Tough Cover Show: March Madness, Ranking the Phillies, All-NBA, and More - 03/29/25

Mark Henry Jr. and Sean Barnard talk #MarchMadness, #Elite8 picks, rank the #Phillies roster, and have some #NBA All-NBA picks!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Number one on your car radio preset hand the new
and improved Iheard Radio apps w D A Y S
and w D two seven three D Philadelphia is Fox
Sports Radio. The Gambler.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Talk write down in a language that everybody here can
easily understand.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Time to get ready for the day's action, from the
sides to the totals and everything in between. Nobody does
it better than the top cover with Mark Henry right
here on the Gambler, the.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
What you Do, the counting, the colt dunaunting, the cold parity.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Hello and welcome to the Tough Cover Radio Show. I
am your host as always, Mark Henry Jr. You can
follow me on Twitter, Mark Henry Junior Underscore. And we've
got a lot of sports to talk about. We got
a world to take around the sports carousel for sure,

(01:37):
as I like to say, and with me to do it.
My cost back in the studio wearing a beautiful, beautiful sweatshirt.
There is my guy, Sean Bernard. You can follow him
on Twitter as Shawan Underscore Bernard one Sea. How we
doing Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:51):
And in case anyone has not heard, the Eagles did
win the Super Bowl this year. So important to throw
a couple of reminders out there, but yeah, I cannot
complain love the sweatshirt as well, coming off back to
back just straight up awesome nights basketball. Man, I'm think
March Madness is absolutely delivering this year. Despite some of
the frustrations in the early part of the tournament, these
have been incredible basketball games. So from the Houston basedline

(02:11):
out of bounce to close that out, shout out to
Calvin Sampson back to back just absolute like gut wrenching
performances to finish out the night in the two Sweet
sixteen nights. There, So excited for the action tonight and
can't complain about the sports world absolutely all over the
place right now.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, I've got a lot to say on some of
the Sweet sixteen and some of the Elite eight I
and I think it's almost a good thing. I don't
have a lot of hard opinions on the Elite eight
and who's gonna win these games? And you know, I'm
gonna hammer this spread or oh this is way too low,
this is way too high. And I guess that makes
sense with the caliber teams we have remaining. And we'll

(02:50):
get into that, well, we'll talk about that, and we'll
talk about a team that's really really impressed me, especially yesterday.
But we got a lot to get to as well.
We're gonna talk a little bit about Taylor Jenkins getting
fired from the Memphis Grizzlies. Huge news yesterday. Shocking. I
don't ever remember a coach firing I guess Udoka, but

(03:13):
that was in the offseason. I don't remember a coach
firing as shocking to me as the Taylor Jenkins one.
We're gonna talk about that, what it means for the Grizzlies,
what we've heard, what it you know, what could have happened,
what it means about job, what it means for the
rest of their season, and what it means tonight because
they're facing the Lakers two and a half point favorite.

(03:35):
I've got a take on that game, and we'll get
to it later. We've got a full baseball board. First
tough cover Saturday. With a full baseball board. I'm kind
of treating this year a little bit with caution. I'm
dipping my toe in. Usually I have a couple teams
coming into the baseball season who I'm way higher on
consensus or way lower on than consensus. This year, I

(03:57):
feel like I have a couple teams. I'm a little
high everyone the consensus, Like I'm pretty high on Texas
coming into the year, but mostly I'm kind of pretty
in line with where Vegas had a lot of their
win totals and a lot of the odds. So trying
to pick my spots a couple bets here and there.
We have started out three and one, but we've got
three bets on the baseball board today and we've got

(04:18):
a fun Phillies segment we're gonna do. We're gonna rank
the Phillies one. I initially said one to twenty six,
but we included Ranger even though he's on the injured
list for a couple of weeks, so it's really one
to twenty seven. Have to include Ranger would be disrespectful
not to. And I did this based on kind of
value to the Phillies slash importance. I don't know you could.

(04:38):
I guess that's not much different than just ranking the
best players you know in baseball, but that's how I
kind of approach it when I was ranking it. We're
gonna do that at the top of the twelve o'clock hour,
but let's bring it, and we're also going to pick
our all NBA teams in the second hour, gonna go
through first, second, and third team. Actually a little easier
than usual this year. I feel like, let's let's kind

(04:59):
of argument spots even from team to team, really pretty
limited options. I think maybe that has to do with
the games played more than anything limit that introduced a
couple of years ago. But we're going to talk about
that in the second hour. But like you said, last
two nights have been incredible basketball. You have to start
it out talking about the Sweet sixteen previewing the Elite Eight,

(05:21):
and let's go to last night. I'll throw it over
to you. What kind of caught your eye more than
anything else out of the four games?

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Yeah, I mean, I think the ending of last night
kind of stole the show for me. Kelvin Sampson driving
a drawing up the baseline out of bounds there and
them just executing like that. Loved his messaging after the fact,
as far as we've run this play as recently as yesterday,
that this is not something that I cooked up to
get complicated here. We know what we lean on and
stuff we practiced throughout the year, and they obviously performed
on the largest stage there. It wasn't the convincing performance

(05:48):
I kind of expected from Houston. Obviously, they won by
two points. I kind of thought that was gonna be
a spot where they absolutely rolled there. I do give
some credit to Purdue for putting them a play. I
thought Brayden Smith was excellent last night. His playmaking in
particular some real high level impressive stuff there and kept
them in that game. There was a stretch in that
second half we had nine straight assist on nine straight
made baskets for that team there, which is really impressive stuff.

(06:09):
And then obviously Tennessee completely dominating Kentucky. That was really
shocking to me. That'd be my biggest surprise as of yesterday.
But Houston I continued pulling for him. It wasn't quite
the performance that I hoped for, But that to me
was the story of last night. Was how impressive that
baseline out of bounced and still find a way to
got it out even if I was in the cleanest
pathway there.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, I mean, Kelvin Samson is an unbelievable basketball coach.
That's just and I saw a thread basically saying that
that's what Purdue does on every IMBOUNDCE I guess in
that type of situation under the basket is they have
the guy covering the inbounder go with someone that if
they go across the baseline, basically it's a flare out.

(06:49):
So I thought that was interesting, and it's using something
you see on tape, and it just goes to show
you know, how minimum, how marginal some of these close
games can be, and the littlest thing is shoe over
the top, and that's how much coaching matters, especially in
college basketball. But I have been talking about Houston being
the best team in the country, being the team that

(07:09):
I have the less the least concerns about, and I
can't lie. I think that there's a very clear concern
that Houston has right now. And maybe you could argue
that it's not that concerning based on the fact that
they've lost once since November, but in the last two
games and they've played two good teams in Gonzaga and Purdue.

(07:31):
They had a ten point lead with under seven minutes
to go against Purdue and you squander that and it's
a tie game. You have to obviously get the shot
almost at the buzzer to win it. Houston was up
eleven on Gonzaga with two minutes and thirty seconds to go,
and Gonzaga got it down three, got it to down
three with twenty seconds left. It does seem like there

(07:53):
is a they play far too conservatively when they get
up in these situations, and it's something that scares me.
With the Houston team that's got a hard road here
now in these next two games. Imagining they are even
if it's Alabama but Tennessee and Duke is probably what
their path would be to get to the national championship.

(08:14):
Even if it's Tennessee and Alabama, that's a tough road
as well. But I really am sort of struggling with
if I should be concerned about this, if I should
use this as look at this just, you know, a
tough team figuring it out. I'm not concerned about the
Gonzaga one as much. They really dominated for thirty seven

(08:36):
and a half minutes of that game and had a
weird two minute stretch and they's still on the game.
They still never got it tied, like they're still up
three the whole game. But where are you, I guess
in terms of like the concern meter with Houston in
terms of this Tennessee game, and in terms of a
potential kind of national championship run which Duke would be

(08:57):
in the way of.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean it's not great Like Duke has definitely
been far more impressive from just like the way they
command a game from start to finish on both sides
of the ball. It has been disappointing to see he's
be capable and be willing to let their foot off
the gas there. As far as last night specifically, I'm
going to chalk it up to a little bit of
a passive. I think that was the worst game I've
ever seen l J. Cryer play, and that's obviously their moneyman.
There a guy who led the conference in three point

(09:18):
percentage eighteen point per game score, and I've never seen
l J. Cryer look remotely like that on basketball floor.
So I give him credit. Like he came through the
timely basket, hit a three point or late that was
really important in that game. I do think he was
like mentally headstrong enough to fight through it. I'm going
to chalk it up to a little bit of that.
The bottom line is they are winning games and getting
the results, but I haven't loved the process there. I
do think it is a little bit of a mindset

(09:39):
thing of them, kind of like, let's slow down the pace,
let's control rather than sometimes you just got to keep
beating teams. Man, when you have a team on the ropes,
when you got it back against the corner, don't let
your foot off the gas. That sometimes that's when you
got to unleash rather than just trying to control and
win it. I think Houston's fallen in that trap twice now,
so hopefully they learn from it. It's not something that
I'm the end of the world over, but it's definitely
worth noting and something and that could come back to

(10:00):
bite them if they do that against a team like Duke.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
The craziest thing about it is Purdue. The stat that
I threw out all leading into the tournament never mattered.
How they were terrible in the interior. On defense, Houston
shoots fourteen for thirty eight in this game from the two.
They actually shot better from three with nine for twenty
three percentage wise. It's unbelievable. I don't I can't rationalize

(10:25):
how Juwan Roberts wasn't able to get anything going inside.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
L J.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Cryer couldn't get anything driving to the paint like it's
just that it really shocked me how they looked in
that game. I thought the defense was still fantastic, you know,
holding a really good offensive team and Purdue to sixty
that's a really impressive feat. And you know, good Zaga
scored seventy six, but a lot of that was in
the last two and a half minutes. I mean, they

(10:49):
had like sixty points going into the last two and
a half minutes of that game. But I'm not concerned
about the defense. The defense is what I thought it was,
and I think the offense has the shooting to shoot
themselves out of some of these situations. But whatever, this
you know, late game conservative nature that they've been falling
into is concerning. Maybe the argument is they'll never really

(11:12):
be up like that against.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
Duke Fact And I do think it's a mentality thing
more than anything. Like I feel like I could see
them almost take their foot off the guests, like it's like, okay,
control clock time, Like soak up all thirty five of
the shot clock. Here, it's like no rutch to up
and down the court, which like at times that's appropriate.
At times that is the direction you go. But I
think they've been premature on back to back games here,

(11:33):
and luckily they did dodge it didn't end up paying
the price and haven't been caught yet.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
But it only happens once that you do make that mistake.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
And let's just stay in the region there and go
to the other game, because my biggest takeaway from last
night is, Wow, what Tennessee did the Kentucky's offense is unbelievable.
You know, I'm not going to freak out about Tennessee's offense.
Kentucky's defense had problems all year. So Tennessee putting up
seventy eight even though they could control the game, that's

(12:02):
not really you know, they still I think this the
offense still leaves some to be desired at certain stretches,
and I think that that's what scares you with Tennessee,
especially going against the Houston or a Duke, you know,
if that's what we get. But man, that defense held
Kentucky to twenty points in the first half, I think, yeah,
and it's and holding up to sixty five, that's really impressive.

(12:26):
Kentucky never really made the run to cut it to
seven or less or anything like that. So Tennessee just
why to wire kind of dominated that game. I'm not
betting Houston to give you an idea of how I
feel about the line. I think they're I believe it's
like three and a half. I think that's right. Yeah, Yeah,

(12:47):
I think Houston. Yeah, Houston minus three and a half. Here,
I'm staying away from it. I'm rooting on Houston, but
I the game scares me. I can't lie.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
I think we're looking at one twenty and a half
for the toe too.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
To buckle up for some defense, first team to like
fifty five might take this game. But yeah, Tennessee definitely
the most commanding performance last night. I do think Kentucky
was a team that I mean obviously a brand new team,
brand new coach.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
There was a lot of turnover.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
This should be regarded as a successful season for them overall,
but that was a team with some clear flaws there.
So it was disappointing how they went down. Not totally
shocked that it was the case for Kentucky. Was hoping
I would be wrong about it and that Mark Popet
something up asleep. But that was a convincing performance from
Rick Barnes and his squad. There Ze Guy Ziegler continues
to be the toughest guy on every single basketball court
that he walks on. And it's interesting, like we had
this conversation about, like ken Tennessee go deeper following year

(13:36):
in which they just had Dalton Connect last year. And
obviously I'm not saying chas Lanier as Dalton Connect or
anything like that, but it feels like they've become much
more diverse in the way that they play, that they
can buy in defensively a way they couldn't in the past,
that there's more waves that they do score offensively. It's
not as like almost repetitive as it kind of felt
with Tennessee at times, and not even just the Dalton
Connect year, Like I think there's other seasons which you

(13:58):
can point to that at the clear style that they
leaned on there, it feels like like they can win
games in different ways in a way that I've never
really felt about a Tennessee team.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
So my eyes have been open.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Last night was absolutely a statement performance and now that
if they find a way to dethrone Houston here, they're
title contenders. There's no way around it, and honestly they
should be considered that right now. So shout out the
Rick Barnes, Shout out to Tennessee definitely the performance of
the night in my mind.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
I'll tell you what, If Tennessee wins the title, I
think they probably will have done. You know, they went
through the hardest path in the history of college basketball. Seriously,
I don't know. That's hard to say, but you know,
you beat Kentucky. I think Kentucky, regardless of their falls,
really good offensive team, three seed, brutal conference, and a
team that shot the lights out up to that point

(14:43):
in the tournament. You go beat Houston, who I think
is inarguable. I mean, they were one seed, and I
think they're one of the two or three best one seeds.
So and then you'd have to go beat DUKEU I
think is looking like the best team in the tournament.
So man, hats off to Tennessee if they can do.
But I still don't think they can. Even though I
walked out of last night as so impressed, I'm not

(15:05):
betting Houston to cover the spread. All that stuff gone
to my head. I cannot see them beating both Houston
and Duke. Yeah, but you know I didn't. I loved
Kentucky last night, so maybe I'll just I think I've
bet against Tennessee every game of the tournament.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
So far, and I'm still waiting for like the Houston
dominant performance, Like, yes, they blew out SIU Edwardsville in
the first round, but like an actual game that's like
this is who they are, and they've kind of had
the chance in the past two and really haven't delivered
with it.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
I think we got it for thirty seven and a
half minutes of that Gonzaga game and then collapse.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
Yeah, but and it was like a collapse too, Like yeah,
I don't know. I've I keep waiting for like a
complete performance from them, and we haven't got it yet.
So my my, I have a Houston future out. I
haven't there's a chance for this team to win it all,
real deal here, I've been concerned with like that.

Speaker 5 (15:56):
That continuing to pop up.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
My ultimate take on Hugheson I think it is that
I think they get by this Tennessee game. It'll probably
be ugly as hell, and I think they win sixty
two to sixty again something like that, and it's gonna
be ugly. I think they find a way to win.
Where I've differed now from where I was at the
beginning of the tournament is it's getting hard for me

(16:22):
to see anybody beating Duke and Houston I still think
has the best chance. Yeah, but I'm starting Last night
worried me for a Duke game. I really did think
they were going to come out and dominate that game.
I still will point to that thirty seven and a
half minutes against Conzaka, because that whole time I remember

(16:43):
just feeling like this is who I thought, Like, this
is who I said they were, Like the defense, the shooting,
like the multiple guys to go to from Uzan to
Sharp to cry or to Roberts, like they have all
the guys. And the last forty two minutes have not
been promising. I mean even still you want to say,
when they were up fifty six to forty six with

(17:04):
seven minutes left in that game, I was like, Okay,
hasn't been pretty the whole time. But you know, they're
making their threes and they're locking down on defense, and
then they collapse again. So it's yeah, it's it's concerning,
but let's shift it over to a game that you know,
it just seems like this is what Michigan State's gonna

(17:25):
be if they're gonna make a run they're gonna win
every game by a couple points. I guess that's not
really fair. They beat Briant by twenty five, and they
ended up beating New Mexico by eight. The New Mexico
game was a lot closer than that. But and I
didn't think Michigan State was very impressive in that game.
And I didn't think Michigan State was very impressive in
this one either, But they figured out a way to
get it done. Tom Izzo, you know in March, you know,

(17:48):
he hasn't been as good when the when the clock
turns to April. But luckily for him, what day is Sunday,
March thirtieth, still March for him to have a chance
to get to the final four. What's your kind? Was
your biggest takeaway here from this one?

Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, and shout out to any ole miss plus three
and a half betters out there, because what a shot.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Lead off with that?

Speaker 5 (18:09):
That was unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
That was an all time or just a half court
chuck and it died on the rim and still fell there.
So shout to you guys who catched those tickets there. Uh,
Michigan State the.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Other way, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to the Sparty minus
three and a half people out there, and especially because
I know I think it opened two and a half,
so if you bet it like you got it laid.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
Yeah, yeah, that's a tough scene there.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
But uh, for as far as the Spartans as a whole,
it's interesting, like they don't have like a guy in
the same way a lot of these teams do. And
I'm Jase Richardson's obviously headlines that there that he's the
number one asking's really talented as well. So they're a
good team, it's but they're more of a collection of
parts that plays in a unit in a way that
I don't feel quite the same way when looking at
some of these other teams still remaining in it there.

(18:52):
I kind of think that plays in their favor though
they like they do have a widespread attack. Any guy
can get high, any guy can have their day here,
and they're all seem really bought in on what time
Izzo is selling them. I do think like in the
nil era that we live in, with all this talk,
all the transfer portal, that's all that is the news
in college basketball right now, I kind of think these
guys get fired up by ISO, like standing his ground

(19:13):
the way that he is directly to the media talking
about I'm not talking about the transfer portal.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
I'm not talking about that.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
I'm locked in on doing whatever it takes to get
this team to win another national championship, to make it
to the final four, whatever the case may be. I
forget the exact quote he had this week that was
something along the lines of We're either gonna win a
national championship or I'm gonna die trying. And I believe them,
like I believe tom Izzo with that, and I think
the team has bought into So there isn't like a
defining quality that I can kind of lean on for

(19:38):
this team or what to get, but I kind of
think that's something that's refreshing. So I'm in on the Spartans.
I think they got a chance. It's gonna be a
tough path. It only gets steeper from here, but I
still get him a lot of props for finding a
way to win that, and they scraped through that and
throughout that entire game. Sean Padool are really talented all
miss Gritty, So I think that was a big time win,
even if it wasn't like the most aesthetically pleasing there.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Sean Padool is awesome. Ya ya, he was awesome. He's
a senior, right, so's he's done. So that's a shame.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
He did four years out of Virginia Tech before the share.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
He was.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
I remember he he hit a I think it was
against Miami. He hit like a half court shot to
win a game, I think. But he had a crazy
shot when he was at Virginia Attack, which is how
I learned his name a couple of years ago. But
Michigan State the one thing, and I'm actually probably the
only Elite eight I'll just say this right now. The

(20:31):
only Elite eight game from a spread point that I
like is Auburn minus five. I do think au that
it catches up to Michigan State. The lack of talent.
I think for me, the lack of talent thing is
more about three through five to seven on the roster.
And I was with you earlier in the year where
I didn't think they had a lead guy. I think

(20:52):
they do now with Jase Richardson. I think he might
be just one of the ten to fifteen best players
in the country. And you look at how good he's
been as of late over the last fourteen games, he's
averaging seventeen to five and two on forty eight percent
from the field, forty three percent from three, eighty one

(21:14):
percent from the free throw line. He's a good defender,
like Jase Richardson has turned into a dude. So I
do think he's kind of cemented himself here. And if
they do take down Auburn, I think it's he's going
to have to put up twenty to twenty five points
to do it. I just think Auburn's too talented. I

(21:36):
just think they have too many guys to throw at them.
You look at the guard Pediford, how he looked in
that Michigan game when Pediford's on, I mean, he looks
like an NBA guy, but he.

Speaker 5 (21:46):
Is I think he is.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, is he getting Is he gonna leave this year?

Speaker 4 (21:50):
It's interesting because I was actually rotting up on him
a little bit before this this week. Kind of the
story is like he's kind of one of those guys
where if he was on most teams in the country,
he'd be like a starter and star player. But because
of Auburn and the depth and more so the experience,
like they really lean on, like you know, obviously twenty
five year old Chad Baker, Mazzarro and the guys that
have been around forever Johnny or Jenney Broome, who another
guy who's been doing it for a minute now, Like

(22:12):
they have their experienced starters, and then he's kind of
their X factor off the bench and the Knights where
he's got it, and last night was one of them.
Like it's a blast to watch and it's pretty impossible
to beat there, so it will be interesting. I think
that he's gonna be a guy who tests the water.
Sees if he gets the first year and guarantee and
he comes back, I honestly think it's probably in his
best interest to go back to college for another year,
and he could probably be talked about as a pretty

(22:33):
close to a top pick next year things play out
the right way there. But also wouldn't shock me if
he takes the money now, ops in and tries his
hand at the NBA next year.

Speaker 5 (22:41):
I do think he'll be successful in the long haul.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
I am gonna take Auburn, but I will say what
you said about michign State playing like a unit and
uh and you know in the NIL era that being
important and you know they they fight for Rizzo and
all that stuff. If it's gonna matter, it should matter
against a team like Auburn where they do have these

(23:05):
mental lapses and they do have moments where they're the
less disciplined team, you know, than anyone they're facing. So
if it's gonna matter, if that stuff truly matters as
much as the Boomers you know, probably want it to,
then Michigan State's gonna win this game. And then Michigan
State should be like thanking their lucky stars for the
one seed they got in terms of like immaturity and

(23:27):
things like that. But I think the talent's too much.
I think the talent wins out in this situation. And
I still think Pearl's a really good coach, even though
they do look really undisciplined at times. I think that's
more of just a product of the type of guys
they have. You know, a lot of guys who and
it's and by the way, the type of guys they have,

(23:47):
the way I said that is also why when they
get rolling, they're a rolling ball of chain sacks. They
have this swagger about them that when they get hot,
it feels like no one in the country can touch them,
even Duke. When Auburn's hot, it feels like they're the
best team in the country.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
So yeah, well, Jay Brow, that's the broom celebration.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
I've been going with Johnny for like a couple of
months too.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
So my fault on that.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
I'm the worst pronunciator in the game. I don't know
a name. Oh, don't get me started on the draft.
Dives knows all the pronunciations for the NFL draft guys.
I lean on him when I when I had Azaku
is a big one right now. I think I got
that down Donovan Asaka, but we got plenty of those
in the NFL Draft that I'll be learning how to
say over the next month. For your month and a half,

(24:36):
I guess month for sure here. But on the other
side of that region there. We talked about it with Auburn.
Auburn's playing against Michigan here and we kind of touched
on it. Peterford, big game, they win that game by thirteen.
Anything from you, This kind of just seemed to me
like a case of Michigan got a pretty good drawl
to get to the sweet sixteen, and they hung for

(24:59):
a while and took a lead for a while. But
I think it's I think it was one of those
Auburn got a pretty nice four sheet here to have
to go against him.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Yeah, no, I do agree with that. Overall, I think
Michigan deserves credit. They obviously had the hot hand coming
in winning the conference tournament, and I thought they looked
really good in the first two games, and they battled
last night. Like I gave him credit that there was
a stretch where they were very much in that game
up until the very end. The game was much closer
than thirteen points would indicate there. I'll also shout out
I think Danny wolf is absolutely an NBA guy. I
would love to hear your thoughts on that, mark.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
I don't have any really How good is he as
a defender, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
I wouldn't say excellent by any means, but uh, I
think he can hang enough. He's He's not quite like
Franz Wagner, but stylistically you can kind of see it.
I like Danny wolf Man bang two three's last night,
can real deal playmate and real deal ball handle.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
I'm in on that.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
As a seven footer, yeah, I mean, he can definitely
hang offensively. I just don't know enough about him. Defensively,
to be honest, to give a real a real take,
I mean, play offensively at the next level though he's
a he's a great offensive player. Yeah, let's go to
Thursday real quick. Let's let's zoom over to Thursday. It's
a little outdated at this point, but Maryland Florida Florida

(26:13):
game was Maryland up to it half or down to
it half? They like, it was a within two point
game at halftime, and then it sounds like Kevin Willard
must have went in the you know, the halftime locker rooms.
I'm going to nova, guys, But let's plight hard for
the next twenty minutes and then I'm out. Then the
team stop trying. But yeah, Florida obviously pulls it off.

(26:39):
Everybody's got big takes on the Kevin Willard situation, right,
and Kevin Willard's wrong and Maryland's right, or Maryland's wrong,
Kevin Willard's right. I just it's the world we live in. Yeah,
it's just kind of like it doesn't doesn't phase me
at all, honestly, Like either way, it was a little weird,
like the timing of it. You know, Willard doing all

(27:02):
this right now, do I think it really changed that much,
not really. I think more than anything, that game came
down to foul trouble and that was a good call
at you before the tournament for them, and we always
knew that if they got in foul trouble would probably
be the last game that they saw. And Gillespie gets
four fouls with like fifteen minutes left in the game.
They were down like eight or six or eight at

(27:22):
that point, and they go on a run without Glesspie
on the floor. They never really get back in it.
So I good, good run for Maryland, And the worst
part about it for people like Sam is like it
feels like you're totally restarting. Derek Queen's gone, recently gone.
Gilesspie will be gone, new coach, whether or not we
even think, you know, Kevin Willard's that good of a coach.

(27:46):
He at least had built a culture there and we
built it up to this point to get five really
good starters. I don't know what the future holds for
Maryland at all now.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, no, I don't either, and it's disappointing, Like I'm
sympathetic from the stance of like this should have been
an awesome run for Maryland. This should have been like,
you know, your moment, we're back, we're in the limelight,
we're going in the tournament making noise, And it wasn't
that because it was much more about the Kevin Willard situation,
which that part just sucks, because there were legitimate, cool
storylines of this team. Derek Queen an awesome personality, a

(28:16):
great player, this whole team, the Crab five, like there
were things to talk about with this team that should
have been vonn and that was largely overshadowed. But I
do agree with your sentiment that this is the world
we live in, this is the wild wild West of
college basketball, that whatever basically everything goes right now, essentially
with the portal with Nia that they're still sorting through
all this stuff.

Speaker 5 (28:33):
So it's just kind of a product of the times.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
I kind of sniffed out that I thought Maryland was
sort of a fake good team here. They're good, but
they're not quite on the tier of the Florida's the Auburns,
and we saw that in full display there. So it's
disappointing how it happened. I'm not really shocked that that's
ultimately the result of all this, that they just kind
of couldn't stand up to that quality of teams there
and Florida, like we've kind of brushed over them in
the conversation thus far. They also look phenomenal. Man, they

(28:58):
also look very good there, so I think it's nothing
more than them running into a good team here. We'll
see what happens with Kevin Willard, and I think the
expectation is widely that he will be Villanova's head coach.
I don't know what Villanova does if that doesn't come
together there, so it will be interesting. But it's been
way more of a mess than I think it honestly
should be based on what's actually happening Florida.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
I am two and one betting against in the tournament.
That was my first loss with Maryland, and guess what
I'm back today. Not really. I actually have a bad
bet that I placed before last round. I put Texas
Tech plus three twenty to make the final four in
not a good bet when you consider that the money
line is like plus two seventy today, so you packed
them in like they had to win that game and

(29:37):
now it's like barely lower. I probably should have just bet.
I guess they didn't cover the spread. In that game,
so whatever, I probably should have put them in like
a moneyline parlay and then bet them this game three
plus three twenty not a great price. I'm riding with it,
not going to cash it out or anything. So I
have Texas Tech plus three twenty and we can go
over to that game. Obviously, the game of Thursday, they

(29:59):
win it over to by two points against Darkansas. What
do you think of Cal keeping the time out in
his pocket?

Speaker 4 (30:05):
Yeah, it was not a great ending for my John
Calipari believer takes. I'll say that I was very disappointed
with how that game went down. I thought it was
an awesome like most of the game, and then I
mean for starters, Texas Tech just hit shots and you
got to kind of tip the hat to those, like
some incredible shot making down the stretch for them. I
thought Cal should have used the time out. I thought
he should have been much more proactive on the bench.

(30:26):
Shout out to Ryan Hammer on Twitter, who does an
awesome job breaking down all this stuff, but he sort
of pointed out, like the entire overtime, Calipari and the
rest of the staff are just sitting there watching the
guys hoop and it's like, like, dude, this is this
is your show, this is the moment now, like at
least show a little bit of energy, yell at guys
do something there.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
So I was disappointed.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
I was disappointed that Arkansas ultimately couldn't pull off the
upset win there because, like I thought, they played like
the better team for the large majority of that game.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
But Texas Tech scrap man.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
I give him a lot of credit for finding a
way to win that a lot of teams would have
folded in that same situation. So I'm disappointed as a
Calipari believe I liked that Arkansas Arkansas team quite a bit,
but they also made some mistakes down the stretch and
kind of deserved the loss at the same time. So
Texas Tech took it from him once they gave him
the opportunity, and Texas Tech rolls on.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
That's the beauty of the tournament.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
It is funny. He go interviewed on by the Stideline
reporter and they were up sixteen with ten minutes left,
like right at that moment, and you see his space,
he looks so happy. And then late in the game
you see his space and it's like, what the heck happened.
I will say, no one thought Arkansas was going to
be here. You know, they were an underdog in the
first round as a ten seed and then obviously against
Saint John's as well. So I didn't think he did

(31:34):
a good job in the game. But hard for me
to also criticize him too much when when he's gotten
to this point. So yeah, it can't go too much
further than that. You have BYU Alabama one thirteen eighty
eight or is that Wizards?

Speaker 4 (31:48):
You know?

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Is that Wizards Pelicans or is that Alabama? Yu. I
don't know why I picked bad teams, but Alabama one thirteen. Yeah,
that's it's insane. That was an NBA game. The pace
of that I was unlike any tournament game I've ever seen.
And yeah, they broke the three point record. Did they
break the points record?

Speaker 5 (32:08):
No, I looked it up.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
They were in the top ten, but the not somebody
scored out in the one fifties or one sixties was
like the record, which is absurd. It was an overtime
game too, so there was like some factors there. But
in the top ten for highest scoring games ever. Yeah,
the Alabama shot twenty five to fifty one from three.
If they had not taken a single two point or
made a single two pointer, they still would have won
the game. That's how insane that was. So it's Nato,

(32:32):
it's basketball. When they're hot like that, they can be
any team in the country. But you live and die
with the three at the same time. So it's gonna
be very interesting to see how the matchup with Duke Go's.
I don't really think Alabama has a shot, to be
perfectly honest, but that was as good as I've seen
them play. I mean, they've they had those flashes where
that's their peak. It was nice to see it on
this type of stage. But you got to carry that
into each and every game, and I do think there's
so much variance with the nature of their style, so

(32:54):
we'll be interesting, but definitely a statement performance there.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
Shout out to the top.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I am so so so so so so conflicted on
Duke Alabama and how to bet it and how to
feel about it, because I do think Alabama. If if
Alabama doesn't have a chance against Duke, then we're talking
about maybe three teams that do.

Speaker 5 (33:17):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
I you know, they did lose the Clemson's that's like
what always keeps coming back in my head, and you
look at how Clemson exited. Obviously, college basketball math is
not linear.

Speaker 6 (33:31):
But I if Alabama plays the way they want and
plays the way they did against BYU, I think they
can beat anybody, including like the Celtics.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
But not really. But I really, I really do think, like,
if they shoot the way they do, what's stopping them
besides Duke stopping them from shooting that way? I guess
it's the answer, and that's probably what will happen. But
that is the one thing, like, if you're Duke and
you're just way better than all these teams, it probably

(34:04):
does suck to have Alabama as your two seed because
they're the only team that's just like, yeah, well what
if what if we take seventy five threes? Yeah, and
we hit thirty of them, Like that's the that's kind
of the problem with going against Bama. But then there's
also the side of me that's like, well, Duke, Bama
is exactly what Bama BYU just was. Bama BYU played

(34:26):
the same style, but BYU ran into the team that
plays it better than them and has a better defense
than them. So Bama was able to be like oh
you want to play our style, great, thank you. Is
Duke going to have that same situation where Duke's like, oh,
you want to play an NBA game, Well, guess what
we have for the top seven picks next year or
whatever it is, and and we'll play an NBA game

(34:47):
and we'll beat you because we actually have the better
NBA players, Including what I saw from Cooper Flags in
that game. I think that's I don't know, I'd have
to go through his stat lines. I don't care if
if you had better stat games. That is by far
the most impressed I walked away any game he played
all year long. And that's the thing that comes to

(35:11):
mind when there's a lot of me that wants to
pull the trigger on Bama, like I actually think they
have some of the pieces you would need to go
against Dude with the big and Cliff to handle Malawak.
With Grant Nelson, I actually think is perfectly equipped to
kind of do some stuff with flag, but not not
shut the flag down, but hold flag in check. He

(35:31):
can switch on the malawak, he can switch around the perimeter,
get he can kind of cut off drives to the inside.
Grant Nelson my favorite player in the country. I think
he's so important. I think he's so valuable to that team.
And I think he's the exact type of player you
would want to have going against this Duke team. But again,
and one more thing, I think the best two guards

(35:53):
in this game might be on Alabama.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
So if we're saying guard play in the turn and
I love but if we're saying guard play in the tournament,
definitely Mark Sears. I think Mark Sears is definitely, uh,
the best player, the best guard in this game. And
then it's it's kind of a debate between Proctor and Holloway,
and you know, Filon.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
I wouldn't say I probably yeah, I think hollow is
probably the guy. If you're having that conversation, I still
would take Proctor in this I think the experience. Experience
matters a ton of dude. It feels like he hits
every single shot sometimes, man like he is an unbelievable
basketball player. I I kind of think that these guys
are gonna run each other out the gym. I think
Duke is gonna call call the call it here, say

(36:40):
I'm matching you at the table.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
Here, We're gonna run with you.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
And I think they can be perfectly honest that Cooper
Flag is gonna be on a tear on the fast break.
kN Kinnepple can let three pointers rip at the best
in the world at this So I think it's gonna
be a fun game. I do like the over from
a points perspective here, I think both these teams poured
on and I kind of think we see sort of
a repeat here. I think Duke's gonna be obviously a
better version of BYU, but they're kind of match and
by the way, BYU feeding into that same exact sort

(37:03):
of feeder program mentality that they do have legit NBA talent.
Did you know that the Jazz are like bank rolling
or nil? The Jazz owner is, yeah, the pockets of Yu.
He's a graduate, yes, yeah, but yeah, interesting how that's
going to play itself out.

Speaker 5 (37:18):
I'll just make a note there.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
We've had situations like this before. Who was it? Oh, man,
I really have to think about this. There was an
NBA owner who was bankrolling a big program who had
the number one pick, and I was set and I
think that their like rival got the number one pick.
And I remember like thinking, like what if he was like, oh,

(37:40):
we're going to pay him twenty million to keep him
at school this year so he doesn't come out. I
can't remember who that was. Maybe it was the NFL.
I don't know what that was. We've definitely seen that before, though.
It's an interesting what like Aj debant said, next year
he's a number one pick, Like, what's that situation going
to be? And by the way, that's actually the big
take with Byu. I think everybody looked at them as

(38:00):
like a plucky team that made a run this year.
They'll be back next year. Oh yeah, they're on the
they're on the up for sure. Yeah, they absolutely should be.
You know, Aj Debantsa should be the next guy, like
should be the number one pick next year. And from
the same town as Flag or went to the high school.

(38:21):
There's some relation I think to Flag and to Banca
or same area maybe, and they're both from New England
for sure. But I I Debansa is going to be YU,
and I think by is keeping a ton of the
team they had from this year. And I know Igor Demon.
I don't know if I'm saying his name right at all.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
But Gegor Demon is how I was most recently corrected.
I don't know I'm not as high on him as
I think the consensus either. He's a good player, he's interesting,
but I don't know if he's going to be a
project guy for.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Sure, he's He was even saying that, I don't know.
Maybe AJ coming next year changes my changes my thought
coming out. He said that postgame though, while he was
like literally still crying. So I don't know if that
has any value to it, but that's interesting. BYU is
going to be right back there. But one last conversation
before we before we move on to the NBA here

(39:14):
for the end of the first hour, and I think
we're going to argue here, Caleb Love is not an
NBA player. He may have been good in that game
against Duke. He he had when he sees that Duke Jersey,
something awakens. I actually now want to do a project
looking through his dude, taking his Duke's stats out of

(39:35):
the rest of the stats, he might shoot twenty percent
average fifteen.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
He averaged a little less than sixteen points per game
before that last matchup against Duke. I did look into this.
It wasn't as blow me away impressive as I expected
it to be. But he had two twenty five plus
point games. Caleb Love's the man.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
Dude. Do you want my sales pitch for why he
could be an NBA player?

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Very unh not a little reluctant yet, but here's my pitch.
I Caleb Love is incredibly talented man. The efficiency, there's
no way around it that it's bad. He has to
be better. I don't think it's a shot making or
a shooter or question of his talent as a shooter.
It's a shot selection thing, for sure. And I do
think there's a world where you trim that he's never
going to be the high usage guy at the NBA

(40:18):
level that he is in college, that he's asked to
be the guy to generate offense.

Speaker 5 (40:21):
He's gonna be a spot up shooter. J R. Smith
was the comp that I gave here.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
When he gets cooking, man, there's very few players that
can score at a higher rate than Caleb Love in
college basketball. I do think there's a whirl where if
you can master the shot selection a little bit, where
you're just taking the catch and shoot threes, you're just
taking the right shots, not this double step back off
the dribble, which he likes to take sometimes.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
If you cut that out of his shot diet.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
There, all of a sudden, we're talking about some decent
efficiency splits with a guy with some pop that I
think can defend a little bit too. I can squint
and see the vision with Caleb Love. He's a big
game riser. He loves the big game shots, which I love.
There's enough there for me to say, this kid's worth
taking a chance on to be a legitimate NBA rotation piece.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Mee how meee how. That's that's how I feel about
Caleb Love. Enjoy enjoyed Thailand or China, Israel or wherever
you're going to play? Where did where? Did?

Speaker 6 (41:17):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Where's macabb Micaw? Is that Israel?

Speaker 5 (41:19):
Oh? Yeah, DJ Burns out there in Korea right now?

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Uh huh?

Speaker 5 (41:24):
DJ Burns out there in Korea right now?

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Oh? DJ Burns. That's you know what. I actually wanted
to say this a couple of weeks ago or last week,
when everybody was complaining about the tournament. People were just
mad there wasn't a fat going around as a twelve
seed winning games. That's all that was. Do Remember DJ
Burns here before and they're like, oh I missed the
fat guy. Whatever?

Speaker 4 (41:46):
I think. I think the six Ers should give DJ
Burns a ten day by the way.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
No chance, keep him out of my world?

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Can we at least be entertained for these last nine
games that we got here, it's been miserable to watch
this team.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
Show me something fun.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
How's McClung not gotten a not gotten a call?

Speaker 5 (42:03):
McClung a call top forty five in the G League
last night?

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (42:07):
No, there's a lot more G League people. I'd want
to I I'd love to take a look through the
G League. And didn't we just sign someone who didn't
play college basketball? Philip Whillip Wheeler? Correct? You know how
he got believable?

Speaker 4 (42:18):
He earned his chance at an open tryout for the
uh Loan Park whatever the Texas Texas Lone Rangers, I
think it is, whatever the G League affiliate is down there,
went to the open tryout, got a chance, joined the
team as a practice only player. At first, competed his
butt off. They eventually gave him a jersey and he
kind of popped once he got there.

Speaker 5 (42:36):
And I won't lie.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
He looked pretty solid and like the brief stume we
got him the Sixers.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
He had a dunk.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
He tried to dunk like ridiculously hard on another I
I'm up, my mind is open on Philip Wheeler, but yeah,
crazy story.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
But my thing on Caleb Love is that he's like
going to turn twenty four in September and he hasn't
improved in the last four years at all.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
Would argue he got worse.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah, I definitely make the argument that twenty one twenty
two was his best season. And it's not like he's
shooting ten threes a game, like he's shooting like six
normal amount of three is a game. And he's still
shooting like twenty nine percent, thirty three percent, thirty four percent.
He's just so inefficient. I hate players like him, as

(43:19):
you know. I hate Chuck Who who's the Why am I?

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Why?

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Am I drawing a blank? There's a guy who I
hate more than Caleb Love in college, but Wade Taylor.
I hate watching Wade Taylor play basketball. I feel the
same way about about Caleb Love. But at least have
more respect for Caleb Love because we saw what he
did to Kay, Like we saw what he did because
k four years ago, So I always have respect for that.
He's a killer in his own way, but it's a

(43:44):
shame that and I'll give him credit. I thought he
was going to shoot them out of the game in
that game. He I think he only had six shots
at halftime. He didn't really start shooting until the second half,
So I I give him a lot of credit for
not kind of just saying, you know, I'm taking over,
and he still ended up having a great game. But Duke,

(44:04):
we've talked about it. Unbelievable. Let's move on at any
eliit eight bets by the way.

Speaker 4 (44:09):
For you, I don't love the board, to be honest,
I'll be riding over on Alabama and Duke. That's really
the only thing I feel that strongly about that. These
numbers feel a little bit too big to me. But
also I don't feel confident enough that I could see
well where they're blowout. So don't like where the lines
have settled for really any of these games.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
I'm rooting on Texas Tech to win the game. I
actually would take that. If I didn't already have this interest,
then I just want to roof for them to win
the game. I would take them plus seven and a half.
I do think that keeps it close. It feels like
Texas Tech has a lot of ways to win games.
Like they shot twenty five percent from three in that
game against Arkansas. They shot even worse against Drake, but

(44:45):
then in the first round they shot like fifty percent
and they shot a ton of them, like and they've
been a really good three point shooting team most of
the year. So you have to think two straight games
where they've gotten by without shooting three, like they shot
eighty five, or they scored eighty five points in overtime
without hitting three. In that game. I think they hit
six threes the whole game and they were able to
win the game and put up eighty five, which should

(45:06):
is how much they can do otherwise than that. And
they're really good on the fast break. But I think
Texas Tech will give them enough to handle. And you
have to think two straight games bad shooting. There's probably
an outlier shooting performance coming where they shoot the lights
out a little bit. And Yukon's also had pretty good
luck with the teams that they're facing not shooting well
at all. Hopefully you know math happens here in Texas

(45:29):
Tech shoots it well. They can shoot it well and
still lose by eight, but I think Texas Tech shoots
it well and keeps it close.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
Yeah, I like that. That's probably my favorite play out
of it. The plus seven and a half there, I
don't like it for Alabama Duke for kind of all
we talked about, which is either offense could go crazy there.

Speaker 5 (45:46):
I'm curious.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
So we're seeing five and a half is the line
between Michigan and Auburn, two and a half between Houston
and Tennessee to drop down to two and a half there,
now you start to peak my interest a little bit
on Houston. But even that, like we're talking plus one
thirty six in favorite of Tennessee on the money line,
I don't love how the board has settled for any
of these. So the over the Alabama Duke and probably
Texas text plus seven and a half would be my
favorites there.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
Those are the two matchups tonight. But yeah, ugly board
for me.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Maybe a little Auburn Houston moneyline parlay, Okay, that's what
I'm kind of just thinking. Now you get rid of
those points for Houston close on nine there plus one
twenty nine, Yep, it's not bad, and I probably will
be on Auburn minus five anyway. So yeah, that's kind

(46:32):
of where I'm looking at that. I think Auburn and
Houston win. I think I told you I have no
idea on Duke Bama. I'm not betting that game. I
wouldn't be surprised that Bama wins. I wouldn't be surprised
at Duke wins by forty and then Texas Tech Florida.
I think Texa Tech has a real chance. I really
do so. I think Texas Tech has a Like I

(46:53):
just said, I have no idea what's happening in Bama.
Duke tex TeX's the biggest underdog of the four teams.
I think text Tech has a better chance than I
think text Tech has a way better chance than Michigan State.
I really think Auburn's just going to be far too
talented in that game. Tennessee probably has a better chance.
But I think Texas texts one of, if not the

(47:13):
most live underdog this weekend. So I'll be rooting that
on Let's real quick, Taylor Jenkins fired. We touched on
a little bit at the beginning of the show. Nine
games left in the season, they are the four seed
in the West. I saw their record in games without
John morant is sixteen and fourteen this year and in
the past it's been an even better numbered I think

(47:34):
the one year they were better without him than with him.
But any leaking of anything here to any kind of
behind the scenes problems with him and Jaw, him and
someone else anything out.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
There yet, it seems to be something with ownership that
more of the riff there. I've seen mixed things in
the Jaw and Taylor Jenkins relationship. There's some people saying
how they loved each other, that they all got completely wrong,
got along completely there. I've seen some like they run
the fewest picking roles in the league, which does seem weird.
With John Morant on the team that should be probably
a pretty high usage play with his style. But then again,

(48:09):
like a lot of the critiques that I think are
being thrust on Taylor Jenkins right now, some of them
just had to be John Morant looking in the mirror, man,
if he has not been available enough or good enough
when he has been on the floor. He's past several
years now really the last two even would argue maybe
a little bit extended to that past three years now.
But with John Morant, like specifically, he's a difficult superstar
to build around man, And like the thing that I

(48:31):
keep circling back to I can understand coming to conclusion
that Taylor Jenkins is not the guy to take this franchise.
Further that Memphis has not hung with some good teams.
I think he's better coach than his reputation of him.
But what I can't get is why now, Like, what
is the appeal to doing this with nine games left
in the regular season, Like this team, this Memphis Grizzlies
team doesn't have a legitimate chance in the playoffs with

(48:52):
or without Taylor Jenkins as the head coach here. So
to me, I would kind of let the guy burn
himself out here of like, at least have one playoff
tuny for the season and then we call it. I
don't see any sort of the selling point to making
this move now. Very confusing to me. I'm confident Taylor
Jenks be employed somewhere in the NBA and next year.
But yeah, very strange and very unexpected.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Yeah, I mean, they've been a competitive team his entire
time there, except for last year when the entire team
was hurt. Right his first year thirty four and thirty nine,
they're thirty eight and thirty four, fifty six and twenty six,
fifty one and thirty one. Obviously, last year, the entire
team was hurt. I'm not taking anything from that year

(49:32):
and putting it on Taylor. Jenkins' jaw was out, Bane
was out, Jaron was out.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
And they mostly like were competitive throughout the year too.
Like it was like they were a laughingstock team.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Over twenty seven games.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
Yeah, yeah, like they were. They hung in games a
lot last year. Honestly, give him credit for the last
year if anything.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
And now they're forty four and twenty nine, like I said,
sixteen and fourteen without their best player, and he gets fired.
If this isn't a scandal, if this isn't like truly,
if this doesn't have legal ramifications, there's no defending this.
In my opinion, he is one of the five best

(50:08):
coaches in basketball in my opinion in terms of like
elevating where their team is at. I don't think this
Memphis team has been eight to ten deep with talented guys.
Who's the best wing they've had in this entire era? Probably,
I'm not counting. He's a guard. To me, He's like, yeah,
that's what it is, Like, that's what it is. We're
talking about those type of guys like Dylan Brooks. Yeah,

(50:31):
like we're talking about those type of guys if we're
talking about who the best wing that that front office
has given him in his entire era there, Yeah, John's great, Yeah,
Bang's great. Yeah, Jared's awesome. But let's let's you know,
that's it. I don't think that they're like super deep
outside of that. Like, I think Taylor Jenkins is awesome
and I desperately hope the Sixers hire him this offseason.

(50:55):
And I think we've also seen him grow with a young,
maybe rebuilding team there in Memphis as well. I don't
know if he'd want to do that again, but I love, love, love,
love the idea of him coming to Philly. Usually I
would bet the dead coach fired bounce game for the
Grizzlies tonight. I'm not doing it out of respect to
Taylor Jenkins. I'm doing the opposite. Give me the Lakers.

(51:17):
Lakers plus two and a half looks like Ruey was
the only guy I saw out. Now you're gonna tell actually,
Lebron and Luca and Reeves are all out. They just
got announced out. It's the NBA.

Speaker 5 (51:27):
I got nothing for you right now. On the right side,
injury report that.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
But yeah, there, it is so maddening that that's like
a possibility on any given night a Lakers is hitting
their first little bit of turmoil in the Luka doncic Era,
I would say, slip in.

Speaker 5 (51:39):
I know they lost seven of their past ten. I
think they bounced back.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
They got to win the three games to seven of
the last eleven at this point, But I don't know
any concern with the Lakers. They still feel exactly the same.
Obviously you're backing them tonight.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah, I'm still find He's like, the Bulls are a
bad matchup for them. Bulls maybe a little too young
for them, but they just want to run, run, run, run, run,
And I don't think that's what the Lakers, it's really
want to do. I mean, wow, that is the worst
I've ever seen Lebron look in my life.

Speaker 5 (52:08):
That path.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
I've never seen Lebron do something like that.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
Do you think he's hurting Brownie James Legacy because of that?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah? Maybe he was in the same day as the
Lebron versation that he had that melt that I've actually
not seen enough people point that out that like right
after the lebronversation, he goes in plays like that, or
I guess maybe the day after.

Speaker 5 (52:25):
Because see the tip in on the actual day the tip.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Yeah, you're right, you're right, You're right. It was the
next day, You're right. Uh, but yeah, it's the one
thing I'll say on the Bron. Everybody's getting their shots
off right now. If the worst thing that we can say,
and I forget it's one of those like viral NBA
dumb Twitter accounts like Hub Brown's thoughts or something, and

(52:48):
it was like, whatever you want to say about Lebron
James being one of the best players ever, he's like
one of the worst people to ever be in the NBA,
with like the ugliest personality of any superstar. It's like,
if the worst things we can say about him or
is that he mishandled a free agency signing ten to
fifteen years ago and that he probably took an unnecessary

(53:11):
shot at Brian Windhurst. Like I think that he's probably
better than some of the people that we might even
have built statues for and idolized now that they're not
here anymore. Maybe, but that's a whole other conversation for
another day. And maybe he's a better idle than you know,
the guy who may have had to retire due to
gambling situations for a little bit and then come back

(53:33):
a couple of years later. Who's never mind. I'm not
going to even get into the other part of that.
But I am so sick of some of the shots
I'm seeing at Mike King. It's disrespectful. He's the greatest
player of all time, whether people like it or not.
He shouldn't have taken the shot at Windhorst though, that
was unnecessary. I like Wendy.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Yeah, And by the way, I love that Wendy handled
it too, Like I Windy's class man.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
He really is.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Perfect, and he's right. Wendy's right. Wendy is right that
he probably can't even get mad about it because he
does his entire career to him. But and I actually
disagree with Lebron on that. I don't think Wendy goes
I listened to a good amount of Wendy. I don't
think he goes around saying like I'm Lebron's best friend.
In fact, he's like I wouldn't like Lebron is the
reason I'm here, Like he doesn't call him a friend.
It's like a thank God for Lebron being yeah, it

(54:21):
is like it's whatever. I didn't like that from Lebron
everything else to Steven I stuff, I get it, like
whatever that that show has made an entire career off
of his back, Like if Lebron James didn't exist, first
take wouldn't exist, like whatever people want to go on
though you know what talk about the show wouldn't exist
if his career didn't happen.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
How jealous do you think Skip Bayless is?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
By the way, Oh, I bet he was watching every
second of that conversation waiting for oh, and yeah, you
can do it with that guy skipped like like that
didn't get it though Lebron wouldn't. I don't think Lebron
wants to get any of that. Yeah, any credit for that,
but anyway, let's move on. Let's take a break. On

(55:05):
the other side, it's Phil season, Baseball season. I can't
believe I went the whole first hour. Phils are one
and oh one hundred sixty one. More of those and
we're in good shape. Get that one seed at one
sixty two and.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
Oh magic number one, magic number down to one sixty
two by the.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Way you might need it. The Dodgers are playing you
might need one sixty two not wrong, but anyway, Phillies
play today, and we're gonna rank the Phillies roster from
one to twenty seven next right after this on the
Tough Cover Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Number one on your car radio preset hand. The new
and improved Diehard Radio app WDA yes and WD two
seven three D Philadelphia is Fox Sports Radio The Gambler.

Speaker 7 (56:10):
Welcome back to the Toughcout Radio Show right here on
Fox Sports The Gambler. And it is a beautiful song
of the year because you know that it means baseball
is back too early. In my opinion, I am of
the strong belief that baseball opening Day should be held

(56:30):
on a weekend, and it should.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Also be held in April. Baseball is not a sport
for March. That's spring training month. Let's hold it for April.
I don't ever remember when I was a kid the
first game being in March. It was always the first
week of April. Now we've moved it up. I don't
get it feels like we have more off days throughout
the year. Whatever, I don't care. We had an off
day the second day of the year, Yesterday, Friday, the

(56:54):
day after the first game opening day. We get an
off day on a Friday. It's not to mention the
fact that the first two games of the WB season
were played in Japan. Yeah, a week and a half ago,
and going did Japan thing? Do it before the All
Star break? The two games for the All Star break?

(57:14):
Why are we doing it as our opening day. It's
unbelievable how dumb baseball is about trying to grow the game.
But here we are.

Speaker 5 (57:23):
I like baseball, yeah, I do as well.

Speaker 4 (57:24):
And I was also especially mad about them not playing yesterday.
I had it man splain to be my Luke Arcaney
last night about how it had to do rain delays
or you know there's a rain out. They got to
push it. They want the opening day spectacle, all that thing.
I don't care. Man like baseball should be back. If
it's back, it's back. It's unreal that there was not
a game for the Phillies yesterday, but nonetheless want to
zero perfect season.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
Hopefully it lasts. We moved from here.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
The beauty of baseball is that you have a date
every night with this beautiful lady called the Philadelphia Phillies.
Like that is the beauty of being a baseball fan
of being a Phillies fan. You have the thing that
you that you get, you know, twenty of the twenty
four nights in a row, Like you get it six
out of every seven nights. And we're saying the second

(58:08):
day of the year, it's gone, Like, it's so dumb.
To me, it's so stupid. I am of the opinion.
For baseball, let's limit the amount of days off. I
don't I get it. These guys want days off. They're
we get a lot of money. Let's limit the amount
of days off for baseball. Let's increase it for basketball,
because we're not the players.

Speaker 5 (58:26):
Don't play them anyway.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Yeah, exactly. So no days off for baseball, more days
off for basketball is my stance on that. But baseball
here we are, And I thought a fun way to
do this. I saw I saw a couple of people
kind of debating on who the most important players were
and who was more important than who and all that stuff.
I thought this was a fun way to do this.
So we went and ranked the Phillies won to twenty seven.

(58:50):
Should we go Should we start at twenty seven?

Speaker 5 (58:52):
I think that's the way to do it.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
Yeah, yeah, twenty seven Taiwan Walker.

Speaker 5 (58:57):
Yeah, me as well, far and away me as well, easily.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Like there's a couple of people who are mysteries on
the team. I'd rather be a mystery than know that
I'm the worst pitcher in baseball in Taiwan Walker. That
guy is awful, absolutely awful.

Speaker 5 (59:13):
Only a couple days till we get to see him pitch, though.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
It's a joke because there's a guy on the roster
who could easily do that for us right now, and
we'll get to them. But twenty six. Carlos Hernandez picked
him up this week off waivers from Kansas City.

Speaker 5 (59:27):
Me as well.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
Don't really know much about him, but his ERA has
never been under three for a season. It's been as
high as seven, so not particularly optimistic. Maybe he can
win me over, but I'm cool with locking him in
for twenty six.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Tanner Banks twenty five.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Wow, I'm a little bit higher on Tanner Banks. I
got him a little bit up the list. I liked
what I saw from Tanner Banks last season five or
my twenty six either. Jordan Romano here, tough, tough debut
in tough day view. I'm a little bit skeptical of
the arm I won't lie. I'm nervous that this dude's cooked.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
I hope not.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
He can win me over, there's no doubt about it.
But I definitely would all my eggs in that basket
of this guy can be the closer. The way I
think the hope is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
I'm skeptical of him too. I'm not in on Jordan
Romano at all. He's my fifth reliever that I would
trust out of the bullpen, but he is nineteenth for me.
I did have him over a couple of the bench
guys and a couple of I guess just three of
the bullpen guys. But Tanner Banks, I don't. I don't
see it. I put Marshan twenty four on the backup catcher.

(01:00:27):
I like Marshan, but he's not gonna play much.

Speaker 5 (01:00:29):
Yeah, I had Cody Clemens.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
I'm at twenty three.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
Yeah, I'm optimistic about Marshan. I mean, he's obviously been
given the chance here when he's healthy. He's good that
he can rake man that there is a bat on it.
So I moved him a little bit higher. I locked
him Clemens for twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
I had Clemens at twenty three.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
Okay, I had Johann Rojas at twenty three. I have
Ross a little higher. Actually, actually not really, I have
so sat twenty.

Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
Two Jose Ruiz for me.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Oh, we'll get to Jose. Okay, I've got Johanna one. Rojas.
He's just he's really he's an elite fielder, so at
least you have that flexibility late in games.

Speaker 5 (01:01:07):
Don't hate it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
That's where I put marsha On here out of I
guess hope for the bat here marsh On for twenty one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Joe Ross at twenty you hope he can be the
Spencer Turnbull from last year and give you some give
you some kind of length out of the bullpen, maybe
even start some games.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Yeah, I had twenty most Tanner Banks where I slotted
him here, So it's not a guy that I'm sticking
up for for deserves to be way higher than where
you had him there. I think he's perfectly fine, you know,
just standard normal bullpen reliever to have there locked him
at at twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Jordan Romano at nineteen, I don't believe in it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
As I said, this is where I had Joe Ross,
So I think we're pretty much back on the same
page here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Jose Ruiz at eighteen. I believe in Jose Ruiz. That's
a guy I love. I love Jose Ruiz. He's my
fourth he would be my fourth guy out of the
pen wow for this team, So I trusts. I think
he's our second best writing.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
Don't hate that. I'm not anti Jose Willis. I'm not
as high on him as you are. For sure, I
would take Tanner Banks over, but I get obviously different there.
For my nineteen, I have Brandon Marsh here. Oh no, wait,
I'm sure I missed one. I missed one. His this
Lizardo here. I think that's even a little more.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Got way higher, so we'll get to them. I've stopped
at seventeen.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
Okay, wow, all right, I had him notably higher at seventeen.
That is where I Brandon.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Marsh, I have Matt Strom. I have Alvarado Strom at
fifteen sixteen. I couldn't differentiate them. Alvarado is probably the
guy we're coming into the year hoping for more from.
It can't be forgotten how insane Matt Strom was last year, though.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Yeah, I have him notably higher for those same reasons.
At Mundo Sosa next up on my list. That's Sosa
above Marsh is crazy. I like Sosa man, I like
the dude that's crazy. Well, I'm sure we'll get into
my Trey Turner conversation at some point here. But I
think Soa is like important of this team, can play
multiple positions. The bat was legit for the first half

(01:03:03):
of last year. I think so this is a fairly
important part of this Phillis team.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Brandon Marsh had a three war last year. He was
our our three point one war. He was our third
highest war on the team, Yeah, behind Trice and Schwarver.
But so had a he higher than I thought two
point three, So he was hired than I thought. I'm
not a I don't think so this was a starter
at all. I actually am kind of annoyed he's still

(01:03:29):
on the team. I would rather have someone else on
the team that I think is younger, with like more upside,
instead of someone who everyone's gonna like yell to play
now because they'd like him, and he's had a couple
of moments. I don't think he's got like any now.

Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
He's shagging fly balls too, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:43):
Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Don't. I hope people they don't think that that's a real,
a real solution. I put Luzardo at fourteen.

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
I had fifteen Max Kepler, fourteen Jose Alvarado, so.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
One spot off from Alvarado, and I have Kepler thirteen,
so only one spot off from Kepler.

Speaker 5 (01:04:02):
There, thirteen is where I threw Stott.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Yeah, I mean that's not crazy. Twelve Ive Ranger, Okay,
I have JT JT. I have a little higher twelve
Iyve Ranger. I have O'Ryan eleventh.

Speaker 5 (01:04:18):
Eleven, I have Trey Turner.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
That's too low.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
I did.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
I think that the more I look at it, the
more I analyze it, I think Trey Turner might be
the guy that closed this Phillies championship window.

Speaker 5 (01:04:30):
He's not the dude. He's just not the dude.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Championship window is not closed.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
Not yet. But do you think he can be better
than he was last year?

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
A little sure? But I mean last year he did
go twenty one homer's nineteen steals in one hundred and
twenty games, so he would have went twenty five to
twenty five, potentially thirty thirty, probably not thirty thirty, probably
twenty eight twenty eight. But if he had twenty eight
homers and twenty eight steals last year, I don't think
we're talking about it the same way. But he missed
forty games, and I don't think that missing games is

(01:05:01):
like a problem because that's like the first time he's
really ever missed games. So he's durable, so that doesn't
concern me. I've been incredibly disappointed by Trey. I was
debating with him and someone else to be fourth or
fifth on my list, and I went with someone else
to kind of make a point of like, Trey is
probably better than this. He should probably be fourth on

(01:05:21):
this list, but the cold streaks are so cold that
you have to lower him. But eleventh is crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
The way I got to it is like I think
each of these guys that I'm we're going to get
to above, like we're directly related to winning more games
than Trey Turner was the case last year, and I
sort of expect to be the same this year. So
I think the reality of Trey Turner is he was
paid to be a great player, and he's a fine player.
He doesn't suck the field. Stuff is so disappointing too,
man Like even in the opening game, like they should

(01:05:49):
have gunned down another runner that JD had him, and
like trades didn't catch the ball straight. It's little stuff
like that that's really frustrated to me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Yeah, he has frustrating stuff. I still think he's probably
was worth what he got paid last year, like twenty
one homers and nineteen steels. The problem with that contract
is he's not going to be worth it in three years,
which we already We always knew that, so you thought
he'd be even worth better than what you were getting
for the first half of the contract. Obviously that's not
happened realistically. I mean, he was twenty one homers, nineteen steels,

(01:06:18):
hitting close to three hundred over eight hundred ops. He
is still valuable, like he is still getting drafted like
twentieth overall in fantasy leagues. Like he's like a second
round pick still, so as opposed to like after him,
there's like or after the top three guys hitting wise,
like Castiana's went like the sixteenth round goes like the

(01:06:39):
fifteenth round. JT. I got in the sixteenth round. Marsh
actually goes higher than those guys. But at number eleven,
I had Kirkering. He's my top guy out of the pen,
but it's it's hard for me to put the bullpen
guys too high just because of like you're not being
counted on for six innings in a game. You're not
being countered on to start one sixty or whatever you

(01:07:01):
are from a position player. But that was a crazy
horn from outside of my apartment there. I've never heard
a horn like that that made it sound like I
am on the train tracks right now.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
I thought I hit a button on soundboard. To be
perfectly honest with you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
I don't think there's a train outside of my apartment.
I don't know what just happened there. But we move on.
Where were you at? Who did you have? Eleven?

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
Trey Turner?

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
So my okay, so.

Speaker 5 (01:07:29):
Into the top ten. Now my number ten is Ranger Suarez.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
That's yeah, that's fair. I had Ranger there at twelve.
My number ten is Nick Castillanos.

Speaker 5 (01:07:38):
My number nine, I have Oryan kirkrang here.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
And my my pushback to the bullpen conversation would be
that when they are called upon, it is so important
there they better be right and we see what happened.
We've seen plenty of times what happens, including last postseason,
on full display when the bullpen guys are not ready
for the occasion there and shout out to Craig Kimbrol,
and you can go down the list of all the
guys that have not delivered for this So I like
a Ryan kirk Ring. I think he's going to have

(01:08:02):
the best season of his career this year. I'm locking
him in for number nine on this team.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
My number nine is Brandon Marsh. I have Brandon Marsh
to me with what he's able to do in centerfield.
He's got the positional versatility to bounce around, and he's
truly an elite hitter against right handed pitching. He's just
terrible against lefties. And there's pardon of me that if
you just didn't pit. I don't think he should play
against lefties. I think that we're we've reached that point,

(01:08:29):
and I think if he just didn't, people would actually
appreciate him. But because they see him struggle against lefties,
they see those strikeouts, they see those bad games, and
it's like, oh, well, this guy stinks. And you look
at the stats, none as good as you'd want them
to be, even though still better statistically than I think
people would would know. And if you if you go
to the you go to the profile three straight years

(01:08:50):
of ops pluses of one seventeen, one twenty six, one
oh nine. For the non nerds out there, one hundred
is average, So one seventeen, one, twenty six and one
oh nine pretty good numbers there. I love Brandon Marsh.
I'm a Marsh guy. My whole thing is, I just
hope people appreciate how really how good he is against righty's,

(01:09:12):
and I hope they don't let let how bad he
is against lefties take away from that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
Yeah, I probably should have had Marsh a little bit
higher than I did here.

Speaker 5 (01:09:20):
Your point's definitely spot on.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
I think it's the strikeouts is the number one thing,
Like how visible that is when he struggled, Like I
just pulled it up, like, yeah, he struck out one
hundred and fifty four times last year in four hundred
and eighteen at bats. That is a lot, man, Like,
that's like one third of year at bats. You're striking
out there, And that's the thing with Marsh. But you're
you're right about the hitting splits. I still don't love
like the entire puzzle of the outfield that's being put

(01:09:41):
together this year. They're continuing to try and keep giving
Marsh opportunities to get better. We'll see how it overall
comes here. I do think I had him a little
bit too low on my list. I'll admit that that's fair.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
That's fair, and this is the guy who I might
have a little too high. Honestly, there's part of there's time.
Alec Puhm is just the weirdest player, and like Philly
Sports to try to figure out his value. Obviously we
all wanted them traded. They couldn't figure out anything to
get him that made any sort of sense to any
other team that we could get anything for him, so
they decided his value is more to us. I have

(01:10:12):
him eighth. I could easily make a case he should
be sixteenth, like because I do think he's very average
in a lot of ways. But third baseman, you go
take a look around the fantasy baseball draft and try
to find good third baseman. There's not a ton of them,
So al Putom, I have a meth Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
I had a really hard time with Bom as well.
But I have Christopher Sanchez number eight for me. I
think that was the story of last season was his breakout,
him being legitimate, and it looks like he has added
even more. I mean the velocity continues to grow, go
from six to one to sixty six magically over the offseason.

Speaker 5 (01:10:44):
I know that's just kind of a misprint.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
In the the whatever program or whatever they're listed at
from the roster thing, but kind of funny that he
went from six to one last year to six six
this year in the team's listing. But yeah, I'm in
on Sanchez. I think it's legitimate and I think he's
only getting better from here.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
Yeah, I had JT seven and then Sanchez. I had
at six Sanchez. What I will said, I love Christy Sanchez.
I remember I came on here early last year. I said,
this guy's a top twenty pitcher in baseball. I love him.
I believe in him, He's untradable, all that stuff. The
one thing I'll say is some people out there are
getting a little carried away on Christy Sanchez and disrespecting

(01:11:22):
someone else at Philly when we're talking about the rotation
Christopher Sanchez. I love him. People need to stop ranking
him above Aaron Nola when they're talking about our rotation
and putting him in. Jack Fritz has done this. He's
puts him in Cy Young conversations and and all that stuff.
Aaron Nola's Fantasy average draft position is fifty four. Christopher

(01:11:44):
Sanchez is one fifty one point seven. He goes in
like the fifteenth round. It's I hate to be the
guy like referencing Fantasy Baseball average draft position, but guess
what people moved baseball and FA different. Guess what Fantasy
Baseball takes the stats who accumulated baseball and puts a
value to it. So it's what is baseball for? Not

(01:12:05):
taking stats and putting value to it. That's basically what
the whole sport is. So Christopher Sanchez, great player. The
one thing that's interesting his strikeout rate went way down
last year while he had like an even better year
than the year before. I don't know. My hope is
and he's throwing harder. Now grew five inches, No, he didn't.

(01:12:26):
He was obviously six six last year with weird media
guide situation there, but Christopher Sanchez obviously throwing harder. He's
got nasty stuff people are. I think he's striking out
people at a pretty high rate in spring training. So
the hope is that he can kind of get back
to that like nine K per nine number where you're
striking out about as many people as you're showing ending's pitched.

(01:12:49):
That's a good by the way for anyone out there
who wants to kind of just like start getting into
I don't know whatever baseball or fantasy baseball, or like
thinking about how pitcher's rank or whatever like that, or gambling.
Go look at it. Go look at a pitcher. If
you don't want to look at Kate for nine, because
that's a little that's math and that's gets confusing. Take
the amount of innings they've pitched. Then look at strikeouts.
It'll tell you kind of how nasty they are generally.

(01:13:11):
And if they have way more strikeouts than nings pitch,
like Paul Skins, that means they're nasty. If they have
way more innings pitch than K's and they're still really good,
like uh I Logan Web from the Giants, that means
like they're like a really good pitcher, but they don't
have to strike you out. They're not overpowering. There's a
little little tip for the people out there, But who

(01:13:33):
did you have at seven?

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
At seven?

Speaker 4 (01:13:34):
I had matched Strom here, So I think the top
arm out of the pen pretty clear this year. I
love dram Man and he's delivered. He's a psycho competitor
that's gonna be the top guy. It'll be interesting how
they kind of moved the whole picture for the bullpen.
They obviously don't commit to a closer, and you know
that's how they do things.

Speaker 5 (01:13:49):
But Strom's the guy. He's lefty, He's been here for
a minute.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:13:52):
I'm locking them in from a number seven.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
I'm still a Ryan over. I guess Strom's my third guy.
I'd easily be the second guy over. Alvarado is totally
more speculative, with like a higher upside you're hoping for
good Man. He does look amazing, But Oryan's my top guy.
I really think Oryan Kirker. This is my bold but
my boldest prediction. Oriyan Kirkering is the best reliever in

(01:14:15):
baseball by the end of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:14:17):
Wow, all right, I love it. I'm not there for
this season.

Speaker 4 (01:14:20):
I think, like I was going to put that on
like a two to three years from now type of timeline,
but even.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
May but I'm willing to take a chance and say
line of this year, I think he's got just undeniable stuff.
Undeniable stuff. I mean, his staffs last year were pretty amazing.
Like he was still unbelievable last season. I think he
can take anither even another step from that, or at
least just kind of like do it over a full
season as a full high leverage guy. Last year he

(01:14:48):
was sixty three innings and yeah, sixty three innings two
point twenty nine e ra A, that's pretty incredible. I
think he can have that type of strom Hoffman year
where you're in the ones.

Speaker 4 (01:14:59):
And people for get, like what an accelerated rate that
he was thrust through the miners and how young he
still is. That we got a long time of seeing
O Ryan kirkeran being a high leverage pitcher for this
Phillies team. So shout out to him. Yeah, that's crazy, man,
So shout out. I put Alec Bohm at number six here,
way too high for you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
No, No, I think it's like I can make a case.
I have an eight, so I can make a case
to him at seven. For me, I think my top YEA,
the tray. The tray is the issue. I think I
don't have an issue with anything else in your list
in terms of Boom except for Trey. Tray should be
above them.

Speaker 4 (01:15:35):
I think Boom, like the first half of bom last
year was legitimly incredible baseball, like when he was ripping doubles. Yeah,
it was ugly. I don't know how much I buy
any sort of injury thing with him. I think it
was way more mental than anything stopped. I'll give a
little bit more of a pass for that. Boma was
certainly in his head here, but I kind of liked
how he showed up on opening day. Man, it looked

(01:15:56):
like like Alec Bohm, a little more serious, a little
more locked in. He obvious he had the big double
in extra innings to drive in the leading run there.
I liked how he answered things post game. I'm liking
what I'm seeing from Alec Bohm. And obviously getting benched
in the playoffs is not nothing that you have to
note that. And there's obviously some things we all saw,
the trade roomers, all that kind of thing, but the
production speaks for itself. And I do think if you

(01:16:17):
were to line up the top third basement in the league,
Boem's ranking way higher than a lot of people talk
about him like.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
So I locked him in for number.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
Six here, Yeah, I said it already. I had straight five.
Who you have at five five?

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
Nick Costianos.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
For me, that's too high. What did you have him
at ten?

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
Okay, this is my selling point for Cassidy. I mean,
we obviously know it's the highs and the lows. Those
highs though, man like he can carry a team when
he gets red hot with his bat there, and I
also think he deserves a little bit more credit for
his growth in the field than he gets. That This
dude is night and day better than when he first
got to Philadelphia with his glove. He's still not going
to be a mobile guy or winning a Gold Glove
anytime soon, but I do give him props for at

(01:16:57):
least like getting better, improving and working through it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Yeah, my top six. The reason that I don't like
is because I think my top six, and I'll recap
it at the end, is like so far above the
rest of my list that that's why I have like
the six in a tier of its own. But I
had Trey at five, number four, my toughest. My toughest
differentiator was three four, five, and I went with with
Trey at five. My number four, I went with Schwarber.

(01:17:24):
I had Schwerber at four nine two ops in the
playoffs as a Philly it's funny to say about a
guy who literally becomes Barry Bonds for one month of
the year in June. He seems like the least streaky
guy on the team somehow, even with that, even with
having that insane streak every June, maybe Bryce is less streaky,

(01:17:45):
but even he's streaky. So it's Schwarver. I don't think
we give enough credit to powers down across the league
over the last couple of years. He is a consistent
base of forty homers that he's going to give you
in a league where that is rarer and rarer to
get forty plus home runs nowadays. And obviously the walks

(01:18:07):
in this specific lineup his specific value to us a
team that chases all over the place, to have a
guy who obviously he strikes ouvat on he hits two twenty,
I get it. But he's also seeing the most pitchers
on the team, he's walking the most on the team,
and he's getting on base an absolute ton. So, Kyle Schwuerber,
I think his specific value to us, like if you

(01:18:27):
had these twenty six guys scattered across the league and
you rank them, his value to us might be higher
than it just is like regularly, I think Schwarber is
so so valuable to this team.

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
Yeah, I'm in full agreement here. And I had a
really tough time at this spot too. To kind of
tip the back to back picks, I had Shwarber at
my three by Aaron Nola at four, So I went
Schwarbert slightly higher there. I think that's a very fair
kind of up in the air debate there. And I
think Noel is another guy who's very underappreciative, underappreciated for
what he does for the Phillies franchise. How just you know,
constantly out there, his availability, his production, another two hunderd

(01:19:00):
inning season last year, and he's gonna do the same
thing this year. He's homegrown, he's gotten better, and he
does have like legitimate nasty stuff for stretches. I know
he has the annoying innings once in a while. He
does have those games that drive you crazy. But in
the larger sample size, Nola's the real deal. So I
went Shoreward three and Nola four.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
Outside of testing positive for COVID and missing one start
in twenty twenty one, Aaron Nola has not missed the
start in eight years.

Speaker 5 (01:19:24):
Wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
It's unbelievable. People do not get enough credit. And that's
also something I wanted to say, because Wheeler has been
so healthy, Nola has been so healthy, Sanchez hasn't gotten
hurt since he's gotten here. You look at Ranger and
people are freaking out that Ranger is starting the year
on the il. I've seen a lot of Luke Arkiny

(01:19:47):
is one of them who I think has slapped an
injury prone tag on Ranger. Ranger Squarez has made seventy
eight starts over the last three years. He hasn't had
a season under twenty two, twenty seven, six and twenty
two starts. The max you can make is like thirty two.
So go look around Major League Baseball at the top
fifty to one hundred pitchers. Out of all the guys

(01:20:11):
who have been around for three plus years, find me
all of them who have had seventy eight starts in
three years. Because most guys missed an entire year. To
Tommy John over the last three years, most guys miss
half of every year they played. Blake Snell misses a
couple months all the time, a lot of pictures, Tyler
Glasnew barely pitches, a lot of pitches to Jacob de Grom.
A lot of pictures who I really love, who are
really talented, get hurt all the time. They still get

(01:20:33):
hundreds of millions of dollars and get the credit as
being top guys in the sport. Ranger Suarez coming off
of like a what did he end up with a
three to two ERA last year? He's had a one
to nine ERA before in the majors, the career of
three four ERA all time. He had a three six
couple years ago, three to one other another year. I

(01:20:53):
one of the most disrespected players in the world, and
I know we passed Ranger. I wanted to go back
to it when I got to the Nolestat. And part
of the reason, especially in this city, that people to
call him injury prone or slap that tag on is
because we don't know what that means. Because we have
Aaron Nola who doesn't miss starts, because he's an absolute
horse and knock on every piece you would of wood
you have around us. Because I think the Phillies have

(01:21:14):
a really high floor this year. I think there's very
little chance that the Phillies are not going to be
a good baseball team. The one chance that they have
of not being a good baseball team. Is the luck
that we've had over this last stretch with pitching injuries
going the other way, hitting injuries, we've had plenty. We've
made it through. We've got hurt last year. Bryce has
gotten hurt a couple of times. You know, we've had

(01:21:37):
Scherber missed some time last year. We've had plenty of
guys missed plenty of time. We cannot really lose Wheeler
Eran Nola. That's the the other guys. You lose a Sanchez,
you lose a Suarez, you lose a Losarda. You know
you have Painter coming in a couple of months, but
you lose one of those top guys, that changes the
trajectory of the season. All that to say, Aaron Nola,

(01:21:58):
pretty healthy guy, pretty durable.

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. Love the rent there.

Speaker 4 (01:22:01):
And the only thing I'll add is I have a
little galaxy brain proposition here of maybe keep the chatter going,
you lock up Ranger to a discounted price. It will
be interesting if they how that goes down. But that
has opened my eyes. It does seem like it's trending
towards him hitting up the open market and walking. I
think he wants to be back. I want him back,
and I mean they got Painter on the way. There's
a lot of moving parts behind the scenes here, but

(01:22:23):
I want to see Ranger continue pitching for the Phillies, man,
I really would.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
He's going to be like a Minnesota twin. It's going
to be it's gonna be so depressing, like I can't
even He's actually like, I don't know how I'd handle
him being on another team, Like it's Reese was tough
for me, and you know, Sean Brace makes fun of
me because I think we were all on the one
day the Brewers when he hit the home or whatever.
And I love Reese and that was tough for me.

(01:22:49):
This would be another planet. Like I think I'd be
like full on rooting for another team if Ranger came
and pitched in Citizens Bank Park against US in a
regular season game. So I love that guy. Would ride
or die for him any time of the week. And
the injury prone thing is ridiculous. He's never missed ten
starts in the season, Like I whatever, that's a whole
other thing. Guys get hurt, you're throwing a ball ninety

(01:23:11):
five miles an hour as hard as you can, one
hundred times every fifth day. Go look again. I just
think so much of Philly's criticism is always wrapped up
in not paying attention to the rest of what's going
on at that position or in the league. And then
the top two. We're not gonna spend too much time
on it. We all know you could either you can
mix it, either that you want. I went Wheeler one. Wow,

(01:23:33):
Wheeler's the ace. I think Wheeler is the second best
pitcher in baseball. Maybe the best. Schemes is just this
weird kind of thing that it's hard to even rank
right now. I would take Wheeler over Schooble, and I
would take Wheeler over anybody else that you wanted to
throw at me. It seems like those three are pretty
far above the rest, at least in fantasy, for the
top starting pitchers going into this year. And if you're

(01:23:53):
just asking me, like, would I rather have Wheeler or
Schemes for the year, I'm taking Wheeler because I know
what he is. Like Schemes, if Skins three six ERA
and still struck out a lot of guys I had
a little bit of a down year comparatively, would anybody
like freak out. I don't think so so Wheeler. I
just think he's incredible. I don't know what's happening. I
don't know what's happening outside of my apartment. I'm not

(01:24:16):
that close to the road. I don't know if this
is happening inside my apartment complex. Not interesting radio, but
just for the people out there that are hearing a
train come through my apartment, that's not what's happening. But anyway,
I'm assuming by your reaction you went Bryce one Wheeler two.

Speaker 5 (01:24:32):
I did. I went Bryce one Wheeler two.

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
I won't fight you too hot on that either, though,
But I also think there's something to just like the
tone that Bryce Harper sets for this entire organization that's
really important here, and I thought it would it's only
right for him to be the guy representing.

Speaker 5 (01:24:44):
But I mean, you're absolutely right about Wheeler.

Speaker 4 (01:24:46):
He's just a model of consistency man, and his stuff
is just straight up nasty like that was my biggest
takeaway from opening day is Zach Wheeler is still that dude,
And there really were no doubts that that was gonna
be the case there. But did bump Bryce one just
for a lot of reasons. Also, don't think he gets
an credit for him just being an above average borderline
great first basement defensively that quickly is pretty absurd stuff.

(01:25:06):
He still has his growing pains with some of the
I guess intricacies of the position, some of the footwork stuff,
that kind of thing, but in the large part, really
impressive how easily he was able to settle into that
last year.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
By the way, you sent me this, I didn't see
this until now, but John Morank or not John Moran,
Patrick Beverly's quotes about Taylor Jenkins by the way, reading
through this anyone go check it out on Papev's Twitter.
I couldn't agree more with everything that Bev said. It's
like almost everything I was saying before. I really think

(01:25:37):
one of the craziest coach firing is one of the
most unjust unjustifiable coach firings. I can ever remember not
to switch gears, but it still shocks me. I can't
get over it.

Speaker 4 (01:25:48):
Yeah, and I know Pat Bev has made plenty of
enemies along the way, and people don't love the way
that he moves all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:25:53):
The dude knows basketball man.

Speaker 4 (01:25:54):
I like doing into the pat bev pod because he
did gives some pretty in depth and good and real
breakdowns on this stuff, which I about.

Speaker 5 (01:26:00):
This was an example of so shout out to Batbeth
all right.

Speaker 2 (01:26:03):
So, by the way, my card for the day didn't
give this out. I said text Tech plus three twenty
at six oh nine said the Lakers plus two and
a half. My four baseball bets for the day got
Astros money line against the Mets today. They got Spencer
Arraghetti on the mound. I think it's a little bit
of an advantage over Griffin Kanning. Also, Gryffin Kane pitched
on the Angels before he got to the Mets, and

(01:26:24):
the Astros have seen him a ton. The roster hits
over three hundred against them, and the best players hit
even better than that. So I like the Astros to
score a lot of runs today. Maybe you go with
the team total over instead. I think it's at like
five five and a half. But I just went with
the money line Cubs money line at the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I'm a Shoda Ryder loved Showda in Monaga. That's my dog.

(01:26:48):
I think he's sick, So gimme Shoda over Arizona. I
think it's Brandon fought on the mound there, who we
know quite well in Philly. Even though that one time
he was good against us, he usually sticks. And then
I think, I'm just going to bet this every time
that it's available. Give me the Dodgers minus one and
a half at plus one hundred, and give me Dodgers
team total over four and a half.

Speaker 5 (01:27:07):
They look incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:27:09):
If they're going to be this good, I might as
well make money off of it. Instead of being mad
about it. I'm just going to keep I don't I'm
actually shocked that they haven't made it more like more
prohibitive to bet on them, like to only have them
at plus one hundred minus one and a half and
to have them at plus money for team total over
four and a half. They had that yesterday. Smash them both.

(01:27:32):
I don't get it. I they'll adjust soon. So for now,
I'm just gonna just gonna hammer the Dodgers. Anything for
you today, Sean.

Speaker 5 (01:27:39):
Yeah, not really quiet day for me overall.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
I will be writing up some draftings stuff after that,
so we'll have some player prop stuff. I'm diving into
in that direction there. If I have to make a play.
It would be the duke in Alabama over that's my
favorite bet of the day. I probably will settle in
on the Texas Tech plus seven and a half there
that I do think this, I'm talking myself more and
more into it. I do think Florida is a little
bit more vulnerable than we've given them credit here. As
far as the baseball board, not a lot for me.

(01:28:02):
I did I Lozardo's strikeouts said over five and a half.
Here you can get some plus one twenty five. I
think it was for that there. The shadows, the shadows,
The shadows are a factor. The guys love talking about him,
so I may jump into the out boom.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
Man, you get that guy going on shadows, he might
not stop. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
Yeah, maybe his girlfriend's picking out the same bets we are.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
So.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
Yeah. I mean, hey, he looked happy on that those
game interviews. Someone someone's keeping him happy, if you know
what I mean. Shout out to e K or e D.
I guess that's a rough KD. I guess Aaron Kate Tholon. Yeah,
there you go. But that's that's my card for the day.
Let's switch gears and before we get out of here,
let's uh let's take one last stop on the sports

(01:28:46):
carousel over to the NBA again. We're gonna do our
all NBA teams. We got about I think like eight
games left for most teams here, so you know, not
much I think is going to change, especially with these
types of guys. So all NBA first team, I think
it's pretty.

Speaker 4 (01:29:02):
Like not up for debate, right, I think we probably
have the same five here. You want me to listen
to you, Yeah, I have Sga Jokic, Jannis Tatum, Donovan
Mitchell yep, cool, Yeah, DONOVD. Mitchell was the only one.
I wasn't sure if you were gonna completely ride with
me on there. But I think you can't argue with
what the Caps have done. And he's been great, even

(01:29:23):
though statistically he's slightly below what he was last year.
I mean, the results speak from himself and there's been
a whole lot of games where he basically hasn't been
checked into fourth quarters.

Speaker 2 (01:29:31):
Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. I think it's
hard to make a case. Maybe if Lebron would have
played the full year, shouldn't get hurt. Maybe Lebron would
at a case, But yeah, I don't even think there's
much to talk about their second team second I'm going
I will go one by one.

Speaker 4 (01:29:46):
Lebron Okay, I have Lebron as well, Jalen Brunson, I
have him on my third team.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
Okay, Anthony Edwards have him on.

Speaker 5 (01:29:55):
My second team.

Speaker 4 (01:29:56):
Kate Cunningham yep, and Kat Okay. I have Evan Mobley
on my second team. I've Kat on my third team.
And I put James Harden in the All NBA second team. Wow,
I'm really impressed man, and he finally got over the
forty percent field go percentage barrier that he's been below
just about all season.

Speaker 5 (01:30:14):
There.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
I give him a lot of credit for keeping that
Clippers team afloat man, And I mean, we obviously saw
the James Harden experience here in Philadelphia. I think that
Clippers team is far better suited for him really at
any point in his career here. They just got scrappy
defenders around him that competes. And he's still the engine
on an every night basis, and especially with Kawhi Leonard
being far more available of late, but like through the
whole first half of the season, basically no Kawhi whatsoever,

(01:30:37):
and Harden continue to keep that thing a float, so
I think he deserves some credit for it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Yeah, I don't have a problem as much with Harden
over Brunson. I think the stats are hard like Brunston's
Like twenty six and seven, I have to go with Brunson,
But I do feel passionately about Kat over Mobley. I
think Kat should be almost getting more credit than Brunson.
I think Kat's been the most valuable player on the
Knicks this year, in my opinion, savaging I had it

(01:31:05):
right here twenty four and a half and thirteen this year, Like,
I don't think people are talking enough about just how
incredible Cat has been for the Knicks, And most of
it's because people don't like Cat. Who was the who
did the impression of Cat on the podcast recently? Is
that Nick Young?

Speaker 4 (01:31:24):
Nick?

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
Agree? Yeah, the Cat impression was pretty pretty incredible, But
uh yeah, I went with Cat. Cat. You look at
that twenty four and a half and thirteen. I get it.
Mobley's incredible on defense eighteen and a half and nine.
Obviously the defense is a valley between MOBILEI and Cat,
but I know Mobili's really good. I think we might

(01:31:51):
overrate MOBILEI a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
For the record, I've been an anti Moblei guy for
several years now.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
Me too, I'm still kind of like, yeah, I'm not
ready to I'm not ready to give it up.

Speaker 4 (01:32:00):
Here's my sales pitch on that. And by the way,
Kat has been incredible this season. Have him on the
third team, like he absolutely deserves his flowers here. I
think Mobley is better offensively than Kat is defensively. I
think like we can't overstate how bad Kat is defensively,
and that's like a huge part of the knicks problems,
to be honest, like to evaluate them on the season,
They've been far better than I expected they could be

(01:32:22):
offensively and far worse than I thought was possible defensively.
And a lot of that comes right down to cat Man,
and from a playoff perspective, that's going to be a factor.
That's going to be a problem something I have my
eyes on. And I also with this specific kind of
debate here, I always kind of lean towards the team's
success a little bit more and gave Mobley a bump
up that way.

Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
Yeah, that's fair, that was a good argument for sure.
Third team James Harden, Triple j Kevin Durant, Steph I
have a move like it.

Speaker 4 (01:32:53):
I went Jalen Brunson, Steph Triple J, Kevin Durant and
Kat Here so pretty much in the same sphere.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
Fifteen Yeah, the same game.

Speaker 4 (01:33:01):
Yeah, the only guy was very close on We were
text about him. Jalen Williams was tough for me. I
was very close between him and JJJ. Ultimately like you
sold me on the efficiency there, I'm Jaron Jackson. They're
both kind of weird players. Jaron Jackson's a very weird
player to me too. I wish he was a better
rebounder for sure, and the thunder been incredible. I do
wonder when that team fully settles. I don't think Jalen

(01:33:23):
Williams can really be the second best player on the
championship team. And granted they have enough depth there that
it might not matter this year, but he's a weird
guy to fully place in the hierarchy.

Speaker 5 (01:33:31):
I would say.

Speaker 2 (01:33:32):
It's kind of why I've been so like Gung Ho
on the Celtics still winning the title is I still
think when it comes down to it, is Jalen Williams
the second best player in the title team. He certainly
didn't look like it last year for the playoffs. And
the craziest thing about him is everybody's saying, like, how
incredible this jump is for Jalen Williams. He's really averaging
two more points per game, one more assists in one

(01:33:55):
and a half rebounds. He's just shooting more. Yeah, all
that's happening. He's actually just shooting less efficient. He's seven
percent down from the field, six six and a half
percent down from three. Like, it's hard for me to
give him an All NBA spot when I think he's
legitimately been worse than last season. Like you could say, oh,
he's slightly up with the you know, the totals. The

(01:34:15):
efficiency matters more to me personally, So I get that. Okay,
See he's been great. Okay, she was the one seed
last year. Yeah, so I kind of I he actually
wasn't my hardest leave off. I think my hardest leave
off was was actually Demonis Sabonis. Okay, because Sacramento is
still hanging around five hundred and he's still putting up
his what is it nineteen thirteen and leaound, Yeah he is.

Speaker 4 (01:34:41):
Yeah, he's I've stuck up for his bonus quite a
bit and shout out to him by the way, coming
back fighting their injuries right now, like playing through a
spot where he probably should not be playing basketball whatsoever
with how his ankle currently is. So shout out to
the guy forgotten through Sacramento is gonna have some interesting
conversations this offseason. They just kind of have leaned on
the tactic of bringing good players and you know, hope
they fit is kind of how it goes. We've seen

(01:35:02):
a lot of this not workout before. Zach Lavine has
not been the answer and been really disappointing there, to
be perfectly honest, hasn't been aggressive whatsoever. But yeah, Sabonis
has still been himself, been solid there. Don't hate that
position whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
And then the one the one guy who I was
surprised to even Pascal was interesting as a potential option.
But the one guy who was even I was surprised
to even think of as part of the conversation is
Tyree Taliburt. So, I know how bad of the year
of he was having that kind of a halfway point.
You look at where he's at now, he's pretty much

(01:35:35):
having the same year he had last year. It's like
a point down and assists down. Last year he averaged
twenty and eleven. This year's averaging nineteen and nine, and
he's doing so the same efficiency forty seven percent from
the field, just about two percent better from three Actually,
more steals per game, less turnovers per game. I actually

(01:35:57):
think you can make a cases having just as good
of a year Indiana. Actually they're probably about the same.
I was gonna say they're having a worse year. They're
forty seven to thirty five. Last year. This year they
are forty three and thirty. They're probably like almost on
pace for a better record, obviously, so weirdly enough, I
almost think Haliburton should be on it. I just couldn't
find the spot.

Speaker 4 (01:36:17):
Yeah, he kind of did it in reverse this year
that last year he had an incredible start to the
season and really faded down the stretch. This year had
a little bit of tough start to the year, and
then really has turned things up a notch. She's been
playing very well these past couple weeks here. I don't
hate the shout there Haliburton, Like he's a guy that
continually has me like wanting more when I watch him
play with that, I'm like, dude, you should be able
to like go be the guy a little bit more

(01:36:39):
than he seems to want to do. But the talent
is there, there's no doubt about it, and the productions
follow it. So shout out to Haliburton, no hate for him.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Yeah, that's pretty much all the guys who I took
a look at their Haliburton. Pascal Sabonis, Lillard probably would
have been in the conversation if he didn't have this
blood clot He's like six seven games short, seems like
he's probably done for the year. Is this the type
of thing where he's like calls it a career, Like
you have to be scared of that.

Speaker 5 (01:37:07):
Yeah, There's there's been instances of that.

Speaker 4 (01:37:10):
There's also been like, like I mean, it's very similar
to what Victor Wembenyama is going through, which is scary
as well. There's guys that it does limit their career,
and there's guys that it's just kind of a they
get it under control, keep it rolling, so that that's
kind of pretty private medical stuff that we probably won't
even get access to, like what exactly the treatment or
what the situation is there. But obviously sound in prayers
and disappointed because I was honestly liking how the Bucks

(01:37:31):
had been playing in recent weeks so kind of stinks
for them, and this is gonna be another playoffs that
they go in without full health and see how patient
Yiannis is moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:37:41):
Yeah, I I it'll be interesting. Let's is there any
anybody who you're shocked kind of didn't put them in
the conversation put themselves in the conversation this year? For me,
I guess I'll just say Devin Booker issuing the worst
she's shot in like seven years, and I don't know

(01:38:03):
how you fix that situation.

Speaker 4 (01:38:05):
He's been bad. He's been like straight up bad this year.
Like why the Phoenix Suns have been such a disaster. Sure,
Bradley Beal's part of it. Sure, coaching, you can point
the thing. Sure, the lack of big man, all these things.
Devin Booker hasn't looked like like a top twenty five
guy for the large part of the season, and he
just has to for how that team's designed when it
is so top heavy with Durant, Beal, and Booker, you
need all those guys to be like themselves. I think

(01:38:26):
Durrant has been perfectly fine this year and overall even
above expectation. Devin Booker not at all so that's definitely
probably been like the most disappointing player this year. I
saw something about people like talking about it, like connecting
it to the Olympics and playing a different style. The
bottom line, it's all nonsense. He just got to be
better and he wasn't. So for Booker, this was the
kind of season that's sort of changed my perception of
him as a player to an extent, and it's really disappointing.

Speaker 2 (01:38:49):
Yeah, no, it is supremely, supremely disappointing. That's gonna do it.
Let's wrap it up and let's give it over to Yeah,
I don't like radio coming up at one o'clock right
here on Fox Sports The Gambler for Sean Bernard back
in the studio. Follow him on Twitter at Shawn Underscore
Bernard One. Follow at Fox PHL Gambler. To get involved

(01:39:10):
with the conversation on social media, follow me at Markevy
Junior Underscore, Tough Cover Country, Let's Ride,