to think about the college path.
(23:10):
The other is finishing eighth grade, so selecting you know,
those freshman courses and you're you're trying to figure out
you know, push pull or do you you know, decision
making processes, and you're always to some degree, you know,
an observer, you're watching it happen, but certainly in your
own life trying to figure out, all right, where where's
(23:31):
that limit to where things suddenly get hard, right, and
when you face adversity and when you have For Johnny Menzel,
he floated right, and he always had in the backdrop.
Oh yeah, family's got money, always a safety net, right,
which is to some degree at least outside looking in
how it always seemed he approached the NFL and and
(23:52):
his and his career was well, you know, I'm gonna
have fun and enjoy it while i'm doing it, whereas
you know, the other guys, Yeah, you're enjoying the perks
of the job and the money and and adulation and
everything else, but you're still working your ass off. Why
because you don't want it to go away. And and
that's I think one of the differences with Baker. I
(24:14):
don't think there's any question he he loves what he's done.
He still has that chip on his shoulder to a degree,
although at some points, you know, he started reading his
own press clippings for the worst. Right, It's one thing
to fight with Colin Uh, you know, as part of
the network and Colin Gowhard and and he those battles
are legendary in the social media sphere, no question, Uh
(24:36):
and other reporters and and getting after it with Mary
Kay Cabinot in Cleveland. Well, now you've got, you know,
a reporter locally who's been on the beat a long time.
So you know, when you try to, you know, make
blanket references to stuff in stories and claim they aren't true.
It was like, no, no no, no, they're not printing those
just haphazardly. So you gotta do a look in the
(24:57):
mirror kind of moment. And for him, like he had
a rough year and it crumbled and when you realize,
all right, you might be better than the average, but
you ain't better than the average by much. And it's
a hard reality to face, and that you hit that
crossroads for Johnny Manzel. Look, it's done right. There's there's
no delusions he was ever finding his way back to
(25:19):
the league. So when I saw this story starting to
go viral, I kind of shrugged, went okay, but the
Baker may feel part of it. Absolutely. I mean, this
is a guy that you know, you'd love to see
him rededicate himself to the guy that was coming out
like his hair was on fire in right. It's you know,
we joke about the American president. You know, I'd love
(25:41):
to have been on that campaign. I'd like to see
that guy playing football again because it was about football.
You know, a lot of the nonsense seemed to have
gone away, and maybe this is the humbling situation that
was talked about. And once he gets released, and that's
always in the press and in his Wikipedia page and
player profile forever. Damn right, He's gonna be humbled and
(26:03):
so now it's just a question of where he gets
a second chance Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike
gets swollen Dome The Jason Smith Show with My best
Friend Mike Harmon. So yeah, always a big difference. Understand,
one loves football, one just didn't not enough. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
(26:25):
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Hey,
this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on
my podcast, Straight Fired with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your
typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down your
throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on
all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you
(26:47):
win big at the sports book, and all the best guests.
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Fox Sports Radio, The
Jason Smith Show with My Best Friend Mike Harmon a
(27:08):
night in the n c A Tournament, none of us
will forget St. Peter's pulling not just an upset, but
the latest in a string of upsets unlike we have
ever seen before in tournament history. They are the first
fifteen seed to advance to the Elite eight. So now
the Elite eight is all set. Mike and I will
(27:28):
close tonight by giving you all our picks, telling you
who's gonna be playing in the Final four next weekend
in New Orleans. Mike Harmon, are you ready? Are we
gonna chalk it up? Let's chuck it up. Uh, not
a lot of chalk left. We got it well on five. Uh,
let's start with what should be the easiest game Kansas
(27:49):
and Miami to pick against Kansas. Right now, you are
just picking just because you want to pick something else,
Like it was a nice night from Miami beating Iowa State.
You know they beat Auburn in the last round of
the tournament. Kansas is just playing incredibly well. A little
bit more difficulty with Providence and n I think I expected.
But they're the only one seed left and they're saying,
(28:10):
don't pay any attention to us. We're just let all
the other ones lose. We're all good. Let us do
our thing. We're Kansas basketball. I firmly expect Kansas to
be in the five. No, it's it's picking chalk. But
I really can't see Miami beating Kansas. Yeah, no, watched
that game. Well that was the undercard, right, watching that
Ted eleven matchup today, Uh, and like someone's gotta gotta advance. Unfortunately,
(28:35):
you go and you run into the one seed that's
still remaining, uh, playing well, not blowing anybody out other
than that opening round against Texas Southern. Right, the alright,
let's get a workout in, but enough to withstand Providence.
So yeah, we'll go chalk out of the Midwest. Alright.
Moving over to the South, Houston and Villanova, Um, this
(28:59):
is a great magic will be the best matchup of
the Elite eight because you have strength against strength and
that's Houston's offense in Villanova's defense. Villanova's offense is a
little bit better than you give them credit for. It's
gonna be hard for Houston to stay hot the entire game,
and it's hard to go against rights record in the
n c A Tournament the last few years. I think
he's undefeated. I think he's oh. Uh so, yeah, give
(29:23):
me Villanova there just a little bit better. Houston's played
a great and they played a great game against Arizona.
They'll get a bounce in this next game. Villanova played
well but hasn't played their best game yet. Give me
the Wildcats to go to the final four. Well, I'm
gonna follow my own advice from what I didn't do.
You know, I turned in my bracket and immediately started
to regret it when I saw the the popular picks
(29:44):
for popular people, and right now everybody has jumped on
board Houston and this is one the over under on
this one. Jason has one seven. So let's talk about
slowing it down and grinding it out. Uh So, yeah, again,
I'll take the number two seed. Uh I had them
at least playing in the Elite eight, so I think
(30:04):
that was my last team standing. So I'll take them
and continue it one more time and listen. I don't
know if people know this, but if Duke wins the tournament,
I win the bracket challenge here at Fox Sports. Right.
I thought I heard that on another show earlier today.
It might have been, but I was on other shows
to talk about that specific You should have kept showing
(30:24):
up angelizing with a bullhorn. I'm gonna win the bracket
challenge speaking, what makes you think I wasn't what the
guy wasn't. I don't know. You might have been going
all brock Lesner like he did on on on FS
one with SmackDown, where he just started beating up ring
officials and security guys in the whole nine yards. It
was great. I was standing in front of Starbucks today
(30:46):
doing just that. And now I'm gonna go have a
Moca cookie crumble. Uh, Speaking of Duke, Duke is gonna
beat Arkansas alright, Coach K. Coach K's journey is not
gonna end short of the final four. And this is
gonna be a bunco game that this is where they
get on his shoulders. For one, he's played really well,
(31:07):
but you've been waiting for this. Okay, where does this
guy come in and where does he become and give
you his his signature tournament game. This is gonna be it.
Duke wins it and they're gonna win by double digits
to go to the final four. Yeah, this one strikes
me as a as a game where whereby the attempts
to play bullyball and force the issue like Arkansas was
(31:30):
able to do against against Saga doesn't work. In other words,
you're getting called for the charge. You're the one getting
called for the block. That aggressiveness in the low post
works against you, uh in. And that's just you know,
the EBB and flow of tournament. It's not getting into
conspiracy theories, but let's call it what it is. We
also do get into the emotion of things, as we've
(31:51):
talked about since this tournament began and even towards the
end of the regular season. So yeah, right now, Duke
playing well, big win over Texas Tech. Let's see them
continue through to the final four, and ah, you love it?
You love it? Uh North Carolina and St. Peter's and
eight and a fifteen. Coach k is not going to
(32:16):
go to the final four to play St. Peter's. Okay,
it's like I want to. I want to pick them
because they're the story. And that's just picking that because
they're the story exactly. But you see what happens when
you pick a story. Look North North Carolina, then I'll
pick the story. I'm a peak North Carolina is going
to win this game. Uh, Look, they played a great
(32:37):
game tonight against u c l A. They knocked off Baylor.
You have to take them seriously as good as they are.
They win the eight nine game by thirty five points.
Nor you can argue that no team has been better
in the tournament than North Carolina. They may have been
the best. They may have played the best in the
n c A tournament so far. They send an end
the St. Peter's great story and they go to the
(32:59):
final four against Coach k really hoping that one's a
grind out final two minute kind of scenario. See if
Hubert Davis can break a press, if they can throw
it on them. But yeah, I'll go u N see
very very rarely when we agree across the grid, but
at this point that you know, you're not picking upsets
just for the sake of it. So there it is
(33:21):
our final four picks. The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harman Twitter at how about a fresca? Mike gets swollen dome,
Brian knows coming up next. This is Fox Sports Radio
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to eleven
pm 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 I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon. Hey you,
the Elite eight is all set after tonight St. Peter's
with the Big upset over per Due the first fifteen
(00:44):
seed ever into the Elite Eight. They'll take on North Carolina. Meanwhile,
Kansas and number ten Miami. You know Kid is one
of those teams. My Carmen just say, does don'tan to
pay attention to us, so all the other ones are
out of just no, don't pay attention. We're just gonna
keep winning. Everything is nothing to see here winning. We're
all good. It's gonna keep winning. Moving on. Joining us
(01:05):
now on the hot line to break it all down.
College hoops Insider host here at Fox Sports Radio. He
is the owner of Aaron Torres Media. He's on Twitter
at Aaron Underscore Torres. It is Aaron Torres, a t
what's happening, man? Absolute pleasure is always how we do
it tonight, fellas everybuddy, buddy. I'm feeling good man, because
(01:28):
I'm like the only one that picked Duke in the
Brackett Challenge here at Fox Sports Radio and They're gonna
win the n c A Tournament. I'm feeling great. I'm
gonna win a big TV. Well, I'll tell first of all,
apparent so I won last year. I don't know if
you get the TV. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna
put it out there. I don't know if the hosts
are eligible, but I'll give you credit. Jason. You know
this was and I include myself, so I'm not looking
(01:50):
down from the heavens and and you know casting, you know,
judgment on everybody else. But it was kind of amazing
to me, is that we all kind of understand that
if you just look at recruiting rankings and NBA mock
draft boards, that Duke has the most talented roster in
college basketball, they have an iconic coach, and I I
(02:11):
still go back to selection Sunday and and the days
that followed and even the days that led up to it,
And I just didn't hear anyone anyone in college sports anywhere,
anyone that that follows college basketball, loves college basketball. No
one made the argument of this team is going to
rise to the occasion and lead coach k to the
promised Land. Now they still have three more wins to
(02:33):
get for that to happen. But you go back to
last night, and and you know something that that I
thought about while I was watching that game is man,
you know, in two wins in which the young guys,
the freshman and sophomores made all the plays down the
stretches dating back to the Michigan State game last weekend,
and of course last night against Texas. Texas so tough
(02:54):
challenge against Arkansas tomorrow and then obviously he would have
two more wins in New Orleans. But always struck me
as strange that just nobody seemed to want to make
the argument on why do could actually do it when,
as I said, they had the most talented roster in
the tournament and obviously the best coach as well well.
Jesse has already done all the connect the dots of
(03:15):
how this becomes the true storybook ending. Let's go to
the Peacocks. You could you could pass that on in
a minute because it was National Peacock Day and Shaheen
Holloway Uh and his four guards making uh well, tournament
magic happened when everybody's odds down and whatever else. These
guys have become a story. They've become the story. Mike.
(03:38):
You know, I mean, I'm blown away. I mean, you
know I'll say and I've said it, and I think
I said it last week when I came out with
you guys around this time was I looked at all
the matchups and and and I like Kentucky coming into
this tournament feels like a lifetime ago that they were
actually involved in college basketball. And I saw nothing from St.
(03:59):
Peter's mean Statistically, defensively they were pretty good. But I
go back to what I told you guys last week.
A smaller team um turned the ball over a lot,
wasn't a great shooting team. And so yeah, you played
great defense, but what does it mean when all of
those things are working against you? So to to have
a couple of things, Listen, twos have upset fifteens before.
(04:19):
It was incredible last week they got a pseudo advantageous
matchup against the fellow in major Murray State. But what
I think we all thought was that you have the
week now where you're you're probably pretty much the focal
point in college basketball. Everybody's talking about you. Everybody's descending
on your tiny, tiny, tiny campus in New Jersey. National
(04:42):
media is there, the New York Times is there. I'm
sure we had Fox sent people down to St. Peter.
So I just bring it up to say, I think
we all thought, Okay, it's a great story, but now
you are the focal point for four or five days,
and all on top of it. I just thought it
was a bad matchup. I mean, you know, per new
having a seven ft four center and Zach Eady a
six ft eleven backup, and Trevin Williams who ends up
(05:04):
playing more than the starter. I just thought it was
a bad matchup. And here they are again. Now obviously
get a Carolina on Sunday. It's gonna be kind of
that marquee window the finally there will have three Final
four teams to that point. But Mike, I continue to
be blown away, man, I really do. It's just it's
a great story. Um, I am as surprised as anybody.
(05:26):
I did not see this coming. I'm not taking credit
for anything. It's just it's unbelievable, guys, it really is.
And listen, you know, we can criticize college basketball a
lot for what it is and what it isn't on
the national scale, and how much can we talk about it?
And I get it, you know, Mike, I was in
for Jason the other day and we talked about college
basketball just doesn't really resonate. But when this tournament starts,
(05:47):
stories always present itself and the St. Peter's Peacocks are
just a great example of that. Well, but here's here's
what you guys are ignoring every I'm like, what am I?
I'm like the guy in the movie that says, don't
you see the aliens? They can't get there's they they
can't hear or whatever. I'm the one guy. I'm the
crazy guy with the with the lab coat and the
(06:08):
crazy hair. Look for Duke. Right, they beat Tom is
a right, one of the best head coaches in college
basketball in the last twenty five years. Okay, they're gonna
beat Arkansas and get revenge for the national championship game
where Arkansas beat Duke forty minutes of hell, they're gonna
play North Carolina in the final four, because we're gonna
get the whole week of coach k in his last
(06:29):
tournament in the final four, and oh, by the way,
they get to play North Carolina. Roy Williams will come
out of the stands to coach that game, and Duke
is going to win. And then who are they gonna
see for the championship Monday night? They're gonna play Kansas.
Roy Williams will then coach that team on Monday night,
and Chewski is gonna win, beating Kansas for the title.
Who oh, by the way, is the team he beat
(06:52):
for his first national championship way back in That's how
it's happening. I've told you how the n c A
Tournament's going to end is it can't end any other way.
So you predicted all of this in your bracket. You
had North Carolina. No no, no, no, no, no, listen,
I had Syracuse in the final four, like no, I
(07:13):
hadding at all. No, I had Duke winning at all.
But all this where it sits right now. Look, I
don't like he's beatn he's beat Izzoh, he's gonna beat Carolina,
He's gonna beat Kansa, He's gonna beat Arkansas. This is
how it is. Come on, the guys, seventy five. He's
walking away. He's the greatest head coach anybodyny of us
have seen since John would And of course that's how
it's gonna end for him. And he's gonna get all
(07:34):
the foul calls too. They're all gonna go Duke's way. Well,
that's you know. That's one thing I will say is
and and we've we've all thought it and talked about it,
and like I did think, like, Okay, they can win
some games and whatever, but you kind of have a
vision of of if it goes down, this is how
it's gonna go down. And that's how I kind of
(07:56):
assumed it would be. It's gonna be a lot of
sketchy calls and coach, yeah, this, this this, and that. They've
just made plays down the stretch. I mean, listen, they
do have the best players in college basketball. Paulo Bank
Caro was either the number one or number two player
in the country in high school coming out a j Griffin.
He dealt with injuries and in play senior year because
of COVID, but that was a five star dude, like
(08:18):
you know, Jeremy Roach injuries, but five stars. So I
just bring it up to say, like it is, you know,
they do also have the best players and and and
that's what's been so not surprising but kind of surprising
to me is we talk about how this isn't a
freshman sophomore tournament. It's a junior senior tournament. And they
got the guys that are making plays. And it's not
(08:38):
because the rests want Coach K. It's not because CBS
wants Coach K. It's not because TBS wants Coach K.
They got dudes making plays against a bunch of grown
men from Michigan staying a bunch of grown men from
Texas Tech. So listen, Jason, next year when I'm filling
out my bracket, I will obviously consult with you. But
I am blown away by how good they look, how
(09:00):
they're winning games. It's not the reps, it's not the TV,
it's not anything. They're just winning games because they have
the dudes that are making plays and the other teams don't.
It's actually like we could criticize Coach K and poke
at them it's actually been a really, really impressive run
to this point. As they get set to play Arkansas tomorrow.
All right, I'm gonna go back in the rewind too.
(09:20):
I mean, you your reference sitting in for Jason as
this thing was really kind of kicking off. Aaron. In
last night Arkansas bullied Gonzaga and we had had the
conversation and discussion about Gonzaga. Can I ever believe in them? Again? Well,
what I would say is, and this is something you
(09:42):
and I talked about when Jason was out sick. You know,
I'm glad you're feeling better. Jason. Here's the thing you
guys keep saying it like like you give me, Like, hey,
all the fun we had while you were gone. Oh
look at this. We ordered pizza. It was fantastic, and
we did hang out. I mean we got some good Uh.
I had some tin Doory chicken wings. Those were pretty good,
weren't they, Aaron? He did? I had one. It was delicious. Uh. Yeah.
(10:05):
Poor Jason, he takes off like one day every two years,
and he's just getting crushed for it NonStop. Just to
call back to to discussions that we had as the
tournament was starting and their Jermaine to the conversation. Now,
that's all I will say. Mike, you I'm not even
being sarcastic. You really opened my eyes on the Gonzaga thing,
(10:25):
because I still look at them as this is an
incredible story, small Catholic school, Spokane, Washington, Bolva. And you
brought up the point like you want to be treated
like Duke in Carolina and Kentucky and U c l A. Okay,
let's do it. But you gotta win one of these
at some point. And so what I would say is
(10:46):
one thing that I did say on the night that
Jason was out, because I don't know if you remember, Mike,
but he was out. He was not there that day.
We had a ton of fun. Um. I didn't think
this was a vintage Gonzaga team. And and and it's
funny because sometimes I think the whole like, oh there
are conference thinks like sometimes I think that conversation is overrated. Um,
(11:06):
this year, I thought it was kind of important. Not
because I don't think they were challenged, but because I
don't think they were exposed. I think if they play
in a normal conference, they're just a nice twenty five
and eight team going into the tournament like all Burn
like Kentucky, like Tennessee, like whoever, Duke, and we just
(11:27):
sit there and say, Okay, they're one of fifteen really
good teams. But because they played in this random conference,
and I know they had three tournament teams this year
and all that time because of the conference, they beat
up on a lot of bad teams, and people went
in with the expectation there again, a one seed, there again,
the number one overall seed. I never thought they were
that team. And and you know, Jason Martin and I
(11:48):
were on their last Saturday when they easily could have
lost the Memphis and then last night, you know, I
forget which one he brought it up, but they just
got pumped. You know, Arkansas was a better team from
start to finish. Again goes back to the Duke thing.
There is no sketchy foul calls. There's no Arkansas was
the better team. And so you know, I don't believe
that they can never win the championship. I do believe
(12:08):
by the way that you know, you start to look
at that program. Tommy Lloyd, the assistant coach, is now
the head coach at Gonzaga. He recruited all those international
guys um and and I'm not saying that they can
or won't win, but I thought this was their weakest team,
and probably about three or four or five years, I
think you'd go back and the teams with Ruey hot Chamore,
and the teams with Corey Kissburn, and the teams with
(12:29):
a bunch of guys that are in the NBA right now,
Jalen Suggs. I thought they were better than this team,
so you can maybe believe in them again. But I
thought this was maybe their their best chance again for
a while, and you start to look at what they
could look like. I I really think this was the
one where now that they didn't do it, I don't
(12:49):
know when they get back on this stage where people
feel this way about him. It'll be interesting to watch
over these next couple of years. He's on Twitter at
Aaron Underscore Tours. That's at Aaron Underscore Toris College asked
while inside our host here at Fox Sports Radio, check
out the Errant Torres podcast with the big topics of
Gonzaga peaking as a program, is Duke officially the team
to beat is Syracuse on the move to win it
(13:12):
All next year? All these topics I should have just
add I don't even I wonder have even had to
ask if Duke was a team to beat. If I
had just consulted with you before the press opened up,
you should have like told you, man, that's that's okay,
it's okay, it's okay, it's all right, Duke, not Syracuse.
Thank you guys very much. Next week. All right, there
(13:35):
goes Aarontar is always great stuff with him. If cold
candidate calls aren't turning into hot hiring leads, then you
need Indeed, because Indeed's powerful hiring platform makes easy to attract,
screen and interview candidates all from one place. Find your
next great higher visiting Indeed dot com slash credit. That's
Indeed dot Com slash credit. Well coming enough, So we've
(13:56):
got more NBA on the way because in the NBA
eight tonight, oh, there was one game. We just have
to spend a couple of minutes on Plus Mike and
I will tell you what the final four will look
like with all the games put to bed. Who are
gonna be the four teams we're gonna talk about all
next week hoping to cut down the Nets win the
national title that's coming up next, right, here. This is
(14:16):
Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten
pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific Fox Sports Radio. The Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. You can't
keep me cooped up in here, Okay, pecock, you gotta
let me find hiring heating up Indeed Hiring platform makes
(14:39):
it easy to attract, screen and interview candidates all in
one place. Sponsor a post and instantly receive a shortlist
of quality candidates on indeed whose resumes match your job description.
Visit indeed dot com slash credit. That's indeed dot com
slash credit. Well, we gotta get to this a little bit, Mike,
because you know, we were told the other night by
(14:59):
Miami Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra that, Hey, this whole
potential fight on the sidelines with Jimmy Butler and Donnas
HASSLM and me. Maybe Jimmy Butler wanted to fight me.
Had to ask him if he was blanking crazy. Oh,
this can galvanize a team, right, this could bring us
all together. Yeah. They lost at home tonight to the Knicks,
(15:21):
So I think the whole well, this will galvanize the tape. No,
that's out the window, out the way. Heat was also
up seventeen. They were at one point in this game,
so they gave it away. Yeah, well, you know what,
every everybody has a bad night, especially at home when
you're up big. Yes, the Knicks again, Barrett with it,
(15:45):
I mean quickly, three off the bench, Barrett with eighteen.
I mean, you're your guy didn't even um didn't even play. No,
he hasn't. He hasn't played in a couple of games.
It's been he didn't even have that. Jimmy Bucketts had thirty,
but you know, minus fourteen from Bama to Bayou and
they go down by eight. A convincing win by your Knicks.
(16:10):
Look at what Thibodeau has got I got him doing.
Just when it was too late for the Knicks to
do anything. Here they are winning games. It's too late
for now. Wait wait, wait, now we're gonna win a
couple here. Now we're gonna do it. Yeah, I mean
obviously regular season and you just kind of shrugged to
a degree. But your losers of three straight and four
(16:33):
of your last six, and you're you're losing to well,
you're losing all comers. At this point, you're losing good teams. Uh,
and then you lose to the Knicks. Yeah, but your
last wins were against okay see and Detroit. Yeah yeah,
and uh, neither of them are good. They're not they're
not they're not They're not good, not not not good.
(16:55):
So yeah, it'll be curious. I'd love to see some chaos.
I mean, there's no question when you're the top seed
and there there's a little bit of handwringing going on. Sure,
let's go that Eastern Conference. Man has the only team
you trust is Milwaukee. Like they they sat and faced
themselves all year and now all of a sudden, up
in the top, you know, one of the top couple
of seeds, and it's like, wait, what happens? Like, oh,
(17:17):
they started playing because it was time to get ready
for the post season. The only and everybody else stinks
because the Bulls can't be the top three team. If
you're a playoff team, they're gonna fall down. Uh, and
just there and we thought they were and clearly t
J Mike Harmon hoping to see the Bulls on parade
(17:39):
after the season this year, but likely not happening. But
why I'm looking at my my vacation time for the summer.
I'm like, all right, if my passport comes in, I'll
go follow a band on tour. I'm not worried about
playoffs for the Bulls or anything. And and t J
instead of playoffs, clearly the Bulls getting more els in
(18:03):
the column. I hate you that. Well that was oh man,
I really I think I used every last synapse in
my brain for that one. I was that was a
good one. Well, that's one of those where like in
a superhero movie where you've got try to use your
superpower and then you're exhausted by the end of it
and you collapse. You could say it's Friday Night to it.
(18:26):
It's like iron How many times Iron Man like down
to his last like three? So the suit is it three?
And suddenly you would find a way out of it,
or someone would come and rest. You're about to spontaneously combusted.
Where are we were in Nashville? Nashville? What do we do? Uh?
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Tonight,
Shoe brought to by one of our favorite cities, Las Vegas,
(18:48):
the greatest arena on Earth. Every game match racing competition.
It is always on whoever you root for, whatever sport
you love to watch. The biggest games were even bigger
in Vegas, so make sure to plan your trip today
a visit Laws Vegas dot com. That's visit Las Vegas
dot com. Now we'll get to our picks for the
final four coming up in a couple of minutes. But
one football story that uh is it was really interesting
(19:13):
how it came up today and that Johnny Manzel had
a bunch of headlines for the vast majority of the day. Uh. Manzel,
who was playing in the fan controlled football league I
didn't interview with ESPN in which he said, listen, my
football career is over right, My'm my football, I'm playing now.
I'm playing football for fun. So this is why he's
(19:33):
playing in the seven on seven football fan controlled league
that fans call the plays and it's a crazy as
like and this is where Johnny manziel is playing. Johnny
Manziela and the Bleep and Heisman Trophy. In two thousand
and twelve was a first round pick at everything handed
to him for the Cleveland Browns. Now he's saying, I'm
just playing football for fun. Um it's been very easy
(19:55):
to compare and lazy to compare Johnny Manzell and Baker Mayfield. Right. Sure,
they're similarities. They were supposed to be the uh, the
saviors of the same team. It didn't happen. Both of
them are very cocky, both of them are very stubborn.
Both of them flamed out right. But what they both
have different reasons for what happened to them. Right For
(20:17):
Baker Mayfield right now, Baker is more about being unprepared.
His cockiness and arrogance was he thought, I'm going to
take the NFL by storm, and I don't need to
learn anything from anybody. I can come into play, I
can make commercials, I can talk about Duke Johnson's contract
and now people need to be on board with us
here or away. And he just didn't know what it
(20:37):
meant to be an NFL quarterback. Right. We've gone over
this about about Baker Mayfield a while ago. Now. The
thing for Johnny Manzel, it's hidden in what he said
right here. Now, I just played football for fun, um.
I think he always kind of played football for fun.
I don't know how much you ever really loved football.
Football came easy for him. Until it didn't, and he
(20:58):
didn't care to put the work in and be what
it meant to be to be a quarterback of franchise
quarterback in the NFL. Baker Mayfield, I know, loves football,
all right. He's always talking about the player he is
and everything he's overcome, and nobody believed in me. I
know Baker Mayfield loves football. Johnny Manzel never loved football.
He was good at it. It was it came easy
(21:19):
to him, and everything was great. Right when something in
sports comes easy to you, Hey, you never really want
to put the work in because it's coming in. It
came easy to him in college, even against Alabama in
the big Heisman Trophy performance he had a decade ago.
Football was easier. But then it gets to the NFL
and it gets harder. Hey, come draft me. Let's wreck
this league together. Hey, and the quarterback of the Browns, now, Hey,
(21:40):
it means a little bit more. You gotta put away
the party and you gotta do a little bit more studying.
You gotta do a lot. No, No, I'm not gonna
do that. I'm just gonna kind of do my thing
because it's what I've always done and what happens the
guy flames out of the league in two years. Alright,
it's because if he loved football, he would have made
it more of a priority. He would have understood, all right,
I need to to fit my mistakes and get what
(22:02):
it means to be a franchise quarterback or I'm gonna
lose it. And here he is now. Does he look
like he has any regrets about flaming out of the NFL?
Not once? Not what even when it Hey, you're on
your last best chance to make the NFL. Yeah, I'm
partying out in Los Angeles and I'm party in Hollywood
and and I'm having a good time, and I'm gonna
and we would get these headlines for him once in
a while. Look, he's out and been out living his
(22:25):
best life since we knew him, since he first became
Johnny Manziel Heisman Trophy winner, and whenever it was, hey,
you gotta do this to be a quarterback in the NFL, now,
he never did it because he didn't care enough about it.
He liked doing it, and if he didn't like doing it,
he wouldn't still do it now. But he's just he's
just going out there and existing on his ability and
he's playing football for fun. He never loved it, never
(22:48):
wanted to put the work in. So yeah, big bit
of difference between Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel because Baker
Mayfields a guy that worked for what he had and
continues to try to work it his struggles much differently
than what we saw for Manzel. Yeah, I mean, look,
it's conversation extension of a conversation we've been having this week,
and certainly I've been having. You know, as you know,
I've got one daughter starting to think about the college path.
(23:10):
The other is finishing eighth grade, so selecting you know,
those freshman courses and you're you're trying to figure out
you know, push pull or do you you know, decision
making processes, and you're always to some degree, you know,
an observer, you're watching it happen, but certainly in your
own life trying to figure out, all right, where where's
(23:31):
that limit to where things suddenly get hard, right, and
when you face adversity and when you have For Johnny Menzel,
he floated right, and he always had in the backdrop.
Oh yeah, family's got money, always a safety net, right,
which is to some degree at least outside looking in
how it always seemed he approached the NFL and and
(23:52):
his and his career was well, you know, I'm gonna
have fun and enjoy it while i'm doing it, whereas
you know, the other guys, Yeah, you're enjoying the perks
of the job and the money and and adulation and
everything else, but you're still working your ass off. Why
because you don't want it to go away. And and
that's I think one of the differences with Baker. I
(24:14):
don't think there's any question he he loves what he's done.
He still has that chip on his shoulder to a degree,
although at some points, you know, he started reading his
own press clippings for the worst. Right, It's one thing
to fight with Colin Uh, you know, as part of
the network and Colin Gowhard and and he those battles
are legendary in the social media sphere, no question, Uh
(24:36):
and other reporters and and getting after it with Mary
Kay Cabinot in Cleveland. Well, now you've got, you know,
a reporter locally who's been on the beat a long time.
So you know, when you try to, you know, make
blanket references to stuff in stories and claim they aren't true.
It was like, no, no no, no, they're not printing those
just haphazardly. So you gotta do a look in the
(24:57):
mirror kind of moment. And for him, like he had
a rough year and it crumbled and when you realize,
all right, you might be better than the average, but
you ain't better than the average by much. And it's
a hard reality to face, and that you hit that
crossroads for Johnny Manzel. Look, it's done right. There's there's
no delusions he was ever finding his way back to
(25:19):
the league. So when I saw this story starting to
go viral, I kind of shrugged, went okay, but the
Baker may feel part of it. Absolutely. I mean, this
is a guy that you know, you'd love to see
him rededicate himself to the guy that was coming out
like his hair was on fire in right. It's you know,
we joke about the American president. You know, I'd love
(25:41):
to have been on that campaign. I'd like to see
that guy playing football again because it was about football.
You know, a lot of the nonsense seemed to have
gone away, and maybe this is the humbling situation that
was talked about. And once he gets released, and that's
always in the press and in his Wikipedia page and
player profile forever. Damn right, He's gonna be humbled and
(26:03):
so now it's just a question of where he gets
a second chance Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike
gets swollen Dome The Jason Smith Show with My best
Friend Mike Harmon. So yeah, always a big difference. Understand,
one loves football, one just didn't not enough. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
(26:25):
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Hey,
this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on
my podcast, Straight Fired with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your
typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down your
throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on
all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you
(26:47):
win big at the sports book, and all the best guests.
Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight Fire with
Jason McIntyre on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Fox Sports Radio, The
Jason Smith Show with My Best Friend Mike Harmon a
(27:08):
night in the n c A Tournament, none of us
will forget St. Peter's pulling not just an upset, but
the latest in a string of upsets unlike we have
ever seen before in tournament history. They are the first
fifteen seed to advance to the Elite eight. So now
the Elite eight is all set. Mike and I will
(27:28):
close tonight by giving you all our picks, telling you
who's gonna be playing in the Final four next weekend
in New Orleans. Mike Harmon, are you ready? Are we
gonna chalk it up? Let's chuck it up. Uh, not
a lot of chalk left. We got it well on five. Uh,
let's start with what should be the easiest game Kansas
(27:49):
and Miami to pick against Kansas. Right now, you are
just picking just because you want to pick something else,
Like it was a nice night from Miami beating Iowa State.
You know they beat Auburn in the last round of
the tournament. Kansas is just playing incredibly well. A little
bit more difficulty with Providence and n I think I expected.
But they're the only one seed left and they're saying,
(28:10):
don't pay any attention to us. We're just let all
the other ones lose. We're all good. Let us do
our thing. We're Kansas basketball. I firmly expect Kansas to
be in the five. No, it's it's picking chalk. But
I really can't see Miami beating Kansas. Yeah, no, watched
that game. Well that was the undercard, right, watching that
Ted eleven matchup today, Uh, and like someone's gotta gotta advance. Unfortunately,
(28:35):
you go and you run into the one seed that's
still remaining, uh, playing well, not blowing anybody out other
than that opening round against Texas Southern. Right, the alright,
let's get a workout in, but enough to withstand Providence.
So yeah, we'll go chalk out of the Midwest. Alright.
Moving over to the South, Houston and Villanova, Um, this
(28:59):
is a great magic will be the best matchup of
the Elite eight because you have strength against strength and
that's Houston's offense in Villanova's defense. Villanova's offense is a
little bit better than you give them credit for. It's
gonna be hard for Houston to stay hot the entire game,
and it's hard to go against rights record in the
n c A Tournament the last few years. I think
he's undefeated. I think he's oh. Uh so, yeah, give
(29:23):
me Villanova there just a little bit better. Houston's played
a great and they played a great game against Arizona.
They'll get a bounce in this next game. Villanova played
well but hasn't played their best game yet. Give me
the Wildcats to go to the final four. Well, I'm
gonna follow my own advice from what I didn't do.
You know, I turned in my bracket and immediately started
to regret it when I saw the the popular picks
(29:44):
for popular people, and right now everybody has jumped on
board Houston and this is one the over under on
this one. Jason has one seven. So let's talk about
slowing it down and grinding it out. Uh So, yeah, again,
I'll take the number two seed. Uh I had them
at least playing in the Elite eight, so I think
(30:04):
that was my last team standing. So I'll take them
and continue it one more time and listen. I don't
know if people know this, but if Duke wins the tournament,
I win the bracket challenge here at Fox Sports. Right.
I thought I heard that on another show earlier today.
It might have been, but I was on other shows
to talk about that specific You should have kept showing
(30:24):
up angelizing with a bullhorn. I'm gonna win the bracket
challenge speaking, what makes you think I wasn't what the
guy wasn't. I don't know. You might have been going
all brock Lesner like he did on on on FS
one with SmackDown, where he just started beating up ring
officials and security guys in the whole nine yards. It
was great. I was standing in front of Starbucks today
(30:46):
doing just that. And now I'm gonna go have a
Moca cookie crumble. Uh, Speaking of Duke, Duke is gonna
beat Arkansas alright, Coach K. Coach K's journey is not
gonna end short of the final four. And this is
gonna be a bunco game that this is where they
get on his shoulders. For one, he's played really well,
(31:07):
but you've been waiting for this. Okay, where does this
guy come in and where does he become and give
you his his signature tournament game. This is gonna be it.
Duke wins it and they're gonna win by double digits
to go to the final four. Yeah, this one strikes
me as a as a game where whereby the attempts
to play bullyball and force the issue like Arkansas was
(31:30):
able to do against against Saga doesn't work. In other words,
you're getting called for the charge. You're the one getting
called for the block. That aggressiveness in the low post
works against you, uh in. And that's just you know,
the EBB and flow of tournament. It's not getting into
conspiracy theories, but let's call it what it is. We
also do get into the emotion of things, as we've
(31:51):
talked about since this tournament began and even towards the
end of the regular season. So yeah, right now, Duke
playing well, big win over Texas Tech. Let's see them
continue through to the final four, and ah, you love it?
You love it? Uh North Carolina and St. Peter's and
eight and a fifteen. Coach k is not going to
(32:16):
go to the final four to play St. Peter's. Okay,
it's like I want to. I want to pick them
because they're the story. And that's just picking that because
they're the story exactly. But you see what happens when
you pick a story. Look North North Carolina, then I'll
pick the story. I'm a peak North Carolina is going
to win this game. Uh, Look, they played a great
(32:37):
game tonight against u c l A. They knocked off Baylor.
You have to take them seriously as good as they are.
They win the eight nine game by thirty five points.
Nor you can argue that no team has been better
in the tournament than North Carolina. They may have been
the best. They may have played the best in the
n c A tournament so far. They send an end
the St. Peter's great story and they go to the
(32:59):
final four against Coach k really hoping that one's a
grind out final two minute kind of scenario. See if
Hubert Davis can break a press, if they can throw
it on them. But yeah, I'll go u N see
very very rarely when we agree across the grid, but
at this point that you know, you're not picking upsets
just for the sake of it. So there it is
(33:21):
our final four picks. The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harman Twitter at how about a fresca? Mike gets swollen dome,
Brian knows coming up next. This is Fox Sports Radio
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.