In The Zone: Wolves Take Down OKC, KG is Back

The FAN's Dave Sinykin and Trent Tucker are back talking about the Wolves beating OKC, and KG coming back to the organisation, as well as college football and the big games this week in the NFL.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh back ten the bemound out all the way to

(01:01):
the back courty. Dante tracks it down, shot clock down
to ten, down forty five seconds to go in the game.
Crowd comes to their feet. Here's Edwards with it against
Cason Wallace, setting them up to his left step back team.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Three on the way he did that, Anthony edwags putting
the walls up.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
What await?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
What o seven?

Speaker 1 (01:20):
With thirty seven point seven seconds left? That is clutch.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Edwards has toned again.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Boom.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
It's eight oh three on a Saturday morning and you
are in the zone on the fan. Alan Horten on
the Callie scintillating, exciting, fantastic playoff atmosphere at Target Center
last night as the Wolves shed their ugly skin of
the last week or so and engineer a fantastic victory
over the Thunder last.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Night, and I can't wait to chat about it.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
I am Dave Sinekin, joined as always by my partner,
the professor of hoopology, Gopher legend, NBA champion, and our
very special birthday boy, Double t Trent Hucker. Good morning,
thanks Davy, How I'm good? Happy birthday my man. Awfully
nice of the Wolves to give you a little early
present last night at Target Center.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Fantastic, thoughtful. Wow, what a game? I don't know. I
think it was only available on Amazon Prime. Okay I didn't.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
I was at hockey last night, of course you were. Yeah,
I mean, are you an Amazon Prime customer?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I am not.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
So you couldn't even like watch on your phone? Should
you have been so inclined? Folks can correct me. If
it was available on Bally whatever it's called, I don't
think it was.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
That was.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Is that what I probably I should probably know that
you That was Alan Horton, I believe on the radio
call game you heard. I'm sure right here on the fan,
Holy cow, I as a game. I just looked at
my phone, look at the clock and said, all right,
I got like nine hours in change before I can
talk about this, and I cannot wait.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
I don't even know where it is. Well, I know
where to start.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
We start with Anthony Edwards, who made his return after
missing three games. Played forty one minutes last night, healing
with the foot injury. Got off to a slow start,
you know, as you might expect. I think it was
one for five to start the game, but double t
his sequence in the final forty five seconds is exactly
what superstars, MVP candidates, potential faces of the league.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
That's what they do.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
He makes the three with Cason Wallace in his face
to give the Wolves a one eight, one oh seven
lead with thirty seven seconds left, Thunder come down. Sge
goes to the basket, Edwards from behind blocks the shot,
It gets tapped back, there's a miss, three, Edwards gets

(03:57):
the rebound. Come down, make a couple of free throw
just take a three point lead with whatever fifteen to
twenty seconds left, thunderball down three. I'm saying, foul, foul, foul.
That's just not what the Wolves. A lot of teams
tend to do. They're letting letting him play it out.
And as Sga is dribbling on the left side, here's
and from behind poking the ball, haloose turnover. Dante gets it.

(04:19):
Game's over. So in the span of thirty eight seconds,
the go ahead three, a block of the MVP, a
steal of the MVP, and the Wolves walk away with
a one to twelve, one oh seven win over the
suddenly mortal ok See Thunder, their second loss of the week.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
They can't win anything.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
They're only at a seventy three win pace right now,
I mean you might be time to break up the
thunder at this point.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, you know, two and the things are not going well.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
No, two nights removed from just a lethargic, disappointing flatline.
Can't make a basket performance against the Grizzlies who are
missing six guys.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, I read about I was like, how you lose
to this team? That was what we've seen that a
couple of times this year.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
Right, doesn't matter who you're messing and just bring whoever
wants to play and you have a chance to win.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
Well, you know, it's in the in the in the
game of sports. You know, it's crazy. You know, some
nights you know you you have it and you and
some nights it is not there. Yeah, and and then
doing those and doing those stretches. You know, all players,
you know, they have peaks and valleys, and they go
through certain things here there and and and you just

(05:29):
have to stick with them. And and I talked, you know,
talk about you know, just a lot with you know,
from the meppa, from kids to pros. You know, if
who are lucky enough to make the professional level. But
when you go through certain things at certain levels. Some
nights you just don't have it. But you know, to
understand the personalities that you're coaching is very important. And

(05:53):
sometimes you know, a kid may not fit or a
player may not fit exactly. You know who you are
from a personality standpoint, But if he or she is
important to what your overall team can do, how do
you incorporate that individual that talent to make it work
in your system? And it's hard for a lot of
coaches to do. It's hard for a lot of people

(06:14):
to do. It is because they have a regiment and
they said, this is the way we need for this
person to play, and sometimes that may not be what
that person is best at. And I always said, you
know the coaches who are able to make those adjustments
and adapt and put you know, the entire team in
a good situation where they can win. You know, otherwise

(06:36):
that's going to be more successful than that.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned coaches because that was a
storyline too. We learned after the game. There was a
very intense film session following the loss to the Grizzlies
on Thursday, where I think most of what Chris Finch
had to say was non suitable for work. Yep, got
into their faces. That anger, that annoyance, that frustration carried
over into last night because Finchy got tossed five and

(06:58):
a half minutes into the game, Ben she escored it
off the court five point forty one. Fed up with
the lack of whistles, whether it was McDaniels, randall ant,
there were two or three obvious, it seemed files as
the Wolves went to the basket that were not called.
And we know what the history is between the Wolves
and Thunder and the angst the Wolves tend to have

(07:21):
about the whistles the Thunder get and the Wolves do
not get. I've never seen, I mean, it was only
his second ejection ever, I've never seen. I mean, he
had to be restrained by coaches, by personnel, by security,
like everybody he was. He was not happy.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
He was not happy.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
I mean, and that you know, you know, for all
the guys that I ever played for, you know, and
it's some nicer coaches, you know, you have to push
certain buttons to try to get the players to get
to what they need to get to.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
But players, players get off. I mean they when they
see that happen. Man, that does light a fire.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Dice can't and yeah, and it really can't.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
But you still have to to bring you know, this
along through the peaks and valleys, because every player is
going to go through a peak in valley. A team
is going to go through peaks and valleys. It's all
about how do you manage that team and those personalities
doing that time to make sure that you don't lose
them along the way, and you keep them confident and

(08:18):
you make sure that you were building them for the
right moments because at some point in time, you're going
to need them.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
You're going to need them, And yeah, you got to
be hard on them.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
You got to be tough on them, and you got
to and you got to make sure that they understand,
you know, what you're trying to get across. But at
the end of the day, you still have to be
you have to make sure that Okay and I pushing
the right buttons with these personalities. And last night, evidently
you know he was able to push the right buttons.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yes, it let a fuse.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Mike and Nouri took over and obviously pushed all the
right buttons the rest of the way. And you might
say as far as Finch's ejection goes. Mission accomplished the
free throws last night. The Wolf shot forty seven, the
thundershot thirty. That doesn't happen too often with Theoma City Thunder.
The disappointing thing was of the forty seven free throws
the Wolves took, they made thirty three of them.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
They missed They missed nine in the first half. That's
a ton it was, you know.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
And Grady, Michael Grady was on the call for Amazon,
which was amazing.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
You know.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
It's funny he had Brent Barry as his color commentator. Yeah,
who is fine, but he's so vanilla. And when you're
so used to Brady and Peterson and you hear Brady
or Grady with somebody else, like a Brent Barry, he
just kind of yawned, you go. We are so fortunate
with the two guys. We have calling Wolves games as
many times as Grady's allowed to do now with his
new duties. But it's great to have him on the call.

(09:38):
When at made that three and the thunder called time
out with thirty five seconds left, he hit us with
a soda poppin' you know, which was sweet. I have
gotten confirmation from several that it was exclusively on Amazon Prime.
So I definitely feel for all of you who were
not able to see it much that one of all
the games in the season. So Wolves are down three

(10:00):
at the half. They missed nine free throws. They'd shot
thirty four percent twenty seven percent from three. It was
a crazy first half, from the Finch ejection to the
Wolves doing everything right really except making free throws. They
should have been up five or six at the half.
Sga went scoreless in the second quarter. I forget the stat.

(10:21):
I mean, it's been a long time since he had
he has had a scoreless quarter. He's now scored twenty
plus in ninety nine straight games, second longest streak in
NBA history. I believe to Will Chamberlain was I think
at won twenty six. Fast forward to the fourth quarter.
Wolves are up seven. Late third quarter. Finally they I mean,
Thunder was up twelve in the first quarter, like it

(10:42):
was like thirty three to twenty one. It was not
pretty early, but the Wolves play hard, take control a bit,
go up seven, and then the Thunder go on. He's
sixteen to three. Run late third, maybe into the fourth,
and I, like many thought, well, you know, three quarters
hung with him. But here they it's it's impossible to

(11:02):
stop these guys. You know who really kind of rescued
the team. I thought Bones Highland last night, who had
a big three to cut the lead to three going
into the fourth quarter. He had thirteen points off the bench,
hit a few threes, kept balls in play. Really on
a night where you still don't have Conley and that
Hyland is asked to step in.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
He was essential last night. And as we said down
the stretch, the Wolves on the shoulders of Anthony Edwards,
who was just magnificent after missing several games. See if
I've got the stats here, twenty six points, twelve rebounds,
three steals for at last night in forty one minutes

(11:43):
after you know, now playing for you know, a number
of games. Rudy was great, fifteen rebounds last night.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Wolve's got a lot of offensive rebounds, a lot of
second chance points. Randall was nineteen eight and five, but
he was just three for fifteen from the floor, and
McDaniels didn't his as his offense going And that's why
it felt like.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
They just somehow, somewhere they just cannot win this game.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, I just didn't see them closing it because Ant
just didn't feel like you know, he was totally in
rhythm as you would expect after missing three games, and
you don't get the other guys stepping up.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
How are you going to beat the thunder?

Speaker 5 (12:15):
Well, I mean you have to just keep plugging away
and and you got to keep hanging in there and
and and hopefully that if you have a plan. So
what's the plan here? And when things don't go well,
you know throughout the course of a game, can you
get back to your principles? And I know when I
played for Phil Jackson in Chicago, you know there were

(12:38):
times when things just weren't going right.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
On the floor. I mean we would falling apart.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
We may have been non competitive, you know, the energy
could have been low for whatever reason, and he would say,
I'm not going to call the time out. Well, we
had a veteran team, so it helped. Yea, he says,
get back to the principles. No, understand right now, you
know why are you making this mistake? Understand why you
and that you're not doing this. So if you got

(13:02):
a foundation that you can always get back to, it
gives you a chance to find yourself. And when things
are not going where early. It's a foundation there strong
and the house won't fall apart. I've got a number
of texts like this one from Mike and New Richmond.
You know, Dave what a game by watching the Wolves,
but I think he had a typo. They're watching the
Wolves makes me frustrated and honestly sad. When this team

(13:24):
puts in the effort on defense and rebounding, we can
beat anyone, but we don't. Okay, So he brings a
championship effort every night.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
Until these guys get that in their heads, they'll never
win the Larry O'Brien wondering, an interested of Trent agrees, right.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
I mean, you have to play at a certain level,
and you have to have a standard that you set
for yourself, and you have to be able to make
you know, the right plays here or there, and you
have to put the right personnel in certain situations where
they can function to help you. You know, you may
you may use this this player for these moments, but

(13:58):
now you say, okay, he's serves this purpose, and now
we got somebody else that we can plug in to
do this and to do that, and that keeps everybody
confident that keeps everybody in self belief. And also you're
not elevating in someone away from the team because now
you're saying, even though you don't do this well, but
we know what you bring to the table, and it

(14:19):
keeps the team and everybody collectively together. So when you
get into those type moments, now you know who you
can go to at this time to make it happen.
But if you eliminate and take that person out of
the equation all of a sudden, now you tear down
that confidence and then that can also now you know,
put a hole into your team. So it's all about

(14:40):
the mental aspect of how do we keep everybody together?
And that's what coach is all about. It's a very
difficult thing to do, but if you want to win
a championship, you know you have to make sure you
can push all those budget at the right time.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
Yeah, I mean we talked about it a couple of
week ago or two weeks ago when one of the
players said, yeah, we get bored sometimes. You know, we
were all over that. How can you that plays into this, Like,
whether it's the Thunder or it's the Wizards, you cannot
get bored. You have to it's howered, I assume, but
you have to treat every game and respect the opponent.
I think that's what frustrate fans a lot is when
you see an effort like Wednesday night against the Grizzlies,

(15:14):
where they're kind of just going through the motions, and
then you see last night, which felt like it was
May twenty third. Why can't you deliver that? You know
night after night. It's it's you know, it's you know,
there are a lot of factors.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
You know, they come into the psyche some days, you know,
you know it'd be a lot of games you played.
You know, there could be distraction somewhere on the outside
that you're dealing with, and some nice energy just get sapped.
It doesn't mean that you're not playing hard. It's just
that things ain't working out for you. And so as
a as a coach, you you have to look at

(15:47):
that and say, Okay, I don't I can't lose this player.
But now I can turn to Dave and say, Okay, Dave,
this is your time to step up and give me
what you got because this is what the team is
all about. But no, you can't bring the attitude that
as a collective group that we get bored to plan
because then you would not find the success that you're

(16:07):
looking for. But some nights, you know, as long as
I've been around the game, some nights stuff just don't work.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
It just don't work.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
I mean, I can go back to when I was
playing for the Knicks. We had a home and home
series with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Flight was delayed on Friday,
couldn't get into Cleveland cost of the snowstorm. The game
was at one o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday, and
it was playing in Rischfield Coliseum at that time. Okay,
we land at four in the morning into Cleveland, A

(16:37):
long time. We got the games at one o'clock.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
You don't even have time to visit the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame with this.

Speaker 5 (16:41):
No, so we you know, we get up and we
go and and we don't have breakfast, and that's about that.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Probably laid down for two hours.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
I go eight for eight, come back the next day,
got the same shots, the same things I went over
and nine.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
It's got to drive you crazy, but it happens. Yeah, So.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
And in some days don't work out and it looks
like that, you know, you may the intensity may not
be there, but it's there, but it just ain't working.
And that's where when a coach has to understand the
personalities that they're coaching. You know, hey, just didn't work tonight.
Day's not your day. But I but I still need you,
and I got to come back to you, and I
got to make sure I keep you.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
I got to keep you confident.

Speaker 5 (17:30):
I got to keep you in the game because you
have been good for us, You have done good things
for us, and I can't afford to leave lose because
at some point in time, I got to come.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Back to you, no doubt. All Right, We're just getting started.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Much more on the Wolves scintillating win at Target Center
over the NBA Champs last night, other NBA stuff to
get to h the fan has learned. It's Packers game day,
Packers Bears tonight. We'll chat some NFL throughout the program.
The Vike's heading to New York to try to keep
it rolling. Maybe a little wild Oilers preview and some
college football playoff stuff. Lots to get Glad to have
you along.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
For the ride. You're in the zone. I'm a fan.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
We are back a twenty six on a Saturday morning.
You're in the zone, Trent Tucker, Dave Sennecon and new
guy Devon, Well, new guy for us.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Devon's in the house. Producer's in the house over Okay,
welcome boys.

Speaker 5 (18:48):
I know I didn't hear anybody tapping hockey talk this morning,
so I was like, you know, we're rescued, because I thought,
says Brett, Okay, over.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
There, Bret's in Arizona with the family.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
Good, So no extended wild talk necessary until ten o'clock
this morning. Okay, Devon was in the house last night
at Target Center, it was he was part of the howl.
How Devin, how amazing did you feel last night inside
Target Center?

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (19:11):
It was incredible. The place was so loud it literally
felt like a playoff game, and the energy was from
the tip.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
It was just incredible. And a late start, you know,
didn't start till about eight forty five, eight to fifty. Yeah,
I think folks timely lube up a little bit before. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
I was out of town the day before, so all
of yesterday was a travel day for me. So I
thought by eight thirty I was going to be tired,
But I was dialed in the whole game.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
That's awesome. Yeah, glad you got a chance to experience that.
It must have been fine for a lot. I mean,
you know when it's as good as it gets.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, it's as good as it gets to experience a
game with that kind of intensity in December and beat
a twenty five and two squad that knocked you out
of that Western Conference finals and knocked you out big
time about a month ago. To take them down last
night after they were coming off a lot, not a
lot they had. They had played the night before, so
they were in the second half of the back to back.
And the Wolves have been surgical against teams that are

(20:04):
dealing with back to backs.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
They've taken care of business. Also, the great atmosphere is
to be a proud of. I mean, and but you
know you don't, you don't just want to use that
atmosphere is to get you.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
You know, you shouldn't need that, right, you know.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
And the championship teams, you know, they they know how
to get up because when you're on a ten twelve
man team, fifteen man team, eighteen man team, you know,
at some nights this guy may not have it, but
another guy has it. And that's the and that's the
beauty of a team, and you know, and that's as
you know, and I was talking about you know what

(20:38):
from a coaching standpoint is that this is when you
have to plug in and understand your personalities. And Okay,
he doesn't have it tonight, go to him. I may
have to come back to you. So I got to
talk to you and keep you in the game because
I remember, I'm having a lot of stories by remembering.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Sixty sixty today. So I got a lot of got
I got a lot of rememberies.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
Question I remember was playing the Philadelphia seventy six ers
and game two of the eighty seventh PLAYERFF. I think
first round where it was best to be out of
five or something, maybe eighty eight. What it was, yep,
would have been eighty nine, and Dave I was having
the worst game ever. Couldn't make a shot. I just couldn't.

(21:25):
I just couldn't function. I just couldn't function. Rick Potino
took me out of the game. We were down by
ten with two minutes to go. He pushed me back
in crowded New York. The heck you doing putting him
back in terrible all day? You know, I just broke

(21:46):
down I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't defend I had
I didn't have anything going. He put me back in
and we went to his zone press and we trapped in.
He says, I know, if we get to this play,
when we get to the spot, you're going to be
the best guy to make this happen for us. We
score eight straight, eight straight points to cut it to two.

(22:08):
We got to make one more stop. Mary's cheeks is
going up the sideline. Here's Patrick, you're on seven feet tall,
slides over, cuts him off. We got a They get
a ten second violation. Oh and now we get the
ball with oh no, eighteen nineteen seconds on the clock,
and were down by two. So the other four guys

(22:30):
everybody had scored East guy had scored.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
A basket in that little eight point one timeline. We shoot,
it was your turn. Clear, shoot we missed.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
I run in, got me handing the ball, tapped it
back out to Mark Jackson. And Mark Jackson is coming
off of pick and roll and I can see my
man guy name is Ron Anderson. He was sliding over
to take away the penetration, and I was standant and
I was sliding into the Spoty three point line. And

(22:59):
that day, that moment, I hadn't made a shot all day,
and I felt the whole I could. I felt the
crowd rise in Messine Square Garden at the same time
the ball was coming to me. And the only thing
I told mess I said, from a technical standpoint, I
got to take the most technical shot I've ever taked.
I got to do everything right on this shot, balance, elbow,

(23:21):
eye contact and follow through.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
And then I got a live bit the results.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
I would have soiled myself at this point, just the
for the record, Yeah, I would have Please don't give
you the ball, Please don't give it the ball.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
And when that ball left my hand, I said, this,
this is the best the ball has felt all.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Day leaving my hand. Where are you on the court?
Always three? Nine down two? Shoot three? At that point, yeah,
I knocked down the three. We go up by one.

Speaker 5 (23:46):
Then we need one more. Stopped the winning game. But
the reason I tell you I still before you give
me the reason.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
At this point, MSG explodes, correct explodes and what and
you have to just be feeling the most immense sense
of relief because you shot came back.

Speaker 5 (24:02):
I was just happened that one day is just wasn't working.
And and that happens. And but my coach stuck with
me when he didn't have to, and he gave me
at that moment a sense of confidence that throughout the
year I made that shot and played well for him

(24:22):
throughout the whole time. But this day I didn't have to.
I just didn't have it, you know, whatever, I just
didn't have it. But he knew that if I got
to this point, I would have to help I may
have to help him out. But he stuck with me,
and he gave me the belief that I needed to have.
At that time, I knocked down the shot and he says,
I didn't tell you this, he said, but last night

(24:43):
I had a dream before I got to Masion Square
Garden that you were going to make a shot.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
You got Rick Patino dreaming about it? Yes, that you know,
but again all came true.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Did he hug you with Is he a hugger like
when you make a shot like that. He's a very
very emotional, he's slappy on the butt. Does he hug
you know?

Speaker 5 (25:00):
You know?

Speaker 2 (25:00):
And but we had to make one more stop.

Speaker 5 (25:02):
But but and I I'd say that because this is
what a team is. And that's and this is the
importance of a coach is to make sure that when
kids or somebody is not having the best of a day,
you don't you don't tear them down. You have to

(25:24):
lift them up. When from kids to adults, within the workforce,
in the professional sports world, in whatever industry you may
be in. At some point in time, if that person
has been good for you through a certain period of time,
when they're having a not so good moment, you have
to recognize, how do I keep them engage? And now
me and Ray Cootina when we don't call each other

(25:45):
and talk, But at that moment, you know, he gave me.
He gave me a sense of belief that I could
get it done. Is because I had shown him in
the past I could do it. But that's why it
gave him the confidence to believe him. Yeah, No, it's huge.

Speaker 4 (25:59):
And you know, take even till last night, I don't
know with Mike and NORII, you know, pushing the buttons
since Finchy got ejected, I don't know if that changed
their rotations at all down the stretch, but I thought
it was instructive and interesting in the final five minutes
that Rob Dillingham was on the court for this team,
and while he went over four for the night and
still looks like rushed and not real comfortable, he affected

(26:21):
the game. He had six rebounds, three assists in his
twelve minutes. He he was not a negative on the
court and the fact that the coaches believed in him
down the stretch in a tight game against the NBA champs.
I think is going to do a lot for whatever
becomes of Rob Dillingham as we move forward this year
and beyond.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
And he may not become the point guard that we
are looking for, but I've always said that I believe
there are some things that he can bring to the
table that can help the team, but it may not
be in this capacity. So as a head coach, if
I don't have the ability to adjust away from my

(27:01):
from my philosophy to see how I can fit this
kid in. But I'm never going to allow him to
reach the potential that he has as a player to
help this team win because I can't force you into
doing something that doesn't work for you. You're on this team
for a reason. You made this team for a reason
is because there are some other things that you do

(27:23):
well and it's up to me as a head coach
to figure what those things are.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Yeah, it's it was just a fulfilling Just look, they're
eighteen and ten. It's been a pretty good start to
the season. But it hasn't been a pretty eighteen and
ten and we know that the schedule is going to
steffen up. Now, this was sort of a four game
little mini stretched through Christmas here where you got Thunderbucks, Knicks, Nuggets.

(27:48):
Now the Bucks are nothing right now, but those other
three games are three of the top five six teams
in the league, and you were really going to get
i think, a good feeling now right. We don't really
know we have because there have been just some head
scratching games, a couple of nice wins, you know Celtics,
But now we're going to see, you know, against Thunder Knicks,
Nuggets as we get through Christmas.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Where are we with this?

Speaker 4 (28:08):
Woll the much well, you know step one check mark,
I mean, that was outstanding.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Will pause more on this.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
NAS before the game, whether it was Thursday or Friday morning,
said this was a musk game against the Thunder I'm
gonna get your thoughts on that. That deal and much
more on the Wolves huge win over the Thunder last night.
Plenty of NFL conversation, college football playoff conversation coming up.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
In our number two. You are in the zone on
the fan. We're back eight forty three Saturday morning. You're

(28:56):
in the zone.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Tucker and sinecon with you until ten o'clock as usual,
will pass the puck to Beyond the Pond fondness in
Nicoletty talking all things Wild, all things Juniors. They're gonna
have a Gophers head coach Bob Motsko on at the
top of the show from what I understand, to talk
about the big world event coming to town as well

(29:18):
as that.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Should be a funny events.

Speaker 5 (29:21):
All these super talented young players are going to put
their talents on display here in the Twin Cities.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Correct, So Beyond the Pond at ten and then we'll
have Wild Hockey at two o'clock on the fan today,
Wild hosting Edmonton Corel v Connor.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
That should be a star study. If I didn't have
hockey Day, that have been a good birthday treat.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
From no question, you should be there celebrating your birthday at.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
David Leon Dry Sailor Quinn Hughes, my favorite priests of
star Power, star Power, Grand Casino. You know, just just
a touch on hockey. You know, I knew of Quinn Hughes,
and everybody who who kind of follow hockey knows who
Quinn Hughes is. You know, when he's not here in Minnesota,
you don't watch him as much.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
No, you see him on the while they're playing him.
Maybe you notice him, maybe you don't. And now that
he's here, man, appreciation has gone up a bit.

Speaker 5 (30:15):
You're talking about you talk about skill at that defensive position.
He walks that blue line and makes plays. And not
the biggest guy in the world, not the most physical guy.
He's not going to knock anybody over, but his level
of skill and talent, I mean, man, he is. I
don't know how things have gone with him since the
first time I saw him played, when he first got here.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
They haven't lost. That's good, that's a good thing. Won
six in a row.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
But you talking about you talking about fun to watching it,
and the appreciation of skill and the work that he
puts in. I mean, he's in him and Brock's favorite.
Once they get this thing together between those two, he's
gonna be fun to watch for hopefully for a long time.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:57):
Now, I mean you're excited about the rest of the
season because they look like they are set up to
be right there.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
But yeah, this is not just a one year fixed This.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
Is you know, you know, you're talking about modern day
defensive hockey players.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
It's a skill game.

Speaker 5 (31:10):
Is a skill game more than just a brute out
physical game. And you know, and just just to see
a few moves how he was able to maneuver away
from the defense and create space and find space either
to make a play for himself or make a play
for a teammate. I mean, when you got a guy
like that on your team, man, it's it's it's fun

(31:32):
to play just and they just trying to figure out, Okay,
how do we use him where he can help us.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah, I'm sure they're learning on the go. I'm sure
they'd welcome you to just hang out of ten if
you want to continue to talk punk with those guys.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
I got to, you know, I got to give a
kid prepared to play hockey. You've got dad hockey duties.
Anything else on the.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
Birthday list today, Like you're gonna go celebrate, go off
higher hockey game, not.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Between the dine and een Prairie tonight.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
Yeah, well, that'd be a nice little present for you,
take down the hated cake eaters on your birthday.

Speaker 5 (32:05):
But it's Eddie Dinah. He dines a really good, really
good hockey team. He's strong, They got a lot of
good players.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
You know.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
The coach has been around forever. He's been in these
big moments, So it'd be a big moment for Edon Prairie.
They got up to like a two and one start.
Now they've won five games in a row. They've beaten,
you know, maybe two of the top ten teams along
News Ride. But this is going to be a real
challenge and a great opportunity for them tonight.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
So it sounds like a good day to spend your
birthday watching your boy. Nothing wrong with that. Right following
Wild Hockey on the Fan today, we will have both
NFL games. We'll join Eagles Commanders in progress. I think
that game goes about four o'clock, I think, and then
we'll have Packers Bears Soldier Field tonight. Much more on
the state of my favorite team coming up in the

(32:51):
next hour. I'm deflated.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
It's kind of like, if you know Quinn Hughes two
months into his bid with the Wild Tears as ACL
and now suddenly all the promise and the excitement. That's
kind of how I'm feeling this week. But yes, I'm
excited to play. They hated Bears. We'll talk much more
about that and purple and NFL stuff in our second hour.
I want to close out the Wolves talk again. If
I had told you double tea because your hockey game

(33:17):
last night, you don't have Amazon Prime, like a lot
of listeners couldn't watch this game. But if I had
told you that the Thunder came in off of a
loss this week in the NBA Cup semifinals, angry, bitter
coming into our house to make a statement, and the
Wolves would shoot thirty eight percent and Randall and McDaniel's
combined would go seven for twenty eight against the Thunder,

(33:40):
you would say what you would say to blowout? To
blow out? Yeah, good luck. Well we'll see again maybe
next time. Not so fast, my friend. It was just again.
Finchy gets tossed in the first five or six minutes.
It lights of fire Wolves turn around a double digit
early deficit, and at in the final forty five seconds

(34:02):
showed why he is, you know, on one hand one
of the top five players in this game because he
he hits the three to go up one, he blocks
SGA at the basket, and then he steals from SGA
when they're down three in the closing seconds. The trifecta
one on the offensive end, two on the defensive ends.
As Ant coming back from injury, lifts the Walls to
a one to twelve one oh seven win. Earlier, I

(34:25):
don't know if it was Friday morning or after shoot
around or Thursday. Following the Memphis game, NAS is talking
to reporters and Nas throws out the this is a
must win game against the Thunder. It causes a lot
of people to go, what, wait, must win? Okay, hold on,
it's it's a December game against a twenty four and

(34:47):
two team. I mean, if you're calling this a must
win and you lose, where do you go from here?
Like I would have to me again, I've never My
biggest moment in seventh grade coming off the bench for
Cumberland Elementary was I hit a shot just inside half
court heading into halftime. It met nothing in the game,
but it was like my greatest moment ever. So that's
where I peaked in seventh grade. But if it's me,

(35:10):
I'm saying, Look, we're seventeen to ten. We've been up
and down, we haven't had a real tough schedule, but
we know we've got three of the best five teams
in the next week. We've got the thunder Nixon, Nuggets,
and we're gonna know a whole lot more. We must
win two of these three. We have to show that
to me. Okay, a must win game against a twenty

(35:32):
four and two team, you are you're putting a target
out there that if you missed the target, I'm not
sure where you pick it up. So you said, as
I mentioned it in the last segment, you love it,
So I don't love it. Tell me why you love
a player calling a December regular season game a must win.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
Game because you need to have the self belief that
you can beat this team and you can play with them,
because where you're trying to get to, they're going to
be there, and at some point in time, you have
to find a comfort level and a belief that when

(36:11):
we see them, if we see them down the road,
we can look in their memory bank and say we
have beaten this team before, and maybe we can pull
out one or two or three things that we can
try to exploit to have a chance to win a
long series. So it's important to get those wins early

(36:33):
on and to build that confidence. And like you said,
Rob Dillingham played last night in key moments. Now he
didn't put up numbers that people can look at the
newspaper and look at the box score and say, wow,
he had a great game.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
But whatever he was able to.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
Bring to the table at that time, in those little
moments that may not shripen the box score, those are
the intangibles that may have made a difference, kept a
loose ball alive, you know, got one more possession here
or there, made a critical pass or made a defensive stop.
Bill's won just for his confidence and self belief that

(37:16):
now I know how I.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Can contribute to this team. I may not score fourteen points.
I'm not going to be the point guard they're looking for,
but when he put me in the game, I know
that I have the confidence where I can make a
play that can make a difference. And so winning a
game like that last night, when as you said, some
of your best players didn't play at their best, is
a huge confidence booster. When you had to face this

(37:39):
team at some point in time down the road. Yeah,
and I don't know that I mentioned it. There was
no Jalen Clark last night. He was dealing with an illness.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
And you know, if I say, give me the team
you most want Jalen Clark available when the Wolves are
playing them, I would say the Thunder obviously, because of
the talented, you know, wing players they have and the
defensive ability, Clark has to at least do his job.
So I thought not having Clark was a big loss
last night for this team. And to their credit, you know,

(38:06):
they did tighten the rotation. It was really just a
tight eight man rotation.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
TJ.

Speaker 4 (38:10):
Shannon got five minutes. I was really surprised Shannon didn't
pick up some of those Clark minutes. But they did
not go Shannon's way.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
You know.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
It was just, you know, really Nos and Dillingham off
the bench. There's got to be one more guy for getting,
off the top of my head, off the old bones
Highland who had sixteen minutes. So it was that eight
man rotation. Shannon didn't play. Yeah, I just I don't know.
I wonder how coaches take that when they hear a
player say this, is a must wing game for us tomorrow.

(38:37):
We have to beat these I mean, you're putting some
pressure on your squad.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
You know they get it, and if you look at
it from a big pitcher standpoint, it's important on December nineteenth,
but it's even bigger sometime in May. Is because I
have to have a sense of belief that I can
win against this team and do we have the personnel

(39:07):
to execute those things to get it done. You know,
like last couple of years, Lakers, Suns, Wolves did not
have success against those two teams in the regular season,
but as you and I broke down the series, we
saw areas that the Wolves could exploit to beat these teams.
And I don't know if they listened to you and

(39:28):
I not, but I fall as script. You have to
believe they do, right, You just have to believe they do.
Alan Horten tweeted this out after the game last night.
I thought it was interesting. Over the last five seasons,
the Wolves have beaten the Thunder twelve times. That's the
most in the NBA.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
The Warriors and Rockets are next with nine wins over
the last five seasons. Again, five seasons. We're going back
a little bit here then, yeah, probably he used to
destroy Oklahoma City for some reason. He always played well, yeah,
that's right, there was like Cleveland and Alklahoma and Oklahoma City.
You knew you were going to get the best Wigans
and maybe Toronto, Yes, because he was a Toronto Kidah Canadian.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yes, it's a good point. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
It was an outstanding night on a day the last
forty eight hours. I mean, everything turned in Wolvesland for
fans when the news broke that the relationship has thowed.
Hands have been shaken by Gunes are now by Gones
and Kevin Garnett is back with the organization. He will
join this team as an off court ambassador for the

(40:32):
Wolves and links big ticket. He will deal with business, community,
fan engagement, content development, everything except telling Finchy he should
play Bones Highland more minutes, like he's not going to
do basketball stuff, but everything off the court. Cag's back
in the fold. KG is back in the house. There
will be a day. There will be a night this
season or next season. Probably next season, I don't know

(40:52):
at this point where we'll finally see the number twenty
one raised to the rafters at Target Center. Fifteen years
or so later than next year. Maybe they will. I mean,
you got to you gotta design the banner. You got
to figure out the right opponent. I mean the Celtics.
You're a great marketing guy. Celtics have already been here.
That would be a perfect night when Boston you're playing

(41:13):
Boston play you played for the Nets. Yeah, but that's
you know you can't. I wouldn't worry about doing it
the night the Nets are here because he had a
cup of coffee with the Nets.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
No, I wouldn't do that.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
I would do it maybe against a team like Sacramento
where he had those great battles against, or the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Spottom line is correct. I mean every wolveshand had the
biggest smile on their face when they heard the news
that KG greatest player in franchise history.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
The reason we for for a lot of reasons that
we're still here doing the show thirty years later. We
started with the KG era and wet and enjoyed. I mean,
I just when I think back of all those years
of Kevin Garnett, you know we talked about being bored,
you know, not being up for an opponent and players
talking about being bored. If KG heard that from a teammate.

(42:06):
I mean, did you imagine what he would have done
to that person? I mean, KG brought it every single night,
whether you were playing the Wobegone Cavaliers back then or
the LA Lakers, you saw the same effort, you saw
the same intensity. And that's one reason that fans were
so drawn to him, to see a guy with that
talent never take a night off, never allow his teammates

(42:26):
to take a night off. That's what I remember most
about the KG era. And you know, obviously we all
know what's gone down over the years with his rift
with Taylor, and then he gets a ring with Boston,
which hurt watching obviously as Wolves fans, and you just
you wanted the day to come where he'd be welcome
back and you'd see KG in the house, hyping up
the crowd come fourth quarter, bring it to the ticket.

(42:50):
It was a special day when that news broken Wolve's
land and they cap it off with a remarkable win
over the.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Thunder last night. It's pretty sweet.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
Yeah, I mean, is great to know that you know,
his his number will hang in Target Center. And I've
always been a huge, huge Kevin Garnet fan, and and
what he brought to the table on a nightly basis.
You know, you talk about the intensity, but the understanding

(43:19):
of how the game should be played, and he had that,
you know, that that sense and that intellect of what
it took to be a complete basketball player.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
He read this, he read the game.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
He was a smart player, and he was to me,
he was a ten position guy. You know, he could
play all five on the offensive end, he could depend
all five in the defensive end.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Not too many guys you could say that about.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
And when you talk about the guys he played against
doing that time, and I get into conversations all the
time about who was the best power forwards and who
did this and who did that. If Kevin Garnet is
not the best power forward to ever play, he's in

(44:09):
the conversation because when you think about the people he
had to defend, mostly on a nightly basis in that era.
And I'm gonna just go name two or three that
and Chris Webber, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, Walker, Sean Kemp,

(44:30):
I mean for Wallace Shee, Wallace, Dirt Nawhisky.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
It was a golden age of power forwards in the
early two thousand and twenty tens.

Speaker 5 (44:40):
And I ain't talking about the two best players in
the Western Conference that he had to play against, Shaquille
O'Neil and Kobe Bryant.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
So on a nightly basis.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
When you talk about a guy that had to go
out and to play and defend against the best players
of his position on nightly basis, you know, Kevin Garnett
was second to nine.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Well, I mean, we're calling Duncan a power forward. I'm
gonna put Duncan and ahead of KG. But yeah, I'm
splitting hairs a little bit, but.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I feel you.

Speaker 5 (45:10):
But think about who he had to guard, Yes, Duncan,
Dirk and we all know how good the rain Man
was good at that time.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
We ain't talked about it, Mario Statamar.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
And Steve nash stom I was jumping over the basket
before he got hurt.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
So just think about the talent.

Speaker 5 (45:33):
That Cavin Garnett had to defend on a nightly basis
just to give his team a chance to win. The
West was so stacked. You know, as good as those
Wolves teams were, they were always up against it in
the postseason because they were always the lower seed and
they always had to face a team that had one
of those guys that made KG work on both ends
of the court at night after night. It was a

(45:53):
It was a golden time, no doubt for the NBA,
the power forwards. Yeah, and they picked up Spree World
and Casselle two thousand and four and they and they
make a run to the Western Conference finals. I believe
they would have gotten to the NBA finals. Is Sam
could say I was not hurt. Yeah, injuries in every sport.
We'll do rail you down the stretch. And it's the

(46:16):
hard part about being a fan is because you know
it's your one play away from everything crashing down, and
you know the unfortunate thing this happened to your football
team in Green Bay. Yeah, but that's why the next
guy has got to be ready.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah for sure. All Right, we'll pause here top of
the hour. Pause.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
We'll spend most of the next hour talking football. Big
day for college football playoff action. There was a big
game last night that was crazy, and we'll dive into
week sixteen as with the playoff scenarios are coming clearer
and the Purples performance the last couple of weeks, perhaps
they've given you all some hope. Our number two in
the zone after the We're back nine oh seven, hour

(47:35):
number two in the Zone. Birthday Boy, Trent Tucker, Dave Sitekon,
part time Guy Devin helping out. We are here till ten.
Beyond the Pond follows us. At ten o'clock, foundist Mikletty,
Gopher's head coach Bob Moscow joins top of the show.
Stay tuned for that wild hockey at two. NFL football
following that Eagles Commanders Bears, Packers, and of course tomorrow

(47:56):
the Vikings and Giants a noon game out in New Jersey.
Before we switched to football, double t we were talking
about KG last segment. A few texts came in and
of course we always welcome your text at the Bradshaw
and Bryant KFA and text line six four six eighty six,
We'll get you through. You were saying, you know KG,

(48:17):
you know the conversation for best power forward of all time.
You know my antenna go up and go. I love
KG to death, but I'm obviously duncan to me. Texter
Guy said he also puts Dirk and Yannis ahead of KG,
so I maybe.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Think, well, what do you think about that?

Speaker 4 (48:33):
Do you where do you put KG in the Duncan, Dirk,
Iannis KG quartet because I may have him four, I
may put those three guys ahead.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
I mean, I mean, yeah, I'm putting honest ahead of KG.
I mean it's it's Dirker or KG, threadned hairs. Yes
we are.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
Of course, it's all subjective. You know, you like you know,
darker red, I like lighter redd. Whatever it is, I
mean personal opinion. Uh, Dirk and and Giannis have won.
They won championships.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
Yes, Kevin Garnet never played in he won a champions
won championship. Brost this right, they all won. One guy
I forgot. I was Duncan one. I was staying about
the Wolves. Okay, But if you look at Dirk's game
over all a game, and you and you placed him
against Kevin Garnet over all a game, who's the better player?

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Well, obviously KG was a way better defensive player.

Speaker 5 (49:37):
And he was as good he could have been as
good as offensive because he had to carry his team.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
I give Dirk the nod offensively well, but it's not
like a slam done because Dirk was primarily he was
asked to do more.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
He had Steve Nash, then he got Jason Kiddly. He
didn't have He didn't have that for a long time. Yuh,
Kevin Garnett was a double double guy, Durdan Vice. I
don't know if he I don't think he was.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
No.

Speaker 5 (50:07):
So if you takes a from an overall talent basketball
player standpoint, who was a better Bay who was a
better overall basketball player?

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Yeah, you're swaying me a little bit. I mean Kevin, Yeah,
I probably yeah, KG overall. You know Tim duncan put
the defense into the mix. It's not it was Timmy.
He did it all defense, block shots, rebound scored. He
was Timmy. Is you know you call him Timmy because

(50:39):
you guys had a good vibe. Yeah, and n.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
It's been great for the Milwaukee Bucks. I mean what
he did in Game six to close out I get
fifty points, it's like, well.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Chain, you know what it was. But Giannis gives it
to you on the defensive age too. Yeah, No, I
put Giannis ahead of KG. He's a much better offensive player.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
I don't know if he's a much better I mean,
he's not anna jump shooter, but he's not a better
shooter than Kevin.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Guard. He's much more dominant attack in the basket and
in the open court. You know, his his skill game
is just different because he's very different players play. You know,
he's a he's a modern day power for you know
that plays away from the basket.

Speaker 5 (51:17):
But Kevin Garnet man. The only guy that I ever
seen turn Kevin Garnet around. One day, it was Grant
Hill MHM. And I was broadcasting for the Wolves at
that time, and my last year was two thousand and

(51:37):
Grant Hill was the only guy that I ever saw
make a move on Kevin Garnet, and I was like, whoa.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Pre injury ground whoa Yeah, And if Grant Hill doesn't
get hurt, his name would have been up there as
one of the best ever. Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
But Kevin Gandad to me is he's I've always been,
not just a fan from a standpoint, but as a
basketball guy. You know, Kevin Gannet was one of the
best president just game. Yeah, there's no question. And he's
back with the Wolves. He's back part of the family.
We're gonna start seeing him around Target Center for games.

(52:22):
We're going to see him in the community because that's
a big part of what he'll do as a off
court ambassador is be a part of the community, and
we said we can get him in his own that
would be great. You know, you've got more connections than
I do. You know, back when we first started here
in the mid nineties, remember you we had Magic on,
we had Patrick Ewing on. You'd call your buddies every
now and then and we'd we'd we'd have a little chat.

(52:43):
We were just kind of getting our feet wet, trying
to get some traction. We don't really have to rely
on that anymore, but you know, check with your people.
Love to have him on.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
You know.

Speaker 5 (52:55):
For some guys, as you know, you and I, you know,
we end up early for them. You know, West is
early magic and guess like that. But as an the
East coast, they should be up by nine o'clock.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Or maybe he'll be in town. Who knows good at
one he's here.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
All right, Let's pitch our attention to football, beginning with college.
We have three first round playoff games today and then
the quarterfinals will be set. First game was last night
in Norman, Oklahoma. I was double screening it. I had, well,
it started before the Wolves game did, so I had
that going first. And I was particularly intrigued by this

(53:28):
one because the winner of this game is going to
face Indiana, So I was gonna you know, and I
know they met earlier.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
In the season.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
Oklahoma won a close game, but it was a weird game,
like they were kind of dominated by Bama, but they
turned the ball over. Yeah, there were like four or
five turnovers that swung that game, and so Oklahoma eked
it out. But then I heard, you know, their quarterback
lately has been banged up and having these few weeks
off is probably going to be good for him. And
sure enough, they look dominant early. They jumped out to
a seventeen to nothing lead over Bama quarterbacks running the ball,

(53:57):
He's finding open receivers, Bama's missing ackles, and Twitter is
just exploding with you know, Notre Dame sure would look
good in this game right now. See SEC, what are
you doing with Alabama? You're whining about Bama having to
get into the playoff and they're non competitive down seventeen
to nothing at Oklahoma, and then they score, and then

(54:18):
they get a pick six and suddenly it's seventeen all
at halftime, and then they score the next ten points
and suddenly a seventeen oher deficit turned into a twenty
seven to seventeen lead, and they hold on to knock
off Oklahoma thirty four to twenty four.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Their kicker. Oklahoma's kicker missed two field goals late.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
One was fifty one, one was thirty six, so they
were trying to make it a one possession game.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
He had made twenty four field goals in.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
A row before missing two in the final five minutes
of last night's game. But bottom line is the ninth
seed Alabama Crimson Tide move on to face Indiana at
the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. And here's a
sentence I never thought.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
I would utter. Indiana is a six point favorite over
the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College football playoff game.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
Well, you know the two games that you were just
hoping that the Hoosiers could hang in and not be
blown out. They surprised you and won both of those games.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
In Oregon and obviously Ohio State and the Big Ten championship.
So I'm not surprised that they are their favorite, because
of course not. It's just it's remarkable to me.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Okay, that's where we are right now in college foot Yeah,
I I'm not surprised their favorite. Obviously, if they should
be favored. But just in the grand scheme of life,
the fact that Indiana football is still the number one
seed and favored to beat Bama by about a touchdown
is crazy talk.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
It's just insane because.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
You know, if you go back a few year ago,
you would never saw it that Alabama's playing Indiana.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
The losing this power five program on college football. You
want to be eighty four to nothing. Here's the fun
thing about the matchup. Kurtz Signette used to coach at
Alabama with Nick Saban. I mean, who haven't coached with
nick names? And Kaylen de Bors used to coach in
Indiana as the offensive coordinator with Michael Pennix.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
I can't.

Speaker 5 (56:04):
I don't know how many guys ever coached in Indiana. Yeah,
not to Nick Saban. He's had a nice tree.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
He definitely has a nice tree, There's no question about it.
So I'm obviously being excited to see what Indiana could
do with Alabama. I feel good about the Hoosiers chances
in that one. Three games today beginning, probably the most
anticipated of the three is Miami against Texas A and M.
And you know, A and M lost that game at

(56:31):
the end of the year, which knocked them down. They
might have been a top two or three seed but
for the lost to Texas So Hurricanes against A and M.
That's the first game, and then two lane Ole Miss
and James Madison Oregon, a couple of big time underdogs.
Remember last year the first round, the average margin of
victory was nineteen points. We had blowouts across the board.

(56:53):
Last night was a ten point game, but it didn't
really feel like it. It was a you know, very
competitive game.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Now seventeen right, Yeah, they were down seventeen to start
and scored the next twenty seven points and ty Simpson
looked terrible early and then made some big plays like
the pick six really turned the game. Yeah, it was
a terrible thing.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
And you as you know, what you and I been
talking about all morning is that, you know, players go
through things during the course of a game, a stretch
here or there where some things just don't work. And
I just say, the quarterback from Alabama was not feeling it.
It wasn't having a good situation. But what did the
coach do start with him? You know, I mean easy

(57:34):
could have porty mind and went to somebody else. If
you thought it wasn't working. But you know, sometimes you
just gotta you gotta stick with him and they say, okay,
I got to give you small doses of this, you know,
to get you back on track. And that's what they
were able to do with Alabama last night. Yeah, it
was a remarkable turnaround. And again with teams like too

(57:55):
late in James Madison today, heavy underdogs like seventeen twenty
one point underdogs on the road against big time Power
four conferences. I'm still of the opinion those guys deserve
to have a chance. They deserve to have a seat
to the dance, a ticket to the dance. We'll see
if they can be competitive. But I'm not one of
those that say those guys don't deserve a shot. Put

(58:16):
all the Power four teams in you can, and let's play.
I think, you know what, Let's see what these kids
can do, and we'll have college football all afternoon, and
then we'll turn our attention to the NFL. Although a
couple of those those games do coincide with the NFL,
the late two games will go head to head with
the two NFL games today, beginning with Philadelphia at Washington.

(58:39):
First time those two teams will meet over the next
three weeks, and I just have a feeling Washington makes
it really tough on philm for everyone's back on the
Eagles bandwagon because they shut out the Raiders and say
all right, everything's fine. No, No, I think they're gonna
have their hands full.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
With the commander. I agree with you. Marcus Mariot has
taken over. They've up down Jayden Daniels.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
Philly is still without Lane Johnson, their best offensive lineman,
Jalen Carter, the best defensive lineman. I think they I
think Philly probably escapes. But I you know, I do
my three underdog games every week. It's zone coverage dot Com.
Washington is one of my three dogs I landed out
this week. I give them a good chance to hang
with it a touchdown.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
I mean, I if the Cowboys don't don't lose to
the Lions, and there's one game separation between them and
the Eagles with three games ago, and based on how
the Eagles were playing, I mean, I know, the cow
you know they.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Could have cut they could have called the Eagles.

Speaker 5 (59:37):
I mean, because the Eagles the sliding now you know
it was having Vegas come in was the right was
the right game for them? Perfect tonic for what ails you, Right,
So let's let's see if if they if they build
from there and move on to get themselves together going forward.
But you know, it's the Eagles have not played well

(01:00:00):
and we all know that they have a ton of talent.
They got as much talent as anybody in the league.
But for some reason they out of sync. They have
to sink and I don't think just beating the the Raiders,
you know, is is the fun of the desk going
to heal them so they could make a stroll and
run throughout the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
Yeah, we'll see how they follow it up today against
Washington to night tonight we got Packers Bears. I want
to catch up here, so we'll take a break because
the games tonight. My Packer preview showed tomorrow becomes Packer review. Obviously,
we'll review the game tomorrow morning. So we'll do a
little five minute indulge me. Okay, we'll do a little
five minute Packer preview. I'll tell you where my head's at.

(01:00:41):
A week after a season altering loss in Denver, which
has changed the perspective and maybe dreams.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Yeah, I think it's a big game tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
Obviously, I think we can put five minutes into my
thoughts on a preview between the Packers and Bears and
where my headspace is with the loss of Micah and
what that means for the Packers' Super Bowl hopes. Much
more NFL conversation when we return in the zone. We're

(01:01:24):
back nine to twenty six on a Saturday morning, you're
in the zone, Trent Tucker, Dave sinnecon hanging out till
ten Beyond the pond follows US wild Hockey and NFL
football the rest of the day on the fan, culminating
with Packers at Bears meeting number two hundred and twelve,
probably the biggest regular season game at Soldier Field in many,

(01:01:46):
many a year, maybe one of the last, because it
sounds like they're heading to Gary, Indiana. Maybe we'll call
the Barrero Stadium in his hometown once the Bears moved
to Dan's birthplace. If that actually happens, Man double t
So much changed, you know during that game in Denver,
Packers at halftime had two hundred and two hundred and

(01:02:08):
fifty one yards of offense in the first half against
that defense, top five defense. Everything was clicking early and
they go into halftime. You're gonna get the ball back.
You know you're up. It was sixteen fourteen. I think
at the half, you get the ball back, you can
take the lead twenty three to fourteen. And then they
take the deep shot to Christian Watson up nine for
the dagger in the third quarter and Sir Tam makes

(01:02:31):
a great play intercepts the ball. Watson comes down hurt,
he's done for the game, and everything turned right. Then
the Packers' offense, having lost Watson and right tackle Zach
Tom earlier, changed everything because now the pressure started to
get to Love in the second half, sacked him three times.
They hadn't sacked him at all in the first half,
only sixty yards passing in the second half after two

(01:02:52):
hundred and fifteen in the first half. And then they
lose Evan Williams, their star young safety in the game.
On the very same Michaeh Parsons goes down. Yeah, and
it's interesting. Williams said, I'm on the ground and I
look up and there's one little guy holding a bottle
next to me. I'm like, where's everybody? And then he
looks and sees like eight guys around. Michaeh Parsons. So

(01:03:13):
the Packers lost made two of their four or five
best defensive players on the same play in that game,
and that again, that's injuries.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
That's happens.

Speaker 4 (01:03:20):
It's just very frustrating and disappointing when you are, you know,
at a spot where man things are kind of falling
into place. You know, the Eagles and Lions don't look
like the teams they were a year ago, and who
knows about the teams out west. You know, one week
they look great, the next week you're not so sure.
It was all right there and everything changed when you
knew it was an ACL for Michaeh Parsons, it was

(01:03:41):
a non contact injury. It was clear that that was
the deal. The good news in the last twenty four
hours the reports for me and Rapaport among others that
doctors looked at it and say clean tear. There's expectations
he could be ready for the start of twenty twenty
six and that's his goal. And that's great, which is
wonderful and all that, but it'll still take him some time.
We all know that. But the game turned on the

(01:04:02):
injuries and bow Knicks was spectacular. I've seen bow Nicks
I had him on a guillotine league this year. I
followed him closely. He looked really bad as much as
he looked good. Yesterday was or last week was great.
He was so good in the second half making big plays.
And if he plays like that, they're going to be
a tough out in the AFC. So the Packers come

(01:04:23):
home battered, deflated, and no time to feel sorry for
themselves because now on a short week you get the
Chicago Bears, who had a much easier time of it
at home against the Cleveland Browns. These teams we know
played two weeks ago. Green Bay was dominant in the
first half. The Bears fought back and were just to
play away from sending it to overtime. But the Packers

(01:04:43):
made it twelve out of thirteen against the Bears, five
straight at Soldier Field. That says a rivalry they've owned
since Brett Favre was the quarterback. But man, this is
a tough spot for Green Bay. Evan Williams and Zach
Tom likely not going to play. I don't think Williams
plays until the playoffs. He was huge in the first
Bears game, double te in run defense. He was all

(01:05:05):
over the field. Chicago did pick up the running game
in the second half, but they didn't bust a run
over nine yards, and a lot of that was because
Evan Williams was terrific in run support from the safety spot.
Not having him out there tonight is a big loss.
So you add it up Parsons, Devonte Wyatt, Evan Williams,
Tucker Kraft, Elton Jenkins. Sounds like Watson's gonna play. But

(01:05:28):
those are five of your ten or twelve best players
that are no longer playing. And I get it. The
Niners have dealt with it. Other teams have dealt with it.
The point for me is to turn it around this
quickly now and realize, all right, we have to change
now how we play defense without my capersons, like we
have to go back to what we did last year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Adjustments. Yeah, you've got a blitz Moore.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
You got to send Edgar and Cooper and Quay Walker
after Kaylen Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
You've got to show different looks. You've got to play differently,
and to do that quickly in a six day span
against your rival that in a game where the NFC
North is basically on the line, I think it's a
tough spot for the Pack to make it too in
a row over the Bears in three weeks. In light
of all of that, and then one more thing interesting
stat don't love it. Teams in their games following games

(01:06:13):
at Denver this year are one in five and winless
against the spread.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
So teams, whether it's the altitude, the physicality of that defense,
combination of the two teams have not bounced back well
after playing in Denver. So that's another layer that I
add on as I think about the packs chances tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:06:32):
Yeah, you talked about I mean, when you lose talented
players they had just they are just hard.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
To replace, and especially Michael Parsons, you know, that's your closer.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
And as you mentioned, you know, the Bears were one
play away from force and overtime. And the Bears have played,
I've played well, They've had a good season. They may
not have been as sharp and clean through their wins,
but somehow, some ways they find to put a w
on the board and it's gonna be tough, you know,
the Bears can they can sense that they have a

(01:07:05):
chance to win this division and with a win tonight
would put them, you know, in a much better position
just to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
But the agreement packers.

Speaker 5 (01:07:16):
This is where other players now would have to step
up and play, but the coaching staff would have to
make those adjustments. This is where adaptability comes in at
You have to be able to adapt to the situation
in front of you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
I like to do this.

Speaker 5 (01:07:32):
I have players who'd done that before, but now I
have another set of players who bring different things to
the table. And can I adapt to the personnel that's
going to be on the field tonight to see if
we can get a win. That's what coaching is all about.
It's hard. It's a hard thing to do, but that's
why at the at the at the highest levels, you

(01:07:53):
get paid the big bucks. Yeah, no doubt. I have
a feeling both teams will move the ball tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:07:58):
I think certainly the Bears are going to leannother running
game right, the two headed running attack, see if they
can control the clock. Caleb is without two of his
favorite receivers tonight. Roma Dunze is out, the rookie Luther
Burden the third is out. So they're missing two guys
that when Caleb is out of the pocket looking around,
those are two of his security blankets. My guess is
he leans more into his tight ends tonight and looks

(01:08:20):
for them along with DJ Moore. Just really curious to
see if the Packers' corners can hang in there without
knowing knowing that the pass rush is unlikely to be
what it was, that kind of masked the normal, the regular,
nothing special cornerbacks the Packers have. They've been fine because
the passers has been so good. Suddenly, if quarterbacks have

(01:08:42):
more time, we'll see if Nixon and Valentine can hold up.
So really interested to see how the Packers defense adjusts
in the post Micah world. And then offensively, it's got
to be a Jordan Love night, right. I mean, Josh
Jacobs has not practiced all week. You know, likely he'll
go out there and try because he's a warrior, but
I don't know what to expect.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
He was terrific.

Speaker 4 (01:09:03):
He had a fantastic touchdown catch against Denver two scorers
last week playing on a bum knee. It's swelled up
again after the game, and again you're not gonna have
a one hundred percent Josh Jacob. So you're gonna need
Jordan Love on a big stage in primetime with a
full compliment of receivers and Matthew Golden kind of lit
things up a little bit last week.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Maybe he's starting to come in.

Speaker 4 (01:09:24):
So if green Bay is going to pull a slight
upset and it's kind of gone, Packers are a point
and a half favorite. Now the Bears are a point
and a half favorite. It's basically a toss up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
But if green Bay is going to win this game tonight,
to me, it's it's Jordan Love making spectacular plays against
a stand away from the big turnover.

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
Yes, that's what it comes down to. The Chicago feast
on turnovers. We know that they got one against green
Bay two weeks ago early, but.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Specially teams could play, could be a big factor as well.

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
Yeah, there's no doubt. I wrote about all this at
Zone coverage dot com. You can read my preview. Those
are my key points, turnovers. You got to have clean
night on special teams because you've lost some star power,
some guys that set you apart, and so really curious
to see how they respond in what will be a
raucous Soldier field tonight. And decent temperature is like mid

(01:10:09):
like here, mid thirties, little warmers in here. It's gonna
feel a little colder. It's going to be windy, but yeah,
I just I'd rather play Sunday. I'm not ready for
football yet today. I'd rather have a Sunday game.

Speaker 5 (01:10:21):
I mean, the you know, the tail getting it started
four days ago and she needs no question.

Speaker 4 (01:10:26):
They're making they're making the most of their last few
games in Chicago before they move across to Indiana. Do
you imagine if they're the Indiana Bears. I mean, they're
not going to be, They'll be the Chicago Bears.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
I get it. They're moving across the Could you imagine
if they build a stadium and in northwest Indiana and
that's where the games are in indoor domed stadium in Indiana.
For the Chicago Bears, it's over. That's the plan.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
That's well, that's what they're threatening. I think that's Kevin
Warren has thrown that out there to see maybe how
Illinois responds. Indiana, the state has already said, tax free,
build whatever you want. What do you need? Yeah, we
will get you all you want. We will make it
as delightful as possible. Please bring the Chicago Bears to
the state of Indiana.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
I'd be great.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Chicago fans would absolutely die if suddenly their team's playing
indoors in Indiana.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
But it is you know, it's not. It won't be
a Frey drive for them.

Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
No, but it's just the whole point, Like the Monsters
of the Midway on the Shores was so Lake Michigan
with the wind whipping, playing outdoor football in in the
midy middle of the you know, windy city, and suddenly
you're going into Indiana. I would not be happy if
I was a Bears fan, but as we all know,
I'm the opposite of that. All right, thank you for

(01:11:34):
indulging me. Big game on the fan tonight, Packers Bears. Technically,
green Bay could still win the North if they lose tonight,
they would need the Bears to lose their last two,
and they need to win their last two. Bears have
to go to San Francisco next week. It's a big
that's not going to be easy because the forty Nineers
need to win. They could still be the one seed.
And then they close it home against Detroit and yeah,
the Lions are different outdoors and maybe there'll be halfway

(01:11:56):
to Cancun and when the Lions be playing for something
correct either way, I don't think Dan Campbell lays down
against the Chicago Bears, that they have something to play
for the Bears, So I don't think it's out of
the realm of possibilities that if Chicago wins tonight, they
lose the last two in Green Bays finds a way
to win the last two.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Let's pause here. Final segment.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
The JJ McCarthy roller coaster has taken a turn and
he'll look to make it three in a row with
his boys in New York. Will preview Vikings, Giants and
the other big games this weekend, Bucks Panthers, Jags, Broncos,
and maybe a little bit on the Thursday Night thriller
as well. Final segment In the Zone right after the

(01:12:52):
Back with You ninety five, final segment, today's edition of
In the Zone again, Beyond the Pond, Top of the Hour,
Wild Hockey, NFL Football, the rest of them Day on
the Fan, and then It's Week sixteen Tonight Tomorrow got
off to an amazing start Thursday night with maybe the
game of the year, Seahawks coming from way back to
beat the Rams in overtime.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
They were down.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
Thirty to fourteen in the fourth quarter three percent chance
to win. Had never won a game down fifteen points
in the fourth quarter like a zero in one hundred
and fifty five something like that, and the Rams had
never lost a lead like that. Missed field goal late
though by the Rams, gives the Seahawks a chance, and
suddenly they are in control of the top seed. Sam
Donald and the Seahawks in control of the top seed

(01:13:35):
in the NFL. Big game for Sam Donald, I mean,
you know, and because it was ugly early for him.

Speaker 2 (01:13:39):
Yeah, but what you have not been talking about the
whole morning.

Speaker 5 (01:13:45):
Sometimes things just don't work out for a period of time.
And if the player has been good for you throughout
the season and if he's having a bad moment or
things not going well, you just don't toss him away.
You just don't toss him away. Go back and say, hey,
you know, okay, this is what need for you to do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
Got to talk through you.

Speaker 5 (01:14:06):
This, make sure you got your confidence because based on
how Sam Donald finished off last year here in Minister,
the whole narrative and the conversation on the outside going
into this game, because Sam Donald performed in the big moments.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
So fikes go fourteen and three a year ago.

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
Not that the Vices are a great season, everything's settled
around Sam Donald's not performing up to the task that
many people thought he should have down the stretch, down
the stretch. So now you get into this game, will
Sam Donald be able to play a game? As you said,
he probably was nervous, He probably didn't may have had

(01:14:51):
some doubts in his mind.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
Yeah, he remembers what that defense did to him last season.

Speaker 5 (01:14:55):
Yeah, but they sat down and talked to me and
guide him to calm down. Just put your here, put
your just do this and do that. And it goes
a long way when that guy who you play for
is able still to instill a sense of confidence and belief.

(01:15:16):
I mean, every player doesn't fit every coach's system. But
if that kid is on your team or that player
is on your team, and they have played and performed
well for you, and when they have a moment that
you don't like it, you're not happy with, you just
don't throw them away. You sit down and talk to
them because if you believe they can still play for you,

(01:15:38):
then you have to keep them positive.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Now if you don't, but then you said, then you
just get rid up. Right. But mid season, when you're
talking about a quarterback, you likely don't have a lot
of options behind him on your roster to throw in there, right.

Speaker 5 (01:15:49):
And so, but it's easy to let the outside voices
of what has happened to Sam Donald throughout his career
so far be a factor in your decision make on
how you're going to handle.

Speaker 4 (01:16:01):
Him, no question, just an amazing come from behind win
on Thursday night. Speaking to young quarterbacks, Your young quarterback
has been through it all this season, ready to be
thrown on the scrap peep by much of Viking Nation.
We all knew that the last five or six games
would be very instructive on you know, where this organization

(01:16:24):
goes in the offseason, as far as competition at that position,
building around him, whatever it might be. So let's let's
let the five or six games play out and see
what kind of growth we see. Well, obviously with two wins,
including the one in Dallas two weeks ago, and then
you know, obviously last week, there are signs that he's
starting to figure things out, and maybe the coaching staff
has figured out how to put him in a better

(01:16:45):
position to be successful by baking things a little more simplified,
taking a lot of things off his play, whatever it
might be. Now he has a chance to go out East,
favored on the road against a horrible team that's in
a battle for the number one pick, but a team
that strength is their pass rush and their front four,

(01:17:06):
and that could give the Vikings offensive line with no
Darrisaw the rest of the season, O'Neill's been up and
down with injuries.

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:17:13):
My point is it's going to be a challenge for
JJ McCarthy. Again, the Giants are terrible. I think the
Vikings defense should roll over Jackson Dart, but I'm curious
to watch how McCarthy deals with that front foward Dexter
Lawrence Brian Burns, the rookie from Penn State. Those guys
can get after the quarterback. So it's gonna be another

(01:17:33):
data point. We know that he closes it home against
Lions and Packers. Those are two great games against common opponents,
where again you're gonna learn a lot more heading into
next season. But this one's important too because that Giants
front four is interesting and I want to see how
JJ responds.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
To it well.

Speaker 5 (01:17:50):
And you and I talked about this probably a week
or two ago, about how important are these games for him.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
He has to play.

Speaker 5 (01:17:58):
It's because if you believe that he's going to be
a part of your future. Then you when the opportunity
to put him out there, you got to see what
he can do. Now if you don't think a young
player is going to be a part of your future
going forward, but then you really don't care, really don't care.
But for the vikings, you know whether that the games

(01:18:21):
are going to meet a whole lot in terms of
standings of making the playoffs or not. We know that
that's not going to happen, right, But as you move
forward to next season, you have to see if this
guy is going to be the guy for you going
forward and all these other young players.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
How do you feel about what you've seen in the
last two weeks?

Speaker 3 (01:18:40):
I like him?

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
You feel better than you did a month ago? Or
do you?

Speaker 4 (01:18:43):
Are you still saying, okay, he played two really bad defenses.
I mean, still I important and impressive, But those two
defenses aren't going to scare anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:18:51):
I mean, you know it's it's you know, he's still.

Speaker 5 (01:18:53):
In a in a growth in the growth situation, you know,
you just have to try to get better day by day,
and how do we nurture him along during this time?
And I guarantee he's had some days when he's lost
his confidence. He didn't play well, he didn't bring the
you know, the right mental approach, because who knows what

(01:19:13):
was on his mind at this time. But if you
believe that a year or two from now, this is
the guy that is going to be a part of
my program, do I work on the older guy who's
going to be gone next year, or do I give
the younger kid and say, hey, you had a tough

(01:19:34):
day yesterday. We're building for the future. I got to
keep putting you out there, but now I got to
put you in situations where you can be successful. And
if that is the direction you're going to go in, well,
yeah you played JJ McCarthy. But if you think that
this is a now never and this is not this

(01:19:54):
is not what I want, then you move on from it.
That's what happens. But I think the Vikings are taking
a law look and I think it's the right thing.

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
To yeah, and they certainly have to like what they've
seen the last two weeks. They got three more things
to see before the twenty twenty five season ends.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
So game day tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
Packer review at eight Sunday, Sermons at nine, Vikings NFL
Sunday at ten two hour preview. The boom happens at
noon Vikings at the Giants PA bursticche cast one thousands,
all of that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
The fan your home for Vikings foot the Mill Leans. No,
they're not.

Speaker 4 (01:20:26):
It's MetLife Stadium, but it's still in It's the same building,
I believe, isn't it. It's just a different name, I believe.
So yeah, let's close their last two minutes, circling back
to where we started. They never said that Jimmy Hoff
is in the end zone somewhere in there. I don't
know if it's north or south or eastern west, but
so supposedly somewhere in there. Last night was the game
of the season for your Minnesota Timberwolves. They knocked off

(01:20:48):
the Thunder, the previously twenty five and two Thunder, one
twelve to one oh seven. Anthony Edwards heroic down the stretch,
playing off the foot injury and missing the last three games,
playing forty one minutes and closing with the three in
the final forty seconds that put the Wolves ahead, then
coming down and blocking SGA and then knocking the ball

(01:21:09):
loose getting a steal in the closing seconds with a
three point lead to cement the victory. Just the trifecta
of plays on both ends of the court by Anthony Edwards,
who without Chris Finch, who got tossed in the first
six minutes, this team played like their heads were on
fire against the NBA champs and showed that when they
feel it, when they wanted, when they know what they're

(01:21:31):
up against, they can compete with anybody. I'm not calling
it like the season altering win double t but it
was a game that allowed Wolves fans to believe that
when games matter in April and may you know this
Cord is pretty darn talented and they can beat anybody
when they set their minds.

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
To me, asked, while last night was a must man
for you and nas for you and NOAs it was
a must to win. I guess Wolves will.

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
Return tomorrow night against the Bucks, then the Knicks on Tuesday,
and then Christmas night in Denver. That should be a
load of fun against our favorite rivals, the Denver Nuggets.
Have a spectacular birthday. My friend, Thank you Da. You're
not getting older. You certainly look a lot younger than me,
even though you're a little older than me. I'll keep
that up and enjoy your day of hockey with the boys.

(01:22:17):
A little gray in the beer. It's very uh, it's
fetching it. It looks sophisticated. Happy birthday, Thanks man for
double t for Devin, I'm Dave Sinecon. Thank you for listening.
Stay tuned beyond the Ponds. Next, have a wonderful Hanakah
Christmas week, and we're back next Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
In the Zone. Bang want to change.

Speaker 1 (01:22:40):
You?

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
Time going do mine? Won't be mine? A moment