Furness Show 6-10: Jason Gregor, Mollywhop Monday and basketball talk

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
No from the Star Rentals Sports TestsJordan ninety three point three KJRFM Sports headlines
and headlines are brought to you byben U Kings Venukings dot Com Manners lost
two of three in their series ofthe Royals, but they did salvage the
final game yesterday six to five.The final score and ten innings yesterday afternoon.
By the way, bad news HiFrance placed on the ten day injured

(00:21):
list right heel fracture. And ittook like basically seven years of getting hit
eighty five times a year by apitch to finally actually get hurt. That
guy's an iron man, and itis retroactive to the eighth too, so
hopefully it's just those ten days.I'll tell you right now, I'm not
sure if anything sounds more painful thanfracturing your heel. And I saw service
yesterday going, ah, you knowit's not real bad. It's this I'll

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make dude, he fractured his heellike that is that cannot be fun.
That's almost as bad as messing upyour hand on a bike like Graig did.
Tyler Locklear selected from Triple A Tacoma, his first hit ever RBI double
Nice as well. Team starts aseries with the White Sox. Triple A
team begins tonight at six forty low. Gilbert will get the win for Seattle.
He's also starting, but he'll getto win for him barring something.

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Just absolutely god, I wish Icould get to the casino today. That
is like easiest money ever. It'son your way home. Kind of vish
that might be. I gotta swingby the ulslo Quama Casino. That's our
sponsor of the show, right,Just support the sponsor. Stanley Cup Playoff
Game one Panthers over the Oilers threenothing as two goals plus an empty the
inner game two tonight five o'clock righthere in your home for the Kraken and
the NHL Playoffs. Ninety three pointthree KJRFM sales. Storm fell to the

(01:27):
Links yesterday eighty three sixty four.That snapped a long winning streak the host
of Sparks. At seven tomorrow night, Sounders lost the key. Do you
guys see a trend here? Sounderslost the Sporting cac over the weekend to
one. They take on Minnesota nextSaturday at seven thirty. I blame Jackson
and the Boston Celtics now lead oneof the most least compelling NBA Finals ever.
Two games to none. They tookdown the Mavericks one oz five to

(01:49):
ninety eight. This game was alittle closer than Game one. It was
close almost the whole game. Okay, okay, so my couch has tears
in it now, I'm just gonnasay that it was not the ball.
The series, as boring as itis, moves to Dallas on Wednesday,
game at five point thirty as well. I think I got it all.
Let's hit the show open. TheI Infness Show is presented by snow Qualm

(02:12):
Casino. Brown Ball Blitz has itright there, easy talks to first and
the Maritors win it in ten innings, six to five. The final score
it wasn't easy. I could tellyou that he knew it wouldn't be with
the way this series is none butthey come back, battle back, end
up winning this ball game. Bigbase hit by cal Rawley to drive in
a couple of runs. I washuge at this game. Text us at

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four nine, four five one andhit the talkback mike on the Iheartradiot that
baldon next ten ten seconds to go, Burchard had it block Bark DoD lose
Terina Dinner July five ago. Thisis the New Sports Radio ninety three point

(02:57):
three Kjrfmhilight's Curtsey Roots sports an EESPNManors win, Panthers win. Can't believe
he didn't put the Celtics in there. You know what I did? You
as solid on that one where itwasn't about me. I want that you
wanted to hear. Listen, StanleyCup Final over the NBA. I want

(03:20):
so bad for that NBA Final seriesto be good and compelling, and even
yesterday looking just kind of it's not. I mean, it's the difference between
the two teams is striking, Likeit's striking how much better Boston is than
what we're seeing with the Dallas Mavericksright now. But uh, you know,
listen, that's that's that's not ourproblem right now. We get the

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NBA back, will probably be moreconcerned with it. I'll just I'll raise
a glass once your team wins here. Maybe in five, right, maybe
in five. Maybe Dallas was stutand via my husband's stats because he that's
the thing he pays attention to themost. The Celtics. They're terrible in
game twos. Wow, they havevery bad success. The percentage of teams

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to up to nothing in NBA's it'slike it's like it's seventy nine eighty percent
something like that, So it shouldhappen. I forgot to get this in.
By the way, Dan Hurley stayingat the University of Connecticut, he
is not going to take the jobwith the Los Angeles Lakers, so instead
we'll touch in on this a littlebit later in the show. He will

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try to go for the elusive threepeat, which has only been done by
one school men's college basketball. Youmight have heard of him, you see
l and a guy named John Wooden. I'm just real quick. I'll touch
on later. I'm thrilled. I'vebecome more of a college basketball fan of
the last few years, and Ijust I the fact that in today's day

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and age, with nil portals everythingelse, this guy has really built a
He's built a program, a solidprogram, and to have that consistency is
really difficult. And go for history. That's awesome. I mean it's in

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a one and done tournament. Wesee it every year, people get knocked
out, So I just I thinkit's great. It might be more of
an indictment on Lebron and the Lakersthan anything else. But because that's a
lot of money he turned down.But you know, state income tax living
in LA probably not as much moneyas people are going to make it out.
It was six years, seventy milliondollar contract. It's a lot of
money. We get that. Butwith what he can make at Yukon as

(05:31):
the best college coach in the countrywithout having to live in Los Angeles and
without having to deal with Lebron andthe pressures of that job, good job
on him. We'll get to thatlater on Mariners win. We got Malliwap
Monday coming up today. That'll beat one o'clock, so just a little
over an hour away. We'll checkin with the fellas a lot to discuss

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one of the things I'm going tohit on with them. The Athletic did
a really interesting story today. Theypulled players around Major League Baseball and it
was kind of like the Now,I gotta say this, let me do
a quick little math because it wasa player It was a player poll,
and they pulled one hundred players fromaround Major League Baseball. So I'm just

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gonna do this real quick, wellradio math. Let's go. There's seven
hundred and fifty players in Major LeagueBaseball. They only pulled one hundred,
so I don't know if that's abig enough sample size, but I think
it's some interesting things in there.The Mariners and their players did not show
up much at all except for acouple like little tidbit categories. But well,

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there's some interesting results from that.I'll touch down with the guys like,
you know, overrated player, bestplayer, teammate, you'd want to
have, organization you'd want to playfor, things like that. We'll talk
about where you know, organization youwouldn't want to play for. Do the
Mariners fit in any of those things. We'll touch on that a little bit
because think it's an interesting one aswe continue to watch the progression of this

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baseball team throughout the season, stillfive games up, playing in a division
that frankly, absolutely no excuse notto win that division this year. I
know, yes it is June tenth, but where they are and what they're
doing right now, and when youlook at what's below, there's two teams
that aren't trying to win, Oaklandand the Angels like they so really it's

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a three team race. One ofthose teams is about as broken as it
can get. With Houston, they'vegot not only injury issues, but they're
just it's you know, guys likeBregman are starting the age out. I
mean there's six games below five hundred. Are the Houston Astros to get back?

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I mean they're only six and ahalf behind Seattle, But to get
back to that level, they'd haveto go on a massive heat that they
just have not shown any ability tothis year. And Texas seegers banged up.
Who knows what his status is goingto be, right, so,
and they've been kind of banged upall year. Seattle's the best team in
a bad division, So be theking of the dipsticks. Win it.
Just go ahead and win it.It's not their fault, no, the

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division, no, no, buttake advantage of it. Absolutely. I
think we saw that even yesterday.They're a funny team. Man, They're
a funny team in this sense,Like the first two games of the series,
they just you know, bullpen,We're starting to see lack of depth
in the bullpen a little bit.Starting pitching, if it's not flawless and
perfect, you're in trouble. Thefact that you have a seven to nothing

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lead and you can't win that game. It fan's on later, he'll I'm
sure he always has little numbers.You know, the probability chart of winning.
It had to be like ninety ninepercent when it was seven to nothing.
It had to be like it hadto be huge, yea. And
they find a way to lose outone. They find a way to lose
on Saturday. But there were highlightsover the weekend. I mean, JP

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Crawford two leadoff home runs. Ithought the bigger highlight yesterday was and I
love the debates. Munnos comes in. I don't know if you watch.
Yeah, he came in in theeighth, high leverage situation, nine to
one in two were up, andhe got got him out. Now,
I understand you're kind of treating himwith kid gloves right now, and I'll

(09:05):
ask the guys later. I wonderif you just don't run him back.
He didn't throw a lot of pitchesin the ninth. He's had a lot
of you know, one plus inningsaves, ye yeah, and appearances.
But they go to the bullpen andit gets ugly quick. And then in
the tenth when they score three runsand they're up, You're like, okay,
this is great and then boom,that lead all of a sudden disappears

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and they got to go to sauceand he comes in and gets a save
and just you know, he's he'sstill and I'm I know, I'm partial
to him because I know the familya little bit. I the guy's just
got stones, like he just hasstone. I think you're doing a T
shirt for him tonight too, right, Oh, let me look that up.
I need to confirm that. Hejust let me just text somebody.

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Let me just where's Martinez? Youknow what, He's not doing anything right
now. Let's see. Well,luckily, you know, because I know
that you have the familiar relationship withhim. Him and I have talked to
him in the clubhouse a lot,and what I would say is around all
of the media members I have talkedto regarding him, and he's just cool

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and it's just so he's hilarious.Yeah, he's and he's a funny guy.
He's also a guy that grew upin Seattle or Maple Valley, so
to speak, and in this areahe grew up. I mean, he's
playing for his hometown team. It'sa dream come true. And he goes
from a guy that last year,remember twenty twenty three, he was a
non roster invite. He like,he's had to fight his way under the

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roster each of the last couple ofyears, and even last year, up
until middle of the season, hewasn't even a high leverage guy. I
thought. I was just I wasthrilled to see him come in. If
you want to look at all themost important things that happened this weekend.
For him to get that final outyesterday with the with the chance that they
could lose that game and get swept, and they haven't been swept yet this
season, that would have been thefirst time they've been swept. For him
to get that final out, littledribbler to second base, that was huge.

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That was a big, big time. That's big time for him.
So they still have a five fivegame lead in the American League West.
We'll get to that coming up,Mollywop. Guys at one o'clock. You
won't want to miss it. Coolstuff going on at simply Seattle is out
there today. I'll tell you aboutthat, Molliwop at one Jason Gregor,
we'll talk a little Kraken and StanleyCup Final coming up next live from the

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R and R Foundation Specialists broadcast studioback to Ian Fernetz, powered by Seattle's
closest sportsbook, snowp Call me Casinoon Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR
FM every now and then. Ithink I got a lot of jobs,

(11:41):
pretty busy. Lots of stuff goingon post this little radio show. Every
day we're Colbert Fox thirteen TV.Got some other things going on on the
side, Lots of stuff happening,which is good. I never want to
complain about being busy. It's betterthan the opposite. Then I have a
gentleman like I have on coming upnext to my friend Jason Gregor from Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, a champions bythe way provincial Campbell up there.

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He does a show, the JasonGregor Show on Sports fourteen forty. Also
co host the Daily Face Off withFrank Saravelli writes for The Nation Network.
What don't you do, sir?How are you? I'm guodian good.
It's a busy time right now,my man. Yeah, But many years
I used to be writing articles aboutdraft projections for like a decade because the

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order is stunk. So this isa this is a welcome change to be,
you know, reporting and digging intostuff that actually matters and changes every
few days. Because of the StanleyCup Playoffs, it's actually a little bit
more enjoyable, even though it's busier. We were just talking in our first
segment briefly my great producer, Adjustment. She's a big Celtics fan, and
I was kind of lamenting the factthe NBA playoffs have been in my mind,

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maybe I'm wrong, Maybe people disagree. Four nine, four or five
ones are Telemortu text lines. Ifyou want to chime in, maybe you
disagree. I feel as if theNBA playoffs have been just kind of so
so like, nothing real compelling,no real drawing, just just have them
in there. The NHL playoffs theopposite the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first
round ninety plus percent of the gameswent to decided about one goal or last

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second round, same way. Imean, it's they've been great and this
series sets up to be fantastic aswell. How would you describe what we've
seen so far in before we gettonight and this series? How would you
describe what we've seen so far inthis year Stanley Cup Playoffs? Well?
I would this is one of thebest playoffs and in a long time,
because historically in the NHL you havemore series. In the first round,
there's a few upsets and everyone's like, ooh, it's better. But the

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best eight teams won in the firstround this year, and then you know,
the second round series were close andcompetitive and you had good teams all
moving on. Then you get tothe conference finals and you got four really
good teams and you know, theyboth go six games, and there's lots
of tight games, one goal games, and you know, now you're in
the Stanley Cup final, and youknow it helps having the best player in
the world in the cup final.That hasn't happened for a few years in

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the NHL. Of those Tampa Bayand you know McKinnon, they had lots
of really good guys, don't getme wrong, but you know, they
didn't have McDavid. So that probablyhelps to get maybe some of the non
dedicated hockey fans to watch a littlebit closer to kind of say, hey,
what's all this hype about this McDavidguy and all that dry settle guy
is bad? So the games havebeen you know, this year's playoffs has

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definitely been I find more competitive.You know, I watch a lot of
the games, and you know you'renot changing the channel very often. There
hasn't made a lot of blowout JasonGregor joining US Edmonton host writer Extraordinary all
things NHL. Game one goes toFlorida, yet by all accounts, Edmonton
out played Florida. I think someonemade the comment after the game, maybe

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the hockey gods came back and gothim because a lot of people thought they
shouldn't have won Game six against Dallas. They did, but despite being outshot
badly and in some ways outplayed,and in this particular game, maybe it
was a little tit for tat andthey came back. Did you believe that
Edmonton was a better team in Gameone? Oh yeah, by every statistical
margin excepting goal and not that Skinnerplayed port it. But Pebroski was unreal

(15:00):
like Sergy. Vibrovski probably was thefirst, second, the third star in
that game. I will say thisthough about the Edmonton shooters. The scouting
reports go high, and they didn'tgo high. You have two breakaways,
you put it right on the ice. Vibroski stops it all the time,
right like he's every goalie, eventhe elite ones have a weakness. Verbrovski's
is upstairs and only two of theolder shots were upstairs that hit the net.
Now, they missed the net ontwo good chances over top, so

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they were trying to go high.But you know that's where Edmonton will have
to be better. Like you know, we a lot of times in the
hockey we break down, how oh, here's a defensive miscute and all they
didn't make the good defensive play anda lot of times we just let the
forwards off the hook when it's like, well, you know where you're supposed
to shoot, and if you ifyou come in on a break when you
just put it right in the guy'schest, well that's not a good shot,

(15:43):
right, But it's almost as lameas a piece up the middle.
But it never really gets the samecriticism. And I've really tried to focus
on that the last few years tosay, hey, sometimes guess what your
job's a score goals and when youhave good chances, they didn't bury that
good mcbroski credit, don't get mewrong, but they didn't they didn't attack
his weakness and not saying it's easy, but I look at Emonton shooters tonight
Ian and you know, they onlyhad two shots upstairs on Bbrowski. He's

(16:07):
allowed twenty three goals upstairs in theplayoffs this year, he's allowed none in
his five hole. He's only allowedi think four on the ice, So
you know where you're going to beathim. It's hard to get there,
but obviously that's where you got togo. So you know, I'll be
curious to watch Edmonton tonight. Wesaw that in the Vancouver series. They
really did some pre scouts. Theydidn't know a lot on she Law as
the goalie, but by after Gamethree they started focusing long shots from distance

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up high, not where you're susceptible, and they scored a few goals from
there, so you know it's advancedscouting matters. And then the execution of
the guys. So I thought Eminton, you know, they were the quicker
team. They had way more offensivezone time, they had way more possession
time, so they just didn't finish. So you want to win in the
Stanley Cup finals, you know what, you got to do everything right.
And Florida, their goaltender was fantastic. I think Florida will want to play

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better, no question, But myquestion is here, ian Is I said
this before the Dallas series. Edmontonis quicker than Dallas, and I saw
the series about Empton's quicker than Florida. And in the game today, there's
a lot more skating, there's lessobstruction and you know, for the physical
team, but they actually haven't takena ton of penalty in the playoffs they
did in the regular season. Andyou know, if this game becomes more
of a skating series, that benefitsEdmonton, and that's just a matter of

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can they finish well. I mean, fifty seven hits jumps off the page.
I mean I think Bennet had eleven, right, I mean, it's
it was so they're like, Ijust love the series. I'll be honest
with you, Jason. When itgot down to the final four, this
is what I wanted to see,only because I think the two teams match
up so well. Like you said, Edmonton's got great speed, but it's
not like Edmonton's still a big,heavy team that's got great speed. You
know, you could probably put Floridain that same exact category. So I'm

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with you. You know, Bobrovskiwas great. You got to shoot up
high. You want to kind ofI mean, I get maybe putting some
on without getting too far in theweeds on the on the forwards. Even
just looking at the picture you postedon your on your ex account, Twitter,
whatever we're calling it these days,you know, with with Adam Henrik,
you can see the back pressure coming. So it's not I'm not sure
how how if they really had thethe opportunity to go up hig when they

(18:00):
want to, because I hadn't thinkthey knew going in. But yeah,
that'll be the focus tonight, right, go high, go high, keep
going high, go high until youget one in. Yeah, they're gonna
they're gonna have to write and andthey've done that before, so you know
what, it's one game in theplayoffs. But the thing about the Stanley
Cup Finals, Man, if yougo down oh two, it's it's almost

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lights out Irene. It's not completelylights out Irene because we've seen two teams
in the And I really only liketo compare to the salary cap era.
Yeah, you know what happened inthe eighties. It doesn't really matter to
me. But you know, inthe salary cap Era, thirteen times the
whole team has won the first twogames, they won the series. Eleven
times. Right, even if youget now, when you get a split,
which has only happened five times,then the road teams actually won sixty

(18:41):
percent of the series. So youknow, if Emponton wants to win this
series, you could pretend you're thePenguins of nine and come back down.
Oh two, what happens. Butyou know your odds are obviously much better
because you can get a win tonight. So it's not as a musling game,
but it's it's inching closer there tonightfor the Havens. Jason Gregor joining
us. Jason, how what doesthe Stanley Cup mean to the legacy of

(19:03):
Connor McDavid the best player in theworld right now, the best player in
the world now for some time,and how much does he needed to validate,
especially playing for a team that hasthe greatest player of all time that
hoisted the cup with five times yeah, well four times for you know.

(19:25):
I think there's a lot of pressureon superstars today because they're always you got
to oh, you got to wina championship to be considered the great to
the greats, right, and Iget that in Seria, I totally understand
it. But now you have thirtytwo teams, right, And in hockey,
like in basketball, it's a littlebit different because in basketball, the
superstars play forty minutes plus out ofthe forty eight, right, Lots of

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times you'll see guys play forty fiveforty six minutes, So you're having a
direct impact in the game all thetime. In the NHL, you know
what, unless and even if you'rea goalie, you don't impact the other
end of the ice, right.You only impact when the pucks and years
own, which on average is maybeyou know, a third of the game
on average if you look at timeline, So you know, in the NHL,
McDavid's playing twenty one twenty two minutesa night for the most part,

(20:07):
so you need thirty eight other minuteswhere you're going to rely on having a
good team. So I do thinkthough that McDavid obviously he puts the pressure
on himself. He wants to win, no question at Leon dreyside, like
they're both, you know, topplayers in the NHL, and you know,
if he wins that it probably catapultshim into the conversation for some people
of you know, top four,top five greatest players of all time.
And I firmly believe, regardless ofhow many cups he wins, I think

(20:30):
McDavid is going to become the secondplayer ever to get to two thousand points.
He's just trending that way. Hekeeps getting better all the time.
You know, he works on lotsof different things. He's had a nagget
injury all year long and he stillhad whatever was one hundred, you know,
twenty eight hundred and thirty points andso you know, like there's a
reason why he went from sixty fourgoals to thirty two. Right, He's
been dealing with a little bit ofa no bleaque and it's impacted his shooting.

(20:52):
So yeah, he's he's a stellarplayer. And I love what Paul
Maurice said today, and he's probablyright that it happens at every sport where
you almost take the greatness for grantedat times, right, because like,
you perform at this elite level andno one else can do some of the
things he does, and it's like, well why don't you do it every
ship? Well it's pretty hard todo so, but there is pressure.
I make no question, like Ithink, you know, if he wins

(21:15):
this fair or not, it changeshow a lot of people will view him
when it comes to the grade ofthe grace. Jason, we can relate
here in Seattle to something the Oilersdid. That is they hired a coach
from the American Hockey League. Now, Chris Knoblock was coaching the Rangers affiliate
in Hartford. I believe when theyhired him this season to take over and

(21:36):
turn this thing around, which hecertainly did, and then some the crack
and hired Dan Bilsman. I'll comeback to him in a second, because
you cover the entire league as well, But Chris Knoblock, Boy, if
it's pretty safe to say coaching makesa difference in the National Hockey League,
Guy Man, hey Man, Paulcould don't overlook Paul Coffee to come into
this coach, But Chris Knoblock,I think in any business you need good

(21:56):
leaders at the top. So whenNablock came in, even though he's al
head coach, he's coach at otherlevels. He came in, you know,
they brought in Paul Coffee to runthe defense and has no coaching experience.
Really, he coached like one yearat Tier two junior in Ontario,
like six or seven years ago,so really not a lot of coaching experience.
But the guy is a Hall ofFame player and he's always been a
really good communicator. And he camein and he just told his defense but

(22:18):
I don't care if you're Evan Bouchard, our best offensive defense, or if
you're Vinny Deharney or number six defensemen, I expect you to make plays at
the puck. We're not just dumpingthe puck out anymore. We're making plays.
And if you don't want to makeplays, I'll get guys to make
plays. And he didn't just sayit, he showed them. For the
players. He would come in thevideo room and instead of just having a
highlight of Evan Bouchard, who's thebest passer, having him move the puck,

(22:38):
he would sit down with Vincent deHaarnee and show him all the clips
that Deaharney moving the puck up theice. Steevennie looks, you did it
here, you did it here.So dea Harney walks out of the room
and he's like, damn, Ican do it right. And so I
think that really worked. He's alsoa guy who's not afraid to challenge some
of his players. I'm not notsure there was ever a coach who really
challenged Darnell Nurse to be better,right, and he's not afraid to play
him last minutes. So I thinkthat's a good thing. There's more accountability,

(23:02):
no block. The first thing hedid was he took McDavid and dry
Feddle off the penalty kill. Hemade more of a team. So now
he has six penalty killers and thenjust three groups of two they rotate around.
Newton Hopkins is the only guy inyour top six is on your PK
and then your bottom other guys.The first shift right after the penalty kill,
it's Hymen, McDavid and dry Feedle. They're three best offensive guys.

(23:23):
Boom, of course, hey wejust killed off the penalty. Now let's
try to get back in the attack. They are three best guys. Then
the next three who don't kill penaltydeal it, Halloway came, they're out.
So all your twelve forwards in aspan of those shifts in three four
minutes, they're all back in thegame. Right. They're not sitting for
long periods of time, and sobecause you can't ask your bottom guys to
perform if they're sitting on the benchall the time. Because your big guys

(23:44):
are playing all the time, soI think he did that. And then
the other thing he did was hegave Mark Stewart the chance to run the
penalty kill and he says, hey, Stewart's never really done at the NHL,
but he's a very good penaly killnew sentsman. Then he's come in
and look at the older penalty kill. It's thirty straight. Now they've killed
off in the playoffs. They werevery good down the last fifty games.
So yeah, nah, Block camein. He changed a lot of things,
but also fought. His attitude changedlike he didn't play little mind games.

(24:07):
He would tell you, this guy'snot playing, this guy's playing,
this is my starting goalie. Hedidn't care about what's called white noise to
me, where you try to think, oh, I'm gonna be all secretive.
The other teams know what you're doing. They don't care if so and
so is on your third line centeror the other guy's your second line winger,
right, Like, it doesn't changetheir scope that much, so don't
worry about it. And I thinkit showed a lot of extra confidence to

(24:27):
the team. And you know,the owners were a good team. Don't
get me wrong at a terrible start. But the coach I think has made
a big difference. And looking atthe playoffs, Man, he's sat as
starting goaltender, he sat McLoud,he sat Corey, Perry Fogel, Cody
CC tonight, they got twenty onedifferent skaters that have played and like only
eleven guys will have played every gametonight. That's only eleven out of twenty

(24:48):
one. So he's not afraid toshift guys in and out. Wait wait,
wait, Dave axtell where are youyou mean, you know, being
secretive and coy and all that stuff, doesn't always want you don't have to
do that to win. Okay,I hate it that my NHL coaches,
I see it. It's just dumb. Well, it's the same thing in
the NFL. We deal with it. In the NFL. It's like,
all right, you can watch thefirst five minutes of practice, which is

(25:10):
stretching, and then that's it becauselike like none of us know what the
hell's going on, but like that'sfine, we're gonna we're gonna kick everybody
out. Uh. The secretiveness ofcoaches at every level is wild. Dan
Bilesman got hired down here. Youknow this league, well, you saw
him have success success elsewhere. What'syour thoughts on Dan Bilesman getting the Seattle
job? You know what it was? It was an interesting one because obviously

(25:32):
he hasn't been the league since twentyseventeen. Right now. He won of
course with Pittsburgh way back and Anine kind of a similar situation as a
block came in one. I wasintrigued by his commentary. He said he
fell back in love with coaching theAmerican League. You know, you're out
of the spotlight a little bit,and you realize, Okay, why am
I coach? So now I hopewhen he comes to the NHL he doesn't
treat it any different. Yeah,there's maybe more spotlight, but the fact

(25:56):
of the matter is you got tolove it and you got to be excited
about it. And I think that'sgonna be key. He obviously has the
experience of the NHL, but liketo me, I don't really care.
But you can have the best coachin the world if you don't have good
enough players, it's going to bereally hard, right And so I look
at Seattle and you know what they'regonna Veneers obviously going to have to have
a bounce back season. Right.I think it was smart what they did

(26:18):
with Shane Right, I really likeit. I hate teams who want to
rush guys. I don't care whereyou're drafted. The NHL is very rarely
a successful time for teenagers, Solet guys get in their twenties even older.
Look at laffern Hair in New York, all of a sudden, everybody
loves them. Two years ago,he's a bust, and like, give
me a break. So I thinkif Seattle's smart with their development and understand
where they are, like what's arealistic expectation. I think to say,

(26:40):
hey, guys, let's compete fora wildcard spot. That's probably the best
case, realistic scenario for them.And but the other thing is like,
look at they got a lot ofold, older veteran guys who are kind
of slowing down in a fast league. So you know, I'm going to
be intrigued to see what they doin the offseason to try to add a
little bit more team speed to theirbecause that's what I think they lack,
getting more seed. I would agreewith you, and we'll be talking once

(27:02):
we get to free agency and drafttime and all that. Once hopefully you're
having a parade and that's done andover with up there, and if if
there is a parade, does doesthe woman with the flasher? Does she
get uh think her name's Kate.Does she get a there's people that have
found her? Does she get ashe works like in the oil fields,
I guess in North alberta oiler.Yeah, yeah, she's a true Yeah

(27:23):
you think about that. That's agood point, Jess, Yeah, you
know, does she get does sheget a car? Like? Is she
in the parade? How's that gonnawork? Yeah, well, you know
it would be funny. I don'tknow if they put her in the parade.
I know virally she was. Shewas rather popular by by some people.
For sure. It was you know, it's not something like Calgary's funny
because in Calgary in two thousand andfour, man like the Red Mile,

(27:45):
that was like a every day itwas almost like every day he's like,
hey, what's happening boys, here'sthe headlights? So you know that was
that was that was different. Butyeah, that was Nie can't say no.
Obviously I didn't see it in thecrowd. I did see the viral
moment later on, but I mean, I don't know if she would get
in somebody, you know what,you're in a parade? Maybe why not?
Like, what the heck did thatchange things? Did that change things?

(28:07):
For the orders? To give himgood luck? Because I don't to
be honest, I don't even knowwhat games she did that at. I
don't either. Does it matter,doesn't matter? But oh goodness me let
the flash heer flash away, herewe go. I just I think it
just speaks volumes to how wild itis up there, which is I'm we're
jealous down here. It's it's playoffsare fun. We tasted it for you

(28:30):
know last year when we had whenthe Kraken got to that second round and
there was fourteen playoff games. Thoseare the first seven game series we've had
in Seattle since like two thousand andthree with the Sonics. Like it's like
like seven game series. We gotto taste of it again last year,
and I hope we get back theresoon enough. And I mean it just
it's fun. It's what sports areall about. And you know, if
you have a little bit of funin between and flashing the headlights, as

(28:52):
you said, away we go.So all right, hey, enjoy what
should be a great series. Maybewe'll check in with you in a couple
of weeks again, or another weekor so once it gets further down.
I think this is going at leastsix or seven. So I'm hoping you
guys get one tonight and bring itback to Edmonton tied at one game apiece,
and away you go. So Jason, thank you so much for joining
us. I appreciate it. Heat any time, my man, I
have a great take. There yougo, Jason Gregor joining us from Edmonton,

(29:17):
Alberta, Canada provincial capital up thereright next to the oil fas and
just you're right, Yeah, she'sa true oiler. I didn't even think
about that she's from She's from apparentlynorth of well she works north of it,
but she does work in the oilindustry, is what I heard.
I mean, there you go.Then I think she was just displaying that

(29:37):
she reps what she does. Itjust if you're gonna it's funny because it's
like, okay, that could belike the up north Mardi Gras, right,
And I think you either like livesuper far north and don't give a
crap about that, or that youlive super far south and don't give a
crap think about think about how farnorth to the south. We are Edmonton,
Alberta, right in Miami. Laterat Lauderdale, Florida. Like we

(30:00):
are as far away as you canget for these two teams. I also
like the flashing thing was awesome.From this standpoint, we finally saw something
in the stands that was okay.I mean, sure it wasn't PG I
get it, I know, butbut it wasn't a fight. It wasn't
that, it wasn't the stupidity wesee all too often in all sports,
not just hockey. I guess itwas joy. It was unquestionable. It

(30:26):
was just pure elation and joy,which is so cool. All Right,
we will take a break, we'llcome back. I think we do what
we have time to hit on thisnext segment. What I just say,
yes, okay, yeah, it'sabout two minutes. Expansion in the NBA.
Hmmm. The more conversations we get, the better it is. That's
coming up next live from the Rand R Foundation Specialists broadcast studio Back to

(31:00):
fort powered by Seattle's closest sports bookSnow Call me Casino on Sports Radio Netty
three point three kJ R FM.We're molliwopping at one o'clock today, Nathan
Chris standing by getting ready for acouple of segments of a Molly Wap Monday
lost to discuss with the Seattle Marinersbaseball team. We'll do that coming up

(31:22):
in just a little bit. Ithink. Thanks to Jason Gregor for joining
us. I want to play alittle bit of audio. This. This
comes from NBC Sports Boston and theydid. They were doing a pregame show
prior to Game two of the NBAFinals yesterday, so kind of their local

(31:45):
pregame show before they turned it overthe network. I don't know of which
I've watched a lot. I'm tellingyou is great. Yeah, NBC Sports,
Yeah, they're good. What's notgood? I don't know if you
saw it a gant point, They'rejust ESPN's just getting crushed the finals and
ABC, I should say, inthe ESPN their NBA Finals coverage, the
periphery coverage in game fine, Dorisis fine, Mike Breen's fine. JJ

(32:08):
is what he is. It's justfine. Yeah, it's just there,
like it's just okay, you know, like let's get past the historical significance
of Doris Burke there. They justare whatever, Like they're not Kevin Harlan,
They're not Iron Eagle, They're justokay, And but the other stuff
is just getting crushed. Thank godfor the Boston fans. Hopefully Dallas is

(32:29):
doing the same thing. They're actuallydoing postgame coverage and pregame coverage because what
I know, people love Scott vanPelt. A sports center with Scott van
Pelt doing post game is not postgame. It's just not. And when you
compare that with you know, whatwe saw on TNT for both hockey and
football or basketball, not just insidethe NBA, the inside the what they

(32:50):
do for hockey too is phenomenal.It's just the bar was set very high.
Anyway, I digress. So thisis NBC Sports Boston Sonic fans.
Listen up. They caught up withCommissioner Adam Silver, lots of things to
discuss TV contracts and others, andof course also take a listen to what
he says about expansion. I knowthere's also been a lot of chatter about,

(33:10):
you know, new TV contract aswell as expansion. How do those
kind of go hand in hand asyou look towards the future of the league.
I mean, where they go handin hand is what we've been saying
for a while, we have tounderstand what our long term media relationships are
before we look to expansion. We'rein the process of wrapping up those deals
now. They're going to be longterm deals. I'm hopefully we're not done
yet, but they'll be successful interms of generating more money for the league

(33:34):
and the teams, and then we'llbe in a physician to look at expansion.
And I think that it's a thirtyteen league right now. It's not
preordained that we'll expand I've said itbefore. You got to look at the
diolution, potentially the talent. Butthere's so much great basketball we've played around
the world. I don't think there'sany doubt that over time this league can
sustain two more teams lots of interestedmarkets. So once we finish our media
deals, we'll turn our attention tothat. O can you give us this

(33:58):
leak? Peak would be the like, okay, is these these, these,
these, and these and these,and I can pick up the TV's
Well, there's been some discussion aboutgoing back to Seattle, ply Las Vegas,
no doubt is very interested in theteam Mexico City one day, but
there's lots of other US cities andCanadian cities. Frankly, they've reached out

(34:21):
to us to tell us they'd beintended, you know, with expansion negotiating
with a new TV deal. Everyone'stalking about the landscape of TV is changing,
streaming and all that, with thenegotiations relatively the same or very different.
I'm so glad you asked that thesenegotiations are almost fundamentally different than they've
been historically. It's almost a misnomancalled TV sometimes. For sure. I

(34:43):
don't know about you, but ifyou're watching a game on an iPad like
that or on your phone, Idon't usually even think of it as I'm
watching TV or how whatever. It'smedia that's streamed. And I think,
what's so different about these negotiations.One is these distributors now reach a global
audience. Obviously the streaming service,says Peacock, the one affiliated with NBC
of course does. Then on topof that, there's what's changing with streaming.

(35:06):
It's like the functionality is all different. You can bring up all kinds
of fields of information. If you'reinterested in sports betting, you can see
that. If you have no interestin that, you don't have to see
it. If you want information onplayer statistics, if you want to buy
merchandise, it's an you know,it combines with social media. So it
looks all the television deals before nowsort of the big issue was are you
on broadcast, You're on cable.Now it looks fundamentally different, all right.

(35:28):
So there's a lot of stuff inthere, obviously towards the end about
the new media rights deal, digitalstuff like that. But I think what
jumps out at us here is andand I've been very kind of I kind
of poo poo the stuff, andI keep you expansion talk. I don't
I don't get caught up in itbecause I know it's going to happen.
I know it's going to happen,and I know Seattle's won. I know

(35:49):
Vegas is the other. But it'scool to hear that. That's the first
time I've heard the commissioner kind ofspeaking the terms he did, where he
said Seattle and Las Vegas, andthey were the first two cities he mentioned,
and then kind of glossed over Mexico, Mexico City maybe in the future
or something like that. Right,whatever, you can go international, good
luck. I'm just gonna me goodluck with Mexico City. When players are

(36:16):
making the money they make in theNBA, You're not putting a up team
in at Mexico City, not unlessyou have like an army there to protect
them, because when NFL teams gothere, that's what they do. I
mean, I had a personal securityguard to go to El Paso. Yes,
so you're not going to Mexico City, Adam. That's a nice try.

(36:37):
Seattle in Vegas though, and Canadiansees at Seattle in Vegas, and
I mean, we all know it'sgonna happen. It's silly that it even
just is. But you know,once we get our media deals done and
then we'll address that. You've alreadyadressed it, You've talked to people,
we know you have. It's onehundred percent happening. But it's cool to
hear. It's cool to hear thename the word Seattle come out of Adam

(36:57):
Silver's mouth. That is kind ofcool to hear. Now, you know
how careful these guys are with anythingthey put out in the media, especially
and the commissioner, so he himnot being afraid to say those two cities
out of his mouth while a tonof people are watching that that just says
all right, he just can't committo the timing. Let's do this.
Let's mollywop, shall we? Mollywop? Monday is coming up next, Chris

(37:24):
Nate Ian no Anders lost this discussincluding you're here, I know you're too
nice. You can join molliwap.Nice is not part of the repertoire.
Well, mollywop On a Monday,the White Sox are in town. It's
sauce night as well, giving awayshirts down there by the way. That's
already done. So if you can'tget your ticket for this sit in special

(37:45):
section to get the sauce shirt,you're out of luck. Have to wait
till the next time. Nathan Chrisbrought to you by simply Seattle coming up
next. No from the start Rentalssports to us your night, three point
three KJRFMS sports headlines and one o'clockheadline brought to you by Buddies, Goodies

(38:05):
and Glass Always for twenty eight.Buddies members lost two of the three with
the series of the Royals over theweekend, but they didn't take that final
game yesterday six y five the finaland ten innings. Ty France on the
injured list by the way right heelfractured. Tyler lockleyar called up this a
little RBI double for his first evermajor league hit. Back down of tonight,
White Sox again a series here inSeattle, six to forty. First
pitch logan Gilbert will get the winfor Seattle. Gare untied. Stanley Cup

(38:30):
Playoff Game one Panthers over the oeror three nothing. Saturday. Game two
is tonight five o'clock right here inyour home for the Kraken and the NHL
Stanley Cup Playoffs. Stanley Cup FinalGame two tonight five five o'clock, five
o'clock, four to thirty pre gametwo. Yeah, those guys have a
one and a half hour show,because I know that's what the shock on

(38:52):
your face was referring tow was uhSea? How Storm lost to the Links
yesterday eighty three sixty four. Ithink they've lost four games this year and
three of the four have been inMinnesota. Here's a tip, don't play
Minnesota. I'm gang Sounders lost onSaturday to Sporting KC two to one.

(39:13):
How they're awful like they were?Well, they were the worst team.
Am I lost? Celtics lead thebest of seven NBA Finals two games,
and then they beat the Mavericks oneO five ninety eight last night, and
Dan Hurley says no to Lebron andthe Lakers will stay at the University of
Connecticut. Ladies and gentlemen, boysand girls, are we ready to molly

(39:35):
wop? I'm ready, let's doit. It's Monday. Then that means
one thing, It's time to mollywap. This will be fun. Blongo
tags, Rodriguez makes the catch.Here he comes, here's the thread shame,
and Lockton goes into second base.It's bell another rippy. That's three
on the day, uncensored, unscripted, and filled with the passion that all

(40:00):
Mariners fans can relate to. MacArthurplays the bouts. You have to hurry
and head at purs baseles Ball hada big game of the play. He
drove in three and it's another oneof those games, huh where the Royals
end up with eight LUNs nine hitsand you go up and down the scorecard
and it's just about everybody shift inyou somewhere and brought to you by the
company that's all about Seattle Sports,Simply Seattle. Visit simply Seattle dot com.

(40:24):
For the best Mariners gear Let's cutterslider, a curveball have been hit
JP Crawford a fly ball to rightfield, and how about another day in
a row for JP Crawford leading offthe game with a bang. It's his
twelfth career lead off home run andthe first long ball that Reagan's had surrendered

(40:46):
to a lefty this year four twentynine. Nothing cheap there texa below one
oh five. Now with the mullywatboys, Nathan Bishop from Doman Bedlam and
Chris Crawford with my oh why a'spentinoa couple to play in the bottom of
ten kicks up Playlo Sostado brown ballBlizz has it right there, Eg talks

(41:08):
to first and the Maritors winning inten innings six to five. The final
score. It wasn't easy. Ican tell you that he knew it wouldn't
be with the witness series is notbut they come back, battle back,
end up winning this ball get bigbase hit by cal Rawley to drive in
a couple of runs. I washuge in this game. Here's the in
for nets highlight's courtesy of Roots Sportsand Valleys. It is time now to

(41:34):
mollywop on a Monday, Mariners,so so weak, should get better for
the next three days before a realkey matchup with the Texas Rangers. But
first and foremost before we welcome theboys in Chris Crawford Nathan Bishop are standing
by. Let's big thanks to ourgood friends at simply Seattle, simply Seattle

(41:55):
dot com. Mollywop fifteen at checkout for your discount. I was just
over at simply Seattle today, saidI to Jake and the crew over there.
Great people. They support this showand so much more on our station
with Softy and Dick and what wedo here. So basically twelve to seven
every day, Molly, our goodfriends of simply Seattle are taking care of

(42:16):
us. Great stuff in stock.They've got the Chuck Knox old School Chuck
Knox hats back in stock, thelittle Seattle Seahawk royal blue that Mike McDonald
was wearing OTAs last week and twoweeks ago. And as soon as we're
all tweeting out pictures of that hat, everyone's like, oh my god,

(42:36):
where can I get it? Verysimple Simply Seattle dot com so good,
and they are on the ball whenit comes to those turnarounds. My son
and I stop by there today andlike, this is from the twenty two
year old, well twenty one foranother day. He's like, oh my
gosh, those are the best hatsever. Like getting the ringing endorsement from
anyone from the age of sixty totwenty, that's hard to do. But

(43:00):
simply Seattle. They nailed it withthe hats. They nailed it with the
gear. I see Chris has gotthe nineteen seventy nine world champion Seattle SuperSonics
sweatshirt on today. Nate's in amore professional mode, so we'll get to
him in a second. But again, Mollywop fifteen at checkout for your discount.
Jess always has the jersey sweatshirt goingon. Yeah, I bought multiple

(43:22):
of them and so are. Thoseare a big hot seller. So just
go to simply Seattle, simply Sattledot com. Again, Mollywop at fifteen
at checkout for your discount. Don'tforget to do that and support our great
friends, support local. It's simplySeattle. Okay, let's get opening statements
as the White Sox are in town. We'll get to that. We'll recap
last week, talk about some ofthe call ups as well. Nathan Bishop,

(43:44):
my friend fire away opening statement today, All I was going to say
is you were talking about simply Seattlehaving items for twenty year olds and sixty
year olds. I have forty yearold buddies, since that's how old I
am. We don't even live inthe area who are texting me yesterday about
a hat that simply Seattle had anice little Mariner's hat with the moose on
it. So they are appealing toall demographics as far as the baseball team

(44:07):
itself. Speaking of dating myself,the thing that popped into my head yesterday
is I'm sure everyone has seen thenineteen sixty nine classic The Love Bug Herbie
wins el Dorado, famous for thefact that Herbie the car gets split in
half in the middle of the raceand one half of him finishes in first

(44:27):
place and the other half finishes inthird place. The Mariners, the twenty
twenty four Mariners, are that carsplit in half, and I'm just trying
to figure out if they're the halfis going to finish in first place or
the half that is going to finishin third place. Because this team is
a rundown JELOPPI of a roster rightnow, you guys, there is just
oil spraying everywhere, the engine's overheatingtheir smoke, but they're getting the job

(44:52):
done. A three and three weekis not great. Blowing an eight nothing
lead to the Royals on Friday isnot great. Ty France going down with
the heel injury not great. Buthey, first place by five games.
I believe as of starting today,with the worst team in baseball coming to
town for four games, I thinkthere's a good chance this is the worst

(45:13):
offense Major League Baseball has seen inthe White Sox since the twenty ten Mariners.
So you know, sweep them.Take two of three against the Rangers,
and they are going to be inthe absolute driver's seat in the air.
It's not going to matter that they'rebreaking down as a roster. First
of all, I do remember thatmovie. I remember the car splitting in
half, and so I appreciate Iappreciated that needed that. Chris thoughts,

(45:36):
uh, wow, where do Igo after Herbie? Yes? Indeed,
I mean, look, I neverwant to play the Kansas City Royals again.
And I'm already dritting the three gameseries that they're going to play against
the Kansas City Royals in about threemonths. I mean it kind of lines
up stop that that's how these thingsare going. I mean, they are

(45:58):
absolutely going to play this team inthe postseason. I'm gonna go live on
YouTube for all three games, andpeople are gonna watch a literal heart explode
on a version of television. Anyway. I mean, look, they wept
the Angels, and they took oneof three from a good baseball team.
I think it's time to say theKansas City Royals are a good baseball team.
A flawed baseball team, to besure, but like Cole Reagan's is

(46:21):
a wagon, Bobby Wood Junior mightbe the best team player in baseball.
Losing two of three to them,there's no shame in it. But you
also saw the flaws in this roster. You saw the reasons why this team
may not be ready to compete withthe very best in baseball, as we
have seen whenever they have played thevery best in baseball. Sands really the
Atlanta Series. So I don't know. I'm still kind of flemixed by Herbie

(46:43):
the Lovebug. And once again,I'm here to serve. I'm here to
help hosted the show three times,not a single audio issue. Yeah,
well, I don't know what totell you. I do blame myself for
all the audio issues. I doblame myself so too. I usually like
to blame the music stations because they'rethe ones that screw up the studio.
But this was our studio, soI can't even do that today. So

(47:06):
no, we're we're a podcast companydoing live radio here, and that's that's
sometimes reflected on the lack of livepart of the live radio. Anyway,
we move on. I'm glad tohave you guys with us. By the
way, Chris his zoom name todaythe guy who makes the NBA Finals last
until October? Who would that guybe? I'm lost on that one.
Help me out with that same forthe same same Well, I just you

(47:28):
know, I've got nothing going onbetween August and September. You know,
there's just not a lot of funto be had, so I might as
well make the NBA Finals and theStanley Cup last until the conference tournament our
conferences start for college football. Whynot? Well, the Stanley Cup might
last a little longer. I thinkthe NBA Finals might be over in about
what next once? Game three isWednesday? Right, Game four Friday?

(47:51):
Yeah, Florida, Florida stop it, stop it, stop it. No,
they are not is going to scoretwelve goals in the next three games
and then sign with the Kraken andeverything's going to be fine. Well if
that happens, I think we're allhappy. Now I'm in time out for
I'm in time out for that lovebug talk. Because you guys are talking
about hockey. I can tell youno I liked. I liked it would

(48:14):
be the love Bug. Simply Seattlebrings us the Mulaiwat Monday guys, Simply
Seattle dot com Molly Wat fifteen tocheck out. Let's get to a couple
of things, Chris and all seriousness. We lean on you a little bit
for this yesterday we talked to before. When guys get called up, you
are you are our prospect guy?Tell us who and what is Tyler Locklear.
So he's not Sean Locklear, whichI want to say a whole bunch.

(48:36):
And he's not Heather Lockleyer, whichI kind of wish he was,
if I'm being completely honest. Yeah, because the Beard gave that away.
The Beard gave that away yesterday.Thank you so very very much. First
baseman who can hit for power.He's got a better hit tool than I
think people anticipated. This was aguy who he was at VCU led college
baseball and exit velocity. That isnot an easy thing to do, considering

(48:57):
how much the ball can fly insome of those parts, and considering the
bats they're playing with he can hit. I have some question marks defensively,
but he looked really good defensively onSunday. There'll be an adjustment period.
I think we saw some of theadjustment period in his very first a bat.
He got absolutely worked by Cole Reagan's. A lot of people get worked
by Cole Reagan's. That's one ofthe best left handed starters in baseball.

(49:17):
But I think he is a guywho can maybe not be quite as good
as ty France is, but bemaybe a more The power he can provide
may help the Seattle Mariners more thanty France can help the Seattle Mariners,
if that makes any sense at all. Okay, So Nathan, let me
go down that road for a sing, because you talked about kind of the
flawed roster leaking oil. Part ofit is injuries, and you know whether

(49:42):
it be Polancho and now ty Francewith a broken heel, which I mentioned
to Jess earlier, that just doesnot sound good, Like I don't I
know it might not be a longterm injury, but we've all like stubbed
our toes or hit our heels likethat. Just he's a bad man,
Like he gets hit so many timesand just kind of shakes it up.
He was bound to get banged up. But Nathan, let's just look at
the roster for a second, becausefirst of all, Kid Marlowe, right,

(50:07):
Chris is doing well down in tripleA, like he's he's he's he's
doing pretty well down there. We'vegot Dom Canzel who's not doing anything up
here helping you. Ty France iskind of a liability at first at times
and is and I know he wasat one point like considered for a gold
glove. I I can't ever seehow that would be the case. But
Nathan, how do you see thisroster getting better? Especially if now you've

(50:31):
got a guy like Garver who's catchingon occasion or at least every time that
Kirby pitches. What if Locklear isgood? What do you do? Like
what it like? Like? Actually, before he answered that Chris can he
play anywhere else? Or was hejust strictly a first baseman. Brickley a
first base and he played third basein college and they gave that a college
try. That is not going tokeep going. Okay, So Nathan,

(50:52):
like, like the leaking oil,how do we fix this thing? Because
it feels like there's pieces, butmaybe they're just duct tape. You want
me to fix the twenty twenty fourSeattle Marias, is that your question to
me? Yes, well, itstarts in the winner of twenty twenty one
Ian and we're going to go fromthere. And No, in all seriousness,

(51:14):
I think that's kind of the problemhere. We're kind of just playing
a shell game. Or maybe amore apt analogy would be, you know,
how you plug the hole in theboat and then three more spring out
like this the way this roster isdesigned, especially with and this is not
to bring up an old topic orto harp on it, but when your
best player is not having his bestseason, and I think at this point
it's just fair to say Huli wasjust not having a typical Julio Rodriguez season

(51:36):
for whatever reason. There's just nota lot of that that aircraft carriers style
star power to help you cover upthe kind of issues that happen when you're
having to kind of I mean,I'm rooting for Tyler Locke there. It
was awesome that he got I gothis name right, that's great. I
didn't call him Tyler Lockett. It'sgreat that he had that hit yesterday,

(51:57):
but he's not the kind of guythat's going to ship the overall talent level
of this roster and the more thatyou watch them play, I mean,
for God's sakes, you guys,I think I saw something. I might
butcher this a little bit, butright now, Josh Rojas and Dylan Dylan
Moore have two point six f R. The rest of the position group combined
has two point three, and Ijust don't know where that improvement is going

(52:20):
to come from. Unless guys likeMitch Garber start hitting like the back of
their baseball card, or Hey Polonkogets healthy and starts hitting, those are
the guys that are gonna shift thisroster. It's going to come down to
those veterans getting healthy and producing.It's not fair to ask somebody like Tyler
lock Throer, who I think isbeing rushed a little bit, to be
asked to be in an everyday firstbase role at this point that's not saying
that he can't be a productive majorleaguer, and maybe he will be this

(52:43):
year, but that's a big askthis year. So I think it's going
to come down to getting the veteranshealthy and producing like they should. So
here's a silver line, Chris,is it despite all that and I think
we all look at that roster andsay it's flawed. It feels like they've
got a lot of first basement anda lot of catchers and dhs and not
a lot of corner outfielders. Ithink I'm reading into that right correct,
Like that's kind of what the that'sthat's the flaw, Like, like,

(53:04):
it's not like they don't have goodplayers right now. They've got players that
are underachieving offensively. They're relying ontheir pitching, and then we see how
that can be really dangerous if youhave a seven to nothing lead that you
can't hold on to. Things likethat lead off a couple of games with
home runs and don't take advantage allthose things. But with all that out
there, they're still sitting there fivegames up in the American League West.
So that's the silver lining, Chris, is that this team is still cruising

(53:28):
into first and I mentioned the starof the show today at noon. There's
just no reason. And really,at this point, I think it's safe
to say anything less than the ALWest title would be a massive disappointment for
this fan base and for this organization, without question. And it's you know,
it's almost darting with fate praise atthis point because of the issues that
Texas in Houston has not to mentionthose other two teams that are playing,

(53:51):
the Angels and Oakland, who arejust awful, awful baseball teams. They
you know, all three teams dohave a positive run differential. Texas kind
of beat up on team over theweek and then lost two of three to
San Francisco. But there's so muchissues with both of those teams that anything
but finishing at the top of thedivision is going to feel like a massive

(54:14):
disappointment for a lot of reasons.Number one, we haven't won this division
since two thousand and one. Numbertwo, the team's behind its stink,
and number three, it really hurtsyour chances of having a deep run.
It's a lot harder, you know, all due respect to the Arizona Diamondbacks
last year and some other teams whohave done it. It's a lot harder
to make the World Series when you'renot playing the majority of games at home.

(54:34):
And if you get a chance toplay the majority of games at home,
it seems to work out pretty wellthis team. You look at how
much better it is at home too, twenty one and eleven versus sixteen and
nineteen, And look at the pitchingperformances that we have seen in T Mobile
compared to Kaufman Stadium and some otherplaces. So yeah, anything but a
division win at this point is asignificant failure. Would you make of the

(54:54):
runs this weekend? Given up?The runs given up at least, I
mean, Friday happens. It iswhat it is. But and you know,
yeah, there was some more runsgiven up the last two days,
just the bullpen being so depleted thatyou just at some point you're gonna leak
oil. To use a name time, I think, yeah, I think
that that's part of it. Imean, you've got to give credit to
Kansas City as well. I mean, that's a really good offensive baseball team.

(55:15):
Bobby wit Junior might be, alldue respect to Aaron Judge, the
best player in baseball right now becauseof not only what he's doing at the
bat, what he's doing in thefield, and once he gets on base
as well. I mean, youtalk about a five tool player maximizing all
five tools, it's Bobbywood, Junior, Salvador Perez A, Vinnie Pascalontino,
Cole Reagan's is one of the betterstarters in the American League as well.

(55:37):
There's so much to like about thisKansas City team. There's no shame in
giving up a lot of runs tothat team. There's shame and blowing a
seven to nothing lead. If youget a touchdown in the first quarter,
you should absolutely win the hellan said, football game baseball game. But yeah,
I think more than anything else,it's just the fact that there's some
regression to the mean that's happening withthis staff. They're so good at home,

(55:59):
you have to give up runs atsome point, and you're giving up
runs to a team like Baltimore,New York and Kansas City. That's three
of the last four road teams thatyou've played, Nathan, do we see
a little lack of depth in theback end, especially that bullpen right now?
And listen, I know that everyoneloves to go after Scott's service.
I don't know if either one ofyou guys want to today. I thought
it made sense to go to Munno'sfor nine to one and two in the

(56:19):
eighth inning too. I thought thatmade sense. The problem is he just
Nathan. You're just left really thinat the back end after that, right,
yeah, I mean, the problemisn't that they used Andres Munos,
and the most logical and high leveragepart of the game is that the arms
after Andress Munos aren't very good.I don't really know how you criticize Scott's
service for that part of it,since last I checked, he's not in
charge of acquiring talent, and they'vehad some significant you know, we've already

(56:43):
talked about it. They've had legitimatebad luck with their bullpen health, losing
Santos and Brash. If all threeof those guys are healthy, this bullpen
is probably a death machine. Butit's just not That's just how it's worked
out. So I have no interestin criticizing Scott's service. But it's a
huge problem. And along with corneroutfield like you already mentioned, Ian really
back end bullpen relief, probably areally high leverage arm and a corner outfielder

(57:04):
are the two spots on this rosterthat you look like you excuse me,
You look at and you say,that's where we need to go improve and
there's going to be a market forthose kinds of players. I just hope
that it happens sooner than later,because, like you guys were talking about,
I don't want to risk losing thedivision, mainly because I don't think
the second place team in the ALWest is even going to get into the
playoffs. So it's division or bustfor a variety of reasons. So I

(57:27):
hope they have plans to strengthen thisroster sooner than later. You guys,
Yeah, The only thing I wouldadd to that is I had no problem
obviously with Munio's going nine to oneto two. Having your best reliever face
the best player in baseball in anextremely high leverage situation is absolutely the right
call, and I had no issuewould go into boundman in that situation,
and he looked great over the firsttwo batters. My issue is why Taylor

(57:49):
Sassetto wasn't pitching to MJ. Melendezto end that game. That makes absolutely
no sense to me. Whatsoever hegives up the hit, it was a
hard contact play. Melendez absolutely crushesright handed pitching is not great against lefties.
You ended up using sossetto for thesave later in the game, so
he was clearly available. I don'tunderstand why Cissetta wasn't brought in after Loft
and got off first. That's myonly criticism of how that service managed that

(58:13):
game. Yeah, I think Ithink. I think that's fair. I
mean, and Sasino's got to thepoint now where he's turned into We mentioned
this earlier again in the show,just to reference our show as many times
as possible. Uh the uh,he's turned He's he's an amazing story like
he last year, he's your he'syour bottom. Like if you have,
however many guys in the bullpen,he's number. He's the last guy on

(58:34):
the depth chart did make the team, didn't even make make the team out
for the train and now he comesin there and and in some tough situations
and finds a way to get itdone, which you love to see from
him. Let's real quick to sufor the Huskies with the Cougars ian which
team does Taylor's to set a rightfor? Is he a Husky fan or
a Cougar? He's a Pierce CountyCollege fan, I believe actually to Chris,

(59:00):
you know, if you don't gothere, well, you know what,
I like that from you, thatthat's the best thing you've ever said.
Nathan, I liked that. Ithink now he might have actually,
he might have actually gone to TacomaCommunity College. I'm not sure which one
he went to, So he rootsfor one of the Tacoma schools. The
Let's get our Let's get our weeklyJuil Rodriguez update did have a big hit
yesterday in the tenth but overall,as Nathan said, Chris, uh still

(59:22):
just kind of a singles hitter outthere, right, Yeah, I mean,
and there were some pitches that unfortunatelyAaron Goldsmith's got tricked real bad on
one of those pitches as well.I'm sure he regrets the air. I
love Aaron Goldsmith, but he's justnot driving the baseball right now. He
did and when he does, he'sgetting underneath it too much. And I

(59:42):
don't know if that's a mechanical thingthat he needs to change. There's been
a lot of talk about his elbowbeing probably an issue and not being able
to drive those inside pitches because Imean, he's just getting absolutely pounded inside.
Please be mature, everybody, butthat he is getting as many pitches
inside as possible, and he justhasn't done a great job of driving those
pitches to the other part of thepark. And until he does that,

(01:00:02):
they're going to keep doing that.And you know, if he's going to
be a singles hitter and gonna bea guy who and it was nice to
see him. Also he did havean opposite field double. He drived a
ball down the gap in that inning. Of course, they didn't bring him
in because they never do. Butif he's going to be a singles hitter
and he's going to provide that kindof defense and that value on the basis,
it's not the worst thing in theworld. But as Nathan and I

(01:00:23):
have said so many times on theshow, they need him to be a
power hitting option and be the verybest version of Julia Rodriguez to be a
true World Series contender. Uh Nathan. Toronto has won nine of its last
thirteen games. They are now onegame under five hundred. They are two

(01:00:44):
games out of a wild card spot. For a while, it looked like
maybe the Blue Jays would be sellers. I don't know if a team that,
frankly is within a couple of gamesthat also took a run. At
Otani's going to be truly a seller. So maybe Guerrero's not on the board.
Maybe that's just wishful thinking, youknow, because he's a big name.
We all recognize him. But Nathan, what what what what do they

(01:01:05):
need? Like? Is there aplayer out there that is your Is Guerri
your wishless guy to help the leakingoil? As you mentioned that, maybe
Herbie the love Bug doesn't get splitin half? What can be the what
can be? The what can be? The what can be? The duct
tape? Do he well this shipback together? Yeah? Exactly. I
think I think you can go tot Mobile tonight and get a really good
look at uh at Luis Robert Juniorfor the Chicago White Sox. They've said

(01:01:28):
that he's gonna he's potentially available intrade. He's an absolute superstar talent,
probably just a if you want toreally pick Knits, a half shade below
Julio as far as overall talent level, but an amazing player with three and
a half years of club control left. The big risk with him is that
he really does struggle to stay healthy. Obviously, and then there's going to
be a huge cost to acquire becausea talent like that at twenty six years

(01:01:52):
old, who's going to be underclub control through twenty twenty seven, I
think, which is well past thefour point zero cresp that Jerry's been talking
about out the newest version of theof the contention window. So I think
that's an ideal fit, not justbecause of the talent, not just because
of the position as a guy whocan play any outfield position, but also
because of that club control. Youguys, obviously, the one thing that

(01:02:14):
the Seattle Manners do not want todo is absorb significant financial risk or cost.
There's no financial risk or cost withacquiring Luise Robert Junior for some time,
but you are going to have topay through the nose in prospects.
And that's the name that I thinkmakes a lot of sense. I think
Adam Jude for the Seattle Times wrotethat he recommended getting that trade done today.
I'm not really hung up on thepack on the prospect return that you'd

(01:02:37):
have to give up. Chris wouldbe a much better source for that.
I'm sure it's hefty. I don'tknow what the point of having a great
farm system is if you're not goingto trade for a like Luis Robert.
So I think that that's the guythey should target. I think they should
make it happen and go watch themplay for the next four days. You
did a great player. Well,the president was there because he did that
with Castile and they trade away prospectsand that turned out pretty damn good.
Chris, I'm gonna ask you.I just I had this jotted down and

(01:02:59):
I didn't want to get a fromthis, so I joked about it.
Kirby has his own personal catcher,like Felix used to back in the day,
Right, who is a guy?Was it Jaso? Right? John
Jason? That was the catcher.I have not heard that name in a
minute. Wasn't Jason the one thatcaught the perfect game? I believe it
was. Yeah, Yes, Ithink he was kind of like Felix's guy,
like as a eased Garber is aease Garb into like catching again to

(01:03:22):
try to maybe get the bat going. He's been kind of Kirby's guy.
He caught all ten innings yesterday,right, So like like he it's not
like a lot of times it's beensix or seven and then he comes out
and Cal goes in there, andit's like, okay, why'd you give
him the day off? Anyway,it seems like kind of worthless. It's
just as goofy. But have weseen I bring this up for this reason.
Have you seen enough in Garver?Catching? Like maybe twice a week

(01:03:45):
that? And I'm thinking about theroster makeup right now, because let's say
you want to keep Lockweer when Francecomes back. Let's say Lockweer gives you
something. He's long, as NathanI think pointed out yesterday in our group
chat, weird to have a nicelong, tall first baseman on a couple
of plays that you needed those extrathree or four inches right, Like,
seriously, you did need those.Let's say Lockley's giving you something. Let's

(01:04:08):
say you want to do something withMarlow and and you want to add a
couple other places. Could you turfSebby and keep Garver? Have you seen
enough with him? That's a reallygood question, and I hate to admit
it, I know, painful.Yeah, I think so. I think
so. I do think that youcan probably at this point make Zavala expendable,

(01:04:30):
and you know, he's a betterdefensive player than Garver by a long
stretch. That's obvious. Point isobvious. But when you have a defensive
backstop like Mitch, or excuse me, like cal Rally, you know that
has as good, if not betterdefense than anybody else. I think you're
willing to probably go the offensive routefor that backup catcher. So, yeah,

(01:04:50):
if you wanted to call up akid Marlowe, who you know,
it's hitting two fifteen but has ninehomers, has stolen thirty one bases,
and is a fantastic defensive player,he'll probably be looking more at curbing victor
robledge to the can than you wouldbe looking to moves of all in that
situation. But yeah, absolutely,I've seen enough over his career to suggest

(01:05:12):
that Mitch Garver's not an abhorrent catcher. It's just helped him from keeping stay
healthy. So the issue there wasalways the reason you're moving him to DH
is because it adds the value tohis bat that you're going to keep him
in the lineup more often. Well, at this point it's bad hasn't provided
enough. So if he can bea guy who can catch a couple of
days, maybe catch Kirby a coupletimes and maybe be a Sunday backstop every

(01:05:33):
other time. Something along those lines. Yeah, I do think that you
can make him your second catcher anduse the roster spot to make your offense
better by kicking Zavalla to the curve. All right, we'll wrap it up
with this just quick final thoughts andwhere we can find your information. Is
Nate mentioned sweep and win a seriesand you're in great shape. That's kind

(01:05:54):
of the goal this week, right. Yep. Any loss to the Chicago
White Sox is a policy failure.They required immediate global response because this is
just an absolutely atrocious baseball team.They are so bad. We talked about
the Mariner's pitching. Honestly, ifyou give me the over under of like
seven and a half runs for theWhite Sox in this series, that I
have to think about it because theway that this team, the way the

(01:06:15):
Mariners pitch at home, combined withthis level of offense from the White Sox
is it's one of those things thatas soon as I say that, they're
going to score ten runs tonight andmake me look stupid. But it really
should be an easy series win.Anything worse than three and one is a
disaster. There and then assuming youtake care of business, you've got your
biggest divisional rival now in Texas comingto you at home for a weekend.

(01:06:36):
They are not right. You haveto win that series. I think at
worst five and two week you guys, where can we find your information?
Sir? Oh? Sure, youcan check out all my wonderful Herbie the
Lovebug references on x slash, Twitterat Nathan Underscore, h Underscore, B
Chris Crawford final thoughts on where wefind you? Yeah, and you know
what's funny is, by the way, Boston got absolutely dominated by the White

(01:07:00):
Socks in that series. Had towin one game in extra innings, but
it's kind of nice. They hadlost like thirteen straight. Now you're not
playing a team that is due fora couple of wins. Five and two
should absolutely be the goal. Here. You can find me on whatever they
call that website that's run by theMelton Crayon at Crawford Underscore, m ILB
and you can find me at myO y on YouTube recapping every single game.

(01:07:23):
Going to have a live chat onTuesday before the game. Really appreciate
everybody who comes out and might besomewhere on Friday but I'm not allowed if
I'm tough to talk about that.Yet. You'll be here. You'll be
here on Friday. Justman, everyone'sexcited to have you here. You'll be
a lot nicer than I am rightnow. So yeah, I hope.
So the audio issues, there won'tbe any audio issues. I think will

(01:07:44):
work perfectly. And then the bestthing is is Crystal text me and say
it was all perfecting, nothing wentwrong. It was fine. Really,
I block you on Fridays anyway whenI'm not here, So that's all works.
Block both of you guys. Allright, have a great week boys,
Thank you. See about the bestguy now from the Star Rentals Sports
to us Jordan ninety three point threeKJRFM Sports headlines, two o'clock headlines by

(01:08:11):
two by Venue Kings dot Com.Mariners losers over the weekend and two of
three, but they did salvage agame against the Royals in the final game
of the series, six to fivein ten innings. Ty Franz, by
the way place in the ten dayinjured list yesterday right heel fracture. Hyler
Locklear was called up from Tacoma gotan RBI. His first RBI double is
first ever major league hitting his debut, also plays a pretty good defense over

(01:08:31):
there at first base as well.Team starts four game series at the White
Sox tonight at six forty. LoganGilbert going for Seattle. Because Nathan and
Chris mentioned anything less than a sweepor three out of four is a bad
week. You don't you don't splitwith these guys. They are absolutely an
awful baseball team. To use aneight term, They're not trying to win.
They're just not even trying to winright now. Stanley Cup Playoff Game

(01:08:56):
one on Saturday, Panthers over thezero or three to nothing. Game two
is tonight five clock right here inyour home for the crack and Am the
NHL Playoffs ninety three point three KJFMfour to thirty is our pregame show.
There. Storm lost yesterday the Linkseighty three sixty four. The Sparks are
here tomorrow. Sounders lost the sportingcase of the weekend to to one.
They take on Minnesota Saturday at seventhirty. Celtics lead the NBA Finals now

(01:09:16):
two games nine. They took downthe MAVs one oh five ninety eight yesterday.
Series now moves to Dallas on Wednesdayfor Game three. Also in the
NBA, Dan Hurley says no tothe LA Lakers. He is staying at
Yukon, which is among the thingswe'll discuss in the final hour of the
show. Live from the R andR Foundation, specialists broadcast studio back to

(01:09:42):
Ian Fernett's powered by Seattle's Closest Sportsbook, Snow call Me Casino on Sports Radio
ninety three point three KJR FM.Text line is there for you. We'll
check the text coming up at twothirty today four nine, four five one.
Tell them more to the text linewhen it's game time time. We

(01:10:04):
will get your thoughts, comments,questions, and concerns. Whatever's on your
minds. We'll get those. Comingup today at too thirty. I'm gonna
get away some baseball tickets. Noteto self baseball tics for tonight. If
you want to go tonight tonight tonightsee Logan Gilbert. We'll give those away

(01:10:27):
after we do our texts later ontoday, I'll send those to you,
Jess. After that. I'm kindof I might be kind of out of
to like it's I did see thisbefore. I get into a couple of
little topics. We're going to hiton the Mariner sent this out just a
short time ago. Oh by theway, PJ. Walker's official now he
is a Seahawk. Its why wehave to wait like four days. But
anyway, we knew that last week. It became official today a team made

(01:10:48):
that announcement. The Marriagers made thisannouncement. They announced that limited tickets remain
for this weekend series against this TexasRangers at Team Mobile Park. Less than
five thousand remain for Sunday's game.Saturday and Friday's games as well are going
fast. MAM's are ten and fourof the last fourteen they have won.
How about this? Go watch themplay at Team Mobile and get excited and

(01:11:10):
have fun. Why because they havewon their last seven home series. They
are twenty one and eleven at TeamMobile this season. Their pitching staff is
absolutely lights out at home as well. So yeah, I get on out
there. But if you're planning ongoing, for example, if you were
thinking about going for Father's Day,get your tickets asap. Same with Friday
and Saturday, with those Texas Rangergames. Your better bad chance is the

(01:11:34):
value game tickets this week with theChicago White Sox in town. Like I
said, I'll give away tickets fortonight. I think the rest of my
tickets might be gone for the weekend. I'll let you guys know. Are
you going on Father's Day? I'mplaying golf on Father's Day for you.
That's the plan. That's your day. I hope we'll see. We'll hopefully
do that. So okay, SoI want to I want to hit this

(01:12:00):
just a couple things that have todo with both college basketball and then translating
into the WNBA as well. Wementioned earlier that Dan Hurley is staying at
Yukon and he turns down the LosAngeles Lakers for a reported seventy million dollars

(01:12:24):
over six years. It's a remarkablething to do when you think about the
money involved. Dan Hurley doesn't maketen million plus a year at Yukon.
Now, there are college football coachesthat make north of ten million, but
not usually college basketball. I wouldalso think that he will be the first

(01:12:46):
guy to get close to that.Probably Dan Hurley has a chance to do
something that hasn't done been done sincea guy by the name of John Wooden
did it and that has lead ateam to straight NCAA men's basketball championships.
A three pet it doesn't happen.It just it's and in today's world of

(01:13:08):
nil and portal and transfers and guysleaving to win two in a row remarkable.
We may not see it again.I mean it, it will be
hard, and it's hard in aone and done tournament where it's really easy
to get upset. Tony Bennett,where are you at right? Right?

(01:13:30):
Matt Painter Perdue, where are youat right? Like? It's hard to
win and get all the way throughwithout stubbing your toe any year, much
less two straight years, and he'sgot a chance to do it three straight.
Our buddy Gary Perish and CBS Sportsat last report with his top twenty
five and one of which he'll Imean, he's nuts. By the way
side note our buddy Gary, he'scrazy, I mean in the best way,

(01:13:54):
possibly, in the best way possible, but he is. He has
a chance to do something that justhasn't been done since John Woulden. I'm
going to get back to that ina second. I'm gonna stay with this.
I'm gonna stay with basketball because Iwant to go to kind of the
broader picture, and it has todo with the Caitlin Clark situation. I'm
just going to bring these numbers upfor a second. So, Yukon beat

(01:14:15):
Purdue in the men's championship game thisseason in a game that really wasn't as
competitive or exciting or fun as itprobably we had hoped it would be.
I mean, Zachi ed got his, but no one else for Purdue could
score, and it was just kindof like a uh nothing burger of a
championship game in a lot of ways. That game still averaged fourteen point eight
million US viewers on TBS and TNT. Keep that in mind for a second.

(01:14:43):
By comparison, eighteen point eight million, so basically four million more people
watch South Carolina beat Iowa in aSunday afternoon women's championship game that was shown
on both ABC and ESPN. Idon't know if the four million difference comes
in on the networks. I wouldI would venture to say that part of
it does, because you're talking aboutthe men and the women playing well,

(01:15:05):
the men playing on something that alot of people can't get TBS and t
and T football guys, right,stuff like that everyone can get either ABC
or ESPN. But that aside,Let's just say that they were close to
even and you know eighteen and fourteen. Two things. One, I'm glad
Dan Hurley staying that's good for collegebasketball. That's good for college basketball.
It's good for college basketball. Businessas mess up as college football is,

(01:15:29):
as long as we still have thefield of sixty eight slash sixty four,
men's college basketball isn't a great spot. March madness is one of the great
things we have going in our countryright now. And to have the possibility
of the dynasty and a three peatis fantastic news. And it's great all
the way around. And I'll guaranteeyou right now, fourteen point eight last
year, I think CBS gets itback. Next year. You'll see that
number goal a lot higher, especiallyif Yukon has a chance to win it's

(01:15:51):
third straight. Meanwhile, South Carolinabeat Iowa with eighteen million people watching.
The women's tournament rows eificantly over thelast two years in viewership. But why
did they rise? Why It's assimple as one name. Caitlin Clark.

(01:16:11):
She sells tickets and she gets eyeballson television sets. She didn't make the
US women's Olympic team. Now,I'm not going to pretend that I am
all in on you know the nuancesof the women's basketball program in our country,

(01:16:32):
but all the names that did makeit the twelve, like we recognize
them all, I think we allwould question a couple of them. I
would specifically question, to be honestwith you, Britney Griner, for a
variety of reasons. I'm with youon that one. When they get the
gold medal, which they will,will she stand for it and respect the

(01:16:57):
anthem being played. I don't know. She's missed most of the season.
She did come back and score twentyfour yesterday, so I mean she's obviously
still has a little bit left inthe tank, although she was nothing last
year, but probably coming out ofRussian prison, you could expect that.
Diana Trossi is forty two years old, forty one, forty two. Her
numbers are strikingly similar to Caitlin Clark's. Wow, because to take to put

(01:17:19):
Caitlin Clark on the roster, youhave to take someone off the roster.
Yeah, I frankly think Diana Trossiwas the one. She's already been there,
I think five times going for numbersix. Been there, done that.
The biggest mistake that the women's soccerteam has made is they've kept a
lot of the old guard, ordid keep a lot of the old guard

(01:17:42):
in some people's minds way too long. It became stale, It wasn't fun
to watch anymore. It just wasn'tdriving people to watch it. Eighteen point
eight seven million watching South Carolina beatIowa. If i'm NBC right now,
I am sideways, absolutely sideways.And again, you could certainly make the

(01:18:06):
argument that they didn't make any mistakesin picking the team strictly on basketball,
strictly on the thought of Caitlin Clarkis going to be there someday, but
she's not there yet. But nobody, and I mean nobody sells tickets,

(01:18:28):
Nobody draws eyeballs in our country rightnow to any sport at the level that
Caitlin Clark does. And I'm sorry, that's worth something. This isn't like,
oh God, that number twelve player. It's the difference between a gold
medal and not medaling at all.They're going to win, they're going to

(01:18:49):
be on the podium. Your twelfthplayer is not going to determine it.
But what it would determine is theability for people to watch. And that
are actually not the ability, butthe want to for people to watch Caitlin
Clark here she is on not beingselected to Team USA. Kaylen, what
was your reaction when you saw theUSA team yesterday the roster come round.

(01:19:12):
Yeah, I think I'm excited forthe girls that are on the team.
I know it's the most competitive thingin the world. And I know I
could have gone either way, maybeingon the team and not being on the
team. So you know, I'mexcited for them. Gott me rid of
them to win gold. Like Iwas a kid that grew up watching the
Olympics, so yeah, it'll beIt'll be fun to watch them. What
was your level of disappointment, notkind of hearing your name on the roster,

(01:19:35):
honestly, no disappointment, Like Ithink it just gives you something something
to work for. You know,it's a dream. You know, hopefully
the day I can be there,And I think it's just a little more
motivation. I mean, you rememberthat, and you know hopefully in four
years when four years comes back around, you know I can be there.
Did you have a direct conversation withmanaging director ever over their USA being research.

(01:19:55):
Yeah, yeah, they called meand let me know and before everything
came out which was you know wherethere's full of them, and I appreciated
that, And they did the samefor every girl that made the team or
every girl that didn't make the team. You know, there's a lot of
players in the Olympic pool, soit wasn't like I was the only one
they had to call that and makequite a few calls for a break,
you know, from Olympic accent.Absolutely, I mean that's gonna be really

(01:20:17):
nice. I mean I loved competingevery single second, but it's gonna be
a great month for my body toyou know, first of all, like
get rest and get healthy and justget a little time away from basketball and
the craziness of everything that's been goingon, and you know, just find
some piece and quiet for myself.But then additionally, like a great opportunity
for us for work and get better, A great opportunity for myself to get

(01:20:40):
in the weight room, to workon the court and work at things that
I want to get better at thatI maybe didn't have time going from college
to the pro season. So I'mlooking forward to it. But at the
same time, like we still havea month of games where we have a
lot of opportunities to win a lotof games, so that's where my man
pos exists. The comments from herjust show a level of maturity that's amazing
for such a young woman, youngperson period, man or woman. Her

(01:21:04):
level maturity or way she handles thingsis incredible. It's also what's so alluring
about her and so likable about her. Again, they'll they'll probably win going
away, so it doesn't matter.It's just ridiculous what's going on in that
league period. Now there are presidents. Nineteen ninety two, the original Dream
Team left Isaiah Thomas off the roster, and I think you could make some

(01:21:25):
strong arguments that it was very similarbecause Isaiah Thomas was someone who feuded quite
a bit with the two Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Well,
Caitlin hasn't been in the league longenough to feud with Diana Tarossi or
anybody else, but it didn't stopDiana and everybody from picking, you know,
basically kind of picking her. Now, Shaquille O'Neill wasn't on that team,

(01:21:48):
should have or could have been.Instead, they took one college player
that was Christian Leaner. Oh yeah, guy from Duke, And you can
draw your own conclusions to all ofthat, but it just it's never go
to be perfect. When you're pickinga national team for a roster that's frankly
as stacked and loaded as it willbe, it's hard to do. I
just think they missed the boat,period, end of story. I think

(01:22:11):
they just dropped the ball and missedthe boat. But that has been the
story of not so much USA Women'sbasketball because this is in essence separate,
although the coach is a WNB coachwho is not a fan of Caitlin Clark
by her comments from earlier this yearabout how there's other teams in the league.
But I think the WNBA and USABasketball are missing the boat. And

(01:22:32):
I'm sure the network that paid azillion dollars to get the rights for the
Olympics being played across the continent acrossthe water in France can't be happy with
them. One more thought on thatbefore we go back to Dan Hurley,
because I still want to touch iton something there. Here's Shannon Sharp from
ESPN on leaving Caitlin Clark off teamUSA. At some point in time,

(01:22:55):
we stopped talking about and we tryingto grow the game. Because you listen
is she as accomplished Will she everbe as accomplished as a steward as an
Asia Wilson? And I believe thosetwo Obviously they're slam dunk. They're the
two best players in the WNBA,hands down. And it's not even closed.
But are we really trying to goto grow the game? Because this
is the most popular woman's basketball playerin the world and it ain't closed.

(01:23:21):
They had to move the Mystic gameto an NBA arena name the time,
And I'm gonna turn it over toyou because I don't want to get long
winded. I want somebody, oneof our women colleague stephen A, to
tell me win a WNBA game hashad to be moved because of a woman

(01:23:44):
player. Just one, Just tellme one, because I know in her
attendance she's averaging about seventeen thousand.All the other WNBA games in which she's
not a participant average about seven.So are we really trying to go to
game? Is that what we're reallytrying to do or are we just talking
about were trying to grow the gameand just bullgiving. I'm so that I

(01:24:08):
didn't have to beat that. No, I'm so not a fan of those
shows, but that I thought henailed it though. I mean, you're
trying to grow the game. Yougot to grow the game because the one
thing you don't want it to be. You know, the popularity golf is
better than ever compared to before TigerWoods. But Tiger Woods grew the game
to a certain point and others havehim able to do the same thing,

(01:24:31):
you know, and you don't.You want the game to continue to grow
and not be just one person,but you still need that one person.
So there's a fine line to balanceit there. I Growing the game is
important. I give you that.The eighteen million dollars or eighteen million people
that watched last year, I'll betyou right now, Jesse, No ways
me probably half that if that watchedthe Women's Championship next year, and you

(01:24:55):
better and you're sure as hell betterhope that Paige Becker's is in the final.
Oh yeah, you better hope likeyukon Zier and Gino and yukon zi
Yeah, because if not, Imean that's why they watched the semi final
with her in It was a massivenumber. The other semi final with South
Carolina and whoever they played USC Maybeit was right, I think it was
usc usc right with Juju. Eventhough you have great stars, great players,

(01:25:18):
didn't draw half of that, sothey just flat out missed the boat.
Back to the men's game, We'llget I might get Gary on tomorrow,
Parish on tomorrow, because I thinkit'd be fun. We haven't caught
up with Gary for a while.Was always good to talk to him.
Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday, we'll getGary on. It'd be good to hear
from him. His partner on theCBS Iron College Basketball podcast, Matt Norlander,

(01:25:40):
weighed in on what is a reallygood day for college basketball as Dan
Hurley not literally but some ways figurativelygives the middle finger to the Lakers and
Lebron The phrase the phrase Dan isso very loyal or something middle of that
came up multiple times and people Italk with over the past three or four
days, and I do think thatsentiment, more than anything else, is

(01:26:02):
what won out and why college basketballand the University of Connecticut got an absolutely
massive win on Monday. Yes,Yukon, which is no stranger to winning
arguably nearly as big of a winnon championship game aside as it's had in
the past decade. By Hurly decidingto stay so hard to win back to
back now to trying to get athree peat. I'm glad he did it.

(01:26:25):
I think he's good for college basketball. I think he's I think college
basketball is in a really good spot, despite the fact that college athletics seem
like they're completely broken, and theyare on a lot of different levels are
broken. But I think the factthat he stayed is a really cool sign,
really good sign. And the NBAand Lebron you know, like if

(01:26:46):
you can and not every Listen,college coaches don't always have great success in
the NBA. We know that,but there are some that have had success.
Billy Donovan comes to mind, right, and what's his face? Brad
Stevens comes to mind. Those arethe two guys right off the top of
my head come to mind. Imean, others having Cali party others but
or Patino right, but but butthey've had there guys that had success.

(01:27:09):
You need to attract good young coachesor good just good coaches outside of the
box of the recycled world. ButDan Hurley is in a good situation.
It's amazing that in today's world ofnil and portal and having to pay guys
and deal with all that stuff thathe'd still rather stay at Yukon than where.
You know. I think I heardFain talking about it last week and
he's right, Like, you goto college as a college coach now,

(01:27:31):
I think they're talking about this withwith Mike Florio, softy and famework like
a college coach. Now in football, you're a GM like your GM.
We talked about Kyle Smiths. Iremember that, you remember that that conversation,
specifically your GM. You're dealing withsalary cap in a sense within NIL,
you're dealing with free agency in asense, with the portal, all

(01:27:55):
those things, and then coaching comessomewhere. Number three. Well, if
you're if you're in the NBA,all you do is coach. You have
GM, you got assistant GM,you have personnel guys. You just coach.
You got to practice, you coach, You go to game, you
coach, and you go home andyou make like ten times and you make
more money. So it says somethingthat he said no to the Lakers on
a lot of levels. Okay,for four nine, I think it was

(01:28:16):
great. I think it's just greatfor college back. I like to see
greatness. I want to see themtry to repeat I hope. I don't
know who i'd root for if they'rein. It depends on who they're playing.
Anybody in the Big Ten I'd rootfor Hurley, Anyding the SEC root
for Hurley. Anybody in the Bigtwelve route for Hurley. Let me think
wcz uh No, because that's us. This, it's Gonzaga that. I'm

(01:28:39):
not sure if I can root forGonzaga to win a title. No,
God, that just gave me ashiver. No, I don't think so.
No, Mountain West. Maybe sureSan Diego State gets back. Yeah,
I can root for them anyway.You get the point.

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